USA - Is it just a coincidence that the United States is being hit by a remarkable series of natural disasters at the exact same time that a catastrophic war has erupted in the Middle East? When I started digging into what has been happening over the past week, I was absolutely stunned.

USA - The US president orders a five-day pause to attacks on energy infrastructure as Sir Keir Starmer prepares to hold a COBRA meeting today. Was it an escalation too far even for President Trump? Or a masterstroke that finally forced Iran to back down? When Trump gave Iran just 48 hours to open up the Strait of Hormuz or face the consequences, even he could not have imagined that Iran would just surrender. Instead, it immediately threatened retaliation in kind against its Gulf neighbours and, via the effect on oil prices, the wider world beyond. The prospect of power stations blacking out on both sides of the Gulf, taps running dry as desalination plants were hit, and rocketing inflation and collapsing stock markets in the West, caused an audible gulp at the weekend. A delay of five days gives both sides some breathing space to consider if this abyss is one into which either wants to leap.

UK - Freedom of religion is a fundamental right in the United Kingdom. People should be at liberty to worship whom they choose. The freedom and right to prayer must be protected at all costs. But let’s be frank about the mass gathering of Islamic prayer which took place in Trafalgar Square last week. The Open Iftar, where 3000-odd Muslims gathered beneath Nelson’s Column to mark the end of the Ramadan fast, was not intended as some heart-warming expression of togetherness as organisers Ramadan Tent Project claim. So let’s call it what it was. It was a calculated display of religious and cultural assertion.

USA - The United States will destroy Iran's power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not fully opened within 48 hours, US President Donald Trump threatened in a Truth Social post on Saturday night. "If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS," Trump wrote. In a response to Trump's statements, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which is the central headquarters of the Iranian armed forces, said that it will fully close the Strait of Hormuz if "America's threats regarding Iran's power plants are implemented." Iran also warned that it would start targeting "all power plants, energy infrastructure, and information technology," while any company in the region with American shareholders would also become a target. "Everything is ready for a great jihad with the aim of completely destroying all economic interests of America in the Middle East," the statement said.

USA - The list of countries Donald Trump takes issue with since he launched strikes on Iran grows by the week. The UK has gone from being his “most solid relationship of all” to “very, very uncooperative”. Other NATO governments do not fare much better, described as freeloaders making a “very foolish mistake” by staying out of his war. But amid all the fury, there’s one country many of his supporters fear Trump has gone too soft on: Israel. The two countries went into this conflict together. Trump has praised Israel for doing what other allies failed to: showing up to fight. But many of his base blame Israel for luring America into the war in the first place. As the war moves towards talk of the endgame, Trump’s supporters are concerned that the president could be led into a political quagmire that may absorb the remainder of his term.

USA - The shocking news that Iran has missiles that may be able to reach London should make even critics of Trump’s war – among whom I number myself – ponder deeply. We don’t know how many such weapons Iran possesses, nor how accurate they are. But the regime has just fired two missiles at the British-American military base on the Chagos Islands, a distance of about 2,400 miles. Before the Iraq War, no one – not even Tony Blair in his most deluded state – thought Saddam Hussein could strike London. Nor was there any evidence that Iraq was trying to develop nuclear warheads. Iran, on the other hand, has almost certainly been doing precisely that.

IRAN - Iran has today vowed to lay mines throughout the entire Persian Gulf if the US and Israel attack the country's coast and islands including Kharg Island where Donald Trump is said to be considering an invasion. The US is drawing up plans to occupy or blockade Iran's Kharg Island, the country's main oil export hub, to pressure Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping. 'Any attempt to attack Iran's coasts or islands will cause all access routes in the Gulf to be mined with various types of sea mines, including floating mines that can be released from the coast,' a statement from Iran's Defence Council said today. 'In this case, the entire Gulf will practically be in a situation similar to the Strait of Hormuz for a long time.' Oil prices rose today after Iran dismissed Donald Trump's 48-hour ultimatum to fully reopen Hormuz or face having Iranian power plants blown up.

UK - General Sir Richard Barrons, who headed the UK's Joint Forces Command between 2013 and 2016, said Iran's power may have been 'serially underestimated'. The former forces chief was responding to questions over whether Trump was right to say the UK had done 'too little and too late' or whether opponents of the war were correct that the UK had been sucked into an American war. He added: 'Both could be true. War generally does not follow a script and the enemy always gets a vote and, in this case, the enemy's vote, Iran, has been serially underestimated.'

IRAN - Iran has issued a 10 million rial banknote as war and surging inflation send the costs of key staples soaring. The pink-coloured note, set to be the highest denomination issued by Tehran, is worth around £5.70. Iran’s central bank said the move would “ensure public access to cash”, although banks have been reportedly allowing only limited withdrawals. Tehran is now seeking to knock four zeros off the end of all its banknotes. Under the system, 10 million rials would be worth 1,000 rials.

USA - Meta is expected to lay off tens of thousands more people in the founder’s biggest bet yet — the entire industry fears the floodgates are open. No one can quite remember when the clocks started to disappear. But one day, around the time that Mark Zuckerberg launched his first epic cost-cutting effort at Meta in late 2022, employees started to notice that meeting rooms across the Facebook-owner’s offices no longer had timepieces hanging on their walls. The rumour, absurd though persistent, is that Meta’s leadership wanted to save money on AA batteries.

UK - Saudi Arabia is the world’s ­biggest oil exporter and if its trade routes are blocked, the ­consequences could be dire for the global economy. So can the West keep the Strait open? If so, how? And, with Riyadh now breaking from the largely neutral ranks of its Gulf neighbours, which other countries with vital interests in the region are willing to help the US? And who is giving Trump the cold shoulder?

IRAN - London, Paris and Berlin ALL 'under threat' from Iranian missiles after Tehran's mullahs 'use space rocket' to target British base on Diego Garcia - as experts warn the regime may have been 'serially underestimated'. Two ballistic missiles were fired towards Diego Garcia, a base in the Indian Ocean jointly operated by the US and the UK, on Friday night. Sources reported that one of the missiles failed in flight, while the other was intercepted by a US warship in what is believed to be the first ever strike on the military base. The IDF confirmed the Diego Garcia attack was the first time Iran had launched a long-range missile, capable of reaching a distance of around 4,000 km, since the start of the war. 'The Iranian terrorist regime poses a global threat. Now, with missiles that can reach London, Paris or Berlin,' it added.

USA - When the United States and Israel initiated the war against Iran last month, their messages were perfectly in sync on the sweeping goal of regime change. President Donald Trump told Iranians to seize their “only chance” for generations to “take over your government,” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implored them to “cast off the yoke of this murderous regime.” But nearly three weeks into the conflict, the war aims are diverging between a US president who saw the historic opportunity of a quick military victory with only modest economic pain and an Israeli leader with grander visions of toppling a regime he’s sought to vanquish for 40 years, said multiple US, Israeli and Middle East officials and lawmakers familiar with the matter. Trump’s latest outburst against Israel’s attacks on Iran’s huge South Pars gas field on Wednesday laid bare the tensions between the two allies and the inconsistency of the president’s approach to the conflict.

UK - The joint statement, published by the UK's Starmer government, appears to commit the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands to participating in escorts through the Strait:

IRAN - Iran is revealing new military capabilities as its war with Israel and the US enters its fourth week, and the regime still has more cards to play, from as-yet-unseen missiles to allied militias and sleeper cells abroad. The missiles fired at the US-UK Diego Garcia base required a range of around 2,400 miles, far beyond previous estimates of Iran’s capabilities. Tehran’s military also deployed the Haj Qasem, a newly developed medium-range ballistic missile with a half-tonne warhead, for the first time this week. Iran’s most powerful weapon, the Khorramshahr-4, has been used in greater numbers in recent attacks. Regime officials remain bullish despite heavy personnel and material losses inflicted by US-Israeli air strikes, and are threatening escalation. Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said in an interview this week that: “We are using weapons in this war that we have not used in the past, and we will use them more in the coming days.” The regime is also known to have amassed a large stockpile of cruise missiles, including anti-ship variants that could prove effective in close-quarters fighting if naval vessels attempt to break its blockade of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.