EUROPE - Jean-Claude Juncker denied on Tuesday that he favoured a federal European superstate as he sought the support of British Conservatives and other eurosceptics for his presidency of the European Commission, but his assurances drew a cool response. The designated head of the EU executive delivered his message to the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament 10 days after British Prime Minister David Cameron failed to block his path to Brussels’ top job. “Despite what you may read in the British press, I do not want a United States of Europe,” the former Luxembourg prime minister told the lawmakers, according to one person present. “I do not believe that Europe can be constructed against the nation state.”

ISRAEL - A video has emerged showing hundreds of Arabs flooding the plaza of the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount to celebrate the sounding of air raid sirens in Jerusalem. The crowds can be heard whistling and chanting in celebration of the fact that Hamas rockets reached as far as the capital city Tuesday evening. No casualties were reported, but some damage was caused. In response to the escalated threat the Jerusalem Municipality has opened all of its public bomb shelters and urged residents to take the necessary precautions. The video was initially shared by the pro-Hamas Quds News Network, which lauded the attack on "occupied Jerusalem". Hamas and other Islamist groups are known to have a strong presence on the Temple Mount.

ISRAEL - Israel on Tuesday launched its largest offensive in the Gaza Strip in nearly two years, carrying out a blistering aerial assault on scores of targets and killing 25 people in what officials called an open-ended operation aimed at ending weeks of heavy rocket fire. As Gaza militants unleashed salvos on cities including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel mobilized forces along the border for a possible ground invasion. The offensive set off the heaviest fighting between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas since an eight-day battle in November 2012. The militants fired about 160 rockets at Israel, including two intercepted over Tel Aviv, while Israel said it attacked more than 150 sites across Gaza.

EUROPE - The more the US antagonizes the world with spying or huge fines on foreign banks, the quicker the process of abandoning the dollar as a reserve currency will be unraveled, Peter Schiff, the president of investment house Euro Pacific Capital, told RT.

UK - Scottish independence would cause more damage to the UK than the banking crash in 2008, Alistair Darling has warned. The former Chancellor said the risks of Scotland going it alone ‘are colossal’ and there will be no going back. And he warned allegations that Alex Salmond’s pro-independence campaign is intimidating business from speaking out brings ‘shame on our country’. Voters in Scotland will decide whether Scotland should become an independent country in an historic referendum on September 18.

IRAN - Israel is known for its advanced intelligence capabilities but, according to an Iranian cleric, that is because it uses sorcery. The comments by Valiollah Naghipourfar, a cleric and professor at Tehran University, were made in a recent interview he gave to Iran’s state broadcaster, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and were republished by the IranWire website.

GERMANY - The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, says allegations that a German man worked as a double agent for US intelligence are serious. "If the reports are correct it would be a serious case," Merkel told a news conference in Beijing, standing next to the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang. "If the allegations are true, it would be for me a clear contradiction as to what I consider to be trusting cooperation between agencies and partners." The case risks further straining ties with Washington, which have been sorely tested by revelations last year of large-scale snooping on Germany by the US National Security Agency.

GERMANY - Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is planning to scrap a no-spy agreement Germany has held with Britain and the United States since 1945 in response to an embarrassing US-German intelligence service scandal which has deeply soured relations between Berlin and Washington. The unprecedented change to Berlin’s counter-espionage policy was announced by Ms Merkel’s Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizière. He said that Berlin wanted “360 degree surveillance” of all intelligence-gathering operations in Germany. The intelligence services of the Allied victors, the United States, Britain and France, have hitherto been regarded as “friendly” to Germany. Their diplomatic and information-gathering activities were exempted from surveillance by Berlin’s equivalent of MI5 – the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND).

GERMANY - The German Trade Union Federation (DGB) unreservedly supports the foreign policy of the grand coalition government and its return to great power politics and militarism. This is clear from an article by the new DGB chairman, Reiner Hoffmann, published on a website of the foreign ministry. In May, foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD, Social Democratic Party) opened the website “Review 2014 — thinking further in foreign policy”, to promote the new foreign policy orientation announced at the beginning of the year.

GERMANY - Germany’s plan to bring back the nation’s gold reserves to Frankfurt by 2020 has fizzled, and instead has for now decided to leave $635 billion of gold in US vaults. Home to the world’s second largest gold reserves, worth $141 billion, Germany only keeps about one third of its gold ‘at home’, the rest is abroad. 45 percent is in the US Federal Reserve in New York, 13 percent in London, 11 percent in Paris, and only 31 percent in the Bundesbank in Frankfurt.

USA - The increase in police brutality in this country is a frightening reality. In the last decade alone the number of people murdered by police has reached 5,000. The number of soldiers killed since the inception of the Iraq war, 4489. What went wrong? In the 1970’s SWAT teams were estimated to be used just a few hundred times per year, now we are looking at over 40,000 military style “knock and announce” police raids a year. The police presence in this country is being turned into a military one with a clearly defined enemy, anyone who questions the establishment. If we look at the most recent numbers of non-military US citizens killed by terrorism worldwide, that number is 17. You have a better chance of being killed by a bee sting, or a home repair accident than you do a terrorist. And you are 29 times more likely to be murdered by a cop than a terrorist!

FRANCE - Not even we anticipated this particular "unintended consequence" as a result of the US multi-billion dollar fine on BNP (which France took very much to heart). Moments ago, in a lengthy interview given to French magazine Investir, none other than the governor of the French National Bank Christian Noyer and member of the ECB's governing board, said this stunner at the very end, via Bloomberg:

USA/EUROPE - Unbeknownst to the vast majority of Europeans and Americans, late-stage negotiations are under way to significantly water down all forms of financial regulation on both sides of the Atlantic. This is part of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Treaty (TTIP) being negotiated behind closed doors. However, contrary to popular wisdom, it’s not the US government that is leading the charge, but rather an unholy alliance between the European Commission, Wall Street, and the City of London. Quietly, the rules governing global trade and financial markets are being changed. Despite the enormous impact they have on our lives, the public is not consulted. Most people are not even aware it is happening.

USA - As the Obama administration continues to alienate almost everyone else around the entire planet, an increasing number of prominent international voices are starting to question why the US dollar should be so overwhelmingly dominant in global trade. John Williams of shadowstats.com recently said that things have never "been more negative" for the US dollar, and he was right on the mark. The power of the almighty dollar has allowed all of us living in the United States to enjoy an extremely high standard of living for decades, but as that power now fades it is going to have profound implications for the US economy.

RUSSIA - On June 10th, Sergey Glaziev, Putin's economy advisor published an article outlining the need to establish an international alliance of countries willing to get rid of the dollar in international trade and refrain from using dollars in their currency reserves. “We are discussing with China and our BRICS partners [Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa] the establishment of a system of multilateral swaps that will allow the transfer of resources to one or another country, if needed. A part of the currency reserves can be directed to the new system.”