Category: News & Business

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, on Sunday warned the United States against a ground invasion, threatening to set American troops “on fire” and step up attacks on U.S. allies, according to Iranian official media.

Ghalibaf said Iranian forces are “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever.”

“Our firing continues. Our missiles are in place. Our determination and faith have increased,” he added.

The Iranian parliament speaker also described the U.S.’s 15-point plan, which Pakistan passed to Iran last week, as “their wishes” and said the Trump administration is attempting to do through the plan what it has failed to achieve by force.

“As long as the Americans seek Iran’s surrender, our response is clear: Far be it from us to accept humiliation,” Ghalibaf said.

Meanwhile, the Revolutionary Guard threatened to target branches of Israeli and American educational facilities in the region, calling them “legitimate targets” if the U.S. does not condemn the bombing of Iranian universities.

“If the U.S. 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 in a statement, according to state media.

The group urged the evacuation of American and Israeli educational facilities and told students and staff to stay at least one kilometer away.

The Guard also demanded that the U.S. stop Israel from striking Iranian universities and research centers, which have been attacked in recent days. Israel’s military has acknowledged striking Iranian universities it says are connected to weapons development.

American colleges, including Georgetown, New York University and Northwestern, have campuses in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The American University of Beirut announced on Sunday that it would operate remotely over the next two days. President Fadlo Khouri said in a statement on the university’s website that while there is no evidence of direct threats against the university, “out of an abundance of caution,” they will be transitioning to online.

The U.N. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) on Sunday approved the listing of 40 new species for international protection, including the snowy owl featured in the Harry Potter saga.

The decision came at the conclusion of the COP15 summit on migratory species in Campo Verde, Brazil, which brought together representatives from 132 countries and the European Union.

It is one of the world’s most important global meetings for wildlife conservation.

Also on the new list for protection along with the snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) are the Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica) — a long-beaked shorebird threatened with extinction — and the great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran).

The new list featured land mammals like the striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) and the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and other aquatic wildlife such as the giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis).

“From cheetahs and striped hyenas to snowy owls, giant otters and great hammerhead sharks, CMS Parties have backed stronger international action as new evidence shows many migratory species are moving closer to extinction,” CMS said in a statement on social media.

The countries that are party to the CMS are legally obliged to protect species listed as at risk of extinction, conserve and restore their habitats, prevent obstacles to migration and cooperate with other range states.

Campo Verde is in Brazil’s biodiversity-rich Pantanal wetlands, in the southern Amazon.

According to a report released ahead of the summit, nearly half (49 percent) of all species catalogued by the CMS are showing signs of declining numbers, and nearly one in four are threatened with extinction on a worldwide scale.

“We came to Campo Grande knowing that the populations of half the species protected under this treaty are in decline,” CMS Executive Secretary Amy Fraenkel said in a statement. “We leave with stronger protections and more ambitious plans but the species themselves are not waiting for our next meeting.”

Another major U.N. assessment, published on Tuesday as the summit opened, warned that migratory freshwater fish populations crucial to river health and sustaining the livelihoods of millions of people are in freefall and risk collapse.

Habitat destruction, overfishing and water pollution from the Amazon to the Danube threaten the very survival of hundreds of species whose epic voyages along the world’s great rivers go largely unnoticed.

Last November, Brazil hosted the COP30 climate summit in the Amazonian city of Belem. Leaders from nearly 200 nations attended the summit but not from the world’s three largest greenhouse gas emitters — China, the United States and India. Beijing and New Delhi did dispatch senior-level delegations for the two-week summit. The White House, however, said no high-level U.S. officials would attend this year’s COP. President Trump has repeatedly dismissed human-caused climate change as “a hoax.”

Britain’s King Charles III will make a state visit to the U.S. in late April, Buckingham Palace and President Trump announced Tuesday, confirming a trip that officials told CBS News earlier this month to expect in the coming weeks. The sources told CBS News that King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands would also visit Washington, staying at the White House, in June.

Charles’ visit “will celebrate the historic connections and the modern bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, marking the 250th anniversary “of American Independence,” Buckingham Palace said in its statement on Tuesday. The president said the trip will take place from April 27-30.

“Melania and I are pleased to announce that their majesties, the king and queen of the United Kingdom, will visit the United States for a historic state visit from April 27-30th, which will include a beautiful banquet dinner at the White House on the evening of April 28th,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This momentous occasion will be even more special this year, as we commemorate the 250th anniversary of our great country.”

Charles will address a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday, April 28, congressional leaders announced Wednesday.

The Address celebrates the 250th anniversary of American independence and the enduring special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.

It will be Charles’ first state visit to the U.S. as king, though he visited the U.S. 19 times before being crowned, when he was the Prince of Wales. His mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, made four state visits to the U.S., in 1957, 1976, 1991 and 2007, Buckingham Palace said.

Mr. Trump made a state visit to the U.K. in September, attending a lavish state dinner hosted by Charles and Queen Camilla at Windsor Castle, which was also attended by Prince William and his wife, Catherine, the Princess of Wales.

A Russian military plane crash in annexed Crimea has killed six crew and 23 passengers, Russian news agencies reported in the early hours of Wednesday, citing the Defense Ministry.

The An-26 military transport plane was carrying out a scheduled flight over the Crimean Peninsula, the reports said. The military lost contact with the plane around 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Soviet-designed military transport turboprop aircraft crashed into a cliff, sources at the scene told state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said a total of seven crew members and 23 passengers were on board. It wasn’t immediately clear from official statements if one crew member has survived.

The Investigative Committee said it has launched a criminal probe in connection with flight regulations and a search is underway in a mountainous forested area in the Bakhchisarai district.

The Interfax news agency cited the Defense Ministry as saying a suspected technical malfunction may have caused the crash and that there was no “damaging interference” with the aircraft.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has since administered it as Russian.

Previous Russian military plane crashes
Accidents involving Russian military planes have been frequent since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022.

In December, an An-22 military transport plane crashed in Russia’s Ivanovo region, killing seven crew. In October, a MiG-31 fighter jet crashed in the Lipetsk region, while a Tu-22M3 bomber crashed in the Siberian region of Irkutsk in April 2025.

In March 2024, a Russian military transport plane with 15 people on board crashed while taking off from an air base in western Russia. That crash came just weeks after the same type of plane went down near the Ukrainian border.

In January 2024, Russia said Ukraine had downed an Il-76 — carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war — near the countries’ shared border. A U.S. official told CBS News at the time that there were no immediate indications that a missile fired from Ukraine had struck the plane, and that it remained unclear whether there were Ukrainians on board the aircraft.

An undersea magnitude -7.4 earthquake toppled buildings in parts of northern Indonesia, sent people fleeing from their homes, killed at least one person and generated a small tsunami Thursday.

Waves up to 30 inches above normal tides were recorded at several monitoring stations about a half-hour after the earthquake, which was centered in the Molucca Sea. Indonesia’s meteorological agency lifted its tsunami warning hours after the quake, and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said there was no destructive threat to the country, which is north of the quake’s epicenter.

Strong shaking lasting 10 to 20 seconds was felt in Bitung in North Sulawesi province as well as in Ternate city in neighboring North Maluku province, according to Indonesia’s Disaster Management Agency.

Initial assessments showed light to severe damage in parts of Ternate, including a church and two houses. In Bitung, damage assessments were still underway, the agency said.

Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency reported a 70-year-old woman died in a building collapse in North Sulawesi’s Manado city and another resident was injured. At least three injured people were hospitalized in Ternate.

Videos released by the rescue agency showed damaged structures and flattened houses, while television stations broadcast scenes of people rushing outside and gathering in streets to avoid the risk of collapsing buildings.

Nearly 50 aftershocks were felt in nearby areas.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu said small waves were possible as well in Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Papua New Guinea, but there was no threat to Hawaii, Guam and other more distant islands.

The quake was strongly felt in Bitung, a coastal city in North Sulawesi province, where residents rushed out of their homes in fear.

“We had just woken up and suddenly the earthquake hit… we all ran out of the house,” resident Marten Mandagi said. “The shaking was very strong,”

Mandagi said he had not seen any damage in his area. “We’re still checking whether there is damage or not. But here we are safe, there are no casualties or destruction,” he said.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 280 million people, sits on major seismic faults and is frequently hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.