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Tehran, Iran — Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian will be sworn in before parliament in early August as the Islamic Republic's ninth president, state media reported Sunday.   "The swearing-in ceremony of the president will be held on August 4 or 5," said the official IRNA news agency, quoting Mojtaba Yosefi, a member of parliament's presiding board. "The president will have 15 days to present his proposed ministers to the parliament for a vote of confidence." Iranian presidents-elect are required to take an oath before parliament before officially taking office.   The swearing-in ceremony takes place after the president-elect receives an official endorsement by the Islamic Republic's supreme leader.   Iran's president is not the head of state, and the ultimate authority rests with the supreme leader — a post held by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the last 35 years. Pezeshkian won a runoff election Friday against the ultraconservative Saeed Jalili to replace President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash in May. The 69-year-old reformist secured more than 16 million votes, around 54%, with Jalili winning more than 13 million, roughly 44%, out of about 30 million votes cast.   Turnout was 49.8%, Mohsen Eslami, an election spokesperson added, up from a record low of about 40% in the first round. On Sunday, Iranian newspapers published front-page photos of Pezeshkian and called for "unity" under the president-elect.

Dubail, UAE — An outspoken Iranian lawyer who has publicly criticized how the government handled the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini has been arrested, state media reported Sunday. The unrest followed the death of the 22-year-old detained by the police for allegedly not properly wearing her mandatory hijab. The massive protests quickly escalated into calls to overthrow Iran’s four-decade Islamic theocracy. The judiciary’s Mizan news agency said Sunday that Mohsen Borhani had been previously sentenced but did not give further details on his case or jail time. Borhani, also a university professor, became popular on social media for his critical views of the Iranian government during the 2022 demonstrations that shook the Islamic Republic and sparked a security crackdown that killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained. U.N. investigators said Iran was responsible for the physical violence that led to Amini's death. The lawyer's arrest came a day after reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian was elected to lead the country. Pezeshkian promised to ease enforcement of the country’s mandatory headscarf law and reach out to the West after years of sanctions and protests squeezing 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.

New York — After a historically bad first half of the year, the box office is suddenly booming. “Despicable Me 4,” the Illumination Animation sequel, led the way over the holiday weekend with $75 million in ticket sales Friday through Sunday and $122.6 million since opening Wednesday, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Independence Day holiday weekend haul for the Universal Pictures' release further extends the considerable box-office reign of the Minions, arguably the most bankable force in movies today. And it also kept a summer streak going for Hollywood. Though overall ticket sales were down more than 40% from levels prior to the COVID 19 pandemic, heading into the summer moviegoing season, theaters have lately seen a succession of hits. After Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” outperformed expectations, Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” rapidly cleared $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide, making it the first release since “Barbie” to reach that mark. Last weekend, the Paramount prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One” also came in above expectations. With “Deadpool & Wolverine” tracking for a $160 million launch later this month, Hollywood’s summer is looking up. “If you look at the mood of the industry about eight weeks ago, very different than today,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “The song says what a difference a day makes. What a difference a month has made.” It helps to have the Minions at your disposal. Since first debuting in the 2010 original “Despicable Me,” each entry of the franchise — including two sequels and two “Minions” spinoffs — has seemingly guaranteed to gross around $1 billion. The four previous movies all made between $939 million (2022’s “Minions: Rise of Gru”) and $1.26 billion (2015’s “Minions”) globally. That run has helped give Illumination founder and chief executive Chris Meledandri one of the most enviable track records in Hollywood. “Despicable Me 4,” directed by Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage, returns the voice cast led by Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig and doubles down on more Minion mayhem. Reviews (54% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) weren’t particularly good for the latest installment, which includes a witness protection plot and a group of Minions transformed into a superhero squadron. But in their 12-year run, little has slowed down the Minions. “This is one of the most beloved franchises, quite frankly, in the history of film, and certainly animation,” said Jim Orr, distribution chief for Universal. “Chris Meledandri and Illumination have their finger on the pulse of what families and audiences around the world want to see.” Family movies are powering the box office. “Despicable Me 4” performed strongly despite the still considerable drawing power of “Inside Out 2.” In its fourth weekend of release, the Pixar sequel added another $30 million domestically and $78.3 million overseas. “Inside Out 2,” with $1.22 billion in ticket sales thus far, is easily the year’s biggest hit and fast climbing up the all-time ranks for animated releases. It currently ranks as the No. 5 animated release worldwide. Instead of cannibalizing the opening weekend for “Despicable Me 4,” “Inside Out 2” may have helped get families back in the habit of heading to theaters. “What happened, I think, is the release calendar finally settled into a nice rhythm,” said Dergarabedian, referencing the jumbled movie schedule from last year’s strikes. “It’s all about momentum.” The continued strong sales for “Inside Out 2” were enough to put the film in second place for the domestic weekend. Last week’s top new film, “A Quiet Place: Day One,” slid to third with $21 million in its second weekend, with another $21.1 million from overseas theaters. That was a steep decrease of 60%, though the Paramount prequel has amassed $178.2 million worldwide in two weeks. The run of hits has caused some studios to boost their forecasts for the summer movie season. Heading into the most lucrative season at theaters, analysts were predicting a $3 billion summer, down from the more typical $4 billion mark. Now, closer to $3.4 billion appears likely. The weekend’s other top new release was Ti West’s “MaXXXine,” the third in a string of slasher films from A24 starring Mia Goth. In 2,450 locations, “MaXXXine” collected $6.7 million in ticket sales, a franchise best. The film, which follows “X” and “Pearl” (both released in 2022), stars Goth as a 1980s Hollywood starlet being hunted by a killer known as the Night Stalker. Angel Studios, which last year released the unexpected summer hit “Sound of Freedom,” struggled to find the same success with its latest Christian film, “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot.” It debuted with $3.2 million. Kevin Costner’s big-budget gamble, “Horizon: An American Saga,” didn’t do much to turn around its fortunes in its second weekend. The first chapter in what Costner hopes will be a four-part franchise – including a chapter two Warner Bros. will release in August – earned $5.5 million in its second weekend. The film, which cost more than $100 million to make, has grossed $22.2 million in two weeks. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday. 1. “Despicable Me 4,” $75 million. 2. “Inside Out 2,” $30 million. 3. “A Quiet Place Day One,” $21 million. 4. “MaXXXine,” $6.7 million. 5. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” $6.5 million. 6. “Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1,” $5.5 million. 7. “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot,” $3.2 million. 8. “Kaiki 2898,” $1.8 million. 9. “The Bikeriders,” $1.3 million. 10. “Kinds of Kindness,” $860,000.

In Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, an Italian expatriate runs a rather unique business for a foreigner, selling grilled pork, a highly appreciated dish. Gildas Da has the story narrated by Arzouma Kampaore.

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.

A young Frenchman who settled in Senegal a little over a year ago decided to master the local Wolof language. Now he’s teaching it to other people on social media. Allison Fernandes has the story, narrated by Michelle Joseph.

As the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza entered its ninth month Sunday, the Palestinian militant group said it is waiting for an Israeli response after dropping a key demand in its response to a U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the story.

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.

ABUJA — A West African leaders' summit opened amid political turmoil Sunday after the military rulers of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso cemented a breakaway union at a rival meeting.  The three countries announced they were forming a new confederation, and their defiant first gathering on the eve of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) summit marked another test for the regional bloc they split from earlier this year.  ECOWAS is already wrestling with sweeping jihadi violence, financial trouble and the challenges of mustering a regional force.  It was not clear how the fractured bloc would respond after Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso adopted a treaty establishing a "Confederation of Sahel States" in Niamey on Saturday.  But ECOWAS Commission chief Omar Alieu Touray said the three countries risked "political isolation" and losing millions of dollars in investments.  The break would also worsen insecurity and hamper the work of the long-proposed regional force, he said before the bloc began a closed-door session in Nigeria's capital Abuja.  "Our region is facing the risk of disintegration," he warned.  Backs turned  The juntas in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso came to power in a series of coups over recent years and announced their joint departure from ECOWAS in January.  They have shifted away from former colonial ruler France and expelled French troops, with Niger's General Abdourahamane Tiani calling for the establishment of a "community far removed from the stranglehold of foreign powers."  "Our people have irrevocably turned their backs on ECOWAS," Tiani said Saturday, rebuffing the bloc's pleas to come back into the fold.  The Sahel countries' ECOWAS exit was fueled in part by their accusation that Paris was manipulating the bloc and not providing enough support for anti-jihadi efforts.   Several West African leaders have called for the resumption of dialogue and Sunday's summit was the first for Senegal's new President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who said in May that reconciliation was possible.   Niger's ties with ECOWAS deteriorated following the July 2023 coup that brought Tiani to power, when the bloc imposed sanctions and threatened to intervene militarily to restore ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.   The sanctions were lifted in February, but relations remain bitter.  Military force  Ahead of the ECOWAS summit, defense and finance ministers have been looking into funding a "regional force to combat terrorism and restore constitutional order," according to the ECOWAS Commission.  It has called for the establishment of an initial 1,500-strong unit, and one proposal was to then muster a brigade of 5,000 soldiers at a cost of around $2.6 billion a year.  ECOWAS has launched military interventions in the past, but its threat of doing so after the coup in Niger fizzled out.   As the bloc grapples with regional challenges, Touray warned it was facing a "dire financial situation."  There were also reports of a rift over the possible reappointment of Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as ECOWAS chair.  Media adviser to the Nigerian president Bayo Onanuga told AFP that "while some countries want him to remain because the region has faced some crisis, the Francophone countries want the seat."  Several French-speaking countries sent their foreign ministers to Sunday's summit instead of their leaders.  Benin's foreign minister told AFP that President Patrice Talon would not be attending "for scheduling reasons" and denied a dispute, saying that Talon support Tinubu's reappointment. 

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.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Powerful winds and rain approached Texas Sunday morning as Beryl was expected to turn back from a tropical storm into a hurricane overnight and pound a long stretch of coast with heavy downpours, howling gusts and dangerous storm surge. A long stretch of Texas' shoreline was under a hurricane warning as Beryl's outer bands were forecast to begin lashing the coast Sunday. Landfall was expected early Monday and officials in several coastal counties issued voluntary evacuation orders while urging tourists along the beach for the Fourth of the July holiday to leave. The earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean earlier in the week. The storm has tipped doors, windows and roofs off homes with devastating winds and storm surge fueled by the Atlantic's record warmth. "We're seeing the outer bands of Beryl approach the Texas coast now and the weather should be going downhill especially this afternoon and evening," Eric Blake, a senior hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center, said Sunday morning. "People should definitely be in their safe space by nightfall and we're expecting the hurricane to make landfall somewhere in the middle Texas coast overnight." Texas officials warned people along the entire coastline to prepare for possible flooding, heavy rain and wind. The hurricane warning extended from Baffin Bay, south of Corpus Christi, to Sargent, south of Houston. In Corpus Christi, officials asked visitors to cut their trips short and return home early if possible. Residents were advised to secure homes by boarding up windows if necessary and using sandbags to guard against possible flooding. Traffic has been nonstop for the past three days at an Ace Hardware in the city as customers buy tarps, rope, duct tape, sandbags and generators, employee Elizabeth Landry said Saturday. "They're just worried about the wind, the rain," she said. "They're wanting to prepare just in case." Ben Koutsoumbaris, general manager of Island Market on Corpus Christi's Padre Island, said there has been "definitely a lot of buzz about the incoming storm," with customers stocking up on food and drinks, particularly meat and beer. The White House said Sunday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had sent emergency responders, search-and-rescue teams, bottled water, and other resources along the coast. Some coastal cities called for voluntary evacuations in low-lying areas that are prone to flooding, banned beach camping and urged tourists traveling on the Fourth of July holiday weekend to move recreational vehicles from coastal parks. In Refugio County, north of Corpus Christi, officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for its 6,700 residents. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is traveling in Taiwan, issued a preemptive disaster declaration for 121 counties. "Beryl is a determined storm, and incoming winds and potential flooding will pose a serious threat to Texans who are in Beryl's path at landfall and as it makes its way across the state for the following 24 hours," Patrick said Saturday in a statement. Beryl earlier this week battered Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane, toppling trees but causing no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm as it moved across the Yucatan Peninsula. Before hitting Mexico, Beryl wrought destruction in Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Barbados. Three people were reported dead in Grenada, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela and two in Jamaica.

Islamabad — Taliban security forces in Afghanistan claimed Sunday that they had killed a key Islamic State commander in an eastern province bordering Pakistan.    An official Taliban media outlet reported that counter-terrorism forces in Nangarhar had raided a hideout of Islamic State Khorasan, also known as IS-K, an Afghan-based affiliate of the transnational extremist group.    The Al-Mersaad outlet said that Sunday’s action had resulted in the killing of “Zakirullah … known as Abu Sher” and identified him as IS Khorasan’s military leader for the border province’s Achin district.     The media report said “Taliban special forces” had concluded the operation in the Mohmand Dara district.     It was not possible to verify Al-Mersaad’s claims from independent sources, nor have Taliban government officials commented on the operation in a province where IS Khorasan launched its extremist activities in Afghanistan and the region at large in 2015, with Achin as its headquarters.     The Taliban returned to power in 2021 when all the United States-led NATO forces withdrew from the country after almost 20 years of involvement in the Afghan war. U.S. forces regularly conducted operations against IS Khorasan and killed several of its key leaders.     The extremist group intensified suicide bombings and other attacks against security forces and members of the Afghan Shiite community after the Taliban takeover. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including prominent Taliban leaders and religious scholars.     Taliban authorities say their sustained military actions against IS Khorasan hideouts have significantly degraded its ability to pose a threat to Afghanistan and beyond.      De facto Afghan authorities have accused Pakistan and Tajikistan of “training and nurturing” IS Khorasan operatives on their respective soils.     Both neighbors of Afghanistan have dismissed the accusation as frivolous and, in turn, blame the de facto rulers in Kabul for failing to prevent transnational terrorist groups from using their territory to threaten regional stability.     A quarterly U.S. Department of Defense report made public in late May noted that Afghanistan-based IS Khorasan had “demonstrated increased transnational terrorism capabilities through large-scale, multiple casualty attacks” in the region.     The report cited a January suicide bombing in neighboring Iran’s Kerman city of a memorial for a top Iranian military commander that killed at least 100 mourners. It added that IS Khorasan gunmen stormed a concert venue near Moscow in March, killing at least 140 people in what was described as the worst terrorist attack in Russia in 20 years.    In March, General Michael Kurilla, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, testified to Congress on the growing terrorist threat emanating from Afghanistan, warning that Islamic State affiliates “retain the capability and the will” to attack the United States and its allies in Europe in as little as six months.    The U.S. quarterly report stated that despite pledging to deny terrorist groups a sanctuary in Afghanistan, the Taliban “continued to privately provide shelter to al-Qaeda senior leaders while publicly denying that al-Qaeda uses its territory to pose threats to outside countries.”     In a January report, the United Nations Security Council said that IS Khorasan “has continued to pose a major threat in Afghanistan and the region despite losses in territory, casualties, and high attrition among senior and mid-tier leadership figures.” 

KATHMANDU — Heavy rains triggered landslides and flash floods killing at least 11 people in the last 36 hours in Nepal and blocking key highways and roads, officials said Sunday. Eight people were missing, either washed away by floods or buried in landslides, while 12 others were injured and being treated in hospitals, police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki said. “Rescue workers are trying to clear the landslides and open the roads,” Karki told Reuters, adding heavy equipment was being used to clear debris. In southeastern Nepal, the Koshi River, which causes deadly floods in the eastern Indian state of Bihar almost every year, was flowing above the danger level, a district official said. “The flow of Koshi is rising and we have asked residents to remain alert about possible floods,” Bed Raj Phuyal, a senior official of Sunsari district where the river flows, told Reuters.  He said at 0900 hours (0315 hours GMT) water flow in Koshi River was 369,000 cusecs per second, more than double its normal flow of 150,000 cusecs. Cusec is the measurement of the flow of water and one cusec is equal to one cubic foot per second.  Authorities said all 56 sluice gates of the Koshi Barrage had been opened to drain out water compared with about 10-12 during a normal situation. Authorities said the flows of Narayani, Rapti and Mahakali rivers in the west were also rising. In hill-ringed Kathmandu, several rivers have overflown their banks, flooded roads and inundated many houses. Local media showed people wading through waist-deep water or residents using buckets to empty their houses. At least 50 people across Nepal have died in landslides, floods and lightning strikes since mid-June when annual monsoon rains started.  Hundreds of people die every year in landslides and flash floods that are common in mostly mountainous Nepal during the monsoon season which normally starts in mid-June and continues through mid-September. In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, floods have killed dozens and displaced thousands of people in the past few days. 

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.