Reports from Tehran by a British Muslim commentator depicting normalcy and freedom after Iran’s violent crackdown on dissent have triggered a backlash, with critics accusing authorities of using foreign voices to legitimize their narrative.
A court in Iran has issued death sentences to 14 protesters who took part in the recent unrest, holding the proceedings online, sources familiar with the matter told Iran International.
Social media platform X removed premium verification badges from senior Islamic Republic officials, triggering a surge of blue-ticked parody accounts that impersonate them and blurring the line between official statements and satire.
Two competing futures are being sketched for Iran: a bleak “Syria-style” slide into chaos, or a more optimistic path grounded in economic research and detailed transition planning by the Iran Prosperity Project, tailored to the country’s specific realities.
Israeli television producer and “Tehran” co-creator Dana Eden was found dead in a hotel room in Athens on Sunday at age 52 while the series’ fourth season was being filmed in Greece, Greek police officials said.
Iran’s oil exports declined sharply at the start of 2026, new tanker-tracking data show, raising fresh questions about the durability of Tehran’s most important economic lifeline under renewed US sanctions pressure.
A tightening security atmosphere inside schools across several Iranian cities has prompted a new wave of student absences, according to messages sent to Iran International, with families saying classrooms no longer feel like safe spaces for their children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered legal proceedings to begin to revoke the citizenship of Israelis convicted of serious espionage on behalf of Iran, officials said, in what they described as an unprecedented move.
Iran will allow importers of basic goods to receive and sell oil cargoes from next year under an expanded barter scheme aimed at securing essential supplies, Agriculture Minister Gholamreza Nouri Ghezeljeh said on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed at a White House meeting this week to increase economic pressure on Iran, including efforts to curb its oil exports to China, Axios reported.
The latest US-Iran diplomacy may reflect coordinated pressure rather than compromise, analysts told Iran International’s Eye for Iran podcast, describing Washington and Jerusalem as playing a potential “good cop, bad cop” strategy.
President Massoud Pezeshkian’s increasingly public confrontations with Iran’s state broadcaster have exposed the limits of his authority, underscoring how one of the country’s most powerful institutions operates beyond the reach of its elected government.
Iran is prepared to consider steps on its stockpile of highly enriched uranium as part of a nuclear deal with the United States, but the demand for zero enrichment is not on the table, Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said in an interview published on Sunday.
Over one million Iranians rallied across Europe, North America and Australia on Saturday in response to a call by exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, while nighttime chants echoed from rooftops and apartment blocks inside Iran in a coordinated show of solidarity.
Iran’s exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi called for tighter sanctions, potential military action and rapid political transition to topple Iran’s ruling system, warning that negotiations and delay would cost more lives.
Iran’s Fajr Film Festival went ahead this year as planned. But it did so in a country still reeling from bloodshed, and the red carpets beneath its guests carried a symbolic weight that many in the film community found difficult to ignore.
Freelancers across Iran lost foreign contracts and saw income dry up during January’s internet shutdown, digital workers told Iran International, as weeks offline cut their access to projects and payments in an economy already hit by global isolation.
Ali Heydari, a 20-year-old Iranian protester wounded and arrested during demonstrations in Mashhad on January 8, was shot in the head and killed in detention about a month later, a source close to his family told Iran International.
About a month ago, US President Donald Trump urged Iranians to keep protesting and take over institutions, saying that “help is on the way.”
The night air on Jan. 8 in northeastern Tehran filled with chants rising in defiance. Among them stood Pooya Faragerdi, a violinist whose life was measured in music and a heart that beat for Iran. Then came the gunfire.
Iranians took to social media on the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution to challenge the Islamic Republic’s claims of overwhelming public support, sharing videos of anti-government chants and questioning the authenticity of state broadcasts.