Top U.S. & World Headlines — March 26, 2026

AMY GOODMAN, The War and Peace Report, I'm Amy Goodman. The Trump administration is threatening to intensify its attacks on Iran as the U.S. and Israeli assault enters its 27th day. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said unless Iran agrees to surrender they will be, quote, hit harder than they have ever been hit before," unquote. The threat came as Iran's foreign minister, Basaraghi, once again denied President Trump's

claims U.S. officials are negotiating with Iran for an end to the war.

For now, our policy is to continue resisting and to continue defending the country. At present, we have no intention of negotiating, and no negotiations have taken place. We want the war to end, but on our terms, in a way that ensures it will not be repeated and that our enemies learn a lesson, so that they will not even contemplate attacking Iran again. And secondly, the damage suffered by the people of Iran must be compensated.

Iran's other demands include recognition of Iran's sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier today, Israel's defense minister said Israel's killed Alireza Tangsri, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy. He played a key role in Iran's military success in controlling access to the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, Iran's continuing attacks on Israel, U.S. military bases and the nations that host them. Israel's health ministry reports nearly 150 people were injured over the past 24 hours from Iranian missiles and drones, only some of which were successfully shot down by air defenses. Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reported they intercepted Iranian missiles and drones, while in the United Arab Emirates, authorities said at least two people were killed and three

injured from falling debris. Meanwhile, Iraq's government has accused the Pentagon of bombing a clinic on a military base in Anbar province, killing seven Iraqi soldiers and injuring 13 others. Iraq's military condemned the strike as a heinous aggression that, quote, undermines the relationship between the peoples of Iraq and the United States," unquote.

The attack came a day after another attack on the same base killed at least 15 fighters with the former paramilitary group Popular Mobilization Forces, which includes Iranian-backed brigades. The Pentagon denied targeting a clinic. Israel's bombed Beirut and pushed deeper into southern Lebanon, as it outlines plans to occupy the region. This comes as Oxfam says Israeli forces are destroying water and sanitation infrastructure

across Lebanon, repeating the same pattern used in Gaza. In just four days, during the first weeks of fighting, Israel damaged at least seven critical water sources in the Bekaa area, cutting off clean water to nearly 7,000 people. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch documented Israel's use of white phosphorus munitions over the southern Lebanese town of Yomar on March 3rd, firing the incendiary weapon over residential areas and sparking fires in at least two homes.

Ahmad Beydoun, an open-source intelligence researcher at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, mapped 248 Israeli white phosphorus strikes across southern Lebanon, finding 39 percent hit civilian areas. Lebanese authorities say Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,000 people since March 2nd, and forced more than a million people to flee from their homes. In southern Lebanon, a dozen paramedics gathered Wednesday as they prepared to bury two of their colleagues killed in Israeli attacks.

This is Mohamed Sleiman, a chief paramedic and father of Jude Suleiman, who was killed in an Israeli strike.

These are two men wearing the clothes of paramedics, on a motorcycle for paramedics, which had a paramedic flag and label on it, paramedic lights on it, wearing helmets.

Everything about them says they are paramedics.

In Gaza, an Israeli strike Wednesday sent a column of smoke and flames over a tent camp housing displaced families in the Deir el-Bala camp. Medical workers said the bombing killed one Palestinian and injured eight others. Residents say Israel's military ordered people to leave their tents and flee the area ahead of the airstrike. In occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities Wednesday evicted at least 11 Palestinian

families from their homes in the Silwan neighborhood, as police escorted Israeli settlers to the scene. The settlers were then filmed throwing furniture out of apartment windows and raising an Israeli flag above the buildings. The Israeli human rights group, At-Salam, reports about 2,200 Palestinians in Silwan face the imminent threat of eviction, which the group calls ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem.

The U.S. military struck an alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean Wednesday, killing four people. The Pentagon offered no evidence that the boat was carrying drugs. The attack brings the total death toll to at least 163 people since the Trump administration began targeting so-called narco-terrorists in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific last September. Meanwhile, New York Times investigations found a March 6 strike jointly conducted by the

U.S. and Ecuador against an alleged drug traffickers' training camp actually destroyed a dairy farm in the remote Ecuadoran village of San Martin, in the Amazon jungle. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had posted video of the strike online, writing the U.S. as, quote, bombing narco-terrorists on land, unquote. Local residents told The Times, Ecuadoran soldiers arrived by helicopter three days before the bombing, interrogated and beat four farm workers, and set fire to shelters

and sheds before returning to bomb the dairy farm. The Alliance for Human Rights, a coalition of groups in Ecuador, filed a 13-page complaint with the Ecuadoran authorities and the United Nations. In immigration news, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case challenging the Trump administration's request to turn away refugees at the U.S. border, even though people have the right to apply for asylum under international law.

The court's conservative majority appeared sympathetic to the government's argument it can turn away asylum seekers as long as they haven't physically stepped onto U.S. soil at a port of entry. A decision is expected by late June or early July. U.S. air travelers are now facing the longest wait times in the Transportation Security Administration's history.

That's according to acting TSA administrator Hanwen McNeil, who testified to a House committee Wednesday that the 40-day partial government shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security has led TSA workers to go unpaid at great personal expense.

Many in our workforce have missed bill payments, received eviction notices, had their cars repossessed and utilities shut off, lost their childcare, defaulted on loans, damaged their credit line and drained their retirement savings. Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on jobs, second jobs to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public.

In California, a jury in Los Angeles Wednesday found tech giants Alphabet and Meta liable for $3 million in damages after siding with a plaintiff who accused the tech giants of designing products to addict young users. The plaintiff in the case was a 20-year-old, referred to as KGM, who says she became addicted to social media at a young age, with severe harm to her mental health.

This is Juliana Arnold, who says her daughter Coco spiraled into self-doubt and depression after becoming addicted to social media platforms like Instagram.

Stop blaming the parents. It's on you. And this is what this is showing today. And for parents, we now know that they were manipulating our children for profits while we were watching and trying to keep our families safe.

Wednesday's ruling in the landmark social media addiction lawsuit came a day after a jury in New Mexico ordered META to pay $375 million in penalties for knowingly harming children and concealing child sexual exploitation on its platforms. First Lady Melania Trump walked into the White House East Room Wednesday alongside a humanized AI robot called Figure 3 during a summit focused on AI and education. The robot strolled next to the first lady, welcomed guests in the room in several different languages and waved its hand.

Melania Trump touted the humanoid robot as a humanoid educator that could homeschool children. Meanwhile, Vermont's independent Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced legislation Wednesday to impose a national moratorium on new AI data center construction. The bill would halt all new construction until Congress passes federal laws to protect workers

and consumers and ensure that technologies don't harm the environment. It comes as electricity costs rose nearly 7 percent last year, more than twice the overall rate of inflation, costing the average household $123 more in 2025. Experts and advocacy groups link rising electricity costs in part to the rapid construction of AI data centers, which have dramatically increased demand on the electric grid.

This is Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

More than 100 local communities across 12 states have already enacted local moratoriums on data centers, and Congress itself has a moral obligation to stand with them and stop big tech from ruining their communities. Our legislation in the House and the Senate would hit the brakes on construction of new

data centers until we address several of the key areas of harm AI poses.

The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution Wednesday declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity," unquote. The resolution calls on member nations to pursue repertory justice, including formal apologies, restitution and compensation. It also demands the return of cultural artifacts, such as artworks, monuments and national archives, to their countries of origin.

The United States, Israel and Argentina voted against the resolution. Deputy U.S. Ambassador Dan Negria said before the vote the U.S., quote, does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred," unquote. The United Kingdom and 27 EU member states abstain. This is Ghana's President John Mahama.

So today we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice. The adoption of this resolution serves as a safeguard against forgetting. It also challenges the enduring scars of slavery.

And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

And I'm Nermeen Shaikh.

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