Chinese runner He Jie’s victory in Sunday in the Beijing Half Marathon is facing a probe after his win was called into question by Chinese internet users because a trio of African runners appeared to deliberately slow down to let him win.

A video clip of the finish to the race shows Kenya’s Willy Mnangat turn toward He and gesture him to move ahead as the four men run neck and neck just meters from the finish line.

Former 5km world record-holder Robert Keter, also of Kenya, then appears to wave at He to overtake the pack while signaling for his compatriot and Ethiopia’s Dejene Hailu to hang back.

The Chinese runner crossed the finish line in 1:03:44 to claim the $5,500 first prize, with the African trio just one second behind in joint-second place.

The video clip shows the African runners applauding He’s win and patting him on the back, though the Asian Games marathon champion appears less enthused despite winning his first ever competitive half marathon.

He, 25, who has broken China’s marathon record twice in the past two years, told reporters after the race that he “was not in my best competitive state” — but he did not address the controversial finish.

Some Chinese internet users called for an investigation into the race, while others demanded action from organizers.

“The so-called ‘ways of the world’ should not taint the fairness of competition in sports. Fairness is always at the core of sporting spirit,” said one user on social platform Weibo.

Another popular comment said: “I support an investigation, and fair play is vital,” with the user adding they hoped authorities “can give a clear explanation to maintain fairness of competition and respect athletes’ efforts.”

Race organizers the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau and Chinese Athletics Association acknowledged “feedback has been received” and “will be processed further,” according to Chinese state media.

Chinese sports company Xstep, which sponsors both He and the Beijing Half Marathon, told Chinese state-run outlet The Paper that the situation is “being investigated and verified by multiple parties.”

“Further information will be communicated as soon as possible,” Xstep said in a statement to the outlet.

Some observers agreed the finish to the race seemed unusual.

“It’s just a bad look, however you slice it,” said sports analyst Mark Dreyer, author of “Sporting Superpower: An Insider’s View on China’s Quest to Be the Best.”

“It’s one thing for four runners running right at the end to potentially hold hands or cross the line together in a show of sportsmanship. That’s not what we saw.

“It’s not a sprint finish for anyone other than He Jie. It doesn’t take a genius or running expert to figure that out.”

He, who hails from northwest China’s Ningxia region, is considered one of the country’s most promising long-distance runners. He is ranked 77th in the world in men’s marathon by World Athletics and is expected to lead the way for Asian runners in the upcoming Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

“He Jie is elite,” Dreyer said. “He doesn’t need charity like this.”

The war cabinet remains determined to respond to Iran’s attack, but as it convenes Monday afternoon, its members continue to debate the timing and scope of such a response, the officials said. In addition to a potential military response, the war cabinet is also mulling diplomatic options to further isolate Iran on the world stage.

Benny Gantz, a key member of the war cabinet, has pushed for a swifter response to Iran’s attack, two Israeli officials said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far pumped the brakes on making a decision.

Gantz believes that the longer Israel delays its response to Iran’s attack, the harder it will be to garner international support for such an attack, the sources said. Multiple countries are already cautioning Israel against escalating the situation further with a military response.

Israel’s government is aware that the country is currently enjoying international support and good will from its allies and does not want to squander that. At the same time, the government recognizes that it cannot allow Iran’s first attack on Israeli soil to go unanswered.

Among the military options that are being considered, the war cabinet is consider an attack on an Iranian facility that would send a message, but would avoid causing casualties, one Israeli official said.

But Israeli officials recognize that will be a difficult needle to thread, hence the ongoing debate. The timing of a decision remains unclear.

Pressure to de-escalate

Netanyahu has been facing international pressure to de-escalate a fraught situation after Iran’s weekend attack, which saw more than 300 projectiles fired towards Israel, the vast majority of which were intercepted by Israel and its partners.

The attack came in response to a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Syria earlier this month, which killed at least seven officials including Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and senior commander Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi.

An hours-long war cabinet meeting on Sunday ended without a decision on how Israel will respond to Iran’s attack, an Israeli official said.

Biden told Netanyahu he should consider the events of Saturday night a “win” as Iran’s attacks had been largely unsuccessful, and instead demonstrated Israel’s “remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks.”

But Gantz urged on Sunday the need to “build a regional coalition and exact a price from Iran, in a way and at a time that suits us.”

Israel and Iran have long been rivals, but tensions escalated in the wake of Hamas’ attacks on Israel, which left about 1,200 people dead. Iran backs a web of proxies across the Middle East that have frequently clashed with Israel since the attacks.

Australian police said Monday that the attacker who fatally stabbed six people at a busy shopping mall in Sydney’s beach suburb of Bondi may have been targeting women, as heartbreaking details emerged of those who lost their lives, plunging a nation into mourning.

Five women were among the six people killed by 40-year-old Joel Cauchi when he rampaged through Bondi Junction’s busy Westfield shopping center on Saturday, turning the weekend fall afternoon into a scene of panic and terror.

Twelve others were injured in the rare attack, including a nine-month old baby whose mother was killed. Eight people remained in hospital Monday in conditions ranging from critical to stable with four discharged in the past 24 hours, according to New South Wales’ Minister for Health Ryan Park.

The stabbing spree only ended when Cauchi was shot dead at the scene by an officer who single-handedly pursued him through the mall.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb told ABC Breakfast News Monday that while police do not yet know the attacker’s motivation, the fact he appeared to target women is “certainly a line of enquiry for us.”

“The videos (of the attack) speak for themselves don’t they,” Webb said. “It’s obvious to me, it’s obvious to the detectives that that seems to be an area of interest, that the offender had focused on women and avoided the men.”

Authorities warned the investigation could take weeks and police will continue to interview witnesses and follow different lines of enquiry.

Police had earlier said Cauchi, from the neighboring state of Queensland, was known to authorities and had “suffered from mental health [issues]” though he had not been prosecuted or charged with any previous criminal offense in the state.

The state’s Premier Chris Minns declared Monday a national day of mourning and said Australian national flags will be flown at half-mast on government buildings. Sydney’s Opera House will be lit up in black ribbon to commemorate those killed in the attack.

“Families are in mourning today, lives have been devastated as a result of these criminal actions,” Minns said. “The people who were killed were… innocent people who had their entire lives ahead of them. The community is devastated in the knowledge of their loss.”

Police said Monday they had concluded their examinations of the shopping mall and the crime scene was being handed back to Westfield. More than 100 pieces of evidence were removed and will be forensically examined as part of the investigation, said Yasmin Catley, New South Wales Minister for Police.

Baby stabbed in attack ‘doing well’

More details are emerging about the six people killed in Saturday’s attack, including a mother whose baby was also stabbed, a Chinese student, and a security guard who was on his first day keeping watch at the mall that was struck.

Among the victims is Ashlee Good, 38, who was described by her family in a statement as “a beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend, all round outstanding human and so much more.”

Good was rushed to hospital in critical condition but later died from her injuries. Her nine-month-old daughter was also stabbed in the attack and received emergency surgery overnight.

“We can report that after hours of surgery yesterday our baby is currently doing well,” the family said in the statement.

Minister for Health Park said the whole country had been “holding its breath” for news of the baby’s condition. He said she had moved from critical to serious, which was “a significant improvement” and doctors hoped to move the baby onto a ward in the coming days.

“In the darkest of times comes sometimes the brightest of lights,” he said. “Staff have literally performed miracles and people are alive because of their efforts.”

The Good family said that “words cannot express our gratitude” to the “two men who held and cared for our baby when Ashlee could not.”

“We were holding the baby and trying to compress the baby,” one said.

Faraz Tahir, 30, was also identified as among those killed. He was described in a statement from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Australia as an “integral member of our community, known for his unwavering dedication and kindness.”

Tahir was on duty as a security guard at the mall at the time of the attack, the statement said, and is the only male victim.

“He was really excited. He had a lot of ambition for his future, just settling into his new country… He was looking forward to a stable career to make a family up here. And it’s just sad how it all ended up.”

The community said Tahir was a refugee who had fled persecution in his home country of Pakistan and sought refuge in Australia a year ago.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told KIIS 1065 radio on Monday that the sixth victim was identified as Yixuan Cheng, a Chinese national who was studying in Australia.

The Chinese Embassy in Australia confirmed that one Chinese national had died and another was seriously injured in the attack.

Officer praised as a ‘hero’

Meanwhile, the officer who shot the mall attacker has been praised as a hero for her actions, which authorities said undoubtably saved more lives.

Senior police inspector Amy Scott arrived on the scene first and was alone when she engaged the attacker. She shot him when he lunged at her with a knife, police said.

Video on local media showed Scott administering CPR on the attacker after he was shot.

Scott is a highly trained officer who “did what she was trained to do… We are very grateful to her,” said Yasmin Catley, New South Wales Minister for Police.

Police Commissioner Webb told ABC news that Scott was “doing ok” and “spending some time with her family.”

“She’s an experienced officer. I’ve known Amy for many years, she’s been operational her whole career,” Webb said.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called Scott a hero who “no doubt saved lives.”

Mall attacker was known to authorities, slept rough

Authorities described the mall attacker Cauchi as an “itinerant” who had moved from place to place over the past few years, often sleeping rough or in his vehicle.

The last interaction Queensland Police had with him was in December 2023, when he was “street checked,” Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Roger Lowe said Sunday.

“We believe he has been sleeping in a vehicle or out of backpacks… His family don’t have regular contact with their son,” he said.

Lowe said Cauchi had “not been prosecuted or charged with any criminal offense in Queensland or found in possession of knives in the street checks.”

Cauchi’s family released a statement saying he “has battled with mental health issues” since he was a teenager.

“Joel’s actions were truly horrific, and we are still trying to comprehend what has happened,” the family said.

“We are in contact with both the New South Wales Police Force and Queensland Police Service and have no issues with the Police Officer who shot our son as she was only doing her job to protect others, and we hope she is coping alright,” the statement said.

“I’m extremely sorry. I’m heartbroken for you. Look, this is so horrendous, that I can’t even explain it,” he said. “To you he’s a monster. To me, he was a very sick boy. He was a very sick boy.”

Public enquiry

An 18 million Australian dollar ($11.6 million) independent public inquiry has been launched to look at the police response and criminal investigation into the attack, as well as the attacker’s interactions with the state government and health agencies, New South Wales Premier Minns said Monday.

Mass casualty events are rare in Australia and gun ownership was strictly controlled following the 1996 Port Arthur mass shooting when a lone gunman killed 35 people.

However, many campaigners and criminologists say violence against women remains stubbornly prevalent and often overlooked.

The number of women killed by violence in Australia has ranged between 43 and 84 each year since Counting Dead Women began tallying deaths in 2012. Already in 2024, 24 women have died violently, the group said.

In the aftermath of Saturday’s rampage, the government said it was also looking at potential changes to restrictions on security guards in major crowded centers such as shopping centers and hospitals.

Minns ruled out allowing security guards to carry stun guns or firearms though, and gave no further details.

“The government is not considering policy changes in relation to stun guns or firearms,” he said. “We don’t believe that more firearms in the community is a good decision, but we’re looking at the current restrictions that are in place for equipment, for security guards, and the resulting training that would be required if there was to be a policy change.”

“Monkey Man,” Dev Patel’s directorial debut action thriller that he also stars in, wrote and produced, opens with a tale familiar to Hindus around the world.

A child listens as his mother tells him the story of Hanuman, the anthropomorphic monkey god. In his hunger, young Hanuman mistook the sun for a juicy mango. As Hanuman went to take a bite, the gods punished the mischievous deity for overreaching by stripping him of his powers.

This mythology is the foundation of “Monkey Man,” which hit theaters on April 5. Now an adult living in the fictional Indian city of Yatana, Kid (played by Patel himself) remembers the legend of Hanuman and uses it as inspiration as he plots revenge on the corrupt forces that raided his forest village and killed his mother.

An underdog in a society divided by caste and class, Kid mirrors the simian god in more ways than one. Meanwhile, the film’s villains — as movie critics have noted and as Patel has alluded to — look a lot like India’s right-wing, Hindu nationalist government. In recent years, party leaders have taken actions that critics say marginalize minorities and embolden extremist groups.

“Really, it’s a revenge film about faith and how faith can be a beautiful teacher,” Patel said in a conversation at SXSW. “But at the same time, faith can be weaponized. Faith can be monetized. And you see that in the opposing end.”

By invoking Hanuman — one of the most beloved Hindu deities — in a critique of Hindu nationalism, some critics and viewers say “Monkey Man” does something novel.

It attempts to reclaim Hinduism from those who fan the flames of division, presenting another vision of what the religion stands for.

‘Monkey Man’ is a twist on a classic Hindu tale

“Monkey Man” is stuffed with references to the ancient Hindu epic the “Ramayana,” which includes the story of Hanuman.

Like young Hanuman, whose story we hear in the film’s opening scenes, Kid is initially reckless in his fearlessness even as he pursues a just cause. Patel said in an interview at SXSW that he wanted to use that story as a social commentary on caste and inequality in India.

“When you put those [mythologies] into context of the caste system and the idea of the 1% against the elite or being scolded for reaching too high or aspiring too big, I was like, … ‘I can distill it down and give it some real social weight,’” he said.

In the film, Kid dons a monkey mask and earns his living as a fighter at an underground boxing club. But his true aim is to avenge the death of his mother: When Kid was a child, he and his community of forest-dwellers were forced out of their homes by the police chief Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher), who was acting on behalf of the spiritual leader Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande).

Kid eventually gets to Rana by infiltrating a luxury brothel called Kings, where he also encounters a sex worker named Sita (Sobhita Dhulipala) who is trapped in a seemingly hopeless situation. The sequence is a clear parallel to a story in the “Ramayana,” in which Hanuman helps the god Rama rescue his wife Sita from the ten-headed demon king Ravana.

For some viewers, the aspects of Hanuman that weren’t included are just as notable as the aspects that were.

Hanuman is perhaps best known for being a devoted servant of Lord Rama who, in turn, is known for his adherence to the path of righteousness. But in the fictionalized India depicted in “Monkey Man,” there isn’t an analogue for the god Rama, says Sailaja Krishnamurti, an associate professor of gender studies at Queen’s University. Instead, Kid inhabits a world without a clear moral center.

“To take Rama out — to say ‘What’s left when there is no hero deity?’ — (suggests) that we have to become our own heroes,” Krishnamurti said. “I think it’s a really intriguing premise.”

Whether or not Patel’s decision to omit Rama was intentional, Thrisha Mohan, operations and events manager for the group Hindus for Human Rights, found the deity’s absence striking for another reason: In recent years, Rama has been a key feature of Hindu nationalist rhetoric.

In January, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a Hindu temple at the site of a 16th century mosque that was demolished by Hindu hardliners in 1992. The temple, named the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, is believed by some Hindus to be the birthplace of Lord Rama, and was a cornerstone of Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist agenda. For India’s Muslims, however, the temple was another sign of religious divisions that have become more pronounced under Modi’s rule.

“In my mind, a lot of contemporary narratives of Rama are one-and-one associated with Hindu nationalism,” Mohan said. “So to erase that aspect of Hanuman’s character in order to tell a broader story is really interesting.”

The film takes aim at extremist forces

As “Monkey Man” tells a quintessentially Hindu story, it also makes thinly veiled references to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and India’s wider political landscape.

“If there is an allegory to be made, it’s clear that the many heads of Ravana are the police chief and the politician and Baba Shakti — the triumvirate of politicized Hindu nationalism,” said Krishnamurti.

As Krishnamurti and Mohan see it, the villains are amalgamations of various leaders and figures in the Hindu nationalist scene. The fictitious Baba Shakti calls to mind right-wing spiritual advisers and politicians in India. Rana, the chief of police, could be seen as a stand-in for bureaucrats and administrators who critics accuse of emboldening extremists and stoking sectarian violence.

“Monkey Man” even briefly incorporates footage from real-life protests against the policies of the Modi administration, though it’s never explicitly addressed in the film.

For others, Patel’s critique of Hindu nationalism wasn’t entirely successful.

Siddhant Adlakha, who reviewed “Monkey Man” for TIME, said he took issue with how the film rooted Kid’s violent rampage against the elites in Hindu imagery — to him, it fell into the same trap as Hindu nationalists who use the faith to justify violence. He also didn’t think the film effectively conveyed the political ideology driving the villains’ greed and corruption.

He continued, “His character ends up embodying all the things that Patel the filmmaker is trying to fight in the real world.”

But in Krishnamurti’s view, the hero’s violence mimics the violent nature of many stories in Hindu mythology. It’s also a nod to movie genres and stars from which Patel takes inspiration: Amitabh Bachhan in Bollywood, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan in Hong Kong cinema and Keanu Reeves in Hollywood’s “John Wick” franchise.

It presents a loving vision of Hinduism

Perhaps what is most powerful about “Monkey Man” is how it offers a vision of Hinduism that is inclusive and welcoming, Mohan said.

Kid is a champion of India’s underclasses, and the film contains numerous references to the country’s marginalized communities. When Baba Shakti and Rana overtake Kid’s community of forest-dwellers, it’s an allusion to how Adivasis (the Indigenous peoples of India) and Muslims have been evicted from their lands under Modi’s rule. Another key scene recalls the myth of Ekalavya from the Hindu epic “Mahabharata” — a parable about caste discrimination in which a forest dweller is made to cut off his thumb because his archery skills posed a threat to a prince.

“He’s refusing very one-note narratives that have come out of the way that Hindutva has framed what Hinduism is and who it should be practiced by and who it loves and who it doesn’t,” Mohan said.

“Monkey Man” is also notable for its portrayal of hijras, India’s third-gender community who consider themselves neither male nor female, said Krishnamurti. While hijras are typically depicted in Western media as sex workers, this film casts them as allies and warriors. When Kid bungles his first attack on the nightclub and is shot by the police, he’s rescued by Alpha, the leader of a hijra community that is under threat from Baba Shakti’s political movement.

“What I found really powerful was that if we have a landscape in which there’s no Rama, in which Hanuman is on his own in the form of Kid, the place he finds respite and finds care is in the temple of the hijras,” Krishnamurti said.

Alpha tells Kid about Ardhanarishvara, a deity combining the god Shiva and his consort, the goddess Parvati, to represent masculine and feminine energies in harmony. It’s a powerful image for queer and trans people who have been battling the patriarchal power structures of Hindu nationalism, Krishnamurti said. Alpha and the other hijras in the community are also pivotal to the film’s final battle scene.

While “Monkey Man” has a lot to say about Hinduism and Hindu nationalism, there’s a more universal message at its core, said Bedatri D. Choudhury, the arts and entertainment editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The tensions that the film presents — between Hindus and non-Hindus, rich and poor, those who use religion for just ends or violent ends — aren’t unique to Hinduism, but are present in societies around the world. “Monkey Man,” then, is a warning about what can happen when people are oppressed and disempowered for too long.

“In its own imperfect ways, it is trying to criticize — if not directly the Indian government — the kind of society that takes shape when religion and government become one,” she said.

Israel pledged that it will “exact a price” from Iran as the country weighs its response to an unprecedented overnight barrage of drone and missile strikes while facing international pressure to de-escalate.

The overnight attack – which saw Tehran launch a series of strikes at Israel over a five-hour period – threatens to tip the crisis in the Middle East into an untempered regional war.

Israel’s war cabinet has been authorized to respond to the attack and met on Sunday, with one of its members, Benny Gantz, saying the “event is not over.”

He cited the need to “build a regional coalition and exact a price from Iran, in a way and at a time that suits us.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant earlier said Israel had “thwarted this attack in a way that is unparalleled” but added “we must be prepared for every scenario.” In his first comments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “we have intercepted, we have contained. Together we shall win.”

But Israel is being urged by Western allies to de-escalate an intensely fraught situation on Sunday and close, at least for now, a weeks-long chapter of uncertainty and confrontation that had spiraled out of Israel’s war with Hamas that has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza and caused a humanitarian disaster in the enclave.

Iran’s retaliatory attack had been anticipated since a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Syria earlier this month, and finally came late on Saturday when over 300 projectiles – including around 170 drones and over 120 ballistic missiles – were fired toward Israeli soil. Approximately 350 rockets were fired from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, according to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari. Israeli authorities said “99%” of the projectiles were intercepted with help from allies including the US, the UK and France. The only injury reported was a 7-year-old girl who was seriously wounded by shrapnel.

The reprisals brought years of clandestine conflict between the countries into the open, and marked the first time the Islamic Republic had launched a direct assault on Israel from its soil.

Israel and Iran have long been rivals, but tensions escalated in the wake of Hamas’ attacks on Israel, which left about 1,200 people dead. Iran backs a web of proxies across the Middle East that have frequently clashed with Israel since the attacks.

The war cabinet meeting lasted for hours and ended Sunday night without a decision on how Israel will respond, according to an Israeli official.

The war cabinet is determined to respond but has yet to decide on the timing and scope, the official said. One of the key dilemmas facing the cabinet is determining how quickly Israel should respond. The official said the Israeli military has been tasked with coming up with additional options for a response.

Iran says next attack could be ‘much bigger’

On Sunday, Iran said a “new equation” in its adversarial relationship with Israel had been opened, and warned of a “much bigger” assault on the country should Netanyahu decide on a tit-for-tat attack.

“We have decided to create a new equation, which is that if from now on the Zionist regime attacks our interests, assets, personalities, and citizens, anywhere, and at any point we will retaliate against them,” the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami told Iranian state TV. The “Zionist regime” is a term Iran uses to refer to Israel.

Earlier, Sardar Bagheri, the Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, had said: “If the Zionist regime responds, our next operation will be much bigger.”

Iran’s attacks targeted the Israeli airbase from which, it said, the strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus was launched. Iranian ballistic missiles that reached Israel fell on the airbase in southern Israel, and caused only light structural damage, Hagari said.

Bagheri said that from Iran’s perspective, the military operation against Israel “has concluded.” But he emphasized that Iranian armed forces remain on high alert and are prepared to “act if necessary,” according to an interview on state IRINN TV on Sunday.

Those warnings came as Western nations urged Israel to descend from the brink of open warfare with its foe.

Biden told Netanyahu he should consider the events of Saturday night a “win” as Iran’s attacks had been largely unsuccessful, and instead demonstrated Israel’s “remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks.”

Israel has told the US that it’s not “looking for a significant escalation with Iran,” a senior Biden administration told reporters Sunday.

“They’re looking to protect themselves and defend themselves,” the official said.

“The president was very clear that we’re going to help defend Israel, and he made very clear to the prime minister last night that we do have to think carefully and strategically about risks of escalation,” the official added.

Biden has meanwhile reiterated that the US’s commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iran and its proxies remains “ironclad.”

Showing some of the domestic pressure Netanyahu faces, two hardline government ministers called for a firm response. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for a retaliation that “resonates throughout the Middle East,” while National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Israel should “go crazy.”

Calls for restraint have also been made across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, a major regional rival to Iran, stressed the importance of “preventing any further exacerbation” of the crisis, while Qatar, which enjoys close economic relations with Iran, expressed “profound concern.” The United Arab Emirates warned of “new levels of instability” if the episode was not closed.

Iran had vowed to retaliate after accusing Israel of bombing its diplomatic complex in Syria earlier this month.

The airstrike destroyed the consulate building in the capital Damascus, killing at least seven officials including Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and senior commander Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, Iran’s foreign ministry said at the time.

Zahedi, a former commander of the IRGC’s ground forces, air force, and the deputy commander of its operations, was the most high-profile Iranian target killed since then-US President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of IRGC Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020.

This is a developing story and has been updated.

Somali pirates released a hijacked ship, MV Abdullah, and its crew of 23 early on Sunday after a $5 million ransom was paid, according to two pirates.

“The money was brought to us two nights ago as usual… we checked whether the money was fake or not. Then we divided the money into groups and left, avoiding the government forces,” Abdirashiid Yusuf, one of the pirates, told Reuters.

He added the ship had been released with all its crew.

Somalia government officials did not respond to a request for comment.

The MV Abdullah, a Bangladesh-flagged bulk carrier – a type of merchant ship used to transport large amounts of cargo – was hijacked in March as it was heading from Mozambique to the United Arab Emirates.

The hijacking happened about 600 nautical miles east of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.

Somali pirates caused chaos in the waters off the country’s long coastline from about 2008 to 2018. They had been dormant until late last year when pirate activity started to pick up again.

Maritime sources say pirates may be encouraged by a relaxation of security or may be taking advantage of the chaos caused by attacks on shipping by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group while war rages in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The body of Binyamin Achimair, 14, was found in the area of Malachei Ha’Shalom, with the Israeli military saying he was killed in a “terrorist attack.”

Videos on social media show clashes between Palestinians and settlers in the villages of Deir Dibwan and Beitin, east of Ramallah. Palestinians are seen lobbing rocks at the settlers, and Israeli military vehicles firing tear gas to disperse the crowds.

The latest attacks by settlers come a day after a large-scale attack in the village of Al-Mughayyir east of Ramallah, leaving one Palestinian man dead, amid the search for Achimair. About 25 others were also injured in the rampage, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that authorities were searching for whoever killed Achimair, urging Israelis to not obstruct them.

“The abominable murder of the boy Binyamin Achimair, may God avenge his blood, is a serious crime. I send my heartfelt condolences to his family,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s office (PMO) said in a statement.

“IDF and Shin Bet forces are in an extensive pursuit of the despicable murderers and all those who cooperated with them,” it continued.

The prime minister said Israeli security forces carry out “intense operational and intelligence activity” in the area and in Palestinian villages, urging the citizens of Israel to allow them to “do their work unhindered”.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday urged the public to avoid taking the law into their own hands.

“I appeal to the public, let the security forces act quickly in the hunt for the terrorists – revenge actions will make it difficult for our fighters in their mission – the law must not be taken into one’s hands,” Gallant said in a post on X.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement Saturday that over a dozen Palestinians arrived at hospitals across the West Bank, most wounded by gunfire.

Violence has been rising in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since the October 7 attacks. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah says at least 462 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or in settler attacks.

Shredded Lebanese and Hezbollah flags tower over a destroyed boardwalk where a panoramic view of Israel’s Upper Galilee stretches out for miles.

“Buses (of people) used to come here just to see the Holy Land,” says Lt. Col. Juan Garcia Martinez, part of Spain’s peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.

Craters pepper the roads and debris covers the sidewalks. Apart from a few Christian-majority villages that have largely been spared Israeli fire, the area is full of ghost towns — a mirror image of the northern-region of Israel where tens of thousands of residents have fled the fighting.

More than 30,000 people have been displaced from the Lebanese area in the immediate perimeter of the 49-mile border, according to local authorities. Only one school remains functioning. More than 300 people — mostly fighters — have died in Israeli strikes. Eight civilians have been killed in Hezbollah attacks in northern Israel since last October. There have been Israeli soldier deaths in the cross-fire though the IDF has not provided an official tally.

A flare-up ensued, more intense than the usual daily exchange of fire, and more consequential due to a possible Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel expected as soon as this weekend.

Hezbollah — the most powerful non-state actor in the region — coordinates closely with Iran. Mohammad Reza Zahidi, one of two high-ranking Iranian commanders killed in the April 1 airstrike on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus, was a key intermediary between Iran’s revolutionary guards and Hezbollah.

Iran has vowed to avenge the deaths. That raised the specter of a conflict regional in scope and possibly catastrophic in its aftermath.

Speculation swirled about whether Hezbollah would take part in Iran’s expected attack. But a Lebanese source familiar with the matter ruled this out. The attack will be “purely Iranian,” the source said.

US intelligence appears to tally with this. The US has observed Iran moving military assets around inside its own country, including drones and cruise missiles, signaling a possible attack on Israeli targets from inside its territory, according to two people familiar with US intelligence.

The US expects Iran to carry out direct strikes against targets inside Israel, according to a senior administration official and a source familiar with the intelligence.

On Friday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appeared before a crowd wielding a rifle as he reiterated vows of revenge. Israel has been in a heightened state of alert since April 1. The widespread apprehension prompted officials there to urge people to refrain from stocking up on food, generators and medicine, as the country braces for the response.

Still, US officials expect Iran’s attack to be calibrated to avoid a regional war. Meanwhile, Iran will seek to reassert itself as a regional force to be reckoned with, analysts say.

“The broader objective for Iran seems to be one of de-escalation,” wrote Sina Toosi, a DC-based Iran analyst and senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, in a post on X, “Tehran’s strategy aims to incrementally increase the repercussions for Israeli aggression, thereby deterring future incidents without escalating to an all-out war.”

Iran has sought to walk that tightrope since it first entered the fray of the Iran-Hamas war in October. Its paramilitary partners — including Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis who have repeatedly struck a key Red Sea shipping route — link their battles to the war in Gaza.

“We repeat, if it ends in Gaza, then it ends here,” Nasrallah said in a speech last week.

Yet the conflict in Lebanon increases in complexity the longer Israel’s offensive in Gaza goes on.

When warnings about a possible Iranian attack reached fever pitch on Friday night, Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets at Israel’s Upper Galilee, producing slew of intercepts from Israel’s anti-missile Iron Dome system.

It provided a glimpse of how Hezbollah might attempt to overwhelm Israel’s defensive systems as Iran conducts its expected attack.

The flighting on the Lebanon-Israel border has also re-opened long festering issues over the frontier, known as the blue line.

Over the last six months, negotiations over the armistice line between Lebanon and Israel – imposed by the United Nations in 2000 after Hezbollah forced out a 22-year Israeli occupation – have been revived. Meanwhile, Western leaders have mounted pressure on Lebanon’s government to pull Hezbollah from the border area.

Hezbollah’s supporters say this is far-fetched, and, at best,  unenforceable. But this diplomatic can of worms could protract the conflict in Lebanon.

From one of Spain’s bases near the demarcation line, there is a clear view of a microcosm of Lebanon’s long-standing border issues with Israel.

A verdant green field sowed with mines separates the base from the town of al-Ghajar. The blue line can be seen cutting through the town and splitting it in two. During the Israel-Lebanon war of 2006, Israel occupied the rest of the village — a UN watchtower marks the tip of the Israeli-occupied territory.

“We are soldiers. We have to constantly adapt to the changing situation,” said Captain Hector Alonso from a viewing point overseeing Ghajar. Asked if Alonso’s unit was prepared for the growing danger of the present moment, he said: “We are prepared.”

Almost all the ballistic missiles and drones Iran launched at Israel in an unprecedented attack late Saturday were intercepted and failed to meet their mark, according to Israeli and American officials, highlighting the formidable, and multi-layered missile defense deployed by the two allied partners.

Most of the more than 300 Iranian munitions, the majority of which are believed to have been launched from inside of Iran’s territory during a five-hour attack, were intercepted before they got to Israel, more than 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) from their launch points.

Israel’s military said Sunday that “99%” of projectiles fired by Iran were intercepted by Israel and its partners, with only “a small number” of ballistic missiles reaching Israel.

In total, around 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles were launched at Israel by Iran overnight Saturday, the military said.

US officials said more than 70 drones and three ballistic missiles were intercepted by US Navy ships and military aircraft, without giving details of exactly what defenses were used to bring down the projectiles.

US warplanes also shot down Iranian ordnance, Liebermann reported. While it was not revealed from where those US jets operated, there are US Navy aircraft carriers and land-based aircraft well within range of the region.

Biden said in a statement the US was well-prepared to help defend Israel against the Iranian attack.

“To support the defense of Israel, the US military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week,” the US president said in a statement.

“Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our servicemembers, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles,” Biden said.

Britain said it was also prepared to intervene using Royal Air Force aircraft it has in the region.

“These UK jets will intercept any airborne attacks within range of our existing missions, as required,” a Defense Ministry statement said.

An Israeli military spokesperson also said France was involved in blocking the Iranian attacks.

“We are working closely with the US, UK and France who acted tonight. This partnership has always been close, but tonight it manifested itself in an unusual way,” the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Israel operates a range of systems to block attacks from everything from ballistic missiles with trajectories that take them above the atmosphere to low-flying cruise missiles and rockets.

Israel’s Iron Dome system has been in the headlines often since the country began its military offensive in Gaza in response to the October 7 Hamas attacks inside Israel that sparked the current hostilities in the region.

The Iron Dome is the bottom layer of Israel’s missile defense, according to the country’s Missile Defense Organization (IMDO).

There are at least 10 Iron Dome batteries in Israel, each equipped with a radar that detects rockets and then uses a command-and-control system that quickly calculates whether an incoming projectile poses a threat or is likely to hit an unpopulated area. If the rocket does pose a threat, the Iron Dome fires missiles from the ground to destroy it in the air.

The next rung up the missile defense ladder is David’s Sling, which protects against short- and medium-range threats, according to the IMDO.

David’s Sling, a joint project of Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense System and US defense giant Raytheon, uses Stunner and SkyCeptor kinetic hit-to-kill interceptors to take out targets as far as 186 miles away, according to the Missile Threat project at the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS).

Above David’s Sling are Israel’s Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems, jointly developed with the United States.

The Arrow 2 uses fragmentation warheads to destroy incoming ballistic missiles in their terminal phase – as they dive toward their targets – in the upper atmosphere, according to the CSIS. The Arrow 2 has a range of 56 miles and a maximum altitude of 32 miles, according to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, which called the Arrow 2 an upgrade of the US Patriot missile defenses Israel once used in this role.

Meanwhile, the Arrow 3 uses hit-to-kill technology to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in space, before they reenter the atmosphere on their way to targets.

Israel also has state-of-the-art fighter aircraft, including F-35I stealth jets that it has used to shoot down drones and cruise missiles before, according to news reports.

The ballistic missiles that did reach Israel fell on the Netavim Air Base in southern Israel, Israel’s military spokesman said, adding that they caused only light structural damage. The base was functioning and continuing its operations following the attack, with planes continuing to use the base, he added.

Photos released by the Israeli Air Force early Sunday showed F-35 and F-15 fighter jets returning to their bases in Israel after what were called successful “interceptions” and “aerial defense missions.”

Some of the weapons launched at Israel were fired from Iraq and Yemen, the spokesman added.

For the past two winters, Ukraine has withstood a barrage of Russian airstrikes seeking to disable its energy infrastructure, plunge its citizens into darkness and use the freezing temperatures as a weapon of war.

Ukraine survived the assault thanks to Western air defense systems and energy-saving measures taken by its citizens, as families cooked on camping stoves and doctors performed surgery by flashlight.

While Ukraine weathered this winter’s storm, Russia has renewed its onslaught in recent weeks, striking Ukraine’s power grid with an intensity and in a manner not seen during more than two years of war.

In the first two years of war, Russian attacks were more scattered, firing salvos of missiles to target large swathes of Ukraine’s energy system. Now, the strikes are becoming more precise and concentrated, with dozens of missiles and drones raining down on a single target.

“In such a short period of time – in a few weeks of these massive Russian attacks – almost all of our year-long efforts to rebuild and repair were destroyed in a few days, in a few attacks,” Grynchuk said.

“On March 22, Russia began to implement its new strategy of attacks,” Kharchenko said. “The new strategy consists of massive missile attacks on specific targets, when a large number of missiles and drones simultaneously focus on a very limited number of targets.”

Russia has since pummeled Ukrainian power stations across the country, and on Thursday completely destroyed the Trypilska Thermal Power Plant – the largest plant in the Kyiv region. DTEK, Ukraine’s biggest private power company, also said Thursday that Russia had caused “serious damage” to two of its plants, and that approximately 80% of the power-generating facilities it runs had been destroyed by Russian strikes.

Given Ukraine keeps energy in storage, the strikes on thermal power plants have not caused immediate, prolonged blackouts. Thermal plants are mostly used to balance overall need – particularly during intense heating periods in winter when consumption spikes.

As well as the intensity and concentration of the attacks, their timing has also changed. Previously, the bulk of Russia’s strikes came in the buildup to winter. Now, they have come in an unusually warm spring.

There are two reasons why Russia may have waited until spring to launch its new strategy.

First, Russia needed time to build up the weapons and intelligence needed to conduct the strikes, Kharchenko said. “This strategy was clearly a long time in the making, they spent a lot of time developing it, they clearly gathered intelligence and prepared very carefully for these attacks,” Kharchenko said.

Second, Russia may have waited until Ukraine’s power plants were less protected by air defenses, an increasingly scarce resource after two years of war, and with aid from the United States stalled for months by Congress.

But, having emerged from winter, Pavlenko said, some of the air defenses may have been relocated – for instance, to Ukraine’s front lines. “It’s not a mistake, it’s just prioritization. We thought that if the winter ends, probably we can use the air defense system in other places,” she said.

Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region has been the worst hit, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said. More than 200,000 people were left without power after Russian attacks Thursday. With the city lying so close to Russia, hypersonic missiles can reach it in seconds. “Due to the proximity to the border, terrorists have the opportunity to use various types of weapons in large numbers,” Halushchenko said on Ukrainian television.

Repair or defend

Ukraine has shown a remarkable ability to repair damage to its power grid. Some of its high-voltage substations – key nodes that reduce the voltage of electricity so it can be transferred through power lines to homes and offices – have been restored more than 10 times, Kharchenko said. Dozens have been restored at least three or four times. “They are attacked and restored, and then attacked again. If they were not restored, a significant part of the regions would already be without electricity.”

But Ukraine is now confronting a wholly different task: repairing not just substations, but entire power plants. While substations can be protected with sandbags, anti-drone nets and other safeguards, large plants can only be protected by air defenses. While such restoration work is possible, it may be pointless.

“We can restore everything. We have a very good and highly motivated team,” said Andriy Gota, CEO of Centrenergo, which runs the now-destroyed Trypilska plant. “But again, without a sufficient number of missiles for air defense, it will be a useless exercise, to put it mildly.”

Instead, Ukraine, too, may be considering a change in tack. Rather than rebuilding large – and, without air defenses, vulnerable – power plants, it may shift how it produces its energy.

“Instead of 20 large power plants that concentrate high production capacity and have a significant share in the energy balance, there should be 150-200 small power plants scattered across the country that can power a city if one of them goes down,” Tsaturian said.

Kharchenko said Kharkiv needed a similar system urgently. “It is now clear that Kharkiv needs to bring gas-piston engines in large numbers, install them secretly, and protect them… There is no alternative to this. Any larger facility will simply be destroyed by attacks.”

While the next winter is months away, Ukraine’s energy grid may come under strain during the summer months, when air conditioning use causes consumption to spike.

To offset that, Grynchuk said Ukraine has “an additional mechanism to balance the system and maintain stable operation – imports.” She said Ukraine is petitioning its European allies to increase the 1.7 gigawatt import limit.

But the priority, she said, is receiving air defenses. “Without air protection, we see the tragic consequences and destruction that Russian attacks can cause. That is why we really need air defense.”