The last time Mikhail Gorbachev was in the news, he gave Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt. That thought has now vanished as the former Soviet president warns "it all looks as if the world is preparing for war".
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He says "the world today is overwhelmed with problems" and "policymakers seem to be confused and at a loss". He is referring to the Trump-Putin relationship and their intention to up the nuclear arms race.
Confusion seems the order of the day after Trump's executive pen struck a swathe of US visa holders on the weekend, banning those coming from seven majority Muslim countries, and excluding those from countries where the businessman-turned-president has commercial interests as our Chief Correspondent Paul McGeough points out.
The world has reacted to the US President's ban with a backlash, jihadists welcomed it as a victory, while a rookie judge, Judge Ann Donnelly, took a stand for refugees and slapped a stay on the ban, which legal experts say is effectively nationally, throwing the situation at airports around the world into further disarray.
Our South-East Asia Correspondent Lindsay Murdoch, reports a deadly Philippine anti-drugs police unit responsible for the kidnapping and killing of a South Korean businessman will be disbanded at the same time as President Rodrigo Duterte promises to continue with his drugs crackdown which has seen the some 7000 extra-judicial killings.
Lindsay Murdoch also writes on the assassination of Myanmar de-facto leader Aunt Sun Suu Kyi's key advisor Ko Ni. He says while the motive was not immediately known, the death will rattle the nerves of Muslims in the majority Buddhist country.
And in France, Benoit Hamon, a one-time education minister under President Francois Hollande, has beaten former prime minister Manuel Vals in the left primaries held on Sunday. Hamon will now contest the presidential elections in March for the Socialist Party but some say it's a lost race.
Also today:
- Trump administration defends appointing Steve Bannon to Security Council
