USA - Delays, product shortages and rising costs continue to bedevil businesses large and small. And consumers are confronted with an experience once rare in modern times: no stock available, and no idea when it will come in.

USA - Thousands of people rushed to leave South Lake Tahoe as the entire resort city came under evacuation orders and wildfire raced toward Lake Tahoe, a large freshwater lake straddling California and Nevada. Evacuation warnings issued for the city of 22,000 on Sunday turned into orders Monday. Vehicles loaded with bikes and camping gear and hauling boats were stuck in traffic, stalled in hazy, brown air that smelled of campfire. Police and other emergency vehicles whizzed by. “This is a systematic evacuation, one neighborhood at a time,” South Lake Tahoe police Lieutenant Travis Cabral said on social media. “I am asking you as our community to please remain calm.” The new orders came a day after communities several miles south of the lake were abruptly ordered evacuated as the Caldor Fire raged nearby. In California alone, more than 15,200 firefighters are fighting more than a dozen large fires. Flames have destroyed about 2,000 buildings and forced thousands to evacuate this year while blanketing large swaths of the West in unhealthy smoke.

USA - Twenty years of US war in Afghanistan draws to a close at the stroke of midnight on August 31. There will be plenty of time to dissect the root causes of failure. What is needed now is accountability for the disastrous endgame. A video of active duty Marine Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller demanding accountability for the humanitarian disaster that had come to define the US-led evacuation from Kabul, Afghanistan, quickly went viral. Scheller, who commanded the advanced infantry training battalion at the Marine Corps School of Infantry, at the time the video was made, had spent 17 years as a Marine, with multiple combat deployments. He knowingly placed this distinguished career at risk by publicly demanding that someone be held accountable for the bungled evacuation, which had left at least 14 American servicemen dead, along with hundreds of Afghans, some with dual citizenship in allied nations. Scheller’s commanders immediately relieved him of his command. This was a consequence Scheller anticipated, which makes his decision to sacrifice his career in the name of accountability even more remarkable.

USA - Hurricane IDA has battered the US state of Louisiana, with a "major disaster" declared in the US state. Hurricane Ida initially brought 150mph winds when it first struck Louisiana. One death has been reported so far due to a tree falling on a house near the Baton Rouge area. The storm’s path has continued to move northwards, with the system hitting New Orleans today. The US city has been left without power due to the hurricane, with only generators working. US President, Joe Biden, has said restoring power could take weeks. In Louisiana, more than one million homes have been left without power. Although Storm Ida has now been downgraded to a Category 1 storm, it continues to cause costly damage. Although New Orleans has since had its flood defences strengthened, many fear the storm could cause flooding.

USA - The Biden administration released a “back-to-school” video that serves as a message it intends to “enforce” its transgender ideology and “use children as enforcers,” states the founder of an organization that helps victims of what she refers to as the “Sexual State.” Jennifer Roback Morse, PhD, founder of the Ruth Institute, wrote Tuesday at National Catholic Register about the video released last week jointly by the Biden Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services (HHS) that, ultimately, encourages transgender youth to file federal complaints against their parents, school officials, and other adults who do not immediately affirm their new gender identity.

USA - The far-left cesspool of San Francisco has decided to suspend nearly two dozen employees who work at the local police, fire and sheriff’s departments for refusing to disclose their Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “vaccination” status. According to reports, hundreds of other employees from additional departments are also slated to be temporarily axed after the city sent out notifications warning that the targets in question had failed to meet an August 12 disclosure deadline. Meanwhile, some residents of San Francisco are wondering what will become of their city once a chunk of the police and firefighting force are removed – as if the Bay Area is not already plagued by enough rampant lawlessness to last a lifetime.

AFGHANISTAN - The Pentagon used a special Hellfire missile that packs no explosives to strike Islamic State militants in Afghanistan on Saturday in retaliation for a suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport last week, according to two US officials. The airstrike, carried out by a Reaper drone flown from the Persian Gulf region, killed two militants associated with the Afghanistan offshoot of the Islamic State extremist group, and injured a third individual. The missile used by the US in the airstrike, called an R9X, is inert. Instead of exploding, the weapon ejects a halo of six large blades stowed inside the skin of the missile, which deploy at the last minute to shred the target of the strike, allowing military commanders to pinpoint their target and reduce the possibility for civilian casualties.

USA - The media's addiction to Covid-19 ‘fear porn’ is perpetuating an ever-worsening cycle of societal damage across the world. Over the past year and a half, hysterical media reporting on matters Covid-19 has reduced some people to a fearful state of unquestioning compliance – including a great number of otherwise critically-thinking journalists. With screaming headlines in bold and large font such as, ‘Will this nightmare ever end?’ and ‘Mutant virus skyrockets…’ and ‘Fear grows across the country: VIRUS PANIC’, and ‘Coronavirus horror: Social media footage shows infected Wuhan residents 'act like zombies’, it is no wonder many people are in a state of panic.

USA - At a time when American society is torn on myriad other issues – from gun control and healthcare to welfare and abortions - imperial retreat has been one aim that Donald Trump as well as Barack Obama and Joe Biden all shared and practiced, albeit with varying degrees of clumsiness. Considering imperial history, international circumstances, and American society’s genetic code, global retreat is indeed what Uncle Sam should now do. The American imperium planted 800 bases worldwide, more than 20 times what the other four superpowers have combined. The number of US troops stationed abroad, 200,000, is equal to the size of the entire standing army of France. Some 150 of the world’s 195 countries host American troops. America’s annual military spending, more than $770 billion, is larger than the next five military spenders combined. The 11 aircraft carriers with which Uncle Sam navigates the high seas equal the combined total of all other countries’ carriers.

HUNGARY - I believe Viktor Orban could be readying his country for ‘Huxit’. If he is not, then he is playing a high-stakes game of poker with the overlords in Brussels. Earlier this week, Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet (Hungarian Nation) ran a headline saying, “it is time to talk about Huxit.” This is a huge development because the newspaper is considered to be the unofficial mouthpiece of Orban’s government. Last month, the newspaper announced that “the time has come, now in July 2021, to seriously consider the possibility of our withdrawal from a union of states with a thousand bleeding wounds, showing imperial symptoms, and treating the eastern and central European countries incredibly arrogantly.”

ISRAEL - "The recently approved budget is earmarked for that," said Kohavi as Israel makes a concerted effort to push Washington to pressure Tehran. Israel’s military is accelerating its operational plans against Iran due to the progress of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Aviv Kohavi has warned. “The progress of the Iranian nuclear program has led the IDF to accelerate its operational plans and the recently approved defense budget is earmarked for that,” he said. Kohavi commented as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett landed in the United States ahead of a visit with US President Joe Biden and other senior officials. Bennett is expected during his first visit to the White House to push Biden to harden his approach to Iran and drop efforts to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Israel considers Iran’s nuclear program as its Number 1 concern, and though Iran has consistently denied seeking to build a nuclear bomb, tensions have risen as the West seeks to resume talks on reviving the deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear program.

JAPAN - China’s growing assertiveness toward Taiwan has triggered a public push by Japanese leaders to plan for a possible conflict, a shift that could lead to closer cooperation with the US military. Tokyo officials, normally wary of upsetting Beijing, are speaking openly about preparing for a crisis and supporting Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by China, despite Japan’s pacifist constitution. Like the US, Japan doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. But on Friday, lawmakers in Tokyo and Taipei held a rare meeting by videoconference to discuss ways to boost ties, including possible cooperation in maritime rescue. Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said recently in a speech to supporters that Japan and the US should plan together to defend the island in the event of hostilities. In its annual regional security review, Japan said there is a “greater sense of crisis than ever before” regarding Taiwan, after China stepped up maneuvers by its ships and aircraft nearby.

EUROPE - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday bypassed Joe Biden and the United States and asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for support in rescuing local Afghan forces after the Taliban takeover. The remarks came during Merkel’s trip to Moscow — likely the last in her capacity as chancellor as she is due to step down from politics following Germany’s general election in September. But it also came at a time of immense global strife, just days after the Taliban’ seized control of Kabul, Afghanistan and the rising tensions in Ukraine. The two leaders have had different ideas about the Taliban’s capture of Kabul. Merkel has described the situation as “bitter, dramatic and terrifying.” Moscow, meanwhile, is seeking to open channels of communication with the Islamist group and appears to be looking to foster some sort of relationship with the Taliban. Vlad Putin told Merkel that other countries must not impose their political beliefs on Afghanistan, adding that the Taliban’s rule of the country is the reality that needs to be taken into account.

MIDDLE EAST - Millions of people in Syria and Iraq are at risk of losing access to water and food amid rising temperatures and record low water levels due to lack of rainfall, international aid groups warned Monday. Those affected include 5 million in Syria who are directly dependent on the Euphrates River, while in Iraq, loss of access to water from the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers threaten at least 7 million. The drought is also disrupting electricity supplies as low water levels impact dams. Two dams in northern Syria, supplying power to 3 million people, face imminent closure. Severe water shortages have also hit Lebanon, where more than 4 million people face critical water shortages. Severe fuel shortages in Lebanon have also halted the work of thousands of private generators long relied on for electricity. Lebanon’s rivers are also heavily polluted. Activists have long warned about pollution levels caused by sewage and waste in the Litani River, the country’s longest and a major source for water supply, irrigation and hydroelectricity.

UK - The family of Geoffrey Thomas Campbell, a British national who died in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001, submitted an application today under the UK Coroners Act 1988 requesting a new inquest into his death nearly 20 years ago. The Campbell family — which includes Mr Campbell’s parents Maureen and Malcolm, two brothers Matt and Rob, and his former fiancée — applied for the new inquest citing significant evidence not heard by the coroner at Mr Campbell’s first inquest in 2013. The family contends that the unheard evidence contradicts the coroner’s official finding that the impact of the aircraft into World Trade Center 1 at 8:46am and the ensuing fires are what caused the building’s total destruction at 10:28am, taking Mr Campbell’s life. They allege that the unheard evidence overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that the destruction of WTC 1 — as well as the destruction of WTC 2 and WTC 7 — was caused by the use of explosives and incendiaries.