Social and Political

VOA – A Spanish man trekking from Madrid to Doha for the 2022 FIFA World Cup has not been heard from since the day after he crossed into Iran three weeks ago, his family said Monday, stirring fears about his fate in a country convulsed by mass unrest. The experienced trekker, former paratrooper and fervent soccer fan, 41-year-old Santiago Sanchez, …

VOA – One month after Albania cut diplomatic relations with Iran following a cyberattack, Albania’s prime minister arrived Sunday in Israel for a three-day visit that includes meeting with Israeli cyber defense officials. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said he and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama discussed common challenges facing the two countries, “with an emphasis on …

Al-Monitor – Nearly a month on, horrifying details continue to trickle out from the killing of scores of civilians in Iran’s southeastern city of Zahedan — the capital of Sistan-Balouchistan province and home to the ethnic Balouch community who are followers of Sunni Islam — under the Shiite-led central government.   The killings occurred on Sept. 30, a day described by …

rferl.org – Iran says it has arrested 10 people who were working for Israel as “Mossad-related agents” in the province of West Azerbaijan. The Islamic republic’s judiciary announced the arrests on October 24 but did not give details, including who the people were or the day of their apprehension. The judiciary said four of the 10 were accused of “corruption …

voanews –  Iran released security footage Sunday that it said came from its notorious Evin Prison the night a fire broke out that killed at least eight inmates, an effort to clarify the government’s narrative amid growing international pressure. The purported CCTV footage of the mayhem last weekend only added to the mystery of what happened the night of the …

alarabiya – Iran announced Sunday a contract with Russia to supply it with 40 turbines to help its gas industry amid Western sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, local media reported. Iran’s “industrial successes are not limited to the fields of missiles and drones,” Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company’s CEO, Reza Noushadi, was quoted as saying by Shana, the …

rferl – Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization has said that an e-mail server belonging to one of its subsidiaries was hacked from a foreign country, state media reported on October 23. The agency said the hackers published some information online. It came a day after an Iranian hacking group, Black Reward, claimed on social media that it had hacked the internal …

voanews – Berlin —  Some 80,000 people joined a Berlin rally Saturday in solidarity with women-led protests in Iran sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a police spokesman told AFP. “Today, thousands of people are showing their solidarity with courageous women and demonstrators in Iran,” tweeted Germany’s Green Party minister for family affairs, Lisa Paus. “We are …

rferl.org – Iran has criticized a call by France, Germany, and Britain for the United Nations to investigate accusations that Russia has used Iranian-made drones to attack Ukraine. Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on October 22 the initiative announced the previous day by the so-called E-3 group of countries was “false and baseless” and that it was “strongly rejected …

rferl.org – Iranian factory workers and shopkeepers went on strike on October 22 as nationwide protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, arrested for “improperly” wearing a head scarf entered a sixth week, activists said. The death of 22-year-old Amini has fueled the biggest protests seen in the Islamic republic in years. Young women have led the …