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Daniel Berger of the United States plays a shot from a bunker on the second hole during the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented at Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Golf Course in Orlando,
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The US is facing daily assaults on democracy, former president Barack Obama warned on Friday as he lauded Jesse Jackson for fighting abuses of power at a memorial service for the longtime civil rights activist.He joined former presidents Joe Biden and Bill Clinton, along with former vice-president Kamala Harris, at the public event in Chicago for Jackson, who died last month at the age of 84.President Donald Trump did not attend because of his schedule, a White House official said.'Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions, another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offence to common decency,' Obama said after receiving a rapturous welcome at the event in Chicago.'Every day, you wake up to things you just didn't think were possible,” he added. “It may be tempting to get discouraged, to give into cynicism... (but) this man, Reverend Jesse Lewis Jackson, inspires us to take a harder path.'Obama, other Democratic dignitaries and religious leaders urged hundreds of attendees to honour Jackson, an advocate for voting rights and desegregation, by continuing his fight for equality and justice.'Each day, we're told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other and that some Americans count more than others and that some don't even count at all,' Obama said to applause. 'We see science and expertise denigrated while ignorance and dishonesty and cruelty and corruption are reaping untold rewards.'The White House criticised Obama when asked for a comment on his remarks.'He is a total disgrace for all the hurt he has caused this country and history will not judge him well,' White House spokesman Steven Cheung said.The memorial at the House of Hope, a 10,000-seat venue on Chicago's South Side, celebrated Jackson with a choir performing gospel songs while attendees stood, clapped and sang along.Some attendees arrived hours before the service and waited outside in a line that wrapped around the arena.'This man here paved the way for so many other people to be able to make a difference in this world,' said Robert Holmes, who was waiting in line.In addition to the former presidents, former first ladies Jill Biden and Hillary Clinton, who also served as US secretary of state, were present, along with basketball great Isiah Thomas and the Rev Al Sharpton, a prominent civil rights activist.Speakers called to continue Jackson's fight for racial equality as the Trump administration curbs diversity programmes and targets museum and educational content on slavery that it deems 'anti-American'.Trump's declarations have also led to the restoration of monuments honouring the Confederate South.'We're in a tough spot,' Joe Biden said. 'We've got an administration that doesn't share the values that we have.'Memorial events for Jackson began in Chicago last week, drawing elected officials, advocates and community members.Jackson's body also lay in state in South Carolina, where he was born.An inspirational orator and longtime Chicagoan, Jackson helped lead the nation's civil rights movement after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.For more than half a century, Jackson worked to dismantle segregationist systems and broaden political participation for black Americans and other marginalised communities.'While some proclaim Make America Great Again, Jesse Louis Jackson fought to make America achieve the greatness that she promised but always fell short of,' said Father Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest in Chicago known for political activism.Jackson's two presidential campaigns mobilised millions of new voters under the banner of the 'Rainbow Coalition', pushing the Democratic Party to address issues affecting working-class Americans, farmers and communities of colour.Bill Clinton urged attendees to ask what they can do that would match Jackson's accomplishments, while Sharpton criticised efforts to weaken diversity initiatives.'We've beaten people bigger than Trump,' Sharpton told the crowd. 'Leave here with some Jackson fire in you, not just a programme book.'
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Jamil K Mroue Iran is in a war it did not choose in full, yet one it helped to script in part. Iran is also in a leadership rupture that no missile can resolve. Outsiders will claim authorship of the outcome — Washington by force, Israel by daring, Russia or China by opportunism, Europe by handwringing. But Iran’s future, in the end, can only be decided by Iranians: by what they consent to build, and what they refuse to tolerate. That is not romantic nationalism. It is strategic realism. Military campaigns can shatter infrastructure; sanctions can starve investment; covert action can decapitate elites. None of that produces legitimacy. And legitimacy—more than centrifuges, proxies, or slogans—is what decides whether a country regenerates after trauma or sinks into permanent siege. Iran has been living through a leadership crisis for more than a century, and it keeps reappearing in different costumes. The Constitutional Revolution of 1905–11 produced a Majles and a constitutional framework that many Iranians still cite as the origin of modern political legitimacy—only to be battered by internal factionalism and foreign pressure. The Pahlavis modernised at speed—schools, infrastructure, law codes—while relying on top-down social engineering that treated citizens less like partners than like raw material. The Islamic Revolution promised dignity, authenticity, and justice; it delivered a hybrid system where popular politics exist, but ultimate sovereignty is anchored in the doctrine of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurist), embedded in the post-revolution constitution. The Iran-Iraq warThen came the trauma that hardened everything: the Iran-Iraq war, eight years of mass death and insecurity. The Islamic Republic’s strategic reflex—building buffers, cultivating proxies, distrusting the West—has always drawn energy from that wound, as well as from an older one: the 1953 coup that removed Mohammad Mosaddegh and restored the Shah, funded by America and Britain. When nations feel repeatedly violated, paranoia becomes policy. Sometimes it is even rational paranoia. What makes this moment so dangerous is not only the violence, but the direction it is taking. Today’s war is widening in the wrong direction. Iranian strikes that spill into the Gulf—dragging the GCC into the line of fire—are not “clever escalation.” They are the opposite: a masterclass in turning potential neutrals into motivated adversaries. Analysts have long warned that attacks on Gulf states risk collapsing Gulf neutrality and hardening alignment with the United States, widening the anti-Iran coalition rather than splitting it. This is not merely a diplomatic error. It is an economic own-goal. When shipping in the Strait of Hormuz is imperilled, the Gulf is not just a bystander; Iran is clogging the artery. The disruption hits energy markets, logistics, and—often overlooked—strategic inputs like helium supply that matters for chipmaking and the AI buildout. Qatar is a major helium exporter; disruption there ripples into semiconductor production and the broader technology economy. If Iran’s goal is to “turn the war into a quagmire for America,” widening the theatre to the GCC is a poor way to do it. Quagmires are built by isolating your enemy, not by recruiting friends for them. There is a second strategic danger: escalation into the Gulf accelerates Israel’s “day after” vision—an approach that treats fragmentation in neighbouring states as a form of security. In Syria, Israel’s leadership has publicly framed policy around demilitarising swathes of territory and “protecting” specific communities, notably the Druze, in a way that signals comfort with the weakening of central authority. In parallel, Israel’s political imagination for the region increasingly flirts with the idea that semi-autonomous enclaves—ethnic, sectarian, tribal—can substitute for coherent states. Meanwhile, credible reporting has described Israeli efforts in the Palestinian arena to arm or empower local militias or clan-based groups as alternative power structures—tactics that can create semi-autonomous pockets and complicate any future reconstitution of credible governance. Whatever one thinks of Hamas, building politics out of armed local fiefdoms is not a blueprint for stability. It is a blueprint for permanent instability, a transaction whose costs are paid in blood and aid convoys. For Israel the assumption behind fragmentation-as-security is seductive and mistaken. Seductive because it promises a neighbour too divided to coordinate. Mistaken because it produces chronic instability, border volatility, radicalisation, and endless micro-conflicts that spill outward. A shattered neighbourhood does not become safe; it becomes permanently flammable. Iran should recognise the trap. A strategy of making the war painful for America and its partners can end up validating Israel’s most short-sighted instincts—more fragmentation, more local proxies, more “community-based” buffers—and locking the region into a decades-long contest of centrifugal forces. If Tehran’s idea is to turn this war into a quagmire for the United States, it may find it is accelerating the very Israeli approach that ensures the region never exits the cycle of insecurity. There is a better option, and it requires an Iranian policy pivot that many in Tehran will instinctively resist because it feels like concession. It is not concession. It is the oldest form of statecraft: regrouping. Iran’s strongest move is not to widen the war. It is to narrow the battlefield and widen the coalition for stability. That means an inclusion diplomacy that rebuilds functional alignment with the GCC and Turkey around three interests that are fundamental, civilised, and therefore revolutionary in this region: stability of borders and shipping routes; economic development and investment confidence; and insulation of domestic pluralism from external manipulation. This is not a utopian “regional harmony” pitch. It is a hard-nosed way to create a strategic incentive for America—still the dominant superpower—to prefer a stable, investable region rather than a permanent crisis theatre that bleeds resources while China expands influence through trade, infrastructure, and technology. Even American strategists who love hard power understand bandwidth. If Washington is forced to prioritise continuous Middle East firefighting, it reduces its ability to compete with China elsewhere. An Iran that repositions itself as part of a stability bloc—rather than the engine of perpetual disruption—changes the cost-benefit calculus in Washington in a way missiles never will. Iran’s dilemma is not new. It is written into its civilisational self-understanding—most famously in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. The epic is not just myth; it is a long meditation on legitimacy, kingship, and the ruin that comes when power confuses itself with the nation. In the tragedy of Rostam and Esfandiyar, a paranoid king—Goshtasp—turns Iran’s two noblest forces against each other. Rostam is the heroic vitality of the realm: independent strength, rooted confidence, national endurance. Esfandiyar is disciplined legitimacy: duty, mission, order, the serious idea of the state. Goshtasp, fearing his own son’s stature, commands Esfandiyar to bring Rostam in chains—manufacturing a conflict within Iran. The result is a duel that destroys a prince, poisons the victor, and weakens the realm. That is the model of besieged leadership: insecure, divisive, jealous, willing to sacrifice national cohesion to preserve personal dominance. Many Iranians would recognise the pattern in modern clothing. It is not hard to see how a leadership that lives by siege can become addicted to siege, needing external enemies to justify internal control. What the region hopes—quietly, pragmatically, selfishly—is that Iran will choose a different archetype of leadership: one that harnesses Rostam’s energy and Esfandiyar’s steadfastness without weaponising them against each other; one that is closer to the Shahnameh ideal of just rule—often associated with Kay Khosrow, the king who embodies justice, restraint, and legitimacy rooted in moral order rather than fear. That ideal is not a fairy tale; it is a cultural argument about what authority is for. Civilisational opportunityHistory is cruel but occasionally generous: civilisational opportunity often springs from war. Countries have turned defeat into renewal when the shock forces institutional reform, resets corrupt bargains, and makes real competence politically irresistible. But this only happens when leadership stops behaving like a besieged Goshtasp—lashing out, widening enemies, tightening the internal corral—and starts behaving like a Kay Khosrow: restraining ego, privileging justice, and aligning strength to rebuilding. For Iran, that means three immediate strategic corrections. First, stop treating the GCC as a pressure point. It is a strategic bridge. Attacking Gulf states invites exactly the coalition Tehran fears, while poisoning the economic environment Iran itself will need for recovery. Second, deny Israel the fragmentation narrative. The region’s answer to partition logic is not counter-partition; it is coordinated support for intact states and accountable governance, so that “minority protection” is not weaponised into permanent dismemberment. Third, convert “resistance” from a militarised brand into a diplomatic architecture: stabilise borders, de-escalate proxy theatres, and make investment and growth the new national prestige project. That, far more than theatrical escalation, creates strategic interest for the United States—because it lowers America’s regional policing bill while freeing attention for its competition with China. Iran can continue to fight like a cornered state and become the justification for every hardliner’s fantasy map. Or it can fight—politically, economically, institutionally—for a post-war settlement that restores its dignity through competence and stability. The region, including the Gulf, does not need an Iran that wins by making everyone lose. It needs an Iran that wins by making normal life possible again. Ferdowsi’s lesson is brutally modern: when leadership is insecure, it turns heroes into enemies. When leadership is just, it turns strength into a future. (Jamil K Mroue is a Lebanese writer and previous editor of Al Hayat newspaper in London and The Daily Star in Beirut)
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US President Donald Trump welcomed Latin American leaders to Florida Saturday to announce the formation of a military coalition against drug cartels, in line with an argument that he has been making throughout his second term in office.Trump has cited drug cartels as a primary reason for ramping up his administration's involvement in Latin America, pressuring Venezuela over the past several months and seizing Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in January.At least a dozen leaders from Central America, South America and the Caribbean joined the "Shield of the Americas" summit convened by Trump, who signed a proclamation launching the coalition."It's a great part of the world, but to fill that tremendous potential, we must smash the grip of the cartels and criminal gangs and horrible organisations run by, in some cases, absolute animals and truly liberate our people," Trump said.Kristi Noem will be special envoy for the "Shield of the Americas", Trump posted on Thursday.Noem was Homeland Security secretary until Trump removed her from that post this week after mounting criticism of her from Congress.Saturday's gathering gives Trump a chance to project strength closer to home even as the conflict in the Middle East leads to consequences he may not fully control, such as rising prices for oil and gas.However, the Trump administration also has been looking for ways to counter growing Chinese influence in the region.The summit took place as Trump prepares for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing at the end of March.The Trump administration hopes to pull Latin America closer to Washington after years of growing Chinese trade, lending and infrastructure investment in the region.The summit brings together conservative leaders aligned with Trump on security, migration and economics.Among those attending are Argentine President Javier Milei, Chile's president-elect Jose Antonio Kast and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, whose gang crackdown, criticised by human rights groups, has become a model for parts of Latin America's right.Politicians from across the region have toured Bukele's sprawling "mega-prison", where the United States last year deported more than 200 Venezuelans without trial.Also joining the gathering are Honduran President Nasry Asfura, who narrowly won a disputed election with Trump's backing, and Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa, who has echoed parts of Trump's economic agenda and recently announced joint operations with the US in a military crackdown on drug trafficking (*see report on Page 7).Most of the right-wing heads of state share concerns about the rising power of drug cartels, even hitting countries that until recently were considered fairly safe such as Ecuador and Chile, said Irene Mia, a Latin America expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies."All those countries used to be quite secure and didn't really have an issue with organised crime, but they've seen increasing levels of organised crime because of the reconfiguration of the drug trade," Mia told AFP.The strained security situation, which has contributed to the Latin American right-wing's recent string of electoral victories, means the trend of US intervention has received less pushback than in the past, she added.Many of the leaders share Trump's hardline view of crime and migration, favouring crackdowns over deeper social fixes and private business over the state.Their rise reflects a broader rightward turn in parts of Latin America at a time when the region is being pulled between Washington and Beijing.Ryan Berg, who heads the Americas Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said that China's trade with the region hit a record $518bn in 2024, with Beijing loaning more than $120bn to governments across the Western Hemisphere.China's increased involvement in Latin America – from satellite tracking stations in Argentina and a port in Peru to economic support for Venezuela – has been an irritant for successive US administrations.China has expanded its reach through trade, loans and infrastructure, while the Trump administration has pushed governments in the region to curb Beijing's role in ports, energy projects and other strategic assets.That pressure was on display recently when Panamanian authorities moved against a Hong Kong-based firm tied to operations in the Panama Canal, a key global freight channel.Washington has also taken more direct steps in the region.The United States captured Maduro on January 3 and moved to seize control of the country's oil exports, and has tightened enforcement of the decades-long US embargo on Cuba.Several Trump administration officials have told Reuters that Trump's move against Maduro was intended in part to counter China's ambitions, and that Beijing's days of leveraging debt to get cheap oil from Venezuela were "over".The durability of such the coalition remains to be seen, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’s Mia."It's entirely a negative agenda," she said. "It's all about the threats coming to the region for US security: migration, organised crime."She also pointed at the glaring absences from the summit, Mexico and Brazil, which are currently lead by leftists Claudia Sheinbaum and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva."Without Mexico and Brazil, it's not going to be very successful in tackling those issues" of narcotrafficking and counterterrorism, she said, given that Mexican cartels play a key role in the trafficking supply chain and Brazil's ports are critical narco-trafficking routes to Europe. Related Story
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A new United Nations secretary-general will be elected this year for a five-year term starting on January 1, 2027. The race formally started when Sierra Leone, then-president of the 15-member UN Security Council, and Annalena Baerbock, president of the 193-member General Assembly, sent a joint letter soliciting nominations on November 25. A candidate has to be nominated by a UN member state. The job traditionally rotates among regions, but when current UN chief Antonio Guterres -- who is from Portugal -- was elected in 2016, it was supposed to be Eastern Europe’s turn. Next on the list is Latin America. However, some diplomats expect candidates from other regions. Baerbock has asked countries to nominate candidates by April 1 so they are able to take part in so-called interactive dialogues in the week of April 20, which will be broadcast online. At these meetings candidates will be able to present their vision statement and UN member states will be able to ask questions. Rafael Grossi - Argentina: When asked by Reuters on September 3, Grossi said he was definitely going to run: “Yes, I am going to do that, yes.” A veteran Argentine diplomat, Grossi is director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a role he has held since 2019. Argentina formally nominated him on November 26, 2025. Michelle Bachelet- Chile: The former Chilean president was formally nominated for the post by Chile, Brazil and Mexico on February 2. Bachelet was Chile’s first female head of state and twice served as president of the South American nation. Bachelet was UN high commissioner for human rights from 2018-22 and executive director of UN Women from 2010-13. In her statement for the post, she said she was confident her experience had prepared her “to confront a moment in which the international system faces challenges unprecedented in scale, urgency, and complexity”, and she pledged a focus on “rebuilding trust in the United Nations.” Rebeca Grynspan-Costa Rica: Costa Rica has nominated former Vice President Rebeca Grynspan, a UN spokesperson said this week. President Rodrigo Chaves announced plans for the nomination on October 8. Grynspan, a politician and economist, currently serves as Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development. Macky Sall-Senegal: A UN spokesperson said on March 2 that Sall, the former president of Senegal, had been nominated by Burundi. In his vision statement for the role, Sall said the world was going through a deep crisis in which the UN faced growing mistrust and an unprecedented risk of weakening. He said the organization needed to be reformed, streamlined, and modernized to address 21st-century challenges. The UN Security Council will formally recommend a candidate to the General Assembly for election as the 10th UN secretary-general later this year. The Security Council will hold secret ballots - referred to as straw polls - until a consensus is reached on a candidate. The choices council members are given for each candidate in the straw poll are: encourage, discourage, or no opinion. Ultimately, the five permanent veto-wielding council members - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - must agree on a candidate. The ballots for the veto powers in the straw poll are traditionally a different colour to those of the 10 elected members. When Guterres was chosen in 2016 to be recommended to the General Assembly, it took six straw polls for the Security Council to reach agreement. The Council then adopts a resolution, traditionally behind closed doors, recommending an appointment to the Assembly. The resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes to pass. The General Assembly’s approval of the appointment of a secretary-general has long been seen as a rubber stamp. The United Nations has been working to improve the transparency of the historically opaque selection process. In a resolution adopted in September 2025, the General Assembly said each candidate should provide a vision statement when they are formally nominated and be given the opportunity to present it. The statement should also be published on a dedicated United Nations web page.
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Debris is left behind in Union City following a tornado that hit several cities in rural southwest Michigan. – AFP Tornados tore through the central United States in a series of storms that continued into the weekend, leaving eight people dead and at least a dozen others injured, authorities said.Four people were reported killed in Oklahoma, where the twisters gained strength, and four others died further north in the Midwestern state of Michigan.The Branch County Sheriff's Office said a tornado touched down near Union City in southern Michigan on Friday, killing three people and injuring 12.About 50 miles (80km) west, officials in Cass County said one person was killed and "several injuries" were reported after a tornado hit the area."Our thoughts are with those who have lost family, friends, and property during this incident," the Branch County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.Authorities in Cass County said a number of trees had fallen onto roads and buildings, and more than 500 people were reported to be without power."Emergency Management personnel will be conducting damage assessments in the affected area as required by the State of Michigan," the local sheriff's office said.Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said on Friday evening that she was activating a state emergency operations centre "to co-ordinate an all-hands-on-deck response to severe weather in southwestern Michigan".In Oklahoma, the extreme weather led to fourth deaths late on Thursday and Friday, and people were waking up Saturday to scenes of destruction and loss in several towns across the state."Severe weather struck Major County last night and tragically claimed the lives of a mother and daughter," Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt posted on X.Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice said in a statement that two people died in a tornado that hit the town of Beggs on Friday night. Related Story
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Devon Windsor Hot Shots To Kick off Her 32nd Birthday!!! Published March 7, 2026 12:00 PM PST Devon Windsor is seriously hot ... so it’s no surprise she made it big as a top model
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Southwest Cops Burst Onto Plane After Flight Diverted, on Video Published March 7, 2026 11:55 AM PST Southwest passengers had to make a detour for a security-related issue ... which ended with cops rushing onto
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UAE's top retailer, Lulu Group, has taken proactive measures to ensure a steady supply of food products to the UAE by arranging dedicated cargo flights from India and other key global markets.A recent shipment carried
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Federico Valverde’s heavily deflected 95th-minute drive snatched injury-hit Real Madrid a 2-1 win at Celta Vigo in La Liga on Friday.The Uruguayan midfielder needed a stroke of fortune at the death to pull his team
