USA - Technology stocks are having a bumper year. Despite a recent wobble, the share price of the Big Five — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft — has jumped by 60% since January, when measured in an equally weighted basket. The price of shares in one big chipmaker, Nvidia, has tripled and in another, Amd, almost doubled. Their price-to-earnings ratios (which measures how much the markets think a company is worth relative to its profits) are ten times that of the median firm in the S&P 500.

USA - A train carrying potentially hazardous materials has derailed in the US State of Montana, with several cars ending up in the water, authorities said on Saturday. Montana Rail Link, the company operating the train, said there were no injuries. In a statement on Facebook, Stillwater County’s Disaster and Emergency Services Department (DES) said the incident occurred at about 6am local time on a bridge over the Yellowstone River, which collapsed. In total, three cars containing hot asphalt and four cars carrying molten sulfur crashed into the water, it added. The department said the cause of the incident remains unclear, and declined to speculate on whether the bridge collapse had led to the derailment, or vice versa.

UK - Cleanup operations have begun at Glastonbury after crowds left a sea of rubbish in front of the main pyramid stage and camping fields. Pictures taken this morning of the site showed a sea of rubbish, plastic bags, tents - and laughing gas canisters - left by festival-goers after five days of partying. Hundreds of litter-pickers have already cleared the pyramid stage area inch-by-inch - creating an amazing contrast to pictures taken just hours before. Event co-organiser Emily Eavis revealed the cleanup operation can cost as much as £500,000 to restore the site to its original state each year. It is estimated that over 2,000 tonnes of waste - nearly 10kg per visitor - is left behind at each festival every year.

WALES - The Welsh Government has announced plans for a new law to ban certain foods from meal deals in a bid to tackle obesity. The new legislation is set to be introduced in the Senedd next year and is expected to become law in 2025. The legislation will also prevent certain foods from being placed in certain parts of a supermarket, like at the end of aisles, near checkouts and in aisle bins. Part of the plans, which include preventing 3 for 2 and buy-one-get-one-free (BOGOF) deals on some foods, will align with plans in England, however Wales will take things further in relation to meal deals and preventing temporary price reductions in certain foods. Over 60% of adults in Wales are above a healthy weight and over a quarter of children are overweight or obese by the time they start school. The hope is that by preventing and reducing obesity it will help reduce the levels of type 2 diabetes, various types of cancer and other conditions such as cardiovascular (heart) disease in Wales.

RUSSIA - Humiliated Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is starting a life in exile in Belarus this morning after he sensationally abandoned his group's march on Moscow at the 11th hour just 120 miles from the capital. The mercenaries aborted their dramatic 'armed mutiny' against the Kremlin following crisis talks between Prigozhin and Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Charges of rebellion have now been dropped against Prigozhin, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also announcing that no Wagner mercenary will be prosecuted for the insurrection, which saw the group take the city of Rostov and march on the Russian capital in a whirlwind 24-hour advance. The extraordinary episode has weakened Vladimir Putin's position, according to experts, and all eyes will now be on the Russian supremo to see what he does next.

USA - Drag queens and LGBTQ activists marched through a Manhattan park on Friday as part of a weekend of Pride celebrations, with a chant of: 'We're here, we're queer and we're coming for your children.' One topless woman was seen dancing and making the chant, as others laughed and joined in. Video of the incident sparked widespread revulsion online. 'This movement grooms minors to have mastectomies and castration and fuels a multi billion dollar medical child abuse industry,' tweeted Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican congresswoman for Georiga. 'They are not even hiding their intentions anymore now they are saying it out loud,' she said. And podcast host Graham Allen tweeted: 'This is what EVIL looks like….'

USA - If you look at the latest map from the US Drought Monitor, you will see that almost all of America’s heartland is now in some state of drought. Much of Kansas is dealing with either “severe” or “exceptional” drought, and in previous articles I have written about how this will impact the winter wheat harvest. But now areas that grow most of our corn and most of our soy are also getting absolutely hammered by drought. If this drought in America’s breadbasket continues through the summer, we are going to have a very serious problem on our hands. Big trouble is brewing, and most Americans have no idea that this is happening. The bad harvests that we had last year have already pushed food prices to ridiculous levels, and now it appears that the price of corn could be headed a lot higher…

UK - Teachers and parents have been warned not to ridicule or over-react to schoolkids identifying as Furries – people with an active interest in animal characters with human characteristics. A Government-backed safe­guarding group says children dressing up in furry costumes need to “feel comfortable expressing themselves”. Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Common Sense Group of Tory MPs, said: “This idea that we can all choose to be anything we want to be — so I can choose to be a giant, or you can choose to be a flying creature — is preposterous nonsense. Do we really need guidance on this? I dressed up — as a little boy — in various costumes and so did my children. Role play is an important part of children’s learning. But it is exactly that, role play. It’s not about their fundamental identity.”

GERMANY - High-ranking representatives of the state, the government and the Bundeswehr (armed forces) were given a platform in Nuremberg to oppose prevailing anti-war sentiment and to convince the population to embrace the official course of war. The organizers had already taken care of this in advance. The theologian Margot Kässmann, who was previously the figurehead of the Christian peace movement, cancelled her participation after her proposals were rejected. In her place, the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Carsten Breuer, was invited as a speaker. This was in itself a clear statement, which was underlined by the appearance of the “highest-ranking soldier” in a highly decorated uniform with the green-yellow Church Assembly scarf around his shoulders.

NEW ZEALAND - In a place not far from Australia – over the ditch we call it – New Zealand Christians are, like the rest of the Western world, coming to grips with the fact that one may lose their livelihood simply by refusing to use someone’s preferred name and pronouns. The latest case involves an unnamed man (it was redacted in the disciplinary findings) who we will refer to as Mr Teacher. According to the background of the case, between February 2021 and 14 May 2021, Mr Teacher “failed to respect the identity of a learner by refusing to call a learner by their preferred name and pronouns.”

USA – The sexologist who came up with “cis” also claimed “there is nothing wrong with paedophilia!" The more details you read about the creator of “cisgender,” the easier it is to see just how depraved their movement really is. Meet Volkmar Sigusch, the first man to publicly use the term cisgender. He was a sociologist, sexologist, and pedosexual. He advocated that children could be introduced to sex and even supported a Berlin experiment where foster children were intentionally placed in homes with pedophiles. This term is meant to eradicate the construct of male and female and instead create a class of cisgender and transgender. I am not cisgender. I am a man. If that bothers people, then they have an issue with natural biology.

NORTH KOREA - Though quietly and behind closed doors, North Koreans are turning against their Supreme Leader King Jong-un in what could see the country crumble. Kim Jong-un facing revolt as North Koreans call for US to attack their country.

USA - Banks create money out of thin air — what could possibly go wrong? You might rightfully wonder: How can a bank, like the neighborhood bank down the street, “create money out of thin air”? To answer that question, we must enter the magical kingdom of “fractional-reserve banking,” where deposits are turned into loans, loans are turned into money, and so on. For every old dollar that goes in, nine new dollars come out, created with the stroke of a pen or the click of a mouse. As you may be aware, general deposits are loans by the bank depositor to the bank. However, banks can spin new loans out of old loans, creating a wheel of fortune by lending the same dollar to nine different customers — a feat that, to the uninitiated, is equally quite amazing and frightening!

USA - I want you to imagine, for a moment, a future world in which everything we now know about functioning and surviving within the economy is completely upended. This world has gone fully digital, meaning people live within a cashless society where physical monetary interactions are abandoned or prohibited, replaced by CBDCs. All transactions are tracked and traced, nothing is private any longer unless you are operating as a criminal within a black market.

USA - Happening Now: the Michigan democrat legislature is pushing through a bill that will make “hate speech” a hate crime punishable by $10,000 and up to 5 years in prison. Under this law something as simple as a preacher speaking their beliefs or parents attending a school board meeting and stating opposition [is regarded] as a hate crime. This new law would open the door for the Democrat AG to prosecute anyone she believes is offensive to her beliefs. What happened to the 1st amendment?