USA - President Donald Trump issued words of warning for the World Trade Organization on Monday, calling on it to start treating the United States “properly” or the US will take action. Trump made the comments while seated next to Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, as the two prepared to hold a meeting in the Oval Office. “WTO’s treated the United States very badly and I hope they change their ways,” Trump told reporters of the current state of affairs between the US and WTO. “They have been treating us very badly for many, many years and that’s why we were at a big disadvantage with the WTO.” President Trump then warned, “We’re not planning anything now, but if they don’t treat us properly, we will be doing something.”
IRAN - The Iranian regime appears to be in a panic as the Trump administration tightens the screws on the country’s economy with the United States telling countries to stop all oil imports from Iran starting on November 4. In the meantime, the United States is asking the Gulf states to boost their oil production to make up for the Iranian shortfall. The question is if this, and other economic sanctions and pressure, will be enough to increase the protests inside of Iran?
USA - Antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been detected in 62 percent of common US supermarket meats, according to new data released by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The non-profit – which aims to empower the public to protect their health through information – analyzed over 47,000 tests to determine the contamination rate.
USA - Comments that contain anything even remotely critical of the cultural bulldozer known as the LGBT agenda are apparently no longer permitted on Facebook, which recently banned a former university professor for “hate speech” after he raised honest concerns about a controversial LGBT video for children that encourages pre-pubescents to become homosexuals and transgenders.
AFRICA - Too old to breed, an 18-year-old giraffe was known to have killed at least three younger breeder bulls; thus depleting the herd. Not to worry. An American hunter took down the 4,000-pound animal and, in so doing, contributed to the herd’s conservation and acquired 2,000 pounds of meat to boot.
USA - A concerned mother’s viral Facebook post has once again called into question the safety of the popular game, Roblox. In the graphic post, North Carolina mom Amber Petersen details the horrifying moment her 7-year-old daughter’s avatar was ‘violently gang-raped’ in the game by three other players.
UK - Social media companies are deliberately addicting users to their products for financial gain, Silicon Valley insiders have told the BBC's Panorama programme. "It's as if they're taking behavioural cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface and that's the thing that keeps you like coming back and back and back", said former Mozilla and Jawbone employee Aza Raskin. "Behind every screen on your phone, there are generally like literally a thousand engineers that have worked on this thing to try to make it maximally addicting" he added. In 2006 Mr Raskin, a leading technology engineer himself, designed infinite scroll, one of the features of many apps that is now seen as highly habit forming.
USA - On Friday, Michael Moore went on Bill Maher’s HBO show and suggested that the US military would side with progressives in a civil war against Donald Trump. You can watch Moore make these comments on YouTube. The very next day, Antifa thugs violently clashed with pro-Trump conservatives that had gathered for a prayer rally on the streets of Portland, Oregon. Flash-bang grenades were thrown by Antifa activists, the police confiscated “mace, clubs, gloves with reinforced knuckles, batons, knives and handgun clips”, and many were injured and had to be taken to the hospital.
CHINA - The authorities issued a plea for calm after another day of dramatic moves on foreign exchange markets and the Shanghai bourse. The yuan has plunged by 5 percent since mid-June when trade conflict erupted and investors awoke to deepening slowdown in the Chinese economy. Foreign funds have since been rushing for the exits, taking advantage of open flows under the Hong Kong-Shanghai Connect scheme to withdraw capital. Yi Gang, the governor of the People’s Bank (PBOC), acknowledged that the currency slide risks turning malign.
USA - There is a lot of buzz that Amy Coney Barrett is going to be President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, and that is causing many progressives to totally freak out. The reason that they are freaking out doesn’t have anything to do with her credentials. In fact… Barrett is exceptionally qualified to be on the Supreme Court. She is sharp, intelligent and has a sterling reputation.
IRAN - Iranian Member of Parliament Behrouz Bonyadi criticized Tehran’s allies Russia and Syria in unusually harsh terms during a speech on Wednesday, essentially agreeing with the Iranian protest movement that the nation has spent too many resources in propping up Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. He also warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted. “Bashar Assad, with full impudence, has cozied up to Putin. Russia will not be a trustworthy friend for us,” warned Bonyadi, as related by Radio Farda. “Why we should constantly live in fear of war, sanctions, and bad news?” he asked of Iran’s interventionist foreign policy, noting that the money spent on adventures like Syria was more urgently needed at home.
SWITZERLAND - Another country is betting on physical gold. Switzerland's pension fund has boosted its investments in bullion, switching from the paper-backed securities in US dollars. The Swiss government Pension System decided to change from paper gold the amount of 700 million CHF into physical gold and store it in Switzerland.
KYRGYZSTAN - China’s neighbor Kyrgyzstan has been piling up gold reserves as a hedge against a possible trade war between Beijing and Washington. The country is seeking to boost the share of gold in its $2-billion international reserves to 50 percent from its current 16 percent. “The rules of the game are changing,” Kyrgyz Central Bank Governor Tolkunbek Abdygulov told Bloomberg in an interview. “It doesn’t matter what currencies we have in our reserves; dollars, yuan or rubles all make us vulnerable.” Gold is Kyrgyzstan’s largest export. Since 2014, the country’s central bank has been buying up as much of the country’s gold as possible, Abdygulov said. “If we decide to sell gold, then we can easily sell it and convert into the currency we need,” Abdygulov said.
AUSTRALIA - The Palestinian Authority will no longer received direct financial aid from Australia because donations could increase the self-governing body’s ability to financially reward terrorist violence. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Monday that funding to a World Bank’s trust fund was cut after she wrote to the Palestinian Authority in late May seeking assurance that Australian funding was not being handed directly to the families of deceased terrorists. She said in a statement she’s concerned that providing further funds allows the authority to use its own budget to spend on anti-Israel terrorist activities that “Australia would never support.”
USA - Cell phone manufacturers have actually been warning their shareholders – not customers – that they may eventually be held liable for the harm they have caused. In the meantime though, they want to keep the rest of us confused about harm from exposure and excited about new digital, electronic, and wireless technology.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.