USA - Are we about to see chaos in the streets in major cities all over America? Antifa and other radical leftist groups are promising that a series of protests will begin on November 4th that will never end until “the Trump/Pence regime” is “removed from power”. Antifa has openly and publicly embraced violence and the Department of Homeland Security says that they have engaged in domestic terrorism.  Hopefully these “protests” will fizzle out after a few weeks, because political organizations that believe in “the necessary use of violence” have no place in our society. We are in a battle for the future of America, and the fate of our children and our grandchildren is hanging in the balance.  The radical left must not win, because if they do they will transform our society into a totalitarian socialist “utopia” that will look nothing like the nation that our forefathers originally founded.

VATICAN - The Reformation anniversary gives us a renewed impetus to work for reconciliation, said a statement released jointly Tuesday by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation. “We recognize that while the past cannot be changed, its influence upon us today can be transformed to become a stimulus for growing communion and a sign of hope for the world to overcome division and fragmentation,” it said October 31. “Again, it has become clear that what we have in common is far more than that which still divides us.” The statement was released to mark the end of the year of common commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

GERMANY – Germany has become the world’s biggest buyer of gold amid fears of economic meltdown across the eurozone. Figures from the World Gold Council (WGC) reveal the country invested a record £6 billion in gold bullion and coins as well as in exchange-traded products.

MIDDLE EAST - Hamas leaders newly returned from an official visit to Iran have hailed their restored ties with the Tehran regime, praising the Islamic Republic’s “making no secret” of the “exceptional support” it provides to the Palestinian terrorist organization.

KENYA - Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has rejected the results of the re-run presidential election that saw Uhuru Kenyatta gaining a second term. Mr Odinga called it "a sham" but made no mention of any legal challenge. Mr Kenyatta won 98% of the vote with turnout under 40% - less than half that recorded in August's vote, largely because of an opposition boycott.

CANADA - The last time there was a widespread physical gold counterfeiting scare was in the summer of 2012 when we reported the discovery of a single 10 oz Tungsten-filled gold bar in Manhattan's jewelry district led to a panic among the dealer community, which then resulted in local jewelry outlets discovering at least ten more fake 10-ounce "gold bars" filled with Tungsten. Fast forward to today when a similar instance of gold counterfeiting has been discovered, this time in Canada, and where the fake bar in question had been "certified" by the highest possible authority.

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.