USA - The Washington Hilton is ‘hated’ by experts, and was one of the biggest security weaknesses the Secret Service faced on Saturday. One of the biggest weaknesses was the choice of venue, security experts told The Times. The White House correspondents’ dinner is held each year at the Washington Hilton, a mile-and-a-half from the White House. Privately owned hotels are occasionally used for functions by presidents in office, but they often also function as “public accommodations” meaning they remain open to other guests staying in the building ahead of time. The Hilton boasts one of the largest ballrooms in Washington, but is a functioning hotel that is difficult to secure. Guests, including the gunman, had already checked in in the days before and were not subject to security checks.

UK - Shoppers have been urged to brace for soaring food prices, as supermarkets warned the “full force” of the war in Iran would hit shelves imminently. Its warning came as separate figures from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) revealed that retailers were already under significant pressure, making it unlikely they could absorb cost increases. Fears that Britain is facing a fresh inflation crisis will create a dilemma for the Bank of England’s rate-setters, who meet on Thursday to decide whether to hold or increase borrowing costs.

AFRICA - Mali is experiencing a major escalation in violence, with jihadist groups advancing and the defense minister assassinated. The crisis threatens to destabilize the Sahel region. Mali has seen an unprecedented advance by armed groups in recent days, and among the groups involved are Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), considered a jihadist organization, and the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), seen as a group seeking an independent region or state for the Tuareg people. The context here is important. Mali is a large country that spans the Sahel region, connecting sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. It is the eighth-largest country in Africa. It borders Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Liberia, and Burkina Faso, among other states. As such, what happens in Mali tends to spill over into other areas that span the Sahel. This means that the current advances by various groups could lead to more destabilization in Africa.

GERMANY - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday Iran's leadership was humiliating the United States and getting US officials to travel to Pakistan and then leave without results, in an unusually abrupt rebuke over the conflict. Merz also said he did not see what exit strategy the US was pursuing in the Iran war - comments that underlined deep divisions between Washington and its European NATO allies, which had already been festering over Ukraine and other issues. "The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result," he said during a talk to students in the town of Marsberg. "An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards. And so I hope that this ends as quickly as possible," he added at the venue in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. He said the conflict was costing Germany "a lot of money, a lot of taxpayers' money and a lot of economic strength."

USA - Spending on defence is surging in Europe while it falls in the United States, suggesting the Trump effect driving European engagement with NATO remains alive and well. Analysis of global military spending found that in 2025, $2.8 trillion or 2.5 per cent of worldwide Gross Domestic Product was directed towards militaries. Spending rose by 2.9 per cent and has increased every year for 11 consecutive years, leaving defence budgets worldwide 41 per cent higher today than in 2015, so found the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in their annual report. And there is clear evidence for what has previously been called this ‘Trump Effect’, with defence spending rising faster in Europe than any other part of the world, growing at an astonishing 14 per cent this year. European countries spent $864 billion on their militaries in 2025, with almost a third of expenditure on investments in new equipment, implying the rise in cost is going towards modernisation and growth.

GERMANY - The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has hit a new popularity record and would win a hypothetical election with 28% of the vote, according to a Bild/INSA poll published on Saturday. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic bloc (CDU/CSU) would receive 24%, falling behind the right-wing party by one percentage point compared with earlier polls, according to the survey. The ruling coalition partner Social Democrats (SPD) maintained a 14% approval rating. Last week, Merz was rated Europe’s most unpopular leader, with a 76% disapproval rating, according to the US-based opinion research institute Morning Consult.

USA - Hours before a two-week ceasefire with Iran was set to end this week, President Trump announced its extension, claiming a power struggle in Tehran was impeding its ability to negotiate. Pakistan had requested the extension, he claimed on Truth Social, “based on the fact that the government of Iran is seriously fractured”. An anonymous American official put it more bluntly to an Israeli journalist for Axios. Trump was giving the Iranians a few more days “to get their act together”, the official said. And yet a few days later, Tehran has not budged, insisting there is nothing to talk about until the US stops blockading its ports. On Thursday, Trump doubled down on the notion of his own generosity towards a conflicted Tehran. “They are very disorganised right now,” he told reporters at the White House. “We thought we’d give them a little chance to get some of their turmoil resolved.”

UK - The stock market is too high and will fall soon. This is what the Bank of England’s deputy governor, Sarah Breeden, warned today. Despite the turmoil caused by the Iran war, global stock markets have hit fresh highs and shrugged off fears about the economic fallout of the war. The S&P 500 index of big American companies is up 4.15 per cent in 2026, the UK’s FTSE 100 is up 4.3 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 is up 15.2 per cent. Breeden is not alone in warning of a potential stock market fall amid growing concerns about risks ranging from war to the AI bubble bursting and a private credit crunch. She said today: “The thing that really keeps me awake at night is the likelihood of a number of risks crystallising at the same time. What happens in that environment and are we prepared for it?”

UNITED NATIONS - Global food security is at its most perilous point in years as the conflict in Iran threatens to trigger a new food shock, the United Nations warned on Friday. Around 266 million people faced “acute food insecurity” in 2025, only a marginal improvement on the previous year, according to the UN’s latest annual Global Report on Food Crises.

USA - Sometimes the long-term economic consequences of major geopolitical events are easier to foresee than their more immediate ones. A case in point is the Iran war; it’s anyone’s guess how this is going to pan out over the weeks and months ahead. The deadline for some kind of negotiated settlement has been deferred again, and the ceasefire extended, apparently indefinitely. Stock markets assume the war is already essentially over, with a Pakistan-brokered peace deal only a matter of time. But nobody really knows, and for the moment, Donald Trump continues to strengthen his military presence in the region in a manner that would suggest imminent, renewed conflict. Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, cutting off vital global supplies of oil, gas, fertiliser, jet fuel and much else besides. The longer this continues, the more damage it does to the world economy and the greater the chances of a nasty correction in stock markets.