USA - The projection of a 55 year low in the national wheat harvest is the final confirmation that America is entering a period of genuine food insecurity. While the government blames climate cycles the reality is that a toxic combination of record high fertilizer prices and a catastrophic drought has made it economically impossible for many farmers to even attempt a harvest. This disconnect stems from a decade of ignoring agricultural infrastructure while prioritizing global trade over domestic stability. Wheat is the foundation of the global food supply and a massive domestic shortfall means that bread, pasta, and cereal prices are about to undergo a secondary inflation wave that will make the 2022 spike look like a minor adjustment. We are watching a perfect storm where the war in the Middle East has already disrupted global shipping and now our own breadbasket is failing to produce enough to meet domestic demand. When the USDA makes a cut this aggressive in May it typically signals that even worse numbers are coming as the heat of summer sets in.

UK - Britain has become the country it once mocked. For years we looked at Italy with a mix of amusement and superiority as it churned through prime ministers with dizzying speed. But now the joke’s on us. When Keir Starmer falls, we will have had seven occupants of Number 10 in a decade. Margaret Thatcher governed for over 11 years, Tony Blair 10. Even hapless John Major, battered by Black Wednesday and the Maastricht mutiny, survived for over six years. Investors now regard us warily, with justified caution rather than confidence as they try to read the political runes. That’s why gilt yields climbed this week to levels not seen in a generation. We’re on the brink of a fiscal crisis: no money, no growth, and the national debt is still close to 100 per cent of GDP. We’re not ungovernable, we’re just governed by a political generation which believes the answer is more spending when the taps have run dry.

MIDDLE EAST - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been secretly carrying out attacks against Iran, according to The Wall Street Journal. The attacks included a strike on an oil refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island in early April, triggering a major fire and knocking much of the facility offline for months. Iran acknowledged at the time that the refinery had been struck in what it described as an enemy attack. Tehran later responded with missile and drone strikes against the UAE and Kuwait. Iran launched more than 2,800 missiles and drones at the UAE during the war, more than against any other country besides Israel.

USA - A growing shortage of large power transformers is delaying grid expansion projects across the United States, according to a report. Lead times for these critical components have increased to years-long periods, slowing upgrades to the nation’s aging power infrastructure. The surge in electricity demand from artificial intelligence data centers is cited as a key driver. The International Energy Agency projects that data center electricity consumption could more than double by 2030. Industry officials said the shortage could undermine grid reliability and renewable energy targets. In an interview, David Tice noted that the scarcity of transformers poses a significant risk to national security and called for a strategic transformer reserve. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation warned that 37 states face elevated blackout risks.

USA - Central California peach farmers are preparing to destroy around 420,000 clingstone peach trees after Del Monte Foods shut down its canneries earlier this year. Del Monte, the 139-year-old canned fruit and vegetable company, permanently closed its canneries in Modesto and Hughson in April following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last July. The closures left hundreds of workers without jobs and devastated growers, many of whom lost 20-year contracts with Del Monte and had few alternative buyers for their crops. Farmers could face an estimated $550 million in lost revenue, according to the Sacramento Bee. After a court allowed Del Monte to sell its assets, Pacific Coast Producers bought Del Monte's canned fruit business. The company agreed to buy about 24,000 tons of peaches from farmers, but that still leaves about 50,000 tons without a buyer, meaning a large amount of the crop will not be used, according to the Sacramento Bee. “For generations, Central Valley family farms have relied on Del Monte’s Modesto facility to process their peaches,” Valadao said in a statement.

USA - US President Donald Trump is seriously considering resuming the war with Iran soon because of the way the Iranians are handling negotiations, aides close to the president told CNN on Monday. CNN reported that the latest Iranian proposal, which Trump called "unacceptable," along with the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the division among the Iranian leadership, are the key factors pushing Trump into resuming the war against the regime. Trump told reporters on Sunday that the ceasefire was "on life support" after the latest offer, while claiming that he "has a plan" and that "Iran can't have a nuclear weapon." The sources also said that the US and Iran are operating with completely opposite timelines, with the Islamic regime believing that it's more capable of tolerating the economic pressure than another round of fighting.

USA - A majority of Americans believe US President Donald Trump faces a higher risk of assassination than recent presidents following two separate shooting incidents over the past year, according to a new Economist/YouGov poll. The poll, released this week shortly after a shooter opened fire outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton on April 25, found that 64% of Americans feel Trump is at greater risk of assassination than previous presidents, while only 6% said he is at less risk.

USA - ‘Let me be clear,” said Pastor Mark Burns, unveiling a 22-foot-high gilded statue of President Trump last week in Florida, “this is not a golden calf.” Ironically, this was the precise note of uneasy defensiveness you imagine probably characterised the spokesman of the idolatrous Israelites confronting a furious Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai. It does feel an awful lot like a golden calf. Frankly, to Trump the golden idol (sorry: golden “symbol of resilience, freedom, patriotism [and] strength”) is a mere sideshow. The president graced the unveiling of his statue only briefly via speakerphone. He has his sights set on bigger, madder things. There is the vast new White House ballroom, of course. There is also the “Arc de Trump”, a marble triumphal arch of Napoleonic immodesty, which, if built, will tower twice the height of the neighbouring Lincoln Memorial. Above all there is the 47-storey Trump presidential “library”, which will contain (obviously) no books but feature another enormous golden statue of the president and an entire aeroplane. Trump’s grands projets are only the most extravagant symptom of a world that is moving into a new age of architectural megalomania.

USA - The Pacific Ocean is aggressively heating up, and that means big trouble for the months ahead. It is being projected that we will experience a “Super El Niño” similar to the one that the world experienced in 1877 and 1878. That “Super El Niño” created horrifying droughts and famines all over the planet. As a result, more than 50 million people died. It truly was one of the worst environmental disasters in recorded history, and now a repeat performance is on the way. Each “El Niño” is different. Some are quite weak, and some are quite strong. Unfortunately, scientists are telling us that the “El Niño” that is coming in the middle of this year will be immensely powerful… We aren’t just talking about a minor shift in the weather. According to the Washington Post, the “Super El Niño” of 1877 and 1878 resulted in a global famine that killed over 50 million people…

USA - The Pentagon declassified a new batch of files on Friday about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) - alien sightings. The files, released as part of US President Donald Trump’s campaign promise of greater government transparency, have hundreds of pages and videos of unexplained aerial encounters from the 1940s until early 2024. There are 161 files accessible on the US Department of Defense website, with more set to be released.