threats

In Rome, sources at Fiumicino airport told the BBC police bomb disposal experts carried out standard security protocols to ensure the safety of all passengers and crew.

Inspections of the passengers, luggage, and the aircraft yielded negative results, and the alert has since been cleared.

One plane which landed in Murcia, southern Spain – a Ryanair flight coming from Manchester – was also found not to have any explosives on board, Spanish authorities said.

One passenger later said she was unaware of the bomb threat until after the plane landed.

“We weren’t told anything during the flight,” Sarah told BBC Radio 5 Live. “The plane stopped quite suddenly and then we were kept on the runway for around 30 minutes.”

“Then the fire engines turned up, the bomb squad turned up and we were asked to evacuate,” she continues.

Sarah said the plane had not been on the ground a minute before it was “surrounded by fire engines and police and a bomb squad”. All the passengers were then escorted by police, leaving all their belongings.

“We were only later told that it was an actual threat, a bomb threat to the plane itself,” she added.

Two flights heading to Warsaw were also affected, including one from London Heathrow.

The Heathrow flight was originally meant to land at the Polish capital’s main airport, Chopin, but was diverted instead to the smaller Modlin airport, briefly forcing its closure.

A Scandinavian Airlines flight from Copenhagen to Warsaw-Chopin landed as planned.

Later on Tuesday, Bulgarian Transport Minister Georgi Peev said there were bomb threats against two planes travelling to the country’s capital Sofia.

He told the state-owned Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) the flights were from the northern Italian city of Bergamo and Ireland’s capital Dublin.

The flights into Sofia were not diverted and no explosives were found when the planes were checked, Peev said.

Bulgaria’s border police said in a statement sent to the BBC that at around 10:35 (08:35 GMT) it had received an email about “the presence of an improvised explosive device on a flight returning from Bergamo”.

“Standard procedures for such incidents were immediately activated, and an operational headquarters comprising representatives of various institutions was convened,” the statement said.

The border police added that the same email also reported a “similar threat against aircraft arriving from Dublin”.

Tehran, Iran – Ongoing contacts through mediators have provided a potential diplomatic opening between Iran and the United States, even as both sides express readiness for renewed military escalation.

After two days of Qatari-mediated talks, Iranian authorities have signalled that a deal remains possible provided that their demands are tangibly implemented. At the same time, they have doubled down on a willingness to expand attacks or even launch preemptive strikes if they deem war is inevitable.

“We are prepared for all scenarios,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera on Saturday. “We have upgraded our weaponry, addressed our vulnerabilities, and tested new arms. Our forces are at the highest level of readiness.”

His comments came as US President Donald Trump said on Saturday the talks were going “fine” but added that Iranian authorities were not “reliable”.

The Republican leader, who ordered attacks alongside Israel against Iran on February 28, has repeatedly raised prospects of once more hitting the country’s civilian infrastructure. In recent weeks, he has suggested that an attack could potentially take place after the November 3 midterm elections in the US.

“We still have to take care of, I would say, one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes,” Trump told reporters at a Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida about further bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Sequencing and timeline

The mediated talks in Tehran on Friday, and then in Qatar on Saturday, appear to have produced a new tangible result by shortening the period after which Iran’s proposal to partly reopen the Strait of Hormuz can be enforced.

Tehran had previously offered seven days, but that has now come down to two, Araghchi said in his interview with Al Jazeera.

Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow with the Center for International Policy, said there are “indications” of US interest in a negotiated settlement, citing the continuing Qatar-mediated talks and US Vice President JD Vance’s recent outreach.

“However, Iran is seeking a series of concessions while the United States insists on progress on Iran’s nuclear programme before concessions are made,” she told Al Jazeera.

“Therefore the central difficulty is sequencing and leverage. Each side wants the other to act first.”

Araghchi’s two-day offer indicates some flexibility over sequencing that could also allow both sides to claim an initial diplomatic achievement without immediately resolving their fundamental disagreements, according to Hamidreza Azizi, a senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group.

“However, the military statements show the limits of this opening. Iran appears increasingly determined to prevent a repetition of previous scenarios in which negotiations or temporary ceasefires were followed by renewed military conflict,” he wrote on social media. “From Tehran’s perspective, the objective is to make another attack so costly and unpredictable that Washington would have to reconsider the option altogether.”

As the talks were ongoing on Saturday, the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said he had a meeting earlier with top military commanders to demand “maximum deterrence” through preparedness for an immediate response “without geographical restriction” to any threat.

Targets would include “tangible and intangible” US and Israeli assets, Khamenei said. Iranian authorities have previously said if Iran’s civilian infrastructure is attacked again, seabed cables and infrastructure across the region could also become targets.

After Khamenei’s statement, commanders of the general staff of the armed forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the traditional army separately expressed readiness to launch missile, drone and other attacks in case of an escalation of conflict.

State media on Sunday also aired footage of missiles and drones being taken out of massive underground storage sites and deployed during the eight months of war so far.

The authorities also signalled that they expect more potential attacks from the US and Israel, including against Iran’s power grid.

Gholamreza Jalali, commander of the National Organization for Passive Defense, said during a speech on Sunday that they have identified 14 sectors most dependent on electricity that would need support if the war restarts, without naming any.

“Adopting preventive measures in the area of passive defence for the electricity grid is a fundamental principle that all authorities must follow up in their capacities,” he said, adding that officials were considering “network islanding” practices to create different segments that would not all be simultaneously affected by potential bombing.

‘Positive change in tone’

In and around the Strait of Hormuz, vessels continue to be attacked if they refuse to coordinate with the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the entity set up by Iranian authorities to enforce control and sovereignty in the critical waterway.

At least four tankers were identified as being hit on Friday and Saturday, although not all attacks are reported by vessels and monitors. According to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a vessel carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was struck by three Iranian projectiles on Saturday about 40 nautical miles (74km) south of Iran’s Lavan Island, deep into the Gulf.

Transit in the strait and surrounding waterways will not return to normal unless the US takes steps towards Iran’s conditions, security chief Mohsen Rezaei told state television during an interview on Saturday night.

For the sequencing to work, he said Tehran wants the US to lift its naval blockade that has halted oil exports and the majority of Iran’s trade, which used to be facilitated through its southern ports. The US must also issue waivers for oil sanctions, unfreeze Iran’s assets abroad, stop fighting on all regional fronts, including Lebanon, and recognise a bilateral Iran-Oman arrangement for Hormuz.

Rezaei said he has yet to respond to a letter addressed to him by Vance, although he said the missive indicated a “change in tone” that he described as “positive”.

Mostafa Najafi, a Tehran-based political analyst said to be linked with Rezaei, said if the conditions are not met, the letter is likely to go unanswered and negotiations – including on Iran’s nuclear programme – will not enter a higher level.

“It is unclear how willing Washington is to accept these demands. It is clear that not recognising rights emphasised by Iran will lead to the failure of the negotiations,” he wrote on X.

The US has also doubled down on the effectiveness of its Operation Economic Outcast involving the blockade, sanctions and pressure on overland trade and aviation.

A report by the US Treasury to inform Trump’s decision-making, which was publicised by news outlet Axios, said no new oil had been loaded onto tankers at Iran’s terminals since August 25. It also showed overseas crude deliveries were down, while Iran’s year-on-year inflation neared 90 percent in September and the national currency continued to dwindle.

The report said Iran’s economy was “crippled” by the combined measures, but did not argue that it was close to collapsing.

TV PRESENTER Eamonn Holmes’s lover received death threats and felt ­suicidal after enduring two-and-a-half years of hell for “simply falling in love”, she has revealed.

Katie Alexander sobbed to a friend about her misery — ­saying she feels that the stress in her life, including Eamonn’s illness, has led to her suffering a breakdown.

Police are investigating malicious emails and letters delivered to her, including a threat sent to her home saying she would be decapitated.

Katie, 45, who has been in a ­relationship with the breakfast TV presenter, 66, since his split from Ruth Langsford in 2024, spoke to pals about her ongoing ordeal.

She told a friend: “I fell in love with a man who made me feel safe, who encouraged me to be myself, and who loved and accepted me for me.

“I was thrust into the limelight and suddenly blamed for everything that went wrong with Eamonn.

“I became the accused — and a talking point for the nation.

“I was advised to say nothing, even though I wanted to defend myself, to tell my truth. I decided to protect others before putting myself first. I was being judged simply for falling in love.

“I had death threats sent to my work email, and letters to my home address threatening to decapitate me. Not only was I trying to protect myself, I had to protect my children from online abuse, and from being picked on at school.

“It has been two-and-a-half years of pure hell. It became too much to endure. I reached the point where I thought the quickest way out of it all was to kill myself.

“I had a breakdown. It’s my ­children who have kept me alive.”

Katie, a trained counsellor from West Yorkshire, added to her pal: “I hold people’s emotions for a living.

“Knowing what was the truth in my own life — so different to what was being ­portrayed publicly — was torture. The attacks were very personal.

“People can’t fathom I like older men. I have a history of relationships with men older than me.

“People thought, ‘she must be with Eamonn for his money’. That’s such an untrue, one-dimensional reaction.

“I had a happy life before Eamonn, but suddenly being with him made me happy and content. I never asked for a penny, but he wanted to make sure that I was comfortable financially. He made sure I didn’t have to worry about money. It was his choice, his doing.

“I refused his generosity so many times. It even got to the point where I’d stop him paying £15.99 for a film on TV, making him wait until it became free to watch.

“Despite being so far apart geographically, we lived together half of the week. We made it work. He was — and still is — my partner. And when we were together we did everything together.

“I gave him a sense of worth. He became softer after years of antagonism. He spoke of his feelings in more depth. I told him that if he can’t communicate with me we can’t be together. It seemed alien to him to be able to have a conversation and not an argument, or shouting match, even if we disagreed.”

The Sun on Sunday previously told how Katie had to move her belongings out of Eamonn’s flat in Surrey. He has been in hospital since suffering a stroke in April.

Financial help has dried up, including repayments on a Mercedes car bought by Eamonn so Katie could travel to visit him.

A close friend of Katie added: “She’s had a breakdown with all the stress that has come with trying to keep a family together and juggling work, while trying to care for Eamonn in hospital 230 miles away. There is so much that has gone on which will come out one day, and everyone will learn the truth.

“It suits a lot of people that Katie be painted as the ‘Wicked Witch’. But the reality is so different.”

The pair started dating in May 2024 and within a few months Katie moved into Eamonn’s home.

Eamonn wed fellow former ITV This Morning host Ruth in 2010 but the pair have been going through a divorce since they split in 2024.

West Yorkshire Police confirmed a probe into “offensive” letters, but said “no suspect has been identified”. Katie was asked for comment.

Earlier this year Albanese himself was evacuated from his official residence over a bomb threat. As of August, about 20 cases in which people were accused of making violent threats against him were winding their way through courts around the country.

In recent years, politicians here have been mailed bullets. Female MPs – and in some cases their children – have been threatened with sexual violence. A Jewish MP’s office has been firebombed, a Sydney mayor’s car has been torched and countless other politicians have had their workplaces vandalised.

Just last week Small Business Minister Anne Aly said she had received a wave of death threats after a politician from the opposition said she should be “shamed and stoned in the square” over a tax policy.

According to government statistics, there were 1,067 reports of “harassing and threatening behaviour” against “high office holders” in the year to June: an increase on last year.

“We tend to bury our head in the sand and say, ‘Not here’, but this has been happening now for well over a decade,” Josh Roose, a Deakin University Professor on violent extremism, tells the BBC.

Socioeconomic strain, growing mental health problems in the community, “grifters” who benefit politically or financially from whipping up further discontent, and a “carcinogenic” online environment are drivers of the trend, he says, which has dramatically escalated since the pandemic.

But the political class must also take responsibility for their role, he adds.

“We’ve seen a willingness to cross previously sacred terrain – you know, not targeting individuals, not targeting their families – but we now see that this is part and parcel of Australian political life.

“This is occurring at both ends of the political spectrum.”

And experts like him warn it is not just politicians who are vulnerable: it is members of the media, academics, court officials and other public figures too.