Officials say Ukraine has regained almost full control of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Ukraine says it has regained almost complete control of its eastern Dnipropetrovsk region and recaptured several hundred square kilometers of territory in recent counterattacks.

Pushing Russian forces back undermines Moscow's attempts to establish buffer zones along parts of the border, and could disrupt Russian plans for fresh attacks in the spring and summer.

Details of the operation emerged Tuesday when Oleksandr Komarenko, head of the main operational directorate of the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces, told local media that Ukrainian airborne assault troops and mechanized brigades had already liberated more than 400 square kilometers of territory.

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A Saudi Arabian arms company has signed a deal to buy Ukrainian-made interceptor missiles, the Kyiv Independent has learned, with one source within Ukraine's defense industry saying that Riyadh and Kyiv are negotiating a separate "huge deal" for arms that could be finalized this week.

Iran’s recent air attacks across neighboring Gulf States amid the U.S. and Israel-led war against Tehran have kicked off a scramble for military equipment to combat ballistic missiles and Shahed attack drones.

While cost-effective against expensive missiles, air defense interceptors like the U.S.-made Patriot cost millions of dollars — making them an unsustainable way to shoot down cheap drones built en masse for tens of thousands of dollars a piece.

Two sources within Ukraine's defense industry who asked to remain anonymous to discuss non-public negotiations told the Kyiv Independent that major contracts were up for discussion between the governments of Ukraine and Saudi Arabia.

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José Antonio Kast, who voted against legalising divorce in 2004, has pushed for return to total abortion ban

Women’s rights activists in Chile are bracing as the most conservative president since the Pinochet dictatorship prepares to take office on Wednesday.

José Antonio Kast, a 60-year-old ultra Catholic whose father was a member of the Nazi party, has consistently blocked progressive bids for women’s rights and equality across his three-decade career in politics.

As a congressman, Kast voted against divorce when Chile became one of the last countries of the world to legalise it in 2004 and vehemently opposed the legalisation of abortion under limited exceptions when it was passed in 2017. He has since pushed to revert to a total ban on abortion and require parental consent for the morning-after pill.

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Such regressive views stand in contrast to feminist and gay rights movements across Latin America since the 2010s, including the “green wave” that successfully pushed for free abortion rights in Argentina, Colombia and some Mexican states.

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Move could lead to escalation of war as Donald Trump has already called Mojtaba Khamenei an unacceptable choice

Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been chosen as his successor.

Members of the clerical body responsible for selecting Iran’s highest authority announced the decision on Sunday, calling on Iranians to rally behind him and preserve national unity.

In a statement carried by state media, the assembly said Khamenei had been chosen through what it described as a “decisive vote”.

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The move could lead to a further escalation of the war, given Donald Trump had already acknowledged that Mojtaba Khamenei was the most likely successor and made clear he considered such an outcome unacceptable.

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The clerical body tasked with selecting the next supreme leader has reached a decision but the name hasn’t been announced, Iranian media reported.

Israel threatened to target anyone who succeeds or seeks to appoint a successor to Iran’s deceased Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Israeli military issued the warning in a social media post in Farsi on X, as the clerical body in charge of picking the new Iranian leader reportedly reached a decision on Sunday.

“We warn all those who intend to participate in the successor selection meeting that we will not hesitate to target you. This is a warning!” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in the post.

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Residents report terror of smoke-filled city, from potentially toxic rain, air and water to food scarcity and difficulty of escape

Thick black smoke was still rising in the sky, soot covered the streets and cars, balconies filled with black gunk, and the toxic air had filled the lungs as Tehran woke up after a night of airstrikes on the city’s oil depots on Sunday.

In messages and voice notes sent to the Guardian, people described the situation in their homes and on the streets, some calling it “apocalyptic”. With the sun blotted out, disoriented people in Iran’s capital had to turn on their lights to see through the gloom.

Four oil depots and a petroleum logistics site in and around Tehran were hit. Local authorities said six people were killed and 20 wounded at one of the sites.

Videos shared by citizen journalists showed massive flames over the Tehran sky overnight and smoke still billowing over the oil storage facilities. As rain poured down on the city of 10 million people on Sunday morning, authorities warned of toxic acid rain and many residents woke up with pain in their throat and eyes burning.

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Kyiv hopes that the knowledge it has gained fighting Russia will give it both money and leverage with Donald Trump.

Ukrainian officials are in talks with rich Gulf countries, peddling their country's hard-won anti-drone expertise against Iranian attacks in exchange for crucial cash for Kyiv's defense industry.

Polite American officials are also talking to Ukrainians on sharing their drone tech — something that may at least temporarily boost Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's leverage with the White House.

Both negotiations could offer Ukraine desperately needed help: money at a time when the EU's promised €90 billion loan has stalled thanks to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's veto, and American interceptors for Ukraine's Patriot air defense systems to knock down Russian ballistic missiles.

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Masoud Pezeshkian issues rare apology to neighbouring Gulf states for Iranian strikes as war enters eighth day

The president of Iran has rejected Donald Trump’s call for the country’s unconditional surrender as a “dream”, while issuing a rare apology for Iranian strikes that had targeted sites in neighbouring Gulf states.

In a prerecorded address broadcast on state television on Saturday, Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said the country would never capitulate, responding to remarks by the US president, who said on Friday that only Iran’s total submission could bring the war to an end.

Iran’s enemies, Pezeshkian said, “must take their dream of the Iranian people’s unconditional surrender to their graves”, in remarks that further escalate the eighth day of conflict, which has choked global oil supplies and cut world air travel.

At the same time, Pezeshkian issued an apology to neighbouring states for Iran’s recent “actions”, in an apparent attempt to ease regional anger after Iranian strikes hit civilian targets in Gulf Arab countries.

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Leafs general manager Brad Treliving met with the media Friday for what was maybe his most sombre availability since coming to Toronto.

The Maple Leafs’ first trade deadline as sellers in a decade is over.

After trading Nicolas Roy, Bobby McMann and Scott Laughton for a collection of draft picks, Leafs general manager Brad Treliving met with the media for what was maybe his most sombre availability since coming to Toronto in 2023.

Let’s unpack the most notable things the Leafs GM said on Friday.

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Police say Masood Masjoody was most likely murdered; Iranian expats suspect he was killed for his criticism of the theocratic regime

Police in Canada have concluded that a missing Iranian activist was most likely the victim of murder, prompting fears that his disappearance has the hallmarks of a transnational repression campaign targeting critics of Tehran.

Masood Masjoody, a mathematician critical of both Iran’s theocratic regime and the exiled family of the former shah, went missing in early February in the city of Burnaby, British Columbia.

Police are still searching for Masjoody’s body, and a spokesperson for the integrated homicide investigations team, which is part of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), said all of the evidence investigators have collected indicates foul play.

Police say Masood Masjoody was most likely murdered; Iranian expats suspect he was killed for his criticism of the theocratic regime

Police in Canada have concluded that a missing Iranian activist was most likely the victim of murder, prompting fears that his disappearance has the hallmarks of a transnational repression campaign targeting critics of Tehran.

Masood Masjoody, a mathematician critical of both Iran’s theocratic regime and the exiled family of the former shah, went missing in early February in the city of Burnaby, British Columbia.

Police are still searching for Masjoody’s body, and a spokesperson for the integrated homicide investigations team, which is part of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), said all of the evidence investigators have collected indicates foul play.

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People tell of scenes of panic during airstrikes on Iran’s capital, with several saying they feared they would die

Sleeplessness, fear and exhaustion gripped residents of Tehran as successive waves of strikes struck the Iranian capital, judging from messages sent by people in the city after the latest overnight onslaught, which several described as the worst bombardment in six days of war.

With Iran imposing a near-total internet blackout, information emerging from inside the country is fragmentary and difficult to verify. But in a series of accounts sent through proxy connections, and calls with friends abroad, Tehranis described a night of intense explosions.

Zahra, a teacher and mother of one living in central Tehran, said the strikes, in what she said was the heaviest attack to date, had left her deeply worried for civilians who found themselves in danger not just from Iran’s attackers but from their own government.

“This is the first time since the war began that I am genuinely scared for my fellow Iranians,” said Zahra*. “We are trapped between the regime that is killing us with machine guns, and a foreign power has likely decided that we are collateral damage.”

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