UK - Ed Miliband is reportedly set to back the North Sea oil and gasfield project despite insisting that Net Zero is a 'central mission' of the Labour government. The Net Zero secretary has been under increasing pressure to reverse a ban on exploration in the North Sea amid the Iran war's impact on energy supplies. Miliband had been stalling over a decision on the Jackdaw gasfield - 150 miles off the coast of Aberdeen - for around two years, but Whitehall officials have now suggested he is inclined to approve the project. The 51-year-old no longer sees the gasfield as incompatible with the government's carbon reduction commitments, according to The Times, after Rachel Reeves announced she is 'happy' to see drilling in the North Sea. If approved, the Jackdaw project could supply gas to more than a million British homes and produce the equivalent of six per cent of the country's overall supply.

UK - It would be the biggest divorce in history. For eight decades, NATO has weathered internal disputes, enemy plots and shooting wars in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. But if Donald Trump acts on his threat to finally leave, having told The Telegraph he is strongly considering pulling out after allies failed to join his war on Iran, the transatlantic family will be torn asunder. At which point, the club that calls itself the most successful alliance in history may as well close its doors. And the pain could match that of the most acrimonious breakups.

MIDDLE EAST - Donald Trump has threatened to destroy Iran’s water infrastructure – an act experts say would constitute a war crime that could plunge tens of millions of people into crisis. If the Strait of Hormuz is not opened “immediately,” the United States “will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island – and possibly all desalination plants,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Monday.

USA - US war secretary Pete Hegseth was today branded a 'blustering anchorman' as he sparked a backlash by mocking the 'big, bad Royal Navy'. In the latest American blast at Britain over the Iran war, the former Fox News host demanded the UK and other countries 'step up' to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. In response to US and Israeli attacks, which began at the end of last month, Iran has effectively closed the crucial sea passage and sent global fuel prices soaring. Mr Hegseth suggested it was 'not just the US Navy' who should be responsible for getting tankers moving through the waterway again, as he backed up earlier comments by Donald Trump. In a vicious social media post, the US President dramatically washed his hands of the Middle East crisis and told Keir Starmer to 'go get your own oil' as Europe's supplies dry up. Mr Trump added he had done 'the hard part' by launching the war on Iran, insisting countries like the UK would have to reopen the blocked Strait.

MIDDLE EAST - US Gulf allies, including Saudi Arabia, UAE and other Gulf allies urge President Trump to continue war on Iran. The US allies privately warned President Trump that Tehran has not been weakened enough. The US Allies say four weeks of bombings has not been enough to destroy the barbaric Iranian regime. Alma research and education center published a map of the Iranian regime’s targets since the war started. So it is understandable that Iran’s Middle East neighbors are tired of the Iranian threat after 40 years of the theocratic regime.

USA - President Trump on Tuesday suggested that he will withdraw troops from the Middle East and force Europe, Asia, and the Gulf nations to deal with Iran’s blockade on the Strait of Hormuz after they refused his calls for help. President Trump previously asked NATO and Asia for help securing the Strait, but they refused. “The USA won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” Trump said in a statement on Monday, offering to supply oil from the United States if the countries cannot “build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.” He added. “Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!” This comes amid reporting that Trump is ready to end the war regardless of security in the waterway. His plan would then be to leave it for Europe and the Gulf states, who are heavily dependent on the flow of oil through the Strait, unlike the US, to deal with it.

USA - Bloomberg: "The energy industry is warning that the crisis is only beginning. In conversations with more than three dozen oil and gas traders, executives, brokers, shippers and advisers over the last week, one message was repeated over and over: The world still hasn’t grasped the severity of the situation... If the strait stays closed, the world will have to significantly reduce its oil and gas consumption — but not before prices spike to a level that forces consumers and businesses to fly, drive and spend much less."

USA - Western media reports indicated the fire raged on board for some 30 hours before being extinguished – longer than the devastating 1967 USS Forrestal carrier fire, which burned for about 24 hours. If true, it raises questions about the state of supposedly sophisticated firefighting systems on the Ford, particularly given that the Forrestal fire was aggravated by explosions of munitions stored on the flight deck and burning fuel seeping into compartments. More than 600 out of nearly 4,500 sailors, tech personnel, and pilots lost their bunks in the fire, ending up forced to sleep on tables and floors, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous crewmembers. Moreover, the crew has been unable to do laundry since the fire, which reportedly ended up being airlifted to other ships for washing.

IRAN - Iranian Parliament's Security Commission has approved a plan to impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz and stop America and Israel from moving through. A member of the National Security Commission announced the approval of the plan for managing the Strait of Hormuz and adding "tolls". In a post on Telegram, Fars news agency noted the key areas for the plan, including prohibiting "Americans and the Zionist regime from transit" - meaning US and Israeli ships won't be allowed through.

UK - In 1377, the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun set out the stages of civilisation in his Muqaddimah, or Introduction. First the tribes ride out of the desert and conquer the city. They are hungry and disciplined, bound together by shared purpose. The next generation settles, connected to the strength of the past and the talents of the present. The third grows soft on the luxury the founders won, forgetting the struggle it took to get there. Then a new tribe rides in. Middle Eastern spice routes of six centuries ago compare with Britain today. Fewer silks, perhaps, but with a welfare state that has hidden the effort and energy that it took to build the nation. Instead of the graft that mined coal and laid railway tracks and risked all on shipping lines and exploration, we’ve succumbed to the soft bigotry of low expectations. We’ve shrunk our horizons, spending more on ourselves each year and investing less in our future. We are Ibn Khaldun’s third generation.