USA - Another person with links to America's nuclear secrets has gone missing as the disturbing list of deaths and disappearances in recent years continues to grow. Steven Garcia, 48, vanished without a trace on August 28, 2025. He was last seen leaving his Albuquerque, New Mexico home on foot, carrying only a handgun. The government contractor's sudden disappearance marks the tenth person with ties to America's space or nuclear secrets who has died or mysteriously vanished in recent years, putting US national security experts on edge. Moreover, four of these officials have vanished without a trace in almost the same manner as Garcia, and all had a connection to US nuclear secrets or rocket technology.

EUROPE - Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Britain to rejoin the European Union to bolster the Continent’s defence against Russia. Ukraine’s president, who has aggressively pushed for his country’s fast-tracked accession to the bloc, said that the UK must reconsider its position if the US were to withdraw from Nato. “If the United States truly thinks about withdrawing from Nato, then European security will be based solely on the EU. But not in its current form,” Mr Zelensky told The Rest is Politics podcast. He added: “I think that the EU is in a situation where it needs more countries. The UK, Ukraine, Turkey and Norway; these are four strong countries which are part of Europe.” Together, he said, the EU would have a combined military strength greater than Russia’s. “With the four countries on board, you can wrest control of the seas, have secure skies and the largest land forces.”

EUROPE - As long as the West faced a single aggressive and imperial enemy, Washington readily spent far more than its allies on confronting it, and the allies mostly accepted America’s lead. Now, European leaders do not feel that Khomeinist Iran is Europe’s enemy, and Trump does not feel that Europe’s new enemy – Vladimir Putin’s Russia – is America’s enemy. The Western alliance, in short, has lost its compass, driver, and fuel. And since this alliance is brain-dead, a new one will have to come in its place. That new alliance will not be assembled by the current American leader. This project will take the kind of conviction, vision, inspiration, and focus he does not possess. But the new alliance will nonetheless emerge. It will include all those who believe in and are prepared to fight for liberty, tolerance, and free trade. It will have two tiers: one political, the other economic. Many will not join it, whether out of cynicism or cowardice, but the alliance’s other tier will include every county that uses the high seas.

MIDDLE EAST - The author makes two compelling overall observations: that the Jewish state is good for the Arabs; and that the Arabs have never articulated a cogent alternative, dwelling on an imagined past rather than an imagined future. “Palestinians have always wanted to rewind the clock, but to what time, exactly? …The problem for Palestinians has been that no matter which period in history they chose, they would never find a time when the Arabs of Palestine were sovereign over the land,” he writes. “Throughout history, the only locals to have ever been sovereign over the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea were… the Jews.” “Palestinians have never admitted their inability to imagine a future modern Palestine, or their failure to build a single modern institution in their history, let alone to build and manage a functioning state that is not the kind of medieval Islamist emirate that Hamas constructed in Gaza after 2007.”

MIDDLE EAST - I sense that too many Americans do not understand the public face-saving that is integral to Islamic culture in the Middle East and Central Asia. I recall numerous times I dealt with government or military officials in the region where they let me know that what was being said publicly was in no way related to what was actually going on. A leader or politician in these countries will never, ever publicly say the truth if the truth suggests weakness or vulnerability. Never. It just does not happen. They will lie publicly with outrageous bombast, knowing full well that what they are saying is untrue, because their culture demands it.

UK - GB News’ Alex Armstrong laid out the geopolitical map that American media refuses to draw: this war isn’t about toppling Iran. It’s about reshaping the global order - and America is winning on every front. Start with oil. The Strait of Hormuz carries 45% of China's oil supply. Trump effectively captured Venezuela’s oil supply in January. As Armstrong put it: “Look who's got the upper hand all of a sudden. America is now controlling the vast swathes of oil that China needs." China is in the middle of a tariff negotiation with Trump - and suddenly its entire energy supply depends on American goodwill.

UK - Here we go again? In assessing the risks of another financial crisis, many commentators – including yours truly – have drawn parallels between today’s economic forces and those leading up to the 2008 recession. The most striking of these include the advent of and rapid growth in new types of higher risk credit outside the main banking system. A sharp spike in energy prices, which in 2008 helped tip many economies into recession, causing widespread credit impairment, offers a second similarity.

ISRAEL - National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Temple Mount, calling for expanded worshipper access amid wartime restrictions, while criticizing the High Court's approval of larger protests. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir toured the Temple Mount on Monday with Home Front Command officials, calling for the site to be opened to more worshippers amid wartime restrictions limiting access. An additional tour of the site is expected to take place to examine alternative entry options after no agreements were reached on reopening it, Ben-Gvir’s office stated. Participants in the tour included senior officials from both the Israel Police and the Home Front Command.

UK - The Middle East truce has calmed oil markets but supply chain chaos means Britons face a protracted wait for relief at the pump and supermarket. Britons have been warned they will feel worse off for up to six months even if the ceasefire in the Middle East holds, although interest rates may not rise as feared. Experts say that supply chain effects are going to be felt very acutely for months to come. The cost of Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell sharply after the ceasefire announcement but fuel prices in the UK continued to rise on Wednesday. There is also uncertainty about the availability of fertiliser and the price of securing it, which could push up food prices into next year.

USA - Ninth Scientist Linked to US Secrets Confirmed Dead Under Highly Suspicious Circumstances — Disturbing Pattern of Deaths and Disappearances Among US Space Program Experts Raises Alarming Questions. A troubling pattern is once again drawing renewed scrutiny after the death of yet another scientist tied to America’s most sensitive space and defense programs. Michael David Hicks, a longtime research scientist at NASA’s prestigious Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), died on July 30, 2023, at just 59 years old, according to the Daily Mail. Hicks was known in scientific circles for his work connected to advanced research initiatives, many of which intersect with highly classified aerospace and defense projects. But nearly three years later, basic questions surrounding his death remain unanswered. While there have been no public allegations of foul play, Hicks’ case marks the ninth person with ties to America’s space or nuclear secrets who has died or mysteriously vanished in recent years, which has set off alarm bells among US national security experts.

UK - ‘Rule, Britannia, Britannia rules the waves’ was once the national chant – but not anymore. While the conflict in Iran is dominating the news cycle, in Europe, the Globalists are hard at work trying to enforce their myriads of sanctions against Russia, notably against what is called its ‘Shadow Fleet’. When it comes to the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has threatened to seize ‘Shadow Fleet’ tankers passing in their territorial waters. Apparently, Starmer forgot that Moscow does get a say in the matter, so it arose today that a Russian warship has escorted sanctioned vessels through the English Channel. The flotilla’s passage is in direct defiance of Starmer’s warning that vessels in Moscow’s shadow fleet could be boarded by British special forces if vessels carried oil destined to fund the invasion of Ukraine.”

MIDDLE EAST - The ceasefire will be a failure if Trump and the Iranians are unable to come to  mutually-acceptable agreement on ending the conflict in totality. And the key word here is “mutual.” Nothing over the last day provides any confidence whatsoever that we’re closer to a full resolution of the war. The war has arguably given Iran more leverage than it had previously; the prospect of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps simply ceding control over one of the world’s most critical shipping routes without tangible guarantees from Trump that the war won’t resume at a later date is difficult to envision.

IRAN - Iran has accused the US of breaching their ceasefire agreement even as Donald Trump insists the truce holds, fresh explosions rock America's Arab allies, and Tehran declares the Strait of Hormuz shut. Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf accused the US of violating three terms of the disputed ceasefire agreement on Wednesday. He said Israel's attacks on Lebanon, drones breaching Iranian airspace, and the White House's insistence that Tehran will not enrich uranium all constitute violations of a 10-point proposal Trump had signed off on.

USA - World mocks bizarre kind of victory: White House declares triumph despite Iran being emboldened and demanding tolls on the still-closed Strait - as attacks continue on Gulf states andLebanon.Donald Trump's peace deal with Iran was hanging by a thread on Wednesday night as Tehran halted tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. It warned that unauthorised ships would be 'targeted and destroyed'. As the White House declared a dramatic and decisive victory in the Middle East, it remained unclear who controlled the vital waterway, through which 20 per cent of the world's oil and gas is transported. Iranian officials said oil tankers using the Strait would have to pay tolls in cryptocurrency of $1 per barrel, potentially amounting to £2.2 million per ship. State media also reported the ceasefire would fail if Israel continued attacking Lebanon, home to Iranian terrorist proxy Hezbollah.

USA - NATO is not about to disappear in a single grand act of American secession. Great alliances rarely end that neatly. They deteriorate first in language, then in habits, and finally in expectations. After the Iran war triggered the latest transatlantic crisis, after Trump’s tantrum over Europe’s refusal to join, and after months of bitter disputes over Ukraine, the alliance appears less like a settled strategic agreement than a structure maintained by memory and convenience. That is why its future is unlikely to involve triumphant renewal or outright disintegration. The more probable fate is a living shell: too established to be abandoned, too mistrusted to inspire confidence, still almost functioning because the alternative is too dangerous and costly. NATO is, above all, a trust institution. Article 5 is not magic; it functions because governments, military leaders, and the public believe that the promise will be honoured in a crisis. That trust is now seriously damaged on both sides. Europe observed Washington initiate a war against Iran outside NATO’s core scope and then demand loyalty for offensive measures in the Strait of Hormuz.