UK - Sir Keir Starmer will lay the groundwork for softening Brexit as he meets German Chancellor Olaf Scholz today. The Prime Minister will meet his German counterpart in Berlin as part of talks on a new treaty aiming to boost business and increase joint action on illegal migration. It is expected he will tell Mr Scholz he is focused on making sure the UK moves past Brexit and rebuilds relationships with European partners. Sir Keir said there is a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset our relationship with Europe" and "we must turn a corner on Brexit". However the trip is likely to spark fears from Brexiteers that Sir Keir, who backed Remain and a second referendum, is looking to align the UK with the EU by stealth.

USA - Oklahoma’s Bixby school district has lots to show off for a fast-growing Tulsa suburb: a state-of-the-art new high school set to open by 2025, a new ninth grade gymnasium and plans for a $12 million upgrade to a football complex that already rivals that of many small colleges. But what the district does not have, as students returned this week, is a Bible in every classroom — despite a statewide mandate from Oklahoma’s education chief to incorporate Bible lessons and promises of repercussions for those that don’t comply. Other large school districts have also publicly indicated they aren’t making changes either.

GERMANY - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has vowed to crack down on illegal migration and speed up refugee deportations in light of a deadly stabbing spree allegedly committed by an asylum seeker of Syrian descent. Scholz made the pledge while visiting the site of the attack earlier on Monday. A lone knifeman assaulted spectators at the Festival of Diversity in the city of Solingen on Friday night. Three people were killed in the attack and eight others wounded. While the suspected perpetrator fled the scene amid the panic, he later turned himself in. German media later reported, citing the authorities, that the suspect is a 26-year-old Syrian refugee who entered the country seeking asylum in 2022. He reportedly may have been operating on orders from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), which initially claimed responsibility for the attack.

RUSSIA - Russian government employees should not use any messenger app for official purposes as none of them are safe in terms of information security, including Telegram, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said. Speaking with journalists on Tuesday about the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France, Peskov denied that the presidential administration had asked officials to delete messages and “clean up” their correspondence. He warned, however, that government employees should refrain from using any messaging application in official communication, noting that “no messenger is reliable” enough to provide information security and Telegram is no exception.

USA - Refurbishing the decades-old missile silos will cost billions of dollars more than originally thought and may not start for five years, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing Pentagon officials. The US Department of Defense decided last month to press on with the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program, even though its estimated cost has almost doubled from the original $78 billion. Replacing the aging Minuteman III missiles has no alternative, the Pentagon said. It could be “five years or more before work starts” on modernizing some 450 existing silos for the new missiles, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing a recent town meeting in Kimball, Nebraska. The community of less than 3,000 residents is surrounded by “one of the biggest missile fields” in the world.

USA - There are few cheerleaders more reliable than Kamala Harris's friends in the liberal media. Ever since President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 election race last month, their print presses and TV networks have put in a hard shift trying to paper over Harris's past record as the most unpopular Vice President in American history. To read and listen to their florid praise is to believe that Harris is already a shoo-in for president – and not an 11th hour replacement as Democratic nominee. Trump has long complained about US media bias, blaming it for the long 'honeymoon' enjoyed by Harris ever since Biden dramatically quit the presidential race.

USA - Donald Trump suggested that God believes he has a purpose to “save America” and maybe the world, and that this is why he survived last month’s assassination attempt. The former president sought to pin some blame for the shooting on President Biden and Kamala Harris, the vice-president and his rival for the White House, in an interview with Phil McGraw, the TV personality known as Dr Phil. Trump stuck with the religious theme by claiming he would win in California if Jesus were in charge of voting in the state, alleging that some people had received seven postal ballots which inflated the Democratic vote in a state where he lost by 5,103,821 votes in 2020.

ISRAEL - The blizzard of missiles, rockets and drones blasted from Lebanon into Israel in the early hours yesterday may have been no more than a preliminary. This shelling could have been worse but for a series of earlier Israeli air strikes designed to pre-empt plans by Hezbollah to launch an even bigger wave of the rockets. Israel’s air force struck at thousands of rocket launchers and bunkers housing everything from ancient Soviet Katyusha systems to modern Iranian missiles. Many of the missiles fired from Lebanon can do serious damage if they hit a target, but they are ‘mostly’ easy for the Israeli air defences to detect and destroy.

USA - “Massive scandal” unravels after Biden-Harris regime fabricated 818,000 jobs to fake an abundant economy. Under the Biden-Harris regime, government agencies have become a spiteful vessel of lies and censorship. Another “massive scandal” of lies is unfolding again, with a new report that the Biden-Harris regime fabricated 818,000 jobs in the latest jobs report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics just revised the jobs data to reveal that 818,000 FEWER jobs were created over the last year, contradicting the original report that Biden-Harris used to their advantage to falsely promote their economic prowess. This data manipulation is massive. The 818,000 fabricated jobs represent a 30 percent fake boost to the economy, in terms of job creation. With these fake numbers, Biden-Harris tried to take credit for presiding over a robust and growing economy; but the truth is, more people are losing their jobs at a time when most people need two or three jobs just to make ends meet.

GERMANY - EU in crisis as Germany raises prospects of major change to free movement right. A recent report by the German federal police shows that the number of illegal migrants travelling through the country has reached levels last seen in 2016. Germany may be edging closer to reintroducing controls on all its borders in a move which potentially could spell the end of free movement in Europe as enshrined by the Schengen Agreement. Berlin reimposed temporary border checks with all its neighbouring countries during this summer's European football Championships, which the country hosted. However, Olaf Scholz's government is coming under intense pressure to maintain universal border checks from one of its fiercest political rivals.

UK - Another sulphur dioxide gas cloud is set to pass over parts of the UK after a volcanic eruption in Iceland. The first cloud of SO2 spread across Britain on Saturday at about 4am, with Britons warned the country is not in the clear yet. Sulphur dioxide is a colourless gas with a strong smell which is commonly released in coal burning and other refining or manufacturing processes. The gas can cause irritation to the throat, nausea, stomach pain and vomiting if breathed in at high levels.

NEW ZEALAND - New Zealand has serious problems with its power supply. There are three underlying reasons: the weather, a flawed electricity market and a drive for ‘net zero’. Sixty-five per cent of New Zealand’s electricity is provided by hydropower, and the remainder by geothermal, gas, coal, wind and some solar. Though hydropower is often seen as the one form of renewable energy which is not plagued by intermittency of supply, it sadly isn’t true. In a dry year, hydro’s ability to deliver falls away, and we lose about 10 per cent of our generation. In the past, we always tried to have the hydro reservoirs and coal stockpile full by the end of summer to guard against this possibility. When we switched to an electricity market, this was forgotten.

JAPAN - Japan has condemned an unprecedented violation of its airspace by a Chinese military aircraft as “utterly unacceptable” and a threat to its security. The incursion comes after repeated maritime provocations by Chinese vessels near disputed islands in the East China Sea in an escalation of regional tensions. The incursion was a “serious violation of sovereignty”, Japan’s chief government spokesperson said on Tuesday, calling it a first for a Chinese military aircraft. “The violation of our airspace by Chinese military aircraft is not only a serious violation of our sovereignty but also a threat to our security and is totally unacceptable,” Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.

AUSTRALIA - Contamination of waterways with the antidepressant Prozac is disrupting fish bodies and behaviours in ways that could threaten their long-term survival, new research has found. As global consumption of pharmaceuticals has increased, residues have entered rivers and streams via wastewater raising concerns about the effects on ecosystems and wildlife. Research published in the journal of Animal Ecology found low concentrations of fluoxetine – an antidepressant commonly known as Prozac – reduced the body condition and sperm vitality of male guppies over multiple generations. The study’s co-lead author, Dr Upama Aich from Monash University, said thousands of chemicals were “being dumped into our waterways every day”. She said people should not flush pharmaceuticals down the toilet. Instead they should return unwanted and expired medicines to a pharmacy. “That will be very helpful for the fish that are swimming in our waterways.”

MIDDLE EAST - Hezbollah, often called the "Party of God," is a powerful political and military organisation based in Lebanon, situated along Israel's northern border. Established in 1982 during Lebanon's civil war, Hezbollah's core mission revolves around resisting Western influences in the Middle East and denying Israel's legitimacy. Funded and supported significantly by Iran, Hezbollah boasts a well-equipped military force, including advanced weaponry like precision rockets and drones.