Lawmakers quit en masse
The week's news at a glance.
Tehran
More than one-third of Iran’s parliament resigned this week to protest the ruling clerics’ attempt to control the upcoming election. Last month the Guardian Council, a group of 12 mullahs that has the final word on all laws and regulations, barred most pro-reform candidates, including 83 incumbents, from running for parliament. Outraged reformist lawmakers called for the election, scheduled for Feb. 20, to be postponed. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the brother of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and one of the banned candidates, said that elections under the current circumstances would amount to “a full-fledged coup.”
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Citizenship: Trump order blocked again
Feature After the Supreme Court restricted nationwide injunctions, a federal judge turned to a class action suit to block Trump's order to end birthright citizenship
-
Loyalty tests: The purge at the FBI
Feature Kash Patel is conducting polygraph tests on FBI agents to weed out anyone speaking badly about him
-
The all-seeing tech giant
Feature Palantir's data-mining tools are used by spies and the military. Are they now being turned on Americans?