Iran is aiming for a war of attrition with the world's biggest military superpower and another nuclear-armed state. If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation. The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is now in its fifth day. Following the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Israel has made it clear that it intends to target any official successors. Observers also warn that Israel could soon deploy its “Dahiya doctrine,” a military strategy it first developed in Lebanon that involves carpet-bombing densely populated residential areas. Despite U.S. hopes for a short engagement, however, Iran appears to be settling in for a “war of attrition” against “the biggest military superpower in world history, and the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East,” says scholar Narges Bajoghli. “This could turn into a regional war of a scale that will make the past 25 years of forever wars in the Middle East seem like a walk in the park.” Copy may not be in its final form. Israel has launched another wave of airstrikes against Iran, with loud blasts reported in Tehran this morning. AMIR ZAKHARI: [translated] I am from Tehran. It is unimaginable for the people with children. … There's practically nobody in the city of Tehran. Everybody moves in the countryside, those who have cottages over there. AMY GOODMAN: This comes as President Trump said Tuesday the U.S. Navy could soon begin escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, after a commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to set ablaze any ship that passes through there. Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to the U.S.-Israeli joint attacks, disrupting global energy markets as the strait is a key waterway for oil and gas. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Trump administration had sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, leaving over a hundred people missing. Iranian media reported today's funeral ceremony for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated Saturday, has been postponed. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has reportedly emerged as the front-runner to replace his father as Iran's supreme leader, according to The New York Times. Israel has said whoever is chosen as new supreme leader will become, quote, “an unequivocal target for elimination,” unquote. Israel has already bombed the Assembly of Experts building in Qom, where the decision was expected to be made. For more, we're joined here in New York by Narges Bajoghli. She's an associate professor of anthropology and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, or SAIS. NARGES BAJOGHLI: So, it seems like one of the first strikes that happened on Tehran in — as soon as this war began was a decapacitation strike on the supreme leader, as well as other military and political leaders in the country. It's important to note that the supreme leader did not go into hiding this time like he did in June. And so, in many ways, and because he was killed in his compound, he wanted to be martyred this time around. AMY GOODMAN: He was dying of cancer already. He was already a very elderly gentleman and sick. AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about Mojtaba Khamenei? NARGES BAJOGHLI: Mojtaba Khamenei is his son, and he's long been rumored to be next in line. It is still unclear whether that's actually the case. I know The New York Times is reporting that, but we have to wait and see if he — what we do know is that because the Iranians have been obviously looking at and studying the way that the Israelis and Americans do war across the region, they know that their MO is decapacitation strikes. So, in the lead-up to this war, the leader in Iran had already ordered across the government to create three and four lines of succession for every major post. AMY GOODMAN: I mean, Israel announced that. NARGES BAJOGHLI: And Israel knows that, as well, yep. AMY GOODMAN: — of elimination, I think they put it. NARGES BAJOGHLI: Yeah, and this is what they've done across the region. AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the doctrine that Israel is citing, what they're going to do next. NARGES BAJOGHLI: So, yesterday, there were reports on Israeli media that Bibi Netanyahu, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that he wants to start enacting the Dahiya doctrine in Tehran. And what the Dahiya doctrine is is carpet-bombing residential infrastructure and critical infrastructure of densely populated cities in order to eventually turn the population against their ruling establishments. But what it means is that they want to carpet-bomb really densely populated areas in Tehran. AMY GOODMAN: Let's talk about Iran's strategy. Netanyahu has been saying that Iran is weak. And now the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is trying to walk back comments that Israel was going to attack Iran no matter what, and the U.S. had to engage in this attack on Iran, because, otherwise, the U.S. would be attacked. NARGES BAJOGHLI: So, for over a year now in Washington, you would hear over and over again this Israeli talking point that Iran is very weak, that it's the weakest it's ever been, and that this is the right time to now strike it. And so, eventually we got to a point, as in this weekend, in which those strikes happened. And, you know, we're only in day five of the war now, and I think part of what we're seeing is that the Israelis and the Americans have underestimated Iran's capabilities to strike back hard against the region. However, it has sort of defined and declared and developed its defense doctrine over all of these decades to be asymmetrical warfare against these kinds of forces in the region. Iran is going to continue to fight this and to inflict as much damage, not just on Israel, but, importantly, on the American security architecture in the Gulf region. AMY GOODMAN: At the White House Tuesday, a reporter asked President Trump about the worst-case scenario in Iran. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don't know if there's a worst case. We have them very much beaten militarily, from the military standpoint. At some point they won't even be able to do that, because we're hitting all of their carriers. We're hitting all of their missile stock. You know, they built up all these missiles over the last few years. I guess the worst case would be we do this, and then somebody takes over who's as bad as the previous person, right? We don't want that to happen. So, we'd like to see somebody in there that's going to bring it back for the people. And we'll see what happens with the people. AMY GOODMAN: And the CIA arming Kurds? NARGES BAJOGHLI: Yeah, the CIA, there's reporting — AMY GOODMAN: Where do the Kurds live, right through to Iraq? NARGES BAJOGHLI: Right through to Iraq and also on the border with Turkey. If the CIA does this, and the Kurds come in and sort of foment an internal uprising, we're going to see this really continue. And then Turkey will probably be giving a lot of intel to the Iranians on this, because this is not in Turkish national interests, either. This has already turned into a regional conflagration, and this could turn into a regional war of a scale that will make the past 25 years of forever wars in the Middle East seem like a walk in the park. Truthout is funded almost entirely by readers — that's why we can speak truth to power and cut against the mainstream narrative. But independent journalists at Truthout face mounting political repression under Trump. We rely on your support to survive McCarthyist censorship. Please make a tax-deductible one-time or monthly donation. Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on more than 1,100 public television and radio stations worldwide. Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.

Internal DHS records and interviews with agency staffers contradict Noem's claim about Corey Lewandowski's role. Support justice-driven, accurate and transparent news — make a quick donation to Truthout today! Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem misled Congress on Tuesday about the powers of her controversial top aide Corey Lewandowski, according to records reviewed by ProPublica and four current and former DHS officials. Lewandowski has an unusual role at DHS, where he is not a paid government employee but is nonetheless acting as a top official, helping Noem run the sprawling agency. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., asked Noem whether Lewandowski has “a role in approving contracts” at DHS. But internal DHS records reviewed by ProPublica contradict Noem's Senate testimony. Lewandowski has approved numerous contracts at DHS and often needs to sign off on large ones before any money goes out the door, the current and former department employees said. Last year, Noem imposed a new policy that consolidated her and her top aides' power over all spending at DHS, requiring that she personally review and approve all contracts above $100,000. Lewandowski does NOT play a role in approving contracts,” the spokesperson said. Lewandowski does not receive a salary or any federal government benefits. Several news outlets, including Politico, have previously reported on aspects of Lewandowski's involvement in contracting at DHS. There have been widespread reports of delays caused by the new contract approval process at the agency, which has responsibilities spanning from immigration enforcement to disaster relief to airport security. DHS has asserted that the review process saved taxpayers billions of dollars. A similar sign-off process exists for other policy decisions at DHS. It featured the signatures of several top DHS advisers. Under them was Lewandowski's signature, and then Noem's. Lewandowski is what's known as a “special government employee,” a designation historically used to let experts serve in government for limited periods without having to give up their outside jobs. Special government employees have to abide by only some of the same ethics rules as normal officials and are permitted to have sources of outside income. Lewandowski has declined to disclose whether he is being paid by any outside companies and, if so, who. Truthout is funded almost entirely by readers — that's why we can speak truth to power and cut against the mainstream narrative. But independent journalists at Truthout face mounting political repression under Trump. We rely on your support to survive McCarthyist censorship. Joshua is a senior reporting fellow at ProPublica. Previously, he wrote a column about the criminal legal system for the Washington City Paper, reporting on topics such as police misconduct during undercover sex-worker stings and prosecutors' tactics for depriving defendants of the right to a jury trial. He also reported on behavioral health care quality inside schools, psychiatric hospitals and addiction treatment facilities, including a series of investigations into mismanagement at D.C.'s Department of Behavioral Health. He holds a degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago. He was also a fact checker at Mother Jones. Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.

The House Ethics Committee is forming an investigative panel to probe allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate favoritism against Rep. Tony Gonzales. The committee will determine whether Gonzales “violated the Code of Official Conduct or any law, rule, regulation, or other applicable standard of conduct” in regard to allegations that he may have “engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual employed in his congressional office” or “discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges.” The committee's announcement comes as the Texas Republican has been embroiled in a difficult primary fight that could end his tenure in Congress – a campaign made more contentious by allegations he had an affair with a senior staffer who later died by suicide. Gonzales will now face conservative activist Brandon Herrera in a runoff on May 26. Pressed by CNN ahead of the primary, Gonzales would not say whether he had an affair with the staffer nor whether he sent sexually explicit text messages that appeared to show him pressuring the woman to share images of herself. And he's so far remained defiant amid mounting calls from some GOP colleagues to step down after reports surfaced of his alleged affair. “There will be an opportunity for all the details and facts to come out,” he told CNN last week. And there will be ample time for all of that to come out.” Top House Republicans have closely tracked the allegations against Gonzales in recent weeks. Johnson said Wednesday he would let investigations play out when asked if he would endorse the embattled congressman in his primary runoff. “You know I've always been consistent: We allow due process and investigations to play out,” Johnson said when asked by CNN's Manu Raju whether he would do so. Johnson reiterated that he has encouraged Gonzales to address the allegations head-on. “I've encouraged him to address it publicly, the voters have spoken,” he said.

As CBS News plots an overhaul of its morning show, Gayle King has renewed her contract to remain at the network, a spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. “I'm excited about continuing at ‘CBS Mornings.' CBS News, a unit of Paramount, has new leadership; editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has been brainstorming how to reinvigorate the third-place morning show, according to people familiar with the matter. And Paramount has struck a deal to take over Warner Bros. Last fall, shortly after Weiss arrived, Variety magazine cast doubt about King's future on “CBS Mornings,” the program she has helmed since 2012. Variety said she was “expected to depart” the show and “may shift to a different role at the news division,” potentially with “a deal to produce her own programming for the network.” And on Wednesday, King alluded to it in her statement, saying that “rumors of my demise were inaccurate and greatly exaggerated.” “CBS News is my longtime home,” King continued, “and I am committed to our mission.” Weiss touted the news by sharing King's quote in a post on X. She also said in a comment to the Wall Street Journal, which broke the contract renewal news, that King and CBS will work together on “new, enterprising projects that bring her talents to new audiences.” King and Nate Burleson co-host the weekday morning show, joined by featured host Vladimir Duthiers and other CBS journalists. King and Burleson's morning colleague Tony Dokoupil recently shifted to nights as the new anchor of the “CBS Evening News.” In the mornings, CBS News president Tom Cibrowski said Wednesday, King and Burleson “are fantastic partners on the show and morning TV is more vibrant than ever. Most stock quote data provided by BATS. US market indices are shown in real time, except for the S&P 500 which is refreshed every two minutes. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices Copyright S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and/or its affiliates. Market holidays and trading hours provided by Copp Clark Limited.

The same strike also damaged six of the seven oil-loading berths at the major Sheskharis oil terminal, port infrastructure, a 30N6E2 guidance radar from an S-300PMU-2 Favorit system, and a Pantsir-S2 air defense missile system. "There are no 'protected areas' for Russian military facilities. As long as Russia wages war against Ukraine, it will have no peace anywhere — neither at sea, nor on land, nor in the rear," the source said. Ukraine regularly strikes military infrastructure deep within Russia and occupied territories in an effort to diminish Moscow's fighting power as the Kremlin wages its war against Ukraine. Novorossiysk has become a central base for the Russian Black Sea Fleet after repeated Ukrainian strikes on occupied Crimea, increasing its importance as both a military and logistical hub. Kyiv considers oil facilities and vessels to be valid military targets as they directly fund Russia's war. Yuliia Taradiuk is a Ukrainian reporter at the Kyiv Independent. She has been working with Lutsk-based misto.media, telling stories of Ukrainian fighters for the "All are gone to the front" project. She has experience as a freelance culture reporter, and a background in urbanism and activism, working for multiple Ukrainian NGOs. degree in English language and literature from Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, she studied in Germany and Lithuania. "There are no 'protected areas' for Russian military facilities," a source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told the Kyiv Independent. A woman has been arrested in connection to a suspected terrorist attack that killed a police officer and injured 25 others in the Western city of Lviv in the early hours of Sunday morning, Ukrainian authorities said. Russian drone hit two passenger trains in just one day. A Russian-flagged liquified natural gas (LNG) tanker, the Arctic Metagaz, has reportedly caught fire in the Mediterranean Sea, multiple media outlets reported on March 3. The vessel will not be allowed to leave port until the bail is paid and a re-inspection confirms compliance with maritime regulations. "Russia is playing for time here, and in doing so is also acting against the will of the American president. In today's talks, I called for increasing the pressure on Moscow," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on March 3 after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Nearly a quarter of Walmart employees (29.3%) and half of Amazon workers (48.4%) in the Nevada – which collects Medicaid enrollment numbers among employees at large companies – were on Medicaid in 2024, according to the report. Among the four states that disclose Snap data related to large companies – Colorado, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Michigan – 10,920 Walmart workers and 9,633 Amazon workers were enrolled in Snap in 2024. The report noted Donald Trump's “One Big Beautiful Bill” is expected to result in some 7.5 million Americans losing Medicaid and 4 million losing some or all of their Snap benefits after budget cuts. The corporations also spent massive mounts of stock buybacks in 2024, totaling $32.5bn. Lowe's and Home Depot top the stock buyback list in the report, with Lowe's spending $46.6bn on stock buybacks during this period, and Home Depot spending $37.9bn. Despite Starbucks offering a 401K matching program, many workers haven't been able to afford the benefit: 45% of eligible employees had balances of zero in their plan accounts in 2024. “When corporations can get away with shifting their employees' basic living costs onto taxpayers, this is a form of corporate welfare,” said Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of the report, in a statement. “With the federal government slashing spending on anti-poverty programs, it's even more important that major corporations in the world's richest country pay their employees a living wage.” According to a 2024 report, Amazon employs 79% of the workforce in US warehouses with over 1,000 employees. “Pointing fingers at Amazon over Snap and/or Medicaid is a red herring when eligibility is based on total household income and size – and not individual wages,” said an Amazon spokesperson in an email. “As we've said for years, what really needs to happen is a significant and large increase in the federal minimum wage – that would be a big boost for American families.” Home Depot and Lowe's did not respond to multiple requests for comment

The Trump administration's move to launch a large-scale strike operation in Iran has seen state-on-state war return to the Middle East with a vengeance. First used against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure in late 2022, the Iranian designed long-range suicide drone quickly became one of Moscow's most well-known weapons of war, terrorizing cities, demolishing infrastructure, and hammering important targets on the front line. While the cost and production demands of ballistic and cruise missiles have placed an upper limit on Moscow's use of them, the same doesn't apply for the Shahed-type drones, with some mass overnight attacks often seeing upwards of 500 launched at once. Now, the war of massed, cheap long-range drones has gone global in the Middle East, and early results have shown a lack of readiness for air defenses to handle them. Facing waves of dozens — sometimes hundreds — of Russian Shahed-type drones on a daily basis, Ukraine has developed, scaled, and deployed cutting-edge drone interceptor technology to protect itself. "We will also bring experts from Ukraine, together with our own experts, to help Gulf partners shoot down Iranian drones attacking them," said U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on March 2, in words that would have seemed unbelievable not long ago. In service since 2021, the base model of Iran's Shahed-136 suicide drone uses a simple piston engine to carry a 50-kilogram payload for up to 2,000 kilometers (1,6242 miles). Costing only around $50,000, the Shahed-type drone quickly presented a major problem for Ukraine's already strained air defense — faced with masses of the cheap drones, Kyiv could not afford to shoot them down with their limited stocks of anti-air interceptor missiles, some which cost over 20 times the price. Now, Iran's original Shahed has come to haunt the Middle East, with successful hits recorded in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, and even a British military base in Cyprus. Early evidence shows that these Iranian drones are not without modifications of their own, thanks to Moscow's technical know-how and battlefield experience. "This is something that we've been raising the alarm about for a while," Vladyslav Vlasiuk, sanctions commissioner for President Volodymyr Zelensky, told the Kyiv Independent. "Russia learned a lot from Iran, they borrowed this Shahed design, and now there is reciprocal cooperation. In the face of Trump's fierce yet chaotic assault on the country, without a clear strategic gain Iran's mass drone attacks make sense as part of a strategy of exhaustion, retired Australian Army Major-General Mick Ryan told the Kyiv Independent. "They can saturate American defenses in the region over time; after a month or so, the U.S. will run out of interceptors," he said. "I think that's what the Russians are trying to do by saturating Ukrainian defenses, and the Iranians have learned from that. "Once an adversary can produce cheap, attritable systems in large numbers to exhaust defenses, that becomes the new default mode of war," Catarina Buchatskyi, Director at the Snake Island Institute and co-author of a new report on Ukraine's homegrown air defense, told the Kyiv Independent. There, in a calculated provocation on Moscow's part, up to 23 Russian Gerbera drones — a cheap decoy version of the Shahed with no payload — entered Polish airspace. "What this shows is how unprepared NATO and the U.S. are for a cheap, mass threat." While the damage to U.S. bases has not been disclosed and is not always independently verifiable, early evidence shows multiple successful hits across the region. Such instances included strikes on the U.S. embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, while at one U.S. Navy base in Bahrain, footage shows an Iranian Shahed drone directly striking a high-end radar system. Meanwhile, in Dubai, the damage that the drone can cause to civilian targets was on display after a luxury hotel was hit amid an initial barrage of 137 missiles and 209 drones, as reported by Emirati authorities. "What this shows is how unprepared NATO and the U.S. are for a cheap, mass threat," said Doc, Chief Technical Officer of a Ukrainian defense company that manufactures interceptor drones, who requested his identity not to be revealed for security reasons. But if 100 Shaheds come, those missiles may run out after 50, and the rest will destroy infrastructure." The explicit need for air defense assets to properly match the threat was highlighted by Zelensky in comments to journalists on March 3, with the president suggesting that Ukraine could share its own drone interceptors with Gulf countries in exchange for PAC-3 Patriot interceptor missiles so desperately needed to protect key targets in Ukraine from Russian ballistic missiles. Ultimately, said Ryan, many of the mistakes made boil down to wishful thinking that the new ways of war emerging in Ukraine will not be relevant to oneself. "A lot of people look at Ukraine and think it's totally unique," he said, "they assume they probably won't have to fight that way." "I think that shows a certain lack of humility in many Western and Middle Eastern military institutions." Ukraine's quest to effectively counter the threat of mass Russian bombardment with Shahed-type drones has not always been an easy road. The initial solution was cheap and simple: hundreds of so-called "mobile fire groups," soldiers mounted on pick-up trucks using spotlights and machine guns to shoot the drones down. "Mobile fire groups were relatively easy to form around personnel and weapons," recalled Buchatskyi. "You could put tracking systems and turret fire on the back of a truck. They helped solve gaps in our sophisticated air defense system and could react quickly because drones were coming from different directions." After every mass attack, data from all these sensors was gathered and analyzed to better place Ukrainian air defense assets for the next one. Over 2025, Russia's growing waves of new, faster, deadlier, and stealthier Geran drones proved too much for Ukraine's existing system. As has often been the case in this war, a drone problem demanded a drone solution — specifically high-tech, high-speed, small interceptor drones. Russian drones started weaving more and changing altitudes, which made them harder to track," said Buchatskyi. They are still cost-effective, put less personnel at risk, can be deployed closer to the front line, and can be produced at scale." "Obviously, what drives that is an existential threat," he said. "When your people are threatened every single night, it breaks through bureaucracy, removes red tape, and creates a single focus on results. "Remember how long the Shaheds were tormenting us, how they were launched in dozens," said Pavlo, an instructor in the same Ukrainian company where Doc works. "Now, even in their hundreds, they are no longer such a problem because we have found a solution that is significantly cheaper." According to Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, 70% of Russian Shahed-type drones launched at Kyiv were being downed by interceptors. Now, countries from NATO to the Gulf are scrambling to tap into Ukraine's expertise, which goes beyond just the interceptor drones themselves. "Our biggest strength is constant data," noted Buchatskyi, "we process hundreds of aerial threats per night, learn from them, and adapt based on that learning — something no other country in the world really has." "That is why even the most successful interceptor companies, including non-Ukrainian ones, are operating here. Nowhere else can you test and refine systems in real time against such a complex threat environment." Going forward, although new technical challenges will certainly arise, those at the forefront of Ukraine's cutting-edge air defense are convinced they remain best-placed to face them. "Now we are working on solutions that are more about the future," said Pavlo, "about anticipating the enemy's next step and creating a new tool against which there is no countermeasure yet." "The world needs to understand what is really happening. Francis Farrell is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent.

Vote to come after Israel launches wave of strikes on Tehran. Don't already get First Thing in your inbox? The vote on Wednesday will come after Israel and the US intensified their attacks on Iran, launching waves of strikes targeting command and control facilities, strategic state offices and missile launch sites as Trump said he had rejected what he claimed was an attempt by Tehran to restart negotiations. The funeral ceremony was due be held in Tehran for the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Wednesday, state media reported, but was later postponed with no new date provided. Trump attempted to quell a growing anti-Israel backlash in Congress and among his own Maga supporters on Tuesday by denying suggestions he had been pushed into attacking Iran because Israel had already decided to do so. Democrats have condemned Trump for ordering an air campaign against Iran without first seeking permission from Congress. The president has also said “there will likely be more” US service members killed before the war ends, as the US Department of Defense on Tuesday identified four of the six American soldiers killed on Sunday during a drone strike on a US base in Kuwait. According to the Iranian Red Crescent, at least 787 people have been killed in Iran since Saturday, while Israeli strikes on Lebanon have displaced at least 30,000 people, the UN estimates. The Democrats would need five Republicans to vote with them for it to pass, as they are outnumbered in the Senate. What impact is the war having on global markets? They tumbled further on Wednesday despite US assurances, including Trump's offer to have the US navy escort oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz, which Iran has in effect closed. Experts have warned it risks driving the regime towards building a secret bomb, with one scholar saying: “A vengeful Iran that survives this strike is likely to reach the same conclusion that North Korea reached: that it's a dangerous world out there with the United States and it's better to go nuclear.” Follow the latest in this rapidly developing conflict on our liveblog. Cuba has charged six exiles with terrorism after a US-flagged speedboat was involved in a deadly shootout with Cuba's coastguard last week. A lengthy energy crisis caused by the Iran war could help Russia's war machine at a time when its economy was beginning to show signs of trouble. More than 220 million children could be living with obesity by 2040 unless drastic action is taken, an international report has predicted. In 2025, the number of children with obesity globally was 180 million. New figures from the World Obesity Federation suggest that by 2040, about 227 million five- to 19-year-olds will have obesity and more than half a billion will be overweight. Organizing your home doesn't require color coordination or dozens of matching storage containers. If it seems like a mammoth task, you need to declutter before you tidy: almost all home organizers agree that most of us have too much stuff. The deal came after OpenAI's main competitor, Anthropic, refused to give the Pentagon unrestricted access to its tech for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. Bregman argues ChatGPT is a perfect target for a boycott, as OpenAI's market share has plummeted recently, while “the most effective consumer boycotts in history share two qualities: they are narrow and they are easy. Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, says politicians must stop prioritizing “socially and ecologically destructive growth” that only increases the wealth of the richest individuals and corporations. First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday.

DOHA, March 4. /TASS/. The number of casualties from Iranian attacks on the territory of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has risen to 78, the country's Ministry of Defense said on its page on the social media X. According to the statement, these individuals hold the citizenship of the UAE, as well as Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Yemen, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sudan, Uganda, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. No Russians were hurt. The previous day, the UAE Ministry of Defense reported 68 casualties.

By Ivan Timofeev, programme director of the Valdai Club Strike forces had been building up in the Persian Gulf for months. Iranian-American negotiations had stalled and offered little prospect of success. Yet the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, members of his family, and several senior Iranian officials have sent shockwaves far beyond the region. Iran has responded with missile strikes on Israel and US facilities in the Middle East. Even if Tehran absorbs the current blow, more rounds may follow, unless the costs become prohibitive for all sides. For Russia, the crisis offers hard lessons. Over time, the measures became broader, more coordinated, and increasingly internationalized. Washington persuaded allies and third countries to curtail Iranian oil purchases and tightened enforcement through the UN Security Council. They were paired with military strikes, special operations, assassinations, and cyberattacks. Direct US-NATO military action against Russia is constrained by the nuclear factor. But that deterrent is partially offset by massive military support for Ukraine. Ukrainian forces continue to strike Russian territory. Further crises along NATO's eastern flank, especially in the Baltic region, cannot be excluded. Iran has endured a strategy of attrition for decades. What began as economic containment has evolved into calibrated military degradation, repeated strikes designed to weaken capabilities without occupation. This model may define Western policy toward Russia as well. The pressure Moscow faces will not disappear in a few years. Even partial easing of restrictions will not mean a full lifting, especially regarding export controls on dual-use technologies. Similarly, any pause in military hostilities will likely be temporary. The 2015 nuclear deal formalized under UN Security Council Resolution 2231 offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. Three years later, Washington withdrew and imposed new demands. This experience informs Moscow's posture in negotiations over Ukraine. Russia's refusal to make unilateral concessions may frustrate those who prioritize immediate peace at any cost. Historically, regime change often followed military intervention. The deliberate killing of senior Iranian officials signals a new threshold. Assassinations and sabotage on Russian territory are no longer rare. The security of national leadership now extends beyond intelligence services. In modern conflict, leadership itself is a battlefield. Iran faced significant domestic protests prior to the strikes. Economic hardship and political tensions weakened social cohesion. External actors interpreted this unrest as vulnerability. History shows how internal fractures can accelerate collapse. The dissolution of the USSR provides another, a case where internal economic and political decay proved decisive even without a direct invasion. Iran mitigated sanctions by trading with countries willing to defy or circumvent Western pressure, what we could call “black knights.” China, India, Türkiye, and others continued buying discounted Iranian oil. Russia has similarly reoriented trade flows toward China, India, and other partners. But economic alternatives do not translate into military guarantees. Iran's trade partners have not intervened militarily on its behalf. Russia, too, should not assume that economic cooperation implies defense obligations. Economic resilience cannot substitute for military strength. Actions such as attempting to restrict navigation through the Strait of Hormuz show a willingness to raise costs. Yet the US and Israel appear to judge Iranian retaliation as painful but acceptable. In prolonged confrontation, tolerance for loss can increase. Russia possesses far greater retaliatory capacity than Iran. An opponent who calculates that the damage is bearable may continue escalation. The Iranian crisis reveals a deeper mood emerging in global politics: fatalistic determination. Major powers appear increasingly willing to absorb risk and accept instability, which may be the most troubling lesson of all. The events in Iran are not an isolated regional episode. They are part of a broader transformation in the international system. It's one in which sanctions evolve into strikes, negotiation coexists with attrition, and leadership itself becomes a target. For Russia, the message is sober but clear: endurance, internal cohesion, credible deterrence, and strategic patience are far more than temporary necessities. Read RT Privacy policy to find out more.

Ukraine has rejected a proposed EU mission to inspect the Soviet-era pipeline that transports Russian oil through Ukrainian territory to Central Europe, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing diplomats and officials. Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa personally requested access to the pipeline for inspection but were denied, FT said. One of the newspaper's sources argued that by blocking the inspection, Ukraine scored an “own goal” and gave Hungary an excuse to veto the planned $106 billion emergency loan for Ukraine and the EU's 20th round of sanctions against Russia. In a post on X on Tuesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he had sent a letter to von der Leyen calling for enforcement of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, which “obliges Ukraine to allow oil shipments to Hungary.” “As confirmed by recently published satellite evidence, there is no technical or operational reason preventing the pipeline from reverting to normal operations immediately,” Orban stated. Orban said that Hungary and Slovakia had proposed dispatching a “fact-finding mission” to inspect the pipeline, but their “efforts were rejected.” In August, Hungary imposed sanctions on Ukraine's top drone commander Robert Brovdi after attacks on sections of the Druzhba pipeline in Russia. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has called on Hungary to stop purchasing energy from Russia. Reuters reported on Tuesday that some EU members, including France and Germany, oppose the idea of granting Ukraine fast-tracked accession to the bloc, citing “rampant corruption.” Read RT Privacy policy to find out more.

MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on a potential European cooperation in nuclear security, emphasizing the importance of neighboring states' attitudes. "There is one important ‘but:' as we have just seen, any initiative must be acceptable to the neighboring countries which should not feel threatened by potential newcomers. Otherwise… I think, everyone following the news has realized that, in this matter, not only the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency are important but also the attitudes of the countries bordering the region and beyond," Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel. On March 2, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that eight European countries had expressed interest in cooperating with Paris on joint nuclear deterrence, naming Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark. Commenting on the initiative at a press conference on March 3, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned of a growing risk that nuclear proliferation could spiral out of control.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is a hardliner who would be expected to rule in image of his father Based in Washington, he has broken a series of world exclusives and covered the defining moments of Donald Trump's administration. Based in Washington, he has broken a series of world exclusives and covered the defining moments of Donald Trump's administration. The son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has emerged as the leading contender to take over as his successor. It reported that clerics met virtually on Tuesday to discuss the new leadership of the Islamic Republic, which has been decimated by American and Israeli attacks. On Wednesday, Iranian sources stressed that Mojtaba Khamenei was still alive after days of joint US-Israeli strikes that killed the Ayatollah and a number of other potential successors. Mr Khamenei, a 56-year-old hardliner who has managed his father's office and networks for years, is believed to be the clear front-runner and could be named as early as Wednesday morning. For years, he has been seen as one of the top candidates to succeed his father. Khameini's grandson, Hassan, is also seen as a potential candidate, representing the more reformist wing of the leadership that was suppressed under Khamenei. The former supreme leader's son is known for having close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). His appointment would suggest that the Guards would retain control of the levers of power in Iran. He was targeted in US and Israeli strikes that killed his father and 40 members of the regime's leadership, but survived. He is expected to remain a target of Israeli assassination attempts. Yet his appointment is not certain because Iran has cracked down on succession in its leadership after the regime seized power in 1979. Now we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. Pretty soon, we're not going to know anybody.” Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran's last shah, is positioning himself for a return to power should Iran's Shiite theocracy fall. Asked about Mr Pahlavi, Mr Trump said: “It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate.” Mr Trump said he wanted to avoid a “worst case” scenario where “somebody takes over who's as bad as the previous person”. The White House has intensified its efforts to counter criticism that it had moved unnecessarily quickly to launch a war of choice on Iran. Mr Trump's decision to strike followed lengthy negotiations by Steve Witkoff, the president's peace envoy, and Jared Kushner, Mr Trump's son-in-law, with the Iranians. On Wednesday, Iran announced that a state funeral for the former Supreme Leader had been postponed “in anticipation of unprecedented turnout”. State television reported that a new date for the funeral, which had been planned for Wednesday evening in Tehran, would “be announced later”. But those angry with the government said a large amount of protest was unlikely while bombs were falling. He added that the IRGC and Basij militia were everywhere, saying: “They will kill us.