UK - Britons have launched a furious attack and demanded the UK hit back against the US after President Joe Biden ramped up Brexit tensions shortly before a crunch bilateral meeting with Boris Johnson. The implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol has been a major talking point of Joe Biden's visit for the G7 summit, with the US President formally reprimanding the UK for "inflaming" Brexit tensions.

USA - Within US politics, a demarche is defined as “a request or intercession with a foreign official, eg a request for support of a policy, or a protest about the host government’s policy or actions”. A demarche document details formal diplomatic representation of the official position, views or wishes on a given subject – in this case the Northern Ireland protocol – from one government to another, or to an inter-governmental organisation. Demarches usually seek to persuade, inform or gather information from a foreign government, while as in this case, governments can also use a demarche to protest or object to actions of a foreign government or organisation. Informally, the word is sometimes used within politics to describe making or receiving such correspondence. The word originates from the French word ‘démarche’, which literally translates to ‘take steps’.

USA - As the world economy awakens from the 15-month slumber caused by the pandemic, Deutsche Bank has launched a series of research articles to spark debate and discussion about pressing post-pandemic economic issues. According to the report, “US macro policy and, indeed, the very role of government in the economy, is undergoing its biggest shift in direction in 40 years. In turn we are concerned that it will bring about uncomfortable levels of inflation.” That could be deemed an understatement considering that the US economy is already experiencing “uncomfortable” inflation.

UK - Angela, Boris, Emmanuel, Justin, Mario, Yoshihide and a relative newcomer: Joe. They’re the board of global democracy’s most exclusive club, and they’re meeting this week after four years of US disruption and a two-year coronavirus interruption.

USA - A mother who grew up under Mao in China tells the Loudoun County school board that training children to be social justice warriors, to hate their heritage and dividing people into groups is essentially the same kind of indoctrination that led to China becoming Communist:

USA - The movement to “defund the police,” which rose to prominence after Floyd’s death, has actually gotten innocent black people killed. As police have pulled back, our neighborhoods have been left unprotected. Crime has skyrocketed. Major American cities saw a 33% increase in homicides last year as a pandemic swept across the country. Preliminary Federal Bureau of Investigation data show that the US murder rate increased by 25% in 2020. Between December 11, 2020, and March 28, 2021 (after the Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a budget that shifted $8 million from the police department to other programs), murders in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, rose 46% compared with the same period the year before.

USA - A research article published last month in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association called whiteness “a malignant, parasitic-like condition.” That description, along with other language in the article, has caused public anger, and the backlash against the author was evident on social media.

ETHIOPIA - Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region is now in a state of famine, the UN’s humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock has said, as reports suggest that hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of disaster. “There is now famine in Tigray,” the official told representatives of UN, EU and US organizations on Thursday, warning the situation may be the worst since the 2011 famine in neighboring Somalia, which killed around 260,000 people. Millions more people in the region also need “urgent food and agriculture/livelihoods support to avert further slides towards famine,” the report apparently said. The new details come after Lowcock warned last week of imminent famine conditions in Tigray, saying UN officials are “hearing of starvation-related deaths already.” This week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said several areas of the region are “on the brink of famine.”

UK - Who needs a totalitarian state when zealous, woke workers ensure that books with ‘invalid opinions’ never get an airing? The publishing industry is encouraging grass roots censorship and increasingly giving in to employees who demand that certain views should never be able to be expressed – especially those involving trans issues. It looks like publishing is fast becoming a career choice for ambitious would-be censors. The most aspiring and aggressive wing of the grass-roots censorship movement is the lobby policing publications dealing with trans-related issues.

USA - The Wall Street Journal reports that banks are telling their corporate customers to stop making deposits. Yes, you’re reading that correctly: Banks don’t want more deposits. The basic idea of banking is to take in money from deposits and lend it out at interest to borrowers. But with interest rates near zero, banks hardly make any money doing that, so taking in more money from deposits doesn’t do much for them.

GERMANY - Germany may be on the cusp of a nationalist turn. The external building blocks of its outward-looking economy and foreign policy are under assault. As China and America increasingly use the global economy to compete with each other, the return of great power competition threatens to unravel globalisation. Washington is recalibrating the American security guarantee for Europe in the light of a new race for pre-eminence in the Pacific. The European Union is becoming more divided. And there are increasingly strong arguments in Europe about whether to socialise debt and public spending, which raise uncomfortable questions for Germany.

ISRAEL - If lawmakers approve a fragile new coalition government, Israel will be led by someone other than Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time in 12 years. Lawmakers in Israel will hold a vote of confidence on Sunday on a new coalition government, potentially ending the 12-year tenure of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It would clear the way for his potential replacement, Naftali Bennett, a former entrepreneur and settler leader who opposes a Palestinian state and says he believes Israel should annex much of the occupied West Bank. He would lead an ideologically varied alliance that ranges from the far left to the hard right and includes an independent Arab party. But the alliance’s fragility and its wafer-thin majority — if no one drops out, it will command 61 of Parliament’s 120 seats — have left many wondering whether the coalition will last until the vote, let alone through its full four-year term. Analysis: Although it appears that a peaceful democratic transition will take place in Israel, nothing is certain — especially as Netanyahu accuses his rival of a “deep state” conspiracy.

EUROPE - The EU should significantly extend its foreign and military policy activities in the Asia Pacific region, EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell demanded on his return from a visit of several days to Indonesia. In Jakarta, Borrell discussed prospects for intensifying cooperation with the country and with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and announced: "We are exploring options to enhance EU’s maritime presence in the vast Indo-Pacific space." This is necessary because, through China's rise, the world's center of gravity is increasingly shifting away from the Atlantic to the Pacific. ”The history of mankind of the 21st century will be written in the Indo-Pacific area.” Just a few days earlier, German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer became the first member of a German government to ever visit the Pacific Island of Guam, where the German frigate Bayern will dock during its Asia tour in the fall. Guam hosts major US military bases and is seen as a possible battlefield in a war between the USA and China.

USA - A popular form of the iconic rainbow flag, the Progress Pride version, has been updated and now features colours or symbols to represent nine different groups. In trying to include everyone, it’s actually benefiting no one. The traditional rainbow flag, introduced in 1977, is known across the world. Its eight stripes became the global symbol championing the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people’s equality. Since then it’s gone through various iterations and there’s now a version used around the world known as the Progress Pride flag.

USA - Texas Representative Louie Gohmert asked whether the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management could alter either the moon’s or Earth’s orbits in order to affect the world’s climate. Gohmert’s question was posed during a Tuesday hearing before the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands as members considered four bills to amend recreation permitting and other laws affecting the Interior and Agriculture departments.