“Iranian Authorities Tighten Their Grip On Daycare Centers,” Radio Farda, September 6, 2020.
“Iran’s National Information Network Not Based on Censorship: Official,” IFP, September 6, 2020. When you read this story, your realize that based on Iran’s history over 40 years that every media source, every one, will be censored—just the opposite of what the headline declares. “In remarks at a televised interview, director of Iran’s National Centre of Cyberspace, Abul-Hassan Firoozabadi, said the National Information Network (NIN) is not based upon censorship and will not carry out any filtering policy unless the platforms violate the law and their illegal activities would cause cultural, social, political and security problems. Like all other international networks, web contents in the Iranian Internet or the NIN will be accessible in accordance with the country’s regulations and the network is not going to censor anything at the beginning, he added. “There is no plan to shut down any foreign network or platform, unless the platform disobeys the Iranian law and causes widespread destructive security effects,” he noted.” These arguments—that media violates Iranian law and poses security threats—are made all the time in Iranian courts at present.
“Rouhani Is No Moderate,” Isaac Schorr, National Review, September 6, 2020.
If Iran follows its pattern, of accusing Israel or the U.S. of so many attacks, then this announcement by the AEOI means that Iran does not think Israel or the U.S. prosecuted the attack. Atomic Energy Organization of Iran spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi just said the July incident at Natanz was “an act of sabotage” and the “culprits” and “incentives [motivations] and methods” are known. In short, Iran has full knowledge of what happened. See “Iran claims it’s identified saboteurs behind blast at nuclear site,” Times of Israel, September 6, 2020.
“Iran: We will proudly continue helping Syria,” Tehran Times, September 6, 2020.
“Iran has what is probably the most confusing currency system in the world, and it will soon become more so, as it says it will alter the appearance of the zeroes on one of its notes. Although the currency of record is the rial, that term is hardly used in trade and commerce. Instead, transactions are conducted in tomans. One toman is equal to 10 rials. A tourist blog, ariamedtour.com, gives this example: If you go to buy a bottle of water and ask how much it is, the seller will tell you that it is 1,500 tomans, meaning that you should pay 15,000 rials. That’s not all. It also has two systems of bank notes: Rials are issued in 10 denominations from 100 to 100,000 rials. To complicate things further, there are Iran cheques in the amounts of 500,000 and 1 million rials. The central bank used to permit major banks to print their own bank notes known as “cash cheques.” They looked like official bank notes and could function as cash for a year. The two types were Iran cheques that could be cashed in any financial institution and cash cheques that could be cashed only at the issuing bank. In 2008 the central bank halted that practice, and took over the issue of Iran cheques. In May, after extended dawdling, Iran’s rampant inflation (100,000 rials is now $2.38) led Parliament to slash four zeroes off the rial and change its name to the toman. One toman will equal 10,000 rials. The Financial Times quotes Abdolnaser Hemmati, governor of the Central Bank as saying on the bank’s website, “The parliament is in favor of the currency revaluation plans … the color of four zeros will be different on new banknotes printed by the CBI to show that we are in a transitional period.” For a transition period of up to two years, both the toman and the rial will be legal tender.” This is from “Iran to introduce currency re-denomination in tomans,” Arthur Friedberg, Coin World, September 6, 2020.
Totally improper, and a violation of human rights. “Iran airs televised confession of wrestler after Trump tweet,” WNEP, AP, September 6, 2020.
“Iran to Extend Range of Air-Launched Cruise Missiles,” Tasnim, September 6, 2020.
“Iran exports tea to India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Canada, Australia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.” See “Iran’s annual tea output expected to reach 130m tons,” Tehran Times, September 6, 2020.
“Iran Among World’s Top 5 Military Speedboat Producers,” IFP, September 6, 2020.
Not inspiring, and may not be tested enough. “Iran, Russia to jointly produce COVID-19 vaccine,” India TV News, September 6, 2020.
“Iranian Authorities Tighten Their Grip On Daycare Centers,” Radio Farda, September 6, 2020. What could this be? In the past, the State Welfare Organization controlled preschools. But after the Supreme Leader on Sep. 3 expressed concern over local daycare centers and their curriculum (they allow mixed dancing and swimming for the young children), Iran’s Ministry of Education will oversee kindergartens and nurseries. Next up: “Following the recent amendment of school and university textbooks, Iranian authorities are also set to change kindergarten textbooks’ content.”