How much longer will US strikes on Iran continue? Getting a clear answer from the Trump administration has been difficult – getting a consistent one, even more so.
According to Donald Trump, “the war is very complete”. At least that’s what he told CBS News in a call on Monday.
That same day, the US Department of Defense posted on Twitter/X: “We have Only Just Begun to Fight.”
Later on Monday, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth said the war would end on “our timeline” and that the US would not stop until “the enemy is totally and decisively defeated”, promising Tuesday would see the most intense strikes in Iran yet.
That’s after Tehran residents say the Iranian capital endured what they described as its worst night of aerial bombardment overnight on Tuesday.
At least 1,245 civilians have been killed, including 194 children, by the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran group.
Tehran endures ‘worst night of strikes’ amid mixed US messages about more to come
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has warned that Tuesday would be the “most intense” day of US strikes yet, even as he blamed Iran for civilian casualties by claiming its forces were firing missiles from schools and hospitals.
Speaking alongside Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Hegseth alleged Iran was deliberately firing missiles from schools and hospitals, describing the country’s leadership as “desperate and scrambling like the terrorist cowards they are”.
What evidence is there that the US was responsible for Minab school bombing?
The bombing of a primary school in Minab on 28 February killed scores of people, most of them seven- to 12-year-old girls. The strike is the worst mass killing of the US and Israel’s war on Iran so far – and has been described by Unesco as a “grave violation” of international law. A growing body of evidence indicates that the strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school was carried out by the US.
Republican and Democrat head for run-off in election for Marjorie Taylor Greene’s House seat
Republican former prosecutor Clay Fuller and retired army general Shawn Harris, a Democrat, will head to a run-off after they came out ahead in a special election Tuesday to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress.
The election for the state’s 14th congressional district has been seen as a test of Donald Trump’s sway and may provide a rare opportunity for Democrats in a deep-red pocket of north-west Georgia.
US House speaker Mike Johnson refuses to condemn anti-Muslim comments by Republican lawmakers
Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, on Tuesday declined to condemn Republican lawmakers who recently made Islamophobic comments, saying only that he had spoken to them about their “tone”.
US attorneys handpicked by Pam Bondi were appointed illegally, judge rules
Three prosecutors installed by Donald Trump’s administration to lead the New Jersey attorney general’s office after the president’s former personal lawyer was disqualified from the role in December were also illegally appointed, a federal judge has ruled.
Trump names Erika Kirk to key advisory board of US Air Force Academy
Donald Trump has appointed Erika Kirk, the widow of murdered rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, to a key advisory board of the US Air Force Academy.
The 37-year-old joins a number of other loyalists to the president on the 16-member panel of the academy’s board of visitors, which according to its website “inquires into the morale, discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods and other matters” of the Colorado Springs military training facility.
What else happened today:
The MIT professor who has been appointed by Robert F Kennedy Jr to review the safety of Covid-19 vaccines has failed to meet basic scientific standards in his own research on the topic, according to more than a dozen scientists and public health experts.
The governor of Alabama commuted the death sentence of a 75-year-old prisoner who was scheduled to be executed this week; he was not in the building when the victim of the murder he was sentenced for was killed.
A new Democratic-led bill seeks to exempt small businesses from Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs, as small-business owners continue to reel from the impacts of the battle over the president’s signature economic policy.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI won approval on Tuesday to run 41 methane gas turbines at its “Colossus 2” datacenter in northern Mississippi. That’s nearly double the amount it has been operating.
Alexander Butterfield, the White House aide who inadvertently hastened Richard Nixon’s resignation over the Watergate scandal when he revealed that the president had bugged the Oval Office and cabinet room and routinely recorded his conversations, has died. He was 99.
Police in Canada are investigating after shots were fired at the US consulate in Toronto. Officers said evidence was found of a discharged firearm and that no injuries were reported.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on Monday, 9 March.
