EUROPE - The European Union should threaten to intervene militarily in the Libyan civil war if necessary, Wolfgang Ischinger, the head of the Munich Security Conference, said in an interview on Monday. "Europe could throw its military weight into the equation in order to achieve a cease-fire," Ischinger told newspapers of the Funke media group. "Diplomacy often remains mere rhetoric if you are unable to use the threat of military action as leverage in international conflicts." As Germany prepares to take on the rotating EU presidency on July 1, the bloc must speak "the language of power" to better represent its interests. Civil war broke out in Libya after the toppling of long-time ruler Muammer Gaddafi in 2011, who was later killed. Numerous militias are fighting for power and influence in the country, with Tripoli-allied militias backed by Turkey, Qatar and Italy. Meanwhile, eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army is backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, France and Russia.

USA - Saturday, Fox News Channel’s Jeanine Pirro made her show’s “Opening Statement” a focus on the political motivations of the Democratic Party and their calls for police reform. Pirro argued Democrats wanted the backdrop of chaos, not for police reform but to help their success for the 2020 elections. She called on the National Guard to be federalized for the sake of restoring law and order where local Democratic Party leadership had been reluctant to act.

GERMANY - Extremists exploit rural nostalgia and farmers’ anger at globalisation to smuggle in ideology. The poster advertising the evening of debate and organic canapés in Halle’s university district looked familiar to environmentally conscious Germans: a rugged pair of hands, cupping fertile brown soil, underneath the slogan “Farms instead of agricultural factories”, written in a font mimicking that of a popular biodynamic food brand.

GERMANY - The days of the good old ‘transatlantic partnership’ have passed, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has admitted, adding that even the Democrats returning to power is unlikely to automatically bring those days back. “Anyone, who believes that the transatlantic partnership will once again be what it once was with a Democratic president, underestimates the structural changes,” the minister told German news agency dpa, hinting that relations between the two allies will never be the same even without President Donald Trump at the helm in Washington. Neither did Washington’s threats to slap imported cars with tariffs, which German Chancellor Angela Merkel called “a real threat to the prosperity of many in the world.” She also warned that Europe should be ready for a reality without the US as a world power.

UK - The acrid smell of cannabis wafts across the green as a group of young teenagers brazenly pass around a joint. Nearby, underage drinkers swig from bottles of vodka and inhale balloons full of so-called 'hippy crack' laughing gas. This was the scene at 8pm on Thursday in a London park, and is similar to those being played out in open spaces across Britain this summer, three months after schools shut down, leaving hundreds of thousands of bored teenagers to run wild.

SOUTH AMERICA - A swarm of locusts is threatening to invade Brazil as the country also battles one of the world's worst coronavirus outbreaks. The swarm - thought to contain 40 million insects - formed in Paraguay last month and has been eating its way through Argentina since May 21, damaging crops of cane, oats, wheat and corn. But nine days ago it made a turn to the east, and is now heading towards the border with Brazil and Uruguay. It also comes after two other locust swarms - in India and eastern Africa - also devastated crops in those countries.

USA - A global pandemic, widespread unemployment, nationwide protests and a roller-coaster stock market have created the most tumultuous period in recent memory. The pandemic has so far taken more than 120,000 lives in the US, put the economy into a tailspin and pushed the financial system to the brink of collapse. It abruptly ended a bull market, before stocks rallied in dramatic fashion. A massive social-justice movement swept America’s streets and made its way into the business community. Business leaders and investors are still trying to piece together what happened in the first half of 2020 — and figuring out where we go from here.

USA - The unveiling on June 3rd by the World Economic Forum of ‘The Great Reset‘ agenda appears on the surface to be a newly devised concept created directly in response to Covid-19. When digging down into the BIS Innovation Hub, it becomes clear that at the core of the project is the creation of central bank digital currency (CBDC). In practice, this would mean the abolition of tangible assets such as banknotes and coins and see the creation of a new form of digital money issued by central banks. Global payment systems are in the process of being reformed to accommodate the use of blockchain and distributed ledger technology, and central banks are now beginning to disseminate technological detail for how a CBDC could be issued. As it stands, a volatile geopolitical climate, exacerbated by Covid-19 and the unproven fear that handling physical money could transmit the virus, is assisting the BIS in their ambitions for completely resetting how the general public will interact with central bank money over the coming years.

UK - A new survey has revealed that seven in 10 people in Britain are concerned that a small vocal minority are trying to rewrite Britain's history. The report and survey findings reveal a repudiation of British institutions like the Bank of England, Church of England, universities, councils and Parliament for their actions in recent weeks to remove statues and remove references to historical figures or apologise for actions centuries ago. Instead the polling suggests that 69 per cent of British people are “proud” of their country’s history while 65 per cent believe it is wrong to “to make judgments about people in the past based on today’s values” and agree that “statues of people who were once celebrated should be allowed to stand.” Meanwhile, 77 per cent agree “we should learn from history not rewrite it” and 75 per cent thought the police should have acted more robustly to protect the statues from leftwing mobs.

EUROPE - In a settlement reached today, Bayer AG agreed to pay $10 billion over claims its signature herbicide Roundup causes cancer in people, according to a report by Reuters. The $10 billion settlement will be apportioned to four leading plaintiffs’ law firms, who will in turn distribute the money to nearly 100,000 clients who were stricken with cancer after prolonged use of the toxic weedkiller.

The German company acquired the St Louis-based agrochemical giant Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion, and inherited liability in thousands of lawsuits filed by people who claim exposure to Roundup and its main ingredient glyphosate was the cause of their cancer. Glyphosate is mostly applied to corn, soybean and wheat crops, but is increasingly sprayed just before harvest on oats, chickpeas and other crops as a drying agent, or desiccant, to speed the harvest. The pre-harvest use is why many oat-based cereals are contaminated with glyphosate.

USA - Only about one-in-six protesters over the last month are black Americans, while the plurality are white, according to Pew Research Center analysis. Though recent protests and riots have been centered around racial tensions with law enforcement, only 17 percent of protesters have been black, while 46 percent are white, 22 percent are Hispanic, and eight percent are Asian, the analysis shows. The data reveals that black Americans are not the largest minority group represented in the protests. The protesters are overwhelmingly Democrats as well. Almost four-in-five of the protesters said they are Democrats or Democrat-leaning voters. Less than 17 percent of the protesters said they are Republicans.

EUROPE - Europe is facing a summer drought following a warm spring and hot start to the summer, NASA has revealed. The 2019 to 2020 winter across Europe was the warmest on record, with the heat not letting up throughout the year. Spring proved to be hotter and drier than normal, coupled with a May heatwave. Summer has started warmly, and NASA satellite data has revealed Europe is facing a drought this year. Scientists warn this could have ramifications for the rest of the planet.

SOUTH AMERICA - Brazil and Argentina are monitoring a cloud of locusts that’s crossing South America, issuing warnings in parts of the countries. The insects, which entered Argentina from Paraguay, are heading toward Uruguay. While they are not expected to affect Brazil’s crops, the nation’s agriculture ministry on Thursday declared a state of emergency in two southern states in order to allow officials to take preventive measures. The swarm of locusts is close to the province of Entre Rios, Argentina’s food safety department Senasa said in a report on June 23. So far, there has been no damage to crops in the area, according to the department. Massive swarms of locusts have ravaged fields in Africa and Pakistan, destroying crops and dealing a crippling blow to economies.

EUROPE - Walk into any meeting in Brussels and, most likely, a German will be leading it. In the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the former German defence minister, is in charge. For the next six months, German ministers will be cajoling their peers into signing off legislation as the country takes over the EU’s rotating presidency. In the European Council, where the bloc’s leaders butt heads, it might technically be Charles Michel, the former prime minister of Belgium, heading it. But it is Angela Merkel — longer in post than the leaders of France, Spain, Italy and Poland combined — who is the undisputed top dog. The EU’s main response to the Covid-19 crisis — a flagship €750 billion recovery fund paid for with debt issued collectively by the EU — is based on a plan cooked up in Berlin and Paris. The Germans are running the show. Usually, German power in Brussels is the political equivalent of dark matter: invisible, difficult to measure and yet everywhere. Now the Germans are stars, shining so bright as to be impossible to ignore. Germany has the means to change Europe — if it chooses.

EUROPE - The US may voluntarily relinquish its status as a world power and Europeans must brace themselves for such a contingency, including by boosting their militaries, the German chancellor has warned. European nations need “to carry more of the burden than during the cold war” in terms of defense spending, Merkel said, because they cannot assume that the US will be there to protect them.