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Seoul, South Korea — North Korea launched at least one short-range ballistic missile off its east coast Monday, South Korea's military said, a day after the North vowed "offensive and overwhelming" responses to a new U.S. military drill with South Korea and Japan. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched from North Korea's southeastern town of Jangyon at 5:05 a.m. It said an additional, unidentified ballistic missile launch trajectory was detected 10 minutes later, a suggestion that North Korea might have performed two missile launches. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea's military has boosted its surveillance posture and is closely exchanging related information with the United States and Japan. The launch came two days after South Korea, the U.S. and Japan ended their new multidomain trilateral drills in the region. In recent years, the three countries have been expanding their trilateral security partnership to better cope with North Korea's evolving nuclear threats and China's increasing assertiveness in the region. The "Freedom Edge" drill was meant to increase the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The three-day drill involved a U.S. aircraft carrier as well as destroyers, fighter jets and helicopters from the three countries. On Sunday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement strongly denouncing the "Freedom Edge" drill, calling it an Asian version of NATO. It said the drill openly destroyed the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and contained a U.S. intention to lay siege to China and exert pressure on Russia. The statement said North Korea will "firmly defend the sovereignty, security and interests of the state and peace in the region through offensive and overwhelming countermeasures." Monday's launch was the North's first weapons firing in five days. On Wednesday, North Korea launched what it called a multiwarhead missile in the first known launch of a developmental, advanced weapon meant to defeat U.S. and South Korean missile defenses. North Korea said the launch was successful, but South Korea dismissed the North's claim as deception to cover up a failed launch. In recent weeks, North Korea has also floated numerous trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea in what it has described as a tit-for-tat response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets via their own balloons. South Korea responded by briefly resuming its anti-Pyongyang front-line propaganda broadcasts for the first time in years. In mid-June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a deal vowing mutual defense assistance if either is attacked. Observers say the pact could embolden Kim to launch more provocations at South Korea. The U.S., South Korea and others believe Pyongyang has been supplying conventional weapons to Russia for its war against Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance. Meanwhile, North Korea opened a key ruling party meeting Friday to determine what it called "important, immediate issues" related to works to further enhance Korean-style socialism. On the meeting's second day, North Korea's leader spoke about "some deviations obstructing" efforts to improve the country's economic status and unspecified important tasks for resolving immediate policy issues, North Korea's state media reported Sunday.

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Beijing — Beijing Tianbing Technology Company said Sunday that the first stage of its Tianlong-3 rocket under development had detached from its launch pad during a test due to structural failure and landed in a hilly area of the city of Gongyi in central China. There were no reports of casualties after an initial investigation, Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, said in a statement on its official WeChat account. Parts of the rocket stage were scattered within a "safe area" but caused a local fire, according to a separate statement by the Gongyi emergency management bureau. The fire has since been extinguished and no one has been hurt, the bureau said. The two-stage Tianlong-3 ("Sky Dragon 3") is a partly reusable rocket under development by Space Pioneer, one of a small group of private-sector rocket makers that have grown rapidly over the past five years. Falling rocket debris in China after launches is not unheard of, but it is very rare for part of a rocket under development to make an unplanned flight out of its test site and crash. According to Space Pioneer, the first stage of the Tianlong-3 ignited normally during a hot test but later detached from the test bench due to structural failure and landed in hilly areas 1.5 km (0.9 mile) away. A rocket can consist of several stages, with the first, or lowest, stage igniting and propelling the rocket upward upon its launch. When the fuel is exhausted, the first stage falls off, and the second stage ignites, keeping the rocket in propulsion. Some rockets have third stages. Space Pioneer says the performance of Tianlong-3 is comparable to SpaceX's Falcon 9, which is also a two-stage rocket. In April 2023, Space Pioneer launched a kerosene-oxygen rocket, the Tianlong-2, becoming the first private Chinese firm to send a liquid-propellant rocket into space. Chinese commercial space companies have rushed into the sector since 2014 when private investment in the industry was allowed by the state. Many started making satellites while others including Space Pioneer, focused on developing reusable rockets that can significantly cut mission costs. The test sites of such companies can be found along China's coastal areas, located by the sea due to safety reasons. But some are also sited deep in the country's interior such as Space Pioneer's test center in Gongyi, a city of 800,000 people in the central province of Henan.

New York — The monthlong celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride reached its exuberant grand finale on Sunday, bringing rainbow-laden revelers to the streets for marquee parades in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere across the globe. The wide-ranging festivities functioned as both jubilant parties and political protests, as participants recognize the community's gains while also calling attention to recent anti-LGBTQ+ laws, such as bans on transgender health care, passed by Republican-led states. "We're at a time where there's a ton of legislation, anti-LGBTQ+ legislation," Zach Overton, 47, said at the New York parade. "It feels like we're taking a step backwards in the fight for equality and so it's a great moment to come out and be with our community and see all the different colors of the spectrum of our community and remind ourselves what we're all fighting for." Thousands of people gathered along New York's Fifth Avenue to celebrate Pride. Floats cruised the street as Diane Ross' "I'm Coming Out" played from loudspeakers. Pride flags filled the horizon, and signs in support of Puerto Rico, Ukraine and Gaza were visible in the crowd. This year, tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza are also seeped into the celebrations, exposing divisions within a community that is often aligned on political issues. Protesters temporarily blocked the New York parade on Sunday, chanting: "Free, free, free Palestine!" Police eventually took some of them away. Pro-Palestinian activists disrupted pride parades earlier in June in Boston, Denver, and Philadelphia. Several groups participating in marches Sunday said they would seek to center the victims of the war in Gaza, spurring pushback from supporters of Israel. "It is certainly a more active presence this year in terms of protest at Pride events," said Sandra Perez, the executive director of NYC Pride. "But we were born out of a protest." The first pride march was held in New York City in 1970 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Inn uprising, a riot that began with a police raid on a Manhattan gay bar. Nick Taricco, 47, who was at the New York parade with Overton, said he attended Friday's opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, where President Joe Biden spoke. Taricco said he has concerns about politics in the U.S., including the presidential election. "Even given how old he is, I still think that's the direction we need to go in," Taricco said of Biden. "But it's a very uncertain time in general in this country." Ireland Fernandez-Cosgrove, 23, celebrated at the New York parade. "New York City is a great place to live, but this is one of the only days where you can come out and be openly queer and you know you're going to be OK and safe about it," she said. "I came out here today with my partner to be able to be ourselves in public and know that other people are going to be supporting us." In addition to the NYC Pride March, the nation's largest, the city also played host Sunday to the Queer Liberation March, an activism-centered event launched five years ago amid concerns that the more mainstream parade had become too corporate. Another one of the world's largest Pride celebrations also took place Sunday in San Francisco. Tens of thousands of revelers packed sidewalks along Chicago's parade, a scaled-back event from previous years. City officials shortened the North Side route and the number of floats this year from 199 to about 150 over safety and logistical concerns, including to better deploy police into evening hours as post-parade parties have become more disruptive in recent years. Chicago's parade, one of the largest in the U.S., routinely draws about 1 million people, according to the city. Sunday's crowd estimates were not immediately available. Additional parades were scheduled in Minneapolis and Seattle. On top of concerns about protests, federal agencies have warned that foreign terrorist organizations and their supporters could target the parades and adjacent venues. A heavy security presence was expected at all of the events.

Jerusalem — Thousands of Jewish ultra-Orthodox men clashed with Israeli police in central Jerusalem on Sunday during a protest of a Supreme Court order for them to begin enlisting for military service. The landmark decision last week ordering the government to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition as Israel wages war in Gaza. Tens of thousands of men rallied in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood to protest the order. But after nightfall, the crowd made its way toward central Jerusalem and turned violent. Israeli police said protesters threw rocks and attacked the car of an ultra-Orthodox Cabinet minister, pelting it with stones. Water cannons filled with skunk-scented water and police mounted on horses were used to disperse the crowd. But the demonstration was still not under control late Sunday. Military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel. But politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties have won exemptions for their followers to skip military service and instead study in religious seminaries. The long-standing arrangement has bred resentment among the broader public, a sentiment that has grown stronger during the eight-month war against Hamas. Over 600 soldiers have been killed in fighting, and tens of thousands of reservists have been activated, upending careers, businesses and lives. Ultra-Orthodox parties and their followers say forcing their men to serve in the army will destroy their generations-old way of life. Earlier Sunday, thousands of men crowded a square and joined in mass prayers. Many held signs criticizing the government, with one saying “not even one male” should be drafted. The ultra-Orthodox parties are key members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition and could potentially force new elections if they decide to leave the government in protest. Party leaders have not said whether they will leave the government. Doing so could be risky, with Netanyahu's coalition's popularity lagging since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war.

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Islamabad — Pakistan said Sunday that discussions with the International Monetary Fund to secure a new multibillion-dollar loan program are progressing well and the program “is on track." Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb confirmed during a news conference that Islamabad is negotiating a three-year loan program valued at $6 - $8 billion to avoid a debt default.  He stated that the government is pursuing the loan facility to sustain macroeconomic and currency stability, increase foreign exchange reserves, and attract foreign direct investment to cash-strapped Pakistan. "The IMF program is our assurance in terms of macroeconomic stability. We are taking it forward certainly; it is inevitable… without this program, we cannot move forward,” he said. “We are making positive progress. We are very optimistic that we will be able to take it through the finishing line for an Extended Fund Program, which is going to be larger and longer in nature,” the minister said of his ongoing talks with the U.S.-based global lender.  Aurangzeb underlined the importance of the IMF loan, saying it would help unlock investments from other international financial institutions and countries that are friendly toward Pakistan, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “They want a backstop for investment, which is the Fund program.” Last week, Pakistan’s parliament passed the government’s tax-laden budget for the coming fiscal year. Officials claimed the budget would guide the country towards an era of sustainable and inclusive growth. Opposition parties rejected the budget, saying it would be highly inflationary. Pakistan is facing $25 billion in external debt payments in the coming fiscal year starting in July, a significantly higher amount than its current level of foreign exchange reserves. US support crucial Aurangzeb, speaking Sunday, dismissed concerns that a recent resolution in the U.S. Congress calling for a probe into fraud allegations in Pakistan’s February elections would undermine the ongoing talks with the IMF. Washington’s support is crucial for Islamabad to negotiate the bailout package successfully. On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 368-7, urging “the full and independent investigation of claims of interference or irregularities” in the February 8 vote. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration promptly rejected the resolution on Wednesday, saying it “stems from an incomplete understanding of the political situation and electoral process” in Pakistan.  On Friday, ruling coalition lawmakers passed a counter-resolution in the legislative lower house of parliament, decrying the congressional move as an “interference” in Pakistan’s internal affairs.  The opposition party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and independent observers have persistently alleged that the powerful military was behind widespread rigging, including mobile phone and internet shutdowns on polling day, and unusually delayed results to help its favored political parties to win the elections, charges Pakistan’s election commission denied.    The contentious election has fueled political turmoil in the country of about 250 million people, making it harder for the Sharif administration to tackle the economic crisis and attract much-needed foreign investment. Since gaining independence in 1947, Pakistan has received 23 bailout packages from the IMF, the most of any country in the world. Critics blame repeated military-led dictatorial rules, financial mismanagement, and corruption by elected governments for hindering democratic and economic progress.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

The United States continues pushing for an Israel-Hamas peace plan involving regional intermediaries Egypt and Qatar. Meanwhile, both Israel and Hamas say there’s been no progress as fighting in Gaza intensifies. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Long-serving Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte urged his country to support Ukraine and international cooperation in his final address to his compatriots Sunday, as an inward-looking new government is set to take over the Netherlands in two days. “It is crucial that our country is embedded in the European Union and NATO. Together we are stronger than alone. Especially now,” the 57-year-old Rutte said from his office in The Hague. After leading the country for 14 years, he will take his experience with consensus-building to Brussels, where he will take over as NATO’s new secretary-general later this year. He stressed the need to continue support for Ukraine, “for peace there and security here.” The new government, expected to take office on Tuesday, has pledged to maintain assistance. But far-right populist Geert Wilders, whose party won the largest block of seats in last year’s election, has expressed pro-Russia views and Kremlin backers cheered his victory at the polls. Rutte described the MH17 tragedy in 2014 as “perhaps the most drastic and emotional event” during his tenure. The passenger jet was shot down over eastern Ukraine as it traveled from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, killing all 298 passengers and crew, including 196 Dutch citizens. A Dutch court convicted two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian in 2022 of involvement in the downing of the Boeing 777. Known for cycling to meetings and his dedication to politics, Rutte highlighted his country’s positive attributes. “There is no war here, you can be who you are, we are prosperous,” he said in the 12-minute speech. He acknowledged that there had been low points during his tenure, including a child benefits scandal that wrongly labeled thousands of parents as fraudsters. Wearing a white shirt with several of the top buttons undone, Rutte said that his time in office had added some “gray hairs and wrinkles” to his appearance. 

ISTANBUL — Turkish police detained at least 15 protesters in Istanbul on Sunday for participating at a banned LGBTQ+ Pride rally, after searching the streets having arrived at the scene after participants had dispersed, a Reuters witness said.  Police declined to comment.  The Istanbul Governor's Office said earlier Sunday that the Pride March would not be permitted. Turkish police blocked central Istanbul to prevent the march from taking place, shutting down metro stations and blocking traffic on the main streets.  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted AK Party has toughened its rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ community over the past decade and banned Pride marches since 2015, citing “security reasons.”  The Istanbul Governor's Office labelled the organizations calling for the Pride March as illegal.  Following the ban, LGBTQ+ groups gathered in another part of Istanbul on the Asian side, with a representative reading a statement that said: "We never get tired of deceiving the police and forcing them to deal with us."  "You have closed all the streets and squares, you have stopped the life of a whole city, but you have forgotten that we will pierce the stone and find each other if necessary."  Police officers searched the streets for protesters and detained at least 15 people, the Reuters witness said.   

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Washington — Iran’s plan to run absentee voter ballot stations in more than 30 U.S. cities for the first round of its presidential election had mixed results, a VOA investigation has found. Information obtained and reviewed by VOA indicates that absentee voting events were held on Friday in at least half of the 33 venues displayed on a list of U.S. ballot stations published online by Iran's interests section office in Washington. But the voting operation also suffered setbacks, with three of the listed venues canceling their voting events on Friday under pressure from Iranian American activists and protesters who oppose Iran’s authoritarian Islamist rulers. Organizers responded to two of the cancelations by updating the list of ballot stations to show last-minute switches to alternate venues. The most prominent absentee voting site was Washington’s Iranian interests section office, where a VOA Persian reporter observed about 35 people arriving to vote in a nine-hour period. Dozens of protesters shouted at the voters, accusing them of supporting an Iranian government that oppresses its people and legitimizing a sham election whose only candidates were loyalists of Iran’s supreme leader. In addition to Washington, VOA assessed that voting events were held at 18 sites on Iran’s list of ballot stations. VOA obtained verbal confirmations in Friday phone calls to staff at 12 hotels on the list and vetted activists’ images of the other six venues. The 12 hotels included four Hilton properties in Lincoln, Nebraska, Long Island City, New York, Milpitas, California and Seattle, Washington; four Hyatt properties in Dallas, Texas, Fort Lee, New Jersey, Houston, Texas and Raleigh, North Carolina; two Marriott properties in Cleveland, Ohio and Mesa, Arizona; an IHG property in Chicago, Illinois; and the Savai Hotel in Overland Park, Kansas. Social media videos indicated that two additional hotels hosted ballot stations despite hotel staff saying they had no knowledge of such activity. Multiple videos posted to X and sent to VOA by activists showed an entrance to one hotel, Hilton’s DoubleTree in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where several Iranians could be seen standing outside and exiting the building as activists in the parking lot verbally berated them for participating in the election.  A DoubleTree manager contacted by phone and informed of the videos maintained that the hotel was not being used as a ballot station. The other hotel, Choice Hotel's Comfort Inn Sandy Springs in Atlanta, Georgia, appeared in a mobile phone video posted to X. An activist holding the phone walked into the hotel and entered a function room serving as a ballot station, interacting with the Iranian attendants before apparently being told to leave.  A hotel staff member who answered the phone said he had “no idea” about the event.   Two other ballot station venues were seen in social media images showing that voting activity had taken place for several hours before being canceled in the face of protests. Organizers relocated one of the venues to a third ballot station. Activists outside the Ontario Airport Hotel & Conference Center in California were seen shouting at several Iranians who showed up to vote on Friday morning before the hotel canceled the event at around 11 a.m. local time. A staff member who answered the phone confirmed the cancelation, which prompted the venue’s removal from an updated version of Iran's ballot station list.   Another group of activists outside The Congregational Church of Weston in Massachusetts were seen in a video posted on X. The activists jeered at a car leaving the site and cheered when a police officer told them that organizers were preparing to shut down the ballot station. An updated Friday version of Iran’s ballot station list showed the Weston venue was replaced by an Islamic center in Milford, Massachusetts. A photo posted to X showed an Iranian voting notice on the center's front door, indicating that it also was used as a ballot station. A sixth venue where voting activity appeared on social media was an office building of Easterns Automotive Group, a used car dealership in Sterling, Virginia. A video posted to X showed a man walking up to the entrance as a guard opened the door, which displayed an Iranian election notice. A review of Friday updates to Iran’s ballot station list showed the Sterling venue replaced the nearby Hilton McLean Tysons Corner hotel, which had been listed earlier as a ballot station before its station number was removed from the list. Siamak Aram, an activist with the National Solidarity Group for Iran, told VOA that his group had contacted the hotel to urge cancelation of the voting event. A hotel staffer who answered the phone confirmed that the event was not on Friday's schedule. Iran’s ballot station list contained another three hotels and an event hall for which there were no confirmations of voting activity from staff contacted by phone and no social media images of such events found by VOA. They included a Hilton hotel in Rancho Cordova, California, an IHG hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Biltmore Hotel Oklahoma and The Rose Court event hall in Tampa, Florida. The remaining nine venues on the ballot station list included four Islamic centers in Detroit, Michigan, Manassas, Virginia, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Portland, Oregon. The others were a landscaping company in Buffalo, New York, and four Virginia and Maryland locations that a mobile voting station was slated to visit during the day.   The addresses of all the U.S. ballot stations besides Iran’s interests section office only began to appear online as voting began on Friday morning. In almost all cases, the addresses were displayed as street names and numbers, without the venues being named. The entire list was deleted on Saturday.   “The Islamic Republic and its agents understand that the regime is deeply unpopular in the Iranian diaspora, whose members are channeling the voices of their Iran-based compatriots calling for regime change,” said Jason Brodsky, policy director of U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, in a VOA interview. “The regime and its agents fear the Iranian diaspora because of its organizing power, so they want to keep this U.S. voting activity as quiet as possible to prevent embarrassing situations in which their fellow Iranians denounce the election for the sham that it is,” Brodsky said. Soran Khateri of VOA’s Persian service contributed to this report. 

NOUAKCHOTT — Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani is on track to secure a second mandate after positioning the country as a strategic ally of the West in a region swept by coups and violence, provisional results showed on Sunday.    Ghazouani, who is seeking reelection on a pledge of providing security and economic growth, obtained 55% of votes, according to provisional results from over 80% polling stations, the country's independent electoral commission said on Sunday afternoon. His main rival, anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, received 22.4% of votes, the commission said, with a turnout of almost 55%.    The full results are expected on Sunday evening but Ghazouani, a former army chief and the current president of the African Union, has a comfortable lead.    Although his opponents accused him of corruption and mismanagement, he remains popular among Mauritanians who see him as a beacon of stability. The vote is taking place in a particularly tense regional climate, with Mauritania's neighbors shaken by military coups and jihadi violence.    Mauritania is rich in natural resources including iron ore, copper, zinc, phosphate, gold, oil and natural gas. It is poised to become a gas producer by the end of the year, with the planned launch of the BP-operated Greater Tortue Ahmeyin offshore gas project at the border with Senegal.    Yet almost 60% of the population lives in poverty, according to the United Nations, working as farmers or employed in the informal sector. With few economic opportunities for young people at home, many are attempting to reach Europe, and some are even trying to get to the United States through Mexico.    "The last word belongs to the Mauritanian voters," Ghazouni said after voting in Ksar, a suburb of the capital. "I commit myself to respecting their choice."    Saturday's vote unfolded peacefully, according to observers.    "Nothing has been detected so far and the CENI has not received any complaints," said Taghioullah Ledhem, the spokesman for CENI, the country's independent electoral commission. But some opposition candidates held a different view.    Biram Dah, who came second in the vote according to the provisional results, warned on Sunday against "an electoral coup d'état for the benefit of Ghazouani, who was defeated by voters."    During a press conference on Sunday morning, Biram accused the electoral commission of fraud by giving Ghazouni thousands of votes "added out of nowhere."    "We are going to oppose this electoral hold-up," he said. "I ask Ghazouani to respect his solemn commitment to comply with the will of the people."    

ATHENS — Greek firefighters were battling a wildfire south of Athens on Sunday amid strong winds, just hours after managing to contain blazes in a mountainous area also near the capital as well as on an island in the Aegean Sea. Dozens of firefighters, backed up by 17 water-carrying aircraft, fought to tame the new fire in a sparsely-populated area near the town of Keratea, some 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of Athens. Greek television showed at least one house in flames as smoke from burning pine and olive trees billowed into the sky. With hot, windy conditions across much of Greece, dozens of wildfires broke out over the weekend and authorities advised people to stay away from forested areas. Firefighters were still engaged on the island of Serifos where a fire had broken out amid low vegetation on Saturday and spread quickly, fanned by strong winds, damaging houses and prompting the evacuation of several hamlets. The wildfire, which at one point had raged across 15 kilometers (9.3 miles), damaged holiday homes and storehouses, the island's mayor, Kostas Revinthis, told Greek television. Another fire in the mountainous forest of Parnitha near a nature reserve just outside Athens had eased by Sunday morning, officials said. The strong winds are not expected to abate until later on Sunday, meteorologists said. Wildfires are common in the Mediterranean country but have become more devastating in recent years as summers have become hotter, drier and windier, which scientists link to the effects of climate change. After last summer's deadly forest fires and following its warmest winter on record, Greece developed a new doctrine, which includes deploying an extra fire engine to each new blaze, speeding up air support and clearing forests.