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Trump says he’s been assured Tehran has stopped killing protesters as Iran reopens its airspace – live

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Trump says he’s been assured Tehran has stopped killing protesters as Iran reopens its airspace – live

Opening summary

Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the crisis in Iran.

Donald Trump says he has been assured that the killing of Iranian protesters has been halted, adding when asked about whether the threatened US military action was now off the table that he will “watch it and see”.

The president said at the White House that “very important sources on the other side” had now assured him that Iranian executions would not go ahead. “They’ve said the killing has stopped and the executions won’t take place,” Trump said. “There were supposed to be a lot of executions today and that the executions won’t take place – and we’re going to find out.”

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Earlier, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told Fox News that executions executions were not taking place and there would be “no hanging today or tomorrow”. “I’m confident that there is no plan for hanging.”

The family of Erfan Soltani, the first Iranian protester sentenced to death since the current unrest began, has been told his execution has been postponed.

Here are some of the other latest developments:

  • Trump said Iranian opposition figure Reza Pahlavi “seems very nice” but expressed uncertainty about whether Pahlavi would be able to muster support within Iran to eventually take over. “I don’t know how he’d play within his own country,” Trump told Reuters in the Oval Office. “And we really aren’t up to that point yet. I don’t know whether or not his country would accept his leadership, and certainly if they would, that would be fine with me.”

  • Iran has reopened its airspace after a near-five-hour closure that forced airlines to cancel, reroute or delay some flights.

  • The United Nations security council is scheduled to meet on Thursday afternoon for “a briefing on the situation in Iran”, according to a spokesperson for the Somali presidency. The scheduling note said the briefing was requested by the US.

Iranian women wearing chadors walk near a mural depicting Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (top left) in Tehran. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA
  • Some US and UK personnel have been evacuated as a precaution from sites in the Middle East. The British embassy in Tehran has also been temporarily closed.

  • Spain, Italy and Poland advised their citizens to leave Iran. It followed a call by the US urging its citizens to leave Iran, suggesting land routes to Turkey or Armenia.

  • Araghchi insisted the situation was “under control” and urged the US to engage in diplomacy. “Now there’s calm,” the Iranian foreign minister said. “We have everything under control, and let’s hope that wisdom prevails and we don’t end up in a situation of high tension that would be catastrophic for everyone.”

  • The death toll in Iran from the regime’s crackdown stands at 2,571 people, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists news agency. More than 18,100 have been arrested, it said.

  • Foreign ministers from the G7 group said they were “prepared to impose additional restrictive measures” on Iran over its handling of the protests, and the “deliberate use of violence, the killing of protesters, arbitrary detention and intimidation tactics”.

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Key events

AI-generated videos purportedly depicting protests in Iran have flooded the web, researchers say, as social media users push hyper-realistic deepfakes to fill an information void amid the country’s internet restrictions.

US disinformation watchdog NewsGuard said it identified seven AI-generated videos depicting the Iranian protests – created by both pro- and anti-government actors – that had collectively amassed about 3.5m views across online platforms.

Among them was a video shared on Elon Musk’s X showing women protesters smashing a vehicle belonging to the Basij, the Iranian paramilitary force deployed to suppress the protests, reports Agence France-Presse.

One X post featuring the AI clip – shared by what NewsGuard described as anti-regime users – garnered nearly 720,000 views.

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Anti-regime X and TikTok users in the US also posted AI videos depicting Iranian protesters symbolically renaming local streets after Donald Trump.

The AI creations highlight the growing prevalence of what experts call “hallucinated” visual content on social media during major news events, often overshadowing authentic images and videos.

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Iran’s fight for survival / The widening war / Trump’s nebulous goals : Sources & Methods

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Iran’s fight for survival / The widening war / Trump’s nebulous goals : Sources & Methods
The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is spilling out across the region. What are the goals? And how does it end?Host Mary Louise Kelly talks with International Correspondent Aya Batrawy, based in Dubai, and Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman, about the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Six days of war have turned the middle east upside down, and it’s still not clear how the U.S. will determine when its objectives have been accomplished.Recommended Iran reading:Blackwave by Kim GhattasAll the Shah’s Men by Stephen KinzerPrisoner by Jason RezaianPersian Mirrors by Elaine SciolinoListener spy novel recommendation: Pariah by Dan FespermanEmail the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.orgNPR+ supporters hear every episode without sponsor messages and unlock access to our complete archive. Sign up at plus.npr.org.
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Map: 4.9-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Louisiana

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Map: 4.9-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Louisiana

Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 4 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “light,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown.  All times on the map are Central time. The New York Times

A light, 4.9-magnitude earthquake struck in Louisiana on Thursday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The temblor happened at 5:30 a.m. Central time about 6 miles west of Edgefield, La., data from the agency shows.

U.S.G.S. data earlier reported that the magnitude was 4.4.

As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.

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Source: United States Geological Survey | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Central time. Shake data is as of Thursday, March 5 at 8:40 a.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Thursday, March 5 at 10:46 a.m. Eastern.

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Donald Trump has no ‘phase two’ plan for Iran war, says US senator

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Donald Trump has no ‘phase two’ plan for Iran war, says US senator

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