News

More than 59 million voters are called upon at the end of the week to elect a successor to President Hassan Ruhani, who was not allowed to run after two terms in office. Due to the ongoing corona pandemic, the opening times of the polling stations have been extended and their number increased to more than 70,000. According to the Interior Ministry, the first results are expected on Saturday, but no later than Sunday. The new president is to be sworn in in August. According to observers, a change of power is expected after the election. Of the seven candidates initially admitted, only four entered the race on election day. Including an arch-conservative cleric, a reformer, a former general and a hardliner. The cleric and head of justice Ebrahim Raeissi is a clear favorite. The reform-minded economist Abdolnasser Hemmati, who is particularly hoping for a protest vote, is given the opportunity to be outsider. Raeissi is charged with mass execution In large parts of the population, Raeissi...

"How the hell am I going to offer proof of something that there is no proof of?" Dr. Shi Zhengli told The New York Times. The Chinese scientist at the center of theories according to which the Covid-19 pandemic originated with a leak from laboratory in the city of Wuhan has denied that, institution was to blame for the health disaster. "How the hell should I offer proof of something that there is no evidence?" Said Dr. Shi Zhengli to the newspaper The New York Times in a rare statement to the media. "I don't know how the world got to this, constantly pouring garbage on an innocent scientist," he told the American newspaper. US President Joe Biden last month ordered intelligence agencies to investigate the origin of the pandemic, including the theory of the laboratory leak. The hypothesis of the leak had been raised earlier in the first global outbreak, even by the predecessor Biden, Donald Trump, but it was widely dismissed and considered a conspiracy ...

After the focus of the G7 summit on a counterweight to the growing influence of China, the People's Republic criticized the participating countries. "The days when global decisions were made by a small group of countries are long gone," said a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London. All states, big or small, strong or weak, poor or rich, are the same. "World political affairs should be settled through consultations of all countries." According to a draft of the summit's final declaration, the G7 countries agreed on a tougher course with regard to China. They want to act against Chinese trade policy, human rights problems such as the internment of Uyghurs in re-education camps and the dismantling of freedoms in Hong Kong. It is the first time that criticism of the country is so clearly formulated in a final G7 document. In dealing with the second largest economy, the G7 states want to "agree on a collective approach to contest policies and practices...

The recently retired head of the Israeli spy agency Mossad has revealed in an interview his country's operations against Iran. UC Cohen details Iran's nuclear document theft In 2018, millions of documents were stolen from Iran and sent to Israel.  He also hinted at Israeli involvement in the destruction of an Iranian nuclear plant and the assassination of a nuclear scientist.  Cohen retired as Mossad chief last week. He spoke to journalist Ilana Diane in a documentary on Israel's Channel 12 that aired Thursday night.  Cohen was appointed head of Mossad by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late 2015. He joined Mossad in 1982 after graduating from a London university. Speaking on the program, he said that he has had 'hundreds' of passports throughout his career. The most eye-catching moments in the interview were when he was talking about the theft of Iran's nuclear documents. Benjamin Netanyahu told about these files during a press conference in 2018. ...

It has been five months since the transfer of powers in Washington but the wound is still open. The NATO has lived very tense moments throughout its history, from the kick of the France of De Gaulle to the crisis over the Iraq War in 2003, but four years of Donald Trump were the stormiest and certainly the closer The tragedy was almost consummated with an abrupt exit from the United States. The drama was avoided and now, with the first Summit with Joe Biden at the White House, the air in Brussels is very different. Read more: Joe Biden: The Trump In Him There is no talk of "brain death" of the Alliance, nor of dissolution, the basic idea of   NATO is not questioned, the commitment to go whatever happens to the aid of an attacked partner. And no one is shouting from the rooftops that others are delinquent and profiteers. If that holds until Wednesday night, the Summit will be seen by many as a success. If, in addition, the leaders manage to advance the agenda for 2030 and deep...

Who would have thought it possible: A US president visits Europe for six days - and the allies do not have to pretend that they are happy about it. The sheer fear of humiliating appearances, open attempts at extortion and insane denials after departure, which had dominated the transatlantic meetings of the past few years, has vanished. You will see Joe Biden again and again these days with Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Ursula von der Leyen, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, later also with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The carefully prepared communiqués, press statements and "family photos" of the powerful are intended to suggest that after years of disruption, the diplomatic routine reigns supreme. But nothing about the meetings under the familiar banners of the G7, NATO and the European Union is like it used to be. Read more:  The G7 will pledge to donate 1 billion vaccines Once upon a time...

The G7 will pledge to donate 1 billion vaccines to the least favored countries, according to the draft of the final communiqué leaked by Bloomberg News. The statement also includes the request of the seven richest countries in the world to the World Health Organization (WHO) for the opening of "a transparent investigation" on the origin of the coronavirus in China. American President Joe BidenHe anticipated, for his part, announcing as soon as he arrived in the United Kingdom his country's commitment to purchase 500 million doses of the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech destined for a hundred countries. Biden stood out last week by announcing the initial shipment of 80 million doses to India, Gaza, the West Bank and various countries in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia through Covax, the global vaccine access initiative. Read more:   Victory against the coronavirus pandemic Biden thus anticipated his host, Boris Johnson , who has not yet pledged to donate a specifi...