BBC News, the Guardian and Independent report that the UK government has said it will provide a Royal Navy escort for UK-flagged ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Ship owners are advised to inform the Department of Transport of their route so they can be escorted by the frigate HMS Montrose. The decision follows the seizure of the Stena Impero by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and a meeting of Downing Street’s emergency COBR committee to discuss the situation in the Gulf. The Independent reports that families of the crew members have made contact, but expressed fears they have “no idea” when they might be released.

Reuters reports that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday he was willing to go to Iran for talks amid tensions between Tehran and Washington, but also called on allies to join a maritime force to guard tankers sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. “I’d happily go there… I would welcome the chance to speak directly to the Iranian people.” In a separate interview, Pompeo said that Washington had already asked Japan, France, Germany, South Korea, Australia and other nations to join a planned maritime security initiative in the Middle East. “Every country that has an interest in ensuring that those waterways are open and crude oil and other products can flow through the Strait of Hormuz needs to participate,” Pompeo said.

The Times reports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s father has told Iranian state TV that his son would “build bridges” with Tehran and the Iran tanker crisis could be resolved “easy peasy”. “I’m very much looking forward to him building bridges with Iran. Boris is a man who has this great sense of history for heaven’s sake. I mean, Iran to him will mean Darius, Xerxes [Persian kings of the Achaemenid Empire]. Iran means so much to him.”

The Guardian, Financial Times and Reuters report that Meretz, Stav Shaffir and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak have signed an agreement to run together in the 17 September election under a single party called the Democratic Union. Barak retired from politics in 2013 but returned in dramatic fashion to end what he said was Netanyahu’s “rule with the radicals, racists and the corrupt”. “The campaign for the State of Israel began this morning. The Democratic Union – all of us, together, will fight and win,” Barak wrote on Twitter, announcing the alliance.

Reuters reports that Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar met military officials to discuss a possible offensive east of the Euphrates River in Syria. The meeting came a day after Turkey said it would launch an offensive unless agreement on a planned safe zone in Syria could be reached with the US, saying it had run “out of patience”. The operation, which would mark the third Turkish incursion into Syria in as many years, was first signalled by President Tayyip Erdogan earlier this year but later put on hold.

Reuters reports that Russia has completed delivery of the first shipment of its S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems to Turkey and a second shipment is now being planned, Turkish military officials said on Thursday. Turkey began taking delivery of the advanced Russian air defence system earlier this month, prompting the United States to remove NATO ally Turkey from the F-35 jet programme over security concerns. “As a strategic partner, it is our most natural right to expect the United States to change its current stance. The project has been suspended, but there is no clear removal or cancellation yet,” one of the military sources said. Reuters reports that US lawmakers have claimed they are unsure what President Donald Trump, or Congress, should do next, suggesting efforts to impose sanctions were on the back burner for now.

BBC News, the Guardian, Independent and Reuters report that at least 115 people are missing, feared drowned, after a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Libya. The boat was carrying some 250 people from a number of African and Arab countries when it sank 8km (five miles) from the coast. 134 people were rescued and a body recovered. The UN’s refugee agency said it was the deadliest shipwreck in the Mediterranean so far this year.

Reuters reports that the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday backed legislation that would impose sanctions on the Saudi royal family and block some weapons sales. The vote was 13-9 for the legislation, as three Republicans joined Democrats in backing the measure despite expected opposition from Trump. To become law, the bill advanced by the committee must still pass the full Republican-majority Senate as well as the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and either be signed by the Republican president or garner two-thirds majorities in both chambers to override a veto.

The Guardian reports that a high court in London has ruled that the UK does not have to pay at least £20m interest on the £387m it owes to Iran over the cancelled sale of Chieftain tanks in the 1970s. The debt was seen by Boris Johnson when he was foreign secretary as critical to the release of Iranian-British dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The issue of whether there is an Iranian body to which the UK can lawfully pay the £387m remains to be determined. In February 2018 after meeting Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, Johnson’s team briefed that the owed money would be handed over to Iran, but disagreements in Whitehall meant it did not happen.

BBC News and the Guardian report that British Airways will resume flights to Cairo on Friday after services to the Egyptian capital were suspended for a week because of security concerns. In a statement, the airline said it had “reviewed security arrangements” and would restart flights. No further detail was provided on the nature of the security issue. “Following a thorough assessment of the security arrangements, we are pleased that our service to and from Cairo will resume from… 26 July”, the airline said.

The Times reports that US troops are refusing to feed displaced people in Rukban camp in eastern Syrian inside a US-protected zone around the al-Tanf military base. US diplomats have explained that doing so would imply that Washington was committed to a long-term presence in Syria. “First of all, if we feed them, it will look like we are going to stay there for ever,” he said. “Secondly, we can’t commit to a long-term presence in al-Tanf or in any place else in Syria.” Aid agencies have been warning for years about conditions in the camp, which was supplied for a while from across the Jordanian border. However, Jordan closed a crossing for fear that the camp was also home to jihadists.

The Independent reports that women detained at al-Hol camp holding ISIS families in Syria have raised thousands of pounds through an online crowdfunding campaign. The fundraising effort, named “Justice for Sisters”, was launched last month with the help of an intermediary in Germany, and appears to be aimed at soliciting donations from sympathisers in Europe. The campaign comes amid growing concerns over radicalisation. The camp holds thousands of suspected female Isis members and their children, many of whom are still loyal to the terror group.

Reuters reports that two Israeli men were shot dead in an apparent gangland hit at a luxury Mexico City shopping mall. Mexico City police said a woman and a man opened fire on the Israelis on Wednesday afternoon in a restaurant in the upscale Plaza Artz Pedregal in the southwest of the capital, then fled. “This was to commit a homicide, there was no other reason. That much is clear to us,” Ulises Lara, a spokesman for state prosecutors in Mexico City, told a news conference.

Reuters reports that Brazil’s top court on Thursday ordered state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA to refuel two Iranian grain vessels stranded on the Brazilian coast due to US sanctions holding up sales of fuel needed for their return trips. Chief Justice Dias Toffoli overturned a lower court ruling that allowed Petrobras, as the oil major is known, to refrain from fueling the vessels.

The Financial Times reports that the UAE projects that bilateral trade with Iran will plummet by half this year because of US sanctions on the Islamic republic, according to a senior UAE official. Dubai has traditionally been a centre for Iranian businesses operating offshore and the UAE’s trade with the republic was worth $19bn in 2018, the official said.

The Guardian reports that twelve acclaimed Palestinian writers have imagined what their country might look like in 2048, in what is believed to be the first ever collection of science fiction from the occupied territories. Stories in Palestine + 100 range from Majd Kayyal’s depiction of a futuristic solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, in which two parallel worlds occupy the same geographic space, to Saleem Haddad’s Matrix-like concept of a “right to digital return”.

The Mirror, Sun and Daily Mail report that Iran has test fired a ballistic missile. The Shahab-3 missile travelled 1,000km, but did not pose a threat to shipping or US bases, according to a Pentagon official. Iran is believed to have tested the medium-range missile on Wednesday in a bid to improve the “range and accuracy” of its weapons. News of the provocation emerged after Boris Johnson ordered the Royal Navy to accompany all British-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

In Reuters, Jonathan Saul, Parisa Hafezi, Marianna Parraga examines the phenomenon of nations registering  vessels under “flags of convenience” that and legally “de-list[ing] dozens of tankers owned by Iran in recent months, tightening the economic noose around it”.

All the Israeli media report on yesterday’s merger between Ehud Barak’s Israel Democratic Party, Meretz and former Labour MK Stav Shaffir to form the Democratic Union.

Maariv reports that at the press conference Ehud Barak said: “This is a first step on the way to more mergers. For anyone who’s worried, I promise that number ten is realistic—big time! This is the first step toward putting Israel back on track, toward replacing the Netanyahu government and ensuring Israel’s future.” Stav Shaffir explained her departure from the Labour Party saying: “The Labour movement is my home, but my home is on fire, the neighbourhood is on fire, the country is on fire, and when your house is on fire, you leave it to extinguish the flames, and then you build it again, together.” It was also agreed yesterday that the ballot slips for the Democratic Union will have Meretz’s letters.

Commenting on the new party in Yediot Ahronot, Yuval Karni notes the irony in Ehud Barak’s acceptance of tenth place, at his request, in the Democratic Union: “Exactly one month ago, Ehud Barak returned in a storm… He launched a rousing viral campaign, formed a new party, spent millions on billboards, swept social media… the 77 year-old candidate trolled social media, left the other candidates in the dust and inspired hope that the dawn of a new day would shine on the second 2019 elections… Who would have believed that the man who just one month ago wanted to lead the camp has ended his glorious and sensational political comeback in tenth place on Nitzan Horowitz’s list? Barak turned into a Twitter star, but you don’t count votes in virtual space. He lost twice in the past month: politically (he didn’t do well in the polls) and image-wise, with the Jeffrey Epstein and the Wexner Foundation affair. Barak discovered that the affair of the sex offender and his business ties with him were not leaving the headlines. Report followed report, plus there was an embarrassing picture.”

Yossi Verter in Haaretz writes that “The big bang he [Barak] tried to foment ended in a still, small voice, the megalomaniacal dreams shattered noisily. There’s no doubt that when he entered the fray he harboured great expectations and had far-reaching plans, but he snapped out of it in time, faced the music and drew conclusions. If this column had predicted a week ago that we would find Barak in the 10th slot on the Meretz slate, under the leadership of Nitzan Horowitz, the men in the white coats would have been pounding on Haaretz’s doors. Horowitz is the big winner in this story. He displayed impressive political skills, paid a minimal price and created a structure that Meretz hasn’t known for two decades”. He also discusses Amir Peretz, Chairman of the Labour party saying: “Peretz certainly won’t say this, but it’s clear he now realises he made a terrible mistake, not to say shot himself in the head when he made a deal with Levi-Abekasis stating that after Gesher joined Labour he’d forgo any other merger. There’s no doubt that he sincerely believed that the alliance with Levi-Abekasis would topple the walls and get him votes from the soft right. But no wall seems to have fallen, maybe a plaster drywall in Beit She’an, where Levi-Abekasis was born and where her parents and other relatives live.”

Kan Radio News reports that senior members of the United Right said that in their meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he made them far-reaching promises if they agreed to merge with Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit before attempting to merge with Shaked and Bennett. Netanyahu proposed that Peretz and Smotrich would continue to be transport and education ministers and would be members of the security cabinet and members in the coalition leaders forum. He said that Itamar Ben Gvir would be given a position such as deputy minister or chairperson of a Knesset committee. Netanyahu’s spokespersons have denied the report. Yediot Ahronot also runs the story, reporting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been applying a great deal of pressure on the leaders of the United Right over the past few days to merge as soon as possible with Otzma Yehudit led by Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Haaretz reports that Mahmoud Abbas announced last night that the PA would no longer comply with agreements with Israel. At a meeting that he called in Ramallah, Abbas described the demolition of the buildings in Wadi Hummus in East Jerusalem as ethnic cleansing and a crime against humanity that could not be met with silence. He stressed that Palestine was not a piece of real estate that could be sold.

The Times of Israel reports that six Iranians fighting for the Syrian regime were among those killed in reported Israeli missile strikes in southern Syria this week. Israeli missiles targeted “military positions and intelligence facilities belonging to Iran and [pro-Iranian] militias” in the southern provinces of Daraa and Quneitra early on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.  Syrian state media had already reported on Wednesday that the “Israeli enemy launched an aggression” against military positions held by the government and its allies in Daraa province, but did not mention casualties.

The Jerusalem Post reports that Iran test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile on Thursday night, a US official told Fox News. The missile was reported to be a Shahab-3 missile that flew a distance 600 miles to an area outside Tehran. “We are aware of reports of a projectile launched from Iran, and have no further comment at this time,” a senior administration official said.