USA - About one in 10 LGBT adults in the US (9.6%) are married to a same-sex spouse, with a slightly smaller proportion (7.1%) living with a same-sex domestic partner. Half of LGBT adults have never been married, while 11.4% are married to an opposite-sex spouse and 9.5% are either divorced or separated. According to Gallup's latest estimate, 5.6% of US adults identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, with over half of them saying they are bisexual. LGBT identification is most prevalent among young adults, explaining the high proportion of the subgroup that has never been married. Notably, same-sex marriages are largely confined to gay, lesbian or transgender adults. Only 1.0% of bisexual adults -- who comprise the largest segment of the LGBT population -- report being married to a same-sex spouse. Same-sex marriages are not common in the US, or even very common among LGBT adults. But they are becoming more prevalent in the US because of the increase in the LGBT population more generally and because more same-sex cohabiting couples are opting to marry rather than be unmarried partners.

USA - In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world’s richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes. He achieved the feat again in 2011. In 2018, Tesla founder Elon Musk, the second-richest person in the world, also paid no federal income taxes.

EUROPE - The Council of Europe Cybercrime Committee’s (T-CY) recent decision to approve new international rules for law enforcement access to user data without strong privacy protections is a blow for global human rights in the digital age. The final version of the draft Second Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe’s (CoE) widely adopted Budapest Cybercrime Convention, approved by the T-CY drafting committee on May 28th, places few limits on law enforcement data collection. As such, the Protocol can endanger technology users, journalists, activists, and vulnerable populations in countries with flimsy privacy protections and weaken everyone’s right to privacy and free expression across the globe. If countries sign the Protocol as it stands and in its entirety, it will reshape how state police access digital data from Internet companies based in other countries by prioritizing law enforcement demands, sidestepping judicial oversight, and lowering the bar for privacy safeguards.

USA - At the start of the Biden era, America is being torn apart by more allegations of treason than at any time since the Civil War. Historian Henry Adams observed a century ago that politics “has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” And few things spur hatred more effectively than tarring all political opponents as traitors. The Founding Fathers carved the Constitution in light of the horrific political abuses that had proliferated in England in prior centuries.

USA - Many of the imbalances that are contributing to the nightmarish shortages that we are currently witnessing are not going to be solved any time soon. Ever since I started The Economic Collapse Blog, I have been warning that outsourcing the production of just about everything and running massive trade deficits year after year would eventually have very serious consequences down the road. Well, now we are officially “down the road”, and our incredibly foolish trade policies have put us in a very precarious position. During the “good times”, being extremely dependent on the rest of the world to make stuff for us wasn’t a problem, but now it is rapidly becoming a national security issue.

USA - This won’t be the last time the imperialist media warns us that UFOs on the radar are a sign of a frightening gap in technology that leaves the US defenseless against Russia and China. They’ve been priming us for it for years. The New York Times has published an article on the contents of the hotly anticipated US government report on UFOs, as per usual based on statements of anonymous officials, and as per usual promoting narratives that are convenient for imperialists and war profiteers. Together with one voice, the anonymous US officials and the “paper of record” that is supposed to scrutinize US officials assure us definitively that the mysterious aerial phenomena that have reportedly been witnessed by military personnel are certainly not any kind of secret US technology, but could totally be aliens and could definitely be a sign the Russians or Chinese have severely lapped America’s lagging military development.

AUSTRALIA - Millions of rodents are rampaging across Australia, attacking people in their beds and even burning down houses. Picture this. An invasion of billions of mice terrorising households, climbing up curtains, swarming onto beds and biting people as they sleep, running amok in supermarkets and hospitals and contaminating drinking water. It’s the stuff of nightmares. But far from being a ghoulish product of the imagination, this is the reality in 21st-century Australia, where a rodent plague of Biblical proportions is devastating food supplies and inflicting misery and hardship.

CHINA - China is bracing itself for severe summer floods as 71 rivers exceed warning levels, according to a recent report from Strange Sounds. Meteorological experts warned that warmer temperatures are fuelling extreme weather. In fact, rain in some parts of central and southern China has hit record highs in recent weeks. But the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) said precipitation is actually 10 percent lower this year than last year. Moreover, the ministry warned that water levels on the Yangtze River, the longest river in China and Asia, and its tributaries are expected to rise further in June. The ministry also warned of major floods throughout the country from June to August. Some monitoring stations have already issued alerts in anticipation of extreme flooding as the country entered its main flooding season on Tuesday, June 1. However, parts of South China have been experiencing a series of heavy rains since May.

USA - Are we getting close to a major seismic event on the west coast? Within the past several days, we have seen hundreds of earthquakes happen in southern California, there have been large earthquakes offshore near the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and there has been a very alarming swarm of earthquakes at Mount Hood. We haven’t seen this much seismic activity along the west coast in quite a long time, and many are concerned that this could be leading up to something really big.

USA - A top Federal Reserve official raised eyebrows in the financial services world last week by saying that the central bank is stepping up development of a plan that could result in the issuance of a digitized version of the US dollar. In doing so, she indicated that the US is joining a growing movement among major economic powers to rethink how money will be exchanged in the future. The US would not be the first country to consider launching what is known as a “central bank digital currency,” or CBDC. China is taking a leading role. But the significance of the dollar to global trade and the world economy in general makes the Fed’s interest in the project especially meaningful for the development and acceptance of what would amount to a form of digital “cash.”

USA - US President Joe Biden has been urged by a Washington think tank to encourage the European Union to develop hard-power military capabilities. The report, published on 1 June by the Centre for American Progress ahead of Biden’s first trip abroad as president to attend G7 and NATO summits, calls on the POTUS to revise the policy of his predecessors, who have opposed EU defence integration for decades.

ISRAEL - Israel’s domestic security service, the Shin Bet, warned on Saturday of growing incitement that could lead to politically motivated violence. Nadav Argaman's rare public statement raised concerns about the threat of a January 6-style attack in Israel to prevent a peaceful transition of power if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is ousted after 12 years in office.

CANADA - Canadian Imam Younus Kathrada justified hatred toward Jews in a shocking recent sermon that claimed their “injustice” toward others and rejection of Islam and its prophets, while warning a mosque is no place for those unable or unwilling to hate. In his speech, which was delivered at the Muslim Youth of Victoria Islamic Center and posted on its social media accounts last week, the Islamic scholar warned of the Jewish “enemy,” after quoting the Islamic Quran. Despite claiming to reject violence, Kathrada’s repeated advocacy of hatred culminated in his prayer that the enemies of Islam be destroyed and that all jihadists be victorious. “Oh Allah, give strength to Islam and the Muslims, humiliate the infidels and the polytheists, and destroy the enemies of Islam. Oh Allah, grant victory to those who wage jihad for your sake everywhere,” he said.

USA - When Ben Domenech went on Fox News last night to host “Primetime” and discuss the current actions of Antifa and other Neo-Marxist groups, his tone was somber. It wasn’t just for effect; the topic that he discussed was sobering to the point that three people contacted me and said I needed to watch it. “Few people remember that the book burnings of the German 1930s were led by student activists who started with their own campus libraries,” Domenech said. “They didn’t want the books that challenged their delicate minds. A lot triggered our young little Nazis. When they ran out of campus libraries, they came for the independent bookstores. The government, happy to help, only came in later. Does this sound familiar?”

USA - Media outlets and left-wing activists are trying to build support for transgenderism by claiming that children can choose their future lifetime sex when they are just four-years-old. The Boston Globe reported on the ideology embraced by Dr Ariel Frey-Vogel, the director of child and adolescent services at Mass General’s Transgender Health Program. Frey-Vogel said: What has become clear to me in this work is that what is normalized has changed for the better, such that kids at a much younger age recognize there are many ways to be and that those ways are normal. Once, a lot of people who may have been trans and not felt it was a normal thing to be suppressed it, whereas now, I think a lot of kids are coming out as trans and non-binary.