Iran conflict widens as midterms approach

Hi, I'm Kim Van Al in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Monday, March 2nd. Today,

Israel hits Lebanon as the Iran conflict widens, risking a wider war between the US and its

allies and Iran's proxies. Polling shows just one in four Americans support US attacks on Iran,

and midterm season kicks off, with the Texas primary ellipment test for both parties.

This is Royce's World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in

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slash auto discounts, restrictions apply. But first, some breaking news. For more,

here's my colleague, Kamel Kremens. Thanks, Kim. Three US jet fighters were mistakenly

shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses. That's according to the US military. In a post on X, US Central

Command, said the three F-15s were hit in an apparent friendly fire incident. The six crew safely

ejected. Now back to Kim. Scenes of devastation are unfolding across the Middle East.

Part of a residential area in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv turned to rubble.

In Dubai, a missile sparks a massive fire at the crucial Jabal Ali port.

A US-run naval base in Bahrain is set on fire. An oil tanker is attacked of the coast of Aman.

And in Tehran's in Halab Square, thousands of people gather, wailing women beat their chests.

As supporters of the country's supreme leader mourn his death.

In the days since Israel and the US began their assault on Tehran, the scale of the conflict

has widened, both from Iran's continued retaliatory attacks, and with Israel now expanding its

gaze to Lebanon. More than a dozen explosions rocking the capital Beirut, forcing residents to

flee. Israel says it's targeting the Iranian-backed armed group Hezbollah, which earlier launched

missiles against Israel and retaliation for the killing of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Hamini.

A fragile peace between Israel and Lebanon, long-time enemies, is now in tatters.

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, is signaling that US and Israeli strikes on Iran could

last weeks. Combat operations continue at this time in full force, and they will continue until

all of our objectives are achieved. He says almost 50 Iranian leaders have been killed,

and that the US has started sinking Iran's navy, destroying Iranian warships, and quote,

going after the rest. The US also announced its first casualties of the campaign.

Three service personnel killed on a base in Kuwait, according to officials.

Trump says there will likely be more US casualties, but we'll do everything possible

where that won't be the case. But America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most

punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against basically civilization.

In Tehran, a new leadership council has temporarily assumed the duties of the Supreme Leader.

But Ayatollah Ali Hamini's death still leaves the Islamic Republic in its most perilous crisis

since the 1979 revolution. Trump is hoping that will result in regime change that is more

friendly to the US and Israel's interests. Several officials and analysts, however, think

that looks unlikely, at least in the immediate term. The regime, they say, was meant to outlast

one man. Foreign policy editor Don Derpy has the latest on where that leaves America in terms of

next steps. So on Sunday, Iran announced that they were setting up a new leadership council

in the wake of the killing of Hamini. It's led by President Masood Pazashkin, and Trump has said

that he wants to have talks with this leadership council. It's not clear whether those are going

to be successful or not. Iran is not Venezuela. In Venezuela, you still had a fairly large group of

relatively apolitical government workers. You know, we're in theory willing to work with the United

States. In Iran, you've had a clerical regime which exercises really tight control over all aspects

of the government. And you also have the powerful revolutionary guards who are deeply embedded

in Iranian society. And you know, just not clear that even if this leadership council were to make

some sort of agreement with with Trump that the rest of the government would follow, although you

you never know, there might be some some sort of compromises that they might make that would be

acceptable to the US. That could mean a drawn out war with a role of Iran's proxy fighters could

be critical. Well, Trump has said that the fighting could go on for another four weeks.

unclear if it would really last that long, but Israel and the United States have signal that

there's a lot of targets that they still want to hit. You know, today they were focusing on sinking

the Iranian navy. And for Iran, you know, they they used a number of their ballistic missiles and

retaliatory attacks over the last couple of days, but they are believed to still have many missiles

in reserve. We don't know yet how many of those at the US might have destroyed. But for sure,

they're holding some missiles in reserve so that they continue to retaliate. And beyond military

retaliation, you know, one of the worries with Iran is what they would call asymmetric retaliation,

which could come in the form of terrorist attacks by Iran or by its proxies. Those could happen

soon. They could happen over months or years. You just don't know so that they have various ways of

fighting back. Markets are opening as news of the weekend reverberates. So to unpack what is

happening on markets, I'm joined by Mike Dolan from our sister podcast MorningBird. Hey, Mike.

I came. Good morning. Good morning. So how are markets reacting?

They are, as you might expect, crude oil prices are sharply higher. But interestingly,

given the extent of the weekend's events and how broadly spread they are across the Middle

East, they're not as up as many up as high as many people had feared. As it stands,

we're about six percent higher for US crude above $80 barrel. But even at the weekend,

as it unfolded, people were already coming out with these $100 barrel oil forecasts,

which we're still well shy of. Now, it's clearly a fluid situation. Everything is unfolding by

the minute. But as it stands, the oil price reaction is sharp, but not worst case scenario.

Any other likely flow on effects given how inflationary oil prices traditionally are?

Well, look, all financial markets will react to this. This is a very significant event. And you're

getting what they call in markets for risk off. That means that the more risky assets are being

sold off. So equities are falling. We're seeing a bid for gold. We're seeing a confusing picture

for bonds. So US Treasury bonds, which normally riff off the interest rate outlook, they are getting

a safety bid that considered a safety asset. And that's offset by the rising oil price implication

for inflation, which of course is very politically sensitive for President Trump and this election

you. Thanks so much for that, Mike. Don't forget you can listen to Morning Bid seven days a week,

wherever you get your podcasts. Speaking of it being an election year, the deaths of US

service members could pose a major political risk for Trump ahead of the November midterms.

Only one in four Americans approve of the US strikes on Iran,

according to new Reuters Ipsos polling. The poll shows voters are worried about American casualties

with many Republicans saying their support would drop if US troops are harmed.

The strike on Iran is opening up a rare fault line inside the MAGA movement.

National Affairs reporter Tim Reed says even some of the president's most influential

supporters are warning the attack could backfire. It's still early days, but this attack on Iran

has led to some of his most vocal supporters on the right within the MAGA movement,

influencers and outspoken supporters to come out to say that they did not vote for a foreign

war. And they state the central argument that attacking Iran does nothing to help the cost of

living here here back in America and the rate of inflation. Midterms season, by the way,

kicks off tomorrow with the first primaries in Arkansas, North Carolina and Texas.

According to our correspondent Joseph Axe, it's the Senate race in Texas that's getting the

most attention. So on the Republican side, you've got the incumbent John Cornyn has been in the

Senate for a long time. And his main challenger is the Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is a real

MAGA warrior in a way that Cornyn isn't. On the Democratic side, you've also got a really

interesting race between James Talleriko. He's a state lawmaker who has gotten a lot of attention

for reaching out to conservatives across the aisle. And his opponent is Jasmine Crockett. She's a

member of the US House of Representatives. And she's gotten a lot of national attention herself

for these kind of viral confrontations with members of the Trump administration. So for Republicans,

they're going to be looking to see, do their voters want, you know, someone in kind of the

mold of Trump, right? A true MAGA believer. And then on the Democratic side, you know, the same kind

of idea, right? They want someone who's going to try to make a bit of more of an appeal to moderate

voters, independent voters, dissatisfied Trump voters.

For more on what's happening in the Middle East and the global repercussions,

check out Readers.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast

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