World's Most Dangerous Rogue States

The United States and Israel are the world's most dangerous, rogue actors, functioning as the preeminent engine of global instability, and acting as the primary existential threat to world peace through calculated, widespread aggression. 

It is a well-known fact that the US has been at war 222 out of 239 years since 1776. And, since Israel's founding in 1948, the country has been in a state of near-perpetual conflict. 

Today, Donald Trump (far left) and Benjamin Netanyahu (left), both war criminals, represent the new axis of evil.

The war against Iran is their latest handiwork. It began on February 28 and the two didn't just target the Islamic Republic; they murdered the prospect of peace by launching joint, pre-emptive strikes against the country while diplomatic talks were still taking place. A calculated, unlawful act by the US and Israel.

Presently, the grueling war has petered into the current stalemate that brings a temporary lull to the battlefield, yet the rhetorical warfare remains fiercely active. 

On Tuesday, during Trump's address at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, he openly mused whether he should completely "annihilate" Iran and drive the nation into hell with "no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations". 

By using the UN podium to openly contemplate wiping out a fellow member state, Trump brought an indecent irony to his delivery at the United Nations – an organisation founded to save future generations from war. 😡😡😡

Weaponizing Space: The US Aggression

On September 14, 2026, US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink announced at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference that the United States has fielded "on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action". 

This marks the first time any global superpower has publicly acknowledged having active, offensive technology positioned directly in Earth's orbit. 

The public admission of orbital weapons deployment underscores a deeply disturbing shift toward absolute military dominance, signaling clear belligerence and warmongering intentions by the United States. Far from a measure of passive defense, moving active weaponry into Earth's orbit effectively breaks a decades-long global taboo against the weaponization of space, transforming the final frontier into a potential theater of war. 

Sivasangari Subramaniam was just two points away from beating the World No. 1 in the Qatar Classic semi-final in Doha on Thursday. 

But the Malaysian, having dragged Egypt's Hania El Hammamy all the way to a fifth-game tiebreak, just couldn't finish it off. It was easily the match of the year – an 87-minute battlefield that ultimately ended 8-11, 11-9, 15-13, 9-11, 12-10 in Hania's favour. 

A loss is still a loss. 

Sure, this was her maiden Platinum-level semi-final. Sure, breaking into the top four in Doha proves she is actively scaling the highest tier of the global game. 

But she still couldn't cross the finish line. Even though she remains the highest-ranked Malaysian since the legendary Nicol David, being a torchbearer isn't the same as holding the trophy. This performance wasn't a ceiling; it was a benchmark – and a stark reminder of the gap she needs to close.

Iran Will Not Fold

Donald Trump announced that the United States could potentially stay in Iran and "keep the oil" suggests that he is fundamentally miscalculating the war in Iran by treating its sovereign natural resources as low-hanging fruit. His brazen declaration – just as it did after removing Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela – exposes a dangerous strategic delusion. 

[While reports surfaced globally on September 14, 2026, Trump originally made these specific remarks to reporters a day earlier, while attending the Irish Open golf championship in Doonbeg, Ireland. He later confirmed in a phone interview with NBC News on Monday that seizing Iranian oil has actively been discussed within his administration].

This overt ambition to seize sovereign oil reserves is a blatant violation of international law. Under the Geneva Conventions and international legal frameworks, the unilateral confiscation of another nation's natural resources for domestic profit constitutes the war crime of pillage.

Trump’s blueprint relies on a completely flawed comparison that ignores both legal and geopolitical realities: 

• The Flawed Analogy: In August 2026, the US successfully leveraged a rapid regime collapse in Caracas to force a deal ceding control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil. Trump explicitly views this asset seizure as a repeatable model to pay for US military interventions. 
• The Institutional Reality: Venezuela’s command structure imploded because it was tied to a single strongman. Conversely, Iran is a deeply institutionalized, ideologically driven theocracy. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have completely rejected US overtures, vowing a war of attrition rather than capitulation. 
• The Strategic Lever: While Venezuela's oil infrastructure was easily isolated, Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has already weaponized this chokepoint to choke global supplies, spiking US fuel prices and using global markets as a counter-offensive shield. 

Trump’s hubris in thinking he can simply dictate an exit strategy, secure the oil fields, and walk away with Iran’s wealth is an outright fantasy. Tehran will not fold to a "Venezuela-style" playbook, and any attempt to permanently occupy its oil reserves will violate international laws against resource theft, pulling the US into an un-winnable regional quagmire. 

Ultimately, Washington's strategic calculus fails to recognize that Iran is a different proposition entirely. History and regional resilience suggest that Iran will not be defeated; in fact, if pushed into a prolonged war of attrition, Iran will, for sure, prevail over the US.

Road Runner's Final Lap

Let's clear the air: cartoons aren't real! Most of the time, anyway! 

And, sometimes, the coyote catches the road runner. In the classic “Looney Tunes” cartoons featuring the Road Runner and Wile E Coyote, which first appeared in 1949, the coyote is foiled again and again in his efforts to catch the puckish bird in the deserts of the American Southwest. 

But a photographer in the Chatsworth Nature Preserve in Los Angeles on Saturday captured a real-life image of something you would never see in that cartoon: a coyote who successfully nabbed a road runner, instead of falling from a cliff, getting hit by a train or having an anvil land on him. 

The snapper, Alexander deBarros (right), took the photo while out with a survey team from the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society for a monthly check of the ecosystem at the preserve, a 1,325-acre space in northwestern Los Angeles. (The photograph was reported by the Los Angeles TV news station KTLA). 

There is no indication that this coyote effected the capture through the use of an Acme jet-propelled pogo-stick, Acme rocket-powered roller skates or Acme dehydrated boulders (“Just add water!”). 

Also, there were no reports of the road runner saying, “Beep, beep”.

While the image proved that coyotes do sometimes come out on top against road runners, it’s not a common occurrence. 

“It is considered very rare for a coyote to catch a road runner”, said Scott El Henke, a professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University, Kingsville. Road runners can run about 20 miles an hour and are agile, he asserted. 

“Physically they can outrun a coyote”, he added, and they “can fly up into tree branches to escape attacks”. 

DeBarros said in an interview that he initially thought the prey might be a ground squirrel. 

“When we confirmed that it was, in fact, a road runner in that coyote’s mouth, we freaked out a little bit”, he intoned. He claimed in 17 years of birding, it was the first time he had seen the cartoon antagonists together. 

When DeBarros spotted the coyote, it already had the road runner in its mouth. He did not see any chase or kill. 

Dr. Henke said this particular road runner might have been caught because it was distracted hunting its own prey, or perhaps it had been hit by a vehicle and was scavenged by the coyote. 

Scavenged? Maybe Wile E didn’t catch the road runner after all. 

Another coyote expert, Stanley D Gehrt, a professor of wildlife ecology at Ohio State University, agreed that the scavenger theory could be true. 

“But I have learned to never underestimate coyotes”, he said. “They can do anything, even catch a road runner”. 

[FYI, the species found in the American Southwest and depicted in the cartoons is the Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus)]. 

In an odd coincidence, DeBarros’s father, Brian Mainolfi, is an animator who worked with Chuck Jones, a creator of the coyote-road runner cartoons, on the 1994 cartoon “Chariots of Fur”. 

Jones, who died in 2002, once said he got the idea for the coyote character from a travel book by a classic novelist. 

“I first got interested in the coyote as an animal while perusing Mark Twain’s ‘Roughing It’ at the age of 7”, he said in a 1989 interview with The New York Times. “I thought of it as a sort of dissolute collie. And actually, that’s just about what a coyote is! No one saw it more clearly than Mark Twain”. 

The cartoon has been back on the radar since the American release on August 28th of the movie “Coyote vs. Acme”, in which the coyote sues the Acme Corporation for its defective products. (It is fictional). 

The feature is dong exceptionally well. It earned a spectacular 95% 'Certified Fresh' score on Rotten Tomatoes and an A CinemaScore from audiences.

But did you know that it has an intriguing back story? 

After years of headlines mourning its potential deletion, the theatrical run of "Coyote vs. Acme" has turned the film into one of Hollywood's ultimate underdog success stories.

Independent distributor Ketchup Entertainment acquired the worldwide rights for roughly $50 million, stepping in to rescue the live-action/animated hybrid after Warner Bros. Discovery initially chose to shelve it for a $30 million tax write-off in late 2023. 

"Keep Going!": Uncle Sam’s Debt Crisis

I came across the clip below on Facebook last Tuesday. Published by China Xinhua News, this AI animation shows Uncle Sam saying "Keep going" while US debt exponentially climbs.

It perfectly captures how the US government just keep kicking the fiscal can down the road. 

You should already know by now that the US national debt has surpassed $40 trillion – I covered this issue in my post "The $40 Trillion Suicide Note" published August 20 – with foreign investors holding trillions of dollars in Treasury securities. 

The visualization below ranks the 20 largest foreign holders of US debt based on June 2026 data from the US Treasury Department. The figures include short-term Treasury bills as well as longer-term Treasury notes and bonds. 

Key takeaways: 

• Japan is the largest foreign holder of US Treasuries, with $1.1 trillion, having overtaken China since 2019 and has remained in the top spot since.
• China now ranks third with $633 billion, roughly half its holdings at their 2013-2014 peak. 
• Financial hubs like Belgium and the Cayman Islands rank highly because Treasury data reflects where securities are held in custody, not necessarily their ultimate owners.

Donald Trump Ranks Himself as the Greatest US President

US President Donald Trump appears preoccupied with slapping his name on things these days. 

On August 27, 2026, he shared a graphic on his Truth Social account that ranked himself as "the greatest" president in American history. 

The unverified presidential ranking list placed Trump at the very top, ahead of foundational historical figures like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. 

It’s not clear where the list came from, but it does not seem as though great care went into assembling it. 

Political commentators point out that the post aligns with Trump's ego-driven push to affix his name and face to public goods and institutions – such as placing his signature on Treasury bills, renaming Palm Beach International Airport, and modifying signage at the Kennedy Center. This comes despite his actual public approval rating, which is buried in the mid-30s.

The fixture details for Celtic's eight Europa League league phase matches have been confirmed. 

Celtic's Europa League draw includes home matches against Ferencvaros, Celta Vigo, Besiktas, and Marseille, with trips to face Benfica, Torreense, Omonia Nicosia, and Union St-Gilloise.

Beijing Rebrands Yasukuni Shrine

Whenever a question was asked about Japanese leaders visiting or making offerings to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, China’s Foreign Ministry would refer to it by its name, describe it as a place that houses World War II war criminals and mete out its criticism. 

On August 17, that approach took a subtle turn. The ministry spokesperson, when replying to a question at a regular press briefing, did not mention Yasukuni Shrine by its Chinese name, “jing guo shen she” or “peaceful country shrine”, at all. Instead, he called it “zhan fan shen she”, or “war criminals shrine” in Chinese. 

The Yasukuni Shrine commemorates Japan’s 2.5 million war dead but among them are 14 World War II criminals, making any visit or offerings to the shrine by the country’s leaders anathema to China and South Korea, which grievously suffered under Japanese occupation. 

The term “war criminals shrine” first surfaced during a regular media briefing of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing on April 21, after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made an offering to the shrine on the first day of a traditional spring festival. 

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said then that Yasukuni was “in effect” a war criminals shrine. 

At the August 17 briefing, the qualifier was dropped. The spokesman, Lin Jian, called it “war criminals shrine” outright, while replying to a question on Takaichi sending another offering on August 15, marked in Japan as the 81st anniversary of the end of World War II. 

While the dispute centres on a site that has long been associated with Japan’s wartime past, the latest shift in language comes as Beijing and Tokyo are facing a broader deterioration in ties, shaped by tensions over Taiwan, Japan’s defence modernisation and the two sides’ competition for influence in South-east Asia. 

Chen Yang, a research fellow at Chinese think-tank Charhar Institute, described the new phrasing as marking a shift by China from factually citing the presence of 14 convicted Class-A war criminals enshrined in Yasukuni as deities, to applying a political judgment to the shrine itself as an institution. 

“‘War criminals shrine’ has formally become part of China’s diplomatic vocabulary”, he explained. “This linguistic shift signals at home and abroad that China rejects attempts to portray Yasukuni Shrine simply as an ordinary religious facility or a memorial site for those killed in war”. 

Japanese officials have justified past visits to the shrine as being done in their personal capacity to honour those who died in the nation’s wars, but such visits are seen in China and South Korea as evidence of a lack of remorse on the part of the Japanese for their war atrocities. 

Both China and South Korea’s governments have repeatedly criticised the shrine visits by top Japanese leaders, and Seoul reiterated on August 15 that future relations with Japan must be built on Japan showing remorse for past wrongs. 

Chen added that China’s newer term is meant to deny Japanese conservative politicians room to present the site simply as a religious facility or a memorial for the war dead. 

“Japan’s right wing has long sought to present Yasukuni as a site for personal acts of mourning”, he said, but the phrase “war criminals shrine” directly binds the site to those convicted of wartime crimes. 

Professor Heng Yee Kuang of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy claimed that this new labeling is consistent with China's recent warnings about "neo-fascism" and "new militarism" in Japan. 

He noted that the Japanese media uses similar “war criminal” language to describe those convicted at the Tokyo Trials, but not to describe the shrine as a whole. The trials took place from May 1946 to November 1948, during which high-ranking Japanese leaders were prosecuted over atrocities committed during World War II.

The $40 Trillion Suicide Note

The United States of America has officially crossed the Rubicon into fiscal insanity. 👏👏👏

The Treasury Department’s quiet admission on Wednesday that the national debt has breached $40 trillion at the close of business on Tuesday afternoon, August 18, 2026, is not just a statistic; it is a financial suicide note signed by a decades-long bipartisan coalition of cowards, gridlocked politicians, and economically illiterate leaders.

For years, Washington treated the national balance sheet like a fantasy novel where deficits don't matter and math is optional. Now, reality is collecting its debt.

The Treasury's latest daily cash and debt balances statement showed total public debt outstanding at $40.047 trillion on ‌Tuesday, a total that includes Treasury securities held by the public of $32.266 trillion and intra-governmental debt holdings of $7.782 trillion. 

The math is as brutal as it is undeniable. The US is trapped in a classic economic doom loop. The country now spends more money paying off the interest on its past debts than it does on protecting the country through national defense. Let that sink in. It is mortgaging its children's future not to build roads, cure diseases, or fund schools, but to pay rent on money it already squandered. Every tick of the debt clock asset-strips the middle class, transfers wealth to institutional lenders, and edges the US closer to a sovereign default. 

The path the United States is walking is fundamentally unsustainable, and the $40 trillion threshold marks the point of no return.

Donald Trump Threatens to Bomb the Sh*t out of Oman

US President Donald Trump has threatened to “bomb the sh*t out of” Oman if it strikes a separate deal with Iran on control of the Strait of Hormuz, despite Oman’s key role as a mediator between Washington and Tehran. 

In addition to brokering talks between the US and Iran, Omani negotiators have been conducting parallel negotiations with Tehran aimed at establishing a safe route for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran reportedly wants to charge fees for safe passage of the strait after an interim period, and Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told reporters on Monday that Iran had reached an “understanding” with Oman on the matter. 

Asked about these Omani-Iranian talks, Trump told Fox News that “if Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the sh*t out of them”! 

The US rejects any agreement that would involve Iran collecting tolls, and Washington has signaled that it will not lift its blockade on Iranian ports unless Tehran relinquishes this demand. 

Speaking in New York on Friday, Trump claimed that the Islamic Republic was “very badly defeated”, and that he would soon “be declaring the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the US”. 

A memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran in June set a 60-day window to bring the conflict to an end and reopen the strait. The memorandum effectively collapsed after fighting restarted last month and the agreement officially lapsed on Monday. 

A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran is prepared “to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region” if diplomacy fails, and to launch “timely and precise strikes” to break the US naval blockade if necessary. 

Trump did not reply directly to this threat in his comments to Fox News, but demanded that Iran “raise the white flag of surrender”.

😂😂😂

The Brink of Dawn: Rewriting US Nuclear Strategy

The US military is drawing up a new nuclear weapons strategy that breaks with decades of established guidelines. ☢️☢️☢️

The strategy is being overseen by War Department policy chief Elbridge Colby (left) and breaks with guidelines followed for decades. Five people familiar with the plans say the update emphasises using shorter-range tactical weapons in regional conflicts. 

The new plan is designed to provide the US President with updated crisis-response options by seeking to deter adversaries from exploiting regional conflicts while preventing conventional warfare from escalating into a nuclear exchange.  

Colby made a scheduled visit and keynote speech at the US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) in Omaha, Nebraska, on August 05, 2026, where he addressed military leadership and attendees during the closed-door 2026 Deterrence Symposium. It came after the Pentagon previously warned that America faces two major nuclear rivals at the same time in China and Russia. 

On July 23, 2026, the Department of War designated three Chinese civilian research universities – Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Shandong University (alongside the Aerospace Information Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences) – as national security threats. These institutions join a growing blacklist that now comprises 130 foreign entities.

Celtic faced Kilmarnock yesterday, seeking back-to-back wins, and they didn't disappoint as they steamrolled past the latter 5-1. 

The Scottish champions were quick to launch an attack down the left side. Kieran Tierney passed to Arne Engels, who delivered a high cross to the far post for Kasper Høgh to head into the net in the second minute, scoring his first goal for Celtic. 

In the 33rd minute, Camilo Durán intercepted a defensive pass, linked up with Benjamin Nygren, and fed Høgh on the left side of the box for a sharp finish. 

During another fluid Celtic attack two minutes later, Nygren slipped the ball to the right for Durán, who sent in a cross that bypassed the goalkeeper, allowing Høgh to tap into an open net and complete his hat-trick. 

Nygren added to the tally in the 47th minute after intercepting a poor goal kick and firing a high shot straight into the top corner. 

While the Killies pulled one back in the 56th minute, Luke McCowan sealed the win with a 75th-minute volley after Kilmarnock failed to clear a looping corner kick.

Data in the Deep

China has taken AI computing beneath the sea, where cold ocean water cools servers while saving energy and millions of litres of freshwater every year. 

Off Hainan’s coast, China operates commercial underwater data centres around 35 metres below the surface. These sealed submarine-grade steel modules use natural seawater to dissipate heat through internal conduction and external radiators, bypassing the energy-hungry mechanical chillers and large amounts of freshwater required by conventional land-based facilities. 

At full capacity, its first phase is expected to save about 26,000 tonnes of water and 3.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually compared with a similar land-based facility.

Don't equate Iran with Venezuela.

A truism. 

This statement was made during an interview with ⁠Mehr News, published on July 20, 2026. 

[That "one person" in question is former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. 

The comment was made in direct reference to a US military operation on January 03, 2026, during which American forces quickly captured and forcibly removed Maduro from power. 

Following his kidnapping, Venezuela’s interim government – led by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez – swiftly endeared themselves to Donald Trump and entered into US-supervised talks, granting new oil and energy concessions to Washington. To put it bluntly, Venezuela capitulated].

On July 28, their Foreign Ministry officially summoned Iranian Ambassador Ali Chegini to deliver a formal note of protest, demanding a strict "cessation of all allusion or comparison that undermines the dignity, sovereignty, institutional framework, or good name" of Venezuela. 

😂😂😂

Shadow Play

A shadow can reveal much more than the shape of an object. 

For Spanish illustrator Sergio Duce, it becomes a storytelling device, transforming ordinary scenes into visual metaphors that explore imagination, childhood, relationships, and everyday life. 

With just a few lines and a carefully placed shadow, he creates illustrations that invite viewers to look beyond what's immediately visible. 

They're built around clever visual concepts rather than dialogue, and for sure, these works reward careful observation, often revealing their meaning only after a second glance.