• Iraq team due in Mexico for playoff final on 31 March

• Middle East crisis has made travel plans uncertain

The intercontinental World Cup playoffs are in doubt with officials from the Iraq Football Association (IFA) in crisis talks with Fifa over concerns they may be unable to take part in the final scheduled for Mexico later this month.

The Guardian has learned that the IFA received a letter from Iraq’s national airline, Iraqi Airways, and the Ministry of Transportation informing them that the country’s airspace will remain closed for “at least four weeks”, which would leave around 40% of the squad unable to travel.

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At times like this you have to thank your lucky stars that the opposition leader is not in Downing Street

On another day it might even have been quite funny. The mismatch between Kemi Badenoch’s self-belief and her performance. But Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions was far too serious for that, with Donald Trump’s Awfully Big Iranian Adventure threatening to escalate into all-out war in the Middle East.

It was also a day when you could think the unthinkable. Might Kemi actually be even weaker than Chris Philp? Certainly she’s the worst leader of the Tory party in living memory. There again, the gene pool of talent is no more than a puddle.

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Deploying the world’s most powerful military seems to exert an almost erotic fascination for Donald Trump

• This was originally published in This Week in Trumpland; sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday

It was a claim uttered repeatedly on the 2024 campaign trail: “I’m the only president in 72 years that didn’t start a war,” Donald Trump said in Sioux City, Iowa.

Fact checkers cried foul and pointed out that Jimmy Carter, president from 1977 to 1981, did not start any wars either. But Trump won the election anyway.

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⚽ Latest news from four games kicking off at 7.30pm GMT
⚽ Live scores | Table | Follow us on Bluesky | And mail Niall

Fulham (4-2-3-1): Leno; Tete, Diop, Bassey, Robinson; Berge, Iwobi, Chukwueze, Cairney (c), King; Jiménez.
Subs: Lecomte, Andersen, Reed, Rodrigo Muniz, Bobb, Lukic, Castagne, Sessegnon, Smith Rowe.

West Ham (4-4-2): Hermansen; Wan-Bissaka, Disasi, Todibo, Diouf; Bowen (c), Fernandes, Soucek, Summerville; Wilson, Castellanos.
Subs: Areola, Walker-Peters, Kilman, Mavropanos, Traoré, Lamadrid, Magassa, Scarles, Kanté.

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Here’s what we know about the four US service members who have been identified

• Middle East crisis – live updates

More details have emerged about four of the American service members who were killed in an unmanned aircraft system attack in the Shuaiba port in Kuwait on Sunday, the first known US fatalities since the US and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran on Saturday.

The four soldiers were all assigned to the 103rd sustainment command in Des Moines, Iowa, and were “supporting Operation Epic Fury” the Department of Defense said, adding that they “died on March 1, 2026, in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, during an unmanned aircraft system attack”.

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DEN HAAG (ANP) - De overheid heeft niet bewust documenten over toeslagenouders achtergehouden. Dat zei Sandra Palmen, de partijloze staatssecretaris over het herstel van de toeslagenaffaire gaat, in een debat met de Tweede Kamer. "Wij houden ons aan de wet. Wij zijn maximaal transparant en leveren wat nodig is."

In een interne memo van de Dienst Toeslagen stond dat er een "werkafspraak" was om bepaalde stukken niet te delen. Dat strookt niet met de wet, stelden ambtenaren ook in het document. Trouw berichtte hier in januari over.

"Ik vind het echt, écht heel erg vervelend dat die publiciteit van één memo dit andere beeld heeft doen ontstaan", reageerde Palmen in het debat. Volgens haar was het document niet af. "Het was een discussiestuk."

conspectus_bs posted a photo:

Ilford FP4 with Mamiya RB67 and Sekor 50 mm

Continuing its product launches this week, Apple today announced the "MacBook Neo," an all-new, low-cost Mac featuring the A18 Pro chip. It starts at $599 and begins shipping on Wednesday, March 11. MacRumors reports: The MacBook Neo is the first Mac to be powered by an iPhone chip; the A18 Pro debuted in 2024's iPhone 16 Pro models. Apple says it is up to 50% faster for everyday tasks than the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5, up to 3x faster for on-device AI workloads, and up to 2x faster for tasks like photo editing. The MacBook Neo features a 13-inch Liquid Retina display with a 2408-by-1506 resolution, 500 nits of brightness, and an anti-reflective coating. The display does not have a notch, instead featuring uniform, iPad-style bezels.

It is available in Silver, Indigo, Blush, and Citrus color options. The colored finishes extend to the Magic Keyboard in lighter shades and come with matching wallpapers. It weighs 2.7 pounds. There are two USB-C ports. One is a USB-C 2 port with support for speeds up to 480 Mb/s and one is a USB-C 3 port with support for speeds up to 10 Gb/s. There is also a headphone jack. The MacBook Neo also offers a 16-hour battery life, 8GB of unified memory, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6 connectivity, a 1080p front-facing camera, dual mics with directional beamforming, and dual side-firing speakers with Spatial Audio.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.