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Israel Defense Minister Says Struck Iran's Largest Petrochemical Facility

A satellite image shows a closer view of the Natanz Nuclear Facility with new building damage, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, near Natanz, Iran, March 2, 2026. (Vantor/Handout via Reuters)
A satellite image shows a closer view of the Natanz Nuclear Facility with new building damage, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, near Natanz, Iran, March 2, 2026. (Vantor/Handout via Reuters)
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Israel Defense Minister Says Struck Iran's Largest Petrochemical Facility

A satellite image shows a closer view of the Natanz Nuclear Facility with new building damage, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, near Natanz, Iran, March 2, 2026. (Vantor/Handout via Reuters)
A satellite image shows a closer view of the Natanz Nuclear Facility with new building damage, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, near Natanz, Iran, March 2, 2026. (Vantor/Handout via Reuters)

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday that Israel had conducted a "powerful strike" on Iran's largest petrochemical complex, after Iranian media reported multiple explosions at the site.

The military "just carried out a powerful strike on Iran's largest petrochemical facility, located in Asaluyeh -- a central target responsible for about 50 percent of the country's petrochemical production", Katz said in a video statement.

Israel carried out a similar strike on the Mahshahr Petrochemical Special Zone in southwest Khuzestan province on Saturday, a local Iranian official said, adding that five people were killed, AFP reported.

"At this point, the two facilities, which together account for roughly 85 percent of Iran's petrochemical exports, have been taken out of operation and are no longer functioning," Katz said.

"This represents a severe economic blow amounting to tens of billions of dollars to the Iranian regime."

Israel also carried out strikes last month on gas facilities at the South Pars Special Economic Zone in Asaluyeh.

The South Pars/North Dome mega-field -- the largest known natural gas reserve in the world -- is shared between Iran and Qatar.

In recent days, Israel has targeted key industrial sectors as part of the ongoing military campaign against Iran.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli strikes had destroyed around 70 percent of Iran's steel production capacity, significantly undermining Tehran's ability to manufacture weapons.

Steel is a strategically important material used in industrial and military production, including for missiles, drones and ships.

Katz said he and Netanyahu had ordered the military "to continue striking with full force Iran's national infrastructure".

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New Zealand Court Rejects Mosque Gunman’s Appeal to Abandon his Guilty Pleas

FILE - Brenton Tarrant appears in the Christchurch District Court, in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 16, 2019. (Mark Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Brenton Tarrant appears in the Christchurch District Court, in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 16, 2019. (Mark Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP, File)
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New Zealand Court Rejects Mosque Gunman’s Appeal to Abandon his Guilty Pleas

FILE - Brenton Tarrant appears in the Christchurch District Court, in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 16, 2019. (Mark Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Brenton Tarrant appears in the Christchurch District Court, in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 16, 2019. (Mark Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP, File)

The white supremacist who shot to death 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, lost an attempt to abandon his guilty pleas at the country’s Court of Appeal on Thursday.

The panel of three judges dismissed Brenton Tarrant’s claim that harsh prison conditions prompted his involuntarily admission to the terrorism, murder and attempted murder charges he faced. The Australian man, who is now 35, murdered 51 worshippers and injured dozens more in March 2019 when he drove to two Christchurch mosques and opened fire with semiautomatic weapons during Friday prayers.

Tarrant’s guilty pleas in March 2020 brought relief to bereaved families and survivors of the attack, who dreaded the prospect of a lengthy trial and feared he would use it to air his hateful views. The failure of his appeal bid — which the court noted was made 505 days after the legal deadline for it to be filed — means such a trial has again been averted.

At the court's five-day hearing in February, the attacker argued his admissions of guilt were provoked by “irrationality” induced by poor mental health, which led him to desert his racist views for a time. The judges concluded, however, that his claims of mental illness were inconsistent and weren’t supported by prison staff, mental health professionals or lawyers who had earlier represented him.

“He was not suffering from a mental impairment or any other form of mental incapacity which rendered him unable to voluntarily change his pleas to guilty,” the judges wrote, according to The Associated Press.

“He endeavored to mislead us about his state of mind in a weak attempt to advance an appeal in circumstances where all other evidence demonstrated that he made an informed and totally rational decision to plead guilty.”

FILE - An armed policeman patrols the grounds at the Al Noor mosque following the previous week's mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)

The court's ruling also revealed that Tarrant sought to abandon his appeal shortly after making his case at the hearing in February. The judges rejected that bid too, writing that the case was “of significant public interest and should be finally determined.”

They suggested that Tarrant “began to form the opinion that the hearing was not proceeding in his favor, and as a result decided to file a notice of abandonment after the hearing concluded.”

New Zealand law doesn’t require judges to allow an appellant to quit an appeal bid once it’s underway.

He will remain in jail for life Tarrant, who has since fired the lawyers acting for him in February, remains in Auckland Prison, where he was sentenced in August 2020 to spend life in prison without the chance of parole. The judges allowed him to abandon his appeal that sentence, which was scheduled to be heard later in 2026.

The Australian-born man moved to New Zealand in 2017 with a plan to commit a mass shooting. He amassed a cache of weapons and made a reconnaissance trip to the sites of his planned crimes before the attack.

The appeal court judges wrote that Tarrant had accepted the summary of facts presented to him by the police and the sentencing judge and noted that the case against him was “overwhelming.”

Evidence included footage of the attack that the shooter filmed himself and livestreamed on the internet, in which he showed his own face, and a document outlining his racist views that he published online before the attacks under his real name.

World

King Charles to Visit New York to Commemorate 9/11 Victims

US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)
US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)
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King Charles to Visit New York to Commemorate 9/11 Victims

US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)
US President Donald Trump alongside Britain's King Charles III during a dinner at the White House (AP)

Britain's King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla arrive in New York on Wednesday to commemorate victims of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attack on the city, part of a four-day state visit to the US.

The king and queen's visit to New York follows a packed day in Washington on Tuesday, when Charles delivered a speech to the US Congress, held private meetings with President Donald Trump amid tensions between the US and Britain over the Iran war, and sat down with leaders of the US tech industry.

At a White House state dinner on Tuesday night, Trump suggested Charles told the president he did not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. The king is not a spokesman for the UK government and it could not be confirmed that Charles made the statement to Trump.

Britain was one of the countries alongside the US that negotiated the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which sharply limited Tehran's nuclear programs and opened them to inspectors until Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the agreement during his first White House term.

Charles and Camilla's visit to New York comes on the third day of their state visit to the US during a tense time in relations between the US and Britain after Trump has repeatedly criticized Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for what Trump says is his lack of help in prosecuting the Iran war.

Charles and Camilla will begin their day in New York with a ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by al Qaeda suicide bombers on September 11, 2001, an attack that killed nearly 2,800 people.

Charles is expected to meet with New York City's mayor, Zohran Mamdani, at the ceremony.

The king will then head to Harlem to visit a grassroots community organization that created a sustainable after-school urban farming initiative in an effort to combat food insecurity, according to local media. Such projects have been a passion of the king's for decades.

Meanwhile, Camilla will celebrate the 100th birthday of A.A. Milne’s fictional character Winnie-the-Pooh on behalf of her charity, The Queen’s Reading Room, which Buckingham Palace is calling a "literary engagement" event.

World

UK Police Say Two Men Stabbed in London in Stable Condition

Elements of the British police (Reuters)
Elements of the British police (Reuters)
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UK Police Say Two Men Stabbed in London in Stable Condition

Elements of the British police (Reuters)
Elements of the British police (Reuters)

British police said on Wednesday that a man had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after two men were stabbed in an area of north London with a large Jewish population.

London's Metropolitan Police said the two men who had been stabbed had been taken to hospital and were in a stable condition.

The suspect also attempted to stab police officers, the Met said, adding that no officers were injured, Reuters reported.

"Specialist officers from Counter Terrorism Policing are leading the investigation and working with the Metropolitan Police to establish the full circumstances and any links to terrorism," the Met said in a statement.

Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams said that "investigators are considering all possible motives".