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      Iranian Hard-Liner Ebrahim Raisi Wins Presidential Election Vote

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      The government announced his victory on Saturday, a day after a vote that many Iranians skipped, viewing it as rigged.TEHRAN — Iran’s ultraconservative judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi, has been elected president after a vote that many Iranians skipped, seeing it as rigged in his favor. The Interior Ministry announced the final results on Saturday, saying Mr. Raisi had won with nearly 18 million of 28.9 million ballots cast in the voting a day earlier. Turnout was 48.8 percent — a significant decline from the last presidential election, in 2017. Two rival candidates had conceded hours earlier, and President Hassan Rouhani congratulated Mr. Raisi on his victory, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported.Huge swaths of moderate and liberal-leaning Iranians sat out the election, saying that the campaign had been engineered to put Mr. Raisi in office or that voting would make little difference. He had been expected to win handily despite late attempts by the more moderate reformist camp to consolidate support behind their main candidate — Abdolnasser Hemmati, a former central bank governor.The Interior Ministry said Mr. Hemmati came in third with around 2.4 million votes, after the second-place finisher, Mohsen Rezaee, a former commander in chief of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps who won around 3.4 million votes.There were also about 3.7 million “white” ballots, or ballots cast without any candidate’s name written in. Some Iranians said they turned in white ballots as a way of participating in the election while protesting the lack of candidates who represented their views.Voters lining up to cast their ballots in Tehran on Friday.Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesMr. Raisi, 60, is a hard-line cleric favored by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and has been seen as his possible successor. He has a record of grave human rights abuses, including accusations of playing a role in the mass execution of political opponents in 1988, and is currently under United States sanctions.His background appears unlikely to hinder the renewed negotiations between the United States and Iran over restoring a 2015 agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs in exchange for lifting American economic sanctions. Mr. Raisi has said he will remain committed to the deal and do all he can to remove sanctions.Key policies such as the nuclear deal are decided by the supreme leader, who has the last word on all important matters of state. However, Mr. Raisi’s conservative views will make it more difficult for the United States to reach additional deals with Iran and extract concessions on critical issues such as the country’s missile program, its backing of proxy militias around the Middle East and human rights.To his supporters, Mr. Raisi’s close identification with the supreme leader, and by extension with the Islamic Revolution that brought Iran’s clerical leaders to power in 1979, is part of his appeal. Campaign posters showed Mr. Raisi’s face alongside those of Mr. Khamenei and his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, or Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the Iranian commander whose death in an American airstrike last year prompted an outpouring of grief and anger among Iranians.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, voted in Tehran on Friday.Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesMr. Raisi’s supporters also cited his résumé as a staunch conservative, his promises to combat corruption, which many Iranians blame as much for the country’s deep economic misery as American sanctions, and what they said was his commitment to leveling inequality among Iranians.Voter turnout was low despite exhortations from the supreme leader to participate and an often strident get-out-the-vote campaign: One banner brandished an image of General Suleimani’s blood-specked severed hand, still bearing his trademark deep-red ring, urging Iranians to vote “for his sake.” Another showed a bombed-out street in Syria, warning that Iran ran the risk of turning into that war-ravaged country if voters stayed home.Voting was framed as not so much a civic duty as a show of faith in the Islamic Revolution, in part because the government has long relied on high voter turnout to buttress its legitimacy.Though never a democracy in the Western sense, Iran has in the past allowed candidates representing different factions and policy positions to run for office in a government whose direction and major policies were set by the unelected clerical leadership. During election seasons, the country buzzed with debates, competing rallies and political arguments.But since protests broke out in 2009 over charges that the presidential election that year was rigged, the authorities have gradually winnowed down the confines of electoral freedom, leaving almost no choice this year. Many prominent candidates were disqualified last month by Iran’s Guardian Council, which vets all candidates, leaving Mr. Raisi the clear front-runner and disheartening relative moderates and liberals.A voter looking at the list of the candidates on Friday. Many prominent candidates were disqualified last month by Iran’s Guardian Council.Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesAnalysts said that the supreme leader’s support for Mr. Raisi could give him more power to promote change than the departing president, Hassan Rouhani. Mr. Rouhani is a pragmatic centrist who ended up antagonizing the supreme leader and disappointing voters who had hoped he could open Iran’s economy to the world by striking a lasting deal with the West.Mr. Rouhani did seal a deal to lift sanctions in 2015, but ran headlong into President Donald J. Trump, who pulled the United States out of the nuclear agreement and reimposed sanctions in 2018.The prospects for a renewed nuclear agreement could improve with Mr. Raisi’s victory. Mr. Khamenei appeared to be stalling the current talks as the election approached. But American diplomats and Iranian analysts said that there could be movement in the weeks between Mr. Rouhani’s departure and Mr. Raisi’s ascension. A deal finalized then could leave Mr. Rouhani with the blame for any unpopular concessions and allow Mr. Raisi to claim credit for any economic improvements once sanctions are lifted. More

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      With Billions of Dollars at Stake, a Critical Race Vies for Attention

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      Candidates to be New York City’s next chief financial officer are straining for attention from the public during a crucial moment.One candidate, Brad Lander, landed a potent one-two political punch: the coveted endorsement of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a successful campaign ad using the time-honored strategy of deploying one’s child.Another candidate, Zach Iscol, has support from Hillary Clinton, who is a mentor to him, and is the best friend of her daughter, Chelsea.A third candidate, Corey Johnson, had his own measure of star power, as a former front-runner in this year’s critical race for mayor.None of that has helped elevate the race for comptroller of New York City beyond the din of news and noise that surrounds the mayor’s contest, even with the June 22 primary just days away.As New York emerges from the pandemic, the role of comptroller is especially crucial. Whoever succeeds the current comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, will have a role in making sure at least $14 billion in expected federal stimulus assistance over the next few fiscal years is properly spent, while auditing a $99 billion budget that faces significant gaps in the coming years. Also at stake is the management of roughly $250 billion in pension fund money that covers 620,000 people.But it has not been easy for the candidates to gain attention.A recent debate had to compete with a hastily scheduled mayoral debate, all but guaranteeing a limited audience. The second and final debate was taped this week and will air at a less-than-ideal time: Sunday morning.“That’s prime time for church,” said Brian Benjamin, a state senator from Harlem who is running for comptroller. “No one will be watching.”Mr. Johnson, the City Council speaker and a late entrant in the comptroller’s race, is the current front-runner, according to available polling. He was a leading candidate for mayor but dropped out, citing mental health issues.Trailing close behind are Mr. Lander, a progressive councilman from Brooklyn who has also won endorsements from Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a former CNBC anchor who ran unsuccessfully against Ms. Ocasio-Cortez last year.The race seems relatively wide open; a recent NY1/Ipsos poll found that 44 percent of likely voters were still undecided about their first choice for comptroller — a potentially worrisome development this year when voters will be allowed to rank up to five choices.The NY1/Ipsos poll had Mr. Johnson at 18 percent and Mr. Lander and Ms. Caruso-Cabrera tied at 9 percent.Other candidates in the race include David Weprin, a state assemblyman from Queens, who polled at 7 percent; Kevin Parker, a state senator from Brooklyn who polled at 6 percent; and Mr. Benjamin, who polled at 5 percent. Mr. Iscol, a nonprofit entrepreneur and former Marine who also dropped out of the mayor’s race to enter the comptroller’s race, registered at 1 percent.The limited attention is no fault of the candidates, who have spent millions of dollars on advertisements and have been crisscrossing the five boroughs at all hours to seek out voters.Mr. Johnson was spotted this week in front of the Fairway supermarket on the Upper West Side campaigning until midnight. Mr. Lander participated in a bike ride around City Hall with delivery workers fighting for better wages and working conditions.Brad Lander, left, has been endorsed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Victor J. Blue for The New York TimesMr. Lander said he had felt interest in the campaign surging as the city moved toward a full reopening. He received the endorsement of The New York Times editorial board and has collected the most support from progressive elected officials.“Voters will come up and say, ‘I’ve seen your ad,’” Mr. Lander said. “That’s an opportunity to say, ‘This is a critical moment for our city; let’s talk about how the government can work better for all of us.’”Ms. Caruso-Cabrera, who is the daughter of Cuban and Italian immigrants, has focused intensely on Latino voters. She released an ad that she narrates in Spanish.Ms. Caruso-Cabrera has portrayed Mr. Lander and Mr. Johnson as government insiders, allowing the budget to grow under Mayor Bill de Blasio.“We need a fresh set of eyes,” Ms. Caruso-Cabrera said. “We need someone who is independent and who doesn’t want to be the mayor.”Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a former CNBC anchor, unsuccessfully challenged Ms. Ocasio-Cortez last year.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesMr. Weprin, who received the endorsement of the city’s police unions and The Daily News, is leaning on his finance experience in the public and private sectors.Mr. Benjamin said he was leaning on his experience as someone with a Harvard M.B.A. and experience as a money manager at Morgan Stanley. His campaign has focused largely on consolidating support in the Black community, which has been difficult given the candidacy of Mr. Parker, who, like Mr. Benjamin, is Black.“The people who are going to vote in this election will pay more attention, and that helps someone like me, who is the qualifications candidate versus the name-recognition candidate,” Mr. Benjamin said.The reference seemed to be a swipe at Mr. Johnson, who, as the race’s most recognizable candidate and its leader, has been the frequent subject of attacks.During the first official debate this month, Mr. Lander accused Mr. Johnson of having been absent from leading the budget process. Ms. Caruso-Cabrera said he had not done enough to keep the budget from growing under Mr. de Blasio.Mr. Weprin questioned whether Mr. Johnson, a high school graduate who recently enrolled at the School of General Studies at Columbia University, was qualified for the job.“Corey Johnson only has a high school diploma,” Mr. Weprin said. “I was on Wall Street for over 25 years, and you can’t get a job on Wall Street without getting a college degree.”Mr. Johnson dismissed the criticism as the desperate tactic of candidates who are trailing in the last days of a race.“After negotiating three on-time, balanced, $90 billion budgets, I know this city’s finances better than anyone in this race,” Mr. Johnson said.Yet as he stood in front of the Fairway on Friday evening, several voters were more interested in Mr. Johnson’s choice for mayor than in his candidacy for comptroller.“What does the comptroller do?” Mar Dominguez, 60, said to Mr. Johnson, asking for a quick refresher. Ms. Dominguez, a hospitality worker, said the election season had been simply overwhelming. “Everyone’s harassing me. There’s too much mail, and too many people are calling my phone. This morning, they were ringing my doorbell,” she said. More

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      The New York Mayoral Candidates’ Closing Arguments

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      Analysis
      In arguing why he should be elected, Mr. Adams has leaned heavily on his life story: Growing up poor in Brooklyn and Queens, being abused by police as a teenager and joining the Police Department, and speaking out against racism within its ranks. “They wish they had my bio,” Mr. Adams often says of his rival candidates.

      Analysis
      Mr. Adams co-founded a group called 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care to highlight racism in the New York Police Department. Mr. Adams was once a frequent and high-profile critic of incidents of police brutality, including the fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999.

      Analysis
      In 2013, Mr. Adams, then a state senator, testified that he was at a meeting with Gov. David Paterson and Raymond Kelly, the police commissioner, when Mr. Kelly said Black and Latino men were the focus of stop and frisk because “he wanted to instill fear in them.” Mr. Adams’s testimony helped a federal judge rule that the Police Department was using stop and frisk in an unconstitutional way.

      Analysis
      Mr. Adams said he has the background needed to hold officers accountable. He says he would give civilian review panels the power to choose their precinct commanders and strengthen officers’ de-escalation training while speeding up the release of body-worn camera images and disciplinary decisions.

      Analysis
      Mr. Adams often speaks about how a poor education system leads people, specifically Black boys, to be forced into making bad choices and getting swept up in the criminal justice system.

      Analysis
      Mr. Adams has had to answer questions about his primary residence and his relationship with donors to his campaign. Rival campaigns have questioned whether he lives in the home he owns in Brooklyn, or in the co-op he owns in New Jersey. Mr. Adams invited reporters over for a tour of the apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant that he says is his primary residence.

      Analysis
      Mr. Adams often talks about how poverty made his youth precarious. His mother worked multiple jobs, including as a house cleaner, and neighbors would sometimes leave food and clothes outside his door. Mr. Adams worked as a squeegee man on Jamaica Avenue in Queens when he was 17 to help support his family.

      Analysis
      Mr. Adams says he was shot at while he was in the Police Department and speaking out against racism. He says his son had just been born and that led him to become more private about his personal life. He says he never told some of his colleagues in the Police Department that he had a son.

      Analysis
      Mayor Bill de Blasio is believed to favor Mr. Adams and has been working behind the scenes to get others to support him. Mr. Adams said that he, like Mr. de Blasio, wants to end inequality in the city, but that he would use different methods to accomplish that goal.

      Analysis
      Mr. Adams’s son Jordan, 26, is working on a master’s degree in screenwriting at Brooklyn College. He made an appearance when questions arose about Mr. Adams’s residency, standing beside him outside the rowhouse that Mr. Adams owns. Jordan also appeared in a campaign ad with his father.

      Analysis
      Mr. Adams is fond of saying that “public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity.” He has spoken about the need for balance between public safety and police reform. But some police reform advocates believe he is too focused on policing as a cure-all.

      Analysis
      Mr. Adams is a vegan who says that changing his lifestyle helped him overcome Type 2 diabetes. He says the disease was causing him to lose his sight before he switched to a plant-based diet. If elected, Mr. Adams has said he will make sure the city’s public school children are being served the healthiest foods.

      Analysis
      Mr. Adams is considered a moderate Democrat who would be more business-friendly than Mr. de Blasio. Mr. Adams has spoken out against the “defund the police” movement and the police officer’s union advised their members that he was one of three candidates they would suggest casting a vote for.

      Saturday, May 22

      Rally of Harlem Men for Eric Adams

      Frederick Douglass Circle in Harlem

      You know my team from time to time, brothers and sisters, they move with me throughout the city. And people will be at gatherings. And people will stop, and they’ll say to my team: ‘Let me tell you my Eric Adams story.’

      And they’ll go back to the 80s, and back to the 90s, and then talk about the time when their child may have left home and Eric will pay the fare to bring them back from sex trafficking in other states. They tell you about the time we would sit in living rooms and talk to young men who were on the way to crime and we put them on a pathway to college. They talk about 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement each month, helping people on the lower level and using our skills and ability. They talk about the ‘what to do when stopped by police’ program that we put in place. I mean, the legacy is just so rich, of so many things that we did as an organization.

      I was so proud to find the people who lived in the crevices of our communities and stated that we can do better, we can get better and we can be better. And so it mystifies me, with all those who are running, who have all the full understanding of who I am, what I am and what I’ve been doing, they want you to redefine my history. Are you kidding me?

      Listen, you can critique me on a lot of things, but the audacity of some people to say he has not been the leading voice on stop and frisk. Where have you been? If you don’t know my history on that issue, then something is wrong with you.

      The audacity of people to state: ‘Well, he has never been strong on police issues.’ What! Can someone mail an alarm clock to those folks who are sleeping? You gotta come better than that.

      And let me tell you something else, brothers, let me tell you something else. And I want to drop this on you because you have to understand this. America has a history of criminalizing Black men.

      The next 30 days, you are going to see the attacks on me that you could never imagine. These are going to be the hardest 30 days of my life, you hear me?

      Harder than being arrested and beat by police. Harder than being under surveillance by the Police Department. Harder than being a person that had to carry a garbage bag full of clothing to school every day because we thought we were going to be thrown out. Harder than not having the opportunities to go to the best schools. Harder than being shot at. Harder than all those things. The next 30 days, I want you to watch what happens.

      There are people in the city of power that are saying Eric Adams could never be the mayor of the city of New York, because he’s going to end inequalities, he’s going to keep our city safe and he’s going to stop us believing we have to live like we’re living in our communities.

      It’s no secret that 65 percent of Black children never reach proficiencies in the city, and everyone is comfortable with that. Trust me, if 65 percent of any other group was not reaching proficiency in school, there’d be riots in the street.

      They wrote off our children. They gave up on us. They allowed folks to normalize the conditions that we’re living in. My son won’t grow up in a city that I grew up in. You should not have to have, right here in Harlem, the gun violence that’s pervasive, and doing routines, when you hear gunshots or a car backfire, you have to tell your children to learn how to duck down. Don’t need to live like this, people. And I’m saying that that’s why I’m running for mayor. I’m running for mayor because I’m qualified to do this job. My entire life has prepared me for the moment. Now why is that, Eric?

      What is the most pressing, pressing issue in the city? Police reform and public safety. Who has the better résumé? What about health care, and how Covid virus has decimated our community?

      Who is reforming the health care system, first personally reforming my own health care for my body? Eric Adams.

      Who went to school with a learning disability, taught myself and went from a D student to a dean’s list student? Eric Adams.

      Who’s going to stop 30 percent of our babies in jail that are dyslexic? Fifty-five percent have a learning disability. Eighty percent don’t have a high school diploma or equivalency diploma. Who understands that better than any candidate that’s running? Eric Adams.

      Who knows how to attract businesses to the city and ensure that they come and pay fair, decent wages so we can build up our middle class and not decimate our middle class? Eric Adams.

      I check the box. So vote on the box for Eric Adams. Folks went from rolling their eyes to focusing their eyes. Trust me, when I started out, they said: ‘Well, listen, man, we’re not trying to hear you, Eric.’ And then all of a sudden, they started saying ‘Wait a minute, listen to this guy.’

      Listen to him when he’s talking about the dysfunctionality of our agencies and the wasting of taxpayers’ dollars. Listen to him, how he’s saying, why is the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene fighting childhood obesity, diabetes and asthma, but the Department of Education, they’re feeding our children foods that cause diabetes, childhood obesity and asthma?

      Why do we have a Department of Buildings in conflict with small business services? Small business services are trying to open restaurants every day and the Department of Buildings is doing just the opposite, doing everything they could possibly do to keep a restaurant closed. So we can’t hire a dishwasher, a cook, a waiter?

      Why do we have these conflicts in the city? You know why? People are making money off the dysfunctionality of this city. And I know the hustle. It was right here in Harlem, where I heard the words that resonate today. We have been bamboozled, we have been hoodwinked and we have been sold out.

      We’re going to turn that around. That’s what we’re running for.

      And so they say well, what are you? Are you a moderate? Are you this? Are you that? No, I’m a New Yorker. And New Yorkers are complex. Don’t put me in a box. That box has put us where we are now. I’m not going to go outside the box, I’m going to destroy the box.

      New city, new attitude, new mindset, build this city up, ending inequalities, creating a safe city where we raise healthy children and families and tear down those walls that prevented us all of these years from seeing what this city is made of. We are made up of the best stuff on Earth. We are New Yorkers. Let’s win this race. More

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      Iranians Vote for a New President, but Mood is Pessimistic

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      Turnout appeared low on Friday, with many voters saying they would not cast ballots in an election that they feel has been manipulated in favor of a hard-line conservative candidate.TEHRAN — The line outside the Tehran polling station was short and sedate on Friday morning, nothing like the energized down-the-block crowd that usually turns out for presidential elections in Iran.But when Abdolnaser Hemmati, the moderate in the race, showed up to vote, the sidewalk outside the polling station, set up at the Hosseinieh Ershad religious institute, suddenly crackled to life.“Your views are useless for this country,” one heckler shouted at Mr. Hemmati, the former governor of Iran’s central bank, holding up his phone to immortalize the moment.“You’re the hope of our nation,” a woman yelled to the candidate, trying to drown out the heckler.Iran’s presidential race has been marked, more than anything else, by a lack of interest: Many voters said they would not bother to cast ballots in an election that they feel has been manipulated in favor of the hard-line conservative candidate, Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s judiciary chief, who is close to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s judiciary chief and a presidential candidate, greeted the news media after voting in Tehran on Friday. Many voters expect him to win.Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesEven if they had more choice in the matter, previous elections all ended the same way no matter the winner, many Tehran residents said — with prices and rents shooting up, employment falling and pessimism taking hold.The lines of voters at several polling sites across the capital on Friday were much shorter than in previous presidential election years, though the ongoing coronavirus pandemic also likely affected turnout. The Iranian news media reported that as of 5 p.m. voter participation was at 23 percent. Results are expected on Saturday.Beneath that listless surface, however, is a country churning with rage and hope, bitterness and faith.Some of those who leaned liberal could not quite bear to shut themselves out of the vote, even as their friends or relatives boycotted it to protest the system.“We didn’t vote because of Hemmati himself,” said Milad, 34, a bank employee who came to the Hosseinieh Ershad polling station to vote for Mr. Hemmati. Many voters refused to give full names out of fear of speaking openly about politics. “We voted because we wanted to show the other side that there is still a voice of opposition in Iran. A weak voice of opposition is better than no voice at all.”Voters on each side agreed, broadly speaking, on the biggest issues facing the country: corruption, economic mismanagement and the U.S. sanctions that are intensifying Iran’s economic misery.But if the moderate opposition was divided over whether to vote, the conservatives who showed up to cast ballots were united behind Mr. Raisi and, more important, the Islamic government his candidacy had come to stand for. (Mr. Raisi’s campaign posters often feature him alongside Ayatollah Khamenei and Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the Iranian commander whose death in a U.S. airstrike last year brought crowds of mourners onto the streets.)Supporters of Mr. Raisi held a rally in Tehran on Wednesday.Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times“Despite all the shortages and shortcomings, we love our nation, and we will defend it to the last drop of blood,” said Marziyeh Gorji, 34, who works in a government office and said she had voted for Mr. Raisi because of his ties to revolutionary figures and his experience. “The people are upset, I understand that. But not voting is not the solution.”She motioned to her 5-year-old twin sons, who wore buttons featuring General Suleimani’s face. “I will raise them to be like General Suleimani,” she said.At Lorzadeh mosque in south Tehran, a poor and religiously conservative neighborhood, Muhammad Ehsani, 61, a retired government employee, said his ballot was an expression of faith in the ideals of the Islamic revolution that brought Iran’s current leadership to power.Being a citizen was like riding a bus, he said. If things were not going well — as every voter agreed they were not — the problem was with the driver, not with the bus.“What should we do?” he said. “It’s not logical to sit at home and not get on. It’s logical to get another company, another driver.”Draped across the entrance of the mosque was a banner with a picture of General Suleimani next to the words, “The Islamic Republic is considered a shrine. Those who are voting are defending the shrine.”The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, arriving to cast a ballot on Friday in Tehran.Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesThe morning’s voting was marred by widespread reports of electronic voting systems malfunctioning and going offline from polling stations across Iran, according to Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. As polls opened Friday morning, voters showed up to hear that they could not vote, and multiple polling stations had to delay their opening by more than an hour, Tasnim reported.“This is an epidemic of ballot boxes malfunctioning now,” said Kian Abdollahi, Tasnim’s editor in chief, during a live election report on Clubhouse, the audio-only social media app. “This is unacceptable given concerns about low election turnout.”Tehran’s governor confirmed that there were technical problems with electronic voting systems at 79 polling stations across the capital.It was not immediately clear what had caused the problems.Outside the Hosseinieh Ershad polling station, Shabna, 40, a government employee who works in information technology and also gave just one name, was alternately throwing her fist in the air as she chanted “I support Hemmati” and tugging her colorful head scarf, which was slipping amid all the excitement, back into place.“We want to stop this engineered election,” she said, explaining that she believed Mr. Hemmati, as an economist, was best qualified to turn the economy around. A minute later, she was locked in an argument with a Hemmati critic.The lines of voters at several polling sites across the capital on Friday were much shorter than in previous presidential elections, though the pandemic also likely affected turnout.Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesBut most voters interviewed on Friday did not seem to have such strong views about any particular candidate. They were there to vote because they always had, or because they believed in the system.Efat Rahmati, 54, a nurse, said it was strange that the Iranian authorities had excluded so many candidates from the race, a fact that many Iranians said had paved the way for Mr. Raisi to win. But she had still decided to vote, partly out of a personal liking for Mr. Raisi, and partly because the authorities “have more knowledge than me about this issue,” she said. “I think Raisi was better than the rest anyway.”Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting from New York. More

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      Maya Wiley Takes Credit for Daniel Pantaleo’s Firing. Is That Justified?

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      When she was the head of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, Ms. Wiley was criticized for not being more aggressive in pursuing discipline against officers.Maya Wiley’s bid to become mayor of New York City is based largely on her promise to overhaul the Police Department, and she often highlights her one-year stint as head of the city’s police watchdog agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, as evidence of her commitment.In particular, she focuses on the agency’s role in the 2019 firing of Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer whose chokehold led to Eric Garner’s death in 2014 — a flash point that became the impetus for the Black Lives Matter movement.But a review of her time leading the agency paints a more complicated picture of her actions in that case and of her experience holding officers accountable. Her critics say that the board felt more beholden to City Hall during her tenure, and they charge that the agency’s management and performance suffered.Ms. Wiley also faced criticism that she did not use her time at the board, where she was chairwoman from mid-2016 to mid-2017, to pursue cases more aggressively.In 2012, the agency recommended charges in about 70 percent of cases. The number declined steadily until 2016, when it was 12 percent. In 2017, it was 11 percent, according to agency reports.In the same period, the agency was much more likely to recommend training and instruction for officers, one of the least serious forms of discipline. That recommendation was issued in 5 percent of cases in 2012 and 44 percent in 2016.“The dramatic changes in C.C.R.B. recommendations over the last three years raise serious questions about the C.C.R.B.’s commitment to meaningful civilian oversight,” Christopher Dunn, then the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, wrote in a 2017 letter to Ms. Wiley.Board leaders have said that they decided to seek lesser penalties in a bid to compel police officials to agree to impose discipline more often. Ms. Wiley added in an interview that the city had also expanded the array of disciplinary actions that could be recommended, allowing the review board to opt for less severe punishment.“It’s not really surprising that you would see charges going down as you had more tools, recommendations for those things that are the less extreme versions of some of those cases,” she said.Of all the cases that came before the review board, none was as highly charged or closely scrutinized as the death of Mr. Garner. It took five years for Mr. Pantaleo, who was never criminally charged in the case, to lose his job.Ms. Wiley, on the campaign trail and in candidate debates, has referenced her role in the process that ended with the firing of Mr. Pantaleo, and recently released an ad entitled “Breathe,” a reference to Mr. Garner saying repeatedly, “I can’t breathe” as officers tried to detain him.Gwen Carr, center, the mother of Eric Garner, at a 2019 protest following a decision by federal officials not to charge Daniel Pantaleo in her son’s death. Ms. Carr has endorsed Raymond J. McGuire for mayor.Byron Smith for The New York TimesIn the ad, Ms. Wiley said it was “time the N.Y.P.D. sees us as people who deserve to breathe.”At the time of Mr. Garner’s death, Ms. Wiley was serving as counsel to Mr. de Blasio. As such, she was one of his top two legal advisers, along with Zachary W. Carter, Mr. de Blasio’s corporation counsel.The de Blasio administration settled on a legal strategy of not pursuing its own administrative charges — a necessary prelude to firing a police officer — against Mr. Pantaleo, while the city deferred to the Staten Island district attorney and federal authorities, who were considering more severe criminal penalties.Mr. Carter said in an interview that City Hall did not want to initiate an internal Police Department trial at the N.Y.P.D. that might risk producing testimony that could muddy the state and federal cases.The decision allowed Mr. Pantaleo to remain on the city payroll for five years, as investigations by the district attorney’s office and the civil rights division of the Obama administration’s Justice Department wound down with no criminal charges ever filed.Mr. Carter defended the administration’s strategy and said that it was common procedure for local law enforcement agencies to defer to federal investigators.He said that when he was U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and prosecuting the Abner Louima police brutality case, he had similarly asked other authorities to suspend their investigations until he was done with his own. Justin Volpe, the officer who sodomized Mr. Louima, was not fired until the day that he pleaded guilty, Mr. Carter said.Mr. Carter said that Ms. Wiley was a “conscientious lawyer” who understands that lawyers have to respect the law, “when it favors you and when it doesn’t.”Despite her role in the administration, Ms. Wiley has faulted Mr. de Blasio for the city’s handling of the Garner case. During a mayoral forum held by WPIX-TV last month, she said that had she been mayor, “Daniel Pantaleo would have already been off the force.”But if she ever advised the mayor to more promptly fire Mr. Pantaleo while she was the mayor’s counsel, Ms. Wiley declined to say, citing attorney-client privilege.Two people who were in meetings with the mayor and his executive staff about the Garner case could not recall an instance in which Ms. Wiley argued for swifter discipline, though she might have done so privately.Anthonine Pierre, deputy director of the Brooklyn Movement Center, said that while Ms. Wiley worked to maintain relationships with police accountability organizers while leading the Civilian Complaint Review Board, Ms. Wiley was never “out of step with de Blasio.”“When we look at the fact that it took five years for Pantaleo to be fired and part of that time was under her watch, I think a lot of people should be asking her questions about what that was about,” Ms. Pierre said. “We’re not looking for another mayor who is good on rhetoric and bad on accountability.”Mina Malik, who was executive director for two years at the police review board until November 2016, accused Ms. Wiley of overstating her role in Mr. Pantaleo’s dismissal..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}“Frankly, for Maya to take credit for bringing Pantaleo to justice is not accurate,” she said. “The investigation, chokehold findings and recommendations were made before Maya came on board.”But other current and former agency board members defended Ms. Wiley, who has also taken credit for ensuring that the review board’s civilian prosecutors bring the administrative case, rather than the Police Department’s lawyers.Angela Fernandez, a former C.C.R.B. commissioner whose tenure overlapped with Ms. Wiley, said that the Pantaleo prosecution was the highlight of Ms. Wiley’s leadership.John Siegal, another C.C.R.B. commissioner, still remembers the day the police commissioner ratified an internal judge’s determination that Mr. Pantaleo should be fired.“I called Maya, and I said, ‘Congratulations, you were the one official in American who utilized her official responsibilities to move this case,’” he recalled. “‘The attorney general didn’t do it. The Justice Department didn’t do it, nobody else did it, you did it. And you are to be congratulated on that.’”Ms. Wiley’s leadership also came under fire for allowing the board to make decisions out of public view — a criticism that echoed similar assessments of her work as counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio.As counsel, Ms. Wiley argued that the mayor’s emails with a cadre of outside advisers did not have to be disclosed to the public because the advisers were acting as “agents of the city.” Thousands of pages of those emails were eventually released, to the mayor’s embarrassment.Under her watch at the review board, questions of transparency arose when a highly anticipated report on the use of Taser stun guns was released in October 2016.A draft report that had been leaked that spring said the police should prohibit the use of the stun guns on handcuffed subjects and highlighted that officers used the stun guns on people who were unarmed. But in the final version, released after the draft report had been circulated to City Hall and the Police Department, that language was absent — a change that officials said was part of the usual rewriting process.In February 2017, Mr. Dunn sent another letter to Ms. Wiley asserting that “the board has ceased to engage in any meaningful public business.”“In the 16 years I have been attending board meetings and monitoring the C.C.R.B., I have never seen the board abandon its public responsibilities as it has in the last eight months,” he wrote. In an interview, Ms. Wiley suggested that should an Eric Garner-like tragedy arise on her watch as mayor, she would defer to the Biden administration before taking action herself, much as Mr. de Blasio deferred to the Obama administration.“If for any reason, there was any indication that we were not going to get movement, then it would be a different story,” she said. “But look, we’ve got the A-Team in this Department of Justice on civil rights right now.” More

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      The War in Tigray

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      Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherThis episode contains descriptions of sexual violence.Ethiopia is about to hold a major election — something that would normally have been a cause for celebration.Just a few years ago, the country was coming to be seen as a great democratic hope for Africa. Its leader, Abiy Ahmed, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for brokering a deal with Eritrea.However, the nation is now in the grips of a civil war, as Mr. Ahmed undertakes a military campaign that has killed thousands and displaced millions.In the northern region of Tigray, there have been widespread reports of massacres, human rights abuses and a looming famine.How did Ethiopia get here?On today’s episodeDeclan Walsh, the chief Africa correspondent for The New York Times.Ethiopian refugees in Sudan in December waited near a U.N. compound for many hours in the hope of receiving supplies.Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesBackground readingThousands of Ethiopians have fled the country and given accounts of a devastating and complex conflict. A U.S. report found that officials are leading a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in the northern region of Tigray.United Nations agencies have said the crisis in the Tigray region has plunged it into famine. It’s a starvation calamity bigger at the moment than anywhere else in the world.There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.Transcripts of each episode are available by the next workday. You can find them at the top of the page.Declan Walsh contributed reporting.The Daily is made by Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Annie Brown, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Larissa Anderson, Wendy Dorr, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Austin Mitchell, Neena Pathak, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Daniel Guillemette, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Kaitlin Roberts, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Soraya Shockley, Corey Schreppel and Anita Badejo.Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Theo Balcomb, Cliff Levy, Lauren Jackson, Julia Simon, Mahima Chablani, Nora Keller, Sofia Milan, Desiree Ibekwe, Erica Futterman and Wendy Dorr. More

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      Hungary Adopts Child Sex Abuse Law That Also Targets LGBT Community

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      Legislation increasing sentences for pedophiles was changed to include restrictions on portrayals of homosexuality and transgender people that young people might see.BUDAPEST — Hungary’s Parliament voted on Tuesday to adopt legislation that would increase sentences for sex crimes against children, but critics say the law is being used to target the country’s L.G.B.T. community ahead of crunch elections for Prime Minister Viktor Orban next year.Last-minute changes to the bill, which was prompted by public outrage after a series of sex scandals involving governing party and government officials, included restrictions against showing or “popularizing” homosexuality and content that promotes a gender that diverges from the one assigned at birth.Mr. Orban’s critics say the changes were made to target the country’s L.G.B.T. community in an effort to rally support from his conservative base and shift the focus away from the failures of his administration ahead of elections in 2022.The new rules, unexpectedly added to the bill by government-aligned lawmakers last week, require the labeling of all content that might fall into that category of “not recommended for those under 18 years of age.” Such content would be restricted for media like television to the hours between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. The restrictions extend to advertisements and even sexual education, which the law would restrict to teachers and organizations approved by the government. The bill would also create a public database of sex offenders.Mr. Orban has increasingly presented himself as a protector of traditional Christian values, although that image has been undermined somewhat by the sex scandals involving officials and allies of his Fidesz party over the past few years.Last year, a Hungarian diplomat in Peru was convicted of possession of child pornography and handed an $1,800 fine and a suspended prison sentence after being brought home and charged in Hungary. That case, which sparked the public pressure on the legislature to enact stricter sentencing for pedophilia crimes, was just one in a series of scandals that has undermined public faith in Mr. Orban’s government.Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, center, at a Parliament session in Budapest last year.Tibor Illyes/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBefore Hungary’s 2019 municipal elections, a series of video clips released online by an anonymous source showed a prominent Fidesz mayor participating in an orgy on a yacht.The following year a Fidesz lawmaker in Brussels was detained after trying to escape out of a window and down a drainpipe when the police raided a party being held in violation of Covid restrictions that Belgian news media described as an all-male orgy.The last-minute additions to the legislation were criticized by human rights groups, including the Foundation for Rainbow Families, which promotes legal equality for all Hungarian families with children.“Fidesz does this to take the public conversation away from major happenings in the country,” said Krisztian Rozsa, a psychologist and board member with the foundation, citing corruption and the government’s responses to the pedophilia scandal and the coronavirus pandemic.Content providers such as RTL Klub, Hungary’s largest commercial television station, and the Hungarian Advertising Association have come out against the new law, saying the rules restrict them from depicting the diversity of society.“Children don’t need protection from exposure to diversity,” said Lydia Gall, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch. “On the contrary, L.G.B.T. children and families need protection from discrimination and violence.”Linking the L.G.B.T. community to pedophilia is a tactic that may score Mr. Orban and his party points with conservative rural voters, many of whom, spurred on by a steady stream of government propaganda, see the government as a bulwark against the cosmopolitan liberalism symbolized by opposition political figures in the capital.Last year, the Fidesz-controlled Parliament enacted legislation that effectively bars gay couples from adopting children in Hungary through a narrow definition of the family as having to include a man as the father and a woman as the mother.Shaken by a bungled response to the coronavirus pandemic, a foreign policy pivot toward China and Russia that has angered his partners within the European Union, and increasing international isolation, Mr. Orban is facing a tough election campaign against a six-party opposition alliance.Balint Ruff, a political strategist, said the move to target the L.G.B.T. community was a “cynical and evil trap.” He added: “It’s a method used in authoritarian regimes to turn their citizens against each other for their own political gain.”It is not uncommon for someone who has spent their whole life in rural Hungary to have never met an openly gay person, Mr. Ruff said, adding that by inundating rural voters with conspiracies about gay propaganda taking over the world, Mr. Orban has found an effective tool for mobilizing voters.“The theme of the campaign will be liberal homosexual Budapest versus the normal people,” he said.By not supporting the new law, the opposition would be branded supporters of pedophilia for the duration of the campaign, Mr. Ruff said. But supporting the bill would betray more liberal voters who find linking pedophilia and the L.G.B.T. community deplorable.For those whose families are directly impacted by such laws, the effects hit closer to home.Mr. Rozsa, from the Foundation for Rainbow Families, said he was worried that bullying and exclusion among Hungarian teenagers would increase against those not seen as heterosexual — and also feared the implications of the governing party’s move for the children of same-sex couples who attend public schools.“Our kids are also going to be targeted,” Mr. Rozsa said. “Our kids have same-sex parents.” More

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      Hungary Adopts Child Sex Abuse Law That Also Targets L.G.B.T. Community

      by

      Legislation increasing sentences for pedophiles was changed to include restrictions on portrayals of homosexuality and transgender people that young people might see.BUDAPEST — Hungary’s Parliament voted on Tuesday to adopt legislation that would increase sentences for sex crimes against children, but critics say the law is being used to target the country’s L.G.B.T. community ahead of crunch elections for Prime Minister Viktor Orban next year.Last-minute changes to the bill, which was prompted by public outrage after a series of sex scandals involving governing party and government officials, included restrictions against showing or “popularizing” homosexuality and content that promotes a gender that diverges from the one assigned at birth.Mr. Orban’s critics say the changes were made to target the country’s L.G.B.T. community in an effort to rally support from his conservative base and shift the focus away from the failures of his administration ahead of elections in 2022.The new rules, unexpectedly added to the bill by government-aligned lawmakers last week, require the labeling of all content that might fall into that category of “not recommended for those under 18 years of age.” Such content would be restricted for media like television to the hours between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. The restrictions extend to advertisements and even sexual education, which the law would restrict to teachers and organizations approved by the government. The bill would also create a public database of sex offenders.Mr. Orban has increasingly presented himself as a protector of traditional Christian values, although that image has been undermined somewhat by the sex scandals involving officials and allies of his Fidesz party over the past few years.Last year, a Hungarian diplomat in Peru was convicted of possession of child pornography and handed an $1,800 fine and a suspended prison sentence after being brought home and charged in Hungary. That case, which sparked the public pressure on the legislature to enact stricter sentencing for pedophilia crimes, was just one in a series of scandals that has undermined public faith in Mr. Orban’s government.Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, center, at a Parliament session in Budapest last year.Tibor Illyes/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBefore Hungary’s 2019 municipal elections, a series of video clips released online by an anonymous source showed a prominent Fidesz mayor participating in an orgy on a yacht.The following year a Fidesz lawmaker in Brussels was detained after trying to escape out of a window and down a drainpipe when the police raided a party being held in violation of Covid restrictions that Belgian news media described as an all-male orgy.The last-minute additions to the legislation were criticized by human rights groups, including Foundation for Rainbow Families, which promotes legal equality for all Hungarian families with children.“Fidesz does this to take the public conversation away from major happenings in the country,” said Krisztian Rozsa, a psychologist and board member with the foundation, citing corruption and the government’s responses to the pedophilia scandal and the coronavirus pandemic.Content providers such as RTL Klub, Hungary’s largest commercial television station, and the Hungarian Advertising Association have come out against the new law, saying the rules restrict them from depicting the diversity of society.“Children don’t need protection from exposure to diversity,” said Lydia Gall, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch. “On the contrary, L.G.B.T. children and families need protection from discrimination and violence.”Linking the L.G.B.T. community to pedophilia is a tactic that may score Mr. Orban and his party points with conservative rural voters, many of whom, spurred on by a steady stream of government propaganda, see the government as a bulwark against the cosmopolitan liberalism symbolized by opposition political figures in the capital.Last year, the Fidesz-controlled Parliament enacted legislation that effectively bars gay couples from adopting children in Hungary through a narrow definition of the family as having to include a man as the father and a woman as the mother.Shaken by a bungled response to the coronavirus pandemic, a foreign policy pivot toward China and Russia that has angered his partners within the European Union, and increasing international isolation, Mr. Orban is facing a tough election campaign against a six-party opposition alliance.Balint Ruff, a political strategist, said the move to target the L.G.B.T. community was a “cynical and evil trap.” He added: “It’s a method used in authoritarian regimes to turn their citizens against each other for their own political gain.”It is not uncommon for someone who has spent their whole life in rural Hungary to have never met an openly gay person, Mr. Ruff said, adding that by inundating rural voters with conspiracies about gay propaganda taking over the world, Mr. Orban has found an effective tool for mobilizing voters.“The theme of the campaign will be liberal homosexual Budapest versus the normal people,” he said.By not supporting the new law, the opposition would be branded supporters of pedophilia for the duration of the campaign, Mr. Ruff said. But supporting the bill would betray more liberal voters who find linking pedophilia and the L.G.B.T. community deplorable.For those whose families are directly impacted by such laws, the effects hit closer to home.Mr. Rozsa, from the Foundation for Rainbow Families, said he was worried that bullying and exclusion among Hungarian teenagers would increase against those not seen as heterosexual — and also feared the implications of the governing party’s move for the children of same-sex couples who attend public schools.“Our kids are also going to be targeted,” Mr. Rozsa said. “Our kids have same-sex parents.” More