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PRESS REVIEW © FRANCE 24 05:43 Issued on: 12/03/2026 - 11:03Modified: 12/03/2026 - 11:05
Play (05:43 min) From the show Reading time 2 min PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, March 12: Multiple leaks to the American press by Pentagon officials point the finger at faulty US data that listed an Iranian primary school as a military target, leading to a Tomahawk strike that killed more than 170 people. In other news, UK papers react to the “Mandelson Papers”. And finally, The Guardian reports on an intrepid young fox with an American dream.
The New York Times reveals preliminary findings from the Pentagon’s own investigation into the Tomahawk missile strike on a primary school that killed more than 170 people, mostly children, in Minab. Outdated targeting data had registered the building as part of a neighbouring military base, even though this had not been the case since at least 2016. The newspaper asks why the outdated information had not been double-checked before the strike was launched.
Journalists at The Washington Post have spoken to numerous Pentagon officials, some of whom believed the building was an arms depot, while others thought it was a factory. It remains unclear whether the school was targeted on the basis of this inaccurate information, or whether the strike was a complete accident. The paper’s coverage includes the account of Abdollah Karyanipak, a father who lost two sons in the attack.
And in the UK, the prime minister is facing fresh fallout over the Epstein files — and their sequel, the Mandelson papers, published yesterday. The story is on several front pages, including that of Daily Mail, which writes that the revelations make him “unfit to lead the country”, and calls on his MPs to oust him. The new cache of documents reveals the prime minister had been thoroughly briefed on the close nature of his former US ambassador’s relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but pressed ahead with the appointment anyway.
The Guardian describes a due diligence file “littered with red flags” about Peter Mandelson that the prime minister ignored. Meanwhile, Daily Mirror splashes on the former ambassador’s brazen demand for £500,000 in severance pay – even though he ultimately walked away with £75,000.
In other news, zoos are irate with weather apps over the sometimes reductive use of rainy icons to represent a day’s forecast – something they say can cost them up to 30 per cent of visitors.
Finally, The Guardian has the story of a plucky young fox that boarded a ship from Southampton to New York City, and is now settled at Bronx Zoo.
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