SPAIN - Olive oil is the latest commodity to see huge price hikes as it faces extreme weather during its production. Spain is the world’s largest exporter of olive oil and has suffered from intense drought for months. The average price in August was 130% higher compared to the year before. Global prices for olive oil were at $8,900 per ton in September driven by extremely dry weather in the Mediterranean, according to a report by the United States Department of Agriculture. It is expected that olive oil stocks could be depleted before October, when the fresh harvest is expected to be ready.

UK - Rishi Sunak is set to perform a major U-turn on one of the government's flagship environmental policies by delaying a ban on new petrol and diesel cars to ease the financial burden on voters. The Prime Minister is poised to push back a deadline to outlaw fossil fuel vehicle sales from 2030 to 2035 amid economic hardship for families. He will also slow the phasing-out of gas boilers in homes in order to cut costs for consumers. The move to water down policies introduced by former PM Boris Johnson sparked a major row among Tory MPs.

UNITED NATIONS - Nearly 30 foreign ministers from countries in Europe and the Middle East met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday to unveil a new initiative aimed at reviving the long-dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

USA - The US national debt topped $33 trillion for the first time ever on Monday, crossing a critical milestone at a time when government spending is already under scrutiny. The national debt – which measures what the US owes its creditors — hit $33.04 trillion as of Monday afternoon, according to new data published by the Treasury Department. By comparison, just four decades ago, the national debt hovered around $907 billion. "The United States has hit a new milestone that no one will be proud of: our gross national debt just surpassed $33 trillion," said Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "Debt held by the public, meanwhile, recently surpassed $26 trillion. We are becoming numb to these huge numbers, but it doesn’t make them any less dangerous."

USA - As economist Herbert Stein once said, “If something cannot go on forever, it has a tendency to stop.” Case in point: fiat money political regimes. Interventionist economies of the West are in a fatal downward spiral, comparable to that of the Roman Empire in the second century, burdened with unsustainable debt and the antiprosperity policies of governments, especially the Green New Deal. In the global Ponzi scheme, thin air and deceit substitute for sound money. As hedge-fund manager Mitch Feierstein wrote in Planet Ponzi, “You don’t solve a Ponzi scheme; you end it.”

AFRICA - Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso sign a security pact against islamic insurgence and foreign invasion – French Official Is freed from prison in Niger, and US restarts drone operations from its airbase. The geopolitical situation in the Sahel region of Western Africa continues in a flux, as the coup leaders in three former French colonies have enacted a security agreement against internal insurgents or external invasion. Reuters reported: “Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, three West African Sahel nations ruled by military juntas, signed a security pact on Saturday promising to come to the aid of each other in case of any rebellion or external aggression.” The three countries are fighting insurgents linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State and are under pressure by the Western Powers and also by the African neighbors from ECOWAS regional block, who have threatened the use of force to reinstate deposed president Bazoum, after the coup in Niger.

SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia informed the Biden administration of its decision to halt all talks of normalizing ties with Israel on Sunday, the Arab news outlet Elaph cited an Israeli official in the Prime Minister’s Office as saying. According to the unconfirmed report, Riyadh issued a message through the US, explaining that the “extremist” nature of Israel’s right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “torpedoing any possibility of rapprochement with the Palestinians, and thus with the Saudis,” as per Elaph.

USA - An Arabic media report had claimed Riyadh withdrew from normalization talks due to Benjamin Netanyahu's "extremist" government. The US State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs denied reports that efforts to reach a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel had been halted on Monday. “The United States remains committed to furthering Israel’s regional integration, including through active diplomacy aimed at Israel-Saudi normalization. Talks are ongoing, and we look forward to further conversations with both parties,” the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs posted on X. Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said in remarks to state TV on Monday that there will be no solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict without an independent Palestinian state. "The two-state solution must return to the forefront," he added.

ISRAEL - 'We will return to the Intifada'. Palestinian officials from Hamas and the Popular Front called to escalate terrorist activities against Israel. Saleh al-Arouri, Deputy Head of Hamas' political bureau, met in Beirut on Saturday with a delegation from the leadership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - led by its Deputy Secretary-General, Jamil Mazhar. The two called on Hamas and the Popular Front to escalate their opposition against Israel. The two factions also called on the Palestinian Authority leadership to "return to the intifada in order to achieve national unity and the settlement of the Palestinian home on national and democratic bases."

ISRAEL - Two attacks in three hours: The rise in violence and escalation of Palestinian threats coincided with the beginning and end of Rosh Hashanah. Several shooting and stabbing attacks, as well as riots along the Gaza border, took place over the last two days, in an escalation in violence that coincided with the beginning and end of Rosh Hashanah. On Monday morning, as Israelis returned to work after the three-day holiday, Border Police officers foiled an attempted stabbing attack near the Mazmuriyeh crossing near east Jerusalem. The terrorist was shot by security forces at the scene, Border Police confirmed. On Saturday, a report was received about a shooting attack targeting an IDF post near the town of Shuwaika, the IDF said. No injuries or damage to the post were reported. On Sunday, riots took place along the Gaza border, spearheaded by the Hamas terrorist organization, part of a wider wave of escalation. Reports said that rockets were also fired from Gaza toward the sea.

USA - With summer nearing the end, and fall set to begin, so does the colder weather, but we as a nation will once again be dealing with higher electricity bills as the price of gas continues to rise. Autumn is when we start pulling out our warmer clothes and begin our preparations for the upcoming winter which starts on December 21 of this year.

ISRAEL - Which events over the past year have enhanced the presence of God in our world, and which events have diminished His presence? ‘All of humanity pass before You as sheep.’ On Rosh Hashanah, God reviews all human behavior, scrutinizes our inner hearts, and determines our fate for the coming year. On this solemn Day of Judgment, we also celebrate Divine sovereignty. The shofar blast recalls historical milestones: creation, the binding of Isaac, Jewish selection, Sinai, and, of course, the Messianic endpoint of history. Rosh Hashanah is both a somber day of judgment, but also a celebration of Divine majesty and religious glory. As the new year commences, what is the “state of God” in our world? The ongoing Russian invasion of the Ukraine has taken hundreds of thousands of lives, while also reviving dormant Cold War-era tensions. Worried about potential future wars, many European countries have undergone rapid weaponization, while other superpowers such as China are forging dangerous new alliances in pursuit of regional influence. Often, the world doesn’t realize that it is on a path to war and doesn’t hear the drumbeats of war until it is too late.

SOUTH KOREA - The deployment of such weapons would result in the end of the government of North Korea, President Yoon Suk Yeol says. Seoul and Washington will retaliate harshly if North Korea were to resort to the use of nuclear weapons, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has warned. The US and South Korea have “reaffirmed that any nuclear attack by North Korea will be met with a swift, overwhelming and decisive response,” Yoon said in an interview with AP on Sunday. A decision by the neighboring country to deploy nuclear weapons would “bring about the end of the regime” in Pyongyang, he said. North Korea, which has carried out a series of ballistic missile tests this year, has warned many times that it won’t hesitate to use nuclear weapons in order to defend itself.

GERMANY - The German economy is weakening, but it does not deserve the nickname “the sick man of Europe,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview released on Saturday. Scholz pushed back against the criticism of what he called the “Anglo-Saxon newspaper.” According to the chancellor, The Economist disliked “the alleged German obsession with not taking on endless debt.” “The text basically recommends taking on €100 to 200 billion euros of additional debt every year. But I say: No! Going into endless debt doesn’t solve our problems, but it creates new ones,” he stressed.

GERMANY - The convention by which Germany's far right is kept far from government regardless of how many parliamentary seats it wins was dealt another blow on Thursday when its votes were used to defeat a regional government in a crucial budget bill. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been leading in polls in parts of eastern Germany for months, benefiting from dismay at rising prices and uncertain economic prospects, but a so-called "firewall" of all other parties joining together has kept it far from power.