GERMANY - Germany is teetering on edge of an economic crisis as Europe’s biggest economy sinks in to an “inevitable” recession, an analyst has warned. Patrick Hussy, managing director of the Frankfurt investment boutique Sentix, issued the warning after a sub-index for Germany plunged to -4.8 from last month’s -0.7, its lowest in almost a decade. Mr Hussy pointed blame towards trade frictions, with Germany being particularly sensitive to movements in the United States-China trade war, as well as political uncertainty surrounding Britain leaving the European Union (EU). He said political uncertainty regarding who will be the next European Commission President amid claims Germany’s Ursula Von Der Leyen will take the top job was also contributing to Germany’s economic woes.

GERMANY - Jean-Claude Juncker’s successor revealed today she wants Britain to scrap Brexit and become part of her arch-federalist plans for the European Union. Asked how she plans to handle Brexit, the German said: “We all know that we want you to remain, but I know how the facts are and I think it is very important that the way things go on, I hope for a good development, but in case we’re going to have a Brexit, I’m convinced it is crucial how the tone and attitude with which Brexit happens. Brexit is not the end of something, Brexit is the beginning of future relations, and it’s of absolute importance.” In a warning to Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, Ms von der Leyen said it was for British politicians to “sort out things out”. Brexit Party MEP Michael Heaver said: “Those in Brussels need to understand one thing very clearly: the British people believe in Brexit now more than ever. That’s proven by the fact that myself and 28 other Brexit Party MEPs were elected making us the largest single party in the European Parliament.”

IRAN - Iran could sink US ships and target US military bases, claimed a Revolutionary Guards commander. He said: "American bases are within the range of our missiles. Our missiles will destroy their aircraft carriers if they make a mistake. Americans are very well aware of the consequences of a military confrontation with Iran." US-used bases and facilities in the region include 4 in Afghanistan, 2 in Bahrain, 1 in Israel, 4 in Kuwait, 2 in Oman, 2 in Qatar, 1 in Syria, 2 in Turkey and 3 in the United Arab Emirates. Amid the increasing tensions, officials from within the US have accused Iran of already plotting attacks.

USA - A sprawling Navy base near Ridgecrest remained closed to nonessential personnel Tuesday as the military worked to determine damage. Teams had so far surveyed just 10% of the 1,200 facilities at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, spokeswoman Margo Allen said. It was unclear when personnel and their families will be able to return. Water and gas service had been restored at the base, but engineers were ensuring buildings were safe to enter. The shaking cracked walls in a chapel and school and brought down commissary shelves, Allen said. “Everything came off the walls. There’s a lot of cleaning up that still has to happen,” she said. Officials said most employees live off base, mainly in Ridgecrest. Some personnel were evacuated to the naval base in Ventura County. Officials were still reviewing damage Tuesday in communities outside the base.

USA - Facebook has issued an ominous new policy permitting death threats and calls for violence – so long as they’re directed against “dangerous” individuals or organizations, or someone accused (but not convicted) of a crime. Facebook has updated its “community standards” to carve out a few exceptions to its “no death threats” policy. Calls for “high-severity violence” are now permitted, as long as they’re directed at individuals “covered in the Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy” or individuals “described as having carried out violent crimes or sexual offenses” by media reports. After all, are people banned from Facebook really people at all? While the “Dangerous Individuals” policy supposedly only covers “terrorist activity, organized hate, mass or serial murder, human trafficking, and organized violence or criminal activity,” none of the commentators banned - including Watson, Jones, conservative political performance artist Milo Yiannopoulos, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan – were involved in any of those activities.

USA - Twitter will begin deleting tweets that contain “dehumanizing language towards religious groups,” the first step in a content policing overhaul that promises to get complicated. Starting Tuesday, the social media platform will remove reported tweets that directly attack religious groups with “dehumanizing language.” The new policy comes almost a year after Twitter asked for feedback to help update its hate speech rules. Protecting religious groups is the first step towards protecting all “marginalized groups,” it said on Tuesday. Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube have all been accused by conservatives of enforcing their policies selectively and of harboring a liberal bias.

USA - An area of low pressure is likely to develop in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

- It will eventually strengthen into Tropical Storm Barry and may become a hurricane before landfall this weekend.

- Hurricane, tropical storm and storm-surge watches have been issued on the northern Gulf Coast. The track of future Barry remains a bit uncertain.

- A major threat of rainfall flooding is in play over the northern Gulf Coast and lower Mississippi Valley.

- Storm-surge flooding is also likely, particularly to the east of future Barry's track.

UK - Kim Darroch has resigned as the British ambassador to the US after memos where he attacked Donald Trump as "inept" were leaked. In a letter to the head of the Foreign Office, Sir Simon McDonald, Sir Kim said the current situation had made it "impossible" for him to carry out his job. He said he believed it was "responsible" for a new ambassador to take his place. He wrote: "Since the leak of official documents from this Embassy there has been a great deal of speculation surrounding my position and the duration of my remaining term as ambassador. I want to put an end to that speculation. The current situation is making it impossible for me to carry out my role as I would like. Mr Johnson described Sir Kim as a "superb diplomat and I worked with him for many years". He said: "I think whoever leaked his diptels really has done a grave disservice to our civil servants, to people who give impartial advice to ministers. I hope that whoever it is, is run down, caught and eviscerated...”

USA - President Trump said the White House would no longer deal with the British ambassador to the US, Kim Darroch, after the publication of confidential cables in which he disparaged Mr Trump’s administration as “clumsy and inept.” Mr Trump broadened his criticism to include Prime Minister Theresa May, whom he accused of botching Britain’s negotiations to leave the European Union. “What a mess she and her representatives have created,” Mr Trump said on Twitter. “I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way.” Mr Trump’s rebuke of Mr Darroch came close to declaring him persona non grata — an extraordinary breach between the US and one of its closest allies.

USA - Long-scheduled talks between US and UK trade officials were suddenly called off amid a scandal involving British Ambassador to the US Kim Darroch and his scathing criticism of President Donald Trump revealed in private memos. US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross called off the planned meeting with his British counterpart Liam Fox, solely on the expectation that Ambassador Darroch would attend, a Trump administration source told the Washington Examiner. The source added that the leaks had opened a “rift” in the White House, which continues to grow. In a string of communiques between London and the ambassador, which were made public this week, Darroch described Trump at different times as “inept,” “incompetent” and “insecure.” In one cable, the ambassador opined that the US administration remained “dysfunctional” and “diplomatically clumsy,” among other unflattering descriptors.

UK - Britain’s establishment is scrambling to limit the damage caused by a leak of the UK ambassador’s classified criticism of Donald Trump, even if it’s clear that most of them agree with it. In fact, the outrage caused by the views of Britain’s man in Washington being publicly aired underlines what most of us know – that honesty has absolutely no place in international relations. Sir Kim Darroch called Trump, among other things, “incompetent,” “inept,” and “clumsy.” That all looks pretty rich now that his innermost thoughts on the one man he is supposed to be buttering up have been released for all to see. However it happened, it does seem clumsy and inept. Almost Trumpian, allegedly. Make no mistake, this is the mainstream view of Britain’s snobbish and superior political class, but the anger is directed at the act of leaking and not at the views held by the ambassador.

EUROPE - Mogherini successor Josep Borrell last year denounced Netanyahu’s ‘warlike arrogance’ and advocated for unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood. Israeli officials are warily following the changing of the guard at the European Union, where someone who has recently floated the idea of unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood and has expressed strong support for Iran was tapped to be its next foreign policy chief. On Tuesday, the European Council nominated Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell Fontelles, a member of the country’s ruling Socialist Workers’ Party, as the EU’s top diplomat, Borrell, a veteran statesman who has been in politics since 1993, is seen as very critical of Israel. “More difficult times are ahead between the EU and Israel I fear,” tweeted Bas Belder, a Dutch member of the European Parliament and veteran pro-Israel advocate.

USA - Strangely, the media have suddenly taken an intense interest in the case of pedophile and major Democratic donor Jeffrey Epstein. In 2005, the Palm Beach police were told by the mother of a young girl in West Palm Beach that her daughter had been brought to the Democratic donor’s mansion and asked to have sex with him for money. This kicked off an intensive, one-year undercover investigation. But recently, the very news outlets that spiked any news about this case for the past 13 years are suddenly hot on the trail of Jeffrey Epstein.

USA - The establishment media is attempting to link President Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein without any evidence connecting him to the underage sex trafficking case against the billionaire hedge fund manager. Immediately following a Daily Beast report revealing Epstein’s Saturday arrest, a handful of news figures and outlets posted social media posts and stories painting a picture that the wealthy investor’s arrest was bad news for President Trump — with one editor even going as far to suggest he could be directly implicated in the case. In a Monday op-ed titled “Epstein Arrest Is a Worry for Donald Trump,” O’Brien speculated that the hedge fund manager has damaging information on the president.

CANADA - Disagree with gender transition practices? Ontario just passed a law that will allow them to seize children of parents that are not supportive of their child’s “gender identity” or “gender expression.” The Supporting Children, Youth and Families Act of 2017, or Bill 89, was approved by a vote of 63 to 23, “I would consider that a form of abuse, when a child identifies one way and a caregiver is saying no, you need to do this differently,” Minister of Child and Family Services Michael Coteau, who introduced the bill, was quoted as saying. “If it’s abuse, and if it’s within the definition, a child can be removed from that environment and placed into protection where the abuse stops.”