USA - We continue to get numbers that indicate that the US economy is steamrolling in the wrong direction as we approach the most chaotic election season in our history. Needless to say, the performance of the economy is going to play a major role in the outcome of the election, because millions upon millions of Americans are really suffering right now. Homelessness has been growing at the fastest pace ever recorded, hunger and poverty are exploding, and we are in the midst of a cost of living crisis that doesn’t seem to have any end in sight. Unfortunately, there are signs that things will soon get even worse. For example, we experienced a “historic surge” of corporate bankruptcies during the first half of this year that was worse than anything we have witnessed since the first half of 2010…

RUSSIA - Moscow is likely to play a significant role in the budding dialogue between Türkiye and Syria. It has been almost 12 years since relations between Türkiye and Syria took a dramatic turn for the worse. Once good friends, Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan (who was prime minister back then) and Bashar Assad quickly became sworn enemies, and the border between their countries turned into a permanent hotspot of instability. This conflict became yet another consequence of the Arab Spring, which swept through the Middle East and North Africa like a storm in 2011.

GERMANY - Hosting US long-range missiles will allow Germany the opportunity to develop similar weapons of its own, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has said. Berlin and Washington announced at the end of the NATO summit in Washington this week that US cruise missiles will be stationed in Germany from 2026. Deployment of such weapons would previously have been banned under the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, but Washington withdrew from the landmark agreement in 2019. A joint German-US statement released by the White House revealed that among the weapons to be deployed to the European nation are the SM-6 anti-air missile, which has a range of up to 460km (290 miles), as well as the Tomahawk cruise missile, which can reportedly strike targets more than 2,500km away.

RUSSIA - On Thursday, Russian officials reacted strongly and vowed to respond to the US announcing that it will deploy missile systems to Germany starting in 2026 that were previously banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador in Washington, said the deployment could lead to confrontation. “The Americans are increasing the risk of a missile arms race. Here, they forget that going the way of confrontation may set off an uncontrollable escalation amid the dangerous aggravation of tensions along the Russia-NATO track,” he said. Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, warned of a strong response if the US goes through with the deployment. “I hope that it will not happen, because Russia’s response will be harsh and adequate. This is simply unacceptable,” she said.

USA - New research published in the journal Agriculture and Human Values reveals that global food and health policy is controlled by a "complex web of ultra-processed food producers" that include Coca-Cola, Nestlé and PepsiCo. The reason why farmers are under the knife by the climate brigade for "polluting" the planet is because the large, multinational corporations that produce most of the unhealthiest "food" on the planet are steering agriculture off a cliff for their own benefit, and that of other "stakeholders" like the World Economic Forum (WEF) that is leading a transformation from a solely corporate-dominated food and health model to a "multi-stakeholder" model. The multi-stakeholder model has unleashed all sorts of new initiatives, partnerships, platforms and roundtables devoted to implementing new global "solutions" to agricultural "problems."

USA - Abortion should be one of the central issues during this election season, because it has enormous implications for our future. Last year, more than a million abortions were performed in the United States. That was the first year since 2012 that we have surpassed the one million abortion mark. Many people thought that the number of abortions would go down once Roe v Wade was overturned, but that didn’t happen. One of the primary reasons why the number of abortions is going up is because of the widespread availability of abortion pills. It has become so easy to get abortion pills through the mail, and that includes states where abortion is otherwise restricted or banned. If we don’t do something about all of these abortion pills that are flying around, the number of abortions in this country will almost certainly continue to go up. Unfortunately, it does not appear that anything will be done to restrict abortion pills on the national level any time soon.

GERMANY - Boris Pistorius has received €5 billion ($5.4 billion) less than he had requested for his ministry. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is dissatisfied with the results of recent talks among the ruling ‘traffic light’ coalition on the country’s budget for 2025. According to the proposed budget announced by the leaders of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens on Sunday, the defense ministry is going to get €53 billion (around $57.5 billion) next year instead of the €58 billion ($62.9 billion) that Pistorius wanted.

RUSSIA - Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken with his newly elected Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian, the Kremlin announced on Monday. Following the Iranian announcement of the election results, the Russian president sent Pezeshkian a congratulatory telegram. “I hope that your activities as president will contribute to the further expansion of constructive bilateral cooperation in all areas for the benefit of our friendly nations, in the interests of strengthening regional security and stability,” Putin said in the message, according to the Kremlin. “I wish you success, good health and prosperity.”

UK - The UK is set to boost its military and plans to gradually increase defense spending to 2.5% of its GDP, new Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday as he departed for a NATO summit in Washington. Starmer has pledged to publish a roadmap for defense expenditure following calls from both the UK military and NATO states to clarify his policy, his office has said. “I am committed to that 2.5% [of gross domestic product] within our fiscal rules, but that strategic review needs to come first,” he told Reuters ahead of the NATO summit. The timeline for the review or when the spending goal might be achieved has not been specified, however.

USA - The tremendous suffering that we are seeing all over the world right now is only just the beginning. As I have documented repeatedly, we are in the midst of the worst global food crisis in modern history, and we haven’t seen this many countries engaged in military conflict since World War II. In other words, this is a time of famine, and it is a time of war. This represents a major problem for those that believe that humans are intrinsically good and that humanity is moving into a new golden era of peace and prosperity. If humans are intrinsically good, why is there so much evil all around us? Of course the truth is that the evil that we see all around is the product of the evil in human hearts. Humanity is the reason why there is so much war, so much famine, so much greed, so much corruption, and so much suffering.

USA - John Deere sponsoring sickening DEI wokeness as they fire American workers and move factories to Mexico. Conservative activist Robby Starbuck on Wednesday dropped a sobering video report on a company rural Americans (mainly Trump voters) rely on to do their jobs: John Deere. It turns out that selling tractors is far from the only item on the manufacturing company’s agenda.

USA - Research shows that microplastics can be found anywhere — including in heart plaque buildup, which significantly increases risk of heart-related adverse events. Plastic is a crucial product in industrial production and is deeply intertwined with daily life. When plastic products break down, they become microplastics or even smaller nanoplastics. Microplastics are plastic pieces smaller than 5 millimeters, while nanoplastics measure below 1 micron (1,000 nanometers). Lin Xiaoxu, a US virology expert with a doctorate in microbiology, explained what microplastics and nanoplastics are on New Tang Dynasty TV’s “Health 1+1” program and how to reduce exposure to them.

USA - Nearly 1.7 million people in Texas are entering a third day without power in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl. The acting governor, Dan Patrick, said in a statement that bringing back power will be a “multi-day restoration event”. Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas on Monday, taking down power lines that left nearly 3 million people without electricity at the peak of the outages. Much of south-east Texas including Houston is enduring dangerously high temperatures with no air conditioning amid an ongoing heatwave. “With power outages continuing across south-east Texas, the lack of air-conditioning will aggravate the risk for heat-related illnesses as high temperatures warm into the lower and mid-90s,” warns National Weather Service in Houston, where the heat index reached 106F (41C) yesterday and is expected to reach 105F today. At least 10 people in the US died in the wake of the category 5 hurricane.

USA - Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge related to the fatal 737 Max crashes, the Justice Department announced on Sunday. This comes months after US prosecutors accused the aerospace giant of violating a 2021 settlement that protected it from prosecution. As part of the deal, Boeing will pay a $243.6 million fine. Additionally, an independent compliance monitor will oversee Boeing’s adherence to compliance standards for three years during a probationary period. The company must also invest at least $455 million in compliance and safety programs, according to a court filing by US prosecutors late Sunday. This plea deal is pending approval by a federal judge. The agreement also stipulates that Boeing’s board of directors must meet with the families of the crash victims.

ITALY - Pope Francis warned Sunday democracy is in “crisis” around the world, likely with an eye to a rise in right-wing parties across Italy, Austria, Argentina, Netherlands, and Germany. It is evident that in today’s world, democracy “is not in good health,” the pontiff told a group of 900 participants in the 50th annual Social Week, celebrated in the northern Italian city of Trieste. The pope went on to compare the modern “crisis of democracy” to a wounded heart that has suffered a heart attack, manifested by “various forms of social exclusion” that “limit participation.”