International Glance
The verse was Al Imran 3:13, the passage describing the Battle of Badr, where a vastly outnumbered and poorly equipped Muslim force routed a much larger army “by the will of God”. It was a clear reference to what many are increasingly calling Iran’s victory over the US and Israel in their war on the country.
Badr was fought in what is today Saudi Arabia in 624 CE. The question is whether the recitation was a compliment, a taunt, or both - but it was unlikely to have been random.
Read generously, the verse gestures at one of Islam’s first victories and a shared civilisational memory between Tehran and Riyadh.
But Iran has not only survived the war but arguably, it may have emerged from it stronger, with control of the Strait of Hormuz now tantalisingly close to becoming a fait accompli.
When the Saudi delegation stepped forward to pay respects at the coffin of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran’s Grand Mosalla, the Quran recitation that followed did not go unnoticed.
A devastating Russian guided aerial bomb strike tore through the center of Sumy on Friday, killing at least four people, including a child, and injuring dozens of others, Ukrainian officials reported.
A string of primary victories by left-wing Democratic candidates has triggered alarm across Israeli media and pro-Israel circles, with commentators warning that support for Israel no longer guarantees "political success".
The British Museum removed the terms “Palestine”, “Palestinian” and “Israelite occupation” from its displays in direct response to months of lobbying in 2024, a Middle East Eye investigation has found. 
At least two people were killed and 16 others injured, including medical workers, after a barrage of Russian drones and ballistic missiles struck Kyiv early Thursday, city officials said.
It's been a week since Venezuela's worst earthquake disaster in over a century. Thousands of people are feared dead, with the official death toll continuing to rise as hope fades of finding survivors in the rubble.
