TAIWAN - Thousands of people stampeded through the streets in Taiwan to chase a Snorlax. A Snorlax is a Pokémon character who is very powerful when he wants to be but who eats and sleeps most of the time. Thousands of people running through the streets chasing a Snorlax on their smartphones is a sobering sight. It does not speak well for the future in which fantasy could replace reality, and digital ‘companions’ could be programmed to trigger mob action and even insanity. Come to think of it, the future is already here.
USA - Natural News has now confirmed that Facebook is deliberately blocking article posts that contain the phrase “m-nd-t-ry v-cc-n-t–ns.” We obviously cannot even include the complete words here, or this story will also be blocked by FB.
CHINA - Beijing warned Tokyo of a harsh response if it ever crossed a “red line” in deciding to sail with US warships near disputed waters surrounding China’s artificially reclaimed islands under the pretext of the Freedom of Navigation principle, Japanese media reported.
USA - Is Hillary Clinton healthy enough to serve as president if she wins the election? Over the past couple of weeks this has become a major issue, and the mainstream media is actively conspiring with the Clinton campaign in a desperate attempt to cover up the truth. For example, the Washington Post, which has essentially become a mouthpiece for the Clinton campaign at this point, has been publishing an article “debunking” claims about Clinton’s health almost every day recently.
UK - It's everywhere - GPS tracking, contactless payments, iris recognition - but these handy innovations are just the forerunners of a sinister plot to monitor and track us through tiny chips implanted in our bodies. That is if you believe the conspiracy theories that claim we will all be secretly micro-chipped by the end of next year.
USA - “Green” biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are in fact worse for the environment than petrol, a landmark new study has found. The alternative energy source has long been praised for being carbon-neutral because the plants it is made from absorb carbon dioxide, which causes global warming, from the atmosphere while they are growing.
ISRAEL - Professor Aviad HaCohen, Dean of the Academic Center of Law and Science, responded on Wednesday to the soon-to-be released report of the Director General's committee, which is generally expected to recommend allowing commerce on Shabbat in Tel Aviv.
UK - The grand plan for the EU post-Brexit reads like a suicide note. But at least it’s now crystal clear what a disaster it would have been for Britain to stay put. Our own leaders ignored eurosceptics too long. Likewise Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Francois Hollande and Italy’s Matteo Renzi plan to defy the tide of voters’ anger across the continent.
FRANCE - The drama of Brexit may soon be matched or eclipsed by crystallizing events in France, where the Long Slump is at last taking its political toll. A democracy can endure deflation policies for only so long. The attrition has wasted the French centre-right and the centre-left by turns, and now threatens the Fifth Republic itself. The maturing crisis has echoes of 1936, when the French people tired of 'deflation decrees' and turned to the once unthinkable Front Populaire, smashing what remained of the Gold Standard.
EUROPE - The creation of a joint EU army is inevitable, Czech Prime Minister Sobotka told a gathering of Czech diplomats in Prague, citing terrorism, the migrant influx, and a “new aggressive Russia” as the main reasons a NATO-like military structure is needed.
USA - Half of Americans who have left their church no longer believe in God, leading a surge of nearly one quarter of the nation who have no affiliation with any religion, according to a new survey.
USA - A Maryland school district is instructing teachers and administrators not to tell parents if their daughters are bunking with male transgender students on overnight field trips. Bob Mosier, chief communications officer for the Anne Arundel County public school system, says in a training video on how to accommodate transgender students that privacy issues prevent the district from informing parents about such arrangements.
USA - Once upon a time, the mainstream media worked very hard to maintain the illusion that they were “objective” and “unbiased” when it came to reporting on national elections, but now those days are long gone. Some of the biggest newspapers in the country like the New York Times and the Washington Post are publishing hit piece after hit piece in an all-out attempt to destroy Donald Trump.
BURMA - At least 75 people are reported to have been killed and many more injured when a powerful earthquake struck north-eastern Burma on Thursday. The magnitude-6.8 quake struck near the Lao and Thai borders, and was felt as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok, and in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. The town of Tachileik and surrounding villages in Shan state appear to have borne the brunt of the earthquake.
There are fears the casualties could be much higher. Burma is ill prepared to deal with natural disasters, says the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Bangkok.
ITALY - At least 120 people have been killed and 368 injured in an earthquake that hit a mountainous area of central Italy, PM Matteo Renzi has said. The magnitude-6.2 quake struck at 03:36 (01:36 GMT), 100km (65 miles) north-east of Rome, not far from Perugia. Eighty-six of the dead were in the historic town of Amatrice, where the mayor said three-quarters of the town was destroyed, and in nearby Accumoli. Many people are still believed to be buried under rubble.
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The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.