VATICAN - On June 28, Pope Francis received a delegation sent to Rome by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. The delegation was led by Metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamon, the co-president of the International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. After recalling his recent meetings with Patriarch Bartholomew in Jerusalem and in Rome, Pope Francis said that “we know very well that this unity is a gift of God, a gift that even now the Most High grants us the grace to attain whenever, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we choose to look at one another with the eyes of faith and to see ourselves as we truly are in God’s plan, according to the designs of his eternal will, and not what we have become as a result of the historical consequences of our sins.”

USA - In much of the world, the Predator drone symbolises US power. It is ubiquitous, stealthy and can strike at any moment. They patrol the skies of central Asia, north Africa, the Arabian peninsula – and now Iraq. Other countries have nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers. But nobody else can match the lethal ingenuity of America’s Hellfire missile. Little surprise that two US presidents – George W Bush, and now Barack Obama – have resorted to them so frequently. But their heyday is waning. America’s unipolar drone moment is ending.

ISRAEL - The three Israeli teenagers who went missing earlier this month in the West Bank have been found dead. An Israeli military spokesman said their bodies were found in a pit near the town of Halhul, north of Hebron. Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Shaar, both aged 16, and 19-year-old Eyal Yifrach were last seen at a junction near Hebron as they hitchhiked home. The teenagers' families have been informed, the military said. More information is expected to be released after an emergency cabinet meeting.

Israel had accused Hamas of abducting the three teens, which the Palestinian militant group repeatedly denied.

The teenagers' families have been informed, the military said. More information is expected to be released after an emergency cabinet meeting.

ISRAEL - One of Abbas's "most trusted advisers" attacked by Palestinian protesters with pepper spray for allegedly entering Jerusalem on Israeli permit. A senior adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was forced to flee the Temple Mount on Friday after dozens of Palestinian protesters assaulted him.

JORDAN - According to a Friday report by The Daily Beast, the officials told senators in a classified briefing earlier this week that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is eyeing Jordan as well as its war-torn neighbors, and that some of its jihadists have already tweeted out photos and messages saying they have seized a key Jordanian town. According to the administration officials, if Jordan were to face a military onslaught from ISIL, it would “ask Israel and the United States for as much help as they can get.” Israel has indicated behind the scenes that it would be willing to give military assistance to its ally Jordan, with which it signed a peace treaty in 1994.

ISRAEL - Following the beginning of the annual 30-day Ramadan festival on Saturday, Jerusalem police announced that heightened security measures are in place to ensure the safety of all the capital’s residents as tens of thousands of Muslims converge on the Temple Mount’s al-Aksa Mosque. Border Police, special patrol and undercover units will canvass the city for the duration of the holiday, he said. “We’re respecting the festival, and will do everything possible to allow the thousands of visitors to observe it, while also ensuring the safety of all Jerusalem’s citizens,” Rosenfeld added.

CHINA - China is moving forward with a plan to create its own version of the World Bank, which will rival institutions that are under the sway of the US and the West. The bank will start with $100 billion in capital. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will extend China’s financial reach and compete not only with the World Bank, but also with the Asian Development Bank, which is heavily dominated by Japan. The $100 billion in capital is double that originally proposed, the Financial Times (FT) reported. A member of the World Bank, China has less voting power than countries like the US, Japan, and the UK. It is in the ‘Category II’ voting bloc, giving it less of a voice. In the Asian Development Bank, China only holds a 5.5 percent share, compared to America’s 15.7 percent share and Japan’s 15.6 share.

USA - The Obama Administration has been pursuing a policy of covert support for the Muslim Brotherhood and other insurgent movements in the Middle East since 2010. MEB has obtained a just-released US State Department document through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that confirms the Obama Administration’s pro-active campaign for regime change throughout the Middle East and North Africa region. The October 22, 2010 document, titled “Middle East Partnership Initiative: Overview,” spells out an elaborate structure of State Department programs aimed at directly building “civil society” organizations, particularly non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to alter the internal politics of the targeted countries in favor of US foreign policy and national security objectives.

USA - Saturday at a press conference from the Rio Grande Valley, Representative Nancy Pelosi (Democrat for California) discussed her tour of a border holding facility and addressed the humanitarian crisis of thousands unaccompanied minors flooding across the US-Mexico border, which she called a “humanitarian opportunity.” Pelosi explained, “We are all Americans — north and south in this hemisphere,” and urged America to see this as not a crisis but an opportunity “to be helpful.” She also said she wished she could simply “take home” the thousands of children temporarily housed in the overburden facilities. According to the US Customs and Border Protection agency, in the past fiscal year more than 47,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the border into the United States through Mexico with the majority coming from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

SWITZERLAND - Bank for International Settlements warns "persistent easing bias" by fiscal, monetary and prudential policymakers has lulled governments "into a false sense of security". Ultra low interest rates and the failure of policy to "lean against" the build-up of financial imbalances are in danger of making the global economy permanently unstable, the Bank for International Settlements has warned. In its annual report, the Swiss-based "bank of central banks" spelled out the risks of relying too heavily on monetary policy to stimulate the economy. The BIS warned that central banks including the Bank of England and US Federal Reserve could keep monetary policy loose for too long, with potentially damaging consequences. "The prospects for a bumpy exit together with other factors suggest that the predominant risk is that central banks will find themselves behind the curve, exiting too late or too slowly," the BIS said on Sunday.

UK - Politicians and media are scapegoating national and sexual minorities to redirect the anger of austerity-affected Europeans on the vulnerable instead of the bankers who created the economic crisis, British race relations expert Lee Jaspar told RT. The incident at Tottenham's Markfield Park on June 23, where neo-Nazi nationalists attacked a music festival, could serve as a vivid example of radicalism imported to the UK from the continent.

LAS VEGAS, USA - Outside Las Vegas’s Bellagio hotel tourists gasp in amazement as fountains shoot 500ft into the air, performing a spectacular dance in time to the music of Frank Sinatra. Gondolas ferry honeymooners around canals modelled on those of Venice, Roman-themed swimming pools stretch for acres, and thousands of sprinklers keep golf courses lush in the middle of the desert.

UK - Jesus would have supported gay clergy getting married, Sir Elton John has claimed. The singer, who plans to marry his civil partner David Furnish next year in a "very quiet" ceremony, claimed that rules preventing gay priests from marrying and requiring Catholic priests to be celibate were "old and stupid". "If Jesus Christ was alive today, I cannot see him, as the Christian person that he was [sic] and the great person that he was, saying this could not happen," he told Sky News' Murnaghan programme. "He was all about love and compassion and forgiveness and trying to bring people together and that is what the church should be about." Sir Elton praised the "wonderful" Pope Francis, who had "stripped the Church down to the bare bones and said it's all basically about love and... inclusiveness".

DETROIT, USA - It has been six weeks since the city turned off Nicole Hill's water. Dirty dishes are piled in the sink of her crowded kitchen, where the yellow-and-green linoleum floor is soiled and sticky. A small garbage can is filled with water from a neighbor, while a bigger one sits outside in the yard, where she hopes it will collect some rain. She's developed an intricate recycling system of washing the dishes, cleaning the floor and flushing the toilet with the same water. "It's frightening, because you think this is something that only happens somewhere like Africa," said Hill, a single mother who is studying homeland security at a local college. "But now I know what they're going through — when I get somewhere there's a water faucet, I drink until my stomach hurts."

EUROPE - A Ruritanian grand duchy and a charming relic of the Holy Roman Empire, Luxembourg has done well to retain its independence in such a conflict-strewn region. Its principal industries are tourism and tax avoidance, and it is not a nursery of statesmen. In recent years, Gibraltar has produced more politicians who would be plausible members of a British Cabinet.