Netanyahu Offers Iran Solutions for Water Crisis

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the Iranians about the water crisis in a video on YouTube | Asharq Al-Awsat
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the Iranians about the water crisis in a video on YouTube | Asharq Al-Awsat
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Netanyahu Offers Iran Solutions for Water Crisis

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the Iranians about the water crisis in a video on YouTube | Asharq Al-Awsat
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the Iranians about the water crisis in a video on YouTube | Asharq Al-Awsat

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video Sunday personally addressing the Iranian people by announcing the launch of a Persian-language website to address "the severe water shortage that threatens millions of lives."

Netanyahu said he was ready to personally be responsible for marketing a new Israeli initiative called "Life for the Iranian People," aimed at helping Iranians in the water field.

He appeared in a video filmed in his office in West Jerusalem for this purpose, and he began with a scene in which he poured a glass of water for himself from a glass container he said was produced by desalination plants. He then spoke about the severe crisis faced by Iranians as a result of water shortages.

“Millions of Iranian children are suffering from mismanagement and incompetence,” he stated.

He noted that "Iran's meteorological organization says that nearly 96 percent of Iran suffers from some level of drought," and that Iran’s Environmental Minister had warned that "50 million Iranians could be forced to leave their homes due to environmental problems."

Israel’s prime minister openly boasted that his country developed “cutting-edge technologies” in the field, and it “recycles nearly 90 percent of its wastewater.”

The promoted website is actually a section at the official site of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which indeed features some articles on water management and agriculture in Farsi.

Notably, the web page eagerly encourages Iranians to read about the new Israeli water management and follow the news about it on Telegram – an instant messaging service that was actually banned in Iran as early as a month ago.

The video was posted on a special site set up by the Israeli government in Persian-language as part of a photo-management report showing how Israel can help Iranians in water reuse.

Notably, Iran has been experiencing tension in several areas because of a sharp drop in water supply following a drought that has been hitting the country for 10 years now.

Experts also point fingers at poor water management in the country and the widening of the environmental crisis.

In response to Netanyahu’s video, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said that Netanyahu's comments do not deserve even an answer.

“I don't know why we should answer the claims made by this showman,' Qasemi said.

“Of course, I think since he has not managed to change the Europeans' views on the Iran Deal during his tour of the Continent, now he is embarking on such a deceitful measure against Iran,” he said.

“Netanyahu should better stop going on with his crimes and child killings. He does not need to be concerned about drought in Iran,” Qasemi stressed.



Iran to Consider Lifting Internet Ban; State TV Hacked

People walk past a burnt-out building destroyed during public protests in the Iranian capital Tehran on January 19, 26. (AFP)
People walk past a burnt-out building destroyed during public protests in the Iranian capital Tehran on January 19, 26. (AFP)
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Iran to Consider Lifting Internet Ban; State TV Hacked

People walk past a burnt-out building destroyed during public protests in the Iranian capital Tehran on January 19, 26. (AFP)
People walk past a burnt-out building destroyed during public protests in the Iranian capital Tehran on January 19, 26. (AFP)

Iran may lift its internet blackout in a few days, a senior parliament member said on Monday, after authorities shut communications while they used massive force to crush protests in the worst domestic unrest since ​the 1979 revolution.

In the latest sign of weakness in the authorities' control, state television appeared to be hacked late on Sunday, briefly showing speeches by US President Donald Trump and the exiled son of Iran's last shah calling on the public to revolt.

Iran's streets have largely been quiet for a week since anti-government protests that began in late December were put down in three days of mass violence.

An ‌Iranian official ‌told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the ‌confirmed ⁠death ​toll ‌was more than 5,000, including 500 members of the security forces, with some of the worst unrest taking place in ethnic Kurdish areas in the northwest. Western-based Iranian rights groups also say thousands were killed.

Opponents accuse the authorities of opening fire on peaceful demonstrators to crush dissent. Iran's clerical rulers say armed crowds egged on by foreign enemies attacked hospitals and mosques.

The death tolls dwarf ⁠those of previous bouts of anti-government unrest put down by the authorities in 2022 and 2009. ‌The violence drew repeated threats from Trump ‍to intervene militarily, although he has backed ‍off since the large-scale killing stopped.

INTERNET TO RETURN WHEN 'CONDITIONS ARE APPROPRIATE'

Ebrahim ‍Azizi, the head of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said top security bodies would decide on restoring internet in the coming days, with service resuming "as soon as security conditions are appropriate".

Another parliament member, hardliner Hamid Rasaei, said authorities should ​have listened to earlier complaints by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei about "lax cyberspace".

Iranian communications including internet and international phone lines were ⁠largely stopped in the days leading up to the worst unrest. The blackout has since partially eased, allowing accounts of widespread attacks on protesters to emerge.

During Sunday's apparent hack into state television, screens broadcast a segment lasting several minutes with the on-screen headline "the real news of the Iranian national revolution".

It included messages from Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran's last shah, calling for a revolt to overthrow rule by the clerics who have run the country since the 1979 revolution that toppled his father.

Pahlavi has emerged as a prominent opposition voice and has said he plans ‌to return to Iran, although it is difficult to assess independently how strong support for him is inside Iran.


12 Schoolchildren Killed in South Africa Crash

File photo: A general view of the scene of a bus accident in Ekurhuleni on March 11, 2025. (AFP)
File photo: A general view of the scene of a bus accident in Ekurhuleni on March 11, 2025. (AFP)
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12 Schoolchildren Killed in South Africa Crash

File photo: A general view of the scene of a bus accident in Ekurhuleni on March 11, 2025. (AFP)
File photo: A general view of the scene of a bus accident in Ekurhuleni on March 11, 2025. (AFP)

A minibus carrying school students collided with a truck south of Johannesburg on Monday, killing 12 pupils, police said.

It was the latest in a string of deadly crashes in a country whose modern road network is undermined by rampant speeding, reckless driving and poorly maintained vehicles.

The crash happened near the industrial city of Vanderbijlpark, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Johannesburg.

Police said the driver of the minibus appeared to have lost control while attempting to overtake other vehicles.

Eleven students died at the scene and another in hospital, provincial education minister Matome Chiloane told reporters at the scene.

He did not know the ages of the children involved but said they were from primary schools, where pupils are aged from six years, and also high schools.

Images on social media showed the crushed minibus on the roadside with distraught parents gathered behind the police tape. Some broke down in wails when they were allowed to see the bodies.

"It is a terrible scene," Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi said.

More than 11,400 lives were lost on South African roads in 2025, according to the latest data from the transport ministry.

Many South African parents have to rely on private minibuses to get their children to school.

In October, 18 children were badly hurt when their minibus lost control and overturned on a highway in KwaZulu-Natal.

At least five students were killed and eight others injured in September when a school minibus ploughed into a creche in a KwaZulu-Natal township.


Glitch Delays Restart of World's Biggest Nuclear Plant in Japan

Local Japanese authorities have approved the restart of the world's biggest nuclear power facility, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. STR / JIJI Press/AFP
Local Japanese authorities have approved the restart of the world's biggest nuclear power facility, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. STR / JIJI Press/AFP
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Glitch Delays Restart of World's Biggest Nuclear Plant in Japan

Local Japanese authorities have approved the restart of the world's biggest nuclear power facility, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. STR / JIJI Press/AFP
Local Japanese authorities have approved the restart of the world's biggest nuclear power facility, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. STR / JIJI Press/AFP

A technical glitch pushed back the restart of the world's biggest nuclear reactor in Japan, its operator said on Monday, a day before local media reported it would go online.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said it would need another day of two to check the equipment at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, which media reports said was set to restart on Tuesday.

The plant was taken offline when Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power after a colossal earthquake and tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima plant into meltdown in 2011.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility would be the first nuclear plant that Fukushima operator TEPCO restarts since the disaster.

The company has never publicly announced a date to switch on the plant.

TEPCO has decided to run more checks after detecting a technical issue on Saturday related to an alarm linked to one of the reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, company spokesman Isao Ito told AFP.

The alarm issue had been fixed by Sunday, he added.

After the final checks, the utility will explain to nuclear authorities what had happened and proceed to restart the plant, the spokesman said, without providing an exact timeline.

More than a decade since the Fukushima accident, Japan now wants to revive atomic energy to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and meet growing energy needs from artificial intelligence.

But it is a divisive issue, with many residents worried about nuclear safety.

About 50 people gathered Monday outside TEPCO's headquarters in the capital Tokyo, chanting "No to the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa!"

"TEPCO only mentions a possible delay. But that's not enough," said Takeshi Sakagami, president of the Citizens' Nuclear Regulatory Watchdog Group.

"A full investigation is needed, and if a major flaw is confirmed, the reactor should be permanently shut down," he said at the rally.

The reactor has cleared the nation's nuclear safety standard.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has voiced her support for the use of nuclear power.

Japan is the world's fifth-largest single-country emitter of carbon dioxide, and is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels.