Iran

Iran’s digital hardware market has yet to recover from wartime disruption, with shortages, volatile prices and rising import costs pushing laptops, mobile phones and computer parts further beyond the reach of many consumers, an economic website reported on Saturday.

The Trump administration’s most powerful pressure point against Tehran may not lie in military action but in China’s deep financial and energy ties with Iran, a former US Treasury sanctions official told the Eye for Iran podcast.

A small port on Oman’s Musandam Peninsula has become part of Iran’s workaround to the maritime blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, traders say, as goods once routed through the UAE are shifted through costlier channels.

The trial over the stabbing of Iran International presenter Pouria Zeraati turned to the alleged money trail behind the attack, with prosecutors describing payments routed through a west London construction company and relatives of one defendant.

Rising inflation in Iran has pushed households to buy even basic food items in installments, reshaping consumer habits.

Iranian authorities and pro-government activists are promoting marriage through matchmaking stalls at nightly rallies, even as many young people delay starting families because of deepening economic hardship and rising living costs.

A young Iranian woman’s account of temporarily caring for an infant under a state welfare program sparked debate across Persian-language social media this week over child privacy, foster care and the use of vulnerable children in online content.

Iranian officials’ recent comments about Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei are aimed at showing he remains in charge and will ultimately decide whether Tehran accepts a deal with the United States to end the war, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Shida Bazyar’s “The Nights Are Quiet In Tehran,” a novel tracing one Iranian family across four decades of revolution, exile and resistance, is among six books shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize.

Even as Tehran engages in hardheaded diplomatic maneuvering with Washington, it is advancing a parliamentary proposal offering a €50 million reward for President Trump’s killing.

Long viewed as merely an oil chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz is now emerging as a digital flashpoint, after Iran floated “protection fees” for subsea fiber-optic cables crossing the waterway in a move experts warn could give Tehran new leverage.

Millions of Iranian students saw remote schooling disrupted by internet outages and failures on the state-run online education platform during more than two months of school closures, renewing criticism of Iran’s virtual education system.

Two years after former president Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter vanished in fog, Iran has lost far more than a president: its succession plan, regional shield, aura of safety and confidence that time was on its side.

Dental treatment costs in Iran have surged in recent months, with industry officials warning that inflation and rising import costs are pushing basic care beyond the reach of many households.

Shahab Dalili, a US permanent resident jailed in Iran for nearly a decade after traveling there for his father’s funeral, has returned to Washington following his release from Tehran’s Evin prison, Hostage Aid Worldwide said on Monday.

US President Donald Trump said Monday he had halted a strike on Iran planned for Tuesday after Arab states including Tehran’s new foe the UAE urged him to allow more time for talks, even as reports said Tehran’s latest proposal had fallen short of US expectations.

Amnesty International said on Monday that executions worldwide rose to their highest recorded level in more than four decades in 2025, with the Islamic Republic responsible for the vast majority of the increase.

Europol said on Monday that 14,200 posts and links tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) had been targeted in a coordinated operation against online terrorist material.