MEXICO CITY, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Iran's football federation is "negotiating" with FIFA to relocate the country's first-round matches at the World Cup to Mexico from the United States, citing the conflict in the Middle East, Iran's embassy in Mexico said Monday. "We are currently negotiating with FIFA to hold Iran's matches in the World Cup in Mexico." He added that he had also "suggested to FIFA that Iran's matches be moved from the United States to Mexico." Trump's comments came after FIFA president Gianni Infantino had given assurances that Trump had promised him that the Iranian team would be welcome. Iran hit back at Trump's comments saying "no one can exclude Iran's national team from the World Cup."

DOHA, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Several explosions were heard in Doha on Tuesday, an AFP journalist said, a day after several blasts resounded across the Qatari capital. Qatar, like several Gulf nations, has been targeted by drones and missiles in the last days as Tehran presses a retaliatory campaign over attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran.

SYDNEY, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Australia's central bank hiked its key interest rate Tuesday, pointing to "sharply higher fuel prices" driven by the US-Israel war on Iran. Many economists have warned that a protracted war could fuel an inflation shock similar to that seen after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The RBA said "the conflict in the Middle East has resulted in sharply higher fuel prices, which, if sustained, will add to inflation". "Higher prices and prolonged uncertainty may cause growth to be lower in Australia's major trading partners and also in Australia," the bank said in a statement. Australia is heavily reliant on fuel imports from Asia, with many people accustomed to driving long distances for work or leisure.

SYDNEY, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Australian tennis player turned coach Marinko Matosevic was slapped with a four-year ban on Tuesday for breaching anti-doping rules between 2018 and 2020. The former world number 39, who most recently helped coach current Australian players Chris O'Connell and Jordan Thompson, initially denied all charges. But he admitted to blood doping in comments shortly before the hearing was scheduled to take place, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) said. They included "use of a prohibited method through blood doping and facilitating another player to blood dope". Matosevic, who played at all four Grand Slams, is banned from any tennis event or activity authorised or sanctioned by the ITIA, such as ATP, WTA or Tennis Australia tournaments, until 2030.

JERUSALEM, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Israel's army said Tuesday it had launched a "wide scale wave of strikes" in the Iranian capital Tehran, as well as strikes against Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital Beirut. "The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) has begun a wide scale wave of strikes against Iranian terror regime infrastructure across Tehran," the military posted on Telegram. "Additionally, the IDF has begun an additional wave of strikes on Hezbollah terror infrastructure in Beirut."

TEHRAN, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - President Donald Trump on Monday demanded that US allies help secure the Strait of Hormuz, but European powers pushed back on a possible mission to reopen the vital waterway shut by Iran in response to US-Israeli attacks. Trump said he thought Britain and France would get involved in efforts to secure the Strait of Hormuz -- but only reluctantly. Japan, Australia, Poland, Spain, Greece and Sweden also distanced themselves from any military involvement in the Strait of Hormuz. - Lebanon ground assault -On another key front in the wider war, Israel announced "limited ground operations" against Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon "aimed at enhancing the forward defence area". The leaders of five Western countries said in a joint statement Monday that a large-scale Israeli ground operation in Lebanon "must be averted".

"It's going to go out to space and start data centers." "In 10 years, nearly all new data centers will be being built in outer space," predicted Starcloud co-founder and chief Philip Johnston. The startup explained that it plans to power Google AI with the Nvidia GPUs to show that large language models can run in outer space. Nvidia described the Vera Rubin module as being optimized for AI, enabling real-time sensing, decision making, and autonomous functioning. More than a dozen startups, aerospace leaders, and major tech firms are involved in the development, testing, or planning of space-based data centers.

SEOUL, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - North Korea's rubber-stamp legislature will convene Sunday to consider revisions to the authoritarian nation's constitution and the election of state leadership, state media reported. It followed the ninth Workers' Party congress in February, which directs efforts on everything from diplomacy to war planning and which closed with a grand military parade. The SPA is expected to formalise decisions made in that congress, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP. "The regime appears intent on swiftly codifying the decisions of the party congress," Hong told AFP. The gathering elevated Kim Yo Jong -- long considered one of her brother's closest lieutenants -- to department director within the party's apex central committee, according to KCNA.

Iran has kept up strikes on the UAE since war erupted in the Middle East, disrupting commercial air travel and targeting energy installations on both sides of the Strait of Hormuz. The attacks have piled economic pressure on the oil-rich country, which also serves as a hub for international travel. The airport has been targeted by several attacks since Iran began its Gulf campaign. The strikes have upended travel plans in the financial hub, despite its air defence intercepting the vast majority of projectiles. Meanwhile, Bahrain said it has intercepted 350 Iranian missiles and drones since the start of the war.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - A court has ordered prediction platform Polymarket be blocked for users in Argentina, prosecutors said in a statement Monday, dubbing the site "a clandestine online betting system." Polymarket allows users to buy and sell shares based on the probability of real-world events -- from election results to military attacks. The investigation arose from a complaint filed by the Buenos Aires City Lottery. The court also will instruct tech giants Google and Apple to remove access to Polymarket's mobile apps in Argentina. Polymarket calls itself the world's largest prediction market, a realm of betting that was once dismissed as a niche crypto curiosity and has gone mainstream in recent years.

SAN JOS, United States, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Nvidia chief Jensen Huang on Monday said he expects the artificial intelligence chip powerhouse to bring in at least a trillion dollars in revenue through next year. Huang made the ramped-up revenue forecast while outlining Nvidia's latest innovations for a packed audience at the opening of its annual developers conference in Silicon Valley. "I see, through 2027, at least a trillion dollars (in revenue)," Huang said. He went on to show Nvidia's latest innovations when it came to GPU's and platforms for building AI into nearly everything, from robots and apps to data centers orbiting the planet. "Every single enterprise company, every single software company in the world needs an AI agent strategy," Huang said.

Oil up again in Asian trade, with focus on Iran warTOKYO, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Oil climbed again in Asia on Tuesday after prices retreated a day earlier, with investors remaining focused on the Strait of Hormuz. Japan said Monday it was beginning the release of its strategic oil reserves and the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, said member countries could unlock more oil from strategic stocks "if needed." But attacks on Middle Eastern oil facilities continued, with drones hitting major oil fields in the United Arab Emirates and Iraq on Monday. On stock markets, Japan's Nikkei was up 0.57 percent and the Kospi in South Korea was 2.40 percent higher. That followed a rise on Wall Street, while most European stock markets also climbed Monday as the US-Israel war on Iran entered its third week.

SAO PAULO, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - In the heart of Sao Paulo, a "prisonometer" keeps a live tally of people jailed due to Latin America's largest AI facial-recognition system, but its successes have been marred by mistaken arrests. In December, an 80-year-old retiree spent hours under arrest because Smart Sampa confused him with a rapist. At least 141 people were arrested due to outdated warrants, but the Sao Paulo government argues that those mistakes are the judiciary's responsibility, not theirs. In 2024, nearly one in five cellphone robberies in Brazil, including violent muggings, occurred in Sao Paulo. Most Smart Sampa arrests have occurred in outlying neighborhoods, with many of those detained migrants from poorer regions of Brazil's interior.

BAGHDAD, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - A drone and rocket attack targeted the US embassy in Baghdad early Tuesday, while a strike killed four people at a house reportedly hosting Iranian advisors, security officials said, pulling Iraq deeper into the Middle East war. The strikes came hours after air defences thwarted a rocket attack at the embassy and a drone sparked a fire at a luxury hotel frequented by foreign diplomats in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Shortly after the hotel incident, a loud blast was heard in Baghdad, as air defences were seen intercepting an attack over the US embassy, an AFP journalist said. - Fighters killed, oil attack -Kataeb Hezbollah announced Monday "the martyrdom of Haj Abu Ali al-Askari", without providing any details on how and when he was killed. Drone and rocket attacks have also targeted oil fields and facilities.

BRASILIA, March 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Brazilian leaders unveiled a new national climate plan Monday that prioritizes enhanced forest protections as a key strategy in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Forty percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil are generated by trees being razed, often to clandestinely create more agricultural land, Brazilian officials said. Brazil has been hit by extreme weather disasters in recent years, including floods, fires and droughts, which experts link to climate change. "We are living through a very serious situation of climate emergency," Environment and Climate Change Minister Marina Silva told reporters. Claudio Angelo, of the NGO network Climate Observatory, applauded the new Brazilian plan because it "begins to address the thorny issue of how to finance" its climate targets.