Iran’s air defences have brought down three small drones over the central city of Isfahan, state media reported, hours after United States broadcasters, quoting senior US officials, said Israeli missiles had hit an Iranian site.

Iranian state television reported explosions in Isfahan as air defences were activated and flights across several areas, including the capital, Tehran, and Isfahan, were suspended.

Airspace was reopened about four and a half hours after the incident and there were no reports of casualties.

Second Brigadier General Siavash Mihandoust, the top military official in Isfahan, told state media that air defence batteries hit “a suspicious object” and there was no damage.

ABC News and CBS News had reported earlier that Israel had carried out a military operation in Iran.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the US told the Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers that it had been “informed at the last minute” by Israel about an attack on Iran.

“But there was no sharing of the attack by the US. It was a mere information,” Tajani told reporters in Capri, Italy, where the G7 ministers met.

However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken refused to confirm reports about the Israeli attack, during a news conference in Capri.

“I’m not going to speak to that, except to say that the United States has not been involved in any offensive operation,” Blinken said.

The top US diplomat said the G7’s focus is on de-escalation. Asked to describe the current US-Israel relationship, Blinken noted that Israel makes its own decisions, but the US is committed to its security.

Iranian media said no strikes were launched on Iran from outside the country, and the attack was believed to have been carried out using small quadcopters that would have to have been launched from inside Iran.

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari said Iranian media were downplaying the incident.

“The location in Isfahan province is an Iranian military airbase that belongs to the country’s army, and not the Revolutionary Guards [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC]. I think it’s important to highlight that,” she said. “This base houses multiple squadrons of F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft.”

“We also understand that the air defence systems over the city of Tabriz in the northwestern part of Iran were also activated,” Jabbari reported.

A military factory belonging to the Iranian army in Isfahan was attacked by multiple quadcopters in January 2023, failing to damage the facility that was protected by air defence batteries and mesh wiring on its roof to counter small unmanned aerial vehicles.

Iran blamed Israel for that attack and arrested four people, executing one of them in January 2024, for operating on behalf of Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.

Israel had promised to respond after Iran launched a barrage of drones and missiles on the country on April 13, after a suspected Israeli attack on Iran’s consulate compound in Damascus killed 16 people, including two IRGC senior generals.

Governments around the world urged restraint and a push to de-escalate tensions across the region.

Isfahan is considered a strategically important city and one that is host to several important sites, including military research and development facilities, as well as bases. The nearby city of Natanz is the location of one of Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites.

In a speech in Damghan, in central Iran, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi made no mention of Isfahan but praised the Iranian attacks on Israel, saying they gave the country strength and unity.

Kioumars Heydari, the commander-in-chief of the ground forces of the Iranian army, said Iran remains vigilant to confront any other potential aerial threats.

“If suspicious flying objects appear in the sky of the country, they will be targeted by our powerful air defence,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run IRNA  news agency ahead of Friday prayers in Tehran.

‘No damage’ to nuclear facilities

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that “there is no damage” to Iranian nuclear sites as the United Nations nuclear watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi called for restraint and said nuclear facilities should never be targeted in military conflicts.

IAEA can confirm that there is no damage to #Iran’s nuclear sites. DG @rafaelmgrossi continues to call for extreme restraint from everybody and reiterates that nuclear facilities should never be a target in military conflicts. IAEA is monitoring the situation very closely. pic.twitter.com/4F7pAlNjWM

— IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) April 19, 2024

The reported attack “was far more limited than many expected”, Iranian arms control expert Ali Ahmadi told Al Jazeera, adding that Israel “has much more limitations in its operational range” than many think.

“Certainly, after Iran’s retaliatory capacity was criticised, it benefits from advertising how ineffective what Israel did was as well. Iran also needs to prepare the public for a much softer reaction than it has talked about in the last couple of days,” he pointed out.

Ahmadi said that prior to today’s incident, Iran was preparing several options for a massive retaliation, including getting allies involved.

But considering the limited scope and impact of the alleged attack, which he described as a “security sabotage” rather than a “military assault”, it would be a mistake to carry out a significant response, he stressed.

There were also reports of explosions in Iraq and Syria, with Iranian state media saying there were explosions at multiple military-linked sites in Syria.

Syria’s official news agency SANA quoted a military source as saying that missile strikes in the early hours of the morning caused material damage to air defence sites in the country’s southern region. The report did not specify the exact location and the extent of the damage but blamed Israel.

The US and a number of European countries had been calling on Israel not to respond to Iran’s attack.

On Thursday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres painted a dark picture of the situation in the Middle East, warning that spiralling tensions over Israel’s war on Gaza and Iran’s attack on Israel could descend into a “full-scale regional conflict”.

“The Middle East is on a precipice. Recent days have seen a perilous escalation – in words and deeds,” Guterres told the UN Security Council.

“One miscalculation, one miscommunication, one mistake, could lead to the unthinkable – a full-scale regional conflict that would be devastating for all involved,” he said, calling on all parties to exercise “maximum restraint”.

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Trump Media has warned the CEO of the Nasdaq Stock Market of ‘potential market manipulation’ of the company’s stock by “naked” short selling of shares.

The warning came as Trump Media has offered shareholders detailed instructions on how to avoid someone loaning out their DJT shares to short sellers, who then execute trades betting that the price of the stock will fall.

Trump Media disclosed the warning to Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman in a filing Friday morning with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

DJT’s share price has rallied in recent days, but is still sharply lower than the more than $70 per share it debuted with on March 26. Former President Donald Trump owns nearly 60% of Trump Media shares. The paper value of his stake has dropped by billions of dollars since DJT began public trading last month.

Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes in his letter to Friedman did not directly accuse anyone in particular of naked short selling, which is the sale of stocks without first having borrowed such sales for that purpose.

But Nunes noted that as of Wednesday “DJT appears on Nasdaq’s ‘Reg SHO threshold list,’ which is indicative of unlawful trading activity.”

“This is particularly troubling given that ‘naked’ short selling often entails sophisticated market participants profiting at the expense of retail investors,” Nunes said.

Nunes, who company owns the Truth Social app, pointed to circumstantial evidence, which included DJT being in early April the most expensive stock to short in the United States, which he said would give brokers “significant financial incentive to lend non-existent shares.” The letter links to a CNBC article detailing the sky-high premiums brokers were charging short sellers for loans of DJT shares to sell.

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The hype for Taylor Swift’s new album went into overdrive as it appeared to leak online two days ahead of its Friday release.

Swifties started sharing tracks on X that they claimed were from the singer’s upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department, saying they came from a Google Drive link containing all 17 songs.

Some fans were upset by the leak and said they would wait until Friday to listen while others started frantically posting fake links on X to bury the “real” tracks.

“Raise your hand if ur an ACTUAL Taylor Swift fan and aren’t listening to leaks,” one user wrote.

Several media outlets reported that X briefly blocked the search term “Taylor Swift leak” on Wednesday.

CBC has reached out to Swift’s publicist for comment.

Swift announced the release, her 11th studio album and the first with all new songs since 2022’s Midnights, at the Grammy Awards ceremony in February.

Fans have been speculating about the lyrical themes that would appear on The Tortured Poets Department, based in part on a physical “library installation” that opened Tuesday in Los Angeles, curated with items that drop hints and references to the inspirations behind the album.

Swift’s 2022 album Midnights, which featured the hit Anti-Hero, also leaked online ahead of its scheduled release date, and went on to win the Grammy for album of the year. Swift’s previous albums 1989, Reputation and Lover also leaked ahead of their official releases. 

The singer is in the midst of her billion-dollar-grossing Eras tour, which is moving through the U.S. and is scheduled to conclude in Vancouver in December. 

Swift was added to Forbes magazine’s annual new billionaires list earlier this month, with Forbes saying she was the first musician to become a billionaire based solely on her songs and performances. 

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