USA - Donald Trump sensationally threatened to respond to any attack by Iran on the US with "the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces" as tensions in the Middle East racheted up. In a post on Truth Social, the US president said America had "nothing to do with the [latest] attack” on Tehran. He said: "If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before." In response a senior Iranian military official said Tehran would strike the joint US-UK naval base on Diego Garcia in the event of any attack. He said: “There will be no distinction in targeting British or American forces if Iran is attacked from any base in the region or within the range of Iranian missiles."

IRAN - Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi on Friday urged both the Iranian people and the country’s conventional military to rise up against the increasingly unpopular regime led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He accused the regime of dragging Iran into an unnecessary war with Israel. “Ali Khamenei, the reckless leader of the anti-Iranian Islamic Republic regime, has once again involved our country in a war,” Pahlavi wrote in Persian on social media. “This is not Iran’s war, nor the war of the Iranian people. It is Khamenei’s war and the Islamic Republic’s war." Pahlavi is the son of the late Iranian monarch Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was overthrown during the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

USA - At a Catholic funeral Mass for the father of a good friend, I watched as the priest in a white alb paced the sanctuary for at least an hour prior to the ceremonies, his half-detached Roman collar swinging like a broken door jam around his neck as he attended to the details of the service. When the time came to put on his vestment, he pulled the polyester liturgical poncho over his head in front of the congregation as if he was putting on a sweat shirt in Planet Fitness.

NORTHERN IRELAND - It was a gorgeous summer evening in Ballymena on Wednesday. The weather was warm, and as dusk fell and a pink moon rose, hundreds came out and mingled on the grassy bank above Bridge Street: there were old couples, young families, groups of girls in their skimpiest tops. There was a carnival feel in the air. They’d all come to watch the riot. This was civil disobedience as a social event. Old friends greeted each other before turning to comment on the action below. “Ah, he’s got a good arm there,” said a middle-aged man next to me as, 50 yards in front of us, one of an eddying mob of masked and hooded lads lobbed a brick towards the line of armoured police Land Rovers.

JAPAN - Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda has raised concerns about the environmental benefits of battery electric vehicles (EVs), suggesting that hybrids offer a more practical path to reducing carbon emissions in certain regions. He argues that Toyota’s 27 million hybrid vehicles have the same carbon footprint as only nine million when the entire lifecycle of emissions is taken into account. Toyoda highlighted that Toyota has sold approximately 27 million hybrid vehicles, which he claims have had a similar carbon reduction impact as nine million EVs. Toyoda argues that EVs are still significantly “dirtier” than gasoline-electric hybrids when factoring in the full lifecycle emissions.

USA - US president Donald Trump faces a make or break moment in his long-running confrontation with Iran. The UN’s nuclear watchdog has just reached the damning conclusion that Iran is in breach of its non-proliferation agreement for the first time in 20 years. Trump’s offer to reopen talks with Tehran, made in a personal letter sent to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shortly after the president returned to the White House this year, held out the prospect of lifting the punitive sanctions imposed against Tehran during his first term in office. This would be in return for Iran curbing her nuclear ambitions.

ISRAEL - National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir welcomed the launching of Operation Rising Lion today (Friday), which was authorized unanimously by the cabinet, in a post on X: "We are in historic moments. The State of Israel is currently engaged in an operation in Iran — an action carefully designed and planned over many months by the cabinet and all security forces. I send strength and love to the soldiers of the IDF and to all branches of the security system operating with dedication and courage."

ISRAEL - Israel Pounds 300+ Sites, Kills Iran’s Military Chief and 12 Nuclear Scientists Within a Few Hours. Opening strike hits nuclear sites and command centers; Iranian regime scrambles military amid coup fears and confirms death of Armed Forces Chief. The scope and impact of Israel’s military campaign against Iran continue to unfold dramatically, with fresh reports confirming high-profile assassinations, nationwide military alerts in Iran, and significant regional tensions. Opposition-aligned Iranian sources report that the regime has begun deploying military units across the country amid fears of an internal coup. The move follows what many Iranians are calling an unprecedented intelligence and security failure.

ISRAEL - Yet more fuel has been added to the sense of intense economic anxiety after Israel launched overnight attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, prompting the latter to retaliate with drone strikes. Right now the global economy feels like a tinderbox ready to ignite at any moment. In economic terms, the ramifications of the drastic escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran will be felt via two main channels: oil prices and foreign exchange rates. If the tensions spill over into disruption to the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery of global oil trade flows between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, then there is a serious risk that oil supply will be tightly constrained. About a fifth of the world’s total oil consumption passes through the strait of Hormuz, between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

USA - The violent protests engulfing Los Angeles are backed by pro-Hamas activists who called for the city to be “burned”, it can be revealed. Unity of Fields (UoF) celebrated attacks on police and encouraged an “intifada” in response to the detention of illegal migrants. They shared details of upcoming protests with their members, encouraging them to take part in the “uprising” and to spread the unrest across the US, The Telegraph can reveal. The group also celebrated a rioter who burned a self-driving Waymo car while wearing a Hamas armband and waving a Mexican flag. Using Telegram, the encrypted messaging service, the group shared details of the LA riots to 10,000 supporters, who they have dubbed the “Hamas Marxist army’”. Apple subsequently banned the Telegram channel on all iPhones and other iOS devices in recent days.

ISRAEL - Dozens of Israeli aircraft participated in an initial wave of strikes on dozens of military targets and Iranian nuclear sites early on Friday morning. Warning sirens have been set off to get the public ready for potential Iranian counterattacks of ballistic missiles on Israel. The IDF had not stopped attacking since the initial wave. Rather, as of 4:30 am, the IAF was still carrying out broad attacks, and there were no specific signs of stopping. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Iran is gearing up to produce tens of thousands of ballistic missiles, which could kill millions of Israelis even without nuclear weapons, but imagine if any of them had nuclear weapons on them. The IDF confirmed that the reason for the attack is to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. "Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the Iranian regime are an existential threat to the State of Israel and to the wider world," the military said.

ISRAEL - The Israeli military expects its operation against Iran’s nuclear program and long-range missile capabilities to last for several days. The IDF is preparing for heavy fire from Iran in response to its airstrikes tonight. “At the end of the operation, there will be no nuclear threat” from Iran, military officials say. “We are in the window of strategic opportunities. We have reached the point of no return, and there is no choice but to act now,” IDF officials say. The IDF says it is coordinating its action with the US. “We can’t leave these threats for the next generation,” Netanyahu declared, “because if we don’t act now, there will not be another generation.” Zamir put it more succinctly. The attack, he said, was “an immediate operational necessity” — an imperative," he said, “to remove the strategic threat and ensure our future.”

USA - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday the United States was not involved in Israel's strikes against Iran while also urging Tehran not to target US interests or personnel in the region. "Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region," Rubio said in a statement. "Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel," he added.

UK - Britain is broke and broken. Not exactly the optimistic words you’d expect to hear from a new prime minister. But that was the phrase deployed by Sir Keir Starmer’s office just weeks after Labour took power. While it set a gloomy tone, his sentiment wasn’t wrong. Repeated crises have left Britain’s economy in bad shape. The financial meltdown of 2008 destroyed productivity, leaving a permanent scar on wages. Lockdown changed our work ethic and Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine showed just how vulnerable the country is to higher energy prices. The result? An economy struggling with more welfare, more problems and more debt. The UK will be forced to fork out more than £100 billion a year until the next election to service Britain’s debt. That’s almost twice the defence budget and more than Britain spends on education every year.

UK - Britain has grown lazy, feckless and fat. We are addicted to bread and circuses, as long as others pay for them. We don’t work hard enough, safe in the knowledge that “society” owes us a living. We crave “free” stuff paid for by taxing the “rich”, and lap up Rachel Reeves’s nonsensical spending review: billions that we don’t have for an unfixable NHS, U-turns on benefit cuts and winter fuel payments, and bribes for the Red Wall. We hate our politicians for lying to us – of course Reeves is plotting another tax raid, of course she doesn’t have a clue how to fund a proper military – and yet demand the impossible of them, hence why even Reform are nervous about questioning the welfare state.