SOUTH AMERICA - Children as young as seven living in a remote part of the Amazon are battling obesity and diabetes after ultra-processed food was introduced to the region, Dr Chris van Tulleken learns in a new BBC documentary. What Are We Feeding Our Kids? sees doctor Chris van Tulleken consume only ultra-processed foods (UPFs) - such as chicken nuggets, pizza and ready meals - for four weeks, to see what impact it has on the body.

USA - US intelligence authorities have not found any evidence that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) seen by navy pilots in recent years were otherworldly alien spacecraft – but apparently did not rule it out, either. Officials cannot explain the strange movements in the skies that continue to baffle the US military and scientific establishment, the New York Times has reported, based on information from senior administration officials who were briefed on the outcome of a much-awaited government assessment about these phenomena. The report finds that an overwhelming majority of more than 120 sightings in the past 20 years did not come from any US military or other government technology, officials told the newspaper.

USA - Everyone is now serious about UFOs. But they reveal more about earthling politics… most Americans already believe in the most radical explanations for UFOs. The truth probably isn’t out there, but something is. A society’s reaction to things it can’t explain always tell us more about the society than about the thing itself. And so far, the reaction has been remarkably muted. According to one poll, two-thirds of Americans believe there is intelligent life on other planets, 56% believe that we have already made contact with them or will within 100 years, and over half believe UFOs might be alien spacecraft. Indeed, most of society seems ready to view UFOs as primarily a security threat to which a response by the military is required.

USA - The Department of Homeland Security on Friday issued a new warning bulletin, alerting Americans that domestic extremists may well use violence on the 100th Anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre. This was at least the fourth such bulletin issued this year by Homeland Security (DHS) warning of the same danger and, thus far, none of the fears it is trying to instill into the American population has materialized. Just like the first War on Terror, these threats are issued with virtually no specificity. They are just generalized warnings designed to put people in fear about their fellow citizens and to justify aggressive deployment of military and law enforcement officers in Washington, D.C. and throughout the country. Fear is crucial for state authority. When the population is filled with it, they will acquiesce to virtually any power the government seeks to acquire in the name of keeping them safe. But when fear is lacking, citizens will crave liberty more than control, and that is when they question official claims and actions. When that starts to happen, when the public feels too secure, institutions of authority will reflexively find new ways to ensure they stay engulfed by fear and thus quiescent.

EUROPE - According to CNN’s International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson, Operation Allied Sky aimed to show NATO’s “credibility of common defence” and “enhanced readiness”. It comes two weeks ahead of US President Joe Biden’s planned summit with Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin. Twenty countries took part in a large operation in a stark warning to Russia. The NATO jets and US nuke bombers flew over NATO’s 30 member states to showcase their “air superiority”, according to The Sun. According to Airforce Technology, Jeff Harrigian, NATO Allied Air Command and USAFE-AFAFRICA commander general, said: "Bomber missions demonstrate the credibility of our forces to address a global security environment that is more diverse and uncertain than at any other time in our history. Today’s mission is an awesome demonstration of NATO air superiority and together there is no challenge we cannot tackle." The first meeting of NATO leaders since 2019 will take place later this month.

RUSSIA - We are currently witnessing the formation of nothing less than a “new world order,” with the existing international legal system fracturing and states taking sides in a fresh Cold War, Russia’s deputy defense minister has told RT. Colonel General Aleksandr Fomin spoke to the network ahead of the 9th Moscow Conference on International Security, scheduled to take place on June 22-24 in the Russian capital. The event brings together military officials and security experts from different countries, with some 49 nations having already confirmed their participation.

USA - In what is certain to be a recurring theme that has already been thrust into prominence with recent ransomware hacks of the Colonial Pipeline and JBS, the world's largest meat producer, cybercriminals struck yet another target on Wednesday: the US state of Massachusetts ferry system. Additionally, the MTA admitted this week that it was the target of an April attack. Service between several upscale northeastern coastal communities was disrupted as a result of the ferry system attack, according to AFP. The hack hit the Authority where it could arguably hurt worse: its payment system. The ferry was temporary limited to cash after it lost its ability to process credit cards. The Authority tweeted out: "There is no impact to the safety of vessel operations, as the issue does not affect radar or GPS functionality."' But the growing theme not only of targeting mass transit - but also of ransomware attacks in general - are both worth keeping a close eye on, as these feel like anything but isolated incidents.

USA - The US president is meeting G7 nations in London this week and is expected to call for a global minimum tax rate on corporate profits. The European Union could end up with an extra €50 billion ($61 billion) in its pockets if Joe Biden’s plan for a 15 percent global corporate tax rate gets the green light from other nations, according to the newly-established EU Tax Observatory group. Meanwhile, the EU Tax Observatory believes that enforcing the minimal rate will also endow other countries, such as the United Kingdom, with additional cash injections. The group estimates that London will get an extra €200 million ($245 million) from British multinational BP alone, while some €400 million would be added from Barclays bank. Biden is expected to push for the 15 percent proposal – or even higher - during Friday's meeting with the G7 economies. For the United States, the adoption of an internationally-accepted corporate tax target would mark a big win...The scenario is still expected to meet serious resistance from countries with low corporate tax rates, including Ireland, where it currently sits at just 12.5 percent.

CHINA - China has threatened the United States with an "intense nuclear showdown" as it ramps up its atomic program. The Chinese Communist Party's mouthpiece newspaper launched a blistering attack on the West, saying China’s nuclear plan was now vital to the country’s "strategic deterrence" against the US. Hu Xijin, the editor of the Global Times, said "the number of China's nuclear warheads must reach the quantity that makes US elites shiver". "We must be prepared for an intense showdown between China and the US," Hu wrote in a chilling op-ed for the Chinese state-run newspaper. "In that scenario, a large number of Dongfeng-41, and JL-2 and JL-3 (both intercontinental-range submarine-launched ballistic missiles) will form the pillar of our strategic will.

USA - Joe Biden has threatened tariffs on a number of EU states unless the bloc agrees to his new tax demands. The US President has given the EU a six-month ultimatum to negotiate his global corporate tax proposals or face whopping 25 percent retaliatory tariffs on goods. The move would see tariffs on $2 billion (€1.6 billion - £1.4 billion) worth of goods from six countries, including Spain, Italy and Austria, over their tech taxes. The ultimatum aims at upping pressure on the EU to agree to a 15 percent global tax on big corporations which would replace the bloc's taxes on US digital giants such as Amazon and Google. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the tariffs would be suspended for 180 days to give the bloc and the non-EU countries time to complete negotiations. The threat seems to be working as the G7 wealthy democracies are expected to endorse Washington's proposal for an ambitious global corporate minimum tax when their leaders meet later this week in Britain.

USA - With the public asking more questions about UFOs, more officials appear willing to answer them. “There are a lot more sightings than have been made public,” John Ratcliffe, the former director of national intelligence, told Fox News in March. Quite a few of them, he said, “are difficult to explain.” John Brennan, the former director of the CIA, said in a podcast last year that some of the unexplained sightings might be “some type of phenomenon that is the result of something that we don’t yet understand and that could involve some type of activity that some might say constitutes a different form of life.” The lead-up to the report’s expected release has seen quite a bit of mainstream media attention in recent weeks, including a 13,000-word article in The New Yorker in April, and a segment on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” Mr Rubio told “60 Minutes” that there should be a process by which reports of UFOs are “cataloged and constantly analyzed, until we get some answers.”

USA - Americans convinced they can spot fake news are actually more likely to be conned by it, according to a new study that also found a whopping 9 out of 10 respondents believed their ability to spot fake news was top-notch. Participants in the study were shown Facebook news headlines and asked to evaluate their ability to suss out fake news. Of the 8,285 participants, those more likely to believe in their ability to spot fakes were also more likely to visit websites “known to spread false or misleading news,” according to Ben Lyons, the author of the study, which was published Monday – and the most likely to be overconfident in their misinformation-busting abilities. Worse, the “overconfident respondents” were also “less able to distinguish between true and false claims about current events and report higher willingness to share false content, especially when it align[ed] with their political leanings,” Lyons, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Utah, revealed.

USA - We already know that Social Security will be dealing with tough challenges in just a few years if something truly significant doesn’t change, and soon. We also know that last year’s pandemic probably made things much worse. In fact, this year the “new normal” for Social Security could turn any cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for next year into an empty gesture. Overall, the bureaucrats who should be working around the clock to come up with real solutions for retirement savers are giving us the impression that… “Benefits are going to get cut. Deal with it.” This is not comforting.

USA - Meat production in the US is climbing back toward normal levels, with the government pressing other companies to boost output while JBS SA’s meat plants recover from last weekend’s cyberattack. More of JBS’s beef plants were running at least one shift Thursday. Still, even as the facilities return to at least partial operation, workers returning to a meat-processing plant in Texas on Wednesday afternoon were told to be ready to do things by hand. With everything from knife sharpening to production-line speed controls relying on automation, coming back from a cyberattack that forced the world’s largest meat producer to halt operations across the globe is set to be a bumpy ride. Cattle-slaughtering had essentially returned to normal, with 120,000 head slaughtered Thursday, just 1,000 less than a week earlier, according to the US Agriculture Department.

RUSSIA - Russia’s sovereign wealth fund will take a punt on gold and slash $40 billion of US currency entirely out of its investment portfolio amid growing tensions with Washington, the country’s finance minister announced on Thursday. Anton Siluanov said that the National Wealth Fund would reduce its share of dollars to zero within the next month. Speaking as part of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, he said that the process would be “fast enough” and would mirror a similar move by the country’s central bank to reduce assets held in American currency. Under the plans, the proportion of dollars in the fund will fall from 35% to zero, while assets held in euro and the Chinese yuan will increase to 40% and 30%, respectively. The share of the British pound will halve, from 10% to 5%, while the investment vehicle will buy into gold for the first time, with 20% of its assets to be hedged on the precious metal.