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Good morning and welcome to Monday – I’m Mared Gwyn.
Criticism has poured in from all corners of the world after Israeli police stopped the heads of the Catholic Church in Jerusalem from entering the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday, preventing them from privately celebrating mass in what the Latin Patriarchate has said is a first in “centuries”. We have more in our top story below.
But first, G7 crisis talks: G7 energy and finance ministers as well as central bank governors will hold urgent online talks later today amid fears that the economic fallout of the war in Iran is about to hit a tipping point – with another release of strategic oil reserves under consideration.
The US’s European and Asian allies are most vulnerable to the looming economic shock, putting added stress on the fraught Group of Seven. Tensions brimmed to the surface when G7 foreign ministers met in France last week, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashing with the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas when she asked when US “patience” with the Kremlin would run out, according to an Axios scoop.
European markets opened lower on Monday, with futures pointing to declines across major indices.
With oil and gas prices already spiralling, there is now fear that a protracted conflict could upend global supply chains as key commodities including fertilisers are trapped in the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway which has been effectively closed since the conflict broke out a month ago.
Signs of inflationary pressure and soaring borrowing costs are now making the looming crisis hard to ignore for the G7, which is yet to jointly introduce radical measures to cushion the impact on their economies beyond the release of strategic oil reserves. Several developing countries are already rationing fuel and subsidising energy costs.
My colleague Marta Pacheco reports that EU energy ministers are mulling a cap on oil prices or taxing the windfall profits of energy companies to rein in prices ahead of a virtual meeting tomorrow, Tuesday. Officials in Brussels acknowledge that while the crisis is not yet as acute as that of 2022 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there is more limited “financial manoeuvring room” this time. Marta has the details.
Marta also reports that agriculture ministers gather in Brussels today, with France leading calls for swift action to tackle insecurity in Europe’s fertiliser market by easing measures tied to the EU’s carbon border rules. Fertilisers are essential to food production and EU farmers are already hit by soaring prices since the EU banned these chemicals from Belarus and Russia in July 2025.
Paris wants the bloc to temporarily suspend the bloc’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism – a pricing tool based on carbon emissions with which importers need to comply – on fertilisers and ammonia with retroactive effect from 1 January 2026.
An EU official told Marta that, should a suspension not get adequate political support, Paris could table a workaround which would involve compensating farmers using existing EU budget resources to cushion the impact of higher fertiliser costs.
France is also pressing the European Commission to accelerate work on a long-promised “European Fertilizer Sovereignty Plan” – a sign that concerns extend beyond short-term relief to the bloc’s long-term strategic autonomy.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East: The situation remains on a knife edge, with no warring party represented in talks on de-escalation between the top diplomats of Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in Islamabad on Sunday.
Discussions explored ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz including introducing toll-like systems similar to the Suez Canal, Reuters reported, while broader diplomacy aims at a ceasefire and stabilising oil flows disrupted by the conflict. The mediators also contemplated the 15-point plan President Trump has passed on to Iran through Islamabad.
Yet, Trump has told the Financial Times in an interview that his preference is to “take the oil in Iran” by seizing the Iranian export hub of Kharg Island, all the while insisting that he is “pretty sure” that Iran will strike a deal.
The Washington Post meanwhile reports this morning that the Pentagon is preparing for a possible ground invasion into Iran. The Iranian parliament speaker accused the US yesterday of plotting a ground invasion in secret while publicly signalling appetite for talks, warning Tehran is waiting to “rain fire” on any American soldiers who enter its territory.
Outrage after Israeli police block Latin Patriarch from Palm Sunday mass
World leaders have voiced deep concern after Israeli police prevented the head of the Catholic Church in Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Palm Sunday mass, with the Vatican and Italy convening their Israeli ambassadors in response.
Both Cardinal Pizzaballa and the Custos of the Holy Land Father Francesco Ielpo were turned away by authorities in an incident the Latin Patriarchate has said “disregards the sensibilities of billions of people around the world”. It said the two were stopped while proceeding privately without any characteristics of a procession or ceremonial act, and had to turn back.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has led criticism, describing the Israeli police’s actions as an “offence to the faithful” and to “every community that recognises religious freedom”. French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the incident and said it fits in a pattern of a “worrying increase in violations of the status of the Holy Places in Jerusalem”.
Israel has claimed the priests were stopped due to “security concerns” amid the ongoing war with Iran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said overnight that Cardinal Pizzaballa had been asked to “refrain from holding mass” out of “special concern for his safety”, but that Israel has since ensured he is “granted full and immediate access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.”
Yet a spokesperson for the Latin Patriarchate has said that private masses have been taking place at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre since the start of the war, and that it remains unclear why the access of the two priests to Sunday’s Mass was any different.
Aadel Haleem and Orestes Georgiou Daniel have more.
Israel says it will crack down on settler violence in the West Bank, expands Lebanon incursion
A document seen exclusively by Euronews’ Sophie Claudet shows instructions by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Israeli army and police to crack down on settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The instructions, shared in a non-public document titled “Prime Minister’s Directive on Combating Nationalist Crimes in Judea and Samaria,” are an exceedingly unusual move for the Netanyahu administration. Judea and Samaria are the biblical names of the area known today as the West Bank.
The army had announced last week it was diverting troops away from its ongoing offensive in Lebanon to the West Bank in order to rein in Jewish settler violence, in what would be the first time Israel pulls out forces from an active war front to dispatch them to a territory deemed far less dangerous or critical.
Yet since, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to “further expand the existing security buffer zone” in southern Lebanon, as its war against Hezbollah intensifies. Almost a fifth of Lebanon’s population has now been
displaced as a result of the conflict.
Read the full story.
More from our newsrooms
EU calls for Black Sea grain model to unblock Strait of Hormuz. The EU’s special envoy to the Gulf, Luigi di Maio, told Euronews in an interview in Doha on Friday that the EU wants to replicate the Black Sea deal agreed in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to unblock global supplies of grain in the Strait of Hormuz. Aadel Haleem has thefull story.
Two unidentified drones crash in southeastern Finland in ‘suspected territorial violation’. Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo says they are likely Ukrainian drones that went astray due to Russian jamming of signals as Kyiv carries out drone attacks on Russian territories along the border with Finland. Malek Fouda hasthe story.
Huge crowds protest against Trump in ‘No Kings’ rallies in the US and abroad. Millions of people took to the streets across the US – and to a lesser extent worldwide – on Saturday to protest against what they see as Trump’s authoritarian style of governance, hardline immigration policies, climate change denial and the war with Iran. Lucy Davolou has the details.
We’re also keeping an eye on
- EU agriculture and fisheries ministers gather in Brussels
- Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Germany for talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz
That’s it for today. Marta Pacheco contributed to this newsletter. Remember to sign up to receive Europe Today in your inbox every weekday morning at 08.30.
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