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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israel is attacking Iran where the regime fears most
Credit: Reuters A towering inferno blazed where Tehran's main oil reservoir once stood, turning the skies over the city black. Ordure cascaded through the streets from a mysterious rupture in the sewage mains. Cars exploded in rapid succession as onlookers screamed in fright. Many residents fled; others lined up outside petrol stations, desperately trying to source dwindling fuel supplies as they prepared to join the exodus. As Israel's war on Iran raged into a third day on Sunday, rumour and chaos subsumed the capital. Whatever Israel's military objectives, its operation had clearly taken on a broader dimension, targeting not just the economic foundations of the state, but the psyche of its people. For years, Israel has sensed that Iran's restive population was turning on its Islamist masters. Now it is sowing the seeds of mayhem in the hope of pushing them over the edge. Regime change, by Benjamin Netanyahu's own admission, is one of Israel's desired outcomes. It 'could certainly be the result because Iran is very weak,' he told Fox News. Quite what the Israelis were behind – and what they were not – no-one knew for sure. Perhaps the sewage mains had burst of their own accord; maybe some unknown group was exploiting the fraying sense of order to blow up cars. Credit: X/@nexta_tv Yet given this is a country whose spies remotely detonated thousands of Hezbollah's pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon last year, anything was possible. Only one thing can definitively be pinned on Israel: a series of attacks on Iran's oil and gas facilities. The likely motive was not hard to discern. After they shivered in the dark through one of the harshest winters in recent memory, exasperated Iranians have increasingly vented their anger at the regime in recent months. It seemed a scandal that a country with a sixth of the world's gas and ten per cent of its oil could be mired in such a cataclysmic power crisis that even major roads were plunged into darkness for lack of electricity. As government offices shut down and school pupils twiddled their thumbs at home, angry Iranians took to the streets in more than 150 towns and cities to denounce the corruption and mismanagement behind the crisis – protests that continued into this month. Little wonder, then, that over the past 24 hours, Israel struck not just Iran's nuclear facilities and missile bases, but also its electricity and gas plants. On Sunday, fires raged in the South Pars gas field and a nearby oil refinery in the southern province of Bushehr. A dozen storage tanks at Tehran's main fuel depot exploded one after another, setting the surrounding hills ablaze. There are plenty of reasons why Iran's energy infrastructure is under attack. Israel hopes to deny Iran the fuel it needs to support military operations. It quite possibly also hopes to goad Iran into retaliating against Saudi or Emirati energy assets – thereby potentially drawing the United States, with its bunker-busting bombs, into the war. But perhaps most crucially, Israel appears to have concluded that if it is to fight alone, its best chance of dismantling Iran's nuclear programme lies not in bombing deeply buried enrichment facilities, but in destabilising the regime that built them. Toppling the regime from within may, some officials believe, just be Israel's best bet for survival. If so, Iran's rotting domestic energy sector is arguably its most vulnerable point. The country is seething. Power rationing has shuttered factories, left workers unpaid, prevented bakers from making bread, students from sitting exams and farmers from irrigating their crops. Many blame the mullahs – and the elite Revolutionary Guards who not only protect them but also control much of Iran's power generation and distribution. Fury over reports that electricity has been diverted to power-draining Bitcoin mining operations linked to the Guards has fuelled a popular chant in Iran's cities: 'Crypto for the Guards; Blackouts for the People!' Mr Netanyahu clearly believes that Iran's people can be persuaded to topple the regime themselves. Israeli strikes on their country, he told them on Friday, would 'clear the path for you to achieve your freedom.' Such a move, he told Fox News, would clearly be a justified outcome of Israel's offensive: 'We can't let the world's most dangerous regime have the world's most dangerous weapons.' Yet not everyone is convinced the strategy will work. In fact, it could misfire, potentially helping to re-galvanise support for an unpopular regime, warns Sanam Vakil, the Middle East director at Chatham House, an international affairs think-tank in London. 'Iranians tend to be quite nationalistic and as civilian casualties mount and life becomes harder, they are more likely to rally around the flag,' she said. 'The unintended consequence could be the re-legitimisation of the Islamic Republic – a devastating outcome for Iranians and the broader region, let alone Netanyahu.' Whatever they think of the regime, few Iranians will relish seeing destruction on their homeland, says Farzan Sabet, a Middle East security researcher at the Geneva Graduate Institute, who hails from the Iranian city of Shiraz. 'In my own city, the electronics industry that contributed to the military's radar systems has been destroyed,' he said. 'It was a military target, but also a centre of technology and an important source of employment. A lot of people who were not especially pro government are quite upset at seeing it destroyed. 'If Israel continues to expand such operations, you're going to see many people who don't like the government offer it begrudging support. They might not like the government, but they don't like what's happening to the country either.' Before the operation began, there was little doubt just how unpopular Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his fellow mullahs were among a large segment of the population. Middle class liberals have always loathed them. Before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran had one of the most westernised populations in the Middle East: unveiled women wore trousers, danced in nightclubs, drank cocktails and canoodled with unmarried men. Such sophisticates were at the forefront of the first significant anti-government protests in 2009, led by the so-called Green Movement. Later, waves of unrest drew in a more diverse range of Iranians – particularly women – frustrated by the regime's strict Islamic codes, corruption and the economic toll of sanctions and isolation. Yet while these protests alarmed the regime, they ultimately changed little. The ayatollahs successfully crushed the most serious uprising, triggered in late 2022 after a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, died in police custody for allegedly showing her hair. In part, the regime has survived by relying on a fanatically loyal core of supporters. 'The regime's popularity has steadily declined over time,' Mr Sabet says. 'But its support, at least among its core base, for now remains relatively solid – and this is the core group that the system has relied on to survive.' But this is not the only reason why Israel may struggle to initiate regime change. As the Israeli bombs began to fall, Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son and heir to the shah toppled in 1979, urged Iranians to overthrow the regime, blaming it for 'dragging Iran into war.' Yet although many Iranians feel nostalgic for their 2,500-year monarchy, Mr Pahlavi leads what many analysts consider the weakest of five often bitterly divided opposition movements – a fragmentation the mullahs have successfully exploited. Until there is a more unified opposition, calls for a popular uprising, particularly from abroad, are unlikely to have a significant impact, argues Meir Javedanfar, Iran lecturer at Israel's Reichman University. History, particularly in the Middle East, suggests they rarely do. 'Everybody in Israel wants regime change and I think 80 per cent of people in Iran want better leaders,' he said. 'But I'm not sure regime change can be instigated from abroad. It has to come from within. It needs local leadership – and I just don't see the opposition in Iran organising around a single leader or party.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Washington Post
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Is Father's Day getting more respect? Depends on who you ask
Is Father's Day starting to get a little more attention as a holiday? Not if you check some social media. In an expletive-filled post on TikTok and X, rapper Plies, best known for his collaborations with T-Pain and DJ Khaled on hits 'Shawty' and 'I'm So Hood,' complains about how Father's Day on Sunday carries about as much clout as Groundhog Day, saying it might as well be removed from the calendar.
Telegraph
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Children's Commissioner attacks Musk for letting children view porn on X
Sir Keir Starmer's Children's Commissioner has attacked Elon Musk for allowing children to watch porn on X. Dame Rachel de Souza has called on the billionaire owner of the social media site to 'act like a father' after it was revealed that children are most likely to view pornographic content on X. Speaking in an interview series by anti-porn charity the Naked Truth Project, Dame Rachel attacked the world's richest man, encouraging him to 'think about children'. 'Look, frankly, Elon Musk, who owns X, is a father. Be [and] act like a father. Think about children,' she told the Naked Truth Project's Ian Henderson. 'Children need our protection. I want Apple, I want X, I want all the social media companies where children see these things to take it seriously. They are global companies and they should do better,' Dame Rachel said. The commissioner's 2023 study into young people and pornography revealed that 41 per cent of young people have encountered pornography on Twitter, surpassing dedicated pornography sites (37 per cent), Instagram (33 per cent) and Snapchat (32 per cent). X introduced age verification measures in 2024 but these can easily be bypassed and fail to offer real protection. The commissioner's office is carrying out work to update her study and reflect children's experiences today, to be published later in 2025. 'We want young people to be able to enjoy the internet, enjoy apps, never have to be bored again on a Sunday afternoon or not find something in a good, sensible way,' she said. 'Instead I'm still hearing heinous stories about what children are seeing on there and I find the tech companies absolutely morally culpable. They are not doing what they should.' The Government's online safety act, which followed this newspaper's campaign for a duty of care on firms to protect children, was introduced in October 2023. It requires porn companies to bar under-18s from their sites and tech giants to put in place tough age checks to prevent children accessing such content. But Dame Rachel said that she is not satisfied with social media companies' compliance with the legislation. 'The Online Safety Bill is clear. They should be protecting children,' she said. 'They know how old the children are on their sites. They've got the technology. 'They should have proper, strict age verification. 'They should be answering children's complaints. They should be taking down harmful material. 'And when I ask them why they're not, they often mumble something about resources or say 'we're doing better'. It's just not good enough. These are our children. This is the law in this country and I want to see a robust approach from government.' The Children's Commissioner is also working on the rise of deepfake and ' nudifying' apps, pointing to research that one in four girls has been shown a deepfake image of themselves, a friend or a teacher. She said that 25 per cent of girls that they had spoken to had either seen themself, a friend or a teacher on nudifying apps. 'It spreads like wildfire with the young,' she said. 'Girls are telling me they're as afraid of these apps as they are of walking home on a dark night because they are terrified of seeing themselves shown naked and passed round. 'It's illegal to make pornographic images of children. Boys who are making these images are committing an illegal act. But the apps that enable this aren't illegal yet – and they should be.'
Al Bawaba
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Al Bawaba
Doja Cat clashes with fan amid viral uncomfortable interaction
ALBAWABA - American pop star Doja Cat sparked widespread debate after taking to social media and addressing a recently shared viral video that showcased an uncomfortable interaction with a fan outside an event. The fan was captured giving Doja Cat his T-shirt after she expressed how much she liked it. They then hugged several times, the fan kissed her on the cheek, and they cheered together. The fan was heard saying in the video, "Imma give this shirt to Doja Cat because she's the iconic girl... You deserve it, and if you want anything more, I've got you." Doja later took to X (formerly known as Twitter) in response to the viral video and wrote, "bottom line is i'll smile at you but it doesn't mean I fuck w you and don't touch me and man handle me when you don't even fuckin know me. iykyk. i honestly think I need to stand up for myself in the moment sometimes. and he didn't even know my fuckin name to be touching me and kissing me on my face like that is crazy." The American star later claimed to a fan in the comments section that she was drunk during the interaction. The post has been deleted since then. The post sparked mixed reactions on the platform, with several siding with the American star. However, others called it a "stretch," stating further that she looked happy during the interaction captured on video. A fan wrote on X, "I don't think nothing what she is feeling is wrong at all, she was just playing it cool on camera and knowing how ppl switch stories. She sure is a good actor because I thought this was a cute fan moment." In contrast, another wrote, "Why she lift up her leg over him then if she didn't wanna hug." In response to her X post, LA-based influencer Pablo Tomayo, who is a fan with 400,000 Instagram followers, took to his official account and declared he's in his "villain era." Additionally, Tomayo also mockingly promoted the shirt on Instagram and wrote, "She wants to promote her album. I'll promote my shirt." He also made a video on TikTok and said, "I just want to clear this up because it hurts because I loved her. I watched her at Coachella. I never claimed to be the biggest fan, but I stan her and I think her work is amazing." He added while apologizing, "I would've never wanted to make her uncomfortable. I would've never filmed if she didn't say yes. That video that we filmed was after everything," he continued. "I understand that she has to set her boundaries. She's a celebrity. I'm not. I will never understand that, so I value that... I appreciate and I get that."
CNA
a day ago
- Business
- CNA
Elon Musk's X sees partial recovery after outage hits US users, Downdetector shows
Social media platform X showed signs of recovery on Saturday after an outage disrupted access for thousands of users in the United States, according to outage tracking website Reports of disruptions had dropped to around 1,041 by 7:42 p.m. ET, down from a peak of more than 10,000, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from various sources. Downdetector's numbers are based on user-submitted reports. The actual number of affected users may vary. In May, Musk, who spent nearly $300 million to back U.S. President Donald Trump's presidential campaign and other Republicans last year, said he'll resume working '24/7' at his companies. "Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms. I must be super focused on X/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week), as we have critical technologies rolling out," Musk had said in an X post. "As evidenced by the X uptime issues this week, major operational improvements need to be made," he added. Earlier in March, Musk had blamed a cyberattack after a similar outage at X.
