ISRAEL - Hamas commanders and Palestinians who launch incendiary kites against Israel from the Gaza Strip should be dealt with using targeted killings, said Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan on Tuesday, as fires continued to spread in the south as a result of the burning projectiles. As for other threats from the Gaza Strip, Erdan said: “Today there are other threats: Tunnels, rockets – every time they find a new weapon to try to hurt us. Our enemies are trying to damage the civilian resilience because they know they cannot harm the IDF, but they won’t succeed at this either,” he added.  On Monday, Haaretz reported that Israeli military officials believe they will no longer be able to show restraint in the face of burning kites launched from the Gaza Strip, which have caused extensive damage to Israeli agricultural fields and forests near the border.

AUSTRIA - It’s time to respond to US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs and lift EU sanctions against Russia, Austrian Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache said ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Vienna. Rethinking EU sanctions policy towards Russia is “desirable” because the measures are damaging the national economy, Strache told the Austrian newspaper Osterreich in an interview published on Saturday. “I have always warned against pushing Russia into the arms of China. It is high time to put an end to these annoying sanctions and normalize political and economic relations with Russia,” he said.

GERMANY - One of the leaders of Germany's far-right AfD party sparked outrage Saturday by downplaying the crimes of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, saying they were "just a speck of bird s**t in over 1,000 years of successful German history." The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the biggest opposition party in Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, with more than 90 deputies.

USA - A perfect storm of murder, addiction and carelessness has fueled a recent and troubling increase in deaths among US children and teens, a new government report shows. The total death rate for those aged 10 to 19 rose 12 percent between 2013 and 2016, mostly due to an increase in deaths from accidental injury, homicide and suicide, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. In short, the United States is becoming less safe for teenagers. The primary causes of injury deaths were motor vehicle accidents, suicide, firearms-related murders and drug overdoses, the report discovered.

GUATEMALA - The death toll is mounting after an explosive eruption of one of Central America's most active volcanoes. Guatemala's Volcan de Fuego, Spanish for "volcano of fire," exploded shortly before noon on Sunday, blasting ash and molten rock high into the air. Hours later, around 4 pm, lava began flowing down the side of the mountain. Guatemala's disaster agency said early Monday that at least 25 people had been killed as a towering cloud of smoke blanketed nearby villages in heavy ash and pyroclastic flows inundated villages below the volcano. An undetermined number of people were missing and authorities feared the death toll could rise. The conical Volcan de Fuego reaches an altitude of 12,346 feet above sea level at its peak.

USA - June is here and the heat is on across many areas of the southern US, including the Four Corner states. Despite some recent precipitation, which helped lower drought numbers in some counties, overall conditions continue to intensify and expand. Rivers and watering holes across different areas of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico are drying up, forcing the closure of popular mountain recreation areas. Water restrictions are becoming the norm across the region.

USA - Mother Nature is bringing good news to the firefighters battling wild blazes in the US states of New Mexico and Colorado: rain, and lots of it. Downpours are expected by early Sunday afternoon, said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. "It's good news for them," he said. "We're talking about an average of 1.4 inches of rain in New Mexico. We're even putting out a warning for some spots of flash flooding, because the ground is so hard, there'll be a lot of run-off."

USA - The heat is on across the Southwest once again, as temperatures climb toward the 110 degree mark, and extremely dry conditions a concern, with 6 wildfires listed as active/uncontained in California, including one that forced the evacuation of 2,000 homes in Orange County. Unfortunately for those battling the blazes, the forecast features no rain in the near future, but plenty of above-average temperatures. Excessive heat warnings are in effect through Monday for parts of southeastern California and southwestern Arizona, while closer to the coast wildfires have forced evacuations.

UK - Britain needs to stand up to Germany to prevent a “United States of Europe” after Brexit, outspoken Eurosceptic MP Daniel Kawczynski has said. The Conservative MP for Shrewsbury took aim at Berlin’s failure to meet spending targets on NATO, blasted Germany as selfish and accused the nation of increasing tensions between eastern and western Europe by the way the migrant situation was handled. Outspoken Mr Kawcznski said: "Despite running a balanced budget for the last five years, Germany has failed to meet the two percent defence spending that NATO insists upon. In 2017 Germany managed a mere 1.19 percent, less than 15 other countries including Romania, Albania and Croatia. Germany's reluctance to commit to NATO and push for an EU army is a threat to NATO's dominance and stability.”

ITALY - The anti-establishment Five Star Movement and right-wing League have gone into coalition, preparing to set the eurozone's third biggest economy on a path of tax cuts, a guaranteed basic income for the poor and deportations of 500,000 migrants.  They reject years of EU austerity and want to renegotiate Italy's debt.  So what will this government, led by law professor Giuseppe Conte, mean for Italy and the rest of Europe?  Italy's future in the euro: Neither Five Star nor The League are fans of the single currency. League leader Matteo Salvini said not long ago that the euro was "a mistake" for Italy's economy, while Five Star had wanted a referendum on Italy's future membership.  But they have dropped their initial ambition of exit from the euro and now talk of trying to reform it from within.

EUROPE - A populist government in Rome, political instability in Madrid, democratic crises in the east and a transatlantic trade war to the west: the European Union faces threats and challenges on multiple fronts. While Italy is clearly the most pressing danger facing the 28-member bloc, it is not the only one. Asked this week if Rome had become Europe's Achilles Heel, Gianni Riotta from the Council on Foreign Relations joked: "How many heels can Europe sport? Greece, the United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary -? too many, I'd say."

USA - Technology gives us the opportunity to wage war from afar at a greatly reduced risk to our armed forces. But is removing the horror of war a slippery slope to reducing the threshold for conflict?

Going to war usually boosts a politician’s approval ratings and can be a useful distraction from domestic problems. Yet public opinion typically turns sour when a steady stream of soldiers start returning in body bags and candid reportage from the war zone reveals unpleasant truths. The public’s distaste at seeing ‘our boys and girls’ returning in coffins or missing limbs somewhat hampers the abilities of warmongers to fulfil their wishlist. In the early days of drone warfare both the US Air Force and Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) operated drones flying over Afghanistan from Creech Air Force Base in the Nevada desert, 7000 miles away.

USA - Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has claimed that since Beijing’s South China Sea policy contradicts Washington’s strategy of “openness,” the US will have to “compete vigorously” wherever cooperation is impossible. “The US will continue to pursue a constructive, results-oriented relationship with China, cooperating when possible and competing vigorously where we must…” Mattis stated, speaking at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. “China's policy in the South China Sea stands in stark contrast to the openness our strategy promises, it calls into question China's broader goals,” the US Defense Secretary added.

USA - The CEO of one of the world’s most popular social media networks found himself criticized by the company’s shareholders, who took a dim view of his leadership methods. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, faced a barrage of criticism from shareholders and calls to change the “company’s governance” during a recent annual meeting, The Guardian reports. Christine Jantz, one of the shareholders who attended, blasted Facebook’s stockholder voting structure, which effectively allows Zuckerberg to control the majority of voting power in the company without owning the majority of its stock, because his shares have more voting power than those of regular investors.

USA - Long ago, in a universe of sane fiscal policy far away, there existed an institution, then new to the world of international banking and finance, called the Federal Reserve Bank, whose primary concern of the day — the day being its founding on December 13, 1913 — was to have very large reserves of cash backed by even larger reserves of gold that were enough “to earn the public trust.”