5 Big News Stories Overnight - Thursday, March 5, 2026

U.S.: Morgan Stanley Slashes Jobs

A Wall Street Journal exclusive reports:

Morgan Stanley is laying off around 3% of its workforce or about 2,500 people, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The cuts are affecting employees in the bank’s three major divisions, the people said, which are investment banking and trading, wealth management and investment management. They are tied to shifting business and location priorities—as well as individual job performance—and are occurring both in the U.S. and abroad, one of the people said.

The moves come after the bank reported a banner year in 2025. Morgan Stanley, which has around 83,000 employees, posted record annual revenue in its investment banking and trading division as well as in its wealth-management unit last year.

In the wealth-management division, this round of layoffs have included private bankers and back-office staff positions, the people said. Some of those impacted work on doling out mortgages to wealth-management clients, some of the people said.

Iran: US-backed Kurdish Fighters Launch Iran Invasion

Telegraph reports:

Thousands of Iraqi Kurdish fighters have launched a ground offensive into Iran.

The CIA had held talks with Kurdish militias about a potential attack on Iran’s security forces in the western part of the country prior to the invasion, according to CNN.

In a briefing earlier on Wednesday, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, denied reports that the US would arm the Kurds, who have long suffered at the hands of the Iranian regime.

“I can comment on the fact that the president has held many calls with partners, allies and leaders in the region, in the Middle East,” she said.

“He did speak to Kurdish leaders with respect to our base that we have in northern Iraq. But as for any report suggesting that the president has agreed to any such plan is completely false and should not be written.”

France: Macron Says He Urged Netanyahu to 'Refrain from Ground Offensive' in Lebanon

French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “refrain from a ground offensive” in Lebanon in a phone call on Wednesday. Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon has killed 72 people since Monday and driven some 83,000 more from their homes, Lebanese authorities said, while UN peacekeepers confirmed that Israeli troops had entered several towns and villages in southern Lebanon. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.

PHOTO: EU CC: 4.0

Middle East: Impact of War

Bloomberg reports:

Decades of theorizing about the consequences of war between the US and Iran tended to circle around the same fear: the world’s most famous chokepoint for fossil fuels, the Strait of Hormuz, would become a battlefield. Today that fear came true.

By the fifth day of the US-Israeli war with Iran, shipping has effectively stopped in the crucial channel. And less than a day after President Donald Trump spoke of escorting and insuring shipping through the Strait, a container vessel there was attacked and disabled. It now floats abandoned in the waterway. 

The death toll in the Iran War is near 1,000 people, with the dead mostly Iranians, including 165 who were killed when the US and Israel allegedly destroyed an elementary school for girls. The US said it’s investigating. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday the US and Israel are close to controlling Iranian airspace, which he said would allow them to deliver “death and destruction from the sky all day long.” Senate Republicans late today rejected a bill to stop the war.

Since the first attacks Saturday, another expected consequence of a Western conflict with Iran has come to pass: oil prices are up 12% and American consumers are witnessing record jumps in gasoline prices. If the Strait of Hormuz stays closed for much longer, the pain is expected to spread.

PHOTO: Suzy Brooks, Unsplash

Middle East: "Shedding" of Blood

Times of Israel reports:

Iranian state television aired a message Thursday from an ayatollah in Iran calling for the “shedding” of blood from Israelis and US President Donald Trump, as the Islamic Republic continued to threaten revenge and repercussions for the war being waged against it by the US and Israel.

The message from Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli represented one of the few clerical statements coming from Iran as it faces a combined airstrike campaign from the two countries.

“We are now on the verge of a great test and we must be careful to fully preserve this unity, to fully preserve this alliance,” he said in the statement.