Europe is currently going through a heat wave that threatens to set all time records for high temperatures in a number of places. The hot air is coming from North Africa and Spain and Portugal are the main sufferers of the torrid heat right now. The heat in France is so high that nuclear power plants have been temporarily shut down because the water they release is making the rivers too hot, killing off fish. Most Europeans don’t have air conditioning since such high temperatures are unusual, so the effects of the high heat are serious for vulnerable populations such as the elderly. Many people are interpreting the heat wave as a sign of global warming and that explanation becomes more plausible every day this summer.
The US has imposed sanctions on Turkey for the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson who has been under Turkish arrest since the attempted coup against President Erdogan in 2016. Brunson has lived in Turkey for the last 23 years and his detention has become a cause célèbre among American evangelicals. Turkey is now retaliating with its own sanctions. The issue is creating an even deeper rift between the US and Turkey, even as the Middle East is becoming less hospitable to US interests.
A board of experts has submitted a report to the UN Security Council after a six-month review of North Korea’s nuclear program. According to Reuters:
“(North Korea) has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018.”
The report clearly indicates that the UN sanctions program against North Korea is not being implemented by several nations and that North Korea has found several techniques to evade them. The report was submitted on Friday and the US has not responded to the critique.
World Politics News 
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