US steps into war between Israel and Iran, strikes 3 Iranian nuclear sites

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The U.S. military struck three sites in Iran early Sunday, inserting itself into Israel ’s war aimed at destroying the country’s nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict.

President Donald Trump said Iran’s key nuclear sites were “completely and fully obliterated,” and he warned Iran against carrying out retaliatory attacks, saying the U.S. could hit more targets “with precision, speed and skill.”

“There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” Trump said in an address to the nation from the White House.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed that attacks took place on its Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz sites, but it insisted that its work will not be stopped.

The decision to directly involve the U.S. in the war comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that aimed to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. But U.S. and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and the 30,000-pound (13,500-kilogram) bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.

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The Latest: US strikes 3 Iranian sites, joining Israeli air campaign

The U.S. military struck three sites in Iran early Sunday, directly joining Israel ’s war aimed at decapitating the country’s nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict.

The decision to directly involve the U.S. comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. But U.S. and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and a 30,000-lb. bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily-fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.

President Donald Trump was the first to disclose the strikes. There was no immediate acknowledgment from the Iranian government. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that attacks targeted the country’s Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. The agency did not elaborate.

Here is the latest:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video that Trump called him after the strikes.

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A tornado that swept through a rural town in North Dakota left at least 3 people dead

ENDERLIN, N.D. (AP) — Powerful winds — including a tornado — that swept across parts of the upper Midwest left three people dead and a regional airport heavily damaged, while nearly 150 million Americans were under a heat advisory or warning as the weekend warmed up in much of the U.S.

A complex storm system wreaked havoc in parts of North Dakota, northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin, with tornadoes, large hail and strong wind gusts, according to Brian Hurley, meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center.

Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jahner said at a news conference Saturday that two men and a woman were killed late Friday at two locations around the town of Enderlin, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) southwest of Fargo. Thousands of households lost power.

Hours earlier the National Weather Service in Grand Forks said on the social platform X that two deaths were attributed to a tornado that hit a home.

Timothy Lynch, lead forecaster with the NWS office in Grand Forks, said the storm was confirmed as a tornado but crews were still working to determine its strength and highest wind speeds. He said the storm impacted the neighboring counties of Cass and Ransom.

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Mahmoud Khalil vows to continue protesting Israel and the war in Gaza after release from detention

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A Palestinian activist who was detained for more than three months pushed his infant son’s stroller with one hand and cheered as he was welcomed home Saturday by supporters including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Mahmoud Khalil greeted friends and spoke briefly to reporters at New Jersey's Newark International Airport a day after leaving a federal immigration facility in Louisiana. A former Columbia University graduate student and symbol of President Donald Trump ’s clampdown on campus protests, he vowed to continue protesting Israel and the war in Gaza.

“The U.S. government is funding this genocide, and Columbia University is investing in this genocide,” he said. “This is why I will continue to protest with every one of you. Not only if they threaten me with detention. Even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine.”

Joining Khalil at the airport, Ocasio-Cortez said his detention violated the First Amendment and was “an affront to every American.”

“He has been accused, baselessly, of horrific allegations simply because the Trump administration and our overall establishment disagrees with his political speech,” she said.

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Hot-air balloon in Brazil catches fire and falls from the sky, killing 8 and injuring 13

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A hot-air balloon caught fire and tumbled from the sky on Saturday in Brazil ’s southern state of Santa Catarina, killing eight people, firefighters said.

Footage shared by local news outlet G1 showed billows of smoke coming from the balloon, which was in flames as it hurtled toward the ground in the municipality of Praia Grande.

On a video on social media, two people can be seen falling through the air as the fire spread onboard the aircraft.

Thirteen people survived and were taken to hospitals, Santa Catarina’s military fire brigade said, adding that 21 people were on board including the pilot.

The crash happened at around 8 a.m. local time, said Lt. Col. Zevir Cipriano Jr., a military firefighter. A fire started in the basket, prompting the pilot to try to land the balloon.

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Sunrise at Stonehenge draws druids, pagans and revelers to celebrate the summer solstice

LONDON (AP) — As the sun rose Saturday on the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, a crowd erupted in cheers at Stonehenge where the ancient monument in southern England has clocked the summer solstice over thousands of years.

The orange ball crested the northeast horizon behind the Heel Stone, the entrance to the stone circle, and shone its beam of light into the center of one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments. The solstice is one of the few occasions each year when visitors are allowed to walk among the stones, which are otherwise fenced off.

The crowd gathered before dawn at the World Heritage Site to mark the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, beating the heat during the U.K.'s first amber heat-health alert issued since September 2023. Temperatures later topped 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in Surrey, 80 miles (128 kilometers) east of Stonehenge, the hottest temperature recorded in the U.K. so far this year.

About 25,000 sun devotees and other revelers, including druids, pagans, hippies, locals and tourists, showed up, according to English Heritage which operates the site. More than 400,000 others around the world watched a livestream.

“This morning was a joyous and peaceful occasion with the most beautiful sunrise," said Richard Dewdney, head of operations at Stonehenge. “It is fantastic to see Stonehenge continuing to enchant and connect people.”

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Sunken Bayesian superyacht lifted from waters off Sicily as salvage operation completed

PORTICELLO, Italy (AP) — A British-flagged luxury superyacht that sank off Sicily last year, killing U.K. tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, was lifted from the water Saturday as salvage recovery crews completed the complex operation to bring it ashore for further investigation.

The white top and blue hull of the 56-meter (184-foot) Bayesian, covered with algae and mud, was visibly clear of the sea in a holding area of a yellow floating crane barge off the Sicilian port of Porticello.

“The hull of the superyacht Bayesian has today been successfully and safely recovered from the sea off the coast of northern Sicily," said TMC Maritime, the company conducting the recovery. “This follows a delicate lifting procedure that began early today.”

TMC added that the hull will continue to be held “in an elevated position to allow expert salvage personnel to complete checks and preparations” ahead of its transportation into the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese on Sunday.

The floating crane platform will move the Bayesian to the port, where a special steel cradle is waiting for it. The vessel will be then made available for investigators to help determine the cause of the sinking.

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Man arrested after Utah 'No Kings' rally shooting is released as investigation continues

A man who brought a rifle to a “No Kings” rally in Utah — prompting an armed safety volunteer to open fire and accidentally kill a protester — has been released from jail while the investigation continues.

Salt Lake District Attorney Sim Gill's office said Friday that it was unable to make a decision on charges against Arturo Gamboa, 24, who had been jailed on suspicion of murder following the June 14 shooting.

Salt Lake City police had said Gamboa brought an assault-style rifle to the rally and was allegedly moving toward the crowd with the weapon raised when a safety volunteer for the event fired three shots, wounding Gamboa and killing a nearby demonstrator, Arthur Folasa Ah Loo.

Gamboa did not fire his rifle and it is unclear what he intended to do with it. His lawyer, Greg Skordas, said Gamboa was lawfully in possession of the rifle at the rally and was walking with it unloaded pointed at the ground before he was shot in the back by the volunteer. Skordas said he does not believe that Gamboa heard anyone tell him to drop the weapon.

“There was never any raising of the gun, any brandishing of the gun, any pointing it toward anyone at all,” Skordas said.

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Belarus frees dissident Siarhei Tsikhanouski and 13 others after a rare visit from top US envoy

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus has freed Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a key dissident figure and the husband of exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and 13 others following a rare visit by a senior U.S. official, Tsikhanouskaya’s team announced on Saturday.

Tsikhanouski, a popular blogger and activist who was imprisoned in 2020, arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania, alongside 13 other political prisoners, his wife's team said. The release came just hours after Belarusian authorities announced that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko met with U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine in Minsk. Keith Kellogg became the highest-ranking U.S. official in years to visit Belarus, Moscow's close and dependent ally.

A video published on Tsikhanouskaya's official Telegram account showed Tsikhanouski disembarking from a white minibus, smiling broadly despite his shaved head and emaciated frame. He pulled his wife into a long embrace as their supporters applauded.

“My husband is free. It's difficult to describe the joy in my heart,” Tsikhanouskaya told reporters. But she added her team's work is “not finished” while over 1,100 political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus.

Tsikhanouski, known for his anti-Lukashenko slogan “stop the cockroach,” was jailed after announcing plans to challenge the strongman in the 2020 election. Following his arrest, his wife ran in his stead, rallying large crowds across the country. Official results of the election handed Lukashenko his sixth term in office but were denounced by the opposition and the West as a sham.

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Ukraine received at least 20 bodies of Russian soldiers in recent exchanges, Zelenskyy says

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s president said that Russia repatriated at least 20 of its own dead soldiers in recent exchanges with Ukraine, describing it as a result of Moscow's disorganization in carrying out large swaps of wounded POWs and remains of troops.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that an Israeli citizen was among the dead Ukraine had received in recent exchanges. He spoke to journalists on Friday but his comments were embargoed until Saturday. Officials did not disclose the identities of the bodies.

“They threw the corpses of their citizens at us. This is their attitude toward war, toward their soldiers. And this is already documented. Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports,” he said.

He said the Russian side insisted the dead were all Ukrainians.

Journalists were shown a Russian passport and ID belonging to one of the 20 dead Russians. According to the document, the man came from the Moscow region.

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