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Twenty days into the war, Washington and Tel Aviv trade blame over energy strikes. Trump says he warned against targeting Iranian gas fields, while Netanyahu dismisses claims Israel pushed the United States into conflict.

All you need to know about Day 20 of US-Israeli war on Iran

TEHRAN: The United States said it pounded Iranian missile sites near the key Strait of Hormuz as the Islamic Republic fired missiles Wednesday around the region, vowing to avenge the killing of its powerful security chief. Two people died from the missile barrage inside Israel, whose defences have helped it avoid mass casualties since it launched the war alongside the United States. With Iran mostly closing off the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway for one-fifth of the world&#39;s oil, the US military said it brought out some of the heaviest bombs in its arsenal to penetrate adjacent missile sites. The United States dropped several 5,000-pound (2,250 kg) bombs -- estimated to cost $288,000 each -- on &quot;hardened Iranian missile sites&quot; near the coast that posed a threat to international shipping, Central Command said. Iran has sought to extract a heavy toll on the global economy in retaliation for the US-Israeli attack, including by driving up the cost of oil. US President Donald Trump earlier Tuesday fumed that American allies, which have largely distanced themselves from his war, were not lining up behind the United States to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. But Trump earlier Tuesday boasted that the US military did not need its allies, writing on his Truth Social platform: &quot;WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!&quot; &#39;National awakening&#39;&nbsp;Israel announced Tuesday that it killed security chief Ali Larijani, a key force leading Iran since the death of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the first strikes of the war on February 28. Iran&#39;s elite Revolutionary Guards in a statement said that the &quot;pure blood of this great martyr, like other dear martyrs, will be a source of honour, power and national awakening against the front of global arrogance and international Zionism&quot;. Iran will hold funerals Wednesday for Larijani and another powerful figure killed Tuesday by Israel, Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij paramilitary force, the Fars and Tasnim agencies reported. Israel vowed also to target Iran&#39;s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since the ruling clerics chose him to succeed his father. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again called for the end of the Islamic republic, although he and Trump have stopped short of saying that is their goal. The overthrow of Iran&#39;s authorities by the people &quot;will not happen all at once, it will not happen easily. But if we persist in this -- we will give them a chance to take their fate into their own hands,&quot; Netanyahu said in a televised statement. In contrast to Mojtaba Khamenei, Larijani, 68, had walked openly with crowds at a pro-government rally last week in Tehran. &quot;He has effectively been the figure in charge of the regime&#39;s survival, its regional policy and its defence strategy,&quot; David Khalfa, co-founder of the Atlantic Middle East Forum, told AFP.

US President Donald Trump speaks during a Friends of Ireland luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on March 17, 2026. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)

The United States said it pounded Iranian missile sites near the key Strait of Hormuz as the Islamic Republic fired missiles Wednesday around the region, vowing to avenge the killing of its powerful security chief. 

US pounds near key strait as Iran vows to avenge killing of security chief

Israeli army soldiers are seen among military vehicles in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on March 16, 2026.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Tuesday that Britain will not allow itself to be pulled into a broader conflict in the Middle East.


All you need to know about Day 17 of US-Israeli war on Iran

WASHINGTON: Oil prices kept rising as markets opened Sunday, with both benchmarks higher as the war in the Middle East disrupts global supplies. At around 00:15 GMT, the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 0.01 percent at $98.72 a barrel, while the price of Brent, the international benchmark for oil, was up 0.6 percent to $103.76. On stock markets, South Korea&#39;s Kospi attempted a cautious rebound and was up 1.3 percent in early trade in Asia, while Japan&#39;s Nikkei was flat. With Gulf states slashing production and oil tankers stuck in the Gulf, oil prices have risen 40 to 50% since the United States and Israel first attacked Iran on February 28. Investors fear the higher costs will slow economic growth and stoke inflation. The Strait of Hormuz, which usually sees passage of 20 percent of global oil and gas exports, remains effectively shut. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that the closure was &quot;short-term pain&quot; causing higher prices, adding that the war could end &quot;in the next few weeks.&quot; The International Energy Agency has warned that the Middle East war &quot;is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.&quot; US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets, including the oil export hub of Kharg Island, have also disrupted supplies.

An employee fills the tank of a motorcycle at a gas station in the Donkoi district of Vientiane on March 10, 2026, amid rising petrol prices (AFP)

Oil prices rise as Middle East war disrupts global supplies, with Brent above $103 and WTI near $99. Gulf production cuts and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz raise fears of inflation and slower economic growth.

Oil prices open higher as war in Middle East rages

LONDON: US President Donald Trump said the historical relationship between his country and Britain was &quot;not like it used to be&quot;, in an interview to British daily newspaper The Sun, amid a major transatlantic fall out over US-Israeli strikes against Iran. &quot;This was the most solid relationship of all. And now we have very strong relationships with other countries in Europe,&quot; he said, singling out France and Germany, after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer&#39;s initial refusal to allow the United States to use British military bases in its war with Iran. Trump said Starmer &quot;has not been helpful&quot;, adding: &quot;I never thought I&#39;d see that. I never thought I&#39;d see that from the UK. We love the UK.&quot; In a telephone interview from the White House on Monday evening, Trump said: &ldquo;This was the most solid relationship of all. And now we have very strong relationships with other countries in &nbsp;Europe.&rdquo; &quot;It&#39;s a different world, actually. It&#39;s just a much different kind of relationship that we&rsquo;ve had with your country before. &quot;It&rsquo;s very sad to see that the relationship is obviously not what it was,&quot; he added. The scathing comments come a day after Trump described Starmer&#39;s reaction as &quot;very disappointing&rdquo; in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. He added that Starmer&rsquo;s later decision to allow the use of UK bases on specific grounds as &quot;useful&quot; but said it &quot;took far too much time&quot;. Any potential military action in the Middle East is politically sensitive in the UK following former prime minister Tony Blair&#39;s disastrous support for the US-led invasion of Iraq. &#39;National interest&#39;&nbsp; Starmer defended his position to parliament on Monday. &quot;President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain&#39;s national interest,&quot; he told lawmakers. &quot;That is what I have done and I stand by it,&quot; he added. After initially refusing to have any role in the strikes, Starmer on Sunday announced that he had agreed to a US request to use British military bases for a &quot;specific and limited defensive purpose&quot;. His Downing Street office said Starmer took the decision after Iran fired missiles over the weekend that put British interests and people &quot;at risk&quot;. &quot;We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learnt those lessons. Any UK actions must always have a lawful basis and a viable thought-through plan,&quot; he added in parliament. The prime minister also said that British military bases in Cyprus &quot;are not being used by US bombers&quot; during the US-Israeli war with Iran. Britain&#39;s Akrotiri air force base on Cyprus came under attack by an unmanned Iranian drone that hit the base&#39;s runway early on Monday. Starmer said the strike &quot;was not in response to any decision that we have taken,&quot; adding that the British government believed the drone &quot;was launched prior to our announcement&quot;. Iran&#39;s approach is becoming &quot;more reckless and more dangerous&quot;, Starmer said. &quot;They are working ruthlessly and deliberately through a plan to strike, not only military targets, but also economic targets in the region, with no regard for civilian casualties. That is the situation we face today and to which we must respond,&quot; he added.

United Kingdom

Trump told The Sun the US-UK relationship is “not like it used to be,” criticizing PM Keir Starmer for denying Cyprus base access in the Iran war, while praising ties with France and Germany.

Trump says US-UK relationship 'not like it used to be'

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for dozens of locations in Lebanon on Tuesday, including a warning for residents in two southern Beirut neighbourhoods to stay away from several buildings ahead of imminent military action. &quot;Urgent warning to the residents of Lebanon, specifically in the villages which names are shown. For your safety you must evacuate your homes immediately,&quot; said a statement by the military&#39;s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Telegram, which listed 50 locations. Many of the locations were across the south of Lebanon, which Israel regularly targets with the aim of hitting Hezbollah infrastructure. &quot;You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, against which the IDF will operate in the near future,&quot; he told the residents of southern Beirut neighbourhoods Ghobeiry and Haret Hreik in another evacuation warning. Lebanon&#39;s government on Monday took the unprecedented step of banning Hezbollah&#39;s military and security activity, prompting the Iran-backed group to lash out at the decision. Hezbollah is represented in both the government and parliament, and the move came hours after it announced it had launched rockets and drones towards Israel early Monday to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks. Israel bombarded Beirut&#39;s southern suburbs and dozens of villages in south Lebanon on Monday in response, vowing to make the group pay a &quot;heavy price&quot;. The Lebanese health ministry said the strikes killed at least 31 people and wounded at least 149.

Israeli army ordered new evacuation orders for multiple locations across Lebanon

Israel army issues new evacuation warnings in Lebanon 

ISLAMABAD: &nbsp;War, artificial intelligence, and climate catastrophe dominated Google&#39;s year-end searches, revealing a world gripped by uncertainty as billions of users turned to Google seeking understanding amid unprecedented turmoil. The Google Year in Search 2025 list, which analyzes billions of queries made across the platform, shows users repeatedly turned to the internet to make sense of geopolitical conflict, economic pressure, rapid technological change, and escalating environmental crises. Gemini, Google&#39;s AI assistant, claimed the top spot as the year&#39;s most-searched term globally. Chinese AI company DeepSeek also ranked in the top 10, reflecting widespread fascination with rapidly advancing technology. Users searched phrases like &lsquo;AI replacing jobs,&rsquo; &lsquo;AI regulation,&rsquo; and &lsquo;how safe is AI,&rsquo; signaling deep anxiety about automation&#39;s impact. War-related searches surged throughout the year. Queries such as &lsquo;World War 3,&rsquo; &lsquo;Middle East war,&rsquo; and &lsquo;global security&rsquo; ranked among the most searched topics globally, reflecting persistent concern over instability in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and beyond. The assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk topped global news searches, followed by Iran, which saw heightened interest during a 12-day conflict with Israel in June. The death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pontiff, also generated massive traffic. Environment, tech, and entertainment searchesClimate disasters pushed environmental searches to record levels. In the United States, the LA Fires and Hurricane Melissa dominated, while heatwaves, floods, and wildfires triggered spikes across Asia, Europe, and North America. Tech leaders remained under intense scrutiny. Elon Musk topped business-related searches, followed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and NVIDIA&#39;s Jensen Huang, whose company became central to AI chip supply amid US-China semiconductor rivalries. American singer d4vd emerged as the most searched person globally after Los Angeles police found a 14-year-old girl&#39;s body in his Tesla over the summer, triggering widespread media attention and an ongoing investigation. Entertainment offered escapism. Oscar-winning film &quot;Anora&quot; led movie searches, while &quot;Monster: The Ed Gein Story&quot; and &quot;Squid Game 3&quot; dominated television. Even consumer culture reflected authenticity concerns, with &quot;How do I know if my Labubu is real?&quot; spiking as collectors sought genuine designer toys. Cricket searches dominated sports, with India vs England matches ranking second globally, alongside the Club World Cup and Asia Cup. In a statement accompanying the release, Google said Year in Search offers &ldquo;a snapshot of what mattered most to people around the world in 2025,&rdquo; capturing moments of crises as well as collective curiosity. &quot;Tell me about...&quot; searches surged 70% year-over-year, while &quot;How do I...&quot; queries increased 25%, suggesting people are seeking a more profound understanding rather than quick facts, according to Google.

Europe

Asia

Charlie Kirk's assassination, Iran's 12-day conflict with Israel, and Pope Francis's death topped news queries in 2025. American singer d4vd became the year's most searched person globally following a death investigation.

War, AI and climate fears dominate Google searches in 2025

&nbsp;KYIV: Ukrainian negotiators are due to hold talks in the United States on Sunday to discuss Washington&#39;s plan to end the war with Russia, with Kyiv facing pressure on both the military and political fronts. As Russia advances on the front line, its forces targeted Ukraine&#39;s capital and the region for two nights in a row ahead of the talks in the United States. A drone attack in the outskirts of Kyiv killed one person and wounded 11 on Saturday night, the regional governor said. Hours earlier, a Ukrainian security source said Kyiv was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers in the Black Sea that it believed were covertly transporting sanctioned Russian oil. The US talks come amid turbulence for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government <span style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" id="isPasted">&mdash; a blockbuster corruption probe forced him to sack his chief of staff and top negotiator Andriy Yermak on Friday. The Ukraine team <span style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" id="isPasted">&mdash;&nbsp;now led by Rustem Umerov <span style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" id="isPasted">&mdash; is due to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff in Florida on Sunday, a US official said. Washington has put forward a plan to end the more than three-year conflict that it is seeking to finalise with Moscow and Kyiv&#39;s approval. An initial 28-point proposal <span style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" id="isPasted">&mdash; drafted without input from Ukraine&#39;s European allies <span style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" id="isPasted">&mdash; would have seen Kyiv withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region and the United States de facto recognize the Donetsk, Crimea and Lugansk regions as Russian. The United States pared back the original draft following criticism from Kyiv and Europe, but the current contents remain unclear. On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron hosts Zelensky for talks in Paris, the French presidency announced. Russian oil terminal hit&nbsp;Hours before Ukraine&#39;s delegation was to depart, one of Russia&#39;s largest oil terminals halted operations on Saturday following an attack by sea drones. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), a group that includes US oil majors Chevron and ExxonMobil and which owns the terminal, called the strike a &quot;terrorist attack&quot;. Ukraine, which did not comment on the incident, regularly targets Russian energy facilities in a bid to sap the country&#39;s war chest as the conflict grinds through its fourth year. The CPC pipeline, which begins in Kazakhstan and ends at the terminal, is a major conduit for Kazakh oil and one of the world&#39;s largest by volume, handling around one percent of global supplies. However, a Ukrainian source claimed responsibility for attacks on two ships in the Black Sea allegedly covertly transporting sanctioned Russian oil. The Virat and the Kairos, which were empty, were rocked by explosions off Turkey&#39;s coast late Friday, according to the Turkish transport ministry. One of the two was struck again early Saturday, the ministry said. &quot;Modernised Sea Baby naval drones successfully targeted the vessels,&quot; a source in Ukraine&#39;s SBU security service told AFP. The source shared a video that purported to show sea drones gliding towards the two ships, before sparking explosions. Drone attacksRussia has kept up its night-time attacks on its neighbour. Mykola Kalashnyk, the Kyiv regional governor, reported in the early hours of Sunday &quot;another enemy drone attack&quot;. &quot;Unfortunately, as a result of the enemy attack on Vyshgorod, one person was killed and 11 were wounded. Among them is one child,&quot; Kalashnyk wrote on Telegram. The latest attack followed a Russian drone and missile attack on Friday night that killed three people and left hundreds of thousands across Ukraine without power. Russia, which denies targeting civilians, says it struck energy infrastructure powering Ukraine&#39;s military-industrial complex. Ukraine says Russia&#39;s attacks are a cynical ploy to wear down its civilian population. After Saturday night&#39;s intense explosions that kept many in the capital awake, Galyna Bondarenko, a Ukrainian media worker, told AFP in Kyiv that the blast had sent debris flying into her home. &quot;There was a piece of debris next to the bed, which hit the bed and got stuck,&quot; she said.

FILE: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump participate in a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 18, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images/File)

Kyiv’s delegation travels to the US for talks on Washington’s revised war-ending plan as Russia intensifies strikes. Kyiv faces political turmoil, drone attacks, and mounting pressure after targeting Russian oil infrastructure and tankers in the Black Sea.

Ukraine negotiators to hold talks in US on plan to end war

ISLAMABAD:&nbsp;Israel&#39;s military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir dismissed several senior officers over their failure to prevent the October 2023 attacks by Hamas. Following an investigation, Zamir said late Sunday he had fired and also reprimanded several senior commanders over the military&#39;s failure &quot;to protect the civilians of the State of Israel.&quot; Israel&#39;s military chief on Nov. 10 called for a &quot;systemic investigation&quot; into the failures that led to Hamas&#39;s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as the government dragged its feet on establishing a state commission of inquiry on the matter. &#39;A&nbsp;significant step&#39;Zamir made the call following the publication of a report by an expert committee he himself had appointed, which, according to him, marks the conclusion of the military&#39;s internal investigations into the Oct. 7 attacks. &quot;The expert committee&#39;s report presented today is a significant step toward achieving the comprehensive understanding that we, as a society and as an organization, require.&quot; Zamir was quoted as saying in the report. &ldquo;To ensure that such failures never recur, a broader understanding is needed &mdash; one that encompasses the inter-organizational and inter-hierarchical interfaces that have not yet been examined.&quot;

FILE: Israel's military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir speaks during a funeral in Kfar Saba on November 11, 2025 (AFP)

Dismisses and reprimands senior officers over failures linked to Hamas’s October 2023 attack, urging broader investigation; Zamir made the call following the publication of a report by an expert committee he himself had appointed

Israeli military chief says army failed to protect Oct 7 attack

WASHINGTON: More than two decades later, Congress is on the verge of writing a closing chapter to the war in Iraq. The Senate voted Thursday to repeal the resolution that authorized the 2003 US invasion, following a House vote last month that would return the basic war power to Congress. The amendment by Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, and Indiana Sen. Todd Young, a Republican, was approved by voice vote to an annual defense authorization bill that passed the Senate late Thursday &mdash; a unanimous endorsement for ending the war that many now view as a mistake. Iraqi deaths were estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and nearly 5,000 US troops were killed in the war after President George W. Bush&rsquo;s administration falsely claimed that then-President Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way the war ends, not with a bang but a whimper,&rdquo; Kaine said after the vote, which lasted only a few seconds with no debate and no objections. Still, he said, &ldquo;America is forever changed by those wars, and the Middle East is too.&rdquo; Supporters in both the House and Senate say the repeal is crucial to prevent future abuses and to reinforce that Iraq is now a strategic partner of the United States. The House added a similar amendment to its version of the defense measure in September, meaning the repeal is likely to end up in the final bill once the two chambers reconcile the two pieces of legislation. Both bills also repeal the 1991 authorization that sanctioned the US-led Gulf War. While Congress appears poised to pass the repeal, it is unclear whether President Donald Trump will support it. During his first term, his administration cited the 2002 Iraq resolution as part of its legal justification for a 2020 US drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani. It has otherwise been rarely used. Young said after the vote that he thinks Trump should &ldquo;take great pride&rdquo; in signing the bill after campaigning on ending so-called &ldquo;forever wars,&rdquo; especially because he would be the first president in recent history to legally end a longstanding war. He said the vote establishes an important precedent. &ldquo;Congress is now very clearly asserting that it is our prerogative and our responsibility not only to authorize but also to bring to an end military conflicts,&rdquo; Young said. The bipartisan vote, added to the larger bipartisan defense measure, came amid a bitter partisan standoff over a weeklong government shutdown. Young said the quick vote was an &ldquo;extraordinary moment&rdquo; that he hopes &ldquo;will help some people see that we can still do consequential things in the U.S. Congress.&rdquo; The Senate also voted to repeal the 2002 resolution two years ago on a 66-30 vote. While some Republicans privately told Kaine that they were still opposed to the measure, none objected to the unanimous vote on the floor Thursday evening. A separate 2001 authorization for the global war on terror would remain in place under the bill. While the 2002 and 1991 resolutions are rarely used and focused on just one country, Iraq, the 2001 measure gave President George W. Bush broad authority for the invasion of Afghanistan, approving force &ldquo;against those nations, organizations, or persons&rdquo; that planned or aided the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Passed in September 2001, it has been used in recent years to justify US military action against groups &mdash; including al-Qaida and its affiliates, such as the Islamic State group and al-Shabab &mdash; that are deemed to be a threat against America.

Congress is set to withdraw the 2002 Iraq War authorization with bipartisan support, formally ending the conflict and reinforcing congressional war powers, as Iraq is now seen as a strategic US ally.


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