ISRAEL - Isaac Herzog has denied any Israeli involvement in this week's exploding pager and walkie talkie attacks and said the country is not interested in being at war with Lebanon. Speaking on Sky News on Sunday morning, the Israeli president warned that Israel is in a 'dangerous situation' and that there is 'clearly the potential of escalating dramatically'. The comments come just days after a series of attacks in which pagers and walkie talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded simultaneously - killing at least 39 and leaving a further 3,000 injured. Israel had made no comments regarding their involvement in the fatal attacks before this morning, where the president said he 'rejects out of hand any connection to this or that source of operation'. 'There are many enemies of Hezbollah out there, quite a few these days. Hezbollah has been choking Lebanon, destroying Lebanon, creating havoc in Lebanon again and again and again. We are here simply to defend ourselves. That's all we do,' he added.

LEBANON - Thousands of pagers are being carried in Lebanon which may still contain explosives, experts warned last night. Scores of Hezbollah commanders were killed and hundreds injured after communication devices were detonated in a coordinated attack said to have been carried out by Israel last week. Tel Aviv delivered another hammer blow to the Iran-backed terrorist organisation this weekend after launching an air strike which killed two senior commanders. Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi died alongside 10 other commanders and 16 soldiers of the elite Radwan unit tasked with carrying out attacks in northern Israel. Part of the “unprecedented success” of last week’s operation - for which Israel has not formally taken responsibility - is due to the targeting of devices which use ”old tech”.

UK - BRITAIN and the US need to “reset the Special Relationship” after a disastrous four years under President Joe Biden, experts said last night. The warning follows recent tensions over differences in approach over Israel and Ukraine. Downing Street was heavily criticised by Washington DC after a decision to suspend 30 export licenses to Israel and the PM was forced to return to Britain without managing to persuade Biden to allow the firing of long-range missiles from Ukraine into Russia - despite the UK having led on such decisions in the past. It was not the first time both capitals failed to see eye to eye. In 1968, Harold Wilson famously refused Lyndon Johnson's request to send troops into Vietnam. But the "withering" of the Special Relationship has appeared especially acute under Biden’s administration.

EUROPE - The Netherlands sent shockwaves to the European Union this week after requesting to opt out of the bloc's fundamental migration rules. The Dutch migration minister Marjolein Faber wrote to the European Commission to make the stunning request, adding: "We have to handle our own asylum policy once more!" Last week, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof unveiled the country's new immigration policy in response to an "asylum crisis". Mr Schoof said the Netherlands was aiming to implement the “strictest asylum policy ever," adding: "We cannot continue to bear the large influx of migrants into our country." Following the request, Hungary said it would follow suit and also ask for opt-out from the European Union’s migration policies, amid concerns in Brussels that the Dutch request could be the start of a domino effect.

SWEDEN - The nation once celebrated for ABBA and Ikea is now gaining recognition for something far more sinister. Sweden recently made headlines with a bold proposal: to offer immigrants struggling to assimilate into Swedish society $35,000 to return home.This so-called remigration check is presented as a win-win solution: Immigrants get financial support to rebuild their lives in their home countries, and Sweden's welfare system avoids the long-term costs of providing ongoing support. But what about the Swedish taxpayers, who are now bearing the financial burden of the mess they never helped create? That the government is willing to try such drastic measures is a telling indication of how bad the problem has gotten.

GERMANY - The far-right Alternative für Deutschland party is hoping to come top in an election in the German state of Brandenburg on Sunday, three weeks after making historic gains in two other regions. The AfD, which has been classified as rightwing extremist in several states by domestic intelligence agencies, is running almost neck and neck with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) in the state, a belt of urban and rural communities that surrounds the capital, Berlin. Final polls showed the AfD to have a very slight lead on 28%, with the SPD having considerably narrowed the gap in the last days of campaigning to reach 27%. The conservative CDU was polling at 14% and the new leftist conservative Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) at 13%. The ballot is being seen as a referendum on the federal government – the popularity ratings of which are at a record low – and a harbinger of the outcome of next autumn’s federal election.

USA - To keep pace with an expanding Chinese fleet, the US Navy is still clinging to an ambitious – but so far unrealised – plan to grow its front-line fleet from around 290 warships to at least 350. But the Navy doesn’t have enough sailors to fully man the ships it has already – to say nothing of the extra ships it wants. Equally troubling, the manpower shortage means fewer sailors are doing the hard work of keeping ships in top condition during deployments. That could shorten the ships’ service lives, further delaying any fleet expansion. Yes, the Navy has a hardware problem. But its people problem is far more vexing.

CHINA - No, there is no new evidence that Covid originated with a raccoon dog in a market in Wuhan. The public relations blitz that surrounded the publication this week of a paper in Cell from a team whose previous papers have been debunked caught some headlines, as it was designed to do. The market theory is still implausible, as George Gao, the man who led the investigation of that market, Ralph Baric, the world’s leading coronavirologist, and many others insist.

UK - The UK's debt pile has reached the same size as the entire economy for the first time since 1961, according to official figures. The ONS measurement of public sector net debt was £2.768 trillion at the end of last month, equivalent to 100 per cent of GDP. The grim mark was hit as Government borrowing rose by more than expected to £13.7 billion - £3.3 billion higher than last August and the third highest for the month on record. The numbers will heap pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of a crucial Labour conference, and with the Budget looming on October 30. Ministers have been accused of talking the economy into a slowdown with threats of tax hikes and gloomy warnings about prospects.

UK - Mass immigration and woke culture have put England’s national identity at risk, Robert Jenrick warns today. In a hard-hitting article for the Mail, the Tory leadership hopeful and former minister for immigration says the ties which bind the nation together are beginning to ‘fray’. Mr Jenrick said it was a result of the influx of migrants and the sneering attitude of the ‘metropolitan establishment’ toward English identity. ‘The combination of unprecedented migration alongside the dismantling of our national culture, non-integrating multiculturalism and the denigration of our identity has presented huge problems,’ he writes. ‘It has had a clear impact on our culture, customs and cohesion. Taken together, the attitudes and policies of our metropolitan establishment have weakened English identity. They have put the very idea of England at risk.'

UK - Our country is not at ease with itself. In recent years we've seen inter-communal violence, radicalisation and diminishing trust in our communities, all of which came to a head during the summer riots. As a consequence, a frank discussion is needed about the state of the nation. The state of Britain, yes, but the state of England, in particular – as England is where most of the rioting occurred, and it was the St George's flag that some misappropriated. We won't be able to heal our divided nation if we refuse to confront complex issues about identity. Who we are, and what community we belong to, matters. It gives our lives meaning and purpose. Confidence in our identity reassures and grounds us in a world changing at dizzying speed.

LEBANON - Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed Israel has declared war on Lebanon after hundreds of pagers exploded across the country, wounding thousands. In a speech condemning Israel the terrorist leader said: "Israeli attacks on Lebanon amount to a declaration of war." Just one day after pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded, more electronic devices detonated in Lebanon Wednesday in what appeared to be a second wave of sophisticated, deadly attacks that targeted an extraordinary number of people. Both attacks, which are widely believed to be carried out by Israel, have hiked fears that the two sides’ simmering conflict could escalate into all-out war.

MIDDLE EAST - A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is unlikely to be reached before Joe Biden leaves office in January, US officials believe as tensions in the Middle East ratchet up over Lebanon. The Wall Street Journal cited top-level, but unnamed, officials in the White House, State Department and Pentagon. One assessed: 'No deal is imminent. I'm not sure it ever gets done.'

USA - This week’s White House Report Card focuses on the latest evidence that first lady Jill Biden is, and long has been, the power in the West Wing. On Friday, the White House wasn’t hiding it. At a rare Cabinet meeting, the president handed over the leadership to the first lady, sitting at the head of the table, her prepared notes in front of her. According to the New York Post, Jill Biden “read from a binder about maternal health initiatives for four-and-a-half minutes after her husband spoke for just two minutes off the top of the meeting.” Said President Joe Biden in introducing his wife, “It’s all yours, kid.” Later, she also hosted a Rose Garden event without her husband, who has faded into the background since being pushed out of his reelection campaign by Democratic Party elites who preferred Vice President Kamala Harris in the race.

UK - Violence in the UK has reached such a high point, that conservative champion Nigel Farage, the ‘father of Brexit’, has had to resort to virtual meetings with his constituency in order to better protect himself. Farage has revealed that he is temporarily not holding in-person meetings out of fear for his safety.