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Moscow proposed a quid pro quo to the U.S. under which the Kremlin would stop sharing intelligence information with Iran, such as the precise coordinates of U.S. military assets in the Middle East, if Washington ceased supplying Ukraine with intel about Russia.

Two people familiar with the U.S.-Russia negotiations said that such a proposal was made by Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev to Trump administration envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during their meeting last week in Miami.

The U.S. rejected the proposal, the people added. They, like all other officials cited in this article, were granted anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions.

A former U.S. Army general tasked with overseeing U.S.-led military support for Ukraine lost classified maps on a train in Europe and was concussed after an "overindulgence in alcohol" during a dinner in Ukraine, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Defense's Inspector General.

The 50-page report, dated March 12, found that Retired Army Major General Antonio Aguto Jr., who led the German-based Security Assistance Group-Ukraine (SAG-U), violated policy in his handling of classified maps while on a State Department-chartered trains.

SAG-U, which was established in November 2022 with about 300 military personnel, assists with "coordinating the training and equipping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," out of Wiesbaden, Germany, according to the Pentagon.

Sri Lanka declined permission for two U.S. combat aircraft to land at a civilian airport earlier this month, President Anura ​Kumara Dissanayake told parliament on Friday.

The U.S. had requested permission ‌for the two aircraft to land at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in the southern part of the country from March 4-8, Dissanayake told lawmakers.

"They wanted to bring two ​warplanes armed with eight anti-ship missiles from a base in Djibouti," ​he said during a statement.

The Trump administration is moving forward with its plan to swiftly remove Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia as soon as a court allows.

In a series of filings on Friday, administration officials asked a judge to dissolve a preliminary injunction that bars them from re-detaining Abrego Garcia and deporting him.

Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported last March to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison -- despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution. The Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he and his attorneys deny.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has blocked a Pentagon policy that sought to limit what journalists are able to report about the U.S. military, ruling in favor of The New York Times in a case that raised fundamental questions about the freedom of the press.

The Pentagon policy, unveiled last September, required media organizations to pledge not to gather information unless officials from the Department of Defense formally authorized its release. The policy extended beyond classified information, and included a prohibition on reporting even unclassified material without the approval of Pentagon officials.

The policy prompted widespread condemnation from press freedom groups, and led multiple news organizations to forfeit their Pentagon press passes, rather than comply. NPR is among the organizations that turned in its press passes, but has continued vigorous reporting on the Pentagon.

Regime will do whatever it takes to cling on to power – including sacrificing economies of other Gulf states

Brinkmanship, the ability to take a country to the edge of war without plunging it into the abyss, was the cornerstone of cold war diplomacy. But in our different, more unstable times – in which the line between state and non-state actors has blurred, and weapons of war have diffused – the world this week finally tipped over the edge, and suddenly it is in freefall.

The first six days of the Iran war cost the US $12.7bn (£9.5bn), but now the Pentagon is seeking as much as $200bn in military funding. Oil at $125 a barrel is no longer an Iranian, or Russian, fantasy. The crown jewel of Qatar, Ras Laffan – the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant – may not reopen fully for five years, at a cost of $20bn a year. Other combustible oil depots in the Gulf, from Bahrain to Abu Dhabi, are exposed to Iran’s low-cost drones. Then add the human cost of 18,000 civilians injured and more than 3,000 killed in Iran alone.

The regime in Tehran, fighting for its survival, had long warned that if it were attacked it would retaliate by targeting American bases in the region. Yet Donald Trump, the US president, seemed surprised when it did so. Inured to decades of isolation and condemnation, Ali Khamenei, the late supreme leader, said at the beginning of February: “The Americans should know that if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war.”

Medics and officials say there is systematic use of double-tap strikes in campaign to make the south uninhabitable

Lebanese healthcare workers and officials say Israeli bombings have deliberately targeted medical workers and facilities in south Lebanon, including through the use of double-tap strikes, in what they describe as a systematic effort to make the area unlivable.

Since the war began on 2 March, Israel has struck at least 128 medical facilities and ambulances across south Lebanon, killing 40 healthcare workers and wounding 107, according to the Lebanese ministry of health. The war started when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel, triggering an Israeli military campaign.

Most of the strikes on medics happened while they were sitting in ambulances or at first aid centres, several of which have been destroyed in south Lebanon. Israel has also carried out at least five double-tap strikes, a tactic in which an initial strike is followed by a pause, allowing medical workers to arrive before the area is bombed for a second time.

Iran’s attack this week on Qatar’s natural gas export facility threatens to disrupt not just world energy markets but also global technology supply chains because the helium it produces is crucial for a range of advanced industries.

Best known as the gas that makes party balloons float, helium is also a key input in chipmaking, space rockets and medical imaging.

Qatar supplies a third of the world’s helium, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but the nation had to halt production shortly after the war erupted three weeks ago. The latest Iranian strikes against the region’s energy producing infrastructure have added to supply worries, with Qatar’s state-owned gas company saying it would crimp helium exports by 14%.

Markets seem particularly attuned to increasing oil prices, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq down 1.5% and 2% respectively

US stock markets dropped again on Friday, capping off a fourth week of market turbulence as investors worried about the US-Israel war on Iran and its widespread impact on global oil prices.

The Dow lost over 400 points on Friday, with the S&P 500 slipping 1.5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 2%.

The biggest losses of the week were seen in the Russell 2000, which tracks the performance of small-cap companies. The Russell 2000 entered correction territory on Friday after dipping 2.7%, meaning the index fell more than 10% from its most recent high. The small cap index is the first of all the major indices to enter correction territory this year.

Elon Musk was misleading in his public statements during a crucial period of his 2022 Twitter takeover, a jury has found.

After two days of deliberations, a jury in San Francisco federal court decided in a unanimous verdict against the tech titan, who was sued by a group of Twitter investors arguing they had relied on his statements.

While testifying in court earlier this month, Musk argued that he did not mislead investors and that people simply read too much into his public comments and tweets.

The jury instead found that certain of his public claims of problems in Twitter's user metrics, and that he was possibly backing out of the $44bn acquisition deal, were intentionally misleading.

He says other nations will have to guard and police the Strait of Hormuz as necessary, after his attacks on the country prompted Iran to target vessels in the crucial world shipping lane. Mark Stone analyses the Truth Social post.