CYPRUS - Israel confirms that two missiles launched by Iran toward Cyprus fell into the sea, marking the first Iranian attack directed at a European country. Israeli officials confirm that the missiles launched toward Cyprus fell into the sea. The missiles were fired toward the island of Cyprus, where Britain operates strategic military bases. At the Royal Air Force base in Akrotiri on the island, F-35 fighter jets and refueling aircraft are stationed, alongside a broad military presence that includes thousands of troops and advanced radar systems. British Defense Secretary John Healey clarified that London assesses the missiles were not aimed directly at British bases, but emphasized that the very launch demonstrates the “indiscriminate" nature of Iran’s retaliatory actions in the region. At the same time, Secretary Healey noted that approximately 300 British military personnel were located near the impact areas in Bahrain.

MIDDLE EAST - Having already dropped 1,200 bombs on Iran, the IDF, along with the US Air Force, is close to achieving air supremacy in Iranian airspace. This shift could mark an increased capability for Israel and the US to help anti-regime protesters by targeting specific regime forces, including the Tharallah headquarters, which has been used to oppress and mass murder them for the last two months and during prior rounds of protests in recent decades. In June 2025, it took several days for the air force to achieve such supremacy, which signifies that essentially Iran's anti-aircraft defenses have been so battered that Israeli aircraft and drones can hover over target areas for extended periods without worrying as much about whether air defenses might target them. On Saturday night, the IDF had said that over 200 aircraft had struck 500 Iranian targets. On Sunday morning, the US said it had struck around 900 Iranian targets.

RUSSIA - It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences over the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Russian propagandists have threatened to carry out a horror strike on Europe in response to Iran’s missile attack, as the experts blamed Donald Trump for “unwittingly creating political and psychological opportunities.” On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences over the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In Moscow's view, "Washington and Tel Aviv have once again embarked on a dangerous adventure that is rapidly bringing the region closer to a humanitarian, economic and, not exclude, a radiological catastrophe."

VATICAN - The first-ever American-born Pope noted in his speech that he was watching what is happening in the Middle East with "deep concern" and in Iran during what he called a "tumultuous time". He added: "Stability and peace are not achieved through mutual threats, nor through the use of weapons, which sow destruction, suffering, and death, but only through reasonable, sincere, and responsible dialogue. Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions, I address to the parties involved a heartfelt appeal to assume the moral responsibility to stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss!"

IRAN - The US has said Iranian claims that it had struck the USS Abraham Lincoln are a "lie", adding missiles launched by Tehran "didn't even come close" to the warship. In a statement carried by Iranian state media, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said four ballistic missiles were fired at the US Navy aircraft carrier in waters near the Gulf region. The alleged strike was described as part of what Tehran has dubbed “Operation True Promise-4,” a broader military campaign targeting American and Israeli assets. The Guards said in a statement shared by local media: "The US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln was struck by four ballistic missiles." They said "the land and sea will increasingly become the graveyard of the terrorist aggressors."

GERMANY - The nation’s ‘super election year’ starts next week and could deliver big gains for the AfD in the former West, where car-factory workers feel vulnerable. Mercedes-Benz manufactures and assembles vehicles in more than a dozen countries around the world, and high labour costs make Germany one of its most expensive locations. “If things keep getting worse, you start worrying the company might pack up and leave,” Schoeffler said. “Lots of suppliers and other companies depend on this plant, so they would have problems, too. And finding another job would be hard.” Elections will take place for a new state parliament, the first of five such contests across the country in what has been dubbed a “super election year”. Polls predict the strongest gains will be for the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) — thanks in part to growing support from workers...

UK - Does anyone have the faintest idea what the Labour Government’s policy is towards Donald Trump’s bombing of Iran. Is it for or against? Some may think that Sir Keir Starmer supports American and Israeli action. On Saturday he described the regime in Tehran as ‘utterly abhorrent’, and added that Iran ‘must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon’. Yet at the same time Starmer is reported to have denied permission to the United States to use the British base on Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos Islands, to mount a strike against Iran. Not very helpful. Until 1956 and the Suez crisis, Britain was the pre-eminent Middle Eastern power. Even after having been displaced by the United States, we remained its most trusted and often indispensable ally, fighting together in both Gulf Wars... Now, under Starmer’s feeble leadership, we have become mere spectators. It is the first time this has happened in my lifetime. Donald Trump doesn’t care what we think or do as we sink into irrelevance.

UK - Polanski’s European cousins turned from doves to hawks when faced with realities of governing. In 1999, Joschka Fischer, then the leader of Germany’s Greens abandoned his pacifist principles just six months after entering government. As he savours a victory that cements his party’s status as a rising force, Mr Polanski may yet face his own Fischer moment. For now, he enjoys the moral clarity and ideological purity available only on the political sidelines. The contrast between his defence views and those of Greens who have tasted power elsewhere is certainly telling. Germany’s Greens, twice in coalition governments, grew markedly more hawkish after the pragmatic “Realos” prevailed over the purist “Fundis” in 1999. As Daniel Cohn-Bendit, an ally of Mr Fischer, told the jeering crowd in Bielefeld in 1999: “If you want to go into government, you take over the world as it is – not as you would like it to be.”

IRAN - Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been killed in a major assault on Iran launched by Israel and the United States. The Ayatollah’s body, riddled with shrapnel wounds, was recovered from the rubble after a daylight bombing raid aimed at toppling the regime destroyed his Tehran compound. Iranian state TV confirmed Khamenei’s death in the early hours of Sunday morning, hours after it was initially reported by Israeli media and declared on social media by Donald Trump. Israel and the US conducted 900 strikes in 12 hours on military bases, nuclear sites and government buildings across Iran using F-35s, F-22s and – for the first time – one-way attack drones. “The United States did not start this conflict, but we will finish it. If you kill or threaten Americans anywhere in the world — as Iran has — then we will hunt you down, and we will kill you,” he said in a post on X.

MIDDLE EAST - Many Gulf states believe Iran to be a danger to the region and a destabilising force. Saudi Arabia joined Israel in lobbying the US to launch strikes against Iran. Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, argued in favour of an attack during multiple phone calls with Donald Trump in the past month, sources told the Washington Post. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, also continued his long-standing campaign urging the US to join strikes on Iran, the Post reported. Iran has continued its retaliation after the US and Israel launched a barrage of strikes on Saturday morning, killing its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran has so far launched attacks on six of its neighbours, inadvertently uniting the Middle East against the Islamic Republic. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, the Emirati political commentator, told The Telegraph that Iran was the unifying threat bringing Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) nations together, “regardless of differences”. He said: “When things get tough, they come together.”