German state railway loss widens, passengers warned of trouble ahead

(The Center Square) – Republican leaders are leaning into President Donald Trump, an affordability agenda and a midterm convention to maintain control of Congress heading into the 2026 midterm elections.

The Center Square spoke exclusively on Thursday with Republican National Committee chair Joe Guters about the party’s priorities in the midterm elections. He highlighted endorsements by Trump and an affordability-focused agenda as key aspects of campaigns to retain congressional control in the midterm elections.

Guters said Trump’s endorsement is key in races across the country that are tightly contested.

“That presidential endorsement is a big deal,” Guters told The Center Square. “We have superior resources, and then we have the best messaging that we could possibly have.”

Recent polling suggests voters are not satisfied with the affordability claims Trump is touting across the country. The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, found that 53% of registered voters believed the country was heading in the wrong direction.

Within the poll, 37% of voters said inflation and price increases was one of their main concerns, followed closely by 28% of voters who said they were also concerned about jobs and the economy. Across partisan lines, voters expressed concern about these issues with 40% of Independents, 37% of Republicans and 35% of Democrats highlighting inflation and price increases among the top issues.

Already, Trump has visited battleground states and districts from North Carolina, Georgia and Texas to drum up GOP support. Additionally, Guters pointed to the Republican’s planned midterm convention as a way to increase support and give candidates more exposure before the November elections.

“We’ll be going down and doing things that have never happened before,” Guters said. “A midterm convention where we could showcase all the great things that the President has done.”

Guters predecessor, Michael Whatley, is part of the fight to hold Republican’s congressional majorities. Whatley is running for U.S. Senate in North Carolina against former Gov. Roy Cooper.

At the end of 2025, Cooper had more than $12.3 million in cash on hand compared to Whatley with $3.2 million, The Center Square reported based on filings with the Federal Elections Commission.

RNC officials have scouted out Dallas as a possible location for the midterm convention, according to reports. RNC officials told The Center Square a location for the convention has not officially been determined.

Guters pointed out, in the history of the country, the opposition party typically wins control of Congress after a presidential election. However, he said he is determined to counter that trend.

“We have a real opportunity to defy history because of the messaging, the messenger, the president being wildly popular and his issues being popular,” Guters said. “We’re going to follow his lead all the way to victory in November."

Iran's foreign minister on Friday branded a deadly strike on an Iranian school on the first day of the Middle East war as a "calculated" US assault.

Abbas Araghchi said "more than 175 students and teachers were slaughtered in cold blood" in a "calculated, phased assault" in the February 28 strike on an Iranian elementary school in Minab. 

At an urgent debate in the United Nations Human Rights Council focused on the strike, he described it in his video address as "a war crime and a crime against humanity, one that demands unequivocal condemnation by all, and unambiguous accountability for the culprits".

UN rights chief Volker Turk meanwhile told the council the bombing evoked "visceral horror", insisting on the need for "justice".

Mohaddeseh Falahat, the mother of two children killed in the attack, also spoke to the council by video.

Calling on the diplomats in Geneva "not to let this tragedy be forgotten", she added: "No mother is prepared to hear the words: 'Your child is not coming back'."

- 'Deliberate and intentional' -

The attack happened on the day the United States and Israel launched the war with attacks across Iran. In retaliation, Tehran struck targets in Israel and Gulf nations.

A US Tomahawk cruise missile hit the elementary school due to a targeting mistake, according to the preliminary findings of a US military investigation reported by The New York Times.

The newspaper said the US military had been bombing an adjacent Iranian base, of which the school building was formerly a part. The target coordinates were set using outdated data, the paper reported.

US President Donald Trump intially suggested that Iran itself may have been responsible -- despite Iran not having Tomahawk missiles.

UN rights chief Turk insisted that "the onus is on those who carried out the attack to investigate it promptly, impartially, transparently and thoroughly".

"Senior US officials have said the strike is under investigation," he said in a video address, calling for Washington to swiftly conclude the probe and make the findings public.

Araghchi did not wait for the results of the probe to attribute blame.

"At a time when the American-Israeli aggressors, in their own assertions, possess the most advanced technologies, and the highest-precision military and data systems, no one can believe that the attack on the school was anything other than deliberate and intentional," he told the council.

- 'Atrocity' -

"This atrocity cannot be justified, cannot be concealed, and must not be met with silence and indifference," the minister said.

"The United States' contradictory remarks aimed at justifying their crime could not, in any manner, elude their responsibility." 

Friday's discussion, held at the request of Iran, China and Cuba, marked the second urgent debate before the rights council this week focused on the war in the Middle East.

On Wednesday, a debate requested by Bahrain on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Jordan, ended with the 47-member rights council adopting by consensus a resolution condemning Iran's "egregious attacks" on its Gulf neighbours, calling for swift "reparation" to all victims of its strikes.

No draft resolution was discussed during Friday's debate, but countries lined up to condemn the school strike and the Middle East war more broadly.

Chinese ambassador Jia Guide slammed the United States and Israel for launching their attacks on Iran "without authorisation of the Security Council, which is the root cause of this tragedy".

Cuban ambassador Rodolfo Benitez Verson called for "an independent and impartial investigation" into the school strike, which he labelled a "war crime".

The United States and Israel have both disengaged from the council, and did not speak during the debate.

Turk and several countries also raised the issue of Tehran's reported growing crackdown on rights at home since the start of the conflict.

"The people of Iran are caught between conflict and repression," the UN rights chief warned.

"War does not reduce the responsibility of the Iranian authorities to abide by their human rights obligations," he added.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is hoping the war in the Middle East will shift the focus from his "crimes" in Ukraine, the German foreign minister said on Friday.

"Putin is cynically hoping that the escalation in the Middle East will divert our attention from his crimes in Ukraine," Johann Wadephul said during a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in France. 

"This calculation must not succeed," he said, warning that any compromising on Ukraine's defence capabilities would "play into Putin's hands".

Echoing a major theme at the two days of talks of G7 ministers outside Paris, Wadephul said the international community needed to work even closer together as it was now dealing with two wars in which Russia and Iran were cooperating.

The talks were also attended by Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

"We can see very clearly how closely the two conflicts are linked. Russia is clearly supporting Iran with information about potential targets," said Wadephul.

A day earlier, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had accused Russia of supplying Iran with intelligence to "kill Americans" in the Middle East as well as supplying drones.

"We need to strengthen our unity. Given that Iran and Russia are working together in the closest way, we must stand even closer together," Wadephul added.

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(The Center Square) – The U.S. Senate agreed to fund the Department of Homeland Security early Friday, without including funds for ICE and Border Patrol. 

The Senate passed the funding bill by a voice vote, where Senators say "Aye" or "Nay" to pass legislation and the chair determines the outcome based on volume of responses. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has gone without funding since Feb. 14. Republicans and Democrats have negotiated back and forth for weeks. President Donald Trump on Thursday offered to sign an order that would pay Transportation Security Administration officers as wait times at major airports stretched. 

"We can get at least some of the government opened up again and then we'll go from there," said Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. "Obviously, we'll still have some work ahead of us."

Throughout the shutdown, Democrats asked for a DHS funding bill that did not include Border Patrol or ICE, in order to further negotiations. Democrats have asked to rein in enforcement policies conducted by ICe and Border Patrol. 

"In the wake of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Senate Democrats were clear," Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. "No blank check for lawless ICE and Border Patrol."

Remaining funding for ICE and Border Patrol will go to a party-line reconciliation vote, where Republicans can seek to secure funding for the agencies without needing Democrat approval. 

The Senate now sends funding for FEMA, TSA, the Coast Guard, Secret Service and cybersecurity agencies to the U.S. House of Representatives. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson can either get the legislation passed through a Rules Committee vote or can call a floor vote "under suspension," meaning he would need to get a 2/3 majoirty in favor of the funding bill. 

Czech police said Friday they were investigating a firebomb attack on a Russian cultural and scientific centre in Prague.

The Russian Centre for Science and Culture opened in 1971 when former Czechoslovakia was ruled by Moscow-steered communists.

"Since Thursday evening we have been probing an attack during which someone threw several Molotov cocktails at the Russian House," police said on X.

They said they were seeking the perpetrator who is suspected of criminal mischief.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova labelled the attack as a "barbaric act" in a comment to state-run TASS news agency.

"We regard this as a terrorist attack against our Rossotrudnichestvo centre, against Russian property," added Pavel Shevtsov, deputy head of the Russian international cultural agency Rossotrudnichestvo running the centre.

"It was a planned, deliberate attack," he added.

Russian House head Igor Girenko told TASS that three out of six Molotov cocktails thrown inside the building in Prague's broader centre did not explode "by a fortunate coincidence".

The building seeks to promote Russian culture, history and language and is also frequented by  Russians living in the Czech Republic.

Prague has declined to acknowledge it as a diplomatic building to Moscow's dismay, suspecting the centre of spreading Russian propaganda.

Russia labelled the Czech Republic an "unfriendly" state in 2021, shortly before invading Ukraine in February 2022.

That year, Czech intelligence accused Moscow of being behind a series of blasts in 2014 at an ammunition depot in the eastern Czech Republic which claimed two lives.

They occurred just months after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in early 2014.

Czech intelligence said the agents who had carried out the attack were also suspected of poisoning former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018.

The announcement sparked a massive mutual expulsion of dozens of diplomats and other embassy staff.

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Germany's beleaguered state railway operator Deutsche Bahn said Friday its losses widened last year and warned passengers to brace for less-than-perfect service for years to come.

Deutsche Bahn lost 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion) in 2025, compared to a loss of 1.8 billion euros a year earlier, hit by a 1.4-billion euro blow to the value of the long-distance division, DB Fernvekhr.

In bad news for long-suffering passengers, DB head Evelyn Palla told a press conference that the write-off resulted from expectations of a poor service stretching into the future.

"We have reassessed our future revenue forecasts, basing them on the actual state of our infrastructure," she said. "And this remains inadequate."

Long derided at home, DB made headlines abroad during the 2024 European Football Championships after fans and even players arrived at destinations hours later than planned.

Almost 40 percent of long-distance services arrived late last year -- not including trains that were cancelled, which are not counted in punctuality statistics.

Germany's government has promised to borrow and spend billions on renewing the network. 

But Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder in September pushed back a punctuality target of 70 percent for long-distance trains to 2029 from 2026.

Speaking on Friday, Palla said it would take time for the railway to improve both its financial performance and its service.

"There is a long way ahead of us," she said. "It will take at least 10 years to get German railways back into good shape. We need to recognise this reality and put it into our numbers."

Though fully-owned by the government, DB is nevertheless under pressure to boost profitability.

DB Cargo, its loss-making freight arm, is facing an EU investigation under state aid rules and the firm said in February it would cut about 6,000 jobs in Germany, equivalent to half its domestic workforce.

Without the write-off, DB's operating profit improved by over 600 million euros to 297 million euros after an operating loss in 2024.

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Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

- US, Iran talks in Pakistan? -

The United States and Iran are preparing for direct talks, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said, adding it was "expected to take place in Pakistan very soon", without revealing the source of the information. 

- G7 pressure -

G7 allies were pressing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for clarity on American plans for Iran at talks outside Paris.

The UK's foreign minister Yvette Cooper urged a "swift resolution to this conflict that restores regional stability".

- Iran turns back ships -

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had turned back three ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz, adding the route was closed to vessels travelling to and from ports linked to its "enemies".

"The movement of any vessel 'to and from' ports of origin belonging to allies and supporters of the Zionist-American enemies, to any destination and through any corridor, is prohibited," they said.

The Guards also urged civilians across the Middle East Friday to stay away from areas near US forces.

- Ukraine-Saudi deal -

Ukraine and Saudi Arabia have signed an air defence agreement during President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the kingdom facing Iranian drone attacks, two senior officials told AFP.

"The point of the agreement is that Ukraine will support them in developing all the necessary components of air defence, which they currently lack," one official said of the document which, according to another, was signed on Thursday.

- Kuwait's main port hit -

Kuwait's main commercial port was damaged in a drone attack at dawn.

The Shuwaikh port was targeted "by enemy drones, preliminary reports revealed material damage but no human casualties", the Kuwait port authority said in a statement on X.

- Iran key sites damaged -

US and Israeli strikes on Iran have damaged at least 120 museums and cultural and historic sites across the country since the start of the war, the head of Tehran city council's cultural heritage committee said.

"At least 120 museums, historical buildings and cultural sites across various provinces were directly targeted and sustained serious structural damage," said Ahmad Alavi.

- Iran warning to US soldiers -

Iran's military has warned that hotels housing US soldiers across the region would be targets.

"When all the Americans (forces) go into a hotel, then from our perspective that hotel becomes American," armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi told state television.

- School strike was 'calculated' -

Iran's foreign minister branded a deadly strike on an Iranian school on the first day of the Middle East war as a "calculated" US assault.

The February 28 strike on an elementary school in Minab in which in which "more than 175 students and teachers were slaughtered in cold blood", was a "calculated, phased assault," Abbas Araghchi said.

- UN Security Council meeting -

The UN Security Council will hold closed-door consultations on Friday to discuss attacks on Iran at Moscow's request, Russian state media reported.

"The Russian Federation has requested closed-door consultations with the UN Security Council due to the ongoing strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran, including educational and healthcare facilities," said Evgeny Uspensky, spokesman for Russia's envoy to the United Nations, according to state news agency TASS.

- Israeli strikes on Beirut -

Lebanese media reported an Israeli strike hit Beirut's southern suburbs early Friday, as AFP correspondents heard several explosions from the Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has repeatedly struck since war erupted this month.

Israel has previously issued sweeping evacuation warnings for the area, but provided no specific warning in advance of the strike on Tahouitet al-Ghadir.

- Saudi Arabia intercepts drones -

The Saudi defence ministry said it had "intercepted and destroyed" four drones over the kingdom's east.

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From cosmic coupling to nappies' fragrant afterlife... Your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.

- Big bang theory -

Unbounded joy for Elon Musk and everyone who would like to see him go off to populate Mars.

Scientists have shown that sperm can find a way even in the weightlessness of space and that certain super sperm actually thrive there as lesser seed shrivel.

Australian researchers found that while half of sperm struggled to get through a zero gravity "obstacle course" they built on Earth, those that made it seemed to produce better quality embryos. 

Which is great news for those who dream of a new interstellar super race.

Musk -- who has had at least 14 children with multiple mothers -- wants to colonise space.  

So far he has restricted his "baby project" to reproducing on Earth, but speculation about a Six Mile-High Club is rife as space tourism booms and the quest to conceive the first baby beyond the planet enters its final thrust.

- Nappy endings -

Those wishing to finance a Moon shot could do worse than invest in nappies, where Japan is leading the way.

As its birthrate falls, more Japanese seniors are wearing them than babies, and for far longer. Diapers for dogs are sending demand still higher. 

All of which creates a mountain of hot mess. But in a world first, maker Unicharm has found a way of recycling its dirty nappies into toilet roll and new diapers and pads, it told AFP. 

And everything, they insist, comes up smelling of roses.

- A special relationship -

Great to see that Donald Trump still enjoys a joke even as he blasts Iran and the world economy to smithereens.

He shared a TV comedy skit on his Truth Social showing a terrified British Prime Minister Keir Starmer trying to avoid talking to him on the phone.

The US president has mercilessly trolled Starmer as he has tried to dodge joining the war on Iran, saying he was "no Winston Churchill". 

In his latest poke at the crumbling special relationship with Britain, Trump dismissed Royal Navy warships as "toys compared to what we have", saying Starmer had offered to send "an aircraft carrier when the war is over. I said: 'Oh that's wonderful, thank you very much. Don't bother.'"

- Don't do as I do -

There was less to smile about back home as Democrats took the Florida district that is home to the president's Mar-a-Lago resort. Trump voted by mail in the special election despite campaigning to stop postal voting. "I call it mail-in cheating," he said after the defeat.

- Bots are secret pseuds -

A lesson for all those students relying on ChatGPT to help write their essays for them.

A German researcher has discovered that OpenAI's GPT models can often be fooled into declaring that "pseudo literary" gobbledygook is great.

In fact they consistently rated "nonsense" higher, even when presented with such utter piffle as "Goetterdaemmerung's corpus haemorrhaged through cryptographic hash, eschaton pooling in existential void beneath fluorescent hum."

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After a month of war with Israel and the United States with no clear end in sight, Iranians tell AFP about how life has changed, about watching missiles fall, and how security forces have tightened their grip.

Here is a collection of interviews conducted with Iranians, mostly people in Tehran, who shared their experiences with AFP journalists outside the country. Their names have been changed to protect their identities.

Iran has been arresting and warning citizens about speaking to journalists or sending images outside the country amid an internet blackout and severe phone network restrictions.

- Economic pressures -

Iran was already suffering economically before the war, but the conflict has sparked even higher inflation and brought many industries to a standstill. 

"My income comes from my online shop, but for the past two months I've had no income at all," Golnar from Tehran told AFP. 

"In our family, everyone is working and we don't even pay rent, yet we still can't think about things like going to restaurants or any kind of leisure activities. We can only afford the most basic and essential living expenses," the 29-year-old said.

The island of Qeshm, where 42-year-old Sadeq is based, enjoyed a tourism boom in recent years, but saw few visitors over the usually busy Nowruz holidays marking the Iranian New Year in March. 

"Our hotel and cafes are half empty. Many people have come here to stay longer, waiting to see what happens with the war," he said.

"We sometimes have to wait for hours to get fuel."

- Coping -

For Shayan in Tehran, there is some normalcy in the shadow of the war. 

"There is no famine, everything is available. Cafes are open, and we still go out... There is gasoline, water, and electricity. But there is a sense of helplessness in all of us," the 40-year-old said. 

"We gather with family and friends, play card games together, and drink. Shops and restaurants are open until 9:00 pm, but the city feels empty, most people have left."

Another Tehran resident originally from Iran's Kurdish region said she also feels she has grown "used to the situation". 

"The noise, the explosions and the missiles are now a part of our daily life... I think little by little it's becoming more ordinary for everyone," said the 35-year-old.

"Right now, our only worry is that our oil and gas infrastructure might be targeted by missile attacks. I think that's the one thing all Iranians agree on at the moment."

- Fears for the future -

Katayoon recently left Iran for Turkey, after several "terrible" months since the protests in January that saw thousands killed in a crackdown. 

Two nights before departing, the blastwave from an airstrike threw her from her bed.

But her decision to leave was more from "living in fear for at least a decade... from my scarf falling off my head in the street, to not being able to teach the opposite sex, or having basic liberties", the yoga teacher said. 

There is fear of bombardments, but "there is no other recourse -- people don't have money to eat. Life has become impossible", she said. 

Ensieh, a dentist in the capital, said every day she is "losing more hope". 

"We're caught between three mad powers, and war is terrifying. I know I'll never be the same person again. War has torn a part of me away, and it's not coming back," the 46-year-old said.  

A 34-year-old resident of Sanandaj in western Iran said the intensity of the attacks had decreased and that in recent days he "realised the Islamic republic will not be overthrown in the way we imagined". 

- Crackdown -

Since the war started Iranians have reported heavy security in the streets, with limited anti-government demonstrations quickly quelled, while crowds of Islamic republic supporters regularly rally. 

Out in Tehran, "you'll likely pass through multiple checkpoints in a single day... Cars are searched, phones are checked," including photos, hidden files, apps even personal notes, said 38-year-old artist Kaveh. 

He said groups of armed security forces who have "taken control of the streets" drive through Tehran at night "honking and carrying flags". 

At a gathering in Tehran, he said he and other people opposed to the Islamic republic were worried about Washington coming to a deal with the clerical authorities, in power since 1979. 

"If an agreement is reached, we'll be doomed. At the very least, we should leave Iran for two or three years because they will turn on us," he said. 

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Japan's government plans to temporarily lift restrictions on coal-fired power plants as it seeks to ease an energy crunch caused by the Middle East war, officials said on Friday. 

Officials presented the plan at a meeting of a panel of experts, who approved the proposal, the industry ministry said on its website.

"Given the current situation in the Middle East affecting fuel prices, we believe that uncertainty regarding future LNG procurement is increasing," an industry ministry official said at the meeting, which was broadcast online.

"We think it will be necessary, by increasing the operation of coal-fired power plants, to... ensure the reliability of stable supply," he said.

Power suppliers have previously been required to keep the operating rate of coal-fired thermal power stations that emit large amounts of carbon dioxide at or below 50 percent.

But the government now intends to allow the full operation of older, less efficient coal-fired plants, for a year from the new fiscal year starting April, according to the plan presented at the meeting.

Japan relies on thermal power plants to generate around 70 percent of its electricity needs, with coal constituting 30 percent of their fuel.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) accounts for another 30 percent, and oil comprises seven percent.

The emergency measure to boost reliance on coal is estimated to "result in an LNG savings effect of approximately 500,000 tonnes", the official added.

But Yoko Mulholland of climate think-tank E3G told AFP that the plans to lift coal power restrictions "deepen the risk that Japan will not meet its goal of phasing out inefficient coal plants by 2030". 

Not only threatening climate health, the move can also "lock Japan into a vicious cycle of fossil-fuel dependence" and delay progress toward Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's stated goal of 100 percent domestic energy self-sufficiency, she said. 

"This crisis has laid bare the risks of relying on imported fossil fuels, and now is the time for Japan to shift course to fully embrace renewable energy as a strategic national asset."

Since the Middle East war prompted Iran to partially close the crucial Strait of Hormuz trade route and target energy facilities in the Gulf, many Asian nations have pivoted towards coal to power their economies.

South Korea plans to lift a cap on coal-powered generation capacity while also increasing nuclear plant operations.

The Philippines also intended to boost the output of its coal-fired power plants to keep electricity costs down as the war wreaks havoc with gas shipments.

Japan is the fifth-biggest importer of oil with more than 90 percent of it coming from the Middle East.

Around 10 percent of its LNG imports are also from the region.

Tokyo purchases nearly 80 percent of its coal imports from Australia and Indonesia, according to the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

Japan on Thursday said it had also started to release another part of its strategic oil reserves, as it faced supply challenges to its oil imports.

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