$37.5bn cost of Iran war revealed as senator warns of ‘another forever war’ | First Thing

Pete Hegseth defends the $88bn supplemental funding request as he appears before the Senate committee on appropriations. Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Pete Hegseth defends the $88bn supplemental funding request as he appears before the Senate committee on appropriations. Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images First Thing: $37.5bn cost of Iran war revealed as senator warns of ‘another forever war’ Pete Hegseth reveals costs so far as Trump administration seeks more funding. Plus, rediscovered plane wreck that changed flying for ever Good morning. The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has told the Senate that the US-Israel war on Iran has cost $37.5bn so far , as he faced lawmakers furious over the conflict’s soaring price tag and the deaths last week of three American service members. He defended the Trump administration’s roughly $88bn supplemental funding request, calling it “urgent, necessary”. Patty Murray, a Democratic senator from Washington, demanded Hegseth explain what the war had actually achieved, accusing the administration of shifting its rationale by the week and warning that the conflict risked becoming “another forever war”. What is happening in Iran? The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has described how he was pulled from the rubble of a leadership compound after the US-Israeli airstrike that killed the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war, and has survived since by constantly moving around Tehran by car. Deepa Parent, meanwhile, has reports from the ground with ordinary Iranians , who say “it’s truly hell here” as airstrikes, repression and water shortages become the “new normal”. What other developments have affected the region? Zohran Mamdani, New York’s mayor, has acknowledged he does not have the authority to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, but urged US federal authorities to do so if the Israeli prime minister visits the US later this year. The White House has announced that American airline carriers will be able to resume direct flights to Lebanon more than 40 years after the US suspended the route. Saudis and US strike deal for kingdom to enrich uranium, reports say View image in fullscreen Donald Trump is said to have approved the deal to help Saudi Arabia make fuel for civilian nuclear program. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images Donald Trump has approved an agreement with Saudi Arabia that could provide the kingdom with uranium enrichment capability for its civilian nuclear programme. The agreement may be announced as early as Wednesday. The deal is expected to last 30 years and is also expected to involve US firms in developing the program. It could allow for the building of a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia after a joint US-Saudi study. What is uranium enrichment? It is the process of increasing the presence of isotope uranium-235 so the substance can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. Enrichment is not an automatic path to