UK - Farmers are warning of a food crisis sparked by shortages and spiralling wholesale prices – amid fears rationing could spread beyond cooking oil. Major supermarkets are already limiting how much sunflower oil, which is largely sourced from Ukraine, customers can buy. And other shortages and punishing price rises are being felt in the food chain, with an inevitable knock-on effect on choice and household budgets. Farmers’ leaders warned the Environment Secretary George Eustice about the crisis at emergency talks last week. Shortages and higher prices will affect the shelf prices of everything from bread, pasta and beer to chicken and sausages. National Farmers’ Union leader Minette Batters warned: ‘It is the most serious situation for food production since the Second World War.’

FRANCE - Emmanuel Macron's presidential election victory could see the EU move a step closer to creating a bloc-wide army, with one MEP supporter saying the event marks a "historic opportunity". Express.co.uk explores the incumbent's military ambitions for Europe. Among the topics Mr Macron has hinted at focusing on in recent years is the creation of an EU army. After Brexit, France remains the EU's only major military power.

WALES, UK - Parents are taking legal action against the Welsh Government over plans for compulsory relationship and sex education in schools. The non-party political group Public Child Protection Wales is taking legal action against the government to remove Relationship and Sex Education from the curriculum and to prevent it from being compulsory in schools.

USA - California Governor Gavin Newsom this week claimed he was taking major action to address the drought affecting California and the West. More than 90% of California is in severe drought, up from 65% just one year ago. He said he had created an agreement that was a win-win-win for residents, farmers, and conservationists. In truth, Newsom is starving California of both water and energy. We are in the worst energy crisis in 50 years and yet Newsom is planning to shut down the largest single source of energy in California, Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. Meanwhile, he has failed to build a single new large water project, despite the fact that California voters in 2014 passed a $2.7 billion water bond to pay for them.

USA - Under just three of the emergency bailout programs offered by the Fed to Wall Street, units of the megabank JPMorgan Chase tapped over $6 trillion in cumulative (term-adjusted) loans from September 17, 2019 through the first quarter of 2020. That figure will definitely go higher as the Fed is releasing the names of the banks and the amounts they borrowed on a quarterly basis for its repo loan program. A significant chunk of that money was borrowed at interest rates as low as 0.10 percent. While JPMorgan Chase, which has admitted to five criminal felony counts since 2014, was getting these sweetheart deals from the Fed, it was charging Americans who were struggling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as much as 17 percent on their credit cards.

USA - Evangelical pastor Franklin Graham has blasted Disney for having its morals 'in the gutter' while backing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in his battle with the firm. Writing on Facebook Saturday, the hardline Christian told his 10 million followers he was glad the entertainment firm's power and finances were being pounded after it came out against DeSantis's so-called 'Don't Say Gay' law. Graham said: “What has happened at Disney is moral failure. Walt Disney had a vision for wholesome family entertainment. He was committed to the family. The morals of the corporate leadership of Disney today are in the gutter, and they want to redefine family counter to God’s original design and flaunt sin. LGBTQ activists are using corporations to force their agenda on the public, and companies may want to take another look at what they are allowing to happen. Disney has gone too far.”

USA - Chief advisor of Klaus Schwab and the WEF boasts: Dreams of dictators are now possible. “Dictators always dreamt about eliminating privacy, monitoring everyone, knowing everything you do, think, and feel… It is now possible.” The privacy versus security debate is as old as civilization, historian and writer Yuval Noah Harari said recently at the Athens Democracy Forum, an annual international conference in Greece. “But there is now something new: for the first time in history, it is possible to eliminate privacy completely,” said Harari, chief advisor to the World Economic Forum’s leader, Klaus Schwab. “It was not possible before,” said Harari, “It is now possible. A fundamental change has taken place. Dictators always dreamt about completely eliminating privacy, monitoring everyone all the time, and knowing everything you do, and not just everything you do but everything you think, and everything you feel.” Whether it was a tyrant in ancient Greece or Stalin, they always dreamed of it, but they could never do it because it was technically impossible. Now it’s possible, Harari told New York Times moderator Liz Alderman.

UK - Tech firms are buying up new washing machines so they can harvest their computer parts in a desperate bid to beat the global microchip shortage. Once solely used in PCs and mobile phones, semiconductors are now vital in cars, kitchen appliances, TVs, smart speakers, thermostats, smart light bulbs and even some dog collars. Microchip manufacturers are unable to meet the ever-growing demand – accelerated by families buying more computers and gadgets during lockdown – as it takes two years and billions of pounds to build each factory. When the bosses of big industrial conglomerates are reduced to scavenging like Steptoe & Son to get their hands on vital components, it’s obvious something has gone badly wrong in the global economy. The very idea that global captains of industry are ordering subordinates to dismantle domestic appliances for their semi-conductor chips shows we are in the realms of Alice In Wonderland. We had better get used to it, though. Future historians may look on the shortages and cost of living crisis we are suffering now as an ominous sign of difficult times ahead.

CHINA - International disputes should be resolved through dialogue and not by sanctions, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday, while presenting his country's new Global Security Initiative. Speaking via videolink at the international forum in the province of Hainan amid the ongoing Ukrainian conflict, Xi chose not to comment on other specific international issues, highlighting instead his general vision of a global security framework. “We, humanity, are living in an indivisible security community. It has been proven time and again that the Cold War mentality would only wreck the global peace framework, that hegemonism and power politics would only endanger world peace and that bloc confrontation would only exacerbate security challenges in the 21st century,” Xi said. The Chinese leader called on the international community to remain committed to “peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries through dialogue,” and to “oppose the wanton use of unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction.”

CHINA - The Chinese Communist regime on Thursday published a report titled “Youth of China in the New Era” that claims Chinese young people are head over heels in love with communism and cannot wait for their chance to become the authoritarian leaders of tomorrow. China’s state-run Global Times touted the report as “highlighting the historical achievements the country has made in youth development in the new era, the generation’s amazing vibrancy and passion, and their arduous tasks and responsibilities for national rejuvenation.” According to the report, young people in China have not a single complaint about the policies of their dictatorship, and feel not the slightest twinge of envy for the freedoms enjoyed by their peers in other nations

USA - The bureau said a rise in ransomware attacks targeting farming co-ops could disrupt “the entire food chain”. The top US law enforcement agency has warned of increased cyber attacks on agricultural cooperatives, saying hackers could target large-scale farms and potentially impact the world’s food supply. The FBI’s Cyber Division issued a notice to private industry earlier this week, pointing to a growing number of ransomware attacks on farming co-ops throughout the fall 2021 harvest and the early months of 2022. “Ransomware actors may be more likely to attack agricultural cooperatives during critical planting and harvest seasons, disrupting operations, causing financial loss, and negatively impacting the food supply chain,” it said, adding that such breaches could affect the planting season “by disrupting the supply of seeds and fertilizer.” Ransomware is a form of malicious software used to encrypt and block access to a victim’s data until a ‘ransom’ is paid to the attackers, who often threaten to publish or destroy files if no payment is made.

CHINA - Chinese state media announced on Wednesday that coal production will increase by a whopping 300 million tons in 2022 to “ensure energy supplies,” making a mockery of Beijing’s breezy promises to climate change activists. The Chinese Communist government enjoys lecturing the rest of the world about climate change and signing high-profile global warming treaties with gullible and opportunistic Western leaders like President Joe Biden, but when the rubber hits the road, China’s steely-eyed rulers will do whatever it takes to keep their factories humming. If that means burning epic amounts of high-pollution coal, both within China’s borders and across its Third World interests, then so be it. China was already digging, importing, and burning record amounts of coal last year, and its consumption will only increase for the foreseeable future, no matter what Chinese envoys say at climate conferences.

UK - Fruit and vegetables sold in the UK now contain half the amount of some key nutrients as they did in 1940, a major study reveals. Depleted levels of iron, magnesium, sodium and copper mean Britons are at increased risk of malnutrition, experts warn. A greater reliance on imported produce and a shift to industrial agriculture and higher-yielding varieties may be to blame.

ISRAEL - Israel Police have informed the Temple Mount Administration that the Temple Mount will be closed to Jewish visitors "until further notice" due to clashes between Arabs and Israeli security forces in recent days, the administration reported on Saturday night. The administration added that Jewish prayers will be held at the gates of the Temple Mount and next to the Western, Southern, Eastern and Northern Walls of the Temple Mount. A record 4,625 Jewish visitors entered the Temple Mount during the Passover holiday. Earlier this week, authorities had stated that the Temple Mount would be closed to Jewish visitors until the end of Ramadan. Violent clashes have broken out between Arabs and Israeli security forces at the Temple Mount and al-Aqsa Mosque in recent days, as Muslims celebrated Ramadan and Jews celebrated Passover.

SAUDI ARABIA - Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia – which go back to 1945 – have never been this bad, according to a report published on Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal. Insiders in Washington and Riyadh blamed the situation on a personal rift between US President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Both the White House and the Kingdom have officially denied any trouble, however. Saudi Arabia led the 1973 oil embargo against the US, citing Washington’s support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War. It resulted in the worst US economic crisis since the Great Depression. Yet relations between Washington and Riyadh have never been as difficult as they are now, according to Norman Roule, whom the WSJ described as a former senior US intelligence official in the Middle East who maintains ties to senior Saudi officials. The Saudis ware “dismayed” at the US withdrawal from Afghanistan last August, disapprove of efforts to revive the nuclear deal with Iran, and “bristle” at Washington’s presumption that they will fall in lockstep with whatever the US decides, according to the WSJ.