The ultimate source of the special bond between Google and the Obama White House — and modern progressive government more broadly — has been their common ethos. Both view society’s challenges today as social-engineering problems, whose resolutions depend mainly on facts and objective reasoning.

Both view information as being at once ruthlessly value-free and yet, when properly grasped, a powerful force for ideological and social reform. And so both aspire to reshape Americans’ informational context, ensuring that we make choices based only upon what they consider the right kinds of facts — while denying that there would be any values or politics embedded in the effort.

Other OPEC members who are able to do so will soon cease their production, while the countries under sanctions (Venezuela and Iran), mingled in crises (Libya and perhaps soon Iraq) or touching the limits of their production capacity (Angola), will suffer losses with a cheaper barrel without the possibility of producing more barrels. In the camp of those who welcome the ‘Opexit’ of Russia and Saudi Arabia, there are, of course, energy-importing countries that are following the rise in their fuel prices with concern.

All this shows the obsolescence of OPEC, an organisation that is supposed to bring together the oil-exporting countries, but does not include, for example, either Russia or the United States, while including irreconcilable enemies (Iran, Saudi Arabia). Thus, despite the intervention of non-OPEC member countries, it is failing to bring balance and stability to the desired prices of both importers and exporters.

A joint statement issued by the Christian Association of Nigeria said more than 6,000 Christian worshippers - “mostly children, women and the aged” - had already been killed this year. They said: “There is no doubt that the sole purpose of these attacks is aimed at ethnic cleansing, land grabbing and forceful ejection of the Christian natives from their ancestral land and heritage. What is happening in Plateau state and other select states in Nigeria is pure genocide and must be stopped immediately.”

They said those responsible were being allowed to “go scot free” and said the Nigerian government was wrongly trying to paint the attacks as “farmers/herdsmen clashes”. The statement said: “How can it be a clash when one group is persistently attacking, killing, maiming, destroying and the other group is persistently being killed, maimed and their places of worship destroyed?”

Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, has confirmed the EU leaders agreed Italy and Greece can set up migrant centres on their soil if they want to. The European Council summit lasted so long because the group failed to agree on the final statement as Italy had temporarily blocked the adoption of the documents of the EU summit, insisting on the coordination of migration issues.

Italy has been pushing to see EU countries share the responsibility of asylum-seekers on Italian soil. Speaking of his pleasure at a deal on migration being reached, Italy's new hardline Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said: “Italy is no longer alone after this EU summit.”

"After nine hours of discussions, an agreement has been found. It is European cooperation that has won the day," Macron said as he left talks that began on Thursday evening and lasted until dawn on Friday. He added: “Europe will have to live with migratory pressures for a long time.”

This could happen just as Italy’s Lega-Five Star insurgents force a budget showdown with the EU, threatening to set off a chain of events that ultimately leads to euro rupture and a Lex Monetae default on vast German credits. Both sagas may well intrude before the final Brexit summit in October. A "no deal" breakdown would then start to have an existential feel for Germany. Its car industry sells 770,000 vehicles a year to the UK, more than to the US and China combined. Britain is their profit cash-cow.

There might be a spontaneous "patriotic" boycott of German cars by UK consumers in such circumstances. Tariffs each way, plus "rules of origin" requirements, would break Volkswagen’s and BMW’s supply chains. They would have to switch from Continental to UK subcontractors as fast as possible to protect their sunk costs in UK plants. Eurointelligence says the combined effect of Trumpian tariffs and a Brexit bust-up would amount to “cardiac arrest” for the core industry of the German economy, already reeling from the diesel scandal and struggling to keep up on electric cars.

Of the three threats, Brexit is by far the easiest to defuse. Theresa May is bending over backwards to avoid a clash. Yet Berlin has chosen to take a maximalist ideological position despite the enormous risk. The German elites have come to believe their own rhetoric about the sacral qualities of the single market and the EU Project, even if a cynic might think it cover for mercantilist advantage. 

Amid the barrage of demands on Mrs May over recent days, we have a gem from the German Federation of Industry (BDI): “The United Kingdom is Hurtling Towards a Disorderly Brexit”. Britain “has to accept” – note the imperial tone – the customs union, the single market, and EU law under the sway of the European Court. There is no glimmer or recognition that both the Tories and Labour fought the last election on manifestos rejecting such outcomes, and that violating this is a capital crime.

One year on, the EU has done all of these things to Britain. It has divided and ruled Britain’s panicking political classes. It wants us to contribute to the defence of Europe, while excluding us from its information-sharing schemes and Galileo, the satellite system. France is using Brexit to build its own special relationship with America. Northern Ireland is being used to tie us in to the single market and customs union. And while Britain is not ready for a “no deal” Brexit, the EU is upping its own preparations for that outcome.

After meeting with Israel’s leaders, the prince opened his visit by paying tribute to the millions who perished in the Holocaust at Yad Vashem, the national memorial site and museum dedicated to the horrors of the genocide inflicted on Europe’s Jews. When visiting the prime minister’s residence, the Duke of Cambridge met Edith and Phillipe Cohen, two descendants of people sheltered by Princess Alice, the Duke’s great-grandmother, during the Holocaust. For her bravery and kindness, Princess Alice was recognized by Yad Vashem as being one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” who acted in a spirit of solidarity and humanity.

In the next few weeks alone, he is trying to seal off Europe from asylum seekers arriving by sea, orchestrate a summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin and, critics say, undermine Germany's Angela Merkel, the most consequential European leader of the past decade. The 63-year-old, four-term Merkel could see her government collapse as soon as this weekend. If it does, she will have mutinous members of her own conservative bloc to blame.

But equally important will be the role of Kurz, who has repeatedly appeared in public with the German rebels to bolster their zero-tolerance immigration stance and not so subtly take aim at his fellow chancellor. "You don't do what he's doing if you don't want to be part of the conflict," said Cengiz Günay, deputy director of the Austrian Institute for International Affairs. "It looks like he's interfering in German politics."

Fortunately for Kurz, migration is the issue of the moment in Europe. And he's proven adept at channeling the continent's angst with a Fortress Europe-esque plan to halt the flow of asylum seekers across the Mediterranean that he has said will be at the center of his agenda when Austria takes over the rotating European Union presidency Sunday. "For years, if you wanted to call Europe, you had to call Merkel," he said. "Now there's been a change."

Mr Ushakov told reporters: “This meeting has been planned for a long time. It is being discussed through closed channels. We will announce details of its time and place with our American counterparts tomorrow." He added: “It has enormous importance for Russia and America, but it (also) has huge importance for the whole international situation. I think it will be the main international event of the summer."

But news of the meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Putin has sparked concerns that if the US President agrees to relax or abolish existing US sanctions, Europeans may face calls to act and do the same. The plans also come amid concerns over Mr Trump’s commitment to NATO and his desire to restore and improve relations with Moscow even as Washington tightens sanctions.

Mr Putin’s foreign policy aide also spoke of a potential joint declaration at the summit on improving relations between Moscow and Washington and security. US National Security Advisor John Bolton said in a press conference in Moscow today: “Both President Trump and Putin feel it’s important to get together and discuss their problems and I think it’s something both feel will contribute to their bilateral relationship and stability around the world.”