EUROPE - Vincent-Immanuel Herr is fellow at the Charlemagne Prize Academy in Germany and partner at Herr & Speer, a political consulting firm. He has published numerous books and articles on European integration and democracy. Martin Speer is fellow at the Charlemagne Prize Academy in Germany and partner at Herr & Speer. He has advised European institutions and politicians on various questions regarding policy and communication. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced leaders of the European Union to confront an uncomfortable reality: Europeans have neglected their own security for far too long. Europe has for decades been content to be a soft-power superpower — focusing on peacekeeping, democracy and prosperity within the union. It has been all too comfortable delegating its security concerns to the United States, which provides military cover through its NATO commitment.

EUROPE - European companies are starting to move ahead to comply with Russian demands and keep the gas flowing. The European Union said companies can keep buying gas without breaching sanctions, as it softened its stance in a standoff with Moscow over energy supplies. Italian energy giant Eni SpA will move to open accounts in rubles and euros with Gazprombank by Wednesday so that it can make payments on time this month and avoid any risks to gas supplies, according to people familiar with the situation. German giant Uniper SE and Austria’s OMV AG have also said they expect gas purchases to continue. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki criticized the EU for softening its stance on ruble payments. “I am disappointed to see that in the European Union there is consent to pay for gas in rubles,” he said on Sunday. “Poland will stick to the rules and will not yield to Putin’s blackmail.” Russia halted gas flows to neighboring Poland in late April.

ITALY - The war in Ukraine has caused an unholy convergence of the left and right in Italy. While there is nothing formal so far about this alliance of enemies, it nevertheless threatens to destroy the unity of NATO. The most high-profile participant is Matteo Salvini, leader of the Lega - the party with the second-highest number of MPs in Italy’s parliament– which is invariably defined as ‘far right’. Salvini, who has been one of Vladimir Putin’s strongest supporters outside Russia, condemned the invasion of Ukraine and has now come out as a pacifist.

USA - A vast swath of North America from the Great Lakes to the West Coast is at risk of blackouts this summer as heat, drought, shuttered power plants and supply-chain woes strain the electric grid. Power supplies in much of the US and part of Canada will be stretched, with demand growing again after two years of pandemic disruptions, according to an annual report. It’s among the most dire assessments yet from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a regulatory body that oversees grid stability. “It’s a pretty sobering report, and it’s clear the risks are spreading,” John Moura, director of reliability assessment and performance analysis, said in a press briefing. “I certainly do think it's our most cautionary tale here.” A historic drought is covering the western US, limiting supplies of hydroelectric power, and forecasts call for a hotter-than-average summer. But the fight against global warming poses its own risks as older coal-fired plants close faster than wind farms, solar facilities and batteries can replace them. “We know that reliability is going to be difficult in this time of transition,” said Alice Reynolds, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, during a May 6 press conference.

USA - Senator Rand Paul (Republican for Kentucky) told Breitbart News Daily that America has to borrow the money to send $40 billion in aid to Ukraine. Breitbart News Daily host Alex Marlow spoke with Paul as the Senate remains poised to pass legislation that would send $40 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine while Americans grapple with inflation and food shortages. Paul has “single handedly” worked to hold up the Ukraine package, contending that the package needs an inspector general to ensure that the billions of dollars are spent wisely. Paul said that America would have to continue borrowing from China to appropriate the proposed Ukraine aid package. “I think it’s important to know that we don’t have any money to send, we have to borrow money from China to send it to Ukraine. And I think most people kind of get that, and many Republicans will say that when it’s a new social program, but if it’s military aid to a country, they’re like we can borrow that, that’s a justified borrowing,” Paul explained to Marlow.

WALES - Mark Drakeford (Welsh First Minister) has said he "regrets" that a hate preacher will be able to perform in Wales. He said despite the Welsh Government having a 50% stake in the International Convention Centre in Newport it does not have any say over who appears there. Franklin Graham was originally booked to appear at the Newport venue in June 2020 but that event was cancelled by ICC Wales after a number of people including Newport MS Jayne Bryant and LGBTQ+ charity Pride Cymru raised concerns over his views.

RUSSIA - A massive nuclear missile dubbed "Satan 2" could destroy the United Kingdom in seconds, a Russian state TV host has said. The Satan 2, technically an RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, weighs 20 tons and has a range of 11,000 miles. It travels at hypersonic speeds of 16,000mph and can be armed with up to 15 nuclear warheads, the Express reports. Russian President Vladamir Putin called the Satan 2 a "truly unique weapon" that will "reliably ensure Russia's security from external threats and provide food for thought for those who, in the heat of frenzied aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country". Ian Williams, a fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank said the Satan 2 was "probably the most destructive single weapon on earth". Speaking to The Telegraph, he added: “It could destroy 10 cities with one missile" as the warheads it carries can be "independently targeted".

GERMANY - The German Air Force Defense Center at Fort Bliss is leaving after almost 66 years and relocating back to Germany. The GAFADC will be deactivated on June 30. In the future, German Air Defense personnel will be trained at the new Air Defense Training Center in Husum, Germany. “It was not the plan to leave. Time changes, the crisis in Europe is there and that is why unfortunately we have to leave. We have to face war in Europe because of the Ukraine crisis" said Lieutenant Colonel Ingo Sharschmidt the commander of the German Air Force Defense Center at Fort Bliss.

GERMANY - German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is now blaming Russia for causing “brutal hunger” even though her country was the one that blocked Russia from trading agricultural products in the first place. Baerbock made these absurd comments at a recent G7 meeting with Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

EUROPE - Almost two months after Europe rushed to declare it would impose unprecedented sanctions on Russia in response to Putin's invasion of Ukraine with no regard for how such sanctions would boomerang and cripple its own economies, the old continent which was and still remains hostage to Russian energy exports, is finally grasping the underlying math which was all too clear to Vladimir Putin long ago. The European Union’s executive arm said yesterday that the currency bloc’s economy would expand about 0.2% this year, with inflation topping 9%, as governments struggled to replace the imports. And in typical European fashion, the messaging is full of confusion, with guidance for companies as one thing while the propaganda disseminated for public consumption totally different, all the while the biggest winner remains Putin and Russia which yesterday reported a new record high in its current account.

USA - Since the conflict in Ukraine and Russia began, high-profile elites have demanded that the United States back Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky with finances, food, weaponry, and even the threat of war against Vladimir Putin, but this is out of step with the will of the people. A majority of Americans do not want the US to go to war with Russia over Ukraine. Recent polling from The Washington Post and ABC News suggests that 72 percent of US adults “oppose the United States taking direct military action against Russian forces.”

VATICAN - A new documentary claims that Mother Teresa had a much darker side. The three-part Sky documentary titled Mother Teresa: For The Love Of God claims that the Nobel Peace Prize winner was not all that she seemed. After a 1969 BBC documentary of her work was shown to the world, Mother Teresa became an overnight celebrity as she was greeted by the likes of Princess Diana and President Ronald Reagan.

UK - Four more people have been diagnosed with monkeypox in the UK, bringing the total number of cases in the latest outbreak to seven. All four new patients are gay or bisexual men who were infected in London and had no travel links to Africa, health chiefs have confirmed after MailOnline broke the news earlier today. Two are known to each other but have no connection to any of the previous cases, in a sign the virus is spreading in the community for the first time. Nurses and doctors are being advised to stay 'alert' to patients who present with a new rash. Monkeypox is often mistaken for more common rash illnesses like chickenpox, measles, scabies and syphilis, which makes it difficult to diagnose early. The rare tropical disease, which causes flu-like symptoms and blisters on the skin, is caused by a virus spread by monkeys, rats, squirrels and other small mammals.

USA - Astonishing DailyMail.com photos lay bare the devastating effects of severe drought conditions on Lake Mead in Nevada. Decaying carp and catfish now lie on the dry, cracked earth where only a few months ago boats and pleasure craft were setting out from a busy launch area on the country's largest man-made lake. The water level of the reservoir is now just 1,052ft above sea level, compared to 1,085ft in January last year, with every foot drop representing roughly 30ft of lost shoreline.

UK - In his classic dystopian novel 1984, George Orwell famously wrote, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever.” This striking image served as a potent symbol for totalitarianism in the 20th Century. But as Caylan Ford recently observed, with the advent of digital health passports in the emerging biomedical security state, the new symbol of totalitarian repression is “not a boot, but an algorithm in the cloud: emotionless, impervious to appeal, silently shaping the biomass.”