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BERLIN (AP) — A gay Muslim influencer in Berlin hosted an inclusive Ramadan dinner, gathering friends who are Muslim and Christian, queer and straight, German and immigrant, to promote acceptance across faiths and identities.

Germany LGBTQ Ramadan

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No one can be "too queer" to belong, said Ali Darwich, a 33-year-old German with Palestinian and Lebanese roots who posts as @alifragt on Instagram and TikTok.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Two high-quality polls have surveyed Americans twice since the U.S. first attacked Iran on Feb. 28, giving the ability to see if opinion has shifted since the war first started.

One poll found opinion not shifting, the other found an increase in those saying strikes should continue, but that was still a minority opinion. Andbothfound that nearly two-thirds said that President Donald Trump has not clearly explained the goals of U.S. military involvement in Iran.

AnIpsos pollconducted March 6-9 found 29% of Americans approving of the U.S. strikes in Iran and 43% disapproving, 14 points underwater. Those opinions are almost identical to aReuters/Ipsos pollconducted February 28-March 1 that found 27% approving and 43% disapproving, 16 points underwater. Large shares said they were unsure both times: 26% now and 29% earlier.

The more recent poll found 66% of Republicans approving of the strikes, up from 55% previously. Approval among independents was also up, from 19% to 23%. Democrats' opinions barely budged.

ANew York Times analysisfound that U.S. support for strikes in Iran is lower than it has been for the beginning of previous conflicts.

Ipsos' polling also found more Americans have heard about the strikes now than immediately after the U.S. first hit Iran. Now, 51% say they have heard "a lot" about the U.S. military strikes against Iran, up from 29% previously.

Majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents said they had heard a lot about the strikes in the most recent poll.

The current Ipsos poll also finds 6 in 10 Americans saying that U.S. military involvement in Iran will "go on for an extended period of time" compared with just over one-third who said U.S. military involvement in Iran will "end pretty quickly in a matter of weeks."

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Nearly two-thirds (64%) said Trump has not clearly explained the goals of U.S. military involvement in Iran. Two-thirds (67%) said they expect gas prices to get worse over the next year as a result of U.S. military action in Iran and about half (49%) said that the action in Iran will have a mostly negative impact on their own personal financial situation.

AWashington Post pollconducted March 6-9 found a larger minority of Americans saying the U.S. should continue strikes on Iran than in aMarch 1 poll they conducted. The most recent poll found 34% of Americans saying the U.S. should continue strikes, up from 25% on March 1. A larger share, 42%, said in the recent poll the U.S. should "stop strikes at this time," down from 47% the day after strikes began. The more recent poll found 24% saying they were unsure; it was 28% in the previous poll.

Support for continuing strikes was up among Republicans (from 54% to 66%) and independents (from 16% to 27%). A 71% majority of Democrats said stops should strike, down slightly from 76% earlier.

The Post poll also found Americans largely split between support and opposition for the U.S. military campaign against Iran, 42% to 40%, with another 17% saying they were unsure. Most other polling has found more Americans opposed to the strikes rather than in support of them.

Its previous poll, taken right after the strikes began, found a larger 52% in opposition, but that poll asked about "President Trump ordering airstrikes against Iran," and the inclusion of Trump's name in poll questions often influences respondents' opinions. More now say they are unsure than they did in the initial poll (9%).

The Post also found nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) saying Trump had not clearly explained the goals of the U.S. military, not a shift from their previous poll. About as many (63%) said the number of U.S. military casualties in the conflict has been unacceptable given the goals and the costs of the war.

TheIpsos pollwas conducted March 6-9, 2026, among 1,021 U.S. adults using Ipsos' KnowledgePanel and has an overall margin of sampling error of +/- 3.4 percentage points. The earlierReuters/Ipsos pollwas conducted Feb. 28-March 1 among 1,282 U.S. adults and has an error margin of +/- 2.8 percentage points.

TheWashington Post pollwas conducted March 6-9, 2026, among 1,005 U.S. adults using SSRS's Opinion Panel and has an overall margin of error of +/- 3.6 percentage points. The earlierPost pollwas conducted March 1 among 1,003 U.S. adults and has an error margin of +/- 3.4 percentage points.

BERLIN (AP) — Ali Darwich, a gay Muslim influencer in Berlin, picks up a date from his plate, takes a sip of water, and addresses the 15 friends sitting around the table and breaking theRamadanfast with him.

Germany LGBTQ Ramadan

The 33-year-old German with Palestinian and Lebanese roots — who goes by @alifragt or "Ali asks" on Instagram — has a quickly growing following on Instagram, where he draws attention to the difficulties of living as a young, queer Muslim and calls for more tolerance and inclusiveness.

"Tonight we want to send a message that no matter where a person comes from, no matter who that person loves, no matter how queer that person is, they cannot be too queer ... because they are exactly as they should be," Darwich says, smiling at the diverse group of Muslims and Christians, Germans and immigrants, gay and straight people sharing this meal with him as the sun sets over Berlin.

"I am a believer, I believe in God, and I find Islam beautiful, just like Christianity or Judaism and many other religions," he says. But he adds that it's not always easy for homosexuals to be accepted — not just for Muslims but also for queer Christians and believers of many other religions.

Indeed,attacks against LGBTQ+ peopleand gay-friendly establishments are rising acrossGermany, including inBerlin, a city that has historically embraced the community.

According to the latest figures from 2024, there was a 40% increase in violence targeting LGBTQ+ people in 12 of Germany's 16 federal states as compared to 2023, according to the Association of Counseling Centers for Victims of Right-Wing, Racist and Antisemitic Violence.

Darwich calls for inclusion of homosexual Muslims

In one of his Instagram videos, Darwich sits by himself on a table during Ramadan and talks about the loneliness some Muslim homosexuals face when they are shunned by their families. It makes life hard, he says, especially during holidays that are usually a time of togetherness.

He calls on people to open their hearts and doors to queer Muslims so they don't have to be alone for Iftar, the evening meal during Ramadan.

And for his gay followers he also has a message on Instagram: "You deserve to break your fast surrounded by people who accept you — fully and without conditions."

Darwich's coming out a few years ago wasn't easy.

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When he told his mother about it, she at first didn't want to believe him, then she cried and they didn't talk for half a year. Many other members of his extended family also were taken aback.

"From one day to the next, I was no longer invited. Not only to Ramadan, but also to family celebrations, and that was a very difficult time for me," he told The Associated Press in an interview this week.

Friends stepping up when your family shuns you

While Darwich and his mom are getting along just fine now, he said it helped him tremendously at the time that his friends stepped up and became a kind of family for him, supporting and accepting him.

For this week's "real life" Iftar in Berlin, his friend Randa Weiser, 40, a German-Palestinian influencer who shares her everyday life with three kids and husband on social media under the handle @randa_and_the_gang, has opened her home for Ali and his and her friends.

She cooked up a feast of freekeh soup, fragrant yellow rice with almonds, raisins and cardamon, grilled chicken drumsticks, and a variety of sweets for desserts.

"It's an absolute colorful mix tonight," she said referring to the crowd around the Iftar table. While most people are German, many of their families originally come from faraway places like Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco, Turkey, Chechnya and Syria, Iran and Peru.

Weiser said she got "some hate" on Instagram when she posted earlier in the day that she was about to host an inclusive Iftar, but mostly, she says her followers agree that "you can be Muslim and gay or lesbian."

As the crowd — many of them influencers as well — dug into Weiser's food, they didn't miss an opportunity to shoot video of one another and post it quickly on their accounts.

One of them, Darwich's good friend Haidar Darwish, a belly dancer and artist who came from Syria in 2016, had dressed up for the occasion with a red fez and a white, gold-embroidered gallabiyah.

"The hate and crimes against women, Muslim people, Jewish people also, and queers and trans siblings of mine have increased," said Darwish, who goes by @thedarvishofficial on Instagram.

"But no matter how much the others will show us hate, we can show more love only if we are believing in ourselves," he said, adding that they will be fine as long as they have "the help of our allies and friends and people that have our backs."

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran launched multiple attacks early Friday on Gulf Arab states, including dozens of drones at Saudi Arabia, following warnings from its new supreme leader about hosting American bases, and U.S. President Donald Trump threatened major new retaliation.

APTOPIX Lebanon Israel Iran

"Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today," Trump wrote in a social media post. "Iran's Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth."

The comments came the day after Iran's Supreme Leader AyatollahMojtaba Khameneivowed to "not refrain from avenging the blood" of Iranians killed, and warned Gulf Arab nations to shut U.S. bases, saying the notion of American protection was "nothing more than a lie."

Intense airstrikes hit early Friday around Iran's capital, Tehran, as well as outlying areas. It was not immediately clear what had been targeted.

The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained stubbornly over $100 per barrel as Iran kept its stranglehold on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil transits on its way from the Persian Gulf to the open seas.

Brent prices have spiked as high as about $120 per barrel and are currently some 40% higher than when Israel and the United States attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war.

Iran has been attacking ships that try to transit the strait, and Khamenei's comments — his first to the public since being named to replace his father, who was killed during the first day of the conflict — said Iran would continue to block the waterway.

In Iraq, recovery efforts were underway after an American KC-135 refueling plane went down, according to U.S. Central Command. And a French soldier who was stationed in the north of the country was killed in an attack, the French president said Friday.

Iran launches new attacks on Gulf Arab countries

Iran has been attacking oil and other infrastructure around the Gulf region, and on Friday Saudi Arabia that it had downed nearly 50 drones sent in multiple waves throughout the early morning hours.

Sirens also sounded in Bahrain warning of incoming fire from Dubai, and black smoke billowed from an industrial area after authorities said debris from an interception had sparked a blaze.

Nearly 60 people were wounded in northern Israel after Hezbollah said it had fired several rocket salvoes toward the area and at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. Almost all the injuries were described as very minor.

One person was killed in southwestern Beirut in an Israeli strike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, and another attack hit an apartment in the capital, leaving it engulfed in flames. Following the attacks, the Israeli army said it had been targeting a member of Iran-linked Hezbollah.

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More than 600 people have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began, the Health Ministry has reported. and nearly 800,000 have been internally displaced, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

Iranian authorities say more than 1,300 people have been killed there, and Israel has reported 12 deaths. The U.S. has lost at least seven soldiers while another eight have suffered severe injuries.

In his Friday morning post, Trump said that "we are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise."

"They've been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them," Trump said. "What a great honor it is to do so!"

The U.S. military said American forces have now struck more than 6,000 targets since the operation against Iran began, including more than 30 minelaying vessels.

France says a soldier was killed in Iraq

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said a French soldier was killed in an attack targeting Irbil in Iraq's northern Kurdish region. France earlier said six soldiers had been hurt in a drone strike in Irbil, where French troops are deployed as part of a multinational counterterrorism mission supporting Iraqi forces in their fight against Islamic State militants.

In the same region, British officials said several U.S. personnel suffered minor injuries Wednesday when drone strikes hit a base in Irbil that houses both British and American troops.

Italy said that a base where it has troops in Irbil was also hit Wednesday but that there were no injuries. The Italian contingent in the region trains local Kurdish troops at the request of the Iraqi government

Recovery efforts were underway in western Iraq on Friday after the American KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties, but the aircraft had five crew on board.

U.S. Central Command said the crash was not related to friendly or hostile fire, and that two aircraft were involved, including one that landed safely.

The KC-135 is the fourth publicly acknowledged aircraft to crash as part of the U.S. military's operations against Iran. Last week, three American fighter jets weremistakenly downedby friendly Kuwaiti fire.

Rising reported from Bangkok and Abou AlJoud from Beirut, Lebanon

Two high-quality polls have surveyed Americans twice since the U.S. first attacked Iran on Feb. 28, giving the ability to see if opinion has shifted since the war first started.

One poll found opinion not shifting, the other found an increase in those saying strikes should continue, but that was still a minority opinion. Andbothfound that nearly two-thirds said that President Donald Trump has not clearly explained the goals of U.S. military involvement in Iran.

AnIpsos pollconducted March 6-9 found 29% of Americans approving of the U.S. strikes in Iran and 43% disapproving, 14 points underwater. Those opinions are almost identical to aReuters/Ipsos pollconducted February 28-March 1 that found 27% approving and 43% disapproving, 16 points underwater. Large shares said they were unsure both times: 26% now and 29% earlier.

The more recent poll found 66% of Republicans approving of the strikes, up from 55% previously. Approval among independents was also up, from 19% to 23%. Democrats' opinions barely budged.

ANew York Times analysisfound that U.S. support for strikes in Iran is lower than it has been for the beginning of previous conflicts.

Ipsos' polling also found more Americans have heard about the strikes now than immediately after the U.S. first hit Iran. Now, 51% say they have heard "a lot" about the U.S. military strikes against Iran, up from 29% previously.

Majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents said they had heard a lot about the strikes in the most recent poll.

The current Ipsos poll also finds 6 in 10 Americans saying that U.S. military involvement in Iran will "go on for an extended period of time" compared with just over one-third who said U.S. military involvement in Iran will "end pretty quickly in a matter of weeks."

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Nearly two-thirds (64%) said Trump has not clearly explained the goals of U.S. military involvement in Iran. Two-thirds (67%) said they expect gas prices to get worse over the next year as a result of U.S. military action in Iran and about half (49%) said that the action in Iran will have a mostly negative impact on their own personal financial situation.

AWashington Post pollconducted March 6-9 found a larger minority of Americans saying the U.S. should continue strikes on Iran than in aMarch 1 poll they conducted. The most recent poll found 34% of Americans saying the U.S. should continue strikes, up from 25% on March 1. A larger share, 42%, said in the recent poll the U.S. should "stop strikes at this time," down from 47% the day after strikes began. The more recent poll found 24% saying they were unsure; it was 28% in the previous poll.

Support for continuing strikes was up among Republicans (from 54% to 66%) and independents (from 16% to 27%). A 71% majority of Democrats said stops should strike, down slightly from 76% earlier.

The Post poll also found Americans largely split between support and opposition for the U.S. military campaign against Iran, 42% to 40%, with another 17% saying they were unsure. Most other polling has found more Americans opposed to the strikes rather than in support of them.

Its previous poll, taken right after the strikes began, found a larger 52% in opposition, but that poll asked about "President Trump ordering airstrikes against Iran," and the inclusion of Trump's name in poll questions often influences respondents' opinions. More now say they are unsure than they did in the initial poll (9%).

The Post also found nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) saying Trump had not clearly explained the goals of the U.S. military, not a shift from their previous poll. About as many (63%) said the number of U.S. military casualties in the conflict has been unacceptable given the goals and the costs of the war.

TheIpsos pollwas conducted March 6-9, 2026, among 1,021 U.S. adults using Ipsos' KnowledgePanel and has an overall margin of sampling error of +/- 3.4 percentage points. The earlierReuters/Ipsos pollwas conducted Feb. 28-March 1 among 1,282 U.S. adults and has an error margin of +/- 2.8 percentage points.

TheWashington Post pollwas conducted March 6-9, 2026, among 1,005 U.S. adults using SSRS's Opinion Panel and has an overall margin of error of +/- 3.6 percentage points. The earlierPost pollwas conducted March 1 among 1,003 U.S. adults and has an error margin of +/- 3.4 percentage points.

Nearly every part of the United States is getting walloped by wild weather or just about to be.

Extreme Weather Socal

Days of downpours have begun in Hawaii. The Southwest will soon bake with day after day of record 100-degree-plus (38 Celsius-plus) heat. Two storms will dump snow by the foot over northern Great Lakes states. And the dreaded polar vortex will again invade the Midwest and East with soul-crushing Arctic chill.

This forecast of extremes comes as weather whiplash already hit much of the East. On Wednesday, Washington, D.C. residents walked around in shorts in record-breaking 86 degrees Fahrenheit (about 30 Celsius). On Thursday, it snowed.

"All of the country, even if you're not necessarily seeing extremes, are going to see generally changing from cold to warm, or warm to cold to warm," said meteorologist Marc Chenard of the weather service's Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

Former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue said he expects extreme weather in all 50 states.

Triple-digit heat persists in Southwest

A heat dome will form early next week and park over the Southwest, baking temperatures to triple digits that haven't been seen this early in the year, Maue and Chenard said.

Some forecasts see 98 (almost 37 Celsius) in Phoenix on Tuesday, followed by 103, 105 and two days of 107 (almost 42 C). In 137 years of record-keeping, Phoenix never hit 100 before March 26 and usually hit its first 100-degree day in early May, according to the weather service, which warned people: "Since we are not acclimated to this level of heat this early in the year, it will be more impactful than usual."

It has already started in Los Angeles withunusual 90-degree March weatherthat had people in shorts and tank tops seeking shade anywhere they could get it, even if it was as slender as a light post.

Shane Dixon, 40, usually runs about 5 miles near his home in Culver City without much effort, he said, his face glistening with sweat and his T-shirt tucked into his shorts. But Thursday was hard because of the heat, and he had to cut it short.

"The back of my neck was melting," he said. But he preferred it to the cold and snow that will hit elsewhere.

"I could go literally soak myself and walk out in the sun and I'll make it home fine. If it was freezing cold I could not do this," he said.

Single-digit cold invades North

Around the same time as the heat starts blasting Phoenix, the polar vortex — a system that usually keeps frigid air penned up near the North Pole — is forecast to send its chill deep into the Midwest and East, even bordering some of the Southeast, Maue said

Minneapolis will hover around zero for a low, and Chicago will be in the single digits Tuesday. The next day "temperatures in the teens and 20s in the northeast and 20s in the Mid-Atlantic," Maue said. Even Atlanta could drop to the 20s.

One-two snowstorm punch

Two storm systems in a row — one Friday, then another Sunday into Monday — will chug along the country's northern tier and Great Lakes and between them could dump 3 to 4 feet of snow in places, Maue said.

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That bigger second storm system will see its barometric pressure drop so quickly and sharply — meaning it is intensifying and winds are strengthening — that it will qualify as a bomb cyclone, which is quite unusual to develop over land. Normally bomb cyclones get their energy from warm ocean waters, but this one will draw power from the polar vortex.

Even Alaska and Hawaii aren't quite right

Maue said Hawaii is getting an atmospheric river that will have such persistent heavy rain that flooding will be a major issue. Oahu is under a flash flood warning.

And Alaska is normally frigid now, but it will be about 30 degrees colder than usual, he said.

It is "the time of year where we can see stuff like this," Chenard said. "But this does seem even anomalous from what you would typically see. I mean, some of these areas will be setting records. Record-high temperatures for March and maybe multiple times."

In the past week or so, tornadoes have killed at least eight people inOklahoma, Michiganand Indiana. The forecast for severe storms doesn't look as big or widespread for the next week, but dangerous thunderstorms could pop up "anywhere from the Mississippi Valley toward the East Coast" on Sunday or Monday, Chenard said.

The jet stream goes nuts

Underlying this is a jet stream gone wild, Maue and Chenard said.

The jet stream is the river of air that moves weather from west to east on a roller-coaster-like path. Usually the plunges are as mild as a kiddie roller coaster. But now that jet stream is going on near-vertical, scream-inducing drops following by straight-up ascents.

"Which means you get a lot of extremes next to each other," Maue said. Storm fronts coming from the Pacific hit that high pressure heat dome in the Southwest and are pushed north to climb that mountainous jet stream peak, "grab access to that cold air reservoir up there" and bring it back down south down the other side of the hill, he said.

Numerous studies have connectedunusual jet streamandpolar vortexactivity to shrinking Arctic sea ice andhuman-caused climate change.

But there is hope.

"The first day of spring is 20th (of March), and then after that we get recovery," Maue said.

Associated Press writer Dorany Pineda contributed from Los Angeles.

The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP'sstandardsfor working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas atAP.org.

March 6 - 12, 2026

Pictures of the Week Latin America and Caribbean Photo Gallery

José Antonio Kast was sworn in asChile's president. Members of a local self-defense group stood guard in Mexico's Guerrero state in response to cartel violence. The World Baseball Classic was in full swing with Panama taking on Colombia in Puerto Rico.

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This gallery was curated by photo editor Jon Orbach, based in Mexico City.

AP photography:https://apnews.com/photography

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/apnews