US police arrest suspected shooter of Minnesota lawmakers – DW – 06/16/2025
Governor Tim Walz has characterized the shootings as a "politically motivated." The arrest concludes a nearly two-day manhunt for the shooter who posed as a police officer.
A man suspected of killing a lawmaker in Minnesota and wounding another was taken into custody Sunday evening, police officials said. This concludes the nearly two-day manhunt that put the midwestern state on edge.
Law enforcement officers confirmed the arrest to Associated Press on the condition of annonymity. Meanwhile American news channel ABC News reported the same, citing several sources. The channel further said the man was arrested near his farm near Green Isle, Minnesota.
A man, posing as a police officer, shot and killed former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their Brooklyn Park home early Saturday in the northern Minneapolis suburbs.
Before the arrest, authorities had said they had found a car, hat and other items belonging to the suspected shooter. The man had fled on foot early on Saturday when officers confronted him at Hortman's home.
Police say this was the same person who shot and injured Senator John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife at their home nine miles (14 kilometers) away.
Hoffman was undergoing surgery after neing hit with nine bullets, according to a text message his wife sent to Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar. The lawmaker posted this message on X earlier on Sunday. "We are both incredibly lucky to be alive," Yvette Hoffman said in the message.
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Iranians struggle amid escalating Israeli airstrikes – DW – 06/16/2025
Israeli airstrikes in Iran have entered a fourth day. With civilians "caught in the middle" and Iran's regime under mounting pressure, could the conflict mark a turning point in the Islamic Republic's future? The Israeli army said on Monday that its air force had struck command centers belonging to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as Iranian military centers, in Tehran, as the latest Israel-Iran conflict entered its fourth day. Since Friday, Israel has carried out widespread airstrikes across Iran, killing senior military officials and nuclear scientists, and hitting military bases and nuclear sites. Its central aim is to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. Ordinary Iranians 'caught in the middle' Iranian media reported scores of people have been killed across the country — including women and children. Hundreds more have been wounded. One Tehran resident said: "We don't have access to a shelter. There are no shelters in the whole city. I don't think there are any places people can go to in an emergency." Iranian civilians are "caught in the middle" of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, Iranian-American analyst Holly Dagres has told DW. Ordinary Iranians are "powerless" in this conflict, said Dagres, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute think tank, in an interview with DW TV on Sunday. Israel has targeted key Iranian figures, including the army chief and head of the Revolutionary Guards Image: MEGHDAD MADADI/TASNIM NEWS/AFP/Getty Images "Iranians are very shaken and scared right now," Dagres added. Mehdi Chamran, spokesperson for Tehran's City Council, suggested that local residents should also consider sheltering in underground parking garages. Iranian officials say schools and mosques are being used as makeshift shelters. However, mosques in Iran are not known for their structural strength, and it remains unclear how they could protect civilians from missile strikes. Some Iranians pointed out that while the Islamic Republic has spent the past 46 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution declaring its readiness for war and seeking the destruction of Israel, it has made no meaningful effort to build shelters for its own people. Sara Bazoobandi, a non-resident research fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at the University of Kiel, suggested that many Iranians may even have more confidence in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) than in their own government. "They are much more confident that the IDF is not going to attack civilians than the Iranian government itself," Bazoobandi said on Sunday. "Last night in Narmak, in one of the neighborhoods in east of Tehran, an Iranian projectile just fell into a residential area, not an Israeli one." Growing possibility of regime change in Iran Israel's military spokesperson Effie Defrin said the current goal of the campaign is not regime change, but the dismantling of Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and removing its capabilities "to annihilate us." Iranians protest Israeli strikes To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video However, when asked by Fox News whether regime change in Iran was one of Israel's objectives, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu said: "It certainly could be the result, because the Iran regime is very weak." In recent years, Iran has witnessed several waves of anti-government protests, most notably the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement in 2022, which erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. The 22-year-old had been arrested by Iran's morality police for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code. That movement saw widespread participation across Iran and abroad, and was met with a brutal crackdown, leaving at least 600 dead and nearly 20,000 arrested, according to reports. Public discontent has continued to rise, as demonstrated by historically low turnout in last year's presidential election. Even before the latest military confrontation with Israel, many observers anticipated a resurgence of large-scale protests. Following recent Israeli strikes, opposition parties claim that the Islamic Republic is at its weakest point, calling on citizens for renewed mass mobilization. Israel pounds Iran from west to east To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Netanyahu echoed this sentiment in a video address to the Iranian people on Friday, highlighting their opportunity to "stand up and let your voices be heard," repeating the phrase "Woman, Life, Freedom." Economic toll As the likelihood of further Israeli strikes on Iran's infrastructure increases, economic experts are warning of an unprecedented currency crisis. The US dollar could reportedly surpass 200,000 Iranian tomans in the open market — a development that could trigger a new wave of inflation and impose severe economic hardship on ordinary Iranians. For a regime already grappling with deep legitimacy issues, such a scenario could spark mass unrest on a scale even larger than previous uprisings. Amid the turmoil, many political analysts and social media users are framing the war not only as a geopolitical conflict but also as a historic opportunity for the Iranian people to bring about fundamental political change and move beyond the Islamic Republic. Middle East analyst Simon Mabon suggested that Netanyahu has perhaps concluded "that the only way for Israel to ensure its own security in the longer term is to destroy the very notion of the Islamic Republic of Iran." "That's not to say to kill the Iranian population, let's say, but rather to eradicate the system of government," he told DW. However, regime supporters and hardline groups are also echoing nationalistic sentiment to shore up their support. Edited by: Keith Walker
Int'l Business Times
2 hours ago
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Khamenei, Iran's Political Survivor, Faces Ultimate Test
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has weathered a series of challenges but Israel's unprecedented strikes mark his most serious crisis yet, threatening both the clerical system he leads and his own physical survival. Khamenei, Iran's top leader since the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, has ruled in the face of sanctions, near constant international tensions as well as protests that were ruthlessly repressed, most recently the 2022-2023 women-led uprising. With Khamenei aged 86, the issue of succession was already looming large in Iran. But his moves now will have a decisive impact on the future on the system of which he has been a pillar since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the shah. Meanwhile, his own physical survival could be at stake, with a senior American official saying Donald Trump rejected an Israeli plan to kill Khamenei but Israel is still not ruling out such a move. "Khamenei is at the twilight of his rule, at the age 86, and already much of the daily command of the regime is not up to him but to various factions who are vying for the future," said Arash Azizi, senior fellow at Boston University. "This process was already underway and the current war only accelerates it," he told AFP. Israel's success in killing key Iranian figures, including the army chief and head of the Revolutionary Guards, has illustrated how Israeli intelligence can track Iranian leaders and raised the question of whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could give an order to seek to kill Khamenei himself. The movements of the supreme leader, who has not left Iran since taking up the position and made his last foreign visit to North Korea in 1989 while still president, are subject to the tightest security and secrecy. "It is possible that they might have a regime change plan of their own, either by supporting or semi-supporting a coup inside the regime or by continuing to kill at the highest level hoping that this leads to a fundamental shift in posture toward Israel or something of a regime change," said Azizi. Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Khamenei faced a "self-inflicted dilemma" and already lacked the "physical and cognitive acumen to lead Iran into a high-tech war". "A weak response to Israel further diminishes his authority, a strong response could further jeopardise his survival, and that of his regime," he said. While keeping up the rhetoric of confrontation with the US and Israel and backing proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon, Khamenei long kept Iran out of direct conflict with its foes. But the current strikes appear to represent a sudden end to this strategy. "He has prided himself on deterring conflict away from Iran's borders since he assumed the supreme leadership in 1989," said Jason Brodsky, policy director of US-based United Against Nuclear Iran. "So Khamenei has badly miscalculated." Brodsky said the nearest comparison to the current situation were the attacks against leaders blamed on the opposition in the early 1980s which saw the then president killed and Khamenei himself wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt. "It will be an experience that Khamenei will undoubtedly draw upon in the current context," Brodsky told AFP. "But what we are witnessing today is on a completely different level of magnitude. And it's occurring at a pace that threatens to overwhelm the capacity of Tehran." The scale of Israel's first attacks overnight Thursday to Friday, ahead of what were supposed to be a new round of talks in Oman on the Iranian nuclear programme, took the leadership by surprise at a time when it has been on the lookout for any further protests amid economic hardship. "Indeed, the strikes have intensified already simmering tensions, and many Iranians want to see the Islamic republic gone. Crucially, however, most of them do not want this outcome to come at the cost of bloodshed and war," said Holly Dagres, senior fellow at The Washington Institute. In an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu suggested that "regime change" could be the outcome of the Israeli strikes, while insisting that it would be for the Iranian people to bring this about. "It could certainly be the result as the Iran regime is very weak," he said, claiming that "80 percent of the people would throw these theological thugs out". Asked if there was an Israeli plan to kill Khamenei that had been vetoed by Washington, Netanyahu replied: "We do what we need to do, we will do what we need to do and I think the United States knows what is good for the United States". The Iranian opposition, both in exile and inside the country, remains riven by division. One of its most prominent representatives Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and who has warm relations with Israel, has told Iranians: "Stay strong and we will win." So far, however, there have been no reports of mass protests, although some Persian-language television channels based abroad have broadcast images of groups shouting anti-Khamenei slogans. Azizi cautioned: "The idea that this ends in a popular uprising that changes the regime or gives to power to someone in the Iranian opposition abroad has no basis in reality." Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been in power since the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 AFP Khamenei is believed not to have left Iran since 1989 AFP Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not ruled out killing Khamenei AFP
DW
4 hours ago
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What's the US role in the Israel-Iran conflict? – DW – 06/13/2025
US President Donald Trump claims his country was not involved with Israel's attacks on Iran. At the same time, he threatens that if Tehran doesn't reach a nuclear deal with the US, attacks on Iran "will only get worse." The US government's political line after Israel's attack on Iran is clear: Washington had no part in it. "Israel took unilateral action against Iran," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement shared by the White House. "We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense … Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel." The White House social media team posted the statement on social media platform X roughly an hour after the start of Israel's attacks on Iran early Friday morning. Later, on Friday evening, Iran launched retaliatory attacks on Israel. Before that, on Thursday, the US State Department posted a warning on X about the complex security situation in the Middle East: "We remind U.S. citizens in Israel and the broader region of the continued need for caution and encourage them to monitor the news for breaking developments." The US was informed about the attack in advance. But were they really not actively involved in any way? "Everything we know so far about the logistics, for example about the hidden drones in Iran, suggests that Israel carried out the attack alone," Sascha Lohmann, senior associate and part of the America regional research group at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said in an interview with DW. "But we cannot completely rule out the possibility that the US helped." The deployment of 200 military jets that flew to Iran and back, for example, raises the question of whether the US military provided support with air-to-air refueling, according to Lohmann. Iran's nuclear program under attack Israel's attacks early Friday morning were mainly directed against military facilities and sites involved in Iran's nuclear program, such as the Natanz nuclear facility, where uranium is enriched, among other things. In addition to several leading figures in the Iranian military, at least six scientists and researchers working on Iran's nuclear program were killed. Since April 2025, Tehran and Washington had been holding talks to reach an agreement to replace the old nuclear deal with Iran, from which the US withdrew during Trump's first term in 2018. After Israel's attack on Iran's nuclear infrastructure, Trump was quoted by Fox News reporter Bret Baier as saying that "Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb." Expert: Israel caught Iran by surprise To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "We hope to get back to the negotiating table," Trump said, according to the right-leaning TV channel. "We'll see." Trump: Attacks on Iran 'will only get worse!' Trump used much harsher language on his social media platform Truth Social. He wrote in a post that he had given Iran many chances to reach a nuclear deal with him. If that doesn't happen, Trump says he warned Iranian leadership that they're facing an attack that's much worse than anything they could imagine. "The United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the world by far," Trump wrote. "Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come ― and they know how to use it." The Iranian hardliners who spoke out against a nuclear deal are "all DEAD now," Trump continued in his post, "and it will only get worse!" Meanwhile, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff warned that Iran is also capable of causing considerable damage in Israel. Further nuclear negotiations between the US and Iran unlikely The next meeting between the US and Iranian delegations on a possible new nuclear agreement was supposed to take place this Sunday in Oman, but Iran canceled it. It is also unclear how the talks will proceed in the long term. Ali Shamkhani, a close confidant and advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is said to be among those killed in Iran. According to German news magazine Spiegel, Shamkhani played an important role in the nuclear talks between the US and Iran. He is said to have been open to an agreement, but also warned that the government in Tehran could end its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and expel UN nuclear inspectors if Iran felt threatened. "As long as the conflict continues with its current intensity, it is difficult to imagine that the talks will continue," Lohmann said. This article was originally published in German
