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Texas Tech student identified as victim in Austin bar shooting

One of the two victims in theAustin bar shooting early Sundayhas been identified as a Texas Tech University student, according to social media posts from his siblings and from a local politician.

NBC Universal Members of law enforcement patrol investigate after a mass shooting outside of Buford's bar in downtown Austin, Texas, on March 1, 2026. (Brandon Bell / Getty Images)

Ryder Harrington, 19, was killed in the shooting that unfolded just outside of a popular beer garden in downtown Austin that also left 14 others injured. The suspect, who was fatally shot by officers, had a history of mental illness, sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News.

"Ryder was the best mix of all the Harrington crew," his brother,Reed Harrington, wrote on Facebook in a post confirming his death.He said the entire family appreciates the condolences they have received.

Authorities have not yet publicly identified the other victims and are still working to determine a motive in the shooting, including whether it was an act of terrorism. The Austin Police Department is set to have a press conference this afternoon.

Ryder Harrington. (@reed.harrington via Instagram)

"It is unfair, to say the least, that my little brother was only given 19 years on this earth," Reed Harrington wrote. "Watching the man he had become, and seeing all the lives he touched, leaves me certain that this world was robbed of a great future."

The brother added, "I don't think life will ever feel normal again. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do, but I know you will always be there to guide me and be my mentor."

Harrington's sister,Reagan Harrington, called him her "best friend" in an Instagram postmemorializing him, adding, "I can't believe you aren't with me right now."

"Nothing would be enough to express how special you are to me," Reagan Harrington wrote. "I'm not sure how we're meant to work through this — all I can think about is seeing you again."

Ryan Harrington, the fourth of the siblings, alsoposted about Harrington's death on Instagram.

"I'm gonna miss my brother," Ryan Harrington wrote.

Harrington's death was also confirmed by his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi.According to the chapter's Instagram post, Harrington was a part of the Fall 2024 pledge class.

"From the moment he joined our brotherhood, he brought a light that was impossible to ignore," the Beta Theta Pi post read. "Ryder had a rare ability to truly enjoy life to make people laugh, to make moments feel bigger, and to make ordinary days unforgettable."

Beta Theta Pi will be hosting a candlelight vigil to honor their brother on Monday at 8 p.m., the post said. The chapter also started aGoFundMeto support Harrington's family.

Speaker of the Texas state HouseDustin Burrows posted about Harrington's passing on Xand said that the teen is the brother-in-law of one of his team members.

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"From all accounts, Ryder was exactly the kind of young man who made a difference without even trying — full of life, loyal to his friends, proud to be a Red Raider and a Texan, and someone who showed up for the people around him," Burrows wrote.

He added that he is praying for the Harrington family and "everyone who loved Ryder — the number appears to be countless."

Two killed in early Sunday shooting

Harrington was one of two victims killed in the shooting that broke out early Sunday morning outside of Buford's, a popular beer garden in downtown Austin. The other victim has not yet been identified.

Of the 14 injured, three were taken to the hospital in critical condition, said Robert Luckritz, chief of the county's emergency medical services. Their conditions were not immediately available as of Monday.

The shooter has been identified as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne. Officers shot and killed him shortly after the attack, police said.

Diagne was a Senegalese national and a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Pflugerville, Texas, four law enforcement officials told NBC News. At the time of the shooting, he wore a sweatshirt that said "Property of Allah," and a shirt underneath bearing an Iranian-flag theme.

Diagne appeared to have acted alone and had no ties to the state, according to sources who emphasized that the investigation is in its preliminary stages.

A Homeland Security official told NBC News that Diagne first entered the U.S. on March 13, 2000, on a B-2 tourist visa. He became a lawful permanent resident in 2006 based on marriage to a U.S. citizen and a naturalized citizen in 2013, the official said. He was arrested in 2022 in Texas for a collision with vehicle damage, the official said.

On Sunday, Alex Doran, a special agent with the San Antonio FBI field office, said, "There were indicators that on the subject and in his vehicle that indicate potential nexus to terrorism," but noted that it is "still too early to make a determination on that."

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said at a news conference Sunday that Diagne may have circled Buford's in his car before rolling his window down, striking patrons on the bar's front patio using a pistol.

He then parked the car, got out holding a rifle, and shot people who were walking by, Davis said. Officers encountered the man along West Sixth Street, which is when they shot him.

Buford's is 2 miles from the heart of the University of Texas at Austin campus and less than a mile from the Texas Capitol Building.

Other Texas officials offered their prayers and condolences for the victims, including Gov. Greg Abbott, who warned anyone who "thinks about using the current conflict in the Middle East to threaten Texans."

He appeared to be talking about the joint military operationsof the U.S. and Israeli governments against Iran, which killed the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Texas Tech student identified as victim in Austin bar shooting

One of the two victims in theAustin bar shooting early Sundayhas been identified as a Texas Tech University student, acco...
The hole in the sky: How Middle East airspace closures are reshaping global aviation

Open the airplane-tracking websiteFlightradar24right now and the change is unmistakable. Where one of the world's busiest aviation crossroads should be — a dense web of aircraft linking Europe, Asia and Africa — there is instead a yawning gap. A hole in the sky.

CNN Middle East airspace closures are forcing long-haul reroutes, increasing fuel costs and disruption, with potential knock-on effects for schedules and fares worldwide. - Flightradar24

As conflict escalates in Iran with knock-on effects across the Middle East, vast swaths of regional airspace haveclosed or emptied. And because this region sits at the center of modern long-haul travel, the disruption is rippling far beyond it.

For decades, Europe-to-Asia traffic has flowed straight through the Middle East. The region is home to some of aviation's most powerful megahubs — Dubai International Airport, Hamad International Airport and Zayed International Airport — and to carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways, whose business models are built on connecting East and West.

When that airspace closes, the consequences are immediate and global. Flights must reroute, often adding time, burning more fuel and creating knock-on complications for crews and aircraft — and higher costs.

Aircraft are displaced and crews stranded. As uncertainty mounts, there are implications for aircraft insurance, ticket prices and operational sustainability.

A collapsed bridge

Tony Stanton, consultant director of Strategic Air in Australia, describes Middle Eastern airspace as “a high-capacity bridge” between Europe and Asia. Pictured here: a plume of smoke caused by an Iranian strike is seen in the background as Emirates planes are parked at Dubai International Airport on March 1. - Altaf Qadri/AP

Tony Stanton, consultant director of Strategic Air in Australia, describes Middle Eastern airspace as "a high-capacity bridge" between Europe and Asia.

"When that bridge collapses, or the bridge closes, the traffic doesn't largely disappear," Stanton tellsCNN Travel."It tends to funnel either north or south into those two main corridors, and then what we see is those two corridors become very congested because they're narrow corridors."

The result: longer delays, more disruptions, greater uncertainty.

There's no room for improvisation. "Airlines can't just fly anywhere they like," Stanton says.

"They need permission to overfly each country's air space, and they can only route through airspace that's open and managed by air traffic control," he says. "They need to, obviously, get those permissions to overfly countries that they weren't overflying before."

Airlines do prepare for geopolitical volatility. Sophisticated risk-monitoring systems scan global flashpoints, allowing operations teams to model contingencies before closures actually happen.

New flight plans are calculated, fuel loads adjusted and crews repositioned — all through what Stanton says is a "well-oiled process."

But even this system can strain under prolonged disruption.

The current "hole in the sky" evokes earlier aviation shocks, including the months of paralysis during the Covid-19 pandemic, the days of transatlantic shutdown during the 2010 Icelandic volcano eruption, and the stillongoing rerouting caused by the Russia-Ukrainewar.

Japan AirlinesFlight JL43from Tokyo to London is a case in point. Before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, it flew west over Russian territory. For the past three years, it has operated eastward over the Pacific, Alaska and Canada —addingup to 2.4 hours and burning about 5,600 extra gallons of fuel per flight, an increase of roughly 20%.

Long-haul aircraft already carry contingency fuel in case of last-minute route changes, but extended operating time can require additional crew members and costs. Pictured here: airplanes parked at the Dubai International Airport on March 1. - Altaf Qadri/AP

Those kinds of detours come at a cost.

Long-haul aircraft already carry contingency fuel in case of last-minute route changes, but extended operating time can require additional crew members — or even fuel stops if the new routing exceeds the aircraft's range.

"That also adds costs," Brendan Sobie, a Singapore-based aviation analyst and consultant, tells CNN Travel. "In some extreme cases, you might even need to have a fuel stop because the longer flight is out of the range of the aircraft that's being used. You add cost because you have to land to take off again. You have additional charges related to a refueling scenario."

Airlines will be covered, to some extent, by insurance, says Stanton.

"There is actually a thing called war risk insurance," he explains. That doesn't mean airlines will be monetarily unaffected. "If the insurers see the risk increasing, well, they'll seek to increase the premium."

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Meanwhile, oil prices, sensitive to Middle East conflict, add another variable.

"Airline stocks obviously took a little bit of a dive today because of the economic political uncertainty that can impact demand, sometimes, particularly short term," says Sobie.

In the short term, travelers are unlikely to see a sudden hike on flight prices.

But, says Stanton, if the Iran crisis becomes "a sustained international event, then airlines will then seek to incorporate their increased operating costs, their reduced effective capacity of the aircraft, back into ticket prices … Airlines will seek to and they'll have to recover their costs."

Misplaced crew and aircraft

The operational consequences go beyond fuel. Right now, many crew members and aircraft are stuck in affected regions — one of the reasons why travelers across the globe might experience knock-on flight chaos this week.

"You could be anywhere around the world, and you will likely be affected by what's going on at the moment," says Stanton. "An aircraft that currently is sitting in London — in the system the airline might have anticipated that being in Singapore or Brisbane or some other place."

Carriers do have contingency plans for this kind of scenario, activating reserve crews held on standby.

"Ordinarily, for when people call in sick, they'll activate the reserve crews," says Stanton. "They'll swap aircraft. They also have standby aircraft, and they'll even cancel flights to try and reset the network — that complicated, interconnected system."

Travelers and crew are stuck in affected regions and this has a knock-on effect across the global aviation network. Pictured here: people check a departure board displaying canceled flights to Middle East countries amid the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, at Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 on March 2. - Isabel Infantes/Reuters

Airlines house stranded employees in hotels as they wait to see when — or to what degree — airspace reopens and how the situation develops.

Emirates has alreadyannounced a limited resumption of some serviceson Monday evening.

As crew wait for updates, some airline employees have been posting updates on social media. Virgin Australia flight attendant Sarah Goodwin updated followers on TikTok, calling being stuck in the Qatari capital Doha "the craziest situation."

"I never, ever, in my life thought that I would ever be in a situation where I can hear missiles," shesaid.

The longer the disruption lasts, the longer the recovery times, says aviation analyst Brendan Sobie. Pictured here: Emirates Airlines plane is parked at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on March 1. - Michael Nagle/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Airlines' focus will be keeping crew safe, says Brendan Sobie.

"In this kind of crisis situation, obviously, safety is first and foremost … You try to look after your crew as best as you can," he says. "And then, once things improve, you try to restart things and move the crew back into position, get them back home and start to try to return to normal operations as quickly as possible, but obviously as safely as possible as well."

Austrian Airlines, part of the Lufthansa group, ran a crew evacuation flight to Muscat, Oman, returning to Vienna, Austia on Monday morning local time, a spokesperson for the airline told CNN.

When will flights return to normal?

The longer the disruption lasts, the longer the recovery times, says Sobie. "If everything completely reopens, that makes it easier than, say, a partial reopening where there's still a lot of limitations. So, it's really impossible to predict or forecast, in this case — or in any case, really — how long it will take for a return to normal operation."

But safety concerns beyond the affected region are unwarranted, Stanton adds. "Major airlines don't just make these decisions just by looking at Flightradar24 and going, 'All right. Everybody else is going to the north. Let's go north.'"

He reiterates that airlines "run really structured intelligence, informed risk assessments."

"They've got specialist security teams, flight ops teams, dispatch teams. They listen to government advice. They probably get some intelligence that we don't get, and they make very careful decisions about when they're going to operate," he says.

"Particularly the major airlines … I personally would be comfortable to jump on a British Airways or a Qantas or Emirates aircraft if that aircraft was operating, because I have comfort in the systems and the risk assessments that the airlines would be running in the background to operate their assets."

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The hole in the sky: How Middle East airspace closures are reshaping global aviation

Open the airplane-tracking websiteFlightradar24right now and the change is unmistakable. Where one of the world's bus...
New York City's tab for police misconduct settlements: Nearly $800 million since 2019

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City paid more than $117 million last year to settle police misconduct lawsuits in cases ranging from the violent arrests of protesters in 2020 to bad police work that led to wrongful convictions in the 1980s, according to a newly published analysis of city data. Nearly $800 million in payouts were made over the last seven years.

Associated Press

The largest settlements last year, totaling $24.1 million, went to two men who spent more than 20 years in prison after they were wrongly arrested and convicted for a fatal 1986 robbery in midtown Manhattan robbery. Another settlement, for $5.75 million, went to a man who said policeblinded him in his left eyewith a stun gun.

The analysis, released Monday by the nonprofit public defender organization The Legal Aid Society, comes as the nation's largest city faces a $5.4 billion budget shortfall. Along with broader cuts, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has proposed trimming $22 million from the NYPD's $6.4 billion budget as itcontinues to tout lower crime numbers. Settlements are paid out of a separate part of the city's budget. Elsewhere, they're paid directly from a police department's operating budget.

"This analysis is really about transparency around what the NYPD is costing us," said Jennvine Wong, the supervising attorney with the organization's Cop Accountability Project. "And from what we can tell here, I think it means that meaningful accountability has been lacking in the police department. It's a chronic problem that needs to be addressed."

NYPD says it's increasing accountability, helping right wrongs

In all, the city settled 1,044 police misconduct lawsuits in 2025, the most since 2019, when 1,276 were resolved. It was the fourth straight year with settlements exceeding $100 million. Last year's total was nearly double the $62.1 million the city paid in 2020 to settle 929 lawsuits. In 2024, the city paid $206.4 million in 980 lawsuits.

Those amounts are just a part of the city's overall police misconduct toll. The Legal Aid Society's analysis only includes lawsuit settlements, not claims that the city comptroller, the official in charge of financial matters, resolved prior to formal litigation.

Of last year's settlements, about $42 million were for wrongful convictions and $28 million — nearly a quarter of the payout total — involved incidents that occurred more than two decades ago. Such cases have also accounted for a substantial portion of the $796 million the city has paid to resolve police misconduct lawsuits since 2019, the NYPD said.

"While these cases are very important to address, they tell you nothing about the state of policing today," the department said in a statement.

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Under Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the NYPD "has taken significant steps to increase accountability, compliance, and change outdated policies that might create greater risk," the statement said. The department said it also works closely with the city's district attorneys' offices, providing material to facilitate their review of cases involving wrongful arrest and conviction claims.

Multimillion-dollar payouts for wrongful convictions and brutality

The men wrongly convicted in the fatal 1986 robbery, Eric Smokes and David Warren, received $13 million and $11.1 million, respectively. In a lawsuit filed in 2024 in federal court, they alleged that a corrupt detective relied on the word of an emotionally handicapped and drug-addled 17-year-old who was seeking a way out of his own separate robbery rap. Three of the four witnesses who identified Smokes and Warren as the killers only did so after being threatened with criminal charges, the lawsuits said.

Another settlement, for $3.9 million, went to Steven Lopez,a sixth man arrested with the so-called Central Park Five, now known as the Exonerated Five, after their convictions in the 1989 rape of a female jogger were overturned. The Five went to trial but Lopez, under intense police and public pressure, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge that he mugged a male jogger the same night.

Other settlements included $1.7 million for four protesters who said officers beat them with batons or threw them to the ground during a June 2020 demonstration in Brooklyn over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

The city paid $5.2 million to nine people who said they were framed in cases from 2014 to 2016 by two officers who were later convicted of falsifying testimony or paperwork.

Stop-and-frisk continues to be a concern, police monitor says

Last week, a court-appointed monitor criticized the NYPD for poorly supervising and underreporting officers' use of the tactic known as stop-and-frisk. In 2013, a federal judge ruled that the NYPD's frequent use of the tactic to search for guns and drugs violated the civil rights of Black and Hispanic New Yorkers.

Since then, the department has sharply cut down on stop-and-frisks, but continues to have "unacceptably low compliance rates" with constitutional protections, said the monitor, Mylan L. Denerstein.

The NYPD's staggering settlement costs suggest more needs to be done to drive down misconduct, and a "lack of accountability has continued to contribute to a culture of impunity," Wong said.

"These judgments and settlement costs are costing the city so much money and are costing the victims of police misconduct not just monetary losses and financial losses, but also causing real human trauma that they carry with them," she added.

New York City’s tab for police misconduct settlements: Nearly $800 million since 2019

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City paid more than $117 million last year to settle police misconduct lawsuits in cases ranging...
Death toll continues to rise after US and Israel struck Iran

The death toll continues to climb after theUnited States and Israel began striking Iran, and airstrikes continue in the Middle East.

USA TODAY

President Donald Trumpwarned that airstrikes targeting Iran's ballistic missile program and navy could continue for weeks, and more American casualties are to be expected.

"Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends," Trump said about U.S. troop deaths. "That's the way it is."

Since the strikes began on Saturday, Feb. 28, Iran launched attacks on 27 U.S. bases and other targets across nine countries,Al Jazeerareported. Counterattacks occurred in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

As of Monday, March 2, the deaths of four U.S. service personnel were confirmed, according to a statement released by the Pentagon.

A U.K. base in Cyprus was also struck by Iran, according to USA TODAY's previous reporting.

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<p style=Smoke rises following an explosion, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, February 28, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> People gather at the site of a destroyed building at a school where, as the state media reports, several people were killed in an Israeli airstrike, following strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran, in Minab, Iran in this screengrab obtained from a social media video released on February 28, 2026. Iranian state media reported on February 28 that Israel struck a school in southern Iran, resulting in 40 deaths. Smoke rises following an explosion, after Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel had launched a pre-emptive attack against Iran, in Tehran, Iran February 28, 2026 in this screen grab taken from video. Iranian people run for cover in Tehran, Iran, on February 28, 2026, as explosions are heard after a reported strike and Israel announced it had launched a <p style=Smoke rises following an explosion after the U.S. and Israel reportedly launched an attack against Iran, in Tehran, Iran, February 28, 2026, in this screen grab taken from video.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> A graffiti on a wall reads People run for cover following an explosion, after Israel said it launched a pre-emptive attack against Iran, in Tehran, Iran February 28, 2026. A plume of smoke rises after an explosion on February 28, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. After explosions were seen in the Iranian capital, the office of the Israeli Defense Minister issued a statement saying it had launched a preemptive strike against the country. <p style=A plume of smoke rises following a reported explosion in Tehran on February 28, 2026. Two loud blasts were heard in Tehran on February 28 morning by AFP journalists, and two plumes of thick smoke were seen over the centre and east of the Iranian capital.

Israel's defence ministry announced it had launched a "preemptive strike" on Iran as sirens sounded in Jerusalem and people across the country received phone alerts about an "extremely serious" threat.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist after disembarking Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., February 27, 2026. Hours later, Trump made live comments about the military strikes he launched against Iran.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> A plume of smoke rises over Tehran after a reported explosion on February 28, 2026, after Israel said it carried out a A plume of smoke rises following a reported explosion in Tehran on February 28, 2026. Two loud blasts were heard in Tehran on February 28 morning by AFP journalists, and two plumes of thick smoke were seen over the centre and east of the Iranian capital. Israel's defence ministry announced it had launched a <p style=Buildings inin Tehran stand after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, February 28, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Iranians try to clear a street amid heavy traffic in Tehran, Iran, on February 28, 2026, as explosions are heard following a reported strike and Israel announced it had launched a Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese area of al-Qatrani on February 28, 2026. Lebanon's foreign minister said on February 24 his country feared its infrastructure could be hit by Israeli strikes if the situation with Iran escalates, after Israel intensified its attacks on Tehran-backed Hezbollah Anti-riot police stand in front of state building that is covered with a giant anti-U.S. billboard depicting the destruction of a US aircraft carrier in downtown Tehran on a main street in Tehran on February 21, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. In recent weeks, the United States had moved vast numbers of military vessels and aircraft to Europe and the Middle East. The US and Israel proceeded to launched strikes on Iran on February 28, 2026,

Latest photos capture US and Israeli strikes against Iran

Smoke rises following an explosion,after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, February 28, 2026.

Live updates on Iran:US fighter jets crash in Kuwait as Iran conflict continues.

How many US service members have been killed?

So far, four U.S. service members have been killed, according to the Pentagon. The identities of the deceased have not been released.

What is the death toll in other countries?

The following casualties have been reported in the Middle East, according toAl Jazeera, citing aid organizations, government officials and local media outlets:

  • Iran - 555 killed, hundreds injured

  • Israel - 10 killed, hundreds injured

  • The United Arab Emirates - 3 killed, 58 injured

  • Bahrain - 1 killed, 4 injured

  • Iraq - 2 killed, 5 injured

  • Kuwait - 1 killed, 32 injured

  • Lebanon - 31 killed, 149 injured

  • Qatar -16 injured, no deaths reported

  • Oman - 5 injured, no deaths reported

  • Saudi Arabia - No deaths or injuries reported

Additionally, 23 protestors were killed in Pakistan after demonstrations against the airstrikes turned violent, according toReuters.In the Pakistani city Karachi, 10 people were killed after guards at the U.S. consulate fired on demonstrators who breached an outer wall; 11 people in the northern city of Skardu were killed after a crowd set fire to a U.N. office; and two more people were killed in Islamabad.

One Chinese citizen was also killed in the US-Israeli strikes that hit Tehran, the capital of Iran, according toReuters.

Contributing: Reuters;Zac Anderson,Kim Hjelmgaard, andBrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY

Julia Gomez is a Trending reporter for USA TODAY and covers popular toys, scientific studies, natural disasters, holidays, and trending news. Connect with her onLinkedIn,X,Instagram, andTikTok: @juliamariegz, or email her at jgomez@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:How many have died after US and Israel struck Iran?

Death toll continues to rise after US and Israel struck Iran

The death toll continues to climb after theUnited States and Israel began striking Iran, and airstrikes continue in th...
A look at some of the contenders to be Iran's supreme leader after the killing of Khamenei

Iran's leaders are scrambling to replace Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years before he was killed in the surpriseU.S. and Israeli bombardment.

Associated Press FILE - In this Dec. 18, 2015 file photo, Hassan Khomeini, grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, speaks at the election headquarters of the interior ministry in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File) FILE - Mojtaba, son of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, attends the annual Quds, or Jerusalem Day rally in Tehran, Iran, on May 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File) FILE - In this Dec. 9, 2020 file photo, released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani speaks, during a meeting in Tehran, Iran. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP, File) FILE - In this Dec. 18, 2015 file photo, Hassan Khomeini, grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, speaks at the election headquarters of the interior ministry in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File) FILE - Mojtaba, son of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, attends the annual Quds, or Jerusalem Day rally in Tehran, Iran, on May 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File) FILE - In this Dec. 9, 2020 file photo, released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani speaks, during a meeting in Tehran, Iran. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP, File)

Iran US Next Supreme Leader

It's only the second time sincethe 1979 Islamic Revolutionthat a new supreme leader is being chosen. Potential candidates range from hard-liners committed to confrontation with the West to reformists who seek diplomatic engagement.

The supreme leader has the final say on all major decisions, including war, peace and the country'sdisputed nuclear program.

In the meantime, a provisional governing council composed of President Masoud Pezeshkian, hard-line judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and senior Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi is guiding the country through its biggest crisis in decades. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that a new supreme leader would be chosen early this week.

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The supreme leader is appointed by an 88-member panel called theAssembly of Experts, who by law are supposed to quickly name a successor. The panel consists of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected after their candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran's constitutional watchdog.

Khamenei had major influence over both clerical bodies, making it unlikely the next leader will mark a radical departure.

Here are the top contenders.

Mojtaba Khamenei

The son of Khamenei, a mid-level Shiite cleric, is widely considered a potential successor. He has strong ties to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard but has never held office. His selection could prove awkward, as the Islamic Republic has long criticized hereditary rule and cast itself as a more just alternative.

Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi

Arafi is a member of the provisional government council. The senior Shiite cleric was handpicked by Khamenei to be a member of the Guardian Council in 2019, and three years later he was elected to the Assembly of Experts. He leads a network of seminaries.

Hassan Rouhani

Rouhani, a relative moderate, was president of Iran from 2013 to 2021 and reached the landmark nuclear agreement with the Obama administration that U.S. President Donald Trumpscrapped during his first term. Rouhani served on the Assembly of Experts until 2024, when he said he was disqualified from running for reelection. Rouhani criticized it as an infringement on Iranians' political participation.Hassan KhomeiniKhomeini is the most prominent grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He is also seen as a relative moderate, but has never held government office. He currently works at his grandfather's mausoleum in Tehran.Ayatollah Mohammed Mehdi MirbagheriMirbagheri is a senior cleric popular with hard-liners who serves on the Assembly of Experts.He was close to the late Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a fellow hard-liner who wrote that Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce "special weapons," a veiled reference to nuclear arms.During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mirbagheri denounced the closure of schools as a "conspiracy."He is currently the head of the Islamic Cultural Center in Qom, the main center for Islamic teaching in Iran.

Rouhani, a relative moderate, was president of Iran from 2013 to 2021 and reached the landmark nuclear agreement with the Obama administration that U.S. President Donald Trumpscrapped during his first term. Rouhani served on the Assembly of Experts until 2024, when he said he was disqualified from running for reelection. Rouhani criticized it as an infringement on Iranians' political participation.

Hassan Khomeini

Khomeini is the most prominent grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He is also seen as a relative moderate, but has never held government office. He currently works at his grandfather's mausoleum in Tehran.

Ayatollah Mohammed Mehdi Mirbagheri

Mirbagheri is a senior cleric popular with hard-liners who serves on the Assembly of Experts.

He was close to the late Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a fellow hard-liner who wrote that Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce "special weapons," a veiled reference to nuclear arms.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mirbagheri denounced the closure of schools as a "conspiracy."

He is currently the head of the Islamic Cultural Center in Qom, the main center for Islamic teaching in Iran.

A look at some of the contenders to be Iran's supreme leader after the killing of Khamenei

Iran's leaders are scrambling to replace Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years bef...

 

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