Category: 2. World

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Saturday insisted that US bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities “completely destroyed” the sites after a report said that some had largely survived.

On his Truth Social platform, Trump reiterated his frequent claim that “all three nuclear sites in Iran were completely destroyed and/or OBLITERATED.”

He said it would “take years to bring them back into service and, if Iran wanted to do so, they would be much better off starting anew, in three different locations.”

US bomb and missile attacks struck Iran’s controversial nuclear program on June 22, hitting the uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.

The bombings, carried out at the same time as an Israeli campaign against Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure, were billed by Washington as a knockout blow to a years-long covert effort to build nuclear weapons.

Iran insists it has not tried to weaponize its civilian nuclear power program.

Despite Trump’s claims of total success, several US media outlets have reported leaked intelligence suggesting a hazier picture.

The latest to cast doubt was an NBC News report Friday, quoting a military damage assessment that only one of the three sites was mostly destroyed.

Two other sites were deemed to be repairable and potentially able to resume uranium enrichment activities within “the next several months,” NBC reported, citing five current and former US officials aware of the assessment. NBC also reported that the Pentagon had prepared an option to inflict far greater damage on Iran’s facilities through a bombing campaign that would have lasted several weeks — not the one-night operation chosen by Trump.

KAFR MALIK: From his monitoring station on a remote hill in the occupied West Bank, water operator Subhil Olayan keeps watch over a lifeline for Palestinians, the Ein Samiyah spring.

So when Israeli settlers recently attacked the system of wells, pumps and pipelines he oversees, he knew the stakes. “There is no life without water, of course”, he said, following the attack which temporarily cut off the water supply to nearby villages.

The spring, which feeds the pumping station, is the main or backup water source for some 110,000 people, according to the Palestinian company that manages it — making it one of the most vital in the West Bank, where water is in chronic short supply.

The attack is one of several recent incidents in which settlers have been accused of damaging, diverting or seizing control of Palestinian water sources. “The settlers came and the first thing they did was break the pipeline. And when the pipeline is broken, we automatically have to stop pumping” water to nearby villages, some of which exclusively rely on the Ein Samiyah spring.

“The water just goes into the dirt, into the ground,” Olayan said, adding that workers immediately fixed the damage to resume water supply. Just two days after the latest attack, Israeli settlers — some of them armed — splashed in pools just below the spring, while Olayan monitored water pressure and cameras from a distance.

His software showed normal pressure in the pipes pulling water from the wells and the large pipe carrying water up the hill to his village of Kafr Malik. But he said maintenance teams dared not venture down to the pumping station out of fear for their safety.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, deadly settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have become commonplace. Last week, settlers beat a 20-year-old dual US citizen to death in the nearby village of Sinjil, prompting US ambassador Mike Huckabee to urge Israel to “aggressively investigate” the killing.

Annexation

Issa Qassis, chairman on the board of the Jerusalem Water Undertaking, which manages the Ein Samiyah spring, said he viewed the attacks as a tool for Israeli land grabs and annexation. “When you restrict water supply in certain areas, people simply move where water is available”, he said at a press conference.

“So in a plan to move people to other lands, water is the best and fastest way”, he said. Since the start of the war in Gaza, several Israeli politicians and officials have become increasingly vocal in support of annexing the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Most prominent among them is Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, who said in November that 2025 would be the year Israel applies its sovereignty over the Palestinian territory.

Qassis accused Israel’s government of supporting settler attacks such as the one on Ein Samiyah. The Israeli army said that soldiers were not aware of the incident in which pipes were damaged, “and therefore were unable to prevent it”.

The damage to Ein Samiyah’s water facilities was not an isolated incident.

In recent months, settlers in the nearby Jordan Valley took control of the Al-Auja spring by diverting its water from upstream, said Farhan Ghawanmeh, a representative of the Ras Ein Al Auja community. He said two other springs in the area had also recently been taken over.

Water rights

In Dura al-Qaraa, another West Bank village that uses the Ein Samiyah spring as a back-up water source, residents are also concerned about increasingly long droughts and the way Israel regulates their water rights. “For years now, no one has been planting because the water levels have decreased,” said Rafeaa Qasim, a member of the village council, citing lower rainfall causing the land to be “basically abandoned”.

Qasim said that though water shortages in the village have existed for 30 years, residents’ hands are tied in the face of this challenge. “We have no options; digging a well is not allowed”, despite the presence of local water springs, he said, pointing to a well project that the UN and World Bank rejected due to Israeli law prohibiting drilling in the area.

The lands chosen for drilling sit in the West Bank’s Area C, which covers more than 60 per cent of the territory and is under full Israeli control. Israeli NGO B’Tselem reported in 2023 that the legal system led to sharp disparities in water access within the West Bank between Palestinians and Israelis.

Whereas nearly all residents of Israel and Israeli settlements have running water every day, only 36 percent of West Bank Palestinians do, the report said. In Dura al-Qaraa, Qasim fears for the future. “Each year, the water decreases and the crisis grows — it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse.”

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2025

SEOUL: Heavy rain in South Korea has killed at least 17 people in recent days, government records showed on Sunday, while 11 remain unaccounted for in the intense downpours.

South Korea typically experiences monsoon rains in July and is usually well-prepared. But this week, the country’s southern regions were hit with some of the heaviest hourly rainfall on record, according to official data.

There was also a dangerous deluge in the north early on Sunday, with close to 170 millimetres (6.7 inches) of rain hitting Gapyeong county in Gyeonggi province, east of the capital Seoul, leaving at least two dead and five missing.

The number of casualties rose throughout the day as bodies of those previously reported missing — many swept away in landslides — were recovered.

A woman in her 70s was killed when her house collapsed in a landslide, while the body of a man in his 40s was found near a bridge after he drowned, Yonhap news agency reported.

Southern county of Sancheong receives 800 millimetres of rain since Wednesday

The total number of deaths from the five-day deluge now stands at at least 17, with 11 missing, according to interior ministry data as of Sunday evening. Most of the deaths occurred in the southern county of Sancheong, which has seen nearly 800 millimetres of rain since Wednesday.

With the bodies of those who had gone missing retrieved on Sunday, the number of deaths in the rural county of 33,000 rose to 10, with four still unaccounted for. Scientists say climate change has made extreme weather events more frequent and intense around the world.

In 2022, South Korea endured record-breaking rains and flooding, which killed at least 11 people. They included three people who died trapped in a Seoul basement apartment of the kind that became internationally known because of the Oscar-winning Korean film Parasite.

The government said at the time that the rainfall was the heaviest since records began, blaming climate change for the extreme weather.

A landslide hit a campsite in Gapyeong, leaving a man in his 40s dead, two family members missing and 24 other people stranded, fire authorities said.

One person was rescued near the campsite by a zip-line across a raging river, according to footage released by fire officials. In another video, a helicopter is seen airlifting a person to safety.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ordered a swift assessment of the damage and the prompt designation of special disaster zones to increase state support.

The rainfall is likely to stop on Sunday and be followed by a heat wave, the government weather forecaster said on Sunday.

The heavy rainfall, which had earlier lashed southern parts of South Korea, moved north overnight, it said.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2025

KAFR MALIK: From his monitoring station on a remote hill in the occupied West Bank, water operator Subhil Olayan keeps watch over a lifeline for Palestinians, the Ein Samiyah spring.

So when Israeli settlers recently attacked the system of wells, pumps and pipelines he oversees, he knew the stakes. “There is no life without water, of course”, he said, following the attack which temporarily cut off the water supply to nearby villages.

The spring, which feeds the pumping station, is the main or backup water source for some 110,000 people, according to the Palestinian company that manages it — making it one of the most vital in the West Bank, where water is in chronic short supply.

The attack is one of several recent incidents in which settlers have been accused of damaging, diverting or seizing control of Palestinian water sources. “The settlers came and the first thing they did was break the pipeline. And when the pipeline is broken, we automatically have to stop pumping” water to nearby villages, some of which exclusively rely on the Ein Samiyah spring.

“The water just goes into the dirt, into the ground,” Olayan said, adding that workers immediately fixed the damage to resume water supply. Just two days after the latest attack, Israeli settlers — some of them armed — splashed in pools just below the spring, while Olayan monitored water pressure and cameras from a distance.

His software showed normal pressure in the pipes pulling water from the wells and the large pipe carrying water up the hill to his village of Kafr Malik. But he said maintenance teams dared not venture down to the pumping station out of fear for their safety.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, deadly settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have become commonplace. Last week, settlers beat a 20-year-old dual US citizen to death in the nearby village of Sinjil, prompting US ambassador Mike Huckabee to urge Israel to “aggressively investigate” the killing.

Annexation

Issa Qassis, chairman on the board of the Jerusalem Water Undertaking, which manages the Ein Samiyah spring, said he viewed the attacks as a tool for Israeli land grabs and annexation. “When you restrict water supply in certain areas, people simply move where water is available”, he said at a press conference.

“So in a plan to move people to other lands, water is the best and fastest way”, he said. Since the start of the war in Gaza, several Israeli politicians and officials have become increasingly vocal in support of annexing the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Most prominent among them is Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, who said in November that 2025 would be the year Israel applies its sovereignty over the Palestinian territory.

Qassis accused Israel’s government of supporting settler attacks such as the one on Ein Samiyah. The Israeli army said that soldiers were not aware of the incident in which pipes were damaged, “and therefore were unable to prevent it”.

The damage to Ein Samiyah’s water facilities was not an isolated incident.

In recent months, settlers in the nearby Jordan Valley took control of the Al-Auja spring by diverting its water from upstream, said Farhan Ghawanmeh, a representative of the Ras Ein Al Auja community. He said two other springs in the area had also recently been taken over.

Water rights

In Dura al-Qaraa, another West Bank village that uses the Ein Samiyah spring as a back-up water source, residents are also concerned about increasingly long droughts and the way Israel regulates their water rights. “For years now, no one has been planting because the water levels have decreased,” said Rafeaa Qasim, a member of the village council, citing lower rainfall causing the land to be “basically abandoned”.

Qasim said that though water shortages in the village have existed for 30 years, residents’ hands are tied in the face of this challenge. “We have no options; digging a well is not allowed”, despite the presence of local water springs, he said, pointing to a well project that the UN

and World Bank rejected due to Israeli law prohibiting drilling in the area.

The lands chosen for drilling sit in the West Bank’s Area C, which covers more than 60 percent of the territory and is under full Israeli control. Israeli NGO B’Tselem reported in 2023 that the legal system led to sharp disparities in water access within the West Bank between Palestinians and Israelis.

Whereas nearly all residents of Israel and Israeli settlements have running water every day, only 36 percent of West Bank Palestinians do, the report said. In Dura al-Qaraa, Qasim fears for the future. “Each year, the water decreases and the crisis grows — it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse.”

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2025

The children of an elderly couple imprisoned by the Taliban in Afghanistan have urged the group to release the pair before they “die in custody”.

They said the UN would be making a statement on Monday calling for the immediate release of Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, who were arrested as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, central Afghanistan, in February.

They have been held for five-and-a-half months without charge and, up until eight weeks ago, had been separated and detained in a maximum security prison.

Their four adult children, who live in the US and UK, say they are worried for their parents.

According to a remote medical assessment conducted by a cardiologist, Peter may have suffered a stroke or a silent heart attack, while Barbie continued to struggle with numbness in her feet, which was linked to anaemia, their children said.

They said: “This is another urgent plea to the Taliban to release our parents before it is too late and they die in their custody.

“They have dedicated their lives to the people of Afghanistan for the last 18 years.”

The siblings said they had written privately to the Taliban leadership twice and made public appeals for the release of their parents, who have run school training programmes for 18 years in the country, remaining after the Taliban takeover in 2021.

The Reynolds’s children say the last time they spoke to their parents was five weeks ago. Officials from the UK Foreign Office were allowed on an exceptional basis to visit the couple last Thursday to check on their welfare.

The couple, who celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary this week, were held up until eight weeks ago at the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in the capital, Kabul, their children said.

They were then transferred to the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), with the promise of release within two to three days, they said. Two further months have since passed.

The children said their parents had better conditions at the GDI but still had no bed or furniture and slept on a mattress on the floor.

Sarah Entwistle, one of the children, said: “For the past two months, we have maintained a media blackout, hoping to demonstrate our intention to show respect to the Taliban, and ‘trust the process’.

“The UN will be making a statement on Monday calling for immediate release. In the light of this, we are also publicly appealing again to the Taliban for this.”

HYDERABAD:

The second spell of monsoon showers, early on Sunday morning, once again partially inundated a number of low-lying localities and roads in Hyderabad. The power outages, which instantly followed, lasted till afternoon.

The rain started early in the morning. The spokesman of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) Sadiq Kubar claimed that by 9.45 am, around three to four hours later, power supply from 97 electricity feeders in Hyderabad was restored but 55 feeders still remained shut because of tripping.

The Pakistan Meteorolo-gical Department (PMD) recorded 21 millimeter rainfall in Hyderabad. The shower readings of PMD and the district administration often show a difference with the latter coming up with greater amounts of rainfall.

Meanwhile, torrential showers hit Larkana district with the PMD recording up to 86 mm rain by 5.30 pm. Several localities, commercial areas and main roads came under ankle to knee deep water. Rainwater accumulated on Syed Qaim Shah Bukhari, Market, Civil Hospital, SP Chowk, Bhains Colony and many other important roads, forcing motorists and pedestrians to wade through water.

Even ambulances face difficulty reaching the civil hospital.

The citizens complained that the authorities failed to desilt drainage network which resulted in flooding the localities and neighbourhoods with sewage mixed rainwater.

It also rained on Sunday in Sukkur, Khairpur, Noushehro Feroze, Jacobabad, Mirpurkhas, Badin, Benazirabad, Tharparkar and other districts. The PMD recorded up to 20 mm rain in Sukkur and Noushehro Feroze, 17 in Khairpur and Jacobabad.