GERMANY - Olaf Scholz is set to appear before a parliamentary committee regarding Germany's biggest tax fraud scandal, which saw the state defrauded by around €36 billion (£30 billion). Scholz, who at the time was the Mayor of Hamburg, faces a grilling over how much he knew of the transactions and whether or not he did enough to address the allegations. The scandal could be a key talking point throughout the election, with Scholz’s political rivals unlikely to pass up the opportunity to bring the leader’s character into question.

UK - Children as young as 12 are being arrested on suspicion of extremism offences, Britain’s most senior counterterrorism police officer has said. Matt Jukes, assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, said there was a “conveyor belt leading children towards extremism” being driven by tech companies “making vast amounts of money” from them. “For all the benefits it brings, the internet has also globalised extremism, accelerated the spread of hateful ideologies internationally and made it possible for anyone with an internet connection to reach into the lives of children halfway round the world.” “Around 20 per cent of ASIO’s priority counterterrorism cases involve young people. In every one of the terrorist attacks, disruptions and suspected terrorist incidents in Australia this year, the alleged perpetrator was a young person."

FRANCE - The French government has collapsed after Prime Minister Michel Barnier was ousted in a no-confidence vote. MPs voted overwhelmingly in support of the motion against him - just three months after he was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron. Opposition parties had tabled the motion after the former Brexit negotiator controversially used special powers to force through his budget without a vote. It marks the first time the country's government has collapsed in a no-confidence vote since 1962. The development will further France's political instability, after snap elections in summer led to no single group having a majority in parliament. Barnier is now obliged to present the resignation of his government, and the budget which triggered his downfall is defunct. No new parliamentary elections can be held until July, so the current deadlock in the Assembly - where no group can hope to have a working majority - is set to continue.

FRANCE - France’s political crisis is worse than normal political crises. Normally when a democratic country passes through turbulence, there is some prospect of the turbulence coming to an end. Not today in Paris. If anything, the downfall of Michel Barnier – toppled in parliament by a no-confidence motion – threatens to set a pattern for what lies ahead. For if Barnier – a moderate of the centre-right with a reputation for courtesy and compromise – was unable to pass a budget, then who else can? The original cause of the crisis has not gone away. It is the division since July of the National Assembly into three roughly equal blocs, none of which is prepared to deal with another. As a result the two blocs that make up the opposition will always be able to unseat the one bloc that forms a government.

FRANCE - That the country is in turmoil - political and economic - is not only of grave concern to French citizens. These are times of deep global instability. And France, together with Germany, is traditionally seen as the EU's "motor" in terms of ideological and political horsepower. But that motor is spluttering, to put it mildly. France is not alone in being riven and distracted by domestic political disputes. Germany will hold a snap general election in February after its bickering coalition government recently collapsed. The EU as a whole is affected.

USA - Donald Trump is not messing around. After trying to play nice during his first administration, Trump is making it very clear that he fully intends to use the full power of the presidency to shape economic policy during his second administration. In particular, Trump is planning to impose massive tariffs on other nations that attempt to stand in the way of the MAGA agenda. Last week, Trump threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all products coming into the United States from Mexico and Canada if those two countries do not work with him to secure our borders… Most people do not realize this, but Canada is actually our number one trade partner. If the Canadians get hit with 25 percent tariffs, it will crash the Canadian economy.

RUSSIA - A Russian warship has fired at a German army helicopter over the Baltic Sea. The crew of the Russian ship fired signal ammunition at the military aircraft, the German Press Agency in Brussels reported. The Bundeswehr helicopter had been on a reconnaissance flight. It comes amid rising tensions in recent weeks between the Kremlin and NATO countries after UK and US missiles were used by Ukraine to attack Russia. Vladimir Putin has since warned that both nations are now "directly involved" in the conflict. Germany has spent the past year reorganising its military to get it "ready for war", in the words of Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, who has set up a new cyber and information branch in addition to the traditional navy, army and air force. Signal ammunition is typically only used by vessels in emergency situations.

USA - President-elect Trump just threw down the gauntlet on the hostages still being held in Gaza well over a year after they were taken hostage in October of 2023. Trump said “there will be ALL HELL TO PAY” for Hamas, saying they will be hit harder than anyone has ever been hit in the history of America.

USA - You’re left with little after taxes, while costs and foreign aid keep rising. Let this sink in:

You pay 30% of your check as Federal Income Tax.

You pay 10% in most States Income Tax.

You pay another 7% in Sales Tax.

You pay another 8% in Property Tax.

55% of your check is taken from you before you even get home from work.

Then they doubled gas prices.

Then they doubled food prices.

Then they doubled mortgage rates.

Then they give all your money away to other countries.

LEBANON - The ceasefire in Lebanon appeared to lie in tatters today after Israel launched a number of deadly salvos on Hezbollah positions in the wake of what its army claimed was an attack on a military post. The raids came as Israeli forces also bombarded civilian homes during repeated attacks in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 people. But the supposed deal to halt fighting in Lebanon now looked to have been all but torn up. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it struck Hezbollah targets and infrastructure "throughout Lebanon", while reiterating its commitment to the ceasefire agreement. Hezbollah said it was responding to Israeli "violations" and said it carried out a "defensive warning" strike, firing mortars at an Israeli army position in an area occupied by Israel. When the ceasefire deal was first announced, Mr Netanyahu said his country would not hesitate to strike if Hezbollah broke the terms.

ISRAEL - Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel was enforcing its ceasefire with Hezbollah with “an iron fist” amidst warnings from his administration that a return to hostilities would trigger more far-reaching Israeli strikes within Lebanon. Netanyahu warned that the 60-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah, which came into effect last Wednesday morning, did not equal “the end of the war”. “If we return to war we will act strongly, we will go deeper, and the most important thing they need to know: there will no longer be an exemption for the state of Lebanon,” defence minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday. He called on the Lebanese state to keep Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon and to “dismantle their infrastructure”. Failure to do so, he warned, could lead Israeli forces to hit the Lebanese state directly.

CHINA - The Chinese government has said it will ban exports to the US of some key components in making semiconductors, escalating trade tensions a day after Washington announced curbs targeting China’s ability to make advanced chips. Among the materials banned from export were the metals gallium, antimony and germanium, China’s commerce ministry said in a statement that cited “national security” concerns.

FINLAND - A data cable running across the land border between Sweden and Finland has been damaged, a company providing digital infrastructure and data communication in Northern Europe said Tuesday. Global Connect said the internet cable was damaged in two separate places in southern Finland on Monday, affecting 6,000 private customers and 100 business customers. Police in Finland put out a brief statement today saying that they "are not currently conducting a criminal investigation into the damage caused to a fibre-optic cable between Finland and Sweden". The incident comes after the rupture of two data cables on the Baltic Sea bed last month. The two, one running from Finland to Germany and the other from Lithuania to Sweden, were in Swedish waters. Last week, Sweden formally asked China to cooperate in explaining the rupture of the Baltic Sea data cables where a China-flagged vessel had been sighted.

UK - Labour ministers considering taking all or part of company into public ownership to avoid its collapse. The nationalisation of British Steel is being considered by government ministers, The Telegraph can reveal. It comes amid tension over the amount of UK investment being demanded by the company’s Chinese owners. Taking either part or the whole of the company into state ownership is understood to be on the table as a back-up option if the talks collapse. The move would be a symbolic reversal of Margaret Thatcher’s decision to privatise British Steel in 1988. Since coming to power, Sir Keir Starmer has extended the reach of the state, announcing plans to nationalise the railways and exploring more Government involvement in the water industry.

VATICAN - You see them, heads close together, chatting quietly, in their favourite restaurants in Rome. It might be Velando, close to St Peter’s Basilica. Or they might go further west to Rinaldi al’Quirinale, where members of the Italian intelligence service enjoy the seafood as much as the princes of the Church do. Not that those princes – the elite squad of the Roman Catholic Church, its cardinals who elect the Pope – seem all that different to other priests, as, for lunch, they dress down in black suits and Roman collars. The giveaway is the heavy gold ring each wears – placed on their finger by whichever pope made them a cardinal.