MIDDLE EAST - Palestinians will never be defeated and “will not accept” the US embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the Lebanon-based deputy chief of Iran’s narco-terrorist proxy Hezbollah declared hours before the dedication of the new American consulate building on Monday. Echoing the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Sheikh Naim Qassem also vowed a “full-fledged and unrestricted battle” against what Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency described as “occupiers” in Israel. Qassem’s comments came at a meeting of the International Union of Resistance Scholars in Beirut marking the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding - what the Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” “God willing, the nakba that happened 70 years ago will be a motive for change and liberation,” Qassem said.

ISRAEL - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended the use of force on the Gaza border after Israeli snipers killed scores of Palestinians and wounded thousands more. More than 35,000 protesters rallied against the US Embassy opening in Jerusalem on Monday as tear gas and sniper fire rained down. 'Every country has the obligation to defend its borders,' Netanyahu said on Twitter. 'The Hamas terror organisation declares its intention to destroy Israel and send thousands to break through the border fence in order to achieve this aim. We will continue to act firmly in order to defend our sovereignty and our citizens.' 

USA - Americans are facing an "epidemic of dishonesty" in Washington that's more dangerous than terrorism or communism. That's according to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who warned in a commencement speech on Saturday at Texas' Rice University that "an endless barrage of lies" and a trend toward "alternate realities" in national politics pose a dire threat to US democracy.

CANADA - In an age where most politicians have very little support for their campaigns and causes, they have been known to resort to desperate measures to improve their public image. While this practice is disregarded by some as a “conspiracy theory,” many politicians have been caught hiring actors to fill the crowds of their campaign speeches — corporations too. In fact, just this week in Ontario, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford’s campaign was forced to admit that they hired actors for at least one of their events. Ford’s staff acted like this was not authorized by them, but instead blamed a local candidate for arranging their actors. Artist and performer Devanshu Narang told The Star that he was offered $75 to appear at the rally between 2 pm and 8 pm wearing the candidate’s t-shirt, but he turned down the gig.

HUNGARY - The EU should give up “nightmares” of United States of Europe, said Hungarian nationalist leader Viktor Orban while starting his fourth term as prime minister. He won a landslide victory in a recent parliamentary vote. Kicking off his fourth term as prime minister on Thursday, Hungary’s Viktor Orban declared the era of liberal democracy to be over.

USA - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly warned Tehran in the follow-up to President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, that if it harms Israel, the American military will respond. The news was first reported by Israeli news site Walla on Thursday and picked up by the Times of Israel. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned, “I repeat: Whoever hurts us – we will hurt them sevenfold, and whoever is preparing to hurt us – we will act to hit them first.” Following a deadly exchange between Iran’s Quds Forces and Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF) in Syria on Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reportedly said Iran does not want “new tensions” in the region.

USA - For issuers of debt (borrowers), interest rates are the cost to borrow funds; for buyers of debt (lenders), it is the rate of return they get for lending money. After the 2008 financial crisis, central banks dropped interest rates to the lowest levels in recorded history. This was great for overleveraged entities that borrowed too much since they could now refinance their high debts at cheaper rates; however, for a large class of lenders — especially global pension funds — this made it nearly impossible to meet their rate of return requirements. Since then, the Fed now realizes that it needs to normalize not because the economy is heating up, Armstrong said, but for a very simple reason: pension funds are going to go bust. “That’s the next crisis,” he said. “You can see it coming. It’s like a train coming down the tracks.”

USA - President Donald Trump called out the mainstream media for negative bias, questioning whether the “corrupt” journalists should have media credentials at the White House. “The Fake News is working overtime,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. He pointed to a Media Research Center report that 90 percent of media coverage of the president was negative. “Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt?” he asked. “Take away credentials?”

UK - Britain’s foreign secretary Boris Johnson on Monday declared that the proposal by Prime Minister Theresa May to resolve Brexit issues was “crazy.” This has caused quite a sensation because a high-level cabinet minister is not supposed to openly criticize a major policy of the prime minister unless he wants to be fired. The policy in question, called a “Customs Partnership,” is indeed delusional, but in today’s highly polarized world, where a man can lose his career for saying the wrong thing about whether he supports Trump, then you have to be willing to support even delusional policies if you want to keep your job. In this case, however, May’s spokesman said that the prime minister had “full confidence” in Johnson, and told officials “to do more work” on the proposal.

YEMEN - The US and UK can stop Yemen war today, but they love Saudi money. The US should be held accountable for the death of civilians in Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen, Yemeni journalist Hussain Albukhaiti told RT. As he spoke, he held up a US-made cluster bomb he said was found by children. It is within the power of the West to stop the Saudi bombing campaign, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians, has brought the war-ravaged country to the brink of a famine and led to outbreaks of cholera and malaria, Albukhaiti said. But that's unlikely to happen because it would mean ending the massive cash flow from American and British weapons sales.

USA - The US House of Representatives has proposed a bill that includes $10 million in NASA funding for the next two years “to search for technosignatures, such as radio transmissions, in order to meet the NASA objective to search for life’s origin, evolution, distribution, and future in the universe.” Such technosignatures would come in the form of radio waves that have the telltale features of being produced by TV- or radio-type technologies. An intelligent civilization could also produce those signals intentionally to communicate with other civilizations like ours.

UK - A secret document, which remained locked away for 30 years, advised the British Government to COVER-UP the realities of EU membership so that by the time the public realised what was happening it would be too late. Almost all of the shocking predictions – from the loss of British sovereignty, to monetary union and the over-arching powers of European courts – have come true.

ARGENTINA - Argentina has turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a multi-billion pound rescue package, prompting fears throughout South America that the country’s economy is once again in crisis. The talks come 17 years after Argentina defaulted on its debts and 12 years since it severed ties with the IMF. Last week the country’s central bank announced interest rates were being raised from 33.25 percent to 40 percent - as the 12-month inflation rate hit 25.4 percent, above its 15 percent target. Yesterday, the peso traded at 22.4 against the dollar, down by two percent, after falling to an all-time low of 23.1. However, since the start of the year, it has slumped by a fifth against the US currency.

AFGHANISTAN - A magnitude 6.2 earthquake rocked Afghanistan and various parts of Pakistan on Wednesday, sending people racing out of buildings in the two capitals and injuring at least 13 people and damaging dozens of homes in both countries. The US Geological Survey said the temblor was centered just across the border, in a remote part of Tajikistan. Omer Mohammadi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s disaster management authority, said two small children were injured when their home collapsed and one of them was listed in critical condition.

HAWAII – Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has decided to shut down on Friday because an explosion at Mount Kilauea could be imminent. Fears have grown that there could be further volcanic activity in the region after last week saw 1,700 people evacuated and more than two dozen properties evacuated. The National Park Service announced on Wednesday it plans to close on Friday - claiming that a “steam-induced explosion” at the summit could cause further damage. Molten lava and toxic steam have emerged in the area around Mount Kilauea.