Latest news with #Israeli
Straits Times
43 minutes ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
US Senate rejects bid to curb Trump's Iran war powers
A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS/File Photo WASHINGTON - The Republican-led U.S. Senate rejected a Democratic-led bid on Friday to block President Donald Trump from using further military force against Iran, hours after the president said he would consider more bombing. The Senate vote was 53 to 47 against a war powers resolution that would have required congressional approval for more hostilities against Iran. The vote was along party lines, except Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman voted no, with Republicans, and Kentucky Republican Rand Paul voted yes, with Democrats. Senator Tim Kaine, chief sponsor of the resolution, has tried for years to wrest back Congress' authority to declare war from both Republican and Democratic presidents. Kaine said his latest effort underscored that the U.S. Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the sole power to declare war and requires that any hostility with Iran be explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for the use of military force. "If you think the president should have to come to Congress, whether you are for or against a war in Iran, you'll support Senate Joint Resolution 59, you'll support the Constitution that has stood the test of time," Kaine said in a speech before the vote. Lawmakers have been pushing for more information about weekend U.S. strikes on Iran, and the fate of Iran's stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. Earlier on Friday, Trump sharply criticized Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, dropped plans to lift sanctions on Iran, and said he would consider bombing Iran again if Tehran is enriching uranium to worrisome levels. He was reacting to Khamenei's first remarks after a 12-day conflict with Israel that ended when the United States launched bombing raids against Iranian nuclear sites. 'OBLITERATED' Members of Trump's national security team held classified briefings on the strikes for the Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday and Friday. Many Democratic lawmakers left the briefings saying they had not been convinced that Iran's nuclear facilities had been "obliterated," as Trump announced shortly after the raid. Opponents of the resolution said the strike on Iran was a single, limited operation within Trump's rights as commander-in-chief, not the start of sustained hostilities. Senator Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican who served as ambassador to Japan during Trump's first term, said the measure could prevent any president from acting quickly against a country that has been a long-term adversary. "We must not shackle our president in the middle of a crisis when lives are on the line," Hagerty said before the vote. Trump has rejected any suggestion that damage to Iran's nuclear program was not as profound as he has said. Iran says its nuclear research is for civilian energy production. Under U.S. law, Senate war powers resolutions are privileged, meaning that the chamber had to promptly consider and vote on the measure, which Kaine introduced this month. But to be enacted, the resolution would have had to pass the Senate as well as the House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, said this week he did not think it was the right time for such an effort. During Trump's first term, in 2020, Kaine introduced a similar resolution to rein in the Republican president's ability to wage war against Iran. That measure passed both the Senate and House of Representatives, with some Republican support, but did not garner enough votes to survive the president's veto. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Express Tribune
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Preserving Palestinian palates
Sami Tamimi, the acclaimed Palestinian chef who comprises half of the duo behind the popular Ottolenghi deli and restaurant empire (the other half is his fellow Jerusalemite and business partner, Israeli-British chef Yotam Ottolenghi), has paid tribute to this culinary tradition of "farming and foraging and eating what is growing in your backyard" in his forthcoming cookbook Boustany, or My Garden in Arabic, which will be released in the US on July 15. "The whole idea started from the COVID-19 lockdown," recalls Tamimi when speaking to Reuters. "When you're in a situation like lockdown, you really get homesick because you want to be with your family and eat the food that brings you comfort. I wanted, in a way, to transport myself to being with my family back home. But because I couldn't, I started cooking simple dishes [...] It started with me just writing these recipes and, six months later, I had 300." In Boustany, the chef talks about his family and his past without going into politics – primarily because the book was already finalised by October 7, 2023. However, in conversation with Reuters, Tamimi turns his attention to weightier matters, such as the importance of promoting and preserving the Palestinian people's rich culinary heritage — not only amid the destruction of Gaza, but in the face of what he sees as the longstanding appropriation of traditional Palestinian dishes. Erasure of Palestinian food "The thing that really winds me up is seeing so many Israeli restaurants opening in the UK and Europe and America that are basically selling our food in the name of Israeli new cuisine," he comments. "What they do is take a dish and take it out of context. They don't have any backstory about where this dish comes from, what kind of tradition is behind it. It gets worse when they don't even bother to change the name of the dish." The chef explains that maklouba (a traditional Palestinian dish of layered rice, meat and vegetables that is flipped before serving, earning its name meaning "upside down" in Arabic) appears on menus as maklouba; mujadara (a popular Levantine dish of lentils, rice and crispy onions) is mujadara. "I'm not saying all these dishes are Palestinian, but they have their own history and heritage and rituals, and claiming all of that I find it so frustrating," he laments. However, when it comes to preserving Palestinian cuisine, Tamimi knows there is a long way to go. "Luckily, we have some really talented chefs that are pushing the boat towards preserving and putting our food under the limelight in a good way," he acknowledges. "But it took a long time because, coming out of trauma, people are focusing on other things to rebuild and preserve. Food was the last bit." Without Israeli occupation Tamimi explains that he knew he wanted to learn "other cuisines" from a young age, and it was only later that he realised how important the food of his homeland was to him after he moved to Tel Aviv. "But I didn't want to do traditional Palestinian food because, first of all, it takes hours to make," he recalls. "And there's no market for it. It sounds horrible, but when you do traditional food like this in a restaurant, it's a bit like peasant food. People don't appreciate it." Later, however, Tamimi found a way through after experimentation. "I worked in a Californian grill place in Tel Aviv for a few years and I started to combine bases of Palestinian food into new ingredients," he remarks. "And it worked. It was fun because I could stay true to a dish but kind of elaborate on it, and this became my style. I want to think that if Israel didn't occupy Palestine, Palestinian food would be evolving into something that I do today. Cooking ultimately became Tamimi's way of imagining a Palestinian cuisine unhindered by decades of displacement, destruction and occupation. "I mean, people were kicked out of their country, people were losing their homes. In that situation you just stop and think, what are the things I can hold onto? And food was one of them," he says. Lingering guilt Younger Palestinians, it transpires, are far more receptive to Tamimi's endeavours than anyone else. "The older generation is probably more protective [of the original recipes] but the newer generation likes what I do," admits Tamimi. "I get it quite a lot from young Palestinians where they say some of the recipes that I do conveys the whole flavour of what their mom cooks, but it takes a quarter of the time. I think the older generation will probably laugh at me. What mess are you making with our food! But the newer generation are accepting it." Amid the destruction of Gaza and the deteriorating situation in the West Bank, Tamimi feels the pressure of preserving of his Palestinian culinary heritage. "I'm doing my bit by introducing more and more people to the culture, to the food, to what happened there," he maintains. "Because I feel like the more we talk about it, the more we put it under the spotlight, the more positive things will happen." The guilt of being away from home, however, is something he struggles to ignore. "I feel I have a responsibility, but I also feel bad because I'm away from home," he rues. "It's a price that I have to pay because if I was back in Jerusalem, I would never be where I am today because of its limitations. I'd probably be driving a bus!"
The Hindu
an hour ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Operation Sindhu: Fear, flight, and an uncertain future
In New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, Suhail Qadri, 57, paces nervously in front of an 'arrivals' gate as he waits for his two children — Imroz Qadri, 20, and Raiban Qadri, 23 — to land from conflict-torn Iran. When he finally sees them, quietly exiting from another gate to avoid the glare of cameras, his face lights up with relief. The brother and sister drop their luggage and run into his arms in a dimly lit corner. Imroz and Raiban are students of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences in the capital of Iran. Suhail, a resident of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), says he had lost touch with them from the fifth day of the conflict that broke out between Israel and Iran on June 13. 'For the last two days, I have been glued to my phone, waiting for an international number to pop up on my screen. I was hoping that the caller would either be my children or an embassy official telling me where they are,' he says. In J&K, every fifth house has a child pursuing an MMBS degree in Iran, explains Suhail. When news first broke about heightened tensions between Iran and Israel, Suhail and some of his neighbours quickly reached out to their children. The students were not perturbed at first. They became alarmed only when they began to spot missiles. 'Imroz called to say Israeli bombs had hit Tehran on June 13,' he says. 'They saw many missiles and got messages on WhatsApp that two Kashmiri students were hurt.' On June 13, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) instructed people in Tehran's District 18, which includes military buildings and residential neighbourhoods, to evacuate. When the IDF launched the attack on Iran's capital, several residential buildings and university complexes were impacted. Following this, the Indian Embassy in Iran posted on X that Indian students had been moved out of Tehran. The Embassy requested other residents with access to transportation to leave the capital too. On June 18, the Indian government launched Operation Sindhu to evacuate Indian nationals first from Iran and then from Israel as well. Imroz and Raiban were two of the 160 people evacuated and flown directly to India on June 20. So far, under the mission, India has evacuated more than 1,400 Indian nationals from Iran and more than 1,100 from Israel. Missiles in Iran When the attack began, Imroz recalls sitting inside the women's dormitory room with her friends. 'We were having a sleepover when we heard a thud. We thought crackers were being burst. But when the noise continued, we realised that there was an attack,'she says. Also read: 'There were sounds of sirens and distant explosions every day' Minutes later, Imroz and her friends, who had been following the news on the tense situation in West Asia, realised that the street in front of their dormitory had been bombed by the Israelis. Panic stricken, they rushed to the basement and huddled around the guards trying to understand what they should be doing next. Hania, 23, a fourth year MBBS student at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, saw the Israeli air strikes hit the university complex. 'The bomb dropped on the men's dormitory and the glass windows broke. Shards of glass injured at least two Indian students in the dorm,' she says over a call from Qom, about 160 kilometres away from Tehran, while waiting to be evacuated. Hania says the Indian Embassy contacted Indian students in Tehran and asked them to relocate to Qom, a relatively safer city. Many students chose to move out in buses provided by colleges. Some, like Hania, booked private cabs. 'There was no time to pack properly, so I left with my documents, some clothes, food, and some cash lying around,' says Hania, who is also from J&K. Tamheed Mughal, a third year student at the same university, says he has lived in a conflict zone (J&K). 'But when I found myself in another country hearing the incessant sound of bombing, I began palpitating. My anxiety got worse when the U.S. entered the war,' he says. Some of his peers have heard that the university will be holding a meeting on June 30. This, he thinks, may help him decide his future course. Tamheed is keen to go back and complete his degree. Iran's Health Ministry claims that 224 people have been killed so far in the conflict. Accustomed to conflict Indian nationals enrolled as students in Israeli universities say they had become accustomed to the stress of being at the centre of a conflict zone even before the latest round of attacks began between Iran and Israel. Sreyashi Bhowmick, 31, a postdoctoral student enrolled with the Tel Aviv University, says, 'Whenever Israel senses an attack coming its way, the civil defence force warns us of a possible attack from another country. The sirens then go off and we are expected to rush to the nearest bunkers or bomb shelters.' Sreyashi had earlier been evacuated in October 2023, under India's Operation Ajay, launched in response to the conflict between Israel and Gaza. She went back in February 2024, to continue work at the Geological Survey of Israel. 'It is exhausting to be on alert always,' says Sreyashi. 'It is bound to take a toll on your mental health, especially when you are living on your own, but the government here is very organised regarding wartime protocol,' she adds. Also read: Operation Sindhu: Special flights bring more Indians home from Iran and Israel On the evening of Israel's attack, when Iran hit back, Sreyashi was alone in her apartment. 'It was the middle of the night when messages started coming in, asking us to move to bunkers and bomb shelters. But to do that, I had to step out alone and walk to my landlady's house, since my apartment does not have any bunkers. So I decided to stay put,' says the student, who hails from Kolkata in West Bengal. Sreyashi, who is still in Israel, says, 'If something drastic happens, the Indian Embassy will arrange for our evacuation.' Another postdoctoral student from Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, about 20 km from Tel Aviv, says panic had not set in until missiles hit his university. 'Everyone living here told me that they had seen missiles being constantly launched and intercepted. Only when my university was hit did I realise that I was living in a conflict zone,' he says. He has been living in Rehovot for more than a year. About his decision to study in Israel, which is already at war with Gaza, he says, 'I was aware that Israel was at the centre of a geopolitical conflict, but since it is so invested in scientific research, it seemed like a good choice.' He reached Delhi after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire on June 23 between the warring nations and is now home in Kolkata. Living with worry During the early hours of June 19, a flight with 110 students from Iran's Urmia University landed in New Delhi. Like many others, Nargis, 22, a resident of Mumbai, Maharashtra, was in the midst of her semester exams when she was given a few hours' notice to leave. With just a cabin-sized bag, she travelled from Urmia to Qom and then to Yerevan in Armenia and then to Doha before finally reaching home. After spending 52 hours in transit, Nargis is elated to be in India, but she is also worried. Wiping beads of sweat off her forehead, the second year MBBS students says with a faint smile that she is hoping for stability in Iran soon. 'I took a loan to pursue an MBBS degree there,' she says. 'Many of us chose to pursue an MBBS degree in Iran because the tuition fees is far lower than in private medical colleges in India. A mediocre private medical college in India costs a minimum of ₹1 crore. In Iran, we can complete the same degree by paying ₹30 lakh without compromising on the rigour of education.' Editorial | Strategic misfire: On the Israel-Iran conflict Sitting inside an apartment in a colony in Sultanpuri, Delhi, Aman, 21, a first-generation medical student in his family, is anxious. 'Going by conversations on WhatsApp groups, several universities in Iran might open up for local students in a couple of weeks, but the university is yet to share any information with international students,' he says. Aman says if he is unable to go back, he may not be able to complete his foundational degree. 'Universities in Iran have tie-ups with other foreign universities, but the National Medical Council of India does not take cognisance of medical degrees from every other country. This degree is the only way my family and I can climb the societal and financial ladder,' he adds. Imroz left Iran during her semester exams. She spends all her time chatting with worried friends on WhatsApp and following the news. 'We have not received a single notification from our university about when our classes will resume, so my brother and I have no clue what lies ahead,' she says. Imroz has left all her books and notes in Iran, so even if she is asked to study online, she believes it is going to be a challenge. The parents of these students are equally worried. Md. Kachakkarel, 55, from Malappuram in Kerala, has spent nearly all his savings to educate his youngest daughter. 'I have spent more than ₹45 lakh for her degree and stay in Iran,' he says. 'If she cannot complete her degree, what was the point of my working in the Gulf for 25 years?' Kachakkarel went to work at construction sites in Saudi Arabia to save enough to fund the education of his three daughters. 'I saved every penny doing manual labour to ensure that my children could pursue higher education, which I could not. My youngest daughter has come back from Iran. The older two had to live through extreme stress while pursuing medical degrees from Russia, which is at war with Ukraine,' he says. While Indian students from Iran are unsure about when they can go back, those studying in Israel are more certain that they will be able to go back soon. The postdoctoral student studying in Israel says considering how prepared the country seems to be in dealing with emergencies, he is certain that things will get better soon and he will be able to resume his research. A sense of déjà vu Reports and videos of students deplaning after being evacuated from Iran and Israel with nothing but backpacks and small trolleys brought back many unhappy memories for Dr. Jeetender Gaurav. The 30-year-old resident of Patna, Bihar, was one of the many students evacuated from Ukraine in 2022. He was relieved then, but that warm feeling quickly turned into fear as the situation in Ukraine worsened with time. When war broke out between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, nearly 18,000 Indian medical students were evacuated from Ukraine under the Indian government's Operation Ganga. Among them were several students pursuing an MBBS degree. Following petitions from the students who had returned, the Central government committee recommended to the Supreme Court that the medical students be allowed to take the final MBBS exams in two attempts, according to the existing National Medical Council syllabus and guidelines. The Court agreed. Once they passed the exams, the students were required to complete a compulsory rotatory internship. The government clarified that this was an exception and would not set a precedent for the future. Those who had not finished their five-year course and chose to stay in India had to either take the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test to redo their medical degrees or explore other career options. Ukraine universities also offered to help students migrate to other foreign universities to complete their degrees. Some Indian students went back to Ukraine to finish their medical degrees. Jeetender, who had been pursuing a degree from Ternopil National Medical University and was in his third year, was one of them. He says his university was offering a transfer to universities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Georgia. But since a medical degree from these countries was not valid in India, many students waited and eventually went back to Ukraine. But on reaching Ukraine, the students realised that the situation was much worse than what they had imagined. After nearly eight months of continuous conflict, they were hit by skyrocketing inflation. Electricity supply, too, was limited. 'Russia had hit most of the major power grids, so we would get only two hours of electricity a day. For the rest of the day, we had to manage with candles. Our phone batteries would die often,' recalls Dr. Jeetender. While those like him, who went back and completed their degree, are now expected to clear the Foreign Medical Graduate exam and complete a year's internship, many who chose to pursue the last leg of their degree online are expected to take the same exam and follow it up with at at least two or three years of internship before getting a licence to practise. Dr. Jeetender says that unless the universities in Iran open their doors again for students, the road ahead will be as rocky as it was for him and his peers. 'The low availability of seats in Indian medical colleges makes it impossible for stranded students to be absorbed in,' he says. (With inputs from Bindu Shajan Perappadan)
The Hindu
an hour ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Saved Khamenei from ugly death, says Trump; warns further attacks by U.S. or Israel
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday (June 27, 2025) scoffed at Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's heated warning to the U.S. not to launch future strikes on Iran, as well as the Iranian supreme leader's assertion that Tehran 'won the war' with Israel. Mr. Trump, in remarks to reporters and later in an extended statement on social media, said Khamenei's comments defied reality after 12 days of Israeli strikes and the U.S. bombardment of three key nuclear sites inflicted severe damage on the country's nuclear programme. The President suggested Mr. Khamenei's comments were unbecoming of Iran's most powerful political and religious figure. 'Look, you're a man of great faith. A man who's highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth,' Mr. Trump said of Mr. Khamenei. 'You got beat to hell.' The U.S. President spoke out a day after Mr. Khamenei insisted Tehran had delivered a 'slap to America's face' by striking a U.S. air base in Qatar and warned against further attacks by the U.S. or Israel on Iran. Mr. Khamenei's pre-recorded statement, which aired on Iranian state television, was the first time that Iranians had heard directly from the supreme leader in days. The heated rhetoric from Mr. Trump and Mr. Khamenei continued as both leaders face difficult questions about the impact of the strikes. Mr. Trump and his aides have pushed back vociferously after an early damage assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency became public and indicated that the U.S. bombardment likely only set back Tehran's nuclear programme by months. Eighty-six-year-old Khamenei, the most powerful figure in Iran's theocracy, meanwhile, has appeared intent on demonstrating his authority and vigour amid speculation about his health and how involved he was in making Iran's wartime decisions through the 12-day conflict. In a social media post Friday (June 27, 2025), Mr. Trump also appeared to refer to a plan presented to the White House by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in the first days of the Israel-Iran conflict to try to kill Mr. Khamenei. Mr. Trump vetoed that plan, according to a U.S. official who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. '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,' Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social. 'I saved him from a very ugly and ignominious death, and he does not have to say, 'Thank you, President Trump!' ' wrote Mr. Trump, after the U.S. airstrikes, sending warnings via social media to Mr. Khamenei that the U.S. knew where he was but had no plans to kill him, 'at least for now.' Editorial | Strategic misfire: On the Israel-Iran conflict After launching the U.S. strikes — including with U.S.-made bunker-buster bombs — Mr. Trump has been insistent that Iran's nuclear sites have been 'obliterated'. Administration officials have not disputed the contents of the DIA report but have sought to focus on a CIA statement and other intelligence assessments, including those out of Iran and Israel, that said the strikes severely damaged the nuclear sites and rendered an enrichment facility inoperable. Mr. Trump also said that he expects Iran to open itself to international inspection to verify it doesn't restart its nuclear programme. Asked if he would demand during expected talks with Iran that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or some other organisation be authorised to conduct inspections, Mr. Trump told reporters the Islamic Republic would have to cooperate with the IAEA 'or somebody that we respect, including ourselves.' White House officials have said they expect to restart talks soon with Iran, though nothing has been scheduled. U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff earlier this week said there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries. A sixth round of US-Iran negotiations was scheduled for earlier this month in Oman but was cancelled after Israel attacked Iran. Mr. Trump expressed confidence that Iran's nuclear ambition has faded. 'Can I tell you, they're exhausted. And Israel's exhausted, too,' Mr. Trump said. He added, 'The last thing they're thinking right now is nuclear.'
Mint
an hour ago
- Business
- Mint
Trump Says Gaza Ceasefire May Be ‘Close,' Possibly Within Week
President Donald Trump said he thought a ceasefire in Gaza could be 'close,' perhaps in the next week. 'I just spoke with some of the people involved. It's a terrible situation that's going,' the president told reporters at the White House on Friday afternoon. 'And we think within the next week, we're going to get a ceasefire, and we're supplying, as you know, a lot of money and a lot of food to that area.' He did not provide further details on how an agreement might unfold or say to whom he spoke about a possible halt in the war that began with the Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. 'We're involved because people are dying,' Trump added. The Israeli Embassy in Washington didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday evening. Earlier: Meloni Pushes for Gaza Ceasefire at G-7 Amid Israel-Iran Crisis Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump was assiduously pursuing a truce. 'On Gaza, I felt that President Trump was very determined, very resolute, aware of the importance of a ceasefire, and I think his commitment is essential on this issue,' Macron told reporters in Brussels. 'I know that his team is engaged in ongoing discussions.' Separately, Israel has estimated that the cost of damages incurred during its 12-day war with Iran at 10 billion shekels , with funds needed both to repair buildings struck by missiles and pay compensation to local businesses. The calculations shared by the Israeli finance ministry and tax body this week indicate the extent to which Iran broke through Israel's defenses during nearly two weeks of rocket fire. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
