ISRAEL - President Trump loves to talk tough. He loves to shock and disrupt, and to bully and brag. But bullies, as we know, are not strong; they are weak. When confrontations come, they back away. And to the extent that Trump’s foreign policy has a direction at all, it is to withdraw from overseas commitments and to extricate America from engagement abroad.

UK - Theresa May should take “inspiration” from Donald Trump in the Brexit negotiations and cast off Britain's "defeatist" attitude, according to the US ambassador to the UK. Interviewed for a new Channel 4 documentary, Woody Johnson questioned why the UK was "so nervous" about the prospects of leaving the EU, a process that in his view need not present a "major challenge". His comments come soon after Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, told a group of Tory donors that if Donald Trump was in charge of Brexit “actually you might get somewhere”. It came as Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, insisted the Treasury was not the "enemy of Brexit" but rather the “champion of prosperity for the British people…”

UK - Sell-by dates on packaged food will be reduced as a result of a nationwide shortage of carbon dioxide, the Telegraph has learnt. The gas is used in the vacuum-packing process for meat, poultry, cheese, salads and ready meals to preserve them. Industry insiders say that to avoid such products running out, they will have to be given a shorter shelf life.

EUROPE - As European officials struggle to do everything they can to save the WTO, which appears headed for an all-but-certain demise thanks to President Trump's aggressive trade policies, EU leaders have apparently circulated an "internal memo" drafted by the European Commission that accuses the US of deliberately instigating the collapse of the global trade order, and warns of an upcoming "trade apocalypse."

EUROPE - Britain is to team up with France, Germany and other willing nations to launch an initiative to co-ordinate European military deployments outside the framework of the European Union. Nine nations, including Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia, Spain and Portugal, have signed up to the so-called European Intervention Initiative (EII) - a coalition of willing states prepared to react to crises near Europe's borders without help from NATO or the United States. Speaking to Le Figaro newspaper on Sunday, Florence Parly, France's defence minister, said: "European defence needs a common strategic culture." The initiative involves "joint planning work on crisis scenarios that could potentially threaten European security", a defence ministry source said, including natural disasters, intervention in a crisis or evacuation of nationals.

USA - Before the 2016 election, people freely chose their sources for information, had discussions about the veracity and accuracy of those sources if they chose to question them, and then formed opinions based on those discussions. Now, however, this choice and discussion is quickly fading away and is being replaced by a seeming ministry of truth made up of ostensibly objective media outlets like Politifact, Snopes, and the Associated Press.

USA - Donald Trump has warned he will put pressure on his EU allies over NATO spending at this month's Brussels summit as he attacked member states for treating his country like a "piggy bank". President Trump has repeatedly hinted he may withdraw US support for NATO altogether, calling it “obsolete” and a waste of American taxpayers’ dollars. And today the US leader warned he will raise the issue once again of whether NATO allies are spending enough on defence at a NATO summit in Brussels next month. Speaking at the Nevada Republican Party state convention convention in Las Vegas, he said: “The trade stuff is coming along, just starting. But it's happening. We're a piggy bank that everybody likes to steal from.”

EUROPE - The newly-appointed Italian leader revealed his country had presented 15 leaders attending the European Union migration summit in Brussels with the new proposals. Giuseppe Conte told the press: "We are here to present the Italian proposal for a new migration policy. A completely new Italian proposal based on the new resolution paradigm to solve the migration issue. It’s called the European Multi-Level Strategy for Migration, articulated on six premises and ten objectives. It’s aimed at proposing a timely regulation and management policy to control migration flows that is truly effective and sustainable." The new proposal demands EU member states accept their share of economic migrants entering the bloc through Italian shares or face a reduction of EU money.

MEXICO - What would the United States look like right now if 113 political figures had been gunned down since last September?  Well, that is precisely what has happened in Mexico.  Once upon a time, Mexico had a thriving economy and a very stable government, but now the nation is devolving into a Mad Max society in which the drug cartels gun down any politicians that they do not like.  The murder rate has surged to the highest level ever recorded, and no end to the violence is in sight.  In fact, the drug cartels seem to just get more brutal with each passing day. 

MEXICO - Andrés Manuel López Obrador (otherwise known as “AMLO”) is about to become the next president of Mexico.  He has a seemingly insurmountable lead in the polls, and at this point it would be a complete and utter shock if anyone else were to win on July 1st.  So what he has to say is likely to become the official policy of the Mexican government in the very near future, and that is quite frightening because he is a crazed radical leftist and an extremely bold proponent of illegal immigration to the United States. 

IRAN - A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader has condemned the United States’ uninvited military presence in Syria, warning that the conflict in the country could become a second Vietnam War for Washington. Ali Akbar Velayati, a top aide on international affairs for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blamed the United States for the creation of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and said that the US military’s continued presence in Syria would result in catastrophe. Although the conflict’s complexity makes it a logistical nightmare for the occupying forces, experts questioned whether the United States would ever commit enough ground forces to make its Syria operations as catastrophic as the war in Vietnam.

GERMANY - Horst Seehofer, German Interior Minister and the head of Bavaria’s Christian Socialist Party (CSU) and Chancellor Angela Merkel have been engaged in a heated debate over the country’s immigration policy. Speaking with the newspaper Passauer Neuer Presse on Friday, Seehofer warned Angela Merkel against dismissing him as interior minister over a unilateral approach to immigration in Germany. The CSU leader elaborated that if it happened it would mark the first time that “looking after and taking care of the security and order of the country is the reason given for firing a minister.”

USA - Facebook says it is in the midst of a fight against “fake news” on its platform, but has allowed activists to raise nearly $20 million for migrants using a photo that is incorrectly said to show a daughter being separated from her mother.

VATICAN - Pope Francis urged countries yesterday to take in as many refugees as they can and to invest in migrants' home countries, especially in Africa, to stop them turning to human traffickers in desperation. Italy's new populist government is trying to reduce arrivals of rescued migrants, but the Pope praised both Italy and Greece for being 'most generous' in taking in migrants rescued at sea. 'Each country must do this with the virtue of government, which is prudence, and take in as many refugees as it can, as many as it can integrate, educate, give jobs to,' he said.  The Pope also renewed his criticism of the Trump administration's immigration policy, supporting Roman Catholic bishops in the US who have condemned separating children from parents who enter the country illegally.

NIGERIA - At least 86 people have died in central Nigeria after violent clashes broke out between farmers and cattle herders, police in Plateau state said. Some reports say fighting began on Thursday when ethnic Berom farmers attacked Fulani herders, killing five of them. A retaliatory attack on Saturday led to more deaths. The area has a decades-long history of violence between ethnic groups competing for land. Earlier, dozens of people were killed in a similar round of violence between Fulani herders and local hunters in Mali.