USA - Five people died and at least 35 were hurt as powerful tornadoes ripped through Iowa on Tuesday, with one carving a path of destruction through the town of Greenfield, officials said. The Iowa department of public safety said on Wednesday that four people had been killed in the Greenfield area. Officials did not release the names of those killed in the storm because they were still notifying relatives. The numbers released on Wednesday bring the total number of deaths to five after authorities announced previously that a woman in a vehicle had been killed by a twister about 25 miles (40km) from Greenfield. The Iowa department of public safety said on Wednesday it was believed that the number of people injured was probably higher. The Greenfield tornado left a wide swath of obliterated homes, splintered trees and crumpled cars in the town of 2,000 about 55 miles (89km) south-west of Des Moines. The twister also ripped apart and crumpled huge power-producing wind turbines several miles outside the town.

USA - World leaders have been targeted quite frequently this month, and that should deeply alarm all of us. I think that all of this geopolitical instability is a sign that there is far more going on behind the scenes than we are being told. The major powers appear to be making moves in anticipation of what they believe is coming next. Right now, the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is dominating the news cycle, and at this stage we don’t know if that was an accident or not. But as a Twitter user known as “Cillian” has pointed out, there has been quite a lot of “international intrigue” during the past couple of weeks…

UK - Rishi Sunak called a snap general election tonight, firing the starting gun on a six-week campaign before a vote on July 4. Mr Sunak made a statement to the nation from Downing Street after speaking to the King. Buckingham Palace said the King met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in person at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday afternoon, following Charles' Prince's Trust engagement.

UK - Families will today be urged to stockpile three days' worth of food and water to help build national 'resilience'. Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden will advise people to make contingency plans for dealing with potential emergencies such as prolonged power cuts, cyber attacks and floods. Last year, Mr Dowden said people should stock up on 'analogue capabilities', such as candles, torches and wind-up radios, to boost their 'personal resilience'. Today he will go further by encouraging people to stock up with enough food and water to survive for three days without leaving their homes.

UNITED NATIONS - Multiple United Nations bodies honored dead Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi – whose storied career in politics was defined by the execution of thousands of political prisoners – on Monday, prompting outrage from the Israeli delegation at the UN. The Security Council, the most powerful body at the United Nations, held a moment of silence in Raisi’s honor, as well as for late Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. The two died alongside six others in a helicopter that crashed while traveling back from Azerbaijan on Sunday, where they had attended an event to inaugurate a dam jointly built with Baku. Iran confirmed their deaths in the early morning hours of Monday.

ITALY - A 4.4 magnitude earthquake struck Italy’s Campi Flegrei super volcano Monday evening, causing mild damage in the town of Pozzuoli, the epicenter, and as far away as the city of Naples, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV). Cracks in walls and falling cornices were reported, Italy’s Fire Brigade spokesman confirmed to CNN. The 4.4 earthquake at a depth of 3 kilometers is the strongest earthquake to hit the highly seismic area in the past 40 years, according to INGV data. The quake is part of an ongoing “seismic storm” that has seen more than a dozen events over 2.0 magnitude in the past 48 hours.

USA - Scientists have warned us that California is way overdue for a major earthquake and that “the Big One” could literally strike at any time. That is why I was so alarmed when the Los Angeles Times reported that “two sets of earthquake swarms” had just hit the state. After seeing that story, I went over to the Southern California Earthquake Data Center to check how many earthquakes have shaken the region during the past week. As I write this article, the total number of earthquakes in California and Nevada in the last 7 days is sitting at a grand total of 1010. To me, whenever that number goes above 1000 we are officially in the danger zone. Hopefully there will not be a very large earthquake in California any time soon, but when there is this much shaking going on we should all be on alert.

MIDDLE EAST - Hamas celebrated Wednesday as Ireland, Norway, and Spain announced that they would recognize a Palestinian state in the wake of the October 7 terror attacks against Israel, prompting Israel to recall its ambassadors from all three. The Times of Israel reported that Hamas stated: “We consider this an important step towards affirming our right to our land,” adding that it continued to call “on countries around the world to recognize our legitimate national rights.” Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz announced that Israel would be recalling its ambassadors from all three countries for consultations, and summoned the ambassadors of all three countries for reprimands — a severe diplomatic step. Israel has argued that to recognize a Palestinian state in the wake of the October 7 attacks would be to reward Hamas for terror and to invite more terrorist attacks — not just against Israel, but the West as well.

ISRAEL - Binyamin Netanyahu has described an ­attempt to seek an arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes in Gaza as “absurd” and insisted that any attempt to tie Israel’s hands was doomed to fail. Israel’s prime minister and defence minister, as well as senior leaders of Hamas, were all declared wanted for crimes against humanity by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, triggering protests and claims of “false equivalence” from both sides.The British barrister Karim Khan KC, chief prosecutor of the Hague court, accused Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the defence minister, of crimes including “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”, “wilful killing” and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population”.

IRAN - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in north-western Iran on Sunday - now opposition in Iran is set to take advantage of the situation. Iran has been sent a five-word warning by the country's leading resistance group following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, which has been dubbed an "irreparable blow" to the oppressive regime. Following the death of Raisi, Mrs Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said: "This represents a monumental and irreparable strategic blow to the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the entire regime, notorious for its executions and massacres. It will trigger a series of repercussions and crises within theocratic tyranny." It will "spur rebellious youths into action," she added speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk.

SWITZERLAND - Arch-globalist and head of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab has reportedly informed staff that he will be stepping down as WEF executive chairman. The 86-year-old self-appointed Sultan of Davos sent an email to staff on Tuesday announcing that he will no longer run the world’s most prominent globalist advocacy group although he will likely stay on in some non-executive role, the website Semafor claimed. A WEF spokesman told the website that the Forum will be changing its governance structure and that as a result, Schwab “will transition from Executive Chairman to Chairman of the Board of Trustees” by the start of next year. Under his leadership, the WEF has become one of the leading forces behind numerous globalist projects, such as central bank digital currencies, transhumanism, artificial intelligence, world governance, veganism, carbon taxes, tech censorship, and a radical restructuring of the global economy, among others.

ISRAEL - The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have discovered hundreds of tunnel shafts inside the Hamas stronghold of Rafah in southern Gaza, including dozens of tunnels that cross into Egypt. Israeli Deputy Attorney General Gilad Noam made the revelation while speaking at the International Court of Justice. “Rafah, in particular, is a focal point for ongoing terrorist activity. It is a stronghold for Hamas’ operators with several battalions belonging to the Rafah brigades entrenched in the area,” he said. “Also present in Rafah is an intricate underground tunnel infrastructure that runs underneath the city and provides ample space for operators, command and control rooms, and military equipment. Nearly 700 tunnel shafts have been identified in Rafah from which approximately 50 tunnels cross into Egypt,” he continued. “These tunnels are used by Hamas to supply itself with weapons and ammunition."

TURKEY - On May 14, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Erdogan’s ally in the parliamentary coalition, Devlet Bahceli, was the first to inform the parliament about a possible coup attempt. He stated that some law enforcement officers were trying to repeat the events of the failed military coup of 2016 and called not to limit the response to merely dismissing “a few police officers.” On May 15, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed members of parliament with a statement about a new attempted coup in the country. He said the alleged conspirators were supporters of preacher Fethullah Gulen, who resides in the US. The same day, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya posted on X (formerly Twitter) about a large-scale police operation in 62 provinces of the country, during which 544 people, presumably linked to Gulen, were detained. The next day, Yerlikaya warned on social media that Turkish law enforcement would identify and hold accountable all conspirators within government institutions.

USA - German bank executives need to increase their compliance with sanctions on Russia, and shut down any efforts to circumvent them, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned on Tuesday during a meeting with bankers in Frankfurt, according to Reuters. The US official reportedly stressed that Russia must not be allowed to procure “sensitive goods” to aid its military operation in Ukraine, and warned that Washington now has the authority to hit foreign banks with secondary sanctions if they are believed to be aiding Russian military-related transactions. “I urge all institutions here to take heightened compliance measures and to increase your focus on Russian evasion attempts,” Yellen said, warning that those who fail to do so may be prevented from using the US dollar.

USA - The US and Niger issued a joint statement on Sunday that set a deadline of September 15 for the withdrawal of all US forces. The departing American troops leave behind a $100-million military base built to support counter-terrorism operations in the Sahel region. The disposition of Airbase 201 in Niger’s city of Agadez was left unclear in the joint statement, which held out hopes that the US and Niger might be able to work on “issues of mutual interest” in the future. In a conference call with reporters on Sunday afternoon, a senior Defense Department official said the departing American forces would bring “sensitive equipment, lethal equipment, [and] hazardous equipment” with them.