NEWS SUMMARY AT THIS HOUR

Its Tuesday in Australia where Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull survived a vote of confidence as the Liberal Party caucus met just 24 hours after Turnbull backed down on part of an energy policy he announced last week.

Turnbull abandoned a plan setting targets for carbon emissions opposed by many caucus members.  The Liberal Party has also been reeling from defeats in recent by-elections for lower house seats in Parliament.

Mr. Turnbull was able to survive a challenge from Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton winning 48-35 in the caucus meeting.  A win for Turnbull but a narrow one in the context of a leadership challenge.   Mr. Dutton resigned his cabinet post after the vote.

Australia has seen five changes in Prime Minister since the world wide economic slump began in 2008 with many of them involving challenges within the ruling party caucuses.

Australia's government may have backed away from carbon emissions targets but it is still complying with the Paris Accord on climate change.

Big business in Australia is in the forefront of "green" policy with major grocery store chains like Woolworths, the "Down Under" version of Walmart, bringing in plastic bag bans, forcing shoppers to bring their own bags or pay for them at the store.

This policy cuts costs and helps improve the bottom line of the grocery store chains.   Here in the USA conservative shareholders challenging Walmart's 'sustainability' policy based on the notion of man-made climate change have been told such a policy makes the company more profitable.

Voters in Arizona go to the polls one week from Tuesday and the question being asked is "Who will Donald Trump endorse among the three Republican candidates in the US Senate primary?"

Kelli Ward, who was praised by the President when she began her challenge to anti-Trump candidate Jeff Flake, hopes for that endorsement.

After Flake decided to drop out after unfavorable ratings in opinion polls there were new developments.

Congresswoman Martha McSally, a Republican who told an Arizona television station she wasn't sure who she would vote for when Donald Trump was nominated at the GOP convention in 2016, entered the race.

Ward is telling Arizona voters in the face of a massive big business-big donor media onslaught in favor of  McSally that the Congresswoman is "Jeff Flake 2.0".   Also complicating things for Kelli Ward is the presence of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the race.  He is splitting the anti-Establishment Conservative vote in the GOP ranks.

President Trump was out with a series of tweets Monday about Special Counsel Robert Mueller and figures associated with his investigation.   Trump described Mueller as "disgraced and discredited".  The President also asked if Justice Department official Bruce Ohr will: "ever be fired  from the Jeff Sessions 'Justice Department'  A total joke!"

Late news tonight from North Carolina where a demonstration at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill featuring smoke bombs from protestors and confrontations with police culminated in the toppling of a Confederate statue called "Silent Sam" around 915pm.

Five Islamic terrorists are dead in the southern Russian region of Chechnya after they launched a series of attacks there.  Several police officers were also injured.

A man armed with a knife shouting "Allahu Akhbar" was shot dead after he entered a police station in a town near Barcelona Spain Monday morning.   Police say he intended to kill officers in the station.

Later Monday in the northern Spanish city of Casetas, a car was driven onto the pavement injuring three people.  The driver then fled.  Police has not released any more details.

Pope Francis has decried clerical sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church following the stunning revelations from a grand jury report commissioned by the Democrat Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro.

The report described cases dating back as far as 80 years ago with some the names of some 300 priests and a thousand allegations of abuse included.  It also detailed efforts to cover up abuse by church leaders.

The Pope's statement said in part:

"It is essential that we, as a Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable.  Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others."

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says its trying to contact a young actor and his lawyer after the "New York Times" reported that actress-director Asia Argento paid the young actor in connection with an alleged sexual assault when he was 17.

There was a 380-thousand dollar settlement payment made to actor Jimmy Bennett, who played Argento's son in a 2004 movie.

The settlement related to the allegation of a sexual assault on Bennett by Argento on May 9, 2013 at a Marina del Rey hotel room.

Argento's settlement with Bennett came in the months after she alleged that producer Harvey Weinstein had sexually assaulted her.