SWITZERLAND - The US and China have agreed a breakthrough temporary cut to the tariffs they impose on each other's exports. Speaking in Geneva, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said both countries would slash their reciprocal tariffs by 115 per cent for 90 days. Bessent told reporters that 'both sides showed great respect' during their talks, and that 'we both have an interest in balanced trade'. Trump had imposed a staggering 145 per cent tariff on Chinese imports, while Beijing retaliated with a 125 per cent levy on some US products.

USA - Global Debt jumps to an all-time high of $324 Trillion. This won’t ever be paid back. It’s nothing but a giant Ponzi scheme at this point. The US dollar has lost 99% of its purchasing power since 1971. 80% of all dollars in circulation have been printed in the last 5 years. We’re being robbed by government.

INDIA - King Hezekiah of Judah would know exactly what India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, is up to. Some 2,700 years ago, Hezekiah’s people were at war with the Assyrians. So he issued an order. The fountains were to be stopped. The brooks were to be dammed. Nothing was to flow beyond the land they held. He asked: “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?” [II Chronicles 32:3-4.] Why indeed.

USA - Airlines are taking steps to ensure that they can keep flying even after the outbreak of a nuclear war. Jets could continue to fly following an atomic blast under special insurance policies being drawn up to address the possibility of conflicts escalating in Ukraine and Kashmir. Current policies that date back to the 1950s would force the grounding of all civil aircraft worldwide in the event of a single nuclear detonation, based on the assumption that this would lead to the outbreak of a third world war. However, with the deployment of nuclear weapons now regarded as more likely to involve so-called tactical warheads used in a limited role on the battlefield, the insurance industry has developed plans to allow flights to continue in regions removed from conflict zones.

GERMANY - Germany’s domestic intelligence agency designated the AfD, which just topped a recent poll as the country’s most popular party, as “extremist” before withdrawing it pending litigation. This label would legitimize surveillance of them and can set the pretext for banning them. Vice President JD Vance condemned this earlier move as equivalent to building a new Berlin Wall while Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Germany to reverse its decision and also end its “dangerous open border immigration policies”.

USA - Cultural and civil decline is a choice, and it appears to be one the Left has embraced with open arms. Instead of holding criminals accountable, and enforcing social mores and norms, the Left decided 'restorative justice' and defunding the police was the way to go. Now, we not only have offenders with rap sheets a mile long getting out of prison for even violent crime, we have unruly crowds of teens and young adults running amok. It's so bad that one Virginia McDonald's has enacted a policy: only those 21 and older may dine in the establishment.

RUSSIA - The West is woefully unprepared for the threats from Russia and China. Xi Jinping’s arrival in Moscow, to commemorate Russia’s VE day, on May 9, (a day after Europe, the UK and the US), wasn’t just a formality. It was a very public and deliberate show of support from Russia’s closest ally. We already know that China is a critical part of the “axis of totalitarian states”, made up of China, North Korea, Russia and Iran. The countries in this group, prompted by China, have delivered a great deal of support to Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. This includes a significant number of drones from Iran in the early stages of the war, and now weapons and ammunition from North Korea.

EUROPE - At the Munich Leaders’ Meeting in Washington DC this week, vice-president JD Vance put his finger on a major cause of Europe’s recent decline. “One of the things that the Germans were very good about,” he declared, “is that they had kept the industrial strength of their economy consistent with the first world standard of living. But now what we see in Europe is a lot of our European friends are de-industrialising.” Hard power, he continued, requires strong industry.

UK - The contrast could hardly have been more stark. While President Trump was flanked in the Oval Office by the British ambassador to Washington, Lord Mandelson, and chatting happily to Sir Keir Starmer over the phone, officials in Brussels were finalising $100 billion of retaliatory tariffs against the US. The trade deal agreed today between the UK and the US may not prove as transformational for the UK as the British Government will claim. But one point is certain. It puts a dagger at the heart of the European project – because it’s further proof to EU countries that they may well be economically better off outside the bloc.

MIDDLE EAST - Senior adviser and assistant to the president Steve Witkoff told Breitbart News that any reports of a rift between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are fake news and “preposterous.” "Israel is a great partner for the United States, strategically, economically, we think very much alike, we have very similar objectives. They don’t want to see a weaponized nuclear state in the state of Iran. We have a deal on the table that Hamas could have taken six weeks ago. I’ve discussed this with the Israelis at length and the other stakeholders in this process. Hamas should say yes to it. It is a path to a peaceful dialogue and maybe even a peaceful, long-term, durable solution to this. But Hamas is going to have to demilitarize, and they’re going to have to quickly get to the terms we’ve set forth and we hope that they do. They need — I have stated this publicly — they need to show us a sign they are prepared to act in a positive and proactive way that is better for the people of Gaza and that leads to a long-term durable peace. If they do that, I think they’ll get a good positive response from this country and if they don’t they won’t.”

UK - Reciprocal relief over a UK-US trade deal has boosted markets and allayed anxieties on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet, many voices in the United Kingdom are skeptical of US agricultural products, especially beef. There are numerous reasons why the British eschew US hamburgers. The chief opposition is not against trade competition but an aversion to the American use of growth hormones, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), GMO feeds, and antibiotics to raise US cattle – all banned in the UK.

USA - Celgene’s cancer drug pricing has sparked outrage, with patients paying $1,000 per pill for a medication THAT COSTS JUST 25 CENTS TO PRODUCE. The drug in question, Revlimid, is a derivative of Thalidomide, a compound infamous for causing severe birth defects in the 1950s and 1960s. Despite its dark history, Thalidomide was repurposed as a treatment for multiple myeloma, a deadly blood cancer. While Revlimid has extended thousands of lives, its staggering price tag has placed it out of reach for many patients. The numbers tell a troubling story. Revlimid has generated over $100 billion in total sales, making it one of the most profitable drugs in history. Patients who rely on the drug often face financial ruin, forced into debt or left with no choice but to stop treatment.

VATICAN - The newly elected pontiff cautioned against simplistic portrayals of Jesus in his first homily and spoke about the increased preference for ‘power’ and ‘money’. Pope Leo XIV used his first homily to warn against reducing Jesus to “a kind of charismatic leader or superman”, in an apparent message to evangelical Christians as he celebrated Mass in the Sistine Chapel. Having addressed the crowd in St Peter’s Square in Italian and Spanish he turned to his native English to address the cardinals who elected him: “I know I can rely on each and everyone of you to walk with me as we continue as a Church, as a community of friends of Jesus, as believers to announce the good news, to announce the gospel.”

USA - Donald Trump has branded it the “big beautiful bill” that will save millions of jobs and boost Americans’ take-home pay by up to $5,000 (£3,700) a year. However, while recent focus has been on the market ructions caused by the trade war, the US president’s package of sweeping tax cuts will arguably be a bigger test of investors’ faith in the world’s biggest economy. Congress remains deeply divided over not only the scale of tax cuts, but also how they will be funded. And bond investors are watching every twist and turn closely.

CHINA - President Trump’s tariff policy works. But if you’re waiting for the fake news media to explain, don’t hold your breath. As the market rebounds in America from the Left’s attempted takedown of President Trump on tariffs, 40 Chinese banks disappeared in a single week. That’s not just a financial hiccup — it’s a full-blown coronary. The Economist reported that 36 of these vanished banks were absorbed by Liaoning Rural Commercial Bank, a move that’s less about economic strategy and more about sweeping problems under the rug. China’s preferred method of handling struggling banks is to “absorb” them — a sanitized way of saying, “Erase the evidence and hope no one notices.” Still, according to reports, 3,800 financial institutions now teeter on the edge, representing 13% of China’s banking system and holding a jaw-dropping 55 trillion yuan ($7.5 trillion) in assets. That crack may be too wide to patch.