At least three people are believed to have been shot dead since the protests erupted a week ago, with at least one police officer reportedly among them. Officials have blamed criminals for the deaths, while opposition activists and human rights groups have blamed security forces. The drought has left homes and businesses without reliable access to water. The shortage has also throttled Iran’s hydroelectric network, causing regular blackouts in Khuzestan and elsewhere....

Former President Barack Obama entered the agreement with Iran in 2015, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), together with China, the European Union, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom, when now-President Joe Biden served as vice president. The accord was unilaterally abandoned in 2018 by former President Donald Trump, who imposed sanctions that have led Iran to walk back from its nuclear-related commitments to the deal....

The “final solution” was a phrase used by Nazi Party leaders during the Holocaust to euphemize genocide. “Incredible that @JZarif and Iran’s Supreme Leader are echoing Hitler’s call for genocide,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter, using the handle for Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. “This depravity should dispel any notion the regime belongs in the community of nations. We stand with Germany and Israel against this oldest & most vile form of hatred, and say #NeverAgain....

A judge in the U.K.-ruled territory of Gibraltar ruled that Iranian supertanker Grace 1 may be released last month on suspicion of attempting to transport oil to Syria, an apparent violation of European Union sanctions. The incident set off already-mounting tensions in another strategic waterway, the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s top oil chokepoint where Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards would go on to seize U.K.-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero weeks later, accusing it of endangering maritime traffic....

Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami held rare telephone talks Thursday with his counterparts Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al Sabah of Kuwait, Badr bin Saud al-Busaidi of Oman and Khalid bin Mohammad al-Attiyah of Qatar in an effort to turn the nearby Sunni Muslim monarchies against U.S. efforts to expand the presence of foreign powers near the Strait of Hormuz amid heated tensions and instances of unrest. He argued that the “American-led military alliance will only increase the insecurity in the region under the pretext of securing shipping....

Speaking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview broadcast Monday, Zarif again insisted that Iran does not seek nuclear weapons. Soon after the interview aired, Iran’s military tested its latest satellite launch system, elements of which could be used in a ballistic missile research program. “The time for the United States to come back to the nuclear agreement is not unlimited,” Zarif told CNN. “The United States has a limited window of opportunity because President Biden does not want to portray himself as trying to take advantage of the failed policies of the former Trump administration....

Iranian Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guard commander and chief of staff of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces, met Wednesday with Syrian Defense Minister Ali Ayoub to sign a new deal to strengthen defense ties between the two allies. Tehran and Damascus are partnered in the war against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) but are also part of the Axis of Resistance opposed to Israel and the United States....

At least eight rockets landed in the heavily fortified Green Zone close to the American embassy Sunday night, Reuters reported, injuring at least one Iraqi civilian and causing minor damage to the U.S. diplomatic compound. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quickly blamed Tehran for Sunday’s attack and wished the casualty a speedy recovery. “We call on all Iraqis to support their government’s efforts to reinforce Iraq’s sovereignty, to bring to justice those responsible for these reprehensible attacks and ensure that all the currently Iran-backed militias are under state control,” Pompeo said in a statement....

But both a former senior Israeli diplomat and cybersecurity experts saw a potential connection to Iran and Russia’s conflict in Ukraine given the heightened geopolitical tensions that surrounded the incident. “In the past few hours, a DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service) against a communications provider was identified,” the Israel National Cyber Directorate said in a statement shared with Newsweek on Monday. “As a result, access to several websites, among them government websites, was denied for a short time....

Saeed Khatibzadeh wrote on Twitter that any Israeli action would be met with a decisive Iranian response. “In another brazen violation of Int’l law, Israeli regime now blatantly threatens Iran with military action,” Khatibzadeh wrote on Twitter, which is banned in Iran. “Such malign behavior stems from blind Western support. “We state this clearly: ANY foolish act against Iran will be met with a DECISIVE response. Don’t test us.”...

The demand for false ID cards has spiked as bodies pile up in the Baghdad morgue at the rate of 35 to 50 a day, frequently bound and blindfolded, a jinsiya in their shirt pocket. The Iraqi Islamic Party, a hard-line Sunni group, claims it has tallied at least 65 Omars who have been killed since violence escalated in February after the destruction of a Shiite mosque in Samarra....

Some of the teens may have tried to kill American or Iraqi soldiers, others may have been picked up for smaller offenses like breaking curfew. But the group, all Sunnis, have one thing in common: they’ve all been brainwashed for jihad. “They get their education from Wahhabis,” says Sheik Abdul Jabbar, 37, an Iraqi cleric working with the teens, as he looks on from the side of the class. “They say their enemy is the Shia first and then the Americans....

From the outset, Bale was a marked man as the Boys in Green played cynically, with James McClean asserting himself on the game early on with physical play. Throughout, Ireland were brutish, strong, and willing to get a result by any means necessary. Glenn Whelan and Shane Long both led with their elbows when going for the ball, and on another day could have been disciplined by the referee....

The IRIS Kharg, a support and supply ship spanning 207 meters (680 feet), caught fire under “mysterious circumstances” at around 2.25 a.m. local time on Wednesday, the semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported. Iranian officials said an investigation had begun into the cause of the fire. Citing Iran’s navy, the news agency reported that all crew on board the vessel had been safely disembarked. After 20 hours of efforts to save the ship by military and civilian organizations, it sank, Tasnim reported....

NBC’s new drama stars Renée Zellweger in the role of Pamela (Pam) Hupp, a woman who becomes the center of a case as its star witness. But what are the origins of the show and is it a true story? Here, Newsweek examines everything you need to know. Is The Thing About Pam Based on a True Story? The Thing About Pam is indeed based on a true story as it follows the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria (played by Katy Mixon), who was stabbed to death 55 times in her home in Troy, Missouri, on December 27....

The simple answer is they are needed to keep the internationally accepted Gregorian calendar aligned with the actual time it takes Earth to complete one orbit of the Sun, what’s known as the “tropical year.” This tropical year—or the length of time it takes for the Earth to go from one equinox to the next—is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds long. “Leap years are required because we Earthlings decide to measure our ’time to orbit’ by the number of ‘Earth rotations,’ or solar days,” James O’Donoghue, a planetary scientist at the Japanese space agency JAXA, told Newsweek....

So, how can a person tell if their cough or sore throat is just a spot of hay fever or symptoms of the coronavirus? Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the family doctors’ body the Royal College of GPs, told Newsweek that its members would normally expect to see patients at this time of year suffering with symptoms of pollen allergy known as allergic rhinitis, or hay fever. According to the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, up to 60 million Americans are thought to get hay fever....

According to the Down Detector, people reported issues with a variety of Apple services on Tuesday. The most problems were seemingly reported with the App Store, Apple Music, and Apple’s website. Some other services had less reports of problems including Apple TV. Apple Music had the most issues reported with a peak of 2,068 at 11:13 a.m. EST. Most of the issues with the streaming service were with getting music to play....

It was nine years ago that local lawyer Billy Payne dreamed up the notion that Atlanta – not Athens, Greece – was destined to host the centennial Olympics. The Georgia establishment smiled politely and chuckled about Billy’s folly. Everyone’s still smiling, but it now masks deep concern that Atlanta may prove not ready for prime time – and that Billy’s folly is about to become the world’s. ““We’ll be ready, we’re on schedule, we’re on budget’’ has become Payne’s daily mantra, as the head of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) cheerleads the project down the home stretch....

He won’t allow himself to be pushed around by older, more experienced NASCAR drivers. In fact, at times, he’s the one doing the bullying, the one stirring up trouble, the one refusing to back down and the one roughing up other drivers. OWENS: 2015 NASCAR preseason power rankings | Danica insists she’s improving, but is she? | Stewart refreshed, ready to race Keselowski believes he has to race that way....