LONDON (AP) — Former U.K. Conservative Party leader William Hague has been elected chancellor of Oxford University, one of the most prestigious positions in British academia, the university said Wednesday.
Hague was elected in an online vote by staff and alumni of the 800-year-old university. He will replace Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, who has held the post since 2003.
Hague beat contenders including former Labour Cabinet minister Peter Mandelson and Elish Angiolini, the former top law officer in Scotland.
The university said Hague will be inaugurated early next year and will serve a 10-year term. The chancellor is the university’s titular head and presides over key ceremonies, as well as overseeing the election of the vice-chancellor, the university’s day-to-day leader.
Hague is an Oxford graduate who began his political career at the Oxford University Conservative Association. Elected Conservative leader at the age of 36 after the party lost power to Labour in 1997, he resigned after the party's thumping election defeat in 2001.
Hague said being elected chancellor, a post that stretches back to the 13th century, was “the greatest honor of my life.”
“What happens at Oxford in the next decade is critical to the success of the U.K.,” he said in a statement.
FILE - Chairman of the Royal Foundation William Hague holds a speech as he attends the first ever Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony at Alexandra Palace in London on Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, Pool, File)
RAZI, Iran (AP) — On a 12-hour drive across Iran, Associated Press reporters saw a religious center damaged by an airstrike and billboards vowing revenge against America and Israel. But for most of the trip, they saw quieter scenes of daily life unfolding against a backdrop of war and anxiety.
They saw families having a quiet breakfast at a truck stop. In a mountain tunnel, they saw a cargo truck with a Nike logo across the back. A restaurant played R.E.M.'s “Losing my religion” as customers, including women not wearing the mandatory headscarf, enjoyed grilled meats and saffron drinks.
Five weeks of heavy American and Israeli airstrikes have caused extensive destruction, particularly in Tehran, the capital, where they saw the rubble of government buildings and police stations.
But on the long drive in from the Turkish border there were few outward signs of the conflict that has rippled across the Middle East and jolted the world economy.
The Associated Press has been granted permission by the Iranian government to send an additional team into the country for a brief reporting trip. AP already operates in Iran. The visiting team must be accompanied by a media assistant from a government-affiliated company. AP retains full editorial control of its content.
At the border crossing, there were large portraits of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the war's first day, adorned with fiery slogans. Just beyond, a shepherd guided his sheep along the roadside, with snow-capped mountains rising in the distance beneath gray skies.
Six hours into the journey, they caught the first sight of the war in the city of Zanjan. A religious community center, known as a husseiniyah, had been hit by an Israeli airstrike days earlier. Iranian officials said it destroyed a clinic and a library, killing two civilians. The Israeli military said it hit a military headquarters.
Just outside the complex, and in every city and town on the road to Tehran, things seemed pretty normal. Shops were open. Traffic backed up at rush hour.
There were more Khamenei billboards on the approach to Tehran. Entering the city after midnight, they drove through empty streets, past bombed-out government buildings and checkpoints manned by the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij, bulwarks of the Islamic Republic who have been repeatedly targeted.
This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors.
Associated Press reporter Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed.
A billboard showing Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei overlooks traffic on a highway entering Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A truck with a Nike logo across its rear doors drives through a tunnel toward Tehran between Tabriz and Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Cars drive past the Grand Husseiniyah mosque, left, in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A youngster walks past a religious complex that Iranian officials say was hit by an airstrike in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Dark clouds gather over a parked car along the roadside between Tabriz and Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Construction workers build what appears to be a roadside shop in Marand, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A waiter serves customers at a roadside restaurant near Sinur, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Backdropped by snow-covered mountains, vehicles drive along a highway between Khoy and Marand, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A plastic crate filled with empty bottles of Iranian soft drinks sits on the floor of a roadside restaurant near Sinur, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A sign points toward a roadside restaurant near Sinur, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A family eats breakfast at a roadside restaurant near Sinur, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Backdropped by snow-covered mountains, a truck drives along a highway between Khoy and Marand, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A man drives a tractor past a roadside restaurant near Sinur, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A shepherd tends his flock of sheep near a border crossing between Turkey and Iran, in Razi, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Travelers arrive at a border crossing between Turkey and Iran in Razi, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Travelers arrive at a border crossing between Turkey and Iran in Razi, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Travelers pass a picture of Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as they arrive at the border crossing between Turkey and Iran in Razi, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026.(AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Under a poster of Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian border police check passports at a border crossing between Turkey and Iran in Razi, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026.. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A deserted road stretches toward the Kapikoy border crossing between Turkey and Iran, near Van, Turkey, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
