IRAN - Iran has become the ninth full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), upgrading its previous status as an observer of the Eurasian security and economic development bloc. The accession took place on Tuesday during a virtual meeting of SCO leaders, organized by India, which holds the rotating presidency. Iran has been a participant at summits since 2005 and applied for full membership in 2021. Last November, Tehran’s parliament ratified a draft law on joining the alliance.

USA - Joe Biden’s Director of Human Health and Services proclaims the following: We have issued some guidelines that say that a provider who receives Medicare funding/Medicaid funding must be prepared to offer gender-affirming care.” He also said HHS will be relentless in this pursuit, saying “We’re not going to stop… everywhere we have an opportunity at the federal level…” – and even after that he threw in the disclaimer that the feds “don’t control healthcare,” but then said it states if you “want that Medicaid dollar to come to your state, we’re gonna make sure you check the box.”

POLAND - Warsaw is asking NATO to include it in the bloc’s Nuclear Sharing Program, Prime Minister Mateus Morawiecki told journalists in Brussels on Friday. The program allows the deployment of US nuclear bombs on the territory of other nations. Morawiecki called Poland’s appeal a response to Moscow’s decision to station its tactical nuclear arms in neighboring Belarus. “Due to the fact that Russia intends to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, we are… appealing to… NATO to [allow us] take part in the Nuclear Sharing Program,” the prime minister said.

GERMANY - The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has surged to record highs in opinion polls, and the latest result comes just a week after they won their first district election. Hannes Loth was elected mayor of the small town of Raguhn-Jessnitz, in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, in a run-off against independent candidate Nils Naumann, according to results on the town’s Facebook page. Loth, reportedly a 42-year-old farmer who was already a member of the local parliament, won 51.1 percent of the vote against 48.9 percent for Naumann in the town of about 9,000 inhabitants. It marks the first time the party has won an election race for a full-time mayor’s position, German media reported.

USA - The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday that the state of Colorado cannot compel a Christian website designer to create messages that violate her faith. In 303 Creative LLC v Elenis, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) represented Lorie Smith in challenging a so-called “anti-discrimination” law in Colorado that would force her to create websites celebrating marriages “that defy her belief that marriage should be reserved to unions between one man and one woman.” Justice Neil Gorsuch, joined by Chief Justices John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, wrote for the majority, saying: “The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands.”

MIDDLE EAST - ULTRA-RICH Gulf states are in a prime position to take AI advancement to the next level and help further exert their influence across the globe. That's the stark warning from AI expert Vincent Peters, a former colleague of Elon Musk, who knows if the right amount of finances are distributed into the correct areas, the technology will be able to help the likes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar take an even firmer hold in all manner of businesses and geopolitical dealings.

USA - Two managers at the NBC News affiliate in Grand Rapids, Michigan, have lost their jobs for daring to tell staffers to provide unbiased coverage of Pride Month events and suggesting that stories related to LGBTQ issues could be “polarizing” for the station’s largely conservative audience. WOOD-TV news director Stanton Tang and his deputy, Amy Fox, were fired on Thursday following a two-week investigation by the outlet’s parent company, Nexstar Media Group, according to multiple media reports.

CANADA - Canadian fires continue to burn and will send smoke over New York City and the east coast throughout the summer - as experts warn firefighting operations could last until September. Canada is experiencing its worst fire season on record with firefighters coming in from all over the nation to help. As of Sunday afternoon, there were more than 568 fires active across Canada - 281 of which are classified as 'out of control', the Canadian Agency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) reported. Meanwhile Karine Pelletier of SOPFEU, Quebec’s forest-firefighting agency, told CBS New York that barring many heavy periods of rainfall, the agency expects firefighting operations to last until September.

USA - Arizona’s Legislative District 3 Republicans are taking back pride month with a new resolution celebrating America and dismissing woke LGBT ideology. The new resolution designates the month of July as Pride in America Month to celebrate our Founding Fathers and recognizes “that God created two unalterable and immutable genders.” This is a contrast to Arizona’s illegitimate Governor Katie Hobbs, who kicked off LQBT pride month by flying multiple pride flags outside her office at the Capitol above the American flag and state flag, likely in violation of the US flag code. The vote for Pride in America Month was held on Thursday, June 29, and the resolution was passed with a 2/3 majority. GOP chapters across the nation can pass the same or similar resolutions.

USA - For the past several years coinciding with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and its ensuing economic aftershock, much of the world has been rattled by inflation. Economists and commentators alike have gone into the gutter to discuss what exactly is causing this phenomenon that is chipping away at real wages for average working people. One of the theories put forward by people in favor of more guardrails on profiteering has been that corporate profits have skyrocketed since the pandemic and that the state should intervene. Many mainstream economists and media commentators have dismissed this as a baseless conspiracy theory.

EUROPE - The first question asked by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in his Facebook post is: “The only question everyone is asking here in Brussels is: Where has the money gone?” Orbán also noted that the EU is demanding more money from member states, although it is only two years into its seven-year budget. In other words, the money that was approved to be spent and was supposed to be there for the next five years has already been spent. “The question arises: How did this situation come about and how did they bring the European Union to the brink of bankruptcy?” Orbán asked.

CANADA - According to Toronto Police Service (TPS), exposing oneself fully naked in front of children is legal when done during a Pride-related event. Over the past few weeks, several images have appeared on social media of adults doing just that. At the Toronto Pride event last week, an entire group of marchers proudly waved to the crowd while showing off their genitalia to onlookers, which included children. Similar scenes have been captured in US cities during their respective Pride events. On Tuesday, social media user Rob Primo, from Niagara, posted a video of himself calling the TPS to clarify if and when adults can present themselves fully nude in public. The officer told Primo that being nude in public is against the law. But when Primo said he saw naked people at the Pride parade, the officer replied “it happens every year.” Primo asked, “So it’s okay when it’s at the Pride parade, but not in other situations, obviously?” “Yeah, exactly,” the officer said.

UNITED NATIONS - A UN-certified “expert” on sexual orientation and gender identity declared Wednesday that religious communities must yield to the demands of LGBT persons to avoid charges of violence and discrimination. Freedom of religion or belief need not be incompatible with equality for LGBT persons, Victor Madrigal-Borloz asserted in his address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, as long as religious groups accept the claims of gay and transgender persons.

EUROPE - Spraying reflective particles into the atmosphere may cool one area of the Earth, but studies show it risks heating others even more. The European Commission has warned the bloc’s lawmakers that geoengineering – large-scale technological interventions to mitigate climate change – is fraught with potential “unintended consequences.” The EU executive body said in a statement released on Wednesday that deploying technologies like solar radiation modification without sufficient understanding of the potential dangers – either for Europeans or populations elsewhere in the world – could be devastating.

BELGIUM - Nationwide riots triggered by the fatal shooting by French police of a 17-year-old boy spread to Belgium on Thursday, unleashing chaos that resulted in 64 arrests, Brussels police revealed on Friday. The arrested included 47 minors and 16 adults who have been administratively detained, police said in a statement on Friday. Another minor, who was reportedly seen beating up a police officer, was arrested and questioned but released on Friday.