From the New York Times, it's the headlines.
Today's Tuesday, March 3rd, here's what we're covering.
As of this morning, the U.S. State Department has closed its embassies in Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait after drone attacks and its urging Americans to immediately leave from 14 Middle
East countries, as Iran expands its retaliatory strikes.
Explosions have been reported in several countries where there are American military
bases, including Iraq and the UAE.
There have also been attacks against Dubai's international airport and other infrastructure.
Amazon's cloud computing business said two of its facilities in the UAE have also been
The attacks come as the Trump administration says it is sending more forces to the Middle
The President warned an effort of this scope will include casualties.
War is hell and always will be.
Yesterday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegsess said the toll on U.S. forces could rise.
Six U.S. service members have been killed so far.
To the media outlets and political left screaming endless wars, stop.
This is not endless.
Hegsess said the U.S. would continue hitting Iran, quote, surgically, and insisted this
would not spiral into a long-term entanglement, like other U.S. conflicts in the region.
Some U.S. lawmakers have expressed skepticism about the administration's rationale for
launching the operation, while the President has broad authority to respond to specific
time-sensitive threats, going to war requires congressional approval.
This week, both the House and Senate are set to weigh in with votes seeking to limit
Trump's power to continue to use force against Iran.
Meanwhile, the Times has learned new details about the lead-up to Trump's decision to
The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, had been pushing Trump for months to strike
The two leaders talked about it at the White House in February for hours, even about
possible dates for an attack.
Trump also talked about it extensively with his own inner circle of advisors, and there
was not much opposition.
Even Vice President J.D. Vance, a long-time skeptic of American military intervention
in the Middle East, said if the U.S. was going to hit Iran, it should quote, go big and
go fast, according to people familiar with the conversation.
And, while Trump sent a team to negotiate with Iran, his special envoy Steve Whitkopf
and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, they left the talks last week, telling Trump they
did not think a deal could be reached on the country's nuclear program.
The next day, Trump gave the go-ahead for the strikes, quote, operation epic fury is
approved, no aborts good luck.
Now two more updates on the Trump administration.
Today, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Nome, will testify before the Senate
Judiciary Committee.
It's the first time she'll face questions in Congress since her department launched
its aggressive immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, which resulted in widespread
outrage after agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens.
Democrats are expected to press Nome on that, funding for her department lapsed more than
two weeks ago, in part because Democrats have refused to pass a spending bill without
new restrictions on DHS agents.
As meanwhile, are pointing to the heightened risk of terrorist threats in the U.S. following
the attacks on Iran and saying Democrats should relent and agree to funding.
Nome will also face questions from lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow.
And, a new times analysis of the Department of Veterans Affairs has found that the agency
has cut thousands of medical positions, even as many of its facilities face a severe shortage
of doctors and nurses.
All we're doing is taking unfilled and unnecessary positions off the books.
VA Secretary Doug Collins has previously said most of the eliminated roles have been
vacant for a year or more, and that they didn't need to be filled.
But the Times found that more than 70 percent of the jobs did have people working in them
last year or this year.
The cuts include nearly 5,000 jobs in nursing, and more than 1,500 positions for doctors.
That's raised concerns among current and former VA employees who worry it will disrupt
Collins himself has acknowledged the need for more medical providers, but the agency said
it's been opening new clinics and offering more appointment times.
A spokesman for the VA said the measure of its success should be how well it performs,
not how many people it employs.
While on that trip, did you ever witness or become aware of sexual abuse of any kind?
The House Oversight Committee has released the full videos of its depositions with former
President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of its
Epstein investigation.
The Clinton's testified last week, agreeing only after they were threatened with contempt
They had called the subpoenas to appear invalid and politically motivated.
I've never been in his homes, his offices, his anything.
Both repeatedly said they had no knowledge of any sex trafficking or sexual abuse by Epstein,
or by his close associate, Elaine Maxwell, who's serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Hillary Clinton was particularly exasperated with what she said was repetitive questioning.
Bill Clinton, for his part, said he'd flown with Epstein a few times and described the
relationship as cordial and business-like, as opposed to being friends.
I thought we had an understanding about the airplanes that he would let me use the airplane
to set up my AIDS program around the world if I agreed to talk to him for an hour about
economic and politics on every long life.
At one point, Bill Clinton was asked if he thought President Trump should be called to testify
before the committee as well.
Clinton said he'd talk to Trump once about Epstein, 20-something years ago, but that nothing
about Epstein's criminal behavior came up.
Clinton said he remembered Trump telling him he was friends with Epstein and that they'd
had a falling out over a property deal.
And finally, a 76-year-old woman got a phone call recently from someone claiming they
were an officer with the Department of Criminal Investigations, not a real department.
He told her she needed to cooperate with his investigation into money laundering.
He knew her address and the name of her late husband.
She got scared, paranoid, and then he started asking for money.
It was a scam, of course, something that's easy to say from the outside and hindsight.
And the only thing that stopped it was the woman's bank.
When she went in and asked for tens of thousands of dollars, a teller flagged the branch manager,
who then sat down with the woman, talked it through, and helped her call the police.
As more and more of these scammers target older Americans, just like this, banks and tellers
are becoming the last line of defense.
AARP has been offering a free video program called Banksafe that trains tellers to spot
red flags and to intervene.
More than 1,500 institutions have used the training, including the bank that the woman went
This kind of practice reflects a shift in approach.
Until recently, according to one expert who studies elder abuse, banks had put more emphasis
on the autonomy of customers.
Essentially, they're adults.
They can make poor choices.
Now, with some changes in government and industry policies, banks are taking different steps.
About half of states have passed laws allowing financial institutions to deny suspicious transactions
or place holds on them.
Which one fraud expert says can just add a helpful bit of friction, giving the potential scammy
a little more time to stop and think.
Those are the headlines.
Today on The Daily, it is essentially the start of the midterms today.
In Texas, voters are heading to the polls for a Senate primary showdown that everyone
in U.S. politics is watching closely.
You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts.
We'll be back tomorrow.
