GERMANY - For anyone over 60, Germany has always been synonymous with economic strength. Britons of my generation regard the present German permacrisis not with Schadenfreude but with bewilderment, as if a prosperous old friend had suddenly fallen on hard times. Germany’s fabled ability to reinvent itself can be summed up in two catchphrases: Wirtschaftswunder, the postwar “German economic miracle”, and Vorsprung durch Technik, “progress through technology”, the famous 1982 advertising slogan that helped Audi to take the English market by storm. What, though, has become of that Teutonic self-confidence in their “social market economy” that prompted so many envious glances across the North Sea? British politicians from Harold Macmillan to Andy Burnham have tried to use the German model to justify their political panaceas, from EEC membership to “Manchesterism”.

UK - Britain can no longer rely on the US, Andy Burnham’s most senior economic aide has claimed. Lord O’Neill of Gatley, who is one of several economists advising the prime minister-in-waiting, said Donald Trump’s second term was a “wake-up call” for the UK. Mr Trump’s first public comments about Mr Burnham last month did not bode particularly well for the prospect of the special relationship improving any time soon. Asked whether he wanted to be the first world leader to meet the MP for Makerfield when he likely takes over from Sir Keir later this month, the US president added: “No, but I think we’re probably of a different persuasion.” Mr Trump continued: “I don’t know anything. I see that he was, I guess, the mayor of a town. I hear he’s extremely liberal. So that means he probably won’t open up the North Sea. The amazing thing is they buy their oil from Norway, which gets the oil from the North Sea. Think of it, and they pay a big premium. Norway’s got now $2 trillion in the bank, and the UK is dying.”

CUBA - Cuba was plunged into another nationwide blackout on Monday, marking the country’s third major power outage of the year. The impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before Donald Trump imposed an oil blockade in January, which has depleted the dwindling supply of fuel for Cuba’s power plants. “There has been a total disconnection from the national electricity generation system,” the UNE power utility, Cuba’s state-owned energy company, wrote on X, adding that it was “investigating the causes”. Power outages have been a feature of life on the communist-run island for years, where the electricity-generation system, composed mainly of ageing Soviet-era plants, is in shambles. The island’s fragile economy is being pushed to the brink of collapse. Mr Trump is pushing for regime change in Cuba, where Raúl Castro’s communists have been ‌in charge since his late ⁠brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.

USA - About 57% of polled Americans also believe economy is worsening in grim portrait of cost of living crisis, according to Harris survey for the Guardian. The survey, conducted by Harris Poll, paints a bleak picture of how people feel about the US economy amid the war in Iran and ahead of the key midterm elections this fall. Despite stable employment and record-high stock markets, more Americans believe the overall economy is getting worse (57%) than in February (46%), when the poll was last conducted and before the war in the Middle East sent gas prices soaring. Fewer people today also believe the economy is getting better (16%, compared with 28% in February) and more say their financial security has gotten worse. Meanwhile, the rising cost of everyday expenses is just the tip of the iceberg for Americans who have debt. About half of those polled said they are struggling to afford their debt, including student loan debt, which has been subject to stricter payment plans under the Trump administration.

LITHUANIA - Lithuanian lawmakers have introduced a constitutional amendment to scrap the country’s ban on hosting nuclear weapons. The proposal, backed by 51 of the Seimas’ 141 members – enough for it to be formally registered – would repeal Article 137 of the constitution, which prohibits weapons of mass destruction and foreign military bases on Lithuanian territory. Vilnius says the move is needed to counter an alleged Russian threat, a notion Moscow has repeatedly denied. The bill follows President Gitanas Nauseda’s call to scrap what he described as an “outdated” restriction. Speaking after a meeting with parliamentary faction leaders on Thursday, he argued that Lithuania should not impose restrictions on itself “if new circumstances arise in the future.” “Opinions were practically unanimous. Almost all parliamentary faction leaders expressed the view that Article 137 has become obsolete and should not merely be amended but removed,” Nauseda told reporters.

VATICAN - Images of Pope Leo XIV welcoming African migrants to Europe has sparked outrage, as some accuse the Pontiff of encouraging the weakening of western nations while maintaining Vatican City as an impenetrable fortress that threatens illegal migrants with huge fines and lengthy prison sentences. In a widely viewed video posted by EWTN, the Pope can be seen greeting a large group of migrants who had just made their way by boat to the Sicilian Island of Lampedusa. He also prayed at a cemetery there for migrants who died making the perilous journey. The viral video has been seen over 1.1 million times while triggering nearly 2,000 mostly negative comments because of the Vatican’s longstanding hypocrisy on migration and open borders.

GERMANY - The Apex drone by Porsche-backed Quantum Systems will be certified as the world's fastest electric flying object. Intended for use in interceptors, the technology will undergo payload speed tests for two more records in a German-Ukrainian collaboration, too. During field testing on June 26, Germany's Quantum Systems N3XT team clocked its Apex Recordhunter drone at 699 km/h (434 mph) in level flight. This world best for a battery-powered aircraft now awaits FAI certification along with two more records pending from the company’s Ukrainian arm. The company's Ukrainian partner, WIY Drones, is chasing its own records that add battlefield value in addition to speed. WIY is expected to certify the fastest FPV interceptor carrying a 0.5 kg payload, called Strila, as well as the fastest anti-aircraft-class interceptor Spys drone in the next few weeks, too.

USA - Did you know that the number of Americans that are out of work right now is far higher than it was at any point during the Great Recession? A whopping 111 million Americans do not have a job, and we are spending more than a trillion dollars a year on the social safety net that supports them. Of course we cannot afford to do this, because the national debt has already reached 39 trillion dollars and it is growing at an astounding rate. If we do not fix our economy, disaster is inevitable. The bureaucrats in Washington keep telling us that the unemployment rate is low even though there are vast numbers of adults all around us that are not working. The way that they are able to do this is by dumping almost everyone that is not working into a category known as “not in labor force”.This allows them to keep the official rate of unemployment suppressed even as the labor force participation rate hits an insanely low level…

MIDDLE EAST - Hamas announced Monday that it has dissolved its government in Gaza as it prepares to transfer power to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which was established under a US-brokered ceasefire deal. The militant group did not state whether it actually intends to disarm itself, which was also required under the ceasefire, but described the decision as evidence of its commitment to rebuilding Gaza after years of war, according to the Associated Press. President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" plan that was presented to the group in March requires Hamas to destroy its vast tunnel network in Gaza and lay down its arms. "We have taken note of the announcement today regarding the dissolution of the 'Emergency Committee' in Gaza," the Board of Peace said in an X post on Monday. "Ultimately, our assessment will be guided by actions, not promises, to meet the critical needs of the people of Gaza."

USA - Manufacturers around the world are leveraging AI to create drone swarms that could change the reality of war forever. Both defensive and offensive drone swarm systems are slated to hit global battlefields in the near future. As companies such as Swarm Defense create new systems that will launch tidal waves of drones at targets, other companies like XCaliber Technologies are rapidly working to build a wall of drones and other defensive systems that can defeat the new offensive threat. Keeping production costs down is critical, as the drones are one-time-use offensive munitions. “Swarm Defense Technologies builds American-made drones at manufacturing scale, along with the software that lets one operator command many of them at once,” a Swarm Defense spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We come out of nine years and tens of thousands of drones of production heritage, and every system we field operates human-in-the-loop, with a person making each engagement decision.”

USA - Looking to expand surveillance? Is the world just losing its mind? History shows that war rarely breaks out in times of widespread prosperity (fat & happy). When economic conditions deteriorate, civil unrest, revolution, and international conflict tend to follow. This isn’t a matter of opinion, it’s a pattern observable across centuries of global history. As economies contract, public frustration mounts, and long-simmering grievances resurface with explosive force. We are now entering a period of major global realignment, with 2032 marking a critical turning point. By 2028, the rising tide of conflicts will become unmistakable. The historical precedent of the post-9/11 security expansion, is on the minds of some unelected bureaucrats. An attack inside the USA by Hezbollah of some sleeper-cell if they were to explode a serious bomb in the USA would change everything for the Midterms. Homeland Security and ICE did not exist prior to the World Trade Center attack 9/11.

USA - It’s 250 years and one day since the United States was formed, and we have radical Islamists nipping at our ankles to take over the country. A Minnesota imam told Muslims they are here to replace Americans. Speaking at an Islamic Center in Bloomington, he urged Muslims to rise to leadership through education and civic engagement, citing New York City’s Muslim mayor as proof that their moment has arrived. “Americans are right to be scared that Muslims are here to replace them. We are the new kids on the block; this is our moment. They should be very scared.” They don’t sound like they intend to ever assimilate. They come to Western nations to take us over because they are a supremacist, politicized religion.

USA - Saying the quiet part out loud: Somali Representative Ilhan Omar’s Fourth Of July video message exposes plan to remake America into something ‘different’. On the Fourth of July, as Americans celebrated the nation’s founding and independence, Minnesota’s Somali Congresswoman Ilhan Omar released a video message declaring how she wants to make America into something “different.” In the video, Omar reflected on joining Congress not to preserve or strengthen the United States as it exists, but to help create “a different kind of neighborhood, city, and country.” The video confirms that her priorities and allegiance are not with Americans. Omar frames her election as part of a broader effort to reshape communities and the nation itself into something new and… foreign. Conservatives immediately pointed out the irony of delivering an open admission that her agenda involves changing the country’s character rather than defending its founding principles as Americans celebrated the nation’s 250th birthday.

USA - Maze Moore posted a video of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani explaining why he decided to run for office. It is also the likely reason he became a US citizen. Keep in mind that Zohran’s mother said he doesn’t identify as an American. He considers himself a Ugandan Indian. My guess is that since both his parents are Indian, he only included Uganda to lure in the Black population. It is obvious Zohran also considers himself a communist Islamist. He admits he is working within the state to subvert it.

USA - In April, Representative Ro Khanna (Democrat for California) called for Washington to end assistance to Israel, insisting that the funds would be better spent on hospitals and childcare in America. On the other side of the aisle, Representative Thomas Massie (Republican for Kentucky) also opposed sending billions to Israel, citing the soaring US deficit. Despite receiving minimal press coverage, many of the same arguments could also be made about Israel’s eastern neighbor, Jordan, a country roughly the size of Indiana that has received massive amounts of US aid. The United States has provided Jordan with around $33.8 billion in assistance during the past 75 years. In 2022, the Biden Administration signed a memorandum of understanding with Jordan pledging $1.45 billion annually over seven years, the largest-ever MOU with the Hashemite Kingdom. This year, Congress authorized over $2 billion in aid to the country, placing it among the top three recipients of US aid worldwide for 2026. From Ohio to Oregon, there is likely scant support for sending astronomical sums of taxpayer dollars to a country that most Americans could not identify on a map, especially as prices rise across the United States.