German Chancellor Merz:

Ladies and gentlemen, the Federal Government I lead will never leave any doubt about where we stand:

We stand with Israel.

Venezuela’s central bank said inflation surged to 475% in 2025, up from 48% in 2024, as political turmoil and U.S. sanctions hit the economy.

Monthly data show some improvement in 2026: inflation was 32.6% in January but slowed to 14.6% in February.

The figures are the first official inflation data since late 2024.

IRGC:

Iran strongly welcomes the escort ​of oil tankers and that U.S. ​forces will be there for the crossing of the ‌Strait ⁠of Hormuz.

And we are, by the way, awaiting their presence.

U.S. prosecutors in Florida are preparing possible criminal cases against Cuban government and Communist Party leaders as Trump signals Cuba could be the next target for regime change.

A task force with the FBI, DEA, and Treasury is gathering evidence on potential crimes like drug trafficking, immigration violations, and sanctions breaches.

Source: WSJ

Sen. Lindsey Graham spent months persuading Trump to strike Iran through repeated personal lobbying, strategic arguments, and coordination with outside allies.

Graham frequently spoke with Trump directly, visiting him at his Florida clubs and calling him regularly to press the case.

To strengthen the case, Graham traveled several times to Israel to meet intelligence officials and Netanyahu. He said Netanyahu later presented intelligence to Trump that helped persuade the president to move forward.

At the same time, Graham worked with retired Gen. Jack Keane and commentator Marc Thiessen to reinforce the message. The group regularly spoke with Trump, while Keane and Thiessen wrote opinion pieces and appeared on television to push for action.

Graham also appealed to Trump’s instincts and grievances, arguing Iran was currently weak and reminding him of alleged Iranian plots against him during the 2024 campaign.

He framed a strike as the logical continuation of Trump’s earlier decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Source: WSJ

After last year’s devastating 12-Day War with the U.S. and Israel, Iran’s leadership under Ali Khamenei adopted a far more aggressive strategy.

Instead of responding with limited retaliation, Tehran planned to expand any future conflict across the region, targeting Gulf states and key economic infrastructure to raise the global cost of war.

The strategy also relies on “mosaic defense,” a decentralized military structure that allows regional commanders to continue fighting even if top leaders are killed.

When the current war began and Khamenei was killed early in the fighting, the plan was activated. Iran launched missiles and drones across a 2,000-mile front, striking Gulf countries, energy facilities, ports, and U.S. sites to disrupt global supply chains and pressure Washington to end the conflict.

Source: WSJ

Reporter: As you know, my son Joe is a college baseball player…

Trump: How would I know that? He said “as you know” — I don’t even know who the guy is.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei:

Right now you have an army of human soldiers, and there are norms about serving in the military.

You're supposed to follow orders, but if something crazy enough happened, soldiers would say, “I'm not going to do that.”

You basically have a set of norms about how soldiers serve, what they see their duties to be.

What if you have an army of 10 million drones instead of 10 million human soldiers?

What are the norms of the AI-driven drones?

I think if we handle this wrongly, you could have a situation where there's a very small number of people — or even one person — who has their hand on the button and controls those 10 million drones.

John Bolton:

There isn’t going to be an unconditional surrender from this regime. They’re just not going to do it.

It isn’t going to happen anyway, so I don’t think there’s much point in trying to define what he meant.

Lockheed Martin:

We have agreed to quadruple critical munitions production.

IRGC:

We targeted three sites belonging to separatist groups in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq at dawn today.

Iran Analyst Dr. Trita Parsi:

If the death of Khamenei was going to lead to crisis, the window for that was probably within the first 24 hours.

They're moving forward with the secession. But they're also not rushing it to signal they are in control.

It seems the regime is in control. No major protest. None of the actors outside have a ground game inside. The opposition is very weak.

FULL INTERVIEW

Saudi Arabia says it intercepted and destroyed 16 drones heading toward the Shaybah oil field, one of the kingdom’s largest energy sites producing about 1 million barrels per day. The defense ministry did not say where the drones came from.

READ MORE

Israel launched a new wave of broad-scale airstrikes on Tehran, hitting Mehrabad Airport and Iranian military sites, while US Central Command said more than 3,000 targets have been struck over the past week, intensifying the Middle East conflict.

READ MORE

BREAKING: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:

Yesterday, the Temporary Leadership Council approved that there should be no more attacks on neighboring countries and no missile launches, unless an attack against Iran originates from those countries.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:

They will take their dream to the grave if they think we will surrender unconditionally.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:

I apologize to neighboring countries.

We have no intention of aggression against other countries.