The Central Bank of Russia continues to work on diversifying its foreign exchange reserves, and is gradually moving away from the US dollar, the head of the regulator Elvira Nabiullina says.

According to the bank governor, Russia's slower economic growth during the two years through 2015 after Western sanctions were introduced, had a huge negative impact on the country's gold and foreign currency reserves. Back then, the holdings reportedly shrunk to $356 billion.

"However, the reserves have recovered, currently standing at $490 billion," Nabiullina said in an interview with Japanese financial daily Nikkei on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. "We are currently working on diversification of the national holdings in order to use them under various economic and geopolitical conditions."

The Trump administration has moved ahead with a surveillance drone sale to four U.S. allies in the South China Sea region as acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said Washington will no longer "tiptoe" around Chinese behavior in Asia.

The drones would afford greater intelligence gathering capabilities potentially curbing Chinese activity in the region.

Shanahan did not directly name China when making accusations of "actors" destabilizing the region in a speech at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday but went on to say the United States would not ignore Chinese behavior.

Peace concerns are not alien to Donald Trump, Putin said indicating that the US leader appeared to be worried about the growing arms race in the world during their latest conversation.

Talking to journalists on Thursday, Vladimir Putin said that his recent talk with the American leader 'inspired certain optimism.'

Donald...understands how much the United States and other countries spend on armaments. This money could be diverted to other purposes. I fully agree with him.

While noting that global security depends largely on negotiations between the US and Russia, Putin encouraged other nuclear states to join the discussion. Such broad talks could become "the light at the end of the tunnel," the Russian president concluded.

A Polish court held a first hearing Wednesday in a case brought against Facebook by a historian who claims the tech giant engaged in "censorship" by suspending accounts that had posted about a nationalist rally in Warsaw.

The case comes as major tech firms like Facebook and Twitter have been introducing new measures for stamping out extremist content and closing down misinformation on the internet, under growing pressure from governments pushing for action.

Historian Maciej Swirski has complained that Facebook in 2016 suspended a couple of accounts that provided information on an independence day march organised by far-right groups.

President Trump declared Wednesday evening that "not nearly enough" progress was being made in last-minute negotiations with Mexico, as the U.S. prepares to impose escalating tariffs unless that nation does more to stop the rush of illegal immigrants arriving at the southern border.

"Immigration discussions at the White House with representatives of Mexico have ended for the day," Trump tweeted. "Progress is being made, but not nearly enough!"

Trump continued: "Border arrests for May are at 133,000 because of Mexico & the Democrats in Congress refusing to budge on immigration reform. Further talks with Mexico will resume tomorrow with the understanding that, if no agreement is reached, Tariffs at the 5% level will begin on Monday, with monthly increases as per schedule. The higher the Tariffs go, the higher the number of companies that will move back to the USA!"

On May 31, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that prohibits anti-Semitism in public schools and universities throughout the state. However, the legislation also equates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, effectively censoring the advocacy of Palestinian rights.

Two days before DeSantis officially signed HB 741 into law in Florida, he carried out a symbolic signing during a ceremonial state cabinet meeting in Israel. The session featured a variety of Israeli speakers and culminated with Florida lawmakers issuing a declaration of support for the country. "Since we're in Jerusalem, we may actually get some interest in our Cabinet meetings for a change, which would be great," joked DeSantis during the meeting. A number of news organizations filed a lawsuit against the state's government, claiming that the meeting violated Florida's transparency law, as it took place in a foreign country and wasn't made publicly accessible to journalists. Although they weren't officially listed as members of DeSantis' delegation, he was accompanied by pro-Israel megadonors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.

A number of people, including myself, wrote to the New York Times journalist, Julian Barnes, to point out that the piece he and his colleague, Adam Goldman, published on 16th April 2019 about the CIA Director, Gina Haspel, contained a part which unwittingly showed that she had misled President Trump into expelling 60 Russian diplomats in March 2018. Here were the paragraphs of interest:

"During the discussion, Ms. Haspel, then deputy C.I.A. director, turned toward Mr. Trump. She outlined possible responses in a quiet but firm voice, then leaned forward and told the president that the "strong option" was to expel 60 diplomats.

To persuade Mr. Trump, according to people briefed on the conversation, officials including Ms. Haspel also tried to show him that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were not the only victims of Russia's attack.

Ms. Haspel showed pictures the British government had supplied her of young children hospitalized after being sickened by the Novichok nerve agent that poisoned the Skripals. She then showed a photograph of ducks that British officials said were inadvertently killed by the sloppy work of the Russian operatives.

Ms. Haspel was not the first to use emotional images to appeal to the president, but pairing it with her hard-nosed realism proved effective: Mr. Trump fixated on the pictures of the sickened children and the dead ducks. At the end of the briefing, he embraced the strong option.

The outcome was an example, officials said, of how Ms. Haspel is one of the few people who can get Mr. Trump to shift position based on new information."

I pointed out to the authors in an (unanswered) email that this was an extraordinary claim, because no children became sick due to poisoning by a toxic chemical, and nor did any ducks die. And so unless they were prepared to correct or retract their piece, there could only be two possibilities:

1. Ms Haspel unwittingly showed false images to no less a person than the President of the United States, supplied to her by the British Government who knew them to be false, which persuaded him to embrace the "strong option".
2. Ms Haspel knowingly showed false images to no less a person than the President of the United States, which persuaded him to embrace the "strong option".

A top U.S. House Democratic committee chairman on Wednesday appeared to rule out any imminent impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, but vowed quick court action to obtain the full, unredacted Mueller report on Russian election interference.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler told reporters that he could ultimately pursue a formal impeachment inquiry against Trump, a move that progressive Democrats and outside groups have increasingly sought since the release of a redacted version of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report in April.

But he later told CNN that there is not currently enough backing among Democrats in the House of Representatives.

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry recognized that the outcome of the 2014 Crimea referendum reflected the will of the people, but instead of admitting it publicly, quietly called for a repeat vote, Sergey Lavrov said.

In an extensive interview with RBK news site, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Obama administration's secretary of state, John Kerry, agreed with Moscow that the March 2014 referendum in Crimea, which turned out overwhelmingly in favor of reuniting with Russia, genuinely showed the people's support for the move.

At the same time, Kerry reportedly urged Moscow to conduct the popular vote again for the sake of protocol.

"I won't reveal a big secret if I say that John Kerry was telling me in April 2014: 'Everything is clear. Everything happened the way the Crimean people wanted. But, for form's sake, hold another one [referendum]," Lavrov stated.

Denmark's prime minister has resigned after his conservative coalition was defeated by the left-wing opposition in a general election. The victorious Social Democrats have promised a tougher migration policy.

Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen announced his resignation on Thursday, leaving the center-left Social Democrats to try to form a minority government. Led by Mette Frederiksen, the Social Democrats won nearly 26% of the vote, giving them 48 seats in parliament. In total, the "red bloc" coalition consisting of the Social Democrats, the Social Liberals, the Socialist People's Party and the Red-Green Alliance now control a combined 91 of the 179 seats in the legislature, securing a parliamentary majority.