Senate to consider Markwayne Mullin’s nomination amid DHS shutdown

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

$11.3bn more than enough to fund EPA or National Cancer Institute, where administration sought to slash budgetsSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe US spent $11.3bn on just the first week of its military assault on Iran. This huge expenditure dwarves the annual budgets of many of the public health and scientific agencies the Trump administration has sought to cut, raising stark questions about the country’s priorities.In the six days that followed the US and Israel’s joint attack on Iran on 28 February, $11.3bn was spent on American taxpayer-funded bombs that hit the country and caused hundreds of deaths, the Pentagon has told lawmakers. This figure does not capture the full cost of the conflict, such as deployment of forces, and will now be far higher given the ongoing nature of the war. Continue reading...

Afghan Taliban government says more than 400 people killed and 265 injured, as Pakistan disputes target of strikeFamilies and friends of people who were being treated at a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul have continued to search for their loved ones two days after it was bombed by Pakistan, in the deadliest attack so far in the months-long conflict between the two countries.The Afghan Taliban government has said more than 400 people were killed and 265 others wounded in the airstrike, which took place on Monday night as people and staff at the centre were praying days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Continue reading...

City lawyers say former mayor is not entitled to public-funded defense over alleged 1993 sexual assaultSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxNew York City mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration wants to stop representing Eric Adams in a lawsuit that alleges the former mayor sexually assaulted a woman more than three decades ago, according to a court filing on Tuesday.The move comes just a few months after Mamdani took office, following a bitter campaign season last year that had the two Democrats taking turns bashing each other in often caustic and personal terms. 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...

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...

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...

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...