USA - The number of homeless people in Los Angeles County jumped 12 percent over the last year to nearly 59,000 living on the streets, according to a report released Tuesday. The newly released data revealed that nearly three-fourths of the homeless population, which includes 58,936 people, are sleeping in cars, tents, and other make-do shelters. The report revealed more than 3,800 of the total homeless population are veterans, 2,866 of which are unsheltered and “not in family units.” In a tweet issued to his account last week, Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom boasted that “California’s what happens when rights are respected.”

USA - The global economic slowdown is really starting to accelerate. Just within the past few days, we have gotten more really awful global manufacturing numbers, the trade war has expanded to more nations, and the Nasdaq has officially entered correction territory. We have not witnessed this sort of global economic environment since the Great Recession, and if the economic chaos continues to escalate it won’t take too much to spark a brand new financial crisis. Of course the global financial system is far more vulnerable than it was back in 2008, and so if we stay on the path that we are currently on we could be facing a nightmare scenario very rapidly. Let’s talk about the manufacturing numbers first. The numbers coming out of Germany are already at a crisis level, and manufacturing is also now contracting in Japan, South Korea and China as well. Overall, global manufacturing as a whole has now fallen into contraction territory for the first time in seven years…

UK - Ensuring the UK leaves the EU is a fundamental question of democracy according to several Brexit Party supporters. Nigel Farage’s new party stormed to victory in last week’s European Parliament elections, taking 31 percent of the British vote. They are hoping to gain their first MP on Thursday, in the Peterborough by-election. Britain had been due to leave the EU on March 29, but this has been delayed twice to October 31. A number of Brexit Party supporters spoke to Express.co.uk outside a west London rally. One activist commented: “We’re not out of the EU, when we voted for it in 2016, because we have a Parliament that does not believe it should carry out the will of the people. They’re our servants, not our masters.”

UK - The Special Relationship between Britain and the United States was reaffirmed last night with moving toasts in the Buckingham Palace ballroom as Donald Trump clinked glasses with the Queen and patted her shoulder having called her a 'great, great woman'. Amid the splendour and ceremony of a state banquet for 170 dignitaries and guests, the US President thanked the monarch for her 'gracious hospitality' and 'nearly seven decades' of personal friendship with the United States. He spoke of the Blitz and the bombing of Buckingham Palace, saying that 'in their dark hour the people of this nation showed the world what it means to be British'.

USA - As the European Union moves towards building a common military, the US has reportedly threatened to leave its allies in the lurch if Brussels continues to insist on cutting US weapons makers out of the bargain. If the EU does not amend the proposed rules of the European Defense Fund (EDF) and Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) – an initiative to create a future EU military – Brussels may have to make do without US weapons or NATO aid, a senior State Department official said in a meeting last month, according to the Spanish daily El Pais. Citing transcripts from a May 22 meeting in Washington, El Pais reported that Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Michael Murphy told a group of European security ambassadors that the proposed rules are too restrictive for US manufacturers, and needed to be changed when it comes to intellectual property, technology transfer and export controls.

GERMANY - Angela Merkel could be in trouble as the Greens overtake her centre-right party to become the most popular in Germany, according to an opinion poll. The poll found that the Greens had 27 percent of the support, which is just a one point lead ahead of Ms Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc. Meanwhile, Ms Merkel’s Socialist SPD coalition partners plummeted to an all-time low. The poll asked voters which party they would back in a national election. The SPD, which is one of Europe’s flagship centre-left parties, was down by five points to 12 percent. The SPD’s disappointing result puts them just a single point ahead of the far right Alternative for Germany party (AfD).

USA - It looks like 2019 could be the worst year for US agriculture in modern American history by a very wide margin. Millions upon millions of acres of US farmland will go unused this year due to cataclysmic flooding. And many of the farmers that did manage to plant crops are reporting extremely disappointing results. The 12 month period that concluded at the end of April was the wettest 12 month period in US history, and more storms just kept on coming throughout the month of May.

USA - Mall-based retailers reported dismal earnings last week, reminding investors of the sector’s fundamental problems. The growth of e-commerce has hit retailers hard. Retailers’ earnings season has gone from bad to worse. The bleeding intensified last week, with shares of Abercrombie & Fitch plummeting 26% on Wednesday, the biggest percentage decline since the company went public. PVH Corp, owner of brands including Van Heusen, Tommy Hilfilger, and Calvin Klein, dropped 10% that day, too. On Thursday, women’s wear chain J Jill was down a jaw-dropping 53% and on Friday, Gap Inc slid 9%. It is hard to miss what all of these retailers have in common: They are mall-based.

UK - One of the features of our form of democracy is it has remained remarkably stable for hundreds of years. Not only have we developed a system with built-in checks and balances to ensure the sovereignty of the people, but also conventions determining political behaviour. Chief amongst these has been the expectation that the losers in a vote or an election accept defeat gracefully and make way for the group or party which has won.

USA - Food shortages can happen almost INSTANTLY in America, which has become dangerously dependent on complex logistics and fragile supply lines. Worldwide, famine was responsible for around one million deaths each year in the century between the late 1880s and the end of the 1980s. Now, many of us may mistakenly believe that humanitarian policies and better infrastructure mean that this type of famine is a thing of the past.

USA - In 2018, 94 percent of the soybean crops in the United States were genetically modified to be herbicide tolerant. Genetically modified crops have taken agriculture in the US by storm. By comparison, only 17 percent of soybean crops were genetically modified in 1997. Other crops grown in the United States which are mostly genetically modified are cotton and corn.

IRAN - A full-fledged war with Tehran will tank the US economy because the fighting will immediately make the price of oil skyrocket, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader warned. US leaders will not go to war against Tehran if they care for the economic wellbeing of their country, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, aide and adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told Fars News Agency. The first bullet fired in the Persian Gulf will push the oil prices well above $100. It will be unbearable for the US and Europe, as well as American allies like Japan and South Korea. Safavi, who has led the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the past, stated that Washington prefers to wage “economic and psychological war” against the nation. The US knows there will be “significant costs” should a full-fledged conflict erupt, he said.

VATICAN - Pope Francis called for the revival of the ideals of its founders on Sunday, saying ideologies and fear-mongering politicians were threatening its very existence as a bloc. His strong warning came as he travelled on a plane while returning from a three-day trip to Romania, one of the more recent EU members, were his first since European elections last month. The leader of the Catholic Church, who was quizzed about the elections, Italian far-right leader Matteo Salvini and other European topics, urged believers to pray for European unity and non-believers to hope for it "from the bottom of your hearts". He said: "If Europe does not look carefully to future challenges, Europe will dry up. Europe is ceasing to be 'Mother Europe' and is becoming 'Grandmother Europe'. It has aged. It has lost the goal of working together. Someone could ask under their breath 'Is this perhaps the end of a 70-year adventure?'"

CHINA - China, the world’s largest soybean buyer, has put purchases of American supplies on hold after the trade war between Washington and Beijing escalated, according to people familiar with the matter. State-grain buyers haven’t received any further orders to continue with the so-called goodwill buying and don’t expect that to happen given the lack of agreement in trade negotiations, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information is private.

INDIA - Temperatures passed 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in northern India as an unrelenting heatwave triggered warnings of water shortages and heatstroke. The thermometer hit 50.6 degrees Celsius (123 Fahrenheit) in the Rajasthan desert city of Churu on Saturday, the weather department said. All of Rajasthan suffered in severe heat with several cities hitting maximum temperatures above 47 Celsius. Several major cities, led by Chennai, have reported fears of water shortages as lakes and rivers start to dry up. In the western state of Maharashtra, farmers struggled to find water for thirsty animals and crops. "We have to source water tankers from nearby villages as water reserves, lakes and rivers have dried up," said Rajesh Chandrakant, a resident of Beed, one of the worst-hit districts. "Farmers only get water every three days for their livestock." The Indian peninsula has seen a drastic change in rainfall patterns over the past decade, marked by frequent droughts, floods and sudden storms.