Science and Technology

Iran-HRM – Reports say that the internet has been disrupted in various cities in Sistan and Baluchestan Province following days of protests across the province over the killing of Baluch fuel traders. The internet was disrupted or completely shutdown since Wednesday afternoon in the cities of Chabahar, Iranshahr, Saravan, Zahedan and Zabol.Protests erupted on February 22, in Iran’s southeastern Sistan …

Al-Monitor – Twitter has suspended hundreds of Iran-based accounts for allegedly manipulative behavior. Twitter removed 238 accounts operating from Iran as part of an investigation into influence operations targeting the 2020 US presidential elections, the social media giant said in a press release on Tuesday. The investigation began in October when Twitter removed around 130 Iranian accounts. The FBI told Twitter the accounts …

Vice.com – A battle is raging inside the corridors of power in Iran. Not over sanctions, not over the country’s nuclear programme, but over Instagram. The Facebook-owned app, along with WhatsApp, is one of the few Western social media apps to not be outright blocked in Iran, with Facebook, Telegram, Twitter and YouTube only accessible via VPNs. The great irony is that …

Iranwire – The following is the full text of IranWire’s new report on the story of Covid-19 in the Islamic Republic of Iran during 2020. Only the Trenches Have Changed draws on our own online coronavirus “chronology” published throughout the year, as well as expert analysis and interviews with public health practitioners from around the world. The report seeks to show the …

(AP) — Iranian state TV on Monday aired the launch of the country’s newest satellite-carrying rocket, which it said was able to reach a height of 500 kilometers (310 miles). The footage of the solid-liquid-fueled rocket showed the launch taking place during daytime in a desert environment. The report did not say when or where the launch happened. The rocket, …

Iranwire – The Iranian monthly Peivast is reporting that Iran has blocked the private encrypted messaging application Signal, ordering mobile operators to filter it from their networks. The report comes after the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) said on Twitter earlier on January 25 that “Iran seems to have started blocking” the application. The move follows the January 14 removal of Signal from …

HRW – In light of thestatement by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on January 8, 2021, that the Islamic Republic will not import any COVID-19 vaccines made in the United States or the United Kingdom, we the undersigned organizations call upon the Supreme Leader to rescind this order and allow Iranians to purchase any safe and effective vaccines as soon …

iop.org – Professor Nader Engheta’s trailblazing contributions to the physics of light-matter interactions have been monumental. He has introduced and pioneered several transformative fields in electromagnetic and optical sciences, and is considered the father of material-based analogue computing and optical nanocircuit elements, near-zero-index physics and plasmonic cloaking. His game-changing work on optical circuit elements has unified the two fields of …

Iranwire – It began as a rumor but has now been confirmed: according to Iran’s own official media, Emad Edward Sharqi, vice-president of the holdings company and noted tech investor Sarava, was arrested while attempting to leave the country. The reports didn’t say when the arrest took place. But the rumors about it had begun a month earliy. Sharqi was …

aljazeera.com – Iran has started work on uranium metal-based fuel for a research reactor, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog and Tehran said on Wednesday, in the latest breach of its nuclear deal with six significant powers as the country presses for a lifting of US sanctions. Kazem Gharib Abadi, Iran’s representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirmed the …