Iran's Supreme Leader appears in public for first time since start of war
There was no immediate report on any public statement made.
Iran has acknowledged the deaths of more than 900 people in the war, as well as thousands of injured.
It also has confirmed serious damage to its nuclear facilities, and has denied access to the sites for inspectors with the UN nuclear watchdog.
Mr Khamenei hosted a remembrance of the seventh century martyrdom of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Hussein, at a mosque next to his office and residence in the capital, Tehran.
Iranian officials such as the Parliament speaker were present, and such events are always held under heavy security.
Shiites represent over 10% of the world's 1.8 billion Muslims, and they view Hussein as the rightful successor to Mohammed.
Hussein's death in battle at the hands of Sunnis at Karbala, south of Baghdad, created a rift in Islam and continues to play a key role in shaping Shiite identity.
In predominantly Shiite Iran, red flags represented Hussein's blood and black funeral tents and clothes represented mourning.
Processions of chest-beating and self-flagellating men demonstrated fervour.
Some sprayed water over the mourners in the intense heat.
Israel relentlessly attacked Iran beginning on June 13, targeting its nuclear sites, defence systems, high-ranking military officials and atomic scientists.
In retaliation, Iran fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of which were intercepted, but those that got through caused damage in many areas and killed 28 people.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
30 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Just think what we could done with the cash wasted on the CalMac model
While avoiding the big picture of catamarans' superior cost-effectiveness, Mr Turbet tries to make a case for large live-aboard crews on a number of frankly tenuous grounds: shift working and stewards helping disabled passengers on to lifeboats. In an emergency, surely any crew member or fellow passenger would have a duty to help in such a circumstance. Such issues, however, are nothing to do with the monohull versus catamaran comparison, but with management and operational practices, CalMac's being singularly costly while providing a less than optimum service. In comparison, council-owned monohull ferries operating on Shetland's frequent inter-island services have minimal shore-based, shift-working crews and operate efficiently for significantly longer hours daily than CalMac; likewise, privately owned Western Ferries, with one route, four ships and exemplary reliability and which incidentally also pays tax to support public services. Mr Turbet finishes by extolling the virtues of 'the public model's ability to divert resources where they are needed', as compared with an operator serving just one route. Well, if CalMac's record of network capacity constraints and chaos is his desired model, I fear for the future of our island communities. There is, however, a better way – catamarans, minimal shore-based crewing, multi-ship frequent crossings and gradually-introduced debundled route tendering, preferably to community-owned entities. Roy Pedersen, Inverness. Read more letters What's the value of human life? It is quite remarkable that an amendment to decriminalise self-abortions until birth in England and Wales was considered in the same week as new legislation seeking to decriminalise assisted suicide in the Westminster Parliament. Similar initiatives are also being examined in Scotland, as mentioned by Hannah Brown ("Labour MP calls for Scotland to decriminalise abortion", June 29). It is, therefore, appropriate to ask what is happening in our modern society; why have many members of the general public, and their representatives in Parliament, given up on the concept of the value of human life? A societal paradox seems obvious. UK and Scottish government funding has been quite rightly provided to support extremely premature infants, while initiatives are considered to enable abortions until birth. Similarly, financial support is rightly being provided to prevent suicides, including amongst young persons, while new assisted suicide legislation is being considered. In all this confusion, it is worth asking why human life should be valued. Certainly, from a purely scientific perspective, human beings have no value whatsoever since they are just made up of about 70 per cent water and a few other biochemical compounds. Do human beings then have value because they have autonomy? But this would mean that some lives, such as the unborn and those with very serious mental disorders, are worthless. Moreover, how can the autonomy of persons, logically, give them any worth? Maybe the value of a human life comes from the amount of pleasure or suffering it experiences. But why should the activation of certain sensory cells in the brains of individuals give them any greater worth? Moreover, if pleasure is all that mattered, it would mean that all persons in society would have lives of unequal value. So where does the value of human life come from, including that of politicians who adjudicate (after a few hours of discussion) whether some of those around them have lives unworthy of life, which can be ended? But perhaps politicians in Parliament only exist to support the concept of a social contract where everyone should equally respect each other. But why then should the strong and powerful respect such a contract? And why should anyone care if no one has any value? The only possible answer to the question of why human persons have worth, lies in the belief that every human person has immeasurable value. A belief that everyone should share in a secular society if it is to remain civilised and not descend into a jungle of barbarity. In this regard, it was distressing to see so many MSPs disparage personal beliefs in the debates on assisted suicide in the Scottish Parliament. They ought to have realised that it is only because they, themselves, share the belief in the value and the equality of all human life, that democracy and the Scottish Parliament actually exist. Dr Antony Latham (Chair); Dr Anne Williams (Vice-Chair); Prof Dr Robert Minns (Honorary Chair); Dr Calum MacKellar (Director of Research); Dr. Danielle de Zeeuw (Senior Researcher), Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, Edinburgh. Why the EU is struggling Ian McConnell's article rehashing tired Brexit regrets ("We're all still paying price for hard Brexit", June 29) does so in defiance of mounting evidence that the EU's internal contradictions are being brutally exposed. Donald Trump's proposed high tariffs on EU exports are not reckless bluster – they are a response to long-standing covert trade barriers and regulatory protectionism that have helped the EU run persistently high surpluses. The irony? Britain experienced the same treatment, yet was told to accept a £121 billion goods trade deficit with the EU (2023) while paying £10bn net annually into the EU coffers. And this wasn't a global pattern. The UK's goods trade with the rest of the world was broadly in balance, underscoring how structurally skewed our trade relationship with the EU had become. The bloc's protectionist barriers – and rigid regulatory alignment – consistently undermined British competitiveness. Unlike Britain's previous passivity, the US has now acted decisively. And with Fortress Europe under pressure, countries like Italy, facing economic malaise and rising populism, may well look to strike their own deals with the US, bypassing Brussels entirely. Germany, meanwhile, long enjoyed the advantages of an artificially weak euro, supercharging its export dominance. But that model is now unravelling: a struggling car industry, falling Chinese demand, and crippling energy policy are exposing deep vulnerabilities. A weaker Germany means a less cohesive EU. Outside the bloc, Britain is free to strike deals. Like, for example, trade deals with the US, India and the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership), which may be modest today, but they align us with the fastest-growing economies of this and the next generation. They represent flexibility and global engagement – exactly what Brexit was meant to enable. The EU is now discovering how 'difficult to negotiate with' it has become – only this time, it's not Britain acquiescing but America swinging a hammer. Ian Lakin, Aberdeen. Debt worry for Scotland The latest figures on Scotland's debt makes grim reading: average household unsecured debt is running at over £16,000 and more than 475,000 people are on benefits, while 810,000 16-64-year-olds are economically inactive. There needs to be radical change to stimulate employment and a return to work in order to get us out of the financial rut that the SNP has allowed Scotland to sink into. Dennis Forbes Grattan, Aberdeen. Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump (Image: PA) Please support these rabbis It is tragic for humanity that two men have appeared on the world stage at the worst possible time and place. One whom I am referring to is Benjamin Netanyahu. The government of which he is Prime Minister is responsible for murdering and injuring some 50,000 children (Unicef). That would keep most people awake at night. But no: he and his fanatical supporters press on, planning more suffering, more cruelty, more murdering of children, more clearing Palestinians off their land, destroying their infrastructure. The other is Donald Trump. I do not need to list the ways in which he is singularly unfit to be 'leader of the free world'. I was however going to suggest he is unfit to be President of the United States, but that is a decision for the American electorate to make, once those who voted for him come to their senses. I mentioned in my letter published on June 29 that one of the positive elements in this unfolding tragedy is the many Jewish Israelis 'who defy courageously their government by working for peace and justice'. There are many such groups and I suggest that we can respond to their courage by providing them with financial assistance. I give one example only, that being Rabbis for Human Rights, who, driven by 'the profound Jewish values of responsibility for the safety and welfare of the stranger, the different and the weak, the widow and the orphan' provide aid for Palestinian communities facing state-backed settler violence and ethnic cleansing. There is a website for British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights. John Milne, Uddingston.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
The UN is our best defence against a third world war. As Trump wields the axe, who will fight to save it?
The United Nations and its agencies have long struggled with funding shortfalls. Now an entrenched problem is becoming an acute crisis in the shadow of Donald Trump's executioner's axe. The US is the biggest contributor, at 22%, to the UN's core budget. In February, the White House announced a six-month review of US membership of all international organisations, conventions and treaties, including the UN, with a view to reducing or ending funding – and possible withdrawal. The deadline for decapitation falls next month. Trump's abolition of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and scrapping of most aid programmes, has already badly damaged UN-led and UN-backed humanitarian operations, which rely on discretionary funding. Yet Trump's axe symbolises a more fundamental threat – to multilateralism and the much-battered international rules-based order. The basic concept of collective responsibility for maintaining global peace and security, and collaboration in tackling shared problems – embodied by the UN since its creation 80 years ago last week – is on the chopping block. The stakes are high – and Washington is not the only villain. Like the US, about 40 countries are behind in paying obligatory yearly dues. Discretionary donations are declining. The UN charter, a statement of founding principles, has been critically undermined by failure to halt Russia's illegal war of aggression in Ukraine (and by last month's US-Israeli attack on Iran). China and others, including the UK, ignore international law when it suits. The number and longevity of conflicts worldwide is rising; UN envoys are sidelined; UN peacekeeping missions are disparaged. The security council is often paralysed by vetoes; the general assembly is largely powerless. By many measures, the UN isn't working. A crunch looms. If the UN is allowed to fail or is so diminished that its agencies cannot fully function, there is nothing to take its place. Nothing, that is, except the law of the jungle, as seen in Gaza and other conflict zones where UN agencies are excluded, aid workers murdered and legal norms flouted. The UN system has many failings, some self-inflicted. But a world without the UN would, for most people in most places, be more dangerous, hungrier, poorer, unhealthier and less sustainable. The US is not expected to withdraw from the UN altogether (although nothing is impossible with this isolationist, ultra-nationalist president). But Trump's hostile intent is evident. His 2026 budget proposal seeks a 83.7% cut – from $58.7bn to $9.6bn – in all US international spending. That includes an 87% reduction in UN funding, both obligatory and discretionary. 'In 2023, total US spending on the UN amounted to about $13bn. This is equivalent to only 1.6% of the Pentagon's budget that year ($816bn) – or about two-thirds of what Americans spend on ice-cream annually,' Stewart Patrick of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace noted. Economic development aid, disaster relief and family planning programmes would be gutted. The impact is potentially world-changing. Key UN agencies in the firing line include the children's fund, Unicef – at a time when the risks facing infants and children are daunting; the World Food Programme (WFP), which could lose 30% of its staff; agencies handling refugees and migration, which are also shrinking; the International court of justice (the 'world court'), which has shone a light on Israel's illegal actions in Gaza; and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran's and others' nuclear activities. Trump is already boycotting the World Health Organization, the Palestinian relief agency (Unrwa) and the UN Human Rights Council, and has rescinded $4bn allocated to the UN climate fund, claiming that all act contrary to US interests. If his budget is adopted this autumn, the UN's 2030 sustainable development goals may prove unattainable. US financial backing for international peacekeeping and observer missions in trouble spots such as Lebanon, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kosovo, currently 26% of total spending, will plunge to zero. The withdrawal of USAID support is already proving lethal, everywhere from Somalia and Sudan to Bangladesh and Haiti. UN officials describe the situation in post-earthquake, conflict-riven, aid-deprived Myanamar as a 'humanitarian catastrophe'. Research published in the Lancet found that Trump's cuts could cause more than 14m additional deaths by 2030, a third of them children. The WFP, the world's largest food aid supplier, says its projected $8.1bn funding deficit this year comes as acute hunger affects a record 343 million people in 74 countries. And other donor states are failing to fill the gap left by the US. So far in 2025, only 11% of the $46.2bn required for 44 UN-prioritised crises has been raised. The UK recently slashed its aid budget by £6bn, to pay for nuclear bombs. UN chiefs acknowledge that many problems pre-date Trump. António Guterres, the secretary general, has initiated thousands of job cuts as part of the 'UN80' reform plan to consolidate operations and reduce the core budget by up to 20%. But, marking the anniversary, Guterres said the gravest challenge is the destructive attitude of member states that sabotage multilateral cooperation, break the rules, fail to pay their share and forget why the UN was founded in the first place. 'The charter of the United Nations is not optional. It is not an à la carte menu. It is the bedrock of international relations,' he said. Guterres says the UN's greatest achievement since 1945 is preventing a third world war. Yet respected analysts such as Fiona Hill believe it's already begun. The UK and other democracies face some pressing questions. Will they meekly give in to Trump once again? Or will they fight to stop this renegade president and rogue states such as Russia and Israel dismantling the world's best defence against global anarchy, forever wars and needless suffering? Will they fight to save the UN? Simon Tisdall is a Guardian columnist
The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Scotland's Housing Crisis: McAllan to deliver emergency plan
In an interview with The Herald, Ms McAllan also said she is 'unashamedly' making eradicating child poverty her top priority after taking up the portfolio last month. Her comments come as, over a year ago, a national housing emergency was declared in the Scottish Parliament. READ MORE: Plan to use student flats to house homeless approved but 'is not long-term solution' 'People will die': Housing Secretary urged to end 'political choice' of homelessness John Swinney creates new role for Mairi McAllan in cabinet reshuffle There are currently over ten thousand children stuck in temporary accommodation, the highest since records began, and over 250,000 people stuck on social housing waiting lists. Announcing her intentions to deliver a plan to tackle this, Ms McAllan told The Herald: 'I'm still working with senior officials to get the lay of the land and what now can be stepped up. 'I can't tell you today exactly what my plan is, but I do intend to set out a plan as soon as I can with some enhanced and expedited action which will respond, as I see it, in an emergency fashion." Asked about when to expect this action, the cabinet secretary said: 'Parliament needs to be back because it will need to be announced in parliament then scrutinised - but that's the timeline I'm working on because we don't have a lot of time.' The cabinet secretary said the capital position in Scotland is 'very difficult' at the moment, when asked if this plan will include more investment. Ms McAllan said: 'If there was no shortage of public money, I would want to see it put into housing. There is a shortage of public money so I have to think creatively about that because we still need more.' A Scottish Government investment taskforce is currently considering how much public money could leverage private money into the housing sector. The expected post-Scottish Parliamentary recess plan comes as house building numbers in Scotland are plummeting, with nearly 4,000 fewer homes in supply in 2023-24 compared to the year before. Ms McAlllan said these figures are 'concerning' but insisted they do not present an 'unbridgeable gap'. The cabinet secretary said: 'The stats that we have had on the all ten year builds, they showed an 11% decrease in starts, and a four per cent decrease in completions and that is of course the wrong direction, particularly when we have such high demands but it is not insurmountable.' In 2021, the SNP set themselves a task to build 110,000 affordable homes by 2032. Opposition parties and the outgoing chief executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Association have said they will fail to meet this target. The cabinet secretary, however, said she believes they can meet this target and she intends not to rollback on it. Ms McAllan said: 'These are challenging targets but I think the public expect their governments to challenge themselves. I'm absolutely not intending to roll back on any of that." Asked if the 2032 target is still credible, she said: 'I think it is. I think that it will require things to step up. It's challenging for a number of reasons, not least costs.' The cabinet secretary cited inflationary costs that have been 'bearing down' on construction since Covid as well as rising demand for housing. Housing charity Shelter Scotland recently named John Swinney's legislative agenda a 'Programme for Homelessness' as they argued it failed to provide a significant increase in plans for social home building or extra budgets or investment in housing services. The Housing Secretary accepted more action is needed but believes "real effort" from the government is currently taking place. She said: 'I think there is more that we can do but I wouldn't agree with that assessment [from Shelter Scotland] because I see real effort being made on that foundation programme of housing delivering as well as trying to look at all these labours for empty homes.' Ms McAllan said the 'core' of action to tackle house building would be the Affordable Housing Supply Programme which the government is investing £768 million this year. The housing secretary said she is told this will translate into 8,000 affordable homes. However, she admitted this is not enough to solve the crisis situation. 'Houses need to keep on being delivered but that's not enough because that will take 18 months," she said, "So I also need to understand what levers can be pulled to bring empty homes back into use to turn around social voids. 'The challenge is now so stark and there's a number of reasons for that and we just need to demonstrate that we can step up. 'We've got a Scottish election next year. I have come quite late to this brief but if I had to say what's one of things I'm focused on achieving is bringing down the number of children in temporary accommodation. I can't abide the idea that they do not have a permanent home." Earlier this week, The Herald revealed additional empty homes officers are being recruited to bring more privately owned houses back into use as part of a £2 million fund. Stalled developments is also an 'untapped area', according to Ms McAllan, and she said the government is 'brokering' those issues with developers to 'unlock tens and thousands of houses'. An area the cabinet secretary also wants to focus on is supporting people to buy their first home as thousands of people are currently priced out of the market due to bidding wars, rising costs, a lack of government support and demand outstripping supply. Ms McAllan said she is considering introducing schemes to help first time buyers but could not give details on what this would look like or when this would be introduced. 'I'm looking at all of that." the cabinet secretary said, "It's incredibly difficult and yet it means so much in terms of financial security in somebody's life so I want to help bridge that gap and I want to be fleet of foot on that as well.' Ms McAllan also said the Lands Building and Transaction Tax, described as a 'highly economically damaging tax' by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, could be an 'important tool' for first time buyers if 'carefully handled'. Anas Sarwar claimed the planning system is holding back the Scottish economy. (Image: PA) The housing secretary also said she is looking into the practice of 'flipping' - taking accommodation labelled as temporary and making it permanent. 'It's worth saying that a lot of the families in temporary accommodation just now, it's not necessarily unsuitable," she said, "A lot of it will be council or social housing but by the very nature of being temporary, it's not acceptable so that will be something that I'm really focused on. 'We've also got the Housing Bill going through just now so I'm challenging my team to say we've got the opportunity of primary legislation here. 'I don't want to get to the other side of this bill and be told we needed primary legislative power for other measures we wanted to put in place.' Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar recently claimed the planning system is holding back the Scottish economy as he pointed to development applications taking 58 weeks on average to be processed in Glasgow but only 18 weeks in Manchester. READ MORE: Responding to his comments, Ms McAllan said she understands how planning can be both an 'enabler and inhibitor of action'. 'I want it to be an enabler and my colleagues and I are doing a lot of work on planning reform and looking at support needed for local authorities to clear backlogs', Ms McAllan said, adding that she does not think it is appropriate for the Scottish Government to 'go over the head of local authorities' when it comes to planning application decisions. Working alongside her colleague and public finance minister Ivan McKee, the cabinet secretary said they are developing a plan to provide more support to local authorities to help them move through planning applications more quickly. The Scottish Government has invested £40 million this year into supporting councils to acquire homes in order to get people out of temporary accommodation. The cabinet secretary hopes this will free up 1,000 homes in Scotland this year alone. Ms McAllan said she is 'proud' of the government's record on housing. She said: 'We have consistently invested highly in affordable homes in Scotland to the point now where proportionately the availability of social homes in Scotland is 47% higher in England and 73% higher in Wales. 'But the situation that we are in just now is extremely strained."
