People are trying to flee the Gulf. Some will pay any price to get out.

Good morning. As airports and embassies are hit, thousands of Americans scramble to get

out of the Gulf.

So we're honestly trapped. It's really frustrating that right now the U.S. is saying Americans

come home when in reality we can't come home.

The Associated Press explains how the relationship between Netanyahu and Trump is influencing

the conflicts.

And NBC's data chief shares his takeaways after major primaries in Texas.

It's Thursday, March 5th. I'm Cecilia Lai.

And I'm Gideon Resnick. This is Apple News today.

On the same day, the U.S. struck an Iran tanker. The Senate gathered to debate raining in President

Trump's war powers and bringing the conflict to a halt. A few Republicans expressed some

reservations, but a measure brought to the floor ultimately failed. The vote fell almost

completely along party lines, allowing Trump to continue military action without the

need for congressional approval.

Democrat Senator Tim Cain authored the resolution.

We can't afford to hide under a desk and let any president, Democrat or Republican, send

our best and brightest our own kids into war to risk their lives unless we have debated

it. We have determinants in the national interest. We have voted and thereby put our signature

in our thumbprint on the notion that it's worth sending our best and brightest to risk

their lives.

But Republican majority leader John Thune told Fox News the president had his party's

support.

This is an attempt again to try to derail or step on the president's messaging around

that and create a political issue where there really isn't one. What the president is

doing as a ran is something that frankly should have been done probably arguably a long

time ago.

In the opening days of the conflict, a big part of Iran's response has been to strike

out at neighboring countries. That's taken many Americans staying there by surprise, with

thousands now desperately trying to get out, something we wanted to spend a few minutes

looking at today.

On Monday, the U.S. State Department posted a warning on social media telling its citizens

to leave immediately, but that's much easier tweeted than done.

It's terrifying. I mean, we're not used to it in the U.S. where you just hear fighter jets

going on all day long and you certainly don't hear the missiles actually landing and

blowing up.

We are finally evacuating Kuwait on our own terms by land. The government has not helped

us at all. We are doing this on our own. Please wish us luck.

It turned dark and we heard over the phones that all of a sudden we're in the middle of

the war zone. So we're begging for somebody in the States to kind of help us out.

Nearly 3,000 Americans have asked the State Department for assistance, and a state official

told CBS that they believed over a million U.S. nationals were in the region. Initially,

people were advised to find their own way out via commercial routes, but then Iranian

bombs began flying towards airports in the Gulf, which led to air space closures, making

a quick exit all but impossible. Five days into the war, Dubai's airport, the world's

busiest hub for international travelers, remains mostly closed to commercial flights. Also,

several key embassies have been forced shut by bombings. According to reports, calls to

the State Department hotline were met with a pre-recorded message that said no help was

available, and multiple embassies issued a notice warning there were no position to

assist evacuations. When reporters asked Trump on Tuesday why an evacuation plan wasn't

ready, he said this. Well, because it happened all very quickly. We thought, and I thought

maybe more so than most I could ask Marco, but I thought we were going to have a situation

where we were going to be attacked. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged people to register

on the State Department website for updates, and insisted the government was in fact working

on a plan to help people out. We have identified and continue to identify charter flights, military

flight options, and expanded commercial flight options, meaning working with the airlines

to send bigger airplanes with more seats, and the combination of those three things. The

impediment we're facing now, many cases, we've had a couple instances in which we have

planes in the air and on the way, and unfortunately the air space gets closed and they have to

turn back around, so we're working through those challenges. Meanwhile, social media has been

filled with stories of wealthy influencers spending big sums to get out of the Gulf. Some

of four reports that the Saudi capital, Riyadh, has become the premier exit route for the super

rich. One private jet brokerage quoted tickets to Europe costing $350,000. But as Bloomberg reports,

the reality for most people is to either stay put or attempt a long expensive journey home.

They spoke to Traveler Kelly who was about to board her flight when projectiles started flying.

She and another Traveler got lucky, but at a price, they paid out $1,000 for a six hour ride to

Riyadh and then bought a ticket to London for $2,000. At the same time, large numbers of people

caught up in the U.S. Israeli strikes are also fleeing in search of safety. The UN Refugee

Agency says the intensifying violence has already triggered significant movement in populations.

In the first two days of the strikes, an estimated 100,000 people have left Iran,

and tens of thousands of displaced people in Lebanon are in shelters, according to the agency.

The European Union Agency for Asylum echoed the UN's concerns, warning that the ongoing conflict

in Iran could lead to refugee movements of a quote, unprecedented magnitude.

How the U.S. and Israel fights Iran in the coming days will in part be shaped by the dynamics

between two leaders. When America, the indispensable ally for Israel and the greatest part of the

world and Israel, America's model ally is the National Security Council called it. When we

were together, amazing things happened. That's Prime Minister Netanyahu speaking shortly after

the initial attacks. His close partnership with Trump has played a vital role in the planning

of the past week. Axios reports that Netanyahu tipped off that Iran's supreme leader

and a host of other top officials would be meeting in the same place at the same time. That

call, according to Axios, was pivotal. It helped persuade Trump to seize the moment and strike.

Both leaders have pushed back hard against reports that a planned attack by Israel forced America's

hand. In fact, Trump suggested the opposite was true, undercutting earlier comments from

Secretary of State Marco Rubio. For Netanyahu, the fall of Iran's leadership represents the

culmination of a year's long ambition. Netanyahu is being seen as kind of at least in the

short term, the big winner of this conflict. Tia Goldenberg is the government, policy, and impact

editor for the Associated Press. She was previously a reporter in Jerusalem. Pretty much for the length

of Benjamin Netanyahu's political career. It's been decades now. He's seen the Islamic Republic of

Iran as a major existential threat for Israel. He worked against essentially the Obama administration

while it was negotiating a nuclear deal to rein in the nuclear program. The steel has two major

concessions. One, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program. And two, lifting the restrictions on that

program in about a decade. And he has increasingly over time seen the current leadership of Iran

as intolerable and is something that Israel cannot accept. And that has, of course, culminated

in the events that we've seen over the past few days. Goldenberg told us that both leaders have

utilized their respective leverage in a way that has been mutually beneficial to their agendas.

She said this alliance has helped redefine the region more broadly. Netanyahu and Trump have

grown increasingly close, especially since Trump returned to office this past year. So this is

obviously following Israel's battles against other militias in the region. It's taken out Hamas

leadership. It's taken out Hezbollah leadership. And this follows that trend.

But even as Israel's position in the region's strengthens, Netanyahu still faces challenges

with his own electorate at home. In longer term, the war's outcome could shape future US

Israeli relations. Working with Donald Trump and getting Donald Trump to join in on this operation,

on this war was a major success for Netanyahu. But the question is does it come at the cost of

a decline in public US support for Israel? We've already seen that support declining throughout

the war in Gaza. So is this war eventually, even though it's come with a major and important

American support, could it eventually lead to a further decline in US public support for Israel?

We could get some clarity on those questions soon. Elections in Israel are scheduled in the fall

around the same time that Americans go to the polls for the midterms. Gideon has another story next.

The Closely watched Texas primaries on Tuesday marked the start of the midterms. And maybe

the first opportunity for pollsters and pundits to pour over some results in search of nationwide

lessons. The state is a long shot for Democrats. But James Teleriko's winning campaign against

Jasmine Crockett has some wondering if his message could ultimately deliver Democrats

their first statewide win in more than 30 years. And on the Republican side, the state's

scandal prone attorney general Ken Paxson took the incumbent Senator John Kornin to a runoff.

To dig a little bit deeper into what all of it means, I spoke to Steve Kornaki,

NBC News's chief data analyst about what he saw and what stood out to him.

I think the common theme is just, you know, sky high interest here. I think particularly on the

Democratic side, the turnout level in Texas and the Democratic primary really is kind of,

you know, astronomical. They got more votes in their primary total cast than in the Republican

primary. That hasn't happened in like a quarter century there. And I think that's just a story we've

been seeing since Trump came back to the White House is the energy in opposition to him in the

Democratic party kind of that resistance energy is running really high. Yeah. And are there any

particular constituencies or parts of the electorate that really jumped out to you for either the

Democratic side or the Republican side? I think in Texas, the story we've been looking at now for,

you know, for years has been the Hispanic vote down by the border in South Texas because that's

a region that for a long time was deeply democratic. But with Donald Trump in the last two

presidential elections, it has moved dramatically toward Trump. And so I think there was a big question

here yesterday about, you know, how that vote was going to shape these primaries. And I think

you saw two things. Number one was in that region, the border region of Texas, the turnout was much

higher in the Democratic primary for Senate than in the Republican primary for Senate. And that

turnout in the Democratic primary overwhelmingly went to James Talleriko. He's winning the Hispanic

vote in South Texas by two to one margins at least in that primary yesterday. Now can Democrats hold

on to that in the general election is going to be a question because that would be a big story if

they do. Yeah. And so the Texas Senate matchup not quite set yet. But in North Carolina, the Senate

matchup is set. That's another state that is going to be critical in terms of overall congressional

control. What should people know about North Carolina? Yeah. I think as you said, this is one of those

states where Republicans control the Senate right now. Democrats have a difficult path to getting

a majority and any path for Democrats getting to a majority in the Senate necessarily depends

on them winning North Carolina. It's a Republican held seat, the Republican incumbent Tom Tillis

not seeking reelection there. The Democrats have put forward what they think is their best possible

candidate, a former governor, Roy Cooper, who easily won his primary. So a lot of things are going

to have to break Democrats way if they're going to win the Senate. And on that list of things that

has to break their way, one of the, I don't want to say easy and I don't want to say even less

difficult, but sort of the foundational thing for them is to win North Carolina. Then they'd have

to do some much harder things like win a Texas if they were going to get the Senate. And so what

are you going to be looking for in the primaries next week and in the months ahead? I think the two

things here that we're looking for coming out of this one is this turnout trend we saw in Texas

where the Democrats again looks like they're actually going to have more voters in their primary

than the Republicans did. Do we see this in other states in other sort of unlikely states? This

hadn't happened in Texas since 2002. It's that rare. And the other question is, look, I said we

saw one House incumbent Dan Crenshaw go down. We may end up in these runoffs seeing several others

go down. There's the potential here over the next few months in these primaries that we see a

number and unusually high number of members of Congress lose in primaries. A whole bunch of them

got scares yesterday. Some of them are still getting scares and is they're heading into runoffs

at least one of them's lost and I think this could be a story over the next few months too.

See for Naki, thank you so much for your time, really appreciate it.

You guys, thanks for having me. In that Texas Senate race, President Trump said that he plans to

endorse soon and that the other candidate should drop out. You can find more coverage and take

away some of these primaries in the Apple News app and Cecilia is back with you next.

And finally, a few other stories we're following. In an extraordinary move on Wednesday,

the House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions

about the Epstein files. Republican Representative Nancy Mace from South Carolina introduced the

resolution to bring Bondi before the panel. If she testifies, Bondi would be the highest ranking

sitting official to appear before the committee. After the vote, Mace posted on X quote,

we want to know why the DOJ is more focused on shielding the powerful than delivering justice.

The Hill notes that Bondi has faced criticism over the handling of the files. The DOJ faces

scrutiny over redaction errors in the release documents and accusations that the department failed

to release all of the files. A judge has ordered the Trump administration to start paying back the

tariffs it collected from businesses. It leaves the White House with a big bill, around 130 billion

dollars. The Wall Street Journal reports that more than 2,000 lawsuits have been filed by companies

seeking to recoup their money. That includes big names such as Costco wholesale, FedEx, and Pandora

Jewelry. The executive director of a coalition of business groups called We Pay the Tariffs

called it a victory for small business. It could prove short-lived, though. The administration

is certain to appeal. And finally, a new fast food game of one-upsmanship is playing out on social

media, and it's pulled in the CEOs of America's biggest burger chains. It all started after McDonald's

CEO Chris Kupchinsky went viral after tasting the restaurant's newest burger.

All right, the moment of truth. Hmm, that is so good. That's a big bite for a big arch.

Drows of people online noted that Kupchinsky appeared not to enjoy the burger very much,

and that his bite was pretty small. One user posted, quote, he's acting like he's afraid of it.

Not to be outdone, Burger King then posted a video of their CEO taking a monster bite out of

its signature whopper, though they denied it was in response to anything. And finally,

the CEO of Wendy's joined the trend yesterday, posting a video of himself taking multiple

bites of a burger. The Wall Street Journal notes that because these companies are trying to use

their chief executives as pitchmen, their every move, including facial expressions and yes,

bite sizes are being watched, scrutinized, and skewered by millions of people online.

You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening

in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. Women's health explores

the world of youth sports and how pricey private leagues are driving fierce competition

and a cutthroat culture. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus

narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.