Supreme Leader uses Raisi anniversary to call for continuity in wartime governance

UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash Anwar Gargash accused Iran-backed militias in Iraq of targeting the Barakah nuclear power plant, calling it a dangerous sign of the threat facing the region.

Gargash said the alleged targeting of the peaceful nuclear energy facility reflected “the absence of the national state” and clear violations of international law.

He compared the alleged threat to what he called the “hijacking and piracy” of the Strait of Hormuz, saying both endangered the global economy and the international order.

“From Hormuz to Barakah, the threat goes beyond the Persian Gulf to the entire international order,” Gargash wrote on X, accusing Iran-aligned actors of using chaos and coercion to preserve their position.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a phone call Tuesday evening that Israel’s Channel 12 described as “long and dramatic.”

No further details were immediately released about the content of the call.

The report comes after Israeli media said the two leaders had held another phone call in recent days about Iran.

Israel’s Kan broadcaster reported that the earlier call lasted more than half an hour and focused on the possibility of renewed fighting with the Islamic Republic and details of Trump’s trip to China.

Iran’s digital blackout entered its 82nd day on Wednesday, with the country still largely cut off from the global internet after 1,944 hours, internet monitor NetBlocks said.

“In an era when a disconnection lasting minutes would be a crisis, Iran continues to shatter records, destroying livelihoods and eroding rights,” it added.

France has no certainty at this stage that mines have been laid in the Strait of Hormuz, Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin said on Wednesday after reports that at least 10 mines had been identified in the area.

“At this moment, I have no certainty on the subject, but in any case we are preparing for the necessity to potentially remove mines,” Vautrin told France Info radio.

She said demining ships were being sent to the region as part of a possible future Franco-British-led mission, and that France already had one at its base in Djibouti.

CBS News reported earlier that a recent US intelligence assessment showed American forces had identified at least 10 mines in the Strait of Hormuz, citing US officials familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive national security issues.

The novel, translated from German by Ruth Martin, begins after Iran’s 1979 revolution and follows different family members, including a revolutionary father, a literature-loving mother, a daughter visiting Iran for the first time and a son drawn into politics by the 2009 Green Movement.

Prize organizers described the book as a moving novel about oppression, resistance and the desire for freedom.

The International Booker Prize is awarded annually to a book translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland.

“Taiwan Travelogue” by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King, won the 2026 International Booker Prize.

The other shortlisted books were “She Who Remains” by Rene Karabash, “The Witch” by Marie NDiaye, “On Earth As It Is Beneath” by Ana Paula Maia, and “The Director” by Daniel Kehlmann.