CHINA - China's grand expansion plans have been laid bare this week amid the first arrests from its controversial new security law in Hong Kong - and Taiwan could well be next, an expert claims. On Tuesday China passed and implemented its controversial and wide-ranging security law in the autonomous region of Hong Kong. The details of the law’s 66 articles were kept secret until after it was passed. Now, secession (breaking away from the country), subversion (undermining the power or authority of the central government), terrorism (using violence or intimidation against people), and collusion with foreign or external forces [is outlawed]. Many have warned that the laws can be interpreted by China how it pleases, and are intended to allow Beijing to have a legal framework to deal with what it sees as serious challenges to its authority. Critics say the new law undermines the freedoms Hong Kong is meant to have under the “one country, two systems” framework. This came about when the island territory was handed back to China from British control in 1997.

MONGOLIA - Mongolia has quarantined a region next to the Chinese border following two suspected cases of the plague. The outbreak is being linked to marmot meat, health experts revealed on Wednesday. Lab tests have reportedly confirmed that two unidentified individuals had contracted the disease in the region of Khovd, Mongolia's National Center for Zoonotic Disease (NCZD) said in a statement. The NCZD analysed samples from 146 different people who may have had contact and discovered two individuals were infected. Local reports suggested that the victims include a 27-year-old male and a young woman. The bacterial infection can kill adults within 24 hours if not treated in time. The plague is spread by fleas living on wild rodents such as marmots. The bacterium was also linked to the Black Death in the 14th century. It killed more than a third of Europe's population.

ETHIOPIA - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that 700,000 refugees, 1.15 million children aged between 6 and 59 months, and 750,000 pregnant and nursing women will be at serious risk if additional funding does not materialize in coming weeks. This funding crisis comes as Ethiopia is struggling to contain a four-pronged food security crisis linked to the combined impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a devastating desert locust invasion, widespread flooding and rising food prices. “The food security situation in Ethiopia could not be more precarious.” said Steven Were Omamo, WFP Representative and Country Director in Ethiopia. “The vulnerable people whom the Government of Ethiopia and WFP serve are struggling just to get by. They are utterly dependent on this support for their survival.”

GERMANY - A German equivalent to UK’s Financial Times and America’s Wall Street Journal is the Dusseldorf Handelsblatt or “Commerce Sheet,” which headlined on June 30th, “Former Chancellor Schröder: USA Ending Transatlantic Partnership”. They reported: Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has condemned possible new US sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline as “deliberate termination of the transatlantic partnership.” A draft law currently under discussion in the US Congress is “a widespread, unjustified attack on the European economy and an unacceptable interference with EU sovereignty and the energy security of Western Europe,” Schröder writes in his statement for a public hearing of the Economic Committee scheduled for Wednesday in the Bundestag. The article closes: Schröder sees the relations with the USA as “heavily burdened” by “escalating tariffs and going it alone” policy by the Americans. Schröder writes: “Economic fines against a NATO ally during the current economic recession are nothing other than a deliberate termination of the transatlantic partnership.”

GERMANY - Ambassador Michael Koch, German Ambassador to the Holy See discusses the upcoming German EU presidency and the challenges the EU will have to tackle in the following months. With regards to the role of the Holy See, Ambassador Koch says that "we cannot, and do not, expect their role to be one of telling us how to draft a EU budget". However, “what is important and what the Holy See and the Pope have contributed repeatedly” are very clear indications of the basis from which this sort of exercise ought to be launched.

UK - More than 12,000 people in the UK are set to lose their jobs after a raft of firms announced cuts in the past 48 hours. The cuts are mainly being made by High Street retailers and in aviation - two of the sectors hardest hit by the coronavirus lockdown. John Lewis has said it will close stores but has not confirmed how many jobs will go. Topshop owner Arcadia and Harrods said they planned a total of 1,180 job cuts. Businesses have been hit hard since the UK went into lockdown on 23 March, and even though restrictions are gradually being eased, consumer demand remains depressed. The government's furlough scheme will also start to be pared back from August, and firms are cutting jobs to control their costs.

PHILIPPINES - Manila and nearby cities will remain under a general lockdown until July 15, while a strict lockdown in Cebu City, where there has been a surge in coronavirus infections will be kept, President Rodrigo R Duterte said late Tuesday. Aside from Metro Manila, the provinces of Benguet, Cavite, Rizal, Leyte and Southern Leyte, and the cities of Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue and Ormoc will continue to be under a general community quarantine. “Cebu is now the hotspot for COVID-19,” Mr. Duterte said in a televised speech. “Why? Because many of you chose not to obey.” The President also criticized Talisay City, which he said appeared like a marketplace everyday. “You’ve been on a drinking spree, drinking, gambling and almost nonchalant of the dangers that are lurking around,” he said

USA - The dollar’s dominance will slowly melt away over the coming year on weakening global demand and a sombre US economic outlook, according to a Reuters poll of currency forecasters whose views depend on there being no second coronavirus shock. Caught between bets in favour of riskier investments, weak US economic prospects as well as an easing in the thirst for dollars after the Federal Reserve flooded markets with liquidity, the greenback fell nearly 1.0% last month. It was its worst monthly performance since December. While there was a dire prognosis from the top US medical expert on the coronavirus’ spread, the June 25-July 1 poll of over 70 analysts showed weak dollar projections as Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Monday reiterated the economic outlook for the world’s largest economy was uncertain.

UK - The mainstreaming of transgender ideology has had a “corrosive impact” on British society and has had a negative influence on the wellbeing of children, a study from think tank Civitas has found. The former director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Kent, Dr Joanna Williams, wrote in her report The Corrosive Impact of Transgender Ideology that transgenderism has moved from a “niche” concern to a main political focal point over the past two decades as a result of the British establishment coalescing “behind the demands of a tiny transgender community”.

GERMANY - With its EU Council Presidency, which begins today, the German government seeks "to set in motion unprecedented changes" in the European Union, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced. Not only should the EU countries' economies - which are experiencing an unprecedented slump, due to the Covid-19 pandemic - be reinvigorated, it is also crucial "to consolidate the union permanently," Maas declared. Berlin is thus reacting to the fact that single-handed national initiatives to combat the pandemic - particularly those of Germany - have severely damaged the EU's reputation within the populations. According to a recent survey, 50 percent of respondents in Spain declared that their view of the EU had deteriorated, in Italy, it was even 58 percent. The German government is also pushing to strengthen the EU's "sovereignty" and to reduce its dependency not only on China, but also on the USA: In the global great power rivalry, Europe must position itself as a "united entity," Maas demands. At the same time, we will have to "think about how to better contain the conflicts in Europe’s vicinity, even without the US." In an earlier interview, Mass said that the EU "has to succeed in positioning Europe as a united entity in the global great-power rivalry between the United States, China and Russia. Only by standing united as Europeans," Maas maintains, "do we have a chance of holding our own in that environment. Otherwise we will become the plaything of others."

GERMANY - Germany's arrogance might be the "greatest threat to the European Union" a politician has warned as Brexit talks intensify. The European Union faces an uncertain future due to the coronavirus pandemic which has crippled economies around the world. Both German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President, Emmanuel Macron have pushed for a huge €750 billion (£676 billion) package to help European states recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Germany also takes up its presidency of the EU Council this month. However, with Germany now taking a more prominent role in Europe, Green politician Franziska Brantner warned “German arrogance” may be the biggest threat to the bloc’s future. In an interview for Germany publication, T-Online she said: “We have to be careful with the arrogance that sometimes radiates from Germany. This claim, ‘if everyone were just like us, everything would be good’. You can find this in all parties, not just the Greens and the Conservatives.”

USA - The corona crisis has already taken a very high toll and caused deep damage in our societies and our economies, the extent of which is yet to become apparent. We have seen its impact on productivity, on unemployment, on social cohesion and on political division. However, there is another very worrying trend that has been accelerated under the veil of fear and confusion that the pandemic has spread. The war on cash, that was already underway for almost a decade, has been drastically intensified over the last few months.

ISRAEL - The West Bank Faces a New Reckoning Beginning July 1, the Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, could begin the process of annexing parts of the West Bank, despite this being a violation of international law. For many inhabitants of the region, their future is at stake. They can’t even agree on a name. The Israelis call the region Judea and Samaria, like in the Bible. The Palestinians speak of the "Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

USA - With less than five months until the 2020 elections, Americans are deeply unhappy with the state of the nation. As the United States simultaneously struggles with a pandemic, an economic recession and protests about police violence and racial justice, the share of the public saying they are satisfied with the way things are going in the country has plummeted from 31% in April, during the early weeks of the coronavirus outbreak, to just 12% today. Anger and fear are widespread. Majorities of Democrats and Republicans say they feel both sentiments when thinking about the country, though these feelings are more prevalent among Democrats. And just 17% of Americans – including 25% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents and 10% of Democrats and Democratic leaners – say they feel proud when thinking about the state of the country. However, nearly half of adults (46%) say they feel hopeful about the state of the country, although a 53% majority says they are not hopeful.

UNITED NATIONS - United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is calling for a “multilateral” level of governance with the “teeth” to “function as an instrument of global governance where it is needed. The problem is that today’s multilateralism lacks scale, ambition and teeth,” Guterres said during a Thursday press conference on the launch of the UN’s “comprehensive response to COVID-19” — the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China. “And some of the instruments that do have teeth, show little or no appetite to bite, as has recently been the case with the difficulties faced by the Security Council.” In the interdependent world of today, “national interests are not easily separated from the global good,” Guterres said. In the face of such problems, “world leaders need to be humble and recognize the vital importance of unity and solidarity,” he said. “And we need an effective multilateralism that can function as an instrument of global governance where it is needed.”