SYDNEY (AP) — Defending champion and 100-foot supermaxi LawConnect led the Sydney to Hobart fleet out of Sydney harbor on Friday for the 80th running of the ocean race to the island state of Tasmania.
LawConnect’s pursuit of a third straight line honors title started well, with the crew claiming an early lead over supermaxi rival Master Lock Comanche after the cannon was fired.
It was the most overcast start to the race in recent years, with boats flying spinnakers from the starting gun to make the best of the windy conditions.
The 129-strong fleet paid tribute to the victims of the Dec. 14 terror attack by scattering rose petals off the coast of Bondi Beach as they passed the area early in the race. At the final briefing, extra rose petals were made available, with the whole fleet expected to participate.
Friday’s final weather briefing confirmed the fleet would face a strong southerly wind going down the New South Wales state coast. Crews were warned to expect a cold first night with swell between three and four meters (10 to 13 feet), with upwind conditions also increasing the chance of damage to boats.
Conditions were unlikely to be as treacherous as last year, when two sailors died in storms, but the fleet was on guard.
“I think there will be retirements, it’s tough on boats in the early part of this race,” said Celestial V70 skipper Sam Haynes, who is also commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia which organizes the race.
“The crash bang, the waves, the gear itself is going to be under stress so it is a hard race in that sense'" he added. "Also it’s hard on crews: seasickness and potentially some injuries. They can put boats out. I think there will be some retirements in these conditions.”
LawConnect, owned by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, won last year's event in 1 day, 13 hours, 35 minutes and 13 seconds for the 628-nautical mile (722 miles, 1,160 kilometers) race.
The race record set by LDV Comanche — 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes, 24 seconds — has stood since 2017 and only appears under threat in very strong downwind conditions, which are not expected this year.
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FILE - Yachts jockey for position during the start of the Sydney Hobart yacht race in Sydney, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran warned Monday it will strike electrical plants across the Middle East if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to bomb power stations in the Islamic Republic.
The threat by Tehran puts at risk both electrical supplies and water in the Gulf Arab states, particularly as the desert nations commingle their power stations with desalination plants crucial for supplying drinking water.
Following the threat, Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency published a list of such facilities, including the United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant.
Trump said the U.S. would attack Iran's power stations unless the country releases its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. His self-declared 48-hour deadline expires just before midnight GMT Tuesday, further raising the stakes of the ongoing war with Iran that has disrupted global energy supplies, sending natural gas and gasoline prices soaring.
“No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction,” said Fatih Birol, the head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
He told Australia’s National Press Club in Canberra on Monday that the crisis in the Middle East has had a worse impact on energy markets than the two oil shocks of the 1970s and the Russia-Ukraine war combined.
Israel launched new attacks Monday on the Iranian capital, saying it had “begun a wide-scale wave of strikes” on infrastructure targets in Tehran without immediately elaborating.
United States Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper claimed in an interview aired Monday that Iran was launching missiles and drones from populated areas, and suggested those areas would be targeted.
“You need to stay inside for right now,” Cooper told Iranian civilians in the interview with the Farsi-language satellite network Iran International aired early Monday.
“There will be a clear signal at some point, as the president has indicated, for you to be able to come out.”
Air defenses in the United Arab Emirates intercepted a ballistic missile near the Al Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, and one person on the ground was injured when hit with shrapnel.
Warning sirens sounded in Bahrain and Kuwait, while Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said it had intercepted a missile targeting Riyadh, and had destroyed drones over the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province.
Oil prices remained stubbornly high in early trading, with the price of Brent crude, the international standard at around $112 a barrel, up nearly 55% since Israel and the U.S. started the war on Feb. 28 by attacking Iran.
The war has also caused wild fluctuations in global stock markets as traders grow increasingly concerned about a world energy crisis and other issues.
In addition to targeting Israel and American bases, Iran has been hitting the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors.
It also has a tight grip on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which leads from the Persian Gulf toward the open ocean and through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped, along with other important commodities.
A trickle of ships has been getting through the strait and Iran insists it remains open — just not to the U.S., Israel or their allies.
Trump said in a social media post that if Tehran didn't open the strategic waterway to all ships, the United States would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Monday that if the U.S. did that, Iran would respond by hitting power plants in all areas that supply electricity to American bases, “as well as the economic, industrial and energy infrastructures in which Americans have shares.”
“Do not doubt that we will do this,” the Guard said in a statement read on Iranian state television.
The Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guard, published a list of such sites in what appeared to be a veiled threat, including desalination plants as well as the UAE’s Barakah nuclear power plant, which has four reactors out in the western deserts of the country near its border with Saudi Arabia. The judiciary’s Mizan news agency also published the list.
Iran has also said it will completely close the strait if Trump follows through with the threat to attack Iranian power plants.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf also said Iran would then consider vital infrastructure across the region — including energy and desalination facilities critical for drinking water in Gulf nations — legitimate targets.
In his first one-on-one interview since the war started, Adm. Cooper said the campaign against Iran is “ahead or on plan” and that the U.S. and Israel were targeting infrastructure and manufacturing facilities to destroy Iran’s capabilities to rebuild its military.
“It’s not just about the threat today,” he said. “We’re eliminating the threat of the future, both in terms of the drones, the missiles as well as the navy.”
He suggested Iran could bring a quick end to the war if it stopped firing back, though did not say whether that would prompt Israel and the U.S. to relent before all infrastructure targets have been destroyed.
“They could stop this war right now, absolutely, if they chose to do so,” he said of Iran. “They need to stop putting the wonderful Iranian people at risk by firing missiles and drones from inside populated areas. ... They need to stop immediately attacking civilians throughout the Middle East region.”
Iran’s death toll in the war has surpassed 1,500, its health ministry has said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. More than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states have been killed in strikes.
In Lebanon, authorities say Israeli strikes targeting Iran-linked militia Hezbollah have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 1 million. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.
Rising reported from Bangkok. AP writers Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.
Smoke and flames rise from an Israeli airstrike that hit the Qasmiyeh Bridge near the coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
A cargo ship carrying vehicles sails through the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz in the United Arab Emirates, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo)
People follow a truck carrying the flag draped coffins of Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, a spokesperson for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of his comrades Amir Hossein Bidi , during their funeral procession in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
