Washington Takes Measures to Ease Iranians Access to Internet

Protesters storm the streets over the death of Mahsa Amini, in Tehran, Iran. (Reuters)

Washington: Asharq Al Awsat

07:27-24 September 2022 AD ـ 27 Safar 1444 AH

Washington: Asharq Al Awsat

07:27-24 September 2022 AD ـ 27 Safar 1444 AH

Washington Takes Measures to Ease Iranians Access to Internet

Protesters storm the streets over the death of Mahsa Amini, in Tehran, Iran. (Reuters)

The United States Treasury Department issued guidance expanding the range of internet services available to Iranians despite US sanctions on the country.

The US took action to support the free flow of information and access to fact-based information to the Iranian people after the Iranian government cut off access to the Internet for most of its 80 million citizens on Wednesday.

The updated guidance will authorize technology companies to offer the Iranian people more options of secure, outside platforms and services.

The step came after a bipartisan group of US lawmakers called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to give Elon Musk’s satellite Internet service Starlink clearance to operate in Iran, amid protests around the country following the death of a 22-year-old woman in custody.

Musk recently stated that SpaceX would seek a license to provide its satellite based Starlink Internet service to Iran.

“We need to do our part to ensure that Iranians remain connected to the outside world,” read a letter by 21 lawmakers to the Treasury Department.

“As courageous Iranians take to the streets to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, the United States is redoubling its support for the free flow of information to the Iranian people,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo.

“With these changes, we are helping the Iranian people be better equipped to counter the government’s efforts to surveil and censor them,” Adeyemo noted, adding that Washington will continue issuing guidance to support the Administration’s commitment to promoting the free flow of information in the coming weeks.

Internet monitoring group NetBlocks on Thursday said a new mobile internet disruption has been registered in Iran, where access to social media and some content is tightly restricted.

NetBlocks reported “near-total” disruption to internet connectivity in the capital of the Kurdish region on Monday, linking it to the protests.

Social media websites such as TikTok, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are routinely blocked in parts of Iran, which has some of the strictest internet controls in the world. But tech-savvy residents bypass curbs using virtual private networks (VPNs).

Ukraine’s FM Calls for Urgent Support After Russian Attack

Police officers inspect remains of a Russian suicide drone, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 20, 2026. (Reuters)

07:50-20 January 2026 AD ـ 01 Sha’ban 1447 AH

Ukraine’s FM Calls for Urgent Support After Russian Attack

Police officers inspect remains of a Russian suicide drone, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 20, 2026. (Reuters)

Ukraine's foreign minister called on Tuesday for urgent support for Ukraine, including air defense and sanctions pressure ‌on ‌Russia, ‌saying ⁠Moscow's latest "barbaric ‌strike" was a wake-up call to world leaders gathering in Davos.

"We ⁠need urgent additional ‌energy assistance, ‍air ‍defense and interceptors, ‍as well as sanctions pressure on Moscow," Andrii Sybiha said in a post ⁠on X, adding that thousands of houses were without heating in capital Kyiv in freezing temperatures.

World

Spain Mourns as Train Crash Toll Rises to 40

Members of the Spanish Civil Guard crime department work next to the trains involved in the accident, at the site of a deadly derailment of two high-speed trains near Adamuz, in Cordoba, Spain, January 19, 2026. (Reuters)

06:55-20 January 2026 AD ـ 01 Sha’ban 1447 AH

Spain Mourns as Train Crash Toll Rises to 40

Spain begins three days of national mourning on Tuesday for the 40 people killed in a high-speed train crash that the prime minister has vowed to investigate.

The crash late on Sunday is Spain's deadliest train accident since 2013, when 80 people died after a train veered off a curved section of track outside the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.

The latest disaster took place when a train operated by rail company Iryo, travelling from Malaga to Madrid, derailed near Adamuz in the southern Andalusia region.

It crossed onto the other track, where it crashed into an oncoming train, which also derailed.

"This is a day of sorrow for all of Spain, for our entire country," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters during a visit to Adamuz on Monday as he declared three days of mourning.

"We will uncover the answer, and once the cause of this tragedy is determined, we will present it with absolute transparency."

Forty deaths have been confirmed due to the crash, the head of Andalucia's regional government, Juan Manuel Moreno, told a news conference, raising the toll from 39.

It would take 24-48 hours "to know with certainty how many deaths have resulted from this terrible accident," he added.

Heavy machinery was deployed on Monday to lift the most severely damaged train carriages and give rescuers better access to the site of the disaster.

Over 120 people were injured, with 41 still in hospitals in the nearby city of Cordoba, Moreno said.

Relatives and friends of missing passengers have turned to social media, posting photos in an effort to find them.

- 'Extremely strange' -

Aerial footage of the crash site from Spain's Guardia Civil police force showed the two trains far apart, as rescuers in high-visibility neon vests worked nearby.

Unlike the 2013 accident, the derailment occurred on a straight section of track, and the trains were travelling within the speed limit, officials said.

Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the first train to derail was "practically new" and the section of the track where the disaster happened had been recently renovated, making the accident "extremely strange".

Train operator Iryo said the locomotive was built in 2022 and last inspected just three days before the accident. It said it "veered onto the adjacent track for still unknown reasons".

The company said around 300 people were on board its service from the Andalusian city of Malaga to the capital, Madrid.

Renfe, the operator of the second train travelling to the southern city of Huelva, said it was carrying 184 passengers.

Human error has "been practically ruled out", Renfe President Alvaro Fernandez Heredia told Spanish public radio RNE.

Heredia also ruled out speeding as a cause of the accident. He said both trains were traveling just over 200 kilometers (120 miles) per hour, below the 250 kilometers per hour limit for that section of track.

"It must be related to Iryo's rolling stock or an infrastructure issue," he added.

- 'Strong hit' -

Spain has Europe's largest high-speed rail network, with more than 3,000 kilometers of dedicated tracks connecting major cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and Malaga.

Survivor Lucas Meriako, who was travelling on the first train that derailed, told La Sexta television that it looked "like a horror movie".

"We felt a very strong hit from behind and the feeling that the whole train was about to collapse, break... there were many injured due to the glass," he said.

In Adamuz, where white buildings gleam among orange-lined streets, residents rushed to the town hall with supplies as news of the disaster spread.

"We started bringing water, blankets, everything we could," Manuel Munoz, a 60-year-old olive oil factory worker, told AFP.

Among those offering condolences were Pope Leo XIV and French President Emmanuel Macron.

World

North Korea's Kim Sacks Vice Premier, Rails Against 'Incompetence'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks as he inspects the first phase of the renovation of the Ryongsong Machine Complex, in Pyongyang, North Korea, January 19, 2026, in this picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. KCNA via REUTERS

Asharq Al Awsat

06:35-20 January 2026 AD ـ 01 Sha’ban 1447 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

06:35-20 January 2026 AD ـ 01 Sha’ban 1447 AH

North Korea's Kim Sacks Vice Premier, Rails Against 'Incompetence'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has fired his vice premier and railed against "incompetent" officials in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory, state media said Tuesday.

Vice Premier Yang Sung Ho was sacked "on the spot", the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, in a speech in which Kim attacked "irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials".

"Please, Comrade Vice Premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late," Kim reportedly said.

Nuclear-armed North Korea, which is under multiple sets of sanctions over its weapons programs, has long struggled with its moribund state-managed economy and chronic food shortages.

Kim has been quick to scold lazy officials for alleged mismanagement of economic policy but such a public dismissal is very rare.

Touring the opening of an industrial machinery complex on Monday, Kim blasted cadres who for "too long been accustomed to defeatism, irresponsibility and passiveness".

Yang was "unfit to be entrusted with heavy duties", Kim said, according to KCNA.

"Put simply, it was like hitching a cart to a goat -- an accidental mistake in our cadre appointment process," the North Korean leader explained.

"After all, it is an ox that pulls a cart, not a goat."

And he urged a quick turnaround in the "centuries-old backwardness of the economy and build a modernized and advanced one capable of firmly guaranteeing the future of our state".

Images released by Pyongyang showed a stern-looking Kim delivering a speech at the venue in Hamgyong Province in the country's frigid northeast, with workers in attendance wearing green uniforms and matching grey hats, AFP reported.

The impoverished North has long prioritized its military and banned nuclear weapons programs over providing for its people.

It is highly vulnerable to natural disasters including flood and drought due to a chronic lack of infrastructure, deforestation and decades of state mismanagement.

The new machine complex makes up part of a large machinery-manufacturing belt linking the northeast to Wonsan further south, "accounting for about 16 percent of North Korea's total machinery output", according to Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies.

Kim's public dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song Thaek, Kim's uncle, who was executed in 2013 after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew, Yang said.

The North Korean leader is "using public accountability as a shock tactic to warn party officials", he told AFP.

Pyongyang is gearing up for its first congress of its ruling party in five years, with analysts expecting it in the coming weeks.

Economic policy, as well as defense and military planning, are likely to be high on the agenda.

Last month, Kim vowed to root out "evil" at a major meeting of Pyongyang's top brass.

State media did not offer specifics, though it did say the ruling party had revealed numerous recent "deviations" in discipline -- a euphemism for corruption.

Washington Takes Measures to Ease Iranians Access to Internet

Washington Takes Measures to Ease Iranians Access to Internet

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North Korea's Kim Sacks Vice Premier, Rails Against 'Incompetence'

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