UK - Britain will be battered by two named storms in just 24 hours as the country faces damaging winds and travel disruption from Storm Austen followed by Storm Boelo. Forecasters issued an amber wind warning for the far South West ahead of Austen's arrival around midnight, as well as yellow warnings for much of the rest of England. The amber warning is in place from 1am to 10am tomorrow for Devon and Cornwall, where gusts of 60 to 70mph will develop with some exposed areas expecting 80mph. Power cuts may affect homes, while some buildings may be damaged and a 'danger to life' is likely from large waves and beach material being thrown onto coastal roads. A yellow warning for wind is in place for a wider region of the South West as well as South Wales and along England's South Coast between midnight and 5pm tomorrow. Strong winds are expected to spread across southern England tonight and tomorrow, with gusts of 50 to 60mph likely and some exposed areas seeing 70mph or above. Another yellow wind warning has been issued for the South East including London, as well as the Midlands and parts of the North West, from 10am to 9pm tomorrow.

MIDDLE EAST - The Pentagon is sending the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit to the Middle East, two US officials confirmed to Fox News on Tuesday. This follows a US official telling The Jerusalem Post on October 1 that the aircraft carrier and a unit of US Marines would be sent to US Central Command (CENTCOM)'s sphere of operations. The USS Makin Island amphibious ready group also departed San Diego, carrying the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the Post reported at the time. According to Fox's report, the aircraft carrier group is due to arrive in the Middle East by the end of November. Currently, two other US aircraft carriers are deployed in the region, namely the USS George H W Bush, which arrived in April, and the USS George Washington, which arrived in August to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln.

ISRAEL - Israel is monitoring Iranian efforts to rebuild its military capabilities following the damage Tehran sustained during Operation Roaring Lion, with security officials warning that developments could force Israel to defend itself despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's desire to avoid escalation ahead of the elections, according to assessments discussed in recent Israeli security consultations. Intelligence indicating that Iran is working to restore its military capabilities following the blows it sustained during Operation Roaring Lion was examined during security discussions held in Israel. According to officials familiar with the discussions, "Netanyahu wants the elections to take place as planned and on schedule, something that would not be possible if Israel were in a state of emergency involving fighting against Iran."

UK - People are being urged to carry emergency cash after banking apps crashed during a system failure at a Google data centre in London. Several banking apps stopped working on Tuesday morning because of problems with Google Cloud, which is relied on by a number of major financial organisations. Banks including Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays and Revolut were affected. Customers complained of being left without access to their money and unable to buy food and fuel. NHS England was also disrupted, with users of its app temporarily blocked from viewing or amending appointments. Lord Harris of Haringey, the chairman of the national preparedness commission, said it was a “reminder that systems can fail, whether because of an outage, or indeed, an attack from a hostile state”. He said: “Whatever the cause on this occasion, it is important that retailers continue to accept cash – not all of them do – and it makes sense for all of us to carry a certain amount of cash, if we can do so, just in case."

UK - Britain’s national debt has climbed above £3 trillion for the first time, official figures showed. Total borrowings rose to £3.005 trillion in September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), underlining the pressure on the public finances before John Healey’s Budget. Surging borrowing costs triggered by the war in Iran were to blame for the latest increase in debt, which is rising much quicker than expected. Monthly deficit figures revealed the Chancellor borrowed £24.5 billion to plug the gap between tax receipts and government spending in September. The scale of the debt is a significant headache for Mr Healey, who vowed to make “fiscal discipline” his top priority. At £3 trillion, the national debt equates to more than £100,000 per British household and is equivalent to 94 percent of GDP.

UK - It’s becoming fashionable to dismiss warnings about electricity blackouts as scaremongering. Yet two reports published this week raise serious questions about the security of Britain’s electricity grid, while a succession of incidents this month suggests the problems are far from resolved. On June 23, grid frequency fell below its normal operating range for an extended period. Frequency is essentially a measure of supply versus demand. The two must be balanced to ensure a stable electricity grid. The National Energy System Operator (NESO) sought emergency assistance from neighbouring countries, while five constraints on the transmission network were breached. NESO continues to rely on ageing software, vulnerable communications systems and manual processes. Eversheds identified high levels of stress among control room staff and a culture in which experienced operators had either left or stopped raising concerns. Electricity security is not measured by whether the lights stayed on yesterday – it’s measured by whether the system can withstand the failures that might reasonably occur tomorrow. With so many identifiable risks, worrying about blackouts is not scaremongering. Dismissing those concerns without properly addressing them is the bigger danger.

FRANCE - Emmanuel Macron continues to struggle to keep the lid on the burgeoning disorder rampaging through France. A weekend of looting and violence saw thousands of arrests and scores of injuries to both police and protestors. The French president took to the airwaves on Sunday to condemn the rioters and blame far-Left agitators for hijacking what began weeks ago as a demonstration against poor conditions in schools.

FRANCE - At the weekend, France turned into a war zone. Some 550,000 people took part in protests against soaring living costs and the wretched state of the country’s schools. What started peacefully escalated into a frenzy of violence, looting and destruction of property in Paris and dozens of other places. More than 2,000 people were arrested and 600 police, firefighters and paramedics injured. And everywhere fluttered the Palestinian flag. The French have habitually taken to the streets over policies they don’t like. These riots, however, were more like an insurrection.

EUROPE - Images of Paris burning bring to mind the caption of Francisco Goya’s sinister print: “The sleep of reason brings forth monsters.” It is the wilful abdication of responsibility by the political elites, not only in France but across Europe, that has enabled pandemonium to spread across the Continent. Retribution is inevitable, in the form of electoral landslides that will sweep away those who complacently opened borders and ignored the social consequences of mass migration. No political initiative could be more insular than Andy Burnham’s decision to reopen Brexit at this juncture. It is as though the Prime Minister had just emerged, like Rip van Winkle, from a decade spent dreaming of rejoining a cosy club of like-minded social liberals, only to discover that it is defunct.

USA - Donald Trump warned Volodymyr Zelensky to “remember” their Oval Office fallout as he repeated calls for the Ukrainian leader to resign. Mr Trump continued his attacks against Mr Zelensky on Monday, suggesting he should “step aside” from negotiations to end the war. Tensions between Mr Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart have worsened in recent weeks. On Sunday, Ukraine defied Mr Trump’s demand to stop bombing Russian energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, Mr Zelensky claimed that the US gave Kyiv just 60 seconds’ warning before a Russian ballistic missile attack on the capital city in the early hours of Monday morning. “Zelensky is a man that should’ve had this war settled a long time ago. If he would have listened to me and he remembered the Oval Office, he would have had this settled a long time ago,” Mr Trump told reporters before a visit to Kansas. “I think it’s time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine.”