FRANCE - French President Emmanuel Macron is upsetting his European neighbours in a wasted effort to uphold an obsolete Schengen system, right-wing rival Nicolas Dupont-Aignan has declared. He said: “What’s interesting about the current situation is that, beyond the controversies, recent events spell the end of Schengen. That’s it, it’s over.” The Schengen agreement enables passport-free travel in much of the EU, but is heavily criticised by eurosceptics, who say that free movement rules and the bloc’s porous borders have exacerbated the EU’s illegal immigration problem. He said: “National borders will be re-established in Europe, and so much the better.” Mrs Merkel’s “open-door” migration policy saw more than 1.6 million refugees flood into Germany since the start of 2015, and is widely blamed for the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

CHINA - US forces can’t protect Taiwan from ultimate unification with China, the communist regime’s diplomatic team emphasized Tuesday. “It won't work even if they try to bank on foreign forces to build themselves up,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters. “We hope certain people in Taiwan could correctly understand the development trend of China and its national unity as well as the evolvement of international circumstance,” he said, “and stop moving further down the wrong path.” China regards Taiwan — the last outpost of the nationalist government that was overthrown by the communists after the Second World War — as a breakaway province. That status between the two sides has been in a delicate balance for decades, with the United States declining to give formal recognition to Taiwan and yet providing the island government with military aid.

GERMANY - As political snubs go, this one is a doozy*. German newspaper Die Welt is reporting that the Bavarian conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party is not planning any campaign appearances with Angela Merkel, the head of Germany's main conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Instead the Bavarians are planning to invite a foreign guest, Austria's conservative chancellor, Sebastian Kurz. "There won't be a female chancellor coming to my final speech, but there will be a male chancellor," Bavarian state premier Markus Söder is quoted as saying. [*something outstanding or unique of its kind].

USA - Do you think that being asked to leave a restaurant, or having your meal interrupted, or being called by the public is bad? My fascism-enabling friends, this is only the beginning… Read a recent history book. The US had thousands of domestic bombings per year in the early 1970s. This is what happens when citizens decide en masse that their political system is corrupt, racist, and unresponsive. The people out of power have only just begun to flex their dissatisfaction. The day will come, sooner than you all think, when Trump administration officials will look back fondly on the time when all they had to worry about was getting hollered at at a Mexican restaurant.

USA - Wolf Blitzer, speaking on behalf of CNN, replied: “A lot of his supporters believe that we are the enemy of the American people, and that is really an awful situation. We are not the enemy of the American people. We love the American people.” The media loves the American people? The media may love some Americans, but certainly not Trump voters. How else to explain the increasing frequency with which Republicans, and Trump voters specifically, are described on air as racist, Nazis, and undeserving of common courtesy (such as eating a dinner without being harassed)? The frequent media invocations of "racism" and "Nazi" to describe conservatives and Republicans is leading some to worry that the media is needlessly stoking division in America, perhaps risking increased episodes of harassment and violence.

NIGERIA - Muslim Fulani herdsmen massacred some 120 Christians in central Nigeria over the weekend, the majority of whom were returning from the funeral of the father of a local Christian clergyman. In an attack that lasted several hours, heavily armed gunmen identified as Fulani herdsmen open-fired on citizens in a number of villages in Plateau State, killing about 120 and injuring over 200 more as they returned from the funeral of a local Christian minister.

USA - "Think about trying to live today on the income you had 15 years ago." That's how agriculture expert Chris Hurt describes the plight facing US farmers today. The unequal economy that's emerged over the past decade, combined with patchy access to health care in rural areas, have had a severe impact on the people growing America's food. Recent data shows just how much. Farmers are dying by suicide at a higher rate than any other occupational group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The suicide rate in the field of farming, fishing and forestry is 84.5 per 100,000 people - more than five times that of the population as a whole. That's even as the nation overall has seen an increase in suicide rates over the last 30 years.

FRANCE - French butchers say they’ve had enough. Not only must they confront media coverage of the “vegan way of life,” now they say they are under assault. After a series of small but unprecedented incidents, the butchers federation says its members need protection from militants who have broken windows, thrown fake blood and sprayed graffiti on their shops. In a letter to the French Interior Ministry, the butchers wrote that “physical, verbal, and moral violence” against them was “neither more nor less than a form of terrorism.” The letter may be a touch hyperbolic — and French vegan organizations are quick to defend their movement as nonviolent — but it has struck a chord with many French who dislike being told what they should eat.

USA - It is difficult to find the words to describe just how serious America’s trade war with China is becoming.  As you will see below, the two largest economies on the entire planet are on a self-destructive course that almost seems irreversible at this point.  The only way that this trade war is going to come to a rapid conclusion is if one side is willing to totally submit and accept an extremely bitter and humiliating defeat on the global stage, and that is not likely to happen. 

USA - More than a month after the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, America's strategy for containing Iran’s nuclear program and regional expansionism remains murky. Having worked tirelessly for the agreement’s abrogation, this should be Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s finest hour. But, in practice, the Trump administration does not appear to have a coherent strategy towards Iran and is now focused on North Korea. What may be even more worrisome is that Israel, too, does not appear to have a coherent and practical strategy.

ISRAEL - Transportation minister says he has begun consulting with leaders of relevant countries regarding plan that would give Gulf easier access to Europe. “Tracks for Regional Peace” is based on the planned extension of railway tracks in northern Israel, which would link Haifa’s seaport to Jordan’s rail network, which in turn will be linked with that of Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab states.

SWEDEN - The future is coming, and it is going to look very strange. In the past, many authors had raised the possibility of tyrannical governments forcibly microchipping their own populations someday, but what if most of humanity actually embraces this new technology enthusiastically? Today, thousands of people in Sweden are eagerly having microchips inserted into their own hands, and it is rapidly becoming a natural part of society. Even in the United States, at one time there was great resistance to the idea of microchipping our pets, but now it is almost universally accepted. Personal microchips are being promoted as a way to make routine tasks faster, easier and more convenient, and Swedish “biohackers” are quite thrilled to be on the cutting edge of this new trend… At this moment technology is advancing at a pace never seen before in human history...

CHINA - With the market tumbling today on worries that the tit-for-tat trade war escalation between the US and China is now "irreversible", the WSJ just poured gas on the fire with a report that China President Xi Jinping is responding to the Trump administration’s trade-clash escalations "with a bare-knuckle approach that makes a bruising fight more likely." Citing people who were present at a meeting last Thursday between Xi and a group of 20 mostly American and European multinational chief executives, the WSJ reports that the Chinese president said that Beijing plans to strike back. “In the West you have the notion that if somebody hits you on the left cheek, you turn the other cheek,” the Chinese leader said, according to the people. “In our culture we punch back.”

USA - Planned Parenthood affiliates from around the country are suing the Trump administration for its efforts to promote sex education programs in public schools that teach young people to make healthy lifestyle decisions… The lawsuits were filed in federal courts by Planned Parenthood affiliates in New York City, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, and Washington. Planned Parenthood claims the Trump administration wants to force an “abstinence-only agenda” on young people. “Young people have the right to the information and skills they need to protect their health,” Dawn Laguens, vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, according to the Associated Press. “The Trump-Pence administration is trying to impose their abstinence-only agenda on young people across the country.”

USA - The nation’s largest supplier of abortions and other “women’s health” procedures, Planned Parenthood, is the subject of a new investigatory report that exposes the taxpayer-funded baby death organization as an active ally in the cover-up of rampant child sex abuse. In this report, Live Action reveals how Planned Parenthood has been aiding and abetting child rapists and sexual abusers for many decades, all while claiming to be a defender of women’s bodies. Citing eye witness accounts, court cases, video footage and direct testimony from victims, the Live Action report definitively shows how Planned Parenthood has been actively engaged in a criminal conspiracy to cover up sex crimes against young girls – many of whom were raped and abused by their fathers, brothers and other family members who forced them to get abortions.