Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.

RFL/RE – A homeless mother and her young child sleep on a night bus as it weaves through the empty streets of the Iranian capital, Tehran. The pair are among a growing number of Iranians who are resorting to sleeping in public buses out of economic desperation. Photos of the mother and daughter have gone viral on social media, serving …

RFL/RE – Two years after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane over Tehran, families of the victims are still searching for answers and seeking justice. Among them are Iranian university professors Mohsen Asadi-Lari and his wife, Zahra Majd, who lost two of their children in the crash. Mohammad Asadi-Lari, 23, and his 21-year-old sister, …

Iranwire – The Omicron Covid-19 variant is spreading at a rapid pace in the cities of Ahvaz and Qom, local health officials have warned. “The number of patients with coronavirus in the east has increased fivefold in the past week,” Amrollah Mardani, director of the East Ahvaz Health Center, told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Tuesday, January 11, adding that the spike in …

Iranwire – On Tuesday, November 11, the Iranian delegation to the swearing-in of Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua’s dictator-president since 2007, for a fourth term, was headed by a singularly divisive figure: Mohsen Rezaei, ex-IRGC commander and Ebrahim Raisi’s vice president in charge of economic affairs.  Rezaei is subject to an Interpol red notice and thus, an international arrest warrant for his alleged role in the July 1994 …

Iranwire – More than eight months ago, Mohammad Mokhber, head of the Executive Headquarters of Imam’s Directive (“Setad”) – the Supreme Leader-owned holdings company that developed the Barekat Covid-19 vaccine – promised that by now, all kinds of Covid-19 vaccines would be available to Iranians. The public, he posited, would be able to choose any vaccine they wanted, “just like …