Monday briefing: ​What does the escalation in the Middle East mean for global stability?

In today’s newsletter: A region already strained by years of proxy conflict is now confronting its most volatile moment in decades, as the death of Iran’s supreme leader ​could drag us into a rapidly widening crisis, with no clear path to de‑escalation Good morning. Over the weekend the US and Israel launched a series of attacks on Iran that resulted in the assassination of Tehran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – a move that dramatically raised the stakes in their long-running conflict. The assassination of a serving supreme leader is an extraordinary act – one that signals not containment, but confrontation. Retaliatory strikes by Iran have already spilled the conflict far beyond its borders, drawing a host of regional powers into the fray. Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, the judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, and senior cleric Alireza Arafi will reportedly lead Iran in the transitional period following Khamenei’s death. Iran | Donald Trump said on Sunday he was prepared to talk to what was left of the Iranian leadership in the wake of the killing of the country’s supreme leader by US-Israeli air strikes aimed at overthrowing the regime. British military | The UK’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus was hit by a suspected drone strike , causing limited damage and no casualties, Cypriot authorities and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. Immigration | Shabana Mahmood has ripped up the government’s asylum rules so that from Monday every refugee will be told that their status is temporary and will last just 30 months . UK politics | The Green Party said its membership had passed 200,000 in the wake of its victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection, in which it overturned a huge Labour majority. AI | Datacentre developers are facing pressure to reveal whether their projects will increase the UK’s net greenhouse gas emissions , amid concerns the sites could double national electricity demand. Continue reading...