USA - We get an “F” for family. In case you thought America wasn’t experiencing enough turmoil of late, the United States has been named the second-worst wealthy nation in which to raise a family in 2020, according to new research by travel site Asher & Lyric. To determine the most and least family-friendly countries, the couple rated 35 OECD countries (part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development forum) according to safety, happiness, cost, health, education and time. The US clocked in at an abysmal 34th place, just ahead of last-place finisher Mexico, whose murder rate jumped to the highest in nearly two years as drug cartels have run amok during the coronavirus lockdown. Leading the pack of overall fam-safe nations were Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. “I have come to the heartbreaking conclusion that America is a deeply challenged and troubled country,” Benson-Fergusson lamented. “It doesn’t, and maybe never did, line up with its own ideology.”

USA - The number of permanently closed businesses is surging across America and no major media outlet is sounding the alarm. These are lives ruined, jobs lost, bankruptcies entered, life savings lost and families broken apart. It’s tough out there for restaurants and other small businesses. Yelp’s Economic Average report out Wednesday shows exactly how tough: 60 percent of the 26,160 temporarily closed restaurants on the business review site as of July are now permanently shut. Temporary closures are dropping, and permanent shutdowns are increasing. Yelp’s previous report in April found that more than 175,000 total businesses were closed in some capacity. Just under 25 percent of those closed businesses have reopened three months later. For restaurants in particular, this is becoming the way it goes. Yelp noted a 23-percent increase in permanent restaurant closures from only a month ago. Bars and clubs are also closing forever at high rates: 44 percent (as of July) of 5,454 temporarily shuttered bars and other nightlife establishments are shut for good.

USA - The unique characteristics of this pandemic may not allow people to completely eradicate it, but public health measures and good vaccines should bring "very good control," NIAID director Anthony Fauci said Wednesday. Driving the news: "We are living, right now, through a historic pandemic outbreak. And, we are, right now, in a situation where we do not see any particular end in sight," Fauci told a panel hosted by the not-for-profit TB Alliance. "It's the perfect storm," Fauci says. "We often talk about outbreaks and pandemics, be they influenza or other pathogens, that have to have a few characteristics that make them particularly formidable. Well, this particular virus has that."

EUROPE - European Union leaders reached an agreement early Tuesday on a $2.1 trillion budget and coronavirus relief package.  The agreement includes $857 billion in coronavirus funding that will be issued as loans and grants to the hardest-hit countries. It came after negotiations stretched on for four days and nights, well beyond what was expected. A main sticking point was a divide between a group of five richer countries in the north, including the Netherlands and Austria, that advocated a cut in the original proposal of $572 billion in grants along with stricter spending controls, while others such as Spain and Italy sought to keep such restrictions to a minimum. The final agreement included a compromise of $446 billion in grants. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the final deal “a good package that safeguards Dutch interests and that will make Europe stronger and more resilient.”

UK - Hopes for a coronavirus vaccine before Christmas have been dashed by a World Health Organization expert. Mike Ryan, head of WHO's emergencies programme, said the first use of a Covid-19 vaccine cannot be expected until early 2021. He noted that several vaccines are now in phase three trials and none have failed so far in terms of safety or ability to generate an immune response. His comments come after Oxford University — one of the frontrunners in a race for a vaccine — claimed there was still a chance it could deliver its experimental jab by Christmas if tests keep going according to plan. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday, Professor Gilbert said: 'The end of the year target for getting vaccine rollout is a possibility but there’s absolutely no certainty because we need three things.' Those three things are the results from phase three trials, the ability for manufacturers to produce large quantities of the virus, and regulators to approve the vaccine.

USA - The WSJ, which has seen a copy of the State Department speech to be delivered Thursday afternoon, describes that it more or less calls for a people's uprising in Communist-run China: Mr Pompeo says Chinese leader Xi Jinping is a “true believer in a bankrupt totalitarian ideology.” Mr Pompeo stops shy of explicitly calling for regime change, urging allied countries and the people of China to work with the US to change the Communist Party’s behavior. And more: “The Communist Party fears the Chinese people’s honest opinions more than any foreign foe,” Mr Pompeo plans to say in the speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. The US “must also engage and empower the Chinese people,” Mr Pompeo says, according to the draft.

USA - During Wednesday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Fox News @ Night,” Senator Ted Cruz (Republican for Texas) argued Democrat politicians in some of America’s cities and states were allowing protests to get out of control because they saw it as “in their political best interest to allow the mob to carry out their violence.” He explained that he was offering legislation that would allow for increased damages if citizens were denied police protection, and that resulted in injuries to person or property. “You know, this is a really tough time for our country right now,” he said. “We’re seeing riots across the country. We’re seeing violence and police cars being firebombed, police officers being murdered, and violent mobs within our cities. But even worse, in the face of that, we’re also seeing Democratic politicians — Democratic mayors, Democratic governors — who have somehow made the decision it’s in their political best interest to allow the mob to carry out their violence. And they’re refusing to protect their own citizens. They’re allowing these lawless autonomous zones to exist within their boundaries. That has never happened in modern times.”

UK - Former Monty Python and Fawlty Towers star John Cleese has had enough of political correctness and the cancel culture. As for the state of the "dysfunctional world we live in," he warns that "it's completely hopeless…" As for the sense of hopelessness he feels, Cleese blames the “power seekers. “I believe there’s something wrong with these people. The reason they want to be powerful is that they want to control people, so that they don’t get lathered into situations that they can’t control emotionally. The one thing they fear is losing power, so they’ll do almost anything to hold on to it.” Summing the current state of the world up perfectly, Cleese says, the problem with political correctness, he added, is that comedians "have to set the bar according to what we are told by the most touchy, most emotionally unstable and fragile and least stoic people in the country".

USA - Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would like to see American children learn more about Islam in class, he said Monday. Speaking virtually at the “Million Muslim Votes” summit, he expressed his desire to see Muslims have a greater influence over American culture. “Look, one of the things I think is important — I wish we taught more in our schools about the Islamic faith. I wish we talked about all the great confessional faiths. It’s one of the great confessional faiths,” Biden told the summit, which was hosted by the Islamic advocacy group Emgage Action. The former vice president has courted the Islamic vote and has been endorsed by Emgage Action.

EUROPE - The German government seeks to have a common "Strategic Compass" adopted, to orient the EU's military policy. The planned strategy paper is aimed at providing the Union's current militarization projects - such as PESCO and the EU Battlegroups - a consistent thrust and to enhance the EU's military response capacity. It is also aimed at aligning the EU member states' national armaments projects with the Union's overall strategic needs. During its EU Council presidency, Berlin seeks to lay the foundations for a new EU common threat assessment, as the core element of the "Strategic Compass." It is to be compiled on the basis of national intelligence services' assessments by their EU counterpart the "European Union Intelligence and Situation Centre" (EU IntCn). The threat assessment, which also lays the groundwork for future EU military operations, will thus not be subject to any democratic control. It is also aimed at unifying the strategies of EU member countries with divergent national interests. It is "One of the Most Important Projects".

USA - The chaos unfolding in Chicago is a perfect example of social disintegration. After years of worsening murder rates - earning the city the nickname 'Chiraq', there's now an armed gang of children carjacking folks at gunpoint. Chicago police say the children, ages 10-17, have been on a carjacking spree across Chicago's South Side, which started in late June. The group of kids, in two incidents, have discharged weapons in broad daylight as they approached their victims. Maybe it's time for local government administrators to stop ignoring the social-economic collapse of American cities under their watch and cease the farce of 'defunding the police' - how is that going to make the scared people feel any safer?

USA - None of this involves beauty tips, pimple patches or white shirts. But at least they’re focusing on the important stuff. Like this article, published July 10: “Black Power Naps Is Addressing Systemic Racism in Sleep.” Yes, your teens are being told a good night’s rest is now white privilege. For hundreds and hundreds of years, Brittney McNamara reports, black people have been deprived of sleep. As a form of protest against this, Fannie Sosa and Navild Acosta have created Black Power Naps, “an artistic initiative with components including physical installations, zines, an opera, and more.”

USA - A pro-life artist painted the words, “Baby Lives Matter,” in front of a Planned Parenthood facility in Salt Lake City, Utah. In a video message Friday, Tayler Hansen said, given the millions of babies who are aborted each year, he “felt inclined to demonstrate a true peaceful protest dedicated to those abandoned without a voice.” According to KUTV News, Hansen said he painted the “Baby Lives Matter” mural at 1:00 am Saturday morning, using paint that would endure on the pavement for ten days, at the most, and easily wash away. “With recent events unfolding, everybody knows about the Black Lives Matter murals unfolding around the nation,” he said, according to the news report. “I thought I would bring awareness to one of the biggest human rights crises that nobody wants to talk about.” Hansen reported on Saturday that his mural had already been removed as of that morning.

ITALY - Italy is getting its own Brexit-type party led by a staunch Eurosceptic senator, a former journalist and ex-member of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement who recently met with Nigel Farage for inspiration. While its name is yet to be revealed, the party, led by Senator Gianluigi Paragone, already has a clear goal – to lead Italy, a founding member of the 27-member bloc, out of the European Union. Inspired by the UK’s vote to exit the EU, the 48-year-old senator traveled to London on Monday to meet with Brexit architect Nigel Farage. After the meeting, Paragone said his country “can no longer be blackmailed by countries that offend the great prestige of Italy.” Speaking to the media, Paragone said the only way for Italy to tackle the economic crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic is to do so as a “really sovereign state,” such as Britain.

GERMANY - Germany’s next leader will need to restate not only the country’s future security stance, but also help articulate the Alliance’s adaptation to new strategic realities. Looking ahead, Germany’s future leaders need to deliver their new narrative to the public by showing how it responds to their international vision of the future. Addressing the evolving power and ideological struggle of the 2020s, Germany’s future chancellor will need to provide, most crucially, a clear sense of direction as to which fundamental challenges are threatening the Western way of life. In fact, by adapting NATO’s vision of 1949 – ‘keeping the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down’ – Berlin’s new vision needs to be geared at ‘keeping the Americans in, the Russians out and the Chinese in check’.