ISRAEL - National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir welcomed the launching of Operation Rising Lion today (Friday), which was authorized unanimously by the cabinet, in a post on X: "We are in historic moments. The State of Israel is currently engaged in an operation in Iran — an action carefully designed and planned over many months by the cabinet and all security forces. I send strength and love to the soldiers of the IDF and to all branches of the security system operating with dedication and courage."

ISRAEL - Israel Pounds 300+ Sites, Kills Iran’s Military Chief and 12 Nuclear Scientists Within a Few Hours. Opening strike hits nuclear sites and command centers; Iranian regime scrambles military amid coup fears and confirms death of Armed Forces Chief. The scope and impact of Israel’s military campaign against Iran continue to unfold dramatically, with fresh reports confirming high-profile assassinations, nationwide military alerts in Iran, and significant regional tensions. Opposition-aligned Iranian sources report that the regime has begun deploying military units across the country amid fears of an internal coup. The move follows what many Iranians are calling an unprecedented intelligence and security failure.

ISRAEL - Yet more fuel has been added to the sense of intense economic anxiety after Israel launched overnight attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, prompting the latter to retaliate with drone strikes. Right now the global economy feels like a tinderbox ready to ignite at any moment. In economic terms, the ramifications of the drastic escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran will be felt via two main channels: oil prices and foreign exchange rates. If the tensions spill over into disruption to the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery of global oil trade flows between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, then there is a serious risk that oil supply will be tightly constrained. About a fifth of the world’s total oil consumption passes through the strait of Hormuz, between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

USA - The violent protests engulfing Los Angeles are backed by pro-Hamas activists who called for the city to be “burned”, it can be revealed. Unity of Fields (UoF) celebrated attacks on police and encouraged an “intifada” in response to the detention of illegal migrants. They shared details of upcoming protests with their members, encouraging them to take part in the “uprising” and to spread the unrest across the US, The Telegraph can reveal. The group also celebrated a rioter who burned a self-driving Waymo car while wearing a Hamas armband and waving a Mexican flag. Using Telegram, the encrypted messaging service, the group shared details of the LA riots to 10,000 supporters, who they have dubbed the “Hamas Marxist army”. Apple subsequently banned the Telegram channel on all iPhones and other iOS devices in recent days.

ISRAEL - Dozens of Israeli aircraft participated in an initial wave of strikes on dozens of military targets and Iranian nuclear sites early on Friday morning. Warning sirens have been set off to get the public ready for potential Iranian counterattacks of ballistic missiles on Israel. The IDF had not stopped attacking since the initial wave. Rather, as of 4:30 am, the IAF was still carrying out broad attacks, and there were no specific signs of stopping. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Iran is gearing up to produce tens of thousands of ballistic missiles, which could kill millions of Israelis even without nuclear weapons, but imagine if any of them had nuclear weapons on them. The IDF confirmed that the reason for the attack is to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. "Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the Iranian regime are an existential threat to the State of Israel and to the wider world," the military said.

ISRAEL - The Israeli military expects its operation against Iran’s nuclear program and long-range missile capabilities to last for several days. The IDF is preparing for heavy fire from Iran in response to its airstrikes tonight. “At the end of the operation, there will be no nuclear threat” from Iran, military officials say. “We are in the window of strategic opportunities. We have reached the point of no return, and there is no choice but to act now,” IDF officials say. The IDF says it is coordinating its action with the US. “We can’t leave these threats for the next generation,” Netanyahu declared, “because if we don’t act now, there will not be another generation.” Zamir put it more succinctly. The attack, he said, was “an immediate operational necessity — an imperative," he said, “to remove the strategic threat and ensure our future.”

USA - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday the United States was not involved in Israel's strikes against Iran while also urging Tehran not to target US interests or personnel in the region. "Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region," Rubio said in a statement. "Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel," he added.

UK - Britain is broke and broken. Not exactly the optimistic words you’d expect to hear from a new prime minister. But that was the phrase deployed by Sir Keir Starmer’s office just weeks after Labour took power. While it set a gloomy tone, his sentiment wasn’t wrong. Repeated crises have left Britain’s economy in bad shape. The financial meltdown of 2008 destroyed productivity, leaving a permanent scar on wages. Lockdown changed our work ethic and Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine showed just how vulnerable the country is to higher energy prices. The result? An economy struggling with more welfare, more problems and more debt. The UK will be forced to fork out more than £100 billion a year until the next election to service Britain’s debt. That’s almost twice the defence budget and more than Britain spends on education every year.

UK - Britain has grown lazy, feckless and fat. We are addicted to bread and circuses, as long as others pay for them. We don’t work hard enough, safe in the knowledge that “society” owes us a living. We crave “free” stuff paid for by taxing the “rich”, and lap up Rachel Reeves’s nonsensical spending review: billions that we don’t have for an unfixable NHS, U-turns on benefit cuts and winter fuel payments, and bribes for the Red Wall. We hate our politicians for lying to us – of course Reeves is plotting another tax raid, of course she doesn’t have a clue how to fund a proper military – and yet demand the impossible of them, hence why even Reform are nervous about questioning the welfare state.

GIBRALTAR - Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of surrendering Gibraltar after striking a deal that allows Spain to check passports on the Rock. Britain agreed a deal with Europe and Madrid that would place Spanish border officers at the airport and ports of the British territory as part of a “dual” entry system. Those arriving on the land border will be waved through by British officials to ease border friction as part of the last of the major post-Brexit agreements. The deal also removes physical checks on goods at the frontier with Spain. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, added: “No parliament can bind its successor and so this and the fishing deal are invalid. This government are the worst negotiators in history. On Gibraltar, yet another surrender.”

UK - Within hours of stepping up as Reform chairman on Tuesday, David Bull triggered his first media controversy by remarking that “immigration is the lifeblood of this country – it always has been”. As popular as this sentiment is with Britain’s politicians, it isn’t true today and it certainly wasn’t in the past. From 1066 through to the end of the Second World War, the population of Britain has been marked by relative stability. As a crude illustration, as late as 1951 the total non-White population of Great Britain was estimated at about 30,000 people, or about 0.07 percent of the population. Today it’s roughly 20 percent, and on course to pass 50 percent by the end of the century. In other words, the population changes induced by migration over the past seven decades are essentially without parallel in 1,000 years of British history.

USA - Protests against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown have spread across the United States, with demonstrations erupting in at least a dozen cities overnight. The National Guard has been deployed in Texas, and protests were held in Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta and New York as opposition to the administration’s aggressive round-ups intensified. In Los Angeles, National Guard troops have begun temporarily detaining civilians, the commander in charge confirmed, adding that these individuals are being rapidly turned over to law enforcement officers. Major General Scott Sherman also said about 500 of the National Guard troops had so far been trained to accompany agents on immigration operations. Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, said the state would deploy its National Guard to “maintain order” after police used chemical irritants to disperse several hundred demonstrators in Austin.

USA - Trump ordered the evacuation of non-essential embassy staff from Iraq and other Middle East posts in case of reprisals if Israel attacks Tehran’s nuclear sites. American officials have been told that Israel is “fully ready” to launch an operation into Iran and anticipates that Iran could retaliate on US sites in neighbouring Iraq. CBS News reported that Israel was poised to begin an attack, prompting the United States to evacuate some embassy staff in the Middle East. Further reports suggested that Israel plans to strike Iranian nuclear facilities. The partial withdrawal was announced by President Trump, who said he was less confident now that negotiations with Iran on a nuclear deal would succeed.

UK - UK warns of rising military threats in Gulf waters as US authorizes evacuation of embassy staff in Iraq, Bahrain and Kuwait amid fears of imminent escalation with Iran. Regional tensions surged Wednesday amid signs that nuclear negotiations with Iran may be nearing their conclusion, raising fears of a potential military confrontation and prompting a wave of security alerts and diplomatic movements. The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a British maritime security agency, issued an unusual advisory Wednesday, warning commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz to exercise heightened caution due to what it called "increased tensions in the Middle East" that could escalate military activity and directly impact maritime security.

UK - ‘Hallucinations’, where the machines invent what they think we want to hear, are growing. Now that’s properly scary! Everybody is worried about AI. Even the people who make AI are worried about AI. Elon Musk, for example, has spent the GDP of a small country developing Grok, his AI, and he said the technology “may be the biggest risk humanity has ever faced” and that there’s “a 10 to 20 per cent chance” it leads to the apocalypse. Thanks, Elon! I’m worried, too. I’m starting to think, though, that we might all have been worrying in the wrong directions. Remember HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the way he turns into a sociopath? Forget that. The future is weirder. To explain how, let me tell you what recently happened to Sam Coates, the deputy political editor of Sky News.