Good morning.
Israel has launched an attack on Iran aimed at “dozens” of targets including its nuclear facilities, military commanders and scientists, claiming it took unilateral action because Tehran had begun to build nuclear warheads.
As Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened “severe punishment” against Israel, the Israeli military said on Friday morning that Iran had launched 100 drones aimed at Israel and that the country’s defences had been focussed on intercepting them.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Israeli attack, which it is calling Rising Lion, was aimed at “rolling back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival”, adding that it would take “many days”.
What has the US said about the move? The US moved quickly to distance itself from Netanyahu’s decision to target Tehran in an escalation that threatens an all-out war in the Middle East. The unilateral strikes indicated a collapse of Donald Trump’s efforts to restrain the Israeli prime minister.
Trump keeps national guard in LA for now as appeals court puts brakes on ban
An appeals court has temporarily returned control of California’s national guard to Trump, hours after a federal judge ruled the president’s use of the guard to suppress protests in Los Angeles was illegal and banned it.
The 9th US Circuit court of appeals order means Trump retains command of the guard for now and can continue to use personnel to respond to protests against his immigration crackdown. The court could later decide against his control.
It’s a temporary victory for Trump in back-and-forth court decisions on who should control the security force, an issue that has pitted California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, against the president, and angered Democrats, who see the deployment as an abuse of power.
What’s happened to Alex Padilla? The Democratic California senator, was forcibly removed and handcuffed as he attempted to ask a question at a press conference held by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, in Los Angeles yesterday.
Air India disaster: rescue teams with sniffer dogs comb site of deadly plane crash
Rescue teams with sniffer dogs were combing the crash site of a London-bound passenger jet that ploughed into a residential area of Ahmedabad in India, killing at least 265 people onboard and on the ground.
One man on the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner – carrying 242 passengers and crew – survived Thursday’s crash, which left the tailpiece of the aircraft jutting out of the second floor of a hostel for medical staff from a nearby hospital.
Kanan Desai, the deputy commissioner of police, said 265 bodies had so far been counted, including people who died on the ground, but the toll may rise as more body parts are recovered.
One of two black boxes had been found, the Hindustan Times reported.
Who was the sole survivor? A British man, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who was in seat 11A of the flight, survived the crash. He said: “I have no idea how I exited the plane.”
What caused the crash? A full investigation will be necessary but aviation experts say a range of potential factors could have been at play, from bird strike to sabotage.
In other news …
Trump has ordered the US government to consolidate its wildland firefighting force into a single program, despite warnings from former federal officials that it could be costly and increase the risk of catastrophic blazes.
A Roman Catholic priest who admitted to child molestation has publicly recounted for the first time how New Orleans’ archbishop tried to give him a second chance to continue his career.
A judge released a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos into the US yesterday, freeing her on bail after a brief hearing.
During a congressional hearing yesterday, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, appeared to acknowledge that the Pentagon had contingency plans to take Greenland and Panama by force if necessary.
Stat of the day: House votes to claw back $9.4bn in spending including from NPR and PBS
The House voted narrowly yesterday to cut about $9.4bn in spending already approved by Congress. The package targets foreign aid programs and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides money for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, as well as thousands of public radio and television stations around the country.
Don’t miss this: ‘How did I get approved for $30,000?’ – is buy now, pay later headed for a fall?
Credit card debt has ballooned to more than $1tn in the US over the last several years, and consumer advocates are worried that the debt burden is even worse with the growth of buy-now, pay-later (BNPL). In recent months, companies such as Klarna and Affirm have been partnering with companies such as Walmart and eBay so that nearly every purchase can be made using BNPL.
Climate check: Brazil to auction oil exploration rights months before hosting Cop30
The Brazilian government is preparing to stage an oil exploration auction, months before it hosts the Cop30 UN climate summit, despite opposition from environmental campaigners and Indigenous communities. The “doomsday auction”, as campaigners have called it, includes 47 blocks in the Amazon basin.
Last Thing: Crafty curlews – birds eavesdrop on prairie dog calls to evade predators
Prairie dogs bark to alert each other to the presence of predators, with different cries depending on whether the threat is airborne or approaching by land. And according to new research, curlews have figured out that if they eavesdrop on these alarms, they may get a jump on predators coming for them, too.
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