USA - Four species of bumblebees have been reclassified as ‘fish’ in the state of California so that they can be protected under its Endangered Species Act, a court ruled on Tuesday, reversing a 2020 ruling and affirming that the term ‘fish’ shouldn’t be confined to merely ‘aquatic’ invertebrates under the law. “We acknowledge the scope of the definition is ambiguous but also recognize we are not interpreting the definition on a blank slate,” the California Court of Appeal for the Third District declared in its ruling. The four species of bumblebees are now protected by the California Fish and Game Commission as at-risk plants and animals, sheltering the insects from import, export, possession, purchase, or sale. The move is a blow to agricultural groups, in particular the Almond Alliance of California, which has lashed out against the ruling, arguing it would further financially burden growers of the crop who use pesticides known to harm bees.

VATICAN - The Vatican said the July 2-7 trip to Congo and South Sudan would be rescheduled “to a later date to be determined.” “At the request of his doctors, and in order not to jeopardize the results of the therapy that he is undergoing for his knee... and has been forced to postpone, with regret, his Apostolic Journey to the Democratic Republic of Congo and to South Sudan,” the Vatican said in a statement. Francis has used a wheelchair for about a month due to strained ligaments in his right knee that have made walking and standing difficult and painful. He also has received injections, kept the knee as immobile as possible and walked with a cane or the help of an aide, when necessary. Speculation has swirled about the future of the pontificate because of Francis' knee problems, his decision to create 16 new voting-age cardinals, and his plans to pay homage in August to a 13th century pope who resigned, Celestine V. But Francis has given no indication he wants or plans to resign. Vatican watchers say a papal resignation now would be unthinkable given that Francis' predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, 95, is still alive.

ISRAEL - In face of Iran’s continued development of a nuclear capability, the Israeli Air Force has developed a new capability to be able to fly its F-35 stealth fighter jets from Israel to the Islamic Republic without requiring mid-air refueling. The development is a boost to IAF capabilities and comes as the Israeli military has upped its preparations for a future strike against Iran’s nuclear capabilities. In addition, the IAF recently integrated a new one-ton bomb into the arsenal of weapons used by the F-35s (known in the IAF as the “Adir”) that can be carried inside the plane’s internal weapons compartment without jeopardizing its stealth radar signature.

USA - Gas prices surged to $4.865 per gallon on Monday. This was two cents over the previous all-time record high from the day before! The price of gas has gone up 25¢ a gallon in the last week. Joe Biden has more than doubled the average price for a gallon of gas in just 18 months. But it’s not just gas prices that are surging. Joe Biden has opened a new front on the Democrats’ war against the middle class. Electricity rates are up from 77% to 233% in the last year. This will, of course, crush the middle class and those Americans who live paycheck to paycheck. Biden has crushed coal production in the US. Coal is a source of 22% of US electricity needs. Without coal and nuclear and with the Biden regime’s war on fossil fuels energy prices are soaring. And blackouts are expected this summer across most of the US.

USA - New York City billionaire and oil refiner John Catsimatidis said President Biden should "open up the spigots" as Americans feel the wrath of soaring costs at the pump and in the food store. Reacting to the national average price of a gallon of gas reaching a new all-time high of $4.86, Catsimatidis told Fox Business' Dagen McDowell that "it will get worse" and lamented that neither the exacerbation nor an economic recession has to happen, but leaders refuse to change course.

USA - A day after the mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, President Joe Biden unsurprisingly came out to lecture white Americans on hate. An 18-year-old white man allegedly targeted black people in the May 14 attack, which left 10 people dead. “We must address what remains the stain on the soul of America,” Biden said during a speech the next day at the Capitol in Washington. And of course, that “stain” to which the president referred is the “white supremacy” he and his party believe to be at the core of America’s identity.

USA - Anyone who wants to know what all of America would look like under a Gun Control Regime need only look at Chicago, Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles, Oakland, Washington DC, Detroit, Portland, Minneapolis… I could go on… Question… if you institute some of the toughest gun control laws in the country and your cities turn into violent, unlivable s**t holes… What am I missing here? Let me explain it this way… There is no stronger gun control law than a total gun ban, and yet… Most of these mass shootings happen in places that ban guns entirely. These places are called gun-free zones, and gun-free zones attract mass shooters like heavily-armed moths to an innocent, defenseless flame.

USA - The state of New York, who has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, just stepped it up another notch — this time outlawing the ability of citizens to protect themselves from bullets with body armor. This move proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that lawmakers were never concerned with your safety — only control. Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado weighed in after Hochul and completely dismantled their own argument that this law will do anything — by acknowledging that the pervasiveness of “illegal” firearms is leading to an increase in violent crime — not legal guns in the hands of law abiding citizens. In other words, “illegal guns in the hands of criminals are killing people, so we need to disarm law abiding citizens.” Makes sense… Body armor is purely defensive in nature, and people should always have the ability and right to defend themselves against attack.

USA - The “far right” conspiracy theorist prophets are vindicated again. No longer “conspiracy theory,” youth blood-sucking is official “fact” because the gatekeeping corporate media now acknowledges it. Via The Telegraph: “As macabre as it sounds, science is beginning to discover that ‘youth transplants’ really can slow down the ageing process. The fountain of youth, it seems, is youth itself.”

USA - San Francisco has been waiting to be rocked by another massive earthquake since 1906. On Tuesday night this week, it finally came when the people of America’s most famously Left-wing city voted overwhelmingly to throw out their chief prosecutor — and with him a policy of ultra-woke tolerance of crime that has brought the city to its knees. Some 60 per cent of San Franciscans voted to ‘recall’ from office Chesa Boudin, a pin-up for the ‘progressive’ Left, midway through his term as the city’s District Attorney. Down the Pacific coast, the day of reckoning continued as voters in Los Angeles threw their support in the city’s mayoral race behind a formerly Republican billionaire businessman, Rick Caruso, who has pledged to save the crime and vagrancy plagued city from the worst instincts of its Left-wing leaders.

USA - It has taken a long time to get America to where we are today. Decades and decades. And it was all planned out. In the middle of the 20th century the average American was patriotic. They loved America. They knew history and studied reading, writing, and arithmetic. They were not consumed with folly. In order to destroy America, they first had to destroy Americans. And thus it began.

USA - New York’s Governor, Kathy Hochul, has enacted full-scale social media monitoring in her state, looking at the actions of users, and monitoring American citizens like “big brother” in a proposed attempt to curb gun violence. In a speech on Monday, Hochul informed the crowd that her intentions were in motion to utilize big tech social media firms to monitor private citizens. Last month, Hochul unveiled what she called a “comprehensive plan to combat domestic terrorism and prevent gun violence”, in the wake of a mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store. “We as a country are facing an intersection of two crises: the mainstreaming of hate speech – including white nationalism, racism, and white supremacy – and the easy access to military-style weapons and magazines,” Hochul said, announcing measures to create new domestic terrorism and intelligence units to increase social media monitoring. On May 18, Hochul signed an Executive Order to Establish a New Domestic Terrorism Unit within the Office of Counter-Terrorism.

USA - As the rate of inflation continues its record-setting trend of increase, rent costs are beginning to crush most Americans, causing them to fall behind and seek smaller homes and new towns, while Biden’s $15 per hour minimum wage falls far short of a living wage. Since President Biden took his place in the Oval Office, the wages in America have risen, but the cost of living has risen far faster, as Biden’s economics spiral out of control. For anyone making $15 per hour, Biden’s great promise to make hourly earnings a living wage, the cost of living has long passed the point where the pay increase is no longer helpful.

USA - While it is traditionally viewed as a B-grade economic indicator, the April consumer credit report from the Federal Reserve was another shocker especially after last month's stunning surge in credit card debt which saw the biggest increase in revolving credit on record which is why we said that today's G.19 print straight from the Fed would be just as important as Friday's CPI print...

USA - According to the World Bank’s latest global economic forecast released on Tuesday, global economic growth is expected to slow down before the end of the year, and most countries should begin preparing for a recession. In the newly released report, the World Bank cut its forecast for global growth this year to 2.9%, down from the 4.1% forecast published in January. The report also warns that several years of above-average inflation lie ahead. “Both inflation and slow growth are putting world economy at risk,” says Liz Ann Sonders, Chief Investment Strategist for Charles Schwab. The World Bank cited the Russian invasion of Ukraine coupled with a still crippled, post-pandemic economy as a primary reason for its change. The report highlighted the continuance of surging energy, rising food prices, and higher interest rates from central banks for a more cynical outlook. The World Bank advised governments to soften the blow from soaring energy and food prices. The group suggested easing financial burdens by expanding debt relief.