IRAQ - The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIS) takeover of Iraq earlier this month took the world by storm, as the successive fall of several major cities in the Sunni-dominated northwest left Iraqis fleeing and world leaders shaken. But what if the blitz military conquest could have been prevented altogether? Kurdish intelligence reported news of a strategic alliance and pact between Islamist groups to topple Mosul and other major Iraqi cities with ISIS's help as far back as January, the Telegraph reported late Sunday. Shortly after the fall of Fallujah to ISIS, an informant reportedly stepped into a Kurdish intelligence office to reveal the news that ISIS officials had networked with remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime and former Hussein deputy Izzat al-Douri to plan a large-scale invasion. But while Kurdish handlers ran immediately to the US and Britain with the information, the West allegedly sat back and did nothing.

ISRAEL - The recommendations of the Interior Committee's sub-committee on Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount is to be published on Monday. Reportedly the recommendations will suggest preserving the status quo on the site… Committee Member MK Zevulun Kalfa (Jewish Home) wrote to Committee Chairman MK David Tzur (Hatnua), saying the goal of the sub-committee was to organize Jewish access to the Temple Mount, and not to preserve the status quo. The status quo consists of a constant erosion of Jewish rights to ascend to the Mount, wrote Kalfa, quoting the recent wave of Arab rioting and violence on the holy site, which police and security forces respond to by closing access to Jews. "Someone has to wake up before there's a tragedy. We can't give a prize to rioters," warned Glick (head of the LIBA Movement for Freedom of Movement on the Temple Mount).

ALASKA, USA - A local tsunami warning was issued after an 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean west of Alaska's Aleutian Islands on Monday, the US Geological Survey and the National Tsunami Warning Center said. The warning covered coastal areas of Alaska from Nikolski to Attu, the center said, adding the level of tsunami danger was being evaluated for other US and Canadian Pacific coasts.

GERMANY - The German bourgeoisie is responding to the debacle of US imperialism in Iraq by intensifying its campaign for militarism and war. On Tuesday, during her first official visit to the US, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen spoke out in favour of a strong Bundeswehr (German armed forces) participation in an international military intervention.

UK - Following the initial de-dollarization meeting, there has been a slew of anti-dollar moves around the world (including Gazprom's shift of 90% of its clients to non-dollar payments). However, on the heels of the "anti-dollar alliance" discussions yesterday, DW reports that China would start direct trade between the renminbi and the British pound on Thursday. China's Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) confirmed Sterling and yuan would be directly swapped without using the US dollar as an intermediary. Britain for its part has been looking to make London a European hub for overseas yuan trading in competition with Frankfurt and Paris. China's central bank announced Wednesday that a subsidiary of China Construction Bank had been chosen to undertake yuan clearing business in London.

EUROPE - The European Central Bank (ECB) should contemplate quantitative easing if inflation in the single currency bloc remains low for a protracted period, says International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde. "If inflation was to remain stubbornly low, then we would certainly hope that the ECB would take quantitative easing measures by way of purchasing of sovereign bonds," Lagarde told CNBC on Thursday. She defines "stubbornly low inflation" as prices remaining well below target in spite of measures being taken to boost inflation. Unlike other major central banks, the ECB has so far resisted embarking on a quantitative easing program, but has said it stands ready to do so if needed.

ISRAEL - Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Israel's close ally, the United States, against working with arch-foe Iran in the effort to pull Iraq back from the brink. Israel has consistently voiced fears that a swift jihadist offensive led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that has swept up swaths of Iraq, may prompt concessions to Tehran from Washington. "Now both of these camps are enemies of the United States, and when your enemies are fighting each other, don't strengthen either one – weaken both," said Netanyahu, who was in Israel.

ITALY - Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, has said that Italy will push for a "United States of Europe" during its six-month EU presidency, in a move likely to raise hackles in Britain. Launching an appeal to convince European leaders to show "that a stronger and more cohesive Europe is the only solution to solving the problems of our time", Mr Renzi said: "For my children's future I dream, think and work for the United States of Europe." He further called for "courageous leaders" to work towards achieving that goal - something that Britain has always objected to. In 1988 Margaret Thatcher, then prime minister, dismissed the idea that the United States might be a model for the future of Europe and David Cameron is actively trying to prevent the election of a committed federalist, Jean-Claude Juncker, to the head of the European Commission.

AFRICA - The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is out of control. More than 330 people have already died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. MSF says the epidemic will spread further unless there is a stronger international response.

IRAQ - Iraq's Mahdi Army militia paraded through the streets of Baghdad's Sadr City district on Saturday, heeding a call from Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to defend holy sites. Members passed through the streets dressed in black, while vehicles laden with weapons joined a convoy. Shiite clerics also took part in the march. Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia fought the Americans in at least two rounds of street warfare during their eight-year presence in Iraq. Army members also held a military parade in Kirkuk on Saturday. The Iraqi government has struggled to push back against Islamic extremists and allied militants who have seized large swaths of the country, including the second largest city Mosul, and who have vowed to march on Baghdad.

UK - The Church of England has reinstated the word “sin” into baptism services after a backlash from parishes who complained a new wording was “bland”, “dumbed down” and “nothing short of dire”. Plans to introduce an alternative order of service using more “accessible” language, have had to be redrawn after members inundated Lambeth Palace with letters complaining the move went too far. But the church is to press ahead with plans to banish references to “the Devil” from the new format. An official explanation sent out to members of the Church’s General Synod, following a trial of the proposed wording, said most clergy had found it “much easier” to ask parents and godparents to make vows which do not mention Satan. But, with memorable understatement, it also noted that “several” of those consulted “regretted the loss of the Devil”.

CALIFORNIA, USA - As California enters summer with a below-normal mountain snowpack to feed its streams and reservoirs, the portion of the parched state experiencing exceptionally severe drought conditions is growing, experts said. The most populous US state is in the third year of a crippling drought that has forced ranchers to sell cattle for lack of grazing land, and farmers to let an estimated 400,000 acres normally devoted to crops go fallow.

USA - Neighborhood cops are becoming armed soldiers. With so much happening internationally and the number of scandals, crises and general screw-ups of the Obama administration here at home, it’s worth noting a disturbing development here on the domestic front: a rapidly expanding police state. On my radio program last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Cheryl Chumley, a reporter for The Washington Times, about her new book, “Police State USA: How George Orwell’s Nightmare is Becoming our Reality.” The title says it all, and aptly describes the shocking transformation of what had been our free society. Keep in mind, people in the political class constantly reveal their contempt for regular citizens. That contempt is the inevitable result of a group of people who have convinced themselves that big government is necessary because the little people can’t control their own lives.

HAWAII - Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano, has rumbled back to life in Hawaii over the past 13 months with more seismic activity than at any time since its last eruption, scientists say, while calling it too soon to predict another blast. The volcano, which last erupted in 1975 and 1984, has been rattled since March 2013 by earthquakes of the same type and in the same location as the temblors that preceded those explosions, said Wes Thelen, a seismologist for the US Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. "The earthquakes we are seeing at Mauna Loa lead us to believe that some of the same things that happened before the 1975 and 1984 eruptions are happening right now," Thelen told Reuters. "We don't see this kind of activity outside of pre-eruptive earthquake sequences," he said.

IRAQ - One of the factors behind the most recent violence in Iraq is the sectarian divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims in that country. The majority of Iraq's Muslims are Shia, and the ISIS militants gaining ground there there are Sunni [Shia 51% - Sunni 42%]. According to the Pew Research Center, Iraq is one of only a handful of countries with a Shia majority.