EUROPE - The European Central Bank is accelerating plans to unleash fresh growth-boosting measures as the eurozone's recovery loses steam and the risk increases of a geopolitical shock from the Ukraine crisis. Mario Draghi, president of the ECB, said that the Bank had "intensified preparatory work" on quantitative easing as a potential new weapon in its battle against deflation and economic stagnation. He revealed that the eurozone's policymakers were closer to using QE – which would inject cash into the eurozone by acquiring assets such as bonds from financial institutions – amid worrying signs that weak growth in the 18-member currency bloc is slowing further still.

UK - The “traditional rhythm” of cooking with the seasons is being lost because rising numbers of people fail to understand when particular fruit and vegetables should be eaten, according to research. Fewer than one-in-ten adults know when some of the UK’s best known produce is in season, it emerged. The study, by BBC Good Food Magazine, found that 90 per cent or more of those asked struggled to name the correct months when broad beans, blackberries or asparagus are in season. It was revealed that just four per cent of people could correctly say when plums were in season and only five per cent knew the three months blackberries were ripe for eating. Writing in the September issue of BBC Good Food Magazine investigative food journalist Joanna Blythman said: "The supermarkets' obsession with stocking every fruit and vegetable grown on the planet, every day of the year, makes it hard to detect the ebb and flow of seasonal produce."

IRAQ - Iraq has disintegrated. Little is exchanged between its three great communities – Shia, Sunni and Kurd – except gunfire. The outside world hopes that a more inclusive government will change this but it is probably too late. The main victor in the new war in Iraq is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) which wants to kill Shia rather than negotiate with them. Iraq is facing a civil war that could be as bloody as anything that we have seen in Syria and could go on for years.

UK - Consumers could be at risk as fears grow that thousands of animals stolen from farms each year are ending up on the dinner plate. It is a crime more usually associated with the Wild West, but farmers across the UK are reporting a huge increase in cases of livestock rustling. Rising meat prices for consumers are thought to be fuelling an explosion in the theft of sheep and cattle with tens of thousands of animals being stolen from farms each year.

ISRAEL - Israel’s agreement to some type of international force in Gaza after the fighting stops could create a precedent for demands for an international force in the West Bank as well, according to a Foreign Ministry document obtained by The Jerusalem Post. The seven-page paper, written by the ministry’s legal department, presents alternative models for the establishment of an international presence or mechanism in the Gaza Strip for the “day after” the fighting ends. The idea of a multinational force in the West Bank has been raised over the years by the Palestinians and others as a possible solution to Israel’s security concerns if it withdraws from the area. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has consistently opposed the proposals.

GERMANY - Largely unnoticed by the public, a commission of former defence politicians as well as military experts has been working to repeal the requirement that Bundeswehr (armed forces) operations abroad obtain parliamentary approval. The commission is headed by former defence minister Volker Rühe (CDU, Christian Democratic Union), his deputies are Walter Kolbow (SPD, Social Democratic Party), former parliamentary undersecretary of defence and Wolfgang Schneiderhan, former Bundeswehr inspector general. Their activity is closely related to the campaign to revive German militarism, and the stated aim of the government and the president that Germany must take on a greater role and responsibility in the world, including through the use of military means. The drive to abolish parliamentary approval for foreign military missions makes clear that the revival of an aggressive German militarism goes hand in hand with the dismantling of democratic checks and balances.

TURKEY - Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, won the country’s first direct election for president on Sunday, in a triumph for his bid to bolster his powers and change the system of government. Turkey’s high election board announced that according to preliminary results Mr Erdogan had obtained an absolute majority of valid votes, and that there was therefore no need for a second-round run-off. The race is seen as a turning point for a country that is strategically important, due to its location between the Middle East and Europe, but whose relationships with both the US and the EU have soured. His critics say his election will lead to a more authoritarian form of government – particularly after 14 months in which Mr Erdogan has cracked down on anti-government protests, largely derailed a corruption inquiry that he depicts as a coup attempt, and tried to ban Twitter. Both the US and the EU have highlighted their concern at such developments.

USA - Since January, Oklahoma has had 292 earthquakes that register a magnitude 3.0 or larger, more than any other state in the continental United States. That's nearly triple the 109 last year. Through 2008, Oklahoma averaged less than two a year. The unprecedented earthquake activity has put Oklahoma in the center of an emerging debate over whether the disposal of waste water from oil and gas production triggers earthquakes. It has prompted enactment of broad new rules that go into effect September 12.

UKRAINE - The New York Times reported almost in passing on Sunday that the Ukrainian government’s offensive against ethnic Russian rebels in the east has unleashed far-right paramilitary militias that have even raised a neo-Nazi banner over the conquered town of Marinka, just west of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk. That might seem like a big story – a US-backed military operation, which has inflicted thousands of mostly civilian casualties, is being spearheaded by neo-Nazis. But the consistent pattern of the mainstream US news media has been – since the start of the Ukraine crisis – to white-out the role of Ukraine’s brown-shirts. Only occasionally is the word “neo-Nazi” mentioned and usually in the context of dismissing this inconvenient truth as “Russian propaganda.” Yet the reality has been that neo-Nazis played a key role in the violent overthrow of elected President Viktor Yanukovych last February as well as in the subsequent coup regime holding power in Kiev and now in the eastern offensive.

NIGERIA - Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram could severely hinder efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak sweeping Nigeria, because they are opposed to Western medicine, a US diplomat warned last night. The concern follows a declaration of "national emergency" by President Goodluck Jonathan, who pledged £6.5 million to tackle the virus. The former US ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, told the Sunday Express: "There is no doubt that, when it comes to northern Nigeria, Boko Haram will make it very difficult. Boko Haram is intrinsically opposed to Western science and to Western medicine. It does not even recognise the existence of germs or viruses, because they are not mentioned in the Koran."

UK - Boris Johnson will today declare Britain has ‘nothing to be afraid of’ in pulling out of Europe – putting him dramatically at odds with David Cameron. In his most powerful intervention yet on the European Union, the London Mayor says the UK would have a ‘great and glorious future’ if it set itself free from ‘job-destroying’ Brussels. He will argue that if the Prime Minister’s hopes of renegotiating our relationship with the EU fail, we should consider leaving altogether and forging trade relationships with the rest of the world. Describing EU-inspired red tape as ‘back-breaking’ and ‘grinding’, he will claim our economy could surge if it leaves behind such regulatory burdens and enters into its own relationships with growing economies such as China and Brazil. ‘We have nothing to be afraid of in going for an alternative future, a Britain open not just to the rest of Europe but to the world,’ he will say. ‘If we get it right it’s win-win.’

MIDDLE EAST - Lying among a pile of papers at the hideout in Pakistan where Osama Bin Laden was shot dead was a carefully worded 21-page letter. It warned of the rise of a new and ruthless group of Islamic extremists capable of such extreme brutality that Al Qaeda should sever all links with them. In fact, it claimed the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (or ISIS) had such complete disregard for civilian life that it could damage the reputation of Al Qaeda – if such a thing were possible for an organisation that has long traded in murderous terrorism. The document, written by one of Bin Laden’s senior officials in 2011, went on to catalogue some of its acts of barbarism – including the use of chlorine gas as a chemical weapon, bombing mosques and a massacre in a Catholic church in Baghdad. ISIS, now called Islamic State, has control of an area larger than Great Britain.

EUROPE - There is growing dissent in the EU over policies that led to a de facto trade war with Russia. Meanwhile the countries not toeing the line are reaping the benefits, irritating those who jumped on the sanctions bandwagon. Greek members of the European Parliament demanded Sunday that the EU cancel sanctions against Russia. MEPs Kostantinos Papadakis and Sotiris Zarianopoulos said in a letter to some senior EU officials that Russia’s ban on food import from the EU, which was Moscow’s response to anti-Russian sanctions, was ruinous to Greek agriculture. “Thousands of small- and middle-sized Greek farms producing fruit and vegetables and selling them primarily to the Russian market have been hit hard now as their unsold products are now rotting at warehouses,” the letter said.

MIDDLE EAST - Islamic State militants have directly threatened Turkey with violence as they swore to “liberate” Istanbul in order to reopen a dam on the Euphrates River. Water flow to parts of Syria and Iraq is at a record low. The apparent closure is especially unfavorable to the terrorist group, as its new ‘capital’ Raqqa, in northern Syria, is in that zone. This is creating a humanitarian catastrophe as water levels plummet in nearby Lake Assad. In a new Vice documentary episode on the IS militia, one member warns that if the Turkish government doesn’t open the Euphrates Dam back up, the group will do it for them by “liberating” Istanbul.

MIDDLE EAST - In an attempt to protect their secrets from being revealed to the Israeli security forces, Hamas has executed tens of Gazan tunnel diggers in the last few weeks. The mass execution is said to have taken place after attempts from Hamas to make sure that the excavators knew nothing of the locations in which they were digging. According to the Israeli website Mako, extreme precautions were used by Hamas.