Trump gives mixed messages about when the war with Iran will end – NPR

  1. Trump gives mixed messages about when the war with Iran will end  NPR
  2. Live updates: US will end war with Iran ‘on our timeline,’ Hegseth says  CNN
  3. Iran war may end ‘pretty quickly’: What Trump told Republicans  Al Jazeera
  4. 5 takeaways from Trump’s Iran presser at Doral  The Hill
  5. Iran live: Markets bet that Trump will end war soon despite threats from both sides  Reuters
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Russia is the only winner of Middle East war, EU’s Costa says – Reuters

  1. Russia is the only winner of Middle East war, EU's Costa says  Reuters
  2. Why Vladimir Putin may be the big winner in Trump's Iran war  NBC News
  3. Russian oil prices soar though tanker costs eat into gains  Reuters
  4. As the Iran war upends energy flows, Russia is emerging as the real winner  CNBC
  5. Russia Set for Oil-Revenue Surge in Coming Weeks on Iran War  Bloomberg
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The ‘Fourth Successor’: Iran’s plan for a long war with the US and Israel – Al Jazeera

  1. The ‘Fourth Successor’: Iran’s plan for a long war with the US and Israel  Al Jazeera
  2. A Mysterious Code Is Being Broadcast on Shortwave Radio. Is It Iran?  The Atlantic
  3. Iran bets on endurance, energy disruption to outlast US, Israel  Reuters
  4. Iran’s Desperate, High-Risk Survival Strategy  The New Yorker
  5. Why Escalation Favors Iran  Foreign Affairs
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Qantas hikes international air fares citing volatile oil prices from war in Middle East

Airline reports spike in ticket sales to Europe in March, as passengers with carriers affected by flight chaos rebook

Qantas has announced it is increasing the price of its international air fares amid oil price volatility caused by the war in the Middle East, while the airline also reported higher-than-normal ticket sales for flights to Europe.

While the company hedges against change in jet fuel prices, it was not fully covered for the spike seen in the wake of surging oil prices, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

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Iran Offers Hormuz Passage in Exchange for Diplomat Expulsions – WSJ

  1. Iran Offers Hormuz Passage in Exchange for Diplomat Expulsions  WSJ
  2. Oil tankers transiting Strait of Hormuz 'must be very careful,' Iran Foreign Ministry warns  CNBC
  3. Iran’s Real ‘Nuclear Option’ Isn’t A Bomb—It’s The Strait Of Hormuz  Forbes
  4. Iran’s Navy Is Weakened but U.S. Still Faces Challenges in Strait of Hormuz  The New York Times
  5. Why the Strait of Hormuz is so difficult to defend  Axios
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U.S. orders more diplomats to leave Middle East – The Washington Post

  1. U.S. orders more diplomats to leave Middle East  The Washington Post
  2. U.S. orders staff to leave Saudi Arabia as war spreads; Iran rules out immediate ceasefire  CNBC
  3. Security Alert: March 9 Update 2  U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Saudi Arabia (.gov)
  4. US orders government employees to leave Saudi Arabia – as it happened  The Guardian
  5. State Dept. Said to Order Diplomats in Saudi Arabia to Leave  The New York Times
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New Zealand Covid response among world’s best but ‘scars’ remain, inquiry finds

Royal commission says response led by Jacinda Ardern was broadly ‘appropriate’, in a wide-ranging report featuring recommendations for future pandemics

A royal commission into New Zealand’s Covid response has found it was one of the best in the world but acknowledged the period had left “scars”.

The second of two inquiry reports on the pandemic was released on Tuesday and focused on the period between February 2021 to October 2022, when the government changed from an elimination strategy to one of suppression and minimisation of the virus. It also examined vaccine safety and the government’s immunisation programme, lockdowns and tracing and testing technology.

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Trump’s Iran war will reinforce North Korea’s view that nuclear weapons are the only path to security

As speculation mounts that Kim Jong-un and Trump could meet this month, analysts say Pyongyang will continue to see nuclear weapons as a matter of survival

North Korea’s launch last week of a missile from a naval destroyer elicited an uncharacteristically prosaic analysis from the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. The launch was proof, he said, that arming ships with nuclear weapons was “making satisfactory progress”.

But the test, and Kim’s mildly upbeat appraisal, were designed to reverberate well beyond the deck of the 5,000-tonne destroyer-class vessel the Choe Hyon – the biggest warship in the North Korean fleet.

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Trump claims Iran or ‘somebody else’ could have carried out deadly school strike

President makes evidence-free claim despite video showing US Tomahawk missile hit naval base next to school

As oil prices surged amid the widening war with Iran, Donald Trump suggested, without evidence, on Monday that the strike on an Iranian elementary school could have been carried out by Iran or “somebody else”.

During back-to-back appearances in Florida, Trump was asked whether the US would accept responsibility for a strike that hit the school and killed scores of people, many of them children, after video evidence showed a US Tomahawk struck the naval base next to it.

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