EUROPE - The European Union’s defense industry has partially switched to a war economy, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton has said. Kiev could face a “dangerous period” this year as the focus of Western politicians backing it has now turned to the European Parliament elections on June 6-9 and US presidential election on November 5, Breton explained in an interview with French broadcaster BFMTV on Monday.

USA - Former US State Department Middle East negotiator Aaron Miller warned of a Hamas resurgence as Israel's Gaza strategy falters. A former US Middle East negotiator has given a stark warning regarding Hamas, suggesting that Israel's strategy in the region has "broken down". In a chilling three-word warning, Mr Miller told France24 that, in some form: "Hamas will survive." He emphasised the group's resilience and its potential to shape Palestinian politics both in Gaza and beyond. "[Hamas] is likely to continue to play a critical role in the formation of Palestinian politics, both in Gaza and perhaps even beyond that given the weakness of the Palestinian Authority."

VATICAN - Pope Francis has denounced “arguing” about liturgical details as contrary to the Christian faith not long after drastically restricting the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass. “Showing a grave lack of respect for the Blessed Sacrament – the Sacrament of charity and unity – by arguing about the details of how to celebrate the Eucharist, the pinnacle of his presence among us, is incompatible with the Christian faith,” the pontiff told members of the Syro-Malabar Church, an Eastern Catholic Church based in Kerala, India. In his address, the pope underscored the importance of holding onto liturgical traditions in the face of a rapidly changing world, advice that may seem ironic and perhaps a little cruel to those who love the Traditional Latin Mass.

MIDDLE EAST - A Palestinian columnist writing in Arabic in a Qatai newspaper declared this week: “We do not want a ceasefire, we want ongoing war. Victory is at hand.” Palestinian journalist Samir Al-Barghouti, writing in the Qatari daily Al-Watan, as translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), made the case for war to continue as a means to highlight the Palestinian cause. Al-Barghouti argued that the world had forgotten about the Palestinians until the October 7 terror attack, but now — thanks to the spectacular violence, and to protests in the west, the “free world” is united behind the Palestinians:

USA - Illegal immigration that has exploded under President Joe Biden has driven the biggest surge in the foreign population in America ever recorded. According to the Census Bureau, 15.6% of the US population is now foreign-born. A Center for Immigration Studies analysis of the new census numbers said Biden’s open border policies have fed the increase. “In March 2024, the foreign-born population reached 51.6 million, 5.1 million more than in March 2022 — the largest two-year increase ever recorded in American history,” the report said. It added that nearly 60% of the increase is from illegal immigration. And significantly, less than half of those who crossed the border over the past two years have jobs, greatly raising the likelihood that taxpayers are footing the bill for them to be in the country. “The current scale of immigration (legal and illegal) into the United States is without any precedent in the nation’s history,” the new CIS report said.

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations has seemingly revised the estimated number of women and children it believes have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s war on Hamas, blaming the “fog of war” for the mistake. In a graphic featured within OCHA’s recent daily briefing on May 6th, it was claimed that approximately 9,500 women had lost their lives in the ongoing conflict. The organization also cited data sourced from the Hamas-administered Ministry of Health in Gaza asserting that since hostilities began last October, roughly 14,500 children had been killed. Yet just two days later, the UN agency appeared to revise these figures significantly downward in its subsequent report. The updated data indicated that approximately 4,959 women and 7,797 children had lost their lives.

SAUDI ARABIA - Saudis are keen to end their engagement in Yemen and US needs Saudi support to end Gaza conflict. US determination to keep Saudi Arabia engaged in a peace process with Israel has led Washington to give Riyadh an informal green light to try to revive a peace deal with the Houthis, the Yemen-based rebels who have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November. The proposed Yemen UN roadmap for peace was agreed in outline in early December but progress was immediately frozen as the Houthis escalated their campaign of attacks in the Red Sea in what they billed as an act of solidarity with Palestine.

UK - “Protecting Our Democracy From Coercion” is the title of a report which should appear next week, by Lord Walney, the Government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption. His project is complementary to the Prime Minister’s remarks about insecurity, which he made at Policy Exchange yesterday. I am glad the word “coercion” is in the report’s title. That is what the public hate. Few want protests banned: they accept demonstrations as part of free speech. But many feel that the recent extremist protests – often large, repeated and borderline violent – have an intentionally coercive effect. The most significant example is the Gaza marches, which have been pretty much weekly in London since October, and the related campus protests.

USA - Concerns are growing among energy analysts, executives, and media outlets covering the energy space about the feasibility of the Biden administration’s efforts to subsidize an energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables into reality. Big power demands to supply electric vehicle (EV) recharging, crypto mining operations, and renewable industrial growth needs were already straining the capacities of America’s regional power grids. But now, the explosive growth of AI and its insatiable thirst for electricity threatens to overwhelm them. Grid managers and state regulators are already working to extend permits to extend the lives of these reliable baseload plants to accommodate the growth of AI-related data centers in their jurisdictions.

USA - Artificial intelligence systems are fast becoming increasingly sophisticated, with engineers and developers working to make them as “human” as possible. Unfortunately, that can also mean lying just like a person. AI platforms are reportedly learning to deceive us in ways that can have far-reaching consequences. A new study by researchers from the Center for AI Safety in San Francisco delves into the world of AI deception, exposing the risks and offering potential solutions to this growing problem. At its core, deception is the luring of false beliefs from others to achieve a goal other than telling the truth. When humans engage in deception, we can usually explain it in terms of their beliefs and desires – they want the listener to believe something false because it benefits them in some way. But can we say the same about AI systems?

UK - Britain may be forced to accept mandatory lockdowns and vaccines by power-hungry World Health Organization bureaucrats, Nigel Farage has warned. He is calling on MPs to reject a 'terrifying' WHO treaty which may allow foreign officials to impose major policy decisions on all 194 member states in any future pandemic. The former Brexit Party leader says the UK must be prepared to leave the 'failing, expensive, unelected, unaccountable' WHO to prevent it from 'running roughshod' over sovereign countries. Officials at the WHO will vote on the latest draft of the Pandemic Preparedness Treaty in Geneva next week. Republican senators in the US have also urged President Joe Biden not to sign the pandemic treaty. They said it would be 'unacceptable' to 'expand the WHO's authority over member states' during pandemics, adding that the WHO 'did lasting harm to our country' because of its failures during the pandemic.

CANADA -Officials in western Canada were bracing for “volatile wildfire activity” on Monday as an out-of-control blaze, which has already forced the evacuation of thousands, threatened to destroy a northern British Columbia town. The province’s wildfire service said the blaze was burning just 2km (1.2 miles) north-west of Fort Nelson, which has already seen about 3,500 people evacuated from there after an order to leave was issued on Friday. “We are facing some extremely challenging conditions up in the north,” BC’s emergency management minister, Bowinn Ma, told reporters on Monday. Ma said the next 48 hours will be critical for Fort Nelson, forecasted strong westerly winds and tinder-dry fuel in the forest area. Blazes in western Manitoba have forced residents near the communities of Flin Flon and The Pas to evacuate. Western fires have also prompted air quality warnings in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

USA - Does truth really matter anymore? The world’s treatment of Israel since October 7th suggests it does not. The Biden administration and European Union were equivocal from the start regarding Israel’s response to Hamas’s genocidal pogrom. Despite initially offering moral support, the Europeans immediately began exhorting Israel to respond “proportionately” while voices from the White House imperiously demanded an untenable two-state “solution.”

USA - Former Wall Street money manager Ed Dowd is a skillful financial analyst. Dowd warns the economy can fall out of bed at any time. He explains: “The economy is going to take a nosedive sometime in the next 12 months. The real economy is not doing well. The only thing that has been holding up the GDP growth is government spending. We are spending $1 trillion every 100 days. That’s adding $1 trillion to the deficit. The only job creation is government jobs, and they don’t actually add to the economy. Reports are coming out now that the low-income consumer is getting absolutely hammered. McDonald’s talked about it in their most recent earnings call. So, low-income and the middle-class are getting squeezed while the rich continue to plug along.” There is a lag in the real economy, and it’s hitting right now. It’s only going to intensify as time goes on.

UK - Britain is facing some of the most dangerous few years in its history, Rishi Sunak will say on Monday in a speech intended to frame the general election as a generational tussle for the long-term future of the country. The prime minister will give a speech in central London in which he will lay out what he believes to be at stake at the next election, as he warns the UK faces threats from international conflict, migration and technology.