IRGC Quds Force Commander Esmail Qaani urged Iran-backed Iraqi factions to keep their weapons during a visit to Baghdad, Al Hadath reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.
Qaani criticized groups that had agreed to surrender their arms, arguing that weapons already handed to the Iraqi government belonged to Iran, according to the report.
He reportedly told Iraqi leaders to use the factions as leverage against Washington and argued that the Iraqi government would lose any confrontation with the Iran-backed armed groups.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered security forces to prepare to act if the factions refused to surrender their weapons, Al Hadath reported.
Qaani concluded his visit to Baghdad during which he met leaders of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, armed factions and the Coordination Framework in Baghdad, according to the report.
Iranian authorities have sealed at least 42 cafés, restaurants, shops, sports clubs and other businesses across the country in the past three weeks, over compulsory hijab rules and what officials describe as violations of Islamic norms.
The figure is based on individual closure cases reported separately by state media and rights groups.
The closures were reported in at least 17 cities, including Tehran, Mashhad, Yazd, Kerman, Ardabil and Birjand, and affected cafés and restaurants, women's gyms, shops and a cultural center.
In just three weeks, the number of closures has already reached about 22% of the 191 cases HRANA documented over the entire previous Iranian calendar year.
Cafés, shops and gyms targeted
Among the latest cases, an optician in Qaen was sealed on Wednesday after authorities said customers and employees had failed to comply with compulsory hijab rules.
The Yin Yang café in Khomein was sealed over what authorities described as "improper hijab" and Instagram content, while a women's clothing store called Shabnam Maison in Kerman was also shut.
A café-restaurant in Tehran's Velenjak district was sealed a day earlier. Authorities in Ardabil also closed three coffee shops and arrested 16 people in connection with the businesses.
Hossein Salari, Ardabil's deputy prosecutor, said inspections of cafés would increase and authorities would act against shops selling clothing that he described as contrary to Islamic law or harmful to "public chastity."
Three cafés in Mashhad, Bojnourd and Birjand were sealed on August 10. Authorities also shut the Zhovan café in Minudasht on August 9 and the Arghavan café-bookstore in Mashhad on August 5.
The enforcement has extended beyond cafés. Two sports clubs in Borujerd were sealed by judicial order on August 4, while authorities shut a Shahr-e Ketab bookstore in Babol the same day.
Four women's sports clubs were also sealed in Yazd, while authorities in Abadeh shut five businesses and arrested a café operator.
In Dezful, the local prosecutor announced the closure of 15 cafés and hookah lounges on July 23.
Enforcement rises sharply in Mashhad
Authorities have used terms including failure to observe compulsory hijab, "violations of norms," failure to observe "Islamic standards," and promotion of indecency to explain the closures.
Some businesses have also faced other accusations. Authorities in Ardabil cited alleged gambling and promotion of corruption among the reasons for closing three cafés.
One café in Mashhad was cited for issues including failing to list matcha on its price list and selling cakes and desserts without required health certification. Police described the alleged violations at four women's gyms in Yazd only as "disciplinary offenses."
Official figures from Mashhad point to a sharp rise in closures.
Mohsen Sayadi, the city's head of trade inspection and supervision, said authorities sealed 104 businesses during the first four months of the current Iranian year, which began on March 21, compared with five during the same period a year earlier - an increase of about twentyfold.
An adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader warned on Thursday that Mojtaba Khamenei’s strategy was to shift the war to an offensive posture if Washington failed to meet Tehran’s conditions.
“The Supreme Leader’s definitive strategy of shifting the war to an offensive posture if Iran’s conditions are not met will undoubtedly transform the balance of power in the world,” Mohammad Mokhber said on X.
“With the United States’ inability to protect its allies in the Persian Gulf having been demonstrated, the most sustainable path toward a new regional order is the implementation of a Hormuz economic-security mechanism independent of Washington’s military guarantees,” he added.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported on Thursday that Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) "harassment persists" across the Strait of Hormuz, including hailing, UAV overflights, and surveillance of merchant shipping, though no confirmed attacks occurred in the past 48 hours.
Kinetic activity near Oman's southern approaches and the continued risk of drifting mines keep Hormuz at a severe threat level, while the Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden, and Bab el-Mandeb remain substantial. Moderate risk applies to the Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Somali Coast, and Northern Red Sea, with the Eastern Mediterranean rated low.
Commercial traffic through Hormuz remains suppressed, with only single-digit tanker transits reported, and authorities urge heightened vigilance.
Yemen's Houthis launched two drones at Saudi Aramco's refinery in Saudi Arabia's Jizan region, Houthi-affiliated Yemeni outlet Saba News Agency reported on Thursday, citing a military source.
According to the report, the militant group's attack came in response to Saudi Arabia's "violation" of Yemeni airspace in the Sa'dah and Hajjah governorates. The report also claimed that the attack was a "precise strike" and that Houthis plan to continue "responding decisively to any violation of our country's sovereignty or any aggression targeting our country."
A massive explosion struck an ammunition factory near Colleferro, some 50 kilometers southeast of Rome, with the blast reportedly heard across several surrounding towns.
The explosion occurred on Thursday at the former Simmel Difesa plant, now owned by KNDS Ammo Italy, after firefighters and Carabinieri had arrived to respond to an earlier fire. Initial reports indicated that the accident originated in the facility's powder-pressing department.
Corriere della Sera reported that firefighting teams are still unable to intervene and search the area for possible casualties due to powerful flames. KNDS manufactures medium and large-caliber ammunition, as well as propellants and solid fuels used in aerospace systems.
New York Chief Judge Rowan Wilson was forced to admit he shouldn’t havecalled on voters to oust juristswho believe in “stupid” long sentences.
Wilson faced a complaint filed by a group of Republican state lawmakers, who said he crossed a line when he told attendees at a CUNY Law School forum earlier this year that voting out hard-nosed judges was “something you can do for me.”
“I wish I had been clearer,” Wilson wrote to the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, according to its letter ultimately dismissing the complaint.
Chief Judge Rowan Wilson conceded that he shouldn’t have called lengthy prison sentences “stupid” and that he was in the wrong to encourage a CUNY Law School forum to vote out judges who support harsh punishments.Albany Times Union via Getty Images
He said the remarks were a reaction to hearing about an unnamed judge calling a defendant an “animal” who “should be “locked up” for the rest of his life before sentencing him.
Wilson — who once penned a widely-panned legal opinion arguing that an elephant at the Bronx Zoo had the same rights as humans — said he lost control amid “extreme disgust of the comparison of human beings to caged animals.”
“I should have said that the voters have that ability and should become informed and express their preferences through the electoral process,” Wilson wrote.
Judges must stick to strict rules governing their political statements, one of the basses for the GOP pols’ complaint, which was filed in March.
The judicial conduct commission did not take issue with Wilson’s other remarks at the same forum calling on Albany lawmakers to pass the Second Look Act, which would allow felons to request another sentencing hearing after 10 years.
Assemblyman Michael Tannousis and other GOP state lawmakers filed an ethics complain against Wilson over the comments earlier this year.Michael McWeeney
“It is permissible for a Chief Judge, as leader of the Unified Court System, not only to advocate for but also to propose legislation concerning the law, the legal system and the administration of justice,” the CJC wrote.
A spokesperson for Wilson, who has served as chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals since 2022, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
State Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-Suffolk), a former prosecutor and ranking member of his chamber’s judiciary committee, said he was “glad” that Wilson was forced to address his comments, even if the CJC ultimately did not penalize him.
Chief Judge Rowan Wilson speaks at the Westchester Legal Aid Society’s grand opening of the moot court room and training center in White Plains on June 20, 2024.USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
“I’m glad to see that Judge Wilson’s conduct was addressed, and that he will choose his words more carefully in the future. It’s unfortunate that those comments were made in the first place,” Palumbo said.
“The Chief Judge’s comments were wholly inappropriate, seeking to galvanize opposition against judges with whom he does not agree,” Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R-Staten Island) wrote in a statement.
“Although I appreciate the Commission’s investigation into the matter, I question whether a deferential standard was applied here that would not have been applied to judges with an alternative point of view,” he said.
Prior to being elevated to the chief judge post, Wilson wrote a dissenting opinion in favor of Happy the elephant, via an animal rights group, being allowed to petition for her freedom from the Bronx Zoo through habeas corpus – a legal principle used for challenging wrongful imprisonment.
“We should recognize Happy’s right to petition for her liberty not just because she is a wild animal who is not meant to be caged and displayed, but because the rights we confer on others define who we are as a society,” he wrote at the time.
