ISRAEL - Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi on Sunday said Iran is now the most dangerous country in the Middle East, not just because of its nuclear program, but also through its conventional weapons and support for terror activities against Israel. Kohavi warned that Iran’s influence reaches into the first of the three circles of threats against Israel, the first being small terror groups on Israel’s borders, like Hamas; the second being larger threats, like the Syrian army and Hezbollah; and the third being countries that do not share a border with Israel, like Iran and Iraq.

USA - Left-wing activist Shaun King tweeted Monday all statues of Jesus that portray him as a “white European” should be torn down because they are “a form of white supremacy.” “Yes, I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down,” wrote King, a self-described black man whose family says he is white. “They are a form of white supremacy. Always have been. In the Bible, when the family of Jesus wanted to hide, and blend in, guess where they went? EGYPT! Not Denmark. Tear them down.” King has claimed the Christian celebrations of Christmas and Easter are “tools of white supremacy.”

USA - Attorney General Bill Barr weighed in on the rioting and looting across the country in recent weeks. AG Bill Barr: “It’s the job of the Department of Justice to mete out justice fairly and evenhandedly in that particular case and not be influenced by the mob… Protests and demonstrations are fine but when they become mob violence we need to restore public order. We can’t be ruled by mobs. A lot of these demonstrations have been hijacked by anarchistic groups and professional agitators who are in it just for the violence and the confrontation… I understand an event like Minneapolis and how it struck a chord…

For the past few decades we’ve been reforming our institutions to make sure they reflect our values. And police have been engaged in that… Instances in the shooting of black unarmed males has been dropping. It was 38 five years ago, last year it was ten. Ten in the nation and six of those were involved in attacking the police officer. So while any death is too many, the fact is that in proportion it’s relatively small. I mean there are roughly 8,000 homicides of African Americans in our country every year. 8,000! Ten last year were shooting (by police) of a black male.

EUROPE - News of the withdrawal of US troops from Germany has prompted calls for Europe to play a bigger defense role. Could Europeans really take their security fate into their own hands? Days after US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of roughly one third of US troops stationed in Germany, the shock still lingers. Politicians at every level are grappling with the consequences: Mayors in economically weak regions are worried about losing income when the GIs leave, Germany's foreign minister is worried about the further deterioration of relations with the US and military planners in Brussels are pondering the implication for Europe's own security architecture. Germany has been a key component of the US defense strategy in Europe for decades, with US nuclear weapons — to be delivered by German fighter jets in a moment of crisis — stationed here… It would also put the spotlight on an uncomfortable issue for the Germans: their stance on nuclear weapons — which are, after all, considered the last guarantor of independent sovereignty.

GERMANY - As protesters around the world tear down monuments of slave traders and corporations eliminate brands linked to unpleasant stereotypes, Germany is facing a different purging effort. Activists and lawmakers are calling to remove the term “race” from the country’s constitution, saying the term is anachronistic at best and only fosters racist thinking. There’s also the underlying uneasiness that “Rasse” - the term in German - is a holdover from the Nazis, whose obsession with a superior Aryan race laid the pseudo-scientific foundation for the Holocaust.

The country’s Basic Law, the constitution adopted in 1949 as a direct reaction to the horrors of World War II, states in Article 3 that “no person shall be favored or disfavored because of sex, parentage, race, language, homeland and origin, faith or religious or political opinions.” “There are no races, there are only humans,” Green co-party leader Robert Habeck and Aminata Toure, vice president of the Schleswig-Holstein state legislature, wrote in a joint article for Germany’s daily Tageszeitung. “It’s time we unlearn racism. A strong sign would be to cut the term ‘race’ from the Basic Law.”

ETHIOPIA - It's a clash over water usage that Egypt calls an existential threat and Ethiopia calls a lifeline for millions out of poverty. Just weeks remain before the filling of Africa's most powerful hydroelectric dam might begin, and tense talks between the countries on its operation have yet to reach a deal. Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew on Friday declared that his country will go ahead and start filling the $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam next month, even without an agreement. "For us it is not mandatory to reach an agreement before starting filling the dam, hence we will commence the filling process in the coming rainy season," he said. Both Egypt and Ethiopia have hinted at military steps to protect their interests, and experts fear a breakdown in talks could lead to conflict.

USA - The head of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve warned Friday that banks should "stop paying dividends" and "raise capital" as more Americans struggle to pay their loans and credit losses mount at America's large banks amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Kashkari - who was one of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's top lieutenants during the Great Recession and administered the TARP program to provide financial relief to banks - also warned that sustained losses could cause significant problems. In answer to a question from "Face the Nation"'s Margaret Brennan on whether that could trigger another financial crisis, Kashkari issued a stark warning. "I am concerned the longer this goes on, the more losses banks will face," he told Brennan. "Large banks have more capital than they had before the 08 crisis, but not enough."

UNITED NATIONS - The US has slammed the UN Human Rights Council for holding a vote on a resolution that criticized America’s record of police brutality and racism, saying the vote demonstrated “hypocrisy” and showed why the US quit the body. The UN rights body “has long been and remains a haven for dictators and democracies that indulge them,” Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a statement. “If the Council were honest, it would recognize the strengths of American democracy and urge authoritarian regimes around the world to model American democracy and to hold their nations to the same high standards of accountability and transparency that we Americans apply to ourselves,” he added. The US left the UNHRC two years ago almost to the day, calling it a hypocritical organization that “makes a mockery of human rights” and shows a “chronic bias against Israel.”

USA - US President Donald Trump said if “people slightly to the right” attempted to occupy a portion of a city – like those protesting police brutality did in Seattle – “they would have been dealt with swiftly." “Could you imagine if people just even slightly to the right tried to take over Seattle, they'd have machine guns out to get them,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday evening.

GERMANY - Chancellor Angela Merkel outlined her objectives Thursday for Germany’s forthcoming six-month presidency of the European Union, saying a more global role and enhanced international governance are a way forward for the troubled bloc. “The dramatic global consequences of the (coronavirus) pandemic demand that Europe takes on more global responsibility,” Merkel told the Bundestag lower house of parliament.

USA - Those that have been hoping for some sort of a “V-shaped recovery” have had their hopes completely dashed. US workers continue to lose jobs at a staggering rate, and economic activity continues to remain at deeply suppressed levels all over the nation. Of course this wasn’t supposed to happen now that states have been “reopening” their economies. We were told that things would soon be getting back to normal and that the economic numbers would rebound dramatically. But that is not happening. In fact, the number of Americans that filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week was much higher than expected…

USA - Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, served up harsh criticism of Americans on Thursday, asserting that the country suffers from what he described as an “anti-science bias” problem. “One of the problems we face in the United States is that unfortunately, there is a combination of an anti-science bias that people are — for reasons that sometimes are, you know, inconceivable and not understandable — they just don’t believe science and they don’t believe authority,” Fauci told the Learning Curve podcast, which is produced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

USA - A great-grandson of “Aunt Jemima” says that his family legacy will be “erased” now that Quaker Foods plans to eliminate the Aunt Jemima brand of pancake mix and syrup. “This is an injustice for me and my family. This is part of my history, sir,” said Larnell Evans Sr to Patch.com. “The racism they talk about, using images from slavery, that comes from the other side — white people.” The great-grandson went on to say that “it hurts” to know that Quaker Foods’ answer to current events in America is to “erase my great-grandmother’s history.” On Wednesday, Quaker Foods announced that it will be eliminating Aunt Jemima in order “to make progress toward racial equality.” The Aunt Jemima brand has been around for the last 130 years.

UK - Britain, France and Germany have jointly warned against the US imposing further sanctions on Iran, saying it would have “adverse consequences” at UN level, though they agree an embargo on arms sales should remain in place. “We firmly believe that any unilateral attempt to trigger UN sanctions snapback would have serious adverse consequences in the UN Security Council,” their joint statement read; it was released following a meeting between the nations in Berlin. They also said sanctions against Iran would be “incompatible” with the Iran nuclear deal, which the nations are looking to “preserve.” They say the US’ strategy of “maximum pressure” is not the way to deal with Iran. The US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal – or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – in 2018 and imposed sanctions on Tehran’s oil exports, one of the country’s primary sources of revenue.

UNITED NATIONS - A tweet from Geneva objecting to US authorities describing Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization has provoked calls to defund the United Nations and accusations that the UN is covering for the group. “UN Human Rights experts express profound concern over a recent statement by the US Attorney-General describing [Antifa] and other anti-fascist activists as domestic terrorists, saying it undermines the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly in the country,” the UN Geneva office, home to the Human Rights Council, tweeted on Friday, accompanied by a photo of the Antifa banner. “The United Nations is running cover for an international extremist group that has conducted violent insurrectionist attacks across North America and Europe,” tweeted journalist Jack Posobiec of OAN… adding “that rather than defunding police, the US should defund the UN.”