USA - 17th October: US President Donald Trump has declined to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid for reelection, even as the campaign for the upcoming Knesset elections intensifies. In a Thursday interview with Newsmax, Trump acknowledged pressure to take a public stance but stopped short of any commitment.

USA - 19th October: Axios points out, "This is the first time in the history of the US–Israel relations that a US president explicitly and publicly endorsed a candidate in the Israeli elections."

USA - A string of major earthquakes along the Pacific Ocean's 'Ring of Fire' has triggered a chain reaction that may soon result in a historic disaster along America's West Coast. Geophysicist Stefan Burns told the Daily Mail that there were clear warning signs that the same megaquakes which have struck Asia in recent years are shifting along the Pacific Plate as the gigantic tectonic structure attempts to balance itself.

UK - Four in five jobs created over the past decade have been taken by migrants. Of the 3.7 million new roles recorded under the PAYE system since 2014, just 734,000 were taken by UK nationals, a think-tank has found. EU citizens accounted for 408,000 jobs, while the vast majority – 2.5 million – went to migrants from the rest of the world, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) said, with most of the surge coming since the pandemic.

FRANCE - Islamo-Marxist Rioters Threaten Macron’s Palace as Historic Buildings Burn to the Ground, Police Run For Their Lives, and Stores Get Looted. Now, one of the most historic structures in the entire country, the 143-year-old Limoges town hall, has now burned to the ground as the police continue to sit on their hands.

USA - Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, is frantically trying to cap rates. France may be about to trigger a fresh eurozone crisis. And here in Britain, John Healey, the new Chancellor, is facing what his predecessor would no doubt have described as a “black hole” in the public finances. As bond yields – the cost of borrowing – rise relentlessly, so far all the attention has focused on the effect on hugely indebted governments. But the crisis is about to ripple out into the real economy – and, unfortunately, that will prove a lot more serious. That will hurt in three main ways. To start with, mortgage rates are starting to rise. The average five-year fixed rate hit 6 percent in Britain this week, and is still climbing. In reality, we may soon face a steep downturn in the property market, a collapse in bank lending, and plenty of over-indebted companies running into trouble, with some even forced to close. Worst of all, that will reduce tax revenues even further, forcing the Government to increase borrowing, which will push rates even higher. The economy will be trapped in a vicious cycle from which there will be no easy escape.

UK - Britain faces the threat of a financial crisis as climate change makes homes harder or even impossible to insure, experts have warned. Senior figures in the City of London have said insurance companies will raise prices on home insurance, exclude protection, or pull cover from the market altogether in the face of growing ecological risks such as flooding, subsidence and wildfires.

GERMANY - The complex trial of Serhii Kuznetsov, who was extradited to Germany to face justice after his arrest in Italy in August 2025, risks driving a wedge between Ukraine and one of its closest allies. While Berlin has distanced itself from the trial, it is set to be an awkward moment in German-Ukrainian relations as it may reveal the extent to which Kyiv was involved in the attack on the $20 billion (£15 billion) pipeline. The allegation, if proven, could be immensely difficult for the German government, as it continues to approve billions of euros in financial and military support for Ukraine. It will serve as a propaganda boost for the Kremlin, which has always maintained its innocence of being behind the Nord Stream sabotage. And it may also embolden pro-Russian politicians in Germany, such as those in the hard-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, who have intensified calls to scrap all support for Kyiv. Why, they would ask, should Germany send a single euro to the country that blew up a critical element of Germany’s energy infrastructure?

FRANCE - Recent cyber attacks show how connecting everything to the internet makes us more vulnerable. Connecting hundreds of supermarket fridges to the internet seemed like a great idea – until it didn’t. A cyber attack on hundreds of Danfoss fridges operated by French grocer Les Mousquetaires, which owns the popular Intermarché chain, pushed temperatures up to 50C, causing fires and spoiling tens of millions of euros’ worth of food. The hackers and their motives remain unknown. But the incident has become a troubling demonstration of how connecting everything to the internet to balance energy demands is making our systems more vulnerable.

UK - Severe drought has been declared for the first time in English history, as two reservoirs fell to worryingly low levels after the driest six months in more than a century. The significant escalation means parts of six counties across southern England — Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex — are in severe drought. Most of the rest of England is in drought, including Yorkshire as of last week. Although similar hydrological conditions occurred in 1976 and 1995, Environment Agency officials said this was the first time the formal severe drought status had ever been invoked.

SAUDI ARABIA - It was the moment that heralded a dangerous new escalation in Saudi Arabia’s war on the Houthi rebels of Yemen. As civilians made their way through a passenger terminal at King Khalid International airport in Riyadh, a long-range, highly accurate missile struck the building. Once dismissed as “terrorists in flip-flops”, the Houthis have been diligently building up their arsenal since they joined the Israel-Hamas war in 2023 with rocket attacks on commercial ships. Gone are the dodgy North Korean missiles of old; the Houthis now wield their own Palestine-2 hypersonic missile, which is highly accurate and can travel 16 times the speed of sound.

GERMANY - The right-wing party has secured a historic state parliament presidency in Saxony-Anhalt and appears to have drawn support from rival parties. The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has secured the office of state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt, with its successful candidate claiming he received backing from members of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in a historic first.

UK - Andy Burnham’s pledge at the Labour conference that the UK ‘could go all the way’ to rejoining Europe was lustily applauded by the party faithful. And yet a glance at the chaos raging across the Continent – from a France amid the turmoil of violent demonstrations to socialist Spain’s snap election following housing protests, and Germany in despair as its motor industry collapses – shows just how deluded Andy’s EU fan club really are. Meanwhile, the euro is in freefall, reaching a 17-month low against the dollar. Britons queuing at passport controls at EU airports will be assuaged by the slump in the currency’s value making continental travel cheaper. But it is hardly the most propitious moment to start talking about reversing Brexit.

USA - Marco Rubio portrayed the United States as the defender of western civilisation as he urged Europe to “awaken from its slumber”. Speaking in front of the Acropolis in Athens, the US secretary of state said the West’s achievements “set us apart from the rest of the world”. He celebrated Michelangelo, Isaac Newton and Christopher Columbus as the embodiment of two and a half millennia of shared Judaeo-Christian values. “In Athens, we found the first full realisation of all the essential traits that would come to define the West,” he said on the Pnyx, the hilltop where ancient Greeks gathered for public debate. “We should marvel at what our forefathers carved out of this countryside. The story of our civilisation is the greatest story ever known to man. And it began here, with the first men and women of the West.” “We believe that Europe can awaken from its long slumber and rekindle the fire that was lit here millennia ago,” he said.

EUROPE - Contrast two events this week. US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, speaking in front of the Acropolis, called for “a rediscovery” of the Western spirit and urged Europe to “awaken from its long slumber and rekindle the fire that was lit here millennia ago”. On the same day an eight-foot statue of Donald Trump, naked, covered in 23-carat gold leaf, and called “The Orange Plague” was put on display in the European Parliament building in Strasbourg. Somehow that sums up the difference between America and much of Europe. One, at least rhetorically, still understands what made our civilisation successful and wants to renew it. Too many representatives of the other prefer playing games to engaging with reality.