Top U.S. & World Headlines — March 18, 2026

AMY GOODMAN, The War and Peace Report, is presented by Democracy Now!

Welcome to Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Israel says it's killed Iran's intelligence minister, Ismail Khatib, in a strike overnight in Tehran. It's the latest assassination of Iran's senior leadership. This comes as Iran is set to hold funerals today for its security chief, Ali Larijani,

and Basij commander Golamreza Soleimani, both of whom were also killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday. Iran vowed revenge and launched retaliatory strikes against Israel. Two people were killed near Tel Aviv by an Iranian missile strike, Israeli emergency responders said earlier today. On Tuesday, the U.S. dropped 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs along Iran's coast near the Strait

of Hormuz to target Iran's anti-ship cruise missiles. It comes as Joe Kent, the director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, resigned Tuesday over the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. In a letter to President Trump, posted on X, Kent wrote, quote, "'Iran' posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it's clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American

lobby," unquote. Kent is the first senior official to openly break with the White House over the war on Iran. He's a longtime Trump supporter who unsuccessfully ran for Congress twice. During his 2022 election bid, Kent hired a member of the far-right Proud Boys as a consultant. Meanwhile, top intelligence officials are expected to testify before the Senate Intelligence

Committee later today. It comes as senior Israeli officials have told U.S. diplomats Iranian protesters will, quote, get slaughtered, unquote, if they demonstrate against their government, even as Israel has been promoting anti-regime protests. That's according to a State Department cable reviewed by The Washington Post. Iran's Ministry of Health says at least 1,444 people have been killed and nearly 19,000

injured in U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran since February 28. This is a worker with the Iranian Red Crescent.

During the operations of the imposed war from the U.S. and Israel against my country, the Islamic State of Iran, we have seen many heartbreaking scenes. Unfortunately, we have witnessed killing and injuring many of our civilian citizens that happened during the attacks to residential places at night or during other times, and created tragic scenes.

Iran continues to launch retaliatory strikes against its neighbors in the region. In Iraq, Iranian rocket attacks have targeted the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, and a drone sparked a fire at a luxury hotel in Baghdad's heavily fortified green zone. In the UAE, an Iranian projectile landed near a military base that hosts Australian troops. Several Gulf nations, including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, said they're continuing to intercept Iranian missiles and drones.

On Monday, Iran launched almost 100 drones at Saudi Arabia, according to the Saudi defense ministry. Israel launched airstrikes on central Beirut earlier today, demolishing a residential high-rise building. The Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the building in central Beirut, saying it was a facility used by Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, in southern Lebanon, Israeli troops have been conducting ground operations, ordering the evacuation of several villages. According to the Lebanese public health ministry, at least 912 people, including 111 children, have been killed and 2,221 people have been wounded in Lebanon's assault on—in Israel's assault on Lebanon. The Norwegian Refugee Council said one million people, about a sixth of Lebanon's population,

have been displaced. This is Tamim Al-Khitan, a spokesperson for the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights.

In many instances, Israeli airstrikes have destroyed entire residential buildings in dense urban environments, with multiple members of the same family, including women and children, often killed together. Such attacks raise concerns under international humanitarian law.

Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Farah Ghalibaf, issued a stark warning about the Strait of Hormuz, saying in a post on X that the strait, quote, "'won't return to its pre-war status,' unquote. This comes as President Trump blasted NATO members as they informed the U.S. they will not get involved in Trump's coalition to reopen the strait. In a post on X, President Trump wrote, quote, "'I am not surprised by their action, however,

because I always considered NATO, where we spend hundreds of billions of dollars per year protecting these same countries, to be a one-way street. We'll protect them, but they will do nothing for us in particular in a time of need,' Trump said."

This is French President Emmanuel Macron.

We are not party to the conflict, and therefore France will never take part in operations to open or liberate the Strait of Hormuz in the current context.

Gas prices in the U.S. continue to increase, as Iran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, which sees the passage of about 20 percent of the world's oil supply. According to AAA, the national average price for gas reached $3.84 a gallon Wednesday, rising 5 cents a day. Overall, gas prices have jumped 29 percent since the war began. This comes as the U.N. warms 45 million people around the world, or at risk of acute hunger

due to rising food prices sparked by the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. Here in the United States, Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanch, are set to testify before the House Oversight Committee on the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files later today. Committee Chair James Comer subpoenaed Bondi yesterday, writing in a letter, quote, "'As Attorney General, you are directly responsible for overseeing the Department's

collection, review and determinations regarding the release of files pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and the committee therefore believes that you possess valuable insight into these efforts," Comer wrote. Meanwhile, a New York Times review of thousands of pages of Justice Department documents found the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein spent heavily on a rotating team of search engine optimization experts, self-described hackers and content writers to reshape how Epstein appeared on

Google and Wikipedia after his 2008 sex crimes conviction. Senate Democrats late Tuesday sent the White House a new counteroffer to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which has been under a partial shutdown for more than a month. The Trump administration has so far ignored demands from Democrats, such as requiring officers to obtain a judicial warrant to enter private homes and to address the excessive use of force by immigration agents.

Earlier Tuesday, the administration signaled it's open to enforcing, quote, the use of visible officer identification, though Trump officials have not conceded to prohibiting officers from wearing face coverings. This comes as Trump's Homeland Security secretary nominee, Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, is set to appear before a Senate committee today as his confirmation process begins.

Trump appointed Mullen to replace Christine Noem, who was fired from the position as head of Department of Homeland Security earlier this month. Several immigrants from El Salvador who were deported by the Trump administration last year have been disappeared and subjected to arbitrary detention in their home country. That's according to a new report by Human Rights Watch, which said at least 11 deported Salvadorans have languished in detention for months since being deported from the United

States to El Salvador. They have not been allowed to communicate with their families or provide a due process. Some of them were deported last March, along with dozens of Venezuelans, and sent to the troubled Secat Megaprison in El Salvador, where there are mounting reports of torture, including sexual violence. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from terminating temporary

protected status—that's TPS—for immigrants from Somalia. The judge's emergency order came as the relief was slated to end yesterday. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, CARES Minnesota chapter, said in a statement, quote, This decision brings a critical moment of relief for Somali families

across Minnesota and the country who have been living under the weight of uncertainty,' unquote. Minnesota is home to one of the largest Somali populations in the United States." The Trump administration is considering withholding HIV treatment, tuberculosis and malaria medications from Zambia in order to force the country to open its mines to U.S. companies. That's according to a leaked State Department memo obtained by The New York Times.

The memo says, quote, "'We will only secure our priorities by demonstrating willingness to publicly take support away from Zambia on a massive scale,' unquote. The proposed deal would offer Zambia $1 billion in health funding over five years, which is less than half of what the country received before President Trump took office. In return, Zambia would need to grant U.S. companies access to its copper, cobalt and lithium reserves, and agree to restructure a nearly half-billion-dollar agricultural grant to require regulatory changes in its mining sector.

About 1.3 million people in Zambia rely on daily HIV treatment provided through U.S. aid programs. Cuba's restored power after a 29-hour island-wide blackout left millions of people without electricity. Cuban energy officials said they'd reconnected the national power grid that had completely collapsed Monday. But blackouts are expected to continue.

A U.S. energy blockade has cut off Cuba from accessing desperately needed fuel, as the Trump administration intensifies its pressure to topple the Cuban government. The Justice Department's dismissed charges against an Army veteran who set a U.S. flag on fire across the street from the White House last year. The protest, held by Jan J. Carey, came in response to a Trump executive order that mandated federal agencies to vigorously prosecute anyone who burns the U.S. flag.

Carey was not charged with flag burning, but faced two misdemeanors, including for igniting a fire in an undesignated area. A 1989 Supreme Court ruling determined the burning of a U.S. flag as protected speech under the First Amendment. A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to restore a union contract with 320,000 Veterans Affairs Department workers. This comes after Doug Collins, the VA secretary, canceled the union agreement back in August.

U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose agreed with the American Federation of Government employees that the VA canceled its bargaining agreement as retaliation for the union's opposition to the Trump administration's labor policies. Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the ruling, quote, "'holds this administration accountable and makes clear no one can retaliate against workers for standing up for their rights," unquote.

And in Illinois, Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton won Tuesday's Democratic Senate primary in a race to succeed Senator Dick Durbin, who is retiring. Al Jazeera and The Intercept reported dozens of donor groups aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, gave money to Stratton's campaign. If elected in November, Stratton could become the sixth black woman to serve in the Senate

in U.S. history. Meanwhile, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss won the Democratic primary in a closely watched race for a U.S. House seat that's not been vacant for nearly three decades. More than a dozen Democrats ran to succeed the retiring Congressmember John Schakowsky, who's been in office since 1999. Progressive candidate Kat Ubegasala finished second.

Groups linked to Apex spent millions of dollars attacking both her and Biss. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. And for more of our audience-supported journalism, go to democracynow.org, where you can download our news app, sign up for our newsletter, subscribe to the Daily Podcast and so much our news app, sign up for our newsletter, subscribe to the Daily Podcast and so much

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