BERLIN (AP) — Tens of thousands of people, from Romanian religious pilgrims to tourists and diplomats' family members, are stranded across the Middle East as the Iran war spreads.
Major airlines have canceled flights to and from the region, and airspace across the Gulf is closed. Some of those who are stuck have been forced to seek shelter because of airstrikes, while others are marooned on cruise ships, which currently can't sail through the Strait of Hormuz.
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An overseas Filipino worker sleeps as she waits for updates on her cancelled flight to the Middle East at Manila's International Airport, Philippines on Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Antonia, 5 years old, sits on suitcases upon arriving at the Henri Coanda International airport after being evacuated from Israel via Egypt on a commercial flight in Otopeni, Romania, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
A man works beside a parked Emirates plane at Manila's International Airport, Philippines on Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A display in the arrivals terminal of the Henri Coanda International Airport shows cancelled flights originating in Middle East countries, in Otopeni, Romania, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
In a major move on Monday, the U.S. State Department urged all Americans to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries because of safety risks from the ongoing escalations that have dragged the region into significant chaos.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar said on X that Americans in countries including Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel should “DEPART NOW,” using any available commercial transportation.
The U.S. State Department has also evacuated nonemergency personnel and families in six nations, adding the United Arab Emirates to its list on Tuesday. The UAE, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi and long considered a safe place in the Middle East, has been dragged into the Iran war with interceptions and attacks.
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, meanwhile, told Americans there that the best way to leave is through Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Governments worldwide are scrambling to get their citizens home.
Twenty-four flights from the UAE and Oman were scheduled to land in Russia on Tuesday, bringing back around 4,500 people, the Russian Transport Ministry said. About 1,000 people have already returned to Russia aboard flights from the two Middle Eastern countries on Monday night and Tuesday morning, according to the ministry.
As of Saturday, around 50,000 Russian tourists remained in the UAE, according to Russia’s Association of Tour Operators. The country has become a popular tourist destination for Russians in recent years, as they can take direct flights there and get a free 90-day visa upon arrival.
In Italy, the government has assisted with flights to Milan and Rome in the wake of mounting criticism against Defense Minister Guido Crosetto. The minister sparked a political controversy at home, after being stuck in Dubai with his family during the initial phase of the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.
Crosetto returned to Rome on Sunday on a military aircraft. The left-wing opposition has called for Crosetto’s resignation, saying he shouldn't have traveled to the Middle East during a crisis. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has defended him.
An estimated 30,000 German tourists remained on cruise ships, in hotels or at closed airports in the Middle East, and the first plane from Dubai to Frankfurt, Germany, landed Tuesday afternoon.
The German government is also seeking to charter planes at taxpayer expense to get vulnerable people — including ill travelers, children and the pregnant — back home.
France is also trying to organize the return of thousands of French people, the country’s foreign affairs minister said Tuesday. An estimated 200,000 French people live in the region affected by the conflict, and authorities believe roughly 25,000 French citizens are visiting the area.
Early Tuesday, Romanian tourists arrived in Bucharest after traveling from Israel to Cairo to escape the conflict. Hundreds of Romanian Orthodox Church pilgrims were stranded in Israel while visiting Bethlehem on a trip led by Romanian priests when the war broke out. The group was forced to cut their trip short and return to Romania.
Pilgrim Mariana Muicaru said she was terrified during her time in Israel as rockets flew across the sky.
“We called our children at 3 a.m. to ask forgiveness because we might die and to tell them we love them and to let them know that it’s over for us,” she told The Associated Press.
Louise Herrle, a retiree from Pennsylvania, got stranded in Dubai with her husband when the conflict broke out. They had been vacationing in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and are struggling to find a way to get back home.
“We’ve had several flights canceled,” she told the AP from her hotel in Dubai on Tuesday. “We are now scheduled to go out Thursday at 2:30 in the morning, and, you know, we don’t know if it’s gonna happen or not.”
Herrle said that she’s made it a habit to register with the U.S. State Department before traveling abroad. In the end, she says it’s her approach to life that’s helped her most: “Just accept the fact that we can’t control (the situation) ... and go from there.”
In Germany, however, travelers deplaned at the Frankfurt airport Tuesday afternoon following a flight from Dubai. They were asked by reporters if they were glad to be home.
“Yes, of course," Wassim Mahlas said. "I’m breathing German air again.”
Daniel Niemann reported from Frankfurt, Germany. Dasha Litvinova, Samuel Petrequin in Paris; Giada Zampano in Rome; Nicolae Dumitrache in Bucharest, Romania; Samy Magdy in Cairo; and Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia; contributed to this report.
An overseas Filipino worker sleeps as she waits for updates on her cancelled flight to the Middle East at Manila's International Airport, Philippines on Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Antonia, 5 years old, sits on suitcases upon arriving at the Henri Coanda International airport after being evacuated from Israel via Egypt on a commercial flight in Otopeni, Romania, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
A man works beside a parked Emirates plane at Manila's International Airport, Philippines on Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A display in the arrivals terminal of the Henri Coanda International Airport shows cancelled flights originating in Middle East countries, in Otopeni, Romania, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
The midterm elections officially begin Tuesday with primaries in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas. As war with Iran breaks out, Democrats and Republicans are figuring out who they want to lead their party into November’s general election, when control of Congress and statehouses around the country will be up for grabs.
The most hotly contested races of the day are in Texas, with fierce competition on both sides of the aisle for U.S. Senate nominations. It’s possible that the Republican campaign will continue into a runoff.
Here's the latest:
Tanu Sani, a registered Democrat, said she had been undecided on who to vote for but ultimately chose state Rep. James Talarico, saying he “really spoke to me in the way he tries to unify.”
Andrew Kern, a registered Democrat, said he went the same way. Kern said he feels Talarico “is taking an approach that’s bridging some of the divisiveness.”
Sen. Tom Cotton was unopposed in his 2014 and 2020 primaries, and Sanders and Republican U.S. Sen. John Boozman won their 2022 primaries with 83% and 66% of the vote, respectively.
Cotton faces two challengers this year. Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is seeking a second term, is running unopposed in the primary.
The state’s Republican lieutenant governor, attorney general, auditor and treasurer also face no primary challengers in their reelection bids.
In almost all cases, races can be called well before all votes have been counted. The AP’s team of election journalists and analysts will call a race as soon as a clear winner can be determined.
In competitive races, AP analysts may need to wait until additional votes are tallied or to confirm specific information about how many ballots are left to count.
Competitive races in which votes are actively being tabulated — for example, in states that count a large number of votes after election night — might be considered “too early to call.” A race may be “too close to call” if a race is so close that there’s no clear winner even once all ballots except for provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots have been counted.
The AP’s race calls are not predictions and are not based on speculation. They are declarations based on an analysis of vote results and other election data that one candidate has emerged as the winner and that no other candidate in the race will be able to overtake the winner once all the votes have been counted.
The AP’s vote count brings together information that otherwise might not be available online for days or weeks after an election or is scattered across hundreds of local websites. Without national standards or consistent expectations across states, it also ensures the data is in a standard format, uses standard terms and undergoes rigorous quality control.
The AP hires vote count reporters who work with local election officials to collect results directly from counties or precincts where votes are first counted. These reporters submit them, by phone or electronically, as soon as the results are available. If any of the results are available from state or county websites, the AP will gather the results from there, too.
In many cases, counties will update vote totals as they count ballots throughout the night. The AP is continually updating its count as these results are released. In a general election, the AP will make as many as 21,000 vote updates per hour.
The 2026 midterm season begins in earnest Tuesday with two of the nation’s most consequential Senate primaries playing out in Texas, a political behemoth Democrats have been fighting to flip for decades.
Is this the year? Republican leaders in Washington openly fret that a victory by conservative firebrand Ken Paxton over four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn would give Democrats a rare shot of winning the seat come November. The contest has already cost Republicans tens of millions of dollars, and there will be much more spent ahead of a May 26 runoff if no one gets 50% in the three-way primary that also includes Rep. Wesley Hunt.
Democrats, meanwhile, are picking between two rising stars with conflicting styles. There’s U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who made a name for herself through confrontation, and state Rep. James Talarico, a former middle school teacher who’s working toward a divinity degree.
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The United States doesn’t have a nationwide body that collects and releases election results. Elections are administered locally, by thousands of offices, following standards set by the states. In many cases, the states themselves don’t even offer up-to-date tracking of election results.
The AP fills this gap by compiling vote results and declaring winners in elections, providing critical information in the period between Election Day and the official certification of results, which typically takes weeks.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in January that the state should seize control of elections in Harris County, which includes Houston and is a key battleground.
His comments continued years of Republican criticism over how elections are run in the county of more than 5 million, where Hispanic and Black residents make up a majority. Democrats have controlled the county since 2018.
Abbott signed laws that eliminated Harris County’s independent elections administrator and banned drive-thru voting in Houston. And last year he waited nine months to hold a special election to fill a U.S. House seat representing Houston, saying the county needed extra time to prepare for a vote without any problems.
Democrats accused Abbott of delaying that election to help Republicans maintain their razor-thin margin in the House.
Republican incumbents, including U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, are heavy favorites to win their primaries in Arkansas.
Cotton, who is seeking his third term in office, will face Jeb Little, an Arkansas State Police trooper, and Micah Ashby, a minister from Bradford.
Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as President Donald Trump’s press secretary during Trump’s first term, is seeking her second term in office. She did not draw a Republican opponent.
Arkansas hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide since 2010, and Sanders and Cotton will be heavy favorites to win reelection in November.
Polls have now opened for voters in El Paso and Hudspeth counties, an area of about 1 million people on the western tip of Texas in the Mountain Time Zone.
Polls in Arkansas are open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and voters are required to show photo identification before voting.
About 2,600 sites opened statewide at 6:30 a.m. ET and will close at 7:30 p.m. ET. Some ballots have already been cast by mail or during an early in-person voting period that ended Saturday.
There’s an open race for a seat in the U.S. Senate because Republican Sen. Thom Tillis decided not to seek reelection after clashing with Trump. Former Gov. Roy Cooper is seeking the Democratic nomination, while former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley is running to represent his party.
Voters are also picking nominees for U.S. House seats, including the Republican choice to challenge Democratic Rep. Don Davis in the 1st District. That district became more Republican as state legislators redrew it during Trump’s redistricting effort to help his party maintain control of the House.
A man wears an "I voted" sticker outside a polling location Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Spring, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
A voter makes his way into a polling location, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Spring, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
FILE - An election judge arranges "I Vote, I Count" stickers on a table in the Marion County Clerks office as voters cast early ballots in Indianapolis, Oct. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
