The world is again witnessing the use of war as a strategy for mediating unresolved conflicts. A new war involving Iran, the United States, Israel and other Middle East countries joins ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Children are the most vulnerable victims of armed conflict. Tens of thousands have been killed or injured in Gaza and Sudan alone over the past several years. Now, dozens of girls at a primary school in Iran were among the first known casualties of this new war.

The Trump administration has started to panic about the spiking price of oil. While senior Trump aides had anticipated some brief surge in oil prices in the first days of the war with Iran, the size and sustainability of the market reaction caught them off guard, people familiar with the internal discussions told CNN.

President Donald Trump was eager to point to gas prices in his State of the Union speech last month as he touted his administration's progress on the economy. "Gasoline, which reached a peak of over $6 a gallon in some states under my predecessor — it was, quite honestly, a disaster — is now below $2.30 a gallon in most states," Trump boasted minutes into his nearly-two-hour address, framing his party's message heading into the midterms.

The Trump administration believes it can withstand a brief spike in oil prices — for as many as four weeks, as one person close to the White House suggested — before the political hit does lasting damage. Administration officials' confidence was bolstered Tuesday when oil dropped to $80 per barrel, down from $120 this weekend, reinforcing their view that the spikes are temporary and manageable.

Multiple news outlets have reported that video, satellite images and expert analysis indicate that the United States was likely responsible for the Feb. 28 bombing of an Iranian school for young girls, contradicting President Donald Trump's unsupported claim that the deadly strike "was done by Iran." When a reporter aboard Air Force One asked Trump on March 7 if the U.S. had bombed the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school, the president said, "No, in my opinion, based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran." He continued: "We think it was done by Iran – because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was standing near Trump at the time, didn't echo the president's version of events when a reporter asked if that claim was accurate.

Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was injured in the 28 February attack that killed six of his family members, including his father, Tehran's ambassador to Cyprus has confirmed. In an interview conducted at his embassy compound in Nicosia, Alireza Salarian elaborated on the circumstances in which Khamenei, 56, was injured, saying he was lucky to survive the strike, which levelled the late ayatollah's residence. "He was also there and he was injured in that bombardment but I haven't seen that reflected in the foreign news," he told the Guardian. "I have heard that he was injured in his legs and hand and arm … I think he is in the hospital because he is injured."

As construction nears completion on the long-delayed $850 million Obama Presidential Center, federal tax filings show the Obama Foundation paid CEO Valerie Jarrett $740,000 in 2024 while several former Obama White House officials collected six-figure salaries as foundation executives. The Obama Foundation — which will operate the 19.3-acre center on publicly owned Chicago parkland — paid its CEO more than any other major presidential foundation. Salaries and benefits soared from $18.5 million in 2018 to $43.7 million in 2024, as staffing expanded to 337 employees and annual revenue reached nearly $210 million. Jarrett, one of the Obamas' closest advisors, took over as CEO in 2021 and is among six of the foundation's 10 highest-paid executives who previously held senior roles in the Obama administration or campaign, according to a review of the foundation's tax filings from 2018 to 2024.