UK - Oh, when will Britain just grow up? We have no money, yet we spend billions on arming Ukraine in a dubious war in which we have no national interest. We cannot control the beaches on our southern shores, on which strangers land almost daily, but we tail along behind the Americans in the pretence that we can control the Red Sea as we seek (as far as I can grasp) to get entangled in yet another war in the Middle East. Haven't we had enough of these stupid brawls? We spend decades failing to do justice to wronged postmasters. We cannot keep order in our pothole-peppered streets. Our children can't read or write. Our universities, when they are not imposing mad speech codes on students and teachers, sell themselves to the highest bidder to ensure they can pay their vice-chancellors' enormous salaries.

MIDDLE EAST - We wake to news that the RAF and our American allies are pummelling Houthi strongholds across Yemen in a series of devastating airstrikes. For weeks, the bloodthirsty Yemeni militia has been attacking Western shipping in the region, disrupting international supply chains and causing millions if not billions of dollars' worth of damage to the global economy. After the group's leaders ignored repeated warnings from western leaders to stop their assaults, and following an emergency Cobra meeting convened by the Prime Minister last night, hellfire explosions have rocked Yemen. The death toll is certain to be high.

MIDDLE EAST - British and American forces rained bombs on Iran-backed rebels in Yemen last night using warships, fighter jets and submarines. The RAF launched targeted strikes against Houthi military facilities in response to a series of attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. Rishi Sunak insisted the move was in 'self-defence' and said the UK will 'always stand up for freedom of navigation and the free flow of trade'. President Biden also hailed the 'successful' blitz - which was aided by Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands - and vowed more action if it was needed. The Ministry of Defence said coalition forces identified key facilities involved in the rebels' targeting of HMS Diamond and US Navy vessels on Tuesday 'and agreed to conduct a carefully coordinated strike to reduce the Houthis' capability to violate international law in this manner'.

IRAN - Iran has claimed responsibility for the hijacking of an oil tanker by 'six military men' in the Gulf of Oman this morning that once was at the centre of a major crisis between Tehran and Washington. The seizure of the tanker was carried out upon an Iranian judicial order, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency said this afternoon, shortly after the vessel appeared to have changed course towards Iran. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency later confirmed a tanker had been seized by Iran's navy. Some 145,000 metric tonnes of oil are thought to be loaded on the ship which was heading to Aliaga in western Turkey, its operator Empire Navigation told Reuters, before it lost contact with the vessel.

GERMANY - Germany's three-party ruling coalition on Thursday partly backed down from a proposal to cut tax privileges for farmers after facing emotional protests. The government said in a statement that it would gradually phase out tax breaks on diesel fuel for farmers over multiple years rather than cut the benefit abruptly as coalition leaders had initially proposed, in order to “give the affected companies more time to adjust." The government also said it would waive planned tax increases for agricultural vehicles. The leaders of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition had previously announced the tax hikes on farmers as part of a draft budget deal for 2024 presented last month. The planned increases were part of the coalition’s attempts to plug a multi-billion-euro budget gap that appeared after the country’s top court ruled that some of its spending practices were unlawful. The coalition climbdown is unlikely to appease the protesters.

USA - Americans are going into debt as if tomorrow will never come, but of course tomorrow always arrives eventually. What we are witnessing right now is truly a historic debt binge, and to many of the experts it seems like there is no end in sight to the unrestrained spending that is going on. But are US consumers going into record levels of debt because they are feeling good about things or because they are trying to survive in an increasingly harsh economic environment? In America today, the cost of living has become exceedingly oppressive, employers are laying off large numbers of workers, and poverty and homelessness have been absolutely exploding all over the country. Millions of US households are just barely hanging on by their fingernails, and many desperate consumers have been piling up debt in a frantic attempt to stave off the inevitable.

USA - Shared testimonies, collective singing, silent meditation and baptism rituals – these are all activities you might find at a Christian church service on a Sunday morning in the United States. But what would it look like if atheists were gathering to do these rituals instead? Today, almost 30% of adults in the United States say they have no religious affiliation, and only half attend worship services regularly. But not all forms of church are on the decline – including “secular congregations,” or what many call “atheist churches.”

USA - You have probably heard about the “dirty dozen,” but what about the “hateful eight?” The hateful eight refers to the eight most damaging vegetable oils that pollute the food supply and destroy human health. Dr Simon Goddek compiled information ...about the hateful eight, which include the following vegetable oils:

• Sunflower oil
• Soybean oil
• Cottonseed oil
• Safflower oil
• Corn oil
• Rice bran oil
• Grapeseed oil
• Canola oil

All eight of these vegetable oils are heavily processed well beyond the point of being even remotely healthy or nutritional.

NIGERIA - A prominent Nigerian economist has claimed that membership of BRICS is a "win-win situation." Speaking on Tuesday during an exclusive interview to RT, Muda Yusuf, the CEO of the Nigerian Center for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, said a lot of sectors will benefit if Nigeria joins the BRICS. "Such sectors as oil and gas, technology sector, agricultural sector, solid mineral sector, and generally our infrastructure" will get advantages from joining the economic block. "It also helps to reduce the Western dominance generally," he added. According to the BRICS information portal, Yusuf Tuggar, the Foreign Minister of Nigeria, has stated that the country plans to join the BRICS group of nations in the next two years.

UK - Violent pornography and access to smartphones are turning children into sex abusers – with more than 6,800 rapes committed by youngsters aged ten to 17 in a year, a report reveals. In excess of half of all child sexual offences are now committed by other youngsters, the landmark study into the scale of offending across the country has concluded. Officers have charted an explosion in sexual crimes being committed by teenagers. As well as the 6,813 rapes in 2022, there were 8,020 sex attacks plus 15,534 cases of indecent images of a child relating to the sharing of naked pictures. Yesterday the national police lead in tackling child abuse warned that sexual violence has become 'normalised behaviour' for some schoolchildren after years of watching hardcore pornography on their phones.

WALES - A headteacher has issued a guide for parents on how to talk to their children about safe mobile phone use. Sarah Parry, head of Llanishen High in Cardiff, said she was responding to worries from parents about the time their children spend on social media, cyber bullying, online predators and mental health. Mrs Parry has published the guide - Navigating social media with your children - on her school website after more than half of the 339 parents answering a survey she sent out reported their teenager checks social media every few hours and more than a quarter said their child had experienced bullying through social media. A further 40% of parents said they have had to speak to their teenager about inappropriate posts. The guide comes as police figures released today show young people taking nude pictures are adding to a rise in sexual offences committed by children in England and Wales. Potential offenders were aged under 18 in more than half of all reported child abuse cases, according to analysis.

ECUADOR - Ecuador has erupted into a 'civil war' with cartel thugs after the president ordered the army onto the streets and declared a state of 'internal armed conflict'. Crazed criminals have rampaged through the South American country's cities today after President Daniel Noboa, 36, ordered a state of emergency. Hooded gangsters seized a state TV news studio today, while a university was attacked and jail guards reportedly executed by prisoners.

USA - Half of the members on the World Health Organization's transgender health policy committee are not qualified medical experts - and most are gender activists. One of the panelists is a controversial Canadian trans TikToker who believes puberty blockers should be prescribed to all children, regardless of their gender identity, so they can 'choose' their gender rather than being assigned one by society. Another member believes that transitioning causes no health problems and claims the only 'actual side effects' of getting a sex change are a 'significantly improved quality of life... and trans joy.' A number of women's rights and LGBTQ+ organizations fear the UN agency - whose recommendations are highly influential - has been captured by a 'trans bias'.

FRANCE - Gabriel Attal has become the youngest-ever prime minister of France after President Emmanuel Macron appointed him to succeed Elisabeth Borne. The 34-year-old had previously served as education minister. Attal was chosen to shake up the Macron presidency, which has struggled since losing its absolute majority in parliament in 2022. He is the country’s first openly gay premier, having entered a civil union with a French MEP. The government reshuffle comes months before the Olympic Games are hosted by Paris and a European Parliament election takes place in June. Polls expect the Macron-led centrist forces to lose many of their current seats in the EU legislature.

GERMANY - Public support for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has fallen to record lows, the tabloid Bild reported on Monday, citing a survey conducted by the INSA polling institute. Almost two-thirds of Germans want him to resign before the next federal election, scheduled for October 2025, the data suggests. As many as 64% of respondents told INSA that Scholz should vacate his position and hand it over to Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, a fellow Social Democrat. Less than a quarter of Germans oppose this prospect. Some 77% said they placed little or no trust in the way Scholz is governing Germany. Even among SPD supporters, this figure reached 60%. Later in the month, Der Spiegel reported that Scholz’s personal approval had slipped to just 30%, down from 44% in June 2023. On Monday, Bild described Scholz as “the most unpopular chancellor of all time.”