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Mar 1, 2026 - World

An operation decades in the making took just 60 seconds to carry out, but some question its wisdomThe assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was the culmination of decades of painstaking intelligence gathering by Israeli secret services, with crucial technological resources and manpower provided over the last six months by the CIA and other US intelligence services, which culminated in a single concentrated burst of lethal violence to decapitate the Iranian regime, according to experts, veteran spies and officials in Israel and the US.Khamenei was killed along with seven “members of the top Iranian security leadership who had gathered at several locations in Tehran” and about a dozen members of his family and close entourage in near-simultaneous strikes within 60 seconds, military officials in Israel said. Forty other senior Iranian leaders also died in the attack. Continue reading...

Mar 1, 2026 - World

A segment on MAGA influencer Steve Bannon's War Room accused President Donald Trump of "an open betrayal" of his base following the weekend strikes on Iran.As the U.S. military was continuing to pound Iranian targets, Curt Mills, Executive Director of The American Conservative, told Bannon that Trump had received poor guidance before launching the strikes."We got here, frankly, at the behest of the foreign power," Mills explained. "I'm not entirely clear or not entirely sure, the appetite of the American people to absorb fatalities. Three Americans have been killed. Five apparently have been grievously wounded. And that's just what the government is conceding. Very notably, they're not telling us how they died."Mills called the conflict an "out-of-control war.""Hang on, hang on, take a deep breath," Bannon implored. "When you say out of control, as we've gone to the day, militarily, it's pretty systematic how we're trying to take down their defenses and the leadership. Is that part out of control? Are you saying the expanding nature of it is out of control?""I'm not entirely sure," Mills admitted. "I mean, the Fifth Fleet just got hit yesterday. I mean, it's entirely unclear, with the exception of the Supreme Leader, if the Iranian—I mean, the bombings in a lot of ways were less severe than the ones in June of 2025, and the Iranian counterattacks are much more severe.""And the Israelis are going to try to escalate this to keep the U.S. in," he remarked. "They just basically carpet-bombed Tehran. They give the Iranians, quote, the Gaza treatment. There was some idea that they were going to treat Persians any different than Arabs. And I think there's going to be a real desire to keep President Trump in here."According to Mills, "the president has gotten very poor counsel.""And I do think it matters politically that he was the no more endless wars candidate in 2016 and 2024, particularly. And this looks like an open betrayal of the base," he explained. "And now there's an argument that this is different than the Bush-era neocon wars. But I will flag: What Bush-era neocon is not for this today? Find me one. Name one."Mills noted that John Bolton was "pleased as hell about what we're doing.""Remember, the never-Trumpers were the neo-conservatives," he pointed out. "They still are, in many respects. Trump's entire rise in 2016, and you know this more than any American alive, Steve, was against these folks.""Yeah, so the polling initially conducted overnight on the strikes is overwhelmingly negative, but most importantly and most central to this show, it appears that a majority of Republicans don't know why we're doing this, or don't support it," he added. "A new war in the Middle East that looks a lot like the Iraq war. It looks a lot like the same people making the arguments for the Iraq war, and basically an argument that is mired in the past."

Mar 1, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump vowed that Iran's naval fleet would soon be "floating at the bottom of the sea."In a Sunday post to Truth Social, the U.S. president gave an update on the progress in the fight against the Iranian Navy."I have just been informed that we have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important," he wrote. "We are going after the rest — They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also! In a different attack, we largely destroyed their Naval Headquarters."Trump added: "Other than that, their Navy is doing very well!"The president's claim came a day after the U.S. military began strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader.

Mar 1, 2026 - World

Donald Trump faces a political minefield after his second military strike on Iran in less than a year, with conservative voters and MAGA supporters—promised no new wars—expressing fury over the attacks.The president's Iran operation has ignited a firestorm among his base, with supporters and former backers reminding him of his 2024 campaign pledge to avoid military adventurism.According to Politico's Erin Doherty, the political damage is substantial and immediate action is necessary.A POLITICO poll from last month found only half of 2024 Trump voters—50 percent—supported military action against Iran, while 30 percent opposed it. "Those fractures, combined with largely unified opposition from Democrats, meant Americans broadly did not want an attack on Iran," Doherty wrote. An Economist/YouGov poll conducted the following weekend confirmed broad public opposition to military action in Iran.The stakes are particularly dire for Republicans heading into a difficult midterm election. "The Republican Party is already staring down a difficult midterm landscape, where even small defections from their winning 2024 coalition could carry outsized consequences," the report states.Trump now confronts a volatile political calculation where support within his coalition was tepid at best before the strikes, and overall public opposition significantly outweighs backing.Michigan-based Republican strategist Jason Roe outlined the binary outcome: "The political risk depends on the outcome. If we break Iran without terrorist attacks coming to America or harm coming to allies in the region, it will be a political win for Trump. … If this expands into a protracted conflict, or ends up with troops on the ground, it will be a liability."You can read more here.

Mar 1, 2026 - World

The FBI said it was investigating a mass shooting that killed three and injured 14 in Austin as a "potential nexus to terrorism." "Indicators" on the suspect and his vehicle signaled a "potential nexus to terrorism," FBI's San Antonio special agent Alex Doran said during a Sunday press conference.The agent declined to say whether it was investigating ties to domestic or foreign terrorism. It was not clear if there was a link to President Donald Trump's weekend strikes on Iran."It's still way too early in the process to determine an exact motivation," Doran remarked.Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis confirmed that no explosives were found at the scene.