USA - The president has criticized Federal Reserve policy for undermining his attempts to build the economy. The best way to make the central bank serve the needs of the economy is to make it a public utility. For nearly half a century, presidents have refrained from criticizing the “independent” Federal Reserve; but that was before Donald Trump.

HUNGARY - Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has told supporters he will use his third consecutive election victory as an opportunity to advance into a “new era”, with Central Europe becoming a bastion of Christian culture and nation-state democracy as multicultural globalism turns liberal democracies into “liberal non-democracies”.

SOUTH AFRICA - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said the ruling African National Congress must initiate a parliamentary process to enshrine in the constitution a proposed amendment, paving the way for land grabs without compensation. Ramaphosa, who vowed to return the lands owned by the white farmers since the 1600s to the country's black population after he assumed office in February this year, said on Tuesday that the ANC would introduce a constitutional amendment in parliament. There have been growing fears that the planned expropriation will deal a blow to commercial farming in the country and might put it on the verge of a food production crisis, like the one that struck Zimbabwe when it unleashed a similar crackdown on white farmers in 1999-2000. 

USA - America has millions of millennial brats that need to move away from Mommy and Daddy and start acting like adults. If young adults are America’s future, then they better get their act together. Today, over 30 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds live with their parents or other family members. Meanwhile, marriage rates and fertility rates in the United States have both hit record lows in recent years.

USA - Eugene Lang College, part of The New School in Lower Manhattan, will offer a course next semester for students who wish to fight “heterosexist” explanations of animals and nature. Taught by Heather Davis, “Queer Ecologies” is a four-credit course offered by the school’s Culture and Media department for students who wish to “disrupt prevailing heterosexist discursive and institutional articulations of sexuality and nature.”

GERMANY - Support for Angela Merkel’s centre-right bloc has dropped to its lowest point since 2006, polling figures show, after recent high profile criticism of the German Chancellor’s decision to open the nation’s borders. Bild am Sonntag’s weekly ‘Sunday Trend’ poll revealed that voter backing for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), had fallen to 29 percent. Conducted by pollster Emnid, which offered no explanation for the change in figures, the survey showed support for the bloc had dropped one point from the previous week, and 4 points since September’s election, which had already been branded a “disaster” for Germany’s establishment parties.

CHINA - A column in China’s Communist Party People’s Daily newspaper commended President Donald Trump on Monday for allegedly exhibiting “disdain” for NATO, calling for the eradication of the military coalition entirely. The People’s Daily lamented that NATO continues to exist, demanding the group “should be relegated to the dustbin of history.” In particular, the publication appeared disappointed that American foreign policy experts condemned Trump for criticizing the current state of NATO rather than urging him to dismantle it entirely.

UK - Jeremy Hunt has warned the European Union the likelihood of a no deal Brexit is “increasing by the day” and it must recognise Britain will not “blink” during negotiations. The Foreign Secretary said the European Commission must change its approach and show a willingness to engage with Theresa May’s Chequers plan for withdrawal. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has savaged Mrs May’s blueprint but Mr Hunt said it was a “profound misunderstanding of us as a nation” to think the UK will bow to Brussels. It came amid reports Mrs May fears Labour could launch a parliamentary ambush in a bid to delay Brexit by forcing ministers to seek an extension to the Article 50 process.

USA - Michigan officials declared a state of emergency on Sunday after high levels of Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) were discovered in Kalamazoo County tapwater, reports Mlive.com The declaration was made by Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley (Republican), several days after the toxic compound was found in the water supply of Parchment and Cooper Township. “This declaration will allow the state to supply additional resources to help with response efforts and ensure the health and safety of residents in Parchment and Cooper Township,” Calley said in a statement, adding "This helps make sure that every resource that is possible is on the table and that we can work as expeditiously together as we possibly can. State and local officials and members of the community have been working in full partnership to ensure people in the area have safe water in the short, medium and long term," Calley said.

USA - The northern Sacramento Valley was well on its way to recording the hottest July on record when the Carr fire swept into town last Thursday.  It was 113 degrees, and months of above-average temperatures had left the land bone-dry and ready to explode. Within a few hours, hundreds of structures were lost and six people killed.  The destruction adds to California’s worst wildfire year on record — dozens dead since October, with more than 10,000 structures lost from San Diego to Redding.  There are many reasons for the grim totals, but experts say one common denominator connects the disastrous fires: California is facing extreme heat, the likes of which it has never seen in the modern historical record. [There are 16 active wildfires burning across California right now.]

EUROPE - The European Commission, in its official war on cash, admitted that physical cash is perhaps not quite the source of all evil that many EU institutions, including the Commission itself, had made it out to be. And it has abandoned its war on cash. In its final conclusions the Commission states it is not considering “any legislative initiative” on EU-wide cash restrictions “at this stage”, which should be cause for relief for EU-based cash lovers.

UK - Children should be taught about how to make marriage work in school to stem the tide of relationship breakdown, the Prince of Wales’ divorce lawyer has said. Baroness Fiona Shackleton said that education about marriage is “severely lacking” in schools, as she urged them to “devote just a little time” to the issue. She said that schools make time to teach children about alcohol abuse, drug abuse, sex and “goodness knows what else”, but fail to address “what is the most important decision they make, which is basically, who they breed with or from”. Baroness Shackleton, who was made a life peer in 2010, has represented a number celebrities and royals in high profile divorce cases including Sir Paul McCartney and the Duke of York.

ITALY - Mr Conte, a law professor, leads Italy’s populist, eurosceptic coalition government which has come under fire for its hardline approach towards migrants arriving by sea. As Mr Trump fields criticism for his EU aluminium and steel tariffs and anti-NATO rhetoric, he has commended Italy for adopting an “Italy First” policy similar to his own isolationist stance on international affairs.

USA - Lockheed Martin recently registered a patent on a revolutionary design of a Compact Fusion Reactor (CFR), a mobile device small enough to be mounted on a truck. One version is designed to produce 100 megawatts, enough to power a city of 100,000 people. The CFR, which provides clean energy without producing radioactive waste, has both civil and military applications.

UK - Ministers have drawn up plans to send in the army to deliver food, medicines and fuel in the event of shortages if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal. Blueprints for the armed forces to assist the civilian authorities, usually used only in civil emergencies, have been dusted down as part of the “no deal” planning. Helicopters and army trucks would be used to ferry supplies to vulnerable people outside the southeast who were struggling to obtain the medicines they needed. In today’s Business section, it is revealed that supermarkets are warning their suppliers to stockpile supplies such as tea and coffee. The NHS would go on a year-round “winter crisis footing”, with drugs bought from outside the EU and stockpiled in hospitals.