In the headlines

Iran has announced that Mojtaba Khamenei will succeed his late father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country's new supreme leader, despite Donald Trump saying last week that the 56-year-old would be an "unacceptable" replacement. It's the clearest sign yet, says David Blair in The Daily Telegraph, that the regime in Tehran is unwilling to "do America's bidding or retreat in any way". Stock markets have slumped as the price of oil surged to nearly $120 a barrel for the first time since 2022, threatening to send petrol costs soaring in the US and Europe and increasing fears of widespread inflation. G7 finance ministers are meeting today to discuss a possible joint release of emergency oil reserves to ease prices. Bruin, a clumber spaniel, beat more than 18,000 dogs to be crowned Best in Show at this year's Crufts. The four-year-old fido, who had already won the gundog category earlier in the contest, was described by his handler Lee Cox as a "walking cartoon character in a fluffy white coat" and a "bit of a diva".

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The Iran war is a "gift" for Netanyahu

The US-Israeli military campaign against Iran is proving extremely divisive among Americans, says Shira Efron in Foreign Affairs. In Israel, it's the reverse. Some 81% of the country support the strikes, up from 59% before they began. The reason is simple: Israelis are "tired of being on a constant war footing". Tourism has collapsed by 60% since 2023, and the central bank recently warned of labour shortages, inflation and a brain drain of tech workers. With the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the decimation of Iran's military apparatus, many Israelis can for the first time in years imagine a region free of Tehran's "malign influence".

All of this is a "gift" for Benjamin Netanyahu. Polls taken before the war began suggested that the prime minister's coalition would lose power in the election later this year, which would strip him of immunity to longstanding corruption charges. Now his government is seeking to reframe Israel's military actions since the Hamas attacks as a triumphal "war of redemption" culminating in the final defeat of Iran. Netanyahu's hope is that he can go from being the leader who was in charge during "the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust" to the one who "eliminated the Nazis' modern-day equivalent". So far, it appears to be working. "In moments like these we stand together," opposition leader Yair Lapid said after the first air strikes. "There is no coalition and no opposition, only one people and one IDF, with all of us behind them." Plenty could change, of course – Washington may well "pull the plug" long before Israel's goal of regime change is achieved. But the Iran war may still be Netanyahu's "winning electoral card".

🇮🇱📉 One striking longer-term trend is the precipitous drop in support for Israel in the US. A recent Gallup poll showed that for the first time in decades, more Americans express support for the Palestinians than for Israel. If backing the Israelis becomes a significant vote-loser for US politicians, that could have "dangerous consequences" for Israel.

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When he was prime minister, Boris Johnson was sent to tell the then-prince Andrew that, after his disastrous Newsnight interview, he wasn't allowed to turn up to a big event to avoid embarrassing the Queen. Andrew was pretty peeved, so Boris tried to cheer him up by suggesting ways he could slowly rebuild his reputation.

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