GERMANY - This Is the candidate to beat in the race to become Germany's next leader. The hammering typically begins at 8 o'clock sharp and continues through the day, its pulsing sound echoing along the gleaming renovated buildings and canals of this city's harbor district. It's the heartbeat of Hamburg. For the past 10 years, this has been the soundtrack to the transformation of Germany's largest port from one of run-down warehouses to a thriving cultural center filled with loft apartments, hotels and pedestrian trails and capped with a massive philharmonic hall, a glass goliath whose roof is in the shape of undulating ocean waves. This is the city where Olaf Scholz, 63, grew up and served as mayor from 2011 to 2018. Supporters credit Scholz, of the center-left Social Democratic Party, for steering the city's construction spree. Now the German finance minister and vice chancellor, he's shaping up in national polls and debates as the front-runner to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany's election on September 26… "Schulz has a very, very clear plan of how things should develop and look like."

CHINA - Tensions between China and the US continue to boil amid another threat about warships "showing up near Hawaii". Earlier this month, the US deployed the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group (VINCSG) to the highly contested South China Sea for the first time during the group's 2021 deployment. The strike group is conducting maritime security operations, including flight operations and maritime strike exercises. Rear Admiral Dan Martin, commander of the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, said: "The freedom of all nations to navigate in international waters is important, and especially vital in the South China Sea, where nearly a third of global maritime trade transits each year.

CHINA - China's state-run Global Times tabloid, which is viewed as representing the view of Beijing if with a hyperbolic slant, published an op-ed from its editorial board on Wednesday vowing that China’s military will soon confront the US in a hostile exchange, American Military News reported. "The US will definitely see the PLA show up at its doorstep in the not-too-distant future," the op-ed said. “The two sides’ warships and aircraft on the seas will carry huge mutual strategic hostility, and the two countries will not yield to each other.” "Once the situation gets out of control and triggers military clash between China and the US, we must give full play to our home field advantage. China will definitely win once there is a war,” the Global Times op-ed said.

UK - Plans to introduce Covid vaccine passports have been scrapped as Sajid Javid confirms people won’t need them to get into nightclubs and cinemas. The Health Secretary revealed this morning that Covid jab passports won’t be introduced as a measure to fight the virus as we enter the winter months. He told the BBC today: “I am pleased to say that we will not be going ahead with plans for vaccine passports.” The Health Secretary said it was “absolutely right” of the Government to have looked into it, and that the idea will be “kept in the reserves” rather than implemented.

USA - Tropical storm Nicholas has Texas in its sights as it barrels towards the Gulf Coast. Here's the latest advisory, satellite images and maps. Tropical Storm Nicholas is bearing down on the Gulf Coast, bringing fierce winds and torrential rain to much of Texas and Louisiana. With forecasters predicting the storm to strengthen, residents have been warned to evacuate ahead of Nicholas making landfall. Today the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana are bracing for the arrival of Tropical Storm Nicholas. The second deadly storm in two weeks, Nicholas is expected to batter the region with life-threatening storm surge, flash flooding and gusty winds.

CHINA - Typhoon Chanthu exploded to life last week and underwent rapid intensification becoming the second super typhoon of the season. Typhoon Chanthu is bearing down on parts of China with torrential downpours and strong winds expected to lash at provinces during this week. The Ministry of Water Resources unleashed an emergency response for floods, while authorities evacuated 330,000 people from at-risk areas. Rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches could fall nearest to the coast, with a maximum rainfall amount of 30 inches expected in some regions.

ISRAEL - There is one key point on which most of Israel’s critics agree – namely, that the recent conflict in Gaza was a hugely uneven one between a military superpower and a largely helpless victim. This assumption was apparent in much of the imagery used to illustrate the conflict. One would often see footage of the Israeli air force, equipped with sophisticated weaponry, laying waste to Palestinian apartment buildings. Or photos of young Palestinian protesters inside Israel firing slingshots against armed Israeli troops. The echoes of the Biblical story of David and Goliath were difficult to miss. Ban Ki-moon, a former UN secretary-general, referred to a ‘fundamental asymmetry between the parties’. Guardian journalist Owen Jones has gone further, frequently likening Israel’s actions to Mike Tyson punching a toddler.

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a dire warning that the world is moving in the wrong direction and faces “a pivotal moment” where continuing business as usual could lead to a breakdown of global order and a future of perpetual crisis. Saying much of the world’s unease is rooted in poverty and growing inequality, Guterres noted that the 10 richest men saw their combined wealth increase by half a trillion dollars since the COVID-19 pandemic began while 55% of the world’s population, or 4 billion people, “are one step away from destitution, with no social protection whatsoever.” ...Guterres proposed holding a World Social Summit in 2025 on global efforts to address these issues and repair the social fabric. The secretary-general also proposed global action to tackle disinformation and conspiracy theories and promote facts, science and “integrity” in public discourse. “We must make lying wrong again,” Guterres said.

USA - According to a new working paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Americans now die earlier than their European counterparts, no matter what age you’re looking at. Compared with Europeans, American babies are more likely to die before they turn 5, American teens are more likely to die before they turn 20, and American adults are more likely to die before they turn 65. At every age, living in the United States carries a higher risk of mortality. This is America’s unsung death penalty, and it adds up. Average life expectancy surged above 80 years old in just about every Western European country in the 2010s, including Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, the UK, Denmark, and Switzerland. In the US, by contrast, the average life span has never exceeded 79 — and now it’s just taken a historic tumble.

CHINA - A Chinese-speaking 'Albert Einstein' stole the show at the first day of the World Robot Conference in Beijing on Friday. It was just one of more than 500 intelligent machines on display in the capital city's E-Town, an industrial park-turned technology mecca located in the capital's Daxing district. Other stand-outs include a dog robot equipped with high-quality cameras and radar sensors. The canine machine, made by DeepRobotics, can detect its own posture in real time to remain flexible and stable, the company's marketing manager said.

EUROPE - The final sections of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline have now been welded into place, Moscow’s state energy giant Gazprom has revealed, bringing construction of the underwater link between Russia and Germany to an end. In a statement issued on Friday, Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Saint Petersburg-based energy giant, said that "at 8.45 am this morning Moscow time, work on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has been completed." Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed that the laying of pipes under the Baltic Sea would be "completed in a few days and (it) will begin working." Bloomberg reports that gas is expected to begin flowing through its network from the start of next month, and that final testing and preparations are underway. According to Lavrov, efforts by the US government to halt construction through sanctions and political pressure have now failed.

AFGHANISTAN - Earlier this week the Taliban announced the ministers for their new government. Biden’s Secretary of State Tony Blinken was shocked at the news. The woke Biden officials stressed to the Taliban the need for an inclusive government that would include women ministers. The Taliban thought otherwise and filled the positions with an elite team of Taliban terrorists. Tony Blinken was shocked the list did not include any women or former government officials. The Biden team lives in fantasy world. On Friday the Taliban responded to Biden and Blinken on the need for inclusivity in their new government. Taliban spokesman: “A woman can’t be a minister, it is like you put something on her neck that she can’t carry. It is not necessary for a woman to be in the cabinet, they should give birth.”

GERMANY - Millions dead, rampant poverty, dozens of millions of refugees and several devastated countries: This is the result of western wars throughout the broader Middle East since September 9, 2001. Launched in the name of a war on jihadi terrorism, waged under the banner of "freedom and democracy," the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Somalia have above all caused human suffering and misery of historic dimensions. The actual or purported objectives have not been achieved. Thriving societies have emerged nowhere, neither at the Hindu Kush nor at the Euphrates and Tigris. Jihadi terror is today "stronger" and more widespread on a global scale than in 2001, according to experts. Western armed forces and intelligence services have also committed the most egregious war crimes and human rights violations - from targeted assassinations of unarmed civilians to abductions of thousands to torture chambers. Germany has been involved in all of this.

NIGERIA - Nigeria has announced it's citizens will no longer be able to visit Churches or Mosques and will not have access to banking services from the 2nd week in September without proof of vaccination.

USA - A number of Republican governors have come out in opposition to President Biden’s sweeping new vaccine mandates for private enterprises, arguing that the new requirements represent unconstitutional violations of personal and medical freedom. Biden introduced the measures as part of his COVID-19 Action Plan in an address on Thursday. The most controversial measure is the administration’s decision to force all businesses with over 100 employees mandate vaccinations or subject staff to a weekly test. The directive also applied to health-care workers in facilities that treat patients on Medicare or Medicaid. Many GOP leaders condemned the unilateral proclamation as an invasive, potentially illegal federal intervention and promised to fight it in court. South Carolina governor Henry McMaster voiced his disdain for the mandate on Twitter, writing that “the American Dream has turned into a nightmare under President Biden and the radical Democrats. They have declared war against capitalism, thumbed their noses at the Constitution, and empowered our enemies abroad.”