SWITZERLAND - Pasta in refillable containers, a return to decent lids for hummus and water bottles made from agricultural waste could be coming your way if the world passes an ambitious new plastic pollution treaty this month. More than 170 countries are meeting in Geneva from Tuesday for the final fortnight of negotiations to tackle the scourge of plastic waste highlighted by Sir David Attenborough. The final shape of the world’s first treaty on the issue will depend on how ambitious the deal is in tackling the 435 million tonnes of plastic produced annually, a figure experts fear could increase by 70 per cent without action. If the treaty includes caps on plastic production as well as action on recycling, as campaigners hope, it could mean changes for how Britons shop, eat and deal with waste.

USA - Why are we suddenly seeing so much seismic activity all over the planet? Volcanoes just keep erupting one after another, and we just keep witnessing unusual earthquake swarms on major fault lines throughout the world. Last Tuesday, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck along the Pacific Ring of Fire near the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia caused quite a bit of panic. Only five earthquakes that have ever been recorded have been larger than that earthquake.

USA - When asked how far the US government has plunged into the red, many fiscally-conscious Americans will tell you the national debt has reached $37 trillion. As distressing as that official number is, America’s true fiscal situation is even worse — far worse. According to a barely-publicized Treasury report, the actual grand total of Uncle Sam’s obligations is more than $151 trillion. That huge discrepancy springs from the fact that the federal government doesn’t hold itself to the same accounting standards it imposes on businesses. Rather than using accrual accounting — which recognizes expenses when they’re incurred — our Washington overlords self-servingly use simple cash accounting, only recognizing expenses when they’re paid. As a result, discourse on federal obligations solely focuses on the national debt, comprising Treasury bills, notes and bonds.

USA - "I've not seen any evidence of aliens. SpaceX, with the Starlink constellation, has roughly 6,000 satellites — and not once have we had to maneuver around a UFO.” Musk’s comment shows how big the Starlink network is but also highlights there is still no proof of aliens. The satellites mainly provide global internet service. His words reflect continued public interest in extraterrestrial life, even though space efforts have not found any signs yet. SpaceX just launched 19 new Starlink satellites from foggy Vandenberg, marking its 94th mission of the year. Booster 1071 made its 27th trip, landing like clockwork. That’s just two shy of SpaceX’s reuse record. The satellites will join the 8,000-strong @Starlink mega-network now wrapping Earth.

VATICAN - Pope Leo XIV on Sunday told more than a million Catholic youths at a closing Mass for a weeklong encounter with the next generation of faithful that they are “the sign that a different world is possible” where conflicts can be resolved with dialogue, not weapons. In his closing blessing for the Jubilee of Youth, Leo remembered the young people of Gaza and Ukraine and other countries at war who could not join their celebration. “We are closer than ever to young people who suffer the most serious evils, which are caused by other human beings,” Leo said. “We are with the young people of Gaza. We are with the young people of Ukraine, with those of every land bloodied by war.” The special Jubilee celebration is part of the Holy Year that is expected to draw 32 million people to the Vatican for the centuries-old pilgrimage to the seat of Catholicism. The Vatican said more than 1 million young people were present, along with 7,000 priests and 450 bishops.

THE NETHERLANDS - Dutch politician Geert Wilders posted his support for the hostages held by Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip, saying that "victims don't hold hostages." "Victims don't hold hostages. Savages do." "Heroes support the hostages, Traitors support Hamas and call for sanctions. What side are you on?" Wilders posted. In the post, Wilders highlights the southeastern coastline of the country's Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in red, and writes: "Here will be the new Palestinian state. Big parts of France are already Islamic anyway." "Good luck [French President] Emmanuel Macron and France! Happy suicide!" he addressed the French leader. "The Netherlands will close its borders immediately."

GERMANY - Germany hails drop in asylum claims, citing tough Merz policies. The German government has hailed a drop in first-time asylum seekers entering the country as proof its tough migration policies work, despite accusations they undermine European Union rules. The number of initial asylum applications halved in the first six months of the year, falling from 140,783 between January and July last year to 70,011 in the same period this year. “We have massively reduced the number of initial asylum applications compared to last year,” said Alexander Dobrindt, the German interior minister. “We are declaring an even tougher fight against the smugglers, because the state must regulate who comes into our country, not the criminal smuggling gangs.”

ISRAEL - Israel’s ultra-nationalist security minister has provoked outrage by praying on the Temple Mount, violating a long-standing agreement between Israel and the Arab world. Jews are forbidden from prayer at the east Jerusalem site under the “status quo” agreement made between Israel and Jordan in 1967. It is the holiest site in Judaism and also the location of the Al-Aqsa mosque. Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Temple Mount while Jews around the world marked the Tisha B’Av fast day, commemorating the destruction of the first and second Holy Temples. He was filmed at the site leading a Jewish prayer. He said: “It is precisely from here, a message must be sent [to Hamas]: to ensure that we conquer all of the Gaza Strip, declare sovereignty over the entire Gaza Strip, take down every Hamas member, and encourage voluntary migration. Only in this way will we bring back the hostages and win the war.”

MIDDLE EAST - Hamas has said its “armed resistance” will continue until an “independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital” is established. Hamas has today responded to Sir Keir’s announcement – and the request of Arab states including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt that Hamas disarm – by responding to the offer that if they refuse a cease fire they can have a state by saying, quelle surprise, that their “resistance” will continue. Today’s statement by Hamas is not in any way revealing. There is nothing that would surprise anyone who has any understanding of who and what Hamas is. It merely underlines the madness of treating Hamas as some sort of negotiating partner, rather than as a terrorist organisation which must be destroyed.

EUROPE - Starting in the 18th century, European colonialism took over vast territories in Africa and Asia. Since the second half of the 20th century, and with the independence of European colonies, most European countries granted citizens of their former colonies the right to immigrate to the “motherland.” This led to mass immigration from African and Asian countries into Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

UK - The recent crime data shows what we’ve long-suspected, but it is staggering nonetheless. Foreign-born prisoners in UK jails are at record highs, with foreign prisoners making up 85% of the population in some London prisons. This direct link between migration and crime is there in black and white for all to see. Despite the overall prison population in England and Wales falling, foreign prisoner numbers rose by over 3%.

GERMANY - Soaring migration figures are a common theme across Europe, yet one country is leading the way on reducing spiralling numbers. While previous German governments had a softer approach to the issue, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s hard-line stance has cut asylum seeker numbers down drastically. "Germany is leading in some of these very important talks," Denmark’s immigration minister Kaare Dybvad said. The EU country’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt recently hosted government officials from several countries with a similar tough stance on migration, such as Poland, Denmark and Austria. "We want to make it clear that Germany is no longer in the brakeman’s cab when it comes to migration issues in Europe but is part of the driving force," the minister said.

UK - The number of foreigners in prisons for serious violent, sexual and theft offences has surged over the past year, according to official data published for the first time. Some 1,731 foreign criminals are in prison in England and Wales for sexual offences, one in eight of the foreign ­offender prison population and 10.6 per cent of all sex offenders in prisons. This number has risen by nearly 10 per cent in the past 12 months, a rate of increase nearly three times higher than that of British people imprisoned for sexual offences. Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, blamed “uncontrolled immigration” and called on Sir Keir Starmer to introduce emergency measures to deport the entire foreign prisoner population by threatening to suspend visas from countries that refused to take them back.

UK - The air traffic control company responsible for Britain’s skies embraced home working in a drive to “go green”, The Telegraph can disclose. Many staff at National Air Traffic Services (Nats) have been allowed to work remotely after managers decided it would help the organisation reduce its carbon footprint and cut car journeys to reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2035. The “agile working” policy does not include air traffic controllers themselves, as those people all still work inside secure control centres. However, it extends up to board level including chief executive Martin Rolfe, and also allows some operations staff to work from home. They are allowed to do so despite Nats being criticised for an air traffic control meltdown in 2023, which lasted for four hours in part because an on-call engineer who could have fixed a malfunctioning computer system was working from home and unable to gain full access. A subsequent failure for around half an hour on Wednesday triggered more than 150 cancellations and disrupted tens of thousands of holidaymakers.

UK - There is a tendency in British political discourse to overuse the word “Orwellian”. But there can be no better term to describe the behaviour of the Labour Government in deploying a secretive “spy” unit to monitor social media for posts critical of asylum seekers or “two tier” policing – and then request that this content be concealed from public view.