Trump is wielding imperial powers created by a decades-long master plan. The only way to stop his war is to cut off the money

Donald Trump has now ordered military attacks on more countries than any prior president. These assaults do not merely betray his campaign promises. Launched without congressional authorization, Trump’s bombings and incursions also betray the constitution – an inherently anti-monarch document that exclusively vests warmaking powers in the legislative branch in order to prevent such grave decisions from being made by any one person determined to become a king.

Trump clearly perceives himself in such royal terms – he’s said as much. But as we show in the new season of our investigative podcast series Master Plan: The Kingmakers, Trump did not create the kingly authority he is now employing. He is exercising powers concentrated in the executive branch by previous presidents and courts. And if history is any guide, the only weapon that can stop a mad king is Congress’s power of the purse – a power that Democrats once effectively wielded, but today seem hesitant to brandish, even amid a wildly unpopular Iran incursion that some fear is a precursor to the second world war.

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Remember the iPod? How about the Pippin? In the half-century since it launched its first PC, Apple has given us some amazing innovations. We round up its biggest triumphs and flops

Fifty years after Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded the company in Jobs’ parents’ garage in Los Altos, California, Apple has become a behemoth, and billions of us use its products every day. From the first successful home computers with colour screens, to the iPod, to the smartphone that set the template for the modern mobile era, the company has repeatedly reset consumer expectations.

As a result, the firm occupies a central position in the tech world, initiating trends and popularising products. Here are five of its most influential products from the past half-century – alongside some unusually big misses.

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José Antonio Kast, who voted against legalising divorce in 2004, has pushed for return to total abortion ban

Women’s rights activists in Chile are bracing as the most conservative president since the Pinochet dictatorship prepares to take office on Wednesday.

José Antonio Kast, a 60-year-old ultra Catholic whose father was a member of the Nazi party, has consistently blocked progressive bids for women’s rights and equality across his three-decade career in politics.

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Election will be a test of Trump’s sway and may provide a rare opportunity for Democrats in the southern state

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A special election for the successor to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s congressional district in Georgia on Tuesday will be a test of Donald Trump’s sway, and may provide a rare opportunity for Democrats in a deep-red pocket of the southern state.

Republican former prosecutor Clay Fuller is likely to come out of Tuesday’s jungle primary, in which the top two candidates go to a runoff regardless of party, alongside retired army general Shawn Harris, a Democrat. The two would face a run-off election on 7 April.

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‘Resistance is futile’, wrote one AI product manager for the Associated Press in internal messages to colleagues

No one wants a soulless sermon – that defeats the purpose – and Pope Leo XIV has taken steps to ensure that Roman Catholic priests don’t deliver one.

Artificial intelligence, the new pontiff said in a recent meeting with clergy, “will never be able to share faith”, which is what giving a homily is all about. Resist the temptation and write your own words, he urged.

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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Markets are pricing in a chance that the Bank of England could cut interest rates this year, but a cut next week looks unlikely, says Kathleen Brooks, of the broker XTB.

There is currently 0.4 rate cuts priced in for this year, and UK rates are expected to end the year at 3.65%, down from the current level of 3.75%. There is a 7.2% chance of a rate cut priced in for the BOE’s meeting next week.

While we doubt that a rate cut is on the cards, the Bank of England will need to use next week’s meeting to signal their future intentions. Will they look through the crisis in the Middle East as a temporary spike in commodity prices and focus on the weakening economy? Or will the situation have died down enough for them to signal that further rate cuts are coming, albeit with a small delay? Either way, next week’s meeting is still important for sterling and UK bond markets.

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Twee medewerkers van de jeugdinstelling iHub in Alphen aan den Rijn blijven langer vastzitten op verdenking van verkrachting van twee tienermeisjes. De twee komen uit Maassluis en Rotterdam. De meisjes werden in de jeugdinstelling opgevangen omdat ze slachtoffer waren van loverboys.

Twee medewerkers van de jeugdinstelling iHub in Alphen aan den Rijn blijven langer vastzitten op verdenking van verkrachting van twee tienermeisjes. De twee komen uit Maassluis en Rotterdam. De meisjes werden in de jeugdinstelling opgevangen omdat ze slachtoffer waren van loverboys.

BAKOE (ANP/AFP) - Azerbeidzjan heeft na een periode van oplopende spanningen hulp aangeboden aan Iran. Er gaan tonnen voedsel en medicijnen naar het buurland, heeft het ministerie van Noodsituaties aangekondigd. Dat besluit volgt op een telefoongesprek tussen de presidenten van de landen.

Vorige week betichtte de regering van Azerbeidzjan Iran van terrorisme. Drones hadden in de exclave Nachitsjevan een vliegveld getroffen en waren ontploft nabij een school. Vier mensen raakten gewond. De regering in Bakoe trok diplomaten terug uit Iran en president Ilham Alijev gaf de krijgsmacht opdracht om vergeldingsaanvallen voor te bereiden. Iran ontkende betrokkenheid en zei dat Israël erachter zat. Israël is een bondgenoot van Azerbeidzjan.

Zondag belde Alijev met de Iraanse president Masoud Pezeshkian, meldde zijn kantoor. Ze spraken af dat het voorval onderzocht zou worden. Ook waren ze het met elkaar eens dat geprobeerd moest worden om te voorkomen dat de banden slechter zouden worden.

Countries around the world are becoming increasingly concerned about their dependencies on the US. If you’ve purchase US-made F-35 fighter jets, you are dependent on the US for software maintenance.

The Dutch Defense Secretary recently said that he could jailbreak the planes to accept third-party software.