HAWAII - Hurricane Lane's outer bands have been pummeling Hawaii's Big Island with rain Thursday morning, triggering landslides and threatening serious flooding as the Category 4 cyclone moves perilously close to the Aloha State. The center of the storm - which could become the first major cyclone to make landfall in the state in 26 years - is expected to move very close to the main islands or cross land Thursday through Friday, forecasters said. It could be so devastating that authorities are urging residents to set aside two weeks' worth of food and water. "Be prepared to shelter in place with 14 days of food supplies and water and any other necessities," Hawaii Govenor David Ige said at a news conference Wednesday. Most areas are expected to see 10 to 20 inches through Sunday, while some could get more than 30 inches.

USA - In an interview with Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, Coulter said liberals have used immigration to demographically alter the United States in order to avoid having to “care about the middle part of the country.”

USA - Have you ever heard of the “Sound Advice Risk Indicator”? Every single time in our history when it has gone above 2.0 the stock market has crashed, and now it has just surged above that threshold for the very first time since the late 1990s. That doesn’t mean that a stock market crash is imminent, but it is definitely yet another indication that this stock market bubble is living on borrowed time.

RUSSIA - Russia has been selling US government debt and buying gold. A lot of gold. Official data show the Russian central bank increased its holdings of gold by nearly 29 tons in July, the largest monthly increase since November 2017. The central bank previously added 20 tons in May and 17 tons in June. Its total holdings of the precious metal have increased 37% since the start of 2016, and are now worth an estimated $76 billion. The gold purchases have coincided with a dramatic reduction in the central bank's ownership of US government debt, which plummeted 84% between March and May to just $14.9 billion. Treasuries now make up only 17% of reserves at Russia's central bank.

ITALY - Italy is facing a major debt crisis as the eurozone lurches once again towards financial disaster, an expert has warned. Traders have expressed mounting fears for the country’s financial health, and the potential knock-on effects for its European neighbours. At the root of this lies moves by Italy’s new populist government to further increase astronomical levels of public debt - which is already way above the euro-threshold of 60 percent of gross domestic product. Rome's government debt stands at 130 percent of GDP, just below that of the eurozone’s perennial economic basket-case Greece.

EUROPE - European farmers have suffered from the disastrous effects of the summer heatwave that have shrunk cereal harvests and decreased pastures leaving many farms struggling to survive and reducing the EU export markets. The heatwave in Europe has come at the same time as the adverse growing conditions in other countries, including Russia and Australia meaning that supplies will be at their smallest for years. The sweltering heat has left Spain and Portugal struggling in temperatures of more than 40C (104F) and other countries experiencing extraordinarily high temperatures leaving many outdoor spaces yellow and sparking wildfires. The poor harvest yields and reduced grassland has led to increased costs for animal feed, which has put pressure on livestock farms. In Denmark, the heatwave and drought has caused losses of £700 million.

USA - Talking to his supporters at a rally in Charleston, West Virginia, President Trump firmly warned them against embracing censorship of opposite viewpoints no matter how much opposite they are.“You can’t pick one person and say ‘well we don’t like what he’s been saying, he’s out,'” Trump said, pushing back against censorship of any social media accounts, regardless of political affiliation. “You can’t have censorship,” he added, because “it can turn around, it can be them next.” "So we’ll live with fake news. I mean I hate to say it but we have no choice because that’s by far the better alternative," Trump explained. “I would rather have fake news than have anybody – including liberals, socialists, anything – than have anybody stopped and censored.”

USA - Within the past few days, we have seen an enormous magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit Venezuela and a giant magnitude 8.2 earthquake hit Fiji.  Where will the next one strike?  To many of us, it is becoming exceedingly clear that something very unusual is happening to our planet.  I went and looked it up, and I was astounded to learn that the crust of the Earth has been shaken by 144 major earthquakes over the last 7 days, and that includes more than 50 on Sunday alone. 

USA - An Earthquake has rattled a volcano in Alaska with a series of tremors recorded across the state. A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck 28 miles south east of Tanaga Volcano, Alaska, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). There has been a total of 35 earthquakes in Alaska in the last two days, ranging from 2.5 in magnitude to 6.3 according to the USGS. Tanaga Volcano, is located on Tanaga Island within the Andreanof archipelago and is one of three volcanoes on the island. It is the enclave’s tallest volcano at 5,925ft and lies in the centre of the island’s three main volcanic edifices.

USA - According to the Washington Times, the Crime Prevention Research Center’s John Lott has produced a study that offers some “facts” that the far-left will probably despise. 97.8 percent of mass shootings happen in gun-free zones, Lott’s latest report finds. Lott uses the FBI definition of “mass public shootings” as an incident in which four or more people are killed (excluding the shooter) by gunfire in a non-gang or non-drug related capacity. Lott also defines a “gun-free zone” as areas where the average citizen can’t typically carry guns. 97.8 percent is a startling figure. Another way to look at it is that only 2.2 percent of mass shootings happen where people can carry firearms.

USA - Google has launched a brand new feature for its artificially intelligent Google Assistant that’s designed to cheer people up by filtering negative news. Simply ask your phone (or the Google Home speaker) to ‘tell me something good’ and you’ll be given a nice summary of positive stories about people solving real problems. ‘These days we’re consuming more news than ever, and sometimes, it can feel like there are only problems out there,’ explained Ryan Burke, a creative producer at Google’s Creative Lab. ‘But the fact is, there is a plethora of ‘good news’ happening, and we’re not talking about unlikely animal friendships or random acts of kindness.

MEXICO - The newly-minted cardinal was speaking to a group of journalists on August 16, just days after the bombshell revelations out of Pennsylvania that some 300 members of the Church abused upwards of 1,000 children over the course of 70 years. This abuse was only possible, according to othe grand jury report, because of a Church-wide cover up that reached all the way to the Vatican. “I’m here happy to talk about nice things, not about problematic things, it’s an accusation that is made, and in some cases it’s true,” Obeso River said. “But the evil of many is the consolation of fools, because sometimes those who accuse men of the Church should [be careful] because they have long tails that are easily stepped on.” The comments could be interpreted as a threat, a threat of exposure if you accuse a priest with skeletons in your own closet.

GERMANY - You can now read in English the article that spoiled many a European summer weekend last month, when eminent German political scientist Christian Hacke opined that Germany should acquire its own nuclear weapon: Since the US nuclear guarantee has become increasingly doubtful and a common European deterrent does not seem to be forthcoming, only one possible conclusion can be drawn: in a serious crisis the only one Germany can truly rely on is itself.

GERMANY - Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, as well as Iran and a gas pipeline project that has drawn US ire during tough talks outside Berlin that ended with no clearcut progress. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters no agreements were reached, but the meeting had simply been intended to “check the watches” after Merkel’s meeting with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in May. Ties between the two countries have been strained since Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014. The two leaders both viewed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project as a purely commercial venture, despite persistent fire by the US and Ukrainian governments, Peskov said.

USA - Sometimes, a strongly-worded denial is the most damning evidence of all that something is seriously wrong.  And when things start to really get crazy, “the spin” is often the exact opposite of the truth.  In recent days we have seen a lot of troubling headlines and a lot of chaos in the global financial marketplace, but authorities continue to assure us that everything is going to be just fine.