Russia and China have condemned Britain, Germany, and France’s decision to start a process that could impose UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
The three European nations, collectively known as the E3, on Thursday launched the so-called “snapback mechanism” in response to accusations that Iran had broken a 2015 agreement that demanded that it stop developing nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
The decision creates a 30-day window in which to sign a new UN resolution to end sanctions before they are imposed.
In a statement blaming the United States and Europe for the fallout of the 2015 nuclear deal, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, “We strongly condemn these actions by European countries and call on the international community to reject them.”
China criticized the actions taken by the European Union as “unintentional.”
“The Iranian nuclear problem is at a crucial turning point. According to Guo Jiakun, a regular media briefing on Friday, “leting the Security Council’s snapback mechanism of sanctions be used to undermine the political and diplomatic resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue.”
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier decried the action, calling him “unjustified” and “lacking any legal basis” in a call with his European counterparts.
He declared, “The Islamic Republic of Iran will appropriately respond to this unlawful and unjustified action.” The Iranian Foreign Ministry stated in a statement that the European countries’ decision will “gravely undermine” their ongoing cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog agency.
Threat of NPT withdrawal
In response to the European decision, Iranian MP Hossein-Ali Haji-Deligani reported to the Tasnim news agency that the parliament is considering legislation to remove Iran from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation (NPT) list.
For decades, the treaty has served as the foundation of global nuclear weapons control.
The MP informed the organization that the draft law was on the agenda and that the legal review and approval process for the West might turn out to be a mistake in the wake of potential resumption of nuclear negotiations with the West.
He claimed that breaking all ties with the European trio would be the only course of action.
Iran claims nuclear energy is necessary for its power, but the West has long expressed concern that it is attempting to build an atomic bomb.
In his first term, US President Donald Trump uninvited the 2015 agreement because he felt it was insufficiently reducing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Julius Malema, the opposition leader of South Africa, was found guilty of hate speech by the country’s Equality Court on Wednesday this week after making comments at a political rally in 2022.
The party’s leader, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who frequently speaks out and is polarized, has made the third such ruling.
In May, President Trump of the United States cited Malema as the head of an anti-white movement and claimed that South Africa had discriminated against white people there. This year, Washington cut aid to Pretoria and imposed high tariffs, which severely affected the two nations’ relations.
What we know about Malema’s legal repercussions and the conviction:
Julius Malema, who is he?
Malema, 44, is a seasoned politician in South Africa and the leader of the EFF, a small leftist party known for its advocacy of Black South Africans’ rights. Red berets and military-style clothing are frequently worn by its members.
Malema is renowned for his outspoken criticism of the African National Congress (ANC), the country’s dominant political party. Prior to joining the ANC Youth League, he was the organization’s president until 2012 when he was kicked out for opposing Jacob Zuma.
Many white South Africans believe the politician is pursuing controversial policies that are intended to denigrate them, such as nationalizing South African mines and allowing them to expropriate land without compensation. Black people had a harder time getting to know wealth and land under apartheid-era policies. The country’s private land is still largely white-owned, and that legacy still exists today.
Hamas, a Palestinian armed group, has also drawn controversy as a result of Malema’s vocal support for Hamas.
Malema’s visa to the United Kingdom was denied in June because, according to the UK Home Office, he was “non-conductive to the public good.” The action was characterized as “cowardice,” according to the EFF.
39 members of parliament make up the EFF. It is not a member of the ruling coalition government and placed fourth in the South African general elections held in May.
On May 2, 2024, before the general election in South Africa, an electoral poster featuring Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema was spotted in Polokwane.
The Western Cape Division of South Africa’s Equality Court found Malema guilty of hate speech on Wednesday in a case brought by the South African Human Rights Commission. The court alleged that his comments at a rally in Cape Town in October 2022 were in violation of the country’s Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.
Malema was speaking to EFF colleagues at the time he made the remarks. He made reference to a previous incident where party members had verbal exchanged with white students outside of Brackenfell High School. Black students had gathered outside the school to protest the alleged exclusion of Black students.
Malema then criticized his coworkers for failing to use more forceful retaliation. He urged them to “follow up” with a white man in the video so that they could “provide proper care” for the man.
According to Malema, “revolutionaries must not be scared to kill” and that racist deeds should be interpreted as “an application to meet your maker with immediate effect.”
No white man will ever beat me up, he said, noting that the Revolution dictates that there must be murder at some point.
The court ruled on Wednesday that the statements could be read as having “a clear intention to incite harm.”
The court stated in its ruling that while calling out someone who behaves as a racist is acceptable, calling them to be killed is not.
Malema may be asked to apologize in public, be ordered to pay compensation, or be recommended for a criminal prosecution if no punishment orders have been issued as of yet.
On February 6, 2025, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema arrives at Cape Town City Hall ahead of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation (SONA) address.
What have Malema and the EFF said about the court’s decision?
The EFF claimed in a statement that the court had “attacked” democracy and that the ruling had “grave distortion” of history and political speech.
According to the party, Malema’s remarks were meant “theoretically” and were made in response to the country’s history of apartheid and subsequent liberation movements. The EFF argued that Malema’s words were taken out of context and disregarded the events that had occurred in the country, including the Brackenfell school shooting and the country’s apartheid history.
According to the EFF, “this decision fundamentally misunderstands both the context and the meaning of the speech.”
The statement continued, “Not an instruction to kill people, but a reference to the unstoppable conflict between white supremacy and Black consciousness when Malema spoke of “war.”
Has Malema ever been the target of hate speech?
Yes, Malema has allegedly used hate speech in public several times. Although one of his convictions was overturned, he has twice been found guilty.
He was found guilty of hate speech in 2009 for rape at a woman who had alleged former President Zuma’s rape. Malema and Zuma were at the time, close. Malema said the woman “had a nice time” with Zuma in a comment. The Equality Court forbade him from apologizing to the accuser in public and to pay 50, 000 rand ($2,824) to a facility that treats abused women.
He was once more found guilty of hate speech in 2011 after sung the isiXhosa song “Kill the Boer” at a rally. The song, which uses white Afrikaans speakers, gained popularity in the 1980s as a result of Black opposition to white minority rule. When Black people were able to cast their first ballots in 1994, the apartheid-era government of the nation fell apart.
The Equality Court overturned that earlier judgment in 2022, accepting Malema’s claims that the lyrics were intended as a metaphorical statement of resistance when she was once more taken to court for singing racist songs.
The AfriForum and other Afrikan lobby organizations have continued to challenge the decision’s overturning. The Constitutional Court dismissed a second lawsuit in May in an effort to dismiss it.
Does Trump’s claim of “white genocide” include Malema?
Yes, US President Donald Trump cited Malema’s speeches as proof that there was a ‘white genocide’ in South Africa.
Trump and other senior members of his administration, including former adviser Elon Musk, have also supported claims that there is a genocide of white people in South Africa, as well as those of his predecessors.
However, a number of South African experts have refuted this claim and claim that there is no evidence that white people are targeted for their race in the nation.
Trump has used those claims to support his March 1st-March reduction in foreign aid and the country’s imposition of high trade tariffs. He also criticized South Africa for bringing Israel’s claim that it is a genocide in Gaza before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Even as, for instance, the US stopped migrant protection programs for people from Afghanistan, the Trump administration launched a refugee program for white South Africans in February. Under the new program, 59 white South Africans have since immigrated to the US as refugees. Ebrahim Rasool, the South African ambassador to the US, was also kicked out in May.
In an effort to repair the two countries’ deteriorating relations, President Cyril Ramaphosa confronted his counterpart with old clips from Malema’s rallies and songs and rehashed allegations that white people were being targeted.
Ramaphosa explained that Malema’s EFF opposes the president’s ANC party and does not belong in the ruling coalition. He also told Trump that he was correct when he said that white South Africans were the target of high crime rates.
At the event, former Trump adviser Elon Musk was also present. Mussk, who is a citizen of South Africa, has previously accused the politician of “actively promoting white genocide” by posting clips of Malema’s songs.
How do things generally stand between South Africa and the US?
Between the US and South Africa, there are still significant differences. Ronald Lamola, the foreign minister of South Africa, criticized Washington and the US for their treatment of white South Africans in a press interview on Wednesday.
In the era of social media, cosmetic surgery and beauty tourism are popular today on The Stream, but the pursuit of perfection is not an easy task.
A growing number of people are reshaping their bodies to fit online beauty goals, all while enjoying the glow of filters and flawless selfies. This episode examines how celebrity influence and platforms like Instagram and TikTok are contributing to a rise in cosmetic procedures worldwide. Why do so many people travel abroad to get medical care? We expose the dangers associated with cheesy surgeries and long-lasting health effects from overblown advertisements.
Washington, DC – Twenty years ago, when Hurricane Katrina made landfall, almost 1,500 people died from the floodwalls protecting the city of New Orleans.
On August 29, 2005, scenes of desperation were broadcast worldwide, particularly in the heavily populated and predominantly Black Ninth Ward of the city’s southern United States city.
The storm, which targeted the Gulf states and claimed the lives of more than 1,800 people overall, was the third-tragic hurricane to hit the US mainland since 1900. It quickly surpassed the Great Plains exodus from the Dust Bowl in 1930 as a mass displacement event.
In its wake, Katrina’s generational destruction exposed the pervasive racial and economic inequality, prompting a passionate, if incomplete, debate over local laws and national obligations to the most vulnerable communities both before and after extreme weather events.
Many experts in the field of emergency disasters are still haunted by the storm two decades later, a spectre that has grown larger as more people worry that US President Donald Trump’s administration may be making the same mistakes as it weighs down federal resources.
Katriana, according to director Alessandra Jerolleman of Loyola University of New Orleans, disproved the notion that Americans would always be protected in times of crisis, exposing the fragility of the systems intended to protect them.
According to Jerolleman, “Katrina exposed the idea that people could be stuck in American cities, people could be stranded without basic resources, and the federal government could be too slow and largely unable to get people out,” Jerolleman said.
When the hurricane struck, the Center on Environment, Land, and Law’s head of research said the revelation was “very shocking” for many at the time.
She said that “many things that went wrong really increased the misery that people felt.”
Donald Trump, president of the United States, has announced that he will let 600,000 Chinese students study in US universities.
His conservative base caught off guard by his announcement on Monday, which is a significant change from the Trump administration’s crackdown on Chinese students, which was first announced earlier this year.
In this article, we’ll learn more about what Trump is saying right now, in contrast to what the administration has previously said, and how some of his supporters from Make America Great Again (MAGA) are reacting.
What has Trump said about students from China?
Trump was asked if he would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on Monday at the Oval Office with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.
Trump responded, “I’d like to visit China,” according to Trump. A very significant relationship is involved. As you may well know, we are receiving a lot of money in from China as a result of various tariffs.
Then he addressed Chinese students, saying, “We are going to allow their students, but we are going to allow their students to come in,” a phrase that I hear so frequently. We’ll permit it. It’s very important – 600, 000 students”.
Trump reiterated his recent opinions regarding Chinese students on Tuesday at a cabinet meeting, saying, “I told President Xi that we’re honoured to have their students here.
With that, we check, we’re careful, we see who is present, and we do that.
Without Chinese students, according to Trump, the US would struggle.
Trump told Xi during a phone call in June that the US enjoys having Chinese students study there.
What has the government of China done?
Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for the Chinese government, expressed hope that Trump will follow through on his promise to accept Chinese students into US universities at a regular press conference on Wednesday.
Guo urged the US to stop “unprovoked harassment, interrogation, and deportation” of Chinese students.
What has the previous administration said about Chinese students?
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the announcement in late May that Trump would “aggressively” revoke Chinese student visas.
Rubio wrote in an X post that “the US will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those who have connections to the Chinese Communist Party or are majoring in important fields.”
At the time, the Trump administration provided no specifics about the students whose fate the revocations would have. The brief announcement was intentionally vague, according to observers.
Because it is not about a concrete policy, Princeton University researcher on China Kelly Chan said to Al Jazeera in May, “I think the vagueness is part of the Trump administration’s strategy.” In the end, I don’t believe it’s really about finding the few people who might pose a real risk.
According to an unnamed department official, the US State Department revoked 6, 000 international student visas in August as a result of overstays and violations of US law. The identities of the students whose visas had been suspended were unknown.
A US congressional committee of the House of Representatives wrote to leadership at various US universities in March asking for information about Chinese students who were enrolling in advanced science, technology, engineering, and medicine programs on their campuses. Rubio did not specify what criteria were for “critical fields.”
The Chinese Communist Party, according to John Moolenaar, the committee’s chairman, is placing Chinese researchers in top US institutions with access to sensitive technology.
In the US, how many Chinese students are there?
According to the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the US State Department’s annual Open Doors report, 277, 398 Chinese students enrolled in US universities between the years 2023 and 2024, making up 24.5 percent of the 1.13 million international students.
In the 2023-2024 year, Chinese students accounted for 29 percent of international students, compared to Indian students, who were accounted for only 29 percent of those students.
27.4% of international students enrolled in China between 2022 and 2023 made up the total.
In 2020-2021, a proportion of Chinese students who were studying abroad increased to 34.7 percent.
What justifies Trump’s most recent admissions announcement regarding Chinese students?
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick claimed that Trump’s recent statements are based on a “rational economic view” in an interview with Fox News on Monday.
According to Lutnick, 15% of US universities would shut down without international students.
According to data released by the nonprofit organization NAFSA: Association of International Educators, international students at US colleges and universities contributed $43.8 billion to the US economy and supported more than 378, 000 jobs during the academic year 2023-2024.
There were 1.1 million international students in the US, or $ 39,800 on average, according to NAFSA.
According to that calculation, the US economy that year would have been made up of more than $11 billion if there had been 277, 398 Chinese students studying there in 2023-2024.
What has the response been for Trump supporters?
Some members of Trump’s MAGA base are upset about his most recent statements.
In an X-post on Monday, Republican representative for Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote, “These schools should fail anyways because they are being supported by the CCP,” as stated by Greene.
600,000 CHINESE students should not be admitted to American colleges and universities that might support the CCP.
If 15% of Chinese students fail in our schools by refusing to let these students attend, these schools should fail in any case because they are…
Laura Loomer, a Trump ally and far-right activist, wrote a number of posts on X in opposition to Trump’s plan to recruit Chinese students. Nobody, repeat no, wants 600, 000 more Chinese “students,” or Communist spies, in the United States, according to one of the posts.
Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser and Trump aide, said on Tuesday that anyone who wants to leave right away should have an exit visa adhered to their diploma. Give them a 30-day warranty.
We can’t accept 600, 000 Chinese students, according to right-wing internet personality Christopher Rufo in an X post on Monday. We should, in any case, reduce the number of Chinese visas, particularly those for students with political ties to the CCP.
After Israel suspended its “humanitarian pauses,” Palestinians in Gaza City are now facing fresh threats to their lives. displaced people are preparing to leave in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City under the influence of Ibrahim Al-Khalili, according to Al Jazeera.
