Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba chosen as Iran’s new supreme leader | First Thing
Move could lead to escalation of war as Donald Trump has already called Mojtaba Khamenei an ‘unacceptable’ choice. Plus, stormy space weather may be garbling messages from aliens
Good morning.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been chosen as his successor, as the war enters its 10th day and fresh missile and drone strikes reverberate across the Middle East.
After members of the clerical body responsible for selecting Iran’s highest authority announced the decision on Sunday, Iranian institutions and politicians, from the foreign ministry to lawmakers, issued statements expressing their allegiance.
The move could lead to a further escalation of the war, given Donald Trump had already acknowledged that Mojtaba Khamenei was the most likely successor and made clear he considered him an “unacceptable” choice.
Why has the Iran war prompted fears of stagflation for the global economy? Oil prices surged past $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022, triggering a stark sell-off across some of the world’s leading stock markets amid growing concern that the US-Israel war on Iran could set the stage for a global economic shock.
What else is happening? The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, spoke to the US president on Sunday afternoon after a barrage of criticism from Trump, who told his UK ally on Saturday that his help was not needed, even as the US continued to use UK bases for strikes against Iran.
‘What would make a young man do something like that?’: a community in Utah reels after three killings
At a trailhead not far from the sprawling red cliffs and canyons of Utah’s Capitol Reef national park, two men went looking for their wives who were overdue to return from a hike on Wednesday afternoon.
They came upon a grisly scene. Natalie Graves, 34, and her aunt, 65-year-old Linda Dewey, had been killed and left in a parched creek bed, according to court documents. A Bureau of Land Management ranger responding to the area noted spent shell casings near their bodies.
The horrifying discovery set off a police search across three states, closed schools in Wayne county, Utah, and left a community in shock. In nearby Lyman, another woman, Margaret Oldroyd, 86, was also found murdered.
Who is the suspect? Authorities announced on Thursday that they had arrested 22-year-old Ivan Miller of Iowa as a suspect in the murders. Police say Miller had no connection to the women.
Fox News uses old clip of Trump after he wore hat while saluting slain US soldiers
Fox News used old video of Donald Trump in multiple reports on Saturday and Sunday, concealing from viewers that the commander-in-chief wore a golf cap throughout a ceremony on Saturday in which he saluted six flag-draped transfer cases carrying the remains of the first US troops to die in his war on Iran.
The president had stirred outrage online by failing to remove his Trump-brand white hat during the ritual homecoming at Dover air force base in Delaware on Saturday for six army reserve soldiers killed in Kuwait.
On Saturday afternoon, Fox News initially broadcast the correct video of Trump at the ceremony. Less than an hour later, viewers were shown old video of Trump at a ceremony in December, when he had not worn a hat to salute troops who had died in Syria.
What has Fox News said? Over three hours later, the same host acknowledged on air “a mistake made earlier on our program: during our coverage of yesterday’s dignified transfer, we inadvertently aired video from an older dignified transfer instead of the ceremony that took place yesterday. We deeply regret the error.”
In other news …
New York police have confirmed that an improvised explosive device was thrown outside Zohran Mamdani’s official residence on Saturday when anti-Islam demonstrators, led by the rightwing influencer Jake Lang, clashed with counterprotesters.
International drug crime poses a danger to social stability in Belgium, a senior judge has said, after his colleague warned the country was evolving into “a narco-state” where mafia groups were forming “a parallel force” in society.
The US military said it killed six men on Sunday in a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the eastern Pacific as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against alleged traffickers.
Israeli settlers and soldiers killed three Palestinians in their village near Ramallah on Saturday night, the third deadly attack in a week of surging Israeli violence across the occupied West Bank.
Stat of the day: Recreational drugs can more than double risk of stroke, study suggests
Recreational drugs can more than double the risk of stroke, with some of the most concerning impacts seen among younger people, a major review suggests after scientists analysed medical data from more than 100 million people.
How Trump turmoil is driving more people to the therapist’s office: ‘This is all upside down’
As “political depression” enters public discourse, therapists are encouraging people to engage with their communities. While political depression might look like traditional depression – the same hopelessness, despair and shutdown – its source is different. It doesn’t come from within, at least not primarily. It comes from the violence, collapse or unjustness of the world around us.
Don’t miss this: ‘The cover-up is brazen’ – one journalist’s tenacious, traumatic fight to expose Ghislaine Maxwell
The journalist Lucia Osborne-Crowley has endured threats and sexual harassment to report on Jeffrey Epstein’s chief enabler. In an interview, she describes the process of writing her book The Lasting Harm as a steep learning curve and how Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction was only the start of the quest for justice.
Climate check: How Trump’s EPA rollbacks give US states new tools in climate suits
By rolling back a bedrock climate legal determination, the Trump administration has undermined its own attacks on a groundbreaking state climate accountability law, green groups have argued in court.
Last Thing: Stormy space weather may be garbling messages from aliens, research suggests
Earth’s leading alien hunters believe extraterrestrials could be out there, they’re just having a hard time getting through to us because it’s stormy in space. Reminiscent of ET’s struggles to “phone home” in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 blockbuster movie, research suggests tempestuous space “weather” – stellar activity such as solar storms and plasma turbulence – makes radio signals from the distant cosmos harder to detect.
Sign up
First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com