TOP NEWS

The chief of the White House World Cup task force says it’s “pretty amazing” Iran’s football team has been given visas for the tournament. Andrew Giuliani defended the US’s treatment of the team, which has been forced to base itself in Mexico and fly in and out for matches.

Iranian and US officials are set for high stakes talks in Switzerland aimed at reinforcing the Memorandum of Understanding framework. Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid says intense diplomatic efforts have kept negotiations on track, but key disputes remain unresolved.

Two goals from Ayase Ueda, and one each from Daichi Kamada and Junya Ito, keeps Asian giants Japan second in Group F.

Japan marked the 1,000th game in the history of the World Cup with a 4-0 thrashing of Tunisia on Saturday, to close in on a place in the last 32.

Ayase Ueda scored twice while Daichi Kamada and Junya Ito were also on target as the Asian giants joined the Netherlands on four points at the top of Group F.

Tunisia, who were thumped 5-1 by Sweden in their first game of the tournament, can no longer hope for a place in the knockout rounds.

The Blue Samurai, who held the Netherlands to a 2-2 draw in their Group F opener, were always in control against Tunisia at the Monterrey Stadium.

The result marked a losing start for new Tunisia manager Herve Renard, who was hastily appointed to take over the World Cup campaign after predecessor Sabri Lamouchi was sacked in the wake of the Sweden drubbing.

But Renard’s team never looked like threatening a technically superior Japanese side that were quickly into their trademark, smooth passing game.

Daichi Kamada opened the scoring after just four minutes, finishing from close range after deft interplay from Ao Tanaka and Keito Nakamura.

The Japanese almost scored again moments later, with only a desperate goalline clearance from Dylan Bronn denying the Asian giants a second goal.

Tunisia goalkeeper Aymen Dahmen was also working overtime, and had to claw away a shot that just went agonisingly short of crossing the goal line.

Japan, though, finally added to their tally in the 31st minute, with striker Ueda taking advantage of some hesitant Tunisian defending to surge forward and thunder a low shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.

The rout continued in the second half, with Junya Ito latching onto a brilliant through ball to calmly finish on 69 minutes before Ueda scored again with a looping header in the 83rd minute.

June 20 (UPI) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Saturday issued a declaration of local emergency as the city continues to fight a major fire at a cold-storage warehouse in the city’s Boyle Heights neighborhood.

The fire erupted on June 17 and has since caused smoke to blanket the surrounding area as the warehouse continues to smolder, leading the city to open 24-hour-per-day smoke relief centers for resident who cannot shelter-in-place.

The fire, which was described by Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jamie Moore as “a very unique challenge,” started around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the 500,000-square-foot building, ABC7 and The Los Angeles Times reported.

Fire officials said that hazardous materials, including ammonia, have been removed from the building, but foam insulation inside of the building’s walls, among other things, continues to burn.

“While the LAFD continues making progress, this is a major, multi-jurisdictional incident,” Bass said in a statement announcing the declaration.

“The City and County have opened spaces for families seeking relief from the smoke, and we will continue working around the clock and doing everything possible to put this fire out completely,” Bass said.

The ammonia at the warehouse has been pumped out and transported elsewhere, Lineage Logistics, which operates the facility, said in a statement.

The company also said that it believes the fire started when a neighboring business tested a solar array on Wednesday.

Aside from the insulation, city officials said that they also concerned about the rooftop solar array and lithium-ion batteries at the warehouse catching fire, as well as eventually clearing out roughly 85 million pounds of decaying — if not also burnt — food products, most of which is meat.

The LAFD has worked since Wednesday to ventilate the building so that firefighters can more safely enter the building to suppress the fire, department spokesperson Lyndsey Lantz said in a series of updates posted on its website this week.

which carried with it warnings for residents in the surrounding area to avoid smoke inhalation.

Although much of the smoke from ventilating the building had started to clear by mid-day on Friday, an anticipated change in the wind on Friday after, which caused the fire to also flare up, made smoke more visible than it had been since Thursday.

“LAFD crews continue to work diligently on the warehouse fire in Boyle Heights,” Lantz said in an update at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday.

“The smell of smoke has reached most of the city, and we encourage everyone to limit exposure as much as possible.”

Eloy Room’s incredible goalkeeping helped Curacao make history in a goalless draw in Group E match in Kansas City.

Goalkeeper Eloy Room was Curacao’s hero against Ecuador, keeping out a barrage of shots to help the tiny Caribbean nation claim their first-ever World Cup point in a goalless draw that keeps alive their hopes of reaching the knockout phase.

Ecuador, who finished second in South American qualifying, had 28 shots, including 15 on target, but Room stood firm in an astonishing display in Kansas City on Saturday.

His 15 saves are the most on record, since 1966, by any goalkeeper in a World Cup match that did not feature extra time.

World Cup debutants Curacao, the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for the tournament, slumped to a 7-1 defeat against Germany in their opening match but restored pride in the American Midwest.

Ecuador fans turned the Arrowhead Stadium, the home of NFL team Kansas City Chiefs, yellow, hugely outnumbering supporters of Curacao.

But Curacao had royalty on their side in the form of Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima. The island is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Out of their 26-strong squad, managed by vastly experienced Dutch coach Dick Advocaat, 25 were born in the Netherlands, and most play their football there.

The match started at a fizzing pace.

Ecuador seemed certain to open the scoring in the third minute when former West Ham forward Enner Valencia burst through the middle, but Room tipped the ball around the post.

Sherel Floranus fired over at the other end as Curacao showed their pace on the break.

Valencia failed to beat Room from close range before Jordy Alcivar had an effort as Ecuador continued to dominate possession.

The South American team ended the first half with 65 percent of possession but nothing to show for their dominance.

They went close to breaking the deadlock just before the hour mark, but Room kept out a Gonzalo Plata header, before a flurry of Curacao chances.

Ecuador, more than 50 places higher than Curacao in the FIFA rankings, looked increasingly frazzled as they pressed for a goal.

As the match neared its end, chances continued to come thick and fast, but Room stood firm.

Ecuador substitute Angelo Preciado mis-hit a cross that bounced off the top of the crossbar and went behind.

The Curacao players swarmed around Room at the end of the match, celebrating an extraordinary point.

Earlier, four-time champions Germany came from behind to beat Ivory Coast 2-1 in Toronto, ensuring their qualification for the round of 32. Curacao’s draw ensures Germany will top the group.

Ecuador will play Germany on Thursday, while Curacao take on Ivory Coast.

‘If he starts … or if he gets substituted, it’s fine – it is his role as a player,’ Egypt ‌coach Hossam Hassan says.

Egypt ‌coach Hossam Hassan has dismissed talk of unrest involving talisman Mohamed Salah, insisting there ⁠were no issues ⁠within the squad as they prepare to face New Zealand in their crucial World Cup Group G match at BC Place, Vancouver.

“Salah is an important player for our squad, and the 26 players who are here with me ‌are very important,” Hassan told reporters on Sunday.

“Every player who has worked with me knows I deal with them in a professional manner. I do not have favourites.”

Salah, 34, scored nine ⁠goals in the qualifying campaign and provided an assist for Emam Ashour in their opener with Belgium. He was substituted in the 76th minute of that 1-1 draw in Seattle, with ⁠highly-rated teenager Hamza Abdelkarim coming on.

New Zealand also opened their campaign by sharing the points in a 2-2 draw with Iran in Los Angeles, leaving the group finely poised ahead of Sunday’s encounter.

Hassan insisted all was well in the Egyptian camp.

“Salah is a great player who helps his teammates. He has a lot of discipline and is a role model,” he said.

“If he starts … or if he gets substituted, it’s fine. It is his role as a player. Everyone knows that I am working for the benefit of the ⁠team and the national side.

“Rumours are being spread about stars, about ⁠players, about teams. But Salah is someone who is very disciplined,” he added.

“He trains with us. He’s the first player that would also say yes to my decisions as a technical director. So I think he will ⁠be very positive tomorrow.”

Egypt and New Zealand are both targeting their first-ever World Cup win to boost their chances of reaching the knockout ⁠stage. The Egyptians are appearing in their fourth finals.

“We ⁠want to present something very positive,” Hassan said.

“We want to show that we have talent, not as something new, but as something that the African national squads have always had as a tradition throughout generations of footballers in Africa, ‌for us and for international football.

“We drew in the first match, and we want to win and secure these points. This is our ambition for tomorrow. This is the ambition ‌of ‌the Egyptian people, for Egyptian football and for African football as well. We are representing all of these people, and we really hope to perform.”

Bystanders captured the moment police arrested a machete-weilding man, believed responsible for a suspected anti-Muslim stabbing rampage in Edinburgh. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has denounced the attacks as “absolutely appalling.”

June 20 (UPI) — Begona Gomez, the wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, had her passport revoked on Saturday because a judge said she is a flight risk ahead of her trial on corruption charges.

Gomez is alleged to have exploited her position in Spain’s government to obtain a position at the Complutense University of Madrid and used public money for her own private interests, Politico, El Pais and The New York Times reported.

In barring Gomez from leaving the country, Judge Juan Carlos Peinado also is requiring her to appear in court every 15 days until her trial, a date for which has not been set.

The first lady has been under investigation since 2024, and is one of several of Sanchez’s allies and relatives that have been accused of corruption, as well — including his predecessor Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

In addition to Gomez, Peinado ruled to allow her assistant, Cristina Alvarez, and a businessman who allegedly benefited Gomez’s actions, Juan Carlos Barrabes Consul, to also stand trial.

Allies of both Gomez and Sanchez calling the ruling unprecedented, as well as “delusional, obsessive and shameful.”

“She is innocent,” the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, which Gomez runs and her husband is member of, said in a statement on X.

“She has been judicially and politically persecuted for two years,” PSOE said in the statement. “What happened today is just another step, a democratic scandal that doesn’t hold up. They won’t stop.”

The investigations into Gomez over the last two years are based on complaints alleging that she aimed to benefit from public contracts for companies she has ties to.

“Behaviors such as these emanating from presidential palaces seem more characteristic of absolutist regimes, thankfully long forgotten in our country,” Peinado said in Saturday’s ruling.

June 20 (UPI) — A former Olympian who was riding his bike near the Lincoln Monument Reflecting Pool was arrested after he stopped to look at the paint peeling off of its bottom.

President Donald Trump has blamed algae blooms and paint peeling off the bottom of the pool on vandalism and sabotage, The Washington Post, WUSA9 and WBNS reported that the paint has been seen peeling and floating to the top of the water for days.

David Hearn, a resident of Bethesda, Md., was arrested on Friday for damaging public property after reaching into the water to touch the peeling paint.

In several interviews, Hearn said that he went to look at the pool, the condition of which he’d read about in news reports.

Reporters at WUSA9 said they had witnessed people pulling paint off the pool during the last couple of days, including at least one that used kitchen tongs.

“I didn’t vandalize anything,” said Hearn, who posted a picture of the peeling paint he was looking at on social media after he was released by police.

Weeks after the Trump administration’s $13 million refurbishment effort on the pool ahead of the United States’ 250th birthday, algae could be seen growing throughout the pool, turning it green.

Park service officials added chemicals to kill the algae, but the next day, pieces of the paint applied to the bottom of the pool started floating to the top of the water.

When Hearn approached the pool, he said that he saw part of the paint peeling off the bottom of the pool and floating up, leaned down to touch it and then was suddenly being arrested.

“I reached in there, and I was able to grab the end of that flapping piece, the already peeling piece,” he said. “It was attached to the bottom. I didn’t remove anything.”

Emily Miller, a conservative journalist, posted video on X that showed Hearn near the pool, and then walking away from it before he was arrested for damaging public property.

Trump later in the afternoon said in a post on Truth Social that multiple people have been arrested for vandalizing the pool and that “work will begin immediately on its repair.”

“The United States Park Police have arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Pool,” Trump said in the post.

“Who would do such a thing?” he said. “These are very serious crimes having to the do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail!”

Hearn, who competed in three Olympics in the canoe slalom and won two world championship in whitewater racing, is due in court on July 9.

United States President Donald Trump has pledged there will be no tolls for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, unless they are collected by his own country.

Trump’s statement, made in a Saturday afternoon post on Truth Social, is the latest sign that a recently signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) may be unravelling.

“There will be NO TOLLS in the Hormuz Strait for 60 days during the Cease Fire Period, and there will be NO TOLLS after the 60 day period has expired,” Trump wrote, “unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America.”

Since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28, Iran has successfully used the Strait of Hormuz as a pressure point, closing the strategic waterway to traffic.

But under the terms of Wednesday’s ceasefire memorandum, the strait is supposed to reopen for an interim period of 60 days. During that time, Iran is barred from charging vessels for passage.

On Saturday, however, Iran’s joint military command said it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, citing a “clear breach” of the memorandum’s commitments.

US Central Command (CENTCOM), the agency that oversees military operations in the region, denied that report and maintained that the traffic continues to flow through the waterway.

The Strait of Hormuz has long been a flashpoint in the conflict between the US and Iran. Nearly 20 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas is transported through the strait, as well as about 30 percent of the global fertiliser trade.

Closure of the strait has caused global fuel costs to soar and has tested agricultural sectors across the world.

Trump had responded to Iran’s chokehold over the strait by imposing a US naval blockade on Iran’s ports in the region.

But that naval blockade was lifted under the terms of Wednesday’s memorandum. The deal also paused fighting on all fronts in the regional conflict, including in Lebanon.

The memorandum, though, was not intended as a long-term deal. It serves as a launching point for negotiations on key issues, including the future of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Several points of divergence also went unaddressed in the memorandum. Nowhere does the memo say that future tolls cannot be collected from the strait after the 60-day period expires.

Before the war, there was no charge for passage through the strait. Trump himself said in an interview with The New York Times that the waterway should remain “permanently toll-free”.

But he appeared to reverse course in Saturday’s post, once again floating the possibility that the US could extract tolls in the strait, while barring Iran from doing so.

No fees should be levied, Trump wrote, “unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America, should the deal not be completed”.

He explained that such a charge would compensate the US “for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East for purposes of both past, present, and future reimbursement of costs”.

Trump used similar language in his New York Times interview earlier this week, floating the US becoming “the guardian of the Middle East” in exchange for 20 percent of its revenue.

Saturday’s post is not the first time Trump has mused about the US imposing tolls in the strait, either.

In April, for instance, he discussed the idea with reporters, saying, “What about us charging tolls? I’d rather do that than let them have them. Why shouldn’t we? We’re the winner. We won.”

There has been no indication that Trump’s plans have been officially presented to countries in the region, many of whom have struck a careful balance in their dealings with both the US and Iran during the war.

Iranian officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly said they will not rule out imposing tolls in the strait, framing the issue as a matter of sovereignty and regional negotiation. The strait sits between Iran and Oman.

Further discussions are expected on the matter in the coming weeks.

But such negotiations have been thrown into jeopardy amid ongoing Israeli military operations in Lebanon, which threaten to violate Wednesday’s ceasefire memorandum.

Iran claimed that Saturday’s closure of the strait was a result of new Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, which killed dozens of people after the ceasefire was announced.

Iranian officials have also said that any upcoming talks should focus on proper implementation of the initial memorandum, and that the 60-day negotiating period stipulated in Wednesday’s deal would begin after that was settled.

Pakistan, a top mediator between the US and Iran, has said that follow-up talks are set to begin in Switzerland on Sunday.

Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that an Iranian delegation, led by parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, has already arrived for the negotiations.

On the US side, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Vice President JD Vance are expected to attend.

Vance departed for Switzerland late Saturday.

Cody Gakpo and Brian Brobbey both scored twice as the rampant Netherlands thrashed Sweden 5-1 in a World Cup warning to the favourites.

The big win on Saturday in front of nearly 69,000 at Houston Stadium put the delighted Dutch on the cusp of the knockout rounds and gave them lift-off after being held by Japan.

Ronald Koeman’s side top Group F with four points from two games, ahead of Sweden on three, Japan (one) and Tunisia (zero).

Despite the sobering loss, the Swedes had plenty of chances but were denied by good goalkeeping and wasteful finishing.

Sunderland striker Brobbey got his first start of the tournament and repaid Koeman with predatory goals after five and 17 minutes.

Before that, the 24-year-old had scored only once for his country since making his debut three years ago.

In a game full of top Premier League talent, Liverpool’s Gakpo – who set Brobbey up for the opener – scored twice early in the second half.

Substitute Anthony Elanga from Newcastle United pulled one back for Sweden just before the hour with a classy finish.

West Ham’s Crysencio Summerville had the last word for the five-star Dutch.

Two crew members from the historic Artemis II lunar mission were among the VIP guests, a nod to Houston’s place as the home of space flight.

There was no problem here as the Dutch, twice pegged back in a lively 2-2 draw with Japan to start their title bid, made the brighter start in front of their orange-clad fans and King Willem-Alexander.

Brobbey, who came in for Summerville despite the winger scoring against Japan, started and finished the first goal.

It was made in the Premier League, with goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and Gakpo all involved.

Brobbey exchanged passes with Gakpo, before the Anfield attacker crossed in low from the left for his team-mate to stab in from close range.

Sweden, who thrashed Tunisia 5-1 in their first game, could not handle Brobbey’s muscular presence.

Up front, the much-vaunted attack of Liverpool’s Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres of Arsenal were feeding on scraps for Sweden.

Gakpo’s half

Twelve minutes after his opener, Brobbey made it 2-0 when a deflected Denzel Dumfries cross from the right fell perfectly into his path and he toe-poked past Kristoffer Nordfeldt.

Sweden’s English coach, Graham Potter, was in deep discussions with his backroom staff as the game threatened to run away from them.

At the unpopular hydration break, Potter made a beeline for left-sided defender Gabriel Gudmundsson of Leeds United, who was being overrun by the flying Dumfries and Donyell Malen.

Sweden then had their best chance, Gyokeres crossing for an unmarked Yasin Ayari, who completely miscontrolled the ball with his chest.

Gyokeres was next to fluff a good chance, failing to make proper contact after being played in by the largely anonymous Isak.

Gyokeres and Ayari both had further sights of goal, only to be denied by the increasingly overworked Verbruggen.

The Netherlands were hanging on by the end of the half.

Koeman sent on Summerville for Malen at the break and two minutes later it was mission impossible for Sweden, Gakpo prodding in from close range after yet another dangerous low cross from Dumfries.

All three goals were strikingly similar.

Gakpo scored a lovely fourth on 54 minutes, turning inside his defender before firing low into the bottom corner.

Elanga pulled one back five minutes later when he raced clear of the Dutch defence and rattled the ball past Verbruggen.

Summerville made it five in the dying minutes with his second goal in North America.

Sweden are still in with a good chance of progressing into the last 32.

Japan and Tunisia play later Saturday in Monterrey, Mexico.

Sweden face Japan next, while the Netherlands play Tunisia.

June 20 (UPI) — Police arrested a man after stabbing five people in Edinburgh, Scotland, in suspected anti-Muslim attacks.

The man was allegedly roaming the streets of the city Friday night and stabbed five people and damaged a car and business. The attacks began near a mosque in the west of Edinburgh, where two men were injured. The Scottish Association of Mosques said two worshippers were attacked in a park after leaving the Broomhouse mosque.

Police said that five men in total, two of them 22 years old, and others ages 24, 27 and 39, suffered a range of injuries. Three of them were treated at a hospital, though none of the injuries was life-threatening.

A 36-year-old white man was arrested, and counter terrorism officers have joined local Police Scotland in an investigation.

Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton said in a statement that there is “no place for racism or faith-based hate in Scotland.”

Police got reports of attacks near shops in the west and north of the city, and said three other men were attacked in the Telford Road and Leith Walk areas. Police eventually confronted the man with a taser and arrested him, though they said the taser was never used.

“There is a profound sense of shock, alarm and anger within Muslim communities across Scotland today,” Omar Afzal, director of public affairs for the Scottish Association of Mosques, told The Scotsman. “These latest attacks are deeply disturbing. However, they do not exist in a vacuum. For years, Muslim communities have warned about the consequences of anti-Muslim hatred becoming normalized in public discourse. When prejudice is left unchallenged, it creates an environment in which some individuals feel emboldened to act on that hatred.”

New Delhi, India – On a searing hot afternoon in a dense working class neighbourhood of the Indian capital, Shehnaz Bano sits on the dilapidated floor of her one-room home, deftly stitching pieces for a new leather jacket.

To make each piece – a sleeve, a front or back panel or a shoulder yoke – the 38-year-old mother of two teenage sons spends hours, but is paid a mere 100 rupees (about $1) for each piece.

“Imagine if I was a regular employee and I did the same work for the same hours, but on a factory floor. I would have been paid more, right?” Bano asked.

“Just because I work from home, I don’t get equal pay or rights.”

That is because Bano, like nearly 260 million others across the world, is a home-based worker (HBW) – people employed to produce goods or services in or near their homes. The HBWs are part of what is referred to as the global informal economy. Such a form of employment is characterised by low wages, denial of workers’ rights, lack of social security or established hours of work, or paid leave.

The HBWs are also a highly-feminised workforce, with nearly 57 percent being women, according to a 2024 estimate by Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO), a United Kingdom-based global research organisation focused on improving conditions for the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy.

On this day 30 years ago, however, an effort was made to change the condition of the HBWs – with little success so far.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), a United Nations’ body, during a conference at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, adopted the landmark “Convention 177”, or the Home Work Convention on June 20, 1996, recognising HBWs at the same level as traditional wage earners.

It was the first comprehensive call to set an international standard for the HBWs. The convention called upon ILO members to adopt and implement policies that promote equality of treatment between HBWs and other wage earners.

Convention 177 officially came into force on April 22, 2000.

However, only 13 countries have ratified it so far and none from South Asia. That is despite Asia and the Asia-Pacific regions accounting for the largest concentration of HBWs, as well as being the hub of global fashion and manufacturing supply chains.

Renana Jhabvala was in the room in Geneva – along with hundreds of government and non-government delegates – when the home-based worker Convention was adopted.

As a member of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a prominent Indian trade union of women workers, the 73-year-old activist was at the ILO’s International Labour Conference (ILC), and still remembers the exhilaration and optimism in the room.

“Discussions had gone on for nearly 21 days, but none of us knew whether the Convention would get adopted or not. We were all in a really big hall at the ILC… There was a majority in the final vote and the Convention got passed,” she told Al Jazeera.

But labour rights activists, experts and labour economists say a lack of recognition of the HBWs despite three decades of adopting the ILO convention has deepened structural inequalities among the workers, especially in a developing country like India.

According to them, the HBWs, especially women, remain largely “invisible” to the policymakers, while they are forced to work for inadequate wages under unsafe and exploitative working conditions.

“Convention 177 has been instrumental in recognising home work as ‘real work’ and home workers as workers entitled to labour rights,” Deepa Bharathi, a senior specialist of gender and non-discrimination at ILO’s Bangkok-based Decent Work Team, emailed Al Jazeera.

“In South Asia, home-based work is often embedded in complex subcontracting arrangements, making employment relationships difficult to identify and regulate. Challenges in labour inspection, gaps in data and the invisibility of home workers in policy frameworks have also slowed progress,” Bharathi said in response to a question on the low ratification of the Convention, particularly in South Asia.

With most home-based workers in the region being women, their work is often seen as an extension of household responsibility, Bharathi said. “This undervaluation, combined with broader gender inequalities, has been a significant barrier to ratification and implementation,” she added.

When asked about the ILO’s priorities for strengthening the Convention’s implementation, Bharathi said: “For women home-based workers in particular, the focus must remain on visibility, fair pay, social protection, safe working conditions, access to training and childcare and a stronger collective voice.”

‘I cannot go out and work’

Bano lives in New Delhi’s Kapashera area, a settlement of mainly migrant workers on the city’s southwestern edge whose name literally translates to a “cotton settlement” in English. The area is known for its cotton and leather garment manufacturing units.

In its congested alleys lie buildings that rent out single room units to informal worker families. In one such room lives Bano with her sons and her husband who works as a lift operator in an upscale mall in Gurugram, a business district housing several Fortune 500 companies on the outskirts of New Delhi.

Bano epitomises the arc of a typical HBW in India. She began working as a beedi (a tiny, hand-rolled cigarette) roller in her village in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state’s Azamgarh district. After marriage, she joined her husband in New Delhi and took to stitching leather jacket pieces from home.

The move from her rural employment as a beedi roller to a piece-rate worker in the city did not change her continuing precarious situation: long hours, irregular work, low wages and work that leaves her eyes strained and fingers aching.

She is paid barely one dollar for her work on each piece of a leather jacket that is sold in a foreign market for $200 or more – more than double Bano’s average monthly income. Moreover, to cut costs and maximise profit, the contractors often split such work among several workers.

“Only those who are in distress do this kind of work. We have rent, bills, grocery and school fees to pay. How much will my husband do alone?” Bano told Al Jazeera.

The HBWs fall into two categories: own account workers with direct access to markets and piece rate workers who are usually employed through intermediaries. Bano belongs to the latter, which is considered more vulnerable due to low and arbitrary piece rate payments.

In another corner of Kapashera, Sangeeta Devi, 30, puts the final touches – buttoning, repairing, finishing – before the garments she makes return to the factories.

She is doing all this inside an 8×8 foot (2.4m) room, where her family of six, including four schoolchildren sleep, eat, work and study. She cooks, cleans and even bathes in the same room.

“I cannot go out and work because then who will take care of my children?”

“On any given day, there are 100 pieces of clothing in this tiny room. Each time, I have to keep them aside while doing household chores,” the migrant worker from Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, told Al Jazeera.

Sangeeta Devi gets a dollar for every 100 garment pieces she completes.

“I really want to do a job where I can work easily from home, take care of my children and get paid well. I don’t know if that’s even possible,” she told Al Jazeera.

Her neighbour, Putul Devi, does similar work and earns about $20 a month.

“I have been cooking on firewood because of high fuel costs. And when it rains, I don’t know what to save from spoiling – the firewood or the cloth pieces that I bring home,” she told Al Jazeera.

Shalini Sinha, home-based work sector specialist at WIEGO, said female HBWs in India face “continued invisibility” even after three decades of recognition of their work.

“Home continues to be seen as a place of habitat and not as a place of work,” Sinha told Al Jazeera.

“There is also the broader issue of women’s economic work not being adequately recognised in labour discourse when it is done from home. It is often seen as an extension of her care work,” she added.

From an Indian perspective, said Sinha, there is an “urgent need for better statistics and a dedicated policy or law for home-based workers, which still does not exist”.

Elizabeth Khumallambam, who works for Community for Social Change and Development (CSCD), an NGO that works with women HBWs in Kapashera, said a social security code introduced in India in 2020 mentions HBWs, but “no one knows” how it will be implemented on the ground.

Introduced as part of India’s labour reform laws, the code consolidated nine social security-related laws into a single framework to ensure social security protection for all workers, including those in the unorganised sector.

“Frankly, for us the challenge begins at making workers understand the value of their own work. Many don’t consider this as work and so they do not think it needs due rights and protection,” Khumallambam told Al Jazeera.

Alakh N Sharma, a labour economist and director at New Delhi-based non-profit, the Institute for Human Development, said there is a “bias in the system”, due to which women’s work is being left behind in statistics and official counting.

According to him, technology-aided counting, probing questions and sensitivity among investigators, could help in addressing the statistical blind spot.

“Safety concerns, mobility constraints and social norms – all these factors stop women from joining formal workplace-based employment. But the single biggest reason is often care work responsibility, particularly childcare,” Sharma told Al Jazeera.

In 2022, Sandosh Kumar P, a Communist Party of India (CPI) parliamentarian moved a legislation aimed at the welfare of the BHWs, but the parliament did not take it up for discussion.

In December 2024, India’s ministry of labour and employment was again asked in parliament whether it has an official assessment of the HBWs, and if it was proposing to enact a law on them. It replied that the Code on Social Security 2020 provides social security to the unorganised workers, including the HBWs. It also said the government has created a national database of such workers.

Looking back at the 30 years since the historic recognition of HBWs, Jhabvala said she did not view such Conventions or laws from the lens of success or failure.

“It is like a weapon, a tool of change. If we want to fight, this option is available,” she said.

June 20 (UPI) — A train driver is dead and nine people are still in critical condition after two passenger trains collided in England.

About 80 people were injured in the crash Friday evening. As of Saturday morning, 28 were still hospitalized after a moving train crashed into a stopped train on the tracks in Bedford, England, north of London.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers said it was “devastated to learn that a train driver and former RMT rep has tragically died,” The Times of London reported.

Eddie Dempsey, RMT general secretary, wrote on X: “The thoughts of RMT are with their family, friends, colleagues and the ASLEF trade union at this awful time.”

The trains collided in Bedford, one from Corby and the other from Nottingham en route to London St. Pancras.

One passenger told The Times that the scene was “carnage.”

“We had to walk through farmers’ fields to get to an A-road,” he said. “There is a huge emergency service presence and loads of air ambulances.”

Another unidentified passenger told the times that it looked like an explosion.

“The front carriage collided into the front of another one, and when I got up I saw all of the chairs everywhere and it felt like I’d been in a bomb explosion. When I got up I saw people with bloodied faces and people’s legs looked broken, and there was smoke everywhere,” the passenger said.

Passenger Pete Knapp added that he saw smoke in the cabin.

“There was a moment of being flung into the chair in front, and then I saw smoke. People were crying, screaming, people were so scared and confused,” Knapp said.

A helicopter arrived within about 5 or 10 minutes, he added. Emergency services had to cut through a hedge with shears to reach the area, and he said passengers were triaged into different groups based on their injuries.

“I was triaged by some paramedics and they said that I had a muscular damage to my back and the gouges on my shins, they hadn’t broken my legs so hopefully they will heal over time. I’m extremely grateful for that because so many people in that carriage I was in had their legs broken, and there was blood everywhere and people crying and screaming.”

June 20 (UPI) — An Italian woman was killed, nine injured and more than 1,700 evacuated from a massive fire at a beachfront resort in the Dominican Republic Friday.

Francesca Valentino, 46, of Italy, died in the fire that broke out around 11 a.m. AST at the Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach, a four-star resort in Bayahibe in the La Altagracia province, officials said. Three people were taken to medical facilities and six others were treated on site, Juan Manuel Mendez, head of the Dominican Republic’s Emergency Operations Center, said in a press conference.

No cause of the fire has been reported, but the Emergency Operations Center said a preliminary investigation found that portions of the resort’s buildings were made of cane roofs, which are combustible, and windy conditions contributed to the fire’s spread.

The Italian ambassador to the Dominican Republic met the dead woman’s husband at the hospital, the Italian news agency Ansa reported. There were about 285 Italian tourists staying at the resort or nearby, and the embassy in Santo Domingo was working to help them get new passports and arrange flights home.

Wyndham Hotels and Resorts franchises some 8,400 hotels worldwide.

“At this time, we are actively gathering the facts regarding the incident and coordinating with the appropriate authorities and on-site teams,” a spokesperson for Viva Resorts by Wyndham told CBS News. “As this process is ongoing, we will not be providing comment at this time.”

The Emergency Operations Center said in a statement that the about 1,690 guests at the resort were evacuated to other hotels and nearby housing facilities, CBS News reported. It also said that Viva Wyndham’s Dominicus Palace, which is nearby, was not damaged and was operating as normal.

June 20 (UPI) — After a day of jabs on social media, President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are continuing to duke it out online.

On Friday, Italy’s foreign minister canceled a trip to the United States after Trump said that Meloni had “begged” for a photo with him at the G7 Summit in France last week. Meloni shot back with, “Neither I nor Italy ever beg.”

On Saturday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G-7 meeting in France. She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon (But so did NATO, for that matter!). She wouldn’t even let us use Italy’s landing strips or runways, a great logistical inconvenience, and this despite the fact the U.S. contributes hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year to protect Italy, and other “so-called” NATO Allies. Now, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her ‘numbers up.’ No thanks!!!”

Meloni responded on Instagram in English.

“President Trump, these constant, unprovoked attacks are senseless. As for my popularity, being your friend certainly has not helped it, nor does it depend on my relationship with you. My popularity depends on my ability to defend Italy’s national interest, and that is exactly what I have always done,” the prime minister wrote.

“That is also what I did regarding the American military bases in Italy. Their use is governed by agreements that we have always respected, and that cannot be violated as long as I’m prime minister. Italy remains a sovereign nation.

“In any case, my popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours,” Meloni said.

Under the post, she wrote in Italian, “My response to Donald Trump’s latest post concerning me. But I will not revisit the subject, because I still believe in Western unity and do not believe this is a spectacle worthy of our task.”

Meloni, a conservative politician, has befriended Trump since he took office for his second term. She was the only European leader to attend Trump’s inauguration last year.

Iran has said it remains committed to implementing the MoU signed with the United States. However, Tehran warned that it would take reciprocal measures if Washington fails to honour its obligations under the agreement.

June 19 (UPI) — A federal judge on Friday told the U.S. Department of Justice it cannot release a transcript and recording of former President Joe Biden and his biographer’s conversations.

Although U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich had earlier in the day denied Biden’s request for an injunction, she nonetheless told the department to wait three weeks for the release as his lawyers file an appeal, ABC News and CBS News reported.

Redacted versions of a transcript and recording of conversations between Biden and the ghostwriter of his biography, Mark Zwonitzer, were set to be released by the Justice Department on Friday afternoon after Friedrich’s initial ruling.

The recordings had been set for release to the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2024 based on reports of Biden’s handling of sensitive and secret government records during the years between serving as vice president to President Barack Obama and being elected to the White House himself.

“Biden has not identified any public harm that would arise absent an injunction in this case,” Friedrich wrote in her decision.

“The harm to Biden’s diminished privacy interest is outweighed by the public’s interest in the Zwonitzer materials and FOIA’s ‘policy of broad disclosure of Government documents in order to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society,” she wrote.

Biden’s attorney’s argued that the conversations for his book were not intended to have been released and that the public’s only interest is because of the government records case, which investigators referred to in their report.

Biden was not charged or alleged of any wrongdoing after the investigation because while evidence suggested that he “willfully retained and disclosed classified material,” his guilt for having done so could not be fully established for a successful prosecution, investigators said at the time.

June 18 (Asia Today) — China expressed strong opposition Thursday to recent U.S. extended deterrence talks with South Korea and Japan, warning that expanded nuclear cooperation could increase the risks of nuclear proliferation and conflict.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Beijing was “deeply concerned” about efforts by the United States and Japan to strengthen extended deterrence.

Lin was responding at a regular news briefing to a question about the Japan-U.S. Extended Deterrence Dialogue and the sixth meeting of the U.S.-South Korea Nuclear Consultative Group. Japan and the United States held their talks in Tokyo from June 8 to 9, while Seoul and Washington held their meeting in South Korea.

“Extended deterrence is a product of the Cold War,” Lin said. “Certain countries have strengthened nuclear deterrence cooperation for geopolitical purposes, increasing the risks of nuclear proliferation and nuclear conflict.”

Lin said many countries had expressed serious concern and strong opposition to extended deterrence arrangements during review conferences for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

He reserved his strongest criticism for Japan, which has recently been embroiled in heightened tensions with China.

“Japan has long advocated building a world without nuclear weapons, but in reality, it has continued to increase its dependence on the so-called nuclear umbrella,” Lin said.

He accused Japanese officials of making “dangerous remarks” about potentially acquiring nuclear weapons, saying such discussions pose a serious challenge to the post-World War II international order and the global nuclear nonproliferation system.

Lin urged Japan to reflect on its conduct, fulfill its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, abide by its three non-nuclear principles and refrain from seeking nuclear weapons in any form.

His warnings to the United States and South Korea were less severe.

Lin urged Washington to abandon its “Cold War mentality,” stop what he described as provocative policies and abolish nuclear-sharing and extended deterrence arrangements.

He said the United States should take concrete action to protect regional peace and security and maintain global strategic stability.

Addressing South Korea, Lin said Beijing hoped Seoul would “act cautiously and do more things that contribute to regional stability.”

During the same briefing, Lin also criticized plans by Group of Seven leaders to reduce their dependence on China for rare earth elements and other critical minerals.

He urged the group to follow market economy principles and international trade rules and to stop using the rules of “small groups” to undermine the international economic and trade order.

China has said its export control system is consistent with international practices and intended to protect regional stability and meet its nonproliferation obligations.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260618010006688

An Israeli court has convicted seven men over the 2021 lynching of Sa’id Moussa, ending a five-year trial. Moussa was dragged from his car and beaten unconscious by a mob during the May 2021 riots.

June 19 (Asia Today) — North Korea marked the second anniversary of its defense treaty with Russia on Friday by calling the agreement an “essential legal weapon” for achieving global strategic stability and pledging to further strengthen bilateral ties.

The Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, published an article titled “The Power of the North Korea-Russia Alliance Is Being Demonstrated More Forcefully” to commemorate the anniversary of the treaty.

The newspaper described the agreement as “a reliable guarantee” for establishing a new international order and securing a brighter future for humanity.

“It is the unwavering position and will of the government and people of our republic to permanently expand and develop the traditional North Korea-Russia friendship through close and multifaceted solidarity in all fields on the basis of the new interstate treaty,” the newspaper said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in Pyongyang on June 19, 2024. The agreement includes a mutual defense clause requiring either country to provide assistance if the other comes under armed attack.

The Rodong Sinmun said the treaty had led to an unprecedented increase in communication across politics, economics, culture, defense, diplomacy and security.

It also said cooperation had expanded in trade, science and technology, education, public health and the arts.

The newspaper cited the construction of a North Korea-Russia friendship hospital, the resumption of direct flights between Pyongyang and Moscow and North Korea’s participation in Russia’s war against Ukraine as results of the closer relationship.

“The victory of the sacred common cause of the peoples of North Korea and Russia is certain,” it said. “The great friendship between the two countries, forged in blood and growing stronger by the day, will remain immortal.”

North Korea has sent troops and weapons to support Russia’s war against Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow have presented their military cooperation as an implementation of the strategic partnership treaty.

Separately, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a senior Workers’ Party official, condemned a Group of Seven statement calling for the denuclearization of North Korea.

In a statement Thursday, Kim accused the G7 leaders of repeating what she called an outdated demand and said denuclearization was a matter that had been permanently closed.

“The nuclear weapons we acquired to defend ourselves after being subjected to constant and persistent nuclear threats from our adversaries should cause concern to no one except those who intend to harm us,” Kim said.

She said North Korea’s nuclear status was written into its constitution and portrayed the country’s arsenal as a defensive and retaliatory capability.

“Possession of nuclear weapons is our core interest that must be firmly defended, and denuclearization is an irreversible line that can never be crossed,” Kim said.

She warned that challenging the core interests of what she called a nuclear-armed state would be “the worst and most disastrous choice.”

South Korea’s Unification Ministry reiterated that Seoul remains committed to pursuing North Korea’s denuclearization through a phased and realistic approach.

“Our position remains unchanged that, based on reality, we must develop phased and feasible measures that are acceptable to both sides to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula,” Deputy Ministry spokeswoman Jang Yun-jeong said at a regular briefing Friday.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260619010006805