Fuel rations and no air con: south-east Asian nations race to conserve energy

• US Central Command announced military strikes on Iranian missile sites located near the Strait of Hormuz using bunker buster weapons. • The strikes target Iran's military infrastructure and represent an escalation in the three-week conflict between the US and Iran. • The Strait of Hormuz remains a critical global shipping route through which approximately 13 million barrels of oil pass daily.

• Brent crude oil prices rose 3.2% to USD 103.42 per barrel, while US oil prices increased 2.9% to USD 96.21 per barrel due to Strait of Hormuz tensions and reduced vessel movement. • The Trump administration plans to ease sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector by issuing permits for foreign companies, aiming to boost crude production and counter soaring prices. • Global oil markets remain volatile as the Strait of Hormuz, through which 13 million barrels pass daily, faces ongoing disruptions from the Iran conflict.

• US President Donald Trump attacked NATO allies on March 17, accusing them of making a "very foolish mistake" by refusing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz amid tensions with Iran. • French President Emmanuel Macron rejected Trump's calls for NATO involvement, saying France would "never" participate until the situation stabilized, with most other US allies similarly declining. • Trump framed the rebuff as a test of NATO's reliability, questioning whether the alliance would support the United States when needed.

• Iranian rescue workers are conducting daily recovery operations amid a relentless barrage of US and Israeli air strikes across Tehran, with local authorities reporting over 1,300 deaths. • Rescue team members report working 2 to 10 call-outs per day since the war began, risking secondary explosions while extracting bodies—including children—from rubble. • The Iranian Red Crescent Society workers face severe psychological trauma and show no signs of respite as strikes continue with no prospect of de-escalation.

Pardoned by Trump after violating US banking law, Ben Delo provides funding, networking, and podcasting space for a range of groups, including those with hardline views on migration and abortionA British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate money-laundering controls on his cryptocurrency business is funding a political base in the heart of Westminster used by “anti-woke” and rightwing activists.Ben Delo, 42, who was pardoned by Donald Trump last year, has given support in kind to Rupert Lowe, the anti-migration MP challenging Nigel Farage from the right – while also connecting with mainstream figures including the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and former cabinet minister Michael Gove. Continue reading...

Republicans almost certain to push through appointment following the ousting of Noem amid public backlash to her aggressive immigration approachSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.A Senate committee later today is expected to give a quick confirmation to Markwayne Mullin, a first-term Republican senator from Oklahoma, to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).A top counter-terrorism official in the Trump administration resigned over the ongoing war on Iran. Joe Kent, who reported to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, said in his resignation letter that he “cannot in good conscience” support the conflict.Gabbard responded in a statement that did not refer to Kent directly, but argued that Trump “is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat”.The House oversight committee subpoenaed attorney general Pam Bondi to appear for a deposition on the Department of Justice’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.The Senate passed a measure to start debate on the legislation to restrict voting in US elections in a number of ways, by a vote of 51-48, along mainly partisan lines, with only Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican, crossing party lines.During the annual St Patrick’s Day Shamrock ceremony at the White House, Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin, gently made the case for free trade and a rules-based order before presenting Trump with a bowl of shamrocks.While Trump and his aides spent much of Tuesday deriding Kent, critics of the administration pointed out that Kent’s ties to rightwing extremists meant that he was never fit for the role in the first place. Continue reading...

Records shed light on how Scott Brown – then Trump’s New Zealand ambassador, now running for Senate – responded to Kennedy’s 2019 Samoa trip ahead of measles outbreakWhen Robert F Kennedy Jr ran for president as a Democrat in 2023, he found an unexpected ally in Scott Brown. A former Republican senator, Brown had begun a tradition of hosting Republican presidential candidates for barbecues in his New Hampshire back yard, where they could stump for votes and get attention ahead of the state’s crucial primary.Kennedy became Brown’s first Democratic invitee. His appearance in September 2023 drew hundreds of people, Brown’s biggest crowd ever. Kennedy held Brown in such high regard that after he decided to run instead as an independent, he reportedly reached out to Brown as a possible vice-presidential running mate, though Brown declined. Continue reading...

Sociology faculty are refusing to alter syllabi, even as state targets how race, gender and inequality are taughtSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxAcross Florida universities, some sociology professors are quietly choosing not to alter their courses in response to new state guidelines restricting how topics like race, gender and sexuality can be discussed. Rather than rewriting syllabi or removing foundational material, as the new demands would call for, they say they are continuing to teach their classes as designed. The professors view the preservation of their curricula not as an act of defiance, but as a professional responsibility to provide students with a full and rigorous education.In late January, Florida’s department of education introduced what many professors are calling a censored sociology textbook for use in the state’s public colleges and universities, along with a list of proposed guidelines at state schools, restricting various discussions related to systemic discrimination, gender and sexual identity, race-conscious remedies, and the structural causes of inequality. Faculty members say this move reflects a broader effort to narrow academic freedom in higher education and follows several years of legislation aimed at reshaping public university curricula under the banner of combating “woke ideology”. Continue reading...

Ottawa wants to modernize a region in the north that’s about six times the size of Texas, ‘just like in the 1800s’Picture an Arctic territory, marginalized by its own country, almost entirely lacking roads, ports and power sources, but rich in mining potential and suddenly feeling vulnerable to outside threats.It’s not Greenland; it’s the Canadian Arctic. Continue reading...

Trump pick for homeland security secretary followed firing of Kristi Noem amid blowback for anti-immigration tacticsA Senate committee on Wednesday will consider Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which Democrats have forced into a partial shutdown until their demands for guardrails on immigration enforcement are met.Donald Trump nominated Mullin, a first-term Republican senator from Oklahoma, as DHS secretary earlier this month, after the president ousted secretary Kristi Noem amid public blowback against the administration’s aggressive approach to its mass deportation agenda, which resulted in the killings of two US citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis. Continue reading...

Sara Brannon alleges high school overseen by the Roman Catholic archdiocese was negligent in treatment of her 17-year-old sonA suburban New Orleans woman whose teenaged son died by suicide hours after his Catholic school expelled him in the wake of what he termed a shoving match with a campus bully is pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit against the local archdiocese.Sara Brannon contends that Rummel high school in Metairie, Louisiana, was negligent in its treatment of her son, 17-year-old Devon Shelton, and is therefore owed damages, including for mental anguish as well as physical pain and suffering.In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email [email protected], and in the UK and Ireland Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...