Authoritarian governments are extending their pursuit of critics far beyond their borders Forty-five years ago, the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was killed in London with a poison-tipped umbrella as he made his way home from work. The horrifying case transfixed the British public. So transnational repression is not new, including on British shores. But unless its target is unusually high-profile, or it uses startling tactics such as those employed by Markov’s killers – or in the attempt to assassinate Sergei Skripal – much of it passes with minimal attention. Do you have an opinion on the ..read more

Inadvertent poisoning of scavengers across Indian subcontinent is forcing some communities to give up ancient custom Traditional Zoroastrian burial rites are becoming increasingly impossible to perform because of the precipitous decline of vultures in India, Iran and Pakistan. For millennia, Parsi communities have traditionally disposed of their dead in structures called dakhma, or “towers of silence”. These circular, elevated edifices are designed to prevent the soil, and the sacred elements of earth, fire and water, from being contaminated by corpses ..read more

Threats from the state have led many journalists across the world to flee their home countries to report from elsewhere. But for many the intimidation did not stop when they left Illustrations by Joe McKendry Fardad Farahzad, journalist, Iran International ..read more

The regime wants to crush resistance. But those it rules continue to push back against its brutality The protests that exploded across Iran following Mahsa Amini’s death in custody in September 2022 were a turning point. The young Iranian-Kurdish woman had been detained by the “morality police” for “improper hijab”. Not only did young women take to the streets and cast off their scarves in fury, but parents and grandparents came too. The protests were strikingly socially diverse. Critically, men joined the cries of “woman, life, freedom”. The regime reacted with predictable fury, killing hundr ..read more

Foreign secretary also calls on Arab states to accept that Hamas leaders responsible for 7 October attack must leave the territory David Cameron has urged Hamas to agree to a deal for a sustained 40-day ceasefire in Gaza and the release of potentially thousands of hostages and prisoners. The foreign secretary also challenged Arab states to accept that the Hamas military leadership responsible for the attack on 7 October must leave Gaza ..read more

Regime has hit a wall in its efforts to exploit crackdown on US unrest over Gaza as an abuse of human rights after its treatment of Toomaj Salehi An Iranian court’s decision to pass the death sentence against Toomaj Salehi, a popular Iranian rapper and regime opponent, has led to international protests and damaged Iran’s fledgling efforts to exploit crackdowns on unrest in US university campuses over Gaza as an abuse of human rights. Crowds gathered in the US, Europe and Canada on Sunday to support Salehi, while dozens of political prisoners in Iran’s Ghezel Hesar prison issued a statement con ..read more

Andromeda Star targeted with three missiles, UK Maritime Trade Operations security agency said See all our coverage of the Middle East crisis Ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels caused “minor damage” to a Panama-flagged oil tanker travelling through the Red Sea on Friday, authorities said. The attack follows an uptick in assaults launched by the Houthis in recent days after a relative lull in their campaign over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, AP reported. Hamas said it was studying the latest Israeli counterproposal regarding a potential ceasefire in Gaza, a day after ..read more

To support arms for Ukraine and defending Red Sea shipping is part of Labour’s anti-fascist tradition, writes Paul Mason Two years ago in Madrid, I watched Jeremy Corbyn launch a pan-European campaign to end arms supplies to Ukraine. As he did so, a friend in the Ukrainian army sent me a photo of the machine gun that he’d been issued with: it was made in 1944. If the west had not poured billions of pounds worth of arms and ammunition into Ukraine, its people would have been massacred and enslaved. So forgive me if I describe Mr Corbyn’s call for “peace” as a meaningless abstraction (Our leader ..read more

Iran's 'morality police' have intensified their crackdown on women defying hijab rules in several cities over the past week in the shadows of the country’s conflict with Israel. Footage circulating online shows an increased number of officials patrolling streets since 12 April and, in some cases, violently dragging women into the back of white vans. It comes after the police chief, Abbas Ali Mohammadian, announced a new phase to crack down on women defying the hijab rules. Some people in Iran are calling this is a war on women, at a time when the world’s attention is on tensions in the Middle ..read more

Increase in cost of crude could drive inflation up and force central banks to keep interest rates high • Business live – latest updates A serious escalation of tensions in the Middle East would push the price of oil above $100 (£80) a barrel and reverse the recent downward trend in global inflation, the World Bank has said. The Washington-based institution said the recent fall in commodity prices had been levelling off even before the recent missile strikes by Iran and Israel – making interest rate decisions for central banks tougher ..read more