UK - The sexual abuse of about 1,400 children at the hands of Asian men went unreported for 16 years because staff feared they would be seen as racist, a report said today. Children as young as 11 were trafficked, beaten, and raped by large numbers of men between 1997 and 2013 in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, the council commissioned review into child protection revealed. And shockingly, more than a third of the cases were already known to agencies.

USA - On the surface, the cases appear nearly identical: Michael Brown and Dillon Taylor, two young, unarmed men with sketchy criminal pasts shot to death by police officers two days apart. But while the world knows of the highly publicized situation involving 18-year-old Mr Brown, whose August 9 death in Ferguson, Missouri touched off violence, protests and an angry national debate, most people outside Utah have never heard of 20-year-old Mr Taylor.

USA/CHINA - A few days ago I had a conversation with the Chief Operating Officer for our agricultural fund in Chile. We were discussing water, and he told me that roughly 60% of California right now is suffering “extreme drought” conditions. 30% of the state is in “severe drought”. And 10% of the state is only under “drought”. In other words, roughly the entire state – the 8th largest economy in the world– is facing a severe shortage of water. But if you think that’s bad, China is about to take over the spotlight yet again.

MIDDLE EAST - In 1981 six Arab monarchies, which today control about a fifth of the world’s oil supply, formed the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). As the war between Iraq and Iran intensified, the Sunni Arab sheikhdoms of the Gulf peninsula - Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar - originally came together in theory to form a Middle Eastern version of the European Union. Although the group has no formal political charter like the EU, it still provides the only official forum where all six leaders of these oil-rich countries can sit down together to debate and agree on mutually beneficial policies in the region.

MIDDLE EAST - A ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinians aimed at ending their seven-week conflict in Gaza went into effect on Tuesday and joyous Palestinians streamed into the streets of the battered enclave to celebrate. No clear victor emerged from what had become a war of attrition between the Middle East's most powerful armed forces and the dominant Hamas militant movement in the Gaza Strip.

UKRAINE - In the framework of the 4-country agreement signed on 8 August between Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia, information on the progress and results of the investigation of the disaster will remain classified. This was confirmed at a briefing in Kiev under the auspices of the office of the Prosecutor General Yuri Boychenko. In his words, the results of the investigation will be published once completed only if a consensus agreement of all parties that have signed the agreement prevails.

UK - Britain is at risk of being “sanitised” of faith because an “aggressive form of secularism” in workplaces and public bodies is forcing Christians to hide their beliefs, a former attorney general has warned. Dominic Grieve said he found it “quite extraordinary” that people were being sacked or disciplined for expressing their beliefs at work. He described Christianity as a “powerful force for good” in modern Britain and warned that Christians should not be “intimidated” and “excluded” for their beliefs. He said that politicians and public figures should not be afraid of “doing God” and that they have a duty to explain how their beliefs inform their decisions.

USA - The US FDA prevents such things as artisanal cheese and butter being imported from Europe, products that have been in use for hundreds of years and don't make people sick, but - speaking of sick - this breathtakingly corrupt agency is allowing big food processors to grow food in the US but then process it in China in facilities with far less stringent regulation, and send it back here for us to eat! Worse, the producers only have to say where it was grown, not where it was processed! There would appear to be no good explanation for this except corruption at the highest levels - not necessarily illegal corruption, but friendly handshaking between the executives of big food processors and FDA administrators. One thing is very clear: of least importance to the FDA is its obligation to protect us and our children. Far more important is to enable big food processors to increase their profits.

UK - Depending on the force of the explosion, minute particles thrust beyond the earth’s atmosphere can trigger DECADES of chaotic weather patterns. Tiny pieces of debris act as billions of shields reflecting the sun’s light away from earth meaning winter temperatures could plunge lower than ever before while summer will be devoid of sunshine. The first effect could be a bitterly cold winter to arrive in weeks with thermometers plunging into minus figures and not rising long before next summer. Weathermen say the effect in the UK could be nothing short of catastrophic if an explosion is strong enough.

UK - Inbuilt GPS is an essential feature of most modern mobile phones, with Google Maps, one of the most widely-downloaded apps on the App Store, a must for pinpointing your location and getting around. But did you know that your iPhone is using that GPS to track your every move, and store data about your whereabouts every time you use your device? Privacy campaigners were outraged in 2011 when two British software developers discovered that Apple had been tracking users' location in a hidden data file. The latest discovery, which most iPhone users will have turned on without thinking, is likely to raise more than a few questions about just why this data is being stored, and who has access to it.

USA - The federal government is spending nearly $1 million to create an online database that will track “misinformation” and hate speech on Twitter. The National Science Foundation is financing the creation of a web service that will monitor “suspicious memes” and what it considers “false and misleading ideas,” with a major focus on political activity online. The “Truthy” database, created by researchers at Indiana University, is designed to “detect political smears, astroturfing, misinformation, and other social pollution.” The government-funded researchers hope that the public will use their tool in the future to report on other Twitter users.

EUROPE - Europe will remain heavily reliant on Russian gas for at least another decade, according to a leading rating agency. Fitch said a lack of alternative sources meant policymakers would have no choice but to continue buying gas from Russia until at least the mid-2020s and "potentially much longer". Europe already buys a quarter of its gas from Russia, and analysts expect consumption to increase by a third by 2030 as economies recover from the debt crisis and gas-fired electricity generation replaces old coal and nuclear power.

UK - The Prime Minister has always refused to say he would campaign to sever ties if he failed to achieve his promised reforms, but he is now poised to issue the warning, according to reports. Mr Cameron has pledged that a Conservative government would hold a referendum on EU membership by the end of 2017 after renegotiating London's relationship with Brussels.

UK - Last week, two men in the world of football lost their jobs and suffered widespread public ridicule for things they said in private conversations. I can’t be the only person who finds this outrageous. I don’t particularly care what was in Malky Mackay and Iain Moody’s text messages; I care about the Enlightenment-era principle that, in the words of the great 17th century jurist Edward Coke, “No man shall be examined upon the secret thoughts of his heart, or of his secret opinion”. In other words, we should never be punished in public for what we think or say or believe in private. That principle, that central ideal of civilised society, has now been breached, and we should be very worried that this has happened. If society now truly believes that it is legitimate to punish people for their private speech, then we need to recognise that no area of life, not a single zone of it, remains safe for letting off steam, for being unguarded, for speaking freely and stupidly and, yes, sometimes wickedly. Are you okay with that?

UK - Britons who travel to Syria and Iraq without informing the authorities should be presumed to be potential terrorists until proved innocent, Boris Johnson says. In an article for The Telegraph, Mr Johnson warns that police are finding it “very difficult” to press charges against suspected jihadists without direct evidence of their “ghastly” activities. He suggests there should be a “swift and minor change in the law” to introduce a new “rebuttable presumption” that those who travel to war zones without notifying the authorities have done so for “terrorist purposes”. Mr Johnson says Britain needs to help to “close down” the Islamic caliphate before it is too late, adding that “doing nothing is surely worst of all”.