USA - Joe Biden's decision to release 180 million barrels of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve - one million barrels per day for 180 days, ending just before the midterm elections which the Democrats will lose in an avalanche - was meant to help lower US gasoline prices "because of the Putin price hike." Instead, it is heading for Europe. According to Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter, the Suezmax ship Advantage Spring - sailing for Rotterdam, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg - received emergency SPR sweet crude from Energy Transfer’s Nederland oil facility around April 1 for export. It appears that somehow the definition of emergency now includes making a profit at the expense of American consumers because sooner or later a real emergency will hit and then it will be too late, while easing the true energy emergency over in Europe.

USA - Thanks to the success of an initial safety trial for an implantable device that can translate the brain’s electrical impulses into readable signals, we’re a step closer to being able to text — or otherwise interface with our devices — using just our thoughts. Best of all, this new brain-computer interface (BCI) — “brain modem,” if you will — doesn’t require a hole in your head. It does, however, require a hole in your chest.

NIGERIA - Militants of the outlawed Nigerian separatist group known as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) perpetrated a deadly armed attack on both Nigerian soldiers and civilians on Easter Sunday in southern Nigeria’s Imo state, Nigeria’s Premium Times online newspaper reported on Tuesday. Armed members of the IPOB attacked the Ihioma community in Imo state’s Orlu Local Government Area on April 17, killing an unspecified number of Nigerian civilians and troops. “The gunmen … were said to be on a manhunt for members of Ebubeagu Security Network, who reportedly arrived in the area last Saturday [April 16],” according to the Premium Times. A coalition of state governors across Nigeria’s southeastern region established the Ebubeagu Security Network in late 2021 to support local law enforcement “and other security agencies in checking the rising crime rates in the region,” according to Nigeria’s Sahara Reporters news website.

UK - BBC Producers were forced to cancel a “sex ed theatre” production called the “Family Sex Show” featuring “non-sexual nudity.” The show explicitly targeted children “as young as five years old” to discuss things like “consent, pleasure, queerness, and gender.” 38,000 people signed a petition for it to be axed.

ISRAEL - What is Hamas' greatest fear? That Israel will start to build the Temple. One would have hoped that yesterday’s unique convergence of Passover, Easter and Ramadan would have led to a wonderful day of peace and brotherhood in the spiritual capital city of Jerusalem. Alas, any dream of religious harmony on a day holy to all three great Abrahamic faiths, was shattered by Muslim rioters who turned the Temple Mount into a bloody battlefield hurling stones at Jewish worshippers and Israeli vehicles.

FRANCE - As France’s incumbent president Emmanuel Macron faces a mortal threat to his presidency in his populist opponent Marine Le Pen, the La République En Marche leader has decided to double down on his green agenda seemingly in the hopes of winning over hostile leftist voters. Le Pen has traditionally been far less enthusiastic when it comes to green energy when compared with other presidential candidates, with Macron now seemingly betting that the distinction will end up being the key difference that lands him a second term in the Élysée.

FRANCE - French bishops are not expected to direct worshippers on how to vote in the French presidential elections as more and more Roman Catholics have become supporters of populist challenger Marine Le Pen. French Roman Catholic bishops have a long history of advising their worshippers on how to vote in elections but, for the 2022 French presidential election, they are expected to remain silent. In 2002, when Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of presidential hopeful leader Marine Le Pen, challenged Jacques Chirac in the second round of that year's presidential election, bishops were public in their opposition to him — but La Croix editor-in-chief Isabelle de Gaulmyn says bishops are now silent as a growing number of Catholics support his daughter. The shifting of the Catholic vote in France comes after years of near-constant attacks on French churches during the presidency of Emmanuel Macron, with one 2019 report claiming an average of three churches were being attacked per day.

USA - “We, the People” risks becoming “They, the Product as a Service” for those who control the data and set digital identity policies. Just as the so-called fourth industrial revolution is merging our physical, digital, and biological identities, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and World Trade Organization (WTO) are looking to bring digital identity to physical objects, digital products, and biological beings.

USA - These 6 Companies Control 90% Of What You Read, Watch, & Hear. In a recent Twitter survey I conducted, nearly 90% of people rated their trust in mainstream media as either “very low” or “low.” And is it any surprise? Ever-mounting media consolidation has narrowed the perspectives the public is privy to, ownership and funding of these corporations are riddled with conflicts of interest, crucial stories keep suspiciously getting buried, and big tech companies are outright censoring and demonetizing independent outlets trying to break through the noise.

MIDDLE EAST - Terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has called on its members and supporters to wage jihad against Europe and Israel while the West is distracted by the situation in Ukraine, according to an online message posted cited by the Times on Monday. Jihadists should strike while those the group considers “crusaders” are fighting each other, IS' new spokesman Omar al-Muhajir said in the message, released to coincide with Islam’s holy month of Ramadan. Experts cited by the Times no longer believe ISIS has the ability to conduct major operations abroad. Declared officially defeated by then-US President Donald Trump in 2019 with the killing of al-Baghdadi, the group has been relegated to a relatively small area in Syria, a country in which it once held significant territory, after years of fighting by the Syrian Army, Russia, Iran, and the US.

UK - Is there really an afterlife? While most people think humans will never be able to prove what happens after death, half of adults still believe their spirit lives on — somewhere. The new survey of over 1,000 people in the United Kingdom, commissioned by SpiritShack Ltd, finds 50 percent of respondents believe in an afterlife. Of this group, 60 percent believe everyone experiences the same thing when they die — regardless of their individual beliefs. However, two in three believe scientists will never be able to tell us what really happens when someone passes.

GERMANY - Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck confirmed Russian assessments that Germany’s immediate cutoff of that country’s gas would provoke unrest in the heart of that European leader. He revealed in an interview that “An immediate embargo on [Russian natural] gas would threaten social peace in Germany”, though such a scenario is indeed seriously being considered due to the immense pressure being put upon the EU by its American overlords as of late.

USA - With lithium prices up ninefold, the report underscores US dependence on foreign minerals. Demand from electric vehicle manufacturers and other sectors may exceed proven cobalt, lithium, nickel, chromium, zinc reserves, authors warn. The Biden administration-driven transition from fossil fuels may be hobbled by the difficulty of procuring critical minerals, many of which are mined and processed by China, the authors of a think tank analysis warn.

USA - A fertilizer supply shock is imminent for US farmers as CF Industries Holdings, Inc warned Thursday that rail shipments of crop nutrients would be reduced to top agricultural states, which couldn't come at a worse time as the Northern Hemisphere spring planting season is underway. The world's largest fertilizer company said Union Pacific had hit it with railroad-mandated shipping reductions that would impact nitrogen fertilizers such as urea and urea ammonium nitrate shipments to Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and California. Union Pacific told CF Industries without advance notice to reduce the volume of private cars on its railroad immediately. This means CF Industries had to decrease shipments by a whopping 20% to stay compliant. "The timing of this action by Union Pacific could not come at a worse time for farmers," said Tony Will, president and chief executive officer of CF Industries. Josh Linville, direct of fertilizer at StoneX, called this a "black swan" moment for the Midwest.

USA - Amare, the chunky lowland gorilla, has been watching too many YouTube videos and zookeepers are worried he'll get bullied by other primates - so they've erected a 'buffer zone' to stop people showing him selfies. A 30-stone [420 lbs] gorilla in Chicago's Lincoln Park zoo is so addicted to smartphones that he didn't even notice another gorilla attacking him. Zoo keepers have been forced to employ measures that stop people showing their iPhones to Amare as he is apparently fixated on taking selfies and watching YouTube videos. Officials have built a 'buffer zone' with a rope to stop visitors showing Amare their screens through a glass partition, after Amare was charged by a rival gorilla while distracted by a zoogoer's device. They're worried Amare could be bullied for his love of screens, which he uses to look at photos of people's families, pets, or even pictures of himself.