USA/UK - Whether administered by the knife or the gun, the UK and US are both experiencing epidemics of violence. However, the responses are the same on each side of the Atlantic: lots of finger pointing and few actual solutions. In the US, a pair of deadly mass shootings in Texas and Ohio killed more than 30 people over one weekend. These attacks brought to 255 the number of mass shootings in the US so far this year. Although the definition used here is a broad one and includes minor incidents with no deaths, the fact remains that 8,930 people have been killed with firearms in the US so far in 2019.

ITALY - Italy is engulfed in crisis after its coalition government collapsed following months of internal bickering, which could trigger the rise of a right-wing grouping spelling disaster for the EU. An Italian election could trigger disaster for the Brussels bloc after a shock Ipsos survey revealed if a new vote was held, right-wing parties - Lega, the far-right of Brothers of Italy and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia would take 50.6 percent of the vote. Mr Salvini said in a statement he had told Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who belongs to neither coalition party, that the alliance with Five-Star Movement (MS5) had collapsed after barely a year in power and “we should quickly give the choice back to the voters”. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte launched a stinging attack on Mr Salvini and called on him to explain to the public why he wants to bring down the coalition government.

USA - Is the dollar's "exorbitant privilege" coming to an end? In brief. The US dollar (USD) has been the world’s dominant reserve currency for almost a century. As such, many investors today, even outside the United States, have built and become comfortable with sizable USD over weights in their portfolios. However, we believe the dollar could lose its status as the world’s dominant currency (which could see it depreciate over the medium term) due to structural reasons as well as cyclical impediments. As such, diversifying dollar exposure by placing a higher weighting on other currencies in developed markets and in Asia, as well as precious metals makes sense today. This diversification can be achieved with a strategy that maintains the underlying assets in an investment portfolio, but changes the mix of currencies within that portfolio. This is a completely bespoke approach that can be customized to meet the unique needs of individual clients.

EUROPE - According to a study conducted by the Belgium’s Leuven University, a no deal Brexit would result in the loss of 1.2 million jobs across Europe for EU citizens, compared to the UK’s 500,000 jobs. The biggest losses for the EU were for Germany losing 291,930 jobs, France losing 141,320 jobs and Italy losing 139,140 jobs. However, percentage-wise compared to the population size, the UK was the second hardest hit after the Republic of Ireland.

GERMANY - The sharpest plunge in German factory production in a decade has put economists on recession alert as the “devastating” drop crushed rising hopes of a recovery. Industrial production tumbled 5.2 percent year-on-year in June, the biggest drop since 2009. It fell 1.5 percent compared to the previous month, a steeper than expected slide. The latest setback indicated that the industrial downturn in Europe’s largest economy was deepening even before the recent surge in US-China trade tensions. The slump dashed hopes that Germany's embattled manufacturers had turned a corner after a rebound in factory orders earlier this week.

GERMANY - Germany’s industrial output has plummeted to shocking unexpected lows, sparking further fears Europe’s biggest economy is on the brink of recession and piling pressure onto under-fire Chancellor Angela Merkel. Industrial production figures have revealed output dropped by 1.5 percent in June - a huge acceleration on May’s slight fall of 0.1 percent. The plummeting number is also a long way ahead of analyst expectations of a 0.4 percent drop. This is the latest worrying sign Germany’s economy - the biggest in Europe valued at £3.9 trillion - may have shrunk further in the second quarter, with experts warning it will only get worse. Financial experts have reacted in shock to the plummeting figures, warning there is no immediate quick fix for Germany. ING chief economist Carsten Brzeski said: “The combination of high inventories and few orders at hand does not bode well for industrial production in the months ahead.”

USA - It appears that President Trump is getting ready to bring down the hammer on the big social media companies. According to Politico, the Trump administration is in the process of drafting an executive order that will “tackle Silicon Valley’s alleged anti-conservative bias”. And it is very much in President Trump’s own self-interest to do this.

INDIA - Kashmir’s special status was revoked yesterday, in a move by India’s central government which threatens to ignite violence in one of the world’s most dangerous nuclear flash-points. Why are India and Pakistan at war over Kashmir? The conflict between India and Pakistan is rooted in the British empire, which occupied India for much of the 20th century. When the empire finally left the region in 1947, it forced a bloody partition which created two separate states. These states are India and Pakistan, divided by religion between Muslim majority Pakistan and Hindu majority India.

PAKISTAN - Pakistan will expel the Indian ambassador and suspend trade after suggesting its rival could carry out ethnic cleansing in Kashmir, where tensions remain high following Delhi’s decision to revoke the state’s special status and divide it in two. Amid an unprecedented communications blackout in Kashmir, the Indian government announced on Monday that it would dramatically change its relationship with the state, revoking the special status that the territory was granted in exchange for joining the Indian union after independence in 1947. It also said it would divide the state in two. The move has sparked fierce rhetoric from Pakistan, which also claims Kashmir and has fought two wars with India over the territory, with the country’s army chief vowing to “go to any extent” to stand by Kashmiris.

UK - Wildfires are raging across the globe, hitting parts of the Arctic, Russia, Canada, the USA and Spain. Here is the latest information on the fires currently blazing. Mark Parrington, a wildfires expert at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) said the wildfires are now at “unprecedented levels”. Staggering satellite images have captured the extent of wildfires ablaze in areas of the Arctic and Russia. Siberia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland are all affected by the fires, with many triggered by dry storms and hot weather. The extent of the blazes can be seen from space, with NASA satellites picking up on the plumes of smoke rising from the flames. Wildfires are common at this time of year, but increasingly hot temperatures and strong winds have exacerbated the fires. The worst affected areas are Eastern Russia and Alaska, both in and outside of the Arctic Circle.

USA - Scientists have found a vast array of hidden galaxies, which together could change our understanding of how the universe works. The mysterious galaxies, which were previously unknown to researchers, were discovered by a breakthrough new approach that allowed astronomers to look more deeply than ever before into the universe. The astronomers describe the new find as a treasure trove, representing a huge set of galaxies. It could help solve some of the most deep and fundamental questions about the universe, including the mysteries of supermassive black holes and dark matter. Some researchers had long thought that such hidden galaxies might be out in the universe, waiting to be found. But now they have finally been discovered and cosmologists will have to rethink their understanding of how the universe works. "Theoretical researchers will need to update their theories now."

USA - As the disgustingly dishonest establishment media continues to heap scorn and derision on POTUS Donald Trump following a pair of mass shootings last weekend, despite the fact that he had nothing at all to do with them, the same media has regularly ignored often daily mass shootings in Democrat-run cities all over the country.

SWITZERLAND - Since 5G antennas were installed near their home in the heart of Geneva, these residents of the same area suffer from various health problems. Are they victims of a technology whose dangers were not sufficiently tested? ...these residents of the same area suffer from various health problems. What they have in common is insomnia, tinnitus, headaches. And a lot of unanswered questions.

ISRAEL - The Temple Institute has released a powerful new video to awaken world Jewry and reframe the traditional period of mourning into one of preparation for the rebuilding of the Third Holy Temple. Although millions of Jews worldwide will fast on the Ninth of Av (observed this year on August 11) and strictly adhere to the other halachic requirements of mourning the destruction of the two Holy Temples, for too many the concept of rebuilding the Temple is like a far-away dream. These are the people the Temple Institute wishes to awaken from their slumber.

USA - Whenever a tragic act of violence makes national headlines, the calls to give up more of our freedoms and liberties in exchange for the promise of increased security become deafening. But if we take another step toward becoming an authoritarian society every time something horrible happens, eventually we won’t have any of the basic liberties and freedoms that previous generations of Americans fought so hard to secure for us. Unfortunately, voices like mine are becoming increasingly rare, and the American people seem to want a society that will shelter them from anything that could possibly go wrong. Of course there has never been such a society in all of human history, and we won’t be able to create one either. No governmental system can eliminate the problem of evil, and bad things sometimes happen to good people.