Head of Iran’s Seminary Promises ‘Death’ to Turban Flippers

Police on motorbikes chasing protesters in Tehran - An Iranian woman writes the name of the “Azadi” tower in candlelight - Students spilling red paint in a hall of the Faculty of Art at the University of Tehran (Twitter)

Berlin, London, Tehran – Raghida Bahnam, Asharq Al-Awsat

07:56-13 November 2022 AD ـ 19 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1444 AH

Head of Iran’s Seminary Promises ‘Death’ to Turban Flippers

The head of the Iranian Seminary, Alireza Arafi, had vowed “death” to any protester transgressing against clerics in Iran at a time when the death toll of demonstrations that have rocked the cleric-led nation since Sept. 17 has risen to 336, according to human rights groups.

“Those who attack the turbans of the clergy should know that the turban will become their shroud,” said Arafi, according to the official media mouthpiece of Iran’s Seminary.

“Haters of the system must know that we will preserve it until our last breath,” added Arafi.

As the authorities have waged a deadly crackdown on the rallies, some demonstrators have turned to new tactics to sustain the protests, including tipping off clerics’ turbans in the streets.

Iranian security forces have killed at least 326 people since nationwide protests erupted two months ago, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO (IHRNGO) group has claimed.

Since the start of the protests, deaths have been recorded across 22 provinces, according to the IHRNGO. Most were reported in Sistan and Baluchistan, Tehran, Mazandaran, Kurdistan, and Gilan provinces.

At the start of the ninth week of public unrest, Iranian protesters called for a memorial for the victims of the November 2019 protests, in which 1,500 people were killed.

In other news, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday that he favors a new round of European Union sanctions on Iran next week.

“We want to continue to step up the pressure on the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the political leadership,” he said in a video posted on Twitter.

Scholz’s statement follows Germany and Iceland urging the UN to convene a special session of the Human Rights Council on the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran, especially with regard to women and children.

Iran’s President Says Tehran to Resist Until ‘Aggressors Are Regretful’

People walk near an anti-US mural in Tehran, Iran, September 2, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

10:32-8 September 2026 AD ـ 26 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

Iran’s President Says Tehran to Resist Until ‘Aggressors Are Regretful’

People walk near an anti-US mural in Tehran, Iran, September 2, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Iran will continue its resistance with strength until "aggressors" become regretful and its rights are defended, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday, pointing ‌to a ‌less conciliatory ‌tone ⁠from Tehran.

"Iran has always been against war and has considered the ⁠preservation of people's ‌interests ‌and regional security to ‌lie in refraining ‌from conflict. However, just as it has boldly risen to ‌defend against aggression up to this ⁠day, ⁠it will continue this resistance with strength until aggressors become regretful and will remain guardian of people's rights," Pezeshkian posted on X.

Iran threatened the United States with "economic warfare" on Tuesday and said it had fired an advanced missile at US warships, underscoring the risks of further escalation in the war only days after both sides traded blows again.

The six-month-old war has been marked by a cycle of pauses followed by periodic flare-ups, with the US last reporting attacks on Iranian targets on Saturday, when US forces struck three Iranian oil tankers. Iranian state media on Sunday reported that Iran fired the Qassem Basir missile in its attacks on several US vessels.

World

Nepal Glacier Saw Exceptional Heat Before Collapse Caused Deadly Floods, Says Researcher

A man looks at the remains of sludge-ridden houses in the aftermath of flash floods at Devighat in Nepal's Nuwakot district on September 8, 2026. (AFP)

10:26-8 September 2026 AD ـ 26 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

Nepal Glacier Saw Exceptional Heat Before Collapse Caused Deadly Floods, Says Researcher

A man looks at the remains of sludge-ridden houses in the aftermath of flash floods at Devighat in Nepal's Nuwakot district on September 8, 2026. (AFP)

The mountain section whose collapse triggered fatal floods in Nepal and China on August 26 had experienced unprecedented heat for the time of year, meteorological data analyzed by a researcher shows.

Average temperatures on the mountain glacier at an altitude of 5,200 meters (17,060 feet) were estimated at around five degrees Celsius between August 21 and 26.

This is exceptionally high.

They had not exceeded 4.0C over the same period in more than 55 years of data recording, although no direct link to the collapse has so far been established.

This series of highly localized temperatures was reconstructed by Robert Rohde, chief scientist at the independent Berkeley Earth organization in California.

At the site of the collapse, the average temperature recorded over that six-day period has risen by about 1.8C since the mid-20th century.

Without the additional heat brought by climate change, a comparable temperature pattern "would probably occur only once in a few thousand years", Rohde calculated for AFP.

The collapse came during the Langtang region's fourth-hottest summer on record, according to AFP's analysis of data from Europe's Copernicus observatory dating back to 1970.

- Tipping point -

"These hot conditions can also explain permafrost thaw and combined slope and glacier collapse," said French climatologist Valerie Masson-Delmotte.

Permafrost acts as ice cement, holding rock faces together. Its degradation makes them more unstable.

Satellite images also showed significant snowmelt in the days before the disaster, providing "a substantial source of liquid water that can infiltrate fractures in the mountain and facilitate landslides", said Etienne Berthier, a glaciologist at France's CNRS research agency.

Experts remain cautious, however, about the precise role played by the heatwave.

"It's not as straightforward as 'high temperature equals collapse,'" Kristen Cook, a geomorphologist at the Grenoble Alpes University in France, told AFP.

"If the temperature acted as a trigger, it seems that it needed to wait until the rock was right at the tipping point of collapse," she added.

Researchers are now examining the small movements observed in the mountain in the years before the collapse and their interaction with changes in temperature.

"Proving the rock near the fracture plane was significantly weakened as a result of meltwater and/or permafrost thaw" would be a "smoking gun" of climate change, according to Rhode of Berkeley Earth.

His temperature analysis used data from the Copernicus program's ERA5 climate model and a network of 14 high-altitude weather stations located between nine and 140 kilometers (six and 87 miles) from the collapsed glacier.

World

North Korea Calls Russia Bridge a Sign of Tighter Ties

A handout photo made available by the Russian Transport Ministry on 08 September 2026 shows a Zaporozhets car on the new Russia-North Korea road bridge over the Tumen River, during the opening ceremony in Khasan statement, Primorsky Krai, Russia. (EPA/Russian Transport Ministry Press Service/Handout)

10:13-8 September 2026 AD ـ 26 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

North Korea Calls Russia Bridge a Sign of Tighter Ties

North Korea called the first road bridge across its narrow border with Russia a concrete sign of tightening bonds, state media reported Tuesday, as Pyongyang gains advantages from its powerful neighbors Moscow and Beijing.

The bridge over the Tumen River into Russia and an under-construction span to China are part of a shift that offers Western-sanctioned Pyongyang economic and strategic options it has long sought, experts said.

North Korea "will simultaneously secure two major overland routes linking it with Russia and China, allowing it to encourage competition between the two countries and maximize its gains," said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University.

He noted the bridges also "can be a message to the United States that North Korea has no reason to beg Washington for sanctions relief or make concessions on denuclearization in order to negotiate".

Russia noted the bridge is designed to accommodate expanded growth in freight with the capacity for up to 300 vehicles daily, which adds to the rail and air links already between the neighbors.

Ukrainian rights group Truth Hounds, however, previously warned that the new bridge could become "a direct artery for moving North Korean troops, construction brigades and military officials into Russia, with Russian technology and resources flowing in the opposite direction".

The ceremony on Monday marking the new bridge's opening came as Russia and North Korea have heavily boosted military and economic ties since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive in 2022.

North Korea dispatched thousands of troops to Russia in 2024 to help ward off a Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region, while Kyiv has accused Moscow of using North Korean missiles in its regular barrages.

South Korea's central bank estimated in July that North Korea's economy grew more than three percent for a third straight year in 2025, citing it's expansion of economic cooperation with Russia as a "major drive."

The bank's official said North Korea's gross national income also "received a boost from a sharp rise in foreign currency earnings" linked to the deployment of its troops to Russia.

- Beijing-Moscow-Pyongyang bloc -

North Korean official Pak Thae Song, according the official KCNA news agency, said: "The completion of the bridge is a significant event adding a new dynamic movement to the overall bilateral cooperation."

North Korea and China are already connected by the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, which is regularly used by passenger trains, but its capacity is limited.

After a long halt, the bridge partly reopened and restored daily passenger train services with China early this year, but has not yet resumed issuing tourism visas to Chinese citizens, who once made up the bulk of its overseas visitors.

North Korea has long kept tight control over foreign visitors, and effectively sealed its borders at the start of the pandemic six years ago.

The New Yalu River Bridge, intended as an alternative and eventual replacement of the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, is expected by experts to be completed this year.

The completion of the bridge "sends a political and geopolitical message demonstrating the formation of a "North Korea-China-Russia continental triangular bloc", said Lim.

Head of Iran’s Seminary Promises ‘Death’ to Turban Flippers

Most Viewed

Iran’s President Says Tehran to Resist Until ‘Aggressors Are Regretful’

Nepal Glacier Saw Exceptional Heat Before Collapse Caused Deadly Floods, Says Researcher

North Korea Calls Russia Bridge a Sign of Tighter Ties

لم تشترك بعد