USA - The US empire is in terminal decline, and heading for a dystopian future. Yet no-one – not the generals, the politicians or the fawning MSM – will be held accountable for all the military follies that herald its imminent collapse. The debacle in Afghanistan, which will unravel into chaos with lightning speed over the next few weeks and ensure the return of the Taliban to power, is one more signpost of the end of the American empire.

USA - Have you noticed that apocalyptic wildfires have been erupting all over the globe this summer? Of course every year there are wildfires, and that has been true all throughout human history. But what we are witnessing this year has truly been unprecedented. In just the past couple of weeks, we have seen historic fires in the United States, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Lebanon and Russia. Hundreds of colossal fires are currently raging around the planet as you read this article, and we are only about halfway through the summer at this point. Authorities are warning that more gigantic fires are surely coming during the second half, because much of North America and Europe is dry as a bone right now.

ISRAEL - The clock has been ticking for a long time, and now Israel is telling us that Iran is “only around 10 weeks away from acquiring weapons-grade materials necessary for a nuclear weapon”. The Israelis have always been very clear about the fact that they will never, ever allow the Iranians to get to that point, and so that would appear to leave only 10 weeks remaining to avert a major war in the Middle East. And let us certainly hope that war can be averted, because a major war in the Middle East could easily spark a full-blown global war. US relations with both Russia and China continue to deteriorate very rapidly, and the Biden administration is being very aggressive with both of them.

ISRAEL - Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group says it has fired a barrage of rockets near Israeli positions close to the Lebanese border, calling it retaliation for Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon a day earlier. In a statement, Hezbollah says it rocketed “open fields” near Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa farms area, with “dozens” of rockets. It did not provide further details. The strike came as the Israeli army says sirens in northern Israel are warning of new attacks from over the border with Lebanon on Friday. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The overnight airstrikes were a marked escalation at a politically sensitive time. Israel’s new eight-party governing coalition is trying to keep peace under a fragile cease-fire that ended an 11-day war with Hamas’ militant rulers in Gaza in May.

AFGHANISTAN - Shortly after announcing the departure of US troops from Afghanistan, Biden has deployed B-52 bombers and AC-130 Spectre gunships in a desperate attempt to slow the advances of Taliban terrorists who have taken over half of the country. The aircraft are deploying from a US airbase in Qatar and will be joined by unmanned reaper drones in their assault on the insurgents. Their efforts will focus on 3 key cities that are currently being attacked – Kandahar, Herat, and Lashkar Gah. The Taliban mobilized a military campaign and has been quickly gaining control of more territory after Biden began pulling US forces out of the country. The announcement to withdraw was made only after America’s standing in the region had been weakened by months of horrible foreign policy, which laid the groundwork for these terrorists to start taking over.

UK - [Theodore Dalrymple quote:] “Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”

USA - People come to Mendocino, California, a historic town in the far north of the state for the water, situated as it is on a rugged, scenic part of the foggy Pacific coast. But soon, there may be no more water coming to Mendocino, thanks to the West’s dire, climate crisis-fueled drought. Residents of the village have resorted to using porta potties, watering plants with dishwater, and trucking in fresh water at exorbitant prices to survive, but soon even that may not be enough, the latest blow to a tourist town already struggling to recover from the Covid pandemic. “The town in general is in terrible, terrible shape,” Helen Mackenzie, manager of the town’s Blair Inn, told The Independent. “Over 25 percent of the wells in town have gone dry. Everybody in the village of Mendocino is on a well. A lot of businesses are already having to haul water in.”

GREECE - Deadly wildfires in Greece and Turkey have forced thousands of people to flee their homes as a relentless heatwave continues to spark infernos in tinder-dry forests. Firefighters last night battled to bring under control two massive blazes which raged near the ancient site of Olympia, on the western Peloponnese peninsula, and on the island of Evia, around 100 miles north of Athens. Around 200 firefighters, 50 fire trucks, six helicopters and water-bombing planes were sent to douse fires encircling the archaeological site where the Olympics were first held in 776 B.C. Thousands more people were fleeing to safety as a wildfire north of Athens caused the shutdown of major motorways as firefighters sought to prevent the blaze from reaching houses, power plants and historic sites. On Evia, the Greek coast guard rallied an flotilla of patrol boats and private vessels to evacuate hundreds of residents and vacationers by sea after several fires combined to block land routes off the island.

USA - They are land rich and resource poor. Most have hundreds of acres of fertile soil, some thousands, but little money in the bank and – most importantly – no water. Now the young farmers of the Klamath Basin, an agricultural community on the border of Oregon and California, fear they might be the last generation of their kind. “It sounds like a sad country song, but that’s the current situation we’re in,” said Bryce Balin, 28, who manages his family’s 2,200-acre farm. An all-organic enterprise, Balin raises grass-fed cattle, livestock feed, winter hay and potatoes, all set against a panorama of dry, alpine hills. The area has struggled with water scarcity for years – but this year has been unlike any other. Amid a historic drought, in May the federal government cut off all irrigation to farmers for the first time in more than a century, in an effort to conserve water for the endangered fish that also share this landscape.

GERMANY - It’s August, and the living ought to be easy. But Germany votes in eight weeks, and all three candidates vying to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel seem eminently resistible. In a recent poll asking who should be their next leader, 45% of Germans chose “none of the above.” Was it always this way? Compared to Germany's past chancellors, all of the candidates to replace Angela Merkel are untested; whether they are prepared for the challenges of being Germany's ninth chancellor remains to be seen, writes Constanze Stelzenmüller. This post originally appeared in the Financial Times.

UK - A quarter of all pregnancies in England and Wales end in abortion, according to updated data released Thursday from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). “The percentage of conceptions leading to a legal abortion among all women in England and Wales increased from 24 per cent in 2018 to 25.2 per cent in 2019, the second year in a row this has increased for all age groups,” said the ONS, according to a report at the Daily Mail. About 207,000 out of 821,000 pregnancies conceived in 2019 were terminated, the highest number since 1990, when ONS began keeping records. The number of teen abortions is at its highest level, with nearly two-thirds of pregnancies terminated among those 16 years of age and under.

USA - A large scale California hydropower plant was shut down on Thursday after ongoing drought conditions reduced water levels in Lake Oroville to historic lows, according to the Sacramento Bee. Why it matters: It is the first time the Edward Hyatt hydroelectric power plant has ceased operations since it was constructed in 1967, at a time when California is warning about the potential for rolling blackouts.

USA - Officials say Northern California's Dixie Fire grew by 110 square miles (285 square kilometers) between Thursday night and Friday morning, making the blaze the largest wildfire currently raging in the country. The Dixie Fire has consumed 432,813 acres — an increase of 71,000 acres from the night before. The Bootleg Fire in Oregon had previously been the nation's largest active wildfire, at 413,765 acres. The Dixie Fire is only 35% contained and is expected to grow. It currently stands as California's third-largest wildfire in history. The Bootleg Fire, which sparked July 6, is 87% contained. Eva Gorman says the little California mountain town of Greenville was a place of community and strong character, where neighbors volunteered to move furniture, colorful baskets of flowers brightened Main Street, and writers, musicians, mechanics and chicken farmers mingled. Now, it's ashes. “It’s just completely devastating. We’ve lost our home, my business, our whole downtown area is gone,” said Gorman.

USA - Firefighters working the massive Dixie Fire burning in several Northern California counties are having to deal with another challenge: residents who refuse to evacuate and are brandishing guns at fire crews. Flames from the Dixie Fire advanced into the town of Greenville, burning an estimated 75% of homes and businesses in the historic Gold Rush-era town of about 1,000 residents. Fire crews have encountered property owners who were refusing to leave their homes as the flames approached and threatening firefighters with weapons. California Incident Management operations section chief Jake Cagle made the stunning revelation at the end of the Thursday morning news briefing. “We have firefighters getting guns pulled out on them because people don’t want to evacuate. Not trying to place the blame on the landowners. We understand, our hearts go out to them.”

USA - Crushed by a devastating drought and new water restrictions, Daniel Hartwig had no choice but to pull thousands of precious, fragrant almond trees from his California farm. "It breaks your heart," he sighed as he surveyed the once vibrant landscape before him — curled, yellowed leaves covering the shrunken husks that would have been this year's crop of almonds, had the water arrived. Their exposed roots are already starting to turn powdery with rot, and the temperature of almost 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) on this summer morning speeds their decomposition. Moving among them are huge machines that will turn Hartwig's "beautiful prime almond trees" into large piles of woodchips. Hartwig is in charge of water management for the mega-property of Woolf Farms, an estate of over 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares) around the small market town of Huron. California produces 80 percent of the almonds consumed worldwide, a market that has doubled in 15 years driven by demand for substitutes for animal products, such as almond milk.