MIDDLE EAST - Hezbollah is the most successful terror group in history. The Lebanese Shia militia may not have conquered as much territory as ISIS nor attracted so many recruits, but since its founding in 1985 it has fought Israel for almost 40 years, and it has fought it well. In May 2000, Hezbollah expelled the IDF from the “security zone” it had occupied in South Lebanon for nearly two decades; in 2006 Hezbollah then fought it to a military stalemate. In doing so, the “Party of God” did more than just inflict casualities on its long-standing enemy. Since Israel’s crushing defeat of the combined Arab armies in the 1967 Six Day War, no one thought an Arab force could do more than just terrorise or harass the Israelis. Hezbollah proved them wrong. Suddenly, the Israelis were facing Iranian-trained Shia fighters in Lebanon. Things got tough. They were no longer facing just a militia group but the direct instrument of a state. “That’s the real strength of Hezbollah,” Shapira concludes, “and it’s the key to understanding their success. Hezbollah is essentially an Iranian brigade in Lebanon.”

AUSTRALIA - Australia’s endangered Tasmanian devils have eliminated a local colony of penguins and decimated other bird fauna after they were brought to Maria Island in a bid to save them from extinction due to animal cancer. According to The Australian newspaper, the devils were introduced to the tiny island off Tasmania’s east coast in 2012 as an “insurance population” due to the fears that a raging facial tumor disease would make the raccoon-sized creatures disappear completely. The arrival of the world’s largest surviving carnivorous marsupials took a horrible toll on the island’s bird colony, as the initial group of 28 devils on Maria grew to 100 in just a few years.

USA - Over the past couple of years we have become accustomed to expecting the unexpected, but soon we may have to start anticipating the unthinkable. In this article, I am going to be discussing a couple of potential scenarios that would have been unimaginable to the vast majority of Americans just a few short years ago. Unfortunately, our world is now changing at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking, and many things that were once “unimaginable” could soon become reality.

VATICAN - The Catholic Church declaring careerist European statesman Robert Schuman ‘venerable’ is proving problematic for the Vatican, which requires two provable miracles before bestowing sainthood – and who prays to a politician? No one is saying that Robert Schuman was a bad man, but Pope Francis’s decision to launch him on the path to sainthood will have the effect of conferring a legitimacy on the European Union that seems to bestow the Higher Power’s seal of approval upon this creaking political project. The Pope’s decision to mix politics with religion has certainly raised a few eyebrows. After all, Schuman’s earlier career included a stint as a minister under Marshal Philippe Pétain, the French First World War hero who later led the Vichy government that collaborated with the Nazis.

USA - Sixty Catholic Democrats from the House and Senate issued a “statement of principles” to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on Friday, demanding that the Conference, when drafting its document on the Eucharist due out later this year, not prohibit Catholic politicians who openly support abortion from receiving Communion despite being in open defiance of Church teachings.

USA - A Christian non-profit is challenging the Internal Revenue Service after the agency denied them tax-exempt status saying “the Bible’s teachings are typically affiliated with the Republican Party and candidates.” Christians Engaged describes itself as educational, Christian, and non-partisan, and operates out of Garland, Texas. Its three main goals, as described by the non-profit, include: To awaken, motivate, and empower ordinary believers in Jesus Christ to: pray for our nation and our elected officials regularly, vote in every election to impact our culture, and engage our hearts in some forms of political education or activism for the furtherance of our nation.

USA - The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a unanimous defeat to LGBT couples in a high-profile case over whether Philadelphia could refuse to contract with a Roman Catholic adoption agency that says its religious beliefs prevent it from working with same-sex foster parents. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an opinion for a majority of the court that Philadelphia violated the First Amendment by refusing to contract with Catholic Social Services once it learned that the organization would not certify same-sex couples for adoption.

ISRAEL - Israel is looking to restart plans to attack Iran's nuclear sites, after Tehran elected its next President. Ebrahim Raisi, 60, was elected as Iran’s next President to the anger of Israel’s newest Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Israel has opposed Iran’s development of nuclear capabilities for years. Mr Bennett used his first cabinet meeting in Jerusalem to brand Iran’s new President a “mass murderer”. Israel’s Prime Minister said Mr Raisi’s election was “the last chance for the world powers to wake up before returning to the nuclear agreement and to understand who they’re doing business with”. He added: “These guys are murderers, mass murderers. A regime of brutal hangmen must never be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction that will enable it to not kill thousands, but millions.” An Israeli Government source also told the Channel 12 broadcaster: “There will be no choice [now] but to go back and prepare attack plans for Iran’s nuclear programme.This will require budgets and the reallocation of resources.”

UK - The head of NATO has warned that cyberspace attacks can result in a response from the alliance in other domains. Secretary General of Nato Jens Stoltenberg said the group of nations will defend itself against cyberspace attacks as it would from any armed attack. He told BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis that Nato will treat this kind of aggression as it would any other incursion. He said: “The core purpose of Nato is that all allies protect and defend each other and that’s based on out Article 5: an attack on one will be regarded as an attack on all allies. And what we have said is that an attack in cyberspace can be as damaging, as dangerous, as a kinetic attack, a normal armed attack. But the way we will respond, that can be in cyberspace but it can also be in other domains, air, sea, land."

AUSTRALIA - Australia is stuck between a rock lobster and a hard place. Its biggest trading partner is China, expected to become the world's biggest economy. That should be good news, but there's a catch: Canberra also craves the security and legitimacy it gets from being allied with the United States and the West.

USA - Leftists in government, news media, and other fields disparage Breitbart News for refusal to comply with coordinated manufacturing of content across the public, investor Adam Townsend said during a Wednesday livestream with Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow. Townsend highlighted the New York Times’ 1619 Project as an example of how leftist news media seek to cultivate a sense of guilt among Americans for the purposes of emotional blackmail in a political context.

USA - Another day, another de-banking. Imagine a ruthless country where peaceful citizens who fearlessly defend their heritage, their families and their faith can wake up in the morning and find themselves cut off from their entire life savings with no explanation and no recourse. That country is not Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela or Iran. That country is America in 2021.

UK - New laws are being proposed by two university doctors to protect animals — from hate speech. A barmy research paper suggests anti-animal language should be banned. It says “speciesist” hate speech is as bad as racism. The proposals — published in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies — would see cats, dogs, farm animals, even seagulls safeguarded. And the plans ignore the fact animals can’t be offended by words. Last night Tory MP Nigel Mills branded the idea “utter woke nonsense” and “a complete waste of time”.

USA - In 2014 GRAIN published a detailed breakdown of the grants made by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to promote agricultural development in Africa and other parts of the world. Our main conclusion then was that the vast majority of those grants were channelled to groups in the US and Europe, not Africa nor other parts of the global South. The funding overwhelmingly went to research institutes rather than farmers. They were also mainly directed at shaping policies to support industrial farming, not smallholders.

USA - The controversial psychiatrist who said that she fantasized about shooting white people during panel at Yale University in April has doubled down on her attacks saying white people are 'psychopathic' in a new interview. Dr Aruna Khilanani, who runs her own practice in Manhattan, delivered a talk titled Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind virtually to medical students and faculty back in April after being invited by Yale School of Medicine's Child Study Center. Khilanani made stunning statements during her talk, including admitting she has had violent fantasies about shooting white people. Khilanani told Hill that white people's re-telling of colonization 'sanitizes' the violence and that white people take credit for discovering things that already existed. 'This level of discovery is everywhere,' she said. 'You've discovered vegetarianism, you know. You've discovered yoga. Everything is a discovery. And it's all actually stolen.'