ISRAEL - Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid has reportedly warned that his country’s relations with the US have deteriorated so much under the leadership of his successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, that Washington is “no longer our closest ally.” Lapid made the comments on Monday at a faction meeting of his Yesh Atid opposition party, according to the Times of Israel. He argued that Netanyahu’s government is destroying the alliance with the US by trying to pass controversial judicial reforms.

USA - A massive swarm of grasshoppers has invaded Tooele, Utah, causing significant damage to crops. The plague-like surge was captured by weather radar systems of the National Weather Service on the evening of June 21 as it headed northeast toward the Great Salt Lake. Farmers in the region have been left devastated as the grasshoppers devoured their crops, leaving behind barren fields. Michael Dow, a rancher in Tooele, shared his dismay. “Every bit of alfalfa that’s in my fields is gone. It was bare dirt within a matter of hours,” he said. Reports of insect-related troubles have been emerging from the area over the past few weeks.

RUSSIA - The Russian government is pushing to ban sex change operations as well as gender changes on identity cards in an effort to promote ‘traditional values’ across Russian society. The legislation is set for a second reading of three on Thursday, having obtained initial approval in the lower house of parliament last month. Only surgical operations to treat intersex “congenital physiological anomalies” among children will be permitted, provided approval is obtained from special medical commissions or public health care institutions. “We are preserving Russia for posterity, with its cultural and family values, traditional foundations, and putting up a barrier to the penetration of Western anti-family ideology,” announced deputy chairman of the lower house, Pyotr Tolstoy, after the approval of the first reading. This is the latest move by the Russian government targeting LGBT activism, which “Putin seeks to portray as evidence of moral decay in Western countries,” reports Reuters.

CANADA - Prepare for another round of toxic smoke. BC is burning up! This is the worst year for fires on record for the province of BC. It has been very dry and the winds are expected to pick up late this week. Eastern Canada and the US could soon be blanketed in smoke again. The situation is dire! British Columbia is in the midst of one of its worst wildfire seasons ever. Currently, there are 374 fires burning across the province, including 22 wildfires of note. A wildfire of note means it is highly visible or poses a threat to communities and residents. At a recent press conference, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Bowinn Ma said 1,034 fires have burned more than 1.2 million hectares of land since April 1.

UNITED NATIONS - With talks of G20 finance ministers in India stalling on the subject of debt relief, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has raised the alarm about the plight of developing countries. This follows last week’s UN report about the catastrophic levels of public debt affecting almost half the globe. G20 representatives met on Monday in Gandhinagar, Gujarat but made little to no progress in discussions about restructuring the debt held by developing nations, AP reported.

GERMANY - The AfD, which is currently polling in second ahead of the next EU elections, has made a big anti-EU move which will worry Brussels. Germany’s second most popular party, the Alternative for Germany, is pushing to make the ‘controlled dissolution of the EU’ one of its key manifesto policies at the upcoming European elections. Voters across the bloc will head for the polls next June, for what could be an historic EU election that sees a “historic realignment”. Germany’s AfD has now called for a “controlled dissolution” of the “overbearing EU”. Co-leader of the party, Tino Chrupalla, said: “We’re demanding a reset for Europe so that we can use the potential of nation-states and rebuild the bridge to the east”.

NATO - In case you hadn’t heard, there was a big NATO summit this week. Each year, NATO holds a summit in rotating cities across the alliance to bring together its leaders, and each year NATO tends to market these summits as “the most important one yet.” But this year may have actually really been the most important one yet.

CHINA - NATO is “the real troublemaker” that has fully embraced “Cold War thinking and ideological prejudice,” China’s permanent representative to the UN has claimed. In a statement on Thursday, Zhang Jun hit back at a communique issued by NATO members at the Vilnius summit earlier this week, which accused China of pursuing “coercive policies” that challenge the bloc’s interests. It also claimed that Beijing uses a wide array of tools to increase its global footprint and undermine the security of NATO members.

ISRAEL - Hundreds of visitors flocked to Shiloh in Samaria’s Binyamin region on Thursday to welcome a biblically pure red heifer. The 22-month-old cow, which was brought to Israel from the United States, found a new home at the Ancient Shiloh heritage site, where the biblical Tabernacle once stood. In the coming month, two more heifers will be transported to the town, and a center will open there dedicated to researching the phenomenon. The heifers will be kept in a fenced-off area, and visitors will not be able to touch the animals.

USA - Redoubling financial backing for Ukraine in its war with Russia is the “single best” way to aid the global economy, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday. She added boosting emerging economies and tackling debt distress also have their role to play alongside sending billions in taxpayer dollars to Kyiv. AFP reports Yellen used the sidelines of a G20 finance ministers’ summit in India to reveal she would “push back” on criticism there was a tradeoff between aid to Ukraine and developing nations.

USA - The recent report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes referred to as the nation’s report card, is a devastating assessment of the condition of our nation’s schools. In short, there has been virtually no educational progress with our nation’s children in more than 30 years – and urban districts are the worst performers. The report ranked the Detroit Public Schools as the worst performing of all 26 large city districts, with just 5 percent of their eighth-grade students rated proficient in reading and only 3 percent in math. What is surprising is the Detroit Public Schools Community District rated 99 percent of Detroit’s teachers as “highly effective” or “effective,” the two highest ratings given to teachers. An added conundrum is that Detroit public high schools received an “F” on student proficiency and yet received an “A” on graduation rates.

AFRICA - The prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa (HoA) left 23.4 million people acutely food insecure and 5.1 million children acutely malnourished. An estimated 2.7 million people have been displaced by the drought. The drought affected livestock body conditions and decimated herds, which, in turn curbed livestock production. Successive below-average harvests, coupled with high production and transport costs, reduced local agricultural produce. All this led to food price spikes that still persist, which reduced household purchasing power and access to nutrient-rich foods.

EUROPE - Across the continent, millions of citizens are shifting their allegiance towards populist Right-wing parties. The dramatic development will transform the EU if the swelling wave of populist sentiment translates into political power at the bloc’s parliamentary elections next year. In a backlash against open borders and net-zero diktats, the EU’s traditional social democrats, green ideologues and Left-wingers are losing their appeal at the ballot box. The rebellion has been growing — and the dominoes continue to fall. Right-wingers have gained power in Sweden, then in Italy, Finland and Greece.

USA - Inflation is going down! Isn’t that wonderful? When many less educated Americans hear this news, they will think that prices are going down. But that is not true at all. In fact, prices are still going up. They are just going up at a slower rate than they were before. According to the federal government, the Consumer Price Index was only 3 percent higher in June 2023 than it was in June 2022. That sounds like pretty good news, but it is imperative to realize that the formula used for the Consumer Price Index has literally been changed dozens of times over the decades. If the rate of inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, it would still be well into the double digits.

VATICAN - The appointment of Fernández has once again shown Francis’ willingness to shake things up in the Church. The new head of the doctrine office is someone in the Pope’s image: mission-oriented, willing to take risks, preferring dialogue over condemnation and with a tendency to do things in such a way that no one remains indifferent.