Many of the businesses had either observed strikes or expressed support online for the nationwide protests.

Iranian authorities have shut down a number of privately owned businesses in the wake of deadly nationwide protests last month, even as the country’s cratering economy is hitting people and businesses hard and its government pursues a fraught diplomatic path with the United States.

Neither police nor judicial authorities have elaborated on why the businesses, most of them popular gathering spots in central and northern Tehran for young Iranians, have been shut down.

...

But many of the businesses had either observed strikes or expressed support online in the form of Instagram stories for the nationwide protests that started at the end of December.

Dozens of small and medium-sized businesses – including restaurants, cafes and roasteries, art galleries and ice cream shops – have been closed over recent days by a police authority tasked with overseeing public spaces.

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Archived version

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In tsarist days, legend has it that Prince Yusupov fed cyanide to Rasputin in cakes and a glass of Madeira wine, hoping to kill him. When that failed, Rasputin was shot in the head. Today’s toxins are more terrifying — and their use by the state a powerful deterrent to Putin’s opponents.

Who can forget the haunting images of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian defector and Putin critic, as he lay in bed suffering an agonising death in London in 2006 after drinking a cup of tea laced with radioactive polonium-210?

“It sends a very clear message: ‘If you screw with us terrible things will happen,’” says a security source. “The message is not only that the state can kill, but that it can do so without ever admitting it has done anything at all.”

Nor is poison the only method favoured for its ambiguity. In recent years a striking number of Russian officials, business figures and critics of the Kremlin have died after falling from windows or balconies — deaths routinely described as suicides. Like poisoning, defenestration offers deniability without subtlety: a violent end that leaves no obvious weapon, no clear perpetrator and just enough uncertainty to smother accountability.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7237606

Archived version

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David Stern accompanied Andrew on his publicly funded visit to Hong Kong and the Chinese city of Shenzhen in October 2010. The German citizen was a trusted business contact of Epstein’s at the time of the trip, which took place years before he was appointed to manage two different organisations connected to the royal family.

The visit is a key part of Thames Valley police’s scrutiny of Andrew’s time as UK special trade representative between 2001 and 2011. The force is assessing claims that Andrew forwarded reports from his trips to southeast Asia and Afghanistan to Epstein and whether there are grounds for an investigation into allegations of a criminal offence of misconduct in public office

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Stern was so close to Epstein, who he referred to as his “boss”, that he asked the paedophile to be his child’s godfather.

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Court Circular records show Andrew met the executive vice-president of Huawei, the Chinese telecoms company, and had dinner at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel with “British and Shenzhen businesses” in Shenzhen. In Hong Kong, he attended a lunch given by the British Chamber of Commerce and met the British consul-general.

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Though Andrew lost his role as trade envoy because of his ties to Epstein in early 2011, in October that year Stern wrote again to Epstein that he was going to China with “PA”, understood to be Prince Andrew. He said: “Most meetings by now are organised by me except mayors and governors,” he said. “I stay in the background/hidden. Just make the arrangements.”

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On April 23, 2017, [Stern] emailed Epstein about a dinner in May at Windsor Castle with “50 top Chinese” businessmen and women, including Pony Ma of Tencent and Yang Huiyan, who Stern described as the “wealthiest woman in Asia, age 36”.

“Plus top UK and other guests,” Stern wrote.

Stern stepped down from his role at St George’s House in November 2022. He is now based in Abu Dhabi, according to Companies House.

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Archived version

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David Stern accompanied Andrew on his publicly funded visit to Hong Kong and the Chinese city of Shenzhen in October 2010. The German citizen was a trusted business contact of Epstein’s at the time of the trip, which took place years before he was appointed to manage two different organisations connected to the royal family.

The visit is a key part of Thames Valley police’s scrutiny of Andrew’s time as UK special trade representative between 2001 and 2011. The force is assessing claims that Andrew forwarded reports from his trips to southeast Asia and Afghanistan to Epstein and whether there are grounds for an investigation into allegations of a criminal offence of misconduct in public office

...

Stern was so close to Epstein, who he referred to as his “boss”, that he asked the paedophile to be his child’s godfather.

...

Court Circular records show Andrew met the executive vice-president of Huawei, the Chinese telecoms company, and had dinner at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel with “British and Shenzhen businesses” in Shenzhen. In Hong Kong, he attended a lunch given by the British Chamber of Commerce and met the British consul-general.

...

Though Andrew lost his role as trade envoy because of his ties to Epstein in early 2011, in October that year Stern wrote again to Epstein that he was going to China with “PA”, understood to be Prince Andrew. He said: “Most meetings by now are organised by me except mayors and governors,” he said. “I stay in the background/hidden. Just make the arrangements.”

...

On April 23, 2017, [Stern] emailed Epstein about a dinner in May at Windsor Castle with “50 top Chinese” businessmen and women, including Pony Ma of Tencent and Yang Huiyan, who Stern described as the “wealthiest woman in Asia, age 36”.

“Plus top UK and other guests,” Stern wrote.

Stern stepped down from his role at St George’s House in November 2022. He is now based in Abu Dhabi, according to Companies House.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7171262

Twin boys aged one and a two-year-old girl were killed in the attack late Tuesday night on the family's house in the city of Bogodukhiv, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border with Russia.

It triggered an outpouring of anger and grief.

"This is deliberate terror against civilians, against families, against children. Russia is consciously killing our future," said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

...

"As a result of the strike, the house was completely destroyed and caught fire, and the family was trapped under the rubble," prosecutors said. ...

The children's mother, who is eight months pregnant, survived, but sustained "a traumatic brain injury, acoustic barotrauma, and thermal burns", prosecutors said.

...

Their grandmother was also wounded in the attack and had been hospitalised, Bogodukhiv mayor Volodymyr Biely said in a statement.

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Amnesty International reports of brutal conditions for civilians amid Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, [citing testimonies](brutal conditions for civilians amid Russian attacks on energy infrastructure).

Many residents have relied on camping and kerosene stoves to heat bricks and water bottles. Some have resorted to dangerous coping mechanisms, such as setting up camping tents inside their bedrooms and lighting candles within them to fight the cold.

Svitlana, a pensioner from Kyiv, said that during blackouts: “I warm some water in a cup on a kerosene stove, fill up two bottles, one [goes] under my feet, the other in my hands, so as not to freeze. And we all sleep dressed… Dressed under duvets, all that we have, we put on.”

There are many people, including older persons and people with disabilities, who are isolated and confined to their apartments, without any means of communication, whose circumstances are likely much worse than those documented in this research and who may not live through this winter to tell their story ... Its strategy and tactics, including continued use of indiscriminate weapons and deliberate targeting of civilians, have caused widespread human suffering and seriously impacted Ukraine’s most vulnerable people, including children and older people.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7171262

Twin boys aged one and a two-year-old girl were killed in the attack late Tuesday night on the family's house in the city of Bogodukhiv, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border with Russia.

It triggered an outpouring of anger and grief.

"This is deliberate terror against civilians, against families, against children. Russia is consciously killing our future," said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

...

"As a result of the strike, the house was completely destroyed and caught fire, and the family was trapped under the rubble," prosecutors said. ...

The children's mother, who is eight months pregnant, survived, but sustained "a traumatic brain injury, acoustic barotrauma, and thermal burns", prosecutors said.

...

Their grandmother was also wounded in the attack and had been hospitalised, Bogodukhiv mayor Volodymyr Biely said in a statement.

...

Amnesty International reports of brutal conditions for civilians amid Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, [citing testimonies](brutal conditions for civilians amid Russian attacks on energy infrastructure).

Many residents have relied on camping and kerosene stoves to heat bricks and water bottles. Some have resorted to dangerous coping mechanisms, such as setting up camping tents inside their bedrooms and lighting candles within them to fight the cold.

Svitlana, a pensioner from Kyiv, said that during blackouts: “I warm some water in a cup on a kerosene stove, fill up two bottles, one [goes] under my feet, the other in my hands, so as not to freeze. And we all sleep dressed… Dressed under duvets, all that we have, we put on.”

There are many people, including older persons and people with disabilities, who are isolated and confined to their apartments, without any means of communication, whose circumstances are likely much worse than those documented in this research and who may not live through this winter to tell their story ... Its strategy and tactics, including continued use of indiscriminate weapons and deliberate targeting of civilians, have caused widespread human suffering and seriously impacted Ukraine’s most vulnerable people, including children and older people.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7170825

In a statement released on Wednesday, Europol said the operation targeted criminal networks distributing fake currency through postal services, with 90% of the seizures linked to consignments sent from China to Europe.

According to Europol, Romanian authorities intercepted more than 4.8 million euro banknotes with altered designs and dismantled a warehouse containing over 223,000 counterfeit notes shipped from China. In addition, three separate seizures in Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States uncovered more than 220,000 counterfeit coins in euros, pounds sterling and US dollars.

Europol added that between June and November 2025, law enforcement and customs authorities seized 379 parcels containing counterfeit currency.

The seizures led to the launch of a further 70 investigations into criminal networks. In total, more than seven million counterfeit items were identified, including 4.8 million euro banknotes and coins, 2.3 million US dollar notes, 23,302 pounds sterling and 4,800 Swiss francs.

Besides Portugal, the operation involved authorities from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7170825

In a statement released on Wednesday, Europol said the operation targeted criminal networks distributing fake currency through postal services, with 90% of the seizures linked to consignments sent from China to Europe.

According to Europol, Romanian authorities intercepted more than 4.8 million euro banknotes with altered designs and dismantled a warehouse containing over 223,000 counterfeit notes shipped from China. In addition, three separate seizures in Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States uncovered more than 220,000 counterfeit coins in euros, pounds sterling and US dollars.

Europol added that between June and November 2025, law enforcement and customs authorities seized 379 parcels containing counterfeit currency.

The seizures led to the launch of a further 70 investigations into criminal networks. In total, more than seven million counterfeit items were identified, including 4.8 million euro banknotes and coins, 2.3 million US dollar notes, 23,302 pounds sterling and 4,800 Swiss francs.

Besides Portugal, the operation involved authorities from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7129092

BBC News Persian has verified the identities of more than 200 of the thousands of people killed during Iran's brutal crackdown on the recent widespread protests.

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Pictures of and information about victims identified by BBC News Persian can be seen in this page on the BBC News Persian site (text in Persian).

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Among those killed were Mansoureh Heydari and her husband, Behrouz Mansouri. A family friend told BBC News Persian that the couple had joined the protests in Bushehr, in south-west Iran, when both were shot dead by security forces on 8 January.

The security forces had opened fire on protesters gathered outside a mosque, they said. Behrouz was struck in the head and fatally wounded. Mansoureh, who had initially been running away, returned to her husband but was later shot as well.

The couple died side by side in the street, leaving behind two children aged eight and 10.

...

Many of the faces featured in the project are young men and women, mostly in their late teens to early 30s.

One 17-year-old art student, Ghazal Damarcheli, was shot outside her family home in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on 9 January.

A source close to the family told BBC News Persian that even after her death, the family faced pressure, as security forces refused to allow them to bury her nearby. Her remains were instead interred in a remote cemetery, far from the family home.

...

In a related report, an Iranian photojournalist shares unseen images of Tehran protests.

For days, Iranian photographer Yalda Moaiery tried in vain to reconnect to the internet. It was only on January 23 that she succeeded, thanks to a VPN. She was then able to send around 40 photographs taken during the major demonstration on January 8 in Tehran, as well as the funeral of a 39-year-old man killed by regime forces in the city of Karaj on January 9. These images are among the very few visual accounts, provided by a professional, of this crackdown carried out behind closed doors. - (archived version)

BBC News Persian has verified the identities of more than 200 of the thousands of people killed during Iran's brutal crackdown on the recent widespread protests.

...

Pictures of and information about victims identified by BBC News Persian can be seen in this page on the BBC News Persian site (text in Persian).

...

Among those killed were Mansoureh Heydari and her husband, Behrouz Mansouri. A family friend told BBC News Persian that the couple had joined the protests in Bushehr, in south-west Iran, when both were shot dead by security forces on 8 January.

The security forces had opened fire on protesters gathered outside a mosque, they said. Behrouz was struck in the head and fatally wounded. Mansoureh, who had initially been running away, returned to her husband but was later shot as well.

The couple died side by side in the street, leaving behind two children aged eight and 10.

...

Many of the faces featured in the project are young men and women, mostly in their late teens to early 30s.

One 17-year-old art student, Ghazal Damarcheli, was shot outside her family home in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on 9 January.

A source close to the family told BBC News Persian that even after her death, the family faced pressure, as security forces refused to allow them to bury her nearby. Her remains were instead interred in a remote cemetery, far from the family home.

...

In a related report, an Iranian photojournalist shares unseen images of Tehran protests.

For days, Iranian photographer Yalda Moaiery tried in vain to reconnect to the internet. It was only on January 23 that she succeeded, thanks to a VPN. She was then able to send around 40 photographs taken during the major demonstration on January 8 in Tehran, as well as the funeral of a 39-year-old man killed by regime forces in the city of Karaj on January 9. These images are among the very few visual accounts, provided by a professional, of this crackdown carried out behind closed doors. - (archived version)

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7092847

Another group of children aged 3 months to 17 years was returned from the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region, including two children who witnessed their mother being tortured and two others who were trapped in their home after the Russians blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7092847

Another group of children aged 3 months to 17 years was returned from the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region, including two children who witnessed their mother being tortured and two others who were trapped in their home after the Russians blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station.