USA - Credit is artificially cheap thanks to the Federal Reserve’s unwise experiments of the last 6 years. This cheap credit has filtered down to the consumer to some extent. But now prices are rising and this cheap credit is being used by consumers just to make ends meet – again. Debt is a valuable tool to be used by most sparingly. Americans however have a hard time controlling their habit. When the debt drug is made available at below market rates sooner or later the party will get out of control, one way or another. Sadly for some, the poor and much of the middle class, the relatively easy credit isn’t cause for a party but a means by which to put slightly more food on the table. These folks are the ones who are most hurt at the end of the credit cycle.

USA - The US Supreme Court was intended to be an institution established to intervene and protect the people against the government and its agents when they overstep their bounds. Yet as I point out in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, Americans can no longer rely on the courts to mete out justice. In the police state being erected around us, the police and other government agents can probe, poke, pinch, taser, search, seize, strip and generally manhandle anyone they see fit in almost any circumstance, all with the general blessing of the courts. These are the hallmarks of the emerging American police state: where police officers, no longer mere servants of the people entrusted with keeping the peace, are part of an elite ruling class dependent on keeping the masses corralled, under control, and treated like suspects and enemies rather than citizens.

IRAQ - 88 Russian Sukhoi fighter planes arrived at the Imam Ali military base in Nasiriyah, Dhi Qar. Today a security source said that the base of the Imam Ali (AS) received 88 Russian Sukhoi multi-brands, which were held by the Republic of Iran for more than 20 years. The source, who preferred not to be named, indicated that “these aircraft will be equipped with sophisticated weapons; they will take part in the fighting against the terrorist elements of the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant.”

FRANCE - Scientists said Sunday they may have unraveled how chronic stress leads to heart attack and stroke: triggering overproduction of disease-fighting white blood cells which can be harmful in excess. Surplus cells clump together on the inner walls of arteries, restricting blood flow and encouraging the formation of clots that block circulation or break off and travel to another part of the body. White blood cells "are important to fight infection and healing, but if you have too many of them, or they are in the wrong place, they can be harmful," said study co-author Matthias Nahrendorf of the Harvard Medical School in Boston. Doctors have long known that chronic stress leads to cardiovascular disease, but have not understood the mechanism.

UK - David Cameron has refused to rule out campaigning for Britain to leave the EU if European leaders support the appointment of Jean Claude-Juncker, Downing Street has suggested. The Prime Minister’s deputy spokesman would not deny reports Mr Cameron has told European leaders that Mr Junker’s election could lead to him recommending Britain vote to leave the EU if the promised referendum takes place in 2017. Mr Cameron has been attempting to block the appointment of Mr Juncker but is increasingly resigned to defeat.

UK - The Prime Minister's demands for European treaty change and powers to flow back from Brussels are ignored in a confidential EU blueprint to be discussed at a summit amid a row over Jean-Claude Juncker. David Cameron’s hopes of reforming Britain’s relationship with Brussels has been dealt a blow after a confidential blueprint setting out the European Union's "priorities" for the next five years fell far short of his demands for change. The document, obtained by The Daily Telegraph will be given to the Prime Minister by Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, when they meet in Downing Street. It comes as Mr Cameron prepares to force a vote on the possible presidency of Jean-Claude Juncker.

ISRAEL - Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon (Likud Beiteinu) on Sunday evening visited the family of kidnapped teen Naftali Frankel in the town of Nof Ayalon. Danon was accompanied by former [US] Republican presidential primary candidate Mike Huckabee. Frankel is an American citizen, the family told Danon and Huckabee.

MIDDLE EAST - US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, as Sunni insurgents expand their control of towns across north-western Iraq. In Egypt on Sunday, Mr Kerry warned that Sunni militants Isis' "ideology of violence and repression is a threat not only to Iraq but to the entire region". On Sunday rebels - spearheaded by Isis militants - captured border crossings to Syria and Jordan. The strategically important airport in the northern Tal Afar has also fallen. The town controls the main road from the Syrian border to Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city, which was captured by the rebels two weeks ago. The Iraqi government has lost all the crossing points into Syria and the only one into Jordan. Now Isis which is present there can connect up with its fellow militants on the Syrian side of the border.

IRAQ - The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIS) takeover of Iraq earlier this month took the world by storm, as the successive fall of several major cities in the Sunni-dominated northwest left Iraqis fleeing and world leaders shaken. But what if the blitz military conquest could have been prevented altogether? Kurdish intelligence reported news of a strategic alliance and pact between Islamist groups to topple Mosul and other major Iraqi cities with ISIS's help as far back as January, the Telegraph reported late Sunday. Shortly after the fall of Fallujah to ISIS, an informant reportedly stepped into a Kurdish intelligence office to reveal the news that ISIS officials had networked with remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime and former Hussein deputy Izzat al-Douri to plan a large-scale invasion. But while Kurdish handlers ran immediately to the US and Britain with the information, the West allegedly sat back and did nothing.

ISRAEL - The recommendations of the Interior Committee's sub-committee on Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount is to be published on Monday. Reportedly the recommendations will suggest preserving the status quo on the site… Committee Member MK Zevulun Kalfa (Jewish Home) wrote to Committee Chairman MK David Tzur (Hatnua), saying the goal of the sub-committee was to organize Jewish access to the Temple Mount, and not to preserve the status quo. The status quo consists of a constant erosion of Jewish rights to ascend to the Mount, wrote Kalfa, quoting the recent wave of Arab rioting and violence on the holy site, which police and security forces respond to by closing access to Jews. "Someone has to wake up before there's a tragedy. We can't give a prize to rioters," warned Glick (head of the LIBA Movement for Freedom of Movement on the Temple Mount).

ALASKA, USA - A local tsunami warning was issued after an 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean west of Alaska's Aleutian Islands on Monday, the US Geological Survey and the National Tsunami Warning Center said. The warning covered coastal areas of Alaska from Nikolski to Attu, the center said, adding the level of tsunami danger was being evaluated for other US and Canadian Pacific coasts.

GERMANY - The German bourgeoisie is responding to the debacle of US imperialism in Iraq by intensifying its campaign for militarism and war. On Tuesday, during her first official visit to the US, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen spoke out in favour of a strong Bundeswehr (German armed forces) participation in an international military intervention.

UK - Following the initial de-dollarization meeting, there has been a slew of anti-dollar moves around the world (including Gazprom's shift of 90% of its clients to non-dollar payments). However, on the heels of the "anti-dollar alliance" discussions yesterday, DW reports that China would start direct trade between the renminbi and the British pound on Thursday. China's Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) confirmed Sterling and yuan would be directly swapped without using the US dollar as an intermediary. Britain for its part has been looking to make London a European hub for overseas yuan trading in competition with Frankfurt and Paris. China's central bank announced Wednesday that a subsidiary of China Construction Bank had been chosen to undertake yuan clearing business in London.

EUROPE - The European Central Bank (ECB) should contemplate quantitative easing if inflation in the single currency bloc remains low for a protracted period, says International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde. "If inflation was to remain stubbornly low, then we would certainly hope that the ECB would take quantitative easing measures by way of purchasing of sovereign bonds," Lagarde told CNBC on Thursday. She defines "stubbornly low inflation" as prices remaining well below target in spite of measures being taken to boost inflation. Unlike other major central banks, the ECB has so far resisted embarking on a quantitative easing program, but has said it stands ready to do so if needed.

ISRAEL - Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Israel's close ally, the United States, against working with arch-foe Iran in the effort to pull Iraq back from the brink. 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. "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.