The idea that Iran could change course through a shift at the top—without the collapse of the structure itself, and with a pragmatic figure opening up to the world—rests on a false assumption about how power actually works in Tehran.

US President Donald Trump warned Iran’s authorities against killing protesters amid nationwide demonstrations on Thursday, praising Iranians as “brave people.”

It began with metal shutters dropping in Tehran. At two neighboring shopping centers, shopkeepers on Dec. 28 pulled down their doors as security forces moved in, and the first chants rose from the corridors into the street.
A nationwide internet outage has gripped Iran, according to London-based internet monitoring group NetBlocks, shortly after massive crowds poured into the streets following calls for nationwide protests.
US Senator Ted Cruz told Iran International on Wednesday that the American people back ongoing protests in the country against theocratic rule and credited President Donald Trump for attacks on Iranian nuclear sites in June.
Iran’s rial fell to a fresh record low on Tuesday on unofficial markets, with the US dollar quoted at about 1.47 million rials as authorities seek to defuse public anger over soaring prices.
Chinese independent refiners are expected to increasingly rely on Iranian heavy crude in the coming months, as Venezuelan oil shipments to China stall after the United States moved to redirect Venezuelan exports, traders and analysts told Reuters.
Iran’s protest slogans have shifted from reformist appeals in the 2009 Green Movement demonstrations to more prominent calls to reinstate the monarchy ousted in 1979, transcending Tehran's central political divide between moderates and hardliners.
European governments are using disputes over Iran’s alleged role in Ukraine and the nuclear dossier to justify tougher measures against Iran, Russia’s ambassador to Tehran told state media.
A social media post by a prominent Silicon Valley investor has ignited an unusual discussion among global entrepreneurs: what it would take to invest in a future Iran after the fall of the Islamic Republic.

There is a cruel ritual in Iranian opposition politics: some voices abroad constantly interrogate the “purity” of activists inside—why they did not speak more sharply or endorse maximalist slogans, why survival itself looks insufficiently heroic.

The Iran projected on social media these days—brunch parties, rooftop concerts, fashion shows—is real, but only as a tiny fragment of the country’s reality, where most ordinary people struggle to make ends meet.