Hardline ex-mayor elected as speaker in Iran
TEHRAN: Iran’s parliament elected a former mayor of Tehran tied to the Revolutionary Guard as its next speaker, solidifying hardline control of the body as tensions between the US and the Islamic Republic remain high over its collapsed nuclear deal.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf’s assumption of power comes after a string of failed presidential bids and 12 years as the leader of Iran’s capital city, in which he built onto Tehran’s underground and supported the construction of modern high-rises.
Many, however, remember Mr Qalibaf for his support as a Revolutionary Guard general for a violent crackdown on Iranian university students in 1999.
He also reportedly ordered live gunfire be used against Iranian students in 2003 while serving as the country’s police chief.
“It is time to thank all representatives, all workers at the parliament complex, experts, managers, security forces and services,” Mr Qalibaf said, promising to give a speech on Sunday.
CATALONIA: Angry workers burned tyres at the gates of the Nissan carmaking plant in northeastern Spain and prepared for more protests after the Japanese company said it would shut all its manufacturing in the region as it reshuffles its global business.
The decision will lead to 3,000 direct job cuts, which unions say will cause economic ripple effects and impact some 20,000 families in the Catalonia region.
They see it as a sign of more widespread job losses to come and the growing pressure on governments struggling to contain the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although Nissan had been mulling for months to scale down its production in Europe and other parts of the world, the company is suffering like many other carmakers from a plunge in demand for its vehicles.
JERUSALEM: Israel’s national cyber chief has officially acknowledged the country had thwarted a major cyber attack last month against its water systems, an assault widely attributed to arch-enemy Iran, calling it a “synchronised and organised attack” aimed at disrupting key national infrastructure.
Yigal Unna did not mention Iran directly, nor did he comment on the alleged Israeli retaliation two weeks later said to have shut down a key Iranian port, but he said recent developments have ushered in a new era of covert warfare, ominously warning that “cyber winter is coming”.
“Rapid is not something that describes enough how fast and how crazy and hectic things are moving forward in cyberspace and I think we will remember this last month and May 2020 as a changing point in the history of modern cyber warfare,” he said in a video address to Cyberechlive Asia, a digital international cyber conference.
“If the bad guys had succeeded in their plot we would now be facing, in the middle of the corona crisis, very big damage to the civilian population and a lack of water and even worse than that,” he added.
Israel and Iran are bitter foes who have engaged in years of covert battles that have included high-tech hacking and