ITV Good Morning Britain halted as Ranvir Singh issues devastating breaking news update
Ranvir Singh interrupted Thursday's instalment of ITV GMB to deliver a heartbreaking news update
Good Morning Britain was halted for major breaking news today. Ranvir Singh took over from show hosts Kate Garraway and Adil Ray as she updated viewers on the unfolding situation with regards to Israel and Iran.
Kate and Adil had been discussing the day's headlines so far when the camera cut to Ranvir, with Kate saying: 'Now, Ranvir as the rest of today's news and I think you're starting with some breaking news, aren't you?'
Ranvir replied: "Yeah, indeed, thank you so much, Kate. Breaking news that in a new wave of Iranian missile strikes, which have hit Israel in the last few hours, a major hospital in the city of Beersheba has suffered extensive damage, and buildings have been destroyed in Tel Aviv.
"Meanwhile, Donald Trump has approved plans to attack Iran but has not made final decisions on whether to go ahead."
A live news update then came from reporter Richard Gaisford in Tel Aviv, as he highlighted a devastating amount of damage in the area - "the world's largest diamond trading district" - with ITV viewers.
He said: "This is the world's largest diamond trading area. The missile alert started at breakfast time this morning, and you're looking at pictures now of the Holon district of Tel Aviv.
'Extensive damage throughout this city in the centre of Israel, we heard ballistic missiles flying over our heads.
"The air defence systems were in action. Certainly, it seems Iran still has the ability to target Israel with its ballistic missiles, and at this point, Israel is not able to stop all of them."
The journalist then went on to explain that the strikes are a "really significant" attack, but highlighted the fact to GMB fans that what they were seeing was actually the result of a military assault earlier this week, as reports Manchester Evening News.
He said: "This has been developing over the last few days, and it shows really at this stage that Iran is not yet done.
"There had been some talks that perhaps the Israelis had been able to take out most of the missile sites.
"That certainly doesn't appear to be the case that they are still able to launch and get their missile right into the heart of Israel."
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has urged the Iranian regime and Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli government to de-escalate and pull back from the brink as he flew to the G7 in Canada earlier this week.
It came as Iranian missiles rained down on Tel Aviv in response to the Israeli government's assault on military and nuclear targets in Tehran.
Fighter jets and extra British military assets will be deployed to the Middle East as fears grow over an all-out war in the region, the PM revealed.
The assets have been described by the Prime Minister as "contingency support" and it is understood aircraft began deployment preparations on Friday. The UK already has jets in the region as part of its Operation Shader contribution.
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The Guardian
5 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Tuesday briefing: How weakened is Iran after Operation Midnight Hammer – and where might it go from here?
Good morning. The term 'cakeism' – the false belief that one can simultaneously enjoy the benefits of two mutually exclusive choices – may forever be associated with the Brexit negotiations, when keeping the advantages of EU membership while also shedding its costs became the UK's official bargaining position. But the appeal of cakeism endures, and over the last week the US president's approach to the conflict with Iran has started to look distinctly gateau-shaped. Donald Trump wants the glory of a decisive victory on the battlefield but is not so keen on the long-term repercussions that come with it: tit-for-tat retaliations, unforeseeable conflict spillage, focused diplomacy, or even regime change – the kind of talk the Maga movement associates with Trump's predecessors. Questions over the efficacy of the US strikes of Iranian nuclear facilities remain unanswered. And as the regime in Tehran defiantly insists on its own 'victory', insists that trust in the UN nuclear inspectorate is 'broken', and cracks down on dissent at home, it is starting to look as if Trump might not be able to have his cake and eat it after all. For today's newsletter, I spoke to diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour about how weakened Iran really is, and what this could mean for the stability of the ceasefire. Here are the headlines. Welfare | Downing Street's plans to see off a major Labour welfare rebellion were in chaos on Monday night, amid continued brinkmanship between MPs and the government over the scale of the concessions. There was significant division between government departments over how to respond to rebels' demands ahead of the knife-edge vote on Tuesday. UK news | Police have formally opened a criminal investigation into comments made by Bob Vylan and Kneecap at Glastonbury after reviewing video and audio footage of the performances. Meanwhile on Monday, the BBC said that it should not have allowed chants of 'Death to the IDF' at Bob Vylan's performance to be broadcast. Crown Estate | King Charles is set to receive official annual income of £132m next year, after his portfolio of land and property made more than £1bn in profits thanks to a boom in the offshore wind sector. Arms trade | Britain's decision to allow the export of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel, despite accepting they could be used in breach of international humanitarian law in Gaza, was lawful, London's high court has ruled. The judges ruled that the 'acutely sensitive and political issue' was 'a matter for the executive … not for the courts'. Crime | A 92-year-old man who evaded justice for almost 60 years has been convicted of raping and murdering a woman in Bristol, after a review by a cold case police team and scientists. Officers believe the 58-year gap between the crime and the conviction may be the biggest in modern English policing history. On 21 June, the US air force and navy bombed three of Iran's nuclear sites, thus becoming directly involved in a military conflict started when Israel struck key military and nuclear facilities in Iran eight days earlier. Since then, president Donald Trump has been ever more adamant that Iran's nuclear facilities have been 'completely and totally obliterated', and that the ceasefire agreed on 24 June would bring 'tremendous LOVE, PEACE, AND PROSPERITY' to the region in perpetuity. A week on, the ceasefire still holds, but questions over the strikes' long-term consequences are mounting. CNN has reported US intelligence assessments that the bombing did not destroy the core components of the country's nuclear programme. The regime in Tehran, meanwhile, has struck a note of defiance, with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claiming his country had 'dealt a severe slap to the face of America' with a missile attack on a US base in nearby Qatar. Which begs the question: did Operation Midnight Hammer weaken Iran's nuclear ambitions, or will it embolden its leadership to pursue them in the long term? How damaged are Iran's military capabilities? The intense fighting between Israel and Iran – now often referred to as the '12-day war' – exposed the Islamic Republic's air defences, showing it was not able to defend itself as effectively against aerial assaults as it has previously claimed. The American strike on the three nuclear facilities – at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan – was undoubtedly effective. 'Most serious analysts think that the damage of the US strikes was very, very serious, and it's hard to imagine that Iran still has a credible nuclear weapons programme in place that has somehow eluded intelligence,' said Patrick Wintour. That is not the same as 'obliteration', however – significantly so. Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that while American bombers had 'severely damaged' Iranian facilities, 'one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there', and Tehran could begin weaponising uranium again in 'a matter of months'. 'Even if Iran just has a couple of dozen centrifuges out of tens of thousands left, it could purify its uranium stockpiles within about three months,' said Patrick. 'That's the problem with a military solution and no diplomatic strategy behind it – it would have to be a total wipeout to solve the problem.' Last week, Iran's parliament voted unanimously to suspend all cooperation with the IAEA, and the message that Tehran does not want anyone to have a close look at the wreckage was underlined by a menacing article in an Iranian newspaper, claiming Grossi was an Israeli spy who should be executed. 'They cannot have access to our site,' Iran's UN ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani said. 'Our assessment is that they have not done their jobs.' Until the nuclear inspectorate is allowed access to what remains of the facilities, Patrick said, 'we are driving blind' – which, at the moment, could actually be not just in Iran's but also Trump's interest. 'Iran wants to have nuclear ambiguity for now', he added. For the US president, meanwhile, the lack of empirical evidence has allowed him to claim an emphatic military victory: 'It has allowed his assessment of the strikes' impact to become harder and harder.' How isolated is Iran diplomatically? In recent months, Iran's foreign minister has invested some effort trying to convey to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE that Tehran is not some rogue bellicose state but a mature diplomatic player in the region. 'The war has undone that,' said Patrick. 'And that's the case even though those wealthy Gulf states don't publicly support what the US has done, and even bemoan its short sightedness in private.' The 12-day war and its aftermath have also shown up little return for Iran's diplomatic efforts in Europe. Germany's new chancellor, conservative Friedrich Merz, praised Israel's air strikes on the Islamic Republic, saying it was 'doing the dirty work for all of us', and later added there was 'no reason' to criticise America's attack. Britain's prime minister, Keir Starmer, backed the strikes and only warned mildly of a 'risk of escalation' in the Middle East. 'What will trouble Tehran most is that it hasn't managed to leverage the disagreements between Trump and the European Union,' said Patrick. 'The Iranians had hoped that Europe would be much more condemnatory of the strikes.' Is the regime also weakened domestically? In the wake of Operation Midnight Hammer, some Maga acolytes on social media called on the Iranian people to rise up against the regime. Given the social and economic situation in the west Asian republic, this might sound like a realistic demand: unemployment and poverty rates are high, inflation at almost 40%, in part due to the state's self-punishingly high military spending. It was only three years ago that the country saw civil unrest and mass protests against the regime, triggered by the death in police custody of the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini. Yet Israeli and American air strikes, with a reported death toll of more than 900 lives, have also shored up support for the government. 'The regime is trying to galvanise what happened, and there has been a rallying-around-the-flag effect', Patrick said. 'Even critical voices in the diaspora have been mindful of alienating ordinary Iranians.' Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last shah who has been one of the leading figures of the pro-democracy movement, has endorsed calls for a civil uprising but has appeared isolated. Instead of pro-democracy marches, Tehran has seen the regime parade the coffins of the 'martyred' military chiefs and nuclear scientists who died in the strikes to state funerals. The regime has also further tightened its grip on civil liberties, turning on alleged traitors from within. 'After the strikes, the Iranian opposition called on the regime to mark a fresh start and release political prisoners', says Patrick. In fact, the opposite happened.' During the 12-day war, six Iranians were executed on alleged charges of collaborating with Israel. 'It is clear that a new wave of intense repression has begun, more severe than ever before', the daughter of one political prisoner told Guardian reporters. Prioritising military over social spending might become a harder political sell in the wake of the war, but then there is only so much political-selling that authoritarian regimes need to do while they have the electorate's hands tied behind their backs. 'In truth, Iran's loathsome regime didn't even come close to falling', said foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall in his analysis. What does this mean for the ceasefire? The truce between Israel and Iran is volatile. 'The situation is very unstable, and anything could kick it off,' said Patrick. The list of unpredictable 'anythings' is long: American security agencies have warned of a looming threat of Tehran-backed; US-based 'sleeper cells' could be called in for retaliatory attacks; and Iran's top Shia cleric has issued a fatwa for Trump and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu to be made to 'regret their words and mistakes'. Analysts are concerned about the lack of a political programme to keep the ceasefire in place. Trump has said he is 'not offering Iran anything', while the Iranian side has claimed that the US president wants to return to negotiations. In an interview with the BBC on Monday, Iran's deputy foreign minister, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, said his country would only be open to such talks if the US were to rule out further strikes during the process. But as long as Trump's intelligence assessment of his victory remains the same, Patrick reckoned there was also considerable pressure to keep the ceasefire in place. 'If it were to end, the next stage could only be regime change, and that would take Trump into ideologically difficult territory.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Stefan Stern makes a compelling case for a collective U-turn on U-turns. They can make politicians look indecisive and sloppy, but isn't it a good thing that politicians show they can change their mind? After all, he writes: 'Westminster orthodoxy and the real world are not always in perfect alignment.' Charlie Lindar, acting deputy editor, newsletters I enjoyed Sam Jones's interview with Santiago Yahuarcani, the indigenous Peruvian artist whose paintings of pink dolphins (above) and pipe-smoking frogs take you deep into the Amazonian rainforest. Philip Where season one of Squid Game was a word-of-mouth sensation, seasons two and now three have nearly killed off the show's legacy. 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Elsewhere on Monday, Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal were among a record seven British players to win in the first round. Football | Manchester City have been knocked out of the Club World Cup in an upset 4-3 defeat to Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal. With the scores level at 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes, goals for Kalidou Koulibaly and and Marcos Leonardo were enough to take Al-Hilal through despite Phil Foden's volley. Formula One | Lando Norris has urged fans at Silverstone not to cast his McLaren teammate and world championship rival, Oscar Piastri, as a villain at Sunday's British Grand Prix. Norris won the Austrian GP in Spielberg after a tense, lights-to-flag fight with Piastri, the pair in almost constant competition over 70 laps. 'Labour bid to woo rebels descends into chaos on eve of welfare vote,' is the splash on the Guardian today. The i has 'No 10 in final push to win over rebel MPs ahead of welfare vote.' The FT opts for 'Diluted welfare reform halves savings but still pushes 150,000 into poverty,' while the Mail splashes with 'Rebel MPs are set to humiliate PM today.' 'NHS will prioritise UK doctors and nurses,' says the Times. 'BBC boss at festival for rapper's hate chant,' is the lead story over at the Telegraph. The Express highlights the same controversy at Glastonbury with: 'BBC boss has 'to act now or resign''. 'Did somebody say..... JUST NICKED,' has the Sun, for a story about arrests of asylum seekers working as food delivery drivers. The Metro leads with 'The Vivienne's tragic last hours,' and the Star focuses on the heatwave with: 'You ain't seen nothing sweat!' The French town that banned its tap water and the chemicals that could be in yours Phoebe Weston heads to Alsace, eastern France, to hear about a ban on drinking water caused by dangerously high levels of 'forever chemicals'. A bit of good news to remind you that the world's not all bad Few office workers do not dream of becoming a digital nomad. But what if that life isn't for you? In this feature, Emily Bratt (above) writes about when she – and others around the globe – discovered they needed the comfort of a 9-5, and the relief they gained from coming back home. 'I had conflated digital nomadism with holidaying,' writes Bratt. 'But it turned out that working in a cafe was still working in a cafe, whether you are in a Starbucks in Swindon or a beach bar in Bali. I found myself resenting having to work when there was so much to explore.' Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday And finally, the Guardian's puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
Spectator
12 minutes ago
- Spectator
Trump could bomb Iran again
President Trump has already warned Tehran that he'll be back if Iran tries to revive and advance its nuclear programme, following the strikes by B-2 stealth bombers. Judging by the comments of the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Trump may find himself with this dilemma sooner than he thinks. Iran could return to enriching uranium in 'a matter of months', according to Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA's director-general, in an interview with CBS News at the weekend. However, a number of questions need to be asked before the B-2s take off again from their Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri. Trump hopes that the combination of twelve days of Israeli air raids and the one-off attack by seven B-2s each armed with 30,000lb Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs) will persuade the Tehran regime to give up any ambitions of building a bomb and focus all efforts on a long-term diplomatic deal to bring the nuclear nightmare to an end. The chances are slim. The survival of the Islamic Republic under the leadership of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei largely depends on its often-stated position which is that Iran has the right to enrich uranium and it will never give that up, however many 'western' bombs fall. The IAEA chief clearly believes that, despite serious damage to the three main nuclear sites, Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, Iran still has sufficient stocks of unharmed gas centrifuges secreted away to continue the process of enriching its stock of 400 kilos of 60-per-cent-grade uranium, potentially to reach the 90-per-cent level required for a bomb. Grossi's assessment unfavourably, for Trump that is, echoes the sombre report leaked from the Pentagon's Defence Intelligence Agency soon after the B-2 bombing of the three nuclear sites which claimed the strikes had only set back Iran's nuclear programme by a few months. There are important nuances here. There can be little doubt that the 14 MOPs dropped through ventilation shafts to reach a long way down towards the deeply buried nuclear plants caused a lot more damage than the DIA seemed to be implying. Furthermore, and crucially, the bombings did destroy (or obliterate in Trump's language) the metal conversion facility at Isfahan whose role was to transform enriched uranium gas into dense metal, a process known as metallisation, which is one of the key last stages of forging the explosive core of a bomb. CIA director John Ratcliffe reportedly told a classified congressional hearing that the destruction of the sole metal-conversion plant would put back Iran's suspected nuclear bomb programme by years. So, whether the 400 kilos of highly-enriched uranium Iran developed are buried under rubble at Isfahan or one of the other sites, or have been removed to an unknown bunker (depending on which report you believe), the destruction of the metal-conversion plant is a plus for Trump's obliteration mantra; and possibly a reason for the US president to hold back the B-2s for a second go for the moment. The other big question: what will Israel do? That's not to say he won't be tempted to launch another bombing raid if Tehran refuses to cooperate on the offered diplomatic path. Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, told the BBC that the US would have to rule out any further strikes if diplomatic negotiations were to be resumed. Trump isn't going to fall for that one. Trump knows that he won't face any trouble from Congress if he decides to bomb again. Attempts by the Democrats to obligate the president to seek authority from Congress before pursuing more attacks on Iran were thwarted by the Republican-majority Senate in a 53-47 vote. The other big question: what will Israel do? Mossad and the rest of the Israeli intelligence apparatus will be keeping the closest eye and ear on what Iran does next after seeing its prized nuclear facilities hammered by nearly two weeks of targeted strikes. Last week, Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, ordered the military to draw up an 'enforcement plan' against Iran, including maintaining air superiority over the country and taking whatever steps are necessary to prevent progress in Tehran's nuclear programme. 'Operation Rising Lion [codename for the Israel Defence Forces' twelve days of attacks] was just the preview of a new Israeli policy,' Katz wrote on X. So, Operation Rising Lion has been granted longevity. That has to mean further attacks on nuclear sites and against nuclear scientists in the future, whether Trump and the B-2s are going to be involved or not.
The Herald Scotland
27 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
PM may be weak, but rebels have shown our democracy remains strong
An alternative and, at a time of deep disillusionment and cynicism with politics, more optimistic, reading of the situation is possible, especially in relation to the issue of disability benefits. Here is a case of a government with a large majority being compelled to reconsider a central aspect of its policy. It is a case of the Executive being closely scrutinised, even overruled, by the Legislature. If the theory of British government that Parliament is sovereign is sound, this "rebellion" can only be regarded as positive. The role and place of MPs has long been a matter of constitutional debate, especially with regard to where their ultimate loyalty should lie: to their party; their constituents; their own consciences? This seems to be a welcome, if rare, example of the last two trumping the first. Fear of Whips and concerns over future prospects of promotion seem on this occasion to have been set aside. Keir Starmer and his Government may well be weak and lacking in direction but there are aspects of last week's actions by many Labour MPs which have political and constitutional significance. Brian Harvey, Hamilton. Don't write off Fergus Ewing I read with interest Mark McGeoghegan's column ('Why I think the odds are against Fergus Ewing', The Herald, June 27). Mr McGeoghegan seems to think that people vote for the party rather than the candidate. That is not always the case, as my own experience proved. I had the privilege of representing my constituents in the House of Commons for over a quarter of a century. During that time, I observed a massive increase in control freakery whereby the party Whips instructed members how to vote on virtually every issue and the vast majority of MPs did what they were telt, even if they were voting against the interests of their constituents. That trend has continued both at Westminster and Holyrood, although the recent rebellion by 129 Labour MPs on the issue of welfare cuts is a welcome sign that some may be discovering they have a spine. Read more letters In the first elections to the Scottish Parliament, the Labour Party barred me from being a Labour candidate despite the fact that I had the support of 97% of party members in my constituency. When I stood as an Independent, a major part of my campaign was getting across the message that a Parliamentarian should be first and foremost a representative of the people rather than a party puppet. My constituents elected me with the biggest majority in Scotland in 1999 and again in 2003. I served in the Scottish Parliament for eight years along with Fergus Ewing. I did not always agree with Fergus but he is no puppet and he has a track record of fighting for his constituents. Only a fool would write him off. Dennis Canavan, Bannockburn. Roddick does not deserve support In Kathleen Nutt's interview with Emma Roddick ("On gender and fox hunting, I am opposite of Fergus, says Roddick", The Herald, June 30), she argues that Inverness and Nairn voters should vote for her, not for Fergus Ewing, if they want independence and 'even greater powers for the Highlands'. She clearly has a sense of humour, albeit a warped one. The track record of her party in government since 2007 has been one of centralisation. The Highlands and Islands have lost their regional police and fire services. Local government – which is particularly important in rural and island areas – has seen its share of Scotland's financial cake steadily cut, so reducing council's power to act. The SNP has packed the boards of quangos serving the Highlands and Islands, such as CMAL and HIAL, with people with little real understanding of the needs of the Highlands and Islands. The SNP is now a party of the Central Belt. It has such an appalling record of ignoring the needs of the rest of Scotland that Mr Ewing, a long-term loyal party member, is driven to oppose it. It is sad that the party desperate for power to be transferred from London to Edinburgh puts the principles of devolution into reverse when it sucks power into the centre from Scotland's peripheral regions. But the message has to be that, if you want greater powers for the Highlands (or the Islands or the Borders), the SNP does not deserve your vote. Alistair Easton, Edinburgh. How to fix voting system Guy Stenhouse correctly identifies the voting system for MSPs as the underlying problem in the operation of the Scottish Parliament ("Can anyone truly say that the Scottish Parliament has been a success?", The Herald, June 28). The MSPs, both constituency and regional members, are too beholden to their parties and not sufficiently accountable to their electorates. But the solution is not to tinker with the regional list component of the Additional Member System. Instead, the whole voting system should be changed to elect all MSPs by STV-PR. Then all MSPs would be elected on the same basis and all MSPs would be accountable primarily to the voters who voted for them. Then the parliament would function as originally intended, with MSPs and committees holding ministers and the Government effectively to account. James Gilmour, Edinburgh. Fergus Ewing is standing as an Independent at the next Scottish election (Image: PA) SNP folly on defence If there is one issue that exposes the silliness of SNP policy, it is defence. The party is a longstanding opponent of nuclear weapons, and many of its members believe that it is wrong to spend substantial sums on defence when there is poverty and deprivation at home. These people do not realise that the first duty of government is defence of the realm. You cannot secure health, education and other domestic benefits if you are not able to defend your shores. Now the party that has affected a largely pacifist posture, while expecting to shelter under Nato, is beginning to recognise reality with voices within it justifying more spending on defence in the context of wars in Europe and the Middle East ("Former Westminster leader calls on SNP to support UK defence industry", The Herald, June 30). Above all, the ban on providing public funds for the manufacture of weapons needs to be abandoned. Doing so can be justified on grounds of providing well-paid jobs. Yet the SNP will feel the pull of the irrational forces in our polity yet again if in 2026 it falls short of a majority and requires to seek coalition allies like the pacifist Greens. The way to make Scotland, as part of the UK, safe, is to vote for parties other than the SNP and the Greens. Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh. Swinney should be replaced First Minister John Swinney, in protecting the status quo, with his quiet courtesy, is not what is needed right now. With the forthcoming Holyrood election in mind, the SNP must work with the Yes campaign, Believe in Scotland and others in putting independence first along with the good governance of the country. Scotland needs a strong and forceful leader, with the confidence and competence of an Alex Salmond to lead and unite the country. Sadly this SNP-led Scottish Government with many prominent members retiring, is short on such leadership contenders. However there is the articulate honesty of Kate Forbes, whose early ministerial years have been tempered by diplomacy. The tenacity and eloquence of Stephen Flynn must feature along with the brilliant Stephen Gethins. One person who should be listened to is Alba leader Kenny MacAskill, whose vast experience should be called upon to galvanise a listless and dispirited Scotland. What is surely self-evident is that the status quo is not an option and will not excite or persuade people that independence is the only way to a prosperous and fairer Scotland. In fact English nationalism is also contributing to the breakup of the British state – the English have always been confused about being British. Grant Frazer, Newtonmore.
