KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait International Airport is open and operating today, with both of the country’s national carriers running scheduled flights, though one of its main terminals remains closed for repairs following repeated drone and missile strikes tied to the broader U.S.-Iran conflict that has disrupted Gulf aviation for much of this year.

Kuwait Airways is currently flying out of Terminal 4, while Jazeera Airways operates from Terminal 5, with both airlines maintaining largely normal schedules as the country’s aviation sector continues a gradual recovery. Terminal 1, the airport’s primary international facility, remains closed pending repairs after sustaining significant structural damage, and authorities have not announced a confirmed reopening date.

The airport’s path back to normal operations has been anything but smooth. Since the conflict began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, Kuwait’s airspace and its main airport have been repeatedly disrupted by Iranian drone attacks, part of a wider pattern of strikes targeting Gulf states hosting American military installations. The airport was first forced to suspend all flights starting Feb. 28, with local carrier Jazeera Airways temporarily diverting operations to Qaisumah International Airport in Saudi Arabia, roughly two and a half hours away by road, during the closure.

Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways resumed limited service on April 26, operating out of Terminals 4 and 5 while Terminal 1 remained shuttered. Terminal 1 finally reopened to international traffic on June 1, allowing some foreign carriers to resume service there for the first time in months. That reopening proved short-lived. Just two days later, on June 3, Iranian drones struck the terminal directly, according to Kuwait’s state news agency KUNA, causing severe damage, killing one person and injuring 63 others, including airport workers and passengers.

Kuwait’s Defense Ministry said its forces detected roughly 30 ballistic missiles and drones launched by Iran that day, with several intercepted over residential areas. A ministry spokesman described the attack as targeting civilian and vital facilities, and Kuwait’s foreign ministry summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires to lodge a formal protest, demanding that two Iranian embassy staff leave the country within 24 hours. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard denied responsibility for the strike, with a spokesman claiming the damage was instead caused by a failed U.S. interceptor missile. U.S. Central Command rejected that account, calling it a deliberate Iranian drone attack on the airport.

Despite the severity of the June 3 strike, Kuwait Airways resumed flights from Terminal 4 within hours, reflecting the country’s determination to keep at least limited air traffic moving even amid continued security threats. In the weeks since, Kuwait’s General Authority of Civil Aviation has worked to bring additional capacity back online in phases. Oman Air confirmed it would restart its Kuwait flights on June 25, temporarily routing through Terminal 4 rather than its usual Terminal 1, becoming one of several foreign carriers progressively resuming service as conditions stabilize.

Sheikh Hamoud Mubarak Al Sabah, chairman of Kuwait’s General Civil Aviation Authority, said the decision to reopen the country’s airspace was coordinated closely with relevant domestic and international authorities to ensure operations resumed in line with the highest safety and security standards. He also credited the cooperation of aviation staff and government entities in accelerating the recovery, and specifically thanked Saudi Arabia for helping facilitate Kuwaiti carriers through its airports during the disruption, along with broader coordination among Gulf Cooperation Council members aimed at maintaining regional air traffic continuity throughout the crisis.

The broader security picture in the Gulf has shown signs of easing in recent days, even as sporadic violence has continued to test a fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran. Tensions flared again late last week when Iran was accused of launching attack drones at commercial shipping passing through the Strait of Hormuz and firing missiles and drones at military installations in Kuwait and Bahrain, prompting renewed U.S. retaliatory strikes. By the weekend, however, U.S. officials indicated both sides had agreed to stand down from further direct attacks, with fresh negotiations between Washington and Tehran expected to resume in Doha this week, focused in part on restoring normal commercial shipping and air traffic through the broader Gulf region.

Aviation risk trackers continue to reflect the uneven nature of that recovery. According to monitoring group OPSGROUP, Kuwait’s airspace has reopened and resumed limited operations after nearly two months of closure earlier this year, though the group cautions that neither Kuwait nor neighboring Iran has yet restored anything resembling normal central Middle East routing. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has similarly softened its guidance for Kuwait and several other Gulf states from active-avoidance warnings to a recommendation that operators “exercise caution” and maintain updated risk assessments, a marked shift from the stricter warnings issued at the height of the conflict earlier this year, even as the agency continues to advise airlines against operating in Iranian, Iraqi or Lebanese airspace altogether.

For travelers with existing bookings, airline and travel industry sources continue to recommend confirming flight status directly with carriers before heading to the airport, given the airport’s recent history of abrupt, security-driven schedule changes. Kuwait International Airport, located roughly 15.5 kilometers south of Kuwait City’s center, typically handles more than 15 million passengers annually and serves as the primary hub for both Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways, connecting the country to more than 100 destinations worldwide.

For now, the practical answer to whether the airport is open today is yes, with flights departing and arriving on a steadily normalizing schedule, but the broader question of whether that recovery can hold remains tied directly to the durability of the ceasefire between the United States and Iran, a truce that has already been tested, and broken, multiple times since it was first announced earlier this year.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Grizzlies traded two-time All-Star point guard Ja Morant to the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday, ending his seven-year tenure with the franchise and completing a full teardown of what was once considered one of the NBA’s most talented young cores.

In exchange, Memphis received forwards Jerami Grant and Kris Murray from Portland, along with $1 million in cash, according to multiple reports. ESPN’s Shams Charania first broke the news of the deal. No draft picks changed hands in the trade, an unusually light return for a player of Morant’s pedigree, reflecting how far his trade value had fallen across the league.

The Grizzlies marked the moment with a farewell message posted to social media.

“12, thank you for every highlight, every memory, every unforgettable moment and for all you’ve given this team, this community and this city,” the Grizzlies posted.

Morant, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft out of Murray State, won Rookie of the Year in 2020 and was named the league’s Most Improved Player in 2022, a season in which he also earned his first All-Star selection and helped lead Memphis to a playoff series win for the first time in seven years. He earned a second All-Star nod in 2023 and was named to the All-NBA Second Team that same year, establishing himself for a stretch as one of the most electrifying young talents in basketball.

But Morant’s standing within the organization and across the league deteriorated steadily in the years that followed. He served an eight-game suspension in March 2023 and a 25-game ban to open the 2023-24 season, both stemming from incidents in which he displayed a firearm on Instagram livestreams. Injuries further eroded his availability and effectiveness; he underwent shoulder surgery for a labral tear in January 2024 and dealt with additional elbow issues in the years since. Memphis also suspended him for one game this past November following a heated confrontation with head coach Tuomas Iisalo after a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, an incident that underscored a fraying relationship between Morant and the team’s coaching staff. Morant’s frustration with how he was being used reportedly factored into Memphis firing previously successful coach Taylor Jenkins back in 2025.

Those struggles culminated in a difficult final season in Memphis. Morant appeared in just 20 games before being shut down for the year because of his elbow injury, posting averages of 19.5 points, 8.1 assists and 3.3 rebounds while shooting career lows of 41.0% from the field and 23.5% from 3-point range. Over the past three seasons combined, injuries and suspensions limited him to just 79 total games. The Grizzlies had aggressively explored trading Morant before last season’s trade deadline but found minimal interest around the league at that time.

Monday’s deal marks the third and final piece of a complete roster overhaul in Memphis. The Grizzlies have now moved on from all three of their former franchise cornerstones since being swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the 2025 playoffs, having already traded Jaren Jackson Jr. to the Utah Jazz in an eight-player swap and sent Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony and four future first-round picks. Despite that trio’s individual talent, the Grizzlies won only one playoff series in four postseason appearances together, and the team finished just 25-57 this past season, its first full campaign under Iisalo. Memphis now begins a new chapter built around Cameron Boozer, the franchise’s recent high draft selection, and the additional draft capital acquired in its recent trades.

For Portland, the trade represents a significant gamble on a player whose talent once seemed limitless. Morant, who turns 27 in August, holds career averages of 22.4 points, 7.4 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game. According to NBA TV’s Chris Haynes, the Trail Blazers plan to start Morant alongside Damian Lillard and Deni Avdija, an unconventional backcourt arrangement the franchise believes carries significant upside despite the apparent overlap in ball-handling responsibilities. Charania reported that, for now, the Morant acquisition is being viewed internally as Portland’s primary offseason move, with the team not actively pursuing a separate trade for Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown.

The backcourt picture in Portland is notably crowded following the move. Beyond Morant and Lillard, who returned to the franchise on a three-year deal after being waived by the Milwaukee Bucks, the Trail Blazers also have Jrue Holiday and Scoot Henderson on the roster, leaving questions about how minutes will be distributed among four players capable of handling point guard duties. Grant, 32, had spent the past four seasons in Portland after stops in Philadelphia, Oklahoma City, Denver and Detroit, averaging 18.6 points and 3.5 rebounds last season, while Murray, the No. 23 pick in the 2023 draft and twin brother of Sacramento Kings forward Keegan Murray, averaged 5.8 points and 3.6 rebounds and is set to become a restricted free agent next summer.

Financially, Morant is owed approximately $42.2 million in 2026-27 and $44.9 million in 2027-28 under the maximum rookie extension he signed in 2022, the deal that locked in the richest possible terms following the best season of his career. Grant, by comparison, is set to earn $34.2 million next season with a $36.4 million player option for 2027-28, meaning the trade saves Memphis roughly $8 million annually over the next two seasons, assuming Grant exercises that option.

With NBA free agency officially opening Tuesday, the Morant trade marks an emphatic start to what figures to be an eventful offseason for both franchises, one defined by uncertainty over how Morant’s talent will translate into an unconventional new backcourt in Portland and how quickly Memphis can build something new around its growing collection of draft assets and emerging young pieces.

Final figure for growth last year was revised down slightly to 1.3 per cent

The UK economy expanded by 0.6 per cent in the first quarter of the year, the Office for National Statistics has confirmed, though the final growth figure for last year was nudged slightly downwards.

The ONS announced on Tuesday that the UK economy grew at a faster rate than many had anticipated at the start of the year, with GDP climbing by 0.6 per cent.

Real GDP per head rose by 0.6 per cent in the first quarter of the year.

Businesses rushed to build up stockpiles while activity surged rapidly as tensions in Venezuela and the Middle East intensified, according to official figures.

The data may prove bittersweet for Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who is expected to be removed from her post as Andy Burnham takes over at Number 10 in mid-July, despite having presided over a period of economic expansion, as reported by City AM.

The UK economy contracted by 0.1 per cent in April, the second month of the Iran war, the ONS confirmed earlier this month.

The ONS also revised growth for 2025 marginally downwards to 1.3 per cent, rather than the previously reported 1.4 per cent.

Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: “Services were the main driver of growth in the latest quarter, with strengths in computer programming, wholesale and advertising only offset by falls in rental companies and recruitment agencies.”

While the ONS recorded overall growth of 0.6 per cent, business investment reached approximately 0.9 per cent in the first quarter of the year, coming in slightly ahead of expectations. The current account for trade also deteriorated further, with the balance falling to –£22.2bn.

City economists have cautioned that international trade disruption stemming from the Iran war could knock up to around 0.3 percentage points off UK economic growth, while inflation could remain above three per cent for the remainder of the year.

This leaves an incoming Prime Minister Burnham facing a challenging in-tray, despite a broad promise to oversee the biggest transformation of British politics in a lifetime.

Speaking on Monday, Burnham outlined plans to raise living standards through a 10-year programme centred on devolution, “greater” public control of utilities and “social value” reforms to areas such as public procurement.

The former Greater Manchester mayor pledged to deliver “good growth” that would be felt across all regions of the country. He indicated he would overhaul business rates to bolster high streets and pubs, while also seeking to “reindustralise” communities that have witnessed factory closures.

Industry bodies broadly welcomed Burnham’s push for stronger growth and closer collaboration with the private sector, with TheCityUK’s Miles Celic describing devolution as “vital” for businesses.

However, some analysts cautioned that the landmark speech fell short of offering concrete policy detail. Mark Smith, a managing director at professional services firm Ayming UK, raised concerns over corporation taxes and the government’s industrial strategy.

Smith said: “If Andy Burnham does become Prime Minister, he needs to set out a clear plan for business early on and, importantly, stick to it. Since Labour came to power, we’ve seen too many U-turns and too much speculation around key policy areas. That makes it incredibly difficult for businesses to plan ahead and commit to long-term investment.”

Wordle players faced one of the tougher challenges of the month Tuesday, with puzzle number 1,837 featuring a word containing three repeated letters, the second time in a matter of days that the daily New York Times puzzle has thrown a triple-letter curveball at solvers.

The answer to Tuesday’s Wordle is PUPPY, a five-letter noun referring to a young dog. The word contains just one vowel alongside four consonants, with the letter “P” appearing three separate times, a pattern that made the puzzle considerably harder than average to crack using typical opening strategies. According to the New York Times’ own WordleBot tool, which analyzes daily player performance, the average solver needed 4.2 guesses to land on the correct answer when playing in easy mode, and 4.1 guesses under the game’s harder rule set, putting Tuesday’s puzzle solidly in more difficult territory compared with a typical day.

Part of what made the word so tricky is that it avoids nearly all of the most commonly used letters in the English language, the building blocks most players rely on during their opening guesses. Popular starting words such as ORATE, frequently used by solvers because it efficiently tests several high-frequency letters at once, performed especially poorly against Tuesday’s answer, leaving an unusually large pool of more than 250 possible remaining words after a single guess, according to WordleBot’s analysis. Other commonly recommended opening words fared only modestly better; CLIPS narrowed the field to roughly 34 possible answers, while TARPS brought that number down further to about 28, both still leaving solvers with considerably more uncertainty than a typical day’s puzzle.

The puzzle’s repeated-letter structure added another layer of difficulty. Wordle answers occasionally reuse the same letter more than once, a pattern seen in past answers such as SHEEP and BLOOM, and puzzle guides have repeatedly reminded players not to rule out a letter too quickly after a single attempt, since the word may still contain that letter in a different position. Tuesday’s puzzle pushed that principle further than usual by repeating the same letter three separate times, a configuration that has appeared only rarely in the puzzle’s history.

Notably, Tuesday’s word arrived just two days after another triple-letter answer, EMCEE, appeared in the puzzle over the weekend, marking the second time in a short span that players encountered this unusual letter pattern. That back-to-back occurrence surprised even some of the puzzle’s most regular players and longtime trackers, who noted they hadn’t expected to see another triple-letter word so soon after the previous one.

Tuesday’s puzzle was edited by Tracy Bennett, who has overseen Wordle’s daily puzzle selection for the New York Times since the publication acquired the game. Wordle was originally created by software engineer Josh Wardle in 2021 as a project for his partner, before it surged in popularity at the end of that year and went viral globally in January 2022. The New York Times subsequently purchased the game for a seven-figure sum the following month, folding it into its broader suite of daily puzzle offerings, which now includes Connections, Strands, the Mini Crossword and several other games. Both the Times and Wardle have stated publicly that Wordle will remain free to play, distinguishing it from the subscription-based access required for some of the publication’s other puzzle offerings.

The core mechanics of Wordle have remained unchanged since its original release: players are given six attempts to guess a hidden five-letter English word, with the game providing color-coded feedback after each guess. A green tile indicates a letter is correct and in the right position, a yellow tile signals a letter is part of the word but placed incorrectly, and a gray tile shows a letter does not appear in the word at all. A new puzzle is released once per day at midnight in each player’s local time zone, and unlike many other daily digital games, the entire global player base receives the exact same word each day, a structural choice that has helped fuel much of the social-sharing culture surrounding the game, including the now-familiar grid of colored squares many players post to social media after completing each day’s puzzle.

For players who came up short on Tuesday’s puzzle, strategy guides accompanying the day’s answer suggested that solvers down to their final two guesses should generally avoid speculative or unlikely word choices and instead favor options that satisfy every clue already revealed by the board, reserving riskier or more exploratory guesses for the earlier rounds of a puzzle when more information remains unknown.

Beyond the daily Wordle puzzle itself, the New York Times Games section has continued to expand its broader portfolio of word and logic puzzles, publishing daily hints and solutions across titles including Strands, Connections and its various spinoff formats, reflecting the franchise’s continued growth as one of the more dominant fixtures in the casual daily puzzle gaming space since its rapid rise to prominence in 2022.