GERMANY - Germany took over the rotating presidency of the European Union for six months from July 1. This is being accompanied by an aggressive campaign for militarism and a more independent German-European great power policy. Significantly, the official motto of the German government for the Council presidency is “Gemeinsam. Europa wieder stark machen” (“Together. Making Europe strong again”) — Berlin’s counterpart to Trump’s “Make America Great Again.”

GERMANY - Germany has called for a European army to be established amid fears the US "is less willing" to support allies in far away regions. Officials in the trade bloc have long spoken of a European army in order to push Brussel’s geopolitical position in the world. Funding for a European Defence Fund has also been included in the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

Speaking on Tuesday, the CDU and SCU parliamentary group’s foreign policy spokesman, Jurgen Hardt insisted the EU must be more capable of action. “Our American friends expect the same from us. They are less and less willing to play a part in order to regulate regions that they consider to be far away, but which are immediate neighbourhoods for us. We have to build our own civil-military leadership structure that can control EU operations.”

GERMANY - As Germany reappraises its longstanding reliance on the United States amid growing tensions with Washington over security and trade, there is less doubt among the country’s leaders about the necessity to reenergize its partnership with China, Germany’s largest trading partner. While China has come under criticism across much of the Western world, in particular in the US and UK, for not being more transparent about the origins of the coronavirus outbreak and, more recently, for its suspension of democratic norms in Hong Kong, the German government has been more cautious in its response.

GERMANY - Germany’s Army, known as the Bundeswehr, plans to procure a batch of new unitary guided missiles with a unitary warhead for the MARS II rocket launcher. According to a press release issued on 2 July by Bundeswehr, the national parliament of the Federal Republic has approved the acquisition of new MARS II rockets. The contract, from the German Army, will be valued at more than $239 million and covers the supply of 1,818 unitary guided missiles. As the MilitaryLeak previously reported, these high-precision missiles are fired by the MARS II rocket launcher and can hit point and area targets up to 80 kilometers away with pinpoint accuracy and in any weather condition. Also for the VJTF in 2023, 170 guided missiles of the Patriot ground-based air defense system from the Bundeswehr inventory will be upgraded.

USA - We have repeatedly said that these protests and riots are being led by college-aged kids who literally know nothing about American history. They have not been taught the truth. This is key to understand. They have not been taught the truth of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, the founding, and then made up their minds that they think these guys are reprobates and creeps.

IRAN - Over the past several weeks, a series of “mystery explosions” has happened at very strategically sensitive locations inside Iran, and it has become obvious that what we are witnessing is not just a bunch of random accidents. For years, the Israeli government has pledged that the Iranians will never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, and several of the sites where the mystery explosions have taken place have direct connections to Iran’s nuclear program. For example, there was a very large explosion at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility on July 2nd, and it is being reported that some officials believe that this explosion was caused by a “powerful bomb”.

USA - The recession of 2008 and 2009 was bad, but it was nothing like this. Even though this new economic downturn is only a few months old, we are already seeing numbers that we haven’t seen since the worst parts of the Great Depression of the 1930s. More than 48 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits over the past 15 weeks, well over 100,000 businesses have permanently closed their doors, and civil unrest has turned quite a few of our major cities into war zones. But not all areas of the country are being affected equally.

USA - How Covid-19, BLM protests and a liberal mayor are turning the city into a no-go zone as murders skyrocket, shops are looted and 500,000 middle-class residents flee. Two bullet-ridden bodies lay sprawled on bloodstained concrete steps. Alongside, relatives of the victims are wailing and collapse to the ground. In another part of the city, a gang of youths use spray paint to disable security cameras before robbing a corner store. Later, video footage captures police officers sitting helplessly in their patrol car as a baying crowd hurls glass bottles at them. This is lawless New York – a city that was once America’s glittering crown jewel but which risks descending into mob rule. Murder figures have skyrocketed and a combination of the coronavirus pandemic, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and weak political leadership is in danger of achieving what Osama Bin Laden never could: bringing the Big Apple to its knees.

CHINA - Chinese state media said Saturday the double US aircraft carrier deployment to the South China Sea is 'at their pleasure'. In a tweet The Global Times also warned: 'China has a wide selection of anti-aircraft carrier weapons like DF-21D and DF-26 "aircraft carrier killer" missiles.' Two US aircraft carriers were conducting exercises in the disputed South China Sea on Saturday, the US navy had said, as China also carried out military drills that have been criticized by the Pentagon and neighboring states. The state run Global Times said analysts noted that they could destroy the carriers at any moment with missiles in a chilling threat.

AUSTRALIA - Australian authorities were preparing to close the border between the country’s two largest states, as the country’s second-largest city, Melbourne, recorded two deaths and its highest-ever daily increase in infections on Monday. The border between the states of New South Wales — home to Sydney — and Victoria — home to Melbourne — is due to be shut late Tuesday. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian was a critic of states that closed their borders to her state when Sydney had Australia’s largest number of coronavirus cases. But she said she changed her stance because the situation in Melbourne was unprecedented and indicated the pandemic was in a new phase.

CHINA - Bubonic plague has broken out in a Chinese city with authorities issuing an epidemic warning after a local farmer contracted the virus that caused the infamous Black Death. The Inner Mongolian Chinese city of Bayan has been placed under a level three warning for epidemic control. This is the second-lowest in a four-level system and the hunting and eating of wild animals has been forbidden. The resident of the Nur is now said to be in a stable condition. If antibiotics are administered within 24 hours of infection patients are likely to survive. If antibiotics are not available the virus can lead to a prolonged painful death.

USA - Multiple signs point to a crisis in global order. The uncoordinated international response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the resulting economic downturns, the resurgence of nationalist politics, and the hardening of state borders all seem to herald the emergence of a less cooperative and more fragile international system. According to many observers, these developments underscore the dangers of US President Donald Trump’s “America first” policies and his retreat from global leadership.

USA - It has been clear for many years that the United States is a house divided. But since March, when the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the country, that division has taken on a ghastly new face. Staggering death tolls and nightmarish images of body bags, overwhelmed hospitals, and freezer morgues have stirred little sense of unity or common purpose. Instead, they seem to have simply fed an already raging case of partisan polarization — another virus for which there is as yet no treatment or vaccine. It has become difficult to ask even the most basic questions — whether a certain medicine works, whether a city has enough ventilators and protective equipment — without triggering a political brawl, usually revolving around President Donald Trump.

USA - A national parents’ coalition that formed around the anti-Common Core movement told Breitbart News it is “thrilled” President Donald Trump has exposed the “indoctrination” of America’s children that has been occurring for decades in government schools. The president said: Our children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that they were villains. The radical view of American history is a web of lies — all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition.

EUROPE - Serious conflicts between Berlin and Paris over foreign policy overshadow the beginning of the German EU Presidency. French President Emmanuel Macron's ongoing endeavours to cooperate more closely with Russia are being met with resentment in the German capital. During a recent two-hour long video conference with his Russian counterpart he agreed to soon visit Moscow. In fact, the German government lays claim to leadership in determining the EU's policy toward Russia.

There is also the conflict between France and Turkey, which had considerably escalated after a Turkish naval vessel carried out radar targeting of a French frigate in June. Paris therefore withdrew from a NATO operation and is demanding tougher EU sanctions being imposed on Ankara. This runs counter to Berlin's intention to seek the kind of cooperation with Turkey that can safeguard the refugee pact and serve its own geostrategic interests. The dispute could escalate next week when the EU foreign ministers meet… More foreign policy controversies are clearly looming with France.