USA - About 930,160 abortions were performed in 2020, marking a 1% increase from the year before and an 8% increase from 2017, equaling to about 1 in 5 pregnancies that year, according to data from the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute. The data overlap with an expected decision from the Supreme Court on Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization that would virtually overturn the 1973 landmark decision Roe v Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide.

USA - The radical pro-abortion group, Jane’s Revenge, is planning more acts of domestic terrorism when the US Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v Wade is revealed, dubbed a “Night of Rage: An Autonomous Call to Action Against Patriarchal Supremacy.” The group posted its plans on the Anarchists Library website at the end of May in expectation of the ruling, expected sometime in June. The manifesto concludes, “To those who work to oppress us: If abortion isn’t safe, you aren’t either. We are everywhere.” More than 100 Republicans have signed a letter asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to instruct the Department of Justice to investigate this group in relation to attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers across the country as domestic terrorists.

VATICAN - Pope Francis has fuelled speculation that he could resign after postponing a trip to Africa and announcing an unusual meeting of cardinals. Hobbled by pain in his knee and forced to use a wheelchair in recent weeks, the 85-year-old pontiff postponed a July trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan last week. He also announced an unusual decision to hold a consistory to name new cardinals during a Vatican vacation month and arranged meetings to ensure his reforms stay intact. The extraordinary consistory will be held on August 27, a slow summer month at the Catholic headquarters, to create 21 new cardinals - 16 of whom will be under the age of 80, thereby eligible to elect his successor in a future conclave. Since becoming pope in 2013, the Argentine pontiff has created 83 cardinals in a move to shape the future of the Catholic Church, in part to counter Europe's historically dominant influence, and to reflect his values. On August 28, Francis will then pay a visit to L'Aquila and the tomb of Celestine V - the first pope to have resigned from the papacy, in the 13th century.

UK - British farmer claims food production lines were bad before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Former Management consultant Robert Kimbell called for the UK to invest more in their own Wheat supply. Robert Kimbell tweeted: “The UK shipped abroad $87,336,000 worth of wheat in 2021, according to the trade monitoring site WTEx. We should do what India has done and halt exports of wheat. We need that British wheat here for our own needs now.”

USA - According to the monthly survey by Purdue University/CME Group, the rapid rise in production costs and uncertainty regarding the direction of input prices have been important contributors to the drop in sentiment. About 44 percent of farmers, according to the monthly survey, cited input costs as their biggest concern for the coming year, according to the Epoch Times. In fact, 60% of farmers predict farm input prices to be at least 30% higher this year compared to 2021. "There are things that we have to buy," she sais, adding "There's something we have to buy that two years ago cost us $24, last year was about $46, this year it is costing us $96."

USA - Amid scorching temperatures which have hovered above 100 degrees all week, one Texas city has had its water supply shut off for multiple days running. What started as a possibly 48-hour local crisis for Odessa, a West Texas town long known for oil production, has gained national media attention at a time of severe record-breaking heat waves in various parts of the US. The crisis is now pushing toward a full week of over 120,000 residents having no water supplying their homes and businesses, as Axios reports Saturday: After a major water line break struck the city of more than 122,000 people amid scorching temperatures, local officials warned residents to protect themselves against the "imminent threat" of "widespread or severe damage, injury, or loss of life or property." "It’s an aging infrastructure that we’re seeing. It’s a cast iron pipe, and so those are typically more susceptible to breaks than other new technologies like PVC pipe that’s going in the ground," the city manager was cited as saying this week. Odessa, TX is currently experiencing a water shortage due to mass infrastructure failures.

USA - Diesel prices hit another new record high on Father’s Day at $5.816/gallon. The costs for gas and diesel has yet to hit the American consumer with inflation already at a 40-year high under Joe Biden. In May The Gateway Pundit warned that major trucking firms were bracing for diesel shortages in the eastern half of the United States. The experts are blaming the emergency on Joe Biden and Democrats. And now the shortages have arrived. East coast truckers are stranded on the highway waiting for gas. The highway oasis gas stations are out of diesel. Now there are diesel shortages. This is not going to end well.

USA - As the US national average price of gasoline hits $5 per gallon, higher fuel exports out of America are additionally sapping domestic fuel inventories, which are already at multi-year lows. Reduced refining capacity since the start of COVID, low inventories, and strong post-COVID demand, alongside $120 a barrel crude, have sent US gasoline prices soaring over the past months to reach a record-breaking $5 a gallon on average. Refiners have boosted exports of refined petroleum products this year, especially to Latin America, which isn’t getting much fuel these days from Europe, which in turn is grappling with its own set of fuel supply troubles with the sanctions and embargoes on Russian oil after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Exports of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from the US Gulf Coast were up by 32 percent in March, April, and May compared to those three months of 2021, and up 11 percent compared to those months in the pre-pandemic 2019, data from market-intelligence firm Kpler cited by The Wall Street Journal showed.

UK - Russia and the UK haven’t engaged one another directly in battle since the Crimean War of 1853-1856. It was that conflict which became the subject of Lord Alfred Tennyson’s famous poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’, the disastrous cavalry charge against Russian troops during the 1854 Battle of Balaklava which nearly wiped out British forces. Britain must prepare to return to continental Europe to fight and win a conflict against Russia, General Sir Patrick Sanders, the new Chief of the General Staff of the British Army, has said. “There is now a burning imperative to forge an Army capable of fighting alongside our allies and defeating Russia in battle. Russian officials have accused the West of sending billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware to Ukraine to prolong the crisis as long as possible, and “fight Russia to the last Ukrainian” through the proxy conflict. The Russian military has warned that it will destroy Western arms deliveries and foreign mercenaries.

SWITZERLAND - Global atomic weapon spending saw a significant increase in 2021 according to the latest International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) report published on Tuesday. In just one year, the nine nuclear-armed nations - US, China, Russia, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United Kingdom – spent a total of $82.4 billion on upgrading and maintaining their estimated 13,000 nuclear weapons, marking a 9% hike from the year before, according to ICAN’s estimates. The report goes on to question why and how these countries spent so much on nuclear weaponry amid myriad global issues such as food and energy shortages, but comes to the conclusion that the biggest driver of nuclear weapon spending was not security concerns but, rather, business interests.

USA - Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for policy, said Tuesday that a Chinese “act of aggression” against Taiwan would likely see a global response similar to what the US and its allies have done in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Potential adversaries and aggressors everywhere else in the world are looking at the global response in Ukraine,” Kahl said at an event hosted by the hawkish Center for a New American Security (CNAS) think tank.

USA - We were foolish enough to believe we could water the entire southwestern US with the Colorado River. Nothing could go wrong. Now it has, and tens of millions of people are staring down the barrel of real trouble. As much as 75% of the water from Lake Mead (fed by the Colorado River) goes to agriculture… so now we have a potential food production problem. Major cities like Las Vegas depend on that water for its citizens… now we have a potential personal survival problem for local residents. More than 40 million people in seven states need to decide how they go on living if the rains do not return. Is anyone worried? Is there an emergency management team in place? Doesn’t seem that way if you review the local news there. Are they prepared? No. Maybe 3% of the population has anything in place for survival. What do they do? Where do they go? Is Kansas ready for an influx of evacuees from California? Can the East Coast handle another few million people?

USA - Unless you have a farmer in your family, or in your circle of friends and contacts, chances are that you are among the millions of people in the United States that seldom give thought to how the food you buy and eat is produced. Ask the typical American where the food on their table comes from, and probably 99.9% of them will answer: the grocery store. The grocery store is a modern-day retail outlet that most of our forefathers did not enjoy. Prior to the industrial age post WWII, most neighborhoods had local businesses and farmers who supplied the bulk of that community’s food, from the milkman who delivered dairy products, to the town butcher who processed meat, to the town baker who produced products from grains, etc.

USA - Pennsylvania farmers are being "crushed" by the record cost of diesel - so much so, that questions about a food crisis are starting to loom, the Morning Call reported. One farmer in Lehigh County is quoted as saying: “I’ve got a tractor hooked up to my corn planter out here, no diesel fuel, and I can’t afford to get any.” Kotzmoyer lamented the possibility of a food shortage: “One, if they can’t afford to put it in the ground. Or, two, if they can’t afford to take it out.” The PA average for diesel is now $6.19 per gallon, up about 75% from a year ago, the report notes. It is a “huge, huge expense” for farmers, Kotzmoyer told state legislators. One farmer who works on about 3,500 acres burns through about 2,000 gallons of diesel per month, he said. “If the farmers cannot get crops out of the ground, then there is not food on the shelves.”

USA - Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order aimed at harassing Republican states like Florida and Texas because they want to protect children from groomers. “Hateful discriminatory laws that target children are out of line with where the American people are, and President Biden is going to use his authority to protect kids and families,” a senior White House official said, according to The Hill. This is what Biden is focused on amid a baby formula shortage, tampon shortage, soaring gas prices and record high inflation rates. Biden mumbled as he signed the executive order. He had no clue what he was signing. “Advancing equality for liberation, gay — for, excuse me, for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex individuals. That’s what I’m about to sign,” Biden said.