Por Sylvie Zhuang, CNN

Mientras los bombardeos de Estados Unidos e Israel caían sobre Irán, dañando algunos sitios culturales emblemáticos, decenas de artefactos persas permanecían a salvo a 5.000 kilómetros de distancia, en el norte de China, bajo la atenta mirada de Dong Bibing.

El curador del museo gestiona una exposición de más de 150 antigüedades iraníes, desde piezas de vidrio con motivos florales hasta alfombras de vivos colores y diseños intrincados.

Desde que estalló la guerra a finales de febrero, la muestra en Hohhot, en la región de Mongolia Interior, ha ganado cada vez más popularidad, a medida que crece el interés entre los ciudadanos chinos por un país y una cultura cercanos que rivalizan con los suyos en profundidad y antigüedad.

Inicialmente prevista para concluir en marzo, la exposición se extendió hasta abril y finalizó este lunes. Las piezas pronto se exhibirán en otra ciudad aún por determinar, como quinta parada de una gira nacional.

Dong dijo sentirse “muy desconsolado” al leer sobre el daño a sitios históricos iraníes, incluido el Palacio Golestán de Teherán, declarado Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la UNESCO.

“Pero ahora, justo ante mis ojos, hay una colección de piezas iraníes verdaderamente excepcionales”.

Muchos visitantes compartieron su experiencia admirando estas piezas, animando a otros a visitarlas lo antes posible.

Dong dijo a CNN: “La guerra me ha generado este impulso, este instinto de protección, de resguardarlos y preservarlos lo mejor que pueda”.

Aunque actualmente ambos países están gobernados por sistemas revolucionarios establecidos en tiempos recientes, Irán y China comparten raíces que se remontan a milenios. Los dos trazan su linaje moderno hasta civilizaciones antiguas, algo de lo que tanto sus pueblos como sus gobiernos se sienten profundamente orgullosos.

La antigua ciudad de Persépolis refleja avances en arquitectura, planificación urbana, construcción y arte bajo el Imperio aqueménida (550–330 a. C.), que precedió al Irán moderno, según la UNESCO, y “figura entre los sitios arqueológicos sin equivalente que dan testimonio único de una civilización antiquísima”.

Más de 130 sitios patrimoniales iraníes han sido destruidos o dañados durante la campaña de bombardeos de seis semanas por parte de Estados Unidos e Israel, según el Ministerio de Patrimonio Cultural. La UNESCO ha expresado su preocupación por los daños a sitios culturales en Irán y Líbano.

Estados Unidos e Israel afirman que no atacan deliberadamente sitios culturales o históricos. Pero el presidente Donald Trump llegó a amenazar con destruir “toda la civilización” de Irán si no cedía a sus demandas.

Mientras el Gobierno chino ha mantenido una postura diplomática cuidadosa frente al conflicto entre su mayor rival global y su aliado más cercano en Medio Oriente, la población del país ha mostrado una ola de curiosidad y admiración hacia Irán.

Librerías destacadas en Beijing confirmaron el aumento del interés.

“Los libros sobre Irán antes no tenían compradores, pero recientemente la demanda ha aumentado”, dijo un empleado de la librería Page One en Beijing, que pidió no ser identificado.

En campus universitarios de China, los estudiantes también están consultando libros sobre Irán para entender por qué Estados Unidos decidió ir a la guerra contra un país que les resulta lejano y misterioso.

“Más estudiantes han venido a buscar libros sobre Irán desde el mes pasado; incluso cómics como ‘Persépolis’ están siendo prestados cada vez más”, dijo a CNN una bibliotecaria de una prestigiosa universidad de Beijing, de apellido Zhang, quien pidió no dar s

By Hira Humayun, CNN

(CNN) — British police have arrested two people in connection with an attempted arson attack at a synagogue in a north London suburb – the latest in a string of suspected antisemitic crimes in recent weeks.

A 46-year-old man and 47-year-old woman were arrested in the town of Watford, northwest of London, on suspicion of “arson endangering life,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The attempted attack took place in the suburb of Finchley in the early hours of Wednesday.

Police said CCTV footage showed two people dressed in dark clothing and balaclavas entering the grounds of the synagogue, putting two glass bottles next to its windows and throwing a brick at the building.

One of the bottles contained a substance suspected to be petrol, and was smashed by the brick, police said.

Neither bottle ignited and the two people then fled the scene, police said. The building was not damaged and there were no injuries. Later that morning, a synagogue staff member notified police of the incident.

Police said they are treating the incident as an antisemitic hate crime and will increase their presence in the area.

“I hope the swift action by officers today to identify and arrest two people provides some reassurance and demonstrates how seriously we take attacks of this nature,” said Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams.

“We are extremely grateful that nobody was hurt and that our building is also unharmed, but we know that the emotional and psychological impact of today’s events is significant,” read a statement from the Finchley Reform Synagogue on Facebook.

The attack comes just weeks after two men were arrested following a suspected antisemitic arson attack in which several ambulances belonging to a Jewish volunteer rescue group were set ablaze in north London. Last month’s attack unfolded outside a synagogue in a neighborhood home to London’s largest Jewish community in the Golders Green suburb. Three people have been charged in connection with the Golders Green attack.

Williams acknowledged the “significant concern the Jewish community will feel at another incident so soon after the arson attack on four ambulances in Golders Green,” adding that there is no indication that the attacks in Finchley and Golders Green were connected.

A new annual report from Tel Aviv University found that antisemitic attacks in 2025 killed the highest number of Jews in 30 years. Throughout the year, 20 Jews were killed in four separate antisemitic attacks.

The report found that, in New York and the UK, the end of the Gaza war was followed by an increase in antisemitic incidents. In the UK, the total number of antisemitic incidents increased from 3,556 in 2024 to 3,700 one year later.

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CNN’s Oren Liebermann, Jack Guy and Sharon Braithwaite contributed to this report.

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By John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a highly unusual public apology to a colleague Wednesday, saying her criticism of Justice Brett Kavanaugh for his writing in an earlier immigration case was unfair.

“At a recent appearance at the University of Kansas School of Law, I referred to a disagreement with one of my colleagues in a prior case, but I made remarks that were inappropriate,” Sotomayor said in a statement. “I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague.”

Sotomayor’s statement followed remarks she made last week in Kansas in which she criticized Kavanaugh for his concurring opinion in a high-profile emergency immigration case dealing with ICE patrols — an exceedingly rare and personal comment directed at one justice by another.

Justices, particularly those who wind up dissenting, often snip at how their colleagues on the other side of an opinion frame an issue. But both conservative and liberal justices – including Sotomayor – also regularly discuss the comity on the court and how the nine justices get along personally even as they vehemently disagree in many high-profile cases.

That is what made the tone of Sotomayor’s remarks surprising.

“I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops,” Sotomayor said, according to a Bloomberg report. “This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.”

CNN had reached out to Sotomayor and Kavanaugh for comment after the event. Kavanaugh did not immediately respond to a follow-up request for comment about Sotomayor’s apology on Wednesday.

Sotomayor, the court’s senior liberal, was speaking last week about an opinion in early September in which the court backed President Donald Trump’s push to allow immigration enforcement officials to continue what critics describe as “roving patrols” in Southern California that lower courts said likely violated the Fourth Amendment.

The court’s majority did not offer an explanation for its decision in that case, which came over a sharp dissent from the three liberal justices.

But Kavanaugh, a member of the conservative wing who sided with Trump, wrote in a concurrence to explain his thinking. He said the factors the agents were considering “taken together can constitute at least reasonable suspicion of illegal presence in the United States.” Those factors could include a person’s apparent ethnicity, language or their presence at a particular location, such as a farm or a bus stop.

“To be clear, apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion; under this court’s case law regarding immigration stops, however, it can be a ‘relevant factor’ when considered along with other salient factors,” Kavanaugh wrote.

“Importantly,” Kavanaugh added, “reasonable suspicion means only that immigration officers may briefly stop the individual and inquire about immigration status.”

Liberal groups have zeroed in on Kavanaugh’s concurrence and have dubbed the immigration encounters at issue in the case as “Kavanaugh stops.” Immigrant advocacy groups have said the stops are often far lengthier and more intrusive than the justice made them seem in his opinion.

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