Category World News

Few people anticipated Israel’s war against Iran, despite the ongoing nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran. We came here largely due to the propaganda from the Netanyahu government and the media’s conceitful reporting.

Contributors:
Author of Iran Reframed, Narges Bajoghli
Matt Duss, Center for International Policy’s Executive Vice President
Assal Rad, a non-resident fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, DC
Amwaj Media’s Mohammad Ali Shabani, Editor

on our radar

Military censors are tightening their hold on both local and foreign media outlets as the Israeli media pounces on the Iranian nuclear war. reports Ryan Kohls.

From arguments that don’t hold up to the media’s uncritical reporting, the war on Iran seems hauntingly familiar. We discuss the unsettling parallels between the 2003 Iraq War and Chris Hedges.

Sitting in northern Europe, I shouldn’t care about the New York mayoral race.

Yet, despite all that is happening in the world, the contentious Democratic primary for the 2025 New York City mayoral election has found its way into conversations around me – and onto my social media feed.

This attention isn’t just another example of the New York-centric worldview famously skewered in Saul Steinberg’s 1976 New Yorker cover, View of the World from 9th Avenue. A genuine political struggle is under way, one that has the potential to reverberate far beyond the Hudson River. At its centre is the increasingly polarised contest between Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani.

The name Cuomo may ring a bell. He resigned as New York’s governor in 2021 following multiple allegations of sexual harassment. While he expressed remorse at the time, his political comeback has been marked by defiance – suing one of his accusers and the state attorney general who found the accusations credible. He claims the scandal was a “political hit job”.

Cuomo’s record in office was far from unblemished. He diverted millions of dollars from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), jeopardising the financial health of New York’s essential public transit system. He formed the Moreland Commission to root out corruption but disbanded it abruptly when it began probing entities linked to his own campaign. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his administration was accused of undercounting nursing home deaths, allegedly to deflect criticism of policies that returned COVID-positive patients to those facilities.

Given that legacy, one might imagine Cuomo’s chances of becoming mayor would be slim. Yet, he currently leads in the polls.

Close behind him is Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist and state assemblyman from Queens. When he entered the race in March, Cuomo led by 40 points. A recent poll now puts Mamdani within 8 points.

Born in Kampala and raised in New York, Mamdani is the first Muslim candidate to run for mayor of the city. But his significance extends beyond his identity. What distinguishes Mamdani is his unapologetically progressive platform – and his refusal to dilute it in the name of “electability”. His appeal rests on substance, charisma, sharp messaging, and a mass volunteer-led canvassing operation.

At the heart of Mamdani’s campaign is a vision of a city that works for working-class New Yorkers. He proposes freezing rents for all rent-stabilised apartments, building 200,000 affordable homes, creating publicly-owned grocery stores “focused on keeping prices low, not making profit”, and making buses free. He supports free childcare for children under five, better wages for childcare workers, and “baby baskets” containing essentials for new parents.

To fund these initiatives, Mamdani proposes increasing the corporate tax rate from 7.25 percent to 11.5 percent, and imposing a 2 percent income tax on New York City residents earning more than $1m annually.

He also wants to raise the minimum wage, regulate gig economy giants like DoorDash, and protect delivery workers. His plan to establish a Department of Community Safety would shift resources away from traditional policing towards mental health and violence prevention.

He further promises to “Trump-proof” New York by enhancing the city’s sanctuary status, removing ICE’s influence, expanding legal support for migrants, defending LGBTQ+ rights and protecting reproductive healthcare access.

But championing such bold policies – as a brown, Muslim candidate – has made Mamdani a lightning rod for hate. Recently, in a rare show of emotion, Mamdani teared up while recounting threats he has received: “I get messages that say the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim. I get threats on my life … on the people that I love.”

The NYPD is investigating two voicemails from an unidentified caller, who labelled Mamdani a “terrorist”, threatened to bomb his car, and ominously warned: “Watch your f..king back every f..king second until you get the f..k out of America.”

Cuomo’s campaign has also played into Islamophobic tropes. A mailer targeting Jewish voters from a Cuomo-aligned super PAC doctored Mamdani’s photo – darkening and lengthening his beard – and declared that he “rejects NYPD, rejects Israel, rejects capitalism and rejects Jewish rights”.

Much of this centres on Mamdani’s outspoken support for Palestinian rights. He has been criticised for refusing to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and for defending the slogan “globalise the intifada”, which he describes as “a desperate desire for equality and equal rights”. He also noted that the Arabic term intifada has been used by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to describe the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

Despite the attacks, Mamdani’s movement is surging. He has received endorsements from Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez, Attorney General Letitia James, the New York Working Families Party, United Auto Workers Region 9A, and Jewish Voice for Peace Action.

In contrast, Cuomo is backed by major real estate donors wary of Mamdani’s housing agenda. His campaign has received $1m from DoorDash, presumably in response to Mamdani’s proposed labour protections. Other prominent donors include Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman – both known for supporting Donald Trump.

Still, Mamdani’s grassroots campaign has continued to gain ground. Whether or not he wins the nomination, his candidacy has already achieved something vital: it has offered proof that an anti-corporate, anti-Trump, community-powered campaign – one rooted in progressive values and refusal to compromise – can resonate with American voters.

But the stakes extend far beyond New York. Across Europe, South America, South Asia and Africa, right-wing populists are gaining ground by exploiting economic precarity, stoking culture wars and vilifying minorities. Mamdani’s campaign offers a clear counter-narrative: one that marries economic justice with moral clarity, mobilises diverse communities and challenges the politics of fear. For progressives around the world, it is a rare and instructive blueprint – not just for resistance, but for rebuilding.

Gilan, Iran – The prospect of war seemed to creep nearer to reality with each passing day, but perhaps few of the millions who have been forced to abandon their homes across Iran in the past week – including myself – could have known this new reality would impose itself so harshly or abruptly.

The first explosions jolted people awake in Tehran shortly after 3am on June 13, when a large number of Israeli fighter jets and drones attacked dozens of areas across the country, and explosives-laden quadcopters and anti-fortification Spike guided missiles were launched by Israeli agents from inside Iran.

Entire residential buildings were levelled in the capital, military sites and air defence batteries were targeted, and above-ground facilities supporting nuclear enrichment halls buried deep inside mountains in Isfahan province’s Natanz were bombed. Dozens of civilians were killed, as were a large number of top military commanders and nuclear scientists.

Tehran was in shock the first morning after the attacks, as people struggled to process the terrifying news and evaluate their options while the authorities scrambled to mount a concerted response to the surprise hits.

As the attacks came on a Friday morning – the last day of the weekend in Iran – most city streets were eerily quiet in the immediate aftermath, except for those where Israeli bombs had made an impact.

Soon, however, hours-long queues had formed at almost every single fuel station across the sprawling capital, which has a population of nearly 10 million people and holds more than 15 million during busy workdays, as millions also commute from neighbouring cities like Karaj.

I went out to visit a few of the targeted sites in western Tehran: Multiple homes had been destroyed in the Patrice Lumumba neighbourhood, several floors of a 15-storey building providing accommodation for university professors had caved in at Saadat Abad and adjacent buildings were damaged, while the top two floors of another residential building had been completely wiped out in Marzdaran. All were successful targeted assassinations – including of several top nuclear scientists – and many civilians were also killed.

Later that night, Iran’s armed forces began launching hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation. Nearly one week on, at least 16 rounds of Iranian strikes have been launched, with no immediate end in sight as Tehran says it will continue to hit back so long as Israel is attacking. Meanwhile, United States President Donald Trump teases triggering an all-out regional war by directly entering the war alongside Israel, which he and Washington’s Western allies already support with cutting-edge munitions, a massive fleet of refuelling planes and intelligence efforts.

For the next few days, the Israeli attacks were ringing out across Tehran and the country during the daytime, terrorising civilians who saw the smoke and heard the explosions get closer to their homes or places of work. Both at home and at Al Jazeera’s Tehran bureau, I heard many explosive impacts, with some of the closer ones only about 2km (1.2 miles) away.

Most of Tehran was shut down after the Israeli attacks ramped up, and the streets and petrol stations were more crowded than ever after Israel and Trump told people to evacuate immediately. The government said metro stations and mosques were opened as 24-hour shelters since it has built no dedicated shelters or come up with any clear security protocols, despite the ever-present threat of war.

On Monday, after three days of evaluating the situation, my family and I decided to join the countless others who had already fled Tehran.

After hurriedly packing some clothes and a few belongings in a suitcase, I drove from my own place to my girlfriend’s house to pick her up at about 4pm. Her parents, who work in healthcare, needed to stay in Tehran that day but they have since left as well, after Israeli air strikes intensified in their neighbourhood.

We then picked up my mother – along with our four cats who have been staying with her – from her home in western Tehran, close to a major road which exits the capital.

Israeli bombs were falling on multiple areas across western Tehran as we scurried to grab the cats and put them in their boxes.

The unmistakable sounds of the explosions, which leave a sickening, sinking sensation in your stomach no matter how many times you hear them, only added to the urgency – especially since the Israeli military had issued a new evacuation threat at about the same time and then bombed the state television headquarters.

Fleeing north

We left Tehran with heavy hearts, not knowing when we might return. The buildings were already mostly empty of residents.

The feeling that we may not return to the same intact neighbourhoods was unavoidable, as was the terror we feel for those who wanted to leave but could not, whether because they are nursing a sick family member or because they simply lacked the means to do so. Iran’s ailing economy has been dragged under the weight of years of local mismanagement and US sanctions.

The journey north, which usually takes about four hours, took close to 12. The highways were a sea of vehicles filled with families, pets and belongings. Roadside diners and service areas brimmed with people who had no idea when or how they might return. Many worriedly followed news of the latest air strikes.

Close to our destination in the north of Iran, checkpoints set up by armed and masked security forces made the traffic even worse. They were stopping some vehicles, mostly pick-up trucks, since those are what have been used by Israeli agents to smuggle explosive quadcopters and other weapons inside Iran.

I am writing this from a small but vibrant city in the province of Gilan in northern Iran. The northern provinces, also including Mazandaran and Golestan, are where most Iranians have opted to go. They are relatively close to Tehran, have far fewer places that could be potential targets for the Israeli army, and were already popular travel destinations with a large number of hotels that many have visited before.

Many here have opened their homes to people displaced from other provinces, too. Six million people have entered Mazandaran alone since last week, according to Iran’s deputy police chief, Qasem Rezaei.

The authorities are trying to reassure the population, especially Iranians who have fled to the northern provinces, that the government faces no problems in providing for their basic needs, especially food and fuel.

But in the meantime, 90 million Iranians have been thrown into a state of uncertainty, frustration and anger while trying to maintain hope for a semblance of normal life when the country is not constantly under threat of military action or isolated from the international community.

For ordinary civilians, the situation is seriously compounded by the fact that they have been completely cut off from the internet for days, with internet observatory NetBlocks confirming on Friday that 97 percent of the country’s connectivity was down. Barring a handful of small daily updates gleaned from state media or local sources, Iranians have little idea about the extent of the Israeli military strikes across the country.

The Iranian authorities began imposing internet restrictions from the first day of the Israeli strikes, but increased them as Israel expanded its offensive and a pro-Israeli hacking group also launched cyberattacks.

Several of the country’s top banks have been taken offline as a result of the cyberattacks, as well as Iran’s top cryptocurrency exchange, Nobitex, which said its “hot wallet” had been compromised but promised it would return any lost money.

Iranian officials, who also took the country offline during the deadly nationwide protests in November 2019, claimed disconnecting the internet was necessary to fend off Israeli quadcopters and other projectiles, but gave no timeline as to when they would restore full connectivity.

Iran already has one of the most closed-off and slowed-down internet connections in the world, as almost all major global messaging apps and other services, along with tens of thousands of websites, are blocked and only accessible through workarounds such as virtual private networks (VPNs).

In a lull between heavy rain showers and heavy rain in the late afternoon of November, Edith and two older team members banter and giggle loudly. They observe the muddy courtyard’s younger staff members attempting to dodge puddles and sweat through daily aerobics drills.

Diego, a cerebral palsy boy, climbs a concrete ramp and heads toward a therapy room as energetic pop music plays across the compound’s three single- and double-storey buildings. He scurries forward slowly until Edith notices him, his wrists twisted.

“Diego, my boy”! The 49-year-old yells out in a big grin.

She grabs him up and quickly catches him onto her hip, her loose dress dangling as she runs over to him. The two laugh before turning their attention to the workout, which he gives her a high five.

The orphanage has the impression of being home to a very large family thanks to Edith and her staff’s warmth and affection for the children there.

With the birth of Derrick, Edith’s first child, in Jinja in 2000, her own development as a disability rights activist in Uganda began.

Derrick cried a lot and turned yellow when he was two days old. Therefore, Edith and her husband Richard took him to a hospital where he had been diagnosed with malaria. After two weeks of experiencing convulsions, their son was diagnosed with complications with his spinal cord after coming into contact with meningitis.

“It was when I realized that my son wasn’t developing as a normal child when he made three months.” He lacked control over his movements. His spinal cord was curved. Edith recalls him as being “very floppy” in her office. A portrait of Yoweri Museveni hangs above the door, and its walls are decorated with certificates of appreciation and merit.

Edith recalls how, as they battled to find out about their son’s condition, their friends and family feared them and Derrick and how they were treated unfairly by them as they gaze out a window onto a playground full of children.

“We started entering and exiting the hospital. Hospital, home, hospital, etc. And people were quick to point out that he had epilepsy, especially in his convulsions. He has demons. And this is where the neighborhood rejects me, she claims.

They thought, “She gave birth to a demon-possessed child.”

Many Ugandans have turned to traditional healing, with the exception of government-run schools or local clinics, where they have historically and to this day not been promoted. Edith resisted social pressure and took her son to traditional healers without a diagnosis and feeling helpless.

I attempted to approach various witch doctors about him. They were smearing him with their herbs, washing him with goat’s blood, and covering him with chicken blood. Derrick didn’t change, she recalls, despite the fact that they could have us in at night to shower us with the chicken’s blood. It was only getting worse, they said.