FRANCE - A huge thunderstorm has bombarded the French region of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes with hailstones the size of tennis balls, and included a record number of lightning bolts, providing for a deluge of impressive content on social media. The meteorological calamity led to the classification by Meteo France of most of the country as being at the second-to-worst ‘level orange’ weather threat on Saturday. But Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, located on the border with Switzerland and Italy, was hit the hardest. The French south had already witnessed a massive hailstorm in mid-June, in which 10 people were injured and serious damage was meted out to property and to local vineyards.

USA - While the US makes up 4% of the world’s population it produces 12% of its trash, more than both China and India. To make matters worse, it is also terrible at managing its garbage output, recycling a small percentage of waste. As trash continues to saturate the world’s oceans and mount in developing countries where waste from the first world is offshored, the US could be headed for crisis as more and more countries begin to refuse to take America’s mountains of garbage. Unlike Germany, where 68% of waste is reused, the US recycles 35%, making it particularly dependent on shipping the problem elsewhere, according to a new report. “The US is the only developed nation whose waste generation outstrips its ability to recycle, underscoring a shortage of political will and investment in infrastructure,” the report said.

GERMANY - Deutsche Bank announced Sunday that it will pull out of its global equities sales and trading business as part of a sweeping restructuring plan to improve profitability. The German lender once sought to compete with America’s big banks on Wall Street, but has been pummeled by scandals, investigations and massive fines stemming from the financial crisis and other issues in recent years. Deutsche reached a $7.2 billion settlement with the US Justice Department in January 2017 for allegedly misleading investors in the sale of mortgage-backed securities in the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis. Weeks later, the bank was slapped with a $630 million fine over allegations of Russian money laundering. Those penalties came two years after the bank paid a $2.5 billion fine to US and UK regulators for allegedly participating in a scheme to rig interest rates.

EUROPE - Top eurocrat Jean-Claude Juncker today hit out at the backroom process to appoint his successor as the head of the European Commission. Mr Juncker, who is expected to step down as the EU’s most senior official at the end of October, bemoaned the so-called Spitzenkandidat not becoming a “tradition” after leaders rejected the process. Speaking at a press conference in Helsinki, he said: “The process was not very transparent.” The Spitzenkandidat system, used probably for the first and last time in 2014, ties the appointment of the European Commission president to the results of the European elections. Manfred Weber, who was lead candidate for the European People’s Party, has accused leaders of “damaging the democratic principles of Europe”. “I can honestly say that this is not the Europe I imagined. I will continue to fight for the democratisation of the EU.”

EUROPE - The European Union has begun to "fall apart at the seams," pushing EU leaders to rally around "things you can count on" to protect the project from issues cracking the union, Brexit Party MEP Lucy Harris has claimed. Speaking to talkRADIO, the Brexit Party MEP said: "They are starting to panic because the European Union situation is starting to see some cracks. You’ve got situations down in the south of Europe, where you’ve got the Italians trying to launch a new currency, you’ve got the Catalonia problem, you’ve got the Yellow Vests in France. It’s starting to fall apart at the seams. When things start to fall apart at the seams, you want to centralise everything around things you can count on and that is their inner circle." Ms Harris also condemned the EU leadership nominations, branding them a "stitch-up" as she claimed some of the candidates proposed are "unfit for office."

EUROPE - What do Macron, May, and Merkel have in common? They have no children, in fact, many European political leaders who make decisions affecting Europe’s future are childless. The same is true of Holland’s Mark Rutte, Italy’s Paolo Gentiloni, Switzerland’s Simonetta Sommaruga, Sweden’s Stefan Löfven, Luxembourg’s Xavier Bettel, Scotland’s Nicola Sturgeon. These globalists are a sinister reflection of an ideological Europe and its lack of will to reproduce and place the family at the center, literally as well as culturally. This disturbing trend threatens to make ours the last viable ethno-European generation. The other characteristic shared by the European Union’s barren leaders is their multicultural, globalist policies, complete with open borders, mass immigration, and the European traditional family replaced by an individualistic lifestyle. Europe’s leaders are products of a dominant feminist culture.

ISRAEL - In a troubling trend that continues to be overlooked by international media, the Temple Activist movement that seeks to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and replace it with a Third Temple continues to advance its agenda. The movement’s forward progress is largely thanks to its successful efforts in recent years to rebrand as a “civil rights” movement — securing support from secular and religious Zionists alike — as well as to growing levels of support in Israel’s executive and legislative branches of government.

IRAN - If you needed a reason as to why, Mojtaba Zolnour was perfectly happy to provide one earlier this week. Zolnour is the head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, a powerful position in military terms. On Monday, he made it clear that if the United States were to attack Iran, Iran’s first target would be Israel. “If the US attacks us, only half an hour will remain of Israel’s lifespan,” Zolnour said, according to the Times of Israel. The message is clear: Attack us, we attack Israel.

Hiding elephants in the room is easy for the press and so is hiding the biggest events on the planet like they don’t matter. They do not want us to know that great changes are happening this past two months on our planet, which will have dire consequences in terms of climate and food production. They will not be able to hide it forever but just like we have seen in countless movies, we will be the last to know, with the excuse of not creating a panic or even an intelligent movement to prepare. Huge volcanic eruptions are those that send clouds above the level where they begin to have a cooling affect. Particulates ejected to altitudes above 32,800 feet (10 km) – and into the stratosphere – have a direct cooling effect on the planet.

USA - Tom Holland, who plays Peter Parker in Marvel’s latest superhero movie, Spider-Man: Far from Home, says it is time for a “gay Spider-Man” and said the Marvel universe needs more racially diverse characters besides “straight white guys.”

USA - Doctor who was once an evolutionist explains why the complexities of the human body show that mankind is no accident. Dr Tommy Mitchell has gone through a spiritual evolution. The medical doctor, who once embraced theistic evolution, is now a young-Earth creationist who speaks and writes for Christian ministry Answers in Genesis.

USA - California was hit by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Saturday which caused multiple fires and damage to building foundations. The quake caused roads to crack, fires to break out, houses to collapse and shops to lose stock due to damage. According to new data by CalTech seismologist Doctor Egill Hauksson there is a chance there could be another quake next week, according to CNN. A state of emergency has been declared in Ridgecrest and San Bernardino.

INDONESIA - More than 200,000 terrified people have fled to higher ground fearing a major tsunami as Ternate city in Indonesia was hit by a massive 7.1 scale earthquake today. The 7.1 magnitude quake struck off the northeastern coast of Indonesia's Sulawesi island on Sunday, prompting authorities to issue a tsunami warning. Indonesia sits on the Ring of Fire where about 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes occur. The quake caused panic in the city of Ternate where people ran to higher ground. The earthquake struck out at sea at a depth of 10 kilometres, according to Indonesia's geophysics agency.

EUROPE - A German European federalist who supports the creation of an EU army is on the cusp of replacing Jean-Claude Juncker. Donald Tusk said the EU's new top team would insist on following Brussels' refusal to renegotiate the Brexit deal with Britain's next prime minister. He said: "I am absolutely sure that the new leaders of our institutions will be as consistent as we are today when it comes to the withdrawal agreement and our readiness to discuss our future relationship with the UK." Mr Tusk, the European Council President, ordered EU leaders back to Brussels for more talks in a bid to heal the deep divides left over from the all-night deadlock. After seven hours of talks, the chief eurocrat confirmed the deal was finally done. The plans can still be derailed by the European Parliament, who are yet to confirm the package on offer by EU leaders.

UK - The spectacle of the past few days has shown the EU’s big beasts at their unguarded worst. Thank you, Eurocrats, for being yourselves. The best cure for Europhilia is always to observe the EU’s big beasts at their unguarded worst, wheeling and dealing in their natural habitat, unencumbered by any attachment to democracy, accountability or even basic morality. The spectacle of the past few days made for compulsive watching: we witnessed rare footage of the secretive process that propels so many retreads and second-rate apparatchiks into positions of immense power in Brussels and Frankfurt, utterly disregarding public opinion.