The Headlines - Hegseth Says War Will Go On ‘Until We Decide,’ and U.S. Court Moves Toward Ordering Tariff Refunds

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Plus, why you should not let A.I. do your taxes.  Here’s what we’re covering: As Attacks Spread, War With Iran Reaches Far Beyond Mideast, by Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper, Lara Jakes and Michael Levenson 59% of Americans Oppose the Military Action in Iran, by Ruth Igielnik Iran’s Drones Cost a Fraction of the U.S. Weapons Shooting Them Down, by Farah Stockman Why Ecuador Invited the U.S. Military to Help With Its Drug Gangs, by Luis Ferré-Sadurní, Eric Schmitt and José María León Cabrera House Panel Votes to Subpoena Pam Bondi Over Epstein Files, by Michael Gold U.S. Court Takes First Steps Toward Ordering Tariff Refunds, by Tony Romm and Ana Swanson A Word to the Wise: Don’t Trust A.I. to File Your Taxes, by Stuart A. Thompson Tune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, March 5th. Here's what we're covering. Less than a week into the war with Iran. New polling shows most Americans disapprove of the attacks. In the Senate, Republicans have blocked an effort to limit President Trump's war powers. And the conflict is spreading beyond the Middle East. To start, a CNN poll conducted immediately after the strikes shows about 60% of Americans opposed the military action. The Washington Post and Reuters Ipsos found similar results. Breaking it down by party, all three polls showed that Democrats were nearly universally opposed,

while Republicans were generally supportive. In the Senate, we are at war. We were at war having had no national debate of whether we should enter into war. Democrats pushed for a measure that would have limited Trump's ability to, continue attacking Iran without congressional authorization. But... President Trump decided to attack Iran. That decision was profound, deliberate, and correct. Republicans blocked it. The ayes are 47. The nays are 53. The motion to discharge is not approved. The House is expected to vote on a similar measure today. It is also expected to fail.

And in the Gulf and beyond, more and more countries are finding themselves entangled in the conflict. This week, an American submarine struck an Iranian Navy ship off the coast of Sri Lanka, more than 2,000 miles from Tehran. It was sunk by a torpedo, quiet death. Defense Secretary Pete Hegsa said it was the first time the U.S. had sunk an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II. And he vowed that the U.S. and Israel would not let us. up in their attacks. Every minute of every day until we decide it's over.

Also, NATO air defenses shot down an Iranian missile yesterday heading toward Turkish airspace. An attack on Turkey, which is a member of NATO, could activate NATO's mutual defense clause, potentially drawing all of the alliance's 32 member countries into the war. Britain and France have announced they're deploying their navies and air forces to help repel Iranian attacks, and the Netherlands has been asked to help secure international shipping routes after attacks on oil tankers and other commercial ships. Iran's strikes are also continuing in the Gulf. Over the last few days, we've seen, you know, five-star hotels catch fire in Dubai. You know, we've seen major global airports shut down because they've been targeted by Iranian

missiles and drones. We've seen people fleeing for the land borders of countries that have long been safe like the UAE thought of trying to find any escape route. Vivian Narheim is the Times Gulf Bureau Chief. Iranian officials say that the reason they've been shooting these hundreds of missiles and drones at the Gulf countries is because they host these American military bases, right? And they claim that they're only targeting American military installations, American embassies, American interests, American soldiers. Of course, on the ground, what we're seeing is a bit wider.

And it's hard to speculate about what the motivation is, but it's undeniable that by spring, missiles and drones all over the Gulf, which is this incredibly important node in the global economy. The Iranian government is raising the cost of the war for President Trump. And while they have really kind of robust air defense systems supplied by the United States and European countries, no one's air defense systems are perfect in dealing with drones. One thing to note, in a drone-heavy conflict like this one, the math is not necessarily on America's side. Iran is using thousands of low-cost, drones for precision attacks. Some of them can travel as much as 1,200 miles before crashing into a target and detonating. They're built with off-the-shelf commercial electronics at a price

of about $20,000 to $50,000, according to one defense analyst. But it's way more expensive to shoot down a drone than it is to launch one. The air defense systems trying to stop them can cost billions. For example, the gold standard, the Patriot Air Defense system, uses interceptors that can cost more than $3 million per shot. There are other anti-dron tools, frequency jammers, lasers, but they have a mixed track record of success and can cause chaos for civilian life nearby. And so as attack drones become more common in war,

the cost of defending against them could become unsustainable over time. Now three more updates on the Trump administration. Together, we are taking decisive action to confront narco-ta. terrorists who have long inflicted terror, violence, and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere. The U.S. announced this week that it's launched joint military operations with Ecuador. According to a U.S. official, U.S. special forces are providing intelligence and logistics support to the Ecuadorian military so it can carry out raids against suspected drug

traffickers. In the last decade, violent gangs have thrived in Ecuador, turning it into the world's largest exporter of cocaine. as much as 70% of the global supply of the drug flows through the country. Ecuador's joint operation with the U.S. marks the extension of Trump's campaign against alleged drug traffickers at sea. Since September, the U.S. has blown up dozens of boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Also, the House Oversight Committee has voted to compel Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify

about how she has handled the Epstein investigation. A handful of Republicans crossed party lines to join Democrats in pushing to subpoena her, a rare congressional rebuke of a Trump administration official. Lawmakers of both parties have accused Bondi of slow walking the release of files related to the convicted sex offender and illegally withholding materials after Congress passed a law requiring their release. She'll likely also face questions about whether her department compromised or exposed victims, when it posted dozens of unredacted images of nude women from the files, some of whom may have been teenagers.

And last update, a federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to take the first steps toward issuing more than a billion dollars in tariff refunds. It follows the Supreme Court's ruling that struck down many of Trump's tariffs. The justices left it to lower courts to figure out how refunds should be handled. The Trump administration, however, has argued that refunding business, would create a fiscal crisis for the U.S. and is likely to appeal this order. Trump has also been looking to put many tariffs back in place

using different legal authorities. And finally, people are actively trying to outsource all kinds of things to AI, writing their cover letters, planning their vacations. But whatever you do, don't use it to file your taxes. The Times tested four AI chatbots, Gemini from Google, chat GPT, Claude from Anthropic and Grock from Elon Musk's AI company.

My colleagues gave them eight fictional tax situations, pulled from training materials for a tax filing service. And they struggled. They miscalculated the refund or the amount owed by an average of more than $2,000. Even when they were given all the necessary materials, the chatbots just whiffed on some calculations. The problem comes down to how chatbot are designed. They're not good at remembering a lot of interconnected information, like all the

details of your W-2 plus your mortgage plus whether you have kids. Errors sneak into their calculations along the way. And on taxes, a few errors can really add up. Now, to give the bots a break, the American tax code is incredibly complicated and can be very confusing. Humans also make mistakes. The safest thing, experts say, if you want to use AI, is to use a lot of. it like a tool? Ask it simple questions. Remember what you're dealing with. It is not built for precision. As one tech analyst said, if you ask a chatbot how many times the letter R appears in the word strawberry, it will tell you how many R's are probably in the word strawberry. Those are the headlines. Today on the daily, the fight at the Pentagon over how the military should use

artificial intelligence. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow with the latest and the Friday News Quiz.