US President Barack Obama has given an extraordinary ultimatum to the Republican-controlled Congress, arguing that they must not block the nuclear accord with Iran. It's either "deal or war," he says.

In a televised nationwide address on August 5, Obama said: "Congressional rejection of this deal leaves any US administration that is absolutely committed to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon with one option: another war in the Middle East. I say this not to be provocative. I am stating a fact."

The American Congress is due to vote on whether to accept the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed July 14 between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers - the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. Republicans are openly vowing to reject the JCPOA, along with hawkish Democrats such as Senator Chuck Schumer. Opposition within the Congress may even be enough to override a presidential veto to push through the nuclear accord.

In his drastic prediction of war, one might assume that Obama is referring to Israel launching a preemptive military strike on Iran with the backing of US Republicans. Or that he is insinuating that Iran will walk from self-imposed restraints on its nuclear program to build a bomb, thus triggering a war.

The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index was down a meager -0.96 percent at the close yesterday on the news of China's devaluation of its currency, the Yuan, but some noteworthy individual stocks took a more dramatic pounding. Apple lost 5.20 percent; Micron Technology was in the red by 4.99 percent; Yum! Brands closed down 4.87 percent while General Motors lost 3.48 percent. All of these companies rely on China as a major export market.

According to a March report from FactSet, "companies in the S&P 500 in aggregate generate about 10 percent of sales from the Asia Pacific region, most of which comes from China and Japan." Some U.S. companies, however, derive a far greater percentage of their sales from China. According to Sue Chang, a MarketWatch reporter using data from FactSet, 52 percent of Yum! Brands sales come from China while 40 percent of Micron Technology's are derived from China.

A slowdown in economic growth in China could also see individual U.S. states licking their wounds as well. The following statistics come from the US-China Business Council:

• Forty-two states experienced at least triple-digit export growth to China since 2005, and five states saw export growth of more than 500 percent over the same period.
• China was among the top three export markets for 39 states in 2014. That includes states that are not usually associated with strong China trade ties, including Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Alabama, Ohio, and South Carolina.
• In 2014, thirty-one states exported more than $1 billion to China.

The Obama administration has warned Beijing about keeping its agents away from prominent expatriates living in the US, The New York Times reports. China reportedly wants to repatriate some of them to face corruption charges at home.

US officials revealed that there are Chinese law enforcement agents covertly operating in America, who are part of a global operation titled "Operation Fox Hunt." These agents are trying to track down and repatriate Chinese citizens, allegedly to recover illegally obtained funds, the NYT reported.

China does not have an extradition treaty with the US, nor does it have one with Australia, Canada or New Zealand.

The United States still seeks to change the regime in Cuba, however, after multiple failures, Washington has chosen another way to succeed, Panamanian journalist, sociologist and professor at the University of Panama Marco Antonio Gandásegui told Sputnik.

"The statements of [US] President Obama and his team of advisers have been very clear since December 2014. Washington aims to promote regime change in Havana by policies that can be developed through diplomatic mechanisms," the professor said.

Gandásegui warned that the "future US government may claim to recolonize Cuba by using destabilizing tactics, including military ones," adding that Havana must be prepared to repel any future attack.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's declaration of a de facto shift in Turkey's administrative system to a presidential system has infuriated opposition leaders, who say the declaration indicates "rule by diktat."

In remarks delivered in his hometown, the Black Sea province of Rize, on Aug. 14, Erdoğan said Turkey had witnessed a change in the president's new role and asked for the constitution to be updated to recognize his de facto deployment of enhanced powers.

"There is a president with de facto power in the country, not a symbolic one. The president should conduct his duties for the nation directly, but within his authority. Whether one accepts it or not, Turkey's administrative system has changed. Now, what should be done is to update this de facto situation in the legal framework of the constitution," he said.

Most people associate arms trafficking with films like "Merchant of Death" and big names like Viktor Bout, the subject of that film. They said "good riddance" when they heard that he had been captured and flown off in chains to the US to serve a 25 year sentence for a multitude of crimes. Many would now be even happier if they threw away the key and that was the end of the story. But we got to this point because a lot of people who know the real story want us to think that way.

The official version of Bout's crimes, capture, extradition and conviction looks almost seamless. It portrays a man with no moral limits who provided guns and logistics to various warlords and murderous African dictators purely for profit. The United Nations claims that he was the quartermaster for Charles Taylor, the Liberian dictator whose arms-for-gems deals in Sierra Leone, which created the term "blood diamonds", helped fuel a civil war that cost some 150,000 lives. Media reports had him supplying arms to everyone from Colonel Gaddafi to al-Qaeda.

Little mention, however, was made of the services he provided to America in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to UN Peacekeeping Missions around the world. He provided the Western allies with logistics that no one else could. The planes he is claimed to have owned are now providing cargo services for the same UN in Africa, and are often legally registered in places like Georgia, Armenia and the State of California.

America hurls all effort into preparing for September "apocalypse" as economic forecasts are becoming more and more intimidating, RT columnist Robert Bridge wrote.

According to Gallup's recently released US Economic Confidence Index rating, confidence in the US economy among Americans dropped to its lowest level in July. Nothing to be surprised about, considering that each and every economy analyst deems it duty to share predictions on the country's nearest future in a campfire scary story manner.


It does seem like professional economists are competing in a think-of-the-most-dreadful-metaphor contest when describing what awaits global economy.

This fortress built by Nature for her self

Against infection and the hand of war,

....

This precious stone set in a silver sea

...

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England...

England, bound in with the triumphant sea,

Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege ...

("Richard 11",William Shakespeare, 1564-1616.)

Britain's top "diplomat", Foreign Office Minister Philip Hammond has accused "marauding" migrants - the desperate, dispossessed, bereaved, orphaned children even, attempting to reach the UK, where many have relatives, contacts or speak the language - of threatening Britain and Europe's "standard of living."

In a racist rant he told the BBC: "Europe can't protect itself and preserve its standard of living and social structure if it has to absorb millions of migrants from Africa." Ironically, Hammond before becoming an MP was an advisor to the government of Malawi. Since he clearly holds Africa in such contempt, perhaps Malawi should consider asking for a refund.

Hammond spoke just days after Prime Minister David Cameron described those seeking safety and succour not as a humanitarian catastrophe but as "swarms."

"Swarms" of course refer to crop destroying insects, locusts, and flies that buzz over and infect meat in open-air markets, on sunny days in Europe or swarming on dead animals or humans in the open and wild.

Cameron, vowing to clamp down on migrants, lashed out at France generally and the port of Calais in particular from where many seeking safety attempt to cross the Channel to the UK. He referred to those trying to "escape North Africa", since Libya - now a failed, lawless state thanks to US, UK and NATO's illegal overthrow of another legitimate government - has become a hub for those who wish to flee their own particular disaster and cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

As David Shariatmadari has pointed out (1) this disgusting, shaming verbal feeding frenzy has been joined by the media with the Daily Mail writing that: "this tidal wave of migrants could be the biggest threat to Europe since the war", the Daily Express referring to a migrant "flood" and the BBC using "stream" and also "flood" with its implication of poor helpless Brits drowning, crushed under an uncontrollable tidal wave of terrifying "other beings" which have no place anywhere in Europe's ordered perfection, let alone in Britain's "sceptered isle."

World terror networks may be in for a shakeup as the son of Osama Bin Laden has made a menacing statement, calling for jihad against the US and its allies, and advocating lone attacks in such world capitals as London, Paris, Tel Aviv and Washington.

Hamza bin Laden, who is now reportedly 23 or 24 years old, has given voice as a public figure for the first time ever. An audio recording believed to belong to Osama Bin Laden's youngest son has been posted on Twitter.

The message is believed to have been recorded this spring, before the Muslim celebration of Ramadan in June, but has been released only now. This is the first time that Hamza Bin Laden is presented as an official member of Al Qaeda militant group.

North Korea has issued new nuclear threats to the US saying it will respond accordingly if Washington does not cancel military exercises with South Korea. Pyongyang says it is ready to use its latest weapons, which are "unknown to the world."

The drills are due to take place Monday and have become an annual event for the US, South Korea and other allies, a fact that has often irked North Korea. The exercises, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, are aimed to "protect the region and maintain stability on the Korean peninsula," a statement from the Korea-US Combined Forces Command stated, as cited by CNN.

As has been the case in the past, Pyongyang has shown its displeasure, but the rhetoric coming out of the secretive nation has been stronger than in previous years.

"The army and people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) are no longer what they used to be in the past when they had to counter the US nukes with rifles," a spokesman for North Korea's National Defense Commission (NDC) said.