USA - Though President Donald Trump’s budget proposal raises military spending, the US Air Force wants more still. USAF has asked Congress for nearly $11 billion in additional funds for F-35 fighter jets, tankers, laser weapons and to modernize older planes. The Air Force’s wish list includes $1.76 billion for 14 more F-35A fighters, made by Lockheed Martin, in addition to the 46 currently covered by the budget proposal. Another $1.3 billion would buy a dozen MC-130J special operations tankers and one additional HC-130J search-and-rescue plane, both based on Lockheed’s C-130 platform.

UK - Consumers should consider going organic because pesticides on foods are far more dangerous than was thought, causing damage to the human brain, a major study suggests. The research, published by the European Parliament, warns of the “very high costs” of current levels of exposure to pesticides - especially for children and pregnant women. The landmark study suggests that the damage caused by pesticides across the EU amounts to at least £125 billion a year, based on the loss of lifetime income from such damage.  

UK - Cathedrals are doing better than churches because they don't "bang on" about God, Sir Simon Jenkins has suggested. “One or two sociologists have explained it, one said if you go to a cathedral now it's anonymous. It's pillar worship, people can't see you reading. No one shakes you by the hand, no one says peace be upon you."

JORDAN - Jordan, a country that has had a formal peace treaty with Israel since 1994, has seen an uptick in anti-Israel hostility. Last month, Jordan condemned the killing of a Jordanian-Palestinian attacker who was filmed stabbing an Israeli policeman multiple times before he was shot, calling it “a heinous crime.”

USA - President Trump is aware of climate change, but will “take care” of it on America’s own terms, US Envoy to the UN Nikki Haley told CNN. In response to Trump’s pullout from the Paris climate accord, the EU is considering economic measures. The Paris deal is “more about other countries gaining financial advantages over the US,” Trump said, adding that his administration aims to negotiate on new, “fair” terms.

MIDDLE EAST - Writing in an encrypted chat room, Islamic State sympathizers and militants hailed Saturday’s deadly attacks in London and typically called for more such carnage throughout Europe and the West. The attack was carried out mere hours after an IS-linked news service had posted a message on Telegram calling for supporters to “gain benefit from Ramadan” and “kill the civilians of the Crusaders. Run over them by vehicles.” IS member Abi Abdullah Almasri (the Egyptian), wrote “...Allah will reward you as long as you run over and stab these infidels in the depths of their countries. Put fear into their eyes, increase your hits, increase your attacks, don’t let them feel secure in their countries.”

MIDDLE EAST - The Gulf has been hit by its biggest diplomatic crisis in years after Arab nations including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of destabilising the region with its support for Islamist groups. The countries said they would halt all land, air and sea traffic with Qatar, eject its diplomats and order Qatari citizens to leave the Gulf states within 14 days. Shoppers in the Qatari capital, Doha, meanwhile packed supermarkets amid fears the country, which relies on imports from its neighbours, would face food shortages after Saudi Arabia closed its sole land border. The small but very wealthy nation, the richest in the world per capita, was also expelled from a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

USA - Once the talk of conspiracy theorists — the rich ingesting the blood of the young to foster longevity — is now a reality and an actual business in the United States. Not only is it a business but billionaires are actually admitting their interest in it. But it’s no longer an experiment with just mice. The startup company by Jesse Karmazin, Ambrosia, is doing this with humans, and the rich are lining up to get the blood of the young. As Vanity Fair reports, Ambrosia, which buys its blood from blood banks, now has about 100 paying customers. Some are Silicon Valley technologists, like Thiel, though Karmazin stressed that tech types aren’t Ambrosia’s only clients and that anyone over 35 is eligible for its transfusions.

USA - Drug overdose deaths in 2016 most likely exceeded 59,000, the largest annual jump ever recorded in the United States, according to preliminary data compiled by The New York Times. The death count is the latest consequence of an escalating public health crisis: opioid addiction, now made more deadly by an influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and similar drugs. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50, and all evidence suggests the problem has continued to worsen in 2017.

USA - I keep hearing from people that think that the stock market is going to crash by the end of the year.  Hopefully that will not happen, but the ridiculous stock prices that we are seeing right now certainly cannot last forever.  On Sunday, I was chatting with a friend that had just been to a financial conference.  He was quite surprised that one of the things being taught to the attendees of this conference was how to position themselves to make an enormous amount of money when the stock market crashes dramatically in the near future. 

USA - The new US ambassador to the United Nations has accused the organisation of being anti-Israel ahead of important visits to Geneva and the Jewish state. Nikki Haley criticised the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for what she believes is a biased approach. In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, she said that "the council must end its practice of wrongly singling out Israel for criticism." "When the council passes more than 70 resolutions against Israel, a country with a strong human rights record, and just seven resolutions against Iran, a country with an abysmal human rights record, you know something is seriously wrong," she wrote. 

EUROPE - The EU is considering taking economic measures in response to President Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate agreement. These could include halting trade talks, forging closer ties with Russia, and imposing heavy carbon taxes on US exports [trade wars].

MIDDLE EAST - The most important strategic development in the Middle East these days isn’t the Trump administration’s decision, which was foreseen, not to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Intelligence services in Israel and the region are now following events along the Syria-Iraq border.

HUNGARY - Hungary's prime minister said Friday that harsh criticism by billionaire George Soros is a "declaration of war." Soros has accused Prime Minister Viktor Orban of running a corrupt "mafia state." Orban alleged that the Hungarian-American investor was paying "agent-like networks" of non-governmental organizations to enforce his policies, including the promotion of migration, in Europe and Hungary. "This is a declaration of war," Orban said on state radio. "We are facing a financial speculator who has made a lot of money while ... plunging many into poverty."

USA - American car snobs love BMWs and Mercedes. US hospitals love German-made medical instruments. US manufacturers depend on German precision tools. They're all big contributors to the huge trade surplus Germany has run up with the United States in recent years, trailing only China and Japan.