Science and Technology

VOA —Iran appeared to be readying for a space launch Tuesday as satellite images showed a rocket on a rural desert launch pad, just as tensions remain high over Tehran’s nuclear program. The images from Maxar Technologies showed a launch pad at Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran’s rural Semnan province, the site of frequent recent failed attempts to put a …

CHRI — In a joint statement released today, human rights organizations ARTICLE 19, Access Now, and the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) called on Meta to urgently revise its flawed content-moderation process for Persian-language content on the Instagram social media app. The current process has enabled Iranian state agents to manipulate Meta into removing content that is considered …

VOA – Iran has begun installing advanced IR-6 centrifuges in a cluster at an underground enrichment plant in line with a long-standing plan and now intends to add two more such clusters, or cascades, the United Nations nuclear watchdog told its member states on Wednesday. The moves are described in a confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report sent to member …

Al-Arabia – Microsoft has announced that it detected and disabled cyberattacks over the last three months from a group based in Lebanon with ties to the Iranian government targeting over 20 organizations inside Israel and one intergovernmental organization in Lebanon. According to statement released on Thursday, the group named POLONIUM was working in coordination with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security “based …

Al-Monitor – Iran hit out at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) after the latter underscored the need to tackle Tehran’s missile program and its regional activities as major challenges to regional security.   “At a moment that the [Gulf Cooperation] Council is serving as an arsenal for American and Western arms, it is in no position to make any comments on …

Iranwire – Mass anti-government protests gathered pace in cities across Iran last night, as did the lethal security crackdown, as Instagram and Twitter faced a tide of criticism for removing posts documenting the unrest. Huge crowds formed in the city of Golpayegan on Tuesday night, marking the first time a city in Isfahan province has joined the protests that broke …

Iranwire – At 2.50pm on Friday, May 13, an Iranian would-be internet user in Khuzestan opens up Google on their phone and types one innocuous word into the search bar: “Washington”. The search engine thinks about it a little while. Then they’re presented with the weak visual joke now familiar to Chrome users the world over, a dog-eared piece of …

Iranwire – Feminist and women’s rights campaigns with a focus on Iran have been the subject of a mass cyber-attack this week, with many forced to temporarily switch their Instagram pages to private mode.  The hosts of the Iranian Me Too, Harass Watch and Cheragh Academy, all three of which work to combar sexual violence and harassment in Iran through education and public callouts, reported …

HRW – Since May 6, the Iranian authorities have imposed a near-total shutdown of mobile and home broadband data in some cities in Khuzestan Province, amid reported street protests against a potential hike in the price of bread, Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)  reported. According to HRANA, authorities have arrested at least 10 people in connection with the protests in …

Iran has confirmed it relocated a centrifuge facility to its underground Natanz nuclear site, days after the UN atomic watchdog said it had installed surveillance cameras to monitor the new workshop at Tehran’s request, Iranian media reported. The machines, which were moved from Iran’s now-closed Karaj nuclear site, will be used to make centrifuge rotor tubes and bellows, crucial parts …