The tit-for-tat rocket fire followed two raids: one in Gaza, the other in Damascus, both targeting senior leaders of Islamic Jihad. Was it continued rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip that had Israel at the ready to strike the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group, or was this a calling card to Tehran? Islamic Jihad often works in tandem with Hamas, but has its own agenda.

Why is Evo Morales suddenly out in Bolivia? Is it, as he claims, a coup? The president had been taking on all comers since the October 20th election, marred by irregularities and an unexplained interruption in the vote count. Events came to a head after the final report by the Organisation of American States observers, which called for a rerun of the poll. Morales Sunday first agreed, then several hours later announced his shock resignation. Why?

For 28 years, the city of Berlin was divided by a wall which separated Communist East Germany from the West. But in 1989, a rapid chain of events in other former Soviet countries saw the “Iron Curtain” beginning to buckle and then in November the same year - within a matter of just five days - the Berlin Wall crumbled, making for one of the most symbolic scenes in modern history.

So it is a country where first came austerity, then the conversation turned to identity politics, big tent center-right and center-left parties splintered and now it faces yet another snap election.

One month on, and there's no let-up in Iraq's unprecedented anti-government protests. In fact, they may be entering a new phase. At least five people were killed as security forces fired live rounds on demonstrators in the capital, demonstrators who were marching on state television. They say now is not the time to be airing nature documentaries when the country is up in arms. They are sick of the whole system, with its sectarian power-sharing enshrined in the constitution after the 2003 US-led invasion.

France's on again, off again row over the Muslim headscarf is on again. This time, was it the president who started it? With March municipal elections on the way, Emmanuel Macron has been telling MPs from his own party not to let the far right own the conversation on secularism, radicalisation and sectarianism. But his own camp emerged divided from a recent parliamentary debate. And when a far-right regional councillor baited a mother who had accompanied children on a school outing, all bets were off. We ask what the law says and what the French want.

Can the Lebanese really scrap the status quo? What started as a revolt against a quickly aborted tax on WhatsApp communications quickly mushroomed into a movement that has brought the entire nation to a standstill for two weeks. It has been long coming, this simmering frustration over corruption, mismanagement and a divvying up of portfolios among the rival factions borne of the civil war that ended in 1990.

For the first time since 1923, the UK is now gearing up for a Christmas time election. With parliament hopelessly deadlocked over Brexit and the threat of a no-deal crashout avoided for now, the leader of the opposition has agreed to a December date for the vote. We review what has been another rollercoaster session in the Commons. We also ask what a December election means, and who will win it.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was not in Iraq after all - nor anywhere near the remnants of his former "caliphate". US helicopters flew all the way over to northwest Syria's Idlib province, near the border with Turkey, to carry out Saturday's raid against the leader of the so-called Islamic State group, this in an area that's a stronghold of jihadist rivals al Qaeda. In a region replete with lots of outside powers, all claiming to be fighting terrorism, what does that say? And what to make of an operation perhaps precipitated by Donald Trump's abrupt decision to pull out of Syria?

"Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand." Those were Donald Trump's words from the White House on Wednesday as the US president lifted sanctions on Turkey, endorsed a deployment brokered by Russia and chastised European allies for, as he put it, their "unresponsive" attitude to taking back jihadists held up to now by the Kurds in northeast Syria.