Iran Protesters Call For Three-Day Strike from Monday

People walk in a street on a rainy day in Tehran, Iran, 04 December 2022. (EPA)
People walk in a street on a rainy day in Tehran, Iran, 04 December 2022. (EPA)
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Iran Protesters Call For Three-Day Strike from Monday

People walk in a street on a rainy day in Tehran, Iran, 04 December 2022. (EPA)
People walk in a street on a rainy day in Tehran, Iran, 04 December 2022. (EPA)

Protesters in Iran called on Sunday a three-day strike this week as they seek to maintain pressure on authorities over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, with protests planned on the day President Ebrahim Raisi is due to address students in Tehran. 

Raisi is expected to visit Tehran University on Wednesday, celebrated in Iran as Student Day. 

To coincide with Student Day, protesters are calling for strikes by merchants and a rally towards Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square, according to individual posts shared on Twitter by accounts unverified by Reuters. 

They have also called for three days of boycotting any economic activity starting on Monday. 

Similar calls for strike action and mass mobilization have in past weeks resulted in an escalation in the unrest which has swept the country - some of the biggest anti-government protests since Iran's 1979 revolution 

The activist HRANA news agency said 470 protesters had been killed as of Saturday, including 64 minors. It said 18,210 demonstrators were arrested and 61 members of the security forces were killed. 

Iran's Interior Ministry state security council said on Saturday the death toll was 200, according to the judiciary's news agency Mizan. 

The nationwide protests began after Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, died in the custody of Iran's morality police on Sept. 16, after she was detained for violating the hijab restrictions governing how women dress. 

Residents posting on social media and newspapers such Shargh daily say there have been fewer sightings of the morality police on the streets in recent weeks as authorities apparently try to avoid provoking more protests. 

On Saturday, Iran's Public Prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was cited by the semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency as saying that the morality police had been disbanded. 

"The same authority which has established this police has shut it down," Montazeri was quoted as saying. 

Iran's Interior Ministry, which is the authority in charge of the morality police, has yet to comment on the status of the force, which is tasked with monitoring Iranians' clothing and public behavior. 

Montazeri said the morality police was not under the judiciary's authority, which "continues to monitor behavioral actions at the community level." 

Top Iranian officials have repeatedly said Tehran would not change its mandatory hijab policy, nor the way it enforces this policy. 

Executions 

State media said four men convicted of cooperating with Israel's spy agency Mossad were executed on Sunday. 

They had been arrested in June - before the current unrest sweeping the country - following cooperation between the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards, Tasnim news agency reported. 

Tehran has long accused arch-enemy Israel of carrying out covert operations on its soil. Tehran has recently accused Israeli and Western intelligence services of plotting a civil war in Iran. 

Iranian state media reported on Wednesday that the country's Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence handed out to the four men "for the crime of cooperating with the intelligence services of the Zionist regime and for kidnapping". 

Three other people were handed prison sentences of between five and 10 years after being convicted of crimes that included acting against national security, aiding in kidnapping, and possessing illegal weapons, the Mehr news agency said.  



US Appeals Court Allows Trump Control of National Guard in LA

A California National Guard soldier stands guard outside of the federal building complex in downtown Los Angeles, California. SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
A California National Guard soldier stands guard outside of the federal building complex in downtown Los Angeles, California. SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
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US Appeals Court Allows Trump Control of National Guard in LA

A California National Guard soldier stands guard outside of the federal building complex in downtown Los Angeles, California. SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
A California National Guard soldier stands guard outside of the federal building complex in downtown Los Angeles, California. SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

A US appeals court on Thursday ruled that President Donald Trump could continue control of National Guard troops in Los Angeles, over the objections of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Trump ordered the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines into Los Angeles this month in response to protests over federal immigration sweeps -- a move opposed by city leaders and Newsom.

Trump was within his rights when he ordered 4,000 members of the National Guard into service for 60 days to "protect federal personnel performing federal functions and to protect federal property," the three-judge panel wrote in their 38-page unanimous ruling.

"Affording appropriate deference to the President's determination, we conclude that he likely acted within his authority in federalizing the National Guard," they said

The president celebrated the decision in a post on Truth Social Thursday night, calling it a "BIG WIN."

"All over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done," Trump wrote.

'Not a king'

The state of California had argued that Trump's order was illegal because it did not follow the procedure of being issued through the governor.

The judges said Trump's "failure to issue the federalization order directly 'through' the Governor of California does not limit his otherwise lawful authority to call up the National Guard."

But they said the panel disagreed with the defendants' primary argument that the president's decision to federalize members of the California National Guard "is completely insulated from judicial review."

Governor Newsom responded to the decision saying Trump "is not a king and not above the law."

"Tonight, the court rightly rejected Trump's claim that he can do whatever he wants with the National Guard and not have to explain himself to a court," he posted on X.

"We will not let this authoritarian use of military soldiers against citizens go unchecked."

California is not without options. The state could request the case to be reheard or it could petition the Supreme Court for intervention.

Immigration tensions

The ruling comes against a backdrop of heightened tensions in Los Angeles, which has become ground zero of Trump's immigration crackdown across the United States.

The city has seen scattered violence but mostly peaceful protests in recent weeks, ignited by an escalation in federal immigration sweeps that have targeted migrant workers in garment factories, car washes and other workplaces.

Local media reported further raids across the city on Thursday targeting Home Depot stores, a home improvement retailer where day laborers often gather in parking lots seeking work.

The protests, though largely peaceful, saw sporadic and spectacular violence. Damage included vandalism, looting, clashes with law enforcement and several torched driverless taxis.

Last week, a lower court judge had ordered Trump to return control of the California National Guard to Newsom, saying the president's decision to deploy them to protest-hit Los Angeles was "illegal."

Trump, who has repeatedly exaggerated the scale of the unrest, also sent 700 US Marines to Los Angeles despite the objections of local officials, claiming that they had lost control of the "burning" city.

It was the first time since 1965 that a US president deployed the National Guard over the wishes of a state governor.

Trump appointed two of the judges on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit panel, and former president Joe Biden appointed the third, the New York Times reported Thursday.