INDONESIA - Locals and tourists were forced to flee for their lives as an exploding volcano in Indonesia erupted - showering them in ash. Mount Tangkuban Perahu volcano - near Indonesia's third-biggest city of Bandung - has erupted, sending ash several hundred metres into the air. Officials have been forced to issue warnings, telling people to stay away after footage showed ash showering locals as they ran from the explosion. More video footage showed the moment cars and motorbikes drove away from Tangkuban Parahu on roads covered by ash yesterday. The site is a popular tourist destination as you can hike or drive to the rim of this volcano’s crater.

ITALY - Mount Etna in Sicily has burst into life, releasing huge plumes of volcano ash into the sky - while erupting Stromboli caused lava flows and fires to break out. The volcanic ash cloud reached 4.5 km (15 000 feet) above sea level. Meanwhile on Saturday, the nearby Mount Stromboli volcano’s activity intensified. The Stromboli volcano also caused fires to break out in nearby Punta Lena.

EUROPE - Member states are starting to contemplate the possibility that the UK will not bow to pressure from the bloc - raising the danger of a bitter economic and security standoff lasting years. Diplomats are reportedly scrambling to create a 'bridge' amid questions over whether negotiations will even re-start, after the new PM made clear the Irish border backstop must be scrapped altogether.

EUROPE - The European Union has taken Hungary to court over a law that makes it a crime to help asylum seekers, amid strained relations between Brussels and Budapest on migration. The Commission filed a case against Hungary at the EU’s top court, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, over the law passed last year. It also enforces new restrictions on the right to claim asylum. Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government called it the “Stop Soros” law, which is a reference to the Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros whose liberal and open societies is said to go against Budapest’s nationalistic stance. Hungary and regional ally Poland, could lose EU handouts if the wealthier, western EU states that contribute to the EU’s joint budget want to make aid conditional on “upholding democratic principles”. The disputes over migration and democratic standards have resulted in eastern states becoming isolated. The states were also left out when the EU top jobs were being filled earlier in the month.

USA - In an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, his first since former special counsel Robert Mueller testified before the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, President Donald Trump decried the Mueller “fake witch hunt.” “This should never happen to another president of the United States again,” Trump said on Thursday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.” “This is an absolute catastrophe for our country. This was a fake witch hunt, and it should never be allowed to happen to another president again. This was treason. This was high crimes. This was everything as bad a definition as you want to come up with. This should never be allowed to happen to our country again.”

CHINA - China’s Defense Ministry suggested on Wednesday that the government of Hong Kong, besieged for two months by pro-democracy protests, has the legal right to request the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “maintain social order” by attacking the protesters. China’s Foreign Ministry similarly condemned the protests in its regular Tuesday briefing, insisting they have “nothing to do with free speech” and that China will do whatever necessary to keep its control over the autonomous region. The Ministry also accused the United States of orchestrating the protests and warned Washington to keep its “dirty hands” out of Hong Kong.

USA - So many of us spend a great deal of time each day staring at screens; from computer desktops at work to smartphones or television during our free time, the average American is spending more time staring at a screen than ever before. Now, a new survey of 2,000 adults has found that a whopping 88% are so-called “zombie eaters” who stare at some type of screen while eating. The survey, commissioned by Pretzel Crisps, aimed to shed some light on American eating habits. The results indicate that Americans are so glued to their screens, they rarely stop staring even to eat. In fact, the average US eater will stare at their phone twice over the course of any given meal, and will only have five screen-free meals per week.

UK - The world’s favorite artificial sweetener may pose severe health risks, University of Sussex researchers have found. They claim that the European food authority has been bottling up the alarming data for a while. The study focused on aspartame, an artificial sweetener used worldwide in everything from diet soft drinks to chewing gum, and sold under brand names including NutraSweet, Candarel and Equal. They discovered that the panel dismissed the results of numerous studies detailing the harmful effects of the sweetener, while focusing their final assessment almost entirely on positive studies. Since 1974, when aspartame was approved for consumption in the United States, studies claimed that the sweetener caused a number of health problems, including liver and lung cancer, brain damage, and seizures.

FRANCE - Fears over a French grain shortage rose yesterday as France ordered farmers to stop harvesting as hundreds of hectares caught fire in the heatwave. Farmers have been ordered to stop harvesting in France's second largest grain producing department Oise after hundreds of hectares of fields caught fire during an intense heatwave. At least one farmer was killed during when his harvester became engulfed in one inferno, local media reported. Harvesting is in full swing in France, the European Union's largest grain producer and exporter, where searing temperatures this week broke records in many parts of northern France and elsewhere in western Europe. Local authorities put an indefinite suspension on threshing in the whole of the Oise department on Thursday, citing the risk of fires and risk to the local population.

UK - Boris Johnson’s Brexit charge was on collision course last night after the EU’s chief negotiator said his demand for fresh withdrawal negotiations was “unacceptable”. Mr Johnson said: “In the 98 days that remain to us, we must turbo-charge our preparations (for no-deal) to make sure that there is as little disruption as possible to our national life.” As he made his debut at the Commons despatch box, Mr Johnson yesterday told MPs that the UK could withhold the £39 billion “divorce fee” if no deal was forthcoming and use the cash to protect Britain from the impact. “In these circumstances we would, of course, also have available the £39 billion in the Withdrawal Agreement to help deal with any consequences.” Mr Johnson yesterday invited EU leaders to meet him and newly reappointed EU Exit Secretary Stephen Barclay for talks “whenever they are ready to do so”.

UK - Boris Johnson stood at the podium before Downing Street and told a crowd of waiting journalists that he would take the United Kingdom out of the European Union “no ifs, no buts” in 99 days time. Speaking to a chorus of jeers from protestors on Whitehall, just yards away from where he stood in front of the Prime Minister’s official residence in London, Britain’s new leader Boris Johnson vowed to deliver Brexit. “The people who bet against Britain again are going to lose their shirts, because we are going to restore trust in our democracy and we are going to fulfil the repeated promises of parliament to the people and come out of the EU on the 31st of October, no ifs, no buts.”

UK - Boris Johnson today called on Brexit-blocking MPs to "restore trust in democracy" by allowing Britain to leave the EU at last in his first Commons speech. He then faced down rebellious MPs and warned they must stop obstructing Brexit or face a furious backlash from voters. Referring to MPs failing to deliver Brexit despite numerous votes over the last three years, Mr Johnson told the Commons: "We must take some immediate steps. The first is to restore trust in our democracy and fulfil the repeated promises of Parliament to the people, by coming out of the EU and doing so on October 31." He said his whole Cabinet was "committed" to quitting the EU on time, adding: "To do otherwise would cause a catastrophic loss of confidence in our political system. It must be clearly understood that the way to the deal goes by way of the abolition of the backstop. Our national participation in the European Union is coming to an end - and that must be recognized by all parties."

UK - Some encouraging news: Boris Johnson has appointed Dominic Cummings as one of his senior advisors. one of the most important challenges facing Boris is the need to take on Britain’s Deep State: the Civil Service and the various quangos — all of which are not only sclerotically inefficient but outrageously left-biased. Britain’s Deep State problem is something to which Cummings has given considerable thought. Among the reasons why the Civil Service is so perfectly useless, he argued, is that it rewards failure (almost no one is ever sacked — they’re just shuffled to a different department); it promotes people who want to protect the system and not rock the boat, while weeding out the dissenters and mavericks who might contribute original ideas; it is process-driven, not goal-driven; it’s massively bloated and largely overpaid… one of the great things about Cummings is that he is a ruthless operator. I’m sure we can rely on him to show these Swamp creatures the zero mercy they deserve.

GERMANY - Germany is veering towards a full-blown recession, with a leading German think-tank warning the confidence in the country’s economy went into “freefall” in July amid concerns about the impact of global trade conflict and US President Donald Trump’s protectionist approach.

UK - Harold Macmillan chillingly predicted Europe was going to transform into a fully-fledged federal state almost 70 years ago, unearthed reports reveal. As Brexit uncertainty continues despite Mr Johnson’s appointment, a newly-resurfaced warning about the bloc by former prime minister Harold Macmillan has resurfaced. In a 2019 talk for Yale University, Vernon Bogdanor, one of Britain’s foremost constitutional experts claimed Mr Macmillan, who at the time was Housing Minister, chillingly predicted that Europe was going to transform into a fully-fledged federal state even before Britain joined the bloc. Mr Bogdanor said: “In March 1953, Macmillan asked the Cabinet: ‘Are we really sure that we want to see a sixth power federal Europe with a common army, a common iron and steel industry, ending in a common currency and monetary policy? If such a federal state comes into being, will it in the long run be in our interests whether as an island or as an imperial power? Will not Germany ultimately control this state?’”