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Explainer: After nine straight nights of strikes, where is the US-Iran conflict headed?

The US carried out a ninth consecutive night of military strikes against Iran early on Monday, targeting command centres, missile facilities, air defence systems, maritime assets and communications infrastructure. The latest developments indicate the conflict is expanding beyond direct military exchanges, with growing implications for regional security, global energy supplies and international shipping. Here is what to know. Why are the US strikes continuing? President Donald Trump said US forces had struck Iran “very hard,” describing the operations as retaliation for the deaths of US service members in the Middle East. The latest casualty on the US side came in northern Iraq, where a service member was killed during the controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance recovered from a downed Iranian drone. According to American media, at least 17 US soldiers have been killed since Feb 28, when the US and Israel attacked Iran. Strait of Hormuz at the heart of the co...
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Financial Times report claims Hegseth broker sought defence investments before Iran war

A broker for United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sought to make a significant investment in major defence companies in the days before the Iran war, according to the Financial Times (FT). The Pentagon, however, has dismissed the report. According to CNBC, FT reported Tuesday that Hegseth’s broker at banking giant Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in its iShares Defense Industrials Active ETF. The ETF, which has about $3.1 billion in assets, counts companies such as RTX Corp, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, among its largest holdings, BlackRock data showed. The CNBC report states that according to the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) data, the ETF has lost 12.4% in the past month, around the time when the Iran war started. Read: Crude oil tanker off Dubai hit by Iranian strike after Trump's latest threats FT also said that the investment discussed by Hegseth’s broker did not move forward as the fund was not yet available for Morgan Stanley clients to buy at the time. It was also not known if the broker had found another defence-related investment, as per CNBC. Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell dismissed FT's report in a post on X, calling it “entirely false and fabricated,” and demanding the British newspaper retract the article. This allegation is entirely false and fabricated. Neither Secretary Hegseth nor any of his representatives approached BlackRock about any such investment. This is yet another baseless, dishonest smear designed to mislead the public. We demand an immediate retraction.… https://t.co/Su8hGlBOhL — Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) March 30, 2026 Parnell said that neither Hegseth nor any of his representatives approached BlackRock about any such investment. “This is yet another baseless, dishonest smear designed to mislead the public,” he added.

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