Student News Quiz (3.9)

Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the recently killed supreme leader, as his father’s successor, according to a statement from top clerics published on state media March 9, signaling the continuity of hard-line theocratic rule as Israeli and U.S. airstrikes pound the country.

Mr. Khamenei himself, though, is something of a mystery even within Iran.

He is a son of the recently killed supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and has been an influential figure in the shadows of power, coordinating military and intelligence operations at his father’s office. He is known to have very close ties to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and was considered their favored candidate.

Every day, around 80 oil and gas tankers typically pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway off Iran’s southern coast that carries a fifth of the world’s oil and a significant amount of natural gas.

But tankers have been staying away from Hormuz since the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran. And U.S. gasoline prices are now up about 17 percent since the conflict started.

President Trump fired Kristi Noem, his homeland security secretary, on March 5. She’s been in the spotlight for months — wearing a Rolex watch and self-promoting as she oversaw Trump’s immigration crackdown. But after she drew even Republican frustration last week for comments before Congress, Mr. Trump announced he would replace her. Read about her rise and fall.

Mr. Trump has replaced Ms. Noem with Senator Markwayne Mullin, who is a staunch defender of the administration’s mass deportation campaign.

Without being nominated, or even attending, Zendaya and Tom Holland still managed to be the subjects of one of the biggest stories coming out of the Actor Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA.

Did they get married?

Zendaya’s stylist, Law Roach, appears to have casually revealed that they did.

After an “Access Hollywood” reporter asked him about Zendaya’s upcoming wedding look, the stylist, who has been dressing her since she was 14, cheekily replied: “The wedding’s already happened. You missed it.”

“It’s very true,” he added.

The Times writes:

"The primary elections on Tuesday offered an early warning to incumbents about the serious risks of losing to upstart challengers this year, as a host of state and federal lawmakers encountered headwinds across the political landscape."

Asmaa Elkeurti and Claire Cain Miller write:

“Child care has always been a large expense in parents’ lives. Recently, it has become even more so. Though costs vary depending on where you live, families earning the median income in every U.S. state spend far more than the 7 percent of household income that the Department of Health and Human Services considers affordable.”

On March 3, a jury deliberated for less than two hours before finding Colin Gray, the father of the suspect, guilty of murder and manslaughter. His son, now 16, has been charged with opening fire at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., in 2024, killing two students and two teachers. But before his trial has even been scheduled, jurors decided that the father bore criminal responsibility for the attack.

The prosecutors’ strategy — trying to hold parents accountable when their child is accused of a mass shooting — has gained traction across the country in recent years. But this time, the accountability for the father came before the son’s guilt had been determined. And the punishment may be far more severe than those in previous such cases: The father could be sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison before his son’s trial is scheduled.

Why do we still change our clocks twice a year? The twice-yearly ritual has roots in cost-cutting strategies of the late 19th century. However, efforts to end it have stalled in Congress.

“Pet owners in general, but dog owners in particular, have longer, healthier lives than people who don’t have pets,” one doctor told The Times. One theory for why dogs appear to be especially good: Like humans, they need to get outside and walk.

Two hot air balloonists were left dangling from a communications tower near Longview, Texas, until more than a dozen firefighters could scale the equivalent of a skyscraper to reach them.