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Iran Arrests Over 4,000 on Charges Related to War, Says Rights Group

An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Iran Arrests Over 4,000 on Charges Related to War, Says Rights Group

An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Iranian authorities have made more than 4,000 arrests on charges related to the US-Israeli war against the country in a mass crackdown, a US-based rights group said on Monday.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had documented at least 4,023 arrests between February 28, when the war started, and May 9.

Charges included espionage, threats to national security and communicating or sharing content related to the conflict with foreign media, it said.

"Iranian authorities have used the conflict to intensify national security narratives and justify arrests, restrictions on freedom of expression, and violence against civilians," it said.

Meanwhile, Iran's national police chief Ahmad Reza Radan had said Sunday that more than "6,500 traitors and spies" linked with the "enemy" had been arrested since anti-government protests peaked in January.

The authorities described the demonstrations as riots and put them down with a crackdown that left thousands dead, according to rights groups.

"The process of identifying and arresting elements associated with the enemy continues, and the police have not stopped their actions in the field of confronting rioters," Radan said, quoted by the IRNA news agency.

There has also been growing alarm over executions in Iran.

Rights groups have said that since the start of the war, Iran has executed 26 men seen as "political prisoners" -- 14 men charged over January protests, one more over 2022 demonstrations and 11 accused of links to banned opposition groups.

Six men have been hanged by Iran on charges of spying for Israel since the war began, according to reports in Iranian official media.

HRANA said it had also documented at least 3,636 fatalities, including 1,701 civilians, due to US-Israeli attacks on Iran in the war, which is currently on hold with an uneasy ceasefire.

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World

Russia Attacks Ukraine’s Danube Port, Ukraine Launches Drones Towards Moscow

A firefighter works at a compound of a port which was hit during overnight Russian drone strikes in the town of Izmail, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa region, Ukraine, May 19, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters)
A firefighter works at a compound of a port which was hit during overnight Russian drone strikes in the town of Izmail, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa region, Ukraine, May 19, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters)
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Russia Attacks Ukraine’s Danube Port, Ukraine Launches Drones Towards Moscow

A firefighter works at a compound of a port which was hit during overnight Russian drone strikes in the town of Izmail, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa region, Ukraine, May 19, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters)
A firefighter works at a compound of a port which was hit during overnight Russian drone strikes in the town of Izmail, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa region, Ukraine, May 19, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters)

A Russian air attack damaged port infrastructure in Ukraine's Izmail city in the early hours of Tuesday, while Russian authorities said they had downed four drones launched by Ukraine that were headed towards Moscow.

Izmail, in the southern Odesa region and home to the largest Ukrainian port on the Danube River, is a frequently hit strategic location.

"Port infrastructure facilities in the city of Izmail were damaged," local officials said on Telegram, adding that nearly all aerial attack ‌weapons were destroyed. "Fortunately, ‌there were no casualties or significant destruction."

The Telegram post ‌showed ⁠firemen battling a ⁠fire at a building that had its windows blown out.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, two people were rescued and one person may still be trapped under rubble after a Russian drone attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram.

There also were drone attacks in the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said on Telegram.

Peace efforts to end the war that began with Russia's 2022 invasion ⁠of Ukraine have stalled. Each side has accused the other ‌of regular attacks on military, civilian and ‌energy targets. Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.

DRONE ATTACKS IN RUSSIA

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ‌said on Telegram that four drones heading for the capital had been downed ‌and that emergency services had been deployed, but provided no further details.

The attack comes on the heels of a heavy Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow at the weekend, after which Russia struck the Ukrainian cities of Odesa and Dnipro with missile and drone attacks that ‌damaged residential buildings and injured dozens of people.

In the Russian Kursk region bordering Ukraine, a woman has died and two ⁠people were injured ⁠as a result of a Ukrainian attack on Monday evening, the Kursk operational headquarters said on Telegram.

Russia's southern Rostov region and Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow, have also come under drone attacks along with a number of other areas in central Russia, regional authorities said on Telegram.

In Yaroslavl, where Russia has oil refining infrastructure, 'an industrial object' was damaged following the drone attack and emergency services were working to extinguish the fire, Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said. He did not name the asset.

Ukraine has sought to deprive Russia of energy revenues. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on X overnight that over the past few months Russian refining capacity has dropped by 10% and oil wells have been shut.

"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin has, of course, built a war chest - but certainly not enough to fight indefinitely," Zelenskiy said.

World

Britain Gets Experimental Drug from Japan to Bolster Hantavirus Response

Scientist of the Malbran institute, members of Health Minister of Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego and members of National Park Administration walk in the forest to place mouse traps near Ushuaia, Argentina on May 18, 2026. (AFP)
Scientist of the Malbran institute, members of Health Minister of Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego and members of National Park Administration walk in the forest to place mouse traps near Ushuaia, Argentina on May 18, 2026. (AFP)
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Britain Gets Experimental Drug from Japan to Bolster Hantavirus Response

Scientist of the Malbran institute, members of Health Minister of Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego and members of National Park Administration walk in the forest to place mouse traps near Ushuaia, Argentina on May 18, 2026. (AFP)
Scientist of the Malbran institute, members of Health Minister of Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego and members of National Park Administration walk in the forest to place mouse traps near Ushuaia, Argentina on May 18, 2026. (AFP)

Britain has received supplies of the antiviral drug favipiravir from Japan as part of its response to a deadly hantavirus outbreak linked to the Hondius cruise liner, the UK Health Security Agency said on Monday.

UKHSA said it accepted delivery of the drug, which remains experimental for use to ‌treat hantavirus, over ‌the weekend and that the supplies would bolster treatment ‌stocks, ⁠even though the risk ⁠of wider transmission in the UK remained very low.

Neither the UKHSA nor Japanese authorities disclosed details about the number of doses supplied to Britain.

The luxury liner at the center of the outbreak docked at the Dutch port of Rotterdam on Monday, where authorities disembarked crew members and medical staff. Three people have died from eight confirmed cases and two probable cases ⁠linked to the ship.

There is no specific therapy ‌for hantavirus, which is primarily spread by ‌rodents but can be transmitted between people in rare cases and after prolonged, close ‌contact.

Treatment usually focuses on supportive care such as rest and fluids, ‌while some patients may need breathing support.

In Japan, favipiravir is sold under the brand name Avigan by a unit of Fujifilm as an emergency medication for novel or re-emerging flu. The drug, which works by blocking a key enzyme that ‌many viruses need to multiply, is not licensed for use in the United Kingdom.

Use of favipiravir in hantavirus ⁠would generally ⁠be considered experimental or compassionate rather than standard care, and most likely to treat severe infection early on, said Piet Maes, a virologist at the University of Brussels.

Maes said evidence so far comes only from lab and animal studies, with no strong human trial data showing the drug works against hantavirus. There is no internationally established clinical protocol recommending its routine use for hantavirus.

The outbreak involves the rarer type of hantavirus called the Andes virus, which is the only strain known to spread between people, though typically only after close and prolonged contact.

World Health Organization officials said they have not identified changes that would make the virus more transmissible or severe, and that the outbreak does not pose a pandemic threat.

World

Iran Announces New Authority to ‘Manage’ Strait of Hormuz

People walk past a billboard about the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran, Iran, May 17, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
People walk past a billboard about the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran, Iran, May 17, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Iran Announces New Authority to ‘Manage’ Strait of Hormuz

People walk past a billboard about the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran, Iran, May 17, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
People walk past a billboard about the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran, Iran, May 17, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Iran on Monday announced the formation of a new body that it said would “manage” the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has effectively closed and wants to charge ships to traverse.

It was not immediately clear what the new body would do, but the move comes as part of an Iranian effort to manage ship transits through the waterway and collect passage fees, while the United States has imposed its own maritime blockade on Iranian ports.

Iran has largely blocked shipping through the vital strait since the outbreak of war with the US and Israel on February 28. The international community agrees that navigation in the strait should return to its pre-war status.

On Monday, Iran's Supreme National Security Council announced the launch of an official X account for the authority, saying it would provide “real-time updates on the #Hormuz_Strait operations and latest developments,” reported AFP.

The account of the Revolutionary Guards navy shared the same post.

The IRGC's navy plays a key role in enforcing Iranian restrictions on all ships transiting the strait while it is accused of attacking commercial ships and intercepting other vessels entering Iranian waters.

It was not immediately clear what the new body would do but according to Lyod List, it is responsible for granting permission to ships transiting the strait and collecting tolls.

Sources told the journal that ships hoping to use the pre-approved route are expected to have communicated extensive details regarding both the ownership of the vessel and destination of the cargo to the IRGC in advance of the transit.

Earlier this month, Iranian English-speaking broadcaster Press TV said the body constituted a “system to exercise sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz” and that ships passing through the strait were sent “regulations” through an email.

On Sunday, Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament's national security commission, said Iran “has prepared a professional mechanism to manage traffic” through the strait, adding that it will be “unveiled soon.”

Earlier, the Iranian parliament had sought to pass a law to collect tolls for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, declaring the regulation of maritime passage as a core element of national sovereignty.

Since the war began, Iran has repeatedly said that maritime traffic through the strait would “not return to its pre-war status” and last month it said it had received the first revenue from tolls on the waterway.

Tehran has linked the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to the lifting of the US naval blockade on Iranian ports, demanding recognition of its “sovereignty” over the waterway that connects the Arabian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman.

Washington has repeatedly stressed the principle of freedom of navigation in international waters and actively opposing unilateral maritime tolls or blockades.

The US Central Command said it continues to strictly enforce the US blockade against Iranian ports, with American forces redirecting tens of commercial vessels and disabling several ships.

On Monday, CENTCOM said that until May 18, the military has redirected 84 commercial vessels and has disabled four other vessels amid the ongoing US blockade on Iranian ports.