Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Wednesday.
An initial military inquiry faults the U.S. for school strike in IranAn ongoing investigation by the U.S. military has determined that American forces were responsible for a deadly missile strike on an elementary school in Iran late last month. The strike appears to be one of the most devastating single military errors in recent decades. Iranian officials have said the death toll was at least 175 people, mostly children. The inquiry found that military intelligence officers used outdated information to label the school building, which was once part of an adjacent Iranian naval base, as a military target. U.S. officials are still investigating why the mistaken targeting information was not double-checked. Satellite images show that the building was fenced off from the base about a decade ago. The Times published investigations in recent days indicating that the U.S. was very likely responsible for the attack. But President Trump repeatedly insisted, without evidence, that Iran was at fault. Asked today about the military’s findings, he said: “I don’t know about that.”
World leaders agree to tap oil reserves after ship attacksIran claimed responsibility today for attacking a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz, the vital oil route that has been effectively closed off by the war in the Middle East. At least two other large ships in the Persian Gulf near the Strait were also attacked. Hours later, a coalition of more than 30 countries promised to tap their oil reserves in an effort to stabilize the global supply. The group, the International Energy Agency, said its members would release 400 million barrels of oil, the largest drawdown on record and the first such coordinated action since 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine. U.S. gas prices increased for the 11th straight day. Drivers are paying an average of 20 percent more since the strikes on Iran began. For more:
U.S. seeks to put more homeless veterans into legal guardianshipThe Trump administration said today that it was expanding the power of Veterans Affairs lawyers to initiate legal guardianships for veterans who have no family and are “unable to make their own health care decisions.” As a result, more homeless veterans could be forced into involuntary or institutional care. Some critics said the effort raises civil liberties concerns. There are about 33,000 homeless veterans in the U.S., about 14,000 of whom live on the streets.
After long fight, historic slavery photos get a ‘final resting place’Images believed to be the earliest known photographs of enslaved Americans were transferred today to the International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C. The photos — of a man, Renty, and of his daughter Delia — were commissioned in 1850 by a Harvard professor who used them to advance his racist theories. The university relinquished the fragile daguerreotypes after a lengthy legal battle with Tamara Lanier, who says she is one of Renty’s descendants. More top news
This question comes from a recent edition of the newsletter. Click an answer to see if you’re right. (The link is free.) A California company wants to do which of the following with 50,000 big mirrors?
The Oscars are comingNeed a movie recommendation this week? Consider one of the films contending for best picture at this weekend’s Academy Awards. Our list of the nominees has all of our reviews, and you can save them to your watch list. In the video above, my colleague Marc Tracy broke down how a preferential ballot will decide the race. He explains how a summer favorite (“Sinners”), or even a smaller movie (“Hamnet”), could manage to defeat this year’s front-runner (“One Battle After Another”). For more:
It’s the soundtrack to our lives, whether we realize it or notYou may have never heard of “sync music,” but you’ve certainly heard it. Just listen to the background tunes of television shows, Super Bowl commercials and TikToks. Much of it is sync music — a category of songs that exist entirely to be paired with video. When the writer Ryan Francis Bradley started paying attention to the category, he realized just how influential the sync songs were becoming in the music industry, without most of us noticing. Read about what he discovered.
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