A powerful explosion at Iran’s biggest port of Bandar Abbas caused at least 40 casualties and over 1.000 people injured, state media reported; local firefighters have been joined by Russian specialists, dispatched by plane upon President Putin's order

A 100-million-dollar fund for the development of the artificial intelligence sector in Iran has been launched; the NDF will also grant specific loans to those companies that financially support AI-based projects in universities and scientific centers

Iran increasingly relies on electronic surveillance to inform on women refusing to wear the mandatory headscarf in public; according to latest UN report, state-sponsored vigilantism aims at enlisting businesses and private individuals in hijab compliance

Journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who had been convicted for reporting on Mahsa Amini's case, were pardoned; freed on bail after 17 months' imprisonment last January, their sentences were reduced on appeal in August

A new ballistic missile, capable of travelling 1.700 kilometres, was unveiled at a ceremony in Tehran attended by President Masoud Pezeshkian