JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - The official text of the speech Pope Francis gave in front of Israeli president Shimon Peres began:

“I am grateful to you, Mr President, for your kind and sage words of greeting and your warm welcome. I am happy to be able to meet you once again, this time in Jerusalem, the city which preserves the Holy Places dear to the three great religions which worship the God who called Abraham.

USA - Support for same-sex marriage in the United States has reached a “tipping point,” according to the Gallup polling organization, a significant if not surprising development in a relatively recent social phenomenon that remains jarring to some older Americans but no big deal to younger people. “For proponents of marriage equality, years of playing offense have finally paid off as this movement has reached a tipping point in recent years – both legally and in the court of public opinion,” Gallup notes in reporting that such support has “solidified above the majority level.” Substantively as well as symbolically, American society has been moving in this direction for several years.

USA - The total number of disability beneficiaries in the United States rose from 10,981,423 in March to 10,996,447 in April, setting a new all-time record, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration. The number of Americans receiving disability benefits continues to exceed the populations of Greece, Tunisia and Portugal, and is approaching the population of Cuba, which according to the CIA World Factbook is 11,047,251.

USA - The Pentagon announced Friday it was closing down 21 military facilities in Europe, a move the Department said would save $60 million annually. "This is about making sure we have the right footprint, the right posture, and frankly that we're spending taxpayer dollars the right way in Europe," Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby said at a press briefing Friday. Kirby said it is just the first round of such closures, which are taking place in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Greece, the United Kingdom, and Belgium, and that more would follow. Lawmakers and some defense experts have criticized the Pentagon for pulling several combat brigades out of Europe over the past year, a move that they say renders the United States less able to protect allies in the face of resurgent Russian aggression.

UK - If you were writing a paranoid fantasy of gold price manipulation you'd be hard pressed to come up with something more on the nose than the UK Financial Conduct Authority's order against Barclays. It has everything; it is the benchmark of manipulation by which all future manipulation will be measured. Well, this or Libor. Delightfully, this manipulation occurred on June 28, 2012, the day after Barclays was fined 290 million pounds for manipulating Libor. They just really wanted to perfect their manipulating technique.

UK - British companies should send gay employees into countries like Russia where homosexuality is frowned upon to promote attitude change, Lord Browne, the Cuadrilla chairman has said. The former BP boss, who was forced to stand down from the oil giant, when his relationship with a rent boy was exposed by a Sunday newspaper, said firms must do more to champion gay rights. Speaking at Hay Festival, Lord Browne, 66, said businesses which work in other countries where homosexuality is outlawed had a unique opportunity to change opinion. He also advised young gay workers to ‘come out’ as soon as possible when they started at a new company, and said he hoped to see a gay Prime Minister within his lifetime.

RUSSIA - Vladimir Putin has attacked Conchita Wurst, the Austrian drag artist who won the Eurovision Song Contest, for aggressively flaunting her sexuality and putting herself 'up for show'. The Russian President, who said he was “very liberal”, was attempting to pour water on a controversy which saw thousands of Russians protest before Wurst’s performance and the Orthodox Church describe her as an “abomination”, by saying she has the “right” to live how she wants.

SOUTH AFRICA - Dr Vandana Shiva: "We did not choose to target Monsanto. Monsanto chose to target our seed and food freedom, our scientific and democratic institutions, our very lives." "It's time to take back our food!" was the cry as people in 52 countries worldwide took to the streets in a global day of action on Saturday against chemical behemoth Monsanto. The third annual March Against Monsanto (MAM) is slated to be the biggest yet, according to movement founder Tami Canal, with millions of people in over 400 cities expected to take part. Across social media, protesters shared images from demonstrations around the world where people called for the permanent boycott of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and other harmful agro-chemicals.

EUROPE - The European parliamentary elections have drawn to a close bringing major gains for both Euroskeptic and Far Right movements. The results have dealt a blow to governments, with the French PM even calling the result “a political earthquake.” The most major anti-EU public mood was demonstrated in France, where Marine Le Pen's far right National Front scored more than a quarter of the votes cast.

ISRAEL - Pope Francis made an unscheduled visit to a monument in memory of terror victims while visiting the Har Herzl national cemetery in Jerusalem. The visit followed a stop at the Temple Mount and Western Wall, and ahead of a tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. While at the cemetery, the pope placed a wreath on the grave of Zionist leader Theodor Herzl, in a symbolic gesture meant to apologize for Pope Pius the Tenth's refusal to help establish a modern Jewish state in Israel in 1904.

ISRAEL - 'Religious, not political' visit takes decidedly political turn Sunday, after PA accuses Israel of 'judaization' and Pope calls PA a state. Pope Francis met with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem Sunday, in a historic meeting that saw Abbas accuse Israel of "Judaizing" Jerusalem.

RUSSIA - Moscow plans to sign an agreement with Iran this year to construct up to eight new nuclear reactors in the country, an informed source says. "Russia and Iran may sign an intergovernmental agreement this year on building from four to eight nuclear reactors, and, under the deal, the contract for the construction of the first two reactors as additions to Bushehr," the source informed of the contract’s negotiation process told Reuters on Thursday. The source noted that negotiations on the agreement are at the final stage, adding that two reactors could be constructed at the Bushehr Power Plant and six others will be built at other nuclear sites across Iran.

UK - More than one in 10 new Army recruits are boy soldiers of just 16 years old, according to the latest figures released by the Ministry of Defence. And more than one in four of all new Army recruits are under 18 – too young to be sent into combat. The figures, released last week, have sparked renewed criticism of the British Army’s use of boy soldiers. Following an outcry over the deployment of 17-year-olds to the Gulf War in 1991, and to Kosovo in 1999, the Army amended its rules stopping soldiers under 18 from being sent on operations where there was a possibility of fighting. Despite this, at least 20 soldiers aged 17 are known to have served in Afghanistan and Iraq due to errors by the MoD.

UKRAINE - A bitterly-divided Ukraine is voting on Sunday in a presidential election seen as crucial to ending months of upheaval and bloodshed that has sent the country to the brink of civil war. Ukrainians turned out en masse in the capital Kiev and the west, but in the east - in the grip of a deadly pro-Russian insurrection for weeks - most polling stations remained closed. "The first thing we must do is bring peace to all the citizens of Ukraine," said billionaire tycoon Petro Poroshenko, the clear favourite in a packed field of candidates to lead the former Soviet republic. "Armed people must leave the streets of towns and cities," he said after casting his ballot in Kiev. The West regards the vote as crucial to prevent Ukraine from disintegrating further after Russia seized the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March in retaliation for the ouster of pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych.

ISRAEL - Pope Francis prayed in silence and pressed his forehead against the wall that separates Jerusalem from the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Sunday, during a visit which Palestinians claimed as affirmation of their claim to statehood. He prayed for a few minutes at the graffiti-daubed section of the wall, beneath a watch tower manned by Israeli soldiers.