Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Pentagon readying for ground operations: report -

The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran -- potentially including raids on Kharg Island and coastal sites near the Strait of Hormuz -- though US President Donald Trump has yet to approve any deployment, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

Any ground operation would stop short of a full-scale invasion, instead involving raids by special operations forces and conventional infantry troops, the Post said, citing unnamed officials.

LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of central London on Saturday for a "March to Stop the Far Right" with many demonstrators decrying the right-wing Reform UK party of Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, which is topping opinion polls.

Backed by trade unions and civil society groups, the Together Alliance demonstration looked set to be one of the biggest in the British capital in recent years with about 30,000 people expected to take part, according to a police official.

MANILA/HANOI, March 28 (Reuters) - The Philippines and China have resumed high-level talks this week over the disputed South China Sea, exploring preliminary steps toward oil and gas cooperation while addressing energy and fertilizer supply issues amid the ongoing Middle East conflict, the Philippine foreign ministry said.

The 11th round of talks under a bilateral consultation mechanism established in 2017 was the first such meeting since January 2025.

CAIRO, March 28 (Reuters) - An Israeli strike on a media car in southern Lebanon killed at least two Lebanese broadcast journalists, Lebanon's Al Manar TV reported on Saturday.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports.

(Reporting by Jaidaa Taha, Maya Gebeily and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Joe Bavier)

By Brad Brooks and Maria Tsvetkova

March 28 (Reuters) - Thousands of rallies are expected across the United States on Saturday in the latest "No Kings" protest against the policies of President Donald Trump and his administration.

Organizers say that more than 3,200 events are planned in all 50 states for what they hope will be the largest single-day nonviolent protest in U.S. history. The two previous No Kings events attracted millions of participants.

March 28 (Reuters) - The Israeli military killed three Palestinian men in Gaza on Saturday in two separate air strikes, local health officials and medics said, the latest round of deadly violence despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that is now more than five months old.

Palestinian health officials said one man was killed in an air strike on a car in the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza, while medics said two adult brothers were killed in Shujiaya, a neighbourhood east of Gaza City.

SPLIT, Croatia, March 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, which had been deployed in U.S.-Israeli operations against Iran, anchored in Croatia's Adriatic port of Split on Saturday for repairs and maintenance.

TheFord,America's newest and the world's largest carrier, wasoperating in the Red Sea in support of Operation Epic Fury when a non-combat fire broke out in its main laundry room on March 12, injuring three sailors.

The Iran men's national team wore black armbands and posed with school rucksacks as the national anthem played before a match with Nigeria to remember the victims of a strike on a primary school in Iran on the first day of the Middle East war.

The airstrike on the school in the southern Iranian city of Minab on February 28 killed at least 170 people including students and teachers.

The attack happened on the day the United States and Israel launched the war with attacks across Iran.

The ability of Israel's highly sophisticated air defences to keep intercepting Iranian attacks is coming under scrutiny as the Middle East war drags on into a second month.

The military has dismissed reports that it is running low on the interceptors used to shoot down the steady stream of Iranian missiles and Hezbollah rockets fired at Israel.

However, some analysts suggest that the war against Iran has significantly drained allied resources, with long-range interceptors among the most severely depleted.

By Nathan Layne

GRAPEVINE, Texas, March 28 (Reuters) - When former Congressman Matt Gaetz opened his speech by aligning with a Republican faction "loyal to only one nation," his message to the Conservative Political Action Conference was clear: It was a veiled swipe at perceived Israeli influence over U.S. politicians, even without naming Israel outright.