KYRGYZSTAN - A squirming Vladimir Putin has been told by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to halt his war in Ukraine for the sake of humanity during a meeting in Kyrgyzstan. The two world leaders met on the sidelines of the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, which seeks to be a counterbalance to the West. The regional SCO bloc – which brings together Russia, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, four central Asian countries and Belarus – is celebrating its 25-year anniversary. 'We need to move from an endless war to the end of the war,' Modi told the Russian president, who was awkwardly looking down and away from the leader's gaze, during the broadcast on Monday. A stern-faced Putin then slapped down his earpiece – used to hear the translation – and said through gritted teeth: 'Thank you very much, Mr Prime Minister. We are moving in that direction.' On the ground in Ukraine, there is little sign Putin is edging towards peace. The Russian leader appears to be stepping up the war, launching repeated strikes across the country, including attacks on food warehouses which are now being blamed for shortages.

EUROPE - The price of wheat has soared to a three-year high as fears grow that Russia will escalate its attacks against Ukraine, threatening exports from the breadbasket of Europe. Wheat futures rose to as much as $7.35 a bushel on Thursday, the highest level since July 2023, adding to concerns of further food inflation. Russia has mounted attacks on crucial facilities across Ukraine in recent months. In July alone, it launched 35 attacks against ships in port, 22 against ships at sea, and 67 against port infrastructure. The sustained attacks and damage to ports are affecting shipments from Ukraine. Wheat shipments from Russia are also forecast to fall by more than 50 percent in August, compared with the same month a year earlier. Russia, the world’s biggest wheat exporter, shipped 1.5 million tonnes of wheat in July, down from a five-year average of 3.1 million.

UKRAINE - Ukraine is “gradually, slowly losing” the war. Those are not the words of a Kremlin propagandist but Ukraine’s own Mykhailo Fedorov, the country’s recently dismissed defence minister, speaking to Reuters last week. In the days after he made that grim prediction, Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine to near-apocalyptic levels. In a fiendishly effective move, the Kremlin switched from mass drone and missile strikes to continuous, 60-hour-long waves of bombardments which saw nineteen air-raids on Kyiv in a single day, exhausting defenders and dwindling stocks of air-defence missiles alike. Meanwhile, Ukrainian claims that they are turning the tide of the war in their favour with deep strikes on refineries and logistics warehouses deep inside Russia are being hollowed out by Russia’s massively larger campaigns of retaliation and revenge.

GERMANY - Germany is standing on the precipice of a gas shortage that could drive up winter energy bills for already battered households and industry. That risks sending the barely reheated economy back into the deep freeze. If there’s a mild winter, Germany might stumble through. But if the mercury plummets, then businesses and consumers could suffer a painful economic chill. The reason why Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, will be anxiously watching his thermometer is that Germany has fallen behind in its annual summer race to fill the country’s gas storage tanks in time for winter. The amount of gas in the storage facilities is the lowest for this time of year since records began in 2009. The tanks are only 51 percent full. By the start of November, the aim was to hit 70 percent, but most forecasters reckon there’s now little chance of getting anywhere past 60 percent by then.

UK - Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, has warned of a severe downturn in global stock markets if the AI bubble bursts. In a letter to G20 finance ministers, Mr Bailey raised concerns over the economic fallout if the debt-fuelled AI investment boom begins to unravel. He warned that the soaring levels of debt that have been used to fund AI “could amplify a future market correction”. If the valuation of AI companies starts to plummet, then investors face the prospect of losing trillions of dollars overnight. This could trigger a dangerous chain reaction if they are then forced to sell other assets. Mr Bailey said the risk was compounded by investors borrowing huge sums to invest in a small number of AI companies and data centre providers, pushing up their valuations to astronomical levels. He warned that a cyber attack at a major institution could rapidly unleash chaos across the world’s financial markets. His warning comes after a number of tech giants have reported incidents of AI agents going rogue, deceiving internal systems to launch cyber attacks elsewhere.

USA - A search is under way for 15 people feared missing after major flash flooding at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Floodwaters inundated remote canyon walking trails and a historic lodge where hikers were staying on Saturday afternoon, washing away footbridges and sweeping large boulders into the Colorado River. Video circulating on social media showed raging rapids carrying an entire bunkhouse downstream. By Sunday, the National Park Service and Arizona Department of Public Safety had evacuated more than 62 people, with no injuries reported.

UK - Shoppers face further price increases as shops and supermarkets pass on the rising costs of plastic packaging to consumers. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said that retailers have been hit by a tide of fees relating to packaging and the Government’s net zero policies. The “outdated” packaging recovery note (PRN) system alone has seen the average price per tonne of plastic double from around £180 in 2025 to more than £370 in 2026, according to analysis by the BRC. This means retailers will pay £100 million more this year because of the PRN costs alone. New levies on waste were rolled out last year, designed to further shift the financial burden of managing household packaging waste away from local authorities and taxpayers and on to businesses.

ICELAND - Iceland has rejected commencing accession talks to join the EU. Opponents defeated the measure in a referendum on Saturday, with 52.8 per cent of people voting No, against 47.2 per cent for Yes. The capital, Reykjavik, was the only part of the island nation of 400,000 people where a majority voted Yes. Public broadcaster RUV said on Sunday morning that, with only a few ballots left to be counted, “the nation rejects accession negotiations with the EU”. The result means any discussions of Icelandic accession are frozen at least until 2028 – an apparent disappointment to Brussels, which had appeared willing to compromise on thorny issues to facilitate Iceland’s accession.

ICELAND - Iceland’s decision not to reopen accession negotiations with the EU is a signal of the nation’s independence and a blow to Brussels’ sense of its own importance. In a referendum, the people of the Nordic isle voted 52.8 per cent to 47.2 per cent against new talks about membership. These were suspended a decade ago despite being well advanced amid a dispute about fishing rights. As one of Europe’s wealthiest countries per capita it would have become a net contributor to the EU’s budget had it joined, and it pays for access to the single market. So it was not money that convinced a majority to remain outside the full EU but once again the vexed issue of fishing. Iceland is a fierce defender of its rights, as Britain discovered during the so-called Cod Wars from the 1950s to the 1970s. Fishing is a major employer, making up nearly 10 per cent of the country’s GDP and 40 per cent of its exports.

USA - President Trump has made it official with a late in the day Friday Truth Social Post, announcing a deal has been struck with Venezuela for a US majority stake in more than 65 billion barrels of oil reserves, after six months of administration scrambling to control the Strait of Hormuz crisis. On Truth Social he called it the biggest oil deal in world history which comes "at no cost to" US taxpayers and which more than doubles the US oil reserve. "This Transaction will greatly strengthen the already growing relationship between Venezuela and the United States," Trump wrote in the post. Trump said the Venezuela deal should bring down prices at the pump. The average price of a gallon of gas in the US reached around $4.09 on Friday, a 27% increase year over year, according to AAA.