Iran’s Ban On Vaccines Led To 75,000 More Covid Deaths - New Research

According to information received by Iran International, the funeral ceremony was held on Tuesday in the village of Rig Sefid near Khorramabad while regime agents closed roads leading to the village.

A large number of people showed up for her funeral service despite the heavy security presence. The mourners sang local folklore songs with themes such as ‘time to fight’ and ‘resistance’ while holding placards that called for justice over her death.

Sagvand had said in a message to her friend that she was threatened with death by the intelligence officers, emphasizing: "If something bad happens to me, I want everyone know that I did not commit suicide."

The young girl was a law student in the southern city of Abdanan and resigned from her position as a police aide amid the anti-regime protests in the past months.

Her body was found in her house in Abdanan a few days after she was released from police custody on bail on unknown charges.

Activists say evidence suggests Sagvand has been murdered by the Iranian regime as she was a staunch supporter of the exiled prince Reza Pahlavi. However, just like they did with Mahsa Amini who died in morality police custody, Iranian officials are claiming that Sagvand died of a cardiac arrest.

Exiled Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi published a photo of Mansoureh Sagvand on Monday, calling on the people of Lorestan and neighboring provinces to participate in the funeral ceremony of “the daughter of Iran".

"Let the regime and its mercenaries know these crimes will not be forgotten, and any disturbance in the funeral ceremony and harassment of his bereaved family will only fuel the anger of the Iranian people," read his tweet.

Last week, Bamshad Soleimankhani, a 21-year-old student from Abdanan, died in hospital with symptoms of poisoning shortly after being released from prison after his arrest for participating in protests. Local media also said signs of fracture and torture were visible on the young man’s body.

Following Soleimankhani's suspicious death, the city of Abdanan became the scene of anti-government protests on Friday, in which at least 20 protesters were injured by birdshots.

This is not the first time the Islamic Republic does not assume responsibility for the ill-treatment and torture of detainees. During the nationwide protests the clerical regime claimed many protesters died after falling from a height or committing suicide.

According to the decision, government working hours in the country will begin at 06:00 local time (GMT 3:30) and end at 13:00 for three months.

As there are many people commuting daily from the suburbs to mega cities like the capital Tehran, countless employees must get up at least two hours earlier which affects their sleep routine.

Those who have children say, "office hours are from 6:00" but "kindergartens open at 7:30."

With the current plan, the working hours of government agencies decreased by one hour a day with the parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf opposing the decision.

The government says the change has been approved in line with "optimal management of energy consumption" with all executive bodies obliged to turn off cooling systems one hour before the end of work.

It also claims the employees would make up for the loss through remote work, but the parliament speaker rejects this solution as being “illegal”.

“The working hours of the employees are forty-four hours a week and the Council of Ministers and executive bodies only have the authority to determine the order of the announced hours,” Ghalibaf said last week.

Electricity consumption has been increasing in Iran because of very low prices, considered a subsidy in the state-controlled economy. While both power plant capacity and their fuel supply remain inadequate, Iran exports electricity to Iraq.

Last year the country faced a deficit of about 14,000 megawatts in electricity production with blackouts during the summer when consumption was at its peak.

A ceremony to present Fattah missile on Tuesday was attended by President Ebrahim Raisi, Revolutionary Guards Chief Commander Major General Hossein Salami, and IRGC Aerospace Force Commander Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh as well as a dozen other senior officials.

Boastful statements by IRGC commanders about the unprecedented level of cooperation between the Raisi administration and the IRGC, which – given the occasion it was announced – will work as a prod to heighten Western concerns about Iran's missile capabilities.

Iran claims its hypersonic missile has a range of 1,400 kilometers, can breach and overcome all anti-missile shields, and hits speeds of Mach 13-15, which means about 13 to 15 times faster than the speed of sound -- known as Mach 1.

Currently available technology perhaps support hypersonic missiles flying at 5-8 Machs, so Iran's claim of 15 mach speed seems an exaggeration.

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For a missile to be called hypersonic, it should fly at least five times faster than the speed of sound. The threshold of Mach 5 is used because a range of physical effects start becoming a significant engineering challenge at that speed.

In addition, a true hypersonic missile should also be maneuverable to be useful, which poses a significant challenge not only to Iran but even for great military powers, such as the United States, which still has not fielded such a weapon.

The term is also used generally to refer to two types of weapons that are being developed through contemporary defense programs: Hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) and hypersonic cruise missiles (HCMs). It is not clear which type Fattah is. However, since Iran described it as ballistic, it is most probably an HGV.

But even that description is misleading. An HGV is a relatively large projectile lifted by a ballistic missile into the atmosphere, which at a certain point begins gliding toward its target.

An HCM is a cruise missile, which means it does not glide but is self-propelled at a hypersonic speed.

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No Iranian official has elaborated on when Fattah would hit hypersonic speed: during its first phase of flight powered by a ballistic missile, or when it is gliding toward the target.

Unless Iranian authorities say at what altitude the missile will hit Mach 15, the claim is not even verifiable.

The IRGC claims that with a solid fuel propulsion system and a second-stage mobile nozzle, the missile has the ability to reach very high speeds and perform various maneuvers in and out of the Earth’s atmosphere in order to overcome all types of air defense systems. Hajizadeh saying Iran is now among only four countries that have the technology to manufacture hypersonic missiles. He did not name the countries he had in mind.

According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the reports about such missiles demonstrate how confusing -- and potentially distorting -- the term ‘hypersonic’ is, noting that some of the news coverage of similar events have indicated “a lack of understanding of the different types of ‘hypersonic missiles’, the role of their speed and maneuvering capabilities, the physics behind them, and their military capabilities and missions.”

Hajizadeh added that unlike other types of missiles, Fattah cannot be countered by any defense system, noting that the hypersonic missile cannot be destroyed by any missile due to its cross-range maneuvers, meaning movement in various directions and heights.

However, a Brookings Institution report in May– titled ‘Don’t believe the hypersonic hype’ -- , debunked several such claims, and mentioned the case of the Russian Kinzhal missile, which President Vladimir Putin had announced in 2018 as a “hypersonic” weapon that could overcome all existing air defense systems. However, in May, Ukraine used US-supplied Patriot batteries to down several Kinzhals, shattering the myth of a Russian hypersonic weapon.

SIPRI says that the questioning why certain actors adopt this terminology – given a lack of understanding of the limitations of this descriptor -- can “help reveal motivations and vested interests in the hype around hypersonic missiles, i.e. to appear threatening.”

Highlighting that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has supported and approved the missile activities and even has chosen the name 'Fattah’ -- which means ‘the opener,’ Hajizadeh said “Our activities in this field do not end with the manufacturing of this missile. We will continue this path so that no enemy even imagines attacking Iran.”

The staff were summoned to the disciplinary committee after they signed a statement against the wave of chemical attacks on schools.

Back in March, over 300 university professors condemned the organized chemical attacks in hundreds of schools across the country which have since last year seen thousands of students made sick or hospitalized.

"Despite claims to protect domestic and cross-border security, the government has not taken preventive measures in the face of this obvious threat to national security," read the statement.

The action against the academics is part of a widespread crackdown on universities as the hotbed of anti-regime sentiment. Having been one of the main centers of popular protests, the regime has increased the number of security agents at campuses and beefed up inspection of the students’ belongings.

Iran's Student Union Council reported on Monday that during the past week, "a large number of students" of The University of Science and Technology were summoned for refusing to wear the mandatory hijab and what the officials called "improper outfits".

The report also claims security forces continue to threaten and harass the students in the university campus under the pretext of not wearing proper hijab while several female students have been summoned for not returning to their dormitory on time.

In the past few months Iran’s security forces summoned dozens of students to punish them for staging protests against the poisoning of schoolgirls across the country.

Spokesperson of Tehran Fire Department Jalal Maleki said that the fire engulfed Seyed Vali bazaar and the firefighters are working to put out this “relatively large fire” which left those injured with severe burns of 50-70%.

“The fire is mainly in a three-story building with several shops and warehouses with an area of more than 1,000 meters, which is actually a place of storage and production of glue,” he added.

Seyed Vali is one of 121 bazaars and shopping centers in the Grand Bazaar of the capital, which is dedicated to the production and sale of shoes.

On Sunday, another huge fire broke out at a home appliances' warehouse in the northeast city of Mashhad.

The Mashhad fire department said no casualties had been reported.

In March, another large fire broke out at three warehouses of a home appliances manufacturer in the city, part of a series of explosions and fires near Iran’s military, nuclear and industrial facilities in recent years.

On January 28, a huge fire erupted at an Iranian military industry factory following a suspected drone strike in the central city of Esfahan.

Iran blamed Israel for the drone attack vowing revenge.