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Some shopkeepers in Tehran shut their stores for the second day in a row Monday in protest against economic hardships and sharp swings in Iran’s embattled currency, media reports said.The rial has hit new lows on the unofficial market, with the US dollar trading at around 1.42 million rials on Sunday — compared to 820,000 rials a year ago — and the euro nearing 1.7 million rials, according to price monitoring websites.The rates eased somewhat on Monday, with the dollar at around 1.39 million rials, and the euro at about 1.64 million rials.A journalist from the pro-labour news agency ILNA reported “demonstrations” at several bazaars in the centre of the capital on Monday, the agency said.It said protesters “are demanding immediate government intervention to rein in exchange-rate fluctuations and set out a clear economic strategy”.Price fluctuations are paralysing the sales of some imported goods, with both sellers and buyers preferring to postpone transactions until the outlook becomes clearer, AFP correspondents noted.”Continuing to do business under these conditions has become impossible,” ILNA quoted protesters as saying.State news agency IRNA reported: “Many shopkeepers preferred to suspend sales in order to prevent potential losses.”It added that some protesters on Monday “chanted slogans”.The conservative-aligned Fars news agency released images showing a crowd of demonstrators occupying a major thoroughfare in central Tehran, known for its many shops.Another photograph appears to show tear gas being used to disperse protesters.”Minor physical clashes were reported… between some protesters and the security forces,” Fars said, warning that such gatherings could lead to instability.- Judicial warning -On Sunday, the ISNA news agency said a group of shopkeepers and mobile phone vendors at a main shopping centre in the city “protested against sharp fluctuations in the exchange rate and the damage caused to the mobile phone market” by briefly shutting up shop.On Monday, Iranian Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei called for “the swift punishment of those responsible for currency fluctuations”, the justice ministry’s Mizan agency reported.The government has also announced the replacement of the central bank governor.”By decision of the president, Abdolnasser Hemmati will be appointed governor of the Central Bank,” presidency communications official Mehdi Tabatabaei posted on X.Hemmati is a former economy and finance minister who was dismissed by parliament in March because of the sharp depreciation of the rial.On Sunday, President Masoud Pezeshkian delivered the budget for the next Persian year to parliament, vowing to fight inflation and the high cost of living.Notably, the budget provides for a 20 percent increase in wages, a rate that is nonetheless well below that of inflation.In December inflation stood at 52 percent year-on-year, according to official statistics. But this figure still falls far short of many price increases, especially for basic necessities.Iran’s economy, already battered by decades of Western sanctions, was further strained after the United Nations in late September reinstated international sanctions linked to the country’s nuclear programme that were lifted 10 years ago.Western powers and Israel accuse Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.Negotiations with the United States on the issue are at a standstill, and uncertainty stemming from 12 days of war in June against Israel is also affecting the economic outlook.Pezeshkian in an interview published on Saturday accused the United States, Israel and Europeans of waging “total war” against Iran.

India’s navy boasts aircraft carriers, submarines, warships and frontline vessels of steel as it spreads its maritime power worldwide.But none of its vessels is as unusual as its newest addition that sets sail on its maiden Indian Ocean crossing on Monday — a wooden stitched ship inspired by a fifth-century design, built not to dominate the seas but to remember how India once traversed them.Steered by giant oars rather than a rudder, with two fixed square sails to catch seasonal monsoon winds, it heads westward on its first voyage across the seas, a 1,400-kilometre (870-mile) voyage to Oman’s capital Muscat.Named Kaundinya, after a legendary Indian mariner, its 20-metre (65-foot) long hull is sewn together with coconut coir rope rather than nailed.”This voyage reconnects the past with the present,” Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan said, sending the ship off from Porbandar, in India’s western state of Gujarat, on an estimated two-week crossing.”We are not only retracing ancient pathways of trade, navigation, and cultural exchange, but also reaffirming India’s position as a natural maritime bridge across the Indian Ocean.”The journey evokes a time when Indian sailors were regular traders with the Roman Empire, the Middle East, Africa, and lands to the east — today’s Thailand, Indonesia, China and as far as Japan.”This voyage is not just symbolic,” Swaminathan said. “It is of deep strategic and cultural significance to our nation, as we aim to resurrect and revive ancient Indian maritime concepts and capabilities in all their forms.”- ‘A bridge’ -The ship’s 18-strong crew has already sailed north along India’s palm-fringed coast, from Karnataka to Gujarat.”Our peoples have long looked to the Indian Ocean not as a boundary, but as a bridge carrying commerce and ideas, culture and friendship, across its waters,” said Oman’s ambassador to India, Issa Saleh Alshibani.”The monsoon winds that once guided traditional ships between our ports also carried a shared understanding that prosperity grows when we remain connected, open and cooperative.”The journey is daunting. The ship’s builders have refused modern shortcuts, instead relying on traditional shipbuilding methods.”Life on board is basic — no cabins, just the deck,” said crew member Sanjeev Sanyal, the 55-year-old historian who conceived the project, who is also Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic adviser.”We sleep on hammocks hanging from the mast,” he told AFP before the voyage.Sanyal, an Oxford-educated scholar and former international banker, drew up the blueprints with traditional shipwrights, basing designs on descriptions from ancient texts, paintings and coins.”Vasco da Gama is 500 years back,” he said, referring to the Portuguese sailor who reached India in 1498. “This is 6,000-, 7,000-year-old history.”- ‘So much gold’ -India is part of the Quad security alliance with the United States, Australia and Japan, seen as a counterweight to Beijing’s presence in the Indian Ocean.For India, the voyage is also a soft-power showcase to challenge perceptions that it was China’s “Silk Road” caravans that dominated ancient East-West trade.That land trade, as described by 13th-century Venetian merchant Marco Polo, peaked centuries after India’s sea route.”India was running such large surpluses with the Romans that you have Pliny the Elder… complaining that they were losing so much gold to India,” Sanyal said.The ship’s only modern power source is a small battery for a radio transponder and navigation lights, because wooden vessels do not show up well on radar.”When you hit a big wave, you can see the hull cave in a little bit”, he said, explaining that the stitched design allowed it to flex.”But it is one thing to know this in theory,” he said. “It is quite another thing to build one of these and have skin in the game by sailing it oneself.”

Mining company Axis International said Monday it was seeking World Bank arbitration against Guinea for withdrawing its right to operate a major bauxite mine in the west African country.Guinea, which has been run by a junta since a coup in 2021, has cancelled dozens of licences for international and domestic companies mining bauxite, gold, iron ore or diamonds over recent months.Axis International, which is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, had operated Guinea’s second-biggest bauxite mine with estimated reserves of more than 800 million tonnes since 2010.The company said it has appealed to the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Dispute (ICSID), a World Bank organisation based in Washington, DC, seeking compensation of $28 billion from Guinea’s government.Axis International said in a statement it had previously made several attempts for an amicable settlement which the junta in Conakry ignored.The company said it rejected Guinea’s argument that the mine was non-operational and under-exploited.Mamady Doumbouya, a general who led the junta that seized power four years ago, has made the exploitation of Guinea’s mining reserves a priority for his government.In November, the government launched the exploitation of one of the world’s biggest iron ore deposits, Simandou in the southeast of the country, with a major ceremony.Guinea is among the world’s key producers of bauxite, used for the production of aluminium.It also has major deposits of iron ore, diamonds, gold and uranium.But the distribution of income from their exploitation is seen as inequitable, benefiting mostly the mining companies and not the local population.Experts put this down to a lack of investment in local economic development and infrastructure, especially roads, as well as to corruption and shortcomings in the legal framework.Since seizing power, Doumbouya has cracked down on civil liberties, and protests have been banned while opponents have been arrested, put on trial or driven into exile.He is the frontrunner in a presidential election held Sunday, with the votes still being counted.More than half of Guinea’s population live in poverty, according to the World Bank.

A British-Egyptian activist apologised Monday for resurfaced social media posts in which he called for violence against Zionists and police, as opposition lawmakers urged the UK government to revoke his citizenship.The posts, dating back to 2010, came to light just days after Alaa Abdel Fattah returned to Britain following years of diplomatic efforts by London to secure his release from detention in Egypt.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “delighted” Abdel Fattah had been reunited with his loved ones, but the opposition Conservatives and hard-right Reform UK party called for the activist to be deported.”Looking at the tweets now — the ones that were not completely twisted out of their meaning — I do understand how shocking and hurtful they are, and for that I unequivocally apologise,” Abdel Fattah said in a statement.”I must also stress that some tweets have been completely misunderstood, seemingly in bad faith,” he added.Abdel Fattah was a leading voice in Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising.He was detained in Egypt in September 2019, and in December 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of spreading false news.  He went on hunger strike this March while behind bars and was later released after being pardoned by Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi.- ‘Abhorrent’ posts condemned -The UK foreign ministry condemned Abdel Fattah’s earlier posts on Sunday, describing them as “abhorrent” in a statement.But it added that it had been “a long-standing priority under successive governments” to work for his release.Abdel Fattah was granted UK citizenship in December 2021 when the Conservatives were in power. He obtained it through his British-born mother.The Conservatives’ justice spokesman, Robert Jenrick, called for Starmer to look into stripping Abdel Fattah of the citizenship.”If the Prime Minister really was unaware that El Fattah was an extremist, he should immediately retract his comments expressing ‘delight’ at his arrival and begin proceedings to revoke his citizenship and deport him,” Jenrick posted on X.Anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, leader of Reform, wrote a letter to interior minister Shabana Mahmood urging her to “order” the deportation of Abdel Fattah.”It should go without saying that anyone who possesses racist and anti-British views such as those of Mr el-Fattah should not be allowed into the UK,” Farage wrote.Abdel Fattah received the presidential pardon in September. He arrived in the UK last Friday after Egypt’s attorney general lifted an apparent travel ban.The Freedom for Alaa campaign said the activist had been reunited with his 14-year-old son, who lives in the southern city of Brighton.Abdel Fattah was nominated for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize in 2014 but the group backing him withdrew the nomination for the human rights award, saying they had discovered a tweet from 2012 in which he called for the murder of Israelis.