09/01/2026

FRIDAY | JAN 9, 2026

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New protests erupt across Iran on 11th day of discontent Russian attacks cut power to two Ukraine regions KYIV: A large-scale Russian drone attack has knocked out power to Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, leaving thousands without electricity or heating, the state operator said on Wednesday as temperatures dipped below freezing. intensified its strikes on Ukraine’s energy sites, triggering heating and water outages, which Kyiv and its allies say is a deliberate strategy to wear down the civilian population. “The enemy has carried out a Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, including regional centres, have lost power.” Dnipropetrovsk’s critical energy infrastructure was damaged in the attack, according to its military head Vladyslav Gaivanenko. Russia has pounded its neighbour with almost daily drone and missile attacks since the war began in February 2022. As in previous winters, Russia has massive drone attack on the energy infrastructure of several regions,“ said state-owned operator Ukrenergo just before midnight on Wednesday. “As a result, most consumers in “The situation is difficult. However, as soon as the security situation allows, energy workers will begin restoration work.“ In Zaporizhzhia, the electricity supply was restored to “key facilities”, but most

consumers were still without power, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov. “We are working around the clock to restore power to all consumers as soon as possible,“ he said, adding that the water supply has mostly resumed. Kyiv has responded to the long-running targeting of its energy grid with strikes on Russian oil depots and refineries, seeking to cut off Moscow’s vital energy exports and trigger fuel shortages. – AFP Severe racial

discrimination in West Bank: UN GENEVA: A comprehensive United Nations Human Rights Office report released yesterday details the asphyxiating impact of Israel’s laws, policies and practices on every aspect of daily life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Wafa News Agency reported. The report added that Israel is violating international law requiring states to prohibit and eradicate racial segregation and apartheid. Systemic discrimination against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory is a long-standing concern, the report notes, adding that the situation has drastically deteriorated since at least December 2022. The report contains numerous illustrative examples of how increasingly constrained and insecure life has become for Palestinians. “Israeli authorities treat Israeli settlers and Palestinians residing in the West Bank under two distinct bodies of law and policies, resulting in unequal treatment on a range of critical issues, including movement and access to resources, such as land and water. “Palestinians continue to be subjected to large-scale confiscation of land and deprivation of access to resources. This has had the effect of dispossessing them of their lands and homes, alongside other forms of systemic discrimination, including criminal prosecution in military courts during which their due process and fair trial rights are systematically violated.” The report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe the separation, segregation and subordination are intended to be permanent, to maintain oppression and domination of Palestinians. “Acts committed with the intention to maintain such a policy amount to a violation of Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid. “Since Oct 7, 2023, the government of Israel further expanded the use of unlawful force, arbitrary detention and torture, repression of civil society and undue restrictions on media freedoms, severe movement restrictions, settlement expansion and related violations in the occupied West Bank, which has marked an unprecedented deterioration of the human rights situation there.” It added that this is compounded by the continuation and escalation of settler violence, in many cases with the acquiescence, support and participation of Israeli forces. – Bernama-Wafa

o Rioters reportedly attacked mosque and shop selling religious books PARIS: There were new protests in several areas of Iran on Wednesday as President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered security forces not to crack down on demonstrators, drawing a distinction between peaceful protesters and armed “rioters”. It marked the 11th day of a wave of protests in Iranian cities against economic hardship triggered by price rises and currency collapse. Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR) published a video of people massing in the street of Bojnurd in the northeast of the country, shouting slogans including “an Iranian can die but will not accept humiliation”. The Tasnim news agency reported that rioters had attacked a mosque and a shop selling religious books. Another protest was reported in the upscale Shemiran district of Tehran, with protesters shouting “death to the dictator” and “freedom”, said IHR. The US-based HRANA group posted a video of a crowd of people demonstrating in the Gulf port of Bandar Abbas, with people shouting slogans, including “do not be spectators, join us” and “this is the final battle, Pahlavi will come back”, referring to the dynasty of the deposed shah. Large numbers of protesters also took to the streets in Aligudarz in western Iran, with people chanting slogans, including “this is the year of blood, Seyyed Ali will be toppled” in reference to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to footage broadcast by the Iran International channel, which is based outside the country. Iran’s Fars news agency reported deadly clashes in the country’s southwest that killed two people and wounded 30. Fars said shopkeepers were protesting in Lordergan when “rioters began throwing

Hatami speaking to military academy students in Tehran on Wednesday, when he warned that Tehran would not tolerate outside threats ‘without responding’. – AFPPIC

including members of the security forces and a policeman who was shot dead on Tuesday. Iranian Army Commander Gen Amir Hatami, one of its most senior military officers, warned that Tehran would not tolerate outside threats “without responding”. According to Fars, Hatami said “if the enemy makes a mistake”, Iran’s response would be more robust than during last June’s 12-day war with Israel. In recent days, US President Donald Trump has threatened to intervene in Iran if demonstrators were killed while Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed support for the protests. “We are watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they are going to get hit very hard by the United States,” said Trump on Sunday. Netanyahu told Israel’s Cabinet that “we stand in solidarity with the struggle of the Iranian people and with their aspirations for freedom, liberty and justice”. – AFP despite suffering heavy blows during the war. With US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza moving slowly, there is no immediate prospect of further Israeli withdrawals. Fighting has greatly abated since Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in October after two years of war, but it has not stopped entirely. Both sides have accused each other of violations of the ceasefire. More than 400 Palestinians, most of them civilians according to Gaza health officials, have been killed since the truce began, as well as three Israeli soldiers. – Reuters

stones at police”. “Among them, there were individuals with military and hunting weapons who suddenly opened fire on police.” It said the two dead were police officers. Nationwide, protests have spread to 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces, according to an AFP tally based on official statements and local media. In a video released by news agency Mehr after a Cabinet meeting, Vice-President Mohammad Jafar Ghaempanah said Pezeshkian has “ordered that no security measures be taken against the demonstrators”. “Those who carry firearms, knives and machetes, and who attack police stations and military sites are rioters, and we must distinguish protesters from rioters.” Security forces have killed at least 27 protesters, including five people under the age of 18, said IHR on Tuesday. Iranian media outlets, relaying official announcements, have reported 15 deaths, shot at soldiers earlier on Wednesday and the airstrike targeted a senior Hamas militant who had directed attacks on its troops. It did not say whether it had suffered any casualties. Separately on Wednesday, in the southern Gaza area of Rafah, an Israeli-backed Palestinian militia said it killed two Hamas men, marking a renewed challenge to the militant group. Nearly all of Gaza’s two million people live in Hamas-held areas, where the group has been re-establishing its grip and four Hamas sources said it continues to command thousands of men

Israeli airstrike kills two in Gaza CAIRO: An Israeli airstrike killed at least two Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, local health authorities said, in what the military said was a retaliatory attack on a Hamas militant that was launched after its troops had come under fire. Medical officials did not immediately identify the people killed.

They said several people were also wounded in the airstrike, which struck a house in Gaza City. There was no immediate comment from Hamas. The Israeli military said Hamas militants had