USA - “History shows that governments sometimes seek to regulate our lives finely, acutely, thoroughly, and exhaustively. In our own time and place, criminal laws have grown so exuberantly and come to cover so much previously innocent conduct that almost anyone can be arrested for something. If the state could use these laws not for their intended purposes but to silence those who voice unpopular ideas, little would be left of our First Amendment liberties, and little would separate us from the tyrannies of the past or the malignant fiefdoms of our own age. The freedom to speak without risking arrest is ‘one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation.’”—Justice Neil Gorsuch

USA - Hundreds of boxes. Millions of records. From Michigan to New Mexico this month, attorneys general are sifting through files on clergy sex abuse, seized through search warrants and subpoenas at dozens of archdioceses. They’re looking to prosecute, and not just priests. If the boxes lining the hallways of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s offices contain enough evidence, she said, she is considering using state racketeering laws usually reserved for organized crime. Prosecutors in Michigan are even volunteering on weekends to get through all the documents as quickly as possible. “Some of the things I’ve seen in the files makes your blood boil, to be honest with you,” Nessel said. “When you’re investigating gangs or the Mafia, we would call some of this conduct a criminal enterprise.” Some defenders of the church bristle at the notion of increased legal action, saying the Catholic institution is being singled out by overzealous prosecutors.

VATICAN - The Vatican has sparked fury after releasing an official document claiming people cannot choose or change their gender - claiming that transgenderism is an attempt to “annihilate nature”. LGBT rights advocates denounced the 30-page official Catholic document, called “Male and Female He Created Them”, as harmful and said it would encourage hatred and bigotry. The document, the Vatican’s first on gender theory, branded gender fluidity a symptom of “momentary desires” and a “confused concept of freedom”. It was released as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people around the world celebrate “Pride Month”. And it came amid demand for acceptance of the idea that gender is more complex and fluid than the binary categories of male and female and depends on more than visible sex characteristics. Pope Francis has repeatedly argued people cannot choose their genders.

USA - This summer, PBS Kids premiered an episode of the children's show Arthur in which a teacher, Mr Ratburn, "marries" another male character. Even before this premiere, PBS was already infusing the LGBT agenda into its programming. In between its shows, a happy song about families included an image of two dads with a baby and lyrics to that effect. Disney and other children's stations long ago jumped onto the LGBT bandwagon with their line-up.

UK - Tread cautiously: the fiction of George Orwell has become an operation manual for the omnipresent, modern-day surveillance state. It’s been 70 years since Orwell — dying, beset by fever and bloody coughing fits, and driven to warn against the rise of a society in which rampant abuse of power and mass manipulation are the norm — depicted the ominous rise of ubiquitous technology, fascism and totalitarianism in 1984. Who could have predicted that 70 years after Orwell typed the final words to his dystopian novel, “He loved Big Brother,” we would fail to heed his warning and come to love Big Brother.

“To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone — to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink — greetings!” — George Orwell

CHINA - One of my favorite TV shows was Person of Interest. In that show, a genius programmer was hired by the government to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) computer to tap into and analyze communication feeds and predict activities that may pose a threat. Unfortunately, as you can imagine, things spun out of control; the system that was designed to benefit society was not always beneficial to citizens. As amusing as it is to watch escapist fiction such as this, it’s not so enjoyable when you realize it’s no longer fiction. In the city of Shenzhen, when an offender is observed jaywalking via video surveillance, they will publicly humiliate you by showing your face on screens located around the city. Now that’s bad enough but they’re going a step further. Those identified will have their cell phone ‘pinged’ and be sent an immediate fine.

SARDINIA - A devastating swarm of locusts have wrecked up to 5,000 acres of crops and livestock in Sardinia. The attack of a “carpets of locusts” is being described as a “biblical” invasion, by Italian newspaper La Nuova Sardegna. The plague of short-horned grasshoppers is thought to be one of the worst in 60 years and has caused havoc across farms and homes in the central province of Nuoro. In a statement, the Italian farming association Coldiretti stated there was up to a million locusts in the countryside. It added: “The locusts emerge on uncultivated land, but then they go to cultivated land to eat.” Leonardo Salis, president of the farming association, said the insects had been “devouring everything they encounter” and had even left “animals without grassland”.

USA - Global weather patterns are dramatically shifting, and week after week we keep seeing things happen that we have never seen before. As far as our weather is concerned, this is definitely the strangest year in modern American history, and many believe that what we have witnessed so far is just the beginning. Up until just recently, the endless rain, catastrophic flooding and horrific tornado outbreaks in the middle of the country have been dominating weather headlines. But now the west coast is getting into the act. This week, new record high temperatures have been established in city after city, and this includes San Francisco…

USA - the Mississippi has been in flood stage for the longest period on record — since January! This is causing all kinds of problems on the Mississippi, and on its tributaries. The NYT reports that shipping in the Mississippi and some of its tributaries has mostly shut down: Across the country’s flood-battered midsection, the farms, towns and homes consumed by the bloated waters have drawn much of the attention. But flooding has had another, less intuitive effect — crippling the nation’s essential river commerce.

USA - Today it was announced that this summer’s “dead zone” — where no marine life lives — in the Gulf of Mexico is going to be as big as the state of Masssachusetts: Annual spring rains wash the nutrients used in fertilizers and sewage into the Mississippi. That fresh water, less dense than ocean water, sits on top of the ocean, preventing oxygen from mixing through the water column. Eventually those freshwater nutrients can spur a burst of algal growth, which consumes oxygen as the plants decompose. The resulting patch of low-oxygen waters leads to a condition called hypoxia, where animals in the area suffocate and die. Scientists estimate that this year the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico will spread for just over or just under 8,000 square miles across the continental shelf situated off the coast. It’s the record flooding that’s making it worse, because it’s sending more fertilizer and sewage down the river.

USA - The US Army Corps of Engineers has had to open the Bonnet Carré Spillway on the Mississippi to relieve pressure from the flood on New Orleans levees. It sends a great deal of river water into Lake Pontchartrain, from where it flows out into the Gulf. The fresh water has killed an estimated 70 percent of Mississippi’s oyster crop, and has to this point wiped out an estimated 35 percent of this year’s crab harvest. So much fresh water has been flowing through the spillway for so long that it has dramatically reduced the salinity of water off the Mississippi Coast. The economic and ecological disaster from this endless river flooding is staggering.

USA - Sue lives in Elm Park, a rural neighborhood not far from my mom’s place in Starhill. We talked about the little dog in her family killed last week by a poisonous snake. They couldn’t find the snake itself, but the vet who examined the dead dog said there were two inches between the punctures, indicating an enormous snake — no doubt either a rattlesnake or a cottonmouth. Sue said that in her neighborhood, people have seen markedly more snakes this year, and much bigger ones on average than in years past. She added that another neighbor went out onto her back porch a few weeks back and saw a black bear in a tree. Black bears are rare in these parts, and I have never heard of one in someone’s back yard. That’s not a Louisiana thing. We wondered if the record flood water has anything to do with driving snakes and bears out of the swamp and into people’s yards. The Mississippi has never been so high for so long. It’s a fact that floodwaters flush snakes and all wildlife out of the inundated area...

USA - Wisconsin is bracing for a massive storm due to hit next week, bringing potentially life-threatening conditions and arctic temperatures. Wisconsin residents have already suffered a baltic winter this season, with temperatures plummeting below -20C (-4F). But now an Arctic blast is set to being even more wintery conditions as a snow bomb hits. Forecasters are advising residents to stay indoors, as the cold could be “life-threatening”. Southern Wisconsin looks set to be the worst hit as the storm sweeps in over Sunday night. Authorities are bracing for severe disruptions to air and road travel, with snow and ice expected to blanket much of the region. After the initial snow bomb passes, forecasters expect another surge of dangerous cold to hit the area on Tuesday, and last throughout the week.

UK - Heavy rain is wreaking havoc across Britain as flooding causes travel disruptions and sinkholes open up on the motorway. The Met Office has issued yellow warnings for large swathes of England for most of the week, after Monday saw a month’s worth of rain fall in some parts. Some London underground stations were flooded and parts of the M25 in Kent had to be shut after two sinkholes opened up. National Rail has also warned Southern and Thameslink trains will be badly affected by the weather as the week progresses with more brutal weather. The Met Office has issued yellow warnings for severe weather for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday’s warnings cover the south west of England as well as parts of the east and northeast, Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber. Wednesday and Thursday see warnings continue and stretch into parts of Wales. A total of three flood warnings and 39 flood alerts are in place across the country.

ITALY - North Italy was hit by severe thunderstorms yesterday ...a severe hailstorm covered the Malpensa Airport in Milano with a thick layer of hail...

LAPLAND - Thunderstorms hit the Lapland in the far northern parts of Finland, Norway and extreme NW Russia.

PORTUGAL AND SPAIN - hit 38 °C on Monday, heat wave across parts of Iberian peninsula continues.

AFRICA - Satellite images show thick bands of Saharan dust being pushed from Algeria, Tunisia and Libya into the Mediterranean.

TURKEY - Multiple tornadoes hit Antalya, Turkey. Significant damage is reported from the Antalya airport: planes damaged by moving/flying debris, vehicles, including an airport bus, hit and damaged. At least one fatality has been reported so far.

RUSSIA - Extremely hot weather in NW Russia today: 31° C near the Arctic circle – May 12th, 2019.