The U.S. Treasury Department has issued further sanctions targeting companies that manufacture, sell, and ship Iranian drones as part of an effort to curb their use by Russia in its full-scale war in Ukraine.

The sanctions announced on April 25 have been imposed on more than a dozen entities, individuals, and vessels “that have played a central role in facilitating and financing the clandestine sale of Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).”

The MODAFL is in turn supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Russia’s war in Ukraine, the department said in a news release.

The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) singled out the company Sahara Thunder, saying it is the main front company that oversees MODAFL’s commercial activities in support of the IRGC and Russia's war in Ukraine.

The company plays a key role in the design, development, manufacture, and sale of thousands of drones, many of which are ultimately transferred to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine, the Treasury Department said.

Among the individuals designated for sanctions are three officials of Sahara Thunder -- Kazem Mirzai Kondori, Hossein Bakshayesh, and Hojat Abdulahi Fard.

OFAC is also designating two companies and a vessel that it says are involved in the shipment of Iranian commodities for Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars, a company that plays a leading role in the commercial activities of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS), the Treasury said.

The Treasury Department said its actions were concurrent with sanctions announced on April 25 by Britain and Canada targeting several entities and individuals involved in Iran’s UAV procurement and other military-related activities.

“Iran’s Ministry of Defense continues to destabilize the region and world with its support to Russia’s war in Ukraine, unprecedented attack on Israel, and proliferation of UAVs and other dangerous military hardware to terrorist proxies,” Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said in the news release.

He said the United States will continue its close coordination with Britain and Canada and continue to use "all means available to combat those who would finance Iran’s destabilizing activities."

The new sanctions also hit an Iran-based company involved in the procurement and development of drones, quadcopters, engines, and electronic and digital parts along with its leadership and an Iranian cargo airline.

The United States and Britain last week announced sanctions on Iran targeting its drone production capabilities in response to its April 13 attack on Israel.

The U.S. designated 16 individuals and two entities on April 18 for allegedly enabling Iran’s drone production, including engine types that power Iran’s Shahed drones.

The sanctions freeze any assets the individuals and entities have in U.S. jurisdiction and generally bar Americans from dealing with them.

Ukraine's agriculture minister offered to resign on April 25 after he was named as a suspect in a multimillion-dollar corruption investigation. Mykola Solskiy offered his resignation in a handwritten letter, which Ukrainian parliamentary Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk published on Facebook. Solskiy’s offer will be considered at an upcoming session of parliament, Stefanchuk said. Solskiy has been accused of illegally seizing land worth about 291 million hryvnias ($7 million). Solskiy says the matter involves events in 2017-2018 and land that was given to soldiers "in accordance with the law." He promised to cooperate with the investigation. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, click here.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken about the possibility of nationalizing Russia’s industrial facilities. Speaking at the congress of the Union of Russian Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on April 25, Putin said industrial facilities could be nationalized "when actions or inactions of the companies' owners impose direct damage on the country’s security and national interests." According to Transparency International and the newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe, since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, courts have received 40 requests to nationalize more than 180 private companies with assets of 1.04 trillion rubles ($11.1 billion). To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron told RFE/RL that his country is open to building a deeper partnership with Kazakhstan.

In an interview in Astana on April 25, Cameron said that while preserving its ongoing ties and cooperation with Russia and China, Kazakhstan also has "the choice to have a deeper partnership with Britain."

"I think we already have a great partnership on education, on business, on the economy, on trade, political cooperation. I've seen that growth since I first came here 13 years ago. The point is, we are a voluntary partner, a choice you can make if you want to make that choice," Cameron said.

Cameron also said that he and Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev met the previous day and discussed the Kazakh government's current efforts to return illegally obtained assets kept abroad back to Kazakhstan, emphasizing that "it's vital that we work with you to try and find that money and return it. "

Britain is one of the first countries in the world that introduced what's called unexplained wealth orders, he said. This allows an examination of the origins of someone's wealth, and if it was stolen, "we can take it back and return it," he added.

He admitted that it was "not working as well as I'd like" but said Britain is "committed to working with you to make this happen."

Britain introduced unexplained wealth orders (UWO) in 2017 to give U.K. law enforcement a means of compelling targeted individuals to reveal the sources of any riches that could not be accounted for. Under a UWO, Britain's National Crime Agency can apply to seize property when a suspected corrupt foreign official, or member of their family, cannot identify a legitimate source of the funds used for buying it.

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On Central Asian Trip, U.K. Foreign Secretary Cameron Criticizes Russia's 'Aggression'

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Cameron also said that Britain could play an important role in the implementation of Kazakhstan's plans to build nuclear power plants.

"We've been making small nuclear reactors for many years because they've been in our submarines. And I think there is potential for companies like Rolls-Royce to produce these small nuclear reactors for other countries," Cameron added.

Cameron held separate talks on April 24 with Toqaev and Kazakh Foreign Minister Murat Nurtileu. The sides discussed regional security, cooperation, and the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said.

An agreement on strategic partnership and cooperation between the two nations was signed during the Cameron-Nurtileu talks.

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U.K.'s Cameron Seeks To Define Common Interests On Visit To Kyrgyzstan

Earlier this week, Cameron also held talks with top officials in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. He is also scheduled to visit Mongolia during his ongoing diplomatic tour of Central Asia.

Iranian civil political activists, including several who are currently imprisoned, have condemned the government's "military" aggression toward women through its renewed enforcement of the mandatory hijab, according to a document made available to RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.

The statement criticizes the "government's mobilization" against women and highlights what it calls "a persistent campaign of arrests and repression" and emphasizes that, despite "the oppressive measures, the people of Iran remain committed to seeking freedom."

Following the death of in September 2022 of Mahsa Amini, who died while detained by the morality police, and the subsequent nationwide protests it sparked, the presence of morality police vehicles in cities had noticeably decreased.

But since April 14, law enforcement and plainclothes officers have escalated violent tactics against women and girls in Tehran and other cities in enforcing the Hijab and Chastity Law, resulting in numerous detentions following public assaults.

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Iran's 'Ambassadors Of Kindness' Enforce Hijab In New Head Scarf Crackdown

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The activists' statement accuses the government of using the law as a tool to control lifestyles and maintain the state's power through fear.

Signatories to the statement include prominent figures such as Narges Mohammadi, Mostafa Tajzadeh, and Faezeh Hashemi, who called the government's actions inhumane and illegal.

They argued that the state's treatment of women resisting the hijab mandate not only violates human rights, but also demonstrates the regime's "misogynistic stance."

The new crackdown on women for not adhering to the hijab, or Islamic head scarf, intensified after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave a directive during the recent Eid al-Fitr prayer sermon to step up enforcement measures against what he called "religious norm-breaking" within Iranian society.

Khamenei also emphasized that the mandatory hijab law was a "definite religious decree," underscoring the obligation of all to adhere to this the same as other legal decrees.

The resurgence of the morality police has sparked increased tensions and confrontations across various cities.

Despite the backlash and public outcry, including from some regime supporters, the national police command says the crackdown will continue.

The hijab became compulsory for women and girls over the age of 9 in 1981, two years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The move triggered protests that were swiftly crushed by the new authorities. Many women have flouted the rule over the years and pushed the boundaries of what officials say is acceptable clothing.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

European lawmakers have approved a resolution that calls for the "immediate and unconditional release" of all political prisoners held in Russia, including journalists Alsu Kurmasheva and Evan Gershkovich.

The resolution was part of a joint motion in the European Parliament on April 25, condemning Russia's "undemocratic" presidential election last month and their "illegitimate extension" to territories inside Ukraine that Moscow has illegally annexed.

The resolution -- which was approved by 493 MEPs in favor while 11 were against and 18 abstained -- calls "for the immediate and unconditional release and compensation of all political prisoners...unjustly imprisoned journalists, including Alsu Kurmasheva and Evan Gershkovich, and their families, for the restoration of freedom of expression and association in Russia and for increased international scrutiny and monitoring of human rights abuses in Russia."

Among others, the resolution names Vladimir Kara-Murza, Oleg Orlov, Ksenia Fadeeva, Ivan Safronov, and Ilya Yashin as political prisoners who should be released.

Kurmasheva, a Prague-based journalist with RFE/RL who holds dual U.S. and Russian citizenship, has been held in Russian custody since October 18 on a charge of violating the so-called "foreign agent" law.

RFE/RL and the U.S. government say the charges are a reprisal for her work as a journalist. She had traveled to Russia to visit and care for her elderly mother and was initially detained while waiting for her return flight on June 2 at Kazan airport, where her passports were confiscated.

Kurmasheva, 47, was arrested in Kazan and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent under a punitive Russian law that targets journalists, civil society activists, and others. She’s also been charged with spreading falsehoods about the Russian military and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

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After 6 Months In Russian Detention, RFE/RL Journalist Still Making Sense Of It All

Many critics and rights groups say the so-called foreign agent law is used by the Kremlin to crack down on any dissent. Moscow has also been accused of detaining Americans to use as bargaining chips to exchange for Russians jailed in the United States.

Kurmasheva, who lives in the Czech capital with her husband, Pavel Butorin, who also works for RFE/RL, and their two daughters, aged 12 and 15, has described her prison conditions as poor and said her health has deteriorated as she has been unable to access proper treatment.

Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, has been held in detention since March 2023 on spying charges both he and the newspaper vehemently deny, saying the 32-year-old was merely doing his job as an accredited reporter when he was arrested.

Gershkovich has been designated as wrongfully detained by the U.S. government. Kurmasheva, however, has not, despite pleas from RFE/RL and Kurmasheva’s family.

The designation would mean her case would be assigned to the office of the Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs in the State Department, raising the political profile of her situation and allowing the Biden administration to allocate more resources to securing her release.

President Vladimir Putin easily won the March presidential election, which independent observers said was neither free nor fair. The vote was the first major election to take place in Russia since Putin launched his full-scale invasion.

Four people were arrested in Georgia as part of a Europe-wide operation to bust a gang of thieves specialized in the stealing of rare books, the Georgian Prosecutor-General's Office said on April 25. Separately, the EU police agency Europol said in a statement that the gang was believed to be responsible for the theft of at least 170 rare books by Russian authors, such as Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol. Some books had been sold at auction houses in St Petersburg and Moscow, "effectively making them irrecoverable," Europol said. The damage is estimated at 2.5 million euros ($2.7 million), it said. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Georgian Service, click here.

A Bishkek court fined activist Kanykei Aranova 120,000 soms ($1,350) on April 25 for inciting hatred and released her on condition that she will not leave the Kyrgyz capital. Aranova was arrested in February as part of a case concerning protests against a Kyrgyz-Uzbek border deal that led to the arrests of 27 people. Aranova was charged with inciting hatred and making online calls to seize power after the 37-year-old posted comments on Facebook in 2022 challenging the border demarcation deal, which saw Kyrgyzstan hand over the territory of the Kempir-Abad water reservoir to Uzbekistan. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

A Moscow court on April 25 fined Anastasia Ivleyeva, the organizer of a party in December that sparked a scandal, 50,000 rubles ($535) on a charge of discrediting Russia's armed forces. The charge stemmed from her March 2022 online post questioning the Kremlin's decision to launch the invasion of Ukraine. The "Almost Naked" party at a Moscow nightclub in December 2023 caused outrage among lawmakers and pro-Kremlin groups. Ivleyeva and celebrities who attended the party issued apologies amid a wave of official criticism because the party violated "family values." A rapper who attended the event wearing only a sock covering his genitalia was sentenced to 15 days in jail on a hooliganism charge. To read the original story by Current Time, click here.

Authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka said that "several dozen Russian nuclear weapons" were deployed in Belarus, a move that has raised concerns in the West that Moscow's war against Ukraine could spread.

Speaking at the All-Belarusian People's Assembly in Minsk that was broadcast live on YouTube on April 25, Lukashenka, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the gathering had unanimously adopted a new military doctrine that considers the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil as a strategic deterrent.

Belarus has provided logistical support to Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, Moscow has moved tactical nuclear weapons into Belarus -- the first relocation of such warheads outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

NATO has called the move "dangerous and irresponsible."

Lukashenka said it was "a mistake" that all strategic nuclear weapons were removed from Belarus after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 and that Russia's tactical nuclear weapons "must" stay in Belarus.

He added, however, that Belarusian independence must be preserved "no matter what."

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

Lukashenka often talks up the dangers of an attack by NATO or Ukraine as the reason his country needs to keep its military in a constant state of high alert.

In the speech, he claimed opposition groups planned to seize an area in western Belarus and request support from NATO troops.

Belarus's security service said on April 25 it had thwarted an attack on Minsk by drones launched from Lithuania, a claim quickly refuted by officials in Vilnius.

Lukashenka called on the West to "end the standoff with Russia by calling it a draw," which would spur the peace process and end the conflict in Ukraine.

"Otherwise Ukraine stops existing," he said.

The All-Belarusian People's Assembly is a general meeting of the government with industry leaders. It has previously been held six times from 1996 to 2021.

Opposition politicians and activists have criticized the event, calling it a tool of Lukashenka's propaganda intended to demonstrate unanimous support for the authoritarian leader, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1994.

President Emmanuel Macron appealed on April 25 for stronger, more integrated European defenses and said the continent must not become a vassal of the United States, as he outlined his vision for a more assertive European Union on the global stage. Macron said Russia must not be allowed to win in Ukraine, and he called for a boost in Europe's cybersecurity capacity, closer defense ties with post-Brexit Britain, and the creation of a European academy to train high-ranking military personnel. "There is a risk our Europe could die. We are not equipped to face the risks," Macron said.

Prosecutors in Kazakhstan asked a court to sentence to eight years in prison a man accused of attacking a bus driver in Almaty in December 2023, causing the deaths of three pedestrians. On December 22, a bus went out of control and hit three people after a male passenger attacked a female bus driver. The bus careened into bus stop filled with people and collided with four other vehicles. Four people, along with the bus driver, were injured. The attacker was arrested and charged with obstruction of a public transportation employee's work and hooliganism. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

A court in Russia's Komi region on April 24 issued an arrest warrant for Garry Kasparov, opposition politician and a co-founder of the Free Russia Forum, on a charge of creating and leading a "terrorist" group. The Syktyvkar City Court also issued arrest warrants for several other Russian opposition politicians and activists in exile on the same charge. Last month, Russia added Kasparov to its list of terrorists and extremists, an action generally used by the Kremlin to crack down on political opponents. Kasparov, a former world chess champion and an outspoken Kremlin critic, lives in the United States. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Siberia.Realities, click here.

The German Federal Prosecutor's Office said on April 24 it had charged seven men from Central Asia -- five from Tajikistan, one from Turkmenistan , and one from Kyrgyzstan -- with the creation of a domestic terrorist group and taking part in its activities. Six of the men are also suspected of financially supporting the "foreign terrorist organization Islamic State." According to a statement, the suspects have known each for a long period of time and arrived from Ukraine shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. The suspects have been under arrest since early July 2023. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

The Basmanny district court in Moscow on April 25 sent Aleksandr Fomin, one of the co-founders of the construction company Olympcitystroy, to pretrial detention until at least June 23 on a charge of giving a bribe to Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov. A day earlier, the court ordered Ivanov's pretrial arrest on suspicion of taking a bribe. All of Ivanov's assets, and those of his relatives including his wife, former wives, and children, were impounded and frozen. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu dismissed Ivanov after his arrest. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, click here.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for expanding international sanctions against Russia for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as Kyiv battles against Moscow's more numerous and better armed forces.

Zelenskiy made the call on April 25 as he met in Kyiv with British Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt, with whom he discussed the situation in Ukraine and the need for increased restrictive measures against Russia that are more difficult to avoid.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

"We paid special attention to the sanctions policy," Zelenskiy said on X, formerly Twitter.

"It is important to extend restrictive measures against Russia and make the circumvention of sanctions impossible," he added.

Zelenskiy also thanked Britain for a fresh military-aid package announced earlier in the week by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The $622 million package -- Britain's largest-ever -- was announced by Sunak during a visit to Poland on April 23 and brought the total amount of military aid that London has pledged to Ukraine this financial year to $3.71 billion.

Britain, one of Ukraine's staunchest allies, also said it would send its largest-ever single package of military equipment to Ukraine.

"I thank the people, the Government, the Prime Minister, and the Parliament of the United Kingdom for their support of Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. We highly value our countries’ partnership," Zelenskiy wrote on X.

Hunt also met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, with whom he discussed in particular the contents of the upcoming military package, which is to include air defense systems for Ukraine's battered cities, and the delivery of energy equipment.

"I thanked the U.K for its leadership and constant support for Ukraine, especially for financial and military assistance and sanctions against the Russian Federation. We also discussed Ukraine's energy equipment needs," Shmyhal wrote on X.

Hunt's visit came shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden signed a long-delayed $61 billion military-aid package that was passed by the Senate on April 24.

Biden said that the desperately needed aid, including more air defense systems, would begin flowing again to Ukraine in the following hours.

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Ukraine Welcomes Long-Delayed U.S. Military Aid, Vows To Make Up For Lost Time

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In Ukraine, several civilians were wounded and infrastructure was damaged by Russian shelling on April 25 of several Ukrainian regions.

Six people were injured in the Cherkasy region, said regional administration head Ihor Taburets, who added that critical infrastructure was damaged, without elaborating.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, three rounds of shelling damaged critical energy infrastructure and a gas pipeline but caused no casualties, regional head Serhiy Lysak said.

Four people were wounded in the Donetsk and three in th Kherson regions, regional heads Vadym Filashkin and Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Damage was also reported in the Zaporizhzhya region.

Russia's children's rights commissioner on April 24 announced a deal with Ukraine to exchange almost 50 children displaced by Moscow's invasion, but a Ukrainian official declined to confirm the agreement. Maria Lvova-Belova announced that 29 children are due to go to Ukraine and 19 to Russia. Lvova-Belova said the agreement was reached in "talks with the Ukrainian side" in Doha. But as Russian and Ukrainian officials met with Qatari mediators, the Ukrainian human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, told AFP he "can't confirm the information." The Ukrainian official added that the two countries "don't have any direct communication on this case."

The U.S. State Department confirmed on April 24 that the United States sent long-range missile systems known as ATACMS to Ukraine for use inside its territory, and the weapons arrived in the country this month.

State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters that the ATACMS, short for Army Tactical Missile System, were sent at President Joe Biden's direction.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

Patel’s confirmation came after U.S. media reports said they were used last week to bomb a Russian military airfield on the Crimean Peninsula illegally occupied by Russia in 2014 and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight.

The ATACMS have a longer striking distance -- up to 300 kilometers – than the version of the weapon with a range of 165 kilometers provided by the U.S. in October. They were part of an aid package for Ukraine in March, not the one just approved by Congress and signed by Biden earlier on April 24.

“We did not announce this at the onset in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at their request," Patel said.

White House national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that a "significant number" of the missiles had been sent to Ukraine, adding, "We will send more."

He said Ukraine had committed to only use the weapons inside Ukraine, not in Russia.

The weapons are being sent at a critical time as Russia continues advancing on the battlefield in the eastern region of Donetsk. Russia could make more gains against Ukrainian forces in the coming weeks, Sullivan said.

Patel said Biden directed his national-security team to send the ATACMS specifying that they be used inside Ukrainian sovereign territory.

The Biden administration declined to send them previously over concerns that it would risk further escalating the conflict. According to news reports citing unidentified officials, Russia's use of North Korean-supplied long-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine in December and January led to a change in heart. Russia's continued targeting of Ukraine's critical infrastructure was also a factor, the official said.

The military aid bill signed by Biden clears the way for the Pentagon to announce an assistance package featuring desperately needed artillery and air defense munitions.

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U.S. Air Force General Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs, told a Washington conference on April 24 that the Pentagon had been preparing to send weapons to Ukraine as the bill moved forward in Congress.

“We’ve already leaned pretty far forward on a lot of areas. So we are moving out. We’ll get capability to Ukraine as quickly as possible,” he told the conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

SEE ALSO:

With New U.S. Aid, Ukraine Looks To Stabilize The Line, Seize The Initiative

Ukraine's demand for some armaments, like 155-millimeter artillery shells used in howitzers, has outstripped U.S. production, leading to a decline in U.S. stockpiles.

Following the passage of the aid package, the United States will be able to ramp up production of the shells from 30,000 a month now to 100,000 by next summer, General James Mingus, vice chief of staff of the army, told the CSIS conference.

Ukraine has used more than 2 million shells during the 26-month war, he said, a rate of more than 75,000 a month.

"We've ramped up to a level that is going to be commensurate with the need," Mingus said.

Russia has vetoed a UN resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space. The vote in the 15-member Security Council on April 24 was 13 in favor, with Russia opposed and China abstaining. The resolution calls on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as banned under a 1967 international treaty that included the United States and Russia, and to agree to the need to verify compliance.

Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, detained during the nationwide protests of 2022, has been sentenced to death in what activists called "a new low" in Tehran's crackdown on dissent.

The charges against Salehi also include aiding in rebellion, assembly and conspiracy, propaganda against the regime, and inciting chaos -- all offenses classified under corruption on Earth, as per Article 286 of the Criminal Code.

Surprisingly, the court also imposed additional penalties, including a two-year travel ban and a prohibition on engaging in artistic activities.

Amir Raisian, Salehi’s attorney, said on April 24 that the Isfahan Revolutionary Court issued the sentence for a new charge of "corruption on Earth" while refusing to acknowledge a prior Supreme Court ruling that might have mitigated the case.

Raisian criticized the judgment, saying that, given its legal inconsistencies, his client would launch an appeal.

"The primary court's verdict has clear legal contradictions, particularly ignoring the Supreme Court's guidance which had advised reducing the charge count and considering a pardon," Raisian said in an interview with the Tehran-based Sharq newspaper.

Since unrest rattled the country following the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 in police custody for a supposed head-scarf violation, Iranian authorities have launched a crackdown on even the slightest hint of dissent.

Thousands have been detained, hundreds have died, and there have been credible reports of torture, including by Salehi.

Still, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said Salehi's death sentence "underscores the glaring unlawfulness and injustice of the Islamic republic's judicial system, which has been weaponized and used as a tool by the state security forces to crush dissent and perpetuate political repression."

"This grotesque manipulation of the judicial process aims to silence dissent. Toomaj's imprisonment stems from his vocal advocacy against state oppression. It is imperative that supporters of free speech and dissent unite to demand his immediate release," CHRI Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi said.

Raisian noted that the same court previously acquitted Salehi of other serious allegations, such as disturbing public order and insulting leadership, due to insufficient evidence.

SEE ALSO:

Protesting Rapper's Video Foretelling Iranian Regime's Future Leads To Arrest As Fans Fear For His Life

Salehi, 33, was initially arrested in October 2022 after making public statements in support of the protests, which had erupted the previous month following Amini's death.

He spent much of his pretrial detention in solitary confinement and was subsequently sentenced to more than six years in prison but released after the Supreme Court, on appeal, found "flaws in the original sentence." His case was sent back to a lower court for reexamination and possible retrial.

He was released on bail in November after spending over a year in prison, including 252 days in solitary confinement, but rearrested two weeks later after publicly talking about his alleged torture in prison in a video.

Raisian said reports in local media about a possible pardon or sentence reduction citing Salehi's youth were false. The court, he said, only requested leniency from the pardon commission, which does not impact the execution sentence.

Salehi gained prominence for lyrics that rail against corruption, widespread poverty, executions, and the killing of protesters in Iran.

His songs also point to a widening gap between ordinary Iranians and the country's leadership, accusing the authorities of "suffocating" the people without regard for their well-being.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Kazakh Foreign Minister Murat Nurtileu and visiting British Foreign Secretary David Cameron held talks on April 24 in Astana, focusing on bilateral ties, regional security, cooperation, and the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said. Nurtileu said his country supports a “peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine.” An agreement on strategic partnership and cooperation between the two nations was signed during the talks. Earlier this week, Cameron also held talks with top officials in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. He is also scheduled to visit Mongolia during his ongoing diplomatic tour. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian urged Armenians to “overcome the trauma” of the massacre of their ethnic kin by Ottoman Turks more than a century ago and stop yearning for their “lost homeland” as they marked the anniversary of the Armenian genocide on April 24.

Pashinian said the enduring trauma prevents many Armenians from objectively assessing international affairs and challenges facing Armenia.

“Maybe this is also a reason why we get new shocks, reliving the trauma of the Armenian genocide as a legacy and as a tradition,” he said in a statement as tens of thousands of people marched to the Tsitsernakaberd memorial in Yerevan to commemorate the genocide.

The daylong procession followed a wreath-laying ceremony at the hilltop memorial led by Pashinian, Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian, and President Vahagn Khachaturian. Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, who has increasingly been at odds with Pashinian’s government, was again excluded from the ceremony.

• RFE/RL's Armenian Service

Somber commemorations for the victims of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians were held on April 24 at Armenia’s Genocide Museum complex in Yerevan.

The genocide began on April 24, 1915 with mass arrests of Armenian intellectuals and activists in Constantinople, now Istanbul. An estimated 1.5 million Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire were massacred or died from starvation in the following months and years. About three dozen nations, including Russia, France, Germany, and the United States, have recognized it as genocide.

Pashinian’s statement came amid Yerevan’s ongoing rapprochement with Ankara. Armenia recently said Yerevan seeks full normalization of relations with Ankara, including the opening of their border and the establishment of diplomatic ties. Their strained relationship stems from their differences over whether the killings were a genocide, a distinction Turkey has vehemently rejected.

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Pashinian’s choice of words could risk more opposition allegations that he is helping Turkey deny that the 1915 events were genocide. He frequently used the Armenian phrase Meds Yeghern (Great Crime) in reference to the events of 1915 and did not condemn the regime of the so-called Young Turks that ruled the Ottoman Empire during World War I. He said instead that Ottoman Armenians “became victims of geopolitical intrigues and false promises.”

The commemoration of the genocide “should symbolize not the lost homeland but the found and real homeland, the Republic of Armenia, whose competitive, legitimate, thoughtful and creative policies can preclude a repeat [of the genocide,]” Pashinian said.

Armenians should speak the phrase “never again” only to themselves, not as an accusation but as a point of view that puts Armenians “in charge of our own destiny,” he added.

Earlier this month, a senior Armenian pro-government lawmaker allied with Pashinian, Andranik Kocharian, called for “verifying” the number of the genocide victims, saying Pashinian wants to “make the entire list of compatriots subjected to genocide more objective.”

The remarks sparked uproar from Armenian government critics, civil society figures, and genocide scholars. They accused Kocharian of echoing the Turkish narrative that the number of Armenians who died was lower than the 1.5 million estimated and that the cause was not a premediated Ottoman government policy.

Kocharian said the following day that it was his personal opinion rather than the Pashinian government’s position and denied casting doubt on the Armenian genocide. Opposition leaders dismissed the explanation, continuing to accuse Pashinian of planning another far-reaching concession to Ankara.

Pashinian’s wife, Anna Hakobian, was jeered by several dozen people when she visited the Tsitsernakaberd memorial later on April 24. The hecklers, who apparently included opposition supporters, chanted “Genocidal Nikol!” and “Nikol the Turk!” as Hakobian and one of her daughters surrounded by bodyguards laid flowers by the memorial’s eternal flame.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International has warned that world order is under threat amid a wave of international rule breaking, deepening global inequality, superpower rivalries, and accelerating climate change.

The group said in its annual report on the state of global human rights, released on April 24, that the world is "reaping a harvest of terrifying consequences" from the pressures of escalating conflict and "a near breakdown" of international law, with advances in artificial intelligence likely to exacerbate the situation.

Amnesty said its report "presents a stark assessment of the betrayal of human rights principles by today’s leaders and institutions," and that in the face of multiplying conflicts, "the actions of many powerful states have further damaged the credibility of multilateralism and undermined the global rules-based order first established in 1945."

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"Alongside Russia's ongoing aggression against Ukraine, the growing number of armed conflicts, and massive human rights violations witnessed, for example, in Sudan, Ethiopia and [Burma] – the global rule-based order is at risk of decimation," said Amnesty Secretary General Agnes Callamard.

The report noted that the war in Ukraine, launched by neighboring Russia in February 2022, was another key contributor to the decline in the global human rights situation.

Amnesty called out indiscriminate attacks by Russian forces "on populated areas and civilian energy and grain export infrastructure."

"Both Russian and Ukrainian forces used cluster munitions despite their inherently indiscriminate nature and lasting risks for civilians," the report reads.

The report pointedly criticizes the United States for its "brazen use" of its veto power to "paralyze" the UN Security Council for months as it tried to mediate a halt in fighting between Israel and Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by Washington and the European Union, in the Gaza Strip.

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It also slams the "grotesque double standards" of European countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany, given their "well-founded protestations" about war crimes by Russia and Hamas, while they simultaneously bolster the actions of Israeli and U.S. authorities in this conflict.

The violence erupted after Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7 that killed some 1,200 people, mostly citizens, while around 240 others were taken back to Gaza as hostages. Since then, an Israeli offensive aimed at neutralizing Hamas has killed almost 35,000 people, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza.

“The confounding failure of the international community to protect thousands of civilians -- a horrifically high percentage of them children -- from being killed in the occupied Gaza Strip makes patently clear that the very institutions set up to protect civilians and uphold human rights are no longer fit for purpose. What we saw in 2023 confirms that many powerful states are abandoning the founding values of humanity and universality enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Callamard said.

Law enforcement beefed up security measures in Kazakhstan’s southern town of Zaghambar on April 24 amid a series of crimes feared to be part of ethnic violence. Local police say a teenage boy suspected of sexually assaulting a teenage girl was detained. Media reports say police also launched a probe into arson attacks on two private cars and several households belonging to the suspects’ relatives. The town has been cordoned by police and access to the Internet was blocked in the area. Some 4,000 of the 5,400 residents of Zaghambar are ethnic Uzbeks. Similar situations in the past have caused ethnic conflicts in the Central Asian nation. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service, click here.

U.S. President Joe Biden has signed a long-delayed military aid package hours after it was passed by the Senate, saying U.S. military aid will begin flowing again to Ukraine in the next few hours.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

"America is going to send Ukraine the supplies they need to keep them in the fight," Biden said, speaking from the White House after signing the aid bill on April 24. Biden said the package showed that the United States and its allies fully support Ukraine in its battle against invading Russian forces and that the approval was important to show "we stand up against Putin," a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"In the next few hours we will begin sending air defense munitions, for artillery, for rocket systems, and armored vehicles," Biden said. "I’m making sure the shipments start right away."

The State Department confirmed later on April 24 that the United States sent long-range missile systems known as ATACMS to Ukraine for use inside its territory and the weapons arrived in the country this month. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters that the ATACMS, short for Army Tactical Missile System, were sent at Biden's direction.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Biden for authorizing the desperately needed military aid that had stalled in Congress since late last year.

"No matter what anyone says, we are getting the support we need to continue to protect lives from Russian attacks," Zelenskiy said on X. "Over the past few days, we have already been actively working with our American friends on all levels to include the exact types of weapons that our warriors require in this package."

Biden said that the package was "literally an investment not only in Ukrainian security but in Europe’s security, in our own security." He said that if Congress had not stepped up and passed the aid to Ukraine, it would have sent the wrong signal to NATO, which he said the United States has worked to unify, strengthen, and expand since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

"Imagine instead if we had failed…to step up now and to support Ukraine. All those gains would have begun to unravel. The cohesion of NATO would have been weakened. And our national security would have been undermined without any question," the president said.

Biden spoke from the White House after the U.S. Senate easily approved a package of bills late on April 23. The legislation had stalled in the House of Representatives for months, but House Republican leaders decided last week to bring the measures up for a vote, and they passed on April 20, sending it to the Senate.

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Ukraine Welcomes Long-Delayed U.S. Military Aid, Vows To Make Up For Lost Time

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The bills provide $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, and $8.12 billion "to counter communist China" in the Indo-Pacific. The fourth bill includes a potential ban on the social media app TikTok, measures for the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine, and new sanctions on Iran.

During debate, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat-New York) had urged his Senate colleagues to pass the legislation as Kyiv struggles to hold its territory amid a shortage of weapons and ammunition caused in large part by the delay in U.S. aid.

"This is an is an inflection point in history. Western democracy perhaps faced its greatest threat since the end of the Cold War," Schumer said.

Schumer told a news conference after the aid to Ukraine passed that it was "one of the most important measures Congress has passed in a very long time to protect American security and the security of Western democracy."

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Many of the no votes against the bill came from Republicans, most of whom are allied with former President Donald Trump. The Republicans said they oppose the bill in part because it doesn't include any U.S. security matters, particularly to strengthen the U.S.-Mexico border.

Zelenskiy said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he was grateful to the United States Senate for approving the aid.

"I equally appreciate President Biden's support and look forward to the bill being signed soon and the next military aid package matching the resoluteness that I always see in our negotiations. Ukraine's long-range capabilities, artillery, and air defense are critical tools for restoring just peace sooner," he added.

In the face of an expected wave of weaponry from U.S. and Ukraine's other allies, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said his forces would expand their aerial bombardment of Ukraine to include storage bases that house Western-supplied weapons.

An intense Russian missile and drone strikes campaign on Ukrainian cities has taken a large toll in human lives and has caused huge damage to the country's already battered energy infrastructure after more than two years of war.

With reporting by Reuters and AP