#iran-protests

#iran-protests

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that the government has released a list of 3,117 people, whom he described as victims of recent terrorist operation, including about 200 security personnel.

The campaign exploits recent geopolitical developments to lure victims into opening malicious .LNK files disguised as protest-related images or videos, researchers Subhajeet Singha, Eliad Kimhy, and Darrel Virtusio said in a report published this week. These files are bundled with authentic media and a Farsi-language report providing updates from 'the rebellious cities of Iran.' This pro- protest framing appears to be intended to increase credibility and to attract Farsi-speaking Iranians seeking protest-related information.

A 26-year-old Toronto man was arrested after an alleged hate-motivated assault at a rally supporting protestors in Iran on Saturday, said police. Officers arrested the man Saturday afternoon after he allegedly made anti-Black comments and punched someone in the chest and face at the demonstration, said Toronto police in a news release. They said the accused was wearing a balaclava "to conceal their identity" during the assault. The victim sustained minor injuries from the incident.

It's very sad to say they are, we are, paying a price, of course, these youth that are dying every day. This blood, it's so sad,

TTP identified more than two dozen X accounts allegedly run by Iranian government officials, state agencies, and state-run news outlets which display a blue checkmark, indicating they have access to X's premium service. These accounts were sharing state-sponsored propaganda at a time when ordinary Iranians had no access to the internet, and their messages appeared to be artificially boosted to increase reach and engagement, which is a key aspect of X's premium service.

On January 2, Raha Bahloulipour watched Sentimental Value, the latest film by the Norwegian auteur Joachim Trier, in her dorm room at the University of Tehran. It was the first film she viewed in 2026, and she liked it very much. I know this because Raha was, like myself, an avid user of the film-cataloging app Letterboxd. With its tag system and diary, she jotted down when, where, and in what context she watched movies and what she thought of them.

In early January, widespread demonstrations driven by economic hardship, political discontent and sustained foreign pressure posed one of the most serious domestic challenges Iran's leadership has faced in years. The unrest soon gave way to a sharpening regional standoff, as President Donald Trump ordered large US military deployments to the Middle East and issued warnings demanding that Iran curb its nuclear program and ballistic missile development.

In the face of thousands of killings, leading figures in Iranian sport have been vocal about the need for help and action. Former Iran and Bayern Munich star Ali Karimi signed an open letter to FIFA's President Gianni Infantino, calling on him to "publicly condemn the mass killing of civilians in Iran, including members of the football community." Karimi, along with 20 other signatories that include other former internationals, a coach, a referee and sports journalists, also asks FIFA to act in the face of human rights being violated.

Up until a few hours earlier, doctors and patients were still sending me photos on WhatsApp; pellet wounds to the back, the hands, the head. Painful injuries, frightening injuries but survivable. The kinds of wounds that could be treated, that suggested the violence still had limits. Then, at eight o'clock, everything went dark. Internet, mobile phones, messages, maps all gone. Minutes later, the gunfire started.

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE - Iran is experiencing its most consequential period of internal in years. Nationwide demonstrations driven by economic collapse, social grievance, and political frustration have been met with force, mass arrests, and near-total information control. The scale and coordination of the response suggest a regime that feels threatened but not unmoored, confident in its ability to absorb pressure while preventing fragmentation.

The United States says recent protests across Iran were the result of the regime's "mismanagement" and not foreign influences, as claimed by Tehran, as the death toll continues to rise from a violent crackdown on the biggest threat to the Islamic republic in years. In a post published on X on January 21, USAbehFarsi, the official Persian-language social media platform of the US State Department, said the protests, which began late last month, were "an inevitable uprising of the Iranian people after years of repression."

Ever since the 2009 post-election uprising, sporadic outbursts of public anger have become somewhat the order of the day, mostly silenced brutally for a while only to fester and uncork again on another occasion. The street protest is not the sole medium through which opposition has tried to convey its dissent. Iranians have tried everything be it the very narrow and funnelled channel of elections between the limited choices offered by the state.

A 16-year-old was among protesters sexually assaulted in custody by the security forces in Iran during the nationwide uprising that has left thousands dead, according to a human rights group. Two people, one of them a child, detained in the city of Kermanshah in western Iran told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) that they were subjected to sexual abuse by riot police during their arrest. During the transfer, security forces touched their bodies with batons.

But with insufficient military hardware in the region, warnings from allies like Israel and Saudi Arabia, concern among top aides about the implications and effectiveness of the strike options, and secret backchannel talks with the Iranians, he chose not to pull the trigger. This account of Trump's decision-making over the past ten days is based on interviews with four U.S. officials, two Israeli officials and two other sources with knowledge of the behind-the-scenes discussions.

Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR) says it has verified that Iranian security forces have killed 3,428 protesters, but warns the actual toll could be several times higher. Other estimates place the death toll at more than 5,000 - and possibly as high as 20,000, IHR said. The opposition Iran International channel based outside the country has said at least 12,000 people were killed during the protests, citing senior government and security sources.