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MONTEVIDEO — Uruguayans take to the polls on Sunday in primary elections ahead of October's presidential race, in which th eleft-wing opposition is seen edging ahead according to opinion polls with voters concerned about rising inequality and public safety. Polls show voters cooling on the center-right coalition of President Luis Lacalle Pou, despite its successful steering of the farming economy of 3.4 million people through the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic setbacks following the war in Ukraine. Lacalle Pou, 50, has struggled to back up a pledge to tackle drug crime which is hurting Uruguay's reputation as a beacon of stability in turbulent South America. A perceived weakness of the welfare state and rising corruption has also hurt his party. That has seen the center-left Broad Front coalition, which ruled from 2004 to 2015, edge ahead of the main center-right parties, latest opinion polls showed. Uruguayan pollster Cifra predicts the Broad Front getting 47% support in May, some 15 points ahead of Lacalle Pou's National Party, the main force within the ruling coalition. The wider conservative bloc combined, though, would get around 43%. Around 10% remain undecided suggesting that October's presidential election will be tight. Whoever wins in general elections scheduled for Oct. 27, or more likely in a November runoff, will need to bring down high homicide rates, improve the social safety net, balance trade with major partner China and keep on track an economy that is expected to grow nearly 4% this year. Lacalle Pou remains popular but his cabinet has been rocked by accusations of political espionage and corruption. He himself cannot run for immediate re-election. Lacalle Pou narrowly won election in 2019 by forging a "multicolor coalition" including the centrist Colorado Party which his handpicked successor, Alvaro Delgado, plans to replicate. Delgado has pitched himself as the continuity candidate, having served as cabinet chief to the president, and is widely expected to secure the National Party nomination, polls show. Several presidential hopefuls for the smaller Colorado Party have said they would unite behind the National Party nominee to prevent the left from returning to power. The most contested leadership race is within the Broad Front opposition between two leftist city mayors. Yamandú Orsi, mayor of Uruguay's second largest region and a former teacher, is expected to beat Carolina Cosse, mayor of the capital Montevideo where almost half of the population live. Orsi's experience and public endorsement from former president José Mujica, an icon of the Latin American left, meant he was better placed to win the presidential nomination, analysts said. "Uruguay today is an insecure and unequal country," Orsi told Reuters ahead of the primary vote, pledging "a modern left" that will reverse damaging rates of "poverty and destitution". Polls open at 8 a.m. local time (1100 GMT) and close at 7:30 p.m., with first exit polls expected around 9pm.

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Kanyabayonga, DR Congo — The M23 militia group continued to gain ground in the war-torn east of DR Congo, with more towns falling into the hands of the rebels, sources told AFP Sunday.    Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of backing the Tutsi-led M23 rebel group which has seized swathes of eastern DR Congo in an ongoing offensive launched in 2021 — something Kigali denies.    On Sunday the M23 (March 23 Movement) moved into the town of Kirumba, in North Kivu province, which has been rocked by violence since 2021 when the group resumed its armed campaign in the region.     Kirumba is the biggest town in the south of the Lubero territory, where the group has been advancing, and a big commercial center with more than 120,000 residents.     "We regret that the large entity [the town] has since yesterday evening been in the hands of the M23," a local official, who did not wish to be named, told AFP on Sunday.    He said the group is now heading north from the town.    'They are numerous'  "They are numerous, some arrived on foot and others in vehicles," a civil society leader who asked to remain unnamed told AFP.    Another local official, who also said the rebels had arrived in the town, said they are "waiting for the government's reaction."   President Felix Tshisekedi held a meeting of DR Congo's defense council on Saturday.    During a speech to mark the country's independence day, Tshisekedi said "clear and firm instructions have been given for the safeguarding of the territorial integrity of our country", without giving more details.    On Saturday M23 seized the strategic town of Kanyabayonga, as other surrounding areas also fell into the hands of the rebels.    Kanyabayonga is home to more than 60,000 people and tens of thousands of people have fled there in recent months, driven from their homes by the advance of the rebels.     The town is considered a pathway to Butembo and Beni in the north, strongholds of the Nande tribe and major commercial centers.     It is in the Lubero territory, the fourth territory in the North Kivu province that the group has entered after Rutshuru, Nyiragongo and Masisi.    Other towns near Kanyabayonga have also been seized by M23, according to officials and security sources.    Five people including three civilians and two soldiers have been killed in the town of Kayna where the rebels took control on Saturday, Console Sindani vice president of Kayna civil society, told AFP on Sunday.    The mayor of the commune of Kayna, Clovis Kanyauru told AFP on Sunday there had been three deaths.    DR Congo's mineral-rich east has been the scene of violence for 30 years by armed groups, both local and foreign-based, going back to regional wars of the 1990s.   

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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.

Vienna, Austria — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Sunday announced he wanted to form a new EU parliament alliance, together with Austria's far-right party and the Czech centrist group of ex-premier Andrej Babis.   "We take on the responsibility to launch this new platform and new faction. I want to make it clear that this is our goal," the nationalist premier told reporters at a joint press conference with Austria's Freedom Party (FPOe) leader Herbert Kickl and Babis of ANO, calling for other parties' support.   The new alliance, presented as "Patriots for Europe", will need support from parties from four other countries to be recognized as a group in the EU parliament. "A new era begins here, and the first, perhaps decisive moment of this new era is the creation of a new European political faction that will change European politics," Orban said. The three men signed a "patriotic manifesto," promising "peace, security and development" instead of the "war, migration and stagnation" brought by the "Brussels elite," according to Orban. Hungary on Monday takes on the rotating six-month EU presidency. Under the presidency, the central European country has vowed to push for a "strong European policy" under the motto "Make Europe Great Again," a nod to Orban's "good friend" former US president Donald Trump. Orban's Fidesz was a member of the center-right European People's Party -- the European Parliament's biggest group -- until it quit in 2021 amid wrangling over accusations of Hungary's democratic backsliding. Kickl's FPOe is part of the Identity and Democracy grouping, which also includes France's National Rally and Italy's League. The centrist ANO movement of billionaire former prime minister and eurosceptic Babis announced last week it was leaving Renew Europe. The FPOe now has six MEPs, ANO seven and Fidesz 11, with all three parties strongest in their countries in EU elections in early June. 

Istanbul — For Iris Mozalar, a young transgender woman living in Istanbul, Pride Week is "more about resistance than celebration" under Turkey's conservative government, which is openly hostile towards the LGBTQ community. "Ours is a struggle to survive," the 24-year-old told AFP at her home in Istanbul where she studies urban planning and works as a DJ and model -- on the eve of the annual Pride celebration, which Turkey's government routinely bans. During his re-election campaign last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his allies turned the LGBTQ community into his favorite target, railing against them as "perverse" and a threat to traditional family values, with activists saying it triggered an upsurge in hostility towards them. "We are waging a struggle against the police, against the state security apparatus," said Mozalar, a willowy figure with long tawny hair, a serious air and an engaging smile. "That's why I can never look at (the Pride march) as a celebration, because frankly we don't have much to celebrate." Growing up in the southeastern coastal city of Mersin, she was bullied by peers and teachers who knew instinctively there was something different about her. She couldn't really explain it until one day when she was 17, she looked in the mirror and really saw herself for the first time. "I can never forget the moment when I stood naked in front of the mirror and admitted to myself: 'Yes, I am a woman'." Moving to Istanbul soon after, Mozalar started the process of transitioning -- an "incredibly difficult" process in Turkey, involving months of sessions with psychiatrists and endocrinologists as well as examinations and detailed reports by experts in genetics, gynecology, urology and plastic surgery. Only a court can approve gender affirming surgery, and after finally winning that, she began a year-long campaign to raise 90,000 Turkish lira for the operation -- at the time around 30 times her rent. The same operation today would cost up to 700,000 lira, she explained -- an "impossible" sum for most transgender people, who are often earning the minimum wage.   Despite the surgery, Mozalar still feels uncomfortable with parts of herself -- "my feet, the length of my hands" -- but has learned to see the beauty in her own body.    "It was something of an inner revolution to say: yes, I am beautiful." 'An incredible challenge' Although she has finally found peace with her identity, society remains largely hostile. "It is an incredible challenge to exist as a trans-woman in Turkey," she said.   "Istanbul is not an LGBTI+ friendly city -- there is no such city in Turkey," Mozalar said. Although there are some friendly neighborhoods, she rarely feels safe in the streets. "Some days I don't go to the grocery shop because I know I'll be harassed the moment I walk out the door. And I don't feel up to it. Most trans people are detached from normal social life," she told AFP, adding she only ever travels by taxi after nightfall. But night is also when she really comes alive, as a DJ. "I love DJing but it can be hard to deal with the men, so the places where I perform have to be LGBTQ and women friendly." And it's the same when she goes out at night, only going to places deemed friendly or "run by feminists" or socialists. Despite the difficulties, she isn't interested in leaving Turkey to seek asylum elsewhere. "I was born and raised in Turkey and I believe I have a job to do here," she says. "I hope that we will see the day when Pride in Turkey is no longer a rebellion but a celebration."

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CAIRO/GAZA — Israeli forces advanced further on Sunday into the Shejaia neighborhood of northern Gaza and also pushed deeper into western and central Rafah in the south, killing at least six Palestinians and destroying several homes, residents said. Israeli tanks, which moved back into Shejaia four days ago, fired shells towards several houses, leaving families trapped inside and unable to leave, the residents said. The Israeli military said forces operating in Shejaia had over the past day killed several Palestinian gunmen, located weapons, and struck military infrastructure. On Saturday it announced the death of two Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza. The armed wing of Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad reported fierce fighting in both Shejaia and Rafah, saying their fighters had fired anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs against Israeli forces operating there. More than eight months into Israel's air and ground war in Gaza, militants continue to stage attacks on Israeli forces, operating in areas that the Israeli army said it had gained control over months ago. Arab mediators' efforts, backed by the United States, have so far failed to secure a ceasefire. Hamas says any deal must end the war and bring a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007, is eradicated. Rafah death In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, Israeli tanks pushed deeper into several districts in the east, west and center of the city, and medics said six people had been killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Shaboura, in the heart of the city. The six bodies from the Zurub family were transferred to Nasser Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis. On Sunday, dozens of relatives paid their respects before the bodies, which were wrapped in white shrouds, and then carried them in their arms to prepared graves. Residents said the Israeli army had torched the Al-Awda mosque in the centre of Rafah, one of the city's best-known. Israel has said its military operations in Rafah are aimed at eradicating the last armed battalions of Hamas. The Israeli military said on Sunday its forces continued "targeted, intelligence-based" operations in Rafah, killing several gunmen in different encounters and dismantling tunnels. The latest Gaza war erupted when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's retaliatory offensive has so far killed nearly 38,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, and has left the heavily built-up coastal enclave in ruins. The Gaza health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants but officials say most of the dead are civilians. More than 300 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza and Israel says at least a third of the Palestinian dead are fighters.  

New Delhi — The death toll from this week's sudden heavy rain has climbed to 11 in New Delhi, including four citizens who drowned in submerged underpasses, the Times of India reported, while flight operations stuttered in the Indian capital.   New Delhi, which endured one of its worst heatwaves in history earlier this month, faced the biggest downpour in decades on June 28, with rainfall in a single day surpassing the city's average for the entire month.   The torrential rain caused a fatal roof collapse at one of the three terminals of Delhi's main airport, disrupted flights, flooded underpasses, and led to massive traffic jams, power and water outages in parts of the city.   Nearly 60 flights were cancelled from New Delhi's main airport in the last 24 hours, according to data from flight tracking platform Flightaware.   Operations were largely normal on Sunday, with most flights from the affected terminal diverted to the other two, an airport official said but did not rule out possible flight cancellations in the course of the day.   The Delhi airport is one of the country's biggest and busiest.   Terminal 1, the now-closed terminal, is mostly used by low-cost carriers IndiGo, operated by Interglobe Aviation INGL.NS, and SpiceJet, and currently has a capacity to handle 40 million passengers annually.   An Indigo spokesperson did not comment on the flight cancellations and a SpiceJet spokesperson did not immediately respond to a phone call. 

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GENEVA — Two people have died and a third is missing after torrential rains triggered a landslide in southeastern Switzerland, police said Sunday. Violent storms lashed the Alpine country with rain this weekend, with hundreds of people evacuated in the west after the Rhone River and its tributaries broke their banks. "The bodies of two people were found by rescuers in connection with the landslide in the Fontana region," police in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino said in a statement. According to local daily La Regione, the dead were two women who were on holiday in the region. Emergency services were assessing the best way to evacuate 300 people who had arrived for a football tournament in Peccia, while almost 70 more were being evacuated from a holiday camp in the village of Mogno. The poor weather was making rescue work particularly difficult, police had said earlier, with several valleys inaccessible and cut off from the electricity network. The federal alert system also said part of the canton was without drinking water. In the western canton of Valais, the civil security services said "several hundred" people were evacuated and roads closed after the Rhone overflowed in different locations. Extreme rainfall also struck southeastern Switzerland last weekend, leaving one dead and causing major damage. 

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GABORONE, Botswana — Violent extremist groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are growing in size and influence across Africa, fueling worries that as they improve their tactics they could attack the U.S. or Western allies. U.S. defense and military officials described the threats and their concerns about growing instability in Africa, where a number of coups have put ruling juntas in control, leading to the ouster of American troops and a decline in U.S. intelligence gathering. "Threats like Wagner, terrorist groups and transnational criminal organizations continue to sow instability in multiple regions," Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in opening remarks Tuesday at a conference of African chiefs of defense in Botswana. "I think we can all agree, what happens in one part of the world, does not stay in one part of the world." Wagner is the Russian mercenary group that has gone into African nations to provide security as Western forces, including from the U.S. and France, have been pushed out. The group is known for its brutality, and human rights organizations have accused its members of raping and killing civilians. While Brown only touched briefly on the terror threat in the region, it was a key topic among others at the conference and spurred questions from military chiefs in the audience after his speech. They wanted to know what the U.S. could do to help stem the spread of insurgents in West Africa, the Gulf of Guinea and the Sahel. This is the first time that the chiefs of defense conference has been held on African soil. And it is the first time the U.S. joint chiefs chairman has visited a sub-Saharan country since 1994, when Gen. John Shalikashvili visited Rwanda and Zaire. A senior U.S. defense official said al-Qaida linked groups — such as al-Shabab in Somalia and Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, known as JNIM, in the Sahel region — are the largest and most financially viable insurgencies. JNIM is active in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and is looking to expand into Benin and Togo, which it uses as hubs to rest, recuperate, get financing and gather weapons but also has increased attacks there. At the same time, the Islamic State group has key cells in West Africa and in the Sahel. The defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a threat assessment, said the Islamic State cells were getting increasing direction from the group's leadership that relocated to northern Somalia. That has included how to kidnap Westerners for ransom, how to learn better military tactics, how to hide from drones and how to building their own small quadcopters. A U.S. military airstrike in Somalia on May 31 targeted Islamic State militants and killed three, according to U.S. Africa Command. U.S. officials have said the strike targeted the group's leader, but the defense official said Monday that it's still unclear if he was killed. Roughly 200 Islamic State insurgents are in Somalia, so they are vastly outnumbered by al-Shabab, which has grown in size to between 10,000 and 12,000. The growth of the insurgent groups within Africa signals the belief by both al-Qaida and the Islamic State group that the continent is a ripe location for jihadism, where extremist ideology can take root and expand, the official said. And it comes as the U.S. was ordered to pull out its 1,000 troops from Niger in the wake of last July's coup and also about 75 from Chad. Those troop cuts, which shut down a critical U.S. counterterrorism and drone base at Agadez, hamper intelligence gathering in Niger, said Gen. Michael Langley, head of U.S. Africa Command. Surveillance operations before the coup gave the U.S. a greater ability to get intelligence on insurgent movements. Now, he said, the key goal is a safe and secure withdrawal of personnel and equipment from both Agadez and a smaller U.S. facility near the airport. Langley met with Niger's top military chief, Brig. Gen. Moussa Salaou Barmou, during the conference, and said military-to-military communications continue but that it's yet to be determined how much the new transitional government will deal with the U.S. Currently, he said, there are about 400 troops still at Agadez and 200 near the airport. But, he added that "as we're in transition and resetting, we need to maintain capabilities to get enough intelligence to identify warnings of a threat out there." Langley said the U.S. is still trying to assess the militant groups' capabilities as they grow. "Yes, they've been growing in number. Have they been growing in capability where they can do what we call external ops attacks on the homeland and attacks on allies, whether we're talking about Europe or anyone? That's what we closely watch," he said. "I'd say it has the potential as they grow in numbers." Both Langley and Brown spoke more extensively about the need for the U.S. and African nations to communicate more effectively and work together to solve security and other problems. And Brown acknowledged that the U.S. needs to "do better at understanding the perspectives of others, ensuring their voices and expertise don't get drowned out." The U.S has struggled to maintain relations with African nations as many foster growing ties to Russia and China. Some African countries have expressed frustration with the U.S. for forcing issues, such as democracy and human rights, that many see as hypocrisy, given Washington's close ties to some autocratic leaders elsewhere. Meanwhile, Russia offers security assistance without interfering in politics, making it an appealing partner for military juntas that seized power in places like Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in recent years.

JERUSALEM — Israel's Supreme Court unanimously ordered the government to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the army — a landmark ruling seeking to end a system that has allowed them to avoid enlistment into compulsory military service. Roughly 1.3 million ultra-Orthodox Jews make up about 13% of Israel's population and oppose enlistment because they believe studying full time in religious seminaries is their most important duty. An enlistment exemption for the ultra-Orthodox goes back to the founding of Israel in 1948, when small numbers of gifted scholars were exempt from the draft. But with a push from politically powerful religious parties, those numbers have swelled over the decades. The court said the exemptions were illegal in 2017, but repeated extensions and government delay tactics have prevented a replacement law from being passed.  Two parties belonging to the Haredim, or "god-fearing" in Hebrew, are essential parts of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fragile coalition, but the broad exemptions from mandatory military service have reopened a deep divide in the country and infuriated much of the general public during the war in Gaza. More than 600 soldiers have been killed since Hamas' October 7 attack. Many reserve soldiers are starting their second tour of duty. What does the ruling mean for Netanyahu's government? Netanyahu's coalition holds a slim majority of 64 seats in the 120-member parliament, often requiring him to capitulate to the demands of smaller parties like the ultra-Orthodox. If those parties leave the government, the country would likely be forced into new elections this fall. Netanyahu's popularity is low as the war in Gaza drags into its ninth month.  Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf heads one of the ultra-Orthodox parties in Netanyahu's coalition. In a post on X, Goldknopf called the Supreme Court's ruling "very unfortunate and disappointing," but did not say whether his party would leave the government. The chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri, denounced the ruling and said religious study was "our secret weapon against all enemies." The court this year temporarily froze state subsidies for seminaries where exempted ultra-Orthodox men study. Along with the enlistment decision, the court also ruled Tuesday that that money should be permanently suspended. Many religious seminaries depend on government funding and "the general assumption is that the government will not survive this crisis," said Barak Medina, a law professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an expert on constitutional law. What did the courts rule? Military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women, who serve three and two years, respectively, in active duty, as well as reserve duty until around age 40. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that compulsory military service applies to the ultra-Orthodox just like any other Israeli. The judges said that allowing a certain community a "sweeping avoidance" of service amounted to discrimination. "Discrimination regarding the most precious thing of all – life itself – is the worst kind," the justices wrote in their opinion. In 2017, the Supreme Court struck down a law that codified draft exemptions. Repeated extensions of the law and government tactics to delay a replacement law have dragged on for years. Israel's judiciary plays a large role in checking the government's executive power. Netanyahu attempted to overhaul the judiciary last year, spurring massive protests across the country before a major part of the overhaul was struck down. When will this go into effect? It will be challenging for the army integrate a larger number of ultra-Orthodox deeply opposed to service into its ranks. Among Israel's Jewish majority, mandatory military service is largely seen as a melting pot and a rite of passage. The ultra-Orthodox say that integrating into the army will threaten their generations-old way of life, and that their devout lifestyle and dedication to upholding the Jewish commandments protect Israel as much as a strong army does. The courts did not set numbers for enlistment in their ruling, but Israel's attorney general's office suggested that at least 3,000 ultra-Orthodox soldiers enlist in the coming year. The court said in its ruling that some 63,000 ultra-Orthodox students are eligible for enlistment. For decades, the army has attempted to accommodate ultra-Orthodox soldiers by creating separate units that allow them to maintain religious practices, including minimizing interaction with women. One of the units created for this purpose, Netzah Yehudah, faced possible U.S. sanctions over their treatment of Palestinians, though the U.S. eventually decided not to impose sanctions. What impact will this have on the war in Gaza? The ruling will have little immediate effect on the war in Gaza, where more than 37,600 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The number of ultra-Orthodox who might enlist because of the ruling is too small to have a significant impact on day-to-day fighting. Medina, the law professor, said that if the ruling topples the government, it could give Netanyahu more leeway to reach a deal for a cease-fire that could end the war in Gaza. "Currently, one of the main reasons he's prevented from reaching an agreement for the end of the war is because it will mean the end of his coalition," said Medina. If the ultra-Orthodox parties leave the coalition, Netanyahu has "nothing to lose," he said. And that could lead to a change in policy without the pressure from far-right ministers opposed to any kind of cease-fire. Netanyahu will also be under a lot of pressure to wrap up fighting if early elections are called, to avoid going into the elections without the hostages and while a war is still ongoing, Medina said.