USA - Trump could trigger a disaster as markets lose faith in Washington’s economic management. A dangerous view is creeping into the markets that the US has already gone so far down the path of a debt compound trap that it dare not raise interest rates to control inflation. The US treasury has to roll over $6 trillion of debt every three months in an increasingly sceptical market, as well as issuing $2 trillion of new debt annually to cover the worst structural deficit in US peacetime history. Scott Bessent, the poacher-turned-gamekeeper now in charge of the US treasury, has been concentrating ever more borrowing on short-term bills. It is a way to keep a lid on the spiralling interest cost of the US national debt, which has quadrupled to $1 trillion in a decade, and now exceeds the US defence budget and is fast heading towards uncharted waters above 4 percent of GDP.

UK - Britain’s money-printing experiment is about to become more expensive. What began as a way to rescue the economy has quickly become a headache for both the Government and the Bank of England. When interest rates were low in 2009 but the economy was crying out for help, banks began their campaign of “quantitative easing”. First deployed in the US, “QE” – as it became known – saw Threadneedle Street print money to buy government bonds, known as gilts. The goal was to drive down the cost of borrowing, encouraging people and businesses to spend more to stimulate the economy. The experiment largely worked during the financial crisis. Jobs were saved while inflation remained low. During lockdown, though, the results were very different as inflation took off and central banks around the world were forced to increase interest rates. There is no easy way out of the QE mess. The next crisis may demand that the printing presses are fired up again. Before then, the Government must work out a different way to pay for it.

TAIWAN - Chinese military aircraft entered air defense zones on two sides of Taiwan while a collection of Chinese naval and government vessels operated around the island, Taiwan’s military said Monday. The latest activity is part of an increasingly regular Chinese military presence around the self-governing island rather than an isolated deployment. Taiwan, meanwhile, is preparing to spend a record-setting NT$1 trillion (New Taiwanese Dollars), roughly $31 billion, on defense in 2027 for the first time as Taipei accelerates its military buildup in response to pressure from Beijing, President Lai Ching-te said earlier this month, according to Reuters. The Chinese military’s sustained operations are not confined to the Taiwan Strait. Beijing has increasingly demonstrated an ability to move naval and air forces into waters east of Taiwan and farther into the western Pacific, complicating Taiwan’s ability to treat its eastern coastline as a protected rear area during a potential conflict.

Countries from Brazil to Taiwan are bracing for a surge in dengue driven by the “supersized” El Niño, as the UN warns this year’s weather phenomenon could be the strongest on record. “El Niño is being supersized before our eyes,” Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, said last week. “The ​science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up.”The weather phenomenon – a periodic warming of sea surface temperature in the eastern Pacific, caused by weakening trade winds – alters rainfall and temperature patterns across the globe. That, in turn, causes extreme weather like droughts, heatwaves, floods and typhoons – which then trigger events including wildfires, crop failures and a collapse in affected fisheries. In Taiwan, the Centres for Disease Control has told people to protect themselves from mosquito bites as the weather phenomenon kicks in. In 2015, an El Niño year, the country had a record-breaking outbreak [of dengue], with 43,000 cases and 228 deaths.

GERMANY - Germany’s political battle over the AfD’s historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt is going international. After the party won 43.8% of the vote, Chancellor Friedrich Merz raised the possibility of using an extraordinary federal power against a future AfD-led state government. Now European lawmakers from five countries are asking the United Nations to scrutinize the move. The pressure on Merz is growing on several fronts. The AfD parliamentary group has also filed a criminal complaint against the Chancellor after he described the party’s “remigration” policy as “nothing other than ethnic cleansing based on skin color and origin.” The international effort was initiated by German AfD MEP Petr Bystron, who argues that Berlin’s response to the election raises fundamental questions about the treatment of democratic opposition in Germany.

RUSSIA - For a long time, Russia battled with the EU over the pricing process for oil and gas. Russia, specifically Putin, wanted to sell oil/gas to the EU based on production prices and fair profits. Europe wanted to buy Russian oil/gas based on “market prices” which are manipulated by speculation. President Putin fundamentally doesn’t like this approach because it artificially inflates the price based on speculation and inorganic influences.

MIDDLE EAST - Iranian-backed militias in Iraq were responsible for an attack on a key oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia, the Iraqi government confirmed on Saturday, saying that the attack came from its Maysan Governorate. A local commander has been dismissed, the Rudaw media channel in Iraq said, and Baghdad has sought to prevent Riyadh from retaliating by admitting that its territory was utilized as a launchpad for the attack. The attack on Saudi Arabia shows how the militias threaten the region. By cutting off energy trade, they are also threatening the world.

UK - Male teachers will be allowed to supervise girls getting changed at swimming pools or sports centres under new NSPCC guidance. The children’s protection charity has removed a policy stating that adult supervisors of pupils getting dressed should be the same gender from its latest safeguarding document. Campaigners have since written to the NSPCC calling on it to reverse the decision and accused it of coming under pressure from trans activists. The charity’s previous policy said: “Adults who are supervising children getting changed should be of the same gender as them.” However, in its latest “safeguarding considerations for changing rooms” briefing, the line has been removed. As the leading UK body for the safeguarding of children, what is the NSPCC for if not to do its utmost to protect children? It appears instead to have decided that the safer route is to avoid offending trans activists, even if that puts the safety, privacy and dignity of children at risk.”

MIDDLE EAST - A massive attack by Yemeni Houthis on Saudi Arabia has become the first serious test for the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement – a defense pact between Riyadh, Ankara, and Islamabad established just a month ago. We’re no longer talking about a future security architecture in abstract terms. Rather, a very concrete question is being posed: What actions should Saudi Arabia’s allies undertake following a strike on its territory?

UK - The tiny village of Piddington – population 350 people – is about to receive 1,250 male illegal immigrants, who will be housed at a local former military base. The village's inhabitants, who are terrified, are saying they will declare independence and have called on US President Donald Trump to support them. Britons such as Tommy Robinson were vilified and treated as enemies of the state for pointing out a few hair-raising facts, such as the increasing criminalization of free speech, out-of-control censorship and the mind-numbing number of rapes and other sexual attacks by asylum seekers in Britain. In 2002-03 there were approximately 16,400 police-recorded rape offenses, a number that has reached a peak of about 71,000–74,700 as of July 2026. And these are just the ones that are reported.