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Category: Nation & World

  • Cuba’s president pushes for ‘urgent’ changes to island’s economic and social model

    Cuba’s president pushes for ‘urgent’ changes to island’s economic and social model

    HAVANA — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Monday that his government should “immediately” focus on implementing urgent transformations to the island’s economic and social model as oil reserves in the Caribbean country dwindle.

    The comments made during a meeting of the Council of Ministers come as Cuba feels the squeeze of a recent oil blockade coupled with a halt in oil shipments from Venezuela after the U.S. attacked the South American country in January.

    “We must focus, immediately, on implementing the urgent, most necessary transformations that must be made to the economic and social model,” he was quoted as saying by state-owned media.

    Díaz-Canel said the push to transform Cuba’s economic and social model is tied to business and municipal autonomy and the resizing of the state apparatus, government, and institutions, among other things, according to state-owned media.

    He called on municipalities to manage issues including foreign direct investment; economic partnerships between the state and nonstate sectors; and investments with Cubans residing abroad, according to state-owned media.

    Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said Cuba’s priorities are focused on food production and changes to the island’s power grid as severe outages and interruptions in fuel supply persist.

    The minister of energy and mines, Vicente de la O Levy, was quoted by state media as saying that progress in developing a transition strategy by municipalities is still slow despite the distribution of solar panels to doctors, teachers, and children. He said municipalities need to have a sustainability strategy that relies on their own resources.

    Last month, Cuba implemented austere fuel-saving measures, including halting some public transportation and moving classes online.

    Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department slightly eased restrictions on the sale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, but the island’s energy and economic crisis is expected to persist.

    In addition to its energy woes, Cuba is struggling with a sharp increase in U.S. sanctions that have stripped the island of nearly $8 billion in revenue from March 2024 to February 2025, a loss that is nearly 50% higher compared with the previous period, according to government statistics.

  • Rev. Jesse Jackson returns home to South Carolina to lie in state

    Rev. Jesse Jackson returns home to South Carolina to lie in state

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — After a long career of fighting for civil rights, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. is visiting his home for one last time to lie in state at the South Carolina Capitol on Monday.

    The final full honors from the state where he was born is a far cry from his childhood in segregated Greenville, where in 1960 he couldn’t go inside the local library’s much better funded whites-only branch to check out a book he needed.

    Jackson led seven Black high school students into that segregated branch, where they sat down and read books and magazines until they were arrested. The branches closed, then quietly reopened for all.

    With that action, Jackson launched his career — and crusade — fighting for equality for all. He would catch the attention of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and join the voting rights march King led from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.

    Jackson died Feb. 17 at age 84 after battling a rare neurological disorder that affected his mobility and ability to speak in his later years.

    His casket, draped in an American flag, arrived at the South Carolina Statehouse on a horse-drawn caisson on a chilly, cloudy morning. A special white-gloved Highway Patrol honor guard brought Jackson inside the Statehouse and to the second floor, where well over 100 people packed under the rotunda for a ceremony before the public would be invited in to pay their respects.

    “Today we’re here to celebrate a life well lived, a job well done,” said Democratic state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, who led the ceremony.

    The service began with a rousing version of the civil rights anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” that reverberated through the Statehouse — a building that was partially destroyed in 1865 during the Civil War started by South Carolina to keep slavery.

    The South Carolina services are part of two weeks of events. They began with Jackson’s body lying in repose and the public invited last week to his Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s Chicago headquarters.

    After South Carolina, Jackson will be returned to Chicago for a large celebration of life gathering at a megachurch and the final homegoing services at the headquarters of Rainbow PUSH. Plans for a service in Washington, D.C., to honor him have been postponed until a later date.

    Nationally, Jackson advocated for the poor and underrepresented for voting rights, job opportunities, education, and healthcare. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders.

    Through his Rainbow PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society. He stepped forward as the Civil Rights Movement’s torchbearer after King’s assassination, and would run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.

    Jackson continued to be active in his home state, pushing in 2003 for Greenville County to honor King by matching the federal holiday in his honor and in 2015 by advocating for removing the Confederate flag from South Carolina Statehouse grounds after nine Black worshipers were killed in a racist shooting at a Charleston church.

    Jackson is just the second Black man to lie in state at the South Carolina Capitol. State Sen. Clementa Pinckney was honored in 2015 after he was killed in the Charleston church shooting.

  • Macron says France will allow temporary deployment of nuclear-armed jets to European allies

    Macron says France will allow temporary deployment of nuclear-armed jets to European allies

    L’ILE LONGUE, France — French President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday that France would for the first time allow the deployment of its nuclear-armed aircraft to allied countries in a new nuclear strategy aimed at strengthening Europe’s independence.

    Macron also announced the first increase in his country’s nuclear arsenal in decades during a speech outlining the strategy at a military base at L’Ile Longue in northwestern France that hosts the country’s ballistic missile submarines.

    “To be free, one needs to be feared,” Macron said.

    Macron said the new posture could “provide for the temporary deployment of elements of our strategic air forces to allied countries,” but said there would be no sharing of decision-making with any other nation regarding the use of the nuclear weapons.

    Talks about such arrangements have started with Britain, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark, Macron said.

    Macron’s long-planned speech, scheduled before the most recent outbreak of hostilities in Iran, was aimed at spelling out how French nuclear weapons fit into Europe’s security amid concerns raised on the continent by recurring tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    France also will allow partners to participate in deterrence exercises and allow allies’ non-nuclear forces to participate in France’s nuclear activities, said Macron, who is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces under the French constitution.

    European partners welcomed the new strategy of France, which has been the only nuclear power in the European Union since Britain’s exit from the bloc in 2020.

    In a joint statement, Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the two countries would deepen integration in deterrence starting this year, “including German conventional participation in French nuclear exercises and joint visits to strategic sites.”

    In a letter to Dutch lawmakers, Defense Minister Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius and Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said the Netherlands was in strategic talks with France on nuclear deterrence as “a supplement to, and not a replacement for, NATO’s collective defense and nuclear deterrence capabilities.”

    Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X that “we are arming up together with our friends so that our enemies will never dare to attack us.”

    Macron also announced that France will increase its number of nuclear warheads from the current level of below 300, but did not give a figure for the increase. It will be the first time France increases its nuclear arsenal since at least 1992.

    “I have decided to increase the numbers of warheads of our arsenal,” Macron said. “My responsibility is to ensure that our deterrence maintains — and will maintain in the future — its assured destructive power.”

    “If we had to use our arsenal, no state, however powerful, could shield itself from it, and no state, however vast, would recover from it,” Macron said.

    European leaders have voiced growing doubts about U.S. commitments to help defend Europe under the so-called nuclear umbrella, a policy long intended to ensure that allies — particularly NATO members — would be protected by American nuclear forces in the event of a threat.

    Macron said that recent changes in U.S. defense strategy amid the emergence of new threats have demonstrated a refocusing of American priorities and have encouraged Europe to take more direct responsibility for its own security. He said Europeans should take their destiny more firmly into their hands.

    Some European nations have already taken up an offer Macron made last year to discuss France’s nuclear deterrence and even associate European partners in nuclear exercises.

    Last month, Merz said he’d had “initial talks” with Macron on the issue and had publicly theorized about German Air Force planes possibly being used to carry French nuclear bombs. But Macron ruled out any such possibility in Monday’s speech.

    France and Britain also adopted a joint declaration in July that allows both nations’ nuclear forces, while independent, to be “coordinated.” The U.K., no longer an EU member but a NATO ally, is the only other country in Western Europe with a nuclear deterrent.

    Macron has consistently insisted any decision to use France’s nuclear weapons would remain only in the hands of the French president.

    Macron added that the evolution of France competitors’ defenses, the emergence of regional powers, the possibility of coordination among adversaries, and the risks linked to proliferation led him to the conclusion that it was essential for France to enhance its nuclear arsenal.

  • War widens as Israeli and U.S. planes pound Iran and Tehran and its proxies hit back

    War widens as Israeli and U.S. planes pound Iran and Tehran and its proxies hit back

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The war in the Middle East spiraled further Monday as Israel and the U.S. pounded Iran. Tehran and its allies hit back against Israel, neighboring Gulf states, and targets critical to the world’s production of oil and natural gas.

    The intensity of the attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the lack of any apparent exit plan indicated the conflict would not end anytime soon. It was already having far-reaching consequences: Safe havens in the Mideast like Dubai have seen incoming fire; hundreds of thousands of airline passengers are stranded around the globe; oil prices shot up; and U.S. allies pledged to help stop Iranian missiles and drones.

    Iran has long threatened, if attacked, to drag the region into total war, including targeting Israel, the Gulf Arab states and the flow of crude oil crucial for global energy markets. All of these came under attack on Monday.

    The chaos of the conflict became apparent when the U.S. military said Kuwait had “mistakenly shot down” three American F-15E Strike Eagles while attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones were underway. U.S. Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely and are in stable condition.

    Israel and the U.S. bombed Iranian missile sites and targeted its navy, claiming to have destroyed its headquarters and multiple warships. As several airstrikes hit Iran’s capital of Tehran, the top security official Ali Larijani vowed on X: “We will not negotiate with the United States.”

    The death toll grew on all sides. The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that the U.S.-Israeli operation has killed at least 555 people. In Israel, where several locations were hit by Iranian missiles, 11 people were killed. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group also targeted Israel, which responded with strikes on Lebanon, killing more than two dozen people. Meanwhile, four American troops have been killed, and three people were reported killed in the United Arab Emirates and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.

    In Kuwait City, fire and smoke rose from inside the U.S. Embassy compound, shortly after the U.S. issued a warning to Americans to take cover and stay away from the complex. There were no immediate reports on damage or casualties.

    Iran expands attacks to regional oil infrastructure

    Iran targeted the lifeblood of the area’s economy.

    With world markets already rattled by the fighting, QatarEnergy said it would stop its production of liquefied natural gas, taking one of the world’s top suppliers off the market. It offered no timeline for restoring its production. European natural gas prices surged by 40% in response.

    Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery came under attack from drones, with defenses downing the incoming aircraft, a military spokesman told the state-run Saudi Press Agency. The refinery has a capacity of over half a million barrels of crude oil a day.

    A drone also targeted an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, killing one mariner, the sultanate said, while debris fell on an oil refinery in Kuwait.

    Several ships have been attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil trade passes and where Iran has threatened attacks.

    “The attack on Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura refinery marks a significant escalation, with Gulf energy infrastructure now squarely in Iran’s sights,” said Torbjorn Soltvedt, an analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft. “An extended period of uncertainty lies ahead.”

    The region is also a hub for air travel, and passengers have been stranded around the world as carriers based in the Gulf grounded flights. But long-haul carriers Etihad and Emirates restarted limited flights Monday.

    Iran says nuclear site was targeted

    Reza Najafi, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters that airstrikes targeted the Natanz nuclear enrichment site on Sunday.

    “Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie,” he said.

    Israel and the U.S. have not acknowledged strikes at the site, which the U.S. bombed in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. Israel has said that it is targeting the “leadership and nuclear infrastructure.”

    Iran has said it has not enriched uranium since June, though it has maintained its right to do so while saying its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

    Hezbollah fires on Israel, prompting massive response

    Hezbollah said it fired missiles on Israel early Monday in response to Khamenei’s killing and “repeated Israeli aggressions.” It was the first time in more than a year that the militant group has claimed an attack.

    There were no reports of injuries or damage.

    Lebanon’s government said Hezbollah’s overnight attacks against Israel were “illegal” and demanded the group hand over its weapons.

    Rescue services in Israel said several locations have been hit by Iranian missiles, including Jerusalem and a synagogue in Beit Shemesh. In all, 11 people have been killed.

    Israel retaliated with strikes on Lebanon, killing at least 31 people and wounding 149 others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Associated Press journalists in Beirut were jolted awake by loud explosions that shook buildings and shattered windows.

    Iran’s proxies were a chief concern for American and Israeli officials before they moved ahead with strikes over the weekend.

    The Iraqi Shiite militia Saraya Awliya al-Dam claimed a drone attack Monday targeting U.S. troops at the airport in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. It claimed another drone attack on Sunday against a U.S. air base in Iraq’s north.

    No end in sight to the US-Israeli campaign

    The U.S. military said B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs. President Donald Trump said on social media that nine Iranian warships had been sunk and that the Iranian navy’s headquarters had been “largely destroyed.”

    “Combat operations continue at this time in full force, and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved,” Trump said in a video message Sunday.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that the U.S. is not engaged in a nation-building effort in Iran, and there is a clear mission. “This is not Iraq. This is not endless,” Hegseth said.

    He didn’t give specifics when asked about the ultimate goals of the operation, how long it might last or what success would look like, saying doing so would disadvantage U.S. forces.

    It’s not completely clear what the U.S. objectives are. In announcing the initial strikes, Trump referred to the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear and missile programs. But he also listed various grievances dating back to Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 and urged Iranians to “take over” their government. There have been no signs yet of any such uprising.

    The American leader, however, has also signaled he would be open to dialogue with Iran’s new leadership — which could be chosen soon.

    In an indication that the conflict could draw in other nations, Britain, France and Germany said Sunday they were ready to work with the U.S. to help stop Iran’s attacks.

    Early Monday, Cyprus said a drone “caused limited damage” when it hit a British air base there.

    Tehran’s streets are deserted

    Tehran’s streets have been largely deserted with people sheltering during airstrikes. The paramilitary Basij force, which has played a central role in crushing recent nationwide protests, set up checkpoints across the city, according to witnesses.

    In the northern Iranian city of Babol, a student, speaking anonymously over concerns of retribution, told the AP that armed riot police were on the streets Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday after the death of Khamenei.

    “We don’t know whether to be happy about the elimination of the criminals who oppress us or to remain silent in the face of the U.S. and Israel’s war against the country and its interests and the terror that is taking place,” he said.

  • Where things stand after the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran

    Where things stand after the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran

    The United States and Israel targeted Iran in coordinated attacks over the weekend that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of other senior figures and kicked off a furious Iranian response that threatens a wider regional war.

    Allies of the U.S. pledged to help stop Iran’s missile and drone strikes. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed strikes on Israel for the first time in more than a year, and Israel fired back.

    The first U.S. military deaths have been reported. Other deaths have been confirmed in Israel and Gulf nations, while Iran has said hundreds of people have been killed there.

    With Khamenei’s death, the Islamic Republic must now choose a supreme leader for the first time since 1989. U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Iranians to seize the moment and overthrow the theocracy that cracked down on nationwide protests early this year. There was no sign that was happening.

    Around the world, some protested. Others cheered.

    The attacks came two days after the latest U.S.-Iran talks aimed at putting controls on Tehran’s nuclear program. They echoed the events of last year, when talks were cut short by an Israeli attack that led to a 12-day war and U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites. Washington has claimed that Iran was rebuilding its nuclear program in recent months.

    Iran has said it hasn’t enriched since June, but it has blocked IAEA inspectors from visiting the sites America bombed.

    Here’s where things stand.

    Iran

    The 86-year-old Khamenei was killed when his compound was bombed Saturday morning. Iran’s ballistic missile sites, navy headquarters and warships were attacked as well. Iran said strikes also targeted the Natanz nuclear enrichment site. Israel and the U.S. have not acknowledged strikes at the site, though Israel has said it is targeting the “leadership and nuclear infrastructure.”

    Khamenei had no designated successor. Iran has set up a three-member leadership council, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said a new supreme leader would be chosen in “one or two days.” On the streets, there have been scattered celebrations over Khamenei’s death. Internet restrictions in Iran have complicated efforts to monitor what’s happening.

    In retaliation, Iran’s military has struck Israel, where several people have been killed. Iran has also targeted U.S. bases in the region. The U.S. military said three service members were killed, the first known U.S. casualties. Other Iranian strikes have killed a handful of people in Gulf nations including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, and hundreds of flights have been affected at some of the world’s busiest airports.

    What to watch for: further military strikes, the selection of a new supreme leader, and reactions from the Iranian people.

    United States

    The strikes came after the U.S. built up its biggest military presence in the region in decades. Israeli and U.S. authorities spent weeks tracking the movements of senior Iranian leaders. Trump has said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” in Iran would continue through the week or longer.

    U.S. military bases throughout the region remain a potential target of Iranian attacks.

    The U.S. has signaled it is willing to talk to Iran’s new leaders, eventually. Meanwhile, some leaders in Congress have protested at the launch of the strikes without congressional authorization.

    What to watch for: further military strikes, effects on U.S. bases and forces, and any diplomacy with Iran’s new leadership.

    Israel

    Israel sees Iran as an existential threat and has long sought to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, while also targeting armed allied groups like Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israeli attacks have weakened those groups since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that started the war in Gaza.

    Israel launched strikes in Lebanon early Monday in retaliation for missiles that Hezbollah launched across the border.

    Now Israel has pledged “nonstop” strikes and at one point said 100 fighter jets were simultaneously striking targets in Tehran. During last year’s war, Israel pitched Trump a plan to kill Khamenei. Now they have.

    Israelis dashed to shelters for safety all weekend, but most of Iran’s attacks have been intercepted. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under international criticism for the war in Gaza, is claiming a win for Israel’s security.

    But risk remains from Iranian-backed groups like the Houthi rebels in Yemen who have vowed to resume attacks on Red Sea shipping routes and on Israel.

    What to watch for: further military strikes, as well as attacks by and against Iranian proxies.

    The Middle East and beyond

    The current conflict is already far more intense than last year’s Israel-Iran war, where the U.S. inserted itself near the end by bombing Iranian nuclear sites and Iran responded with a calculated attack on a U.S. military base in Qatar.

    Now, hundreds of Iranian missile and drone strikes have sent people scrambling across Gulf nations that had previously been relatively insulated from the volatility in the region.

    The United Arab Emirates said Dubai’s main airport had been affected, and tourists and others flinched at the booms of interceptors. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted attacks, and summoned Iran’s ambassador. Top diplomats of six Gulf states said they had the “right to self-defense.”

    Oil prices rose sharply when market trading began Sunday as traders bet that supply from the critical region would slow or stop. Attacks on and near the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical oil chokepoint, are also raising concerns about supply.

    In response, eight countries that are part of the OPEC+ oil cartel said they would boost production of crude.

    And on Monday, the world might learn the first details about any effects on Iran’s nuclear program as the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors holds a meeting on the conflict.

    What to watch for: oil prices, details on Iran’s nuclear program, and diplomatic efforts.

  • Oil prices surge as Strait of Hormuz tanker disruptions rattle global supply

    Oil prices surge as Strait of Hormuz tanker disruptions rattle global supply

    FRANKFURT, Germany — Oil prices rose sharply Monday as disruptions in tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint raised uncertainty about how U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran would affect supply to the world economy.

    US oil traded 7.4% higher at $71.97 per barrel, while international standard Brent was up 7.7% at $78.46 per barrel.

    Higher oil prices raise the prospect of costlier gasoline prices for U.S. drivers as well as for other goods at a time when people in many countries have been stung by inflation.

    A key focus was the situation around the strait at the southern end of the Persian Gulf, through which 20% of the world’s oil supply passes. Tanker traffic dropped sharply amid disruption of satellite navigation systems, data and analytics firm Kpler said on X, while the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre reported attacks on several vessels in the area on either side of the strait and warned of elevated electronic interference to systems that show where ships are.

    A bomb-carrying drone boat struck a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Monday, killing one mariner on board, Oman said. Iran has been threatening vessels approaching the Strait of Hormuz and is believed to have launched multiple attacks.

    Saudi authorities reported they intercepted Iranian drones that attacked the Ras Tanura oil refinery near Dammam and the refinery was shut down as a precaution, Saudi state television reported. Market attention has focused on whether the conflict would widen to other oil-producing countries in the region.

    Monday’s price increase was within the $5-$10 per barrel range expected by analysts based simply on the fear factor associated with the outbreak of war. And some war concerns were already reflected in the price before the conflict started.

    However, long-term disruption to ship traffic in the strait could send prices even higher, and so could damage to oil infrastructure in other Gulf countries. Meanwhile, a shorter conflict in which disruptions are easily reversible could mean the current price spike won’t last.

  • Congress will debate an Iran conflict that is well underway

    Congress will debate an Iran conflict that is well underway

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. Congress is about to launch a war powers debate over President Donald Trump’s authority to bomb Iran under largely unusual circumstances — he has already done it, and the country is essentially already at war.

    Bombs are falling, people are dying and vows of revenge and retribution are being lobbed in escalating threats, all while untold taxpayer dollars are being spent on a military strategy that’s expected to continue for weeks with an undefined goal and conclusion. Unlike the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003, which included long debates in Congress in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, or the more recent U.S. military strikes on Venezuela that proved to be limited, the joint U.S.-Israel military attack on Iran, called Operation Epic Fury, is well underway, with no foreseeable end in sight.

    At least three U.S. military personnel have been killed, and Trump warned on Sunday “there will likely be more.”

    The moment is a defining one for Congress, which alone has the authority under the U.S. Constitution to declare war, and for the Republican president, who has consistently seized power during his second term with an apparent limitless view of his own executive reach.

    “The Constitution is intended to prevent the accumulation of power in any one branch of government — and in any one person in government,” said David Janovsky, acting director of The Constitution Project at the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog organization.

    “Congress is the people’s representatives in a way that the president isn’t, even though we tend to focus on the president,” he said. “We need the people’s representatives to weigh in on whether we, the people, are going to war right now.”

    War powers as a check on presidential power

    In the U.S., the Congress would need to affirmatively approve wartime operations, with a declaration of war, or with an authorization for the use of military force, to essentially approve of the actions. But this rarely happens.

    In fact, Congress has declared war just five times in the nation’s history, most recently in 1941, to enter World War II a day after the Pearl Harbor attack. Congress approved an AUMF for the 1990 Gulf War and did so again in 2001 and 2002 to launch the 9/11-era wars into Afghanistan and then Iraq.

    But Congress also created the war powers resolution during the Vietnam War-era, as something of a tool of last resort — deployed to slap back a president who had embarked on military excursions without congressional approval.

    Both the House and the Senate have prepared war powers resolutions for votes this week.

    Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Trump, as president, “does not have the right to do this on his own.”

    “When the president commits American forces to a war of choice, he needs to come before Congress and the American people and ask for a declaration of war,” Warner said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

    While lawmakers have criticized the Iranian regime and its nuclear ambitions, Democrats said Trump has not provided a rationale for the war or outlined its strategy for what comes next, and Trump’s MAGA coalition is splintering over what it sees as the president’s failure to keep his “America First” campaign promise by leading the U.S. toward an overseas war. Many lawmakers are wary of a longer entanglement as the operation killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and hundreds of people in the region.

    White House officials are scheduled to brief congressional leaders and lawmakers this week, but the question-and-answer sessions will be behind closed doors, without a watchful public.

    Power of the purse can stop wars

    Over time, presidents of both major political parties have accumulated vast authority to engage in what are often more limited U.S. military strikes to accomplish strategic national security goals without approval from Congress. Democrat Barack Obama’s military operations over Libya and Republican George H.W. Bush’s incursions into Panama were conducted without the nod from Congress.

    But restraining a president’s war powers is something lawmakers past and present have rarely been able to accomplish. Even if Congress is able to pass a war powers resolution to curb Trump in Iran, the House and the Senate would be unlikely to tally the two-thirds majority needed to overcome a presidential veto.

    Trump has shrugged at the power of Congress to dictate what he can and can’t do, in war and other matters. He made only a brief mention of Iran in his State of the Union address last week, treating lawmakers’ support as an afterthought.

    John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said the Founding Fathers set up a constitutional system in which the president and Congress would battle it out over these issues — but with Congress having one particularly powerful tool, because it controls the federal funding.

    “Congress, they know how to stop this if they want to,” said Yoo, who helped draft the Bush administration’s 2001 and 2002 use of force authorizations. The Vietnam War ended once Congress pulled funding, he said.

    But Congress is controlled by a Republican majority that largely shares Trump’s view of focusing military power against Iran, and it recently approved massive new funds for the Pentagon, some $175 billion, in the big tax cuts bill that he signed into law last yar.

    With the Republican president’s party in power in the House and the Senate, it’s no surprise they are unlikely to object, Yoo said: “They agree with him.”

    Debate in Congress begins

    Ahead of debates, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Trump already laid out his vision for Iran.

    Cotton said Sunday that Trump has made it clear the U.S. won’t be sending ground forces inside Iran. Instead, Americans should expect to see an “extended air and naval campaign” in the region, which could result in pilots being shot down, though he said the military personnel would be recovered.

    He expects a weekslong campaign as Iran names a new leader and determines how it will react to the U.S. attack.

    “There’s no simple answer for what’s going to come next,” Cotton said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

  • U.S. troops killed amid Iranian counterattack, fueling air defense fears

    U.S. troops killed amid Iranian counterattack, fueling air defense fears

    Three U.S. troops were killed and five others seriously wounded amid ongoing hostilities with Iran, military officials said Sunday, the first known American casualties in a campaign that has quickly heightened concerns about the Pentagon’s ability to protect its personnel.

    An unspecified number of troops also sustained “minor shrapnel injuries and concussions” and are in the process of returning to duty, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the region.

    The three slain Americans were part of a sustainment unit in Kuwait, two U.S. officials told The Washington Post. One of the officials said the three troops served in the Army. The military’s official statement on the deaths did not specify where the service members were killed, a deviation from the Defense Department’s traditional notification procedures when announcing U.S. combat fatalities.

    The secrecy underscored how fraught the situation has become for service members deployed in the Middle East as Iran attacked U.S. facilities and interests in a half-dozen countries following the death Saturday of its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

    Spokespeople for the Pentagon and Central Command declined to comment for this article.

    The three fatalities – in its statement, Central Command referred to the fallen troops as “killed in action” – return the United States to a familiar footing in the Middle East, where successive U.S. administrations prosecuted costly, devastating wars over the 20 years that followed 9/11. In announcing the start of Operation Epic Fury overnight Saturday, President Donald Trump acknowledged the possibility that American lives may be lost, saying, “That often happens in war.”

    In a video statement released by the White House on Sunday, the president praised the three troops who “made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation” and said that “sadly, there will likely be more before it ends.” He told the Daily Mail that the campaign could last for four weeks.

    Numerous U.S. facilities throughout the region have come under attack since U.S. and Israeli forces began attacking targets in Iran – a mission, Trump has said, that is intended to topple the theocratic government in Tehran and destroy its military capabilities.

    Central Command said Sunday that U.S. forces have destroyed more than 1,000 targets so far, including naval ships and submarines, missile sites, communications links and the command and control centers for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

    The astonishing figure after less than two days of military operations reflected what one U.S. official described as a “very aggressive” effort to knock out as many of Iran’s capabilities to launch missiles and drones as quickly as possible. Like others, this person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the news media.

    Still, overnight, military officials in U.S. operations centers tracked “dozens and dozens” of missiles and attack drones launched by Iran throughout the night, said another person familiar with the situation.

    “Iran is in full retaliation,” this person said.

    The vast number of retaliatory attacks – and the array of sites being targeted, including nonmilitary sites in Arab nations across the Middle East – is concerning after so much of the regime’s top leadership was killed, this person continued. Officials are worried about the command and control of those weapons, the person added.

    Inside the Pentagon, and among some members of the Trump administration, there was deepening concern Sunday that the Iran conflict could spiral out of control, said people familiar with the situation.

    “The mood here is intense and paranoid,” one person said.

    There is anxiety among senior leaders that the fighting will extend for weeks, further stressing limited U.S. air defense stockpiles, people familiar with the situation said.

    “There is concern about this lasting more than a few days,” said another person. “I don’t think people have fully absorbed yet, like, what that has done with stockpiles,” they added, noting that it often takes two or three air defense interceptors to ensure that an incoming missile is stopped.

    The House Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith (Washington) said this operation will force the U.S. to further expend munitions supplies that are already strained.

    “At this point, it’s on. It’s not like we can say: ‘Hey, Iran, we’re out of missile defense systems now so we’re going to pause for a moment. Is that okay?’ It will stretch our ability to defend everything that we need to defend,” Smith said, characterizing U.S. resources as “stretched thin.”

    As The Post reported last week, the president’s senior military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, warned the White House that munitions shortfalls and a lack of broad military support from other U.S. allies would add considerable risk to any operation in Iran and to the U.S. personnel put in harm’s way.

    The U.S. has a vast amount of firepower in the region, including nine destroyers capable of shooting down missiles. But videos circulating online show that one of the other major threats U.S. troops face is from Iran’s fleet of Shahed drones, which fly slow and low, and are not optimal targets for U.S. air defenses.

    Trump has said in multiple social posts since the operation began that he is committed to a long-term military operation against Iran. Unlike the precision operation in June targeting Iran’s nuclear program, the president has said U.S. “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue for days, uninterrupted, “to achieve our objective of peace” throughout the Middle East.

    The descriptions of shrapnel and concussions noted in Central Command’s statement Sunday point to missiles or drones, which produce blast injuries. While U.S. and regional allies have intercepted much of the incoming fire, some attacks have broken through, including numerous salvos that blasted a U.S. naval base in Bahrain.

    In 2024, three U.S. soldiers were killed and others wounded in a drone attack on their base in Jordan. Commanders and personnel failed to properly detect and intercept an Iranian-made drone that smashed into the troops’ living quarters. Investigators later found senior leaders denied a request to position an air defense system there.

    Noah Robertson and Laura Meckler contributed to this report.

  • Venezuela’s opposition leader Machado says she will return to the country in the coming weeks

    Venezuela’s opposition leader Machado says she will return to the country in the coming weeks

    CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan opposition leader and winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize María Corina Machado said on Sunday that she will return to Venezuela in the coming weeks and that elections will be held in the South American country.

    Machado did not set a date for her return but said that one of the objectives will be to prepare “for a new and gigantic electoral victory.”

    In a message shared on social media, the politician called on her supporters to “strengthen the unity of Venezuelans that began with the primaries,” a reference to the 2023 process in which she won the vote aimed at establishing a single candidate to compete at the polls against former President Nicolás Maduro.

    Acting President Delcy Rodríguez — in power since Maduro and his wife were captured in a U.S. military operation in January — has warned that Machado “will have to answer” if she returns to the country.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that change in Venezuela must go through phases of stabilization, economic recovery, and transition. He has not indicated that elections could be held in the short term.

    The 58-year-old politician, a key figure in the Venezuelan opposition, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her fight for democratic transition in Venezuela.

    She controversially later presented her medal to U.S. President Donald Trump after the military intervention that deposed Maduro, who now faces drug-trafficking-related charges in U.S. courts. He has pleaded not guilty.

    After Maduro was declared the victor of the July 2024 elections, protests erupted that sparked widespread repression. The opposition claimed it had credible evidence that the real winner was Edmundo González, who replaced Machado after she was barred from participating.

  • Dubai’s image as a safe, tax-free haven is rocked by blasts from Iranian airstrikes

    Dubai’s image as a safe, tax-free haven is rocked by blasts from Iranian airstrikes

    The United Arab Emirates has sold itself to foreigners for years as a sunny, safe, tax-free oasis.

    That peaceful image was shattered Saturday as Iranian weaponry rained down on Dubai, setting fire to a five-star resort, threatening the world’s tallest building, and killing one person and injuring seven others at the airport in the capital city of Abu Dhabi.

    Iran has hit the UAE and several of its neighbors as it strikes back from the major attack by U.S. and Israeli forces, causing fear and chaos in a place that until Saturday was predictably calm.

    “This is Dubai’s ultimate nightmare, as its very essence depended on being a safe oasis in a troubled region,” Cinzia Bianco, an expert on the Persian Gulf at the European Council on Foreign Relations wrote on X. “There might be a way to be resilient, but there is no going back.”

    Officials tried to reassure residents and visitors that the country’s air defense system was among the best in the world, blasting down drones and missiles.

    “I know it’s a scary time for a lot of the residents,” Reem Al Hashimy, minister of state for international cooperation, told CNN. “We don’t hear these types of loud sounds. But at the same time, those are sounds of interception. And where there has been damage — that has been primarily debris.”

    Fallout from the attacks has undermined the Emirates’ efforts to de-escalate tensions with Iran despite longtime suspicions of its neighbor across the Gulf. The UAE closed its embassy in Tehran on Sunday.

    The oil-rich federation of seven sheikhdoms has relied on its image as a place of serenity to lure wealthy tourists, businesspeople, and future residents who want to live largely tax-free in luxury in the desert by the sea. Nearly 90% of the estimated 11 million residents are foreigners.

    Real estate firms sell glimmering high-rises and poolside villas to rich Europeans and Americans by promoting a welcoming climate and business-friendly policies, and touting it as one of the safest places on earth.

    Hundreds of drone and missile attacks later, though, that reputation has been rocked.

    “Last night was pretty surreal,” said British racehorse trainer Jamie Osborne, who was in Dubai for the Emirates Super Saturday. “You’re standing in the paddock watching missiles get shot through the sky.”

    The Ministry of Defense said Sunday that air defenses had dealt with 165 ballistic missiles, two cruise missiles, and more than 540 Iranian drones over two days.

    While officials said they intercepted all air attacks Saturday, debris from the knocked-down weapons sparked blazes at some of Dubai’s most iconic locations.

    Social media videos and photos showed a fire outside the Fairmont hotel on the prestigious human-made Palm Jumeirah island, flames licked at the facade of the famous Burj Al Arab hotel, and smoke rose into the sky near Burj Khalifa, the 2,723-foot skyscraper.

    There also was a fire at Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port, the city’s main sea terminal and a major shipping hub, and the Dubai International Airport was damaged and four employees were injured, according to the Dubai Media Office.

    Kristy Ellmer, who was on a business trip from New Hampshire, said she was staying away from the windows of her hotel but felt relatively safe despite the numerous blasts.

    “You hear a lot of explosions at times, you know, there’s hundreds of them,” she said. “It’s unsettling. We’re not used to hearing bombs, right, or missiles.”

    Louise Herrle, an American tourist whose flight home with her husband from Dubai was scrapped, said it was her third time trying to visit the area. Previous trips were canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.

    With their current Abu Dhabi and Dubai tour over, she is less likely to return to the Emirates or the region.

    “I would probably be inclined to avoid this part of the world when there’s increased tensions, it just explodes so quickly,” Herrle said.

    Maybe, she said, “the universe was trying to tell us something.”