Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev announced that Ben-Gurion Airport will reopen on Thursday for limited incoming flights to help bring citizens stranded abroad back home, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Earlier today, Jordan said it would be opening its airspace. But major airspace closures and restrictions remain in place across the Middle East, with tens of thousands of passengers stranded.
The clips surfaced after Iranian officials claimed to have hit the USS Abraham Lincoln with several missiles on Tuesday, the fourth day of conflict with United States and Israeli forces, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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The Abraham Lincoln and a second supercarrier, the Gerald R. Ford, are among the forces participating in airstrikes launched against Iran on Saturday.
China’s AI industry is booming, with well-funded startups believed to be closing the gap with the U.S., tech leaders say, despite export curbs imposed by Washington over national security concerns. The video highlights how realistic images produced by generative AI models are increasingly effective tools for misinformation.
State-owned China Central Television (CCTV) on Tuesday repeated a claim by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that it had struck the Abraham Lincoln with cruise missiles while it was allegedly operating in the Gulf of Oman off Iran’s southern coast, rendering it inoperable and forcing it to withdraw.
The report followed a similar Iranian claim on Monday. The U.S. Central Command denied any flattop had been hit, calling the allegation part of the “Iranian regime’s false messaging machine.”
Nevertheless, the claim spread rapidly across Chinese platforms, including Weibo and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. By Tuesday evening, it ranked among the top 10 trending topics, drawing more than 10 million views.
One AI-generated video shows missiles raining down on the Lincoln, blasting fighter jets into the sea and causing the 1,092-foot vessel to break apart. The creator appears to have used the likeness of a CCTV news host and added narration styled after the media outlet.
Another video, also apparently created using AI, shows explosions rippling across the deck and claims the Lincoln’s first officer was killed.
Both the CCTV report and related user-generated content have drawn mixed reactions on Chinese social media. Some netizens have expressed excitement over what they believed to be a blow to U.S. aggression against an ally, while others are skeptical that a carrier could be taken out of commission so easily.
“The internet said two [carriers] were hit, and I don’t know if it’s true or false,” one Weibo user wrote. “Iran’s failure is not good for our country. Oil prices will rise, and the dollar will dominate,” another said.
China, a longtime political partner of the Islamic Republic, has sharply criticized the U.S. and Israel for launching the strikes during indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear program, and for assassinating Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Beijing has called for an immediate halt to the fighting and urged respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Gulf states, amid Iranian retaliatory attacks targeting U.S. forces and energy infrastructure in several neighboring countries.
“This is, of course, damaging our economies. This is true for the oil prices, and this is true for the gas prices as well. So that’s the reason why we all hope that this war will come to an end as soon as possible,” Merz told reporters as he met U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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Sirens have sounded for the third time in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba, which is located across from the Israeli port city of Eilat, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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This comes a few hours after Jordan announced the reopening of its airspace to civilian aviation traffic.
North Korea will hold an election on March 15 to pick delegates for its Supreme People’s Assembly, according to KCNA state news agency, News.Az reports.
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This election is likely part of preparations for a new session of parliament to legislate policies adopted at last month’s ruling party congress.
Citizens of Iran are heavily purchasing Bitcoin (BTC) and directing it to self-custody wallets.
A 2026 report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis showed an uptick in Iran’s crypto system valuation from $7.4 billion in 2024 to $7.8 billion in 2025.
The report also highlighted that users withdrew roughly $10.3 million worth of cryptocurrencies from major Iranian exchanges to crypto wallets in the 48hours following the US-Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran. Within minutes of the hit, the country’s largest exchange, Nobitex, saw a staggering 700% spike in outflows.
This coincided with a steady uptrend in Bitcoin outflows before and after the January 8 government-imposed internet blackout.
Bitcoin becomes the financial lifeboat for Iranian citizens
Bitcoin has primarily become a financial haven for Iranians since its long-term value acts as an inflationary hedge. Iran’s native currency, the Rial, has declined 90% in value since 2018. Inflation in the country has also escalated to 40-50%, the highest recorded since World War II.
Additionally, Bitcoin in self-custodial wallets is immune to state/exchange restrictions and security vulnerabilities. In mid-2025, Nobitex suffered a $90 million hack, while Tether continues to blacklist addresses and freeze USDT funds for alleged Iranian conspirators.
Meanwhile, the nation’s central bank (CBI) has suspended rial-crypto conversions several times to prevent further devaluation of the rial. The bank has recently become more accommodating of cryptocurrencies, but on the condition of real-time user surveillance.
Another reason for the migration is the January government-imposed internet blackout, which rendered cryptocurrencies on exchanges useless. Additionally, cryptocurrencies’ digital nature makes them highly portable for those anticipating fleeing the country.
Most importantly, cryptocurrencies allow cross-border remittances despite sanctions such as the SWIFT bank line of disconnects.
Researchers now estimate that 15 million Iranians (20% of the population) are involved with or using Bitcoin, among other cryptocurrencies.
Iran joins sanctioned countries in Bitcoin adoption
Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and North Korea are sanctioned countries that are increasingly pivoting towards cryptocurrencies to bypass international trade restrictions.
Crypto firms Binance and, ironically, the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial (WLFI) are now facing Senate probes related to Iran-linked flows.
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