With the announcement of a $10million bounty on the head of Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, The United States, appears to be showing no let in its campaign in the Middle East country, where it had already killed scores of its previous leaders.

“These individuals command and direct various elements of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which plans, organizes and executes terrorism around the world,” the State Department said, to indicate Washington’s preparedness to pay $10 million reward for information about the whereabouts of Khamenei, whose father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed at the start of the campaign a fortnight ago.

The department’s Rewards for Justice Programme (RFJP) placed a bounty on 10 of Iran’s most senior remaining leaders, including Khamenei and Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and the country’s top security official, said to lead the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accused of planning, organising and executing terrorism around the world.

The RFJP has previously offered bounties for terrorists like former al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was the subject of a $10 million reward under the programme until he was removed in 2024.

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Five of the people designated on Friday are listed by their titles with no name or photograph, including “secretary of the defense council” and “the IRGC commander.”

The United States and Israel have killed many of Iran’s top leaders, including former IRGC commander Mohammad Pakpour and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader and Mojtaba’s father.

Ali Larijani, the secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, who had also appeared in a live interview with Iranian media during the march, had posted a video of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian walking in Tehran on Friday for the country’s annual Quds Day demonstrations against Israel.

Taunting U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim that Iranian leaders were hiding undergroundm, he wrote: “Mr. Hegseth, our leaders have been, and still are, among the people. But your leaders? On Epstein’s island!”

Earlier Donald Trump, U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News in an interview that aired Friday morning to underscore his belief that Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he was elevated to supreme leader, was wounded, said: “I think he’s damaged, but I think he’s probably alive in some form,”

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“Rest assured that my determination to serve you is matched to the severity of the challenges before us. Together there are no challenges we cannot overcome. The best is still to come,” were the words with which Paul Biya, President of Cameroun, gave an indication to extend his reign in the country, for a record, eight time.

This would take the 92-year old leader, who came into power in November 1982, replacing Ahmaduo Ahidjo, his predecessor to 51 years and a year short of 100 years in age by the time his seven-year term would end, should he succeed in the current bid.

Though the oldest President in the world by age, Biya, who is the second longest President in the only to Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, who has been in power since he came in through a coup in 1979, confirmed that he would be on the ballot on Sunday, saying he had accepted his party’s nomination.

In the announcement made on his official X handle, and Facebook account in French and English, he wrote: “I’m running for the presidential election on October 12, 2025.”

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As the nonagenarian battles with both age and ill-health, giving rise to frequent speculations, one of which came with his disappearance from public view for 42 days, last year, was replaced by another speculation of a coup, last month, which turned out to be a ruse.

Members of the governing Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) and other supporters have since last year publicly called for Biya to seek another term.

But opposition parties and some civil society groups argue his long rule has stifled economic and democratic development, with two former allies quiting the governing coalition and announcing plans to separately run in the election.

“President Biya’s announcement to run again is a clear sign of Cameroon’s stalled political transition. After over 40 years in power, what the country needs is renewal – not repetition. Cameroonians deserve democratic change and accountable leadership,” Nkongho Felix Agbor, a human rights advocate and lawyer, told The Associated Press news agency.

Sunday’s announcement is sure to revive debate over Biya’s fitness for office. He seldom makes public appearances, often delegating responsibilities to the powerful chief of staff of the president’s office.

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To underscore the situation in the Central African country, the government during his disappearance last year, had banned any comments on his whereabouts and state of health, which they claimed was a security matter and arrested those who flouted the order.

His long reign continued after he scrapped term limits in 2008, clearing the way for him to run indefinitely, winning his latest election in 2018 with 71.28 percent of the vote, though opposition parties alleged widespread irregularities.

The cocoa- and oil-producing Central African nation, which has had just two presidents since independence from France and the United Kingdom in the early 1960s, is likely to face a messy succession crisis if Biya were to become too ill to remain in office or die.

Besides Biya, several opposition figures have also declared their intention to run, including 2018 runner-up Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, Joshua Osih of the Social Democratic Front, lawyer Akere Muna and Cabral Libii of the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation.

Under Biya, Cameroon has faced economic challenges and insecurity on several fronts, including a drawn-out separatist conflict in its English-speaking regions and ongoing incursions from the Boko Haram armed group in the north.

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Donald Trump, President of the United States, on Monday, gave an indication that his patience is running out on Russia with regards to the continued war with Ukraine, a crisis he had boasted he would solve in one day during his campaign to return to the White House, but has not been able to, more than one year into office.

Attempts at a resolution through various interventions of the US government under him, had hit the rocks, with leaders on both sides holding on to their individual positions over the war that is now in its third year after Russia invaded the country in February 2022.

Against this backdrop, Trump, has now told Kremlin to resolve the war within 50 days or face massive new economic sanctions as he laid out plans for new infusions of weaponry for Kyiv, reports say, quoting him as stating: “We’re very, very unhappy.”

The POTUS, on the heels of a meeting with Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO, at the White House, on Monday, told reporters: “We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 percent. They will be secondary tariffs that target Russia’s remaining trade partners.

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Trump and Rutte also unveiled a deal under which the NATO military alliance would buy arms from the United States — including Patriot anti-missile batteries — and then distribute them to Ukraine to help it battle Russia’s invasion.

“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment is going to be purchased from the United States, going to NATO… and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield,” Trump said.

Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister, said Ukraine would get “massive numbers” of weapons under the deal.

Trump launched a bid at rapprochement with Putin shortly after starting his second term in January, as he sought to honor his election campaign promise to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours.

His pivot towards Putin sparked fears in Kyiv that he was about to sell out Ukraine, especially after Trump and his team berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in February.

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But Trump has shown growing anger and frustration with Putin in recent weeks as the Russian leader, instead of halting his three-year invasion, instead stepped up attacks.

Trump added of Putin on Monday: “I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy.”

Last week, Trump had teased an announcement on Monday on Russia. He then announced on Sunday that he would send vital Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine to help it fend off escalating barrages of Russian attacks at a time Washington recanted on a move earlier this month that it would pause some arms deliveries to Kyiv.

The hardline talks from the POTUS, is coming on the heels of Moscow’s increased waves of drone and missile strikes over the past few weeks, with the number of Ukrainian civilians killed or wounded in June hitting a three-year high, according to UN figures.

Monday’s announcement came as Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy arrived in Kyiv to meet Zelensky, a meeting the Ukrainian President hailed as productive and geared towards “strengthening Ukraine’s air defense, joint production, and procurement of defense weapons in collaboration with Europe.”

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The Ukrainian leader also said he was “grateful to President Trump for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries.”

Russian forces meanwhile said on Monday they had captured new territory in eastern Ukraine with the seizure of two villages, one in the Donetsk region and another in the Zaporizhzhia region, amid reports of of forces also killing at least three civilians in the eastern Kharkiv and Sumy regions on Monday.

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