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Mar 5, 2026 - World

Donald Trump's reasoning that he had no choice but to start a war with Iran because Iranian missiles could hit the American mainland “soon” was undercut by a report from MS NOW’s Jackie Alemany on Thursday morning.During a military medal ceremony on Monday at the White House, the president told the audience, “The regime already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases, both local and overseas, and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America.”Alemany, the co-host of MS NOW’s “The Weekend,” broke the news on “Morning Joe” that one of her sources in the White House claimed Trump has been champing at the bit to get the war started for some time.Speaking with the “Morning Joe” co-hosts, she swerved away from a question from Joe Scarborough to state, “I do want to address something that Jonathan [Lemire] said, because I've had this reporting that just came to me. But the personal nature of Trump's position on Iran: I have a source who had lunch with Trump at Mar-a-Lago a month and a half ago, who said essentially that Trump was itching to strike Iran.”"And I think it does really get to this idea that so little of this is based on actual substance and primarily on settling a score against Iran, wanting to legacy build and, again, a lack of a real justification here,” she pointed out. “And there are lots of members of Congress in a bipartisan manner who are taking issue with this, although not enough for this to pass in the Senate and likely to fail in the House today.” - YouTube youtu.be

Mar 5, 2026 - World

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that Spain has already agreed to cooperate with the United States on any war with Iran — but almost immediately, the Spanish government contradicted this.As CNBC noted, when Leavitt was pressed by reporters on Wednesday about Spain's refusal to allow U.S. use of its military bases for staging such an operation, she replied, “With respect to Spain, I think they heard the president’s message yesterday loud and clear, and it’s my understanding, over the past several hours, they’ve agreed to cooperate with the U.S. military. The president expects all of our European allies, of course, to cooperate in this long sought-after mission, not just for the United States but also for Europe, to crush the rogue Iranian regime.”However, Madrid swiftly disagreed, with Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares telling a local outlet that, “The Spanish government’s position on the war in the Middle East ... and the use of our bases has not changed at all.”Spain is one of the member states of the NATO alliance, which would compel the Spanish government to protect the United States if it were attacked; but they aren't obliged to give unlimited cooperation to the U.S. to help them invade another country.Already, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has condemned President Donald Trump's move to strike Iran, saying, “You can’t play Russian roulette with the destiny of millions ... Nobody knows for sure what will happen now. Even the objectives of those who launched the first attack are unclear. But we must be prepared, as the proponents say, for the possibility that this will be a long war, with numerous casualties and, therefore, with serious economic consequences on a global scale.”Trump, for his part, has threatened to "cut off all dealings" with Spain if they do not commit to stand behind U.S. military objectives.

Mar 5, 2026 - World

A Democratic Party representative who served in the Iraq war has issued a statement denouncing the rhetoric around the ongoing strikes on Iran. Donald Trump approved a bombing campaign against Iran earlier this week, with veterans now serving in government airing their concerns. New York Democrat Rep. Pat Ryan, a veteran who twice served in Iraq, issued a statement to CNN expressing his concern over the current Iran situation. He said, "If I hear one more chicken hawk who’s never served a single day in uniform sitting in a gold-plated office in DC or Mar-a-Lago or anywhere else, try to talk tough having never seen what war is about, I’m going to lose my mind."Fellow representatives backed Ryan's comments, with Rep. Eugene Vindman calling the conflict with Iran an unnecessary use of US resources. He said, "I will not be shedding a tear for the Iranian regime and the Ayatollah. I understand the threat but I also understand that wars are easy to start and hard to finish. "This is a commitment of American blood and treasure to a conflict that we didn’t need to be engaged in." Donald Trump has said the U.S. will stay in the fight for as long as it takes to achieve the country's objectives, although his administration has not yet laid out a compelling case for the operation, according to some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.John Bolton, the president's national security advisor during his first administration, told Joanna Coles on a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" on Wednesday that he is concerned that Trump hasn't thought through the implications of the strikes. He added that the president's lack of a decision-making process "magnifies the risk" that something could go wrong.“As long as things are going successfully, he’ll stick with it," Bolton said. "If we run into real difficulty, and I hope we don’t, and we shouldn’t at this point, but if we do, because anything is possible, that would be the testing time to see whether he was able to stick it out."

Mar 5, 2026 - World

Pacific island says the US weakened its proposal to advance a key climate ruling but vows to hold major polluters accountableThe Trump administration’s attempt to sink a UN resolution demanding countries act on the climate crisis has caused cuts to the proposal but hasn’t entirely killed it, according to the tiny Pacific island country spearheading the effort.The US has demanded that Vanuatu, an archipelago in the south Pacific, drop its UN draft resolution that calls on the world to implement a landmark international court of justice (ICJ) ruling from last year that countries could face paying reparations if they fail to stem the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Mar 5, 2026 - World

Reports of attack on US registered tanker in Gulf lifts crude by 3% to $84 a barrel as gas price also starts to climbBusiness live – latest updatesMiddle East crisis – live updatesStock markets have rebounded in Asia after days of heavy losses driven by the war in the Middle East, but oil and gas prices have continued to climb amid disruption to supplies.South Korea’s KOSPI, which posted its biggest ever fall on Tuesday of 12%, rose by almost 10% on Thursday, while Japan’s Nikkei climbed by 1.9%. MSCI’s Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan jumped by 2.7%. Continue reading...