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265 sources · 2h ago

The U.S. military conflict with Iran is now five weeks old with seven American troops dead, Congress hasn't authorized the war, and a partial DHS shutdown has left tens of thousands of federal employees — including TSA agents — working without pay. On the domestic side, the Senate passed a major housing bill that would restrict corporate investors from buying single-family homes, and a proposed $231 billion tariff rebate would send one-time checks to families under $400,000 to offset rising import costs — though it does nothing to lower the tariffs driving those prices up.

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War Stirs Mixed Feelings for the Only Iranian American Democrat in Congress

When Representative Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, the only Iranian American Democrat in Congress, learned in the early morning hours of Feb. 28 that the United States was dropping bombs on Tehran, her first call was to her parents. They had fled Iran decades ago to escape the government led by hard-line religious clerics. So she felt a rush of hope, but also unease, when she learned that the opening salvo of the U.S.-Israeli assault had killed the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ms. ...

The New York Times·4 hours ago

Kremlin says Russia and US share interest in stabilising energy markets

MOSCOW, March 13 (Reuters) - Russia sees a U.S. sanctions waiver on its oil as an attempt by Washington to stabilise global energy markets, and the two countries have a shared interest in this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said ⁠on Friday. The United States issued a 30-day waiver for countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products currently at sea, in what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said was a step to stabilise global markets roiled by the Iran war. Without ...

Reuters·8 hours ago

Getting Congress to pay for the Iran war won't be an easy sell

That leaves the White House with a difficult task, particularly in a fraught midterm election year. Administration officials will have to spend significant time and political capital to push through a hugely expensive supplemental spending bill -- for a war that's largely unpopular with the American people -- even as the administration tries to burnish its affordability bona fides. And the sluggish timetable means any extra Iran war money likely runs into the president's plans to supersize the...

POLITICO·10 hours ago

The (Tariff) Pandora's Box With $130 Billion in It

Good morning. Former President Harry S. Truman famously adopted the saying, "The Buck Stops Here." But what about when the buck goes in reverse? Then where does it stop? A huge legal conundrum is playing out now in the U.S. The Supreme Court recently said President Trump's emergency tariffs were illegal, even though they had collected more than $130 billion in revenue. Another federal judge has ordered the administration to begin repaying all that money to the importers who paid the ...

The Wall Street Journal·7 hours ago

Middle East crisis live: rescue effort under way after US refuelling plane with five onboard crashes in Iraq

Donald Trump said his war on Iran was "moving along very rapidly" and "doing very well". He called Iran "a nation of terror and hate" and said it was "paying a big price right now". Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a veiled threat to kill Iran's new supreme leader, saying he "wouldn't take out life insurance policies" on Iran's new ayatollah or the leader of Hezbollah. Using his first press conference since the start of the war to defend his joint military assault with the US...

The Guardian·16 hours ago

Mojtaba Khamenei: Iranians react to new Supreme Leader's first address

"I don't even think it was his message," an Iranian woman in her 40s told the BBC after her country's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei gave his first official address in the form of a statement read out on state TV. Having not seen him since he was named leader, some are now casting doubts on who is running the country. "I feel like control of the country is in the hands of the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]," the woman, from Tehran, said. Khamenei, through the conduit of a TV...

BBC·3 hours ago

Trump Live Updates: DHS Staff to Miss Paycheck as Shutdown Continues

With Democrats refusing to back money for the agency without significant new restrictions on federal immigration officers, legislation providing new funding failed on a vote of 51 to 46, well short of the 60 votes required to advance the bill. All but one Democrat, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted no. The outcome meant that agencies including the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and a federal cybersecurity office...

The New York Times·6 hours ago

Kazakhs to vote on new constitution in referendum on Sunday

ALMATY, March 13 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan holds a referendum on Sunday on a new constitution that some critics say could allow President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to remain in charge of Central Asia's largest economy beyond his current term limit of 2029. Tokayev, a former diplomat who has maintained good relations with Russia, the U.S. and China, has called the referendum "a truly historic moment" that moves Kazakhstan, an energy and minerals giant, away from a "super-presidential" system towards a...

Reuters·12 hours ago

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