Could this one man have been behind terrorist attacks on Jewish communities across Europe?

Legal papers, expert investigations and social media posts tell story of how a 32-year-old Iraqi appeared to run ‘proxy’ campaign

On Monday, a slightly dishevelled Iraqi man, shackled and dressed in beige prison overalls, was ushered into a Manhattan courtroom.

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, 32, pleaded not guilty to a series of terrorism-related offences, then gestured toward the judge and prosecutors. “I’m a prisoner of war. I’m not a threat,” he told them. “Children and women are being killed by your rockets.”

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Palestinian baby shot dead by Israeli troops in occupied West Bank

The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was in his mother’s arms when soldiers fired on family in Hebron

Israeli troops killed a seven-month-old Palestinian baby in the occupied West Bank and injured his parents after opening fire on the family’s car, despite it having complied with an order to stop.

Soldiers opened fire on Friday on a car carrying the infant and his parents in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was critically injured, evacuated in critical condition to a hospital, where he later died.

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Kuwait and Bahrain targeted by Iran after exchange of fire with US

Iran attacks American bases in Gulf states after Washington shoots down drones and strikes Iranian radar sites

Bahrain has said Iran fired ballistic missiles and drones at it and Kuwait, hours after the US and Iran exchanged strikes over the Gulf, the latest in a series of flare-ups that threatened to break the fragile ceasefire.

Air raid sirens rang out on Saturday in Bahrain and people were told to move to a safe location and await further instructions. Kuwait’s military said it was intercepting drones and missiles launched at the country.

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Blackouts, hyperinflation, dissent: Iran considers perilous prospect of peace

Conditions that led to bloody prewar protests have been made worse, commentators say

Iran is already preparing for the perilous transition from wartime unity to a fractious peace marked by hyperinflation, a 10% contraction in the economy, power cuts and calls for a triumphalist government to end its unprecedented hunting down of dissent.

With peace not yet secured, the debates within the regime about Iran’s future are only just starting to emerge but its rulers are clearly thinking about how after surviving the war, they can survive the peace.

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Israel strikes southern Lebanon after ordering evacuations of nine villages

Thousands flee including from village hosting at least 2,500 displaced people, one day after Hezbollah rejects ceasefire

Thousands fled their homes after Israel issued forced evacuation orders for nine villages in southern Lebanon before strikes that killed six people on Friday, a day after the Hezbollah militant group rejected a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon.

Hundreds of families left Anqoun, a village hosting at least 2,500 displaced people, after the Israeli military said it would soon operate against what it said were Hezbollah targets there, ordering residents to leave. The roads leading to Sidon, the closest large city, were choked with cars as families sought shelter.

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Friday briefing: How Gaza, Lebanon and Iran have found themselves caught in an escalation without end

In today’s newsletter: ​Global powers​ are focused on oil markets and elections​ but those living through conflict in the Middle East feel abandoned

Good morning. It’s been another week of brinkmanship via Truth Social and ceasefires broken before they’ve been announced.

While US president Donald Trump claims an agreement with Iran could happen soon, for those living in the Middle East it does not feel like peace is anywhere near. People have seen more bombs dropped in Lebanon this week; and the death toll continues to rise, national economies falter, and displacement abounds.

UK politics | Andy Burnham has signalled he would begin transforming the broken social care system this year if he became prime minister, he has said in an interview with the Guardian, accusing Westminster of “flinching away” from tackling difficult policy problems.

Environment | Humanity can raise living standards, reduce inequality and keep global heating within a 2C rise, according to a sweeping vision for planetary survival.

Ukraine | The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has called for face-to-face negotiations in a public letter addressed directly to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

England news | The poorest and most nature-deprived communities in England will be further left behind in their access to green spaces if proposed changes to planning laws go ahead, a report finds.

UK news | Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received private income from subletting three cottages on his Windsor Royal Lodge estate while paying a “peppercorn rent” to the crown estate, a report into royal property arrangements has revealed.

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UK shoppers return to high street as warm weather brings respite from shadow of war

British Retail Consortium figures show footfall rose in May, with consumer confidence improving after spending squeeze

Greater numbers of consumers went shopping last month as spring sunshine brought welcome relief to retailers, which have faced a squeeze on spending since the US-Israel war on Iran.

Figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and a separate survey by the accountancy firm BDO showed a bounce-back in footfall during May, reversing a sharp decline in April.

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Hezbollah rejects Israel-Lebanon truce as Trump scrambles to end Iran war

Group calls ceasefire a ‘roadmap to annihilate part of the Lebanese people’, throwing regional peace talks into doubt

Hezbollah has rejected a US-brokered ceasefire plan agreed by the Lebanese and Israeli governments, throwing the future of a truce in Lebanon and regional peace negotiations into question.

The group’s leader, Naim Qassem, called the plan a “roadmap to annihilate part of the Lebanese people” in a statement on Thursday.

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Oman resists US pressure to break ties with Iran over strait of Hormuz

Sultanate says talks with Tehran are limited to lawful management of waterway, but Washington has doubts about neutrality

Oman is resisting US pressure to break its links with Iran, and insists it has only been negotiating with Tehran on a future management system for the strait of Hormuz that would be compliant with international law. The aim would be to implement any regime after consulting the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Traditionally Oman, a longtime US ally that shares stewardship of the strait, has adopted the role of a back-channel mediator allowing it to remain neutral in disputes that have led to fissures in other parts of the Gulf.

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US House passes war powers resolution to curb Trump’s authority in Iran

Stunning rebuke to president as lawmakers vote 215-208 for measure forcing him to seek congressional approval

The US House of Representatives delivered a stunning rebuke to Donald Trump over his war on Iran on Wednesday, as representatives backed a move to force him to seek approval from Congress or withdraw US forces.

The House voted 215 to 208 in favor of the war powers resolution, as four Republicans voted with Democrats. The dissident Republicans were Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Tom Barrett of Michigan.

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Three Lebanese hospitals hit by Israeli forces in under a week

Airstrikes in south of country kill nine people and wound another 150, most of them medical staff

Three hospitals in southern Lebanon have been attacked by Israel in under a week, wounding more than 150 people and killing nine, according to Lebanon’s ministry of health.

Israel carried out an attack in the immediate vicinity of the public hospital in Tebnine on Wednesday, just days after strikes next to the Hiram and Jabal Amel hospitals in Tyre. The attack next to Jabal Amel on Monday killed four people and injured 127 – most of whom were medical staff.

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Far-right praise for shah’s secret police puts Reza Pahlavi on the spot

Son of deposed shah forced to distance himself from once-dreaded Savak as some of his ‘fascistic’ supporters glorify it

For decades, the Savak was seen as the most hated symbol of repression that kept Iran’s last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in power – and a main driving force behind the revolutionary fervor that toppled him in 1979.

Now the deposed monarch’s son, Reza Pahlavi, has been forced to distance himself from the once-dreaded security agency after some of his most vociferous supporters glorified it as the defining emblem in their drive to install him on the throne in a royal restoration.

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US and Iran launch fresh strikes amid stalled ceasefire talks

US military says it struck tanker and sites on Iran’s Qeshm Island and defended Kuwait and Bahrain from missile attacks

The US and Iran have exchanged fresh missiles and drone strikes, further jeopardising efforts by Washington to secure a new ceasefire agreement with Tehran.

US forces fired a Hellfire missile to disable a tanker attempting to break through the American blockade of the strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, and later said they repelled Iranian reprisal attacks in the region and attacked sites on Iran’s Qeshm Island.

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Democrats who marched in New York’s Israel Day parade decry attendance of far-right minister Smotrich

Politicians’ statements reflect difficulty facing pro-Israel Democrats as voter support for country falls

Several prominent New York Democrats who participated in the city’s annual Israel Day parade on Sunday have condemned the participation of Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right Israeli finance minister and a leading figure in the Israeli settler movement, in the event.

Smotrich was among several Israeli lawmakers and cabinet officials who marched in the parade on Sunday. His appearance marked his first trip to the US in more than a year, and came less than month after he said the international criminal court (ICC) was seeking an arrest warrant against him.

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Why Benjamin Netanyahu poses an obstacle to US and Iran peace deal

Prime minister under pressure to show his campaigns against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran have brought results as he faces elections with his political survival at risk

If there is to be a peace deal between the United States and Iran, it will have to go through a familiar obstacle: Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have become a sticking point in the talks for a potential opening of the strait of Hormuz – once again testing the volatile alliance between Donald Trump and Netanyahu.

This time, the Israeli prime minister is under exceptional pressure to show that his campaigns against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran have brought results as he faces elections with his political survival at risk.

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Israel strikes southern Lebanon despite Trump’s effort to shore up ceasefire

Warplanes carry out dozens of airstrikes and Israeli army issues evacuation warning for city of Nabatiyeh

Israeli warplanes have launched dozens of strikes across southern Lebanon despite a new agreement supposedly brokered by Donald Trump aiming to bolster the tattered ceasefire in Lebanon.

The US president said on Monday that he had stopped an imminent Israeli strike on Beirut and that he had spoken to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and representatives of Hezbollah and both agreed that “all shooting will stop”.

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Aipac affiliate has funded lavish trips to Israel for dozens of Congress members since 7 October, filings reveal

Revealed: AIEF, a charitable affiliate of pro-Israel lobby Aipac, has spent millions on travel for lawmakers from both parties, even as voters’ support for Israel plummets

Dozens of members of Congress and Capitol Hill staffers have enjoyed lavish gifted travel to Israel funded by an Aipac affiliate since 7 October 2023, amid Israel’s expanding wars on its neighbors and despite plummeting levels of support among Americans for the country’s policies, a Guardian analysis has found.

Congressional ethics filings and other public records show the trips, led by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), revolved around one-sided briefings on Middle East politics and Israeli domestic and foreign policy. Lawmakers and their staffers from both parties met Israeli officials, military contractors and civil society figures, including Benjamin Netanyahu and advocates for the annexation of the West Bank and the displacement of Palestinians from Jerusalem.

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UK government has failed Palestinian people, says senior Labour MP

Emily Thornberry criticises Israel’s ‘staggering’ sense of impunity and rebukes Donald Trump for abandoning Gaza

The UK government has let down Palestinian people and failed to make it economically impossible for Israel to continue to act with impunity in the West Bank and Gaza, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Emily Thornberry, has said.

She accused her own government of lacking ambition and wringing its hands on the Palestinian crisis, and she chastised Donald Trump for declaring a ceasefire in Gaza and then walking away, leaving Gazans to live in rubble.

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‘A shock to all Lebanese’: Israel sends a message as it takes ancient fort

Conquering of Beaufort Castle for first time in 26 years brings back memories of occupation of south

When Hussain Alawieh used to take tourists to Beaufort Castle, they would marvel at the view. The ancient hilltop fort, captured nearly 1,000 years earlier by Crusaders, still offered the same sweeping panoramic views of south Lebanon and the Litani River that empires fought over for a millennia.

On Sunday, the view from the castle was obscured by white phosphorus smoke, the toxic incendiary munition providing a smoke screen for advancing Israeli soldiers. Out of the fog rose an Israeli flag, and the castle, for the first time in 26 years, was once again conquered.

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Could Trump’s Iran ‘excursion’ be a bigger global turning point than Vietnam?

The far shorter Middle East war has rapidly revealed the strategic weakness of US firepower in an interconnected world

In a 1965 speech justifying the war in Vietnam, Lyndon B Johnson argued that the goal was to ensure “every country can shape its own destiny” since only in such a world could the US secure its own freedom. However, he also admitted “such were infirmities of man that force must often precede reason, and the waste of war, the works of peace”.

It was the kind of elegant justification of the country’s moral mission to which successive US presidential speechwriters have turned at times of war.

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