TURKEY - Turkey’s emergence as a key pillar of European defence was gradual at first. Ankara sold its pioneering drones to Ukraine, helping to destroy Russian tanks. It hosted early rounds of Ukraine-Russia peace talks. When the Assad regime fell in Syria, neighbouring Turkey emerged as a diplomatic bridge between the international community and Damascus’s new government.

USA - The US president’s warmth toward Ankara is rattling West Jerusalem, but the real test is whether F-35s and engine deals ever make it through Congress. There’s a real love-triangle dynamic playing out right now between the US, Türkiye, and Israel. Donald Trump is going out of his way to be seen embracing Recep Tayyip Erdogan, talking up sanctions relief and reopening the door on F-35 fighter jets and engines for Türkiye’s homegrown KAAN program. At the same time, Benjamin Netanyahu is working overtime to protect Israel’s privileged position in US Middle East policy, warning anyone who’ll listen that handing Türkiye advanced weapons systems would upend the regional balance of power.

UK - Ed Miliband has extended the life of the ageing Sizewell B nuclear plant for another 20 years, amid growing concerns that Britain is at risk of power shortages. The nuclear power station in Suffolk, which provides 3 percent of the UK’s total electricity needs, was scheduled to close in 2035 but will now be upgraded and kept in operation until at least 2055. The extension was secured under a new deal agreed between the Government and EDF, France’s state-owned generator, which runs all five of the UK’s remaining nuclear power stations. The move is aimed at bridging a gap in nuclear power output later in the decade as Britain’s fleet of ageing reactors is retired. EDF confirmed that all of the UK’s other four nuclear power stations will close within four years. Hartlepool and Heysham 1 will both close in 2028, while Heysham 2 and Torness will shut in 2030. The closures mean that Sizewell B is likely to become the UK’s only operating nuclear power station from the start of the next decade. This has triggered concerns about shortages that would increase the UK’s reliance on imported electricity, in turn pushing up household prices.

UK - Britain will face fuel shortages over the winter if Andy Burnham fails to approve a new gas project in the North Sea, its operator has said. Neil McCulloch, whose energy company Adura is preparing to drill for gas at the Jackdaw field, said the site would be crucial to securing gas supplies this winter. The project faced a legal challenge from environmental campaigners and was blocked after a court ruled that it had been approved illegally. But it is now seeking new approval and the decision will fall to Andy Burnham’s government if, as expected, he becomes prime minister later this month. Mr McCulloch said the project was ready to drill from October 1 and would meet 6 percent of Britain’s gas demand. He told the BBC that the UK needed the field in the event of a “gas supply emergency”, such as adverse weather or sabotage by a hostile state. “The wells are drilled; they’re hooked up. We’re just readying the systems. It will be ready for the 1st of October.”

UK - It’s 2053 and for the third day in a row the water has been turned off across the south of England. You turn on the radio to hear that another of England’s chalk streams, this time the River Itchen in Hampshire, has run dry. Europe, which is increasingly hostile to Britain, is threatening to withhold all food exports. Vast swathes of prime farmland were taken out of production to house solar panels years ago and there is almost no produce grown any longer on arid English soil. For the first time since the Second World War, food is poised to be rationed. It sounds like an improbable dystopian hellscape, something out of a post-apocalyptic novel. But for some climate scientists and engineers this is not science fiction, but a very realistic scenario for the UK.

USA - The overvaluation of US stocks has now surpassed the level that brought the stock market crashing down in 1929. At a rating more than double that of their British and European counterparts, and the highest since the peak of the dotcom bubble, US equities are in for a hairy decade. This new analysis notes that the US S&P 500 stock index trades on 41 times earnings, based on Robert Shiller’s cyclically adjusted price-earnings (Cape) calculation. This is the highest valuation for US equities, using this tool, since the peak of the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) bubble of 2000 and exceeds the valuations reached at the highs of 1929 and 1901, both of which preceded seismic crashes. The 41-times rating is also more than double the UK and European equivalent multiple, the widest gap ever seen.

IRAN - Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed on Wednesday that they had targeted 85 allegedly “American military facilities,” in reality launching sweeping bombing campaigns against neighbors Kuwait and Bahrain. The IRGC’s aggression follows Iran bombing various vessels attempting to navigate the Strait of Hormuz, reportedly ships linked to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The Iranian regime’s attacks prompted US Central Command (CENTCOM) to resume targeted strikes on Iran’s terrorist infrastructure to protect free navigation in the strait, which the IRGC used as its reasoning for bombing Kuwait and Bahrain.

USA - The US-brokered interim ceasefire with Iran is now over. President Donald Trump made the declaration Wednesday, telling reporters at the NATO defence summit in Ankara, Turkey: “These are evil, sick people,” before describing Tehran’s negotiators as scum and a cancer that needs to be excised. A clearly angry Trump further added he didn’t “want to deal with them any more” after launching overnight strikes on the totalitarian Islamic republic after it attacked commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, as Breitbart News reported. Trump said he would speak to businessman-turned-negotiator Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who have been dealing with the Iranians, but insisted it was up to Tehran to return to the table.

USA - President Trump confirmed Wednesday that he’s taking the old Air Force One back to the US from Turkey but deflected questions about security concerns regarding the new Qatari-donated model. Trump said the new $400 million Air Force One would be sent home through Europe so soldiers could see it, but he acknowledged he is Iran’s “Number 1 target” when asked about the switch-up. “I’m Number 1 on the kill list for Iran,” Trump told the crowd at his press conference in Ankara before leaving the NATO summit.

USA - Trump hauntingly predicts his violent DEATH: 'That's the way it goes'. Donald Trump mused about his mortality on Wednesday, telling world leaders that Iran could assassinate him in a revenge plot. The President declared at the NATO summit in Turkey: 'They [Iran] want to take out the US leader - me. I'm on every list. I'm on every single one of their lists, and so far I guess I've been a little bit lucky, but that maybe doesn't last very long, because that's the way it goes,' Trump continued. His warning came as hardline lawmakers in Tehran openly called for missiles to be fired at his location at the summit. Earlier this week, mourners at Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's funeral placed a death bounty on Trump.