By FARNOUSH AMIRI and DAVID RISING

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday his country had delivered a “slap to America’s face” with its strike on an American base in Qatar, and warned against any further U.S. attacks in his first public comments since a ceasefire was declared with Israel after 12 days of war.

Khamenei spoke in a recorded video broadcast on Iranian state television, his first appearance since June 19. The 86-year-old looked and sounded more tired than he did only a week ago, speaking in a hoarse voice and occasionally stumbling over his words.

The more-than 10 minute speech by the supreme leader was filled with warnings and threats directed toward the United States and Israel.

He downplayed Sunday’s U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites using bunker-buster bombs and cruise missiles, saying that U.S. President Donald Trump — who said the attack “completely and fully obliterated Iran’s nuclear program — had “exaggerated” its impact.

“They could not achieve anything significant,” he said.

UN nuclear watchdog confirms damage to Iran sites

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi, reiterated on Thursday that the damage done by Israeli and U.S. strikes at Iranian nuclear facilities “is very, very, very considerable.”

“I think annihilated is too much but it suffered enormous damage,” Grossi told French broadcaster RFI.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, on Wednesday also conceded that “our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure.”

Khamenei has not been seen in public since taking shelter in a secret location after the outbreak of the war June 13 when Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and targeted top military commanders and scientists.

Following Sunday’s U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Trump was able to help negotiate a ceasefire that came into effect on Tuesday.

Iranian leader warns US against further attacks

Khamenei claimed the U.S. had only intervened in the war because “it felt that if it did not intervene, the Zionist regime would be utterly destroyed.”

“It entered the war to save them, yet it gained nothing,” he said.

He said his country’s attack on the U.S. base in Qatar on Monday was significant, since it shows Iran “has access to important U.S. centers in the region and can act against them whenever it deems necessary.”

“The Islamic Republic was victorious and, in retaliation, delivered a hand slap to America’s face,” he said, adding “this action can be repeated in the future.”

“Should any aggression occur, the enemy will definitely pay a heavy price,” he said.

Since the ceasefire, life has been gradually returning to normal in Iran.

On Thursday, Iran partially reopened its airspace, which had been shut down since the war broke out, and shops in the capital of Tehran began to reopen, with traffic returning to the streets.

With the ceasefire, life slowly returns to normal in Iran

Majid Akhavan, spokesperson for the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, said Iran had reopened the airspace for the eastern half of the country to domestic and international flights, including those transiting Iranian airspace.

Earlier this week, Tehran said 606 people had been killed in the conflict in Iran, with 5,332 people wounded. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group released figures Wednesday suggesting Israeli strikes on Iran had killed at least 1,054 and wounded 4,476.

The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, said 417 of those killed were civilians and 318 were security forces.

At least 28 people were killed in Israel and more than 1,000 wounded, according to officials there.

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During the 12-day war, Iran fired more than 550 missiles at Israel with a 90% interception rate, according to new statistics released by Israeli authorities on Thursday. Israel, meantime, hit more than 720 Iranian military infrastructure targets and eight nuclear-related sites, Israel said.

Trump has also asserted that American and Iranian officials will talk next week, giving rise to cautious hope for longer-term peace.

Iran has not acknowledged any such talks would take place, though U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has said there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries. A sixth round of U.S.-Iran negotiations was scheduled for earlier this month in Oman but was canceled after Israel attacked Iran on June 13.

Iran has insisted that it will not give up its nuclear program. In a vote underscoring the tough path ahead, its parliament agreed Wednesday to fast-track a proposal that would effectively stop the country’s cooperation with the IAEA, which has monitored the program for years.

Associated Press writer John Leicester in Paris and Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, contributed to this report.

Drinking a Cherry Coke and reading the comics at Leng’s Fountain in Grand Marais.

Visiting the horses at the Lee & Rose Warner Coliseum at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

Eating mango pancakes at Victor’s 1959 Cafe in Minneapolis just before the pandemic shut everything down.

These are some of the Minnesota places and spaces — and memories — shared with the North Star Story Map, a public initiative launched by the American Institute of Architects Minnesota in collaboration with the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) and funded by an MNHS Legacy Partnership.

What place — past or present — would you add to the map, Minnesota?

AIA Minnesota is asking the public to engage with the initiative by sharing their own stories of the “built spaces” in Minnesota that hold meaning for them.

The stories — they can be one sentence or many paragraphs, an anecdote or a bit of history — along with photos or illustrations can be submitted at northstarstorymap.org.

Over time, the goal is to create a people’s history of Minnesota, as told through its buildings, perhaps even redefining what we consider the most “significant” places in our state.

What Minnesota places have shaped your life?

This initiative encompasses more than a website: AIA Minnesota has partnered with organizations across the state, including historical societies and museums, to inspire storytelling of places through activities, booths and exhibits. This includes the upcoming Little Africa Festival at Hamline Park in St. Paul on Aug. 3.

A collaboration between AIA Minnesota, Mill City Museum and the Minnesota Historical Society, it’s administered by the Minnesota Historical Society and made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on Nov. 4, 2008.

The public engagement for this story map started recently, but it’s been brewing for awhile.

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“We were talking about the idea of engaging people with significant buildings in the state and what that could look like,” says Ann Mayhew, public outreach manager for AIA Minnesota. “Because, of course, as the American Institute of Architects, some of what we do is not just supporting architects, but helping people connect to their built environment.

“But while design might be part of what makes someone think a building is important or meaningful, I think for a lot of people, it’s actually what happens in that building, what they’ve done there and how it makes them feel, if they have good memories in there or not.”

When you consider your own memories, moments that have shaped your life, do you consider the buildings where they took place?

That question is at the heart of this project.

A cafe in St. Paul, a lake place in Aitkin

Mickey’s Diner, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, shines like a gem in downtown St. Paul on June 14, 1999. (Joe Oden / Pioneer Press)

In St. Paul, there are many special places, from the State Capitol to Mickey’s Diner to the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory at Como Park. But some spaces, well known or not, are special to individuals for the particular memories they spark.

Like Nina’s Coffee Cafe, the familiar favorite on the corner of Selby and Western Avenues in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood of St. Paul.

“Where I wrote my first screenplay — and have had some of the best conversations there,” wrote a visitor at AIA Minnesota’s STEM Day at the Fair Booth.

While we don’t know how the screenplay turned out, the unknown writer sketched out a drawing to go with their memory, a cafe table with two steaming cups and the title, “Nina’s,” that is now included on the North Star Story Map’s website.

The places don’t have to be public spaces, but they might represent our shared experiences of life in this land of 10,000 lakes, as shared by another Minnesota State Fair visitor in a sketch titled, “Aitkin, Minn.”

“Parents lake place growing up,” they wrote with a drawing of a boat. “We spent a lot of time there in the water. Lots of fun!”

Built places can also be significant due to the time periods connected to them — like when “MJ” ate those mango pancakes in March 2020 at Victor’s 1959 Cafe at 3756 Grand Ave. S. in Minneapolis.

“It’s a notable memory,” MJ wrote, “because it was the last place we visited before Covid became a strong factor in public life and our workplaces closed. We had heard about the illness, but in other places. We didn’t yet know how much everyone’s lives would change due to the pandemic. Victor’s is the place I associate with carefree times and feeling relaxed before this major shift in our lives.”

Questions to ponder

The soda fountain at St. Paul Corner Drug on Aug. 6, 2020. (Nancy Ngo / Pioneer Press)

If you’re stuck on what to share, here are some questions AIA Minnesota suggests pondering:

What place has shaped your life? What place do you miss? Where do you feel free to be yourself? What building inspires you? Where do you feel alive? What place gives you a feeling of belonging?

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Some of the places on the Story Map — there are only about 50 so far — include the Giant Slide at the Minnesota State Fair, the cousins’ cabin (whereabouts unknown) and the soda fountain at St. Paul Corner Drug.

“As a kid back in the 90s,” wrote Lauren Breitbarth of Minneapolis, “my mom used to walk with me and my siblings down to St. Paul Corner Drug (then Sunberg’s Pharmacy) to get 25 cent ice cream cones at their old fashioned soda fountain. Adults would get 10 cent coffee. The soda fountain is still intact today, although prices may have gone up just a little since!”

Actually, St. Paul Corner Drug, located at the corner of Snelling and St. Clair avenues, officially “retired” its soda fountain recently. When we told Breitbarth the news, she was surprised.

“That’s so sad!” she replied.

The store’s old-fashioned soda fountain is preserved, at least, in Breitbarth’s memory — and on the story map.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed victory over Israel and said his country had “delivered a hand slap to America’s face” on Thursday, in his first public comments since a ceasefire was declared in the war between the two countries.

Khamenei spoke in a video broadcast on Iranian state television, his first appearance since June 19, looking and sounding more tired than he did only a week ago.

He told viewers that the U.S. had only intervened in the war because “it felt that if it did not intervene, the Zionist regime would be utterly destroyed.”

But he said, however, that the U.S. “achieved no gains from this war.”

“The Islamic Republic was victorious and, in retaliation, delivered a hand slap to America’s face,” he said, in apparent reference to an Iranian missile attack on an American base in Qatar on Monday, which caused no casualties.

The 86-year-old Khamenei hasn’t been seen in public since taking shelter in a secret location after the outbreak of the war June 13 when Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and targeted top military commanders and scientists.

Following an American attack on June 22 that hit the nuclear sites with bunker-buster bombs, U.S. President Donald Trump was able to help negotiate a ceasefire that came into effect on Tuesday.

In his appearance on Thursday, he sat in front of plain brown curtains to give his address, similar to his June 19 message.

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Today is Thursday, June 26, the 177th day of 2025. There are 188 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On June 26, 2015, in its 5-4 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the country, ruling that state-level bans on same-sex marriage violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Also on this date:

In 1917, U.S. troops entered World War I as the first troops of the American Expeditionary Force landed in Saint-Nazaire, France.

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In 1945, the charter of the United Nations was signed by 50 countries in San Francisco.

In 1948, the Berlin Airlift began in earnest after the Soviet Union cut off land and water routes to the isolated western sector of Berlin.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy visited West Berlin, where he delivered his famous speech expressing solidarity with the city’s residents, declaring: “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”).

In 1993, President Bill Clinton announced the U.S. had launched missiles against Iraqi targets because of “compelling evidence” Iraq had plotted to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush.

In 1996, in the case of United States v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the Virginia Military Institute’s male-only admission policy violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. (VMI enrolled its first female cadets the following year.)

In 1997, the first Harry Potter novel, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling, was published in the United Kingdom. It was later released in the United States under the title “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

In 2008, in District of Columbia v. Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a handgun ban in the District of Columbia as it affirmed, 5-4, that an individual’s right to gun ownership is protected by the Second Amendment.

In 2013, in the case of United States v. Windsor, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the nation’s legally married same-sex couples equal federal footing with all other married Americans, and cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California in a separate decision.

Today’s Birthdays:

Jazz musician-composer Dave Grusin is 91.
Singer Billy Davis Jr. is 87.
Brazilian singer-songwriter and politician Gilberto Gil is 83.
Basketball Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer is 72.
Musician Mick Jones (The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite) is 70.
Musician Chris Isaak is 69.
Cyclist Greg LeMond is 64.
Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe is 57.
Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson is 55.
Actor Sean Hayes is 55.
Actor Chris O’Donnell is 55.
Actor Nick Offerman is 55.
Country musician Gretchen Wilson is 52.
Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter is 51.
Actor Jason Schwartzman is 45.
Actor Aubrey Plaza is 41.
Actor-author Jennette McCurdy is 33.
Singer-actor Ariana Grande is 32.
Actor Jacob Elordi is 28.