UK - Britain is basking in the glow of a prolonged heatwave that looks destined to stick around for at least another week. Indeed, the country has already had two months of hot, bright, record-breaking weather. The UK has been treated to the sunniest early summer since Met Office records began, racking up 486 hours of sunshine in May and June. May was particularly impressive, with the hottest temperatures since 1910. The previous high was set back in 1992 - before then, 1919.  June wasn’t bad either, with the hottest temperatures since 1940, and relatively little rainfall. 

UK - Boris Johnson has resigned from Theresa May's Cabinet as the Prime Minister's Brexit crisis continues to worsen. Late last night Mrs May's Brexit minister David Davis also threw in the towel in protests at her Brexit policy. Downing Street said: “This afternoon, the Prime Minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. His replacement will be announced shortly. The Prime Minister thanks Boris for his work.” Leading members of both parties were quick to react to the shock resignation. Mr Davis and Mr Johnson, two of the strongest critics of a soft Brexit, have now quit the Cabinet in the space of 16 hours. 

UK - Theresa May is on the brink of disaster today after David Davis dramatically quit saying he could not back her 'weak' Brexit plan as it 'gives too much away' to the EU. The Prime Minister faces the biggest fight of her political life as a massive backlash from Eurosceptics threatens to sweep her out of Downing Street. In an excoriating verdict on the 'third way' trade plan Mrs May forced through Cabinet on Friday night, Mr Davis said she had persistently undermined him and put the UK on track to be humbled by Brussels. 

GERMANY - For many years German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been regarded, with reason, as the most powerful woman in the world. Over the past few months, Merkel’s authority has diminished precipitously, however, mainly due to her irrational immigration policy. That much became obvious at last weekend’s emergency EU summit on immigration. The meeting was hastily convened at Merkel’s insistence to develop a joint European strategy to deal with the ongoing migrant onslaught. In reality, it was meant to be “Operation Save Mutti”: a means of preventing her government’s collapse by showing that the Union can develop a tougher immigration strategy.

GERMANY - German media has been banned from reporting on a Muslim migrant who allegedly beheaded his one-year-old baby daughter in Hamburg. Angela Merkel’s pro-migrant government has banned German media from reporting on a barbaric crime involving a Muslim migrant who allegedly beheaded his one-year-old baby daughter on a train station platform in Hamburg.

GERMANY - If it was indeed the authorities' plan to censor the news and keep the information of the beheading under wraps, then it backfired. Due to the reports about the raid, thousands of people have seen the video, and hundreds of thousands have heard about the botched censorship attempt. Hamburg's government is still trying to conceal the beheading. Among other things, they [the AfD party] wanted to know whether the child had been beheaded. The administration - in breach of its constitutional duty - refused to answer. It also censored the questions by blacking out whole sentences.

NORTH KOREA - Disarmament talks between the US and North Korea ended in Pyongyang on Saturday with the North Korean regime accusing Washington of a “gangster-like mindset” and warning of “yet another tragedy” if negotiations collapse. The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, responded that if the US was a gangster, so was the whole world, as it had the same demand that North Korea dismantle its nuclear weapons programme. He insisted sanctions would remain in place until Pyongyang completed disarmament. Pyongyang, however, made clear it had no intention of carrying out the comprehensive unilateral disarmament Donald Trump has claimed was the outcome of his 12 June summit in Singapore with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.

FRANCE - Riots continue in France after a 22-year-old Aboubakar Fofana lost his life in police control on Tuesday. The Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) official responsible for the death has been indicted but remains free under judicial supervision. This decision has rekindled tensions in Orvault, Rezé, and the neighborhoods of Nantes, Breil, and Bellevue. The scale of the current riots is more extensive than we see now on a regular basis in the French suburbs. The rioters torched numerous cars, a petrol station, a community library, a school and several shops. There is even a report that a bullet from a rifle damaged a police officer's helmet.  Friday afternoon the police admitted that the killing of Abubakar was not self-defence but an accident.

JAPAN - Dozens of people have died and at least 50 are missing after torrential rain triggered landslides and flash flooding in western Japan on Saturday. Local authorities said 20 people had been killed, while public broadcaster NHK said the death toll had risen to 46. The number of casualties is expected to rise, said Yoshinobu Katsuura, a disaster management official in Ehime prefecture. The prime minister, Shinzō Abe, said the situation was “extremely serious” and ordered ministers to “make an all-out effort” to rescue victims. Water levels reached five metres (16ft) in the worst-hit areas, forcing some residents on to rooftops and balconies to attract the attention of rescue helicopters.

USA - According to Movie Guide – an online family programming guide – parents should listen up. “Parents need to be on top of what their children may be watching, because the days of innocent Saturday morning cartoons is officially over (honestly, it’s been over for a while),” the online guide warns. Drag Tots joins Netflix’s upcoming Super Drags superhero animated series – one that has led to a firestorm of controversy and a Citizen Go petition created by the Christian Film and Television Commission, reports Business Insider.

EUROPE - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stood firm on mass migration during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin Thursday, saying that his country would refuse to allow Germany to send migrants back to Hungary. Chancellor Merkel described the meeting saying that Mr Orbán claimed Hungary felt, “not at all responsible for the processing of asylum applications”, and looked to countries like Greece to take responsibility for processing asylum claims instead, Der Spiegel reports. The German leader added that the federal government could not see Europe “decouple” itself from asylum seekers and legitimate refugees but noted that the two leaders did find common ground on wanting to secure the European Union’s external borders.

UK - London Pride 2018: Starbucks to celebrate with Glitter Frappuccinos. London will host a Pride parade this weekend with a little help from Starbucks, The popular coffee chain has been sponsoring the annual event for four years. Starbucks is rolling out a themed drink at select stores along the parade route. London is gearing up to celebrate Pride in style, thanks to a spirited temporary addition to the Starbucks menu. Eight stores around the city's center, which will play host to the festivities, will be offering customers the option to add edible glitter to any Frappuccino. According to Cosmopolitan, the option will only be available from Thursday to Sunday, however, so get it while you can.

CHINA - Nothing is going to be the same after this.  On Friday, the United States hit China with 34 billion dollars in tariffs, and China immediately responded with similar tariffs.  If it stopped there, this trade war between the United States and China would not be catastrophic for the global economy.  But it isn’t going to stop there. 

CHINA - A series of leaked internal documents reveal that China's military reforms are aimed at allowing Beijing to "manage a crisis, contain a conflict, win a war" and overtake the United States in military strength, according to the Express.

ISRAEL - The combination of operational abilities, personal charisma and courage have turned Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ strongman in Syria into one of the greatest threats to Israel. And as Soleimani and Iran keep entrenching themselves near the Golan Heights, this threat just keeps growing. Soleimani has another rare important skill: His survivability in the tough Iranian political system. A poll conducted recently by the University of Maryland together with an Iranian research institute revealed that Soleimani is the most popular personality in Iranian public opinion, even more popular than Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. At the moment, Soleimani is Israel’s main enemy in Syria.