In the headlines

The Pentagon says American strikes on Iran are about to "surge dramatically", and Donald Trump has ruled out a ground offensive because it would be a "waste of time". The US president says he should be involved in selecting Iran's new ruler and deems front-runner Mojtaba Khamenei an unacceptable "lightweight". In north London, police have arrested one Iranian and three British-Iranian nationals on suspicion of spying on the Jewish community. Failed asylum-seeker families will be offered up to £40,000 to leave the country or face forced removal, under Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's new Denmark-inspired reforms. Some 150 families in a pilot scheme were notified yesterday of the financial incentive – £10,000 each for a maximum of four people – and given seven days to decide. A London surgeon has carried out the UK's first long-distance robotic operation on a patient 1,500 miles away. Using a console to control the hands of a surgical robot in Gibraltar, Professor Prokar Dasgupta removed a cancerous prostate tumour from 62-year-old Paul Buxton, who said it was a "privilege to be part of medical history".

Comment

Smoke rising above Tehran following US-Israeli strikes. Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty

Trump's dilemma is knowing when to stop

Judging by the gloominess in much of the media, says The Wall Street Journal, you'd think America was losing the war in Iran. Financial markets are said to be in "turmoil"; the war is "engulfing" the region; the US is "running out of missiles"; the conflict is a "gift to Russia"; there is "no plan" for how it ends. Snap out of it. This war could hardly be going better. Iran's evil leaders were dead within the first hour. Its army, navy and air force are shattered – witness the massive drop-off in missile and drone launches – and American might is now being turned on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and the paramilitary Basij. As for the markets, what's striking is just how little they've moved. Plenty could still go wrong, but for now, here's a crazy thought: instead of grousing, maybe "hope for American success".

The problem, says The Economist, is knowing when to stop. Trump's vagueness about what's driving him – nukes, regime change, missiles, "a 'feeling' Iran was about to attack" etc – gives him room for manoeuvre politically but is no use as a strategy. To win a war, you need to know when it's won. The risk here is that Trump won't quit until the markets and the polls give him the "acclamation" he craves, and that could be a long time coming. Less than a third of Americans support the war, compared to 90% who backed invading Afghanistan, and almost all hate paying more for petrol. The president may be tempted to seek an "undeniable win" by bombing the regime out of existence. But that could prove impossible, even with America's formidable firepower. Trump should obliterate Iran's military capabilities, then stop. "He is almost there."

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Architecture

Mental Floss has compiled a list of some of the world's tallest unfinished skyscrapers, along with the stories behind their "stunted growth". They include a 2,000ft tower in Tianjin that fell victim to the 2015 Chinese stock market crash; the so-called "Hotel of Doom" in North Korea with an entirely hollow interior; Los Angeles's "graffiti towers", abandoned four years after the concrete was poured; a 58-storey structure in New York that was canned when developers discovered it was leaning north; and the "tower of bitterness" in Lebanon, which became a sniper perch during the Lebanese Civil War. To see more, click the image.

We've got it covered

The Knowledge team working our way through the Iran coverage. Getty

Since the Iran war broke out, we've provided our paid subscribers with comment and analysis from 12 sources:

The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Telegraph, The FT, Foreign Policy, The New Statesman, The Independent, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, The i Paper, The Times, The Spectator and The Atlantic.

We've covered all the major angles:

Donald Trump's lacking strategy, the Gulf states, Iran's "allies", Keir Starmer's caution, Trump's neocon turn, how Israel nailed the Ayatollah, how Iran can fight back, Britain's attorney-general, Iraq War hubris, and some weapons-grade schadenfreude over British expats in Dubai.

And we're just getting started. Over the next couple of days we have pieces on:

Starmer's fallout with Trump, why the Kurds should be wary of US promises, how the Ayatollah became radicalised and Benjamin Netanyahu's journey from relative dove to all-out hawk.

Where else would you get this breadth of commentary, all in an easy five-minute read? Nowhere. That's what makes The Knowledge so great: we allow you to stay on top of the biggest stories without getting overwhelmed by them. So please, if you can afford it, take out a paid subscription. It's just £4 a month or £40 for the first year.

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