In a video address to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Abbas Araghchi slammed the “calculated, phased assault” on an elementary school “in the city of Minab, south of Iran, where more than 175 students and teachers were slaughtered in cold blood”.

The attack happened on February 28, the day the United States and Israel launched the war with attacks across Iran, with Tehran in turn striking targets in Israel and Gulf nations.

A US Tomahawk cruise missile hit the school due to a targeting mistake, according to the preliminary findings of a US military investigation reported by The New York Times.

The Times said the US military was bombing an adjacent Iranian base of which the school building was formerly a part and target coordinates were set using outdated data.

President Donald Trump intially suggested that Iran itself may have been responsible — despite Iran not having Tomahawk missiles.

Speaking during an urgent council debate focused on the February 28 strike, Araghchi stressed that “at a time when the American-Israeli aggressors, in their own assertions, possess the most advanced technologies, and the highest-precision military and data systems, no one can believe that the attack on the school was anything other than deliberate and intentional”.

The strike, he said, “was a war crime and a crime against humanity, one that demands unequivocal condemnation by all and unambiguous accountability for the culprits”

“This atrocity cannot be justified, cannot be concealed, and must not be met with silence and indifference,” the minister said.

The attack, he insisted, “was not a mere ‘incident’ nor a ‘miscalculation’.”

“The United States’ contradictory remarks aimed at justifying their crime could not, in any manner, elude their responsibility,” he said.

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America draws closer, football’s ultimate evergreen superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, is set to etch his name among the oldest players ever to grace the tournament, continuing a legacy of age-defying performances that have defined the competition’s rich history.

Ronaldo, who turned 41 on 5 February 2026, has repeatedly confirmed that this summer’s tournament will be his sixth and final World Cup appearance. The Portugal captain, still playing club football for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, has made it clear he intends to lead his nation one last time on the global stage.

Here are  some of the world’s oldest players in World Cup history who have graced the global showpiece:

Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, Forward) — 41 years (2026)

Essam El Hadary (Egypt, Goalkeeper) — 45 years (2018 vs Saudi Arabia)

Faryd Mondragón (Colombia, Goalkeeper) — 43 years (2014 vs Japan)

Roger Milla (Cameroon, Forward) — 42 years (1994 vs Russia)

Pat Jennings (Northern Ireland, Goalkeeper) — 41 years (1986 vs Brazil)

Peter Shilton (England, Goalkeeper) — 40 years (1990 vs Italy)

Dino Zoff (Italy, Goalkeeper) — 40 years (1982 vs West Germany, final)

Ali Boumnijel (Tunisia, Goalkeeper) — 40 years (2006 vs Ukraine)

Jim Leighton (Scotland, Goalkeeper) — 39 years (1998 vs Morocco)

Ronaldo’s participation in the 2026 World Cup will not only underline his extraordinary longevity at the top of the game but also place him among an elite group of players whose careers have spanned multiple decades and multiple tournaments.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday it was reintroducing testing for gender to determine eligibility to compete in the female category, preventing transgender women from competing.

The screening will mean Olympic women’s sports at the 2028 Los Angeles Games will be limited to biological females, which would also rule out those with differences in sexual development (DSD) from competing.

The IOC is abandoning rules it brought in in 2021, which allowed individual federations to decide their own policy and implement a policy across all sports.

“Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females, determined on the basis of a one‑time SRY gene screening,” the IOC said in a statement.

The test will be carried out through a saliva sample, cheek swab or blood sample.

IOC president Kirsty Coventry said: “The policy we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts.

“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat.

“So it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.”

The IOC is bringing in the new policy after the women’s boxing competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics was rocked by a gender row involving Algerian fighter Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan.

Khelif and Lin were excluded from the International Boxing Association’s 2023 world championships after the IBA said they had failed eligibility tests.

However, the IOC allowed them both to compete at the Paris Games, saying they had been victims of “a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA”.

Both boxers went on to win gold medals.

Lin has since been cleared to compete in the female category at events run by World Boxing, the body that will oversee the sport at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Gender testing was first introduced at the 1968 Olympics and last used at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, but then scrapped after criticism from the scientific community