By JON GAMBRELL, DAVID RISING and SAMY MAGDY

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran named the hard-line Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his late father as supreme leader on Monday, signaling no letup in the war launched by the United States and Israel. Oil prices surged as Iran attacked regional energy infrastructure and the U.S. and Israel bombed targets across Iran.

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Iran names Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father as supreme leader and Saudi sharpens warning

With Iran’s theocracy under assault for more than a week, the country’s Assembly of Experts chose the secretive, 56-year-old cleric with close ties to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as the new supreme leader. The Guard has been firing missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ruled Iran for 37 years, was killed during the war’s opening salvo.

The appointment marked a new sign of defiance by Iran’s embattled leadership after more than a week of heavy U.S. and Israeli bombardment, suggesting that Tehran is not close to giving up on what it considers a fight for the country’s existence.

World markets plummeted following the news, and Brent crude oil, the international standard, surged to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday, about 65% higher than when the war started, before retreating.

Iran’s attacks in the Strait of Hormuz have also all but stopped tankers from using the key shipping lane through which a fifth of the world’s oil is carried. Fire broke out at an oil facility that Iran attacked in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain’s only oil refinery was apparently also hit, and Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted several drones attacking its Shaybah oil field.

In Israel, sirens blared multiple times on Monday as Iran’s drones and missiles were unrelenting. A man was killed in central Israel in a missile strike, the first such death in Israel in a week, and a woman was wounded.

Israel said it struck the Iranian city of Isfahan, hitting command centers for the Revolutionary Guard and its volunteer Basij force, as well as a rocket engine production facility and missile launch sites. There was no immediate confirmation from Iran.

Turkey meanwhile said NATO defenses had intercepted a ballistic missile that entered the country’s airspace for the second time since the start of the war.

New Iranian leader seen as even more hard-line than his father

The younger Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since the war started, was long considered a potential successor — even before the Israeli strike killed his father. His wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, was killed in the same Israeli strike that killed the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Political figures within Iran have criticized handing over the supreme leader’s title based on heredity, comparing it to the monarchy overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But top clerics in the Assembly of Experts apparently voted for continuity.

Khamenei, who is seen as even more hard-line than his late father, will now be in charge of Iran’s armed forces and any decision about Tehran’s nuclear program.

While Iran’s key nuclear sites are in tatters after the U.S. bombed them during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June, it still has highly enriched uranium that’s a technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Khamenei could choose to do what his father never did — build a nuclear bomb.

Israel has already described him as a potential target, while U.S. President Donald Trump has called him “unacceptable” and dismissed him as a “lightweight.”

Both the Revolutionary Guard and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah issued statements in support of Khamenei.

Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani, speaking to Iranian state television, praised the Assembly of Experts for “courageously” convening even as airstrikes continued in Tehran. He said the younger Khamenei had been trained by his father and “can handle this situation.”

Regional anger grows as energy infrastructure is hit and oil prices spike

Saudi Arabia lashed out at Iran following a thwarted drone attack on its massive Shaybah oil field, saying Tehran would be the “biggest loser” if it continues to attack Arab states.

In the UAE, authorities said two people were wounded by shrapnel from the interception of Iranian missiles over the capital, Abu Dhabi.

Iran also attacked Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, where it hit a residential area, wounding 32 people, including several children, according to authorities. Another attack appeared to have started a fire at Bahrain’s only oil refinery, sending thick plumes of smoke into the air.

Bahrain has also accused Iran of damaging one of its desalination plants, though its electricity and water authority said supplies remained online. Desalination plants supply water to millions of residents in the region, raising new fears of catastrophic risks in parched desert nations.

On Monday, Bahrain’s state oil company declared force majeure for its oil shipments, the state-run Bahrain News Agency reported, a legal maneuver releasing a company of its contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances. It insisted that local demand could still be met.

In Iraq, air defenses downed a drone as it attacked a U.S. military compound inside the Baghdad International Airport, a security source told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. No injuries or damage were reported. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but Iran-backed militias have previously targeted the base.

Elsewhere, the U.S. military said a service member died of injuries from an Iranian attack on troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1. Seven U.S. soldiers have now been killed.

The U.S. State Department early Monday ordered nonessential personnel and families of all staff to leave Saudi Arabia following the escalation in attacks.

Eight other U.S. diplomatic missions have ordered all but key staff to leave: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the consulates in Karachi, Pakistan, and Adana, Turkey.

Israel launches new strikes on Lebanon

Smoke billowed over Beirut after Israel carried out airstrikes on its southern suburbs Monday.

Ahead of the strikes, the Israeli army said it would operate against targets associated with the Hezbollah-linked financial institution al-Qard Al-Hasan — which Israel said finances the militant group — and repeated its warning to residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs to flee.

The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials. Another person died in Israel of an asthma attack on her way to a shelter. Israel reported its first soldier deaths on Sunday, saying two were killed in southern Lebanon, where it is fighting Hezbollah.

Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press journalists Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank; Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut; Aamer Madhani in Doral, Florida, and Qassem Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed reporting.

Driverless vehicle testing has already started in Minnesota, and, for now, it’s under the supervision of humans behind the wheel.

That could change soon.

Autonomous vehicle company Waymo began testing its computer-automated vehicles in Minneapolis in late 2025, but says it will eventually launch passenger service in the Twin Cities, as it did in ten other cities in the southern U.S.

The road to driverless cabs and other vehicles in the state goes through the Legislature — and it could be a long one. Waymo doesn’t plan to launch its service in Minnesota until the state enacts new laws to set up basic regulations.

Waymo bill

A bill sponsored by Rep. Jon Koznick, R-Lakeville, would do that by giving the Minnesota Department of Transportation power to authorize driverless vehicle companies, spelling out insurance requirements and requiring autonomous vehicles comply with state traffic laws.

Rep. Jon Koznick. R-Lakeville. (Courtesy of Jon Koznick)

Koznick said the bill was a work in progress but that it’d create a “clear and predictable framework” for driverless cars in the state. Though the existing proposal is encountering resistance from Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers and labor groups, who say it doesn’t do enough to protect road safety and jobs. Local rideshare drivers with services like Uber and Lyft have said they’re worried about competition from unmanned cabs.

“This is not about whether the technology will advance or not,” Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL–Apple Valley, said at a news conference calling for caution on automated vehicles. “It’s about how we guide those advancements so people, workers, children and families aren’t casualties in the name of progress.”

Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Senate)

Maye Quade and her House DFL colleague Rep. Samantha Sencer Mura, DFL-Minneapolis, want a driverless vehicle bill that includes a safety advisory board and an economic analysis to understand how the introduction of the new technology will affect workers like rideshare drivers and truckers. Their effort has the backing of labor groups, including the AFL-CIO and SEIU — the Service Employees International Union.

Amid those concerns, the House Transportation Committee heard the bill on Wednesday, where, for now, it remains stalled as lawmakers seek to address them. Koznick’s bill failed to move forward on a party-line vote after multiple DFL-backed amendments seeking to change regulations on autonomous vehicles didn’t pass.

Rep. Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee, who co-chairs the Transportation Committee with Koznick, said the state needed to weigh the change more carefully.

“I very much believe that there are … good, important future uses for autonomous vehicles,” he said as he called to table the bill for future discussion. “I also believe that before we go in that direction, we have to have an intermediate step, and we have to have a step in there that isn’t just going from 0 to 60.”

Gray areas

Waymo currently operates in a legal gray area in Minnesota. State law neither authorizes nor prohibits the testing of automated vehicles on Minnesota roads. For that reason, the Minnesota Department of Transportation doesn’t have any oversight specific on autonomous vehicles, according to a department spokesperson.

Presently, Waymo operates in 10 metropolitan areas in five states, including the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles in California, Houston and Austin in Texas and Phoenix, Arizona. The Twin Cities is among the more than 20 metros where Waymo has public plans to expand, and would be among the company’s first cold-weather cities.

After a winter of testing, the company is working on “refining the rider experience and logistics required for consistent service in snow,” CEO Dmitri Dolgov said in a social media post on March 3.

In a letter in support of Koznick’s bill, Minnesota Technology Association President Joel Crandall said a new regulatory framework would help the state’s technology sector by showing that new industries can “take root and grow.”

“AVs also stand to benefit employers and workers directly: reliable, modern transportation options provide access, help attract and retain talent, and can give commuters time back in their day,” he wrote.

Safety aspects of autonomous vehicles remain debated, but industry groups claim the technology could reduce road fatalities by removing human error from driving.

Costs, questions

Besides the general convenience or cost-saving potential of eliminating the need for a human driver, driverless vehicles also could prove invaluable for people with disabilities, testifiers told the committee Wednesday.

“Not driving means my wife has to run every errand, not being able to drive means I will never be able to go out on a diaper run, not be able to make that quick trip to the grocery store,” said Cole Davies, a board member with the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota. “Access to autonomous vehicles would not just make the lives of people with disabilities much better. It would make the lives of those who care for them easier.”

Despite a general atmosphere of optimism about self-driving vehicles, many groups remain skeptical about the rollout.

Labor groups like the AFL-CIO aren’t the only ones that object to the self-driving car legislation in its current form. Groups representing local governments and the trucking industry also have concerns.

The League of Minnesota Cities, which represents more than 800 local governments, opposed language in the current bill that would prevent local officials from putting restrictions on automated vehicles, such as licensing, permitting and fees.

The Minnesota Trucking Association had concerns about insurance liability on crashes involving automated vehicles and advocated for a “phased-in approach” to introducing the technology on state roads.

To that end, association president John Hausladen advocated for more safety testing and data sharing from automated-vehicle makers — especially data from challenging winter conditions.

“Minnesota is different than Phoenix,” he said. “So we better make sure it works in Detroit Lakes or International Falls.”

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The president and CEO of St. Cloud, Minn.-based Star Autism Center pleaded guilty on last week to one federal count of wire fraud, according to court documents.

Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, 28, of St. Cloud, was charged with wire fraud in connection with a scheme that started in 2020 and continued through 2024 to defraud the publicly funded Early Intensive Development and Behavioral Intervention. That program offers medically necessary services to people under the age of 21 with autism spectrum disorder and other conditions.

According to charging documents, Yussuf approached parents in the Somali community to recruit their children into Star Autism Center. When children did not have an autism diagnosis, Yussuf and his partners worked to get the recruited child qualified for autism services.

Star Autism Center then used monthly cash kickback payments to parents who enrolled their children, contingent on the services that DHS authorized a child to receive. Parents received a higher kickback dependent on the authorization amount, according to court documents.

Yussuf and his partners submitted millions of dollars worth of claims for Medicaid reimbursement, which were fraudulently inflated and billed without providers’ knowledge, and for services that weren’t provided.

Star Autism Center received more than $6 million of public funds, and Yussuf shared the proceeds with other owners and investors in the business. According to court documents, Yussuf used more than $100,000 in fraud proceeds to purchase a semi-truck and sent more than $200,000 to Kenya.

Yussuf has not yet been sentenced. Star Autism Center had its license suspended in January.

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A man died in a snowmobile crash Thursday on the Arrowhead State Trail in northern St. Louis County.

According to the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, first responders and law enforcement were dispatched at approximately 10:08 p.m. after a report of a missing snowmobiler on the trail, approximately 25 miles north of Orr. The reporting party indicated that a friend with whom he had been riding had become separated from the group.

Approximately an hour later, the lost friend was located and found dead lying near his snowmobile. The sheriff’s office said it appears he failed to navigate a 90-degree corner, resulting in a collision with a tree.

The victim is a 29-year-old man from North Branch. He was the only occupant on the snowmobile. His name has not yet been released, pending notification of his family.

The Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office and St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office are still investigating the incident.

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