“Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, said Monday that it was selling off its stakes in some Israeli companies and terminating all contracts with Israeli asset managers handling investments over the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. ‘We are invested in companies that operate in a country at war, and conditions in the West Bank and Gaza have recently worsened. In response, we will further strengthen our due diligence,’ the fund’s CEO Nicolai Tangen said in a statement. Norges Bank Investment Management, the body managing the fund, said it is divesting itself of 11 Israeli companies, out of 61, which are not included in an equity benchmark index created by Norway’s Finance Ministry. The fund said the 11 were excluded ‘due to unacceptable risk of contribution to serious norm violations associated with business operations in the West Bank.'” (08/12/25)
“US inflation held steady at 2.7 per cent in July, confounding economists’ expectations of an acceleration driven by the tariffs Donald Trump has slapped on US trading partners. Tuesday’s annual consumer price index figure was in line with June’s reading and below expectations of 2.8 per cent among analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Trump has sought to use tariffs to reshape the US’s trading relationship with the world, prompting warnings of a jump in domestic prices. Inflation ticked up in June in what economists cautioned were the first signs of the trade war seeping through to consumers.” (08/12/25)
“Mexico has sent 26 inmates suspected of playing high-profile roles in some of the country’s most powerful drug cartels to the US, the second transfer of its kind this year. US officials said the individuals extradited included ‘key operatives’ of major drugs gangs, and have been charged with violent offences or links to organised crime in American courts. … Mexican officials said they had agreed the inmates could be sent to the US as long as none were considered eligible for the death penalty, a condition successive governments have insisted on when considering extraditions.” (08/12/25)
“US fast-food chain Steak ‘n Shake tipped its hat to Bitcoiners after reporting a 10.7% quarter-on-quarter same-store sales increase in Q2, outpacing America’s top food chains. ‘Bitcoin has been a game changer,’ Steak ‘n Shake posted to X on Friday, thanking Bitcoiners for their contributions since May 16, when the fast food chain started accepting Bitcoin as payment. … The fast food chain started accepting Bitcoin as payment on May 16 in all of its locations where permitted by law, including in France, Monaco and Spain, in addition to the US.” (08/12/25)
“A Texas woman is suing a major supplier of abortion pills by mail and a former sexual partner, who she alleges terminated her pregnancy by lacing her drink with medication he obtained from the group. In the complaint, filed Monday in Texas federal court by a prominent antiabortion attorney, the woman alleges that her ex-partner bought the pills from Aid Access, a nonprofit based in Europe, then pressured her to take them for weeks in the spring, even though she told him she did not want an abortion. … The wrongful-death lawsuit alleges that Aid Access violated the federal Comstock Act, an 1873 law that bans the mailing of ‘obscene’ materials, including those related to abortion.” [editor’s note: Apparently the ex doesn’t have much money and she thinks she can pick someone else’s pocket for his misdeeds – TLK] (08/12/25)
“YouTube on Wednesday will begin testing a new age-verification system in the U.S. that relies on artificial intelligence to differentiate between adults and minors, based on the kinds of videos that they have been watching. The tests initially will only affect a sliver of YouTube’s audience in the U.S., but it will likely become more pervasive if the system works as well at guessing viewers’ ages as it does in other parts of the world. The system will only work when viewers are logged into their accounts, and it will make its age assessments regardless of the birth date a user might have entered upon signing up. If the system flags a logged-in viewer as being under 18, YouTube will impose the normal controls and restrictions that the site already uses as a way to prevent minors from watching videos and engaging in other behavior deemed inappropriate for that age.” (08/12/25)
“Charges against an American influencer and teen pilot who has been stranded on a remote island in the Antarctic since June have been dropped. Ethan Guo, 19, is alleged to have illegally landed his plane in Chilean territory after embarking on a solo trip to all seven continents to raise money for cancer research, according to local authorities. They accused him of providing false flight plan information to officials who detained him and opened an investigation. A judge has ordered him to leave the area, pay a $30,000 (£22,332) donation to a children’s cancer foundation and is banned from re-entering Chilean territory for three years.” (08/12/25)
“As hundreds of thousands of dogs ranged as usual around the back streets of India’s capital on Tuesday morning, it was the city’s humans, dog lovers in particular, who were howling. On Monday, the Supreme Court of India, with its offices in the center of New Delhi, ruled that the current legal practices for taking care of the city’s stray dog population were inadequate. Within eight weeks, the court declared, all strays must be rounded up and detained permanently in shelters. The judges were responding to the menace of dogs that form packs and attack people. … The court’s order seemed to contradict the Animal Birth Control law, which requires strays to be vaccinated, sterilized and then returned to the places where they had been picked up. But that strategy has not worked, the court found.” (08/12/25)
“A South Korean court on Tuesday ordered the arrest of Kim Keon Hee, the wife of the impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol, making her the first former first lady to be arrested in the country’s history. The Seoul central district court ruling creates an unprecedented situation in which both members of a former presidential couple are simultaneously in custody. Yoon Suk Yeol was sent back into detention in July as prosecutors investigate his failed attempt to impose martial law in December last year. … Prosecutors allege she made over 800 million won (£428,000) through manipulating the stock prices of Deutsch Motors, a local BMW dealership, between 2009 and 2012, by conspiring with others to artificially inflate shares. She is also accused of receiving over 270 million won worth of illegal political funding through free opinion polling services, and using this to influence candidate selections for the conservative People Power party in the country’s 2022 byelections.” (08/12/25)
“A Thai soldier has been seriously injured by a landmine near the Cambodian border, days after both countries agreed to a ceasefire following last month’s deadly border clashes. The soldier’s left ankle was badly damaged on Tuesday after he stepped on the device while patrolling about 1km (0.6 miles) from the Ta Moan Thom Temple in Thailand’s Surin province, the army said. He is receiving treatment in hospital. Thai army spokesperson Major General Winthai Suvaree said the incident proved Cambodia had breached the truce and violated international agreements, including the Ottawa Convention banning landmines. … Phnom Penh dismissed the accusation, insisting it has not laid new mines.” (08/12/25)
