On the night the Ayatollah Khomeini died, 3 June 1989, I was fast asleep in a guest room at the Tehran home of a famous cinematographer, a friend of my bohemian parents. The adults were glued to state TV in the living room. Contraband booze flowed, as usual, fortifying the …

Iranian activists of all stripes opposed to the Islamic Republic and many citizens were in celebratory mood on social media after Israel’s June 13, 2025, attack on military and nuclear targets in Iran. An anonymous activist with 157,000 followers on X wrote, “It appears that Israel has eliminated the entire …

Israel’s large-scale assault on Iran appears to have stunned the country’s military leadership and may have delayed an immediate retaliatory strike. But it remains unclear whether it achieved its primary objective: crippling Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel claims Tehran is on the verge of weaponizing despite claims from Iran that …