The Economist.
Hello and welcome to Editor's Picks.
I'm Rosie Bloor, co-host of The Intelligence, our daily news and current affairs podcast.
Today, in a special episode, we've brought you the 150th edition of The War Room,
our newsletter on defence, published yesterday and read aloud by Shashank Joshi, our defence editor.
I hope you enjoy listening.
In the first Gulf War in 1991, America expelled Saddam Hussein's Iraq from Kuwait.
The second Gulf War came in 2003, when George W.
Bush toppled Saddam's regime and occupied the country.
We are now seeing the first days of a third Gulf War,
one pitting America and Israel against Iran, and others rapidly being drawn in.
The story of this war is what scholars call horizontal escalation.
Despite the early assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader,
the regime's retaliation against Gulf Arab states has been faster and more aggressive than many expected.
Iran continues to attack ports, airports and tower blocks, but also energy infrastructure.
Falling debris from an intercepted Iranian drone seems to have struck Saudi Arabia's rust-to-nura oil refinery.
Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, is now entering the war,
firing rockets and drones at northern Israel.
And Israel is bombing Beirut.
Europeans are also being drawn in.