gatestoneinstitute.org – The deal is a clear win for China; the $400 billion will be invested over 25 years, which is a small amount of money for the second-largest economy in the world. China will also have full authority over Iran’s islands, gain access to Iran’s oil at a highly discounted rate and increase its influence and presence in almost …

Al-Monitor – Google took action against Iranian government accounts for coordinated activity, the tech giant announced Wednesday. The move follows similar actions by Facebook and coincides with Twitter rolling out labels for select government accounts on its platform. Google announced it terminated 16 YouTube accounts in April that were allegedly linked to the Iranian state-sponsored International Union of Virtual Media network. …

en.qantara.de – German-Iranian Misagh Joolaee was recently recognised for widening the scope of playing the Persian spiked fiddle with the German Record Critics’ Award. Mariam Brehmer listened to his new album The kamancheh, also known as the Persian spiked fiddle, is a mainstay in Iranian art music and has been popularised on the international stage by the virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor. This delicate bowed …

Shabtabnews – In a recent statement IOPHR condemns the execution of Mostafa Salehi whose only crime was to take part in the December 2016/ January 2017 peaceful protest against the 300% increase in the price of gasoline in Esfahan province.  The statement also states that “Mr. Salehi was charged with murder, after his arrest in order to justify his execution! …

Radiofarda – A London-based Internet expert on Thursday said that a text message from the State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program which some Iranians have received is likely to put their lives in danger. Russian media reported that Russian citizens also received similar messages on Thursday. Nariman Gharib has published screenshots of the message received by some Iranians recently that …

Radiofarda – The spokesman for the Islamic Republic’s judiciary announced on August 6, that Judge Gholamreza Mansouri who died in Romania in suspicious circumstances in June was buried in Mashhad. Only four days earlier, the former Judge’s brother had announced that his family was able to identify the body. The spokesman, Gholam Hossein Esmaeili has not specified whether Mansouri’s family …

Radiofarda – Ukraine expects to receive full information from Iran about the circumstances in which Iranian forces shot down an airliner in January, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Wednesday, August 5. The report should respect all international standards, Kuleba reminded Zarif. The ministers also discussed the results of the first round of negotiations on …

Radiofarda – A member of Tehran City Council on Thursday said an oil depo in the north of the capital Tehran may cause a disaster worse than the explosion in Beirut. In an Instagram post on Thursday, Majid Farahani said lessons should be learned from the blast of neglectfully stored chemicals in Beirut on Tuesday. The blast of the chemicals …

Radiofarda – Will a long-term contract between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the People’s Republic of China be consistent with Iran’s national interests? What will Iran gain out of such a contract? How feasible it is? And what is wrong with the Iranian opposition’s reaction to this contract? Are bilateral cooperation contracts good for the age of globalization? The …

RFL/RE – The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has called Iran “the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terrorism,” a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States plans to hold a UN Security Council vote next week to extend an arms embargo against Iran.Ambassador Kelly Craft also warned Russia and China that they will become “co-sponsors …