GERMANY - The German Chancellor faces the end of her tenure in power, after 12 years at the helm of Europe's largest economy, according to a key news correspondent. Angela Merkel is "at the end of career" following her failure to form a government, according to Jenny Hill, the BBC's Berlin correspondent.

POLAND - Poland’s parliament has voted to slowly begin the process of abolishing Sunday shopping to allow workers to spend more time with their families. The law has been passed by the sejm — equivalent to the British House of Commons or the US House of Representatives — but must be approved by the Senate and the president, both of which could veto the decision. Although the major change — which reverses decades of movement on turning Sunday from a holy day of rest into an ordinary day of shopping and work — has been criticised as putting jobs at risk, the government hopes it will improve quality of life for ordinary Poles.

USA - The latest issue of the National Interest asks if we are looking at “war in Asia” within the next decade or so. The question asked collectively by the headline articles is whether the multi-sided contest between China, the Koreas, and Japan can be resolved without someone, somewhere, pulling a trigger.

ISRAEL - “President Donald Trump is actively considering when and how to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” Pence told the gathering of UN ambassadors, diplomats and Jewish leaders, hosted by Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.

USA - On Saturday, writer Bee Shapiro published an article in The New York Times entitled, “His Eye Makeup is Way Better Than Yours.” The Times tweeted it as such: “How teenage boys (and younger) wearing makeup are affecting beauty norms.” The article shows many pictures of young boys making themselves pretty with makeup. Imagine the outcry if they had done this with young girls, trying to make them look “pretty.” I don’t care how this author and The New York Times wants to spin this gender bender baloney. The fact that they found some young boys who desire to wear makeup does NOT make it the “norm.”

UK - The Girl Guides will allow boys who identify as female to shower with girls, it has emerged. For the first time, Girlguiding's official guidance instructs guide leaders to allow members who were born male but now identify as female to share changing rooms, toilets and sleeping quarters with girls when away on excursions. The 107-year-old organisation updated its rules, which apply to members aged from five to 25, to allow transgender girls to "share accommodation with other young members if they wish" and use the same facilities.

USA - Hallucinogenic drugs sought to provide non-Biblical answers to questions like who we are, why are we here and where are we going. Traditionally, Christianity has provided these answers. Technocrat scientists and physicians want to equip hospice caregivers with both psilocybin and LSD to deliver alternate answers to end-of-life patients. Opiates are the drugs of choice in battling pain in the terminally ill, but opiates render such patients dull and unresponsive. Hallucinogens could well offer a better path.

GERMANY - Angela Merkel’s already failing grip on power has been weakened even further after her Minister of Agriculture went against her decision and voted in favour of the weedkiller glyphosate. Christian Schmidt’s action has been met with outrage after ordering officials to vote in favour of renewing the controversial weedkiller - against advice from his Chancellor.

FRANCE - France is growing increasingly impatient over Angela Merkel's failure to form a government - as politicians in Paris raise the possibility of finally resolving its "over-reliance" on Germany. A prominent supporter of Emmanuel Macron fears Angela Merkel's humiliating failure to build a coalition government in Germany could spell "the end of Europe". Germany - and Europe - is in the midst of a political crisis after Mrs Merkel failed to strike a coalition deal last week when talks broke down. EU officials fear this will put any chance of reforming the bloc on hold at a crucial moment after Mr Macron had championed a 'new Europe' with a united army and elected president. However, Mr Macron's political rivals have said the crisis could provide the country with a much-needed opportunity to finally break free of German control. 

SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia's crown prince vowed to "pursue terrorists until they are wiped from the face of the earth" as officials from 40 Muslim countries gathered Sunday in the first meeting of an Islamic counter-terrorism alliance. "In past years, terrorism has been functioning in all of our countries... with no coordination" among national authorities, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also Saudi defence minister, said in his keynote address to the gathering in Riyadh. "This ends today, with this alliance." The summit is the first meeting of defence ministers and other senior officials from the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition, which officially counts 41 countries and identifies as a "pan-Islamic unified front" against violent extremism.

GERMANY - Speaking to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, the Social Democrats’ secretary for family affairs, Elke Ferner, called on Merkel’s conservative bloc to reconsider social policies it had blocked in a previous coalition agreement, including a tax-financed supplementary pension for people with low pension entitlement, as a way to “build trust” between the parties. SPD Deputy Chair Karl Lauterbach implied that the abolition of private health insurance would be a prerequisite for negotiations, saying if Merkel’s conservative alliance doesn’t move on the issue “we have no chance of preventing new elections.” Migration and refugee policies are also a major sticking point, according to party deputy Ralf Stegner.

UK - Millions of unmarried couples who live together could be unaware of their rights if the relationship breaks down, a family law group has warned. Cohabiting couples have become the fastest-growing family type in the UK. The number of unmarried couples living together has more than doubled from 1.5 million in 1996 to 3.3 million in 2017.

JAPAN - Japan has still not come to a consensus on what to do with a million tons of nuclear water six years after their primary nuclear power plant in Fukushima was rocked by a tsunami. The water stored in 900 large, dense, packed tanks on site could spill if another major natural disaster should strike, The Japan Times reported. The government has been urged by experts to gradually release the water to the Pacific Ocean, as all the radioactive elements of the water except tritium — which has been said to be safe in small amounts — have been removed through treatment. But if the tank breaks, the contents may not be able to be controlled. Currently, the amount of radioactive water at Fukushima is still growing by 150 tons a day.

NEW ZEALAND – New Zealand could be in the firing line of a devastating tsunami and earthquake after the awakening of a dormant fault line, a geologist warns. The long-dormant Hikurangi fault line was recently re-energised and could now produce a deadly magnitude 9.0 earthquake. GNS scientist Ursula Cochran said: “We need to think Japan 2011 basically, because if our whole plate boundary ruptured it would be a magnitude 9 earthquake.” New Zealand sits along the fault line between the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate leaving it susceptible to quakes.

USA - After being saved from the brink of extinction, grizzly bears are spreading far beyond Yellowstone National Park. That’s raising uneasy questions among ranchers, conservationists and others in the region: Can people and the bears coexist?