CHINA - China has given approval to at least two companies to export corn, trading sources said, in a radical move by the world's number two producer to cut its ballooning surplus and unleash more supply into a saturated global market. "China's overproduction of corn has created a growing stockpile of corn that appears to have reached unsustainable levels," agency spokesman Matt Swenson said. "Chinese exports could negatively impact corn prices just as US farmers are harvesting their crops." US officials will monitor whether Chinese exports may be subsidized, a prospect the agency finds concerning, he said.

CANARY ISLANDS - The Government of the Canary Islands has summoned an emergency meeting to analyse the recent seismic activity in Tenerife after more than 90 mini quakes were recorded. A meeting was convened by the Office of Territorial Policy, Sustainability and Security of the Government of the Canary Islands under the Special Plan for Civil Protection and Emergency Response for Volcanic Risk in the Canary Islands (Pevolca) to discuss the potential causes of the 'unusual' seismic activity recorded on Sunday. The Government has sought to calm fears after more than 90 mini-quakes were recorded at Mount Teide National Park, sparking fears of an eruption. The Government acted quickly to downplay the tremors as 'completely normal.' The Canary Islands government has appealed for calm on the island of Tenerife.

GERMANY - A little while back I somewhat unwisely penned a column declaring the financial crisis essentially over. All I meant by this was that with the return of full employment and rising living standards, most of the economic wounds of the crisis had healed, at least in the US and the UK. Yet as is evident from the events of the last week, the banking crisis itself is far from over. Nine years after the initial eruption, it still rumbles on, with the epicentre now moved from the US to Europe. Only it’s not the same crisis; in large measure, it is completely different.

GERMANY - Troubled Deutsche Bank is desperately trying to haggle down a gigantic mis-selling fine, which investors fear could sink the company and heavily damage Germany’s economy.

CHINA - The Chinese yuan has been added to the IMF reserve basket, becoming the first currency to be added to the list since the emergence of the euro in 1999. The official entry was made Saturday, bringing to a close, at least partially, Beijing’s years-long struggle for international acceptance on the sort of level enjoyed by the US dollar. The currency now joins the big four: the US dollar, the euro, the yen, and the British pound. The decision means the Chinese yuan will now be used as one of the International Monetary Fund’s lending currencies in times of emergency economic bailouts. This sort of internationalization is in line with China’s wish for increased legitimacy of its currency. The move is also evidence of China’s growing role as a power to challenge the global economic dominance of the United States.

VATICAN - In the age of “ideological colonization” where gender theory has become a key part of a “global war” on marriage and family, the Pope defended the traditional union between a woman and a man as “the most beautiful thing God created.” Responding to one woman in the audience in Tbilisi, who asked about gender theory being taught in schools, the Pope said: “You mentioned a great enemy of marriage today: gender theory. Today, there is a global war out to destroy marriage,” Francis said in Georgia. “Not with weapons but with ideas ... we have to defend ourselves from ideological colonization.” A basic tenet of gender theory is that the concepts of male and female are social constructs, allowing a person to identify themselves as either, both or neither irregardless of biological sex.

ISRAEL - The vast majority of people living in Israel, both Jewish and Arab, think that peace with the Palestinians will never be achieved, a new poll has revealed. Only four percent expect something to change for the better in the next five years. Sixty-four percent of the 646 Israeli and Arab-Israeli respondents said they had no hopes that a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict could be found, Project HaMidgam institute for the Walla news website survey said. Twenty-four percent of those polled answered that an accord was possible but it would take longer than five years to achieve. Only four percent thought a peace deal could be achieved within five years. The remaining eight percent were undecided in the poll.

USA - The first lawsuit has been filed against Saudi Arabia for allegedly providing material support to Osama bin Laden and his team of terrorist hijackers prior to the 9/11 attacks. The filing comes days after Congress passed a law that allows US citizens to sue terror-supporting states.

Stephanie Ross DeSimone was pregnant with Navy Commander Patrick Dunn’s daughter when he was killed by American Airlines Flight 77, which was deliberately steered into the Pentagon building on the morning of September 11, 2001. The hijackers at the wheel of that plane were Saudi nationals, as were 15 of the 19 who took control of the four planes, the crashing of which resulted in the deaths of almost 3,000 people in what remains the worst-ever terrorist attack on US soil.

USA - Dear Parents: If you want your son to be turned into a prancing dandy who despises his masculinity and suppresses the testosterone fog that God and nature hardwired him to dwell in, then send him to Duke University. ‘The Duke Men’s Project’, which should be renamed ‘The Duke Make Men Pussies Project’, was launched this month.

PAKISTAN - Pakistan’s Defence Minister has threatened to “destroy” India – after India said on Thursday it had carried out “surgical strikes” on suspected militants preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-ruled Kashmir.

SAUDI ARABIA - Throughout President Obama’s time in the White House, Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Persian Gulf have watched with dismay as the kingdom’s decades-old alliance with the United States seemed to be slipping. Then came the overwhelming congressional support for Jasta, or the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which will allow relatives of those killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for any suspected role in the plot. That was all the proof many Saudis needed that the alliance that has underpinned the regional order for decades was fraying — perhaps irreparably. “Jasta is a wake up call for the Saudis, that it is time to revisit the concept of the alliance with the United States,” said Khalid al-Dakhil, a Saudi political sociologist and writer.

CHINA - China has warned Tokyo against “playing with fire” and joining US-led naval “patrols” and “exercises” in the disputed South China Sea, telling Japan, which is “outside the region”, that it should stop meddling in affairs that are none of its concern. Earlier in September Tokyo announced plans to increase joint military activities with the US in southeast Asia to counter Chinese dominance. The Chinese Defense Ministry warned Tokyo on Thursday that Beijing would not just sit idle and watch the Japanese side with the US. “We’d like to tell the Japanese side that if Japan wants to conduct joint patrols and joint exercises in China-administered waters, it is just like playing with fire and the Chinese military will not sit idle,” Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said at a monthly news briefing.

GERMANY - After several years of fretting about Spanish, Italian and French banks as the eurozone economy staggered onwards, the financial markets became nervous about the health of the German powerhouse Deutsche Bank and its smaller competitors at the start of this year. The IMF hasn't helped matters, saying in June that the bank is the greatest contributor to systemic risk in the world's biggest lenders. Commerzbank is also preying on investors’ minds, after reporting another round of job cuts that will see one in five positions axed. Hans Michelbach, a conservative politician in Bavaria, said it was “unimaginable” that the government would carry out a 2008-style bailout. But the fact that people are prepared to put Deutsche in the same sentence as Lehman, even if it’s to deny their similarities, has inflamed concerns.

GERMANY - If you were to spend too much time listening to the Brexit debate, you might be forgiven for thinking that the City is facing a catastrophe while Frankfurt is poised to boom, or at least to seize vast amounts of business from London.

PHILLIPINES - Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has reiterated his intention to distance his country from the US, its former colonial master, saying he is about to pass “the point of no return” with the US. "I am about to cross the Rubicon between me and the US," the controversial Pacific leader told reporters, without elaborating. Duterte reiterated that the Philippines would seek closer ties with Russia and China, the two nations that challenged American ambition for global leadership. But, he added, the ties with the US would not be broken completely, only driven to a point that would allow Manila to have an independent policy. "I am ready to not really break [US] ties but we will open alliances with China and... [Dmitry] Medvedev, he is waiting there [in Russia] for my visit," Duterte said, referring to the Russian prime minister.