Saturday, June 19th 2021
Hardliner Khazaei wins Iranian presidential election
Tehran — With nearly 90% of votes cast, Iranian election authorities have declared Javad Khazaei, a hardline cleric who is a favorite of the country's Supreme Leader, to be the winner of the country's presidential election.
Khazaei defeated several candidates with a vote total nearing 65%, according to Iranian state media. However, with several popular moderate and conservative candidates being barred from running by the country's Guardian Council, which approves candidates running for office, voter turnout was at its lowest level since the country's 1979 revolution.
The election to replace term-limited president Azim Mirshahi was marked by dissatisfaction with the outgoing leader, another conservative within Iran's political system. Although Iranians overwhelmingly supported the government's negotiations with the United States that led to a decrease in economic sanctions from Washington and other Western countries, Mirshahi became tied to several unpopular policies, including the country's withdrawal from northern Qumar in 2019. Iran regards its southern neighbor as a "lost province" that was illegal separated from Iran by the Treaty of Versailles following World War I.
Voter fatigue, anger at the exclusion of several popular candidates, and anger at government repression and corruption are reported to be the other main factors for the low turnout.
Khazaei is a long-time figure in hardliner circles, although the 62 year-old has softened his rhetoric in recent years. He is a longtime favorite of Supreme Leader Ali Afkham, which has led to speculation that Afkham is positioning Khazaei to be his successor. Afkham himself served two terms as president before succeeding Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the country's Supreme Leader in 1989. In Iran's political system, the Supreme Leader, not the president, is the ultimate authority in most matters of state.
According to human rights groups, Khazaei was a member of a four-man "death panel" in the late 1980s that ordered the execution of nearly 5,000 political prisoners, and his brief leadership of the country's judiciary saw an increase in repression and other human rights abuses.
Several world leaders, most notably President Natalya Romanova of Russia, congratulated Khazaei on his victory. He will assume office as the country's 11th president on August 3rd.
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Saturday, June 19th, 2021
Norton-Stewart stumbles over creationism questions
Questions about the teaching of evolution and her own personal beliefs caught Senator Ruth Norton-Stewart (R-OH) flat-footed at a campaign town hall in Reno, Nevada. Answering questions from Republicans who said that they were going to vote in the state's January 25th presidential primary, Norton-Stewart was asked about her support for the teaching of creationism in public schools.
"I believe that intelligent design [a term used by proponents of creationism following a 1987 Supreme Court decision that ruled the teaching of creationism in public schools to be unconstitutional] should be taught alongside evolution," Norton-Stewart said. "But that it should not be forced on schools what to teach."
A follow-up question was asked about Norton-Stewart's own beliefs, which the junior senator from Ohio deflected, said she "believes that God had a role" in the creation of human beings, but that she was "not a scientist."
Trevor Gardocki, a member of the libertarian Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) in attendance, pounced on what he saw as a contradiction.
"If you believe that God had a role [in how humans came into being], and that 'intelligent design' should be taught, why don't you support it being mandatory?"
Norton-Stewart responded halfheartedly, saying the issue was that "parents should decide what they teach their children."
Gardocki rejected that answer, saying "you're trying to have it both ways...you can't think chemistry is real and that we should teach kids chemistry, but then say we shouldn't make schools to teach chemistry. Why is this any different?" Norton-Stewart stayed silent as Gardocki was then escorted from the event by security.
The college senior, who is head of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' YAL chapter, said in a Instagram post that he "wanted [Norton-Stewart] on the record" on this question and was not expecting to be kicked out of the event.
A Norton-Stewart campaign spokesman said that Gardocki was escorted out for being "disruptive", and that the senator "has consistently offered a nuanced and respectful position on education and intelligent design in schools during her 16 years in Congress."
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Saturday, June 19th, 2021
Pentagon general removed from position after interview bashing Seaborn
The Department of Defense has announced that Lieutenant General Lloyd Pendleton has been removed from his position as Director of the Joint Staff after he made comments criticizing President Sam Seaborn and his administration's policies to a far-right website.
A Pentagon spokeswoman said that Lieutenant General Pendleton had been removed "pending a complete investigation" by the Department of Defense after Pendleton made several comments to the far-right
WorldNetDaily. The spokeswoman said that Pendleton had admitted to making the comments, and that the authors of the
WorldNetDaily piece have said that the general declined to make his comments "off the record" or anonymously.
As a result of Pendleton's admission in a meeting with Seaborn yesterday in the Oval Office, Pendleton was removed from his high-ranking position by Secretary of Defense Jack Shannon for "public statements inconsistent with the national security policy and Department of Defense regulations" regarding political speech and activity by active-duty military personnel that "resulted in a loss of trust and confidence in his command." Vice Admiral Bill Guzman has been designated as the acting Director of the Joint Staff until a replacement is confirmed by the Senate.
