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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.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia — Mongolians voted 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. People across the vast, sparsely populated nation of 3.4 million, sandwiched between China and Russia, are voting to elect 126 members of the State Great Khural. Polls opened at 7 am local time (2300 GMT Thursday) and will close at 10 pm, with preliminary results expected later in the night. Tsagaantsooj Dulamsuren, a 36-year-old cashier pregnant with her fourth child, told AFP that Friday's poll offered her a chance to "give power to the candidates you really want to support". "I want lawmakers to provide more infrastructure development... and more jobs in the manufacturing industry for young people," she said outside a polling station at a hospital near the capital Ulaanbaatar. 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 country for another four years. They say the party can credit much of its success to a bonanza over the past decade in coal mining that fuelled double-digit growth and dramatically improved standards of living, as well as a formidable party machine and a weak, fractured opposition. 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 belief that the proceeds of the coal-mining boom are being hoarded by a wealthy elite -- a view that has sparked frequent protests. Broad spectrum Preliminary results are expected to come within a few hours of polls closing despite Mongolia's vast size, thanks to assistance from 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. Parties are required by law to ensure that 30 percent of their candidates are women in a country where politics is dominated by men. Long lines snaked around corridors at a polling station in a school in downtown Ulaanbaatar, with many voters wearing traditional clothing. Oyun-Erdene also voted in a kindergarten in Ulaanbaatar, an AFP reporter saw. The prime minister told local TV after casting his ballot that he hoped Friday's vote would "open a new page of trust and cooperation between the state and citizens". However, many younger, urban voters are not convinced by the MPP's pitch, while the failure of the established opposition Democratic Party to provide a credible alternative has helped fuel the rise of minor parties. Batsaikan Battseren, a 45-year-old community leader dressed in traditional Mongolian deel clothing, said he was urging people to vote. "Our area's average participation is 60 percent," the former herder said at a polling station in rural Sergelen, an administrative division more than an hour's drive from the capital. However, "young people from 18 to 30 years old don't go to vote", he said. 'Social contract' Mongolia has plummeted in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index under Oyun-Erdene's premiership. It has also fallen in press freedom rankings and campaigners say there has been a notable decline in the rule of law. Some fear that, should it win a new mandate, the ruling party will tighten Oyun-Erdene's grip on power and erode the democratic freedoms of ordinary Mongolians. "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. The MPP is the successor to the communist party that ruled Mongolia with an iron grip for almost 70 years. It remains popular, particularly among rural, older voters, and commands a sprawling, nationwide campaign apparatus. "Their appeal is 'look, we've done well, we've managed well'," Julian Dierkes, a professor at the University of British Columbia and an expert on Mongolian politics, told AFP. He said concern about corruption was widespread, even though "there's no real distinction" among the opposition parties. "The extent to which that'll resonate with voters, we'll know tonight sometime. It's really hard to guess," Dierkes said.

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Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories — Israel's military on Friday said it was conducting raids backed by air strikes in northern Gaza, killing "dozens" of militants in an area where it had declared the command structure of Hamas dismantled months ago. The operation in Shujaiya, on the edge of Gaza City, caused numerous casualties, witnesses and medics said on Thursday when it began. Renewed fighting in Gaza's north followed comments on Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said the "intense phase" of the war was winding down after almost nine months. Experts say they foresee a potentially prolonged next phase. Omer Dostri, a military expert at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, said he expects the army to reduce its ground presence and to increasingly use drones and fighter jets "to further dismantle Hamas." On Friday in the Shujaiya area an AFP correspondent witnessed an air strike and saw smoke rising. Artillery fire boomed. In a statement, Israel's military said that, overnight Thursday, troops "started to conduct targeted raids" in the Shujaiya area as part of an operation that began earlier in the day. Intelligence had indicated "the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure in the area of Shujaiya," the military said, in its first details of the operation. 'Significant strikes'  As troops went in, warplanes struck dozens of Hamas targets, it said, following other "significant" strikes that killed "dozens" of militants in the north. On Thursday a military spokesman told residents and displaced Gazans, in a social media message, to leave "for your safety." They were asked to head south, to a declared "humanitarian zone" about 25 kilometers away. An AFP photographer saw many Palestinians leaving on foot, carrying their belongings through rubble-strewn streets. Hamas said Israeli forces were "starting a ground incursion," reporting "several" dead as "thousands flee under relentless bombing." The war started with Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. The militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 42 are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,765 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. On Friday the military announced the death of another soldier, aged 19, during combat in southern Gaza. This brings to 314 the number killed since ground operations began in the territory. Elsewhere in the coastal strip, paramedics on Friday reported three people killed in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. AFP images showed the municipal building had been destroyed. Colleagues prayed over the bodies of four civil defense volunteers killed during bombardment of the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp, other AFP images showed. Orange work vests lay on top of their white-shrouded bodies. Witnesses on Friday reported artillery fire in Nuseirat. 'Milestone'  Fighting in Gaza comes alongside growing fears of a wider regional conflagration involving Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. The two sides have engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire since the war in Gaza began. Such exchanges have escalated this month. U.S. officials have voiced hope a Gaza cease-fire could also lead to a reduction in hostilities on Israel's northern border, but months of on-off mediation, also involving Egypt and Qatar, have not brought a deal. On Thursday, Hezbollah said it fired "dozens" of rockets at a military base in northern Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Lebanon. Hezbollah said four of its fighters had been killed. Israel's military said air strikes killed three Hezbollah operatives. In Gaza, most of the population has been uprooted and much of the territory's infrastructure has been destroyed, leaving residents struggling to survive. A UN-backed assessment this week said almost half a million people in Gaza are still experiencing "catastrophic" hunger. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, on its website, says it was created "precisely to supersede potential political interferences through technical neutrality," and that its parameters are based on international standards. An Israeli government spokesman dismissed the report, partly because "it's based upon data from Hamas's own health institutions." UNICEF, the UN children's fund, said Thursday that Israel had agreed to restore power to a desalination plant in southern Gaza. The "important milestone" could provide much-needed water to a million displaced people, it said. In another hopeful development, 21 cancer patients left Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing for treatment in the United Arab Emirates, a medical source in Egypt said. Netanyahu's announcement that intense fighting is winding down comes with his right-wing coalition under a range of pressures. Thousands of protesters again gathered in front of his Jerusalem residence on Thursday to call for a hostage release deal, an AFP reporter said. In the Tel Aviv area, mounted police dispersed ultra-Orthodox men protesting a Supreme Court ruling that they must be drafted for military service.

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.

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.

Kyiv, Ukraine — Lacking sufficient anti-aircraft systems to repel Russia's unrelenting attacks, Ukraine is pushing its European allies to establish a no-fly zone in the west of the country by deploying air defense systems in neighboring Poland and Romania, officials told AFP. Kyiv would like to create a safe space in western Ukraine where industry, energy infrastructure and civilians can be protected against the massive destruction unleashed by Russian strikes in recent months. "I don't understand why NATO doesn't deploy Patriot systems along the Polish border," said lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko, referring to U.S.-manufactured air defense systems. "After all, Russian missiles have already entered Polish and Romanian airspace. This would protect the borders of Poland and Romania, and this would create a safe zone in the west and south of Ukraine," he added. That request was mirrored by several Ukrainian civilian and military officials who spoke to AFP in Kyiv during a trip organized last week by the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) and local think tank New Europe Center. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba opened the debate in May, saying there was "no legal, security or moral argument that stands in the way of our partners shooting down Russian missiles over the territory of Ukraine from their territory." President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spent months pushing for more air defenses from his Western partners, but fresh supplies have only trickled in. Recent victories for Kyiv include Romania's promise of a Patriot missile defense system, and the United States has said it will prioritize sales of anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine for the next 16 months to allow it to replenish its stocks. But time is running out for Ukraine, which has seen half its national electricity production capacity destroyed in recent months. Every week, Russian missiles and drones strike the energy network, causing daily power outages that affect almost the entire population. Critical energy situation Russia focused on shelling Ukraine's energy distribution networks during the winter of 2022-23, but has recently been destroying energy production facilities, which are much more costly and take years to repair or rebuild. Moscow is also targeting the country's energy reserves. A European diplomatic source says Russian determination was underlined when it struck a facility storing gas 3 kilometers underground in the west of Ukraine. "In the energy sector, the situation is really hard," said a senior Ukrainian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding he fears it will deteriorate further as winter approaches. The official said talks were "in progress" with Western allies on a no-fly zone over western Ukraine using Patriot systems in Poland or Romania, "but that is not a simple decision." Western countries have been highly cautious about any moves that could lead to direct clashes with Russian forces and drag them into a wider war, which "makes this process slow and silent," the official said. But the subject could be discussed at the next NATO summit in Washington in early July, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna. "We are doing everything we can to mobilize enough air defense elements to allow us to continue to be functional throughout the war," she told AFP. Kyiv does not expect any progress towards joining NATO, however, with Washington and Berlin still strongly opposed for fear of further antagonizing Russia. "The chances of getting an invitation are close to zero," said a Ukrainian diplomatic source. But he said that Ukraine's allies felt a "sense of guilt" about this, which plays into Kyiv's hands. That "puts pressure on our allies," he said, to make "other strong decisions as alternatives."

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.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranians started voting on Friday for a new president following the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, choosing from a tightly controlled group of four candidates loyal to the supreme leader, at a time of growing public frustration. Polls opened at 8 a.m. (0430 GMT) and close at 6 p.m. (1430 GMT) but are usually extended as late as midnight. The election coincides with escalating regional tension due to war between Israel and Iranian allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as increased Western pressure on Iran over its fast-advancing nuclear program. While the election is unlikely to bring a major shift in the Islamic Republic's policies, its outcome could influence the succession to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's 85-year-old supreme leader, in power since 1989. Khamenei called for a high turnout to offset a legitimacy crisis fueled by public discontent over economic hardship and curbs on political and social freedom. "The durability, strength, dignity and reputation of the Islamic Republic depend on the presence of people," Khamenei told state television after casting his vote. "High turnout is a definite necessity." Voter turnout has plunged over the past four years, as a mostly youthful population chafes at political and social curbs. Manual counting of ballots means the final result is expected to be announced only in two days, though initial figures may come out sooner. If no candidate wins at least 50% plus one vote from all ballots cast, including blank votes, a run-off round between the top two candidates is held on the first Friday after the election result is declared. Three candidates are hardliners and one is a low-profile comparative moderate, backed by the reformist faction that has largely been sidelined in Iran in recent years. Critics of Iran's clerical rule say the low and declining turnout of recent elections shows the system's legitimacy has eroded. Just 48% of voters participated in the 2021 election that brought Raisi to power, and turnout hit a record low of 41% in a parliamentary election three months ago. The next president is not expected to usher in any major policy shift on Iran's nuclear program or support for militia groups across the Middle East, since Khamenei calls all the shots on top state matters. However, the president runs the government day-to-day and can influence the tone of Iran's foreign and domestic policy. A hardline watchdog body made up of six clerics and six jurists aligned with Khamenei vets candidates. It approved just six from an initial pool of 80. Two hardline candidates subsequently dropped out. Prominent among the remaining hardliners are Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, parliament speaker and former commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, and Saeed Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator who served for four years in Khamenei's office. The sole comparative moderate, Massoud Pezeshkian, is faithful to Iran's theocratic rule, but advocates detente with the West, economic reform, social liberalization and political pluralism. His chances hinge on reviving the enthusiasm of reform-minded voters who have largely stayed away from the polls for the last four years after previous pragmatist presidents brought little change. He could also benefit from his rivals' failure to consolidate the hardline vote. All four candidates have vowed to revive the flagging economy, beset by mismanagement, state corruption and sanctions reimposed since 2018, after the United States ditched Tehran's 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers. In the past few weeks, Iranians have made wide use of the hashtag #ElectionCircus on X, with some activists at home and abroad calling for an election boycott, saying a high turnout would legitimize the Islamic Republic. 

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.

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.

PROVIDENCE, Guyana — India thumped defending champion England by 68 runs to reach the final of the Twenty20 World Cup on Thursday. India will face South Africa on Saturday at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados in a battle of the two unbeaten teams of the tournament. Captain Rohit Sharma's (57) second half-century helped India compile 171-7 and Suryakumar Yadav also blunted the England pace and spin with a vital knock of 47 off 36 balls after more than 2-1/2 hours of second semifinal was lost due to rain and wet outfield. Spinners Axar Patel and the Kuldeep Yadav then combined in for 6-42 through some sharp turners as England got bowled out for 103 in 16.3 overs on a skiddy, low pitch devoid of grass to bow out of the tournament. "If bowlers and batters adapt, things fall in place," a beaming Sharma said. "Axar and Kuldeep are gun spinners. (It was) tough to play shots against them in these conditions (and) they were calm under pressure." Captain Jos Buttler smashed four boundaries in his 23 off 15 balls, but once he top-edged reverse sweep off left-arm spinner Patel's first ball inside the power play and lobbed a simplest of catches to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, England kept on losing wickets with regular intervals. "I've bowled in the powerplay in the past many times," Patel said after being adjudged player of the semifinal. "Knew the wicket was assisting and didn't try too many things." England had collapsed to 88-9 when Liam Livingstone and Adil Rashid both got run out but Jofra Archer hit 21 off 15 balls before Jasprit Bumrah (2-12) finished off England by having Archer leg before wicket. The win was sweet revenge for India, which got hammered by England by 10 wickets in the 2022 World Cup semifinal at Adelaide, Australia. "India outplayed us," Buttler said. "We let them get 20-25 runs too many on a challenging surface … they had an above-par total and it was always a tough chase." Earlier, Sharma and Yadav combined in a 73-run third wicket stand on a wicket where batters struggled to negotiate the variable bounce of pace and spin. Virat Kohli's below-par tournament continued after a wet outfield delayed the toss for 80 minutes and Buttler won the toss and elected to field. Kohli took his run tally to disappointing 75 runs in seven games with run-a-ball knock of nine before Reece Topley cramped him for a big shot and hit the top of leg stump. "We understand his (Kohli's) class," Sharma said in defense of his ace batter. "Form is never a problem when you've played for 15 years, probably saving for the final." Sharma continued his sublime form in the tournament on difficult pitches and countercharged on a yet another tough wicket for batters before heavy rain took the players off the field for another 73 minutes when India had reached 65-2 after eight overs. Sharma reached his 50 after resumption of play with a swept six over fine leg off Sam Curran, and Yadav hammered the left-arm fast bowler to point for a six before both exited in successive overs. Sharma was undone by a googly from Adil Rashid (1-25) in his last over and was clean bowled, while Yadav was deceived by Archer's slower ball and ballooned a catch to long off. Chris Jordan picked up 3-37 that included the wickets of Hardik Pandya (23) and Shivam Dube off successive balls, but India had piled up enough runs for its spinners to defend.

U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump take the debate stage in Atlanta. It’s the first debate of this election cycle and the third between Biden and Trump. We talk to political strategist Matt Klink about how it went for both candidates. Supporters of Bolivia’s president were rallying outside his palace as authorities made more arrests in a failed coup. And Paris 2024 on Thursday unveiled its merchandise 'megastore' on the Champs Elysees. It boasts 300 different products from mascots to T-shirts to miniature Eiffel Towers.

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.