While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, March 11, 2026
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Rescuers work in the rubble of residential buildings after air strikes, in the Resalat neighbourhood, east of Tehran, on March 9.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Heaviest day of strikes yet on Iran despite market bets that war will end soon
The United States and Israel pounded Iran on March 10 with what the Pentagon and Iranians on the ground said were the most intense airstrikes of the war, despite global markets betting that President Donald Trump will seek to end the conflict soon.
Raising the stakes for the global economy, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they would block oil shipments from the Gulf unless US and Israeli attacks cease.
But the White House reiterated Mr Trump’s threat to hit Iran hard if it tries to stop the flow of energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, where the war has effectively halted one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, and repeated his offer for the US Navy to safely escort tankers.
“Today will be yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran: the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence more refined and better than ever,” US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Pentagon briefing.
White House denies US Navy has escorted ships through Strait of Hormuz
PHOTO: DOUG MILLS/NYTIMES
The US military has not yet escorted any commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the White House said on March 10, just after US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright deleted a post on X in which had said the US Navy successfully escorted an oil tanker through the key water way.
The US-Israel war against Iran has already effectively halted shipments through the Strait along Iran's coast, where a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes, and Middle East oil producers have run out of storage and stopped pumping.
US President Donald Trump said on March 3 that the US would provide protection through the Strait for oil tankers. The Pentagon on March 10 renewed threats to hit Iran harder unless shipments can flow through and said it was striking Iranian mine-laying vessels and mine storage facilities.
Netanyahu’s Cabinet to expand Israel budget by $16 billion to fund war
PHOTO: AFP
Israel is set to expand its defence budget by almost 40 billion shekels (S$16 billion), about 2 per cent of its gross domestic product, to fund the war with Iran, according to a finance ministry official, who requested anonymity discussing plans that are not yet public.
The supplement is part of a revised 2026 budget that will be debated and possibly voted late on March 10 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet. It will then need a sign-off from Parliament by the end of the month.
The defence budget will be expanded by 28 billion shekels, with an additional 10 billion put aside as reserves for possible military needs, said the official.
Ukraine says hit ‘key’ Russian military factory in missile strike
PHOTO: GENERAL STAFF OF THE ARMED FORCES OF UKRAINE/FACEBOOK
Ukraine hit a “key” military factory in a missile strike on March 10 on Russia’s western city of Bryansk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after Moscow gave a toll of six dead in the attack.
Russia has been raining near-daily drone and missile barrages on Ukraine during its full-scale invasion launched in 2022, prompting Ukraine to strike Moscow’s infrastructure, including energy facilities, in retribution.
“Our soldiers struck one of the key Russian military factories in Bryansk. This factory produced electronics and components for Russian missiles. The very ones that are striking our cities,” Mr Zelensky said in a daily address.
Canada boosts security at US, Israeli diplomatic buildings after consulate shooting
PHOTO: REUTERS
Canadian police boosted security around US and Israeli diplomatic buildings on March 10 after shots were fired at the US consulate in Toronto, in what Prime Minister Mark Carney called a “reprehensible act.”
Police say they were called to the consulate around 5.30am ET (6.30pm Singapore time), where they found spent shell casings and damage to the building. No one was injured.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said security would be tightened at the US and Israeli consulates in Toronto, Canada’s most populous city, and at those countries’ embassies in the capital Ottawa.
