Science and Technology

RFL/RE – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on April 22 that it launched a military satellite into orbit, after months of failed attempts.State television and the Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, reported the launch on April 22, calling it “successful.”There was no immediate independent confirmation of the launch of the satellite but analysts said …

AFP.com – From the hustle and bustle of a startup, Fereshteh Kasrai now works from home, like many Iranian women fighting to keep hard-won tech jobs as the coronavirus outbreak stirs uncertainty. Iran says the COVID-19 disease has claimed more than 5,200 lives and infected close to 83,000 over the past two months, in the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak. Kasrai …

Radiofarda – Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has included Iran’s Cyberspace Supreme Council among the twenty worst digital predators in 2020 in a list published to mark this year’s World Day Against Cyber-Censorship, celebrated on 12 March. RSF asserts that the Iranian Cyberspace Supreme Council uses digital technology to “spy on and harass” journalists and thereby “jeopardize people’s ability to get …

VOA – The U.S. has imposed new sanctions on 13 entities and individuals in China, Iraq, Russia and Turkey because of their support of Iran’s missile program. The State Department says those sanctioned include a Chinese individual named Luo Dingwen, who has also been involved in supplying sensitive items to Pakistan’s missile program. Others include Chinese and Turkish export and …

Radiofarda – The Chief Commander of Iran’s Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) has claimed that his country’s air defenses are “more accurate” than those of advanced countries and that Iran had readied “hundreds of ballistic missiles for simultaneous launch after the killing of Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani by an American drone. Gen. Hossein Salami made the remarks 40 days after …

RFL//RE — Ukrainian officials have unveiled a monument at Kyiv’s international airport to commemorate the victims of a Ukrainian airliner that was shot down by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Tehran last month. People lay flowers at the new memorial to the victims of Flight PS752 at Boryspil airport. The Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Boeing 737-800 was shot down …

Radiofarda – Deputy Minister of Telecommunications on Monday said unprecedented recent cyberattacks are aimed at lowering Internet quality to make people worry about government meddling with access and cause dissatisfaction. The attacks which began on February 8 have affected some mobile operators as well as home internet providers and cloud services. “We are concerned about attacks aiming at lowering the …

RFL/RE – Iran’s latest failed attempt to send a satellite into orbit has rekindled U.S. accusations that Tehran is using satellite launches to develop its ballistic missiles.The U.S. accusations have, in turn, focused attention on what Iran’s military can learn from the country’s civilian space program and whether launches of Iran’s satellite-carrying Simorgh rockets amount to ballistic-missile tests.U.S., European AllegationsU.S. …

RFL/RE – The weeklong campaigning for Iran’s parliamentary elections kicked off with more than 7,000 candidates vying for the 290 seats in the legislature, state TV reported on February 13.The February 21 elections are widely seen as a contest between hard-liners and conservatives after most pro-reform and moderate candidates were disqualified.The vote will also be a test of the popularity …

RFL/RE – Social-media giant Facebook on February 12 removed two unconnected networks of accounts, pages, and groups “engaging in foreign or government interference,” one originating in Russia and the other one in Iran, both of which have alleged ties to intelligence services.Calling the behavior “coordinated” and “inauthentic,” Facebook’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said both operations were acting on “behalf …