“The United States’ military began major combat operations in Iran,” Trump said in a video message posted on his social media site while he spent the weekend at his Florida golf club.

“We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated. We’re going to annihilate their navy,” Trump said.

He offered the Iranian military “immunity” or “certain death” and told Iranians the “hour of your freedom is at hand”.

Iranian State television reported that President Pezeshkian was “safe and sound” and the Fars news agency said “seven missile impacts were reported in the Keshvardoost and Pasteur districts” of Tehran.

“I saw with my own eyes two Tomahawk missiles flying horizontally toward targets,” an office worker told AFP on condition of anonymity. “At first we heard a dull noise and thought it was a fighter jet.”

In Tehran, AFP journalists heard blasts and saw two large columns of smoke rising over the city centre. The health ministry said ambulances had been dispatched but there was no immediate confirmation of casualties.

Iran, Iraq and Israel all closed their airspaces to civilian traffic once the strikes were underway, and the US embassies in Qatar and Bahrain urged US citizens to take shelter.

Sirens sounded in Jerusalem and Israeli authorities issued a cellphone warning for citizens.

Trump had ordered the biggest military build-up in decades in the Middle East, with the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, approaching the coast of Israel

A day after the United States and Iran held talks in Geneva, Trump said on Friday that the cleric-run state was “not willing to give us what we have to have”.

But Oman, which mediated the Geneva talks, offered a much rosier picture and said that Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling of any uranium, rendering moot the question of the level of enrichment.

Iran also agreed to degrade current stockpiles into fuel, said Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, who was in Washington meeting US Vice President JD Vance.

The strikes come weeks after Iranian authorities killed thousands of people as they crushed mass protests.

Iran agreed to restrictions to low-level enrichment in a 2015 deal that Trump ripped up during his first term in office.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Israel for talks on Iran on Monday, the State Department said.

In a rare break from decades of precedent, the top US diplomat will travel without reporters on his plane.

Trump in his State of the Union address Tuesday alleged Iran was developing missiles that could strike the United States.

Rubio later said it would be a “very big problem” for Iran if it does not discuss its missiles. Iran has insisted that the ongoing talks focus on the nuclear issue.

Increasing pressure, Rubio on Friday designated Iran a state sponsor of wrongful detentions, a new blacklist, over jailings of US citizens.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that “success in this path requires seriousness and realism from the other side and avoidance of any miscalculation and excessive demands”.

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said it would hold technical discussions with Iran on Monday.

The agency called on Iran to cooperate with it “constructively,” according to a confidential report seen by AFP.

AFP

Bill Gates has admitted making a “huge mistake” in associating with Jeffrey Epstein, telling staff at his charity foundation that he had affairs with two Russian women but denying involvement in the disgraced financier’s crimes.

The Microsoft co-founder is among the prominent names appearing in documents released by the US Justice Department that revealed close friendships, illicit financial dealings and private photos with convicted sex offender Epstein.

In a town hall Tuesday with staff at the Gates Foundation, a recording of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Gates expressed regret that his relationship with Epstein had affected the work of his philanthropic organisation.

“It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein” and to also bring Gates Foundation executives into meetings with Epstein, he said.

“I apologise to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made.”

In a draft email among the documents released by the Justice Department, Epstein alleged Gates engaged in extramarital affairs, writing that his relationship with Gates ranged from “helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts with married women”.

Gates, 70, admitted at the town hall to two affairs.

“I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities,” he said.

But he denied any involvement with victims of Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls.

“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Gates told the town hall.

The tech titan said his relationship with Epstein began in 2011, three years after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Gates said he knew of an “18-month thing” restricting Epstein’s travel but didn’t check his background.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the legendary civil rights activist and two-time presidential candidate, has passed away Tuesday aged 84, his family has said in a statement.

A cause of death was not immediately given but Jackson’s family said he died peacefully surrounded by loved ones.

“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said.

“We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”

Jackson was hospitalized in November for treatment to regulate his blood pressure, having been under observation for progressive supranuclear palsy, CNN reported at the time.

PSP is “a rare neurological disorder that affects body movements, walking and balance, and eye movements,” according to the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Prior to that, Jackson’s struggles with his health prevented him from attending his 84th birthday celebrations in Chicago last October, which, CBS reported, was nevertheless attended by city mayor Brandon Johnson, former congressman Bobby Rush, and Jackson’s sons — current Illinois Democratic Rep. Jonathan Jackson and former representative Jesse Jackson Jr — among many others.

He announced he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017.

Also in their statement, Jackson’s family expressed their “profound sadness” at his passing and paid tribute to “his unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and human rights helped shape a global movement for freedom and dignity.

Culled from Independent.co.uk