USA - It all happened in less than a minute. Three police officers arrived outside a small house with a chain-link fence near the University of Arizona campus in Tucson. They were responding to a “check welfare” report of a woman hacking at a tree with a knife. They saw a young woman emerge from the house holding a large kitchen knife and walk down the driveway toward Sharon Chadwick, who owned the home.

USA - World leaders have been warned that a Donald Trump-inspired trade war could trash the global economic recovery with protectionist policies tearing up global supply chains and killing off the green shoots of productivity growth. The intervention by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) comes amid rising tensions over trade deficits, the decline of manufacturing jobs, and rivalry between the US and China on the global economic stage.

USA - Even among Democrats and the young, Israel enjoys at least a two-to-one advantage over Palestinian Authority, Gallup finds. In a study headlined “Americans remain staunchly in Israel’s corner,” the Gallup company published the findings of a major national poll that found backing for Israel among Americans remains extremely high, with some measures of support matching the highest previously recorded figures. “Americans’ stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is as strongly pro-Israel as at any time in Gallup’s three-decade trend,” the polling research company said in the report, published Tuesday.

USA - The incoming US secretary of state has long expressed support for Jewish state's positions on a variety of issues. There is no doubt that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and most members of his government were delighted to learn that US President Donald Trump had fired the incumbent Rex Tillerson and tapped current CIA director Mike Pompeo for the job instead.

EUROPE - In the midst of heated criticism, the European Parliament will launch a probe into the meteoric rise of the German, Martin Selmayr, to the position of EU Commission's General Secretary. Selmayr, a controversial figure in the Brussels' bureaucracy, rose to the top of an administration, with a staff of 32,000, under circumstances many consider quite dubious.

USA - Scientists from Northwestern University published a study in the journal Neuropsychologia attempting to establish a link between religious fundamentalism and brain impairment. The findings suggest that religious fundamentalists have less cognitive flexibility, in addition, the study states that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism. In other words, science is now attempting to say that those who believe the Bible have brain damage.

SOUTH AFRICA - White farmers in South Africa are being murdered at a rate of more than one per week, as the country's new President Cyril Ramaphosa vows to seize back land without compensation. News Corp Australia chief reporter Paul Toohey, who travelled to South Africa to investigate, has told Sky News farmers are struggling to defend themselves, and local police are not dedicating enough resources to investigate the crimes. More than 400 farmers were attacked in 2017.

USA - Facebook said on Wednesday it banned Britain First from its platform for breaking rules against inciting hatred, blacklisting a far-right group brought to global attention when US President Donald Trump retweeted its anti-Islamic posts. Facebook said it had taken down Britain First's Facebook page and those of its leaders, Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, for repeatedly violating rules designed to stop the incitement of hatred against minority groups. The removal of the Britain First pages comes as Facebook and other internet firms like Twitter and Google are under growing pressure to police their networks, refereeing content to prevent extremist groups spreading their messages and recruiting online.

SWITZERLAND - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced a review into the potential risks of plastic in drinking water after a new analysis of some of the world’s most popular bottled water brands found that more than 90% contained tiny pieces of plastic. A previous study also found high levels of microplastics in tap water. In the new study, analysis of 259 bottles from 19 locations in nine countries across 11 different brands found an average of 325 plastic particles for every litre of water being sold. Concentrations were as high as 10,000 plastic pieces for every litre of water. Of the 259 bottles tested, only 17 were free of plastics, according to the study. The study has not been published in a journal and has not been through scientific peer review.

RUSSIA - Russia has vowed to strike back after Britain moved to banish 23 Russian spooks within a week in the wake of the spy poisoning scandal. Responding to Theresa May's announcement that diplomats who are really spies will be booted out, Moscow threatened its "response measures will not be long in coming". 

UK - BBC host Andrew Neil has taken a swipe at Russia and claimed the alleged assassination attempt of former double-agent Sergei Skripal was a "calculated" strike designed to send a message to Putin's enemies. The BBC host claimed it would have been easier for Russia to hire a hitman to do the job if Putin did not want to be found out and accused of the alleged crime. Speaking on BBC Daily Politics, Mr Neil said: “Is it reckless behaviour? Because you don’t use this as a means of assassination without knowing that it’s going to be found out. And you don’t do this unless you want to be found out, unless you are attempting to send a message. That’s not reckless, that’s calculated. That’s clear.”

UK - Accusations of a chemical weapon attack — and a major diplomatic crisis just days before a presidential election — might give some world leaders pause for thought. Not Vladimir Putin. Faced with an ultimatum from Prime Minister Theresa May over an attempted assassination on British soil, the Russian strongman is making a show of just how strong he thinks he is — among his own voters, and on the international stage.

GERMANY - A bank employee from the provinces, a pair of unsuccessful candidates for state governorships and the architect of the Social Democrats’ terrible election campaign are among the 15 men and women who will be sworn in as members of Angela Merkel’s Cabinet on Wednesday.  The most remarkable thing about the new government might be how unremarkable it is. No larger-than-life personalities such as Joschka Fischer, no rapier wit to match that of Wolfgang Schäuble and no charmer like Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg.  The chancellor’s newest and likely last team is much like her — dependable, if a bit boring.  After the tumultuous, six-month coalition-building phase, boring might be a good thing. More drama is the last thing Germans want.

GERMANY - Germany’s new grand coalition – the third in Merkel’s long chancellorship – is a good outcome for Germany’s short-term stability, especially with regard to Europe. But it is a bad outcome for democracy, especially at a time when populist forces are a growing threat.

USA - Some of the deadliest massacres in US history were carried out with guns imported from Europe or produced by European-owned companies in the US with firearms that are either heavily regulated or banned in Europe. While Europeans decry America's gun obsession, European gun-makers have no qualms about selling firearms to the US that are tightly regulated at home. It comes as no surprise to discover where those guns pop up. In 2016, European-origin guns accounted for four million of an estimated 16 million US civilian gun market. It shows that European gun-makers have kept pace with the market and ratcheted up their sales to Americans accordingly.