USA - Tropical Storm Jose has intensified into a hurricane, according to an update Wednesday afternoon from the National Hurricane Center. The storm is moving west-northwest and maximum sustained winds have increased to near 75 miles per hour with higher gusts, according to a public advisory from the NHC. The storm is expected to strengthen further and could be close to becoming a major hurricane on Friday.

CARIBBEAN - Hurricane Irma has caused considerable damage on French island territories in the Caribbean, and casualties are expected, France's president says. The impact of Irma on St Martin and St Barts would be "hard and cruel", Emmanuel Macron added. His overseas affairs minister later confirmed at least two people dead and another two seriously injured. The category five hurricane, the highest possible level, is now passing over the northern Virgin Islands. The most powerful storm in a decade, with wind speeds of 295km/h (185mph), is also forecast by the US National Hurricane Center to pass near or just north of Puerto Rico, then near or just north of the coast of the Dominican Republic on Thursday.

CHINA - A typhoon that slammed in eastern China's coast flooded and washed out roads, knocked out power and disrupted transportation in one of the nation's most populous regions. Typhoon Haikui came ashore in Zhejiang province with winds up to 150 kilometres (90 miles) per hour. Shanghai Public Weather Service said Haikui dumped as much as 58 millimetres (2.3 inches) in one hour in the city's centre.

USA - Goldman Sachs Group Chairman Lloyd Blankfein on Wednesday sounded a warning about the markets, saying that some of what he sees “unnerves” him. Mr Blankfein said the current market environment “doesn’t feel like tulip-bulb-mania,” a reference to the famous speculative bubble in the Netherlands in 1637, but was nonetheless concerning. “Things have been going up for too long,” he told attendees at a Handelsblatt business conference in Frankfurt. “When yields on corporate bonds are lower than dividends on stocks? That unnerves me.”

USA - The share of Americans who identify as white and Christian has dropped below 50 percent, a transformation fueled by immigration and by growing numbers of people who reject organized religion altogether, according to a new survey released Wednesday. Christians overall remain a large majority in the US, at nearly 70 percent of Americans. However, white Christians, once predominant in the country's religious life, now comprise only 43 percent of the population, according to the Public Religion Research Institute, or PRRI, a polling organization based in Washington. Four decades ago, about eight in 10 Americans were white Christians.

USA - Hackers linked to the Russian government have broken into energy companies supplying electricity to America’s power grid — and potentially now have the ability to cause major blackouts in the US. Researchers at the American cybersecurity firm Symantec published a report on Wednesday that detailed how the group of hackers has waged a cyber espionage campaign that has broken into dozens of energy firms in the US, as well as in Turkey and Switzerland. The attacks date back to 2015, but the pace accelerated this spring. “This is the first time we’ve seen this scale, this aggressiveness, and this level of penetration in the US, for sure,” Eric Chien, technical director of Symantec’s Security Technology & Response Division, told BuzzFeed News.

ISRAEL - It’s time to end the propaganda myth that Jerusalem is holy to Muslims. Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish nation under King David and other Jewish kings for hundreds of years. The US Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 stated: “In 1996, the State of Israel will celebrate the 3,000th anniversary of the Jewish presence in Jerusalem since King David’s entry.” Jerusalem was never the capital of any other nation. After the Arab conquest of Israel in 716 CE, the Arabs made Ramla their capital – not Jerusalem.

USA - When President Trump said on Sunday that America would consider stopping all trading with countries doing business with North Korea, critics responded by saying this would mean economic ruin for the United States. This is a shocking admission that the cost of economic globalism has been the compromise of American independence. And it should rally Americans to the cause championed by Donald Trump as he campaigned for the presidency, the cause of economic nationalism.

POLAND – Poland’s president has slammed attempts to create a ‘multi-speed’ Europe saying pursuing the project will lead to the breakup of the bloc. Western members wanting closer integration are moving ahead with plans for deeper integration with the EU’s founding members, while leaving resistant eastern nations at their current levels. But countries grouped in the slower tier, one of them likely to be Poland, fear they will get left behind as the more prosperous countries steam ahead.  President Andrzej Duda said it would spark the end of the European project if Brussels tried to push on with the two tier vision. As well as a two-tier, multi-speed union, a divide between northern and southern Europe also rings alarm bells with Greece, Italy and Spain, who fear a similarly negative outcome.

UNITED NATIONS - Washington's ambassador to the United Nations warned Tuesday that, if left unchanged, the Iran nuclear deal could allow Tehran to pose the same kind of missile threat to US cities as North Korea. President Donald Trump is due to decide in the middle of next month whether he believes Iran is living up to its commitments or whether to seek new US sanctions that could torpedo the accord.

USA - Americans are increasingly embracing socialism, and this is particularly true for young adults under the age of 30. As you will see below, four out of every ten Americans now prefer socialism to capitalism, and if current trends continue it is just a matter of time before those that prefer socialism are in the majority.

USA - Competition for superiority in Artificial Intelligence at national level will “most likely” cause World War Three, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has said, warning that an AI may deem first use its best chance of winning. “China, Russia, soon all countries with strong computer science. Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3,” Musk tweeted. It will likely not even be the countries' leaders that start the war, Musk elaborated, but “one of the AI's, if it [AI] decides that a pre-emptive strike is most probable path to victory.” Musk’s comments come days after Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that “the future belongs to artificial intelligence” and whoever masters it first will rule the world.

CARIBBEAN - The National Weather Service said the eye of Hurricane Irma passed over Barbuda, a small island located near Antigua in the northeastern Caribbean, at 1.47am local time (6.47am BST). The National Hurricane Centre said Irma was maintaining category five strength with sustained winds near 185 mph (295 kph). Residents and tourists in the region have been told to stay inside - with the French weather office reporting that St Martin and St Barts have now been struck by the storm. Daniel Gibbs, president of the territorial community of St Martin, told local media: "We have never seen this in Saint-Martin. Even the walls are shaking." Communications are down for thousands and attempts to contact the islands have largely been unsuccessful.

USA - Light rain and falling temperatures have helped more than 1,000 firefighters battling the largest wildfire in Los Angeles seize control of the blaze but it still remains a threat. Fears have been raised that shifting winds could spark burning embers to spread the fire through the rugged northern edge of LA. Flames have ripped through 2,400 hectares in the La Tuna canyon area in the San Fernando Valley after breaking out on Friday destroying three homes and damaging another property. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said: "We've turned the corner, but this is not over. With winds this strong, anything can happen." Mr Garcetti added: "We do not have this fire contained."

USA - US District Court Judge William Orrick of San Francisco has fined the undercover video journalist who exposed Planned Parenthood’s alleged involvement in the fetal trafficking industry and his attorneys $200,000 for publishing online video footage of abortionists. Orrick said he hoped the fine against David Daleiden and his attorneys, Steve Cooley and Brentford Ferreira, would cause them to comply with his order barring the release of the videos in the future, reports the Associated Press.