The US and Israeli attacks on Iran dominated the front pages of papers around the world on Sunday, alongside Donald Trump’s claim that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed, a claim that was later confirmed by state media.
From Ankara to Zurich, the US president’s extraordinary daytime attack on Iran was reported with a mixture of fear, anger and elation, with the questions of what comes next a recurring theme across the global media.
Ukrainian president voices support for US and Israel strikes on Iran, calling Tehran ‘an accomplice of Putin’. What we know on day 1,467
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the time and place of the next round of peace talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine would depend on the security situation in the Middle East and the level of “real diplomatic possibilities”. The Ukrainian president on Saturday said he would issue new directives to Ukraine’s negotiating team at the talks, without detailing what they were. He had said the next round of talks would probably take place in Abu Dhabi in early March. But the United Arab Emirates has since been caught up in hostilities after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran.
Zelenskyy voiced his support for the US-led strikes, calling Iran “an accomplice of Putin” for supplying Shahed drones and the technology for Russia to produce them and other weapons in its war against Ukraine. He said it was important that Washington acted decisively, but also that hostilities did not escalate into a wider war.
“It is only fair to give the Iranian people a chance to get rid of the terrorist regime, to get rid of it and guarantee the safety of all nations that have suffered from terror originating in Iran,” Zelenskyy said in a video address on social media. “It is important that the United States is determined. And whenever America is determined, global criminals weaken.”
Zelenskyy said that Russia has used “more than 57,000 Shahed-type strike drones against Ukraine – against our people, against our cities, against our energy sector”. “Although Ukrainians have never threatened Iran, the Iranian regime chose to be Putin’s accomplice,” Zelensky said.
Donald Trump is urging Moscow and Kyiv to strike an agreement to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945, though Zelenskyy has complained that his country is facing more pressure to make concessions. Ukraine is seeking iron-clad security guarantees which commit the US and its European allies to action if Russia attacks again after a peace deal is reached. The last round of peace talks, which took place in Geneva last week, did not achieve a breakthrough and was described as difficult by Kyiv and Moscow, although Washington said it saw “meaningful progress”.
Zelenskyy’s chief of staff on Saturday said that Russia said at recent talks in Geneva that it would accept the US proposal for Ukraine’s postwar security guarantees. “At the last talks, the Russian side said for example that they would accept the security guarantees offered to Ukraine by the United States,” said Kyrylo Budanov in an interview aired on Ukrainian television. Budanov also said that at present Russia had not agreed to a summit between Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, which had been floated earlier as a possibility by US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Russia on Saturday condemned the US-Israeli strikes on Iran as “a preplanned and unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent UN member state”, demanding an immediate halt to the military campaign and a return to diplomacy.
Russia has maintained a delicate balancing act in the Middle East for decades, trying to navigate its warm relations with Israel even as it has developed strong economic and military ties with Iran. Iranian forces and Russian sailors conducted annual drills in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean last week aimed at “upgrading operational coordination as well as exchange of military experiences,” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported. Putin and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, signed a broad cooperation pact in January last year as their countries deepened their partnership in the face of stinging western sanctions.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday its forces had taken control of the settlements of Neskuchne and Girkein Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Zaporizhizhia regions. And Ukraine’s Naftogaz said Russia struck a gas extraction facility in the Kharkiv region overnight, causing serious damage.
America and Israel’s attack on Iran disrupted flights across the Middle East and beyond as countries around the region closed their airspace and three of the key airports that connect Europe, Africa and the west to Asia halted operations.
Hundreds of thousands of travellers were either stranded or diverted to other airports after Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain closed their airspace. There also was no flight activity over the United Arab Emirates, flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said, after the government there announced a “temporary and partial closure” of its airspace.
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The US and Israel have launched a joint military operation against Iran, prompting Tehran to fire retaliatory strikes against Israeli and US bases across the Middle East.
Explosions rocked the Iranian capital, Tehran, with satellite imagery showing extensive damage at the secure compound of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In a televised address, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, indicated that the strikes had killed Khamenei. Iran’s leader has not been heard from since the strikes began. “There are many signs that [Khamenei] is no longer alive,” Netanyahu said on Saturday evening. Netanyahu said that Israeli strikes had also killed “several leaders” involved in the Iranian nuclear programme and that strikes against sites linked to the programme would continue in the coming days. The remarks, which stopped short of confirming Khamenei’s death, were the strongest official indication yet that the missing leader is dead.
Dozens of students were reportedly killed in a strike on a primary school in the south-east. Iranian media is reporting at least 201 people have been killed in total and 747 injured.
Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister who has been leading the nuclear talks for the Iranian delegation, promised that Iran’s army would “teach aggressors the lesson they deserve”.
Further explosions were reported in Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, all of which host US military bases. One person was killed by shrapnel from an Iranian missile in Abu Dhabi, UAE officials said.
The US president, Donald Trump, described the US military campaign as “massive and ongoing” as he called on the people of Iran to “take over your government”. In a speech posted on Truth Social, he said the US would “raze their [Iran’s] missile industry to the ground” and claimed Tehran had refused to reach a deal with the US that would have averted war.
Netanyahu said the US-Israeli attack could “create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands”.
France suspects Russian ‘provocation’ amid worries Moscow will interfere in European elections as part of broader strategy against Ukraine. What we know on day 1,466
The Swedish military confirmed on Friday that a drone it jammed near a French aircraft carrier this week was Russian, amidconcerns Moscow is deploying hybrid war tactics against European nations that have backed Kyiv. On Thursday a Swedish navy vessel jammed the drone 13km (eight miles) from France’s flagship, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, while it was in the Oresund stretch of water, between Denmark and Sweden. French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot told journalists on the Charles de Gaulle on Friday that if Russian involvement was confirmed, “the only conclusion I would draw is that it would be a ridiculous provocation”. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Barrot’s was “quite an absurd statement”. The Oresund incident follows a decision by Romania on Thursday to scramble fighter jets when a drone breached its national airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine. Nato’s easternmost countries have reported numerous drone sightings in recent months, with some blaming Russia.
Denmark’s intelligence service warned Friday that a foreign power may try to sway voters in the country’s general election on 24 March and that it was a priority target for Russia because of its support for Ukraine. Denmark’s police and military intelligence services said in a joint statement the Scandinavian country’s election campaign could be marked by disinformation and cyber-attacks. Prime minister Mette Frederiksen called the election on Thursday saying the shadow cast by Russia was one of Denmark’s biggest threats.
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who lags in most polls, is using Ukraine as a distraction from the country’s fraying social services, rising cost of living and economic stagnation as Hungary heads to an election in April, policy analysts say. Orbán’s rightwing, populist government has used AI to generate billboard posters showing Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and EU officials with their hands outstretched. “Our message to Brussels: We won’t pay!” the taxpayer-funded advert reads, echoing the messaging woven through spots on radio, television and social media.
The leaders ofUkraine and Slovakia agreed on Friday to hold a face-to-face meeting as they wrangle over a blocked pipeline that takes Russian oil to Slovakia and Hungary, officials said. Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico and his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán have accused Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of using “blackmail” over the pipeline through Ukrainian territory. Ukraine said the Druzhba pipeline was damaged in Russian airstrikes on 27 January. Slovakia and Hungary have since insisted that it has been repaired again. Orban has blocked an EU emergency loan to Ukraine as the dispute escalates.
The International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday said it had negotiated a temporary local ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, allowing restoration for a backup power supply to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. It is the fifth local ceasefire negotiated by the IAEA between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, said Rafael Grossi, director general of the agency.
At least 55 Ghanaians have been killed in Russia’s war with Ukraine after being “lured into battle”, Ghana’s foreign minister said after a visit to Kyiv in which officials raised the issue of Russian recruitment of African people. The foreign minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said in a post on X on Thursday: “We were informed that 272 Ghanaians are believed to have been lured into battle since 2022 for which an estimated 55 have been killed and 2 captured as prisoners of war.” Reports of African men being attracted to Russia by promises of jobs and ending up on Ukraine’s frontlines have become more frequent in recent months, creating tensions between Moscow and some of the countries involved. Russian authorities have denied illegally recruiting African citizens to fight in Ukraine. Ukraine says more than 1,780 Africans from 36 countries are fighting in the Russian army.
Actor, originally charged on two counts, also accused of shouting homophobic slurs during attacks on 17 February
Shia LaBeouf surrendered to New Orleans police after they obtained a new warrant Friday to arrest him again in connection with a case that had already left him facing two counts of battery.
The new warrant brought the number of people whom the Transformers film franchise star is accused of battering to three. He turned himself over to police in advance of a bail hearing on Saturday afternoon, after which he posted a $5,000 bond to continue out of authorities’ custody while awaiting the outcome of the case.
Scouting America will alter several policies at the urging of the Pentagon, including one targeting transgender children, the defense secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday as he pushes a campaign against military support for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Some of the changes mirror what the organization suggested to the defense department in January, which included discontinuing its citizenship in society merit badge and introducing a military service merit badge as well as waiving registration fees for the children of military personnel.
On Thursday night, late-night hosts remarked on the Jeffrey Epstein investigations, the threat of a US attack on Iran and Donald Trump nominating a wellness influencer as the next US surgeon general.
Foreign minister says 272 Ghanaians are thought to have been drawn into battle since 2022, after he visited Kyiv
At least 55 Ghanaians have been killed in Russia’s war with Ukraine after being “lured into battle”, Ghana’s foreign minister has said after a visit to Kyiv in which officials raised the issue of Russian recruitment of African people.
Reports of African men being attracted to Russia by promises of jobs and ending up on Ukraine’s frontlines have become more frequent in recent months, creating tensions between Moscow and some of the countries involved.
The annual competition draws thousands of entries from across the world and brings together images from below the water’s surface that show the diversity and challenges of subaquatic life
Federal Aviation Administration bars flights around Fort Hancock after reported use of anti-drone military laser
The Federal Aviation Administration barred flights on Thursday in an area around Fort Hancock, Texas, after congressional aides told Reuters a military laser-based anti-drone system was believed to have accidentally shot down a US government drone.
The FAA and Pentagon did not immediately comment but the FAA cited “special security reasons” in its notice about the restrictions on the airspace near the Mexican border posted on its Notam alert system, shorthand for “Notice to Air Missions”.
Appellate court quashes convictions linked to lease violations but Lai may still spend rest of his life in prison
A Hong Kong appellate court on Thursday overturned fraud convictions against the media mogul Jimmy Lai, a rare victory in the prominent pro-democracy activist’s legal battles.
Lai, 78, an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist party who founded the now defunct Apple Daily, will stay in prison because weeks ago he was sentenced to 20 years after being convicted in another case brought under a China-imposed national security law.
Defence minister says goal is to cover 4,000km of roads this year; 23 wounded in Russian attacks on cities before new Ukraine-US talks. What we know on day 1,464
Jamieson Greer warns tariffs may climb from 10% after Trump imposed global levy amid US supreme court setback
The US tariff rate for some countries will go up to 15% or higher from the newly imposed 10%, Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, said on Wednesday, without naming any specific trading partners or other details.
“Right now, we have the 10% tariff. It’ll go up to 15 [%] for some and then it may go higher for others, and I think it will be in line with the types of tariffs we’ve been seeing,” Greer said in an interview on Fox Business Network’s Mornings with Maria program.
When Sammy Azdoufal found he had access to data from robot vacuum cleaners around the world, he told a tech publication. But the implications could be mind-boggling
Name: The accidental hacker.
Age: It doesn’t matter how old Sammy Azdoufal is. What he did is what’s important here, and what he did is very much of the age.
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