dataDp/1032.jpeg

Worldnews

Iran Hardens Stance Against IAEA And Its Chief In Wake Of US-Israel Attacks

Tehran has rejected request for Rafael Grossi to visit nuclear facilities bombed by Israel and US during conflict. Iran has taken an unequivocal stance against the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), with the country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi summarily dismissing its chief Rafael Grossi’s request to visit nuclear facilities bombed by Israel and the United States during a 12-day conflict earlier this month. “Grossi’s insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent,” said Araghchi on X on Monday. “Iran reserves the right to take any steps in defence of its interests, its people and its sovereignty.” In tandem, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that Tehran had halted cooperation with the IAEA due to what he called Grossi’s “destructive” behaviour towards Iran, his office said. “The action taken by parliament members … is a natural response to the unjustified, unconstructive, and destructive conduct of the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Pezeshkian told Macron in a phone call, according to a presidency statement. Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Tehran, said the Iranian leadership is making it clear that the IAEA is an “international body with defined responsibilities and these responsibilities are not political but technical”. But, he added, Tehran views the nuclear agency as an international body “under immense [political] pressure from Israel and the United States”. Iranian lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favour of a bill to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, citing Israel’s June 13 attack on Iran and later strikes by the US on nuclear facilities. A ceasefire between Iran and Israel took hold on June 24. Since the start of the conflict, Iranian officials have sharply criticised the IAEA not only for failing to condemn the Israeli and US strikes, but also for passing a resolution on June 12 accusing Tehran of non-compliance with its nuclear obligations, the day before Israel attacked. In the meantime, France, Germany and Britain have decried “threats” made against Grossi. “France, Germany and the United Kingdom condemn threats against the director general of the IAEA Rafael Grossi and reiterate our full support to the agency,” Foreign Ministers Jean-Noel Barrot, Johann Wadephul and David Lammy said in a joint statement. “We call on Iranian authorities to refrain from any steps to cease cooperation with the IAEA,” they added. “We urge Iran to immediately resume full cooperation in line with its legally binding obligations, and to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety and security of IAEA personnel.” While none specified which threats they were referring to, Iran’s ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper recently claimed documents showed Grossi was an Israeli spy and should be executed. Iran has insisted no threats were posed against Grossi or the agency’s inspectors. On Monday during his weekly press conference, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the Iranian parliament’s decision to halt cooperation with the IAEA reflected the “concern and anger of the Iranian public opinion”. He further criticised US and European powers for maintaining what he described as a “political approach” towards Iran’s nuclear programme. At least 935 people were killed during the recent conflict with Israel, Iran’s judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said, citing the latest forensic data. The deceased included 132 women and 38 children, Jahangir added. Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations said later on Monday they supported the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, and urged that negotiations resume for a deal to address Iran’s nuclear program, according to a joint statement. “We reaffirm that Iran can never have nuclear weapons, and urge Iran to refrain from reconstituting its unjustified enrichment activities,” the statement said. Meanwhile, a Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman has said the country is involved in efforts to reach an agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue and a guarantee against a return to escalation by all parties. Pezeshkian issued an official apology to the Qatari people in a phone call to Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani after the targeting of Al Udeid Air Base, the biggest US military base in the Middle East, he added. Follow Al Jazeera English:...

dataDp/1032.jpeg

Worldnews

Trump Formally Orders Lifting Of Syria Sanctions

US Treasury says it removed 518 Syrian individuals and entities from its list of sanctions after president’s decree. Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle a web of sanctions against Syria, a move that will likely unlock investments in the country more than six months after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad. Trump’s decree on Monday offers sanction relief to “entities critical to Syria’s development, the operation of its government, and the rebuilding of the country’s social fabric”, the US Treasury said in a statement. The Syrian government has been under heavy US financial penalties that predate the outbreak of the civil war in the country in 2011. The sprawling sanction programme, which included provisions related to the former government’s human rights abuses, has derailed reconstruction efforts in the country. It has also contributed to driving the Syrian economy under al-Assad to the verge of collapse. Trump promised sanctions relief for Syria during his visit to the Middle East in May. “The United States is committed to supporting a Syria that is stable, unified, and at peace with itself and its neighbours,” the US president said in a statement on Monday. “A united Syria that does not offer a safe haven for terrorist organisations and ensures the security of its religious and ethnic minorities will support regional security and prosperity.” The US administration said Syria-related sanctions against al-Assad and his associates, ISIL (ISIS) and Iran and its allies will remain in place. While the US Treasury said it already removed 518 Syrian individuals and entities from its list of sanctions, some Syria penalties may not be revoked immediately. For example, Trump directs US agencies to determine whether the conditions are met to remove sanctions imposed under the Caesar Act, which enabled heavy penalties against the Syrian economy for alleged war crimes against civilians. Democratic US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar had partnered with Republican lawmaker Anna Paulina Luna to introduce earlier this week a bill that would legislatively lift sanctions on Syria to offer long-term relief. Real relief for the Syrian people requires repealing certain laws. My bill with @RepLuna permanently repeals the sanctions and gives the post-Assad Syria a fighting chance. https://t.co/gExbLiKS7z — Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) June 30, 2025 As part of Trump’s order, the US president ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review the designation of interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”. Moreover, the US president ordered a review of the status of al-Sharaa’s group, al-Nusra Front – now Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – as a designated “foreign terrorist” organisation. Al-Nusra was al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, but al-Sharaa severed ties with the group in 2016. Al-Nusra later became known as Jabhat Fath al-Sham before merging with other rebel groups as HTS. Al-Sharaa was the de facto leader of a rebel enclave in Idlib in northwest Syria for years before leading the offensive that overthrew al-Assad in December 2024. Trump met with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia in May and praised the Syrian president as “attractive” and “tough”. The interim Syrian president – who was previously known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani – has promised inclusive governance to allay concerns about his past ties to al-Qaeda. But violence and kidnappings against members of al-Assad’s Alawite sect by former rebel fighters over the past months have raised concerns among some rights advocates. Al-Sharaa has also pledged that Syria would not pose a threat to its neighbours, including Israel, which has been advancing in Syrian territory beyond the occupied Golan Heights and regularly bombing the country. Follow Al Jazeera English:...

dataDp/1032.jpeg

Worldnews

Mamdanis New York Victory Sparks Islamophobic Backlash In US

Advocates say attacks targeting mayoral candidate’s Muslim identity show Islamophobia remains tolerated in US politics. For years, Muslim New Yorkers have gathered at Washington Square Park on the Eid holidays for prayer services, putting the city’s religious and ethnic diversity on display. But this year, right-wing influencers have been sharing footage of the gatherings, presenting them as a nefarious “invasion” tied to Muslim American New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. “The fear-mongering is insane,” said Asad Dandia, a local historian and Muslim American activist who supports Mamdani’s campaign. “I think the community and our leadership know that we’re on the radar now.” Muslim Americans in New York and across the United States said the country is seeing a spike in Islamophobic rhetoric in response to Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primaries. Advocates said the wave of hateful comments shows that Islamophobia remains a tolerated form of bigotry in the US despite appearing to have receded in recent years. “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” Dandia said. It is not just anonymous internet users and online anti-Muslim figures attacking Mamdani and his identity. A flood of politicians, including some in the orbit of President Donald Trump, have joined in. Congressman Randy Fine went as far as to suggest without evidence that Mamdani will install a “caliphate” in New York City if elected while Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a cartoon of the Statue of Liberty in a burqa on X. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn attacked the mayoral candidate, arguing that Islam is a political ideology and “not a religion”. Others, like conservative activist Charlie Kirk invoked the 9/11 attacks and called Mamdani a “Muslim Maoist” while right-wing commentator Angie Wong told CNN that people in New York are “concerned about their safety, living here with a Muslim mayor”. Far-right activist Laura Loomer, a Trump confidant, referred to the mayoral candidate as a “jihadist Muslim”, baselessly alleging that he has ties to both Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. And Republican Representative Andy Ogles sent a letter to the Department of Justice, calling for Mamdani’s citizenship to be revoked and for him to be deported. On Sunday, Congressman Brandon Gill posted a video of Mamdani eating biryani with his hand and called on him “to go back to the Third World”, saying that “civilized people” in the US “don’t eat like this”. “I’m getting flashbacks from after 9/11,” New York City Council member Shahana Hanif said. “I was a kid then, and still the bigotry and Islamophobia were horrifying as a child.” Hanif, who represents a district in Brooklyn, comfortably won re-election last week in a race that focused on her advocacy for Palestinian rights and calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. She told Al Jazeera that the anti-Muslim rhetoric in response to Mamdani’s win aims to distract and derail the progressive energy that defeated the establishment to secure the Democratic nomination for him. Hanif said Islamophobic comments should be condemned across the political spectrum, stressing that there is “so much more work to do” to undo racism in the US. While several Democrats have denounced the campaign against Mamdani, leading figures in the party – including many in New York – have not released formal statements on the issue. “We should all be disgusted by the flood of anti-Muslim remarks spewed in the aftermath of Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the NYC mayoral primary – some blatant, others latent,” US Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement. “Shame on the members of Congress who have engaged in such bigotry and anyone who doesn’t challenge it.” Our joint statement on the vile, anti-Muslim, racist attacks on Zohran Mamdani: pic.twitter.com/QRGOvh0jdG — Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) June 27, 2025 At the same time, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who represents New York, has been accused of fuelling bigotry against Mamdani. Last week, she falsely accused Mamdani of making “references to global jihad”. Her office later told US media outlets that she “misspoke” and was raising concerns over Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the phrase “globalise the intifada”, a call for activism using the Arabic word for uprising. Critics of the chant claimed that it makes Jews feel unsafe because it invokes the Palestinian uprisings of the late 1980s and early 2000s, which saw both peaceful opposition and armed struggle against the Israeli occupation. While Mamdani, who is of South Asian descent, focused his campaign on making New York affordable, his support for Palestinian rights took centre stage in the criticism against him. Since the election, the attacks – particularly on the right – appear to have shifted to his Muslim identity. That backlash comes after Trump and his allies courted Muslim voters during his bid for the presidency last year. In fact, the US president has nominated two Muslim mayors from Michigan as ambassadors to Tunisia and Kuwait. In the lead-up to the elections, Trump called Muslim Americans “smart” and “good people”. The Republican Party seemed to tone down the anti-Muslim language as it sought the socially conservative community’s votes. But Corey Saylor, research and advocacy director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Islamophobia goes in cycles. “Islamophobia is sort of baked into American society,” Saylor told Al Jazeera. “It wasn’t front and centre, but all it required was something to flip the switch right back on, and I would say, we’re seeing that once again.” Negative portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in the US media, pop culture and political discourse have persisted for decades. That trend intensified after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 by al-Qaeda. In subsequent years, right-wing activists started to warn about what they said were plans to implement Islamic religious law in the West. Muslims were also the subjects of conspiracy theories warning against the “Islamisation” of the US through immigration. The early 2000s saw the rise of provocateurs, “counterterrorism experts” and think tanks dedicated to bashing Islam and drumming up fear against the religion in a loosely connected network that community advocates have described as an “industry”. That atmosphere regularly seeped into mainstream political conversations. For example, then-candidate Trump called in 2015 for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”. Even in liberal New York, where the 9/11 attacks killed more than 2,600 people at the World Trade Center in 2001, the Muslim community endured a backlash. After the attacks, the New York Police Department established a network of undercover informants to surveil the Muslim community’s mosques, businesses and student associations. The programme was disbanded in 2014, and a few years later, the city reached a legal settlement with the Muslim community, agreeing to implement stronger oversight on police investigations to prevent abuse. In 2010, the city’s Muslim community burst into the national spotlight again after plans for a Muslim community centre in lower Manhattan faced intense opposition due to its proximity to the destroyed World Trade Center. While many Republicans whipped up conspiracy theories against the community centre, several Democrats as well as the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent pro-Israel group, joined them in opposing the project, which was eventually scrapped. Now New York Muslims find themselves once again in the eye of an Islamophobia storm. This time, however, advocates said their communities are more resilient than ever. “We feel more confident in our community’s voice and our institutional power and in the support that we will have from allies,” Dandia said. “Yes, we’re dealing with this Islamophobic backlash, but I don’t want to make it seem like we’re just victims because we are able to now fight back. The fact that this was the largest Muslim voter mobilisation in American history is a testament to that.” Hanif echoed his comments. “Over the last 25 years, we’ve built a strong coalition that includes our Jewish communities, that includes Asian, Latino, Black communities, to be able to say like we are above this and we will care for one another,” she told Al Jazeera. Follow Al Jazeera English:...

dataDp/9958.jpeg

P7as2

Kareena Kapoor Khan Breaks Silence On Saifs Stabbing: Still Struggling To Feel Safe

In a rare and emotionally raw interview, Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor Khan opened up for the first time about the terrifying stabbing incident involving her husband, Saif Ali Khan. The shocking home intruder incident took place in February 2025, leaving Saif badly injured and the entire family traumatized. In a conversation with journalist Barkha Dutt on Mojo Story, Kareena discussed the trauma, the guts needed to beat it, and the learnings the family has gained in the wake of the incident. What was meant to be a typical evening was turned into a nightmare when the Ali Khan house was burgled by an intruder. The man tried to steal things of value, but Saif caught him, and there was a brutal fight that left the actor seriously hurt. The incident, which happened at home in Mumbai, shocked not only the fraternity but the whole nation. Kareena remembered the terrifying experience, particularly the emotional cost of realizing that the intruder went into the children’s room. “I am still kind of struggling with what it does to see someone there in your child’s room,” she confessed, explaining the inner conflict she is still waging. “In Mumbai, you never really hear about such incidents. We’ve always seen this kind of news in the US, but not here. It shook our sense of safety.” The days and weeks that came after the accident were distressingly disturbing for Kareena. She shared how hard it was to return to any sense of normalcy. “For the first couple of months, it was difficult to sleep. It was difficult to pretend everything was okay. I was very anxious, and I hadn’t come to terms with what had happened,” she said. Kareena compared the emotional aftermath to grief. “It’s like losing someone. That memory never really leaves you; it just fades over time. You don’t really get over it; you just learn to live with it.” Despite the personal trauma, Kareena emphasized that her priority was shielding her sons, Taimur and Jeh, from the lingering fear. “As a mother, I can’t let my anxiety transfer to my children. That’s not fair to them. It’s a tough balance being a strong wife and a protective mother at the same time.” Though Saif suffered physically, Kareena says his mental strength was unwavering. She described him as the “Iron Man” of their family, a pillar of calm and resilience through a truly frightening ordeal. “Saif never let us spiral into fear. He kept telling us, ‘We will move forward.’ That gave me strength,” Kareena shared. She revealed that their younger son, Jeh, now thinks of his father as a real-life superhero “like Batman or Iron Man.” She said this incident, although traumatic, also served as a powerful life lesson for their children. “It shattered the protective bubble they were living in, but maybe that’s not entirely a bad thing. Life isn’t ever a fairy tale, and I believe that this has provided them with a more realistic view of the world.” As she handled the trauma within her home, Kareena also experienced a storm of online criticism. Social media users questioned her absence during the incident, making unfair assumptions about her priorities. Speaking about the criticism, Kareena expressed her disappointment rather than anger. “It didn’t make me furious; it made me sad,” she said. “What bothered me most was that people focused on negativity instead of what really mattered. It made me question the kind of content we choose to engage with as a society.” She added that she has grown more conscious of how public narratives are shaped, especially in moments of crisis. “There’s no manual on how to deal with something like this, and yet, people are quick to judge,” she said. Even with the gloom that February introduced into their lives, Kareena highlighted that the incident united the family. She revealed that her sons have grown closer to their father, respecting his bravery and calm. And for Kareena, seeing Saif recover and lead with resilience was the light of hope. “2025 has been a tough year for us,” she acknowledged. “But we’re still standing, and we’re still together. That’s something to be grateful for.” Professionally, Kareena Kapoor Khan continues to break new ground. Her recent release, The Buckingham Murders, a psychological thriller, reveals a new facet of her as a performer. But on the personal front, this year has been one about resilience, healing, and finding out what really counts. As Kareena pointed out in her last few words during the interview, “I just thank God that we are safe. We’re learning to breathe again, slowly but surely.”