USA - A veteran biology professor in Texas who has been teaching that sex is determined by X and Y chromosomes for over 20 years was allegedly fired after four students walked out of his classroom. Dr Johnson Varkey has claimed he was let go from his teaching position at St Philip’s College in San Antonio after he was accused of 'religious preaching'. He was discussing the human reproductive system on November 28, 2022, when four students stormed out of the lecture. Varkey was then accused of 'discriminatory comments about homosexuals and transgender individuals, anti-abortion rhetoric, and misogynistic banter'. The professor said he received an email from the Alamo Colleges District Human Resources department in January, which said his credentials would be revoked pending an investigation. He was later fired.

USA - Large swaths of Texas are forecast to be hotter than 99% of the world Wednesday as Dallas’ stretch of scorching hot days was expected to reach a peak of 107 degrees, according to meteorologists. The National Weather Service in Fort Worth issued an excessive heat advisory for most of North Texas, including Dallas, Collin, Denton and Tarrant counties, though 8 pm Central time Wednesday. The weather service’s excessive heat warning said parts of Texas will experience “high temperatures from 105 to 110 in the west and heat indices as high as 115 in the east.” “Only the Sahara Desert & Persian Gulf area will be as hot or hotter than the Lone Star State,” Ben Noll, a meteorologist with New Zealand’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, tweeted last week, saying Texas would be hotter than 99% of the rest of the world.

RUSSIA - An ex-CIA analyst has claimed Vladimir Putin 'orchestrated' the coup with Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhi in a 'classic false flag' to try to make the West believe his army had weakened. Rebekah Koffler told Fox News' Eric Shawn on Saturday the coup was staged as a way for the Russian leader to boost his political power and he will eventually 'gain momentum, mobilize additional personnel, and re-energize his offensive on Ukraine.'

RUSSIA - I find it fascinating that the Western narrative surrounding Yevgeny Prigozhin now emphasizes his virulent hatred of the Russian Ministry of Defense and portrays him as the Commander and “brains” behind the creation of the Wagner Private Military Company, aka Wagner PMC. Yet Prigozhin owes a significant portion of his financial success to his sweetheart contracts with the Ministry of Defense. Go figure.

GERMANY - The move comes amid a NATO drive to increase their military strength on the bloc’s 'eastern flank'. Germany’s defense minister Boris Pistorius said on Monday that Berlin is to station 4,000 troops to Lithuania, a fellow NATO member, as the bloc seeks to fortify its ranks around Russia’s exclave, Kaliningrad. “Germany is ready to permanently station a robust brigade in Lithuania,” Pistorius said on Monday during a visit to the country’s capital, Vilnius. He noted that facilities and infrastructure will need to be developed to accommodate the influx of German troops. “Germany stands by its commitment as a NATO member, as Europe’s biggest economy, to stand up for the protections of the eastern flank,” Pistorius continued. He also noted that a deployment of this magnitude could take more than “a few months.”

GERMANY - Germany's far-right AfD won its first district election Sunday, a further boost to the anti-immigration party as it surges to record highs in opinion polls. Robert Sesselmann, a lawyer and regional lawmaker, came out on top in a closely watched runoff vote for district administrator in Sonneberg in the central state of Thuringia, near the border with Bavaria. Sesselmann took 52.8 percent of the vote, according to the electoral office.

USA - Technology stocks are having a bumper year. Despite a recent wobble, the share price of the Big Five — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft — has jumped by 60% since January, when measured in an equally weighted basket. The price of shares in one big chipmaker, Nvidia, has tripled and in another, Amd, almost doubled. Their price-to-earnings ratios (which measures how much the markets think a company is worth relative to its profits) are ten times that of the median firm in the S&P 500.

USA - A train carrying potentially hazardous materials has derailed in the US State of Montana, with several cars ending up in the water, authorities said on Saturday. Montana Rail Link, the company operating the train, said there were no injuries. In a statement on Facebook, Stillwater County’s Disaster and Emergency Services Department (DES) said the incident occurred at about 6am local time on a bridge over the Yellowstone River, which collapsed. In total, three cars containing hot asphalt and four cars carrying molten sulfur crashed into the water, it added. The department said the cause of the incident remains unclear, and declined to speculate on whether the bridge collapse had led to the derailment, or vice versa.

UK - Cleanup operations have begun at Glastonbury after crowds left a sea of rubbish in front of the main pyramid stage and camping fields. Pictures taken this morning of the site showed a sea of rubbish, plastic bags, tents - and laughing gas canisters - left by festival-goers after five days of partying. Hundreds of litter-pickers have already cleared the pyramid stage area inch-by-inch - creating an amazing contrast to pictures taken just hours before. Event co-organiser Emily Eavis revealed the cleanup operation can cost as much as £500,000 to restore the site to its original state each year. It is estimated that over 2,000 tonnes of waste - nearly 10kg per visitor - is left behind at each festival every year.

WALES - The Welsh Government has announced plans for a new law to ban certain foods from meal deals in a bid to tackle obesity. The new legislation is set to be introduced in the Senedd next year and is expected to become law in 2025. The legislation will also prevent certain foods from being placed in certain parts of a supermarket, like at the end of aisles, near checkouts and in aisle bins. Part of the plans, which include preventing 3 for 2 and buy-one-get-one-free (BOGOF) deals on some foods, will align with plans in England, however Wales will take things further in relation to meal deals and preventing temporary price reductions in certain foods. Over 60% of adults in Wales are above a healthy weight and over a quarter of children are overweight or obese by the time they start school. The hope is that by preventing and reducing obesity it will help reduce the levels of type 2 diabetes, various types of cancer and other conditions such as cardiovascular (heart) disease in Wales.

RUSSIA - Humiliated Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is starting a life in exile in Belarus this morning after he sensationally abandoned his group's march on Moscow at the 11th hour just 120 miles from the capital. The mercenaries aborted their dramatic 'armed mutiny' against the Kremlin following crisis talks between Prigozhin and Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Charges of rebellion have now been dropped against Prigozhin, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also announcing that no Wagner mercenary will be prosecuted for the insurrection, which saw the group take the city of Rostov and march on the Russian capital in a whirlwind 24-hour advance. The extraordinary episode has weakened Vladimir Putin's position, according to experts, and all eyes will now be on the Russian supremo to see what he does next.

USA - Drag queens and LGBTQ activists marched through a Manhattan park on Friday as part of a weekend of Pride celebrations, with a chant of: 'We're here, we're queer and we're coming for your children.' One topless woman was seen dancing and making the chant, as others laughed and joined in. Video of the incident sparked widespread revulsion online. 'This movement grooms minors to have mastectomies and castration and fuels a multi billion dollar medical child abuse industry,' tweeted Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican congresswoman for Georiga. 'They are not even hiding their intentions anymore now they are saying it out loud,' she said. And podcast host Graham Allen tweeted: 'This is what EVIL looks like….'

USA - If you look at the latest map from the US Drought Monitor, you will see that almost all of America’s heartland is now in some state of drought. Much of Kansas is dealing with either “severe” or “exceptional” drought, and in previous articles I have written about how this will impact the winter wheat harvest. But now areas that grow most of our corn and most of our soy are also getting absolutely hammered by drought. If this drought in America’s breadbasket continues through the summer, we are going to have a very serious problem on our hands. Big trouble is brewing, and most Americans have no idea that this is happening. The bad harvests that we had last year have already pushed food prices to ridiculous levels, and now it appears that the price of corn could be headed a lot higher…

UK - Teachers and parents have been warned not to ridicule or over-react to schoolkids identifying as Furries – people with an active interest in animal characters with human characteristics. A Government-backed safe­guarding group says children dressing up in furry costumes need to “feel comfortable expressing themselves”. Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Common Sense Group of Tory MPs, said: “This idea that we can all choose to be anything we want to be — so I can choose to be a giant, or you can choose to be a flying creature — is preposterous nonsense. Do we really need guidance on this? I dressed up — as a little boy — in various costumes and so did my children. Role play is an important part of children’s learning. But it is exactly that, role play. It’s not about their fundamental identity.”

GERMANY - High-ranking representatives of the state, the government and the Bundeswehr (armed forces) were given a platform in Nuremberg to oppose prevailing anti-war sentiment and to convince the population to embrace the official course of war. The organizers had already taken care of this in advance. The theologian Margot Kässmann, who was previously the figurehead of the Christian peace movement, cancelled her participation after her proposals were rejected. In her place, the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Carsten Breuer, was invited as a speaker. This was in itself a clear statement, which was underlined by the appearance of the “highest-ranking soldier” in a highly decorated uniform with the green-yellow Church Assembly scarf around his shoulders.