A massive explosion at an #Iranian port possibly linked to missile fuel kills 25, injures some 800.

The death toll in a massive explosion at a port in southern #Iran rose Sunday to at least 40 people.

Provincial Governor Mohammad Ashouri gave the new death toll, Iranian state television reported.

Some 1,000 others were injured in the blast at Shahid Rajaei port near Bandar Abbas on Saturday.

The port is purportedly linked to an earlier delivery of a chemical ingredient used to make missile propellant. A military spokesman denied the propellant had been imported there, without offering a cause.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Iran’s president visited those injured Sunday in a huge explosion that rocked one of the Islamic Republic’s main ports, a facility purportedly linked to an earlier delivery of a chemical ingredient used to make missile propellant.

The visit by President Masoud Pezeshkian came as the toll from Saturday’s blast at the Shahid Rajaei port outside of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province rose to 28 killed and about 1,000 others injured.

While Iran’s military sought to deny the delivery of ammonium perchlorate from China, new videos emerged showing an apocalyptic scene at the still-smoldering port. A crater that appeared meters deep sat surrounded by burning smoke so dangerous that authorities closed schools and businesses in the area.

Containers appeared smashed or thrown as if discarded toys, while the burned carcasses of trucks and cars sat around the site.

“We have to find out why it happened,” Pezeshkian said during a meeting with officials aired by Iranian state television.

Authorities described the fire as being under control, saying emergency workers hoped that it would be fully extinguished later Sunday. Overnight, helicopters and heavy cargo aircraft flew repeated sorties over the burning port, dumping seawater on the site.

Pir Hossein Kolivand, head of Iran’s Red Crescent society offered the death toll and number of injured in a statement carried by an Iranian government website, saying that only 190 of the injured remained hospitalized on Sunday. The provincial governor declared three days of mourning.

Private security firm Ambrey says the port received missile fuel chemical in March. It was part of a shipment of ammonium perchlorate from China by two vessels to Iran, first reported in January by the Financial Times. The chemical used to make solid propellant for rockets was going to be used to replenish Iran’s missile stocks, which had been depleted by its direct attacks on Israel during the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Ship-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press put one of the vessels believed to be carrying the chemical in the vicinity in March, as Ambrey said.

“The fire was reportedly the result of improper handling of a shipment of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic missiles,” Ambrey said.

In a first reaction on Sunday, Iranian Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Reza Talaeinik denied that missile fuel had been imported through the port.

“No sort of imported and exporting consignment for fuel or military application was (or) is in the site of the port,” he told state television by telephone. He called foreign reports on the missile fuel baseless -- but offered no explanation for what material detonated with such incredible force at the site. Talaeinik promised authorities would offer more information later.

It’s unclear why Iran wouldn’t have moved the chemicals from the port, particularly after the Beirut port blast in 2020. That explosion, caused by the ignition of hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, killed more than 200 people and injured more than 6,000 others. However, Israel did target Iranian missile sites where Tehran uses industrial mixers to create solid fuel -- meaning potentially that it had no place to process the chemical.

Social media footage of the explosion on Saturday at Shahid Rajaei saw reddish-hued smoke rising from the fire just before the detonation. That suggests a chemical compound being involved in the blast, like in the Beirut explosion.

Meanwhile on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed several emergency aircraft to Bandar Abbas to provide assistance, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Pakistani troops kill 54 militants attempting to sneak into #Pakistan from Afghanistan

Suspect in #killing of a Russian general claims he was paid by #Ukraine, #Russia says

#Greenland, #Denmark affirm alliance amid #Trump’s interest in U.S. control

#Trump and #Zelensky met briefly in the hush of St Peter's basilica before Pope Francis's funeral on Saturday in their first encounter since a noisy White House clash and the #US president later cast doubt on whether #Putin wants a peace deal.

Death toll in blast in Iranian port climbs to eight, over 750 injured
"The rescue and law enforcement agencies are on site and we hope that the situation will be under complete control in a matter of hours," Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said

Eight people were killed and 750 injured in an explosion at the Shahid Rajaei port in southern Iran, while efforts are underway to localize the blaze, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said.

"The main task right now is to rescue those injured and completely extinguish the fire," he said in a broadcast by the IRIB TV channel. "At this moment, about 750 people sustained injuries and eight have died," the official added.

"The rescue and law enforcement agencies are on site and we hope that the situation will be under complete control in a matter of hours," the official said.

A major explosion rocked Iran’s Shahid Rajaei port in the Persian Gulf on Saturday morning. The official cause of the blast has not yet been named.

North Korean leader Kim touts new naval destroyer, blames U.S. for tensions.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said Saturday.

North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-ton warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo.

Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the United States and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition of a nuclear-powered submarine would be his next big step in strengthening his navy.

The new “multipurpose” destroyer, touted by state media as the first in a new class of heavily armed warships, is designed to handle various weapons systems, including anti-air and anti-naval weapons, as well as nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles, Kim said. He said the destroyer will be handed over to the navy early next year and begin active duty.

Kim criticized recent efforts by the United States and South Korea to expand joint military exercises and update their nuclear deterrence strategies, portraying them as preparations for war. He vowed to “respond decisively to this geopolitical crisis and ongoing developments,” according to his speech carried by KCNA.

South Korea’s military didn’t immediately comment on the North Korean claims about its new warship. North Korea’s unveiling of the new warship follows its March revealing of a purported nuclear-powered submarine under construction. However, some experts question whether the impoverished and largely isolated nation could develop such advanced capabilities without foreign assistance.

Nuclear-powered submarines were among a broad list of advanced weapons that Kim pledged to develop at a major political conference in 2021, citing growing U.S.-led threats. His wish list also included solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, spy satellites, and multi-warhead missiles. Since then, North Korea has conducted a series of tests aimed at acquiring these capabilities.

Regional tensions have increased as Kim continues to flaunt his military nuclear capabilities and align with Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would reach out to Kim again to revive diplomacy, but the North has not responded to that offer. While the two leaders met three times during Trump’s first term, negotiations broke down over disagreements on easing U.S.-led sanctions in exchange for steps toward the North’s denuclearization.

Kim’s foreign policy focus has since shifted to Russia, which he has supplied with weapons and military personnel to support its warfighting in Ukraine. South Korean officials are concerned that, in return, Pyongyang could receive economic aid and advanced military technology to further develop its weapons programs.

#ICE deports the mother of a breastfeeding infant and a 2-year-old who is a U.S. citizen.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have in recent days deported the Cuban-born mother of a 1-year-old girl -- separating them indefinitely -- and three children ages 2, 4 and 7 who are U.S. citizens along with their Honduran-born mothers, their lawyers said Saturday.

The three cases raise questions about who is being deported, and why, and come amid a battle in federal courts over whether President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has gone too far and too quickly at the expense of fundamental rights.

Lawyers in the cases described how the women were arrested at routine check-ins at ICE offices, given virtually no opportunity to speak with lawyers or their family members and then deported within three days or less.

The American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Project and several other allied groups said in a statement that the way ICE deported children who are U.S. citizens and their mothers is a “shocking -- although increasingly common -- abuse of power.”

Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project said the mothers, at the very least, did not have a fair opportunity to decide whether they wanted the children to stay in the United States.

The 4-year-old -- who is suffering from a rare form of cancer -- and the 7-year-old were deported to Honduras within a day of being arrested with their mother, Willis said.

In the case involving the 2-year-old, a federal judge in Louisiana raised questions about the deportation of the girl, saying the government had not proven that it had done so properly.

Lawyers for the girl’s father insisted he wanted the girl to remain with him in the U.S., while ICE contended the mother had wanted the girl to be deported with her to Honduras, claims that weren’t fully vetted by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana.

Doughty in a Friday order scheduled a hearing on May 16 “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process,” he wrote.

The Honduran-born mother -- who is pregnant -- was arrested Tuesday on an outstanding deportation order along with the 2-year-old girl and her 11-year-old Honduran-born sister during a check-in appointment at an ICE office in New Orleans, lawyers said. The family lived in Baton Rouge.

Doughty called government lawyers on Friday to speak to the woman while she was in the air on a deportation plane, only to be called back less than an hour later and told that a conversation was impossible because she “had just been released in Honduras.”

In a Thursday court filing, lawyers for the father said ICE indicated that it was holding the 2-year-old girl in a bid to induce the father to turn himself in. His lawyers did not describe his immigration status, but said he has legally delegated the custody of his daughters to his sister-in-law, a U.S. citizen who also lives in Baton Rouge.
Cuban-born woman is deported, leaving behind child and husband

In Florida, meanwhile, a Cuban-born woman who is the mother of a 1-year-old girl and the wife of a U.S. citizen was detained at a scheduled check-in appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Tampa, her lawyer said Saturday.

Heidy Sanchez was held without any communication and flown to Cuba two days later. She is still breastfeeding her daughter, who suffers from seizures, her lawyer, Claudia Canizares, said.

Canizares said she tried to file paperwork with ICE to contest the deportation Thursday morning but ICE refused to accept it, saying Sanchez was already gone, although Canizares said she doesn’t think that was true.

Canizares said she told ICE that she was planning to reopen Sanchez’ case to help her remain in the U.S. legally, but ICE told her that Sanchez can pursue the case while she’s in Cuba.

“I think they’re following orders that they need to remove a certain amount of people by day and they don’t care, honestly,” Canizares said.

Sanchez is not a criminal and has a strong case on humanitarian grounds for allowing her to stay in the U.S., Canizares said, but ICE isn’t taking that into consideration when it has to meet what the lawyer said were deportation benchmarks.

Sanchez had an outstanding deportation order stemming from a missed hearing in 2019, for which she was detained for nine months, Canizares said. Cuba apparently refused to accept Sanchez back at the time, so Sanchez was released in 2020 and ordered to maintain a regular schedule of check-ins with ICE, Canizares said.

President Droupadi Murmu paid homage to His Holiness Pope Francis at Basilica of Saint Peter in Vatican City.

Seating plan for a pope’s funeral – it’s complicated.

They may be the most powerful people on earth, but for the seating arrangement at Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday, all foreign leaders will play second fiddle to the Argentines and Italians and surrender to the whims of the French alphabet.

About 130 foreign delegations had so far expressed their desire to attend the funeral, the Vatican said on Friday, and more were expected to do so throughout the day. Those include around 50 heads of state who have been confirmed as attending, among them U.S. President Donald Trump and 10 reigning monarchs.

Apart from the VIPs, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend the funeral in St. Peter’s Square, which starts at 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Saturday. Italian police have laid on one of the most complex security operations in decades.

The official delegations will sit at a section to the right of the altar at the top of the steps leading toward St. Peter’s Basilica.

Pride of place goes to Argentina, Francis’ native country, whose president, Javier Milei, will sit in the front row.

Milei, a maverick right-wing libertarian, had heaped insults on Francis while he was campaigning in 2023, calling him an “imbecile who defends social justice.” But the president shifted his tone after he took office that year.

Next comes Italy, the country that surrounds the Vatican and which agreed in 1929 to recognize its sovereignty as the world’s smallest state. It gets the second-best seats in the VIP section also because the pope is bishop of Rome and primate of the Catholic bishops of Italy.

That is when the alphabet in French – still considered the language of diplomacy – kicks in for the other delegations. The countries following Italy are ordered according to their names in French and not in their native languages.

So, it is Etats Unis and not United States, Allemagne instead of Deutschland (Germany), and Pays-Bas instead of Nederland (The Netherlands).

Royalty will take precedence. Reigning monarchs -- expected to include royalty such as the kings and queens of Spain and Belgium and Prince Albert of Monaco -- will be seated in front of other heads of state.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said on Friday that no distinction would be made between Catholic and non-Catholic royalty for the seating order.

After the royals come the remaining heads of state. Trump, who attracted criticism from Francis because of his immigration policies, will sit ahead of many other leaders because Etats Unis begins with an ‘E’.

That alphabetic logic means that Trump - currently engaged in trying to get a peace deal in the war in Ukraine - will not be sitting near Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Former U.S. President Joe Biden, who has been the target of constant criticism by Trump, is attending the funeral, but will not be part of the official U.S. delegation, a diplomatic source said. This means Biden, a lifelong Catholic, should be sitting further back, with other VIPs.