The Israeli military said Tuesday Mr. Larijani, Iran’s top national security official, was killed in an airstrike overnight. The development came as Mr. Trump vented frustration in Washington that U.S. allies are ignoring his public pleas for military help in keeping the Strait of Hormuz oil shipping lanes open.

Mr. Trump said Monday he is keeping a close watch on which countries help the U.S. break Iran’s chokehold on the strait, likely with an eye toward economically punishing those that stay on the sidelines. South Korea and Japan are among the American allies downplaying the possibility of sending warships to the Strait of Hormuz.

Asia Editor Andrew Salmon reports from Seoul that, despite Mr. Trump’s public statements, Washington has apparently made no official request to allies in the oil-thirsty Indo-Pacific. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Monday that “no decision has been made whatsoever regarding the dispatch of escort vessels.”

The Chinese military has resumed warplane flights near the U.S.-aligned island democracy of Taiwan after a 10-day hiatus. Analysts said China likely cut the number of such flights as part of preparations for Mr. Trump’s planned visit to Beijing — a trip the president now says will be delayed by “a month or so” because of the ongoing war in Iran.

Retired Navy Capt. Carl Schuster, an expert on the Chinese military, said the temporary decrease in warplane flights may have been part of an effort by Beijing to reduce potential tensions over Taiwan ahead of upcoming talks between Mr. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. “Taiwan will be an issue, but cutting back on the sorties gives the impression Beijing is looking to reduce tensions,” Mr. Schuster said.

A second possibility is the slowdown was linked to a major meeting of the Chinese Communist Party that ended last week. Despite the ups and downs of military flights near Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army has continued to conduct nearby naval maneuvers that ministry statistics show did not decline in the same manner that flights did.

International monitoring groups say Nigeria has become the epicenter of global Christian persecution. According to the Open Doors World Watch List 2026, 3,490 Christians were killed in Nigeria from October 2024 to September 2025, accounting for roughly 72% of all Christian killings worldwide. 

Armed militants attacking Christian communities in Nigeria are increasingly issuing a stark ultimatum to villagers: Convert to Islam and pay a religious tax known as jizya or face execution, according to eyewitness accounts collected by The Washington Times and international religious freedom monitors.

Several armed groups operate across Nigeria’s northern and central regions. In the northeast, jihadi organizations, including Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, have been carrying out insurgent attacks since 2009. In Nigeria’s Middle Belt, armed Fulani militant groups have conducted raids on predominantly Christian farming communities involving village burnings, killings and kidnappings.

Armenia’s June 7 election “will determine whether the country continues its cautious westward shift or drifts back into Moscow’s orbit,” writes Nerses Kopalyan, an associate professor-in-residence of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“Last year, the U.S. and Armenia signed a Strategic Partnership Commission Charter, formalizing cooperation in economic development, democratic governance and security,” Mr. Kopalyan writes in an op-ed for The Times. “Over the past three decades, the U.S. has invested more than $3 billion in Armenia to support economic reform and institutional development.

“Armenia will hold its election while global geopolitics are shifting in ways not seen since the end of the Cold War,” he writes. “The assumption that smaller states could operate largely outside great power rivalry has eroded. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising geopolitical tensions across Eurasia have underscored the return of hard geopolitical competition.”

Now that the U.S.-Israeli military strikes are “rattling the foundations of the regime, the one thing the Iranian people need most is the world’s patience,” according to retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, who writes that “time is needed to create the conditions for the people of Iran to overthrow the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and regain control of their country.

“At the same time, the regime’s ability to attack other countries must be demolished via the elimination of its nuclear and ballistic missile production capabilities and the destruction of as many missiles and missile launchers as possible,” Mr. Kuperwasser, head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, writes in an op-ed for The Times.

“The U.S.-Israeli strikes could take an estimated four to six weeks, which is likely to put significant pressure on Iran’s military and economy,” he writes. “A war of this length will carry indisputable costs. Human lives have been lost. Since the fighting began Feb. 28, Iran has attacked more than a dozen countries directly or indirectly.”

• March 17 — Boosting U.S. Quantum Supply Chains for Enduring Advantage, Center for a New American Security 

• March 18 — Implementing a U.S. Cyber Force: A Conversation with Rep. Pat Fallon, Texas Republican, Center for Strategic and International Studies

• March 18 — Killed to Order: China’s Organ Harvesting Industry, Hudson Institute

• March 19 — Ukraine on the Mental Map of Europe, Brookings Institution 

• March 19 — Poland, Northeastern Europe and the Future of the Transatlantic Partnership, American Enterprise Institute

• March 20 — The Fight for Influence in Venezuela Against Russia, China, Iran and Cuba, Atlantic Council

• March 24-26 — Global Force Symposium & Exposition, Association of the U.S. Army