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Global Strain: Europe Stands Up to Donald Trump Threats Over Iran War Support (Bloomberg)
Europe is learning how to say “no” to Donald Trump over his war in Iran.
Nearly three weeks into the expanding conflict, European leaders have stopped equivocating and started outright telling the US president they won’t help his campaign with Israel.
“We will not participate in this war,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday night. “We will not do it.” “The simple answer is no,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis echoed at a Bloomberg event in Athens on Tuesday. “Norway will not do that,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store agreed in Oslo.
It’s a notable trajectory since the start of the war, when European leaders evaded questions about international law and heaped scorn on the Iranian regime. Merz even initially said he was “on the same page” as Trump. Now the denunciations are targeting Trump himself.
The sharpening rhetoric is a high-stakes gamble for Europe. While leaders are on firm political ground at home — many Europeans loathe Trump and oppose the war — the president has long grumbled about the US security guarantees shielding Europe and threatened “very bad” consequences for NATO if he doesn’t get his way.
Middle East Latest:
Iran Launches Missile, Drone Attacks in Revenge for Larijani Killing (Bloomberg)
Iranian attacks on Israel and Arab states in the Persian Gulf continued overnight as Tehran vowed revenge for the killing of its security chief, Ali Larijani. It launched fresh waves of missiles and
drones, targeting the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as strikes on Tel Aviv that left two people dead.
Price Spike: US Diesel Tops $5 a Gallon as War Disrupts Supply Chains (Bloomberg)
Farm Belt Crunch: Iran War Cost Spike Straining Farmers Ahead of Midterm Elections (Bloomberg)
US farmers, long one of Donald Trump’s most loyal constituencies, are increasingly worried by the Iran war as soaring fertilizer and fuel prices hammer them just as they are about to start planting crops for the year.
War Fallout: Joe Kent, a Top US Counterterrorism Official, Resigns Over the Iran War (New York Times)
Annexation Agenda: Donald Trump Says He Will Have the ‘Honor’ of ‘Taking Cuba in Some Form’ (Financial Times)
Donald Trump said he believed he would have the “honor” of “taking Cuba, in some form”, as a US oil blockade has tipped the island nation into a deep economic crisis.
“Whether
I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want
with it, if you want to know the truth. They are a very weakened nation right now,” the US president told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
Today at the Fed: Fog of War Clouds Federal Reserve's Global Rate Cut Outlook (Politico)
We’ll likely hear a somewhat more downbeat assessment of the US economy from Fed Chair Jerome Powell this afternoon, when he holds his usual 2:30 p.m. news conference following the Fed’s latest interest rates meeting, Politico Playbook reports.
Pressure
on the Hill: Pam Bondi Ordered by House Committee to Testify on Her Epstein Probe (Bloomberg)
IL Statehouse Win: Illinois Lieutenant Governor Stratton Wins Senate Primary in Boost for Gov. JB Pritzker (Bloomberg)
99.93% Votes, Zero Suspense: Leader Kim Jong Un Sweeps North Korea Polls (The Statesman)
A squeaker! North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has secured an overwhelming victory in the country’s latest parliamentary elections, with state-backed candidates winning virtually every vote and seat, according to reports cited by Yonhap News Agency.
The polls, held on March 15, saw an official turnout of 99.99 percent, with the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and its allies claiming 99.93 percent of the vote in elections to the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly.
There was no word on the whereabouts of the .07 percent of North Koreans who voted against Rocket Man’s slate.
Footage Analysis: How the Trump Administration Is Selling the Iran War on TikTok (Wall Street Journal)
The Wall Street Journal reviewed more than 100 video posts shared on the White House’s TikTok and X accounts since the war started. The vast majority are about Iran and mix war footage with video games, cartoons, action movies and slick cinematic editing.
The Trump administration’s “memeification [and] gamification of war” in these videos is an escalation of historically more “restrained, regretful and resolute” White House war messaging, said Nicholas Cull, a communications professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
A White House official told the Journal that people who criticize the videos for being insensitive or for gamifying war are rooting against America’s mission, adding that “no idea is too stupid” for the TikTok team, which comprises about 15 people in their 20s and 30s.
Watch the video analysis here.
America First? US Says Anthropic Is an ‘Unacceptable’ National Security Risk (New York Times)
The US government said on Tuesday that it had deemed the artificial intelligence company Anthropic an “unacceptable risk” to national security because the start-up could disable or alter its technology to suit its own interests, rather than the country’s priorities, in a time of war.
In a 40-page filing in US District Court for the Northern District of California, lawyers for the government said they questioned whether Anthropic was a “trusted partner,” especially given that A.I. systems “are acutely vulnerable to manipulation.”
AI Assist: Artificial Intelligence Hacks for Creating Your March Madness Bracket (Axios)
Most people making March Madness brackets will be getting help from AI — and 37% will solely rely on it — according to a Hard Rock Bet survey.
AI can be a helpful tool for bracket-building, but only if used thoughtfully. "AI isn't designed to predict random events," Sheldon H. Jacobson, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois, tells Axios. "It's designed to look for patterns."
So avoid relying on AI to tell you who will win each game — the robot's guess is as good as yours. Instead, Jacobson recommends prompting AI to analyze multiple simulated brackets and track patterns.
Whether or not you're working with AI to build your bracket, start with the Final Four or Elite Eight — instead of the full 68 — and work your way out, says Jacobson. That helps you have a "more reasonable" bracket that avoids adding "far too many upsets in the early rounds," he says.
The deadline to submit your bracket for the men's tournament is tomorrow at 12 PM ET, while the women's is due by Friday at 11 AM ET. Submit through the NCAA here or on the Bloomberg terminal with the function BRKT <GO>.
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