Live! Iran threatens Israeli, US varsities; its Speaker warns US against ground invasion

Israel and the US are “working in very close coordination” to respond after Yemen's Houthi rebels said they had launched missiles toward Israeli targets, Israel military spokesperson Col Nadav Shoshani told reporters on Sunday.

He declined to provide details on operations against the Iran-backed group, which controls parts of Yemen, but said Israel had grown accustomed to confronting repeated attacks from the Houthis, who have for more than two years launched missiles and drones toward Israel and shipping targets in the Red Sea.

He also said Israeli military statements about nearing completion of top-priority strikes did not mean it was running out of overall targets.

“There are many more groups of targets and there are also many more targets when it comes to (ballistic missile) production,” he said.

The civil aviation ministry is exploring multiple options to minimise the impact of the West Asia conflict on airlines, including engaging with state governments to cut taxes on jet fuel.

Indian airlines’ operational costs are spiralling due to surging oil prices and airspace curbs in the wake of West Asia turmoil, involving the US, Israel and Iran, which began on February 28.

Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu and the ministry have reportedly initiated discussions with chief ministers and state governments on the possibility of reducing taxes on jet fuel.

Jet fuel accounts for around 40 per cent of an airline's total operational costs. The Value Added Tax (VAT) on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) vary from state to state. For instance, VAT on jet fuel is 25 per cent in Delhi and 1 per cent in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

In the wake of the West Asia conflict, carriers have also curtailed their scheduled services, especially to the region, and the airspace restrictions are forcing them to take longer routes for European and North American destinations, resulting in increased fuel burn.

Amid surging oil prices, the government has cut the excise duty on petrol and diesel this week. The special additional excise duty on export of diesel and ATF has been hiked, a move aimed at prioritising their domestic availability.

Crowds of people protested Saturday against the war in Iran and US President Donald Trump's actions, in “No Kings” rallies across the US and in Europe.

Minnesota took centre stage, with thousands of people standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the Minnesota Capitol lawn and surrounding streets in St Paul. Some held upside down US flags, historically a sign of distress. The event's headliner was Bruce Springsteen, who performed Streets of Minneapolis.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson characterized them as the product of “leftist funding networks” with little real public support. The “only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” Jackson said in a statement.

Demonstrations were also planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, Ezra Levin, a co-executive director of Indivisible, a group spearheading the events, said in an interview. In countries with constitutional monarchies, people call the protests “No Tyrants,” he said.

In Rome, thousands marched with defiant chants aimed at Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose conservative government saw its referendum for streamlining Italy's judiciary fail badly this week amid criticism that it was a threat to the courts' independence. Protesters also waved banners protesting Israeli and US attacks on Iran, calling for “A world free from wars.”

In London, people protesting the war held banners with slogans such as “Stop the far right” and “Stand up to Racism.” And in Paris, several hundred people, mostly Americans living in France, along with labour unions and human rights organizations, gathered at the Bastille.

“I protest all of Trump's illegal, immoral, reckless, and feckless, endless wars,” rally organizer Ada Shen said.

Iran has, for the first time, issued a threat to strike Israeli and American universities in the region.

The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard warned in a statement Sunday that Iran would consider Israeli universities and branches of American universities in the region “legitimate targets” without safety assurances for Iranian universities, state media reported.

“If the US government wants its universities in the region spared, it should condemn the bombardment of (Iranian) universities by 12 o'clock Monday, March 30, in an official statement,” the Guard said.

Iran fired missiles towards Israel, while air defences intercepted missiles and drones across Gulf countries early Sunday.

Two Israeli strikes early Sunday in the Gaza Strip killed six Palestinians, including three policemen. One attack hit a police checkpoint while another hit a group of people in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser hospital, which received the bodies. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes.

Israel's military said early Sunday that an American-Israeli soldier, originally from New Haven, Connecticut, had been killed while three Israelis were wounded in combat in southern Lebanon. The death raised the total to five soldiers from Israel's military killed there since the conflict with Hezbollah reignited March 2.