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Iran Arrests Actress for Wishing Netanyahu Quick Recovery

Iranian actress Shohreh Ghamar. (Social media)
Iranian actress Shohreh Ghamar. (Social media)
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Iran Arrests Actress for Wishing Netanyahu Quick Recovery

Iranian actress Shohreh Ghamar. (Social media)
Iranian actress Shohreh Ghamar. (Social media)

Iran has arrested actress Shohreh Ghamar over charges of “spreading psychological insecurity in society” after she wished Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a quick recovery.

The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim and Fars news agencies declared that the actress was arrested for publishing content that supports rioters, offending officials, wishing a quick recovery for the Israeli prime minister, backing the Zionist entity, and provoking chaos in the street.

Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian Intelligence Minister Ismail Khatib as saying that the Iranian judiciary is looking into several cases related to psychological security on the Internet.

When asked if he was monitoring the internet himself, he replied, “I can’t be a minister if I don’t.”

The actress was arrested days after posting a story on her four-million-follower Instagram page and wishing the Israeli PM a quick recovery. She wrote on his picture, "I prayed a lot for your health. Stay alive."

Last week, Netanyahu underwent a heart procedure. He left the hospital and resumed work.

Weeks before, the actress published another post criticizing the officials for threatening to eradicate Israel. She urged them to feed the hungry people in Kurdistan and Baluchistan first.

Dideban website - close to reformists - revealed that the actress took part in a propaganda video in favor of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in the latest elections. The video went viral on Telegram.

Journalist and political analyst Ahmad Zeidabadi criticized the arrest of Ghamar, saying on his Telegram account that the recovery wishes are in fact “prayers for the destruction of Israel”.

Zeidabadi stressed that Netanyahu is bringing the Hebrew state closer to instability and collapse like no other leader and if he dies, then a moderate politician would replace him and work on an international coalition against Iran.

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US State Department Unveils Massive Overhaul of Agency with Reduction of Staff and Bureaus

US Vice President JD Vance (L) and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend a meeting with El Salvador president in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 14 April 2025. (EPA)
US Vice President JD Vance (L) and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend a meeting with El Salvador president in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 14 April 2025. (EPA)
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US State Department Unveils Massive Overhaul of Agency with Reduction of Staff and Bureaus

US Vice President JD Vance (L) and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend a meeting with El Salvador president in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 14 April 2025. (EPA)
US Vice President JD Vance (L) and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend a meeting with El Salvador president in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 14 April 2025. (EPA)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a massive overhaul of the State Department on Tuesday, with plans to reduce staff in the US by 15% while closing and consolidating more than 100 bureaus worldwide as part of the Trump administration's "America First" mandate.

The reorganization plan, announced by Rubio on social media and detailed in documents obtained by The Associated Press, is the latest effort by the White House to reimagine US foreign policy and scale back the size of the federal government.

"We cannot win the battle for the 21st century with bloated bureaucracy that stifles innovation and misallocates scarce resources," Rubio said in a department-wide email obtained by The AP. "That is why, under the leadership of President Trump and at my direction, I am announcing a reorganization of the Department so it may meet the immense challenges of the 21st Century and put America First."

Plans include consolidating 734 bureaus and offices to 602 as well as transitioning 137 offices "to another location within the Department to increase efficiency," according to a fact sheet obtained by The AP.

It is unclear if the reorganization would be implemented through an executive order or other means. The plans come a week after The AP learned that the White House’s Office of Management and Budget proposed gutting the State Department’s budget by almost 50% and eliminating funding the United Nations and NATO headquarters.

The budget proposal was still in a highly preliminary phase and not expected to pass muster with Congress.

Ahead of the changes at the State Department, the Trump administration has slashing jobs and funding across agencies, from the Education Department to Health and Human Services.

On foreign policy, it’s already dismantled the US Agency for International Development and moved to defund so-called other "soft power" institutions like media outlets delivering objective news, often to authoritarian countries, including the Voice of America, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Radio Free Asia and Radio/TV Marti, which broadcasts to Cuba.