ITALY - At least seven people have been killed and three others are missing after 16 inches of rain hit the central Italian region of Marche in just two hours, causing catastrophic floods. Local authorities said they did not expect such a sudden 'water bomb', as around 16 inches of rain fell within two hours on Thursday night, inundating the streets of several towns in the Ancona and Pesaro-Urbino provinces. Footage released by fire brigades showed operators navigating the streets of seaside town Senigallia on rafters to rescue people and evacuate them, while others attempted to clear an underpass of debris. The flooding hitting the Marche region, is part of a wave of storms hitting the country. Other regions experiencing storms are Tuscany, Umbria, Abruzzo, Fruili Venezia Guilia, Lombardy, Liguria and Molise. It is the latest in a long series of extreme-weather events which have happened in Italy this summer.

RUSSIA - Russia and China share the understanding that a unipolar world has become impossible and that a “new reality” is coming, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. Moscow and Beijing agree that it’s “an impossible situation” when “the so-called ‘Golden billion’ is claiming the right to invent rules in economy, in politics and the right to impose it’s will on other countries,” he noted. In the Russian-speaking world the term ‘Golden billion’ often refers to the wealthy populations of the US, EU and other Western nations. The foundation of the unipolar system has started to “seriously creak and wobble. A new reality is emerging,” the Kremlin spokesman pointed out. Beijing refused to join the international sanctions imposed on Moscow over its military operation in Ukraine. Instead, the two countries boosted cooperation and trade, with Russia becoming the top supplier of oil to China, among other things.

RUSSIA - This month, Russia and Saudi Arabia steered the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allied producers to reduce output targets in an effort to prop up global oil prices, which were falling, a decision that should increase the oil profits of both nations. Taken together, the moves represent a distinct Saudi tilt toward Moscow and away from the United States, which it has typically aligned itself with. The Saudi position falls short of an outright political alliance between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and President Vladimir V Putin of Russia, but the two leaders have established an arrangement that benefits both sides. “Obviously, Saudi-Russian ties are deepening,” said Bill Richardson, a former US energy secretary and ambassador to the United Nations. By working more closely with Russia, the Saudis are effectively making it more difficult for the United States and the European Union to isolate Mr Putin.

VATICAN - Pope Francis met with Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk on the sidelines of the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions at the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation in Nur-Sultan on September 14, 2022. Religion should not be used as a prop for power, Pope Francis told an inter-faith meeting in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan on Wednesday. “May we never justify violence. May we never allow the sacred to be exploited by the profane. The sacred must never be a prop for power, nor power a prop for the sacred,” he said. Francis spoke a day after appealing for peace and an end to the “senseless and tragic war” in Ukraine.

GERMANY - Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke by phone on Tuesday, with Scholz calling on Putin to withdraw his forces from Ukraine and Putin highlighting Ukraine’s “blatant violations of international humanitarian law.” During the 90-minute conversation, Scholz urged Putin to “come to a diplomatic solution as quickly as possible, based on a ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Russian forces and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Ukraine,” according to a statement from spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.

GERMANY - "Germany's size, its geographical situation, its economic power — in short, its clout — makes us a leading power,” declared German Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht. As Lambrecht affirmed yesterday in a speech to the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Germany is "a leading power... also in the military sphere." In the future, the Bundeswehr must play “a more important role in our political thinking and action.” In her speech Lambrecht focused on the new National Security Strategy that the government plans to adopt still this year. The strategy, being drafted under the auspices of the foreign ministry, reflects on a national level the EU’s “Strategic Compass” – a sort of military doctrine – and NATO’s new Strategic Concept. Since the Strategy’s implementation will entail considerable costs, it is necessary to win broad public acceptance – for example by introducing a “National Security Day.” The ambitious plans are in stark contrast to the failure of German military missions over the past few years.

USA - Russia’s war on Ukraine has wreaked havoc on global commodity markets, driving up energy and food prices and exacerbating hunger emergencies around the world. But while disastrous for the global poor — millions of whom are living on the brink of famine — the chaos has been a major boon for Wall Street giants, according to new data showing that the world’s 100 largest banks are on pace to smash commodity trading profit records this year. “The 100 biggest banks by revenue are set to make $18 billion from commodities trading in 2022,” Bloomberg reported last week, citing figures from the London-based firm Vali Analytics. “That would be the highest in the data, which goes back 14 years, and exceed the previous high watermark in 2009.” “The prediction is the latest evidence that the wild swings in energy prices triggered by the war in Ukraine are delivering a boon to commodity traders, even as they push European nations into crisis,” Bloomberg added.

USA - In countries such as the UK, US and Canada, ultra-processed foods now account for 50% or more of calories consumed. This is concerning, given that these foods have been linked to a number of different health conditions, including a greater risk of obesity and various chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and dementia. Ultra-processed foods are concoctions of various industrial ingredients (such as emulsifiers, thickeners and artificial flavours), amalgamated into food products by a series of manufacturing processes. Sugary drinks and many breakfast cereals are ultra-processed foods, as are more recent innovations, such as so-called “plant-based” burgers, which are typically made of protein isolates and other chemicals to make the products palatable.

USA - Mentally ill criminals are wreaking havoc across the streets of progressive cities as policies instituted by Democrat lawmakers, designed to end the rule of law, take effect. The majority of homeless drug dealers and drug addicts are moving to the Democrat-run city to receive welfare, sell drugs, and get away with violent crimes while surrounded by police. Defund the police measures and bail reform have crippled law enforcement officials’ ability to fight crime while policies enacted during the covid pandemic allow criminals a get-out-of-jail pass. In July, San Francisco implemented a $3 million program to deploy community workers instead of police to respond to “low-level” emergency complaints about the homeless.

VATICAN - A high Vatican official stunned Catholics on Italian television August 26. In doing so, he confirmed the Catholic Church's retreat from one of its fundamental moral positions. Cardinal Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, announced on an interview program that the Catholic Church had no interest in opposing Italy's law allowing abortion. Indeed, while encouraging more women to have children, Paglia called the law "a pillar of our social life."

USA - New satellite imagery shows a large swath of California's rice fields has been left barren without harvest as fears of a 'mini dust bowl' emerge due to diminishing water supplies. A report via the US Department of Agriculture shows about 300,000 out of the 550,000 acres committed to rice growing in California will go without harvest. This could potentially drive up sushi prices nationwide because most of the rice produced in the state is for just that. UC Davis agricultural economist Aaron Smith warned the collapse in rice production in the state will translate to an estimated $500 million loss for farmers, about 40% of which will be covered by federal crop insurance. Across the rice capital of six top-producing counties, only two will be unharmed by the mega drought. As a reminder, the state is responsible for a tremendous amount of US food production - cutting off water to farmers, leaving tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of acres unworkable, will only exacerbate the food crisis.

USA - In late August, Jackson, Mississippi experienced a high level of rainfall causing a key pump at the already-failing OB Curtis water treatment plant to fail. That plant provided more than 180,000 people with drinking water and since its failure, all of those people have been without water. Last week, the pressure in the lines was restored but the "water" running through the lines is not drinkable and more closely resembles toxic sludge or motor oil than it does water. Over the weekend, Mississippi Today reporter Molly Minta took a video of what flows from her sink at home — and it's disgusting. According to Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, although the water treatment plant finally failed in August, the system “has been failing for decades” and nothing is being done. Lumumba estimates that it would take roughly $1 billion to get the systems back up and running in a safe capacity but they don't have it. This is particularly perplexing to many folks who have watched a record amount of US taxpayer dollars in recent months flow outside of the United States and into Ukraine.

GERMANY - A legislator in Germany took to the floor of the Bundestag this past week, and let slip a date: September 24. I have had this translated. He said: "Dear colleagues, this 24 of September 2022 will be a day remaining in our memories as a day we will say, I remember exactly where I was". So, what is it that is going to take place that day? What do they know is coming, or better still, what are they PLANNING?

VATICAN - Pope Francis has ordered that the Holy See and connected entities move all financial assets to the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican bank by September 30. The pope’s rescript, issued August 23, clarifies the interpretation of a paragraph in the new constitution of the Roman Curia, Praedicate Evangelium, promulgated in March.

USA - War is a guilty, vicarious pleasure as long as you are not hunkered in a basement or trench praying that an artillery shell does not score a direct hit on your position. Rumbling tanks, screeching rockets and missiles and troops firing automatic weapons are the stuff that Hollywood trots out to entertain the masses that tune in to watch a war flick or, even better, live feeds from the front lines courtesy of intrepid reporters.