“Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s slain supreme leader, and widely viewed as a hardliner, has been named his successor. … Oil prices have surged past $100 per barrel as the war intensifies, though Trump said the spike will be ‘short term’ and ‘a very small price to pay.’ Israel hit Iranian oil depots over the weekend, while Tehran has targeted energy sites across the region and throttled the key Strait of Hormuz waterway. The U.S. military announced the death of another service member, bringing the total killed in combat to seven.” (03/09/26)
“The US military said it [murdered] six men on Sunday in a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the Eastern Pacific as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against alleged traffickers. Sunday’s attack brought the death toll to at least 157 people since the administration began targeting ‘narco-terrorists’ in small vessels in September. As with most of the military’s statements on the more than 40 known strikes in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea, US Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs.” (03/08/26)
“Rapper Balendra Shah has defeated the former Nepalese Prime Minister Sharma KP Oli in his parliamentary constituency, as he takes a step closer to becoming Nepal’s next prime minister. Nepal’s Election Commission confirmed on Saturday that Shah, 35, received 68,348 votes compared to Oli’s 18,734 to unseat the former leader in his constituency. Thursday’s general election — the first since violent youth-led protests toppled the government in September — pitted the establishment against a new generation of politicians advocating for angry, young Gen Z voters hungry for change. Shah’s Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) is now seemingly on course to win the general election.” (03/08/26)
“President Trump on Sunday threatened to not sign any bills into law until the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act is approved by the Senate, doubling down on his push to change voting requirements ahead of the midterm elections. ‘I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION – GO FOR THE GOLD: MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY – ILLNESS, DISABILITY…,’ the president wrote in his Sunday morning Truth Social post. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether the president will sign a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security amid the partial government shutdown.” (03/08/26)
“President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military into Ecuador this week to strike drug cartels, and now he’s poised to do the same in more than a dozen other Latin American countries under a new proclamation he signed Saturday. In remarks before the signing ceremony, flanked by the leaders of many of those countries, Trump described the proclamation as ‘a commitment to using lethal military force to destroy the sinister cartels and terrorist networks.’ He touted the U.S. military’s ‘amazing weaponry’ — and said all the other Latin American countries need to do is identify the location of cartel operatives.” (03/07/26)
“Video released by investigators in the [murder] last March of a U.S. citizen by a federal immigration agent calls into question a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson’s claim that the victim ‘intentionally ran over’ a different agent before being shot. The investigative material released Friday by the Texas Department of Public Safety shows that Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was given conflicting instructions as he encountered law enforcement officers from multiple agencies near the scene of a previous vehicle accident in South Padre Island, Texas, in the early-morning hours of March 15. His car moved forward very slowly in the moments before Homeland Security Investigations Agent Jack C. Stevens fired three shots into Martinez’s blue Ford sedan. The footage does not show Martinez speeding up rapidly or appearing to target a second Homeland Security Investigations agent, Hector Sosa.” (03/07/26)
“The U.S. issued a license Friday that authorizes dealings with Minerven, Venezuela’s state-owned gold mining company, in the latest sign of the Trump administration’s intent to exercise more control over that country’s natural resources. The license was issued after U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum met in Venezuela with acting President Delcy Rodríguez this week, as well as with representatives of more than two dozen U.S. mining and minerals companies. Many of them previously operated in Venezuela. Burgum said Venezuela’s government gave security assurances to mining companies interested in investing in the country, where mineral-rich areas have long been controlled by guerrilla members, gangs and other illegal groups. Under the license, people and companies from Russia, Iran, North Korea and Cuba are not authorized to engage in any contracts with Minerven.” (03/06/26)
“When NASA crashed a spacecraft into the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos in 2022, it altered both Dimorphos’ orbit around its parent asteroid, Didymos, and the two objects’ orbit around the sun, according to new research. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said in a press release that this ‘marks the first time a human-made object has measurably altered the path of a celestial body around the Sun.’ It’s a promising result as scientists work to find a feasible method of defending Earth from hazardous space objects. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission was designed to demonstrate one possible way of deflecting such an object, targeting the non-threatening moonlet Dimorphos, which is about 560 feet wide.” (03/07/26)
“An explosion rocked the US Embassy in Norway, damaging the consulate amid Iranian threats of terror retaliation as Operation Epic Fury rages on in the Middle East, according to police and reports. The blast erupted in Oslo around 1 a.m. local time Sunday, hitting the entrance to the embassy’s consular section and causing minor damage, police incident commander Michael Delmer said, NRK reported. ‘At around 1 a.m. we received several reports of an explosion,’ he said, noting there were no casualties. … Delmer stressed the investigation is still in its early stages and it was not clear who was behind the blast.” (03/07/26)
“A bombing at a nightclub in Peru has injured 33 people, including minors, authorities said Saturday. The explosion happened in the pre-dawn hours at the Dali nightclub in the province of Trujillo along Peru’s northern coast, according to a statement from the local Emergency Operations Center. It’s a region that has recently been plagued by violence and crime. It wasn’t immediately clear who was responsible and a motive wasn’t immediately known.” (03/07/26)
