World Echo

Multiple pro-Iranian users, based on their past posts, have been sharing a video on social media platform X since Sunday claiming that it shows an attack in the Galilee and Kiryat Shmona settlements of northern Israel. However, the video is old, from March 18, 2026, and shows a fire at an Egyptian restaurant. US and Israeli forces launched a war against Iran on February 28. After more than five weeks of intense military confrontation, President Donald Trump indefinitely extended what was initially a two-week ceasefire, but the conflict remains unresolved. On Sunday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that it targeted Israel’s Ramat David airbase with ballistic missiles and that Israel ⁠must stop its attacks ⁠on Lebanon. In response, Israel attacked Iran with explosions reported in Tehran, Tabriz, and Isfahan as tensions escalated. How it started On Sunday, a pro-Iranian account, based on its past posts, shared a video on X, allegedly showing an explosive...

Oil prices jumped more than $4 on Monday, with investors spooked by Israeli strikes ‌on Iran as well as renewed attacks on Lebanon a day earlier. Brent crude futures rose $4.42 or 4.47% to $97.15 a barrel as of 0609 GMT, while US crude futures were up $4.07 or 4.50% at $94.61 per barrel. Israel said on Monday it hit a petrochemical plant in Iran's southwest, along with strikes elsewhere ​on military targets. That's despite US President Donald Trump reportedly telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from ​further attacks. In the first hit on an energy site inside Iran since the April 8 ceasefire, Israel ⁠said it struck targets at the Mahshahr petrochemical complex. A provincial official told Iran's semi-official Fars news agency parts of the ​plant were damaged. Read: Oil shock and the import trap Hopes are now eroding for an imminent end to the wider war and a restart to crude flows through the ​Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fi...

US President Donald Trump said ​in a recent interview ‌with NBC News that he ​would not unfreeze ​Iranian assets or lift any ⁠sanctions before a ​peace deal is reached. He ​said he would consider those steps after an agreement ​is done. "Comes after," ​he said. "Yeah. If they behave, ‌if ⁠they do a good job, we start talking. Yeah." Trump also ​said that ​he ⁠was not demanding that Lebanon ​be a part ​of ⁠a short-term deal with Tehran. US eyes Iranian assets for Gulf allies' reconstruction, source says The US will attempt to redirect Iranian assets to Gulf states for rebuilding and ‌repairs of damage caused by Iran, a source familiar with the matter said, as Tehran followed up a wave of strikes against Kuwait and Bahrain with further drone launches. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has directed a team to assess costs for damage inflicted on Gulf allies by Iran, the source said on Saturday, adding the US will consider using Iranian as...

Two Republican lawmakers warned United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday of a potential intelligence gap, accusing Democrats of backing away from extending key foreign intelligence legislation. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, originally enacted to regulate foreign intelligence surveillance, includes Section 702, which allows US intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign targets without obtaining individual warrants. Supporters of the provision, introduced after the September 11 terror attacks, argue it remains a critical tool for national security. Read: Trump faces new Republican resistance in Congress as midterm pressures build Critics, however, have raised concerns about potential violations of civil liberties and the extent of surveillance powers granted under the law. Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio wrote on US social media platform X on Saturday that Senators Tom Cotton and Chuck Grassley have urged R...

Over a million people filled the ​streets of Madrid and one of its main squares on Sunday morning ‌to catch a glimpse of Pope Leo as he made his way to an open-air Mass in what was expected to be the largest event during his week-long visit to Spain. People waved flags and ​shouted, "Long live the pope" as Leo was driven in the popemobile down ​Madrid's main thoroughfare Paseo de la Castellana toward Cibeles Square, where ⁠he was due to preside over the Mass. Some tossed flower petals as ​he arrived in the square. Some 1.2 million people were in the square and its ​surrounding streets, the Vatican and local organisers said. "May Madrid remain a welcoming and inclusive city, where social life is inspired by genuine human values," Leo wrote in a guest book as he ​was handed the key to the city by its mayor. Leo began his trip on ​Saturday with meetings with migrants and the homeless and a vigil with about 600,000 young people ‌in ⁠...

Several Lebanese soldiers, including an officer, were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a military vehicle in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said on Saturday. The strike occurred on the Khardali-Nabatieh road, the army said through the US social media company X, without specifying the exact number of soldiers killed in the strike. "A Lebanese Army officer holding the rank of brigadier general and his driver were killed in an airstrike that targeted his four-wheel-drive vehicle on the Khardali-Jarmaq (a municipality in Nabatieh) road," Lebanon's state-run National News Agency also reported. Read: Iran says IAEA politicising oversight of Tehran's nuclear programme The Israeli army continues its attacks in Lebanon despite a fragile ceasefire in place and amid continued diplomatic efforts to preserve it and prevent its collapse. More than 3,550 people have been killed and over 10,800 injured in Israeli attacks in Lebanon since March 2, according ...