Iran leader 'can no longer exist' after hospital hit

JERUSALEM: Israel's defence minister warned that Iran's supreme leader "can no longer be allowed to exist" after a hospital was hit in an Iranian missile strike on Thursday, spiking tensions in the week-old war.
As President Donald Trump dangled the prospect of US involvement, Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba was left in flames by a bombardment that Iran said targeted a military and intelligence base.
Israel, fearing Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched air strikes against its arch enemy last week, triggering a conflict that has left more than 200 people dead on both sides.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran would "pay a heavy price" for the hospital strike, while Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a stark warning for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed -- he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals," Katz told reporters.
"He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal. Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist."
Hospital director Shlomi Codish said 40 people were injured at the Soroka, where an evacuated surgical building was hit leaving smoke billowing.
"Several wards were completely demolished and there is extensive damage across the entire hospital with damage to buildings, structures, windows, ceilings across the medical centre," he told journalists at the site.
The latest escalation came on the seventh day of deadly exchanges between the two countries that have plunged the region into a new crisis, 19 months into the Gaza war.
Mohammad Hassan, a Pakistani student at the University of Tehran, described frightening scenes in Iran's capital during the Israeli strikes.
"Those days and nights were very horrifying... hearing sirens, the wailing, the danger of being hit by missiles," he told AFP after returning to Pakistan.
"As one peeped out the window in the night, you could see drones, missiles with fire tails."
Khamenei has rejected Trump's demand for an "unconditional surrender", despite the president's claims that "Iran's got a lot of trouble and they want to negotiate".
Trump has left his intentions on joining the conflict deliberately ambiguous, saying Wednesday: "I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do.
"The next week is going to be very big," he added, without further details.
Any US involvement would be expected to involve the bombing of a crucial underground Iranian nuclear facility in Fordo, using specially developed bunker-busting bombs.
The White House said Trump would receive an intelligence briefing on Thursday, a US holiday. Top US diplomat Marco Rubio is set meet his British counterpart for talks expected to focus on the conflict.
"I have ideas as to what to do, but I haven't made a final (decision)," Trump said. "I like to make the final decision one second before it's due, because things change. Especially with war."
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had told aides on Tuesday he had approved attack plans but was holding off to see if Iran would give up its nuclear programme.
The US president had favoured a diplomatic route to end Iran's nuclear programme, seeking a deal to replace the 2015 agreement he tore up in his first term.
But since Israel unleashed the campaign against Iran last week, Trump has stood behind the key US ally.
On Thursday morning, Israel said it had carried out dozens of fresh raids on Iranian targets overnight, including the partially built Arak nuclear reactor and a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.
The Israeli military said the Arak site in central Iran had been hit "to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development".
There was a "near-total national internet blackout" in Iran on Wednesday, a London-based watchdog said, with Iran's Fars news agency confirming tighter internet restrictions after initial curbs imposed last week.
The military campaign has sparked calls for a return to diplomacy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that a deal to guarantee both Israel's security and Iran's desire for a civilian nuclear programme was possible.
"I believe it would be good for all of us together to look for ways to stop the fighting and seek ways for the participants in the conflict to find an agreement," he told foreign journalists at a televised event.
He said Iran had not asked Russia for military help.
An Israeli military official, who asked not to be named, said Wednesday that Iran had fired around 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones since the conflict began on Friday.
Iranian strikes have killed at least 24 people and injured hundreds since they began, Netanyahu's office said on Monday.
Iran said Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.
Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 per cent -- far above the 3.67-per cent limit set by the 2015 deal, but still short of the 90 per cent needed for a nuclear warhead.
Israel has maintained ambiguity on its own arsenal, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says it has 90 nuclear warheads.

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British lawmakers to vote on landmark assisted dying law

The Star

12 minutes ago

The Star

British lawmakers to vote on landmark assisted dying law

FILE PHOTO: A protestor holds a placard as they gather outside the parliament as British lawmakers debate the assisted dying law, in London, Britain, November 29, 2024. REUTERS/Mina Kim/File Photo LONDON (Reuters) -British lawmakers will vote on Friday on whether to proceed with a bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people, in what would be the biggest social reform in the country for a generation. Last November, lawmakers voted 330 to 275 in favour of the principle of allowing assisted dying, paving the way for Britain to follow Australia, Canada and other countries, as well as some U.S. states. Now, after months of scrutiny, amendment and emotional debate, the bill must clear another stage of voting to keep it on the road to legalisation, a process that could still take months. A vote against would stop it in its tracks. The Labour lawmaker who has proposed the new law, Kim Leadbeater, said there could be a reduction in the number of members of parliament who support the bill on Friday, but she was confident it would still be approved. One member of parliament who supports the legislation said there were about a dozen votes between those in favour and against, with a number yet to declare their position. Dozens of lawmakers earlier in June signed a letter to the leader of the House of Commons saying that there had not been enough time to debate the details of such a consequential law change. Leadbeater said her biggest fear was that if the legislation was voted down, then it could be another decade before the issue returns to parliament. The issue was last considered in 2015 when lawmakers voted against it. "It works and it is safe, and it provides dignity to terminally ill people," she told reporters before the vote. "This is not an either or when it comes to palliative care or assisted dying. It is about choice for people." PUBLIC SUPPORT Opinion polls show that a majority of Britons back assisted dying, and supporters say the law needs to catch up with public opinion. But, since the initial vote, some lawmakers say they are worried the bill's protections against the coercion of vulnerable people have been weakened. Under the proposed law, mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales with six months or fewer to live would be given the right to end their lives with medical help. In the original plan, an assisted death would have required court approval. That has been replaced by a requirement for a judgement by a panel including a social worker, a senior legal figure and a psychiatrist. Lawmakers have also raised questions about the impact of assisted dying on the finances and resources of Britain's state-run National Health Service and the need to improve palliative care. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government is neutral on the bill, meaning politicians can vote according to their conscience rather than along party lines. Lawmakers will hold a final debate on the legislation on Friday morning before a likely vote in the afternoon. If it passes, the legislation will be sent to the House of Lords, parliament's upper chamber, for further scrutiny. (Reporting by Sarah Young and Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

US refuses visa for members of Senegal's women's basketball team: PM

The Sun

17 minutes ago

The Sun

US refuses visa for members of Senegal's women's basketball team: PM

DAKAR: The United States rejected visa applications for multiple members of Senegal's women's basketball team which was scheduled to train in the country, the country' prime minister said Thursday, as he cancelled the group's participation in the practice. The visa refusals come amid US President Donald Trump's administration's immigration crackdown and tightened border controls. The United States is set to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Senegal is among 36 nations that the United States is considering adding to a travel ban barring entry to its territory, according to an internal administration memo. Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko posted on Facebook that he had been 'informed about the refusal to issue visas to several members of the Senegalese women's national basketball team'. He said that he had instructed the country's minister of sports to cancel what was to have been a 10-day training camp in the United States. According to Babacar Ndiaye, president of the Senegalese Basketball Federation, the United States only renewed visas for 'those who held old visas and rejected new requests'. Les Lionnes had been slated to train in the United States ahead of the Afrobasket 2025 tournament in Ivory Coast, which begins in July. A spokesperson for the US State Department told AFP that it was not able to comment on individual cases, while the US Embassy in Senegal did not reply to a request for comment. In addition to pulling the plug on the training, Prime Minister Sonko thanked China for having 'awarded dozens of training scholarships for our athletes and their coaches'.

Visa refused for members of Senegal women's basketball team