USA - Evangelist Franklin Graham and leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have responded to Pope Francis’ endorsement of same-sex civil unions, calling it “unthinkable in light of the Word of God” and explaining that no pope or priest gets to “define sexuality or the family.” “For Pope Francis to attempt to normalize homosexuality is to say that Holy Scriptures are false, that our sins really don’t matter, and that we can continue living in them,” Graham, the president of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, wrote on Facebook. “If that were true, then Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection wouldn’t have been needed. The cross would have been for nothing. No one has the right or the authority to trivialize Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf,” Graham added. In a documentary, called “Francesco,” that premiered Wednesday in Rome, the pope says, “Homosexual people have a right to be in a family. They are children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable over it,” the Catholic News Agency reported.

MIDDLE EAST - Diplomats from the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday made their first official trip to Israel since the countries normalized relations in August, and the two sides signed pacts deepening their ties, including allowing their citizens to travel from one country to the other without visas — Israel’s first such waiver with an Arab state.

SUDAN - Two senior Israeli diplomats have arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Wednesday evening after Sudan reportedly consented to normalization of ties with the Jewish state, according to a foreign ministry source. The Sudanese diplomatic source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was ‘not allowed to talk to the media on the matter’, said the unnamed Israeli diplomats, along with their aides, were accompanied to Khartoum by one Emirati diplomat and a Saudi security officer. “This evening, two officials from the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs arrived in Khartoum. They [came] together with a foreign ministry colleague from [United Arab] Emirates and a security official from Saudi [Arabia],” the source said. “They will stay here and they will return tomorrow (Thursday) night and a lot about the process (normalization) will be discuss so that as soon as the US delist our country from terror designation, we will then publicly announce talks to begin,” the official added.

RUSSIA - Russian president Vladimir Putin has said a military alliance between Russia and China could be forged in the future. An alliance between the two nations with the second and third biggest militaries in the world would be far more powerful than the US Army in a number of key areas. Putin's statement on Thursday signalled deepening ties between Moscow and Beijing amid growing tensions in their relations with the United States. Asked during a video conference with international foreign policy experts Thursday whether a military union between Moscow and Beijing was possible, Putin replied that 'we don't need it, but, theoretically, it's quite possible to imagine it.' Russia and China have hailed their 'strategic partnership,' but so far rejected talks about the possibility of forming a military alliance.

USA - If Donald Trump is forced from the White House in the November election, he won’t be the only loser. Though many governments would likely celebrate the end of the most unconventional and at times chaotic US presidency of modern times, others will have reason to miss it. For the leaders of Turkey, North Korea and Israel, the ledger has been almost entirely positive. Trump’s ejection would confront them with immediate challenges. The scorecard for countries like China is more nuanced. Even so, what the mostly authoritarian winners from Trump’s four years in office have in common is a fear his departure would spell the return of a more conventional US foreign policy.

USA - Thousands of witches are plotting to cast a "binding spell" on Donald Trump on Halloween, so that he loses the US election. The mystic women believe that the two full moons this month have given them extra magical powers to kick Trump out of the White House. The witches are also celebrating the rare confluence of the two "powerful" moon events in October - in an effort to get Joe Biden elected in November. According to social media, the mystic women are set to plot multiple "binding" events to attack the President on Halloween - in their biggest spiritual attack to date. The magical women allegedly tried to cast spells on Trump this time last year when he was in the midst of the impeachment inquiry.

USA - Hundreds of fire crews are battling a blaze in Northern Colorado that grew dramatically Wednesday, producing heavy smoke and flames. The town of Grand Lake had to evacuate at short notice Wednesday night, and part of Rocky Mountain National Park is now closed. The wildfire is burning an estimated 6,000 acres per hour. Wind-fueled flames helped propel the fast-moving wildfire Wednesday afternoon, threatening hundreds of homes in the towns of Granby and Grand Lake just two hours north of Denver. Officials say the East Troublesome Fire, which began last week, had already burned 30,000 acres by the time it exploded Wednesday night. The latest estimates say this fire has been through 125,000 acres so far. It's one of several major fires currently burning across the state, including the Cameron Peake Fire which has burned over 200,000 acres, the most in state history.

USA - A winter storm hit parts of the northern US this week, breaking scores of snowfall records in Montana, Iowa, and Minnesota, where more than 1,100 road accidents were reported due to heavy snow. Tuesday's snowstorm was the largest early-season storm in the state of Minnesota in 140 years. WCCO-TV meteorologist Chris Shaffer said this was also the second-largest snowfall in October, following the 1991 Halloween snowstorm. A deepening upper-level trough and a surge of cold Canadian air now set the stage for yet another early-season winter storm and more rounds of snow through early next week, possibly as far south as Texas. Montana was the hardest hit, with up to 35 cm (14 inches) of snow through Monday, October 19, setting a number of October snowfall records. The plunging temperatures are forecast to plunge south into the Great Plains, eventually reaching West Texas by Friday morning (LT), October 23.

USA - In the seventh month of the virus pandemic, New York City is still in shambles, with more than half a million residents unemployed as the small business collapse continues. Broadway is closed, Manhattan offices are empty as remote work dominates, violent crime is surging, and an exodus of people from the city has created a perfect storm of economic chaos that will haunt many New Yorkers for years.

CHINA - Over the past few weeks, I have been writing articles regarding a coming food shortage. I’ve been pointing out that the food shortage is going to hit the United States hard but that it is also going to hit the rest of the world. A worldwide fit of hysteria over COVID, resulting in the shutdown of the world’s economy, interruption of the supply chain, and the destruction of food products, as well as international trade wars and natural disasters, are going to collide with one another and make this winter one of the toughest on record. China is publicly acknowledging a coming food shortage. But while many have dismissed my claims, I’d like to draw your attention to the fact that China is now publicly acknowledging a coming food shortage. In fact, China even has an anti-food-wasting campaign going on across the country right this minute encouraging people to eat half portions or at least make sure to finish their plates.

ETHIOPIA - Widow-of-ten Marima Wadisha screamed, threw rocks and in her desperation even fired bullets at the locusts that descended on her sorghum fields in northeast Ethiopia. But the insect swarms were so relentless that her entire crop - her family's only source of income - was destroyed. "They never left for a week. We are left with an empty harvest, we tie our waist and cry day and night. How can I feed... my children like this," she said, surrounded by five of them as she held a bundle of damaged sorghum. The locust invasion is Ethiopia's worst in 25 years, United Nations food agency FAO says. It has damaged an estimated 200,000 hectares of land there since January, threatening food supplies - a single square kilometre swarm can eat as much food in a day as 35,000 people - and the livelihoods of millions. The World Bank has said the insects could cost East Africa and Yemen $8.5 billion this year, and the FAO's Ethiopia representative Fatouma Seid fears the pattern of destruction will be repeated next year. "Infestation will continue into 2021. We are being re-invaded and the swarms will then go to Kenya," she said.

AFRICA - The Horn of Africa has been hit by the worst invasion of desert locusts in 25 years, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Friday. The invasion poses an unprecedented threat to food security in the entire sub region, where more than 19 million people in East Africa are already experiencing a high degree of food insecurity, the agency said. In Kenya, it is the worst invasion in 70 years, and the government is spending $5 million to manage the swarms of locust and prevent spreading.

NIGERIA - Nigeria is in a state of unrest, but what happened in Nigeria this week? Nigerian protests this month have gained international attention. Over the past two weeks, support for these protests has been widespread across social media. But what exactly happened in Nigeria this week and what motivated protesters to conduct these demonstrations? The hashtag #EndSARS went global on social media earlier this month after a video of a man allegedly killed by police sparked protests. The movement initially targeted the highly-criticised Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), widely accused of unlawful arrests, torture and murder. SARS was set up in 1992 to tackle the growing problem of theft using force in Nigeria. Protests first began almost two weeks ago when calls to disband the SARS police unit took place. President Muhammadu Buhari dissolved the unit on October 11. Demonstrators have called for more changes in the security forces as well as reforms to the way the country is run. Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said criminals have now hijacked the protests.

GERMANY - Bishops Georg Baetzing, Bertram Meier and Heiner Wilmer; North Rhine-Westphalia governor Armin Laschet; Cardinal Reinhard Marx; former bishop Heinz-Josef Algermissen; ex-President Christian Wulff and the pope’s ambassador to Germany, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic. Pope Francis has received a remarkably long list of guests from Germany in recent weeks, more than from any other country, which is remarkable especially considering restrictions on visits caused by the ongoing pandemic.

USA - Four years after Donald Trump’s election reframed how many nations interacted with the United States, the way that the world’s foremost superpower moves forward after its presidential election stands to impact many geopolitical pressure points — whether the victor turns out to be Trump or his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden. From Iran to Cuba, from China to Israel, American involvement and influence on the international stage has evolved sharply since Trump took office in 2017. He swept away agreements with some nations, alienated longstanding allies and pulled out of multilateral obligations that he said didn’t serve the interests of the United States. Here’s a look at some key issues whose direction will be, in part, steered by who wins the US presidency.