USA - President-elect Donald Trump said he supports abolishing the debt ceiling because it's the "smartest thing," a day after scuttling a bipartisan spending deal that would have averted a federal government shutdown in two days. Trump informed Republican lawmakers about his opposition to the 1,500-page bill put together by House Speaker Mike Johnson after billionaire Elon Musk, whom Trump named to run a government efficiency panel, criticized it as full of Democratic giveaways. In his Wednesday message, Trump pushed for a "clear" spending bill that increases the debt ceiling. On Thursday, the president-elect told NBC News that he would be fine with ditching it all together, saying it would be the "smartest thing it [Congress] could do. I would support that entirely." "The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge," Trump said, noting that the concept of the debt ceiling "doesn't mean anything, except psychologically." The debt ceiling sets a limit on how much money the US government can borrow to "meet its existing legal obligations." The debt ceiling was suspended in 2023 until January 1, 2025.

FRANCE - President Macron is “finished” and will soon be forced to quit, paving the way for an early presidential election, Marine Le Pen has said. The National Rally leader’s comments to Le Parisien newspaper raised speculation that she might be prepared to join the push for a second confidence vote in the government that is expected to be formed this week by François Bayrou, Macron’s new prime minister. She had previously been thought unlikely to back a push to topple another government so soon after the ousting of Michel Barnier, the former prime minister. Such a move would risk undermining her image as a responsible politician of the right, carefully cultivated over more than a decade to convince mainstream voters that she would act in the national interest.

UK - A council has told parents they must come in and change their children if they soil themselves at school. The new rule comes into force in schools across Blaenau Gwent next term for children in reception and nursery classes. The local authority has sent out letters to parents saying the amount of time school staff are having to spend changing children sent to school without being potty trained is affecting teaching and learning time. The body representing school leaders in Wales said growing numbers of children are arriving at school without being potty trained.

USA - The fierce debate over the role of religion in American children’s education is about to get even fiercer: satanists are preparing to enter the fray. Rising sums of public money are being channelled to religious establishments across the country and many believers in the separation of church and state fear that the re-election of Donald Trump will bring a wave of Christian nationalists to power nationally. Schools are on the front line of these arguments — and a group called The Satanic Temple has spotted an opening. Its leaders are seriously considering opening a school of their own to spread their provocative message of secularism served with a dash of occult symbolism, according to Lucien Greaves, the co-founder. In the United States The Satanic Temple is an official religion, recognised as a tax-exempt church by the Internal Revenue Service.

UK - This is the sort of river many people would picture in England and Wales — a Wind in the Willows-style home to kingfishers, brown trout and other wildlife; a playground for anglers, children and paddle boarders. The reality is far more grim. “Every single river in England today is polluted,” according to Steve Reed, the environment secretary. When I spoke to him this summer, it was clear the issue was personal for him. He recalled messing about in Cornish rock pools as a child but now, he says, people are too afraid they would fall ill. “Parents and grandparents worry children can’t enjoy our waterways in the same way they could,” he added. The disconnect between then and now — and expectations and reality — is why water bills are going up sharply over the next five years. On Thursday, Ofwat approved a record £104 billion of spending by water firms, large chunks of which are for curbing sewage spills and other pollution.

AUSTRALIA - Advocates say the landmark ABS findings show LGBTI+ people are a substantial part of Australian society. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed for the first time that one in 20 Australians are lesbian, gay, bi, trans or gender diverse, or intersex (LGBTI+). According to ABS head of health statistics, Robert Long, this is the “first nationally representative data of their kind in Australia”. Just.Equal Australia spokesperson Rodney Croome said the data showed diverse communities were a powerful voting bloc ahead of next year’s federal election. “It is a reminder to all political parties that they must have policies recognising the human rights of LGBTI+ people and addressing the disadvantages we face in areas such as health, housing, employment, education and public safety,” he said.

USA - Canada. France. Germany. What do they have in common? Central banks in each are cutting rates. Also, their governments have either collapsed or, [in the case of] Canada, about to. Why? Same reason there are rate cuts. It’s not ideology nor really partisanship. It’s the economy, stupid.

GERMANY - Germany's conservative opposition, leading in the polls ahead of February 23 elections, on Tuesday outlined plans to shift the EU powerhouse firmly to the right on immigration, social and economic policy. Friedrich Merz, head of the Christian Democrats (CDU), is tipped to replace Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose term the conservatives have slammed as "three lost years" for the stuttering economy. A day after Scholz lost a confidence vote he had called to pave the way for the early elections, Merz charged that the chancellor had "lost the confidence of a majority of the population a long time ago". Merz - long a party rival of the CDU's more moderate ex-chancellor Angela Merkel - has steered a return to the party's right-wing roots to try to win support of voters tempted by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

FRANCE - France economy [in] meltdown as Macron's government turmoil leads to Moody's downgrade. The move from the credit rating giant came after it downgraded France's credit score, citing the country's weak financial outlook and the uncertainties surrounding its political future. French banking stocks fell following a downgrade on seven banks’ ratings by Moody’s, as Paris remains mired in political chaos. Moody's, one of the Big Three credit rating agencies, said in a statement on Tuesday that the assessment reflected the “view that France’s public finances will be substantially weakened over the coming years, because political fragmentation is more likely to impede meaningful fiscal consolidation”.

UK - Britain has become the “western capital” for sharia courts with men able to end their marriages by saying “divorce” three times. An investigation by The Times also discovered that polygamy is so normalised that an app for Muslims in England and Wales to create Islamic wills has a drop-down menu for men to say how many wives they have (between one and four). The app, approved by a sharia court, gives daughters half as much inheritance as sons. The number of sharia courts, also known as councils, in Britain has grown to 85 since they first began operating in the country in 1982. Muslims from across Europe and North America are increasingly turning to Britain’s sharia courts, which operate as informal bodies issuing religious rulings on marriage and family life. About 100,000 Islamic marriages are believed to have been conducted in Britain, many of which are not officially registered with the civil authorities.