EUROPE - NATO and European officials are weighing up a set of proposals for how Europe can defend itself against a Russian attack without American support. Until recently, the United States was considered so dominant and indispensable within the alliance that even discussing contingency plans for how to fight without it was taboo. Most European allies were profoundly reluctant to risk alienating President Trump, giving Washington a reason to withdraw troops and equipment, or undermining deterrence by signalling that they had doubts about NATO cohesion. A growing number of European governments are now contemplating how to cope with a scenario in which the US might effectively paralyse NATO in a crisis by refusing to activate its totemic Article 5 mutual defence clause.

MIDDLE EAST - From that perspective, Iran has become “a very self-confident player” since the war and especially since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran believes it can survive confrontation with the United States and Israel, Zimmt said, while using its leverage over energy routes, regional proxies, and missile capabilities to force recognition of its position. Zimmt said it was increasingly clear that Iranian leaders believed they could not only survive a confrontation with the United States and Israel but also turn it to their advantage. “It became more and more evident that the Iranian leadership has reached the conclusion that not only can it survive this confrontation with the US and Israel, but can actually use that in order to create a better situation and perhaps even some kind of regional architecture which would recognize Iran’s leverage and Iran’s ability to inflict major pain, not just to its regional neighbors, but also to the global economy,” he said.

SPAIN - As Pope Leo XIV concludes the first leg of his Apostolic Journey to Spain, Cardinal José Cobo Cano, Archbishop of Madrid, offers Vatican News his reflections on the warm response of young people and politicians to the Pope’s four days in Madrid. "I believe the Pope has grown as a moral authority and ethical model, with his proposals, with the Church’s proposals on the European political scene. The Pope invited us not to look to the past, not to rely exclusively on Spain’s Catholic cultural heritage, but to look to the future."

NORTH KOREA - President Xi and the North Korean supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, have promised to work together more closely after the Chinese leader visited Pyongyang and issued a thinly disguised call for a strengthened alliance against America and Japan. Statements by the two sides published in their official media made broad affirmations of the two countries’ “invincible” friendship and socialist principles. But there was no mention of the subject western governments were most concerned with — Kim’s growing nuclear missile arsenal. According to China’s Xinhua news agency, Xi “pointed out that China and [North Korea], linked by mountains and rivers and sharing a common future, have seen their traditional friendship passed down across generations and grow ever stronger over time through the test of the evolving international landscape”.

UK - Farmers may stop growing food without taxpayer support for fertiliser costs, ministers have been warned. The blockading of the Strait of Hormuz has put significant strain on availability, as around a third of the world’s supply comes through the crucial maritime passageway. The price of ammonium nitrate fertiliser has increased by as much as 36 percent since the war began, according to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, and is currently around £495 per ton. Arable farmers can easily use a half ton of fertiliser across a three-acre area. The NFU has called on the Government to give farmers direct support if the fertiliser price goes above £500 per ton, a price that has been reached multiple times during the conflict. The farmers’ union wants 70 percent of the cost above £500 per ton to be funded by the Government, with support capped at £50,000 – an arrangement that mirrors taxpayer support for farmers in Europe.

USA - President Donald Trump boasted on a call with South Carolina voters Monday night that the US will declare 'total victory' over Iran in the next two weeks. Trump gave an updated timeline on the Iran war during a tele-rally in support of hawkish Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is trying to avoid a runoff in Tuesday's GOP Senate primary in the Palmetto State. 'We've been a very tough team,' Trump said. 'And I think we are winning that battle. But you're really going to win it over the next two weeks when we declare total victory.' 'It will happen very soon and oil prices will come tumbling down,' the President added. Trump originally told the Daily Mail in late February that the Iran war would last about four weeks, but it's now lasted more than three months - with gas prices around the country soaring.

MIDDLE EAST - It doesn’t matter how capable the US military is, Iran is winning in the Strait of Hormuz. Freedom of navigation has been reduced to nearly zero since March 1 with commercial transits at a fraction of pre-war levels. Both Iran and later the US have imposed blockades but Tehran has the whip hand for now. You can have the most formidable military in the world, and the US does, but against an agile enemy playing on home turf, force alone cannot drive the threat down to a level that will be tolerated by shipping companies.

USA - Abolish the Fed, the root of inflation, debt, and the destruction of the dollar. In 1913, the year the Federal Reserve was established, an ice cream cone typically cost about $0.05 (a nickel), while the average American home cost around $2,500 to $3,500 to purchase or build. Today, the national average cost of an ice cream cone is about $4.00 to $5.50 for a single scoop, while the median sale price of an existing single-family home in the United States is approximately $404,300.

CANADA - Canada’s new bill to restrict hate speech would remove protections for the Bible, meaning that posting or carrying a placard quoting Leviticus or other scriptures condemning LGBTQ behavior, or possibly even claiming there are only two genders, could be considered hate speech, a jailable offence. Since the existence of only two genders and the fact that a baby is a living, breathing human life inside its mother’s womb are scientific facts, ostensibly citing scientific textbooks could also be jailable if those facts hurt someone’s feelings.

USA - Half a century after Steven Spielberg challenged audiences to think about what lies beyond the starry canopy that defines our universe in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the director is again challenging accepted precepts of faith and singular belief in a supreme being. His new film Disclosure Day sees him revisit the possibility of aliens: “I absolutely think that they have been here, and they are here,” he outlined in an interview with CBS News. Spielberg – who directed and co-produced the movie – feels Christians will find themselves asking of their faith and their beliefs as the movie takes the absolute position of the Church. He says the questions need answers or will Christians simply see the work as a piece of entertainment predicated on Hollywood’s self-serving need to make money while touching on personal fears.