Trump says will not sign other legislation until voter act bill is passed by Congress

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - ‌U.S. ‌President Donald Trump ​vowed in a social ‌media ⁠post on Sunday ⁠that he ​would ​not ​sign any ‌other legislation until Congress approves ‌a ​voter ​bill ​that ‌Democrats believe would ​disenfranchise ​some voters.

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(Reporting ​by ‌Steve HollandEditing ​by Bernadette ​Baum)

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Trump says will not sign other legislation until voter act bill is passed by Congress

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - ‌U.S. ‌President Donald Trump ​vowed in a social ‌media ⁠post on Sunday ⁠that he ​would ​...

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Iran's border with Turkey offers a way out, but few are leaving for good

KAPIKOY BORDER CROSSING, Turkey (AP) — A land crossing near eastern Turkey's Van province is one of the few routes connecting Iranians to the rest of the world amid an airspace shutdown in Iran since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Tehran over a week ago, triggeringwarin the Middle East.

Turkey Iran War

Most travelers at theborder gatein recent days had connections with Turkey through work, family, and friends, and many had moved up preplanned visits because of the war. Some had residency or citizenship in a third country and were transiting through Turkey.

Only a small number of Iranians who spoke to The Associated Press at the Kapikoy crossing said they planned to stay in Turkey to escape the war for an indefinite period.

Reza Gol, a 38-year-old plastic surgeon, said the war was not the only reason for his trip. He was traveling from Urmia in western Iran to see patients in Istanbul, where he used to live.

"It's not clear whether we will leave Iran for good, but I can clear my head a little bit in the meantime," he said. "You can see it's not that crowded at the border. Everyone is staying in their houses. For now, people are not leaving everything they have behind and running away."

Pooneh Asghari and her husband, Iranian-Canadian citizens, were reluctantly preparing to fly to Canada, although they no longer have a house there and both of them work in Iran. Asghari said they are hoping the trip will be brief.

"We've been living in Iran for over the last five years," she said. "All our life is there."

Fariba, a woman who asked to be identified only by her first name out of security concerns, was headed to İzmir in western Turkey to wait out the war with her son.

She said most of her friends and neighbors don't have the means to escape — which might explain the lack of a major exodus across the border.

"People are very poor now," she said. "So they are staying at home, and they are scared."

Border restrictions and canceled flights

Iranians normally enter Turkey without visas. On Monday, Turkey's trade minister announced the mutual suspension of crossings for day-trips, while Iranian border officials have restricted the passage of some Iranian nationals, according to travelers and local media.

However, since Thursday morning, both Iranians and third-country nationals have been crossing the mountain ringed Kapıköy border gates normally.

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Turkey's Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said in a statement that 2,032 travelers entered Turkey from Iran on Wednesday, while 1,966 of them departed to Iran. More recent figures were not available.

Most of those who crossed then made their way to the Van airport to continue their journey. On Friday night, about 20 passengers, mostly Iranians, were lying on rows of chairs waiting to get a flight the next morning.

Mehregan, a 26-year-old who studies in China, was visiting her family in Ahvaz for the winter holidays when the war broke out. She drove more than 15 hours across Iran to cross into Turkey. She asked not to be identified by her full name out of fear that speaking to media would cause her problems with Iranian authorities.

The cash-strapped student decided to sleep in the airport while waiting for the next day's flight to Istanbul, from which she would fly to China. But on Saturday, her flight was canceled because of snowstorms and she was preparing to look for a hotel in the city rather than sleeping in the airport for a second night.

"If I can't get on a flight tomorrow from here I will miss my flight to China" and lose the cost of the nonrefundable ticket, she said.

Van, which is a 1.5-hour drive from the border, has long been a popular destination for Iranians for work, travel, and trade. The hotels and shops that normally do bustling business during Iran's Nowruz holidays in mid-March are now expecting to take a hit.

"It gets really lively here over Nowruz. A lot of our friends come and spend their holidays here with us," says Resat Yeşilağaç, owner of two hotels in Van. "Now it's mostly quiet, apart from people who come because of the war. Most of them are dual nationals and they stop in Van for a day or so before flying out."

Fears around migration in Turkey

Migration is a sensitive topic in Turkey, which was at one point hosting nearly 4 millionSyrian refugees.

Turkey has been further enhancing its border defenses to be able to respond to a potential influx of people fleeing unrest after mass anti-government protests in Iran were met by a brutal crackdown in January.

Turkey's defense ministry said in January that Turkey had 380 kilometers (235 miles) of concrete walls, 203 optical towers and 43 elevator-equipped towers along the country's 560-kilometer (350-mile) border with Iran.

On Wednesday, Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said Turkey had drawn up contingency plans that involve tent camps and buffer zones to respond to a potential influx of people fleeing the war from Iran. So far that influx has not materialized.

Harrison Mirtar, 53, an Iranian-Canadian, crossed the border at Kapıköy before continuing his journey back to Canada, after a visit to his parents in Tehran. He said he was angry about the foreign intervention in his country, but he was not too worried about leaving his parents behind. They had lived through the brutal Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

"They are in their homeland," he said. "Life is going on, but with some bombs."

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Iran's border with Turkey offers a way out, but few are leaving for good

KAPIKOY BORDER CROSSING, Turkey (AP) — A land crossing near eastern Turkey's Van province is one of the few routes co...

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Airstrikes, not occupation: Where Trump voters draw red lines on Iran

March 8 (Reuters) - A week into a war with Iran that is already unpopular with much of the American public, President Donald Trump has offered various explanations for the bombing campaign, estimated the strikes could last weeks, cautioned there will likely be more U.S. casualties, and dismissed concerns about surging oil and gas prices.

FILE PHOTO: Airstrikes, not occupation: Where Trump voters draw red lines on Iran

While that has troubled many Americans, recent interviews with several who voted for Trump show they are largely standing by the president and his war – at least for now. Even ‌his most ardent supporters, however, warned that a large deployment of U.S. ground troops in Iran would alarm them.

In the days since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, Reuters has spoken to eight Americans who voted for Trump in 2024, part of a group ‌of 20 whom Reuters has interviewed monthly since February, to hear their thoughts on the rapidly escalating conflict.

All eight opposed the idea of the Trump administration sending substantial U.S. ground forces to Iran or getting involved in a protracted effort to install new leadership. But five said they fully supported the air and sea attacks as the only way to prevent Iran ​from stockpiling long-range and nuclear missiles. Three were less clear about why the administration started the conflict, saying they worried it was unduly damaging the U.S. economy and endangering U.S. citizens.

Their reactions to the war so far roughly reflect the results of a Reuters-Ipsos poll conducted last weekend that surveyed 1,282 U.S. adults. Nearly two-thirds of respondents who voted for Trump in 2024 said they approved of the strikes, while 9% said they disapproved and 27% said they were not sure. Overall, just one in four respondents expressed support for the U.S. attack on Iran.

If energy prices keep surging and Trump's tactics against Iran start to alienate his own followers, the conflict could erode support for Republicans as the U.S. heads into all-important midterm elections in November that will determine whether Congress stays in the party's control.

Although most of the eight voters Reuters interviewed reported that gasoline in their area had shot up between 20 and 50 cents per gallon, those ‌who supported the strikes said they expected the higher prices to be short-lived.

Jon Webber, 45, a Walmart ⁠retail worker in Indiana, pointed to the struggle his parents had with volatile oil prices following the 1979 Iranian Revolution. "Yeah, it's gonna suck for a little bit, but it'll go back," he said.

After watching U.S. presidents invoke the threat posed by Iran for most of his life, Webber said it felt good to see Trump cripple the regime: "It should have been done a long time ago and we wouldn't have had to deal with it for this long."

Near ⁠Houston, Texas, Loretta Torres, 38, said she trusted the president had acted judiciously. "Trump was trying to get ahead of the game and trying to be proactive with the threats," she said.

But Torres, a mother of three, also said she feared the war could spin "out of control" or inspire terrorist attacks on major metropolitan areas like hers. Like all the voters Reuters interviewed, she dreaded the prospect of the U.S. becoming enmeshed in the region for years if Trump sends in ground troops.

LONG TIME COMING

The voters who supported the strikes were confident Trump had authorized them because they were necessary to thwart an imminent attack on the United States. Democrats and even prominent ​conservative ​commentators have expressed skepticism about this, citing the administration's varying explanations for the war.

Chad Hill, 50, a supervisor at a nuclear power plant near his home in northwestern ​Ohio, said he had been expecting some type of U.S. military action, despite U.S.-Iran negotiations that had been underway ‌over Iran's nuclear program just days before the strikes: "Unfortunately, it seems like this was probably the only way because in the end they don't trust us and we don't trust them."

Trump might need to send a limited military detachment into the country to fully destroy Iran's missile capabilities, Hill said, but any larger ground deployment would raise red flags for him. "No nation-building, that doesn't work," he said.

The idea of U.S. boots on Iranian ground also made Gerald Dunn, 67, uneasy. "Only if they're invited" by a new Iranian government should Trump deploy ground troops, he said, and even then, "the scale should be limited."

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Like Hill, Dunn, a martial arts instructor in New York's Hudson Valley, applauded Trump for taking action where prior administrations had simply "kicked the can down the road."

Near Savannah, Georgia, insurance firm employee Amanda Taylor, 52, said that while "there's so much we don't really know," she would back any military action that made the U.S. safer.

"Our intelligence is usually right in these things so I'm going to hope and trust that [Trump acted] because of that, and not just because of his own gut feeling," she said. At the same time, Taylor added, "nobody wants a drawn-out, true war – I would hate to see that ‌happen."

CONFUSION OVER RATIONALE

The shifting reasons Trump administration officials gave for the strikes puzzled some voters.

On Monday, Herman Sims heard Secretary of State Marco Rubio say the U.S. learned ​Israel was planning to attack Iran and struck first to prevent retaliation – but on Tuesday, he heard Trump claim responsibility for leading the charge based on the president's hunch that ​Iran would attack if the U.S. didn't.

Sims, 66, a night operations manager for a trucking company in Dallas, Texas, said the conflicting reports "didn't ​make any sense," but added that he supported the strikes if they were indeed necessary to protect U.S. lives. Still, he was alarmed by the spiking gas prices and by a report that an ex-Marine's arm was broken while he ‌protested that the U.S. should not "fight for Israel" during a Senate hearing.

"I agree 100%. We should not be ​fighting a war for someone else," Sims said.

In Madison, Wisconsin, college student Will ​Brown, 20, said he was frustrated by the administration's "wishy-washy" explanations for why the U.S. attacked when it did.

"Bombing them to the extent that we have is fine, but Trump's talked about boots on the ground and troops dying, and that I simply can't approve of," he said. Trump told the New York Post on Monday that he has not ruled out sending U.S. ground troops into Iran.

Though he was glad to see Iran's leader dead and the country's nuclear capacity reduced, Brown said he could "not fathom the amount of destruction and ​death" a ground invasion would bring.

Don Jernigan, 75, a retiree in Virginia Beach, said Trump had not justified ‌putting U.S. troops in harm's way.

Assuming the Iranian threat was "so imminent that our cities are in danger of being destroyed from a long distance, from the mainland of Iran, then perhaps we should be destroying people from a long distance, like the ​mainland of America," Jernigan said.

Though he couldn't know what kind of threat Trump saw, Jernigan added that the U.S. strikes had raised the odds of terrorist attacks against Americans.

"If we kill their brothers and their dads and their uncles over there, they're ​going to come over here and try to kill ours," he said.

(Reporting by Julia Harte in New York. Editing by Paul Thomasch and Claudia Parsons)

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Airstrikes, not occupation: Where Trump voters draw red lines on Iran

March 8 (Reuters) - A week into a war with Iran that is already unpopular with much of the American public, President Don...

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March Madness bubble watch: Stock up, down heading into conference tournaments

Sunday is the final day ofmen's college basketballregular season, and only conference tournaments remain before theNCAA Tournamentfield is set.

That means bubble teams only have one guaranteed game left to boost their resumes beforeSelection Sundaynext week.

March Madness bracketology:Latest NCAA tournament bubble predictions

A number of teams fighting for the final few at-large bids lost Saturday, March 7, which could be brutal for their NCAA Tournament chances. A few bid stealers from conference tournament winners could also throw a wrench in a few teams' plans, should they pop up.

Miami (Ohio) became the third team to ever enter its conference tournament with a 31-0 record after finishing the regular season undefeated withits overtime win over Ohioon March 6. The RedHawks still might be on the NCAA Tournament bubble, though, if they don't win the MAC Tournament next week.

There were loads of losses for bubble teams to end the regular season. Here's the latest among NCAA Tournament bubble teams:

March Madness bubble stock up

Miami (Ohio)

Miami defeated Ohio on the road for the first time since 2014 on March 6 to become the third team in Division I history to enter its conference tournament with a 31-0 record, joining 2013-14 Wichita State and 2014-15 Kentucky.

It's hard to imagine Miami being left out of the NCAA Tournament if it fails to win the MAC tournament. Still, the RedHawks will undoubtedly feel most confident if they secure the automatic bid for the Big Dance.

Miami's metrics aren't playing in its favor, ranking No. 53 in the NCAA's NET rankings with the no Quad 1 wins and only two Quad 2 wins. But winning games has to matter, right?

Ohio State

Staying in the Buckeye State, Ohio State all but assured its spot in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday with a comprehensive 91-78 win over fellow bubble team Indiana.

The Buckeyes (20-11, 12-8) finished the regular-season on a three-game winning streak, including a Quad 1 win over Purdue.

Stanford

While fellow ACC bubble teams Cal, SMU and Virginia Tech lost on March 7, Stanford added a nice win over NC State on the road behind true freshman Ebuka Okorie's 33 points.

The Cardinal improved to 20-11 after their fifth Quad 1 win this season, which could weigh heavily when comparing their resume to other bubble teams. Stanford takes its four-game winning streak into the ACC Tournament, where it looks to secure a March Madness bid with a win or two.

VCU finished its regular season with a 15-3 record in A-10 play, which actually was tied with Saint Louis for first place in the conference standings, although the Billikens earned the outright regular season championship with a 2-0 record against the Rams this season.

VCU (24-7) has won 13 of its past 14 games and other bubble team's stumbles should give the Rams hope.

The A-10 is shaping up to be interesting, especially after Saint Louis was blown out by conference tournament contender George Mason to end the regular season. There's a rare scenario where George Mason wins the A-10 and VCU and Saint Louis earn at-large bids to give the conference three spots in the NCAA Tournament.

VCU will certainly need a few wins in the A-10 tournament, and likely won't feel comfortable on Selection Sunday unless it wins the conference tournament.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma has played its way onto the bubble after an impressive finish to the regular season. TheSoonersdefeated Texas 88-85 in overtime on the road on March 7 to win their fourth straight and their sixth of their last eight games.

Oklahoma is now 17-14 on the season with seven SEC wins and will likely need a few wins to reach the NCAA Tournament. It now has five Quad 1 wins and looks forward to its opening-round SEC tournament game against South Carolina.

The chances are still slim, but it's better than nothing for a team that lost nine consecutive conference games earlier this season.

March Madness bubble stock down

New Mexico

New Mexico lost to Utah State 94-90 on March 7, which marked its third loss in its past four outings. The Lobos are now 22-9 on the season with a 13-7 record in Mountain West play, which could make things tough for an at-large bid.

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New Mexico is very capable of winning the conference tournament. Utah State, the conference favorite, is a lock for the NCAA Tournament, even as an at-large team.

The Mountain West's best shot at being a two-bid league would be New Mexico winning the conference, as the Lobos' at-large chances are looking slim.

Auburn

Make it eight losses in its last 10 games to end the regular season forAuburn, who's clinging on for dear life heading into the SEC Tournament after its latest loss to in-state rival Alabama on Saturday. The 16-15 Tigers have the worst record of any team on the bubble, but also one of the toughest schedules this season.

Auburn ranks No. 40 in the NET rankings with a 4-12 mark in Quad 1 games and a 4-2 record in Quad 2 games. Still, the weak record plays into account, especially with how the Tigers have ended the season.

Auburn's NCAA Tournament chances are dwindling, and the Final Four team from last season needs to pull it together at the SEC Tournament under first-year coach Steven Pearl.

Indiana

Ohio State defeated Indiana 91-78 on March 7 in a battle of Big Ten bubble teams to end the regular season. The Buckeyes' stock is rising, and the Hoosiers' is falling.

Indiana entered the game projected as a First Four Out team by USA TODAY Sports' latest projections. Its double-digit losses will be tough to overcome.

Indiana falls to 18-13 on the year, whereas Ohio State is now 20-11 following its three-game winning streak that includes a top-10 ranked win over Purdue.

Cal had little room for error entering its final regular-season game against Wake Forest, who entered the game with a 15-15 record. The Golden Bears lost 80-73 on the road, putting them in a rough spot heading into the ACC Tournament.

Cal was listed as a First Four Out team in USA TODAY Sports' latest bracketology update before its loss to Wake Forest. Now it's going to likely need to make a run in the conference tournament to have a shot at the Big Dance.

UCF was off the bubble in USA TODAY Sports' most recent bracket projection, although it isn't doing itself any favors heading into the Big 12 Tournament. The Knights (20-10) dropped their third straight game to end the regular season, falling to West Virginia 77-62 on March 7.

The loss proceeds two losses against teams off the NCAA Tournament radar in Baylor and Oklahoma State, which doesn't help the resume, either.

UCF was a No. 10 seed in the latest bracket update and could fall firmly onto the bubble as the margins appear to be razor thin this season.

Cincinnati

Cincinnati (17-14) has played itself into bubble status down the stretch, winning six of its last seven games with an upset over Kansas before the regular season finale. The Bearcats couldn't secure their 18th win of the season, though, falling to TCU, 73-63, on the road Saturday.

The Horned Frogs are firmly in the NCAA Tournament projection amid their own hot streak, but the Bearcats have little room for error in the Big 12 tournament. Cincinnati might need a few wins in Kansas City to have a shot at reaching the 68-team field.

SMU was, at one point, considered firmly in the NCAA Tournament picture a few weeks ago. The Mustangs' recent play has changed that sentiment mightily.

SMU (19-12, 8-10) ended its regular season with its fourth consecutive losses after losing to Florida State 91-78 on the road on March 7. SMU has lost to a pair of bubble teams in Cal and Stanford, along with a loss to Miami, which is No. 29 in NET.

The Mustangs are in a difficult position, especially with only one ranked win this season, which came against North Carolina in January. SMU might need some help and a few wins in the ACC tournament.

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech coach Mike Young was beat up after the Hokies' 76-72 loss to Virginia on March 7.

"What the (expletive) am I doing wrong?"he said in his postgame news conferenceafter the loss, while clearly emotional.

The loss dropped Virginia Tech to 19-12 on the season and is in a similar bubble bucket with multiple ACC teams also vying for NCAA Tournament spots. The Hokies are No. 55 in NET with a 2-9 record in Quad 1 games, and aren't looking like an NCAA Tournament team as of now.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:NCAA Tournament bubble watch tracker: Miami Ohio is in, Indiana is out

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March Madness bubble watch: Stock up, down heading into conference tournaments

Sunday is the final day ofmen's college basketballregular season, and only conference tournaments remain before th...

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Atle Lie McGrath leads in first World Cup slalom since his Olympic exit into the forest

KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia (AP) — From a course-side forest at the Olympics back into the leader's box in the World Cup.

Slovenia World Cup Alpine Skiing

Atle Lie McGrathwas fastest in the first run of a slalom Sunday, his first race in the discipline since an emotional exit from an Olympics race three weeks ago that he was set to win.

As he waited at the start gate Sunday, the World Cup television broadcast showed a quiet empty space in a nearby forest — a reminder of where the Norwegian racer famously went to cool off alone in Bormio, Italy, after failing to finish his second run.

It was a vivid image from theMilan Cortina Olympicsand McGrath made another strong impression with a slick finish to be 0.17 seconds faster than Lucas Pinheiro Braathen.

The childhood friends also are dueling for the season-long World Cup slalom title that will be decided at the last race on March 24 in Norway, where they grew up.

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The Vermont-born McGrath leadsPinheiro Braathen, the Olympic giant slalom championracing for Brazil, by just one point in the standings. The winner Sunday earns 100 points and the runner-up gets 80.

Clément Noël, the 2022 Olympic champion, also is in contention for the slalom title though he was seventh-fastest, with 0.78 to make up in the afternoon run.

Armand Marchant of Belgium was third, trailing McGrath by 0.55.

The Olympic and world champion in slalom, Loïc Meillard, skied out and another Norwegian contender in the World Cup standings, Timon Haugan, straddled a gate.

AP skiing:https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

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Atle Lie McGrath leads in first World Cup slalom since his Olympic exit into the forest

KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia (AP) — From a course-side forest at the Olympics back into the leader's box in the World Cup....

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