Back in August, we noted that, for the first time since it's creation in 1996, the Norwegian government had started raiding its sovereign wealth fund to cover government deficits. Now, as noted by Bloomberg, the Nordic country has revealed plans to massively increase withdrawals by over 25% in 2017, to $15 billion. The money would be used to cover Norway's budget hole that's expected to be roughly 8% of GDP.

Of course, Norway's ultimate GDP potential, and therefore budget deficits, are heavily dependent on oil prices so any further weakening of crude could result in even more withdrawals. Moreover, given the substantial YoY increase, it's important to recall that there are fiscal limits imposed on fund withdrawals equal to 4% of assets, or roughly $36 billion, which could come into play at some point in the future if oil prices remain "lower for longer."

"What's worrying is the enormous pace," said Torstein Tvedt Solberg, a member of parliament and a finance committee member for Labor. The largest opposition party has asked the fund "about the threshold for when it becomes really problematic for them and the signal they've given us is that it's 150-200 billion kroner. With the pace we're seeing now, we're beginning dangerously fast to come close to the critical level."

Courting rituals change over time, but it was probably never OK to do what Donald Trump told Billy Bush he did to woo an unnamed woman. In 2005, Trump was chatting with the TV anchor without knowing a live mic recorded some graphic comments he made.

2005 was a big year for the Donald, it seems. Not only did he marry Melania, but he also appeared on both the daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives as well as entertainment news show Access Hollywood. But Trump may be regretting the latter, as he was caught talking on a hot mic with host Billy Bush.

As we move into the final month prior to this year's presidential election, the tempo of dramatic world events and developments that are breaking daily is mind boggling. Every single day we are seeing more outrageously desperate actions on the part of the globalists and their US government minions. Among the latest unfolding developments this week all fast tracking towards world war against Russia is NATO's violation of international law deploying AWACS (Airborne Radar Warning and Control system) in Syria despite only Syria and Russia possessing the legal right to control the embattled country's airspace. With both US and Turkish boots on the ground in northern Syria and US led coalition airstrikes regularly invading the sovereign nation's airspace, recently targeting Syrian soldiers and plans to kill more, along with former acting CIA director Mike Morell's recent call to begin killing Russian soldiers, the latest warpath rant comes from Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley who is now threatening Russia (as well as China and Iran) with nuclear war. Spoken just like a true grade school bully on a playground, he boasts, "We will beat you harder than you have ever been beaten before!" This is the kind of moronic leadership that rises to the top of the Empire food chain? I'm afraid so.

God help us when his most likely next commander-in-chief is the warmongering bulldog herself Hillary Clinton who's not any more civilized nor humane. She's already made it very clear that any real or perceived cyberspace attack on America coming from anywhere in the world constitutes an act of war and a military response against the cyber-perpetrators' country. After already vowing to bomb Iran and with her constant accusations blaming Putin for everything gone wrong in her miserable life, including exposing her DNC corruption scandal responsible for rigging her presidential election, she is also all but promising to launch World War III against nuclear powered Russia. Incisive insider Paul Craig Roberts and even Putin have both said so. The neocon insanity that she represents is committed to perpetrating both suicidal and genocidal mass murder.

A Russian MI-8 helicopter carrying humanitarian aid came under fire in the Syrian province of Hama on Saturday, the Russian reconciliation center in Syria told reporters. None of the Russian officers on board were hurt.

The crew noticed a missile fired from a man-portable air defense system from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIIS/ISIL) positions and managed to avoid it.

"None of the soldiers aboard the helicopter were hurt. Thanks to the flight altitude, well-timed detection of missile's launching and the crew's skillfulness, it was possible to dodge the missile strike," the center said in a statement on Saturday.

On September 28 the French mission to the UN claimed that two hospitals in east-Aleppo had been bombed. It documented this in a tweet with a picture of destroyed buildings in Gaza. The French later deleted that tweet.

It is not the first time such false claims and willful obfuscations were made by "western" officials. But usually they shy away from outright lies.

Not so the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. In a press event yesterday, before talks with the French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault about a new UN resolution, he said (vid @1:00) about Syria:

Last night, the regime attacked yet another hospital, and 20 people were killed and 100 people were wounded. And Russia and the regime owe the world more than an explanation about why they keep hitting hospitals and medical facilities and children and women. These are acts that beg for an appropriate investigation of war crimes. And those who commit these would and should be held accountable for these actions.

No opposition group has claimed that such an extremely grave event happened. None. No press agency has a record of it. The MI-6 disinformation outlet SOHR in Britain, which quite reliably notes every claimed casualty and is frequently cited in "western" media", has not said anything about such an event anywhere in Syria.

The grave incident Kerry claimed did not happen. Kerry made it up. (Was it supposed to happen, got canceled and Kerry missed the memo?) Kerry used the lie to call for war crime investigations and punishment. This in front of cameras, at an official event with a foreign guest in the context of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

This is grave. This is nearly as grave as Colin Powell's false claims of WMD in Iraq in front of the UN Security Council.

The struggles of the middle class are something Hillary Clinton once admitted in a paid speech she is "far removed" from, thanks to the "fortunes" she and her husband "enjoy," a WikiLeaks-posted email shows. She also admitted she "did all she could" for Wall Street to prosper.

These are just two excerpts from the numerous paid speeches Clinton gave to Wall Street giants behind closed doors between 2013 and 2015.

"I'm kind of far removed because the life I've lived and the economic, you know, fortunes that my husband and I now enjoy," Clinton told members of Goldman-Black Rock in February 2014. "I am not taking a position on any policy, but I do think there is a growing sense of anxiety and even anger in the country over the feeling that the game is rigged."

Her remarks would never have seen the light of day, but an email found among over 2,000 "Podesta emails" has now shone a spotlight on what Clinton was telling Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and others in between her job as Secretary of State and the current presidential campaign.

These are amazing. Wikileaks published 2000 emails from Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta; and they show Stu Eizenstat, former deputy secretary of treasury under Bill Clinton, acting as the ambassador for Israel and the Jewish community to Clinton.

And everything Clinton has said on Israel and Palestine and the boycott movement in the last year, from saying she'd meet with Netanyahu in her first month in office, to opposing BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions), to taking the Israel relationship to the "next level," Eizenstat appears to have scripted. For instance:

Bibi should be invited for early talks on how the partnership with Israel can be strengthened...

A militant cell suspected of having links to Islamic State has been eliminated in southern Russia, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAC) reports. The group was planning at least three terror attacks in the region, including one on a Muslim Holiday.

In a special operation in the Republic of Ingushetia on Friday, Russia's security forces killed six militants in the city of Nazran and the village of Gazi-Yurt in the North Caucasus Region. One of the militants was identified as an agent of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group, according to NAC. Regional authorities say two of the militants have been identified so far.

"As a result of the coordinated and purposeful work of the Russian special services, a large terrorist cell, which was headed by an agent from Syria, has been dismantled today. Upon his arrival in Ingushetia, he intended to organize subversive and terrorist acts here that would destabilize the situation and sow fear among the population. However, he himself, and his accomplices, whom he attracted to this criminal purpose, are now eliminated," the head of the republic, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov said in a statement, adding that the culprits planned to carry out at least three major terror attacks in Ingushetia.

In excerpts from paid speeches, Clinton admits to taking different public and private positions

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton admitted she takes two positions on policy issues.

One in private — ostensibly, the "real" position and one for the public — according to a damaging email leak released on Friday by Wikileaks that included clips of Clinton's paid speeches to Wall Street banks and other organizations

Wikileaks released emails reportedly from John Podesta, chairman of the Clinton campaign, on Friday, around 6 p.m.

Podesta received comments made in past Hillary Clinton speeches flagged as potential liabilities.

"You just have to sort of figure out how to — getting back to that word, 'balance' — how to balance the public and the private efforts that are necessary to be successful, politically, and that's not just a comment about today," Clinton said in a speech for the National Multi-Housing Council on April 23, 2013. "It is unsavory, and it always has been that way, but we usually end up where we need to be. But if everybody's watching, you know, all of the back room discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous, to say the least. So, you need both a public and a private position."

The amazing admission made in a paid speech to an industry group was just one nugget of candor that could hurt Hillary Clinton on Election Day. Many of the leaked transcripts indeed contain red-hot red flags that could anger many in the coalition that Clinton is trying to build.

An explosion has reportedly rocked Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, and pictures of ravaged buildings have appeared on social media that include reports claiming the blast was caused by a Saudi-led airstrike.

Images of destroyed buildings, partly still aflame, have emerged on social media, with some people alleging the devastation was caused by a Saudi-led coalition strike.

There has been no official confirmation as to what exactly caused the destruction, however. Yet some people allege that dozens of civilians were killed and scores injured in the alleged bombardment, a witness told Xinhua news agency.

Sputnik news agency was also told by a source at the scene that the incident was caused by a Saudi-led bombardment that left dozens of people dead or injured, adding that the alleged airstrike had targeted a hall where Houthi rebels had been paying their last respects to the father of the rebels' Interior Minister.