Retraction. Starting in June 2026, The Fold published a storyline reporting that Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was assassinated on February 28, that his son Mojtaba Khamenei was installed as his successor, and that a US-Iran war, ceasefire, and Doha diplomatic process followed — including in this article. We have found no independent, verifiable reporting supporting these specific claims. The storyline originated as an error in our automated drafting process: an early chapter generated these details without a real source, and later chapters treated the invented premise as established fact instead of catching the error. We do not have independent knowledge of Mr. Khamenei's actual status and are not asserting an alternative account — we are withdrawing our own reporting because we cannot stand behind it. See our corrections log.