JAPAN - China’s growing assertiveness toward Taiwan has triggered a public push by Japanese leaders to plan for a possible conflict, a shift that could lead to closer cooperation with the US military. Tokyo officials, normally wary of upsetting Beijing, are speaking openly about preparing for a crisis and supporting Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by China, despite Japan’s pacifist constitution. Like the US, Japan doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. But on Friday, lawmakers in Tokyo and Taipei held a rare meeting by videoconference to discuss ways to boost ties, including possible cooperation in maritime rescue. Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said recently in a speech to supporters that Japan and the US should plan together to defend the island in the event of hostilities. In its annual regional security review, Japan said there is a “greater sense of crisis than ever before” regarding Taiwan, after China stepped up maneuvers by its ships and aircraft nearby.

EUROPE - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday bypassed Joe Biden and the United States and asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for support in rescuing local Afghan forces after the Taliban takeover. The remarks came during Merkel’s trip to Moscow — likely the last in her capacity as chancellor as she is due to step down from politics following Germany’s general election in September. But it also came at a time of immense global strife, just days after the Taliban’ seized control of Kabul, Afghanistan and the rising tensions in Ukraine. The two leaders have had different ideas about the Taliban’s capture of Kabul. Merkel has described the situation as “bitter, dramatic and terrifying.” Moscow, meanwhile, is seeking to open channels of communication with the Islamist group and appears to be looking to foster some sort of relationship with the Taliban. Vlad Putin told Merkel that other countries must not impose their political beliefs on Afghanistan, adding that the Taliban’s rule of the country is the reality that needs to be taken into account.

MIDDLE EAST - Millions of people in Syria and Iraq are at risk of losing access to water and food amid rising temperatures and record low water levels due to lack of rainfall, international aid groups warned Monday. Those affected include 5 million in Syria who are directly dependent on the Euphrates River, while in Iraq, loss of access to water from the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers threaten at least 7 million. The drought is also disrupting electricity supplies as low water levels impact dams. Two dams in northern Syria, supplying power to 3 million people, face imminent closure. Severe water shortages have also hit Lebanon, where more than 4 million people face critical water shortages. Severe fuel shortages in Lebanon have also halted the work of thousands of private generators long relied on for electricity. Lebanon’s rivers are also heavily polluted. Activists have long warned about pollution levels caused by sewage and waste in the Litani River, the country’s longest and a major source for water supply, irrigation and hydroelectricity.

UK - The family of Geoffrey Thomas Campbell, a British national who died in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001, submitted an application today under the UK Coroners Act 1988 requesting a new inquest into his death nearly 20 years ago. The Campbell family — which includes Mr Campbell’s parents Maureen and Malcolm, two brothers Matt and Rob, and his former fiancée — applied for the new inquest citing significant evidence not heard by the coroner at Mr Campbell’s first inquest in 2013. The family contends that the unheard evidence contradicts the coroner’s official finding that the impact of the aircraft into World Trade Center 1 at 8:46am and the ensuing fires are what caused the building’s total destruction at 10:28am, taking Mr Campbell’s life. They allege that the unheard evidence overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that the destruction of WTC 1 — as well as the destruction of WTC 2 and WTC 7 — was caused by the use of explosives and incendiaries.

USA - US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ross Wilson is now blaming those Americans who are stranded in Afghanistan for being stranded in Afghanistan. Ambassador: WILSON: “We put out repeated warnings, every three weeks, to Americans, going back to, I think, March or April, each one in stronger terms, leave now, leave immediately. Never in my 40 years of working — since I began working at the State Department have I seen such strong language used. People chose not to leave. That’s their business. That’s their right. We regret now that many may find themselves in a position that they would rather not be in. And we are determined to try to help them.” ...as recently as July 8, a mere six weeks before it did happen, no one less than the President of the United States, Joe Biden was telling everyone — and I quote: “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” Joe Biden is going to leave thousands of American civilians behind terrorist enemy lines, and he’s going to say it’s their own fault, even though on July 8, he was telling them they had nothing to worry about.

USA - Is history about to repeat itself? As I write this article, it is being projected that Hurricane Ida could hit New Orleans on Sunday, and that would be exactly 16 years to the day from when Hurricane Katrina absolutely devastated the city in 2005. The levees that were supposed to protect New Orleans spectacularly failed, and almost 2,000 people were killed. It has been estimated that 125 billion dollars in damage was caused by Katrina, and to this day it remains one of the most costly natural disasters in US history. Now Hurricane Ida is coming, and meteorologists are extremely concerned about this storm. Since 2005, we have not seen a major hurricane make a direct hit on New Orleans. Over the coming hours, the path of the storm could still change, and so let’s keep a close eye on it. The Weather Channel is warning that it could become a Category 4 storm as it approaches the coast… If Ida were to slow down and linger in the Gulf of Mexico for an extra day or two, could it potentially become a Category 5 storm?

USA - Hurricane Ida intensified over warm Gulf of Mexico waters on Saturday, prompting tens of thousands to flee coastal areas, while President Joe Biden pledged aid to help states quickly recover once the storm has passed. Forecasters said Ida could make a US landfall on Sunday night as an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, generating winds of 140 miles per hour (225 kph), heavy downpours and a tidal surge that could plunge much of the Louisiana shoreline under several feet of water. "We're concerned about explosive development shortly before it makes landfall," said Jim Foerster, chief meteorologist at DTN, which provides weather advice to oil and transportation companies. Officials ordered widespread evacuations of low-lying and coastal areas, jamming highways and leading some gasoline stations to run dry as residents and vacationers fled the seashore.

USA - US President Joe Biden promised on Thursday to hunt down and destroy the ISIS-K terrorists who killed 13 American service personnel and dozens of Afghans in a double suicide attack on Kabul airport. He made the retaliation threat last night as he joined Boris Johnson in vowing to continue the evacuation efforts despite a 'continued' risk of further bombings by the terrorist group which is an enemy of the Taliban who are in control of the country. The jihadist group, an off-shoot of the terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS), last night claimed responsibility for double bombing, which is believed to have killed at least 90 people and injured more than 150 others. Intelligence experts questioned how Biden would strike back after withdrawing all US forces from Afghanistan and handing the country to the Taliban.

AFGHANISTAN - Armed forces minister James Heappey described the terror threat to people outside Kabul airport as "lethal" amid concerns over an affiliate of the so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan, ISIS-K. He told BBC Breakfast: "I can't stress the desperation of the situation enough, the threat is credible, it is imminent, it is lethal. "And we wouldn't be saying this if we weren't genuinely concerned about offering Islamic State a target." ISIS-K, a local branch of the notorious global terrorism organisation, is amassing thousands of fighters to topple the "liberal" Taliban - and they will target Westerners to do it. Founded in 2015, ISIS-K's aim is to establish an Islamic caliphate across Khorasan - a region covering Pakistan and Afghanistan and parts of central Asia. Its fighters - who view the Taliban as too liberal - are thought to number up to 2,200, but this figure could rise dramatically amid political uncertainty. There are now concerns from the Western superpowers that ISIS-K will launch a wave of terror attacks in an attempt to destabilise the Taliban's efforts to form a government, with potential evacuees representing high profile targets.

USA - On Monday, a group of nearly four dozen veteran organizations requested a meeting with President Joe Biden to discuss the evacuation of US partners in Afghanistan and “fulfilling our commitment to our Afghan allies.” “Failing to meet our obligations to these Afghans would not only be a national security risk - harming America’s reputation abroad and eroding the trust in our armed forces that is critical for future operations - it would also condemn veterans and survivors of the conflict in Afghanistan to a lifetime of moral injury,” the group wrote in their letter to Biden. The Taliban seized the Afghan capital, Kabul, on August 15 as the Afghan government collapsed and top government officials fled the country, prompting a frenzied evacuation of US diplomats, citizens, and allies from the country.

USA - On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (Republican for Louisiana) stated that no one believes President Joe Biden will defend American allies like Taiwan and Ukraine after his handling of Afghanistan. Scalise said, “Look at what our enemies around the world must be thinking. What’s China thinking when they look at Taiwan right now? What is Russia thinking when they look at Ukraine right now? Does anybody trust that this president’s going to stand up to bad guys around the world? And do any of our allies think this president will have their backs, just like he cut and run on them in this conflict?”

USA - Erik Prince, a retired US Navy SEAL and founder of the private military company Blackwater USA, joined Steve Bannon on The War Room on Wednesday to discuss Joe Biden’s historic catastrophe in Afghanistan. Prince and Blackwater are assisting Americans and Westerners stranded inside Afghanistan. There are still thousands of Americans stranded inside Afghanistan. According to Erik Prince, who has operatives on the ground, the Taliban and Islamist groups are blocking Americans from reaching the airport and confiscating their passports. Prince was asked about the upcoming celebrations in Kabul on the 20 year anniversary of the 9-11 attacks coming in two weeks. It will be like nothing we have ever seen.

USA - James Madison University in Virginia is training student employees to recognize that people who identify as male, straight, cisgender, or Christian are "oppressors" that engage in the "systematic subjugation" of other social groups. According to documents obtained by Fox News, student employees in charge of facilitating orientation for first-year students this fall at JMU underwent training in recent weeks to learn about social justice and inclusion. The presentation defined privilege as the "unearned social power accorded by the formal and informal institutions of society to ALL members of a dominant group at the expense of targeted groups." It also said members of both the oppressor and target groups are "socialized to play their roles as normal and correct." Among the oppressed groups, according to the presentation, are people who identify as Black, Asian, Latinx, non-Western European, LGBTQ+, homoromantic, Muslim, Jewish, working class, overweight, or disabled, among others.

USA - In just 24 hours, the mainstream media complex has been flooded with the headline “Full Approval!” for the Pfizer gene therapy injection. But wait. Something is not adding up with this new stampede to get the needle into your arm. First, the drug giant Pfizer did not directly develop its mRNA shot: it hired a German company in 2018, BioNTech, to do that for them. They subsequently entered into a joint marketing/manufacturing agreement to deliver the resulting product to the world. Thus BioNTech is not a subsidiary of Pfizer.

ISRAEL - Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's visit to the White House on August 26, the US "is going through an almost traumatic foreign policy setback in Afghanistan with implications for the entire Middle East," said former Israeli Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. "Now is not the time to experiment with new ideas in the peace process."