Iranians vote in presidential election marred by disqualification row - BBC News

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Iranians are voting to elect a new president, with all but one of the four candidates regarded as hardliners.

Opinion polls suggest Ebrahim Raisi, a conservative Shia cleric who heads the judiciary, is the clear favourite.

Mr Raisi is an ally of Iran's supreme leader and has been touted as a future possible successor.

Dissidents and some reformists have called for a boycott, saying the barring of several contenders left Mr Raisi with no serious competition.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast his vote early on Friday morning in Tehran and encouraged people to go the polls.

"Each vote counts ... come and vote and choose your president," he said. "This is important for the future of your country,"

There is widespread discontent among Iranians at the economic hardship they have faced since the US abandoned a nuclear deal with Iran three years ago and reinstated crippling sanctions.

• Four ways election matters
• Four claims fact-checked
• The unusual way power is held in Iran

The elections coincide with the latest round of talks in Vienna between Iran and world powers that are aimed at reviving the accord, which saw Iran agree to limit its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Incumbent Hassan Rouhani, a moderate who sought to engage with the West, cannot stand for re-election because he has served two consecutive four-year terms.

Who approved the candidates?

Almost 600 hopefuls, including 40 women, registered for the election.

But in the end only seven men were approved last month by the 12 jurists and theologians on the hard-line Guardian Council, an unelected body that has the ultimate decision with regard to candidates' qualifications.

Eshaq Jahangiri, Mr Rouhani's first vice-president, and Ali Larijani, a conservative former speaker of parliament, were among the prominent candidates not allowed to run.

By Thursday, three of the approved candidates - Supreme National Security Council secretary Saeed Jalili, MP Alireza Zakani, and reformist former Vice-President Mohsen Mehralizadeh - had dropped out.

Mr Jalili and Mr Zakani, who are hardliners, both endorsed Mr Raisi, while Mr Mehralizadeh said he wanted to "unify" the reformist vote - an apparent endorsement for Mr Hammati.

If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the first round there will be a run-off election.

Who's in the race?

Ebrahim Raisi

Reuters

The 60-year-old cleric has served as a prosecutor for most of his career. He was appointed judiciary chief in 2019, two years after he lost by a landslide to Mr Rouhani in the last election.

Mr Raisi has presented himself as the best person to fight corruption and solve Iran's economic problems.

However, many Iranians and human rights activists have expressed concern over his role in the mass executions of political prisoners in the 1980s.

Abdolnasser Hemmati

Reuters

The 64-year-old technocrat became governor of the Central Bank of Iran in 2018. He was dismissed from the position after becoming a candidate.

His appointments to prominent positions under Mr Rouhani and his hard-line processor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, are seen as evidence of his ability to work all factions in Iran.

But he faced criticism from the other candidates for failing to mitigate the effects of US sanctions on Iran's currency, whose value has plummeted.

Mohsen Rezai

The 66-year-old hardliner is the secretary of the Expediency Council, which advises the Supreme Leader and has ultimate adjudicating power in disputes over legislation.

He was commander of the powerful Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, and has run for the presidency three times since leaving the force.

Amirhossein Qazizadeh Hashemi

Amirhossein Qazizadeh Hashemi is an ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon who has been an MP since 2008 and first deputy speaker since this May.

The 50-year-old hardliner is the youngest of the candidates.

• Iran presidential election: Who are the candidates?

Firm grip on power

Analysis by Kasra Naji, BBC Persian

These elections are seen by many Iranians as a brazen power grab by the hardliners who seem to have decided that they can never win free and fair elections, judging by their past performance. With these elections, the hardliners will have all the centres of power in their control. But there will be a downside: greater dissatisfaction among a people already in desperate economic straits, and instability.

If Ebrahim Raisi becomes president, the hardliners will want to establish a puritanical system of Islamic government in the vision of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This will bring in more controls on social activities, fewer freedoms and jobs for women, and tighter control of the social media and the press.

Under a hardline presidency, Iran would continue to have tense relations with the West. It would continue to push to extend Shia Islam and project power in the region with the help of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - a major armed, political and economic force in Iran - and its local proxies. Iran would want to cosy up to China in the hope of attracting hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese investment.

The election of a hardline president might also adversely affect the current indirect talks between Iran and the US to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement and have the key US sanctions lifted. The hardliners were never happy with the deal in the first place.

• What to expect from a hardline president

Why is turnout important?

About 59 million people are eligible to vote in Iran, which has a population of 80 million.

Turnout for the last presidential poll in 2017 was 73%, but the most recent survey by the state-backed Iranian Students Polling Agency (ISPA) suggested that it could be only 42% on Friday.

EPA

That would be a historic low for any election in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and would pose a problem for Iran's leaders, who see turnout as a sign of legitimacy.

On Thursday, Mr Rouhani told Iranians not to let the "shortcomings of an institution or a group" stop them from voting - an apparent reference to the Guardian Council.

"For the time being, let's not think about grievances tomorrow," he said.

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2021-06-18 09:14:23Z
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Iranians vote in presidential election marred by disqualification row - BBC News

Getty Images

Iranians are voting to elect a new president, with all but one of the four candidates to succeed Hassan Rouhani regarded as hardliners.

Opinion polls suggest Ebrahim Raisi, a conservative Shia cleric who heads the judiciary, is the clear favourite.

Moderate former central bank governor Abdolnasser Hemmati is his main rival.

Dissidents and some reformists have called for a boycott, saying the barring of several contenders left Mr Raisi with no serious competition.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast his vote early on Friday morning in Tehran and encouraged people to go the polls.

"Each vote counts ... come and vote and choose your president," he said. "This is important for the future of your country,"

There is widespread discontent among Iranians at the economic hardship they have faced since the US abandoned a nuclear deal with Iran three years ago and reinstated crippling sanctions.

• Four ways election matters
• Four claims fact-checked
• The unusual way power is held in Iran

The elections coincide with the latest round of talks in Vienna between Iran and world powers that are aimed at reviving the accord, which saw Iran agree to limit its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Mr Rouhani, a moderate who sought to engage with the West, cannot stand for re-election because he has served two consecutive four-year terms.

Who approved the candidates?

Almost 600 hopefuls, including 40 women, registered for the election.

But in the end only seven men were approved last month by the 12 jurists and theologians on the hard-line Guardian Council, an unelected body that has the ultimate decision with regard to candidates' qualifications.

Eshaq Jahangiri, Mr Rouhani's first vice-president, and Ali Larijani, a conservative former speaker of parliament, were among the prominent candidates not allowed to run.

By Thursday, three of the approved candidates - Supreme National Security Council secretary Saeed Jalili, MP Alireza Zakani, and reformist former Vice-President Mohsen Mehralizadeh - had dropped out.

Mr Jalili and Mr Zakani, who are hardliners, both endorsed Mr Raisi, while Mr Mehralizadeh said he wanted to "unify" the reformist vote - an apparent endorsement for Mr Hammati.

If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the first round there will be a run-off election.

Who's in the race?

Ebrahim Raisi

Reuters

The 60-year-old cleric has served as a prosecutor for most of his career. He was appointed judiciary chief in 2019, two years after he lost by a landslide to Mr Rouhani in the last election.

Mr Raisi has presented himself as the best person to fight corruption and solve Iran's economic problems.

However, many Iranians and human rights activists have expressed concern over his role in the mass executions of political prisoners in the 1980s.

Abdolnasser Hemmati

Reuters

The 64-year-old technocrat became governor of the Central Bank of Iran in 2018. He was dismissed from the position after becoming a candidate.

His appointments to prominent positions under Mr Rouhani and his hard-line processor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, are seen as evidence of his ability to work all factions in Iran.

But he faced criticism from the other candidates for failing to mitigate the effects of US sanctions on Iran's currency, whose value has plummeted.

Mohsen Rezai

The 66-year-old hardliner is the secretary of the Expediency Council, which advises the Supreme Leader and has ultimate adjudicating power in disputes over legislation.

He was commander of the powerful Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, and has run for the presidency three times since leaving the force.

Amirhossein Qazizadeh Hashemi

Amirhossein Qazizadeh Hashemi is an ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon who has been an MP since 2008 and first deputy speaker since this May.

The 50-year-old hardliner is the youngest of the candidates.

• Iran presidential election: Who are the candidates?

Firm grip on power

Analysis by Kasra Naji, BBC Persian

These elections are seen by many Iranians as a brazen power grab by the hardliners who seem to have decided that they can never win free and fair elections, judging by their past performance. With these elections, the hardliners will have all the centres of power in their control. But there will be a downside: greater dissatisfaction among a people already in desperate economic straits, and instability.

If Ebrahim Raisi becomes president, the hardliners will want to establish a puritanical system of Islamic government in the vision of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This will bring in more controls on social activities, fewer freedoms and jobs for women, and tighter control of the social media and the press.

Under a hardline presidency, Iran would continue to have tense relations with the West. It would continue to push to extend Shia Islam and project power in the region with the help of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - a major armed, political and economic force in Iran - and its local proxies. Iran would want to cosy up to China in the hope of attracting hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese investment.

The election of a hardline president might also adversely affect the current indirect talks between Iran and the US to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement and have the key US sanctions lifted. The hardliners were never happy with the deal in the first place.

Why is turnout important?

About 59 million people are eligible to vote in Iran, which has a population of 80 million.

Turnout for the last presidential poll in 2017 was 73%, but the most recent survey by the state-backed Iranian Students Polling Agency (ISPA) suggested that it could be only 42% on Friday.

EPA

That would be a historic low for any election in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and would pose a problem for Iran's leaders, who see turnout as a sign of legitimacy.

On Thursday, Mr Rouhani told Iranians not to let the "shortcomings of an institution or a group" stop them from voting - an apparent reference to the Guardian Council.

"For the time being, let's not think about grievances tomorrow," he said.

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2021-06-18 07:06:48Z
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Juneteenth: What is the newest US holiday and how is it celebrated? - BBC News

The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, which establishes a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the US, has been signed by President Joe Biden.

"I've only been president for several months, but I think this will go down, for me, as one of the greatest honours I will have had as president," Mr Biden said at the signing event.

So what is Juneteenth, how did it become a holiday and what do people do to celebrate it?

What is the origin of Juneteenth?

On 19 June 1865 - months after the northern US states defeated the South in a civil war fought over slavery - enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, were told they were free.

The day became known as Juneteenth, a word created by joining the words "June" and "nineteenth" together.

The liberation of enslaved people in Texas came more than two and half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, releasing more than 3.5 million from forced bondage.

The declaration by General Grainger to bring the Emancipation Proclamation into effect in Texas is seen by many as the end of slavery as it finally brought the practice to an end in the last state still holding the enslaved.

• WATCH: What you need to know about Juneteenth

How did it become a federal law?

Already 49 states and Washington DC formally recognise Juneteenth as a state or ceremonial holiday. South Dakota is the last remaining state.

When he was senator of Illinois, Barack Obama co-sponsored legislation to make Juneteenth a national holiday, but the law was never passed - even after he became president.

Getty Images

This year, companies such as Nike, Uber, Twitter and many others have announced they are giving their employees a paid day off for Juneteenth.

Governors in some states, including New York and Virginia, have also declared it a holiday for state employees.

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives backed the legislation by 415-14, a day after it was unanimously approved by the Senate. With the signature of President Biden, it has become law.

Fourteen House Republicans voted against the bill. One lawmaker from Montana said the legislation was all about "identity politics". A Kentucky opponent of the bill said its establishment will "create confusion and push Americans to pick one of those two days as their independence day based on their racial identity".

It is the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr Day was established in 1983.

Getty Images

The effort to have Juneteenth declared a federal holiday was decades in the making.

In 2016, 89-year-old Opal Lee walked from Texas - where Juneteenth has been a state holiday since 1980 - to Washington DC in an effort to encourage lawmakers.

She walked 2.5 miles (4km) each day - representing the two and a half years that it took for enslaved people in Texas to learn that they had been freed.

"I've got so many different feelings all gurgling up in here," Ms Lee said after Congress approved it as a federal holiday. "I don't know what to call them all. I am so delighted to know that suddenly we've got a Juneteenth.

"It's not a Texas thing or a black thing. It's an American thing."

What is different this year?

The ending of slavery did not do away with racism, and in the years after so-called Jim Crow laws were created to separate black people from white society and limit their civil rights.

The legacy of those laws is still being dismantled.

The death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other African-Americans at the hands of police have led to anti-racism protests protests by followers of the Black Lives Matter movement.

In addition, some Democrats argue that recent Republican state election reforms making it harder to vote are an effort to disenfranchise minority voters who often lean Democratic.

Last year, former president Donald Trump postponed an election rally originally planned for 19 June after facing criticism amid nationwide anti-racism protests.

It also comes as a fierce cultural debate rages over the history of slavery and how it should be taught in American schools. Some Republican-controlled states have sought to have schools teach the "patriotic education" favoured by Mr Trump, and limit or prohibit curriculums that seek to re-examine the importance of slavery to the foundation of the country.

Getty Images

How is it celebrated?

Juneteenth celebrations and traditions vary across the US. In some states there are parades, and people gather for food and to play games.

As well as public readings and singing, picnics and church services, in some states rodeos, contests, concerts and parades are also organised.

Food also plays an important part, with barbecues being one of the most popular ways of marking the day with family and friends.

The most famous dish is called "the Marcus Garvey salad", named after the black activist and made with red, green, and black beans.

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2021-06-17 20:15:15Z
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Kim Jong-un health: North Korea ‘making preparations for despot’s death’- signs 'not good' - Daily Express

North Korea’s ruling communist party has now appointed an official deputy. Workers’ Party of Korea’s (WKP) rules show a new position of first secretary has been created, with the powers to govern the country if the leader is incapacitated.

NK News, which monitors the secretive state, concludes the North Korean leadership has “begun to make preparations for the sudden death or, more likely, long-term incapacitation of North Korea’s current leader”.

The publication argues: “This decision probably indicates that Kim’s health is not good.”

Kim Jong-un has vanished from public view a number of times over the past year and a half, sparking speculation about his condition.

The new WKP rules, acquired by NK News, were approved at its eighth party congress in January.

They state the first secretary is deputy to the general secretary, Kim Jong Un’s position.

This is the first time a potential successor to the North Korean leader has been set out so explicitly.

Article 28 of the new rules strengthens the Politburo Permanent Committee, North Korea’s top executive body.

Any politburo member can now preside over the committee if given permission by the general secretary.

READ MORE: Kim Jong-un health panic - North Korea regime could collapse

The state was established by Kim Il-sung, who was succeeded by Kim Jong-il then Kim Jong-un.

Last year, from April to July, Kim Jong-un remained away from public view for almost three months.

This included missing his grandfather Kim Il-sung’s birthday celebrations on April 15, an important national day.

From May this year he also disappeared from public view for 29 days, before being pictured at a politburo meeting.

Food prices in North Korea have surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, as the border with China has been firmly closed.

According to NK News it now costs £32 to buy a kilogram of bananas in the country.

Addressing senior party leaders Kim Jong-un admitted: “The people’s food situation is now getting tense.”

Many North Koreans had relied on food illegally smuggled across the Chinese border.

The hermit state was also struck by devastating typhoons last year, which triggered widespread flooding.

North Korea was formed from the part of Korea occupied by Soviet forces at the end of WWII.

A brutal dictatorship, it has technically been at war with South Korea since 1950.

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2021-06-17 21:49:00Z
52781671578231

US Supreme Court throws out challenge to Obamacare - Financial Times

The US Supreme Court has dismissed the latest Republican challenge to the Affordable Care Act, preserving Barack Obama’s flagship healthcare reforms in a major win for Democrats.

In a 7-2 opinion released on Thursday, the nine-member court denied an attempt to invalidate the sweeping Affordable Care Act, which has provided health coverage for tens of millions of previously uninsured Americans.

Stephen Breyer wrote the majority opinion, joined by two other liberals, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, as well as four conservatives: chief justice John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Samuel Alito dissented, joined by fellow conservative Neil Gorsuch.

Thursday’s decision marked the third time that the nation’s highest court has rebuffed challenges to the ACA, following rulings in 2012 and 2015. The latest case was brought by a group of 18 states led by Texas and two individuals. Donald Trump’s White House had filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs had taken aim at the controversial “individual mandate” that originally required all Americans to have health insurance or pay a financial penalty.

In its 2012 decision upholding the ACA, the Supreme Court held that the penalty for not having insurance could be characterised as a tax, making it a constitutional use of Congress’s powers.

However, Congress later reduced the penalty to zero. The Texas-led plaintiffs sued, argued that the mandate was no longer constitutional, and the entire law should be struck down.

But the majority found that the plaintiffs had suffered no harm that would give them grounds to sue.

“To have standing, a plaintiff must ‘allege personal injury fairly traceable to the defendant’s allegedly unlawful conduct and likely to be redressed by the requested relief,’” Breyer wrote. “No plaintiff has shown such an injury ‘fairly traceable’ to the ‘allegedly unlawful conduct’ challenged here.”

The decision in California vs Texas is among the first high-profile rulings since Barrett joined the bench last October, tipping the balance of the nation’s highest court, 6-3, in favour of jurists appointed by Republican presidents.

Some progressives have in recent weeks called for Breyer, who at 82 is the oldest justice, to retire so Democratic president Joe Biden can nominate a liberal replacement while his party controls Congress. Supreme Court justices are nominated by presidents to lifetime appointments, but their nominations must be confirmed by a simple majority in the Senate.

Thursday’s ruling, however, underscored that the justices do not always rule along ideological lines. Just two Republican-appointed jurists, Alito and Gorsuch, opposed the decision.

“Today’s decision is the third instalment in our epic Affordable Care Act trilogy, and it follows the same pattern as instalments one and two,” Alito wrote in his dissent. “In all three episodes, with the Affordable Care Act facing a serious threat, the court has pulled off an improbable rescue.”

The ACA, often called “Obamacare”, was signed into law in 2010. The legislation divided public opinion but has become increasingly popular with American voters in recent years. It has withstood several legal challenges since its passage, as well as Republican-led efforts to repeal the law in Congress.

“After more than a decade of attacks on the Affordable Care Act through the Congress and the courts, today’s decision — the third major challenge to the law that the US. Supreme Court has rejected — it is time move forward and keep building on this landmark law,” Biden said in a statement after the decision.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, called Thursday’s ruling “a landmark victory for Democrats’ work to defend protections for people with pre-existing conditions against Republicans’ relentless efforts to dismantle them”.

Her comments were echoed by Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, who vowed to build on the existing legislation. Democrats have called for an expansion of Medicaid — public health insurance for low-income Americans — among other healthcare reforms.

“Let me say definitively: the Affordable Care Act has won, the Supreme Court has ruled, the ACA is here to stay,” Schumer said.

Ron Klain, White House chief of staff, wrote on Twitter: “It’s still a BFD”, an apparent reference to a moment in 2010, when then vice-president Biden was heard whispering to Obama at the signing of the ACA into law: “This is a big fucking deal.”

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2021-06-17 16:51:16Z
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Hong Kong sends 500 officers in pro-democracy paper raid - BBC News - BBC News

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2021-06-17 14:06:44Z
52781673569823

Hong Kong police invoke security law to arrest senior journalists - Financial Times

Hong Kong police have arrested senior editors and executives of a newspaper belonging to pro-democracy mogul Jimmy Lai in the first use of the territory’s national security law directly against journalists.

At least 500 officers were involved in the Thursday morning raid on Apple Daily, a popular tabloid known for its willingness to confront and criticise the government. Police instructed reporters to register their identities and prevented them from filming the raid or going to their desks. The journalists were told to gather in a separate part of the building because their workplace was part of a “crime scene”.

The police said they were gathering “evidence for a case of suspected contravention of the National Security Law” and used a warrant to search for and seize journalistic materials.

China introduced the harsh law almost a year ago to quell dissent after Hong Kong’s anti-government protests in 2019.

The law has paved the way for a crackdown on the city’s civic freedoms, with mass arrests of political activists and the targeting of anyone seen as disloyal to Beijing, such as schoolteachers and judges.

The arrests were not the first move against the media under the clampdown, but they were the first time the authorities have cited the security law in an action against journalists.

The law, which punishes crimes such as subversion and collusion with foreign elements, carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Lai has already been jailed in a separate case and his assets have been frozen, including his 71 per cent shareholding in Next Media, the company that owns Apple Daily.

Those arrested included Ryan Law, Apple Daily’s chief editor and Nick Cheung, an online editor, according to the newspaper. Cheung Kim-hung, chief executive of Next Digital, Royston Chow, chief operating officer, and Chan Pui-man, an associate publisher, were also detained.

Police said they had made the arrests for “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security”.

Apple Daily was accused of involvement in a conspiracy to encourage foreign countries to impose sanctions on Hong Kong by publishing articles that encouraged such a move, police added.

The company said the raid left press freedom in Hong Kong “hanging by a thread” but asserted the newspaper would “hold fast to our duties”.

John Lee, Hong Kong’s security secretary, said the actions had nothing to do with normal journalistic practices. “They are different from ordinary journalists, do not engage in any relations with them and keep a distance from them,” he said.

“This action isn’t targeting the media but an organisation that violated the national security law,” added Steve Li, a senior police superintendent.

Critics say the security law has degraded rights such as freedom of expression that Hong Kongers were promised when China took possession of the territory from the UK in 1997.

Hong Kong’s police chief Chris Tang has previously called for “fake news” laws that journalists fear would hand authorities greater powers to police the media.

He singled out Apple Daily as a possible target of further police action. The newspaper was raided last year.

One journalist at Next Media said employees were “mentally prepared” for senior editors to be arrested but were shocked by the scale of the raid. “It’s completely overriding the freedom of the press,” they told the Financial Times. 

“I am really worried for Hong Kong people if Apple Daily is lost . . . Other newspapers will be too afraid to report on sensitive topics.”

Next Digital announced a share trading halt on Thursday.

Video: How the national security law is changing Hong Kong

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2021-06-17 10:04:21Z
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