5 Big News Stories Overnight - Saturday, March 21, 2026

U.S.: Musk Found Guilty

Reuters reports:

A federal jury found Elon Musk liable on claims he defrauded Twitter shareholders by trying to drive down the social media company's stock price so he could renegotiate or back out of a $44 billion takeover in 2022, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

Damages will be determined later, according to the report.

Lawyers for Musk and the shareholders were not immediately available for comment.

The verdict from a jury in San Francisco federal court came in a closely watched trial where Musk, the world's richest person, was accused of falsely claiming that Twitter underreported how many fake and spam accounts, known as bots, were on its platform.

Iran

France 24 reports:

Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Friday the country had dealt its enemies a "dizzying blow" in the war with the US and Israel, as fresh blasts hit Tehran on the first day of the Persian New Year festival.

Israel accused Tehran of an "attack on the holy sites" of Jerusalem, after a blast left a crater in the Old City a few hundred metres from the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Khamenei has not appeared in public since being named to succeed his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed in Israeli airstrikes at the start of a war that has engulfed the region, and has only issued written statements.

Iranians have "dealt him (the enemy) a dizzying blow so that he now starts uttering contradictory words and nonsense," Khamenei said in a written message for Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

PHOTO: Tim Smith, Unsplash

U.S.: Trump on War

Trump posted on Friday night:

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East with respect to the Terrorist Regime of Iran: (1) Completely degrading Iranian Missile Capability, Launchers, and everything else pertaining to them. (2) Destroying Iran’s Defense Industrial Base. (3) Eliminating their Navy and Air Force, including Anti Aircraft Weaponry. (4) Never allowing Iran to get even close to Nuclear Capability, and always being in a position where the U.S.A. can quickly and powerfully react to such a situation, should it take place. (5) Protecting, at the highest level, our Middle Eastern Allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and others. The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

U.S.: Harvard Response to Trump Administration's Lawsuit on Antisemetism

Statement on the March 20 lawsuit

Harvard cares deeply about members of our Jewish and Israeli community and remains committed to ensuring they are embraced, respected, and can thrive on our campus. Our actions illustrate this. Harvard has taken substantive, proactive steps to address the root causes of antisemitism and actively enforces anti-harassment and anti-discrimination rules and policies on campus. We also have enhanced training and education on antisemitism for students, faculty, and staff and launched programs to promote civil dialogue and respectful disagreement inside and outside the classroom. Harvard’s efforts demonstrate the very opposite of deliberate indifference.

We will continue to prioritize this important work and will defend the University against this lawsuit, which represents yet another pretextual and retaliatory action by the administration for refusing to turn over control of Harvard to the federal government.

U.S.: New WNBA Agreement

Wall Street Journal reports:

The WNBA and its players reached a tentative collective-bargaining agreement, increasing the salary cap by 364%, the largest jump in U.S. professional sports history.

If approved, the deal will raise the average player salary to about $584,000 and guarantee the lowest-paid player $270,000.

The WNBA’s growth, spurred by Caitlin Clark’s 2024 arrival, led to 2025 regular-season games averaging 1.3 million viewers on ESPN.