International News
Mongolians Vote As Anger Grows Over Corruption And Economy
Mongolians began voting in parliamentary elections on Friday, with the ruling party widely expected to win despite deepening public anger over corruption and the state of the economy.
Voters across the vast, sparsely populated nation of 3.4 million — sandwiched between authoritarian China and Russia — are exercising their democratic rights to elect 126 members of the State Great Khural.
Polls opened at 7 am local time (2300 GMT Thursday), AFP reporters saw in the capital Ulaanbaatar and at a remote polling station. They close at 10 pm.
At a polling station in rural Sergelen, an administrative division over an hour’s drive from the capital, election workers in traditional garb stood for the national anthem ahead of the doors being opened to the public.
Voters tricked into the voting station, some taking selfies after casting their ballots, AFP reporters saw.
Among them was Batsaikan Battseren, a 45-year-old local community leader representing the ruling party who said he was urging people to come out to the polls.
“Our area’s average participation is 60 percent,” the former herder said, dressed head to toe in a traditional Mongolian deel.
But, he explained, “young people from 18 to 30 years old don’t go to vote”.
“In previous elections, I would usually bring the youngsters who have just turned 18 to let them vote, but I couldn’t this year,” he said.
Public frustration
Analysts expect the ruling Mongolian People’s Party (MPP), led by Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, to retain the majority it has enjoyed since 2016 and govern the resource-rich country for another four years.
Yet there is deep public frustration over endemic corruption, as well as the high cost of living and lack of opportunities for young people who make up almost two-thirds of the population.
There is also a widespread view that the proceeds of a decade-long boom in coal mining that fuelled double-digit growth are being hoarded by a wealthy elite.
Preliminary results are expected to come within a few hours despite Mongolia’s vast size, thanks to automated vote counting.
The streets of Ulaanbaatar — home to almost half the population — have been decked out with colourful campaign posters touting candidates from across the political spectrum, from populist businessmen to nationalists, environmentalists and socialists.
And, for the first time in almost a decade, parties are required by law to ensure that 30 percent of their candidates are women in a country where politics is dominated by men.
Young voters unimpressed
Younger voters are not convinced and the failure of the main opposition Democratic Party to provide a credible alternative has fuelled the rise of minor parties.
The centre-right anti-corruption HUN party is expected to increase its parliamentary representation through its social-media savvy, professional candidates who enjoy significant support among the urban middle classes.
“I think young people are more aware of the activities of political parties,” said Norovbanzad Ganbat, a 24-year-old IT worker.
“They can see what the MPP has done in the last four years,” she said. “That’s why young people don’t vote for this party.”
Taking to the stage at Wednesday’s rally, Oyun-Erdene blamed his political opponents for turning Mongolia into a “land of corrupt leaders” and called for a return to “discipline”.
Mongolia has plummeted in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index under his party’s rule.
It has also fallen in press freedom rankings under the MPP, and campaigners say there has been a notable decline in the rule of law.
A survey by the Sant Maral Foundation, Mongolia’s top independent polling body, suggested more than a third of Mongolians believe the country is “changing into a dictatorship”.
I’ll describe this election as a referendum on… Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene and whether he will manage to get a mandate to rewrite Mongolia’s social contract,” Bayarlkhagva Munkhnaran, political analyst and former adviser on the National Security Council of Mongolia, told AFP.
“This social contract will be about turning Mongolia into a proper electoral autocracy whereas, 10 years ago, Mongolia used to be respected as a liberal democracy,” he said.
The MPP is the successor to the communist party that ruled Mongolia with an iron grip for almost 70 years but nonetheless remains popular, particularly among rural, older voters, and commands a sprawling, nationwide campaign apparatus.
Former president Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, who held office for the opposition Democratic Party from 2009 to 2017, hailed the start of the election on X on Friday morning, writing: “As the Mongolian saying goes, ‘It is better to live by your own choice than according to others’ choices.’
“Around 260 foreign observers and three dozen journalists are present. I hope for genuinely democratic and transparent elections.”
US President Donald Trump says he is “not a big fan” of Pope Leo XIV, after the global leader of Catholics made a plea for peace amid the war in the Middle East.
The 70-year-old American pope publicly implored leaders on Saturday to end the violence, telling worshippers at St Peter’s Basilica: “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”
“I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
He accused the pontiff of “toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon.”
Trump later doubled down on his comments to reporters with a post on Truth Social, saying: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” he said.
The president added that Leo had only been elected “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”
“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
Trump later posted an AI-generated image seemingly depicting himself as Jesus Christ.
In the image, the president appears dressed in red and white robes as he cures a man with his healing hand. The American flag is shown over his shoulder.
Trump and the White House have previously shared AI-generated images, including one that showed the president dressed as the pope.
On Friday, a Vatican official denied reports that a top Pentagon official gave the church’s envoy to the United States a “bitter lecture” over Pope Leo’s criticisms of the Trump administration.
The story in the Free Press — which the Pentagon had already dismissed as “distorted” — reported that Cardinal Christophe Pierre was summoned in January to the Pentagon, where he was given a dressing-down by US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby.
The military official reportedly told the cardinal that the United States “has the military power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side.”
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement “the account presented by certain media outlets regarding this meeting does not correspond to the truth in any way.”
While both parties insist the meeting was cordial, the Holy See and the White House have openly been at odds over the Trump administration’s hardline mass deportation campaign — which the pope called “inhuman” — and the use of military force in the Middle East and Venezuela.
When Trump made genocidal threats against Iran Tuesday — saying “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” — the pontiff slammed the “truly unacceptable” statement and urged parties to “come back to the table” for negotiations.
Earlier this month, Pope Leo hailed the news of a ceasefire between the United States and Iran as a “sign of real hope.”
But peace talks between the United States and Iran, held in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, ended abruptly and without a resolution on Saturday, with US Vice President JD Vance telling reporters after a marathon-session of talks that Washington has delivered its “final and best offer.”
Pep Guardiola has explained the reason for Manchester City’s resurgence as they push for the Premier League title.
The win lifts City to 64 points from 31 games, cutting the deficit to leaders Arsenal—who have 70 points from 32 matches—to just six points, ramping up the title race in the closing stages of the campaign.
Asked why Manchester City have been in such fine form in the final stages of the season, Pep Guardiola joked: “The sun! If it had been shining in November, we’d have been league champions by January… No, I’m joking, of course. In Manchester, the sun doesn’t shine very often.”
Looking ahead to next Sunday’s 32nd-round clash with Arsenal in the Premier League, he added: “That game will feel like a final for both teams, but there is a tactical detail we need to review, so we may make some adjustments.
“Everyone is talking about the Arsenal game, but matches against Brentford, Bournemouth and the other sides are just as important. The season is still long.”
Guardiola added “We’re in better shape, and in training everyone knows exactly what they have to do. We’ve faced three strong opponents, three Champions League teams. We didn’t put in a complete performance for the full 90 minutes, but we were organised enough, didn’t concede many chances, and our attacking threat was always there.”
Pep Guardiola
He added:One of our secrets as a club and a system is that, after one success after another, we have remained humble and have always asked ourselves: what must we do to stay at the top? Winning once or twice is normal, but to remain at the top for nine years—with the exception of last season—reflects the strength of the entire system.”
Their dramatic grand finale fast approaching, Artemis II’s astronauts aimed for a splashdown in the Pacific on Friday to close out humanity’s first voyage to the moon in more than half a century.
The tension in Mission Control mounted as the miles melted away between the four returning astronauts and Earth.
All eyes were on the capsule’s life-protecting heat shield that has to withstand thousands of degrees during reentry. On the only other test flight of the spacecraft — in 2022, with no one on board — the shield’s charred exterior came back looking as pockmarked as the moon.
Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen were on track to hit the atmosphere traveling Mach 32 — or 32 times the speed of sound — a blistering blur not seen since NASA’s Apollo moonshots of the 1960s and 1970s.
They didn’t plan on taking manual control except in an emergency. Their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, is completely self-flying.
Like so many others, lead flight director Jeff Radigan anticipated feeling some of that “irrational fear that is human nature,” especially during the six minutes of communication blackout preceding the opening of the parachutes. The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha awaited the crew’s arrival, along with a squadron of military planes and helicopters.
The last time NASA and the Defense Department teamed up for a lunar crew’s reentry was Apollo 17 in 1972. Artemis II was projected to come screaming back at 34,965 feet (10,657 meters) per second — or 23,840 mph (38,367 kph) — not a record but still mind-bogglingly fast before slowing to a 19 mph (30 kph) splashdown.
Artemis II’s record flyby and lunar views
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Launched from Florida on April 1, the astronauts racked up one win after another as they deftly navigated NASA’s long-awaited lunar comeback, the first major step in establishing a sustainable moon base.
Artemis II didn’t land on the moon or even orbit it. But it broke Apollo 13’s distance record, making Wiseman and his crew the farthest that humans have ever journeyed from Earth when they reached 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers). Then, in the mission’s most heart-tugging scene, the teary astronauts asked permission to name a pair of craters after their moonship and Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll.
During the record-breaking flyby, they documented scenes of the lunar far side never seen before by the naked eye and savored a total solar eclipse courtesy of the cosmos thanks to their launch date. The eclipse, in particular, “just blew all of us away,” Glover said.
Their sense of wonder and love awed everyone, as did their breathtaking pictures of the moon and Earth. The Artemis II crew channeled Apollo 8’s first lunar explorers with Earthset, showing our blue marble setting behind the gray moon. It was reminiscent of Apollo 8’s famous Earthrise shot from 1968.
“It just makes you want to continue to go back,” Radigan said on the eve of splashdown. “It’s the first of many trips, and we just need to continue on because there’s so much” more to learn about the moon.
Their moonshot drew global attention as well as star power, earning props from President Donald Trump; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney; Britain’s King Charles III; Ryan Gosling, star of the latest space flick “Project Hail Mary;” Scarlett Johansson of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; and even Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner of TV’s original “Star Trek.”
Artemis II was a test flight for future moon missions
Despite its rich scientific yield, the nearly 10-day flight was not without technical issues. Both the capsule’s drinking water and propellant systems were hit with valve problems. In perhaps the most high-profile predicament, toilet trouble prevented the crew from using it for No. 1 most of the trip, forcing them to resort to old-time bags and funnels.
The astronauts shrugged it all off.
“We can’t explore deeper unless we are doing a few things that are inconvenient,” Koch said, “unless we’re making a few sacrifices, unless we’re taking a few risks, and those things are all worth it.”
Added Hansen: “You do a lot of testing on the ground, but your final test is when you get this hardware to space, and it’s a doozy.”
Under the revamped Artemis program, next year’s Artemis III will see astronauts practice docking their capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV will attempt to land a crew of two near the moon’s south pole in 2028.
The Artemis II crew’s allegiance was to those next Artemis crews, Wiseman said.
“But we really hoped in our soul is that we could for just for a moment have the world pause and remember that this is a beautiful planet and a very special place in our universe, and we should all cherish what we have been gifted,” he said.
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