Latest news with #Azerbaijan
Fox News
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
US Virtual Embassy in Iran urges Americans to evacuate country immediately after partial airspace reopening
The U.S. Virtual Embassy in Iran is insisting that Americans leave the Middle Eastern country amid conflicts in the region after a partial reopening of its airspace. This comes after a ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel to end the nearly two-week conflict. "As of June 26, 2025, Iran's airspace has been partially reopened, although business trips from Tehran and other major centers may be interrupted," the embassy said in an advisory. "US citizens should follow local media and consult with commercial airlines to get more information about flights departing from Iran." American citizens who wish to leave Iran must travel by land to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey or Turkmenistan if the conditions are safe, the embassy said. The U.S. State Department created a crisis information acceptance form for American citizens in Iran to provide information on consular assistance, the embassy noted. But because of the limitations of consular support in Iran, the embassy said it does not anticipate that withdrawal from Iran will be provided with direct assistance from the U.S. government. U.S. citizens who plan to leave Iran must use the available facilities to leave the country, it said. The embassy encouraged Americans wanting to leave Iran to take several actions, including having a plan to leave immediately without relying on the U.S. government, keeping their phones charged and communicating with loved ones about their situation, preparing an emergency plan for emergency situations and signing up for alerts from the U.S. government such as the Intelligent Passenger Registration Program (STEP) that would make it easier to find their location in an emergency abroad. Americans who cannot leave Iran are advised to find a safe place in their residence or another safe building and to carry food, water, medicine and other essential items with them. At certain intervals, the Iranian government has limited access to the mobile internet network and physical phone lines, the embassy said, adding that U.S. citizens should be prepared for internet network outages and develop alternative network connectivity and communication plans. "American-Iranian dual citizens must leave Iran with an Iranian passport and before leaving Iran, they must be ready to face checkpoints and be interrogated by Iranian authorities," the embassy said. "The state of the Iranian government Dual citizenship does not recognize and will treat American-Iranian dual citizens only as Iranian citizens. US nationals in Iran are at significant risk of interrogation, arrest, and detention. Showing a US passport or proving a connection with the United States is sufficient reason for the arrest of a person by the Iranian authorities." "US passports may be confiscated in Iran," it continued. "American-Iranian dual citizens should consider that in their Iranian passport, they will receive the necessary visas for the countries they will pass through on their return trip to the United States, so that in case of confiscation of their American passport, they can use [their] Iranian passport in Iran. These people can then apply for a new US passport in the country they will pass through." U.S. citizens who reside in Iran with a permanent residence visa, regardless of how long they are staying, must obtain an exit permit when departing Iran, the embassy said, noting that all Iranian passport holders are required to pay exit fees.
BBC News
7 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
Meet the Isle of Wight carpenter behind rescued bears enclosure
The carpenter who built an enclosure for two "naughty" rescued brother bears says it feels "amazing" to see them Tweitman helped create the enclosure for Benji and Balu at Wildheart Animal Sanctuary on the Isle of has been almost a year in the making to create the enclosure for the bears, who were saved from a cage in Azerbaijan and released into the sanctuary on 4 Tweitman says it was "quite emotional" to see the bears splashing around in the water - even if they recently damaged part of their new enclosure. The bears were recently moved into a smaller pen while repairs were made to part of their new home, but have since been chief executive, Lawrence Bates, said they had a "notoriously curious nature" and jokingly called them "naughty bears" after they damaged a brick. Mr Tweitman explained the 3,500sqm (11,483 sqft) enclosure was made through "lots of recycling and re-using" to keep costs materials have been used to make the bear platform and the connecting ramp in the bears' new the local marina donated concrete boat floats to build the structure."Actually building an enclosure for bears - everything is supersized, super engineered and structurally a lot safer. There's zoo regulations to follow, guidelines and stuff so the bears don't escape," Mr Tweitman said."[There was] a lot of thought about putting in a rock slide to hang out on and sunbathe. All sorts of things that cropped up as we built, adding in extra mounds for privacy, hibernation holes." About two years ago, the bears were relocated by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources to a temporary had been previously kept in a cage at a restaurant in Azerbaijan to attract 2024, Wildheart Animal Sanctuary started a fundraising campaign to pay for the bears' transport and brand new home, with almost £218,000 raised. Mr Tweitman added: "We broke ground last August I think, obviously it was time critical getting the bears here."It's absolute madness really, to think the amount of work and effort that everyone's put in to this build for two bears."It's quite emotional just to see them splashing around in the water, just happy." You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
ABC News
9 hours ago
- Politics
- ABC News
US president says he could bomb Iran again, as 3,200 Australians and family members register with DFAT
US President Donald Trump has warned Iran he would order another bombing raid on its nuclear sites, if Tehran resumes efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. Speaking to media in the White House on Friday US-time, Mr Trump said he would "without question, absolutely" consider more military action if necessary. His comments came as approximately 3,200 Australians and family members in Iran registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) crisis portal, with some wanting help to leave the country. On the advice of DFAT, some Australians in Iran travelled to the Iran-Azerbaijan border hoping leave Iran last week but got knocked back by Azerbaijan officials in part because they didn't have a special code, the ABC reported on Thursday. Late on Friday, a DFAT spokesperson said the backlog of Australian requests for border crossing codes had been resolved. DFAT is supporting Australians who wish to leave Iran secure seats on commercial flights that have begun operating out of the country, the spokesperson added. Iranian-Australian Maryam lives and works in Melbourne but is concerned for her mother, brother and his family who are in Iran. "The possibility of war would take everything away, you know, and you worry about what would happen to them and just how we could support them in in all of this," said Maryam. Maryam's mother is not an Australian citizen and while she has previously held visitor visas, she does not have a visa that is currently valid. DFAT allows people who are citizens or their close relatives to register for emergency assistance. Maryam said Australia backing the US strikes against Iran, and Israel's right to defend itself, did not sit well with many Iranians in Australia. "I think every Iranian I talk too, they felt very disillusioned," she said. "You're working here. You're paying tax. We are trying to contribute to this society." There are more than 85,000 Iranian-born people living in Australia, according to Home Affairs. Australian-Iranian Soroush, a civil engineer who works in fly-in fly-out jobs in West Australia, arrived back in Australia last week after leaving Iran via Turkiye. Soroush was in Iran visiting his parents and sister for the first time in two years, but his trip got cut short by the Israel-Iran war. Soroush said the trio drove from Tehran to the Iran-Turkiye border to "escape" the situation and faced chaotic situations trying to get out of the country. He had tried to register with DFAT but couldn't get through the process because of a lack of internet access in Iran. "I couldn't even phone my friends to tell them to do this for me, and then when I decided to exit from Turkiye … I thought if I get stuck somewhere I will continue registering," he said. As a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran continued to hold, there was further heated rhetoric from Mr Trump on Friday US-time in response to comments from Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, last week. Mr Trump scoffed at Ayatollah Khamenei's warning to the US not to launch future strikes on Iran, as well as the Iranian supreme leader's assertion that Tehran "won the war" with Israel. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi hit back at Mr Trump in a post on X early on Saturday. He said a potential nuclear deal was conditional on the US ending its "disrespectful tone" toward the supreme leader. "If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran's Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, and stop hurting his millions of heartfelt followers," Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X. Iran has rejected a request by the UN's nuclear watchdog to visit sites bombed by the US and Israel, saying it suggested malign intent. Martin Hodgson is a senior advocate with the Foreign Prisoner Support Service, which works to get Australians detained or otherwise in jeopardy overseas back home. He said he was currently assisting "more than 10" Australians seeking to leave Iran who feared not only Israeli bombs but also Iranian authorities, who he said many suspected were using the war as cover to detain those viewed as unfriendly to the regime. This could include Iranian Australians who were known to be secular intellectuals, people of the Kurdish ethnicity, and Sunni Muslims, he said. Iran's theocratic regime and most of its population are of the Shia sect of Islam. Iranian authorities said on Wednesday (Tehran time) they had executed three men they accused of spying for Israel. Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Hussein Baoumi, said calls from Iranian officials for expedited trials and executions of those accused of collaborating with Israel showed an effort to "weaponise the death penalty to assert control and instil fear". "The authorities must ensure all those detained are protected from enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, and afforded fair trials at all times, including during armed conflict," he said. Reuters/AP
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Edward Burtynsky: ‘My photographs are like Rorschach tests'
Few if any photographers have done more than Edward Burtynsky to shape our view of the large-scale industrial production that is a constant, ever-expanding part of the capitalist system. Since the 1980s, he has created more than a dozen multiyear series, tackling extractive industries like mining and oil refining in India, China and Azerbaijan, traveling to such disparate places as Western Australia, Chile's Atacama desert and the so-called ship graveyards of Bangladesh. Often taken from high in the sky, his photos offer views of industrial landscapes that attend to color and pattern with a sophisticated eye reminiscent of abstract expressionism, while also forcing us to contend with the devastating transformations to the natural world required to sustain our way of life. Burtynsky's new show at the International Center of Photography in New York, titled The Great Acceleration, brings together some 70 photographs from a lifetime behind the lens. It seeks to offer a fitting survey of a masterful photographic career, and it debuts the largest photographic mural that Burtynsky has ever done. His relationship with the medium began when he was about 12, when he got his first camera. As a young child, he spent hour upon hour painting alongside his father, who had hoped to become an artist but ended up working in factories. After he learned to painstakingly sketch landscapes and paint with oils, the ease of photographs was a revelation. 'I just realized how in one fraction of a second I can create a landscape – just, boom, it's there,' Burtynsky told me. 'I loved how it was a modern, fast way to get your image, and I loved the darkroom, watching the image emerge.' Similarly, Burtynsky's relationship with the industrial world that has become his subject goes back to his formative years – originally trained as a tool and die maker, he came of age working within factories, seeing first-hand just how dirty, loud and dangerous they really were. 'When I saw the scale of industry, as a young 18-year-old working in these places,' Burtynsky said, 'I could tell that if we were going to become this population of all this growth that they were projecting, then all of this was just going to amplify, this all was just going to get bigger and more insane.' Turning away from such a life, Burtynsky began to study the graphic arts, and after a well-timed push from one of his instructors, he made the decision to receive formal instruction in photography. After spending so much time around heavy industry, he said, it was a revelation: 'All of a sudden, I'm exposed to the whole history of art, and the whole history of music, and the whole history of photography.' It was in school that Burtynsky got exposure to major influences like Eadweard Muybridge, Carleton Watkins, Caspar David Friedrich and painters of the New York school, particularly Jackson Pollock. It was there that he also began to develop his distinctive way of seeing the world. 'I really liked the kind of field painting, the compression of space, the gesture, the color fields, in abstract expressionism,' he said. 'So I started doing landscapes, but I said: 'I'm not just going to go out into the forest and do cliches like anybody else. I'm going to go and try to do Jackson Pollocks with a large-format camera. I'm going to try to attune my eye so I can find really complex spaces in nature that are almost like gesture paintings.'' In no small part because of that painterly eye, Burtynsky imbues his work with an undeniable beauty, a fact that has sometimes made critics uneasy. Shots like that of a enormous stepwell in Rajasthan, or the Chino mine in Silver City, New Mexico, are mesmerizing in their intricacy, their arrangement of color and the hypnotic way that Burtynsky has framed the innumerable lines within. If his photographs of environmental destruction are gorgeous, Burtynsky defends them on the ground that this pleasingness evokes the curiosity and engagement that leads to potentially fruitful dialogue. 'There are all sorts of issues that start to rise up. Like: are you aestheticizing the destruction of the planet?' he said. 'Well, that's not how I'm looking at it. But maybe. I'm really trying to find a visual language that has a painterly or surreal quality to it that shows the world we've evolved in a way that makes people engage with it, versus saying: 'That's just a banal picture of something that I'm not interested in.'' Burtynsky is clear about the fact that his images are meant to be not didactic but enigmatic, entry points and not endpoints. Although it is difficult to look at shots such as a wasteland full of discarded tires or a mountainside honeycombed by extractive mining without feeling a gut reaction of shame and eco-anxiety, his photographs are much more than just environmentalist agitprop. The artist takes pride in the many interpretations that his works can hold. 'My photographs are like Rorschach tests,' he said. 'It's like the teacher puts a picture in front of the class and it's like: what did you see? If they see environmental degradation, they see something out of the history of art. If they see something, like, technologically kind of advanced, or some curious way in which we do things as humans, each one of them is a legitimate reading of what they're seeing – the individual completes it. When people tell me about what they see in an image, I get to learn more about them than they probably learn about me.' In addition to delivering some of Burtynsky's most career-defining works, The Great Acceleration also shows lesser-known sides of the photographer – there are two pieces from his student days, a shot from a rarely seen series that he made exploring masculinity via taxidermy workshops, and never-before-shown portraits of individual workers who toil within the built landscapes that he specializes in. 'I would walk through these landscapes with my 2 1/4 camera, and every once in a while I'd see a person and say: 'Can I take your photograph?' It was always an acknowledgement of the sitter in their space, and just another way of showing that these are things that humans are doing,' he said. Burtynsky hopes that shows like The Great Acceleration offer a way to let a wider audience see what is happening in the world. He remains doubtful of art's ability to directly transform how governments and industry use our resources, but he does believe in the value of raising awareness and sparking curiosity. 'Artists are soft power, we're storytellers, we don't have the ability to influence or shape policy. What we can do is raise consciousness, absorb our experience of the world and move it through the medium of our choice. I'm trying to be a kind of conduit into what is happening.' Edward Burtynsky: The Great Acceleration is on show at the International Center of Photography in New York until 28 September
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
'No other option': desperate plea from stranded Aussies
Australians stranded in Iran say government advice to escape by crossing international borders is not feasible for the most vulnerable, amid fears a fragile truce between Israel and Iran could break. Efforts to bring Australians home from the region have been complicated by border restrictions and flight path closures. Perth engineer Vahid said his sister Azam and their parents Ezat, 70, and Hossein, 86, had travelled to Iran in June 2024 so his father could undergo health checks before returning to Australia as their permanent residency application was being processed. But the family has been left stranded after airports were shut down and borders closed following the outbreak of fighting. To make matters worse, his parents' visas have expired, making a return even more difficult. "Dad is 86 years old and cannot travel long distances by car to the Azerbaijani border or Turkey to get to the Australian consulate because the consular office in Tehran is closed," he told AAP on Friday. He is pleading with the federal government for guidance after the only advice provided was to cross the border into Azerbaijan or to shelter in place. The trip, which Azam, Ezat and Hossein would have to organise, would take at least 12 hours by car. "There is no other option except to go through the border by car," said Vahid, who asked for his surname not to be used. "This solution is not feasible for them - for people like my parents at that age - it's not feasible for them to travel long distances." The family is under immense stress, fearing the "fragile" ceasefire could shatter, and is unable to escape the capital Tehran to a safer location due to Hossein's age. Commercial options to leave Iran are becoming available. Contact local travel providers about air and land transport availability. This may be the fastest way for you to reach your destination. See our latest information on border crossings and subscribe: — Smartraveller (@Smartraveller) June 26, 2025 "I experience lots of stress, maybe double the stress, over here because I can see the situation and I don't have any options to help them," Vahid said. He urged authorities to issue his parents with new visas and to help his sister, an Australian citizen, return to her son in Sydney, saying the situation was "out of their hands". About 3200 Australians wanting to leave Iran have registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs. Iranian Community of Western Australia president Mohammad Bahar said those he had spoken with were happy with the advice and felt the government "never forgot them". DFAT says it is supporting Australians secure seats on commercial flights that are starting to resume out of Iran. Australians can leave Iran using border crossings into Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia or Turkmenistan, with the Smartraveller website adding those who can't or don't want to leave should monitor local developments and follow local advice. A ceasefire was reached after 12 days of war, which erupted when Israel launched attacks on Iranian military and nuclear sites. The assault triggered waves of retaliatory strikes before the US president intervened to put an end to the escalating violence.
