USA - Hundreds of children in different parts of the US have been hospitalized by a mysterious respiratory virus. The virus is sweeping the Midwest and has also hit Colorado. CNN reports that one Kansas City hospital has seen up to 30 children a day come in for treatment for the virus, which is similar to a cold, but with worse symptoms. About 15% of those children are placed in intensive care. The hospital has seen more than 300 cases so far. The virus spreads like the common cold, so to avoid being infected, wash hands frequently and avoid sharing cups and utensils with those who are sick.

USA - President Obama has swung from "we have no strategy" to "keep in mind this is something we know how to do," in a week, and speaking on Meet The Press this morning he teased the world's allies (and terrorists) with the promise that he will address the nation Wednesday to lay out US plans for combating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), promising the US can and will defeat the group. As CBS reports, while not quite as gung-ho as Biden's "gates of hell" speech, President Obama appears to have stepped up his rhetoric from 'contain' to 'defeat' as he stated "we will hunt down [ISIS] members and assets wherever they are," but carefully added putting US troops on the ground would be a "profound mistake."

UKRAINE - President Vladimir Putin has fallen under the spell of Satan and faces eternal damnation unless he repents, a top Ukrainian clergyman said on Saturday in an unusually blunt statement that squarely blamed the Russian leader for the war in Ukraine. Patriarch Filaret heads the Kiev Patriarchate, a branch of the Orthodox Church that broke away from Moscow in 1992 after the fall of the Soviet Union and the declaration of an independent Ukraine.

IRAN - Reports on Friday indicated that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei authorized his army to coordinate joint military operations with the United States against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Iraq. Iranian sources in Tehran told BBC Persian about the development, which comes as the Sunni extremist group that has conquered vast swathes of Iraq and Syria continues to threaten the Shi'ite Islamic regime of Iran. It is worth noting that Khamenei back in January publicly revealed that the negotiations with the US about Iran's nuclear program are merely a tactic to stall international pressure and gain time to continue nuclear development. Iran has also been active in attacking Israel, with senior Iranian officials revealing last month that the Islamic regime is arming terrorists in Judea and Samaria, and vowing it would continue supporting “the resistance” against Israel.

ISRAEL – [In warnings given beginning 22nd June, 2014] Israel has consistently voiced fears that a swift jihadist offensive led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that has swept up swaths of Iraq, may prompt concessions to Tehran from Washington. The United States and Iran now find themselves sharing a common interest in helping Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki fend off the onslaught, and the two sides held rare, brief talks in Vienna on the sidelines of international consultations on Tehran's nuclear program. "What you're seeing in the Middle East today in Iraq and in Syria is the stark hatred between radical Shiites – in this case led by Iran – and radical Sunnis led by Al-Qaeda and ISIS and others," Netanyahu told NBC's "Meet the Press", referring to ISIL. "Now both of these camps are enemies of the United States, and when your enemies are fighting each other, don't strengthen either one – weaken both," said Netanyahu, who was in Israel.

USA - The United States said Friday it has "no plans" for any military coordination with Iran in the fight against Islamic State fighters operating in Iraq and Syria, AFP reported. "We are not going to coordinate military action or share intelligence with Iran and have no plans to do so," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said, reacting to reports that Tehran had approved such an arrangement. Harf said that Washington was "open to engaging" with Iran as it had in the past on select issues, notably on Afghanistan in late 2001, when the two sides worked to put Hamid Karzai into power after the fall of the Taliban. "But we will not be coordinating our action together," she declared, according to AFP.

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.