USA - Closed storefronts are typical in American cities and shopping malls that once flourished in commercial zones of suburbia are now empty and abandoned. As the retail apocalypse deepens, more than 3,800 stores are expected to close across the country this year. Department stores like Kmart, Macy’s, Sears, and JCPenney, and retailers including Best Buy, Payless, BCBG, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Bebe have decided to close dozens of locations. The increased vacancy rate is simultaneously occurring while online retailing giant Amazon continues to acquire a more significant share of the consumption pie. According to Reis, the vacancy rate of malls could significantly jump over the next several years. Even Credit Suisse believes 25 percent of shopping malls will shut their doors by 2022.
ISRAEL - This week’s massive escalation of rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip spotlights the security dangers faced by Israel if the Jewish state evacuates territory either unilaterally or in a deal with the Palestinians, contended Breitbart Jerusalem chief Aaron Klein.
USA - When an ordinary account gets banned on Facebook, it’s possible that no human was ever involved in the decision. Not so for Alex Jones and Infowars. According to the New York Times, the order to ban the radio host came from the very top.
SOUTH AFRICA - Shockwaves are still being felt in South Africa after President Cyril Ramaphosa's controversial announcement that the country's constitution is to be changed to explicitly allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.
USA - The establishment media and a TV manufacturer are blaming President Trump’s tariffs on cheap, Chinese imports for the closure of the company whose product is made in China. This week, the establishment media has used the closure of Element Electronics, a small manufacturing plant in Winnsboro, South Carolina, where 126 workers will be laid off, to attack Trump’s tariffs on imported Chinese goods.
ISRAEL - Terrorist groups in Hamas-controlled Gaza fired 180 rockets into Israel on Wednesday and Thursday, including a long-range rocket that landed near the southern Israeli town of Beersheba. The Israeli Air Force struck back, flattening a Hamas security headquarters. The international media went into its usual anti-Israel spin mode, describing the violence as “clashes” instead of what it was: an unprovoked attack on civilians by Hamas, which is using the violence to gain diplomatic leverage and convince the world to send money.
USA - Readers may recall that as part of the RIT Capital Partners 2014 annual report commentary, the scion of Rothschild family warned that "the geopolitical situation is most dangerous since WWII." Fast forward to today when in the latest half-year commentary from RIT Capital Partners, Lord Rothschild has made his latest warning to date, this time focusing on the global economic system that was established after WWII, and which he believes is now in jeopardy.
USA - The unceremonious purge of InfoWars and Alex Jones across Facebook, YouTube and Apple is just the beginning of a grim future for conservatives. The shift of power from government to privately held companies is just one more way for the radical left to circumvent the trappings of law and order — and operate outside the realm of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
USA - The founder and president of a major media watchdog group says that the recent purging of Alex Jones and InfoWars from the social media gamut is far worse than just a “slippery slope” towards authoritarian censorship and the silencing of all voices that dare to speak out against the status quo.
USA - Democratic socialist and Congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has slammed Republicans for funding tax cuts and America’s “unlimited war,” while refusing to provide universal healthcare. “People talk about the sticker shock of Medicare-for-all, but not of our existing system," Ocasio-Cortez told CNN's Chris Cuomo. “This is not a pipe dream. Every other nation does this - why can't America?” she added.
USA - Internal emails leaked to Foreign Policy have revealed that US presidential adviser Jared Kushner has been conspiring to pull the plug on the primary aid organization providing help to Palestinian refugees and to convince surrounding Arab nations to make the Palestinians citizens. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was established by the United Nations in 1949, with the help of the US, to provide relief for Palestinians displaced from their homes following the establishment of the State of Israel. However, 70 years later, most Palestinian people remain refugees, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, and the numbers have ballooned from around 700,000 to over 5 million people. Of the original refugees, only a few tens of thousands are still alive, Foreign Policy noted.
USA - Children's advocates want the American Psychological Association to condemn the tech industry's practice of using persuasive psychological techniques to keep kids glued to their screens. The advocates, citing research that links excessive use of social media and video games with depression and academic troubles, say it's unethical for psychologists to be involved in tactics that risk harming kids' well-being.
USA - Over 500 scientists have come together to officially denounce Darwinism, claiming his theory of evolution is false and based on bad science. In a paper entitled, “A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism,” scientists have thrown serious doubt on natural selection’s ability to create complex biological systems.
CALIFORNIA - California’s firefighters are currently tackling 15 wildfires across the country with Holy Fire in southern California spreading to 9,600 acres. Holy Fire has spread to 9,600 acres and is only 5 percent contained according to reports from fire officials. This is more than double the size of the blaze was on Wednesday night. The growth of the fire is threatening residential areas, with around 20,000 residents under mandatory evacuation orders. Schools have been closed in Menifee, Perris and Lake Elsinore in line with air quality concerns.
USA - Bankruptcy soars as the country grapples with an unprecedented debt problem. America, you officially have a debt problem, and I am not just talking about the national debt. Consumer bankruptcies are surging, corporate debt has doubled since the last financial crisis, state and local government debt loads have never been higher, and the federal government has been adding more than a trillion dollars a year to the federal debt ever since Barack Obama entered the White House.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.