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Tiene que defender su postura hoy.

Tiene que defender su postura hoy.
She has to defend her stance today.
From Lesson 327:Sharing Points of View·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Tiene que defender su postura hoy.

Why does this use tiene que instead of debe to say she has to?
Both tener que and deber express obligation, but tener que is much more common in everyday spoken Spanish for things you simply have to do. Deber often sounds a bit more like a moral obligation or strong advice, similar to must or ought to.
Does postura mean physical posture, like how you sit or stand?
It can! But just like in English, it is also used figuratively to mean someone's stance, attitude, or position on a specific issue or debate. In this context, she is defending her argument or opinion.
How do we know this means She has to defend her stance and not he or you?
Without outside context, we actually do not! The verb tiene can mean he has, she has, or you (formal) have. Similarly, the possessive su can mean his, her, your, or their. The translation assumes she/her based on a wider conversation, but He has to defend his stance is an equally valid translation of this exact sentence.
Since defender is a stem-changing verb, why doesn't it change to defiende here?
Because it directly follows the phrase tiene que. In Spanish, when you use a conjugated verb (like tiene) with another verb to express a single idea, the second verb always stays in its infinitive (unchanged) form. If you were just saying she defends, it would be ella defiende.

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