54 m. ago Israel and Iran launch strikes a week into their war as new diplomatic effort takes shape

Israel and Iran have struck at one another again a week into their war as President Donald Trump weighs U.S. involvement and new diplomatic efforts appear to be taking place

Politics

70 m. ago Trump's indecision on Iran due to primal fear about 'another Libya'

Trump is confident he can still secure a diplomatic outcome amid the war between Israel and Iran. And one major military failure is playing on his mind as he issues a two-week grace period.

Politics

3 h. ago Asian shares are mixed and oil gains as world waits to see if US will join Israel's war against Iran

Crude oil prices have climbed and Asian shares are trading mixed as markets await more clarity on whether or not the U.S. will join Israel’s war against Iran

Politics

4 h. ago US debate over whether to bomb Iran recalls anguish of Iraq war

Shadow of intelligence debacle two decades ago hangs over Donald Trump as he considers joining Israeli attacks

Events

4 h. ago Fear and shock in Iran: ‘I’m constantly afraid a missile might hit my home’

Anahita, a Tehran resident in her 30s, tells of fleeing the city, surging inflation and her hopes for regime changeMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe greatest impact of this war is fear and anxiety. We don’t know whether this situation will last for weeks, months or even years. Our lives have been thrown off routine, I spend most of my time just reading the news. I’m constantly afraid that a missile might hit my home, my city or the homes of my relatives and friends in other places.I get the news from X and Instagram because we don’t have any reliable news networks and broadcasts that are not censored by the regime. We follow the updates through videos shared by people from different parts of the country on social media. The internet in Iran has become very slow and it was completely down yesterday [Wednesday]. Continue reading...

Events

9 h. ago Trump sets deadline of two weeks to decide if US will join Israel’s war on Iran

US president leaves window for negotiation after Israeli defence minister openly embraces regime change Middle East crisis – live updatesDonald Trump has set a two-week deadline to decide whether the US will join Israel’s war with Iran, allowing time to seek a negotiated end to the conflict, the White House has said.The decision to leave a window for diplomacy came after Israel’s defence minister openly embraced regime change in Tehran as a war aim. Continue reading...

Politics

11 h. ago Dubya Dubya II: Democrats see echoes of Bush Iraq War push in Trump’s Iran nukes rhetoric

“If this president wants to completely ignore the intelligence community, we are playing in dangerous ground,” one senator warned

Politics

11 h. ago War in Middle East 'to push oil price to $100': Experts sound alarm as Israel and Iran trade blows

Brent crude - the global benchmark for oil - reached a five-month high above $78 a barrel as Israel and Iran exchanged missile attacks.

Events

13 h. ago Israel’s attack has exposed Iran’s lack of firepower – but conflict could yet turn in Tehran’s favour

Iran has struggled to respond effectively after Israel killed many of its top military commandersIt is a week since Israel began its largest attack ever on Iran, and in conventional military terms it is clear that Tehran is under extreme pressure. Israel has been able to achieve superiority over Iran’s skies at extraordinary speed, within hours of launching its surprise assault. Its military claimed on Monday to have knocked out 120 Iranian air defence systems through a mixture of air and drone strikes, about a third of Tehran’s pre-war total.In response, Iran’s most effective weapon has been its stock of high-speed ballistic missiles, estimated at about 2,000 by Israel’s Defence Force (IDF) at the outset of hostilities last week. But the heavy targeting by Israel of launch sites in western Iran, in underground bases such as at Kermanshah – coupled with Israel’s grimly effective targeted killing of Iran’s top military commanders – have left Iran struggling to respond militarily and ...

Events

13 h. ago Tucker Carlson is doing a better job than Democrats of countering Trump on Iran: ‘We’re in such a bizarro world’

ANALYSIS: Carlson’s anti-war advocacy even earned him reluctant praise from his arch-nemesis, Jon Stewart, Richard Hall writes.

Politics

14 h. ago Keir Starmer must refuse to follow Donald Trump into war on Iran

Editorial: Should the US decide to join the Israeli attacks on Iran, there are strong moral and practical reasons why Britain should refuse to help its closest ally and stand aside

Politics

14 h. ago The Guardian view on Trump and Iran: Netanyahu’s war has no visible exit | Editorial

The US president promised to keep his country out of conflicts. The Israeli prime minister has other ideasThe maxim that wars are easy to start and hard to end does not appear to be troubling Benjamin Netanyahu. For the Israeli prime minister, conflict is an end as much as a means, extending his political survival. Under international pressure – however belated and insufficient – over the slaughter in Gaza, he launched the attack on Iran. Initially presented as essential to prevent Tehran from the imminent acquisition of a nuclear bomb, a claim running counter to US intelligence, it is increasingly discussed as the path to bringing down the regime. The defence minister, Israel Katz, has said that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “can no longer be allowed to exist”.Donald Trump has generally seen armed conflict as a trap rather than an escape route. He said that the US would “measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the war...

Politics

14 h. ago Rhetoric heats up and modern missiles evade defences as the conditions are set for yet more violence in the Middle East

Israel’s rhetoric has gone up into the use of the N (azi) word as the battlespace is being shaped for more bloodletting, World affairs editor Sam Kiley reports from Tel Aviv

Events

15 h. ago Netanyahu stuns Israelis by describing ‘personal cost’ of Iran war

Israeli prime minister prompts furious backlash for remarks in front of missile-struck hospital at height of Iran conflict Middle East crisis – live updatesBenjamin Netanyahu has evoked the spirit of London during the blitz, and pointed to his own family’s sacrifice amid the blood, toil, tears and sweat of his nation: the second postponement of his son’s wedding.The Israeli prime minister’s remarks, solemnly delivered to the cameras against the backdrop of a missile-struck hospital building in the southern city of Be’er Sheva, set off a howl of derision that echoed around the Hebrew-language internet, at the height of a war that Netanyahu unleashed on Friday. Continue reading...

Politics

17 h. ago Footballer pays 'best hotel fees' to shelter Iranians from bombs as Israel conflict escalates

Former Roma and Bayer Leverkusen star Sardar Azmoun has stepped forward to help fellow Iranians who have been urged to evacuate the country's major cities amid the conflict with Israel

Events

17 h. ago Netanyahu is using Muslim women’s 'rights’ to justify his war. What hideous, hollow hypocrisy | Mona Eltahawy

As his troops slaughter civilians in Gaza, he claims to be standing up for Iranian women’s autonomy. He is far from the first warmonger to do soThe Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has invoked the Iranian regime’s heinous women’s rights record to justify his heinous war on Iran. This is the man whose genocide of Palestinians in Gaza killed more women and children in its first year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades.“They’ve impoverished you, they’ve given you misery, they’ve given you death, they’ve given you terror, they shoot down your women, leaving this brave, unbelievable woman, Mahsa Amini, to bleed on the sidewalk for not covering her hair,” he told Iranians in an interview with Iran International.Mona Eltahawy writes the Feminist Giant newsletter. She is the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls and Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual RevolutionDo you have an opinion on the issues rais...

Events

19 h. ago Mapped: Where Iran and Israel’s missiles have struck as Tehran hits major hospital

Tensions escalate after Israel launches largest bombardment on Iran in decades early on Friday

Events

19 h. ago Ministers urged to publish legal advice on UK involvement in Israel

Calls follow news that attorney general advised government to limit its involvement to defending alliesUK politics live – latest updatesMiddle East crisis – live updatesMinisters are facing calls to publish legal advice given to the government on Israel’s war against Iran after reports emerged that the attorney general had warned that any UK involvement beyond defensive support would be illegal.Richard Hermer, the government’s most senior legal officer, is said to have raised concerns internally about the legality of joining a bombing campaign against Iran. Continue reading...

Politics

21 h. ago Donald Trump shocks Juventus stars with 'trans athletes dig' and Israel

US President Donald Trump left Juventus stars stunned as he asked them about transgender players and made comments on the Israel-Iran war in an awkward encounter during the Club World Cup

Politics

23 h. ago Iran Israel war LIVE: Missiles hit nuclear reactor as Iron Dome penetrated

Israel's Iron Dome appears to have buckled under Iranian bombardment after a hospital suffered direct hits - it comes as Israel struck a nuclear reactor in Iran

Events