ISRAEL - Archaeologists from the University of North Carolina made a remarkable discovery while digging on Mount Zion in Jerusalem that is evidence of the Babylonian conquest of the city in 586 BCE: a golden earring. Dr Rafi Lewis, co-director of the project, explained the importance of the tiny earring. “With finds like this, there is a material value but, more importantly, there is a spiritual and emotional value,” Dr Lewis told Breaking Israel News. “On that level, this find is quite literally priceless. We can establish the context as the destruction of the First Temple without any doubt. We have made similar finds outside of the city but this is the first time we made such finds inside the city. It gives us an idea of the richness of Jerusalem at the time,” Dr Lewis said. “This is something aristocratic. It could have been a piece of jewelry or hung from an article of clothing or even a bigger artifact.”

USA - The volunteers at the University of Chicago’s Brain Dynamics Laboratory, all otherwise young and healthy, were tied together by really only one thing: nearly off-the-chart scores on the most widely used scale measuring loneliness. Asked how often they felt they had no one they could turn to, how often they felt their relationships seemed superficial and forced, how often they felt alone, left out, isolated or no longer close to anyone, the answer, almost always, was “always.”

EUROPE - German industry is in the deepest slump since the global financial crisis and threatens to push Europe’s powerhouse economy into full-blown recession. The darkening outlook is forcing the European Central Bank to contemplate ever more perilous measures. The influential Ifo Institute in Munich said its business climate indicator for manufacturing went into “free fall” in July as the delayed damage from global trade conflict takes its toll and confidence wilts. It goes far beyond the woes of the car industry. More than 80 percent of Germany’s factories are in outright contraction.

USA - Assertions and speculations spread like wildfire. Epstein was murdered. He isn’t dead at all, he was ferreted out of jail and taken to Israel. He killed himself. The video cameras in jail malfunctioned (were turned off on purpose). Epstein paid off guards so he could engineer his covert escape. He’s dead, a victim of the rising Clinton body count. Trump is in the Epstein scandal up to his eyeballs. And so on.

CHINA - Step aside Baoshang Bank and Bank of Jinzhou, it's time for Chinese bank bailout #3… overnight, the SCMP reported that China’s sovereign wealth fund has taken over Heng Feng Bank - one with roughly $200 billion in assets - a troubled lender linked to fugitive financier Xiao Jianhua, in the third case in as many months of the state exerting its grip over wayward financial institutions. In short, a 3rd Chinese bank in as many months received an implicit (or explicit) state bailout, and with the dominoes now falling, it's just a matter of time before most if not all of the banks collapse. The only thing that's left is for China to admit that this is indeed the case, so sit back, relax and watch as bank after bank on the list above fails and China's financial cancer spreads across the country with the $40 trillion in assets (which is certainly not bad news for either gold or bitcoin).

HONG KONG - The Chinese government has begun moving troops across the Shenzhen Qianhai Guangshen Coastal Expressway Bridge into Hong Kong. Minutes ago, in a military operation to put down protests against the government of Beijing, hundreds of military trucks carrying soldiers and guns began moving at this hour across the Bridge into Hong Kong. Army troops have now entered downtown Hong Kong.

EUROPE - The European Union is poised to mandate that Israeli products made in contested territories carry consumer warning labels, a decision that could trigger American anti-boycott laws and open up what legal experts describe as a "Pandora's box" of litigation, according to multiple sources involved in the legal dispute who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon. The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice recently issued non-binding opinion arguing that EU law requires Israeli-made products to be labeled as coming from "settlements" and "Israeli colonies." The decision was seen as a major win for supporters of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS, which seeks to wage economic warfare on Israel and its citizens. Pro-Israel activists, as well as the Jewish businesses involved in the legal dispute, see the decision as an ominous warning sign that they say is reminiscent of Holocaust-era boycotts of Jewish businesses.

GERMANY - A five-century-old boys’ choir has been accused of gender discrimination for not accepting a nine-year-old girl. Her woke mother is suing Berlin’s oldest musical institution for not embracing modern world realities. The State and Cathedral Choir Berlin’s gender-based admissions criteria violate Germany’s constitution, the girl’s mother has declared, hauling the boys-only choir into court on charges that it violates her daughter’s right to equal opportunities in state support. The internationally famous choir has never admitted any females in its 554-year history, although it has a girls-only partner choir that her daughter is welcome to join. In a statement to the court, they explained that girls’ and boys’ choirs sound different for anatomical reasons, and maintained they were permitted to reject whom they wished on grounds of artistic freedom.

ISRAEL - The site of the Jewish temple is still considered holy by believers. There is a prophecy that promises the temple will one day be rebuilt. A glimmer of hope that the foretelling could come to pass has arisen after a connected prediction about foxes heading to the remains of the Second Jewish Temple, the Western Wall, was fulfilled literally.

INDIA - Floods and landslides across southern and western Indian states have killed nearly 200 people over the past week as the Indian Army intensifies its relief operations to help thousands stranded in desperate need of rescue. Extreme weather conditions that have been battering the Indian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Gujarat since last week forced hundreds of thousands of people to seek temporary shelters. The heavy rains also impacted travel in the region, disrupting train and airport connections.

USA - Parents' fury after science teacher handed out gender-identity graphic to explain to a 7th grade class wanting to be addressed as 'Mx' instead of 'Mr'. Northern California parents are furious after a seventh and eight grade science teacher introduced the topic of gender identity and sexuality to students in an effort to explain the teacher's preferred honorific. Luis Davila Alvarado, who teaches at Denair Middle School in California's San Joaquin Valley, used a 'Gender Unicorn' graphic from Trans Student Education Resources on Wednesday to explain the choice of 'Mx.' over 'Mr.' before being stopped by the principal. 'Mx.' is a gender-neutral honorific typically used by individuals who do not identify as a specific gender, or for people who simply don't want to be referred to by gender.

CANADA - Chase Bank is forgiving all outstanding debt owed by customers of its two Canadian credit cards as it exits the country’s market. Customers using the Amazon.ca Rewards Visa and the Marriott Rewards Premier Visa were pleasantly surprised to find the balance on their credit cards had been wiped clean. The US-based bank, part of the firm JPMorgan Chase & Co, announced in March 2018 that it was closing its two Visa cards and leaving the Canadian credit card market after 13 years. It confirmed on Thursday that it was forgiving all outstanding debt owed by customers of its two Canadian credit cards.

UK - More opposite-sex couples are choosing not to marry, but same-sex marriages increasing. The traditional household of a married couple with children is giving way to cohabiting couples and people living on their own, research reveals. The overall number of families in the UK rose by 8% between 2008 and 2018, from 17.7 million to 19.1 million, accompanied by a marked change in the ways people are choosing to live. “While married couple families remain the most common, cohabiting couples are the fastest-growing family type as people increasingly choose to live together before or without getting married.”

GERMANY - The US must take its nukes off German soil if it is serious about relocating troops to Poland, a top opposition MP said in a tongue-in-cheek response to a veiled ultimatum from the American envoy. German lawmakers have reacted to threats made by the US envoy to Berlin, Richard Grenell, saying that Berlin may use the ultimatum as an opportunity to push for the withdrawal of all American assets from Germany.

MIDDLE EAST - In a potentially catastrophic escalation of tensions in the Persian Gulf, Russia plans to use Iran’s ports in Bandar-e-Bushehr and Chabahar as forward military bases for warships and nuclear submarines, guarded by hundreds of Special Forces troops under the guise of ‘military advisers’, and an airbase near Bandar-e-Bushehr as a hub for 35 Sukhoi Su-57 fighter planes OilPrice.com has exclusively been told by senior sources close to the Iranian regime. The next round of joint military exercises in the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Hormuz will mark the onset of this in-situ military expansion in Iran, as the Russian ships involved will be allowed by Iran to use the facilities in Bandar-e-Bushehr and Chabahar. Depending on the practical strength of domestic and international reaction to this, these ships and Spetsntaz will remain in place and will be expanded in numbers over the next 50 years.