CHINA - The global food crisis is slowly ramping up…China’s July food prices jumped 9.1% from a year ago, as the country battles soaring pork prices amid the spread of African swine fever. In particular, pork prices rose 27% from a year ago in July while fresh fruit prices rose 39.1%, the data showed. Chinese fruit supply has been hurt by severe weather that hurt crop production this year, sending prices of apples up sharply. China is the world’s largest producer and a major consumer of the staple fruit. The official inflation data came after China confirmed Tuesday it will be suspending imports of agricultural products from the US in response to President Donald Trump’s new tariffs. This is really not a good sign of the oncoming financial and food crisis.

USA - Major cities all over America are being transformed into rotting, decaying, disease-infested hellholes, and it doesn’t exactly take a genius to figure out why this is happening. Our actions are the product of our belief systems, and the major US cities where the conditions are the worst are always dominated by a particular political ideology. If the citizens of those major cities like the results that they are currently getting, then they should just continue to do what they have been doing. But if they want real change, then those citizens are going to have to be willing to make fundamentally different choices than they have been making in the past.

GERMANY - The two leaders have met as part of the commemorations of the symbolic event that led to an exodus of East Germans to the West. Merkel thanked Hungary for its role in bringing down the Iron Curtain. The symbolic event 30 years ago was a show of support for a united Europe that led to the first exodus from behind the Iron Curtain. "The picnic was the biggest mass exodus from the GDR since the construction of the wall in 1961. The picnic turned into a world event" and reflected the values of "solidarity, freedom and a humane Europe" Merkel said, thanking Hungary for playing its part in opening the borders. What began as a political, symbolic gathering by the border fence, ended up seeing several hundred East Germans crossing over from Hungary to the West. They stormed the flimsy wooden gate at the border and stumbled to freedom in the Austrian town of Sankt Margarethen im Burgenland.

EUROPE - A picnic in a meadow on the Hungarian-Austrian border: That was the plan. But the symbolic event, a show of support for a united Europe, enabled the first exodus from behind the Iron Curtain. Unintentionally — or not? History's great moments sometimes start out small — like on August 19, 1989. The day certainly didn't seem promising: Heavy, gray clouds filled the sky near the Hungarian town of Sopron, just a short walk from the Austrian border. A picnic had been planned — but not any ordinary picnic.

UK - Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay has signed the 'commencement order' formally starting the process that will take Britain out of the EU on October 31. Senior Tory Brexiteers previously said the signing of the document was 'totemic' and a 'do-or-die' pledge confirming the UK will be leaving the EU. Theresa May had angered Brexiteers by refusing to sign the order and instead agreeing to delay Brexit until October 31. But now Mr Barclay has signed the document, as reported by The Sunday Telegraph. In a tweet posted today, he said: 'I have signed the legislation setting in stone the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972. This is a landmark moment in taking back control of our law. It underlines that we are leaving the EU on October 31.'

UK - Secret British government documents have warned of serious disruptions across the country in the event that the UK leaves the European Union without a trade deal on October 31, according to a report. The Sunday Times newspaper published what it said was what the British government expects in the case of a sudden, “no-deal” Brexit. Among the most serious: “significant” disruptions to the supply of drugs and medicine, a decrease in the availability of fresh food and even potential fresh water shortages due to possible interruptions of imported water treatment chemicals.

USA - A transportation recession often precedes a recession for the entire economy, and while the debate about when the US economy as a whole will plunge into a recession is quite vigorous right now, the truth is that the debate is over regarding when a transportation recession will begin. Throughout 2017 and most of 2018, US freight shipment volume was booming, and that was a very strong sign that overall economic activity was rising. But when economic activity begins to decline, freight shipment volume often goes negative, and that is precisely what is happening right now. In fact, US freight shipment volume has now declined on a year over year basis for eight months in a row…When something happens for eight months in a row, that is definitely a trend, and we haven’t seen declines of this magnitude since the last recession. What is coming to America is going to be extremely painful, and we are about to reap the consequences for decades of incredibly foolish decisions.

GERMANY - Three-quarters of Germans say that a US troop pullout won’t leave them defenseless, but almost as many believe their own army would be of little effect, a poll found, amid reports that Washington may move its assets to Poland. While Berlin fails to achieve a military spending target of 2 percent of its GDP, Poland has succeeded, making it an ideal country to host the American military contingent, they stated at the time. The public speculation was greeted with a harsh response from German politicians. Dietmar Bartsch from the opposition Left Party suggested that “if the Americans pull out soldiers, they will also have to pull out their nuclear weapons.” Troop withdrawal rumors aside, the Emnid poll found that 62 percent of respondents don’t believe Germany’s armed forces are able to defend their country.

USA - California has the highest poverty rate in the US in spite of the fact that it has a high minimum wage and abundant social programs. Stefan Molyneux visits Jeff Page, an activist known as the ‘Mayor of Skid Row’ in Los Angeles, who tells him the problem began in 1967 when the city created the Skid Row containment zone as an area to corral the homeless and mentally ill who overflow government institutions. Downtown LA is being revitalized, Skid Row has become valuable real estate, developers want the homeless out of there, and they want taxpayers to cover the cost.

ZIMBABWE - About a month from today, Zimbabwe marks about 20 months after the departure of former President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the liberator once upon a time, who turned an oppressor of his own people. In November, 2017, the atmosphere was engulfed by an electric euphoria that temporarily united even the worst of enemies. The unity that enveloped Zimbabwe in November 2017 knew no political affiliation, cutting across the racial, political, tribal and even religious divide. Black and white pounded the streets arm in arm; the army was immortalised and momentarily a dark cloud seemed to have melted from above the nation.

USA - In his pitch to potential buyers, Larry Hall touts his condominium’s high ceilings and spacious living rooms. Then there are the swimming pool, saunas and movie theater. But what really sets the development apart, in his view, is its ability to survive the apocalypse. Mr Hall has converted a former military nuclear missile vault into a luxury condominium built 15 stories into the Earth’s crust. He is a leader among a new group of real estate developers investing in the nation’s central prairies and Western foothills: doomsday capitalists. “Fear sells even better than sex,” Professor Hoopes said. “If you can make people afraid, you can sell them all kinds of stuff,” he added, “and that includes bunkers.”

USA - Maryland scientists have been warning of a growing "dead zone" in the Chesapeake Bay. Now the numbers are in, confirming their dire warnings were correct. Natural Resources Department data shows an area with little to no oxygen spread to 2 cubic miles (8 cubic kilometers) by late July, making it one of the worst in decades. By comparison, July dead zones averaged about 1.35 cubic miles (6 cubic kilometers) for the past 35 years. The worst section includes the lower Potomac and Patuxent rivers and much of the Bay, from Baltimore to the mouth of the York River. University of Maryland environmental scientists say heavy rains washed wastewater and agricultural runoff into the bay and produced oxygen-stealing algae. Scientists fear it could harm crabs, oysters and the state's seafood industry. Restoring Kentucky’s wetlands is a solution…

USA - Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will be required to take less water from the Colorado River for the first time next year under a set of agreements that aim to keep enough water in Lake Mead to reduce the risk of a crash. The federal Bureau of Reclamation activated the mandatory reductions in water deliveries on Thursday when it released projections showing that as of January 1, the level of Lake Mead will sit just below a threshold that triggers the cuts. Arizona and Nevada agreed to leave a portion of their water allotments in the reservoir under a landmark deal with California called the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan, which the states’ representatives signed at Hoover Dam in May. The Colorado River’s reservoirs have dropped dramatically since 2000 during one of the most extreme droughts in centuries.

USA - What are we supposed to think when rather large earthquakes start happening in places that aren’t supposed to have large earthquakes? 2019 has been quite a year for seismic activity already, and I understand that we should expect to see earthquakes in diverse places, but if someone told me that the US was just hit by a significant quake one of the last places that I would check would be Kansas.

USA - Last week’s upheavals in bond values were an all-too-rational response to a cocktail of economic troubles. Global financial markets certainly fear the worst. Share prices slumped last week amid fears that the first recession since the big crash of 2008-09 is just around the corner. The trigger was developments in the bond markets, which is where investors trade the debt that governments issue to cover their spending. More specifically, the problem was caused by the inversion of the yield curve, and overnight the media was awash with explanations of what that meant. This in itself was a worrying development.