News from Multiple Perspectives

The US military has confirmed at least three of its soldiers have been killed in its war with Iran.

Strikes keep hitting Tehran, but Iran's surviving leaders are closing ranks and vowing revenge.

Proponents of foreign intervention in Iran are unlikely to get the sudden rupture and regime change they hope for.

Buddhist practitioner and disciple of Master YongHua, Sarah Kim, shows the Fragrant Oil Shariras among other Buddhist relics displayed at Wei Mountain Temple, in Rosemead, Calif., Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) 2026-03-01T13:00:11Z ROSEMEAD, Calif. (AP) — Katherine Nguyen stood with hands folded and head bowed at the altar of a Buddhist temple in Southern California. Before her were tooth and finger bone relics believed to belong to Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism who is said to have attained enlightenment in India about 2,500 years ago. “To be able to see the Buddha, to get close to him and feel the energy — it’s very special for a Buddhist,” Nguyen said. Every Lunar New Year, the Wei Mountain Temple in Rosemead, California, publicly displays what it calls the “10,000 Buddha Relics,” though the actual number contained in several glass display cases and miniature stupas or reliquaries is far larger, according to the temple’s founder, Master YongHua. The collection prominently features bones and teeth believed to have come from the bodies of the Buddha, his relatives and disciples. It also includes numerous shariras — colorful pearl- or crystal-like objects said to have been culled from the cremated ashes of Buddhist masters and the Buddha. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Relics in Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity are venerated as links to the saints or Christ, while Buddhist relics are primarily seen as living, active sources of blessings imbued with supernatural qualities. It’s believed they can appear on their own, grow or even multiply, which is how Buddhists often explain the mystery of why there are so many spread across the world. Relics of the Buddha or revered monks are typically enshrined in a stupa — a sacred, dome-shaped monument that Buddhists also use for meditation and pilgrimage. Belief in relics is a matter of faith At the Rosemead temple, the teeth and finger bone relics are significantly larger than those in the average human body. YongHua said that’s because they have “grown” over the years. The tooth relic, he said, produces “baby shariras,” the multicolored crystals believed to have multiplied and filled several containers in their exhibit. Most Buddhist sects acknowledge the spiritual significance of relics even if some teachers have tried to shift the focus to Buddha’s teachings that emphasize mindfulness and kindness. Relics can be found in every country where Buddhism has a deep history: India, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand. In temple and monastic settings, the authenticity of these items is rarely questioned; spiritual leaders avoid subjecting them to scientific tests over worries that it might strip them of what makes them extraordinary. Over the years, there have been many reports of fake tooth and bone relics as well as manufactured acrylic shariras flooding markets in Asia and online shopping platforms, often sold with falsified authenticity certificates. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Singapore’s Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum houses a tooth relic said to have been recovered from the Buddha’s funeral pyre in a giant stupa fashioned from 705 pounds (320 kilograms) of gold. That relic came under scrutiny in 2007 after dental experts pointed out that the 3-inch (7.5 centimeter) tooth’s characteristics were incompatible with the dimensions of a human tooth and most likely belonged to a cow or a buffalo. The temple’s abbot, the Venerable Shi Fazhao, said at the time that he had never questioned its authenticity and “if you believe it’s real, it’s real.” freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); YongHua says the main purpose of the relics donated to the Rosemead temple about 14 years ago by a collector is to inspire faith. He has no doubts about their ethereal nature. “I have seen them multiply with my own eyes,” he said. “They move on their own, they levitate. ... I’ve seen people get cured of various ailments just by being in their presence.” John Strong, professor emeritus of religion at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, wrote the book “Relics of the Buddha” in 2004. He said the earliest accounts of Buddha’s funeral are found in Pali texts dating from about the 2nd century B.C.E. Later commentaries describe the relics that came out of the Buddha’s ashes as glittering jewels — some as small as mustard seeds and others resembling gems or golden nuggets. Theories abound about what generates these relics and why, Strong said, adding that they do serve the important purpose of connecting Buddhists to the Buddha, who is “essentially absent” because he became enlightened and liberated from the cycle of birth, death and reincarnation. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Relics are signs of a spiritually realized yogi Geshe Tenzin Zopa, a Tibetan monk and educator, said relics are “the most precious, most sacred, most powerful holy objects in our understanding.” As a young monk in Nepal, he believes he saw his teacher, Geshe Lama Konchog — who was recognized as a realized yogi by the Dalai Lama — generate relics as his body was being cremated. The guru died in October 2001. Zopa said he observed pearl-like relics popping out of the crematorium “like popcorn.” He said senior monks advised that the structure be sealed and left undisturbed for three days. When they returned, disciples found hundreds of relics and to their shock, the guru’s intact heart, tongue and eyes, Zopa said. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); “I’d never seen anything like that in my life. It was truly a miracle,” he said. It’s widely believed the relics later multiplied; most are enshrined in a memorial stupa at Kopan monastery in Nepal. For students of yogis, looking for relics in cremains is not a morbid fascination, but an act of unshakeable faith and an expectation that their guru would leave behind a message — a physical sign of their spiritual realization, Zopa said. They’re not easy to produce either. “We believe that the relics are left behind due to the kindness of these holy gurus for the sake of us sentient beings to collect merit and purify ourselves,” Zopa said. “One has to make very strong and extensive prayers and preserve pure morality for many lifetimes in order to create the causes that produce relics.” Not all Buddhist teachers view relics the same way In Southern California, at the U.S. headquarters for the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist order, the Venerable Hui Ze explained that their founder, Venerable Master Hsing Yun, taught his followers not to solely focus on relics. “Our venerable master emphasized Humanistic Buddhism — how we can bring Buddha’s teachings into our daily lives with good thoughts, words and actions,” said Hui Ze. “He instructed us that relics should not distract us from the path to liberation.” The order’s headquarters in Taiwan houses a Buddha tooth relic gifted to Hsing Yun by a lama, Kunga Dorje Rinpoche, who carried the sacred object as he fled Tibet in 1968 and safeguarded it for three decades. Hui Ze said he was moved by the relic the moment he saw it. “I had this really intimate experience and felt like I had connected with the Buddha who was here 2,600 years ago, and that connection is priceless,” he said. Hsing Yun had instructed disciples not to look for relics in his ashes. He died Feb. 5, 2023, at age 95. Following the master’s cremation, his disciples sifted through the cremains and found several colorful, pearly relics. But in deference to the master’s wishes, they’ve been left in the ashes to be spread across the order’s dozen centers across five continents. Hsing Yun’s ashes containing the relics will be enshrined in the Southern California headquarters during a ceremony on March 21. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. DEEPA BHARATH Bharath is a reporter with AP’s Global Religion team. She is based in Los Angeles. twitter mailto

Finished Actor statuettes are displayed during the 32nd Actor Awards statuette pouring event presented by SAG-AFTRA on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, at American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) 2026-03-01T14:40:16Z With two weeks to go until the Academy Awards , the 32nd Actor Awards on Sunday will be the final pre-Oscars showdown for “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners.” Formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the newly renamed Actor Awards are one of the most closely watched precursors. Actors make up the largest slice of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and their choices at the Actor Awards often align. The ceremony, presented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, will be streamed live on Netflix beginning at 8 p.m. EST. Kristen Bell is hosting. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” comes in the heavy favorite, having won at the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs and at Saturday’s Producers Guild Awards. The film comes in with a record seven nominations and is seen as the most likely winner of the night’s top award, best ensemble. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); The four other nominees for best ensemble are: “Sinners,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme” and “Frankenstein.” If Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” upsets “One Battle After Another” on Sunday night, it would add a late dose of unpredictability to Oscars. But many of the categories already feel up for grabs. Timothée Chalamet, who last year won best male actor from the actors guild for “A Complete Unknown,” had been seen as the favorite for his performance in “Marty Supreme.” But the surprise winner at the BAFTAs, Robert Aramayo, showed how hard to pin down the category is. The other nominees are: Michael B. Jordan (“Sinners”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“One Battle After Another”), Ethan Hawke (“Blue Moon”) and Jesse Plemons (“Bugonia”). If Chalamet wins, he’d be the first to win the award in back to back years. Jessie Buckley is the favorite in the best female actor category. The other nominees are: Chase Infiniti (“One Battle After Another”), Rose Byrne (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”), Kate Hudson (“Song Sung Blue”) and Emma Stone (“Bugonia”). freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); The supporting awards are especially hard to predict. The best supporting female actor nominees are: Teyana Taylor (“One Battle After Another”), Wunmi Mosaku (“Sinners”), Ariana Grande (“Wicked: For Good”), Amy Madigan (“Weapons”) and Odessa A’zion (“Marty Supreme”). The male nominees are: Sean Penn (“One Battle After Another”), Benicio Del Toro (“One Battle After Another”), Miles Caton (“Sinners”), Jacob Elordi (“Frankenstein”) and Paul Mescal (“Hamnet”). Harrison Ford will receive the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award, which will be presented to him by Woody Harrelson. JAKE COYLE Coyle has been a film critic and covered the movie industry for The Associated Press since 2013. He is based in New York City. twitter mailto

Kevin Warsh speaks to the media about his report on transparency at the Bank of England, in London, Dec. 11, 2014. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool, File) 2026-03-01T14:00:08Z WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump, his Treasury secretary and his choice to lead the Federal Reserve believe they can coax the U.S. economy into partying like it’s 1999. They are putting their faith in artificial intelligence to duplicate what happened when another technology arrived in the 1990s: the internet. Back then, the American economy surged as businesses became more productive, unemployment tumbled and inflation remained in check. Trump is confident that his nominee to become Fed chair, Kevin Warsh , can unleash an even greater economic bonanza by jettisoning what the president sees as the central bank’s hidebound reluctance to slash interest rates. Many economists are skeptical. The world looks a lot different today than it did when the Spice Girls ruled radio and “Titanic’’ dominated the box office. And the story the Trump team is telling — that a visionary Fed chair, Alan Greenspan, fueled the ‘90s boom by keeping interest rates low — is incomplete at best. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); “The administration is offering a rather distorted version of what actually happened in the 1990s,’’ economist Dario Perkins of TS Lombard said in a commentary. Nonetheless, the Trump administration believes history can repeat itself. All that’s been missing, in the president’s view, is a Fed chair with Greenspan’s foresightedness. AI’s influence over interest rates Trump has repeatedly attacked current Fed chief Jerome Powell, whose term as chair ends in May, for his reluctance to lower rates aggressively while inflation hovers above the central bank’s 2% target. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on social media in January that the president sought to replace Powell with someone with “an open, Greenspan-like mind.” “Our nation can see productivity boom like we did in the ’90s when we are not encumbered by a Federal Reserve which throws the brakes on,’' Bessent said. On Jan. 30, Trump said he was picking Warsh . In speeches and writings, Warsh has argued that AI-driven improvements in productivity could justify lower interest rates. These views align with Trump’s desires for Fed rate cutes but mark a break with Warsh’s own past as an inflation hawk. In the aftermath of the 2007-2009 Great Recession, Warsh — then a Fed governor — objected to some of the central bank’s efforts to help the struggling economy by pushing down rates even though unemployment exceeded 9%. Warsh warned then, wrongly, that inflation would soon accelerate. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); At issue now are gains in productivity and the possibility that AI will make them bigger — much bigger. To economists, productivity improvements are almost magical . When companies roll out new machines or technology, their workers can become more efficient and produce more stuff per hour. That allows firms to earn more and to raise employees’ pay without raising prices. In short: Surging productivity can drive economic growth without spurring inflation. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Greenspan and the internet In the mid-1990s, Greenspan was contending with a strange set of economic circumstances: Wages were rising, but inflation wasn’t heating up. Big productivity gains might have explained things, but government data showed no sign of them. Other Fed policymakers worried that surging wages and tame inflation couldn’t co-exist and that higher prices were coming. They wanted to raise interest rates. But Greenspan suspected the official productivity numbers were missing something. For one thing, they didn’t jibe with the amazing tales of efficiency improvements the Fed was hearing from companies investing in computers and turning to the internet. So he ordered his lieutenants to dig through decades of productivity numbers. The official statistics they assembled told an implausible story: Services firms — from retailers to legal practices — had supposedly seen productivity fall over the years, despite intense competitive pressure and massive investments in technology. Greenspan didn’t believe it. He persuaded his Fed colleagues that the government’s numbers were wrong and were understating productivity. They agreed in September 1996 to hold off on raising rates. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); The economy took flight. Tardily, productivity advances began to show up in the official data. Overall, American economic growth surpassed 4% every year from 1997 through 2000, something it would do again only once in the next quarter century. The unemployment rate plunged to 3.8% in April 2000, lowest in three decades. Inflation stayed in its cage, coming in below 2% -- later the Fed’s official target – for 17 straight months in 1997-1999. History repeats itself ... maybe? American productivity certainly looked strong in the second and third quarters of 2025, and some economists attribute the improvements to early adoption of AI; they see bigger gains and stronger economic growth ahead. Others aren’t so sure. Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at the consulting firm RSM, wrote that the 2025 productivity improvements “are not because of artificial intelligence’’ but reflect investments in automation that companies made when they couldn’t find enough workers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. “Those investments are starting to pay off,’’ Brusuelas wrote. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Economist Martin Baily, senior fellow emeritus at the Brookings Institution, believes it will take time for AI to have a big impact on the way companies do business and on the nation’s productivity. “Companies don’t change that fast,” said Baily, chair of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers. “It’s expensive to change. It’s risky to change. The managers don’t necessarily understand the new technology that well. So they have to learn how to use it. They have to train their staff. All that stuff takes a long time.’’ A productivity boom can raise the economy’s speed limit — how fast it can grow without pushing prices higher. But it might not justify lower interest rates, Federal Reserve Gov. Michael Barr said in a speech earlier this month. Businesses will borrow to invest in AI, putting upward pressure on interest rates. Likewise, American workers and their families likely would save less and borrow more in anticipation of higher wages, the payoff for being more productive; that would put still more pressure on rates to rise. Bottom line, Barr said: “The AI boom is unlikely to be a reason for lowering policy rates.’’ Even Greenspan’s Fed eventually came to the same conclusion, reversing course and starting to raise its benchmark rate in mid-1999, taking it from 4.75% to 6.5% in less than a year. (The rate Trump complains about now is around 3.6%.) “Warsh and Bessent talk only about the dovish 1995/96 version of Greenspan; they overlook the hawkish 1999/2000 variant,’’ Perkins wrote. Then and now Many of Warsh’s potential future colleagues on the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee see the late 1990s experience differently than he does, setting up what could be a clash at the central bank if the Senate confirms Warsh as chair. Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said earlier this week that “the analogy to the late 90s is a little harder for me to understand.” Greenspan’s insight was that productivity gains meant the Fed could hold off on raising rates, not that it should slash them, Goolsbee noted. “It wasn’t, ‘Should we cut rates because productivity growth is higher?’” he said. The economic backdrop that awaits Warsh is also far less friendly than the one Greenspan enjoyed. Greenspan was avoiding rate hikes at a time when the usually profligate U.S. government was running rare budget surpluses and didn’t need to borrow so desperately. Now, after a series of spending hikes and tax cuts, deficits are piling up year after year, and the Congressional Budget Office expects federal debt to hit a historic high of 120% of America’s GDP by 2035. Nor was productivity the only thing controlling inflation in the 1990s. Countries were lowering tariffs and dismantling trade barriers. Immigration was surging. Now, thanks largely to Trump’s own policies, notably his sweeping taxes on imports and his crackdown on immigration, the world is much different. “Trade barriers are going up,’’ Perkins wrote. “Globalization has given way to de-globalization.’’ “That benign era is clearly behind us,’’ said Michael Pearce, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. ____ AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this story. 获取更多RSS： https://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Iran's surviving leaders are in crisis mode, battling to project security as US and Israel strikes continue.

Two people were killed and 14 injured, with the suspected gunman also shot dead on the scene.

Several deaths are reported across the Middle East as Tehran retaliates for massive strikes by the US and Israel.

As the White House confirmed on Sunday , the Islamic Republic of Iran's leadership has contacted the U.S. asking for talks. The list of potential successors to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on Saturday by an Israeli airstrike, includes his son and former advisers. Since the establishment in 1979 of the Islamic Republic, led by the fiery anti-American Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, this will be only the second time that a new supreme leader has been selected. The potential successors to Khamenei include a list of hard-line anti-Western extremists who, like Khamenei, are set on the destruction of Israel and the continued export of the Islamic revolution. IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER ALI KHAMENEI DEAD AFTER IDF STRIKE HITS TEHRAN COMPOUND, ISRAELI SOURCE CONFIRMS One possible successor is regime loyalist Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, who reportedly implemented Khamenei’s plan to massacre over 30,000 Iranians who protested against his regime in January. On Saturday, he threatened a response in a statement on X on Saturday, writing, "We will make the Zionist criminals and the vile Americans regret it," adding, "The brave soldiers and the great nation of Iran will deliver an unforgettable lesson to the hell-bound oppressors of the international order." In January, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Larijani as one of "the architects of the Iranian regime’s brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators." The statement added, "Larijani was one of the first Iranian leaders to call for violence in response to the legitimate demands of the Iranian people." Larijani was the president of the Islamic Republic’s parliament and, like Khamenei, has engaged in Holocaust denial. Larijani was also a commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S. and EU-designated terrorist organization. TOMAHAWKS SPEARHEADED US STRIKE ON IRAN — WHY PRESIDENTS REACH FOR THIS MISSILE FIRST Beni Sabti, an Iran expert at the Institute of National Security Studies in Israel, questioned reports claiming that Larijani is favorite to be the next supreme leader . He told Fox News Digital, "Larijani is not a cleric, but he can help some of the candidates who are clerics behind the curtains, such as his brother, Mohammad-Javad Larijani, who was head of the judiciary." Mohammad-Javad Larijani has called for the destruction of Israel and denied the Holocaust. He was previously secretary general of Iran's high council for human rights. As a close adviser to the late supreme leader, he has defended stoning for adultery, declaring it protects "family values" as part of Islamic law. Another replacement for Khamenei might be his second son, Mojtaba, who works closely with IRGC. The first Trump administration sanctioned him in 2019. According to the Treasury Department sanction designation, "The Supreme Leader has delegated a part of his leadership responsibilities to Mojataba Khamenei, who worked closely with the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and also the Basij Resistance Force (Basij) to advance his father’s destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives." JEB BUSH COMMENDS FORMER RIVAL TRUMP’S IRAN OP: ‘THIS IS THEIR TIME TO TAKE THEIR COUNTRY BACK’ Iran International reported that the IRGC seeks a rapid-fire replacement for Khamenei. The Islamic system in Iran prescribes an elected body of 88 senior clerics—the Assembly of Experts—to select the next leader. The cleric and jurist Alireza Arafi, 67, who is part of a three-person temporary leadership council to run Iran might also be the successor to Khamenei. According to the U.S.group United Against a Nuclear Iran, Arafi promised "death" to protesters who knock over the turbans of Iranian Islamic clerics. "Those who attack the turbans of the clergy should know that the turban will become their shroud," Arafi said. OBAMA OFFICIAL WHO BACKED IRAN DEAL SPARKS ONLINE OUTRAGE WITH REACTION TO TRUMP'S STRIKE: 'SIT THIS ONE OUT' The extremist Ayatollah Mohammad-Mehdi Mirbagheri is also a contender to replace Khamenei. Mirbagheri argues for fighting and overcoming "infidels." Mirbagheri has quoted Iran's first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, declaring that a "new culture based on Islam in the world" would mean "hardship, martyrdom and hunger" and that Iranian people had "voluntarily chosen" to embrace this activity, according to Iran International. Mirbagheri’s theological credentials position him as a natural replacement for Khamenei. Another clerical successor to Khamenei being discussed is Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini . He is the custodian of the Khomeini mausoleum and, at 53 is young by the Islamic Republic’s standards for leadership. United Against a Nuclear Iran ranked Ayatollah Seyyed Hashem Hosseini Bushehri, who was born in 1956 in Bardkhun, Bushehr, a second tier candidate to replace Khamenei. IRAN'S TERROR PROXIES FROM IRAQ-TO-LEBANON SAY READY TO RESPOND TO US-ISRAEL ATTACKS "Bushehr, is a powerful figure in Iran's religious and academic spheres. He embarked on his theological education in Bushehr before moving to Qom to further his studies. According to UANI, In 2024, Bushehri urged Iranian women to "address issues such as the status of women's rights in Western societies and the flaws that exist in this area in the West," which would prevent the "enemy [the West]" to "not even have a chance to challenges us [Iran]." Iran analyst, Sabti, who was born in Tehran, said, "I don’t think that Israel and the U.S. should allow them to choose the next leader." He compared the successor system to Hamas when Israel eliminates a Hamas terrorist leader, and he is swiftly replaced with a new leader. "There is a need to "prevent the next leader from being chosen," he said. "Maybe we can eliminate the next one even before he is chosen." He said it is important to "break the system" to prevent the continuation of terrorism. "It is bad for Arab countries and Israel if the regime remains the same" in Iran. Sabti said the regime can continue to build its illicit nuclear weapons program, ballistic missiles and sponsor terrorism, adding it is better to dissolve the regime and "bring in a new system. He concluded that regime change requires "talking to the people," and, "maybe it is time for them to come out and make the good revolution."

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Saeid Iravani, sparred with U.S. envoy Mike Waltz at a Security Council session on Sunday, telling the American ambassador to "be polite," a remark that drew a sharp rebuke from Waltz, who accused Tehran of killing "tens of thousands" of its own citizens and imprisoning many more simply for seeking freedom from "your tyranny." "I have one word only: I advise to the representative of the United States to be polite," Iravani said during the emergency meeting. Moments later, Waltz responded: "Frankly, I’m not going to dignify this with another response, especially as this representative sits here in this body representing a regime that has killed tens of thousands of its own people and imprisoned many more simply for wanting freedom from your tyranny." UN CHIEF BLASTED AS ‘ABJECTLY TONE-DEAF’ OVER MESSAGE TO IRAN MARKING REVOLUTION ANNIVERSARY The exchange came during an emergency Security Council briefing as the United States, Israel and Iran entered war, with diplomats offering sharply different interpretations of the expanding military campaign and its legality under international law. In extended remarks at the session, Waltz rejected what he described as Iran’s "ridiculous and frankly farcical assertion" that U.S. actions violated international law, arguing that the United States acted "in close coordination with the Government of Israel" and "in line with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations," which addresses self-defense. He also reiterated that Iran supports armed proxies across the region and has destabilized the Middle East for decades. AMBASSADOR MIKE WALTZ LAYS OUT ‘AMERICA FIRST’ VISION FOR US LEADERSHIP AT THE UN The clash unfolded against the backdrop of broader controversy surrounding Iran’s standing within the U.N. system , previously reported by Fox News Digital. Last month, Iran was elected vice chair of the U.N. Charter Committee, a body focused on examining and strengthening the principles of the U.N.’s founding document — a move that drew criticism from Israeli and Western officials. Fox News Digital also reported earlier that month on backlash after U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres sent a congratulatory message to Iran marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, a gesture critics described as "abjectly tone-deaf" given Tehran’s human rights record. The United States is set to assume the rotating presidency of the Security Council on March 1, a role that shifts monthly and gives the presiding country control over the council’s agenda and meeting schedule, placing Washington in a key procedural position as tensions continue to mount.

Three U.S. service members were killed and five others were seriously wounded as part of Operation Epic Fury , U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Sunday morning. In addition, several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions and are in the process of being returned to duty, CENTCOM announced. "The situation is fluid, so out of respect for the families, we will withhold additional information, including the identities of our fallen warriors, until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified," CENTCOM said. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

In an interview with The Atlantic, President Trump said the country’s new leaders after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “want to talk” but did not say whom he was referring to.

Though the conflict is centered on the Persian Gulf, shipping companies fear that the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen could resume attacks on vessels in the Red Sea hundreds of miles to the west.

It already proved its effectiveness on the battlefields of Ukraine. Now the Iranian-made Shahed-136 kamikaze has been unleashed across the Arab Gulf.

Several high-ranking federal election officials attended a summit last week at which prominent figures who worked to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election pressed the president to declare a national emergency to take over this year’s midterms. According to videos, photos and social media posts reviewed by ProPublica, the meeting’s participants included Kurt Olsen, a White House lawyer charged with reinvestigating the 2020 election , and Heather Honey, the Department of Homeland Security official in charge of election integrity. The event was convened by Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser , and attended by Cleta Mitchell, who directs the Election Integrity Network, a group that has spread false claims about election fraud and noncitizen voting .  Election experts say that the meeting reflects an intensifying push to persuade Trump to take unprecedented actions to affect the vote in November. Courts have largely blocked his efforts to reshape elections through an executive order, and legislation has stalled in Congress that would mandate strict voter ID requirements across the country. The Washington Post reported Thursday that activists associated with those at the summit have been circulating a draft of an executive order that would ban mail-in ballots and get rid of voting machines as part of a federal takeover. Peter Ticktin, a lawyer who worked on the executive order and had a client at the summit, told ProPublica these actions were “all part of the same effort.”  The summit followed other meetings and discussions between administration officials and activists — many not previously reported — stretching back to at least last fall, according to emails and recordings obtained by ProPublica. The coordination between those inside and outside the government represents a breakdown of crucial guardrails, experts on U.S. elections said. “The meeting shows that the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 election have only grown better organized and are now embedded in the machinery of government,” said Brendan Fischer, a director at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan pro-democracy organization. “This creates substantial risk that the administration is laying the groundwork to improperly reshape elections ahead of the midterms or even go against the will of the voters.” Five of six federal officials who attended the summit didn’t answer questions about the event from ProPublica.  A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said federal officials’ attendance at the gathering shouldn’t be construed as support for a national emergency declaration and that it was “common practice” for staffers to communicate with outside advocates who want to share policy ideas. The official pointed to comments Trump made to PBS News denying he was considering a national emergency or had read the draft executive order. “Any speculation about policies the administration may or may not undertake is just that — speculation,” the official said. In the past, Trump has expressed an openness to a federal takeover as a way to stem projected Republican losses in November . This month, he said in an interview with conservative podcaster Dan Bongino that Republicans need “to take over” elections and “to nationalize the voting.” Mitchell did not respond to questions from ProPublica about the summit. A spokesperson for Flynn responded to detailed questions from ProPublica by disparaging experts who expressed concerns, texting, “LOL ‘EXPERTS.’”  The 30-person roundtable discussion on Feb. 19, at an office building in downtown Washington, D.C., was sponsored by the Gold Institute for International Strategy, a conservative think tank. Afterward, activists and government officials dined together, photos reviewed by ProPublica showed. Flynn, the institute’s chair, told a social media personality why he’d arranged the event.  “I wanted to bring this group together physically, because most of us have met online” while “fighting battles” in swing states from Arizona to Georgia, Flynn said to Tommy Robinson on the gathering’s sidelines. Robinson posted videos of these interactions online . “The overall theme of this event was to make sure that all of us aren’t operating in our own little bubbles.” Flynn has repeatedly advocated for Trump to declare a national emergency and posted on social media after the event addressing Trump, “We The People want fair elections and we know there is only one office in the land that can make that happen given the current political environment in the United States.” Get Involved Do you have information you can share about conservative activists engaging with federal officials about elections or any of the individuals named in this article? Contact reporter Doug Bock Clark at doug.clark@propublica.org or on Signal at 678-243-0784. If you’re concerned about confidentiality, check out our advice on the most secure ways to share tips . In addition to Olsen and Honey, four other federal officials from agencies that will shape the upcoming elections attended the event. At least four of the six attended the dinner. One is Clay Parikh, a special government employee at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who’s helping Olsen with the 2020 inquiry . A spokesperson at ODNI said Parikh had attended the summit “in his personal capacity.”  Another, Mac Warner, handled election litigation at the Justice Department . A department spokesperson said that Warner had resigned the day after the event and had not received the required approval from agency ethics officials to participate.   The department “remains committed to upholding the integrity of our electoral system and will continue to prioritize efforts to ensure all elections remain free, fair, and transparent,” the spokesperson said in an email. A third administration official who attended the summit, Marci McCarthy, directs communications for the nation’s cyber defense agency, which oversees the security of elections infrastructure like voting machines.  Kari Lake, whom Trump appointed as senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, was a featured speaker. Lake worked with Olsen and Parikh in her unsuccessful bid to overturn her loss in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election. Lake said in an email that she “showed up to the event, spoke for about 20 minutes about the overall importance of election integrity, a non-partisan issue that matters to all citizens — both in the United States and abroad. I left without listening to any other speeches.”  “Elections should be free from fraud or any other malfeasance that subverts the will of the people,” she added.  At the meeting, activists presented on ways to transform American elections that would help conservatives, according to social media posts and interviews they gave on conservative media, such as LindellTV, a streaming platform created by the pillow mogul Mike Lindell. They said the group broke down into two camps: those who wanted to pursue a more incremental legal and legislative strategy and those who wanted Trump to declare a national emergency. Multiple activists left the meeting convinced Trump should do the latter, a step they believe would allow the president to get around the Constitution’s directive that elections should be run by states.  Former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, a prominent funder of efforts to overturn the 2020 election, told LindellTV that Trump has “played nice” so far in not seizing control of American elections. “But at some point,” Byrne said, “he’s got to do something, the muscular thing: declare a national emergency.” Byrne responded to questions from ProPublica by sending a screenshot of a poll that he said suggested “2/3 of Americans correctly do not trust” voting machines, which the proposed national emergency declaration aims to do away with. Will Huff, who has advocated for doing away with voting machines, told a conservative vlogger that Olsen, the White House lawyer, and other administration representatives would take the “consensus” from the gathering back to Trump. “It’s got to be a national emergency,” said Huff, the campaign manager for a Republican candidate for Arkansas secretary of state. In response to questions from ProPublica, Huff said in an email that Olsen and Trump would use their judgment to decide whether to declare a national emergency.  “The President has been briefed on findings of shortcomings in election infrastructure,” Huff wrote. “I believe there are steady hands around the President wanting to ensure that any action taken is, first, constitutional and legal, but also backed by evidence.” McCarthy, the cybersecurity official, expressed more general solidarity with fellow attendees in a post on social media about the summit . “Grateful for friendships forged through years of standing shoulder-to-shoulder, united by purpose and conviction,” she wrote. “The mission continues… and so does the fellowship.” Marci McCarthy, second from left, Heather Honey, fourth from right, and Cleta Mitchell, third from right, were among the conservative activists and officials who attended the summit. McCarthy posted about the event on LinkedIn. Screenshot by ProPublica. Redactions by ProPublica. Last week’s gathering was the latest in a string of private interactions between conservative election activists and administration officials, according to emails, documents and recordings obtained by ProPublica. Many have involved Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network . Before taking her government post, Honey was a leader in the Election Integrity Network, ProPublica has reported , as was McCarthy . Previously unreported emails obtained by ProPublica show that just weeks after Honey started at the Department of Homeland Security, she briefed election activists, a Republican secretary of state and another federal official on a conference call arranged by her former boss , Mitchell. “We are excited to welcome her on our call this morning to hear about her work for election integrity inside DHS,” Mitchell wrote in an email introducing presenters on the call. Honey didn’t respond to questions from ProPublica about the call. Experts said Honey’s briefing gave her former employer access that likely would have violated ethics rules in place under previous administrations, including the first Trump administration — though not this one. The prior “ethics guardrails would have prevented some of the revolving door issues we’re seeing between the election denial movement and the government officials,” said Fischer, the Campaign Legal Center director. Those prior rules “were supposed to prevent former employers and clients from receiving privileged access.” The post Trump Officials Attended a Summit of Election Deniers Who Want the President to Take Over the Midterms appeared first on ProPublica .

Last summer, I traveled to McLoud, Oklahoma, home to the state’s largest women’s prison. McLoud — a town of fewer than 5,000 residents — lies 30 miles east of Oklahoma City on a wide expanse of prairie. At the edge of town, off a rutted road, stands Mabel Bassett Correctional Center, a sprawl of concrete and razor wire.  I went there to meet April Wilkens, who has spent more than a quarter century at Mabel Bassett for the 1998 shooting death of her ex-fiancé, Terry Carlton. Wilkens had repeatedly sought help from law enforcement after Carlton beat, raped and stalked her — pleas that, according to trial testimony, were met with indifference. She was convicted of first-degree murder and handed a life sentence. More than two decades later, her case drew renewed attention. Wilkens became a central figure in the push for new legislation that would allow survivors of domestic violence to seek reduced sentences when their crimes stemmed from their abuse. Read More The Victims Who Fought Back The state’s high incarceration rate — and the mounting human and financial costs of keeping so many people behind bars — had created an opening, one that a Tulsa lawyer named Colleen McCarty recognized. Troubled by Oklahoma’s dual distinction as a state that consistently has one of the highest rates of female imprisonment and of domestic abuse, she and another Tulsa attorney, Leslie Briggs, visited Wilkens in prison in 2022. In that meeting, the lawyers explained that they wanted to pass legislation that could reduce the long sentences that survivors of domestic abuse faced, even when their crimes were a direct result of their abuse. After two years of advocacy, the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act was passed into law in 2024. The law did not automatically reduce survivors’ sentences. Instead, it created a mechanism for them to petition for relief — requiring them to demonstrate that domestic abuse was a “substantial contributing factor” in their offense and leaving the ultimate decision to a judge. When I first heard about the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, I was floored. I live in Texas and cover criminal justice, so I spend a lot of time tracking where change is — and isn’t — politically possible. I knew how unusual it was for ambitious sentencing reform to emerge from a deep red state where lawmakers have long favored harsh punishment. Oklahoma, which has put to death 130 people since capital punishment resumed in 1976, has the most executions per capita of any state in the nation. I wanted to understand how that law came to be, and, just as importantly, if it was working as intended. As I chronicle in my story, “ The Victims Who Fought Back ,” the path to the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act began with that meeting in 2022 between the two lawyers and Wilkens. McCarty and Briggs wanted a sense of how many women were imprisoned for crimes tied to their own abuse. After their meeting, Wilkens came up with a solution; she decided to draft a questionnaire asking other prisoners about the abuse they had endured. She wanted to know: How many other women at Mabel Bassett had cases like hers?  Wilkens distributed the questionnaire one weekend that fall. She chatted up anyone she saw in the rec yard, the library, the chow hall. Conducting an unauthorized survey could’ve earned her a disciplinary write-up, but Wilkens, who had a nearly spotless record, decided it was a risk worth taking.  For years, she had listened to women describe the violence they had endured — stories that had barely surfaced in courtrooms, if at all. She could see the intersection between their abuse and the crimes they went on to commit. Some had been prosecuted for failing to protect their children from their abusive partners; others had committed crimes alongside their abusers under threat of further harm — offenses that, like Wilkens’, could not be understood apart from the abuse that preceded them. Among Mabel Bassett’s lifers, Wilkens stood out as a leader; she was well-liked and respected, and as she moved through the prison with her questionnaire, women stopped to hear what she had to say. There was no incentive to fill it out, because no law yet existed to help survivors. There was only Wilkens’ force of personality and a simple request: “If you’ve experienced domestic violence, and that’s connected to why you’re here, will you fill this out?” One hundred and fifty-six women filled out the survey. McCarty, who would go on to become Wilkens’ attorney, told me she read them in a single sitting, so unmoored by the women’s stories that she had to lie down when she finished. When I went to talk to her last year in Tulsa, she told me that I could read them, too.  I’m sharing brief excerpts of them here because they do more than document individual suffering. They also expose something broader: the systemic blind spots that allowed so many of these women’s histories to go unheard in police reports, courtrooms and sentencing decisions. Fear and terror are the predominant themes. “The abuse graduated from emotional to verbal to physical to sexual,” wrote one woman.  “He said he was going to kill me and hide the body,” wrote another. “His wife before me had her nose broken twice.” “I kept begging for a divorce and he’d threaten to kill my children.” “From the beating I received, my left ear I don’t hear well.” “My children’s father he beat me barely made it out alive.” A fraction of the respondents had, like Wilkens, gone on to kill their abusers. “I didn’t realize I shot him until the gun went off,” wrote one woman. Another wrote, “One night just snapped, shot & killed my husband.” Many described a system that had failed them. “My lawyer was arrested during my trial,” wrote one woman whose children were put in foster care after her arrest. “I never even got a chance.”  “Am ready to tell my story,” wrote a woman who was convicted when Ronald Reagan was president. “Have been for a long time.” The questionnaires became part of the foundation for a legislative push, helping lawmakers grasp how often abuse and criminal charges intersected, and how rarely that history was fully considered in court. When the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act passed in 2024, there was hope that it would offer women like Wilkens and others at Mabel Bassett a meaningful second look at their sentences.  What I learned through my reporting, though, is just how resistant that system can be to change. Wilkens, along with many other women with similar stories, still waits behind bars.  With her, inside Mabel Bassett, is another prisoner whose response to the questionnaire has stayed with me: “I was in a very abusive, sick relationship,” she wrote. “I am FREE now.” The post A Secret Survey From Inside a Women’s Prison Tells Stories of Domestic Abuse Untold in Court appeared first on ProPublica .

You know what we do here at ProPublica: investigative reporting that sparks change and holds power to account. As we near the end of February, we wanted to share five examples of how our investigations have already done that this year. From Colorado to Massachusetts to Texas, ProPublica investigations, many of them published in collaboration with local partners, led to proposed changes to laws and practices. And while we report on the details of how these changes happen, we aim to never lose sight of how these changes could affect actual people. This may mean, for example, people under New York’s guardianship system receiving better care, or survivors of rape in Massachusetts being able to pursue justice without a deadline. Read on to learn more about our recent reporting that’s making an impact.  Colorado Marijuana Regulators Consider Major Changes to How Labs Test for Contaminants More than a decade ago, Colorado created the first regulated recreational marijuana market in the nation. Lawmakers promised the state’s voters that the move to legalize marijuana would drive out the black market and create a safer environment through regulation. But, as Denver Gazette reporters Christopher Osher and Evan Wyloge revealed in a January investigation in partnership with ProPublica, hemp derivatives have jeopardized that promise.  For years, hemp, which is a close cousin of marijuana and is cheaper to produce, seeped into the Colorado marijuana market. While Colorado allows the use of hemp in some items such as clothing and rope, the state banned companies from using it to make intoxicating products sold in the state. Our investigation found that despite the ban, the Colorado legislature and regulators failed to adopt critical regulations that other states have employed to keep harmful hemp products off the shelves. One result, some marijuana manufacturers say, is that some companies are sending samples and products that they know will pass mandatory testing to labs; dispensaries, meanwhile, might receive products that could be contaminated with chemical solvents, fungus or pesticides. But, as Osher and Wyloge reported this month, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division may now require independent labs or outside vendors to collect product samples for testing before they can be sold. That would remove marijuana manufacturers’ ability to choose which products they send in.  Read the full story . The Clear Labels Act Would Change What You Know About Your Prescription Medication U.S. senators introduced legislation this month that would require prescription drug labels to identify where the medication was made, adding momentum to a yearslong campaign to bring more transparency to the often elusive generic drug industry. Current labels often list only a distributor or repackager of a medication and sometimes provide no information at all. The Clear Labels Act, introduced by Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., calls for labels to disclose the original manufacturer as well as the suppliers that produced key ingredients. A spokesperson for the trade group for brand-name drugmakers told ProPublica that the industry would “welcome conversations about how to strengthen the biopharmaceutical supply chain.” The generic drug lobbying group said that additional labeling requirements would impose “significant costs in exchange for limited returns,” adding that drug manufacturers already disclose country of origin information under U.S. Customs and Border Protection rules. Our reporters had to file public records requests and sue the FDA in federal court to obtain information about where generic drugs are made and whether government inspectors had flagged those factories for safety or quality concerns. We ultimately created a first-of-its-kind tool that allows consumers to find the information themselves. Read the full story . Mass. Governor Proposes Eliminating Statute of Limitations for Rape When DNA Evidence Exists Last year, WBUR and ProPublica told the story of a woman who, according to a police report, had been raped and stabbed after accepting a ride in 2005 from a man who said he recognized her from college. DNA testing later connected a man accused of multiple assaults to her case, but prosecutors had to drop charges under Massachusetts’ statute of limitations. Under Massachusetts law, prosecutors have only 15 years to file charges after an alleged rape — and it’s nearly impossible to bring charges past that statute of limitations even if new evidence emerges. That places Massachusetts behind almost every other state in the country . Attempts to expand that window have failed every year since 2011 in part because defense attorneys have opposed changes, arguing a longer deadline risks violating the rights of the accused. WBUR’s Willoughby Mariano reported that Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey wants to eliminate that deadline for rape cases when DNA evidence exists. The provision, which is included in Healey’s budget proposal for the 2027 fiscal year, needs to pass both chambers of the state Legislature. If enacted, it would affect cases where the statute of limitations has not yet expired and future cases, but not older cases. Read the full story . We Found New York’s Guardianship System in Shambles. Now State Lawmakers Say They Have a Plan to Help Fix It. Two years after ProPublica’s Jake Pearson first documented New York’s dire shortage of guardians — and the substandard care some provide — state lawmakers introduced legislation to boost spending on the system by $15 million a year. It would be an unprecedented cash infusion for a bureaucracy that has long struggled to care for the tens of thousands of disabled or elderly New Yorkers who cannot care for themselves. The new bill, called the Good Guardianship Act, aims to help the most vulnerable segment of this population: those who are too poor to pay for a private guardian and who have no family or friends willing to serve. Advocates say the Good Guardianship Act is the most promising step to date in improving the system — if it can get the support of Gov. Kathy Hochul.  The proposal follows a 2024 ProPublica investigation that revealed how the state’s guardianship system was failing this group in particular by conducting little to no oversight of guardians, some of whom provided substandard care and exploited those they were charged with looking after. The stories also prompted the state attorney general to open an investigation into several guardianship providers and spurred the court system to appoint a special counsel to enact reforms. Read the full story . After Years of Silence, Texas Medical Board Issues Training for Doctors on How to Legally Provide Abortions For the first time since Texas criminalized abortion, the state’s medical regulator is instructing doctors on when they can legally terminate a pregnancy to protect the life of the patient — guidance physicians have long sought as women died and doctors feared imprisonment for intervening. The new mandated training for any doctor providing obstetric care goes over nine case studies for physicians where abortion is considered legal to protect the life of the patient. Some of the scenarios in the training are similar to instances ProPublica investigated, such as miscarriages where a patient’s water breaks before term but there is still a fetal heartbeat or when someone is experiencing complications from an incomplete abortion. ProPublica’s reporting has shown that pregnancy became far more dangerous in the state after the law took effect: Sepsis rates spiked for women suffering a pregnancy loss, as did emergency room visits in which miscarrying patients needed a blood transfusion ; at least four women in the state died after they didn’t receive timely reproductive care. More than a hundred OB-GYNs said the state’s abortion ban was to blame. Read the full story . The post 5 Investigations Sparking Change This Month appeared first on ProPublica .

The CIA had been tracking the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for months. That is according to a person familiar with the operation who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on Sunday on condition of anonymity. The intelligence was shared with Israeli officials, and the timing of this weekend’s strikes was adjusted in part because of that information, the person said. The New York Times earlier reported on the CIA’s efforts ahead...

Iran’s football federation president Mehdi Taj has given a bleak outlook regarding the World Cup in summer in the United States, Mexico and Canada the day after the US and Israel started air attacks against his country. “What is certain is that after this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope,” Taj told sports portal Varzesh3 on Sunday. “The US regime has attacked our homeland and this is an incident that will not go unanswered.” Iran has been drawn into Group...

Three people were killed, including the alleged gunman, and 14 others were wounded in a shooting early Sunday at a popular bar in the Texas capital of Austin, police said. Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said a man driving an SUV drove near the bar, put the vehicle’s flashers on, pulled down his window and began shooting with a pistol, striking customers on the bar patio and in front of the bar. The suspect then parked the car, got out armed with a rifle, and began shooting at people who passed...

Travel changes likely at short notice, including on routes to Europe. Follow today’s latest new updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Meanwhile, AAP reports, Cotality ’s latest Home Value index shows home values in Sydney and Melbourne have flatlined, even as mid-sized capitals post bumper monthly gains. Perth remains the nation’s standout performer, with prices surging 27.1% in the last year.. Dwelling values climbed 2.3 % in February alone, adding more than $22,500 to the median home. Brisbane and Adelaide are also outperforming, rising 1.6% and 1.3%, respectively. Continue reading...

About 76,000 nationals thought to be in the region as tensions rise after US-Israeli attacks on Iranian regime US-Israeli war on Iran: latest updates The Foreign Office is drawing up plans to evacuate tens of thousands of British citizens if war in the Middle East escalates, with many travellers currently stranded in Dubai . The government does not know how many British nationals are resident, on holiday or otherwise travelling across the Gulf, but it said 76,000 have so far registered their presence in affected areas of the region. Continue reading...

The US and Israel launched a joint military operation against Iran on Saturday, killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Why did Trump decide (again) to attack Iran during negotiations on a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic? How does he sell a new war in the Middle East, with potential US casualties, to people at home? What happens next for Iran? In this special collaboration with Today in Focus , Annie Kelly speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour. Archive: CBS News, NBC News, PBS Newshour, CNN, Fox News Continue reading...