Brief Analysis

From political processes to assassinations to international sporting events to terrorist attacks, the Russians are alleged to have a hand in it all somehow, somewhere. Not only is Russia supposed to have interfered in the 2016 US Presidential election somehow, but it’s been alleged that the Russians were also hacking or meddling or something of that nature the Brexit vote, Danish elections, the Catalonia independence referendum, the Germany parliamentary elections, the Italian elections, etc.

US President Donald Trump has just lectured NATO on it member’s commitment performance and held a controversial meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin and is next week to receive EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, with trade matters being high up on the agenda.

In talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared that the only way to solve the migrant crisis is to close the borders and remove incentives for the migrants to come to Europe in the first place. Orban also said that Germany should be grateful to Hungary for its border patrol which is armed at some 8,000 strong.

Are the Russians at it again? Have they gone and attempted another assassination using a banned nerve agent?

Some Chinese scientists are claiming that they have developed a laser gun which can affect targets from a distance of up to a half mile and can do damage in less than 2 seconds of exposure.
The gun weighs a little over six and a half pounds, or about the same as an AK-47, and can be mounted on a car, a boat, or a plane.
They are poised for production, priced at about $15,000 a piece, and are to be relegated to the police and military, due to the potential for abuse.
The lasers are invisible and completely silent, meaning that they provide a stealth like capability.

Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in Ramallah on Monday in protest of Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’, which is being orchestrated by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, through talks with basically every other country in the region except the Palestinians themselves.
Ma-an News Agency reports:

The right wing coalition of Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is facing the first round of public protests since their accession to power at the close of last year. Between 80,000 and 100,000 Austrians took to the streets on Saturday to protest a law that stands before the Austrian parliament that would loosen labour laws to permit a 12 hour work day, and 60 hour work week.
Deutsche Welle reports:

Pompeo has met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un twice already, but this upcoming meeting on Thursday will be the first since Kim had the uncommon pleasure of meeting with US President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12th.
Trump made his way into the history books by being the first sitting POTUS to meet with a North Korean leader since the war.
At his meeting with Trump, Kim committed to dismantling his nuclear arsenal and to ditch his nuclear program altogether in exchange for certain guarantees.

The EU is threatening a tariffs response that could amount to $294 billion if Trump follows through on his threats of increased tariffs on auto imports from Europe. Nearly a fifth of America exports are matched by that sum, meaning that America would suffer a major hit by going down this road.

European signatories to the nuclear non proliferation agreement with Iran, termed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have been repeating their commitment to the deal since Trump’s withdrawal in May. However, up until now, no concrete measures have materialized which demonstrate the European resolve to ensure that the economic benefits to Iran of sticking with the deal. Meanwhile, Iran has been declaring that they are not going to remain with the JCPOA and will return to their enrichment programs if Europe doesn’t come through.