Israel is on high alert for the possibility of any United States intervention in Iran as authorities there confront the biggest anti-government protests in years, according to three Israeli sources ‌with knowledge of the matter.

President ‌Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in recent days and warned Iran’s rulers against using force against demonstrators. On Saturday (Jan 10), Trump said the US stands “ready to ‍help”.

The sources, who were present for Israeli security consultations over the weekend, did not elaborate on what Israel’s high-alert footing meant ​in practice. Israel ‌and Iran fought a 12-day war in June.

In a phone call on ​Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ⁠US Secretary of State ‌Marco Rubio discussed the possibility of ​US intervention in Iran, according to an Israeli source who was present ‍for the conversation.

A US official confirmed ⁠the two men spoke but did not ​say what topics ‌they discussed.

Israel has not signalled a desire to intervene in Iran as protests grip the country, with tensions between the ‌two arch-foes high over Israeli concerns about Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

In an interview with the Economist published on Friday, Netanyahu said there would be horrible consequences for Iran if it were to attack Israel.

Alluding to the protests, he said: “Everything else, I think we should see what is happening ‌inside Iran".

LIMA: Almost immediately after US forces deposed Venezuela’s president, officials from Washington to Lima, Peru, began encouraging some of the 8 million Venezuelans who have scattered themselves across the Americas over more than a decade to go home. But that idea had not even crossed the mind of Yanelis Torres.

The 22-year-old graphic designer was too busy printing T-shirts with images of captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro overlaid with phrases like “Game Over”. Her clients in Lima’s largest textile market were snatching them up within hours of the news of Maduro’s downfall.

Settled or undocumented, many of the millions of Venezuelans spread across Latin America received news of Maduro’s capture with joy but also caution, especially after hearing US President Donald Trump say that he would work with Maduro’s vice president, now interim President Delcy Rodríguez, rather than the opposition.

Despite leaders in Peru and Chile echoing US suggestions to return to Venezuela, the diaspora does not appear ready to do so. Venezuela’s economy remains a shambles and with the exception of Maduro and his wife, the government remains in place.

“I have a lot of things here,” Torres said from her shop in a bustling Lima neighbourhood, adding it would take time for things to change in Venezuela. “You’ve got to keep an eye on it, know what’s going on, but not lose hope.”

CRISIS SCATTERS A PEOPLE

There are nearly 7 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Latin America. Colombia tops the list with 2.8 million, followed by Peru with 1.5 million. A further estimated 1 million are in the United States, according to the most recent data from R4V, a network tracking the diaspora and coordinated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration.

They were driven out by compounding political and economic crises. An estimated eight in 10 people in Venezuela live in poverty in a country that was once one of Latin America’s wealthiest, with the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

Some have found work or started small businesses, while others tried to reach the US or bounced from country to country. Over the past year, thousands have been deported to Venezuela or third countries and many more could be near the end of their protected status in the US

Eduardo Constante, 36, left Venezuela in 2017 in the middle of a “hunger crisis”.

Speaking from a migrant shelter in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, he recalled his journey. He had spent three months in Colombia, a country overwhelmed by the numbers of arriving Venezuelans; three years in Peru, which he left during the pandemic because they wouldn’t give him the vaccine; and then three more years in Chile, where he was unable to legalise his status.

Finally, he made the long trek through South America, the Darien jungle and up to the US border just in time for Trump to close it to asylum seekers.

“I had plans in Europe, but if things settle down in Venezuela, I’m going to Venezuela,” he said. His joy at Maduro’s ouster was moderated by the worries of the family he still has there over food scarcity and security forces that search people’s cellphones for signs of opposition, he said.

Maureen Meyer, vice president for programs at WOLA, a Washington-based human rights organisation focused on Latin America, said “we’re nowhere near where we’re going to have a country where people that fled ... feel that they could be comfortable returning”.

And if Venezuelans are forced to leave the countries where they are now, either under pressure or via deportation, they will be even more vulnerable to organised crime groups in the region seeking to exploit them now that the business of smuggling them north has dropped off.

Yohanisleska de Nazareth Márquez, a 22-year-old Venezuelan, heard of Maduro's capture while riding across Mexico on a bus with her 3-year-old.

They had left Venezuela in February 2024 and turned themselves in to US Border Patrol that June. She was picked up by US immigration agents in Pennsylvania last year and deported to Mexico with her son on Jan 1.

They were headed with other deportees to the southern state of Tabasco when she heard about Maduro. “We all shouted with joy ... it was what we all wanted,” she said.

Still getting her bearings, Márquez planned to apply for asylum in Mexico and try to find work but she is worried. She does not know how long they will be allowed to stay in the shelter and she heard about kidnappings in the area.

“I’m afraid of being out on the street with my son alone. It's a bit dangerous here," she said.

Meyer said forces were building to create a “perfect storm” for Venezuelans like Marquéz who found themselves outside their country and without legal status.

TURNING POLITICAL TIDE

Their prospects are not looking good.

In Chile, ultra-conservative President-elect José Antonio Kast, who will take office in March, made deporting hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants central to his campaign. This week, Kast said “they have 63 days left to leave our country and to have the possibility of returning with all of their papers in order”.

Peru and Colombia are also scheduled to elect new presidents this year, and immigration will be a focus.

This week, Kast met with Peru’s interim President José Jerí, and among the ideas that both men have mentioned is creating some sort of humanitarian corridor passing through Chile, Peru and Ecuador to make it easier for Venezuelans to return home.

“Some of these big host countries, how they decide to respond to the population that are already in their countries and those that may come will be key,” Meyer said.

In Santiago, in the eight-block “little Caracas”, initial celebrations with car horns, shouts and reggaeton music, had calmed.

Alexander Leal, 66, who arrived with his wife in 2018, expressed hope as he sold homemade ice cream in the southern hemisphere summer. His family is scattered across the globe, some in the United States, others in Europe and four siblings still in Venezuela. He dreams of returning one day.

“It won’t be this year, but maybe it will be next year,” he said. “That is everyone’s aspiration, that the country is fixed.” He said Trump’s help would be necessary.

Yessica Mendoza, a 27-year-old Uber driver and mother, knows that she is one of the thousands of undocumented immigrants in Kast's sights, but she plans stick it out. “Returning is not an option.”

MODERATING HOPE

Venezuela’s neighbour, Colombia, has received more Venezuelans than any other country and has largely been applauded for its efforts to help them settle, like an offer of 10-year residency permits.

A close security ally of the United States, Colombia is navigating a tense moment in its relationship with the US under President Gustavo Petro, who has sparred with Trump and at times been the target of his ire.

Ángel Bruges, a 54-year-old Venezuelan who has lived in Bogota for six years with his wife and daughter and runs an empanada business there, expressed gratitude for Colombia’s hospitality. He said he did not celebrate Maduro’s capture and is well aware of the fear his relatives still in Venezuela live with. “Returning would be crazy,” he said.

Back in Peru, Torres, the graphic designer, was measuring her expectations.

It has been four years since she left Venezuela. She hoped for the possibility of returning for long visits with her family there some day. But for now, she talks of how “marvellous” Peru is as she fields orders for more T-shirts featuring her country’s deposed president, telling people that if she does not have what they want, she will make it.

SYDNEY: Cyclone Koji crossed the far northeast coast of Australia on Sunday (Jan 11) and was downgraded to a tropical storm, but authorities warned of destructive winds and possible flooding.

Koji, a category one cyclone, crossed the coast between the towns of Ayr and Bowen in the state of Queensland, about 500km north of state capital Brisbane.

Koji has "weakened below tropical cyclone intensity", the nation's weather forecaster said on its website.

It said the system was now a tropical low, bringing wind gusts of up to 95kmh and heavy rainfall between the towns of Ayr and Mackay, a tourist hub and gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.

Koji could still spark "dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding" in the region, the weather bureau said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Koji was "expected to bring large amounts of rainfall to coastal areas of north Queensland and potentially inland areas".

"Flash flooding is a major risk along a significant stretch of Queensland's coast," Albanese said in televised remarks.

Queensland state Premier David Crisafulli said the cyclone had already brought rainfall of up to 200mm to some areas overnight and was expected to result in heavy downpours over the next 24 to 48 hours.

"I do believe that people have prepared brilliantly for the rain that will come," Crisafulli said on social media platform X.

Townsville Airport, which closed on Saturday as a precaution, said on Facebook that it planned to reopen on Sunday "if safety and weather conditions allow".

Koji's approach comes after the state was hit in March by Alfred, a downgraded tropical cyclone, brought damaging winds and heavy rains, cutting power to hundreds of thousands.

SYDNEY: ‌Australian authorities said on Sunday (Jan 11) it would take firefighters weeks to get on top of bushfires in the country's southeast that have razed homes, cut power to thousands of homes and burned swathes of bushland.

The blazes have torn through more than 300,000 hectares of bushland in Victoria state since the middle of the week, destroying ‌more than 130 properties, including homes, and leaving thousands ‌without power.

There were more than 30 fires burning in Victoria on Sunday morning, Premier Jacinta Allan said. In neighbouring New South Wales state, several fires close to the Victorian border were burning at emergency level, the highest danger rating, the state's Rural Fire Service said.

Authorities have said the fires are the worst ‍to hit the southeast since the Black Summer blazes of 2019-2020 that destroyed an area the size of Türkiye and killed 33 people.

Chief Fire Officer of Forest Fire Management Victoria, Chris Hardman, said it would likely take firefighters weeks to get ​the upper hand on ‌the fires.

"These fires will not be contained before it gets hot, dry and windy again," Hardman told Australian Broadcasting Corporation television.

Allan said on ​social media platform X that a total fire ban was in place for Victoria ⁠as thousands of firefighters and more ‌than 70 aircraft battled the blazes.

"Bushfire smoke is impacting air quality in ​many areas across Victoria, including metropolitan Melbourne," she added.

One of the largest fires, near the town of Longwood, about 112km ‍north of Melbourne, has burned 130,000 hectares of bushland, destroying 30 structures, ⁠vineyards and agricultural land.

"My thoughts are with Australians in these regional communities at this very ​difficult time," Prime Minister ‌Anthony Albanese said in televised remarks on Saturday.

WASHINGTON: US and allied forces carried out "large-scale" strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria on Saturday (Jan 10), the US military said, in the latest response to an attack last month that left three Americans dead.

Washington said a lone gunman from the militant group carried out the Dec 13 attack in Palmyra - home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins and once controlled by extremist fighters - that killed two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter.

"The strikes today targeted ISIS throughout Syria" and were part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, which was launched "in direct response to the deadly ISIS attack on US and Syrian forces in Palmyra", US Central Command said in a statement on X, using an acronym for the extremist group.

The United States and Jordan carried out a previous round of strikes as part of the same operation last month, hitting dozens of Islamic State group targets.

The Palmyra attack was the first such incident since the overthrow of Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

The US personnel who were targeted were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the international effort to combat IS, which seized swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014.

The extremists were ultimately defeated by local ground forces backed by international air strikes and other support, but IS still has a presence in Syria, especially in the country's vast desert.

US President Donald Trump has long been sceptical of Washington's presence in Syria, ordering the withdrawal of troops during his first term but ultimately leaving American forces in the country.

The Pentagon announced in April that the United States would halve the number of US personnel in Syria in the following months, while US envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said in June that Washington would eventually reduce its bases in the country to one.

DUBAI: Iran's authorities indicated on Saturday (Jan 10) they could intensify their crackdown on the biggest anti-government demonstrations in years, with the Revolutionary Guards blaming unrest on terrorists and vowing to safeguard the governing system.

US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to intervene in recent days, posted on social media on Saturday: "Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!"

There were fresh reports of violence across Iran, although an internet blackout made it difficult to assess the full extent of unrest.

After nightfall on Saturday, new videos posted online purported to show fresh protests in a number of neighbourhoods in the capital Tehran and several cities, including Rasht in the north, Tabriz in the northwest and Shiraz and Kerman in the south. Reuters could not immediately verify the latest videos.

The exiled son of Iran's last shah, who has emerged as a prominent voice in the fragmented opposition, made his strongest call yet for the protests to broaden into a revolt to topple the clerical rulers.

State media said a municipal building was set on fire in Karaj, west of Tehran, and blamed "rioters". State TV broadcast footage of funerals of members of the security forces it said were killed in protests in the cities of Shiraz, Qom and Hamedan.

Footage posted on Friday on social media showed large crowds gathered in Tehran and fires lit in the street. In one video verified by Reuters showing a nighttime protest in Tehran's Saadatabad district, a man is heard saying the crowd had taken over the area.

"The crowd is coming. 'Death to the dictator', 'Death to Khamenei'," he said, referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Protests have spread across Iran since Dec 28, beginning in response to soaring inflation, and quickly turning political with protesters demanding an end to clerical rule. Authorities accuse the US and Israel of fomenting unrest.

A senior US intelligence official described the situation as an "endurance game". The opposition was trying to keep up pressure until key government figures either flee or switch sides, while the authorities were trying to sow enough fear to clear the streets without giving the United States justification to intervene, the official said.

Iranian rights group HRANA says at least 50 protesters and 15 security personnel have been killed, and some 2,300 arrested.

ARMY SAYS "TERRORIST GROUPS" SEEK TO UNDERMINE SECURITY

A witness in western Iran reached by phone said the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) were deployed and opening fire in the area from which the witness was speaking, declining to be identified for safety.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported the arrest of 100 "armed rioters" in the town of Baharestan near Tehran.

In a statement broadcast by state TV, the IRGC - an elite force which has suppressed previous bouts of unrest - accused "terrorists" of targeting military and law enforcement bases over the past two nights. It said several citizens and security personnel had been killed and public and private property set on fire.

Safeguarding the achievements of the Islamic revolution and maintaining security was a "red line", it added.

The regular military also issued a statement saying it would "protect and safeguard national interests, the country’s strategic infrastructure, and public property".

PAHLAVI SAYS GOAL IS TO PREPARE TO "SEIZE CITY CENTRES"

In a video posted on X, US-based Reza Pahlavi, 65, whose father was toppled as Iran's shah in the 1979 revolution, said the Islamic Republic would be brought "to its knees". He called for people to seize the centres of their towns, and said he was preparing to return soon to Iran.

"Our goal is no longer merely to come into the streets; the goal is to prepare to seize city centres and hold them," he said.

A doctor in northwestern Iran said that since Friday, large numbers of injured protesters had been brought to hospitals. Some were badly beaten, suffering head injuries and broken legs and arms, as well as deep cuts.

At least 20 people in one hospital had been shot with live ammunition, five of whom later died.

Trump said on Thursday he was not inclined to meet Pahlavi, a sign that he was waiting to see how the crisis plays out before backing an opposition leader.

Iran's rulers have weathered repeated bouts of unrest, including student protests in 1999, over a disputed election in 2009, against economic hardships in 2019, and in 2022 over the death in custody of a woman accused of violating dress codes.

Trump, who joined Israel to strike Iran's nuclear sites last summer, has included Iran in lists of places in which he could intervene since sending forces to seize the president of Venezuela a week ago. On Friday, in a warning to Iran's leaders, he said: "You better not start shooting because we'll start shooting too."

Some protesters on the streets have shouted slogans in support of Pahlavi, such as "Long live the shah", although most chants have called for an end to rule by the clerics or demanded action to fix the economy.

On Friday, Khamenei accused protesters of acting on behalf of Trump, saying rioters were attacking public properties and warning that Tehran would not tolerate people acting as "mercenaries for foreigners".

CARACAS: At least 16 sanctioned oil tankers have left Venezuelan waters since US forces captured president Nicolas Maduro on Saturday (Jan 10), specialised maritime surveillance analysts said Monday.

Thirteen of the tankers were carrying around 12 million barrels of crude oil and refined oil products, according to Tanker Trackers.

Four of them could be seen heading north from Venezuela in a satellite image from the European Copernicus programme viewed by AFP on Saturday.

Tanker Trackers identified them as the Aquila II, the Bertha, the Veronica III, and the Vesna.

The four vessels are under US sanctions, which makes them subject to the Dec 16 naval blockade imposed by US President Donald Trump on sanctioned oil tankers arriving at or departing from Venezuela.

The first three ships are transporting crude oil, while the Vesna is empty, according to Tanker Trackers.

AFP was able to confirm independently using satellite data that the Vesna, which is under US sanctions for suspected links with Iran and Russia, was about 40 kilometres east of Grenada on Sunday, some 500 kilometres from its position the previous day.

Eleven of the remaining 12 oil tankers whose location could not be confirmed by AFP on Monday were under US sanctions.

They are the Volans, Lydya N, Lyra, Merope, Min Hang, M Sophia, Nayara (also known as Themis), Olina (Minerva M), Rosalin (Nurkez), Thalia III, and the Veronica (Pegas), according to a list provided to AFP by the commercial information platform Kpler.

The final oil tanker, the Sea Maverick, is not under US sanctions but those of Britain and the European Union for suspected links to the so-called phantom fleet of ships transporting Russian oil.

Most of the oil tankers which left Venezuela these past days have cut off their AIS transponders or have transmitted false GPS location signals.

The US blockade could affect up to 600 oil tankers under US sanctions, according to an AFP analysis of data provided by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control and the International Maritime Organization.

MINNEAPOLIS: Thousands of demonstrators chanting the name of the woman killed by a federal agent in Minneapolis took to the city's streets Saturday (Jan 10), amid widespread anger at the use of force in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

Organisers said more than 1,000 events were planned across the US under the slogan "ICE, Out for Good" - referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that is drawing growing opposition over its execution of President Donald Trump's effort at mass deportations.

The slogan is also a reference to Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother shot dead in her car by an ICE agent in the midwestern US city of Minneapolis on Wednesday.

Thousands braved frigid weather and streamed toward a snow-covered park to mobilise near the scene of the shooting. They carried signs demanding "ICE OUT" of Minnesota.

At the start of the protest, a voice called out, "Say her name!" The crowd shouted back: "Renee Good!"

Her death has sparked strong emotions in this Democratic stronghold, andacross the nation.

"We got ICE shooting women in the face for self-defence. It doesn't make any sense," said Alex Vega, a protester in Boston.

"Let them come around here with that, and let's see what's really going to happen to ICE."

In Philadelphia, protesters marched in the rain from City Hall to the ICE field office. Others mobilised in New York, Washington and Boston. 

More protests were planned for Sunday.

The calls to protest were being amplified by the "No Kings" movement, a network of left-wing organisations that mounted nationwide demonstrations against Trump last year.

"I'M NOT MAD AT YOU"

The Trump administration has sought to paint Good as a "domestic terrorist," insisting the agent who fatally shot her was acting in self-defence.

This narrative is strongly disputed by local officials, who say footage shows Good's vehicle was turning away from the agent and did not pose a threat.

Cell phone footage apparently taken by the officer who fired the fatal shots shows him interacting with Good, who had blocked the road with her car in an apparent effort to impede the agents.

He approaches and circles Good's car, as she says to him: "I'm not mad at you."

Another agent can be heard ordering Good to exit the vehicle before she tries to drive off and shots ring out.

The agent filming the video can be heard referring to Good in a derogatory manner at the end of the clip.

The White House insisted the video gave weight to the officer's claim of self-defence - even though the clip does not show the moment the car moved away, or him opening fire.

"OUR RIGHTS ARE BEING TAKEN AWAY"

Drew Lenzmeier, 30, said he joined the protest in Minneapolis "because I feel our rights are being taken away from us and we are turning into an authoritarian dictatorship".

"No one is stopping the Trump administration from now murdering citizens and stealing, kidnapping human beings. It's time to stop," he said.

On Friday evening, hundreds gathered noisily in front of Minneapolis hotels believed to be housing ICE agents, equipped with whistles, loudspeakers and musical instruments.

Several people were arrested and then quickly released, according to police.

Officials and residents in Minnesota have expressed concern that local law enforcement agencies have been shut out of the FBI investigation into Minneapolis shooting.

According to The Trace, a media outlet focusing on gun violence, Good was the fourth person killed by federal immigration agents since the launch of the Trump administration's deportation campaign. Seven people have been injured.

In a separate incident, two people were injured Thursday in Portland, Oregon, by shots fired by federal border police during a traffic stop.
 

KYIV: Kyiv residents huddled against bitter winter cold inside their unheated apartments on Saturday (Jan ‌10) as engineers struggled to restore power, water and heat knocked out in the latest salvo of Russian strikes.

Russia has regularly conducted intense bombardments of Ukraine's energy system since it invaded its neighbour in 2022. The war's fourth winter could be the coldest and darkest yet, with the accumulated damage to the grid bringing utilities to the brink, and temperatures already below minus 10°C and set to plunge further this week.

On Saturday, Kyiv's heat, power and water, hit hard by a strike two nights earlier, were shut down again as engineers tried to repair the ruined power grid.

Galina Turchin, a 71-year-old pensioner living on Kyiv's badly affected eastern bank, had a window covered by plastic sheeting after it was blown out when drone debris hit another part of her building during the last overnight attack.

She said she had not cooked food for two days, eating whatever had been left in their kitchen before the power, water and heat went out, and would now try to cook on a gas camping stove.

"We hope they will give us heat. If not power, then at least heat," she said, standing wrapped in layers of jumpers in her kitchen.

The city administration said around noon local time (1000 GMT) on Saturday that the state grid operator Ukrenergo had ordered the city's power system to be shut down, and that the water and heating systems, as well as electrified public transport, would also stop working as a result.

Less than an hour later, Ukrenergo said engineers had managed to remedy the immediate issue, which had been caused by damage from previous Russian strikes, and that power was coming back online in parts of Kyiv.

Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the heating system, which in Ukrainian cities is centralised and pumps hot water to homes in pipes, was also coming back on, and that she expected heat supply to be fully restored on Saturday.

However, she said that the power situation in the capital was still difficult, as the grid was badly damaged and people were using more electric heaters because of the cold.

On Friday, with about half of Kyiv's apartment blocks left without heating after the latest Russian missile and drone attack, Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged residents who had a warm place to go to temporarily leave the city.

Turchin, the pensioner in her cold apartment, said she had a village cottage in another region but it was unheated and would take three days to warm up with logs.

"The neighbour wrote. She said it was already minus 17 (Celsius) there last night."

TEHRAN: Tear gas burning his eyes, his voice hoarse from shouting anti-government slogans as cars honked around him, Majid joined crowds of Iranians taking to the streets in defiance of a crackdown on a swelling protest movement. 

He used a pseudonym for security reasons and, like all those who spoke about the protests, was reached by AFP journalists outside Iran.

Majid described how he rallied with hundreds of others in the streets of eastern Mashhad on Wednesday (Jan 7) night, even as police tried to disperse the crowd that nonetheless kept reforming. 

"Police are targeting people with pellets, tear gas and shotguns," Majid said.

"At first, people dispersed, but they gathered again," rallying in the streets until the early hours of the morning. 

"We know that if we go out there, we might not survive, but we are going, and we will go out there to have a better future," he said. 

The demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over the rising cost of living and a currency nosedive have spread nationwide, their numbers - and death toll - growing.

Protesters filled the streets of the capital, Tehran and other cities on Thursday night, despite a crackdown that left dozens killed by security, according to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights. 

Local media and official statements have reported at least 21 people, including security forces, killed since the unrest began, according to an AFP tally.

Violent crackdowns accompanied the last mass protests to sweep Iran in 2022 to 2023 sparked by the custody death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women. 
 

"LAST FIGHT"

Majid, a mobile shopkeeper in his thirties, said this time felt different.

"During these protests, even those people or those classes that had never felt the pressure before are now under pressure," he said.

"You can see 50-year-old women, I saw someone who used to collect garbage on the streets, chanting slogans along with shopkeepers. Young, old, men, women, all are in the streets." 

This wave of protests has hit as the clerical authorities under the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are already battling an economic crisis after years of sanctions and recovering from the June war against Israel.

"This is going to be the last fight against the government," Majid said, though he's uncertain of what would take the Islamic Republic's place. 

"Right now, we just want to get rid of this bloody government because no matter who comes to rule, it won't be as bloody as them."

Another shop owner in Kermanshah in western Iran, which has seen intense protest activity, shuttered his store as part of a strike called in protest on Thursday.

The 43-year-old said he had taken part in every protest since 2009, when mass demonstrations flooded the streets after disputed elections. 

But this one felt different from previous movements, because "people's economic situation is heading towards complete collapse and life is no longer as it once was".

"No matter how hard we work, we cannot keep up with the inflation for which the regime is responsible," he told AFP via messaging app, saying protesters wanted "radical change in Iran". 

"Although I have a relatively good job, our lives have been severely affected this year by these economic conditions. We want a free and democratic Iran, and a free Kurdistan." 

Another merchant in Saqqez in Kurdistan province said he expected "more intense and widespread waves of protests in the coming days in Kurdish cities", echoing other Iranians.
 

"WE STAY ALIVE"

One Tehran resident said she and neighbours had been shouting slogans from their windows at night - something she did for months during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022. 

But, she said, now the "level of dissatisfaction is higher than ever". 

And while President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for "restraint" and announced measures to try to address grievances, "the issue for us is the end of the regime, and nothing else is satisfactory", she said. 

"Living and continuing our daily lives has been one of our major struggles for the past 47 years after revolution", that brought the Islamic Republic to power, she said. 

"But we stay alive and fight until (we) get freedom." 

Another Tehran resident, a mother of two, sent a message to a relative abroad saying she was safe but warning her connection was becoming unreliable, not long before the internet went dark across the country ahead of protests on Thursday night.

She said it was becoming difficult to get groceries after days of demonstrations as stores restricted opening hours and that bigger protests were looming.  

"Hoping for better days for all of us," she said.