ISRAEL - A significant step was recently taken towards reinstating the Temple service when the nascent Sanhedrin selected Rabbi Baruch Kahane as the next Kohen Gadol (high priest). If the political conditions should change, allowing the Jews access to the Temple Mount, they will be required by Torah law to bring the sacrifices. Rabbi Kahane is confident that if that should happen, Temple service could begin in less than one week. This year has already seen much Temple-oriented activity: the Temple Institute has created a registry of kohanim; established a school for educating men of the priestly class in the details of the Temple service; and performed reenactments on all the holidays, including the especially significant Passover sacrifice.

PHILIPPINES - A huge earthquake has struck the Philippines, killing at least 15 people, injuring more than 200 others and triggering tsunami warnings across parts of the Asia-Pacific region. The quake, which was recorded as a magnitude 7.8, struck at a depth of 10km on Monday morning, according to the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). Since the initial magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck off the Philippines' southern coast, 138 aftershocks have been recorded as of 11:00 local time (03:00 GMT), according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said in a statement: 'Based on the local tsunami scenario database, it is expected to experience wave heights of more than one metre above the normal tides and may be higher on enclosed bays and straits.'

USA - Stock markets crashed on Friday afternoon as big technology companies melted down after a strong jobs report raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will be forced to hike interest rates sooner rather than later. The benchmark S&P 500 sank 2.6 percent, its biggest one-day decline since the early days of the Iran war in March, and closed out its first losing week in the last ten. But it was the Nasdaq Composite that really sank, plummeting 4.7 percent, its worst decline in nearly four years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1.3 percent. Tech stocks dragged the market lower as companies that had powered record highs over recent months saw sharp losses: Nvidia fell 5.5 percent, Broadcom dropped almost 7 percent and Micron Technology slid more than 11 percent. In a sign of the panic on Wall Street, the so-called fear gauge soared by more than 34 percent to 21 in late-day trading, the biggest one-day gain in two years.

USA - The US national debt tops $39.2 trillion, and total debt including implicit obligations stands at over $108 trillion, approaching the entire planet’s annual GDP. America is heading for a collision course with economic realities it abandoned in the 1980s. When debt reaches 210% of GDP, there’s no longer any “feasible tax on labor income that can finance interest payments… at returns acceptable to investors,” Fortune says, citing calculations by the Penn Wharton Budget Model. With the current debt-to-GDP ratio standing at ~120-125%, the US may seem like it has some ways to go to get to that tipping point. However, with debt growing $1 trillion every 71-100 days, and Social Security and Medicare heading for bankruptcy by the mid-2030s, Washington may get there closer than it might like.

UK - Perhaps I might say something to Vance, Musk, Farage, Lowe, Trump and the rest of the grifters who have leveraged the murder of Henry Nowak in ways that explicitly defied the wishes of his father, Mark, who gave a statement of great dignity outside the court where his son’s killer was handed a life sentence. The most precious western value is not liberty or patriotism. It is truth. Without truth, or something close, we cannot hope for anything else of value. As Plato put it: “Truth is the beginning of every good thing, both to gods and men.”

USA - For decades, there has been a longstanding convention between western allies not to rub salt into each other’s domestic wounds, or use their misery to score a domestic political point. But JD Vance has never played by the rules. In a social media post about the death of Henry Nowak, the US vice-president offered a potent denunciation not just of the UK political system but its recent history. It plays into a major theme of the MAGA movement in which Europe — and Britain in particular — are presented as a parable of the fate awaiting America if the wrong people win power.

MIDDLE EAST - After three months on the rollercoaster, with oscillating statements and almost-peace deals, the truth is President Trump is no nearer a solution in the Gulf. Since February 28, we have experienced the geopolitical equivalent of a rollercoaster ride on magic mushrooms. We hurtled from Operation Epic Fury to Operation Economic Fury to Operation Freedom to no fury at all, and not much freedom of navigation either.

MIDDLE EAST - This is a moment in history that we will remember for a long time to come. Even though we were told over and over again that a deal with Iran was almost “finalized”, the truth is that there never was going to be a deal with Iran. It was all smoke and mirrors. The US couldn’t give Iran what it was demanding, and Iran simply refused to give the US what it was demanding. Now negotiations have totally collapsed, and it appears that the war is back on. Needless to say, this is going to be absolutely devastating for the global economy.

UK - “Britain is bust.” Those were not the words of a politician or a scaremongering economist. They were uttered in 2012 by Sir Robert Chote, then head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). He warned that unless the government acted by either spending less or taxing more, the national debt risked spiralling out of control. At the time, Britain’s national debt had recently surpassed £1 trillion and alarm bells were already ringing. Today, the country stands on the brink of another symbolic milestone. Within months, the United Kingdom’s national debt is expected to exceed £3 trillion for the first time, a threshold that could be crossed as early as September. Senior economists are raising uncomfortable questions. Chief among them: will the International Monetary Fund (IMF) soon be called back to Britain?

UK - The Royal Navy's entire available fleet of hunter-killer submarines is stuck in port unable to sail – leaving Britain at risk from Vladimir Putin's Russia. In a fresh humiliation for Britain's Armed Forces, all five of its Astute class submarines are currently laid up awaiting maintenance and other repair work. Military experts have also warned that the Navy's lack of available nuclear-powered attack submarines – which carry up to 38 Spearfish torpedoes and a battery of Tomahawk missiles – leaves the UK's sub-sea internet and power cables dangerously vulnerable to sabotage by the Kremlin. The subs also play a critical role in protecting the larger Vanguard submarines, which carry the Trident ballistic missiles that make up the UK's nuclear deterrent. The extraordinary revelations come just a day after the Mail told how one of Britain's flagship £3.5 billion aircraft carriers had broken down again and was forced into port in Norway for repairs. And on Friday the head of the UK's military warned that the threats faced by Britain are greater than at any time since the Cold War.