Live! Only goal is regime change in Iran, says Israeli minister

50 passengers from Karnataka stranded in conflict region arrived in Delhi: CM office

Fifty passengers from the state who were stranded in the Gulf region amid the ongoing West Asia conflict arrived in New Delhi early Friday morning after departing from Fujairah in the UAE, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's office said.

The protocol team (Karnataka govt) were at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi with breakfast, it said.

They were transported on a KSRP (Karnataka State Reserve Police) bus and two cars to domestic terminals for their onward travel to Bengaluru, Mangaluru and Hubballi, the CM office said in a statement.

Many were disgruntled and complained to the team that MEA did nothing, and it was only a local organisation that helped them with their tickets, etc., the statement claimed.

"Incidentally, we are the only state so far that is providing this assistance at the Delhi airport," it added. 

Multiple drones intercepted near Riyadh

Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry on Friday said it intercepted and destroyed several hostile drones near the capital Riyadh. According to the ministry, three drones were shot down in the eastern areas of the city, while another drone was destroyed to the northeast of Riyadh.

Earlier in the day, the air defences also intercepted a cruise missile over the city of Al-Kharj, the ministry added.

IDF says 26 waves of strikes hit Hezbollah targets in Beirut

The Israeli military on Friday said it has carried out 26 waves of airstrikes in Beirut since the start of the operation, targeting Hezbollah command centres and multi-storey buildings allegedly used as terror infrastructure.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the overnight strikes — guided by intelligence — hit an executive council command center and a facility used to store drones deployed by Hezbollah for attacks against Israel.

The IDF said the sites were being used to plan and coordinate attacks on Israeli troops and territory. It added that advance warnings, precision munitions and aerial surveillance were used to reduce civilian harm, stressing that the strikes were part of its response to Hezbollah attacks carried out “on behalf of the Iranian regime.”

Iran slams US attack on 'unarmed' vessel returning from India

Two days after a US submarine torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka's coast, Iran on Friday warned that the attack on an "unarmed ship cannot go with impunity." The Iranian frigate, IRIS Dena, was returning home after participating in the Milan multilateral naval exercise hosted by India. At least 87 Iranian sailors were killed in the attack, which marked a major escalation in the conflict between the US and Iran outside of the Persian Gulf.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh, who is visiting India, emphasised that the IRIS Dena was in a non-combat configuration, returning from the Milan naval exercises and the US action against it was a serious violation of international law.

"This is a very sad, very unfortunate incident. That vessel was by invitation of our Indian friends, attending an international exercise. It was ceremonial. It was unloaded. It was unarmed," he said "It is very unfortunate. Many of the young Iranian sailors who were attending these exercises lost their lives. It cannot go with impunity for those who actually did that," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue.

IRIS Dena was part of Indian Navy's premier multilateral maritime exercise Milan. The warship had also featured in the International Fleet Review in Vishakapatnam last month.

Khatibzadeh, blasting the US for killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said "cherry-picking" of international law cannot be acceptable. "Unfortunately, principles of international law have been attacked, and we have to stand together against these atrocities. Americans have assassinated the head of another state. If it is the new norm, then nobody, no country on earth can actually have diplomatic normalisation with other countries," he said.

‘If they rise, they rise’, Trump shrugs off gas price amid escalating Iran war

US President Donald Trump said today he is not worried about US gas prices rising as a result of the war in Iran: “If they rise, they rise.”

“I don’t have any concern about it,” he said in an interview with Reuters. “They’ll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit.” 

The war with Iran has sent gas prices up 20 cents a gallon, or 7% in just a few days.

Trump told Reuters he is not looking to tap into the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the world’s largest stockpile of emergency oil held in a network of underground salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas.

He also said he is sure the Strait of Hormuz, a channel just off Iran’s southern coast through which one out of every five barrels of oil on the planet passes, will remain open because Iran’s navy ​is at the “bottom of the sea.”

Sensex drops 500 points at open; Nifty slips below 24,650

Indian equity benchmarks opened lower on Friday, with the BSE Sensex falling more than 500 points in early trade as losses in banking, infrastructure and metal stocks outweighed gains in information technology shares.

At 9:18 am, the BSE Sensex was trading at 79,500.84, down 515.06 points or 0.64 per cent, after opening at 79,658.99 compared with the previous close of 80,015.90.

The broader Nifty 50 also declined, slipping 156.70 points, or 0.63 per cent, to 24,609.20. Market breadth remained weak with 41 stocks declining and only 9 advancing on the index.

Protests against killing of Khamenei: Strict curbs in place in Kashmir valley

Restrictions on movement of people in Kashmir valley were intensified on Friday as authorities apprehended protests against the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after congregational prayers this afternoon.

Normal life in the valley has been disrupted for the sixth consecutive day due to protests over the killing of Khamenei in US-Israel joint strikes.

The restrictions were imposed on Monday after spontaneous protests broke out across Kashmir a day earlier against the killing.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday held a meeting with civil society representatives and religious leaders as part of efforts to bring the situation back to normalcy. After the meeting, Abdullah appealed to people to maintain peace.

The protests have waned after the meeting convened by the chief minister with the number of places affected due to law and order situation dropping from several dozen on Tuesday to less than 10 on Thursday.

The government has shut educational institutions till Saturday, and reduced mobile internet speeds.

Stocks drop after oil spikes to its highest price since 2024 summer

Stocks sank on Wall Street Thursday after the price of oil spiked to its highest level since the summer of 2024 because of the war with Iran.

The S&P 500 fell 0.6 per cent and erased what had been a small gain for the year so far. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly dropped more than 1,100 points before finishing with a loss of 784, or 1.6 per cent. The Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3 per cent.

The losses came as financial markets around the world kept following the cue of oil prices. Sharp increases there are raising worries that a long-term surge could grind down the global economy, exhaust households' ability to spend and push interest rates higher.

The price for a barrel of benchmark US crude shot up 8.5 per cent on Thursday to settle at USD 81.01 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 4.9 per cent to USD 85.41 per barrel and is likewise near its highest price since 2024.

Oil prices gave back some of those gains later in the day, which helped stocks in the US moderate their losses at the end of trading. But worries nevertheless remain high about how long disruptions will last for oil production because of the escalating war with Iran.

Prices at US gasoline pumps have already leapt because of them. The average price for a gallon is USD 3.25, up 9 per cent from USD 2.98 a week ago, according to the auto club AAA.

If oil prices spike further, like to USD 100 per barrel, and stay there, some analysts and investors say it could be too much for the global economy to withstand. Uncertainty about what will happen has caused frenetic swings across financial markets this week, sometimes hour by hour.

US closes its embassy in Kuwait as Iran war escalates

The US Embassy in Kuwait shut down after retaliatory Iranian strikes on the country, becoming the second American diplomatic mission to fully halt work as the war in Iran escalates. Kuwait is also where six American soldiers were killed by an Iranian drone on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday he should have a role in choosing Iran's next supreme leader, raising questions about whether Washington and Israel seek regime change or policy concessions as the conflict has appeared increasingly open-ended.

Tehran has warned of the destruction of the Middle East's military and economic infrastructure, and the war has rattled financial markets, with the Dow dropping 1,000 points as oil prices climb further.

The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 70 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries.

New Iranian attacks target Israel, US bases as more Israeli strikes hit Lebanon

 Iran launched more missiles at Israel and US bases as the war in the Middle East entered its sixth day. Israel announced multiple incoming attacks early Thursday and said it was intercepting the missiles. Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it began new strikes against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

At least eight people were killed there late Wednesday into Thursday, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry and the state news agency. Tehran has warned of the destruction of the Middle East's military and economic infrastructure, and the war has rattled financial markets, with most taking their cues from what the price of oil is doing. Early Thursday, oil prices resumed their ascent. The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 70 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six US troops have been killed.