FRANCE - French president’s move another sign that Europe is getting ready to defend itself against Russia without the help of a Trump-led US. Nuclear-armed fighter jets will be sent to an airbase near France’s German border by 2035, Emmanuel Macron said in a sign of his country’s willingness to extend its deterrent to protect Berlin from Russia. In a speech at the Luxeuil-les-Bains base, Mr Macron said France would buy more Rafale warplanes as Donald Trump was holding controversial ceasefire talks with Vladimir Putin without Ukraine. The French president later travelled to Germany to meet Friedrich Merz, the incoming Chancellor, who secured parliamentary backing for an unprecedented debt package to lavish over a trillion euros on the country’s run-down military and infrastructure. The chancellor-in-waiting has said he will ask France and the UK for shelter under their nuclear umbrellas, if the US pulls out of Nato, and urges Europe to stand on its own two feet on defence. European leaders are horrified that Mr Trump has begun negotiations with Russia without both Ukraine and Europe present.

RUSSIA - Vladimir Putin rejected Donald Trump’s proposal for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine after a “frank” phone call on Tuesday between the two presidents. Instead, the Russian leader agreed to a 30-day pause in attacks on energy plants and infrastructure and to hold further talks on stopping hostilities in the Black Sea. Putin also demanded that Ukraine not rearm or mobilise during the partial truce and called for a “complete cessation” of Western military and intelligence support to Kyiv. France and Germany vowed on Tuesday night to continue supplying weapons to Kyiv, raising doubts over whether a deal on Putin’s terms can hold. Downing Street has not yet addressed whether Britain will follow suit. Ukraine reported Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure just hours after the Russian leader agreed to a partial ceasefire in the call with Mr Trump.

YEMEN - There will be no easy victory fighting the Houthis. On Saturday, the Trump administration reopened the US campaign against the Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday, “Freedom of navigation is basic, it’s a core national interest. The minute the Houthis say, ‘We’ll stop shooting at your ships, we’ll stop shooting at your drones,’ this campaign will end. But until then, it will be unrelenting.” The Houthis, who see their anti-shipping campaign as entirely tied to the Israel-Hamas war, complied with the fragile ceasefire in Gaza between January and March 2025. March saw attacks resuming but at a reduced rate. Then the Houthis fired a wave of 18 missiles at the US warships on station off Yemen, and that is no surprise. While US and other warships so far have a 100 percent kill rate on weapons heading for them, this is a numbers game and the longer you stay inside the missile envelope, the more the chances of getting hit go up. The fact that the US and their Navy are still taking freedom of navigation seriously is good news – global trade depends on it.

ISRAEL - Israel has resumed bombing Gaza after nearly two months of peace, with indications of a renewed ground offensive to follow. Hundreds of people are believed to have died since Monday night – among them the de facto Hamas “prime minister”, at least four other senior figures and many civilians including children. The families of hostages have reacted with horror, as they see the chances of recovering their loved-ones dwindling. On Monday evening, it was reported that intelligence had detected “unusual activity” among the group in recent days – possibly in preparation for an attack, perhaps even another raid into Israeli territory. Israel said they believe that the group has recruited hundreds of new terrorists in recent weeks and has repaired much of their command and control apparatus.

UK - We have to stop pretending there are no trade-offs or costs in reducing emissions. The trouble with the future is that it arrives far quicker than you expect. In 2008 when the Climate Change Act was passed with all-party support, its huge potential costs seemed too far in the future to worry about. The only people who even mentioned the cost were the handful of MPs, of whom I was one, who voted against it. I did so, not because I doubted the science – I studied physics at Cambridge and know the basic science of global warming is solid – but because I read the official cost-benefit study. Remarkably, it showed that the potential costs were twice the maximum benefits.

USA - San Francisco Pride, one of the largest LGBTQ+ celebrations in the world, has lost significant funding as major corporate sponsors – some who supported the festivities for years – have pulled out of the event. Several companies, including Comcast, Diageo, Benefit Cosmetics and Anheuser-Busch, and who provide about $300,000 in funding, told the organization that they did not have the budget to participate this year, Suzanne Ford, the executive director of San Francisco Pride, said in an interview with the Guardian. Some of the companies had been a part of Pride for decades, Ford said. “We have relationships with all those people. It’s not just a number or transaction.”

USA - The US president said Tehran would be held ‘fully accountable’ for the militants’ actions as they target shipping in the Red Sea. Smoke rose from the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Saturday night after President Trump ordered a series of large-scale airstrikes in what he said was a response to attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea. The air and naval strikes marked the beginning of a new offensive against the militants, one that was also designed as a show of force to Iran as Trump seeks a nuclear deal with the country’s leadership.

YEMEN - After a series of American strikes said to have killed 53, Yemeni rebels vow to ‘confront escalation with escalation’. Israel is on high alert for missile attacks. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed on Monday to have twice attacked an American aircraft carrier group within 24 hours, calling it retaliation for deadly US strikes.

ISRAEL - Israel has launched renewed military operations in Gaza following the collapse of a temporary ceasefire, which ended after Hamas refused to release additional hostages. The ceasefire, brokered with international mediation, had allowed for an exchange of hostages and prisoners, as well as the entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave. However, as negotiations stalled, Israel resumed its offensive, citing Hamas’s failure to meet the agreed-upon conditions. According to The Times of Israel, the ceasefire, which lasted for seven days, saw Hamas release dozens of Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. However, the truce came to an end after Hamas allegedly failed to provide a new list of hostages for release. Israeli officials stated that this breach of the agreement left them with no choice but to resume military operations.

ISRAEL - "Urgent security consultations took place at the top security and political levels," it has been reported. Israeli security convened an emergency meeting after “a recent unusual event that may indicate a Hamas attempt to prepare for a ground invasion into Israel," according to a new report. "Urgent security consultations took place at the top security and political levels in Israel due to 'a recent unusual event that may indicate a Hamas attempt to prepare for a ground invasion into Israel.' The censorship approved to publicize the information," Oseran wrote on X. Tension is high in multiple parts of the region, with Yemen's Houthis threatening to attack Israeli ships in its waters after issuing a four-day deadline to resume aid to Gaza.

USA - Justice appears to be back on the table for “pardoned” members of the January 6 Committee as well as other criminals let loose by Joe Biden in his final weeks in office. President Trump declared on Truth Social that the pardons signed by “Crooked Joe Biden” are void. Here’s his post:

UK - Historic show of friendship across the Christian faith aims to restore ties that date back to the 700s. The King and Queen will attend an audience with the Pope next month, in a landmark show of friendship between the Anglican and Catholic churches described as a “historic first”. The King will become the first monarch, and Supreme Governor of the Church of England, to visit the Papal Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls since the Reformation, finally restoring ties which date back to the 700s. The basilica is seen as a place of reconciliation across the Christian faiths, with the King and Queen also attending a “special service” in the Sistine Chapel to build bridges between the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church. Buckingham Palace has confirmed plans for a one-day state visit to the Holy See on April 8, which will be held in conjunction with a second state visit to Italy. Healing the relationships between faiths is one of the King’s key aims.

USA - Parents in the US state of New Jersey have been handed the most staggering questionnaire – and no one can believe it. The next time someone blithely assures you that “woke is over” now Donald Trump is back, politely direct his or her attention to the following story. In the US state of New Jersey, hospitals have been giving new parents a questionnaire to fill in. And this questionnaire asks them to specify their newborn baby’s sexuality.

UK - Reaching a targeted cut in emissions by 2050 is ‘impossible’, the Conservative leader will warn as she aligns her party with Reform UK. Kemi Badenoch will warn that the government’s target of hitting net zero emissions by 2050 is a “fantasy” that can only be achieved “with a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us”. The leader of the Conservative Party will formally break the cross-party consensus on net zero when she says that the 2050 target is “impossible” to reach and attempting to do so will “make families poorer”.

EUROPE - The full extent of Vladimir Putin’s desire for peace appeared to be on show yesterday in a joint press conference with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko: absent, unless it is precisely to his liking. Having stated that he was in favour of a short-term ceasefire brokered by the US, the Kremlin autocrat appeared to lay out caveats: Kyiv’s soldiers in Kursk, he implied, should surrender rather than be withdrawn. No ceasefire would apply in that territory. And he seemed to wish for Kyiv to halt mobilisations during any ceasefire. In other words, if there is to be a ceasefire, Putin seems only willing to countenance it on terms calculated to leave Ukraine at a severe disadvantage should hostilities resume.