GERMANY - Germany is facing a “Lehman Brothers” collapse in its energy market that could spark a domino effect leading to a severe recession should the gas-addicted economic powerhouse of the European Union be fully cut off from Russian energy supplies. Economy Minister and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck said on Friday that Europe’s largest economy could be forced to shut down certain industries should gas supplies run thin by the winter. “Companies would have to stop production, lay off their workers, supply chains would collapse, people would go into debt to pay their heating bills, that people would become poorer,” he said according to DW. The Green Party politician warned that there could be “a kind of Lehman-Brothers effect in the energy market,” spreading through municipal utilities, industrial and commercial companies, “And then you have a domino effect that would lead to a severe recession.”

GERMANY - “Perestroika” literally meant reconstruction, but it was a code word for radical change. In Germany’s case today, the code word here is Zeitenwende, or “turning point”, as announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a speech delivered to the Bundestag in February, three days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

GERMANY - Boris Johnson arrives in Bavaria on Sunday for the annual G7 summit of world leaders, hosted this year by the new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. It will be all smiles when the two men greet at the beautiful Schloss Elmau hotel, a luxury spa high in the Bavarian Alps. But beyond the handshake diplomacy, Johnson finds himself facing a center-left leader who has decided to break ranks with the discreet style of his predecessor Angela Merkel and deliver clear, public rebukes to London over its Brexit maneuvering.

ISRAEL - The Wall Street Journal reports that top military officials from Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as representatives from the US, Bahrain and UAE, discussed the shared Iranian threat. Israel took part in a secret, US-initiated meeting of top military officials from throughout the Middle East in Egypt in March in order to discuss combatting the shared threat of Iran’s missile and drone capabilities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

GERMANY - Germany is aiming to found a global “climate club” taxation scheme designed to force countries worldwide to adopt a hardcore green agenda. Seemingly unhappy with just destroying its own economy, eco-crazy Germany is now reportedly aiming to found a so-called “climate club”, a group that would punish countries not perceived as green enough.

USA - A tidal wave of evictions could be ahead. More than eight million Americans are behind on rent payments, and the CDC's series of eviction moratoriums has long since expired. In other words, the government safety net to keep people off the streets is gone. With no federal eviction moratorium in place, 8.4 million Americans, or about 15% of all renters, who are behind on rent, are at risk of being evicted. The new figures were part of a Census Bureau survey conducted between June 1 to June 13 of households and was first reported by Bloomberg. About 6.7 million households said their rents increased, on average, $250 per month over the last year. The increase doesn't sound like a lot but remember that many of these folks are being crushed under the weight of the highest inflation in four decades. Their credit cards are maxed out, and savings are drained as wages fail to keep up with soaring consumer prices.

JAPAN - Japan’s government said this week it spotted three Chinese warships “sailing an unusual route around the archipelago,” the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Wednesday, noting that the sighting comes amid heightened tensions between Tokyo and Beijing over maritime territorial disputes.

GERMANY - Germany has moved one step closer to gas rationing, after the country’s economic ministry on Thursday warned of a high risk of long-term supply shortages due to Russia systematically choking off gas deliveries. Economy minister Robert Habeck announced the second of three energy emergency plan phases, which enables utility firms to pass on high gas prices to customers and thereby help to lower demand. Russian gas deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline continue to remain at the low level of 40%...“There’s no point pretending – the throttling of gas deliveries amounts to an economic attack on us by Putin,” the minister for economic and energy affairs said. “Putin’s strategy is blatantly to stir insecurity, to drive up prices and to drive a wedge through our society. Even if it doesn’t feel like it yet, we are in a gas crisis,” he added. “From now on, gas is going to be a scarce good.”

GERMANY - Russia’s squeeze on gas supplies shows the era of cheap energy is over in Germany. In Germany, some industrial furnaces have been running without interruption for decades. If they cool down suddenly, the molten materials harden and the system breaks. That’s the kind of concern sweeping through Europe’s largest economy as it faces an unprecedented energy crisis. What started as vague foreboding over reduced supplies of Russian gas is now very real. After President Vladimir Putin slashed flows on the main link to Europe by 60%, experts in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s administration this week worked out the scenarios and none of them led to sufficient reserves to make it through the winter. “That was the sobering moment,” Klaus Mueller, who heads Germany’s network regulator known as BNetzA, said Friday.

USA - Huge victory to pro-lifers; Brace yourselves now for violent left-wing extremism that will shock America and reveal the true face of evil. With that decision, the federal government no longer has any role to play in the abortion issue. Yes, Joe Biden can issue any executive orders he wants, but the states controlled by Republicans can simply thumb their nose at the White House and ban the butchering of babies.

USA - On Friday afternoon, Squad Member and Missouri Representative Cori Bush spoke at a pro-choice rally in St Louis, Missouri, after declaring the US Supreme Court to be “racist and sexist” for overturning Roe v Wade. During the event, protesters chanted, “Free abortion on demand; the people hate abortion bans!” Planned Parenthood of Missouri, which helped organize the rally, called Bush “an absolute champion for abortion access.” Bush was elected as a Missouri congresswoman in 2020 and is considered a member of the communist, anti-American “Squad.” On Friday, she repeatedly called US Supreme Court justices “unelected” as the St Louis crowd booed. She joined a chorus of far-left voices on Friday who spoke out against the US Supreme Court following the release of Justice Alito’s ruling. They were “able to make a decision to affect people whose existence they will never know, whose children and children’s children they will never know.” A woman named Maggie Olivia spoke at the event; she said her abortion was the “best choice” she ever made, calling it an “act of love.” “Most abortions are an act of love,” she said. Her comments caused the crowd to erupt in cheers and shouts of support.

GERMANY - German Navy Bids to Acquire Rostock Shipyard: The German government confirmed that it has entered a bid to acquire the Rostock shipyard that formerly belonged to the now defunct MV Werften group that financially collapsed in January 2022 after it failed to win additional loans from the government and its banks. The insolvency liquidator for the group reports that bidding for the shipyard, located in the former East Germany, will be closing today. The German Navy reportedly working with the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks and the Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Bundeswehr, submitted a proposal to create a new maintenance and repair base in Rostock, where the naval command is also located. The new facility would be in addition to a facility in Wilhelmshaven in western Germany on the North Sea. Rostock is located in the east on the Baltic. The Department of Defense reportedly wants the new location to build its operational flexibility and strength in the region.

AUSTRALIA - If a person in Western Australia contracts Covid-19, they must remain in home quarantine for the following seven days – as do their close contacts. The police check up on their whereabouts by sending periodic text messages and require a selfie to be sent back to them within 15 minutes. The police use facial recognition technology and GPS tracking to determine if the person who took the selfie is at home. If they are not, they quickly follow up with a knock on the door and a potentially hefty fine. The G2G app by local tech start-up Genvis has been used by more than 150,000 people in the state since it was rolled out in September 2020. The same technology, albeit provided by different companies, has been piloted in the states of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Australia stands out as the only democracy to use facial recognition technology to aid Covid-19 containment procedures while other countries were pushing back against the idea of such surveillance.

The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v Wade. Friday’s outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump. The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step. It puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls. Authority to regulate abortion rests with the political branches, not the courts, Alito wrote.

INDONESIA - The global food crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine will kill millions by leaving the hungriest more vulnerable to infectious diseases, potentially triggering the world's next health catastrophe, the head of a major aid organisation has warned. A Russian naval blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports has stopped grain shipments from the world's fourth-largest exporter of wheat and corn, raising the spectre of shortages and hunger in low-income countries. The knock-on effects of the food shortages mean many will die not only of starvation but from having weaker defences against infectious diseases due to bad nutrition, Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria told AFP this week. "I think we've probably already begun our next health crisis. It's not a new pathogen but it means people who are poorly nourished will be more vulnerable to the existing diseases," he said in an interview on the sidelines of a G20 health minister meeting in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta.