USA - After multiple rooftop fires between 2020-2021, Amazon temporarily took all solar panels offline to complete inspections of each of its systems. The e-commerce giant did so quietly without mentioning the problems in its sustainability report. The first reported solar panel fire at an Amazon warehouse occurred on April 14, 2020, in Fresno, California, CNBC reported. The warehouse was called FAT1, and the three-alarm fire damaged about 220 solar panels along with other equipment. In a report, Fresno fire investigator Leland Wilding wrote the blaze started from “an undetermined electrical event within the solar system mounted on top of the roof,” CNBC reported. In another internal document obtained by CNBC, an Amazon employee said the fire incidents stemming from solar panels cost the company an average of $2.7 million each. In addition, the employee said Amazon would lose $20,000 per month for each of the 47 sites that took its solar installations offline. Again, this information was left off the 2021 sustainability report.

UK - A pub said to have been serving customers for 1,200 years is fighting for survival because of soaring energy costs. Ye Olde Fighting Cocks survived world wars and recessions but co-owner Sam Walker says winter will be a test. His general manager, Ronan Gaffney, added: “It’s outrageously more expensive. It’s not like at home where you can turn everything off but the fridge and freezer. We can’t cut down on energy bills but are being charged double. Our light bill is 10 times more than what it is in a house because at home you can turn off all the lights except the one you're in. But you can't do that in a pub.” He called on the Government to offer help so pubs like his — in St Albans, Herts — survive.

WALES - The whole of Wales has now moved to drought status, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has confirmed. Heavy rainfall over recent days and weeks has not been enough to compensate for the impacts of the heatwaves and dry weather over the summer, data has shown. South west, south east and parts of mid Wales were already in drought before the announcement, which now includes north Wales. It comes after the Wales Drought Liaison Group met on Thursday to consider the latest impacts that months of insufficient rain has had on the environment and people in the region. “While essential water supplies remain safe, the public and businesses right across Wales areas are being urged to use water wisely and manage this precious resource at this time.” Natalie Hall added: “Each drought is different in its extent, severity and impact. As such, it is difficult to predict when we will see the environment, our water supplies and the agricultural sector move into recovery.”

UK - Queen Elizabeth II, the UK's longest-serving monarch, has died at Balmoral aged 96, after reigning for 70 years. She died peacefully on Thursday afternoon at her Scottish estate, where she had spent much of the summer. The Queen came to the throne in 1952 and witnessed enormous social change.

RUSSIA - Russia and China’s growing partnership with the Islamic world spells trouble for the West. The traditional Anglo-American strategy of playing “divide and conquer” with Muslim states may have run its course. With Covid quarantines no longer a hindrance, summits have returned to the diplomatic agenda. First, the West returned to face-to-face meetings – EU and NATO summits have been taking place for some time now – and now it is the turn of the East.

RUSSIA - Russia's economy was predicted to collapse after Western countries imposed unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over the war in Ukraine. But this week, the Russian statistics bureau Rosstat said gross domestic product (GDP) in the first six months of the year had fallen by just 0.4%.

UK - If you’re hungry you’ll eat anything to survive. This basic premise is being tested in hunger-stricken African nations where UK aid agencies are trialling insect diets for those suffering starvation in countries once able to feed themselves. UK spending on pushing the theory of insect consumption – a proposition long linked with climate activists – is targeting the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zimbabwe, the Guardian newspaper reports. The outlet says a £50,000 (US $57,000) UK aid project in the DRC is putting African caterpillars, migratory locusts and black soldier flies on the menu. The researchers cooked mealworms, or beetle larvae, along with sugar to create “meat” — and they claim it tastes authentic as an acceptable alternative nutrition source, although “image problems” remain in some nations used to more sophisticated daily fare.

UK - Rising living costs could prompt an increase in burglary and blackmail, police chiefs have reportedly warned. UK police fear a sharp rise in certain categories of crime and a risk of civil unrest this winter amid a cost of living and energy crisis, the Sunday Times reports, citing a leaked national strategy paper. The document compiled by police chiefs warns that “economic turmoil and financial instability” may lead to an increase in offenses such as shoplifting, burglary, vehicle theft, online fraud and blackmail. More children are likely to join drug gangs and more women may become subject to sexual exploitation. Contingency planning is reportedly underway to deal with the possible fallout from the cost of living crisis.

CHINA - The AP reported: Chinese cities rushed to lock down in show of loyalty to the Chinese Communist leaders. China has locked down 65 million of its citizens under tough COVID-19 restrictions and is discouraging domestic travel during upcoming national holidays. Across the country, 33 cities including seven provincial capitals are under full or partial lockdown covering more than 65 million people, according to a tally published late Sunday by the Chinese business magazine Caixin. It said that outbreaks have been reported in 103 cities, the highest since the early days of the pandemic in early 2020. Despite a relatively low number of infections, authorities have adhered to a “zero-COVID” policy requiring lockdowns, quarantines and the confining of people suspected of being in close contact with any confirmed case. China recorded 1,552 new cases in the latest 24-hour period across a nation of 1.4 billion people, the National Health Commission reported Monday.

CHINA - Brawls break out and shelves stripped bare as Chinese city heads for 'strictest lockdown'. Images started to circulate on Chinese social media site, Weibo after the lockdown was announced, showing people climbing over each other in supermarkets and cars packed with supplies. Residents in a city of 21 million people brawled over supplies as they clambered to stock up before the "world's strictest lockdown". The Chinese government announced controversial measures to plunge Chengdu into lockdown and only allow one resident per household out to get supplies. The decision was made after just 157 new covid cases were discovered in the capital of southwestern China's Sichuan province on Thursday, 51 of which were asymptomatic. China's much-maligned "zero covid" policy means that cities are forced to enter strict lockdowns even if just a handful of cases are discovered, like in Chengdu's case.

SAUDI ARABIA - After Democrat President Joe Biden folded and went to Saudi Arabia in a desperate bid to drive down oil prices, OPEC and allied oil-producing countries have now announced they will cut oil production. In July, Biden visited Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to beg for help in lowering gas prices after previously bashing the country’s leadership, as Slay News reported.

GERMANY - German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned that uncertainty over gas supplies from Russia will pose a stiff test for European Union solidarity this winter. Officials including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have accused Vladimir Putin of using energy supplies as a weapon to divide the EU, and Baerbock underscored the importance of standing up to the Russian leader and presenting a united front. The bloc’s 27 members are seeking to avoid the tensions that divided member states in the aftermath of the financial crisis. “The elephant in the room is the energy question,” Baerbock said Monday in a speech to German ambassadors in Berlin. “We must be prepared that this aspect of division will be a central building block of Russia’s hybrid warfare in the coming months,” she added. The key issue for the EU will be “whether we’ll be able to secure the gas supply for all people in Europe or not,” Baerbock said. “We will be put through a hard test by this question.”

TURKEY - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Russia is cutting natural gas flows to Europe in retaliation for sanctions, adding that Europe is "reaping what it sowed". Fears in Europe have increased over a potentially bleak winter after Russia announced it was keeping its main gas pipeline to Germany shut. Russia indefinitely halted the flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and has cut or shut down supplies on three of its biggest westward gas pipelines since its invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. Oil supplies have also been redirected eastwards. NATO-member Turkey has sought to strike a balance between Moscow and Kyiv by criticising Russia's invasion and sending arms to Ukraine, while opposing the Western sanctions and continuing trade, tourism and investment with Russia.

ITALY - One hundred years after he took power, the cult of Benito Mussolini persists in the small Italian town of Predappio, where his tomb draws tens of thousands of visitors each year. Many are just curious but others are driven by nostalgia for a past that weighs heavily on the party tipped for victory in the general election on September 25 - Giorgia Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy. "Mussolini was a great statesman. He promoted labour law and social protection. But he made mistakes with his alliance with Hitler and the shameful racial laws," said Fabiana di Carlo, a 42-year-old civil servant visiting from Rome with her daughter. Her view is typical of many Italians, who draw a line between what Mussolini did before and after his alliance with the Nazis and Italy's entry into World War II.

NETHERLANDS - The Netherlands’ agricultural minister Henk Staghouwer has been forced to resign following widespread protests from Dutch farmers over his radical climate agenda that seeks to destroy their livelihoods. Staghouwer was leading the Dutch agriculture ministry’s climate policy that involved confiscating farms in a forced government buy-out scheme.