TURKEY - “The capital city of Palestine is Jerusalem, and everyone knows that. There is no hesitation about that. Admit it or not, it doesn't matter". "America has almost reduced its reputation to zero. America and Israel have taken this decision [to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem in recognition of the city as Israel’s capital] which holds no value. This shows us that these actions are not approved around the world. If you say ‘I have money, I have power, and I can intimidate all of you using that’, you can't do it. And nobody takes you seriously," President Erdogan said in an interview with TRT World last night. 

USA - Gay advocacy group GLAAD slapped Hollywood with a failing grade on its annual report card for the lack of roles for gays and a dearth of gay storylines in films for 2017. Even as James Ivory won Best Screenplay last year for the gay-themed Call Me by Your Name, GLAAD complained that last year Hollywood actually had fewer gay characters and themes in its movies, according to the Hollywood Reporter. With that, GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis insisted that “If Hollywood wants to remain relevant with these audiences and keep them buying tickets, they must create stories are reflective of the world LGBTQ people and our friends and family know.” However, GLAAD’s numbers are disputable. According to a recent poll, only 4 percent of America claims to be gay, according to Gallup.

USA - Half of Hollywood is gay, [says Ian McKellen] yet in movies gay men don't exist. The veteran star rails against studio representation of minorities, saying ‘they only recently discovered that there were black people in the world’. McKellen credited 1998’s Gods and Monsters – in which he played director James Whale – as triggering a new climate of acceptance in the industry, saying it “was the beginning of Hollywood admitting that there were gay people knocking around, even though half of Hollywood is gay”. On Tuesday a new report from advocacy group GLAAD found only 12.8% of mainstream films featured LGBTQ characters. They have called for the number to rise to 50% by 2024.

USA - Half human–half chicken abomination created in US lab. A team of stem cell researchers have done the seemingly impossible and successfully combined artificial human cells with the embryo of a chicken in a shock new experiment aimed at trying to better understand developing life. Until now, scientists have been unable to answer how certain cells in a developing embryo decide to become muscles or limbs, while others become bones and nerves. But now researchers led by Dr Ali Brivanlou, from Rockefeller University in New York, have achieved the unimaginable in a shock experiment. By grafting petri dish-grown human cells onto the embryo of a chicken the scientists were for the first time ever able to observe how cells organise themselves.

USA - The US dollar is becoming less appealing for investors as American debt continues to soar and the greenback is printed to cover it, investor Jim Rogers said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The American currency will lose the status of main reserve currency much sooner than 2030, Rogers said... “The Dollar is going to be higher than now because the turmoil is coming. Then, it is going to be overpriced and people will look around and say, ‘America’s got the largest debt in the history of the world. It’s printing money as fast as it can’.” People will look at what Brazil, Russia, China, India, Iran and other developing countries are doing, Rogers said. “They are forming a competing currency right now,” he added. So, the dollar alternative will come from the countries that “have been bossed by the US, and they don’t like it, but have enough power to do something about it.”

RUSSIA - Settlements in US currency could be dropped by Russia in favor of the euro if the EU takes a stand against the latest US sanctions on Moscow, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. “As we see, restrictions imposed by the American partners are of an extraterritorial nature. The possibility of switching from the US dollar to the euro in settlements depends on Europe’s stance toward Washington’s position,” said Siluanov, who is also Russia’s first deputy prime minister. The EU initially supported Washington’s sanctions against Moscow, but has recently criticized US President Donald Trump’s policy of imposing trade restrictions on other countries. The EU was also hit by the introduction of US import duties on steel and aluminium. The situation escalated even more after the US withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran.

USA - President Donald Trump has announced the widely anticipated summit between the US and North Korea will not take place because of the "tremendous anger and hostility" of Kim Jong-un's recent statement. The summit, which had been due to take place in Singapore on June 12, will not go ahead because it would be "inappropriate" to hold the meeting at this time, according to the US President. Earlier on Thursday, North Korea repeated a threat to pull out of the unprecedented summit with Trump next month and warned it was prepared for a nuclear showdown with Washington if necessary.

USA - The worst drought to hit the Southwest in decades continues to grow even worse, and many are already comparing this current crisis to the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.  Agricultural production is way down, major rivers are running dry, and horses are dropping dead from a lack of water.  The epicenter of this drought is where the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico all come together, but it is also devastating areas of north Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas as well.  Portions of seven states are already at the highest level of drought on the scale that scientists use, and summer won’t even start for about another two months.  If we don’t start seeing some significant rainfall, it won’t be too long before massive dust storms start devastating the entire region. 

ISRAEL - The Israel Water Authority relaunched a campaign Tuesday urging citizens to cut back on their water use, under the slogan, “Israel is drying out again.”  The goal of the campaign is to encourage Israelis to limit their use of water as a way of life.  The new push is an updated version of a long-running, powerful TV advertising campaign from the 1990s and 2000s in which celebrities highlighted the “years of drought” and the “falling level of the Sea of Galilee.” As they spoke plaintively to camera, their features started to crack and peel — like the country — for lack of moisture. Major desalination efforts along with other technologies allowed the Water Authority to end the campaign in 2013. According to Hadashot News, the situation in northern Israel is the most dire in 100 years.

UK - Britain has a legal right to retaliate against aggressive cyber attacks with missiles, the Attorney General has suggested. The most serious cyber attacks should be treated in the same way as armed attacks on Britain if they result in a high level of devastation, Jeremy Wright QC said. It is the first time a Government minister has set out the UK’s view on the record. Speaking to Chatham House, the think tank, on Wednesday morning, Mr Wright said: "Cyber operations that result in or present an imminent threat of death and destruction on an equivalent scale to an armed attack will give rise to an inherent right to take action in self defence."

IRAN - Iran's Supreme Leader said Europe must make up for any and all adverse effects the US pullout from the nuclear deal might have on its economy and not seek to include its ballistic missile program and regional policy in the deal. The list of conditions under which Iran would stay in the nuclear deal was laid out by the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei on Wednesday. In a speech before government officials, Khamenei listed a set of demands that France, Britain and Germany must comply with if they don't want to see Iran restart its nuclear program that was phased out under the 2015 deal. While European countries that are party to the landmark agreement have criticized the US exit and vowed to stick to the deal, Khamenei argued that words were not enough and that Europe needs to formally denounce the US' decision at the UN.

VATICAN - Pope Francis has told a gay man that God loves him during a private meeting, it has been claimed. In a private dialogue, the Pontiff is understood to have told Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests, that God loves gay people and it is fine to be homosexual. The remarks were apparently made to a victim of clerical sexual abuse and are the most striking acceptance of homosexuality by the Catholic Church to date. The remarks were made during a private meeting at the Vatican between the pair, in which the Pope offered a heartfelt apology. Cruz was a victim of Chile’s most notorious paedophile priest Fernando Karadima.

VATICAN - That joking retort we heard as children, “Is the pope Catholic?” is starting to look like a serious question. Asked five years ago about a “gay lobby” in the Vatican, Pope Francis responded, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” As judgment was thought to be part of the papal job description, traditional Catholics were startled at what the new pope had volunteered.

VATICAN - The former head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office has denied the existence of “homophobia,” asserting that it is an invention of the gay lobby for “totalitarian domination” over the minds of others. In a shock interview last week with Costanza Miriano, an Italian Catholic writer and mother of four children, German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller had strong words to say about the “International Day Against Homophobia” celebrated on May 17. “Homophobia simply does not exist, it is clearly an invention, an instrument of totalitarian domination over the minds of others,” the cardinal said. “The homosexual movement lacks scientific arguments and therefore they have built an ideology that seeks to dominate, seeking to construct their own reality.”

GERMANY - While the EU is paving the way for tanks in Europe, preparing infrastructure, Germany is arming itself with the newest A7V modification for the Leopard 2, advertised by the producer as the world's most powerful main battle tank. The Bundeswehr plans to be fully operational in 2019 when Germany is to take over the leadership of the NATO’s multinational Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) team in Eastern Europe.