GERMANY - German Military Intelligence (MAD) is looking into nearly 300 cases of potential extremists, including Islamist infiltrators in its ranks, and is mulling tougher screening for recruits because of the situation, Die Welt reports, citing military sources. “Currently the MAD is checking a three-digit number of suspected extremists in the armed forces: 268 right-wing extremists, 64 Islamists and six left-wing extremists,” Die Welt reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed military official. According to the outlet, the MAD has tip-offs about plans to enroll so-called “short-term servicemen” into the German army (Bundeswehr) for them to get proper military training. The intelligence agency is also reported as saying that so-called “green-on-blue,” or insider, attacks, would be possible in that case. "Risks by such perpetrators for the military compounds inside and outside the country cannot be excluded in that regard.”

USA - Central bankers in charge of the vast bulk of the world's economy delved deep into the weeds of money markets and interest rates over a three-day conference here, and emerged with a common plea to their colleagues in the rest of government: please help.

ICELAND - Iceland raised the alarm after its largest volcano was hit by the biggest tremors since 1977. Two quakes larger than 4 in magnitude early Monday rocked the crater of Katla, the country’s Met Office said in a statement. That was followed by at least 10 more tremors at the volcano, which rises 1,450 meters (4,757 feet) into the air on the North Atlantic island’s southern coast. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damages to property. Katla last erupted in 1955 and 1999. Neither of those were large enough to break the ice covering its 10 kilometer-wide (6 mile) caldera. Its last major eruption was back in 1918, when it spewed ash for more than five weeks. An eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in 2010 caused the cancellation of more than 100,000 flights across Europe on concern that glass-like particles formed from lava might melt in aircraft engines and clog turbines. Historically, Eyjafjallajokull has been known to erupt one to two years prior to Katla.

USA - The liberal feminist professor Camille Paglia says indulging children in transgenderism is a form of child abuse. Her view is shared by the American College of Pediatricians. Yet the Department of Health and Human Services under Obama is pushing this issue on American doctors.

JAPAN - North Korea’s latest firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) indicates that Pyongyang’s military threat is growing further. The international community must work together to speed up efforts to halt the country’s provocations.

GERMANY - Anti-Islam activists have staged an hour-long demonstration atop Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. The protesters unfurled a banner Saturday calling for "secure borders" in Germany as crowds of tourists milled around the iconic monument.

USA - FDA declared veggies ‘unapproved drugs’ after NYC allowed doctors to prescribe fresh fruit and vegetables as treatment for obesity. There are a few theories proclaiming how man became a life form. They range from a superior race of space alien beings who tinkered with DNA, to a gradual process of chemical evolution from single cells to the vast complexity of our current taste bud system. Count me as a believer.

AUSTRALIA - A series of overdue high magnitude earthquakes is expected to strike at any moment along some of Earth’s major fault lines, an expert says. UTS Geotechnical and Earthquake Engineering senior lecturer Dr Behzad Fatahi said “no one in the world is safe” from the looming natural disasters of potentially apocalyptic proportions. “There are a lot of magnitude 6-plus earthquakes overdue in the Middle East, India, China, Japan and the US,” Dr Fatahi told news.com.au. “There are some fault lines that have not released their energy for a while. There are at least 5-10 that are overdue, but we don’t know when they’re going to happen. The question is not will they be activated. The question is when.”

HOLLAND - Geert Wilders, the wild-haired head of the right-wing Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), launched a new manifesto that calls for the “de-Islamization" of the Netherlands as he leads in the polls to become the next prime minister. Titled, “The Netherlands is ours again,” Wilders published the one page, 11 point screed on Thursday, highlighting the party’s hard-line positions on Islam. The document, published ahead of a general election in March, calls for the closure of all mosques and Islamic schools, a ban on the Koran, and “no more immigrants from Islamic countries.” A ban on “Islamic headscarves” in public is also proposed, as well as the prohibition of all “Islamic expressions which violate public order.” All these measures will, Wilders argues, save the country €7.2 billion (US$8 billion).

ITALY - Italy has started to send migrants back to Sudan on specially chartered flights, with 48 already deported. Sudanese and Italian authorities are working together to tackle the migrant crisis. Some 48 people in Ventimiglia have been deported as human rights organisations protest against the move. The migrants, who were hoping to cross the Italian border into France, were flown to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on a chartered EgyptAir flight. Alessandra Ballerini, a lawyer in Caritas Ventimiglia and expert in immigration law, said: "This is a mass deportation to a country where fundamental rights are violated and where their lives are in danger. With this operation, our country becomes an accomplice.”

EUROPE - As long as the US dollar remains the world’s dominant reserve currency, major banks must be able to clear and settle US dollar transactions if they expect to remain in business. This means having access to the US banking system… the gatekeeper of the US dollar. But having watched BNP Paribas get blackmailed into paying an absurd $9 billion fine to the US government, the rest of the world’s mega-banks knew instantly that their heads could be next ones on the chopping block. So they started working on contingency plans.

CHINA - Forget about Yankee go home. Now it’s Chinese go home. From Australia blocking a bid for a power network to the UK’s review of a proposed Chinese-funded nuclear plant, opposition to China’s outward push is opening a thornier and potentially more treacherous front in the country’s economic tug-of-war with the rest of the world. And it’s coming as China prepares to host a September 4-5 summit of Group of 20 leaders.

FRANCE - People throughout the world are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with immigration levels which are higher than any time since the Second World War, according to a new survey. At least six out of 10 people in France and Belgium, which have recently suffered deadly jihadist attacks, believe immigration has had a "negative impact", said the Ipsos polling institute. Similar figures were found in Russia, Hungary and also Italy, which has had to deal with large numbers of migrants fleeing the Middle East or Africa and seeking to forge new lives in Europe. In all, 49 percent of those surveyed in 22 countries said there were "too many immigrants" and 46 percent felt "immigration is causing their country to change in ways they don't like," Ipsos said in a statement.

USA - Reviews of the more than 2,500 documents hacked from the servers of George Soros’s Open Society Foundations highlight the undue influence the billionaire financier exerts domestically, from attempting to remake the American electorate to successfully lobbying for changes in US immigration policy to funding initiatives targeting local police forces. While many of the documents spotlight Soros’s global network, focus on the hacked materials from his Foundations’ US contingent begins to expose the many tentacles of the Democratic Party mega-donor’s operation and its deep impact over the policy objectives of the Obama administration, often utilizing a slew of US-based progressive groups and activist organizations. The revelations in the hacked documents also raise questions about Soros’s future influence over presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, especially since the billionaire is one of Clinton’s top donors.

UNITED NATIONS - Baron Eric de Rothschild has urged that Bulgarian communist operative Irina Bokova become the new United Nations (UN) chief. The move represents an explicit endorsement by the establishment for Bokova’s campaign, which has been sinking amid growing corruption scandals and troubling questions about her long service to the mass-murdering regime that enslaved Bulgaria. Estimates suggest the People’s Republic of Bulgaria dictatorship Bokova served slaughtered hundreds of thousands of victims, a huge number considering Bulgaria’s population today is only around 7 million. Many more were tortured and ruthlessly persecuted, including while Bokova, her allies, and her family, were serving as senior officials there. Whether Rothschild’s open support will be enough to revive Bokova’s moribund campaign, run by known former spies for the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, remains to be seen.