USA - US President Donald Trump is seriously considering resuming the war with Iran soon because of the way the Iranians are handling negotiations, aides close to the president told CNN on Monday. CNN reported that the latest Iranian proposal, which Trump called "unacceptable," along with the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the division among the Iranian leadership, are the key factors pushing Trump into resuming the war against the regime. Trump told reporters on Sunday that the ceasefire was "on life support" after the latest offer, while claiming that he "has a plan" and that "Iran can't have a nuclear weapon." The sources also said that the US and Iran are operating with completely opposite timelines, with the Islamic regime believing that it's more capable of tolerating the economic pressure than another round of fighting.

USA - ‘Let me be clear,” said Pastor Mark Burns, unveiling a 22-foot-high gilded statue of President Trump last week in Florida, “this is not a golden calf.” Ironically, this was the precise note of uneasy defensiveness you imagine probably characterised the spokesman of the idolatrous Israelites confronting a furious Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai. It does feel an awful lot like a golden calf. Frankly, to Trump the golden idol (sorry: golden “symbol of resilience, freedom, patriotism [and] strength”) is a mere sideshow. The president graced the unveiling of his statue only briefly via speakerphone. He has his sights set on bigger, madder things. There is the vast new White House ballroom, of course. There is also the “Arc de Trump”, a marble triumphal arch of Napoleonic immodesty, which, if built, will tower twice the height of the neighbouring Lincoln Memorial. Above all there is the 47-storey Trump presidential “library”, which will contain (obviously) no books but feature another enormous golden statue of the president and an entire aeroplane. Trump’s grands projets are only the most extravagant symptom of a world that is moving into a new age of architectural megalomania.

USA - The Pacific Ocean is aggressively heating up, and that means big trouble for the months ahead. It is being projected that we will experience a “Super El Niño” similar to the one that the world experienced in 1877 and 1878. That “Super El Niño” created horrifying droughts and famines all over the planet. As a result, more than 50 million people died. It truly was one of the worst environmental disasters in recorded history, and now a repeat performance is on the way. Each “El Niño” is different. Some are quite weak, and some are quite strong. Unfortunately, scientists are telling us that the “El Niño” that is coming in the middle of this year will be immensely powerful… We aren’t just talking about a minor shift in the weather. According to the Washington Post, the “Super El Niño” of 1877 and 1878 resulted in a global famine that killed over 50 million people…

USA - Donald Trump was forced to defend US spending on Iran, after a senior Pentagon official testified that the war has cost taxpayers $29 billion (£23 billion) so far. The US president spoke after it was revealed US inflation had hit a three-year high, with prices rising higher than wages, and as military chiefs sought an unprecedented $1.5 trillion (£1.2 trillion) annual budget from Congress. Mr Trump insisted inflation would plummet as soon as the war had concluded, but said his priority was ensuring the end of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” he said. The latest war spending marked a rise of $4 billion (£3 billion) in under two weeks despite an ongoing ceasefire, according to figures provided by Jules Hurst, the US defence department’s comptroller. Mr Hurst, who on April 29 said the war had cost $25 billion (£18 billion), attributed the increase to updated costs for repairing equipment and maintaining the US’s military presence in the Middle East.

USA - The US Treasury has paid $628 billion in net interest this year to service its borrowing, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The latest monthly budget update on the national debt and its interest burden, shared on May 8, breaks down the government’s income and outgoings for the fiscal year so far, which began in October. The report demonstrates the government’s largest outlays: $953 billion so far this year for Social Security benefits, $588 billion for Medicare, and $409 billion for Medicaid. Net interest on public debt is a larger figure than both Medicare and Medicaid, totaling $628 billion for the seven months between October and April. On those numbers, for the 212 days since October, the Treasury’s interest payments have averaged at just shy of $3 billion a day — $2.96 billion to be precise.

SPAIN - Spain has called for the creation of a European Union army to replace the protections offered by NATO. José Manuel Albares, its foreign minister, suggested the bloc may not be able to count on the US-led military alliance to provide security guarantees. Mr Albares said that if the EU did not rely on NATO, Donald Trump could not hold its security to ransom. Madrid is on the front line of the transatlantic spat between Mr Trump and his European allies.

USA - With the Strait of Hormuz still shut, there is only one place for the UK and Europe to go to make up the shortfall in liquefied natural gas (LNG): North America. The US already supplies more than half of the EU’s LNG imports and more than 80 percent of Britain’s. Yet fears are mounting that Donald Trump, who has become increasingly irritated by Europe, will be unable to resist wielding this newfound power as a coercive weapon.

IRAN - Despite an economy in shambles, Tehran is betting that its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will break American resolve before it breaks its own. The threat of another war, Tehran believes, may be needed to disabuse President Trump of the notion that its regime is weak and seeking surrender. That war may come soon. Trump, who appears surprised that Iran has not surrendered, said more work needed to be done to destroy all the US targets while Binyamin Netanyahu, his ally who has pushed for a resumption of the conflict, insists it is “not over”.

IRAN - Iran has rejected significant parts of Donald Trump’s peace plan, ruling out an immediate deal to dismantle its nuclear programme or hand over its enriched uranium. The fate of Tehran’s 450kg of near weapons-grade material has been a key stumbling block in negotiations. America and Israel have consistently maintained that Iran must hand over the enriched uranium as part of a comprehensive deal to end the war. Instead, Iran issued a counter-proposal through Pakistani mediators which swept aside most of Washington’s key demands. Tehran proposed an end to the fighting “on all fronts, especially Lebanon” and a gradual reopening of the Strait of Hormuz along with the US lifting its naval blockade – before nuclear issues begin to be negotiated. The US president branded Tehran’s response as “totally unacceptable”. The significant gaps between both sides make it unclear whether a comprehensive peace agreement could follow, raising fears of a protracted conflict in the Middle East.

IRAN - No matter how hard the Iranians try to pretend they have the upper hand in negotiations to end hostilities with the US, the inescapable reality is that the ayatollahs desperately need to seal a deal – and quickly – if the Islamic Republic is to stand any chance of surviving the conflict. While Iranian negotiators are doing their level best to string out negotiations with the Trump administration in the hope of securing a better deal, their efforts are nothing more than an attempt to conceal the regime’s catastrophic weakness.