- “If the Prime Minister of Norway had given me the Nobel Peace Prize, our submarine wouldn’t have had to sink an Iranian ship…” — Donald Trump, President of the United States
March 5, 2026
Gen Z males twice as likely as baby boomers to believe wives should obey husbands
The Guardian - Almost a third of generation Z men and boys think a wife should obey her husband, according to a global survey of 23,000 people that found young men hold more traditional views about gender roles than older generations.
A third (33%) of gen Z males also said a husband should have the final word on important decisions, according to the 29-country survey, which included Great Britain, the US, Brazil, Australia and India.
It found that gen Z males (born 1997-2012) were twice as likely as baby boomer men (born 1946-1964) to have traditional views on decision-making within a marriage, with just 13% of men in the older cohort agreeing that a wife should always obey her husband. Among women, 18% of gen Z and 6% of baby boomers agreed.
People of both genders in Indonesia (66%) and Malaysia (60%) were most likely to agree with the statement, compared with 23% in the US and 13% in Great Britain.
...Almost a quarter (24%) of gen Z males think women should not appear too independent or self-sufficient, compared with 12% of baby boomer men.
Attitudes toward sexual norms also differed sharply across generations, with 21% of gen Z males thinking a “real woman” should never initiate sex, compared with only 7% of baby boomer men.
Just a reminder
A country where war can be declared alone by its prime leader with no legislative approval is known as a dictatorship, not a democracy.
Business
Newsweek - According to reporting from CNBC, analysts estimate that almost 7,900 U.S. stores will close in 2026, and Business Insider reported that more than 1,200 closures have already been publicly announced, a figure that is expected to grow as companies finalize lease decisions and restructuring plans throughout the year.
Iran
Wall Street Journal - President Trump is discussing with his advisers what the U.S. role in Iran will be after the conflict ends, according to the White House. Trump said the campaign is going “very well.” U.S. forces sunk an Iranian ship in the Indian Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. That reflects Washington’s determination to destroy Tehran’s navy and safeguard the flow of oil through the Persian Gulf. Some European leaders have begun to openly challenging Trump over Iran.
CNN - Iranian intelligence has sent word to the United States it could be prepared to open talks on how to end the war, according to people familiar with the indirect messages, but US officials say there are no negotiations underway and that potential “off-ramps” are unlikely to materialize in the near term.
NPR - A panel of clerics in Iran is deciding who will replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by an airstrike at the start of the war. There are four frontrunners under consideration. The leading contender is Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Ayatollah. According to NPR's Jackie Northam, Mojtaba would be seen as a status quo option, but analysts tell her Iran’s current system cannot sustain itself. They say that Iran, which has been weakened by war, protests and a battered economy, needs to transform to have legitimacy.
China is sending envoy Zhai Jun to the Middle East to help mediate in the conflict, NPR’s Jennifer Pak says. The foreign ministry didn’t say specifically where he would visit. Pak says there are two reasons China is stepping in: economic interests in the region and a diplomatic opportunity to act as a peace seeker. China has not extended any military assistance to Iran so far. Pak says other countries may question whether it is strategically worthwhile to partner with China if it isn’t providing security protection in the war.
CNN - Iranian intelligence has sent word to the United States it could be prepared to open talks on how to end the war, according to people familiar with the indirect messages, but US officials say there are no negotiations underway and that potential “off-ramps” are unlikely to materialize in the near term.
The Hill - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth touted a U.S. Navy submarine sinking an Iranian warship in international waters Wednesday, with the Pentagon releasing a video of the incident. It’s the first such sinking of an adversary’s ship since World War II. Hegseth said the strikes against Iran have also killed the Iranian leader who led the plot to assassinate Trump in 2024, though he didn't identify the individual. A man was charged with murder-for-hire after the Iranian official allegedly tasked him with killing Trump while he was running for president.
Bloomberg - Iran vowed to escalate its retaliation against US strikes and avenge the US sinking of an Iranian warship as the conflict entered its sixth day. Arab states across the Persian Gulf reported interceptions of Iranian missiles and drones. Oil extended gains after China was said to have told its largest refiners to suspend exports of diesel and gasoline, and Iran said it struck a US oil tanker.
China is sending envoy Zhai Jun to the Middle East to help mediate in the conflict, NPR’s Jennifer Pak says. The foreign ministry didn’t say specifically where he would visit. Pak says there are two reasons China is stepping in: economic interests in the region and a diplomatic opportunity to act as a peace seeker. China has not extended any military assistance to Iran so far. Pak says other countries may question whether it is strategically worthwhile to partner with China if it isn’t providing security protection in the war.
Trump regime
The Hill - President Trump on Thursday announced he was replacing Kristi Noem as Department of Homeland Security secretary with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) in the first major shakeup of his Cabinet in his second term. Trump said in a Truth Social post Noem had served her role well, and was moving to become special envoy for “The Shield of Americas,” a new initiative in for the western hemisphere.
...Trump thanked Noem for her service, stating the former South Dakota senator “has served us well.” Noem’s firing comes after months of rumors speculating over whether she might be removed from her post.
Environment
Inside Clean Energy - An aerial view of a solar farm in Ector County, Texas by Brandon Bell/Getty Images. Texas, which already leads the country in electricity generation from natural gas, coal and wind, has passed California to become the leader in utility-scale solar. Data for 2025, released last week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, shows that Texas generated 58,634 gigawatt-hours from utility-scale solar, enough to pull ahead of California’s 53,713 gigawatt-hours.
But California can continue to claim the distinction of leading the country in electricity from small-scale solar, which EIA defines as any project with capacity of less than 1 megawatt. And if we look at the sum of utility-scale and small-scale solar, California remains ahead.
Health
Newsweek - Selected bags of Frito-Lay potato chips have been voluntarily recalled across six states, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which, in its official announcement, posted on March 4, 2026, warns that the affected chips could pose the “risk of a serious or life-threatening allergic reaction” if they’re consumed.
Frito-Lay has recalled select 8-ounce bags of Miss Vickie’s “Spicy Dill Pickle” potato chips after discovering some packets might contain jalapeño-flavored chips that contain undeclared milk, which could pose a serious or life-threatening risk to people with related allergies.
... The chips were distributed beginning January 15, 2026, to grocery, convenience, and drug stores, alongside local retailers across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, according to the FDA notice.
As part of the expanded recall, Trader Joe’s announced Tuesday that four of its products have been affected.
Housing
Independent, UK - More Americans than ever facing financial stress are turning to their retirement savings to cover immediate expenses.
Some 6 percent of those with 401(k)s took hardship withdrawals from their accounts in 2025, up from 4.8 percent in 2024 and triple the pre-pandemic rate of 2 percent in 2018, according to a study preview released Wednesday by investment firm Vanguard.
A popular option for retirement plans, 401(k)s are offered by employers and allow most employees to contribute up to $24,500 a year. In many cases, employers match employee contributions up to a certain percentage.
Generally speaking, 401(k)s are a voluntary account that employees can sign up for. Recently, more employers have automatically enrolled employees into 401(k)s, leading to more chances for hardship withdrawals, Vanguard noted.
Climate change
The Guardian - As Donald Trump assaults the legal foundation of America’s ability to regulate global warming emissions, climate deniers have been privately celebrating what they claim is the “silent” acquiescence of billionaires, Democrats, climate activists and even reporters to the president’s aggressive pro-fossil-fuel agenda.
“In my 26 years of being focused on climate, I’ve never seen anything like this. Trump is gutting everything they ever stood for,” Marc Morano, a longtime climate denier, said in January at the World Prosperity Forum, a five-day event in Zurich, Switzerland, billed as a rightwing alternative to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The event’s sponsor was the Heartland Institute, a conservative thinktank that has been at the forefront of spreading climate disinformation for decades, and was also a contributor to Project 2025, the policy blueprint for Trump’s second administration.
“Billionaires are silent. Democrats in Congress have been silent. Climate activists. There has been no pushback on this,” Morano said – and he may have a point, according to some experts who research the climate denial movement.
“The Trump administration just marched in and destroyed the crown jewel of climate science in the United States,” Robert Brulle, a professor of environment and society at Brown University, told me, referring to the Trump administration’s dismantling of the country’s premier climate research center, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in December.
United Airlines introduces new rule regarding headphone usage on flights
Independent, UK - United Airlines has quietly updated its ”contract of carriage” to include a new clause regarding headphone usage on flights. The updated terms state that passengers who fail to use headphones while listening to audio or video content may be refused transport.
Passengers who forget their headphones can ask a flight attendant for a free pair of earbuds, subject to availability. Travel expert Scott Keyes described the new policy as a “graceful way” to handle noisy passengers, noting that United's stance is stricter than other major US carriers.
Progressive presidential candidates
Politico - Gavin Newsom likened Israel on Tuesday to an “apartheid state” and said its leadership has left the United States no choice but to reconsider military support for its ally in the Middle East.
Huffington Post - Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) on Tuesday said critics have “appropriately” described Israel as an “apartheid state” and argued that the current leadership under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given the U.S. no choice but to reconsider its military support.
His comments came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that President Donald Trump “preemptively” bombed Iran on Saturday because the administration “knew” impending Israeli strikes on Iran would trigger “an attack against American forces.”
Newsom was speaking at an event in Los Angeles to promote his new memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry,” when moderator and “Pod Save America” podcast co-host Jon Favreau asked whether the U.S. should rethink militarily assisting Israel at some point “down the road.”
“It breaks my heart, because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don’t think you have a choice about that consideration,” said Newsom, according to multiple major news outlets and footage from the event published on social media.
Congress
NBC News - The number of House retirements this cycle is the second-highest since record-keeping began nearly a century ago.
Polls
Disapprove: 58%
Approve: 35%
Approval Among:
MAGA: 93%
Non-MAGA GOP: 72%
IND: 16%
DEM: 7%
NBC News - On what Americans think about Trump’s handling of Iran: • 41% approve • 54% disapprove • 3% no opinion • 2% not sure Should the U.S. have taken military action against Iran? • 41% say yes • 52% say no • 7% not sure
NBC News - In the U.S., a majority of voters disapprove of how President Donald Trump is handling the situation in Iran and believe he shouldn’t have taken military action against the country, according to a new NBC News poll.
Fifty-four percent of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran, compared with 41% who approve and 5% who say they either don’t have an opinion or aren’t sure. Though support is mostly polarized along party lines, a small but notable slice of Republicans is unhappy with the decision to launch a war in the Middle East.
Epstein files
Alternet - President Donald Trump’s Justice Department wants the American people to know that the still-unreleased files of the late Jeffrey Epstein contain “sensationalist claims against Trump.”
The Justice Department officials previously said some files included fake or false materials that were sent to the FBI by the public and may “contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.”
“The US justice department [sic] is to release nearly 50,000 ‘missing’ Jeffrey Epstein files this week,” reported The Times on Wednesday. “The documents, which are referred to in the tranche released in late January but appear to have been withheld by the department, potentially contain unverified claims about President Trump, including FBI reports detailing a woman’s unsubstantiated allegations of sexual misconduct against him.”
Specifically, the files are supposed to contain FBI memos summarizing an interview with a woman who came forward after Epstein was arrested in 2019. During that conversation, the woman said she had been sexually assaulted by both Epstein and Trump in the mid-1980s when she was a minor.
Tariffs
The Hill - The fight for tariff refunds following the Supreme Court’s decision to void President Trump’s sweeping levies is underway. A Michigan auto parts store and New York wine importer are leading the charge, and they’re moving fast.
Hundreds of small businesses and major corporations alike have rushed to court to reclaim the unlawfully collected funds, as the Trump administration awaits instruction on a roadmap for next steps.
“Our goal is simple: No unnecessary expense. No unnecessary disruption. No 900-case pileup,” Liberty Justice Center, which represents the wine importer, VOS Selections, said this week.
Immigrants
Intercept - Tennessee Republicans are pushing forward with a bill that could force undocumented children out of public education and turn school administrators into immigration informants against their own students, making Tennessee the frontier of an effort led by the Heritage Foundation to fundamentally injure the right to public education...
The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, has officially called on other states to pass similar laws...
March 4, 2026
Middle East
BBC - Americans travelling in the Middle East say it has been "mayhem" trying to get back home as the US-Israel war with Iran is felt throughout the region. The US is advising its citizens in 14 countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel and Qatar, to "depart now" as security warnings put embassies on lock down. Canada has also urged its citizen to leave.
But some tourists report that there are no flights and no clear instructions to exit. The US state department said it was securing military and charter planes to pick up American citizens who want to leave the Middle East. For now, though, many travellers say they are being forced to wait or find their own way out.
Donald Trump
Axios - No president in the modern era has ordered more military strikes against as many different countries as Donald Trump. He's attacked seven nations, three of which — Iran, Nigeria and Venezuela — had never been targeted by U.S. military strikes. He authorized more individual air strikes in 2025 than President Biden did in four years.
Trump explicitly ran as the anti-war candidate. The White House argues he still is — that he always exhausts diplomacy before acting, and that projecting overwhelming force is itself a path to lasting peace.
....President Bush's post-9/11 campaigns and President Obama's drone wars were massive in scale — but concentrated in inherited or congressionally authorized theaters.
Alongside traditional counterterrorism efforts, Trump has opened new fronts — a Christmas Day strike in Nigeria, drug boats sunk in the Caribbean, Nicolás Maduro snatched from Caracas.
.... The ongoing U.S. military operation against Iran now stands in a league of its own — the most aggressive, high-risk foreign policy act of Trump's presidency. MORE
 |
| TRUMP IN 2019 |
Polls
The Guardian - Half of Americans support the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, a new poll has found, as opposition to Donald Trump’s aggressive federal immigration crackdown continues to grow.
The analysis by YouGov revealed that exactly 50% of respondents “strongly or somewhat” want to see the agency dismantled, a 5% rise from a January poll taken between the deaths in Minnesota of US citizen protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti by immigration officers.
Only 39% said they opposed abolishing ICE, a significant drop from January when those for and against were evenly split at 45%. The latest poll is the first time that the number of Americans calling for scrapping the agency, a frequent demand of left-wing Democrats, has reached 50%, YouGov said.It mirrors an NBC poll last month that showed 49% disapproval of Trump’s handling of border security and immigration, traditionally a vote winner from his Republican base.
Gallup - Government and political leadership remained Americans’ top concern in February, when asked to identify the “most important problem facing this country today.” Immigration emerged as the clear second choice, followed by the economy and inflation.
These findings are from a Feb. 2-16 Gallup poll, conducted before the United States and Israel launched military strikes on Iran on Feb. 28.
Overall, 29% of U.S. adults in February cited some aspect of government or politics as the country’s most important problem. This is similar to the 32% recorded in January and 26% in December. Immigration was mentioned by 20% — up sharply from 10% in January, but similar to the 19% citing it in December.
Economic concerns followed, with 11% mentioning the economy in general and 8% citing inflation or high prices. Mentions of the economy had risen to 17% in December, from 12% in November, possibly reflecting concern after the government shutdown that ended Nov. 12 and heightened political discussion of affordability.
Defining war
KEN KLIPPENSTEIN - The White House refuses to call its war in Iran a war, instead labeling it “major combat operations” — a maneuver to keep Congress out of the picture. And believe it or not, Congress is going along with it.
Setting aside the absurdity of the question of if killing a head of state is an act of war, there’s a deadly serious question here: what even is war anymore? Does last month’s killing of a Mexican cartel leader like El Mencho count? Or how about the kidnapping of Venezuelan ruler Nicolas Maduro the month before? The U.S. has gotten extremely decapitation operations like these, as I’ve written; so good that it’s going to become a standard instrument of statecraft very soon. It’s a more important time than ever to decide what counts as war and who gets to wage it.
Health
Axios - A surge of recent measles cases approaching half of the 30-year high recorded in 2025 is stoking more criticism of the Trump administration's lukewarm endorsement of vaccines. There have already been more than 1,100 measles cases this year, overwhelmingly in unvaccinated people, putting the U.S. at risk of losing its measles elimination status.
- While top officials have stressed that the MMR vaccine is the most effective protection, they've repeatedly portrayed vaccination as a personal choice and ruled out new mandates.
Senate health committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) repeatedly pressed President Trump's surgeon general nominee, Casey Means, at a hearing last week on whether she would encourage vaccination against measles in response to outbreaks.
- Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long history of vaccine criticism that has fueled mounting criticism that he could be doing more to fight the outbreaks.
- "RFK isn't 100% to blame — but he helped fuel the [vaccine] hesitancy we're dealing with," Jerome Adams, President Trump's first surgeon general, wrote on X on Sunday. "Now HE is in charge of the (clearly failing) response."...
The CDC remains in upheaval and hasn't had a full-time political leader since Susan Monarez was fired amid a dispute over changing vaccine recommendations. More
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)