The global Covid-19 pandemic triggered an economic crisis that was unknown to humanity. Besides supply and demand, all markets had to figure the unfamiliar lockdown factor. Investors and even common individuals searched for the known safe heavens in the face of the crisis. But rules had changed. Supply was no longer tied to demand, expensive was no longer valuable and valuable was not at all vital.

The 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack will now coincide with the consolidation of the second Taliban emirate in Afghanistan, greeted by celebratory messages from al-Qaeda.

In recent days, travelling through Member States because of NextGenerationEU, I had the opportunity to meet Europeans from all walks of life. I met passionate young women in Brussels, training to become coders in only seven months. I met stage designers at Cinecittà, near Rome. They weave together the time-tested traditional studio production with new digital technologies.

You can spend decades building a serious business but everything can go down the drain with a single click of a button. There is no long-term cure, no final solution. And like the Terminator, they always come back. The reason is simple - billions of dollars in easy profits. Welcome to the age of ransomware. It all started like a game but now we are talking fortunes. The modes of the attack don't change much. Usually, the targeted person or company receives an infected email.

The pandemic is slowly cooling off with vaccine roll-out gaining pace in most industrial countries. Now the world is ready to retaliate to the virus with the most powerful weapon - money. And we are not simply talking money, we are talking all-time high cash volumes slated to be spent. The total volume of stimulus packages totals the unthinkable $29 trillion.

A coalition of ideologically divergent parties ousted on Sunday the hawk Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, and formed a new government in a seismic shift in the country's turbulent politics. After holding its fourth general elections in a little over two years this March, Israel is set to have a new face at its helm - the leader of the country's religious right, a politician whose dream is to annex most of the Palestinian West Bank.

US President Joe Biden arrives in Europe in a complicated and risky mission to summon allies and put pressure on enemies. And here comes the time for him to prove that he is more than “not another Trump”. Biden's visits, to NATO on 14 June and then the European Union for brief summits, following his attendance at the G7 in Britain, will be more than symbolic.

While it is undisputed that this pandemic has had a horrible impact on our societies and economies, it has also challenged and mobilised us to think about – and do – the extraordinary. With the strong backing of this Parliament and our Member States, we have launched an unprecedented financial assistance package. And we have done so at record speed.

The European Union vowed to launch a new round of sanctions against Belarus linked to the forced landing of Ryanair flight FR4978, which was followed by the arrest of an opposition journalist who was on board of the carrier. The message is simple - no one is allowed to simply hijack an airplane because there could be a political opponent travelling or for another personal reason. The lesson was supposed to be taught to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

With a total budget of €95,5bn, Horizon Europe will be the world’s largest multi-country research and innovation programme. It comes at a critical moment of the European Union’s history.