A top military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that missiles were prepared for launch in response to Israeli threats against Beirut’s southern suburbs, underscoring Tehran’s continued backing for Hezbollah amid heightened regional tensions.

Speaking to Iranian state television, Mohsen Rezaei accused Israel of using pressure tactics in Lebanon to gain leverage in negotiations involving Iran.

He warned that Lebanon would remain central to any future regional settlement and reiterated Tehran’s commitment to supporting its allies.

Rezaei said Iran’s support for Hezbollah was a matter of strategic credibility, arguing that countries that abandon their partners risk weakening their influence and standing.

He also warned that any renewed confrontation would expose northern Israel to conditions “far more difficult” than those experienced during the recent 40-day conflict.

The United Arab Emirates mission at the UN has expressed “strong condemnation” of continued illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, forced displacement of Palestinians from their land, and repeated incursions by Israeli settlers into Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of Israeli armed forces.

“Such actions, aimed at altering the historical, legal, and demographic character of the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, violate international law,” the UAE mission said, speaking alongside the Arab Group and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the UN headquarters in New York.

Such actions “fuel instability, and undermine efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace based on the two-State solution,” the UAE mission to the UN added in a post on X.

A resolution to end US support for Israel’s war in Lebanon was met with a rebuke from most Democrats in the House of Representatives late Thursday, as a total of 324 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle rejected it, and only 92 voted in support.

Key to Iran agreeing to any deal for nuclear concessions and the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, as US President Donald Trump has demanded, is a ceasefire in Lebanon.

On Thursday, Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib forced a vote on her war powers resolution to end US participation in what she called “the genocidal war on Lebanon”, given Washington’s logistical and intelligence support to Israel, including the sale of weapons.

“Since early March, Israel’s military has murdered more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, including 128 paramedics and healthcare workers. The Israeli military has focused on bombing ambulances, medical facilities, and homes – forcibly displacing 20 percent of the population,” she said in a statement.

“These are all war crimes.”

This comes as the Republican-led House Armed Services Committee on Thursday examines next year’s US military budget, which has come under scrutiny for a proposal that would effectively merge US and Israeli weapons development projects, technology, and research efforts.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said Paris is ready to mediate a truce between Lebanon and Israel, saying that Lebanese leaders are willing to engage in direct talks in a major shift in the country’s approach towards Israel.

Macron’s statement on Saturday came as Israel continued its attacks, killing more than 800 people in Lebanon and displacing some 800,000. Israel has issued forced evacuation orders for all residents south of the Litani River in southern Lebanon. Reports also suggest that Israeli forces are preparing for a major ground invasion there.

Israel launched strikes on Lebanon after the Hezbollah group fired rockets in response to the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on March 1, a day after the United States and Israel started the war. Hezbollah had not responded to near-daily attacks carried out by Israel since the November 2024 ceasefire.

Let’s unpack what France has said and what it means.

What’s Macron’s proposal?
Macron said he spoke with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri.

“The Lebanese government has indicated its willingness to engage in direct talks with Israel,” he said on X in a message posted in Hebrew, Arabic and French. All segments of the country must be represented, he said, urging Israel to seize the opportunity and start discussion for a ceasefire, “abandon its large-scale offensive and cease its massive airstrikes”. He also called on Hezbollah to halt “its escalating conflict”.

The ambassadors of Israel and Lebanon began a new round of direct talks in Washington on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump said he had received commitments from both sides to de-escalate.

The fourth meeting between representatives of the two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations, is taking place at the State Department and is scheduled to last two days.

Participants include Israel’s ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese envoy Nada Hamadeh Moawad, as well as Daniel Holler, a senior adviser to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

None of the officials made any statements.

The talks come as Hezbollah and Israel continue to exchange fire, despite Trump announcing an agreement Monday to halt attacks.

Israel on Tuesday said it would continue targeting Hezbollah’s bastions in Beirut’s suburbs if the Iran-backed group continues to attack northern Israeli towns.

Recent days have seen a dramatic escalation in fighting and bombardment as Israeli troops stage their deepest incursion into Lebanon in two decades.

Lebanon’s health ministry said Tuesday that Israeli strikes a day earlier near a hospital in the southern city of Tyre killed four people and wounded 127 others, including 39 staff from the facility.

Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at least 18 civilians and wounding more than 100, authorities said Tuesday.

The damage trapped some people under the rubble of apartment buildings. Emergency crews digging through the wreckage pulled out the body of a three-year-old child, and the bodies of a mother and her eight-year-old son in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials said.

The attack stretched from night into day and the boom of explosions reverberated across cities. Officials said 12 people were killed in Dnipro and six in Kyiv.

Kyiv residents had been on edge for days after Russia warned that a massive aerial attack was coming and urged foreign diplomats to leave the Ukrainian capital. None appeared to heed the call.

“A large-scale attack and an explicit statement by Russia: if Ukraine is not protected from ballistic missiles and other missile strikes, those strikes will continue,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in response to the attack, urging more support from the U.S. and European countries.

The Russian strategy seeks to take advantage of Ukraine’s shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defence missiles, with international stocks depleted by the Iran war. That has left civilians especially vulnerable to the Russian ballistic missile barrages, even as air defences stop most of the attack drones.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up Moscow’s aerial campaign against Ukraine, with Russian forces recently launching a powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile for only the third time in the four-year war.

Large numbers of people are fleeing Dahiyeh in the south of the Lebanese capital Beirut, jamming roads leading out of the suburb, where Hezbollah enjoys wide support, after Israel’s government ordered strikes on the area.

The Israeli military has been given orders by the government to attack the southern suburbs on Monday, a day after the army reached its deepest point in Lebanon in more than quarter of a century.

“At approximately 7:00 GMT, the Israeli prime minister and the Israeli defence minister issued a joint statement, saying that they ordered the Israeli army to target Beirut’s southern suburbs, and immediately after that people started packing whatever they could, and make their way out of these neghbourhoods,” she said.

“There are not many places left to go as government-run shelters are already full, and many people will stay in their cars, waiting to see what will happen.”

Israel’s defence minister said in a separate statement on Monday that there would be “no calm in Beirut” if Hezbollah attacks continued, and vowed to establish a military-controlled zone in the area of south Lebanon’s Litani River.

“The Dahiyeh in Beirut is no different from the communities in northern Israel – if there is no calm in the north, there will be no calm in Beirut,” Israel Katz said in a statement released by his office, referring to the Beirut southern suburb and Hezbollah stronghold where he had earlier Monday ordered strikes.

Nato accused Russia of “reckless” behaviour and said it would defend “every inch of Allied territory” after Romania said a Russian drone crashed into an apartment building during an attack on neighbouring Ukraine.

Romania’s defence ministry said radar systems had tracked a Russian drone entering Romanian airspace overnight before it struck a 10-storey apartment block in Galati, near the Ukrainian border.

A woman and a child suffered minor injuries, according to Romanian authorities.

Images from the scene showed charred and damaged brickwork on the roof of the building. Officials said the drone exploded on impact, tearing through a top-floor flat.

The incident has raised fresh concerns about the spillover of Russia’s war on Ukraine into Nato territory.

Russia did not accept responsibility. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, cited by Russia’s Tass news agency, said President Vladimir Putin had been informed of the incident.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed accusations of Russian drones flying over Europe as unsubstantiated, according to RIA.

Separately, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, warned European leaders that drones would continue to enter their countries and prevent their populations from “sleeping peacefully”.

“After all, European drones, spare parts for them, and other weapons, ‌not to mention intelligence, are used ​in attacks on our country every ​day. As a result of ​their actions, residential buildings are being damaged, in ‌which our civilians are dying,” said ​Medvedev.

A draft of a possible deal between Iran and the US includes cooperation between Tehran and Oman to manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, reported Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, which said it had obtained the deal.

Iran would commit to returning the number of commercial ships going through the strait to pre-tension levels within a month, according to the draft, Iran’s Mizan news agency cited the broadcaster as reporting on Wednesday, adding that military vessels are not covered by the agreement.

Under the deal, the US would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, according to the report.

Washington has also “pledged to withdraw its military forces from Iran’s periphery,” it stated, adding that “whether this clause includes forces deployed to the region or forces residing in bases requires negotiation.”

“If a final agreement is reached within 60 days, this agreement will be approved in the form of a binding UN Security Council resolution,” it said.

An agreement has not yet been finalised and “no step will be taken by Iran without tangible verification,” the report added.

Washington, however, denied the report.

“This report from Iranian-controlled media is not true and the MOU they ‘released’ is a complete fabrication. Nobody should believe what Iranian state media is putting out. Facts matter,” the White House said on X on Wednesday.

Regional tensions boiled over on February 28 when the US and Israel launched surprise attacks on Iran, prompting Tehran to retaliate with barrages of drones and missiles that hit targets across the region as Tehran shuttered the Strait of Hormuz.

A ceasefire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation, but talks in Islamabad failed to produce a lasting agreement.

US President Donald Trump later extended the truce indefinitely while maintaining a blockade on vessels travelling to or from Iranian ports through the strategic waterway, and periodically saying a peace deal was close.

Andy Burnham has accused former Labour Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair of failing to understand “what’s going on” in people’s lives and underestimating the impact of inequality.

Sir Tony used a 5,600 word essay, external to argue the Labour government had “no coherent plan” for the country and had introduced policies that had held back business.

He urged Labour not to move to the left and to embrace the “radical centre” instead.

But Burnham, who is widely expected to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if he wins a by-election next month, told the Observer, external Sir Tony “doesn’t mention inequality once” in his critique of where the Labour government has gone wrong.

“If you don’t get how that’s driving politics now, if you are not rooting your analysis in the fact that people are unable to live and that things that were taken for granted are no longer affordable, then you are not understanding what’s going on,” said the mayor of Greater Manchester.

Burnham is seeking to become an MP again on 18 June in the Makerfield by-election, on the outskirts of Wigan, in what is expected to be a closely-fought contest with Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon.

Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting has also said he will stand if there is a leadership contest – but Sir Keir has said he will not walk away from the top job.