CHINA - China’s largest-ever military drills with Cambodia on Thursday included a showcase performance by the literal dogs of war — a squad of robot dogs with automatic rifles mounted on their backs. Both the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China and the US military have experimented with militarizing the increasingly common “robodog” design. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported in March that the PLA saw an opportunity to pull ahead in killer robot research because American designers seemed more interested in using the robots for utility tasks on the battlefield, such as carrying supplies. A Chinese research team published a study in February that found robodogs equipped with 7.62mm guns firing 750 rounds per minute could achieve respectable accuracy at ranges up to a hundred meters, equaling or exceeding the average accuracy of human riflemen.

SWEDEN - Spiralling gun crime, marauding migrant gangs and fascist violence - how Sweden became Europe's crime capital. Sweden is bordering on “civil war” as the country has become gripped by migrant violence, according to a leading expert. Göran Adamson, a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Uppsala University, told Express.co.uk that his country was becoming a “capital of violence” - partly due to a wave of suspected criminals moving there. According to official figures from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), the number of fatalities a year per million from gun violence is more than double the European average. The Swedish rate of death by shooting was more than twice that of the UK, despite Sweden having a population less than a sixth the size. Most startlingly, in 2022 the gun murder rate in Stockholm was around 30 times that of London, despite having a population of less than a million.

EUROPE - More than a third of the EU's 27 member nations now find themselves under the influence of right-wing forces, with their common agenda centred around halting uncontrolled migration, cracking down on crime, championing traditional family values, and putting the brakes on those pesky EU laws that demand radical changes in lifestyle to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In a startling political shift, right-wing movements are taking hold across Europe, transforming the continent's political landscape. From Sweden to Italy, Finland to Greece, the rise of right-wing parties is shaking the foundations of the European Union. But the wave of change does not stop there, as Spain gears up for national elections in just one week, followed by the Netherlands and even Germany could soon join the ranks of the right.

EUROPE - The EU has launched a new investigation into Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, over its alleged failure to protect children from harmful content. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm tasked with proposing new laws and policies, said on Thursday that it has opened formal proceedings to assess whether Meta may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to the protection of minors. Adopted in 2022, the DSA aims to create a safer digital space where the fundamental rights of users are protected.

USA - Billionaire investor Ray Dalio has raised concerns about the future of the United States, saying the current political climate has created a one-in-three chance for “civil war.” In an interview with The Financial Times this week, Mr Dalio described how the polarization of American politics has contributed to an extremely “turbulent” time in history. “We are now on the brink,” Mr Dalio told the news outlet, adding that he sees a 35 to 40 percent probability of a second civil war. He clarified that the “civil war” he sees is not one where people “grab guns and start shooting” but one where people stop seeing the middle ground in politics. Contentious election cycles are becoming more common, which contributes to the growing rift between both political parties.

MIDDLE EAST - Peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas have been put on hold over major disagreements, Israeli broadcaster Kan has reported, citing anonymous sources. Haaretz has confirmed the “impasse” in the talks, which were mediated by Qatar and Egypt. While Qatari, Egyptian and US middlemen have for months been trying to get the two belligerents to agree to a ceasefire, so far these efforts have apparently been fruitless. In its report on Friday, Kan alleged that the negotiations “are not taking place at the moment” since “Egypt and Qatar have adopted the position of Hamas.” According to the media outlet, the mediators suggested sealing a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages. Sheikh Al Thani noted that “there is one party that wants to end the war and then talk about the hostages, and there is another party who wants the hostages and wants to continue the war.”

VATICAN - Pope Francis has called on the Biden regime to keep the US southern border with Mexico “wide open” because “it’s the Christian thing to do”. In a discussion with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell, the Pontiff sat down to give the first-ever inteview with an American TV network. In a clip released ahead of the interview’s release, O’Donnell asks Francis what he thinks of efforts to secure the US southern border and prevent illegals from flooding the US.

IRAN - The crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi — feared to have killed all aboard — jolted an already tense Mideast and raised major questions about the future of the Islamic Republic in a region where Iran is a major financier of terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Officials early Monday declared that there were no signs of life at the crash site in the mountainous area near Iran’s border with Azerbaijan. "President Raisi's helicopter was completely burned in the crash ... unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead," one Iranian official told Reuters.

VATICAN - Pope Francis told CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell that conservatives are willfully blind and manifest a “suicidal attitude” in their narrowmindedness. In an interview set to air Sunday on 60 Minutes, the pope asserts that a conservative “is someone who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude. One thing is to take tradition into account and consider situations from the past but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box,” he adds. Pope Francis has never hidden his disdain for Americans, and, in August 2023, he publicly lamented the “backwardism” of conservative Catholics in the United States. "The situation is not easy in the United States, where there is a very strong reactionary attitude,” the pontiff told a group of Jesuits. “It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally.”

EUROPE - Car manufacturers are slowing their transition to producing electric vehicles (EVs), because of low customer demand and production problems. Mercedes-Benz announced to investors in March of this year that it is going back on its pledge to sell only fully electric cars by 2030. Instead, investors were told that the company plans to continue to make gasoline-powered cars well into the next decade. Fully electric cars and hybrids will account for only up to half of its sales by 2030. It appears that carmakers are suffering after committing wholeheartedly to the ideological fad of EVs, rather than introducing them as a rival product in their combustion engine-dominated competitive market. While electric cars sales exploded in northern Europe several years ago, due largely to generous government subsidies backed by EU funds, sales of plug-in electric vehicles have been weaker than expected in other markets. Some more publically than others, carmakers are beginning to admit to this trend.

GERMANY - A shocking video of multiple people attacking each other in the street with machetes has many pointing out that it shows how out of control mass immigration is in Germany. The footage was captured in the German city of Leipzig and shows foreign groups in a running battle in broad daylight, ironically in a crime ridden part of the city that has the only “weapon ban” zone in the entire state. The video shows one man chopping at another with a huge machete as others crazily run around fighting. Remarkably no one was killed. “That is why we are observing the trend that machetes continue to be used, but only strike with the blunt side. Or the machetes are sometimes only dragged across the ground to threaten, the resulting loud clanging noise is intended to intimidate the opponent.” The head of a German rail union warns that the country’s train system is turning into a “battleground” thanks to a wave of violence and intimidation being unleashed by male asylum seekers against female staff.

IRAN - US officials have confirmed that Israel has carried out military operations against Iran. The officials said Israel warned the Biden administration earlier on Thursday that a strike was coming in the next 24 to 48 hours. According to CNN, the Israelis assured their US counterparts that Iran’s nuclear facilities would not be targeted. Iranian state media reported that air defence batteries had been activated after reports of explosions near a major airbase close to the city of Isfahan. The Iranian government appeared to play down the scale of the attack, with a senior commander in Iran’s army saying there was no damage in Isfahan, according to state TV. At the G7 foreign ministers meeting Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, declined to comment on whether the US had any warning of Israel’s plans to strike Iran this morning but said: “The United States has not been involved in any offensive operations”. He also said Washington was committed to de-escalating tensions in the region.

ISRAEL - Israel issued the stern warning to the international community as it strongly denied charges of genocide following a hearing in front of the International Court of Justice. Foreign Minister Israel Katz reiterated his country has the right to defend itself as he responded to charges of genocide the South African government lodged with the International Court of Justice. Following a second day of hearings in The Hague, Katz said: "I commend our Israeli legal team for representing us with honour and pride at the International Court of Justice in The Hague against South Africa’s display of hypocrisy." He added: "No force will prevent Israel from exercising its right to self-defence. We will continue to fight on the legal, political, and military fronts until all 132 of our hostages return to their loved ones."

USA - The United States last week announced it would withhold the shipment of certain types of weapons to Israel in a bid to get Netanyahu to change his plans for Rafah. Joe Biden withholding weapons from Israel won't keep Tel Aviv from pursuing its plans for Rafah but only "emboldens Hamas and Iran," a former Israeli intelligence official claimed. The Biden administration confirmed last week it had decided to withhold the shipment of certain weapons until Israel proposed plans for its Rafah operation guaranteeing the protection to Palestinian civilians. Israel gave the order to over 100,000 residents to leave the area ahead of resuming heavy bombardments last week. Despite Biden halting the shipment of the weapons, Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is ready to continue hunting down Hamas members alone.

EUROPE - Concerns have been raised over Russian disinformation on social media as millions across Europe prepare to vote. Tens of millions of people across Europe are set to head to the ballot box in early June for the 2024 European Elections. People living across the 27-member bloc are casting their first votes for the European Parliament since Brexit, with hundreds of MEP seats up for grabs from Portugal to Bulgaria and from Finland to Malta. However, concerns have been raised about misinformation being used by Russia - currently at loggerheads with many European countries following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine - to influence the results. Research reported by the Observer newspaper this weekend suggests a vast pro-Russia progaganda campaign is being waged on social media - with users in France and Germany amongst those targeted.