FRANCE - French bishops are not expected to direct worshippers on how to vote in the French presidential elections as more and more Roman Catholics have become supporters of populist challenger Marine Le Pen. French Roman Catholic bishops have a long history of advising their worshippers on how to vote in elections but, for the 2022 French presidential election, they are expected to remain silent. In 2002, when Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of presidential hopeful leader Marine Le Pen, challenged Jacques Chirac in the second round of that year's presidential election, bishops were public in their opposition to him — but La Croix editor-in-chief Isabelle de Gaulmyn says bishops are now silent as a growing number of Catholics support his daughter. The shifting of the Catholic vote in France comes after years of near-constant attacks on French churches during the presidency of Emmanuel Macron, with one 2019 report claiming an average of three churches were being attacked per day.

USA - “We, the People” risks becoming “They, the Product as a Service” for those who control the data and set digital identity policies. Just as the so-called fourth industrial revolution is merging our physical, digital, and biological identities, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and World Trade Organization (WTO) are looking to bring digital identity to physical objects, digital products, and biological beings.

USA - These 6 Companies Control 90% Of What You Read, Watch, & Hear. In a recent Twitter survey I conducted, nearly 90% of people rated their trust in mainstream media as either “very low” or “low.” And is it any surprise? Ever-mounting media consolidation has narrowed the perspectives the public is privy to, ownership and funding of these corporations are riddled with conflicts of interest, crucial stories keep suspiciously getting buried, and big tech companies are outright censoring and demonetizing independent outlets trying to break through the noise.

MIDDLE EAST - Terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has called on its members and supporters to wage jihad against Europe and Israel while the West is distracted by the situation in Ukraine, according to an online message posted cited by the Times on Monday. Jihadists should strike while those the group considers “crusaders” are fighting each other, IS' new spokesman Omar al-Muhajir said in the message, released to coincide with Islam’s holy month of Ramadan. Experts cited by the Times no longer believe ISIS has the ability to conduct major operations abroad. Declared officially defeated by then-US President Donald Trump in 2019 with the killing of al-Baghdadi, the group has been relegated to a relatively small area in Syria, a country in which it once held significant territory, after years of fighting by the Syrian Army, Russia, Iran, and the US.

UK - Is there really an afterlife? While most people think humans will never be able to prove what happens after death, half of adults still believe their spirit lives on — somewhere. The new survey of over 1,000 people in the United Kingdom, commissioned by SpiritShack Ltd, finds 50 percent of respondents believe in an afterlife. Of this group, 60 percent believe everyone experiences the same thing when they die — regardless of their individual beliefs. However, two in three believe scientists will never be able to tell us what really happens when someone passes.

GERMANY - Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck confirmed Russian assessments that Germany’s immediate cutoff of that country’s gas would provoke unrest in the heart of that European leader. He revealed in an interview that “An immediate embargo on [Russian natural] gas would threaten social peace in Germany”, though such a scenario is indeed seriously being considered due to the immense pressure being put upon the EU by its American overlords as of late.

USA - With lithium prices up ninefold, the report underscores US dependence on foreign minerals. Demand from electric vehicle manufacturers and other sectors may exceed proven cobalt, lithium, nickel, chromium, zinc reserves, authors warn. The Biden administration-driven transition from fossil fuels may be hobbled by the difficulty of procuring critical minerals, many of which are mined and processed by China, the authors of a think tank analysis warn.

USA - A fertilizer supply shock is imminent for US farmers as CF Industries Holdings, Inc warned Thursday that rail shipments of crop nutrients would be reduced to top agricultural states, which couldn't come at a worse time as the Northern Hemisphere spring planting season is underway. The world's largest fertilizer company said Union Pacific had hit it with railroad-mandated shipping reductions that would impact nitrogen fertilizers such as urea and urea ammonium nitrate shipments to Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and California. Union Pacific told CF Industries without advance notice to reduce the volume of private cars on its railroad immediately. This means CF Industries had to decrease shipments by a whopping 20% to stay compliant. "The timing of this action by Union Pacific could not come at a worse time for farmers," said Tony Will, president and chief executive officer of CF Industries. Josh Linville, direct of fertilizer at StoneX, called this a "black swan" moment for the Midwest.

USA - Amare, the chunky lowland gorilla, has been watching too many YouTube videos and zookeepers are worried he'll get bullied by other primates - so they've erected a 'buffer zone' to stop people showing him selfies. A 30-stone [420 lbs] gorilla in Chicago's Lincoln Park zoo is so addicted to smartphones that he didn't even notice another gorilla attacking him. Zoo keepers have been forced to employ measures that stop people showing their iPhones to Amare as he is apparently fixated on taking selfies and watching YouTube videos. Officials have built a 'buffer zone' with a rope to stop visitors showing Amare their screens through a glass partition, after Amare was charged by a rival gorilla while distracted by a zoogoer's device. They're worried Amare could be bullied for his love of screens, which he uses to look at photos of people's families, pets, or even pictures of himself.

USA - The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's hopes of buying out Twitter entirely look increasingly unlikely as one big business has swooped in and taken his title of largest shareholder. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's chances of becoming the sole owner of Twitter seem increasingly steep, after a big investment company took his title of largest shareholder. After offering to buy Twitter outright for $41 billion (£31 billion), Musk looked set to take over the social media giant completely. However, investment company The Vanguard Group has upped its stake in Twitter to 10.3%, overtaking Musk's 9.1% share. The asset firm is now Twitter's largest shareholder, although Musk is still the largest individual stakeholder. Musk believes Twitter needs to place more importance on 'free speech'.

USA - Leftists are pushing to promote queerness to minors in schools, projecting adult insecurities and undermining traditional values. Left-wing pedagogical efforts to introduce gender ideology into the classroom have by and large slipped under the notice of parents, who are only now becoming aware of its impact on children. Some call it ‘ideological capture’, others call it ‘grooming’. Kids are being exposed to drag shows, Pride parades organized by local school boards, transgenderism, and LGBT-based curricula. Children are instructed to question their gender and sexuality. It’s all being done for the sake of affirming the choices of adults who often struggle with their own identities.

USA - Planned Parenthood is the ring-leader in abortions and the sale of baby body parts. Now the entity is making dough in the transgender industry. There is probably no entity looked at in the US like Planned Parenthood. The businesses it deals in are some of the most controversial industries in America. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America is one of 134 member associations of the gigantic International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), which works in 142 nations on every continent. We also know that this global entity is involved in the sale of baby body parts. This was uncovered in some heroic reporting by the Center for Medical Progress. By getting into transgender work, Planned Parenthood can claim less of its work is for abortions on a percentage of revenues while profitting from this new industry. Planned Parenthood could not be more evil to Christian conservatives if it tried.

UNITED NATIONS - Russia's invasion of Ukraine appears to have set off a "perfect storm," sparking multiple crises across the globe in the areas of food, energy, and debt, with devastating impacts for developing countries, the United Nations warned in a report Wednesday. "The war in Ukraine, in all its dimensions, is producing alarming cascading effects to a world economy already battered by COVID-19 and climate change, with particularly dramatic impacts on developing countries," the report warns. "Recent projections by UNCTAD [the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development] estimate that the world economy will be a full percentage point of GDP growth lower than expected due to the war, which is severely disrupting already tight food, energy, and financial markets." The report describes this disruption as a "perfect storm," coming "on the brink of a global debt crisis."

UK - Why are the Left's woke warriors so desperate to destroy Winston Churchill? Because if the West's greatest hero can be made to fall, they can force anything on us, writes Douglas Murray. Those unthinking critics of Western civilisation who claim that everything about it is reprehensible and nothing good has ever come out of it have developed a pattern with the extraordinary claims they make. Their technique is to zoom in on Western behaviour, remove it from the context of the time, set aside any non-Western parallels and then exaggerate what the West actually did. The result has been a stampede inside the West to rid itself of its own history.

ITALY - Blood, oil and good business. Italian troops wage war in Niger, Libya, the Gulf of Guinea, the Hormuz straits, Iraq, the Mediterranean and many other places besides. Enjoying the silence and indifference of the many, our parliament has approved the refinancing of various neo-colonial ventures currently being undertaken by the Italian armed forces. The focus is on Africa, where, as of 2021, 17 missions were operating under the red, white and green of the Italian flag (out of a total of 40 worldwide), two more than the previous year. These foreign operations cost a total of €1.2 billion, and involve 9,449 military personnel, an increase compared to last year’s already record-breaking numbers. Minister of War Lorenzo Guerini and other “industry insiders” have put aside the old rhetoric of humanitarian missions and today speak explicitly of “defending Italian interests abroad”. Italian imperialism no longer conceals itself, again asserting itself as a competitor in a multipolar world of shifting allegiances.