First Thing: Trump steps up pressure on European allies to help protect strait of Hormuz | US news

Good morning.

Donald Trump has increased pressure on European allies to help protect the Strait of Hormuz, warning that NATO faces a “very bad” future if its members fail to come to Washington’s aid.

Tehran’s de facto closure of this vital waterway in retaliation for US and Israeli airstrikes has proven catastrophic for global energy and trade flows, causing the largest oil supply disruption in history and a surge in global oil prices.

The US president’s call for allies to go to war by sending ships into the strait to protect commercial shipping and unlock global oil supplies has been met with a mixed response. Australia, France, Japan and the United Kingdom are among the countries that have said they have no plans to send ships.

• What did Trump say? The US president told the Financial Times in an interview: “It is entirely appropriate that the beneficiaries of the strait help to ensure that nothing bad happens there. If there is no response or if it is a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.”

One Battle After Another wins Oscars as Michael B Jordan and Jessie Buckley win big

Paul Thomas Anderson’s countercultural film One Battle After Another has won the Oscar war, taking home six awards after a hotly contested season.

The big-budget thriller comedy, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, was named Best Picture and also won Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn, Adapted Screenplay, Editing and the first-ever Oscar for casting, a category long claimed within the industry.

“I wrote this movie to make my children apologize for the mess we’ve left in this world we’ve entrusted to them,” Anderson said in his first acceptance speech of the evening. He also said he hoped a younger generation would help bring “common sense and decency” back into society.

• Who else won? Here are all the winners from the 98th Academy Awards.

• Who was remembered this year? This year’s Oscars featured an extensive in memoriam section to honor the sheer number of Hollywood legends who have passed away in the past year. Diane Keaton, Robert Redford and Rob Reiner were remembered in individual speeches, while Claudia Cardinale and Catherine O’Hara also had extended moments. James Van Der Beek and Brigitte Bardot were among the stars who were snubbed during the tribute.

Trump says he has ‘absolute right’ to impose new tariffs after Supreme Court attack

Donald Trump says he has the “absolute right” to impose new tariffs after the US Supreme Court ruled that many of the import duties he imposed last year were illegal.

The president attacked the court on Sunday evening, accusing it of having “needlessly trashed” the United States and of failing to show it sufficient loyalty.

In February, the Supreme Court ruled that a 1977 law designed to address national emergencies did not provide legal justification for many of the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on countries around the world.

• What did Trump say? “Our Supreme Court has made these countries very happy but, as the Court has pointed out, I have the absolute right to charge TARIFFS in another form, and I have already begun to do so,” Trump wrote on social media yesterday. The Supreme Court’s decision does not say that the president has the absolute right to impose tariffs in any other form.

In other news…

• US treasure hunter who was jailed for 10 years after refusing to reveal location of missing gold coins has been released from prisonwithout those responsible apparently ever knowing where this gold is.

• Israeli police killed two young Palestinian brothers and their parents in the occupied West Bankshooting them in the head and face as the family returned from a Ramadan shopping trip.

• Google has discontinued a new artificial intelligence search feature that gave users health advice from enthusiasts around the world. The company had said the launch of “What People Suggest”, which provided advice from strangers, showed “the potential of AI to transform health outcomes across the world”.

Stat of the day: a powerful chain of storms will affect 200 m in height in the United States

AccuWeather called the approaching weather a “triple-threat March megastorm” that will affect nearly 200 million people across the United States and warned that travel disruptions would be likely as components of wind, snow, rain and cold build into a bomb cyclone and be among the most impactful U.S. weather events of the year so far.

Building Power: Meet the Americans Who Withhold Their Federal Income Tax to Protest Trump

“I won’t be paying my federal income taxes this year,” Rachel Cohen said in a recent Instagram video that received more than 140,000 likes. Cohen is part of a new generation of Americans who are refusing to pay some or all of their federal income taxes to protest how their tax dollars are being spent under Trump.

Don’t Miss This: How a ‘Vacuum Turned the Other Way’ Became a Popular Solution to Snoring Disorders

Cpap machines were once only used for the treatment of severe sleep apnea, but sleep doctors say there has been an increase in prescriptions for milder cases. Although sleep medicine has been slowly gaining popularity over the past 30 years, there has been a “rapid” rise, says Peter Cistulli, professor of sleep medicine at the University of Sydney, due in part to wearable consumer technology products that monitor sleep.

…or this: “I saw society burn a woman at the stake”: Melissa Auf der Maur on her partner Courtney Love and the 90s farce

Wary of working with Hole’s “impossible, drug-addled” singer Courtney Love, the bassist quickly found herself fascinated. So why did she jump ship to the Smashing Pumpkins – and begin a relationship with Love’s nemesis, Dave Grohl?

Last thing: “A molten, mushy state” – scientists may have discovered a new type of liquid planet

Astronomers have identified a planet made of molten lava, suggesting the existence of an entirely new category of liquid planet. Astronomers initially thought the planet might be home to a deep ocean of liquid water, but the latest analysis suggests it could be fundamentally different from anything seen before.

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