MIDDLE EAST - The US has lost nearly $2 billion worth of military equipment amid its military operations against Iran since Saturday, according to estimates and data compiled by Anadolu.The chief driver of the cost is a US AN/FPS-132 early warning radar system at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, valued at $1.1 billion, which was hit with a missile strike by Iran on Saturday. Qatar confirmed that the radar was hit and damaged. On Sunday, 3 F-15E Strike Eagles were lost in a friendly fire incident by Kuwaiti air defenses. While all six aircrew survived, the planes did not; the cost of replacing them is estimated at $282 million. Iran also claimed to have destroyed the AN/TPY-2 radar component of the THAAD Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) System deployed at Al-Ruwais Industrial City in the United Arab Emirates. Satellite imagery through open-source intelligence reports suggests that there has been a hit. The destroyed radar component is estimated to be worth $500 million. Combining these costs, Iran has damaged $1.902 billion worth of US military assets in the region.

IRAN - The war between the United States, Israel, and the Iranian regime dramatically escalated Saturday night after Israeli forces, coordinating with US military assets, launched massive strikes targeting Iranian oil infrastructure in and around Tehran. Israel’s public broadcaster KAN reported that the Israeli Air Force struck oil storage depots and refinery facilities in Tehran. Israeli officials confirmed that the operation focused on fuel depots and energy infrastructure believed to support Iran’s military operations. Massive fires were reported at storage facilities as explosions rocked parts of Tehran late Saturday.

USA - Breaking: BlackRock just froze $1.2 billion in withdrawal requests at its private credit fund.

Here's what happened:

• Investors in BlackRock's $26 billion fund asked to pull out 9.3% of their money
• BlackRock said no — capped withdrawals at 5%
• Blackstone's $82 billion fund saw record withdrawal requests the same week
• Blackstone had to put in $400 million of its own cash to cover the exits

Two of the biggest funds on the planet are limiting how much you can take out. This is a major red flag. Something big is coming.

IRAN - Defiant Iran hardliners rejoiced this morning as Ali Khamenei's son was named the new Supreme Leader - while vowing to increase missile attacks on infrastructure. Mojtaba Khamenei, excluded from a list of three senior clerics his father reportedly identified last year, was on Sunday announced as the Ayatollah's successor after being appointed by the regime's 88-person assembly. The leader has strong links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and was chosen by Iran's Assembly of Experts 'under pressure from the Revolutionary Guards', according to Iranian media. 'The governments of Islamic countries are expected to warn the criminal America and the savage Zionist regime of such cowardly, inhumane actions as soon as possible,' Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for Iran's central military command told state TV. 'Otherwise, similar measures will be taken in the region, and if you can tolerate oil at more than $200 per barrel, continue this game.'

UK - Ministers admit Keir Starmer's 'reset' with EU will hammer thousands of businesses with costly Brussels red tape even if they don't trade with the bloc, sparking fresh accusations of Brexit 'betrayal'. Critics branded it a 'betrayal' of the historic 2016 Brexit vote and warned it was an act of 'self-harm' that could bankrupt businesses after Labour's national insurance hikes on employers, hikes in the minimum wage and costly new employment laws. They also warned it would further damage relations with the US, which wants closer trade with the UK on food and agricultural products. The deal, known as 'dynamic alignment' in Brussels, means handing oversight of trade in food and agricultural products back to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and effectively becoming a rule-taker - even over future new regulations - while having no say over them.

UK - So, let’s take stock for a moment of the damage that Sir Keir Starmer has inflicted in less than a fortnight to this country’s global reputation. We are a nuclear power, a P5 country – one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The UK is, by tradition, the second most important player in Nato, which is still the most successful military alliance in history. We are in the G7. In spite of all the fiscal vandalism of Starmer and his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, the UK remains the fifth or sixth biggest economy in the world. We have superlative security and intelligence services, and colossal reach and influence. Yet Starmer has somehow contrived to make us not merely a laughing stock but something actually worse – a piffling irrelevance.

USA - Donald Trump has told Sir Keir Starmer that the US does not need Britain to send its aircraft carriers to the Middle East. The US President said he 'will remember' the lack of British support for his war with Iran, describing the UK as 'our once great ally' in an extraordinary attack on the Prime Minister. Trump's scathing post came after it emerged the UK was preparing to deploy HMS Prince of Wales, one of its two aircraft carriers, to the Middle East as the conflict with Iran intensifies and criticism mounts over Britain's military response.

CYPRUS - The president of Cyprus was appalled to discover that Britain was unprepared for the drone attack on Akrotiri last week. Our response has been to dust down HMS Dragon in Portsmouth and start to arm her, hoping she’ll set sail next week and — with luck — arrive the week after. In a panic, the Cypriots turned to Greece (as normal) then Spain and France (unprecedented) asking to be protected from the risk Britain’s bases had exposed them to. They didn’t have to wait long. Greek frigates and F-16s were on the island within hours. A French warship is there already, soon to be joined by a full air wing. Spain, Italy and the Netherlands are following in one way or another. If HMS Dragon ever does reach Cyprus, the cavalry from half of Europe will have long since arrived to the defence of Brits and Cypriots alike. Quite the humiliation.

MIDDLE EAST - If the war with Iran persists for an extended period of time, a lot of people could literally starve. Approximately half of all global food production is dependent on the use of fertilizer. Without fertilizer, crop yields would drop precipitously and there wouldn’t be anywhere near enough food for everyone. Even now, hundreds of millions of people are going to bed hungry every night, and there are severe food shortages in quite a few African nations. This is a trend that I have been closely monitoring for quite some time. We are at a very serious tipping point, and approximately one-fourth of all globally traded nitrogen fertilizer normally travels through the Strait of Hormuz. If we can’t get that fertilizer into the hands of those that need it, we are going to have a major crisis on our hands. At this moment, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has essentially been paralyzed…

DENMARK - One of the world's biggest container shipping groups, said on Friday it ​has temporarily suspended two services linking ‌the Middle East to Asia and Europe as the Iran conflict continues to disrupt global supply ​chains. The Danish group said in a ​ statement it would halt its FM1 service ⁠connecting the Far East to the ​Middle East and its ME11 service linking the ​Middle East to Europe. "This decision has been taken as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of ​our personnel and vessels while minimizing ​operational disruption across our wider network," Maersk said in ‌an ⁠advisory to customers. Tensions in the Middle East have escalated sharply after the United States and Israel launched their most ambitious attacks on ​Iran in decades ​on ⁠Saturday in an operation that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.