UK - There are several billion barrels of oil in shale rocks under large parts of southern England, a report published later is expected to say. But getting the oil out of the ground will involve the controversial process known as fracking. The study by the British Geological Survey (BGS) covers areas including Sussex, Hampshire, Surrey and Kent. The government is planning to offer more compensation for towns affected by fracking, according to press reports. A series of reports has concluded that locally, fracking for oil and gas is relatively benign, if done with care. But reports continue to emerge from the USA and Australia about careless fracking polluting air and water.

USA - The head of the FBI says he understands why people worry about the scope of the government's powers, and in fact, he agrees with them. “I believe people should be suspicious of government power. I am,” Director James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning. “I think this country was founded by people who were worried about government power so they divided it among three branches,” he added. Though the controversial surveillance raised privacy concerns and made people fret that the government was snooping on their behavior, Comey said that the FBI’s programs are run responsibly. He added that those operations had also helped to track down kidnappers and save children.

CANADA - The Anglican and United Church of Canada dialogue has issued an interim report that proposes “to explore what steps can be taken to make a mutual exchange of ministries between our two churches normative”. As a first step, the dialogue members propose to explore the interchangeability between the order of priests in the Anglican Church and ordained ministers in the United Church. The interim report, prepared in January, has been received by the respective churches and was published May 20. Approving the proposal, the two churches have asked the dialogue to report on its progress in time for the Anglican General Synod in 2016.

CHINA - There was some trepidation yesterday when, after the first day of Putin's visit to China, the two countries did not announce the completion of the long-awaited "holy grail" gas deal, and fears that it may get scuttled over price negotiations. It wasn't: moments ago Russia's Gazprom and China's CNPC announced, that after a decade of negotiations, the two nations signed a 30 year gas contract amounting to around $400 billion. And with the west doing all it can to alienate Russia and to force it into China's embrace, this is merely the beginning of what will be a far closer commercial (and political) relationship between China and Russia.

UK - Nick Clegg has defended the Prince of Wales over his comparison of Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler, saying the heir to the throne is 'entitled to his views' despite warnings from a Russian newspaper the remarks could “trigger an international scandal”. The Prince caused controversy when he told a woman in Canada that the Russian president "is doing just about the same as Hitler" in annexing Crimea in the Ukraine. Popular Russian daily paper Moskovskij Komsomolets (MK) said the comment risked complicating already "not unclouded" UK-Russian relations.

UK - Online auction site eBay is telling all 233 million of its users to change their passwords following a "cyber attack" which compromised a database of account information. Names, email addresses, home address, phone numbers and dates of birth of all users have been stolen by hackers, the company admits. But it reassured users in a blog post today that no financial data was accessed and that all credit card information is stored separately in an encrypted format. "Our customers are our highest priority; and to ensure they continue to have a safe, secure and trusted experience on eBay, we will be asking all eBay users to change their passwords," the company told the Telegraph this afternoon.

EUROPE - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM), HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and Credit Agricole SA (ACA) were accused today by the European Union’s antitrust arm of colluding to manipulate interbank lending rates. The trio received antitrust complaints alleging they participated in a cartel to rig Euribor. The so-called statement of objections is the next step in the EU enforcement process after the lenders dropped out of settlement talks last year. The European Commission “has concerns that the three banks may have taken part in a collusive scheme which aimed at distorting the normal course of pricing components for euro interest rate derivatives,” it said in an e-mailed statement.

USA - If you believe that the US economy is heading in the right direction, you really need to read this article. As we look toward the second half of 2014, there are economic red flags all over the place. Industrial production is down. Home sales are way down. Retail stores are closing at the fastest pace since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. US household debt is up substantially, and in 20 percent of all US families everyone is unemployed. In so many ways, what we are witnessing right now is so similar to what we experienced during the build up to the last great financial crisis. We are making so many of the very same mistakes that we made the last time, and yet our "leaders" seem completely oblivious to what is happening. But the warning signs are very clear.

USA - The White House will be “picking up the pace on executive actions,” as Congress focuses its efforts on the newly formed select committee investigating Benghazi, senior Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer declared Tuesday. In an op-ed for The Huffington Post, Pfeiffer argued that congressional Republicans are not interested in engaging on the economy, instead spending time “obsessively trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act” and “ginning up politically motivated investigations.” “Given this dynamic, President Obama has only one option — use every ounce of his authority to unilaterally improve economic security,” Pfeiffer said. “Next week, as congressional Republicans spend their energy on yet another partisan investigation, we'll be picking up the pace on the executive actions to help the economy,” Pfeiffer added.

EUROPE - When it meets on June 6, Spiegel has learned, the European Central Bank may implement a negative interest rate for financial institutions seeking to park their money at the Frankfurt powerhouse. The move is aimed at spurring loans. European Central Bank executive board member Peter Praet of Germany is expected to recommend that the bank cut its main refinancing rate from the current 0.25 percent to a record low of 0.15 percent when the bank's Governing Council meets on June 5.

IRAQ/SYRIA - Out of the crucible of the Syrian civil war and the discontent in Iraq’s Sunni regions, something new is emerging. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is no longer a state in name only. It is a physical, if extra-legal, reality on the ground. Unacknowledged by the world community, ISIS has carved a de facto state in the borderlands of Syria and Iraq. Stretching in a long ellipse roughly from al-Raqqah in Syria to Fallujah in Iraq (with many other non-contiguous “islands” of control in both Iraq and Syria), this former Al Qaeda affiliate holds territory, provides limited services, dispenses a form of justice (loosely defined), most definitely has an army, and flies its own flag. The United States has reacted to this reality indecisively, with policy split in half by the official, if no longer functional, internationally recognized border between Syria and Iraq. But the reality of a de facto jihadist state is not a state of affairs that can be long tolerated.

NORTH KOREA - A new image analysis suggests that North Korea has dramatically sped up the pace of work on construction projects at its main missile launch site. Commercial satellite photographs taken as recently as May 10 have revealed notable progress on "a number of important construction projects" at the Dongchang-ri rocket site, said image experts Nick Hansen and Jack Liu in a Tuesday report for 38 North. "While it is too soon to make a definitive judgment on their purpose, one working hypothesis is that the North is building a new complex to conduct future training and launches for mobile missiles such as the KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missile," the experts said.

USA/JORDAN - Roughly 6,000 US troops will take part in this year’s “Eager Lion” exercise in Jordan from May 25 to June 8, a Defense Department spokesman said. Eager Lion involves a total of more than 12,500 troops from more than 20 countries, Commander William Speaks told Military Times on Tuesday. The major US units taking part include the Army’s 17th Field Artillery Brigade, 1st Armored Division; the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade; elements of the Navy’s Task Force 51/59; and the 407th Air Expeditionary Group. The US troops taking part in the exercise will not stay in Jordan for military operations in the region, said Army Lieutenant Colonel T G Taylor, a spokesman for US Central Command.

WASHINGTON, USA - An old-fashioned turf war is brewing in the US Senate over one of the country’s most controversial counterterrorism tools: control over America’s armed drone program. Longtime Senate Armed Services Committee member Senator John McCain, Republican for Arizona, told CongressWatch last week that he hopes to insert into the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) language that would give the Defense Department control over the program. McCain and other pro-military members want to give the military operational and budgetary control over the drone program, which for years has been the backbone of President Obama’s targeted-killing campaign against al-Qaida and similar groups.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, head of the Temple Institute, told Arutz Sheva that in recent days he received a letter from security sources requesting that he not "disturb the quiet" near King David's Tomb during the upcoming visit of Pope Francis, starting next Sunday. "This Shabbat there will be a prayer rally in the David's Tomb Compound," said the rabbi, adding "unfortunately I got a notice from the Defense Department. They're trying to frighten me like this was Russia."