News from Around the Web for Mar 16, 2026

#3 Trump Orders 2,000 Additional Marines to Middle East - ABC News/Associated Press, Defense Intelligence/Jolyon Hart, Pete Buttigieg, euronews, Middle East Monitor,  and SG News on X

The war with Iran is escalating as President Donald Trump refuses to rule out sending more U.S. troops to the Middle East amid the fight for control of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has ordered the Okinawa-based 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and Tripoli assault ship to be redeployed to the Persian Gulf. The US military has started moving at least one amphibious assault ship and more than 2,000 Marines from Japan to the Middle East as the US-Israeli war against Iran continues, according to US media report

#4 Iran Conflict Threatens Helium for Chip: China’s Domestic Supply Push in Focus - TrendForce, The Kobeissi Letter, Bussin Science, Investor/ThePinkPelican, VincentScott /Dock, and Arnaud Bertrand/Front toward enemy./CanadianSoul on X

The Iran conflict is raising concerns over the supply of key semiconductor materials. As noted by Nikkei, Middle East crisis is casting a shadow over Asia’s chip supply chain as fears grow that the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz could persist. Seoul is particularly concerned about helium, with Qatar accounting for 65% of South Korea’s helium imports in 2025, according to the Korea International Trade Association. Tom’s Hardware reports that QatarEnergy has not restarted helium production at its Ras Laffan complex, one of the world’s largest helium hubs. The facility went offline on March 2 following drone strikes, removing roughly 30% of global helium supply. As highlighted by Wccftech, helium plays a key role in cooling silicon wafers during the high-energy stages of semiconductor production. The report adds that as DRAM makers increasingly rely on EUV lithography, helium is also required to cool sensitive components within these systems....

#5 NYC Spent Roughly $81K per Person on Homeless Services Last Year: Comptroller - Craig McCarthy and Alex Oliveira for New York Post, The Dank Knight, ATFinATX, Rogue Recap, Breanna Morello, Woodrow Williams, and M.A. Rothman on X

New York City spent roughly $81,000 per person on homeless services last year — amounting to a whopping $368 million in total bills, a shocking new state report found. Spending on the city’s Department of Homeless Services’ Street Homeless Solutions division more than tripled over the last six years, from $102 million in 2019, according to the report from the state comptroller’s office. That year, the city was spending about $28,000 per “unsheltered homeless person,” the report released Wednesday found. Unsheltered homeless people constitute those living regularly on the streets, compared to those who are in some kind of affordable housing or long-term shelter system...

#6 Meningitis Kent Outbreak Latest: Students Queue for Antibiotics After Two Die and 13 Cases Reported - Independent, Disclose.tv, GB News, KentOnline, Yorkshire Evening Post, and DandBLionsRFC on X

Students have been queuing for antibiotics after an outbreak of meningitis has so far killed two pupils in Kent. A school pupil, who was in Year 13 at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Faversham, became the second student whose life was claimed by the outbreak when they died over the weekend. They are reported to have died on Saturday, while the other person who died attended the University of Kent. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed that it had so far been notified of 13 cases with signs and symptoms of meningitis from Friday to Sunday in the Canterbury area...

#7 Video Shows Arizona Center Processing Ballots in Manner That Alarmed Congress’s Monitors - Steven Richards and John Solomon for Just the News, Mars Colony, 𝓥𝓲𝓸𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓥𝓲𝔁𝓮𝓷29, John Kreimer/Katie Hobbs, Off the Press, and D. Scott @eclipsethis2003 on X

Video footage captured by congressional observers shows a third-party election vendor in Arizona’s largest county processing live ballots and performing signature verification in 2024 far away from the official Maricopa County election center, where bipartisan monitors witness such activities, a discovery that prompted the observers to file a formal report alleging “alarming” concerns. The video obtained by Just the News depicts a visit by one Republican and one Democratic congressional staffer to a third-party printing company responsible for conducting signature verification on ballots during the 2024 election...

#8 Activists Arrested Over ‘Mass Shoplifting Plans' - BBC, Ron DeSantis/Subversive Force, Gareth Roberts/Cancelled Dad, Brenda/Michael A. Arouet, Matthew, and David Mackenzie on X 

Fifteen activists from a group which claimed responsibility for stunts targeting the Ritz and the Crown Jewels have been arrested over alleged plans for "mass shoplifting" in London, the Metropolitan Police has said. The protest group Take Back Power had been preparing a campaign to steal goods from major supermarkets and redistribute them elsewhere, the force added. The group had gathered at the Quaker Meeting House in Westminster for what was billed as "nonviolent direct action training". They were interrupted by officers from the Met's Public Order Crime Team and were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit theft...

#9 Marjorie Taylor Greene Gives Blunt Response to Trump’s ‘Concerning’ Comment on Iran War - Hillary Hanson for Huffington Post/AOL, Kaitlan Collins, Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Headquarters, Meidas_Charise Lee, and Clash Report on X

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was baffled by President Donald Trump’s comment that the war in Iran will end when he can “feel it” in his “bones.” “I have no idea what that means,” the ex-Trump ally told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Friday’s episode of “The Source.” “The same way I have no idea, I have no understanding, of what he means ... when he says he doesn’t think he’s going to heaven,” she continued, referencing an idea the president has expressed multiple times...

#10 Trump Defends Mark Levin After Pundit’s Wild Podcast Feud With Rival Megyn Kelly - Zoe Hussain for New York Post, AF Post, The American Conservative, 
Brandon Straka #WalkAway, 𐕣 JUDEN PRIEST 𐕣/Mark R. Levin/Hodgetwins on X

President Trump threw his support behind Mark Levin amid the radio host’s bitter back-and-forth feud with podcaster Megyn Kelly. Trump praised Levin as a “truly Great American Patriot” who was “somewhat under siege by other people with far less Intellect, Capability, and Love for our Country,” in a Truth Social post late Sunday. Levin is “far smarter than those who criticize him, but, above all, he is a man of Great Wisdom and Common Sense who truly loves our Country,” Trump wrote. Levin and Kelly traded personal attacks online over the weekend, in what has been a broader ongoing rift among conservative podcasters — such as Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapir,o and Candace Owens — including over the US and Israel’s military action in Iran...

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Cats on a Secret Mission...