EUROPE - Citizens from across the European Union have issued a damning review on the "meddling" bloc as Brussels braces for the European parliamentary election. European Union residents voiced doubts about membership of the bloc as Brussels prepares for what is predicted to be a revolutionary European Parliament poll. The populist surge prediction appeared to be supported by the concerns voters from Germany, Italy and Poland expressed talking to German broadcaster DW. One man complained about the lack of sovereignty in Germany, claiming "rules are decided over our heads and just imposed on us." Another voter, asked whether Berlin should follow in the footsteps of Brexit Britain, said: "Absolutely, and we should go back to the Deutschmark."

RUSSIA - Russian President Vladimir Putin told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he had the impression President Donald Trump wanted to restore relations between the US and Russia after the Mueller inquiry exonerated him. “As you know, just a few days ago, I had the pleasure of talking with the US president on the phone,” Putin told Pompeo on Tuesday, as the two met in Sochi. “I got the impression that the [US] president was inclined to re-establish Russian-American relations and contacts to resolve together the issues that are of mutual interest to us.”

ISRAEL - Recent foreign policy decisions by the United States have opened yet another chapter in the long history of the competition for the guardianship over Islam's holiest places. After the US recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved its embassy there, the question of who gets to control the holy sites in the city (the third holiest in Islam after Mecca and Medina) has come to the fore. There are growing speculations that the "deal of the century", which the Trump administration has promised would offer a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, might usher in the transfer of guardianship to the House of Saud. Apart from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and now Morocco, Turkey is also seemingly vying for influence in Jerusalem. All four have historical claims to leadership in the Muslim world and all four seem intent on playing a major role in the future of the holy city.

USA - Could Donald Trump be about to precipitate a worldwide recessionary shock? Donald Trump is fighting geo-economic wars on too many fronts at once. He has got away with his scattergun approach so far – with tactical retreats at key moments – but events are slipping out of his control. He has picked simultaneous quarrels with China, Europe, and Iran, and gambled on regime change in Venezuela.

TANZANIA - A Tanzanian archbishop has called upon his countrymen to reject homosexuality and abortion as new forms of Western “colonialism.” The newly consecrated archbishop of Mwanza, Renatus Nkwande, said that these vices are serious sins against God that demand repentance, in an address not long after he was ordained bishop on May 12. Archbishop Nkwande said that the practice of homosexuality and abortion are caused by adopting the mistaken cultural practices of others. “When our forefathers became tired of colonialism, they fought against it. It is time we did the same, fighting against these vices,” he added.

USA - On the deepest dive ever made by a human inside a submarine, a Texas investor and explorer found something he could have found in the gutter of nearly any street in the world: rubbish. Victor Vescovo, a retired naval officer, said he made the unsettling discovery as he descended nearly 6.8 miles (35,853 feet/10,928 meters) to a point in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench that is the deepest place on Earth. His dive went 52 feet (16 meters) lower than the previous deepest descent in the trench in 1960. Mr Vescovo found undiscovered species as he visited places no human had gone before. He also saw angular metal or plastic objects, one with writing on it. "It was very disappointing to see obvious human contamination of the deepest point in the ocean," Mr Vescovo told Reuters.

USA - The season premiere of the children’s cartoon Arthur featured a same-sex wedding, surprising some young viewers about the sexuality of the protagonists’ primary school teacher Mr Ratburn. The episode, entitled “Mr Ratburn and the Special Someone,” shows aardvark Arthur’s third-grade teacher Mr Ratburn tying the knot another man. According to the fan page ArthurWiki, “Mr Ratburn is primarily known for being a strict teacher, but he has many other hobbies outside of the classroom, including puppetry, playing in a rock band, and bird-watching. He is also seen as a role model by several students.”

USA - Unless someone backs down in a major way, this trade war is going to last for a very long time, and the Chinese have made it exceedingly clear that they are never going to back down on the core issues.  So that means that the only way out is for President Trump to back down, and with an election looming in 2020, his advisers are telling him that now is the time to be very tough with China. 

USA - Trade tensions between the US and China escalated today, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by over 700 points after China said it would raise tariffs on $60 billion worth of US goods, starting June 1. By early afternoon on Monday the Dow had lost 2.7 percent, putting the index on track for its biggest one-day loss since January. The plunging of the Dow is in response to increasing tensions between Washington and Beijing. Bank of America strategist Athanasios Vamvakidis said: "This is a clear escalation of trade tensions in our view, and against our baseline that cool heads would prevail and the worst would be avoided." Mr Vamvakidis added: "We still believe that both countries have strong incentives to compromise and that the authorities are well aware of what is at stake for their economies otherwise. A call between Presidents Trump and Xi in the next few days could easily turn everything back to normal."

GERMANY - Germany’s controversial foreign minister Heiko Maas, whose ministry recently celebrated Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, issued a statement on Saturday in support of Israel at the UN on the 70th anniversary of the Jewish state’s admittance to the world body, prompting Yair Netanyahu to slam Berlin’s funding of anti-Israel organizations. The prime minister's son Yair tweeted back, “It will be nice if you stop interfering in our internal business and stop funding hundreds of radical left-wing NGOs in Israel that seek its destruction. Use the hundreds of millions of € you use for this to fund hospitals, schools and churches in Germany!”

IRAN - Revolutionary Guards chiefs dismiss US ‘psychological war,’ say aircraft carrier deployed to region not a threat, but a target; ‘If they make a move, we will hit them in the head’. A senior Iranian official on Sunday dismissed the US military buildup in the region as psychological warfare, saying that the US will not attack for fear of provoking an Iranian assault on Israel. “The US military forces’ deployment in the Persian Gulf is more of the nature of psychological warfare. They are not ready for a war, specially when Israel is within our range,” the Iranian Parliament’s vice-speaker Ali Motahhari said on Sunday, according to the FARS news agency.

EUROPE - Imagine you’re hiking through the woods near a border. Suddenly, you hear a mechanical buzzing, like a gigantic bee. Two quadcopters have spotted you and swoop in for a closer look. Antennae on both drones and on a nearby autonomous ground vehicle pick up the radio frequencies coming from the cell phone in your pocket. They send the signals to a central server, which triangulates your exact location and feeds it back to the drones. The robots close in.

UK - This month, George Orwell’s legendary novel Nineteen Eighty-Four turns 70 years old, and the warnings contained within the story are now more relevant than ever. Orwell’s predictions were so spot on that it almost seems like it was used as some type of accidental instruction manual for would-be tyrants.

USA - As expected, trade negotiations with China concluded on Friday with no trade deal in sight. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called the negotiations “constructive”, and that helped calm the financial markets, but there really isn’t any reason to be optimistic at this point. The negotiations that happened this week did not even come close to producing a deal, and neither side is attempting to claim that there will be an agreement in the near future. Instead, it appears that moves are being made that could lead to a protracted trade war.

USA - Insiders claim the US President has placed less emphasis on important transatlantic security partners and instead is focused on enhancing relations with strongman and authoritarian leaders. US relations with the UK, Germany and France are already at breaking point after a number of controversial decisions made by Mr Trump since he took office in 2017, including on climate change and the Iran nuclear deal. And they look to fray further as the US President welcomes Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban to the White House this week.