JAPAN - Japan has thrown its support behind Australia to slam Chinese 'economic coercion' and 'destabilising' actions in the Indo-Pacific amid fears the region is on the brink of war. Foreign and defence ministers from the two allied countries held online talks to strengthen their security ties on Wednesday in the face of an increasingly assertive Beijing.

USA - Inflation is making headlines all over the country, but the mainstream media is not being honest about the true severity of the crisis. We are being told that the official rate of inflation is still in single digits, but what we aren’t being told is that the way inflation is calculated has changed dramatically over the years. In fact, according to Forbes “the government has changed the way it calculates inflation more than 20 times” over the past 30 years. The rate of inflation directly affects so many other things in our system, and the government would like to keep that number as low as possible. So they tinkered and tinkered with the formula until they got it just where they wanted it.

GERMANY - Ten of Germany’s largest corporations have teamed up to promote and accelerate the use of quantum computing in their combined businesses in the hope of gaining a technological edge over their competitors. While Europe might be a leader in particle physics, thanks to research institutes like CERN, it's been playing catch-up in the race to harness the underlying science behind quantum computers to develop the most powerful computing machine on Earth.

USA - US President Joe Biden will host German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington on July 15 in what will likely be her farewell visit to the United States after almost 16 years at the helm of Europe's largest economy. The announcement was made on Friday on the first day of the Group of Seven summit in England. Biden has hosted two other world leaders since taking office, Japan and South Korea. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden and Merkel "will discuss their commitment to close cooperation on a range of common challenges, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the threat of climate change, and promoting economic prosperity and international security based on our shared democratic values."

EUROPE - Mr Mody [the renowned economist] also highlighted how Ms von der Leyen's previous calls for "deeper integration" in Europe were at odds with the people of the continent. He said: "Europeans emphatically steered away from a United States of Europe even in the shadow of the Second World War when the impetus to come together as a way of erasing the bloody memories was the greatest. The circumstances today are particularly inimical to such a goal — and likely to become steadily worse." Mr Mody also warned of a different challenge facing the EU – Germany's economy. He said Germany was "dangerously poised at an economic tipping point" and was "tearing itself apart politically". Mr Mody added: "As if to validate that bleaker view, distrust and divisions have grown alarmingly."

USA - Lakes at historically low levels, unusually early forest fires, restrictions on water use and now a potentially record heat wave: even before summer's start the US West is suffering the effects of chronic drought made worse by climate change. Eighty-eight percent of the West was in a state of drought this week, including the entire states of California, Oregon, Utah and Nevada, according to official data.

USA - The water level of Lake Mead at the Hoover Dam is set to meet its lowest level on record as California's megadrought leave millions under emergency rations. On Thursday, Lake Mead's water level is projected to hit elevation 1,071.61 feet, sinking to its lowest elevation on record since the 1930's, said a Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman. Thursday's level is about four feet below the level that would trigger a federal declaration of a water shortage which would cut water supplies to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico. Arizona could have its supply cut by 320,000 acre-feet, Aaron said. That is a year's supply for nearly 1 million households, according to the Arizona Department of Water Resources. Lake Mead, formed in the 1930s from the damming of the Colorado River at the Nevada-Arizona border about 30 miles east of Las Vegas, is the largest reservoir in the United States.

UK - The alliance between the US and the UK should be known as the "indestructible relationship", Boris Johnson has told the BBC after meeting US President Joe Biden for the first time. He said he had "terrific" talks with Mr Biden, who has travelled to Cornwall for the G7 summit of world leaders. The summit begins later, with vaccines and climate change on the agenda. The prime minister was speaking to the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg, after meeting Mr Biden in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, on Thursday ahead of the G7 summit. The summit will see the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and UK gathering in person for the first time since the pandemic. He said he thought of the association as "an indestructible relationship" or the "deep and meaningful relationship". "It's a relationship that has endured for a very long time, and has been an important part of peace and prosperity both in Europe and around the world," he said.

UK - Do summits like this matter? "Occasionally!" comes the answer from a former government insider who worked for years at the very top. They warn that global get-togethers - however glamorous the location, however acute any particular political emergency, however good the freebies for the thousands of attendees - can descend into 'waffelage'. As the most powerful elected people in the world prepare to occupy a tiny Cornish bay for a few days, will this be an occasion that makes a difference to any of our lives or will it be waffle in the end?

UK - Britons have launched a furious attack and demanded the UK hit back against the US after President Joe Biden ramped up Brexit tensions shortly before a crunch bilateral meeting with Boris Johnson. The implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol has been a major talking point of Joe Biden's visit for the G7 summit, with the US President formally reprimanding the UK for "inflaming" Brexit tensions.

USA - Within US politics, a demarche is defined as “a request or intercession with a foreign official, eg a request for support of a policy, or a protest about the host government’s policy or actions”. A demarche document details formal diplomatic representation of the official position, views or wishes on a given subject – in this case the Northern Ireland protocol – from one government to another, or to an inter-governmental organisation. Demarches usually seek to persuade, inform or gather information from a foreign government, while as in this case, governments can also use a demarche to protest or object to actions of a foreign government or organisation. Informally, the word is sometimes used within politics to describe making or receiving such correspondence. The word originates from the French word ‘démarche’, which literally translates to ‘take steps’.

USA - As the world economy awakens from the 15-month slumber caused by the pandemic, Deutsche Bank has launched a series of research articles to spark debate and discussion about pressing post-pandemic economic issues. According to the report, “US macro policy and, indeed, the very role of government in the economy, is undergoing its biggest shift in direction in 40 years. In turn we are concerned that it will bring about uncomfortable levels of inflation.” That could be deemed an understatement considering that the US economy is already experiencing “uncomfortable” inflation.

UK - Angela, Boris, Emmanuel, Justin, Mario, Yoshihide and a relative newcomer: Joe. They’re the board of global democracy’s most exclusive club, and they’re meeting this week after four years of US disruption and a two-year coronavirus interruption.

USA - A mother who grew up under Mao in China tells the Loudoun County school board that training children to be social justice warriors, to hate their heritage and dividing people into groups is essentially the same kind of indoctrination that led to China becoming Communist:

USA - The movement to “defund the police,” which rose to prominence after Floyd’s death, has actually gotten innocent black people killed. As police have pulled back, our neighborhoods have been left unprotected. Crime has skyrocketed. Major American cities saw a 33% increase in homicides last year as a pandemic swept across the country. Preliminary Federal Bureau of Investigation data show that the US murder rate increased by 25% in 2020. Between December 11, 2020, and March 28, 2021 (after the Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a budget that shifted $8 million from the police department to other programs), murders in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, rose 46% compared with the same period the year before.