GERMANY - Speaking to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, the Social Democrats’ secretary for family affairs, Elke Ferner, called on Merkel’s conservative bloc to reconsider social policies it had blocked in a previous coalition agreement, including a tax-financed supplementary pension for people with low pension entitlement, as a way to “build trust” between the parties. SPD Deputy Chair Karl Lauterbach implied that the abolition of private health insurance would be a prerequisite for negotiations, saying if Merkel’s conservative alliance doesn’t move on the issue “we have no chance of preventing new elections.” Migration and refugee policies are also a major sticking point, according to party deputy Ralf Stegner.

UK - Millions of unmarried couples who live together could be unaware of their rights if the relationship breaks down, a family law group has warned. Cohabiting couples have become the fastest-growing family type in the UK. The number of unmarried couples living together has more than doubled from 1.5 million in 1996 to 3.3 million in 2017.

JAPAN - Japan has still not come to a consensus on what to do with a million tons of nuclear water six years after their primary nuclear power plant in Fukushima was rocked by a tsunami. The water stored in 900 large, dense, packed tanks on site could spill if another major natural disaster should strike, The Japan Times reported. The government has been urged by experts to gradually release the water to the Pacific Ocean, as all the radioactive elements of the water except tritium — which has been said to be safe in small amounts — have been removed through treatment. But if the tank breaks, the contents may not be able to be controlled. Currently, the amount of radioactive water at Fukushima is still growing by 150 tons a day.

NEW ZEALAND – New Zealand could be in the firing line of a devastating tsunami and earthquake after the awakening of a dormant fault line, a geologist warns. The long-dormant Hikurangi fault line was recently re-energised and could now produce a deadly magnitude 9.0 earthquake. GNS scientist Ursula Cochran said: “We need to think Japan 2011 basically, because if our whole plate boundary ruptured it would be a magnitude 9 earthquake.” New Zealand sits along the fault line between the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate leaving it susceptible to quakes.

USA - After being saved from the brink of extinction, grizzly bears are spreading far beyond Yellowstone National Park. That’s raising uneasy questions among ranchers, conservationists and others in the region: Can people and the bears coexist?

CANADA - Gather 'round children! The Canadian Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario has some super interesting new information for you! First, we're going to learn a new acronym. Can you say, "LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP?" Let's try it to the tune of "Old MacDonald!" Everyone sing along! Next, we'll learn what these letters mean. Are you ready?

GERMANY - The European Union’s (EU) foreign minister has said the bloc is working at “full speed” to create a unified “defence force” on a “continental scale”. Federica Mogherini, who is formally known as the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, made the announcement at the Annual Conference of the European Defence Agency.

GERMANY - Angela Merkel has struggled to form a coalition, as the rising influence of extreme parties in Germany transforms the political landscape. One of the hangovers of the Weimar Republic is that a president cannot call a snap election without making parliament vote in a chancellor first. The assumption is that a chancellor Merkel, who has not organised a governing coalition, would fail to gain a majority in such a vote. New MPs who have only just started to find a taste for their life in politics, from whatever party, may have a different idea.

GERMANY - Germany has for decades been Europe's pillar of stability, supporting the European Union through economic crises, pressures from immigration and the threat of a resurgent far-right. But with Germany's politics now in disarray — and the future of its chancellor Angela Merkel hanging in the balance — Europe risks losing its de facto leader, resulting in a power vacuum across the continent. Europe-watchers are contemplating what protracted uncertainty in the country might mean for the EU and how it might fare if Merkel does not survive.

MIDDLE EAST - Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida revealed on Sunday that an Israeli source disclosed a promise from Jerusalem to destroy all Iranian facilities within 40 kilometers (25 miles) of Israel's Golan Heights. The source, who remains unnamed, said that during Syrian President Bashar Assad's surprise visit to Russia last week, Assad gave Russian Premier Vladimir Putin a message for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Damascus will agree to a demilitarized zone of up to 40 kilometers from the border in the Golan Heights as part of a comprehensive agreement between the two countries, but only if Israel does not work to remove Assad's regime from power.

IRAN - Europe is not a threat to Iran, but just in case it allies itself with the US and Israel and becomes one, Tehran has enough technical capabilities to increase the range of its missiles, the commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps has warned. “Both the United States and the European Union and the Zionist regime are keen to disarm us,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the second-in-command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said on Saturday. “If we have kept the range of our missiles to 2,000 kilometers, it’s not due to lack of technology… We are following a strategic doctrine. If Europe wants to turn into a threat, we will increase the range of our missiles,” he added, according to a Reuters translation of the Fars report.

JAPAN - Japan is developing its own long-range cruise missile amid escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula. The missile, described as the Japanese Tomahawk, will reportedly be capable of being launched from aircraft, ships and land. Research on these missiles will begin next year, reports Yomiuri, a Japanese news outlet. This will be Japan’s first full-fledged cruise missile. Apart from being a deterrent to North Korea, the so-called Japanese Tomahawk will also serve to “recapture remote islands occupied by enemies”, says the report, likely referring to the long-running feud that Japan has with China over a remote island in the South China Sea.

INDONESIA - The Mount Agung volcano, on the Indonesian island of Bali, has erupted for a second time in less than a week, firing a column of ash 1,500 meters into the air. The eruption emitted a bigger ash cloud than Tuesday’s blast. It caused several airlines - including, KLM, Qantas, AirAsia, and Virgin - to cancel or rearrange flights in the region. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in recent months over fears of potential destruction an eruption could bring. More than 1,000 people were killed when the mountain last erupted in 1963.

GERMANY - Angela Merkel appeared to have staged one of the great political escapes on Friday after a rival party agreed to end the crisis in Germany by opening talks on forming a new government. Martin Schulz, the leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), said his party had agreed to end its refusal to enter talks with Mrs Merkel following a “dramatic” personal appeal from the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

GERMANY - The far-right Alternative for Germany party sees Chancellor Angela Merkel's struggle to form a new government as proof of its growing power to upend the country's political order, a top party official told AFP. Parliamentary group leader Alexander Gauland said in an interview that the current turmoil showed that the four-year-old AfD had succeeded in its primary goal in September's general election. "It's all downhill for Merkel now and that is partly our achievement," Gauland said, sipping a glass of rose wine at a lakeside Italian restaurant in the eastern city of Potsdam. "Her time is up - we want her to leave the political stage."