Iran's Shahed drone: How 'the poor man’s cruise missile’ is shaping Tehran’s retaliation

After years on the front lines of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Iranian Shahed-136 drone is at the center of Tehran's retaliation against recent U.S. strikes.

Iran v Australia: Women’s Asian Cup 2026 – live

• Matildas lead 3-0 at half-time on the Gold Coast

• Any thoughts? Get in touch with an email

It’s obviously going to case a shadow over tonight’s match so, as a reminder, The Guardian is bringing you live updates on the crisis in the Middle East.

“These women are prisoners,” says Cyrus Jones, a human rights activist who will be attending the match. “Iranian security is up on their floor [of the hotel] at night. They can’t leave their rooms. They can’t use the public bathrooms. They’re monitored when they go for breakfast, when they get on the bus. They’re monitored in a way no other players from other teams are.

Middle East crisis live: Israel launches fresh strikes on Tehran; Iran targets Kurdish groups in Iraq

Tehran says it hit groups ‘opposed to the revolution’, amid reports the US is looking to arm Kurdish militias

• Tell us: how have you been affected by the latest events in the Middle East?

Iran says it has targeted Kurdish groups in Iraq and warned “separatist groups” against action in the widening war.

Tehran said on Thursday it had hit Iraq-based Kurdish groups “opposed to the revolution”, as reports said the US was looking to arm Kurdish militias to infiltrate Iran.

We will not tolerate them in any way.

Spain rejects White House claim it agreed to cooperate with U.S. forces amid Iran war

The White House says Spain will now cooperate with the U.S. militarily over the Iran conflict. Madrid swiftly rejected this claim.

Airstrikes hit Iran-Iraq border as US and Israeli plan to mobilise Kurds gathers pace

Experts say backing Iran’s ethnic communities could ‘open up a hornet’s nest’ and increase risk of chaotic civil war

Intense waves of airstrikes have hit dozens of military positions, frontier posts and police stations along northern parts of Iran’s border with Iraq in what appears to be preparation by US and Israel for a new front in their war.

A US official with knowledge of the discussions between Washington and Kurdish officials said the US was ready to provide air support if Kurdish fighters crossed the border from northern Iraq.

EU countries to send naval assets to help protect Cyprus – Europe live

Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands will send naval support to the EU country

Meanwhile, France has allowed US aircraft on some of its bases in the Middle East during the conflict opposing the United States and Israel with Iran, the French military said.

“As part of our relations with the United States, the presence of their aircraft has been temporarily authorised on our bases” in the region, a spokeswoman for the military general staff told AFP.

“These aircraft contribute to the protection of our partners in the Gulf.”

“The frigate Cristóbal Colón joined the Charles de Gaulle Naval Group on 3 March to carry out escort, protection, and advanced training duties in the Baltic Sea. The group will now head to the Mediterranean, arriving off the coast of Crete around 10 March.

The supply ship Cantabria will also briefly put to sea to provide fuel and logistical support during the Naval Group’s transit through the Gulf of Cádiz.

Wall Street is betting on tariff refunds after Supreme Court ruling

When the Supreme Court struck down many of President Trump's tariffs, it left importers wondering how long they'd have to wait to get their money back. Hedge funds are offering to help out.

Husband of Labour MP released on bail after arrest on suspicion of spying for China

David Taylor and two other men arrested on Wednesday have been freed on bail until May, Met police say

The husband of a Labour MP and two other men have been released on bail after being arrested on suspicion of spying for China.

David Taylor, who is married to the Scottish Labour MP Joani Reid, is accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service.

Oil price continues to rise amid Middle East crisis but stock markets rebound across Asia

Reports of attack on US registered tanker in Gulf lifts crude by 3% to $84 a barrel as gas price also starts to climb

• Business live – latest updates

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Stock markets have rebounded in Asia after days of heavy losses driven by the war in the Middle East, but oil and gas prices have continued to climb amid disruption to supplies.

South Korea’s KOSPI, which posted its biggest ever fall on Tuesday of 12%, soared almost 10% on Thursday, while Japan’s Nikkei climbed by 1.9%. MSCI’s Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan jumped by 2.7%.

‘There is no shame in being vain’: the relentless rise of impossible male beauty standards

Men’s faces are under scrutiny as never before, with more opting for cosmetic procedures than ever. What is behind this sudden and significant shift?

The images are familiar: square-jawed white men, faces set hard, barking the language of strength and command. Over the past week, as the United States has pressed its military campaign in the Middle East, the face of defense secretary Pete Hegseth has appeared on screen after screen delivering the rhetoric of the warrior-patriarch. It is a face already known for other performances: posing in the gym alongside Robert F Kennedy Jr for the Department of War YouTube channel; lecturing the military about “fat generals”; hosting a weekend show on Fox News.

But here, borrowing the glory of the troops, Hegseth presented the general’s mask – the jutting jaw, the unflinching gaze – albeit without, some critics would suggest, the military experience or strategic judgment it usually signifies. Donald Trump, too, has offered his own version of the strongman face; the commanding presence, white and unyielding, though recently people have been rather more distracted by the new rash on his neck.

From bupkis to $100m blockbuster: has the World Baseball Classic finally arrived

The tournament is celebrating its 20th anniversary and some of the best players on the planet are competing for a title that means something

For years, while football fans salivated over Fifa World Cups, and basketball and hockey enthusiasts enjoyed an endless parade of NBA and NHL stars at the Olympics, baseball fans had bupkis, with no legitimate international tournament to speak of. Instead, there was something called the Baseball World Cup. Played without a Yankee, Cub or Dodger in sight, but with representatives from teams including the Montgomery Biscuits, Mexico Red Devils and Winnipeg Goldeyes, few fans in North America knew it existed, or when it was played. The only team with legit talent, Cuba, with players who could play in Major League Baseball, but did not because of politics, dominated the tournament.

Then in 2006 came a breakthrough with the debut of the 16-nation World Baseball Classic, which featured legitimate professional stars. The platform was built, the mysterious Cubans finally got to play in the US and the fans came. The tournament averaged nearly 19,000 fans a game, and that included the empty seat, Australia-Italy type match-ups. The face paint was bright, the vibes were October-like and the games were compelling; Japan held off Cuba as they took the maiden crown. The WBC passed its first test with a flourish and moved boldly into the future.

Who is responsible for our creeping surveillance age? Chances are, it’s you | Tatum Hunter

Invasive behaviour that would have shocked us a decade ago now barely registers. And that includes the way we digitally track and monitor each other

A TikTok comedian recently launched a fake ICE tip line and received dozens of calls – including one from a teacher suggesting agents look into a kindergartener in her class. Governments and companies are the architects of surveillance culture, but civilians are increasingly keen to play a part. And it’s not just our perceived political enemies we’re willing to watch. It’s our friends, neighbours, partners and children.

As corporations and governments tunnel further into our digital lives – hoarding information about where we shop, who we know and what we believe – we’ve grown increasingly comfortable demanding the same access in our personal lives. While multiple apps log our location throughout the day, we demand that our friends also share their real-time movements through Apple’s Find My feature. While OpenAI uses our chat logs to train its models, we peek into the text messages of our partners. And while Palantir analyses social media data to help ICE identify its targets, we record strangers in public without their consent.

Tatum Hunter is a technology journalist based in Brooklyn. She writes on Substack at Bytatumhunter

March (Audio) Madness! Here are the finalists in NPR's College Podcast Challenge

From 75 campuses across 35 states, we've listened to hundreds of student entries to select the very best for NPR's College Podcast Challenge.

Announcing the 2025 NPR College Podcast Challenge Honorable Mentions

Here are some of the best entries in NPR's 2025 College Podcast Challenge.

'Gringo go home': Mexico’s growing tourism backlash – video

Tourism in Mexico is at an all-time high, with foreign visitors lured by the country’s rich culture and low costs. The Guardian visits Oaxaca, a state synonymous with indigenous culture, where tourism has grown 77% since the pandemic and once private family rituals such as the Day of the Dead are now big international parties. But with this opportunity comes a growing backlash across the country, as local people struggle with a cost of living crisis that is exacerbated by the tourism industry’s exponential growth

3/4: CBS Evening News

U.S. submarine sinks Iranian warship as Tehran widens ring of retaliation; CBS News producer George Osterkamp dies at 82

Gloria Don’t Speak by Lucy Apps review – tender portrait of a woman with a learning disability

Longlisted for the Women’s prize, this ambitious debut journeys into the inner world of a vulnerable teenager who is left traumatised by a toxic friendship

Lucy Apps’s debut novel tells the story of 19-year-old Gloria, who is living in east London with her mum in the summer of 1999. Gloria has a learning disability and is past the age when the state might offer her support. Often she is happy enough “to stop outdoors where it is nice and busy, and watch things happen and be part of it”.

But sometimes people steal from her, or shout abuse. Then she has a “heavy feeling inside her” because she has no option except “to walk around the parks and streets on her own trying not to attract too much attention”. When she develops a friendship with Jack, she is happy because: “He has no one to talk to and she has no one to listen to, so they can fit with each other.”

Globalisation is under threat from Iran war – and Britain is uniquely vulnerable

Economic ripples from US-Israel attacks will soon become waves, engulfing everything from energy prices to food

In retaliation for the US-Israeli missile attacks, Iran has launched what amounts to all-out economic warfare. Should the conflict continue even for another week, its impacts will start to be felt around the world as the third price surge since the pandemic washes through global markets.

For Britain, a further turn of the screw on living standards arrives just as political instability mounts at home, with the Labour and Conservative parties facing existential challenges to their left and right.

Vladimir review – Rachel Weisz is unswervingly brilliant in a TV show you’ll admire for years to come

This adaptation of the 2022 novel – starring Weisz, Leo Woodall and John Slattery – fits it perfectly to television. It’s a proper show for proper grownups

Vladimir is that rare visitor to the screen – proper television for proper grownups. The eight-part adaptation of Julia May Jonas’s provocative 2022 debut novel of the same name has not shied away from the properties that made the book great – black comedy, bleak insight, evisceration of accepted pieties – and fitted them perfectly to the new form. The screenwriter, Jeanie Bergen, who has obviously absorbed the book into her very bones, retains all of Jonas’s wit, confidence and, crucially, her willingness to dwell in grey areas and luxuriate in the complexities that govern life in middle age.

She also has Rachel Weisz, giving an unswervingly brilliant performance as the unnamed protagonist, a tenured English professor beloved by her students, whose husband, John (John Slattery, playing his one part, but he does it so well and so much better than anyone else, who are we to object to seeing it again?), another tenured academic on the same campus – has just been suspended for sleeping with students. His defence is that this was before the rules changed. “It was a different time” is a recurring phrase – not just from him (for here is the beginning of Jonas and Bergen’s devotion to rug-pulling) but from his wife and other members of their faculty and peer group, male and female.

Football’s converging moral panics hold up a mirror to our fractured world | Jonathan Liew

From grappling at corners to VAR, the endless list of complaints reflects a wider sense of dislocation from ‘the product’

A terrible boredom stalks the land. Across the nation’s television studios and podcast armchairs, wearied men grizzle accursedly with forked tongues into branded microphones: entombed by a game they despise and yet are paid so generously to discuss. Out there in the wild digital beyond, the sickness festers still deeper. The game has gone, they type into a little white box. This is not the football I once loved, click send. The beautiful game is broken, pleads the Telegraph. They think it’s all over, and perhaps it always was.

Arne Slot is no longer enjoying himself, and presumably a good proportion of the Liverpool fans at Molineux on Tuesday night know exactly how he feels. John Terry is no longer enjoying himself. Yaya Touré is “disappointed”. Ruud Gullit is so disgusted he has decided to stop watching. Chris Sutton thinks Arsenal will be the ugliest winners in Premier League history. Mark Goldbridge is bored out of his mind, albeit nowhere near as bored as you would presumably need to be to watch a Mark Goldbridge livestream.

QPR’s Jonathan Varane: ‘Football is a big part of my life, but it’s not everything’

Midfielder tapped into history while frustrated by injury but hopes to help a young side rediscover promising form

Jonathan Varane’s 2026 didn’t get off to the best start. Four days into the new year, the QPR midfielder sprained a knee during a 3-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday and was a frustrated spectator for more than a month.

Varane had been desperate to play his part, with QPR hoping to push for the playoffs, but the 24-year-old took the opportunity to indulge in two of his other passions: reading and history. That included a trip with his teammate Paul Nardi to the British Museum, where the ancient Egyptian artefacts proved of particular fascination.

Why Bugonia should win the best picture Oscar

Contains spoilers: Emma Stone’s hard-faced corporate CEO has a lot of explaining to do when she is kidnapped by Jesse Plemons’s conspiracy kook. But in this film, asking whether someone is an alien seems an ordinary inquiry

Emma Stone as a kidnapped, shaven-headed pharmaceuticals CEO who might also be the ruler of an alien master race? It says a lot about director Yorgos Lanthimos that Bugonia was arguably his most straightforward film to date.

For this remake of the cult 2003 South Korean movie Save the Green Planet! we were invited into the unkempt home of beekeeper Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a paranoid conspiracy theorist whose internet research has led him to believe that aliens are poisoning his bees – and that only he can save life on Earth from extinction. He enlists his neurodivergent cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) to kidnap high-flying Michelle Fuller (Stone), whose company Auxolith seems to have caused Teddy’s mother some kind of irreversible harm in the past.

‘In the face of death, we are all equal’: Ukraine’s Roma fight for recognition for those serving in war

With many lacking official documentation or unable to speak Ukrainian, the families of men killed in action are struggling to get the compensation they are owed

As a father of four, Viktor Ilchak was not supposed to serve in the army. Ukraine does not mobilise men who have three or more children. His wife and children cried and begged him not to go to war. But he had made up his mind. “A typical Capricorn, so stubborn,” says his wife, Sveta.

It was 2015, the war in Donbas was growing in intensity. “I heard someone on TV complaining that Roma aren’t defending their homeland. This pissed me off, and so I volunteered,” says Ilchak. In the territorial recruitment centre in Uzhhorod the Ukrainian soldiers were surprised, but they had to take him.

China sets a lower economic growth target of 4.5% to 5% for 2026 as challenges loom

China has signaled continuity rather than change for its economy, setting a slightly lower target for growth this year in the midst of a property slump and other headwinds at home and growing uncertainty abroad.

Exercise and freedom: inside a children’s mental health centre in Gaza

A Palestine Red Crescent Society mental health centre provides one of the few places left where children in Gaza can play and feel safe

Tales of the Suburbs by John Grindrod review – an entertaining alternative history of queer Britain

From London’s commuter belt to the country village gay club, these portraits of LGBTQ+ life are filled with humour, compassion and observational flair

Generations of readers have loved Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City novels. His chronicle of queer life began in 1976 in the eclectic glamour of San Francisco’s Barbary Lane, where queer people learned who they were and how to live their lives. But even Maupin relocated in the end. The most recent instalment, Mona of the Manor, saw one of its key characters move to the Cotswolds to navigate a very different kind of village.

The social historian John Grindrod nods to Maupin in this fantastically entertaining alternative history of queer life in Britain, which departs from the usual tales of city-based freedom and discovery to tell the stories of people who grew up in the suburbs. “The suburbs” resist easy definition, and Grindrod handles this lightly. Sometimes they’re marked out by social class, sometimes by geography, each facet blurring into the other. His locations range from London’s commuter belt to hamlets, farms and towns, from the edges of Portsmouth and Hull to pockets of Glasgow and Wilmslow and a tiny village in Lincolnshire, where a gay builder is protected from homophobic abuse in the pub by the local darts team.

Breaking Social review – Rutger Bregman leads an irresistible rallying cry for global activism

Fredrik Gertten travels the world meeting activists who have had enough of corruption, kleptocracy and structural inequality – while Bregman’s nuggets of wisdom are a joy

Bicycling Dutch historian Rutger Bregman does not identify as an optimist. He says that optimism makes people lazy, complacent that history is going in the right direction. Instead he describes himself as a “possibilist”, a believer in the possibility that things can be different. Bregman is interviewed in this film about corruption, kleptocracy and structural inequality. The director is documentary-maker Fredrik Gertten who travels the world meeting activists who have had enough.

First, the cold hard facts. Journalist and corruption expert Sarah Chayes, a former adviser to the Obama administration, does an impressive job summarising her analysis of global kleptocracy. In Malta, the son of the murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, killed after exposing corruption at the highest levels of government, investigates the new scandal of “golden passports”. The film’s main focus is activism in Chile and the US. Amazon workers in New York unionise (and have a good laugh at their boss Jeff Bezos’s trip to space). In Chile, feminists march and climate activists go into battle against mining companies responsible for drought.

Social climber: Punch the monkey starts to outgrow his Ikea plushie

Japanese baby macaque, who appeared to find comfort in the djungelskog toy after being rejected by his mother, seems to be mixing more with his peers

Punch, a baby macaque that stole the hearts of animal lovers around the world, is outgrowing his Ikea djungelskog plushie that comforted him after he was initially rejected by his mother and other monkeys at a zoo in Japan.

Images of the seven-month-old dragging around a toy bigger than him drew attention to the residents of Ichikawa city zoo near Tokyo. When other monkeys shooed the baby away, Punch rushed back to the toy orangutan, hugging it for comfort.

Anthropic and the Pentagon are back at the negotiating table, FT reports

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is reportedly back at the negotiating table with the U.S. Department of Defense after the breakdown of talks on Friday.

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for apple, honey and poppy seed cake | A kitchen in Rome

The chemistry and alchemy of honey’s special kind of sweetness, and how it complements just the right kind of apples in a humble yet delicious cake

Honey is, among other things, a successful embalming agent. It is also a humectant, which isn’t an eager cyborg, but one of many short-chained organic compounds that are hygroscopic, meaning they attract and hold water, which in turn prevents hardening and encourages softness. Other hardworking humectants are glycerine, which is what keeps face creams creamy and hydrating, and sorbitol, which ensures toothpaste can be squeezed and smeared all over the sink and on the mirror. Honey, though, is the humectant that’s most suitable for this week’s recipe: a one-bowl, everyday cake inspired by my neighbour’s Polish honey cake, miodownik, combined with the tortino di mele e papavero (apple and poppy seed cake) enjoyed at a station bar in Bolzano.

Not only does honey keep the cake moist, its sweetness comes largely from fructose, which is naturally sweeter than refined sugar, so the perception of sweetness is much greater even when less is added. I have suggested 160g, but adjust as you see fit. The small amounts of amino acids in honey also mean that the chemical Maillard reaction is more pronounced as the cake bakes, resulting in caramelisation and a crust the colour of chestnut, as well as a deep, nutty flavour. While I am sure all varieties of honey will work well, I can particularly recommend chestnut honey and Greek pine honey, both of which have complicated, almost malty notes that pair well with the apple and the pleasing, slightly bitter but also soil-like taste of poppy seeds.

Gen Z males twice as likely as baby boomers to believe wives should obey husbands

Global survey shows young men and boys hold more traditional views about gender roles than older generations

Almost a third of generation Z men and boys think a wife should obey her husband, according to a global survey of 23,000 people that found young men hold more traditional views about gender roles than older generations.

A third (33%) of gen Z males also said a husband should have the final word on important decisions, according to the 29-country survey, which included Great Britain, the US, Brazil, Australia and India.

Almost a quarter (24%) of gen Z males think women should not appear too independent or self-sufficient, compared with 12% of baby boomer men.

Attitudes toward sexual norms also differed sharply across generations, with 21% of gen Z males thinking a “real woman” should never initiate sex, compared with only 7% of baby boomer men.

More than half (59%) of gen Z males said men were expected to do too much to support equality, compared with 45% of baby boomer men. For women, the proportions were 41% and 30% respectively.

Thirty percent of gen Z males believed men should not say “I love you” to their friends, compared with 20% of baby boomer men and 21% of gen Z women.

Twenty-one percent of gen Z males believed that men who took part in caregiving for children were less masculine than those who did not, compared with 8% of baby boomer men and 14% of gen Z females.

Both genders felt women had more choice in dating and relationships (22%), household roles (24%) and the clothes they can wear (34%), while men were considered to have more choice in hobbies (18%) and jobs (39%).

Read these words from 100 years ago about immigrants in Britain – and see how history is chillingly repeating itself | George Monbiot

Shabana Mahmood’s new rights clampdown looks outlandish until we remember that this kind of hardline action is part of our country’s fabric

Our political memory fails us. We treat government policies as if we’re seeing them for the very first time. But much of what appears to be novel has deep historical roots. If we fail to understand those roots and the soil in which they grow, we will fail to resist the assaults on our humanity.

The home secretary’s new attack on the rights of immigrants and refugees is shocking and disorienting. Shabana Mahmood wants to raise the qualification period for immigrants to achieve indefinite leave to remain in the UK from five years to 10 (and up to 20 for refugees). It looks outlandish. So does her wider assault on asylum seekers, denying them permanent refugee status even if their claims are successful. But both are eerily familiar.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

China sets lowest GDP growth target for decades as it braces for economic slowdown

‘High-quality growth’ target of 4.5-5% outlined at Two Sessions as Chinese premier talks of complex situations at home and abroad

• What are China’s Two Sessions and why do they matter?

China has set its target for GDP growth to a record low of 4.5-5%, the first time since 1991 that the figure has dropped below 5%, reflecting an economic strategy that is shifting away from export-led growth to a model that leaders hope will be more resilient to external shocks.

Li Qiang, China’s premier, announced the target for 2026 in the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s annual parliamentary gathering, which began on Thursday.

A Europe of clean, green cities and resurgent industry is a fantasy – unless we get really creative | Hans Larsson

If we want things to be ‘Made in Europe’ again, we need to be realistic about how grimy and grey our centres of commerce once were

“Bitterfeld, Bitterfeld, where dirt falls from the sky,” went a popular saying. Located in the intensely industrialised Chemical Triangle of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), in the 1980s Bitterfeld became known as the dirtiest town in Europe. Its chemical industry and lignite mines dumped toxic waste in waterways, and the air carried a concentrate of sulphur dioxide some 40 times today’s levels.

Europe would soon be rattled out of its postwar reliance on heavy industry, in favour of cheap imports from abroad. In the last days of the GDR, environmental activism brought the coup de grâce. The 1988 release of the undercover film Bitter Things from Bitterfeld shed light on the appalling living conditions in the Chemical Triangle, and the city’s chemical plants were soon decommissioned.

Hans Larsson is an architect at OMA/AMO

‘At first, she couldn’t come off the oxygen long enough’: the film that gives Marianne Faithfull one final thrilling performance

In new docu-drama Broken English, the much misunderstood singer looks back at all her past selves – and gives a performance that moves her audience to tears. Its makers relive an extraordinary shoot

When Marianne Faithfull died early in 2025, at the age of 78, she left the world one final musical performance. It comes at the end of a new film, Broken English, celebrating her six-decade career. It is a deeply moving scene, almost guaranteed to leave you in tears. You don’t need to be a full-on fan, up to that point, to have relished Faithfull’s unvarnished takes on her astonishing life – but that final husky-voiced number, with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis accompanying, should clinch it.

How do you make a film about Faithfull without rolling out all the cringey 1960s rock mythology? Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard seem to have nailed it. The film-makers initially had just three days with Faithfull, on a set at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire. She was living in a care home and needed oxygen intermittently, meaning the pair had to work quickly. “She was so ill when we first met her,” says Pollard.

Power without a throne: how Khalifa Haftar controls Libya – and is answerable to no one

When Nato helped overthrow Gaddafi in 2011, there were hopes of a new beginning. More than a decade later, a former CIA asset runs the country – and Libya has become yet another lesson in the unintended consequences of foreign intervention

In July 2025, four of Europe’s most senior officials landed in eastern Libya for an urgent meeting. Italy’s interior minister had watched migrant arrivals surge during the previous six months. Greece’s migration chief was reeling after 2,000 people reached Crete in a single week. Malta’s home minister feared his island was next. And the EU’s migration commissioner was scrambling to rescue an agreement worth many hundreds of millions that was visibly failing to stop the boats.

Libya is a place where crises converge. Its 1,100-mile coastline, the Mediterranean’s longest, has become the main departure point for migrants heading north. Since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011, the country has been torn apart by successive civil wars. Russia, Turkey, Egypt and the UAE arm rival factions, and the contest no longer stops at Libya’s borders. From military bases in the south, Russia and the UAE funnel weapons and fighters into Sudan’s civil war, which has driven hundreds of thousands more refugees north towards Libya’s coast.

What we know about U.S. service members killed in Iran war

The fallen soldiers identified by the Pentagon were Sgt. Declan Coady, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, Capt. Cody Khork, Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, Maj. Jeffrey R. O'Brien and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert M. Marzan.

Pentagon releases names of U.S. service members killed in Iran war

Six American service members have been killed in the U.S.-Iran conflict, U.S. Central Command said.

Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach, dies at age 89

Holtz coached Notre Dame from 1986 to 1996, winning 100 games with the school, including a 12-0 national title-winning season in 1988.

Ukraine war briefing: Russia claims LNG tanker in Mediterranean hit by drones

The Arctic Metagaz had been carrying 61,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas when it exploded; Ukrainian drones reported to have hit southern Russia. What we know on day 1,471

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has accused Ukraine of carrying out a attack on one of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, which exploded and sank into the Mediterranean Sea off Libya. Explosions were reported on the Arctic Metagaz, which had been carrying 61,000 tonnes of LNG, on Tuesday night when the ship was about 150 miles (240km) off the coast of Libya. Ukraine has not commented on the sinking on the ship, which had been under US and EU sanctions. Russia’s transport ministry had claimed that the Arctic Metagaz had been hit by Ukrainian drones launched from the Libyan coast.

Ukrainian drones damaged Russian civilian sites in the south-western region of Saratov, Roman Busgarin, the area’s governor said early on Thursday. Saratov airport and other airports in the southern and central regions were closed late on Wednesday and early on Thursday. Three injuries were reported.

A prolonged energy crisis caused by the widening war in the Middle East may offer the Russian war machine an economic lifeline just as it was beginning to show signs of strain over its war in Ukraine. Russia could receive a windfall if disruption in the Middle East pushes buyers towards its energy, while a possible slowdown in western arms supplies to Ukraine as the US military action in Iran continues could give Russia a further boost.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that trilateral talks with Washington and Moscow about ending Ukraine’s war in Russia would resume, once the situation in Iran and the Middle East permitted. The Ukrainian president also said that he spoke to the king of Bahrain and the crown prince of Kuwait about the conflict in the Middle East on Wednesday.

Ukraine has said it will boycott Friday’s opening ceremony of the Paralympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy, over the participation of Russian athletes. Athletes from Russia and Belarus had been banned from the 2022 Winter Paralympics over its war in Ukraine, but were allowed to compete as neutral athletes in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Poland were set to join Ukraine in its boycott on Friday.

Aston Martin reveal fears over nerve damage will prevent F1 team from finishing Australian GP

• Vibration from Honda engine causing issue with drivers’ fingers

• Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will be unable to complete race

Aston Martin have admitted that Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will not be able to complete even half the race at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix this weekend for fear of suffering permanent nerve damage because of a vibration problem with their car.

The team principal Adrian Newey, who also designed the team’s new car, revealed on Thursday in the Melbourne paddock that both drivers were suffering such severe vibration through the steering wheel that they would only be able to complete 25 and 15 laps respectively.

Rep. Tony Gonzales admits to affair with former staffer, calling it a "mistake"

Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that he had a relationship with a former staffer, but alleged the controversy that has engulfed the situation is "about power and money."

Nepal votes in election pitting entrenched old guard against a powerful youth movement

The general election is the first since gen-Z protests forced Nepal’s then-prime minister to quit

Nearly six months after a wave of unprecedented youth-led protests forced Nepal’s then prime minister to quit, people have begun voting in a general election that is shaping up to be a high-stakes showdown between the entrenched old guard and a powerful youth movement.

Key figures contesting the election include the Marxist former prime minister seeking a return to office, a rapper-turned-mayor bidding for the youth vote, and the newly elected leader of the powerful Nepali Congress party.

Hegseth says U.S. torpedo sank an Iranian warship as military campaign ramps up

In Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's second news briefing since the start of the Iran war, Hegseth said the U.S. had sunk an enemy ship by a torpedo for the first time since World War II.

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan sees AI chip revenue 'significantly' above $100 billion next year

Broadcom reported that AI revenue more than doubled in the latest quarter and is projecting continued growth as demand soars.

GOP Sen. Steve Daines of Montana won't seek reelection

Sen. Steve Daines said he had wrestled with the decision for months.

Israel's president: It's "time that everybody tells Iran, 'Guys, we're fed up'"

In an interview with CBS News Wednesday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that he is "not calling on any boots on the ground" in Iran.

Rep. Tony Gonzales admits to affair with staffer who died by suicide

Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales has come under fire for allegedly having a romantic relationship with a staffer who died by suicide last year

U.S. consumers already feeling impact of Iran conflict

In just one week, the national average for a gallon of regular gas is up about 22 cents. Kelly O'Grady explains.

CBS News producer George Osterkamp dies at 82

CBS News is remembering producer George Osterkamp, who worked at the network for more than three decades.

Texas lawmaker admits he had affair with aide who died by suicide

Tony Gonzales claims God has forgiven him for affair with Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, who set herself on fire

• US politics live – latest updates

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

The US House representative Tony Gonzales, a Republican from Texas, admitted to having an affair with an aide who died by suicide last year.

Gonzales acknowledged the affair in an interview with the conservative media personality known as Joe Pags.

Papua New Guinea offers cash for guns as amnesty opens to combat escalating tribal violence

Weapons amnesty and buyback scheme will run until August as PM James Marape says illegal guns ‘destroying families and villages’

Papua New Guinea has asked residents to surrender illegal firearms in a bid to remove tens of thousands of weapons from the country, as it grapples with escalating violence and tribal fighting in the Highlands region.

The police minister, Sir John Pundari, said the national gun amnesty and buyback scheme started on 27 February and it would run until late August.

Gates among 7 asked to testify before House committee on possible Epstein ties

Last week, Bill Gates apologized to the staff of his philanthropic Gates Foundation for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, which he said began in 2011 and continued through 2014.

Man arrested in Virginia is latest Jan. 6 defendant to face new charges

Jonathan Munafo is among the Jan. 6 riot defendants who have been arrested on charges in new cases in the months after their pardons.

Americans stranded in conflict zone struggle to get help from State Department

As the U.S. and Israel conduct their war against Iran, the Trump administration finds itself waging another battle, facing criticism over Americans stranded in the conflict zone. Matt Gutman reports.

US may not have capacity to take down full barrage of Iranian drones, officials warn

Chair of joint chiefs of staff and others in classified meeting said Iran is trying to get US to spend its munitions

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

Top military officials told lawmakers in a closed door briefing on Tuesday that they may not be able to shoot down every Iranian drone being launched against US military installations and assets in retaliatory attacks, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The officials, led by the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan Caine, said Iran has been deploying thousands of one-way attack drones and while they have capacity to take down the vast majority but not all of the barrage.

A timeline of Nancy Guthrie's disappearance as search stretches on

Savannah Guthrie's mom, Nancy Guthrie, was reported missing Feb. 1.

BBC to call for permanent charter and end of political appointments to board

Corporation proposes sweeping changes intended to protect its independence and shore up its future

The BBC is to call for an end to political appointments to its board as part of sweeping changes designed to protect its independence.

The corporation will also demand that its royal charter be put on a permanent footing in an attempt to end the existential threat posed by having to negotiate with ministers over its future every 10 years.

‘Only one team tried to play’: Hürzeler hits out at Arsenal after win at Brighton

• ‘They are doing their own rules, no matter how they play’

• Arsenal moved seven points clear at top with 1-0 victory

Fabian Hürzeler accused Arsenal of playing by their own rules in a void left by weak Premier League refereeing in a furious broadside at their approach. The Brighton manager boiled over after his team lost 1-0 at home to them on Wednesday night, Bukayo Saka’s early goal moving Arsenal seven points clear at the top of the table.

Hürzeler had called out Mikel Arteta for Arsenal’s time-wasting beforehand and he did not hold back after witnessing a game in which he said there was “only one team who tried to play football”. He raged about how the Arsenal goalkeeper, David Raya, went down injured three times and insisted the authorities had to have stronger rules to help referees or the future of the game would be undermined.

What we know about the evidence in the Nancy Guthrie search so far

Investigators searching for Nancy Guthrie, the mother of "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie, have uncovered several notable pieces of evidence as they try to identify a suspect.

Trump nominee to lead nation's cyber agency removed from post as senior DHS adviser

Although Sean Plankey's access badge was taken and he was escorted out of Coast Guard headquarters Monday, he remains the nominee to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, sources said.

Companies are entitled to Trump tariff refunds, trade court rules

A federal court in New York ruled Wednesday that businesses that paid emergency tariffs invalidated by the Supreme Court are eligible for refunds.

Elon Musk testifies in Twitter shareholder trial over actions before purchase

Elon Musk reached a deal to buy Twitter in April 2022. On May 13, 2022, he declared his plan "temporarily on hold" over the number of spam and fake accounts on the platform. Twitter's stock tumbled as a result.

Canadian PM Mark Carney offers to team up with Australia as ‘strategic cousins’ to push back against dominant superpowers

Visiting PM tells Australia’s parliament ‘middle power’ countries must work together on defence, trade and AI

Canada and Australia will be stronger negotiating together with superpowers including Donald Trump’s America, acting as “strategic cousins” rather than competitors, Mark Carney has told the Australian federal parliament.

In a major address in Canberra on the last full day of his visit to Australia, the Canadian prime minister called for enhanced cooperation on critical minerals, defence and trade, and announced Australia would join the G7 critical minerals alliance, the largest grouping of democratic countries with major reserves in the world.

Weight loss drugs may stop people getting addicted to drugs and alcohol, study finds

US study suggests GLP-1s, used to treat type 2 diabetes, could also reduce risk of people already using substances from overdosing

Weight loss drugs could help people avoid getting addicted to alcohol, tobacco and drugs such as cannabis and cocaine, a study has found.

They could also reduce the risk of people already addicted to illicit substances having an overdose, ending up in hospital or dying, according to research published in the British Medical Journal.

Officers who killed Austin gunman "undoubtedly saved lives," DA says

Travis County DA Jose Garza said suggestions that he would seek charges were "intentionally false" and political in nature, calling the officers heroes.

Amazon's Bahrain data center targeted by Iran for support of U.S. military, state media says

Amazon said the Bahrain facility was damaged due to a nearby drone strike, and two data centers in the UAE were directly hit by drones.

Gloves found near Guthrie's home tied to restaurant worker, no connection to case

DNA from the gloves found near Nancy Gunthrie's Arizona home was traced back to a local restaurant worker who has no connection to the investigation, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said.

Probe into Biden autopen closed by D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office, source says

Federal prosecutors are dropping their probe into whether Biden and his aides unlawfully used an autopen for pardons, a source said.

CBS News Things That Matter: A Town Hall with Governor Wes Moore

Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a rising star in the Democratic Party, sits down with CBS News senior correspondent Norah O'Donnell to discuss issues impacting the nation, including the critical 2026 midterm elections and his vision for the future of the Democratic Party.

Sam Altman admits OpenAI can’t control Pentagon’s use of AI

CEO’s claims come amid increased scrutiny of US military’s use of the technology and ethics concerns from AI workers

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, told employees on Tuesday that his company does not control how the Pentagon uses their artificial intelligence products in military operations. Altman’s claims on OpenAI’s lack of input come amid increased scrutiny of how the military uses AI in war and ethics concerns from AI workers over how their technology will be deployed.

“You do not get to make operational decisions,” Altman told employees, according to reports by Bloomberg and CNBC.

Broadcom beats on earnings and guidance as AI revenue doubles

Broadcom's AI revenue jumped 106% as the company continues to be a big beneficiary of the boom in infrastructure spending.

Carney says he backs strikes on Iran 'with some regret' as world order frays

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says he supports the strikes on Iran "with some regret" as they represent an extreme example of a rupturing world order.

What to know about the agency Trump says will insure ships in the Gulf

President Trump said the government agency will provide political risk insurance to "all shipping lines" operating in the Persian Gulf.

12 defendants set to plea in NBA-mafia rigged poker game case, feds say

NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and former player Damon Jones are among 31 people charged in the federal case. They have pleaded not guilty.

Osula wonder goal for 10-man Newcastle ends Carrick’s unbeaten Manchester United start

Eddie Howe accepts his Newcastle side are at their best when they create chaos and no one in black and white is better at conjuring it than Will Osula.

The maverick Denmark Under-21 striker is, to say the least, unpredictable. No one, least of all Osula himself, ever seems quite sure what he will do at any given moment. Here though he stepped off the substitutes’ bench to score a fabulous, virtuoso 90th-minute winner for a home team reduced to 10 men by Jacob Ramsey’s controversial 45th-minute sending off for a perceived dive.

DHS Secretary Noem's second Capitol Hill grilling this week: What to know

The secretary saw a friendlier reception from House Republicans than she did from their Senate counterparts a day before.

Pam Bondi subpoenaed by US House in Jeffrey Epstein investigation

Republicans join Democrats to vote 24-19 to approve motion to compel US attorney general to testify

• US politics live – latest updates

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

Five Republicans on the House oversight committee joined with Democrats to subpoena the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, as part of the ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

The House oversight committee voted 24-19 to approve a motion introduced by Republican representative Nancy Mace to compel Bondi to testify. In addition to Mace, Republican representatives Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Michael Cloud of Texas, and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania voted for the motion.

U.S. submarine sinks Iranian warship in Indian Ocean as conflict widens

The U.S. and Israel's war with Iran has expanded to the Indian Ocean, as a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship in international waters.

Harry Styles on Liam Payne’s death: ‘It’s so difficult to lose a friend who is so like you in so many ways’

The musician reflected on the death of his former One Direction bandmate in an interview with Zane Lowe to promote his new album

Harry Styles has reflected on the death of his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne in a new interview with Zane Lowe.

“It’s so difficult to lose a friend,” Styles said. “It’s difficult to lose any friend, but it’s so difficult to lose a friend who is so like you in so many ways.”

A split Senate votes against measure to constrain Trump's authorities in Iran

Democrats in the Senate were facing an uphill climb Wednesday in their push to restrain President Trump's ability to wage war against Iran.

Anderson saves draw for Nottingham Forest as Manchester City slip back

“Vamos, vamos!” screamed Rodri in his native Spanish following a 62nd-minute header that seemed to grab a precious victory for Manchester City. But the title chasers’ 2-1 lead lasted only 14 minutes as Phil Foden allowed Elliot Anderson to run off him and the Nottingham Forest midfielder, from range, curled a sublime equaliser beyond Gianluigi Donnarumma that silenced City’s faithful.

Before Anderson’s leveller Erling Haaland was denied a penalty by the referee, Darren England, and the video assistant referee, for a coming together with Matz Sels, the visiting No 1. Bernardo Silva did not agree. “I just watched it,” City’s captain said afterwards. “It’s a penalty. We’re used to it this season, all the 50-50s have gone against us.”

WATCH: How traffic dried up in the Strait of Hormuz since the Iran war began

The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz is "about as wrong as things could go" for global oil markets. Iran achieved it not with a naval blockade, but with cheap drones.

Epstein files: House committee subpoenas Attorney General Pam Bondi

Attorney General Pam Bondi "claims the DOJ has released all of the Epstein files. The record is clear: they have not," Rep. Nancy Mace said in a post on X.

Nearly 37 million pounds of food recalled because it could contain glass

Oregon food manufacturer Ajinomoto expands an earlier recall of frozen and ready-to-eat products over glass contamination.

Epstein files: Goldman Sachs' Ruemmler, Bill Gates, Leon Black will testify to House panel

Kathryn Ruemmler said last month she would leave Goldman Sachs at the end of June after fallout over her emails with Jeffrey Epstein.

Elon Musk takes witness stand in trial over Twitter takeover

Twitter investors allege the billionaire publicly derided the social network to sink its stock price and buy it at a bargain

Elon Musk took the stand on Wednesday in a trial brought by Twitter investors, who allege the billionaire committed securities fraud as he was buying the social media company in 2022. The class-action lawsuit alleges Musk agreed to buy Twitter but then waffled for months, attacking the company with the goal of bringing down the stock price to get a better bargain.

After contentious legal wrangling, Musk did eventually buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, his original offer, totalling around $44bn. Musk testified on Wednesday that he didn’t realize his attacks on the company, mostly done via tweet on Twitter itself, would lower the company’s stock price or hurt its investors.

Google faces first lawsuit alleging its AI chatbot encouraged man's suicide

Google is accused in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a man who committed suicide in October, allegedly at the direction of the tech giant's AI chatbot, Gemini.

Starmer’s slow start in the war against Iran could leave UK playing catch-up

Prime minister’s initial refusal to help US could constrain Britain’s ability to protect its nationals in the Gulf and reassure allies

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Britain knew that the US was considering attacking Iran from the moment Donald Trump told protesters that “help is coming” in the middle of January. It was obvious to the world that the White House was serious when the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group was sent to the Arabian Sea in late January.

But as Trump gradually built up his “massive armada”, reinforcing it with a second carrier strike group in mid-February, UK deployments were constrained and limited even though there was a recognition that it was likely allies and bases with British soldiers would be attacked in an Iranian retaliation.

Blackout in Cuba leaves millions without power amid US oil chokehold

Latest outage darkens island facing dwindling oil reserves and increasing pressure from Washington

A blackout hit the western half of Cuba on Wednesday, leaving millions of people in Havana and beyond without power in the latest outage to affect an island struggling with dwindling oil reserves and a crumbling electricity grid.

The government’s Electric Union confirmed the outage on social platform X, saying it affected people from the eastern town of Pinar del Rio to the central town of Camaguey.

Democrats tread cautiously around another Trump impeachment after 'illegal' Iran strikes

Since the attack on Iran, congressional Democrats have called the operation unconstitutional. But another impeachment hasn't seriously entered the conversation.

Trump officially nominates Kevin Warsh as Fed chair to replace Jerome Powell

Sen. Thom Tillis has said he would block Kevin Warsh's nomination until a federal criminal investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell is dropped

‘He was smart and kind and amazing’: four American soldiers killed in Kuwait remembered

Here’s what we know about the four US service members who have been identified

• Middle East crisis – live updates

More details have emerged about four of the American service members who were killed in an unmanned aircraft system attack in the Shuaiba port in Kuwait on Sunday, the first known US fatalities since the US and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran on Saturday.

All four soldiers had been assigned to the 103rd sustainment command in Des Moines, Iowa, and were “supporting Operation Epic Fury”, the Department of Defense said, adding that they “died on March 1, 2026, in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, during an unmanned aircraft system attack”.

‘He’s no Winston Churchill’: why Starmer can shrug off Trump’s insults over Iran

The prime minister’s cautious stance about helping the US against the Tehran regime mirrors that of the electorate

• Middle East crisis: live updates

It was perhaps the most attention-grabbing moment of prime minister’s questions. Responding to yet another Conservative salvo about his approach to Iran and how it might affect ties with America, Keir Starmer was direct.

“American planes are operating out of British bases – that is the special relationship in action,” he said. “Sharing intelligence every day to keep our people safe – that is the special relationship in action. Hanging on to President Trump’s latest words is not the special relationship in action.”

Gov. Walz, AG Ellison testify at hearing on fraud

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were called to testify at a House Oversight Committee hearing on fraud and the "misuse" of federal funds in the state.

The Guardian view on the US-UK relationship: Trump is pushing Britain closer to Europe | Editorial

An unreliable and volatile American president makes a compelling case for closer security and defence cooperation with continental allies

There is truth to Donald Trump’s declaration earlier this week that the UK-US relationship is “not what it was”, although there is no indication that he understands the reasons for the change.

The US president is “very disappointed” that Sir Keir Starmer has been “uncooperative” in the war against Iran, offering only limited logistical support to American forces. The prime minister’s concession that RAF resources can be involved in defensive operations does not compensate for the prior refusal to put Britain’s military assets at American disposal. It came too late for Mr Trump, whose irritation turned to culture-war jibes about “windmills” ruining British landscapes and a false claim about the prevalence of sharia courts.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Covid inquiry reaches ‘bittersweet’ final day of witness testimony

Campaigners say ‘hard-hitting, clear-sighted and damning’ inquiry – the most expensive in history – ‘absolutely has been worth it’

• ‘A new normal’: inquiry’s key findings on how Covid changed UK society

Bereaved families have marked the final day of witness testimony in the long-running Covid inquiry by saying government “incompetence, chaos and callousness is now on the public record”.

Matt Fowler, the co-founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK (CBFFJ), urged officials to use the inquiry as a blueprint “to take brave, decisive, urgent action” and warned that the country was still not prepared for a future crisis.

The U.S. is not the place to be for investors in 2026 so far. Where they are turning to for gains

International stocks remain compelling for investors even amid heightened fears from the U.S.-Iran conflict this week.

Catherine Opie: To Be Seen review – a queer carousel of tattoos, fake moustaches and toddlers in tutus

From butch alter egos to radical images of motherhood, the photographer rises to the challenge of capturing her community in imposing and glorious style

Catherine Opie has done for butches what Hans Holbein the Younger did for the Tudor nobility. Since she graduated in the late 1980s, amid the Aids crisis, Opie has made portraits of her community, friends and family, adopting unflinching realism, saturated colours, and dramatic tonal contrasts from the 16th-century portrait painters. Many of Opie’s most famous portraits – included in her new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery – use these devices deliberately, a declaration that these people deserve, as the title of the show underlines, to be seen.

Opie has always been interested in construction – how we can be transformed by costume, posture, pose, role-play. This show is a testament to that, and her love of tattoos, piercings and body modifications (she does live in LA, after all). She’s especially drawn to the performance and presentation of masculinity – in the 1991 series Being and Having, one of the earliest bodies of work in the show and still one of Opie’s best known. She has 13 lesbian friends dress up as their masculine alter egos – Opie also appears as her own, Bo. They don a range of fake moustaches and are photographed close, so their faces fill the frame against an egg-yolk yellow background, the glue attaching the hair to their faces clearly visible. Their nicknames are engraved into name tags, like they’re trophies.

Remember Twitter? Elon Musk testifies over flip-flop in $44 billion buyout

Musk is on trial for a case filed by Twitter investors in 2022, the year he purchased the social media company for $44 billion.