Reuters World News - Iran's president dead, Assange extradition decision and Taiwan's new president

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi has been killed in a helicopter crash. Julian Assange faces a London High Court decision on his possible extradition to the US. And Taiwan’s new president tells China to stop its threats. Follow the Reuters Econ World podcast. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Iran's president, Abraham Raishi, killed in a helicopter crash. Julian Assange faces a London court's decision, will he be extradited to the US, and Taiwan's president uses his first day in office to tell China to back down. It's Monday, May 20th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oakes. in Liverpool. Iranian President Abraham Reisi has been killed in a helicopter crash

in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border. The charred wreckage of the helicopter which crushed on Sunday was found after an overnight search in blizzard conditions. Edmund Blair is our Middle East editor. So Ed, what do we know so far? The death of a president would normally herald the change of the leader of the country. In Iran, it is a slightly more opaque picture because the supreme leader is the man who has

the real power and the ultimate say in all matters of state. And that is Ayatollah Ali Khamani. And Raeisi himself was pretty much a hardliner, right? Does his death increase the possibility of regime change in Iran? I think it would be very difficult to predict what happens next in Iran in terms of regime change. I'm not sure that we saw in the protests that were sparked with the death of Massa Amini, those massive protests did seem to be the most dramatic we had seen since the Islamic Revolution.

And yet the government, the ruling elite, still held control. And more globally, what does his death mean for the regional balance of power? We won't see any change in the nuclear. policy, that is determined by the Supreme Leader. So whoever is president, that won't change Iran's standing. That stands with the Supreme Leader and there there is continuity. So is there any suspicion of foul play at this point? There's been no indication of any foul play. The helicopter was a US-built bell helicopter. The Iranian Air Force has long relied on the aircraft that it bought and obtained in the 70s under the Shah when Iran had good relations

with America. So the first thoughts would be that this is an accident involving an aging piece of equipment. A federal judge in Texas has blocked a new rule that would require gun dealers to obtain licenses and conduct background checks when selling firearms at gun shows and online. The ruling came 24 hours ahead of the rule-taking effect. The U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment. People queuing in India's eastern city of Haura undergoing verification checks as they cast their votes in the fifth phase of a nation's mammoth general election. 90 million people are eligible to vote in this phase of the world's last.

largest democratic exercise. It concludes on June 1st, with votes set to be counted three days later. Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has postponed a visit to Japan due to start today. The move follows news that the 88-year-old Saudi King Salman is undergoing treatment for a lung inflammation. Over on financial markets, oil is rising as investors watch for any fallout from the political uncertainty in Iran and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is OPEC's top producer and Iran is the third biggest, but there are no immediate signs of any changes to oil supply. And for all you economics fans, remember we are launching our new economics focus podcast and newsletter Econ World on Wednesday. We'll be taking a look at protectionism and what it means for China

and the US in our first episode. You can sign up for the newsletes. letter on Reuters.com and catch the pod on the Reuters app or your favourite podcast player. A high court ruling in London could pave the way for Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, to be extradited to the United States. Assange is accused of violating the US Espionage Act after Wikileaks published tens of thousands of classified documents in 2010. Today's ruling comes after years of legal wrangling. Mike Holden in London, explained. He's basically been involved in some form of legal battle or fighting detention for over 13 years. It started at the end of 2010 when he was arrested on a Swedish expedition warrant.

That was over alleged sex crimes. Those allegations were later dropped. He was under house arrest initially. When he eventually lost his battle against the Swedish extradition, he then went to the Ecuadoran embassy where he was granted asylum. He was there for seven years before he was drunk. dragged out in 2019. He was jailed for skipping bail and then has been in a maximum security prison in East London whilst the US extradition request over 18 charges mainly under the Espionage Act

while that case is decided. So what's going to happen today? So the High Court is basically going to decide whether submissions made by the United States amount to sufficient assurances that Assange wouldn't face a death penalty and would be able to rely on the First Amendment right to free speech in any trial he were to face if he were extradited. If they accept the US submissions, then it would appear that's the end of the road for him and he will be extradited.

If they don't accept those submissions, then he would be entitled to have an appeal on the grounds and that would be held probably later this year or maybe even next year. It is possible the judges could decide on what's known as a rolled-up hearing where by both the decision as to whether he has permission to appeal and the appeal itself are held altogether. And if they were to find in his favour at the end of that, then he could potentially be released.

So could Assange potentially be en route to the US today? So his wife, Steller told his long as well, week that he could be put on a plane back to the United States within 24 hours. That's happened in certain other cases similar to his. There is one last chance for him and his team to intervene. They could go to the European Court of Human Rights and seek an injunction, which would block the extradition until they have heard the case themselves. They'd have to put in what's known as an emergency injunction to do that. Gun salutes at the inauguration of Taiwan's president, Lai Qingti.

He used the speech in Taipei to call on China to stop its military and political threats, adding the Beijing has to respect the choice of the Taiwanese people. China's Taiwan Affairs Office said the speech sent, quote, dangerous signals that seek to undermine peace and stability. Ben Blanchard is our bureau chief in Taiwan. Ben, this was quite a robust speech, wasn't it? Yeah, it's definitely quite robust in the sense talking about the need to defend Taiwan's security, the need to defend Taiwan's sovereignty, way of life, freedom and democracy,

which have all been really key points of lie during his presidential election campaign as well. But also it was interesting that he reiterated something that his predecessor, President Tai has said, which is basically that the two sides of the Taiwan straight are not subordinate to each other. Now, that is the kind of wording that from China's point of view that they really, really don't like, because it kind of implies that Taiwan and China are very distinct from each other and are actually separate from each other. And was that deliberate? So during the run-up to the presidential election campaign, China had repeatedly referred to Lai as being a dangerous separatist, somebody who could potentially spark war. Now, this is because

of comments that Lai has made previously in some of his earlier roles, for example, when he was Taiwan's premier, in which he talked about how he was a practical worker for Taiwan independence. Now, since he said that, and certainly during the election campaign, he's kind of backed down away from the implied message there, which is that he does support Taiwan's formal independence. Now, today, also during his inauguration speech, he again reiterated about not wanting to change the status quo. So in Taiwan, when you talk about not changing the status quo, that means two things in practice. One, it means that you're not going to declare formal independence and also it means you're not going to seek to join up with China. So in other words,

maintaining this de jure independence that Taiwan has now. Although, of course, very few countries around the world recognize Taiwan as being a separate state. That's it for Monday. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show. If you didn't catch it on Saturday, be sure to go back and tune into our weekend special all about the upcoming South Africa election. A link to the podcast is in today's episode description. And to never miss an episode, subscribe on your favourite podcast player or download the Reuters app.