USA - A team of researchers in California drew notoriety last year with an aborted experiment on a retired aircraft carrier that sought to test a machine for creating clouds. But behind the scenes, they were planning a much larger and potentially riskier study of salt water-spraying equipment that could eventually be used to dim the sun’s rays — a multimillion-dollar project aimed at producing clouds over a stretch of ocean larger than Puerto Rico. The details outlined in funding requests, emails, texts and other records obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News raise new questions about a secretive billionaire-backed initiative that oversaw last year’s brief solar geoengineering experiment on the San Francisco Bay.

USA - President Donald Trump branded wind power a “con job” after playing golf in Scotland, describing how turbines ruined the view from the 18th hole of his Turnberry course. The president said wind farms spoiled the landscape and sucked in expensive subsidies in comments likely to complicate a meeting with Sir Keir Starmer on Monday. “The whole thing is a con job. It’s very expensive,” he added as he announced a trade deal with the EU. The deal includes the EU buying billions of dollars of American energy, including natural gas. Mr Trump’s comments on wind energy, however, are likely to complicate Mr Trump’s meeting on Monday with Sir Keir, who has staked Britain’s future energy supply on wind.

UK - The UK is in a “debt doom loop”, according to the founder of one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, who recommended people put at least 15 per cent of their savings into gold or bitcoin to help shield them from potential market turmoil. Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates in the United States, said the bond markets were too complacent about the excessive borrowing by many western governments and the risks were not fully priced in. Speaking on The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, he reserved some of his fiercest criticism for Britain. “The UK is in a debt doom loop,” he said, and warning signals were “beginning to flash and flicker”.

USA - OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI chatbot reportedly offered users instructions on how to murder, self-mutilate, and worship the devil. After being tipped off by someone who says he inadvertently prompted ChatGPT to provide a ritual offering to the demonic entity Molech — which explicitly involves child sacrifice according to the Bible — journalists with the Atlantic conducted an experiment to see if they could recreate the results. By the end of the experiment, ChatGPT “encouraged me to cut my wrists” with a “sterile or very clean razor blade,” and instructed the journalist where, specifically, to slash herself, the magazine reported. After asking the chatbot to help create a ritual offering to Molech, ChatGPT suggested using jewelry, hair clippings, and “a drop” of her own blood. In another conversation, ChatGPT provided an invocation to the devil, generating, “In your name, I become my own master. Hail Satan.”

IRAN - At least 50,000 officials from inside Iran’s ruling government and military have registered with a secure platform set up to coordinate the ousting of the dictatorship in Tehran, according to a prominent opponent of the regime. Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last shah of Iran, who was deposed in the 1979 revolution, announced a month ago that he was creating the channel for regime defectors to register and receive information on campaign tactics from his opposition movement. Speaking to POLITICO, he said the numbers still needed to be fully verified but his team were working to establish links with key elements in Iran’s military, paramilitary and security forces, who would play a potential role toppling Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and working to establish a new secular state.

USA - President Trump just made a big announcement on TruthSocial. It’s wonderful to see some justice from the corrupt media. Maybe they will change their ways. We heard about the $16 million settlement from CBS. However, it turns out it is actually $36 million. “BREAKING NEWS! We have just achieved a BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN in our Historic Lawsuit against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount. Just like ABC and George Slopadopoulos, CBS and its Corporate Owners knew that they defrauded the American People, and were desperate to settle. Paramount/CBS/60 Minutes have today paid $16 Million Dollars in settlement, and we also anticipate receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars. This is another in a long line of VICTORIES over the Fake News Media, who we are holding to account for their widespread fraud and deceit. The Wall Street Journal, The Failing New York Times, The Washington Post, MSDNC, CNN, and all other Mainstream Media Liars, are ON NOTICE that the days of them being allowed to deceive the American People are OVER. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

SWITZERLAND - Klaus Schwab was the undisputed “King of Davos” for 55 years. But when his downfall came, it was swift. The 87-year-old founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which holds the annual conference in the Swiss alpine ski resort, fought until the end. But over two days in April, beset by allegations of misusing WEF funds, manipulating research and inappropriate behaviour with staff, he was forced out of his personal fiefdom. On Sunday, the early findings of a second investigation into the WEF were leaked. They alleged that Mr Schwab had misspent WEF money and manipulated research for political reasons, including rigging data to make Brexit look like a failure. His credibility now lies in ruins and the future of Davos is openly questioned.

UK - Migrant hotel protests spread across Britain on Saturday as public anger grew over illegal immigration. In Norwich, hundreds of Union Flag-waving locals gathered outside the Brook Hotel to demand its closure. There were also protests in Leeds, Southampton and Nottinghamshire, with more planned for Sunday. The Nottinghamshire protest was mostly peaceful although there was a brief confrontation involving pro-migrant counter-demonstrators. Female protesters in Norwich told The Telegraph that the migrant hotel made them fear for their safety because two former residents had been jailed for sex offences in the past three months. Ian Curry, who served in Northern Ireland and Kuwait in the Royal Marines from 1987 to 1999, said the public needed to “wake up” and demand the closure of the hotels. “Women and children are not safe in this country,” the 58-year-old said. “This is what the demonstration was for. Where’s all the money for these hotels coming from? It’s coming from us.”

UK - Look at the images from outside asylum hotels in what were, until an eyeblink ago, tranquil corners of Essex, Norfolk or Hampshire. Observe the one-sided policing and the way local people react to it. It is hard not to see a country trembling on the brink of unrest. Asymmetric policing is turning the immigration fiasco into a crisis of state legitimacy. When people see officers protecting masked pro-immigration thugs outside asylum hotels, they conclude that the apparatus of the British state is being used to push an unpopular policy down their throats.

UK - When I spoke to local people on the high street they uniformly expressed their unhappiness about what was happening at the Bell Hotel but did not want to “appear racist”. “Something had been brewing for weeks,” one woman said. Another middle-aged woman, who lives on a private gated estate near the Bell, said: “I hate it. It makes me feel very uneasy. It’s not lit at night and there are so many bored men in there. We’ve had to put up with this for four years. Even after the arrest, men from the hotel were following and taking pictures of young women on the high street.”

EUROPE - The most important skill in European politics is the ability to pretend that all is well. In London, Paris, Berlin and a dozen other capitals, the order of the day is continuing the series of polite lies that exculpate a generation of politicians from bearing responsibility for their failures. While our politicians wring their hands over vast numbers of economic migrants abusing an outdated asylum system, attempting to square the circle of an open borders approach to migration, generous welfare states, and hopelessly outdated laws and treaties, Mr Trump is free to state what he sees: “You better get your act together or you’re not going to have Europe anymore.”

FRANCE - The trouble kicked off for no apparent reason on the evening of July 14, la fête nationale, in Val de l’Aurence, an area of high-rise 1960s and 70s social housing on the western outskirts of Limoges. Maybe it was fomented by drug gangs to distract attention from their activities. Or it could have just been down to the midsummer madness that can engulf the banlieues that ring many French towns. Over the next few days some cars were set ablaze, but police and firemen left them to burn out, wary of being ambushed. Then, in the early hours of last Saturday, matters got out of hand. “There were more than a hundred of them,” Émile Roger Lombertie, the 74-year-old mayor of Limoges, said a few days later after calm had returned. “They were organised. They set up roadblocks and stopped cars and smashed windscreens. They were masked and had mortar fireworks and Molotov cocktails and held off the police for three and a half hours. No one was arrested. It has turned into organised guerrilla warfare. And behind it is drugs.”

USA - Amazon has raised prices on hundreds of everyday items, from Campbell's soup to Dove deodorant, despite promising to shield shoppers from tariff-driven inflation. A Wall Street Journal review of nearly 2,500 products found prices rose on about 1,200 items between January 20 and July 1. In contrast, big box rival Walmart lowered its prices on the same items by nearly two percent. Manufacturers of products that went up in price told the Journal they hadn't raised wholesale prices for Amazon. Even US-made products exempt from tariffs, like Campbell's soup, have become more expensive. Items with mixed origins saw even steeper jumps. A storage basket from Ohio-based Dayglow LLC, which imports parts from several countries including China, nearly doubled in price on Amazon — from $9.31 in early 2025 to $19.99 by late April.

CAMBODIA - The border between Cambodia and Thailand has erupted into open warfare. On July 24, 2025, fighting broke out across six locations near disputed ancient temples, triggering airstrikes, rocket fire, and mass evacuations. Thailand deployed F-16 fighter jets to bomb Cambodian military targets. Cambodia responded with BM-21 rocket launchers and artillery. At least 14 people are confirmed dead, including 13 civilians. Another 46 are wounded. Thailand has sealed all land crossings and ordered 40,000 people to evacuate from 86 provinces. Cambodia has expelled Thai diplomats, banned Thai fuel and produce, and shut down internet links and power supply from Thailand.

USA - Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said on Wednesday that she was referring former President Barack Obama for criminal charges to the Department of Justice (DOJ). “We have referred and will continue to refer all these documents to the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate the criminal implications of this,” Gabbard said. “The evidence that we have found and that we have released directly point to President Obama leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment,” she continued. “There are multiple pieces of evidence and intelligence that confirm that fact.” "In doing so, they conspired to subvert the will of the American people, working with their partners in the media to promote the lie, in order to undermine the legitimacy of President Trump, essentially enacting a years-long coup against him."