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Iran has been firing missiles into at least half a dozen countries. Here’s how the fight has been playing out.

Iran launched missile strikes into at least six countries in retaliation for the Saturday morning attack by the US and Israel.

Multiple countries across the Middle East reported Iranian bombardments, with the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, saying that it had launched attacks on US bases.

Iran said it targeted at least four bases hosting US forces in the Middle East. Details about the scale and the impact of the strikes are still emerging, but multiple nations reported being able to intercept the attacks. Some have reported damage and at least one death from debris. At least one US base appears to have been hit.

Bahrain’s state news agency said that the US Navy’s 5th Fleet service center was the subject to a missile attack, without offering details or reporting any casualties. Iran also said it targeted the base. The agency also reported Bahrain’s defense forces saying that its air-defense systems successfully intercepted multiple missiles from Iran.

Qatar’s defense ministry said successfully intercepted three waves of attacks that had targeted multiple areas of the country, and that all missiles were intercepted before they reached the country’s territory, the state-run Qatar News Agency reported.

Qatar hosts Al Udeid, the biggest US base in the region. Iran said it targeted the base, without giving details over whether it was successful. The US has not confirmed an attack. Qatar condemned what it said were Iranian strikes on US bases in Qatar and neighboring countries.

Jordanian state media reported the country’s air defense systems successfully intercepting two ballistic missiles that targeted the country.


Grey smoke in a blue-colored sky above tan-colored buildings

A smoke plume rises over Abu Dhabi from the site of an Iranian missile strike.

AFP via Getty Images



The country’s Public Security Directorate said there have been 12 separate incidents created by falling debris across the country, causing some damage but with no reported civilian casualties.

The Muwaffaq Al-Salti Air Base in Jordan, which is key for the country’s air force and also has a US military presence, was targeted, Iranian state media reported. It did not give any details over whether the reported attack was successful, and the US has not confirmed any attack.

The United Arab Emirates’ defense ministry said it intercepted Iranian ballistic missiles across multiple attacks. It said one person was killed by falling debris in Abu Dhabi, the country’s capital.

It shared images of what appears to be downed Iranian missiles.

It said that missile debris also damaged some infrastructure. Explosions were also reported in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Its Al Dhafra Air Base hosts US forces. The IRGC said that the base was targeted, but that has not been confirmed.


A plume of grey smoke in a misty blue sky, over a city skyline.

A plume of smoke rises over Tehran, Iran.

Mahsa / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images



Kuwait’s army said its air defenses intercepted missiles that were detected in the country’s airspace. The country hosts the US military at its Al Salem Air Base, another base the IRGC said was targeted but with no confirmation.

Israel reported multiple missile barrages from Iran, but has not reported any deaths or major damage to the country.

Successful attacks have been reported in Iran, and its people are trying to flee the capital city, Tehran. Iranian officials said an Israeli attack on a girls elementary school in southern Iran killed least 51 people. Israel has released video footage of strikes in Western Iran against missile launchers and other targets.

US embassies in countries across the region have given advice to Americans to shelter-in-place.

Attacks and counter-attacks are still ongoing. US President Donald Trump said that he would destroy Iran’s missile program and navy and make sure that the country can “never” have a nuclear weapon.

“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties. That often happens in war,” Trump said in a statement. “But we’re doing this not for now — we’re doing this for the future. And it’s a noble mission.”

Flights have been cancelled across the region with multiple countries closing their air spaces, creating major disrupution in one of the world’s busiest flight routes.




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The US banned a former EU official’s visa over Big Tech rules — and the fight is playing out on X

The US just escalated its clash with Europe over tech regulation.

The State Department said it has barred five Europeans, including the EU’s former Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton and four members of digital campaign groups, from entering the country over what it called “censorship” of tech platforms.

The visa bans were met with backlash from European leaders on X, who accused Washington of intimidation and political overreach.

The dispute centers on the EU’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, which imposes obligations on major tech platforms — many of which are based in the US — to police content and curb anti-competitive behavior. Companies in breach of it can be fined up to 6% of their global annual revenue.

In a post on X late Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department would block leading figures of what he called “the global censorship-industrial complex” from entering the US.

“For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose,” Rubio wrote. “The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”

In follow-up posts on Tuesday, Sarah B. Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, named Breton among the five European individuals sanctioned, accusing him of using the EU’s Digital Services Act to pressure Elon Musk and X during his tenure as commissioner for the internal market.

She also named Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Clare Melford of the Global Disinformation Index, and HateAid leaders Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon, accusing them of pressuring US platforms over online speech. None of the four campaigners immediately responded to a Business Insider request for comment.

Rubio added that the US was “ready and willing to expand this list” unless officials reversed course, framing the move as a defense of free expression and US sovereignty.

European backlash

The back-and-forth has largely played out on X, a platform that was hit with a $140 million fine earlier this month for breaching the Digital Services Act.

Breton responded in Tuesday X post by invoking McCarthy-era politics, asking, “Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back?”

He added, “To our American friends: ‘Censorship isn’t where you think it is.'”

French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the visa restrictions, describing them in a Wednesday X post as coercive measures aimed at undermining Europe’s digital sovereignty.

“The rules governing the European Union’s digital space are not meant to be determined outside Europe,” he said.

The European Commission “strongly” condemned the US decision, adding that the EU has the sovereign right to regulate its digital market and would seek clarification from US authorities.

“Freedom of speech is the foundation of our strong and vibrant European democracy,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X on Wednesday. “We are proud of it. We will protect it.”

Gérard Araud, France’s former ambassador to the US, said the dispute reflects a deeper rupture, writing on X that “the West” no longer exists and that Europe is now alone in defending its interests and values.

Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland and longtime US sanctions official, told Business Insider he could not recall a precedent for Washington imposing visa bans on a former European official in retaliation for policy decisions made in the course of their duties.

Similarly, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, told Business Insider that he could not recall any historical precedent for the move, describing the visa bans as largely symbolic and unlikely to trigger meaningful retaliation.

Musk in the middle

The dispute has been years in the making — and Musk X has often been at the center of it.

Breton repeatedly clashed with Musk after he bought Twitter in 2022 and pledged to loosen moderation in the name of free speech.

As the then-internal market commissioner, Breton warned that X could face fines or even be barred from the European Union if it failed to comply with EU law, later overseeing a formal investigation into the platform regarding disinformation and content moderation.

Those confrontations turned X into a symbol of the broader transatlantic fight over who sets the rules for online speech — a conflict that has now spilled from regulation into geopolitics.




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