Middle East

Newsworthy News -The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has told the Senate that the US-Israel war on Iran has cost $37.5bn so far, as he faced lawmakers furious over the conflict’s soaring price tag and the deaths last week of three American service members. He defended the Trump administration’s roughly $88bn supplemental funding request, calling it “urgent, necessary”. Patty Murray, a Democratic senator from Washington, demanded Hegseth explain what the war had actually achieved, accusing the administration of shifting its rationale by the week and warning that the conflict risked becoming “another forever war”.

NPR- The public disapproves of U.S. citizens dying in what they potentially see as an unnecessary war, NPR's Franco Ordoñez tells Up First. While the issue of reduced munitions may feel abstract to many, flag-draped coffins are not, Justin Logan from the Cato Institute tells Ordoñez. The death of the 19-year-old Gonzales in particular resonates deeply with people as it underscores the loss of young lives at the hands of this conflict, Logan adds. Politically, Trump is attempting to sell Americans on the idea that things are going well, but the war's casualties tell a different story, Ordoñez says.