Link: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Over_439%2C000_people_were_arrested_in_the_US_last_year_for_simple_possession_of_marijuana/60997/0/38/38/Y/M.html

One person gets arrested for marijuana possession every 71 seconds in the United States, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual Crime In the United States (CIUS) report. There are currently eight states that regulate marijuana similarly to alcohol for adults, four of which voted to do so in November 2016. Marijuana possession is also legal for adults in the District of Columbia. Twenty-three states and D.C. considered legislation in 2017 to regulate marijuana, including in Vermont where the legislature approved such a measure before the governor vetoed it.

Link: https://www.rt.com/business/404623-russian-ruble-strongest-currency-oil/

Brent crude prices hit a 26-month high on the news Turkey has threatened to cut oil supplies from Iraqi Kurdistan. This gave a boost to the Russian ruble, which remains the world's strongest currency against the US dollar in the last 12 months. The ruble has surged over ten percent against the dollar in the last 52 weeks, trading at 57.4 against the greenback and 67.8 against the euro.

Link: https://www.rt.com/news/404687-saudi-women-decree-drive/

King Salman of Saudi Arabia has issued a decree ordering that women be allowed to drive, Saudi state media has reported. Under the conservative kingdom’s previous laws, women were banned from driving.

The decree orders the Saudi interior minister to draft and adopt necessary amendments to the traffic regulations and to form a special commission consisting of the ministers of interior, finance, labor and development to “study the necessary arrangements” needed for the implementation of the new rules, as reported by the state SPA news agency.

Link: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Defiant_Catalans_Block_Spain%27s_Military_Boats_From_Landing%3B_Spain_Seizes_%22.CAT%22_Domain/60955/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Spain’s plan to send boatloads of military police to Catalonia to prevent its independence referendum has backfired with dockers in two ports staging a boycott and a third refusing access.

The Assembly of Stevedores of the Port of Barcelona announced that workers would not provide any services to boats carrying security forces, a decision it said was taken “in defence of civil rights”.

Link: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Angela_Merkel_wins_fourth_term/60969/0/38/38/Y/M.html

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been re-elected for a fourth term in federal elections, exit polls suggest.

Her conservative CDU/CSU alliance has won 32.5% of the vote, remaining the largest party in Germany's parliament, according to the ARD poll.

Its coalition partner, the social democratic SPD, has gained 20%.

Meanwhile, the AfD, a nationalist, anti-Islam party, was on track to win 13.5%, emerging as Germany's third-strongest party.

Link: https://www.rt.com/business/404184-bitcoin-price-slide-china/

Bitcoin plunged over five percent on Friday under pressure of a nationwide Chinese ban on local bitcoin exchanges and trading platforms. The world's most popular cryptocurrency traded at $3,686 on Friday, down more than 25 percent from its record high of $5,000 earlier this month. However, the current price is still higher than after the first sell-off wave, when the value of the cryptocurrency dropped nearly $1,000, to below $3,000. Bitcoin is still up more than 400 percent this year. Bitcoin rival ethereum sank over seven percent to $263.

Link: https://www.rt.com/news/404399-evacuation-bali-volcanic-eruption/

Up to 35,000 people have fled a looming volcanic eruption on the island of Bali after some 300 tremors, increasing in both frequency and intensity, registered between midnight and 6am Sunday.

The Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency has set up temporary shelters for evacuees and provided 14 tons of aid including food, water, tents, blankets and mattresses.

Link: http://theantimedia.org/uk-qatar-fighter-jets-billion-dollar-arms-deal/

The British government and defence giant BAE Systems have agreed a major new deal to supply Qatar with Eurofighter Typhoon jets, despite fears of regional instability. The wealthy Gulf state is at the heart of a regional dispute over the funding of terrorism; Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt have since June imposed sanctions on Qatar, accusing it of financing extremist groups and allying with Iran, arch-foe of the Gulf Arab states

Link: http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/09/19/535693/Slave-Report-2017

According to a report by International Labor Office (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, approximately 40.3 million men, women and children were victims of “modern slavery” in 2016. The study, Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, is based on surveys by the two groups in 48 countries; interviews with more than 71,000 people. Three out of every four slaves were women and girls, one in four was a child, children account for 10 million mostly in Africa, followed by Asia and the Pacific. Nearly five million people in the world were sex slaves

Link: https://www.rt.com/news/403779-eiffel-tower-bulletproof-wall/

Work has begun on a bulletproof wall of glass along the base of the Eiffel Tower. The measure is part of a multi-million euro effort to improve security at the Paris tourist attraction amid the country’s ongoing state of emergency.

After a spate of terrorist attacks in France in recent years, including co-ordinated Islamist gun and suicide bomb attacks at the center of Paris in November 2015 and the Nice truck attack last year, France is currently in a state of emergency.

In August, French police apprehended a man trying to push past an Eiffel Tower security checkpoint while brandishing a knife.

Link: https://www.rt.com/usa/403810-trump-first-speech-unga/

In his first address to United Nations, US President Donald Trump has threatened North Korea with total destruction if it attacks the US or its allies. He also blasted Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and Syria.

If forced to defend itself and its allies, the US “will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Trump said in his remarks at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. He also called North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un a “Rocket Man” on a suicide mission. North Korea warned Monday that the more sanctions imposed on it, the more quickly it will complete its nuclear force, official state news agency KCNA reports

Link: http://tass.com/economy/965166

Russia’s e-commerce market amounted to 498 bln rubles ($8.6 bln) in the first half of this year, a 22% increase; Russian Post and the Association of Internet Trade Companies (AITC) said in a joint statement on Tuesday. The segment of cross-border trade increased 34% in the first half of 2017 year-on-year to 178 bln rubles ($3 bln. biggest share of foreign goods ordered by Russian customers arrive from China - 90%, followed by the European Union (4%), the United States (2%).

Link: https://sputniknews.com/russia/201709181057488362-russia-oil-production-statistcs/

Russia became the world’s top crude oil producer in July for the seventh consecutive month, producing an average of 10,322 million barrels per day, the data of the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Monday.

According to JODI, Russia’s oil production slightly increased, with data for June showing 10,274 million barrels a day. Saudi Arabia came in second with 10,010 million barrels per day,

Link: https://www.rt.com/business/403804-russian-sea-ports-ruble-settlements/

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to approve legislation making the ruble the main currency of exchange at all Russian seaports by next year, according to the Kremlin website. To protect the interests of stevedoring companies with foreign currency obligations, the government was instructed to set a transition period before switching to ruble settlements.

Link: https://www.rt.com/business/403813-russia-wheat-new-exports/

Russia's food and safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor:“New markets are opening, like Laos and Colombia, which have never before purchased grain from us. Mexico also began buying; we have already supplied 300,000 tons of grain.” Russia recently boosted wheat export contracts on expectations of a record grain harvest. Last year, the country became the world’s leading exporter of grain, shipping 34 million tons out of its 119 million ton harvest. Russia has resumed exports to Egypt, one of its biggest customers. China's largest food processor COFCO has purchased 4,000 tons of Russian spring wheat and said is ready to import up to two million tons.

Link: http://abcnews.go.com/International/powerful-71-magnitude-earthquake-strikes-central-mexico/story?id=49958650

226 people are dead after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake rocked central Mexico Tuesday afternoon, hitting on the 32nd anniversary of the biggest earthquake to ever strike the country's capital. More than half of the fatalities are in Mexico City, the country's civil defense agency said.

Link: http://www.blacklistednews.com/US_Sanctions_Backfire%3A_China_Opens_%2410_Billion_Credit_Line_For_Iran/60870/0/38/38/Y/M.html

China has opened a $10 billion line of credit intended to finance energy, transportation, water and other key Iranian infrastructure projects. The significant credit line will primarily use euros and yuan to bypass the US sanctions.

Link: http://govtslaves.info/mattis-3000-u-s-troops-being-sent-to-afghanistan/

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis announced Monday that more than 3,000 U.S. troops are being sent to Afghanistan. The troop increase will put the total number of U.S. forces in the country to more than 14,000. Military experts remain divided on whether the nearly 16-year-old conflict can be won or what a victory would entail.

Link: https://www.rt.com/usa/403747-us-israel-military-base-permanent/

US has routinely deployed forces to Israel, now opening an official permanent military base in the country.

It will be a “base within a base,” located inside the Israeli Air Force’s Mashabim Air Base in the middle of the Negev desert, close to a US military radar installation east of Dimona that tracks ballistic missiles.

American forces will be helping operate Israel’s multi-tiered missile defense system. Israeli officials believe the establishment of the base will send a message to their enemies.

Link: https://www.rt.com/news/403738-hungary-border-fence-migrants/

Hungary has claimed that its fences on the borders with Croatia and Serbia have helped to cut the inflow of migrants by 99.7 percent since 2015. The small inland nation now has one quarter of the length of its borders protected by a fence.

“The number of successful attempts to illegally cross the border fell from 391,000 in 2015 to 18,236 in 2016 and only 1,184 in 2017,” the Hungarian prime minister’s chief security advisor, Gyorgy Bakondi