MIDDLE EAST - After a lifetime of opposing peaceful coexistence, a deal between Israelis and Palestinians will depend on hardliners seeing political reality. A wave of Hamas suicide bombings soured public opinion in Israel and helped Netanyahu win the election. He went on to do his best to ensure that the Oslo Accords failed, as he later admitted, as did Hamas. More than 30 years later, both sides now find themselves presented with another roadmap to peace, which neither side has an interest in seeing through. For Hamas, the notion of falling on their swords goes against the nature of the group, which has placed its supremacy above all other considerations. For Netanyahu, a proposal that would see Israel withdraw entirely from Gaza and begin talks that could lead to a Palestinian state runs counter to his life’s mission, as he sees it.

USA - As a US military air tanker fleet travels across the Atlantic Ocean, officials are unsure as to why the fleet has been mobilized. The mobilization of air tankers can indicate that the US or NATO is addressing an urgent military requirement for fighter jet refueling capacity. Behnam Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, recalled to the Daily Mail the last time the US had a mass tanker deployment. “Soon after that, something went boom in the Middle East. Critically, in Operation Midnight Hammer, the Trump administration executed a decoy or deception effort to mask the flight of the B-2 bombers to Iran,” Taleblu said to the news outlet. He emphasized that Trump is the only US President in two decades to deploy military force against Iranian nuclear facilities. “Big military movements on his watch are something to keep an eye on,” Taleblu added.

USA - Once praised by elites, net-zero pledges are unraveling as companies realize they cannot meet activist timelines without destroying their own survival. We were promised a “green” utopia, free of fossil fuels, powered by sunshine and breezes. However, the net-zero hobbits living in this imaginary Shire were blissfully ignorant of hard realities dictated by physics, engineering, and economics. Once trumpeted by corporate giants and governments alike, the vision of a world without greenhouse gas emissions is crumbling. It’s pseudoscience coupled with false assurances incapable of sustaining the weight of one reality after another. Major airlines, energy companies, and financial institutions are abandoning net-zero commitments that were always destined to clash with the demands of business imperatives and people’s needs.

USA - President Trump Gives Details on Hegseth’s “Rare and Urgent” Military Meeting in Virginia. As The Gateway Pundit reported last week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered all of the United States’ top military commanders to gather on Tuesday at Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia. Hegseth urgently announced the meeting on Thursday of last week and originally gave no details on the subject matter. Officials within the Pentagon have since revealed Hegseth’s plans to give a speech on “warrior ethos” and will outline the military’s new direction under the Trump administration. President Trump broke his silence on the meeting and shared, “It’s really just a very nice meeting, talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape.” He added, “You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how we’re doing.” The Independent further reported that President Trump will be present during the meeting.

UNITED NATIONS - Netanyahu To The UN: ‘As The Prophets Of Israel Foretold In The Bible, You’ve Turned Good Into Evil And Evil Into Good’. As Netanyahu stepped behind the podium, the assembly hall was immediately divided. Delegates stood to their feet, many to stage a walkout, and others to enthusiastically cheer, applauding the Israeli Prime Minister as the announcer called the hall to order. Coming at a time when world leaders are unilaterally recognizing a non-existent “Palestinian State,” a blatantly anti-Israel move that Netanyahu referred to as “gutless,” the Israeli leader centered his speech around a verse from the Bible encapsulating the absurdity unfolding at the United Nations.

USA - Last week, something extraordinary happened on the New York Stock Exchange. Brera Holdings, which owns stakes in football clubs, announced an intention to buy cryptocurrency tokens. The move attracted explosive interest, with the company's shares rocketing by almost 600 per cent in a single day, before falling back to 225 per cent. J K Galbraith, the influential economist who chronicled the Great Crash of 1929, coined a term for such obviously hyperactive speculation: the 'bezzle'. The bezzle occurs when markets become so overheated that even serious and respectable individuals somehow convince themselves that the only way is up.

UK - The political battle of our age is not between Left and Right, but sane and insane. Europe and America have never seemed further apart, as Trump and his cronies attempt to push the politics of personal vengeance worldwide. What a ritual dance this is turning out to be. Reform represents a threat from the Right, so Labour shuffles rightwards. The Tories, having worn Leftish clothes for a decade, move to what used to be seen as solid Right-wing ground, hoping to push Reform onto the more extreme edge which would be unacceptable to the electorate. But the truth is that the most important political battle of the day is not between Right and Left at all. It is about rationality versus insanity. The arguments dominating the news are not ones we used to regard as the currency of modern politics.

ISRAEL - Until the world begins to prioritize truth over narrative, Israel will be forced to live in a backward world of lies and slander. One of the mental health steps I’ve taken this year is trying my very best to limit myself to checking (not posting) social media once a day and only checking the news two or three times a day. I don’t always succeed, but when I do, I feel much better. There are times, though, that even when I only check the news or social media infrequently, I still feel like giving up. The lies, slander, and completely inverted world make me think there’s no hope of teaching the truth. Today’s world is a ship with a gaping hole, and we are only given a small paper cup to dish out the water. No matter how many books the pro-Israel side writes, columns they publish, and social media videos Zionists post, their voices get drowned out by the lies. It seems we are living in an inverted world (it’s a Hebrew phrase that sounds better in the original) where true is false, and false is true, and no one can tell the difference anymore.

USA - If it seems too good to be true, it’s probably false. Ditto if it seems too bad or too sad. Such is virtual reality in cybersphere in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). It’s manipulative. Move over spam email, make way for “slop” social media posts. We’ve (nearly) all seen them, and most of us have been fooled at least once. Slop refers to low-quality AI-produced content, usually emotional images and tall tales that grab our attention. They often give the initial impression of being a true story – the dog that rescues a kitten, the bride and groom overcoming tragedies and challenges, success stories against all odds, and historical tales – somehow replete with photos from before the age of photography. Together with AI-generated videos, the sky’s the limit. Take, for instance, the deep fake video that went viral in July showing Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office as he sits with President Donald Trump. Some people found it amusing; others found it offensive. All should see it as disturbing. When you can’t tell true from false, it creates chaos.

USA - Microsoft says it has disabled some cloud and artificial intelligence services used by the Israeli military after an internal review found they were being used to conduct mass surveillance on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The tech giant said it had cancelled an Israeli ministry of defence subscription to its Azure cloud services after media reports last month that a surveillance unit within the Israel Defence Forces had built a system for tracking Palestinians’ phone calls. In a post on the company’s website announcing the decision, Brad Smith, its president, said Microsoft’s investigation had been guided by the group’s “longstanding protection of privacy as a fundamental right”.

NATO - Nato’s secretary-general says he agrees with President Trump after a series of incidents over European airspace. Nato’s secretary-general has said member states should shoot down intruding Russian aircraft “if so necessary” after President Trump encouraged allies to respond to incursions with force. Mark Rutte, speaking during a trip to Washington after a flurry of incidents where drones and jets flew over Nato airspace, said he “totally agreed” with Trump’s message.

RUSSIA - Any NATO member state that shoots down a Russian warplane would trigger a “war” with Russia, Moscow’s envoy to Paris, Aleksey Meshkov, has warned. Last Friday, Estonia claimed that Russian military aircraft had briefly violated its airspace, due to which Tallinn requested urgent consultations with fellow NATO members. Earlier this month, Poland alleged that multiple Russian decoy drones entered its territory. Moscow has denied both sets of allegations. According to the Russian diplomat, “quite a lot of [NATO military] planes accidentally or not accidentally violate our airspace. And no one shoots them down.” He also insisted that NATO member states have failed to produce “material” evidence to back up their accusations.

EUROPE - Putin is a pound-shop Stalin who could easily be defeated if only the West had the will. But our leaders lack all self-belief. Europe, the continent that gave the world democracy, Pax Romana, the Renaissance, the Great Explorers, the libertarian ideals of the Scottish enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and the emancipation of slavery, is now the world’s laughing stock. Our leaders are non-player characters in the story of our spiral into oblivion, standing by as we rush towards civilisational seppuku. Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Ursula von der Leyen: all are political pygmies, interchangeable in their incompetence, cowardice and lack of vision. Even Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, the only semi-decent major Western European leader, hasn’t reversed her country’s own hara-kiri. Friedrich Merz, hardly Germany’s Thatcher, won’t save his country. Their once great nations are sliding ever faster into irrelevance and impotence, and failing on every count: economic, military, moral, demographic, technological and geopolitical. They have lost the world’s respect, except as a shopping destination, theme park or finishing school. This is how great civilisations finally die.

USA - The shooting of Charlie Kirk has led to a wave of Christian fervour across social media. Even atheists claim to have been converted. In the two weeks since Kirk’s killing, pastors across the country have reported a spike in attendance usually reserved for Christmas or Easter. Social media has been filled with testimonies from young people turning to Christianity for the first time, with even atheists saying they are reconsidering their position on religion. Pastors have coined a term for the religious revival galvanised by Kirk’s death: the Charlie effect. At State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, 200,000 gathered for his memorial on Sunday, where President Trump and four members of his cabinet delivered eulogies.

UNITED NATIONS - To UN delegates who say recognition is about “reviving hope,” the answer is simple: tie hope to behavior. “As if to encourage continued conflict, some of this body is seeking to unilaterally recognize the Palestinian state. The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists, for their atrocities,” US President Donald Trump told the UN General Assembly. That is the brutal core of this week in New York: a feel-good rush to recognize Palestine, while Hamas still holds hostages and fires at Israeli cities. Western leaders insist their move does not whitewash October 7. “Recognizing Palestine does not diminish the gravity of the October 7 attack,” French President Emmanuel Macron said, defending recognition as part of a broader political track. The United Kingdom framed its decision as a bid to “keep alive the possibility of peace,” with Prime Minister Keir Starmer adding, “This is not a reward for Hamas because it means Hamas can have no future, no role in government, no role in security.”