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Like other exiled Iranians, chess champion Mitra Hejazipour has been scouring social media for news about anti-government protests in her homeland and battling to reach friends and family through an ongoing internet shutdown.The 32-year-old is one of the greatest chess players Iran has ever produced, but she fled to France five years ago after removing her mandatory headscarf during a competition in Moscow.Speaking to AFP in Paris to promote her autobiography, Hejazipour said recent events had been “highly distressing” amid a brutal crackdown on protests which monitoring groups estimate has cost the lives of thousands of people. “I haven’t been able to reach my family in Iran for ten days because the internet and phone service are cut off,” she explained. “But I managed to speak to a friend who works in a hospital. She told me there were many gunshot wounds, especially to the eyes. And many deaths. She was so depressed she found it hard to talk about it,” she added.She added that it was “very hard to sleep or eat. But we’re hanging in there,” driven by hope that “the sacrifice of Iranians” will not be in vain. The protests were sparked by economic strain in late December and have exploded into the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in years, with the full scale of the violent crackdown yet to emerge. Rights groups say they have verified at least several thousand protesters killed by Iranian security forces, with some estimates putting the figure as high as 20,000 dead. – ‘Wretched country’ -Since fleeing Iran, Hejazipour has gone on to gain French nationality, becoming national champion in 2023 and helping the French to third place at the world team championships in the same year.She believes that the days are numbered for the Iranian Islamic Republic because “the Iranian people are increasingly mobilised and angry.” “It could be tomorrow, or in a year, but I’m sure the regime will fall soon. It can’t go on like this,” she added. She sees Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former shah, who lives in exile in the United States, as the “unifying figure” who “can accompany the Iranian people in the transition and the establishment of a democratic system.” “Every day, when I wake up, I turn on my phone hoping that (Supreme Leader Ali) Khamenei is dead, that the regime has fallen, and that we can return to a free Iran,” she added. In her book “The Chess Player”, which releases in French this week, Hejazipour recounts her childhood in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, and her life as a chess prodigy.She started playing aged six with her father. “I sensed very early on that chess would be a balm to soothe my sorrow, my shield against life’s uncertainties,” she writes. But one day in 2019, “I knew I had to leave Iran, that wretched country where I no longer felt at home.” “I imagined tearing off my veil, trampling it, ripping it, burning it,” she writes —   which she did at the World Championship in Moscow in December 2019. “I was warmly welcomed in France and met wonderful people, but it’s not easy to rebuild your life in anonymity when I was known in Iran,” she told AFP. Now living in Paris, she has founded a charity to encourage more women to take up chess as “a tool of empowerment.” 

Hundreds of Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews protested on Tuesday to voice their religious objections to planned autopsies of two babies who died in an incident at an unlicensed nursery in Jerusalem a day earlier.Israeli doctors declared the babies dead after medics evacuated 55 children from the daycare centre in an area of Jerusalem inhabited by members of the ultra-Orthodox community, though they have not yet specified a cause of death. Israeli media reported that the incident could have been connected to the daycare’s heating system, suggesting heat exhaustion and dehydration as possible causes.A supreme court ruling reportedly issued Tuesday afternoon appears to have blocked the post-mortems, but not before unruly protest scenes broke out on Tuesday in Jerusalem and other Israeli cities, according to police.An AFP photographer in Jerusalem reported seeing dozens of demonstrators scuffling with police, who used water cannon and smoke grenades against the crowd.”Rioters are setting fire to and rolling dumpsters, causing extensive damage to infrastructure, attacking and clashing with civilians and police officers, and blocking trains and vehicles in an attempt to disrupt daily life,” a police statement said.Certain hardline sections of the ultra-Orthodox community disagree with autopsies, saying any interference with a dead body is a desecration according to the Torah. The protests first sprung up late Monday over a Jerusalem court ruling allowing autopsies to be performed on the two babies’ bodies. But Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported that the supreme court overturned the lower court’s decision on Tuesday after an appeal from the families of the deceased children.Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews had taken to the streets of Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh and Bnei Brak on Tuesday to protest the planned post-mortems. Police said they arrested 11 people during protests in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, “including a rioter who bit a police officer”.In a separate statement, they said one protester had been hit by a vehicle and was “evacuated to hospital in moderate condition”.Police also reported that a driver in Jerusalem was “attacked by rioters” but was removed from the scene unharmed, sharing a video of around 200 ultra-Orthodox men surrounding a car. Kan reported Tuesday that two caregivers at the centre were being held on “suspicion of reckless manslaughter” and that their detention had been extended until Thursday.Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 14 percent of Israel’s Jewish population, or about 1.3 million people.

Israeli bulldozers began demolitions at the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in east Jerusalem on Tuesday, in what the organisation called an “unprecedented attack”.UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler said in a statement to AFP that Israeli forces “stormed into” the compound shortly after 7:00 am (0500 GMT) and ejected security guards from the site, before bulldozers entered and began demolishing buildings.”This is an unprecedented attack against UNRWA and its premises. And it also constitutes a serious violation of international law and the privileges and immunities of the United Nations,” Fowler said.”What happens today to UNRWA can happen tomorrow to any other international organisation or diplomatic mission around the world,” he added.Roland Friedrich, the agency’s director in the West Bank, called the move political.Friedrich told AFP “it seems the intent is to seize the land for settlement construction as has openly been stated by Israeli officials for many years in the media and elsewhere”.The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority condemned the demolitions, warning of the “gravity of this deliberate escalation against UNRWA” and calling the move “an attempt to undermine the international protection system for Palestinian refugees”.AFP photos showed heavy machinery demolishing structures at the compound, as an Israeli flag fluttered overhead.An AFP photographer reported that far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir briefly visited the site.”This is a historic day, a day of celebration and a very important day for governance in Jerusalem,” Ben Gvir was quoted as saying in a statement.”For years, these supporters of terrorism were here, and today they are being removed from here along with everything they built in this place. This is what will happen to every supporter of terrorism,” he added.Israel has repeatedly accused UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas militants, claiming that some of its employees took part in the group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.A series of investigations, including one led by France’s former foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA but stressed Israel had not provided conclusive evidence for its headline allegation.- ‘No immunity’ -An Israeli foreign ministry statement defended the demolitions and said “the State of Israel owns the Jerusalem compound”.The compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem has been empty of UNRWA staff since January 2025, when a law banning its operations took effect after a months-long battle over its work in the Gaza Strip.”UNRWA-Hamas had already ceased its operations at this site and no longer had any UN personnel or UN activity there,” the foreign ministry said.”The compound does not enjoy any immunity and the seizure of this compound by Israeli authorities was carried out in accordance with both Israeli and international law,” it said.UNRWA’s Friedrich said the UN rejected the Israeli claim and insisted that the compound “remains United Nations property and is protected by the privileges and immunities of the UN, regardless of whether it is currently in use”.Although the UNRWA ban applies in east Jerusalem because of its annexation by Israel, the agency still operates in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini also denounced the demolitions on X, saying it was yet another attempt by “Israeli authorities to erase the Palestine Refugee identity”.As the UN agency created specifically for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced from their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948, UNRWA provides refugee status registration, as well as health and education services for Palestinian refugees.Along with refugee status, which is passed on through generations, comes the right of return, which Israel contests, and is one of the most contentious issues for a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.Months after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, Israeli authorities declared UN chief Antonio Guterres and Lazzarini personae non gratae in Israel.Jordan’s foreign ministry “strongly condemned” the demolition, calling it “a blatant violation of international law”.The Saudi foreign ministry also voiced its “strongest condemnation” and expressed support for the UN agency.The UNRWA compound was a prison during the time of the Ottoman Empire, and later became property of the Jordanian government, which subsequently transferred it to UNRWA.

Clashes erupted on Turkey’s border with Syria Tuesday between police and pro-Kurdish protesters angered by a Syrian military offensive targeting Kurds, an AFP correspondent said.The violence broke out in the border town of Nusaybin, just across from the northern Syrian town of Qamishli, at a protest called by the pro-Kurdish DEM, Turkey’s third-largest party.More than 1,000 demonstrators marched through the town towards the border, ending in a confrontation with police, who fired tear gas and used water cannon to disperse them.The clashes come after Syrian forces launched an offensive nearly two weeks ago that pushed the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) out of Aleppo, then advanced deep into the northeastern area held by Kurdish forces.The move has angered Kurds across the region, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group in Turkey.An AFP correspondent said some people at the Turkish border protest hurled stones at police, while others tried to cross into Syria.Footage from the scene showed some trying to scale the wire fences, while protesters could also be seen gathering on the Syrian side.Earlier, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya warned that Turkey would not tolerate “provocations”.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the Syrian army for its “careful” offensive to take over Kurdish-held areas, but the move has triggered fury among Turkey’s Kurds, who make up a fifth of the country’s 86 million residents.”Mr President (Erdogan), you are congratulating HTS, which is killing our Kurdish brothers. There is a war going on!” DEM co-chair Tulay Hatimogullari said at the protest, referring to the Islamist-led rebels now ruling Syria.Earlier, talks between the SDF and the Syrian government “collapsed”, a Kurdish official told AFP, leaving the situation in the northeast on a knife-edge.In Ankara, Turkey’s top diplomat, Hakan Fidan, huddled for talks with US Syria envoy Tom Barrack, later expressing Turkish support for a weekend ceasefire deal announced by Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa.”Despite all the difficulties, implementation of the January 18 agreement will play an extremely important role in the unity and integrity of Syria,” Fidan said.- ‘Whatever is necessary’ -The violence has also raised serious doubts about Turkey’s peace process with the PKK, which last year said it was ending its four-decade insurgency in favour of democratic means to advance the Kurdish struggle.That process largely stalled amid the stand-off in Syria over plans to integrate the SDF into the central state.On Tuesday, the PKK vowed it would “never abandon” the Kurds of Syria “whatever the cost”.”We, the entire Kurdish people and the movement, will do whatever is necessary,” senior PKK leader Murat Karayilan told pro-Kurdish news agency Firat.DEM, which has been mediating between Ankara and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, has been enraged over Turkey’s support for the Syrian offensive.”You cannot treat those you call ‘citizens’ on this side of the border as ‘enemies’ on the other,” it said on Sunday, accusing Ankara of “pure hypocrisy”.Police in Turkey broke up two pro-Kurdish protests on Monday — one in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir and another outside a DEM office in Istanbul at which 10 people were arrested, including a French journalist.Wladimir van Wilgenburg, an author and expert on Syrian Kurdish affairs, said the unrest risked collapsing Turkey’s efforts to end the PKK conflict.”There’s a risk it could blow up with cross-border protests,” he told AFP.”Kurdish groups in Syria have called on the Kurds, both in Iraqi Kurdistan and in southeastern Turkey, to come and cross the border and join them in solidarity,” he added.