EUROPE - The EU is set to become the United States of Europe, effectively with Germany as its Leader. In recent years, the self-styled leaders of the EU project have begun to panic; anti-EU feeling across the continent is rising, with anti-EU parties enjoying growing support in almost every EU country.

UNITED NATIONS - Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor reacted on Friday to the Security Council’s statement concerning the escalating tensions in Jerusalem, saying “When the Palestinians set the Temple Mount ablaze, Mahmoud Abbas fuels the fire, and the Security Council fans the flames, it is a recipe for a regional explosion.”

EUROPE - EU figures expose the 'lie' that the majority of refugees are fleeing war zone. The EU logged 213,000 arrivals in April, May and June but only 44,000 of them were fleeing the Syrian civil war. Campaigners and left-wing MPs have suggested the vast majority of migrants are from the war-torn state, accusing the Government of doing too little to help them. 'This exposes the lie peddled in some quarters that vast numbers of those reaching Europe are from Syria,' said David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth. 'Most people who are escaping the war will go to camps in Lebanon or Jordan. Many of those who have opted to risk their lives to come to Europe have done so for economic reasons.'

MIDDLE EAST - A top Imam has called on muslim migrants to use the refugee crisis to breed with European citizens to 'conquer their countries'. Sheikh Muhammad Ayed gave the speech at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. He claimed Europe was only welcoming refugees as they were a new source of labour. He claimed that Europe was facing democratic disaster and urged Muslims to have children with westerners in order to 'trample them underfoot, Allah willing." According to infowars.com, Ayed said Europe was old and decrepit and needed "human reinforcement." In the video published online on September 11, 2015, he slammed Germany as not being a compassionate country for accepting the refugees but that the nation was being forced to take them.

JAPAN - The Japanese upper house of parliament has passed a controversial bill allowing the country's army to fight abroad first time since the end of WWII. According to the NHK broadcaster, the House of Councillors voted in favor of the controversial bills by a vast majority at a late-night plenary session, despite last-ditch opposition efforts to stall the vote. The legislation was approved by the lower chamber, the House of Representatives, as well a special panel in the upper house. The Japanese lawmakers passed a package of security bills despite nationwide rallies and accusations that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is using it as a pretext to involve the country in international armed conflicts.

USA - The ten largest multinational corporations own almost everything people buy in supermarkets around the world. These corporations create a chain of smaller brands that specialize in different products, but at the end of the day customers' money still goes to the top ten corporations. When activists decided to boycott Nestle over the company's unethical business practices, did they also choose not to wear clothes from Ralph Lauren, Armani or Diesel and avoided using products from Biotherm, Vichy and Garnier? All this makes it hard to boycott anything. The companies will still get their share of money one way or another.

CHINA - The world's two most powerful countries are involved in an escalating dispute over territory in the South China Sea. China has nearly finished developing artificial islands in an area the US-allied Philippines has also claimed. It is feared the new islands will be used as military and naval bases to intimidate other countries and dominate the oil-rich region — which also happens to be one of the world's most important commercial waterways. China says it has sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, and has no hostile intent. Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have claims in the South China Sea.

UNITED NATIONS - Saudi involvement in influential human rights panel leaves watchdog fuming. 'This is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief.' Saudi Arabia's envoy to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will head an influential panel on human rights, a watchdog group revealed Sunday - despite Riyadh's own poor track record for human rights issues. Saudi envoy Faisal Trad will chair the 5-member Consultative Group, a UNHRC panel which chooses representatives to report and address human rights violations in 77 countries abroad, UN Watch noted Sunday. "It's scandalous that the UN chose a country that has beheaded more people this year than ISIS to be head of a key human rights panel,” UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer stated. “Petro-dollars and politics have trumped human rights.”

CUBA - Pope Francis visits Cuba this weekend after hosting secret talks at the Vatican between US and Cuban officials. Pope Francis will land in Cuba on Saturday with his credentials already polished – not just as one of the most popular pontiffs of modern times, but as the man who played a key role in forging the historic detente between Havana and Washington.

USA - Vice President Biden offered a glimpse earlier this week into how the White House, deeply frustrated by the gridlocked and bitter state of American politics, has come to view Pope Francis’s visit to the United States.

TEMPLE MOUNT, ISRAEL - Israel is under fire for the upsurge in Muslim violence on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, but Israel says it's not making trouble. The most recent flare-up on the Temple Mount started on the eve of the Jewish holidays. Rioters prepared in advance and attacked police four days in a row.

ISRAEL - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and said that Israel is acting against the violence on the Temple Mount, "and contrary to Palestinian incitement, Israel meticulously maintains the status quo." Netanyahu made it clear that Israel will act firmly against those throwing stones and Molotov cocktails which have caused the deaths of innocent Israelis.

USA - The Federal Reserve held interest rates near zero on Thursday, raising questions over how it will ever manage to lift them off the floor and how effectively it will communicate plans to do so. Only just over half economists polled have predicted such an outcome, a rare occurrence, and a sign of just how hard it has become to read the Fed these days.

Prior to the rate decision, Fed Chair Janet Yellen had not spoken in almost two months. Two of her closest allies had spoken late last month but delivered seemingly contradictory messages just days apart. After the decision, Yellen said while it was an "unfortunate state of affairs" that every comment by a Fed official is parsed for hints about the Fed's next move, "uncertainty in financial markets" is natural when a policy shift is near, as it is today.

CHILE - Chile's government has declared a state of emergency in a central region struck by a powerful earthquake. One million people had to leave their homes and at least 11 people died when the 8.3-magnitude quake hit on Wednesday night. In the coastal town of Coquimbo, waves of 4.7m (15ft) hit the shore. Small tsunami waves hit as far away as Alaska. The quake - the strongest in the world this year - lasted for more than three minutes and there were dozens of aftershocks.

USA - For two days straight, with barely time for sleep, Ron Earls and his team of firefighters battled a monster blaze this week that spread out of control in a small California town. The so-called Valley Fire, one of the worst wildfires in California history, destroyed more than 500 homes and displaced thousands after it began on Saturday, stunning even seasoned firefighters as it spread at lightning speed, whipped by high winds. Similar wildfires have waged a relentless campaign in the drought-stricken western United States this year, mobilizing some 30,000 firefighters, National Guard units and rescuers from across the country.

Beyond the millions of acres consumed by the flames that have killed three residents in California, firefighters in the region have paid a steep price with several killed in the line of duty.