Around the World:

Most of the news stories today revolve around the financial situation that the world faces today, resulting from the downgrading of the U.S. rating. First, to some other news:

Iran says U.S. 'will be taught the mother of all lessons'

Iran is planning to retaliate against the United States for the sabotage against its nuclear program, according to an editorial in the Kayhan newspaper, the mouthpiece of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The U.S. has all of its infrastructure connected to the Internet, the editorial says

Specifically, Iran is looking into launching a cyber attack against U.S. electrical grid systems.

Power companies prepare as solar storms set to hit earth

Three large explosions from the Sun over the past few days have prompted U.S. government scientists to caution users of satellite, telecommunications and electric equipment to prepare for possible disruptions over the next few days.

"The magnetic storm that is soon to develop probably will be in the moderate to strong level," said Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist at the Space Weather Prediction Center, a division of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

He said solar storms this week could affect communications and global positioning system (GPS) satellites and might even produce an aurora visible as far south as Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Fire from Gaza intensifies as three mortars hit southern Israel

Three mortar shells fell Sunday night in Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council

The incident comes after a spate in rocket attacks launched from the Gaza Strip last week. On Friday, Israel Air Force jets attacked five targets in Gaza in response to the firing of Grad rockets.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a cabinet meeting Sunday that the recent rocket fire from Gaza was carried out by Palestinian breakaway groups and an Islamic Jihad organization, adding that he views the recent escalation with great severity and believes the attacks will continue.

Barak warns Gaza militants may resume terror attacks against Israel

Since the beginning of 2011 more than 340 rockets have been fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Barak said the Iron Dome was moved to Ashkelon as a result of growing tension, but added that "even so, Israel is not interested in escalation."

Two additional rockets landed on Wednesday last week, one near Ashkelon and the other near Kiryat Gat. A woman was lightly wounded on Monday when a Qassam rocket landed near a kibbutz near Ashkelon.

Palestinians planning new wave of violence, warns Israeli FM

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday warned that the Palestinian Authority is planning to unleash a new wave of violence against Israel in conjunction with its bid for UN recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN in September.

The Persecution of Christians in the Middle East

Today, Christians, regardless of affiliation, are being systematically harassed, persecuted, and murdered throughout the Middle East, the region of the globe from which Christianity first emerged.

Churches have been bombed and those attending Christian services have been killed. Christian homes have been ransacked and cemeteries have been destroyed.

Converts from Islam to Christianity are considered apostates and subject to severe punishment. In Iran, a man named Youcef Nadarkhani has been sentenced to hang for the state crime of converting from Islam to Christianity. His appeals for clemency to Iran's highest courts have been rejected.

The former President of Lebanon, Amin Gemayel has declared, "Massacres are taking place for no reason and without any justification against Christians. It is only because they are Christians." This can only be called religious cleansing on a vast scale.

18 Indonesian volcanoes on alert status

Eighteen Indonesian volcanoes are on “alert” status, two of which are at Alert Level 3, which is called “Siaga”, the Volcanology and Geology Disaster Mitigation Center says.
Center head Surono said Sunday in Jakarta the erupting Mount Lokon in North Sulawesi and Mount Ibu in North Maluku were the two volcanoes at Siaga status.
The center has adopted four levels of alert status: “Normal” (Level 1), “Waspada” (Level 2), “Siaga” (Level 3) and “Awas” (Level 4).
Surono said the conditions at Mt Lokon and Mt Ibu were currently considered most worrisome because they had been consistently erupting searing clouds affecting a radius of 2.5 kilometers.

The world runs out of options

This time we face the risk of double-dip recession without shock absorbers. Interest rates are already at or near zero in much of the OECD club. Fiscal deficits are stretched to the limits of safety.

Standard & Poor's downgrade of the United States to AA+ is a detail in this greater drama, albeit of poignant symbolism.

The Great Reprieve is exhausted. The world has used up the three years' grace gained by extreme stimulus after the debt bubble burst in 2008.

EU speeds up anti-crisis measures after US downgrade

ECB officials and EU leaders held a series of telephone conferences over the past three days in various formats including the G7, the G20, France-Germany and France-Gerany-US in a bid to allay market fears after the Standard & Poor's ratings agency downgraded US debt from AAA to AA+ on Friday (5 August) in a historic move.

Markets remain sceptical despite the new interventions however, with shares continuing to fall in Asian markets on Monday morning. South Korea at one point slumped by more than 7 percent. The US downgrade saw Middle Eastern markets tumble earlier on Sunday - their first day of trading. Israel fell by seven percent, while markets in Dubai and Egypt dropped some four percent.

I Told You So! Forecast: Major 1930s-Style Depression Coming

The recently passed raising of the national debt ceiling along with continued out-of-control spending by Obama and the Democrats triggered the onslaught of a major worldwide depression that will eventually prove to be worse than what we had experienced during The Great Depression of the 1930s.

You can look forward to the following forecast occurring within the next year:

- Moody’s, Fitch, and S&P will downgrade the United States AAA credit rating.

- The stock market is crashing. The Dow dropped over 1,000 points in the past eight days in a row. It will get worse in the ensuing days, weeks, and months.

- The national unemployment will go over 10% soon and will eventually go over 25%.

- The housing crisis will get worse. Thousands of families are losing their homes to repossessions throughout the United States.

- The national debt will continue to rise.

- The United States will go further into debt because the politicians and the Obama administration will continue to spend like drunken sailors.

There you go. Prepare now for the coming Great Depression of 2012.