March 13, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day: in 1567, The Battle of Oosterweel, traditionally regarded as the start of the Eighty Years' War; in 1940, the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union officially ends after the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty; in 1943, German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków; in 1954, Battle of Điện Biên Phủ begins with an artillery barrage by Viet Minh forces under Võ Nguyên Giáp; Viet Minh victory led to the end of the First Indochina War and French withdrawal from Vietnam.
QOTD: "Standing between two Israeli flags and taking questions over video link, Netanyahu was asked what actions Israel might take against Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem:
"I wouldn't issue life insurance policies on any of the leaders of the terrorist organization ... I don't intend to provide an exact report here about what we are planning or what we are going to do."
US/CUBA/TRADE - Cuba Confirms Talks With US as Trump Pushes Island to Brink
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-13/cuba-confirms-with-talks-as-us-with-trump-pushes-island-to-brink?srnd=phx-politics
Cuba’s government confirmed it is talking with US officials as Donald Trump uses economic pressure to bring about change in the one-party state 90 miles off the coast of Florida.
In a televised press conference Friday morning, President Miguel Díaz-Canel said US and Cuban officials had “recently” met with his full backing and were exploring “potential solutions for our bilateral differences.”
But he added it was premature to offer details, saying any agreement is “still distant, but we are in the initial stages of that process.”
In a written statement released earlier, Díaz-Canel said the discussions are predicated “on the basis of equality and respect for the political systems of both states.”
Trump has repeatedly said his administration is talking to Cuba, but this is the first time the government in Havana has acknowledged the negotiations.
Home to about 10 million people, Cuba is facing an acute economic crisis, with daily life grinding to a halt after Trump captured Havana’s principal ally in Venezuela and cut off fuel shipments. The island suffered a blackout across two-thirds of its territory last week, and the national grid went down completely a half dozen times in the span of a year.
[Since it’s Friday the 13th, I would like to share my entirely unserious conspiracy theory that current US pressure campaign against Cuba is directly related to the JFK Jr mandate that Coca-Cola must switch back to cane sugar in its soft drinks. -mnno]
US/ECON/AS NICE A REMINDER AS ANY THAT JOURNALISTS DON’T GET TO WRITE THEIR OWN HEADLINES - U.S. Economy Was Vulnerable Before War With Iran
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/business/economy/consumer-prices-inflation-pce-february.html
Economic growth was slower at the end of 2025 than data first showed and inflationary pressures persisted at the start of this year, a troubling snapshot of an economy on unsteady footing before war with Iran upended oil and financial markets.
Consumer prices increased moderately in January, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge showed on Friday. Economists worry prices will march even higher in the coming weeks. And gross domestic product, the benchmark measure of economic growth, which is adjusted for inflation, was revised down to a 0.7 percent annual pace for the last three months of the year.
The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, notched a 0.3 percent monthly increase in the first month of 2026. Compared with the same time last year, prices were up 2.8 percent. The “core” inflation reading, which strips out more volatile food and energy prices, came in at 0.4 percent on a monthly basis, and 3.1 percent on an annual basis. That is a full percentage point above the Fed’s 2 percent target.
“It basically shows that inflation firmed up to start the year,” Omair Sharif, founder of the research firm Inflation Insights, said of the data. “All the key measures are moving in the wrong direction.”
US/RUSSIA/IRAN/SANCTIONS/ENERGY - Trump Removes Sanctions on Russia to Help Oil Flow Amid Iran Conflict
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/us/politics/trump-russia-oil-sanctions.html
The United States on Thursday temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil that is currently at sea, allowing it to be shipped to buyers around the world as the Trump administration scrambles to contain energy prices that have been soaring because of the war in Iran.
The exemptions, which were issued by the Treasury Department, will be in place until April 11. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent estimated that freeing Russian oil could add hundreds of millions of barrels of crude to global markets, curbing prices that have been hovering near $100 per barrel as a result of the Iran conflict.
The decision was a significant turning point in America’s effort to punish Russia for its war in Ukraine.
Russia has faced punishing sanctions from the United States and the rest of the Group of 7 advanced economies since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Those sanctions have included a price cap on Russian oil and a crackdown on Russia’s “shadow fleet” of unmarked vessels that oil exporters have used to evade sanctions.
US/TRADE/TARIFFS - Trump Targets Forced Labor in Global Tariff Scheme
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/us/politics/trump-forced-labor-tariffs.html
The Trump administration on Thursday evening initiated a sweeping trade investigation targeting dozens of countries over their trade policies on goods made with forced labor.
The inquiry was part of an effort by the Trump administration to resurrect a global system of tariffs after President Trump’s first attempt was struck down by the Supreme Court last month. On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced another major trade investigation that could lead to tariffs, focusing on excess production in the factory sectors of more than a dozen major trading partners.
The new investigation will focus on the laws that countries use to regulate the use of forced labor in goods they trade, not their domestic situations. It will target 60 economies, including Algeria, Canada, Norway, Saudi Arabia, China and the United Kingdom, as well as the 27-country bloc of the European Union.
The United States has banned imports of goods made with forced labor for nearly a century. Under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the United States passed a law that greatly expanded that scope. The United States forbade the import of any goods from the Xinjiang region of China, where accusations of forced labor have been rampant, unless importers provide documentation that their goods were made without it.
US/MIL/IRAN/IRAQ - 4 dead after U.S. Air Force refueler crashes in Iraq while supporting Iran war
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/03/12/kc-135-crash-iraq-iran/
Four service members died after a U.S. Air Force refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq on Thursday while supporting operations in Iran, military officials said.
Rescue efforts were still underway for the remaining two crew members, U.S. Central Command said, after an apparent midair accident between two U.S. Air Force KC-135 tanker aircraft.
“The circumstances of the incident are under investigation,” the Centcom statement said, adding that the identities of the deceased personnel would be withheld for 24 hours while next of kin were notified.
The incident, which occurred in western Iraq, occurred as U.S. forces have intensified inland strikes on the launch and storage sites that Iran uses for its arsenal of missiles and drones. Speaking alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon on Friday morning, the Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Dan Caine, said that the KC-135 crash happened during a combat mission but “was not the result of hostile or friendly fire.”
US/SWITZERLAND/TRADE - Swiss sticking to mandate for trade talks with US, minister says
https://www.reuters.com/business/swiss-sticking-mandate-trade-talks-with-us-minister-says-2026-03-13/
Switzerland is sticking to its existing mandate for trade negotiations with the United States that aim to finalise a deal over tariffs struck last year, Economy Minister Guy Parmelin said on Friday.
Parmelin was speaking after the United States said on Wednesday it was launching trade investigations into excess industrial capacity in 16 major trading partners, including Switzerland, and into allegations of forced labour.
"And we will most certainly also consult with these countries to see how to respond to the United States," Parmelin told reporters at a press conference.
Switzerland was subject to the highest U.S. tariffs in Europe when U.S. President Donald Trump imposed in August a 39% duty on products imported from the country.
In November, Bern sealed an initial deal that cut the tariffs to 15%, mirroring the rate for the European Union.
Switzerland has since begun talks to formalise that deal, which Washington has been pressing to conclude by the end of March.
"The negotiations and discussions are continuing," said Parmelin, who is also Switzerland's president for 2026.
IRAN/MENA/SEC/MIL - Iran's Shi'ite allies step up strikes despite weakened hand
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-shiite-allies-step-up-strikes-despite-weakened-hand-2026-03-12/
Shi'ite Muslim armed groups in Lebanon and Iraq are stepping up their role in the war with the U.S. and Israel, showing the Iran-backed "Axis of Resistance" can still wage attacks despite damage inflicted on the alliance during the Gaza conflict.
Groups that have long been armed and financed by Iran and loyal to its Shi'ite Islamist rulers are now helping Tehran intensify the war around the region, strikes in recent days show.
Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday launched their first-ever simultaneous rocket barrage on Israel, with the Lebanese group firing 200 missiles. Israel reported that only two of these hit its territory.
Iraqi Shi'ite militants have also picked up the pace of drone and missile attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq in the last 3-4 days, according to three Iraqi security sources and two sources close to the groups.
One group yet to enter the fray are Tehran's Houthi allies in Yemen, heavily armed and capable of disrupting maritime navigation around the Arabian peninsula, as shown during the Gaza war when they fired at Red Sea shipping and Israel. Houthi attacks could further disrupt oil markets because Saudi Arabia diverted exports to the Red Sea after Iran shut the Hormuz straits.
MORE: Why haven’t the Houthis, Iran’s allies in Yemen, stepped into the war?
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/why-havent-houthis-irans-allies-yemen-stepped-into-war-2026-03-13/
Iran's Shi'ite allies in Lebanon and Iraq have joined the war in the region unleashed by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Tehran. But Yemen's Houthi rebels, heavily armed and capable of striking Gulf neighbours and causing major disruption to maritime navigation around the Arabian Peninsula, have not yet entered the fray.
Here is a look at why that might be:
[…]
WHY HAVE THEY NOT ENTERED THE WAR?
On March 5, Houthi leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said his group was ready to strike at any moment.
“Regarding military escalation and action, our fingers are on the trigger at any moment should developments warrant it," he said in a televised speech.
But unlike Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraqi armed groups, they have not made any formal announcement of joining the war.
Houthi religious doctrine does not adhere to Iran's supreme leader in the same way Hezbollah and the Iraqi groups do.
While Iran champions the Houthis as part of its regional "Axis of Resistance", Yemen experts say the movement is motivated primarily by a domestic agenda though they share a political affinity with Iran and Hezbollah.
The U.S. says Iran has armed, funded and trained the Houthis with help from Hezbollah.
The Houthis deny being an Iranian proxy and say they develop their own weapons.
WHAT MIGHT THEY DO?
Observers have been split on what course of action the Houthis, a notoriously mercurial group, may take.
Some diplomats and analysts believe they may have already undertaken individual attacks on targets in neighbouring states. Reuters could not substantiate those claims.
Others say the Houthis are keeping their powder dry for an opportune moment to enter the conflict, in coordination with Iran, in order to exert maximum pressure.
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz to Gulf Arab hydrocarbon exports and a shift to heavy reliance on the Red Sea might provide such an opportunity.
Lastly, given growing economic pressure at home and the likelihood of intense U.S., Israeli and even Saudi attacks should they join the war, some analysts say the Houthis may decide to sit out the conflict altogether.
GIFT LINK: Mines Have Haunted the Persian Gulf for Decades
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/world/middleeast/iran-war-mines-ships-history.html?unlocked_article_code=1.S1A.MfAH.ObxQqtPAKEbr&smid=url-share
The U.S. military said this week that it had attacked 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the Strait of Hormuz. It is unclear whether any mines have been deployed in the strait, but American officials are surely aware that a naval mine — often no larger than a beach ball — can cripple a warship or a tanker.
They have clear evidence from the 1980s, when Iranian mines damaged commercial ships in the Persian Gulf and nearly sank a U.S. Navy frigate.
During the so-called tanker war, the maritime phase of Iran’s conflict with Iraq in the 1980s, both countries tried to cripple the other’s economy by attacking oil tankers and merchant shipping in the Persian Gulf.
Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea. Several merchant ships have been attacked in and around the strait since the latest war began on Feb. 28. Iran appeared to claim responsibility for one of the attacks, but the sources of the others were not immediately clear.
Laying mines and disrupting shipping traffic is a key component of Iran’s naval strategy, according to U.S. Navy assessments. Global prices for oil and natural gas typically rise when ships cannot deliver the vast amounts produced in the Gulf, a link that gives Iran leverage in the face of heavy attacks from the United States and Israel.
In the 1980s, the Central Intelligence Agency had assessed that Iran would avoid mining the Strait of Hormuz for fear of striking its own tankers or U.S. Navy vessels, said Stephen Phillips, a naval historian and the author of an upcoming book on the tanker war.
But Iran laid minefields that stretched from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to waters near the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, as well as the approaches to Bahrain, where the U.S. Navy had a base, Mr. Phillips said.
Kuwait, which was allied with Iraq, eventually asked the United States and the Soviet Union to escort its oil tankers. The U.S. responded by escorting Kuwaiti oil tankers through the Gulf. It didn’t take long for a mine disaster to unfold.
MORE: No evidence Iran has mined Strait of Hormuz, Pentagon's Hegseth says
https://www.reuters.com/world/no-evidence-iran-has-mined-strait-hormuz-pentagons-hegseth-says-2026-03-13/
There is no clear evidence that Iran has placed mines in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a news briefing on Friday.
The assessment by Hegseth contrasts with news reports earlier this week suggesting Iran had deployed about a dozen mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for a fifth of the world's oil.
Asked about the possibility of mines in the Strait, Hegseth said: "We've heard them talk about it just like you've reported recklessly and wildly about it. But ... we have no clear evidence of that." Hegseth's comments come as the United States and other countries face spiking oil and gas prices with the U.S-Israel war entering its 14th day, with oil prices hovering near $100 a barrel on Friday.
ISRAEL/IRAN - Netanyahu threatens Iran new leader, says government collapse uncertain
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-threatens-irans-new-supreme-leader-defends-joint-assault-with-us-2026-03-12/
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday issued a veiled threat to kill Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei even as he acknowledged that Israel's joint air war with the U.S. may not lead to a collapse of Tehran's clerical government.
Holding his first press conference since the start of the war, the Israeli leader said that Iran was "no longer the same" after nearly two weeks of bombardment and that Tehran had suffered blows to its elite Revolutionary Guards Corps and Basij paramilitary force.
He vowed to keep hitting Lebanon's Hezbollah after the Iran-backed group opened fire on March 2 to avenge Israel's killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei - Mojtaba Khamenei's father - at the start of the war.
MORE: Iran's new supreme leader wounded, likely disfigured, Hegseth says
https://www.reuters.com/world/irans-new-supreme-leader-wounded-likely-disfigured-hegseth-says-2026-03-13/
Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is wounded and likely disfigured, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday, questioning Khamenei's ability to govern after nearly two weeks of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.
No images have been released of Khamenei since an Israeli strike at the start of the war that killed much of his family, including his father and wife.
His first comments came in a statement read out by a television presenter on Thursday. In the statement, he vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut and called on neighboring countries to close U.S. bases on their territory or risk Iran targeting them.
"We know the new so-called not so supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured. He put out a statement yesterday. A weak one, actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement," Hegseth told a briefing.
"Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why. His father - dead. He's scared, he's injured, he's on the run and he lacks legitimacy."
An Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that the newly appointed supreme leader was lightly injured but was continuing to operate, after state television described him as war-wounded.
FRANCE/IRAQ - French soldier killed, several wounded in Iraq attack, Macron confirms
https://www.politico.eu/article/french-soldier-killed-several-wounded-iraq-attack-emmanuel-macron-confirms/
A French soldier was killed and several others were wounded in an attack on a counterterrorism training exercise in northern Iraq, French President Emmanuel Macron said early Friday.
"Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion of the 7th Chasseurs Alpins Battalion in Varces died for France during an attack in the Erbil region of Iraq," Macron posted on X, confirming the first French fatality of the Middle East war that began with the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran last month.
The French president called the attack "unacceptable," adding that the soldiers were in Iraq as part of an ongoing effort against the Islamic State.
Their presence in Iraq is part of the strict framework of the fight against terrorism," Macron said. "The war in Iran cannot justify such attacks."
A pro-Iranian armed group called Ashab Al-Kahf announced on Friday that it would target "all French interests in Iraq and the region," according to French media reports. "We announce that, starting tonight, all French interests in Iraq and the region will be under attack," the Iraqi group declared, according to the reports.
Macron last week said the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was being deployed to the Mediterranean along with fighter jets and air defense systems to protect French interests in the Middle East.
REUTERS INVESTIGATION: IN SEARCH OF BANKSY
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/global-art-banksy/
In late 2022, an ambulance pulled up to a bombed-out apartment building in this village outside Kyiv. Three people emerged. One wore a gray hoodie, another a baseball cap. Both had masks covering their faces.
The third was more easily identifiable: He was unmasked, and had one arm and two prosthetic legs, witnesses told Reuters.
The masked men carried cardboard stencils from the ambulance and taped them to what had been an interior wall of an apartment before the Russians obliterated the place. Then they pulled out cans of spray paint and got to work. An absurd image appeared in minutes: a bearded man in a bathtub, scrubbing his back amid the wreckage.
Its creator was Banksy, one of the world’s most popular and enigmatic artists, whose identity has been debated and closely guarded for decades. Banksy is best known for simple yet sophisticated stencil paintings with searing social commentary. His work has generated tens of millions of dollars in sales over the years.
Once an annoyance to authorities who viewed him as a vandal, he has become a British national treasure. In one survey, Brits rated him more popular than Rembrandt and Monet. In another poll, his “Girl with Balloon” painting was voted the favorite piece of artwork Britain has produced.
Some critics believe Banksy’s anonymity is as important to his work as stencils and paint. The British press has run many articles over the years that tried to deduce his identity. Still, Banksy and his inner circle won’t talk about it. Some have signed non-disclosure agreements. Others keep quiet out of loyalty, or fear of crossing the artist, his fans and his influential company, Pest Control Office, which authenticates his work and decides who gets the first chance to buy Banksy’s latest pieces.
When the bathtub mural and other Banksy pieces began appearing in Ukraine, Reuters wondered about the artist and how he had pulled off the stunt. Horenka was less than five miles east of Bucha, where Russian forces had left behind at least 300 civilians dead seven months earlier.