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Iran President-elect to Be Sworn in on July 30

Iran's reformist president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian
Iran's reformist president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian
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Iran President-elect to Be Sworn in on July 30

Iran's reformist president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian
Iran's reformist president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian

Iran's reformist president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian will take the oath of office in parliament on July 30, a member of the legislature's presiding board, Mojtaba Yousefi, said on Wednesday.
“The swearing-in ceremony of Masoud Pezeshkian will be held on July 30,” state news agency IRNA quoted Yousefi as saying.
Yousefi had said earlier this week that the swearing in would be held on August 4 or 5.
The 69-year-old reformist won a second-round runoff against ultraconservative Saeed Jalili. But the President in Iran retains limited authority, as ultimate power rests in the hands of the country's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who is considered head of the State.
The Iranian presidential election was called early after the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May and amid public discontent caused by the deteriorating economic situation due to international sanctions imposed on Tehran.
On Wednesday, Hadi Tahan Nazif, the spokesperson for Iran's Constitutional Council affirmed that in accordance with the nation's constitution and historical precedents set after the Iranian Revolution, the presidency will continue to have a four-year tenure.
Nazif clarified that the president's four-year term commences immediately following the election.
He cited that the First Vice President retains the executive responsibility of the country until the new president takes the oath.
Meanwhile, the Tasnim news agency cited an “informed source” as saying that former Iranian deputy foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi is likely to become Iran’s new foreign minister.
It said that advisors to President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian have “almost reached a final conclusion” about the foreign minister post, and “the most likely option” is Araghchi.
Sources also confirmed that Araghchi has directly consulted in recent days with Pezeshkian about holding contacts with officials of the resistance groups and a number of regional heads of states.
On Tuesday, former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he would not serve as a minister in the new cabinet or as the vice president.
“Based on the decisions aimed at rejuvenating the administration, 60% of the ministers will be first-timers under 50 years old,” he revealed.
Meanwhile, Pezeshkian on Wednesday met with former Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani and with senior government officials and high-profile figures.
The president-elect also met with Chief Justice of Iran, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, who underlined his full readiness to assist Pezeshkian in forming a new cabinet that is “in line with the Iranian Republic.”
He also affirmed the Judiciary readiness to assist the government in the realization of social justice.
Pezeshkian had met with Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).
During the meeting, Ahmadian affirmed to Pezeshkian the Council’s readiness for cooperation in political and security affairs with the government, according to Nour News, the news outlet close to Iran's SNSC.

 

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World

Around 20 Injured After Spraying Incident in Tokyo Mall

Emergency personnel work outside the Ginza Six luxury shopping complex in Tokyo's Ginza district, Japan, 25 May 2026. (EPA)
Emergency personnel work outside the Ginza Six luxury shopping complex in Tokyo's Ginza district, Japan, 25 May 2026. (EPA)
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Around 20 Injured After Spraying Incident in Tokyo Mall

Emergency personnel work outside the Ginza Six luxury shopping complex in Tokyo's Ginza district, Japan, 25 May 2026. (EPA)
Emergency personnel work outside the Ginza Six luxury shopping complex in Tokyo's Ginza district, Japan, 25 May 2026. (EPA)

Around 20 people were injured at a luxury shopping complex in central Tokyo on Monday after a man sprayed a substance inside, police and fire department officials said.

Tokyo police spokesman Yusuke Koide told AFP that a man sprayed a substance at an ATM on the ground floor of the building, while a local fire department official said "around 20 people were injured" after a report of a "smell".

The road in front of the mall -- located in the touristy and upmarket shopping district of Ginza -- was blocked off following the incident, and fire trucks lined the street.

But shoppers continued to come and go from the building using side entrances.

An AFP reporter at the scene saw two people on stretchers being put into an ambulance, while firefighters and officials dressed in hazmat suits brought people from the mall into specialized trucks to examine them.

Public broadcaster NHK said the injuries appeared to be light.

One 70-year-old woman who was at the mall told the broadcaster that her throat started "stinging and hurting" as she approached the ATM.

"By the time I arrived, the commotion had already started, and I thought there might have been a small fire or something.

"Once I went into the ATM corner, my throat felt scratchy, almost numb."

Police are investigating the cause, a fire department officer at the scene said.

Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world's toughest gun laws.

However, there are occasional stabbing attacks and even shootings, including the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in 2022.

In December last year fourteen people were injured in a stabbing attack in a factory in central Japan during which an unspecified liquid was also sprayed.

Japan remains shaken by the memory of a major subway attack in 1995 when members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released sarin gas on trains, killing 14 people and making more than 5,800 ill.

On March 20, 1995, five members of the Aum cult dropped bags of Nazi-developed sarin nerve agent inside morning commuter trains, piercing the pouches with sharpened umbrella tips before fleeing.

World

Two Killed in Russia During Ukrainian Strikes

A man standing in smoke looks at heavily damaged buildings following Russian strikes in Kyiv on May 24, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
A man standing in smoke looks at heavily damaged buildings following Russian strikes in Kyiv on May 24, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
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Two Killed in Russia During Ukrainian Strikes

A man standing in smoke looks at heavily damaged buildings following Russian strikes in Kyiv on May 24, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
A man standing in smoke looks at heavily damaged buildings following Russian strikes in Kyiv on May 24, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)

Two people were killed Monday in Ukrainian strikes on the Russian border regions of Belgorod and Bryansk, local authorities said.

"A drone attacked a vehicle in the town of Graivoron," the authorities of the Belgorod region said in a statement, reporting that "a civilian was killed."

In Bryansk, a man was killed in a Ukrainian strike in the settlement of Belaya Beryozka, the acting regional governor Yegor Kovalchuk wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine regularly targets Russia in retaliation for the daily bombardments it has been subjected to since the start of the large-scale Russian offensive in February 2022.

At least four people were killed and more than one hundred injured in Ukraine overnight Saturday to Sunday in intense Russian bombardments that particularly targeted the capital, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Kyiv and Moscow reported that Russia used its Orechnik nuclear-capable ballistic missile during these strikes, which followed a Ukrainian drone attack on educational buildings in the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk that left 21 dead and more than 40 injured.

US-mediated negotiations to end this conflict, the worst in Europe since the Second World War, have been at a standstill since the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

World

Philippine Construction Collapse Toll Hits Four, over Dozen Missing

The death toll in a Philippine construction site collapse has risen to three. Ted ALJIBE / AFP
The death toll in a Philippine construction site collapse has risen to three. Ted ALJIBE / AFP
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Philippine Construction Collapse Toll Hits Four, over Dozen Missing

The death toll in a Philippine construction site collapse has risen to three. Ted ALJIBE / AFP
The death toll in a Philippine construction site collapse has risen to three. Ted ALJIBE / AFP

The death toll rose to four Monday in the collapse of a building under construction near the Philippine capital, with more than a dozen people still believed missing, authorities said.

Two workers pinned beneath the wreckage were found alive after the nine-storey structure gave way Sunday, hitting a nearby hotel and killing a Malaysian guest.

But the two workers trapped at the site in Angeles, which is north of the capital Manila, died despite rescue efforts.

"The first of the two was pulled out alive, but unfortunately, his body gave out and he did not survive. Doctors could not resuscitate him," regional fire bureau spokeswoman Maria Leah Sajili told AFP.

"The other one suffered a cardiac arrest around 3:00 am (1900 GMT Sunday). Doctors could not attend to him as he was still pinned down," she added.

Crews pulled another corpse from the rubble on Monday, but it was not immediately clear if the unidentified body belonged to a person listed among the missing, rescuers said in an updated toll.

Due to the uncertainty, authorities said approximately 17 other people were still considered missing, mostly construction workers who were sleeping at the building site when disaster struck.

Lea Casilao, girlfriend of a missing construction worker, told AFP she had taken a bus from her northern Manila home to Angeles with rice and canned goods for her mate on Sunday, unaware of the pre-dawn accident on the same day.

"It's very difficult, it is breaking my heart to wait for something uncertain," 47-year-old Casilao said, crying as she recounted how she slept alone at a local government building overnight Sunday.

- Lacking safety gear -

Stephanie Batar and her mother Noby told AFP they only learnt about the accident on social media from their home in nearby Bulacan province early Monday and have been unable to contact her 64-year-old father who had been hired only weeks earlier at the job site on a six-month contract.

"I couldn't breathe. I couldn't stand. It's very painful and we did not know what to do," the daughter said.

The cause of the collapse is not known.

Regional labor department director Geraldine Panlilio said she had briefly shut the project down in September 2024 over violations of occupational safety standards.

"Our labor inspectors had monitored poor working conditions, a violation that would put our workers at risk," she said in an interview over Manila radio station DZMM.

The construction workers "lacked safety gear" like hardhats, boots, safety belts and lifelines, and worked under poor lighting and with no visible safety signages, she added.

Construction resumed a month later after the building contractor complied with requirements, Panlilio said.

Officials said up to 70 people were employed at the construction site, though most had gone home for the weekend.

Alfredo Albis, 55, told AFP he was asleep at a barracks for workers about five meters (16 feet) from the structure when it gave way.

"I have two cousins who are still trapped there. They were working here to earn for their families and (they) are missing," he said, adding "there's a possibility that my relatives are dead".

Sajili, the fire bureau spokeswoman, said that "rescue in (a) building collapse is very challenging since any sudden shift triggered by the movements of our rescuers can cause areas to move and people under can get crushed".

If no more survivors are found after a search with thermal scanners, mechanical diggers and other heavy equipment will be brought in to clear debris and recover bodies, she said, but gave no timeline.