Religious freedom conditions in India deteriorated significantly throughout 2025, according to a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which is calling on Washington to formally designate India as one of the world's worst violators of religious rights. The report, which covers events across the year, documents attacks on Muslim and Christian communities by Hindu nationalist mobs, a wave of new anti-conversion legislation across multiple states, and the forced deportation of religious minorities whom officials have labelled illegal migrants. India's government has not publicly responded to the findings. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has consistently dismissed international criticism of its minority policies as interference in domestic affairs. Mob attacks and communal violence Hindu nationalist groups carried out a series of attacks on minority communities throughout the year, the report says, largely without po...
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been killed in a large-scale military operation by the United States and Israel, Iranian state media and multiple international sources confirmed, triggering a major escalation in a conflict that has spread across the Middle East. Iran’s state broadcasters announced early on Sunday that the 86-year-old leader died after an airstrike hit his compound in Tehran during an offensive launched late on Saturday. The joint Israeli–American campaign was presented by both capitals as a coordinated effort to target the country’s senior leadership and strategic military infrastructure, according to statements from Israeli and U.S. officials. Iran declared 40 days of national mourning following the announcement of Khamenei’s death. The strikes were among the most extensive on Iranian soil in decades, and state media reported that other senior military officials, including commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were also killed in the ...