USA - Former Wall Street money manager Ed Dowd is a skillful financial analyst. Dowd warns the economy can fall out of bed at any time. He explains: “The economy is going to take a nosedive sometime in the next 12 months. The real economy is not doing well. The only thing that has been holding up the GDP growth is government spending. We are spending $1 trillion every 100 days. That’s adding $1 trillion to the deficit. The only job creation is government jobs, and they don’t actually add to the economy. Reports are coming out now that the low-income consumer is getting absolutely hammered. McDonald’s talked about it in their most recent earnings call. So, low-income and the middle-class are getting squeezed while the rich continue to plug along.” There is a lag in the real economy, and it’s hitting right now. It’s only going to intensify as time goes on.

UK - Britain is facing some of the most dangerous few years in its history, Rishi Sunak will say on Monday in a speech intended to frame the general election as a generational tussle for the long-term future of the country. The prime minister will give a speech in central London in which he will lay out what he believes to be at stake at the next election, as he warns the UK faces threats from international conflict, migration and technology.

USA - The US is losing its influence in the region to China and Russia, according to an Al-Monitor/Premise survey. Moscow and Beijing are already playing more important roles in the Middle East and North Africa than ten years ago, and in another decade could rival Washington’s influence in the region, according to a recent opinion poll. The poll was conducted by Al-Monitor in partnership with data analytics firm Premise across Egypt, Türkiye, Iraq and Tunisia between March 4 and March 22, 2024, and questioned 2,670 respondents in the four states about their views on power dynamics in the region. When asked which of the three world leaders they viewed “most favorably,” some 44.4% chose Russian President Vladimir Putin, followed by Chinese President Xi Jinping with some 33.8%, while only 21.7% said they preferred US President Joe Biden.

INDIA - A summer storm on Tuesday damaged a floating solar plant at Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar dam. The floating solar plant, situated in the backwater of the dam, is the biggest of its kind in the world. On Tuesday, summer storms with the speed of 50kmph hit the project and threw the solar panels all around the place. Greens keep telling us we can expect more frequent and extreme superstorms – so what is the point of building vulnerable floating structures?

USA - Solar storm sparks chaos as critical system 'extremely compromised' after event. A stunning aurora, caused by a severe geomagnetic storm, lit up the skies in pink, green and purple this weekend in parts of the US. A solar storm that brought the northern lights to many parts of the UK this weekend caused critical GPS equipment to become "extremely compromised". Important GPS systems and precision farming functionality in tractors and agricultural equipment was impacted during the rare phenomenon.

UK - Nutritionists have likened companies shamelessly flogging fat, sugar and salt laden products to those peddling cigarettes in the 1950s - and warned the consequences will be catastrophic. The devastation wreaked by today’s ultra-processed food diets will be greater than that of tobacco, experts warn. Cheap and industrially-made junk is now so prevalent medics said the unfolding catastrophe will only be fully appreciated in decades to come. In a grim prophecy world-renowned nutritionists likened companies flogging fat, sugar and salt laden products to those peddling cigarettes in the 1950s. We basically have an unregulated environment where the food industry has near total control over messaging, like tobacco. As many as 10 million Brits are now thought to be hooked on junk food, despite knowing it has sparked an explosion in a catalogue of killer conditions that has made the UK one of the sickest on earth.

ISRAEL - Hezbollah's missile strike sets Northern Israel ablaze, revealing weaknesses in the Iron Dome defence. Northern Israel plunged into chaos and fear as Hezbollah militants launched a devastating barrage of missiles, igniting flames that engulfed the hillsides and inflicted heavy damage on a key city. The evacuated city of Kiryat Shmona became the primary target of over 60 missiles fired by Hezbollah forces on Friday. The relentless assault left the region ablaze, overwhelming civil defence efforts to contain the spreading inferno. Dozens of homes and vehicles lay in ruins, with fires raging uncontrollably across the Kiryat Shmona area - causing huge damage to infrastructure.

USA - The Biden administration has pleaded with Benjamin Netanyahu to "hold back" on his Rafah offensive with the offer of "sensitive intelligence" to target Hamas leaders, four anonymous officials have claimed. According to the insiders, Washington has said it would provide information on the location of tunnels the militants have been using in Gaza as an incentive not to enter the city. The unnamed sources told The Washington Post that the Biden administration "is offering Israel valuable assistance if it holds back, including sensitive intelligence to help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of Hamas leaders and find the group’s hidden tunnels.” Rafah is considered to be the last outpost of Hamas fighters left following the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.

USA - More than two dozen House Democrats led by Representative Josh Gottheimer told national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday they were “deeply concerned” about President Biden’s decision to withhold military aid from Israel. Gottheimer (Democrat for New Jersey) and 25 of his fellow lawmakers wrote in a letter to Sullivan obtained by The Post that “withholding weapons shipments to Israel … only emboldens our mutual enemies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other Iranian-backed proxies.”

UK - Britain looks set to cave into Brussels over proposed new post-Brexit rules governing Gibraltar in a 'serious diminution of UK sovereignty', MPs warned yesterday. A letter to ministers from the Commons' European Scrutiny Committee raised 'serious concerns' that British negotiators have failed to stand up to Eurocrats during talks. Of particular concern is apparent plans to carry out Schengen border checks required by the EU on British soil at the peninsula's airport rather than at the border with Spain. It means Britons face intrusive checks to enter their own territory, which the committee branded 'seismic' and a move which would render 'Gibraltar's frontier British in all but name'. MPs fear the agreement about to be struck could even mean some Britons being turned away.

BELARUS - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko believes that many countries are losing interest in using the dollar and the euro, and not only Belarus and Russia are abandoning them. "No one needs either the dollar or the euro now. And it is not only in Belarus and Russia. It is happening in many countries," Lukashenko told journalists in Minsk on Thursday. The currencies have lost their relevance, "especially after talk of stealing Russia's gold and foreign currency reserves, assets, which they have been storing in the West," Lukashenko said. The president added that he had spoken to many world leaders and said they questioned: "What would happen to us if it happens to a nuclear power?"

RUSSIA - There is an accelerating trend towards global de-dollarization. What's behind the phenomenon and when did it start? A growing number of countries are fleeing the US dollar in international settlements, forcing Western politicians, business sectors and thought leaders to admit that weaponizing currencies like the US has done is backfiring. For roughly 80 years, the US dollar has played the role of the major international reserve currency and the main means of payment in global trade. However, over the past two decades, the share of global reserves held in US dollars fell from 73% in 2001 to 58% in 2023, according to some estimates. Even though the greenback continues to dominate the world's trade – being on one side of 88% of all trades as of April 2022 – international players have been gradually shifting to alternative currencies.

HUNGARY - China and Hungary signed 18 cooperation agreements on Thursday following an in-person meeting in Budapest between Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and visiting dictator Xi Jinping, who is on the last leg of a week-long trip to Europe. The agreements facilitate the spread of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda in Hungary, expand agricultural cooperation, and allow China to expand the footprint of its predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) debt trap project in the country. Following a celebratory welcome to Xi in Budapest, Orbán declared China “one of the pillars of the new world order” and vowed to ensure that Hungary’s foreign policy would remain friendly to the CCP.

USA - The slow and steady push for de-dollarization across the globe has accelerated dramatically in recent weeks as the prospects of victory in November for Donald Trump have globalist elites and BRICS nations worried. Russian IMF Representative Alexey Mozhin said recently that BRICS is ready to offer a blockchain alternative to not only the current international payment systems, but for the US Dollar itself. “Such a proposal is being discussed,” the director told RIA Novosti. “In the event of the collapse of the dollar and the international monetary system, it will be necessary to turn the said BRICS accounting unit into a real currency, backed by exchange goods.”

ISRAEL - Netanyahu pledged to fight Hamas with his fingernails, Biden warns he won’t send arms for use in Rafah operation, hostage talks at standstill. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to fight Hamas with his fingernails as he dismissed US President Joe Biden's warning that he would not provide arms for a major military operation in Rafah. “But we have much more than fingernails and with that same strength of spirit, with G-d's help, together we will win,” he said. He spoke as Biden told CNN Wednesday “I’ve made it clear that if they [Israel] go into Rafah… I’m not supplying the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah,” That statement followed one made earlier that day by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that a shipment of precision munitions designated for Gaza had been paused.