MIDDLE EAST - Israel quietly deployed its Iron Dome air defense system along with dozens of IDF troops to the United Arab Emirates in the early days of the Iran conflict, according to reporting, marking the first operational use of the system outside Israel and the United States as Tehran unleashed a sustained and intense missile and drone barrage against the Gulf state. According to reports published Sunday by Axios and The Jerusalem Post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the deployment early in the conflict following a call with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, directing the Israel Defense Forces to send an Iron Dome battery, interceptors, and several dozen operators to help defend the country as Iran escalated its attacks across the region.

MIDDLE EAST - The United Arab Emirates announced on Tuesday that it will depart from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on May 1, 2026. In an official statement delivered via the Emirates News Agency, the UAE noted that its “long-term strategic and economic vision” had diverged from OPEC’s. The move comes as global oil benchmark Brent crude rose to over $110 per barrel after markets opened. Joining OPEC in 1967 as the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the UAE served as OPEC’s third-largest producer in its nearly 60-year tenure with the group. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has long sought to increase its production, but disagreements with Saudi Arabia prevented this expansion.

MIDDLE EAST - The United Arab Emirates hit two birds with one stone with its dramatic announcement on Tuesday. Its decision to quit the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) has dealt a potential death blow to the influential oil group. Future historians may mark it as a turning point in the cartel’s slow decline into irrelevance. Equally, it aims a powerful punch at its neighbour and de facto Opec leader Saudi Arabia, reigniting a tense regional rivalry between the two nations. In doing so, the UAE has confounded widespread expectations that the Gulf countries would unite in the face of a shared threat from Iran. The UAE has been chafing against Opec for at least five years, as it wants to expand its output beyond its official quota. It is capped at 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd), but aspires to pump out five million bpd by 2027.

UK - More than two-thirds of babies under two use screens, a report has found, and some are exposed for up to eight hours a day. Nearly a third of newborns were found to be watching screens for more than three hours a day, while almost 20 per cent of infants of four to 11 months used screens for more than an hour a day. The report comes after the government issued guidance that children under two do not use screens at all, apart from communal activities such as video-calling relatives. In a review of the current research, researchers found evidence linking screen time to poorer outcomes for children, including an increased risk of obesity, short-sightedness, sleep and behavioural difficulties, and later challenges with friendships.

USA - A chemical tranquilizer 100 times more potent than fentanyl and 10,000 times stronger than morphine is rapidly spreading through the US drug supply, killing hundreds of unsuspecting users. Carfentanil, a large-animal tranquilizer researched for years as a potential chemical weapon, was identified 1,400 times in Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seizures in 2025, a nearly ten-fold increase from just 145 identifications in 2023 and only 54 in 2022. Unlike fentanyl, which has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans over the past decade, carfentanil has no legitimate human medical use. Veterinarians use it to tranquilize elephants, rhinos and bears. Because a lethal dose of carfentanil is smaller than a grain of salt, the drug's extreme potency renders standard overdose reversal measures dangerously inadequate. A single two-milligram intramuscular injection of carfentanil is powerful enough to sedate an elephant and lethal enough to kill 50 human beings.

USA - Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday that a recent review found thousands of Americans who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in just one state are actually driving luxury vehicles. Rollins did not identify the state, except to say it was led by a Republican, but said a scrutiny of the federal food stamp program uncovered that thousands of people who are getting the benefits in that one state are also rolling to stores in Bentleys and Teslas. The study, conducted by the Foundation for Government Accountability, connected 14,000 luxury vehicles to food stamp enrollees, with Lexus being the most common brand. The review found 3,636 food stamp recipients are driving Lexus cars, 2,098 are driving Teslas, 1,914 are driving BMWs, 1,131 are driving Cadillacs, 11 drive Lamborghinis, three drive Bentleys and three drive Ferraris, according to the Washington Times. “This is just in one state," Rollins said. "We need to defend our nutrition programs for those most in need, not for scammers gaming the system."

USA - The Washington Hilton is ‘hated’ by experts, and was one of the biggest security weaknesses the Secret Service faced on Saturday. One of the biggest weaknesses was the choice of venue, security experts told The Times. The White House correspondents’ dinner is held each year at the Washington Hilton, a mile-and-a-half from the White House. Privately owned hotels are occasionally used for functions by presidents in office, but they often also function as “public accommodations” meaning they remain open to other guests staying in the building ahead of time. The Hilton boasts one of the largest ballrooms in Washington, but is a functioning hotel that is difficult to secure. Guests, including the gunman, had already checked in in the days before and were not subject to security checks.

UK - Shoppers have been urged to brace for soaring food prices, as supermarkets warned the “full force” of the war in Iran would hit shelves imminently. Its warning came as separate figures from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) revealed that retailers were already under significant pressure, making it unlikely they could absorb cost increases. Fears that Britain is facing a fresh inflation crisis will create a dilemma for the Bank of England’s rate-setters, who meet on Thursday to decide whether to hold or increase borrowing costs.

USA - The King will call on the United States and Britain to “come together” even when they do not agree, in a speech to Congress on Tuesday. The King, who is in Washington for a four-day state visit to the US, is expected to say that the long tradition of transatlantic friendship does not just benefit the two countries, but the world. The spirit of friendship between the two countries is one of “reconciliation and renewal”, he will say, in carefully chosen words that come at a challenging time for US-UK relations.

AFRICA - Mali is experiencing a major escalation in violence, with jihadist groups advancing and the defense minister assassinated. The crisis threatens to destabilize the Sahel region. Mali has seen an unprecedented advance by armed groups in recent days, and among the groups involved are Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), considered a jihadist organization, and the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), seen as a group seeking an independent region or state for the Tuareg people. The context here is important. Mali is a large country that spans the Sahel region, connecting sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. It is the eighth-largest country in Africa. It borders Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Liberia, and Burkina Faso, among other states. As such, what happens in Mali tends to spill over into other areas that span the Sahel. This means that the current advances by various groups could lead to more destabilization in Africa.