• 21-year-old officer killed by “rioters”: deputy governor.
• 13 police officers, Basij members injured by stone throwing.
• Protests erupted in Tehran over the high cost of living.

A member of Iran’s security forces was killed during protests that erupted last week, state television reported on Thursday, citing a regional official.

“A 21-year-old member of the Basij from the city of Kouhdasht was killed last night [Wednesday] by rioters while defending public order,” the channel said, citing Said Pourali, the deputy governor of Lorestan Province.

This is the first officially confirmed death since the start of the protests on Sunday, which began peacefully in the capital Tehran.

The Basij are a volunteer paramilitary force linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the Islamic Republic.

Pourali said that “during the demonstrations in Kouhdasht, 13 police officers and Basij members were injured by stone throwing”.

The protests began in Tehran, where shopkeepers went on strike over the high cost of living and economic stagnation. They then spread to other cities, after students at least 10 universities joined in on Tuesday.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called on the government on Thursday to take action to improve the economic situation.

“From an Islamic perspective… if we do not resolve the issue of people’s livelihoods, we will end up in hell,” Pezeshkian said at an event broadcast on state television.

Iran is in the middle of an extended weekend, with the authorities declaring Wednesday a bank holiday at the last minute, citing the need to save energy during the cold weather.

They made no official link to the protests.

The weekend in Iran begins on Thursday, while Saturday marks a long-standing national holiday.

Iran’s prosecutor general said on Wednesday that peaceful economic protests were legitimate, but any attempt to create insecurity would be met with a “decisive response”.

“Any attempt to turn economic protests into a tool of insecurity, destruction of public property, or implementation of externally designed scenarios will inevitably be met with a legal, proportionate and decisive response.”

On Wednesday evening, the Tasnim news agency reported the arrest of seven people it described as being affiliated with “groups hostile to the Islamic Republic based in the United States and Europe”.

It said they had been “tasked with turning the demonstrations into violence”. Tasnim did not say when they were arrested.

The national currency, the rial, has lost more than a third of its value against the US dollar over the past year, while double-digit hyperinflation has already been undermining Iranians´ purchasing power for years.

The inflation rate in December was 52% year-on-year, according to the Statistical Centre of Iran, an official body.

THE HAGUE: A huge inferno gutted a 19th-century Amsterdam church Thursday, as the Netherlands endured an unsettled New Year’s Eve with two dead from fireworks and “unprecedented” violence against police.

The blaze broke out in the early hours at the Vondelkerk, a tourist attraction that has overlooked one of the city’s top parks since 1872.

The 50-metre-high (164-foot) tower collapsed and the roof was badly damaged but the structure was expected to remain intact, Amsterdam authorities said.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear.

The head of the Dutch Police Union, Nine Kooiman, reported an “unprecedented amount of violence against police and emergency services” over New Year’s Eve.

She said she herself had been pelted three times by fireworks and other explosives as she worked a shift in Amsterdam.

Shortly after midnight, authorities released a rare country-wide alert on mobile phones warning people not to call overwhelmed emergency services unless lives were at risk.

Reports of attacks against police and firefighters were widespread across the country. In the southern city of Breda, people threw petrol bombs at police.

Two people, a 17-year-old boy and a 38-year-old man, were killed in fireworks accidents. Three others were seriously injured.

The eye hospital in Rotterdam said it had treated 14 patients, including 10 minors, for eye injuries. Two received surgery.

It was the last year before an expected ban on unofficial fireworks, so the Dutch bought them in massive quantities.

According to the Dutch Pyrotechnics Association, revellers splashed out a record 129 million euros ($151 million) on fireworks.

Some areas had been designated firework-free zones, but this appeared to have little effect.

An AFP journalist in such a zone in The Hague reported loud bangs until around 3am.

Steeper US tariffs on some imported furniture items took effect Thursday, in a move that could add pressure on households already feeling the pinch from elevated costs of living.

The increase was planned under an earlier tranche of sector-specific tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, as the US leader widened a slate of duties he has rolled out since returning to the White House.

Trump’s tariffs in 2025 have affected goods ranging from steel to autos, and more investigations — that could lead to even more levies — are underway.

In October, a 10-percent duty on imported softwood timber and lumber came into effect, along with a 25-percent duty on certain upholstered furniture and kitchen cabinets.

These tariffs, justified by the Trump administration as a means to boost US industries and protect national security, also included a planned increase come January 1, 2026.

Effective Thursday, the rate on certain upholstered furniture rises to 30 percent, while that on kitchen cabinets and vanities doubles to 50 percent.

The measure is likely to impact imports from countries like Vietnam and China, which have been key suppliers of imported furniture to the United States.

But the tariff levels for wood products from Britain will not exceed 10 percent, while those from the European Union and certain other trading partners who reached deals with Washington face a 15-percent ceiling.

Products subject to sector-specific tariffs are also not doubly hit by countrywide “reciprocal” levies that Trump has separately imposed, which are in some cases higher.

The Supreme Court is due to rule on the legality of these countrywide tariffs, imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

But the high court’s eventual decision does not affect sector-specific duties.