BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Two players from the Iranian women’s soccer team have joined a practice session with a professional club in Brisbane in their first publicly-shared appearance since it emerged they had been granted asylum in Australia.
Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh were pictured smiling and wearing the club’s colors as they posed alongside a women’s elite squad in photos posted to Instagram by the Brisbane Roar on Monday.
The update came as the rest of Iran’s soccer delegation left Malaysia bound for Oman, apparently capping a tumultuous episode that saw Australia’s government offering most of the squad humanitarian visas after the team was knocked out of the Women’s Asian Cup. Seven women initially accepted the asylum offer before five changed their minds and said they would return to Iran.
Brisbane Roar, which plays in Australia’s elite A-League Women’s domestic competition, posted a welcome to “Fatemeh and Atefeh” on Instagram, along with an emoji of a lioness, a nod to the name the Iranian players are known by.
“We remain committed to providing a supportive environment for them whilst they navigate the next stages,” Brisbane Roar CEO Kaz Patafta wrote.
Both women left comments on the post. “Thank you for everything,” Ramezanisadeh wrote.
The club declined further comment and referred all questions to Australia’s Department of Home Affairs. The Roar last week offered the women “a place to train, play and belong” in a statement on social media.
They have been moved to an undisclosed safe location and are receiving assistance from the government, officials have said. They have not given interviews but Pasandideh posted to Instagram Monday a photo of herself and FIFA Chief Football Officer Jill Ellis, overlaid with the words, “Everything will be fine.”
Iran’s squad had arrived in Australia for the women’s continental championship shortly before the Iran war began on Feb. 28. They drew global attention after some players stayed silent during Iran’s national anthem before their first game.
The silence was cast as an act of resistance or protest by some commentators and a show of mourning by others. The players didn’t publicly disclose their views or explain their actions and sang the anthem before their next two matches.
When the team was knocked out of the tournament and faced the prospect of returning to a country under bombardment, calls grew for Australia’s government to offer the women asylum. Iranian groups in Australia and United States President Donald Trump were among those who expressed fears for the women’s safety, with some citing remarks by Mohammad Reza Shahbazi, a hardline sports commentator in Iran, who on television referred to the women as “wartime traitors” because they didn’t sing the anthem.
An Iranian official last week dismissed suggestions that the women would be unsafe if they returned home.
“Iran welcomes its children with open arms and the government guarantees their security,” Iranian first Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said. “No one has the right to interfere in the family affairs of the Iranian nation and play the role of a nanny who is kinder than a mother.”
Australian officials publicly divulged details of their asylum offers to the women before the Iranian delegation left Australia, which included private airport meetings with each woman without team minders present. A total of six players and one team staffer at first accepted humanitarian visas and guarantees of permanent residence in Australia, while their teammates departed Sydney for Kuala Lumpur on March 10.
Over the next few days, however, five of those who accepted asylum offers changed their minds and flew to join their teammates in Malaysia. No reasons have been given publicly for the reversals, though Australian news outlets reported that local Iranian groups as suggesting the women had faced pressure from Tehran.
The remaining squad flew from Kuala Lumpur to Oman on Monday night. The Asian Football Confederation’s General Secretary Windsor John told The Associated Press the team’s departure was arranged by the Iranian embassy.
Asked if the Confederation was satisfied that the women would be safe in Iran, Windsor said his organization and FIFA would check on them regularly through the Iranian football federation “as they are our girls as well.”
Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - Iran players pose for a team photo ahead of the Women's Asian Cup soccer match between Iran and the Philippines in Robina, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Dave Hunt/AAPImage via AP,File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — From a surprising heatwave in California to blizzards burying parts of the Midwest and storms rolling into the East Coast, chaotic weather on Monday put more than half the nation’s population in the path of extreme conditions.
Airport delays and cancellations piled up in some of the nation’s largest airports, with more than 4,700 canceled across the U.S., and many schools closed early in the mid-Atlantic states, where high winds were in the forecast.
Torrential rains flooded homes and washed out roads in Hawaii while dry and windy conditions were charging the largest wildfire in Nebraska’s history.
In Washington, the House and Senate postponed votes, and federal agencies told workers to go home early. But by late afternoon, the expected rough weather had failed to develop and a tornado watch expired.
The private weather service AccuWeather calculated that more than 200 million people were under threat Monday of some kind of dangerous weather.
Those range from extreme heat and wildfire advisories to flood and freeze watches from the National Weather Service.
The storm system that dropped snow by the foot in the Midwest, causing whiteout conditions in some areas, barreled toward the East Coast, dropping heavy rain, threatening high winds and prompting multiple tornado warnings.
The biggest threat for severe weather stretched from New Jersey to Virginia.
In New York City, officials warned of the potential for swift wind gusts overnight that could knock down tree limbs.
Four people, including a child, died Monday afternoon in New York City after a fire in a three-story apartment building spread during heavy winds.
The National Weather Service confirmed four tornadoes in Missouri on Sunday that caused roof and tree damage. No injuries were reported.
Blizzard conditions continued in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes on Monday after the storm walloped parts of Wisconsin and Michigan with several feet of snow.
Since Saturday, nearly 3 feet (61 centimeters) had fallen in the northern Wisconsin town of Mountain.
Another round of snow and gusts on Monday could bring another foot of snow across Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
A heat dome over the Southwest will push temperatures well into the triple digits in Arizona most of the week, much earlier than normal.
California is starting to feel like summer too. The San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento will see temperatures pushing toward 90 F (32 C) by midweek.
“This is technically still winter,” LA Mayor Karen Bass said Monday. “This is not normal for March, obviously, but it is a sign of how climate change is impacting our city.”
While temperatures are expected to reach 100 F (37.8 C), the threat of wildfires around Los Angeles is relatively low because winds will be light.
Phoenix is expected to have five straight days of triple digit temperatures this week — only once before, in 1988, has the city recorded a 100 F day in March, DePodwin said.
“This is a heat wave that we have not seen before in recorded history in the Southwest,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Dan DePodwin.
Dry and windy conditions were charging the largest wildfire in Nebraska’s history. Three fires in the state have consumed more than 1,140 square miles (about 2,953 square kilometers) of mostly grassland.
“Mother Nature is throwing a doozy at us,” Gov. Jim Pillen said Monday.
Unrelenting rains triggered landslides, washed away roads and flooded homes and farmland in Hawaii over the weekend.
All of Hawaii’s islands had spots with more than 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain while parts of Maui were overwhelmed with double that amount, the weather service said.
While the worst of the storm has passed, more heavy rain is expected later this week. Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said there were no reports of injuries or deaths and crews were assessing damage.
Forecasters said the East Coast storms were expected to leave sharply colder weather in its wake.
The storm will stick around parts of the Northeast until Tuesday morning. By then, wind chills below freezing were expected to reach the Gulf Coast and the Florida Panhandle with warnings in effect across the Southeast and in part of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas, forecasters warned.
To the north, rain was expected to change over to snow behind the cold front with heavy snow possible in the central Appalachians of West Virginia.
__
Brumfield reported from Cockeysville, Maryland, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Julie Walker in New York; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and Gary Fields in Washington contributed.
Debris covers a beach in Kihei, Hawaii, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (Eli Pace/The Maui News via AP)
Visitors carrying umbrellas during heavy rain walk past the U.S. Capitol on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, March, 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Visitors take cover during heavy rain near the U.S. Capitol on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, March. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
People watch as storms roll over the U.S. Capitol Monday, March 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Morning traffic is seen on Lake Shore Drive, after the overnight snow, Monday, March 16, 2026, in downtown Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
Dense fog and low clouds cover parts of the George Washington Bridge as seen from Fort Lee, N.J., Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A person bundles up and fishes on a breakwater by Montrose Harbor, Monday morning, March 16, 2026, in downtown Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
A man shovels snow after a snowstorm Monday, March 16, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Snow is plowed after a snowstorm Monday, March 16, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Victor Alomoto who is from Ecuador cleared the sidewalk for the River Valley Church in the North Loop Pedestrians during the snow storm in Minneapolis, Minn., on Sunday, March 15, 2026.(Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)
Ogo Akpati and his son Brycson Akpati, 3, braved the strong winds and had fun sliding down a hill in Central Park Sunday, March 15,2026 in Brooklyn Park, MN. (Jerry Holt/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)
Fans walk through snowy streets before an NHL hockey game between the Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs, Sunday, March 15, 2026, in St. Paul. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
People drive on a snow-covered freeway during a snow storm Sunday, March 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)
Workers clear snow off the ground Sunday, March 15, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
