THE BALKANS - Church bells and air raid sirens went off in parts of Kosovo inhabited by ethnic Serbs on Sunday, as heavily armed special police answering to the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina showed up at the administrative crossings with Serbia. In Belgrade, President Aleksandar Vucic said Serbia wants peace, but will not allow persecution of its citizens. Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti cited a 2011 agreement with Belgrade to declare all Serbian documents and license plates invalid as of August 1, and announced an operation to apply “law and justice” to all territories claimed by his government. The province of Serbia, occupied by NATO in 1999, declared independence in 2008 with US support – but was not recognized by Belgrade.

USA - San Francisco Kink & Fetish Festival to press on despite Monkeypox emergency declaration. The government barred us from saying goodbye to loved ones in nursing homes and hospitals during the Covid pandemic. The government didn’t allow us to have funerals for loved ones during the Covid pandemic. But the kink and fetish festival for gay men dubbed “Up Your Alley” is a go this weekend despite monkeypox spreading like wildfire in the gay community in San Francisco. Per CDC, monkeypox is transmitted by symptomatic individuals through close contact with lesions, bodily fluids, or respiratory secretions and objects that have had contact with lesion crusts or bodily fluids, face-to-face contact, or during intimate physical contact, such as kissing, cuddling, or sex. A site promoting the event said, “Up Your Alley is only for real players – and not for the faint of heart – You won’t find a filthier event in the States. If you’re into it, there’s a scene for you. So, don’t get left out.”.

USA - In April of this year, the US government started the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s history. The fires were set by the US Forest Service (USFS) — ironically to reduce wildfire risk — but having the opposite of their intended effect. Thanks to several acts of incompetence, neglect, and ignorance, the controlled burn morphed into a catastrophic blaze that engulfed over 530 square miles of mostly privately owned forests and meadows, while destroying 432 homes as well. Now, after burning down their homes and land, the state is demanding the victims pay for the damage themselves — despite previous reassurances that they would be given support. FEMA has so far granted $4.2 million to the 1,164 fire survivors, marking an average payout of $3,600. To one of the hundreds of folks who lost their home, this is a kick in the teeth.

USA - BlackRock is the largest asset management firm on the planet. It’s essentially a shadow bank. BlackRock literally has more assets than the gross domestic products (GDP) of every single country except China and the US. So picture India with their 1.4 billion people. BlackRock has more than their annual GDP! It’s ridiculous. BlackRock holds somewhere around 9 trillion dollars. That’s a tenth of the whole world’s yearly economic activity. BlackRock is enormous! And BlackRock is by far the biggest wealth fund or shadow bank in the world. “The grand total of the sovereign wealth funds managed by over 91 such funds across the world is projected to be worth approximately 8.2 Trillion US Dollars.”

USA - Catherine Austin Fitts (CAF), Publisher of The Solari Report and former Assistant Secretary of Housing (Bush 41 Admin.), says we are at war with the Deep State globalists that want nothing short of total control over all of mankind. Central bankers want a financial system that is a lawless criminal control syndicate where it’s legal for them to do whatever they want. It is simply a choice between tyranny and sovereignty, freedom or slavery ..they are inserting sovereign immunity from all laws and literally trying to create a civilization under the law where they are free to do whatever they want ...one of the top central bankers in Europe told him they are planning on chipping all of us. CAF says central bankers will ignore the US Constitution, steal all of our assets like cash and gold but especially the land.

ISRAEL - Exemptions for private citizens are in place, which allows for exchanges of up to $4,360 in cash. In addition, charitable organizations and those trading with Palestinians who are not citizens of Israel are also exempt for a limited time. Israeli officials have claimed that the new cash limit is to combat criminal organizations that rely solely on cash trades. “We want the public to reduce the use of cash money. The goal is to reduce cash fluidity in the market, mainly because crime organizations tend to rely on cash. By limiting the use of it, criminal activity is much harder to carry out,” said Israel’s Tax Authority head Tamar Bracha. The intended effect of the new law is to reduce the amount of physical cash on the market. It’s clear that a precedent has been set, and Israel and the Western world are edging closer toward a cashless digital surveillance state from which there may be no return.

USA - Community organizer and left-wing social activist Saul Alinsky wrote, in his 1971 book “Rules for Radicals,” that “he who controls the language controls the masses.” Alinsky, whose work profoundly influenced at least one notable fellow Chicagoan, Barack Obama, was in that quip channeling George Orwell’s famous dystopian novel, “1984.” “Newspeak,” the language of Orwell’s fictional single-political party superstate, was a tool devised for monitoring the people’s communications, prosecuting “thoughtcrimes,” and ultimately controlling and dictating the people’s very beliefs. Conservatives have taken pleasure in poking fun at the modern Left’s “Orwellian” tendencies — perhaps too much, actually, as overuse of the accusation has had the effect of limiting its potency. But as the woke ideology metastasizes within the American Left like the cancer it is, and as censors increasingly clamp down on anything sniffing of dissent to the regime’s orthodoxy, it is now clear that we are in a new age of Orwellianism. In this new age, the regime and its enforcers pursue the suffusion of its orthodoxy at any cost, gaslighting dissenters into not believing their own lying eyes.

USA - The entire Las Vegas strip, which houses some of the world’s most famous casinos and hotels, was devastated by a massive flood Thursday night. The city issued a flash flood and severe thunderstorm warning as heavy rain poured into parking lots, airports and casinos. Sin City is known to be one of the driest major cities in the United States and typically gets only 4 inches of rain a year.

USA - The death toll rose to at least 26 on Sunday in Kentucky after major flooding that left residents trapped on rooftops and entire communities under water. Dozens of roads are blocked by debris, hundreds of people have been rescued and search efforts were ongoing. Water was still rising there this morning, putting pressure on the Panbowl Lake Dam.

MIDDLE EAST - Seven Asian expatriates have been found dead in the United Arab Emirates following recent floods across the country, the UAE's interior ministry said on Friday. The ministry said on Twitter it was updating an earlier death toll, after an Asian expatriate who had been missing was found dead. The ministry said that field units are still carrying out evacuations in the emirates of Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah and Fujairah, the worst affected by floods that followed torrential rainfall.

USA - She is actually going to do it. Nancy Pelosi is going to Taiwan, and she is going to take a bunch of other Congress critters with her. The Chinese are absolutely furious, and they are promising to respond very strongly when it happens. I really hope that the Chinese show some restraint, because one of the options being discussed is the implementation of a no-fly zone over Taiwan. That would be an act of war, and the Biden administration would inevitably feel compelled to escalate matters even more. If that happens, we will be off and running and nothing will ever be the same again.

CHINA - China's President Xi Jinping warned Joe Biden 'those who play with fire will get burned' during a two-hour call Thursday morning amid rising tensions over Taiwan, according to Chinese state media. The fifth call between the world leaders since President Biden took office comes amid simmering tensions and a potential impending visit to Taiwan from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 'Today I spoke with President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China as part of our efforts to deepen lines of communication, responsibly manage our differences, and address issues of mutual interest,' he wrote along with the image. The last time Biden and Xi spoke was in March of this year – shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. Chinese state media released some excerpts from the call, including Xi telling Biden: 'Those who play with fire will only get burnt. Hope the US side can see this clearly.' The leader of the People's Republic of China also said he firmly opposes Taiwan independence and the interference of external forces.

EUROPE - Spaniards have been told to take off their ties at work to cool down rather than relying on air con as Europe struggled to get to grips with its energy crisis today. Germany has already begun turning off street lights in Berlin while Hanover will shut off hot water in public buildings. In Austria, the city of Linz has stopped lighting historic landmarks at night while Salzburg is drawing up plans to follow suit. Europe is facing an acute energy crisis as Putin weaponises energy supplies in apparent retaliation for leaders defying him over Ukraine. Officially, Moscow says flows are being choked off because of repairs to turbines which pump the gas, but Germany says this is merely an excuse. Instead, most believe Putin is exacting revenge on European leaders for defying him over the war in Ukraine. The move is a desperate one. Russia relies on revenue from energy to keep its economy afloat, and will almost certainly face a deep recession without it.

GERMANY - German Economy Minister Robert Habeck was drowned out by protesters in Bayreuth on Thursday as he urged Germans to accept the rising cost of energy as the price of standing against Russia. Meanwhile, gas prices are set to soar even further thanks to a new government surcharge. A chorus of jeers and whistles rang out as Habeck took to the stage during a citizens’ forum in the Bavarian town. Holding signs reading “warmonger,” they chanted “get lost” as Habeck attempted to defend his government’s anti-Russia policies in the face of a floundering economy. Participants in the forum, however, told Habeck that these “disadvantages” were hurting them. Germany’s strategy of moving away from Russian energy imports as quickly as possible amounts to “economic suicide,” a solar entrepreneur told the minister, according to coverage by the Frankfurter Allgemeine. “What have the sanctions achieved?” another woman asked, adding that Russia will win in Ukraine regardless of the West’s economic penalties.

USA - Here we go again: record container ship traffic jam as backlog continues to build. If you only look at Los Angeles and Long Beach — the largest container import gateway in America — you’d think shipping congestion has drastically reduced. The number of ships waiting there has fallen to 26 from a high of 109 in January. But in fact, North American port congestion has just re-entered record territory. The offshore traffic jam is once again as bad as it’s ever been. In January and February, when North American congestion previously peaked, there were just under 150 container vessels waiting off the coastlines. Two-thirds were in the Los Angeles/Long Beach queue. As of Thursday morning, there were 153, the majority off East and Gulf Coast ports. Whereas the earlier West Coast pileup was centralized, highly publicized and relatively easy to track, today’s ship queue is more widely disbursed and attracting less attention. With the count now rising to 153, the North American container ship queue has increased in size by 66% over the past seven weeks.