ITALY - Across the stony heel of Italy, a peninsula ringed by the blue-green waters of the Mediterranean, olive trees have existed for centuries, shaping the landscape and producing some of the nation’s finest olive oils. Except now, many of the trees are dying. “It is devastating,” said Enzo Manni, the director of ACLI-Racale, an olive cooperative in the heart of the outbreak area. “It is apocalyptic. I compare it to an earthquake.” Today, scientists estimate that one million olive trees in the peninsula, known as the Salento, are infected with the bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, a figure that could rise rapidly. Most of all, olive growers fear that a way of life that has sustained generations could disappear. Already, production is dropping at many farms in the region.

USA - More than two out of five American honeybee colonies died in the past year, and surprisingly the worst die-off was in the summer, according to a federal survey. Since April 2014, beekeepers lost 42.1 percent of their colonies, the second highest loss rate in nine years, according to an annual survey conducted by a bee partnership that includes the US Department of Agriculture. "What we're seeing with this bee problem is just a loud signal that there's some bad things happening with our agro-ecosystems," said study co-author Keith Delaplane at the University of Georgia. "We just happen to notice it with the honeybee because they are so easy to count."

USA - Humans have become so obsessed with portable devices and overwhelmed by content that we now have attention spans shorter than that of the previously jokingly juxtaposed goldfish. Microsoft surveyed 2,000 people and used electroencephalograms (EEGs) to monitor the brain activity of another 112 in the study, which sought to determine the impact that pocket-sized devices and the increased availability of digital media and information have had on our daily lives. Among the good news in the 54-page report is that our ability to multi-task has drastically improved in the information age, but unfortunately attention spans have fallen. In 2000 the average attention span was 12 seconds, but this has now fallen to just eight. The goldfish is believed to be able to maintain a solid nine.

UNITED NATIONS - Should we be concerned about this new sustainable development agenda? The UN plans to launch a brand new plan for managing the entire globe at the Sustainable Development Summit that it will be hosting from September 25th to September 27th. Some of the biggest names on the planet, including Pope Francis, will be speaking at this summit.

VATICAN - The Vatican said Wednesday that it had concluded a treaty to recognize Palestinian statehood, a symbolic but significant step welcomed by Palestinians but upsetting to the Israeli government. Neville Y Lamdan, a former Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, said the main importance of the Vatican recognition of Palestinian statehood was the “moral authority and weight” it confers.

“The real question is why the Vatican came round to this step,” Mr Lamdan said. “It certainly would be a very deliberate and carefully weighed decision; there’s nothing accidental about it.”

USA - Obama and his regime are on the defensive as Hersh reveals the many, many lies (some of which led to the deaths of innocent people) that Obama told about his assassination of bin Laden. Hersh’s report details those lies, and concludes: “High-level lying … remains the modus operandi of US policy, along with secret prisons, drone attacks, Special Forces night raids, bypassing the chain of command, and cutting out those who might say no.” Seemingly unable to help himself, and as if trying to offer immediate confirmation of Hersh’s analysis, Obama announced that “Pakistanis did not know” about the US raid. NBC then confirmed that very aspect of Hersh’s report, saying yes, a “Pakistani official helped the US find bin Laden”.

GREECE - Here is a slightly surprising sign that Greece is in the classic throes of a bank run: car sales jumped by 47 percent in April. It was the 20th consecutive month that car registrations of new and used vehicles has risen. People living in a country gripped by financial turmoil often worry about the security of their money. If it's in a bank, it can be caught up in capital controls or lost through insolvency. Better, then, to spend it. And the purchase of choice is often a car. This makes motor vehicle sales a decent proxy for financial turmoil (under some circumstances). Ordinary Greeks, many of whom are not wealthy enough to hold bank accounts outside of the country, are taking their money out of the financial system and spending it on "hard" assets.

GREECE - Screens in Athens’ metro stations that generally provide weather forecasts have now been used to show controversial contents, including a government-backed film demanding World War II reparations from Germany. Greece's deputy finance minister recently said that Germany owed the country nearly 279 billion euros ($313 billion) in war reparations for the Nazi occupation during World War II. The 50-second short film, featuring footage from the Nazi occupation, has been broadcast in 35 metro stations in Athens since the end of April, as the Greek government pushes for war damages from Germany, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

ISRAEL - The announcement last week of the formation of a largely right-wing, religious governing coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refueled concerns in the US and European Union over a number of controversial bills that will likely make their way through parliament once the new government takes office. When you look at some of the legislation being proposed, it is very worrying. It is anti-democratic and looks designed to shut down criticism. "It’s the sort of thing you normally see coming out of Russia,” one EU ambassador told Reuters. “The red lines for us aren’t just about settlements,” the ambassador said, reiterating the long-held concern over continued settlement activity in the West Bank and prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace. “It is a deep concern for us,” said the European ambassador of Israel’s expected legislative plans. “It is the sort of thing that is a red line.”

PAKISTAN - Three years after the toppling of Moammar Gadhafi, the military chiefs of seven Arab countries are expected to meet in Cairo next week to discuss whether they should intervene in Libya, which is split between two governments, controlled by rival militias and home now to a blossoming Islamic State affiliate.

AUSTRALIA - The El Nino effect, which can drive droughts and flooding, is under way in the tropical Pacific, say scientists. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology predicted that it could become a "substantial" event later in the year. The phenomenon arises from variations in ocean temperatures. The El Nino is still in its early stages, but has the potential to cause extreme weather around the world, according to forecasters. "This is a proper El Nino effect, it's not a weak one," David Jones, manager of climate monitoring and prediction at the Bureau of Meteorology, told reporters.

NEPAL - A major earthquake has struck eastern Nepal, near Mount Everest, two weeks after more than 8,000 people died in a devastating quake. At least 37 people have been killed and more than 1,000 injured, officials say. At least 17 have also died in India. The BBC's Yogita Limaye, who was in Nepal's mountains when the latest earthquake struck, said: "The earth shook and it shook for a pretty long time. I can completely understand the sense of panic. We have been seeing tremors - it's been two-and-a-half weeks since the first quake. But this one really felt like it went on for a really long time. People have been terrified."

EUROPE - In the last three months, the Frankfurt-based ECB has become the target of vociferous criticism for its handling of the Greek crisis. Weeks before the confetti attack [Mr Draghi was showered with pamphlets accusing the central bank of “autocratic hegemony” and Mr Draghi of being an evil “master of the universe”], Mr Draghi was heckled by a Greek journalist at a press conference in Nicosia. Before that, he was the subject of a tirade from a Greek MEP during an address at the European Parliament.

VATICAN - Pope Francis said today: “Many powerful people don’t want peace because they live off war. Some powerful people make their living with the production of arms. It’s the industry of death.”

He’s right … Top economists say that war is destroying our economy. And 90% of all deaths in war are civilians. But war is great for the bankers and the defense contractors.

USA - Rafael Rivera – who served in the US Army for seven years – writes: “The police in Ferguson have better armor and weaponry than my men and I did in the middle of a war.” And Ferguson isn’t alone — police departments across the US are armed for war. The Hill notes: “Senator McCaskill pointed out that in some places local police departments are more heavily armed than the National Guard.” Business Insider points out: “Someone identifying himself as an 82nd Airborne Army veteran, observing the Ferguson police scene, commented that ‘We rolled lighter than that in an actual warzone’.” Constitutional and civil rights lawyer John Whitehead notes that homeland security officers within the US have three times as much ammunition as front-line soldiers in Afghanistan (and possess a type of ammunition that is banned in war zones).