CANADA - When does a feud become a separation? A separation a divorce? When do arguments, sharp-tongued put-downs and perceived betrayal among allies become the collapse of the Western-dominated order that has ruled the world, under US leadership, for the past seven decades? As each day brings a new series of punches and counterpunches between President Donald Trump and longtime US partners, the question appears to be moving beyond the realm of the academic.
EUROPE - US President Donald Trump proposed the complete elimination of all barriers to international trade at a Group of Seven summit, a move that turns the tables on allies who accuse the US of wielding protectionist policies. “No tariffs, no barriers, that’s the way it should be, and no subsidies,” Trump said during a 30-minute press conference on the sidelines of the meeting in La Malbaie, Quebec. "I did suggest it and people were - I guess they’re going to go back to the drawing board and check it out." White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow, who was invited by Trump to speak from the same podium, described the comments as Trump’s "free trade proclamation.”
CHINA - Chinese President Xi Jinping has cleared out half a city in preparation for a summit between Russia, Iran and other allies to discuss tensions with the US - while Trump and leaders of the West attended G7 in Canada. Armoured vans lined the streets of the coastal city of Qingdao today as world leaders arrived for the 18th annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
FRANCE - If Donald Trump doesn't care about "being isolated," then G7 may be better being G6, says Emmanuel Macron. The French president slammed US counterpart for "unproductive" tariffs and preventing other nations from dealing with Iran. When reporters asked Macron on Thursday if the problem with Trump was that he “didn’t care” about being isolated, Macron struck a hostile tone, reminding the media that no president “is forever.” "The six countries of the G7 without the United States, are a bigger market taken together than the American market,” Macron said, standing alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. "Maybe the American president doesn't care about being isolated today, but we don't mind being six, if needs be.”
ITALY - In response to NATO’s warning that Rome better leave sanctions on Russia as they are, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said the new government will not take orders from others and will keep moving closer to Russia. Di Maio, who is the new Minister of Economic Development and joint Deputy PM - a post shared with Matteo Salvini - in the country’s new Euroskeptic government, said on Thursday that his administration “will not be spineless and yielding to the will of other states” and had no intention to conduct the “yes sir” diplomacy. The new coalition government has been showing resistance to other Western countries’ attitudes towards Moscow. On Wednesday it came under NATO’s fire following Conte’s speech where he addressed the aching need to move closer to Russia and lift sanctions which are damaging the Italian economy.
USA - In a warren of low-ceilinged rooms on the ground floor of the West Wing, down the stairs from the Oval Office and next to the Situation Room, Donald Trump’s lawyers are waging war. They’re locked in battle with Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, who has indicted 19 people over the past 13 months, five of whom have pleaded guilty. Now he is homing in on the investigation’s most powerful subject: the President, whom Mueller wants to testify under oath about what he knows.
USA - As the global war on cash continues to accelerate, outspoken libertarian Ron Paul summarizes the effort to eliminate cash perfectly - as an “attack on individual freedom.” Restricting and discouraging the use of cash, suggests Paul, has always been a goal of statists as a means to reduce individuals’ independence. “A cashless society is very, very dangerous,” continues Paul.
SOUTH AFRICA - “Land must be taken forcefully”, says Andile Lungisa Eastern Cape ANC councillor. He was addressing former President Jacob Zuma's supporters outside the High Court in Durban on Friday. "Land is not going to come through the amendment of the Constitution, the land was taken through wars and land won’t come peacefully, we must take land by force without asking for any permission in this country," he said. Members of Parliament have resolved that the Constitutional Review Committee review Section 25 of the Constitution and other clauses, where necessary, to cater sufficiently for the principle of land expropriation without compensation. The Committee was asked to report back to Parliament by August 30, 2018.
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.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.
“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”
The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!
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