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伊朗议长警告：若受攻击将摧毁中东(Middle East)基础设施 | 联合早报

发布时间 / 来源：2026-03-22T11:45:26.000Z | 联合早报

伊朗国会议长加利巴夫威胁摧毁中东基础设施，并警告油价将因此长期上涨。 （法新社）

伊朗国会议长加利巴夫说，如果美国和以色列攻击伊朗的关键基础设施，伊朗也将摧毁中东地区的重要基础设施。

加利巴夫星期天（3月22日）在社交媒体平台X发文说：“一旦我国的发电厂和基础设施遭到攻击，整个地区的重要基础设施以及能源和石油基础设施将被视为合法攻击目标，并将遭到不可逆转的摧毁。”

他还警告，到时油价将“长期上涨”。

美国总统特朗普周六（21日）晚间在社媒平台发文称，如果伊朗在48小时内不开放霍尔木兹海峡，他将“打击并摧毁”伊朗的发电站，首先从最大的发电站开始。

Trump’s efforts to curb mail-in voting come to the Supreme Court as they falter in Congress

2026-03-22 / CNN

By [Tierney Sneed]

2 hr ago

PUBLISHED Mar 22, 2026, 5:00 AM ET

Supreme Court Donald Trump Congressional news Federal agencies

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An official ballot collector for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections gives a voter their “I Voted” sticker after depositing their mail-in ballots into a collection box in Cleveland, Ohio on November 6, 2022.

Dustin Franz/AFP/Getty Images

A Supreme Court case examining state deadlines for election ballots sent in the mail is just the tip of the spear in President Donald Trump’s war on mail-in voting.

Trump has never let go of his unfounded beliefs that voting by mail is rife with fraud, as he has called on Congress, the judiciary and state legislators to cut back on the practice. At his insistence, US Senate Republicans have devoted several days to debating an election overhaul bill that Trump wants to end most mail-in voting. But it is expected to die in Congress due to a Democratic filibuster.

Where Trump has seen some success on the issue is what the Supreme Court will scrutinize on Monday: the practice by some states of counting mail ballots that arrive at election offices after Election Day.

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His Justice Department convinced at least one state to eliminate its mail ballot grace period by threatening a lawsuit, and other GOP-led states changed their deadlines proactively. On Monday, Trump’s top Supreme Court lawyer will argue in support of a challenge to Mississippi’s mail ballot deadline that was brought by the Republican National Committee.

The mail voting deadlines of more than a dozen states – including states like California, Texas and Alaska that will be pivotal in determining which party controls Congress – are now in jeopardy as the Supreme Court examines whether those policies run afoul of federal law.

Employees direct traffic to where voters can drop off their mail-in ballots in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 4, 2024.

Rebecca Droke/AFP/Getty Images

The dispute is the latest example of Trump’s push to put the federal government’s heavy hands in the machinery of election administration – a task the Constitution largely delegates to the states. The president has suggested that he [has the power] to implement voter ID requirements on his own that are part of the election overhaul bill. [He also demanded] that GOP lawmakers add to that legislation a ban on no-excuse absentee voting.

A loss in the Supreme Court could further enrage a president who recently [fumed] at the justices for not overturning his 2020 electoral defeat. A decision would likely come before the end of June.

The legal challenge centers on statutes passed by Congress in the 19th and early 20th centuries that standardized federal elections for the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Republicans argue those statutes preclude states from setting post-Election Day ballot receipt deadlines.

“Election-day receipt promotes election integrity and voter confidence as much today as it did when Congress passed that law,” the Trump [administration told]the Supreme Court in a legal brief.

Trump’s opponents counter that the federal Election Day statutes don’t go that far, and that states have flexibility in whether to embrace mail-in ballots and how to regulate them. They argue that if the Supreme Court were to accept the GOP’s logic, it would make it impermissible for states to offer mail-in voting or even early in-person voting.

“What Donald Trump wants, and has said that he wants, is Election Day voting only, in-person, only,” Marc Elias, a lawyer for voter groups that are defending the state laws, told reporters Monday. “So doing away with vote-by-mail is like the most convenient way for them to start, but it will not be where they end.”

DOJ sent Ohio a draft lawsuit on voting deadlines

Ohio voters walk to drop off their ballots at the Board of Elections in Dayton, Ohio on April 28, 2020.

Megan Jelinger/AFP/Getty Images

An [executive order] Trump signed a year ago was his first attempt to rein in voting by mail, using multiple federal levers to pressure states to drop post-election grace periods for mail-in ballots. It instructed the withholding of federal election funding from those states, while also commanding the attorney general to “take all necessary action to enforce” the federal Election Day statutes.

A top attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division suggested in court last April that the executive order could lead to criminal actions against states that refuse to move up their mail ballot deadlines.

Such criminal actions never materialized. But the attorney, Michael Gates, who has since left the department, used the threat of a civil lawsuit against at least one state to force it to change its law.

In early September, Gates [emailed Ohio state officials a draft lawsuit] that argued the federal Election Day statute prohibited the state’s acceptance of mail-in ballots up to four days after the election. He also offered a proposed legal agreement – known as a consent decree – that would have avoided litigation by having Ohio agree to have its deadline changed by court order instead.

According to communications obtained by CNN via a public records request, the state officials convinced Gates that [Ohio lawmakers would be amenable] to passing a bill to change the deadline instead, so that court action would not be necessary. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Secretary of State Frank LaRose, both Republicans, [advocated in favor of the bill] last year by pointing to the threat of litigation.

Yet when GOP Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill, he said he was doing so “reluctantly,” according to the [Statehouse News Bureau].

Another three states – Kansas, North Dakota and Utah – eliminated their grace periods in the past year. North Dakota’s deputy secretary of state, Sandy McMerty, told CNN that the state was responding to the Trump executive order and to the legal fight now at the Supreme Court.

Courts have since blocked much of executive order and the bulk of its provisions seeking to pressure states on their mail ballot deadlines.

Supreme Court asked to change rules nationwide

The Supreme Court could hand Trump the win he was not able to achieve through unliteral action, though legal experts are skeptical of the Republican arguments for why the state policies are unlawful.

A ruling from a conservative appeals court in New Orleans that sided with the GOP was likely the reason that Supreme Court felt the need to take up the case, according to Rick Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The case started as a 2024 Republican National Committee lawsuit against Mississippi’s law giving mail ballots five days to arrive after Election Day. Mississippi severely limits who can vote absentee, [so the RNC’s choice to challenge the policy] there was seen as a strategic move to get the case before the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Thirteen other states, as well as the District of Columbia, have post-Election Day mail ballot receipt deadlines, and 15 more have extended deadlines for certain ballots submitted by military families on deployment and US citizens overseas, [according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.]

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court not to eliminate the grace periods for military ballots.

The 5th Circuit majority embraced the arguments by Republicans that Congress – when it set a federal Election Day – meant for that day to be the final day for ballots to be received by election officials. But other judges who looked at the question have disagreed, saying that the laws’ text includes no such receipt-deadline for mail-in ballots and only require that individual voters make their choice by Election Day.

The Justice Department, under President Joe Biden, initially supported Mississippi. But once the case reached the Supreme Court, and after Trump had returned to the White House, the Justice Department not only switched sides, but also sought the opportunity to make oral arguments at Monday’s hearing.

It was once rare for the Justice Department to insert itself in a case it was not a party to when the justices hadn’t asked for its input. But Trump’s solicitor general, John Sauer, has been piping in on high-profile cases [on a more frequent basis.]Still, Sauer’s decision to argue the ballot deadline case on Monday, rather than assign it to one of his deputies, shows its significance to the administration.

Several Republican state attorneys general, GOP members of Congress and conservative election integrity groups have also lined up behind the Republicans’ arguments. By contrast, Trump’s demand that Congress add a national ban on no-excuse absentee voting to legislation focused on voter ID and citizenship verification prompted debate among Senate Republicans, many of whom who represent states with expansive mail-in voting policies.

Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Election Project, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the RNC, said that requiring Election Day mail-in ballot deadlines is a “[very popular] position with the voters,” and “a best practice as far as election administration is concerned.”

“I think everybody understands that the ballot is really considered a vote when it’s received by an election official,” Snead told CNN. “That’s a bright line rule, and that brings clarity to the process.”

Despite the momentum Trump has seen in his broadsides against mail-in ballot grace periods, Hasen predicted a unanimous or near-unanimous ruling from Supreme Court upholding the state policies, which in turn will provoke a “ballistic” response from Trump.

“The backup position is always, if the courts or Congress can’t make these changes, the election is full of fraud,” Hasen told CNN, adding that if Democrats win in November’s midterms, it’s “a convenient backup.”

CNN’s Lauren Fox contributed to this report.

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伊朗议长威胁摧毁中东基础设施

发布时间 / 来源：2026年3月22日 19:45 / 联合早报

伊朗国会议长加利巴夫威胁摧毁中东基础设施，并警告油价将因此长期上涨。 （法新社）

伊朗国会议长加利巴夫说，如果美国和以色列攻击伊朗的关键基础设施，伊朗也将摧毁中东地区的重要基础设施。

加利巴夫星期天（3月22日）在社交媒体平台X发文说：“一旦我国的发电厂和基础设施遭到攻击，整个地区的重要基础设施以及能源和石油基础设施将被视为合法攻击目标，并将遭到不可逆转的摧毁。”

他还警告，到时油价将“长期上涨”。

美国总统特朗普周六（21日）晚间在社媒平台发文称，如果伊朗在48小时内不开放霍尔木兹海峡，他将“打击并摧毁”伊朗的发电站，首先从最大的发电站开始。

为缓解中东战争致价格压力 欧盟促降低天然气储存目标

2026年3月22日 19:50 / 联合早报

自2月28日美以伊战争爆发以来，油价已飙升超过50%，欧盟天然气价格也上涨了超过30%。图为位于德国雷登的阿斯托拉天然气储存库，也是欧洲最大的天然气储存库。 （路透社）

（布鲁塞尔法新电）欧盟委员会周六（3月21日）敦促欧盟成员国在未来几个月内降低天然气储存目标，以缓解中东战争造成的价格压力。

欧盟能源专员约根森致函各成员国，要求考虑在灌装季初期将灌装目标从通常的90%降至80%，以向市场提供确定性和保障。

自2月28日战争爆发以来，油价已飙升超过50%，欧盟天然气价格也上涨了超过30%。预计价格冲击将导致通货膨胀加速，并抑制经济增长。

约根森表示，伊朗及周边地区的局势发展威胁着区域和全球安全。“就能源而言，这种情况以及对能源基础设施的袭击正在对全球油气市场造成重大影响。”

天然气储存可帮助欧洲满足冬季取暖与电力需求，是该地区能源安全的基础。

约根森指出，欧盟大部分液化天然气都来自美国，因此其天然气供应目前仍相对稳定。但作为全球能源市场的净进口国，由此导致的全球价格高企和波动也可能影响欧盟的天然气库存预测。

他敦促欧盟各国尽早补充库存，并延长补充周期，以缓解价格压力，避免夏季末出现抢购潮。他说，若出现困难状况，且经欧盟委员会评估，各成员国可将实际储气量与目标值的偏差控制在20%以内。

Pence: Trump upended ‘some aspects’ of GOP agenda but ‘hasn’t really changed the Republican Party’

By Paul Steinhauser | Fox News
Published March 22, 2026 5:00am EDT

EXCLUSIVE– Former Vice President Mike Pence says his fight to keep the Republican Party from drifting too far from its conservative roots and principles, amid a rise of populism in the GOP and big government creep in President Donald Trump’s second administration, is “the calling of my life right now.”

And Pence takes issue with the conventional wisdom that Trump, since he first won the White House a decade ago, has upended and completely transformed the Republican Party.

“I’m convinced that while President Trump has changed some aspects of the agenda of the Republican Party, he hasn’t really changed the Republican Party,” Pence argued in an exclusive interview this past week with Fox News Digital, a couple of months ahead of the release of a new book promoting the conservative agenda.

Sitting in his Washington, D.C., office at Advancing American Freedom, his policy and advocacy organization that has been expanding in recent months, the former vice president emphasized, “We intend to be a voice for what conservatives believe and have always believed, and that’s fiscal responsibility, traditional values, strong defense and American leadership.”

ONLY ON FOX NEWS: PENCE SAYS TRUMP ‘TURNED A DEAF EAR’ TO ISOLATIONISTS IN GOP

President Donald Trump arrives with then-Vice President Mike Pence at a campaign rally in Traverse City, Michigan, on Nov. 2, 2020.(Brendan Smialowski /AFP via Getty Images)

Pence is a former congressman and Indiana governor who served as vice president during Trump’s first term in office before breaking with his boss amid the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as he oversaw congressional certification of the 2020 election results.

The former vice president gave a thumbs up to some of what Trump’s accomplished in his second term.

“I’ve been very proud of the fact of what this administration accomplished in securing our border. I was pleased that the administration turned aside from those that were talking about raising taxes on top marginal earners. They extended all the Trump-Pence tax cuts,” he highlighted.

PENCE URGES SENATE TO ‘RESTORE PUBLIC CONFIDENCE’ WITH NATIONWIDE VOTER ID LAW

But Pence took issue with the second Trump administration for “embracing more big government programs and solutions, price controls on pharmaceuticals and credit companies, taking a position in private companies, the nationalization trend that has emerged, as well as marginalizing the right to life in so many ways and ignoring the scourge of mail order abortion pills around the country.”

“I am hopeful those advising the president are reminding him that it… was the conservative agenda that we governed on in our four years…that led to great prosperity for American families, for our economy and for strength in the world,” Pence said.

But the former vice president warned that “the Republican Party today is experiencing a scourge of some ‘-isms.’ We’ve seen protectionism show itself in unilateral tariffs that the Supreme Court of the United States recently turned back. We’ve seen some voices of isolationism that question our support for Israel, that would leave allies like Ukraine to fend for themselves.”

And Pence added, “I think that on the fringe and on the margins, voices of antisemitism in the party all need to be confronted, because none of those things represent what conservatives believe.”

But many Republicans would take issue with the former vice president’s argument that Trump hasn’t transformed the GOP.

“Donald Trump has tremendously altered the makeup of the Republican Party and the issues that it focuses on,” veteran GOP strategist and communicator Ryan Williams told Fox News Digital.

Williams emphasized that Trump “has altered the voter base of the Republican Party” and taken “the values and trajectory of this party in a different direction… It’s never going back to the way it was before.”

FOX NEWS EXCLUSIVE: PENCE CHARGES DEMOCRATS’ HOLDUP OF DHS FUNDING ‘UNCONSCIONABLE’

While not aiming to return the party to its pre-Trump image, Pence said his mission is to remind people that Republicans believe in a strong national defense of American leadership in the world. We believe in free market economics and limited fiscally responsible government. We believe in the right to life and traditional values.”

“It’s been those principles that have guided our party for more than a half a century and have been to the betterment of the American people,” he added.

Pence said his hope is that “we’ll see not only this administration hew back to our roots of conservatism, but that we’ll see candidates for the House and Senate and statehouse around the country come back to those core conservative principles.”

Republicans are battling stiff political headwinds as the party in power in the nation’s capital traditionally loses seats in the midterm elections, and a rough political climate fueled by economic concerns amid persistent inflation and Trump’s underwater approval ratings.

But Pence said pushing a conservative platform is “not only a pathway toward American prosperity and the vitality of freedom, but it’s also a winning agenda.”

Likely boosting the former vice president’s push will be his new book, “What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience,” which is expected to release in June.

Pence ran on a traditional conservative platform, framing the future of the Republican Party against what he called the rise of “populism” in the party, as he bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, as part of a large field that unsuccessfully challenged Trump.

Pence formally announced his run for president in Ankeny, Iowa, on June 5, 2023.(Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

While Pence, who became the first running mate in over 80 years to run against their former boss, regularly campaigned in the crucial early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, his White House bid never took off.

Struggling in the polls and with fundraising, he suspended his campaign just four and a half months after launching it.

“It was clear to me that there’s a portion of the Republican Party today that’s being drawn aside by the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principles. I spoke out against that as a candidate. Our foundation, Advancing American Freedom, has been championing that conservative agenda and will continue to,” Pence noted.

The offices of Advancing American Freedom, the policy and advocacy organization founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, in Washington, D.C., on March 18, 2026.(Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

Asked if there’s another White House run in his future, Pence didn’t rule anything out.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“I will tell you, I’m not a long-term planner,” he answered. “We’ll let the future take care of itself.”

But he added, “For me, for my family, it really is all about the issues and values that first drew me to the Republican Party. Those are conservative values. And reminding our party and sharing with people across the country what conservatives believe and why it will make America stronger and more prosperous is really the calling of my time.”

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast.

欧盟：中东战争致价格压力，促降低天然气储存目标 | 联合早报

发布/2026年3月22日 19:50

自2月28日美以伊战争爆发以来，油价已飙升超过50%，欧盟天然气价格也上涨了超过30%。图为位于德国雷登的阿斯托拉天然气储存库，也是欧洲最大的天然气储存库。 （路透社）

（布鲁塞尔法新电）欧盟委员会周六（3月21日）敦促欧盟成员国在未来几个月内降低天然气储存目标，以缓解中东战争造成的价格压力。

欧盟能源专员约根森致函各成员国，要求考虑在灌装季初期将灌装目标从通常的90%降至80%，以向市场提供确定性和保障。

自2月28日战争爆发以来，油价已飙升超过50%，欧盟天然气价格也上涨了超过30%。预计价格冲击将导致通货膨胀加速，并抑制经济增长。

约根森表示，伊朗及周边地区的局势发展威胁着区域和全球安全。“就能源而言，这种情况以及对能源基础设施的袭击正在对全球油气市场造成重大影响。”

天然气储存可帮助欧洲满足冬季取暖与电力需求，是该地区能源安全的基础。

约根森指出，欧盟大部分液化天然气都来自美国，因此其天然气供应目前仍相对稳定。但作为全球能源市场的净进口国，由此导致的全球价格高企和波动也可能影响欧盟的天然气库存预测。

他敦促欧盟各国尽早补充库存，并延长补充周期，以缓解价格压力，避免夏季末出现抢购潮。他说，若出现困难状况，且经欧盟委员会评估，各成员国可将实际储气量与目标值的偏差控制在20%以内。

Janet Mills targets Graham Platner’s online past in bid to sway women voters | CNN Politics

Published Mar 22, 2026, 7:00 AM ET | By David Wright

[Image 1]

[Image 2]

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, left, and Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, right.

Reuters/Getty Images

“It’s disgusting,” says one woman in the ad. “Disqualifying,” says another.

They’re shown reacting to old social media posts from Graham Platner, the Maine Democratic Senate candidate who’s been endorsed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, in a new ad from his rival, Maine Gov. Janet Mills.

The now-deleted posts surfaced last fall, after CNN’s KFile and then the Washington Post reported on online commentary from Platner stretching back years. Mills’ new ad features 2013 comments from Platner downplaying incidents of sexual assault in the military by suggesting victims avoid getting drunk “around people you aren’t comfortable with.”

Hours after the ad was released, Platner addressed the media and appeared with women who support his campaign. Then his campaign launched its own TV ad directly responding to Mills’ attack.

“If I saw these ads, I’d have questions,” Platner says, appearing on camera. “So, Maine, I’m asking you not to judge me for the worst thing I said on the internet on my worst day 14 years ago, but who I am today.”

Mills and her allies are counting on a gender gap to narrow Platner’s wide lead ahead of the June 9 primary to decide who will face incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. They are betting that the unfiltered style that has brought Platner widespread attention as someone who could help Democrats reach young men will backfire with women.

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Gov. Janet Mills visits a veterinary technology class at York County Community College in Wells, Maine, on Wednesday.

Shawn P. Sullivan/USA Today Network via Imagn Images

In 2020 — the last year with available exit poll data — the state’s electorate was 59% female. A February survey from the University of New Hampshire, which found Platner substantially ahead among voters of both genders, showed his lead is broader among men than women.

“I was really on board for him up until, you know, the controversy that happened a few months ago, is when I kind of started questioning,” said Emma Bagby, a substance abuse therapist from Scarborough, Maine. “Making the comments about women being sexually assaulted, and that they need to take responsibility for themselves in that aspect, you know, that kind of rhetoric, just is scary right now.”

Speaking to CNN’s Manu Raju, Platner said, “I’ve gone all over the state of Maine and allowed people to ask me about it all directly for months now.”

“I think, for a lot of folks in the state to see this get kind of dragged back up months and months after we’d already talked about it — I will just say the feedback we have received statewide is that people find all of this to be everything they hate about politics,” Platner said.

‘I don’t have any tattoos’

Platner’s campaign launch last August was greeted by a burst of Democratic enthusiasm about the oyster farmer and Marine veteran. Soon after Mills joined the race in October, reports began emerging that sparked a series of controversies. Stories about the Reddit posts were followed by the revelation that Platner had a tattoo on his chest of an image widely recognized as a Nazi symbol, which he has since had covered. Platner attributes his missteps to youthful ignorance.

“I as a person have transformed over time and changed, which actually I think a lot of folks can identify with,” he told CNN.

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Graham Platner greets audience members at a campaign town hall meeting in Ogunquit, Maine, in October.

Brian Snyder/Reuters

Sanders endorsed Platner last August, shortly after he launched his campaign, imparting his progressive, anti-establishment mantle. And in recent weeks Platner has rolled out a steady stream of other prominent endorsers, including Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Platner has established a fundraising lead; according to end-of-year FEC reports, he raised about $4.6 million in the fourth quarter and had amassed $3.7 million cash on hand, compared with Mills raising $2.7 million in the period and reporting $1.3 million in cash on hand.

Mills was recruited to run by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as a more conventional candidate against Collins, widely seen as one of the toughest Republican incumbents and someone Democrats almost certainly will need to defeat to retake Senate control this fall. But Mills also faces questions about her age. At 77, she would become the oldest first-term senator in history and promised not to seek a second term if she wins.

“Electability is the key in this race,” Mills told journalist Chris Cillizza this month. “Because if we want to unseat Susan Collins, we have to put up a candidate who can win and in the past, we put up good people to run against her, but they’ve all been untested.”

Mills has also joked on social media: “For what it’s worth, I don’t have any tattoos.”

Platner supporters push back

Platner’s supporters want Democrats to embrace a candidate who they think offers an answer to problems the party has faced with rural voters, young men and alternative media, which observers think contributed to their losses in 2024.

“He’s still attracting 600, 700 people like he was before, which, having been in Maine politics for nearly 25 years now, I have never seen that in any primary election,” said Toby McGrath, a veteran Maine Democratic campaign consultant. “I think Graham Platner has a lot more upside in the general election, potentially more downside. And I think that, you know, we’re in the margins when it’s the governor and the senator.”

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Gov. Mills signs into law a state bill expanding access to abortions later in pregnancy in July 2023.

Robert F. Bukaty/AP/FILE

Labor is also rallying to Platner’s campaign, which is backed by several labor unions including the United Auto Workers, the Maine State Nurses Association, and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.

In late February, Michael Monahan, vice president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 2nd district – which covers Maine –– wrote a letter to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to “express our deep concern regarding the DSCC’s ongoing involvement in the 2026 Maine Democratic Senate Primary.”

“Graham Platner is the only candidate in this race who stands with working people, respects organized labor and has earned labor’s trust. We strongly urge the DSCC to refrain from intervening further in this primary,” Monahan wrote, criticizing Mills’ record on labor issues.

Megan Smith, with the Maine People’s Alliance, a progressive community action organization that has endorsed Platner, said that “I have not seen the momentum at all slowing for Graham.”

“The consensus amongst a lot of people is that we need to allow people to change and to grow and to become different people,” Smith said.

And she also cautioned national Democrats against trying to influence the outcome.

“I think people in Maine don’t like to be told what to do from outside. I also think that the Democratic Party at the national level does not have a very high approval rating, so I’m not sure how much establishment Democrats coming into Maine saying this is our candidate, is going to be helpful for either candidate,” Smith said.

Bagby, meanwhile, is still making up her mind.

“I think Janet Mills feels safe, because we know what she stands for. We know what she’s done, versus Graham Platner, he’s new, and now all these things are coming out,” she said. “So, I think it’s just gonna be kind of a game-time decision based on what he says these next couple of months.”

台军采购MQ-9B无人侦察机 首批两架在美国交机 | 联合早报

发布/2026年3月22日 17:12

台湾官方星期天（3月22日）宣布，空军向美国采购的MQ-9B高空无人侦察机，首批两架已于美国西部时间上个星期二（17日）举行交机典礼。 （路透社档案照）

台湾官方星期天（3月22日）宣布，向美国采购的MQ-9B高空无人侦察机，首批两架已于美国西部时间上个星期二（17日）举行交机典礼。

据联合新闻网报道，台国防部在星期天发布的新闻稿中宣布上述消息，并指台湾副防长徐斯俭与驻美代表俞大㵢当天出席交机典礼。

据新闻稿，徐斯俭与俞大㵢当天先在飞控座，见证配备完整侦搜载荷的无人侦察机具备的高效情报搜集能力。两人随后也一起在跑道旁亲迎无人机降落，并合影留念。

台国防部表示，MQ-9B军购案是当局应对敌情威胁的迫切防务需要，向美国购买四架这款无人侦察机。

美国规划于2026年和2027年分别交付两架侦察机，以提升台湾作战效能。台国防部并表示感谢美国政府及制造商通用原子航空系统等单位大力支持，促成此次活动顺利进行。

台国防部将持续协同美国，通过台美安全合作机制，确保后续生产顺利，以提升台湾防务实力。

MQ-9于2001年首飞，2007年服役，型号包括MQ-9A“死神”（Reaper），可携带地狱火导弹，用于战场侦察打击，曾多次执行击杀恐怖分子任务。MQ-9B“海上卫士”（Sea Guardian）则用于海域监察侦测，巡航高度更高，但美军本身并未使用。

2020年11月3日，美国总统大选同一天，特朗普政府宣布售台四架MQ-9B。台军将采购计划称为“高高空无人机系统”，总金额217.2亿元（新台币，下同，8.7亿新元）。依据2026年度预算，台湾官方将为此编列50亿元。

Supreme Court to consider deadlines for late-arriving mail ballots, as Trump continues attacks

2026-03-22T07:00:19-0400 / CBS News

Washington — As voters gear up for the midterm elections in November that will decide control of the House and Senate, the Supreme Court is set to weigh Monday whether states can count mail ballots that are postmarked by, but arrive after, Election Day.

The dispute before the high court, known as Watson v. RNC, involves Mississippi’s deadline for late-arriving mail ballots and whether its law — and similar measures in 13 other states — conflicts with federal statutes that set Election Day as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

President Trump has continued to target voting by mail, which he claims is

英国：无证据表明伊朗导弹瞄准欧洲

发布/2026年3月22日 19:57

3月22日，一架美国空军B-1轰炸机从英国费尔福德皇家空军基地起飞。英国早前允许美国空军人员使用这个设施进行“特定且有限的防御性行动”，防止伊朗向中东地区发射导弹。 （路透社）

英国住房部长里德说，没有任何评估显示伊朗计划用弹道导弹袭击欧洲，也没有证据表明伊朗具备这种能力。

以色列国防军周六（3月21日）在社交媒体上发文说，伊朗拥有“可以打到伦敦、巴黎或柏林”的导弹。

里德（Steve Reed）星期天（22日）告诉英国广播公司（BBC）：“没有任何评估可以证实这些说法。我完全不知道有任何评估表明他们试图以欧洲为目标，更不用说他们即使想这么做也不能做到。”

美国总统特朗普同日威胁称，如果德黑兰不在48小时内完全重新开放霍尔木兹海峡，他将“摧毁”伊朗的发电站。

里德接受天空新闻访问、被问到英国的立场时说，特朗普的言论仅代表他的个人立场。

里德说：“美国总统完全有能力为自己说话，捍卫自己的言论。”

他说：“我们不会被卷入战争，但我们会维护自身在中东地区的利益。我们将与盟友合作，缓和局势。”