US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to leave Nato, the world’s largest military alliance encompassing 32 member nations across North America and Europe.

This week The Security Brief looks at the ramifications of that scenario – what the alliance would lose, and crucially what the US would be giving up in power projection, nuclear defence and crucial military intelligence.

Analysis from Christian Fraser and former Senior Officer in the British Military, Mikey Kay.

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People in Makerfield made up 0.1% of the vote at the last general election. Now – they’re potentially choosing the next prime minister.

In the most consequential by-election in decades, 14 candidates are standing to become an MP for the north-west England seat.

The two main front-runners are Labour’s Andy Burnham and Reform UK’s Rob Kenyon.

Burnham has said that if elected, he would seek to enter any Labour leadership contest to replace Keir Starmer in Downing Street.

BBC Journalist Kirsty Grant headed to Makerfield to explain how we got here.

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0:00 – Background to Makerfield
00:36 – What’s a by-election?
01:02 – What do locals think?
01:22 – Pressure on Starmer
01:41 – Labour’s Burnham plan
02:01 – About Kenyon and Burnham
02:22 – Locals: ‘It’s been chaos’
03:10 – Global media attention
03:29 – The threat of Reform
04:33 – Awkward for Starmer

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The US says it has carried out a series of strikes on Iranian military and surveillance sites in response to the downing of an American helicopter in the Gulf.

Air defence systems, ground control stations and radar sites were targeted near the Strait of Hormuz, the US military Central Command (Centcom) said.
In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it launched strikes on 21 targets at US bases in the region, one in Bahrain and the other in Jordan, while Kuwait’s army said it was also intercepting an attack.

The US has described its strikes as “a proportional response” for the Apache helicopter downing on Monday, while the IRGC described the attacks as “vicious”.

US President Donald Trump had earlier accused Iran of shooting down the helicopter and said the US “must, of necessity” respond. The two crew members survived and were rescued by an American sea drone.

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The US and Iran have exchanged strikes across the Middle East for a second consecutive day, further straining a shaky ceasefire agreed between the two countries in April.

US Central Command said it had completed a wave of “self-defense strikes” targeting military, surveillance and radar sites in southern Iran, hours after President Donald Trump vowed US forces would hit Iran “hard”.

Tehran responded to the attack with a round of strikes targeting US military assets across the region in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.

Iran’s foreign ministry said early on Thursday that the overnight attacks violated the two-month-old ceasefire, rendering it “practically meaningless”.

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Subscribe to our channel here: https://bbc.in/bbcnews For the latest news download the BBC News app or visit BBC.com/news …

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