Israel has issued evacuation orders for much of southern Lebanon, instructing residents within 25 miles of the border between the two countries to head north. The order covers major Lebanese cities and dozens of villages. The Guardian’s William Christou reports from Nabatieh, a city in south Lebanon hit by Israeli strikes.
A leading Jewish refugee advocate has vowed that solidarity work with asylum seekers will continue despite growing harassment from far-right activists targeting Jewish organisations supporting refugees. Rabbi David Mason, the executive director of the UK Jewish refugee charity HIAS+JCORE, said groups such as theirs had increasingly faced antisemitic abuse and conspiracy theories from far-right activists, most notably online. “It’s to frighten us,” he said, adding that such abuse would not deter them from their work. “It’s a badge of honour, in a way. I’m doing something and I’m determined, as a Jew and as someone who believes in a strong, cohesive Britain.” Mason said some of the hostility was driven by conspiracy theories such as the “great replacement”, which falsely claims that Jews are orchestrating migration to undermine western societies. Similar antisemitic conspiracies were cited by the gunman who attacked three Jewish congregations in Pittsburgh, US, in 2018, targeting Jews he believed were helping refugees through organisations such as the US-based refugee agency HIAS. Speaking at a Refugee Shabbat event in London aimed at highlighting Jewish solidarity with asylum seekers, Mason said many Jewish synagogues and community groups across the UK were continuing to support refugees, though this work was often less visible because of security concerns and rising antisemitism. The event brought together leading figures from the Jewish community, other faith groups, refugee organisations, politicians and students. The Progressive Judaism co-chair Rabbi Charley Baginsky and the Rev Guli Francis-Dehqani were among those who spoke, while the CEO of HIAS, Beth Oppenheim, addressed the event by video. At least 60 synagogues and Jewish student societies plan to mark this Shabbat with activities focused on refugees, such as sermons, Friday-night meal discussions and exhibitions, Mason said. Some synagogues host monthly drop-ins for asylum seekers, as well as initiatives such as choirs, orchestras and LGBT support groups for refugees, he added. “The values of compassion and social responsibility are really at the heart of Judaism,” Mason said. “My great-grandparents were refugees and came here. They needed help, support and friendship to become part of this place.” At HIAS+JCORE, a befriending programme called Jump, now entering its 20th year, is central to its work with young refugees. The scheme pairs volunteer befrienders with unaccompanied young people aged 16 to 25, offering social support alongside casework assistance and access to hardship funds. Ben, a volunteer mentor who has been involved with Jump for about six years, described it as moving and rewarding work. “I’m there to be his mate and to be someone who can be a constant in his life,” he said. Mason said the 7 October Hamas attacks in Israel and the Israel-Gaza war had made interfaith work more difficult, particularly at a national level. However, he said many local relationships between faith communities remained strong. He criticised what he called “celebrity interfaith” events that consisted of photo-ops, adding: “There is nothing like faith groups sitting side by side and solving problems in society together.” While Mason welcomed the Labour government’s focus on social cohesion, he expressed concern about the rhetoric and asylum policies recently proposed. HIAS+JCORE organised an interfaith letter calling for a more compassionate policy and rhetoric from the government after Keir Starmer’s “island of strangers” speech. “They’re talking about pushing people back to their place of origin if they deem a country safe,” he said. “But if these are people who have already put roots down, whose children are in school – what happens then? My grandparents came here, my mother went to school here, my grandfather became a doctor. And then what, you’d be told to leave? That’s very worrying.” Mason said that while there was broad support within the Jewish community for refugee solidarity, he acknowledged dissenting voices, including a newly formed Reform Jewish Alliance. “The events of the last two or three years have been a radicalising force for many people,” Mason said. But he said he was proud to emphasise Jewish history as one shaped by exile and refuge, which he believes should encourage compassion towards those seeking sanctuary today. He feared that unless tackled head-on, increasing social division risked pushing communities further apart. “People, cultures and communities don’t meet,” he said. “And if they don’t, you end up with generalisations that create fear.”
More than 1,000 cargo ships, mainly oil and gas tankers, have been blocked from transiting the strait of Hormuz by the Israeli-US war against Iran after Tehran closed the key maritime passage. Officials in the Trump administration have suggested ways to get ships moving again, but amid continued Iranian strikes on tankers, and reports that Iran has started mining the narrow waterway, the proposed naval escorts have failed to materialise – even as energy prices have soared. What is the strait of Hormuz? The strait is the only maritime passage between the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and the route for about a quarter of the world’s liquefied natural gas and seaborne trade from Gulf countries to reach the global market. Shipping in the chokepoint is confined to a pair of two-mile-wide lanes, one for outbound traffic and one for incoming, separated by a two-mile-wide meridian. At its narrowest the strait is just 21 nautical miles wide (24 miles), with the deepest channel constrained on one side by the coast of Iran and on the other by the Musandam peninsula in Oman. As a global trade route in a politically complex region, the strait has been targeted for leverage – including during the “tanker war” in the Iran-Iraq conflict in the 1980s. In response to that threat the US navy initiated Operation Earnest Will in 1987, the largest convoy operation since the second world war. What is Iran doing? As part of its policy to widen the geographic scope of the war and increase the global costs associated with it, Iran has attacked ships and reportedly started to lay mines in the strait, in effect closing it to marine traffic. That has pushed up insurance premiums for cargo operators also concerned about the safety of their crews, although insurances policies continue to be written. Surely this would have been anticipated by Washington when it decided to attack Iran? US military planners have long warned that Iran could try to close the strait in the event of a conflict, but the Trump administration appears to have failed to anticipate such a response. While some analysts had bet Iran would keep the strait open to ensure export of its own oil, the existential threat to Tehran’s clerical regime has triggered a far harsher response. That in turn has caught Washington out, including the energy secretary, Chris Wright, who said on Thursday that the US navy was not yet ready to carry out a naval escort operation. “It’ll happen relatively soon, but it can’t happen now,” Wright said – after earlier wrongly suggesting that an escort had already taken place. “We’re simply not ready.” He added that “all of our military assets right now are focused on destroying” Iran’s military resources. Why is the US navy not able to provide escorts? It has long been understood by US military planners that countering an Iranian move to close the strait would be highly complex, reinforced by the experience of shipping being targeted by the Houthis in Yemen. While the US has been targeting Iran’s larger naval forces, the country also has small, fast boats, which the US says have been used for mine laying in recent days. The proximity of the Iranian coast to launch missiles and drones against shipping creates its own issues, in particular with Iran being able to “swarm” targets, making it more difficult to counter. With transit lanes in places only 3 to 4 miles from the Iranian shoreline at the nearest, flight times for drones and missiles are very short, giving ships less than two minutes to react. Last week Iran used a remote-controlled boat laden with explosives to damage a crude oil tanker anchored in Iraqi waters. While the US has one of the world’s largest and most powerful navies, that does not mean it has enough assets required for escort duties. In the past, such operations relied on an international coalition. “Neither France, the United States, an international coalition or anybody is in a position to secure the strait of Hormuz,” said Adel Bakawan, the director of the European Institute for Studies on the Middle East and North Africa, earlier this week. Any US naval ships would themselves become a target – requiring air cover in addition to their own air defence systems. What about sea mines? Iran has a variety of powerful sea mines available, some more crude than others, which can be deployed just below the surface or anchored to the seabed and be set off as deep as 164ft below the surface. The country has conventional mine-laying vessels but it can also use fishing boats and other small craft. While naval mines are a potent threat with a long history of damaging shipping, Iran is probably more interested in the psychological threat and increasing the complexity of any convoy missions. Among the mines in its arsenal is the Maham-3, which has magnetic and acoustic sensors, rather than being triggered by physical contact with a ship. Can the US counter Iranian shore batteries? Some analysts have suggested the size of the area involved and the availability of cheap and effective drones that can adopt a variety of tactics against shipping would require a ground operation to secure the coast along the strait, which in itself would probably be complicated. “Strategic priorities, like opening the strait of Hormuz and securing what remains of Iran’s nuclear stockpile, will likely require some ground troops if no diplomatic options are pursued,” Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told the Wall Street Journal. “What we are looking at is potentially a very messy situation.” “On the strait of Hormuz, they had NO PLAN,” the US Democratic senator Chris Murphy wrote in a post on X. “I can’t go into more detail about how Iran gums up the Strait, but suffice it say, right now, they don’t know how to get it safely back open.”
A sacred artefact looted by French colonial authorities more than a century ago has been returned to Côte d’Ivoire in one of the most significant cultural restitutions to a former French colony in years. The Djidji Ayôkwé, a talking drum confiscated in 1916 by French administrators, landed at 8.45am on Friday at the airport in Port Bouët on the outskirts of the economic capital, Abidjan. It was handed over to Ivorian officials in Paris earlier this month after being removed from the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum. Aboussou Guy Mobio, the chief of the Adjamé-Bingerville community, said: “After a long stay away from this land, it is returning to its own people and it is an honour for us and a relief to welcome it,. This is the missing piece of the puzzle that is returning today … Receiving this sacred instrument is a relief, but it is also another form of connection with our ancestors who were very close to this instrument.” Talking drums are hourglass-shaped pressure drums designed to mimic the tone, pitch and rhythm of human speech. The 4-metre Djidji Ayôkwé, which weighs 430kg, held cultural and political significance to the Ebrié people – after whom the lagoon in Abidjan is named – as a symbol of resistance. Before and during colonial times, it was used to send messages over several miles to announce deaths or celebrations – and in some cases, alert villages about coming danger. After villagers resisted forced labour on a road in one incident in 1916, colonial authorities seized it and took it away to France. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, promised to return the drum in 2021, but it took four years of discussions and lobbying for the French parliament to ratify and approve the decision. “I feel deep emotion. We are indeed experiencing a moment of justice and remembrance,” Françoise Remarck, the minister of culture and Francophonie in Côte d’Ivoire, said in her speech on Friday. She thanked President Alassane Ouattara and Macron for what she called “a historic day”. Then she addressed the drum, saying: “Djidji Ayôkwé, today your return is a message for our youth who have chosen to reclaim their history, and for the communities … a symbol of social cohesion, peace and dialogue … 13 March is just one step.” As a forklift operator rolled the wooden crate holding the drum from the aircraft, a cultural troupe broke into the traditional tchaman dance. Another ceremony is expected to herald the permanent installation of the drum at the Musée des Civilisations de Côte d’Ivoire in the Plateau administrative district, at a later date believed to be in April. In readiness for the exhibition to the public, Unesco has donated $100,000 (£75,400) through its Abidjan office for research and training at the museum. Sylvie Memel Kassi, a former director of the museum and founder of the TAPA Foundation for Arts and Culture, said the drum’s return to Ivorian soil paved the way for more restitution. “We are studying eight other objects,” she said, referring to the Ivorian and French authorities.
Pro-Israel Palestinian militia have launched repeated raids, clandestine assassination and abduction operations deep inside parts of Gaza controlled by Hamas in recent months, with new operations launched recently despite the outbreak of conflict with Iran. The militia, which are all based in eastern parts of Gaza that are under Israeli control after a ceasefire came into effect in October, have received significant logistic support from Israel since last year but appear to have increased their firepower, allowing new and more aggressive attacks in recent weeks. Israeli strikes in Gaza, which had averaged around 10 a day across the devastated territory over the last five months, have continued even as Israeli jets carry out bombing campaigns in Iran and Lebanon. On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike and tank shelling killed six Palestinians, including two women and a girl, in separate attacks in Gaza City, the deadliest incidents in Gaza since the US-Israeli offensive on Iran began, health officials said. At least 16 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by airstrikes since the outbreak of war with Iran on 28 February, health officials say. The most powerful among the Israeli-backed militia are the Popular Forces, based around the ruins of Rafah in the south of Gaza, and the Strike Force Against Terror, which operates east of the shattered city of Khan Younis. Both have struck into Hamas-controlled territory in recent weeks. Israel has tasked the militia with security duties within the zone it controls and deployed armed men from the Popular Forces at the Rafah crossing to Egypt after it partially opened last month. Days later, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) warned of “a pattern of ill-treatment, abuse and humiliation of returnees by Israeli forces and armed Palestinians allegedly backed by the Israeli military”. A third pro-Israeli militia based in northern Gaza, known as the Ashraf al-Mansi group, sent fighters across the “yellow line”, which currently divides zones of control in Gaza, last week, on what appears to have been a mission to ambush Hamas patrols and possibly assassinate senior Hamas figures. Officials from Hamas said it had foiled the attempt amid fighting in the Nasser neighbourhood of Gaza City. Two weeks ago, the same militia clashed with Hamas fighters in Jabaliya, on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City, which is also within the Hamas-controlled zone. “The militia are recruiting and becoming more active against Hamas, especially in Rafah … They seem to be getting more leverage. The Popular Forces, particularly now, [have] more capabilities and are more experienced,” said Nasser Khdour of Acled, an independent conflict monitor. “Hamas is launching a counteroffensive, and is trying to focus on borders and positions where the militias are based. That is one reason why the violence has gone up,” Khdour said. The enhanced role of the militias is a further challenge for plans for an international stabilisation force in Gaza. The US-brokered Gaza ceasefire, which aims to demilitarise the territory, formally entered its second phase in January, but progress had stalled even before the joint US-Israeli offensive against Iran, and the spiralling conflict it has triggered. Hamas, which controls most of the coastal strip where almost all the 2.3 million population of Gaza now live, is reluctant to fully disarm and Israel appears unwilling to relinquish its control over more than half of the territory. The Popular Forces have also been deployed against Hamas militants holding out in a tunnel complex near Rafah. In January, the group posted footage of Ghassan al-Duhaini, its leader, with a captured semi-naked, injured Hamas commander. On camera, Duhaini slapped the captive and addressed Hamas, telling the group: “Your terrorism is over. We’ll fight with force and won’t allow anyone to sabotage efforts for peace.” He later threatened to execute the captive. The pro-Israeli militia groups, who have a collective strength of only a few hundred fighters, have also been used for attacks deep into the Hamas-controlled coastal strip. The Popular Army, another Israel-supported militia, which has around 30 fighters, recently assassinated the senior officer of a Hamas police unit that targets collaborators. According to reliable analysts and reports from Gaza, Hamas militants chased the attackers as they returned to the Israeli-controlled zone from the scene of the attack in the coastal al-Mawasi area, but abandoned their pursuit when targeted by Israeli drones. In early February, Hamas said it had thwarted a new attack by the Strike Force inside the Hamas-controlled zone in Khan Younis, killing 11. The militia denied any losses and said it had launched a raid that killed six Hamas militants. There was no independent confirmation of either claim. The same day, Hamas police ambushed a group of Israeli-supported armed men in Gaza City, possibly killing three and confiscating their weapons, local sources said. Hamas appears rattled by the new attacks. It issued a statement last month promising to eliminate the pro-Israeli militias, and claiming arrests of “collaborators” allegedly helping them. Hamas spokespeople posted on social media that the militias faced “death and annihilation”. Statistics from Acled show 265 attacks launched by Israel in the month after the October ceasefire, rising to about 350 each month since, to reach a total of 1,664 in mid-March. Israeli officials say the strikes are retaliation after attacks by Hamas and infiltration attempts across the yellow line, but many target individuals far from the immediate site of any alleged breach of the ceasefire, suggesting a campaign with broader strategic aims. In one incident, on 24 February, members of a pro-Israeli militia shot and killed two Palestinian men collecting wood who approached the yellow line near Beit Lahiya. More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire, bringing the overall total for the war to more than 72,000, mostly civilians. Tahani Mustafa, an expert in regional armed groups and lecturer in international relations at King’s College London, said the intensified activity of the militia in Gaza was unlikely to stabilise the devastated territory. “The problem is that these [pro-Israeli] gangs have not only been implicated in criminality but also are operating with an occupying force that is responsible for mass devastation and starvation … They have given Hamas an inadvertent popularity boost, not because people sympathise with Hamas ideology, but because there is no one else.” Hamas has so far stayed on the sidelines of the new conflict in the region, restricting any involvement to a statement welcoming the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s supreme leader and condemning “Israeli-US aggression”.
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has issued a sharp rebuke to the US government over its decision to temporarily lift sanctions on the sale of Russian oil in the wake of sharply rising energy prices, saying the decision was wrong. He was reacting to Washington’s decision to temporarily waive sanctions on Russian oil stranded at sea as Trump administration officials attempt to reverse a surge in prices that is causing mounting apprehension about global supplies. “We believe it is wrong to ease the sanctions,” Merz said on Friday morning. “Unfortunately, Russia continues to show no willingness to negotiate. We will therefore, and must, further increase the pressure on Moscow.” Merz insisted that support for Ukraine should continue despite the conflict in the Middle East, saying: “We will not allow ourselves to be deterred or distracted from this by the war with Iran.” His economics minister, Katherina Reiche, expressed her concern “that we might continue to fill Putin’s war coffers”, as the Russian economy was benefiting from the US-Israeli war against Iran, and that action should be taken to prevent this. The comments followed similar pushback from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who said after a call with other G7 leaders over the economic ramifications of the war in Iran that the paralysis of the strait of Hormuz “in no way” justified lifting sanctions on Russia. Moscow claimed on Friday it was “increasingly inevitable” that Washington would lift the sanctions. The US was “effectively acknowledging the obvious: without Russian oil, the global energy market cannot remain stable”, Russia’s economic envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, wrote on Telegram. Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, announced a “temporary authorisation” late on Thursday, allowing countries to buy the stranded Russian oil for 30 days. Trump was “working to keep prices low”, he said, after average US fuel prices rose by 65 cents per gallon in a month. “This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction,” Bessent claimed. Brent crude, the international benchmark, remained above $100 a barrel during early trading on Friday despite this latest in a string of measures designed to soothe concerns around the economic impact of the US-Israel warn on Iran. The Middle East conflict has all but closed the strait of Hormuz, one of the most important arteries in global trade, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and seaborne gas tankers typically pass. While the Trump administration has repeatedly promised to escort vessels through the strait, activity has yet to recover. The Iranian regime has declared that it will not allow “one litre of oil” to be exported from the region while US and Israeli attacks continue. The Trump administration last week permitted Indian refiners to temporarily buy Russian oil for 30 days. A month earlier Trump claimed India had agreed to stop purchasing it, in a shift that he said would “help END THE WAR in Ukraine” by cutting off a vital source of funds for Russia. On Friday, at a briefing on the strait of Hormuz, Lloyd’s List, which issues information on global maritime and shipping logistics intelligence, said oil tankers carrying Russian oil were being immediately rerouted to India, due to sanctions having been lifted. Analysts for Lloyd’s List said that the Kremlin would benefit financially from the move. Bridget Diakun, senior risk analyst at Lloyd’s List Intelligence, said: “The Russian shadow fleet has already started to adjust for India. We instantaneously saw ships, shadow fleet tankers, sanctioned ones, non-sanctioned ones, making U-turns, diverting course. They were initially going towards Malaysia or to China, and they completely turned around and started heading for India.” She said India was at this point “able to outbid the buyers in China. And this entire situation, lifting sanctions … is a godsend for Russia’s shadow fleet. They’re in a position where now Russia can make a lot of money because it’s [been] given a pass.” There were about 124m barrels of Russian-origin oil on water across the world as of Thursday, Fox News reported. Brent crude was up 0.3% at $100.74 a barrel after Bessent’s announcement, having broken above $100 earlier this week for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four years ago. At the start of the year the oil price was about $60 a barrel. The International Energy Agency, the world’s energy watchdog, ordered the largest release of government reserves in its history on Wednesday, when its 32 members unanimously agreed to release 400m barrels of emergency crude. But continuing strikes across the Middle East have overshadowed such efforts, as Iran stepped up retaliatory strikes on economic targets in the region. It goaded the US to “get ready for oil to be $200 a barrel” after Trump’s attempt to topple the regime in Tehran. Iran started to lay mines on Thursday in the strait of Hormuz, the New York Times reported, citing US officials. Trump has tried in recent days to play down concerns about high oil prices. “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” he wrote on social media on Thursday. “BUT, of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stoping [sic] an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World. I won’t ever let that happen!” As November’s midterm elections loom, however, higher fuel prices could pose a challenge for Trump, with his Republican allies defending their small majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives.
Cuban officials have held talks with the US government to seek solutions to the blockade imposed on the Caribbean nation, Miguel Díaz-Canel has said in a video broadcast on national television. “These talks have been aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences we have between the two nations,” Díaz-Canel, the Cuban president, said in the video, which aired on Friday, shortly before he was scheduled to address Cuban media in a rare appearance that comes amid a severe economic crisis and as the Communist government has come under increasing pressure from Donald Trump. Díaz-Canel said that the Cuban negotiators had participated “on the basis of equality and respect for the political systems of both states, and for the sovereignty and self-determination” of the Cuban government. Díaz-Canel said no petroleum shipments have arrived on the island in the past three months, which he blamed on a US energy blockade. Cuba’s western region was hit by a massive blackout last week, leaving millions without power. He said that Cuba, which produces 40% of its petroleum, has been generating its own power but that it hasn’t been sufficient to meet demand. He said the lack of power has affected communications, education and transportation, and that the government has had to postpone surgeries for tens of thousands of people as a result. “The impact is tremendous,” he said. The address was billed as a continuation of a 5 February event when Diaz-Canel warned that Cuba was approaching a situation that would require “extreme measures” given the economic crisis, frequent power blackouts and fuel shortages exacerbated by Trump’s imposition of an oil blockade on the Caribbean island. Trump has said repeatedly that the United States was already in high-level talks with Cuban representatives. Until now, the Cuban government had denied that any official encounters are underway but had not explicitly denied media reports of back-channel discussions with Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, the grandson of Raul Castro, who is 94 and still wields great influence. Rodriguez Castro was seated behind Diaz-Canel and among the Communist Party officials pictured in the video. Last month, US officials held talks with former Cuban president Raúl Castro’s grandson, on the sidelines of Caricom, the annual meeting of Caribbean leaders, in St Kitts and Nevis. Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, 41, does not have an official role in the Cuban government, but remains close to his grandfather, who holds huge sway in the country’s power structure. Trump in recent weeks had made a series of statements, saying Cuba was on the verge of collapse or eager to make a deal with the United States. On Monday he said Cuba may be subject to a “friendly takeover”, then added: “It may not be a friendly takeover.”
The question, asked during a 4 March press briefing with Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and Gen Dan Caine, was a good one: if the US had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities during an operation last June, “what was the intelligence that suggested that somehow they became a threat once again that required us to get involved with Operation Epic Fury?” It was asked by Heather Mullins, who works for LindellTV, the television network founded by Mike Lindell, the pillow entrepreneur, Trump cheerleader and 2020 election denier. On Tuesday, a reporter from the Gateway Pundit, an outlet that “regularly peddles falsehoods and conspiracy theories”, as NPR put it in 2024, asked about reports that the US is unhappy with its chief ally in the operation against Iran, Israel. “Whether this reporting’s true or not, what’s your message to Americans, those who supported the president and those who aren’t really in favor of this war and who worry that Israel might be taking advantage of the US’s backing?” asked Jordan Conradson. After the heavy hitters of the Pentagon press corps walked out in October over new restrictions on access and reporting, many worried how the Donald Trump-friendly media who took their place would fill the void – particularly if, say, a war started. Major fears remain, stoked by questions bordering on sycophancy, but, so far, some longtime skeptics of the pro-Maga press corps say they are doing better than expected at questioning Hegseth and the generals who have been brought out on four occasions to give briefings and take questions from a large group of assembled reporters. “I would say the questions have, with a few exceptions, all been fair, valid, and similar to questions I’ve had in my own notebook,” said one longtime Pentagon correspondent who has attended all four briefings. “Now, they’re certainly not being asked with the same intensity or pointedness as I or my colleagues would use, but I think that takes little away from their editorial value.” Or, as Mark Feldstein, a professor of broadcast journalism at the University of Maryland, put it: “Even Pete Hegseth’s hand-picked rightwing media lackeys are starting to raise some of the same sort of obvious questions about the risk of Iran becoming a quagmire that mainstream journalists have been posing, a departure from these conservatives’ more traditional role of just mindlessly cheerleading all of the administration’s actions.” In an interview, Barbara Starr, a former Pentagon correspondent for CNN, also noted the performance of some of the new contingent of mostly Maga-aligned media personalities, though she said that doesn’t mean traditional journalists should be excluded. “It’s interesting,” she said, “some of the ‘new media’, I will say some of them have asked very reasonable, good questions. Some of them are pure propaganda, which is why I come back to my personal professional belief: everyone should be included.” A second longtime Pentagon reporter, who also attended an Iran briefing, was less impressed with the questioning from right-leaning outlets, calling it “really below par” and “not really challenging”. During the 4 March briefing, a correspondent asked about a statement made by Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, who said in an appearance on CNN that the American people don’t want another “endless war in the Middle East that is going to end in failure”. So, the reporter asked Hegseth, “what kind of message does that send to our enemies and what does it do to the motivation of our troops?” It was a layup for Hegseth, a former Fox News personality who made his name lambasting Democrats and the mainstream media. “Well, I’ve been through that movie before with the Democrats rooting against the country,” the secretary responded. During Hegseth’s first post-attack briefing, on 2 March, the first question was given to Alexandra Ingersoll of the far-right One America News Network, who asked what the US’ “exit strategy” will be and “when it will be deployed”. The briefing closed, however, with a much softer question to Hegseth, asking him what specific prayer he was saying for US troops in the field. The responses to the question on social media weren’t kind. In a change, the Pentagon has allowed many of the legacy reporters who gave up their press passes last fall to attend the Iran-focused briefings, though they have mostly been relegated to the back of the room. The Pentagon has reportedly limited briefing room access for news photographers because of unflattering photos of Hegseth, though it claims it is doing so “to use space in the Pentagon Briefing Room effectively”. While most of the questions have gone to journalists for right-leaning outlets, who now occupy the prime seats in the briefing room, Hegseth has also called on reporters from the BBC and the New York Times. (He called on BBC correspondent Tom Bateman on 4 March by saying “tie, right there.”) Despite Hegseth’s longstanding beef with the Times, he did not lash out when asked by national security correspondent Eric Schmitt on Tuesday about the timeline for the war and about any “adaptations” the Iranian military has made in response to US tactics. (The Pentagon is also currently enmeshed in a lawsuit filed by the Times in response to the press pass policy change.) “I appreciate the question,” Hegseth began. “Where we are is in a very strong place, giving the president of the United States maximum options.”