IRAN - Iran threatened an “earth-shattering blow” against the United States and Israel on Saturday, warning that “red lines are a thing of the past” if either resumes military strikes against the Islamic Republic, as President Donald Trump weighs renewed action amid escalating threats from Tehran. The warning came as Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei reportedly ordered his armed forces to prepare for retaliation without geographic limits, while Washington reinforced its military posture and regional mediators scrambled to secure an agreement ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi issued the threat in response to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who cited the conflict’s soaring energy costs for Europe while urging a diplomatic resolution. “100 billion Euro is nothing compared to the Earth-shattering blow Iran’s Powerful Armed Forces will deal against those who dare harm our people,” Araghchi wrote on X. “Red lines are a thing of the past,” he warned.

USA - Trump says US ready to hit Iran's nuclear program 'in ten minutes' after speaking with Netanyahu. "There are 'one or two sites' left that need to be dealt with, including Pickaxe Mountain. We can do it in ten minutes. We have a plan for it, and we can execute it very quickly," the president said. According to previous reports, the Pentagon reinforced air defense systems, ammunition, and military equipment in the Middle East in recent weeks, while simultaneously repositioning forces from bases that could be vulnerable to an Iranian retaliatory attack. The timing is particularly sensitive politically. Trump is in the final stretch of the campaign for the congressional midterm elections, which will take place this Tuesday, November 3.

ISRAEL - Israel’s Arab parties will tell Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, that they will support the Zionist opposition bloc in forming a new Israeli government, according to a leading figure in the movement. Jafar Farah told The Telegraph he expected both the Joint List and Ra’am to recommend that Gadi Eisenkot, the former IDF chief of staff, become prime minister, ousting Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr Farah is director of the Mossawa Centre, an advocacy group for Arab citizens of Israel. He stood as a Joint List candidate until he withdrew during the campaign. The Israeli election produced a stalemate on Tuesday, with neither of the two main Jewish blocs large enough to form a government. Mr Netanyahu’s bloc won 53 seats. Mr Eisenkot’s main opposition bloc won 48. In contrast, the two Arab parties – the Joint List and Ra’am – saw support surge and won 19 seats in the parliament, according to the count on Friday, making them potential kingmakers between the pro-Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu blocs.

EUROPE - Hackers have disabled supermarket refrigerators across Europe in a cyber attack that caused temperatures to soar as high as 70C. At least 70 supermarkets in Belgium, Sweden, Ireland, Luxembourg and Estonia have been targeted, with the attack causing at least €100,000 (£88,000) in food losses. In Belgium, 40 Delhaize supermarkets were affected after fridge temperatures were reportedly set to 70C, along with 15 Carrefour shops and five Spar stores. “We have identified an IT incident affecting the refrigeration systems in several dozen stores. We immediately took the necessary measures to keep our stores operational,” a Delhaize spokesman said. In Ireland, refrigerators at 13 SuperValu stores were targeted, resulting in the loss of fresh produce. The cyber attacks on the supermarkets involved the same mechanism as the French attacks, Stephan Moelans, chief executive of the refrigeration installer Sabcobel, said. The attackers remotely switched the systems’ evaporators to defrost mode, causing the refrigerators to heat up, he said.

EUROPE - The hackers and their motives remain unknown. But the incident has become a troubling demonstration of how connecting everything to the internet to balance energy demands is making our systems more vulnerable. Connecting hundreds of supermarket fridges to the internet seemed like a great idea – until it didn’t. Several years ago, refrigeration giant Danfoss encouraged supermarkets to adopt remote-controlled units, promising that it would cut electricity costs, free up capacity for electric vehicles (EVs) and reduce the retailers’ carbon footprint. “The need for low-carbon energy means that one day, this kind of energy arbitrage will be completely normal, not just in food retail,” the company said. Yet fast-forward to today, and the money-saving exercise is having expensive consequences for supermarket owners.

UK - A Halloween slump in technology stocks has sparked fears of a market crash that would hammer the savings and pensions of millions of British families. With fear stalking trading rooms around the world, the tech-heavy Nasdaq index in New York looked set to follow up Thursday’s 1.4 per cent slide with a drop of more than 2 per cent on Friday. Analysts warned of ‘tech carnage’ with shares in US giants Amazon and Intel among the biggest losers following bleak results on Thursday night. Intel shares were on course to open around 25 per cent lower – wiping around £90 billion off its value – while traders were betting on a 7 per cent slump at Amazon worth some £140 billion. The latest sell-off comes after Google owner Alphabet tumbled more than 12 per cent on Thursday night – wiping close to £400 billion off its value. The tech titan – one of the so-called Magnificent Seven – is now down 30 per cent since its peak in May while the Nasdaq is off more than 5 per cent.

UK - What’s going on? The word Halloween is a contraction of ‘All Hallows’ Eve’, which is to say the day before All Saints’ Day, November 1. That was the day, it was supposed, when all the saints were venerated, and the ghosts and the witches and the followers of darkness fled or were in abeyance. I suspect that part of the reason so many of all ages are increasingly welcome to it is the strange and growing phenomenon of the occult, of belief in the supernatural and the paranormal, in witchcraft and wizardry: an alternative religion that is growing in popularity and strength. And about this, I have fears.

RUSSIA - Russia does not want a war with Europe but if Western nations keep attempting to “inflict a strategic defeat” on Moscow they may get one, President Vladimir Putin has threatened. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin made remarks about relations with European states and the broader West during his Russia-Africa summit in Moscow on Thursday, claiming to be a dove of peace while threatening a World War-like conflict if he isn’t left to pursue his strategic goals. Kremlin state media publisher TASS reported that President Putin recalled a century and more of European history in this warning, stating “the tragic pages of history” bring a warning against World Wars, and claiming Russia is attempting to prevent “anything like this happens on a global scale” again. If any war were to come, Putin said, it would not be Russia’s fault. Nevertheless, the Russian Federation is ready to fight Europe and the West, he assured.

POLAND - A constitutional crisis broke out in Warsaw on Friday evening as politicians reportedly physically clashed at the offices of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal amid accusations of a “coup d’etat” by the globalist government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. A longstanding struggle for control over the Polish judiciary came to a head on Friday as Prime Minister Tusk’s government sought to forcibly appoint judges to the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) and replace its chief Bogdan Święczkowski.

GERMANY - Europe appears to have been thrown into an accelerated timeline of crises colliding at once, whether far-left social unrest in France, which has spread to several other countries, the unfolding debt crisis in France, or the political crisis in Poland that erupted in the last 24 hours. The momentum is troubling and concerning. Beyond the political crisis in Poland and the US warning earlier today of a potential "mass casualty" incident in Moscow, another crisis appears to be unfolding in Germany on Halloween night: looting and chaos. “Violent riots” continue in Frankfurt according to the police, with petrol bombs thrown at emergency services and reports of shops looted including a gun store.