Exclusive: Expert analysis of images from one hospital suggests severe trauma to the face, chest and genitals was caused by metal birdshot and high-calibre bullets

Across the planes of Anahita’s* face, white dots shine like a constellation. Some gleam from inside the sockets of her eyes, others are scattered over the young woman’s chin, forehead, cheekbones. A few float over the dark expanse of her brain.

Each dot represents a metal sphere, about 2-5mm in size, fired from the barrel of a shotgun and revealed by the X-ray camera for a CT scan. Shot from a distance, the projectiles, known as “birdshot”, spray widely, losing some of their momentum. At close range, they can crack bone, blast through the soft tissue of the face, and easily pierce the eyeball’s delicate globe. Anahita, who is in her early 20s, has lost at least one eye, possibly both.

The image of Anahita’s head is one of more than 75 sets of medical images – primarily X-rays and CT scans – shared with the Guardian from one hospital in a major city in Iran, taken over the course of a single evening during the regime’s January crackdown on protesters. The plain, grayscale images tell their own story of the deadly violence inflicted on protesters and onlookers by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Can't think of something for the SRs, except SinneRs

From David Commissiong, Barbados Ambassador to CARICOM. 2/17/2026

In that piteous yet dignified message, our Cuban sister speaks to us about the elderly Cubans who are “dying prematurely because the blockade prevents the arrival of medications for heart conditions, high blood pressure and diabetes”; the new born babies that are fighting for their lives because “incubators in Cuba have had to be shut down due to a lack of fuel”; and the “terrorism through hunger” that is currently being inflicted on the Cuban people through a deliberate US policy to deprive Cuba of food and energy supplies.

Without a doubt, the current situation in our sister Caribbean nation of Cuba constitutes a severe humanitarian crisis that demands a significant and meaningful response from all people and governments of conscience.

Insulting DPP (democratic progressive party) leadership is now officially illegal in Taiwan. Taiwan can finally stop pretending they have political free speech.

Public insult is a criminal offense under Taiwan's Criminal Code, unlike in many other democracies. Lin faces up to one year in prison or a fine of less than NT$9,000 (US$287) under Article 309 of Taiwan’s Criminal Code, CNA reported. The charges stem from remarks Lin made during a speech at a live-streamed rally outside DPP headquarters on July 20.

Taipei District Prosecutors Office investigators said Lin, then a serving lawmaker, repeatedly used obscene language in his speech, including swearing aimed directly at Lai five times.

The federal government says it will not help Australian relatives of ISIS fighters return home from Syria, where they have been held in refugee camps for more than six years.

A group of 11 families left the Al-Roj camp last night with plans to eventually make the journey to Australia, but were forced to turn back by Syrian authorities.

https://archive.is/az7KI

“Your success is our success,” Rubio told Orbán. “This relationship we have here in central Europe through you is so essential and vital for our national interests in the years to come,” he added

https://archive.is/tNP1r

Britain's regulator for financial reporting and corporate auditing has proposed loosening rules to make London listings easier for mainland Chinese companies.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7272872

The glaring fundamental barrier between Beijing and the West remains the incompatibility between the absolute authority of China’s Communist Party and the societal accountability of democratic institutions — including Canada’s.

Archived link

A purge of senior generals and deepening concern about China’s wobbling economy have had global Beijing-watchers sniffing for hints of regime fragility.

Skepticism about President Xi Jinping’s hold on power only intensified this month after China resorted to a 20-year prison sentence to silence 78-year-old democracy advocate Jimmy Lai.

Was that a message of deterrence or desperation?

The swirling dramas are noticed here in Canada.

Mark Carney’s description of our new rapport with China as a “strategic partnership” was already causing unease among Canada’s intelligence community and Canadians of Chinese, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Taiwanese background.

They worry there is now an understanding that Ottawa will consciously ignore Beijing’s espionage and influence operations in Canada, its repression of Chinese expats, and its flouting of justice both in China and internationally.

...

This is on top of doubts about claims that Canada will expand the meagre four-per-cent of our commodity exports that go to China. Based on experience dating back to Jean Chretien, who despite his best efforts failed to grow our market share in China, it is unlikely that China represents economic inroads for Canada. Beijing will never allow imports to compete fairly against its own domestic goods, especially with China’s economy languishing under Xi Jinping’s anti-market statist policies.

...

Another factor is that any agreements signed by China’s political institutions — including the very ministries with whom Ottawa is negotiating MOUs — are routinely overruled by powerful officials in the military and security agencies. As Chairman Mao once put it, “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”.

China’s People’s Liberation Army, Navy, and Air Force do not answer to the state or its constitution, but to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) masters. President Xi Jinping’s most powerful role is probably chairmanship of the Central Military Commission.

...

This is not simply a case of divergent opinions over human rights or the role of sovereignty in relations between nations. Before we even begin negotiating the details of diplomatic or trade agreements, seeing the Canada-China relationship as a “strategic partnership” first requires us to believe that we can have reciprocal, fair state-to-state relations.

And that requires buying into a myth, not reality.

The addition of the Virtual Boy to Nintendo's NSO service has us thinking fondly of the little red bi-pod. Well it just so happens that we were recently given some previously unseen footage of the Virtual Boy's western reveal at Winter CES in January of 1995.

• Millions of people use password managers. They make accessing online services and bank accounts easy and simplify credit card payments.
• Many providers promise absolute security – the data is said to be so encrypted that even the providers themselves cannot access it.
• However, researchers from ETH Zurich have shown that it is possible for hackers to view and even change passwords.

The decision to commence the inquiry was notified to XIUC on Monday 16 February. The purpose of the inquiry is to determine whether XIUC has complied with its obligations under the GDPR, including its obligations under Article 5 (principles of processing), Article 6 (lawfulness of processing), Article 25 (Data Protection by Design and by Default) and Article 35 (requirement to carry out a Data Protection Impact Assessment) with regard to the personal data processed of EU/EEA data subjects.