Andrew Brook

I want to say that even in this war, in these terrible and unbearable circumstances, my everyday fear of being arrested by the Islamic Republic - or being harmed by them in any way - is greater than my fear of the war itself. This is what life has been.

In my mind, the continuation of the current government in Iran means our certain destruction. War and its consequences mean possible destruction. So I feel better than I did last week. But it would be foolish to expect that we should feel "good" right now. It is something that, from this point onwards, our misery is no longer guaranteed. But only that.

I don't want to go to the north, even though I'm from there. My whole family calls and tells me to come. But I say I'm staying in Tehran. I want to be here. I want to be here on that day to celebrate it. In the middle of the street, loudly, with laughter and tears, for the end of them and for the beautiful souls of my country who were killed and won't be there to see freedom. War is bitter. Destruction is terrible. But living alongside these corrupt men is far harder. So we stand firm for the freedom of Iran.

I share the instinct that little good can come from a confused war led by bloodthirsty imbeciles.

But it also provides a sliver of hope that the brutal Islamic Republic regime could end.

My Iranian partner has translated these accounts from Iranians inside Iran.

About Iran, from an Iranian Woman No matter what happens to me in this life, no matter where I live or what language I speak, I will always be an Iranian woman.

See also: lilsmichelle.substack.com/p/about-iran...

I want to say that even in this war, in these terrible and unbearable circumstances, my everyday fear of being arrested by the Islamic Republic - or being harmed by them in any way - is greater than my fear of the war itself. This is what life has been.

In my mind, the continuation of the current government in Iran means our certain destruction. War and its consequences mean possible destruction. So I feel better than I did last week. But it would be foolish to expect that we should feel "good" right now. It is something that, from this point onwards, our misery is no longer guaranteed. But only that.

I don't want to go to the north, even though I'm from there. My whole family calls and tells me to come. But I say I'm staying in Tehran. I want to be here. I want to be here on that day to celebrate it. In the middle of the street, loudly, with laughter and tears, for the end of them and for the beautiful souls of my country who were killed and won't be there to see freedom. War is bitter. Destruction is terrible. But living alongside these corrupt men is far harder. So we stand firm for the freedom of Iran.

I share the instinct that little good can come from a confused war led by bloodthirsty imbeciles.

But it also provides a sliver of hope that the brutal Islamic Republic regime could end.

My Iranian partner has translated these accounts from Iranians inside Iran.

A must read.

The government's immigration proposals are immoral, expensive (falls in immigration already damaging our economy) and will not achieve the stated aims.

Saw this on LinkedIn. Our immigration system is morally bankrupt and economically ridiculous. Shameful.

We’ve shifted from a society where work delivered security to one where assets determine security.

If Starmer wants a reset - and not yet another U-turn when the parliamentary party balks at a policy - here is his chance.

'We want to scream': Iranians grapple with grief and anger in aftermath of crackdown on protests  | The National US-Iran talks set for this week fail to calm fears of new war

“We feel like we want to scream, but something is blocking our throats."
Amid grieving for loved ones, fear over the prospect of renewed conflict, & struggling with sky-high inflation, many #Iranians feel hopeless & angry.
My latest @thenationalnews.com
www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/20...

OPINION: One month into nationwide protests, the Iranian people are still making history — at the cost of their lives.

The free world can no longer credibly claim neutrality in the face of what has occurred.

🔗 www.politico.eu/article/iran...

'Retrospectivity is un-British' - Labour MP @tonyvaughanmp.bsky.social told a packed Westminster Hall debate that plans to double migrants' wait for settlement must be abandoned.

'Let us be a country that always honours its debts, not just its financial ones, but its moral ones too'👏Thank you Tony

EU adds Iran's Revolutionary Guards to 'terrorist list' EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says the move is a response to Tehran's deadly crackdown on protesters.

Great to see the EU add the barbaric IRGC to its terrorist list, joining Australia, Canada and the USA. Hard to see why the UK has still not followed suit. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

www.economist.com/united-state...

Temporary accommodation in England is ‘torture’ for neurodivergent children, report finds Exclusive: Parents said their children had become withdrawn or hypervigilant because of uncertainty, unsafe environments and removal of support

“It’s like torture”: our new report reveals how Temporary Accommodation is harming neurodivergent children and families across the UK. Based on a nationwide call for evidence, it sets out urgent policy asks for change.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

There is money for "education" if and only if that money is being directly funneled to corporations. Anything involving actual learning, however, well there's no magic money tree

one way to think about this: the preferred (and essentially dark-utopian) post-liberal prescription for social capital -- forced top-down ethnic homogenization -- has been more or less bested by the kind of durable social capital provided by Elazar's paradigmatic moralistic state political culture

Yashar Ali m @yashar x.com BREAKING - IRAN UPDATE HRANA's latest numbers. The total number of fatalities - confirmed and under review - has now surpassed 22,000. Reminder: HRANA death confirmations take time, as they go through multiple layers of verification. The spike in cases is due to the fact that some Iranians can now communicate via messaging apps. But full internet access is still not available, so we do not yet know the extent of the carnage at the hands of the Islamic Republic. Confirmed fatalities: 5,459 Protesters: 5,149 Children (under 18): 60 Government-affiliated forces: 208 Non-protesters/civilians: 42 Fatalities under investigation: 17,031 TOTAL: 22,490 Severely injured: 7,403 Total arrests: 40,887 Arrests of individuals under 18: 325 Broadcast forced confessions: 205 cases Summonses to security agencies: 11,023 cases

BREAKING - Iran update

As some Iranians have been able to use messaging apps, confirmed fatalities, arrests, etc have skyrocketed.

Currently 22,490 fatalities have been confirmed and are under investigation.

Thanks.

Is there a YFF-equivalent systematic review on youth employment that you'd recommend as evidence for all of these?

I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.

The New World asked me to speak to some British trans women about what life has been like for them over the past few years - here's what they had to say, in their own words: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...

It is really important to understand that the asylum hotel chaos of 2022-24 is a *failed experiment in closed borders* (in contrast to the liberal visa policy)

The hotel chaos comes from passing multiple laws that all claims will be refused & to stop processing claims

bsky.app/profile/pete...

It is simply a lie to claim that the Conservative government (or any other UK government in recent history) oversaw 'an open borders experiment".

No excuse for the PM or Reed repeating this lie or for media not describing it as such.

If the figures we're getting out of Iran are in the right league, this weekend was, I think, one of the bloodiest state crackdowns of all time. People are talking 12,000-20,000 dead; for comparison Hungary in 1956 was about 2,500, Tiananmen - across country, in multiple cities - probably 1000+

President Zelensky calls for the world to help the people of Iran in their struggle for freedom

An image from tonight’s protests. #IranProtests
On the banner held by a young woman it reads:
“For my father – for my mother – for my son – for Iran – death to Zahhak (the bloodthirsty killer- means Khamenei).”

Iranian student killed during protests was shot in head ‘from close range’ Rubina Aminian, 23, struck by bullet from behind after joining Tehran protest from college, says human rights group

The Iranian regime cut off the Internet and phone lines to prevent news like this from coming out. The Islamic Republic is murdering unarmed protesters en masse. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

‘Iranians are fed up of dictatorship’: the exiled female activists daring to dream of a new era Hopes are high among British Iranians that Ayatollah Khameni’s theocracy is finally about to be toppled

“A pluralistic, a secular, a non-nuclear Iranian republic, it is achievable." www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

I left Iran in Jan 9th. I was there to visit my family. Meanwhile protests and strikes began.
I left the country with one of the few last flights before the digital blackout in Iran.
I hugged my family and said goodbye in the airport and never heard from them since then. There is zero connection.

Finally managed to talk to my mum through a friend who drove to the Turkish border to get a Turkish cell connection. She is ok.

But the news coming out of Iran is horrible. Hundreds of people were killed by the security forces in the last two days. This is just am estimate from hospitals.

Russia is running out of money Go behind the propaganda, and the intensifying strain is evident

@martinsandbu.ft.com on the state of RUS economy

"The picture is clear. The RU economy is under enormous strain, & is running out of resources. ... The message for the west — what remains of it — is that the medicine (sanctions) is working, but the dose should be increased."

100%

#UkrainianView