UK - A project to develop lab-grown meat and insect products will receive £15 million of taxpayers' money as ministers seek 'alternative proteins' for Britain's meals of the future. The National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC) is being set up in the hope of finding net zero alternatives to the likes of steak and chicken. Scientists will research insects, cultured meats – produced in a lab using animal cells – and even edible algae, hoping to find tasty, affordable and healthy proteins which help to reduce emissions as the global population continues to rise. The centre will receive the funding from the UK Research and Innovation Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and Innovate UK. Dr Rob Hancock, of the Advanced Plant Growth Centre at the James Hutton Institute, said: 'We import over £15 billion worth of protein products...'

USA - The home improvement retailer Lowe's has become the latest brand to scrap its support for Pride events and other diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) schemes in the face of consumer boycotts. Lowe's will stop cooperating with the Human Rights Campaign, a major LGBTQ group, and will no longer separate employees into so-called 'resource groups' based on race, religion or sexual identities, according to an internal memo. The company will also stop sponsoring parades, festivals, or fairs, and will instead focus on events related to its business, such as affordable housing and skilled trades education, says the memo. In recent weeks, Jack Daniel's, Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply, and John Deere, have all reversed course on DEI in the face of anger from conservative consumers who eschew the progressive policies.

JAPAN - Japan’s strongest typhoon of the year has made landfall in the country’s south-west, bringing torrential rain and winds of up to 252 km/h (157 mph), strong enough to destroy homes. The meteorological agency said Typhoon Shanshan, referred to in Japan as Typhoon No 10, made landfall on the island of Kyushu at around 8 am. The power company said 254,610 houses were already without electricity. The meteorological agency predicted 1,100 mm (43 in) of precipitation in southern Kyushu in the 48 hours to Friday morning, around half the annual average for the area, which comprises Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures. Authorities issued a rare special typhoon warning for most parts of Kagoshima, a prefecture in southern Kyushu. Residents in at-risk areas have been urged to remain on high alert, with transport operators and airlines cancelling trains and flights.

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.