MIDDLE EAST - The fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran teetered on the brink on Thursday night after both sides exchanged missile fire in the Strait of Hormuz. US central command (Centcom) announced late Thursday it had carried out “self-defence strikes” on Iranian military targets after three destroyers came under missile attack while transiting the shipping lane. “Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats as USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), and USS Mason (DDG 87) transited the international sea passage,” it said in a statement, adding that none of the vessels were struck. Donald Trump said the US fired back, sending Iran’s boats “to the bottom of the sea” and knocking down its missiles and drones. The reported attack came shortly after Saudi Arabia and Kuwait removed limits on the US’s use of their bases and airbases, according to The Wall Street Journal.

EUROPE - Europe can become militarily independent of the United States by the end of the decade if its leaders have the political courage to do so, leading German defence figures have said. The influential group said “autonomy” could be achieved within five to 10 years at a cost of €500 billion (£432 billion), a 10 per cent increase on existing spending plans by NATO’s European allies. But money alone will not fix the imbalances, according to the German defence experts. Their paper sets out the need to rip up red tape, boost industrial cooperation and end decades of fragmentation across defence industries. It calls for a system styled on the Manhattan Project – bringing together a historic level of cooperation between European allies to break the reliance on the US. They concluded: “If we build the central capabilities at the right pace, Europe can protect itself against aggressors and generate credible deterrence.”

UK - As dawn breaks on this year’s local election results, the early signs of victory for Reform UK are already clear. The full picture will not emerge for some hours, and the final tallies will not be declared in some areas for two days. But the anticipated teal surge is already making itself known in the Red Wall, where Labour is trying in vain to hold on to control. Britain is now in an era of five-party politics, and Mr Farage’s party is riding a wave of support, having topped almost every Westminster poll for over a year. Analysis suggests that Sir Keir Starmer’s party has lost almost 90 per cent of the seats it is contesting, including wards in areas that would previously have been considered party strongholds.

UK - When you look at these seismic local election results, remember how the Left has constantly attempted to smear, disparage, ridicule and discredit Nigel Farage and his party. Ponderous commentators have repeatedly predicted the Reform bubble would deflate; just another protest vote to be forgotten when Business as Usual returned to the political scene and voters drifted back to the old Tweedledum and Tweedledee of Labour and Conservative. Already, the night has exceeded even Nigel Farage’s expectations. Reform is eating Labour’s breakfast, lunch and dinner. Its vote share is already up 38 per cent in councils across the country... But Reform has the momentum. Character assassination has not destroyed Farage or his growing team. If anything, it has convinced more voters that the political class fears the new party because it speaks to concerns the mainstream parties have long neglected and would still rather ignore.

USA - By threatening military withdrawal, the US president is giving the Continent the push it needs to rearm. The erratic American president, increasingly unpopular at home and facing likely painful mid-term elections in the autumn, has put the continent on notice yet again. Last week, he threatened to hit European-manufactured cars and trucks with a 25 per cent tariff, on top of the 15 per cent agreed to already. This was revealed in a Truth Social post claiming, without elaboration, that the proposed tariffs would be retaliation for failures by the EU to abide by its side of the recent trade agreement.

USA - Donald Trump is on the verge of securing a sweeping peace deal with Iran that would lift US sanctions, free billions in frozen assets and open a path to uranium enrichment, mirroring the Barack Obama pact he spent years trashing. A one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding is being negotiated between senior Iranian officials and Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The White House believes the memo could finalize a framework to end the war within 48 hours.

USA - A group of popular American pastors have warned that President Donald Trump’s release of ‘alien files’ could shatter Christian beliefs, according to the Daily Mail. They have claimed that US intelligence officials have held a series of meetings with them and told them to prepare churches to hold the Christian community together in the wake of the revelations’ shockwaves. Popular evangelist pastor Perry Stone said that the alien files could include reports and possibly videos of aliens and extraterrestrial spacecraft. “You’re going to have people who are going to say if there are galaxies and there are allegedly other creations in the galaxies, then the whole creation story is a myth, and you’re going to have people that’s going to apostatise and turn from the Christian faith because they have no answer for what they’re about to hear,” said Stone.3

IRAN - Today on Stinchfield, President Trump’s economic pressure campaign is hitting Iran so hard the numbers sound almost impossible to believe. Reports out of Iran now show some families facing nearly $70 for a loaf of bread and as much as $500 for a chicken as inflation devastates the country and the regime struggles to contain the chaos. This is what happens when America stops appeasing dictators and starts squeezing them economically. The media mocked Trump’s sanctions. Democrats called his policies reckless. But now Iran’s currency is collapsing, prices are exploding, and the regime is feeling the pain where it hurts most. We’ll expose the economic disaster unfolding inside Iran and why Trump may have proven that financial pressure can be more powerful than bombs.

UK - Rise in arrests blamed on effects of Covid isolation and online culture that glamourises gangsterism. “It wasn’t my dad’s time to die,” Carla Rivero said in court as three teenage girls were sentenced for the death of her father. Fredi Rivero, 75, died on February 27, 2025, one day after he was shoved, kicked and punched by girls aged 17, 16 and 14. One of them recorded the assault on her phone. Ms Rivero told the court the attack in Islington, north London, had left her “questioning what type of generation of youths is being raised as a result of all this”. She was not the first to ask. Violence among teenage girls has been on the rise since the Covid lockdowns. Since 2019, the number of women and girls aged 20 or under arrested for violent crimes has increased by almost 24 per cent, from 7,885 to 9,755.

GERMANY - Germany will do “everything in our power” to ensure that the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia are not brought back into service, a cabinet minister has said. The 760-mile route along the floor of the Baltic Sea, previously a symbol of Europe’s dependence on Moscow for fossil fuels, was rendered largely inoperable in September 2022 by a series of underwater explosions, which Berlin attributed to a team of Ukrainian saboteurs. However, it is understood that the German government has quietly carried out a report into the technical feasibility of resuming the gas supply. The report concluded that three of the four pipes had been damaged and then corroded by seawater to the point where they would be prohibitively difficult and expensive to repair. Yet it found that the one intact conduit, Strand B of Nord Stream 2, could theoretically be reactivated at any time with only a handful of legal formalities.