Plus: William Lai sworn in as president in Taiwan, and Manchester City's record-breaking Premier League feat ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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| Hello. We have the latest on the death of Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash. Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet explains what's next for the country and its leadership. We're also taking you to Taiwan, where William Lai was sworn in as president during a colourful celebration of the island's identity. Today's newsletter covers Swedish roads, English football and Irish-American relationships. | |
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TOP OF THE AGENDA | Iran's president dies in helicopter crash |  | Ebrahim Raisi had been president since 2021. Credit: Reuters | Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian have been killed in a helicopter crash, state media have confirmed. The aircraft crashed in heavy fog on Sunday in the north of the country. Iranian media has not suggested any foul play, with state TV saying the accident was "due to bad weather conditions". Raisi was a hardline cleric close to the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and was tipped to replace the 85-year-old head of state. But his sudden death is unlikely to "disrupt the direction of Iranian policy ... in any consequential way", explains Lyse Doucet. For now, first vice-president Mohammad Mokhber is likely to be appointed interim president, with an election for a new president due to take place in the next 50 days. The most recent vote had been more or less fixed to clear the way for Raisi, writes Jeremy Bowen.
- Watch: State TV announced the president's death on Monday morning - take a look.
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WORLD HEADLINES | - Health scandal: In the UK, thousands of people who were infected with HIV and hepatitis C by contaminated blood products and transfusions from 1970 to 1991 are awaiting the final report of a public inquiry. Follow our live coverage here.
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| Celebrating a new president, and a culture | William Lai, a 64-year-old doctor turned politician, has been sworn in as Taiwan’s president, following his win in January’s election. Loathed by Beijing, Mr Lai has called on China to stop threatening the island and accept the existence of its democracy. |
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| | Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, Asia correspondent |
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| | One of the highlights of the celebrations so far has been a large, blue, rather trippy horse - which entered the venue almost like a Trojan horse and blew smoke from its nostrils. It has no particular cultural significance. But all of this colour and performance is a very deliberate celebration of Taiwan's diverse culture. There was a group, for instance, that was rapping in four languages - Mandarin, Hakka, Taiwanese and English. Everything about this is saying: look at us, we are free, we are multi-cultural. This is Taiwan. Of course, the subtext is "we are not China". |
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BEYOND THE HEADLINES | A fourth year at the top |
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| |  | The champions have not lost a Premier League game since last December. Credit: PA | Pep Guardiola's Manchester City are the great untouchables of the Premier League, winning their fourth title in a row on Sunday. The club's successes are blemished by the 115 regulatory charges it faces, mostly for alleged financial irregularities that it denies. But their domination on the pitch can't be questioned, says our chief football writer Phil McNulty. |
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SOMETHING DIFFERENT | The road to zero deaths | Sweden's road safety tsar got a cake from a woman whose car hit one of his barriers. | |
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And finally... | I realised today that we hadn't mentioned the unseemly twist in the tale of the video portal linking the cities of New York and Dublin. We did tell you about this installation allowing passers-by to wave at each other across the ocean. But it was quickly shut down as it was used for less wholesome purposes - from the cheekily explicit to the downright offensive. After a week-long closure, it's now reopening for 10 hours a day. | |
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