EUROPE - In view of the conflict between Brussels and Rome over Italy's national budget, the German establishment is increasing its demands to resolutely fight the "internal enemies" of the EU. The Union must "now be vigorously defended," wrote a leading German daily. The Italian government coalition is "not worth risking the country's fate." The Italian government is being put into question, because it refuses to continue to submit to German austerity dictates. Berlin's dominance over the EU is also being met with mounting protests in other member countries. Poland and Hungary are not the only countries, where controversies are intensifying. Anger at Berlin is also growing in France. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the founder of "La France insoumise," who, with almost 20 percent, barely missed making the run-offs in the 2017 presidential elections, has now called for "France to withdraw from all EU treaties." The German elite's reaction is becoming more hostile.

EUROPE - A Europe without internal borders has become reality: Every EU citizen can look for a job in any EU country. Entrepreneurs are free to set up a business anywhere they like. We can buy and sell goods across the bloc without any tariffs. Services may be offered everywhere. And there’s more. Young Europeans can get their education at any university in Europe. And, like all of us, they can experience Europe’s cultural diversity and the common values and traditions that underpin it. And let’s be clear: Our continent had never before experienced 73 years of peace throughout its long history. These are great achievements of the European Union.

NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS - Super typhoon Yutu has smashed the Northern Mariana Islands with 180mph winds causing catastrophic devastation - the monster storm, which is now headed towards the Philippines and Taiwan, was said to be the strongest one on record to hit the region. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGSA) said Yutu has “maintained its strength” as it continues west northwest towards Taiwan and the Philippines. Yutu will close in on the Philippines and Taiwan next Tuesday but is forecast to weaken over the next 24 hours.

USA - Apple CEO Tim Cook blasted Silicon Valley tech companies and their abuse of user privacy in a keynote address at a privacy conference in Brussels Wednesday, saying personal information is being “weaponized against us with military efficiency.”

USA - The modern tradition of wearing costumes on Halloween can be traced back more than 2000 years to the Celts of ancient Britain.  During a Druidic festival known as Samhain, which is still celebrated by Wiccans and other modern pagans, revelers would often wear masks or costumes.  In modern times wearing costumes is considered to be “innocent fun”, but in those times the masks and costumes were worn for very specific spiritual purposes.  For some, the goal was to ward off evil spirits, but for others the purpose of the mask or costume was to help the participant communicate with the spirit world. 

GERMANY - Germany will be forced to pay an extra £13.2 billion a year to the EU after Brexit, in a move that has sparked fury among Germans who are already the bloc’s biggest contributors. Germany must find the extra cash to make up the EU’s budget shortfall after the UK leaves the bloc. The amount will increase Germany’s gross annual contribution to Brussels to a massive £40 billion. The huge sum will help to fill the massive hole in the EU’s budget after Brexit Britain pulls out of Europe. The payment, revealed in a report published by the EU’s finance ministry, has provoked anger among Germans. Speaking to German newspaper Bild, Eckhardt Rehberg, an MP from Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, said: “Europe is not suffering from too little money.”

ISRAEL - Israel and Hamas are already essentially in a state of war, and yet the mainstream media in the United States has been virtually silent about this conflict. For the past 6 months, Hamas has been conducting violent demonstrations along the border with Israel, and last Friday 130 protesters got shot as the violence escalated wildly out of control.

VATICAN - An African bishop in Rome for the synod of bishops has decried the lethargy of European Christianity, saying that it opens the door to an “Islamic invasion.” In an interview Tuesday with the US-based National Catholic Register, Andrew Nkea Fuanya, the bishop of Mamfe, Cameroon, said that the synod has been ignoring Europe’s low birth rates to its own peril. The synod fathers have not discussed Europe’s demographic implosion, which is “a very big thing” for youth, Fuanya said.

USA - The government is ratcheting up its efforts to convince Americans to get flu shots. "You can't walk into a pharmacy without seeing lines, and the government is now telling preachers to tell their congregations to get flu shots," says Dr Russell Blaylock, renowned neurosurgeon and editor of the Blaylock Wellness Report. "I've never seen anything like it.”

USA - For the first time in the history of GLAAD's 'Where We Are on TV' report, LGBTQ characters of color also outnumber those that are white. Broadcast television is enlisting a record percentage of LGBTQ characters and featuring those of color more often than those that are white for the first time in the 2018-19 television season, a report published Thursday found. GLAAD's annual Where We Are on TV report found that LGBTQ characters make up 8.8 percent of all regular characters this season, up 2.4 percent from the 2017-18 season. (Last season had previously held the record for largest percentage in the report's 23-year history.)

USA - We’re getting close to the end now. Can you feel it?  I do.  It’s in the news, on the streets, and in your face every day. You can’t tune it out anymore, even if you wanted to. Where once there was civil debate in the court of public opinion, we now have censorship, monopoly, screaming, insults, demonization, and, finally, the use of force to silence the opposition. There is no turning back now. The political extremes are going to war, and you will be dragged into it even if you consider yourself apolitical.

USA - A quarter of students found the 2016 election so traumatic they now report symptoms of PTSD [Post-traumatic stress disorder], according to a new study. Researchers surveyed Arizona State University students around the time of President Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017, and some had stress scores on par with that of school shooting witnesses' seven-month follow-ups.

USA - Less than two weeks from the most expensive and, perhaps, consequential midterm election in a generation, some of Hollywood’s most influential stars have taken to social media to spew deranged and self-centered hot takes about President Donald Trump and the issues facing the nation. ‘No Human Beings Are Illegal;’ Being Transgender the ‘Truest Form of America’s Freedom’.

USA - The homelessness crisis in the United States is getting a lot worse, and it is happening at a pace that is absolutely frightening. Did you realize that more than half a million Americans are homeless right now? One out of every four homeless Americans actually has a job, but thanks to rapidly rising housing prices they are not able to afford a place to live. So every night in this country, hundreds of thousands of people are sleeping in shelters, in their vehicles or on the streets. It is a national crisis that isn’t going away, and during the next economic downturn it is only going to intensify. Hundreds of thousands of people are deeply suffering in this country every single night, and that should not be happening in the greatest nation on the planet. ...the homelessness crisis is likely to get a whole lot worse as the US economy continues to deteriorate.

USA - US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin plan to meet in Paris next month, officials said on Tuesday, their first encounter since a summit in Helsinki that unleashed a storm of criticism that Trump was cosying up to the Kremlin. Both presidents plan to be in Paris for events to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War One, and they are planning to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines, according to Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. At a post-summit news conference alongside Putin, Trump questioned the findings of US intelligence agencies that Russia had tried to influence the vote. Moscow denies any interference in the elections.