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A large billboard depicting an armed member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) standing with one foot on American REMUS 600 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) at Venek Square in central Tehran, Iran, on September 28, 2026. [Fatemeh Bahrami – Anadolu Agency]
Tehran said on Wednesday it had received a US response to its proposal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, days after US President Donald Trump said he had rejected the plan.
Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the US response to President Masoud Pezeshkian during a cabinet meeting.
Iran submitted the proposal last week, calling for reciprocal steps to be taken within seven days. These included the United States lifting its blockade of Iranian ports in return for Tehran reopening the Strait of Hormuz to shipping.
Trump said on Sunday that he had rejected the Iranian proposal, but Araghchi said at the time that Tehran had not received an official response.
Reuters quoted a source familiar with the talks as saying Qatari mediators briefed Araghchi on the US response on Tuesday during a stop in Doha on his way back from New York.
The source said the two sides broadly agreed on the steps required, but still disagreed over the order in which they should be implemented.
Pezeshkian said any agreement should be based on a “win-win” strategy.
An Iranian official said the main disagreement between Iran and the United States concerned the sequence of the steps, rather than the elements of the seven-day plan.
Axios, citing informed sources, reported that there had been no tangible progress in Monday’s talks, with neither the United States nor Iran showing a willingness to make concessions.
US officials told Axios that Trump could order a return to large-scale military operations after the midterm elections.
Iranian officials stressed that Tehran would consider making concessions only after Washington agreed to return to the memorandum of understanding.
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
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People gather to commemorate Lebanese children who lost their lives in Israeli attacks during an event titled “The bloodiest September for children in Lebanon” at Martyrs’ Square in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, on September 23, 2026. [Houssam Shbaro – Anadolu Agency]
261 children have been killed and 1,056 injured in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since the escalation began in March, The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday, warning of the impact of the worsening crisis on the future of children and young people.
In a report titled An Enduring Nightmare, UNICEF said about 436 schools had been damaged or destroyed, putting nearly 100,000 children at risk of dropping out of education. It added that 86 teachers had been killed or injured.
UNICEF said the economic and humanitarian crisis was pushing more families into being unable to meet basic needs, with four in five families in Lebanon struggling to provide them.
The report said 22 per cent of surveyed families reported that their children had gone to bed hungry during the previous two weeks.
Meanwhile, 31 per cent of families said they had been unable to provide their children with necessary healthcare because they could not afford it.
UNICEF also warned of the psychological impact of the crisis on children, saying about 770,000 children in Lebanon had experienced psychological distress over the past six months.
UNICEF Representative in Lebanon Marcoluigi Corsi said children and young people were bearing burdens “no child should have to carry”, warning that if the crisis continued without urgent and sustained action, it could have long-term effects on an entire generation.
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
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Smoke rises after Israeli forces carried out air and artillery attacks on towns in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, despite a ceasefire, on September 21, 2026. [Ramiz Dallah – Anadolu Agency]
The Israeli army launched airstrikes early Sunday on several areas in southern Lebanon amid Tel Aviv’s continued violations of a US-brokered framework agreement signed in June, Anadolu reports.
The attacks targeted several towns in Tyre, Nabatieh, Marjayoun and Bint Jbeil, including Mansouri, Wadi Zibqin, Nabatieh al-Fawqa, Kfar Tibnit, Mayfadoun, Kafr Rumman, Mazraat al-Shomeriya, Al-Qusayr, Beit Yahoun, Safarin and Hadatha, the state news agency NNA reported.
Israeli forces demolished several homes in Mansouri in the Tyre district, while Wadi Zibqin came under artillery fire, accompanied by heavy-machine-gun fire, the outlet said.
In Nabatieh, Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes overnight, hitting Nabatieh al-Fawqa twice, as well as the outskirts of Kfar Tibnit and the town of Mayfadoun, where one strike completely destroyed a house.
The Doha Kafr Rumman area was also targeted by artillery fire. In the Marjayoun district, Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of Mazraat al-Shomeriya and the town of Al-Qusayr.
Israeli forces conducted machine-gun fire toward Beit Yahoun and Safarin in Bint Jbeil, while an Israeli tank fired four shells at Hadatha before Israeli forces moved toward the center of the town and set fire to the area.
In a statement posted on the US social media company X, the Israeli army claimed the attacks were in response to a Hezbollah explosive-laden drone launched Saturday toward its forces in what it called the “security zone” in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah had not commented on the Israeli claim.
Since March 2, Israel has been conducting military operations in Lebanon, killing at least 4,386 people, injuring 12,407 others and displacing more than 1 million, according to Lebanese authorities.
The attacks came despite a US-mediated framework agreement signed in June, which provides for gradual Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory in return for the deployment of the Lebanese army and the disarmament of Hezbollah.
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN Headquarters in New York, United States, on September 24, 2026. [Mehmet Eser – Anadolu Agency]
The Israeli occupation leadership has long been accustomed to staging bizarre spectacles on some of the world’s most prominent international platforms, but what Benjamin Netanyahu did during his latest appearance on 25th September 2026 surpassed all expectations. The leading suspect wanted by the International Criminal Court took to the podium to deliver his annual speech at the 81st session of the General Assembly carrying a Starlink satellite dish. He went so far as to display a piece of technological explosive equipment in full view of the world, appearing in the form of a handheld communications device.
This is not entirely new. Year after year, Netanyahu has become accustomed to performing his theatrical tricks on the platform of the United Nations General Assembly, bringing to New York each time propaganda boards, photographs and drawings accompanied by provocative and elaborate spectacles.
Yet, until September 2026, the world’s foremost international forum had never witnessed a Starlink satellite dish being displayed in this manner, nor had a representative of a member state dared to carry and boast about an apparent explosive device in full view.
The Israeli Prime Minister took to the podium holding up a Starlink satellite device, using it as a prop to divert attention from the international condemnation he had anticipated would once again empty the UN hall, as it had the previous year, with dozens of delegates walking out as he began speaking. This time, he appeared determined to pull more rabbits from his magic hat, drawing attention away from the embarrassment of addressing a largely empty hall while once again resorting to his familiar theatrical style, marked by arrogance and provocation.
The Israeli prime minister knows that this approach cannot convince a world that can see the reality on the ground.
The notorious war criminal is not primarily concerned with winning hearts and minds or appealing to the conscience of nations horrified by the atrocities of genocide, ethnic cleansing, occupation, settlement and arrogance.
Netanyahu sought to distract the world with an entirely different narrative centred on Iran’s restrictions on this satellite technology, in the hope of obscuring the reality witnessed by the entire world, while naturally ignoring the restrictions imposed by the occupation and genocide regime on Starlink in the Gaza Strip, for example.
One of the purposes of this theatrical appearance was to portray Israel’s most prominent official as an extremely confident speaker, still capable of creating events, setting the pace like a conductor and controlling the international narrative. This was essentially a domestic electoral speech, even though he was once again isolated as he addressed the General Assembly, whose seats were largely emptied in protest at his appearance, while the Israeli delegation busied itself giving him a standing ovation. What matters to Netanyahu is to appear once again in images that seize attention and dominate the headlines of the world’s media, through an extraordinary and striking scene featuring a Starlink satellite dish on the General Assembly platform. What a spectacle!
Over the years, Netanyahu has come to define a new Israeli approach to addressing the international community, characterised by excessive theatrics, arrogance, provocation and moralising, and far removed from the traditions of diplomatic dignity and measured language.
It is also marked by a barrage of carefully crafted accusations against those bold enough to remind the world of rights, justice and international law, among them Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of the city that hosts the world’s foremost international forum.
Representatives of the occupation’s ‘diplomacy’ follow Netanyahu’s theatrical school in their public appearances. One of them is Ambassador Danny Danon, who appeared in a video strutting through the corridors of the General Assembly, accompanied by a camera phone carried by one of his aides, during an extraordinary episode of verbal harassment directed at the Iranian delegation. The troublemaker Danon also carried the same Starlink device and repeatedly urged the Iranian delegation to take it to Tehran. This blatant provocation is, in reality, designed to portray Israel’s internationally isolated position as self-confident, as though it still has something to say and something to initiate in full view of the world; as though it remains capable of lecturing others about values and freedom of expression, and of continuing to manufacture events and distract the world with sensational stories, as if no genocide had taken place in Gaza in full view of the world. Danon has not abandoned his style of arrogance and provocation, even towards international figures. He went so far as to call UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese a ‘witch’ after she presented her report to a General Assembly committee on the genocide in Gaza on 28th October 2025. Danon attacked Albanese at the time, saying: “Ms Albanese, you are a witch, and this report is another page in your spell book.”
There is nothing new in this. Representatives of ‘Israeli diplomacy’ have become accustomed to launching fierce verbal attacks against UN officials themselves, as former Israeli envoy Gilad Erdan did in his repeated attacks on UN Secretary-General António Guterres. He said, for example, that Guterres had “lost his moral compass” (November 2023), accused him of “blindness to terrorism” (January 2024), and went so far as to say: “The only one who should be blacklisted is the Secretary-General, who encourages terrorism, and whose decisions are driven by hatred of Israel” (June 2024).
The most significant international precedent brought by the Israeli leadership to the General Assembly platform during the 81st session, however, was the display and flaunting of a model of a deadly explosive device in full view of the world. The Israeli prime minister showcased one of his country’s achievements: the booby-trapping of communications devices and their transformation into tools for killing, maiming and injuring on a scale unprecedented in the world.
Netanyahu pulled a pager from his pocket and proudly displayed it, showcasing the lethal technological capabilities of Israel’s intelligence services, seemingly unconcerned by the fact that this particular device caused deaths, injuries, mutilation and terror among children and women on a large scale in Lebanon.
In his speech, Netanyahu sought to highlight the Israeli occupation leadership’s continued exploitation of available technologies for control, targeting, killing and destruction. This was essentially an ‘achievement’ message aimed primarily at the Israeli public. What the war criminal did not say was that humanity’s advances in technology, communications and software are being harnessed in a race to serve the occupation’s programme of control, domination, oppression, genocide and accelerating ethnic cleansing in Palestine. The international community has yet to fully confront the use of artificial intelligence to commit war crimes on an unprecedented scale. This is among the issues exposed by reports and testimonies, including the documentary film NAZA, made by two Israelis who recently received an honorary award at the Venice Film Festival and which provided detailed operational accounts of such practices.
The rounds of provocation and arrogance staged by Israeli occupation leaders in diplomatic corridors should not surprise the international community, so long as it continues to allow those who have trampled humanitarian conventions and international law underfoot to take to the world’s most prominent platforms and deliver theatrical speeches, rather than face international justice.
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
