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Nine people from one extended family were killed at the Swat River, while others died in rain-related incidents elsewhere.

Flash floods have killed at least nine people in northern Pakistan after pre-monsoon rains swept away dozens of individuals.

District administrator Shehzad Mahboob said on Friday that the nine people who were killed were from one extended family of 16 who were visiting the area and having a picnic breakfast by the Swat River, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Mahboob explained that children from the family were in the water taking photos when the flood occurred, relatives rushed in to save them, but were trapped in the deluge, which was exacerbated by the monsoon rains.

Nine bodies had been recovered, with four members of the family still missing, while another four were rescued, Mahboob said.

Earlier on Friday, Shah Fahad, a spokesperson for the provincial emergency service, said nearly 100 rescuers in various groups rescued 58 people and were looking for the tourists who had been swept away.

Fahad called on the public to strictly adhere to earlier government warnings about a possible flash flood in the Swat River, a popular destination for tourists in the summer and winter.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “expressed his grief over the tourists’ deaths”, a statement from his office said.

Sharif added that he had called on authorities to strengthen safety measures near rivers and streams.

Meanwhile, according to rescue officials, at least 10 people were killed in rain-related incidents in eastern Punjab and southern Sindh provinces over the past 24 hours.

Since the beginning of the week, heavy rains have battered parts of Pakistan, including blocking highways and damaging homes.

According to weather forecasters, rains are expected to continue this week as the country’s annual monsoon season, which runs from July through September, begins.

However, weather forecasters are predicting less rain to fall in Pakistan during the monsoon season this year compared with 2022, when the intense rainfall flooded rivers, killing 1,739 people.

US president says Iranian Supreme Leader’s alleged ‘anger, hatred, disgust’ led him to drop work on sanctions relief.

President Donald Trump has hit out at Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s claim that Iran won its recent 12-day war with Israel, also saying the United States will “absolutely” bomb the country again if it pursues nuclear weapons.

The US president launched a torrent of abuse at Iran’s Supreme Leader on his Truth Social platform on Friday, claiming he had saved Khamenei from “A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH” and accusing him of “blatantly and foolishly” lying when he claimed “victory” in the war the previous day.

In his first sortie since the Israel-Iran war ended with a ceasefire earlier this week, Khamenei had also said Iran “slapped America in the face” by launching missiles at a major US base in Qatar following US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz.

In Friday’s post, Trump said he had demanded Israel pull back from “the final knockout”.

“His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,” he said.

The question of whether US attacks destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities is moot – a leaked intelligence report contradicted Trump’s account of events, suggesting the military’s strikes had set the country back by mere months.

The US president said that Khamenei’s comments, which he described as “a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust”, had led him to drop work on “the possible removal of sanctions, and other things, which would have given a much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery”.

Future of nuclear programme

Trump’s rant against Khamenei came on the back of bellicose comments earlier that day at a White House news conference. Asked whether he would consider new air strikes if the recent attacks had not succeeded in ending Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, Trump said, “Sure, without question, absolutely.”

He said he would like inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or another respected source to be able to inspect Iran’s nuclear sites.

But Iran has approved a bill to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, a move widely seen as a direct response to the strikes.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi indicated on Friday that Tehran may reject any request by the agency for visits to Iranian nuclear sites.

“[IAEA Director General] Grossi’s insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent,” Araghchi said on X. “Iran reserves the right to take any steps in defence of its interests, its people and its sovereignty.”

Grossi said on Wednesday that ensuring the resumption of IAEA inspections was his top priority, as none had taken place since Israel began bombing on June 13.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz indicated on Friday that his country might still be on a war footing with Iran, saying he had instructed the military to prepare an enforcement plan against the country.

The plan “includes maintaining Israel’s air superiority, preventing nuclear advancement and missile production, and responses to Iran for supporting terrorist activities against Israel”, Katz said.

Katz said on Thursday that Israel had wanted to “eliminate” Khamenei and would not have required US permission to do so.

WHO chief Tedros says ‘all hypotheses must remain on the table’ after critical information not provided to investigators.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says efforts to uncover the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic are still ongoing and incomplete, as critical information has “not been provided”.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “all hypotheses must remain on the table” to determine the cause of the virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2, after an expert group investigating its origins reached an unsatisfying conclusion in its final report released on Friday.

“We continue to appeal to China and any other country that has information about the origins of COVID-19 to share that information openly, in the interests of protecting the world from future pandemics,” Tedros said.

The global pandemic, which began in 2020, killed millions worldwide, with countries enforcing lockdowns in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. With the first cases detected in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, information from the country is seen as key to preventing future pandemics.

In 2021, Tedros launched the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), a panel of 27 independent international experts.

Marietjie Venter, the group’s chair, said on Friday that most scientific data supports the hypothesis that the new coronavirus jumped to humans from animals.

But she added that after more than three years of work, SAGO was unable to get the necessary data to evaluate whether or not COVID was the result of a lab accident, despite repeated requests for detailed information made to the Chinese government.

“Therefore, this hypothesis could not be investigated or excluded,” she said, however adding, “It was deemed to be very speculative, based on political opinions and not backed up by science.”

Venter also said there was no evidence to prove that COVID had been manipulated in a lab, nor was there any indication that the virus had been spreading before December 2019 anywhere outside of China.

‘Remains inconclusive’

In 2021, a group of experts from the WHO first travelled to Wuhan to examine the origins of the virus with their Chinese counterparts.

By March of that year, their joint report found that the most likely hypothesis was from bats to humans via an intermediate animal.

They said at the time that a lab leak was “extremely unlikely”.

However, that investigation faced backlash for lacking transparency and access, and not taking the lab-leak theory seriously.

After that, SAGO was launched.

According to the SAGO report, “the weight of available evidence … suggests zoonotic [a disease spread between animals to humans] spillover … either directly from bats or through an intermediate host”.

“Until more scientific data becomes available, the origins of how SARS-CoV-2 entered human populations will remain inconclusive,” Venter said.

“Understanding the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and how it sparked a pandemic is needed to help prevent future pandemics, save lives and livelihoods, and reduce global suffering,” she added.

Tedros said it was a “moral imperative” to determine how COVID began, noting that the virus killed at least 20 million people, wiped at least $10tn from the global economy and upended the lives of billions.

Russian leader indicates longterm plan to cut military spending, as his forces vie for foothold in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk.

Russian forces have continued to hammer Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, launching a deadly attack on the industrial city of Samar for the second time in three days.

Friday’s missile attack killed five people and injured 23 others in southeastern Samar – located outside the region’s main city, Dnipro – said regional governor Sergiy Lysak in a post on Telegram.

At least four of the wounded were in severe condition and were taken to hospital, he added.

The attack followed missile strikes earlier this week on both Dnipro and Samar, which killed at least 23, as Russian forces attempted to gain a foothold in Dnipropetrovsk for the first time in over three years of war.

Officials gave no immediate details about the damage inflicted on Samar, where an attack on an unidentified infrastructure facility on Tuesday killed two people.

Moscow earlier this week claimed to have captured two more villages near the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Separately, authorities in Ukraine’s northern region of Kharkiv said Russian attacks killed one person and wounded three others.

Hundreds of kilometres to the south, in the Kherson region, authorities urged residents on Friday to prepare for extended periods without power after a Russian attack hit a key energy facility.

Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram that “Russians decided to plunge the region into darkness”.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 363 long-range drones and eight missiles overnight into Friday, claiming that air defences stopped all but four of the drones and downed six cruise missiles.

Russia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said 39 Ukrainian drones were downed in several regions overnight, including 19 over the Rostov region and 13 over the Volgograd region.

‘Find a path’ in peace talks

The continued attacks on Dnipropetrovsk came as President Vladimir Putin said that he intended to scale back military expenditure and also indicated he was ready for a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine.

The Russian president said his country was ready to reduce the military budget in the long term, owing to budgetary pressures and the increased defence spending having fuelled inflation.

Speaking to reporters in Minsk, Belarus, on Friday, he alluded to a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine, potentially in Istanbul, although the time and venue had yet to be agreed.

He acknowledged that the peace proposals from Russia and Ukraine “are two absolutely contradictory memorandums”, but added, “That’s why negotiations are being organised and conducted, in order to find a path to bringing them closer together.”

Putin added that the two sides’ negotiators were in constant contact and that Russia was ready to return the bodies of 3,000 more Ukrainian soldiers.

He also said relations between Russia and the United States were beginning to stabilise, attributing the improvement to efforts by US President Donald Trump.

“In general, thanks to President Trump, relations between Russia and the United States are beginning to level out in some ways,” said Putin.

Trump on Friday suggested progress may be on the horizon regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“We’re working on that one,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “President Putin called up and he said, I’d love to help you with Iran. I said, do me a favour: I’ll handle Iran. Help me with Russia. We got to get that one settled. And I think something’s going to happen there.”

US President Donald Trump is vowing to push ahead with his attempt to end birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court ruled that lower court judges had overstepped in blocking Trump’s executive orders nationwide.

enya’s Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen has been caught on video appearing to authorise police to shoot protesters. Murkomen made the comments after at least 16 people were killed during protests over police brutality on Wednesday.

Violence begets violence, so many religions say. Americans should know. After all, the United States – a nation founded on Indigenous genocide, African enslavement and open rebellion against an imperial power to protect its wealthiest citizens – cannot help but be violent. What’s more, violence in the US is political, and the violence the country has carried out overseas over the generations has always been connected to its imperialist ambitions and racism. From the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites on June 21 to the everyday violence in rhetoric and reality within the US, the likes of President Donald Trump continue to stoke the violent impulses of a violence‑prone nation.

The US news cycle serves as continual confirmation. In June alone, there have been several high‑profile shootings and murders. On June 14, Vance Boelter, a white male vigilante, shot and killed former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, after critically wounding State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. That same day, at a No Kings mass protest in Salt Lake City, Utah, peacekeepers with the 50501 Movement accidentally shot and killed Samoan fashion designer Arthur Folasa Ah Loo while attempting to take down Arturo Gamboa, who was allegedly armed with an AR‑15.

On June 1, the start of Pride Month, Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez allegedly shot and murdered gay Indigenous actor Jonathan Joss in San Antonio, Texas. On June 12, Secret Service agents forcibly detained and handcuffed US Senator Alex Padilla during Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s news conference in Los Angeles.

Mass shootings, white vigilante violence, police brutality, and domestic terrorism are all normal occurrences in the United States – and all are political. Yet US leaders still react with hollow platitudes that reveal an elitist and narcissistic detachment from the nation’s violent history. “Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America. God bless the great people of Minnesota…” said Governor Tim Walz after Boelter’s June 14 shootings. On X, Republican Representative Derrick Van Orden wrote: “Political violence has no place in America. I fully condemn this attack…”

Despite these weak condemnations, the US often tolerates – and sometimes celebrates – political violence. Van Orden also tweeted, “With one horrible governor that appoints political assassins to boards. Good job, stupid,” in response to Walz’s message. Senator Mike Lee referred to the incident as “Nightmare on Waltz Street” before deleting the post.

Political violence in the US is commonplace. President Trump has long fostered it – such as during a presidential debate in Philadelphia, when he falsely claimed Haitian immigrants “eat their neighbours’ pets”. This led to weeks of threats against the roughly 15,000 Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. On June 9, Trump posted on Truth Social: “IF THEY SPIT, WE WILL HIT… harder than they have ever been hit before.”

That led to a federally-sanctioned wave of violence against protesters in Los Angeles attempting to end Trump’s immigration crackdowns, including Trump’s takeover and deployment of California’s National Guard in the nation’s second-largest city.

But it’s not just that Trump may have a lust for political violence and is stoking such violence. The US has always been a powder keg for violence, a nation-state that cannot help itself.

Political violence against elected officials in the US is too extensive to list fully. Assassins murdered Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James A Garfield, William McKinley, and John F Kennedy. In 1804, Vice‑President Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Populist candidate Huey Long was assassinated in 1935; Robert F Kennedy in 1968; Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was wounded in 2011.

Many assassins and vigilantes have targeted those fighting for social justice: Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, Marsha P. Johnson, and civil‑rights activists like Medgar Evers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Viola Liuzzo, and Fred Hampton. Jonathan Joss and Arthur Folasa Ah Loo are more recent examples of marginalised people struck down in a white‑supremacist society.

The most chilling truth of all is that, because of the violent nature of the US, there is no end in sight – domestically or overseas. The recent US bomb mission over Iran is merely the latest unprovoked preemptive attack the superpower has conducted on another nation. Trump’s unilateral use of military force was done, presumably, in support of Israel’s attacks on Iran, allegedly because of the threat Iran poses if it ever arms itself with nuclear weapons. But these are mere excuses that could also be violations of international law.

It wouldn’t be the first time the US has sought to start a war based on questionable intelligence or reasons, however. The most recent example, of course, is the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, a part of George W Bush’s “preemptive war” doctrine, attacking Iraq because they supposedly had a stockpile of WMDs that they could use against the US in the future. There was never any evidence of any stockpile of chemical or biological weapons. As many as 2.4 million Iraqis have died from the resulting violence, statelessness, and civil war that the initial 2003 US invasion created. It has not gone unnoticed that the US mostly bombs and invades nation-states with majority people of colour and non-Christian populations.

Malcolm X said it best, a week after Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F Kennedy in 1963: “Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they’ve always made me glad.” Given that Americans consume nine billion chickens a year, that is a huge amount of retribution to consider for the nation’s history of violence. Short of repealing the Second Amendment’s right-to-bear-guns clause in the US Constitution and a real commitment towards eliminating the threat of white male supremacist terrorism, this violence will continue unabated, with repercussions that will include terrorism and revenge, domestically and internationally. A country with a history of violence, elitism, and narcissism like the US – and an individual like Trump – cannot divorce themselves from their own violent DNA, a violence that could one day consume this nation-state.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old who soared to the lead in the New York City mayoral Democratic primary, describes himself as a democratic socialist. But some politicians and social media posts falsely labelled him a communist.

President Donald Trump called Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic”, in a June 25 Truth Social post.

Nick Sortor, a conservative podcast host, wrote June 23 on X, “Zohran Mamdani is not even a socialist. He’s a full on COMMUNIST,” sharing a video clip of Mamdani calling for a network of city-owned grocery stores. “Even FURTHER left than Bernie Sanders. He wants government-run grocery stores.”

Ben Shapiro, cofounder of conservative website The Daily Wire, said on his podcast, “The big news of the day: A communist is likely to be the next mayor of New York City.”

Representative Elise Stefanik also wrote on X that Mamdani is a “communist”.

Mamdani’s platform calls for making transportation, housing and groceries more affordable, but experts say he hasn’t espoused key tenets of communism, such as government takeover of industry and private property.

“Mamdani is NOT a communist,” wrote Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford University professor of international studies, in an email to PolitiFact. “Communism involves a centrally planned economy, with no market forces. Prices and quantities are set by a central government authority. There is no democratic political competition, and instead a single party rules the country. He is not calling for any of this.”

Accusing Democrats of being communists or communist sympathisers is a frequent misleading attack line by some Republicans. It is a red scare tactic that has existed in US politics for decades, but has been transformed by the success of some democratic socialists, including US Senator Bernie Sanders.

Mamdani made national headlines June 24 after former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded the primary. When the city completes the ranked choice voting process, Mamdani is expected to win. Mamdani’s office did not respond to our requests for comment.

In November, Mamdani will face Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, the founder of civilian crime-fighting group Guardian Angels, and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent. Cuomo left open the door to running as an independent.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Mamdani’s platform calls for some city-owned grocery stores, other affordability policies

Mamdani, who represents part of the Queens borough in the New York State Assembly, identifies as a democratic socialist.

The New York City Democratic Socialists of America endorsed Mamdani, who is a member.

The group defines its goal as “to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation”, and to have “a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighbourhoods, and society”.

Mamdani’s platform includes freezing rent for tenants in buildings with preexisting caps on price increases between lease terms. He also proposed creating city-owned grocery stores, and said in a June interview with Spectrum News NY1 that he would start with one grocery store in each borough modelled on municipality-owned stores in Kansas.

He also proposed free buses and child care, and raising the corporate tax rate and the minimum wage.

Mamdani does not call for getting rid of private ownership. One of the goals included on his website is to “make it faster, easier, and cheaper to start and run a business”.

He told The New York Times that he changed his mind about the role of the private market in housing construction, saying, “I clearly recognise now that there is a very important role to be played.” The story links to Mamdani’s website, which calls for the public sector to build affordable housing but not take over all housing.

What are the differences between communism and democratic socialism?

We sent highlights from Mamdani’s platform to seven experts across academic disciplines including political science, law and anthropology. None concluded that Mamdani is a communist.

“The idea that Mamdani is a communist is an absurd slander,” said Geoffrey Kurtz, associate professor of political science at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York.

When US politicians use the term democratic socialism, they are referring to generous social insurance programmes often available in European countries, such as heavily subsidised child care, along with high tax rates, if needed, to pay for education and healthcare.

Mamdani doesn’t seek to do away with private property or advocate a government takeover of any industry, said Ted Henken, a Baruch College professor. Instead, Mamdani proposes targeted interventions to tackle high living costs in New York City, Henken said.

“The New Yorkers who support him seem to do so not because of any communist ideology on his or their part, but because he proposes to address this crisis of affordability,” Henken said.

“For example, his city-run grocery store idea does not propose to take over or do away with the private grocery chains (they already receive city subsidies) but to complement them with nonprofit city-run stores,” Henken said.

Although Mamdani said in a campaign TikTok video that he would “redirect funds from corporate supermarkets to city-owned grocery stores”, he did not say he would get rid of corporate markets. Mamdani also said city-owned markets would work with privately owned small businesses and farms.

Political theory experts said many of Mamdani’s proposals have existed in other democracies for decades.

“Many western democracies – from France to Canada – have policies such as free or heavily subsidised child care and public transit,” said Oxana Shevel, a Tufts University associate professor of comparative politics.

Under a communist agenda, the government would own everything and entirely control prices, not only rent control or operating some supermarkets. And under communism, there are no political parties other than the communist party.

“This is not what he’s advocating,” Shevel said. “So no, he’s not a ‘communist’.”

Democratic socialism emerged as an alternative to communism, said Harvey Klehr, an Emory University expert on the history of American communism.

“At least in theory, they reject such communist concepts as the vanguard of the proletariat and the communist hostility to representative democracy, as well as the communist belief in state ownership of the means of production,” Klehr said. “That said, there are a number of issues on which they agree, including hostility to capitalism.”

Experts said there are reasonable critiques of Mamdani’s proposals, but that doesn’t make his proposals communist.

Our ruling

Trump said Mamdani is a communist.

Mamdani’s mayoral platform proposes making New York City more affordable, including via free buses and day care, rent control and city-owned grocery stores. That is not akin to communism, a system in which the government controls the means of production and takes over private businesses. Mamdani has not called for the elimination of private ownership.

He also hasn’t called for eliminating democracy and political parties, another tenet of communism.

We rate this statement False.

Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact-check

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Asia’s dependence on Middle East oil and gas — and its relatively slow shift to clean energy — make it vulnerable to disruptions in shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic weakness highlighted by the war between Israel and Iran.

Iran sits on the strait, which handles about 20% of shipments of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, or LNG. Four countries — China, India, Japan and South Korea — account for 75% of those imports.

Japan and South Korea face the highest risk, according to analysis by the research group Zero Carbon Analytics, followed by India and China. All have been slow to scale up use of renewable energy.

In 2023, renewables made up just 9% of South Korea’s power mix, well below the 33% average among other members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. In the same year, Japan relied more heavily on fossil fuels than any other country in the Group of Seven, or G7.

A truce in the 12-day Israel-Iran war appears to be holding at the time of writing, reducing the potential for trouble for now. But experts say the only way to counter lingering uncertainty is to scale back reliance on imported fossil fuels and accelerate Asia’s shift to clean, domestic energy sources.

“These are very real risks that countries should be alive to — and should be thinking about in terms of their energy and economic security,” said Murray Worthy, a research analyst at Zero Carbon Analytics.

Japan and South Korea are vulnerable

China and India are the biggest buyers of oil and LNG passing through the potential chokepoint at the Strait of Hormuz, but Japan and South Korea are more vulnerable.

Japan depends on imported fossil fuels for 87% of its total energy use and South Korea imports 81%. China relies on only 20% and India 35%, according to Ember, an independent global energy think tank that promotes clean energy.

“When you bring that together — the share of energy coming through the strait and how much oil and gas they rely on — that’s where you see Japan really rise to the top in terms of vulnerability,” said Worthy.

Three-quarters of Japan’s oil imports and more than 70% of South Korea’s oil imports — along with a fifth of its LNG — pass through the strait, said Sam Reynolds of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Both countries have focused more on diversifying fossil fuel sources than on shifting to clean energy.

Japan still plans to get 30-40% of its energy from fossil fuels by 2040. It’s building new LNG plants and replacing old ones. South Korea plans to get 25.1% of its electricity from LNG by 2030, down from 28% today, and reduce it further to 10.6% by 2038.

To meet their 2050 targets for net-zero carbon emissions, both countries must dramatically ramp up use of solar and wind power. That means adding about 9 gigawatts of solar power each year through 2030, according to the thinktank Agora Energiewende. Japan also needs an extra 5 gigawatts of wind annually, and South Korea about 6 gigawatts.

Japan’s energy policies are inconsistent. It still subsidises gasoline and diesel, aims to increase its LNG imports and supports oil and gas projects overseas. Offshore wind is hampered by regulatory barriers. Japan has climate goals, but hasn’t set firm deadlines for cutting power industry emissions.

“Has Japan done enough? No, they haven’t. And what they do is not really the best,” said Tim Daiss, at the APAC Energy Consultancy, citing Japan’s program to increase use of hydrogen fuel made from natural gas.

South Korea’s low electricity rates hinder the profitability of solar and wind projects, discouraging investment, a “key factor” limiting renewables, said Kwanghee Yeom of Agora Energiewende. He said fair pricing, stronger policy support and other reforms would help speed up adoption of clean energy.

China and India have done more — but gaps remain

China and India have moved to shield themselves from shocks linked to changing global energy prices or trade disruptions.

China led global growth in wind and solar in 2024 and generating capacity rose 45% and 18%, respectively. It has also boosted domestic gas output even as its reserves have dwindled.

By making more electricity at home from clean sources and producing more gas domestically, China has managed to reduce imports of LNG, though it still is the world’s largest oil importer, with about half of the more than 11 million barrels per day that it brings in coming from the Middle East. Russia and Malaysia are other major suppliers.

India relies heavily on coal and aims to boost coal production by around 42% from now to 2030. But its use of renewables is growing faster, with 30 additional gigawatts of clean power coming online last year, enough to power nearly 18 million Indian homes.

By diversifying its suppliers with more imports from the US, Russia and other countries in the Middle East, it has somewhat reduced its risk, said Vibhuti Garg of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

“But India still needs a huge push on renewables if it wants to be truly energy secure,” she said.

Risks for the rest of Asia

A blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could affect other Asian countries and building up their renewable power generating capacity will be a “crucial hedge” against the volatility intrinsic to importing oil and gas, said Reynolds of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Southeast Asia has become a net oil importer as demand in Malaysia and Indonesia has outstripped supplies, according to the ASEAN Centre for Energy in Jakarta, Indonesia. The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations still exports more LNG than it imports due to production by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar. But rising demand means the region will become a net LNG importer by 2032, according to consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.

Use of renewable energy is not keeping up with rising demand and production of oil and gas is faltering as older fields run dry.

The International Energy Agency has warned that ASEAN’s oil import costs could rise from $130 billion in 2024 to over $200bn by 2050 if stronger clean energy policies are not enacted.

“Clean energy is not just an imperative for the climate — it’s an imperative for national energy security,” said Reynolds.

On Friday, the price of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, was up 0.55% on the day at $68.10 a barrel. Over the month, the fuel has risen by 6.26% in value, although prices have pulled back from last week’s peak.

Takahiro Shiraishi was hanged for the murders of eight women and one man whose body parts he concealed in his small apartment.

Japan has executed a man who was found guilty of killing and dismembering nine people he made contact with on social media, the first use of capital punishment in the country in nearly three years.

Takahiro Shiraishi was hanged on Friday after he was sentenced to death for the 2017 murders of eight women and one man in his apartment in Zama city in Kanagawa near Tokyo.

He was dubbed the “Twitter killer” as he had contacted his victims via the social media platform, now known as X.

Shiraishi admitted to committing the murders after reaching out and offering to help people – who were contemplating suicide – to die. He had stashed bits of the bodies of his nine victims in coolers around his small apartment, according to media reports.

Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, who authorised Shiraishi’s hanging, said he made the decision after careful examination of the case, taking into account the convict’s “extremely selfish” motive for crimes that “caused great shock and unrest to society”.

The execution on Friday was the first in Japan since July 2022 of a man sentenced to death for a stabbing rampage in Tokyo’s Akihabara shopping district in 2008.

It was also the first time the death penalty was carried out since Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s government was inaugurated last October.

Last September, a Japanese court acquitted Iwao Hakamada, who had spent the world’s longest time on death row. The court found he was wrongfully convicted of crimes committed nearly 60 years ago.

One of the highest-profile executions in Japan was carried out in 2018 of the guru Shoko Asahara and 12 former members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, which orchestrated the 1995 sarin gas attacks on Tokyo’s subway system that killed 14 people and made thousands ill.

Capital punishment is carried out by hanging in Japan, and prisoners are notified of their execution just hours before it is carried out, which has long been decried by human rights groups for the stress it puts on death-row prisoners.

Japan and the United States are the only two members of the Group of Seven industrialised economies to retain the death penalty.

There is strong public support for the practice in Japan. A government survey in 2024 of 1,800 respondents found that 83 percent viewed the death penalty as “unavoidable”.

Spain’s Real Madrid to meet Italy’s Juventus in FIFA Club World Cup after eliminating Salzburg, Man City face Al Hilal.

Real Madrid swept past Red Bull Salzburg with a 3-0 win in their final Group H match to set up a round of 16 meeting with Juventus at the FIFA Club World Cup.

Vinicius Junior and Federico Valverde netted first-half goals for the Spanish giants in the match in Philadelphia on Thursday.

Gonzalo Garcia added the third in the 84th minute for Madrid in a second consecutive multi-goal win following a tournament-opening draw against Al Hilal.

The result eliminated Real’s Austrian opponents as Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal leapt above Salzburg with their 2-0 win against Mexico’s Pachuca.

Manchester City beat Juventus 5-2 earlier in the day and, as Group H winners, will now face Al Hilal in the next round.

The defeat was Salzburg’s second loss to Real Madrid in 2025 after a 5-1 loss in Spain in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League.

Madrid, five-time winners of the competition, were more efficient than dominant. The teams had 12 shots apiece, with the victors’ four attempts on goal only one more than Salzburg’s three.

Madrid again played without Kylian Mbappe, who has yet to feature in the tournament due to a stomach illness that left him briefly hospitalised.

But Vinicius Junior did enough to compensate for the Frenchman’s absence on Thursday.

He failed to convert the game’s first shot on target, denied on the break by Christian Zawieschitzky after Jude Bellingham had played him into a 20th-minute breakaway.

But two brilliant moments over a five-minute stretch tilted the game squarely in Madrid’s favour.

In the 40th minute, the Brazilian ran onto another terrific ball out of the back from Bellingham, before weaving left on the dribble to evade defender Joane Gadou. He drove an early low finish well out of Zawieschitzky’s reach and into the bottom right corner.

In the 45th, he reached Arda Guler’s deflected pass on the right side of the box before directing a backheel pass to a wide-open Valverde behind him for an equally clinical finish past Zawieschitzky.

Bellingham had the next crucial intervention in the 66th minute, blocking Edmund Baidoo’s effort off the line with Thibaut Courtois beaten.

Real will now face Juventus in Miami on Tuesday, while City stay in Orlando for their round of 16 match with Al Hilal on Monday.

The government of Brazil has announced an agreement to acknowledge its responsibility in the murder of Vladimir Herzog, a journalist and dissident who was killed during the country’s dictatorship period.

On Thursday, the government agreed to a statement of liability and a compensation package for Herzog’s family, amounting to 3 million Brazilian reais, or $544,800.

The settlement also affirmed the decision of a federal court earlier this year to grant Herzog’s widow, Clarice Herzog, retroactive payments of a pension she should have received after her husband’s death, amounting to about $6,000 per month.

In a statement recorded by The Associated Press news agency, Herzog’s son, Ivo Herzog, applauded the government’s decision to accept responsibility.

“This apology is not merely symbolic,” Ivo said. “It is an act by the state that makes us believe the current Brazilian state doesn’t think like the Brazilian state of that time.”

He added that his family’s story represented hundreds, if not thousands, of others who had their loved ones killed during the dictatorship period from 1964 to 1985.

Having the government acknowledge its wrongdoing, he explained, has been a decades-long fight.

“This has been a struggle not only of the Herzog family, but of all the families of the murdered and disappeared,” said Ivo, who now runs a human rights nonprofit named for his father, the Vladimir Herzog Institute.

Vladimir Herzog was 38 years old at the time of his death in 1975, midway through the dictatorship period.

The Brazilian army had overthrown left-wing President Joao Goulart a decade earlier and installed a government that became known for human rights abuses, including the arbitrary arrest and torture of dissidents, students, politicians, Indigenous people and anyone else deemed to be a threat.

Many went into exile. Some were killed or simply disappeared without a trace. The number of deaths is estimated to be about 500, though some experts place that figure at 10,000 or higher.

Herzog was a prominent journalist, and initially, he too went into exile in the United Kingdom. But he returned to Brazil to serve as the news editor for a public television station, TV Cultura. It was in that role that, on October 24, 1975, Herzog was summoned by authorities to an army barrack.

There, military officials indicated he would be asked to testify about his political connections. Herzog voluntarily left to offer his statement. But he never returned home.

The military later claimed Herzog’s death was a suicide, and it released a staged photo of his body hanging from a rope.

But a rabbi who later examined Herzog’s body found signs of torture. Herzog’s funeral, conducted with full religious rites, turned into a moment of reckoning for the Brazilian dictatorship, and the staged photograph became a symbol of its abuses.

His son Ivo was only nine years old at the time. Earlier this year, he spoke to Al Jazeera about the release of a film called I’m Still Here that highlighted another murder committed under the dictatorship: that of Rubens Paiva, a politician.

Like Herzog, Paiva voluntarily left to give testimony at the request of military officials and was never seen alive again. His body was never found. It took decades for Paiva’s family to receive a death certificate that acknowledged the military’s role in his death.

Ivo praised the film I’m Still Here for raising awareness about the injustices of the dictatorship. He also told Al Jazeera that he hoped for the Brazilian government to acknowledge the harm it had done to his family and to amend the 1979 Amnesty Law that shielded many military officials from facing accountability.

“What are they waiting for? For everyone connected to that period to die?” Herzog told journalist Eleonore Hughes. “Brazil has a politics of forgetfulness, and we have evolved very, very little.”

On Thursday, Jorge Messias, Brazil’s federal legal counsellor, framed the agreement with the Herzog family as a step forward.

“Today, we are witnessing something unprecedented: The Brazilian state formally honouring the memory of Vladimir Herzog,” he said.

He also compared the 1964 coup d’etat with the modern circumstances of Brazilian politics. On January 8, 2023, thousands of supporters of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in Brazil’s capital, after the 2022 election saw their candidate defeated.

The current president, left-wing leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has compared that incident to a coup. Bolsonaro testified this month in court over charges he helped orchestrate an effort to overturn the election result.

“In the 2022 election, we stood at a crossroads: Either to reaffirm democracy or move toward the closure of the Brazilian state, with all the horrors we lived through for 21 years,” Messias said, referencing the horrors of the dictatorship.

UN humanitarian agency stresses need for fuel, medical supplies and water in Palestinian territory besieged by Israel.

The United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA) has warned that preventable diseases in Gaza are on the rise and killing civilians due to the lack of desperately needed medicine and clean water.

OCHA in a statement on Thursday said that in the past two weeks, “more than 19,000 cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been recorded, alongside over 200 cases each of acute jaundice syndrome and bloody diarrhoea “.

“These outbreaks are directly linked to the lack of clean water and sanitation in Gaza, underscoring the urgent need for fuel, medical supplies, and water, sanitation and hygiene items to prevent further collapse of the public health system,” the agency added.

Israel’s blockade on fuel entry into Gaza has paralysed the territory’s desalination plants and water system.

The Israeli military has destroyed much of Gaza, displaced nearly the entire population of the territory and placed a suffocating siege on the enclave. Besides the dire humanitarian conditions, the Israeli military continues to kill dozens of Palestinians in Gaza daily.

Leading rights groups and UN experts have described the Israeli campaign as a genocide.

OCHA said on Thursday that more than 20 people were killed and about 70 others were injured after a strike on Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli attacks killed at least 71 people across Gaza on Thursday.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, at least 56,259 people have been killed, and 132,458 others have been wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

After a more than two-month blockade of essential goods entering Gaza, the Israeli government announced it was allowing aid to re-enter the enclave in May.

However, due to Israeli restrictions, the amount of aid entering has been minimal, with aid agencies referring to it as a “drop in the ocean”.

Much of the aid allowed in has been through the United States and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been condemned by aid agencies as a “weaponisation” of humanitarian goods.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a video message that the army was being asked to draft a new plan to deliver aid to Gaza after unverified footage showed masked men on top of aid trucks in northern Gaza.

While Israel has claimed the men were Hamas members, Palestinian clan leaders with no affiliation with the group said the masked men were protecting the truck from being looted.

Multiple UN officials have refuted Israel’s claims that Hamas steals humanitarian aid. Last month, Israeli officials acknowledged arming criminal gangs linked to looting the assistance in order to rival Hamas.

Published on 27/06/2025 – 1:22 GMT+2•Updated
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France and Germany exhibited diverging strategies in the trade dispute between the EU and the US ongoing since mid-March, following a Council summit in Brussels on Thursday. While Germany is eager to reach a swift agreement at all costs, France emphasised the important that bloc should not display weakness.

In a press conference after the summit, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the Council encouraged the Commission to use the remaining two weeks to come to a swift agreement. But he said that the Council had encouraged von der Leyen to pursue the EU’s own countermeasures if necessary. He said it was important to conclude something quickly and flagged the risks to the auto, chemicals and pharma sectors if 9 July arrives and the Trump tariffs take effect.

“My hope is that we can reach a swift conclusion,” French President Emmanuel Macron said after an EU summit on Thursday in Brussels, adding: “However, this willingness should not be mistaken for weakness. We want to conclude quickly because it serves our collective interest, supports the stability of international trade, and benefits our businesses—but not at any price.”

On Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the Commission’s strategy as overly technical and called for accelerating the negotiations by focusing on strategic sectors such as automobiles, steel, and energy, chemicals and pharma.

The US currently imposes 50% tariffs on EU steel and aluminium, 25% on cars and a 10% baseline on all EU imports.

Negotiations between the US and the EU have gained momentum since President Donald Trump and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met at the G7 summit in Canada on 16 June, as the critical 9 July deadline approaches, after which Trump has threatened to impose 50% tariffs on all EU imports.

On Thursday evening, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced to EU member states that she had received a US counter-proposal to the EU’s offer, though she did not disclose any details.

For several months, the EU has been offering the US a zero-for-zero tariff deal on all industrial products, along with commitments to purchase strategic goods such as liquid natural gas and soybeans.

However, few believe that securing 0% tariffs from the US is still a realistic possibility. “Since they decided to impose multiple tariffs on their trade partners across the globe, the US now has an appetite for the revenue that tariffs generate,” an EU official said, implying that the US rejected the EU offer.

The Commission is now reconsidering its approach to a future tariff-based deal, though the specific terms have yet to be determined. “The prevailing assumption is that a 10% tariff might be the benchmark,” an EU diplomat said.

“On some areas 10% is not so much, the EU imposes 10% on a lot of imports of cars, whether they are Chinese or Japanese,” another EU official told Euronews, adding that “for other products, such as aircraft, it’s much more complicated because the production line is very interdependent between the US and the EU. That’s why, you need a granular analysis.”

If the EU manages to reach an agreement by 9 July, it will not be a comprehensive agreement, two senior EU diplomats said.

“The most realistic outcome would likely be a general framework or a “principled agreement”, due to time constraints,” an EU diplomat commented.

Katz says Israel has ‘green light’ from US to attack Iran again if Tehran makes ‘progress’ with its nuclear programme.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said that his country wanted to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the recent 12-day war between the two sides that ended this week with a ceasefire.

Katz said on Thursday that Israel would not have needed permission from the United States to kill Khamenei, appearing to refute previous media reports that Washington vetoed the assassination.

“We wanted to eliminate Khamenei, but there was no operational opportunity,” said Katz in an interview with Israel’s Channel 13.

Katz claimed that Khamenei knew an attempt on his life was on the cards, and went “underground to very great depths”, breaking off contact with commanders who replaced Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leaders assassinated in the first wave of Israeli strikes.

Khamenei released video messages during the war, and there is no evidence to confirm that he was cut off from his generals.

Killing Khamenei would have been a major escalation in the conflict. Besides being the de facto head of state in Iran, the supreme leader is a top spiritual authority for millions of Shia Muslims across the world.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump had both suggested at various times that the war could spark regime change, the latter posting on social media last Sunday that the conflict could “MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN”.

Katz’s comments came amid conflicting reports on the extent of destruction wrought on Iran’s nuclear capability, primarily as a result of the US bombing of sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Khamenei said on Thursday that the US had “exaggerated” the impact of strikes.

The Israeli defence minister said that his country has a “green light” from Trump to launch another attack on Iran if it were deemed to be making “progress” with its nuclear programme.

“I do not see a situation where Iran will restore the nuclear facilities after the attack,” he said.

For his part, Netanyahu said on Thursday that the outcome of the war presented a “window of opportunity” for further formal diplomatic agreements with Arab states.

The conflict ended with a US-brokered ceasefire after Iran responded to the US strikes with a missile attack on Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base, which houses US troops.

“We have fought with determination against Iran and achieved a great victory. This victory opens the path to dramatically enlarge the peace accords,” Netanyahu said in a video address, in an apparent reference to the Abraham Accords, which established official ties between Israel and several Arab countries in 2020.

Iran also declared victory after the war, saying that it thwarted the Israeli objectives – namely ending Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes – and managed to force Netanyahu to end the assault with the missile strikes that left widespread destruction in Israel.

A political earthquake, say the headlines. A stunning victory. A wake-up call for the Democratic Party in the United States.

Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York City’s mayoral primary has sent the news media into overdrive.

But what’s behind his win, and how significant is it for US politics?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests: 

Linda Sarsour – Palestinian-American activist and political strategist in New York

Joi Chaney – Democratic political strategist in Washington, DC

Omar Rahman – Political analyst and fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs in New York

Tehran, Iran – The highways leading into Tehran are busy again, filled with cars carrying families, suitcases, and the cautious hope that home might finally be safe. After 12 days of war that killed more than 600 Iranians and displaced hundreds of thousands from the capital, a ceasefire announced on Monday has begun drawing residents back to a city still scarred by Israeli air strikes.

For many returning to Tehran, the relief of sleeping in their own beds is tempered by the constant fear that the bombing could resume at any moment.

“Coming back home after all these days, even from a place where you had physical safety, feels like heaven,” said Nika, a 33-year-old graphic designer who spent nearly two weeks sheltering with her husband at their relatives’ home in Zanjan, some 286 kilometres (177 miles) northwest of the capital. “But I don’t know if the ceasefire will last or not,” she said.

The conflict that upended millions of lives began at dawn on June 13, when Israeli warplanes launched what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. What followed was an unprecedented exchange of fire between the two regional powers that brought direct warfare to the heart of Tehran for the first time in decades.

As Israeli attacks on residential areas intensified and warnings from American and Israeli officials to evacuate Tehran grew louder, many residents, fearing for their lives, were forced to flee the capital for the relative safety of other cities and villages.

For many of Tehran’s inhabitants, abandoning their lives was a soul-crushing decision.

“I had an incredibly busy life before the war,” said Saba, a 26-year-old university student. “I lived in Tehran, had a full-time job, was studying, and since I lived alone, I managed all my household chores. When the war started, for a few days, I couldn’t believe this routine was coming to a halt. I still went to work, went out for shopping or to a cafe. But at some point, you couldn’t deny reality anymore. Life was stopping.”

By the fifth day, the war forced her to leave.

“First, my university exams were postponed, then my workplace told us to work remotely, and one by one, all my friends left Tehran. I felt a terrible loneliness,” she recalled. “I kept myself busy during the day, but at night, when the sounds of bombing and air defences began, I couldn’t fool myself any longer.”

Unable to secure a car, her father drove from her hometown of Quchan, a city near Mashhad in northeastern Iran, to bring her to the family’s house, where she stayed until the ceasefire.

‘The nights were unbearable’

According to the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, at least 610 people were killed and 1,481 wounded during the conflict, with more than 90 percent of the casualties being civilians.

“Initially, I had decided to stay in Tehran and keep the company running,” said Kamran, a businessman and CEO of a private firm in the capital, who requested anonymity due to security concerns. “There was bombing and the sound of air defence, but life was manageable during the day. The nights, however, were truly unbearable,” said the father of two.

Many fled the city in the very first days of the war. At that time, two major obstacles plagued their departure: long queues at petrol stations made it difficult to secure enough fuel for the journey, and the main exit routes from the city were choked with heavy traffic from the sheer volume of cars trying to get out.

Now, since the ceasefire was declared, many who had abandoned Tehran have begun to make their way back.

“After 11 days of living in a place where there was no sign of war, but wasn’t home – no privacy, no peace of mind – coming back to my own house felt like heaven,” explained Nika.

“After years of being accustomed to the silence of my own home, enduring life with 11 other people in an environment that was never quiet was incredibly difficult,” she said. She returned to her two-bedroom flat in Tehran as soon as the ceasefire was declared.

“I don’t know if the ceasefire will last or not,” Nika admitted. “But even if it doesn’t, I don’t think I want to leave my home again.”

Uncertain future

Not everyone was lucky enough to return to an intact home.

Keyvan Saket, a renowned Iranian musician, had learned of his home being hit by an Israeli missile while sheltering with his family in a nearby town. Yet, his neighbour’s call delivering the grim news did not keep him from rushing back after the ceasefire was declared.

According to Saket, one of the bombs fired at his residence failed to detonate, a stroke of fortune that spared further destruction. But it barred him and his family from entering their home due to safety concerns. “Once the issue was resolved and we were allowed inside, we faced an unsettling scene,” he said. “The doors and windows were shattered, the building’s facade was obliterated, and household appliances like the washing machine and refrigerator were severely damaged. The attack was so intense that even the iron doors of the building were mangled.”

Saket’s voice carried a deep sorrow as he reflected on the toll of the conflict. “With every fibre of my being, I despise war and those who ignite it,” he said, lamenting the loss of a home he cherished. “War is the ugliest of human creations.”

Since the ceasefire took effect, both sides have accused each other of violations, and fear of renewed violence has been high. Iran has reported continued Israeli attacks for several hours after the agreement, while Israel claims to have intercepted Iranian missiles post-ceasefire. In the immediate aftermath of the ceasefire announcement, strikes continued on both sides, with Israeli forces hitting targets in Tehran, including the notorious Evin Prison, and Iranian missiles striking areas in Israel.

Hamed, a political science student, believes the situation is precarious. “This feels like a recurring nightmare to me,” he said. He had returned from the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman, where he was displaced to, on the day the ceasefire was announced, but was worried he might have to abandon his home and life all over again. “I really don’t want to have to pack my things and leave my home without knowing when, or if, I can come back.”

Despite this underlying anxiety, the streets of Tehran are visibly busier than before the ceasefire. As companies end their remote work policies and recall employees, there is evidence of a cautious, determined return to life in the capital.

Infrastructure damage across Tehran was significant, with attacks striking multiple provinces, including Alborz, East Azerbaijan, Isfahan, Fars, Kermanshah, and the capital itself. The Israeli military claimed to have struck more than 100 targets across Iran during the 12-day conflict.

In the early mornings, the hum of traffic weaves through Tehran’s wide boulevards once more. “Seeing others return to the city alongside me, watching cafes and restaurants reopen, and feeling life flow back into the streets – it truly lifts my heart,” said Saba, her eyes bright with cautious optimism. Yet, as the city stirs back to life, the shadow of an uncertain ceasefire looms, a quiet reminder that this fragile revival could be tested at any moment.

This piece was published in collaboration with Egab.

The most peaceful area in the entire hospital was a small patio at its centre, where patients rested on benches beneath a wooden pagoda. Nearby, a small, colourful obstacle course helped survivors regain their mobility after surgery and other intensive treatments.

That’s where we met four-year-old Alexandro and his mother, Youseline Philisma.

Alexandro was just one month old when an armed group set fire to the displaced persons camp where they were living. He was plucked from the flames, alive but severely burned.

Since then, Youseline had been taking him to Tabarre’s burn unit — the only one left in the country.

“When I come to the hospital, it’s another world. Everybody understands my little one. Everyone gives us a lot of love,” she told us.

Alexandro will need the burn unit’s care for the rest of his life. Surgeon Donald Jacques Severe is among the doctors treating him.

Severe could leave the country. His wife and children have already done so, departing four years ago for the United States. Armed fighters had overrun their home. Severe himself has a visa to live in Canada. But so far, he has not left.

His fellow surgeon, Xavier Kernizan, tried to explain the sense of duty he and Severe share.

“We know that if we’re not here, someone will struggle,” Kernizan said.

“Personally, we are close to burnout. Sometimes we are close to depression. But there is also this satisfying feeling of having helped to improve someone’s daily life, of offering a little hope to someone in their darkest moments.”

But if the security situation continues to deteriorate, it is impossible to know whether Tabarre Hospital will survive.

On April 11, my documentary team and I drove out of the hospital gates for the first time in a week. We were heading to Petion-Ville, one of the few places in Port-au-Prince still under government control.

There, we walked across a football pitch near the Karibe Hotel, where a helicopter from the World Food Programme picks up passengers. It’s the only way out of the capital right now.

We clambered into the helicopter, its rotors began their churn, and the Haitian capital began to grow smaller as we rose into the air, sailing above the bubble of violence below. I remember feeling relief.

The staff at the hospital stayed behind. They have no intention of leaving.

Constitutional panel ratifies bill to cease cooperation with IAEA after US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Iran’s Guardian Council has ratified a parliament-approved legislation to suspend Tehran’s cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, after the war with Israel and the United States.

Iranian news outlets reported on Thursday that the appointed council, which has veto power over bills approved by lawmakers, found the parliament’s measure to “not to be in contradiction to the Islamic principles and the Constitution”.

Guardian Council spokesperson Hadi Tahan Nazif told the official state news agency, IRNA, that the government is now required to suspend cooperation with the IAEA for the “full respect for the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

Nazif added that the decision was prompted by the “attacks … by the Zionist regime and the United States against peaceful nuclear facilities”.

The bill will be submitted to President Masoud Pezeshkian for final approval and would allow Iran “to benefit from all the entitlements specified under … the Non-Proliferation Treaty, especially with regard to uranium enrichment”, Nazif said.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf suggested that the legislation is now binding after the Guardian Council’s approval.

“Continued cooperation with the agency, which plays a role as a protector of anti-human interests and an agent of the illegitimate Zionist regime through the pretext of war and aggression, is not possible until the security of our nuclear facilities is ensured,” Ghalibaf said in a social media post.

However, the IAEA said on Thursday that it had not received an official communication from Iran regarding the suspension.

Iranian officials have been decrying the IAEA’s failure to condemn Israeli attacks on the country’s nuclear facilities.

Before the war started, Tehran claimed to have obtained Israeli documents that show that the IAEA was passing off information to Israel about Iran’s nuclear programme – allegations that were denied by the agency.

Israel is widely believed to have its own nuclear arsenal, but its nuclear programme has not been monitored by the UN watchdog.

For years, Iranian nuclear sites have been under strict IAEA inspection, including by constant video feed. But it appears that Iran moved its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium from the facilities before they were bombed by Israel and the US during the recent war, putting them out of the view of UN observers for the first time.

US and Israeli officials have argued that the military strikes have set back Iran’s nuclear programme for years. But suspending cooperation with the IAEA could escalate the programme, although Tehran insists that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday that Moscow was “interested in Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA continuing”.

“We are interested in everyone respecting the supreme leader of Iran, who has repeatedly stated that Iran does not and will not have plans to create nuclear weapons,”  Lavrov said.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also told journalists that Berlin “urges the Iranian government not to go down this path” and cease cooperation with the board.

On June 13, Israel launched a surprise bombing campaign against Iran, striking residential buildings and nuclear sites and military facilities, killing top commanders and scientists as well as hundreds of civilians.

Iran responded with barrages of missiles that left widespread destruction in Israel and killed at least 29 people.

On Sunday, the US joined Israel and launched unprecedented strikes on Iran’s Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites.

Following Iran’s retaliatory attack on a US military base in Qatar, a ceasefire was reached between the countries.

Both Israel and Iran declared victory after the war.