While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, March 6, 2026
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Smoke rising after a strike on the Iranian capital of Tehran on March 5.
PHOTO: AFP
Trump wants say on Iran’s next leader as war intensifies
US President Donald Trump claimed the right to join Iran in deciding its next leader as the war escalated on March 5, with US and Israeli jets hitting areas across the country and Gulf cities coming under renewed bombardment.
In an interview with Reuters, Mr Trump said Mr Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei - a hardliner who has been considered a favourite to succeed his father - was an unlikely choice.
“We want to be involved in the process of choosing the person who is going to lead Iran into the future,” he said by telephone.
“We don’t have to go back every five years and do this again and again... Somebody that’s going to be great for the people, great for the country.”
Trump ousts US homeland security chief Kristi Noem
PHOTO: REUTERS
Ms Kristi Noem, who oversaw US President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown and faced bipartisan criticism in hearings this week, will leave her role as homeland security chief at the end of the month.
Mr Trump will tap Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace her, he said on his Truth Social platform, a move that would require US Senate confirmation.
Ms Noem, a former governor of South Dakota, became one of Mr Trump’s most high-profile Cabinet secretaries, with social media posts that portrayed immigrants in harsh terms, highlighting cases of alleged criminal offenders and using vitriolic language.
Anti-war protester injured in Capitol Hill struggle
A man protesting the US and Israel’s strikes on Iran was injured in a struggle with US Capitol Police and Republican Senator Tim Sheehy on March 5.
The man, Brian McGinnis, a former Marine who is a Green Party candidate for the US Senate in North Carolina, interrupted a Senate Armed Services hearing shouting “Israel is the reason for this war, America does not want to fight for Israel”.
A video of the incident verified by Reuters showed officers and Mr Sheehy attempting to haul McGinnis, who was dressed in military uniform, out of the doorway as his hand was pinned behind the open door.
US, Qatar discuss acquiring Ukraine drones, says source
PHOTO: REUTERS
The US and Qatar are in discussions with Kyiv about acquiring Ukrainian interceptor drones as a cheap alternative to down Iranian Shahed UAVs amid the war in the Gulf, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The early-stage talks are taking place between government officials, not companies, and the technology being discussed includes systems to listen out for incoming enemy drones and disrupt their communication signals, the source said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X on March 5 that the US had asked Kyiv for help in downing Shaheds.
US, Ukraine discussed postponing peace talks
PHOTO: AFP
Ukraine spoke to the United States about the possibility of postponing the next round of trilateral talks with Russia “for a while” and changing the location due to the spiralling Iran conflict, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on March 5.
New negotiations to end the four-year-old war had been expected to take place in Abu Dhabi before the Gulf hub was targeted by Iranian strikes.
Mr Zelensky said this week that Kyiv was open to other locations, such as Turkey or Switzerland.
