Iran's Raisi to Be Laid to Rest in Home Town

Mourners attend the funeral of Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran. ATTA KENARE / AFP
Mourners attend the funeral of Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran. ATTA KENARE / AFP
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Iran's Raisi to Be Laid to Rest in Home Town

Mourners attend the funeral of Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran. ATTA KENARE / AFP
Mourners attend the funeral of Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran. ATTA KENARE / AFP

Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash, will be buried Thursday in his hometown after two days of funeral processions attended by thousands of mourners.
Raisi, 63, died on Sunday alongside his foreign minister and six others when their helicopter crashed in the country's mountainous northwest while returning from a dam inauguration, said AFP.
His final resting place will be at the holy shrine of Imam Reza, a key Shiite mausoleum in the northeastern city of Mashhad, where the ultra-conservative president was born.
Images published by Iranian media on Wednesday showed officials in Mashhad preparing for the final day of funerary rites.
Large photos of Raisi, black flags and Shiite symbols were erected throughout the streets of Iran's second city, particularly around the Imam Reza shrine.
Massive crowds had gathered for a funeral procession on Wednesday in the capital Tehran to pay their final respects to the president, whom officials and media dubbed a "martyr".
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei -- whom Raisi had been widely expected to succeed -- led prayers for the late president, kneeling before the coffins of the eight people killed in the crash.
Among them was foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who will also be buried Thursday in the shrine of Shah Abdol-Azim in the town of Shahr-Rey south of the capital.
June 28 election
An afternoon ceremony for Raisi was held on Wednesday in which around 60 countries took part, said state news agency IRNA.
Member countries of the European Union were among the absentees of the ceremony, while some non-member countries, including Belarus and Serbia had their representatives.
Khamenei, who wields ultimate authority in Iran, has declared five days of national mourning and assigned vice president Mohammad Mokhber, 68, as caretaker president until a June 28 election for Raisi's successor.
A presidential election in Iran had not been expected until next year, and Sunday's crash has caused some uncertainty as to who will succeed Raisi, with some expressing concern about the upcoming president.
"How do I find someone like him? I'm really worried about that," said 31-year-old cleric Mohsen at Wednesday's funeral in Tehran. "As far as I know, we don't have anyone of his stature."
Raisi was elected president in 2021, succeeding the moderate Hassan Rouhani at a time when the economy was battered by US sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear activities.
The ultra-conservative's time in office saw mass protests, a deepening economic crisis and unprecedented armed exchanges with arch-enemy Israel.
After his death, Russia and China sent their condolences, as did NATO, while the UN Security Council observed a minute's silence.
Messages of condolence also flooded in from Iran's allies around the region, including the Syrian government as well as Hamas and Hezbollah.



Hollywood Stars Help Biden Raise $28 Million during Fundraiser

US President Joe Biden takes part in a conversation with former US President Barack Obama and late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel during a star-studded campaign fundraiser at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, June 15, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Joe Biden takes part in a conversation with former US President Barack Obama and late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel during a star-studded campaign fundraiser at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, June 15, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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Hollywood Stars Help Biden Raise $28 Million during Fundraiser

US President Joe Biden takes part in a conversation with former US President Barack Obama and late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel during a star-studded campaign fundraiser at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, June 15, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Joe Biden takes part in a conversation with former US President Barack Obama and late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel during a star-studded campaign fundraiser at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, June 15, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Some of Hollywood's brightest stars headlined a glitzy fundraiser for President Joe Biden on Saturday night, helping raise what his reelection campaign said was $28 million and hoping to energize would-be supporters ahead of a November election that they argued repeatedly was among the most important in the nation's history.
George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand were among those who took the stage at the 7,100-seat Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, The Associated Press reported. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel interviewed Biden and former President Barack Obama, who both stressed the need to defeat former President Donald Trump in a race that's expected to be exceedingly close.
During more than half an hour of discussion, Kimmel asked if the country was suffering from amnesia about the presumptive Republican nominee, to which Biden responded, “all we gotta do is remember what it was like" when Trump was in the White House.
Luminaries from the entertainment world have increasingly lined up to help Biden’s campaign, and just how important the event was to his reelection bid could be seen in the president flying through the night across nine time zones, from the G7 summit in southern Italy to Southern California, to attend.
He also missed a summit in Switzerland about ways to end Russia's war in Ukraine, instead dispatching Vice President Kamala Harris who made her own whirlwind trip of her own to represent the United States there — a stark reminder of the delicate balance between geopolitics and his bid to win a second term.
Further laying bare the political implications were police in riot gear outside the theater Saturday night, ready for protests from pro-Palestinian activists angry about his administration’s handling of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
The event featured singing by Jack Black and Sheryl Lee Ralph, and actors Kathryn Hahn and Jason Bateman introduced Kimmel at the start of the interview with Biden and Obama. The comedian deadpanned, “I was told I was getting introduced by Batman, not Bateman.”
But he quickly pivoted to far more serious topics, saying that “so much is at stake in this election” and listing off women’s rights, health care and noting that “even the ballot is on the ballot” in a reference to the Biden administration's calls to expand voting rights.
Kimmel asked the president what he was most proud of accomplishing, and Biden said he thought the administration’s approach to the economy “is working.”
“We have the strongest economy in the world today,” Biden said, adding “we try to give ordinary people an even chance.”
Trump spent Saturday campaigning in Detroit and criticized Biden for weakening the economy and stoking inflation. The president was fundraising "with out-of-touch elitist Hollywood celebrities,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
But Biden told the crowd in California that “we passed every major piece of legislation we attempted to get done." And Obama expressed admiration for sweeping legislation on health care, public works, the environment, technology manufacturing, gun safety and other major initiatives that the administration of his former vice president has overseen.
“What we’re seeing now is a byproduct of in 2016. There were a whole bunch of folks who, for whatever reason, sat out," said Obama, who, like Biden wore a dark suit with a white shirt with an open collar.
Obama added that "hopefully we have learned our lesson, because these elections matter in very concrete ways.”
When the conversation turned to three Supreme Court justices who Trump nominated and who helped overturn Roe v. Wade — the landmark decision guaranteeing a constitutional right to an abortion — the crowd expressed its displeasure to which Obama responded, “don't hiss, vote.” That was a play on his common refrain prioritizing voting over booing.
Biden said that if he were to win four more years in the White House he may get the chance to nominate two new justices — though even that probably wouldn't drastically overhaul a court that current features a 6-3 conservative majority.
He also suggested that if Trump wins back the White House, “one of the scariest parts" was the Supreme Court and how there has “never been a court that’s so far out of step.”
Biden also referenced reports that an upside-down flag, a symbol associated with Trump’s false claims of election fraud, was displayed outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in January 2021. He worried Saturday that, if Trump is reelected, “He’s going to appoint two more who fly their flags upside down.”
Biden's campaign said it was still counting, but that Saturday night's gathering had taken in at least $28 million — more money than any event for a Democratic candidate in history.
That meant outpacing the president's fundraiser in March at Radio City Music Hall in New York, which featured late-night host Stephen Colbert interviewing Biden, Obama and former President Bill Clinton, which raised $26 million.
Biden held an early lead in the campaign money race against Trump, but the former president has gained ground in recent months, after formally locking up the Republican nomination.
Trump outpaced Biden's New York event in April, raking in $50.5 million at a gathering of major donors at the Florida home of billionaire investor John Paulson. The former president’s campaign and the Republican National Committee announced they had raised a whopping $141 million in May, padded by tens of millions of dollars in contributions that flowed in after Trump's guilty verdict in his criminal hush money trial.
That post-conviction bump came after Trump and the Republican Party announced collecting $76 million in April, far exceeding Biden and the Democrats’ $51 million for the month.