USA - Twenty-one people are dead and dozens are missing in Humphreys County after severe flooding rocked the community Saturday. Crews were going house to house in search of the missing people late Saturday, Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told The Tennessean. Davis said the flooding event is the worst he has seen in his 28 years with the department. Power outages and a lack cell phone service has compounded the problems. Portable units will be brought in to help establish communication lines, Davis said. The river gauge on the Piney River at Vernon in Hickman County measured nearly 32 feet Saturday, shattering the river's record crest in 2019 by close to 12 feet, the NWS reported. Corn fields in Dickson were filled with rivers of water.

USA - Osama bin Laden banned al Qaeda from assassinating Joe Biden because the Democrat would become an incompetent president and 'lead the US into a crisis' if jihadists were successful in killing Barack Obama. Bin Laden made the remark in a 2010 letter that was found in a trove of documents at the Pakistan compound where he was killed by US special forces in 2011. The document was first made public in 2012 but has been brought back to light and given new significance amid the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan that has gifted the country back to the Taliban. Giving his reasoning for attacking Obama, he says: 'Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make Biden take over the presidency for the remainder of the term, as it is the norm over there. Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the US into a crisis.'

USA - According to a career Navy officer, a recent decision made by the Pentagon to require all members of the US military to be vaccinated is actually a grave threat to our country’s national security. And yet, there’s no doubt the Pentagon is going to continue with this particular mandate, because they are simply carrying out the will of the radical left-wingers who are in Congress and other areas of government service, in order to see America transformed into a socialist nightmare. Revolver News reported that Commander J H Furman penned a memo in which he stated that the “forced vaccination of all military personnel with the present COVID-19 vaccines may compromise US national security due to the unknown extent of serious vaccine complications.” “Court martials, prison time and less-than-honorable discharge are possible consequences for those who do not comply,” the WND report said.

LEBANON - Thursday confirmed an oil tanker is readying to sail for Lebanon from Iran, in clear defiance of US sanctions. If the delivery is successful it would be a direct violation of US sanctions imposed on Tehran after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Obama-negotiated JCPOA nuclear deal between Iran and world powers three years ago. The move could then drag Lebanon into the covert naval war between Tehran and Israel, as Nasrallah dared Iran’s foes including the US to try and stop the shipment, the semi-official Tasnim News agency reports. The bankrupt Lebanese state can no longer afford key imports nor subsidise essential goods, leading to crippling and sometimes deadly shortages of electricity, petrol and medicines among other things. Without the diesel needed to power generators, Lebanese have faced power cuts lasting up to 22 hours a day, with businesses, hospitals and government offices forced shut.

UK - Boris Johnson and his government have sparked fury over the way they are handling the escalating food shortage crisis sweeping through the UK, with one leading boss raging that Brexit is to blame. Richard Griffiths, chief executive of the British Poultry Council, wants the Government to fast track workers as the sector faces huge disruptions that have forced leading restaurants including Nando's and KFC to change or even cancel their service. He has blamed worker shortages following the UK's departure from the European Union for the issues the food industry is now facing. The British Poultry Council boss added the industry, which is responsible for producing half of all the meat eaten in the UK, is reporting vacancies of over 16 percent.

AFGHANISTAN - Videos have emerged from Kabul of civilians, including women and children, taking to the streets to protest against the rule of the Taliban and to celebrate Afghanistan’s Independence Day. Protests against the Taliban have entered their second day, this time reaching Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. On Thursday, hundreds of people took to the streets, in part to celebrate Independence Day, but also to rally against the militants, who captured the capital on Monday. The protests, which are reportedly happening in Kabul and at least one other city, are occurring one day after the Taliban opened fire on civilians waving a flag in Jalalabad, killing three, according to witnesses.

AFGHANISTAN - Afghan resistance has claimed to have captured three towns north of Kabul in fighting that 'killed or injured 60 Taliban fighters'. Local forces are reported to have taken back the Pul-e-Hesar, Deh-e-Salah and Banu districts in the Baghlan province on Friday. Writing in Persian, Afghan Defence Minister General Bismillah Mohammadi said the three areas had been reclaimed, adding: 'The resistance is still alive.' A Twitter account under the name 'Panjshir Province' - the only area not controlled by the Taliban - earlier said the Pul-e-Hesar was captured while 'fighting was raging' in the other two districts. The Panjshir Valley northeast of Kabul is Afghanistan's last remaining holdout, known for its natural mountainous defences.

USA - The National Hurricane Center has upgraded Tropical Storm Henri to a hurricane. With wind speeds currently around 75mph, Henri is expected to batter Long Island or southern New England on Sunday. Severe weather warnings have been issued across the northeastern US, as Hurricane Henri tracks northwest across the Atlantic. Henri was upgraded from a tropical storm to a hurricane by the National Hurricane Center on Saturday morning, and is expected to make landfall on Sunday. Should it hit Long Island, it will be the first hurricane to strike there since Gloria in 1985. If it makes landfall in New England, it will be the first hurricane to do so since Bob in 1991, which killed 15 people and racked up a bill of more than $1.5 billion in damages.

USA - No empire is eternal: all eventually fall amid hubris and humiliation. The heart-wrenching, humanitarian calamity that is the botched Afghan retreat is merely the latest sign that the American era is ending: Washington is no longer the world’s policeman, and an unsettling future of clashes between expansionist, authoritarian regional powers beckons.

USA - Christianity has always been hand in hand with the greatest empires. The abandonment of Christianity has always led to the collapse of any nation or people or family or person who abandons it. This is an axiom.

[Axiom definition: a self-evident truth that requires no proof.]

NORTH KOREA - The world’s gaze may now be focused on Afghanistan, but can North Korea resist the opportunity to kick out at Washington when it’s down? The world’s eyes are focused on Afghanistan, so much so that the other potential “flashpoints” around the globe have been forgotten. Nowhere is this more relevant than the Korean Peninsula, where North Korea has voiced firm, yet not overwhelming, opposition to a series of joint military drills taking place this week between South Korea and the US. Its ambassador to China made the unusual step of giving an interview to the Global Times, with the article warning that the “US is bound to pay a price for joint drills with South Korea”. Pyongyang has a record for this kind of stance: On only three occasions has North Korea in the past decade not responded to the annual war games with provocations of its own, seeing them as a rehearsal for an invasion against it.

CHINA - The collapse of Afghanistan has brought us a lot closer to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The way that the Biden administration has handled the US withdrawal from Afghanistan is not going to bring peace. Instead, I believe that it is going to result in more war. For decades, the overwhelming strength of the United States restrained other major powers from becoming too adventurous. But now the stunning defeat in Afghanistan has exposed how weak we have become.

USA - After a year of giving lip service to Joe Biden, CNN has finally admitted that he simply sucks at his job. As Joe Biden’s presidency appears to be coming to a spectacular end with his failure in Afghanistan, CNN is now laying the groundwork to mentally prepare the public for a Kamala Harris presidency.

USA - President Joe Biden’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan has sent a shiver of frustration and bewilderment through allies at home and abroad who regarded his inauguration as a break from former President Donald Trump’s oft-haphazard approach to foreign policy. German politician Armin Laschet, the heir-apparent to outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel, described the situation even more harshly. “This is the greatest debacle that NATO has seen since its foundation, and it is an epochal change that we are facing,” he said this week. That’s the kind of criticism European officials might have expected Trump to earn rather than Biden, given the former president described the alliance as “obsolete” during his campaign to win the White House in 2016. NATO officials and European leaders heaved a sigh of relief when Biden defeated Trump. “The Afghanistan operation was always going to end sometime. It was never going to go on forever. But the manner in which it’s been done has been humiliating and damaging to NATO.”

YEMEN - There is no magic bullet that can end the war in Yemen. An adjusted international approach is badly needed, but will not represent an algorithm to end the conflict. This is perhaps frustrating news for an American foreign policy establishment that is eager to fast-track a solution to the country’s knotty problems and move on. But continuing with the same diplomatic strategy, based on an outdated understanding of the conflict, is a recipe for disaster. The appointment of the new UN envoy represents an opportunity to build a negotiating framework that incentivizes dealmaking and can potentially lead to a more realistic and sustainable peace. But patience will be needed. Rethought and reinvigorated diplomacy will take time and will face numerous setbacks. Beginning that difficult effort, however, is the only way to halt the war’s grim trajectory.