USA - Facebook fact-checking organization Snopes has been caught accepting money from Monsanto in exchange for debunking articles that claim their pesticides cause cancer. Snopes, who have been caught promoting Hillary Clinton propaganda in the past and embezzling their profits on prostitutes, are now embroiled in yet another scandal where their CEO has been caught deliberately ignoring the facts in the name of profits.
GERMANY - Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has indicated Europe can no longer completely rely on its American and British allies in the wake of Brexit and the election of US President Donald Trump, declaring the continent's destiny is in "our own hands".
ISRAEL - The head of the Jerusalem Waqf, Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib al-Tamimi, said this would allow anyone, including Israeli lawmakers and Jewish activists who support the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, to visit the compound, which Muslims call Haram al-Sharif. Jews could again visit the mosques and the Dome of the Rock, but “everyone must realize they are visiting a mosque, with no rights for Jews to pray inside,” Tamimi said.
MIDDLE EAST - The quixotic American pursuit of Middle East peace is a perennial. It invariably fails, yet every administration feels compelled to give it a try. The Trump administration is no different. It will fail as well. To be sure, no great harm has, as yet, come from President Trump's enthusiasm for what would be "the ultimate deal."
ISRAEL - President Donald Trump on Saturday said both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had assured him they were ready to “reach for peace.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “assured me he is willing to reach for peace with Israel in good faith, and I believe he will,” Trump told US troops in Sicily, while summarizing his first state visit overseas as a “home run.”
USA - The US has underestimated the risks to its nuclear safety as a single nuclear fuel fire could lead to fallout “much greater than Fukushima,” according to a new study. Researchers slammed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for ignoring the potential danger.
MIDDLE EAST - The voice is that of a soft-spoken 28-year-old, but the message is vintage Osama bin Laden, giving orders to kill. When the audio recording began turning up on jihadist websites two weeks ago, it was as if the dead terrorist was channeling himself through his favorite son.
JAPAN - The pride of Japan's naval defence, the JS Izumo, is making an unprecedented journey through Asian waters over the next three months. The Izumo is the largest vessel built by Japan since the end of World War Two - and she looks very much like an aircraft carrier.
PHILIPPINES - The death toll in the Philippines city of Marawi has exceeded 100 people, including at least 27 civilians and 61 terrorists, while 2,000 people reportedly remain trapped as ISIS-linked Maute militants mercilessly kill “betrayers” who try to flee the city. At least 27 civilians have been killed in Marawi since Maute fighters, aligned with Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), raided the city last Tuesday. Driving out terrorists from the Philippines has become Duterte’s personal crusade who promised to resign if extremists prove him incapable of maintaining peace in his country. “As president, if I cannot confront them, I will resign,” Duterte said last week. “If I am incompetent and incapable of keeping order in this country, let me step down and give the job to somebody else.”
ITALY - Speaking to workers and business people in Italy’s port city of Genoa Saturday, Pope Francis surprised his hearers by praising entrepreneurship and touting the importance of healthy businesses for the economy. “There can’t be a good economy without good businessmen, without their capacity to create and to produce,” he said, shattering his reputation as an enemy of the free market economy.
ISRAEL - Hours before the sun rose on Monday morning, the former governor of Arkansas, presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, set out on a politically provocative journey. Joined by 5,000 messianic Israeli settlers, Huckabee led an incursion under the armed guard of the Israeli army into the occupied West Bank city of Nablus to perform religious rituals at Joseph’s Tomb.
PHILIPPINES - Indonesians and Malaysians were among foreign Jihadists battling the military after laying siege to a southern Philippine city, the government said today, in a rare admission of what it said was an Islamic State "invasion". The army has deployed attack helicopters and special forces to drive rebels of the Islamic State-linked Maute group out of Marawi City and Malaysians and Indonesians and other foreigners were among six guerrillas killed on Thursday.
PHILIPPINES - Russia and the Philippines have signed almost a dozen deals, including a defense and military cooperation agreement, days after Rodrigo Duterte cut short his Moscow visit to urgently tackle the ongoing terrorist crisis in the country’s south. Overall, Moscow and Manila signed 11 documents which had been prepared for the Philippine president’s visit to Russia. “These include a defense cooperation agreement, memorandums on cooperation in nuclear energy, trade, investment, industry, transport, culture, and arts, as well as an action program for cooperation in tourism and a plan of consultations between our foreign ministries,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in talks with Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alan Peter Cayetano.
POLAND - Poland's Prime Minister has ripped into European “elites” for failing to stand up to terrorism across the Continent in a furious attack aimed at Brussels. Speaking in the Polish parliament, Beata Szydło raged at the terror threat posed to European nations following the Manchester terror attack, in which 22 people were killed at a pop concert. She called on European leaders to “rise from your knees and from your lethargy or you will be crying over your children every day”.
USA - Just a few months into the Trump administration, it still isn’t clear what course the president’s foreign policy will ultimately take. What is clear, however, is that the impulsiveness, combativeness, and recklessness that characterized Donald Trump’s election campaign have survived the transition into the presidency. Since taking office, Trump has continued to challenge accepted norms, break with diplomatic traditions, and respond to perceived slights or provocations with insults or threats of his own. The core of his foreign policy message is that the United States will no longer allow itself to be taken advantage of by friends or foes abroad. After decades of “losing” to other countries, he says he is going to put “America first” and start winning again.
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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.