IRAN - Hundreds of people have been injured and at least two have died after a powerful 6.1 earthquake struck western Iran, near the border with Iraq. The quake struck some 31 kilometers from Javanrud, Kermanshah province, at a depth of 10 kilometers, USGS reports. There were no immediate reports of major damage, but the powerful jolt was reportedly felt as far as the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

GERMANY - It is high time to re-evaluate our partnership — not to leave it behind, but to renew and preserve it. Sharing responsibility as a blueprint, we have the idea of a balanced partnership, in which we take our balanced part of the responsibility. In which we counterbalance where the US crosses red lines. In which we bring in our weight, where America withdraws. And in which we start a new conversation. Single-handedly, we will fail in this task. The outstanding goal of our foreign policy is therefore to build a sovereign, strong Europe.

EUROPE - The European Union agreed 18 million euros ($20.6 million) in aid for Iran on Thursday, including for the private sector, to help offset the impact of United States sanctions and salvage a 2015 deal that saw Tehran limit its nuclear ambitions. The announcement is part of the bloc's high-profile efforts to support the nuclear accord that President Donald Trump abandoned in May. It is part of a wider package of 50 million euros earmarked for Iran in the EU budget. The EU is working to maintain trade with Iran, which has threatened to stop complying with the nuclear agreement if it fails to see the economic benefits of relief from sanctions. The bloc's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement the bloc was committed to cooperation with Iran.

USA - The entire media-political-government-power complex camped along the Potomac River in this fetid August heat officially lost its collective mind this week. In an orgy of political drama playing out in courtrooms up and down the Acela corridor, President Trump’s lawyer and his one-time campaign manager stand convicted of various crimes. In this fever worse than Joe McCarthy’s Red Scare, President Trump — therefore — has been officially declared guilty by association!

USA - Michael Cohen’s testimony on Monday, that he broke campaign finance laws at Donald Trump’s direction, has renewed calls for Trump’s impeachment or even his removal – but is that likely, and what would actually happen if it did? Without doubt, Cohen’s testimony increases the chances that Trump will face impeachment – but it is not quite as simple as that. Cohen’s testimony is not the only factor which will determine how the coming drama will play out. In essence, much rests on what happens on November 8th – the midterm congressional elections. That day could quite possibly determine Trump’s fate as president.

USA - Americans would revolt if President Donald Trump is eventually impeached under some phony ‘political’ reason by the newly-elected and potentially hostile presidential Congress, Rudy Giuliani has claimed. “You could only impeach [Trump] for political reasons and the American people would revolt against that,” Giuliani told Sky News while on a trip to Scotland. Earlier Trump himself warned that the stock market will crash if the lawmakers decide to remove him from office. “If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor,” the president said in an interview with Fox News.

USA - CIA whistleblower Kevin Shipp says that the mainstream media is laser-focused on the recent Cohen plea and the Manafort conviction, both of which have nothing to do with “Russian collusion.”  He says this is because the mainstream media are conspirators and have nothing to do with real news. “We know the mainstream media (MSM) is not interested in the news,” said Kevin Shipp to USA Watchdog‘s Greg Hunter.

USA - Donald Trump has asked the question which the renewables industry would rather not answer: “What happens when the wind doesn’t blow?” He was speaking at a fundraiser for the outstanding GOP Congresswoman Claudia Tenney in Utica, NY, last week. His remarks on coal and the wind industry, especially, are causing liberal heads to explode. Wind turbines are ugly, expensive, environmentally damaging and inefficient; they blight views, reduce property values, cause health problems to both humans and animals, disturb the peace with shadow flicker and low frequency noise, despoil the landscape, artificially drive up energy prices, and enrich cynical, grasping, crony-capitalist spivs at the expense of ordinary energy users. Only a scumbag of the first water would ever wish to profit from this vile industry. Only a complete ignoramus could be in favor of it.

USA - President Donald Trump criticized Democrats on Tuesday for blocking his efforts for tough immigration enforcement. “The Democrats want to turn America into one big fat sanctuary city for criminal aliens,” Trump said during a rally in West Virginia with a group of supporters. The crowd booed the Democrats loudly as Trump continued. “Honestly, they are more protective of the criminal aliens than they are of the people,” he said. Trump said he was committed to deporting criminal illegal immigrants, but that Democrats wanted to do the opposite.

UK - Traditional Christian values have long underpinned popular children's books such as The Chronicles of Narnia. But now Richard Dawkins wants to give youngsters a different perspective with a new book – Atheism for Children. The outspoken scientist, 77, hopes it will stop the 'religious indoctrination of children' by schools and family members. Professor Dawkins, an atheist whose book The God Delusion was a bestseller, said Atheism for Children will 'arm' youngsters in religious debates. He claimed it 'will be unflinching, not a storybook. Children won't beg parents to buy it for Christmas.’ In 2011, Professor Dawkins wrote a book for teenagers and young adults, entitled The Magic of Reality. It aimed to show that science is better than religion at explaining the natural world.

PERU - Peru has been rocked by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake close to the border with Brazil, the US Geographical Survey (USGS) said. The massive quake struck 248km north-west of Puerto Maldonado, a city in south-eastern Peru, at 4:04am local time (10am BST). The quake was also felt in northern Chile, Peru's southern neighbour, but authorities said there was no tsunami risk.

HAWAII - Hurricane Lane's outer bands have been pummeling Hawaii's Big Island with rain Thursday morning, triggering landslides and threatening serious flooding as the Category 4 cyclone moves perilously close to the Aloha State. The center of the storm - which could become the first major cyclone to make landfall in the state in 26 years - is expected to move very close to the main islands or cross land Thursday through Friday, forecasters said. It could be so devastating that authorities are urging residents to set aside two weeks' worth of food and water. "Be prepared to shelter in place with 14 days of food supplies and water and any other necessities," Hawaii Govenor David Ige said at a news conference Wednesday. Most areas are expected to see 10 to 20 inches through Sunday, while some could get more than 30 inches.

USA - In an interview with Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, Coulter said liberals have used immigration to demographically alter the United States in order to avoid having to “care about the middle part of the country.”

USA - Have you ever heard of the “Sound Advice Risk Indicator”? Every single time in our history when it has gone above 2.0 the stock market has crashed, and now it has just surged above that threshold for the very first time since the late 1990s. That doesn’t mean that a stock market crash is imminent, but it is definitely yet another indication that this stock market bubble is living on borrowed time.

RUSSIA - Russia has been selling US government debt and buying gold. A lot of gold. Official data show the Russian central bank increased its holdings of gold by nearly 29 tons in July, the largest monthly increase since November 2017. The central bank previously added 20 tons in May and 17 tons in June. Its total holdings of the precious metal have increased 37% since the start of 2016, and are now worth an estimated $76 billion. The gold purchases have coincided with a dramatic reduction in the central bank's ownership of US government debt, which plummeted 84% between March and May to just $14.9 billion. Treasuries now make up only 17% of reserves at Russia's central bank.