EUROPE - The EU has launched a new investigation into Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, over its alleged failure to protect children from harmful content. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm tasked with proposing new laws and policies, said on Thursday that it has opened formal proceedings to assess whether Meta may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to the protection of minors. Adopted in 2022, the DSA aims to create a safer digital space where the fundamental rights of users are protected.

USA - Billionaire investor Ray Dalio has raised concerns about the future of the United States, saying the current political climate has created a one-in-three chance for “civil war.” In an interview with The Financial Times this week, Mr Dalio described how the polarization of American politics has contributed to an extremely “turbulent” time in history. “We are now on the brink,” Mr Dalio told the news outlet, adding that he sees a 35 to 40 percent probability of a second civil war. He clarified that the “civil war” he sees is not one where people “grab guns and start shooting” but one where people stop seeing the middle ground in politics. Contentious election cycles are becoming more common, which contributes to the growing rift between both political parties.

MIDDLE EAST - Peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas have been put on hold over major disagreements, Israeli broadcaster Kan has reported, citing anonymous sources. Haaretz has confirmed the “impasse” in the talks, which were mediated by Qatar and Egypt. While Qatari, Egyptian and US middlemen have for months been trying to get the two belligerents to agree to a ceasefire, so far these efforts have apparently been fruitless. In its report on Friday, Kan alleged that the negotiations “are not taking place at the moment” since “Egypt and Qatar have adopted the position of Hamas.” According to the media outlet, the mediators suggested sealing a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages. Sheikh Al Thani noted that “there is one party that wants to end the war and then talk about the hostages, and there is another party who wants the hostages and wants to continue the war.”

VATICAN - Pope Francis has called on the Biden regime to keep the US southern border with Mexico “wide open” because “it’s the Christian thing to do”. In an discussion with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell, the Pontiff sat down to give the first-ever inteview with an American TV network. In a clip released ahead of the interview’s release, O’Donnell asks Francis what he thinks of efforts to secure the US southern border and prevent illegals from flooding the US.

IRAN - The crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi — feared to have killed all aboard — jolted an already tense Mideast and raised major questions about the future of the Islamic Republic in a region where Iran is a major financier of terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Officials early Monday declared that there were no signs of life at the crash site in the mountainous area near Iran’s border with Azerbaijan. "President Raisi's helicopter was completely burned in the crash ... unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead," one Iranian official told Reuters.

VATICAN - Pope Francis told CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell that conservatives are willfully blind and manifest a “suicidal attitude” in their narrowmindedness. In an interview set to air Sunday on 60 Minutes, the pope asserts that a conservative “is someone who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude. One thing is to take tradition into account and consider situations from the past but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box,” he adds. Pope Francis has never hidden his disdain for Americans, and, in August 2023, he publicly lamented the “backwardism” of conservative Catholics in the United States. "The situation is not easy in the United States, where there is a very strong reactionary attitude,” the pontiff told a group of Jesuits. “It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally.”

EUROPE - Car manufacturers are slowing their transition to producing electric vehicles (EVs), because of low customer demand and production problems. Mercedes-Benz announced to investors in March of this year that it is going back on its pledge to sell only fully electric cars by 2030. Instead, investors were told that the company plans to continue to make gasoline-powered cars well into the next decade. Fully electric cars and hybrids will account for only up to half of its sales by 2030. It appears that carmakers are suffering after committing wholeheartedly to the ideological fad of EVs, rather than introducing them as a rival product in their combustion engine-dominated competitive market. While electric cars sales exploded in northern Europe several years ago, due largely to generous government subsidies backed by EU funds, sales of plug-in electric vehicles have been weaker than expected in other markets. Some more publically than others, carmakers are beginning to admit to this trend.

GERMANY - A shocking video of multiple people attacking each other in the street with machetes has many pointing out that it shows how out of control mass immigration is in Germany. The footage was captured in the German city of Leipzig and shows foreign groups in a running battle in broad daylight, ironically in a crime ridden part of the city that has the only “weapon ban” zone in the entire state. The video shows one man chopping at another with a huge machete as others crazily run around fighting. Remarkably no one was killed. “That is why we are observing the trend that machetes continue to be used, but only strike with the blunt side. Or the machetes are sometimes only dragged across the ground to threaten, the resulting loud clanging noise is intended to intimidate the opponent.” The head of a German rail union warns that the country’s train system is turning into a “battleground” thanks to a wave of violence and intimidation being unleashed by male asylum seekers against female staff.

IRAN - US officials have confirmed that Israel has carried out military operations against Iran. The officials said Israel warned the Biden administration earlier on Thursday that a strike was coming in the next 24 to 48 hours. According to CNN, the Israelis assured their US counterparts that Iran’s nuclear facilities would not be targeted. Iranian state media reported that air defence batteries had been activated after reports of explosions near a major airbase close to the city of Isfahan. The Iranian government appeared to play down the scale of the attack, with a senior commander in Iran’s army saying there was no damage in Isfahan, according to state TV. At the G7 foreign ministers meeting Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, declined to comment on whether the US had any warning of Israel’s plans to strike Iran this morning but said: “The United States has not been involved in any offensive operations”. He also said Washington was committed to de-escalating tensions in the region.

ISRAEL - Israel issued the stern warning to the international community as it strongly denied charges of genocide following a hearing in front of the International Court of Justice. Foreign Minister Israel Katz reiterated his country has the right to defend itself as he responded to charges of genocide the South African government lodged with the International Court of Justice. Following a second day of hearings in The Hague, Katz said: "I commend our Israeli legal team for representing us with honour and pride at the International Court of Justice in The Hague against South Africa’s display of hypocrisy." He added: "No force will prevent Israel from exercising its right to self-defence. We will continue to fight on the legal, political, and military fronts until all 132 of our hostages return to their loved ones."

USA - The United States last week announced it would withhold the shipment of certain types of weapons to Israel in a bid to get Netanyahu to change his plans for Rafah. Joe Biden withholding weapons from Israel won't keep Tel Aviv from pursuing its plans for Rafah but only "emboldens Hamas and Iran," a former Israeli intelligence official claimed. The Biden administration confirmed last week it had decided to withhold the shipment of certain weapons until Israel proposed plans for its Rafah operation guaranteeing the protection to Palestinian civilians. Israel gave the order to over 100,000 residents to leave the area ahead of resuming heaving bombardments last week. Despite Biden halting the shipment of the weapons, Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is ready to continue hunting down Hamas members alone.

EUROPE - Concerns have been raised over Russian disinformation on social media as millions across Europe prepare to vote. Tens of millions of people across Europe are set to head to the ballot box in early June for the 2024 European Elections. People living across the 27-member bloc are casting their first votes for the European Parliament since Brexit, with hundreds of MEP seats up for grabs from Portugal to Bulgaria and from Finland to Malta. However, concerns have been raised about misinformation being used by Russia - currently at loggerheads with many European countries following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine - to influence the results. Research reported by the Observer newspaper this weekend suggests a vast pro-Russia progaganda campaign is being waged on social media - with users in France and Germany amongst those targeted.

EUROPE - Electric car disaster as EU ports fill up with 100,000s of Chinese models no one wants. Chinese EV companies have aggressively targeted European markets as they look to take advantage of the EU's green agenda. Major EU ports are almost full to capacity with Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) that no one wants to buy. A slump in sales across Europe has caused parking lots at the Belgian ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge to fill up with the Chinese imports. In an effort to encourage drivers to go green, many EU states have offered generous incentives using millions of euros of taxpayers' money. Yet EV sales in March slumped by 11.3 percent overall across the EU, with purchases in Germany down by as much as 28.9 percent.

FRANCE - France will struggle to prevent drones from disrupting this summer’s Olympic Games, experts warned last night. More than 300,000 spectators are expected to line up along the banks of the river Seine in July, as 10,000 athletes sail along on some 160 barges in the first ever opening ceremony not held inside a stadium. Last year, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin singled out drones as "without doubt the main threat to be dealt with", and the threats are numerous. While France's national security alert is already at maximum level following an attack on a concert venue in Moscow in March, for which Islamic State claimed responsibility, memories of the 1972 terror attack on the Munich Games by the Palestinian Black September group are uppermost in organisers minds. So, too, is the prospect of Russian or Iranian attacks using drone swarms. or even disruption from environmental groups.

UK - Olive oil prices have skyrocketed by 39 per cent in the last year heaping more misery on cash-strapped families battling to afford the weekly shopping bill. Shoppers browsing the shelves for the product, a staple in pasta dishes and salads for households across the country, have recently seen the cost of the more expensive extra virgin variety hit a whopping £20 a bottle. Over the last 12 months, olive oil has soared in price more than any other food or drink item, with one litre now setting consumers back £8.04 compared with £5.78 in 2023 and just £3.54 in 2021, according to Office for National Statistics data. Poor harvests across the Mediterranean thanks to a combination of extreme weather, disease and drought have driven up the price of the oil in the UK. This has even led to criminals flooding the market with counterfeit olive oil, diluted with sunflower, lamp or canola oil, with 450 litres seized near Lisbon, Portugal, earlier this week, according to the Food and Economic Security Authority.