GERMANY - "Britain Votes Merkel Out Of Office, Too" is the astonishing headline from Germany's 3rd largest newspaper Die Welt. Pinning the blame for The Brits' vote, the op-ed lambasts The EU's political failure, "The British do not leave the EU as narrow-minded snobs that had not meant it to happen that way, but as proud democrats that no longer wanted to put up with the snags and political failures of the EU;" and puts the blame squarely on the sagging shoulders of Angela Merkel (and her solo attempts at refugee policy)... "voters in Britain basically also voted Angela Merkel out of office. Before she becomes the EU's gravedigger for good, she should follow David Cameron's example."
USA - At a critical time in monitoring signs of any early activity of the volcanoes at Mount Saint Helens, Mount Hood, Mount Rainier, and the rest of the Pacific Northwest volcanoes (Mount Baker, Newberry, Crater Lake, Three Sisters), a key early warning indicator has been switched off. This ultimately prevents the public from viewing the real-time data of the spectrograph plots of these volcanoes. This condition continues as of this writing.
GERMANY - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Saturday that the EU would weather the shock of the British vote to leave the union as he convened crisis talks. “I am confident that these countries can also send a message that we won’t let anyone take Europe from us,” he said heading into a meeting in Berlin of his counterparts from the EU’s six founding members.
USA - Republican Donald Trump vowed to tear up the nation's trade deals, threatened new tariffs and called for a new era of economic "Americanism" in a speech that underscored just how far removed he is from typical GOP orthodoxy.
USA - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has backtracked from his neutral position on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and is now “committed” to supporting Israeli settlement expansion on territories it has seized illegally, according to an advisor. David M Friedman, a real-estate attorney serving as Trump’s main advisor on Israel, said the Republican presidential candidate and reality television star would not support the recognition of the Palestinian state without “the approval of the Israelis.” Friedman also remarked that Trump was unconcerned with the inhabitants of the West Bank, because “nobody really knows how many Palestinians live there.”
EUROPE - Nigel Farage was today booed in the European Parliament as he told members they’d never ‘had proper jobs’ and predicted Britain would not be the last member state to quit the EU. The Ukip leader addressed MEPs for the first time since last week’s historic Leave vote in the EU referendum. The leading Brexit campaigner warned European politicians if they failed to cut a decent trade deal with the UK outside the EU the “consequences would be far worse for you than it would be for us”.
EUROPE - Post-Brexit Europe must secure “strategic autonomy,” strengthen its own military assets to defend itself without NATO’s assistance and counter “Russian propaganda,” a new edition of the EU’s foreign and security policy strategy says, according to media.
USA - Over the last two trading days, European banks have lost 23 percent of their value. Let that number sink in for a bit. In just a two day stretch, nearly a quarter of the value of all European banks has been wiped out. I warned you that the Brexit vote “could change everything“, and that is precisely what has happened.
USA - Scientists are Now Attempting to Figure Out How to Get Men Pregnant. As uterus transplants become a more realistic possibility, some doctors say they are receiving inquiries from male patients who identify as women and want to become pregnant, according to the Daily Caller.
UK - Britain’s political system remained in turmoil Monday, virtually leaderless and with the two major parties divided internally. But the meltdown that has taken place in the days after voters decided to break the country’s ties with Europe is more than a British problem, reflecting an erosion in public confidence that afflicts democracies around the world.
VATICAN - "For me, unity is always superior to conflict, but there are different forms of unity and also brotherhood, and here I come to the EU - brotherhood is better than enmity or distance and bridges are better than walls. The step which the EU has to take to recover the strength of its roots is a step of creativity and healthy 'separation;' that is, to give more independence, more freedom to the countries of the EU, to think of another form of union, to be creative in jobs, in the economy... There is something that is not working in that unwieldy union, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater, let's try to jump-start things, to recreate… today the two key words for the EU are creativity and fecundity" [fecundity: powerful productivity].
GIBRALTAR - Spain has again claimed its right to the Gibraltar Peninsula, calling for shared sovereignty with the UK in the wake of its decision to leave the EU, Spain’s acting Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said. “It’s a complete change of outlook that opens up new possibilities on Gibraltar not seen for a very long time,” Garcia-Margallo told local Onda Cero radio station on Friday following the news of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
USA - US President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster in the state of West Virginia, where the worst floods in more than a century have left at least 24 people dead. Mr Obama ordered federal aid for three of the worst affected counties following a request by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin. Residents will now receive grants for temporary housing and repairs. More than 30,000 homes and businesses are without power. Heavy rain on Thursday turned rivers and streams into torrents, cutting off several towns. The floods are the worst in a century in some areas and hundreds of people have had to be rescued. States of emergency have been declared in 44 of the state's 55 counties, and up to 500 soldiers have been authorised to assist in the rescue operations.
USA - As you read this article, the state of California is being ravaged by gigantic wildfires that are raging wildly out of control, and West Virginia is dealing with a “500 year flood”. Since last September, the US has been hit by a series of 11 historic floods. Never before in American history have we seen so many major floods within such a compressed space of time.
UK - A three-million strong petition to push for a second EU referendum has been signed by thousands of people outside of Britain – including North Korea, Russia and China.