Top Republicans express concern over withdrawal of US troops from Germany – as it happened

It has been another unsettling day in the wider military and diplomatic environs of the US-Israel war on Iran. This live blog is closing now and the latest news is here.

Here’s where things stand:

• Two top US Republican lawmakers expressed strong concerns on Saturday about the Pentagon’s decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from Nato ally Germany. “We are very concerned by the decision to withdraw a US brigade from Germany,” senator Roger Wicker and representative Mike Rogers said in a joint statement.

• Lebanon’s death toll two months into Israeli attacks on its neighbour has reached 2,659, the Lebanese public health ministry said. They were the latest casualty figures since Israel renewed its attacks on Lebanon on 2 March, with a further 8,183 wounded.In the past 24-hour reporting period, 41 people had been killed and 11 others wounded in Israeli raids.

• Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, condemned the “illegal detention” and “kidnapping” of a Spanish activist who was arrested by Israel when a flotilla of boats attempting to take aid to stricken Gaza was stopped in international waters. Albares has called for the immediate release of Saif Abu Keshek, who is under Israeli detention along with Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila.

• The two activists have been taken to Israel for questioning, the Israeli foreign ministry said. Ávila from Brazil and Abu Keshek “will be transferred for questioning by law enforcement authorities”, the ministry said on X.

• Nato spokesperson Allison Hart said the alliance was working with the US to understand its decision to pull 5,000 American troops from Germany. Echoing earlier remarks by the German defence minister, Hart said the move “underscores the need for Europe to continue to invest more in defence and take on a greater share of the responsibility” for the region’s security.

Senator Roger Wicker and House member Mike Rogers’ joint statement was also implicitly critical of Donald Trump’s habit of taking unilateral action.

“Any significant change to the US force posture in Europe warrants a deliberate review process and close cooperation with Congress and our allies,” they said in their statement that stands as a rare public pushback against the US president from within his own party.

The Republican chairs of the armed services committees in their respective chambers of Congress said: “We expect the Department [the Pentagon] to engage with its oversight committees in the days and weeks ahead on this decision and its implications for US deterrence and transatlantic security.”

This almost plaintive and surely long-shot plea for the president to listen to anything from Congress he doesn’t agree with came as new analysis showed the Trump administration is increasingly ignoring court decisions it doesn’t like, too, as the executive branch continues to exert the most power of the three branches of government created by the US constitution.

The senior Republican lawmakers, US senator Roger Wicker and representative Mike Rogers, also rushed to defend Germany in their startling joint statement decrying the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw about 5,000 troops from Germany, following up on huffy threats.

“Germany has stepped up in response to President Trump’s call for great burden sharing, significantly increasing defense spending and providing seamless access, basing and overflight for US forces in support of Operation Epic Fury,” the two said, using the administration’s label for its offensive military attacks when it started the US-Israel war on Iran.

Their statement, posted on X, added: “Rather than withdrawing forces from the [European] continent altogether, it is in America’s interest to maintain a strong deterrent in Europe by moving these 5,000 US forces to the east.

“Allies there have made substantial investments in to host US troops, reducing costs for the US taxpayer while strengthening NATO’s front line to help deter a far more costly conflict from ever beginning.”

Iraq can restore oil output and exports to normal levels within seven days of the end of the crisis over the strait of Hormuz, deputy oil minister Basim Mohammed said on Saturday.

He said production currently stood at 1.5m barrels per day, with about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) exported via Ceyhan in Turkey, while two tankers had been prepared and two more were expected depending on security conditions in the strait, which Tehran has largely closed during the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Two top US Republican lawmakers expressed concern on Saturday about the Pentagon’s decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from Nato ally Germany.

“We are very concerned by the decision to withdraw a US brigade from Germany,” senator Roger Wicker and representative Mike Rogers said in a joint statement.

Wicker, of Mississippi, and Rogers, of Alabama, chair the Senate and House armed services committees, respectively. Their statement comes a day after the Pentagon announced the withdrawal and said the move was expected to be completed over the next six to 12 months.

Donald Trump threatened the withdrawal earlier this week after German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that the Iranians were “humiliating” the United States in talks to end the war and that he couldn’t see Washington’s exit strategy.

Responding to Trump’s withdrawal announcement, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said: “It was foreseeable that the US would withdraw troops from Europe, including Germany.”

Nato spokesperson Allison Hart said on Saturday that the alliance was “working with the US to understand the details of their decision on force posture in Germany”.

For their part, Wicker and Rogers said that any significant change to the US military’s presence in Europe must be reviewed and coordinated with Congress and US allies.

“We expect the Department to engage with its oversight committees in the days and weeks ahead on this decision and its implications for US deterrence and transatlantic security,” they said.

Even if Nato allies raise defence spending to 5% of GDP, building the capabilities to take over conventional deterrence will take time, and prematurely cutting US forces in Europe “risks undermining deterrence and sending the wrong signal to [Russian president] Vladimir Putin”, they added.

Lebanon’s public health ministry has published the latest casualty figures since Israel renewed its attacks on Lebanon on 2 March.

Israeli attacks have killed 2,659 people and wounded 8,183 across Lebanon, the ministry said.

It added that in the past 24-hour reporting period, 41 people had been killed and 11 others wounded in Israeli raids.

The Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, condemned the “illegal detention” and “kidnapping” of a Spanish activist who was arrested by Israel when a Gaza aid flotilla was stopped in international waters.

Albares has called for the immediate release of Saif Abu Keshek, who is under Israeli detention along with Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila.

The Israeli foreign ministry said earlier today that both men had been brought to Israel for questioning. They were detained along with more than 170 others from the flotilla when its vessels were intercepted off the coast of Crete on Wednesday. The other activists have since been released.

Speaking to Spanish RAC 1 radio, Albares said Keshek’s arrest was an “illegal detention outside the jurisdiction of Israel” and demanded that he be released “immediately”.

“Of course it is a kidnapping,” he added.

The polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, has denounced the “ongoing disintegration” of Nato amid a rift within the alliance over the US-Israeli war against Iran.

“The greatest threat to the transatlantic community are not its external enemies, but the ongoing disintegration of our alliance. We must all do what it takes to reverse this disastrous trend,” Tusk wrote on X.

His remarks came hours after the US announced its decision to withdraw approximately 5,000 troops from Germany, following a spat between US president Donald Trump and German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday that Iran was “humiliating” Washington.

Trump also voiced his anger at Italy and Spain over their refusal to allow US military planes to use their bases, saying he “probably will” pull American forces out of these countries.

“Italy has not been of any help to us, and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.

Spirit Airlines ceases operations and US transportation secretary announces measures to help passengers

The US secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, has announced a series of measures to help Spirit Airlines passengers following the low-cost airline’s collapse early on Saturday after running out of cash and the failure of rescue talks with the Trump administration.

Spirit once operated hundreds of daily flights on its bright yellow planes and employed about 17,000 people, but early on Saturday it announced that after 34 years in business it had “with great disappointment … started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately”.

The company had struggled to make a deal with its creditors and secure funding to maintain operations after shuttling in and out of bankruptcy twice in recent years. But the sharp rise in jet fuel prices since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran effectively sealed the fate of the airline.

Read the full report here:

The official Lebanese National News Agency has reported three more deaths from Israeli airstrikes in the southern Nabatieh district.

This brings today’s death toll in southern Lebanon to at least 10.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it launched drone attacks against “a gathering of Israeli enemy army soldiers” in the town of Bayada in southern Lebanon, according to a statement on its Telegram channel. The group said it carried out the strikes “in response to the Israeli enemy’s violation of the ceasefire and the attacks that targeted villages in southern Lebanon”.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued its own statement on the Hezbollah attacks, saying: “Shortly ago, the air force successfully intercepted a rocket launched toward IDF forces operating in southern Lebanon.

“In several additional incidents today, the terrorist organisation Hezbollah launched rockets and explosive drones that fell near the area where IDF forces are operating in southern Lebanon, with no casualties.”