We’re wrapping up our live coverage for the day. We’ll be back on Wednesday. Here is a summary of today’s developments: The 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”. More here. The minelayers near the strait of Hormuz were among multiple Iranian vessels taken out by US forces today, according to a post by the US Central Command. In a post on X, the military published unclassified footage of some of the vessels after Donald Trump warned Iran against laying mines in the critical waterway. 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. More here. Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, declined to condemn Republican lawmakers who recently made Islamophobic comments, saying only that he had spoken to them about their “tone”. Democrats and groups advocating religious tolerance have decried the statements from congressmen Andy Ogles of Tennessee and Randy Fine of Florida, with the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, calling on Johnson to discipline the latter. More here. Donald Trump said that America First Refining plans to open a new oil refinery in Brownsville, Texas, as part of a $300b deal. “THE BIGGEST IN US HISTORY, A MASSIVE WIN for American Workers, Energy, and the GREAT People of South Texas! Thank you to our partners in India, and their largest privately held Energy Company, Reliance, for this tremendous Investment,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday. 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. More here. A new Democrat-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. Introduced by the senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, the bill, known as the “Small Business Liberation 2.0 Act”, would exempt goods imported by or for the use of small businesses from new tariffs, which Trump enacted on 20 February, immediately after the US supreme court’s ruling invalidating his “liberation day” tariffs. The bill text also prohibits price gouging as a result of the latest tariffs. Democratic senators Chuck Schumer, Mazie Hirono, John Hickenlooper, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar and Chris Van Hollen are signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. Read the full story: The Guardian’s Timothy Pratt brings us reactions coming from voters in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district in Georgia: Arthur Carlson, turning 97 next week and a retired Seventh Day Adventist minister, said Trump “says America First, but he doesn’t act it – and the war in Iran is one example. Ever since he got in, he’s tried to be king.” He voted for one of the three Democrats in the field of 17 candidates to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene. Luis Linares, 24, has lived in Dalton all his life. He voted for Trump in 2024 and thinks “the U.S. is strong under Trump, and that the war in Iran is to free their people.” He cast his ballot for GOP candidate Nicky Lama, a former local politician, because “he went with my brother to high school.” Linares’ parents came from El Salvador to work in the town’s carpet industry. Nearly 55 percent of Dalton’s population of about 35,000 is Hispanic. Juan Escudero, a 61-year-old local business owner who has lived in Dalton 22 years and became a citizen in June, was voting for the first time. He also voted for Lama, who he met shortly after arriving to town two-plus decades ago. “The president is doing a good job,” he said. “I think things are going well.” Hannah Fleming and Laura Bishop voted for Democratic candidate Shawn Harris because they’re “looking for something different,” said Fleming, whose t-shirt said, “women belong in the White House.” Maria Guijón, 39, was brought from Mexico when she was 11 and works as a paralegal with Dalton’s immigrant community. “There should be a person with a different point of view” in Greene’s seat. “There needs to be reform in the immigration system,” she added. Yvonne Otts, 85 and a Dalton native, said “the biggest thing for me is to get somebody with good sense, common sense.” Greene, she said, “put herself first – she didn’t put America first. We’re putting American first for the first time [with Trump].” “I supported a Republican candidate – the president should have people around him who support him,” Otts said. As for the war in Iran, “That doesn’t affect me at all,” she said. “It’s a very short-term thing.” 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. Fuller has Trump’s endorsement and had raised more than $1m leading into voting Tuesday, but Harris, who faced Greene two years ago, has raised more than four times as much. Even though four Republican candidates dropped out before the election, the Republican field was fractured among more than a dozen candidates, including former state senator Colton Moore, a combative agitator to the right of most Republican legislators in Georgia. Read the full story here: After the Pentagon confirmed that about 140 US troops have been wounded in the US-Iran war, Democratic National Committee chair, Ken Martin, slammed Donald Trump for failing “to provide Americans with a coherent justification.” “Ten days into his war of choice in Iran, Trump has failed to provide Americans with a coherent justification, given contradictory timelines that change daily, and has demonstrated little remorse over the human cost of war,” Martin wrote in a statement on Tuesday. “Meanwhile, the American people are totally in the dark while U.S. troops remain in harm’s way and Americans are stranded in the Middle East because of Trump’s illegal war,” he added. The minelayers near the strait of Hormuz were among multiple Iranian vessels taken out by US forces today, according to a post by the US Central Command. In a post on X, the military published unclassified footage of some of the vessels after Donald Trump warned Iran against laying mines in the critical waterway. The world’s most popular podcaster, Joe Rogan, said Donald Trump’s supporters “feel betrayed” by the conflict in Iran. “Well, it just seems so insane, based on what he ran on. I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right?” Rogan said during an episode launched today. “He ran on, ‘No more wars,’ ‘End these stupid, senseless wars,’ and then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.” Rogan has slowly begun to distance himself from the US president after endorsing him in 2024. Earlier this year, Rogan compared US immigration raids to Gestapo operations during an episode where he and his guest were discussing the death of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.. In an interview with CNBC, Republican senator Ted Cruz said he has “not seen a basis” for President Trump’s decision to ban all federal agencies from using the artificial intelligence model developed by Anthropic after the standoff between the company and the Pentagon. “I’ll confess, I have not seen a basis laid out for why the government would be prohibited from using Anthropic,” Cruz told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin. “Claude is one of the many AI tools that can be very helpful.” The Texas lawmaker’s remarks come amid a monthslong feud over Anthropic’s efforts to implement safeguards against the military’s potential use of its artificial intelligence models for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous lethal weapons. Yesterday, the company filed two lawsuits against the department of defense over the Trump administration’s decision to label the AI firm a “supply chain risk.” Microsoft has filed a legal brief supporting Anthropic in its case against the Trump administration, asking a court to temporarily block the Pentagon from labeling the AI company a supply chain risk. Anthropic sued the Trump administration on Monday after President Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using the company’s AI products, following the company’s statement that it did not want its models to be used in mass surveillance of Americans or for autonomous lethal weapons. According to a filing in the US District Court in San Francisco, Microsoft said a judge should issue a restraining order that would block the Pentagon’s designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk. The restraining order would “enable a more orderly transition and avoid disrupting the American military’s ongoing use of advanced AI,” reads the filing. The State Department has authorized up to $40m in emergency funds to pay for charter flights evacuating Americans from the Middle East, two US officials told the AP. The funds come amid transportation disruptions caused by the war with Iran. The department had approved the use of money from a fund normally reserved for emergencies that involve diplomatic and consular staff. Private Americans are obligated to reimburse the government for such transportation under federal law, but secretary of state Marco Rubio waived that requirement last week. Donald Trump said that America First Refining plans to open a new oil refinery in Brownsville, Texas, as part of a $300b deal. “THE BIGGEST IN US HISTORY, A MASSIVE WIN for American Workers, Energy, and the GREAT People of South Texas! Thank you to our partners in India, and their largest privately held Energy Company, Reliance, for this tremendous Investment,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday. Trump claimed that the new refinery will “strengthen” the US national security, “fuel” the US markets, and deliver “Billions of Dollars in Economic impact.” Trump also said the oil refinery, which he said is the first new US oil refinery in 50 years, would be the “CLEANEST REFINERY IN THE WORLD,” bringing “THOUSANDS” of new jobs to the area. Democratic senator Chris Murphy said that, after attending a two-hour classified briefing on the US-Iran war today, the strategy against Iran seems “incoherent” and unlikely “to achieve any of our stated objectives.” “We have still not yet heard a full explanation as to why this is necessary,” he said in an interview with MS NOW. “This is a disaster of epic proportions. It’s already getting Americans killed. It’s driving up prices here at home.” Murphy condemned the president for failing to conduct congressional hearings and seek authorization for the war. “This has just been a debacle, a 10-day debacle, and we’re going to use whatever leverage we have in the Senate to try to prompt those hearings, to try to prompt that vote, and to get this administration to start paying attention to the Constitution,” he said. Steve Downes, the voice of Halo protagonist Master Chief, said he was neither consulted by the White House nor involved in a promotional video using the character’s voice. “It has come to my attention that there is at least one propaganda video circulating that was either produced or at the very least endorsed by the White House that uses images of Master Chief and uses my voice to support the war in Iran,” Downes posted on X on Sunday. “Let me make this crystal clear: I did not participate in nor was I consulted, nor do I endorse the use of my voice in this video, or the message it conveys.” He called the clip, posted 5 March, “disgusting and juvenile war porn.” The 42-second clip posted by the White House, captioned “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY”, also uses scenes from Iron Man 2, Top Gun: Maverick, Tropic Thunder and other film and TV series. Ben Stiller, who directed and acted in the film Tropic Thunder, also condemned the White House for using a clip from the film. “Hey White House, please remove the Tropic Thunder clip,” Stiller posted on X. “We never gave you permission and have no interest in being a part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie.” Earlier today, Donald Trump referred to Canadian prime minister Mark Carney as the “future Governor of Canada,” a remark similar to his past comments suggesting Canada should become the 51st US state. “I’m working with Governor Gretchen Whitmer on trying to save The Great Lakes from the rather violent and destructive Asian Carp, which is rapidly taking over Lake Michigan, and all of the beautiful surrounds,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “I’ll be asking other Governors to join into this fight, including those of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, New York and, of course, the future Governor of Canada, Mark Carney, who I know will be happy to contribute to this worthy cause.” This isn’t the first time the US president has made this joke. He previously referred to Justin Trudeau, Canada’s former prime minister, as a state governor after having warned of tariffs on the country last year. Senator Elizabeth Warren condemned the Trump administration’s handling of the war with Iran, questioning the administration’s funding priorities. “Here we are well into the second week, and it is still the case that the Trump administration cannot explain the reasons that we entered this war, the goals we’re trying to accomplish and the methods for doing that,” Warren told reporters on Tuesday. “The one part that seems clear is that while there is no money for 15 million Americans who lost their health care, there’s a billion dollars a day to spend on bombing Iran.” “I’m very worried about how long this will drag on. We are hearing no logical estimates about when it will be over,” she added. “This is not a war the American people want us to engage in. This is not a war supported by this country, and this is not a war that makes us safer.” Donald Trump said on Tuesday the US hit “10 inactive mine laying boats and/or ships” within the last few hours, according to a post on Truth Social. “I am pleased to report that within the last few hours, we have hit, and completely destroyed, 10 inactive mine laying boats and/or ships, with more to follow!,” he posted. Donald Trump demanded on Tuesday Iran to remove any mines they might have placed in the strait of Hormuz amid earlier reports that the country had laid a few dozen mines in the passageway. In a post on Truth Social, the president said the US “had no reports of them doing so,” but said Iran would face military consequences, “at a level never seen before,” if the mines were not to be removed. Trump’s post comes after earlier reports that Iran began laying mines in the strait, a crucial passageway for global energy supply. According to CNN, a few dozen mines have been laid in recent days. “If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before,” Trump posted. “If, on the other hand, they remove what may have been placed, it will be a giant step in the right direction!” Trump added that his administration is “using the same Technology and Missile capabilities deployed against Drug Traffickers to permanently eliminate any boat or ship attempting to mine the Hormuz Strait. They will be dealt with quickly and violently.” The Pentagon confirmed that since the beginning of the US-Israel war on Iran, approximately 140 US service members have been wounded. “The vast majority of these injuries have been minor, and 108 service members have already returned to duty,” said Department of Defense spokesperson Sean Parnell. During a White House press briefing, Karoline Leavitt said that the recent hike in gas prices since the onset of the war is “temporary” and assured a rapid price drop. The press secretary also noted that the US military is “drawing up additional options” following Donald Trump’s directive to continue keeping the strait of Hormuz open. This comes after Trump’s threat to hit Iran “twenty times harder” if the regime does anything to prevent the flow of oil through the crucial waterway. At a Pentagon press conference, defense secretary Pete Hegseth said that Tuesday will be the “most intense day of strikes inside Iran”. He did not give any guidance on when the military action against Iran might end. “We do so on our timeline and at our choosing,” he added. Hegseth also insisted that America is “winning” the war, and assured those watching that military action was not endless. “This is not 2003…It’s not protracted. We’re not allowing mission creep,” he told reporters. At the House Republican policy conference in Doral, Florida, speaker Mike Johnson refused to condemn congressman Andy Ogles’ Islamophobic comments on social media. The GOP lawmaker, who represents Tennessee’s fifth congressional district, wrote that “Muslims don’t belong in America” in a post on X this week. Today, reporters pressed Johnson for his response. The speaker said that the “demand to impose Sharia law” is a “real issue” in an attempt to justify Ogles’ comments. “That’s the language that people use, it’s a different language than I would use,” he said. In the wake of Donald Trump telling CBS News that the US-Israel war on Iran could end “very soon”, oil prices rebounded on Tuesday. Brent crude has now slipped just below $90 a barrel, down 9.9% to $89.22. This comes after they surged past $100 a barrel on Monday morning, the highest price in four years. The Pentagon confirmed that since the beginning of the US-Israel war on Iran, approximately 140 US service members have been wounded. “The vast majority of these injuries have been minor, and 108 service members have already returned to duty,” said Sean Parnell, chief spokesperson for the Department of Defense. “Eight service members remain listed as severely injured and are receiving the highest level of medical care.” Earlier, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she couldn’t confirm the exact number of those injured, but knew it was “within that ballpark”. The United States has asked Israel to halt strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure, Axios reports, citing three sources familiar with the matter, marking the first time the US has reined in its ally since they went to war 11 days ago. Washington sent the message at a senior political level and to IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir, Axios reports, citing an Israeli official. Per Axios’s report, the Trump administration gave three reasons for the request, including a goal to cooperate with Iran’s oil ‌sector after the war (as Trump has done with Venezuela); fears that the ⁠strikes would harm the Iranian public; and concerns that it could trigger massive Iranian retaliatory attacks on energy infrastructure across Gulf states. It comes after an Israeli bombing of fuel storage facilities blanketed Tehran - a city home to some 10 million people - in toxic black smoke and acid rain over the weekend, raising urgent health warnings for ordinary Iranians. Iran has appealed to to the United Nations to condemn the US and Israel for a “manifest environmental crime”. During today’s press briefing, Karoline Leavitt said that Donald Trump would ultimately determine when Iran is “in a place of unconditional surrender”. The press secretary clarified what this state looks like, after the president insisted that only at this point would the military operation be complete. “He’s not claiming the Iranian regime is going to come out and say that themselves,” Leavitt said. “What the president means is that Iran’s threats will no longer be backed by a ballistic missile arsenal that protects them from building a nuclear bomb in their country.” Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the Pentagon will release a full report of its investigation into the bombing of an Iranian girls’ school that killed at least 175 people. Donald Trump has insisted that Iran was responsible for the attack, claiming that Iran might have Tomahawk missiles. However, my colleague Tess McClure reports that a video has shown a US Tomahawk missile hitting the Iranian naval base next to a primary school in Minab – adding to evidence that indicates the US was responsible for the school strike. “As the president said yesterday, he will accept the conclusion of this investigation,” Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday, without commenting on when the report might be released. Karoline Leavitt was also just asked why Trump’s energy secretary earlier claimed that the US Navy had escorted an oil tanker through the strait of Hormuz, before deleting the X post a few minutes later. She replied: I know the post was taken down pretty quickly, and I can confirm that the US Navy has not escorted a tanker or a vessel at this time, though of course that’s an option the president has said he will absolutely utilize if and when necessary at the appropriate time. In response to a Reuters report that around 150 US service members have been injured since the military action against Iran began, the press secretary said she could not confirm this is the exact number. “I know it’s within that ballpark,” she said. Karoline Leavitt did not provide any more specifics about the lifting of oil sanctions. On Friday, treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that India had been issued a 30-day waiver to buy Russian oil to offset the repurcussions of a distrupted supply chain since the US-Israel strikes on Iran began. The press secretary told reporters that she had no announcements about the lifting of new sanctions. The press secretary used her opening remarks to assuage anxiety around the hike in prices at the pump that many Americans have seen in the past week. The recent increase in oil and gas prices is temporary, and this operation will result in lower gas prices in the long term. Once the national security objectives of Operation epic fury are fully achieved, Americans will see oil and gas prices drop rapidly, potentially even lower than they were prior to the start of the operation. Leavitt noted today that the president and his energy team are closely watching the markets, when it comes the price of oil which has surged and dropped in recent days. The press secretary noted that the US military is “drawing up additional options” following Donald Trump’s directive to continue keeping the strait of Hormuz open. “I will not broadcast what those options look like, but just know the president is not afraid to use them,” Leavitt said. Karoline Leavitt said today that US forces have hit 5,000 enemy targets since the beginning of Operation Epic Fury. She noted that the regime’s ballistic missile attacks are down “more than 90%” and their “drone attacks are down by approximately 85%”. In a short while we’ll also hear from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, as she briefs reporters. I’ll bring you the latest lines here. Johnson reiterated that the SAVE America act is a top priority for GOP lawmakers moving forward. The legislation, which has already passed the Republican-controlled House, has stalled in the Senate. A reminder that the bill would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote, and showing voter ID to cast a ballot. However, Donald Trump wants to revise the legislation further and limit mail-in voting with a few exceptions, and include unrelated measures that would ban transgender people participating in women’s sports and gender-affirming surgeries for minors. “Why is not passing in the Senate? Because no Democrat will go along with that,” Johnson told reporters in Miami on Tuesday. “Every Republican is in favor of those principles,” the House speaker added, while noting that the Senate’s majority leader, John Thune is “looking at all other avenues” to advance the bill. The upper chamber’s top Republican appeared to dash his party’s hopes that they would be able to forge ahead without the 60-vote threshold requirement. “The votes aren’t there, one, to nuke the filibuster, and the votes aren’t there for a talking filibuster. It’s just a reality,” Thune told reporters. At the House Republican policy conference in Doral, Florida, speaker Mike Johnson refused to condemn congressman Andy Ogles’ Islamophobic posts on social media. A reminder that the GOP lawmaker, who represents Tennessee’s fifth congressional district, wrote on X that “Muslims don’t belong in America”. Ogles has repeatedly denigrated the Muslim faith, insisting that it is “incompatible” with American values. His Islamophobic espousals have manifested in a piece of proposed legislation that would ban immigration from several Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Syria and Libya. On Tuesday, reporters pressed Johnson for his response to Ogles’ comments. “There is a lot of energy in the country, and a lot of popular sentiment that the demand to impose Sharia law in America is a serious problem,” he said in a attempt to justify Ogles’ posts. “That what animates this. That’s the language that people use, it’s a different language than I would use.” He went on to say, without providing any evidence, that the imposition of Sharia law – the legal system of Islam that is enforced to varying degrees of severity across Muslim-majority countries – is a “real issue”. “When you seek to come to a country and not assimilate…that is the conflict,” Johnson added. “It is not about people as Muslims, it’s about those who seek to impose a belief system that is in direct conflict with the constitution.” The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said that Trump administration “can’t make it 12 hours without contradicting themselves about this war”. This comes after defense secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier that Iran would see the “most intense day of strikes” on Tuesday while Donald Trump told CBS News on Monday that Operation Epic Fury is “very complete”. Russia has denied sharing intelligence with Iran on US military assets in the Middle East, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has said today. Speaking to CNBC, Witkoff said the denial came during a phone call that Donald Trump had with Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday, as well as in a separate call that he held earlier on Monday with Jared Kushner and Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov. Trump didn’t divulge any details about his call with Putin yesterday, saying only that it was “very good” and that the Russian president “wants to be helpful on Iran”. On the Russian side, Ushakov said the conversation was “frank” and “business-like”. It follows reports on Friday that Moscow was providing Tehran with targeting information that included locations and movements of US warships and aircraft in the region. “Yesterday on the call with the president, the Russians said that they have not been sharing,” Witkoff said when asked if Washington thought Moscow had shared intelligence about the location of US military assets with Tehran. He went on: “We can take them at their word. But they did say that. And yesterday morning, independently, Jared and I had a call with Ushakov who reiterated the same.” He added: “That’s a better question for the intel people, but let’s hope that they’re not sharing.” Multiple outlets are reporting that the US military used $5.6bn in munitions during the first two days of strikes against Iran, according to an assessment the Pentagon provided to congressional committees on Monday. Members of Congress, who may soon have to approve additional funding for the war, have expressed concern about how quickly the conflict is burning through US military stocks - including long-range precision guided munitions that were used heavily in the first few days of the war - at a time when the defense industry was already struggling to keep up with demand. There are also concerns that the US and its allies are expending a significant number of air defense munitions to shoot down incoming Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, of which Tehran has a large arsenal. Indeed Donald Trump met with leading US weapons manufacturers at the White House on Friday – and said they had agreed to “quadruple Production of ‘Exquisite Class’ Weaponry” - as the Pentagon worked to replenish supplies. His administration has not provided a public assessment of the cost of the conflict it launched on 28 February alongside Israel. Lawmakers have clamored for more information, including public testimony from officials about issues including how the conflict might affect the US military’s readiness to defend the country. Arizona Democratic senator Mark Kelly told CNN that senators would continue to ask briefers behind closed doors today about the per-day cost of the conflict to the US. Several congressional aides have told Reuters and CNN that they expect the White House to soon submit a request to Congress for additional funding to produce more munitions for the war. Per Reuters, some officials have said the request could be for $50bn, but others have said that estimate seems low. Iran has appealed to the United Nations to condemn the United States and Israel for a “manifest environmental crime” over the bombing of fuel storage facilities in Tehran and other cities over the weekend. The attacks led to the falling of acid rain across Tehran, as well as the spreading of clouds of smoke so thick they blocked out the sun and caused respiratory problems and skin irritation to residents. In a letter passed to senior officials at the UN on Monday, including secretary general António Guterres, Saeed Iravani, Iran’s UN ambassador, said the explosions had “released large quantities of hazardous compounds including hydrocarbons, sulphur, and nitrogen oxides” creating “severe air pollution and serious health risks”. Subsequent rainfall led to the “dispersion and deposition of these pollutants through highly acidic precipitation”. “Such developments may result in severe respiratory harm to the population and extensive environmental degradation, including the contamination of water resources and damage to ecosystems and living organisms.” In response, all medical facilities in Tehran had been placed on high alert, while Iran’s environment department had advised residents to remain indoors, Iravani said. These attacks constitute a clear violation of international obligations arising under multilateral environmental agreements, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, which underscore States’ responsibility to protect the global environment and to refrain from actions that may cause widespread environmental harm. The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran calls upon the United Nations and its relevant bodies to urgently address these developments and to undertake appropriate measures, including condemning environmentally destructive acts and pursuing accountability for those responsible for this manifest environmental crime. You can follow developments on US-Israeli war on Iran over on our dedicated live blog here: Cardinal Robert W McElroy, the archbishop of Washington, has said that the US-Israeli war with Iran is “not morally legitimate”, going further than the pope has done in his more moderate appeals for an end to the war. In an interview with the Catholic Standard this week, McElroy said “the criterion of just cause is not met because our country was not responding to an existing or imminent and objectively verifiable attack by Iran.” “As Pope Benedict declared categorically, Catholic teaching does not support preventative war, ie a war justified by speculation about events in the future,” he said. “If preventative war were to be accepted morally, then all limits to the cause for going to war would be put in extreme jeopardy.” McElroy also argued that the conflict fails the “criterion of right intention” arguing that in his opinion, “one of the most worrying elements of these first days of the war in Iran is that our goals and intentions are absolutely unclear, ranging from the destruction of Iran’s conventional and nuclear weapons potential to the overthrow of its regime to the establishment of a democratic government to unconditional surrender,” he said. “You cannot satisfy the just war tradition’s criterion of right intention if you do not have a clear intention.” Read the full story: Rand Paul, the top Republican on the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, told reporters that he’s hoping to schedule Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation hearing to take over as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary for Wednesday 18 March. A reminder that Mullin, a Republican senator from Oklahoma, was tapped by Donald Trump to lead the DHS after the president ousted Kristi Noem from the role. Her 13-month tenure had been roiled with controversy, most recently as immigration crackdowns across the country saw the fatal shootings of two US citizens. Just before Noem was removed as DHS secretary she spent two days on Capitol Hill facing questions and criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. This included having to defend a $220m advertising contract that prominently featured her own image. Noem, for her part, claimed the president approved the campaign, despite the White House publicly denying any sign-off. In the wake of Donald Trump telling CBS News that the US-Israel war on Iran could end “very soon”, oil prices rebounded on Tuesday. My colleagues on our dedicated live business blog note that Brent crude has now slipped just below $90 a barrel, down 9.9% to $89.22 a barrel. This comes after they surged past $100 a barrel on Monday morning, the highest price in four years. The national average gas price in the US, however, is still 13% higher than it was this time last week. The price-per-gallon sits around $3.53, according to AAA. The White House has scheduled a briefing for reporters at 2pm ET. Karoline Leavitt will address the media, and take questions. We’ll bring you the latest lines as it gets underway. 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. Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, handpicked the three to replace Alina Habba, who resigned after a succession of district and appeals court rulings that she was serving illegally because she never received Senate confirmation. On Monday, federal judge Matthew Brann said Bondi’s actions repeated the same error of bypassing congressional approval for the appointments. He stopped short of ordering their removal pending a government appeal – but, in a blistering 130-page ruling, said overreach by the executive branch could jeopardise all of its cases before him. “On the [government’s] reading, the president would have had no need ever to seek the Senate’s advice and consent for his [US attorney] appointments,” Brann, chief judge of the district court for the middle district of Pennsylvania, wrote. Brann, a former Republican party official appointed to the federal court bench in 2012 during Barack Obama’s presidency, made the original ruling in August that disqualified Habba and accused the Trump administration of keeping her in place using “a novel series of legal and personnel moves”. Donald Trump is back in Washington today. The president has no public appearances, per his official schedule, but we’ll be watching for any new lines that come out of the White House. Particularly after Trump said he would sign no new legislation until the SAVE America act is passed. Hegseth says the aftermath of the conflict is “going to be in America’s interests” and says it “will not live under a nuclear blackmail” from Iran. It comes shortly after the defence secretary reiterated president Donald Trump’s threat that if Iran does anything to prevent the flow of oil in the strait of Hormuz, it will be hit “twenty times harder”. When it comes to the ongoing investigation into the bombing of the Iranian girls’ school, Pete Hegseth appeared to answer a question about the probe that was shouted in today’s Pentagon press conference. “Open source is not the place to determine what did or did not happen,” the defense secretary said. “We take things very, very seriously and investigate them thoroughly.” Hegseth went on to say that Iran “targets civilians indiscriminately” according to US military intel. “They set the targeting of drones and missiles toward civilian targets, hospitals, hotels, airports,” without providing an update on the investigation into the strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, which killed at least 175 people. On Monday, Donald Trump was pressed on why he insists Iran was responsible, when cabinet officials have even said who is to blame for the attack. “I just don’t know enough about it. I think it’s something that I was told is under investigation,” the president said. “Certainly, whatever the report shows, I’m willing to live with that report.” When it comes to the timeline of Operation Epic Fury, Pete Hegseth underscored that the military action against Iran is “not endless”. “It’s not protracted. We’re not allowing mission creep,” the defense secretary added. Hegseth said that continues to defer to Donald Trump when it comes to communicating the success of the operation. He [the president] gets to control the throttle. He’s the one deciding. He’s the one elected on behalf of the American people … so it’s not for me to posit whether it’s the beginning, the middle or the end, that’s his. Pete Hegseth said he was unable to comment on the status of the new leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, following reports that he was injured. The defense secretary did warn the late ayatollah’s son “to heed the words of our president” and “not pursue nuclear weapons”. During his opening remarks Hegseth said that the mullahs know that their military is being “systematically degraded” and that Iran “stands alone and is badly losing”. By contrast, he noted that America is “winning” and is executing its objectives to destroy its missiles, its navy and “permanently deny Iran nuclear weapons forever”. Hegseth added that “this is not 2003, and it is not endless nation-building” in an attempt to put daylight between this bombing campaign and the US’s previous forays into Middle Eastern conflict. At a Pentagon press conference, defense secretary Pete Hegseth did not give any guidance on when the military action against Iran might end. “We do so on our timeline and at our choosing,” he said. In recent days, Donald Trump has been unclear about the length of the operation. Last week he said that it would probably take at least four weeks, but on Monday the president said the US is making “major strides toward completing our military objective” and even added that “we’re getting close to finishing”. At the Department of Defense, Hegseth described that today “will be, yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran – the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes.” Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth will be giving a press conference, with chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Dan Caine, shortly. The presser is due to begin at 8am ET and will update on the latest from Trump’s war on Iran. You can follow any news lines that emerge from it in our Middle East live blog here: 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. Retsef Levi, an operations management professor, is a member of the US health department’s vaccine advisory committee (ACIP) which is meeting later this month and – many experts fear – could seek to rollback recommendations on who should receive Covid-19 vaccines. Levi, who holds Israeli and American citizenship, has claimed that Covid-19 vaccines are the “most failing medical product in the history of medical products”, despite a body of research that has shown they are safe and effective. A modeling study published in 2022 in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet estimated that Covid-19 vaccines saved nearly 20 million lives in the first year they were available. He holds a coveted seat on ACIP, which was once considered the “international gold standard for vaccine decision-making” but has faced criticism after Kennedy fired 17 of the group’s voting members – including doctors, immunologists and epidemiologists – and replaced them with individuals who have been criticized for undermining public trust in the safety and efficacy of many vaccines, without any basis in fact. Mississippi Democrats on Tuesday will decide between longtime representative Bennie Thompson and his 34-year-old primary challenger in a race that reflects generational struggle for control of the party. Thompson, a 78-year-old civil rights leader who chaired the House 6 January Committee and serves as a ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, has held his seat for more than three decades, AP reports. He is running against Evan Turnage, an antitrust lawyer who previously worked for top Democrats in Washington, and Pertis Herman Williams III, who has called for a new era of leadership. Turnage is part of a wave of young Democrats who are hoping to oust older incumbents and usher in a new era. He has staked his candidacy on a message of economic populism and cast himself as a leader capable of understanding and regulating Big Tech and artificial intelligence. Turnage faces an uphill battle against Thompson, who has more than $1.5 million in his bank account. Since mid-December, Turnage’s campaign has raised just over $200,000 and has a little under $40,000 left to spend Posing an additional challenge is Thompson’s incumbency advantage. Marvin King, an associate professor of political science at the University of Mississippi, said Thompson’s 17 terms in Congress have made him an institution in a state where voters tend to reelect incumbents. “He’s basically been there like half of people’s lives on average,” King said. “No other challenger has effectively shown why Bennie Thompson should be dethroned.” Thompson has faced a few meaningful challengers from both the right and left, but none of his races have been considered close, King said. Hello and welcome to the US politics blog. Georgia voters are heading to the polls to choose a successor in Congress to Marjorie Taylor Greene. Republican former prosecutor Clay Fuller is likely to come out of Tuesday’s jungle primary, in which the top two candidates go to a runoff regardless of party, alongside retired army general Shawn Harris, a Democrat. The two would face a runoff election on 7 April. Fuller has Trump’s endorsement and had raised more than $1m leading into voting Tuesday, but Harris, who faced Greene two years ago, has raised more than four times as much. Even though four Republican candidates dropped out before the election, the Republican field is fractured between more than a dozen candidates, including former state senator Colton Moore, a combative agitator to the right of most Republican legislators in Georgia. “This is an interesting case to see how powerful Trump’s hold over the party is in that particular district,” said Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University who lives in the district at stake. Swint said the most likely outcome was Harris finishing first without a majority, while the field of a dozen Republican candidates splits the party’s vote, leaving either Fuller or Moore to claim the second runoff spot. Swint added that Harris was almost certain to lose to the Republican in the runoff, given the district’s conservative leanings. Greene, also a firebrand on the right, broke hard against Trump last year, beginning by questioning his first strike on Iran in June, then by sounding alarms during budget talks that the end of healthcare subsidies would wreck her constituents’ finances. The administration’s resistance on the Epstein files was the last straw; Trump and Greene turned on each other, leading to Greene’s resignation in January to avoid a contentious, divisive primary challenge. Read our full report here: In other developments: As oil prices surged amid the widening war with Iran, Donald Trump said that the conflict could be over “very soon” while threatening even more aggressive action if Tehran moved to cut off global energy supplies. During back-to-back appearances in Florida, Trump said the US had taken a “little excursion” to the Middle East “to get rid of some evil” but suggested the war, now in its second week, was ahead of schedule and near completion. More here. Trump renewed his push for the Save America Act, a curtailment of voting access, after threatening on Sunday not to sign any bills until Congress approves the legislation. “All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote,” Trump said during remarks on Monday at a Republican event in Miami. “No mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military or travel.” More here. Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, has said “there will be more casualties” in the US military from the Trump administration’s war in Iran after officials confirmed on Sunday that the number of US service members killed had climbed to seven. He portrayed Trump’s decision for the US to join Israeli attacks on the Middle East country as essential “to advance American interests, and protect American lives”. More here. A golf club company backed by the sons of Trump is merging with drone manufacturer Powerus in a deal designed to take the drone technology company public. The merger with Aureus Greenway Holdings is the latest in Eric and Donald Trump Jr’s growing investments in the drone sector, following last month’s $1.5bn tie-up between Israeli drone maker XTEND and Florida-based JFB Construction Holdings. More here. Claudia Sheinbaum has responded to Trump’s description of Mexico as the “epicenter of violence,” by calling on the US government to step up efforts to combat gun trafficking. “There is something that the US can help us a lot with: stop the trafficking of illegal weapons from the US to Mexico,” the president of Mexico said. “If they stopped the entry of illegal weapons from the United States into Mexico, then these groups wouldn’t have access to this type of high-powered weaponry to carry out their criminal activities.” More here.