USA - US war secretary Pete Hegseth was today branded a 'blustering anchorman' as he sparked a backlash by mocking the 'big, bad Royal Navy'. In the latest American blast at Britain over the Iran war, the former Fox News host demanded the UK and other countries 'step up' to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. In response to US and Israeli attacks, which began at the end of last month, Iran has effectively closed the crucial sea passage and sent global fuel prices soaring. Mr Hegseth suggested it was 'not just the US Navy' who should be responsible for getting tankers moving through the waterway again, as he backed up earlier comments by Donald Trump. In a vicious social media post, the US President dramatically washed his hands of the Middle East crisis and told Keir Starmer to 'go get your own oil' as Europe's supplies dry up. Mr Trump added he had done 'the hard part' by launching the war on Iran, insisting countries like the UK would have to reopen the blocked Strait.

MIDDLE EAST - US Gulf allies, including Saudi Arabia, UAE and other Gulf allies urge President Trump to continue war on Iran. The US allies privately warned President Trump that Tehran has not been weakened enough. The US Allies say four weeks of bombings has not been enough to destroy the barbaric Iranian regime. Alma research and education center published a map of the Iranian regime’s targets since the war started. So it is understandable that Iran’s Middle East neighbors are tired of the Iranian threat after 40 years of the theocratic regime.

USA - President Trump on Tuesday suggested that he will withdraw troops from the Middle East and force Europe, Asia, and the Gulf nations to deal with Iran’s blockade on the Strait of Hormuz after they refused his calls for help. President Trump previously asked NATO and Asia for help securing the Strait, but they refused. “The USA won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” Trump said in a statement on Monday, offering to supply oil from the United States if the countries cannot “build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.” He added. “Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!” This comes amid reporting that Trump is ready to end the war regardless of security in the waterway. His plan would then be to leave it for Europe and the Gulf states, who are heavily dependent on the flow of oil through the Strait, unlike the US, to deal with it.

USA - Bloomberg: "The energy industry is warning that the crisis is only beginning. In conversations with more than three dozen oil and gas traders, executives, brokers, shippers and advisers over the last week, one message was repeated over and over: The world still hasn’t grasped the severity of the situation... If the strait stays closed, the world will have to significantly reduce its oil and gas consumption — but not before prices spike to a level that forces consumers and businesses to fly, drive and spend much less."

USA - Western media reports indicated the fire raged on board for some 30 hours before being extinguished – longer than the devastating 1967 USS Forrestal carrier fire, which burned for about 24 hours. If true, it raises questions about the state of supposedly sophisticated firefighting systems on the Ford, particularly given that the Forrestal fire was aggravated by explosions of munitions stored on the flight deck and burning fuel seeping into compartments. More than 600 out of nearly 4,500 sailors, tech personnel, and pilots lost their bunks in the fire, ending up forced to sleep on tables and floors, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous crewmembers. Moreover, the crew has been unable to do laundry since the fire, which reportedly ended up being airlifted to other ships for washing.

IRAN - Iranian Parliament's Security Commission has approved a plan to impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz and stop America and Israel from moving through. A member of the National Security Commission announced the approval of the plan for managing the Strait of Hormuz and adding "tolls". In a post on Telegram, Fars news agency noted the key areas for the plan, including prohibiting "Americans and the Zionist regime from transit" - meaning US and Israeli ships won't be allowed through.

UK - In 1377, the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun set out the stages of civilisation in his Muqaddimah, or Introduction. First the tribes ride out of the desert and conquer the city. They are hungry and disciplined, bound together by shared purpose. The next generation settles, connected to the strength of the past and the talents of the present. The third grows soft on the luxury the founders won, forgetting the struggle it took to get there. Then a new tribe rides in. Middle Eastern spice routes of six centuries ago compare with Britain today. Fewer silks, perhaps, but with a welfare state that has hidden the effort and energy that it took to build the nation. Instead of the graft that mined coal and laid railway tracks and risked all on shipping lines and exploration, we’ve succumbed to the soft bigotry of low expectations. We’ve shrunk our horizons, spending more on ourselves each year and investing less in our future. We are Ibn Khaldun’s third generation.

UK - The economic consequences from the war in the Middle East are being felt far beyond the region, as governments scramble to contain soaring energy costs and growing fears for the global economy.

GERMANY - The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has called for the withdrawal of all US soldiers from the country. Tino Chrupalla, the far-Right party’s co-leader, told a meeting on Saturday that it was time to remove allied troops and nuclear weapons from Germany in order to pursue an “independent” foreign policy. “Let’s start implementing this with the withdrawal of US troops from Germany,” he told supporters in Saxony. Nearly 40,000 American troops are stationed in the country, which hosts more than a dozen major US military installations, including its European Command headquarters. The Telegraph reported on Friday that Donald Trump was considering pulling US troops out of Germany – something he has been thinking about since returning to office last year.

USA - As if President Trump does not have enough on his plate fighting a war against Iran’s ayatollahs, the revelation that Russia has been giving Tehran valuable intelligence also shows that he is fighting a proxy war against Moscow. Now details have emerged claiming that Moscow was directly involved in helping to plan an Iranian missile-and-drone attack on a US military base in Saudi Arabia which succeeded in destroying a £370 million E-3 Sentry radar plane, as well as a number of refuelling aircraft, making it one of the most successful attacks Iran has carried out against the US since the war began. At least 15 US troops were wounded in the attack. According to Zelensky, the attack took place after Kremlin satellites had photographed the Saudis’ Prince Sultan Air Base in Al Kharj on three occasions.

SAUDI ARABIA - The mangled airframe of the four-engined US air force jet stands on the runway of Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia. Amid the twisted metal, what looks like a large flying saucer lies upside down. It is, or was, the rotating radar dome that usually sits above the E-3 Sentry, one of the jewels in America’s military crown – essentially a $500 million (£375 million) flying battlefield nerve centre that allows commanders to track everything in the air across hundreds of miles. As of Friday morning, the United States had 16 of the vital but ageing Cold War-era aircraft, with roughly 40 per cent of the fleet deployed to the Middle East. now they have 15, after Iran attacked Prince Sultan with, it is believed, ballistic missiles and drones, injuring 12 US personnel, two seriously, and damaging up to five air-to-air refuelling tankers. The point of impact, just where the radar dome attaches to the Sentry, suggests a precision strike by a drone, a more accurate weapon than a ballistic missile when used by Iran. It also hints at a worrying level of intelligence on the part of Tehran. “Iran didn’t just hit a plane. It hit a battle management layer, and at the moment when that layer is needed most.”

USA - Even if the Strait of Hormuz opened tomorrow, and that is certainly not going to happen, we are being warned that the economic impact of this war will be felt all the way through to the end of this decade. A lot of energy infrastructure has already been destroyed during this war, and it will take years to rebuild it. And the crop losses that we will experience in 2026 due to a lack of fertilizer will be felt long into 2027. But the shortages that we are facing go way beyond just oil, natural gas and fertilizer. We are also facing unprecedented shortages of pharmaceutical drugs, plastics and other vitally important goods. A global nightmare has already begun, and if we don’t get the Strait of Hormuz opened soon it will get a whole lot worse.

USA - Spring has sprung, which means seeds that were planted in late winter are starting to germinate. They’re hungry and will only grow to their full nutritional potential if they’re well fed. But that, apparently, isn’t happening, as fertilizer supplies are interrupted by yet another pointless Middle East war. The result? Global food shortages that might dwarf the COVID-era Costco-hoarding mess of recent memory. The biological calendar does not negotiate. Corn requires nitrogen at the V6 to VT growth stage or kernel set is permanently reduced. Wheat requires it at tillering and jointing or grain fill collapses. Rice requires it at transplanting or yield drops 20 to 40 percent in low-input systems. These are not economic models. They are cellular processes. The plant either receives nitrogen during the window or it does not. If it does not, no subsequent application, no price increase, no policy reversal can recover what was lost. The damage is written into the biology of the seed.

UK - Ministers are scrambling to deal with the threat of diesel shortages within weeks as experts warn the energy shock from Middle East chaos could be worse than the 1970s. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are holding crisis talks amid mounting fears over the looming impact from the Iran war. The Government has admitted it is drawing up contingency plans, despite appealing for Brits to continue their lives as normal. Sir Keir will meet Shell, BP and Norwegian energy company Equinor in Downing Street later to take stock. But warnings are becoming more stark about the scale of the hit to the UK - and how long it might last - with soaring pump prices just the tip of the iceberg.

USA - Donald Trump has said that he could 'take the oil in Iran' and boasted that he can invade Kharg Island 'easily'. It comes as the number of US troops in the Middle East swelled to 50,000, roughly 10,000 more than usual. Tehran has promised to set American soldiers on fire should the US President order a ground invasion of the country, after the Pentagon drew up plans for potential raids on Kharg Island - the Islamic Republic's main oil export hub - and attacks on coastal sites near the Strait of Hormuz. An attack on the five-mile-long Kharg Island - located 15 miles from the Iranian coast in the Strait of Hormuz - would be risky, raising the chances of more US casualties and prolonging the cost and duration of the conflict.