Iran's leaders had hoped to find a "Goldilocks option" to placate their domestic audience and deter Israel after it attacked their embassy in Damascus, said The Economist. "What they settled on, though, may prove to be a strategic blunder that harms their interests."

In response to the Israeli air strike in Syria that killed seven Iranian officers, including a top general, Tehran launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel on Saturday. Yet Iran's first-ever direct attack on Israel resulted in zero fatalities, as allies helped shoot down the bulk of the weapons.

What did the commentators say?
Iran "isn't a phantom boogeyman anymore", said Politico, and that's a "godsend" for Benjamin Netanyahu, who can turn Saturday's attack to his "political advantage". The Israeli prime minister is under pressure over the war in Gaza, but Tehran looks to have "let him off the hook" and to have made the case for support for Israel "almost unanswerable".

The near-universal condemnation of Iran and renewed support for Israel from the international community show how the dial has moved. Joe Biden said US support for Israel was now "ironclad", while Rishi Sunak said Britain would "continue to stand up for Israel’s security". Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Iran had suffered a "double defeat", in  failing in its missile attack and showing itself to be "the malign influence in the region".

Strong words were matched with action. Britain and France – Nato's two European nuclear powers – both took part in the defence effort against the Iranian bombardment, along with the US plus Israel's Arab allies.

What next?
Tehran's actions allow Netanyahu to "double down" on his war against Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza, said Politico, and then possibly switch to Lebanon's Hezbollah, another Iranian Shi’ite proxy. The Israeli PM now has "greater leeway to cast the Gaza war as a struggle of national survival against a well-armed geostrategic heavyweight, led by Islamist fundamentalists pursuing nuclear arms".

Iran's operational failure in damaging Israel has also "exposed how weak they are when it comes to the conventional military threat", Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told The Wall Street Journal.

But this could carry escalatory risks, said the paper, as "decision-makers in Tehran may be increasingly tempted by the nuclear option".

A leading literary institution has been accused of promoting an "anti-intellectual conspiracy theory" with an event exploring claims that  Shakespeare may have been a woman.

A debate has "long raged" over whether Britain's greatest playwright wrote all 38 plays attributed to him, with comedy troupe Monty Python once joking that "a 1970s suburban husband and wife team authored several of them", said The Times.

But the London Library, "one of the country's bastions of intellectualism", has triggered a fresh row by giving a platform to a US writer who has voiced theories that the Bard could have been a bardess.

'Hiding' behind Shakespeare's name
The 19th-century literary institution is holding a panel discussion with Elizabeth Winkler, the author of a controversial book titled "Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies", which "explores who may perhaps have been hiding behind his name".

Winkler told the Daily Mail that her book and the London Library discussion were "not suggesting Shakespeare was female". The book "is about the theories that have been put forward over the centuries", she said, and "does not argue for any one of them in particular". Shutting down the debate, she said, was "obviously anti-intellectual".

Conspiracy theories have 'costs'
The event has sparked criticism from some of the London Library's "biggest supporters", said The Telegraph. Journalist and author Oliver Kamm has written to chair Simon Goodwin about his concerns over "this great institution's promotion of a baseless and anti-intellectual conspiracy theory".

In his letter, Kamm told Godwin that it was "wildly inappropriate for the library to be hosting such an event and thereby promoting the hoary conspiracy theory that William Shakespeare was an allonym for some concealed author".

Kamm has called for the debate to be cancelled, telling The Times that such theories "have costs, identifiable in the coarsening of public debate and the atrophy of a culture of critical inquiry". The London Library "does not promote equivalent nostrums such as anti-vaccine activism, geocentrism or the proposition that the moon landings were faked", he said. "I see no reason why it should be pushing Shakespeare denialism."

Putting an international spin on British favourites is a growing food trend coming soon to a restaurant near you. 

Put simply, "British fusion food is the combination of international favourites with well-known classics from our own recipe books", said Reader's Digest. You can already find fusion food "hidden among our menus". For example, "curry sauce with fish and chips seems like a foundational element of the dish these days, but its South Asian influences are obvious".

'New twists of globally inspired flair'
Chef Dean Harper, speaking to Reader's Digest, said: "Staple British foods like pies and roasts are beginning to be reimagined with worldly foods and flavours." These dishes have a versatile "structure and format, making British food an easy option to combine with other cuisines".

Other candidates for "new twists of globally inspired flair" include Sunday roasts and full English breakfasts, said Speciality Food magazine. So "how about roast chicken with Chinese stir-fried greens? Or Italian sausage rolls containing fennel seeds, sun-dried tomatoes and garlicky salsiccia Toscana?"

'Reimagining unique tastes'
One new iteration of British-Italian food comes with the May opening of Café Britaly in Peckham, south London, which pointed out that this is not a new occurrence. "Since the Romans founded Londinium 2,000 years ago, the cuisine of two countries has been intertwined." Its Britalian menu will be a "love letter to the many ways the British have reimagined Italian classics to match our, er, unique tastes", said the London Evening Standard. Alongside its "controversial" carbonara (made with cream), you'll also find deep-fried pizza.

Those keen to try the new tastes should visit pop-ups and sample street food, said Reader's Digest, and keep an eye on "markets and in food festivals, for those thrilling creators who are embracing the fusion whole-heartedly".

Sydney will always win when Sydney fights back
Tim Blair in The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
It's "impossible to calculate how many lives were saved" by the actions of Inspector Amy Scott and other civilians who "went directly towards the threat" to stop "murderous" Sydney mall knifeman Joel Cauchi, says Tim Blair. We should "reflect on our great fortune to be protected not only by police but also by random folk in shops". From the outset, the shopping centre's "rapid response volunteers were committed to ending the evil that invaded their city".

How steroids got a stranglehold on Britain
Will Lloyd in The Times
"More men in Britain appear to be taking steroids than ever before", writes Will Lloyd, and "this open secret is a cause for shame". We are "supposed to pity these poor creatures" because "they've mutilated themselves" and "this is both dangerous and stupid". But "find me an era when young men did not do dangerous and stupid things". We should ask "what is it about life in Britain that leads up to a million men to engage upon this vain, effortful, illegal and potentially dangerous course".

Britain used to be a civil country – now all we have are nagging signs
Jane Shilling in The Telegraph
Signs at "A&E departments and GP's surgeries, on public transport and in shops", warn of "the consequences of aggressive behaviour", writes Jane Shilling. It is "fair to assume that these minatory placards have not sprung up spontaneously, like mushrooms after rain", but are a "response to objectionable behaviour". Yet a "curious tension" now exists between the "pervasive sense of a noticeable breakdown in public courtesy" and the "sense of affront at 'busybody' interventions". A "degree of self-censorship is an indispensable element of courtesy in public places".