USA - US GDP rocketed up to 4.1 percent in Q2, a rise far outpacing the Q1 2.2 percent. The rise is the fastest since 2014, according to reports. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) spike is in line with estimates from some economists ahead of the Commerce Department report, Business Insider reports. Consumer spending outpaced expectations, growing four percent. Bloomberg reported, “net exports contributed 1.06 percentage point to the pace of growth, the most since 2013, partly on a surge in soybean shipments ahead of retaliatory tariffs.” White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow predicted a big number on Thursday during a Fox Business interview, “You’re going to get a very good economic growth number tomorrow. Big.”

HUNGARY - Hungary's Viktor Orban has fired a warning shot at the EU executive reminding Brussels bosses that its days are "numbered" as his ongoing row with the bloc over migration continues to rage. The Hungarian prime minister called for a new approach to migration policy, warning that the next Commission should not punish countries that protect their borders from migrants. Mr Orban, one of the strongest opponents of the EU's migration policy, said the days of the current EU executive, led by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker are "numbered" with its mandate expiring in May next year.  The European Commission earlier this month stepped up a legal battle with Hungary over EU migration rules, declaring illegal a new Hungarian law that criminalises support for asylum seekers.

USA - Russia briefly surpassed the United States as the top global wheat supplier in 2016, and the two top global suppliers have been neck and neck since, but recently the US market share has been on a dramatic decline due to Mexico increasingly turning to alternative suppliers like Russia amidst escalating trade tensions with its northern neighbor. This despite soaring Russian prices and a new setback to the Russian crop from drought. The US has been Mexico's primary supplier since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect, but American suppliers are alarmed as Mexican millers begin looking elsewhere with the threat of tariffs looming, a trend since Donald Trump famously labelled NAFTA "the worst trade deal ever" signed by the US, followed by his April 2017 threat to pull out and has since called to renegotiate. 

USA - Airport weather stations that record “global warming” temperatures sit directly in the exhaust paths of fiery hot jet engines. If so-called climate change experts are to be believed, the human race is facing imminent and irreversible doom.

USA - Firefighters battling a huge wildfire in Northern California kept it from doing more damage to the city of Redding but three smaller communities were in danger as flames closed in and residents packed up to leave. The fire grew by about 35 percent overnight to 127 square miles (328 square kilometers) and pushed southwest of Redding, toward the communities of Ono, Igo and Gas Point. It’s now the largest of more than 20 fires burning in California. The winds that aided firefighters in keeping the flames from more populated areas were propelling it forward at a frightening rate.

EUROPE - Intense heatwaves like the one which fuelled Greece's deadly wildfires are set to become increasingly frequent around the world due to climate change, experts warn. Is the current heatwave exceptional? Record high temperatures have been registered across the Northern Hemisphere in recent weeks, from Norway to Japan. Sweltering summers are the norm in Greece, where at least 82 people have been killed in the country's worst ever forest fires. But in Northern Europe the recent heatwave is exceptional, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) predicts temperatures will continue to beat the seasonal average from Ireland to Scandanavia and the Baltic countries until early August.

ISRAEL - Israel has never officially admitted to possessing nuclear weapons. Unofficially, Tel Aviv wants everyone to know it has them, and doesn’t hesitate to make thinly-veiled references to its willingness to use them if confronted by an existential threat. Estimates on the size of Tel Aviv’s nuclear stockpile range from 80 to 300 nuclear weapons, the latter number exceeding China’s arsenal. Originally, Israel’s nuclear forces relied on air-dropped nuclear bombs and Jericho ballistic missiles. For example, when Egyptian and Syrian armies attacked Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, a squadron of eight Israeli F-4 Phantom jets loaded with nuclear bombs was placed on alert by Prime Minister Golda Meir, ready to unleash nuclear bombs on Cairo and Damascus should the Arab armies break through.

ISRAEL - The Times of Israel reports: The former head of the IDF’s military intelligence said Thursday that the firing of a pair of missiles from Syria into the Sea of Galilee a day earlier was likely an effort by the Islamic State group to draw Israel into a confrontation with the Syrian regime. The missiles crashed into the lake mere dozens of meters from groups of tourists, according to eyewitnesses, and were initially thought to be spillover fighting from intense battles taking place just over the border in Syria, where regime forces backed by Russian air power are attempting to gain control of a last pocket held by jihadists. But Amos Yadlin, a former IDF general, said it seemed the Islamic State had deliberately targeted Israel, looking to take advantage of the IDF’s policy of striking forces belonging to Syrian President Bashar Assad in response to spillover violence.

SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia and other key Arab countries have told the Trump administration they won’t be able to support its plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace if it doesn’t include a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. The Saudi position was first reported by Reuters on Sunday, and was later confirmed to Haaretz by two diplomats involved in conversations on the peace plan. The Saudi position was expressed by King Salman during a number of recent communications with senior US officials, as well as in conversations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Arab leaders in the region. It contradicts many media reports over the past year about a Saudi willingness to adopt Trump’s peace plan even if it is unacceptable to the Palestinians.

RUSSIA - With 2,000 tons of gold in reserves, Russia’s bullion holdings are approaching the Soviet peak seen in 1941. Moscow is striving for financial independence and escape from US dollar hegemony, analysts told RT. Russia’s gold purchases increased during the US presidential race and did not stop despite Donald Trump's victory even though he seemed a more preferable candidate for the Kremlin, Anton Makhnovsky, CEO of ICBF told RT. The analyst says he thinks Russia will continue ramping up its reserves. Over the last decade, the share of gold in reserves has soared tenfold. Russia also reduced its holdings of US Treasuries from $96.1 billion in March to just $14.9 billion in May. Bullion reserves are now worth $460 billion with the central bank aiming to increase that figure to $500 billion.

UK - Theresa May has suggested the public should take “comfort” from Government plans to stockpile medicines and food for a “no deal” Brexit as she said “we don’t know what the outcome is going to be”. Critics have accused ministers of trying to scare MPs into backing Mrs May’s Brexit vision with talk of hoarding essential supplies, but Mrs May said such precautions were only “responsible and sensible”. However, Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister accused Mrs May of “bravado”, insisting Britain “cannot afford” to crash out of the EU. Simon Coveney said walking away from negotiations with Brussels would have “significant… negative implications” for Britain.

EUROPE - Michel Barnier effectively killed off Theresa May’s customs plan in Brussels on Thursday as he warned that the European Union would never accept British officials collecting duties on its behalf after Brexit. The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator refused to accept that Britain had “evolved its position” and he offered no concessions in return for the Prime Minister’s soft Brexit plan, which led to the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson after crunch Cabinet talks at Chequers. Instead, he said that the UK could still join “a customs union”, which would mean Britain could not make its own trade deals after Brexit.

ETHIOPIA - It was an embrace of monumental consequence. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki warmly greeted the new Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as he arrived in the Eritrean capital of Asmara. Photos from the historic meeting show the start of a warm friendship between these two major Horn of Africa leaders. A joint statement confirmed that the war so bitterly fought from 1998 to 2000, and the no-peace, no-war situation, plaguing both countries and contributing towards destabilizing the entire Horn of Africa, was finally over.

SYRIA - Syrian government forces on Thursday raised the flag in the buffer zone separating Syrian-held territory from the Israeli Golan, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Syria’s southwestern Quneitra province includes the Syrian Golan Heights, on the border of the territory held by Israel. The part of the province to the east of the buffer zone fell almost totally under regime control after a brief military offensive followed by deals under which the rebels surrendered or were evacuated from the region. The rocky plateau known as the Golan Heights overlooks Israel’s Galilee region and the Sea of Galilee to the south and west. Israel took control of 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan from Syria during the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized internationally.

USA - Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney accused previous White House administrations of withholding foreign aid from countries in sub-Saharan Africa to secure compliance with left-wing policy initiatives on “abortion [and] gay marriage.” He offered his remarks on Tuesday at the State Department’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, DC.