ALASKA - Alaska has been hit by a huge earthquake, which prompted a major tsunami alert in the US. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit about 75 miles south of Chignik in Alaska. Officials issued a tsunami warning for South Alaska and the Alaska Peninsula, from Kennedy Entrance to Unimak Pass. This has now been downgraded and there is no longer a tsunami threat from this earthquake. It landed in the Ring of Fire, so-called because a huge number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions take place there.

GERMANY - US President Donald Trump’s idea of withdrawing a significant number of US troops from Germany is neither new nor a surprise. The White House issued the same threat once before, just ahead of the NATO summit in July 2018… The political reaction in Germany to Trump’s withdrawal plans is two-fold. In its official statements, Berlin has stated that it would find the move regrettable, while also pointing out that it has yet to be informed of any precise details. However, other members of the major political parties – especially the opposition parties – are expressing very different hopes and concerns. The left-wing Die Linke has said that it supports the withdrawal, and the new SPD parliamentary leader Rolf Mützenich sees it as an opportunity to usher in “a sustainable reorientation of security policy in Europe.” Mützenich and the Greens have campaigned for years for a withdrawal of tactical US nuclear weapons from Germany.

GERMANY - Germany has systematically violated arms export regulations for 30 years, researchers announced on Sunday. "Germany licenses and exports weapons of war and armaments to countries affected by war and crisis, to countries with human rights violations and to regions of tension," the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) said. A PRIF study examined the consistency of German arms export policy since 1990 and whether they adhered to the European Union's eight-point criteria when approving arms exports. The EU criteria includes "respect for human rights and international humanitarian law by the country of final destination" and "maintenance of peace, security and stability in a region." Germany has "repeatedly violated these criteria," the study said. "German weapons are systematically appearing in war zones and in the hands of dictators," Greenpeace disarmament expert Alexander Lurz told French news agency AFP. "We urgently need a strict arms export law that prohibits exports to developing countries and puts an end to this deliberate, systematic undermining of export guidelines."

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - A United Arab Emirates spacecraft rocketed into blue skies from a Japanese launch center Monday at the start of a seven-month journey to Mars on the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission. The lift-off of the Mars orbiter named Amal, or Hope, starts a rush to fly to Earth’s neighbor that is scheduled to be followed in the next few days by China and the United States. At the space center in Dubai, people watching were transfixed by the lift-off, then cheered and clapped, with one woman offering a celebratory cry common for weddings. Amal blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center aboard a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H-IIA rocket on time at 6:58am (2158 GMT Sunday) after being delayed five days by bad weather. Mitsubishi later said the probe successfully separated from the rocket and was now on its solo journey to Mars.

AUSTRALIA - Human body parts named after “men, kings and gods” have been deemed irrelevant and misogynistic by some Australian doctors who no longer seek to salute the ideas of dead, male anatomists. A specialist obstetrician in the state of Queensland, gynaecologist and anatomy lecturer, Dr Kristin Small, is urging her students to drop gender bias and what she calls irrelevant and misogynistic medical language. She believes the terms invoke the jaded beliefs of older generations and wants more practical and descriptive terms for body parts. “The young trainee doctors are mostly keen to learn the more relevant language and are often shocked when they hear the origins of some medical terms,” she said. The word “hysterectomy” originated from a time when women were treated for female hysteria by removing the uterus. The Achilles tendon, the tough band of fibrous tissue that connects the calf muscles to the heel bone, is named after the mythological Greek warrior, Achilles.

ISRAEL - Airports Authority says current restrictions, under which entry granted only to nationals or those obtaining special permit from Immigration Authority, to stay in force. Restrictions preventing foreign visitors from entering the country due to the coronavirus pandemic will be extended until the beginning of September, the Israel Airports Authority announced Monday. The ban will continue until September 1 due to the recent surge in virus infections in Israel, the IAA said. Recent weeks have seen daily infections climb consistently to nearly 2,000, although on Monday the Health Ministry reported a drop to 1,139 cases in the previous 24 hours. The death toll increased by six overnight Sunday and Monday morning, to 415.

USA - 1.5 Billion children are dead – what is the appropriate sentence for such a crime? One out of every six people in the world is missing. If 1.5 billion children had not been systematically killed over the past 50 years, the total population of the planet would be 9 billion instead of the current level of 7.5 billion. And of course I am not even counting the children and the grandchildren that the missing 1.5 billion would have had if they had been allowed to grow up. There have been other great genocides throughout human history, but there has never been one that has literally wiped out one-sixth of humanity. Virtually every nation in the world has eagerly participated in this horrific genocide, and that arguably makes us the most evil generation to ever walk the face of the Earth. So what would the appropriate punishment be for killing 1.5 billion children? 1.5 billion children are dead, and it is difficult to imagine a sentence that would be too harsh for what we have done.

EUROPE - The European Union has been rocked by unprecedented divisions as leaders struggle to find common ground in talks on a coronavirus rescue package. Xavier Bettel said in his seven years as Luxembourg's Prime Minister has he "rarely seen such diametrically opposing positions" from the member states. The bloc's plan to breathe new life into economies throttled by the coronavirus pandemic hung in the balance on Sunday as leaders quarrelled over how to carve up a vast recovery fund. After three days of meetings in Brussels, the 27 EU states are still seeking a compromise on the fund. On the table is a €1.8 trillion package for the bloc's next long-term budget and recovery fund. The €750 billion proposed for the recovery fund would be raised on capital markets by the EU's executive European Commission and funnelled mostly to hard-hit Mediterranean rim countries.

EUROPE - Emmanuel Macron banged his fists on the table in fury as European Union leaders squabbled over plans for a coronavirus recovery fund for the bloc's pandemic-stricken economies. The fraught wrangling over Europe’s financial response to the health crisis entered into its fourth day this morning after negotiations broke up at 6am in Brussels. French President Macron led a weekend assault on the so-called “Frugal Four” who have opposed the original €750 billion bailout, made up of €500 billion in grants and €250 billion in loans. The Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Sweden fought hard to reduce the size of the package to €350 billion in grants with another €350 billion in loans in a total deal with €700 billion.

USA - It is during moments of great crisis that we find out who we really are, and that is why the governmental response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been so heartbreaking. Instead of rallying around our founding principles, Democrats and Republicans have both gravitated toward “solutions” that are in the exact opposite direction.

ISRAEL - If we say the catastrophes have been caused by God, we want to know His motives. The coronavirus pandemic has shaken the whole world and raised the deep theological question of whether to blame God for the catastrophe. Disasters have attacked human beings and nations – not least the Jewish people – throughout history.

IRAN - CNN is reporting late this week that US intelligence has observed that Iran has put parts of its anti-air missile defense system on "high alert" following multiple unexplained blasts and fires and sensitive military, industrial, and nuclear sites. The report cites "several" intelligence indications according to the unnamed intel official. It also comes at a moment of wide speculation that either Israel or the US is behind some of the recent spate of explosions. Lately Israeli officials have strongly suggested that this is indeed the case. Over the past month there's been well over a half-dozen major blasts, with one at a ballistic missile site, and another at Natanz nuclear facility. The CNN report points toward the new alert status as specifically a likely response to the Natanz destruction, the explanation of which is still deeply uncertain.

USA - America is sweltering this weekend as a dangerous heatwave swept across the US bringing highs of 112F and excessive heat warnings across 21 states from the Great Plains to New England. Temperatures soared into the triple digits on the East Coast where it will remain from Washington DC to Philadelphia and New York through to mid next week.

USA - Violent rioters ripped down plywood and smashed through the door of the Portland Police Association late Saturday night… and lit the building on fire. Police rushed in shortly after the fire started and began to make arrests. Earlier in the evening, the black-clad militants were marching through the streets chanting “every city, every town, burn the precincts to the ground.” A stark contrast to the claims by liberals that these mobs simply want “police reform.” On Friday evening, a riot organizer declared that their mission is the “abolition of the United States as we know it” and referred to our nation as “stolen land.” Saturday marked the 51st night of violent riots in the city.

EUROPE - EU states should go further than the single market and merge together to create a Single Economic Territory, an expert has said. Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the European Policy Centre said that COVID-19 triggered “unprecedented” government interventions across the EU. Mr Zuleeg stressed that because of this, it was making the Single Market vulnerable. He said: “To avoid further internal divergence, the Single Market must upgrade to a Single Economic Territory that incorporates a common microeconomic approach. At times, it has been the crucial glue keeping the member states engaged, even in difficult times. With this in mind, it almost seems sacrilegious to call for the EU to move beyond the Single Market (SM). Yet, the EU should do so by establishing a Single Economic Territory (SET).” The new economic territory would include all EU member states' land area, airspace, territorial waters, including jurisdiction over fishing rights and rights to fuels or minerals. All these functions would be administered and managed by a single government, which in this case would be Brussels.