The prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday after weeks of deadly anti-government demonstrations gripped the South Asian nation.

The announcement from Army Chief Waker-uz-Zaman came after protesters stormed the official residence of the prime minister in the capital, Dhaka.

Images showed flames billowing from vehicles near Hasina’s house, with police unable to contain throngs of people charging towards the neighborhood.

At least 91 people have been killed in Bangladesh since mid-July, according to Reuters, during violent confrontations between police and protesters demanding the scrapping of quotas for government jobs.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Middle Eastern nations are bracing for the potential widening of the Israel-Hamas war amid threats by Iran to avenge the killing of Hamas’ political leader in Tehran last week.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to retaliate against Israel for the assassination of the head of Hamas’ political bureau Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday. The country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has warned that “blood vengeance” for the killing is “certain.”

Both Tehran and Hamas blame Israel for the killing but Israel hasn’t confirmed or denied involvement.

Hundreds of Lebanese prepared to flee the country as nations called on their citizens to leave Lebanon. The US embassy in Beirut on Saturday encouraged citizens who wish to depart “to book any ticket” as several airlines suspended or canceled flights to the country. In Israel, the government evaluated its preparedness and options should Iran and its regional proxies attack, while citizens stocked up on supplies in anticipation of an Iranian assault.

This week’s events could determine the course of the war in Gaza and significantly shift the focus away from the besieged enclave if retaliation by Iran escalates into a wider regional conflict involving the United States and other nations. Such escalation could also jeopardize efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and release hostages, despite recent progress in negotiations.

Iran and Israel exchanged direct fire for the first time in April after a decades-long shadow war during which the two sides avoided striking each other’s territory. Iran launched 300 projectiles at Israel on April 13, accusing it of attacking its diplomatic building in Syria earlier that month. Israel responded with a limited strike on Iran. While the unprecedented exchange was contained at the time, another round of fighting may be harder to keep from escalating.

The US has boosted its preparedness to defend Israel in case of another Iranian attack. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discussed comprehensive security strategies to protect Israel, according to a statement on Monday. The discussions included detailed scenarios outlining both defensive and offensive capabilities. And Michael Kurilla, the commander of US Central Command, is in the Middle East, according to a US defense official, who would not say what country Kurilla was in or whatever other countries he would be visiting.

In a last-ditch effort at diplomacy, regional countries have reached out to Iran to try to calm tensions. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi flew to Tehran on Sunday, a rare trip for a top official from the US-allied monarchy. Separately, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatti called Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani to discuss the “unprecedented and very dangerous” regional escalation, according to the Egyptian foreign ministry.

‘A major mistake’

But Iranian officials are not relenting. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Safadi that Haniyeh’s assassination was a “major mistake by the Zionist regime (Israel) that will not go unanswered,” according to Iranian state TV. In a weekly news conference in Tehran, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday that the country is determined to deter Israel and that “no one should doubt” its resolve in doing so.

Israel could also face an attack from its northern front. Israel assassinated Fu’ad Shukr, a high-ranking Hezbollah commander, last week in response to the killing of 12 children with a rocket on the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Shukr’s killing “crossed red lines” and will be met with an “inevitable” response, hinting at coordination with other regional groups.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran “and its minions” on Sunday that his country was determined to “stand against them on every front and in every arena –  far and near.”

“Anyone who harms us will pay a very heavy price,” Netanyahu said during a speech in Jerusalem. He reiterated his assertion that increasing military pressure on Hamas was the only way to achieve the goals of the war in Gaza and bring the hostages home.

Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for failure to reach a deal.

Anti-government rallies took place in several cities across Israel on Saturday, demanding a deal to secure the release of all hostages held in Gaza despite regional security threats.

Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said he instructed an Israeli delegation to leave for Cairo on Saturday to continue negotiations for a ceasefire and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

He said Israel had an “ironclad commitment” to return all hostages, adding that he’s “ready to go a long way” to win the release of all hostages while maintaining Israel’s security.

Israel was considering its options to prepare for a regional attack over the weekend. The government “is reviewing possible actions that would exact a price in the case of attempts by Iran and its proxies to attack Israel,” the Israeli defense ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Gallant said Israel was “prepared very strongly in defense – on land and in the air and we are ready to move quickly to attack or to react,” insisting on the importance of readiness for a quick transition from defense to attack.

On Thursday, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that while the country had “very good defense systems” and international partners who have reinforced their deployment in the region, Israel’s defenses were “not hermetically sealed.”

Business as usual in Beirut

Meanwhile, residents of both Israel and Lebanon are preparing for a wider conflict. Major airlines suspended flights to both countries, leaving some Israeli travelers stranded abroad, and residents of Lebanon scrambledto get on flights out of the country.

The US embassy in Beirut said that some commercial options out of the country remained available despite several airlines suspending or canceling flights, and other flights selling out.

In the summer months, Lebanon is usually packed with visitors from abroad, mainly from the Lebanese diaspora, giving the country a much-needed economic boost. Many such travelers are considering cutting their vacations short and taking the first flight back home.

But even as the specter of war looms over the country, many are operating normally. Along Beirut’s seafront on Sunday, Arabic pop music blared through speakers as groups of men, beers in hand, sunbathed. Behind them, younger men practiced their diving skills in the Mediterranean Sea as children in floaties swam in the rocky sea.

Samer Othman, 51, said he doesn’t think the region is on the brink of an expanded war. “If we were to have war, it would have happened 10 months ago,” he said, referring to October, when Hezbollah launched cross border attacks on Israel after Israel launched a devastating assault on Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7 attack during which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.

Walking shirtless on the corniche with his elderly father, Othman said a lifetime under multiple wars had strengthened him and his countrymen. “The country is used to problems and shocks. We can’t live in fear. Fear can only prevent you from living but it won’t prevent death.”

Others, however, were more jittery about the situation. A family was posing for pictures by the rooftop pool of a luxury Beirut hotel when two sonic booms sent them running for cover. They returned to the pool without the children when it turned out there was no airstrike. Israeli jets violating Lebanese airspace often break the sound barrier.

The country braces for war in its own way and tends to pick up after itself. Hours after Hezbollah supporters held a funeral procession for Shukr, the Hezbollah commander, Beirut’s skyline was lit with colorful fireworks coinciding with a concert on the other side of town.

On Sunday, thousands marched to Beirut port to mark four years since an explosion ripped through the city, killing more than 200 people. To this day, no one has been brought to justice. And with the prospect of war on the horizon, many say they don’t have confidence in their leaders or a choice in what comes next.

“This is not a leadership. It’s an existence-ship (sic). This is a situation that we have to live with unfortunately,” Liz Nicholas, 31, said, lowering the placard she’s holding at the march. “They don’t represent me. I don’t think of them as my government or my leadership. They just exist. And for some reason we have to be ok with it or live outside the country like most of us are doing.”

Israelis stock up on essentials

The Jerusalem municipality last week issued instructions on what to do in the event that the city comes under attack, distributing a file with a list of parking lots that will be used as shelters, and a list of bomb shelters. It said residents must be able to reach bomb shelters in 90 seconds. “Residents are advised to clean and prepare their bomb shelters in advance,” the file said.

Residents were advised to stock enough water and food for three days and to buy batteries and flashlights in addition to medications.

Several Israeli agencies and services have stepped up readiness. The emergency services  Magen David Adom said it was prepared for every scenario after a three-day exercise “aimed at preparing for a potential war in the north and blackout scenarios. The exercise involved handling casualty events and “teams practiced a ‘blackout scenario’ with a focus on using satellite communication tools.”

Despite the preparations, many Israelis are continuing with their daily business.

In Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Circus square, Rony Be’er, 75, walked with his friend, Ivana Reiser, 73, on Monday.

“They could hit us any minute now,” Be’er said. Asked what they are doing to prepare for a potential attack, he said: “We don’t do anything. We just walk.”

Baer and Reiser say that, like many Israelis, they have ready-made shelters at home used in other conflicts. Many of Israeli apartment buildings have built-in “safe rooms,” reinforced with concrete as thick as two feet, as well as heavy steel doors.

All Israeli buildings erected after 1993 are required to have bomb shelters. Cinemas, libraries and malls are also equipped with bomb shelters. Some remain closed but open automatically when sirens go off.

Theater students Roy Dror, 23, and Ron Heckmann, 26, say they’re not doing much to prepare for an attack, but know exactly where the shelters are should the sirens sound.

Heckmann, who grew up in the northern Israeli town of Nahariyah on the border with Lebanon, said he and his family “used to suffer a lot of bombs.” Compared to the north, he said, Tel Aviv feels safe.

Far-right riots swept Britain over the weekend, with outbreaks of anti-immigrant violence in a number of cities and towns, leaving the new UK government scrambling to control the worst disorder in more than a decade.

Crowds of far-right agitators set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers, leaving those inside trapped and terrified, while throngs of rioters in other cities damaged public buildings and clashed with police, throwing objects at officers and smashing their vehicles.

Protests first broke out late last month, after an anti-immigrant misinformation campaign stoked outrage over a stabbing attack that left three children dead in Southport, northern England.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer chaired his first COBRA session on Monday morning – an emergency meeting of national agencies and branches of government – to discuss the response to the disorder. “This is not protest,” he said on Sunday, adding: “It is organized, violent thuggery and it has no place on our streets, or online.”

The riots are the first crisis for Starmer, who became Britain’s leader a month ago after his Labour Party unseated the Conservatives in a general election. His next steps will be closely watched by lawmakers and the public.

Here’s what we know about the violence, and what may come next.

What happened on Britain’s streets?

Throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday, violent protesters congregated in city and town centers across the UK, many of them apparently intent on clashing with police and causing havoc.

The gatherings ostensibly started as anti-immigration marches, organized on social media platforms like X and on WhatsApp and Telegram groups. They quickly turned disorderly and violent.

Protesters set ablaze two Holiday Inn hotels, in the town of Rotherham, northern England, and in Tamworth, in the Midlands, central England, that were believed to be housing asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their claims.

The Rotherham hotel at the time was “full of terrified residents and staff,” according to a statement by South Yorkshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield.

In Tamworth, rioters threw projectiles, smashed windows and started fires, injuring one police officer, according to local authorities. In Rotherham, they threw wooden planks, used fire extinguishers against officers, set fire to objects near the hotel, and smashed windows to gain entry to the building, police said.

Violence also took place in Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Stoke-on-Trent and several more cities, mostly across the Midlands and north of England. The Home Office said Sunday that mosques in the United Kingdom were being offered “greater protection with new emergency security.”

In all, more than 370 people were arrested following the weekend’s violence and the number was expected to rise “as forces continue to identify those involved and continue to apprehend those responsible,” the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), the UK’s national law enforcement body, said.

Many more suspects have yet to be identified, and authorities have pledged to use facial recognition and other technologies to track them down.

“People in this country have a right to be safe and yet, we’ve seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric,” Starmer said at Downing Street.

“So no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: Far-right thuggery,” he added.

What caused the unrest?

The violence was most immediately triggered by the stabbing of a number of children in Southport, northwest England, earlier in the week – a rare and shocking incident that left three young girls dead and the country reeling.

The far-right seized on and spread a wave of disinformation about that incident, including false claims the suspected attacker was an immigrant, to mobilize anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant protests. Police say the suspect was born in Britain.

But anti-migrant rhetoric has become increasingly widespread in Britain in recent years, with critics saying that trend has emboldened far-right sympathizers and contributed to scenes like those seen over the weekend.

Last month’s general election saw Reform UK, a populist right-wing group running on a confrontational anti-migration platform, pick up the third-most votes of any party, after a campaign in which the topic of immigration featured heavily.

Nigel Farage, the leader of the party, condemned the violent riots on Monday, but added “deeper long-term problems remain,” criticizing what he deemed the “soft” policing of previous anti-racism riots and the “fracturing of our communities as a result of mass, uncontrolled migration.”

Some lawmakers in the Conservative Party, which shifted its rhetoric and policy towards the right over its 14 years in power, particularly on issues of migration, hit back at qualifications like those made by Farage.

In a thinly veiled swipe at Farage and other Reform Members of Parliament (MPs), former hardline Conservative Home Secretary Priti Patel wrote: “Violence and thuggery is always unacceptable. There is no qualification or exception. And politicians on all sides must be willing to stand up and say so.”

And Diane Abbott, Britain’s first female Black MP and the longest-serving woman in the House of Commons, wrote Monday: “Nigel Farage must be happy this morning. Anti-immigrant marches up and down the country and black and brown people living in fear.” A spokesperson for Farage declined to comment.

Criticism of social media companies

The locations and times for the riots were shared days in advance across social media and on messaging services like WhatsApp and Telegram, causing social media companies to be dragged into Britain’s national conversation about how to tackle the violence.

In particular, Elon Musk’s X platform has been criticized by figures across the political spectrum for allowing far-right figureheads like Tommy Robinson back onto the service, where he has published a stream of posts encouraging the protests, while criticizing violent attacks.

Starmer’s decision Sunday to double-down on his message, made earlier in the week, that the protesters were “far-right thugs” was pointed; that initial declaration was criticized by right-wing accounts online, leading to the circulation of the hashtag #FarRightThugsUnite on X.

Musk himself wrote on X over the weekend that “civil war is inevitable,” in response to a post on the platform that blamed the riots on “mass migration and open borders.”

On Monday, the prime minister’s spokesperson told reporters “there’s no justification for comments like that,” adding that Starmer “wouldn’t share those sentiments.”

Starmer faces first crisis

The last time Britain faced social unrest on this scale was in 2011, when a fatal police shooting of a Black British man in north London led to protests that turned into days of riots in the capital.

The man in charge of bringing those offenders to justice was Keir Starmer, then Britain’s Director of Public Prosecutions. And Starmer faces a similar crisis just one month into his premiership.

Starmer ordered courts to open 24 hours to process rioters and looters swiftly in 2011, and the following year credited this speed of processing cases for playing “some small part in bringing the situation back under control.” He has responded similarly now, using governmental powers to allow courts to sit for longer.

But Starmer also faces unique challenges in 2024, after a decade in which Britain’s public services have complained of underfunding and have been brought close to gridlock.

Fewer than 1,500 spaces were available across prisons in England and Wales as of Friday, the British Ministry of Justice reported on August 2, ahead of a weekend in which hundreds of people were arrested. In July, the UK’s Secretary of State for Justice said that British prisons were “on the point of collapse,” routinely operating at 99% capacity since the start of 2023.

The crisis has abruptly ended Starmer’s post-election honeymoon and caused MPs from across the political spectrum to urge him to recall Parliament, which is in its summer recess, for a debate about the riots. Starmer’s spokesperson said the government is focusing on responding to the riots.

Parliament has been recalled six times in the past decade, according to PA Media, but just once to respond to a live crisis unrelated to the Covid-19 pandemic – the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in 2021.