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World

Security forces tear gas students defying Iran protest ultimatum

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  • Protests show no sign of easing amid fierce state warnings
  • University students clash with security forces
  • Journalists demand release of their jailed colleagues
  • Rights groups report arrests of activists, students

DUBAI, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Protests in Iran entered a more violent phase on Sunday as students, who defied an ultimatum by the Revolutionary Guards and a warning from the president, were met with tear gas and gunfire from security forces, social media videos showed.

The confrontations at dozens of universities prompted the threat of a tougher crackdown in a seventh week of demonstrations sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by the morality police for attire deemed inappropriate.

“Security is the red line of the Islamic Republic, and we will not allow the enemy to implement in any way its plans to undermine this valuable national asset,” hardline President Ebrahim Raisi said, according to state media.

Iranians from all walks of life have taken to the streets since Amini’s death in protests that the clerical rulers said were endangering the Islamic Republic’s security.

Authorities have accused Islamic Iran’s arch-enemies the United States and Israel and their local agents of being behind the unrest to destabilise the country.

What began as outrage over Amini’s death on Sept. 16 has evolved into one of the toughest challenges to clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution, with some protesters calling for the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards told protesters that Saturday would be their last day of taking to the streets, the harshest warning yet by Iranian authorities.

Nevertheless, videos on social media, unverifiable by Reuters, showed confrontations between students and riot police and Basij forces on Sunday at universities all over Iran.

One video showed a member of Basij forces firing a gun at close range at students protesting at a branch of Azad University in Tehran. Gunshots were also heard in a video shared by rights group HENGAW from protests at the University of Kurdistan in Sanandaj.

Videos from universities in some other cities also showed Basij forces opening fire at students.

Across the country, security forces tried to block students inside university buildings, firing tear gas and beating protesters with sticks. The students, who appeared to be unarmed, pushed back, with some chanting “dishonoured Basij get lost” and “Death to Khamenei”.

HISTORY OF CRACKDOWNS

Social media reported arrests of at least a dozen doctors, journalists and artists since Saturday. The activist HRANA news agency said 283 protesters had been killed in the unrest as of Saturday including 44 minors. Some 34 members of the security forces were also killed.

More than 14,000 people have been arrested, including 253 students, in protests in 132 cities and towns, and 122 universities, it said.

The Guards and its affiliated Basij force have crushed dissent in the past. They said on Sunday, “seditionists” were insulting them at universities and in the streets, and warned they may use more force if the anti-government unrest continued.

“So far, Basijis have shown restraint and they have been patient,” the head of the Revolutionary Guards in the Khorasan Junubi province, Brigadier General Mohammadreza Mahdavi, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

“But it will get out of our control if the situation continues.”

JOURNALISTS APPEAL

More than 300 Iranian journalists demanded the release of two colleagues jailed for their coverage of Amini in a statement published by the Iranian Etemad and other newspapers on Sunday.

Niloofar Hamedi took a photo of Amini’s parents hugging each other in a Tehran hospital where their daughter was lying in a coma.

The image, which Hamedi posted on Twitter, was the first signal to the world that all was not well with Amini, who had been detained three days earlier by Iran’s morality police for what they deemed inappropriate dress.

Elaheh Mohammadi covered Amini’s funeral in her Kurdish hometown Saqez, where the protests began. A joint statement released by Iran’s intelligence ministry and the intelligence organisation of the Revolutionary Guards on Friday had accused Hamedi and Mohammadi of being CIA foreign agents.

Students and women have played a prominent role in the unrest, burning their veils as crowds call for the fall of the Islamic Republic, which came to power in 1979.

An official said on Sunday the establishment had no plan to retreat from compulsory veiling but should be “wise” about enforcement.

“Removing the veil is against our law and this headquarters will not retreat from its position,” Ali Khanmohammadi, the spokesman of Iran’s headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice told the Khabaronline website.

“However, our actions should be wise to avoid giving enemies a pretext to use it against us.”

In a further apparent effort to defuse the situation, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said people were right to call for reform and their demands would be met if they distanced themselves from the “criminals” taking to the streets.

“We consider the protests to be not only correct and the cause of progress, but we also believe that these social movements will change policies and decisions, provided that they are separated from violent people, criminals and separatists,” he said, using terms officials typically use for the protesters.

Writing by Michael Georgy and Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Nick Macfie, Philippa Fletcher, Angus MacSwan and Barbara Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Chinese cities brace for wave of Foxconn workers from COVID-hit Zhengzhou

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BEIJING, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Cities in central China hastily drew up plans to isolate migrant workers fleeing to their hometowns from a vast assembly facility of iPhone maker Foxconn (2317.TW) in COVID-hit Zhengzhou, fearing they could trigger coronavirus outbreaks.

Zhengzhou, capital of central
Henan province, reported 167 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the seven days to Oct. 29, up from 97 infections in the prior seven-day period.

Apple (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn, based in Taiwan, currently has about 200,000 workers at its Zhengzhou complex and has not disclosed the number of infected workers, but said on Sunday that it would not stop workers from leaving.

Late on Saturday, cities near Zhengzhou, including Yuzhou, Changge and Qinyang, urged Foxconn workers to report to local authorities in advance before heading home.

Returning workers are to travel “point-to-point” in pre-arranged vehicles and are to be quarantined on arrival, they said in separate letters on their respective social media accounts addressed to Zhengzhou Foxconn workers.

Under China’s ultra-strict zero-COVID policy, cities are mandated to act swiftly to quell any outbreaks, with measures that could include full-scale lockdowns. On Oct. 19, Foxconn banned all dine-in at canteens and required workers to take their meals in their dormitories.

“The government agreed to resume dine-in meals to improve the convenience and satisfaction of employees’ lives,” Foxconn told Reuters in an emailed reply to queries on Sunday.

“At the same time, for some employees who want to return home, the (plant) is cooperating with the government to organise personnel and vehicles to provide a point-to-point orderly return service for employees from today.”

Disruptions from China’s COVID policies to commerce and industry have intensified in recent weeks as cases multiplied. Shanghai Disneyland said on Saturday it would operate at reduced capacity. On Wednesday, Universal Beijing Resort was suspended after the visit of one infected individual.

“We are very aware that under the current situation, it is a protracted battle,” Foxconn said.

But the situation was gradually coming under control, it said, and Foxconn would coordinate back-up production capacity with its other plants to reduce any potential impact.

Apple did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on the Foxconn situation.

‘I COULDN’T HELP BUT FEEL SAD’

Foxconn did not respond to Reuters questions on how many cases had been detected at its Zhengzhou plant and how many workers had left.

Photographs and videos circulating on Chinese social media since Saturday showed Foxconn workers, apparently returning home, trekking across fields in the day and along roads at night. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the posts.

In a show of support, residents in the vicinity left bottled water and provisions next to roads with signs such as: “For Foxconn workers returning home”, according to social media posts.

“Some people were walking amid wheat fields with their luggage, blankets and quilts,” wrote a user of WeChat in a post about the social media images.

“I couldn’t help but feel sad.”

Reporting by Ryan Woo and Ziyi Tang; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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US

Somalia president: at least 100 people killed in car bombs

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MOGADISHU, Oct 30 (Reuters) – At least 100 people were killed and 300 injured in two car bombs that exploded outside the education ministry in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Saturday, the country’s president said in a statement early on Sunday.

“Our people who were massacred … included mothers with their children in their arms, fathers who had medical conditions, students who were sent to study, businessmen who were struggling with the lives of their families,” President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said after visiting the site of blast.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, although the president blamed the Islamist group al Shabaab. Al Shabaab typically avoids claiming responsibility for attacks that results in large numbers of casualties.

The first of the explosions hit the education ministry near a busy junction in Mogadishu. The second occurred as ambulances arrived and people gathered to help the victims.

The blast wave smashed windows in the vicinity. Blood covered the tarmac just outside the building.

The attack took place at the same place as Somalia’s largest bombing, which killed more than 500, in the same month in 2017. In that blast, a truck bomb exploded outside a busy hotel at the K5 intersection, which is lined with government offices, restaurants and kiosks.

Mohamud said the number of victims could rise. He had instructed the government to provide immediate medical assistance to the injured, some of whom were in serious condition.

Reporting by Abdiqani Hassan; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by William Mallard

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Business

China Southern cancels planned return of Boeing 737 MAX flights

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Oct 30 (Reuters) – China Southern Airlines Co Ltd (600029.SS) has cancelled plans for two Boeing Co (BA.N) 737 MAX flights on Sunday that would have represented the model’s return to passenger flying in China after more than three years, according to the airline’s website.

The 737 MAX was grounded in March 2019 following fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia but has returned to service around the world with the exception of China and Russia after modifications to the aircraft and pilot training.

China Southern had scheduled flights from its Guangzhou hub to Zhengzhou and Wuhan, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The airline’s website and flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed the flights had been cancelled. China Southern did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

On Wednesday, Boeing said it had another 138 planes manufactured for Chinese carriers that were in the United States waiting to be delivered, though it had begun remarketing the jets to other carriers given there were no concrete signs that Chinese airlines would accept the planes in the near term.

Earlier this month, a 737 MAX flight by MIAT Mongolian Airlines landed in Guangzhou, marking the first commercial flight by the model in China since 2019.

Reporting by Jamie Freed in Sydney
Editing by Chris Reese

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US

Man arrested in attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband faces charges

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SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 29 (Reuters) – The man who clubbed U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in the head with hammer, shouting “Where is Nancy?” after forcing his way into the couple’s San Francisco home, faced charges of attempted murder and other felonies a day later.

Police initially declined to offer a motive for Friday’s assault on Paul Pelosi, 82, who according to his wife’s office underwent surgery for a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands, though doctors expect a full recovery.

But the incident stoked fears about political violence less than two weeks ahead of midterm elections on Nov. 8 that will decide control of the House of Representatives and Senate, coming amid the most vitriolic and polarized U.S. political climate in decades.

The 82-year-old House speaker herself, a Democrat who is second in the constitutional line of succession to the U.S. presidency, was in Washington at the time of the assault.

She flew to San Francisco to be with her husband. Three dark-colored SUVs believed to belong to a special security detail were parked on Saturday with a city police patrol car outside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, where Paul Pelosi was admitted.

Paul Pelosi Jr., the couple’s son, was also at the hospital. Asked by a reporter for an update on his father, he replied: “So far, so good.”

President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, said he understood Pelosi’s husband “seems to be doing a lot better,” and that the attack appeared to have been “intended for Nancy.”

Police identified the man arrested at the scene as David DePape, 42. He, too, was taken to a San Francisco hospital, but it was not made clear whether he was there for medical or psychiatric care or both.

Online sheriff’s records showed he was booked into custody on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, battery, burglary, threatening a public official or family member, and other felonies. Formal charges will be filed on Monday, and his arraignment is expected on Tuesday, according to the San Francisco district attorney’s office.

San Francisco Police Chief William Scott told a Friday night news briefing that police detectives, assisted by FBI agents, had yet to determine what precipitated the home invasion but said, “We know this was not a random act.”

A statement from Nancy Pelosi’s spokesperson, Drew Hammill, said Pelosi’s husband had been attacked “by an assailant who acted with force, and threatened his life while demanding to see the Speaker.”

The intruder shouted, “Where is Nancy?” before attacking, according to a person briefed on the incident who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

FROM HEMP TO HATE?

In the search for a motive, attention turned to the suspect’s apparent internet profile.

In recent posts on several websites, an internet user named “daviddepape” expressed support for former President Donald Trump and embraced the cult-like conspiracy theory QAnon. The posts included references to “satanic pedophilia,” anti-Semitic tropes and criticism of women, transgender people and censorship by tech companies.

Older messages promoted quartz crystals and hemp bracelets. Reuters could not confirm the posts were created by the suspect arrested Friday.

Experts on extremism said the attack could be an example of a growing trend they call “stochastic terrorism,” in which sometimes-unstable individuals are inspired to violence by hate speech and scenarios they see online and hear echoed by public figures.

“This was clearly a targeted attack. The purpose was to locate and potentially harm the speaker of the House,” said John Cohen, a former counterterrorism coordinator and head of intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security who is working with U.S. law enforcement agencies on the issue.

The San Francisco Chronicle posted a photo of a man it identified as DePape dancing at the 2013 wedding of two nudist activists in San Francisco, though he was clothed. DePape, then a hemp jewelry maker who listed himself as a member of the left-leaning Green Party, lived with the couple in Berkeley and was best man at their wedding, the newspaper reported. It said he grew up in Canada.

Scott said the intruder forced his way into the Pelosis’ three-story red brick townhouse through a rear door. Aerial photos showed shattered glass at the back of the house in the city’s affluent Pacific Heights neighborhood.

WELLBEING CHECK

The chief said police were dispatched for an “A-priority wellbeing check” at about 2:30 a.m. on the basis of a somewhat cryptic emergency-911 call from the residence. Other news outlets reported the call was placed by Paul Pelosi.

Scott credited the 911 operator with discerning that “there was more to this incident than what she was being told” by the caller, thus dispatching the call at a higher priority than normal. Scott called her decision “life-saving.”

According to Scott, police arriving at the front door glimpsed DePape and Pelosi struggling over a hammer. As the officers yelled at both men to drop the tool, DePape yanked the hammer away and was seen striking Pelosi at least once, the chief said. The officers then tackled, disarmed and arrested DePape, Scott said.

The incident came a day after New York City police warned that extremists could target politicians, political events and polling sites ahead of the elections.

The U.S. Capitol Police, which reported 9,625 threats against lawmakers of both parties in 2021, up nearly threefold from 2017, urged congressional offices in a special memo on Saturday to take extra security precautions in light of heightened risks they face.

As a Democratic leader in Washington and a longtime representative from one of America’s most liberal cities, Nancy Pelosi is a frequent target of Republican criticism.

Her office was ransacked during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Republican then-President Trump, some of whom hunted for her during the assault.

Reporting by Nathan Frandino in San Francisco and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal, Susan Heavey, Patricia Zengerle, Andy Sullivan, Brendan O’Brien, Jonathan Allen, Doina Chiacu, Rich McKay, Rami Ayyub, Tim Ahmann, Dan Whitcomb, Ismail Shakil, Tyler Clifford, and Gram Slattery; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Alistair Bell and Daniel Wallis

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World

Bolsonaro-Lula presidential race down to the wire in Brazil, polls show

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BRASILIA, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Brazil’s heated presidential race has tightened ahead of a Sunday vote, several opinion surveys showed on Saturday, with right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro eroding a slight advantage for leftist challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in most polls.

Surveys by pollsters Datafolha and Quaest both showed Lula with 52% of valid votes against 48% for Bolsonaro, down from a 6 percentage-point lead three days prior, putting the incumbent in striking distance of a come-from-behind victory.

A survey by pollster MDA showed Lula’s edge slipping to just 2 percentage points, equal to the margin of error for the poll commissioned by transport sector lobby CNT.

Most polls still suggest Lula is the slight favorite to come back for a third term, capping a remarkable political rebound after his jailing on graft convictions that were overturned. But Bolsonaro outperformed opinion polls in the first-round vote on Oct. 2, and many analysts say the election could go either way.

The final opinion surveys by pollsters IPEC and AtlasIntel, however, showed Lula holding a stable and slightly larger lead.

IPEC showed the leftist ahead by 54% to 46% of valid votes, excluding undecided voters and those planning to spoil their ballots. AtlasIntel, among the most accurate pollsters in the first round, showed Lula’s lead holding at 7 percentage points.

Bolsonaro wrapped up his campaign in the key state of Minas Gerais, leading a motorbike rally with supporters. Lula walked with thousands of backers on one of Sao Paulo’s main avenues after telling foreign reporters his rival was not fit to govern.

The deeply polarizing figures also attacked each other’s character and record in their final televised debate on Friday night. Bolsonaro opened the debate by denying reports he might unpeg the minimum wage from inflation, announcing instead he would raise it to 1,400 reais ($260) a month if re-elected, a move that is not in his government’s 2023 budget.

With their campaigns focusing on swaying crucial undecided votes, analysts said the president gained little ground in the debate to win a race that polls had shown roughly stable since Lula led the first-round voting by 5 percentage points.

That result was better for Bolsonaro than most polls had shown, giving him a boost of momentum to start the month, but the past two weeks of the campaign have presented headwinds.

A week ago, one of Bolsonaro’s allies opened fire on federal police officers coming to arrest him.

On Sunday, one of his closest associates, Congresswoman Carla Zambelli, chased a Lula supporter into a Sao Paulo restaurant at gun point after a political argument in the street, videos on social media showed. Zambelli told reporters she knowingly defied an electoral law that bans the carrying of firearms 24 hours before an election.

In their first head-to-head debate this month, Lula blasted Bolsonaro’s handling of a pandemic in which nearly 700,000 Brazilians have died, while Bolsonaro focused on the graft scandals that tarnished the reputation of Lula’s Workers Party.

On Friday night, both candidates returned repeatedly to Lula’s two terms as president from 2003 to 2010, when high commodity prices helped to boost the economy and combat poverty. Lula vowed to revive those boom times, while Bolsonaro suggested current social programs are more effective.

Reporting by Ricardo Brito and Anthony Boadle in Brasilia, Gabriel Stargardter in Rio de Janeiro and Brian Ellsworth in Sao Paulo; Editing by Brad Haynes, Chris Reese and Daniel Wallis

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World

Russia halts Ukraine Black Sea grain exports, Biden outraged

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  • Russia halts participation in UN grain deal
  • Move comes after drone attacks on Crimea
  • Russia says British personnel helped drone attack
  • Ukraine says Russia invents attacks
  • Biden says move is outrageous

Oct 29 (Reuters) – Russia on Saturday suspended participation in a U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal after what it said was a major Ukrainian drone attack on its fleet in Crimea, dealing a blow to attempts to ease the global food crisis.

U.S. President Joe Biden denounced the move as “purely outrageous” and said it would increase starvation.

Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine attacked the Black Sea Fleet near Sevastopol on the annexed Crimean peninsula with 16 drones early on Saturday, and that British navy “specialists” had helped coordinate the “terrorist” attack.

The suspension will cut Ukrainian grain exports from its crucial Black Sea ports.

“There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The U.N. negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it,” Biden told reporters in his home state of Delaware.

The deal allows shipments of grain from Ukraine, one of the world’s largest exporters, that the Russian invasion had halted.

Russia told U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a letter, seen by Reuters, that it was suspending the deal for an “indefinite term” because it could not “guarantee safety of civilian ships” travelling under the pact.

Russia has also asked the U.N. Security Council to meet on Monday on the attack, Russia’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy wrote on Twitter.

Britain on Saturday said Russia’s claims, including that British navy personnel blew up the Nord Stream pipelines last month, were false and aimed at distracting attention from Russian military failures.

Russia said it had repelled the attack but that the ships targeted were involved in ensuring the grain corridor out of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said what he called Russia’s nonsensical move required a strong international response from the U.N. and the Group of 20 major economies.

“This is a completely transparent attempt by Russia to return to the threat of large-scale famine for Africa, for Asia,” Zelenskiy said in a video address, adding that Russia should be kicked out of the G20.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Moscow was using a false pretext to sink the deal.

“I call on all states to demand Russia to stop its hunger games and recommit to its obligations,” Kuleba said.

In a statement, the European Union said “all parties must refrain from any unilateral action that would imperil” a deal it described as a critical humanitarian effort.

‘HUNGER GAMES’

Since Russia and Ukraine signed the U.N.-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative in Turkey on July 22, more than 9 million tonnes of corn, wheat, sunflower products, barley, rapeseed and soya have been exported.

But ahead of the Nov. 19 expiry of the deal, Russia had repeatedly said that there are serious problems with it. Ukraine complained Moscow had blocked almost 200 ships from picking up grain cargoes.

The United Nations is in contact with Russian authorities about the situation, a U.N. spokesman said.

United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said only on Wednesday that he was “relatively optimistic” that the deal would be extended beyond mid-November.

“Although the prices in the Western markets were reduced, Russia did not gain anything from this agreement,” said Turan Oguz, a Turkish defence analyst. “I think the main reason for Russia’s withdrawal is Western indifference towards Russia.”

Just 24 hours before Russia’s move, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had appealed to the parties to renew the pact.

Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said Russia was ready to supply up to 500,000 tonnes of grain to poor countries in the next four months for free, with assistance from Turkey, and supplant supplies of Ukrainian grains.

“The Russian Federation is fully prepared to replace Ukrainian grain and deliver supplies at affordable prices to all interested countries,” he said.

Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, reporting by Reuters reporters; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Frances Kerry, Christina Fincher, David Ljunggren and Daniel Wallis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Dogecoin surges on Elon Musk’s Twitter deal

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Oct 29 (Reuters) – Dogecoin surged more than 70% on Saturday, extending this week’s gains after Elon Musk sealed a $44-billion deal to take over Twitter last week.

The Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO, a vocal proponent of cryptocurrencies, has heavily influenced prices of dogecoin and bitcoin.

Tesla started accepting dogecoin as payment for its merchandise early this year, and Musk’s newly launched perfume brand can also be bought with dogecoin.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance which has invested $500 million into Musk’s buyout of Twitter, said it is brainstorming strategies on how blockchain and crypto could be helpful to Twitter.

Twitter had begun exploring ways to incorporate blockchain technology under co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who has been a proponent of bitcoin.

Musk tweeted this month that he is buying Twitter to create an “everything app”. The idea of an everything app originated in Asia with companies like WeChat, which lets users not only send messages but also make payments, shop online or hail a taxi.

Musk’s tweets on dogecoin, including the one where he called it the “people’s crypto,” have turned the once-obscure digital currency, which began as a social media joke, into a speculator’s dream.

Musk who has promised to restore free speech on Twitter is being deluged with pleas and demands to reinstate accounts of banned account holders and world leaders.

He tweeted on Friday that Twitter will form a content moderation council “with widely diverse viewpoints,” and said no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before the council convenes.

The billionaire in a tweet on Saturday said that Twitter users could in future choose a version of the social media platform they like by providing ratings on their tweets.

“Being able to select which version of Twitter you want is probably better, much as it would be for a movie maturity rating,” he said.

Reporting by Baranjot Kaur and Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; editing by Clelia Oziel and Nick Zieminski

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World

Iran’s Guards head warns protesters: ‘Today is last day of riots’

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  • Elite force commander issues one of toughest warnings yet
  • Rights groups report fresh demonstrations, bloodshed
  • Revolutionary Guards not deployed since protests began

Oct 29 (Reuters) – The head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards warned protesters that Saturday would be their last day of taking to the streets, in the clearest sign that security forces may intensify their fierce crackdown on nationwide unrest.

Iran has been gripped by protests since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police last month, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.

“Do not come to the streets! Today is the last day of the riots,” Guards commander Hossein Salami said in some of the toughest language used in the crisis, which Iran’s leaders blame on its foreign enemies including Israel and the United States.

“This sinister plan, is a plan hatched … in the White House and the Zionist regime,” Salami said. “Don’t sell your honour to America and don’t slap the security forces who are defending you in the face.”

Iranians have defied such warnings throughout the popular revolt in which women have played a prominent role. There were more reports of fresh bloodshed and renewed protests on Saturday.

Human rights group Hengaw reported security forces shooting students at a girls’ school in the city of Saqez. In another post, it said security forces opened fire on students at Kurdistan University of Medical Science, in the Kurdistan provincial capital of Sanandaj.

Several students were injured, one of them shot in the head, Hengaw said. Reuters could not verify the report.

PROTESTERS ON TRIAL

The widely feared Revolutionary Guards, an elite force with a track record of crushing dissent which reports directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have not been deployed since demonstrations began last month.

Commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Hossein Salami delivers a speech during the forty-day memorial, after the killing of Iran’s Quds Force top commander Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. air strike at Baghdad Airport, at the Grand Mosalla in Tehran, Iran February 13, 2020. Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

But the warning by Salami suggests Khamenei could unleash them in the face of relentless demonstrations now focused on toppling the Islamic Republic.

Videos posted on social media by activist groups purported to show protests at a number of universities across the country in cities including Kerman, Mashhad, Qazvin, Ahvaz, Arak, Kermanshah, Yazd and a dozen campuses in the capital, Tehran.

The activist HRANA news agency posted a video which it said showed protests at a university holding hands in a large circle and chanting: “If we don’t unite, we will be killed one by one.”

HRANA said 272 protesters had been killed in the unrest as of Friday including 39 minors. Some 34 members of the security force were also killed. Nearly 14,000 people have been arrested in protests in 129 towns and cities and some 115 universities, it said.

A hardline Revolutionary Court began the trials of some of the 315 protesters charged so far in Tehran, at least five of whom are accused of capital offences, the official news agency IRNA reported.

The defendants include a man accused of hitting and killing a police officer with his car and injuring five others, IRNA said. He is charged with “spreading corruption on earth”, an offence punishable by death under Iran’s Islamic laws.

Another man is charged with the capital offence of “moharebeh” – an Islamic term meaning warring against God – for allegedly attacking police with a knife and helping set fire to a government building in a town near Tehran, IRNA added.

The court is headed by Abolghassem Salavati, a judge on whom the United States imposed sanctions in 2019 after accusing him of having punished Iranian citizens and dual nationals for exercising their freedoms of speech and assembly.

Salami issued his warning to protesters as he spoke at a funeral for victims killed in an attack this week claimed by Islamic State.

A man who said he carried out the attack, which killed 15 worshippers at the Shah Cheragh shrine in the city of Shiraz, appeared pledging allegiance to the militant group in a video posted on its Telegram account on Saturday.

dubai.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com;
Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Helen Popper and Frances Kerry

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World

Russia says U.S. lowering ‘nuclear threshold’ with newer bombs in Europe

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  • Russia cautions U.S. over new B61s
  • Pentagon: Modernisation long planned
  • Russia says NATO strengthening nuclear plans
  • Pentagon: B61 upgrades not linked to Ukraine
  • Russia: newer bombs are of strategic significance

LONDON, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Russia said on Saturday that the accelerated deployment of modernised U.S. B61 tactical nuclear weapons at NATO bases in Europe would lower the “nuclear threshold” and that Russia would take the move into account in its military planning.

Russia has about 2,000 working tactical nuclear weapons while the United States has around 200 such weapons, half of which are at bases in Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Amid the Ukraine crisis, Politico reported on Oct. 26 that the United States told a closed NATO meeting this month that it would accelerate the deployment of a modernised version of the B61, the B61-12, with the new weapons arriving at European bases in December, several months earlier than planned.

“We cannot ignore the plans to modernize nuclear weapons, those free-fall bombs that are in Europe,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told state RIA news agency.

The 12-ft B61-12 gravity bomb carries a lower yield nuclear warhead than many earlier versions but is more accurate and can penetrate below ground, according to research by the Federation of American Scientists published in 2014.

“The United States is modernizing them, increasing their accuracy and reducing the power of the nuclear charge, that is, they turn these weapons into ‘battlefield weapons’, thereby reducing the nuclear threshold,” Grushko said.

The Pentagon said it was not going to discuss the details of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and that the premise of the Politico article was wrong as the United States had long planned the modernisation of its B61 nuclear weapons.

“Modernization of U.S. B61 nuclear weapons has been underway for years, and plans to safely and responsibly swap out older weapons for the upgraded B61-12 versions are part of a long-planned and scheduled modernization effort,” Pentagon spokesman Oscar Seara said.

“It is in no way linked to current events in Ukraine and was not sped up in any way,” Seara said in an emailed statement.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered the gravest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when the two Cold War superpowers came closest to nuclear war.

President Vladimir Putin
has repeatedly said Russia will defend its territory with all available means, including nuclear weapons, if attacked.

The comments raised particular concern in the West after Moscow declared last month it had annexed four Ukrainian regions that its forces control parts of. Putin says the West has engaged in nuclear blackmail against Russia.

‘STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE’

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Oct. 6 that Putin had brought the world closer to “Armageddon” than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, though Biden later said he did not think that Putin would use a tactical nuclear weapon.

Putin has not mentioned using a tactical nuclear weapon but has said he suspects Ukraine could detonate a “dirty bomb”, a claim Ukraine and the West say is false.

The U.S. B61 nuclear bomb was first tested in Nevada shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Under Barack Obama, U.S. president from 2009 to 2017, the development of a new version of the bomb, the B61-12, was approved.

Russia’s Grushko said that Moscow would also have to take account of the Lockheed Martin F-35 which would drop such a bomb. NATO, he said, had already strengthened the nuclear parts of its military planning.

NATO “has already made decisions to strengthen the nuclear component in the alliance’s military plans,” Grushko said.

Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Saturday on Telegram that the new B61 bombs had a “strategic significance” as Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons were in storage, yet these U.S. bombs would be just a short flight from Russia’s borders.

The United States, according to the U.S. 2022 Nuclear Posture Review published on Thursday, will bolster nuclear deterrence with the F-35, the B61-12 bombs and a nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile.

Editing by Frances Kerry and Helen Popper

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