ISRAEL - “Pride Land is not just another festival," said the main producer and initiator of the festival, Aaron Cohen, "It's the biggest thing we've done here.” Israel is set to host the Middle East’s largest ever LGBT festival at the Dead Sea in June 2026. The new festival, Pride Land, intends to transform the middle of the Judean Desert into a colorful pride city from June 1 to June 4. The event intends to create an experience broader than parties or performances, instead aiming for a space that is alive 24 hours a day, with 15 hotels, beach complexes, parties, and a central performance arena all operating around the clock. Alongside the nightlife, Pride Land will have cultural and art complexes, relaxation and scenic areas, and family-friendly areas with children's activities, family-friendly workshops, and customized events. This is not just a pride event; it also aims to highlight the Dead Sea region as a permanent destination for LGBT tourists, emphasizing that Pride in Israel extends beyond the key hub of Tel Aviv.

UNITED NATIONS - The world is at risk of a fresh nuclear arms race, the head of the United Nations’ atomic agency has warned. Rafael Grossi said rising conflict and instability could lead to a “crack in the system” of non-proliferation and a domino effect in which as many as 20 states pursued a bomb. He told The Telegraph that renewed debate about whether to acquire nuclear weapons in countries such as Poland, South Korea and Japan could leave the world in a “very, very fragile position”. Leaders in Poland, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, among others, have openly said they may pursue nuclear weapons in the face of a destabilised world and the weakening of the transatlantic alliance. Nuclear proliferation has also been discussed in South Korea, Japan and even by some in Sweden.

JAPAN - Japan has lifted a postwar ban on weapons exports this week as it moves away from a pacifist stance that has defined defence policy since the end of the Second World War. Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister, announced the plans after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, writing in a post on X that the change was necessary given the “increasingly challenging security environment”. As it stands, exports of Japanese-made defence equipment and technology are limited to five non-combat categories: rescue, transport, warning, surveillance and minesweeping. But, boosted by a sweeping election victory in February, Ms Takaichi’s government has removed these restrictions. China reacted angrily to the announcement on Tuesday, vowing to resist what it called Japan’s “reckless militarisation”.

NIGERIA - Boko Haram militants have threatened to execute more than 400 women and children they are holding hostage, within 72 hours. A faction from the terror group delivered the ultimatum in a video to Nigerian media after demanding a ransom of more than £2.7 million from the government. The video showed armed, masked men in paramilitary uniform warning that if their demands were not met, the captives would never be seen again. The West African nation is experiencing an epidemic of kidnappings, banditry and hostage-taking by criminal gangs, insurgents and militia.

USA - Lawmakers are demanding a sweeping investigation into the mysterious disappearances and deaths of nearly a dozen top US scientists, citing national security concerns. At least 11 experts with ties to NASA, nuclear research, aerospace programs and classified projects have vanished or turned up dead in recent years. Many of the individuals held top security clearances, granting them access to sensitive information on space missions, nuclear technology or advanced defense systems, prompting speculation about possible 'sinister' connections. Lawmakers are now demanding that the FBI, Pentagon, NASA and the Department of Energy open probes into the concerning deaths and disappearances, which included researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

IRAN - The American naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is targeting an Iranian economy that was already dying before the first bombs fell on February 28. When the rial reached a record low against the dollar in late December, mass cost of living protests erupted across the Islamic Republic. Since then, things have only worsened with an estimated $270 billion (£200 billion) of war damage, a figure that dwarfs Iran’s annual oil revenue and is the equivalent of 26 years of oil sanctions, according to Iranian media. Iran faces an impossible situation: rebuilding a shattered economy while the US naval blockade cuts off the imports required for reconstruction. Iran imports roughly 40 per cent of its food, including wheat, rice, vegetable oil and meat.

UK - Drug-resistant infections now kill more people annually than HIV or malaria, yet only six companies remain in antibiotic research. Every caesarean section, joint replacement, and round of chemotherapy depends on effective antibiotics. In medicine as in war, a successful attack needs a solid defence. Antibiotics are not medicine’s glamorous front line – they are its foundations. And those foundations are crumbling. Drug-resistant infections now kill 1.27 million people annually – more than HIV or malaria. By 2050, the toll could reach eight million. The WHO has warned that one in six bacterial infections is already resistant to standard treatment.

UK - By Kemi Badenoch, Leader of the Opposition: We can see it everywhere - from the recent looting by hordes of teenagers, to the explosion in welfare dependency, to the tide of small-boat arrivals that mock our border controls on a daily basis. They’re all symptoms of the same disease: the collapse of consequences in British life.

USA - The Trump administration wants automakers and other American manufacturers to play a larger role in weapons production, reminiscent of a practice used during World War II. Senior defense officials have held talks about producing weapons and other military supplies with the top executives of several companies, including Mary Barra, chief executive officer of General Motors, and Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor, according to people familiar with the discussions. The Pentagon is interested in enlisting the companies to use their personnel and factory capacity to increase production of munitions and other equipment as the wars in Ukraine and Iran deplete stocks.

UKRAINE - For the first time in modern combat, an entire military position was captured without a single soldier stepping onto the contested ground. No infantry breaths. No medevac choppers. No body bags. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced April 13 that Ukrainian forces seized a Russian-held position using only unmanned systems, a milestone he framed as both a technological breakthrough and a moral one. “For the first time in the history of this war, Ukrainian warriors captured an enemy position using exclusively unmanned platforms,” Zelenskyy said during a speech marking Ukraine’s Arms Makers’ Day. “A robot entered the most dangerous zones instead of a soldier and took the positions.” The claim, if verified independently, represents a seismic shift in how wars may be fought. It also raises uncomfortable questions the defense establishment has long sidestepped: If machines do the dying, what restrains the urge to invade?