First Thing: Conflict spirals in Middle East as NGO says at least 700 Iranian civilians killed | Iran

Good morning.

While Tehran continues to launch retaliatory strikes against the Gulf and Israel, Iranian drones hit the US embassy in Riyadh as Israeli troops began operations in southern Lebanon on the fourth day of an increasingly regional war in the Middle East.

The near-total internet blackout makes verification of civilian deaths extremely difficult. But the Human Rights Activists news agency, a US-based NGO focusing on Iran’s human rights, says that at least 742 civilians, including 176 children, were killed in US-Israeli airstrikes and that hundreds more cases are being investigated. While the Iranian Red Crescent reported that 787 people lost their lives, Norway-based Hengaw reported that the death toll was at least 1,500, including 200 civilians and 1,300 Iranian soldiers. The numbers are likely to increase.

Donald Trump said on Monday that the US campaign was expected to last four to five weeks but “could last much longer than that.” The US state department has urged Americans to immediately leave more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as the conflict worsens.

• What is the legality of attacks against Iran? The Guardian spoke to legal experts who agreed that the initial attacks were against international law. “There does not appear to be any evidence of an imminent threat from Iran,” said Susan Breau, a professor of international law and senior research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies. The U.S. constitution also enshrines only Congress the power to formally declare war, but the president has not sought Congressional approval beforehand.

• What did the USA say about the justification for the war? It continues to change. Donald Trump initially said there were “imminent threats” to Americans and that the United States wanted to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and also called on Iranians to rise up and overthrow the regime. Then Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that Israel’s determination to attack Iran and the certainty that U.S. troops would be targeted in response forced the Trump administration to launch preemptive strikes.

• Are European countries participating? Spain has refused US permission to use jointly operated military bases on its territory because of its “unjustified” attack on Iran, while Trump criticized Britain for taking “too long” to approve America’s use of air bases.

• What are the consequences of cutting the Strait of Hormuz?? The strait, which is controlled by Iran, is a key global shipping route through which one-fifth of global seaborne oil passes. It is now effectively closed and rising oil prices are triggering fears of a new wave of global cost-of-living pressures.

• This is an evolving story. Follow our live broadcast here and see the battle with maps, videos and photos.

In other news…

• The Department of Education faced criticism after hanging a large banner featuring Charlie Kirk outside its DC headquartersThe far-right commentator was shot dead last September at the age of 31.

• Ron DeSantisFlorida’s Republican governor spent $1.2 million public money One day to open and operate the immigrant prison known as Alligator Alcatrazcourt records show.

• The US supreme court has decided to block a series of California laws regarding transgender students. such as restricting public schools from sharing information about students’ gender identity with parents.

Status of the day: As South Carolina’s measles outbreak nears 1,000 cases, RFK Jr’s allies work to defeat vaccine laws

While South Carolina was dealing with a measles epidemic, with approximately 1,000 people infected, Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Groups affiliated with are pushing to eliminate vaccine requirements that protect children. The Guardian found that anti-vaccine groups are encouraging followers to organize opposition to vaccine mandates in more than 20 states, at least six of which have a measles outbreak.

Culture pick: The Artful Dodger season two – ‘More of the same, but with additional gun fingers’

Jack Dawkins, the grown-up fantasy of Charles Dickens’s Artful Dodger character whose light fingers make him a leading surgeon in colonial Australia, is back for a second season. Sarah Dempster writes in her review that although it lacks the wit and warmth of the first season, it comes with a frantic pace, chase scenes and fisticuffs. Artful Dodger is now on Disney+.

Don’t miss this: ICE detained this high schooler for 10 months. Here’s what he and his classmates want you to know

In May of last year, 20-year-old Dylan Lopez Contreras, a student at Ellis Prep academy in the Bronx, New York City, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His lawyers say he is the first New York public school student detained by ICE. He has been detained since that date. This winter, the Guardian invited Dylan and five of his classmates to document their world. They used disposable cameras, pictures, and words to capture everything they saw, felt, and thought in that moment and tried to imagine the lives they wanted to live after graduating high school.

… or this: What Anthony Scaramucci It was learned from Trump’s close circle

Anthony Scaramucci served just 11 days as White House communications director during Donald Trump’s first term before he was fired. The financier and broadcaster speaks to the Guardian about working for the president and being his biggest critic. “You can never take him into account. The Epstein files can’t knock him out,” he says.

Technology companies and industrial agriculture are “gaming the food system” by using artificial intelligence and algorithms to undermine farmers in choosing what the world eats, leading food safety experts have warned. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM and Alibaba are working with industrial agriculture firms to influence which crops are grown and how, according to a report by think tank the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems.

The Last Thing: Stardew Valley in 10 – the anti-capitalist game that alleviates burnout

Ten years after farming simulation Stardew Valley was first released in 2016, the casual game has sold 50 million copies. But it’s important to recognize that Stardew Valley offers more than just escapism, as Jordan Erica Webber writes: “It fostered identities and creativity and offered an anti-capitalist, non-heteronormative vision of community that inspired many of its players.”

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