UK - As late as March 12, Sage members were still advocating a policy of herd immunity. On that day, Sir Patrick told reporters at the first of what became daily press conferences in Downing Street: ‘It’s not possible to stop everybody getting it and it’s also actually not desirable because you want some immunity in the population. We need immunity to protect ourselves from this in the future.’ Four days later Sir Patrick and many in Sage did a screeching handbrake turn after a paper was published by Prof Ferguson predicting up to 500,000 deaths from Covid if the Government did nothing to tackle it.

UK - Industry leaders are growing increasingly concerned after it was revealed containers packed with food, furniture and electronics are backing up at Britain's busiest freight port predominantly due to the UK's dearth of drivers. Felixstowe in Suffolk has become severely congested to the point that Maersk, the world's largest container shipping company, is diverting its big vessels away from the UK because the dockside is full and there are not enough truck drivers to pick up and deliver fully loaded containers and return the empty ones. However, the disruption is not limited to Felixstowe, with sources pointing to a bottleneck at distribution centres in the Midlands causing problems as well. The lack of drivers to move containers, along with a surge in imports and restrictions at ports due to Covid has created a 'perfect storm', according to the Times. One shipping boss told the paper: 'I don't want to sound like a Grinch but there are going to be gaps on shelves this Christmas.'

USA - Chief Executive Officer of Freight Right Global Logistics Robert Khachatryan on Tuesday told Breitbart News some 62 ships remained unable to unload at California ports, delaying inventories for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. “There are currently 62 vessels anchored outside of the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports,” Khachatryan exclusively told Breitbart News. “The number has been consistently over 50 vessels for weeks and has gone up to as high as 90.” Khachatryan explained the vessels are waiting off the coast to unload their containers because the shoreside receiving areas are full.

USA - The truth is starting to come out, and a lot of people aren’t going to like it. When the supply chain problems and the shortages began, government officials repeatedly assured us that they would just be temporary, and most of us believed them. But now it has become clear that they aren’t going to be temporary at all. In fact, during a recent interview with Bloomberg, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg admitted that some of the supply chain problems that we are currently facing could last for “years and years”. I don’t know about you, but to me “years and years” sounds like a really long time.

USA - As most Americans are still learning about the hacking-for-cash crime of ransomware, the nation’s top homeland security official is worried about an even more dire digital danger: killware, or cyberattacks that can literally end lives. The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in April galvanized the public’s attention because of its consumer-related complications, including long lines at gas stations, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in an interview with USA TODAY's Editorial Board last week. But "there was a cyber incident that very fortunately did not succeed," he added. "And that is an attempted hack of a water treatment facility in Florida, and the fact that that attack was not for financial gain but rather purely to do harm.” Mayorkas and cybersecurity experts said the Oldsmar intrusion was one of many indications that malicious hackers increasingly are targeting critical parts of the nation's infrastructure – everything from hospitals and water supplies to banks, police departments and transportation – in ways that could injure or even kill people.

USA - School used to be the place where you would send your children to get a proper education. It was a place where they could learn basic sciences and critical thinking skills. Today, however, public schools are nothing more than propaganda centers indoctrinating children into the latest far-left ideologies. Nowhere has this been made more evident than in the sexual education standards currently being disseminated to schools nationwide. Developed by a coalition of left-wing nonprofit groups, the second edition of the National Sex Education Standards aspires to teach school children about various ideas many parents would likely object to, according to The Federalist.

ISRAEL - During the meeting, which will take place in the Russian town of Sochi on October 22, Bennett and Putin are expected to discuss a range of political, security and economic issues as well as important regional issues, most notably the Iranian nuclear program, a statement by the Prime Minister Office said. Putin congratulated Bennett shortly after he replaced Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister in June. However, Israeli officials wished that the two leaders will only meet after the Israeli premier's meeting with US President Joe Biden, which took place in August. Bennett has said repeatedly that Israel won't allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, while opposing the US efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.

ISRAEL - Israel’s minister of infrastructure, energy and water, Karine Elharrar has announced that Tel Aviv has formally signed off on a deal to double its freshwater supply to Jordan, in a bid to bolster “good neighborly relations.” The deal comes months after Israel announced plans to sell 50 million cubic meters of water to Jordan, as part of renewed efforts to build cooperation between the neighboring states by addressing a major area of disagreement which has persisted since the 1994 peace deal. Having traveled to Jordan for a signing ceremony, Elharrar said in a tweet that the deal was “an unequivocal statement” that Tel Aviv wants to secure “good neighborly relations” with Amman.

USA - Green fields of alfalfa and cotton rolled past as Brad Robinson drove through the desert valley where his family has farmed with water from the Colorado River for three generations. Stopping the truck, he stepped onto a dry, brown field where shriveled remnants of alfalfa crunched under his boots. The water has been temporarily shut off on a portion of Robinson’s land. In exchange, he’s receiving $909 this year for each acre of farmland left dry and unplanted.

USA - Pregnant people in Texas, or in any other US state, can visit an array of websites that will mail them two pills—mifepristone and misoprostol—that will induce a miscarriage when used in the first trimester of pregnancy and possibly even later. The so-called self-managed abortion is therefore an option at least six weeks further into a pregnancy than the controversial new Texas law’s six-week “heartbeat” cutoff for an abortion at a clinic. Though people in other states have several websites to choose from, Texans can visit a website that provides the pills for $105 or less based on income.

UK - Britain and other Western nations should welcome declining populations and ageing demographics as it will help them meet climate change goals, the former chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has argued. In a report from Population Matters entitled Smaller Families and Ageing Populations, Lord Adair Turner, the chairman of the UK Energy Transitions Commission and former head of the FSA, argued that declining native populations will enhance prosperity. “The biggest reason to welcome this demographic shift is that it results from the free choice of empowered people, and in particular women,” Lord Adair wrote. “But ceasing endless population growth will also reduce humanity’s future press on the natural environment, ease the challenge of adequate housing provision, and make it easier to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions while supporting prosperity growth in developing countries.”

EUROPE - The Vatican enjoys sovereign immunity that protects it from sexual-abuse lawsuits in local courts, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled, after a case was put forward by 24 people who claim to be victims. On Tuesday, the top court dismissed a case submitted by two dozen people who claim to be survivors of child sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic clergy from France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

USA - This is an amazing list, some of these you will never think about. China is buying all America. Some brands that you may think are quintessentially American are actually owned or overseen by Chinese investment conglomerates. It’s not always obvious until you see it yourself – even sports clubs have some interesting stakeholders. America is home to many companies that are true titans of industry. From General Electric to General Motors, all of these thriving businesses help buoy the economy when it needs it – but even these giants need to get their money from somewhere. Investments come from across the globe, but China is always looking to America to try and create fruitful partnerships.

USA - In North Dakota, it’s worse than the Dust Bowl. Joey and Scott Bailey are sitting in their kitchen trying to figure out how they’ll get through these next few months. “Just your grass hay that we would spend $30 a bale on, people are spending $150 a bale, and they’re driving 250 miles to get it,” Scott says. The Baileys own a ranch on the remote prairie about 60 miles south of the US-Canada border, in the heart of what locals boast is the capitol of North Dakota cattle country, McHenry County. The county is also one of the most drought plagued places in the nation, where comparisons are now being drawn to the Dust Bowl. Ranchers here have been forced to sell off their herds at historic rates and are now worried they won’t have enough feed to keep their remaining cows alive this winter. The Baileys sold twenty cows a few months back, because they couldn’t afford to keep them fed. It’s been so dry that they couldn’t grow much of their own hay. ndeed, make or break decisions, with the prospect of yet another dry winter looming.

USA - Aftershock to America's biggest earthquake in fifty years hits Alaska Peninsula more than two months later: 6.9 magnitude strikes in same region as mega 8.2 quake that struck in July. An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 struck early Monday off the coast of Alaska, two months after America's biggest earthquake in 50 years struck the same region. The earthquake comes just a day another with a magnitude of 6.2 struck south of the island of Hawaii on Sunday, but there was no tsunami warning afterward and no immediate reports of damage. Alaska was hit by a 9.2-magnitude earthquake in March 1964, the strongest ever recorded in North America, leading to the deaths of 250 people.