UK - Approximately half of all insects have been lost since 1970 due to the heavy use of pesticides, which could spell disaster for all life on Earth, a new report suggests. Conservationists have called for action to be taken to halt the 'unnoticed insect apocalypse' in order to prevent a 'catastrophic collapse of nature's ecosystems'. Leading ecologists at the University of Sussex, who carried out the report for the Wildlife Trusts, revealed that 40 per cent of the one million known insect species are now nearing extinction. The use of pesticides, which has doubled over the last 25 years, has seen 23 species of bees and wasps go extinct. Without insects, a multitude of birds, bats, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals and fish would disappear, for they would have nothing to eat. Eighty-seven percent, almost all plants require animal pollination, most of it delivered by insects - meaning the global human population could not be fed without insect pollination.

USA - Pessimism is spreading like wildfire on Wall Street, and this is particularly true among one very important group of investors. And considering how much money they have, it may be wise to listen to what they are telling us. According to a very alarming survey that was recently conducted by UBS Wealth Management, most wealthy investors now believe that there will be a “significant” stock market decline before the end of next year.

USA - The so-called War on Terror launched by the United States government in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks has cost at least 801,000 lives and $6.4 trillion according to a pair of reports published Wednesday by the Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. "The numbers continue to accelerate, not only because many wars continue to be waged, but also because wars don't end when soldiers come home," said Costs of War co-director and Brown professor Catherine Lutz, who co-authored the project's report on deaths.

USA - Many Americans remain in precarious financial shape even as the economy continues to grow, with 7 of 10 saying they are struggling with at least one aspect of financial stability, such as paying bills or saving money. For instance, centrist think tank the Urban Institute has found that 4 in 10 Americans struggle to pay for basic needs such as groceries or housing. And a Zillow report released Thursday found that roughly a quarter of renters say that affording their payments is difficult or very difficult. Not only the poor face financial pressure, the new study suggests. Almost 20% of people earning between $30,000 and $100,000 said they spent more than they earned… "Income is not keeping pace with expenses."

USA - As it turns out, the climate lobby loves to pull its “facts” right out of thin air, including the newly minted fiction that “More than 11,000 scientists declare ‘climate emergency.'” While this regurgitated mainstream media headline is pretty cut and dry, the claim it makes is patently false, we’ve now learned. Just like the Greta Thunberg hoax, the notion that more than 11,000 actual scientists are suddenly lamenting an impending “climate emergency” has absolutely no basis in reality. In truth, these 11,000 “scientists” are actually just 11,000 ordinary people who were duped into believing that cow farts are destroying the planet, and subsequently responded by signing their names on some website.

USA - Will Witt of PragerU hit the road again recently and found himself on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, where he asked students at the exclusive school, "How many genders are there?" As you might expect from students on the ultra-woke campus, Witt got a lot of answers that went far beyond a simple "just male and female."

ISRAEL - On Tuesday, terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in retaliation for Israel’s targeted killing of the senior commander of Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Many of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system, but quite a few got through, and some even reached as far as Tel Aviv. Following those rocket attacks, Israeli tanks and aircraft pounded Islamic Jihad positions in the Gaza Strip, and Israeli officials are pledging to continue to respond to any additional attacks. Unfortunately, it certainly sounds like more attacks are coming. According to Islamic Jihad’s Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhala, his organization is “going to war” with Israel.

USA - Democracy depends on the consent of the losers. For most of the 20th century, parties and candidates in the United States have competed in elections with the understanding that electoral defeats are neither permanent nor intolerable. The losers could accept the result, adjust their ideas and coalitions, and move on to fight in the next election. Ideas and policies would be contested, sometimes viciously, but however heated the rhetoric got, defeat was not generally equated with political annihilation. The stakes could feel high, but rarely existential. In recent years, however, beginning before the election of Donald Trump and accelerating since, that has changed.

POLAND - More than 50,000 Polish nationalists paraded on the streets of Warsaw for this year's Independence March on Monday. Tens of thousands of people, waving Polish flags, were young and old, of all walks of life, with whole families, took to the streets. Thousands sang "Take care of the whole nation," which are lyrics from a Polish Catholic song, asking the Virgin Mary to defend the country. Others waved patriotic flags and chanted "No to the European Union" and "God, honor, homeland!" To the western media, these are Nazis, racists, anti-semites, and islamophobes. An abomination for the European Union.

EUROPE - During his speech President Trump referenced the increased violence in Sweden due to the tremendous influx of refugees. President Trump: “You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden — Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden — they took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening in Brussels. You look at what’s happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice. Take a look at Paris.” But Trump was right. Migrants are changing the face of Sweden. The bombings and violence have continued to escalate in once peaceful Sweden. Denmark will temporarily reinstate border controls with Sweden and step up police work along the border after a series of violent crimes and explosions around Copenhagen that Danish authorities say were carried out by perpetrators from Sweden.

USA - In an Iowa State University classroom recently, students began discussing the touchy issues of abortion and birth control when a student spoke up and declared those topics to be “women’s issues.” Yet one dissatisfied student took to the university’s Campus Climate reporting website to complain that the discussion, which took place in September, was offensive to the trans community. According to the student, declaring abortion and birth control women-centric issues “erases trans men and people who are non-binary who get abortions and/or use birth control.” In another complaint, a student last fall visited Thielen psychiatric services on campus, and while filling out the paperwork, noticed only women were asked when they had their last menstrual cycle. “Women are not the only people who have menstrual cycles,” the student wrote. “Trans-men can have menstrual cycles, as can non-binary people, etc.”

USA - San Francisco’s pee problem could soon get worse. Chesa Boudin, the urine-and-feces-plagued city’s incoming district attorney, pledged during the campaign not to prosecute public urination and other quality-of-life crimes if he was elected. Boudin declared victory Saturday night after results showed him winning a plurality of votes in the DA race. “We will not prosecute cases involving quality-of-life crimes. Crimes such as public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc, should not and will not be prosecuted,” Boudin vowed in response to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) questionnaire during the campaign. “Many of these crimes are still being prosecuted, we have a long way to go to decriminalize poverty and homelessness,” he lamented.

USA - There have been roughly 118,352 reported instances of human fecal matter spotted on San Francisco streets since 2011 as California works to stem the tide of poop coursing through the Golden State, an April Forbes report noted. OpenTheBooks.com plotted all reports of human waste in the city over the past eight years. Auditors at OpenTheBooks used latitude and longitude address coordinates of all cases closed by the San Francisco Department of Public Works. The cost for the 2017-2018 fiscal year jumped to nearly $54 million from $35 million in the 2016-2017 fiscal year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2018. 2019 is expected to hit nearly $60 million.

AUSTRALIA - Bushfires are raging across Australia, impacting Queensland, Sydney and Perth as temperatures rise. Now fresh warnings have been issued as weather conditions could worsen fires. In New South Wales, more than 200 homes have been destroyed since Friday, and communities have evacuated as firefighters tackle the flames. Some residents have repeatedly been evacuated as the fire shrinks and then reignites back towards residential areas. Mayor of the Queensland town of Noosa North Shore, Tony Wellington, said residents were being evacuated for the second time in a week. He told Australian Broadcasting Corp: ”It’s bad enough being evacuated once let alone multiple times.”

UK - Britain will be battered with miserable wet weather in the coming days as dozens of flood warnings and alerts remain in effect across the country. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced his intention to offer more support for communities in parts of northern England affected by the severe flooding. Several measures will be enacted to assist the rescue efforts, including 100 Army personnel being deployed to the area. The prime minister said it had been “an absolute tragedy for those who have seen such damage to their homes and livestock”. More than 1,000 households have been evacuated across the north of England as a result of the flooding. Around 500 homes have been flooded in Doncaster alone.