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Former Iranian president lashes out over election course of

Former Iranian president lashes out over election process

As Iran prepares to head to the polls on Friday, the country’s hardline former president has called out the U.S. for meddling in the Middle East.

In a wide ranging interview with CNBC ahead of the vote, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the 2015 nuclear deal caused “more problems than it resolved” and cast doubt on the legitimacy of his country’s election.

“Any decision that prevents the people from influencing the outcome is against the spirit of the revolution and the constitution,” Iran’s former president told CNBC.

The comments came after Ahmadinejad’s candidacy was rejected by Iran’s Guardian Council, the vetting body of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The move essentially barred him from running in the 2021 election.  

“I made it clear on the day that I announced my candidacy that I will not participate in the elections if the will of millions of people is denied for no legitimate reason, like it has been in the past,” Ahmadinejad said about the decision to exclude him.

A field of more than 600 candidates was narrowed to just five on Thursday. The presidential race is now seen as a contest between the moderate former central bank chief, Abdolnasser Hemmati, and the hardline judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi.

Analysts say Raisi is the clear frontrunner, with the highest name recognition among the candidates. Raisi served four decades in Iran’s judiciary and ran but lost to moderate President Hassan Rouhani in the 2017 election. 

Ahmadinejad’s two terms between 2005 and 2013 were marked by fiery exchanges, with him lashing out repeatedly against U.S. policy and Israel and pursuing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.    

The former leader told CNBC that any change in leadership will have implications for already-strained relations between the United States and Iran, which are negotiating to free a crippled Iranian economy from sanctions in exchange for new limits on its nuclear program. 

TEHRAN, IRAN – MAY 12: Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reads his statement while attending a press center after registering as a candidate for June 18, presidential elections, in the Iranian Interior Ministry building on May 12, 2021 in Tehran, Iran.

Majid Saeedi | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Nuclear deal

“The JCPOA caused more problems than it resolved,” Ahmadinejad said when asked about the deal that former U.S President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Originally signed between Iran and world powers in 2015, the JCPOA put restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The former president said he believed a new nuclear deal with the United States was possible, but the timeline on an agreement was still uncertain given the apparent differences on both sides.

“I believe that the two countries will need to change their perspectives and look at each other differently,” Ahmadinejad said. “If we base things in accordance with justice and mutual respect, then I believe that the problems can be solved.”

Raisi has voiced support for Iran’s nuclear talks in the past, but it’s unclear how a change in leadership in Iran will impact the negotiations. 

“While in theory it would be possible to conclude the talks and get everything signed before Rouhani steps down, past experience shows that the nuclear talks tend to move at a snail’s pace, even without political complications,” Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov said. 

“We doubt that Raisi will be as belligerent and strident as Ahmadinejad had been, but they are closer ideologically to each other as compared to Rouhani,” he added. “Depending on what Raisi says after the election, and how his administration behaves in its early days, it is even possible to envision a suspension of the talks altogether, though that would be a rather extreme scenario.”

Regional aggressor

Relations between Iran and its Gulf Arab neighbors have begun to thaw since the election of U.S. President Joe Biden, but Ahmadinejad said U.S. “meddling” via arms sales remains a challenge to regional stability.

“When tens of billions of dollars of arms is sold to countries within the region annually, this causes major problems,” he said. “This threatens the security of the region and is considered as meddling. … The U.S. government should not be seeking to control Iran, or the Middle East.” 

The U.S. is the world’s largest arms supplier and the Middle East is a key export market, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The U.S approved the sale of $23 billion in arms to the United Arab Emirates earlier this year. Weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, a key Iranian rival, are under review. 

Iran’s economy and vital oil exports have been crippled by the double blow of Covid-19 and sanctions from the U.S. and other world powers. So far, over 3 million people in the country have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, and over 82,000 people have died.

“Iranian people believe that the response to the Covid pandemic in the country was a failure,” Ahmadinejad said. “I must say that the front-line workers and the medical professionals worked tirelessly, but the overall management has been ineffective and unwise,” he added.

Iran’s financial hit from Covid-19 was less pronounced than in other countries because its economy had already contracted by 12% over the previous two years. 

A new nuclear deal and sanctions relief would allow fresh revenues to flow early in a new government’s term. Iran’s real gross domestic product is estimated to grow by 1.7% in 2020-2021, according to the World Bank. 

Iranian officials say oil production could reach 4 million barrels per day within 90 days of sanctions being lifted. As it stands, Iran’s oil exports are minimal, as Trump-era sanctions continue to dissuade most international buyers.

—CNBC’s Emma Graham contributed to this article.

 

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Politics

French President Emmanuel Macron slapped in face, two individuals arrested

French President Emmanuel Macron slapped in face, two people arrested

French President Macron will take part in a video conference on the climate summit on April 22, 2021 at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Ian Langsdon | Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face and police arrested two men, a spokesman for the National Gendarmerie told NBC News on Tuesday.

A popular video clip shows a masked man shouting “Down with Macronia” in French before swinging his open palm in the president’s face.

The two suspects were arrested after the incident that occurred during Macron’s visit to a school in southeastern France, NBC reported.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex condemned political violence and aggression as undemocratic on Tuesday.

“I am calling for a renewal of the republic,” Castex tweeted in French.

The trip to the Tain Hermitage School, which specializes in catering, took place on the eve of the French government lifting restrictions on indoor dining and other measures during the coronavirus pandemic.

Macron should meet with representatives from the restaurant industry, NBC reported.

The video of the incident shows Macron wearing a black mask and approaching a crowd on the other side of a partition. Macron appears to be patting the next person in the crowd, a man in a green T-shirt and white mask, on the forearm.

When Marcon seems to start crawling down the line of onlookers, the man slaps the president in the face, as the video shows. Shortly before the slap, the man shouts “Montjoie Saint Denis”, the battle cry of the former French monarchy, and “A Bas La Macronie”, which roughly translated means “Down with Macron’s kingdom”.

Bodyguards for Macron immediately swarmed the man and pushed the president away from him. According to the video, Macron returned to greet the crowd further down the line.

The suspects are on remand and the French authorities are investigating the case, NBC reported. One person was arrested for the slap himself, while the role of the other suspect is still unclear, according to NBC.

In a tweet earlier on Tuesday, Macron had used the visit to the school in the Drome region to highlight the latest steps in his government’s Covid reopening plan.

As of Wednesday, curfews will be extended to 11 p.m. and indoor dining in restaurants and bistros will be allowed again, NBC reported. The remaining restrictions will be lifted at the end of June, depending on the prevalence of the pandemic in France at that time.

“Tomorrow a new step will be taken,” read a translation of Macron’s tweet. “It is life that will revive in all of our territories! It is part of our culture, our art of living that we will rediscover.”

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Business

This is One Factor Lacking from President Biden’s Price range: Booming Progress

Here's One Thing Missing from President Biden's Budget: Booming Growth

“We are a really big economy where really big forces are shaping what happens to G.D.P. growth,” said Wendy Edelberg, director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution and a former C.B.O. chief economist.

Even these moderate projections by the Biden administration imply that its policies will lift growth in economic activity by a few tenths of a percent each year over a decade. This is significant when comparing it with the growth that would be expected by simply looking at demographic factors and historical averages of productivity growth. The forecast is more inherently optimistic about Mr. Biden’s policies — and their potential to increase productivity and the size of the work force — than it might seem at first glance.

Biden’s 2022 Budget

    • A new year, a new budget: The 2022 fiscal year for the federal government begins on October 1, and President Biden has revealed what he’d like to spend, starting then. But any spending requires approval from both chambers of Congress.
    • Ambitious total spending: President Biden would like the federal government to spend $6 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year, and for total spending to rise to $8.2 trillion by 2031. That would take the United States to its highest sustained levels of federal spending since World War II, while running deficits above $1.3 trillion through the next decade.
    • Infrastructure plan: The budget outlines the president’s desired first year of investment in his American Jobs Plan, which seeks to fund improvements to roads, bridges, public transit and more with a total of $2.3 billion over eight years.
    • Families plan: The budget also addresses the other major spending proposal Biden has already rolled out, his American Families Plan, aimed at bolstering the United States’ social safety net by expanding access to education, reducing the cost of child care and supporting women in the work force.
    • Mandatory programs: As usual, mandatory spending on programs like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare make up a significant portion of the proposed budget. They are growing as America’s population ages.
    • Discretionary spending: Funding for the individual budgets of the agencies and programs under the executive branch would reach around $1.5 trillion in 2022, a 16 percent increase from the previous budget.
    • How Biden would pay for it: The president would largely fund his agenda by raising taxes on corporations and high earners, which would begin to shrink budget deficits in the 2030s. Administration officials have said tax increases would fully offset the jobs and families plans over the course of 15 years, which the budget request backs up. In the meantime, the budget deficit would remain above $1.3 trillion each year.

“Making the claim that your fiscal policies will boost growth by four-tenths of a point seems optimistic, but I can see how they could get there,” she said.

Jason Furman, the Obama administration’s former top economist, said: “I think there’s a problem that people have in their head — more extravagant ideas about what economic policy can do and how quickly it can do it. When you’re talking about productivity enhancement, you’re talking about compounding that becomes a big deal for a long time.”

In other words, the difference of a few tenths of a percent of G.D.P. growth might not mean much for a single year, but a gap of that size that persists for many years has a big impact on living standards.

Some of the administration’s policies, by design, would focus on the very long-term impact on the nation’s economic potential. For example, additional money for community colleges might actually depress the size of the labor force, and thus G.D.P., in the short run if more adults go back to school. But it would then increase those workers’ productive potential, and thus contribution to growth, for the decades that follow.

Conservatives, for their part, view the Biden agenda as likely to restrain growth, particularly once tax increases and new regulatory action go into effect. Mr. Mulligan, the Trump adviser, said he believed the Biden agenda would reduce the nation’s growth path by around 0.8 percentage points a year compared with its Trump-era trajectory. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, said he thought Mr. Biden’s policies could create faster growth in the short term but slower growth in the long run because of taxes and spending.

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World News

COP26 president says ‘coal should go’ if planet to fulfill local weather targets

COP26 president says 'coal must go' if planet to meet climate targets

Justin Merriman | Bloomberg Creative Photos | Getty Images

This year’s COP26 climate change conference must bring coal a thing of the past, according to UK lawmakers, who will formally negotiate at the summit.

In a comprehensive speech on Friday, COP26 President-elect Alok Sharma wanted to highlight the importance of ending international coal financing, a goal he called a “personal priority”.

“We call on the countries to give up coal power and win the G-7 as a pioneer,” he said. “At the same time, we are working with developing countries to support their transition to clean energy.”

“The days of coal, which provides the cheapest form of energy, are in the past and must remain in the past,” he added.

Sharma said science understands that “coal has to go” to sustain the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The goal was set in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change during the 2015 COP21 Summit in the French capital.

The agreement, described by the United Nations as a legally binding international treaty on climate change, aims to “limit global warming to well below 2, preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels”.

The COP26 summit is due to be hosted by the UK and will take place in the Scottish city of Glasgow between November 1st and 12th. It was originally supposed to take place a year earlier, but has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The UK’s official COP26 website said it would “bring parties together to accelerate action to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change”.

In his remarks on Friday, Sharma continued: “The reality is that renewable energies are cheaper than coal in most countries. The coal business, as the UN Secretary-General has said, is going up in smoke. It’s old technology.”

“So let’s make COP26 the moment we leave it where it belongs in the past and, of course, help workers and communities transition by creating good green jobs to fill the void.”

While some will view Sharma’s ambitions as commendable, coal still provides more than a third of the planet’s electricity generation, according to the International Energy Agency.

According to an analysis by the IEA, global coal consumption decreased by 4% in 2020, but that decrease “was mainly concentrated in the first few months of the year”.

“By the end of 2020, demand had risen above pre-Covid levels due to Asia, where economies recovered quickly and December was particularly cold,” added the IEA.

In the US, coal continues to play an important role in power generation. Preliminary figures from the US Energy Information Administration show that natural gas and coal accounted for 40.3% and 19.3% of utility-scale electricity generation in 2020, respectively.

Sharma’s comments come at a time when plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria, a county in northwest England, are proving extremely controversial, not least because Britain will host COP26. The fate of the project is to be determined.

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World News

Biden Invitations South Korea’s President to White Home in Could

Biden Invites South Korea’s President to White House in May

President Biden will meet with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea in Washington on May 21, the White House said Thursday.

“President Moon’s visit will highlight the iron alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea and the broad and deep relationships between our governments, people and economies,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. “President Biden looks forward to working with President Moon to further strengthen our alliance and expand our close working relationship.”

In an interview with the New York Times published last week, Mr. Moon urged Mr. Biden to sit down with North Korea and start negotiations.

Mr Biden’s predecessor, Donald J. Trump, left office without removing a single North Korean nuclear warhead. Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, has resumed weapons testing.

“He hit the bushes and didn’t manage to pull it off,” said Mr. Moon of Mr. Trump’s efforts on North Korea. “The most important starting point for both governments is to have the will to dialogue and to meet face to face early on.”

He also urged the United States to work with China on North Korea and other global issues like climate change. A deterioration in relations between the two countries could jeopardize the denuclearization negotiations, he warned.

Mr Biden met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the White House on April 16 to celebrate the first in-person visit by a foreign leader during his presidency.

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Business

President Biden’s first formal tackle drew practically 27 million viewers.

President Biden’s first formal address drew nearly 27 million viewers.

Almost 27 million people watched President Biden’s first official address at a joint congressional session on Wednesday evening, to a large television audience these days but a much smaller audience than similar speeches by other presidents, according to Nielsen’s data.

The speech, which aired on all major networks and cable news networks starting at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, attracted a much larger television audience than the Oscars program, which aired on ABC on Sunday and was watched by approximately 10 million people. The audience, however, was significantly smaller than that for President Donald J. Trump’s first official address to Congress in 2017, which was attended by 48 million people.

The television audience for Mr. Biden’s address also lagged behind that for equivalent speeches from other recent presidents. Barack Obama had an audience of 52 million in 2009; George W. Bush pulled 40 million in 2001; and Bill Clinton’s first address was seen by 67 million in 1993.

Several factors contributed to the lower ratings. Due to public health and safety concerns at the Capitol, Mr. Biden’s speech came later in his presidency than that of his youngest predecessors, all of which took place in February. There was also less pomp on Wednesday. Instead of a personal audience of 1,600 Senators, Supreme Court justices, and other dignitaries who sat on the cheek with members of the House of Representatives, only 200 people were in attendance due to socially distant restrictions.

TV audience ratings have generally declined in recent years as more people have canceled cable subscriptions in favor of streaming, a shift accelerated by pandemic viewing habits. And the number of people watching TV in spring tends to be lower compared to winter.

According to Nielsen, ABC had the largest audience for the address at around 4 million viewers, and MSNBC was right behind at 3.9 million. Fox News and the Fox Broadcasting Networks had the smallest audience with 2.9 million viewers (Fox News) and 1.6 million viewers (Fox Broadcast).

The Fox audience stepped in for post-anchor analysis and commentators and the Republican counter-argument from South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. In the 30 minutes following the address, Fox News was the only network with an increase in viewership, averaging 3.2 million viewers.

The analysis of the language was different depending on the network. Fox News agent Ben Domenech called Mr. Biden’s speech a “handkerchief of lies”. On MSNBC, anchor Brian Williams referred to it as “Rooseveltian in size and girth”.

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Politics

Harris and Pelosi Are First Girls Behind a President at Joint Session

Harris and Pelosi Are First Women Behind a President at Joint Session

President Biden began his address to a joint congressional session with a series of words no American president had said before: “Madam Vice President and Madam President.”

For the first time, the President addresses two women – Vice President Kamala Harris and Spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi of California. While Ms. Pelosi has made several speeches on the state of the Union behind the President on the podium, this is the first time Ms. Harris.

The two women greeted each other with a friendly elbow before the President arrived.

For an event characterized by pomp and circumstance, the pictures from such nights can leave a lasting impression. And this tableau – a visual representation that the first and second in the line of presidential succession are both women – shows the advancement of women in American politics.

Hours before the speech, when asked about the historic moment on MSNBC, Ms. Pelosi said that while it was “exciting” it was also “about the time”.

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Politics

Biden to go to Belgium, UK in first abroad journey as president

Biden to visit Belgium, UK in first overseas trip as president

President Joe Biden waves as he boards Air Force One before leaving Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland on February 5, 2021.

Almond Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden will make his first overseas tour as President in June when he visits the UK and Belgium for important meetings with allied nations, the White House said Friday.

This news comes amid Biden’s virtual climate summit with world leaders as he advocates reducing greenhouse gas emissions. On Thursday, Biden pledged to cut US emissions by at least 50% by 2030.

The Biden administration has announced that it will reset ties with various allies after President Donald Trump’s often turbulent relations with other nations. Trump criticized other NATO nations, saying they were not paying their fair share of defense spending.

Biden will begin his journey at the G7 summit in Cornwall, UK, where he will also hold bilateral meetings with leaders such as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. This summit will take place from June 11th to 13th.

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The president will work to “advance major US political priorities on public health, economic recovery and climate change, and to demonstrate solidarity and shared values ​​among major democracies,” the White House statement said.

Biden will then travel to Brussels to attend NATO and US-EU meetings, where he will continue to advance American interests. The NATO meeting is scheduled for June 14th.

One topic for the NATO discussion could be the recent escalation of the Russian troop presence on the border with Ukraine to its highest level since 2014. However, Russia on Thursday ordered these troops to return to their home bases after a so-called “rapid inspection”.

Another possible point of discussion could be the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan, where the alliance’s non-combat Resolute Support Mission has been helping Afghan troops since 2015.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said more details about Biden’s trip would come, “including potential additional items”.

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Politics

Walter Mondale, Ex-Vice President Below Jimmy Carter, Dies

Walter Mondale, Ex-Vice President Under Jimmy Carter, Dies

One of his proudest legislative accomplishments, he said, was his leadership role in making it easier for the Senate to cut off a filibuster with 60 votes due to a rule change instead of a two-thirds vote as it was previously required. One of his greatest regrets, he said, was his delay until 1969 when he turned against the Vietnam War.

In the 1970s, Mr. Mondale’s name was on the list of possible candidates for national office. He dutifully wrote a campaign book entitled “The Accountability of Power: Towards a Responsible Presidency” (1975), in which he criticized the “Imperial Presidency” of Richard M. Nixon and then competed for the nomination of President 1976 joined.

The campaign was going nowhere. “I remember being six points behind ‘don’t know’ after a year,” said Mondale in an interview in 2010. He ended the offer early in 1974. When he withdrew, he said he lacked an “overwhelming desire to To become president “. The comment would haunt him.

The Democratic victor, Mr. Carter, a conservative southerner, was looking for a liberal northerner who could help him find support in the industrialized world. Mr Mondale was high on everyone’s list, but he had mixed feelings until he got an agreement from the candidate that he would play a full political role, augmented by the largely ceremonial roles assigned to most vice presidents.

Mr. Mondale’s chief of staff, Richard Moe, said Mr. Humphrey had been just as persuasive. “‘Fritz,’ he said, ‘if you have the chance to become Vice President you should take it,'” recalled Mr. Moe.

In office, Mr. Carter was true to his word when he made important assignments in the White House, said Mr. Mondale in 2010. “Carter listened to me a lot, I think,” he said. “I was trying to avoid a win-loss record. But he was wonderful for me and for Joan. They have never offended our independence, integrity or position. “

Some in the presidential circle, such as Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security advisor, later downgraded Mr Mondale’s contribution as it consisted largely of political advice. In one case, Mr Mondale unsuccessfully spoke out against the imposition of a grain embargo on the Soviet Union after its invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979.

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Business

CBS Information Names 2 Outsiders to Succeed Its President

CBS News Names 2 Outsiders to Succeed Its President

Two years ago, CBS selected the ultimate insider to lead its broadcast news division: Susan Zirinsky, whose tenure on the network spanned decades into the days of Walter Cronkite.

Now the network is turning to two outsiders – one from the world of newspaper and digital publishing – to restore the fate of a news company that has lagged its rivals at ABC and NBC.

CBS said Thursday that Neeraj Khemlani, a vice president of Hearst publishing house, and Wendy McMahon, a former ABC executive, would succeed Ms. Zirinsky. The two will serve as presidents and co-directors of CBS News, a division that is being expanded to include local broadcasters on the network.

In the gossip world of television news, no executive has been rumored to be a candidate for the top CBS role.

Mr. Khemlani worked for CBS News from 1998 to 2006 as a producer on “60 Minutes”. He moved to Yahoo’s news division before taking on a number of executive positions at Hearst in 2009.

Like CBS, Hearst is a giant of the last century’s media empires, and Khemlani’s tenure has included digital partnerships and other efforts to modernize the company. Ms. McMahon is more into the broadcast business. In her last role, she oversaw ABC local broadcasters and newsrooms.

In business today

Updated

April 15, 2021, 6:56 p.m. ET

“These are non-traditional decisions for non-traditional times,” said Andrew Heyward, President of CBS News from 1996 to 2005, in an interview.

Thursday’s announcement surprised many CBS News employees. George Cheeks, the executive director of CBS Entertainment Group who led the double appointment, made it clear in a memo on Thursday that he was aiming for some sort of transition.

“This is an opportunity to create a news and information structure that positions CBS for the future,” he wrote.

The two new executives contrast with Ms. Zirinsky, an experienced producer. As the first woman to run CBS News, she installed a new evening newscaster, Norah O’Donnell. the morning landlady Gayle King signed a new contract; and urged her team to chase shovels. Ratings haven’t shrunk too much during her tenure, but they haven’t grown too much either: CBS still ranks third on the morning and evening news.

Ms. Zirinsky is expected to take on a new production role in the network this year. Mr. Khemlani and Ms. McMahon are starting next month.

“I don’t think CBS News needs any help with journalism,” said Heyward, who is now a professor at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. “CBS will benefit from new thinking on how to reinvent itself for a new generation of news consumers with new consumer habits.”

Mr. Cheeks, who rose to his role as head of the CBS entertainment group in March 2020, marks the first time a vaunted news operation is being shaped. He is also trying to address a scandal that recently hit the CBS television group. Two top executives, Peter Dunn and David Friend, were put on administrative leave in January after accused of creating a hostile work environment and making derogatory remarks to black and female colleagues. Both were fired last week.

Journalists and producers from CBS News will now be reporting to two leading companies on both coasts. Mr. Khemlani will be based in New York, which is where the news division’s headquarters are located, and Ms. McMahon will be based in Los Angeles, although she is expected to work in both cities, a CBS spokesman said.

Mr. Cheeks believes in sharing top positions between executives and he has firsthand experience with this arrangement. He was named co-president of Universal Cable Productions with Dawn Olmstead in early 2018, and later that year he was named co-chair of NBC Entertainment with Paul Telegdy.