USA - This keeps happening over and over, and yet nobody in the mainstream media would ever dare to call for a federal investigation into the pharmaceutical companies. That is because the big drug corporations have literally spent billions of dollars advertising their products on television, on radio and in the newspapers over the years, and if that gravy train were to ever end the mainstream media would collapse.

USA - California has been struck by a 4.4 magnitude earthquake, making it the third quake just this month. The earthquake struck at 7.33pm local time, August 28, and was followed by a magnitude 3.4 tremor just a minute later. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the main earthquake was widely felt and buildings were shaking for several seconds. The earthquake is not the only natural disaster these counties have experiences lately, as the Holy Fire has been raging through the area. This is the third earthquake California has experienced this month alone, and recently a 6.2 magnitude quake sparked fear the “Big One” might be coming. If the earthquake hits, it could cause a devastating tsunami of 85ft high waves leaving 33,000 people drowning.

NEW CALEDONIA - An undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 has rocked the South Pacific island of New Caledonia – the latest in a series of 25 large tremors to shake the so-called Ring of Fire in the last 24 hours. And seismologists from the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center have warned the most recent tremor could trigger potentially hazardous tsunami waves of up to one metre for the island, as well as Fiji and Vanuatu. USGS’s latest map shows a total of 25 quakes around the Ring of Fire, a region of high seismic activity which stretches 25,000 miles around the Pacific basin.

INDONESIA – Indonesia has been rocked by a huge 6.2 magnitude earthquake off the coast of West Timor, with tremors reported in Bali and Australia. The quake struck at a depth of 6.2 miles (10km) about 100km (62 miles) southeast of Kupang, in the East Nusa Tenggara province. Experts at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) issued the earthquake alert at about 8.15am BST (2:15pm local time). Five minutes later, it was followed by a shallow 5.6 magnitude quake nearby. Indonesia has been rocked by a string of deadly earthquakes, particularly on Lombok island, leaving more than 500 people dead. Reconstruction efforts are now underway on the island, with the disasters having caused £263 million ($340 million) in damage. About 390,000 people remain displaced after the quakes, according to Indonesia's disaster agency.

USA - The Trump Administration is set to formally reject the Palestinian demand for a “right of return” for millions of so-called refugees and their descendants to Israel, an Israeli TV report said Saturday night. In the coming days, Washington will announce a policy that “from its point of view, essentially cancels the ‘right of return,’” the report said. Palestinian “refugees” are the only “refugees” in the world that pass that status on to their descendants in perpetuity. One of the core issues in the conflict is the Palestinian demand that those so-called refugees and their descendants — who now number around 5 million — be allowed to return to Israel. Israel has categorically rejected this demand, deeming it a bid to destroy the Jewish state by demographics.

ISRAEL - Israel is entering its sixth year of drought, the Water Authority said Sunday, with many of the country’s waterways at a 98-year low. The Sea of Galilee is 214.2 meters (703 feet) below sea level, perilously close to its black line. Nevertheless, the average Israeli has not felt the drought as in the past, mostly due to the fact that the state has invested heavily in building five enormous desalination plants in recent years — providing some 70% of the country’s drinking water directly from the sea — and is building two more. Furthermore, Israel recycles some 86% of its waste water for agricultural purposes.

IRELAND - Pope Francis was greeted by rapturous crowds as he toured the streets of Dublin yesterday at the start of his historic visit to Ireland – only the second ever to the country by a Pontiff. It was a warmth that will no doubt have come as some relief, given the cold shadow of abuse now covering the Catholic Church. That shadow will be all-too apparent once again today when Francis travels to Knock and its famous shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

GERMANY - Police are braced for further protests in the eastern German city of Chemnitz on Monday, after far-Right rioters tore through the streets attacking people they believed to be migrants on Sunday afternoon. A crowd of around 800 people gathered in the city Sunday afternoon to protest after a man was killed in a fight between “a number of people of different nationalities,” local police said. Unconfirmed rumours being circulated online said the fight between around ten men may have kicked off after a woman was harassed in the street. The protests were organised spontaneously by far-right groups, including the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party (AfD), which is currently the biggest opposition party in Germany’s parliament.

IRAN - Iran has full control of the Gulf and the US Navy does not belong there, the head of the navy of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, General Alireza Tangsiri, was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying on Monday. Tehran has suggested it could take military action in the Gulf to block other countries’ oil exports in retaliation for US sanctions intended to halt its sales of crude. Washington maintains a fleet in the Gulf that protects oil shipping routes.

Tangsiri said Iran had full control of the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz that leads into it. Closing the strait would be the most direct way of blocking shipping. “We can ensure the security of the Persian Gulf and there is no need for the presence of aliens like the US and the countries whose home is not in here,” he said in the quote, which appeared in English translation on Tasnim.

USA - Public schools in Florida must now display the motto, “In God We Trust,” per provisions of a state law passed in March and now brought to full effect with the opening of the new academic year. Title XLVIII, Chapter 1003 of the state law has been amended to read: “Each district school board shall adopt rules to require, in all of the schools of the district and in each building used by the district school board, the display of the state motto, ‘In God We Trust’ … in a conspicuous place.”

RUSSIA - As the United States continues to pile an ever-growing list of sanctions on to Russia, the country is fighting back by abandoning the US dollar. Although they have been expressing their desire to break away from the hegemony of the US petrodollar and the global dollar-based payment systems for years, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said this week that they are accelerating those efforts, to “get rid of the dollar.”

RUSSIA - Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made waves today, dispelling numerous rumors and laying to waste much ‘speculation’ about Russia’s role in Syria, with regard to Iran and Israel. In FRN’s piece two weeks ago, Israel’s pending strategic collapse was outlined, it is explained how Russia’s creation of a series of (8) demilitarized outposts, actually protects Syria and it’s Iranian allies from Israeli attacks and funding for Islamic terrorist groups invading Syria with the help of the Zionist state. Putin has effectively sandbagged Netanyahu, the brilliantly coordinated ruse effectively left Netanyahu and the Zionist state diplomatically disarmed. In a classic ‘Game of Thrones’ maneuver, Putin plotted against Netanyahu even as the two walked ‘side-by-side’ to honor Victory Day in Moscow, right in Red Square.

GERMANY - German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has declared Germany “is a nation of immigrants and will remain so”, asserting: “There are no half or whole Germans, no biological or ‘new’ Germans”. Speaking at Berlin’s Bellevue Palace, where a small group of people with Turkish heritage had been invited to share their views on immigration, integration, and xenophobia in Europe, the German president strongly denounced “exclusion of and discrimination against people with foreign roots”. Telling guests of his regret at hearing people with migration backgrounds report incidents which they claimed made them feel they don’t belong in the country, Steinmeier claimed prejudice undermines “all the things we have done together as a country”.

MIDDLE EAST - The newly appointed head of the PLO Commission of Prisoners vowed to continue ensuring that terrorists and their families receive a monthly stipend. The comments come after visiting the home of a mother to seven terrorists whose family has so far received a staggering $1 million through the Palestinian Authority’s so-called pay-for-slay scheme. A Facebook post on the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs page said that PA President Mahmoud Abbas and PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah “will make every effort for the prisoners, the released prisoners, and their families,” according to a translation by Israeli monitoring group Palestinian Media Watch. “We must not give in to the American and Israeli pressure on all that is connected to the salaries of the Martyrs and the prisoners,” the post said.

MIDDLE EAST - Hamas TV recently aired a broadcast of a Gazan Sharia judge urging Palestinians to take up jihad and renounce their attachment to this world, promising them that martyrdom will come with full absolution and marriage to 72 virgins. Sheikh Omar Nofal, who is a judge in Gaza’s Sharia appeals court, asked on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV channel: “How can anyone cling to this world after hearing all of these great rewards?” Nofal said that Jihad is “an individual duty incumbent upon the entire nation.” He praised Palestinian youth for renouncing life in this world and hastening to become martyrs.