While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, March 26, 2026
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An apartment damaged by a US-Israeli airstrike in Tehran, on March 21.
PHOTO: AKASH KHAMOOSHI/NYTIMES
Trump to hit Iran harder if Tehran does not accept defeat
President Donald Trump will hit Iran harder if Tehran fails to accept that the country has been “defeated militarily,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on March 25.
“President Trump does not bluff and he is prepared to unleash hell. Iran should not miscalculate again,” Ms Leavitt told reporters in a press briefing.
“If Iran fails to accept the reality of the current moment, if they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily, and will continue to be, President Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before,” she said.
Iran is still reviewing a US proposal to end the war, despite an initial response that was negative, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on March 25, indicating that Tehran had so far stopped short of rejecting it outright.
‘Worst industrial crisis in living memory’: ICC chief
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
The war in the Middle East could cause the “worst industrial crisis in living memory”, the head of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) warned on March 25.
Skyrocketing crude prices since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran in late February have raised fears of a global recession, with Tehran in effect choking oil shipments through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
“The head of the International Energy Agency has warned that the world is facing an energy crisis more severe than the oil shocks of the 1970s,” ICC chief John Denton said.
US jury finds Meta, YouTube liable in addiction trial
PHOTO: AFP
A Los Angeles jury on March 25 found Meta and YouTube liable for harming a young woman because of an addictive design of their social media platforms, ordering the companies to pay US$6 million (S$7.6 million) in damages, including US$3 million in punitive damages.
The verdict hands plaintiffs in more than a thousand similar pending cases significant leverage – and signals to the broader tech industry that juries are prepared to hold social media companies accountable for the mental health toll of their design choices.
The jury answered yes to all seven questions on verdict forms for both companies, finding that Meta and YouTube were negligent in the design and operation of their platforms and that their negligence was a substantial factor in causing harm to the plaintiff.
US links security guarantees to Ukraine giving up Donbas
PHOTO: REUTERS
The US has made its offer of security guarantees needed for a peace deal in Ukraine conditional on Kyiv ceding all of the country’s eastern region of Donbas to Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky told Reuters in an interview.
With the United States now focused on its own conflict with Iran, President Donald Trump is applying pressure on Ukraine in an effort to bring a quick end to the four-year war triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion, Mr Zelensky said.
“The Middle East definitely has an impact on President Trump, and I think on his next steps. President Trump, unfortunately, in my opinion, still chooses a strategy to put more pressure on the Ukrainian side,” he told Reuters.
DNA shows 16,000 years of human-dog companionship
PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO
The discovery of the oldest ever dog DNA suggests they have been our best friends for nearly 16,000 years – 5,000 years earlier than had previously been thought, new research said on March 25.
Despite being ubiquitous in the homes, backyards and hearts of people across the world, surprisingly little is known about where dogs come from.
“It’s just an interesting mystery,” Swedish geneticist Pontus Skoglund of the UK’s Francis Crick Institute told reporters.
