USA - We just got confirmation that inflation is starting to accelerate once again. That is really bad news, because the cost of living has already been stressing people out all over the country. In fact, one recent survey found that 86 percent of Americans are stressed out about grocery prices. But it isn’t just the cost of food that has been going up. We have been getting slammed by double-digit price increases in every direction, and that is having enormous consequences. Our standard of living is eroding with each passing month, and as a result the middle class is steadily shrinking.

EUROPE - When Vladimir Putin meets with Donald Trump in Alaska tomorrow, it will represent the best chance at peace in Europe in the three and a half years since Russia’s invasion reignited the conflict in Ukraine. This does not mean that peace should be pursued at all costs. It is to Mr Trump’s credit that he has indicated that no deal will be made without the consent of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. It is to his credit, also, that he has stated his willingness to impose sanctions if negotiations prove unsuccessful. Mr Trump must stand by this.

UK - Britain is today less energy secure than ever before. UK energy production has declined by 67 percent over the past two decades. That means we have gone from a position of being a net exporter of energy, creating jobs and tax in this country to importing around half of our energy. British bill-payers are creating jobs and tax revenue in other countries instead. Last year marked a record low for UK energy production – despite there being decades worth of oil and gas left in the country and the Government dishing out billions in subsidies to wind and solar developers. How has this been allowed to happen? The answer is simple: policies from Labour and Conservative governments have been driven by the ideological pursuit of net zero to the detriment of energy security and ordinary taxpayers.

UK - Reform UK Member of Parliament Sarah Pochin has urged that Britain is facing a full on invasion from Muslim men who hold “medieval” views and that it isn’t surprising that British men are forming vigilante groups in preparation. Appearing on Talk TV, Pochin warned “it’s no wonder that we’re now hearing about groups of concerned British men mobilizing themselves into guardian angel style street patrols.” “The inconvenient truth for the left is that the culture of men from predominantly Muslim countries like Afghanistan is one that holds a medieval view of women’s rights,” Pochin further asserted. "This is an invasion on our culture!"

USA - In the 20 years that Erika Swanton has worked in retail on the Las Vegas Strip, she has never known summer business to be so slow. The number of customers visiting the skincare shop she works in has halved. “I’ve never seen the economy like this, not even in 2008,” she says. “People used to come to Las Vegas and spend money. Now they’re scared to spend.” Vegas has always been a place of extravagance, a luxury destination where tourists can embrace the carefree hedonism of gambling, boozing and spending. But now Sin City tourism is in a slump.

UK - Chancellor Rachel Reeves can only watch as gilt yields climb higher. Long-term UK borrowing costs have just hit their highest level in 27 years, in the latest blow for our beleaguered Chancellor. As I write, 30-year gilt yields have climbed above 5.5%. That’s almost 20% higher than when Labour took power just over a year ago, when they were around 4.6%. Incredibly, it's also the highest number since 1998. For a country with a massive £3 trillion debt pile, that’s punishing. And there’s little Rachel Reeves can do to stop it, because this time the trigger lies in Washington. I warned a US financial storm was heading our way a few days ago, and it's already landing. Last night we had confirmation that Donald Trump’s tariffs are driving up US inflation, and the UK government bond market is reeling from the shock. Where US inflation goes, ours tends to follow. As does the interest we pay on our debts.

FRANCE - Threats from Muslim youths have forced a Paris suburban council to cancel a screening of the film Barbie, prompting an outcry and a criminal complaint by the government. The incident in Noisy-le-Sec, in the heart of the ethnically mixed Seine-Saint-Denis département, has played into widespread anxiety about attempts by activist members of the country’s six million Muslim population to impose their traditions on French life. The 2023 film, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie, was to be shown as part of a council-organised free outdoor cinema for people in poor districts during the summer holidays. The incident in a Paris suburb plays into anxiety about cultural conflict in France, whose government says Islamists may be trying to undermine society.

ALASKA - Donald Trump says that within two minutes of meeting Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, he will know “exactly whether or not a deal can get done” to end the war in Ukraine. For the Ukrainians and Europeans, there is more than just a whiff of Munich about this summit, with neither party receiving an invitation for the crunch talks. In 1938, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Édouard Daladier and Neville Chamberlain agreed to carve up Czechoslovakia without representation from the Czech government.

ALASKA - Donald Trump is preparing to offer Vladimir Putin access to rare earth minerals to incentivise him to end the war in Ukraine. The US president will arrive at the much-anticipated meeting with his Russian counterpart on Friday armed with a number of money-making opportunities for Putin. They will include opening up Alaska’s natural resources to Moscow and lifting some of the American sanctions on Russia’s aviation industry, The Telegraph can reveal.

USA - Maintaining a strong dollar has been an article of faith in US economic policy for as long as I can remember. But all that may be about to change. Already, Donald Trump has shattered post-war convention by imposing some of the highest tariffs since the notorious Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. It goes without saying that a weaker dollar furthers Trump’s protectionist goals by making imports more expensive and exports cheaper. And now he’s alighted on just the man who might help bring that devaluation about – Stephen Miran, the chairman of the council of economic advisers.

ALASKA - Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are meeting on the far side of the world, and Europe is not invited. Ukraine will obviously be on the Anchorage summit’s agenda, but it may not even be the top item. Instead the two leaders could choose to find common ground over arms control and nuclear security. Getting Russia to rejoin the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty which Moscow abandoned soon after its invasion of Ukraine would be one positive trust-building breakthrough. Another is dividing up the mineral wealth of the Arctic. Mr Trump has taken pains to lower expectations of a Ukraine ceasefire, instead describing the Anchorage summit as “a feel-out meeting” to see what Putin “has in mind”. If the US president feels that Putin is offering a “fair deal” he promised to “reveal it to the European Union leaders and to Nato leaders and also to President Zelensky”.

USA - The rivalry between two of the world’s most powerful technology billionaires is moving into a new arena — the race to link human minds directly with machines. Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, was once an ally of Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX boss. Now the former partners are preparing to face off in the fast-developing field of brain–computer interfaces (BCIs). These systems typically use artificial intelligence to translate brain activity into commands a computer can follow. They have enabled people with paralysis to control devices using only their thoughts. Advocates believe BCIs will one day allow humans to merge with advanced AI. Musk’s company, Neuralink, began testing its technology on patients in the US last year and recently gained approval for a trial in Britain, its first in Europe. Altman is now backing a rival, Merge Labs, which aims to harness recent advances in AI to make BCIs faster and more capable, according to the Financial Times.

DENMARK - There was a time when Danish wind farm behemoth Ørsted was the toast of its homeland. Its transition from one of the most coal-intensive utilities on the planet to a trailblazer in offshore wind energy over the space of just a few years was hailed as one of the most remarkable corporate transformations ever witnessed. What’s more, it was widely regarded as firm evidence that those who had built the current energy system were the right people to spearhead the creation of an entirely new one. Yet it was a spectacularly short-lived renaissance even by the profligate standards of the renewables industry. Indeed, the company has quickly gone from being a source of great pride to national embarrassment as the wheels come off the miraculous Ørsted reinvention at alarming speed. The succession of recent chief executives has a lot to answer for. A company that has tended to build wind farms whatever the cost is now discovering the importance of building ones that make money.

UK - Humiliation for Keir Starmer as half of Labour supporters say his government is failing. Sir Keir Starmer has rejected demands for an immediate general election after more than 700,000 people signed a petition. The petition on the official Parliament website called for a fresh ballot, which is not due until 2029, to be held following Labour's landslide victory in July last year. It said: "We want an immediate general election to be held. We think the majority need and want change." The petition has now received a response from the Government after receiving well over the required 10,000 signatures. Sir Keir and Chancellor Rachel Reeves are reportedly set to make the case for more tax rises in the run-up to the Budget, expected in November, but any increases are likely to dent Labour’s popularity further.

UK - Our country has changed. I remember a time when calling the police meant they would actually come. Now? When my kids were robbed, the police told me there weren’t enough resources to send someone. I had to do the dangerous legwork myself. I risked my life and the press called me “vigilante mum.” Well, Reform is for every vigilante mum out there. For every parent who feels sick with worry when their kids leave the house, for every parent who’s been looked down on, ignored, insulted, and silenced. For everyone fighting to protect their family – only to be told to “calm down and shut up” while the Government places unvetted foreign men on their doorstep.