Crypto News: Iran’s first non-cleric president since Ahmadinejad

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How far the new reformist Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, can go in changing policy in the Islamic Republic will depend on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's ultimate authority.

The cardiac surgeon enters office with the ruling clerics widely unpopular and in desperate need of respite from internal dissent.

On the face of it Pezeshkian marks a sharp departure from ultraconservative predecessor Ebrahim Raisi, whose death in a helicopter crash triggered the snap election.

He's the first non-cleric to be elected president since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with whom he shares an appeal to the middle classes but differs in that he's not an ideologue.

WATCH: Bloomberg's Joumanna Bercetche reports on how Pezeshkian is widely expected to seek improved relations with the West. Source: Bloomberg

Pezeshkian promised the removal of sanctions, a revived nuclear deal with the West and an easier life for Iranians who feel stifled by soaring inflation and strict laws on attire, particularly for women who have been targeted by the security forces.

Pezeshkian knows as well as the Iranians who elected him that it won't be up to him to get these things done. He needs buy-in from Khamenei, parliament and Iran's powerful networks and institutions — such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — that influence state decisions.

Pezeshkian must get a thumbs up from Khamenei before reviving talks with the US over sanctions relief. And if he wants warmer ties with Europe, how will that affect Tehran's strengthening political and trade alliance with Russia amid the war in Ukraine?

With Iran's main regional allies, Hamas and Hezbollah, locked in violent conflict with Israel, the Supreme Leader can ill afford political division or weakness.

But even in a system as closely controlled as Iran's, there's room for maneuver.

The question facing Pezeshkian as he prepares for office is how much he can rely on Khamenei and his aides for support. — Golnar Motevalli

Pezeshkian outside a polling station in Tehran on Friday. Photographer: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

France looks set for a bout of political instability after a left-wing coalition scored a surprise victory in yesterday's legislative election without the 289-seat majority needed to govern. The New Popular Front won 178 seats in the National Assembly, while President Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance notched up 156 and Marine Le Pen's National Rally came third with 143.

WATCH: Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of far-left France Unbowed, speaks after projections showed the New Popular Front coalition on course to win the most National Assembly seats.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to meet with President Vladimir Putin when he visits Russia today for the first time in five years in a period when Moscow is deepening its embrace of New Delhi's rival, China. Senior Indian diplomats say the trip is intended to send a signal that the two sides remain close — their ties stretch back to the Cold War, and Russia is India's biggest supplier of weapons and oil.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping repeated his call for a cease-fire in Ukraine during a surprise meeting with visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has upset Europe with a self-styled "peace mission." Xi said the priority now should be a "de-escalation as quickly as possible," a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said in a post on X.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike's election victory to lead the Japanese capital for a third term provides some relief for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, struggling with support at its lowest levels since he took office in 2021. His ruling party backed the governor, who oversees a metropolis with an economy that equaled the Netherlands' in size in 2021 and a 14 million-strong population that makes it bigger than Belgium.

Junta leaders in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso shifted further away from their West African neighbors by forming a confederation aimed at reinforcing political and economic integration. The move effectively divides the region into opposing alliances of democracies and military rulers and comes after the three nations independently cut military ties with France and the US.

Ukraine said dozens of people were killed and injured after the nation's air force reported that Russia had launched ballistic missiles in a barrage across the country, inflicting damage to a children's hospital in Kyiv.

Taiwan's central bank governor was prevented from appearing in the legislature because lawmakers got into shoving matches over a bill put forward by the opposition.

Japan and the Philippines today signed an agreement that would facilitate mutual military visits, as the US allies tighten their defense ties amid tensions with China.

Javier Milei's efforts to forge right-wing alliances across Europe reveal a hard truth about his presidency: Back in a Latin America dominated by leftists, the libertarian Argentine is all alone.

The US Congress returns to the Capitol today with Democrats still in disarray over whether Joe Biden should remain in the 2024 presidential race. In a private virtual call organized by House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries yesterday, several influential lawmakers said the president should step aside.

They include Jerrold Nadler and Joe Morelle of New York; Adam Smith of Washington; and Mark Takano of California, sources say. That brings to nine the number of House Democrats who have called for Biden to withdraw.

A regularly scheduled meeting with all House Democrats set for tomorrow will be more telling of the sentiment across the party. It will include members facing competitive reelection contests and who fear fallout in the wake of Biden's poor performance in a debate with Donald Trump more than a week ago.

Biden remains defiant and campaigned yesterday in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

One thing to watch today: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York releases its Survey of Consumer Expectations for June.

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Rachel Reeves laid out the new Labour government's plans to spur private investment in her first major speech as the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer. There is "no time to waste" in lifting Britain's growth rate, Reeves told an audience of business leaders in central London, pledging to "fix the foundations" of the economy.

Global average temperatures have now hit or exceeded a key climate threshold for 12 months, highlighting the challenge in limiting the planet's warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era. The average for the year through June 2024 was 1.64C higher than the era from 1850 to 1900, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said today. This past June was the 13th consecutive time a month has set a new average temperature record.

A firefighter near Gorman, California, on June 16. Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg

Thanks to the 27 people who answered the Friday quiz and congratulations to Marc Weinberg who was the first to name the leader of Finland as being the person who said China could end the war in Ukraine with one phone call if it chose to.

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