MIDDLE EAST - The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement is likely to be viewed by Tehran as a major success resulting from its aerial attacks on Gulf states, regardless of how strong the new pact proves to be, experts told The Jerusalem Post late Monday. Emirati researcher and foreign policy expert Huda Albadi told the Post that the pact was ineffectual, describing it as a “paper tiger.” Albadi warned that it was a sign of a concerning regional mentality that would see Israel cast as the destabilizing power, not Iran.

MIDDLE EAST - The agreement between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey is nothing like a new NATO but it could bring fresh thinking the Middle East urgently needs. Yet the Mecca pact is still a thousand leagues away from being a new NATO. It has no integrated command structure, no joint doctrine, no integrated air defence network, and no joint operational commands. It is best seen as a defensive state-to-state arrangement that could, over time, come up with solutions to challenges. If the new pact is to take root and grow it will first have to be a mutually reinforcing defence industrial complex at a time when wars everywhere are burning through equipment. The Middle East remains in ­urgent need of fresh thinking.

USA - As a presidential candidate, Trump warned during his first campaign that destabilising the region was a mistake. More than a decade on, he knows this all too well. To an American electorate exhausted by 14 years of conflict, Trump promised an end to the forever wars. He said that unnecessary US invasions of the Middle East had only strengthened America’s enemies. “I said, ‘Don’t hit Iraq,’ because you’re going to totally destabilise the Middle East. Iran is going to take over the Middle East,” he said in 2015. More than a decade later, Iran can indeed claim to have “taken over” the Middle East, paralysing the flow of oil and dictating the terms of an American withdrawal. In 2015, Trump began his political career with a warning that unnecessary wars in the Middle East would only strengthen Iran. Ironically, more than a decade later, Trump risks being remembered for the very thing he warned against.

COLOMBIA - Colombia's geological service said the magnitude of the quake, which struck at 7.30am local time (1.30pm UK time), was 7.4 and that its depth was 60 miles. It reported the epicentre as being in San Jose Del Palmar, a community about 250 miles west of Colombia's capital, Bogota, adding that this was the strongest quake the country has suffered in the last decade. At least 111 people have been killed and Colombia has declared a state of emergency following the quake, which has also injured at least 87. Harrowing footage taken from across the country showed the façades of buildings crumbling and people huddling in the street, unable to stand up straight as the ground beneath them rocked violently.

UK - Almost three quarters of England is now in drought, with officials warning conditions under the record-breaking dry spell are 'worsening'. More than 27 million people in England and Wales are under hosepipe bans after the driest-ever July – which saw some parts of the country receive just 1 per cent of the expected rainfall. The National Drought Group today found that 71.3 per cent of England is under drought conditions, with around 45 million people affected. The East Midlands, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, Kent and East Sussex, and Solent and the South Downs became the latest areas to receive the classification.

UK - Britain is facing its worst food security crisis in decades as repeated heatwaves risk ruining farmers’ harvests, analysts have warned. The warning was issued as nearly three quarters of England was declared to be in drought, increasing the threat posed to food production across the country. Soaring temperatures are damaging wheat yields, vegetable crops and milk production, Shore Capital warned, leaving the UK increasingly reliant on food grown abroad. Analysts from the investment bank said the recent period of unprecedented dry, hot weather could damage homegrown food supplies and increase our dependence on costly imported grain. This risks driving up animal feed costs, according to Shore Capital’s Akhil Patel and Clive Black, which will trigger higher prices for consumers. “The UK has not been so close to a food security challenge for many decades,” they said.

UK - Emergency power cuts could be imposed on millions of households at short notice to avoid nationwide blackouts, under new rules introduced by grid bosses. Measures that came into effect this week give the National Energy System Operator (NESO) the authority to tackle electricity shortages with rolling power cuts around the country. Each area would have its power switched off for three hours at a time. NESO would have to give just eight hours’ notice to use the so-called demand control rotation protocol. The new measures, first reported by The Guardian, are designed to bridge a gap between NESO’s current emergency powers and rolling-blackout plans that require government approval. Currently, the UK’s electricity supply emergency code, a national plan of energy rationing, can only be triggered by ministers and requires emergency legislation.

GERMANY - German news coverage of Russia is becoming increasingly radical as the media grooms the public for war, correspondent Thomas Roeper told RT. Roeper made the remarks on Monday after Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung correspondent Michael Martens asked Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky how Europe could help Kiev “kill more Russians.” The journalist hastily clarified that he meant “more Russian soldiers.”

“I’m following the German media and the propaganda they are doing, and they increased the anti-Russian narrative really, well, radical. I can’t use another word,” Roeper said.

MIDDLE EAST - The Iranians truly believe that they have won. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has created a global energy crisis, and President Trump doesn’t have any easy options for reopening it. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are pleading with Trump to bring the war to an end because the midterm elections are coming up. The Iranians understand how much leverage they currently have with Trump, and so they are making all sorts of maximalist demands. But the same is not true with Israel.

ISRAEL - Netanyahu Rejects Trump's Board of Peace 15-Point Gaza Plan: 'No Withdrawal Until Hamas Fully Disarms'. Israeli PM also vows no Palestinian state in Gaza or West Bank while he is in office. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday firmly rejected a 15-point plan for Gaza put forward by President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, declaring that the Israeli military will not make “any withdrawal” from Palestinian territory until Hamas is completely and genuinely disarmed. Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu made Israel's position crystal clear: "Israel rejects the 15-point Gaza document proposed by the Board of Peace. The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed." As of Sunday, the path forward on Gaza remains uncertain, with Israel standing firm that Hamas must be fully stripped of its weapons before any territorial concessions.

MIDDLE EAST - Saudi Arabia turns to Turkiye and Pakistan for defence ties, raising questions over reliance on the US. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye have signed a joint defence pact. It is an alliance that analysts say highlights Riyadh’s desire to diversify its defence partnerships, expanding to Ankara and Islamabad. The pact was announced at a time of increased regional tension. Yemen’s Saudi-backed government has launched a military operation against the Iran-aligned Houthis following a series of attacks, while Iran and the US have yet to reach a final deal to end the war. The trilateral Mecca pact raises questions about the effectiveness of the decades-long US military presence in the Gulf. Does this alliance offer a viable alternative to the security umbrella promised by Washington?

MIDDLE EAST - A core objective of the agreement is accelerating technological cooperation and joint manufacturing across the three nations' defence sectors. The framework provides for joint research and development, technology transfer, streamlined defence procurement, and co-production of military hardware, particularly in high-technology domains such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), naval engineering, air defence systems, and electronic warfare suites. The treaty also formalises the mechanism for continuous strategic intelligence sharing, joint operational planning, reciprocal personnel exchanges, and combined tri-service military exercises across land, sea, and air domains.

MIDDLE EAST - The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement integrates three complementary forms of military and influence, creating a potent strategic triangle across West Asia and South Asia. As the world’s leading oil exporter and the largest economy in the Arab world, Saudi Arabia provides the financial capital, infrastructure, and political authority required to sustain long-term alliance initiatives. Riyadh's central role within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the broader Islamic world gives the pact diplomatic clout. As a NATO member possessing the alliance's second-largest military force, Turkey brings sophisticated operational experience, standardised command systems, and an advanced domestic defence industrial sector. Meanwhile, Pakistan contributes one of the world's largest standing armies, decades of expeditionary training experience in the Arabian Peninsula, and its unique position as the only nuclear-armed nation in the Muslim world.

TURKEY - Turkish leaders have insisted that the new trilateral defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is not directed at Iran. Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that the pact does not identify Iran, or any other country, as a common threat. The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was signed on Friday by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, stating that an armed attack on one of the three countries would be considered an attack on them all. “There is no common threat that we have put in writing,” Fidan told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency, adding that countries that do not attack the signatories would not be considered targets. The alliance will also establish political and military committees, bringing together foreign and defence ministers and military chiefs, as well as a secretariat in Saudi Arabia.

USA - The US federal government is several weeks away from reaching a disturbing milestone, surpassing $40 trillion in debt. The US Senate just left for recess after passing another stopgap spending bill with no offsetting cuts. This avoids a government shutdown before the midterm elections but does not slow gargantuan increases in the federal debt. In the last 18 years, the federal debt has quadrupled. In that time, has the standard of living of most Americans improved dramatically? While some Americans are doing well, there are 35.9 million individuals in poverty, with 12.3% on food stamps. At the end of 2024, there were 770,000 homeless Americans, the highest total ever recorded.