Safari redirects google.com to google.ae

When I type the URL www.google.com in Safari, it redirects to www.google.ae (Dubai). I don't normally use google search, so I noticed this issue when I got a security alert from Google telling me that someone had logged into my Gmail account in Dubai. It turns out it was me logging in on my own computer. When I check my Google security log, it says that my account is being accessed in Dubai when I make changes here in Washington state.

I have 2 step verification enabled on Google account. I'm quite sure that there is no security issue with Google in this case.

This redirect occurs whether I use a VPN or not.

I've checked my Mac settings and Google settings, all say that my language and country is English/US.

I've cleared Safari cache several times.

I've run Onyx and cleaned all the caches.

I've run Sophos and ClamX virus scans which have found nothing.

I've checked my etc/hosts file. It had no odd URLs. Even so, I copied a default version over it.

So far nothing has worked.

Is is malware? A trojan? I haven't found anything to work yet.