Warning: This story contains descriptions of self-harm that some readers might find distressing

Iranian activist Kianoosh Sanjari, who died by suicide this week in protest at political imprisonments by the regime, was buried Friday in the capital Tehran.

Sanjari took his own life Wednesday at the age of 42, jumping off a building in downtown Tehran, according to other activists and state media, after threatening to kill himself if four activists detained by the Islamic Republic were not released.

“I will end my life in protest against the dictatorship of (Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah) Khamenei and his partners,” Sanjari had written earlier Wednesday on X, demanding the release of Fatemeh Sepehari, Nasreen Shakrami, Toomaj Salehi and Arsham Rezaei by 7 p.m local time that day.

“No one should be imprisoned for expressing their opinions. Protest is the right of every Iranian citizen,” he wrote in a separate post on Wednesday.

At around 7.20 p.m. local time, Sanjari posted a photo from atop a high structure, with the caption: “7 PM, Hafez Bridge, Charsou.” Charsou Bazaar is a commercial building in downtown Tehran.

“My life will end after this tweet… I wish that one day Iranians wake up and overcome slavery.”

‘Kianoosh is lost’

Hossein Ronaghi, an Iranian human rights activist, confirmed Sanjari’s death Thursday and urged people to attend his funeral Friday.

“It is time to act… as Iranians, we should attend his burial with enthusiasm and respect, to honor this noble and tortured individual,” Ronaghi wrote on X.

The activist warned authorities against disrupting the burial through heightened security. “No one has the right to disrupt the burial, create a security atmosphere, or show any disrespect to this ceremony,” he wrote.

“I swear by Kianoosh’s blood, if any disturbance is caused by security forces or any obstacles are put in the way of people’s presence, I will make you regret it,” Ronaghi said.

Abdollah Momeni, another Iranian activist, said that when he saw Sanjar’s post, he rushed to meet him, only to find “a white sheet thrown” over his body by Hafez Bridge.

“Unfortunately, Kianoosh is lost,” Momeni wrote on X Wednesday.

On Thursday, the state news agency ISNA reported that a judicial case had been opened by the prosecutor’s office in Tehran regarding Sanjari’s suicide. ISNA, citing the Tehran prosecutor’s office, suggested that Sanjari had a history of mental health issues, for which they said he had been hospitalized and given prescription medication.

Repeated detentions

A vocal critic of the Iranian regime, Sanjari was arrested several times between 1999 and 2007, when he was finally released with a bail bond of over $100,000, Amnesty International said. He was accused of “acting against state security” and “propaganda against the system,” according to the human rights organization. Sanjari spent time in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, which is known for its long record of human rights abuses.

He left Iran shortly after his release but returned in 2016, when he was arrested again and sentenced to 11 years in prison, according to the IranWire activist outlet. In 2021, he left for the US but later returned to Iran, IranWire said.

Between 2009 and 2013, Sanjari worked for the Persian Service of the US government-funded broadcaster Voice of America in Washington, DC.

VOA’s Persian Service said on Thursday it “expressed shock and grief at the suicide of a former colleague, Kianoosh Sanjari, who jumped to his death from a building in Tehran on Wednesday in protest against Iran’s authoritarian rulers.”

The proposal, which Johnson outlined to Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri – who is close to Hezbollah – is the first to be submitted by the US and Israel since a temporary ceasefire was negotiated in late September. Those efforts were upended when Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a major bombing attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The Lebanese government is “optimistic” that Hezbollah will agree to the terms of the agreement, and authorities expect to submit an official response to the latest proposal next Monday, the first official said. “Diplomatic efforts are on fire now,” the source said.

The proposal aims to achieve a 60-day cessation of hostilities and is being portrayed as the basis of a lasting ceasefire, according to the official, adding that terms lie within the parameters of UN Resolution 1701 which ended the Lebanon-Israel war of 2006. The resolution stipulates that the only armed groups in the area south of Lebanon’s Litani River should be the Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping forces.

“The points mainly focus on the mechanism of implementation and on the role of the Lebanese Armed Forces in implementing 1701in the south of the Litani River,” the official said, adding that it also deals with smuggling routes through the country’s international borders.

Protesters stormed the parliament of the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia on Friday and opposition politicians demanded the resignation of the self-styled president over an unpopular investment agreement with Moscow.

Protesters used a truck to smash through the metal gates surrounding the parliament in the capital Sukhumi. Video from the scene then showed people climbing through windows after prying off metal bars and chanting in the corridors.

Eshsou Kakalia, an opposition leader and former deputy prosecutor general, said the parliament building was under the control of the protesters.

“We will now seek the resignation of the current president of Abkhazia,” he was quoted by Russia’s Interfax news agency as saying. Protesters also broke into the presidential administration offices located in the same building as the parliament.

Emergency services said at least eight people were taken to hospital.

The presidential administration said in a statement that authorities were preparing to withdraw the investment agreement with Russia that some Abkhaz fear will price them out of the property market.

Russia recognised Abkhazia and another breakaway region, South Ossetia, as independent states in 2008 after Russian troops repelled a Georgian attempt to retake South Ossetia in a five-day war.

Most of the world recognises Abkhazia as part of Georgia, from which it broke away during wars in the early 1990s, but Russian money has poured into the lush sub-tropical territory where Soviet-era spa resorts cling to the Black Sea coast.

Russian money

Abkhazian lawmakers had been set to vote on Friday on the ratification of an investment agreement signed in October in Moscow by Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov and his Abkhazian counterpart, Kristina Ozgan.

Abkhazian opposition leaders say the agreement with Moscow, which would allow for investment projects by Russian legal entities, would price locals out of the property market by allowing far more Russian money to flow in.

The opposition said in a statement that the protesters’ actions were not against Russian-Abkhazian relations.

“Abkhazian society had only one demand: to protect the interests of our citizens and our business, but neither the president nor the parliament have heard the voice of the people until today”, Interfax cited the statement as saying.

Earlier this week Abkhazia’s self-styled president, Aslan Bzhania, held an emergency security council meeting after protesters blocked a key highway and rallied in central Sukhumi to demand the release of four activists.

The activists, who were subsequently freed, had been detained for opposing the passage of a law regulating the construction industry which references the Russian-Abkhazian agreement.

In 2014, demonstrators stormed the presidential headquarters, forcing then-leader Alexander Ankvab to flee. He later resigned over accusations of corruption and misrule.

Opposition leader Raul Khadzhimba, elected following the unrest in 2014, was himself forced to step down in 2020 after street protests over disputed election results.

Lucknow, India (AP) — A fire tore through a neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital in northern India, killing 10 newborn babies and injuring 16 others, authorities said.

The fire occurred late Friday at a hospital in Jhansi city, Uttar Pradesh state. Officials said the blaze spread quickly through the ward, where 55 infants were being treated. Forty-five babies were rescued and are receiving medical care, said Bimal Kumar Dubey, a local official.

It was not immediately clear what sparked the blaze. Brajesh Pathak, the deputy chief minister of the state, visited the hospital and met with families on Saturday. He pledged government support for the victims’ families and promised a thorough investigation.

“We will identify those responsible for this tragedy and take strict action. The government stands with families during this difficult time,” he said.

When the firefighters arrived, the ward was engulfed in flames and plumes of smoke. Rescuers had to break through windows to reach the newborn babies. Eyewitnesses said the rescue operation began about 30 minutes after the fire erupted, delaying evacuation efforts.

The incident has raised questions over the hospital’s safety measures. While fire alarms had been installed in the intensive care unit, parents and witnesses said they did not activate during the blaze. Hospital staff acted only after they saw signs of smoke and fire.

“If the safety alarm had worked, we could have acted sooner and saved more lives,” said Naresh Kumar, a parent who lost his baby.

Akhtar Hussain, whose son was rescued and is receiving treatment in an adjacent ward, agreed that the tragedy could have been prevented if the hospital had better safety protocols.

Fires are common in India, where building laws and safety norms are often flouted by builders and residents. Poor maintenance and lack of proper firefighting equipment in the country also leads to deaths.

In May, at least six newborn babies died in a fire at a children’s hospital in New Delhi, three years after a hospital fire in the western state of Maharashtra killed 10 newborns.

Sipping a hazy beer in a dimly lit Shanghai pub, Liang Xiao found himself immersed in a sociology lecture that astounded him.

Beneath a projector screen, a Chinese PhD student at an elite American university was explaining how modern states were built to a crowd of more than 40 young urbanites who packed the tiny venue in China’s most cosmopolitan city.

Though the talk did not cover China specifically, Liang was struck by the frankness with which the academic laid out how state power works – including the use of brute force – something rarely discussed openly today in the country’s stifled political environment.

“I was completely stunned when he mentioned violence so bluntly,” said the 32-year-old, who was born and raised in China.

“In China, you just can’t talk about the nature of a country so openly.”

In recent months, “academic pubs” hosting free lectures by Chinese scholars from universities worldwide have sprung up in China’s major cities – such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou – offering a rare open space for free-flowing intellectual conversation in a country where the public sphere is shrinking as censorship tightens.

These alcohol-with-academics sessions delve into a range of topics in the humanities and social sciences. They include issues deemed politically sensitive and often censored online, such as feminism, but also more innocuous subjects like social anxiety and cats in ancient Chinese paintings.

Similar initiatives have been popular in the West for nearly three decades. In Britain, “Cafe Scientifique,” a laid-back science debate forum, kicked off in 1998 and “Pint of Science,” a three-day science festival, launched in May 2013. Both have since gone global.

Now, these brain-expanding happy-hour huddles are catching on in China as its urban, educated youth – emerging from three-year pandemic lockdowns and restrictions – are desperate to reconnect in person.

“Once you leave campus, it’s difficult to find social science talks elsewhere… That’s part of why we’re so eager to make it happen ourselves,” the Shanghai pub posted on its official social media account in late August, wrapping up its first series of pub lectures.

Unlike Western universities, which generally welcome the public, most Chinese campuses remain fenced off, keeping their academic resources exclusive to students, faculty and authorized personnel.

“The rise of academic pubs shows China’s youth are still hunting for places to talk and share ideas, even as the public sphere is shrinking,” said Lei Ya-wen, a sociology professor at Harvard University.

‘Place without authority’

Recent arts graduate Cinnamon Wu attended a talk on the evolution of Chinese-American literature in a Beijing bar just a 10-minute drive from China’s two top universities.

The session, which focused on how Chinese-American immigrants found their place in a strange, sometimes hostile land, elicited a wide-ranging discussion. But Wu, using his English nickname for privacy reasons, was surprised when some participants criticized the apparent influence of political correctness in American popular culture. He didn’t expect attendees of such intellectual events to hold what he saw as conservative views.

While Chinese cyberspace is filled with critiques of political correctness and “wokeness” in American culture, Wu had never heard such opinions voiced so openly in a physical public setting, including on campus.

“It’s actually tough for us to air any political views in class – unless they’re extremely mainstream and unshakable,” Wu said.

“But in the pub, a place without authority… People are more likely to speak their mind.”

The belief that “teachers are always right” is instilled in Chinese students from a young age, he added. Even in college, where critical thinking should be encouraged, he said, he feels “teachers remain unchallengeable authorities.”

University teachers in China, tasked by Beijing with “educating for the Communist Party,” rarely encourage political discussion as they have to steer clear of any controversies that might cross political “red lines.”

Despite finding some views unsettling in the open discussion, Wu still said the academic pub was “worth a visit.”

“It’s refreshing to see people huddled offline in a casual setting, discussing literature and society… It makes me feel like we ordinary folks can also engage in public conversations.”

Elephant in the room?

As the academic pub and bar trend gains momentum, concerns are bubbling up on Chinese social media about the future of this nascent public sphere for intellectuals in the heavily censored country, especially following a string of cultural crackdowns.

Last year, China’s stand-up comedy scene came to a brief halt with shows canceled nationwide after a comedian’s army-themed joke was deemed a “severe insult” to the military, leading authorities to slap a hefty fine on the entertainment firm representing him. Earlier this year, an artist was detained over sculptures he created over a decade ago that featured political critiques.

Nationalist voices online have also grown into a powerful unofficial force policing speech across Chinese social media. They’ve gone after bloggers, journalists, celebrity chefs and even a Nobel laureate, trying to hold people accountable for any remarks or behaviors they see as slighting China.

The trend has extended into university classrooms, with students – in a sign that political loyalty often trumps cultural reverence for educators – reporting their teachers for expressing any view not aligned with party orthodoxy.

Liang, who deemed the state-building talk “bold,” said he loves these academic pub sessions but suspects they will eventually face restriction.

“In a country with such strict governance, it’s common for people to self-censor, scrutinizing their own words – and those of others – from the government’s perspective,” said Lei, the Harvard professor.

“These events are safe for now as they are not organized gatherings by nature,” noted Kang Siqin, an assistant professor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.

Kang, who mainly studies state capacity, gave the first lecture in the Shanghai pub talk series, introducing social science research methods themed around “socializing over drinks.”

“But in China’s context, any kind of gathering can be perceived as presenting challenges to public security,” Kang added.

As for the future of the pub lecture trend, Kang said it “all depends on if anyone wants to target them.”

Israel’s war conduct in Gaza “is consistent with the characteristics of genocide,” including mass civilian casualties and using starvation as a weapon, according to a new United Nations Special Committee report released Thursday.

“Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population,” the UN committee said in a press release.

“The Israeli military’s use of AI-assisted targeting, with minimal human oversight, combined with heavy bombs, underscores Israel’s disregard of its obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants and take adequate safeguards to prevent civilian deaths,” the committee said.

The UN committee added that Israeli officials have publicly supported policies to destroy “vital water, sanitation and food systems” in Gaza as well as prevent access to fuel.

Israel earlier this year rejected what it called the “grossly distorted” accusation of genocide leveled against it by South Africa, arguing in the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) that its war was fought in self-defense and that it was targeting Hamas rather than Palestinians, following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel.

The UN Special Committee is composed of three UN member states, including Malaysia, Senegal and Sri Lanka.

The UN report comes after the US-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report detailing Israel’s forced mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza in a deliberate and systematic campaign that amounts to a war crime and a crime against humanity.

In a response to the HRW report on Thursday, the Israeli military said it is “committed to international law and operates accordingly,” and that it issues evacuation orders to protect civilians from combat.

Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza after weeks of intense Israeli military operations in recent weeks have told described a chronic lack of food and people dying of hunger, as aid agencies warn that the area is on the brink of famine.

But after a US deadline for Israel to improve getting humanitarian aid into Gaza expired this week, the Biden administration assessed that Israel is not blocking aid and so is not violating US law governing foreign military assistance. The State Department said that while changes were needed, progress had been made, so there would be no disruption to US arms supplies.

But the US view is a stark contrast with the bleak picture on the ground, where much of the aid that reaches Gaza is not being distributed.

The accounts of desperate civilians echo the World Health Organization’s warning last Friday of “a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas within the northern Gaza Strip.”