Iran has launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf countries while more than a week of heavy U.S. and Israeli bombardment continues. Iranian state TV announced early Monday that Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has been named supreme leader in defiance of threats by U.S. President Donald Trump.
1. Khamenei, who is seen as even more hard-line than his father, will now be in charge of Iran’s armed forces and any decision about Tehran’s nuclear program. The appointment marks a new sign of defiance by Iran’s embattled leadership after more than a week of heavy U.S. and Israeli bombardment.
2. Oil prices surged on Monday, leading to more worries that higher energy costs will fuel inflation and lead to less spending by U.S. consumers, the main engine of the economy. Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index plunged as much as 7% in early Monday trading, while other Asian markets also tumbled.
3. New footage has raised the likelihood that the U.S. military struck an Iranian school where a blast killed at least 165 people, mostly children.
4. The U.S. military announced a seventh American service member has died of injuries sustained during an Iranian attack on troops stationed in Saudi Arabia. The first six deaths were Army reservists killed in a March 1 attack in a Kuwaiti port.
5. The death toll continues to rise: The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials in those countries.
Here is the latest:
Trump says he’s holding a news conference before he leaves Florida, topic unknown
Trump announced the news conference in a social media post in which the Republican president laid out his schedule for Monday.
He said it would begin at approximately 5:30 p.m. EDT — after the markets close and with concerns rising about high oil and gasoline prices because of the war. Trump did not say if the news conference would be about a particular topic. The White House had no immediate comment.
Trump was spending Monday at his Miami-area golf club and having “many important meetings and phone calls” while there, according to the post. He said he’s attending a 4 p.m. fundraiser for House Speaker Mike Johnson and will hold the news conference before he returns to the White House.
House Republicans are also meeting there on Monday for a legislative retreat.
Trump arrived in the Miami area on Friday for a summit at the club on Saturday with Latin American and Caribbean leaders.
A second Iranian nuclear site has been struck, UN says
However, any damage to the Isfahan site appears to be minor, said Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.
He didn’t say when the site was struck or by which countries’ forces. Satellite images of Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility have also shown damage to buildings and additional damage across the facility’s complex.
“Since the beginning of this campaign, we’ve seen some impacts in Natanz — a couple — and one in Isfahan. Not a very major one, I should say,” Grossi said, speaking to reporters in Paris.
“What we saw was an impact close to one axis, to one of the tunnels there and this is all we saw,” he said.
France’s Macron orders naval deployment to Mediterranean after Cyprus strike
France will deploy eight warships, including the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and two helicopter carriers, to the Eastern Mediterranean and wider Middle East to bolster security around the European Union’s eastern frontier, President Emmanuel Macron said Monday.
Speaking in Cyprus days after a drone struck the British base on the island — the first attack of the war on European soil — Macron also said France is working on an initiative to escort oil and gas tankers through the Strait of Hormuz once the conflict’s most intense phase eases.
Israeli diplomat says his country will target anyone with ‘radical ideas’ — including Iran’s new leader
Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. said Iran’s new supreme leader “is more of the same — same ideology, same radical ideas” as his late father.
“Anyone who will promote those radical ideas against us, we will target them,” Danny Danon told reporters. “We will find them.”
Danon was asked whether Israel supports Trump’s statement that the U.S. president should have a say in choosing Iran’s next leader.
“There is no daylight between the U.S. and Israel,” he said, then added, “I think it’s for the people of Iran to choose their next leadership.”
“We will have to create the conditions for them, and that’s what we are doing now,” the ambassador said. “But eventually they will have to stand up, rise up and choose their own leadership.”
Lebanon’s president says Israel-Hezbollah fighting could turn his country into ‘another Gaza’
Joseph Aoun told a group of European officials in a video meeting that armed groups in his country had provoked Israel into pummeling Lebanon, saying the militants sprang an “ambush for Lebanon, the Lebanese state, and the Lebanese people.”
Without naming Hezbollah directly, Aoun sharply criticized the Iran-allied militant group, saying it “does not give any weight to the interest of Lebanon or the lives of its people.”
Israel began striking Lebanon after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the killing of Iran’s supreme leader.
Trump says Australia is handling the Iranian women’s soccer team situation
The team’s coach had said they want to return home as soon as possible. However, Trump has said he wants Australia to grant the team asylum, saying, “The U.S. will take them if you won’t.”
The president said on social media Monday that five members of the team have “already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way.” He said some feel they must go back to Iran because they’re worried about the safety of their families.
Trump did not elaborate on how Australia was resolving the issue, after speaking to the country’s prime minister.
? Read more about the Iranian women’s soccer squad.
People run for cover in Tel Aviv as missiles come from Lebanon
As the missiles swooshed through the sky, consecutive loud booms reverberated in the streets of Tel Aviv and people ran for shelter.
Israel’s army said the barrage of projectiles came from Lebanon, where it is fighting with Hezbollah. Projectiles from Hezbollah don’t have a pre-warning like missiles do from Iran, which can leave people scrambling as the sirens ring.
Europeans call for an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Lebanon fighting
France and four other European members of the Security Council requested the urgent meeting Monday as Israeli strikes have continued to pound Lebanon since Hezbollah struck Israel in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
The United States, which holds the council presidency this month, has not yet scheduled a session on Lebanon.
Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, said another council meeting would not change the situation on the ground.
“Discussions will not disarm Hezbollah,” he said.
“The Lebanese government must disarm Hezbollah and take full control of southern Lebanon,” Danon said. “If Lebanon does not do so, Israel will disarm Hezbollah to protect its citizens.”
Turkey warns Iran after a second missile enters its airspace
Turkey’s NATO air defense systems intercepted the ballistic missile Monday, however the country’s president warned Iran to avoid “provocative steps.”
Speaking at the end of a Cabinet meeting, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country values its friendship with Iran and has been working toward preventing the conflict, but that Tehran risks damaging “Turkey’s friendship.”
“No one should engage in calculations that would leave deep wounds in our nation’s heart and mind,” Erdogan said. “In light of today’s incident, I once again remind (Iran) to avoid persisting in mistakes and stubbornness.”
Anthropic sues the Trump administration seeking to undo ‘supply chain risk’ designation
The Pentagon last week formally designated the San Francisco tech company a “supply chain risk” over its refusal to allow unrestricted military use of its technology.
The lawsuits aim to undo the designation and block its enforcement, and come after an unusually public dispute over how Anthropic’s AI chatbot Claude could be used in warfare.
Anthropic filed two separate lawsuits Monday, one in California federal court and another in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., each challenging different aspects of the Pentagon’s actions against the company.
? Read more about Anthropic and the U.S. military
Seventh US service member killed is identified as Army soldier from Colorado unit
The Pentagon has identified the seventh U.S. service member killed in combat during the Iran war as Army Staff Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky.
Pennington died Sunday after being wounded during an attack on March 1 at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, a Pentagon statement said.
He was assigned to 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade that is based at Fort Carson, Colorado. The unit’s mission focused on “missile warning, GPS, and long-haul satellite communications,” according to its website.
Pennington was posthumously promoted to staff sergeant, according to an Army press release.
Six Army reservists were killed in Kuwait when an Iranian drone struck an operations center at a civilian port
Iran’s president welcomes the selection of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei as new supreme leader
President Masoud Pezeshkian, a relative moderate in Iran’s Shiite theocracy, wrote on X that “solving the country’s problems can be achieved through his wise leadership and by creating an atmosphere built on people’s trust and participation.”
The supreme leader, chosen by a clerical body, has the final say on all major policies, including war, peace and the country’s disputed nuclear program.
Israeli authorities say a man was killed by an Iranian cluster bomb
Cluster bombs travel through the air then burst open before landing, breaking up into dozens or hundreds of smaller bomblets to maximize the likelihood of hitting targets.
Col. Jonathan Raz of Israel’s Home Front Command said Monday that the area of Yehud in the country’s center was hit by a cluster bomb, killing at least one person and leaving others in critical condition.
Israel’s military said Iran has been using cluster bombs on a “nearly daily basis,” noting that Iran fired similar projectiles during the previous 12-day war last June.
UN says more than 10 children were killed every day across Lebanon in past week in escalating strikes
The U.N. children’s agency says deaths and injuries to children since Israel retaliated in Lebanon for Hezbollah strikes are “staggering.”
UNICEF’s Middle East director Edouard Beigbeder said that according to the latest reports at least 83 children have been killed and 254 wounded since March 2.
That’s more than 10 children killed, and approximately 36 injured, every day, he said in a statement.
Beigbeder said the figures “are a stark testament to the toll that conflict is taking on children.”
“As military strikes continue across the country, children are being killed and injured at a horrifying rate, families are fleeing their homes in fear, and thousands of children are now sleeping in cold and overcrowded shelters,” he said.
Hundreds leaving Iran through Turkmenistan
Checkpoints on the border between Iran and Turkmenistan have begun operating 24 hours a day to facilitate the transit of those seeking to leave Iran amid the war with the U.S. and Israel, Turkmenistan’s officials said Monday.
So far, some 250 people from 16 countries have crossed into the Central Asian nation from Iran, officials said. Those crossing into Turkmenistan are being offered food and assistance in contacting their families or embassies.
Turkmenistan, a former Soviet country that has remained largely isolated under autocratic rule since it gained independence, shares a 1,148-kilometer (713-mile) border with Iran. During the Israel-Iran war in 2025, Turkmenistan, despite its harsh visa policies, provided an evacuation corridor for more than 4,000 people from 52 countries who sought to leave Iran.
UAE says 2 military personnel killed in noncombat helicopter crash
The United Arab Emirates announced Monday the deaths of two noncombat members of its armed forces following the crash of a helicopter due to a “technical malfunction.”
This comes as the ministry continues to work against what it said were hundreds of missiles and drones fired by Iran toward the country in a war that started over a week ago.
Egypt’s leader condemns Iran’s attacks on its neighbors, Israel’s moves on Lebanon
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Monday also urged deescalating the conflict in the region to avoid further “unprecedented repercussions” that could impact global economy and energy security.
“The national security of Arab countries is an integral part of Egyptian national security,” he said during an EU video conference held with some Arab leaders to discuss U.S.-Israel war on Iran, according to a statement by the president’s office.
El-Sissi also called for supporting Lebanon and exerting efforts to “prevent Israel from invading Lebanon during this difficult stage” and targeting the country’s infrastructure.
Marco Rubio says US ‘well on our way’ to destroying Iranian missile threat
The secretary of state says the United States is “well on our way” to destroying Iran’s ability to threaten its neighbors and the world with missiles.
Speaking Monday at a State Department ceremony to honor Americans wrongfully detained abroad in countries including in Iran, Rubio said the goal of the continuing U.S. air strikes is to eliminate Iran’s ballistic missile stockpile, its ability to produce them and its ability to launch them.
“We are well on our way to achieving that objective” he said, adding that it is being done “with overwhelming force, with overwhelming precision.”
US designates Sudan branch of Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization
The Trump administration has designated the Sudan branch of the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, accusing it of getting training and other support from Iran. It’s the fourth chapter of the group the U.S. has hit with the label.
The State Department said Monday that the Sudan branch would be classified as a “specially designated global terrorist” group with immediate effect and would be labeled a “foreign terrorist organization” once a congressional review of the move is complete on March 16. It said the group was responsible for “mass executions of civilians” among other things.
The SDGT designation imposes sanctions but the FTO designation ramps up those penalties to include making it a crime to provide material support for the group or its members.
The administration has previously designated the Lebanese branch of the group an FTO and the chapters in Egypt and Jordan as SDGTs.
German leader says it’s up to Iran to stop the fighting
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday that “it is up to this regime and the so-called Revolutionary Guard alone to stop the fighting.”
He added that “so long as this not the case, I assume that Israel and America will continue their defense against this regime.”
Merz said the threat posed by the Iranian government reaches far beyond the region, pointing to its support for Russia in the war in Ukraine. He said that “Iran is the center of international terrorism, and this center must be closed. And the Americans and Israelis are doing that in their way.”
Qatar intercepts 17 missiles and 6 drones
Qatar’s Defense Ministry said Monday it intercepted all 17 missiles and six drones launched from Iran toward the Gulf nation on Monday, as Iran continues to attack neighboring Arab states. There was no damage or casualties, the ministry said.
Ukraine is helping nations seeking assistance against drones
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Ukraine had received 11 requests from countries seeking assistance in countering threats linked to Iran. They include Iran’s neighbors, European countries and the United States.
Writing on social media, Zelenskyy said the requests focus on Ukraine’s experience in defending against drones, including interceptor systems, electronic warfare and training.
He said Kyiv is ready to help those who helped defend Ukrainian lives and independence. He added that Kyiv had already responded to some requests with specific decisions and support, and would consider further assistance as long as it does not weaken Ukraine’s own defenses.
“Ukraine’s priority is clear: the Iranian regime must not gain any advantage over those defending lives, and everyone must work together to achieve tangible stabilization both in the region and in global markets,” Ukrainian leader said.