TURKEY - The European Union is facing unprecedented challenges: Britain has voted to leave and Catalonia, after proclaiming independence, has found itself outside, which could spark more independence bids in Italy, Germany or other countries, with Pope Francis last week calling on the European Union to 'recover the sense of being a single community' or face a grim future. Perhaps it would be easier for the people to dissolve the union and create another.

AFRICA - A deadly outbreak of a rare and highly fatal virus has broken out in eastern Uganda and five cases have already been identified, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed. The disease, known as Marburg virus disease (MVD), is similar to Ebola and can be lethal in up to 90 per cent of cases. Emergency screening has begun at the Kenya-Uganda border in Turkana after three members of the same family died of the disease in Uganda. The WHO website reads: “Marburg virus disease is a rare disease with a high mortality rate for which there is no specific treatment. Several hundred people are believed to have been exposed to the virus, which is among the most virulent pathogens known to infect humans.”

ISRAEL - Air forces from nine countries on Sunday kicked off the Blue Flag exercise in southern Israel — the largest aerial exercise ever held by the Israel Defense Forces. Teams from India, the United States, Greece, Poland, France, Italy and Germany are taking part in the exercise, along with Israel and an eighth country unidentified by the IDF.

USA - A gunman has killed at least 27 people after opening fire at a church in Texas. A police commissioner confirmed at least 27 people have been killed and scores more injured in the carnage at Sutherland Springs near San Antonio. Witnesses claimed the man was wearing full combat gear when he opened fire on the congregation. Police claimed the gunman fled the scene in a car and was chased before also being killed. Another 20 more were injured and the death toll could still rise, police warned.

SAMOA - A huge 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit a collection of islands along the Ring of Fire today sparking fears a tsunami could strike. The quake had a depth of 32 kilometres and struck 192km south-west of Apia, in Samoa, the US Geological Survey said. The area forms part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates in the Earth's lithosphere meet and earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. Local reports say the earthquake "was one of the longest tremors felt in Samoa for a while" and lasted for around a minute with people running out of their homes and into open spaces. Five deadly tsunamis have hit the region over the past eight years: Samoa and Tonga were hit in 2009, Chile in 2010 and 2015, Japan in 2011 and the Solomon Islands in 2013.

GUATEMALA - A 5.1-magnitude earthquake struck Guatemala today, causing panic in the Central American country. The tremors were felt on the country’s coast, with buildings seen shaking in Guatemala City. The US Geological Survey said the tremor was measured at a magnitude of 5.1. It struck 13km southwest of the city of Retalhuleu at a depth of 77.1km.

USA - President Donald Trump will face the greatest challenge of his presidency so far when he meets next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his 12-day trip to Asia. Discussion of North Korea’s nuclear saber-rattling may make headlines, but it is the economic talks between Trump and Xi that will reveal who holds the power in the room.

ISRAEL - The Jerusalem Post reports: Nearly three-quarters (72%) of Jewish Israelis think Israel should maintain its sovereignty over the Temple Mount in whatever diplomatic agreements it signs, a poll conducted for the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies and released this week found. In addition, 68% think it is important for Jews to be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, as opposed to the status quo, in which they may only visit and only Muslims can pray, while 32% said it was not important.

MIDDLE EAST - While the Jewish people throughout the world last week celebrated the centennial of the Balfour Declaration, the Palestinian Authority’s demonstrative rejection of the historic milestone shows that our neighbors in the land still refuse to recognize Israel’s existence and casts further doubt on the possibility of ever achieving peace with them.

USA - On a Wednesday evening last week, I sat in on a class called “Witchcraft 101: Curses, Hexes and Jinxes,” at Catland, a fashionable occult boutique in Bushwick, Brooklyn. More than a dozen people, most of them young women, sat in folding chairs in the store’s black-walled event space. The instructor was one of Catland’s co-owners, Dakota Bracciale, a charismatic, foul-mouthed 28-year-old former MAC makeup artist dressed in flowing black, with a beard and long, lavender nails.

LEBANON - Some 700 Islamic scholars gathered in Beirut, Lebanon this week to mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration with a conference discussing the future of the movement to destroy Israel and featuring a message from Iranian leadership to attendees to keep fighting the "Zionist regime," Arab media reported on Wednesday.

USA - At a time when the US national debt stands at just over $20 trillion, American taxpayers find themselves stuck with a massive maintenance bill to keep the nation’s nuclear arsenal operational over the next three decades. The modernization of US nuclear forces will carry a price tag estimated at $1.2 trillion from 2017 until 2046, according to the US Congress Budget Office (CBO) report. The trillion-dollar question on everybody’s mind is: How exactly will the US government foot the bill for such a massive program?

USA - ‘This report clearly reveals a need for educating our youth on the dangerous implications of socialist ideals’. According to the latest survey from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a DC-based nonprofit, one in two US millennials say they would rather live in a socialist or communist country than a capitalist democracy. What’s more, 22% of them have a favorable view of Karl Marx and a surprising number see Joseph Stalin and Kim Jong Un as “heroes.” Really, that’s what the numbers show. “Millennials now make up the largest generation in America, and we’re seeing some deeply worrisome trends,” said Marion Smith, executive director of the organization. “Millennials are increasingly turning away from capitalism and toward socialism and even communism as a viable alternative.” But do they even know what it is?

VATICAN - Pope Francis has said the world is moving forcefully towards ever bigger wars, speaking at a Mass amid his push to prevent nuclear conflict. The speech was delivered Tuesday, on the Feast of All Souls Day, a Catholic Christian holiday to commemorate the dead. The Pope visited the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in the town of Nettuno, south of Rome, and held a Mass for all the victims of war.

CHINA - A “New Era” in President Xi Jinping’s China risks setting off alarm bells in the US and Europe. The ruling Communist Party committed to the more assertive policy during a twice-a-decade reshuffle that ended last week, contrasting with a relatively restrained approach over the past three decades. Xi said that China was “approaching the center of the world stage” as he outlined a road map for turning the country into a leading global power by 2050.