As protests once again ripple across Iran, the country’s political establishment is moving quickly to revive an economic reform agenda that many Iranians say no longer speaks to the core of their anger.

Tehran’s response to the protests this week has looked markedly different, whether out of calculation or necessity, with Iranian media reporting on the unrest, the government striking a conciliatory tone and the internet remaining largely accessible.

Nationwide protests were held in Iran for the fourth day in a row on Wednesday, with fresh rallies reported in multiple cities, a harsh response from security forces and growing calls for a regime change by both protesters and politicians across the world.

Iran’s bazaar strike, sparked by currency chaos and collapsing purchasing power, is widening beyond traders and shopkeepers – pulling in students and salaried workers as the anger is spreading across Iran’s squeezed middle and low-income households.
Iran erected banners across Tehran on Thursday threatening further attacks against Israel and a US base in Qatar, with state media publishing images of the banners showing maps and locations of strikes carried out during a 12‑day war in June.
Canada on Wednesday rejected Iran’s decision to designate the Royal Canadian Navy as a terrorist organization, calling the move baseless and politically motivated and reaffirming its sanctions and human rights pressure on Tehran.
A landmark criminal lawsuit filed in Argentina by victims of the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom movement signals a new push to hold Islamic Republic officials accountable beyond Iran’s borders.
Iran’s Supreme Leader has appointed Ahmad Vahidi as deputy commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), replacing Ali Fadavi, who was moved to head an advisory group under the IRGC commander.

Iran’s foreign minister appealed directly to Donald Trump in a Guardian op-ed on Tuesday, urging him to reopen negotiations with Tehran, reconsider Washington’s alignment with Israel and acknowledge what he described as Iran’s invincibility.

An Iranian vice president on Tuesday defended Tehran’s ballistic missile capabilities as essential for deterrence, after the US president warned of further attacks if Iran moves to develop its missile program which was severely damaged in a June war.
Iran on Sunday launched three domestically built satellites into low Earth orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, deepening space cooperation between Tehran and Moscow in a program Western governments say draws on technologies applicable to long-range missiles.

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.