GERMANY - Under the cover of business as usual, a silent revolution is taking place in German attitudes to Europe. The habitual reluctance of post-war Germans to assume responsibility, to express their preferences and to lead in their neighbourhood, is giving way to an acceptance of Germany’s special role in Europe. This new attitude is more functionalist than triumphalist, but it is underpinned by considerable confidence.

GERMANY - Germany's Bundeswehr is set to participate in the fight against terror from Jordan instead of Turkey. The country is neither a NATO member, nor a democracy by Western standards. King Abdullah II is a leader very much to the West's liking. In contrast to the princes in the Arabian peninsula, he is usually dressed in a dark suit. He received a military education in Britain and studied in Oxford and Washington. Under his leadership, Jordan has reliably positioned itself in line with Western politics in all major Middle East conflicts. The German government has already given the green light to move troops to Jordan. On June 21, the Bundestag is scheduled to finalize the relocation of troops to Al-Azraq. No one expects any surprises. All parties are in favor of the move, with the exception of the opposition Left party, which would prefer to bring the soldiers home.

UK - The BBC has been caught-red-handed censoring part of an interview where an eyewitness says Muslim attackers shouted “Allah” before they stabbed a woman in London. Just like CNN got caught staging a Muslim anti-terror protest, this is yet more evidence of the establishment trying to frame the narrative that terrorism has ‘nothing to do with Islam’.

IRAN - Iran’s supreme leader hit out at the United States and Saudi Arabia during the funerals Friday for those slain in the first attacks in the country claimed by the Islamic State group. The assault by gunmen and suicide bombers Wednesday on Tehran’s parliament complex and the shrine of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini killed 17 people and wounded more than 50. The attacks, which struck two of the country’s most symbolic landmarks, were carried out by five armed men, including suicide bombers who blew themselves up. Washington has imposed new sanctions on Tehran for its alleged support of “terrorist” groups in the Middle East, ballistic missile tests and human rights abuses. On a recent trip to Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, Trump called on all nations to “isolate” Iran.

SPAIN - European authorities stepped in to avert a collapse of Spain's Banco Popular following a run on the bank, orchestrating a last-minute rescue on Wednesday by Santander, the country's biggest lender. Owners of Popular bonds face losses of some 2 billion euros, while Santander will ask its shareholders for around 7 billion euros ($7.9 billion) of capital to absorb Spain's sixth biggest bank. Popular's rescue was unveiled as the European Central Bank announced the lender was set to be wound down, echoing a banking crash some five years ago that cost Spain 40 billion euros. Santander's takeover of the bank, which has been weighed down by risky property loans, for a nominal one euro marks the first use of a stricter European Union regime to deal with failing banks adopted after the financial crisis.

POLAND - The only way to protect Poland from Islamic terror attacks is to not allow Muslims to migrate en masse, a British-born, senior MEP for the nation’s ruling party said on Monday. “When it comes to reducing the chances of Poland being hit by [Islamist] terror attacks, the only proven method is to not allow in Muslim migrants,” Ryszard Czarnecki told local radio after an attack in London on Saturday killed seven and injured at least 48 others. Noting the children of Islamic immigrants have been responsible for a large number of ISIS-inspired attacks on European soil, the London-born Law and Justice (PiS) MEP said Poland is “learning from the mistakes” of other nations in the West, and so refuses to “open [its] doors to Islamic migrants.”

PHILIPPINES - Islamic State jihadis fighting to establish a caliphate in Marawi, the Philippines’ only “Islamic city,” released a video this week showing the complete destruction of the city’s St Mary’s Cathedral. Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists affiliated with the local jihadi outfits, Maute group and Abu Sayyaf, overran the city in May, taking Christians hostage, killing anyone who could not recite Quranic verses, and flying the Islamic State flag over the city’s mosques. President Rodrigo Duterte imposed a 60-day martial law period over the entire island of Mindanao, where Marawi is located, and has launched an airstrike offensive against the terrorists.

PHILIPPINES - Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists, in the most recent edition of their propaganda magazine Rumiyah, have reportedly released “unseen” pictures of “belligerent Christians” executed by the jihadist group in the Philippines. “The soldiers of the Khilafah in East Asia stormed the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines on the island of Mindanao, chased out the local police and the military, and raised the banner of the Islamic State,” the jihadists wrote in the latest issue of Rumiyah, titled “The Jihad in East Asia.” In Rumiyah, the leader of ISIS’s East Asia branch incites Muslims to “teach the Crusaders that zero hour has arrived.”

UK - Theresa May is refusing to quit as Prime Minister despite her disastrous election night as the UK voted for a hung parliament. Mrs May’s decision to call a snap election backfired in spectacular fashion as she lost the Conservatives’ majority in the House of Commons as Labour made significant gains.

EUROPE - President Donald Trump is widely seen in Europe and by his numerous critics in the United States as having abdicated American leadership of the West. When German Chancellor Angela Merkel traveled to Washington in March to visit Trump, one headline blared “Leader of the Free World Meets American President.” This perception of abdication was based partly on Trump’s persistent refusal to criticize Russia for its aggressive behavior under President Vladimir Putin.

MIDDLE EAST - A  much-touted $110-billion US-Saudi arms deal which has worried Israeli officials is not an actual binding deal, but rather a collection of letters of intent drafted by the sides, US political and defense officials told the Brookings Institution’s Bruce Riedel. ...Riedel said that none of the potential sales were new, and all had been initiated by the Obama administration. He noted that the Saudis are unlikely to be able to afford $110 billion in purchases in the near future, due to falling oil prices and accumulated costs related to the Yemen campaign.

ISRAEL - The guns had just gone silent in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 when US President Lyndon Johnson jumped in to play the role of peacemaker. Just 11 days after the Six-Day War, Johnson went to the State Department and laid out a plan. "Our country is committed to a peace that is based on five principles," Johnson told a hall packed with American diplomats.

USA - The head of the US Missile Defense Agency, Vice Admiral James Syring, said on Wednesday that technological advances demonstrated by North Korea in its ballistic missile program in the past six months had caused him "great concern." Syring told a hearing of the US House Armed Services Committee that it was incumbent on his agency to assume that North Korea today could "range" the United States with an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a nuclear warhead. "I would not say we are comfortably ahead of the threat; I would say we are addressing the threat that we know today," Syring said.

NORTH KOREA - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called upon his country’s air force to be prepared to attack aircraft carriers. The Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s propaganda outlet, reported that Kim made the statements Monday during an event that involved a combat flight contest for commanding officers of the Korean People’s Army Air and Anti-Air Force. The goal of the contest was to train all the flight commanding officers “to be a-match-for-a-hundred fighters capable of destroying any targets including enemy aircraft carriers … and encouraging all the army to be combat-ready for national reunification,” the KCNA reported. Kim shows no sign of backing down, and this latest exercise, coupled with his alleged order to the air force to strike aircraft carriers, indicates the dictator wants to remain defiant at whatever cost.

RUSSIA - No country on earth would survive should the world’s most powerful nuclear states unleash their atomic weapons, Vladimir Putin has said. His remarks form part of a series of interviews with American film director Oliver Stone. The question of whether the human race would survive a potential global nuclear war has tormented the minds of generations, and indeed Stone, who wondered if the Russian president believes the US might emerge victorious if such a conflict were to break out. “In a hot war is the US dominant?” the American director asked the Russian president. “I don’t think anyone would survive such a conflict,” Putin replied.