ISRAEL - Paradoxically, while formal relations between the governments of Israel and the US appear to be at a high, anti-Israel political movements have also been getting stronger as the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has inched closer to normalization in American progressive and to some extent liberal politics.

ISRAEL - Israel plans to construct the world’s longest underwater gas pipeline together with Cyprus and Greece to carry Eastern Mediterranean gas on to Italy and the EU southern states. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has just endorsed the project. It will run smack up against a competing Turkish-Russian gas pipeline, Turk Stream, against a potential Qatari-Iran-Syria pipeline, as well as de facto undercut the Washington attempt to get more US LNG gas to the EU to reduce Russian dependency.

GERMANY - Bavarian State Premier Markus Söder has promised that his southern German state will pay a quarter of the €85 million ($95 million) foreseen to maintain the former Nazi party rally grounds ("Reichsparteitagsgelände") in Nuremberg over the next decade. Last year, the federal government decided to carry half the cost — €42.5 million — for the parade field and to stabilize the decaying stonework of the "Zeppelin" grandstand, which Nuremberg's mayor Ulrich Maly insists is needed to keep the solemn "place of learning" for future generations.

UK - The world could amazingly be running out of sand and the risk of losing the vital construction material has sparked the birth of criminal gangs seeking to stock up on the mineral, an activist has warned. Sand is a crucial material used in construction and the telecommunication industry but experts have warned excessive mining is putting the world on the verge of running out.

USA - Thousands of farmers in the Midwest have been waiting for a very long time for floodwaters to recede so that they can finally plant some crops, but instead more rain just keeps on coming. It is being reported that the Mississippi River has now been at major flood stage for 41 days in a row, and a lot more rain is coming this week. Meteorologists are warning us that major flooding may extend into June, and that means that many farmers will not be able to plant crops at all this year.

USA - In an earlier report, our analysis of federal data showed the number of farmers across the Midwest filing for bankruptcy soared to its highest level in a decade. Now it seems some of those farmers are closing up shop, liquidating machinery and land, all to stem financial pressure, a dozen or so farm-equipment auction houses told Reuters. The farming crisis unravelling in the Midwest has created a monstrous boon for auction houses, which reported that their collective business activity jumped 30% in the past six months, compared to the same period a year earlier. An agricultural recession is around the corner. The most recent farm crisis occurred during the 1980s, and before that, a farm crisis was observed leading up to the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Could the rhythms of history be unfolding before our own very eyes today?

GERMANY - Rebuilding the country’s military would be just the start. When US Vice President Mike Pence declared in a speech marking NATO’s 70th anniversary that “too many” alliance members have failed to increase spending on their militaries, he singled out one by name. “Germany must do more,” he said, adding that “it is simply unacceptable for Europe’s largest economy to neglect its own self-defense and our common defense at such a level.” 

FRANCE - President Macron’s party has been overtaken by Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in the latest poll with just weeks to go until the European elections. Mr Macron has in recent months faced fierce criticism over his handling of the yellow vests movement which sprung up in November in protest over his polices which were seen as favouring the rich. French voters will head to the ballot box on May 26 and the chances of Mr Macron winning their support with his pro-European agenda is shrinking fast. Ms Le Pen is a close ally of Italy’s interior minister Matteo Salvini and Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban.  Mr Macron, 41, is facing a tough challenge from Ms Le Pen, who is urging voters to get behind far-right parties to “change Europe from the inside”. 

TURKEY - Turkey on Sunday dismissed US sanction threats and said it would not renege on a pledge to Moscow to purchase its advanced missile systems. Washington has previously told its NATO ally that Ankara’s adoption of Russian S-400 missile technology alongside US F-35 fighters would endanger Western defence. The S-400 is the latest generation surface-to-air defense system developed by Russia as a rival for America’s own Patriot weaponry, and is considered by NATO countries to pose a threat to their combined air operations. Although the US has already delivered two warplanes under an agreement to sell F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, Congress ordered a delay in future deliveries late last year. Turkey had planned to buy 100 F-35A fighter jets, with pilots already training in the United States.

NORTH KOREA – North Korea has cut food rations to their lowest level ever for this time of year and may be forced to further slash them without international aid, a United Nations report warned Friday. About 10.1 million North Koreans — 40 percent of the population — suffer from severe food shortages following the worst harvest in a decade, according to an assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme. The WFP-FAO team found that the government food distribution system — on which a large portion of the population relies — had been forced to cut rations to 300 grams per person per day since January, down from 380 grams during the same period in 2018. Many families eat very little protein, surviving on a diet of rice and kimchi cabbage most of the year.

USA - Americans are one step closer to seeing genetically modified salmon at their grocery stores. The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that it is lifting an import alert that stopped genetically engineered salmon from entering the US. The salmon, called “Frankenfish” by some, won FDA approval in 2015 — the first approval of a genetically engineered animal intended for food. The FDA, after years of review, had deemed food from the AquaAdvantage Salmon safe to eat in 2015 and said there is no biological difference between these salmon and nongenetically engineered salmon. The FDA will now allow AquaAdvantage Salmon eggs, produced by AquaBounty, to be imported to the company’s land-based facility in Indiana and raised into salmon for food.

USA - Americans are more depressed than almost anyone in the world – and we may have the media to thank. Here’s a conundrum for you. Would it be possible for citizens of the strongest, wealthiest, and freest country in the world to have stress levels higher than those of the most brutally oppressive nations in existence? The next question would be: “How could this be?” After all, America’s capitalist society has produced many benefits for its residents and the rest of the world. What could possibly have Americans so worried? There are many likely culprits, but one of the key contributing factors is the country’s media establishment, which has peddled in fear and outrage since its inception. So, is the media driving Americans insane?

USA - Donald Trump has escalated the trade war with China by announcing plans to hike the tariff imposed on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% on Friday. The US president also threatened to impose tariffs on all Chinese trade with America, a move that could further destabilise relations between the two economic powers. The move is a blow to hopes that Washington and Beijing could be nearing a deal to end the trade dispute that began last year. Currently, almost half of China’s sales to America are affected by tariffs and Trump is now aiming for the remaining $325 billion. Such a move could cause further pain and disruption to the Chinese economy, and probably trigger retaliatory action by Beijing.

UNITED NATIONS - Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon is now claiming the bible as proof to Israel’s fundamental right to all of Palestine. During his speech at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, Danon held up a bible at for all the ambassadors present to see and said, “This is our deed to our land.” Danon is claiming ownership to all of Palestine, which he calls “Eretz Yisrael” at a time when the international community is worried about Netanyahu realizing his recent election promise to annex the occupied West Bank. Such a religious, literally biblical claim, coming from a supposedly secular representative of a supposedly secular democratic state, put forth to a serious political world assembly, may seem bizarre, to say the least. But it is actually not new, nor isolated to the Israeli political right, which Danon belongs to (Likud).

USA - An ounce of gold will cost $10,000 as soon as global currencies crash and central banks have to appeal to a gold-backed monetary system, according to Byron King, editor of Jim Rickards’ Gold Speculator. “If you take the global money supply, back it with 40 percent gold, you need $10,000 gold to make the math work, and that’s just using a 40 percent backing,” he said in an interview with Kitco News on the sidelines of the annual event set by Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC). “And it has to do with the eventual demise of modern currencies.”