MIDDLE EAST

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Members of Iran's women's national soccer team remained silent during their country's national anthem before their opening match at the AFC Women's Asian Cup, in what appeared to be a protest amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Ahead of their game against South Korea on Monday, March 2, at Gold Coast Stadium in Queensland, Australia, the players stood together on the pitch as the anthem played but did not sing along. Video footage from the moment shows the team maintaining silence in a gesture that many interpreted as a response to the ongoing conflict affecting their home country.

Iran went on to lose the match 3-0. Despite the result, their actions drew admiration from fellow athletes and commentators who praised their composure and courage during a difficult period.

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Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that a new leadership council “has begun its work” after death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pezeshkian made the comment in a prerecorded message aired on Iranian state television.

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The escalating conflict in the Middle East is sending shockwaves through energy markets and global supply chains, raising concerns that a regional war could morph into a broader economic crisis.

Shipping companies have paused sailings through the Strait of Hormuz after strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran heightened security risks. The narrow channel, which links the Gulf to the open ocean, is one of the world's most critical oil chokepoints.

Key Points

Major carriers including Maersk, MSC, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM have rerouted vessels. Energy traders are bracing for higher crude and gas prices. Businesses face longer delivery times and rising freight costs.

In 2023, roughly a fifth of global petroleum liquids consumption flowed through Hormuz, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Any sustained disruption threatens to squeeze supplies, lift benchmark crude prices and feed inflation worldwide.

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Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, on Monday, February 9, said people of all faiths would stand united to overcome “evil” as he paid tribute to victims of the deadly Bondi Beach shooting in Sydney.

Herzog made the remarks while laying a wreath at Bondi Beach in memory of those killed during a Jewish festival attack on December 14, which claimed 15 lives. The ceremony took place under heavy security and gloomy weather as the Israeli leader began a four-day visit aimed at showing solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community.

“The bonds between good people of all faiths and all nations will remain strong in the face of terror, violence and hatred,” Herzog said during the event outside the Bondi Pavilion. “We shall overcome this evil together.”

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Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei left behind a corrupt and repressive legacy, following his assassination on February 28.

Before his death, he was the longest-serving ruler in the Middle East, having taken power in 1989 following the death of his mentor Ruhollah Khomeini.

His 36 years and eight months leading Iran resulted in the mass repression of women, the slaughter of civilians and the funding of terror groups including Hamas and Hezbollah.

But among the most wicked things he did was to amass a business empire worth an estimated $95billion by systematically seizing thousands of properties belonging to ordinary Iranians.

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Iran on Wednesday executed a man who was accused of spying for Israel, the Iranian judiciary’s media outlet Mizan reported.

Hamidreza Sabet Esmailpour, who had been convicted of passing information to a Mossad agent, was hanged at dawn, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said.

“Hamidreza Sabet Esmaeilipour who was arrested on 29 April 2025, was hanged for the crime of espionage and intelligence cooperation in favor of a hostile intelligence service (Mossad) through… the transfer of classified documents and information, after the verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court and through legal procedures,” Mizan said.

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At least 153 people, including many children, were killed after a reported missile strike struck a girls' school in the southern Iranian town of Minab, according to Iranian officials, as the country reels from a wave of U.S. and Israeli air operations.

Iran's Red Crescent said hundreds more were injured in the attack, which it described as one of the deadliest single incidents since strikes began across the country on Saturday morning. State media initially reported dozens dead, later revising the toll sharply upward as rescue teams pulled bodies from the rubble.

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Iran offered its first government-issued death toll Wednesday following a crackdown on nationwide protests, giving a far lower figure than activists abroad as the country’s theocracy tries to reassert control after unrest recalling the chaos surrounding its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

State television carried statements by the Interior Ministry and the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, an official body providing services to families of those killed in wars, saying 3,117 people were killed. It added that 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began Dec. 28 were civilians and security forces. It did not elaborate on the rest. Iran’s government in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the death toll early Thursday was at least 4,902, with many more feared dead. The human rights group has been accurate throughout the years on demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities. Other groups similarly have offered higher numbers than the Iranian government tally.