Amnesty International confirms 1,518 people executed in 2024 but says real total is likely to be thousands more

More people were executed in 2024 than in any other year over the past decade, mainly reflecting a huge increase in executions in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International’s annual report on the use of the death penalty.

The human rights NGO said that although the number of countries carrying out executions was the lowest on record, it had confirmed 1,518 executions globally in 2024, a 32% increase over the previous year and the highest since the 1,634 carried out in 2015.

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President, sitting in Oval Office with Benjamin Netanyahu, warns Tehran of ‘great danger’ if talks are not successful

Donald Trump has announced that the US is to hold direct talks with Iran in a bid to prevent the country from obtaining an atomic bomb, while also warning Tehran of dire consequences if they fail.

Sitting beside Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the Oval Office, Trump indicated that discussions would start this coming weekend, though he also implied communications had already begun.

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With its Iranian melodies, instrumentation and backing singers, Sheeran’s joyful new single is a reminder of how culture transcends borders

The Farsi word “azizam” – meaning my dear or my darling in English – may not have the same level of global resonance as habibi or ma chérie, but to us Persians it’s a daily refrain. We use it with our family, partners, friends; my cat probably thinks it’s her middle name by now. So it felt huge when Ed Sheeran announced that the lead single from his new album would be called just that: Azizam .

The track, inspired by the Iranian heritage of Stockholm-based producer Ilya Salmanzadeh, has divided critics, with a Telegraph review calling it “a slice of pure pop froth that couldn’t be any more generic and upbeat if it was written by an AI programme”. But these reproaches are missing a whole other dimension: that the song has triggered a huge emotional response from millions of Iranians around the world. “Hearing a beloved artist embrace our language with such care? We feel it. And we’re here for it,” said one popular comment on Sheeran’s Instagram.

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Arash Rakhsha’s documentary follows two Kurdish friends just about getting by smuggling goods across the mountains

In an immersive and sweeping debut feature, Kurdish film-maker Arash Rakhsha portrays the plight of his people with sheer cinematic poetry. Shot over six years, the film closely follows Hamid and Yasser, two Kurdish friends who work side by side as kolbars , smugglers of untaxed household goods across the Iran-Iraq border. Coloured in icy shades of blue, their lives are filled with terrifying dangers, yet there’s also space for warmth and camaraderie amid the fog of precariousness.

Getting paid per kilogram, the pair haul heavy loads on their backs through treacherous terrain. One moment they are wading upstream, the next they are hiking through the steep, snowbound ranges of the Zagros mountains. The kolbars also rely on mules for transport, though this means they are easier to detect by the border patrols. Landmines – active souvenirs from the Iran-Iraq war – are also hazards on the winding paths; every year, about 200 kolbars die en route.

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After just a few weeks in the White House, the self-appointed peace-giver has stoked war, accelerated the nuclear arms race and alienated US allies

If Robert K Merton, the founding father of American sociology, were alive today, he’d be fascinated by the Donald Trump phenomenon. Scarcely more than 50 days into his second presidential term, hapless Trump provides daily proofs of Merton’s universal “law of unintended consequences”.

Rooted in ignorance, error, wilful blindness and self-defeating prediction, Trump’s rash actions produce contradictory, harmful and often opposite results to those he says he wants. The ensuing chaos characterises what may become the briefest honeymoon in White House history.

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Zahra Tabatabai’s Back Home Beer features select Middle Eastern flavors, and she’s looking to expand its reach nationally

Business heats up for Zahra Tabatabai in March, the month of Nowruz, the 13-day Persian new year festival, which begins this year on 20 March. The Iranian American Brooklynite’s craft beers are infused with Middle Eastern flavors such as sumac and sour cherry, and packaged in design-forward cans featuring poetry in intricate Farsi lettering.

Tabatabai’s grandfather used to make his own beer with ingredients from his garden in Shiraz, before the Iranian government instituted a ban on alcohol consumption in 1979. More recently, her grandmother longed to taste her husband’s beer again, so Tabatabai set out to satisfy her yen. During the Covid-19 pandemic, while working as a freelance writer and overseeing the home schooling of her son, who is now 11, she started looking at recipes and enrolled in a home-brewing class, and began watching YouTube videos about the art of making beer.

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Former CISA Director Jen Easterly writes about a new international intelligence sharing co-op:

Historically, China, Russia, Iran & North Korea have cooperated to some extent on military and intelligence matters, but differences in language, culture, politics & technological sophistication have hindered deeper collaboration, including in cyber. Shifting geopolitical dynamics, however, could drive these states toward a more formalized intell-sharing partnership. Such a “Four Eyes” alliance would be motivated by common adversaries and strategic interests, including an enhanced capacity to resist economic sanctions and support proxy conflicts.

His new film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, is up for an Academy award – but the film-maker had to direct it from his sofa. Even under sentence of arrest and flogging, he won’t be silenced, he says

When mass protests erupted in Iran after the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained for not properly wearing her hijab, Mohammad Rasoulof was in jail. By night, out of earshot of the guards, the Iranian director – incarcerated for being critical of the government – and his fellow political prisoners gathered to discuss the turmoil unfolding outside. As the protests intensified and the number of detainees grew, a general pardon was issued and Rasoulof was released.

His time in jail helped inspire his new film: a drama about a paranoid state investigator who turns on his own family. Rasoulof had been mulling over versions of it for 15 years, fearing it was “too ambitious”. Free from prison, he set to work – but this time, in complete secret. He directed The Seed of the Sacred Fig almost entirely from his own sofa, using a broadband connection registered under someone else’s name.

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Regime is punishing families of Woman, Life, Freedom protesters who died at hands of security forces, say activists

The mother of a 16-year-old Iranian girl who became one of the faces of the unprecedented nationwide protests against the regime has reportedly been arrested.

Nasrin Shakarami, the grieving mother of Nika Shakarami , who was allegedly killed by the security forces in September 2022, had been outspoken in her criticism of the regime over the death of her daughter.

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