Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the United States threatening to leave NATO, how global markets are reacting to the energy crisis, and a joint Japan-France effort to bolster critical mineral cooperation.

A ‘Paper Tiger’ Alliance?

U.S. President Donald Trump is considering trying to pull the United States out of NATO over its members’ unwillingness to join the Iran war. “I was never swayed by NATO,” Trump told the Telegraph on Wednesday. He called the alliance a “paper tiger” for refusing to help U.S. forces reopen the Strait of Hormuz and said that U.S. membership is now “beyond reconsideration.”

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the United States threatening to leave NATO, how global markets are reacting to the energy crisis, and a joint Japan-France effort to bolster critical mineral cooperation.

A ‘Paper Tiger’ Alliance?

U.S. President Donald Trump is considering trying to pull the United States out of NATO over its members’ unwillingness to join the Iran war. “I was never swayed by NATO,” Trump told the Telegraph on Wednesday. He called the alliance a “paper tiger” for refusing to help U.S. forces reopen the Strait of Hormuz and said that U.S. membership is now “beyond reconsideration.”

This is not the first time that Trump has lashed out at U.S. allies over the Iran war. On Tuesday, he warned countries struggling to acquire jet fuel due to the ongoing energy crisis, such as the United Kingdom, that they’ll “have to start learning how to fight for yourself.” He added that “the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had a similar message, declining on Tuesday to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause.

Trump is expected to state that he is considering leaving NATO during a nationwide address on the Iran war at 9 p.m. local time in Washington. However, under U.S. law, the president does not have the unilateral authority to do this. In 2023, Congress approved legislation that prevents any U.S. president from “suspending, terminating, denouncing, or withdrawing” from NATO without an act of Congress or a resolution passed by two-thirds of the Senate. Then-Sen. Marco Rubio (who now serves as Trump’s secretary of state) co-sponsored the bill, which then-President Joe Biden signed into law as a clause in that year’s National Defense Authorization Act.

“NATO serves as an essential........

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