Scarlet Lady’s 2,000 passengers told of change as one of those onboard says they will ‘sparkle and spend elsewhere’
An LGBTQ+ cruise ship blocked from Turkish waters this week has been refused entry into Egypt.
The Scarlet Lady’s 2,000 passengers, including the Broadway performer Patti LuPone, woke on Thursday morning to find a note placed under their cabin doors informing them that the ship was urgently looking for alternative ports.
Continue reading...Attacks on three locations across Iran came after three tankers in the strait of Hormuz were targeted on Tuesday
The US military carried out strikes on Iran for a second day, hours after president Donald Trump said that an interim agreement to end the war was “over”.
Late on Wednesday Iranian state media reported explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas in the strait of Hormuz; in Sirik, another southern coastal city; and the south-western Bushehr province, home to Iran’s nuclear-power-plant complex.
Continue reading...World is witnessing a turning point, says ministry spokesperson, as Iran seeks to assert independence amid rising tensions
Before a foreign ministry press briefing at the Grand Hotel Tehran, the assembled reporters were asked to stand for the national anthem that duly blared from fuzzy speakers.
At the podium, the ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, claimed the world was witnessing a turning point in the history of Shia Islam. A century from now, he claimed, the assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be revered as a second Imam Hussain, the martyred grandson of the prophet Muhammad. Donald Trump, meanwhile, would be seen as a latterday Yazid, the tyrannical 7th century caliph.
Continue reading...Image of man in underwear, blindfold and bound to iron rod has been widely shared on social media
An Israeli soldier’s photo of a Palestinian man from Gaza stripped to his underwear, blindfolded and bound face-down to an iron rod corroborates extensive reporting on Israeli torture of Palestinians in detention and itself may constitute a war crime, rights groups have said.
The image was shared on a now-deleted personal social media account, with the Hebrew-language caption “good morning”. It was brought to wider public attention by a Palestinian writer and activist who goes by Tamer.
Continue reading...July update projects GDP growth of 1% this year, making UK the third fastest-growing economy in the G7
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its growth forecast for the UK, while leaving those for other G7 countries weaker or unchanged, amid hopes the economic impact of the Iran war may be less severe than feared.
In a July update of its World Economic Outlook, which was finalised before the latest outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East, the Washington-based organisation projected UK gross domestic product to grow by 1% this year – up 0.2 percentage points from its April forecast.
Continue reading...Hostilities between US and Iran resume as US president lashes out at ‘vicious, violent people’. Plus the fallout from the USMNT’s exit from the Fifa World Cup
Good morning. Hostilities have resumed between the US and Iran. Tehran accused the US of violating the agreement intended to end the war, after the US military launched strikes around the strait of Hormuz and revoked a temporary sanctions waiver for Iranian oil exports. The attacks were the latest in a string of ceasefire violations by the two sides, despite a truce that came into effect in April, and have led to an immediate 3% rise in oil prices.
Speaking at the Nato summit in Ankara, Donald Trump said the memorandum of understanding with Iran was over and called the country’s leaders “vicious, violent people” whom he would not deal with because they were, in the US president’s words, “scum”. He nevertheless appeared to indicate that talks would continue. Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, backed the US attacks, saying: “When you have a ceasefire and Iran is basically violating the ceasefire, I think it is totally crucial that the US forcefully react.”
What occurred to break the fragile ceasefire? The US military said that it had hit more than 80 targets in the early hours of Wednesday in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels passing through the strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. Iran responded by launching attacks on US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said 85 facilities had been targeted.
How could Democrats replace Platner? It is possible for Democrats to select a new Senate nominee in Maine, but the clock is ticking. To have a new candidate on the ballot for November’s midterm elections, Platner needs to end his campaign by 5pm ET on 13 July, according to state law. That would give the Democrats a two-week window – until 5pm ET on 27 July – to pick a replacement.
Continue reading...The US military said the strikes were in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels on Tuesday that violated the ceasefire
Iran has accused the US of violating the agreement aimed at ending the war between the two sides, after the US military launched strikes around the strait of Hormuz and revoked a temporary sanctions waiver for Tehran to export oil.
The US military said the attacks launched in the early hours of Wednesday were in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting through the strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.
Continue reading...US Central Command says Tehran in ‘clear violation’ of ceasefire with ‘unwarranted’ attacks on commercial ships
The US military launched a series of “powerful” strikes against Iran, it announced on Tuesday night, in response to what it said were “unwarranted, dangerous” Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels in the strait of Hormuz.
In a statement on social media, US Central Command accused Tehran of a “clear violation” of the ceasefire agreement between US and Iran, which was signed last month.
Continue reading...Blasts did not interrupt French president’s visit but are setback for Syrian leaders’ attempt to project stability
Explosions rocked Damascus near the hotel where French president, Emmanuel Macron, was staying on Tuesday, wounding at least 18 people, Syrian authorities said.
Macron was in the presidential palace for a meeting with the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, when two improvised explosive devices detonated near the Four Seasons hotel where Macron was reported to be staying.
Continue reading...Border police officer under investigation after CCTV footage shows him shouting at car’s occupants and throwing device
Israeli police have opened an investigation after CCTV footage showed a border police officer throwing a stun grenade into a car carrying young Palestinians during a raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The footage from Sunday, released by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, shows an officer approaching a car and shouting at its occupants.
Continue reading...Elbit Systems supplied Tzayad digital army programme to map people, vehicles and other objects in real time
Israel identified about 1,000 potential targets a day during the first two years of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon with its command and control system, according to a presentation by the country’s largest arms supplier, Elbit Systems.
A total of 850,000 targets were detected in real time by the Israeli Tzayad digital army programme across all the military’s theatres of war between 7 October and the end of 2025, the company said at a military conference in London.
Continue reading...Crowds swelled through Tehran as mourners dressed in black carried flags proclaiming: ‘We will rise’
A crowd of “millions” assembled on Monday for the funeral procession of Iran’s assassinated supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
The scale and depth of the march, however engineered, represents an extraordinary turnaround for a country that only seven months ago was gripped by street protests at which thousands of people were killed by government security forces.
Continue reading...New supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei still absent from public view as his three brothers stand beside father’s coffin
Beside the coffin of the assassinated former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei at a packed prayer hall in Tehran on Sunday there were calls for the killing of Donald Trump.
Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei, who was killed along with other members of his family on the first day of the US and Israeli war on 28 February. The funeral was delayed because of the war.
Continue reading...IRGC warnings force ships to turn back as Tehran uses passages from Qur’an to send messages to Gulf delegations
The diplomatic and military contest for control of the strait of Hormuz has intensified alongside the dramatic scenes of mourning for the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, with some claiming Khamenei’s legacy ultimately depends on Tehran’s grip on the waterway, and so the global economy.
Over the past 48 hours, as crowds have swirled in Tehran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps appeared to have started to plug a gaping and growing gap in their monopoly control of the strait.
Continue reading...Incidents involving California state senator Scott Wiener and New York congressman Dan Goldman underscore Israel-Palestine conflict’s role in US elections
Two recent incidents involving US congressional candidates on opposite coasts have blown up into major controversies, underscoring how the Israel-Palestine conflict has transformed US elections – and illustrating how aggressive protest tactics can spark backlash that overshadows the issues activists meant to highlight.
Scott Wiener, a gay Jewish state senator and trans rights advocate who is currently the frontrunner in the race to replace the longtime representative Nancy Pelosi in California’s 11th district, said he felt forced to leave last week’s annual trans pride march in San Francisco after a group of people ran up to him at a local park where the event was taking place, surrounded him and screamed at him over his positions on Israel’s war on Gaza.
Continue reading...Well-preserved fourth-century quarters reveal details of daily life, urban development and economic activities
Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered a well-preserved Byzantine-era city in the western desert.
The fourth-century quarters had residential and religious structures, including a basilica-style church in the Dakhla oasis. Archaeologists also found coins, pottery fragments and tools.
Continue reading...Up to 30 million people expected to attend delayed events for Ali Khamenei, killed at start of war with US and Israel
Huge crowds have gathered at the funeral of the former Iranian supreme leader after the gates of the sprawling Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran let in thousands of mourners who had been waiting through the night to enter the grounds.
Iran is staging mass funeral processions for Ali Khamenei – whose 37-year reign was brought to an end in February by the first airstrike of the war launched by the US and Israel. By 5.30am, the Tehran streets surrounding the mosque were already filling up as Iranians, some travelling for hours and many carrying flags or posters of Khamenei, made their way to an event designed to emphasise the country’s sense of loss at the killing of the supreme leader and desire for revenge. Emotions filled the air as the crowds chanted Death to America and Israel.
Continue reading...Judge says evidence indicates attack on Pouria Zeraati outside home was carried out on behalf of Tehran regime
Two Romanians who took part in a “targeted” knife attack on a television journalist in London “on behalf of the Iranian state” have been jailed.
Pouria Zeraati, who worked for the Persian-language channel Iran International, which is critical of the Tehran regime, was left bleeding in the street after being stabbed three times outside his home in Wimbledon.
Continue reading...Country’s leadership vows to never surrender as memorial on grand scale aims to relay message of resistance to world
In the small hours of Friday the police roadblocks, stalls, posters and army vans were starting to appear across Tehran, as millions of Iranians prepared to attend the long-delayed six-day funeral ceremony for Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader for 36 turbulent years.
Khamenei was killed aged 86 in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli attack on the country in February, and the final farewell ceremony is intended to be an epic display of personal mourning, national power, resilience and social cohesion. By Thursday, knots of mourners carrying flags and blankets were already gathering along roads festooned with banners showing the red fist, the symbol of the funeral, alongside the slogan: “We must rise.” Many were heading to special hostels being set up across Tehran for the pilgrims. In Revolution Square a giant statue of a clenched fist was being installed.
Continue reading...Indian prime minister has a habit of collecting awards on his travels, some as their first and only recipient
As Narendra Modi touched down in Seychelles over the weekend, the archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean swiftly bestowed one of its “highest” honours upon the Indian prime minister.
Modi beamed as he accepted the Guardian of the Blue Horizon award from Patrick Herminie, the Seychelles president, complete with a trophy and certificate.
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