USA - The woke Target Corporation has partnered for its new Pride clothing line with UK-based designer Abprallen, which insists “Satan loves you” and “Satan respects pronouns.” Among other items in its Pride line, the mega retailer carries Abprallen’s “Cure Transphobia” sweatshirt, which bears the message “Cure transphobia, not trans people.”

USA - Have you noticed that Democrats and the Left at large are increasingly brazen in their attempt to trample on all parental rights and authority? For example, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made the bold claim last Saturday night that states which have banned sex-denial surgery and other gender-rejection care require an all-hands-on-deck response.

USA - From Prescott, Arkansas comes a story about controversy over prayer and the Holy Bible. Preschoolers were seen praying over their food with teachers in the cafeteria. And fifth and sixth graders were highlighted in a social media post after they were given Bibles by a local charity. “This is a sight that should make anyone happy! It sure does us! Our 5th and 6th grade students received New Testament Bibles today and were reading them at lunch and even on the bus this afternoon,” read a message on the school district’s Facebook page. “God is so good!”

USA - A violent mob of 400 Chicago teenagers shut down the Armed Forces Carnival in the Tinley Park suburb Saturday, Fox News reports. After the teens fought with each other, organizers were forced to cancel the event. Town officials said the teens responded to a call on social media to “cause chaos and disrupt the event.”

USA - It appears that the Biden Administration is abandoning their rhetoric that “the banking system is fine.” CNN reported today that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with CEOs of large banks yesterday and told them that “more bank mergers may be necessary.” As ZeroHedge News reported today, reports show that $billions of losses in deposits at US banks have occurred in the past two weeks, with over $70 billion lost in large US Commercial Banks. The entire stock market is now being held up by a few Big Tech companies, and each day I am reading new reports about just how disastrous this could be, because Big Tech is mostly just moving money around right now and trying to buy in on the AI fad. For example, think about the $10 billion deal that Microsoft paid to OpenAI to start using ChatGPT. $10 billion went on to the books of OpenAI as a gain, but on Microsoft’s books it was entered as a loss. For the US economy, that is a net zero until Microsoft starts turning a profit...

USA - Analyst and financial writer John Rubino says this time, the so-called debt ceiling fight could end in a systemic failure. Rubino points out, “In a well-run society, the debt limit would be zero. Governments should not borrow money in the first place. The amount of money we are borrowing is catastrophic. Historians are going to look back at this era, and they are just going to wonder why we allowed it to happen and what were we thinking. We are destroying the global financial system by allowing governments to borrow this much money. The debt limit thing is being called a crisis, and if they let it go too far, it will be a crisis.

EUROPE - The European bloc needs to outcompete Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, the EU Commission president has said. The EU needs to offer a real alternative to China’s economic projects for the countries of the Global South, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Saturday. The EU and likeminded nations must use the current “window of opportunity,” as “many countries of the Global South are looking for alternative funding options,” she said at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan. Von der Leyen claimed that China’s Belt and Road Initiative – a global infrastructure investment strategy unveiled ten years ago – has been losing its appeal because many countries have had “bad experiences with China.” “They took Chinese loans and ended up in a debt crisis,” she stated, adding that the EU and the G7 must fill the void.

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the G7 nations to refrain from dividing the world into Cold War-style blocs aligned with either the US or China. The Western leaders, meanwhile, made Russia and China the focus of a joint statement on nuclear weapons. Speaking to Japan’s Kyodo News as the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US met in Hiroshima on Saturday, Guterres called for “active dialogue and cooperation” between the G7 nations and China on matters of climate change and development. “I believe it is very important to avoid the division of the world into two, and it’s very important to create bridges for serious negotiation,” he said.

USA - Only half of Americans now say they are sure God exists. That finding, from the closely watched General Social Survey, stands out among several nuggets of new data about religion in America. Not quite 50 percent of Americans say they have no doubt about the existence of God, according to the 2022 survey, released Wednesday by NORC, the University of Chicago research organization. As recently as 2008, the share of sure-believers topped 60 percent. Thirty-four percent of Americans never go to church, NORC found, the highest figure recorded in five decades of surveys.

SICILY - Sicily's Catania airport was forced to close for 24 hours after smoke and ash from nearby Mount Etna covered the runway. Images from the island's biggest international terminal showed dark, gritty ash on the runway and passenger planes coated in black in the wake of the eruption on Sunday. Around 10 million passengers last year passed through Catania International Airport, which services the eastern part of Sicily, one of Italy's most popular tourist destinations.

MEXICO - Mexican authorities on Sunday raised the warning level for the Popocatepetl volcano to one step below red alert as smoke, ash and molten rock spewed into the sky posing risks to aviation and far-flung communities below. The huge volcano that towers above Mexico City is considered one of the most dangerous in the world because some 25 million people live within a 60-mile radius. Sunday's increased alert level - to 'yellow phase three' - comes a day after two Mexico City airports temporarily halted operations due to falling ash, which also forced 11 villages to cancel school sessions. The yellow warning means 'remain alert and prepare for a possible evacuation,' according to the warning system developed by Mexico's National Disaster Prevention Center.

USA - PetSmart is the latest company to peddle the radical LGBT agenda, urging pet owners to “celebrate pride with your pet” and offering a range of rainbow-themed accessories while touting a donation to the woke organization GLSEN, which focuses primarily on injecting gender confusion into schools. Secular society has deemed June “pride” month and, as such, various companies are participating in the woke mantra, promoting “pride” in their respective sectors.

RUSSIA - The West’s effort to potentially send modern fighter jets to Ukraine “carries enormous risks,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko warned on Saturday, according to Russian state news agency TASS. The minister’s comments in an interview with TASS come in the wake of the US getting behind a joint international effort to train Ukrainian pilots to use modern fighter aircraft including F-16s. This could also pave the way to eventually send advanced Western combat jets to Ukraine, according to a senior administration official.

MIDDLE EAST - On the same day G7 leaders met in Hiroshima, the Arab League summit brought together leaders in the Middle East with Volodymyr Zelensky. He will be hoping to get Arabian leaders onside as Kremlin forces continue to attempt to make ground in Ukraine. In Jeddah, there was also one premier coming in from the cold. Bashar al-Assad attended the event on Friday, making it the first time Syria has been represented since 2011.

MAURITIUS - To most of us, Mauritius is a holiday paradise, a nirvana for eco-tourists and honeymooners far removed from the slings of world politics and global crises. But this balmy island in the Indian Ocean is now the unlikely epicentre of a chilling power struggle between America and China. At the heart of this rivalry is the remote Chagos Archipelago. It’s uninhabited except for the island of Diego Garcia, which hosts a major Anglo-American military base.