In this handout released by the U.S. Navy, aircraft are staged for flight operations on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in support of Operation Epic Fury on March 2, 2026 at sea.
U.S. Navy | Getty Images
What you need to know today
A vote to force President Donald Trump to pull back from the war in Iran failed to pass in the U.S. Senate Wednesday. The resolution faced plenty of hurdles and was largely symbolic, as Trump was almost certain to veto it. French President Emmanuel Macron has said that France will increase its number of nuclear warheads and promised more cooperation with European allies that have expressed interest. That’s “the most significant update to French nuclear deterrence policy in 30 years,” according to an analyst.
A prolonged conflict in the Middle East will dent India’s remittance flows enough to impact its economy. The Indian diaspora in the Gulf countries contributes nearly 38% to India’s total remittance inflows, according to a Citi report. Based on the inflows of $135.4 billion in the financial year 2025, the share of Gulf countries is $51.4 billion. To put it in perspective: India’s total trade surplus with the U.S. was $58.2 billion in 2025.
China on Thursday set its GDP growth target for 2026 at 4.5% to 5% — the lowest target on record going back to the early 1990s — according to a copy of the government work report seen by CNBC, as Beijing grapples with persistent deflationary pressures and trade tensions with the U.S. Defense spending will rise by 7%, the slowest increase since 2021, although analysts believe the official figures are understated.
Amazon’s Bahrain data center was targeted by Iran for supporting the U.S. military, state media Fars News Agency said Wednesday. The company’s cloud computing unit said Monday that one of its facilities in Bahrain was damaged due to a nearby drone strike on Sunday. Two data centers in the United Arab Emirates were also damaged after they were “directly struck” by drones.
A tech industry group expressed “concern” to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after a company was designated as a supply chain risk. The letter, written by the Information Technology Industry Council, did not name Anthropic, though the artificial intelligence company was given that label on Friday after failing to reach a deal with the Defense Department. Among the participating firms were Nvidia, Google, Anthropic, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon.
Broadcom reported earnings and revenue beat, and issued a strong forecast for the current period, as the chipmaker rides the artificial intelligence boom. The stock rose as much as 5% in extended trading Wednesday. “We have line of sight to achieve AI revenue from chips, just chips, in excess of $100 billion in 2027,” Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said on a conference call with analysts. “We have also secured the supply chain required to achieve this.”
And finally…
The U.S. insists the Iran conflict won’t be a ‘forever war.’ Experts beg to differ
Since the U.S. and Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran last weekend, Washington has been keen to stress that the military action will be over in a matter of weeks and won’t turn into a so-called “forever war.”
But experts say the U.S. could easily get bogged down in “Operation Epic Fury” if the Iranian regime proves more resilient than expected.
— Holly Ellyatt