UK - Jeremy Corbyn denied voters the chance to decide the future of Brexit last night after ordering his MPs to block Boris Johnson's call for a snap election. A visibly frustrated PM ridiculed the stance taken by Corbyn - who did not even bother to be present for the declaration of the result - taunting that he was the first Opposition leader 'in history' to turn down the opportunity of a poll.

GERMANY - A decision to move US troops out of Germany would mark a major change in the defense relationship between the two countries and reshape the basis of American military presence in Europe since WWII. The Federal Republic of Germany has been a vital part of United States defense strategy in Europe ever since the end of World War II, when US forces were part of a 10-year Allied occupation of the country. Though troop numbers have fallen drastically since those days, the US military still maintains a major presence and over the intervening decades, US military communities have formed around a handful of German towns. The US Army Bavaria Garrison, headquartered at Grafenwoehr, near Bavaria's Czech border, is the largest overseas US Army base in the world, both in population and acreage, covering over 97,000 acres (or 390 square kilometers / or 150.58 square miles).

GERMANY - In the early morning hours of September 1, 1939, Germany began World War II with an attack on Poland. Unspeakable atrocities followed, including millions of dead and wounded, innumerable rapes, displaced persons and a world that is still recovering from the destructive rage of the Nazis.

GERMANY - There is no simple way to explain the motivations of Alternative for Germany (AfD) party voters. They are far too many, and they are varied. There are, however, some conspicuous traits: Most them are between the ages of 30 and 60, and they are predominantly male. Lusatia, a region in eastern Saxony and southern Brandenburg, is an AfD stronghold. The far-right party picked up 30% of the vote there in Sunday's state elections. Lusatia suffered in the economic downturn that followed German reunification in 1990. Coal mining — practically the only major industry left in the region — has been especially hard hit. Polls show that in areas like Lusatia that struggle economically, voters often choose the AfD.

CHINA - The trade war between the United States and China is increasingly weighing on the global economy, but unfortunately it does not appear that it will end any time soon.  Many pundits in the US originally believed that the trade war would be short because the economic pain would be too much for the Chinese to handle.  But the truth is that the Chinese are not nearly as motivated by short-term concerns as we are.  They have always been long-term planners, and they are not afraid to set goals that may take multiple generations to achieve.  So they are not going to allow an angry American president that may be voted out of office by the end of next year to greatly alter their long-term economic strategies.

USA - Wallops Island — a remote, marshy spit of land along the eastern shore of Virginia, near a famed national refuge for horses — is mostly known as a launch site for government and private rockets. But it also makes for a perfect, quiet spot to test a revolutionary weapons technology.

USA - President Trump's trade war has led to even bigger trade deficits with China, even though it was intended to improve the trade balance. But it's not just China — the deficit has increased with most of our other major trade partners, too. Why it matters: While economists agree that trade deficits aren't a good way to measure a trade relationship, they are the metric Trump fixates on, made campaign promises about and uses to evaluate relationships with other countries. Throughout his campaign, Trump vowed that he would wipe away the US's trade deficits: "You will see a drop [in the trade deficit] like you’ve never seen before.” Reality check: Among the US's 15 biggest trading partners, the trade balance has moved in the wrong direction for Trump in 10 of those countries between 2016 and 2018, while the aggregate trade deficit has jumped from $503 billion to $628 billion.

ISRAEL - The polls still show that Netanyahu and Benny Gantz of the Blue and White are about even and what seats they would get. But Prime Minister Netanyahu made an agreement this week with the Zehut movement that’s headed by Moshe Feiglin. He’s a right wing politician, an Orthodox Jew, and very much an advocate for rebuilding the Temple on the Temple Mount. The Prime Minister said he would go along with that and he would appoint Feiglin as a minister in his government. He’s very much an advocate for rebuilding the Temple and this time he has an agreement with the Likud. So that will add 1 or 2 seats to the Likud meaning the right wing will be strengthen and that’s what Netanyahu is ultimately after.

USA - Pro-life Americans believe in the inherent dignity and right to life of every human, regardless of race or ethnicity, declares a hard-hitting essay in the Wall Street Journal Monday. WSJ writer Bill McGurn cites a tendentious Washington Post op-ed alleging that “antiabortion politics” can provide “cover for white nationalist sentiments” and then goes on to show that the Post has it exactly backwards. Heading into 2020, the Democrat party has made it clear they support “federally funded abortion on demand up to the moment of birth — and even after birth, if necessary,” McGurn notes, a procedure that overwhelmingly affects blacks and minorities. “The pro-life proposition is simple: Human life begins at conception, and every human life is equal in dignity and worth," Mc Gurn declares, which is “incompatible with white supremacism.”

USA - Tropical Storm Fernand has formed in the Gulf of Mexico and three other disturbances are spotted as the center of Hurricane Dorian finally begins to move away from the Bahamas and towards the US mainland. Fernand has prompted a tropical storm warning for Mexico's northeast coast. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) says slow strengthening is expected before the storm moves inland. Fernand, the sixth named storm in the Atlantic, is located about 185 miles east north-east of Tampico, Mexico, packing maximum sustained winds of 40mph. 'A motion toward the west-northwest is forecast tonight and Wednesday. This motion could bring the center of Fernand near or over the coast of northeastern Mexico late Wednesday,' the NHC said Tuesday. Forecasters also said that 'the entire tropical Atlantic basin has become quite active'.

UK - Boris Johnson last night demanded a snap general election after rebel MPs pulled off an extraordinary coup to allow a block on Brexit until next year plunging Westminster into outright chaos. Twenty one Conservative MPs - including NINE ex-Cabinet ministers - were sacked minutes after siding with Labour to seize control of Parliament’s agenda from 3pm today. The hot potch cross-party majority of 27 will today attempt to ram a new law through the Commons in just four hours.

USA - Scientific study after scientific study is showing that too much time on social media can be extremely harmful both mentally and physically. But even though most of us know this, very few of us actually alter our behavior in a meaningful way. When Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and other major social media platforms first emerged, we welcomed them with open arms. They were a lot of fun and they allowed us to interact with family, friends and society as a whole in ways that we had never been able to do before. But they were also extremely addictive, and they rapidly became transformed into dumping grounds for just about everything toxic, negative and malevolent that you can possibly imagine. Today, many of us spend far more time on social media than we do with real people, that has enormous implications for our future.

UK - Patience is a virtue, but it’s becoming an exceedingly rare quality in modern society. According to a new survey of 2,000 British adults, all of the luxuries of modern life have made most people incredibly impatient — across pretty much every aspect of their lives. Three quarters of those surveyed said they believe the dominance of digital technology, such as smartphones and on-demand TVs, are to blame for this ever growing lack of patience. Respondents reported becoming frustrated after just 16 seconds of waiting for a web page to load, and after 25 seconds of waiting for a traffic light to change.

UK - The government has launched a “Get Ready” for no deal Brexit campaign, signalling Prime Minister Johnson’s dedication to delivering on the will of the people on October 31st. Michael Gove launched the largest ever public information campaign on Sunday, with TV advertisements, billboards, social media ads set to be rolled out in the coming weeks. The campaign is also expected to employ online seminars, leaflets, and information stands at targetted events, with the programme and website aimed at British citizens living in or planning to visit the EU, European nationals living in the UK, those in the food and drink industry, and exporters to the EU.

UK - If Boris Johnson is a racist, fascist, Nazi what does that make actual racist, fascist, Nazis? This is a question probably beyond the intellectual capacity of the hundreds of unemployables, malcontents, and cry-bullies who turned out in London and elsewhere over the weekend to protest against what you and I might call the eminently justifiable prorogation of parliament…This is what the protestors over the weekend insisted was a Nazi-like ‘fascist prick”’ dictator’s ‘coup’ against ‘democracy.’ That’s because having mostly been to ‘Uni’ and having read something like Racism Awareness or Tree Hugging and Transgender Toilet Studies — most likely at either the London School of Economics (LSE), the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) or the University of Easy Access (UEA) — they will have had every last vestige of common sense and critical awareness educated out of their tiny... brains.