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British counterterrorism officers have taken several Iranian men into custody over a suspected plan to launch an attack at an unnamed site in London, the Metropolitan Police confirmed on Sunday.
The arrests were made on Saturday across different parts of England, with five men between the ages of 29 and 46 held on suspicion of preparing "a terrorist act".
Four of those detained are Iranian nationals, while efforts to confirm the identity and nationality of the fifth individual are still ongoing.
All five are currently being interviewed at police stations and have not been formally charged. Investigators are also carrying out searches at addresses in London, Manchester, and Swindon.
Authorities said the suspected plot focused on a specific location, the details of which are being withheld “for operational reasons.”
Commander Dominic Murphy, who leads the Counter Terrorism Command, said police are still trying to determine the motivation behind the suspected plot, as well as whether there is any ongoing danger to the public.
In a separate case, police revealed that three other Iranian men — aged 39, 44, and 55 — were arrested in London as part of an unrelated investigation into a possible national security breach.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the arrests as a stark reminder of the need to remain vigilant in the face of evolving security challenges. Cooper said these are “serious events that demonstrate the ongoing requirement to adapt our response to national security threats."
She added, “The government continues to work with police and intelligence agencies to support all the action and security assessments that are needed to keep the country safe,”.
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While no direct link to Iran has been established in the main case, domestic security agency MI5 has warned of a growing danger from individuals or operations with ties to Tehran.
In a statement last October, MI5 Chief Ken McCallum said that security services had disrupted 20 “potentially deadly” plots linked to Iran since 2022, many of which targeted dissidents based in the UK.
He also warned that rising tensions in the Middle East could cause more hostile actions from Iran in the UK.
In March 2024, Pouria Zeraati — a presenter at a Persian-language channel critical of Iran’s leadership — was stabbed outside his home in London. Two suspects were later tracked to Romania and arrested over the attack.
The UK’s national threat level for terrorism remains “substantial”, meaning an attack is considered likely.
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Russia launched a large-scale drone assault on Ukraine overnight from Saturday into Sunday, deploying 165 unmanned aerial vehicles, according to Ukraine’s armed forces.
In the capital Kyiv, the attacks triggered fires that left eleven people injured, including two children, according to the State Emergency Services (SES).
The SES reported that the attack affected three districts of the capital: Obolonskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, and Shevchenkivskyi.
In Obolonskyi, a blaze damaged a 12-storey residential building.
"When it hit, we didn’t know what to do. I was with my son, and I said to him: ‘Come on, let’s go!’ I grabbed him like this, in my pyjamas, and ran over here. We saw a neighbour come out and started running away," Nadiya, one of its residents, said.
“We saw people coming down the stairs to evacuate. We were all sitting here in the dark," she added.
"There was a strong fire, they were putting it out, and we were sitting here. Two guys got hurt, an ambulance came, but they didn’t take them, probably they were under a lot of stress."
Municipal workers clean up near burnt cars and a crater made by a drone in the residential area following Russia's air raid in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, May 4, 2025.Efrem Lukatsky/Copyright 2025 The AP. All rights reserved
Meanwhile, in Sviatoshynskyi, residential buildings were affected by fire, and in Shevchenkivskyi, local infrastructure bore the brunt of the attack, with roads and electricity poles damaged.
The SES said that 75 firefighters were deployed to tackle the blazes, all of which have now been extinguished.
Further south, the central region of Cherkasy also sustained damage following Russian shelling.
In the town of Cherkasy, the facades and windows of multi-storey buildings were destroyed, along with warehouses belonging to a furniture company, a trading base and garden structures.
"There was no whistle, no noise, nothing, it just hit us so hard that the windows blew out. Thank God we are alive," one resident, Vasyl Shevchenko, recounted the attack.
"They say that you need to take packages, take documents, take this and that. In such a situation, what can you take? We just took our underwear and ran."
Preliminary reports indicate that 10 flats were damaged during the overnight strikes, two of which were completely destroyed by fire.
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Emergency services mobilised more than 100 rescuers and 26 vehicles to respond to the affected areas, where both homes and businesses were impacted by the fires.
According to the Air Armed Forces of Ukraine’s Telegram channel, the regions of Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk were also targeted during the overnight strikes.
Ukraine’s military says it shot down 69 Shahed-type drones and other UAVs, while 80 went off radar.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry released footage on Sunday, claiming it showed Russian forces striking Ukrainian military positions in the southern Kherson region. Euronews could not independently verify its authenticity.
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Several thousands of Turkish Cypriots gathered in the northern half of the ethnically divided capital of Nicosia to protest against what they say is an attempt by Turkey to erode their secular roots and strengthen the hold of policial Islam over their society.
The protesters held up trade union banners and held placards reading "It won't pass" and "Cyprus will stay secular" before gathering to attend a concert.
The protest is the latest in a series of demonstrations that leftist trade unions have organised to express their opposition to what they say is an attempt by Ankara to slowly change the staunchly secular Turkish Cypriot society into a more politically pliable community through the introduction of Islam into the education system.
The demonstrations began last month when the right-wing Turkish Cypriot authorities lifted a ban on wearing headscarves in high schools, but not on symbols of other religions.
Teachers’ trade unions, political parties and other leftist groups condemned the move as an encroachment into the strictly secular education system aimed at the eventual “Islamisation” of Turkish Cypriot society.
Turkish Cyprios hold up lighted mobile phones during a protest against what they say is Turkey's attempt strengthen the hold of political Islam over their society, 2 May 2025 Petros Karadjias/Copyright 2025 The AP. All rights reserved
Elma Eylem, president of the Turkish Cypriot Secondary Education Teachers’ Union KTOE？S and one of the protests’ key organisers, said that the change in statute allowing the wearing of headscarves in school is evidence of a bid at “social engineering” to force Turkish Cypriot society into submission according to the edicts of Turkey’s ruling AKP party.
“This issue is not a matter of freedom, headscarf or regulation. This issue is a step taken by the AKP in its efforts to deepen the political Islam domination over the Turkish Cypriot Community,” she said.
Eylem also said that a legal challenge to the lifting of the headscarf ban has been initiated at the Turkish Cypriot Constitutional Court, adding that their fight will be “a long-term struggle.”
The protest took place a day before a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to breakaway northern Cyprus where he will inaugurate a complex of government buildings.
Reviving stalled peace talks
The island nation of Cyprus has been split since 1974, when Turkey invaded following coup backed by the Greek junta which aimed at a union with Greece. The Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the island's northern third is recognised only by Turkey, where it maintains around 35,000 troops.
Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but only the Greek Cypriot south where the island's internationally recognised government is based enjoys full benefits.
Last Friday, UN Secretary General António Guterres announced the appointment of María Angela Holguín Cuéllar as his personal envoy on Cyprus, tasked with exploring ways to resume peace talks stalled since 2017.
Minor progress was made between the leaders of the two communities - Nikos Christodoulides and Ersin Tatar - in early April, as they agreed on a series of confidence-building measures like restoring neglected cemeteries and setting up a joint group of young people from both side of the divide to discuss issues relevant to them.