Heavy Israeli air strikes have hit multiple parts of Tehran including near the building of Iran’s state broadcaster and the central prison complex. Explosions have been heard across the city.

Silent Witness fans were left baffled after the latest episode of the BBC One crime drama featured an internal monologue scene

Silent Witness viewers were left scratching their heads over one scene in the latest episode of the BBC programme.

Monday night’s instalment (March 2) of the crime drama saw Dr Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox) and Jack Hodgson (David Caves) and their fellow pathologists examining what appeared to be the suicide of a British-Chinese pro-democracy activist.

The woman’s remains were found in water and it was initially believed to be a suicide. However, as Nikki and Harriet Maven (Maggie Steed) delved deeper, evidence began suggesting something more sinister had occurred, reports the Express.

During the post-mortem examination, Maggie’s inner thoughts were heard, with her reflecting: “Shame, a quality which alerts us of the gap between who we are today and the best version of ourselves. It’s not a disparagement of the essence of our being, but a reminder of who we could be. Inspiring. Helping us to rise. Not driving us to despair.”

She continued: “Shame is an overlooked quality in a society which rewards celebrity over accomplishments.”

The sequence baffled many viewers, prompting a flurry of reactions on X, previously known as Twitter.

“I have never heard such droning piffle as Harriet’s ‘Shame’ soliloquy,” commented one, whilst another simply questioned: “Harriet???”

“What’s with the internal monologue, a meditation on shame in Silent Witness? Just give us the crime story,” remarked someone else.

Another queried what the character was “prattling on about it”, adding: “She’s talking in riddles.”

Another posted: “Silent Witness venturing into thought monologues now? Or is Harriet good at ventriloquism.”

Somebody else said: “Not keen on the latest series of Silent Witness after the awful episode last week and now cheesy internal monologues. New writers?”

However, other people who had tuned in to the drama appreciated the technique, with one remarking on the platform: “Oh I like the way they’re doing this one. Inside everyone’s heads.”

The instalment of Silent Witness was part one of the two-part series finale episode, which is entitled Shame. The second part of the story, which will conclude season 29 of the hit show, is scheduled to be broadcast on Tuesday March 3.

For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new **Everything Gossip** website.

Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source.** Click here to activate**** or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.**

Silent Witness broadcasts on BBC One

USC’s decision to dismiss top scorer and three-point shooter Chad Baker-Mazara on the doorstep of the postseason left many wondering Sunday why coach Eric Musselman would willingly sabotage his team’s already-tenuous hopes of making the NCAA tournament.

To Gilbert Arenas, the former NBA star and podcast host whose son, Alijah, is a freshman guard with the Trojans, the move was particularly baffling. So he took to social media Sunday, wearing Baker-Mazara’s No. 4 USC jersey, to share his frustration.

“Right before the tournament? This is what we’re doing?” Arenas said in the video. “Our best player? Mr. I-Get-Buckets? Every night, he brings it every night. Guaranteed 18, 20 every night.”

“When you the best player on the team, whatever you say, you right,” he continued.

LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 17, 2025: USC Trojans guard Chad Baker-Mazara (4) shoot a foul shot against the UTSA Roadrunners at Galen Center on December 17, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

But the move to part ways with Baker-Mazara was not based on an isolated incident, a person familiar with the decision but not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times, but rather a culmination of a season’s worth of issues that boiled over after the second half of Saturday’s loss to Nebraska.

The Trojans were trailing by three points three minutes into the second half when Baker-Mazara took off in transition after Huskers forward Pryce Sandfort, who was driving for a layup. Baker-Mazara closed the gap and swatted the ball. Then he fell hard on the hardwood.

Baker-Mazara had missed three games last month with a Grade I knee sprain and sat out practices throughout the season with other nagging minor injuries. But after a few seconds lying still on the court, he walked on his own down the Galen Center tunnel toward the USC locker room.

Baker-Mazara emerged from the tunnel a couple minutes later with a noticeable limp. He took a seat in a courtside seat on the baseline, two chairs down from injured guard Rodney Rice.

The sight of Baker-Mazara sitting away from the rest of the team sparked questions after the game, but the seating arrangement wasn’t that unusual for Baker-Mazara, who’d sat there at various times this season. What was odd was how Baker-Mazara handled the rest of the half after he told the USC staff he wasn’t able to resume play.

As USC unraveled without him in the second half, Baker-Mazara was mostly detached from the action. At one point, he went behind the USC bench and chatted with fans in the first row.

The incident on its own could have been innocuous. But at the end of a season filled with similar such moments, patience had worn thin.

By the next morning, Baker-Mazara was no longer with the team.

USC did not disclose the reasons for his departure. But the staff was well aware when they brought in the sixth-year senior last spring that his long history in college hoops was littered with similarly volatile moments. USC was Baker-Mazara’s fifth school in six seasons.

“There will never be a dull moment,” Musselman said in May. “Might be that I’ve got a little more on my plate.”

Baker-Mazara spent his freshman season at Duquesne before transferring to San Diego State. He was named Mountain West as a sophomore, but was kicked off the team by coach Brian Dutcher after he skipped classes, failed tests, missed assignments and fell so far behind on his classes he couldn’t catch up.

Baker-Mazara told the San Diego Union Tribune last spring that it was “a growing-up moment” for him. He assured he’d “learned [his] lesson.”

USC forward Chad Baker-Mazara goes up to dunk under pressure from Indiana forward Sam Alexis at the Galen Center on Feb. 3.

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

“Some people have to go through it in different ways,” Baker-Mazara told the Union Tribune. “I had to go through it that way. … My parents were both mad. That was weeks of earfuls: ‘Man, what are you doing?’ It was weeks. I had to get my ear chewed off a couple times.”

He ended up at Northwest Florida State, a junior college in Niceville, Fla., before signing with Auburn. At the time, according to the Union Tribune, Dutcher spoke with then-Auburn coach Bruce Pearl on the phone. He told him that Baker-Mazara’s issues weren’t on the court, but that he “just needs to get his life in better order, be more organized, be more on time, do all the little things.”

Pearl and Auburn proved to be a good fit; though, Baker-Mazara earned some ire there, too, after he was ejected in the second half of Auburn’s two-point tournament loss to rival Alabama for elbowing a Tide player in the back of the head. Pearl later defended him on social media.

Pearl, now a college basketball analyst, said Monday in light of Baker-Mazara’s dismissal that the guard was “an incredibly talented kid with a real gift,” but that his “emotions at times have gotten the better of him.”

“He helped us get to the Final Four, we won a league championship with him,” Pearl said during FS1’s Wake Up Barstool on Monday. “On a good day, he would’ve been about the 20th-best player taken in the NBA Draft last year.

“But we all know that Chad has bad days.”

Routinely this season, Baker-Mazara jolted the Trojans’ offense to life. When Rodney Rice went down with a season-ending shoulder injury in November, Baker-Mazara became even more vital to USC’s offense and responded to the call, averaging 26 points per game during the Trojans’ first seven without Rice. Even in his final game against Nebraska, Baker-Mazara scored 14 points in 16 first-half minutes. Against UCLA, he knocked down three consecutive three-pointers. The previous Saturday, he scored 14 straight.

But there were also stretches of the season during which Baker-Mazara’s status remained mysterious He sat out practices ahead of Big Ten play and dealt with what was deemed, at the time, to be a nagging neck injury, only to show up in the Trojans’ lineup against Michigan and Michigan State. He averaged just 20 minutes across both games.

By March, Baker-Mazara’s more volatile moments had started to outweigh his other contributions in the eyes of USC’s staff. Though, with time running out to save their season, how the Trojans plan to replace that production is a question everyone — not just Gilbert Arenas — is asking.

Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the IRGC’s commander-in-chief, reiterates that the Strait of Hormuz is ‘closed’.

A commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said the Strait of Hormuz is closed and warned that any vessel attempting to pass through will be attacked, according to Iranian state media.

“The strait is closed. If anyone tries to pass, the heroes of the Revolutionary Guard and the regular navy will set those ships ablaze,” Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the IRGC’s commander-in-chief, said on Monday.

Tehran has targeted infrastructure critical to the world’s energy production as part of its retaliation for the Israeli and US bombing campaign that began on Saturday and killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials.

“We will also attack oil pipelines and will not allow a single drop of oil to leave the region. Oil price will reach $200 in the coming days,” Jabbari said in a post on the IRGC’s Telegram channel.

“The Americans, with debts of thousands of billions of dollars, are dependent on the region’s oil, but they should know that not even a drop of oil will reach them,” he was also quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Rising energy prices

The Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran and Oman, is one of the world’s most critical oil transit routes, with roughly 20 percent of global oil supplies passing through it.

Any disruptions there will further send crude prices soaring and raise fears of a regional escalation.

Energy prices already rose sharply earlier on Monday as disruptions to tanker traffic through the strait, and damage to production facilities, raised uncertainty about how the US-Israeli attacks on Iran would affect supply to the world economy.

The biggest shock was to natural gas prices, which rose by almost 50 percent in Europe and nearly 40 percent in Asia as QatarEnergy, a major supplier, halted the production of liquefied natural gas after its LNG facilities were attacked.

Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery also came under attack from drones, and its defences downed the incoming aircraft, a military spokesman told the state-run Saudi Press Agency. The refinery has a capacity of more than half a million barrels of crude oil a day.

In response, the US said it would take action ⁠to mitigate rising energy prices due to the war with Iran, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Starting tomorrow, you will see us rolling out those phases to ⁠try to mitigate against ⁠that… We anticipated this could be an issue,” Rubio said.

When Ahmad Salkida first conceived HumAngle in 2014, the idea was audacious: build a newsroom dedicated to conflict reporting at a time when Nigeria’s media space was shrinking, resources were scarce, and insecurity was widespread. It would take six more years before that vision materialised. In 2020, HumAngle formally launched. Today, as the organisation marks its sixth anniversary, Salkida describes the journey as a roller coaster.

“It takes you to a peak where you feel unstoppable,” he says of building HumAngle. “Then suddenly, you’re reminded of the realities: financial strain, political pressure, operational risks. It’s a constant test of resolve.”

Yet, even amid the highs and lows, Ahmad is certain of one thing: HumAngle has become more than a newsroom. It is a platform of purpose. “I’m glad that HumAngle has been a vehicle that has helped so many young people to discover themselves,” he said. 

HumAngle’s roots are deeply personal. On Sept. 6, 2016, Ahmad returned to Nigeria after being declared wanted by the Nigerian Army over allegations that he had withheld information about the whereabouts of the Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram. Following interrogation, he was released by the Department of State Services without charge.

When he resettled in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, Ahmad began refining an idea that had been forming for years: a media platform dedicated to conflict, one that would amplify the voices of victims and survivors rather than merely echo official narratives. He envisioned a newsroom that would not only report on violence but also interrogate its causes, document its human cost, and advocate for a future in which the media could highlight pathways to peace—not just the spectacle of war.

HumAngle was born from that conviction.

Launching in 2020 meant confronting immediate adversity. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted economies and shuttered newsrooms worldwide. Independent journalism in Nigeria faced chronic underfunding, while security risks loomed over reporters covering insurgency, displacement, and corruption.

Still, HumAngle persisted. Three years later, the peacebuilding advocacy arm, HumAngle Foundation, was launched. What began as a small, mission-driven team evolved into a diverse newsroom of nearly 40 staff members, pushing the boundaries of how conflict is reported in Nigeria and across Africa. The organisation adopted an innovative approach, blending deep investigations with ground reporting, data journalism, GIS mapping, and even virtual reality documentaries.

From stories on insurgency and mass displacement to exposés on bureaucratic failure, climate vulnerability, abductions, disappearances, and systemic corruption, HumAngle carved a niche as a trusted source for underreported narratives.

“It was supposed to be a general interest publication, but considering my long and rough experience with the Nigerian security sector, the escalating insecurity across the country, and the media black hole surrounding various dimensions of the conflicts, it made more sense for it to be a niche platform,” according to Ahmad.

Behind the scenes, however, the burden was immense.

“Every morning, I walked into the HumAngle building, feeling the weight of a mission at odds with its environment—carrying not just the hopes of nearly 40 staff members, but also the invisible pressure to prove that public-interest journalism can exist in a society that has never been structured to sustain it,” he recently wrote.

Amidst the struggle, deep investigations, ground reporting, data stories, GIS maps, VR documentaries and stories of insurgency, displacement, bureaucracy, climate vulnerability, abductions, disappearances and corruption continue to emerge. 

Despite acknowledging that HumAngle is “far from achieving its target objectives,” Ahmad speaks with unmistakable gratitude. “I am proud of everything HumAngle has nurtured.” 

In Nov. 2025, Ahmad Salkida was selected for the 2026 Yale Peace Fellowship, alongside 13 other global peacebuilding leaders. “Being selected for this fellowship validates the work I am doing with HumAngle, and I look forward to gaining more insight to improve our processes after the fellowship,” he said. “Peace is achievable in our lifetime. And fellowships like this ensure that that belief is not only a feeling, but a destination that can be reached through small incremental steps.”

He maintains that the fellowship, along with several other recognitions the newsroom has received and the impact it has recorded, serves as fuel to do more.

Six years on, HumAngle stands not merely as a newsroom, but as proof that even in fragile environments, journalism can be courageous, innovative, and deeply human. 

As part of the sixth-anniversary activities, a book-reading conversation was held on Monday evening, March 2, with award-winning Irish journalist Sally Hayden. Her book, “My Fourth Time, We Drowned on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route”, explores the harrowing realities faced by refugees, weaving together shocking personal accounts with a broader investigation into systemic failures—highlighting NGO negligence, corruption within the UN, and the disturbing economics of modern slavery.

Sally, while commending HumAngle’s work in documenting the human cost of insecurity in the Sahel, emphasised the importance of independent journalism in the region and the use of appropriate, generally acceptable language when reporting on conflict and displacement.

“Journalists have the duty to question the languages they use, especially when describing people in the face of conflict, migration crisis or displacement. If I were to rewrite this book today, I would probably correct certain descriptive words or language,” she added. 

Shia LaBeouf says he isn’t too keen on seeking treatment to manage his sobriety after his two arrests over a drunken brawl in New Orleans.

The “Megalopolis” and “Holes” actor, 39, denied struggling with alcohol abuse and seemingly took accountability for his violent Mardi Gras behavior in a rambling interview. He spoke with Andrew Callaghan, the journalist best known for his Channel 5 News YouTube page.

“My side is this: My behavior, b—. I got to deal with that,” the former Disney Channel child star said in the interview published Saturday. “Does that mean I got to go to rehab again? I’m just not into it, bro. I don’t think my answers are there.”

A New Orleans judge last week ordered LaBeouf to begin substance abuse treatment and undergo weekly drug testing after he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting two men in the city’s French Quarter. The actor was initially charged with two counts of simple battery in the Feb. 17 brawl, but he racked up an additional charge for the same count on Saturday.

LaBeouf was released from jail shortly after his first arrest on Feb. 17 and posted $100,000 in bond. More than a week later, on Friday, New Orleans Police Department issued a warrant for LaBeouf’s second arrest in connection with the incident, a spokesperson confirmed. The actor turned himself in on Saturday and was released after posting bond again.

“No regular person would be required to post over $100,000 in bonds, and be jailed two separate times for one misdemeanor incident,” attorney Sarah Chervinsky said, according to the Associated Press. “Just as he does not deserve preferential treatment, Mr. LaBeouf also does not deserve to be treated more harshly by the police and courts just because he is a public figure.”

At the beginning of his chat with Callaghan, LaBeouf said he “1,000%” takes responsibility for the altercation and that he “had a great time” on Mardi Gras. A legal representative for LaBeouf — who has yet to enter a formal plea to the charges — did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

The New Orleans Police Department said its officers responded to a report of an assault on the 1400 block of Royal Street early on Feb. 17. The former “Even Stevens” child star was “causing a disturbance” at the business, leading staff to remove him from the premises, police said. The actor allegedly “used his closed fists” on one of the victims “several times.”

Authorities said LaBeouf left the business but returned, “acting even more aggressive.” According to the incident report, an unspecified number of people tried to subdue him and eventually let him go “in hope that he would leave.” Instead, police said, LaBeouf began assaulting the same man as before, hitting his upper body with closed fists. The actor is accused of punching the second man in the nose.

People held down LaBeouf until officials arrived. He was taken to a hospital, treated for unknown injuries and arrested and charged upon his release.

An additional police report identified a local entertainer as one of LaBeouf’s alleged victims. The “Disturbia” actor, whose history of violent behavior has led to previous arrests and other legal troubles, allegedly threatened the man’s life and shouted homophobic slurs.

LaBeouf told Callaghan that he was drunk and that, leading up to the incident, he “felt infringed upon.” Elsewhere in the conversation, he said, “big gay people are scary to me,” and said he was wary that “three gay dudes are next to me, touching my leg.” He subsequently apologized and owned up to his homophobic comment.

“I wasn’t in my right mind so it’s on me,” he said elsewhere in the interview. “I said words not OK. I’m wrong for what I did.”

“I am wrong for touching anyone, ever and that’s the end of my statement on this whole s—,” he also said.

Additionally, LaBeouf confirmed his separation from “Frankenstein” and “Pearl” star Mia Goth (they share a daughter), discussed his on-and-off sobriety over the years and stated plainly: “I don’t think I have a drinking problem.”

Instead, LaBeouf said he has a “small man complex,” something akin to a Napoleon complex but more “to do with anger and ego more so than my drinking.” For reference, he stands 5 feet 9 inches.

Last week, Orleans Parish Criminal Court Judge Simone Levine shared a different take on LaBeouf’s habits. She alleged the actor “does not take his alcohol addiction seriously.”

Chervinsky said during her client’s court appearance that “being drunk on Mardi Gras is not a crime,” a sentiment LaBeouf echoed to Callaghan.

“I was drunk and it was Mardi Gras,” he said.

Venezuela has been going through an unprecedented political transformation(?) since the extraction of Nicolás Maduro. All political stakeholders will try to pitch the possible outcome  according to their respective interest: the Trump administration will say that it’s going fantastic; the Rodriguez regime will try to appear independent and in control; Team Machado will push for the full restoration of political rights; smaller actors like Enrique Marquez will try to conquer their own space; and the people will need to have proper tool, amid a sea of misinformation, to try to navigate between confusion and uncertainty.  

Media outlets like Caracas Chronicles are doing our best to reduce such uncertainty, but there are new initiatives sprouting everywhere, such as the one that friend of the blog Pablo Hernández Borges is leading with a team of researchers and technologists. Umbral (umbral.watch), defined as “a free, open-source analytical platform for monitoring and documenting Venezuela’s regime transformation in real time,” allows anyone with an internet connection to contribute, as follows: 

• Scenario Analysis with Citizen Participation. Five evidence-based trajectories for Venezuela’s political future, from full autocratization to complete democratic consolidation. Any person can rate the probability of each scenario on a 1 (least likely) to 5 (most likely) Likert scale. Results are disaggregated by profile and aggregated in real time, visible to all on the platform’s landing page.
• Citizen News Evaluation. Every article in the news feed can be voted on by users, who link it to whichever of the five scenarios they believe it signals. 
• Historical Trajectory. A V-Dem-style democracy index spanning 1900–2024, mapping four major regime transformation episodes in Venezuela’s history (like Pablo did in this piece).
• Political Prisoners Tracker. Arbitrary detention statistics with demographic breakdowns, sourced from leading Venezuelan human rights organizations.
• Internet Connectivity Monitor. Real-time IODA (Georgia Tech) data on BGP, Active Probing, and Network Telescope signals, both nationally and across all 25 Venezuelan states, visualized through a choropleth map and horizon heatmap.
• GDELT Media Signals. Daily-archived instability index, media tone, and article volume from the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone, annotated with key political events.
• Fact-Checking Feed. Curated posts from three Venezuelan fact-checking accounts: @cazamosfakenews, @cotejoinfo, and @Factchequeado.
• Interactive Timeline. Democratic Episodes Event Dataset (DEED) with bilingual (Spanish/English) events.
• Reading Room. A curated archive of books, academic articles, investigative journalism, and reports on Venezuela.
• Prediction Markets. A Polymarket contract dashboard tracking Venezuela-related markets.

It’s Rotten Tomatoes for political junkies hooked on the Venezuela stuff.

To develop Umbral, Pablo, who is a data scientist with a PhD in Political Science from Texas Tech University, got the support of NGOs Ciudadanía Sin Límites and Code for Venezuela. The platform is fully bilingual (Spanish and English) and its source code is publicly available on GitHub, ensuring complete methodological transparency. Its analytical architecture is grounded in the Episodes of Regime Transformation (ERT) methodology by the V-Dem Institute, which frames the inherent uncertainty of authoritarian transitions through concrete, evidence-based scenarios. 

Umbral is not just an observatory—it is a space for active civic participation. The goal is for community-generated data to complement—and ultimately calibrate—the academic models underpinning the platform.

Check it out: https://umbral.watch

PHOENIX — Since his first full season in 2015, Mookie Betts had either been named an All-Star or received votes for most valuable player every year.

That held true until last year. In his sixth season with the Dodgers, Betts posted career lows in batting average (.258), on-base percentage (.326), and on-base-plus-slugging percentage (.732) while playing 148 games at shortstop.

Betts, now 33, believes last year was an outlier and he can get back to his previous form.

“That’s what I expect,” Betts said after making his Cactus League debut Sunday. “I haven’t felt this way in a long time. So, the way I feel now, I’m healthy, my swing’s in a really good spot. My head’s in a really good spot. I haven’t had any bad days in the cage. I haven’t had any bad days [taking batting practice]. Usually by now, I would have taken a thousand swings, trying to fix stuff, trying to get game-ready, and now I’m just cruising. I’m just cruising and I’m ready to go.”

This spring, manager Dave Roberts offered an unequivocal vote of confidence.

“He will be in the MVP conversation this year,” Roberts said. “But again, I think, speaking for Mookie, his main goal is to help us win a championship. So, I think whatever falls out from there, I think that will happen.”

A stomach bug that caused him to lose a considerable amount of weight put Betts behind last spring, and he never quite caught up. Through his first 103 games, he batted .231 with a .302 on-base percentage and .657 OPS. Enduring the longest cold spell of his career, Betts was forced to retool.

“It’s really just going back to what I what I do best, and really just honing in on it,” Betts said. “Instead of trying to fix problems, I was more able to just hone in on what I do best. And kind of groove those patterns instead of trying to fix old habits.”

Betts says in a bizarre way, he enjoyed his season of soul searching.

“I learned a lot about myself,” Betts said. “I learned a lot about how I operate. I was able to get in the right headspace, and sustain the right headspace. And then once I was able to kind of get in the right headspace and stay there, I haven’t been searching, I haven’t been doing anything since I’ve been here outside of just working and preparing.”

Things started to click in late summer. Over his final 47 games, he batted .317 with a .376 on-base percentage and .892 OPS.

It wasn’t the stats that bothered Betts as much as his lack of production through the first four months.

“Once I was able to help the boys, I was fine,” Betts said. But before that, I was really upset, not with the numbers per se, but not being able to help. Not doing my job, carrying my weight. Once I was able to do stuff, especially later on in the season, I was able to just take a step back and say, ‘You did pretty good.’”

Part of the plan for maximizing Betts’ abilities is minimizing his work in camp. Betts was the last healthy position player to appear in a spring game, starting Sunday after sitting for the first nine games. He was back in the lineup Monday, collecting his first hit with a single in three at-bats against the Colorado Rockies.

“It’s intentional,” Roberts said last week. “It’s load management. I wanted Mookie to start a little bit later, as far as not getting into spring training ready to go and kind of use spring training to build up, given it’s six weeks.”

March 2 (UPI) — Apple on Monday introduced the iPhone 17e, the budget model in its iPhone lineup, with upgraded cameras, a stronger scratch resistant screen and MagSafe to improve attaching chargers and accessories to the phone.

The 17e will be available in three colors — black, white and pink — for pre-order on Wednesday. It is expected to hit stores on March 11, with a starting price of $599 for the 256GB-storage model, Apple said in a press release.

“iPhone 17e combines powerful performance and features our users love at an exceptional value, making it a compelling option for customers looking to upgrade to the iPhone 17 family,” Kaianne Drance, vice president of worldwide iPhone product marketing at Apple, said in the release.

“With A19 for incredible performance, double the entry storage, a smarter camera system and enhanced durability, iPhone17e is designed to stay fast, secure and valuable for years to come,” she said.

Apple launched the iPhone 16e just over a year ago in February 2025 as a lower-priced model of the iPhone 16 to replace the SE budget-level iPhone, which had been discontinued after three generations in 2022.

The 17e comes with upgrades over last year’s edition, with a 48MP fusion camera that enables optical-quality 2x telephoto and 4K Dolby Vision video, Apple said.

The new Super Retina XDR screen is said to have 3x stronger scratch resistance and reduced glare, satellite features for satellite communication when off network and Apple has added MagSafe, which allows accessories such as charges, stands and cases to more easily snap onto the back of the phone.

The 17e also includes Apple Intelligence, which is expected to include a new version of the Siri assistant on the phone, and will be powered by Google‘s Gemini AI.

Apple and many phone carriers offering trade-in deals for customers who would like to upgrade, with the oldest models available for trade-in credit starting with the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 13.

Secretary of state says he hopes Iranian people would overthrow regime as US military says six service members killed.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has suggested that a planned Israeli attack against Iran determined the timing of Washington’s assault against the government in Tehran.

The United States’ top diplomat told reporters on Monday that Washington was aware that Israel was going to attack Iran, and that Tehran would retaliate against US interests in the region, so American forces struck pre-emptively.

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio said.

The US secretary of state’s comments came minutes before the US military confirmed that its death toll from the conflict has risen to six after recovering two bodies from a regional facility struck by Iran.

Tehran retaliated against the joint US-Israeli attacks that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, several top officials and hundreds of civilians with drone and missile launches across the region, including against American bases and assets in the Gulf.

Rubio’s assertion highlights the Israeli role in bringing about the war, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been seeking for years.

On Sunday, Netanyahu said the attacks on Iran are happening with the assistance of his “friend”, US President Donald Trump.

“This coalition of forces allows us to do what I have yearned to do for 40 years,” the Israeli prime minister said in a video message.

For his part, Rubio told reporters on Monday that an attack on Iran had to happen because Tehran was amassing missiles and drones that it would have used to protect its nuclear programme and acquire an atomic bomb.

Israel and the US launched the war less than 48 hours after a round of talks between American and Iranian officials over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Rubio said the goal of the war is to destroy Iran’s missile and drone programmes, but stressed the US would welcome ending the current ruling system in Tehran.

“We would not be heartbroken, and we hope that the Iranian people can overthrow this government and establish a new future for that country. We would love for that to be possible,” he said.

Wait, Zendaya and Tom Holland got married and we missed it? That’s what the “Euphoria” star’s longtime stylist said on the red carpet Sunday.

“The wedding’s already happened, you missed it,” Law Roach told “Access Hollywood” in a singsong voice at the Actor Awards, adding, “It’s very true,” after the shocked reporter asked if he was being truthful.

He said the same thing almost word for word to an “Entertainment Tonight” correspondent who took the news completely — almost dismissively? — in stride.

The news came from the same “Project Runway” judge who told E! News last July that Zendaya was so busy that there was simply no time for wedding planning, saying at the time that the “process hasn’t even started yet.” That’s the same self-proclaimed “world’s only image architect,” who for years has also styled Holland.

Holland and Zendaya, who co-starred as Peter Parker and MJ in three “Spider-Man” movies, have known each other since 2016 and confirmed in 2021 that they were romantically involved as well.

Eagle-eyed fans may have suspected the two had tied the knot a few weeks back after Zendaya stepped out Feb. 18 with a plain gold band on her left ring finger in place of her engagement diamond. That big ol’ sparkler had been on the scene since early last year, debuting publicly at the 2025 Golden Globe Awards a year ago January.

At that awards show, when former Times columnist Amy Kaufman — then recently engaged herself — asked the “Dune” actor flat-out if she was engaged, Zendaya flashed her ring, smiled coyly and shrugged her shoulders. That was way more of a “yes” than in 2023 when she shut down engagement rumors after posting a selfie wearing a pearl ring on her left hand and a black Golden State Warriors hat on her head.

“I posted it for my hat. Not for the ring on my right finger, you guys,” she said and laughed in the video that circulated on X and Instagram. “Seriously, you think that’s how I would drop the news? What?”

We didn’t think any wedding news would come via her stylist either, no matter how long the two friends have been working together. Though Zendaya might have been chuckling a bit when she posted a “Save the Date” message on social media three weeks ago to promote her upcoming movie “The Drama.”

Zendaya explained her approach to privacy in a 2023 Elle interview, saying she “can’t not be a person and live my life and love the person I love.”

“But also, I do have control over what I choose to share. It’s about protecting the peace and letting things be your own but also not being afraid to exist. You can’t hide. That’s not fun, either. I am navigating it more than ever now.”

Yes, we reached out to the notoriously private couple’s representatives. No, they did not get back to us immediately to confirm the news or offer any details. Are you surprised? We are not.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has condemned US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Spain says the United States is not using – and will not be using – joint military bases on its territory for operations against Iran, a mission condemned by Madrid.

“Based on all the information I have, the bases are not being used for this military operation,” Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spanish public television on Monday.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has condemned US and Israeli strikes on Iran that began on Saturday as an “unjustified” and “dangerous military intervention” outside the realm of international law, in another break from US policy.

“The Spanish government will not authorise the use of the bases for anything beyond the agreement or inconsistent with the United Nations,” Albares said, referring to the Rota naval base and the Moron airbase.

The US operates at the bases under a joint-use arrangement, but they remain under Spanish sovereignty.

Defence Minister Margarita Robles said the bases “will not provide support, except if, in a given case, it were necessary from a humanitarian perspective”.

Spain also condemned the retaliatory attacks by Iran on Gulf countries.

According to maps by flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 on Monday, 15 US aircraft have left bases in southern Spain since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran. At ‌least seven of the aircraft were shown on FlightRadar24 as having landed at Ramstein airbase in Germany.

The Spanish position is an outlier among the major European countries.

Britain had also initially refused to allow the use of its bases for an attack on Iran, but on Sunday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer authorised their use for “collective self-defence”, amid Iranian counterattacks targeting US assets across the Middle East and energy infrastructure in the Gulf region.

France and Germany, meanwhile, are prepared to do the same.

The three countries’ leaders were “appalled by the indiscriminate and disproportionate missile attacks launched by Iran against countries in the region, including those who were not involved in initial US and Israeli military operations”, read a joint statement on Sunday.

“We have agreed to work together with the US and allies in the region on this matter,” they stated.

US forces launched a military attack against Venezuela on January 3, reportedly killing over 100 people and kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores, who also serves as a National Assembly deputy.

Western corporate media have played an active role in recent years in legitimizing escalated US aggression against the Venezuelan people, from whitewashing economic sanctions that killed tens of thousands (FAIR.org, 6/4/21, 6/13/22) to outright calling for a military intervention (FAIR.org, 2/12/25, 11/19/25). They also exposed themselves once again as the fourth branch of the US national security state, opting not to publish information they had prior to the January 3 operation in order to “avoid endangering US troops” (FAIR.org, 1/13/26).

The brazen act of war has elicited zero dissent from the Western media establishment, no urge to challenge Trump’s return to early 20th century “gunboat diplomacy.” Worse, with the White House pushing to impose a semi-colonial protectorate and plunder Venezuela’s wealth, corporate outlets continue working overtime to normalize US imperialist predations.

Damage control

In the weeks since the attack, Western media have made a point of referring to Maduro as “arrested” (NBC, 1/5/26), “captured” (PBS, 2/10/26) or “ousted” (ABC, 1/5/26). The choice is far from innocent. By not stating that the Venezuelan leader was “kidnapped” or “abducted,” in a blatant violation of international law, establishment journalists are normalizing the US’s rogue actions, denying Maduro the proper protections of prisoner of war status (FAIR.org, 1/20/26).

But it is not just through semantic distortion that corporate outlets have quarantined any critique of the administration’s lawlessness. Another common feature has been a certain “damage control” in covering up Trump’s most outlandish statements.

After the January 3 military operation, Trump stated in a press conference that “many Americans, hundreds of thousands over the years…died because of [Maduro].” No corporate outlets reported the outrageously false statement. (A couple of factchecking pieces—CBS, 1/6/26; New York Times, 1/8/26—addressed his adjacent, essentially unfalsifiable claim that “countless Americans” died due to Maduro.)

The attempts to make Trump’s Venezuela policy claims appear more rational are not new. For instance, in presidential press conferences, he constantly said that Venezuela had “emptied” its mental institutions into the US (X, 10/15/25, 11/2/25, 12/3/25, 1/3/26). But throughout 2025, the New York Times  (11/4/25) mentioned this absurd statement just once, and the Washington Post (10/22/25, 12/21/25) did so twice.

On the domestic policy front, corporate journalists have had fewer qualms labeling Trump claims as “false,” when it comes to ending wars (CNN, 1/20/26), immigration (NBC, 2/4/26) or the 2020 US election (Guardian, 1/12/26). But they seem happy to carefully conceal or openly parrot false accusations that build the case for wars of aggression, whether in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Iran and now Venezuela (FAIR.org, 8/1/05).

The vanishing cartel

In recent years, and especially in the second half of 2025, US officials justified escalating attacks against Venezuela on the grounds that Maduro and associates ran a drug trafficking operation, the so-called Cartel of the Suns. Trump himself, during his January 3 press conference, claimed Maduro “personally oversaw the vicious cartel known as Cartel de los Soles.”

While experts consistently questioned the cartel’s existence, and specialized agencies, including the DEA, found Venezuela to play a marginal role in drug trafficking, media outlets reproduced the warmongering claims without scrutiny, citing only the denials from the Venezuelan president they have systematically demonized for over a decade (e.g., New York Times, 10/06/25; NPR, 11/12/25; CNN, 11/14/25).

But the biggest rebuff came from the Justice Department itself. When the time came to indict Maduro, US prosecutors dropped the accusation that the Venezuelan leader headed an actual drug cartel, and downgraded the Cartel of the Suns to a “patronage system.” In other words, the Justice Department was aware that the cartel charge had no substance, and instead accused Maduro of a much looser “drug trafficking conspiracy.”

But this remarkable about-face brought no accountability for the media establishment. Having spent years echoing claims that US prosecutors admitted would not hold in court, corporate outlets chose to ignore the new development, rather than exposing their shameful stenography over the years and taking responsibility for its deadly consequences. FAIR used Google to search for reporting on this crucial about-face in outlets including the Washington Post, Reuters, CNN, NBC and NPR, and found no results.

The one notable exception in this quasi-state corporate media circus was the New York Times‘ Charlie Savage (1/5/26), reporting on the administration’s quiet dropping of its casus belli. Savage wrote that this “called into greater question the legitimacy” of the administration’s designation of the Cartel of the Suns as a foreign terrorist organization. However, the piece stopped short of challenging the US military operation and illegal kidnapping of Maduro, referring to the Venezuelan leader as “captured” and “removed from power.”

The paper of record was quick to compensate for the vanishing of a flimsy regime-change trope by bringing up another one, focusing on a tried and tested dishonest narrative: Venezuela’s alleged ties with Hezbollah, one of the main opponents of the US and Israel in West Asia (FAIR.org, 5/24/19). Under the headline, “What to Know about Hezbollah’s Ties to Venezuela,” Times reporter Christina Goldbaum (1/19/26) offered nothing but a laundry list of unsubstantiated claims from anonymous officials.

Media connivance with Washington’s official narratives to justify imperialist attacks only pave the way for new iterations. Recently, in tightening the murderous blockade against Cuba, the Trump administration proffered the totally baseless claim of the Cuban government “providing a safe haven” for Hamas and Hezbollah. While the New York Times (1/30/26) uncharacteristically reminded readers that Trump offered no evidence, other outlets (NBC, 1/29/26; CNN, 1/30/26) were happy to echo the accusation uncritically.

Holding a country hostage

The media establishment’s support for US foreign policy did not end with the January 3 act of war. Since the attacks and presidential kidnapping, the Trump administration has taken control of Venezuelan oil exports at gunpoint after a month-long naval blockade that involved seizing tankers in the high seas for allegedly transporting Venezuelan crude in violation of unilateral US sanctions.

Under an initial agreement, Venezuela surrendered 30–50 million barrels for White House–picked intermediaries to transport and sell. Proceeds were deposited in bank accounts in Qatar, with a portion being returned to Carácas at the administration’s discretion (Venezuelanalysis, 1/21/26, 1/29/26). Analysts have argued that this arrangement explicitly violates the Venezuelan constitution.

Some articles have given space for Democrats to oppose the Trump deal, but mostly on the grounds of lack of transparency or opportunities for corruption (CNN, 1/15/26; Politico, 2/11/26; New York Times, 2/11/26). Readers will find no opposition on principle to the Trump administration’s Mafia-esque extortion of a sovereign nation’s natural resources, from the president himself saying the US will “keep some” of the hijacked Venezuelan oil (CNBC, 1/22/26) to Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing that the administration is “prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation” (New York Times, 1/28/26).

It is hard to find double standards, because no other nation on Earth unleashes this kind of gangster imperialism. But concerning Russia, Western media did not hold back from denouncing its “stealing,” “robbing” or “plundering” of Ukrainian minerals or grain, despite these resources being in territory that Russia occupies and claims sovereignty over (Washington Post, 8/10/22; Guardian, 12/11/23; DW, 8/28/23; New York Times, 6/5/22).

In a nutshell, when Washington imposed deadly sanctions against Venezuela, corporate pundits said these only targeted Maduro and were meant to promote democracy (FAIR.org, 6/14/19, 6/4/21, 6/13/22, 6/22/23). When the White House ramped up military threats, mainstream journalists parroted drug trafficking allegations (FAIR.org, 2/12/25, 11/19/25). When the drug trafficking charges were exposed, Western outlets reheated baseless stories about Hezbollah. And when Trump seized Venezuelan oil at gunpoint, the only mild concern was whether he would use it to enrich himself.

True to its roots in the “yellow journalism” of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, the liberal media establishment is fully on board with Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine.” They have undoubtedly earned the title, to paraphrase Gen. Smedley Butler, of “gangster journalists for capitalism.”

Source: FAIR

IT was in this very column that Delta Goodrem first revealed it was her dream to represent Australia at Eurovision.

Now, nine months later, she has been officially unveiled as the contest’s Aussie entry, with the Lost Without You singer firmly crediting Bizarre with making it happen.

Speaking to our Jack, Delta said: “This is, literally verbatim, all your fault. It is all on you — you and Bizarre started this.

“Your article went back to the Aussies who were like, ‘Do you want to do this?’ So thank you. I have a big job to do.”

Delta will head to Vienna this May to compete with her song Eclipse and it ticks every box, with an infectiously camp chorus and a complex piano bridge.

A beaming Delta explained: “From your article, people started reaching out.

ROO THE DAY

Coleen Rooney spotted without wedding ring after hubby Wayne boozes with women

SHE’S BACK!

First look at EastEnders’ Clare Bates return after 18 years off-screen

“Then one of the songwriters, Jonas Myrin, who I wrote the song with, took a screengrab of the article and sent it to me saying, ‘Delta, if you ever go to Eurovision, I want to write the song with you’.

“He’s in Sweden. Sure enough he flew to Australia when I said I was doing it. Even the first question I got asked when doing my first Australian interview was, ‘We heard it all started from an article from the UK,’ and yes, it did.”

It’s been three years since Australia last qualified for the live final, which adds to the pressure on Delta, who has sold eight million records worldwide.

“Of course I am nervous, but it’s so joyous and I am so excited to be a part of it,” she said.

“I can’t control what will happen. All I know is that I am honoured to represent Aus.

“I will fly the flag and give my heart and soul.

“Two of my greatest idols, who are part of the reason I am in music, Olivia Newton-John and Celine Dion, did Eurovision.

“I am grateful to be able to step into that.

“What an honour it is to be able to perform anywhere, let alone on the biggest stage in the world. I am excited.”

We Brits can’t vote for our own act, Look Mum No Computer (aka Sam Battle), whose entry Eins Zwei Drei is out on Friday, so Delta is hoping the British jury will give her our 12 points.

Explaining how it all fell into place, she said: “I had always said, ‘Oh, you know, when the time is right’. I always have an open heart to new things and being a coach on The Voice I celebrate all types of music. Then it all came into focus.”

It’s not the first time a country has sent a major household name to Eurovision, with Bonnie Tyler, Engelbert Humperdinck and Blue all taking part in the past.

Speaking about what people should expect when she competes at the second semi-final on May 14, Delta explained: “The staging is important, but you will have to wait and see.

“There is a high bar out there but I am enjoying the creativity of it. I love the out-of-the-box moments, but I also love past winners Loreen, Alexander Rybak and Mans Zelmerlow.”

This year’s competition has already been rocked by controversy with Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain all pulling out due to Israel being allowed to take part in the contest, amid ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

But Delta is keen to use the platform to help bring people together and celebrate our common ground.

She said: “I am in music for unity and the healing spirit,” adding that she loves the sense of “togetherness” generated by music and song.

Delta added: “Eurovision has been going for 70 years and there is a reason everyone comes back, united in song.

“I am really looking forward to being united together. At my shows, that is what you want, too.

“My song is about one love and connection.”

You’ve got our votes, Delta.

DECEMBER 10 are playing a free O2 Presents . . . gig at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on April 8.

There will be 767 pairs of tickets available to O2 and Virgin Media broadband customers via a ballot, which will be open from March 9- 23 on the Priority app.

COMPASS TO GO THE COLE MILE

I TIPPED big things for Belfast pair Broken Compass after they released their debut single Storm in October.

Now the duo, Ben Dadidson and Allen Gordon have landed roles in Anything Goes at Belfast’s Grand Opera House.

Running from April 14-18, the show features songs from Cole Porter including I Get A Kick Out Of You.

While Allen has graced the stage at the venue before, it will be the first time for Ben, who previously toured with Westlife in boyband Most Wanted.

Ben told Bizarre: “This has been such a whirlwind, moving to Belfast and joining St Agnes Choral Society.

“Opening myself up to theatre as well as pop has been a dream come true.”

OASIS will feature on the new Help(2) War Child album with a standalone 7in single of Acquiesce, recorded live at Wembley last September, being included in the vinyl edition.

It will be a hidden track on the double CD version, and on streaming, when the charity record is out on Friday.

Arctic Monkeys, Olivia Rodrigo, Damon Albarn and Pulp will also feature.

RAYE SETS LIFE BOAT AFLOAT

RAYE will return to dance music on her upcoming album with a belting electro track called Life Boat.

The singer debuted the song at London’s O2 Arena on Sunday night and it features emotional ­lyrics against a euphoric chorus.

In the verse, she sang: “Cry yourself an ocean, trying not to drown in it. Lord send me a lifeboat, something I can cling to.”

Then in the chorus she repeated: “I’m not giving up yet.”

Earlier in her career Raye had a string of dance hits including Bed, Prada, You Don’t Know Me and Secrets, so she knows a thing or two about releasing a banger.

And with her album, This Music May Contain Hope, out on March 27, there isn’t long to wait.

OH BUCKET! AL’S FOR HIGH JUMP

IF you thought it was funny ­watching Alan Carr take part in the challenges on Celebrity ­Traitors, his next show will see him jumping out of a plane.

He is shooting a travelogue called The F**k It List for Prime Video, which will see him and other comics taking on bucket list experiences, but it sounds like he’s drawn the short straw.

Alan said: “I was sold this show about a bucket list. I thought I would be on the Orient Express and swimming with dolphins.”

Instead, he admitted on his Bottoms Up ­podcast: “I’m skydiving, bungee jumping and stroking a tarantula. I hate spiders.”

Thera’s so much promise

SHE’S the vocal powerhouse from Prague who, aged just 18, is already turning heads across Europe.

And as rising star Thera wraps up supporting Jason Derulo on his The Last Dance world tour, she opened up backstage about juggling school with breaking into the industry.

The Czech singer, who first toured with Loreen, said: “I’ve gone through a lot that made me mature faster, which is why people are shocked I’m 18.
“It doesn’t feel strange to me. Those experiences shaped who I am today and how I handle things and what I do.

“School has really helped me, even though it’s very stressful and chaotic at times.

“It’s almost forced me to be organised and have a system, which I feel has helped me in the music world.”

On tour it was the Les Twins, who also went on the road with Jason, who acted as her “big brothers”.

She added: “They’re role models, but also feel like family.”

Her biggest night yet was Prague’s O2 Arena on Sunday, where her whole family watched alongside 20,000 fans.

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday refused to box himself in on how long U.S. military operations will last in Iran, saying the conflict in the Middle East could stretch from a month to potentially “far longer” as he frames the mission as one that is necessary to eliminate a “colossal threat” to American interests.

“Whatever the time is, it’s OK. Whatever it takes,” Trump said at a White House event. “Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go far longer than that. We’ll do it.”

Hours earlier, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the duration of the military operation remains fluid, and that Trump has “all the latitude in the world” to determine how long the war in Iran will go on.

“Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could move up. It could move back,” Hegseth told reporters at a Pentagon news conference.

The Trump administration’s shifting time frames and open-ended objectives in Iran have deepened uncertainty around an expanding conflict in the Middle East, particularly as American troops have already been killed in action and officials warn of more U.S. casualties.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday that additional U.S. military forces are already moving into the region, and warned that the conflict will not be a “single, overnight operation” and that he expects “additional losses.”

A fourth U.S. fatality

The development came as military officials confirmed a fourth American service member had been killed by Iranian counterattacks and that three American jets were mistakenly shot down in Kuwait in an “apparent friendly fire incident” — and as airstrikes continued to fall across the Middle East, where missile defense systems were unable to intercept every attack and deaths mounted into the hundreds.

As the U.S. and Israel continued to hammer Tehran and other targets across Iran and in Lebanon, retaliatory strikes by Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, were reported in Israel as well as at U.S. facilities and other targets inside Bahrain, Cyprus, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, to Iran’s east, Pakistan and Afghanistan were engaged in their own battles, further destabilizing the region.

In addition to hundreds of people dead, including Iranian schoolchildren, other civilians and migrant workers in the Gulf, the fighting has impacted the world’s production of oil and natural gas — disrupting tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz at the southern end of the Persian Gulf and causing oil prices to shoot up.

Saudi Arabia said it intercepted Iranian drones attacking an oil refinery near Dammam, with the refinery shutting down as a precaution, the AP reported. Iran denied targeting the facility.

Air travel disrupted

The war also disrupted air traffic globally, as major airports in the Gulf, including in Dubai, halted or radically scaled back flights. The travel interruptions rippled around the world, and airline stocks tumbled.

Israel had implemented nationwide restrictions on activities as it fended off attacks from Iran and residents hid in bomb shelters. Iran reported strikes at multiple schools in the country had left young students dead.

As the conflict unfolds in real time, Trump and Hegseth have refused to rule out sending American troops into Iran, and the president has signaled that the “big wave” of military attacks is yet to come.

“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground. Like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump told the New York Post on Monday. ”I say, ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’”

When asked by a reporter whether U.S. troops were currently on the ground, Hegseth told reporters they were not, but then bristled at further questions about potential future deployments.

“Why in the world would we tell you, the enemy or anybody, what we will do or will not do in pursuit of an objective?” Hegseth said.

The Trump administration’s objectives in the war have been equally hard to pinpoint. Trump said Saturday that the operation is aimed at razing Iran’s military and nuclear capability and dismantling Iran’s theocratic regime, but on Monday said the goal is to eliminate the threats posed by the “sick and sinister regime” but not the government itself.

Hegseth said the attacks in Iran are not part of a “so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change and the world is better off for it today.” The U.S. and Israel attack on Saturday killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

‘Second or third place is dead’

In an interview with ABC News on Sunday evening, Trump suggested his administration had considered some figures to replace Khamenei, but said those people are now dead.

“The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,” Trump said. “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.”

The Trump administration’s messaging, meanwhile, was consistent in its vengeful rhetoric.

Hegseth and Trump both warned that any threat to Americans would be met with force.

“If you kill Americans, if you threaten Americans anywhere on Earth, we will hunt you down without apology and without hesitation, we will kill you,” Hegseth said.

Kevan Harris, an associate professor of sociology who teaches courses on Iran and Middle East politics at the UCLA International Institute, said a long misconception in “the way the U.S. reads Iran” is the belief that Khamenei ruled the country alone, and that taking him out would create a massive leadership vacuum or a sharp shift in the nation’s policies.

But while Khamenei was certainly an “intransigent” force in Iran, killing him won’t “lead to a major shift inside the country,” Harris said.

Benjamin Radd, a political scientist and senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, said whether the U.S. can get out of Iran on a relatively short timeline depends on whether those in power in Iran now are willing to negotiate terms that Khamenei and other leaders who have been killed rejected.

“If the remnants of the regime are ideologically committed to what they were under Khamenei,” Radd said he “can’t see Trump backing down” and would expect the war to rage on.

Other leaders in Iran are fundamentalist and aligned with Khamenei, but given the U.S. has shown a willingness and ability to capture and assassinate foreign leaders, they might back down out of self-preservation.

“In the short term, there should be a wait-and-see approach as to what this reconstituted regime looks like,” he said.

Tyler Reddick isn’t exactly the Michael Jordan of NASCAR.

Not yet anyway.

Still, Reddick seems to be at the start of something special as the driver of a team co-owned by the NBA legend who led the Chicago Bulls to two NBA championship three-peats in the 1990s (1991-93 and 1996-98).

Less than a month into the season, Reddick has established his own three-peat of sorts, the likes of which has never been seen before in NASCAR.

After winning the Daytona 500 on Feb. 16 and at Echo Park Speedway in Atlanta last week, Reddick held off Shane van Gisbergen over the final 20 laps at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on Sunday to become the first Cup Series driver to win the first three races of the season.

“It’s incredible. NASCAR’s always been super competitive but in this day and age where the field is so close, for us to be able to pull this off is true testament of teamwork, hard work in the offseason by everyone on this team, everyone at 23XI,” Reddick told KXAN-TV in Austin after the race.

“It’s super special to be on this kind of a run. We’re just gonna try to keep it going as long as we can. We’re kind of just in the right headspace throughout the week, and it’s been really sweet to just grab these wins like we have.”

23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan watches the final laps by Tyler Reddick on Sunday in Austin, Texas.

(Stephen Spillman / Associated Press)

Jordan, who co-owns 23XI Racing with Denny Hamlin, was with Reddick’s pit crew at the end of the race. As Reddick climbed out of the car, Jordan gave him a high five and exclaimed, “Three, baby, three!”

Reddick posted video of that exchange with Jordan on X and wrote, “3 PEAT BABY.”

Also on X, Reddick posted a photo of Jordan holding up three fingers after the Bulls’ first three-peat in 1993 next to a photo of himself making the same gesture while holding his trophy from Sunday’s race.

“Tyler came in with most pressure,” Jordan told Fox Sports. “He had a chance to win three in a row. That’s the hardest one to win, you know. And he kept to his strategy. … Tyler did a good job. He beat good competition.”

In December, an anti-trust lawsuit against NASCAR filed by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports was settled nine days into the trial, with NASCAR agreeing to grant all of its teams the permanent charters they had been seeking.

Started in 2020, 23XI Racing has three full-time cars — driven by Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst — as well as a part-time car driven by Corey Heim. Entering next week’s race in Phoenix, Reddick leads the NASCAR Cup standings by 70 points, followed by Wallace in second place.

Jordan credited Hamlin, who still drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, as the “mastermind” who put together a team that is seeing such great success early this season.

“I just put up the money,” Jordan said.

March 2 (UPI) — The royal editor for The Daily Mail on Monday denied using a private investigator to steal information about Prince Harry and his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy.

Prince Harry is suing Associated Newspapers Ltd., which owns The Daily Mail, along with six other plaintiffs including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, for using information they obtained illegally.

ANL denies all wrongdoing and said it gathered all information for its stories legally.

The testimony Monday mostly hinged on Mike Behr, a South Africa-based private investigator. Rebecca English, royal editor, said she knew Behr only as “a freelance journalist who could help on Africa stories,” The Guardian reported.

Lawyers asked English about an email from Behr that shared the exact flights that Davy was taking on a vacation with Harry in 2007.

Behr asked in the email if English and the Sun reporter “can plant someone next to her?”

Plaintiffs’ lawyer David Sherborne said the email “could only have been obtained from the computer system” of an airline. That means it came from a “blag” — British slang for a way of obtaining information illegally.

English responded that she didn’t remember the email or ask for those flight details.

“[Behr] was never asked for anything like this, ever,” she said. “That is something I would never even consider doing, now or then,” The Guardian reported.

Sherborne asked about planting someone next to Davy, and English replied: “It’s an absolutely shameful suggestion both by him and by you … clearly there’s no reply to this email, which emphasizes my belief that I never actually saw it.”

He then accused her of using illegal information in a story about a “make-or-break holiday” for the couple. But English said the information was likely from students at the University of Leeds, where Davy was enrolled, “who were friends with Chelsy Davy and part of her circle.”

Sherborne also asked English about a story with the headline, “How Harry fell in love,” from 2004. The story alleged that Harry had shared details of his relationship with Davy with friends at a campfire in Botswana. English said the campfire info came from her coworker Sam Greenhill.

“Sam told me that one of the people that Prince Harry had spoken with ’round the campfire got in touch with the newspaper when news of the relationship broke and gave this information to us,” The Independent reported.

“Prince Harry hadn’t told them who his girlfriend was but had described her so that, when the stories about Chelsy Davy broke, they realized the significance of what they had been told.

“I thought at the time that the tip was from a contact of Sam’s, but now understand it just came in to the news desk. I think that Sam gave it to me because he knew that I was new to my job as a royal reporter and thought it might be helpful to me.”

Harry testified last month that the people at the campfire — his “closest friends” — would not have shared that information, and if they had, there “would be a lot more out there.”

The Navy has posted its first pictures from Operation Epic Fury, showing a variety of actions that have been taken so far, especially the launches of RGM-109 Tomahawk Land-Attack Missiles (TLAMs) from its Arleigh Burke class destroyers. One image, in particular, caught our eye. It shows a glossy black TLAM unlike any we have seen before.

To date, we have never seen a black Tomahawk before. Today, the missiles are usually painted in the same haze gray tone we have been accustomed to seeing on pretty much everything in the U.S. Navy. All the other TLAMs shown being fired appear to be painted in this standard scheme, so what we are seeing appears genuinely new.

The dark color of the TLAM in question fits with that of another missile in the U.S. Navy’s inventory, the stealthy AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM). These advanced cruise missiles are delivered, at least in part, not in the flat gray tone as seen on their land-attack cousins, the AGM-158 JASSM, but instead with a glossy black coating. This appears to be the case for earlier testing models and at least some operational ones. It’s our best guess that a very similar coating is now being applied to the latest TLAMs coming off the production line for the Navy.

As for why black is the new gray, as it would seem, we would expect this to be a low observable coating aimed at enhancing the survivability of the weapon, especially for strikes against maritime targets. It can also make the missile harder to spot while skimming low over the water. Having radar-absorbent and infrared suppressive properties could also be a major benefit. This is especially true for the TLAM, which has been around for decades and has been continuously improved upon to keep it relevant and effective. That has included adding low observable features, such as the chined crease in its nose section that reduces its radar cross-section from the critical front aspect. It’s also worth noting that the small v-shape gray portion of this black TLAM is the inlet door that retracts once the missile is boosted to sustained speed shortly after launch.

This new coating would appear to be part of the upgrades likely included on the latest Maritime Strike Tomahawk, otherwise known as the MST, which has a long-range anti-ship function.

F-18 follows Tomahawk Missile

The Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST) is a subvariant of the latest Block V variant of the Tactical Tomahawk (TACOM), and is also known as the Block Va. Though the Block IV TACOM already has a demonstrated anti-ship capability, MST has additional features to optimize it for this role. This most notably includes a new multi-mode guidance system that reportedly includes an imaging infrared seeker. All Block V Tomahawks also come with a two-way data link, allowing them to receive course correction and other targeting updates, as well as be entirely retasked, during flight.

A set of unclassified briefing slides that Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) released last year lends additional credence to the black-colored Tomahawk being an MST. One slide includes a mention of MST along with a very low-resolution picture showing a dark-colored missile.

It isn’t clear when the first MSTs were delivered, but unless this coating is being put on past variants of the missile, this may be the first time we have seen one of these new Tomahawk variants in action.

Update:

We are also seeing video showing what appear to be TLAMs with forward swept wings. If these are indeed TLAMs, this would likely be another measure to reduce the missile’s radar cross-section and making it more survivable, and thus battlefield relevant. It’s also possible that this is a long-range Israeli cruise missile that has not been identified, although this seems less likely. Still, Israel does have the Popeye Turbo cruise missile that is nuclear-armed and used as a second strike deterrent aboard its diesel electric submarines. It is possible that this is a conventional version of that weapon.

The digital world of the first AI actor, Tilly Norwood, is expanding.

AI talent studio Xicoia, which created Norwood, has announced plans for a “rapid expansion” for the digitized actor. The developments include a digital universe dubbed the “Tillyverse,” where ”Tilly and a new generation of AI characters will live, collaborate and build careers.”

The London-based company responsible for creating emotionally intelligent, hyperreal AI personas said it’s focused on more than experimenting with AI actors. It plans to build its own IP and change “how talent is created, developed and experienced in the AI era.”

“Together, we’re building something entirely new. Tilly Norwood isn’t just an AI character — she’s a personality, a brand, and a future global superstar with a compelling narrative arc,” said Xicoia CEO Eline van der Velden in a release.

Norwood was first launched last fall. Upon its introduction, many Hollywood actors, including Emily Blunt, Whoopi Goldberg and Natasha Lyonne, spoke out against the bot. Though Norwood has yet to star in a major project, the fear of AI-generated characters replacing actors and taking jobs is widespread.

Previously, SAG-AFTRA’s president, Sean Astin, also criticized the bot, saying, “It manipulates something that already exists, so the conceit that it isn’t harming actors — because it is its own new thing — ignores the fundamental truth that it is taking something that doesn’t belong to them.”

The development deepens union anxieties more than two years after concerns about the use and misuse of artificial intelligence led to back-to-back strikes.

SAG-AFTRA re-entered contract negotiations with the major studios last month. The union is expected to propose what has been called the Tilly tax, a fee that studios would have to pay to the union in exchange for using an AI actor.

Xicoia, which is owned by AI video production studio Particle6, recently hired former Amazon Prime Video executive Mark Whelan. He will lead Norwood’s expansion, develop new AI characters and oversee the creation of AI talent commissioned by third parties.

“Becoming a lead architect of the Tillyverse is genuinely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Whelan in the release. “AI is evolving at breathtaking speed, and combining cutting-edge tech with ambitious creative thinking means we’re not following an industry playbook at Xicoia — we are writing it.”

The company expects the “Tillyverse” to launch later this year.

WASHINGTON — When President Trump announced that he was taking the United States to war against Iran, he offered a long list of ambitious goals.

He said the operation aimed not only to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, but also to destroy Iran’s ballistic missiles and defang its proxy forces in the Middle East.

Then he added the most audacious objective of all: regime change.

“To the great, proud people of Iran … the hour of your freedom is at hand,” he said. “Take over your government. It will be yours to take.”

That was a striking turnabout for Trump, who campaigned for president in 2016 promising: “We’re going to stop the reckless and costly policy of regime change.”

But it’s far from clear that the president has a coherent plan for replacing Iran’s radical Islamist autocracy with a friendlier regime. Nor is it clear that he’s fully committed to the goal.

On Monday, at a White House event, Trump reiterated the military goals of the operation, but did not mention regime change — suggesting he may be having second thoughts. However, he did describe the current Iranian regime as “sick and sinister.”

Military experts and Iran scholars are virtually unanimous that airstrikes alone, no matter how destructive, are unlikely to transform the Islamic republic into a peaceable, democratic country.

“Air power rarely produces friendly regime change,” said Robert A. Pape of the University of Chicago, a prominent scholar of air power. “Bombing can destroy targets. It does not reliably reshape politics.”

A more likely outcome is that Iran’s militant Islamic security force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, will seize power, experts said. The Washington Post has reported that the CIA also made that assessment before the war began.

A takeover by the Revolutionary Guard would change the names of the people in charge, but it would fall far short of a genuine regime change.

Trump has said he doesn’t believe ground troops will be necessary, although he hasn’t ruled them out. He hasn’t offered a plan for pushing Iran’s theocratic rulers out of power beyond continuing the airstrikes. The outcome on the ground, he said Sunday, is up to ordinary Iranians.

“Be brave, be bold, be heroic and take back your country,” he said in a video message on Sunday. “America is with you. I made a promise to you, and I fulfilled that promise. The rest will be up to you, but we’ll be there to help.”

In an interview with the New York Times, he said he hopes the Revolutionary Guard will simply “surrender” to the opposition forces it was brutalizing only a month ago.

In effect, he is abandoning the so-called Pottery Barn rule — “You break it, you own it” — that was popularized by then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell before the Iraq war in 2003. Trump’s message to Iranians looks like: “I’ll break it, you own it.”

Iran’s democratic opposition is fragmented

The central problem with Trump’s apparent theory of regime change, scholars say, is that the Revolutionary Guard and other security services are well-organized and well-equipped, but the country’s democratic opposition is fragmented.

“Even if the clerical regime were to fall, the security forces are best positioned to take its place,” warned Richard N. Haass, a former top State Department official in the George W. Bush administration.

Meanwhile, he added, “the political opposition is not united or functioning as a government-in-waiting. It is not in a position to accept defections [from the regime], much less provide security.”

Some experts argue that there is more the administration could be doing to improve the prospects for regime change, without putting troops on the ground.

Haass faulted the Trump administration for failing to work more closely with the Iranian opposition to prepare it for a role in a potential future government.

Others said the United States should now make it clear that it would provide substantial economic aid to a new Iranian regime, but only if its behavior is benign. Iran’s economic crisis, its worst in recent history, helped spark the popular uprising in January that the regime suppressed at the cost of thousands in lives.

“There are more steps the administration could be taking now to help the democratic opposition,” said Kelly Shannon, a visiting scholar at George Washington University. “Close coordination with dissidents on the ground. Protection from the security forces if they open fire. Money, including support for a general strike fund. Assistance with ensuring internet access for all Iranians. And ensure that airstrikes don’t hit Evin Prison or other prisons where dissidents are being held; a lot of potential opposition leaders are in there.”

Scenarios for the future

If the Revolutionary Guard remains intact, Iran experts have described several different scenarios for the regime that may emerge.

One might be called the Venezuela scenario: an Iran ruled by officers from the current regime who have agreed to cooperate to some extent with the United States. This would resemble the situation in Venezuela, where the United States captured President Nicolás Maduro but left the rest of his regime in power.

Trump has already endorsed that quick-fix scenario and said he’s willing to open talks with the newly named successors to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike. “What we did in Venezuela, I think, is the perfect, the perfect scenario,” he told the New York Times.

Another option might be called the Hamas scenario: a battered and weakened Islamic Republic could stay in power but remain hostile to the United States, even after losing much of its military infrastructure.

A third possibility would be the Libya scenario: an Iran in which the regime has been toppled, and several factions battle for power. That’s what happened in Libya after the United States and other countries used air power to help overthrow longtime dictator Moammar Kadafi.

But none of those scenarios would be the transition to democracy that many Iranians hope for — the more positive version of regime change.

Trump’s search for offramps

Trump, meanwhile, sounds as if he is already looking for an opportunity to declare victory and withdraw.

In an interview with Axios on Saturday, he said he believes he has several “offramps” from the war.

“I can go long and take over the whole thing — or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians, ‘See you again in a few years.’”

“He seems to be looking for an offramp,” Haass said. “He may say ‘It’s up to the Iranian people’ and leave the opposition to its fate…. He might claim a victory in terms of obliterating — or, I guess, ‘re-obliterating’ — Iran’s nuclear program and downgrading its ballistic missiles.”

“But he would still face a danger in that scenario. If it comes down to a physical confrontation [between the regime and the opposition], the opposition could be killed in even larger numbers before. … After offering regime change as one of the reasons for the war, we may not only fail to produce regime change; we could see a second massacre.”

George added he would be happy to let his two-year-old daughter play the sport if she chose to.

While a group of former players are taking legal action against rugby’s authorities claiming that more should have been done to protect their brain health in the past, there are a series of measures in place to protect players from concussion.

They include ‘smart’ gumshields that measure the forces players heads withstand in a tackle, pitchside doctors, mandatory assessments and stand-down periods for players diagnosed with having had a concussion.

“We are in very, very safe hands,” George added.

“Of course, there is a risk that you might get a concussion in a full-contact sport. We are aware of the risks that come with that, but at the same time, we have the utmost confidence in the people around us, the protocols that are in place and that we are being as well looked after as we possibly can be.”

Ben Earl, George’s Saracens and England team-mate, is equally confident in the care he gets for both club and country.

“I have never once felt like I’ve been managed poorly,” he said.

“If anything, it’s probably too far the other way. They’re probably sometimes holding you back when you feel like you’re ready to go, but actually they’re just looking after you and your body.

“So, in terms of my personal experience with the game and safety, I have felt unbelievably well cared for.”