Actor Khaqan Shahnawaz faced backlash from Kareena Kapoor’s fans after jokingly suggesting he could play her son due to their age difference.

The comment, made on a TV show, sparked outrage on social media, with fans criticizing Shahnawaz for age-shaming.

Khaqan Shahnawaz’s comments on Indian megastar Kareena Kapoor Khan’s age have gone viral and triggered outrage from her fans across the border as well as Pakistan.

A fan of Khaqan’s had expressed her wish to see the actor with Kareena during his appearance to which he answered jokingly: “I can play her son. Yeah, I can play her son, definitely”.

The actor then pointed out that the “Jab We Met” megastar is much older than him and he can only act as her son.

The overall conversation did not sit well with fans who poured out in Kareena’s favour. One fan remarked, “Kareena wouldn’t even know who he is, even I’ve never seen a drama of his”. Another stated that the actor is “full of himself”.

The clip of Khaqan, shared on Instagram, received countless angry comments, calling out the actor’s attitude, including these: Another fan pointed out that these remarks will lead to Khaqan becoming famous as the interview has gone viral.

The status of the Panama Canal is non-negotiable, President Jose Raul Mulino said in a statement on Monday signed alongside former leaders of the country, after Donald Trump’s recent threats to reclaim the man-made waterway.

The US president-elect on Saturday had slammed what he called unfair fees for US ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand control of the waterway be returned to Washington.

Mulino dismissed Trump’s comments Sunday, saying “every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent areas belongs to Panama and will continue belonging to Panama”.

He reiterated Monday in a statement – also signed by former presidents Ernesto Perez Balladares, Martin Torrijos and Mireya Moscoso – that “the sovereignty of our country and our canal are not negotiable.”

The canal “is part of our history of struggle and an irreversible conquest,” read the statement, which the four politicians had signed after a meeting at the seat of the Panamanian government.

“Panamanians may think differently in many aspects, but when it comes to our canal and our sovereignty, we all unite under the same flag.”

Former leader Laurentino Cortizo, who did not attend the meeting, also showed support for the statement on social media, as did ex-president Ricardo Martinelli.

The 80-kilometer (50-mile) Panama Canal carries five percent of the world’s maritime trade. Its main users are the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Chile.

It was completed by the United States in 1914, and then returned to the Central American country under a 1977 deal signed by Democratic president Jimmy Carter.

Panama took full control in 1999.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz admitted on Monday for the first time publicly to Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran in July, further risking tensions between Tehran and its arch-enemy Israel in a region shaken by Israel’s war in Gaza and the conflict in Lebanon.

“These days, when the Houthi terrorist organisation is firing missiles at Israel, I want to convey a clear message to them at the beginning of my remarks: We have defeated Hamas, we have defeated Hezbollah, we have blinded Iran’s defense systems and damaged the production systems, we have toppled the Assad regime in Syria, we have dealt a severe blow to the axis of evil, and we will also deal a severe blow to the Houthi terrorist organization in Yemen, which remains the last to stand,” Katz said.

Israel will “damage their strategic infrastructure, and we will behead their leaders – just as we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar and Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon – we will do it in Hodeidah and Sana’a,” Katz said during an evening honoring defense ministry personnel.

The Iran-backed group in Yemen has been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea for more than a year to try to enforce a naval blockade on Israel, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s year-long war in Gaza.

In late July, the political leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas was killed in Tehran in an assassination blamed on Israel by Iranian authorities. There was no direct claim of responsibility by Israel for the killing of Haniyeh at the time.

Haniyeh, normally based in Qatar, had been the face of Hamas’ international diplomacy as the war set off by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 has raged in Gaza. He had been taking part in internationally brokered indirect talks on reaching a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.

Months after, Israeli forces in Gaza killed Yahya Sinwar, Haniyeh’s successor and the mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.