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Iraqi security forces take security measures as protesters demonstrating against the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene and attempting to enter the Green Zone, where the US Embassy is located in Baghdad, Iraq, on March 01, 2026. [Murtadha Al-Sudani – Anadolu Agency]
The US Embassy in Baghdad said on Wednesday that “for many” US citizens in Iraq, leaving the country is “the best option” if they can safely do so, Anadolu reports.
“US citizens in Iraq are strongly encouraged to review their personal security situation. For many, departing Iraq as soon as they are safely able to do so is the best option,” the embassy said in a statement.
“Americans choosing not to depart should remain vigilant, keep a low profile, and be prepared to shelter in place in a secure location for extended periods.”
It warned that Iran and Iran-aligned groups “continue to pose a major threat to public safety.”
“US citizens are urged to exercise extreme caution, maintain a low profile, and avoid areas that could make them targets,” it said.
Airspace is currently closed and commercial flights from Iraq are not operating at this time, the embassy stated, adding that overland routes to Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye are available.
“Most land border crossings are currently open but may close without prior notice. Travelers should expect long delays. Local ground transportation is currently operating,” it added.
Regional escalation has flared up since Israel and the US launched a joint attack on Iran since Feb. 28 that has so far killed over 1,200 people and injured over 10,000 others, according to Iranian authorities.
Tehran retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf countries that are home to US military assets.
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Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of PeaceOrcas discuss rotting brain. Front Orca says “Wish someone would lock him up”.
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Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have increased
Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have increased, as settlers exploit movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli army since the start of its offensive against Iran, according to reports. At least five Palestinians have been killed in recent days.
Rights groups and medical teams said settlers had intensified assaults on Palestinian villages and towns, taking advantage of military checkpoints that restrict Palestinian movement and delay ambulances from reaching the wounded.
The Israeli army has closed many roads across the West Bank with iron gates and earth mounds since the first day of the offensive. It has also shut most crossings with Israel, describing the measures as pre-emptive security steps.
In a related context, the United Nations said about 700 Palestinians had been displaced by settler attacks since the start of 2025 until early February 2026.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government has continued to expand settlement activity in the West Bank. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the settlement building campaign aims to undermine the idea of establishing a Palestinian state.
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Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez gives a speech in the Spanish capital Madrid on March 04, 2026. [Burak Akbulut – Anadolu Agency]
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Wednesday welcomed the Spanish government’s decision to withdraw its ambassador from Israel and reduce its diplomatic representation.
In a statement received by Quds Press, the movement said the step continues what it described as the honourable positions of the Spanish government and people in rejecting what is happening in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas said the decision reflects opposition to what it called the genocide faced by the Palestinian people in Gaza, as well as rejection of Israeli violations of international law. It described the move as a noble position that shows a genuine commitment to humanitarian values.
The movement praised what it called Spain’s “courageous” stance and urged other countries to take similar measures, including cutting various forms of relations with Israel.
It also called for international pressure on Tel Aviv to stop what it described as ongoing crimes and attacks against Palestinians, as well as assaults that it said affect other peoples in the region.
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Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of PeaceOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
High gas prices are listed at Chevron gas station in Los Angeles on March 9, 2026, as gasoline prices surge amid the ongoing war with Iran. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
“Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, and Qatar have no bypass capability whatsoever,” said one expert. “Their shipments are wholly reliant on Hormuz transit.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to downplay the rise in gas prices caused by President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, but energy analysts are warning that Americans are in for significant pain at the pump.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Johnson (R-La.) said that the rise in gas prices was a small price to pay for achieving American military objectives in Iran, which he baselessly claimed was about to strike the US if the US didn’t strike first.
Johnson also predicted that the rise in gas prices, which on Wednesday reached an average of $3.58 per gallon in the US, would be short lived.
“Most of this is because the Strait of Hormuz has been closed by the regime down there,” Johnson said. “But it will be reopened, and it will take a couple of weeks, but gas prices will come back down… So this is a temporary blip in an extraordinary trend of a return to American energy dominance.”
Despite Johnson’s rosy assessment, energy experts Trevor Higgins and Akshay Thyagarajan of the Center for American Progress published an analysis on Wednesday explaining why there will be no quick fix for high gas prices.
What’s more, the analysts said that the Iran conflict appeared ready to raise prices on much more than just gasoline.
“Many parts of the US economy are still dependent on fossil fuels, and higher prices for oil and gas increase the prices for gasoline, electricity, fertilizer, food, and more,” they noted. “As long as this war continues—and perhaps for some time thereafter—American households will pay higher prices at the pump, on their utility bills, and on their grocery bills.”
Higgins and Thyagarajan documented how the Iran war’s impact on oil prices was already greater than the impact that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had in 2022, and they warned it would only grow more severe the longer the conflict persisted.
One particularly worrisome impact of the Iran war, Higgins and Thyagarajan said, would be putting upward pressure on Americans’ utility bills, which have already been rising significantly over the last year thanks to the enormous energy demands of artificial intelligence data centers.
They pointed to the dependence of US power infrastructure on liquified natural gas (LNG), which generates roughly 43% of electricity in the US, as a serious vulnerability.
“Following the start of Operation Epic Fury, both European and Asian LNG futures prices have already skyrocketed,” they wrote. “As of March 9, they’ve increased by 77% and 51%, respectively, compared to prices before the event. This price increase is much higher than the increase immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If this increase persists, it could raise utility bills further.”
Clayton Seigle, energy analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said on Monday that there was very little hope of US gas prices decreasing until Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz for commercial shipping.
Seigle said that Iran could wage a relatively cheap military campaign against ships attempting to traverse the strait using a combination of speedboats, naval mines, and drones.
“Their destructive firepower is less than that of missiles,” he wrote, “but sufficient to cause damage and deter commercial shipping.”
Seigle also dismissed any plans by other oil-producing nations to ship their products through alternative trade routes, which he said would do too little to ease the oil supply crisis caused by the strait’s closure.
“ Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, and Qatar have no bypass capability whatsoever,” he explained. “Their shipments are wholly reliant on Hormuz transit.”
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Orcas discuss rotting brain. Front Orca says “Wish someone would lock him up”.
A worker works next to new graves during funerals for those killed in the US-Israeli military campaign at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran, Iran, on March 9, 2026. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The estimated spending on the Iran war in just over a week amounts to over 1% of the 2026 US defense budget.
The cost of President Donald Trump’s unprovoked and unconstitutional war with Iran has already cost US taxpayers billions of dollars, and will cost billions more if the conflict drags on.
Anadolu Ajansı on Monday published an estimate that the Iran war cost $10.35 billion over its first 10 days, or more than 1% of the entire 2026 US defense budget.
The US spent an estimated $779 million in the war’s first 24 hours alone, and Anadolu noted that daily costs have gone up since then.
Specifically, Anadolu found that as “the campaign has expanded, operational spending has climbed into the billions, based on estimated flight hours, maintenance costs, and munitions expenditures derived from the US Department of Defense’s 2025 and 2026 budget requests.”
In the days since Anadolu published its estimate, the estimated cost of the war has soared past $11 billion, according to a tracker that assumes the assault is costing the US $1 billion per day, based on preliminary figures from the Pentagon.
The Washington Postreported on Monday that the US Department of Defense estimated that it burned through $5.6 billion worth of munitions in the initial strikes on Iran, raising questions about whether the war has seriously eroded US military readiness.
Due to the conflict’s rapidly escalating costs, the Trump administration is expected to ask US Congress for a $50 billion supplemental funding bill to keep the war going.
Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, and Damian Murphy, senior vice president of national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress, released a memo on Monday explaining why Congress should not agree to any White House requests for supplemental funding.
First, the memo notes that polling shows that the Iran war is unprecedentedly unpopular, being the first US war ever to have a net negative approval rating at the outset of the conflict.
“Lawmakers in Congress have the upper hand both morally and politically in opposing the war in Iran,” the memo states. “The public does not want to be drawn into another forever war that threatens American lives, kills children, destabilizes the Middle East, and whose costs could easily balloon to hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars.”
The memo then argues that the massive increase in defense spending contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed by Republicans in last year and signed into law by Trump, should be more than enough to cover the cost of replacing munitions.
“The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ provided an additional $153 billion for defense just eight months ago,” the memo explains, “on top of the annual defense budget of around $900 billion. The annual defense appropriations bill, also approved only a few months ago, grants the White House the legal authority and flexibility to move around billions of dollars within the Department of Defense to achieve their goals, known as transfer authority.”
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Orcas discuss rotting brain. Front Orca says “Wish someone would lock him up”.
