Monday Briefing

Ebrahim Raisi at the United Nations last year.Credit…Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times

Iran’s president killed in a helicopter crash

President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran was killed along with the country’s foreign minister in a helicopter crash yesterday in the country’s mountainous northwest, state news media reported, leaving the country without two of its most influential figures at a time of heightened foreign tensions and domestic discontent. Here’s the latest news.

Raisi, 63, was a conservative Shiite Muslim cleric who violently crushed dissent and was a devoted upholder of religious rule in the country. He was a protégé of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and was widely viewed as a possible successor. Read our obituary.

Quotable: “There will be no disruption in the country’s operation,” Khamenei said in an address on state television. “Senior officials are doing their work and I have advised them on the necessary points, and all of the country’s operation will carry on smoothly and orderly.”

Israeli officials challenge Netanyahu

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, and Benny Gantz, a centrist former military chief, have demanded that the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, come up with a decisive strategy for postwar Gaza. Gantz set up an ultimatum on Saturday and said his party would leave the government by June 8 without a plan from Netanyahu. Both he and Gallant have implicitly accused Netanyahu of prioritizing his political survival over national security.