GERMANY - Germany’s federal government and mainstream media are engaged in damage control after a report that challenges the established Corona narrative leaked from the interior ministry.

USA - Can 2020 get crazier? You bet. We’re just getting started.If you wrote a screenplay of what’s happened so far in 2020 and gave it to Hollywood producers, they’d laugh you right out of the room. “So, your movie,” they’d say, “has the president of the United States being impeached, a pandemic killing more than 100,000 Americans and 375,000 worldwide, race riots and looting in dozens of US cities, a billion animals killed in Australian wildfires, Brexit, royals abdicating, drone strikes whacking terrorists — and a wave of killer hornets to boot? Get out!” Still to come, more riots, more craziness, then the most contentious presidential election in history. Is there any way we can all just go back to bed and wake up in 2021?

USA - Moscow agrees with Donald Trump’s criticism of G7 as a “very outdated” institution that does not represent “what’s going on in the world,” but cannot see how it can be improved without China’s participation. The US president lashed out at the group of seven major industrialized nations last week as he canceled a planned G7 summit in the US. The event was scheduled for June, but Trump said he wanted an extended meeting in September, and wanted Russia to attend.

USA - There is “no clear evidence” white supremacists are participating in the rioting and looting sweeping US cities across America following the death of George Floyd, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) conceded in a New York Times report published Sunday. “Signs of any organized effort or even participation in the violence were relatively rare,” the Times acknowledged in the bottom half of its article, referring to white supremacists.

USA - Americans are abused and killed on a daily basis by increasingly militarized law enforcement, yet officers almost never see punishment, said RT’s Lee Camp, as a wave of anger and unrest over police brutality sweeps the US. “We are not actually having the real discussion about why our police are all over the place, like an infestation, and armed to the teeth and ready to kill. That is not normal, that is not how most countries do it,” Camp said, citing research showing that between 900 and 1,000 people are killed by the police in the US annually. They rarely face charges, with only one percent of police-involved killings resulting in any indictment. “When you call the police, you’re inviting the possibility of someone getting murdered into the situation. You’ve invited guys with guns who can kill with impunity.”

UK - Finally, we can say with confidence what many of us have suspected for weeks: not only is the end of the pandemic now in sight but also the people best-placed to recharge our economy have little to fear from it. Thanks to definitive figures released yesterday by Public Health England, we know that Covid-19 is not a random killer, but one that targets specific groups – namely the old and those with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes or dementia.

The statistics are astounding: those aged over 80 are fully 70 times more likely to die of the disease than those under 40, while being morbidly obese increases your risk of dying by two and a half times. And fortunately the death rate among children is very low. All of which means that the challenge now is to get the economy back to work, to get the children into schools, and our hospitals returning to the crucial diagnostic work and routine procedures that have been put on hold with devastating consequences we have yet to see.

ISRAEL - Israel’s announcement last week that an Israeli consortium would build Sorek 2, the world’s largest desalination plant, surprised many who had been watching the deal: The contract had been expected to go to a Hong Kong-based company. But that was before the Trump administration ramped up pressure on Israel to diminish its ties to China. For years, Israel has been working to dramatically expand trade with China, one of the world’s largest markets.

That push is suddenly running up against strong opposition from the White House, as the Trump administration pivots from the decades-old policy of increasing US engagement with China to treating the country as an increasingly bitter rival. The Sorek 2 deal was widely seen as a bow to pressure from the Trump administration, which is pushing Israel and other key allies to curtail trade with China.

TURKEY - Turkey, which is increasing its real estate holdings and its influence on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, is threatening to depose the Jordanians from their role as the custodians over the Muslim holy sites on the Mount. At the same time, old rivals Jordan and Saudi Arabia could be headed toward rapprochement due to their shared animosity toward Turkey. The Jordanians and Saudis have been dueling for control of the Muslim holy sites for 100 years. The Hashemite dynasty, which now controls Jordan, ruled Saudi Arabia until 1924 and was kicked out by the House of Saud. The Hashemites lost their custodianship of Mecca and Medina and have never forgiven the Saudis for it. Jordan's current about-face may stem from its tardy realization of Erdogan's growing power in eastern Jerusalem.

CHINA - Stung by US-led criticism of Beijing’s attempts to crack down on dissent in Hong Kong, Chinese officials and state media are using reports of protests in American cities to make political points about US “double standards and hypocrisy.” The Trump administration and lawmakers from both parties have been outspoken in their criticism of the suppression of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and China’s plans to impose new security legislation on the territory. Hong Kong protests have occasionally seen violent flare-ups, and authorities regularly accuse the US of stoking them as a way of indirectly attacking China.

USA - The national security state and the military are joining forces with the police and national guard to counter the nationwide protest movement that has exploded since the police killing of unarmed black man George Floyd on Monday. In response to the police capitulation in Minneapolis, leaving their precinct to be burned down, Minnesota governor Tim Waltz has called on the National Guard to put down the revolt.

USA - We are truly a fallen people, and we definitely live in a broken land. The death of George Floyd is evidence of how far we have fallen, the police brutality that has gone on for way too many years is evidence of how far we have fallen, and the out of control rioting and looting that we have been witnessing day after day is evidence of how far we have fallen. Of course the truth is that just about every form of evil that you can possibly imagine has been exploding in our society in recent years, and the American people just keep going back for more. We have had an insatiable appetite for wickedness, and now we are reaping what we have sown.

GERMANY - The coronavirus pandemic is acting as a catalyst in the scramble by the great powers to redivide Africa. German imperialism sees the crisis as an opportunity to assert its global geopolitical interests by force of arms. In the last few days, the Bundestag (parliament) decided to extend or prolong two military operations. Besides Libya, Mali and Somalia, German forces may operate in Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger in the future. “Through its presence in the sea area off the Horn of Africa, the EU… protects European interests and contributes to the stabilisation of the region,” reads the German government’s mission statement. Among other things, the mission plans to use armed force to shield UN food supplies from unauthorised access and to fight local “pirates” with naval forces. Germany has proven to be a “reliable partner” for the East African regimes and should now “lead the way” in taking on the role of “coordinator” within the EU.

INDIA - High in the Himalayas, an enormous fistfight erupted in early May between the soldiers of China and India. Brawls at 14,000 feet along their inhospitable and disputed frontier are not terribly unusual, but what happened next was. A few days later, Chinese troops confronted Indian soldiers again, this time at several other remote border points in the Himalayas, some more than 1,000 miles apart.

VATICAN - Pope Francis has been urged to ignore ex-Vatican chief Benedict as he outlined his vision for the post-coronavirus world, with one expert claiming his rival was "still hungry for power". With the world still reeling from the horror caused by the pandemic, Francis conducted the first public mass since lockdown from St Peter's Basilica to mark Pentecost Sunday. During his emotive speech he ordered worshipers to pull together and remember to "heal people, who are more important than the economy". Francis went away from his pre-prepared script and grimly reminded the world that "nothing will return as before". His intervention comes at a time when the world's economies are on their knees, with many experts predicting a global recession not seen in generations.

From India and Pakistan to Africa and the Middle East, farmers face a perfect storm. Already struggling with crippling coronavirus lockdowns, they face billions of locusts devouring crops and putting millions at risk. The scenes out of parts of northern and central India this week were alarming to watch as billions of desert locusts descended on several states. And it's only going to get worse. Heavy rains and the cyclone season in June are expected to see the swarms multiply.