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The US said it launched a fresh wave of strikes on Iran after Tehran struck a ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it closed the waterway until further notice, and the “offending” vessel was attacked after it turned off its systems and diverted from the approved route, according to state media.

US Central Command (Centcom) says it carried out the “third round of strikes this week” after the IRGC forces “blatantly attacked” a Cyprus-flagged vessel.

It comes after incidents earlier this week in which three commercial tankers were attacked, prompting an exchange of strikes with the US.

Centcom said the MV GFS Galaxy was “unable to continue its journey” as a result of significant damage to the engine room. One civilian crew member was missing, it said.

The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it had been informed by military authorities that the crew were forced to abandon ship and were in a lifeboat.

“Iran was provided yet another opportunity to demonstrate adherence to the Memorandum of Understanding after being held accountable for earlier attacks on commercial vessels but has again failed,” Centcom wrote in a statement shared to X.

The statement was shared by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who wrote: “Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.”

Earlier on Sunday, state media said Iran had closed the Strait of Hormuz until further notice after firing a naval cruise missile at a vessel that was attempting to sail along an unapproved route.

The Guards said the vessel was “hit by warning shots and stopped” after ignoring repeated instructions, according to a statement carried by state news agency

It also warned that any US “aggression” as a result of the closure would be responded to with “severity” and new bases in the region would be targeted.

Earlier this week, three commercial tankers were attacked as they tried to cross a US-recommended route through Omani waters. Iran has repeatedly said the only “safe” route is a separate route through its waters.

The incident prompted a series of US strikes in which 17 people were killed and 115 injured, according to Iranian officials. Iran responded with strikes on US allies in the Gulf.

The exchange raised tensions, with US President Donald Trump declaring the Iranian attacks mean the ceasefire is over. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has accused the US of violating the deal.

However, the US leader said talks would still continue and mediators were trying to revive the process. US media has reported that Iran told American officials the attacks on tankers were a mistake and blamed a rogue internal group.

American officials say they have conveyed through mediators the demand that Iran publicly state that the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international shipping route, is open and pledge to stop firing on commercial ships.

The closure follows a call for revenge from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, in his first public statement since taking leadership.

His father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, was killed in an air strike on 28 February, on the first day of the US-Israeli war against Iran. He was buried in his home city of Mashhad on Friday.

Reading a statement on state television, the new ayatollah said that vengeance was the “will of the nation”.

“We pledge to avenge the blood of the martyred leader and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers,” he was quoted as saying.

“The matter depends neither on my personal existence nor on that of other officials. Whether we are present or not, it will come to pass.”

Many Iranians taking part in funeral ceremonies over the past few days carried placards calling for the killing of US President Donald Trump, who on Saturday warned that any such plans would see the US “decimate and destroy all areas” of Iran in response.

The Wall Street Journal and other US media reported this week that Israel had shared intelligence with Washington that Iran had recently devised a plan to assassinate the US president.

However, Trump denied that Tehran had made a fresh plan or that Israel was the source of any intelligence. He told the New York Post in an interview that he had been “No. 1 [on Iran’s kill list] for a long time”.

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The death toll in Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes last month has topped 4,300, a top lawmaker said Saturday.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez — the brother of interim leader Delcy Rodriguez — put the toll at 4,333, up from 4,118 on Friday.

On June 24, the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes hit Caracas and the coastal state of La Guaira, flattening entire high-rise apartment blocks into layers of rubble.

Camps for families left homeless have sprung up in stadiums, plazas and on sidewalks. More than 19,000 people are currently living in those camps, Rodriguez said.

Venezuelan and foreign volunteers are providing medical care in tents set up in open areas and distributing food.

Rodriguez did not say how many people were still unaccounted for.

AFP

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Thousands of Albanians marched in Tirana Saturday calling for the resignation of the country’s prime minister and protesting a tourism project linked to the Trump family — the 42nd consecutive night of such demonstrations.

The marchers were also protesting a concert Saturday by controversial US rapper Kanye West, whose antisemitic rhetoric has led to his performances being banned in some European capitals.

Demonstrators waving Albanian flags chanted slogans against both Prime Minister Edi Rama and the rapper, who now styles himself as “Ye”.

It is difficult to assess how many people demonstrate each night in the capital, but according to AFP journalists on the ground, thousands of people protest every day.

Protesters object to the estimated $4.6-billion luxury hotel development linked to US president Donald Trump’s family because it would go ahead in an environmentally protected the protected area, Zvernec.

They say the project threatens a nearby lagoon on the Adriatic coast critical to migrating birds.

Developers also hope to transform the uninhabited island of Sazan — once a secret communist military base — into a tourist destination.

Opposition to the project has become a flashpoint for frustrations over perceived corruption. Protesters have called for Rama to step down over what they describe as a lack of transparency.

The movement was dubbed the Flamingo Revolution as the pink birds migrate to a nature reserve where the project is planned. Consequently, many of the protesters carry plastic flamingos at the protests.

Critics of the project have highlighted what they say are serious doubts over the legality of the transactions of investors acquiring the land.

Several local residents have claimed that the land is theirs by virtues of decades-old deeds.

The country’s anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, SPAK, has opened an investigation.

They want to establish how the land in the protected area of Zvernec was acquired, how it changed owners and why its value jumped significantly over only few months.

AFP