USA - Large parts of the US government will begin closing down on Wednesday after Congress failed to pass a funding bill by midnight. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be placed on unpaid leave and others will have to report for work without pay until an agreement can be reached in Congress. Russ Vought, director of the White House budget office, instructed agencies to “execute their plans for an orderly shutdown” after a Republican stop-gap measure to fund the government for another seven weeks was blocked by Democrats in the Senate, falling five votes short. A Democratic proposal, that would have kept the government open until the end of October while spending $1 trillion to reverse cuts to healthcare programmes, also failed in the Senate. The shutdown, the first in seven years, could lead to 750,000 federal employees being furloughed for as long as it lasts, according to the Congressional Budget Office, with more being temporarily set aside the longer it persists.

UK - Government debt is at a record high – worth almost 100 percent of GDP in the UK and 120 percent in the US. In Britain, in particular, high inflation is an issue, unemployment is rising and interest rates remain stubbornly high. The big fear with markets now is if investors get jittery about a crash and start offloading their shareholdings, the panic-selling could be exacerbated in an unprecedented way by AI and computer algorithms that act automatically. Brummer warned of an ‘unstoppable tsunami' being unleashed – hence his warnings of potential collateral damage to the wider economy – and said the world economy and markets were now ‘teetering on a precipice’.

PHILIPPINES - The 6.9-magnitude quake has destroyed buildings and left hundreds injured, overwhelming hospitals on the island of Cebu. The death toll from an earthquake in the Philippines has risen to at least 69 as injured patients overwhelm hospitals on the central island of Cebu. Injured children cried and adults screamed while being treated on beds beneath blue tents outside the Cebu Provincial Hospital, having been wheeled out of the building as a precaution against aftershocks overnight. They are survivors of the shallow quake of 6.9 magnitude that struck late on Tuesday off Cebu island’s northern end, near Bogo, a city of 90,000 people, according to the US Geological Survey.

MIDDLE EAST - US President Donald Trump released a 20-point peace plan for Gaza on Monday that fulfills all of Israel’s goals, while offering Palestinians a path to statehood, if Hamas frees the hostages, disarms, and leaves power. Trump released the plan ahead of a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. However, it was not clear that Hamas would agree to the plan, especially disarmament. A Hamas official said Monday that they had not seen the plan, and that while they were open to releasing the hostages, in theory, they would not disarm, seeing the use of force (ie terror) as central to their purpose. President Trump opened the press conference by saying that Netanyahu had agreed to the plan, which the president said could end “decades, even centuries” of conflict, and bring about “peace in the Middle East.” “This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way,” Netanyahu commented. “But it will be done. We prefer the easy way.”

MIDDLE EAST - After a lifetime of opposing peaceful coexistence, a deal between Israelis and Palestinians will depend on hardliners seeing political reality. A wave of Hamas suicide bombings soured public opinion in Israel and helped Netanyahu win the election. He went on to do his best to ensure that the Oslo Accords failed, as he later admitted, as did Hamas. More than 30 years later, both sides now find themselves presented with another roadmap to peace, which neither side has an interest in seeing through. For Hamas, the notion of falling on their swords goes against the nature of the group, which has placed its supremacy above all other considerations. For Netanyahu, a proposal that would see Israel withdraw entirely from Gaza and begin talks that could lead to a Palestinian state runs counter to his life’s mission, as he sees it.

USA - As a US military air tanker fleet travels across the Atlantic Ocean, officials are unsure as to why the fleet has been mobilized. The mobilization of air tankers can indicate that the US or NATO is addressing an urgent military requirement for fighter jet refueling capacity. Behnam Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, recalled to the Daily Mail the last time the US had a mass tanker deployment. “Soon after that, something went boom in the Middle East. Critically, in Operation Midnight Hammer, the Trump administration executed a decoy or deception effort to mask the flight of the B-2 bombers to Iran,” Taleblu said to the news outlet. He emphasized that Trump is the only US President in two decades to deploy military force against Iranian nuclear facilities. “Big military movements on his watch are something to keep an eye on,” Taleblu added.

USA - President Trump Gives Details on Hegseth’s “Rare and Urgent” Military Meeting in Virginia. As The Gateway Pundit reported last week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered all of the United States’ top military commanders to gather on Tuesday at Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia. Hegseth urgently announced the meeting on Thursday of last week and originally gave no details on the subject matter. Officials within the Pentagon have since revealed Hegseth’s plans to give a speech on “warrior ethos” and will outline the military’s new direction under the Trump administration. President Trump broke his silence on the meeting and shared, “It’s really just a very nice meeting, talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape.” He added, “You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how we’re doing.” The Independent further reported that President Trump will be present during the meeting.

USA - Last week, something extraordinary happened on the New York Stock Exchange. Brera Holdings, which owns stakes in football clubs, announced an intention to buy cryptocurrency tokens. The move attracted explosive interest, with the company's shares rocketing by almost 600 per cent in a single day, before falling back to 225 per cent. J K Galbraith, the influential economist who chronicled the Great Crash of 1929, coined a term for such obviously hyperactive speculation: the 'bezzle'. The bezzle occurs when markets become so overheated that even serious and respectable individuals somehow convince themselves that the only way is up.

UK - The political battle of our age is not between Left and Right, but sane and insane. Europe and America have never seemed further apart, as Trump and his cronies attempt to push the politics of personal vengeance worldwide. What a ritual dance this is turning out to be. Reform represents a threat from the Right, so Labour shuffles rightwards. The Tories, having worn Leftish clothes for a decade, move to what used to be seen as solid Right-wing ground, hoping to push Reform onto the more extreme edge which would be unacceptable to the electorate. But the truth is that the most important political battle of the day is not between Right and Left at all. It is about rationality versus insanity. The arguments dominating the news are not ones we used to regard as the currency of modern politics.

ISRAEL - Until the world begins to prioritize truth over narrative, Israel will be forced to live in a backward world of lies and slander. One of the mental health steps I’ve taken this year is trying my very best to limit myself to checking (not posting) social media once a day and only checking the news two or three times a day. I don’t always succeed, but when I do, I feel much better. There are times, though, that even when I only check the news or social media infrequently, I still feel like giving up. The lies, slander, and completely inverted world make me think there’s no hope of teaching the truth. Today’s world is a ship with a gaping hole, and we are only given a small paper cup to dish out the water. No matter how many books the pro-Israel side writes, columns they publish, and social media videos Zionists post, their voices get drowned out by the lies. It seems we are living in an inverted world (it’s a Hebrew phrase that sounds better in the original) where true is false, and false is true, and no one can tell the difference anymore.