UPDATE - Trump demands ‘unconditional surrender’, jobs report and Beirut

Hi, I'm Carmel Cremens and Dublin.

And I'm Sharon Raish Garson in New Jersey today.

The U.S. economy loses 92,000 jobs in February.

President Donald Trump fires Homeland Security Secretary Christy Knome.

Trump demands Iran's unconditional surrender.

And China rolls out its new five-year plan at the National People's Congress.

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

in 10 minutes, seven days a week.

The U.S. economy unexpectedly lost jobs in February,

and the unemployment rate increased to 4.4%, possibly hinting at a cooling labor market.

Economics editor Dan Burns is here to break down the latest jobs report.

So it was a real surprise. The 92,000 jobs lost last month was, you know,

frankly, larger than even the most pessimistic estimate in the Reuters poll of economists

going into the number. The most downbeat estimate was about 9,000 among 72 economists,

and the expectation on balance was for nearly 60,000 new jobs to have been created.

So to have missed by that margin was really quite large and very unexpected.

Dan says that despite some factors like labor strikes and severe weather,

the report calls into question the overall strength of the job market over the last year.

And if you go back to April of last year when, you know, Trump famously had his

liberation day tariffs announcements, there's been no job creation at all in the economy

in that time. In fact, 19,000 jobs have been lost. Now, some of that is because of deliberate

policy choices by Trump to target government employment. But if you look at just private sector

employment for all of 2025 now, it was just under 300,000 for the year. And that was the weakest

year for private sector employment outside of the pandemic since 2009.

These bleak numbers could put the Federal Reserve in a difficult spot as oil prices rise.

But in an exclusive interview with Reuters, Trump brushed off concerns about spiking gas prices.

If they rise, they rise, he said. And they're certainly doing that, heading for their largest

weekly gains since Russian invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Trump is now calling for Iran's unconditional surrender. It's a dramatic escalation and comes

just hours after Iran's president, Mesud Pzezhezhkin, said several countries have begun

mediation efforts. The US president writing on social media that, quote, there will be no deal

with Iran, except unconditional surrender. And he says the US must have a say in choosing Iran's

next leader. He made those comments just before Israeli-bound pounding Beirut.

Strikes have been carried out on more than 500 targets shortly after Israel-ordered

residents to leave the southern suburbs. An attack in the Dahia suburb focused on a command

center that's used by Iran's revolutionary guards Navy unit. While others targeted command

centers used by Hezbollah, around 300,000 people have been displaced in the past four days in Lebanon,

according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. There was no let up in Iran's night skies either.

The Israeli military, saying it had started a broad-scale wave of strikes against the Iranian

regime's infrastructure in the early hours of this morning. Meanwhile, Iran launched an overnight

drone attack on the al-udid airbase in Qatar, the biggest US base in the Middle East.

Missiles continue to rain down on Tel Aviv, and Iran's revolutionary guard,

said it had targeted air bases in Israel, Kuwait, and air-build Iraq.

In that exclusive interview, Trump said he doesn't think Ayatollah Ali Hamani's son

will succeed him as the Islamic Republic's new Supreme Leader. And he refused to rule out the

son of the former Shah taking over. White House reporter Steve Holland spoke to Trump over the

phone on Thursday. The president said he wants to have a role in selecting the next leader of Iran,

and this is very similar to what happened in Venezuela. Trump picked her, was involved in the

selection of Delsey Rodriguez as the acting leader of Venezuela now. He's been able to get along

well with her, so I think he'd like to see that replicated in Iran, which is a much more

complicated situation. We don't need to know who's going to rise up and become the next leader of

Iran, whether it might be someone from Kamani's inner circle, some other like consensus candidate.

It's just we're just nowhere near that at a moment. But he did rule out

supporting the son of the late Supreme Leader Ali Hamani as the leader. He didn't rule out

the opposition figure, Reza Palavi, who's related to the old Shah of Iran.

US Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nome has been fired. Effect of March 31st, President

Trump says she'll be replaced by Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullin. It's the biggest staffing

shakeup of Trump's second term, and it raises questions about the direction of his immigration

crackdown. Nome became one of Trump's most controversial cabinet members after two US citizens

were fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. She quickly labeled them domestic

terrorists before videos undercut that claim. But it was a pricey ad campaign that apparently pushed

Trump over the edge. Here's Steve Holland again, who spoke to the president about Nome shortly

before the announcement. One of the things that seems to have gotten the president's attention

in a negative way is that Christy Nome testified on Capitol Hill about a $200 million ad campaign

that she's featured in. And she faced questions for the lawmakers about this ad.

She was asked, the president Trump signed off on this ad and this expenditure. And she said,

yes, he did. And so when I got the president on the phone, I said, did you sign off

on this ad? And he said, no, I did not. I never knew anything about it. So that would seem to be

a one indicator of why he decided to move on. And the other is this expensive plane that

that was being set up for her to fly around in kind of a VIP type plane situation. You know,

he gets tired of that kind of those kind of headlights. So. And then plus, remember,

she was immersed in the ice crackdown in Minneapolis and the, you know, the resulting death

of those two demonstrators. And that turned the public against her strongly. And he had to replace

her with Tom Holman, the borders are. So that was a factor in his decision making.

China has a new five year plan. Turbo charge its tech and settle for a slightly lower growth

target of 4.5 to 5%. Beijing is trading its record breaking GDP to focus on AI, robotics,

and high tech, self reliance. Kevin Krolycki and Beijing has more.

The really interesting thing about the government work report I am the five year plan

is the laser focus on achieving self-sufficiency and high technology. That's the aspiration and

really driving AI into every sector of the economy. The government called out a number of sectors

for government support. Some of these are sectors that China already dominates or has a lead in,

like humanoid robotics. Some of them are very cutting edge still, you know, almost science fiction,

like machine brain interfaces. But one thing throughout this planning process that China

is clear on is it wants to get AI and embedded AI into 90% of the industrial sectors by 2030.

It's both creating demand for local champions like deep seek. And it's potentially creating

a risk for employment that the government will have to manage down the road.

US military investigators say that America was likely responsible for the strike on the

Iranian girl school last weekend. Two US officials told Reuters it isn't a final determination

and the investigation is still underway. Britney Spears has been arrested on suspicion of

driving under the influence. California Highway Patrol says they received a report of a black

BMW traveling erratically at high speed. She was the only person in the car and showed signs of

impairment due to both alcohol and drugs according to the police. She was booked into the Ventura

County main jail late Wednesday. A representative for Spears did not immediately respond to a request

for comment. Ukraine and Russia exchanged 200 prisoners of war each on Thursday, even as US

backed peace talks remains told. Video from the Ukrainian presidential press service shows a bus

arriving at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. As the doors open, tearful relatives push forward,

greeting freed soldiers, many of them draped in Ukrainian flags.

For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget

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