New York City's police commissioner said Monday that authorities are investigating whether men who brought improvised explosive devices to a protest outside New York City's mayoral residence were inspired by ISIS. Police in New York City on Sunday said that they were looking into a second suspicious device found in the same area of Manhattan's Upper East Side where a counterprotester during an anti-Islam demonstration threw an improvised explosive. The device was found a day after an improvised explosive device was thrown by a counterprotester at an anti-Islam demonstration, outside the Manhattan residence of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, known as Gracie Mansion. Police detain Emir Balat after he attempted to detonate an improvised explosive device during a counterprotest against far right influencer Jake Lang staging an anti-Islam protest outside Gracie Mansion, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in New York. Police detain Emir Balat after he attempted to detonate an improvised explosive device during a counterprotest against far right influencer Jake Lang staging an anti-Islam protest outside Gracie Mansion, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in New York. Jake Lang shouts from a sidewalk as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a news conference at Gracie Mansion, Monday, March 9, 2026, in New York. Police detain Emir Balat after he attempted to detonate an improvised explosive device during a counterprotest against far right influencer Jake Lang staging an anti-Islam protest outside Gracie Mansion, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in New York. NEW YORK (AP) — Two men who brought explosives to a protest outside New York City's mayoral mansion said they were inspired by the Islamic State extremist group, a court complaint said. Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi were being held without bail after their arraignment Monday on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction. Their lawyers didn't argue for bail but could do so later. The homemade devices, which did not explode, were hurled Saturday during raucous counterprotests against an anti-Islamic demonstration led by Jake Lang, a far-right activist and critic of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat and the first Muslim to hold the office. AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on an ‘ISIS-related terrorism' investigation in New York City. Officers asked Balat whether he was aiming to accomplish something akin to the bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013, when two pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line, killing three people and wounding hundreds more. “No, even bigger,” Balat replied, according to the complaint. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi commented on social media that authorities “will not allow ISIS's poisonous, anti-American ideology to threaten this nation.” In court, Kayumi's lawyer, Michael Arthus, pointed to the extensive publicity surrounding the case and asked that prosecutors avoid saying anything that could prejudice potential jurors. Kayumi's mother filed a missing person report saying she last saw him around 10:30 a.m. Saturday. The suspects' vehicle — registered to one of Balat's relatives — was discovered Sunday a few blocks from where they were arrested. Speaking outside the mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion, on Monday morning, Mamdani said Balat and Kayumi “traveled from Pennsylvania and attempted to bring violence to New York City.” Mamdani and his wife weren't home during the protest. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said there are no indications that the men's alleged activities were connected to the ongoing war in Iran. The Islamic State is a group of Sunni extremists; Iran's population is almost entirely Shiite, the other main religious community within Islam. While Mamdani and Tisch briefed reporters Monday, Lang heckled from outside the Gracie Mansion gates. Meanwhile, police have searched a home in eastern Pennsylvania's Middletown Township, and a separate federal investigation was underway in nearby Newtown, local police said. Lang's sparsely attended protest Saturday drew a far larger group of counterdemonstrators. It also contained a fuse, plus an exterior layer of duct-taped nuts and bolts, the complaint said. Police said one person involved in the anti-Islam protest, Ian McGinnis, 21, was arrested after pepper-spraying counterprotesters. McGinnis, of Philadelphia, was released without bond after pleading not guilty Sunday to assault and aggravated harassment in a New York court, records show. A message seeking comment was left Monday for his attorney. After the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Lang was charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes. Lang recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida. Earlier this year, he organized a rally in Minneapolis in support of Trump's immigration crackdown, drawing an angry crowd of counterprotesters who quickly chased him away. This story has been corrected to reflect that police are now identifying one of the suspects by the name Ibrahim Kayumi, instead of Ibrahim Nikks.
Iran launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf countries Monday, hours after Iranian state TV said Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had been named as his father's successor. Meanwhile oil prices skyrocketed Monday, and Asian markets tumbled. NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks trimmed much of an early loss amid growing concerns about whether the global economy can withstand spiking prices for oil, which briefly got to nearly $120 per barrel on Monday. Wall Street had initially followed global markets on a steep descent earlier in trading and remains twitchy and quick to reverse amid all the uncertainty caused by the war with Iran. Since the war with Iran began with attacks by the United States and Israel, the central worry for financial markets has been how high oil prices will go because of it and how long they will stay there. Stock markets shudder worldwide after oil prices briefly spike to nearly $120 per barrel. If oil prices stay very high for very long, households' budgets already stretched by high inflation could break under the pressure. It all raises the possibility of a worst-case scenario for the global economy, “stagflation,” where growth stagnates and inflation remains high. To be sure, oil prices quickly pared their huge gains Monday. A barrel of Brent crude pulled back to $98.75, though that's still up 6.5% from Friday. The U.S. stock market has a history of bouncing back relatively quickly from past military conflicts, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as long as oil prices don't stay too high for too long. Some professional investors continue to suggest that drops in prices for stocks could ultimately offer opportunities to buy them at cheaper levels before they rise again. Monday's quick paring of losses for U.S. stocks was similar to the huge swings that rocked Wall Street last week, with everything keying off changes in oil prices. “We continue to believe that the current acute shortage of oil will be reversed in the coming months as new supply comes online and oil should drop significantly,” according to Sameer Samana, head of global equities and real assets at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. All that hinges, though, on the flow of oil returning toward normal. Now, tanker traffic has all but stopped because of worries about a possible attack by Iran. If the strait remains closed for only a few weeks, the price of oil could push to $150 per barrel of higher, according to oil and gas strategists at Macquarie Research. “Although we are not attempting to predict how long Hormuz transit will be substantially or completely curtailed, we are growing more confident that without an agreement and a fast cessation of all kinetic activity, the crude market will begin to break in days, and not in weeks or months,” the strategists led by Vikas Dwivedi wrote in a report. The most immediate pain on Wall Street is hitting companies that have already big fuel bills. Carnival lost 3.4% because it has to fill huge cruise ships with fuel and United Airlines sank 3.2%. Helping to limit the U.S. stock market's losses was Live Nation Entertainment, which rose 4.2%. In stock markets abroad, where economies are more dependent on the import of oil and natural gas, stocks fell even more. South Korea's Kospi sank 6%, Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled 5.2% and France's CAC 40 dropped 1%. A Chinese special envoy to the Middle East, Zhai Jun, called for an end to the attacks and said strikes on non-military targets and civilians should be condemned. Meanwhile, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung warned against hoarding, panic buying and collusion between refiners and gas stations. Bahrain accused Iran of hitting one of the desalination plants that are crucial for drinking water in Gulf countries. Israel struck oil depots in Tehran, sending up thick smoke and causing environmental alerts. “Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace,” he said in a posting on his social media network. Worries about high inflation and oil prices are pushing upward on Treasury yields, and the 10-year yield was above 4.20% early Monday. But worries about a potentially slowing economy are pulling downward at the same time. On Friday, a discouragingly weak report on the U.S. job market showed that employers cut more jobs last month than they added. AP Writers Matt Ott, Kim Tong-hyung and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Fox News Flash top sports headlines are here. The Chiefs and Super Bowl MVP running back Kenneth Walker III agreed to a deal on Monday, according to multiple reports. Walker joining the Chiefs would certainly bolster their chances of getting back to the playoffs following a 6-11 season. Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) against the New England Patriots during Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium on Feb. 8, 2026. Walker had a breakout year in 2025 as he helped guide the Seattle Seahawks to their second Super Bowl title. In Super Bowl LX, Walker helped Seattle push past the New England Patriots. He ran for 135 yards and had two touchdown catches in the 29-13 win. Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald and running back Kenneth Walker III (9) celebrate with the Vince Lombardi trophy after defeating the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium on Feb. 8, 2026. Isiah Pacheco, Kareem Hunt, Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Damien Williams have all been serviceable in years past, but injuries marred the team's success in that area. Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) attempts to stiff arm Arizona Cardinals cornerback Kei'Trel Clark (13) at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on Sept. 25, 2025. (Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images) As of now, Charbonnet will be the starting running back with George Holani and Kenny McIntosh on the depth chart. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter. Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
Iran launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf countries Monday, hours after Iranian state TV said Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had been named as his father's successor. Meanwhile oil prices skyrocketed Monday, and Asian markets tumbled. A thick plume of smoke rises from an oil storage facility hit by a U.S.-Israeli strike late Saturday in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 8, 2026. Fuel prices are displayed at a gas station as cars drive by, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Baltimore. Gas prizes are displayed at a gas station with the European Central Bank in background in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, March 2, 2026. Follow AP's live updates on the Iran war. Oil prices continued to soar on Monday as the Iran war intensified, threatening production and shipping in the Middle East and pummeling financial markets. West Texas Intermediate, the light, sweet crude oil produced in the United States, also soared above $119.48 per barrel before falling back closer to $100. And on Monday, Iran named the hard-line Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his late father as supreme leader, signaling a new sign of defiance by Iran's embattled leadership amid heavy U.S. and Israeli bombardment. The war's toll on civilian targets grew as Bahrain accused Iran of striking a desalination plant vital to drinking water supplies. Oil depots in Tehran smoldered following overnight strikes by Israel. Iraq, Kuwait and the UAE have cut oil production as storage tanks fill due to the reduced ability to export crude. Iran, Israel and the United States also have attacked oil and gas facilities since the war started, worsening supply concerns. In response to soaring prices, there have been discussions of dipping into emergency oil stockpiles. But on Monday, the Group of Seven major industrialized powers said it had decided against using their strategic reserves, at least for now. “We're not there yet,” French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said after chairing a meeting of his G7 counterparts. Still, he told reporters in Brussels that the group was “ready to take necessary and coordinated steps in order to stabilize markets, such as strategic stockpiling.” On Saturday, President Donald Trump also downplayed the idea of turning to America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, maintaining U.S. supplies were ample and prices would soon fall. Yet the surge in costs for oil and natural gas is still pushing fuel prices higher, cascading through other industries and jolting Asian economies that are especially vulnerable due to the region's heavy reliance on imports from the Middle East. Iran exports roughly 1.6 million barrels of oil a day, mostly to China, which has called for an immediate end to the fighting. Beijing may need to look elsewhere for supply if Iran's exports are disrupted, another factor that could increase energy prices. “All parties have their responsibility to ensure stable and smooth energy supplies,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in a briefing Monday. “China will take necessary measures to safeguard its own energy security.” South Korean President Lee Jae Myung warned Monday of strict penalties for refiners and gas stations caught hoarding or colluding on prices, saying it would be wise to find alternatives to supplies that must travel through the Strait of Hormuz. Across Southeast Asia, the spike in prices has led to long lines outside filling stations. “Higher oil and gas prices will affect everyone and our economy,” said Le Van Tu, who was waiting outside a gas station in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. “All activities, including those using petrol based transportation will be affected.” Higher energy costs push inflation higher, straining household budgets and denting the consumer spending that is a main driver of many big economies. Those worries have spilled into financial markets, pulling share prices sharply lower. It was selling for about $3.34 per 1,000 cubic feet early Monday. This story has been corrected to show that the Israel-U.S. attacks on Iran started Feb. 28, not March 1.
Twenty-three players were shown a red card as a lengthy brawl requiring the intervention of military police marred the final seconds of a Brazilian soccer match between Cruzeiro and Atletico Mineiro. Former Brazil forward Hulk was among the players sent off following the violence that lasted more than a minute and spread from one end of the field toward the other as substitutes, members of coaching staff and security also weighed in. Five Iranian women's soccer players safe with police after fleeing team as supporters plead for action in Australia “We need to acknowledge our mistakes and learn from them,” Hulk wrote on Instagram on Monday. “What happened yesterday does not represent the values that soccer should embody. Rivalry is part of the sport, but respect must always prevail over any emotion.” It was sparked by a challenge by Cruzeiro midfielder Christian on Atletico goalkeeper Everson, who responded by rugby-tackling his opponent to the ground and dropping both knees into his head. That led to a mass fight as players from both teams piled in, punching and kicking each other. In footage shared across social media, Hulk, who plays for Atletico, was seen punching an opponent on the back of the head then getting kicked in the chest. What we saw on the pitch is not the example we want to set,” Hulk added. Cruzeiro wound up winning 1-0 in the Campeonato Mineiro final to become state champion in Minas Gerais.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Former Ambassador at-Large Nathan Sales discusses new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, potential new nuclear threats and more on ‘Fox & Friends.' President Donald Trump offered a stark warning to the Australian government on Monday as the Iranian women's soccer team is slated to return home following the Women's Asian Cup. The team faces uncertainty as war broke out while they were in Australia for the tournament. Iran players react during their national anthem ahead of the Women's Asian Cup soccer match between Iran and the Philippines in Robina, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. Trump weighed in with a post on Truth Social. "Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman's Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed," he wrote. The U.S. will take them if you won't." Australian Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Matt Thistlethwaite was asked whether the country would grant the Iranian players asylum but said the government could not "go into individual circumstances for privacy reasons." Five Iranian women's soccer players reportedly defected with the help of police. Iran supporters wave flags during the Women's Asian Cup soccer match between Iran and the Philippines in Robina, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. Iranian players refused to sing their national anthem before an opening loss to South Korea last Monday, which was viewed by some as an act of resistance, which was dubbed by an Iranian commentator as the "pinnacle of dishonor." The Australian Iranian Council launched an online petition urging Australian authorities to "ensure that no member of Iran's women's national football team is to depart Australia while credible fears for their safety remain." "Where credible evidence exists that visiting athletes may face persecution, imprisonment, coercion, or worse upon return, silence is not a neutral position," the petition read. Iranian supporters display signs expressing support for U.S. President Donald Trump during the AFC Women's Asian Cup Australia 2026 football match between Iran and Australia in Gold Coast, Australia, on March 5, 2026. Iran head coach Marziyeh Jafari was quoted as saying on Australia's national news agency that the team wants "to come back to Iran as soon as we can." Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter. Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Joe Concha discusses a Fox News Poll showing socialism gaining popularity among young Democrats and resurfaced comments from Texas progressive Senate hopeful James Talarico. A new national poll is the latest to indicate that Democrats are facing major problems with their party's image. Just 30% of registered voters in an NBC News poll view the Democratic Party positively, compared to 52% who view it negatively. The GOP, which is working to defend its slim congressional majorities in the 2026 ballot box showdowns amid a rough political climate that doesn't favor the party in power, doesn't fare much better in the poll, which was conducted Feb. 27 through March 3. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, left, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, are the top two Democrats in Congress. Thirty-seven percent of registered voters said they viewed the Republican Party positively, with 51% seeing the GOP in a negative light. Helping to sink the Democratic Party's underwater ratings are Democrats themselves. Only 62% of Democrats questioned in the survey viewed their party positively, compared to 77% of Republicans who gave the GOP a favorable rating. Views of congressional Republicans weren't much better, with 64% disapproving. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, left, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, are the top two Republicans in Congress. Only 63% of Democrats questioned in the Fox News poll approved of the job their party was doing in Congress, compared to 77% of Republicans who gave GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill a thumbs up. There are some silver linings for Democrats in the NBC News poll. The party holds a six-point advantage over Republicans in the battle for control of Congress in this autumn's midterm elections. And nearly three-quarters of Democrats say they have a high interest in the midterms, compared to 61% of Republicans. The survey also indicated Democrats have pulled even with Republicans on the question of which party would do better dealing with the economy, with 40% choosing each party. President Donald Trump's approval ratings remain in negative territory nearly 14 months into his second term in the White House. But according to the poll, voters trust President Donald Trump and Republicans more than Democrats to handle border security and immigration. Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by
The Group of Seven nations have decided against jointly releasing hundreds of millions of barrels of crude oil reserves to stanch skyrocketing prices, which have hit over $100 a barrel in what has been described as the most severe energy crisis since the 1970s. Following a virtual call on Monday, it was revealed that the G7 finance ministers declined to release oil stockpiles, though they agreed to closely monitor the energy markets and take necessary actions needed for stabilization, Bloomberg reported. Releasing oil reserves was reportedly recommended by the International Energy Agency, according to Japan's finance minister. The G7 decision came just hours after oil prices surged to record levels of more than $119 per barrel, the highest seen since 2022 and the immediate aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. International and domestic benchmarks settled later Monday morning on news of the G7 meeting, sticking around the $100 per barrel line. As of around 9:30 a.m., Brent Crude was up by 9.96%, selling at $101.92 per barrel. While a handful of tankers have been able to make it through the strait, hundreds of other vessels have been unable to pass through, as their political risk insurance premiums have skyrocketed or their coverage has been canceled entirely. The SPR has a maximum capacity of around 700 million barrels and currently only holds roughly 415 million barrels. U.S. crude reserves levels significantly declined under the Biden administration, particularly after Russia invaded Ukraine. The Biden administration sold around 180 million barrels to curb rising oil prices and was lambasted by Republicans for tapping the reserves so heavily. The soaring oil prices are placing new political pressure on Trump, who has continuously pointed to low gas prices as a hallmark of his administration's efforts to tackle affordability. Analysts with GasBuddy are now forecasting that there is an 80% chance the national average price of gasoline could hit $4 per gallon within the next month, or even sooner. With every one-cent increase, consumers are spending around $3.7 million more each day, GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan has estimated, meaning they are spending around $139 million more a day on gasoline than one year ago. As of Monday, the national average price of gasoline was around $3.478 per gallon, up nearly $0.50 from last week, according to data compiled by AAA. “Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social on Sunday.
At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can't do it on our own. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today? How the frenzy over farming insects for food went bust. This proclamation came from, of all people, an insect researcher. Dutch entomologist Marcel Dicke pitched eating bugs in his 2010 TED talk as critical to sustainably feeding a growing human population, because insects have a much smaller carbon footprint than beef, pork, and chicken. Three years later, the United Nations published a comprehensive report that echoed many of Dicke's ideas and argued that insects could be a more eco-friendly food source not just for humans, but also for livestock. The report received widespread media coverage and helped to trigger a wave of investment from venture capital firms and governments alike into insect farming startups across Europe, the US, Canada, and beyond, totaling some $2 billion. There's a ring of truth, it turns out, to the conspiracy theory that the globalist elites want us to eat bugs. This money was pouring into insect agriculture at a time when investors and policymakers were hungry for new models to fix the conventional meat industry's massive carbon footprint. And while grubs don't feature prominently in current paleo cookbooks, our paleolithic ancestors most certainly ate plenty of bugs. Of the 20 or so largest insect farming startups, almost a quarter have gone belly up in recent years, including the very largest, Ÿnsect, which ceased operations in December. “Things have gone from bad to worse for the big insect factory business model,” one insect farming CEO said late last year in a YouTube video. And Vox can exclusively report that plans to build a large insect farm in Nebraska — a joint project between Tyson Foods, America's largest meat company, and Protix, now the world's second largest insect farming company — are indefinitely on hold. “Evidence is building that there's a form of sentience there in insects,” Jonathan Birch, a philosopher at the London School of Economics who leads the Foundations of Animal Sentience project at the university, told me last year. But it looks like they may not have too much to worry about. Many of the same welfare concerns for farmed chickens and pigs are present on insect farms, like disease, cannibalism, and painful slaughter. They might be frozen, baked, roasted, shredded, grinded, microwaved, boiled, or suffocated. In 2020, insect companies farmed an estimated one trillion bugs, and the most commonly farmed species today are black soldier fly larvae, mealworms, and crickets. While some people might tell researchers they're open to adding bugs to their diet, these smallest of animals remain a novelty food in the US and Europe, as opposed to a commodity capable of displacing wings or burgers. “The human food market, basically, has not materialized,” Dustin Crummett, a philosopher and executive director of The Insect Institute — a nonprofit that researches the environmental and animal welfare implications of large-scale insect agriculture — told me. “Only a tiny fraction of farmed insects are used for human food.” But insect farming startups haven't only sought to put insects on our plates or grind them into protein bars; many want to sell insect meal (ground up insects) as feed for other farmed animals. It's a sustainable alternative, they argue, to the soy fed to factory-farmed chickens and cattle, much of which is grown on deforested land. Insect meal could also replace fishmeal (largely composed of small, wild-caught species, like anchovies and sardines), which is fed to farmed fish and heavily contributes to overfishing. According to a 2024 analysis published in the journal Food and Humanity and co-authored by Crummett, one ton of insect meal costs about 10 times that of soybean meal and 3.5 times that of fishmeal, a major cost gap that is unlikely to narrow anytime soon. Farmed insects are typically fed agricultural “co-products” — like wheat bran and corn gluten — most of which is already fed to livestock, and so insect farmers have wound up in competition with big meat companies to buy up these ingredients. This simple fact weakens the narrative often driven by insect farming startups that they are putting food scraps that otherwise would've been thrown away to good use. “Organic waste from the industry becomes feed for insects,” Protix's website reads. “This circular food production mirrors nature's circle of life.” But this is misleading; Protix feeds its insects ingredients like oat husk and starch, which are typically used in traditional livestock feed anyway. And it's not guaranteed that insect meal will be more sustainable than soy or fishmeal. According to a UK government report, the environmental impact of insect farming depends on a number of factors, including what insects are fed and whether startups power their farms with fossil fuels or renewable energy. Energy usage explains a lot of the industry's cost challenge. Farmed insects require warm temperatures, and in Europe, where so many of the startups are based, energy prices have sharply risen in recent years. Rotting food waste in landfills is a huge source of global greenhouse gas emissions, and insect farming companies can earn money by taking it off other companies' hands and letting bugs eat it. But here, too, the industry has run into obstacles, including strict EU regulations around what can be fed to insects and an inconsistent product. When insects are fed food waste, their final nutritional profile can vary widely depending on what they're fed, but livestock feed companies need nutritional consistency. And it turns out that even the largest and most powerful companies in the space can run into hard, economic realities when trying to rear bugs on waste en masse. In late 2023, America's biggest meat company, Tyson Foods, announced it had invested an undisclosed sum of money in Protix, a large Dutch insect farming startup. That Tyson was putting its weight behind it seemed like much-needed proof that insects could be the future of food, as so many startups, investors, and researchers had claimed. The two companies planned to build a massive insect farm together near Tyson's cattle slaughterhouse in Dakota City, Nebraska. At the insect farm, Protix would raise and kill around 70,000 tons of larvae annually — what I estimate to be approximately 300 billion individual insects. The bugs would feed on cattle paunch, partially digested plant matter removed from the stomachs of cattle slaughtered at Tyson's plant. After a few weeks of feeding on the animal waste, the larvae would be slaughtered and ground up into insect meal, destined to become food for pets and livestock. Tyson and Protix did not respond to questions for this story. The US Department of Agriculture awarded Innovafeed a $11.7 million grant to turn insect waste into fertilizer at the plant, but a year and a half after it opened, it suspended operations, citing funding challenges. And a quarter of that backing had come from the French government. A recent whistleblower investigation alleged severe mismanagement at Ÿnsect's production facility that led to filthy conditions and health problems for workers. The company didn't respond to a request for comment. Vertical farming, for example, seemed like a great idea on paper, but it's been an economic failure. “It is not at all unusual that some new thing gets hyped as the silver bullet that's going to solve such and such environmental problem,” Crummett said, especially when it's a striking idea — eating insects — and is backed by influential institutional actors, like the United Nations and university researchers. But it's undeniable that the insect agriculture sector's ambitions have fallen far from disrupting the meat and livestock feed supply to a future in smaller niche markets, like pet food, novelty human foods, waste management, and livestock feed additives. It all amounts to a massive retrenchment from its ambitious goals of revolutionizing the food system to now merely tinkering at its edges. But in another way, it was never truly ambitious enough. Decades of environmental and food systems research has concluded that what we ultimately need is fewer animals — be them chickens; pigs; birds; fishes; or, yes, bugs — in farms and on our plates. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change. Apply here to receive a free annual Membership, made possible by another reader. The very old law that might just save these beagles. The giant loophole that lets Big Dairy keep baby cows in solitary confinement
Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg is answering your questions about The Atlantic's Signalgate reporting, one year later. The regime is overmatched militarily, but still has tools for returning fire. But the announcer's intended audience was likely no more than a handful of people using a centuries-old system to decipher his otherwise incoherent message. The eerie and still-unattributed radio transmission came from a numbers station. The intended recipient turns on their radio at a set time to a specific station and writes down the numbers they hear. When used properly, this old-school method creates an unbreakable secret code. But numbers stations—which are recurring elements of Cold War–era spycraft in movies and TV shows—have been largely replaced by digital encryption and internet-based covert-communication systems. Both sides in this struggle have employed unconventional means. But the Iranian regime has been particularly reliant on asymmetric attacks, including against civilians. For years, the Iranian government has used foreign agents, including those working undercover, to try to kidnap or kill government officials, activists, and journalists abroad. U.S. and European officials I spoke with this week are bracing for a return to that playbook as the regime fights for its survival in a war against adversaries that boast superior military capabilities. Within the past eight years, Iranian agents—some of whom were mercenaries recruited online—have allegedly tried to assassinate former National Security Adviser John Bolton in Washington, bomb a political rally near Paris, kidnap an Iranian American journalist from her home in New York, and kill Israeli business people in Colombia and Cyprus. On Friday, a Pakistani man was found guilty in New York of plotting with Iran to kill President Trump and other public officials. Although some of these thwarted attacks were comically ham-handed, Western government officials have taken Iran's plotting seriously enough to warn their citizens. In December 2022, the head of MI5, Britain's domestic-security agency, announced publicly that authorities had uncovered at least 10 potential threats to kidnap or kill British nationals and people living in the United Kingdom. Western officials feared that a successful Iranian attack would escalate tensions and potentially lead to armed conflict. Now that the war is here, officials told me Tehran likely believes that it has little to lose by attacking overseas, including by striking civilian targets. The country has long had a sophisticated and diverse cyber force, which U.S. officials have linked to operations that have crashed bank websites and probed critical infrastructure, including the control systems of a dam in New York State. Iran is also accused of interfering in U.S. elections, though not on the scale of more sophisticated actors such as Russia. So far in the war, experts have reported ideologically aligned “hacktivist” groups claiming to act on Iran's behalf, including by defacing websites, but have not seen clear evidence of government actions. “The Iranian response thus far has been fairly muted,” Adam Meyers, an executive at the computer-security company CrowdStrike, said at a conference in California last week. But, as with physical attacks, it's the potential for Iran's government to cause damage that has U.S. officials on guard. Iran has long viewed civilian targets as both legitimate and a high priority. Mohammad Hossein Tajik, a now-deceased former commander of an Iranian cyber unit, once told me that in the past decade, Iran was responsible for attacks on the electrical system in Turkey; a damaging assault on the computer systems of Saudi Arabia's state oil company; and an innovative financial heist targeting SWIFT, a communications network used by the world's banks. Tajik also told me that Iran had shared hacking techniques with Russia over many years. More recently, Iran has provided Russia with technology and expertise to build drones used against Ukraine. And on Friday, The Washington Post reported that Russia has given intelligence to Iran to help strike U.S. forces in the Middle East. The potential for joint Iranian-Russian cyberattacks cannot be ruled out. “It is to me the key question,” Nate Swanson, a former career State Department official who served as Iran director at the National Security Council, told me when we spoke on Friday morning. Swanson said he was surprised to see Iran strike Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, among other countries in the Gulf region, as soon as the war began rather than turn first to proxy attacks, assassinations, or cyberattacks abroad. Iran's capabilities could have been degraded in the initial assault, he said. (The Israel Defense Forces reportedly bombed agencies that play a role in domestic cybersurveillance and overseas attacks.) Iran's military and intelligence leaders may not have begun asymmetric attacks yet because they're waiting for the United States and Israel to draw down their own weapons stores. Trump has said he expects the military campaign to take about four weeks. “If you take the president at his word, that means there will be multiple phases of this campaign,” Jonathan Panikoff, a former senior intelligence officer covering the Middle East, told me. “You could see the same thing from proxy organizations” such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Panikoff said. Shortly after we finished speaking came reports that Hezbollah had begun firing on Israel. Panikoff told me he was concerned that communities in northern Israel would again be threatened, as they were when Hezbollah attacked after the October 7 terrorist assault by Hamas. It's not clear how much remains in Hezbollah's arsenal after the extensive Israeli air campaign aimed at destroying its missiles and launchers, Panikoff said. But now that the proxy attacks have begun, one wonders if assassination plots and cyberattacks might soon follow. And what about that weird business with the numbers station? What is its role, if any, in Iran's plans? Considering that Iran is overwhelmed by technologically superior forces, reverting to a tried-and-true communications system would not be outlandish. That makes it harder to know whether Iran is running the station. That suggests an even more intriguing potential twist: Perhaps Iran isn't sending messages to agents abroad, but an adversary is sending messages to agents in Iran. The government has imposed an internet blackout in the country, which could challenge, say, Israeli or American intelligence agencies trying to contact their agents in Iran. In recent decades, the United States has used internet-based systems to communicate with its operatives. (Years ago, Iranians discovered how the system works and arrested or killed many spies.) But the CIA has also used satellite-based systems for its most valuable human assets. One U.S. official I spoke with wondered whether the station was just a red herring meant to make the United States and Israel believe that Iran was activating foreign sleeper cells. As of late last week, the station had broadcast numbers seven times since the war started, but then went quiet. On Saturday, some of the trackers and I dutifully tuned in at 1800 coordinated universal time (1 p.m. in Washington, D.C.) to see whether V32 might reappear at its customary broadcast hour. They tried different methods to locate the transmission's origin, without success. We listened for ambient noises that might give us some hint as to who was reading. Others said they heard the sound of a Microsoft Windows prompt. Not especially revealing clues, but ones that offered more information than we'd had about V32 when the broadcast started. After about 90 minutes, the reader stopped, and we heard only static. Security officials are trying to make sense of baffling developments like the numbers station as they work to forestall potential attacks. Undoubtedly it has caused tremendous damage to Iran's military, its security apparatus, and its leadership, with comparatively little loss of life on the American side. But no one I've talked with thinks Iran has been so crippled that it cannot inflict pain and damage beyond its borders. If this week was just the first phase of a long war, don't expect Iran to use every weapon in its arsenal at once.
At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can't do it on our own. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today? A study of 12 million newborns shows they listened. Because the birth dose is given inside the hospital, before the family goes home, there's no appointment to miss, no chance of a scheduling mix-up — ways other childhood vaccines can be missed. If a newborn didn't get this shot, in most cases, someone actively declined or delayed it. The researchers tracked 12.4 million newborns — roughly a third of all US births — across hospitals in all 50 states that use Epic, one of the country's largest electronic health record systems. Using years of prior data, the researchers modeled where vaccination rates should have been heading, and compared those projections to what was actually happening. That translates to roughly “400,000 or more babies a year declining or delaying the hepatitis B [birth] vaccine,” said Joshua Rothman, a pediatrician at UC San Diego School of Medicine and the study's lead author. Our political wellness landscape has shifted: new leaders, shady science, contradictory advice, broken trust, and overwhelming systems. How is anyone supposed to make sense of it all? Vox's senior correspondent Dylan Scott has been on the health beat for a long time, and every week, he'll wade into sticky debates, answer fair questions, and contextualize what's happening in American health care policy. All of this happened before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over the nation's health agencies. In January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped universally recommending the hepatitis B birth dose — along with five other childhood vaccines. “This is a classic example of what we in the literature have come to refer to as a Covid-19 vaccine spillover effect,” said Matt Motta, a public health researcher at Boston University who studies vaccine hesitancy. Researchers have documented distrust of the Covid shot bleeding into general skepticism of flu vaccines, childhood MMR shots, even vaccination for pets. Polls have sent mixed signals about whether that skepticism is actually changing behavior — but a study like this captures what parents are doing, not what they are telling a pollster. The rising skepticism hasn't hit every vaccine equally, and hepatitis B has made for an unusually easy political target. “It is one of the vaccines that lends itself very well to political opposition,” Motta said. Both Kennedy and Casey Means, President Donald Trump's nominee for surgeon general, have made this case publicly. The scientific answer — that hepatitis B can also spread during birth and through close household contact in infancy — is true, but harder to fit on a bumper sticker. Americans have been arguing about vaccination since George Washington's day, when they called it inoculation. But historically, that skepticism existed outside the federal agencies. What's different now is that “America's leading government health agencies are populated by people who are deeply skeptical of vaccination,” Motta said. “There is, in my mind, no precedent for this.” In January, the CDC made it official: The agency cut the number of vaccines it universally recommends for children from 17 to 11, moving hepatitis B and five others to what it calls “shared clinical decision-making” — essentially a case-by-case decision made by parents and doctors. The US has tried versions of this before, and there's a reason we moved away from it. In the 1980s, doctors tested only high-risk pregnant women for hepatitis B. But up to half of infections are asymptomatic, so they kept missing cases. That helped, but 50 to 100 infants were still getting infected each year — the result of mothers with false negatives, babies exposed after birth, and families who fell through the cracks. So in 1991, the US started vaccinating every newborn, and it worked. Without a uniform federal standard, which vaccines a child receives will be shaped less by scientific consensus than by the politics of the state they're born in. Supporters of the change, including Kennedy, have pointed to countries like Denmark that don't universally vaccinate newborns for hepatitis B. But Motta said that comparison misses a critical difference: Denmark has universal tax-funded health coverage for all residents, a national vaccine registry, and the screening infrastructure to catch cases the vaccine would otherwise prevent. “If you were to tell me the United States was going to make the type of investment that Denmark has in its health infrastructure,” Motta said, “then I would say, okay, let's revisit. But that is not the reality we live in.” That's partly because in the US, vaccines have long served as a kind of substitute safety net — what David Wallace-Wells, writing in the New York Times, has called a way of “limiting the downside consequences of all of our country's notorious shortcomings.” A hepatitis B shot at birth means it matters less whether a family member is unknowingly carrying the virus. An MMR vaccine means measles is less dangerous even for a child who is malnourished or far from a doctor. More than 27 million Americans were uninsured at some point in 2024, and even within the CDC's own perinatal hepatitis B prevention program, only 65 percent of exposed infants received the recommended follow-up blood testing. A study published in December estimated that the CDC's changes could lead to hundreds of additional infant hepatitis B infections each year — and even that, the authors warned, is probably an undercount. Their model couldn't factor in rising vaccine hesitancy, or the fact that babies who miss the first dose are less likely to get fully vaccinated. And hepatitis B is just one of six childhood vaccines the CDC dropped from its recommended list, alongside rotavirus, influenza, and hepatitis A, among others. Several states, including Massachusetts and New York, have said they'll follow the AAP's recommendations rather than the revised federal schedule. And now, hepatitis B could see a similar surge. Every state with a Democratic governor has broken with the CDC guidelines and maintained the old hepatitis B vaccine recommendation, whereas most Republican-led states have not. Without a uniform federal standard, which vaccines a child receives will be shaped less by scientific consensus than by the politics of the state they're born in. Here at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you — threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country. Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change. We rely on readers like you — join us. Apply here to receive a free annual Membership, made possible by another reader. Well, what kind of sugar are we talking about? William Foege helped give us a world without smallpox. We're marking his death by letting measles come back.
Two men face charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction after a pair of homemade bombs were tossed during protests near New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's home Saturday, court documents show. Law enforcement later asked Balat if he was familiar with the Boston Marathon bombing and if that was what he hoped to accomplish. It was only three deaths,” according to the complaint. Authorities are investigating the incident as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism, NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday. The first improvised explosive device was thrown as anti-Islam protesters clashed with counterprotesters and did not explode. “Preliminary test results determined that these were not hoax devices, nor smoke bombs. They were improvised explosive devices that could have caused serious injury or death,” Tisch said at a news conference with the mayor. Homemade explosive hurled near NYC mayor's home during protests could have caused ‘serious injury or death,' police say A third device – found Sunday – is being investigated “in connection with” Saturday's incident, NYPD said. That device tested negative for explosive material, Tisch said. The violence Saturday erupted during an anti-Islam protest organized by a right-wing provocateur that was dwarfed by a crowd of more than 100 counterprotesters, officials said. Mamdani, who is the city's first Muslim mayor, said he and his wife, Rama Duwaji, were not at Gracie Mansion at the time. “The police department has determined that these were improvised explosive devices made to injure, maim or worse,” Mamdani said at the news conference. An anti-Islam protest organized by right-wing influencer Jake Lang drew about 20 participants. It was outnumbered by a counterprotest called “Drive the Nazis Out of New York,” which peaked at about 125 people, the police commissioner said. The dueling groups were separated into designated areas, but tensions escalated shortly before noon. Around 12:15 p.m., a protester associated with Lang's group pepper-sprayed counterprotesters, Tisch said. Video shows protesters and police officers scrambling to get away from where the device landed. “Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke as it traveled through the air before it struck a barrier and extinguished itself a few feet from police officers,” the commissioner said. Officers arrested Balat and Kayumi, who are both from Pennsylvania, police said. “Emir Balat is a student in Neshaminy School District, currently 12th grade,” a district spokesperson said in an email to CNN. A large law enforcement presence was seen Sunday around one of the arrested teenagers' homes in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, according to CNN affiliate KYW. CNN has reached out to the FBI for information. Authorities in Pennsylvania's Middletown Township and Newtown areas “have indicated that there is no known threat to the surrounding community,” Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick posted Sunday night on Facebook. The police commissioner declined to detail what made investigators believe the incident may be inspired by ISIS, but said more details could emerge Monday afternoon after a criminal complaint is unsealed. The anti-Islam protester accused of using pepper spray was also arrested, Tisch said. Another three people were arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic. Both devices recovered Saturday were slightly smaller than footballs and appeared to be jars wrapped in black tape containing bolts, screws and a hobby fuse, Tisch said, citing the NYPD bomb squad's preliminary analysis. “TATP is a dangerous and highly volatile homemade explosive that has been used in IED attacks around the world,” Tisch said. Mamdani said Saturday's anti-Islam protest was “rooted in bigotry and racism” – but what followed was “even more disturbing,” he said in a statement Sunday. Kathy Hochul said while “the Islamophobic protests that triggered all this is abhorrent,” she also condemned those who reacted violently. Mamdani lauded the bravery of NYPD officers who “faced a chaotic situation that very quickly could have become far more dangerous.” Luis Navarro, who “ran towards the danger so that others could run to safety.” On Sunday, the NYPD said it was investigating the third device in a vehicle a few blocks south of Gracie Mansion “in connection with” Saturday's incident. This was the first time in nearly a decade that IEDs targeted residents in the nation's largest city, Tisch said. “No one other than the attacker was injured in that incident. And once again, we were fortunate that the devices used this weekend did not cause the kind of harm that they were certainly capable of causing.” “We will continue to deploy additional counterterrorism resources throughout New York City, including heavy weapons teams, canine units, aviation and more,” the police chief said. “New York State remains in a heightened threat environment.” More than 1,000 members of the National Guard have been deployed on state active duty, protecting critical transit sites across New York City, Hochul said. And state police “are increasing their presence at sensitive sites across New York.” Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Ibrahim Kayumi's last name. CNN's Sharif Paget, Katherine Koretski, Emma Tucker, Chris Boyette and Cindy Von Quednow contributed to this report.
Two homemade bombs tossed during protests outside New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Manhattan home on Saturday are being investigated as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism, NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday. The first improvised explosive device was thrown as anti-Islam protesters clashed with counterprotesters and did not explode. Two men arrested in connection with the device admitted to being inspired by ISIS, law enforcement sources told CNN. “Preliminary test results determined that these were not hoax devices, nor smoke bombs. They were improvised explosive devices that could have caused serious injury or death,” Tisch said at a news conference with the mayor. And a third device – found Sunday – is being investigated “in connection with” Saturday's incident, NYPD said. That device tested negative for explosive material, Tisch said. The violence Saturday erupted during an anti-Islam protest organized by a right-wing provocateur that was dwarfed by a crowd of more than 100 counterprotesters, officials said. Homemade explosive hurled near NYC mayor's home during protests could have caused ‘serious injury or death,' police say Mamdani, who is the city's first Muslim mayor, said he and his wife, Rama Duwaji, were not at Gracie Mansion at the time. “The police department has determined that these were improvised explosive devices made to injure, maim or worse,” Mamdani said at the news conference. An anti-Islam protest organized by right-wing influencer Jake Lang drew about 20 participants. It was outnumbered by a counterprotest called “Drive the Nazis Out of New York,” which peaked at about 125 people, the police commissioner said. The dueling groups were separated into designated areas, but tensions escalated shortly before noon. Around 12:15 p.m., a protester associated with Lang's group pepper-sprayed counterprotesters, Tisch said. Video shows protesters and police officers scrambling to get away from where the device landed. “Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke as it traveled through the air before it struck a barrier and extinguished itself a few feet from police officers,” the commissioner said. Officers arrested both men, 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi. “Emir Balat is a student in Neshaminy School District, currently 12th grade,” a district spokesperson said in an email to CNN. A large law enforcement presence was seen Sunday around one of the arrested teenagers' homes in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, according to CNN affiliate KYW. CNN has reached out to the FBI for information. Authorities in Pennsylvania's Middletown Township and Newtown areas “have indicated that there is no known threat to the surrounding community,” Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick posted Sunday night on Facebook. The police commissioner declined to detail what made investigators believe the incident may be inspired by ISIS, but said more details could emerge Monday afternoon after a criminal complaint is unsealed. The anti-Islam protester accused of using pepper spray was also arrested, Tisch said. Another three people were arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic. Both devices recovered Saturday were slightly smaller than footballs and appeared to be jars wrapped in black tape containing bolts, screws and a hobby fuse, Tisch said, citing the NYPD bomb squad's preliminary analysis. “TATP is a dangerous and highly volatile homemade explosive that has been used in IED attacks around the world,” Tisch said. Mamdani said Saturday's anti-Islam protest was “rooted in bigotry and racism” – but what followed was “even more disturbing,” he said in a statement Sunday. Kathy Hochul said while “the Islamophobic protests that triggered all this is abhorrent,” she also condemned those who reacted violently. Mamdani lauded the bravery of NYPD officers who “faced a chaotic situation that very quickly could have become far more dangerous.” Luis Navarro, who “ran towards the danger so that others could run to safety.” On Sunday, the NYPD said it was investigating the third device in a vehicle a few blocks south of Gracie Mansion “in connection with” Saturday's incident. This was the first time in nearly a decade that IEDs targeted residents in the nation's largest city, Tisch said. “No one other than the attacker was injured in that incident. And once again, we were fortunate that the devices used this weekend did not cause the kind of harm that they were certainly capable of causing.” “We will continue to deploy additional counterterrorism resources throughout New York City, including heavy weapons teams, canine units, aviation and more,” the police chief said. “New York State remains in a heightened threat environment.” More than 1,000 members of the National Guard have been deployed on state active duty, protecting critical transit sites across New York City, Hochul said. And state police “are increasing their presence at sensitive sites across New York.” CNN's Sharif Paget, Katherine Koretski, Emma Tucker, Chris Boyette and Cindy Von Quednow contributed to this report.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth said “there will be more casualties” in the U.S. operation against Iran, with seven American service members having died so far in the fighting. “The president's been right to say there will be casualties,” Hegseth said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS News's 60 Minutes. “Things like this don't happen without casualties.” Hgseth's comments come after U.S. Central Command announced on Sunday that a seventh U.S. service member had died as a result of “injuries received during the Iranian regime's initial attacks across the Middle East” on March 1 in the war with Iran. Last week, the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran following months of tension between Tehran and Washington, which was heightened following President Donald Trump's strikes on the country's nuclear facilities last year. “There will be more casualties, and no one is — I mean, especially our generation knows what it's like to see Americans come home in caskets, it's — but that doesn't weaken us one bit, it stiffens our spine and our resolve to say this is a fight we will finish,” Hegseth added. This follows Trump witnessing the return of six service members' bodies on Saturday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware after they were killed in an Iranian drone strike. Following the seventh casualty, announced Sunday evening, the U.S. State Department issued an order for nonemergency staff and families to leave Saudi Arabia, following a military projectile that fell onto a residential area. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that Iran could defend itself if a U.S. ground incursion occurred. “[It would] have to be [for] a very good reason,” Trump told reporters on Saturday.