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Summary
US President Donald Trump said Friday that Washington is in talks with Iran and has not yet decided whether to launch major new strikes, while warning that the US military is “locked and loaded” to escalate the campaign.
Summary
US President Donald Trump said Friday that Washington is in talks with Iran and has not yet decided whether to launch major new strikes, while warning that the US military is “locked and loaded” to escalate the campaign.
INSIGHT
Tehran braces for possible new phase of war
President Donald Trump’s increasingly explicit threats of a wider Iran war have fueled anxiety and speculation inside the country, as analysts and social media users debate whether the conflict is approaching a more destructive and unpredictable phase.
Trump's Iran escalation fuels Senate clash over war powers
President Donald Trump's hint at a larger military operation against Iran has intensified debate in Washington, with Republican allies rallying behind the president while Democrats accuse him of violating the Constitution and seek to curb his war powers.
Iran Protests
Ali Khamenei was killed at meeting on protest crackdown - security-linked outlet
A meeting at Ali Khamenei's office where he was killed in February was focused on preparations to manage future protests as well as responding to what officials believed was an imminent US-Israeli attack, according to Noor News, a security-linked media outlet.
Economy
Iran bears biggest economic cost of Hormuz closure
Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz appears to have dealt far greater damage to its own trade with China than to Beijing's commerce with the rest of the Persian Gulf, according to newly released Chinese customs data.
Russia’s gasoline imports add pressure to Iran’s strained fuel market
Russia’s turn to imported gasoline after Ukrainian attacks damaged its refineries is adding demand to a tight Asian fuel market, creating a potential new complication for Iran as it struggles to cover a daily shortfall of about 30 million liters.
Unpaid wages push Iranian workers to brink
Iranian workers who have gone months without pay may have only two months of financial resilience left without government intervention, a labor representative warned on Thursday, as wage arrears mount following conflict between the United States and the Islamic Republic.
EXCLUSIVE
Germany limits Tehran embassy services as it urges citizens to leave Iran
Germany has scaled back operations at its embassy in Tehran while again urging its citizens to leave Iran, the German Foreign Ministry told Iran International on Friday.
INSIGHT
Cafés close, tolerance ends: Iran’s post-war shift on compulsory hijab
Several cafés in central Tehran have been shut down after authorities renewed pressure over compulsory hijab, days after senior clerics called for stricter enforcement and weeks after the government briefly tolerated looser dress code during wartime pro-establishment gatherings.
TEHRAN INSIDER
Raid on Tehran's cafés was a show of contempt
Hormuz traffic falls to one as US-Iran fighting escalates
Just one vessel transited the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, the lowest daily traffic since May 7, as the United States and Iran escalated military and economic threats while commercial shipping continued to avoid one of the world's most important energy chokepoints.
Iran-US rhetoric shifts from ships to infrastructure
Recent statements by officials in Tehran and Washington illustrate how public rhetoric has shifted beyond military deterrence toward explicit threats against civilian and energy infrastructure across the Middle East.
Bombing Iran's coast misses the target in Tehran, analysts warn
The US may be peeling away layers of Iran's leadership, but without a plan for what comes next, bombing the coast and seizing islands cannot reach the problem in Tehran, and risk delivering an IRGC takeover rather than real change, experts said at an Iran International town hall.
Rushdie attacker contacted person in Iran before attack, US prosecutors say
US federal prosecutors said the man convicted of stabbing author Salman Rushdie contacted a person in Iran before the 2022 attack to confirm that the fatwa calling for Rushdie's death remained valid, the New York Times reported, as his federal terrorism trial opened on Wednesday.
In Case You Missed It
Eye for Iran Podcast
Tehran Insider
We live through decisions we don't make
The strangest feeling in Tehran today is not fear or even despair. It is the sense that the fate of our country is being decided everywhere except by the people who live in it.
Tehran’s youth emerge from war more cynical, not more hopeful
On Sanaei Street in central Tehran, young people spill onto pavements and crowd around tiny tables late into the evening, smoking and laughing as if the war never happened.
