ISRAEL - Palestinians told an undercover Israeli journalist that they prefer life under Israeli sovereignty to life under the corrupt Palestinian Authority, as Israel debates whether to extend Israeli law to a significant portion of Judea and Samaria. Yechezkeli spoke to Palestinians living in “Area C,” the portion of Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”) currently under full Israeli control. Over 100,000 Palestinians living there could become Israeli citizens under the sovereignty plan now being considered by both the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump.

Trump’s Middle East peace plan, unveiled earlier this year, would allow Israel to extend sovereignty to 30% of Area C, which includes all of the Israeli communities of Judea and Samaria, plus the strategically important Jordan River Valley. The Palestinians could establish a demilitarized state on the remaining land of the West Bank, with a capital east of Jerusalem, and $50 billion in foreign aid — provided that they recognize Israel and stop inciting and supporting terror.

USA - Global coronavirus infections topped nine million on Monday as the World Health Organization warned that the pandemic was accelerating and Saudi Arabia said it would allow a “very limited” number of pilgrims to the hajj next month. France took its biggest step yet back to normality by allowing millions of children to return to school. But despite Europe further easing lockdowns, cases are still rising around the world, especially in Latin America with Brazil now registering more than 50,000 deaths. And there are fears of new clusters in Melbourne and Lisbon as well as renewed outbreaks in Beijing and other parts of Asia. “The pandemic is still accelerating,” said WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

USA - A team of political experts released its latest prediction on the Black Lives Matter movement today, saying the group’s current surge will likely only last until early November. The experts say after votes are cast in the 2020 election, politicians will no longer have a need for the black community, and everything will go back to normal. The team of experts out of UCLA has been following Black Lives Matter since it emerged back in 2014 when an unarmed black man was killed by police in St Louis. The popular civil rights group also made headlines in 2016 and 2018. "We have to pander to them to see if they will matter," said Nancy Pelosi. "We stand committed to elevating black voices when we need their votes and not a moment after." Experts believe the Black Lives Matter movement will re-emerge sometime in 2022.

MEXICO - A magnitude-7.5 earthquake has struck in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, rattling buildings in the country’s capital more than 200km (124 miles) away. The tremor struck on Tuesday morning, with Mexico's National Seismological Service rating its strength at 7.1 before upgrading the intensity to 7.5. The United States Geological Survey (USGS), meanwhile, recorded it as a 7.7 magnitude earthquake. Such a huge quake is classified as 'major', and can cause serious damage. The USGS placed the quake's epicenter along the southern coastline of Oaxaca, yet its effects were felt as far inland as Mexico City. Videos taken in the capital show buildings and power lines swaying, as what sounds like dull explosions ring out in the background.

USA - A massive plume of dust from the Sahara desert in northern Africa has been traversing the atmosphere, thousands of feet above the tropical Atlantic Ocean, and is now cloaking the Caribbean and closing in on the southeastern United States. The dust was so thick that the Barbados Meteorological Services issued a "Severe Dust Haze Warning" urging residents to take action due to significantly reduced visibility and potential respiratory problems for people who experience difficulty breathing.

GERMANY - Germany was this weekend rocked by "unprecedented" riots and looting where violent gangs smashed shop windows and attacked the police. Police said the situation was “completely out of control” in Stuttgart, one of Germany’s largest cities. They said dozens of small groups hurled stones at officers early on Sunday morning in the city centre as they damaged shops and cars. Police said the riots broke out after officers conducted checks in the city centre related to a crackdown on drug dealing.

VATICAN - The Pope sparked the fury of BBC Today listeners after delivering a poignant message calling for the international community to review and change its economic system. The Pope called on consumers to reign in their spending as he called for producers to slow down their activities in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. But his message fuelled an angry backlash from listeners who took to social media to question the Holy Father's advice. In his broadcast essay, the Pope said: "Every crisis contains both danger and opportunity. The opportunity to move out from the danger. Today, I believe we have to slow down our rate of production and consumption and to learn to understand and contemplate the natural world. We need to reconnect with our real surroundings.”

USA - At least eight global companies identified as benefitting from China’s enslavement of Muslim minorities published statements celebrating Juneteenth, an American holiday marking the end of slavery in the country. A Breitbart News analysis found that the eight companies are Abercrombie & Fitch, Amazon, Apple, FILA, General Motors, Google, Nike, and Ralph Lauren. Three other companies identified as benefitting from forced labor by Muslim minorities in China — Sony, H&M, and Gap — were more cautious in their approach, issuing statements on social media against hatred and racism and in support of diversity on the days ahead of July 19 without mentioning Juneteenth.

[The name - Juneteenth - is a combination of June and Nineteenth and is also known as Emancipation Day. Juneteenth is the commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.]

ISRAEL - Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi on Sunday said Iran is now the most dangerous country in the Middle East, not just because of its nuclear program, but also through its conventional weapons and support for terror activities against Israel. Kohavi warned that Iran’s influence reaches into the first of the three circles of threats against Israel, the first being small terror groups on Israel’s borders, like Hamas; the second being larger threats, like the Syrian army and Hezbollah; and the third being countries that do not share a border with Israel, like Iran and Iraq.

USA - Left-wing activist Shaun King tweeted Monday all statues of Jesus that portray him as a “white European” should be torn down because they are “a form of white supremacy.” “Yes, I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down,” wrote King, a self-described black man whose family says he is white. “They are a form of white supremacy. Always have been. In the Bible, when the family of Jesus wanted to hide, and blend in, guess where they went? EGYPT! Not Denmark. Tear them down.” King has claimed the Christian celebrations of Christmas and Easter are “tools of white supremacy.”

USA - Attorney General Bill Barr weighed in on the rioting and looting across the country in recent weeks. AG Bill Barr: “It’s the job of the Department of Justice to mete out justice fairly and evenhandedly in that particular case and not be influenced by the mob… Protests and demonstrations are fine but when they become mob violence we need to restore public order. We can’t be ruled by mobs. A lot of these demonstrations have been hijacked by anarchistic groups and professional agitators who are in it just for the violence and the confrontation… I understand an event like Minneapolis and how it struck a chord…

For the past few decades we’ve been reforming our institutions to make sure they reflect our values. And police have been engaged in that… Instances in the shooting of black unarmed males has been dropping. It was 38 five years ago, last year it was ten. Ten in the nation and six of those were involved in attacking the police officer. So while any death is too many, the fact is that in proportion it’s relatively small. I mean there are roughly 8,000 homicides of African Americans in our country every year. 8,000! Ten last year were shooting (by police) of a black male.

EUROPE - News of the withdrawal of US troops from Germany has prompted calls for Europe to play a bigger defense role. Could Europeans really take their security fate into their own hands? Days after US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of roughly one third of US troops stationed in Germany, the shock still lingers. Politicians at every level are grappling with the consequences: Mayors in economically weak regions are worried about losing income when the GIs leave, Germany's foreign minister is worried about the further deterioration of relations with the US and military planners in Brussels are pondering the implication for Europe's own security architecture. Germany has been a key component of the US defense strategy in Europe for decades, with US nuclear weapons — to be delivered by German fighter jets in a moment of crisis — stationed here… It would also put the spotlight on an uncomfortable issue for the Germans: their stance on nuclear weapons — which are, after all, considered the last guarantor of independent sovereignty.

GERMANY - As protesters around the world tear down monuments of slave traders and corporations eliminate brands linked to unpleasant stereotypes, Germany is facing a different purging effort. Activists and lawmakers are calling to remove the term “race” from the country’s constitution, saying the term is anachronistic at best and only fosters racist thinking. There’s also the underlying uneasiness that “Rasse” - the term in German - is a holdover from the Nazis, whose obsession with a superior Aryan race laid the pseudo-scientific foundation for the Holocaust.

The country’s Basic Law, the constitution adopted in 1949 as a direct reaction to the horrors of World War II, states in Article 3 that “no person shall be favored or disfavored because of sex, parentage, race, language, homeland and origin, faith or religious or political opinions.” “There are no races, there are only humans,” Green co-party leader Robert Habeck and Aminata Toure, vice president of the Schleswig-Holstein state legislature, wrote in a joint article for Germany’s daily Tageszeitung. “It’s time we unlearn racism. A strong sign would be to cut the term ‘race’ from the Basic Law.”

ETHIOPIA - It's a clash over water usage that Egypt calls an existential threat and Ethiopia calls a lifeline for millions out of poverty. Just weeks remain before the filling of Africa's most powerful hydroelectric dam might begin, and tense talks between the countries on its operation have yet to reach a deal. Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew on Friday declared that his country will go ahead and start filling the $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam next month, even without an agreement. "For us it is not mandatory to reach an agreement before starting filling the dam, hence we will commence the filling process in the coming rainy season," he said. Both Egypt and Ethiopia have hinted at military steps to protect their interests, and experts fear a breakdown in talks could lead to conflict.

USA - The head of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve warned Friday that banks should "stop paying dividends" and "raise capital" as more Americans struggle to pay their loans and credit losses mount at America's large banks amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Kashkari - who was one of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's top lieutenants during the Great Recession and administered the TARP program to provide financial relief to banks - also warned that sustained losses could cause significant problems. In answer to a question from "Face the Nation"'s Margaret Brennan on whether that could trigger another financial crisis, Kashkari issued a stark warning. "I am concerned the longer this goes on, the more losses banks will face," he told Brennan. "Large banks have more capital than they had before the 08 crisis, but not enough."