Footage from the ground in Erbil, Iraq shows several drones over the city’s airspace and the wrecking of a drone falling through the sky onto the city.
An intercepted drone burns and falls over Erbil in Iraq
Iran launches wave of heavy, multi-warhead missiles
The Iranian military released footage of missile launches from what it described as a wave of heavy, multi-warhead projectiles targeting Iraq, Bahrain, and Israel. Interceptions were seen in the skies over Israel though reports have emerged of a hit on Tel Aviv.
Press freedom declines in Americas, with US seeing sharpest drop: Report
A new report has expressed alarm at what it describes as backsliding press freedoms across the Americas, with the United States seeing the steepest decline.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) released its latest press freedom index on Tuesday, ranking last year as the lowest point for freedom of expression since the report began in 2020.
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Researchers found that the Americas have experienced a “dramatic deterioration” in unrestricted speech, according to the report.
“This is one of the worst years for journalism in the region, marked by murders, arbitrary arrests, exile, and rampant impunity in countries such as Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Cuba, and Venezuela,” the report said.
It added that enhanced restrictions on free speech have occurred in countries of various ideological persuasions, whether right-wing or left-wing.
The US, however, was singled out as an area of “alarming decline”. In a ranking of 23 countries across the hemisphere, the US dropped from fourth place to 11th, indicating that journalists operate with increased restrictions.
Changes under President Donald Trump, who returned to office last year, were cited as a primary factor.
“Even though journalistic practice in the United States remains protected by the Constitution and laws, last year’s events saw the erosion of safeguards,” the report explained.
Trump, it said, had contributed to the “stigmatisation of critical journalism”. The report also pointed to developments like cuts to public media funding and the closure of Voice of America, a government-funded broadcaster, as detriments to the free press.
In total, the report tallied 170 attacks against journalists in the US last year, and it cited interactions with federal immigration agents as an area of concern.
The report also noted that Nicaragua and Venezuela continue to rank as “without freedom of expression”.
In Venezuela’s case, for instance, it cited the closure of more than 400 radio stations and the detention of 25 journalists in the wake of the controversial 2024 presidential election.
On a scale of 100, the report ranked press freedom in the country at 7.02. It remains in last place on the report’s list of 23 countries.
El Salvador also dropped in the index’s latest evaluation, now in 21st position on the press freedom list, just ahead of Nicaragua and Venezuela.
In an accompanying statement, Sergio Arauz, the president of the Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES), denounced what he called the “escalating repression” under the government of President Nayib Bukele.
Arauz noted that 50 Salvadoran journalists had been pushed into exile in the last year amid a campaign of harassment by the government.
“There are no possibilities of practicing journalism fully without facing consequences when there is an Executive branch with virtually unlimited powers and no effective legal oversight,” said Arauz.
Since 2022, Bukele and his government have placed the country under a state of emergency that suspended key civil liberties and granted wide latitude to state security forces, in the name of addressing crime.
Tuesday’s report pointed to the state of emergency as a factor in undermining free speech, and also cited El Salvador’s new Foreign Agents Law, which gives the government the power to dissolve organisations that receive funding from abroad.
El Salvador is one of eight nations categorised in the index as “high restriction”, along with Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras, Peru, Mexico, Haiti and Cuba.
Iran war live: Tehran says US, Israel have hit nearly 10,000 civilian sites
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Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro seeks court approval for visit from Trump official
Lawyers for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have asked the country’s Supreme Court to approve visits from Darren Beattie, a far-right adviser for the administration of United States President Donald Trump.
A court filing revealed on Tuesday showed that Bolsonaro’s lawyers were seeking to arrange a meeting with Beattie next week, either on March 16 or 17, during normal visiting hours.
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“Exceptional authorisation is requested so that the visit can take place on March 16, in the afternoon, or on March 17, in the morning or early afternoon,” the filing says.
The petition also requests that an interpreter be present for the meeting, given that Bolsonaro does not speak fluent English. The request was first reported by the Reuters news agency.
Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempting to overturn his defeat in Brazil’s 2022 presidential election.
The 70-year-old had been the incumbent in the race, and prosecutors accused him of plotting with military officials to overthrow the democratic rule of law, among other charges.
He was convicted last September and has been in prison since November, after his appeal was denied.
Tuesday’s request has raised eyebrows among Bolsonaro’s critics, who have accused the ex-president of using his ties to Trump to attempt to sway his legal proceedings.
Trump has previously railed against Bolsonaro’s legal prosecution, calling it a political witch-hunt and comparing it with his own legal woes in the US.
In August, Trump raised tariffs on certain Brazilian exports to 50 percent, citing Bolsonaro’s prosecution as a motive.
“This trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY,” he wrote in a letter announcing the tariffs, which were some of the highest in the world at the time.
But Trump has since enjoyed improving relations with Brazil’s leftist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro’s rival in the 2022 race.
Brazil is slated to elect a new president in October, and Bolsonaro continues to be a powerful figure in the country’s right wing.
His eldest son, Flavio Bolsonaro, announced his candidacy – with his father’s support – in December, and is slated to face Lula, who is seeking a fourth term.
A Datafolha poll in March suggested that Flavio Bolsonaro is narrowing the gap with Lula, who is the race’s frontrunner. Forty-six percent of respondents backed Lula, and 43 percent supported the younger Bolsonaro.
Flavio Bolsonaro and his siblings have continued to petition for their father’s release.
Flavio, for instance, suggested that the “price” to rescind his candidacy would be his father’s freedom, though he later retracted the statement.
His brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, meanwhile, is facing trial on charges of obstruction of justice, with prosecutors citing his attempts to petition Trump for help in his father’s case.
Beattie, the Trump administration representative, has signalled he is sympathetic to the Bolsonaro family’s appeals.
An outspoken critic of the Brazilian government, Beattie has called Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes “the key architect of the censorship and persecution complex directed against Bolsonaro”.
Democrats say White House offers no clarity on Iran war goals after 11 days
Washington, DC – Several Democrats in the United States have emerged from a classified briefing about the war on Iran, saying they still have little clarity about President Donald Trump’s justifications and end goals, even 11 days into the conflict.
“I emerge from this briefing as dissatisfied and angry, frankly, as I have from any past briefing in my 15 years,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, following Tuesday’s briefing to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
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Their statements marked the latest wave of condemnation from congressional Democrats, who have a slim minority in the Senate and the US House of Representatives.
Party members in both chambers had recently voted in near unison on resolutions seeking to halt the war, which the US and Israel launched on February 28.
But their efforts to pass a “war powers resolution” to rein in Trump failed amid widespread Republican opposition.
More recently, Democrats have pledged to delay proceedings in the Senate unless top officials from the Department of State and the Pentagon testify under oath about the war.
Following Tuesday’s briefing, Democrats like Blumenthal argued that the Trump administration owes the US public more clarity about the war.
Blumenthal added that the meeting piqued concerns that US forces may be deployed to either Iraq or Iran.
“I am left with more questions than answers, especially about the cost of the war,” he said.
“I am most concerned about the threat to American lives of potentially deploying our sons and daughters on the ground in Iraq. We seem to be on a path towards deploying American troops on the ground in Iran to accomplish any of the potential objectives.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, said that the Trump administration “cannot explain the reasons that we entered this war, the goals we’re trying to accomplish and the methods for doing that”.
She also pointed to the high cost of the military operations against Iran, which some have estimated to exceed $5.6bn in the first two days alone.
Warren pointed out that Republicans cut healthcare subsidies last year in an effort to reduce federal spending, but appear to have no problem approving military expenses.
“While there is no money for 15 million Americans who lost their healthcare”, she noted, “there’s a billion dollars a day to spend on bombing Iran”.
While approached by reporters, Senator Jacky Rosen indicated she was limited in her ability to comment on classified briefings. Still, she offered brief remarks to voice her frustration.
“I can tell you what I heard is not just concerning. It is disturbing,” she said. “And I’m not sure what the end game is or what their plans are. They certainly have not made their case.”
‘On our timeline and at our choosing’
The latest round of criticism came shortly after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pledged to conduct the “most intense day” of strikes since the war began.
As of Tuesday, the war had killed at least 1,255 people in Iran, 394 people in Lebanon, 13 in Israel, six in Iraq and 14 across the Gulf.
Trump has repeatedly said the war would not be prolonged, but his officials have offered shifting timelines. Hegseth, for instance, said the fighting would not stop “until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated”.
“We do so on our timeline and at our choosing,” he said.
The Trump administration has also offered an array of justifications for launching the war, which came amid indirect talks with Iran on the future of its nuclear programme.
Trump has blamed Iran’s nuclear ambitions for the conflict, though Tehran has denied seeking a nuclear weapon, and his administration has also said the war was necessary to end Iran’s ballistic missile programme.
Experts have said that available evidence does not support the Trump administration’s claims that either posed an immediate threat to the US.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters last week that the US attacked because its close ally Israel had planned to attack Iran, which would have led to retaliation against US assets.
Rubio and Trump subsequently backed away from the circular rationale, with Trump claiming last week that Iran was the one planning to strike first.
Another rationale the Trump administration offered is that the totality of Iran’s actions since the 1979 Islamic revolution represented a threat to the US, thereby necessitating an attack.
Trump and his top officials have not provided evidence for any of their claims.
Calls for hearings, investigation
Democrats have been largely sidelined since the war began. Only a handful of Republicans have joined the left-leaning party in its efforts to rein in Trump through legislative means.
Under the US Constitution, only Congress can declare war. But presidents can still use the military to respond to imminent threats in instances of self-defence.
Still, there are limits to how long such operations can proceed. Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, presidents must withdraw forces within 60 to 90 days of an unauthorised military campaign, or else seek congressional approval.
Trump, however, has denied he needs congressional backing for the military campaigns he has conducted since returning to office.
The latest attacks in Iran have sparked widespread public opposition, with polls suggesting a majority of US citizens oppose the war effort.
Earlier this week, six Democratic senators called for an investigation into a strike on a girls’ school in Minab, in southern Iran. Several investigations have indicated that the US was responsible for the attack, which killed at least 170 people, mostly children.
Last week, nearly 30 members of Congress called for an investigation into reports that US military leaders had used biblical motivations to justify the war to subordinates.
Some reportedly invoked “religious prophecy and apocalyptic theology” in statements to other enlisted personnel.
On Monday, Senator Cory Booker said Democrats had “collectively agreed” to use an array of procedural mechanisms in the chamber to block legislative business until Trump officials agree to testify under oath.
“Each individual senator has a tremendous amount of power to disrupt the normal functioning of the Senate, as well as certain privileges that we can exercise,” Booker said.