A near-total internet blackout makes verifying civilians deaths extremely difficult. But the Human Rights Activists news agency, a US-based NGO focused on Iranian human rights, says US-Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 742 civilians<\/a>, including 176 children, with hundreds more cases under review. Elsewhere, the Iranian Red Crescent Society reported<\/a> a death toll of 787 people, and the Norway-based Hengaw said its count of the death toll was at least 1,500, including 200 civilians and 1,300 Iranian military members. The numbers are likely to rise.<\/p>\n Donald Trump said on Monday<\/a> that the US campaign had been projected to last four to five weeks but could \u201cgo far longer than that\u201d. The US state department has urged Americans<\/a> to immediately leave more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as the conflict worsens.<\/p>\n What is the legality of the attacks on Iran? The Guardian spoke to legal experts, who were in consensus that the initial strikes were unlawful<\/a> under international law. \u201cThere doesn\u2019t seem to be any evidence of an imminent threat by Iran,\u201d said Susan Breau, a professor of international law and a senior associate research fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. The US constitution also enshrines the power to formally declare war exclusively to Congress, but the president did not seek congressional approval beforehand.<\/p>\n What has the US said about the war\u2019s justification? It keeps shifting. Donald Trump initially said there were \u201cimminent threats\u201d to Americans, and that the US wanted to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, as well as urging Iranians to rise up and topple the regime. Then Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said on Monday<\/a> that Israel\u2019s determination to attack Iran \u2013 and the certainty that US troops would be targeted in response \u2013 had forced the Trump administration to take pre-emptive strikes.<\/p>\n Are European countries joining? Spain denied the US<\/a> permission to use jointly operated military bases on its territory for its \u201cunjustified\u201d assault on Iran, while Trump criticized the UK<\/a> for taking \u201cfar too long\u201d to approve American use of its airbases.<\/p>\n What are the implications of disrupting the strait of Hormuz? The strait, which Iran controls, is a key global shipping route, with a fifth of global seaborne oil passing through it. It is now effectively closed and the price of oil has jumped, triggering fears of a new wave of global cost-of-living pressures<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is a developing story. Follow our live coverage here<\/a>, and see the war in maps, video and photos here<\/a>.<\/p>\n In other news \u2026Department of Education banners featuring Booker T Washington, Catherine Beecher and Charlie Kirk. Photograph: Nathan Howard\/Reuters<\/p>\n The Department of Education has attracted criticism after hanging a large banner<\/a> outside its headquarters in DC featuring Charlie Kirk, the far-right commentator who was shot and killed aged 31 last September.<\/p>\n Ron DeSantis, Florida\u2019s Republican governor, spent $1.2m<\/a> of public money a day to open and operate the immigration jail known as Alligator Alcatraz, court records show.<\/p>\n The US supreme court has decided to block<\/a> a series of California laws relating to transgender students, such as a limit on public schools sharing information with parents about students\u2019 gender identity.<\/p>\n Stat of the day: As measles outbreak nears 1,000 cases in South Carolina, RFK Jr\u2019s allies work to gut vaccine lawsA community engagement worker out with the South Carolina Department of Public Health at a mobile health unit earlier this month. Photograph: Erik Verduzco\/AP<\/p>\n As South Carolina grapples with a measles outbreak, with infections confirmed in nearly 1,000 people<\/a>, groups with ties to the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, are pushing to eliminate immunization requirements that protect children. The Guardian has found that anti-vaccine groups are encouraging their followers to organize opposition to vaccine mandates in more than 20 states, including at least six with current measles outbreaks.<\/p>\n Culture pick: The Artful Dodger season two \u2013 \u2018More of the same, but with additional gun-fingers\u2019Thomas Brodie-Sangster, center, as Jack Dawkins in The Artful Dodger season two. Photograph: Disney<\/p>\n Jack Dawkins \u2013 a grownup imagining of the Charles Dickens character the Artful Dodger whose light fingers have made him a leading surgeon in colonial Australia \u2013 has returned for season two. It comes with frenetic pace, chase scenes and punch-ups, although it lacks the wit and warmth of the first season, writes Sarah Dempster in her review<\/a>. The Artful Dodger is out on Disney+ now.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t miss this: ICE has detained this high schooler for 10 months. Here\u2019s what he and his classmates want you to knowIn the months since Dylan Lopez Contreras\u2019s arrest, other students have tried to process their anger and grief about the detention of their friend. Composite: Ellis Prep academy students<\/p>\n In May last year, Dylan Lopez Contreras, 20, a student at Ellis Prep academy in the Bronx, New York City, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His lawyers say he was the first New York public school student detained by ICE. He has remained in detention ever since. This winter, the Guardian invited Dylan and five of his classmates<\/a> to document their worlds. They used disposable cameras, illustrations and words to capture everything they were seeing, feeling and thinking in this moment \u2013 and tried to imagine the lives they want to live after graduating high school.<\/p>\n \u2026 or this: What Anthony Scaramucci learned in Trump\u2019s inner circleAnthony Scaramucci. Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Anthony Scaramucci lasted just 11 days as White House communications director in Donald Trump\u2019s first term before being fired. The financier and broadcaster talks to the Guardian<\/a> about working for the president \u2013 and becoming his biggest critic. \u201cYou can never count him out. The Epstein files won\u2019t knock him out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Farmers plant rice in a paddy field in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Photograph: Hotli Simanjuntak\/EPA<\/p>\n Tech companies and industrial agriculture are \u201cplaying with the food system\u201d by using AI and algorithms to undermine farmers in choosing what the world eats, leading food security experts have warned. Companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM and Alibaba are working with industrial agriculture firms to influence what crops are grown and how, according to a report<\/a> by the thinktank International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems.<\/p>\n Last Thing: Stardew Valley at 10 \u2013 the anticapitalist game that soothes burnoutFrom the start, Stardew Valley allowed players to pursue potential spouses regardless of gender, helping the game build a dedicated queer fanbase. Photograph: Chucklefish<\/p>\n Ten years after the farming sim Stardew Valley was first released in 2016, the cosy game has sold 50m copies. But, as Jordan Erica Webber writes<\/a>, it\u2019s important to recognize that Stardew Valley offers more than just escapism: \u201cIt has supported identities and creativity, and presented an anticapitalist, non-heteronormative vision of a community that has inspired many of its players.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up<\/p>\n Sign up for the US morning briefing<\/p>\n First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you\u2019re not already signed up, subscribe now<\/a>.<\/p>\n Get in touch<\/p>\n![\"US-Israel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772545932_362_1920.jpg\")
US-Israel war on Iran: what maps tells us about the unfolding Middle East crisis \u2013 video<\/p>\n