USA - During the historic flooding in July 1993, the Mississippi River near Davenport rose to its highest level ever: 22.63 feet. That record is no more. The river hit 22.64 feet shortly before noon Thursday, the National Weather Service reported, and the water continues to rise. Several blocks of Davenport remain inundated with flood water after a HESCO barrier breached on Tuesday afternoon. Businesses and residents had little warning before the water rushed into downtown streets and buildings. Access to those buildings remained mostly by boat Thursday. Unusually high snowmelt and untimely heavy rainfall have been culprits for widespread flooding this spring in Iowa, particularly on the western and now eastern edges of the state.

CANADA - A Canadian court has warned a concerned father that he could be summarily arrested if he refuses to call his daughter by her preferred male name. As Faithwire previously reported, the dad, “Clark,” was convicted on charges of “family violence” after insisting on calling his teenage daughter by her birth name — “Maxine.” Now, according to The Federalist, the Supreme Court of British Columbia has issued a sweeping “protection order” in the case, threatening the dad with immediate arrest “without a warrant” should the police conclude there’s “reasonable” ground to suggest he had privately or publicly referred to his daughter as a female. All in all the court has come down very heavily on the father, who is simply concerned for the welfare of his own child and wants her to carefully consider such a life-defining decision.

CANADA - The Royal Canadian Mint has released a commemorative one-dollar coin (known as a "loonie") to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalization of the LGBTQ community. Conservative Christians have called the new coin a highly offensive attack against God. In 1969, Canada's Parliament passed legislation to partially stop the criminalization of homosexual activity, protecting private activity between two individuals 21 and older. NBC News reports the Christian organization Citizen Go started a petition opposing the release of the new loonie, garnering over 57,000 signatures. The petition states, "This is highly offensive to many Canadians, particularly those who are Christian. This is nothing less than an attack on our faith and an affront to our God."

EUROPE - The United States is preparing sanctions against European companies participating in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, according to senior US government officials. German government officials, on the other hand, predict that US sanctions will lead to a confrontation with the whole of the EU. "We will do everything necessary to complete the pipeline."

USA - The mainstream media continues to try to convince all of us that the US economy is “booming”, but meanwhile the number of homeless people is setting all-time record highs in major cities all over the nation.  The recent article that I published about how wealthy elitists on the west coast are freaking out as hordes of homeless people take over their neighborhoods received a tremendous amount of attention, but nobody has a worse problem with homelessness than New York City does.  According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, approximately 14 percent of all the homeless people in the entire country currently live in New York City… We live at a time when literally everything in our society seems to be coming apart. And unless a miracle happens, things are going to get much, much worse in the months and years ahead.

USA - More than 7,800 individuals allegedly abused 12,254 victims, according to court testimony. Sexual abuse settlements that have already been agreed have pushed the organization to the brink of bankruptcy. New York state has passed a law changing the statute of limitations so that victims of long-ago sexual abuse can sue for damages. Similar bills are pending in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and California. Of course this is just a very small part of a much larger trend that is plaguing our society, but if this kind of abuse is pervasive even among the Boy Scouts, what organization is truly safe for America’s kids? Have we gotten to the point as a society where our children are literally not safe anywhere?

USA - When people are having a harder time paying their bills, that is a signal that the economy is slowing down.  This is something that we witnessed back in 2008, and it is something that is happening once again right now.  Credit card charge-offs at major US banks haven’t been this high since the US economy was pulling out of the last recession, and the same thing is true regarding credit card delinquencies.  So even though the mainstream media keeps telling us over and over that the US economy is “booming”, the cold, hard numbers are telling us something completely different. 

NIGERIA - A Nigerian archbishop has decried the slaughter of Christians in his country and the media silence surrounding it, declaring that “Christians are being killed like chickens.” Archbishop Matthew Man-oso Ndagoso told LifeSiteNews said that in the Muslim-dominated northwest of the country people live in constant fear, especially in the state of Kaduna where he resides. “It is one of the states where everybody walks around afraid. There are kidnappers and bandits and they are killing people. Villages are being burned down,” Archbishop Ndagoso said in an article published Monday. “In other parts of the country if something happens, the president shows up. But here people are being killed and nothing is being done about it,” he said.

VATICAN - A group of 19 Catholics, including clergy and scholars, have accused Pope Francis of heresy in an open letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church. The 20-page letter lays out its intentions in the very first line: “first, to accuse Pope Francis of the canonical delict of heresy, and second, to request that you [the bishops] take the steps necessary to deal with the grave situation of a heretical pope.” The letter writers base their accusation on the pope’s alleged embrace of positions contrary to the Catholic faith as well as his overt support for prelates who have shown disrespect for the Church’s faith and morals. “We take this measure as a last resort to respond to the accumulating harm caused by Pope Francis’s words and actions over several years, which have given rise to one of the worst crises in the history of the Catholic Church,” the letter declares.

SOUTH AFRICA - The world’s wealthy are increasingly on the move. About 108,000 millionaires migrated across borders last year, a 14 percent increase from the prior year, and more than double the level in 2013, according to Johannesburg-based New World Wealth. Australia, US and Canada are the top destinations, according to the research firm, while China and Russia are the biggest losers. The UK saw around 3,000 millionaires depart last year with Brexit and taxation cited as possible reasons. Wealth migration figures point to present conditions - such as crime, lack of business opportunities or religious tensions - but can also be a key future indicator, said Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth. “It can be a sign of bad things to come as high-net-worth individuals are often the first people to leave - they have the means to leave unlike middle-class citizens,” he said.

EUROPE - Top European figures have been warned plans to reform the bloc must be taken "seriously" to avoid a collapse of the European Union. The growth of support for populist and nationalist movements across the continent have rung alarm bells in Brussels as Marine Le Pen and Italian deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini continue to see their numbers grow. Ms Gaston told talkRADIO: "We’re absolutely starting to see some fraying around the edges and we should be concerned about that.”

ISRAEL - It is easy to forget that, in 1947, when the United Nations recommended the creation of a Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine, the international body also recommended the creation of an Arab state — what would today be a national home for the Palestinians. The idea was to partition the land into two separate entities — in other words, a two-state solution. Indeed, in 1988, the Palestine National Council described the partition resolution as what "still provides those conditions of international legitimacy that ensure the right of the Palestinian Arab people to sovereignty."

USA - Saudi Arabia recently executed 37 people, mostly Shiites, for crimes that included participation in a political protest. At least two victims were under 18 at the time of their “crimes.” President Trump has spoken of our “shared values” with the Saudis, but his real goal is to keep the Saudis as business partners no matter their actions. Trump admitted that we can’t offend the Saudis because we made $450 billion in weapon sales. The Saudi war in Yemen has led to the death of 200,000 people or more, and 60% of the civilians who were killed were under 5 years of age.

UK - The group disrupted London with 11 days of protests that it cast as the biggest act of civil disobedience in recent British history. Iconic locations were blocked, the Shell building defaced, trains stopped and Goldman Sachs targeted. London police chief Cressida Dick said she had never seen a protest like this during her 36-year career. The aim: A rebellion against the political, economic and social structure of the modern world in time to avert the worst devastation outlined by scientists studying climate change.

USA - Proving yet again that the left-wing media is steeped in fake news and staged events, NBC News with Lester Holt has been caught broadcasting a faked measles photo that relied on Photoshop to add “measles” splotches to the photo of a healthy baby. Amazingly, NBC News broadcasted the faked measles photo along with on-screen text that claims “Nurse battles vaccine myths as measles outbreak hits 555 cases.” The real myth, of course, is the idea that NBC News is a news organization at all. In truth, they are a left-wing Big Pharma propaganda ministry that deceives viewers even when claiming to “battle vaccine myths.” This is how the fake news media operates on almost every story, from mass shootings to measles to the now-collapsed Russia collusion hoax. Almost everything the media tells you is either staged or false. Then they rely on censorship to silence all independent media voices that point out the obvious fraud.