عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Reformists Unanimously Elect Next Tehran Mayor

Mohammad-Ali Najaf, TASNIM
Mohammad-Ali Najaf, TASNIM
TT
TT

Reformists Unanimously Elect Next Tehran Mayor

Mohammad-Ali Najaf, TASNIM
Mohammad-Ali Najaf, TASNIM

Tehran's municipal council named on Thursday the final candidate for mayor behind closed doors, replacing incumbent Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf with a pronounced reformist.

The reformist majority council agreed to elect presidential economic advisor Mohammad-Ali Najafi instead of the current conservative mayor Ghalibaf. The incoming mayor is expected to boost Tehran social programs.

Reformists officially announced consensus on Najafi after the withdrawal of five other candidates, reported Iranian sites.

Najafi also was unanimously voted in by the 21-member body.

The reformist bloc won a majority of the council’s seats, with the most outstanding winners being the son of former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohsen Hashemi, as well as the culture minister of the reformist government Ahmed Masjid Jamami.

Iranian media reported that Najafi , a former education minister, will formally submit necessary documents for the post to the interior ministry, followed by the swearing in after the official vote in the Tehran municipality.

The post of mayor of Iran’s biggest city, which has a population of more than 12m, has often been used as a platform to launch more ambitious political careers: Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the populist president who was in power from 2005 to 2013, was Qalibaf’s predecessor as Tehran’s mayor.

But Najafi, 65, has said he has no aspirations to run for president and promised to put an end to the politicization of the municipality, increase transparency and promote the private sector.

Tehran's new city council will assume authority as of Aug. 23. Reformists accused the outgoing mayor Ghalibaf of handing over development projects to the Revolutionary Guards without going through a proper tender process.

Najafi is prompted by his supporting bloc as an anti-corruption hero, as opposed to his alt-right conservative predecessor. Najafi will immediately work on draining the swamp and tackling municipality corruption, said some reformists.

However, he might face resistance from hardliners who will be reluctant to give up the interests they have established over the past decade.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Russian Drone Hits Nuclear-Fuel Storage Facility Near Chornobyl, Ukraine Says

15 September 2021, Ukraine, Chornobyl: A group of tourists stand at the memorial in front of unit four of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which exploded in 1986. (dpa)
15 September 2021, Ukraine, Chornobyl: A group of tourists stand at the memorial in front of unit four of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which exploded in 1986. (dpa)
TT
TT

Russian Drone Hits Nuclear-Fuel Storage Facility Near Chornobyl, Ukraine Says

15 September 2021, Ukraine, Chornobyl: A group of tourists stand at the memorial in front of unit four of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which exploded in 1986. (dpa)
15 September 2021, Ukraine, Chornobyl: A group of tourists stand at the memorial in front of unit four of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which exploded in 1986. (dpa)

Russian forces deliberately struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near Ukraine's Chornobyl power plant, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, in an "extremely vile" attack that did not lead to a spike in radiation.

The strike significantly damaged a fuel-reception building meters away from where "large amounts of nuclear material" is stored, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which said it had ‌been briefed ‌by Ukraine.

Kyiv's state atomic agency ‌Energoatom ⁠said no spent ⁠fuel had been stored in the building at the time of the attack. A resulting fire was extinguished, and no injuries were reported.

Russia has not publicly commented on the alleged strike on the facility, which is located around ⁠15 km (9 miles) from the Chornobyl ‌plant, the site ‌of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

"An extremely critical infrastructure ‌facility – and an extremely vile Russian strike," ‌Zelenskiy wrote on X, adding that Russia had used a Shahed attack drone.

"As of now, there are no readings exceeding normal background radiation levels. But ‌there is certainly an increase in Russia's brazenness, which long ago went off ⁠the ⁠charts."

In a statement, the IAEA said a team would soon visit the site "to inspect the impact".

In February 2025, a Russian Shahed drone damaged a containment arch over the Chornobyl reactor that was destroyed in the April 1986 explosion and meltdown. Russia, which regularly attacks Ukrainian cities and infrastructure with drones and missiles, denied responsibility.

Kyiv and Moscow have also traded accusations of attacking the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine, Europe's largest.

World

Quakes Rattle Greek Island Near Athens, No Injuries Reported

Tourists visit the 5th century BC Propylaea on the Acropolis Hill during a hot day, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)
Tourists visit the 5th century BC Propylaea on the Acropolis Hill during a hot day, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)
TT
TT

Quakes Rattle Greek Island Near Athens, No Injuries Reported

Tourists visit the 5th century BC Propylaea on the Acropolis Hill during a hot day, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)
Tourists visit the 5th century BC Propylaea on the Acropolis Hill during a hot day, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)

Two successive quakes with a magnitude near 5 hit the Greek ‌island of ‌Evia, northeast ‌of Athens, ⁠on Sunday, data ⁠from the Athens Geodynamic Institute showed.

No injuries ⁠were reported, ‌but ‌there were ‌some ‌reports of rocks falling from the tremor, ‌which was felt in the ⁠Greek capital ⁠about 130 km (80 miles) away from the epicenter in northern Evia.

World

Over 1.2 Million People Attend Pope's Mass in Madrid

27 May 2026, Vatican, Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV leads the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
27 May 2026, Vatican, Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV leads the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
TT
TT

Over 1.2 Million People Attend Pope's Mass in Madrid

27 May 2026, Vatican, Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV leads the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
27 May 2026, Vatican, Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV leads the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

More than 1.2 million people filled the streets of Madrid on Sunday for a mass by Pope Leo XIV at which he called for a renewal of the Catholic faith in Spain.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia joined throngs of devotees waving Spanish and Vatican flags in Cibeles Square for a service filled with religious symbolism.

In his homily, Pope Leo said Spaniards should not look at religion as "a museum of the past to be visited, but a school of faith from which to draw even today".

The mass comes on day two of Pope Leo's seven-day visit to Spain, a traditional Catholic bastion where religious observance has been declining sharply in recent years as in much of western Europe.

A huge logistical and security operation was in place for the event, after which the pope led a traditional procession along a route lined with white and yellow carnations -- the Vatican flag colors, AFP said.

Organizers said there were more than 1.2 million people attending in the square and the surrounding area.

Nico Aldeanueva, 28, who was visiting from Philadelphia in the United States, said the pope was "a very unifying force in a moment where we have division across so many different fronts".

"We have, it seems like, never-ending conflict and for the time being here you get to hit pause and get to enjoy the moment and feel the faith."

Ana Milagros, 64, who was waving a Vatican flag, said she thought the US-born pope seemed "approachable" and "very sincere".

"There is a lot of polarization and differences in politics, in social matters, in the economy," she said, adding: "The pope is trying with this visit... to help all of us."

- Focus on migration -

Later on Sunday, Leo will meet the leading lights of culture, sport and the economy at an arena, with the aim of fostering dialogue between faith and modern civil society.

Around 56 percent of Spaniards identify as Catholic compared to 90 percent in the 1970s, according to a survey last month by the Center for Sociological Research, an autonomous government body.

On Saturday, 500,000 mostly young attendees congregated with Leo outside Real Madrid's Bernabeu stadium for a prayer vigil that stretched into the night.

Leo kicked off his visit with pomp and ceremony at a reception in Madrid's royal palace, where he called for an end to "polarizing narratives" and "sterile simplifications".

The pope also praised Spain, whose left-wing government has sparred with his native United States as well as Israel over wars in the Middle East, for its "active commitment to peace and solidarity among peoples".

Leo is due to visit Barcelona on Tuesday and Wednesday, where he will notably bless the Sagrada Familia basilica's recently completed tower, which made it the world's tallest church.

His trip will end with a focus on migration on Thursday and Friday in the Canary Islands, a key destination for irregular arrivals, with thousands dying in the Atlantic Ocean trying to reach them.