Hard Numbers: Japan battles big blaze, Trump firing quashed, Iran’s finance minister sacked, Majority of Republics see Russia as friendly, Blue Ghost lands on the moon
30: Japan is battling a blaze in the eastern coastal city of Ofunato that has consumed at least 5,200 acres — the country’s largest wildfire in more than 30 years. One person has reportedly died, and 4,600 residents have been evacuated. The fire follows Japan’s driest February in over two decades.
5: A US District Judge ruled on Saturday that US President Donald Trump’s dismissal of Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel, was illegal because permitting the termination would grant “a constitutional license to bully officials in the executive branch into doing his will.” Dellinger’s duties include safeguarding federal employees from retaliation for whistleblowing. His five-year term expires in February 2029, but the Justice Department is appealing the decision.
60: Iran’s Economy and Finance Minister Abdolnaser Hemmati was impeached on Sunday over rising inflation and a severely depreciated currency. The rial has slid by 60% in five months under the administration of new President Masoud Pezeshkian, who counted Hemmati as an ally - making his ouster an unwelcome development.
41: Russia isn’t the enemy … for 41% of Republicans. This group sees Russia as “friendly” or even as an “ally,” according to a new CBS/YouGov poll released Sunday. The data was collected between Feb. 26 and 28, before Friday’s verbal dustup between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Meanwhile, only 26% of Democrats and 29% of independents saw Russia favorably. Republicans were also the most likely to believe Trump was neutral, with 64% of them saying that the US president was treating both sides equally.
2: Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander on Sunday became the second private spacecraft to land on the Moon, after a similar landing by Intuitive Machines in February 2024. The project is one of several partnerships between NASA and private companies designed to reduce costs and use the moon as a “launch pad” to explore further into space.