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Here’s a rundown of all the news you need to start your Friday, including NATO announcing that its ballistic missile defense posture will remain at a heightened level due to threats from Iran, Russia reporting a prisoner swap with Ukraine involving 200 servicemen from each side with another exchange planned, and US President Donald Trump saying he expects to have a personal say in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader while dismissing Mojtaba Khamenei as an unacceptable successor.
TOP STORIES
NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) announced that its ballistic missile defense posture will remain at a "heightened level" until Iran's retaliatory attacks across the region subside.
"I can confirm that yesterday, in addition to NATO's successful intercept of a ballistic missile from Iran that targeted Türkiye, which that nation was the first to announce, NATO increased its Alliance-wide ballistic missile defense posture," Martin L. O'Donnell, the spokesperson for SHAPE, said in a statement.
O'Donnell noted that the action was taken by the commander of NATO's Air Command, "who further recommended that NATO's ballistic missile defense posture remain at this heightened level until the threat from Iran's continued indiscriminate attacks across the region subsides."
Russia said it conducted a prisoner swap with Ukraine involving 200 servicemen from each side.
“200 Russian servicemen have been returned from territory controlled by the Kyiv regime. In exchange, 200 Ukrainian Armed Forces prisoners of war have been handed over,” the country’s Defense Ministry said, according to state media outlets including the newswire RIA Novosti.
According to a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry, the exchange was made possible “thanks to the humanitarian mediation of the United Arab Emirates and the United States.”
“All Russian servicemen who returned home are receiving the necessary medical and psychological assistance,” the statement said.
It added that a second exchange of 300 for 300 is scheduled for Friday.
US President Donald Trump said he expects to have a personal say in choosing Iran’s next leader, comparing it to his role in selecting Venezuela’s post-Maduro leadership.
"I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy (Rodriguez) in Venezuela," Trump told Axios, dismissing Mojtaba Khamenei — the son of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a reported frontrunner to succeed him — as "a lightweight."
Trump made clear that he would not accept a successor who continued the late supreme leader's policies, warning that this would drag the US back to war "in five years."
"We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran," he said in a phone interview.
NEWS IN BRIEF
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
Commercial shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell 90% amid escalating conflicts in the Middle East, forcing global maritime trade to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope, located at the southern tip of the Cape Peninsula, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Cape Town in South Africa.
After Tehran's closure of the critical energy and oil waterway in response to joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Center raised the security risk in the transport corridor to critical, prompting insurers to immediately cancel war coverage policies for vessels in the region.
Only four ships transited through the strait on March 3, marking a 90% drop versus the previous seven-day average, according to real-time tracking data from Windward.
The strait historically handled an average of 138 vessels per day.
Fitch Ratings said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is likely to be temporary and its impact on global oil prices will remain limited.
The rating agency stated that the global oil market oversupply serves as a buffer against geopolitical risks, capping potential price spikes despite the strategic waterway's effective closure.
Existing global oil market oversupply creates a buffer that would limit the geopolitical risk premium typically associated with supply disruption concerns, according to the report.
Fitch predicts the ongoing conflict in the region will last less than a month, assuming that disruptions to shipping and energy infrastructure will be brief.
New York Attorney General Letitia James and attorneys general from 23 other US states filed a lawsuit seeking to block President Donald Trump’s latest global tariff policy.
The lawsuit came days after the Supreme Court invalidated a previous round of duties introduced by the administration.
The suit asked the US Court of International Trade to declare the new tariffs unlawful and to order refunds for states and businesses that have already paid the penalties.
The legal challenge followed a landmark Supreme Court ruling last month that struck down most of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs introduced last year. The court found that the administration improperly relied on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify imposing the duties.
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