Tom Bateman

1. Civilians who escaped Mariupol in recent days have described the growing desperation in the besieged city, including accounts of bodies buried in shallow graves, looting by Chechen fighters, and starving residents being killed when they venture out of shelters to find water

Iran just played another card, threatening vessels thru Red Sea strait. Houthi proxies fully capable of doing this. Vessel would need to divert thru Suez, add weeks, if not months, to journeys — if further strikes don’t shutter the port completely. Escalation Trap tightens…

.@nytimes reports: Many of the 13 military bases in the region used by American troops are all but uninhabitable, with the ones in Kuwait, which is next door to Iran, suffering perhaps the most damage. Gift link to story by @helenecooper @EricSchmittNYT: nytimes.com/2026/03/25/us/…

Another maternity hospital damaged in Ukraine, hospital attacks in Sudan and Lebanon - these are not the natural consequences of war. My recent cross-conflict investigation showed how a culture of impunity has put vulnerable people in the firing line. theguardian.com/global-develop…

Exclusive: 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 Zelenskiy told Reuters reut.rs/3NPWIkK

“Today’s world…filled with nationalism, terrorism, competition, failing globalization -just like back then. Its leaders communicate but without much understanding..there is a sense they will run out of time as their predecessors did a hundred years ago” reader.foreignaffairs.com/2026/03/25/tru…

It was the biggest massacre for decades - 10,000 Sudanese killed over two days. The international community knew genocide was inevitable. Why and how did it happen? Huge thanks to @Sihanet @ikhlassahmed77 @nattyray11 @KholoodKhair theguardian.com/global-develop…

#BREAKING: Iranian Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf says "Iran's enemies, with the support of one of the regional countries," are preparing to "occupy" an Iranian island "If they step out of line, all the vital infrastructure of that regional country will, without restriction, become the target of relentless attacks," he says

This weeks’s #MustListen — our episode with @ionewells bringing her fab on-the-ground reporting. Trump often touts Venezuela as his ideal model of regime/behavior change. So, 2+ months after Maduro was ousted, what’s actually been going on inside? bbc.com/audio/play/w3c…

👉👉 Shortly after President Trump threatened to hit Iran’s electricity grid, Gulf Arab countries warned him directly that such a move would trigger Iranian retaliation on their own energy and desalination facilities, regional sources tell @samianakhoul

Awful, heartbreaking, unacceptable We’ve just been at the funeral of two young volunteer paramedics in southern Lebanon - killed in a direct Israeli strike… one was only 16 years old They were killed whilst wearing their full kit according to witnesses - returning from the scene of an earlier strike The deliberate targeting of healthcare workers is a war crime but Israel has killed dozens here in recent weeks (and many more in 2024 and in Gaza)

EXCLUSIVE: Each day since the start of the war, U.S. military officials compile a video update for President Trump that shows the biggest, most successful strikes on Iranian targets over the previous 48 hours. But the military can’t brief Trump on every strike and so the video, while it showcases U.S. capabilities, doesn’t reflect the full scope of the conflict. “We can’t tell him every single thing that happens,” a current U.S. official said. The official noted that Trump’s briefings tend to draw better feedback from his aides when they focus on U.S. victories. w/ @ckubeNBC @dandeluce nbcnews.com/politics/white…

SCOOP: A cross-party delegation of Russian State Duma deputies is heading to Washington tomorrow for talks with Trump officials, two sources tell me Led by Vyacheslav Nikonov, the group is set to meet several officials, including at the State Dept 1/2

Breaking news: The Pentagon has ordered Army paratroopers to deploy to the Middle East, U.S. officials said, as President Trump weighs a significant escalation in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and declines to rule out putting U.S. troops on Iranian soil. wapo.st/3PX6ylw

“Virtually every country here has been a loser… with the exception of Russia” - @ksadjadpour

The N.Y. Times filed a motion to compel compliance with Judge Friedman's court order, seeking to strike down a new interim policy announced yesterday: "The intent is obvious: The Interim Policy is an attempted end-run around this Court’s ruling." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

The Pentagon Press Association’s statement on the Pentagon’s latest efforts to restrict press freedom (washingtonpost.com/business/2026/…)

"Now we go [from the rules-based system] to the rule of the man, whatever today President Trump decides will be the rule. That's not a viable world," he said. bbc.com/news/articles/…

...other than in self-defence or when approved by the UN Security Council. "The cases of Russia in Ukraine or the US in Iran or in Venezuela is… called a crime of aggression," said Moreno Ocampo. 4/

Amid the unprecedented strain on the global rules-based order, Moreno Ocampo, the founding chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) told the BBC that the war on Iran amounted to a crime of aggression under international law. 1/