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Summary
A loud boom was heard near the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, with a provincial security official saying authorities were investigating its source and that no impact had been reported in Qeshm or Bandar Abbas.
Summary
A loud boom was heard near the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, with a provincial security official saying authorities were investigating its source and that no impact had been reported in Qeshm or Bandar Abbas.
Crackdown on Dissent
Iran opens second case against jailed protester who appealed to Trump
Iran has opened a second case against Ahmad Seyyed-Abdollahi, who is serving a prison term after posting a video urging Donald Trump to protect demonstrators during January’s nationwide protests, sources familiar with the case told Iran International.
Five January protest detainees face execution in northeast Iran
Five people detained over Iran’s nationwide January protests have been sentenced to death or are at risk of receiving death sentences in the northeastern city of Mashhad and nearby Shandiz, sources familiar with their cases told Iran International.
A Khamenei in-law is openly recruiting to replace the Islamic Republic
A cleric tied by marriage to Iran's ruling family has declared the Islamic Republic obsolete, telling followers that a shadow government already exists and urging them to build a 250,000-strong network to replace the system with an "Islamic government."
Iran Massacre
VOICES FROM IRAN
Iranians turn on Pezeshkian over protest death toll comments
President Masoud Pezeshkian drew angry reactions from Iranians after rejecting higher estimates of those killed in Iran's January protests and calling those who cite such figures "traitors" in an interview published on Wednesday.
Hunger at the checkout: Food thefts stir debate over Iran's economic decline
Petty thefts of basic food items are becoming a symbol of Iran's economic hardship, according to a newspaper investigation published on Wednesday that linked supermarket shoplifting to inflation and shrinking purchasing power.
New documentary probes Jamshid Sharmahd's abduction and death
Six years after Iranian-German dissident Jamshid Sharmahd vanished during a trip to the United Arab Emirates, many questions surrounding his abduction, imprisonment and death in the custody of the Islamic Republic remain unresolved.
Iran women’s footballers who sought asylum become Australian citizens
Two former members of Iran’s women’s national football team who refused to sing the Islamic Republic’s anthem during the AFC Women’s Asian Cup became Australian citizens in Brisbane on Wednesday.
Tehran says any Hormuz accord won't restore pre-war order
Iran and Oman appear close to agreeing new navigation arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz, but Tehran insists any reopening must take place under a new post-war security framework rather than a return to the pre-war status quo.
US and Iran seek a new equilibrium neither trusts
A return to the pre-war status quo between Iran and the United States now appears out of reach for both sides, despite their competing claims of victory.
INSIGHT
Iran's parliament fades further from power after the war
Iran's parliament has become all but irrelevant since the war, as power has shifted further toward the Revolutionary Guards and decision-making has moved ever deeper behind closed doors amid the unresolved leadership transition.
Economy
Iran's energy crisis is political, not seasonal
In Iran, the authorities call it a scheduled outage. The electricity will be disconnected for two hours. The water may return later in the evening. Families are instructed to adjust their lives to temporary emergencies. But there is no pause button for daily life.
Iran state bank freezes national oil company accounts over debt
An Iranian state-owned bank has frozen accounts belonging to the National Iranian Oil Company over outstanding debt obligations, the IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.
Italy says Lion and Sun flag removed from Tajani X post over technical issue
Italy’s Foreign Ministry said the Lion and Sun flag emoji — used on Iran’s national flag before 1979 and now widely adopted by opponents of the Islamic Republic — was removed from Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani’s X post solely because of a technical issue, not external pressure.
Iran used water hacks to intimidate not cripple, experts say
Cyberattacks targeting water and wastewater facilities in at least seven US states appear to have been intended less to cripple infrastructure than to demonstrate Iranian reach, intimidate the public and shape perceptions, cybersecurity experts told Iran International.
ANALYSIS
Why Afghans still risk death to reach Iran
"Take care of my sons." Those were the final words of Hayatullah, an Afghan migrant who used his phone to record what would become the last moments of his life in the scorching desert as he tried to reach Iran.
In Case You Missed It
Eye for Iran Podcast
Tehran Insider
I stayed awake for them
I wrote what follows just after midnight, unable to sleep at the thought of more executions at dawn. It is now early morning. The news has hit hard. I can't rewrite these words now. They belong to the hours before that hope disappeared. I leave them as they are.
Raid on Tehran's cafés was a show of contempt
The latest round of café closures in Tehran is a reminder to ordinary Iranians that wartime or otherwise, those in power still decide how much space they are allowed to occupy.
