IRAN - A top Iranian military commander has threatened to launch ballistic missile attacks on US forces in the region amid a public effort by the Islamic Republic to show off its advanced missile capabilities, according to US officials and regional reports. Iranian leaders disclosed that their advanced ballistic missile technology, which could be used as part of a nuclear weapons program, is sophisticated enough to strike US forces up to nearly 1,300 miles, or 2,000 kilometers, away, which encompasses all US bases in the region.

USA - As millennials continue to leave traditional Christian religions, interest in Wiccan and pagan practices have seen increased interest in recent years, a trend also spotted among young people and on college campuses. Pagan or Wiccan student groups are present on a number of college campuses — both secular and religious — across the nation. The growing normalization of such practices, albeit still a minority, corresponds with the decline in Christian believers, some observers note.

EUROPE - An Austrian MEP insisted that “most of Europe has moved to the right” following claims that a rise in populism could eventually destroy the European Union. MEP Eugen Freund admitted that he was “not surprised” at Austria's shock election results due to the populist wave sweeping across Europe. Austria faced an unexpected election result after right-wing party FPO grabbed 26 per cent of the vote in its parliamentary election on October 15.  Former European Parliament President Martin Schultz warned at the start of the year that a rise in populism in Europe is a "virus" that could spell the end for the EU.

CHINA - China has quietly undertaken more construction and reclamation in the South China Sea, recent satellite images show, and is likely to more powerfully reassert its claims over the waterway soon, regional diplomats and military officers say. With global attention focused on North Korea and Beijing engrossed in its Party Congress, tensions in the South China Sea have slipped from the headlines in recent months. but with none of the underlying disputes resolved and new images reviewed by Reuters showing China continuing to develop facilities on North and Tree islands in the contested Paracel islands, experts say the vital trade route remains a global flashpoint.

GERMANY - Two experts on the Catholic/Lutheran relationship, one Catholic and the other Lutheran, both say that joint commemorations of today's 500th anniversary of the launch of the Protestant Reformation reflect a strong yearning for unity in the grassroots, and may represent a new "springtime" in ecumenism, meaning the quest for Christian unity. Five hundred years ago today, tradition has it, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany, thereby triggering the Protestant Reformation that’s divided Western Christianity ever since. Today, two experts on each side of that Catholic/Lutheran divide say what they detect in the trenches is an “astounding” thirst for unity.

GERMANY - German leaders are meeting in Wittenberg to mark 500 years since Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation. Alongside ceremonies, a church service and light show in Wittenberg, events are underway across Germany. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Saxony-Anhalt state Premier Reiner Haseloff will attend several ceremonies in Wittenberg — starting with an afternoon church service in the city's Castle Church and ending with a ceremony in the city hall in the evening.

CANADA - It is the question that pits neighbor against neighbor, tribe against tribe, and Republican against Republican. Should America risk the last great salmon run on Earth to dig what could be the richest mine on the planet? At the center of this question is the proposed Pebble Mine, a massive mineral deposit worth between $300 billion and $500 billion being pursued by the Canadian mining company Northern Dynasty and intended to be built in southwestern Alaska.

UK - There is alarming new evidence that insect populations worldwide are in rapid decline. As Professor Dave Goulson of the University of Sussex, a co-author of a new insect study, put it, we are “on course for ecological Armageddon” because “if we lose the insects, then everything is going to collapse.”

NORTH KOREA - North Korea nuclear tunnel collapses, ‘killing at least 200 people’ amid fears of a massive radioactive leak. The collapse happened at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the country's north-east on October 10, according to reports… The disaster has prompted fears of a massive radioactive leak which could spark a Chernobyl or Fukushima style disaster. A North Korean official said the collapse happened during the construction of an underground tunnel, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reports. Some 100 people are said to have been trapped by the initial tunnel collapse, with a further 100 lost in a second collapse during a rescue operation, Asahi reported Tuesday.

USA - The federal government is now 20.4 trillion dollars in debt, and most Americans don’t seem to care that the economic prosperity that we are enjoying today could be completely destroyed by our exploding national debt.  Over the past decade, the national debt has been growing at a rate of more than 100 million dollars an hour, and this is a debt that all of us owe.  When you break it down, each American citizen’s share of the debt is more than $60,000, and so if you have a family of five your share is more than $300,000. 

EUROPE - Europe could create its very own version of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a bid to grasp more power over failing Eurozone economies. The European Union is currently investigating ways to improve and increase the powers of the European Stability Mechanism, which helps eurozone countries who need to borrow money.

GERMANY - Germany’s left-wing parties are facing a major crisis as increasing numbers of voters are turning towards more populist groups after growing tired of liberal immigration policies and a lack of proper leadership. Of the 709 Bundestag seats, only 289 members of parliament belong to the three traditional left-wing groups and in last month’s general election the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and Die Linke [The Left] won just 38.6 per cent of the vote - the lowest total for more than 50 years.

SAUDI ARABIA – Saudi Arabia plans to create a “self-sufficient” nuclear programme by extracting uranium domestically, a senior official declared, adding to fears in the region. Hashim bin Abdullah Yamani, head of the Saudi Government agency tasked with the nuclear plans said Saudi Arabia wants to extract uranium for "peaceful purposes". In a speech at an international nuclear power conference in Abu Dhabi, he did not specify whether Saudi Arabia seeks to also enrich and reprocess uranium. Enrichment in the fuel cycle can open up the possibility of military uses of the material. Atomic reactors need uranium enriched to around 5 percent purity but the same technology in this process can also be used to enrich the heavy metal to higher, weapons-grade levels.

IRAN - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has mocked the US as "mad" and taunted Donald Trump that no-one will be able to stop them from building more missiles. The aggressive language from the leader of the Islamic Republic comes as tensions between Tehran and Washington grow.

USA - If Congress decides to pass a new authorization for use of military force, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis ask that the war authority be unlimited in its time and geographic reach. During a Senate Foreign Relations Comittee hearing Friday, Tillerson said any new AUMF passed by Congress “should not be time constrained” and “must not be geographically restricted.” He added, legislation that sets a termination date may “unintentionally embolden our enemies.” Mattis and Tillerson agreed in testimony that President Donald Trump already has constitutional authority to strike North Korea without new permission from Congress.