MIDDLE EAST - This secret development raises concerns that the Saudis are building infrastructure for a future military nuclear program. Israeli defense and intelligence officials raised concerns with their US counterparts after both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that the Saudis had teamed up with China to build a secret facility in the desert near Riyadh to produce yellowcake, a basic material for uranium enrichment.
SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that Riyadh will not normalize relations with Israel before an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord is reached, in the kingdom’s first official statement since Thursday’s deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates was announced.
MIDDLE EAST - An Egyptian envoy working to prevent an escalation is encountering difficulties as both Israel and Hamas are refusing to budge. Incendiary balloons landed throughout southern Israel on Wednesday, as tensions continue to rise between Israel and terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip. Police sappers handled a number of balloons that landed within and near towns and residential areas in southern Israel. Israel Fire and Rescue Services announced on Wednesday evening that there were 28 fires throughout the day. Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned that Israel "knows how to strike not just buildings and targets but also those operating within them." "We changed the equation in Gaza. Since I entered the position, there are no security disruptions that do not receive a response," added Gantz. "The State of Israel has no interests in Gaza except for bringing our boys back and complete quiet. If these two goals are met, we can develop Gaza."
ISRAEL - Immediately after the announcement of the US-sponsored peace deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that his country is not going to fulfill one of its key provisions – the suspension of the annexation of West Bank territories. The prime minister emphasized that the annexation plan was just delayed, but not suspended.
USA - The one that you serve the most is the one that you really worship. In America today, we don’t actually get down on our knees and pray to our stock market portfolios and the money in our bank accounts, but has our wealth become more important to us than anything else? It is well known that material comfort greatly motivates most Americans. We tend to vote for the politicians that we perceive will be the best for our economy, we religiously track the performance of our investments, and for many of us our financial goals are more important to us than any of our other goals. We desperately want to “do well”, and we tend to exalt others that are “doing well”.
USA - A series of fires raging through five North Bay counties grew to more than 124,000 acres by Wednesday night, destroying more than 100 structures and threatening 25,000 others. The firestorm was the largest of several fast-moving blazes in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere in Northern California — many caused by intense lightning storms — that spread quickly overnight, burning homes and forcing thousands to flee.
UK - Honey better treatment for coughs and colds than antibiotics, study claims. Research suggests honey also more effective than many over-the-counter medicines. Honey may be better than conventional treatments for coughs, blocked noses and sore throats, researchers have said. The substance is cheap, readily available, and has virtually no side-effects. Doctors can recommend it as a suitable alternative to antibiotics, which are often prescribed for such infections, even though they are not effective, scientists from the University of Oxford said. Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) affect the nose, throat, voice box and the large air passages (bronchi) that lead from the windpipe to the lungs.“Honey is more effective and less harmful than usual care alternatives and avoids causing harm through antimicrobial resistance.”
USA - A collapse of major chunks of the economy is widely viewed as “impossible” because the federal government can borrow and spend unlimited amounts of money because the Federal Reserve can create unlimited amounts of money: the government borrows $1 trillion by selling $1 trillion in Treasury bonds, the Fed prints $1 trillion dollars to buy the bonds. Rinse and repeat to near-infinity.
ISRAEL - The fact that it has been the UAE — the most moderate and progressive of the Gulf states — to take this step forward should come as no surprise. This move would have been co-ordinated closely with other Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia. With some luck and some patience, other Gulf states will follow the UAE's lead. The opening between the UAE and Israel formalises a strategic realignment that has been under way in the Middle East for some time. For a number of years now, the interests of Israel and much of the Arab world have been converging. Foremost among these interests is concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions, its ballistic missile program, and its regional destabilisation efforts and support to terrorist groups, from Yemen to Syria and Lebanon.
UNITED NATIONS - On Friday, the United Nations Security Council took up a resolution presented by US ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, aimed at an indefinite extension of the UN arms embargo on Iran. Only one of the 15 members, the Dominican Republic, supported the US resolution. Eleven abstained. And two – Russia and China, voted against it. The resolution would have needed 8 to pass and would have needed to avoid a veto by one of the five permanent members. But it failed by 13 to 2. China and Russia did not even have to brandish a veto. It is hard to remember another vote on which the US was humiliated quite this badly… Let us underline this. The most powerful countries in the world and the current representatives of the main global blocs just sided with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against Donald J Trump. The United States is no longer the leader of the free world.
USA - California has seen a horrific resurgence of the deadly Bubonic Plague, with one resident falling ill after walking their dog in South Lake Tahoe. The resident was confirmed to have contracted the fatal disease by the El Dorado County Department of Health and Human Services. While insects and some animals carry the bubonic plague in the region, the resident is the first human case of the disease in five years. A statement from the county department said the resident was an “avid walker”, and may have been bitten by an infected flea while walking their dog. The statement added their infection may have taken place in the Tahoe Keys area or along the "Truckee River Corridor" north of Highway 50. It also said the patient is currently recovering at home under the care of medical professionals.
CHINA - Plague alerts in China have led officials to quarantine the village of Suji Xincun, Inner Mongolia, commanding daily disinfection of homes after a resident died of the disease. Is the bubonic plague back in 2020? Bubonic plague cases have seemingly made a resurgence amidst the calamitous backdrop of 2020, with several people now dead after contracting the ancient disease. The shutdown of Suji Xincun is the latest measure taken by authorities in the vicinity of Mongolia, which has seen the bulk of cases spread from contact with animals. The district of Damao Banner, in which the village resides, is on a level three alert for plague prevention in hopes to stem the potential tide of infections, caused by bites from bacteria-carrying fleas. The bubonic plague is the most famous, and amongst the most deadly, diseases in the world. Notable outbreaks before and during the Middle Ages killed millions of people worldwide, at the time a significant portion of the population.
CHINA - China’s Gansu province has been left devastated as heavy rain has caused severe mudslides in the area trapping thousands of people. Early reports have indicated that more than 10,000 local residents in Longnan, a city in the country of Wenxian have been trapped. Other areas have begun taking precautions to prevent a similar incident in other provinces. Today China's Sichuan province raised its flood emergency response to its highest level. This is due to the Yangtze river flooding rapidly. According to China's ministry of emergency management, the floods have impacted 63 million people. The economic damage for flooding has been estimated at $25.8 billion and is expected to rise.
USA - Donald Trump has declared war on Germany. In a manner of speaking. Europe’s most important country, potentially America’s most valuable partner, has in the mind of the president become an adversary. Of all Trump’s many foreign policy disasters, this is perhaps his most significant.
USA - In all of US history, we have never seen anything like “the mass exodus of 2020”. Hundreds of thousands of people are leaving the major cities on both coasts in search of a better life. Homelessness, crime and drug use were already on the rise in many of our large cities prior to 2020, but many big city residents were willing to put up with a certain amount of chaos in order to maintain their lifestyles. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and months of civil unrest have finally pushed a lot of people over the edge. Moving companies on both coasts are doing a booming business as wealthy and middle class families flee at a blistering pace, and most of those families do not plan to ever return.
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The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.