UK - With the transatlantic pact which has underpinned peace and security on the continent since 1945 beginning to falter, they will need all the strength and resolve they can muster. After 80 years of relying on the US, it seems Europe may henceforth have to defend itself. Appalling though his behaviour sometimes is, President Trump is not wrong when he says other Nato countries have been freeloading on the US for too long. He is also right to say the war must be brought to an end – the sooner the better. Sir Keir, Mr Zelensky and President Macron of France are now working on an acceptable plan to end the hostilities, which will then be put to the White House for approval.

UK - One MP is calling for Europe to develop its own collective alliance, dubbed EATO, with the UK likely leading it. A British Army officer turned MP has warned NATO’s Article 5 is “effectively dead” and says Europe needs to form its own alliance without the US. Lib Dem MP Mike Martin, who sits on the Defence Committee, says the Government needs to reconsider its faith in Article 5 - the cornerstone of NATO security. The Afghanistan veteran says Europe must develop its own collective alliance, dubbed EATO, led by Britain or France as the continent’s two sole nuclear powers.

UK - Britain’s peace plans for Ukraine will not be “derailed” by Donald Trump’s decision to suspend all military aid, the Deputy Prime Minister has insisted. The White House announced the decision late on Monday evening after Mr Trump criticised Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, for saying the end of the war was “very, very far away”. Mr Trump’s decision threatens to widen the gap with European nations, who have been scrambling to boost defence spending amid fears the US could abandon Kyiv. Angela Rayner said the Prime Minister would not be “derailed by announcements” and said he remained “laser focused on getting peace”. “He will continue that dialogue with our oldest and strongest ally the US and our European partners and Ukraine,” she said.

USA - JD Vance has criticised European leaders for publicly backing Volodymyr Zelensky while privately calling for the war in Ukraine to end. The US Vice President claimed allies had privately expressed dread about the war with Russia dragging on for years, and warned them against dragging out the conflict by “puff[ing] up” the Ukrainian leader. European leaders are privately pushing for Mr Zelensky to build bridges with Donald Trump, the US President, after he threw his Ukrainian counterpart out of the White House last week following an explosive meeting. “Sometimes you will have European heads of state who in public will puff up their chests and say, ‘we’re in it with President Zelensky for the next 10 years,’” Mr Vance told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday evening. “And then in private, they will pick up the phone and say, ‘This can’t go on forever. He has to come to the negotiating table.’”

ISRAEL - Israel’s prime minister has threatened Hamas with “consequences you can’t imagine” if the Palestinian group does not release the remaining hostages held in Gaza. He also said in a video that Israel “fully supports” President Trump’s plan to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza, saying they should be given “the freedom to leave” the territory. “If you don’t release our hostages, there will be consequences you can’t imagine,” Binyamin Netanyahu said at Israel’s parliament on Monday in a hearing about an inquiry into the October 7 terrorist attacks.

UK - The deconstruction of masculinity started decades ago. Feminism lurched from an attempt to level the playing field between men and women into an agenda that held men were a waste of space and worse. The role of the male breadwinner was denounced as a mechanism for female enslavement in the home. Women would henceforth do everything men did — not just paid work but also “laddish” behaviour such as drinking, casual sex and aggression.

VATICAN - Pope Francis suffered two respiratory attacks on Monday, more than two weeks into a hospital stay for pneumonia. Doctors had to intervene to extract a large build-up of mucus from the lungs of the 88 year-old, who is battling double pneumonia in the Gemelli Hospital in Rome. “Today, the Pope experienced two episodes of acute respiratory failure, caused by a significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus and consequent bronchospasm,” the Vatican said in a statement released on Monday evening. The medical team looking after him intervened to help him breathe. The Pope, who has been in hospital since February 14, was put back on non-invasive mechanical ventilation, the Vatican said.

USA - Nato could be in its final days, a former Supreme Allied Commander has warned, as America’s commitment to the transatlantic alliance wavers. Admiral James Stavridis, an American who served as Nato’s Europe commander from 2009-2013, said we could be witnessing the “last days” of the alliance and the start of a new “European Treaty Organisation”. Donald Trump’s insistence on European leaders increasing their defence budgets, combined with his falling out with Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, has sparked concern among members of the alliance.

UNITED NATIONS - At the Security Council, America sided with Russia – and against the founding principles of the United Nations. Nothing could be simpler than the procedure for casting a vote in the United Nations Security Council. Fifteen ambassadors gather around a horseshoe table, beneath a mural of a phoenix escaping the ashes, and raise their hands like obedient pupils. Until Donald Trump regained the White House, the easiest duty of America’s representative was to vote alongside Britain and France to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as exactly the kind of blood-soaked tragedy which the UN was created to prevent.

USA - Elon Musk has sparked fear into the heart of the European establishment after he spoke out in support for the United States leaving both the UN and NATO. The tech billionaire made the remarks in a post on X, formerly Twitter, yesterday evening. Gunther Eagleman, a political commentator with 1.3 million followers, who describes himself as a 'Proud America First MAGA Patriot', wrote 'It's time to leave NATO and the UN' in an X post on March 1. That message was reposted by Musk, the leader of Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who simply added 'I agree'. Musk also today reposted a tweet by Republican congressman Thomas Massie, the representative for Kentucky's fourth congressional district since 2012, which called NATO 'a Cold War relic that needs to be relegated to a talking kiosk at the Smithsonian'.

USA - President Trump just revealed his negotiation strategy with Ukraine and Russia by posting part of a Facebook post on the mineral rights deal with Ukraine and what that really means. Now, Zelenskyy will have no choice but to back down and accept Trump’s terms. But here’s the genius part — Trump is actually protecting Ukraine without dragging the US into war. By negotiating a mineral deal, Trump ensures that Americans will be involved in Ukraine’s mining industry. This prevents Russia from launching an invasion, because attacking Ukraine would mean endangering American lives — something that would force the US to respond. Trump played both sides like a master chess player. In the end, Zelenskyy will have no choice but to concede, because without US support, Ukraine cannot win a prolonged war against Russia. And once US companies have mining operations in Ukraine, Putin will be unable to attack without triggering massive international consequences. Don’t underestimate Donald Trump. In this game of chess, he’s 10 moves ahead of everyone.

EUROPE - Starmer and Macron working together on a European security guarantee for Ukraine saying ‘we need to move quicker’. Britain and France will lead a European “coalition of the willing” to provide security guarantees to Ukraine and enable peace negotiations with Russia, Sir Keir Starmer said. The Prime Minister said he and Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, were working together on a security plan which is believed to include peacekeeping troops on the ground. This European security guarantee would then be put to the US for approval, Sir Keir added.

EUROPE - Leaders fear the US will pull its troops out of Europe and hope a joint force could deter an aggressive Russia. Donald Trump’s public attack on Volodymyr Zelensky has given impetus to plans for a joint EU fighting force that could one day become the “embryo” of a European army. European leaders are scrambling to boost their collective defence amid fears US troops will pull out of Europe, and the transatlantic alliance has been badly damaged by Friday’s clash between the two presidents in the Oval Office. The crisis has increased calls to ensure Europe can act independently of Washington, and raised the prospect of a common army coming a step closer. European leaders faced with Trump’s insistence they will police the peace in Ukraine have been shocked into action by the combination of an unreliable US and aggressive Russia.

USA - Senator Mike Lee (Republican for Utah) called for the United States to leave NATO in response to a Norwegian fuel company, Haltbakk Bunkers, deciding to stop refueling US military ships. “Europe doesn’t love us,” Lee wrote in a post on X. “Let’s leave NATO.” Lee’s post came in response to another post that noted that the company, Haltbakk Bunkers, had “stopped refueling the US Navy ships” and was reportedly urging other European countries to “follow suit.” In a statement issued by Haltbakk Bunkers, the company explained that it would “no longer supply American military ships in Norway or those docking in Norwegian ports,” adding that the US was “excluded based on their behaviour towards” Ukraine, according to the Daily Mail.

EUROPE - European leaders are confronting their worst-case scenario: maybe they really are going to be dealing with a bellicose Russia alone. When the US lined up alongside Russia and North Korea earlier this week to oppose a UN motion condemning Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, some European officials knew that the transatlantic relationship was in deep trouble. Then they watched in horror as Donald Trump gave Volodymyr Zelenskyy a public dressing down in the Oval Office and something broke.