USA - Many chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can disrupt not only the human body’s reproductive hormones but also the glucocorticoid and thyroid hormone receptors, which are necessary to maintain good health, a new study finds. The results were presented Monday at the joint meeting of the International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society: ICE/ENDO 2014 in Chicago. “Among the chemicals that the fracking industry has reported using most often, all 24 that we have tested block the activity of one or more important hormone receptors,” said the study’s presenting author, Christopher Kassotis, a PhD student at the University of Missouri, Columbia. “The high levels of hormone disruption by endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that we measured, have been associated with many poor health outcomes, such as infertility, cancer and birth defects.”

EUROPE - Britain's slender hopes of securing Italian support in its campaign to stop Jean-Claude Juncker becoming European Commission president crumbled on Wednesday when Germany offered Rome a gentler interpretation of EU budget rules. Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged that a European Union pact that sets limits on government deficits should be applied flexibly to promote economic growth. This gesture to the wishes of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi all but ensures he will back Juncker's nomination at a summit on Friday.

BRUSSELS - The European Commission on Tuesday (24 June) laid out plans on how to boost the EU’s military and defence industries. It wants to create a single market on defence, make it more profitable, and intensify and merge research with the civil sector. Antonio Tajani, the EU industry commissioner, said greater defence collaboration is needed between member states to enable the EU to "adequately face its security challenges". Tajani described the plan in terms of helping the EU pull itself out of the economic crisis. "It is vital that the European defence industry remains a world-leading centre for manufacturing and innovation, creating highly qualified jobs and growth," he said in a statement. "While defence and security remain primarily a matter of national responsibility, more can be done to promote European co-operation," said the EU's internal market commissioner Michael Barnier.

EUROPE - At its summit, starting today, the EU is pushing ahead to integrate non-member countries into its global foreign and military policies. With the Association Agreements due to be signed at the summit, Georgia, Moldavia and Ukraine will have to gradually adapt themselves to the EU's foreign and military policy. The association aims at enhancing the three countries' participation "in EU-led civilian and military crisis management operations as well as relevant exercises and training activities."

USA - Shares in Barclays have fallen 6.52% after the New York attorney general filed a fraud lawsuit against the bank. The lawsuit alleges the bank falsified documents and misrepresented benefits it was offering to big institutional clients, including pension funds. It relates to the bank's "dark pool" trading operations, which allow clients to trade large blocks of shares while keeping prices private. Barclays has begun an internal probe into the allegations. New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman said: "The facts alleged in our complaint show that Barclays demonstrated a disturbing disregard for its investors in a systematic pattern of fraud and deceit." The complaint details "a flagrant pattern of fraud, deception and dishonesty with Barclays clients and the investing public," he added.

USA - How in the world does the government expect us to trust the economic numbers that they give us anymore? For a long time, many have suspected that they were being manipulated, and as you will see below we now have stone cold proof that this is indeed the case. But first, let's talk about the revised GDP number for the first quarter of 2014 that was just released. Initially, they told us that the US economy only shrank by 0.1 percent in Q1. Then that was revised down to a 1.0 percent contraction, and now we are being informed that the economy actually contracted by a whopping 2.9 percent during the first quarter. So what are we actually supposed to believe?

RUSSIA - The text of a 19-page, international trade agreement being drafted in secret was published by WikiLeaks on Thursday as the transparency group’s editor commemorated his two-year anniversary confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Fifty countries around the globe have already signed on to the Trade in Service Agreement, or TISA, including the United States, Australia and the European Union. Despite vast international ties, however, details about the deal have been negotiated behind closed-doors and largely ignored by the press. In a statement published by the group alongside the leaked draft this week, WikiLeaks said “proponents of TISA aim to further deregulate global financial services markets,” and have participated in “a significant anti-transparency manoeuvre” by working secretly on a deal that covers more than 68 percent of world trade in services, according to the Swiss National Center for Competence in Research.

USA - Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday predicted there would be an attack on the United States within the next decade that is "far deadlier" than the September 11, 2001, attacks. "I doubt it," Cheney told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, when asked if he thinks the US would "get through this decade" without another "massive attack on the homeland." "I think there will be another attack. And the next time, I think it's going to be far deadlier than the last one. Imagine what would happen if somebody could smuggle a nuclear device, put it in a shipping container, and drive it down the beltway outside Washington DC."

USA - The Baltic Dry Index - so admired when it is soaring and supportive of all things great and good about credit creation and rehypothecation - has collapsed over 60% year-to-date. At $867, the index is at one-year lows and hovering near post-crisis lows as the hope-strewn surge of last year now lies torn asunder by the reality of China commodity ponzi probes and a 'real' slowing global economy.

USA - The first of a new generation of genetically modified crops is poised to win government approval in the United States, igniting a controversy that may continue for years, and foreshadowing the future of genetically modified crops. The agribusiness industry says the plants — soy and corn engineered to tolerate two herbicides, rather than one — are a safe, necessary tool to help farmers fight so-called superweeds. The US Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture appear to agree. However, many health and environmental groups say the crops represent yet another step on what they call a pesticide treadmill: an approach to farming that relies on ever-larger amounts of chemical use, threatening to create even more superweeds and flood America’s landscapes with potentially harmful compounds.

SOUTH AFRICA - With drones designed to contain ‘unruly crowds’ and ‘violent protests’, a South African company is bringing riot control to a whole new high-tech level. The unmanned aerial system is able to shoot pepper spray and non-lethal paintballs to mark offenders. Desert Wolf, based in Pretoria, has begun selling its Skunk Riot Control Copter, a drone it says “is designed to control unruly crowds without endangering the lives of the protestors or the security staff.” The UAS has four high-capacity gun barrels, capable of shooting up to 4,000 paintballs, pepper spray balls and solid plastic balls at rates of up to 80 balls per second. The company notes that the frequency should usually be between one and 20 balls per second, and that the high frequency of 80 “will only be used in an extreme ‘Life threatening situation’.”

AUSTRALIA - Prime Minister Tony Abbott has suggested scrapping legislation that controls one of the most pressing issues for Australia - climate change. Abbott says cutting the "carbon tax" means more money for households. Opponents say it’s bowing to big business. In an attempt to woo voters with lower taxes, Prime Minister Abbott said that households will save A$550 per annum, because power generators will be able to reduce bills by 9 percent. “And I say to the crossbench senators, if you want to save the families of Australia A$550 ($519) a year there is a very easy way — scrap the carbon tax," Abbott said on Monday.

NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, USA - A snake invasion is making people’s skin crawl in the western suburbs. Viewer after viewer contacted CBS 2 with photos of snakes along the river walk and invading yards in Naperville. CBS 2’s Brad Edwards went to investigate. “I’ll have five and six of them on my bushes,” said Nancy Quigley. “They were twice as big as they were last year. They’re not afraid of me anymore.” It’s scaring away her delivery drivers. “He’ll see them and drop the package and run back to his truck,” said Quigley. “It’s unusual for them to be out and that prevalent,” said snake expert David Drake of Aquarium Adventure. He says that the garter snakes hibernated longer this year because of the polar vortex.

USA - Responding to a major case of research misconduct, federal prosecutors have taken the rare step of filing charges against a scientist after he admitted falsifying data that led to millions in grants and hopes of a breakthrough in AIDS vaccine research. Investigators say former Iowa State University laboratory manager Dong-Pyou Han has confessed to spiking samples of rabbit blood with human antibodies to make an experimental HIV vaccine appear to have great promise. After years of work and millions in National Institutes of Health grants, another laboratory uncovered irregularities that suggested the results — once hailed as groundbreaking — were bogus. Han was indicted last week on four counts of making false statements, each of which carries up to five years in prison.

ISRAEL - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded to Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal's blessing toward the abductors of three yeshiva students Tuesday, calling the terror organization out on the difference between its face to the international community and its statements to the Arab world. "Last night we heard Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas, praise and defend the brutal kidnapping of the three innocent Israeli teenagers who were making their way home from school," Netanyahu said. "Meshaal once again made clear that Hamas remains committed to its war against Israel and its war against every Israeli citizen, and coincidently, against every Jew around the world."