Crowds filled the streets of the Iraqi Kurdistan capital, rallying ahead of an independence vote this month. While some were waving the flag of Israel, which backs the Kurds' aspirations, Baghdad says it won't allow the creation of a "second Israel."

On Saturday, the city of Erbil saw thousands of protesters turning up at a pro-independence rally, ahead of the scheduled September 25 vote. Colorful Kurdish flags hovered over the crowd as participants danced and cheered at a concert in Shanidar Park, with firecrackers briskly lighting up the sky. Alongside the Kurdish colors of red, white, yellow, and green, Israeli flags could be seen flying in the crowd.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu buoyed the vote, saying Israel supports the "legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to achieve their own state."

The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned the United States that Iran won't be bullied over the 2015 nuclear deal that President Donald Trump has threatened to scrap.

Speaking at a speech to Iranian military academy graduates, Khamenei warned that Iran will react strongly to any "wrong move" which threatens to undermine the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the "Iran deal" as it is known.

"The Iranian nation is standing firm and any wrong move by the domineering regime regarding the (nuclear accord) will face the reaction of the Islamic Republic," Khamenei said, according to Reuters.

Speaking on political talk shows, both the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that despite seeking a peaceful solution, the Trump administration would not rule out the military option for North Korea.

In the run-up to the UN General Assembly, where US President Donald Trump is set to discuss the escalating situation on the Korean Peninsula with other world leaders, two of his highest-ranking officials have made remarks suggesting that the United States is ready and willing to use force to achieve its aims in the region.

"We have pretty much exhausted all the things that we can do at the [UN] Security Council at this point," Haley told CNN's State of the Union on Sunday. "We wanted to be responsible and go through all diplomatic means to get their attention first, if that doesn't work, [Secretary of Defense] General Mattis will take care of it."

The President of Poland has said "There is no doubt the growing wave of terrorism is linked to migration" following the latest terror bombing in London.

Andrzej Duda, who represents the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), was speaking in the Maltese capital of Valetta, where he was attending a meeting of the Arraiolos Group, which brings together presidents of EU member-states.

"If the EU is to employ - in its internal and external relations - far-reaching political correctness, which I would rather call a kind of naivety, then we will not solve this problem," he warned - a clear swipe at the bloc's continued efforts to punish conservatives countries in Central Europe which oppose the migrant influx.

Stick a fork in the Democrats and Republicans.

Wednesday night's latest round of deal making between President Donald Trump and Democratic congressional leaders is the latest evidence that the major political parties have lost all semblance of real power.

Never before have we seen the leadership of both major political parties so humbled. That power vacuum is currently enabling the president to act without any loyalty to his own party, while working with whomever he pleases on whatever issues he wants.

It's why we have a Republican congressional leadership, headlined by a Senate Majority Leader with an 18 percent approval rating in his own home state, that could not deliver on its party's seven-year-long promises to repeal and replace Obamacare.

And it's why the Democratic Party is getting more and more embarrassed as its highly-experienced-but-failed 2016 presidential nominee continues to weaken the brand by going on a national tour blaming everyone else for her election loss.

Hungary has slashed illegal immigration by over 99 per cent after rolling out a series of powerful border fences in response to the European migrant crisis, possibly providing a lesson as to the potential impact of constructing President Trump's much-discussed southern wall in the U.S.

Speaking on the second anniversary of the government's move to seal Hungary's border with Serbia - which is also an external border for the European Union - Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Chief Security Advisor, György Bakondi, announced that the fences have caused illegal immigration to collapse from 391,000 in 2015, to 18,236 in 2016, to just 1,184 in 2017.

"The system of technical barriers is the key to the success of border security, and without it, it would be impossible to stop the mass arrival of immigrants", the security chief explained.

China walks through the doors the US has left wide open.

In economic warfare, like in traditional battle, one's weapons are only as powerful as the shields which they are up against. This simple concept has not yet sunk in among the powers that be at the US Department of the Treasury. Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has been extremely zealous in passing new unilateral sanctions on the governments, individual politicians and businesses in Iran and Venezuela in particular, as well as in North Korea. But none of this is working because the US financial system and the US Dollar is no longer the only major game in town on the international markets.

Venezuela has, after many years of discussion, finally agreed to cease trading its vast oil reserves in the US Dollar.

Venezuela recently announced that it is now pricing its oil in Chinese Yuan. This comes weeks after China announced that it will allow for the trading of oil contracts in Yuan which can be easily converted to gold at the exchanges in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The recent BRICS summit in China, put an increased emphasis on monetary independence among member states, which is of course a not so coded phrase meaning 'let's ditch the US Dollar'.

The last Syria Summary was headlined A New Clash Looms in Syria's East. It stated:

Critical oil fields are north and east of Mayadin. The Omar oil field in the east is the biggest one in all Syria. The U.S. wants these under its control to finance its Kurdish and Arab proxies in north-east Syria. The Syrian government needs the oil to rebuild the country. Should the U.S. supported forces try to annex the area we will likely see a direct conflict between them and the Syrian government forces. Would the U.S. and Russia join that fight?

Yesterday a first clash of forces occurred. Syrian government and Russian special forces (red) have crossed the Euphrates at Deir Ezzor to reconnaissance the area for their next large operation. A crossing in force towards the north of Euphrates and east of Deir Ezzor is expected during the next few days. The Russian military had informed the U.S. of its area of operation. Despite that, formerly ISIS aligned tribal forces, now paid by the U.S. under the label SDF, tried to extend their areas north of Deir Ezzor (blue). A "warning shot" was delivered to them in form of a small air attack. Several "SDF" were wounded, the U.S. special forces accompanying and commanding them were not harmed.

After speaking with the representative for the Great Tribes of Libya today, I would like to share the following updates on the current conditions on the ground in Libya.

First, there have been reports that ISIS is making a resurgence in the Sirte area of Libya, I was told today that this is completely bogus. The East, the South, the West through Sirte, the Southwest through Ghadames and other regions with the exception of the Tripoli areas and Misurata are cleansed of radical mercenaries and the Tribes continue to work together to clean any lingering pockets of criminals, radicals, militias and mercenaries.

Their problem in Tripoli is the UN puppet government. This so called government just came into Tripoli (by boat) and claimed itself as the government of Libya without any support or election by the Libyan people. The leader of the so called "Government of National Accord" (GNC) is Fayez al-Sarraj. Serraj is a man not respected or liked by the Libyan people; appointed by the UN outside of Libya to be the "Prime Minister" but without any authority or recognized power in Libya. That does not stop him from stealing from Libya, calling in airstrikes by the US, signing agreements with countries (Italy) and many other illegal acts. Since when does the UN get to appoint a government for a country, pick the people they want to be in charge and tell them what to do? The biggest problem with the GNC is that Serraj and his cohorts have joined hands with the radical militias from Misurata who were the rats and mercenaries who joined hands with Clinton, McCain and Obama to destroy Libya in 2011. They have also joined hands with Abdulhakem Belhaj, the radical Islamist terrorist who started the "Libyan Islamic Fighting Group" (LIFG) whose members are responsible for acts of terror world wide, the last act being the bombing in London this last May. Belhaj has stolen more than 1 billion dollars from Libya and is a big friend of the US war criminal, John McCain.

A leading Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee says Turkey's recent purchase of antiaircraft missile systems from Russia may have violated a U.S. law that requires automatic sanctions to be imposed against Ankara.

Senator Ben Cardin issued the warning on September 14 in a letter to the administration of President Donald Trump.

The letter says Ankara's purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles, which was finalized on September 12, violates U.S. congressional sanctions against Russia that were signed into law in August.

Cardin noted that the legislation calls for sanctions "on any person that conducts a significant transaction" with Russia's defense or intelligence sectors.

"These are mandatory sanctions and constitute a commitment by the United States to deter Russia from attacking the United States and its allies in the future," the letter said.