GERMANY - Chancellor Angela Merkel made a forceful pitch for Europe to play a more assertive role in global affairs as US President Donald Trump dismantles the post-World War II order, setting the stage for a potential tense standoff at the Group of Seven summit this week. The German leader again questioned the durability of trans-Atlantic relations by referring to eye-raising comments she made over a year ago in which she said that “the times when we could fully rely on others are to some extent over.”

ITALY - Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, will take part in the Bilderberg Conference, an annual private gathering of global political, business and media leaders, taking place this year in Turin, Italy, June 7-10.

ITALY - Why is the Bilderberg meeting so controversial? Well, for one thing, the meetings are notoriously secretive. Almost no information is available to the public; no minutes are taken and no report is written up after the fact. Meetings are held under the Chatham House Rule, which means that attendees can discuss the meeting and information gleaned from the meeting, but they cannot identify any of the speakers. The meetings are regularly picketed by protesters, and many critics of the event liken the gathering to a shadow world government of sorts – where powerful people go to dictate how the rest of the world lives. Conspiracy theorists are convinced that the meetings are used to discuss the creation of a one-world government and a ‘New World Order,’ away from the prying eyes of the plebeians and unwashed masses.

USA - By a very wide margin, this is the most optimistic that Americans have been about the future since I started The Economic Collapse Blog in late 2009.  Even though the middle class is shrinking, 102 million working age Americans do not have a job, and we are now 21 trillion dollars in debt, most people are feeling really good about things right now. 

RUSSIA - Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert look into whether the United States has entered the vicious ‘Medici cycle’, where money is used to get political power and political power is used to make money. Max and Stacy refer to the work of finance professor at the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business, Luigi Zingales. The economist in his work recollects Italy of 13th to 16th century, where rich and powerful families ran the city-states with their own commercial interests as the main objective. Modern America can be compared to the example in Zingales’ work, according to Keiser and Herbert, and may face the same downfall as the House of Medici.

EUROPE - Even when it was clearly in decline, the Soviet Union commanded loyal devotion. Its admirers could never quite grasp that the nation instrumental in winning the second world war had a broken economy. The same cognitive dissonance applies to the European Union today. There is the EU as it exists in the minds of its most avid supporters: fast-growing, a defender of progressive values, fighting the good fight against Thatcherism, and marching steadfastly towards greater integration.

USA - The administration of Delaware Governor John Carney, a Democrat, has reversed a prior policy proposal that would have allowed children to identify as transgender at school without notifying their parents or obtaining their permission. Delaware education secretary Susan Bunting reversed course after reviewing some 11,000 comments, the majority opposed to the original provision that was termed an “anti-discrimination” policy. Bunting’s office said the new version of the policy: Removes the provision that allowed students to make changes on how they were identified without parental involvement and adds a requirement of parental notification and permission; and substitutes the state’s suggested model policy for a guidance document to assist districts and charters in creating local policies.

USA - The US military sent two nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to fly over the disputed Spratly Islands amid tensions with Beijing. The “routine” mission occurred days after a Pentagon chief said “America is to stay” in the Indo-Pacific.

EUROPE - Bilderberg globalists are concerned about the populist uprising sweeping Europe. The annual elitist confab is set to meet this week in Turin, an appropriate venue given that Italy has just elected an anti-mass migration, eurosceptic coalition government.

EUROPE - The US is force-feeding Europe its liquefied natural gas, which is three times more expensive than buying it from Russia, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said after signing a gas-supply contract with Moscow until 2040. While US politicians are accusing Europe of being dependent on Russian gas, they forget that "American liquefied gas is two or three times more expensive than Russian gas. Under such circumstances, it makes little sense in purely economic terms to replace Russian gas with American LNG,” Van der Bellen said at a press conference after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vienna on Tuesday. OMV and Gazprom are now implementing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which seeks to double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream. The project has faced opposition from the US, which is seeking to ramp up LNG exports to Europe.

EUROPE - Angela Merkel on Sunday gave German support to French proposals for a joint European military “intervention force” that will take action in trouble spots around the world. Britain has already backed the planned force, which will operate independently of the European Union, despite misgivings that it could be seen as a “European army”. The force is a key element of Emmanuel Macron’s proposals to reform European defence and integrate the continent’s many militaries more closely together. The new intervention force has been touted as an opportunity to involve Britain in European defence cooperation after Brexit.

UK - Parents who barely know how to be parents are raising kids who can barely function. Cut off from their extended families, many parents have no sources of inspiration or knowledge. Step into a classroom of pre-schoolers and you will find, along with pastel drawings of Peppa Pig and daisy chains, four-year-olds who can’t speak intelligibly, or dress themselves, or who are toilet trained. These “unlucky” children, according to Amanda Spielman, head of Ofsted, have been raised in a “family culture” that failed to prepare them for nursery – and life. Ms Spielman is right to raise the alarm. A child’s early years matter. Without the right mixture of stimulus and nurturing – what scientists call neurotransmission and we used to call parenting – children won’t develop...

USA - Toxins have been found in tap water in Salem, Oregon, resulting in the declaration of a state of emergency by Oregon Governor Kate Brown. The declaration includes the capital city of Salem, as well as the towns of Turner and Stayton. The National Guard is expected to deliver water to residents using 10 water stations supplied by 2,000-gallon tankers. Toxic algae blooms have been plauging the Pacific Northwest… Officials said the water is harmless to shower in or wash dishes and laundry with, but stressed that drinking the water could cause symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea and even kidney and liver damage. Experts have warned that the water cannot be treated — filters, boiling, and other methods will not eliminate the troublesome cyanotoxins.

USA - The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday in favour of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The verdict was a limited decision, that leaves for another day the larger issue of whether a business can invoke religious objections to refuse service to gay and lesbian people. The justices' decision turned on what the court described as anti-religious bias on the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The Colorado commission ruled against baker Jack Phillips. The justices voted 7-2 on Monday that the commission violated Mr Phillips' rights under the First Amendment.

GERMANY - German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG said Monday that it plans to complete its purchase of US seed and weed-killer maker Monsanto Co this week after receiving all the required approvals from regulators. Bayer said in a statement that it plans to complete the acquisition on Thursday. The deal will cost some $63 billion including debt. Bayer will become Monsanto's sole shareholder Thursday. Bayer said that, following the takeover, "Monsanto will no longer be a company name." "The acquired products will retain their brand names and become part of the Bayer portfolio," it added.