GERMANY - Aside from being an affront to EU sovereignty and an imminent threat to European jobs, the sweeping US sanctions targeting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline mark the end of the Transatlantic partnership, Gerhard Schroeder has said. A sanctions bill currently being debated in the US Congress is “a widespread, unjustified attack on the European economy and unacceptable interference with EU sovereignty and energy security in Western Europe,” former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder argued in a position paper drafted ahead of parliamentary hearings on the matter. The penalties – which affect “over 120 shipbuilding, engineering, environmental and security companies that work or have worked with Nord Stream 2” – mark the “definite termination of the Transatlantic partnership,” the retired chancellor’s statement said, as cited by the German business daily Handelsblatt. At the hearing, there was no shortage of speakers bashing the US for meddling in German and European affairs.

USA - Organizers are planning on making July 4th one of the biggest protest days so far, and law enforcement authorities all over the nation are bracing for the potential for more violence. Usually, July 4th is a day of great celebration in this country, but this year the mood is completely different, and many on the left are hoping to use one of our most important holidays to make a very memorable statement. It is being anticipated that some of the largest protests will be in Washington DC, and the White House in particular has been chosen as a focus.

USA - Nearly half of the population is still out of a job showing just how far the US labor market has to heal in the wake of the coronavirus. The employment-population ratio — the number of employed people as a percentage of the US adult population — plunged to 52.8% in May, meaning 47.2% of Americans are jobless, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the coronavirus-induced shutdowns tore through the labor market, the share of population employed dropped sharply from a recent high of 61.2% in January, farther away from a post-war record of 64.7% in 2000. “To get the employment-to-population ratio back to where it was at its peak in 2000 we need to create 30 million jobs,” Torsten Slok, Deutsche Bank’s chief economist, said in an email.

ETHIOPIA - The leaders of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia agreed to negotiate an accord over the filling of Ethiopia’s hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile – in the first small breakthrough in their long-stalled dispute over Ethiopia’s $4.6 billion Grand Renaissance Dam. Addis Ababa, which had vowed to start filling of the dam in time for the rainy season, has now agreed to delay the project until an agreement is reached within two to three weeks, with the support of the African Union. The dam project is seen as a crucial lifeline for Ethiopia’s poverty-stricken population. However, Egypt relies on the Nile for 90 percent of its water, which is also crucial for Sudan. Since the breakdown of trilateral talks in February, both governments indicated that they might turn to military means to halt the Ethiopian scheme.

ISRAEL - The license for Shelanu TV, the Hebrew-language Christian evangelical TV channel which has been accused of seeking to proselytize in Israel, has been suspended. Shelanu TV, owned by parent company God TV, began broadcasting in Israel on the Hot cable network at the end of April after it received a license from the Council for Cable and Satellite Broadcasting earlier this year.

But when exposure of the kind of content broadcast on God TV, including comments by channel CEO Ward Simpson about the importance of bringing people to embrace Christianity as well as a strong reaction by then communications minister David Amsalem, the council threatened to suspend Shelanu TV’s license, pending a review by the council into Hot’s contract with the channel. God TV, which reaches some 300 million homes around the world, is dedicated to preaching the Christian gospel and the task of the “Great Commission,” a doctrine in Christian theology to gain disciples for Christianity and to preach the religion.

UK - The Premier League said it recognised 'the importance of the message that black lives matter' - without referring to the organisation's name in upper case - but made clear that it 'does not endorse any political organisation or movement, nor support any group that calls for violence or condones illegal activity.'

UK - Black Lives Matter UK is the semi-official British offshoot of its American counterpart and has been the face of the UK's protests over George Floyd's death and racial equality. But while hundreds of thousands of people have donated millions to their cause, many will be unaware of many of the group's more extreme aims. The UK branch, just like the American arm of the movement, has a number of far-Left aims listed on its website. They include the Marxist 'commitment to dismantle capitalism'. Elsewhere the group says it wants to use money it has raised to develop and deliver strategies 'for the abolition of the police'. The group has been active online since mid-2016. In December that year it endorsed the complete closure of all Britain's prisons and detention centres, saying they were 'inhumane, overcrowded and unsafe'.

EUROPE - Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts French President Emmanuel Macron for talks on Monday, just days before Germany takes on the rotating presidency of the European Union with an economy mired in the worst crisis since World War II. Berlin's chairing of the 27-member bloc will be its last with Merkel in charge, and could be the one that defines the legacy of the leader dubbed the "eternal chancellor".

EUROPE - The European Union should threaten to intervene militarily in the Libyan civil war if necessary, Wolfgang Ischinger, the head of the Munich Security Conference, said in an interview on Monday. "Europe could throw its military weight into the equation in order to achieve a cease-fire," Ischinger told newspapers of the Funke media group. "Diplomacy often remains mere rhetoric if you are unable to use the threat of military action as leverage in international conflicts." As Germany prepares to take on the rotating EU presidency on July 1, the bloc must speak "the language of power" to better represent its interests. Civil war broke out in Libya after the toppling of long-time ruler Muammer Gaddafi in 2011, who was later killed. Numerous militias are fighting for power and influence in the country, with Tripoli-allied militias backed by Turkey, Qatar and Italy. Meanwhile, eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army is backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, France and Russia.

USA - Saturday, Fox News Channel’s Jeanine Pirro made her show’s “Opening Statement” a focus on the political motivations of the Democratic Party and their calls for police reform. Pirro argued Democrats wanted the backdrop of chaos, not for police reform but to help their success for the 2020 elections. She called on the National Guard to be federalized for the sake of restoring law and order where local Democratic Party leadership had been reluctant to act.

GERMANY - Extremists exploit rural nostalgia and farmers’ anger at globalisation to smuggle in ideology. The poster advertising the evening of debate and organic canapés in Halle’s university district looked familiar to environmentally conscious Germans: a rugged pair of hands, cupping fertile brown soil, underneath the slogan “Farms instead of agricultural factories”, written in a font mimicking that of a popular biodynamic food brand.

GERMANY - The days of the good old ‘transatlantic partnership’ have passed, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has admitted, adding that even the Democrats returning to power is unlikely to automatically bring those days back. “Anyone, who believes that the transatlantic partnership will once again be what it once was with a Democratic president, underestimates the structural changes,” the minister told German news agency dpa, hinting that relations between the two allies will never be the same even without President Donald Trump at the helm in Washington. Neither did Washington’s threats to slap imported cars with tariffs, which German Chancellor Angela Merkel called “a real threat to the prosperity of many in the world.” She also warned that Europe should be ready for a reality without the US as a world power.

UK - The acrid smell of cannabis wafts across the green as a group of young teenagers brazenly pass around a joint. Nearby, underage drinkers swig from bottles of vodka and inhale balloons full of so-called 'hippy crack' laughing gas. This was the scene at 8pm on Thursday in a London park, and is similar to those being played out in open spaces across Britain this summer, three months after schools shut down, leaving hundreds of thousands of bored teenagers to run wild.

SOUTH AMERICA - A swarm of locusts is threatening to invade Brazil as the country also battles one of the world's worst coronavirus outbreaks. The swarm - thought to contain 40 million insects - formed in Paraguay last month and has been eating its way through Argentina since May 21, damaging crops of cane, oats, wheat and corn. But nine days ago it made a turn to the east, and is now heading towards the border with Brazil and Uruguay. It also comes after two other locust swarms - in India and eastern Africa - also devastated crops in those countries.

USA - A global pandemic, widespread unemployment, nationwide protests and a roller-coaster stock market have created the most tumultuous period in recent memory. The pandemic has so far taken more than 120,000 lives in the US, put the economy into a tailspin and pushed the financial system to the brink of collapse. It abruptly ended a bull market, before stocks rallied in dramatic fashion. A massive social-justice movement swept America’s streets and made its way into the business community. Business leaders and investors are still trying to piece together what happened in the first half of 2020 — and figuring out where we go from here.