USA - Outbreak of salmonella across 23 US states has sickened hundreds of people, resulting in an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Oregon has so far reported the most cases of salmonella, 51, with a total of 212 people infected across the states as of July 23. "This outbreak is rapidly growing in size. A specific food item, grocery store, or restaurant chain has not been identified as the source of infections," the CDC said Friday. The new states infected - since the last update on Tuesday - are Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Maine, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Virginia. According to CDC estimation, Salmonella bacteria causes about 1.35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths in the United States every year.

EUROPE - Fears of a deadlier second wave of coronavirus across Europe have been raised as new cases surge. Many European countries are seeing a rise of new infections of the deadly disease as governments started to lift lockdown restrictions to help rebuild the economy. But the continent is on alert as the figures soar. Spain has seen a huge increase in new cases with 2,615 reported on Thursday followed by 2,255 on Friday. The UK has since closed its air bridge with the country and anyone entering Britain from Spain must now quarantine for 14 days in a bid to stop the spread of the virus. France has also recorded a worrying 1,130 new infections on Friday compared to just 81 when lockdown was eased at the end of May. The health ministry said: “We have returned to levels comparable with those at the end of the lockdown period.”

GERMANY - Angela Merkel has been warned key sectors within the German economy could face "much, much worse" blows at the end of the coronavirus pandemic. Angela Merkel has been warned Germany's economy could contract as much as seven percent in 2021 because of the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The Chancellor in July took over the presidency of the European Council and has been tasked to lead efforts to ensure the EU recovers all the while grappling with domestic issues. But with key industries already struggling ahead of the pandemic, Mrs Merkel has now been warned things will be "much, much worse." While the German economy has managed to contain the impact of the pandemic better than other EU countries, the risk of a second wave has sparked concerns about the future.

GERMANY - A German mayor at risk of being blacklisted over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia told RT that Europe must not let the US dictate its economic policy. Two Russian ships busy laying pipes on the Baltic seabed are docked at the port of Mukran on Germany’s Rugen Island. Ninety percent of the port is owned by the small town of Sassnitz, which is why its mayor, Frank Kracht, risks landing on the US sanctions list. “I don’t accept this because I believe it is illegal under international law,” Kracht told RT, “Europe is a sovereign land. And I think that Europe shouldn’t allow such interference into its economic issues.” The US has been placing sanctions on Nord Stream 2 in an attempt to pressure Germany into scrapping it. Yet another bill that would impose new restrictions on companies helping Russia to complete the pipeline was adopted by the US House of Representatives earlier this week.

EUROPE - Europe is set to do better than the US not only in handling the Covid-19 outbreak, with a strikingly lower number of infections, but also when it comes to dealing with the economic fallout of the pandemic, bankers say. The economic outlook for Europe has not been optimistic either, with the European Commission slashing its own forecasts several times, recently saying that it expects the region to contract by 8.3 percent this year. Meanwhile, the IMF predicted that the eurozone, the 19-member region that shares the euro, would contract by more than 10 percent in 2020. Despite projected deeper contraction, with new figures set to be released by both Washington and Brussels next week, Europe is headed for a swifter recovery and could outpace the US, analysts at JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs told Bloomberg.

USA - While the coronavirus pandemic may become the last nail in the coffin of the US dollar’s status as the primary reserve currency, the seeds of its inevitable decline were sown long ago, a former Morgan Stanley economist believes. The greenback is set to decline due to a shortfall in domestic US savings and a massive budget deficit, according to Stephen Roach. “The US economy has been afflicted with some significant macro imbalances for a long time, namely a very low domestic savings rate and a chronic current account deficit,” Roach, who is also a Yale University senior fellow, told CNBC. Despite the current strength of the US dollar as investors seek safety, it is set to drop “very sharply,” losing up to 35 percent in value against the currencies of a broad basket of America’s trading partners. Roach had earlier warned that this will result in inflation and wider trade deficits, along with increased prices for US consumers.

RUSSIA - Russia has now gotten rid of over 96% of its US debt holdings. Moscow has continued to sell off US Treasury securities, cutting its stockpile by US$8.73 billion in March, according to the latest data from the US Department of the Treasury. Russia’s holdings of US state debt amounted to $3.8 billion in March, compared with $12.5 billion a month earlier. Three years ago, the amount stood at $105 billion. Moscow has liquidated over 96 percent of its holdings in that period. The country’s long-term US Treasury securities decreased by $928 million, while short-term securities plunged by $7.8 billion to just $473 million.

USA - The US dollar’s status as the dominant global currency is at risk of being eroded because of mounting government debt, according to Zhu Min, former senior executive with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). His warning comes as the United States is expected to double down on its fiscal stimulus measures to soothe the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. Congress is considering a new round of relief that is likely to cost at least $1 trillion on top of the more than $2 trillion passed earlier this year. With the US Federal Reserve continuing its aggressive monetary policy of quantitative easing, there is a rising risk of a sudden loss of confidence in the dollar, said Zhu… “The concern isn’t whether the US dollar will see an accumulated decline of 30 percent in the future, but whether there will be a blow-up event that causes a sudden loss of confidence in the US dollar, and its market to collapse,” Zhu told the South China Morning Post.

USA - Trump says he wants to protect law-abiding citizens. In 1933, Hitler issued his ‘Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State.’ No people has found the American lurch toward authoritarianism under President Trump more alarming than the Germans. For postwar Germany, the United States was savior, protector and liberal democratic model. Now, Germans, in shock, speak of the “American catastrophe.” A recent cover of the weekly magazine Der Spiegel portrays Trump in the Oval Office holding a lighted match, with a country ablaze visible through his window. The headline: “Der Feuerteufel,” or, literally, “the Fire Devil.”

USA - Most Americans, especially conservatives, admit they are afraid to say what they think. A new poll by the Cato Institute shows 62 percent of Americans feel they must censor themselves from openly expressing their political views, in some cases out of fear of losing their jobs or missing career opportunities. The report reveals a jarring phenomenon in a country that was founded with freedom of speech as the first God-given right enshrined in its Constitution. And the breakdown of the results corroborates the view that only far-left views are tolerated in today's society.

USA - 2020 has been an incredibly bizarre year up to this point, and this has many people wondering if the hand of God is at work. And the worse things get, the more this sort of speculation will heat up. When things get crazy, people search for answers, and that can be a good thing. Because the truth is that during normal times most of us are way too self-absorbed and most of us spend far too little time thinking about the things that really matter. 2020 has really shaken up a large portion of the US population, and we should hope that all of this shaking ultimately moves our society in a more positive direction. Right now, COVID-19 is dominating the headlines day after day, and the debates that I have seen on social media platforms about this pandemic have often gotten quite heated. I knew that many people had extremely passionate opinions about COVID-19, but what I didn’t realize is that a large percentage of them are also convinced that God is somehow involved. In fact, an Associated Press/NORC survey found that 63 percent of all religious Americans believe that this pandemic is “a sign from God”…

RUSSIA - As we cross into the second half of 2020, there is little hope left that our misfortunes will end when this annus horribilis goes out. We may be entering one of the most cataclysmic and fateful periods in the history of humankind. There is the growing realization that humanity is in for an extremely rough ride that could last at least a decade. This sense of uncertainty has been building up for years. It probably began with the global financial crisis of 2008-09. Yet, until 2020, there was hope that the world would somehow return to the right track and regain stability. Covid-19 ended this hope, devastating the global economy and exacerbating the pre-existing tensions between the incumbent hegemon (the United States) and a new super-power contender (China).

USA - We get an “F” for family. In case you thought America wasn’t experiencing enough turmoil of late, the United States has been named the second-worst wealthy nation in which to raise a family in 2020, according to new research by travel site Asher & Lyric. To determine the most and least family-friendly countries, the couple rated 35 OECD countries (part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development forum) according to safety, happiness, cost, health, education and time. The US clocked in at an abysmal 34th place, just ahead of last-place finisher Mexico, whose murder rate jumped to the highest in nearly two years as drug cartels have run amok during the coronavirus lockdown. Leading the pack of overall fam-safe nations were Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. “I have come to the heartbreaking conclusion that America is a deeply challenged and troubled country,” Benson-Fergusson lamented. “It doesn’t, and maybe never did, line up with its own ideology.”

USA - The number of permanently closed businesses is surging across America and no major media outlet is sounding the alarm. These are lives ruined, jobs lost, bankruptcies entered, life savings lost and families broken apart. It’s tough out there for restaurants and other small businesses. Yelp’s Economic Average report out Wednesday shows exactly how tough: 60 percent of the 26,160 temporarily closed restaurants on the business review site as of July are now permanently shut. Temporary closures are dropping, and permanent shutdowns are increasing. Yelp’s previous report in April found that more than 175,000 total businesses were closed in some capacity. Just under 25 percent of those closed businesses have reopened three months later. For restaurants in particular, this is becoming the way it goes. Yelp noted a 23-percent increase in permanent restaurant closures from only a month ago. Bars and clubs are also closing forever at high rates: 44 percent (as of July) of 5,454 temporarily shuttered bars and other nightlife establishments are shut for good.

USA - The unique characteristics of this pandemic may not allow people to completely eradicate it, but public health measures and good vaccines should bring "very good control," NIAID director Anthony Fauci said Wednesday. Driving the news: "We are living, right now, through a historic pandemic outbreak. And, we are, right now, in a situation where we do not see any particular end in sight," Fauci told a panel hosted by the not-for-profit TB Alliance. "It's the perfect storm," Fauci says. "We often talk about outbreaks and pandemics, be they influenza or other pathogens, that have to have a few characteristics that make them particularly formidable. Well, this particular virus has that."