Gilas Pilipinas lineup vs Jordan, Iran set; RJ Abarrientos cut
As Gilas Pilipinas remains without injured naturalized player Justin Brownlee, head coach Tim Cone trusts the rest to rise to the occasion
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Heroes aplenty as Gilas Pilipinas turns back Iran to complete home sweep
Dwight Ramos, Juan Gomez de Liaño, Kai Sotto, and AJ Edu join hands in a superb finish as Gilas Pilipinas beats Iran in FIBA play for the first time in over a decade
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Iran responds, launches attacks on 2 US bases in Jordan
The US confirms its earlier strikes on Iranian launchers, marking the first American military action against Iran since late July, while Iran claims casualties from its missile attacks
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Over 150,000 new EVs expected on Thai roads this year amid energy crisis
BANGKOK, Thailand – Approximately 153,000 new electric vehicles are projected to hit Thailand’s roads this year, driven largely by the ongoing energy crisis triggered by the prolonged conflict in the Middle East, according to a forecast by TMBThanachart Bank’s economic assessment centre, TTB Analytics. Luxury Hybrid Car Catches Fire While Charging Overnight In Pathum Thani […]
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Iran shifts to offensive posture as Hormuz standof…
Iran has moved from a defensive to what a senior Iranian official called a fully offensive strategy, citing a deadlock in efforts to reach a lasting end to its war with the United States, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to a foreign news agency on Monday. Progress toward peace talks and the resumption of oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has stalled, with no indication that either side is moving closer to ending the conflict the United States and Israel launched on February 28. The official said Iranian entities must prepare to escalate tensions in the strait and across the wider region, adding that Tehran stands ready to make difficult decisions and would carry out a precise military strike to break the US naval blockade if diplomacy collapses. Washington did not immediately respond to those remarks, though President Donald Trump told Fox News earlier in the day that Iran should raise the white flag of surrender. Throughout the conflict, Trump has swung between threats of further escalation and claims that a peace deal sits within reach. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps pushed back hard on one such claim Monday, rejecting as false Trump’s assertion that Washington maintains backchannel contact with IRGC officials on matters related to the war. Spokesman Hossein Mohibbi told Iran’s Tasnim news agency that no talks are taking place between IRGC officials and American counterparts, describing Trump’s claims as fantasies stemming from desperation over battlefield setbacks. Mohibbi said diplomatic matters fall to other Iranian institutions and remain outside the Guard’s purview, adding that current information from the Foreign Ministry confirms no talks are underway even at that level. He argued Trump’s statements amount to an attempt to influence global energy prices. Trump had told reporters earlier Monday that his administration keeps a backchannel with the IRGC and speaks directly with its officials inside Iran. Trump also issued a separate warning aimed at Oman, saying Washington would respond with force if the sultanate interferes with US Iran negotiations. Asked about Oman’s role in talks touching on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, Trump told Fox News the United States would bomb Oman if it gets in the way. The comment came after Iran said Saturday that it had reached agreement with Oman on a shipping route map for the strait following weeks of technical talks. Trump separately confirmed the administration’s direct channel with the IRGC and repeated that Tehran should surrender, calling Iranian officials skilled negotiators who are nonetheless losing ground. Fighting also intensified elsewhere in the region. Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed Monday that it struck several Saudi naval vessels along with a weapons depot in a broad missile and drone assault. Spokesman Yahya Saree said a Saudi amphibious transport ship and accompanying vessels were hit in a precise aerial attack involving multiple ballistic missiles, claiming several ships sank while others caught fire. He said Houthi forces also used multiple drones to strike a Saudi weapons depot at the Sahn al Jin camp in Yemen’s Marib province. Saudi authorities had not confirmed the claims as of publication. Separately, Yemen’s army said Monday it detected two hypersonic ballistic missiles fired by Houthi forces toward the city of Mocha and the Red Sea, launched from a former air defense brigade headquarters east of Taiz. No information on casualties or damage was immediately available, and the Houthis did not comment. The launch followed a claim from Yemen’s National Resistance Forces that Houthi fighters had targeted Mocha with seven drones a day earlier, adding to fears of renewed full scale conflict in a country that had seen relative calm since April 2022 following nearly twelve years of civil war. On the Iranian side, IRGC Deputy Commander in Chief Major General Mostafa Izadi said Iranian forces shot down more than 200 enemy aircraft during the recent war with the United States and Israel, according to Iran’s Fars news agency. Izadi said the conflict left the Islamic system undamaged and demonstrated Iran’s strength to the world. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf went further, declaring both a military and political victory over Washington and Israel on the day a 60 day ceasefire under the Islamabad memorandum was set to expire. Ghalibaf said the US and Israel failed to achieve any of nine publicly stated objectives in the war, calling it their biggest failure. Trump, meanwhile, reiterated on his Truth Social platform that Iran cannot possess a nuclear weapon in any form, describing this as Washington’s permanent top priority. Iran also pressed a separate grievance Monday, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei blaming pollution in Gulf waters on decades of US military presence and operations in the region. Baghaei said the environmental damage stems from American military activity over the past five decades and called for Washington to be held accountable, estimating losses in the trillions of dollars. His comments followed Iran’s request last week for compensation after an oil slick reached the island of Qeshm, which officials said has since been cleaned up. Separately, salvage efforts continued for a grounded tanker leaking Russian crude off Oman’s coast, with officials citing monsoon weather and the shallow, rocky seabed as major obstacles. Mohammed bin Abdullah al Rawahi of Oman’s transport ministry said the conditions expose salvage vessels to operational and navigational risks, compounded by flooding damage to one side of the tanker. Diplomatic efforts on Gaza also advanced Monday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to meet Trump envoy Jared Kushner a day after a rare meeting between Kushner and Hamas officials in Cairo. A diplomatic source said Hamas leader Khalil Al Hayya attended some sessions with Kushner and Gaza peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov. Trump said in late July that a deal had been reached on the complete disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups, though Netanyahu, facing an October re election vote, has publicly rejected the plan. Trump separately welcomed the signing of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement by Turkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, saying on Truth
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Remembering Marjane Satrapi: an author who humanized Iran
The global arts community is mourning the unexpected passing of Marjane Satrapi. She is the pioneering French-Iranian author, illustrator, and film director best known for her graphic memoir Persepolis. Satrapi passed away in Paris at the age of 56. Relatives confirmed that her death was tied to profound heartbreak following the loss of her husband, Swedish producer Mattias Ripa, who died the previous year. Her death sparked an outpouring of tributes from political leaders, cultural institutions, and readers worldwide. French President Emmanuel Macron paid homage to Satrapi as a monumental talent who converted her childhood in revolutionary Iran into an accessible, universal human story, blending sharp irony, vulnerability, and courage. Born in 1969 in the northern Iranian city of Rasht, Satrapi grew up in Tehran during one of the most turbulent eras in modern Middle Eastern history. As a child of progressive, middle-class parents, she witnessed the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, followed by the rapid consolidation of power by the fundamentalist Islamic regime and the devastating Iran-Iraq War. Concerned for her safety and rebellious spirit, her family sent her to study at the Lycée Français in Vienna when she was just fourteen. Her years in Austria were marked by acute feelings of social isolation, homelessness, and cultural displacement. The struggles that would later become central themes in her creative career. After returning to Tehran to complete her university education in visual communication, Satrapi ultimately chose a life in exile, relocating permanently to France in 1994. In 2000, Satrapi published the first volume of Persepolis, a monochrome graphic novel that fundamentally altered how Western audiences viewed everyday life in Iran. Drawn in a bold, stripped-down visual style influenced by expressionist art, the book chronicled her youth with remarkable humor and emotional honesty. Satrapi demystified a country often flattened by geopolitical headlines. The book became an international bestseller, translated into dozens of languages and adopted into school curricula worldwide. In 2007, Satrapi co-directed an animated film adaptation alongside French artist Vincent Paronnaud. The film won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature, and cemented Satrapi’s standing as a multi-talented cinematic voice. “I don’t want to return to a dictatorship and spend the rest of my life in jail being tortured.” — Marjane Satrapi Satrapi’s artistic career extended well beyond Persepolis. She directed live-action feature films including Chicken with Plums (2011), the dark comedy The Voices (2014) starring Ryan Reynolds, and Radioactive (2019), a biopic celebrating Marie Curie. In addition, she was an accomplished painter and was elected to the prestigious French Academy of Fine Arts. Yet, Satrapi remained fiercely principled. She consistently criticized the Iranian regime while demanding true integrity from Western governments. In early 2025, she publicly rejected France’s prestigious Légion d’honneur, citing European political hypocrisy regarding human rights in Iran. Following the 2022 Iranian protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, she edited the collective work Woman, Life, Freedom, uniting artists and historians to support the civil rights uprising. Through her uncompromising honesty, sharp wit, and visual mastery, Marjane Satrapi left behind a legacy that proved art can dismantle prejudice, bridge divide, and speak truth to power.
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Iran and Oman hold talks on Strait of Hormuz as re…
Diplomatic efforts to stabilize the Strait of Hormuz intensified this week even as tensions across the wider Middle East remained high, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveling to Washington for talks with President Donald Trump and multiple countries reporting drone interceptions linked to the ongoing conflict. An Omani delegation traveled to Tehran to discuss a possible mechanism for managing future shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran continues to reject the idea of alternative shipping corridors through the waterway, while Omani officials have proposed a regional consortium to oversee the mechanism without charging tolls. Iranian officials, however, are still pushing for what they describe as a service fee and want the arrangement placed under Tehran’s control. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, said talks with Oman over the strait took place over the weekend and described the discussions as useful, though he stressed that the situation in the strait itself remains unchanged and closed, and that the talks are unrelated to the United States. Baghaei also said Tehran has not requested a resumption of direct talks with Washington, calling that approach out of character for Iran. He said some Gulf countries had played a role in the American campaign against Iran without elaborating further, and added that Iran would not allow the United States to dictate how the conflict ends. Shipping data reviewed by analytics firm Kpler showed traffic through both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el Mandeb strait remained severely reduced over the weekend. Eleven commodity vessels passed through Bab el Mandeb on Sunday, the lowest level recorded in months, following Houthi attacks on Saudi oil installations along the Red Sea coast and the group’s declared naval blockade against Saudi Arabia. Seven of those vessels were oil tankers. Meanwhile fewer than ten vessels per day moved through the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend despite the pause in US and Iranian strikes, with several transiting vessels reportedly operating with their transponders switched off. President Trump rejected suggestions that US forces were running low on munitions after two weeks of strikes on Iran, saying American stockpiles far exceed what the country needs. His comments followed reports that US military officials had privately warned the bombing campaign had exhausted its pre selected target list, and that General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had cautioned Trump about the risk of depleting munitions stocks, including interceptors used by American air defenses in the region. US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said the military has everything it needs, while acknowledging that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had inherited a depleted situation upon taking office. A senior Iranian official said Tehran would continue to hold fire as long as the United States does the same, describing the country’s position as strictly reciprocal. A separate Iranian source said there is more skepticism than optimism in Tehran about the pause, describing it as likely tactical rather than a genuine shift, given what the source called Iran’s extensive experience with perceived American deception. The pause followed a Friday meeting in which senior US military and political advisers, including Vice President JD Vance and Admiral Brad Cooper, the top American commander in the Middle East, reportedly urged Trump to scale back the bombing campaign. The renewed strikes had already unraveled an interim agreement reached the previous month aimed at ending the conflict. Against this backdrop, Netanyahu departed for Washington for his eighth meeting with Trump since the start of his second term, more than Trump has held with any other foreign leader. Netanyahu said Iran would top the agenda and described the trip as both an honor and a responsibility, saying his goal remains protecting Israel’s security and expanding regional peace. He also said he planned to visit Senator Lindsey Graham during the trip, calling him one of Israel’s closest allies. The visit comes as Netanyahu remains subject to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued in November 2024 over alleged crimes against humanity connected to the war in Gaza. Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed several drones aimed at petroleum facilities in the Eastern Region and Riyadh, attributing the attempted strikes to Iranian backed militias operating from Iraqi territory. Jordan’s armed forces separately said they intercepted two drones without identifying the source, while Israel’s military said it intercepted two additional drones near the Jordanian border and is investigating their origin. Baghaei also addressed Iran’s nuclear program, saying Israel would attempt to block the transfer of nuclear technology to countries in the region while insisting that peaceful nuclear development remains every nation’s right. He said Washington has previously expected Iran to collapse quickly under pressure but argued that the United States remains entangled in the conflict months later. He further claimed Washington tends to return to negotiations whenever global energy prices rise. Separately, Iran summoned the French ambassador over the detention of two French diplomats earlier this month by Iranian security forces. Baghaei said Iran demanded that the French government halt what he called interference in Iran’s internal affairs conducted under the guise of civil society engagement. He said the diplomats were detained and questioned for several hours before being released, and said one of them was physically mistreated. French Foreign Minister Jean Noel Barrot condemned the incident as a serious act of intimidation. For residents of Iran, the uncertainty surrounding the pause has become part of daily life. One Tehran business owner said the entire country feels stuck in limbo, describing the shifting pattern of strikes and pauses as exhausting and accusing Washington of neither ending the conflict nor pursuing it decisively.
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Iran summons French ambassador over diplomats accu…
Iran summoned the French ambassador in Tehran this week over allegations that two French diplomats interfered in the country’s internal affairs. A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the ambassador was called in specifically to address the conduct of the two diplomats stationed in Tehran. Speaking at a weekly press briefing, Esmaeil Baghaei said the meeting emphasized that the French government must halt what he described as interference in Iran’s domestic affairs carried out under misleading pretexts. Baghaei said both diplomats had been using contact with civil society groups as cover for activities that amounted to meddling in Iran’s internal matters, and argued that their conduct had no legal basis under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The dispute stems from an incident on July 20, when Iranian security forces detained the two French diplomats and questioned them for several hours before allowing them to return to the French embassy. One of the diplomats later alleged that he was subjected to physical mistreatment while in custody. French Foreign Minister Jean Noel Barrot condemned the episode, describing it as an extremely serious act of intimidation. The incident adds to a period of heightened friction between Iran and Western governments, as Tehran remains locked in a broader standoff with the United States and its allies over its nuclear program and regional activities, a dynamic that has repeatedly spilled over into diplomatic disputes with European nations in recent months.
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Iran’s parliament backs bill criminalizing c…
Iran’s parliament approved the general framework of a bill Sunday that would make it a crime to give interviews or engage in other communication with media outlets considered hostile to the Islamic Republic, including American or Israeli outlets and any media funded by either country, according to Iran’s Shargh newspaper. Osman Salari, a member of parliament’s judicial and legal commission, said individual provisions within the bill, which aims to counter what officials describe as foreign intelligence influence, still require separate debate and approval. He told the Mizan news agency that details reported so far about the bill should not be treated as final. Under the proposed legislation, interviews or participation in discussions with media deemed hostile would be banned outright, with violations carrying prison terms ranging from six months to two years. Interviews with other foreign media outlets would require advance notification to the intelligence ministry, while any contact with foreign embassies, offices of foreign organizations or other non Iranian institutions, conducted without notification and written permission from the foreign ministry, would draw fines and the loss of certain social rights. The bill would also increase penalties for economic crimes carried out under the direction or supervision of foreign actors, prohibit sharing information with foreigners without intelligence ministry approval, and limit scientific cooperation with foreign institutions to those on an approved list. It would further criminalize policy or legislative proposals made under the direction of foreign intelligence services if such proposals are found to harm Iran’s security or independence, with penalties reaching up to 30 years in prison. Cases brought under this provision would fall under the jurisdiction of Iran’s Revolutionary Courts. Parliament will now review the bill article by article. Once lawmakers approve a final text, the legislation must still pass review by the Guardian Council before it can take effect as law. This is not the first time Iran has moved to criminalize cooperation with foreign entities. A law passed in 2025, following a 12 day war with Israel, introduced harsher penalties for alleged cooperation with hostile states. Earlier this month, Iranian photojournalist Yalda Moaiery was sentenced to 15 years in prison under that law over accusations that included giving interviews to media considered hostile and supplying photographs to organizations linked to the United States and Israel.
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FBI seizes pro-Iranian hacking group’s websites after destructive Stryker hack
The FBI and the Justice Department took down two websites linked to the pro-Iranian hacktivist group Handala, which last week hacked medical tech giant Stryker.
