MIDDLE EAST - If it wasn’t so disturbing, it probably could have been entertaining: an army in 4×4 Toyota pickup trucks, managing to terrorize not only Middle Eastern Shiites, but also Western and Israeli media. If an outsider read the newspaper and internet headlines over the past few months, he would think that the Islamic State, and its counterpart/rival in Syria, the al-Nusra Front, were planning a mass invasion of tens of thousands of jihadis into Israel, and from there into Europe and the United States. Everyone can calm down. IS and al-Nusra are not military forces that can present an actual threat to a functioning conventional army. The IDF, or the Jordanian army for that matter, are not expecting any difficulty dealing with these rising Islamist forces on the battlefield. The big problem with these two groups is that they can cause significant damage through terror attacks. And as is always the case with terrorism, the focus is the fear it engenders among the public.

INDIA - The Indian government has ordered a high level terror alert after al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced a new group to bring its holy war to the subcontinent. In a 55-minute video message posted on jihadist websites, Zawahiri said militants in India had been united under one commander with allegiance to Mullah Omar, the Afghan Taliban leader. It would "liberate Muslims lands" and "revive its caliphate", he said. He also said the new group would operate from Kashmir to Assam and Burma, where Muslim minorities officials fear a new campaign waged by al-Qaeda would be harder to restrict and have the potential for catastrophic communal consequences.

USA - For the first time in the nation’s history, foreign interests now own more than $6 trillion in US government debt, according to the most recent Treasury Department report on major foreign holders of the debt, which includes the numbers through the end of June. As of the end of June, foreign owners held $6,013,200,000,000 in US Treasury securities, up from $5,976,500,000,000 as of the end of May. Thirteen years ago, at the end of June 2001, the foreign-held US government debt was $983,300,000,000 — and had been trending downward for four months. Since then, it has grown more than six-fold. Of the $6,013,200,000,000 in US government debt held by foreign interests, $4,108,200,000,000 was categorized by the Treasury as “foreign official” debt holdings — meaning it was owned by institutions controlled by foreign governments.

USA - Hopes of an almighty El Niño bringing rain to a drought-stricken California - with its fallow fields, depleted streams and parched lawns - were further dashed Thursday. The National Weather Service, in its monthly El Niño report, again downgraded the chances of the influential weather pattern occurring in the fall or winter. El Niños, defined by warming Pacific Ocean waters that release enough energy to shape worldwide weather, have been associated with wet winters in the Golden State. The strong 1997-98 event correlated with San Francisco's biggest recorded rain year: a whopping 47.2 inches of rain.

VATICAN - Pope Francis "listened carefully" and expressed interest in a proposed United Nations-style organization of religions, suggested during meetings Thursday with former Israeli President Shimon Peres, a Vatican spokesman said. Francis did not make any personal commitments to the concept, but said that senior officials in the Holy See responsible for inter-religious dialogue would be reviewing the concept, said Father Federico Lombardi. "He listened carefully, with interest, expressing encouragement as is the case for initiatives that involve peace," said Lombardi.

ISRAEL - A recent gathering consisting of thousands of supporters of the Islamic State (IS) took place at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, Israel’s Channel 10 News reported on Wednesday. The report was part of a story set to broadcast in full next week, which details how the Islamic State has zeroed in on Israel as its premier target in the near future.

USA - Anonymous comments on message boards must be taken with a grain of salt, but this comment succinctly captures the underbelly of Corporate America: massive insider selling, borrowing billions to buy back their own stocks to push valuations to the moon so shares granted as compensation can be sold for a fortune, and dodgy accounting strategies that boost headline profits and hide the gutting of investments in long-term growth.

USA - Large numbers of people believe that an economic crash is coming next year based on a seven year cycle of economic crashes that goes all the way back to the Great Depression. And if this cycle holds up once again in 2015, it will be really bad news for the US economy. Looking back, the most recent financial crisis that we experienced was back in 2008. Lehman Brothers collapsed, the stock market crashed and we were plunged into the worst recession that we have experienced as a nation since the Great Depression.

EUROPE - Global markets are behaving as if quantitative easing were a done deal in the eurozone. They are betting that the European Central Bank will pick up the baton from the US Federal Reserve in a seamless transition, keeping the world's monetary system smoothly supplied with liquidity as Fed winds down QE in October. Yet there is in fact no stimulus, and nor is there likely to be much for a long time. Europe's policy settings continue to be contractionary. The German authorities are still convinced that they will recover later this year without the need for any real action. Mr Draghi has raised hopes that are beyond his political gift, and which he cannot easily fulfil. He seemed to concede that the policy regime he has been defending for three years is destructive and misguided, and that the critics have been right all along.

EUROPE - As the euro area suffers from low inflation, the currency bloc’s central bank has elected to make cuts to interest rates. The European Central Bank (ECB) has cut its headline rate to 0.05pc, while taking its deposit rate to -0.2pc. Annual eurozone inflation stood at just 0.3pc in August, well below the ECB's target of just below 2pc. The majority of economists polled by Bloomberg - 51 out of 57 - expected the ECB's governing council to maintain its key rate at 0.15pc and its deposit rate at -0.1pc. Mr Draghi may simply talk up the euro area, or hint at other weapons in the ECB's arsenal, such as a form of "private QE", involving the purchases of asset-backed securities.

USA - Goldman Sachs has warned that the UK could fall into a eurozone-style crisis if Scotland votes for independence later this month. In some of the most bleak predictions economists have made about independence, the Wall Street bank said a "Yes" vote on September 18, while looking unlikely, "could have severe consequences" for both the Scottish economy and the UK overall. Goldman warned that public services would have to be cut if Scotland goes it alone, and that the country would face much higher borrowing costs. But the most worrying consequence, the bank predicted, would be that uncertainty over a currency union would cause a run on sterling and a capital flight with echoes of the eurozone crisis.

VENEZUELA - A member of Venezuela's Socialist Party has rolled out a variation of the "Lord's Prayer" to implore beloved late leader Hugo Chavez for protection from the evils of capitalism. "Our Chavez who art in heaven, the earth, the sea and we delegates," red-shirted delegate Maria Estrella Uribe recited on Monday at the PSUV party Congress. "Hallowed be your name, may your legacy come to us so we can spread it to people here and elsewhere. Give us your light to guide us every day," she said in front of an image of Chavez. "Lead us not into the temptation of capitalism, deliver us from the evil of the oligarchy, like the crime of contraband, because ours is the homeland, the peace and life forever and ever. Amen. Viva Chavez!" she exclaimed to applause.

EUROPE - There is no current intention – either in Germany or the eurozone's other sovereign nations at least, if not in Brussels – of creating a Unites States of Europe, with a high degree of fiscal union. And herein lies the rub, for unless Germany grasps the nettle and takes full responsibility for managing Europe's integration into a single country, complete with a central bank able to operate like a proper central bank, the euro cannot survive. Politically and economically, the eurozone will eventually disintegrate, if not in this crisis then the next one – either that or politically rendered intolerable by years of economic stagnation. There is an obvious irony in Germany's manifest reluctance to take up this responsibility. Germany spent the first half of the last century trying to bend Europe to its will by military means. Now that the prize is finally within its grasp, by peaceful means at that, Germans don't want it. A curiosity indeed.

GERMANY - On September 1, German President Joachim Gauck used a meeting commemorating the outbreak of the Second World War to launch a direct attack on Russia. At the Westerplatte near Gdansk in Poland, he accused the Russian government of conducting an “offensive struggle for new borders and a new order” based on the “law of the jungle,” and of having declared Russia’s partnership with the European Union, NATO and the large industrial nations “de facto null and void.” We “resist those who breach international law, annex foreign territory, and militarily support divisions in foreign lands,” Gauck proclaimed. “We will adapt our politics, economics and readiness for defense to the new circumstances,” he added. This can be understood only as an open threat of war against Russia.

GERMANY - On 1 September, the Bundestag debated the federal government’s decision to supply arms to the autonomous Kurdish government in Northern Iraq to help fight back the “Islamic State”. Hardly anyone in German politics missed the link to the events of 75 years ago, when on 1 September 1939 the German navy shelled a Polish artillery post near Gdansk, setting off the Second World War. Chancellor Angela Merkel and everyone who responded to her in the debate made use of the memory of German aggression, whether to justify or to criticise the current policy.