GERMANY - Five weeks after the Russian intervention in Ukraine, western powers still fail to globally isolate Russia. During a visit to India yesterday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s foreign policy adviser Jens Plötner tried to persuade New Delhi to abandon its cooperation with Moscow. Other representatives of western states had already previously traveled to the Indian capital, pursuing the same objective – to no avail. India is increasing its purchase of Russian oil and is continuing to develop a payment system independent of the US dollar and SWIFT. Still only 48 countries are participating in the western sanctions against Russia. Three-quarters of all UN member states are refusing to comply, despite the considerable pressure being exerted on them.

USA - The West is in the grips of a climate change-fueled megadrought, and Lake Mead - the largest manmade reservoir in the country and a source of water for millions of people - has fallen to an unprecedented low. The lake's plummeting water level has exposed one of the reservoir's original water intake valves for the first time, officials say. The valve had been in service since 1971 but can no longer draw water, according to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which is responsible for managing water resources for 2.2 million people in Southern Nevada, including Las Vegas. Across the West, extreme drought is already taking a toll this year and summertime heat hasn't even arrived yet. Drought conditions worsened in the Southwest over the past week, the US Drought Monitor reported Thursday. Extreme and exceptional drought, the two worst designations, expanded across New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado - all states that are part of the Colorado River basin. New Mexico's drought has been steadily intensifying since the beginning of the year, and extreme or exceptional drought now covers 68% of the state.

USA - America is following an “arsenal of democracy” strategy in Ukraine: It has avoided direct intervention against the Russian invaders, while working with allies and partners to provide the Kyiv government with money and guns. That strategy, reminiscent of US support for Britain in 1940-41, has worked wonders. Yet as the war reaches a critical stage, with the Russians preparing to consolidate their grip on eastern Ukraine, the arsenal of democracy is being depleted. That could cause a fatal shortfall for Ukrainian forces in this conflict, and it is revealing American weaknesses that could be laid bare in the next great-power fight. This is presenting Western countries with a stark choice between pouring more supplies into Ukraine or husbanding finite capabilities they may need for their own defense.

USA - Kristalina Georgieva, director of the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said the following during an event hosted by CNBC on Thursday: KRISTALINA GEORGIEVA, IMF: “I think we are not paying sufficient attention to the law of unintended consequences. We take decisions with an objective in mind and rarely think through what may happen that is not our objective. And then we wrestle with the impact of it. Take any decision that is a massive decision, like the decision that we need to spend to support the economy. At that time, we did recognize that there was maybe too much money in circulation and too few goods, but didn't really quite think through the consequence in a way that upfront would have informed better what we do. I subscribe entirely to what Christine [LaGarde, the president of the European Central Bank] said about climate shocks. We are already out of time. And the fact that whenever something hits us, we forget about these other crises is incredibly troubling. Our ability to deal with more than one crisis at one time is very, very limited. We have to zero in on the really big things that could determine the future and keep our attention on them.”

USA - In the last several weeks, farmers in the Northern Plains have been battered by blizzards, winter storms, high winds, and extreme flooding. These weather phenomena have delayed farmers from plantings in high-producing crop regions. Every week plantings are delayed, the harvest yield shrinks, and this comes at a precarious time as the global food supply chain is fracturing.

UK - The war in Ukraine is set to cause the "largest commodity shock" since the 1970s, the World Bank has warned. Energy prices are set to increase more than 50%, pushing up bills for households and businesses, the World Bank says. Similarly oil prices are expected to remain elevated into 2024 with a barrel of the benchmark measure, Brent Crude, projected to average $100 this year, something which will lead to widespread inflation. Wheat is set for record highs. The World Bank commodity outlook also warned many foods are set to see steep rises in their costs. The UN food prices index already shows they are at their highest since records began 60 years ago. "Wheat is one of the hardest agriculture exports to replace," according to a research note from the Bank of America. The chief executive of Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world's four big food commodity traders, said he does not expect prices to come down soon. A forecast 69% increase in fertiliser prices this year means "there's a real risk that as farmers start to use fewer fertilisers, agricultural yields will decline".

USA - The Satanic Temple has filed a lawsuit against an American elementary school, after it was blocked from implementing an after school program for children. The Northern York County School Board members in Pennsylvania voted down the approval of the program on April 19, after parents expressed concern of the devil having a place in the classroom. The Satanic Temple, despite its name, has nothing to do with Lucifer but in fact focuses on teaching rational and scientific ways of thinking. According to local news reports, hundreds of parents showed up to the school board meeting to have their voices heard about letting 'Satan' into their children's education.

USA - Young people in the United States are being subjected to communist-style sexualization, according to author and expert James Lindsay. The goal is to destabilize society to make it ripe for communists to grab power...and their plan has been afoot for more than a century. “This is a deliberate program that Marxists have employed since at least the 1910s, starting in Hungary, to try to sexualize children to cause sexual and gender confusion so that they become political activists on behalf of some other agenda,” he said. Lindsay pointed to Georg Lukacs, a devout Hungarian Marxist who served as deputy commissar of education in 1919 during the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic. He introduced sex education to children at the elementary level, he said. “Lukacs sexualized the children of Hungary in order to separate them from their family, to separate them from their religion, their nation and their culture,” Lindsay said. “Essentially getting children … all into these ideas so that when they go home, they would tell their parents, ‘you know, things have changed, or the Bible is wrong, or whatever our religion is wrong, our traditions are wrong.’”

USA - 50 years ago… 20 years ago… even 2 years ago under Trump… Would you ever have imagined, in your wildest nightmares, that radical leftist activists calling themselves teachers would be setting up secret areas at school for children to undress and change into trans outfits? And in middle school, no less? Well, unfortunately, that’s exactly the hell that America has found itself in.

USA - World military spending continued to grow in 2021, reaching an all-time high of $2.1 trillion. This was the seventh consecutive year that spending increased. ‘Even amid the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, world military spending hit record levels,’ said Dr Diego Lopes da Silva, Senior Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. ‘There was a slowdown in the rate of real-terms growth due to inflation. In nominal terms, however, military spending grew by 6.1 per cent.’

USA - Democrats, thugs and fascists react to Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter with predictable fury. Twitter finally agreed to Elon Musk’s offer on a takeover bid deal for $44 billion on Monday. Twitter was reportedly re-examining Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover offer after the billionaire lined up financing for the bid over the weekend. They reached an agreement on Monday. Twitter is well-known for stifling, censoring and banning free speech in America. Twitter silenced The Gateway Pundit, Joe Hoft, Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones and even the President of the United States. Only conservatives get banned. There should be laws against this. Elon Musk previously said his interest in Twitter was not so much to make money as it was to restore free speech on the internet. He now has that opportunity.

USA - Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv Shah told Bloomberg Television's David Westin a "massive, immediate food crisis" is on the horizon. Shah provides what could be a timeline for the next global food crisis that could begin "in the next six months." He said global fertilizer supply disruptions caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine would have an "even worse" impact on the crisis, slashing crop yields worldwide.

UK - Scientists have issued a terrifying warning and have said the world could be left starving without any food in just over two decades, according to a chilling doomsday countdown. The world will run out of food in 27 years, scientists have warned. They have launched a doomsday countdown and say we have exactly 27 years and 251 days left as of Sunday ( April 24). Sociobiologist Edward Wilson explained we would need two planet Earths to feed the current need, adding: “There are limits to Earth’s capacity to feed humanity. Even if everyone on the planet agreed to become vegetarian, the world’s farmland could not support the need. The world population will be too big to feed itself. By then, there will be almost 10 billion people on the planet and the food demand will have increased by 70% compared to what we needed in 2017. Experts warn the food crisis needs to be taken more seriously.

INDONESIA - Indonesia will start restricting exports of palm oil this week, a move that could make the global food crisis worse and push up the prices of hundreds of consumer products. President Joko Widodo announced Friday that Indonesia would suspend exports of cooking oil, and the raw materials used to make it, "until further notice," in a bid to secure local supplies. The ban takes effect on Thursday. The Southeast Asian country is the world's biggest palm oil producer, and Friday's announcement sent prices of the commodity "berserk," said James Fry, chairman of consultancy LMC International. Crude palm oil futures in Malaysia, a global benchmark, jumped nearly 7%. Palm oil is a common ingredient found in many of the world's food, cosmetics and household items. WWF estimates that it's used in nearly 50% of all packaged products in supermarkets.

USA - If you buy your produce from Walmart, this recall might affect you. The Tristate is a part of an urgent recall that involves vegetables grown in California sold in 18 other states including Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a recall that includes organic zucchini. The recall involves Organic Marketside Zucchini which was sold by World Variety Produce of Los Angeles, CA at Walmart stores. According to the FDA press release, the reason for the recall is related to the organic zucchini that "…has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems." Organic Marketside Zucchini were sold through some Walmart stores in Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin.