Iran is facing its greatest existential threat since the 1980s yet its allies have so far managed only a very muted response.

Nominally, the Islamic Republic can call on the support of the "Axis of Resistance", made up of political and militant groups in the Middle East, as well as the so-called Crink group of authoritarian nation states that includes China, Russia and North Korea. But with starkly different ideologies and competing strategic objectives, this coalition is better understood as a "marriage of convenience", said The Washington Post – and also of "desperation".

Russia
Tehran has long been suspected by Western nations of supplying Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine, and the two allies signed a new strategic partnership treaty in January. Moscow has condemned Israel's strike on Iran as "unprovoked aggression" but in truth has, of late, "been cosplaying as an ally of Iran", said Owen Matthews in The Spectator. It will pay lip-service to Tehran but the "alliance of convenience is, in the Kremlin's eyes, very much secondary to Russia's more important role as a global power player that can stand alongside the US and China as an arbiter of world affairs".

China
China continues to be the largest purchaser of US-sanctioned Iranian oil, and Beijing has promised to deliver material critical for ballistic missile production. President Xi Jinping is trying to "insert himself as an influential player in allowing Tehran to rebuild its own arsenal and arm its various disabled proxies", said Devon Cross, a former defence adviser to the US government, in The Times.

North Korea
There has long been speculation that North Korea has helped with Iran's nuclear programme. In terms of its own capability, Pyongyang has "defied all international sanctions to build up a formidable arsenal of nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles, enough to make any potential attacker think twice", said Frank Gardner on the BBC.

Iran's proxies
Iran has invested heavily in a network of proxy allies across the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.  But the so-called "Axis of Resistance" has so far "remained silent". Its forces have been greatly "diminished" by more than two years of Israeli operations, said Le Monde, and they are now "weighing the risks of engaging against an enemy that has demonstrated overwhelming military superiority".

Elite footballers are being treated "like entertainers, not performers", an unnamed coach working with a major Premier League club recently told The Athletic.

With the calendar of fixtures for top teams growing increasingly packed, "the game is starting to snap, mostly in the form of players’ hamstrings", said The Independent.

Breaking point
As the "longest-ever" season in the game's history kicked off last August, ESPN warned that football was "at a breaking point". With a new Club World Cup adding to the "workload" of top players, and an expanded Champions League resulting in eight group games rather than the previous six, footballers are facing "more games, more competition" and "significantly less rest". And that impacts their "physical and psychological reserves".

Addressing the European Leagues General Assembly in March last year, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters cautioned that if you "overload the calendar and the players", eventually "something has to give".

Since then, injury lists have been "getting longer", said The Independent, "and also staying like that for longer", in "direct correlation" with the increased fixture list. The changing style of football is also a contributing factor. The popularity of "pressing" tactics means many players are now regularly running the equivalent of six miles each game. Money is a factor too. With around 80% of wages going to star players, coaches "inevitably lean towards" trying to play their big signings as much as possible.

Striking back
Some clubs, including Liverpool, have embraced a "less is more" mindset, with only two scheduled training sessions during two-game weeks. But with the expanded 2026 World Cup looming, the football industry may be heading for industrial action. Players have "yet to collectively walk out in protest" over any issue, said ESPN, but there are "historical precedents" of strike action in the NBA and NFL.

"If no one is looking after you, you need to look after yourself," said Maheta Molango, CEO of the Professional Footballers' Association, the players' union in England. "If you don't protect the people who ultimately drive the industry, you're going to end up having a problem."

The largest of the Ionian islands, Kefalonia is a kaleidoscope of colour: pink bougainvillea drapes over pastel-painted houses, thick green firs cover rolling mountains and the coast is bordered by bright blue sea.

It's no wonder Louis de Bernières chose it as the setting for his novel, "Captain Corelli's Mandolin". The island's character and history can be felt in every corner, whether you're exploring the ancient monasteries perched above olive groves or swimming in the turquoise coves.

De Bernières wrote that the region's sea was "easier to see through than the air of any place" and he wasn't taking creative liberties. Myrtos Beach is one of the most famous spots, where a road zigzags down a high cliff to the soft white sand.

For charming villages on the water, head to Fiskardo or Assos. While most of the island's buildings were destroyed in the earthquake of 1953, Fiskardo's Venetian-style homes were spared. The pretty harbour is an ideal spot for lunch or drinks. Perched on a narrow strip of land with sea on either side, the picturesque village of Assos is also a must-see. From here, you can climb up to see the ruins of Assos castle, one of the largest in Greece.

For more adventures, set off on a scenic hike through Mount Ainos National Park, or take a boat ride through Melissani Cave. Discovered in 1951, its underground lake has crystal-clear water beneath a collapsed cave roof. Kefalonia really is a colourful island in every sense.

With this calibre of MP, it's no wonder Britain is on the decline
Isabel Oakeshott in The Telegraph
The scale of the "catastrophe engulfing our country" is clear from a clip of a minister "being eaten alive" on LBC, writes Isabel Oakeshott. "On paper", Treasury minister Emma Reynolds "may well be quite bright" but, asked to show "the most basic" understanding of what her department is doing with "vast sums of our money", she looked like a "boggle-eyed frog". Once again, "under the slightest pressure", one of Keir Starmer's ministers seemed "weak and ill-informed".

Why today's graduates are screwed
The Economist
"Across the West", graduates "are losing their privileged position", says The Economist. US data shows that the unemployment rate among young Americans with a bachelor's degree or higher "is now consistently higher than the national average". Britain, Canada and Japan "appear to be on a similar path", as technological advances allow employers to "get non-graduates to do jobs that were previously the preserve of graduates". The "social and political consequences will be profound".

For Markets, the Israel-Iran War Is Already Over
John Authers on Bloomberg
"International markets" seem convinced that the latest Middle East conflagration "can be looked through as easily as all the region's other flare-ups of the last decade", writes John Authers. Yesterday, as Iran and Israel pounded each other with missiles, "gold prices fell, Treasury yields rose" and "stocks rebounded". It is "probably all going to be okay", but "the chances that it will be much, much worse" remain "too high for the risks that investors are currently running".