USA - More than a year ago, economic analyst and financial writer David Morgan predicted we were entering a global Great Depression. With massive AI layoffs, sky rocketing silver and gold prices, exploding debt and civil unrest increasing, it looks like Morgan was right — again. On the money side, demand is so shaky for US Treasuries that former Trump Federal Reserve nominee, Judy Shelton, was pitching a gold-backed US Treasury Bond on CNBC. Was Shelton running a flag up the pole to gauge the reaction for the White House? Morgan says, “You are not getting on CNBC and talking about a gold-backed bond unless it’s been, let’s say, approved by the powers that be. This is something that will help restore a sound monetary system with possible gold convertibility." Morgan sees the big picture and says, “When you study the end of the Roman Empire, one of the primary reasons it fell was everybody was pouring into Rome to get free bread and circus. Does that remind you of something that is going on now? We are at the point where we are seeing the last phase before the end of the empire.

GERMANY - The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) has renounced its long-held pacifist stance in its latest peace memorandum, stating that violence is sometimes necessary to counter violence. The remarkable announcement by the federation, which represents some 17 million members, comes as the German government pushes to beef up the country’s military in the face of a perceived “Russian threat.” Moscow has repeatedly denied harboring aggressive intentions toward any NATO member state. The ‘Peace Memorandum 2025,’ which was presented at the church’s synod on Monday, marked a “clear reorientation of Protestant peace ethics,” the EKD stated. “As a universal political ethic, pacifism with its categorical rejection of violence cannot be ethically legitimized,” the document proclaimed. “Violence must be contained – if necessary, with counter-violence,” the memorandum further clarified.

USA - A far-left progressive in the style of New York City’s Zohran Mamdani is projected to win the Seattle mayoral race. Her victory comes just over a week after Zohran Mamdani’s landslide win in New York City, where he defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo, another result that underscores the Democratic Party’s alarming shift toward openly socialist candidates.

USA - Anyone who thinks gold’s surge into the stratosphere represents irrational exuberance isn’t paying attention to the wretched state of the Group of Seven (G7) economies. US government debt is topping US$37 trillion, giving ratings agencies cause to reassess the world’s largest economy’s underlying health. France’s dueling political and debt crises have the International Monetary Fund gauging its available reserves. Germany is skirting recession, with industrial output plunging 4.3% in August from July. Over in London, some commentators wonder how long the UK can avoid a 1970s-style date with the IMF, three years after the Liz Truss debacle. $5,000 gold: logic, not lunacy, in a de-dollarizing world.

USA - Warnings have been issued for portions of the United States’ electric power grid amid a forecasted severe geomagnetic storm. The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued the forecast on Tuesday, saying a geomagnetic storm at a strength of category G4 would cause issues with electrical grids for states poleward of the 45th parallel. States north of that latitude include Oregon, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. It could bring auroras to half the US on Wednesday.

ISRAEL - In a land that has been turned from a desert into lush croplands, a first-of-its-kind project is taking place: Israeli officials are replenishing a depleted water level in the freshwater Sea of Galilee with washed ocean water. Precipitation in the drainage has been scarce in recent years, only 40% of what was expected last year, and the location provides water to vast regions around it. So, according to a report in the Times of Israel, the lake with the “dangerously low” level was being raised as desalinated water is being pumped into it by the nation’s Water Authority. It is the first ever attempt in the world for such a project, the report said. The report said Israel now desalinates enough water to supply most of its own population, with leftovers for nearby nations.

BRAZIL - Two UN security staff injured in violent clashes with indigenous group in Belem. Dozens of indigenous protesters brandishing batons stormed the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil, demanding greater protection for forests. “They cannot decide for us without us,” the protesters chanted angrily as they demanded access to the compound. Others carried flags and signs declaring: “Our land is not for sale.” There have been growing tensions over the lack of involvement of indigenous people in the conference taking place in a city known as the “gateway to the Amazon”.

USA - Masayoshi Son, one of tech's most–watched investors, is making a gigantic bet - and it's sending shivers through Wall Street. The Japanese billionaire and SoftBank founder quietly sold off all his Nvidia shares and most of his stake in T-Mobile last month, unloading roughly $15 billion worth of stock in total. The move by Son - dubbed the Warren Buffett of tech investment - has rattled traders already spooked by a growing chorus of warnings about the overheated AI market. Son's sale is being read as a warning sign that the AI boom - the same one that has powered record stock gains for companies including Nvidia, Microsoft, and Palantir - might finally be wobbling. SoftBank says the move is not about losing faith in Nvidia or T-Mobile. Instead, it is about freeing up cash for a massive new wager: a $34.7 billion investment in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

USA - Hardliners and conservative commentators in Iran celebrated Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York’s first Muslim mayor as a symbolic victory for Islam over the West and a sign of America’s decline. State-affiliated outlets such as the conservative daily Hamshahri and Nour News framed the win as “America Against America,” interpreting it as proof of deep divisions within the US establishment and the “collapse of the old order” marking the beginning of the end of “Trumpism.” Conservative and state-run media emphasized that Mamdani’s win reflected both a moral and political defeat for America and Israel, with Asr-e Iran describing the election as a “crossing of the mental barriers” created after 9/11 and the erosion of the “Jewish lobby’s” power over US politics. The IRGC Qods Force Telegram channel called it “the defeat of Trump and Zionism” and “a joyful event” marking America’s changing identity.

UK - The Corporation is certainly not the most trusted news brand, Tim Davie. The seemingly endless succession of scandals involving the BBC’s coverage of international issues completely undermines the Corporation’s claim to be the world’s most trusted news brand. It is a reflection of the parallel universe inhabited by the BBC’s senior executives that, at the same time that they are being forced to apologise for further “mistakes” in the body’s news output, they continue to insist their coverage of key events represents a “gold standard”. As Director-General Tim Davie wrote in his resignation letter, “the BBC remains the most trusted news brand globally”. Davie’s comments certainly stand in stark contrast to the realities of the BBC’s recent coverage of world affairs.