Dubai (AFP) – Iran announced it was again closing the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and hit Gulf neighbours in retaliation for US strikes, further undermining efforts to salvage Middle East peace efforts.

Here are the latest developments:

Indian missing

India said 10 of its nationals had been rescued and one remained missing after a strike early Sunday on a vessel off the coast of Oman, which the United States blamed on Iran.

British maritime agency UKMTO earlier said the crew had abandoned ship and taken to a lifeboat.

Iran 'warning shots'

Iran's Revolutionary Guards had said earlier they struck and stopped a ship in the Strait of Hormuz for ignoring repeated instructions to use an approved route, calling the fire "warning shots".

The US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) said the vessel had been disabled by fire and damage to its engine room.

Jordan hit

Jordan's army said three Iranian missiles had fallen "in several locations across the kingdom, without causing any casualties".

Pakistan urges 'restraint'

Pakistan's top diplomat called for "de-escalation" and for all sides to "show restraint" during a phone call with his Iranian counterpart on Sunday, the foreign ministry said.

Kuwait attacked

Kuwait's military said its air defence forces were working to intercept an ongoing attack on its territory, as countries across the Gulf were targeted by drones and missiles.

Iran strikes second vessel

Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced they had hit a second vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, state TV network IRIB reported, adding they had also attacked a US base in Qatar.

US facilities in Oman hit

The Revolutionary Guards said they had also destroyed "the logistical support centres for naval vessels and the refuelling facilities for US aircraft carriers at the port of Duqm in Oman".

The Oman News Agency said on X that "the Sultanate of Oman affirms its condemnation and denunciation of this attack", which came just hours after the country hosted Iran's foreign minister to address security issues in the Strait of Hormuz.

US strikes 140 targets

CENTCOM said Saturday the US military had hit "approximately" 140 targets in Iran in retaliation for Tehran's attack on another commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

The targets included missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks and coastal surveillance locations, it said.

UAE, Bahrain attacked

Air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain, while the United Arab Emirates defence ministry said air defences were engaging missile and drone threats.

Three injured in Qatar

Qatar also reported intercepting missile attacks, and said three people had been injured.

Iran will 'pay': Hegseth

"Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay," said US defence secretary Pete Hegseth after Iran's strikes in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran closes Hormuz

Iran's Guards said the Strait of Hormuz would be closed "until further notice" after the latest hostilities, state media reported, renewing pressure on global energy prices, which have soared over hostilities around the vital shipping route.

'Vengeance'

Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, vowed revenge for the US-Israeli killing of his father and predecessor on February 28, the first day of the war.

"Vengeance is the will of our nation and must inevitably be carried out," he said in a written message Saturday, his first since his father's funeral.

Frankfurt (Germany) (AFP) – Despite a year of searching, previous stints at big automotive suppliers and sending out about 50 applications, German software engineer Max Peil is still looking for a job.

Trained in computer vision, a critical part of autonomous and intelligent driving systems, Peil could once have expected to sail into a role at one of Germany's industrial giants.

But years of stagnant growth in Europe's biggest economy and increasingly fierce Chinese competition are now taking their toll on young engineers like Peil.

"Usually you just get rejected straight up," the 30-year-old told AFP in the western city of Frankfurt.

"I've had one interview. It was the same with my friends, one has sent over 60 applications."

Known the world over for cutting-edge technology and innovative design, Germany's car industry, powered by exports, has so far managed to avoid the drastic decline seen in countries like Britain, France and Italy.

But Chinese carmakers like BYD and Xpeng have eaten into German carmakers' sales in the world's largest auto market, leading to painful adjustments at home.

"Ten years ago we made about six million vehicles a year and we've now stabilised at about four, 4.2 million," transport economist Thomas Puls of the IW economic institute in Cologne told AFP.

"That's good compared to other European countries, but we now need to accept that the golden age is not coming back."

In a sign of the times, workers on Thursday protested at Volkswagen sites across the country over reports that Germany's biggest carmaker is mulling up to 100,000 job cuts.

Total employment in the German automotive sector fell eight percent in the five years to 2025, according to Federal Employment Agency (FEA) data, even as it grew a little over one percent overall.

German industry as a whole is struggling against what some have dubbed the "China Shock 2.0" as the country's firms shift away from low-value production and into making more high-tech goods, often at lower prices.

This is pushing German companies out of once reliable export markets.

Total German exports were last year 1.56 trillion euros ($1.78 trillion), down almost two percent from a 2022 peak, according to data from statistics office Destatis.

Exports to China meanwhile plunged almost a quarter to 81.3 billion euros over the same period.

For Peil, who last year completed a traineeship at tyre-maker and industrial supplier Continental before it spun off its automotive business, the crisis meant it was clear he would not be taken on.

"Even when I started you could see, and you'd always read about it in the news, that this or that part of the business was being restructured," he said.

"And when you see experienced colleagues going, then you know it's unlikely you'll be hired for the role."

Anja Robert, who for 20 years has led the careers service at one of Germany's leading engineering schools, told AFP that even some of the best students now had to search a while.

"There's people who come to us and say, 'Wow, I've written 30 applications and heard hardly anything back: What's wrong?'", said Robert, head of careers at RWTH Aachen University.

"It's not the case anymore that you just get your application in with BMW and you get a job."

Qualified engineers last year had an unemployment rate of 3.8 percent, according to the FEA data, an increase of almost 50 percent compared to 2022.

Electrical engineer Luca Linhsen is one of the luckier ones -- she took up a job as a software consultant in Hamburg this month.

But she still had to endure a "frustrating" months-long job hunt.

"As engineers we were led to understand when beginning our studies that you've practically got a job even before finishing the degree," she told AFP.

"If you want to study engineering, do it because you have a passion for technology. Don't do it for the money or the job security."

Quito (AFP) – When Diana Tupiza and Andres Alquinga decided to get married, they selected a rather unusual witness for the civil wedding ceremony: Luna, their Pekingese pup who stamped her paw print on the marriage certificate.

With recently authorized "pet friendly" weddings, Ecuadoran officials are embracing the role of furry friends in modern families. Elsewhere in Latin America, only human witnesses are allowed, although Argentina and Mexico have made a few exceptions.

While Luna's paw print has no legal standing, the gesture holds sentimental value, and more than 50 Ecuadoran couples have elected to get married in front of their dogs and cats since May.

"That she (Luna) is here is really spectacular," Tupiza told AFP after their ceremony in the capital Quito.

The 38-year-old engineer said it was her husband's idea to bring Luna -- who dressed for the occasion in a pink tulle gown.

Alquinga, a 31-year-old programmer, said animals "may not be able to speak to us, or give us advice, but they are there to give us all the love that they have."

The move came as a shock to the bride's mother, Luz Lima, who nevertheless took it upon herself to make Luna's dress.

"It's better to choose someone...who knows what they're signing," Lima recalled telling the couple.

But eventually, she came around to the idea.

"These are modern times," she told AFP during the fitting for Luna's dress.

Otton Rivadeneira, the director of Ecuador's Civil Registry, said the policy is in line with contemporary family structures.

"We're definitely adapting to these current, modern needs," he told AFP.

Ecuador's latest census found that among its 19 million people, nearly 7.6 million have dogs and cats as pets -- almost double the number of children ages 12 and under.

After Alquinga and Tupiza's ceremony, Luna stamped her paw on their marriage license, which also had the signatures of the couple -- and other human witnesses.

"Symbolic marriage certificate" reads the document, with a special space denoting "paw print of your furry friend."

"I have three dogs and a cat," Tupiza said.

"For me, it would have been great if they all could have been here, but she (Luna) I think represents both the (pets) who are here on earth as well as those in heaven."

Mali and Algeria have reopened their airspace to each other's planes and reinstated their ambassadors, the countries have announced, more than a year after the destruction of a Malian drone strained relations between the neighbours.

Both governments released statements on Friday confirming that reprisal measures in place for the past 15 months would be reversed, with airspace immediately reopening to military and civilian aircraft and envoys preparing to redeploy.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries had been suspended since April 2025, after Mali accused Algeria of shooting down one of its reconnaissance drones in Malian airspace.

Algerian defence officials said the aircraft had strayed into Algeria's airspace near the border, a claim Mali's military government denied.

Mali, joined by its Sahel allies Niger and Burkina Faso, withdrew their ambassadors from Algeria over what they called an "act of aggression towards the entire confederal space".

Algeria then closed its airspace to flights to and from Mali and recalled its ambassadors from Mali and Niger, describing the allegations as "serious and unfounded".

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Caracas (AFP) – The death toll in Venezuela's devastating twin earthquakes last month has topped 4,300, a top lawmaker said Saturday.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez -- the brother of interim leader Delcy Rodriguez -- put the toll at 4,333, up from 4,118 on Friday.

On June 24, the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes hit Caracas and the coastal state of La Guaira, flattening entire high-rise apartment blocks into layers of rubble.

Camps for families left homeless have sprung up in stadiums, plazas and on sidewalks. More than 19,000 people are currently living in those camps, Rodriguez said.

Venezuelan and foreign volunteers are providing medical care in tents set up in open areas and distributing food.

Rodriguez did not say how many people were still unaccounted for, but the United Nations has estimated that 50,000 people are still missing.

He rejected the idea that the government would suspend the search for bodies amid families' fears that the rubble would be cleared indiscriminately.

Initial government estimates indicate that about 25,000 homes will be needed to house people.

Rodriguez said the government will begin providing some apartments to families in coming days that were under construction before the quake.

But he added that significant resources will be needed to build more, provide rental assistance and offer loans for property purchases.

The government has allocated more than 40 plots of land in La Guaira, totaling about 584,000 square meters, for the construction of new homes, Rodriguez said.

He explained that the land is located on safe plains away from the coastal area, where hundreds of buildings were damaged and more than 180 collapsed completely.

Also, interim President Delcy Rodriguez this week asked Britain's King Charles III to release Venezuela's gold reserves, which are currently being held at the Bank of England.

Burin (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – As brightly coloured kites climb above Burin, a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, children race across a sun-baked hillside, watching their creations soar into the sky.

Behind them, the red-roofed houses of Har Bracha, an Israeli settlement, overlook the village below.

Established in 1983, the settlement, illegal under international law, is one of several that encircle Burin, a village of a few thousand people.

Every summer since 2009, residents have gathered on this hill for a kite festival, held on land they say has been partly lost after being confiscated by settlers.

"We want to tell the settlers that this is our land, this is our sky. If we can't reach those lands anymore, our kites can," Ghassan Najjar, one of the festival's organisers, told AFP.

While the festival is primarily for children, it also carries a "political message," he says.

In Burin, conversations rarely drift far from settler attacks or the steady spread of Israeli settlements across the Palestinian territory.

As early as 2008, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) had warned of settler attacks in the area, citing shootings targeting Burin residents and the uprooting of their olive trees.

Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, the United Nations has reported a sharp increase in violence attributed to Israeli settlers in the West Bank, while several Israeli ministers have continued to call for the annexation of all or part of the territory.

For a few hours, however, the hillside takes on the air of a village fair.

A clown paints children's faces, music fills the air, as families spread picnic carpets across the grass.

Kites in the black, white, green and red of the Palestinian flag soar overhead, joined by another in the colours of Egypt, flown in tribute to the Egyptian national football team.

"Our children have the right to play and to have a real and a good life," says Najjar.

Yet even this celebration unfolds under the shadow of the conflict.

Before gathering, residents say they first checked that no groups of Israeli settlers were nearby.

"Sometimes we are scared... Last year we didn't come because settlers had attacked the village," says 15-year-old Sanaa Bashar Najjar.

"We stay only half an hour or an hour, just to get a bit of fresh air. With the war and the economic hardship, we're simply trying to breathe."

Another resident, Dalia Zaban, says her parents' home was attacked, its windows smashed and cars vandalised.

"Today, we just hope they don't come down here," she said.

As the afternoon wears on, the wind begins to fade and the kites slowly drift back to earth.

The villagers, however, say they will return next summer, determined to reclaim at least a patch of sky.

Wearing sunglasses and dressed with care, Burin resident Qusai Walid Eid summarises the feeling, saying he attends the festival every year to strengthen "our roots in this land".

Bédar (Spain) (AFP) – Firefighters aided by better weather on Saturday gained the upper hand on one of Spain's deadliest wildfires as survivors described "horrific" and terrifying moments as they escaped the flames.

Around 500 firefighters backed by over 20 water-dropping aircraft were battling the blaze which erupted Thursday in the Gallardos area of the southern region of Andalusia, home to many foreign residents.

Calmer winds and higher air humidity levels have allowed firefighters to directly attack the flames for the first time, Antonio Sanz, the Andalusian regional government's emergency chief, told reporters.

"A window of opportunity opened this morning," he added during an interview with Canal Sur television.

"And for the first time, we may be able to start thinking about stabilising the fire."

Officials said the 12 people who died in the fast-moving fire had been trapped in vehicles and as they tried to flee on foot.

The majority were foreigners although their identities have not yet been released.

"We were absolutely terrified. We could see the flames. It was horrific," Manoli Ramos, 72, a councillor in the small whitewashed village of Bedar where the victims were found told AFP.

She recalled another major wildfire in 2012 when residents had been able to return home the following day, saying: "This time it was like hell."

Bedar was virtually a ghost town Saturday afternoon, with nearly all of its residents evacuated, according to an AFP reporter.

The hillside village bore the scars of the fire: vegetation had been reduced to ash, while some homes had blackened walls.

Police kept the main road into town closed.

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Tehran (AFP) – Iran's supreme leader on Saturday vowed revenge for the US-Israeli killing of his father and predecessor, hours after President Donald Trump warned against any attempt to assassinate him.

[...]

"Vengeance is the will of our nation and must inevitably be carried out," Mojtaba Khamenei said in a written message.

He became Iran's supreme leader after his father Ali Khamenei's killing in late February by US-Israeli strikes, but has not been in public since before the war.

"This matter depends neither on my personal existence nor on that of other officials. Whether we are present or not, it will come to pass," he wrote in his first message since his father's funeral this week.

He said Iran had compiled a list of individuals to be targeted.

Hours earlier Trump had posted on his Truth Social platform that any attempt to assassinate him would lead the United States to "completely decimate" Iran.

"1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!," Trump wrote.

"Orders have already been given, and the US Military is ready, willing, and able, for a one year period of time, subject to extension, to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran."

With both nations stepping up their threats, mediators have been working to bring diplomacy back on track. Iran's Tasnim news agency reported on Friday that a Qatari delegation was visiting Iran to "try to reinforce Qatar's role as a mediator".

Trump has said talks with Iran will continue but has labelled them "a waste of time".

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meanwhile insisted Tehran had stuck to its end of the bargain after the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding last month.

Tehran "has so far kept its word", he said. "Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance."

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Istanbul (AFP) – Turkey's government pressed on with its campaign against the main opposition CHP on Saturday with dozens of arrests targeting a district in the capital Ankara that is run by the party.

Some 27 people were arrested in early-morning raids in Cankaya, out of a total of 36 named in a warrant issued by Ankara's public prosecutor, media reports said.

The warrant reportedly cited accusations of forming or belonging to a criminal organisation, bribery and tender rigging.

Among those named in the warrant was Cankaya Mayor Huseyin Can Guner.

The arrests come as Turkey's oldest political party battles a deepening crisis after a court removed its elected chairman Ozgur Ozel, handing the role to his defeated predecessor Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

The highly controversial decision by an Ankara court, which annulled the party's 2023 leadership election over alleged vote buying, was widely seen by critics as the latest bid by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to cripple his political opponents.

The move has raised major concerns about the state of democracy and the rule of law in Turkey.

Following Saturday's raids, Ozel -- who is currently visiting the southern city of Adana -- urged party members to gather in solidarity in front of Cankaya city hall.

Hundreds of CHP officials have been arrested as part of ongoing investigations into alleged corruption, including Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was widely seen as one of the only politicians capable of defeating Erdogan at the ballot box.

Pressure on the CHP has soared since its sweeping local election victory over Erdogan's AKP in 2024. Figures from late June showed at least 26 of its mayors were behind bars, detained on a range of alleged graft offences.

CHP's resounding local election victory took place less than six months after Ozel took over as party leader.

After Imamoglu's arrest, Ozel played a key role in mobilising Turkey's largest street protests in over a decade, which saw the party's popularity rise in the polls.

An outspoken critic of Erdogan, the 51-year-old is appealing against the Ankara court's decision but on Friday said if the legal moves failed, he would form a new party.

He described that as a "worst-case scenario" option in a YouTube interview with journalist Unsal Unlu.

Ibadan (Nigeria) (AFP) – Nigerian security forces suffered "casualties" during the rescue of over 40 kidnapped schoolchildren, the army said Saturday, in an operation that put an end to a major security crisis in the country's relatively safe southwest.

The pupils, whose rescue was announced Friday, were seized from three schools in Nigeria's Oyo state and had been in captivity for nearly two months.

The army said the children and staff were rescued following "carefully planned and executed" operations alongside intelligence agencies, police and local vigilante groups.

"However, there were some casualties on the part of the security forces," it said, without elaborating.

The shock kidnapping, in Oyo's Oriire local government area, was blamed on jihadists, though exactly which group was behind the assault remained unclear.

The country has been fighting a jihadist conflict that over the years has seen armed Islamist groups spread and fracture outside their strongholds in the northeast.

But the attack in Oyo state sent shockwaves through a country where many had long written off such violence as a problem contained in the north.

There, mass kidnappings have become an increasingly regular tactic of both jihadists and armed gangs known as "bandits".

It prompted protests across the country, a state-wide teachers' strike and high-profile condemnation -- all just months before the January 2027 presidential elections.

Southwest Nigeria has long been considered one of the safest regions in a country struggling with multiple security crises.

Oyo is one of Nigeria's most populous states, and its capital, Ibadan, is a major education hub.

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Keelung (Taiwan) (AFP) – More than 900,000 people have fled their homes in China, the government said, as an approaching typhoon lashed northern Taiwan and Japan's remote southwestern islands on Saturday, toppling trees and leaving tens of thousands without power.

Extreme weather has already wreaked havoc on southern and central China this week, with storms leaving at least 39 dead and causing dozens of rivers to overflow and a reservoir dam to burst.

Typhoon Bavi is expected to make landfall early on Sunday around Wenzhou, a metropolis of nearly 10 million people in the eastern province of Zhejiang, where the city government said 887,801 people had been evacuated from their homes by late Friday.

"The proactive, all-out mobilisation, which is sparing no effort or cost, is undertaken entirely to guard against the (worst-case) scenario," Wenzhou authorities said in a statement.

Residents used wood to reinforce metal shutters protecting shops and taped windows, with Bavi forecast to bring "exceptionally heavy rains" to eastern Zhejiang and northeastern Fujian province, CCTV footage showed.

Torrential rain further north prompted the evacuation of more than 100,000 people from their homes, the government said, as water discharge flows from the capital's Miyun Reservoir were ramped up to capture potential floodwaters.

Streets were largely deserted in northern Taiwan, where most businesses were shut for a second day as wind and rain buffetted the region.

More than 14,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, hundreds of flights cancelled and more than 170,000 households across the island hit with power outages because of the storm.

"Everyone is afraid of the severe weather and staying indoors, but I only came out because I have orders," a breakfast shop owner surnamed Tsai told AFP in Taiwan's port city of Keelung.

"Some people are on duty and wouldn't have anything to eat, so I still need to deliver food to them," the 50-year-old said.

Bavi was downgraded to a typhoon as it moved across the Pacific Ocean after slamming into Guam and the Northern Marianas on Monday as a super typhoon.

Its maximum sustained wind speeds slowed to 137 kilometres (85 miles) per hour, with gusts of around 173 kmh, on Saturday, Taiwan's Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.

The CWA warned of "extremely torrential rain" across northern Taiwan and "dangerous waves" of up to 10 metres (33 feet) along the coast as Bavi skirted the island's north.

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Thessaloniki (Greece) (AFP) – A man was nearly sucked out the window of a Ryanair flight when it "detached" mid-air en route to Germany, with other passengers pulling him back inside, witnesses and officials said Friday.

The passenger, described as a tourist from Serbia on a flight from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen in Germany, has been hospitalised with friction burns but was otherwise in good condition, authorities said.

"Most of us had fallen asleep, we had closed our eyes. There was a noise, like a tyre bursting," a fellow passenger told Radio Thessaloniki.

"We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams ... for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door," the woman said.

"The masks dropped and there was a strong smell. The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window. Fortunately, he hadn't taken off his seat belt."

Other passengers near the man helped to pull him in, she said.

Greek media reported the incident had occurred over North Macedonia, and said the window had been broken by a piece of debris that detached from one of the plane's engines.

Ryanair in a statement said the flight "returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window detached during the flight. The aircraft landed normally and the passengers returned to the terminal."

A replacement aircraft was made available to transport the remaining passengers to Memmingen, the Irish carrier said.