“This Regime Will Fall”: Director Jafar Panahi on Deadly Iran Protests & Filmmaking Under Censorship

January 15, 2026
With Iran gripped by nationwide protests that activists say have left at least 2,600 people dead, we recently spoke with renowned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, whose latest film, It Was Just an Accident, was shot entirely in secret inside Iran and won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The film has since been shortlisted for an Oscar in the international feature category. Panahi dedicated a recent New York Film Critics Circle Award to Iranian protesters.

 

Iran’s protests have spread across provinces, despite skepticism and concern among ethnic groups

January 15, 2026
When Iran’s ongoing protests began in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on Dec. 28 2025, the government initially treated them as manageable and temporary.

Protester in Punak, Tehran on Jan. 10, 2026

Right Message, Wrong Messengers: A Brief History of Oil and U.S. Empire in Iran

January 14, 2026
Eric Ross
Multiple things can be true at once. The Iranian people are engaged in a legitimate popular struggle against an entrenched political elite that has failed to meet their material needs and has answered demands for freedom and dignity with unconscionable violence and repression. At the same time, the U.S. has no political, legal, or moral basis to intervene in Iran. The dire state of the country, as is true of Venezuela and Cuba, the two other nations targeted by the latest neo-neoconservative regime change enthusiasts blinded by imperial hubris and a fetishization of military power, is in significant part the result of Washington’s own policies.
Since 1979, the U.S. has pursued policies aimed at ensuring the failure of the Iranian Revolution. In the decades that followed, and with particular acceleration under the Trump administration, this effort crystallized into a sanctions regime designed not to promote democracy or human rights but to drive ordinary Iranians into a state of immiseration. This strategy, deployed against governments that Washington unilaterally deems problematic, occasionally for defensible reasons but far more often for refusing to subordinate themselves to U.S. imperial and corporate power, has been linked to an estimated 38 million deaths worldwide since 1971.

Trump’s Iran tariff threat risks reigniting US-China trade war

January 14, 2026
Nigel Green

Threatened 25% tax on all countries that trade with Iran is a deliberate shot across China’s bow

China is Iran's biggest oil customer. Image: X Screengrab

جنبش در ایران

می‌گویند بزرگترین، و در واقع تنها خدمتی که جمهوری اسلامی به ایرانیان کرد شناساندن اسلام بود. در نتیجه پس از حدود نیم قرن دزدی و ارتشائ زمامداران این سرزمین به نام اسلام، گروهی‌ به مطالعهٔ تاریخ اسلام و چگونگیِ به وجود آمدنِ این دین پرداختند، و فجایع آن را در کتب تاریخی‌ مشاهده کردند. شاید این باعث شود که اکثر ایرانیان کنجکاو شوند و بهترین تاریخی‌ که در مورد اسلام به نگارش درآمده، یعنی‌ تاریخ طبری، را مطالعه کنند. همچنین، شاید این آغازی باشد که خوی به اسلام و ایراد اصطلاحات اسلامی و عربی‌ نیز از گفته‌ها زدوده شود.ا

Iran state TV acknowledges 'a lot of martyrs' as death toll surpasses 3,000: report

January 13, 2026
Greg Norman-Diamond
Iranian state television acknowledged Tuesday that the Islamic Republic has lost "a lot of martyrs" in ongoing anti-government protests sweeping the country, a report said.

Will Iran’s crackdown playbook work this time?

January 13, 2026
Amin Naeni

Past suppression techniques not having the same effect as regime wobbles like never before under protest pressure

Iranian protesters block a street in Tehran on January 9. Photo: MAHSA / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images via The Conversation

Report: Military Tells Trump It Needs More Time to Prepare for War With Iran

January 11, 2026
Kyle Anzalone

Military commanders in the Middle East want more time to prepare for Iranian counterattacks

Iran blocks internet and deploys IRGC as widespread protests continue

January 11, 2026

Revolutionary Guard Corps says protecting achievement of 1979 revolution is 'red line', as Trump issues warning to Tehran

Iran’s army pledges to defend national interests after US backs protesters

January 10, 2026

Iran’s ‍elite IRGC, which operates separately from army, also says safeguarding country’s security is a ‘red line’.

This screengrab taken from a video shot on January 6, 2026 shows Iranian security forces using tear gas to disperse protesters at the iconic Tehran's Grand Bazaar [AFP]

Russia wants Ukraine peace deal – Trump

January 9, 2026

President Putin was “all done” on several occasions, but Zelensky wouldn’t negotiate, the US leader has said

FILE PHOTO. Firefighter crews work to extinguish flames following a Russian strike on Kiev, Ukraine

Grand Illusion

January 8, 2026
Chris Hedges

We are cursed by what the historian Barbara Tuchman calls the “bellicose frivolity of senile empires.”

Made in the USSA - by Mr. Fish

Fears of Wider War Over Venezuela Oil as US Seizes Russian-Flagged Tanker

January7, 2026

“That is a confrontation of Cold War proportions,” warned one observer.

Jake Johnson

دنیای بیرون از زمین

نخستین موضوعاتی که افکار بشر را همواره بخود معطوف داشته‌ا‌ند، پاسخ به پرسش‌های اساسی‌ برای زنده ماندن و زندگی‌ کردن بوده است، از جمله: چگونه می‌توان بر گرسنگی چیره شد؟ چگونه می‌توان از سرما و گرما و سایر عوارض طبیعی در امان ماند؟چگونه می‌توان محیط مناسب‌تری برای زندگی‌ فراهم آورد؟ پس از آنکه احتیاجات نخستین برآورده شدند، پرسش‌هائی در گسترهٔ وسیع‌تری ذهن انسان را به خود مشغول می‌دارند. از جمله: سایر نُقاط زمین که خارج از محل زندگی‌ من می‌باشند در کجا قرار دارند و چگونه می‌توانم به آن نقاط سفر کنم؟ من از کجا آمده‌ام و عاقبت به کجا می‌روم؟ کرهٔ زمین چگونه شکل گرفته و از کجا آمده است؟ا

آندرومدا نزدیکترین کهکشان به کهکشان ما، یعنی‌ راه شیری است

IRAN CIVIL WAR BEGINS: Revolution Is Happening! | Mearsheimer Analysis

 https://youtu.be/2rLWEf0LdsY?si=LH8NiXe8-VP9gXNh

Israel's arms manufacturers benefit from EU funding for cutting edge civilian research

January 6, 2026
Carolina Pedrazzi

Public data shows that Israeli arms companies have won grants for civilian projects despite a strict EU ban on funding research that can be used in warfare

A view of destruction caused by Israel's military in Gaza, December 2025 (AFP)

‘Hands off Venezuela!’: Baltimoreans protest Trump invasion

January 5, 2026
Maximillian Alvarez

“This war, every bomb dropped, is not for us. This is for Trump and the billionaires. And we are here to stand against that and say that Baltimore stands with the people of Venezuela”

Message from Bernie Sanders

January 4, 2026
Sisters and Brothers -
Let me give you the good news and the bad news.

Protests in Iran: Analysis of current demonstrations and their implications for the Islamic Republic

January 3, 2026
Lucas Leiroz

Few analysts in the West are truly aware of the situation in Iran.

The United States attacks Venezuela, but many questions remain unanswered

January 3, 2026
Lucas Leiroz

An internal coup and a negotiated resignation are among the possibilities.