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What will happen to oil prices after the Iran attack?

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What will happen to oil prices after the Iran attack?

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Oil markets may be volatile for the next few days due to military attacks by the US, Israel, and Iran, but may calm down relatively quickly thereafter.

Analysts expect crude oil, which closed at about $67 a barrel on Friday, to open above $90 a barrel by the end of the week as traders process news that Iranian forces have restricted traffic through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

But after the initial shock, analysts say the reality is likely to be more nuanced. Here’s what you need to know:

What are the implications of the Strait of Hormuz closure?

Every day, approximately 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates route most of their oil exports there.

But just because Iran claims to have cut off the passageway to traffic doesn’t necessarily mean a complete shutdown, said oil analyst Patrick de Haan.

“This is the geopolitical reality: the continued closure of Hormuz Island will almost certainly trigger coordinated regional and U.S. engagement to secure maritime access,” de Haan said in an analysis early March 1. “Too much of the world’s economy depends on that corridor for it to remain closed for long.”

He said the market is pricing in higher trading costs and more volatility, but does not expect a complete exit.

Analysts at TD Securities said in a March 1 note that prices could “significantly exceed $100 per barrel” if access to the strait is restricted for an extended period.

On the other hand, the additional costs of dealing with additional risks could evaporate in a matter of weeks once access to the strait is guaranteed and hostilities cease, the TD team wrote.

“If it becomes clearer this week that tensions with Iran will be short-lived, oil prices will return to the 60s,” Rob Summell, portfolio manager at $9 billion investment management firm Tortoise Capital, said in an email to USA TODAY.

Tummel noted that the U.S. energy industry has made the United States the world’s largest producer of crude oil. This means that “oil and gasoline price increases are significantly smaller during major geopolitical events such as this one.”

What about oil from Venezuela?

The United States effectively controls the oil produced in Venezuela, but that does not offset the more than 3 million barrels a day produced by Iran, de Haan said.

“Even in the most optimistic scenario of political stability and investment, it will take years, not weeks, for Venezuela’s production to approach levels approaching the scale of Iranian exports,” he said.

Pump pain?

As USA TODAY reported on Feb. 28, the national average for U.S. gas prices could surpass $3 per gallon for the first time this year on Monday. Prices could reach at least $3.10 to $3.15 per gallon in the coming weeks.

Additionally, gas prices typically rise seasonally around this time of year.

Tummel said he expects gasoline prices to rise at about the same rate as oil prices in the coming weeks. Therefore, if oil prices increase by 10%, gas prices will increase as well.

Daniel Serafini shot and killed stepparents, sentenced to life in prison

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Daniel Serafini shot and killed stepparents, sentenced to life in prison

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Former MLB pitcher Daniel Serafini, 51, was sentenced on Friday, February 27, to life in prison without parole for the murder of his stepfather, Gary Spohr, and the attempted murder of his stepmother, Wendy Wood, during a 2021 robbery at the couple’s home in Lake Tahoe, California.

Serafini was found guilty in July 2025, and his sentence was handed down more than six months later than originally scheduled.

Mr. Serafini has consistently maintained his innocence and has filed multiple requests for a new trial, all of which have been dismissed. The former left-handed pitcher had a strained relationship with his in-laws, but his lawyers argued that a conviction should have been avoided due to a lack of physical evidence. Serafini claimed he was partying with his wife the night of the shooting.

Why was Daniel Serafini convicted?

Prosecutors argued that Mr. Serafini hated his wife’s parents and wanted their wealth. Serafini was also heard saying he would pay up to $20,000 to kill his friends.

During the six-week trial, multiple emails and text messages between Serafini and her in-laws were introduced into evidence, revealing Serafini’s bitter attitude toward them.

Serafini’s lawyer argued there was no physical evidence linking Serafini to the crime scene and denied that his client had any motive to kill his parents, even though they did not have a good relationship.

Where will Daniel Serafini serve his sentence?

Mr. Serafini will serve a life sentence in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

When was Daniel Serafini drafted?

Serafini was drafted in the first round (26th overall) by the Minnesota Twins in 1992 and made his MLB debut with the same team in 1996. He spent seven seasons in MLB with the Twins, Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, and Colorado Rockies, posting a career ERA of 6.04.

After Khamenei’s death, Iran awakens to fear, whispers of hope

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After Khamenei’s death, Iran awakens to fear, whispers of hope

They heard clapping, singing and the phrase “Javid Shah” (“Long live the Shah”, referring to the deposed Iranian monarch) shouted from a high place.

TEHRAN – On March 1, Iranians saw a world they had not wanted for the better part of four decades: a world without the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

The atmosphere in Tehran was a strange combination of silence, fear, hidden joy and official mourning, said shop owner Ali, 42. There was little traffic on the roads, a rarity in congested Tehran, he said.

Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme authority of the Iranian regime and guardian of its strict theocratic and social doctrines for 36 years, was killed in a US and Israeli airstrike. His death and the attack plunged Iran into a new era of uncertainty. The process to select his successor has begun. It is not clear when or how the conflict will end.

USA TODAY worked with vetted longtime contributors to report from the streets of the Persian capital, known as one of the most censorious countries in the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. People interviewed for this dispatch are being identified only by their first names to protect their safety.

The U.S. and Israeli attacks on February 28 began early in the morning, around 8:15 a.m. local time. It was a weekend, and Iranians had just begun their Saturday-to-Thursday work week. The airstrike forced frightened residents into the streets. The parents rushed back to the school where they had just dropped their children off.

“When President Trump said help was on the way, we all felt joy and hope. But as time went on, we became worried that maybe the Islamic Republic was making a deal,” Somae, 25, an architecture student, said in an interview.

As news of the strike kept coming in, students said they tried to go near the windows to listen for “the sounds of explosions and bombs.”

The next day, most stores, including Ali’s, closed. The Israeli Air Force launched new airstrikes across Iran on March 1, and the Iranian military responded with attacks on Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

Those who could were trying to stay at home or indoors. I could still hear explosions from time to time. Thick black smoke rose from various parts of the city.

“The world is a better place. We have been waiting for this moment for years,” Reza said. “We hope this is the end of the regime.”

But it’s not that simple.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vow to maintain power after Khamenei

Iran’s interim leadership has so far made clear its intention to stick to this course. President Donald Trump has called on Iranians to rise up against the regime. It is unclear whether they will take part, an Iranian official told Reuters in January, perhaps because they are still scarred by authorities’ brutal crackdown in January, when an estimated 5,000 anti-government protesters were killed by Iranian security forces.

A recent survey in November 2025 found that the regime’s unpopularity was steadily increasing. According to the Iranian Attitude Analysis and Measurement Group, an independent research foundation registered in the Netherlands, the majority of respondents across provinces, rural and urban areas, age groups and genders do not want to live under the theocracy that came to power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Mr. Reza and other Iranians like him, who have long opposed the Iranian government, are equal parts ecstatic and horrified by the new reality they find themselves in after President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that Iran should not be allowed to pursue its nuclear program.

They fear retaliation from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ military, police, and security personnel, which have considerable influence on daily life in Iran. But they also fear disruption. The Iranian capital is filled with smoke and the smell of burning. There are long lines for gas and bread. Bombings continue throughout the country.

At least 201 people have been killed and 747 injured in Iran since the air campaign began, according to the Iranian Red Crescent. A missile attack on a school in southern Iran on February 28 killed at least 153 people, including children, Iranian officials said. USA TODAY could not independently verify these numbers. Three U.S. military personnel were killed in the Pentagon’s operation “Epic Fury.”

more: U.S.-Iran update: 3 U.S. service members killed. Iran and Israel trade strike

Ehsan, a 32-year-old bank worker in Tehran, said his whole body began to tremble with excitement when he first learned of the US and Israeli attack on the Tehran compound where Ayatollah Khamenei worked, lived and ultimately died. He was talking to his parents on the phone, but suddenly the phone and internet were disconnected.

“It was a moment of excitement, fear and hope all at once,” he said.

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Iranians witness monument dedicated to Khomeini toppled

In the Iranian town of Ghale Dar, crowds were seen toppling a monument dedicated to the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini.

Hours later, when it became clear that Khamenei had indeed been killed, Ehsan ran to the roof of his building and cried with joy. They heard clapping, singing and the phrase “Javid Shah” (“Long live the Shah”, referring to the deposed Iranian monarch) shouted from a high place. The sounds of celebration echo everywhere.

USA TODAY independently received the video from Tehran and independently verified the images.

“My mother, brother, father and I jumped for joy as if our favorite football team had just scored,” said Somae, a university student. They observed people cheering and shouting from their windows. “Shout for Seyyed Ali!” (Seyyed Ali is Khamenei’s name).

“Some people put speakers in their windows and blasted happy music,” Ethan said. “But we also had a lump in our throats. We were worried it was a lie. We didn’t want to believe it in case it turned out not to be true.”

Pro-government demonstrators take to the streets of Tehran

Ethan may have good reason to be worried.

The day after the US and Israeli attacks on Iran began, most of the street activity in Tehran was dominated by several pro-government rallies and events to mourn the death of the supreme leader. The previous night, hundreds of miles away in the rural town of Ghale Dar in southwest Iran, onlookers cheered as flames erupted from a roundabout and a crowd toppled a monument dedicated to the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini.

But in Tehran, people on the streets were grieving. Some appeared to be crying real tears as they held photos of Khamenei. In an interview, Trump said, atlantic ocean The magazine said it had agreed to dialogue with the Iranians.

Kim Hjelmgaard reported from London.

A freelance writer for USA TODAY reported from Tehran that his name is being withheld for security reasons.

A timeline of the hostilities that led to the US attack on Iran

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A timeline of the hostilities that led to the US attack on Iran

President Donald Trump cited the hostile and sometimes bloody history between the two countries dating back to 1979 in an eight-minute video laying out the reasons for the U.S. attack on Iran.

President Trump said on February 28: “For 47 years, the Iranian regime has cried ‘Death to America’ and waged a never-ending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting America, our military, and innocent people in many other countries.”

US involvement in Iran began in 1953, when the US and UK supported a coup and regime change, installing a leader that Iranians overthrew 26 years later.

Despite its controversial history, President Trump’s decision to attack Iran represents a significant escalation from the actions of previous US presidents.

Now let’s look at what happened between the US, Iran, and Israel, which launched the attack in the first place and where the US also joined.

If you can’t see the graphic, click here to reload the page.

Key moments in US-Iranian relations

1953: Coup |The United States and Britain supported the coup in what was then known as the Iranian Empire. The aim is to thwart attempts by Iran’s parliament to nationalize its lucrative oil industry. The prime minister is replaced and the autocratic monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, known as the Shah, consolidates his power.

1957: Atoms for Peace |President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Iran signed an agreement allowing developing countries to participate in the Atoms for Peace program. The United States has provided Iran with supplies and training, effectively starting a modern nuclear program.

1978-1979: Iranian Revolution |After President Pahlavi tried to remove Ruhollah Khomeini, a senior religious leader known as the Ayatollah, Iranians began to grow weary of the Shah’s overwhelming power. The people will start a revolution to end the same monarchy that the United States has reinforced. The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran is established, making Khomeini the supreme leader, a religio-political position more powerful than the role of president. The new administration is deeply anti-Israel, and this attitude has contributed to five decades of tension between the United States and Iran.

1979-1981: Iran Hostage Crisis Pahlavi is in exile, but President Jimmy Carter has allowed him to come to New York for cancer treatment. In retaliation, Iranian extremists seized the US embassy in Tehran and took hostages. President Carter has frozen billions of dollars in Iranian government assets and imposed a series of sanctions blocking trade between the two countries. More than 50 people were detained for more than 400 days and were only released shortly after Carter left office.

1980-88: Iran-Iraq War |Iraq invades Iran, and the United States, led by President Ronald Reagan, ends up siding with Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein. The war lasted eight years and killed hundreds of thousands of people. More than a decade after the war ended, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would call U.S. policy “unfortunately short-sighted.”

1984: State Sponsor of Terrorism |The US State Department has designated Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism and has imposed new sanctions. This designation has continued to this day.

1989: New Supreme Leader |Ali Khamenei will succeed Khomeini as supreme leader of Iran. Khamenei, now in his 80s, has held the post for nearly 36 years.

1992-1997: Further sanctions |Congress passed the law and President Bill Clinton signed an executive order imposing sanctions on Iran. The policy begins with an attempt to prevent the country from acquiring chemical and nuclear weapons, which would wreak havoc on its oil industry and negatively impact the overall economy. They culminate in a near embargo on goods and services traded between the United States and Iran.

2002: Axis of Evil |Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush designated Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as an “axis of evil” that threatened American security. “Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected minority stifles the Iranian people’s hopes for freedom,” Bush said. Later that year, the world learned that Iran was enriching uranium, a key step toward building a nuclear bomb.

2007-2010: Stuxnet |The Bush administration has deployed a cyberweapon called Stuxnet to jam computers used by Iran in its nuclear program and trick users into believing everything is running as usual. The public became aware of the program, which was created in collaboration with Israel, in 2010 after President Barack Obama’s administration also used the program.

2011-2013: Sanctions during the Obama administration |President Barack Obama has imposed a series of sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s ability to move money within the international banking system and profit from its oil industry.

2013: Interim nuclear agreement |President Obama announces interim agreement between the United States and its ally Iran. The deal calls for six months of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions that have hurt Iran’s economy.

2015: Final nuclear deal |President Obama, along with the leaders of China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, reached an agreement with Iran that places significant limits on Iran’s nuclear program. These conditions include limits on enriched uranium and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. President Obama defends the deal from critics, insisting that the only other option is war.

2016: Sanctions ended |President Obama signed an executive order canceling sanctions against Iran originally designed as a result of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The order states that there has been a “fundamental change in the situation regarding Iran’s nuclear program.”

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President Trump admits US and Israeli military attack on Iran

President Trump confirmed that the United States and Israel launched a military strike against Iran on Saturday morning, February 28th.

2017: Axis of Evil 2.0 |Fifteen years after the Bush administration, President Donald Trump has identified a new “axis of evil” that includes Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela.

2018: President Trump changes policy |President Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal and reinstated sanctions against Iran. The regime claims the campaign, dubbed “maximum pressure,” will be devastating to Iran’s economy and oil revenues.

2020: Soleimani Assassination |President Trump ordered a drone strike on Iraq to assassinate influential Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani. Iran has threatened retaliation, and international experts and policymakers have warned that the United States may have started a war it cannot win. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised President Trump’s “swift, strong and decisive action” and said Israel supports the United States in its “just struggle for peace, security and self-defense.”

2022: Jerusalem Declaration | President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid met in Jerusalem and signed a declaration reaffirming the “unwavering” alliance between the two countries. “The United States emphasizes that essential to this pledge is a commitment never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and that it stands ready to use all elements of its national power to ensure that outcome,” the pledge reads.

2023-2024: Tensions increase |Israel went to war with Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 killings in Israel. Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militants attack ships in the Red Sea. The conflict escalated after Israel launched its first attack against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, detonating explosives hidden in the militants’ mobile communications equipment. The following month, Iran fired nearly 200 missiles at Israel, which intercepted most of them but promised retaliation.

March 2025: US confronts Houthi rebels | In March, the United States bombed the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen in a now-infamous attack that officials discussed on Signal.

June 2025: Israel-Iran War |Israel launches airstrikes on Iran, killing top military personnel and damaging nuclear technology. Iran responds with its own missile attack against Israel. A few days later, the United States bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. Western intervention intensifies the war and stokes fears of broader global conflict.

February 2026: Operation Epic Fury | The United States and Israel began attacking Iran on February 28th. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei was killed along with other senior officials. Iran retaliated with attacks on US military bases in Middle Eastern countries.

It is expected that attacks by the United States will continue. “We’re going to destroy their missiles, we’re going to completely destroy their missile industry. We’re going to completely wipe it out again,” Trump said.

Contributor Sean J. Sullivan

SOURCE USA TODAY NETWORK REPORTS AND INVESTIGATIONS. Reuters; U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

More visual stories illustrating the Iran conflict:

Iran confirms Ayatollah Khamenei’s death. Maps and images show US attack

From Israeli attacks to Iranian retaliation, US bombing and ceasefires

How Operation Midnight Hammer unfolded: Details of US bombing in Iran

How does a bunker buster bomb work? A closer look at GBU-57

Iran fires a missile at a US military base in Qatar. Where else can we attack?

Live updates: Ceasefire in place, but Iran’s nuclear program may persist

Why the 2026 Jeep Cherokee Hybrid won’t disappoint

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Why the 2026 Jeep Cherokee Hybrid won’t disappoint

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  • The 2026 Jeep Cherokee is larger, far better equipped, more comfortable and far more fuel efficient than the vehicle it replaces.
  • The 2026 Cherokee shares no parts with the previous generation, which ended production in early 2023.

The 2026 Jeep Cherokee compact SUV appears to be everything owners want and everything the brand wants.

That’s my firm verdict after spending a day driving the new five-seater hybrid along the coastline and into the scenic foothills north of Los Angeles.

There is one caveat. Heavy rain and possible landslides prevented us from taking our new Jeep off the road.

I would like to write about the off-road driving of the new Cherokee if I have a chance. Jeep knows that every vehicle in its lineup must prove itself as a worthy successor to the SUVs that built the brand’s reputation, so expect that to happen soon.

As of today, the 2026 Cherokee is larger, far better equipped, more comfortable, and far more fuel efficient than the vehicle it replaces. This is a strong addition to a class that includes luxury vehicles such as the Chevrolet Equinox, Ford Bronco Sport, Honda CR-V, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportstage, Mazda CX-5, Subaru Outback, Toyota RAV4, and VW Tiguan.

Pricing for the 2026 Jeep Cherokee starts at $35,000, excluding a $1,995 destination charge.

The 2026 Jeep Cherokee is currently at the dealership.

2026 Jeep Cherokee trim levels and prices

  • Base: $35,000
  • Laredo: $38,000
  • Limited: $40,000
  • Land: $43,000

Note: All prices exclude $1,995 destination charge.

Source: Jeep

Everything is new except the name

The 2026 Cherokee shares no parts with the previous generation, which ended production in early 2023.

If Cherokee fans are happy to have this capable and practical SUV back, then trust me, without Cherokee fans, Jeep dealers and Stellantis shareholders, who have watched the brand’s sales and finances slump, will not benefit.

The 2026 Cherokee uses the STLA architecture developed at the automaker’s Auburn Hills, Michigan, engineering center. It is 4.7 inches longer, 1.5 inches wider, and 2 inches taller than the previous model. STLA supports a variety of vehicles, including the Dodge Charger, Jeep Wagoneer S, and Jeep Recon. Developed for internal combustion engine (ICE), hybrid and electric vehicles.

The new Cherokee has more hip, shoulder, knee and head room. It’s trimmed with attractive materials, including leather-free seat covers and carpets made from recycled materials.

The dashboard features a 10.25-inch configurable cluster and a 12.3-inch touch screen.

The steering wheel is thick and well padded. I liked the look and feel of it, but drivers with smaller hands will need to see if it fits them.

There’s one problem. While driving, I noticed that my right hand in the standard 10-2 position was blocking my view of part of the navigation screen. According to my fellow drivers, I was the only one in that situation.

The exterior styling is very different from the previous model, which was designed at a time when sleek SUVs were in vogue. The ’26 consciously recalls the boxy, squared-off style that has defined Cherokee for decades. The nose is blunt, with two large rectangular headlights surrounding Jeep’s signature seven-slot grille.

The windshield is upright, leading to a flat roof and an upright tailgate. Square “jerry can” taillights pay homage to Cherokee heritage.

2026 Jeep Cherokee Key Features

  • standard all wheel drive
  • hybrid power
  • 5 seats
  • 4.7 inches long. 1.5 inches wider than previous Cherokee
  • Up to 20 inches of water crossing
  • 12.-3.inch touch screen
  • wireless charging
  • Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
  • Hands-free highway driving system
  • 37mpg combined city/highway driving

Driving impression

All Cherokees come with four-wheel drive and a hybrid drivetrain, which improves fuel economy by about 50 percent.

Developed in Michigan, this hybrid combines a 1.6L turbo engine with an electric motor.

This system produces up to 210 horsepower and 230 pound-feet of torque. A continuously variable transmission mates with the powerplant for quick and seamless response.

Other car reviews: 2026 Mazda CX5 review praises significant technology upgrades

The Cherokee’s all-wheel-drive system has a mechanical propeller shaft that connects the front and rear axles, unlike some hybrid SUVs that have a small, separate electric motor on the rear axle.

The mechanical system allows Cherokee to send up to 100 percent of its total torque to the rear axle. The rear axle can also be disconnected from the engine to improve fuel efficiency.

The system worked flawlessly throughout the day as I drove the Cherokee up and down winding hills from highways, coastal roads, and the Pacific Coast Highway to a ranch with a famously difficult off-road course. A few days of rapids and good road feel made these trails off-limits, but the hybrid drivetrain was more than capable for all other types of driving.

The 4WD system senses wheel slip and reacts automatically, but drivers can also select a drive mode if they know a difficult situation is ahead.

2026 Jeep Cherokee Drive Modes:

The Cherokee is equipped with the Stellantis Hands-Free Highway System.

An off-road version of the Trailhawk is expected to arrive, but Jeep hasn’t announced when.

Why buy a 2026 Jeep Cherokee?

Everything about the 2026 Jeep Cherokee works great. The interior is comfortable and accommodating, with a spacious cargo area. The new hybrid drivetrain provided plenty of power and excellent fuel economy, even when pushed hard on hills.

If off-road testing is possible, the Cherokee is a clear winner in the competitive compact SUV class, assuming it’s as comfortable as a Jeep.

2026 Jeep Cherokee Overview

All-wheel drive hybrid compact SUV

5 seater

Now on sale

Base price: $35,000. All prices exclude $1,895 destination charge.

Model tested: Laredo

Price as tested: $42,590

Power: Hybrid 1.6L turbocharged 4-cylinder engine with electric motor

Output: 210 horsepower; 230 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: Continuously automatic

Estimated fuel economy: 35 mpg city/highway/37 mpg combined. 500 miles in a tank. Regular gasoline, octane rating 87.

Estimated annual fuel cost at current prices: $1,350

Wheelbase: 113 inches

Length: 188.1 inches

Width: 74.7 inches (excluding mirrors)

Height: 67.5 inches (including antenna)

Ground clearance: 8 inches

Rotation ratio: 40.3 feet

Passenger space: 107.4 cubic feet

Cargo space: 33.6 cubic feet behind rear seats. 68.3 cubic feet with seats folded

Vehicle weight: 4,295 lbs.

Towing capacity: 3,500 lbs.

Assembled in Toluca, Mexico

Contact Mark Phelan: mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark ferran. read more car and sign up for our service automotive newsletter. become a subscriber.

What does President Trump say about Iran? The president is optimistic in his interview.

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What does President Trump say about Iran? The president is optimistic in his interview.

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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump expressed optimism about the progress of America’s military operations in Iran in a series of interviews on March 1.

The United States and Israel launched attacks against Iran, but Iran quickly counterattacked. Three U.S. service members have been killed and five others seriously injured in the ongoing conflict.

The president told Fox News’ senior White House correspondent Jackie Heinrich on Sunday that at least 48 Iranian leaders had been “annihilated” in a joint U.S.-Israeli attack. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was among those killed in the airstrike.

President Trump wrote on Truth Social that the United States has also sunk nine Iranian warships and intends to pursue the rest of the fleet. He said US forces also destroyed Iran’s naval headquarters. “Other than that, their Navy is doing very well!” Trump wrote.

The president did not comment on the deaths of U.S. service members in his post. He has not spoken on camera about Iran’s military operations since the night of the video announcing the airstrike on Saturday.

But Trump told CNBC in a phone interview that while the path to ending the conflict depends on many factors, “everything is ahead of schedule.”

“Things are progressing very positively, very positively right now,” President Trump said.

President Trump reiterated that positive sentiment in an interview with The Atlantic on Sunday morning, saying Iranian officials “are willing to talk” and that Trump agreed.

“I should have done it sooner,” he told The Atlantic. “We should have offered something very practical and easy to do sooner. We waited too long.”

This story has been updated to add new information.

President Trump’s attack on Iran takes a hit in new poll

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President Trump’s attack on Iran takes a hit in new poll

More than 70% of Americans polled since the attacks on Iran began say they either disapprove of President Trump’s decisions or are unsure.

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Only one in four Americans support the attack on Iran that killed leader Ali Khamenei, according to a new poll released less than 48 hours after the United States and Israel launched a deadly joint military strike.

About 27% of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they supported a strike, but a majority said they were unsure (29%) or did not support a strike (43%).

more: Latest news on Iran: 3 US soldiers killed. Opinion poll shows low approval rating

The two-day poll, which ended Sunday, March 1, found that nearly half of respondents (56%) think President Donald Trump is too willing to use military force to advance U.S. interests.

A majority of Democrats (87%) hold this view, as do 23% of Republicans and 60% of those with no party affiliation.

President Trump has also ordered military action in Venezuela, Syria and Nigeria in recent months.

The poll surveyed 1,282 adults nationwide and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Surveys conducted in the weeks leading up to the early-morning attack on Saturday, February 28, showed that attitudes toward a potential conflict with Iran appeared to be swaying based on hypothesized motives amid a massive build-up of the U.S. military presence in the region.

In a CBS News/YouGov poll conducted the day before the airstrike, 51% of respondents said they supported U.S. military action against Iran to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon.

more: Iran confirms Ayatollah Khamenei’s death. Maps and images show US attack

However, when the CBS poll asked about their preference for how the United States should approach Iran’s current leadership, a majority of respondents said they would prefer diplomacy or sanctions over military action, at 38% and 22%, respectively. Only 18% said they wanted to remove U.S. leadership by force, and another 22% said they did not want any involvement.

President Trump and his administration officials have argued that Iran poses an imminent threat. They have repeatedly claimed that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of attacking the United States. But national security analysts and experts on Iran and its ruling regime told USA TODAY that these claims are based on assumptions that are either false or greatly exaggerated.

More than 200 people were killed and more than 700 injured in the attack, Reuters reported, citing the Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization working in the region. Official estimates of the number of deaths and injuries have not been confirmed by U.S. or international authorities.

more: Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran with an iron fist, dies at the age of 86

Three U.S. service members have been killed in combat as the conflict with Iran continues, according to U.S. military officials.

In a poll conducted by the University of Maryland in early February, 49% of respondents said they opposed the US launching an attack on Iran, and another 30% said they were unsure whether they supported or opposed it. Support was highest among Republicans at 40%, while 21% of independents and just 6% of Democrats felt the same way.

An AP-NORC Center poll conducted the weekend before the airstrike found that 48% were “very” or “extremely” concerned about Iran’s nuclear program as a direct threat to the United States.

But the survey also showed low confidence in President Trump’s ability to manage military forces and relations with America’s adversaries. A majority (56%) said they had “a little” or “not at all” confidence in the president regarding the use of military force outside the United States, and a similar number (55%) indicated similarly low confidence levels in President Trump’s handling of adversaries.

Only 27% of Americans and 14% of independents say they trust the president to make the right choices when it comes to using military force overseas.

Kathryn Palmer is USA TODAY’s political reporter. She can be reached at the following address: kapalmer@usatoday.com And to X@Kathryn Purml. Sign up for her daily politics newsletter here.

Which gas station has the best quality fuel?

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Which gas station has the best quality fuel?

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The average driver may think that all gas stations are the same, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Some gas stations use higher quality fuel than others, and there’s a good reason for that. Some brands include detergent in the fuel to clean fuel injectors and other fuel system components. Knowing which brands use the best gasoline will help your car last longer and run better than if you were using lower quality fuel. Here’s how to find the best quality gas in your area.

What does TOP TIER certification mean?

Gasoline sold at U.S. fuel stations is required by 1997 EPA law to contain a minimum amount of detergent. These detergents further clean fuel system components such as fuel injectors and intake valves.

Many gas station brands have their fuel reviewed and tested by TOP TIER, an AAA-approved company that evaluates fuel quality for gasoline and diesel engines. Brands that meet the company’s standards will be certified as TOP TIER certified gasoline brands.

In an interview with the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, Bill Studzinski, TOP TIER’s program manager, spoke about how gas stations use trademarks to ensure they provide the highest quality gasoline.

“If a fuel company wants to submit data to us according to our standards, and if that fuel is known to keep engines clean, then they can use that trademark around the world,” Studzinski said. “With TOP TIER, you get at least twice the amount of additives you get under the federal minimum standards, and probably almost three to four times as much.”

In case you missed it: How to clean a dirty fuel system and save on repair costs

What brands sell TOP TIER gas?

Some brands are well known for using top tier fuels that are high in detergent. Brands like Shell, Citgo, Costco, Mobil, Marathon, and Exxon are popular brands with TOP TIER gasoline certification.

Is good quality gas expensive?

There are many determinants of gas prices. Many people think that cheaper means lower quality. But when it comes to gasoline, price does not affect quality. As long as a brand is TOP TIER approved, all the fuel it sells across the United States will be the same.

Is it okay to use gas other than TOP TIER?

Nothing prevents you from going to a gas station without TOP TIER approval, but you get what you pay for because gas station fuel has less detergent and doesn’t clean the fuel system either. The benefit of using high-quality gas is that it reduces the chance of engine problems in the future if you consistently use cheaper fuel. If a TOP TIER certified gas station is far from your car and your tank is low, go to the nearest gas station.

Kenan Thompson is a car culture reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Keenan at kthompson@freepress.com. Follow him on Instagram @keenanaautos. To sign up automotive newsletter. become a subscriber.

Auston Matthews honored by Maple Leafs: See fans’ reactions

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Auston Matthews honored by Maple Leafs: See fans’ reactions

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On Saturday, the Toronto Maple Leafs played their first home game since the 2026 Winter Olympics, and it was time to recognize the team’s Olympians.

The Maple Leafs had three players, two from Team Sweden (William Nylander and Oliver Ekman-Larsson) and one from the victorious Team USA.

That American was Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews, who also happened to be the captain of the U.S. team that won the country’s first men’s hockey Olympic gold medal since 1980 in the championship game against Canada.

So how will Matthews react in a Canadian city? Will the country or NHL team be the deciding factor?

When the words “gold medalist” were said, there seemed to be mixed reactions, but when Matthews’ Leafs position and name were mentioned, cheers rang out and people stood and clapped.

Watch the video below.

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How to fall asleep – science-backed tips for better rest

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How to fall asleep – science-backed tips for better rest

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Most adults wish they could catch more ZZZs to improve their health, improve their focus, or simply wake up feeling rested. Despite such aspirations, millions of people still don’t get enough sleep. Approximately 1 in 3 U.S. adults report not getting enough sleep at night, and an estimated 50 million to 70 million Americans live with chronic sleep disorders.

This pervasive lack of sleep can silently impact everything from mood and productivity to long-term health, but getting enough rest can benefit everything from memory and immune function to heart health and mental well-being. “Sleep is one of the best things you can do for your body and mind,” says Dr. Raj Dasgupta, a respiratory and sleep specialist at Huntington Memorial Hospital in California.

We’ll show you why this is so important and how you can fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

Why is sleep important for the body?

Far from being a passive state, sleep is an active and essential process in which the body performs important maintenance and recovery. It’s so important that Wendy Troxell, Ph.D., a senior behavioral sleep scientist at the Rand Corporation, suggests, “Instead of treating sleep as the last thing you cram into the end of the day, make it your top priority for success the next day.”

She explains that during sleep, the brain consolidates memories, processes new information, and removes waste products that accumulate during waking hours. At the same time, the body repairs tissues, balances hormones, regulates metabolism and strengthens immune defenses. These processes help explain why sleep deprivation is associated with an increased risk of diseases such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, depression, and a weakened immune system.

Sleep also plays a major role in emotional regulation and cognitive performance, as sleep deprivation can impair attention, decision-making, and reaction time, as well as increase susceptibility to irritability and stress. One reason for this, Dasgupta explains, is that during sleep, the brain regulates neurotransmitters and stress hormones that affect mood and resilience. “Not getting enough rest can lead to overactive emotional responses and reduce your ability to cope with everyday challenges,” he says.

did you see? Researchers predict that by 2035, nearly half of Americans will be obese.

how to fall asleep

Getting enough sleep and avoiding such problems starts with falling asleep as quickly and easily as possible. The best way to ensure this is to “maintain a consistent sleep-wake schedule seven days a week to stabilize your circadian rhythm,” Troxell says. Circadian rhythms are your internal body clocks that regulate when you feel awake and when you feel sleepy.

A consistent, gentle relaxation routine that signals your brain that it’s time to rest further supports this process. “Activities like reading, stretching, taking a warm bath, or listening to relaxing music before bed can slow your heart rate, reduce mental stimulation, and ease the transition to sleep,” says Dasgupta.

It’s also important to limit screen exposure to an hour before bed. Troxell says, “Not only does the blue light emitted by screens suppress melatonin and stimulate alertness, but the content consumed from such devices is often highly emotionally stimulating and addictive, making it difficult to put your phone down.”

Breathing and relaxation techniques can also help calm your nervous system. “Try the 4-7-8 breathing technique,” suggests Dasgupta. This involves inhaling for 4 seconds, holding your breath for 7 seconds, and exhaling for 8 seconds. “This is great for calming your mind,” he says.

In case you missed it: Amazing benefits of breathing only through your nose

how to stay asleep

stay Whether you can sleep through the night is another matter and often depends on both your lifestyle choices and your sleeping environment. “Avoid caffeine, heavy meals, and drinking large amounts of fluids near bedtime,” advises Dr. Dasgupta. Not only can they delay falling asleep, but they can also disrupt your sleep cycle by causing gastrointestinal discomfort and increasing your urge to urinate, causing night waking.

Managing your stress levels is equally important, as elevated stress hormones can cause you to wake up frequently and have difficulty going back to sleep. “Techniques like journaling, mindfulness meditation, and setting aside time early in the evening to deal with worries can help quiet your mind before bed,” Dasgupta explains.

Creating an optimal sleep environment also supports uninterrupted rest. “Make your sleep environment a sleep sanctuary by using blackout curtains or a white noise machine (to mask environmental sounds that can cause wakefulness) and making sure your mattress and pillows provide adequate support,” Troxell advises. Maintaining a comfortable room temperature is also important to prevent nighttime sweating and disturbed sleep.

Daily habits are also important. Dasgupta points out that regular physical activity can improve sleep quality by promoting deeper sleep stages, while limiting late-day naps can help prevent disruption to your night’s rest.

“And if your sleep problems persist most nights of the week for more than three months, consult a health care professional to determine whether anxiety, insomnia, sleep apnea, or another medical issue is interfering with your sleep,” Troxell says.

‘SNL’ responds ruthlessly to President Trump’s attack on Iran and killing of Ayatollah Khamenei

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‘SNL’ responds ruthlessly to President Trump’s attack on Iran and killing of Ayatollah Khamenei

President Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, congratulates “SNL” viewers: “Congratulations to everyone who celebrated, World War III!”

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The latest “SNL” cold open couldn’t be more timely.

“Saturday Night Live” began its Feb. 28 broadcast with a skit highlighting the news that the United States and Israel had launched military attacks and combat operations against Iran early that day, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

Outside in the cold, James Austin Johnson, playing President Donald Trump, greeted them and declared, “Happy World War III to those celebrating!”

Mr. Johnson’s Mr. Trump went on to say that he launched the attack on Iran because he and his “peace committee decided they were tired of peace” and needed help “to distract from the Epstein file.”

“I know that during my campaign I promised not to start another foreign war,” he said. “But listen, war is plural, right? I’m allowed to do one thing.”

surprise! ‘Heated Rivals’ star Hudson Williams joins Connor Story on ‘SNL’

In a meta moment, Johnson’s Trump also hinted that breaking news would require “SNL” to launch a cold open focusing on the president’s State of the Union address earlier in the week.

“People are asking, ‘Why attack Iran now?’ Well, we had to attack early Saturday morning, but that has two military benefits: one, after the stock market closes for the weekend, and two, because it would cause immense fear, anger, and confusion in the ‘SNL’ press room,” he said. “Those guys were crazy. They were probably trying to give a big State of the Union address. No more!”

Colin Jost soon appears as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, sounding confident but declaring, “I’m scared and I don’t know what I’m doing. When he said he was going to blow up the leader of Iran, I thought he was kidding.”

Harry Styles returns to ‘SNL’ Check details

The “SNL” sketch kicked off the show’s first new episode after the show’s nearly month-long hiatus. It was also a return to the typical sketch show format, starting with a parody of Trump. The previous cold opening on January 31, hosted by Alexander Skarsgård, was unusual in that Johnson did not play the president. Instead, former cast member Pete Davidson returned as White House border czar Tom Homan.

Connor Story hosted the Feb. 28 episode of “SNL” following the huge success of “Heated Rivals.” The hockey romance series on HBO Max propelled Story from obscurity to stardom, and the actor made his late-night TV debut in January with an interview on “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”

“SNL” Cold Open: President Trump looks away from ICE’s ‘weirdos and psychopaths’

Mumford & Sons served as musical guests on Story’s “SNL” episode.

Who will be the next “SNL” host?

Saturday’s episode is the first of a new series of “SNL” shows that will air for three consecutive weeks.

Next week’s episode will see the return of host Ryan Gosling for the fourth time, along with musical guests Gorillaz. The following week, on March 14, Harry Styles will double as host and musical guest.

Top 20 teams based on odds

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Top 20 teams based on odds

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The 2025-26 men’s college basketball regular season will soon enter its final week.

As the calendar switches to March, all eyes are on who can win this season’s national championship. Defending national champion Florida State appears poised to win back-to-back titles, while No. 1 Duke, Michigan State and Arizona State are among the favorites.

Must read: March Madness bubble winners and losers: Auburn sinks, Indiana sweats.

However, the field extends beyond these four teams. There are several other programs that have a legitimate chance to hoist a trophy this season.

Here are the top 20 teams with the best chance of winning the national championship.

March Madness Power Rankings: Ranking the top 20 teams based on odds

Odds provided by BetMGM as of Saturday, February 28th at 9:30pm ET

Despite losing to Duke last weekend, Michigan is the favorite to win the national championship this season with +325 odds. However, the Blue Devils are a close second (+375), with Arizona (+425) and Houston (+950) close behind.

Defending national champion Florida is looking to repeat just as UW did (the Huskies won it all in 2023 and 2024). The Gators could join UCLA as the only programs to ever win back-to-back championships.

  • 1.Michigan, +325
  • 2. Duke, +375
  • 3. Arizona, +425
  • 4. Houston, +950
  • 5. Florida, +1000
  • 6. UConn, +1300
  • 7. Illinois, +1400
  • 8. Iowa, +1600
  • T-9. Kansas, +3000
  • T-9. Purdue, +3000
  • T-11. Gonzaga, +4000
  • T-11. Michigan, +4000
  • T-13. Alabama, +6600
  • T-13. Arkansas, +6600
  • T-13. Nebraska, +6600
  • T-13. Tennessee, +6600
  • T-13. Virginia, +6600
  • T-18. St. John’s, +8000
  • T-18. UNC, +8000
  • 20. Louisville, +9000

Longtime Texas Sen. John Cornyn faces MAGA rebels in three-way primary

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Longtime Texas Sen. John Cornyn faces MAGA rebels in three-way primary

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  • Incumbent Texas Sen. John Cornyn faces a tough primary challenge from the right from Rep. Wesley Hunt and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
  • Experts say the race is likely to head to a run-off in May, as no candidate is expected to receive more than 50% of the vote.
  • Former President Donald Trump has yet to endorse a candidate in the race, a move that could have a major impact on the outcome.

EL PASO, Texas – Texas is pitting conservatives against the insurgent right, with Senate Republicans doing everything they can to protect incumbent John Cornyn’s career and ensure the red state is taken off the map for the 2026 midterm elections.

Mr. Cornyn, 74, is considered a powerhouse in Lone Star State politics, but he has been beaten by two aggressive, populist-leaning challengers: U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt and scandal-plagued Attorney General Ken Paxton, who embodies the spirit of “Make America Great Again.”

For conservative voters, some issues seem to be a higher priority than others. It’s about keeping Democrats from taking control of the U.S. Senate.

“If you look at who’s on the Democratic side, they’re definitely extreme liberals. I mean, extreme,” Rick Bonato, a retired veterinarian from El Paso, told USA TODAY Network.

Ed Solomon, 78, who runs a small gun shop out of his home in El Paso, agreed. He warned that if Democrats win this fall, the U.S. could be “lost forever” and turned into a “Third World country” because of the political imbalance.

Both acknowledged that Cornyn, who has been criticized by MAGA critics for being too cozy with Democrats and for criticizing President Trump in the past, is most likely to win in November.

Solomon said Paxton has too much “baggage,” citing bribery charges and marital drama, and said Hunt lacks the name recognition to pull off a victory.

“We need to keep him there for at least one more term,” he said. “He has the best voting record of over 95% on conservative issues. I think he’s done a very good job in that regard.”

“About a third of Texas Republican primary voters don’t really like John Cornyn. They never did, or at least they never did in the Trump era,” Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston, said of the four-term incumbent.

“If Ken Paxton wasn’t so deeply flawed as a human being, if you had a flawless, credible MAGA candidate, Cornyn would be dead in the water and we really wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Most experts think Republican runoff elections in Texas are inevitable

Paxton has faced multiple controversies in his political and personal life over the years, starting with his impeachment in 2023 by the Republican-controlled Texas House on bribery charges for allegedly hiring a woman with whom he had an affair and using his office to benefit a real estate developer who allegedly helped renovate the attorney general’s home.

The state Senate then acquitted him after a two-week trial.

The 63-year-old attorney general made headlines again last year when his wife, state lawmaker Angela Paxton, announced on the X show that the two were divorcing on “biblical grounds” after nearly 40 years of marriage.

“I believe marriage is a sacred contract and have seriously pursued reconciliation,” she said. “However, given recent discoveries, I do not believe that remaining married is honoring God or loving me, my children, or Ken.”

Paxton’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

But those issues didn’t prevent Paxton from gaining a slim margin in the March 3 race, even as Mr. Cornyn and his allies spent millions of dollars airing the attorney general’s dirty laundry. For example, Real Clear Politics’ average of recent polls shows Mr. Paxton receiving 30% of the vote, followed by Mr. Cornyn with 28% and Mr. Hunt with 20%.

Mr. Paxton has sought to overcome these scandals by emphasizing his lawsuit against the Biden administration and his support for Mr. Trump. He has also shown support from his daughter, who defended him in a Feb. 26 op-ed and appeared in a recent 30-second spot in which she praised him as a man who “loves God” and praised his family.

Many experts and strategists predict that if no candidate receives more than 50% support, the race will move to a runoff on May 26th.

Matt Makowiak, a senior adviser and Republican strategist for the Cornyn campaign, told USA TODAY that the senator “absolutely believes that Ken Paxton is unfit for office,” which largely explains why the Republican National Senatorial Committee took the unusual step of intervening in the primary against Paxton.

While defending Mr. Cornyn’s record, it ran a profane ad accusing Mr. Paxton of “sleeping with a married mother of seven” and calling him a “wife-cheating cheater.”

“He has lied to staff, lied to taxpayers and lied to his own family, all while lining his own pockets in public office,” Makowiak said. “We have a plan to win this election and we are implementing it.”

Hunt, who represents a northwest Houston suburb in Congress, is a latecomer to the race and is only in third place in the polls. But Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Paxton increased spending against him in the final stages, suggesting he was too close for comfort.

For example, one of Cornyn’s spots, published in February, criticized Hunt for losing the vote in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary in favor of Hillary Clinton.

Hunt hopes to be an alternative option for a younger generation of Texas Republicans who are married to Trump but have lost faith in Cornyn and believe Paxton is too toxic.

He has largely avoided direct attacks on the attorney general, but in an interview with USA TODAY, the former Apache helicopter pilot acknowledged that it will be difficult for voters to ignore Paxton’s issues, such as his 2013 Texas court case in which he was forced to return $1,000 in pens stolen by another attorney.

“They are a distraction, I would say that,” Hunt said. “Those are certainly issues that can be used against him. This is why I’m running because I’m a clean person. I don’t have any of those issues.”

Other longtime Texas Republicans agree that Mr. Paxton’s scandal may be too much for more moderate voters to bear in the general election, with Rep. Jasmine Crockett or state Rep. James Talarico on the Democratic side.

“If Mr. Paxton were our candidate, (Democrats) would grill him on personal issues,” Ray Baca, former chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party, said in an interview. “I think that will resonate with some moderate voters.”

What big sin did Cornyn commit for conservatives?

Democrats are enjoying touting the idea that a Paxton win would help Texas as the primary battle between Crockett and Talarico unfolds.

But more sober pundits and analysts argue that the real problem with Cornyn losing the primary is that Senate Republicans will have to spend millions more defending Texas, instead of investing in defending Republican seats in battleground states like Maine and North Carolina, or trying to flip Democratic seats in Georgia and Michigan.

Mr. Hunt, a 44-year-old Iraq war veteran, told USA TODAY that Mr. Cornyn was in a bind because he was the Republican Party’s chief negotiator on a 2022 gun safety package supported by former President Joe Biden. Looking ahead to the 2024 election, he also said, “The era of Trump is over.”

“If you understand what the primary voters and the people here in Texas want…you’ll know better,” Hunt said. “That’s absolutely not true.”

But Makowiak told USA TODAY that the senator is “widely considered the most capable” of the senators in Congress who have supported President Trump’s policies. He blames the incumbent’s problems on a wealth of misinformation and said he is focused on educating voters about how he has led conservative reforms, including funding for the border wall.

Makowiak said there is “no question” that Cornyn is the most likely Republican candidate as Democrats seek to flip the Senate.

Texas: ‘He’s in danger’: President Trump hasn’t endorsed yet

Texas is considered by many to be a solidly red state, with no Democratic senator since 1988 and no governor from the same party since 1995. Trump carried the state by about 16 points in 2024, but Democrats regularly tout it as a potential upset.

Trump’s voice still matters more than anyone else’s in the Republican primary. However, Texas has not yet chosen a candidate.

“I’m taking it very seriously. You know, my problem is that I’m friendly with all of them,” Trump said in a Feb. 1 chat with reporters. “Those are the hard ones. I like all of them, all three. But you’ll see in a moment, right? They say the person I support will win, and that’s probably true.”

President Trump supports 14 of the 17 Republican senators up for election this year, but not Cornyn.

Mr. Hunt noted that Mr. Trump is not alone in refusing to express support for Mr. Cornyn, nor have other key Republican figures, such as Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

“These are people who have known John Cornyn for decades and don’t want to touch him with a 10-foot pole because they think he’s a nuisance in the Texas Republican primary.”

The congressman declined to comment on whether he had asked President Trump for his approval, but added that the president wants to “see what happens (with us) and ultimately get support.”

Meanwhile, Trump returned to promoting his economic policies after his February 24 State of the Union address in Texas, his first stop. All three candidates reportedly attended the event, but Cornyn was notable for riding with the president on Air Force One.

During a rally in Corpus Christi, Texas, the president once again praised all three candidates.

In an earlier meeting with reporters, when asked if he had decided who he would support for President Trump, he said: “Absolutely.” Will he share? “No,” said the president.

Jones, a professor at Rice University, said Cornyn must beat Trump to survive. If that doesn’t happen by the March 3 election, the longtime senator and his allies will have to pivot ahead of an expected May 26 runoff.

“Mr. Cornyn needs to build a strong case against the president,” Jones said. “And one of the elements of that is to finish as close to Paxton as possible so that we limit the daylight between them as much as possible.”

Mr. Cornyn has already telegraphed that there will be a tougher fight if Mr. Paxton is the final two, telling Politico that a “harrowing experience” awaits the Texas attorney general after March 3.

A Republican operative close to Cornyn’s campaign, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely, told USA TODAY that senior Republicans, top Senate leaders and former Trump campaign advisers are likely to lobby Trump on behalf of the senators with the message that “now is the time to put Texas to bed for a Senate majority” before the runoff elections.

Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska recently told USA TODAY that Trump’s lack of support for Cornyn “puts him in danger of losing Texas.”

Adam Powell of the El Paso Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, reports.

Contributors: Francesca Chambers, Zach Anderson

A total lunar eclipse will occur in a few days. What you need to know about “Blood Moon”

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A total lunar eclipse will occur in a few days. What you need to know about “Blood Moon”

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A total lunar eclipse will pass over the United States in the early morning hours of March 3rd.

A “blood moon” solar eclipse will give the moon a reddish hue, according to NASA. According to NASA, it will be visible in parts of the world from dusk to early morning.

Here’s everything you need to know about this upcoming phenomenon.

What is a total lunar eclipse?

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes between the sun and the moon, casting a shadow on the moon’s surface and changing the moon’s color to a reddish-orange color. Although our planet blocks most of the sun’s light from reaching the moon, the Earth’s movement during a solar eclipse colors the natural satellite.

The moon usually appears gray because the light that reaches its surface is often filtered through Earth’s atmosphere.

According to NASA, solar eclipses can only be observed during full moons. Solar eclipses can be observed from anywhere, with natural satellites directly visible.

Where can I see the solar eclipse?

The eclipse will be visible in East Asia and Australia in the evening and overnight in the Pacific Ocean. According to NASA, it will be visible in far western South America, as well as North and Central America in the early morning hours.

In many parts of Central Asia and South America, the eclipse will only be partially visible. It becomes invisible in Africa and Europe.

What time can we see the solar eclipse?

Stargazers will be able to view the eclipse from 4 a.m. ET to approximately 7 a.m. ET on March 3, but the partial solar eclipse will last until approximately 9 a.m. ET.

For more information on how to observe solar eclipses, stars, and planets, check out NASA’s What’s Up guide. As with viewing the eclipse from a dark environment away from bright lights, binoculars or a telescope are recommended for a better view.

What else can you see during a solar eclipse?

more: How to view the “Blood Moon” total lunar eclipse in 2026

A solar eclipse can also make stars and constellations easier to see. According to NASA, during the upcoming solar eclipse, the moon will be in the constellation Leo, below the lion’s hind legs.

Venus and Saturn will also appear close together in the night sky on March 8th.

Michelle Del Rey is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Please contact mdelrey@usatoday.com.

Cryptocurrency sneaks into elections, targeting Democrats

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Cryptocurrency sneaks into elections, targeting Democrats

Cryptocurrency has become one of the biggest players in elections. Meanwhile, the average American voter cannot remain indifferent to cryptocurrencies. That’s a problem.

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If you follow Congress’s money, you might be surprised to find that on the other side of the coin is cryptocurrencies.

After scoring several recent wins, the crypto-backed super PAC Fairshake started 2026 with more than $193 million on hand to influence elections across the country. Crypto friends are using their war chest to fund candidates willing to work with the industry and target those critical of the industry.

Its first big foray into the 2026 cycle is a pledge to spend $1.5 million against Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) in the March 3 primary. He has previously expressed concerns about cryptocurrencies.

“They’re going to do whatever they can to maintain the advantage they have over some members of Congress, but not against me,” Greene said in a Facebook video following FairShake’s investment announcement.

Meanwhile, a cryptocurrency super PAC is spending $5 million to support Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) as he runs for U.S. Senate.

“Cryptocurrency is not a fad,” Moore said in a December article for X magazine. “It’s part of our future.”

Although completely legal, it is concerning that FairShake and other pro-crypto PACs are able to spend millions of dollars in elections across the United States. By putting more pro-crypto politicians in Congress, we risk further deregulation, which could have serious economic consequences for the United States.

Campaign spending is not the only problem. That’s due to the fact that these companies have a say in messaging. These cryptocurrency interest groups want ordinary people to invest their money in a volatile industry, exposing them to the possibility of loss. Politicians are attempting to close the door to market legislation by accepting funds from crypto PACs.

opinion: Major issues could be Democrats’ secret weapon

Who is Cryptocurrency PAC impacting?

Cryptocurrency PACs have been influencing elections for years, but they only really started to proliferate in 2024. All told, FairShake spent nearly $180 million during the 2024 election cycle. More than a third of all corporate donations during that cycle came from cryptocurrency companies. The crypto industry also pretty much got what it wanted. Fair Shake helped win 53 of the 58 parliamentary elections in which it invested money that year.

FairShake targets Democratic politicians who are critical of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency PACs spent $10 million on former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, who is running for the California Senate in 2024, and a whopping $40 million on former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who served as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. But they’re also backed by some Democrats like Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Ruben Gallego, who each received about $10 million last cycle.

Fairshake, on the other hand, did not spend any money against Republicans in the 2024 election cycle. That makes sense, given that no Republican can win without pledging allegiance to President Donald Trump, and Trump is a big supporter of cryptocurrencies. His family earned about $1.4 billion in crypto assets in the past year, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

Opinion warning: Get columns from your favorite columnists and expert analysis on key issues delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. If you don’t have the app, download it for free from the app store.

Needless to say, cryptocurrencies have become one of the biggest players in elections. Meanwhile, the average American voter cannot remain indifferent to cryptocurrencies. A 2025 Gallup poll found that only 14% of US adults own cryptocurrencies. This means that a very small group has great influence over elections.

There is still a lot of uncertainty regarding cryptocurrencies, and there are no uniform regulations across the country. These crypto PACs seek to ensure that this situation remains the same and will provide funding to anyone they can so that business can continue as usual.

opinion: President Trump has said he will cut federal spending. The situation got worse.

Democrats must confront and regulate cryptocurrencies

I’m not saying Democrats should refrain from having opinions on cryptocurrencies. In fact, this will likely help their stance on young American men, as polls show that a quarter of men under 50 own crypto assets. It would be good for the party to be educated about cryptocurrencies, but unfortunately I don’t see it going away anytime soon.

If cryptocurrencies are indeed the future, more regulation will be needed. It would be wise for Democrats to focus on passing legislation that stabilizes the market rather than abolishing cryptocurrencies or pretending they don’t exist. At the very least, he should promise voters that he won’t take money from crypto super PACs like FairShake.

And of course, Republicans need to educate themselves on the pros and cons of cryptocurrencies, rather than blindly supporting them just because the president supports them. It’s true that Republicans want to avoid harming their voters and the U.S. economy, and the last thing they want is a crypto bubble bursting.

As voters, it is important to understand that our opinions do not exist in a vacuum. We are a product of everything we ingest about politicians and elections. We are susceptible to outside influence from super PACs that don’t care about us, and our politicians are much more likely to act on the interests of these PACs rather than ours. We must be wary of outside spending and demand transparency about who is endorsing candidates.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeno on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social

Current status of Department of Homeland Security shutdown stalemate

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Current status of Department of Homeland Security shutdown stalemate

This is the current situation due to the closure of agencies such as the TSA, Coast Guard, Secret Service, and ICE.

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WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security has been closed for more than two weeks, putting airport security, disaster relief, coastline security and even the paychecks of Secret Service agents who protected the president during the State of the Union address at risk.

The Trump administration sent an updated proposal to reopen government agencies to Senate Democrats on Feb. 27, but negotiations between the White House and Capitol Hill have been taking place largely behind closed doors.

There is still no end in sight to the funding impasse. Lawmakers from both parties have been at odds in recent days, at least in public. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters on February 25 that the Trump administration has not yet begun serious negotiations on federal immigration enforcement reform demands.

Hours later, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) fired back at Murray, pointing to paper deals between administration officials and Senate Democrats.

“I think the White House has tried, in good faith, to come to the table and work out some of the differences with Democrats,” he said, “but in a way that doesn’t jeopardize or undermine the ability of law enforcement officers to do their jobs and do their jobs in a way that keeps them safe.”

It was the third time in President Donald Trump’s second term that funding for a 9/11-era Cabinet agency has expired, showing just how wide the gap between the two sides remains in the government shutdown standoff.

Lawmakers and administration officials say thousands of employees are working without pay as some critical functions, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard, are scaled back until the shutdown ends. (Immigration operations continue as usual.)

Despite these high stakes, the president made modest mention of the funding lapse in his State of the Union address on February 24th. The president’s lack of attention to the issue underscores how common government shutdowns have become in Washington, especially during the second Trump era.

The longer the situation lasts, the worse it gets. Transportation Security Administration employee union leaders are already anticipating longer wait times for airline passengers after TSA employees received a portion of their regular paychecks on Friday, February 27th.

But lawmakers still don’t feel like they’re under any significant pressure from voters to force a deal. And the further the timeline moves away from the shooting deaths of two Minnesotans in January, the more influence Republicans may feel. Washington’s focus has already begun to shift significantly away from the politics of immigration enforcement and toward rising tensions with Iran and Cuba.

read more: Why travelers need to prepare for an endless DHS closure

what the democrats want

A few weeks ago, Democrats made 10 major demands to the White House.

After Alex Preti’s murder, Democrats called for a ban on employees wearing masks, stricter standards for the use of force, and mandatory body cameras. They also want more restrictions on the types of warrants that allow federal agents to use force to arrest people or enter homes. And they want to reestablish longstanding precedent that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not target so-called “sensitive locations” such as schools, hospitals, and churches.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on February 25: “All they have to do is agree to our simple idea that almost every police department across America will comply.” “That’s plain and simple.”

An incident in Schumer’s own state the day after he made those comments could derail negotiations with the White House. Administrators at Columbia University in New York City say five federal agents lied about their identities to enter a dormitory, pretending they were police searching for a missing child. They then detained a senior named Ellie Agayeva without a warrant, citing concerns about her student visa. She was released later that day after New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani personally appealed to the president.

what the republican party wants

Republicans in Congress and the White House continue to reject various Democratic proposals.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the mask ban and judicial warrant requirements are not a start. Facial coverings are arguably the biggest issue, as Johnson and other Republicans have said they help protect federal workers from becoming targets of harassment and intimidation.

However, speakers were open to limiting so-called “patrol patrols,” or randomly stopping suspicious vehicles, and strengthening the use of body-worn cameras. Republicans had already agreed to set aside $20 million for body-worn cameras for immigration enforcement agents before the Border Patrol agent’s shooting of Pretty upended a bipartisan agreement to fund DHS through the rest of the year.

Schumer’s office announced on February 27 that it was closely reviewing the White House’s latest counterproposal.

Zachary Schermele is a Congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can email us at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him at @ZachSchermele on X and @zachschermele.bsky.social on Bluesky..

There are few job prospects for many unemployed people.

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There are few job prospects for many unemployed people.

Crystal Villarreal
|Capital and main

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This article was created by Capital & Main. Published with permission.

Being laid off can leave you in a state of uncertainty for months. But what happens when those months turn into years? When Jacob Sandy quit his job as a software engineer in December 2023, he never imagined he’d be without a job for more than two years.

At the time, the tech industry was undergoing massive layoffs in response to overemployment during the pandemic. Sandy’s employer, which provides a cloud computing platform that helps automate business workflows, declined to cut jobs across the board. But he said he began to suspect that the employer wanted the employee to quit voluntarily.

“I felt like they made it miserable and wanted us to leave,” said Sandy, who lives in San Diego with her school-age son. “And for whatever reason, we decided that was the better option.”

Sandy said her first year of unemployment was largely her own choice, and that while not having a job was initially good for her mental health, it ultimately wasn’t.

“I had been preparing financially for a year in advance, but I guess after about six months I started thinking about it quite lightly,” he said. “But what I realized was that all the recruiting systems at that time were starting to switch to more automated systems, AI-influenced systems, so I was completely ghosted by every application.”

Employment is slowing for workers in all sectors. January’s jobs report showed stronger-than-expected growth, but a closer look at newly updated government figures reveals an anemic employment rate, with employers adding just 181,000 jobs last year, and more than a million fewer jobs than previously thought. The unemployment rate also rose slightly to 4.3% from 4.0% the previous year.

“Today’s hiring rates are very similar to the hiring rates during the Great Recession,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “And we can clearly see that the labor market has softened over the last few years. We’ve seen a pretty significant slowdown in the growth of salaried employment.”With few hirings and few layoffs, the stagnant job market has made it difficult for the unemployed to find another job. One in four unemployed people are considered long-term unemployed, meaning they have been looking for work for more than 27 weeks, the highest rate since the pandemic.

Akira Adams, an Atlanta-based executive assistant who has been looking for work since June 2025, echoed Sandy’s frustrations with the lackluster job market.

“Right now, it’s a completely different market than any I’ve been unemployed in,” said Adams, who worries she may have to settle for a lower-paying job. She encountered several scams during her job search. This included an interview with an AI chatbot that offered on-the-spot employment in exchange for personal information.

Adams, a black woman in her early 40s, said she faces additional barriers to finding work because of her race and age. And the unemployment numbers confirm her concerns. As of early 2025, the unemployment rate for Black women was 5.4%. By December, that rate had risen to 7.3%, the highest rate in four years and nearly three percentage points above the national average of 4.4%.

Black women, who make up the majority of federal employees, have been hit hard by recent federal cuts. Losses in manufacturing and professional and business services industries, where women work disproportionately, also added pressure. The withdrawal from DEI initiatives within and outside of government may also have affected the employment prospects of Black women.

Adams said many black women she knows are responding to the volatile job market by starting their own businesses and monetizing their skills. Within a month of losing her job, she started an LLC and offered her services as a remote assistant, but the business was slow to take off. In January, she had one client who kept her busy for about two hours a week. “So that definitely won’t pay the bill,” she said.

Adams also competes with workers around the world who can offer much lower rates. She had seen an ad for a remote assistant based in the Philippines, where workers earn significantly less than in the United States.

While Adams has the support of her husband, who works full time, others are not so lucky.

For Charlotte Wilson Langley, a children’s writer in Los Angeles, her options for continuing to make a living are rapidly diminishing as neither she nor her husband have stable jobs.

Last Christmas, Wilson-Langley was applying for retail jobs without success. She has been said to be overqualified. In the meantime, she’s living on credit and selling clothes on Poshmark to make ends meet.

“Every time we were able to make rent last year, it felt like a miracle,” Wilson Langley said.

Wilson Langley spent years trying to break into the entertainment industry, eventually landing a job on the writing staff of a Disney series in early 2022. However, when the season ended the following year, she was unable to find further television work. Since then, she’s been combining it with part-time jobs, including handing out juice samples at Costco.

She laments the lack of support for people suffering from long-term unemployment. California’s maximum unemployment benefit is $450 a week, but that doesn’t even cover the cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, where the average rent is well over $2,700 a month.

At one point, Wilson Langley’s unemployment benefits ran out, leaving her without assistance for six months. “It’s not working and it’s letting people down,” she said.

Saba Waheed, director of the UCLA Labor Center, said a stronger social safety net could help people suffering from long-term unemployment, especially in the wake of industry-wide changes.

Waheed said policymakers can learn from the government’s response to massive job losses due to coronavirus-era shutdowns and could apply some of the same tactics to help workers suffering long-term unemployment. She proposed enacting an eviction moratorium and extending unemployment benefits as a way to create a safety net for all workers.

“Some of the strategies used during COVID-19 were actually very helpful,” Waheed said.

For Jacob Sandy, the software industry, once seen as a growth field and offering high-paying jobs, no longer seems like a surefire option. He worries about changes in his profession, including the impact of artificial intelligence on work.

After months of looking for work, depressed and desperate, he considers changing industries all together. “I’m thinking about doing an apprenticeship as an electrician or going into one of those fields because those fields always seem to be in demand,” he said.

Ccopyright 2026 Capital and main

Can people who smoke a lot of marijuana own guns? Supreme Court rules

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Can people who smoke a lot of marijuana own guns? Supreme Court rules

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration, which has been an ardent supporter of gun rights, is still trying to convince the Supreme Court on March 2 that people who frequently smoke marijuana can be jailed for gun possession.

The Justice Department will make such an argument even though the administration is trying to reclassify marijuana into a less dangerous drug category and even though it is legal in some form in the majority of states.

This is just one notable aspect of the case, another involving the constitutional right to bear arms, which the justices decided this year.

Their decisions could shed light on the legal test the courts have enacted in recent years, leading to a surge in gun control challenges. It has also caused significant confusion in lower courts attempting to apply the test.

But judges could sidestep aspects of the Second Amendment and find that federal laws prohibiting “illegal users” of controlled substances from possessing firearms are problematic for other reasons. This could limit the scope of the ban to those who are “addicted” to marijuana and other drugs deemed dangerous enough for the government to regulate, rather than targeting the estimated tens of millions of Americans who use marijuana and other drugs recreationally.

Here’s what you need to know:

What exactly does that mean?

The government is defending the prosecution of Ali Danial Hemani, a dual U.S.-Pakistani citizen who was being monitored by the FBI for suspected ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards paramilitary group. The government has designated the security forces as a global terrorist group.

During a 2022 raid of his Texas home, Hemani told investigators he had a Glock 9mm handgun and said he used marijuana “almost every other day.”

The government tried to detain Hemani on more serious criminal charges, but he was charged only with being an illegal user of marijuana and possessing a firearm. This is a felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

What did the lower court rule?

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the gun ban could not apply to Hemani, based on the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 ruling that bans must be historically based “consistent with the tradition of gun control.”

This is supported by history and tradition, but there are certain limitations. the current The appeals court said that “the right of an inebriated person to bear arms cannot be recognized” and that it “does not support disarming a sober person solely on the basis of past drug use.”

Why is the Trump administration defending the law?

In another gun rights case the Supreme Court is considering this session, the Justice Department is challenging Hawaii’s restrictive regulations on guns in public places.

“As I stated shortly after taking office, the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote about X after filing a Supreme Court brief challenging the Hawaii law. “My Department of Justice will continue to be the most pro-Second Amendment Department in history.”

more: Supreme Court doubts Hawaii gun control called ‘Vampire Rule’

But the government argues that Mr. Hemani’s case “presents a narrow situation” in which the government can meet the “draconian burden” it imposes when restricting gun rights.

“As soon as a person ceases habitual drug use, he or she regains the ability to possess a weapon,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in the filing.

Brady Gun Control Advocates took the opposite side in the Hawaii case, but supports the Justice Department’s defense of the federal ban on gun possession by drug users.

“We have significant disagreements with the Trump administration on gun violence prevention,” said Douglas Letter, the group’s chief legal officer. “That doesn’t mean they’re always wrong.”

Is President Trump trying to declassify marijuana?

President Donald Trump has directed the Justice Department to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous substance.

“U.S. policy appears to be that marijuana is both useful medicine for some patriotic Americans and a spark that twists ordinary people into lunatics ready to attack police,” the liberal groups Cato Institute and Lasson Foundation wrote in a filing supporting Hemani.

The Justice Department told the Supreme Court that the purpose of the reclassification was to “facilitate research into medical cannabis and CBD” while continuing to restrict the sale of products that pose serious health risks.

Still, Heather Torella of the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a public policy think tank, said the pending rescheduling “could weaken the federal government’s case about the inherent dangers of cannabis use.”

Torella said in a preview of oral arguments that the justices could ask whether there is a difference in gun ownership prohibitions for people who smoke marijuana recreationally and those who use marijuana medically if the controlled substance has a medical use.

How often are laws used?

The government says it regularly prosecutes more than 300 people each year for possessing a gun while illegally using a controlled substance or being addicted to drugs. The Justice Department said the provision “plays an important role” in a series of rules designed to keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous or irresponsible individuals. The Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed in response to the assassinations of President Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

But the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers says the law’s provisions in question are used primarily as a selective prosecution tool, the use of plea bargaining, or “a means to imprison law-abiding citizens when the government’s underlying theory is inadequate,” rather than for public safety reasons.

The association said in its AA filing that Mr Hemani’s lawsuit vindicates their claims. Because the government was unable to establish the desired charges, the law in question offered an easy alternative “because both drug use and firearm ownership are ubiquitous features of American life.”

What impact could this incident have on gun control in general?

In a landmark 2022 decision that struck down a New York state law that required residents to have a valid reason to obtain a handgun license, the Supreme Court created a new “historical tradition” test for firearms regulations.

Eric Ruben, a law professor at Southern Methodist University, said this has forced a re-evaluation of perhaps thousands of Second Amendment rights cases across the country.

In a 2024 decision upholding a law banning domestic abusers from owning guns, the court sought to clarify how closely modern laws must align with historic laws to be constitutional.

But lower courts remain “split about what the analogy should be,” Ruben said.

Adam Winkler, a professor at UCLA School of Law, said the confusion created the possibility for judges to impose their own preferences. Winkler said judges appointed by Democratic presidents have upheld gun restrictions despite weak historical evidence, while judges appointed by Republicans have struck down gun restrictions because of a lack of historical “twins” — even though the Supreme Court said it wasn’t the norm.

“What we’ve seen is a lot of judicial activity in this area,” he says. “The Supreme Court has not provided much helpful guidance.”

Can the Court Avoid Second Amendment Decisions?

However, it is possible that the justices will rule on Hemani’s case without clarifying the constitutionality of gun regulations.

“This case is being billed as the court’s next great Second Amendment battle,” Joel Johnson, a former Justice Department attorney and professor at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, said in a filing supporting Hemani. “But there’s no need for that.”

Lawyers for Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hemani both argue that the law’s “unlawful user” clause is unacceptably vague and should be removed. The law does not specify, for example, how much marijuana a person must smoke, how often, or how recently a person is prohibited from owning a gun.

“It’s simply impossible for the average person to understand what is prohibited,” said Brandon Baskey, director of the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. The ACLU is one of the legal organizations representing Hemani.

“I think the government’s position really confuses the idea of ​​drug use and drug abuse,” Baskey said.

The Justice Department says a person must be a “habitual” user to be prohibited from owning a gun. But Hemani’s lawyers argue that this is contrary to what the government has said in the past and that it has not yet been defined.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has long interpreted the law to be triggered by a single drug possession conviction or failed drug test within the past year, but it now wants the test to be an “ongoing pattern of use.”

Because of this issue, it’s difficult to predict how significant the case will be in further elaboration as gun control passes through constitutional law, said Winkler, author of “Gunfights: The Battle for the Right to Bear Arms in America.”

“I don’t know if a court would find exit ambiguity attractive,” Winkler said. “The court could rule based on ambiguity and have no effect on Second Amendment principles.”

Which US military bases did Iran target? Did Americans get killed?

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Which US military bases did Iran target? Did Americans get killed?

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Hours later, the U.S. military announced that no U.S. service members were killed or injured in a series of attacks carried out by Iran on U.S. military bases across the Middle East in retaliation for the U.S.-Israel missile attack on Iran on February 28.

In a Feb. 28 statement posted to X, U.S. Central Command said its military “successfully defended itself” against hundreds of Iranian missiles and drones, and there were “no reports of U.S. military casualties or combat-related injuries.” “Damage to U.S. military facilities was minimal and operations were not affected,” the statement said.

There are between 30,000 and 40,000 U.S. troops stationed in the region at any given time, Central Command spokesman Col. Tim Hawkins previously told USA TODAY.

According to the country’s communications center, a service center for the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquartered in Bahrain was hit by a missile attack. Footage reviewed by multiple news organizations showed the moment the missile landed near the naval base, sending plumes of smoke rising.

The U.S. struck Iran in about an hour after midnight on February 28, hitting targets to “dismantle the Iranian regime’s security apparatus,” including Revolutionary Guard command and control facilities, “air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields,” according to the statement.

President Donald Trump has been threatening a second attack on Iran for months, ordering the largest buildup of U.S. troops and military assets in the region since the Iraq war began more than a decade ago. The US military had previously dropped a penetrating bomb on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June.

In response to the U.S. attack, Iran launched attacks on U.S. allies across the region, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, where U.S. troops are stationed. Videos posted on social media and news outlets showed missiles hitting urban areas and skyscrapers.

X’s video also showed the missile being shot down over Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base, the forward headquarters of U.S. Central Command. Qatar’s Ministry of Defense announced that a missile fired at the base was intercepted.

Kuwait’s Ministry of Defense said three members of the Kuwaiti military suffered minor injuries from falling debris during the attack on Ali Al Salem Air Base, where the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing is based.

The Iraqi government said in a statement that the Iraqi city of Erbil, which has a US air base, was also hit by a missile attack. Reuters reported that explosions were also heard in Al Dhafra, the former US air base south of the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi.

According to reports, missiles were also intercepted in Jordan, where the Air Force’s 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing is based at Muwafaq al-Salti Air Base.

The same cannot be said for Iran. The attack killed more than 200 people and injured more than 700 across Iran, including 40 at a girls’ school in the country’s south, state media said.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran with an iron fist, dies

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Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran with an iron fist, dies

Paris Hafezi
|Reuters

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ali Khamenei’s 36-year rule has built Iran into a powerful anti-American force, expanding its military influence across the Middle East while crushing repeated unrest at home with an iron fist.

Ayatollah Khamenei, 86, was killed on February 28 when Israeli and U.S. airstrikes shattered a compound in central Tehran, Iranian state media announced, after decades of efforts to resolve a dispute over Iran’s nuclear program failed diplomatically.

Initially dismissed as weak and indecisive, Khamenei seemed an unlikely choice as supreme leader after the death of the charismatic founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini. However, Khamenei’s rise to the top of the country’s power structure has given him a firm grip on state affairs.

Karim Sajjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told Reuters that Khamenei was an “accident of history” that took him “from a weak president, to an initially weak supreme leader, to one of the five most powerful Iranians of the past 100 years.”

The Ayatollahs criticized Washington throughout their reign and continued to do so even after President Donald Trump’s second term began in 2025.

Khamenei vowed in January that the country would “not surrender to the enemy” as a new wave of protests spread across Iran with slogans such as “Death to the dictator” and President Trump threatened to intervene.

The comment was typical of Khamenei, a fiercely anti-Western leader who has been in office since 1989.

By maintaining the hardline stance of Khomeini, the republic’s first supreme leader, Khamenei crushed the ambitions of successive independence-minded elected presidents who called for more open policies at home and abroad.

In the process, critics say, he ensured Iran’s isolation.

Khamenei condemns ‘rude and arrogant leaders of America’

Khamenei has long denied that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, as Western countries have claimed. In 2015, he cautiously supported a nuclear deal between world powers and the government of pragmatic President Hassan Rouhani, curbing the country’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. This hard-won agreement resulted in a partial lifting of Iran’s economic and political isolation.

But Khamenei’s hostility toward the United States persisted and intensified in 2018, when the first Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions aimed at hampering Iran’s oil and shipping industries.

After the U.S. withdrawal, Khamenei backed hard-line supporters who criticized President Rouhani’s appeasement policy toward the West.

As President Trump pressurizes Iran to agree to a new 2025 nuclear deal, Khamenei blamed “disrespectful and arrogant American leaders.” “Who are you to decide whether Iran should have wealthy people?” he asked.

Khamenei often denounced the “Great Devil” in his speeches, reassuring hardliners who believed anti-American sentiment was at the heart of the 1979 revolution that drove Iran’s last shah into exile.

his word was law

Massive student-led protests erupted in Iran in 1999 and 2002. But Khamenei’s authority was put to a more serious test in 2009. The disputed presidential election results, which were verified by Khamenei, sparked violent street riots and triggered a crisis of legitimacy that lasted until Khamenei’s death.

In 2022, Khamenei cracked down on demonstrators enraged by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who died in the custody of the moral police in September of the same year.

Facing the most violent turmoil since the revolution, Khamenei blamed Western enemies and resorted to hanging protesters and displaying bodies suspended from cranes after months of unrest.

Iranians got the message.

As Supreme Leader, Khamenei’s word was law. He inherited vast powers, including command of the military and the power to appoint many key officials, including the head of the judiciary, security services, and state radio and television.

He appointed his allies as commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guards.

As the ultimate authority in Iran’s complex system of clerical rule and limited democracy, Khamenei has long sought to prevent any group, even among his closest allies, from amassing enough power to challenge him and his anti-American stance.

Scholars outside Iran have painted a picture of a secretive ideologue fearing betrayal. That fear was fueled by an assassination attempt in 1981 that left his right arm paralyzed.

International organizations and activists have repeatedly criticized human rights violations in Iran. He said Tehran has the best human rights record in the Islamic world.

unlikely to come to power

Ali Khamenei was born in April 1939 in Mashhad, northeastern Iran. His devotion to religion was evident when he became a priest at the age of 11. He studied in Qom, the religious capital of Iraq and Iran.

His father, an ethnic Azerbaijani religious scholar, was a traditionalist cleric who opposed mixing religion and politics. In contrast, his son embraced the cause of the Islamist revolution.

“My impression was that he (Khamenei’s father) was a modernist or progressive cleric,” said Mahmoud Moradhani, a nephew of Khamenei who opposes his rule and lives in exile. Unlike his son, “he was not part of the fundamentalist movement,” Moladkhani said.

In 1963, at the age of 24, Khamenei was detained for his political activities and served the first of many sentences. Later that year, he was imprisoned for 10 days in Mashhad, where he was severely tortured, according to his official biography.

After the fall of the Shah, Khamenei held several posts in the Islamic Republic. As deputy defense minister, he became close to the military and was a key figure in the 1980-88 war with neighboring Iraq, which claimed an estimated 1 million lives.

He was a skilled orator and was appointed by Khomeini to lead Friday prayers in Tehran.

There were also doubts about his rapid and unprecedented rise. He rose to the presidency with Khomeini’s support and became the first cleric, making him a surprising choice to succeed Khomeini, given his lack of both popularity and great clerical qualifications.

Expanding Iranian influence

The connection with the powerful Guards came to fruition in 2009. That year, Guards suppressed protests after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected amid opposition accusations of voter fraud.

He also presided over a vast financial empire with assets worth tens of billions of dollars through Settad, an organization founded by Khomeini but greatly expanded under Khamenei.

Khamenei expanded Iran’s influence in the region, empowering Shi’ite militias in Iraq and Lebanon, and sending thousands of soldiers to Syria to support then-President Bashar al-Assad.

He spent billions of dollars over four decades on allies such as Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group, and the Axis of Resistance, which also includes Yemen’s Houthis, to counter Israeli and American power in the Middle East.

However, in 2024, Khamenei saw these alliances crumble and Iran’s regional influence shrink due to a series of defeats, including the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad and the killing of their leaders by Israel against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Under Khamenei’s rule, Iran and Israel fought a shadow war for years, with Israel assassinating Tehran’s nuclear scientists and Revolutionary Guards commanders.

The bomb exploded in the open air during Israel’s fight against Hamas in the Gaza Strip starting in 2023. In April 2024, Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel after it bombed Tehran’s embassy compound in Damascus. Israel responded by attacking mainland Iran.

But that was just a prelude until June 2025, when the Israeli military launched hundreds of warplanes to attack Iran’s nuclear and military targets and senior personnel. This surprise attack triggered a barrage of missiles in both directions, turning the smoldering conflict into an all-out war. The United States joined the Iranian air force, which lasted 12 days.

The United States and Israel have threatened to strike again if Iran advances its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and on February 28 launched its most ambitious attack on Iranian targets in decades.

Negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials took place as recently as February 26, with senior U.S. officials saying Iran has no intention of giving up its uranium enrichment capabilities, arguing that Iran wants it for nuclear energy, while U.S. officials argued it would enable the country to build a nuclear bomb.

On the diplomatic front, Khamenei has refused to normalize diplomatic relations with the United States. He claimed that Washington was supporting hard-line groups like the Islamic State to foment sectarian wars in the region.

Like other Iranian officials, Khamenei denies any intention to develop nuclear weapons, and even issued a fatwa in the mid-1990s against the “manufacturing and use” of nuclear weapons, stating that “it goes against our Islamic ideology.”

He also supported a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 calling on Muslims to kill Indian-born author Salman Rushdie after his novel The Satanic Verses was published.

Khamenei’s official website confirmed as recently as 2017 that the death sentence remained in effect. Five years later, Rushdie was stabbed while giving a public lecture in New York. The author was seriously injured, but survived. The perpetrator was sentenced to 25 years in prison for attempted murder in 2025, but did not testify at trial.

The Islamic Republic, left behind by the late ayatollah, is grappling with uncertainty amid attacks from Israel and the United States, and growing dissent within the country, especially among younger generations.

“I just want to live a peaceful and normal life…Instead, they (the rulers) insist on a nuclear program, support regional armed groups and maintain hostility towards the United States,” Mina, 25, told Reuters by phone from Kudasht in the western province of Lorestan in early 2026.

“These policies may have made sense in 1979, but they don’t make sense today,” the unemployed university graduate added. “The world has changed.”

(Written by Parisa Hafezi; Edited by Olivier Holmy, Michael George, William MacLean, Janet Lawrence, Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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