UK - Over 1400 individuals are under investigation by British police as part of an inquiry into a historic VIP sex abuse network believed to include celebrities and politicians. Information released by Operation Hydrant, the group of police officers tackling the alleged ring, said that the 1,433 suspected offenders included 76 politicians, 43 musicians, and 135 from film, television and radio. A further 216 were revealed to have died.

Chief Constable Simon Bailey, chair of Operation Hydrant, said that referrals to new suspects “are increasing on an almost daily basis." A total of 154 schools, 75 children’s homes and 40 places of religious worship were among the institutions identified. Bailey stressed UK authorities are seeing "an unprecedented increase" in the number of allegations surfacing.

EUROPE - There is a strong consensus on the eurozone crisis among economists and political analysts both in Europe and the United States: for the eurozone to endure, it would need to develop into a fiscal union and, consequently, a political one. In the same breath, however, influential commentators argue that this is politically unfeasible in the current context of a heightened North-South divide within Europe. And there seems to be a strong consensus among pundits that political union in Europe is a pipe dream.

GERMANY - In cooperation with NSA, a US military intelligence service, the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has massively intercepted and stored emails from Austria, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic. The governments concerned have raised no serious protests, in the Germany-dominated EU. The German government is continuing the BND's technological upgrading, aimed ultimately toward raising German espionage "to an equal footing" with the NSA - also in internet spying.

CHINA - One of China’s great resources is its seemingly endless supply of American dollars to put in the world economy. Much of that money has been returned to the United States in the form of investments. Over the past 10 years, China has invested or contracted to invest more than $81 billion into US companies, according to data compiled by the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation. Most of the investment has come in the finance, real estate, energy and technology sectors.

USA - Many commentators have noted that mainstream economists are calling to do away with cash entirely. It would be easy to scoff at these proposals as completely insane if the Fed hadn’t published a paper back in 1999 suggesting the implementation of a “carry tax” or taxing actual physical cash using an expiration date if depositors aren’t willing to spend the money. It sounds like absolute insanity, but I can assure you that Central Banks take these sorts of proposals very seriously. QE sounded completely insane back in 1999 and we’ve already seen three rounds of it amounting to over $3 trillion. No one would have believed the Fed could get away with printing $3 trillion for QE in 1999, but it has happened already. And given that it has failed to boost consumer spending/economic growth, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the Fed float one of the other ideas in the coming months.

ISRAEL - Lost in translation: AFP, AP accused of twisting Pope's words to attribute admiration to Abbas that really may not be there. Following a meeting with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday, major English-language media outlets - including Associated Press and AFP - reported that Pope Francis called the PA leader an "Angel of Peace". The purported comments were received as something of a coup by PA officials and their supporters - but it appears they were the result of a mis-translation. Several Italian-language experts have confirmed that to Arutz Sheva, saying that Francis actually told Abbas that he "may" or "could" be an "angel of peace," in an attempt to persuade him to return to peace talks with Israel.

UK - That most time-consuming of the traditional rituals surrounding the UK Parliament, the swearing in of all the MPs, has become an emblem of the changing shape of British society. A ceremony originally designed for exclusion - to keep out religious and political undesirables - has become a display of diversity, writes Stephen Tomkins.

UK - Up to 1.5 million foreigners could be given a decisive vote in the referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union, senior Conservatives fear. Ministers have been confronted in private by Eurosceptic MPs who are concerned that David Cameron could water down his promise to give the British people a say over the UK’s future in Europe because he wants Britain to stay inside the EU. The row centres on a decision over which electoral register is used for the referendum which is due to take place by the end of 2017. The government said it would decide on the franchise for the plebiscite when it publishes the EU Referendum Bill, expected in the coming months.

UK - Britain is not facing a spell of ‘damaging deflation’, the Chancellor said yesterday as inflation turned negative for the first time in more than half a century. The Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation fell to minus 0.1 per cent in April, according to the Office for National Statistics. This is the lowest level since 1960 and follows two months of zero inflation. George Osborne stressed that the dip in prices was ‘good news for family budgets’. The market took the news in its stride, as bond yields barely budged. Britain is not yet experiencing deflation – officially defined as two consecutive quarters of falling prices. Although this gives households more disposable income it can be dangerous if it persists. This is because it increases the real burden of debts and can cause individuals and businesses to put off spending today in the hope of lower prices in the future.

IRAQ - Commanders in Washington were congratulating themselves last weekend on the success of a Delta Force raid in which two dozen special forces troops were dropped into a town in Syria. Their attack resulted in the killing of a leading figure in Islamic State (or ISIS), a Tunisian called Abu Sayyaf. He is thought to have been in charge of the selling of millions of dollars worth of oil and gas for the terrorist organisation and to have taken an increased role in ISIS operations. But the celebrations in the Pentagon for this victory were short-lived and, as is painfully clear, horribly premature. For that raid has been eclipsed by the catastrophic fall of a city just 60 miles to the west of Baghdad into the hands of ISIS. The sudden capture of Ramadi is significant because it is the capital of Anbar province, a vast region to the west of the Iraqi capital dominated by Sunni Muslim tribes. The chilling question is: who can stop them before they launch an assault along the road to Baghdad just an hour’s drive away?

IRAQ - American air strikes cannot compensate for divisions and distrust between the Shi'ite majority and Sunni minority. The US-led coalition pounded the forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) over the weekend near the Iraqi city of Ramadi but that didn’t stop them from taking the city. On Sunday videos appeared that seemed to show Iraqi soldiers clinging to the sides of vehicles speeding out of Ramadi as ISIS moved in. The black flag of ISIS now flies over the capital of Anbar, one of Iraq’s largest provinces. “ISIS is still a very potent force,” says Kenneth M Pollack, a specialist in Middle East political-military affairs and a former CIA analyst.

IRAQ - The unexpected fall of Ramadi to the Islamic State highlights the weakness of Iraq's security forces and the government's inability to solve deep sectarian divisions feeding the conflict. Iraq's security forces failed to protect the city, about 70 miles west of Baghdad, from the militants' onslaught. Now, the central government is turning to Shiite militias to try and retake the city, whose residents are mostly Sunnis, as are the Islamic State militants. The Pentagon, which has conducted airstrikes and provided trainers to help Iraq resist the militants, has been willing to let the Shiite militias play a role in military operations as long as they remain under central government control and are not accompanied by advisers from Iran. Both Iran and Iraq are Shiite-ruled nations that have forged a close alliance.

IRAQ - In the face of a vicious ISIS assault, the Iraqi army ran away, leaving the American plan to beat the terror group in tatters. They saw the ISIS attack coming — and they ran. US military officials believe that the city of Ramadi fell to the self-proclaimed Islamic State over the weekend in large part because the Iraqi security forces there fled in the face of an ISIS assault. The American strategy to fight ISIS in Iraq depends on local troops standing up to the terror army. That Iraqi forces chose not to fight — much as they did last year when ISIS sacked the city of Mosul — reinforced how little the US effort has bolstered Iraq’s security. The Pentagon has said it trained 7,000 Iraqi forces since Mosul’s collapse and launched more than 3,700 air strikes, hitting 6,300 targets. And yet, once again, the Iraqis could not mount a defense against a charging ISIS.

USA - The Girl Scouts of America (GSA) is the latest organization to cave to pressure from the LGBTIQA lobby, adapting its policies to extend membership to boys who identify as girls. Penny Nance from Concerned Women for America called the decision “just one more slap in the face to Christian parents.”

UK - A Christian-owned bakery that refused to make a cake carrying a pro-gay marriage slogan has been found guilty of discrimination after a landmark legal action. The Northern Ireland Equality Commission brought the case against Ashers Baking Company on behalf of Gareth Lee, the gay rights activist whose order was declined. Giving her ruling at Belfast County Court on Tuesday, district judge Isobel Brownlie said: "The defendants have unlawfully discriminated against the plaintiff on grounds of sexual discrimination. This is direct discrimination for which there can be no justification."