Today is Thursday, March 12th. We'll tell you about the cost of the war in the Middle East so far,

and why law enforcement in California is now tightening security. Also, which American company

faced a major cyber attack linked to the war, and what Iran's soccer team has decided about the

upcoming World Cup here in the U.S. Plus, why so many lawmakers are quitting Congress, which

popular platform is now the largest media

company in the world, and what to expect at this year's South by Southwest kicking off this week.

Those stories and even more news to know next.

Welcome to The Newsworthy, all the day's news in less than 15 minutes.

I'm Erica Mandy. Thanks so much for being here.

Let's do this. Fighting across the Middle East is showing no sign of letup. This morning,

more attacks have been reported all around the region, but especially in the capitals of Iran and

Lebanon. American and Israeli forces have continued the attacks on mostly military

targets in Iran, and several Persian Gulf countries say they've come under attack from Iranian drones.

But the U.S. military says Iran's retaliatory attacks have dropped drastically since the start of the war.

Meanwhile, Israel struck dozens of targets across Lebanon. The Israeli operation

in Lebanon started when Hezbollah militants fired rockets at Israel in support of Iran. In the last

several days, the attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 600 people and forced more than 800,000

from their homes. As far as the American involvement goes, President Trump again claimed victory last night.

He said the war was really over in the first hour, and now 12 days later, it's just a question of

when to stop. But all this fighting also adds to the total cost of the war. The Pentagon told Congress

yesterday, the American cost of the war was more than $11.3 billion in just the first six days.

Even then, not all the expenses were accounted for, so the ultimate cost will be much higher.

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