UK - When I saw the pictures of Angela Rayner vaping in a lilo, I warmed to her. Like most parents, Rayner said that she hopes her kids never take up the filthy habit. And again, I find myself warming to her attitude of “do as I say, not as I do” parenting. But the idea that precocious children should be allowed to tell off their parents for doing what parents choose to do is less attractive. If I had told my parents I thought their habits were disgusting, I’m not sure I would have liked their response. Contemporary parents seem to think that good parenting means being equal with your children. It might be a different story for Rayner, whose kids are almost all grown up, but the idea that your own babies should have an opinion on your decisions and choices as an adult is ludicrous. Today’s baby-led, gentle-parenting mantra seems to want family life to be dictated by those who don’t yet know their backside from their elbow. This lack of adult authority is rearing a nation of brats. Perhaps it’s time adults found their backbone, and told the kids to mind their own.

UK - A fifth of all British taxes will be needed to pay the interest on the national debt later this century if the Government does not change course, a think tank has warned. The UK’s finances are “unsustainable” on the current trajectory, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a Left-leaning organisation with alumni across Andy Burnham’s Government. Younger Britons and those born in the coming years face “a heavy burden” left to them by past and current politicians. Just over £1 in every £5 of taxes taken in the 2070s will be needed to pay debt interest. The national debt is already thought to have risen above £3 trillion, according to estimates from the Taxpayers’ Alliance, a pressure group. Global debt investors charge Britain the highest interest rate in the G7 on its bonds, leaving the Government paying more than £100 billion per year in interest.

GERMANY - Germany’s economic growth risks being cut in half this year as heatwaves and drought leave water levels in the Rhine at record lows. Critical industries rely on the major river for the transport of metals, chemicals and fuel but they have found its waters increasingly difficult to navigate. The depth at the Kaub gauge, the shallowest part of the middle Rhine, has fallen as low as 15cm and could drop to just 5cm, down from more than 1.5m at this time last year. The low water level risks severing a vital route between Germany’s industrial heartlands and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Europe’s biggest port. Extra rail freight services have been laid on to supply steel producer ​Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann ⁠in ​Duisburg. Further east, Saxony has relaxed its restrictions on Sunday lorry deliveries because of low water levels in the Elbe.

USA - The yen carry trade is blowing up right in front of our eyes. And so now major financial institutions in Japan are facing staggering losses… This is only the beginning. The yen fell so low last week that the US Treasury felt forced to take emergency action. The value of the yen is almost certainly going to continue to fall. Japanese bond yields are almost certainly going to continue to go up. And the pain will be felt all over the planet. As this crisis builds, it threatens to become an unstoppable tsunami which could end up ripping through everything. The war in the Middle East is far from over, and the really painful chapters of the global energy crisis are ahead of us. At the same time, a new global financial crisis is suddenly erupting in Japan. We just keep getting hit by one thing after another.

SAUDI ARABIA - The headlines announcing a new defense agreement between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey were presented as evidence of a changing strategic order in the Middle East. Saudi commentators quickly framed the agreement as proof that Israel would no longer be able to act freely across the region. But once the interviews end and the official talking points are set aside, a different conclusion emerges. One can almost smell it: the scent of Saudi anxiety. Saudi Arabia’s real concern is Iran. That is what makes this agreement so revealing. Rather than projecting confidence, it reflects the kingdom’s search for additional security guarantees in the face of Iran’s growing regional influence. The choice of partners is also telling. Pakistan and Turkey both maintain important relationships with Tehran. Neither is a natural cornerstone of an anti-Iran coalition. If anything, the agreement illustrates Riyadh’s desire to broaden its options in an increasingly uncertain regional environment. The headlines speak of power. The agreement itself suggests something different: a kingdom seeking reassurance in a volatile neighborhood.

UK - Millions of Britons are sweating their way into the fifth heatwave of the year. But the hot weather is not just an inconvenience for the public – the cost to the economy is high and rising. Britain is likely to suffer a multibillion-pound blow from heatwaves and droughts, economists estimate. Productivity slumps and retail sales tumble amid the torpor. A lack of rain is also hammering production across the country’s farms. Martin Beck, the chief economist at WPI Strategy, says: “A reasonable estimate is that the succession of heatwaves and exceptionally dry weather has already cost the UK economy around £3 billion this summer... High street footfall has fallen sharply in line with rising temperatures, according to the British Retail Consortium. It is simply too hot to shop. Although food sales are still rising, purchases of other products have dropped compared with last year. A rise in online sales has also failed to make up for fewer customers in physical shops."

UK - Drought and heatwaves are forcing Britain to pay hundreds of millions of pounds more for power. Britain has paid record sums to buy electricity from Europe this summer as low river levels force nuclear power stations to power down across the Continent. Experts predict the UK will have to pay high prices again this week as the fifth heatwave of the year hits. The Met Office has issued an amber warning for extreme heat, with temperatures expected to peak at around 37C in some southern regions. New government figures show the UK paid £439 million to import power from Europe in May – the highest monthly total ever recorded outside of the Ukraine energy crisis and a 54 percent increase on the £285 million cost of imports in April.

UK - The North of England is concerned about when the next wildfire will break out. They are smoking out our cities and threatening the lives of those who fight them. Many of them are friends. Gamekeepers are often the first to spot them and then fight desperate battles to stop them getting out of control. What makes me angry, very angry, is that lives need not be at risk. For our wildfire crisis is man-made. It is the result of dreadful policy mistakes repeated year after year. For two decades we have added far too much vegetation to our landscape and are now suffering the inevitable consequences. During damp winter months these burns safely prune the dead material which is then replaced by younger plants. It is the dead heather which is combustible. The winter burns used to create firebreaks. Now we have huge expanses of continuous, ageing vegetation.

UK - The Telegraph’s revelation that the Special Boat Service has been using naval surveillance drones that were transmitting data back to China is the latest sign of our vulnerability to Chinese cyber threats. It’s sadly not surprising. For a number of years, many of us have been warning about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) obsession with gleaning data on individuals and defence operations. Although security sources have known all about this, government has preferred to put it to one side. Threats from China, even when they have become clear, have been placed in the “too difficult” column and buried. Yet only a few years ago, a China expert revealed that a government car used by the prime minister had to be taken away because it was thought to be transmitting data to China. The Internet of Things makes us more vulnerable to such threats. It allows tiny devices, which can be embedded in almost anything, to transmit data. In some cases, they might be used as kill switches, permitting equipment to be shut down remotely. Our weakness is obvious to all those totalitarian states to see and act upon.

UK - Britain does not have enough warships. This is old news, but we are reminded of it at frequent intervals by the Russians. In particular, we are reminded because they have taken to keeping a warship of theirs permanently on station off our southern and eastern coasts. The frigate Neustrashimy is Moscow’s current Channel guardship. She relieved the Admiral Grigorovich in mid-July and has settled into her predecessor’s routine, loitering and waiting for the next sanctioned shadow-fleet tanker which she will escort past our shores. People who think a Russian attack on NATO would be “over there” – in the Baltics or Poland, perhaps – well, they should think again. Putin might start with a sheaf of Kalibrs fired at London: a city with no air defences.