While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, March 18, 2026
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US President Donald Trump (right) speaking during a meeting at the White House on March 17 with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin.
PHOTO: ERIC LEE/NYTIMES
Trump blasts NATO on Iran, says US needs no help
US President Donald Trump lashed out March 17 at “foolish” NATO over Iran, saying the United States needs no help after allies rebuffed his calls to join efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Mr Trump said most US allies had rejected his push to escort ships through the crucial waterway, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying his country would “never” do so until the situation was calmer.
“I think NATO is making a very foolish mistake,” Mr Trump told reporters as he hosted Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in the Oval Office.
“I’ve long said that I wonder whether or not NATO would ever be there for us. So this was a great test.”
Top US security official quits over Iran war
A top security official in US President Donald Trump’s administration resigned over the war in Iran on March 17, saying the country had posed no imminent threat to the United States.
Mr Joe Kent, who headed the National Counterterrorism Centre, is the first senior official in Trump’s administration to resign over the conflict, now in its third week.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful lobby,” Mr Kent wrote in a letter posted to social media.
Iran confirms death of security chief Ali Larijani
PHOTO: ARASH KHAMOOSHI/NYTIMES
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on March 17 confirmed the death of its chief Ali Larijani, after Israel said it had killed him in an air strike.
“The pure souls of the martyrs embraced the purified soul of God’s righteous servant, Martyr Dr Ali Larijani,” the council said, adding that his son and his bodyguards had died with him.
“After a lifetime of struggle for the advancement of Iran and of the Islamic Revolution, he ultimately attained his long-held aspiration, answered the divine call, and honourably achieved the sweet grace of martyrdom in the trench of service,” it added.
Starmer tells Zelensky ‘focus must remain on Ukraine’
PHOTO: AFP
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Volodymyr Zelensky in London on March 17 that “the focus must remain on Ukraine” despite the US-Israeli war with Iran, as the Ukrainian president made his latest stop on a tour of European capitals.
Mr Starmer welcomed Mr Zelensky to his official Downing Street residence after the latter visited Paris last week, and ahead of a trip to Madrid on March 18.
Addressing the UK Parliament, Mr Zelensky told MPs that 201 Ukrainian anti-drone military experts were in the Middle East to help defend the region against Iranian-designed Shahed drones, which have been used by Russia in its war against Kyiv.
Dune: Part Three trailer lands
Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve revealed he nearly took a break before completing Dune: Part Three, the conclusion to his epic science-fiction trilogy, but changed his mind after he saw how audiences embraced the first two films.
“I felt an appetite for the third movie that I was not expecting,” said Villeneuve on March 16 in Los Angeles at a preview event for the movie’s trailer, which was released to the public on March 17.
The film, distributed by Warner Bros, arrives in theatres on Dec 18.
