MIDDLE EAST - Alongside their public rejection of the Israeli plan to extend sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, senior officials in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States say their leaders have met in recent months with US officials Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz and, in effect, gave them a green light to continue the work of the US-Israel mapping committee to advance the sovereignty plan.

HONG KONG - In the backdrop of a controversial Chinese "national security" law that aims to prevent "splittism," which Hong Kong's Bar Association described as a violation of the territory's Basic Law, US President Donald Trump's administration escalated tensions by stripping Hong Kong of its special trading status. The immediate impact of this move is that Hong Kong will no longer be treated as a separate entity from China when it comes to tariffs and import regulations. This has the potential to wreak immense damage on Hong Kong's economy because facilitates trade on terms not possible in other parts of China.

What's more important, however, is that the move appears to be the most dramatic escalation yet in the ongoing war of words and tariffs between the US and China, described by China's foreign minister as being on the "brink of a new cold war." If companies like Apple are cut off from access to Foxconn manufacturing plants, for instance, the consequences would be incalculable. This is a rapidly developing story...

USA - If you tried to warn people in late 2019 that about 40 million Americans would lose their jobs by the middle of 2020, nobody would have believed you… More than a quarter of all jobs in the United States have already been wiped out, and the job losses just keep on coming. In fact, Boeing is currently in the process of laying off thousands of highly skilled workers… Nearly 13,000 Boeing workers, mostly in the US, are set to lose their jobs in the coming weeks, as cuts at the American aerospace giant take effect. More layoffs are expected, some of which may affect the UK.

USA - If you have been to a grocery store lately, then you already know that prices are higher than usual and that there are shortages of certain items. Many Americans have been assuming that as COVID-19 restrictions are slowly rolled back that these shortages will eventually disappear, but now even the Washington Post is admitting that “shortages may get worse” in the weeks and months ahead.

UK - Using a satellite tag, scientists have monitored a cuckoo that has just flown more than 7,500 miles (12,000km) from southern Africa to its breeding ground in Mongolia. The bird has survived ocean crossings and high winds after traversing 16 countries. It has been, say scientists, "a mammoth journey". The satellite-tagged common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), named Onon after a Mongolian river, set off from its winter home in Zambia on 20 March. Onon is one of five Cuckoos that were satellite tagged in Mongolia last summer by the Mongolia Cuckoo Project - a joint venture between local scientists and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to monitor long-distance migration. Onon has crossed thousands of kilometres of the Indian Ocean without stopping, flying at an average speed of 60km/h and traversing countries as far apart as Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh.

GERMANY - The European Union’s top diplomat has called for the bloc to have a “more robust strategy” toward China amid signs that Asia is replacing the United States as the centre of global power. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told a gathering of German ambassadors on Monday that “analysts have long talked about the end of an American-led system and the arrival of an Asian century.”

“This is now happening in front of our eyes,” he said. Borrell said the pandemic could be seen as a turning point in the power shift from West to East, and that for the EU the “pressure to choose sides is growing.” Germany takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU in July.

UK - Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has airily dismissed US President Donald Trump’s leadership during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, instead harking back to his work alongside Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as examples of how global inter-governmental cooperation can win the day. His remarks in an interview with NBC News last Friday followed an earlier intervention in the crisis when his own globalist think tank claimed it is “embedded in governments around the world,” as Breitbart News reported. In his most recent observations, he told NBC News he was worried about the lack of global coordination in tackling the crisis. “The worry I have that an absence of global coordination and global leadership that’s necessary for it is a huge problem,” he said.

USA - Up to 94 percent of American voters say they want an economic nationalist overhaul of the United States’ economy in the wake of the Chinese coronavirus crisis, a survey reveals. A survey conducted by FTI Consulting finds that American voters overwhelmingly want economic nationalist policies implemented — including more tariffs on foreign imports, mandatory country-of-origin labeling, and a requirement that goods be made in the US.

Americans are most supportive of economic nationalist policies that mandate country-of-origin labeling so consumers are fully aware of where products are made and imported from, as well as requirements that key supplies, goods, and products be manufactured in the US. About 94 percent of Americans said they support requiring labels on each product that indicates all of the countries where the product was designed, manufactured, and assembled and indicates what percentage of the product was made in each country. Only six percent oppose the requirement.

ETHIOPIA - Ethiopia has decided unilaterally to begin filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam's reservoir on the Nile River before coming to a full agreement with Egypt. Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry wrote to UN Security Council members on May 1: "Ethiopia announcing its intention to seize the Blue Nile waters to fill the dam's reservoir in July 2020… would jeopardize the water security, food security, and indeed, the very existence of over 100 million Egyptians, who are entirely dependent on the Nile River for their livelihood." Ethiopia withdrew from US-sponsored negotiations in February and refused to sign a comprehensive agreement on the filling and operating of the dam. An official said such an agreement was actually reached and brokered by the US and the World Bank.

TURKEY - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened Israel over its new government’s plan to annex portions of the West Bank. “We are witnessing a new plan of occupation and annexation by Israel that threatens Palestinian sovereignty and is contrary to international law,” Erdogan said in a video address late Sunday for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. “We won’t allow the transfer of Palestinian land to anyone.”

“Turkey is the only voice defending the Palestinians today,” Erdogan said in the televised address. “The world order has let down the Palestinians, and has not successfully brought peace, justice, security and order to this part of the world.” Erdogan added that Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are “holy to three religions and are the red line for all Muslims in the world.”

ISRAEL - Amid US pressure, Israel taps local firm over China for $1.5 billion desalination plant. Officials cite huge expected savings in water costs and significantly better tender bid as reason IDE Technologies was awarded Sorek B project, largest of its kind worldwide. The Finance Ministry on Tuesday named a local company as the winning bidder for a $1.5 billion desalination plant contract, beating out Chinese competition amid reports of pressure from Washington. IDE Technologies will build the Sorek 2 plant south of Tel Aviv, which by 2023 should be able to produce 200 million cubic meters a year of desalinated water from the Mediterranean, a statement from the finance and energy ministries said.

ISRAEL - The attacks attempted and failed to damage the vaccine development process, but did not attempt to steal information. As a cyberattack shut down hundreds of Israeli websites last week, research centers working on a vaccine for the novel coronavirus were also targeted by a cyberattack, Channel 12 reported on Monday. Amos Yadlin, executive director of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies and former head of IDF Military Intelligence, told 103FM on Thursday that “We’ve all known for a decade already that cyber is the new dimension of war in the 21st century.”

USA - The US is planning a "massive testing effort" that will involve more than 100,000 volunteers and six of the most promising COVID-19 vaccines, sources told Reuters on Friday afternoon. The scientist in charge said the effort would hopefully narrow down vaccine candidates to one by the end of the year. The push to fast-track a vaccine is condensing at least "10 years of vaccine development and testing into a matter of months," Reuters said. The scientist said vaccine makers have "agreed to share data and lend the use of their clinical trial networks to competitors should their own candidate fail." Each vaccine that demonstrates promising preliminary data will be tested among 20,000 to 30,000 subjects starting in July.

USA - If there is a silver lining to the flawed US response to the coronavirus pandemic, it is this: The relatively high number of new cases being diagnosed daily — upward of 20,000 — will make it easier to test new vaccines. To determine whether a vaccine prevents disease, the study’s subjects need to be exposed to the pathogen as it circulates in the population. Reopening the economy will likely result in the faster spread of the coronavirus and therefore more opportunities to test a vaccine’s efficacy in trial subjects.

CHINA - China is reportedly set to deploy its two new aircraft carriers off the coast of Taiwan as it warns the US of a “new cold war”. The huge carriers, the Liaoning and Shandong, are currently engaged in combat readiness training in the tightly controlled Bohai Bay, in the Yellow Sea before sailing to join an invasion war game near Pratas Island. This will be the first time China's new aircraft carriers deploy together for the first time and the move has sparked fears in Taiwan of a possible invasion of its Pratas islands - which could then be used as a staging point for an attack on the mainland. It comes after Beijing threatened to "reunify" Taiwan in response to Donald Trump saying he could "cut off the whole relationship" with China.