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Iran Sets up New Defense Council in Wake of War with Israel

30 July 2024, Iran, Tehran: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian meets Hamas chief Ismaeil Haniyeh (not pictured) in Tehran. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
30 July 2024, Iran, Tehran: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian meets Hamas chief Ismaeil Haniyeh (not pictured) in Tehran. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
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Iran Sets up New Defense Council in Wake of War with Israel

30 July 2024, Iran, Tehran: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian meets Hamas chief Ismaeil Haniyeh (not pictured) in Tehran. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
30 July 2024, Iran, Tehran: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian meets Hamas chief Ismaeil Haniyeh (not pictured) in Tehran. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)

Iran's top security body has approved the creation of a new defense council, state media reported on Sunday, more than a month after a ceasefire ended a 12-day war with Israel.

"The Supreme National Security Council approved the establishment of the National Defense Council," state television said.

The new body -- which will be chaired by the president and include top military commanders among other senior officials and ministers -- will be tasked with "reviewing defense strategies" and "enhancing the capabilities of Iran's armed forces", it added.

On Friday, the Fars news agency said the decision comes as part of broader structural changes to Iran's security apparatus.

The move comes in the wake of a conflict with Israel that, according to official figures, left more than 1,000 people dead in Iran and 29 in Israel.

The war began on June 13, when Israel launched strikes on military, nuclear and residential sites in Iran.

Iran responded with retaliatory attacks on Israeli territory.

A ceasefire announced by the United States has been in place since June 24.

On Sunday, the commander-in-chief of Iran's military, Amir Hatami, warned that threats from Israel persist and should not be underestimated.

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World

Death Toll Rises to at Least 10 in Violence Around Iran Protests

An Iranian woman walks past an anti-US mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, 03 January 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
An Iranian woman walks past an anti-US mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, 03 January 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
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Death Toll Rises to at Least 10 in Violence Around Iran Protests

An Iranian woman walks past an anti-US mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, 03 January 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
An Iranian woman walks past an anti-US mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, 03 January 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

Violence surrounding protests in Iran sparked by the country’s ailing economy killed two other people, authorities said Saturday, raising the death toll in the demonstrations to at least 10 as they showed no signs of stopping.

The new deaths follow US President Donald Trump warning Iran on Friday that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.”

The weeklong protests, have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations. However, the protests have yet to be as widespread and intense as those surrounding the death of Amini, who was detained over not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities.

The deaths overnight into Saturday involved a new level of violence. In Qom, a grenade exploded, killing a man there, the state-owned IRAN newspaper reported.

According to The Associated Press, it quoted security officials alleging the man carried the grenade to attack people in the city, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital, Tehran.

Online videos from Qom purportedly showed fires in the street overnight.

The second death happened in the town of Harsin, some 370 kilometers (230 miles) southwest of Tehran. There, the newspaper said a member of the Basij, the all-volunteer arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, died in a gun and knife attack in the town in Kermanshah province.

Demonstrations have reached over 100 locations in 22 of Iran’s 31 provinces, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported.

World

Venezuela's Government Accuses US of Attacking Civilian, Military Installations

Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
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Venezuela's Government Accuses US of Attacking Civilian, Military Installations

Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Venezuela’s government accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations in multiple states after at least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard around 2 a.m. local time Saturday in the capital, Caracas.

Smoke could be seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas. Another military installation in the capital was without power.

People in various neighborhoods rushed to the streets. Some could be seen in the distance from various areas of Caracas.

Venezuela’s government, in the statement, called on its supporters to take to the streets.

“People to the streets!” the statement said. “The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack.”

The statement added that President Nicolás Maduro had “ordered all national defense plans to be implemented” and declared “a state of external disturbance.”

This comes as the US military has been targeting, in recent days, alleged drug-smuggling boats. On Friday, Venezuela said it was open to negotiating an agreement with the US to combat drug trafficking.

Maduro also said in a pretaped interview aired Thursday that the US wants to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through the monthslong pressure campaign that began with a massive military deployment to the Caribbean Sea in August.

Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism in the US. The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels in what was the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the US began strikes on boats in September.

US President Donald Trump for months had threatened that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land. The US has also seized sanctioned oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, and Trump ordered a blockade of others in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country’s economy.

The US military has been attacking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes is 35 and the number of people killed is at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.

They followed a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America, including the arrival in November of the nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier, which added thousands more troops to what was already the largest military presence in the region in generations.

Trump has justified the boat strikes as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the US and asserted that the US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

World

6.5-magnitude Quake Shakes Mexico City

People wait outside their homes and buildings after an earthquake in Mexico City, Mexico, January 2, 2026. REUTERS/Henry Romero
People wait outside their homes and buildings after an earthquake in Mexico City, Mexico, January 2, 2026. REUTERS/Henry Romero
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6.5-magnitude Quake Shakes Mexico City

People wait outside their homes and buildings after an earthquake in Mexico City, Mexico, January 2, 2026. REUTERS/Henry Romero
People wait outside their homes and buildings after an earthquake in Mexico City, Mexico, January 2, 2026. REUTERS/Henry Romero

A 6.5-magnitude earthquake shook Mexico City and southwestern Guerrero state on Friday, sending people rushing into the streets but causing no serious damage, according to preliminary reports.

President Claudia Sheinbaum was forced to evacuate the presidential palace during her regular morning press conference, along with the journalists in attendance, when the earthquake alert sounded.

The Seismological Service said that the earthquake's epicenter was situated 14 kilometers (nine miles) southwest of San Marcos, in the southern state of Guerrero, about 400 kilometers from Mexico City.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck around 8:00 am east of Acapulco, a major port and beach resort.

Sheinbaum said there were no immediate reports of major damage in either Mexico City or Guerrero.

Mexico, which is situated between five tectonic plates, is one of the world's most seismically active countries.

Karen Gomez, a 47-year-old office worker living on the 13th floor of an apartment building in Mexico City, told AFP she was roused from her sleep by a street siren.

"I woke up in terror. My cellphone alert said it was a powerful earthquake."

Norma Ortega, a 57-year-old kindergarten director, living in a 10th-floor apartment, said she could feel her building shake.

"I got a terrible fright."

The center of Mexico City is built on the muddy subsoil of what was once the bed of a lake, making it particularly vulnerable to earthquakes.

Those most strongly felt usually originate off Guerrero state on the Pacific coast.

On September 19, 1985, an 8.1-magnitude earthquake devastated a vast swathe of Mexico City, leaving nearly 13,000 dead, mostly in the city, according to official figures.

In 2017, also on September 19, a 7.1-magnitude quake killed 369 people, also mostly in Mexico City.

Early warning systems, including smartphone apps, have been developed to warn Mexico City residents of strong quakes and urge them to reach safety.

The city has also installed loudspeakers on lampposts to broadcast the alerts.