Malazan Empire: Werthead - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

Heavy clashes between protesters and regime forces in Shiraz. In Heravi District, Tehran the crowd might be larger than any we've seen to date, and security forces seem to have declined to try to contain them. Very large crowds in Mashhad today.

The regime cut the power in Punak District, Tehran but the demonstrators used flashlights and phone lights to illuminate the area instead. The Ashrafi Esfahani intersection is the nexus for protests in this area. Drones were spotted overhead. Farahzadi Square has been occupied after security forces apparently refused to fire on them.

In Lorestan Province, there are reports of armed clashes between the IRGC and Kurdish forces.

A transportation strike in Tehran, but the regime bussed in replacements to keep the transport system operating.

Some of the regime forces helping crack down on the demonstrations have been chanting Hezbollah slogans, suggesting that Iran is finding disdainful employment for its former allies driven out of Lebanon.

Currency exchange operations in Tehran seem to have ceased and cash machines have stopped working.

A large contingent of American aircraft relocated from the continental US to the UK a few weeks ago have departed and landed in Al-Udeid Airbase in Qatar, and airbases in Saudi Arabia. MQ-4C drones are overflying the Straits of Hormuz but that seems pretty standard. Some claims that two carrier groups could be dispatched to the Middle East seem premature. If the US wants to hit regime targets in Iran, it can do so with forces already in-theatre, or in conjunction with the Israelis. Iranians seem mixed on US strikes due to many key regime targets being in built-up urban areas, making civilian casualties probable (and 100% don't want the Israelis involved).

At least one government building in Tehran is on fire, possibly the tax administration building.

Absolutely huge numbers marching along Valiasr Street, one of Tehran's main thoroughfares and (huh) "the longest street in the Middle East."

Iranians in London tore down the Islamic Republic flag from the Iranian Embassy and replaced it with the Lion-and-Sun flag instead, the flag of the pre-Ayatollah regime. The Iranian Embassy in London is famous as the site of a 1980 hostage crisis.

Lindsey Graham has apparently said that "help is on the way." Whether that strikes horror or hope into Iranian hearts is another matter. The WSJ is saying that the US military has already agreed what government targets to hit and when, and the death toll is basically past what Trump considered reasonable.

Some of the protestors seem to have satellite internet though, so news is still getting out.

The main radio and TV buildings in Isfahan have been torched. In Tehran several regime buildings are on fire as well. One Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters is on fire, it was torched after security forces opened fire on a protesting crowd.

In Khorramabad, a protestor raised the flag of pre-revolutionary Iran in the central square to widespread cheering.

One of the biggest crowds so far was in Mashhad, chanting for the return of Pahlavi.

Reza Pahlavi has said the Iranian monarchy cannot be restored, but a transitional government could be formed to see a transition to a democratic government.

Effectively an ad hoc general strike is underway in Iran, with shops closing and shopkeepers and staff joining protests in over 70 cities and towns.

The size of the protests is huge and getting bigger.

Someone pointed out the bazaars closing and the traders joining the protestors in 1979 was a key moment in the Revolution, so the shutting of the shops, markets and bazaars today and their workers joining the protests will be triggering panic with the Ayatollah and the older members of the regime.

Trump has just said that America will go full hogwild on bombing the regime to pieces if they try to shut down the protests with force, which I think is having some effect. IRGC forces seem to be using live fire, but the police and regular army are mostly staying out of it (and in some places have joined the protests due to delayed pay). President Masoud Pezeshkian is trying to negotiate with the protestors, and he is known as a reformer, possibly in place to placate the people. Pezeshkian might well be trying to separate his government from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

​Ukrainian drone operators becoming increasingly proficient at dislodging Russian horse-riders with drones before detonating. According to one report: "the animal was destroyed, the horse was not harmed."

The UK and US have joined to forces to capture a Russian-flagged Venezuelan ship in the North Atlantic and take into a British port for searching. Some suggestions it may have been trying to evacuate Russian weapons back home. A Russian submarine was reported in the area, and Russian surface ships had been dispatched to intercept, but are too far away. Potentially a flashpoint, though Russian sources are privately acknowledging they can't do anything about it. "The US is too strong, we are not the Soviet Union or China."

Major renewed assault on Pokrovsk, after some signs Ukrainian units had stabilised the situation. Russia assaulted the main defensive line running through the north of the town with an armoured column like in the good old days, with the exact same result as in the good old days: 59 Russian soldiers KIA in a single engagement (possibly a record, at least for the last year or two). Seven armored vehicles destroyed, though three of those can perhaps better be described as "vans."

The 425th Assault Regiment Skelya continues to be active in and around Pokrovsk with heavy use of drones and close-quarters urban combat.

Ukraine increased its defence output by around 50% in 2025 versus 2024, though in some areas (like drones) it was far higher.

Russia still pulling this nonsense:

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The discontent in the country has now spread to regime strongholds Qom and Mashhad. There is no way those places should be tolerating protests, so either the President has told the security services to stand down, or the security services have lost all interest in suppressing them.

The regime's main hope here is that the protests seem to not being channelled systematically towards the downfall of the regime, and there isn't a strong opposition figure for people to rally around.

In the city of Ashkhaneh, North Khorasan province, protestors set fire to a military administration building.

Reza Pahlavi, eldest son of Iran’s last shah, has called on Iranians to rise up in nationwide protests on January 8-9. I'm not sure how much he's actually influencing events versus protestors mentioning him to annoy the regime.

The UK and France have committed ground troops to a post-peace deal Ukraine. Turkey has pledged naval warships to guard the coast. The USA has firmly agreed to provide a military backstop to any deal, and potential aircraft for air patrols. Trump was apparently dragging his feet but the weekend seems to have made him more enthusiastic. Russian sources, unsurprisingly, are lukewarm.

Ukraine has destroyed Russia's 100th GRAU arsenal, a massive missile storage site in Kostroma, NE of Moscow. The site has been pretty thoroughly demolished.

Russia is trying to transport hundreds of tons of uranium ore through Niger. The convoy started from Arlit Mine in the north and took ten days to reach the capital, Niamey. Now it's stuck there because the Niger government is reluctant to provide the escort needed to get it through hundreds of miles of jihadist territory in both Niger and Burkina Faso before it gets to the Togo border and then the export terminal on the coast. Understandably, the locals are pretty alarmed about this situation.