Month: March 2026

Simon Calder warned that, even if the major airports reopen, it will take some time for normal service to resume

A travel expert claims international airports currently shut due to military action in Iran could reopen earlier than many anticipate. Journalist Simon Calder shared his forecast whilst boarding a flight from Istanbul, Turkey.

One individual has died and 11 others have been wounded at airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Over 3,400 flights have been scrapped and airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), along with Qatar’s capital, Doha, and Manama in Bahrain were among those shuttered.

The Foreign Office is advising British nationals against all but essential travel to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE. This means hundreds of thousands of travellers are stranded in the region, many of whom are believed to be either British or those attempting to fly to the UK.

In an Instagram video, Mr Calder stated: “The main question is when is the disruption going to stop?”.

“Dubai indefinitely closed; Emirates is kind of saying that sometime on Monday it might start up again. Doha, they’re going to give an update at 6 o’clock British time tomorrow. And Etihad and Abu Dhabi airport, they’re saying, well actually, yeah, we might be opening before that.

“And I hope that the flight ban and also the travel advice from the Foreign Office saying do not go to these places will be lifted as soon as possible so that people can come back.

“I’m going to say, if you twisted my arm, we will probably see flights start up in the next couple of days but in a small way because, of course, planes and pilots and cabin crew and passengers are all out of position. So it’s going to take some time to get this back to normal and I simply hope that it is done with the maximum energy and indeed money just to try to make sure that people are back when they need to be as soon as possible.”

Mr Calder explained that – aside from the Covid-19 pandemic – disruption on the scale witnessed over the weekend hadn’t been seen since the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption and resulting ash cloud in Iceland.

READ MORE: Travel expert Simon Calder issues three-word advice for Brits caught up in Iran attacksREAD MORE: Travel expert Simon Calder predicts when BA, Etihad and Emirates flights will resume after Iran attack

During that week-long episode, approximately 20 countries shut their airspace to commercial aircraft, affecting roughly 10 million passengers. Mr Calder suggested things weren’t quite that severe ‘yet’ but described these as extraordinary circumstances and warned matters were ‘definitely heading in that direction’.

He also noted that, given the sheer scale of the airports affected and the extent of the chaos, it would require a substantial amount of time for the situation to resolve itself even once flights restarted.

He added: “Just bear in mind that every day that there are no flights going in and out of the world’s busiest international airport, Dubai, and Doha, and Abu Dhabi, that is two and a half thousand flights and about half a million people. The numbers are really staggering.

“Every hour generally, on average, 20,000 people land and depart from those airports, and so you have a massive problem building up. And certainly the numbers haven’t been added to because, of course, people are there, but what’s happening is that people’s holidays are ending and so they are being added to the back of the queue at the airport. It’s a desperate position for them to be in.

“It is going to be quite interesting to see how it is done, because you’ve got to remember that the numbers in Dubai rather exceed the current capacity of them.

“So let’s take a case of an expat who’s booked on the 5th of March, and let’s hope very much that flights are back on the 5th of March. That expat is expected to take her or his seat, and the fact that somebody’s been there for five days and really wants to get home isn’t relevant; it’s whoever’s got the booking in.

“And so I think there may well be shuttle services operated. They might even go to somewhere like Cyprus; they might just take people back and forth to a relatively short-haul destination from where people can board relatively short-haul flights. That would seem to cause the least amount of problem. I

” don’t know if this is going to happen, but I do know that there’s an awful lot of people out there who really want to be somewhere else and heavens, just imagine the stress and upset if you know that there’s somebody across the Gulf who is sending drones and missiles in your direction. A horrible situation for everybody.”

Explosions are being heard in Iran, Israel and across several Middle Eastern states after the United States and Israel began attacking Iran on Saturday.

Tehran has responded by launching waves of missiles and drones at Israel and towards several military bases in the Middle East where US forces operate.

Iran had previously warned that if it were attacked, it would respond by targeting US military facilities across the region, which it considers legitimate targets.

Which countries have been attacked?

Israel’s air force says it dropped more than 1,200 munitions across 24 of Iran’s 31 provinces over the past day in its joint attack with the US.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has launched attacks on 27 bases in the Middle East where US troops are deployed as well as Israeli military facilities in Tel Aviv and other parts of Israel.

So far, Iran has launched strikes across eight countries in the region: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Most of these attacks have been intercepted.

US military presence in the Middle East

The US has operated military bases in the Middle East for decades.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the US operates a broad network of military sites, both permanent and temporary, across at least 19 locations in the region.

Of these, eight are permanent bases in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

As of mid-2025, there are about 40,000 to 50,000 US soldiers in the Middle East stationed in both large, permanent bases and smaller forward sites.

The countries with the most US soldiers are Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. These installations serve as critical hubs for US air and naval operations, regional logistics, intelligence gathering and force projection.

How many people have been killed or injured?

Below are the confirmed casualties across the 10 countries that have been subject to attacks as of Sunday at 13:40 GMT.

Due to the rapidly evolving situation, all figures may change as more information becomes available.

Iran – killed: 201, injured: 747

As of Sunday morning, the Iranian Red Crescent Society and official state-linked media have reported preliminary casualty figures of 201 people killed and at least 747 injured as rescue operations continue.

Since then, explosions continue to be heard across Iran with Israel saying it has carried out a large aerial attack on the “heart of the capital”.

The deadliest single incident occurred in the city of Minab in southeastern Iran, where a strike on an elementary girls school reportedly killed at least 148 people and injured 95. The attack occurred on Saturday, and the death toll has been climbing since.

Israel – killed: 9, injured: 121

On Sunday afternoon, an Iranian ballistic missile strike on central Israel’s Beit Shemesh killed eight people and injured about 20. Rescue workers are still combing through the rubble.

Late on Saturday, one woman in the Tel Aviv area was confirmed killed after being struck by falling shrapnel.

At least 121 others have been reported injured, at least one seriously.

At least 40 buildings in Tel Aviv were damaged in Iranian strikes on Saturday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, citing the city government.

Bahrain – killed: 0, injured: 4

Iranian missiles targeted the headquarters of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain’s Juffair area.

Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior also confirmed that the country’s international airport was targeted with a drone, “resulting in material damage without loss of life”.

On Saturday night, several residential buildings in the capital, Manama, were struck by Iranian drones.

Government hospitals said four people were receiving treatment for shrapnel-related injuries.

Iraq – killed: 2, injured: 5

The US and Israel also targeted the Jurf al-Sakher base, also known as Jurf al-Nasr, in southern Iraq, which houses the Popular Mobilisation Forces, made up of mostly Shia fighters, and the Iran-supported Iraqi paramilitary group Kataib Hezbollah.

Iraqi state media and sources within Kataib Hezbollah confirmed that two fighters were killed in the strikes and five were wounded.

In northern Iraq‘s semiautonomous Kurdish region, where the US is reported to still have troops, several powerful explosions were reported near the US consulate and international airport in Erbil.

Air defences intercepted the drone attacks on Saturday, according to reports.

Jordan – killed: 0, injured: 0

The Jordanian armed forces reported intercepting 49 drones and ballistic missiles that entered Jordanian airspace. While their fragments caused localised property damage, there have been no deaths or injuries within the kingdom.

Kuwait – killed: 1, injured: 32

Kuwait’s Ministry of Defence says Ali al-Salem Air Base came under attack by a number of ballistic missiles, all of which were intercepted by Kuwaiti air defence systems.

A drone targeted Kuwait International Airport on Saturday, resulting in minor injuries to a number of employees and limited damage to the passenger building.

On Sunday, Kuwait’s Ministry of Health said one person had been killed and 32 wounded.

Oman – killed: 0, injured: 5

On Sunday morning, the Oman News Agency, quoting a security source, said two drones had targeted the Duqm port, injuring one foreign worker.

Later, Oman’s Maritime Security Centre said a Palau-flagged oil tanker was ‌attacked about 5 nautical miles (9km) off Oman’s Musandam governorate, injuring four people.

Qatar – killed: 0, injured: 16

As of Sunday morning, the Qatari Ministry of Interior confirmed that the number of injured was at 16 people. Most injuries were reported to be from falling shrapnel and debris with one person seriously hurt.

The Qatari Ministry of Defence confirmed that two ballistic missiles struck the Al Udeid military base, where US forces are stationed, while a drone targeted an early warning radar installation.

Qatari air defence systems, in coordination with regional partners, successfully intercepted about 65 missiles and 12 drones over Qatari airspace, it said.

The Qatar Civil Aviation Authority suspended all air navigation indefinitely. Qatar Airways grounded all flights and advised passengers that updates will be provided on Monday by 9am (06:00 GMT).

All schools have moved to remote learning, and public gatherings for Ramadan have been suspended until further notice to ensure public safety.

Saudi Arabia – killed: 0, injured: 0

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Iranian attacks targeted both the capital, Riyadh, and Eastern Province, home to major oil infrastructure and the King Abdulaziz Air Base.

The kingdom has officially reported no casualties as of Sunday afternoon.

United Arab Emirates – killed: 3, injured: 58

As of Sunday afternoon, at least three people in the UAE were confirmed killed and 58 others wounded.

A Pakistani national was killed and seven people were injured when debris from intercepted missiles and drones fell on a residential area near Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that another individual, identified as an Asian national, was killed by falling shrapnel in a residential district of the capital.

Additionally, four airport staff at Dubai International Airport sustained injuries, and four people were injured at Palm Jumeirah after a fire in a building caused by falling debris.

As of Sunday afternoon, The UAE’s Defence Ministry says it detected 165 ballistic missiles, destroying 152, and intercepted two cruise missiles.

A highly anticipated new Western drama in the hit Yellowstone franchise is about to start on Paramount+

Yellowstone’s new spin-off that puts Kayce Dutton (played by Luke Grimes) at the forefront is finally here, and it’s a must-watch for fans of the gripping Western drama.

Airing today (Sunday, 1st March) on CBS in the US and later available on Paramount+, Marshals: A Yellowstone Story follows the rancher and former Navy SEAL as he enlists with an elite squad of US Marshals to deliver justice across Montana.

As he wages war against violence and learns to adapt to working with a team, he must also strive to become the best father possible to his teenage son, Tate (Brecken Merrill).

The latest of several spin-offs from the popular neo-Western saga created by Taylor Sheridan, Marshals promises action-packed cases and gripping drama each week that is sure to keep viewers satisfied.

Although reviews have been mixed so far, garnering a 50 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, critics agree the show has huge potential and is bound to keep die-hard fans enthralled.

Collider has praised Grimes’ central performance as Kayce, writing that he comes into his own as the Yellowstone franchise’s newest lead.

“Grimes carries the series with ease,” they went on, “graduating from being a supporting cast member roaming alongside Kevin Costner’s shadow to the leading man of his own cowboy-flavoured crime drama.”

Their review also assured fans that the shift to CBS hasn’t sanitised the gritty Yellowstone brand too much, adding: “Marshals is a neo-Western that is chock-full of potential.

“It’s action-packed, thrilling, and full of everything you could ask for in a Kayce Dutton-led series that fights hard to divorce itself from the “Y” that still lingers in the background. It’s not perfect, nor does it claim to be, but once it gets through the initial growing pains, it will be able to stand firmly on its own.”

Men’s Journal described the series as “kick-a**”, promising it still has the “Yellowstone magic”.

The review went on: “Marshals may not be as twisty or unpredictable as 1923 or the recent season of Landman, but it has that same sparkle and magic of the other Sheridan westerns.

“It’s the sort of show that doesn’t ask much to get invested, and rewards you with the simple pleasure of feeling good after you’ve watched an episode. In a world of morally grey anti-heroes, Kayce Dutton is here to be the perennial good guy on horseback. And frankly, it’s good to have him back.”

TVLine was also impressed with the Yellowstone universe’s latest offering, urging potential viewers not to be put off by Marshals’ broadcast on CBS, home to crime procedurals such as NCIS and FBI.

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“Marshals actually manages to serve both of its masters quite well,” they wrote.

“With its swelling score, sweeping cinematography, and gorgeous opening credits sequence (a dying art!), you’ll often find yourself wondering, ‘Wait, am I really watching a network procedural right now?’

“Marshals fires on all cylinders, sending the team on explosive missions that guarantee your Sunday nights will end with a bang.”

They concluded: “A visual treat with genuine heart, Marshals is enough of a crime procedural to appeal to viewers who enjoy a complete story told in 60 minutes, while also remaining prestigious enough to satisfy Yellowstone fans who might not typically watch a show like, say, S.W.A.T. or NCIS.”

Marshals: A Yellowstone Story premieres Sunday, 1st March on CBS and the following Monday on Paramount+.

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PHOENIX — The Dodgers have played mostly great baseball in Los Angeles for 68 years. How many position players wear the iconic L.A. cap on a Hall of Fame plaque?

Go on, take a guess.

Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers’ star first baseman: “Three?”

Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations: “Two?”

The correct answer is zero.

The players that wear the L.A. logo in Cooperstown: Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Don Sutton. The Fox ownership deprived us of Mike Piazza, and the voters deprived us of Maury Wills, but the answer remains zero.

“That is fascinating,” Freeman said. “That is amazing.”

That means the first position player to wear an L.A. cap in the Hall of Fame might well be the one that shed tears over leaving the Atlanta Braves. Freeman preferred to stay, but the Dodgers offered him a six-year contract and the Braves did not.

“Going into that offseason, it was hard to imagine him in a different uniform,” Friedman said. “And now it’s really hard to see him in a different uniform than ours.”

Yet the love affair between Freeman and Braves fans was so evident in his 2022 return to Atlanta that, in the moment, Clayton Kershaw said, “I hope we’re not second fiddle.”

Said Freeman: “I don’t shy away. I had 12 great years in Atlanta, but I’m having a blast here. It’s been four wonderful years, a couple of World Series titles. I’m here. I love every minute of this.”

We remember best what we remember last. Freeman is well aware of his legacy.

“Walk-off grand slam,” he said.

Freddie Freeman tosses his bat after hitting a walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series against the New York Yankees at Dodger Stadium.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

No one else in major league history has hit one in the World Series. That was the “Gibby, meet Freddie!” moment.

What is Kirk Gibson remembered for? Do we have to ask?

Gibson played 12 years in Detroit and won a World Series. He played three years in Los Angeles, won a World Series, and one of the greatest moments in baseball history was immortalized by one of the greatest calls in baseball history: “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!”

Gibson is a Dodger.

Freeman played 12 years in Atlanta and won a World Series. He has played four years in Los Angeles and won two, with the walk-off grand slam to end one World Series game and a walk-off home run to end an 18-inning World Series game.

Freeman is a Dodger.

If you could follow him around town, you would see.

“I haven’t been able to leave my house once in the last few years without someone coming up to me,” he said. “Sometimes you just want to incognito and get to somewhere, but you can’t. It’s OK. That just means we’re doing something special here.

“Even in Orange County, it’s kind of taken over. There’s a lot more L.A. hats walking around than Angel hats in Orange County.

“It’s just fun to be a Dodger right now. It’s hard not to watch us wherever we go, and that’s special. It’s a great place to play. People want to come here and play. The fans obviously love us, and we appreciate all of it.”

Freddie Freeman waves to fans during Dodgerfest at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 31.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

Even the traffic. Freeman grew up in Orange County, so he takes the L.A. traffic in stride.

“The 55 isn’t that good either,” he said with a grin. “Or the 91.”

It sounds crazy to say that Freeman could play two or three times as long with the Braves and enter the Hall of Fame as a Dodger.

The totals through 12 years in Atlanta: one championship, five All-Star appearances, one most valuable player award, three top-5 MVP finishes, .295 batting average, .893 OPS.

The totals through four years in Los Angeles: two championships, four All-Star appearances, two top-5 MVP finishes, two legendary moments, .310 batting average, .907 OPS.

Freeman is 36. His contract covers two more seasons, although he said he would like to play four more with the Dodgers and then call it a career. That would make 12 years with the Braves, eight with the Dodgers.

Then, assuming his career does not fall off a cliff: Cooperstown.

“I’ve only been here for four years, and you’re already talking about this?” Freeman said. “That makes me happy because that means I’ve done my job well.”

Reggie Jackson played 10 years with the Oakland Athletics, five with the New York Yankees. His Hall of Fame cap features the Yankees.

Nolan Ryan played nine years with the Houston Astros and eight with the Angels. His Hall of Fame cap features the Texas Rangers, his team for five years.

If Freeman is elected, he and the Hall will confer about which team should be represented on his cap. That conversation might be a decade away, but I’ll say it now: In L.A. and in Cooperstown, Freeman is a Dodger.

Iranian state media confirmed that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, was killed in a joint US-Israeli air strike. Here’s what we know about him and the key moments that defined his rule.

Follow the build-up, analysis and live text commentary of the London derby as league leaders Arsenal face Chelsea.

The lovely, funny “American Classic,” premiering Sunday on MGM+, is a love letter to theater, community and community theater. Kevin Kline plays Richard Bean, a narcissistic stage actor. He’s famous enough to be opening on Broadway in “King Lear,” but he has to be pushed onstage and is forgetting lines. After he drunkenly assails a hostile New York Times critic — caught on video, of course — he’s suspended from the play, and his agent (Tony Shalhoub) advises him to get out of town and lay low until the heat’s off, as they used to say in the gangster movies.

Learning that his mother (Jane Alexander, acting royalty, in film clips) has died, Richard heads back to his small Pennsylvania hometown, where his family — all actors, like the Barrymores, but no longer acting — owns a once-celebrated theater. To Richard’s horror, it has, for want of income, become a dinner theater, hosting touring productions of “Nunsense” and “Forever Plaid” instead of the great stage works on which he cut his teeth.

Brother Jon (Jon Tenney), running the kitchen at the theater, is married to Kristen (Laura Linney), Richard’s onetime acting partner, who dated him before her marriage; now she’s the mayor. Their teenage daughter, Miranda (Nell Verlaque) — a name from Shakespeare — does want to act and move to New York, as her mother had before her, but is afraid to tell her parents. Richard’s father, Linus (Len Cariou), is suffering from dementia, though not to the point he won’t actively contribute to the action; every day he comes out again as gay.

Across the eight-episode series, things move from the ridiculous to the sublime. Richard’s attempt to stage his mother’s funeral, with her coffin being lowered from the ceiling, while “Also sprach Zarathustra” plays and smoke billows toward the audience, fortunately comes to naught; but he announces at the ceremony that he’ll direct a production of Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play “Our Town” at the theater, to “restore the soul of this town.” (His big idea is to ignore Wilder’s stage directions, which ask for no curtain, no set and few props, with a “realistic version,” featuring a working soda fountain, rain effects and a horse.) Fate will have other plans for this, and not to give away what in any case should be obvious, the title of the play will also become its ethos, with a cast of amateurs, including Miranda’s jealous boyfriend, Randall (Ajay Friese), and ordinary people standing in for the ordinary people of Wilder’s Grover’s Corners.

The series has a comfortable, cushiony feeling; it’s the sort of show that could have been made as a film in the 1990s, and in which Kline could have starred as easily in his 40s as in his 70s; it has the same relation to reality as “Dave,” in which he played a good-hearted ordinary Joe who takes the place of a lookalike U.S. president. The town is essentially a sunny place, full of mostly sunny people, to all appearances, a typical comedy hamlet. But we’re told it’s distressed, and Mayor Kristen is in transactional cahoots with developer Connor Boyle (Billy Carter), who wants clearance to build a casino on the site of a landmark hotel. (Much of the plot is driven by money — needing it, trading for it, leaving it, losing it.) He also wants his heavily accented, bombshell Russian girlfriend, Nadia (Elise Kibler), to have a part in “Our Town.”

As in the great Canadian comedy “Slings & Arrows,” set at a Shakespeare Festival outside of Toronto, themes and moments and speeches from the play being performed are echoed in the lives of the performers, while the viewer experiences the double magic of watching a fine actor playing an actor playing a part. Kline, of course, is himself an American classic, with a long stage and screen career that encompasses classical drama, romantic and musical comedy and cartoon voiceovers; the series makes room for Richard to perform soliloquies from “Hamlet” and “Henry V,” parts Klein has played onstage. He brings out the sweetness latent in Richard. Linney, who played against her sweetheart image in “Ozark,” is happily back on less deadly ground (though she’s tense and drinks a little). Tenney, who was sweet and funny on “The Closer,” and who we don’t see enough of these days, is sweeter and funnier here, and gets to sing. (All the Beans will sing, except for Linus.)

As a comedy, it is often predicable — you know that things will work out, and some major plot points are as good as inevitable — but it’s the good sort of predictability, where you get what you came for, where you hear the words you want to hear, ones you could never have written yourself. “American Classic” is not out to challenge your world view in any way but wants only to confirm your feelings and in doing so amplify them. Shock effects are fine in their place — and to be sure there are major twists in the plot — but there is a certain release when the thing you’re ready to have happen, happens, whether it brings laughter or tears. Either is welcome.

I LISTEN in pitch darkness as a creature scuttles from one end of my canvas roof to the other.

Huntsman spider? Giant goanna lizard? A giant goanna lizard-sized spider? My mind is racing.

Finally Emma, our Australian host, answers my panicked WhatsApp. “It’s a possum, Stew. No one ever died from a possum.”

Reassured, I snuggle back down under the covers and drift off to sleep with the soundtrack of the Australian forest echoing around me.

I’m staying at Paperbark Camp, an ­eco-glamping retreat 120 miles south of Sydney, tucked away in dense woodland on the banks of Currambene Creek.

My “pod” — essentially a wooden base with canvas roof and walls — has a sumptuous double bed, a deck with chairs and tables to chill while watching the exotic birdlife and kangaroos, and a delightful bath and shower room at the rear that is fully open to the forest.

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And, yes, I did check under the loo seat for spiders!

The camp is our base for a week exploring the delights of rural New South Wales.

Yes, Sydney is a fantastic city but what if you want a ­little more adventure and authenticity?

It was certainly a chance to get close to the famous Aussie wildlife, with possums trotting up to the bar terrace and mobs of kangaroos grazing just yards away in the paddocks surrounding the camp.

Having honed our canoeing skills with the camp’s boats on the delightfully placid creek, we headed up the road to Kangaroo Valley for a paddle with a twist.

Here, we had two canoes lashed together either side of a picnic table, with two bottles of local fizz chilling and freshly-made hors d’oeuvres. How civilised.

Our sedate hour-long paddle up the river surrounded by steep tree-covered mountainsides in the morning sunshine was beautiful, with guide Travis acting as wildlife spotter and giving us an education on the ways of the Aussie bush.

Every stop we made shed more fascinating light on the history of the country’s indigenous people and each stop revealed more of their mind-blowing bushcraft and knowledge of the land.

Up in the Blue Mountains — a Unesco world heritage site — local tribal elder “Uncle Dave” gave us a warm welcome to Scenic World and an enthralling introduction to Aboriginal history.

Whether out in the bush or in Sydney, a tour encompassing Australia’s indigenous culture is well worth the time, with more than 300 distinct “nations” living side by side in harmony for thousands of years, each with their own spiritual connection to the country around them.

Uncle Dave had our group enthralled as he talked us through the customs and folklore of the breathtaking landscape around us from a cable car 800ft above the forest canopy.

The same was true as we toured the mangroves and woodlands of the beautiful coastal town of Jervis Bay.

Here, our guide Jacob fashioned a soothing ointment for insect bites from the sap of a bracken fern he’d pulled from the ground in front of us.

No plant goes to waste, he explained, pointing out some of the various unique uses for the wide range of trees and grasses around us.

The plentiful mangrove trees and their twisted branches are perfect for making boomerangs, for example.

If the idea of walking through a coastal forest with stunning views of the ocean is your thing, the 90-minute trek from Hyams Beach to Greenfield is well worth a look, with miles of beautiful white sand — the whitest in the world, the locals claim — and crystal-clear waters.

There are of course snorkelling spots in the area, and a quick boat trip out into the bay will almost guarantee a sight of dolphins, with migrating whales also around from May to November every year.

Jervis Bay’s beaches are also famous for stunning night-time displays of bioluminescence — in which a plankton “bloom” in the water glows in the dark — but that’s not an experience you can plan for!

The local indigenous people’s name for Jervis Bay translates as “Bay of Plenty”, and the seafood on offer at renowned local watering hole The Huskisson Hotel certainly reflects that — a perfect way to refuel after a busy day and watch the sun set.

Exploring the stunning countryside of New South Wales will obviously require a car, and the average cost of hiring in Sydney is £45 a day.

And remember, they drive on the left Down Under so it’s easy for us Brits!

Back in the pitch darkness of the forest at Paperbark Camp, I’m woken from my well-earned slumber by a series of shrieks that sound not unlike the Demogorgon from Stranger Things.

I text Emma in the pod next door: “Did you hear that?”

As my ears pick up a rustling in the undergrowth just beyond my deck, her reply comes back: “If I told you that was just a possum, would you believe me?”

I don’t — but at least I know it can’t possibly be a 2ft Huntsman Spider.

BOSTON — Eight-year-old Martin Richard was a bright, sunny boy who loved to ride his bike and went “wild” when he played offense on his soccer team, scoring the winning goal in a championship game last year.

Krystle Campbell was the vivacious assistant manager of local steakhouse, the first to backstop fellow workers by running plates from the kitchen. She could instantly smooth over diners’ complaints with her smile.

They were both cheering on the sidelines of the Boston Marathon on Monday when two bombs went off with a thunderous boom and cloud of white smoke, claiming them as the first victims of the blast. Boston University officials confirmed the death of a third person Tuesday: a graduate student who has not been identified.

Friends and family members of the victims were still in shock after Monday’s chaos. Martin’s father, Bill Richard, who was tending to his wife and 6-year-old daughter, who were injured in the blast, released a statement thanking strangers for their prayers.

“We also ask for your patience and for privacy as we work to simultaneously grieve and recover,” he said.

Campbell’s mother, Patty, emerged briefly on the front steps of her family’s modest two-story home in Medford.

“We are heartbroken at the death of our daughter,” Campbell told reporters, her voice shaking between sobs. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

As federal investigators chased leads in the effort to find the perpetrators, doctors at Boston’s trauma centers tended to the more than 170 people wounded in the explosions, many of whom have been released. Dr. George Velmahos, the leader of the trauma team at Massachusetts General Hospital, said that although many of its surgeons trained on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, they were confounded by the severity of the injuries they confronted as waves of patients arrived at the emergency rooms Monday.

Some of the patients were in surgery for hours as doctors tried to remove metal fragments, spiky metal pieces that looked like nails without heads, and pellets that had shredded their limbs. But the positive outlook of many of them left Velmahos “moved and really amazed.”

“Some of them woke up today with no legs and told me they were just happy to be alive,” Velmahos said. “Some of them said they thought they were lucky.”

Among the relatives and friends who kept watch at Mass General was 39-year-old Corey Comeau, who was visiting his cousin and his cousin’s girlfriend Tuesday afternoon.
Comeau, a chef at Stephanie’s restaurant on Newbury Street, near what is now a crime scene, said his cousin was “still a little shellshocked” but that his cousin’s 24-year-old girlfriend suffered worse injuries.

“They say they can save her leg,” Comeau said as he stood outside the hospital after visiting.

“I can’t believe I’m even saying that. It’s not normal conversation.” Still, he said, the mood inside the hospital was “much calmer today than last night” with doctors going from patient to patient and conferring with families.

“These are some of the best hospitals in the world. The staff has been unbelievable,” he said.

At the same time, Monday’s chaos bred confusion, as in the case of Krystle Campbell.

Campbell had been watching the marathon alongside her friend Karen, her grandmother Lillian Campbell said, and the family at first believed that she had survived with serious injuries to her legs. But the family learned Tuesday morning that it was Karen who lived.

Lillian Campbell said her granddaughter stopped by her house for the last time last Thursday afternoon, when they drank tea and talked for several hours about work, friends and life.

“She loved being around people. She loved doing things for people,” said Lillian Campbell, 79, who noted that her granddaughter moved in to take care of her after she underwent surgery a few years ago. “She was hard worker. She was bubbly all the time.”

Nick Miminos, who had recently hired Campbell as an assistant manager at Jimmy’s Steer House in Arlington, Mass., said the 29-year-old “had one of those personalities that belongs in hospitality.”

“The wait staff loved working with her,” Miminos said. “She would run food for them, clear the tables for them. She wasn’t just a figurehead. She enjoyed getting her hands dirty.”

Not far away in the Ashmont section of Dorchester, neighbors and friends of the Richard family grieved at a candlelight vigil for young Martin. Bill Richard had been a force in restoring the historic neighborhood. His wife, Denise, who suffered critical injuries Monday, was a librarian at the Neighborhood House Charter School, where Martin and his 6-year-old sister, Jane, were enrolled.

Twins Andreas and Alejandro Calderon, 10, came by the Richard house to place a soccer ball, signed with their names, on the family’s porch. The boys recalled Martin hopping around the playground at recess and unleashing his energy on the soccer field.

“When we put him on defense and goalie he would do good, but he would save his energy so when we put him on offense he would go wild,” said Andreas, whose father coached the team.

Other friends posted their memories of Martin on Facebook and Twitter. Among the more searing images was a picture of Martin, with his gap-toothed smile, holding a blue sign he had made with magic markers.

“No more hurting people,” his sign said. “Peace.”

ALSO:

Boston Marathon bombs: Crude, unsophisticated but still deadly

Dad of 8-year-old Boston bombing victim: ‘Please pray for my family’

After Boston twin bombings, a nation offers its support and solidarity

alana.semuels@latimes.com

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

andrew.tangel@latimes.com

Also contributing were Times staff writers Maeve Reston and Alan Zarembo in Los Angeles.

Rams safety Kam Curl (3) celebrates after intercepting a pass against the Chicago Bears in the divisional playoffs on Jan. 18.

(Jeff Roberson / Associated Press)

The Rams have not invested heavily at cornerback since 2019, when they traded two first-round draft picks for Jalen Ramsey. They have not drafted a cornerback since 2023, when they picked Tre Tomlinson in the sixth round.

Last season, the Rams thought their young and talented pass rush could compensate for their decision not to stand pat with the cornerbacks and safeties from the 2024 season.

That did not work out well.

Cobie Durant, a 2022 fourth-round draft pick, and Roger McCreary, a 2022 second-round pick by the Tennessee Titans who was acquired in a 2025 midseason trade, are free agents. So are Ahkello Witherspoon and Derion Kendrick.

The Rams have until May 1 to decide whether to exercise a fifth-year option on Emmanuel Forbes Jr. The Rams in 2024 signed the 2023 first-round pick after he was waived by the Washington Commanders. If the Rams exercise the option, Forbes would be guaranteed $12.6 million in 2027.

Safety Kam Curl is a free agent. But the Rams in January gave safety Quentin Lake a three-year extension that includes $25.7 million in guarantees, so it would be a surprise if the Rams are willing to pay a premium for Curl.

According to Pro Football Focus, Jamal Dean (Tampa Bay), Jaylen Watson (Kansas City) and Tariq Woolen (Seattle) are top free-agent cornerbacks. Top college prospects include Jermod McCoy (Tennessee), Mansoor Delane (Louisiana State), Brandon Cisse (South Carolina), according to the website.

Loud explosions have been heard in Doha, the capital of Qatar, as defence systems shot down incoming Iranian missiles. Falling debris ignited large fire that sent plumes of black smoke rising above the city. Iran has hit multiple Gulf states as it responds to US-Israeli attacks.

Multiple airlines have made the decision to suspend services across the Middle East, which is also affecting other routes.

Airlines from across the world have continued to cancel flights across the Middle East after the US and Israel launched “major combat operations” across Iran. It prompted retaliatory strikes across the Middle East – hitting Dubai, Doha, Bahrain and Kuwait, all home to US bases, as well as Israel.

Airspace across the countries has remained virtually empty. Major Middle Eastern airports, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha have been shut or severely restricted as a result.

Many Brits enjoy holidaying in the likes of Dubai and have faced delays to their scheduled plans. The UK Foreign Office has told Brits not to travel to Israel or Palestine, and is advising people already in destinations such as Dubai, Bahrain and Kuwait to seek shelter.

In a statement on its website the Foreign Office said: “Due to the threat posed by escalation in the region, we recommend against all travel to Israel and Palestine. On 28 February 2026, the US and Israel commenced joint military action in Iran, Israeli airspace has now closed.”

The Foreign Office has also updated its advice for British citizens currently in destinations including Dubai, Bahrain and Kuwait. It said: “Remain indoors in a secure location, avoid all travel and follow instructions from the local authorities.”

The situation is quickly changing, so anyone due to fly in the coming days should also seek advise from their flight operator.

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Cancelled flights to the Middle East

Aegean Airlines – Greece’s largest airline has suspended flights to Tel Aviv in Israel, Beirut in Lebanon and Erbil in Iraq until March 2.

Air Astana – All flights to the Middle East have been cancelled until March 3.

Air Canada – All flights from Canada to Israel have been cancelled until March 8. All flights to Dubai have been cancelled until March 3.

Air Europa – The Spanish airline has cancelled flights to Tel Aviv and is monitoring the situation to assess operations on Tuesday.

Air France KLM – All flights to and from Tel Aviv and Beirut cancelled for Saturday. Dutch KLM weekend flights to and from Dubai, Dammam and Riyadh have been cancelled.

Azerbaijan Airlines – All flights to and from Dubai, Doha, Jeddah and Tel Aviv suspended.

British Airways – Flights to Tel Aviv and Bahrain cancelled until March 3.

Cathay Pacific – Flights to and from Dubai and Riyadh suspended.

Emirates – All flights to and from Dubai suspended until March 2.

Etihad – Flights from Abu Dhabi suspended until 2pm local time on Sunday.

FlyDubai – All flights to and from Dubai suspended until 3pm local time on Sunday.

ITA Airways – Flights to and from Tel Aviv and not using airspace of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Iran until March 7.

Lot Polish Airlines – Flights to Tel Aviv suspended until March 15. Flights to Dubai and Riyadh cancelled until March 2.

Lufthansa – Flights to and from Tel Aviv in Israel, Beirut in Lebanon and Oman suspended until March 7. Flights to and from Dubai on Saturday and Sunday suspended.

Norwegian Air – All flights to and from Dubai suspended until March 4.

Pegasus Airlines – Flights to Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon were cancelled up to and including March 2.

Qatar Airways – Flights suspended due to closure of Quatari airspace. Update coming by 9am local time on Monday.

Turkish Airlines – Flights to Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman cancelled on Saturday. Flights to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan cancelled until March 2.

Wizz Air – Flights to and from Israel, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Amman halted with immediate effect until March 7.

Knock-on effect

Air India – Flights from Delhi, Mumbai and Amritsar to London, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Frankfurt and Paris on Sunday have been cancelled. More flights to London, Birmingham, Amsterdam, Zurich, Milan, Vienna, Copenhagen and Frankfurt had been cancelled.

IndiGo – Temporary suspension of international flights using Middle Eastern airspace until Monday.

Japan Airlines – Cancelled flight on Saturday from Tokyo Haneda to Doha and return flight on March 1.

Lufthansa – Will not fly through Israeli, Lebanese, Jordanian, Iraqi and Iranian airspace until March 7.

Virgin Atlantic – Will avoid Iraqi airspace, resulting in some pre-planned rerouting of flights.

The assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, in the US-Israeli air attacks has thrust Tehran to a pivotal crossroads as the clergy looks to pick the late ayatollah’s successor.

With Iran on a war footing, several senior leaders close to Khamenei were killed in the attack as well, including his top security adviser Ali Shamkani and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander-in-chief Mohammad Pakpour.

Tehran has vowed to avenge the killing of Khamenei. The US President Donald Trump warned against the retaliatory attacks and suggested that the strikes on Iran would continue.

The US-Israeli attacks hit Iran on Saturday, when Tehran’s top diplomats were waiting for the next round of talks on upcoming Monday to lock a deal with Trump, including laying down nuclear ambitions, and avoiding an armed conflict.

After 36 years in power, the late ayatollah’s killing has left Iran’s top clerics to prepare for the transfer of power to the next Supreme Leader. That’s something that they have only done once before, four decades ago.

So, who will be the next Supreme Leader of Iran? And how will he be chosen?

How is the Supreme Leader selected?

Iran’s Supreme Leader is selected by the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member clerical body elected by the public every eight years.

Candidates who run for the Assembly must first be vetted and approved by the Guardian Council, a powerful oversight body whose members are partly appointed by the Supreme Leader himself.

When the position becomes vacant, due to death or resignation, the Assembly of Experts convenes to choose a successor. A simple majority is sufficient to appoint the new Supreme Leader.

As per Iran’s constitution, the candidate must be a senior jurist with deep knowledge of Shi’a jurisprudence, as well as qualities such as political judgment, courage, and administrative capability.

Earlier, there had been only one other transfer of power in the office of the Supreme Leader of Iran, when Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, died at age 86 in 1989.

What happens in Iran during a leadership vacuum?

Article 111 of Iran’s constitution mandates that a temporary council handle duties until a new supreme leader is elected.

That council will have: President Masoud Pezeshkian, Supreme Court Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, and a cleric from the Guardian Council, according to Iranian media.

They will lead the country until the assembly formally picks the new supreme leader.

Iran’s security chief and a close confidante of the late Khamenei, Ali Larijani, said on Sunday that the transition process is underway.

Luciano Zaccara, a research associate professor in Gulf Politics at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera that Iran’s political system has been prepared for the current situation, knowing that Khamenei’s assassination was a real possibility.

“Trump wants to get the best deal possible, but the method he’s using to get that deal is to annihilate or destroy as much as he can,” Zaccara said. “This is the way to impose conditions, not to negotiate anything. Trump wants a surrender of the regime, not a change.”

The late Ayatollah made sure to put in a structure, he added, to avoid a vacuum of power and kept replacements for all the officials eliminated in the last few months ready. “The structures remain, the line of power [and] the line of command remain in place,” Zaccara told Al Jazeera.

What is the Supreme Leader of Iran?

The Supreme Leader is the top position in the Islamic Republic’s political and religious hierarchy.

He is essentially the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the final word in the country – and appoints key judicial, military, and media officials.

He also leads the mighty Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force that leads the so-called Axis of Resistance.

Here are the contenders for the top job in Tehran

Mojtaba Khamenei

Khamenei’s second son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is among the top contenders to succeed his father in Iran.

He is known to wield significant influence among the administrators and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the most powerful military body.

However, Khamenei’s lineage is also among the biggest barriers he faces.

Khamenei was reportedly opposed to the father-to-son succession. It is frowned upon in Iran, particularly after the US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi monarchy was toppled in 1979.

Alireza Arafi

Arafi, a 67-year-old cleric, is an influential figure in the Islamic Republic’s religious establishment, but not a widely accepted political actor.

He serves as the deputy chairman of the Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for overseeing the selection of the Supreme Leader, and has been a member of the Guardian Council, which vets election candidates and laws passed by parliament.

Arafi was appointed as ⁠the jurist member of ⁠Iran’s Leadership Council, the body tasked with fulfilling the ‌Supreme Leader’s role until the Assembly of Experts elects a new leader, Iran’s state media reported on Sunday.

Arafi is also the Friday prayer leader of Qom — Iran’s most important religious center — and heads the country’s seminary system, overseeing clerical education nationwide.

Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri

Mirbagheri is an ultra-hardline clerical voice in the establishment and a member of the Assembly of Experts.

He is widely known for his unrelenting anti-Western worldview — and currently heads the Islamic Sciences Academy in the northern city of Qom.

Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei

Mohseni-Ejei is a senior Iranian cleric and currently heads the judiciary of the Islamic Republic, appointed to the role in July 2021 by the late Khamenei.

He previously served as Minister of Intelligence from 2005 to 2009 and later as Prosecutor-General and First Deputy Chief Justice. He is regarded as a hardline figure aligned with the conservative wing of the regime.

Hassan Khomeini

Khomeini, 54, is among the most discussed names in succession talks for the next Supreme Leader.

He is the grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and also the custodian of his grandfather’s mausoleum in Tehran.

While he has not held a public office, Khomeini is a reformist figure known for his rather moderate views on public life and policy. He attempted to run for the Assembly of Experts in 2016, but the vetting council disqualified him.

Tim Lovejoy made a return to Channel 4 alongside co-host Simon Rimmer on Sunday morning

Sunday Brunch suffered an awkward moment as Tim Lovejoy was quick to question a guest on her unexpected “feud” with David Attenborough.

During Sunday’s (March 1) episode of the Channel 4 hit show, Tim made a return to TV alongside co-host Simon Rimmer, for the usual three-hour show packed with celebrity interviews, culinary demonstrations and light-hearted entertainment.

On the long-running programme, the pair chatted to the likes of EastEnders Samantha Womack and American pop star Tiffany Renee Darwish.

However it was their interview with Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock that took everyone by surprise as Tim was quick to call out the science expert on her unexpected fall out with David Attenborough.

Without hesitation, Tim went on to say: “I’ll just put it out there, we understand you’ve got beef with David Attenborough. You fell out with him.”

Maggie burst out laughing as she replied: “Yeah, It’s an ongoing feud, he’s going down.”

Tim wasted no time digging for information as he jumped in: “Tell us about that because you’re both legends of this country and you don’t like each other.” Simon: “It’s so sad actually.”

Maggie explained: “So I was sitting next to him at dinner and I was gobsmacked sitting next to him and he was lovely and wonderful and we started talking about each other’s lives.”

Tim joked: “When did you fall out, was it the main course?” Maggie burst out laughing as she continued: “We were talking about life beyond the earth. It’s just sort of a lovely topic and he was like, no, no Maggie, you know, life needs water.

“And I was like ‘but David no’. I was thinking because that’s life as we know it. All life on earth needs water. But out there there could be life.”

She added: “So we had this ongoing debate, at the end, I said, ‘okay, David, I’m gonna go out and prove my theory’. He said, ‘Maggie, you’re a star. Stay here with us’.”

Viewers watching at home were pleased to see Dame Maggie as they rushed to social media to share their reaction.

One viewer wrote on X: “I could listen to Dame Dr. Maggie all day. She’s got that infectious enthusiasm that always reels me in. #SundayBrunch.” Meanwhile another added: “I love Maggie she’s so humble and nice #SundayBrunch.”

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Donald Trump has never been one to play by the rules.

Whether it’s stiffing contractors as a real estate developer, defying court orders he doesn’t like as president or leveraging the Oval Office to vastly inflate his family’s fortune, Trump’s guiding principle can be distilled to a simple, unswerving calculation: What’s in it for me?

Trump is no student of history. He’s famously allergic to books. But he knows enough to know that midterm elections like the one in November have, with few exceptions, been ugly for the party holding the presidency.

With control of the House — and Trump’s virtually unchecked authority — dangling by a gossamer thread, he reckoned correctly that Republicans were all but certain to lose power this fall unless something unusual happened.

So he effectively broke the rules.

Normally, the redrawing of the country’s congressional districts takes place once every 10 years, following the census and accounting for population changes over the previous decade. Instead, Trump prevailed upon the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, to throw out the state’s political map and refashion congressional lines to wipe out Democrats and boost GOP chances of winning as many as five additional House seats.

The intention was to create a bit of breathing room, as Democrats need a gain of just three seats to seize control of the House.

In relatively short order, California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, responded with his own partisan gerrymander. He rallied voters to pass a tit-for-tat ballot measure, Proposition 50, which revised the state’s political map to wipe out Republicans and boost Democratic prospects of winning as many as five additional seats.

Then came the deluge.

In more than a dozen states, lawmakers looked at ways to tinker with their congressional maps to lift their candidates, stick it to the other party and gain House seats in November.

Some of those efforts continue, including in Virginia where, as in California, voters are being asked to amend the state Constitution to let majority Democrats redraw political lines ahead of the midterm. A special election is set for April 21.

But as the first ballots of 2026 are cast on Tuesday — in Arkansas, North Carolina and Texas — the broad contours of the House map have become clearer, along with the result of all those partisan machinations. The likely upshot is a nationwide partisan shift of fewer than a handful of seats.

The independent, nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which has a sterling decades-long record of election forecasting, said the most probable outcome is a wash. “At the end of the day,” said Erin Covey, who analyzes House races for the Cook Report, “this doesn’t really benefit either party in a real way.”

Well.

That was a lot of wasted time and energy.

Let’s take a quick spin through the map and the math, knowing that, of course, there are no election guarantees.

In Texas, for instance, new House districts were drawn assuming Latinos would back Republican candidates by the same large percentage they supported Trump in 2024. But that’s become much less certain, given the backlash against his draconian immigration enforcement policies; numerous polls show a significant falloff in Latino support for the president, which could hurt GOP candidates up and down the ballot.

But suppose Texas Republicans gain five seats as hoped for and California Democrats pick up the five seats they’ve hand-crafted. The result would be no net change.

Elsewhere, under the best case for each party, a gain of four Democratic House seats in Virginia would be offset by a gain of four Republican House seats in Florida.

That leaves a smattering of partisan gains here and there. A combined pickup of four or so Republican seats in Ohio, North Carolina and Missouri could be mostly offset by Democratic gains of a seat apiece in New York, Maryland and Utah.

(The latter is not a result of legislative high jinks, but rather a judge throwing out the gerrymandered map passed by Utah Republicans, who ignored a voter-approved ballot measure intended to prevent such heavy-handed partisanship. A newly created district, contained entirely within Democratic-leaning Salt Lake County, seems certain to go Democrats’ way in November.)

In short, it’s easy to characterize the political exertions of Trump, Abbott, Newsom and others as so much sound and fury producing, at bottom, little to nothing.

But that’s not necessarily so.

The campaign surrounding Proposition 50 delivered a huge political boost to Newsom, shoring up his standing with Democrats, significantly raising his profile across the country and, not least for his 2028 presidential hopes, helping the governor build a significant nationwide fundraising base.

In crimson-colored Indiana, Republicans refused to buckle under tremendous pressure from Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other party leaders, rejecting an effort to redraw the state’s congressional map and give the GOP a hold on all nine House seats. That showed even Trump’s Svengali-like hold on his party has its limits.

But the biggest impact is also the most corrosive.

By redrawing political lines to predetermine the outcome of House races, politicians rendered many of their voters irrelevant and obsolete. Millions of Democrats in Texas, Republicans in California and partisans in other states have been effectively disenfranchised, their voices rendered mute. Their ballots spindled and nullified.

In short, the politicians — starting with Trump — extended a big middle finger to a large portion of the American electorate.

Is it any wonder, then, so many voters hold politicians and our political system in contempt?

Local chapters of National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame have begun honoring the top senior football student-athletes, with the Coastal Canyon area banquet set for Sunday in Agoura.

Players are selected based on their grade-point averages and leadership skills, among other attributes, honoring the best of the best.

Such players as James Moffat from Crespi, Mateo Bilaver from Chaminade, Jacob Paisano of Hart, Diego and James Montes from Granada Hills Kennedy will represent their schools on Sunday.

The Los Angeles chapter will hold its gathering in Manhattan Beach on Friday.

Simi Valley coach Jim Benkert has taken over running the Coastal Canyon group with dozens of individual student-athletes set to be honored.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

The Israeli Air Force has launched a new wave of attacks on Tehran. Huge plumes of smoke were seen rising about the Iranian capital as multiple targets were hit.

The assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in joint US-Israeli air attacks has caused one of the most significant blows to the country’s leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution, triggering protests by his supporters.

Khamenei assumed Iran’s supreme leadership in 1989 after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had led the Islamic revolution against the pro-United States Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

On Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said seeking revenge for the killing of Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials is the country’s “duty and legitimate right”.

President Donald Trump has framed the operation as a “liberation” moment, predicting that the removal of the “head” will lead to the swift collapse of the body. However, in Iran, the reality suggests a far more complex situation.

Interviews with insiders, military experts and political sociologists suggest that the decapitation of Iran’s top leadership may not go the way the West envisions. Instead, it risks birthing a “garrison state” – a paranoid, militarised system fighting for its existence with no political red lines left to cross.

The limits of ‘decapitation’

The central premise of the US operation is that Iran is too brittle to survive the death of its supreme leader. In a phone interview with CBS News, Trump claimed he “knows exactly” who is calling the shots in Tehran, adding that “there are some good candidates” to replace the supreme leader. He did not elaborate on his claims.

However, military analysts warn against the assumption that air strikes alone can trigger “regime change”. Michael Mulroy, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defence, told Al Jazeera Arabic that without “boots on the ground” or a fully armed organic uprising, the state’s deep security apparatus can survive simply by maintaining cohesion.

“You cannot facilitate regime change through air strikes alone,” Mulroy said. “If anyone is left alive to speak, the regime is still there.”

This resilience is rooted in Iran’s dual military structure. The government is protected not just by a regular army (Artesh), but also by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – a powerful parallel military force constitutionally tasked with protecting the velayat-e faqih system – the principle of the guardianship of the Islamic jurist.

Supporting them is the Basij, a vast paramilitary volunteer militia embedded in every neighbourhood, specifically trained to crush internal dissent and mobilise ideological loyalists.

That cohesion is already being tested.

Hossein Royvaran, a political analyst based in Tehran, confirmed that the strikes wiped out the country’s top security tier, including Khamenei’s adviser and secretary of the newly-formed Supreme Defence Council, Ali Shamkhani.

The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, said the leadership transition will begin on Sunday.

“An interim leadership council will soon be formed. The president, the head of the judiciary and a jurist from the Guardian Council will assume responsibility until the election of the next leader,” said Larijani.

“This council will be established as soon as possible. We are working to form it as early as today,” he said in an interview broadcast by state TV.

The rapid formation of an interim leadership council – comprising the president, judiciary chief, and a Guardian Council religious leader – indicates that the system’s “survival protocols” have been activated.

According to Royvaran, the system is designed to be “institutional, not personal”, capable of functioning on “autopilot” even when the political leadership is severed.

But a Tehran-based analyst said direction of Iran is still unclear as officials try to ‘project stability’.

“Officials here are trying to project stability, emphasising that the situation is under control and that state institutions are functioning effectively,” Abas Aslani, senior research fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies, said.

“Today, [the US-Israeli] air strikes targeted security and military infrastructure in the capital [Tehran] and other cities. There are expectations that such strikes could continue – and possibly intensify – in the coming hours or days,” he told Al Jazeera.

“That prospect of escalation is not something many ordinary Iranians welcome. At the same time, Iranian officials are issuing strong warnings, suggesting they could respond with capabilities that have not previously been used against Israel or the United States.”

From theocracy to nationalist survival

Perhaps the most significant shift in the immediate aftermath is Iran’s pivot from religious legitimacy to survivalist nationalism.

Aware that the death of the supreme leader might sever the spiritual bond with parts of the population, surviving officials are reframing the war not as a defence of the clergy, but as a defence of Iran’s territorial integrity.

Larijani, a conservative heavyweight and key figure in the transition, issued a stark warning that Israel’s ultimate goal is the “partition” of Iran. By raising the spectre of Iran being broken into ethnic statelets, the leadership aims to rally secular Iranians and the opposition against a common external enemy.

This strategy complicates the US hope for a popular uprising.

Saleh al-Mutairi, a political sociologist, notes that the government’s declaration of 40 days of mourning creates a “funeral trap” for the opposition. The streets will likely be filled with millions of mourners, creating a human shield for the government and making it logistically and morally difficult for antigovernment protests to gain momentum in the short term.

The end of ‘strategic patience’

If Iran survives the initial shock, the nation that emerges will likely be fundamentally different: less calculated and probably more violent.

For years, Khamenei championed a doctrine of “strategic patience”, often absorbing blows to avoid all-out war.

Hassan Ahmadian, a professor at the University of Tehran, says the era died with the supreme leader.

“Iran learned a hard lesson from the June 2025 war: Restraint is interpreted as weakness,” Ahmadian told Al Jazeera Arabic. The new calculus in Tehran is likely to be a “scorched earth” policy.

“The decision has been made. If attacked, Iran will burn everything,” Ahmadian added, suggesting that the response will be broader and more painful than anything seen in previous escalations.”

This risks a scenario where field commanders, freed from the political caution of the clerical leadership, lash out with greater ferocity. The assassination has humiliated the security establishment, exposing what Liqaa Maki, a senior researcher at Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, calls a catastrophic intelligence failure.

“The believer is not bitten from the same hole twice, yet Iran has been bitten twice,” Maki said, referring to the pattern of US strikes. This “total exposure” is likely to drive the surviving leadership underground, turning Iran into a hyper-security state that views any internal dissent as foreign collaboration, he said.

While the “head” of Iran has been removed, the “body” – armed with one of the largest missile arsenals in the Middle East – remains, Maki said.

LESS than an hour away from glamorous Porto is a lesser-known destination that is even cheaper then Lisbon too.

Braga is Portugal’s oldest city, and the third-largest in the country.

It’s actually nowhere near the Portuguese capital and that’s what makes Braga more affordable.

According to Wise, the average cost of beer in Braga is €2.50 (£2.19).

The average price of a meal out at a restaurant is €9 (£7.87), and you can pick up a cappuccino for as little as €1.57 (£1.37).

Meanwhile, in Lisbon, while a local beer is roughly the same, a meal out is around €3 more expensive and coffee costs around €2.39 (£2.09).

DREAMY DEALS

Our pick of the best long haul holidays for short haul prices

FEB-ULOUS TIME

February half term days out for UNDER £10, including free and £1 attractions

Hotel room prices are as little as £22 per night on Booking.com.

A one-night stay in the Hotel Moon & Sun Braga is is right in the middle of the city.

Rooms have en-suites, some even have balconies with incredible skyline views – rates for a one-night stay in March start from £29.50pp.

Airbnbs like a double room in the Rua da Violinha guesthouse which has a private bathroom starts from £30 – or £15pp.

When it comes to exploring the city, some of the biggest attractions include Braga Cathedral.

It was built in the 11^th century, making it the oldest in the country – technically it was built several centuries before Portugal became a country.

Bom Jesus do Monte is a Roman Catholic sanctuary with around 580 steps.

It has 15 statues and six fountains and is described as a “peaceful and awe-inspiring destination, with stunning panoramic views and serene gardens”.

Palácio do Raio is a beautiful blue-tiled palace which visitors have called “enchanting” with brightly painted doors and balconies.

Other tourist attractions in Braga, including Santa Barbara Garden, a public garden that’s open throughout the year.

For a spot of shopping, you can’t go wrong with Braga Parque with all the big-name shops.

For independent boutiques, head into the city centre where for plenty of clothes and handmade items.

Aside from the historical sites, make sure to check out the city’s trendy cafes and restaurants.

Braga is also home to several trendy cafes like Soul – Alimentação Saudável e do Bem, which serves brunch dishes.

One popular restaurant is Café Astória, which is known as Arcada by the locals, is one of the oldest places to eat in the city with over 110 years of history.

Visitors to the city should try Braga’s signature dishes.

The first being Bacalhau à Braga which is fried cod with onions, peppers, and crispy potatoes.

There’s also Papas de Sarrabulho, pork and blood rice porridge, Rojões, marinated pork, and Pudim à Abade de Priscos, a rich crème caramel pudding, for dessert.

A few years ago, Braga was named Europe’s Emerging Tourism Destination in the Oscars of Travel aka the World Travel Awards which have been running since 1993.

Braga beat previous winner Batumi to the top spot in the up-and-coming European destination category.

While Braga has its own airfield, this is used for private or smaller aircraft.

Major airlines will fly into nearby Porto which is a 45 minutes drive away.

In March, Brits can get to Porto from Birmingham Airport with flights from £16 with Ryanair.

Plus, here are the five lesser-known places where the Portuguese always go on holiday… and where they avoid.

And discover the secret side to Portugal that has been crowned one of the best places in Europe.

LOVE Island beauty Ella Barnes has revealed she was evacuated from Dubai airport amid Iran missile strikes.

The influencer, 25, who starred on the ITV show in 2023, took to Instagram to explain her flight had been cancelled.

Ella posted an image of the empty airport to her social media account and captioned it: “Got evacuated out of Dubai airport and my flight home cancelled.

“Guess, I’ll be staying here a little longer.”

A scared Ella, later posted snaps of missiles in the air and wrote: “Missiles in the sky.

“No this is so scary. Listen to how loud the explosion is at the end. WTF.”

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Love Island’s Ella Barnes strips off to lace lingerie in the snow

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Love Island’s Ella Barnes leaves nothing to the imagination in see-through dress

However, earlier today, Ella posted a snap of her driving along a deserted highway and wrote: “We are out of here. Thanks for all the messages. Had so many”

Ella found fame in Love Island 2023, and stole Sheffield lad Mitch Taylor, 28, from his partner Abi Moores, 25, after entering the matchmaking series as a bombshell.

Ella and Love Island alum Mitch announced their split at the end of August 2023, with two separate statements on social media.

Since then, Ella has seen her screen career go from strength to strength.

She bagged a role on TOWIE as the love interest of Roman Hackett prior to their split.

She then became loved-up with her wealthy entrepreneur man Neil Farrugia after the pair made their relationship official  in 2024.

But, she split from the hunk last year as the pair struggled to find time to see each other after a year of dating.

Ella is based in Kent in the UK, while fitness fanatic Neil who previously dated fellow Love Islander Gemma Owen, lives in Malta.

On Saturday, black smoke was seen billowing across the skyline in Dubai after debris from Iran’s missile blitz across the city.

Iran launched a barrage of rockets at nations across the Middle East after vowing revenge for Trump and Israel’s huge blitz on the rogue nation today.

The United Arab Emirate’s top holiday hot spot Dubai is usually a sought after travel destination for celebrities and influencers.

In more recent-times, celebrities from the United Kingdom have been emigrating there, with many Brit celebs choosing Dubai as the place they want to bring up their families.

Sam Gowland from Geordie Shore shared how a “rocket” flew over his home.

“Right above us on the Palm in Dubai today, bloody scary, I tell you that. Never heard a noise like it before,” he penned.

He then later shared a photo of a rocket near his home, writing: “Rocket above my house wtf this is crazy.”

Love Island star Arabella Chi, who relocated from the UK to Dubai with her partner, Billy Henty, and their daughter, Gigi, in 2025, has also shared posts about the scary time she is enduring.

“Dubai friends. Scary times. Stay safe,” she penned on her Instagram stories.

Just hours before the missile strikes, Arabella and her partner were playing with their daughter in the sand.

This article explores the historical roots and cultural traditions of Martisor, a celebration observed on the first of March in Romania and Moldova. The author explains that the month’s name originates from Mars, who served as both a god of war and an agricultural deity for the Romans. To welcome the arrival of spring, people exchange symbolic red and white threads tied to small charms, which represent the transition from winter’s cold to summer’s warmth. Women typically wear these tokens throughout the month to invite vitality and wellness into their lives. Finally, the custom concludes by attaching the threads to fruit  …