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The US appeared poised to deploy airborne troops to the Middle East, according to reports, as strikes intensified across the region.
Early on Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched a new wave of attacks against Israel as well as US bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. Drones hit a fuel tank and sparked a fire at Kuwait international airport, the Gulf state’s civil aviation authority said.
In Lebanon, state media reported Israeli strikes had killed at least six people in a town and a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Sidon area, and three more in another town.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Washington appeared set to send a combat team to the Middle East comprising up to 3,000 troops from the army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division, which can deploy anywhere in the world in under 24 hours.
Iran, meanwhile, mocked the 15-point framework plan for peace that Donald Trump has claimed is being discussed, with an Iranian military spokesperson saying on Wednesday that the Americans were negotiating only with themselves.
What is the 15-point framework? Diplomats with knowledge of the talks believe it is likely to be a rehashed version of a proposal put forward by Trump’s negotiating team during nuclear talks in May 2025.
What is happening with the strait of Hormuz? Iran has announced it is permitting “non-hostile” ships to pass safely through the strait.
This is a developing story. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.
Meta ordered to pay $375m after being found liable in child exploitation case
A New Mexico jury has ordered Meta to pay $375m in civil penalties after it found the company misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and enabled harm.
It is the first jury trial to find the tech firm liable for acts committed on its platforms.
The harms examined in the lawsuit included child sexual exploitation, after a two-year Guardian investigation published in April 2023 that revealed how Facebook and Instagram had become marketplaces for child sex trafficking.
How has Meta responded? It said it would appeal against the ruling and accused the New Mexico attorney general, Raúl Torrez, of making “sensationalist, irrelevant arguments by cherrypicking select documents”.
What is the next step? The attorney general’s office would seek further penalties and changes to Meta’s platforms that “offer stronger protections for children”, said Torrez – including age verification, removing predators from the platform, and protecting minors from encrypted communications.
Democrats flip seat in Florida district that includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
Democrats have flipped a seat in the Florida state house in the district that is home to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, with the party celebrating the win as a sign that voters have grown frustrated over rising costs under the Trump administration.
Emily Gregory, a Democrat, defeated the Republican Jon Maples, who had an endorsement from the US president, in the special election in Florida’s 87th state house district. She led by more than two percentage points. The Republican who previously held the seat had won by 19 points in 2024.
“Mar-a-Lago just flipped red to blue, which should have Republicans sweating the midterms,” Heather Williams, the president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said on social media. “A Trump +11 district in his own back yard shouldn’t be in play for Democrats, but tonight proves Republicans are vulnerable everywhere.”
Did Trump vote? Yes, by mail – a method of voting that on Monday he called “cheating”.
How many districts have state Democrats flipped since Trump’s re-election? A total of 29, according to Williams.
In other news …
Israel has not prosecuted a single citizen for killing Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank since the start of this decade, a Guardian analysis has found, despite the killing of at least 1,100 civilians by soldiers and settlers since 2020. At least a quarter of those killed were children.
The Philippines has declared a year-long state of “national energy emergency” as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran, shortly after its energy secretary said the country would boost the output of its coal-fired power plants to lower electricity costs.
Moldova has declared a 60-day state of emergency in the energy sector after a key power line with Europe was disconnected following Russian strikes in Ukraine.
The progressive lawmakers Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have introduced a bill to pause the construction of AI datacenters until the government can implement strong federal safeguards for the environment, communities and workers.
Stat of the day: 62% of the guns trafficked from the US to Mexico in 2024 came from Arizona
A year and a half into the Sinaloa cartel’s internal war, the conflict is being fueled by a flow of guns from the US. Mexico has strict gun laws, meaning that its criminal groups mostly buy their firearms in the US, and Arizona has passed Texas to become the top source of guns seized in Mexico and traced to a recent US purchase. Nearly two-thirds of the guns seized in Mexico in 2024 and traced to a US purchase less than a year earlier came from Arizona.
Don’t miss this: ‘I thought my Parkinson’s was the end of my life, but dancing changed everything’
Ian Temple was told in his early 50s that he had Parkinson’s disease. At first, as he tried to hide his diagnosis, his world shrunk. But then he signed up for Dance for Parkinson’s classes with the English National Ballet and something changed: “Dance changed how I viewed the disease itself. Instead of seeing Parkinson’s solely as something that was taking ability away, I began to see what was still possible.”
Climate check: Climate misinformation is fueling conflict in Australian communities, inquiry finds
Climate misinformation and disinformation is fueling conflict in Australian communities and undermining policy responses to the crisis, a cross-party senate inquiry has concluded. The inquiry recommended that the government take stronger action to hold tech companies accountable for “psychosocial harms” spread on their platforms and called for more funding for the monitoring of information ecosystems.
Last Thing: Philadelphia airport sets world record for longest line of cheesesteaks
Philadelphia has set a world record for the “longest line of cheesesteaks”, with 1,200ft of the city’s famous sandwich stretching across Philadelphia international airport. Many of the sandwiches were later donated to TSA staff, who have been working without pay due to the partial lack of a funding deal for the Department of Homeland Security.
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