NORTH KOREA - North Korea is back in the spotlight, as claims circulate over the health of supreme leader Kim Jong-un, and that the US has a secret plan to secure the country's nuclear arsenal in the event of sudden destabilisation. In the event of a sudden, calamitous destabilisation of the North Korean regime, the US could launch Operation Plan 5029 with South Korea. The classified mission headed up by the current commander of United States Forces Korea (USFK), General Robert Bruce Abrams, would ensure that the state’s nuclear missiles were not set off during an internal power struggle, or pilfered for the international black market. Little is known about the exact details of the covert operation, but it is said to also secure the border. The existence of OPLAN 5029 was first publicly acknowledged by the US military in 1999, when General John H Tilelli Jr, then commander of USFK, responded: “It would be unusual if we didn't have one." He said: “The million-dollar question is: When do you invoke the OPLAN and what indicators do you rely on to do so? Because one country's `securing the country´ operation can look to the other nation like an invasion plan.”

CHINA - As much of the world struggles to contain the coronavirus, China’s recovery is gaining momentum, positioning it to further close its gap with the US economy. Across China, restaurants and gyms are busy again. Subway cars and airport departure lounges are packed. Children are preparing to return to classrooms with few of the restrictions US officials say will be hallmarks of post-coronavirus life. In some schools, children are being asked to bring masks — but they don’t have to wear them.

ISRAEL - The Bible describes why God unleashed his wrath on the ancient cities Sodom and Gomorrah, but archaeologists have explained, in a 2018 study, how they think it happened, which may offer unique, relevant insight into the ways of the Creator. What the team discovered was that a “cosmic airburst event” in the area of where the city is thought to have stood occurred some 3,700 years ago…[the cities] were obliterated “in an instant,” the topsoil stripped bare with “a super-heated brine of Dead Sea anhydride salts pushed over the landscape by the Event’s frontal shockwave(s).” They found that the heat was so intense, clay and rock melted into glass, which researchers concluded meant debris was exposed to “between 8,000°C and 12,000°C for less than a few milliseconds.” The area was so decimated, the paper said, it would be more than half a millennium before civilization could once again inhabit the area.

USA - The attorney general, Jeff Landry of Louisiana says that violent crime is going to reach epidemic levels in the United States soon. Landry warns that crime in the US will get worse before it gets better, and we are going to reach a tipping point soon. Given the current state of affairs in cities across the country, the economic terrorism committed against every person on this globe, and the constant division being propagated by the mainstream media over an election they have already promised us will be disturbing at best, things are not set to get better. In fact, the worst is yet to come.

USA - This week it was Kenosha, Wisconsin and next week it will probably be somewhere else. Yet another senseless police shooting was followed by more rioting, looting and violence. Of course rioting, looting and violence have basically become a nightly occurrence in America at this point anyway. The protests never seem to end in some cities, and crime rates are absolutely skyrocketing all over the country.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - The United Arab Emirates reportedly canceled a trilateral meeting with Israel and the US last week in retaliation against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public opposition to Washington’s brewing sale of F-35 fighter jets to Abu Dhabi. A New York meeting of the three countries’ UN envoys celebrating the normalization of Israel-UAE ties had been scheduled for Friday, the Walla news site said in a report Monday. But in the lead-up to the gathering, Netanyahu spoke out against the US sale of advanced weaponry to the UAE, following reports that he had agreed to pull opposition to the deal in exchange for normalization. Israel fears allowing the UAE to obtain the ultra-advanced stealth jet fighters will compromise its military edge in the region, which the US has pledged to uphold.

USA - It has just been one thing after another in 2020. First, the COVID-19 pandemic erupted and quickly spread all over the globe. At this point more than 800,000 people have died globally, and authorities are warning us to brace ourselves for another wave of the pandemic in the fall. Of course many would argue that fear of the virus has been even worse than the disease itself, and it is undeniable that the COVID-19 shutdowns were the primary reason why we have plunged into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

USA – Military spending compared to other world powers:
China: $266 billion
France: $52 billion
Germany:$51 billion
Russia: $64 billion
USA: $718 billion

USA - Hurricane warnings have been issued in the US ahead of the arrival of two tropical storms expected to smash into the south coast. If Tropical Storm Marco and Laura swell together into hurricanes, it would be the first time two have collided simultaneously on record, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. Tropical Storm Marco is expected to hit Louisiana on Monday as forecasters issue storm surge and hurricane warnings for the state. The storm is gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico, southeast of the US state and could well arrive as a hurricane, the national centre has warned. There are also fears the neighbouring state of Mississippi could also be hit by the tropical storms. With the state also struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, Governor Tate Reeves declared a state emergency. He said: “We are in unprecedented times.”

USA - California fires expected to grow as new storm system approaches. The second and third largest fires in California history — both of which are located in the San Francisco Bay area — are expected to grow in the coming days as a new thunderstorm will move over the state, likely bringing with it dry lightning and strong winds, The Los Angeles Times reports. The National Weather Service has issued red-flag warnings across Northern and Central California, but the fires have already destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate. California Governor Gavin Newsom (Democrat) said Saturday that the White House has approved the state's request for a presidential major disaster declaration to bolster the response to the blazes. Since July, about 1.2 million acres in California have burned, which the Times notes is an "astonishing" figure for so early in the fire season.

USA - A Tennessee school district is under fire for asking parents to sign a form agreeing not to eavesdrop on kids' virtual classes over concerns they could overhear confidential information. After significant pushback, Rutherford County Schools is allowing parents to tune in with permission from the teacher but they can't record the classes. “It's ridiculous. It's so hypocritical because they've been data mining our children for years, compliments of common core," Laurie Cardoza-Moore, founder of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, said on "Fox & Friends Weekend" Saturday. "What are they trying to hide? What is the problem? Why won't they let us sit in?" the homeschool mom of five asked. "Obviously, because they are teaching our children propaganda that they should not be teaching," she said. "They are trying to socialize our children." She added: "We have had a major problem in education, not just here in Tennessee, but across the country where they are indoctrinating our children with propaganda."

AUSTRALIA - On August 2, lockdown measures were implemented in Melbourne, Australia, that were so draconian that Australian news commentator Alan Jones said on Sky News: “People are entitled to think there is an ‘agenda to destroy western society.’” The gist of an August 13th article on the Melbourne lockdown is captured in the title: “Australian Police Go FULL NAZI, Smashing in Windows of Civilian Cars Just Because Passengers Wouldn’t Give Details About Where They Were Going.”

KENYA - In parts of Kenya, the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic has been so catastrophic that people have started to kill endangered wildlife for food. Last week, The Telegraph trekked with rangers through the Tsavo conservation area, a region larger than Wales in southeastern Kenya, and found a Masai giraffe which had been stripped bare by poachers for bushmeat. “They have really done a hell of a job on this one,” muttered a ranger when we came across the mass of bloodied bones, organs and skinned hide. “They’ve even cut the meat out from in-between his ribs.” In life, just hours earlier, the fully grown bull would have weighed about two and a half tonnes and stood almost 20ft off the ground. Its legs would have been strong enough to kick in a lion’s chest. But now there was almost nothing left.

UNITED NATIONS - The Covid-19 pandemic may lead to a calamity of epic scale, with millions facing starvation worldwide, the head of the UN’s hunger-fighting body has warned. “All the data we have, including WFP forecast that the number of people experiencing malnutrition will grow by 80 percent by the end of the year, … points to a real disaster,” David Beasley, Executive Director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), said. We are risking a famine of biblical proportions.

USA - Economists and deficit hawks have warned for decades that the United States was borrowing too much money. The federal debt was ballooning so fast, they said, that economic ruin was inevitable: Interest rates would skyrocket, taxes would rise and inflation would probably run wild. The death spiral could be triggered once the debt surpassed the size of the US economy — a turning point that was probably still years in the future.