TEL AVIV/DUBAI — Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday, as US President Donald J. Trump said the conflict could be easily ended while warning Tehran not to strike any US targets.

Israeli rescue teams combed through the rubble of residential buildings destroyed in strikes, using flashlights and sniffer dogs to look for survivors after at least seven people were killed, including children, authorities said.

Tehran has called off nuclear talks that Washington had said were the only way to halt Israel’s bombing, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks by Israel so far were nothing compared with what Iran would see in the coming days.

“If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before,” Mr. Trump said in a message on Truth Social. “However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict.”

Mr. Trump gave no details of any possible deal.

Iran has said 78 people were killed there on the first day of Israel’s campaign on Friday, and scores more on the second, including 60 when a missile brought down a 14-storey apartment block in Tehran, where 29 of the dead were children.

The Shahran oil depot in Tehran was targeted in an Israeli attack, Iran said, but added the situation was under control. A fire had erupted after an Israeli attack on an oil refinery near the capital while Israeli strikes also targeted Iran’s defense ministry building, causing minor damage, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said on Sunday.

In Israel, the latest wave of Iranian attacks began shortly after 11 p.m. on Saturday (2000 GMT), when air raid sirens blared in Jerusalem and Haifa, sending around a million people into bomb shelters.

Around 2:30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT Saturday), the Israeli military warned of another incoming missile barrage and urged residents to seek shelter. Explosions echoed through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as missiles streaked across the skies as interceptor rockets were launched in response. The military lifted its shelter-in-place advisory nearly an hour after issuing the warning.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Sunday that they targeted central Israel’s Jaffa with several ballistic missiles in the last 24 hours, the first time an ally of Iran has joined the fray.

Israel’s ambulance service said at least seven people were killed overnight, including a 10-year-old boy, a young girl and a woman in her 20s, and more than 140 injured in multiple attacks.

Israeli media said at least 35 people were missing after a strike hit Bat Yam, a city south of Tel Aviv. A spokesperson for the emergency services said a missile hit an 8-storey building there and while many people were rescued, there were fatalities.

It was unclear how many buildings were hit overnight.

So far, at least 10 people in Israel have been killed and over 300 others injured since Iran launched its retaliatory attacks on Friday.

A round of US-Iran nuclear talks that was due to be held in Oman on Sunday was cancelled, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi saying the discussions could not take place while Iran was being subjected to Israel’s “barbarous” attacks.

GAS FIELD ATTACK
In the first apparent attack to hit Iran’s energy infrastructure, Tasnim news agency said Iran partially suspended production at South Pars, the world’s biggest gas field, after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday.

The South Pars field, offshore in Iran’s southern Bushehr province, is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran.

Fears about potential disruption to the region’s oil exports had already driven up oil prices 9% on Friday even though Israel spared Iran’s oil and gas on the first day of its attacks.

An Iranian general, Esmail Kosari, said on Saturday that Tehran was reviewing whether to close the Strait of Hormuz controlling access to the Gulf for tankers.

With Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and Mr. Netanyahu urging Iran’s people to rise up against their Islamic clerical rulers, fears have grown of a regional conflagration dragging in outside powers.

Tehran has warned Israel’s allies that their military bases in the region would come under fire too if they helped shoot down Iranian missiles.

However, 20 months of war in Gaza and a conflict in Lebanon last year have decimated Tehran’s strongest regional proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, reducing its options for retaliation.

Israel sees Iran’s nuclear program as a threat to its existence, and said the bombardment was designed to avert the last steps to production of a nuclear weapon.

Tehran insists the program is entirely civilian and that it does not seek an atomic bomb. The United Nations nuclear watchdog, however, reported Iran this week as violating obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty. — Reuters

WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO — President Donald J. Trump’s long-sought military parade rolled though the streets of downtown Washington, DC on Saturday, but the celebration of the US Army’s 250^th anniversary was marred by a day of violence and discord.

In the hours before the parade began, hundreds of thousands of Americans marched and rallied in streets in cities from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles (LA), protesting Mr. Trump’s actions while in office, in the largest such actions since his return to power in January.

Earlier in the day, a gunman assassinated a Democratic lawmaker and wounded another in Minnesota and remained at large.

Meanwhile, Israel and Iran exchanged further attacks early on Sunday, stoking fears of a mushrooming conflict between the two nations.

All of it followed a week of tension in Los Angeles, where protests over federal immigration raids resulted in Mr. Trump calling in National Guard troops and US Marines to help keep the peace, over the objections of the state’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.

The parade, which fell on Mr. Trump’s 79^th birthday, kicked off earlier than expected with thunderstorms forecast in the Washington area.

Tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery rumbled down the parade route along storied Constitution Avenue, an unusual sight in the US where such displays of military might are rare.

“Every other country celebrates their victories, it’s about time America did too,” Mr. Trump told the crowd following the parade.

Thousands of spectators lined up along the route. Mr. Trump watched the proceedings from an elevated viewing stand behind bulletproof glass.

Some of the president’s opponents also managed to find a spot along the parade route, holding signs in protest. Other demonstrators were kept separate from the parade crowd by local police.

The US Army has brought nearly 7,000 troops into Washington, along with 150 vehicles, including more than 25 M1 Abrams tanks, 28 Stryker armored vehicles, four Paladin self-propelled artillery vehicles, and artillery pieces including the M777 and M119.

The parade traced the history of the Army from its founding during the Revolutionary War through modern day. Mr. Trump frequently stood and saluted troops as they marched by.

Mr. Trump had first expressed interest in a military parade in Washington early in his first 2017-2021 term in office.

The celebrations were expected to cost the US Army between $25 million and $45 million, US officials have told Reuters. That includes the parade itself as well as the cost of moving equipment and housing and feeding the troops.

Critics have called the parade an authoritarian display of power that is wasteful, especially given Mr. Trump has said he wants to slash costs throughout the federal government.

‘NO KINGS’
Earlier in the day, thousands marched in Washington and other cities in protest of Mr. Trump’s policies. The demonstrations were largely peaceful, and marked the largest outpouring of opposition to Mr. Trump’s presidency since he returned to power in January.

In Los Angeles, however, the situation remained tense. About an hour before a downtown curfew, police officers mounted on horses were aggressively pushing back demonstrators, using gas, flash bangs and other less lethal munitions, causing large groups to panic and flee.

Protesters were firing what police called commercial-grade fireworks against officers, along with rocks and bottles. Some demonstrators wore gas masks and helmets and vowed to stay in the area for many more hours.

A crowd earlier had confronted soldiers guarding a federal building, yelling “Shame! Shame!” and “Marines, get out of LA!”

Anti-Trump groups planned nearly 2,000 demonstrations across the country to coincide with the parade. Many took place under the theme “No Kings,” asserting that no individual is above the law.

Thousands of people of all ages turned out in and around Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, many carrying homemade signs that played off the “No Kings” theme. “No crown for a clown,” said one. Actor Mark Ruffalo was among the demonstrators, wearing a hat that read “immigrant.”

“We’re seeing dehumanizing language towards LGBT people, towards people with autism, towards people with other disabilities, racial minorities, undocumented people,” said Cooper Smith, 20, from upstate New York. “Somebody’s got to show that most Americans are against this.”

Protesters in downtown Chicago stood off against police on Saturday, with some waving upside-down American flags and chanting: “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?” and “No justice, no peace.”

Members of the far-right Proud Boys, ardent Trump supporters, appeared at an Atlanta “No Kings” protest, wearing the group’s distinctive black and yellow colors.

About 400 protesters, organized by a group called RefuseFascism.org, marched through Washington and gathered for a rally in a park opposite the White House. Mr. Trump had warned people against protesting at the parade itself, saying that “they’re going to be met with very big force.”

Sunsara Taylor, a founder of RefuseFascism, told the crowd, “Today we refuse to accept Donald Trump unleashing the military against the people of this country and in the streets of this country. We say, ‘Hell no.’” — Reuters

CHICAGO — Pope Leo XIV, a native of Chicago’s south side and a long-time fan of his beloved but beleaguered White Sox, sent a video message on Saturday to a sellout crowd attending Catholic Mass in his honor at their hometown ballpark.

The pontiff, the first leader of the global Catholic Church from the United States, appeared for about seven minutes on Rate Field’s jumbotron during the event, organized by the Chicago archdiocese and featuring several other local personalities, including Bulls announcer Chuck Swirsky.

“It’s a pleasure for me to greet all of you gathered together at White Sox Park on this great celebration,” the pope said in the video message, his first public address to the US since his election on May 8 to replace the late Pope Francis.

The new pope called on Chicagoans to put aside “egotistical ways” in order to spread hope and work to build community in their hometown.

“We have to look for ways of coming together and promoting a message of hope,” he said, speaking in English with a slight Chicago accent. Hours before the event at Rate Field started, people had gathered around the stadium, including kids in White Sox jerseys, hawkers selling “Da Pope” baseball hats, nuns in white and blue habits and priests in their collars.

Saturday’s event, led by Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, took place as demonstrations were held in cities across the US, including at Chicago’s Daley Plaza, to protest President Donald J. Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, and in Washington, DC, ahead of the president celebrating his 79^th birthday with a military parade.

The pope did not mention politics, and instead offered a message of encouragement to young people.

Sister Barbara Reid, president of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where the pope attended seminary in the 1980s, told Reuters she hoped his message could help unite the US

“A celebration that’s centered on hope and possibility and unity is needed now more than ever before,” she said. “Hopefully this can be a catalyst to bring us together.”

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, was born in Dolton, on the outskirts of the city’s south side, and has spent most of his career as a priest outside the US He is a member of the Augustinian religious order, and spent decades in Peru as a missionary and bishop, before first taking up a senior Vatican role in 2023.

In a nod to Leo’s close ties to the South American country, his celebration in Chicago on Saturday began with a performance of Peru’s national anthem. The US national anthem followed, performed by Leo High School’s choir, which was a contestant on America’s Got Talent.

The pope’s family, including a brother who still lives in a Chicago suburb, has spoken about the pontiff’s enthusiasm for the White Sox, even as the rival Chicago Cubs also tried to claim him. Leo briefly donned the trademark black-and-white Sox cap offered by a pilgrim during his weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday.

TICKETS RESELL FOR MORE THAN $1,200
On the first day that tickets became available for Saturday’s event, more than 10,000 tickets were sold in the first 15 minutes, the White Sox said.

Tickets, which sold for $5 apiece, hit resale sites like StubHub for more than $1,200 just hours after they were released, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. While Catholic parishes across the city, including the one where the Prevost family attended Mass, have shuttered amid waning church attendance, Chicago’s identity is still very much entwined with the Catholic Church. When meeting strangers, Chicagoans sometimes identify their neighborhood by the name of the closest parish.

“A lot of people in Chicago just have great pride that the new pope is from Chicago,” said Rev. Tom McCarthy, a popular preacher from the city who is also an Augustinian. “They want to celebrate it together.”

The White Sox (39-121) set the modern-day record for most losses in a single season in 2024. This year, the team has the worst record in the American League so far.

Fans pray the Mass gives the team a divine boost.

“We need all the help we can get,” said McCarthy, a lifelong Sox fan. “If the field is going to be blessed by this event, hopefully it will go right through to the players.” — Reuters