A report suggesting Washington could use the Falkland Islands dispute as leverage to push Britain toward its NATO defense spending commitments prompted a rapid response Sunday from a former Pentagon official, who said the United States has not moved away from its long-held neutrality on the islands’ sovereignty.

Morgan Murphy, a former press secretary in the War Department, told News Media that Washington’s position on Falklands sovereignty has not changed, though he said he believes the Trump administration may be prepared to apply significant diplomatic pressure over London’s defense budget.

“You don’t take the security and skip the bill. That is free-riding,” Murphy said, before adding: “Friends tell friends the check is due. Squeeze is accountability.”

The renewed attention on the Falklands dispute followed reports that U.K. Chancellor John Healey is expected to announce, when he delivers his first budget in October, that the government will abandon its goal of raising defense spending to 3% of gross domestic product by 2030, according to The Financial Times.

The tension comes amid a six-month Pentagon review of U.S. troop deployments in Europe led by Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby, according to Reuters.

As Washington pushes European allies and Canada to take greater responsibility for NATO’s conventional defense, the U.S. is expected to retain a supporting role, including its nuclear deterrent, according to The Associated Press.

“We can’t ‘withdraw support’ for sovereignty of the Falklands that was never there,” Murphy said. “Policy experts know the difference between an unsourced whisper to a British paper that ‘nothing is being ruled out’ and an official word from the White House.”

Murphy said the U.S. remains neutral on Falkland sovereignty and continues to recognize British administration of the islands.

Addressing reports from April of an internal Pentagon email suggesting the U.S. could review its position on the islands, Murphy noted the lack of confirmation.

“I have not seen that email. The Pentagon did not confirm it. The official word that followed was the same U.S. position we have now: neutral on sovereignty, recognize British administration,” Murphy said.

“I no longer work at the White House and can’t speak in any way for the administration, but I can say that the islanders voted 99.8% to stay British in 2013,” he said of Falkland Islanders, who voted in a referendum that year to remain a British overseas territory.

Murphy emphasized that Washington, however, would maintain other diplomatic options without altering the status quo in the Falklands and said the U.S. is actively pressuring Britain on defense obligations.

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Under current projections, U.K. defense spending would reach 2.7% of GDP by 2030, with the government expected to set a new timeline for reaching 3% on its path toward NATO’s core defense-spending target by 2035.

According to the 2025 Hague Summit Declaration, NATO allies agreed to spend 5% of GDP annually on defense and security-related expenditures by 2035, including at least 3.5% on core defense requirements, and to submit annual plans charting a credible path to meet NATO capability targets.

“Last year in The Hague they signed up for 5% by 2035, which won headlines, but Britain still will not lock 3% by 2030,” Murphy said. “I’ve watched this town treat a treaty like a suggestion. Friends don’t let allies cheat. So yes, squeeze London on the number.”

He added: “This is the habit: put a number in a communiqué, then treat it as optional. They signed the pledge. They still slide.”

Describing potential U.S. pressure on London as “leverage, not abandonment,” Murphy said pushing Britain to increase defense spending would be “in the best national security interest of the U.S. and the U.K.”

“After Wales in 2014, most of Europe missed the 2% guideline while the U.S. shouldered the load as usual,” Murphy added. 

“The United States extends the nuclear umbrella, the intel, the industrial base, the special relationship … You squeeze a budget with tools that move a budget,” he said of Washington’s process.

“Public pressure from the president. Annual Hague reviews. A dated 3% by 2030, or a funded path to 3.5% core by 2035, before the next UK defense budget. The special relationship is a privilege, not a welfare program.

“Tariffs if the White House wants them,” Murphy warned.

“The UK is playing a central role in NATO and strengthening collective defence across Europe,” a U.K. government spokesperson said, according to Sky News. “We are NATO’s third-largest cash spender on defence and the only European NATO member to commit our nuclear deterrent to the alliance.”

News Media has reached out to the Pentagon and 10 Downing Street for comment.

A day of thrills turned chaotic at a Spanish theme park on Saturday after a visitor was seriously injured while riding a Batman-themed roller coaster, with local reports saying the man sustained fractures in both legs.

The accident happened on Batman Gotham City Escape at Parque Warner Madrid, the amusement park confirmed in a statement posted on X.

The injured rider, a 49-year-old man, suffered an open fracture to his left leg and a closed fracture to his right leg, Europa Press reported, citing emergency services.

Batman Gotham City Escape debuted in 2023 and was promoted by Parque Warner Madrid as Spain’s first multi-launch roller coaster. The high-speed attraction includes three separate launches that send riders surging upward, along with four inversions that briefly turn passengers upside down.

Park officials said the roller coaster was brought to an immediate stop after the incident, and emergency response protocols were activated without delay.

“The affected person was attended to immediately by emergency medical services,” Parque Warner said.

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First responders then airlifted the visitor to a nearby hospital, Europa Press reported.

Another visitor, Juan José Molina, described panic among some parkgoers.

“There were people crying and having anxiety attacks,” he said.

Parque Warner said the roller coaster will remain closed while management reviews the incident in coordination with authorities.

Donald Trump claimed Israel and the wider Middle East “would be gone” if he were not President, as he defended the war in Iran and his administration’s stance toward Tehran.

His remarks aired on a night of renewed escalation, with US and Iranian attacks intensifying again after a lull of several weeks in the six-month conflict.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump described Iran’s government as “violent, evil people” and again insisted that Tehran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. He warned that such a development would threaten both Israel and the broader region.

“If they had a nuclear weapon, Israel would be gone. If I weren’t President, Israel would be gone and there would probably be no Middle East,” Trump said.

Trump added that Iran had alienated not only its allies, but also countries that had previously been “sort of neutral” or had maintained workable relations with Tehran before the war began.

‘As soon as the shooting started, they started aiming at Saudi Arabia, Qatar, at UAE, at Bahrain, at Kuwait, everybody was shocked. I was surprised.’

Trump admitted that it was a positive from his perspective because the Iranians ‘lost all of the support they had.’

However, he fears that Iran’s turncoat behavior against its neighboring nations means ‘if they would have had a nuclear weapon, they would have fired it.’ 

‘I think the Middle East would have essentially been gone but Israel definitely would have been gone and I guess we would be next, or Europe or someplace,’ he added.

Trump reaffirmed his promise, however, that ‘you cannot let them have a nuclear weapon and they won’t have a nuclear weapon.’ 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any diplomatic deal with Iran as he backed Donald Trump’s new economic campaign earlier this week. 

Speaking at an event in Jerusalem for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu said he told Trump in a meeting at the White House last month: ‘I doubt that an agreement can be reached with that group there, with those savages.

‘I tell you – an agreement cannot be reached.’

Netanyahu added the two also discussed renewing military action against Iran: ‘We will not allow Iran to attack us, and if, God forbid, they attack us, they will suffer a blow beyond anything they have imagined– far stronger than anything they have suffered until now’

The prime minister also hailed the US president’s new campaign after Trump on Monday declared ‘economic D-Day’ aimed at destroying Iran’s economy.

The President stressed earlier this week that he’s ‘not in a hurry’ to get Iran back to the negotiating table, and he continues making the case that the Islamic Republic’s leadership is on the ropes.

‘They’re not paying their troops. They’re in deep trouble. They have very little capacity,’ Trump told reporters Thursday. ‘We don’t want to speak to them. We’re not looking to meet or anything,’ he said.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, urged rulers of Muslim nations to ‘know your real enemy, understand its plans and confront it,’ and called the US and Israel enemies of all Islamic nations Sunday, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Six months after the US and Israel attacked Iran, killing Khamenei’s father and other senior leaders, the younger Khamenei still has not been seen publicly. 

His comments came in a letter to religious leaders attending a conference in Tehran.

US forces made their first strikes at Iran in over a month Sunday, firing at two rocket launchers on the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran responding by attacking American forces in Jordan. 

The fresh fury erupts after forces with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were seen preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the strait, Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins confirmed to The Daily Mail.   

‘US forces are monitoring the area closely and remain prepared to protect the free flow of commerce through this essential waterway,’ Hawkins said.    

The US military last week completed clearing sea mines from the strait’s international shipping routes, he added. Iranian news outlets reported sounds of explosions near Larak Island on the strait.  

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The IRGC in a statement carried by Iran’s state broadcaster noted ‘the martyrdom and injury of several of our fighters and compatriots.’

The statement said the attack will ‘result in punishment of the aggressor.’

Shortly following the US strikes, Fox News reported that Iranian forces were attacking American troops stationed in Jordan.

Almost all of the incoming missiles have been intercepted and there have been no significant impacts, Fox said. 

The fighting comes just days after the Trump administration said it would turn its focus to increasing economic pressure – rather than military action – to try to end its war with Iran.

Secretary Scott Bessent told ​Reuters Sunday that the Treasury Department is likely ​to unveil new secondary sanctions ‌aimed at increasing economic pressure on Iran.

Bessent announced the measure after imposing penalties on the ⁠United Arab Emirates branches of Egypt’s ​Banque Misr on Friday over alleged ​financial links to Iran.

The shifting strategy centers on threats to punish any country or entity that continues to conduct business with Tehran.

The turn to using sanctions as the cudgel of choice comes as the administration weighs diminished munitions stockpiles after months of war, sparking concerns that the prolonged conflict could undermine US military readiness in other parts of the globe.

Trump has consistently emphasized that the US and Israel campaign has been devastating for Iran´s navy and air force. 

Iranian officials have said the country has suffered $270 billion in direct and indirect damage.

Israeli military strikes in the first weeks of the war wiped out much of the theocratic government’s leadership structure.

But Iran has found leverage through its own strikes in the critical Strait of Hormuz where relatively few vessels carrying oil and liquefied natural gas are risking passage.

Iran still has enough drones and missiles to fire at vessels transiting the vital energy waterway, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil normally flows, effectively controlling much of the traffic in the strait.

Trump has repeatedly declared that the ‘Strait of Hormuz is open,’ saying 24 vessels passed through last week. But that´s a fraction of the roughly 130 vessels that passed through the vital waterway daily before the war began.

Earlier on Sunday, a multinational coalition overseen by the US Navy said commercial traffic through the strait remained at ‘reduced levels.’ 

And a monitoring agency run by the British military said an unknown projectile struck a tanker ship on Saturday north of Khasab, Oman, in the strait.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization said the ship had been moving inbound and no casualties or environmental impact had been reported. 

It cited unspecified military authorities. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

A return to open conflict would be dangerous for the region, where Iran has targeted US military bases and infrastructure in Gulf countries since the war began on February 28.

The last time the US military confirmed targeting Iran was on July 29, when it announced a ‘heavy wave of strikes’ on dozens of Revolutionary Guard targets including coastal surveillance and defense sites. 

On August 1, Trump said he would order the military to hold off on new strikes at the urging of Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.