ZIMBABWE - Robert Mugabe has been removed from power and placed under house arrest with his family in what has been described as a "bloodless transition" as the military continues to deny reports of a coup. The move comes after the Zimbabwe army seized power overnight with gunshots and explosions heard in the capital. There are suggestions that the incumbent, Robert Mugabe, will resign, after which an interim government will take over, and elections held. However, it is far from clear that any such polls would be free and fair. A managed election process would in all likelihood lead to the victory of former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, the army's favoured candidate.

LIBYA - "Eight hundred," says the auctioneer. "900… 1,000… 1,100…" Sold. For 1,200 Libyan dinars - the equivalent of $800. Not a used car, a piece of land, or an item of furniture. Not "merchandise" at all, but two human beings. After seeing footage of this slave auction, CNN worked to verify its authenticity and traveled to Libya to investigate further. Carrying concealed cameras into a property outside the capital of Tripoli last month, we witness a dozen people go "under the hammer" in the space of six or seven minutes. A recent clampdown by the Libyan coastguard means fewer boats are making it out to sea, leaving the smugglers with a backlog of would-be passengers on their hands. So the smugglers become masters, the migrants and refugees become slaves.

USA - The US Conference of Catholic Bishops chose a conservative archbishop for a key post Tuesday, signaling resistance to Pope Francis’s vision for the church among the Catholic hierarchy in the US. Archbishop Joseph Naumann, of Kansas City, was elected chairman of the committee on Pro-Life Activities. In a vote of 96 to 82, he defeated Cardinal Blase Cupich, of Chicago, who is seen as a liberal in the church and a close ally of the pope. 

USA - It takes a lot of rosy assumptions to get to President Trump’s 97% chance of success. How good is America’s homeland ballistic-missile defense? If a war broke out tomorrow, could it stop an attack from North Korea? The short answer, despite many assurances from Defense Department officials, is that no one knows. Ballistic-missile defense, or BMD, is a stunningly ambitious and complex undertaking, unforgiving of the smallest problems. An attacker has many built-in advantages, and it is only because of North Korea’s supposed technological backwardness — a doubtful, increasingly out-of-date notion — that the existing defensive system has enjoyed any credence at all.

VATICAN - Pedophilia has become a huge topic of discussion over recent weeks as not only have sexual abuse outings been taking place in Hollywood, but the exposure of pedophilia in Hollywood and amongst the elite is becoming more common. The reality of child molestation by the Roman Catholic Church has surfaced time and time again, and yet, somehow, it continues to happen. According to Jack and Diane Ruhl of the National Catholic Reporter, who decided to research this particular topic, since 1950, the Vatican has spent $3,994,797,060.10. That’s nearly $4 billion to keep the issue hush hush.

USA - Dr Annie Fairbanks, a holistic doctor practicing out of Arizona, was found shot dead in her home with husband Jason Fairbanks, 3 year old daughter and 9 month old son. This makes the 77th holistic doctor to have been found dead in this way over the past couple of years. Sergeant Ben Hoster, a spokesman for the Scottsdale Police Department, stated that the police do not believe any other parties are involved. This essentially means there are no suspects and that this is likely a murder-suicide. Even the local paper is calling it that. Oddly, this statement and conclusion was made just hours after the incident took place, hardly giving anyone enough time to make a call like that.

USA - A stark warning to humanity has been issued by experts and signed by an astonishing 15,000 scientists around the globe who all agree the end is nigh. The message is an update on the 1992 caution sent out by the Union of Concerned Scientists which was backed by more than 1,700 experts who all said our future was bleak. But with little to no action being taken, the prediction has escalated and more scientists are backing the warning.

VATICAN - North Korea is set for a World War 3 showdown with an unlikely source: Pope Francis. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has faced opposition to his reckless nuclear programme in countries across the globe - now including the world’s smallest. 

EUROPE - Brussels signs off military plan and hails historic day without UK. Brussels has moved even closer to an EU Army after 23 states signed off on a key military agreement today - a move a high-ranking eurocrat hailed as a "historic day". Germany and France are leading the charge for a new defence union, which aims to cement EU unity after Brexit. The campaign for a European defence union stretches back to the 1950s, although the movement has stuttered in the decades since. One unnamed official quoted by Reuters news agency said today: “We've never come this far before. We are in a new situation.”

USA - The national security subcommittee of the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee held a congressional hearing Wednesday, chaired by Representative Ron DeSantis (Republican for Florida), with testimony about whether the United States should move its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

USA - The United States would struggle to win if a war broke out with North Korea, as tensions over the country's nuclear ambitions continue to mount on the peninsula. That’s according to a retired US general with years of experience in the region. Now retired, Lieutenant General Jan-Marc Jouas gave his views on a possible conflict with North Korea in a letter to Representatives Ted Lieu (Democrat for California), Ruben Gallego (Democrat for Arizona), and Senator Tammy Duckworth (Democrat for Illinois) earlier this week. Jouas, formerly deputy commander of US Forces Korea, said the near 30,000-strong US forces stationed in the neighboring South would struggle to counter the North Korean Army, which the country claims almost 5 million people have volunteered for.

USA - What would you do if authorities ordered your church to stop feeding the homeless?  And what would you do if your 5-year-old daughter was ordered to get government permission before setting up a lemonade stand?  Well, these things are actually happening in America today.  With each passing day, America goes further down the road toward becoming a police state. 

USA - Millions of people saw their computers shut down by ransomware, with demands for payments in digital currency to have their access restored. Tens of thousands of employees at Mondelez International, the maker of Oreo cookies, had their data completely wiped. FedEx reported that an attack on a European subsidiary had halted deliveries and cost $300 million.

USA - The cost of America’s global war on terror has yet to be reckoned with, and there’s a very good reason for that. By and large, the US has not been paying for all of these wars, but rather has been borrowing to pay for the conflict. In the long run that’s going to be expensive. Paying off the war is going to mean not only paying the prices of the conflict but the massive interest accrued in borrowing the cost of those wars. A new report suggests that just the interest on all that debt will, over the course of decades of servicing it, cost an estimated $8 trillion. So far, they say, the US has paid $534 billion in overseas contingency operations interest.

LEBANON - In Beirut’s southern suburbs, where buildings scarred with wars of old blend with posters of the latest dead, talk of another conflict has taken hold. A fight on a scale not seen before may be brewing, say locals like Hussein Khaireddine, a barber who says he and his family in the Shia suburb of Dahiyeh have grown used to tensions over decades. “This one’s different,” he said. “It could lead to every valley and mountain top. And if it starts, it may not stop.”