USA - A rare storm packing 100 mph winds has left more than 1.1 million Americans without power across the Midwest as it caused widespread destruction with blown over trees, flipped vehicles, property damage and several severe weather warnings as it turned toward embattled Chicago. The derecho, a widespread weather system with a long line of storms packing high winds, descended upon the Central US on Monday with wind speeds comparable to a major hurricane as it spent several hours tearing through parts of Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin. The storm likely caused more widespread damage than a normal tornado, said Patrick Marsh, science support chief at the National Weather Service´s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. It´s not quite a hurricane. It has no eye and its winds come across in a line. But the damage it is likely to spread over such a large area is more like an inland hurricane than a quick more powerful tornado, Marsh said.

FRANCE - On a farm in France, firefighters beat down the flames that had turned a field of wheat black, but they were too late to save the combine harvester. Caught in the blaze, it belched out flames and thick smoke while the farmer looked on helpless. The blaze in July that destroyed the combine harvester was in a district near the border with Belgium where, farmers say, worrying about wildfires is something new… if the drought persists and if there is a lot of wind, the situation could quickly get worse,” said Eric Martin of France's National Institute of Agriculture Research.

GREECE - Greek emergency services were clearing debris and searching for people potentially still trapped by floodwaters Monday after flash floods sparked by a storm on the island of Evia left seven people dead and one missing over the weekend.

USA - In 2020, it seems like each new day brings more headlines about chaos on the streets of America, and on Monday that included violence right outside the gates of the White House. It is being reported that there was “an active shooter near the White House”, and we are being told that the Secret Service shot a “male suspect” and that the “male suspect” had been transported to the hospital. I am sure that we will learn more about this incident in the days ahead, and we should be thankful that the Secret Service was able to easily handle this situation. But there are reports that a group of protesters plans to “lay siege” to the White House in the weeks leading up to the election, and so officials will undoubtedly have their hands full as we draw closer to November.

LEBANON - The move comes after enraged protesters and world leaders alike demanded political reform following the August 4 blast that killed almost 160 people and injured thousands more. Lebanon's government resigned Monday as the fallout from last week's deadly explosion deepened a political crisis in the country’s blast-ravaged capital. Prime Minister Hassan Diab said he would resign along with all of his ministers. "We will back down and stand with the people. We need to open the door for the people," he said in a televised address to the nation before presenting his resignation to President Michel Aoun. Protesters took to the streets of Beirut again Sunday with video showing what appeared to be tear gas canisters being fired at demonstrators who had congregated in a street near the parliament.

GERMANY - The leader of Germany's biggest far-right party has welcomed US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw thousands of American troops from the European Union country. Tino Chrupalla, the co-chairman of Alternative for Germany, told public broadcaster ZDF the move was in line with his party's program, which seeks the removal of Allied troops and American nuclear warheads from German soil. "In my opinion this even makes Europe a bit more peaceful," Chrupalla said in the ZDF interview broadcast Sunday. He added the withdrawal of US troops "can be a signal toward Russia." His comments echo those of Germany's ex-communist Left party, which has praised the US move. Both parties have close ties to Moscow, which considers the presence of US troops in Europe an affront to its interests. The plan, which Trump has linked to Berlin's failure to spend enough on its own military, foresees leaving about 24,000 troops in Germany.

GERMANY - German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Monday he has personally told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of his “dismay” over a warning by three Republican senators who threatened sanctions against a German port operator for its part in a pipeline project with Russia. The US has long opposed the project, which has been increasingly a source of friction between Berlin and Washington as it nears completion. Maas said he talked by telephone with Pompeo on Sunday about the letter sent last week by Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Tom Cotton and Senator Ron Johnson, which targeted Faehrhafen Sassnitz GmbH, the operator of the Mukran Port located in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s constituency on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen. He did not provide further details of the conversation. The port is a key staging post for ships involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that’s intended to bring natural gas from Russia to Germany. The US argues the project will endanger European security by making Germany overly dependent on Russian gas.

UK - Britain’s economy will be officially declared in recession this week for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, as the coronavirus outbreak plunges the country into the deepest slump on record. After a decline of 2.2% in the first quarter, the latest snapshot will confirm the UK economy’s descent into recession after the outbreak spread in March and the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain it. The US and the eurozone have already been confirmed in recession as the global economy grapples with the sharpest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

USA - Next time you order a Big Mac, Whopper or Sweetgreen salad, consider this: The wrappers and containers your food comes in have been found to contain toxic chemicals that can contaminate your drinking water, harm wildlife and make you sick. PFAS are chemicals used in apparel, carpeting, furniture and food packaging designed to keep materials grease- and water-resistant; they're known as "forever chemicals" as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances cannot break down in the environment. A report released last week on the fast food industry revealed that nearly half of all sampled packaging contained dangerous fluorine levels, while the majority of the locations included do not have policies to address harmful PFAS in their materials. Erika Schreder, science director at Toxic-Free Future, said "We found many instances of packaging that's PFAS-free — there's no reason for these chains to choose any food packaging that contains them."

USA - An enormous “derecho” storm cluster with winds up to 100mph has taken shape in the midwestern US, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake and heading straight for Chicago - as if the Windy City doesn’t have enough problems. The devastating storm - given the rare classification of “Particularly Dangerous Situation” by government meteorologists - is expected to pummel northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin with winds of up to 100mph (160kph) through 7pm local time, according to the US Storm Prediction Center. Potentially causing more damage than a tornado, a derecho is defined as a “line” of thunderstorms stretching at least 250 miles (402km) with wind gusts above 58mph including multiple separated gusts of over 75mph. Damage caused by such formations is termed “straight-line wind damage” to differentiate it from that caused by tornadoes.

USA - Most of us have never experienced anything like this in our entire lifetimes. Fear of COVID-19, endless civil unrest in major US cities and a whole host of other factors have combined to plunge us into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. On Friday, the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate in the US fell to just 10.2 percent last month, and if that number was actually accurate that would be pretty good news.

LEBANON - With a looming famine and surging Covid infections, the country was already facing catastrophe. What happens next for the Lebanese people? The deadly blast that rocked Beirut on Tuesday evening has hit a country already on the brink of collapse, leaving many questioning how Lebanon will recover. The explosion in the port ripped through the city, leaving some 300,000 people homeless, more than 4,000 wounded and at least 100 dead. But the incident is just the latest in a series of calamities to hit the nation – from a 15-year civil war to an economic meltdown. “We have three crises at present: the Syrian refugee crisis; the economic crisis that started in October; and then we have the Covid-19 outbreak that started in February,” Mr Shamma said. “Many friends and acquaintances are just thinking, why a fourth crisis on top of this?”

TAIWAN - Sworn enemies China and Taiwan have sent their military units into the contentious South China Sea military region, causing alarm amid growing tensions. Information derived from satellite images show Chinese amphibious armoured vehicles and mobile missile launchers travelling to the South China Sea. But, alarmingly as Beijing sent its naval vessels south, so too did Taiwan. Taiwan sent over 200 marines to its own military outpost on the Pratas Islands in the South China Sea. This action by Taiwan has caused outrage in Beijing, as China claims the islands as part of its territory.

Beijing refers to these islands as the Dongsha Islands. China claims a vast area of the South China Sea within a line on the map known as the "nine-dash line". The government of Taiwan also claims much of the area within the nine-dash line. China’s President Xi Jinping has set his sights on Taiwan, after subduing Hong Kong.

IRAN - The types of the seven vessels on fire on Wednesday, July 15, and what caused the blazes were not revealed in the first official report from Tehran. The incident followed a string of mysterious explosions at Iran’s nuclear, military and missile production sites ongoing since late June. If this suspected campaign of sabotage has been extended to encompass Iran’s navy, it would be a serious escalation, amounting to a threat to Iran’s claim to control the Persian Gulf and its waters. Bushehr province is also home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant.

ISRAEL - Fifteen years after Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip, an Israeli minister said the Jewish state would eventually re-invade the Hamas-run coastal enclave if rocket fire into Israel continued. “We will eventually have to go all the way into Gaza and take over, because one day it will be impossible to do so,” Israel’s Community Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told i24 News. “One day there will be so many rockets and missiles fired from Gaza that the Israeli public won’t accept the status quo anymore,” he added. His comments came after a rocket was fired from Gaza at Israel last week. “The State of Israel will not accept any violation of its sovereignty or harm to residents of the south,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz wrote on Twitter. “If the terror organizations still don’t understand, whoever tests Israel will be hit hard.”