SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia has launched an international body that will fund and promote water sustainability projects in developing nations. Riyadh warned that world water consumption is set to double in the coming decades. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the initiative on Monday, with the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) noting that the new Riyadh-based Global Water Organization plans to “exchange expertise, advance technology, foster innovation, and share research and development experiences” in the fields of water and sanitation. According to findings by the United Nations published in March, around 2 billion people currently lack access to safe drinking water – or 26% of the world’s population – while between 2 to 3 billion face water scarcity for at least one month out of the year. Another 3.6 billion do not enjoy proper sanitation services, the UN said, warning the problems will only worsen in the future with “the growing incidence of extreme and prolonged droughts.”

GERMANY - As evening fell on a recent Monday in this eastern German city of Gothic spires and Renaissance museums, hundreds of protesters began to gather, just as they have nearly every Monday for at least two years. They carried banners calling for Germany to leave the European Union and cheered speakers who demanded that the nearby border with Poland be shut. They are angry about migrants settling in their communities and inflation squeezing their pensions. They oppose arming Ukraine and say Russian President Vladimir Putin has been unfairly maligned.

USA - The signals coming from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are that his Republican majority will soon launch a formal impeachment investigation. The final decision hasn’t been announced — and an investigation is still a far cry from a full House vote. But setting up an impeachment committee is an essential first step. Most of his caucus wants to take it. Most, but not all. The reservations of some Republicans and the calculations behind them are why McCarthy has moved slowly. The speaker’s problem is more than rounding up votes. The other problem is the investigation carries real risks…

USA - Saudi Arabia's extension of oil production cuts until the end of 2023 or longer helps ensure energy prices will become an election 2024 battleground. Why it matters: US gasoline prices, which have been on the rise, are closely tethered to global oil prices. Meanwhile, the presidential campaign season is heating up — and voters already give the White House low marks on the economy. If sustained, "crude price strength could weigh on President Joe Biden's re-election bid," ClearView Energy Partners said in a note.

SAUDI ARABIA - The reason Saudi wealth funds are on the rampage, buying everything from stakes in Spain’s Telefonica (owners of the O2 network) to world golf through LIV, is because they are gloriously endowed. The Saudis are engaged in an enormous wealth transfer from motorists and other oil consumers in the West to Middle Eastern potentates and Russia. Left to market dynamics the oil price should be on a downward projection.

ISRAEL - Scientists have grown an entity very close to a human embryo — without using sperm, eggs or a womb. The embryo even released enough of the hormone pregnant women produce that turns a pregnancy test positive, resulting in a positive test result in the lab. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel made the complete models of human embryos from stem cells generated in the lab after building on previous research where they had made mouse embryos.

UK - Everyday devices like smart speakers, doorbell cameras, TVs and even washing machines are spying on families, it has been revealed. Research shows that standard household amenities are capturing and sharing private information with big tech firms such as Google, as well as Amazon, Facebook and TikTok. It is believed the firms and their business partners are using the information to target people with advertising on smartphones and other devices. The findings by Which? found companies appear to gather far more data than is needed for the product to function. Google Nest smart home products, which include security cameras, smart speakers, doorbell cameras, heating control systems, gather a huge amount of location information on people who connect via smartphones using its Android operating system.

JAPAN - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully launched a lunar exploration craft aboard a domestically produced rocket, and aims to make a precision landing on the Moon by next February. An H-IIA rocket took off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center on Thursday, releasing the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) for its several-month voyage to the lunar surface, according to JAXA. Though the $100 million mission got off to a rocky start, with three postponements last month due to poor weather, JAXA noted that the rocket “flew as planned” during Thursday’s launch.

SWEDEN - It was all for nothing. Really, for nothing. The miseries we inflicted on ourselves after March 2020 — the school closures, the ruined businesses, the debts, the authoritarianism — were caused by a moment of lightheaded panic. How can I be so sure? Because, three-and-a-half years on, the results are in. And, let me warn you, they make dismal reading for anyone who went along with the lockdowns. You see, there was a counterfactual all along. Sweden did not impose mask mandates or stay-at-home orders. It did not close its borders or its businesses. Other than banning large meetings, it carried on as normal and told people to use their common sense.

USA - Much has been said and is being said regarding the proxy war between the US and Russia. Those of us in the West rely primarily on news reports. Virtually all news that we see in the media was created by one of three agencies – Associated Press, Reuters, and, to a lesser degree, AFP. All three companies are owned by the same parent companies, who, in turn, own most of the Western corporatist structure, and, not surprisingly, the reports that they distribute to the media are boilerplate. As such, the TV news tends to be uniform, and whenever a new catch-phrase pops up, such as “extreme right activists” or “January sixth insurrection,” it tends to appear in all major media on the very same day and is then used ubiquitously. We, therefore, receive only one “truth,” and we’re left to either accept it or comb the internet for alternate possibilities.

USA - Until recently, Bryan Johnson was paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to infuse one litre of his teenage son’s youthful plasma into his own ageing blood stream every month. “I’ve never paid more attention to what he’s eating … because that was going into my body,” the 46-year-old American tech entrepreneur says on new podcast The Immortals. He also pumped his own plasma into his 70-year-old father’s body to help improve his declining physical and cognitive health: “It was one of the most meaningful moments in his entire life. And it was the same for me.”

USA - If you hold precious metals in your portfolio, there is a good chance you fear hyperinflation and the crash of fiat currencies. You probably distrust governments in general and believe they are self-serving and have no interest in your economic well-being. It is likely that your holdings in gold are your lifeline – your hope to get you through these times while holding on to your wealth. But have you ever given any thought to the possibility of having this lifeline confiscated by the authorities?

UKRAINE - Ukraine is spending approximately $100 million a day on the war against Russia, outgoing Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in an interview with state media. In a lengthy sit-down with state-owned Ukrinform for his first interview since his ousting on Sunday, the former defence minister attempted to dispel suggestions of his involvement in the mounting corruption scandals swirling around the war effort. However, he did not reveal how much of the daily $100 million spent on the war came from the Ukrainian people as opposed to being subsidised by taxpayers in the United States and Europe. On top of the $113 billion committed by the Biden administration to Ukraine since last year, the White House is currently lobbying for an additional $24 billion in aid to the country.

USA - Ancient Rome was the world’s most powerful empire for 500 years. At its height, Rome boasted of roads, public baths, and much else that was close to miraculous for the rest of the planet. Then came the Great Fall, and what happened has lessons for the world today. As ancient Rome became prosperous, it became an unsustainable welfare state. Mumford writes that “indiscriminate public largesse” became common. A large portion of the population “took on the parasitic role for a whole lifetime.” More than 200,000 citizens of Rome regularly received handouts of bread from “public storehouses.”

UK - There’s little dispute that people, more and more, in the modern world are moving away from the biblical teachings on homosexuality (a sin), premarital sex (also a sin), and same-sex “marriages,” (yes, also a sin). Now the United Kingdom-base Christian Concern has cited the recent Times poll results of responses from pastors which found 53% say the Church of England should allow priests to conduct same-sex “weddings,” 62% said the church should drop its opposition to premarital sex, and 64.5% said the church should abandon the biblical teachings that homosexual practice is “incompatible with Scripture.” And 63.3% said priests should be allowed to enter same-sex civil partnerships.

“To survive and thrive the Church of England needs leadership that believes the Bible and puts it into practice. Simply aping the current values of the culture around us is the road to extinction for the Church of England.” Williams explained the church should not be changing its beliefs to accommodate society’s whims.