The US and Israel attacked Iran last Saturday in what US president Donald Trump said was an expansive operation to destroy the country’s military capabilities and eliminate the threat of it creating a nuclear weapon.

Iran’s foreign ministry said it would defend its homeland as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps initiated counterattacks, launching drones and missiles at Israel. Further strikes were launched at US military installations in countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE and Qatar.

The spiralling conflict has now spread beyond the region, dragging in Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka, and Turkey amid fears that the major conflict could drag on for weeks.

It follows weeks of pressure from Trump on Tehran to make a deal to constrain its nuclear programme. In the lead-up to the strikes, Washington built up a significant fleet of warships near Iran.

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The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and three guided-missile destroyers arrived in January to bolster the number of warships in the region. The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, and four accompanying destroyers were also dispatched from the Caribbean.

At least 165 people were reported killed at a girls’ school in southern Iran in the Israeli-US strikes, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency. Shrapnel from an Iranian missile attack on the capital of the UAE killed one person, state media said.

28 Feb: Ayatollah’s compound was one of the first targets

Israel announced it had launched an attack on Iran shortly after explosions were heard in Tehran on Saturday morning. One of the first strikes hit near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It wasn’t immediately clear where Khamenei was at the time, as he hadn’t been seen for days.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News that Khamenei and president Masoud Pezeshkian were alive “as far as I know” – though President Trump later said the Ayatollah had died in the attacks. This was then confirmed by Iran state media later on.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said the attacks had been conducted “to remove threats”. Sirens were heard across Israel to warn the public about possible incoming missile strikes.

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Iran strikes back at Israel and US bases

Later on Saturday, Bahrain said a missile attack targeted the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in the island kingdom. Witnesses heard sirens and explosions in Kuwait, home to US Army Central. Explosions could also be heard in Qatar, where Al Udeid Air Base hosts thousands of service members.

Iraq and the United Arab Emirates closed their airspace, and sirens sounded in Jordan.

An apartment building in northern Israel was damaged and shrapnel fell in multiple sites, according to media and police. But Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said there had been no significant hits in Israel and rescue services said there were no injuries reported from missile barrages across the country.

Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, meanwhile, have vowed to resume attacks on Red Sea shipping routes and on Israel, according to two senior Houthi officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

28 Feb: Trump tells Iranians to topple their government

It took over an hour for Trump to make an official announcement on the US involvement in what he termed “major combat operations”.

In an eight-minute video on social media, Trump indicated the US was striking for reasons far beyond the nuclear programme, listing grievances stretching back to the beginning of the Islamic Republic following a revolution in 1979 that turned Iran from one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East into a fierce foe.

Trump told Iranians to take cover but urged them to later rise up and topple the Islamic leadership.

“When we are finished, take over your government,” Trump said. “It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”

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28 Feb: Fighting grounds flights and disrupts commercial air travel

The fighting has disrupted air travel in the region.

Israel and the UAE, home to both the long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad, closed their airspace Saturday. Qatar Airways Group said it has temporarily cancelled flights to and from Doha because Qatari airspace also was closed.

Planes en route to Israel were rerouted to other airports.

Virgin Atlantic cancelled its flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to Dubai and said it would avoid flying over Iraq, meaning flights to and from India, the Maldives, Dubai and Riyadh could take slightly longer. Virgin Atlantic said all flights would carry appropriate fuel in case they need to reroute on short notice.

Turkish Airlines said on X that flights to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan will be suspended until Monday and flights to Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman will be suspended on Saturday.

Dutch airline KLM previously said it was suspending Tel Aviv flights starting Sunday.

1 March: UK gives US permission to use RAF bases

Meanwhile, at the end of the weekend, Sir Keir Starmer dramatically changed his mind over giving the Americans permission to use RAF bases in Cyprus to tackle the growing threat from Iran.

In a late statement on Sunday evening, the prime minister insisted he was giving permission for the “limited specific defensive purpose” of defending UK and US allies across the Middle East as Iran continues to lash out.

It follows defence secretary John Healey revealing that two Iranian missiles were aimed in the direction of Cyprus where the UK has bases.

Mr Trump later said he was disappointed in the delay over the decision from Sir Keir.

A drone hit the British RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus on Sunday with two more intercepted on Monday. Sir Keir Starmer said this was “not in response to any decision that we have taken” but was launched before Britain’s announcement that it would allow America to use its bases.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon, Sir Keir defended the UK’s “deliberate” decision not to join in with the wave of strikes by the US and Israel on Iran at the weekend, saying: “It is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest. That is what I’ve done, and I stand by it.”

2 March: War widens to include Tehran-backed militias

Iran and Iranian-backed militias have fired missiles at Israel and Arab states, reportedly hitting the American embassy compound in Kuwait, while Israel and the United States pounded targets in Iran as the war in the Middle East expanded on Monday.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said the US-Israeli airstrike campaign has killed 555 people so far in Iran so far.

As the American and Israeli airstrikes continued, top Iranian security official Ali Larijani vowed on X that “we will not negotiate with the United States”.

Blasts were reported in Jerusalem, Dubai, Abu Dhabi in UAE, Doha in Qatar, and Manama in Bahrain as the conflict entered its third day.

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2 March: US embassy ‘hit in Kuwait’ as American death toll rises

Smoke was seen rising from the vicinity of the US embassy in Kuwait, according to witnesses, and the US consulate urged Americans to “not come to the embassy”.

Three American troops were killed and five are seriously injured, the US military said, confirming its first casualties in the conflict. A fourth American service member was confirmed dead later on Monday.

President Trump has suggested the conflict with Iran could go on for the next four weeks after the US president earlier said that operations are “ahead of schedule”.

The chaos of the conflict was further highlighted on Monday when the US military said Kuwait had shot down three American F-15E Strike Eagles during a friendly fire incident. US Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely and are in a stable condition.

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2 March: Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah exchange fire

Meanwhile, Israel launched a wave of missile and drone attacks on Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut in Lebanon on Monday and ordered evacuations.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz has warned that Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem is now a “target for elimination”.

It comes after the group fired at Israel in retaliation for killing Iran’s supreme leader.

3 March: Death toll continues to climb as fears of protracted regional war grow

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said on Tuesday the US-Israeli operation has killed at least 555 people. In Israel, where several locations were hit by Iranian missiles, 11 people were killed. Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah killed 52 people in Lebanon. The US military has now confirmed six deaths of American service members. Three people were killed in the United Arab Emirates, and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.

The latest death tolls come a day after US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said the conflict “is not endless” as he held the Trump administration’s first news briefing since strikes were launched on Saturday. He insisted Iran “had a gun to our head” as he defended the joint US-Israeli attacks that sparked the widening conflict, amid growing concerns it could spiral into a protracted regional war.

The UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia are now among the nations struck in retaliatory attacks.

And president Trump warned later on Monday that the worst is yet to come. “We haven’t even started hitting them hard,” he told CNN. “The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon.”

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, claimed he and Mr Trump are saving the world from the threat of Iran.

The conflict is already having a global economic impact with oil prices shooting up in response to the crisis.

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3 March: US embassy in Saudi Arabia hit as Israel ramps up operations in Lebanon

Iran struck the US embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital with a drone early on Tuesday as it kept hitting targets around the region. The US State Department ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family in Kuwait following the attack there, as well as Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar and Jordan as a precaution.

Meanwhile, Israel and the US continued to pound Iran with airstrikes on Tuesday, targeting nuclear facilities and missile infrastructure in particular.

In Lebanon, Israel launched more strikes on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia group, and said its soldiers are “operating in southern Lebanon”. Explosions could be heard and smoke seen in a southern suburb of Beirut.

4 March: War spreads beyond Middle East

Iran was forced to deny attacking Turkey after a ballistic missile entered the Nato country’s airspace, threatening to further spread the conflict beyond the Middle East.

It was the first time Nato air defences were used since the conflict in the Middle East began, raising significant fears of a major expansion in the war.

US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and Israeli strikes on Lebanon, continue into their fifth day. Images showed buildings reduced to rubble in Beirut by huge Israeli strikes, which by Wednesday had killed dozens of people.

Elsewhere, a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, killing at least 87 people.

CENTCOM said in a statement it had “struck or sunk to the bottom of the ocean” more than 20 Iranian ships, including the warship sunk off Sri Lanka in the first such action by a US submarine since World War Two.

5 March: Azerbaijan dragged into the conflict

As Iran, Israel and the US traded strikes for a sixth day, another country was dragged into the war.

Azerbaijan accused Iran of firing drones at its territory and ordered its southern airspace closed for 12 hours. Two drones landed on an airport and near a school, and Azerbaijan’s government warned the attack would “not remain unanswered”.

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Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has started offloading the 208-member crew of a second Iranian vessel off its coast on Thursday, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said, a day after Wednesday’s attack by the US on an Iranian warship.

In Iran, at least 1,230 people have been killed, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, including 175 schoolgirls and staff killed at a primary school in Minab in the country’s south on the first day of the war.

6 March: Israeli attacks on Lebanon intensify again

Israel said it has launched a “wave of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah” in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where it instructed thousands of people to evacuate.

Explosions and flashes lit up the night sky over Beirut’s southern suburbs. The Israeli military said it had carried out 26 waves of strikes overnight in the southern suburbs, saying targets included Iran-backed Hezbollah militia command centres and weapons storage facilities.

The Lebanese health ministry has reported 123 people have been killed and another 683 wounded as a result of Israeli attacks this week. There have been no reported fatalities in Israel as a result of Hezbollah attacks.

Meanwhile, Iranian forces said Kheibar missiles were fired toward Tel Aviv on Friday as part of the 21st wave of its “Operation True Promise 4″. In a statement, the IRGC said the wave began with a combined missile and drone operation targeting sites in the heart of Tel Aviv.

Anger among the players reached boiling point when an ATP representative sent an email informing them that a chartered flight out of the Middle East was being arranged – but would cost them $5,000 (£3,750) each.

Prize money for winning the Fujairah tournament would have been almost $9,500 (£7,100). Losing in the first-round would have been $600 (£470).

After players made the situation public, the ATP said it would cover the cost of the chartered flight, which went to Milan via a stop in Egypt.

Sharipov was not able to fly to Italy because he does not have a European visa.

Disembarking in Egypt was an option, but meant leaving his luggage – including the racquets, kit and equipment which are his livelihood – with no guarantee when he would be reunited with it.

The 23-year-old felt he had no option but to stay in the UAE and search for alternatives.

“The ATP knew I could not travel to Europe so I think they should have said ‘we will sort something out for you’,” Sharipov told BBC Sport.

“They did not do this. They just said ‘there is a flight that you cannot make’. That’s really bad in my view.”

McCabe was able to leave on Tuesday, managing to book on to the first flight back to Sydney.

“It was a bit of a shock that the ATP didn’t support us with the flights getting out of there. We were left to our own devices,” said 22-year-old McCabe.

“As soon as we heard we needed to pay five grand everyone was pulling their hair out.”

The pair say those who arranged their own flights will not be reimbursed by the ATP. They have also been told players will receive no compensation in the absence of prize money.

BBC Sport has contacted the ATP for comment.

LONDON (AP) — London police say four men have been arrested on suspicion of aiding Iran by spying on the Jewish community.

In a statement Friday, the Metropolitan Police said the suspects, one Iranian and three dual British-Iranian nationals, were taken into custody on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service. The men are suspected on spying on locations and individuals.

Police said the men, aged 22, 40, 52 and 55, were arrested at addresses in and around north London shortly after 1 a.m. and that searches are ongoing at the addresses as well as other properties nearby.

Six other men were also arrested in Harrow, west London, on suspicion of assisting an offender and have been taken into custody, the force said.

“We understand the public may be concerned, in particular the Jewish community, and as always, I would ask them to remain vigilant and if they see or hear anything that concerns them, then to contact us,” said Commander Helen Flanagan, who is in charge of counterterrorism policing in London.

The arrests come as the U.S. and Israel continue to strike Iran, which has kept up retaliatory strikes on Israel, U.S. bases and across the region. Britain is not involved in offensive operations but is assisting in regional defense.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri topped the timesheets at the end of the first day of practice for the 2026 season, with Britain’s title favourite George Russell third fastest, just behind Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

The pace was a reversal from the first session of the day when all four Mercedes-powered teams – Mercedes, McLaren, Alpine and Williams – struggled for some reason. A sign, perhaps, of just how sensitive and capricious these new power units can be. And how track-specific. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted FP1 had been a “difficult, challenging” session.

By the time second practice came around, Mercedes had sorted out their issues from FP1, which apparently concerned the recharging of the battery.  

Piastri’s quickest lap of 1min19.729sec was two tenths quicker than Antonelli’s fastest lap, with Russell a further tenth behind. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, who had gone quickest in FP1, were fourth and fifth fastest, just ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

McLaren’s reigning world champion Lando Norris endured a difficult day. Norris only managed seven laps in FP1 before retiring with a gearbox issue. And he found himself over a second off the pace of his team-mate Piastri in FP2.

At least he is not driving an Aston Martin. One day after team principal Adrian Newey admitted his drivers were worried about the possibility of “permanent nerve damage” in their fingers due to the violence of the vibrations emanating from Aston Martin’s Honda power unit, Fernando Alonso failed to make it out of the garage at all in FP1 while Lance Stroll managed just three laps.

The Aston pair fared slightly better in FP2, managing 18 and 13 laps respectively. But they were still slowest of all the drivers to set a lap, five and six seconds off Piastri’s pace respectively.

Newey admitted in a press conference between sessions that the team had just two “operational batteries” left for the entire weekend – the two in the cars – having brought four with them. 

Tottenham star Pedro Porro ‘smashed everything’ in frustration as he was subbed off in the defeat to Crystal Palace on a humiliating night for the north London club.

Home fans were left in disbelief on Thursday night as their relegation fears suddenly became very real. Spurs took the lead through Dominic Solanke but a collapse sparked by Micky van de Ven’s red card saw Palace score three times in 12 minutes.

Spurs remain without a win since the turn of the year and are on a miserable 11-match winless run – the club’s longest spell without a victory since 1935.

As Tottenham tried in vain to get back into the game, Igor Tudor brought on Xavi Simons after 73 minutes, replacing Porro, who had been wearing the captain’s armband following van de Ven’s dismissal.

The Spainard reacted furiously to the decision, shouting at the fourth official while ignoring Tudor on the touchline.

A member of the Tottenham backroom staff approached him to usher him towards the bench with Porro seen smacking on the seats and throwing a water bottle in the dugout before the camera cuts back to the match action.

Former goalkeeper Joe Hart, well positioned in the gantry as part of TNT Sport’s coverage saw more madness unfold, telling viewers: ‘He’s smashed everything as he’s gone onto the bench and given the fourth official a real earful.

‘It’s a real head loss. He’s obviously an emotional character, there is fire that runs through him and that’s sometimes how he gets the best out of himself.

‘But you also need to control that. He’s such an important player for Tottenham now.’

With nine games, Tottenham are now just a point above the relegation zone in 16^th ahead of Nottingham Forest and West Ham United in 17^th and 18^th respectively.

A huge win for West Ham at Fulham midweek closed the gap for the Hammers.

Spurs are back in action on 15 March away to Liverpool before they host Nottingham Forest in a huge relegation scrap the following week.

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Its last trading day will be on March 21

A high street shop in a Cambridgeshire town is set to close this month. The Barnardo’s branch in March has announced that it will close on March 21.

The team which runs the charity shop wrote in a post on Facebook: “Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years. We have loved being part of the local community and will miss seeing you all.

“We’d love to see you in store before we close, with some great bargains available too.”

Barnardo’s has a 30 per cent off sale until it closes. The charity has more than 600 shops across the UK, with the proceeds going towards caring for vulnerable children.

March has seen a few businesses close their doors over the last few years. Clarks shoe shop and Tesco Express closed in 2024.

The border separating Iran and Turkey is one of the few ways journalists have been able to speak to people coming out of Iran, with those leaving telling the BBC they feel unsafe and scared.

Hundreds escaping the war are passing through that border, but a few are going back into the country.

The BBC’s James Waterhouse reports.

Commander Helen Flanagan, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said: “We understand the public may be concerned, in particular the Jewish community, and as always, I would ask them to remain vigilant and if they see or hear anything that concerns them, then to contact us.”

The use of a compulsory purchase order (CPO), if used, would allow the authority to buy up the land and remove a number of remaining residents along streets marked for demolition.

This comes after plans to flatten a total of 112 homes across three streets to build 105 in their place in the former mining town were given the green light in December last year.

Residents in Horden’s numbered Third and Fifth Streets opposed to the planned demolition. (Image: ANDY FUTERS)

The £10.7m plans would see Third and Fifth Street reduced to rubble and the former Fourth Street site developed into two, three, and four-bed homes and two-bed bungalows.

However, the plans were made subject to a legal challenge earlier this year by a group of Horden residents who are fiercely opposed to the plans, meaning the council have paused progress.

But the authority says it wants to “work with residents” to bring the development to life, and emphasised an order such as a CPO to remove residents would not be taken lightly.

Mike Allum, Durham County Council’s strategy and delivery manager, said: “We’re very ambitious about doing everything we can to make our council area a great place to live, work, visit and invest and that is why we have committed £10m, alongside the North East Combined Authority, for new housing in Horden.

“Due to a legal challenge to our planning consent, our timeline is currently on hold, but we want to deliver this housing by working with residents.

“This includes seeking to buy their properties through negotiation, compensating them and offering them support in finding new homes.

“Use of compulsory purchase powers would always be a last resort.”

As reported, residents in line to lose their homes due to the plans served the council with a challenge on January 23.

The council said it will “review and consider this challenge” – but a decision has not yet been reached.

One resident involved in the battle is Ray Bellingham, 68, who, alongside sister Moira, has lived in their Third Street home since they were children.

He is hoping the legal challenge can overturn the council’s plans in their entirety, as the siblings “don’t want to move”.

He told The Northern Echo earlier this year: “It has been non-stop all the time.

“If other people were in the same position as us, they would realise what pressure we are under. We are trying to save our homes.

“Other people are not in the position of having bulldozers take their homes away from them.”

Moira previously told the Echo: “They can send the bulldozer straight through the house and I’ll still be stood there.

“They will have to kill me.”

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Serious medical and mental health emergencies have been routine at the nation’s largest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility since its opening, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Data and recordings from more than a hundred 911 calls at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, along with interviews and court filings, offer a disturbing portrait of overcrowding, medical neglect, malnutrition and emotional distress.

Current and former detainees describe a camp where about 3,000 people have lived per day in loud and unsanitary quarters. They say detainees struggle to obtain health care as disease spreads, lose weight because of a lack of food, and fear security guards known to use force to put down disturbances.

“Every day felt like a week. Every week felt like a month. Every month felt like a year,” said Owen Ramsingh, a former property manager in Columbia, Missouri, who spent several weeks in the camp before his deportation in February to the Netherlands. “Camp East Montana was 1,000% worse than a prison.”

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson who did not provide their name rejected claims of subprime conditions, saying Camp East Montana detainees receive food, water and medical treatment in a facility that is regularly cleaned.

Here are some takeaways from AP’s reporting:

Camp averaged nearly one 911 call per day for months

After its opening in mid-August, staff at the camp made nearly one 911 call per day in its first five months of operation, according to data covering 130 calls from the City of El Paso obtained by The Associated Press.

In one call, a man is heard sobbing after being assaulted by another detainee. In another, a doctor says a man is banging his head against the wall while expressing suicidal thoughts. In a third, a nurse says a pregnant woman is in severe pain and has coronavirus.

The injured detainees ranged from a 19-year-old man who fell out of a bunk bed to a 79-year-old man struggling to breathe. At least 20 emergencies were reported as seizures, including some that resulted in serious head trauma.

Calls reveal repeated attempted suicides

The calls show detainees have repeatedly tried to harm themselves and expressed suicidal thoughts.

Two incidents have resulted in death. On Jan. 3, ICE said security guards responded after a 55-year-old Cuban man tried to harm himself and then used handcuffs and force to restrain him. A medical examiner ruled that Geraldo Lunas Campos’s death was a homicide caused by asphyxia.

On Jan. 14, staff reported that a 36-year-old Nicaraguan man died by suicide days after he was detained while working in Minnesota.

In addition to those cases, at least six other suicide attempts were reported, according to records from the City of El Paso.

The DHS spokesperson said the facility’s staff “closely monitors at-risk detainees” and provides mental health treatment.

ICE has not released inspection results

The Washington Post reported in September that a required ICE inspection found conditions at the facility violated at least 60 federal standards for immigration detention. But that report has never been released, unlike dozens of other inspections at facilities posted on ICE’s website.

DHS has called claims of violations described in the Post story false without explaining why the inspection report was wrong. ICE’s current database on detention facilities indicates Camp East Montana has never been inspected but is scheduled for one this fiscal year.

A DHS spokesperson said ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight recently completed an inspection at Camp East Montana but provided no other information and the results have not been made public.

Congresswoman calls for camp’s closure and contract investigation

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat who has toured the camp several times, is calling for its closure.

“This facility should not be operational. It feels like this contractor is reinventing the wheel, and people are losing their lives in their experiment,” she said.

She said the facility had temporarily cut its population below 1,900 when she visited last month and will be closed to visitors temporarily because of a measles outbreak.

On one visit, a female detainee showed Escobar a meager serving of scrambled eggs that was served still frozen in the middle. She learned detainees protested after they had stopped receiving juice, fruit and milk with their meals.

Escobar met with a detainee from Ecuador who said his arm had been broken during a violent arrest by immigration agents in Minnesota. Weeks later, the congresswoman could still the fractured bones in his forearm poking up under the skin.

Escobar called for an investigation into contractor Acquisition Logistics LLC, which was awarded a contract worth up to $1.3 billion to build and operate the camp. She said the company, which didn’t return messages, and its subcontractors were not delivering services paid for by taxpayers.

“People should be moved by the abject cruelty, but if they’re not, I hope they’re moved by the fraud and corruption,” Escobar said.

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This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

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Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa. Biesecker reported from Washington.