Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has died after a helicopter carrying him and other officials crashed in a mountainous and forested area of the country in poor weather. The 63-year-old, a figure representing conservative and hardline factions in Iranian politics, was president for nearly three years and appeared on track to run for re-election next year.

Tehran

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has died after a helicopter carrying him and other officials crashed in a mountainous and forested area of the country in poor weather conditions. The 63-year-old had been president for nearly three years and appeared on track to run for re-election next year. Raisi was a significant figure in the conservative and hardline factions of Iranian politics.

Born to a clerical family in Mashhad, Raisi began his studies in Qom at 15 and rose swiftly through the judicial ranks after the 1979 revolution. By age 20, he was the prosecutor of Karaj, and by 25, he was deputy prosecutor in Tehran. In 1988, he was among the judges who sat on secret tribunals that resulted in the execution of thousands of prisoners.

Raisi's political career continued to advance with the support of Ayatollah Khamenei. He held various high-profile positions including Tehran prosecutor, attorney general, and custodian of the Hastan-e Quds-e Razavi. He first ran for president in 2017 and was appointed head of the judiciary in 2019. In 2021, after the Guardian Council disqualified many reformist candidates, Raisi won the presidential election.

As president, Raisi sought to reconcile the government with the Iranian populace and attempt economic improvements despite ongoing Western sanctions. His administration also normalized diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and strengthened ties with Russia and China. However, Iran's economy remained in crisis, and the country continued to face international isolation.

Raisi's death marks the end of a rapidly ascending political career. He was also a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts and was considered a prominent candidate to succeed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.



Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi dies in helicopter crash

Ibrahim Raisi was born to a clerical family in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city and home to the holiest Shia Muslim shrine in Iran. He was five years old when his father, a renowned cleric, died. His family's close relations with the clerical establishment helped him climb the career ladder. At the age of 15, he began his studies in the city of Qom, the center of the most prominent Islamic seminary in the country. Among the clerics he studied under was Iran's current supreme leader Ali Khamenei. After the revolution in 1979, Ayatollah Khamenei became Iran's president and Raisi was appointed prosecutor of the city of Karaj at the age of 20. In 1983, he married the daughter of Ahmed Alam al-Hoda, a powerful cleric and representative of Iran's supreme leader in Mashhad. Two years later, at the age of 25, Raisi was appointed deputy prosecutor in the capital Tehran. He was one of four judges who sat on secret tribunals established in 1988. Thousands of prisoners were sentenced to death and then executed. During a media conference in 2021, he was asked about his role. All I've done during my terms, always, I've moved towards defending human rights, to confront those who disrupt the rights of people and committed ISIL-like crimes or carried out anti-security actions. Ayatollah Khamenei, Raisi's main supporter, was elected as the new supreme leader in 1989 and he appointed Raisi as Tehran prosecutor. Raisi's rise through the judicial system was unprecedentedly rapid. In the following years, he became attorney general. In 2016, the supreme leader named his former student Raisi custodian of Iran's wealthiest religious foundation, the Hastan-e Quds-e Razavi, which managed the shrine of eight Shia Imam Raza in Mashhad and has vast economic holdings in various sectors nationwide. Raisi ran for president in 2017, campaigning to fight corruption. He lost the race to his fellow cleric, Hassan Rouhani, but the defeat did not tarnish his image. In 2019, the supreme leader appointed him head of the judiciary, allowing him to strengthen his relations further across critical institutions in Iran. In 2021, Raisi again ran for president. Prior to the election, the Guardian Council disqualified several prominent reformist candidates who were Raisi's challengers. He won the election uncontested, but the turnout was the lowest since the 1979 revolution. As president, he promised to reconcile the people and the government. People wanted a government to compensate for damage, restore trust and bridge the gap between the nation and the government. The relationship between those two can always solve many problems. But in 2022, the Islamic Republic faced the most widespread social unrest since its establishment. Nationwide protests and overseas too lasted four months, sparked by suspicious death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She had been arrested for allegedly violating Iran's mandatory hijab headscarf law. When Raisi took office, Iran's economy was crippled by decades of Western-imposed sanctions. In 2023, Raisi's government attempted to revive the economy and put an end to the international isolation. His government normalized diplomatic relations with regional rival Saudi Arabia and strengthened ties with Russia and China, earning full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS group of countries. Despite those efforts, Iran's economy remains in crisis, and hostile relations with the West keep Iranians isolated from the international financial system. Raisi was also a member of Iran's 88-seat assembly of experts, which selects the supreme leader. Many believe that his growing power in the political and military establishment made him a prominent candidate to succeed Ali Khamenei.

The Paris Olympic Games have officially opened with a ceremony in the rain along the River Seine. Athletes floated along on boats for the parade, while former French sprinter Marie-José Pérec and French judoka Teddy Riner lit the Olympic flame.

Paris

Paris Olympics

Paris Olympics underway after Opening Ceremony

Taiwanese authorities are assessing the damage caused by Typhoon Gaemi. The coastguard has been rescuing boats stranded by the tropical storm. The official death toll has risen to eight, with more than 800 people injured.

Taipei

Cargo crew rescued from Typhoon Gaemi

Wildfires are raging from western Canada to California in the U.S. At least a dozen fires are burning across California, with the Park Fire growing to become one of the biggest wildfires ever recorded in California in just two days.

Chico

Uncontrolled fires burn across California

Typhoon Gaemi has made landfall in southeastern China prompting warnings of flash floods and waterlogging in areas still recovering from torrential rain several weeks ago. Authorities relocated more than 290-thousand people.

Tsim Sha Tsui

Climate Crisis

Thousands evacuated in China as Typhoon makes landfall

Mexican drug kingpin Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and a son of his former partner, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, were arrested on Thursday in El Paso, Texas, in a major coup for U.S. authorities that may also reshape the Mexican criminal landscape.

El Paso

Mexican drug lords arrested in El Paso

Former U.S. President Donald Trump said his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had always been warm as the two leaders met on Friday (July 26), and the Israeli leader said he hoped progress was being made in talks on a Gaza ceasefire.

Palm Beach

Netanyahu meets Trump, says working on cease-fire

A North Korean military intelligence operative has been indicted in a conspiracy to hack into American health care providers, NASA, U.S. military bases and international entities.

Kansas City

North Korean charged in U.S. cyberattacks

Arsonists lighting fires across France's high-speed rail network have disrupted the transport network just hours before the Olympic Opening Ceremony in Paris, however the attacks failed to stop the event from going ahead.

France rail network attacked before Olympics

Saboteurs struck France's TGV high-speed train network in a series of pre-dawn attacks that caused chaos on the country's busiest rail lines ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but two security sources said initial suspicions fell on hardline leftist militants or environmental activists.

Saboteurs attack French railways ahead of Olympic ceremony

Typhoon Gaemi pummeled towns on China's coastal Fujian province on Friday with heavy rains and strong winds as the most powerful storm to hit the country this year began its widely watched trek into the populous interior.

Fujian

Typhoon Gaemi lashes China after pounding Taiwan, Philippines

Presidential candidates in Venezuela have held their final campaign rallies ahead of the election on Sunday. Opposition leaders are asking voters to oust President Nicolas Maduro, who's seeking a third term. But Maduro has warned the country risks a "bloodbath" if the opposition wins.

Caracas

Final rallies held ahead of Venezuela presidential election

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help reach a Gaza ceasefire deal that would ease the suffering of Palestinian civilians, striking a tougher tone than President Joe Biden.

Washington

Israel-Gaza War

Harris strikes tougher tone on Gaza ceasefire deal

Dolphins swimming coach Mick Palfrey will remain in Paris for the Olympics, after being criticised for publicly backing South Korean swimmer Kim Woo-min. Swimmer Elijah Winnington has defended the coach saying he's a great guy and there's no hard feelings.

Swim coach spared axe over supporting Korean rival

On the eve of the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games, security in Paris is tight and athletes are navigating the risks. More than a million people have undergone screening to access the site of the Opening Ceremony.

Athletes navigate security risks at Paris 2024

Typhoon Gaemi has reached southeastern China after churning across the Taiwan Strait. The typhoon has prompted warnings of swelling rivers, flash floods, and waterlogging in cities and provinces that were hit by extreme rains several weeks ago.

Typhoon Gaemi hits China after pounding Taiwan, Philippines

The Olympic Games are set to officially open on Friday (July 25), with the French government pledging an "unprecedented" security operation to ensure the safety of the event. A force of 35,000 to 45,000 security personnel will be deployed, including 15,000 French military members and over 2,000 foreign police officers.

Major security operation in place to guard Paris Olympics

U.S. President Joe Biden pressed for a ceasefire to the 9-month-old war in Gaza in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday (July 25), with Vice President Kamala Harris due to meet the Israeli leader later in the day.

Biden meets with Netanyahu, presses for ceasefire in Gaza

Counterterrorism officers are investigating after a man was allegedly found with chemical explosives and a knife at a Sydney shopping centre. Police moved in after shoppers heard a loud blast at Miranda Westfield.

Miranda

Man with knife and explosives arrested at Westfield

The Prime Minister is set to unveil a new Cabinet line-up after two senior members announced today they're retiring from politics. Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney and Brendan O'Connor will move to the backbench.

Canberra

Prime Minister set to reveal cabinet reshuffle

A limited curfew is still in place in Bangladesh after days of protests and a police crackdown. Some businesses and government offices are reopening, and partial internet service is being restored in some areas. Police have arrested more than 2,000 people. The United Nations has demanded an investigation of the Bangladeshi government's crackdown on student protesters.

Dhaka

UN demands investigation of Bangladesh's crackdown on protesters

President Joe Biden on Wednesday said abandoning his reelection campaign and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, as the Democratic candidate was the best way to unite the country and save democracy, despite his ambition to win a second term.

U.S. Presidential Election

Biden says he bowed out to unite nation, backs Harris to beat Trump

On the eve of the Olympics the city of Paris is getting ready to put on a show For the next two and a half weeks the competition will unfold in some of the capital's most iconic sites all prepped for the occasion, while thousands of miles away the French Polynesian island of Tahiti is also getting ready to host the surfing events.

From Paris to Polynesia, final Olympic preparations underway

Thousands of people gathered in North Carolina for Donald Trump's first rally since Joe Biden pulled out of the race. It’s a key battleground state for both sides and the Republican nominee wasted no time in going on the attack against his likely opponent in November, Kamala Harris.

North Carolina

Trump slams Harris as ‘radical’ in first rally since Biden’s exit

In a fiery speech to the U.S. Congress skipped by some top Democrats, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed critics of his country’s war against Hamas as ‘useful idiots’ for Iran, and said America and Israel must stand together.

Netanyahu blasts Gaza war critics, Iran in fiery speech to U.S. Congress

A passenger plane has crashed and caught fire shortly after taking off from Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, killing 18 people, aviation officials say. The pilot was the only survivor of the crash and was treated in hospital.

Kathmandu

Nepal plane crash kills 18; pilot only survivor

Heavy rain from Typhoon Gaemi has flooded the Philippine capital Manila and nearby cities, forcing authorities to shut schools, offices and cancel flights and declare a state of calamity in a region that is home to 13 million people.

Manila

Typhoon Gaemi brings heavy rain to Manila, forcing evacuation

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told families of hostages held in Gaza that a deal that would secure their loved ones' release could be nearing, his office said.

Netanyahu in U.S. says hostage deal may come soon

U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris told cheering supporters in Wisconsin she now has enough delegates to secure the Democratic Party nomination and take on Donald Trump. Meanwhile, campaign donations have shot past $100M in the two days since she entered the presidential race.

Wisconsin

Harris slams Trump at first campaign rally

As Paris prepares to host the world for the Olympic Games, homeless advocates are accusing city officials of ‘social cleansing’ after tent camps were broken up and undocumented migrants were bussed out of the city in the lead up to the opening ceremony.

Paris officials criticized for pre-Olympic homeless sweep

The head of the United States Secret Service is stepping down over the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump after days of mounting pressure and criticism for failing to prevent the shooting.