• Protests over economic hardships continue Iran.
• Demonstrators gathered in Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan.
• State media say situation was calm in most parts of Iran.

DUBAI: People across Iran were left cut off from the outside world on Thursday after a nationwide internet blackout as reported by internet monitoring group NetBlocks.

The outage came as fresh protests over rising prices and economic hardship continued in several cities, with demonstrators once again taking to the streets to voice their anger.

No further information on the internet outage was immediately available.

Witnesses in the capital Tehran and major cities of Mashhad and Isfahan told Reuters that protesters gathered again in the streets on Thursday, chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic’s clerical rulers.

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s late Shah toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, called in a video post on X on Wednesday for more protests.

Posts on social media, which could not be independently verified by Reuters, said demonstrators chanted pro-Pahlavi slogans in several cities and towns across Iran.

Iranian state media, however, said cities across the country were calm.

The current protests, the biggest wave of dissent in three years, began last month in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar with shopkeepers condemning the rial currency’s free fall.

Unrest has since spread nationwide amid deepening distress over economic privations arising from soaring inflation driven by mismanagement and Western sanctions, and curbs on political and social freedoms.

President Masoud Pezeshkian warned domestic suppliers against hoarding or overpricing goods, state media reported earlier on Thursday.

“People should not feel any shortage in terms of goods’ supply and distribution,” he said, calling upon his government to ensure adequate supply of goods and monitoring of prices across the country.

Tehran remains under international pressure with US President Donald Trump threatening to come to the aid of protesters if security forces fire on them, seven months after Israeli and US forces bombed Iranian nuclear sites.

Tremors from an earthquake centred near the China–Tajikistan border were felt in several parts of Pakistan, including the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, on Friday.

According to the National Seismic Monitoring Centre of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the earthquake registered a magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale.

The quake struck at a depth of 159 kilometres beneath the surface, the NSMC said, adding the epicentre was located in the border region between Tajikistan and China. 

Apart from the federal capital and the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi, tremors were also felt in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), including Swat, Shangla, Buner and surrounding districts, where people felt buildings shake and many stepped outside as a precaution.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or significant damage.

The tremor originated from an earthquake in the Tajikistan–Xinjiang border area which measured 6.1 on the Richter scale. 

• Senators vote 52 to 47 to advance war powers resolution.
• Republicans blocked last resolution by just two votes.
• Maduro’s capture led to fears of prolonged Venezuela campaign.

WASHINGTON: The US Senate advanced a resolution on Thursday that would bar President Donald Trump from further military action against Venezuela without congressional authorization, a rare rebuke of the Republican leader.

The vote on a procedural measure to advance the war powers resolution was 52 to 47, as five of Trump’s Republicans voted with every Democrat in favour of moving ahead. One Republican senator did not vote.

The vote took place days after US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a dramatic military raid in Caracas on Saturday. The rebuke for Trump, a day after senior cabinet members briefed every member of Congress about its Venezuela policy, marked a shift in the 100-member Senate.

It was a significant victory for lawmakers who have been arguing that Congress, not the president, should have the power to send troops to war, as spelled out in the Constitution.

However, the resolution faces steep hurdles before going into effect.

Even if it passes the Senate, the resolution must also pass the Republican-led House of Representatives and garner two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate to survive an expected Trump veto.

Trump’s Republicans had blocked two previous attempts to advance similar resolutions in the Senate last year, as the administration ramped up military pressure on Venezuela with attacks on boats in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

However, the vote blocking the last resolution in November was only 51-49, just after top Trump advisors told lawmakers they did not plan to change the government or conduct strikes on Venezuelan territory.

After Maduro’s capture, some lawmakers accused the administration of misleading Congress, including Democrats publicly and some Republicans behind the scenes. Maduro’s capture and Trump’s rhetoric have also raised concerns of military action to capture Greenland, an Arctic island that is a territory of Denmark, or against Colombia, Cuba or Iran.

Thursday’s vote paved the way for Senate debate and a vote on final passage in the Senate next week.

Republican misgivings

Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who co-sponsored the resolution, had said some of his fellow Republicans were considering supporting the measure.

“I can’t guarantee you how they vote, but at least two are thinking about it, and some of them are talking publicly about their misgivings over this,” Paul told a press conference on Wednesday with Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, another co-sponsor.

Both senators are members of the Foreign Relations Committee.

After the vote, Kaine said it was a “big victory,” telling reporters: “None of us should want this president, or any president, to take our sons and daughters to war without notice, consultation, debate and vote in Congress.”

The five Republicans who voted to move ahead were Paul, Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Todd Young of Indiana. Trump’s party holds a 53-47 majority in the Senate.

Trump said the five “should never be elected to office again.” He said on his Truth Social website: “Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America.”

‘Endless war’

Backers acknowledge the hurdles facing the measure, but said many Republicans may be wary of a prolonged and expensive campaign of government change in Venezuela, as the U.S. faces vast budget deficits.

Trump on Wednesday called for a huge increase in US military spending, to $1.5 trillion from $1 trillion.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York noted months of US strikes on Venezuelan boats, and Trump’s statement in a New York Times interview that the US would be involved in Venezuela for more than a year.

“The president is openly signaling a long-term military and financial commitment abroad with no authorisation, with no plan, another endless war,” Schumer told a press conference.

Senators who opposed the resolution said Maduro’s seizure was a law enforcement operation, not a military action. Maduro faces trial in a US court on drug and gun charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

Opponents also said Trump is within his rights as commander-in-chief to launch limited military actions.

“The purpose of this resolution is to slap the president in the face. It will do nothing that it purports to do because it can’t stop something that isn’t going on right now,” Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the Republican foreign relations chairman, said in a Senate speech before the vote.