UK - The contrast could hardly have been more stark. While President Trump was flanked in the Oval Office by the British ambassador to Washington, Lord Mandelson, and chatting happily to Sir Keir Starmer over the phone, officials in Brussels were finalising $100 billion of retaliatory tariffs against the US. The trade deal agreed today between the UK and the US may not prove as transformational for the UK as the British Government will claim. But one point is certain. It puts a dagger at the heart of the European project – because it’s further proof to EU countries that they may well be economically better off outside the bloc.

MIDDLE EAST - Senior adviser and assistant to the president Steve Witkoff told Breitbart News that any reports of a rift between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are fake news and “preposterous.” "Israel is a great partner for the United States, strategically, economically, we think very much alike, we have very similar objectives. They don’t want to see a weaponized nuclear state in the state of Iran. We have a deal on the table that Hamas could have taken six weeks ago. I’ve discussed this with the Israelis at length and the other stakeholders in this process. Hamas should say yes to it. It is a path to a peaceful dialogue and maybe even a peaceful, long-term, durable solution to this. But Hamas is going to have to demilitarize, and they’re going to have to quickly get to the terms we’ve set forth and we hope that they do. They need — I have stated this publicly — they need to show us a sign they are prepared to act in a positive and proactive way that is better for the people of Gaza and that leads to a long-term durable peace. If they do that, I think they’ll get a good positive response from this country and if they don’t they won’t.”

UK - Reciprocal relief over a UK-US trade deal has boosted markets and allayed anxieties on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet, many voices in the United Kingdom are skeptical of US agricultural products, especially beef. There are numerous reasons why the British eschew US hamburgers. The chief opposition is not against trade competition but an aversion to the American use of growth hormones, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), GMO feeds, and antibiotics to raise US cattle – all banned in the UK.

USA - Celgene’s cancer drug pricing has sparked outrage, with patients paying $1,000 per pill for a medication THAT COSTS JUST 25 CENTS TO PRODUCE. The drug in question, Revlimid, is a derivative of Thalidomide, a compound infamous for causing severe birth defects in the 1950s and 1960s. Despite its dark history, Thalidomide was repurposed as a treatment for multiple myeloma, a deadly blood cancer. While Revlimid has extended thousands of lives, its staggering price tag has placed it out of reach for many patients. The numbers tell a troubling story. Revlimid has generated over $100 billion in total sales, making it one of the most profitable drugs in history. Patients who rely on the drug often face financial ruin, forced into debt or left with no choice but to stop treatment.

VATICAN - The newly elected pontiff cautioned against simplistic portrayals of Jesus in his first homily and spoke about the increased preference for ‘power’ and ‘money’. Pope Leo XIV used his first homily to warn against reducing Jesus to “a kind of charismatic leader or superman”, in an apparent message to evangelical Christians as he celebrated Mass in the Sistine Chapel. Having addressed the crowd in St Peter’s Square in Italian and Spanish he turned to his native English to address the cardinals who elected him: “I know I can rely on each and everyone of you to walk with me as we continue as a Church, as a community of friends of Jesus, as believers to announce the good news, to announce the gospel.”

USA - Donald Trump has branded it the “big beautiful bill” that will save millions of jobs and boost Americans’ take-home pay by up to $5,000 (£3,700) a year. However, while recent focus has been on the market ructions caused by the trade war, the US president’s package of sweeping tax cuts will arguably be a bigger test of investors’ faith in the world’s biggest economy. Congress remains deeply divided over not only the scale of tax cuts, but also how they will be funded. And bond investors are watching every twist and turn closely.

CHINA - President Trump’s tariff policy works. But if you’re waiting for the fake news media to explain, don’t hold your breath. As the market rebounds in America from the Left’s attempted takedown of President Trump on tariffs, 40 Chinese banks disappeared in a single week. That’s not just a financial hiccup — it’s a full-blown coronary. The Economist reported that 36 of these vanished banks were absorbed by Liaoning Rural Commercial Bank, a move that’s less about economic strategy and more about sweeping problems under the rug. China’s preferred method of handling struggling banks is to “absorb” them — a sanitized way of saying, “Erase the evidence and hope no one notices.” Still, according to reports, 3,800 financial institutions now teeter on the edge, representing 13% of China’s banking system and holding a jaw-dropping 55 trillion yuan ($7.5 trillion) in assets. That crack may be too wide to patch.

USA - Back in 2023 when several US Banks, mostly banks with high exposure to Silicon Valley Big Tech accounts, started to collapse, I published some articles explaining the concept of bank “bail-ins”, which are the opposite of bank “bail-outs” where the US Government bails out “too-big-to-fail” banks that collapse, as we saw in 2008. Bank bail-ins are the opposite, and allow banks to secure non-FDIC insured funds in accounts of bank depositors. Most Americans are unaware of the fact that laws are now in place to seize funds on deposit in US Banks from account holders. There was a threat in 2023 of the total collapse of the US banking system, but it survived, at least temporarily. Talk is again picking up about the possibility of bank bail-ins here in 2025 in Trump 2.0.

USA - There are recent reports about a rift between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A Thursday report said President Donald Trump has reportedly cut off direct contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yanir Cozin, a correspondent for Israeli Army Radio, said in a post on his X account that Trump decided after close associates told Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer that the president believes that Netanyahu is manipulating him. “There is nothing Trump hates more than being portrayed as a fool or someone being played. That’s why he decided to cut contact with Netanyahu,” the official added. Cozin pointed to the Israeli government’s failure to present a concrete plan and timeline regarding Iran and Yemen’s Houthis as a source of the worsening US-Israel relationship.

USA - Israeli Officials “shocked” over Trump’s Houthi truce – Trump reportedly upset with Netanyahu for trying to get US involved in military conflict with Iran ahead of nuclear talks and visit to Middle East. President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are seemingly at odds amid a US truce with Houthis in Yemen and the President seeking to peacefully negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran without plunging the United States into another endless war. This comes as the US entered a cease-fire with the Houthis this week after stopping their threat against global shipping in the Red Sea and deterring Iranian lethal support to the Houthis. This development left Israeli officials “shocked,” according to an unnamed Israeli official. In closed-door conversations Trump said he was going to make progress on his objectives in the Middle East without waiting for Israel.

GERMANY - Some 48 companies, including Deutsche Bank, acknowledge the historical responsibility of their companies and take a stand against hatred, exclusion and antisemitism. To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, 48 German companies, including Deutsche Bank, are commemorating the crimes of the Nazi era. In a joint statement, the CEOs of these companies acknowledge the historical responsibility of their companies and take a stand against hatred, exclusion and antisemitism.

INDIA - India and Pakistan have agreed to cease hostilities, US President Donald Trump has said, adding that a deal was reached following a “long night of talks” mediated by Washington. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has confirmed that a deal was reached but did not mention US involvement. New Delhi has said the truce came into effect at 5 pm local time. “I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Saturday. He also hailed both sides for demonstrating “common sense and great intelligence.”

UK - The long peace is over: welcome to a new era of war, chaos and destruction. Progress, what progress? On the 80th anniversary of VE Day, the world is edging ever closer to another apocalyptic conflagration, with India-Pakistan the latest terrifying escalation. Pax Americana has been shattered, never to return, and with it the delusions of Western modernity. In eerie parallels to the 1930s, rogue actors are initiating a series of interlinked conflicts around the world that, thanks to a web of alliances, risk joining up into one hideous global war.

USA - A report in Israel’s 'Israel Hayom' says that President Donald Trump is “disappointed” in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has decided to make his next moves in the Middle East without him. The report, published in Hebrew and citing two sources close to Trump, would seem to corroborate the observation that Trump has cut Netanyahu out of his decision-making process on major policy steps. Last month, Trump surprised Netanyahu by announcing that the US would begin “direct” talks with the Iranian regime over a new nuclear deal. And this week, he surprised Israel again by announcing that the US had reached a separate ceasefire with the Houthi rebels in Yemen — who said they would still attack Israel.

GERMANY - The German government continues to attack President Trump ahead of newly-elected Chancellor Merz’s scheduled phone call with Trump today. In his Bundestag speech marking the 80th anniversary of V-E Day, German President Frank Walter Steinmeier accused the United States of “breaking with our values,” of all things, just hours after the German secret political police had to backtrack on spying on the opposition. “Eighty years on from the end of the war, the long twentieth century has definitively come to an end,” Steinmeier said, with his usual moralizing, finger-wagging holier-than-thou arrogance: