A group of Iranian activists has launched a digital platform designed to display the Lion and Sun flag and political messages inside 2026 World Cup stadiums after FIFA restricted the symbol’s entry, according to comments by a former national boxing team captain.
Student protests over Iran’s university entrance exam system continued on Sunday, spreading across at least 20 provinces as pupils demanded changes to rules that give school grades a decisive role in university admissions.
Security forces opened fire on protesters, blocked medical aid and secretly removed bodies as they crushed demonstrations in Rasht, northern Iran, during January’s nationwide uprising, eyewitness accounts and documents sent to Iran International show.
High school students in about 20 Iranian provinces have held protests against education policies, final exam rules and changes affecting the national university entrance exam, with some gatherings met by violence and arrests.
Families of people killed in Iran’s January protests say names and burial records have disappeared from Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery database, raising new concerns over efforts to erase evidence of the deaths.
Iranian authorities are using wartime conditions to intensify repression through mass arrests, fast-tracked prosecutions, political executions and harsh prison sentences, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
Witnesses in Rasht say protesters were driven into narrow market passages, trapped as fire spread and fired upon by security forces during January’s unrest, according to accounts gathered by Iran International.
Ahead of the 2026 World Cup, a possible ban on Iran’s lion-and-sun flag has opened a dispute between FIFA and Iranian opponents of the Islamic Republic over identity, representation and politics in sport.
Rauf Derakhshani-Mehr, a 19-year-old university student killed during January protests in the southern city of Dezful, was buried at night under pressure from security forces after his family located his body in a morgue, according to information obtained by Iran International.
The Islamic Republic executed Abbas Akbari Feyzabadi, a detainee arrested during January protests in Isfahan province, after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence, the judiciary said on Monday.
Iran’s judiciary said several defendants in the high-profile Ekbatan case have been sentenced to death over charges linked to the killing of a Basij member during the country’s 2022 protests, despite courts acknowledging they could not determine who caused the fatal injury.
Alghadir hospital was already one of the clearest windows into Iran’s January massacre. Now, after a public campaign by Iran International, families and witnesses have come forward with more names tied to the same corridors, storage rooms and rear courtyard.
The comment section under an Iran post can look like a national mood but under a blackout well into its third month, it is often something narrower: a space shaped by whitelisted access, economic privilege, cyber operations and fear.
Europol said on Monday that 14,200 posts and links tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) had been targeted in a coordinated operation against online terrorist material.
Security forces in Najafabad, a major city in Isfahan province in central Iran, implemented deliberate power outages on January 8 and 9 to facilitate a lethal crackdown on protesters.
Parham Mehrabi, 18, was killed by direct fire from security forces in Mashhad on January 8, 2026, while standing alongside his father, sources familiar with the matter told Iran International.
Alghadir hospital in east Tehran is one of the places where the January massacre could be seen in full: a five-body morgue overflowing, blood on the floors, and families searching through blankets and body covers for the people they loved.
Some Iranians say security bodies blocked their internet or SIM cards over alleged online activity against the Islamic Republic, then demanded pro-government posts, written pledges and guarantors to restore access, according to messages sent to Iran International.
A man has been charged after allegedly driving dangerously near a demonstration related to the conflict in Iran in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto, according to York Regional Police.
Iran International won four top prizes at the 2026 WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards Middle East, with projects recognized for innovation, audience engagement, data visualization and participatory storytelling under repression.
At least 30 women detained during recent protests and a security crackdown linked to Iran’s conflict with the US and Israel are being held in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions at Vakilabad prison in northeast Mashhad, the rights group HRANA reported.
Iranian security forces arrested a doctor and an anesthesia nurse from a hospital in Najafabad, in central Iran, on Saturday on security-related charges, Iran International has learned.