UK - A civilisation that cannot defend itself really should not expect to survive, and after the latest cybersecurity news, I wonder how it can. An official advisory was recently sent out to the US military, warning that all forces must now assume their networks have been breached. The enemy is inside the house. What it means is that no system connected to the internet can be defended. Our own national cybersecurity agency asked UK businesses to make this presumption in 2020. The reason this hasn’t been bigger news is that we’ve become fatalistic and weary, as one cybersecurity attack follows another. So when we discovered in early July that Chinese hackers had gained control of Microsoft servers at hundreds of US government agencies – including the US nuclear weapons agency – it was just another hacking story. What made this one noteworthy was that there wasn’t immediately a fix or a patch, Microsoft admitted last Tuesday.

USA - They are supposedly the world’s safest bet. US government-issued debt, known as Treasuries, are a bedrock of the global financial system, with $900 billion (£670 billion) of bonds changing hands every day across a market worth nearly $30 trillion. But with pockets of the market showing signs of stress, the Trump administration wants to make bond-buying great again. Regulators have proposed rewriting the post-financial crisis rulebook in what would be the biggest shake-up since 2008. The change would allow America’s banking titans on Wall Street to effectively exempt Treasuries from the calculations about how risky their balance sheets are, allowing them to buy more US debt because they are no longer penalised for owning it. Yet there were warnings that giving US banking forces an easier ride could unleash havoc again – SO WHAT COULD GO WRONG? And how far could any crisis spread?

HUNGARY - In an address to Hungary’s national assembly yesterday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán argued that successive European crises from financial meltdowns to pandemics and now war have been leveraged by Brussels to accelerate the creation of a federal “United States of Europe.” The Hungarian Prime Minister framed the conflict in Ukraine not only as a tragedy but also as a political turning point. Orbán called on Hungarians to confront what he called the EU’s “crisis-driven power grab.” “Every crisis is an opportunity, a launch vehicle, a platform,” Orbán declared. “Whether financial, migration, virological, or now military, Brussels has consistently used these moments to strip powers from nation states and transfer them to the Commission.”

EUROPE - European leaders have rounded on their ‘badly negotiated’ US trade deal which has left the bloc with worse terms than Britain – saying Donald Trump ‘ate von der Leyen for breakfast’. It comes after the US president announced he had agreed ‘the biggest deal ever made’ between the US and the European Union following a meeting with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. The agreement will subject the EU to 15 per cent tariffs on most of its goods entering America. It is lower than a 30 per cent levy previously threatened by the US president - but worse than the UK’s deal - and was quickly lambasted by European leaders. Viktor Orban, the Hungarian PM, hit out: ‘This is what happened and we suspected this would happen as the US president is a heavyweight when it comes to negotiations while Madame President is featherweight.’

EUROPE - When news first broke on Sunday that the United States and the European Union had agreed a new trade deal, all we had to go on were the broad assurances of President Trump and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, that it was a historic triumph for both sides. ‘The greatest deal ever made,’ claimed Trump, with characteristic understatement. Then we saw the details. And it was indeed a great deal – for America. For the EU, the self-styled greatest trading bloc in the world, it was more like a humiliation. By lunchtime yesterday that grim truth had also dawned on several European leaders. As European anger mounts, it’s not just the agreement that’s in danger of unravelling. So is von der Leyen’s career. It’s easy to see why her job is now hanging by a thread when you dig into the details.

UK - A town councillor who asked questions about 300 Afghans put up in a local hotel was 'reported to police for stirring up hate’. John Edwards has also been placed under ‘investigation’ by a ‘monitoring officer’ at Bracknell Forest Council in Berkshire. The elected councillor began asking questions in April, questioning whether the large number of new arrivals would affect local residents on the housing waiting list. But instead of getting answers, Councillor Edwards said he was accused of ‘inciting’ hate and spreading ‘misinformation’ against an ethnic group. The Free Speech Union has now taken up his case, calling it a ‘chilling’ example of democracy being suppressed. 'It’s a way to smear and silence me, and it has a chilling effect which amounts to, “disagree with the council and you will be called a racist”.'

UK - Recruitment for the £23,500 per year administration role in Manchester draws opposition backlash. An advert for a “Shariah law administrator” has been deleted from the government’s jobs website after a backlash from MPs. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was criticised by Reform UK and Conservative MPs for hosting the advertisement on its Find A Job website. The role, which pays £23,500 per year and appears to be based in Didsbury, Manchester, required the successful applicant to “provide all admin and secretarial work” for the Manchester Shariah Council. Its advert said candidates must have previous work experience “in Shariah law-related fields and/or Shariah courts in Muslim countries”, as well as an understanding of British law. Sharia courts have existed in the UK since the early 1980s and issue Islam-inspired rulings on family life and marriage matters.

UK - At least 85 Islamic sharia courts are operating in Britain, a study claimed yesterday. The astonishing figure is 17 times higher than previously accepted. The tribunals, working mainly from mosques, settle financial and family disputes according to religious principles. They lay down judgments which can be given full legal status if approved in national law courts. However, they operate behind doors that are closed to independent observers and their decisions are likely to be unfair to women and backed by intimidation, a report by independent think-tank Civitas said. 'Sharia courts operating in Britain may be handing down rulings that are inappropriate to this country because they are linked to elements in Islamic law that are seriously out of step with trends in Western legislation.'

UK - If Britain wants to be taken seriously on the world stage, it would do better to build up its defence capabilities than to make empty threats to China. Yesterday in Australia, Defence Secretary John Healey declared that Britain would be ready to fight if a conflict breaks out over Taiwan. In other words, if China invades Taiwan, which is a distinct possibility. President Xi has made it clear he intends to bring the country under Chinese rule and has not excluded the use of force. Indeed, Beijing has been preparing for exactly that for years.

USA - President Donald Trump announced a sweeping trade agreement with the European Union (EU) on Sunday, setting a baseline 15 percent tariff on European imports — including automobiles — while keeping existing 50 percent duties on steel and aluminum in place. As part of the deal, the EU committed to purchasing $750 billion in US energy products. Trump announced the agreement during a press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after a private meeting at Trump Turnberry in Scotland. The EU will purchase three-quarters of a trillion dollars in US energy, while also investing $600 billion into America on top of existing investments. Additionally, EU countries will be setting tariffs on US goods at zero percent, and Europe agreed “to purchase a vast amount of military equipment,” Trump said.

USA - A team of researchers in California drew notoriety last year with an aborted experiment on a retired aircraft carrier that sought to test a machine for creating clouds. But behind the scenes, they were planning a much larger and potentially riskier study of salt water-spraying equipment that could eventually be used to dim the sun’s rays — a multimillion-dollar project aimed at producing clouds over a stretch of ocean larger than Puerto Rico. The details outlined in funding requests, emails, texts and other records obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News raise new questions about a secretive billionaire-backed initiative that oversaw last year’s brief solar geoengineering experiment on the San Francisco Bay.

USA - President Donald Trump branded wind power a “con job” after playing golf in Scotland, describing how turbines ruined the view from the 18th hole of his Turnberry course. The president said wind farms spoiled the landscape and sucked in expensive subsidies in comments likely to complicate a meeting with Sir Keir Starmer on Monday. “The whole thing is a con job. It’s very expensive,” he added as he announced a trade deal with the EU. The deal includes the EU buying billions of dollars of American energy, including natural gas. Mr Trump’s comments on wind energy, however, are likely to complicate Mr Trump’s meeting on Monday with Sir Keir, who has staked Britain’s future energy supply on wind.

UK - The UK is in a “debt doom loop”, according to the founder of one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, who recommended people put at least 15 per cent of their savings into gold or bitcoin to help shield them from potential market turmoil. Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates in the United States, said the bond markets were too complacent about the excessive borrowing by many western governments and the risks were not fully priced in. Speaking on The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, he reserved some of his fiercest criticism for Britain. “The UK is in a debt doom loop,” he said, and warning signals were “beginning to flash and flicker”.

USA - OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI chatbot reportedly offered users instructions on how to murder, self-mutilate, and worship the devil. After being tipped off by someone who says he inadvertently prompted ChatGPT to provide a ritual offering to the demonic entity Molech — which explicitly involves child sacrifice according to the Bible — journalists with the Atlantic conducted an experiment to see if they could recreate the results. By the end of the experiment, ChatGPT “encouraged me to cut my wrists” with a “sterile or very clean razor blade,” and instructed the journalist where, specifically, to slash herself, the magazine reported. After asking the chatbot to help create a ritual offering to Molech, ChatGPT suggested using jewelry, hair clippings, and “a drop” of her own blood. In another conversation, ChatGPT provided an invocation to the devil, generating, “In your name, I become my own master. Hail Satan.”

IRAN - At least 50,000 officials from inside Iran’s ruling government and military have registered with a secure platform set up to coordinate the ousting of the dictatorship in Tehran, according to a prominent opponent of the regime. Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last shah of Iran, who was deposed in the 1979 revolution, announced a month ago that he was creating the channel for regime defectors to register and receive information on campaign tactics from his opposition movement. Speaking to POLITICO, he said the numbers still needed to be fully verified but his team were working to establish links with key elements in Iran’s military, paramilitary and security forces, who would play a potential role toppling Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and working to establish a new secular state.