ISRAEL - The prime minister says the defense industry must become self-reliant to withstand potential sanctions. Israel will have to reshape its economy to withstand sweeping sanctions and boycotts, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday. Speaking at the Finance Ministry’s annual accountant general conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said mounting international pressure over the Gaza war is pushing the country toward economic self-sufficiency.

America's moral descenthttps://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-867535USA - With last week’s murder of Charlie Kirk at an outdoor gathering in Utah, the US is continuing its descent into a dark period where constructive disagreement is being replaced by violence aimed at those with whom people disagree. Sadly, the statistics bear this out. Through the first half of 2025, the US saw some 150 politically motivated attacks, according to Michael Jensen, a University of Maryland researcher who tracks terrorism incidents. That’s nearly twice as many as the same period last year. While most of these have not been of well-known people, during the past five years, there have been a number of very public figures who are part of this statistic. There have also been a number of mass shootings that have occurred in the United States in 2025. As of August 31, a total of 302 people have been killed and 1,354 people wounded in 309 mass shootings this year. These include 47 school shootings, which themselves resulted in 19 deaths and 77 injuries.

UK - A man from Afghanistan who fled to the UK after a court convicted him of raping a 14-year-old girl has opposed extradition to France on the grounds that his prison cell might be too small. After a warrant was issued by France “for the rape of a minor”, Abdul Ahmadzai, 36, was arrested under the Extradition Act 2003. He was convicted in his absence of the rape of a 14-year-old girl and sentenced to five years in prison. At the Westminster Magistrates’ Court extradition hearing, Stefan Hyman, representing Ahmadzai, spoke about the perceived risk that Ahmadzai could be detained in a space that would be smaller than three square metres if he is extradited across the Channel.

USA - Grocery bills are climbing, and it's not just your imagination. A new report reveals a surge in food prices, leaving many Americans feeling the pinch. According to a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, grocery prices have jumped to the highest in three years. The cost of foods such as fresh produce, coffee, and meat has sent overall prices sky high, causing many Americans to struggle to make ends meet. Among the steepest price increases, instant coffee has risen by 4.9%, tomatoes 4.5%, beef roasts 4%, apples 3.5% and lettuce by 3.5%. According to The Guardian, the average cost of a dozen large eggs hit $6.23 in March, more than double the price just 12 months earlier.

UK - Speaking at a press conference last week in which he announced sanctions against Israel, Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, bemoaned not having any nuclear weapons – because it meant he couldn’t use them to threaten Israel. It’s certainly true that neither Sir Keir Starmer nor any member of the British Government has yet threatened the Israelis with nuclear apocalypse. But every week brings another example of how, under Labour, Israel is now being treated as an enemy state. Today we learn that the Royal College of Defence Studies will no longer accept students from Israel, the first time it has barred Israelis since that nation’s creation in 1948. As Amir Baram, the director general of Israel’s defence ministry (who studied at the college) put it in a letter to the Ministry of Defence, the ban on Israelis is “a profoundly dishonourable act of disloyalty to an ally at war” and a “disgraceful break with Britain’s proud tradition of tolerance – and plain decency”.

UK - Internet chatrooms in Nepal played a key role in selecting a prime minister, but the same technology has been used to spread vile abuse after Charlie Kirk’s death. Many of the comments were vile. They began on social media almost as soon as Charlie Kirk had been assassinated. He was reviled as a bigot, a racist and a fascist who fully deserved to be shot. The celebrations on Bluesky were especially ­repulsive. Others, including his supporters, posted appalling images: videos of the blood gushing from his neck as he fell backwards. Some may have thought this would expose the enormity of the crimes they insist are perpetrated by the left; others simply recognised the awful attraction of violence on screen, the same gleeful fascination that in the past prompted Islamist terrorists to post videos of a western journalist having his throat cut in Pakistan or a Jordanian pilot being burnt alive. Little wonder that more and more people see the internet as a sewer which they want drained and regulated.

POLAND - When 19 alleged Russian drones violated Polish airspace this week, NATO scrambled its most advanced — and most expensive — weapons to stop them. Dutch F-35 fighter jets, Italian surveillance planes, and German Patriot missile systems were deployed in a high-stakes interception effort. The result? Only seven drones were shot down, despite each missile costing nearly 40 times more than the $11,000 wooden-and-foam UAVs they targeted. The embarrassing failure has exposed a gaping hole in NATO’s air defenses, leaving Eastern Europe vulnerable to waves of low-cost, high-impact attacks that modern militaries simply aren’t equipped to handle. The incident was a huge wake-up call. According to internal NATO calculations cited by the Financial Times in May, the alliance has only 5% of the air defenses needed to protect Eastern Europe, the Baltics, and Scandinavia. That means if Russia or any other adversary decided to flood the skies with cheap, disposable drones, NATO’s billion-dollar war machines would be outmatched, outnumbered, and financially drained before the first real battle even begins.

ISRAEL - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his country’s recent airstrike on Hamas terrorists in Qatar, saying Monday that the Gulf state was in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373. That resolution, passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, bars countries from harboring terrorists, and implies that other states have a right to self-defense against terrorists that are being sheltered by other nations. Standing alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a press conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu fielded a question about the airstrike, after Rubio was asked how the US could assuage its Gulf allies.

UK - Police said up to 150,000 people were in London on Saturday for the "Unite the Kingdom" rally led by far-right activist Tommy Robinson. Danny from south Birmingham was holding a sign that said: "Send them Back" - and said he was unhappy with migration "in general". He came to "stand up for what we believe in, the religion and identity of our country". That's been a difference with this rally compared to past ones I've covered - an overt Christian nationalism. People carried wooden crosses. One person had a light-up crucifix. When the crowd arrived at Whitehall, they were led from the stage in a chant of 'Christ is king'. And then a public recital of the Lord's Prayer shortly after that. It's an important difference. Not just a flag to rally around, but a religion too. The tinderbox summer of protest promised by activists never really caught flame. Instead, there has been the slow, steady burn of nationalism. This was its culmination but also, those here hoped, the beginning of something even bigger.

USA - Elon Musk Delivers Ominous Message at Far-Right Rally: ‘Violence is Coming’ and ‘You Either Fight Back, Or You Die’. Elon Musk sent a chilling message at a far-right rally in the UK on Saturday — warning the crowd that “violence is coming” and “you either fight back, or you die.” Appearing virtually at the far-right “Unite the Kingdom” demonstration in London, the Tesla boss made clear he does not foresee peace in the near future. “Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you,” Musk said. “You either fight back, or you die. You either fight back, or you die. That’s the truth.” Tommy Robinson, the far-right activist who organized Saturday’s protest, told Musk, “Today, Elon, I think the British public are telling the world that they’re ready to fight back.” “Good!’ Musk said, raising his fists in the air — as the estimated crowd of up to 150,000 people cheered. “Yes!”