The biggest disruption to global air transport since the Covid pandemic continued Sunday, with thousands of flights affected and busy Middle Eastern hubs including Dubai and Doha shuttered as Iran lashed out after US-Israeli strikes.Israel and Iran traded new attacks Sunday, after Tehran hit both the Dubai International Airport — the world’s busiest for international traffic — and Kuwait’s main airport during its retaliatory strikes one day earlier. Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had all announced at least partial closures of their skies Saturday after the US and Israel attacked Iran, bringing civilian air traffic over the Middle East to an abrupt halt. Notable airlines that cancelled services included Emirates, Etihad, Air France, British Airways, Air India, Turkish Airlines, and Lufthansa.Flight tracking site FlightAware said that more than 6,700 flights had been delayed and 1900 cancelled globally as of 1000 GMT Sunday, on top of thousands the day before.- Airspace closures -Iran swiftly closed its airspace as the strikes began “until further notice”, said the spokesman of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, quoted by the Tasnim news agency.Israel also closed its airspace to civilian flights, Transport Minister Miri Regev announced.Qatar’s civil aviation authority said it had temporarily closed the Gulf state’s airspace.Iraq shut down airspace, state media said. The United Arab Emirates said it was closing its skies “partially and temporarily”.Syria closed part of its airspace in the south along the border with Israel for 12 hours, the Civil Aviation Authority said.Jordan’s air force was conducting drills to “defend the kingdom’s skies”, its military said.Kuwait closed its airspace.- Middle East and North Africa airlines -Gulf carriers Emirates and Etihad cancelled 38 percent and 30 percent of their flights respectively, Cirium said.Qatar Airways suspended all flights from Doha. It cancelled 41 percent of total flights, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.Syria Air, the country’s national carrier, cancelled all flights until further notice.Egypt’s national airline, EgyptAir, announced the suspension of its flights to cities across the Middle East, including Dubai, Doha, Manama, Abu Dhabi, Beirut and Baghdad among others. – European airlines -Russia’s air transport authority Rosaviatsia said all commercial flights to Israel and Iran were cancelled “until further notice”. Turkish Airlines cancelled flights to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Jordan until March 2.Air France cancelled its Dubai, Riyadh, Beirut and Tel Aviv flights until Sunday, extending its earlier suspension. British Airways said it was not flying to Tel Aviv and Bahrain until March 4, and cancelled flights to the Jordanian capital Amman on Saturday.Swiss International Air Lines suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until March 7, and cancelled flights from Zurich to Dubai scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.Germany’s Lufthansa, which comprises Swiss and ITA Airways, cancelled its flights to and from Tel Aviv, Beirut, Amman, Erbil and Tehran until March 7. The airline group and its subsidiaries suspended flights to and from Dubai and Abu Dhabi until Sunday.- North America airlines -Delta Air Lines suspended New York–Tel Aviv flights until Sunday.American Airlines “temporarily suspended” Doha-Philadelphia flights.United flights to Tel Aviv are cancelled until Monday, and flights to Dubai until Sunday.Air Canada said it cancelled flights from Canada to Israel until March 8 and to Dubai until March 3.- Asia-Pacific airlines -India’s two largest private carriers IndiGo and Air India suspended flights to all destinations in the Middle East.Pakistan International Airlines, the flag carrier of the country that borders Iran, said it had suspended flights to the UAE, Bahrain, Doha and Kuwait.Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific suspended flights to Dubai and Riyadh.Garuda Indonesia, Indonesia’s flag carrier, temporarily suspended flights to and from Doha “until further notice”, the company said in a statement Sunday.Singapore Airlines and Singapore’s Scoot cancelled six flight routes in the region until the end of Sunday, local media reported.Philippine Airlines flights from Manila to Doha, Riyadh to Manila, and Dubai to Manila were cancelled on Saturday, as well as one Doha-Manila flight on Sunday.Other major airlines including Australia’s Qantas and Japan’s All Nippon Airways did not announce any flight cancellations. – Africa airlines -Ethiopian Airlines cancelled its flights to Amman, Tel Aviv, Dammam, and Beirut. Kenya Airways has suspended its flights to Dubai and Sharjah until further notice. burs-sbk/st

Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” was named best picture by Hollywood producers on Saturday, continuing its awards season streak before the Oscars.The Producers Guild Awards (PGA) win cements the film, about the rise of extremism in the United States, as a frontrunner for the top prizes at the Academy Awards, which cap off the Hollywood awards season.Anderson’s film, which depicts the hunt for former far-left revolutionaries by a white supremacist, seems destined for the best picture Oscar, having already secured numerous awards.Since early January, it has won top prizes from American film critics and Hollywood directors, and received the Golden Globe for best comedy.”This is a tremendous honor, thank you very much,” Anderson said in his acceptance speech.The director then addressed executives at Warner Bros., the prestigious studio that distributed the film and is about to be acquired by Paramount Skydance.”Long may you wave, whatever the future holds. It is one battle after another,” he said.The Producers Guild Awards are presented annually by the trade union, which has more than 8,000 members.They are considered a reliable indicator for the Oscars, with winners going on to seal best picture at the Oscars many times.- 13 Oscar nominations -“One Battle After Another” boasts an all-star cast.Leonardo DiCaprio plays an explosives expert involved in a far-left movement where he falls in love with a revolutionary firebrand played by Teyana Taylor.But years later, a white supremacist soldier (Sean Penn) who previously hunted them resurfaces, forcing the former bomb expert to return to action to rescue his child.In his quest, he crosses paths with a Zen-like karate master (Benicio Del Toro), who is delighted to help the former revolutionary.Adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Vineland,” the film depicts an irreconcilable America, torn apart by the political legacies of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Power movement, where everything is resolved through violence.Acclaimed for its ability to capture the contemporary fractures in the United States, the film received 13 Oscar nominations, including one for each of its lead actors.But that was fewer than its main Oscars rival, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” which received 16 nominations.The winners will be announced on March 15 at the 98th Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood.

Pro-Iranian protesters angered by the death of Iran supreme leader Ali Khamenei tried to storm the US consulate in Pakistan’s Karachi on Sunday, leaving eight dead, and the fortified Green Zone hosting Washington’s embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.Iranian state media confirmed the death of Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader since 1989 and sworn enemy of the West, on Sunday, after the opening salvo of a massive US and Israeli attack.In the Pakistani megacity of Karachi, hundreds of pro-Iranian protesters tried to enter the US mission, an AFP journalist saw.At least eight people were killed in the protests and at least 20 were injured, Muhammad Amin, a spokesman for the Edhi Foundation rescue service said, adding most had bullet wounds.A crowd of young people climbed over the main gate and gained access to the driveway of the consular building, smashing some windows.Police fired tear gas at the protesters who dispersed.Videos on social media showed youngsters smashing the windows of the main building of the consulate as the American flag could be seen flying over the compound, whose perimeter is topped with barbed wire.Thousands of people were also taking to the streets in the eastern city of Lahore and in northern Skardu, with a demonstration expected in the afternoon near the diplomatic enclave housing the US embassy in the capital Islamabad.- Khamenei death ‘hurt us’ -In Baghdad, hundreds of Iraqis, many dressed in black, attempted to storm the compound housing the American embassy on Sunday despite a heavy security deployment.Ali, a masked protester, told AFP “the martyrdom of Sayyed Ali Khamenei has hurt us”.”We are here because we want the withdrawal of the occupying American forces from Iraq,” he said, referring to US-led coalition troops who have recently reduced their presence and are now mostly stationed in northern Iraq.Protesters, who had gathered in the Iraqi capital since early Sunday, hurled stones at security forces, who responded with tear gas.A security source told AFP earlier that “their attempts have been thwarted so far, but they keep trying”.In Indian-administered Kashmir, several thousand Shia Muslims joined street demonstrations in the main city Srinagar.Protesters holding red, black, and yellow flags converged on the main square.Many of them chanted anti-Israel and anti-US slogans during the emotionally charged but largely peaceful gathering.”This day we are all very heavy-hearted. We are mourning our beloved leader who was martyred,” Syed Towfeeq, 40, told AFP.”We all have a message for the (US President Donald) Trump… We will always stand against your oppression.”Similar protests were held in other places across Kashmir and other parts of India with a sizeable Shia Muslim presence.burs/jfx/mjw