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New Delhi — Two soldiers and six suspected militants were killed in two separate gun battles in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said Sunday.  Kashmir police inspector general Vidhi Kumar Birdi told AFP that authorities in the disputed territory had "carried out two different operations" in villages in the Kulgam district.   Birdi said two members of the security forces had been killed, with clashes continuing in Modergram and Frisal Chinnigam villages.  "We have retrieved the bodies of two terrorists from Modergram, and four others from Frisal Chinnigam," said Birdi.    This is the latest incident in an uptick of attacks in the disputed territory.   India and Pakistan both claim Muslim-majority Kashmir in full and have fought three wars for control of the Himalayan region.  Rebel groups have waged an insurgency since 1989, demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan.  The conflict has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels.  In June, nine Indian Hindu pilgrims were killed and dozens wounded when a gunman opened fire on a bus carrying them from a shrine in the southern Reasi area.   It was one of the deadliest attacks in years and the first on Hindu pilgrims in Kashmir since 2017, when gunmen killed seven people in another ambush on a bus. 

TEHRAN — Iranian naval destroyer has sunk while it was being repaired in a port near the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported Sunday.    State-run IRNA news agency reported that the Sahand destroyer, being repaired at a wharf lost its balance due to water infiltration into the tanks.    The agency added that due to the low depth in the waters, it is possible to bring back the destroyer to balance.    It also reported that injured people were transferred to hospital. It did not elaborate.    Sahand, named after a mountain in northern Iran, took six years to build and launched into the Persian Gulf in December 2018. The 1,300-ton vessel was equipped with surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft batteries and sophisticated radar and radar-evading capabilities.    In January 2018, a naval destroyer, Damavand, sank in the Caspian Sea after crashing into a breakwater.  

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New Delhi — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will head to Russia on Monday for a two-day visit to shore up relations at a time that Moscow has deepened ties with New Delhi’s archrival, China. New Delhi analysts say the summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin set for Tuesday will help counter perceptions of a drift in ties with its longtime ally as India builds a closer partnership with the United States. “India’s goal is to emphasize that India-Russia relations are important and to ensure that Putin’s growing relations with China will not affect ties with New Delhi,” Chintamani Mahapatra, founder of the Kalinga Institute of Indo Pacific Studies told VOA. “That is why it is extremely important to continue the dialogue with Russia at the highest level,” he added. The summit will be the first since Russia invaded Ukraine, an issue on which New Delhi has maintained a neutral stance; It has neither condemned the war nor joined Western sanctions imposed on Moscow.    Although Indian and Russian leaders have held annual summits since 2000, none have been held since Putin visited New Delhi in 2021.   Calling the summit “something waiting to happen,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar stressed the two countries’ “strong history of working together.” The focus of Modi’s first visit to Russia in five years will be reinforcing a time-tested relationship, analysts say. “I don’t think this will set the course for a future-oriented or path breaking partnership with a lot of new initiatives and deliverables,” Sreeram Chaulia, dean at the Jindal School of International Affairs told VOA. “Rather,” he said, “it is to sustain the relationship, maintain the existing links we have and ensure how to keep our defense and energy cooperation on track.” Despite diversifying its purchases of military hardware in recent years, India remains reliant on Russian arms – about one-third of India’s defense imports come from Moscow, down from two-thirds five years ago. Concerns have been growing though, since the Ukraine invasion began, about Russia’s ability to supply spare parts and ammunition. Meanwhile,  bilateral energy trade has boomed as India increases purchases of cheap Russian oil in the aftermath of the Ukraine invasion. However, while Moscow’s total exports to India are $65 billion, Indian exports are only about $4 billion, causing concern in New Delhi. "Trade remains imbalanced, which is a matter of priority in our discussions with the Russian side," Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra told reporters while announcing Modi's visit on Friday.  He said India wants to promote exports across various sectors, including farm products, technology, pharmaceuticals and services to lower the deficit. For Putin, the visit will be important in underscoring that he has not been isolated by Western sanctions, according to analysts.   Some ot them have pointed to the optics of his meeting with Modi, which takes place even as a NATO summit focused on security concerns in Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific region gets underway in Washington on Tuesday.  Russia is expecting a "very important and full-fledged visit" by Prime Minister Modi, “which is so crucial for Russian-Indian relations,” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying on Saturday by Russia’s Tass news agency. Analysts in New Delhi said Modi’s visit is unlikely to raise concerns in Washington, with which India has been deepening its security partnership amid mutual concerns about China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. So far India has managed to walk a fine line between the United States and Russia, according to Mahapatra. The United States has "some concerns" over India's engagement with Russia in military and technology matters, but Washington has confidence and trust in New Delhi to advance the U.S.-Indian partnership in key areas, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said at a virtual briefing on June 26 before the India-Moscow summit was announced. Analysts in New Delhi say that while India has substantially strengthened its U.S. ties, its hostile neighborhood makes Russia important in its geostrategic calculations. A four-year military standoff between India and China along their disputed borders that shows no signs of ending remains a worry for New Delhi. “It is important for India that in the event of any India-China conflict, Russia will not side with China,” Mahapatra said. “That will only happen if Russia thinks India is an important country in their geopolitical calculations.” However, it will be challenging for India to counterbalance China due to Russia’s huge dependence on Beijing in the wake of its isolation by Western countries. During a Putin’s May visit to China, the two countries pledged to intensify their partnership, which has burgeoned since the Ukraine war began. “We are conscious that for Russia, China will remain its dominant ally, but India wants to make sure that it does not become completely predominant,” according to Chaulia.  “We don’t want Russia to become a junior partner of China because then we will be surrounded by adversaries in the whole Eurasian region. So it is in our interest to make Russia stable in whatever way we can.” After Moscow, Modi will go to Austria, the first visit by an Indian prime minister in over four decades.

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.

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JUNEAU, Alaska — Each year, a crush of tourists arrives in Alaska's capital city on cruise ships to see wonders like the fast-diminishing Mendenhall Glacier. Now, long-simmering tensions over Juneau's tourism boom are coming to a head over a new voter initiative aimed at giving residents a respite from the influx. A measure that would ban cruise ships with 250 or more passengers from docking in Juneau on Saturdays qualified for the Oct. 1 municipal ballot, setting the stage for a debate about how much tourism is too much in a city that is experiencing first-hand the impacts of climate change. The measure would also ban ships on July 4, a day when locals flock to a downtown parade. The “ship-free Saturdays” initiative that qualified last week will go to voters unless the local Assembly enacts a similar measure by Aug. 15, which is seen as unlikely. Juneau, accessible only by water or air, is home to the Mendenhall Glacier, a major draw for the cruise passengers who arrive on multi-story ships towering over parts of the modest downtown skyline. Many residents of this city of about 32,000 have concerns about increased traffic, congested trails and the frequent buzz of sight-seeing helicopters transporting visitors to the Mendenhall and other glaciers. Deborah Craig, who has lived in Juneau for decades, supports ship-free Saturdays. Craig, who lives across the channel from where the ships dock, often hears their early-morning fog horns and broadcast announcements made to passengers that are audible across the water. The current “overwhelming" number of visitors diminishes what residents love so much about Juneau, she said. “It’s about preserving the lifestyle that keeps us in Juneau, which is about clean air, clean water, pristine environment and easy access to trails, easy access to water sports and nature," she said of the initiative. “There’s this perception that some people are not welcoming of tourists, and that’s not the case at all," Craig said. “It’s about volume. It’s about too much — too many in a short period of time overwhelming a small community.” The current cruise season runs from early April to late October. Opponents of the initiative say limiting dockings will hurt local businesses that rely heavily on tourism and could invite lawsuits. A voter-approved limit on cruise passenger numbers in Bar Harbor, Maine, another community with a significant tourism economy, was challenged in federal court. Laura McDonnell, a business leader who owns Caribou Crossings, a gift shop in Juneau’s downtown tourist core, said she makes 98% of her annual revenue during the summer season. Tourism is about all the "local businesses that rely on cruise passengers and our place in the community,” said McDonnell, who is involved in Protect Juneau’s Future, which opposes the initiative. Some schools recently closed due to factors including declining enrollment, while the regional economy faces challenges, she said. “I think that as a community, we really need to look at what’s at stake for our economy," she said. “We are not in a position to be shrinking our economy.” The cruise industry accounted for $375 million in direct spending in Juneau in 2023, most of that attributable to spending by passengers, according to a report prepared for the city by McKinley Research Group LLC. After a two-year pandemic lull, cruise passenger numbers rose sharply in Juneau, hitting a record of more than 1.6 million in 2023. Under this year's schedule, Sept. 21 will be the first day since early May with no large ships in town. The tourism debate is polarizing, and the city has been trying to find a middle ground, said Alexandra Pierce, Juneau's visitor industry director. But she noted there also needs to be a regional solution. If the Juneau initiative passes, it will impact other, smaller communities in southeast Alaska because the ships, generally on trips originating in Seattle or Vancouver, Canada, will have to go somewhere if they can’t dock in Juneau on Saturdays, she said. Some residents in Sitka, south of Juneau, are in the early stages of trying to limit cruise visitation to that small, island community, which is near a volcano. Juneau and major cruise lines, including Carnival Corp., Disney Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean Group, agreed to a limit of five large ships a day, which took effect this year. They more recently signed a pact, set to take effect in 2026, seeking a daily limit of 16,000 cruise passengers Sundays through Fridays and 12,000 on Saturdays. Pierce said the overall goal is to keep total cruise passenger visitation around 1.6 million, and to even out daily numbers of visitors that can spike to about 18,000 on the busiest days and feel “a bit suffocating." Juneau traditionally has been the most popular cruise port in the state. A number of projects around Juneau are expected to help make existing cruise numbers feel less impactful. Those include plans for a gondola at the city-owned ski area and increased visitor capacity at the Mendenhall Glacier recreation area, she said. Renée Limoge Reeve, vice president of government and community relations for the trade group Cruise Lines International Association Alaska, said the agreements signed with the city were the first of their kind in Alaska. The best strategy is “ongoing, direct dialogue with local communities" and working together in a way that also provides a predictable source of income for local businesses, she said. Protect Juneau's Future, led by local business leaders, said the success of the ballot measure would mean a loss of sales tax revenue and millions of dollars in direct spending by cruise passengers. The group was confident voters would reject the measure, its steering committee said in a statement. Karla Hart, a sponsor of the initiative and frequent critic of the cruise industry, said the threat of litigation has kept communities from taking steps to limit cruise numbers in the past. She was heartened by legal wins this year in the ongoing fight over the measure passed in Bar Harbor, a popular destination near Maine's Acadia National Park. She believes the Juneau initiative will pass.

Kyiv — A village in western Russia's border region was evacuated Sunday following a series of explosions after debris from a downed Ukrainian drone set fire to a nearby warehouse, local officials said. Social media footage appeared to show rising clouds of black smoke in the Voronezh region while loud explosions could be heard in succession. Gov. Aleksandr Gusev said that falling wreckage triggered the "detonation of explosive objects." No casualties were reported, but residents of a nearby village in the Podgorensky district were evacuated, he said. Roads were also closed with emergency services, military and government officials working at the scene. Russia's Ministry of Defense did not address the strike in their morning briefing, but said that air defense systems had destroyed a Ukrainian drone over the Belgorod region. Authorities in Russia's Krasnodar province on Saturday said a fire at an oil depot had also been caused by falling drone debris. Russia's emergency services said the blaze was extinguished Sunday morning.  The strikes come after a Ukrainian military spokesperson told The Associated Press Thursday that Kyiv's troops had retreated from a neighborhood on the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, a strategically important town in Ukraine's Donetsk region that has been reduced to rubble under a monthlong Russian assault. Russian forces have for months tried to grind out gains in Ukraine's industrial east, in an apparent attempt to lock its defenders into a war of attrition. In a joint investigation published Friday, independent Russian news outlets Meduza and Mediazona reported that Moscow's forces were losing between 200 and 250 soldiers in Ukraine each day. Military analysts say Chasiv Yar's fall could also compromise critical Ukrainian supply routes and put nearby cities in jeopardy, bringing Russia closer to its stated aim of seizing the entire Donetsk region.  Russia sent overnight into Sunday two ballistic missiles and 13 Shahed drones, Ukrainian air force officials said. All were shot down but the officials did not elaborate on the impact of the missiles. Elsewhere in Ukraine, 14 people died after a bus collided with a cargo vehicle, leaving a single survivor, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said Saturday evening. The victims included a 6-year-old child.

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.

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Vatican City — Pope Francis decried the state of democracy and warned against "populists" during a short visit to Trieste in Italy's northeast on Sunday ahead of a 12-day trip to Asia -- the longest of his papacy. "Democracy is not in good health in the world today," Francis said during a speech at the city's convention center to close a national Catholic event. Without naming any countries, the pope warned against "ideological temptations and populists" on the day that France holds the second round of a snap parliamentary vote that looks set to see the far-right National Rally party take the largest share of the vote. "Ideologies are seductive. Some people compare them to the Pied Piper of Hamelin: they seduce but lead you to deny yourself," he said in reference to the German fairytale. Ahead of last month's European parliament elections, bishops in several countries also warned about the rise of populism and nationalism, with far-right parties already holding the reins to power in Italy, Hungary and the Netherlands. Francis also urged people to "move away from polarizations that impoverish" and hit out at "self-referential power." After Venice in April and Verona in May, the half-day trip to Trieste, a city of 200,000 inhabitants on the Adriatic Sea that borders Slovenia, marked the third one within Italy this year for the 87-year-old pontiff, who has suffered increasing health problems in recent years. Since travelling to the French city of Marseille in September 2023, the Argentine Jesuit has limited himself to domestic travel. But he plans to spend nearly two weeks in Asia in September visiting Indonesia, Singapore and the islands of Papua New Guinea and East Timor. He arrived in Trieste shortly before 9 a.m. and was due to meet with various groups from the religious and academic spheres, along with migrants and the disabled. The papal visit is due to conclude with a Mass in the city's main public square before he departs for the Vatican in the early afternoon. 

CAIRO — Hamas is waiting for a response from Israel on its cease-fire proposal, two officials from the militant Islamist group said on Sunday, five days after it accepted a key part of a U.S. plan aimed at ending the 9-month-old war in Gaza. "We have left our response with the mediators and are waiting to hear the occupation's response," one of the two Hamas officials told Reuters, asking not to be named. The three-phase plan for the Palestinian enclave was put forward at the end of May by U.S. President Joe Biden and is being mediated by Qatar and Egypt. It aims to end the war and free around 120 Israeli hostages being held by Hamas. Another Palestinian official, with knowledge of the cease-fire deliberations, said Israel was in talks with the Qataris. "They have discussed with them Hamas' response and they promised to give them Israel's response within days," the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that negotiations would continue this week but has not given any detailed timeline. Hamas, which controls Gaza, has dropped a key demand that Israel first commit to a permanent cease-fire before it would sign an agreement. Instead, it said it would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, a Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday on condition of anonymity because the talks are private. A Palestinian official close to the peace efforts has said the proposal could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel and would end the war. CIA Director William Burns will travel to Qatar this week for negotiations, a source familiar with the matter said. The conflict was triggered nine months ago on October 7 when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel from Gaza, killing 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages in the worst assault in Israel's history, according to official Israeli figures. More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's military onslaught, according to Gaza health officials, and the coastal enclave has largely been reduced to rubble. The U.N. agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, called the situation increasingly tragic, saying in a post on X, "families continue to face forced displacement, massive destruction and constant fear. Essential supplies are lacking, the heat is unbearable, diseases are spreading." Protests in Israel Protesters took to the streets across Israel on Sunday to pressure the government to reach an accord to bring back hostages still being held in Gaza. They blocked rush-hour traffic at major intersections across the country, picketed politicians’ houses and briefly set fire to tires on the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway before police cleared the way. Meanwhile, fighting continued to rage across Gaza, and north Israel came under rocket attack from Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Air raid sirens sent residents of 24 Israeli towns running for shelter. One person was seriously wounded, police said. Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at an army base. In Gaza, Palestinian health officials said at least 15 people were killed in separate Israeli military strikes on Sunday. An Israeli air strike on a house in the town of Zawayda, in central Gaza, killed at least six people and wounded several others, while six others were killed in an air strike on a house in western Gaza, the health officials said. Tanks deepened their raids in central and northern areas of Rafah on the southern border with Egypt. Health officials there said they had recovered three bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the eastern part of the city. The Israeli military said on Sunday its forces had killed 30 Palestinian gunmen in Rafah during close combat and air strikes in the past day. In Shejaia, an eastern suburb of Gaza City, the military said its forces killed several Palestinian gunmen, and located weapons and explosives. The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said fighters attacked Israeli forces in several locations across the Gaza Strip with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs. 

TOKYO — Voters in Tokyo cast ballots Sunday to decide whether to reelect conservative Yuriko Koike as governor of Japan's influential capital for a third four-year term. The vote was also seen as a test for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's governing party, which supports the incumbent, the first woman to lead the Tokyo city government. Tokyo, a city of 13.5 million people with outsized political and cultural power and a budget equaling some nations, is one of Japan's most influential political posts. A record 55 candidates challenged Koike, and one of the top contenders was also a woman — a liberal-leaning former parliament member who uses only her first name, Renho, and was backed by opposition parties. A win by Koike would be a relief for Kishida's conservative governing party, which she has long been affiliated with. Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, unofficially backed her campaign. Renho, running as an independent but supported by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Japanese Communist Party, slammed Koike's connection with Kishida's party, which has been hit by a widespread slush fund scandal. A victory for Renho would be a major setback for Kishida's chances in the governing party's leadership vote in September. While the two high-profile women garnered national attention, Shinji Ishimaru, a former mayor of Akitakata town in Hiroshima, was seen to have gained popularity among young voters. The main issues in the campaign included measures for the economy, disaster resilience for Tokyo and low birth numbers. When Japan's national fertility rate fell to a record low 1.2 babies per woman last year, Tokyo's 0.99 rate was the lowest for the country. Koike's policies focused on providing subsidies for married parents expecting babies and those raising children. Renho called for increased support for young people to address their concerns about jobs and financial stability, arguing that would help improve prospects for marrying and having families. Another focus of attention was a controversial redevelopment of Tokyo's beloved park area, Jingu Gaien, which Koike approved but later faced criticism over its lack of transparency and suspected environmental impact. Koike, a stylish and media savvy former TV newscaster, was first elected to parliament in 1992 at age 40. She served in a number of key Cabinet posts, including environment and defense ministers, as part of the long-reigning Liberal Democratic Party. Renho, known for voicing sharp questions in parliament, was born to a Japanese mother and Taiwanese father and doesn't use her family name. A former model and newscaster, she was elected to parliament in 2004 and served as administrative reform minister in the government led by the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan.

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MACHAKOS, Kenya — With dismay, Martha Waema and her husband surveyed their farm that was submerged by weeks of relentless rainfall across Kenya. Water levels would rise to shoulder height after only a night of heavy downpour. The couple had expected a return of $1,500 from their three acres after investing $613 in corn, peas, cabbages, tomatoes and kale. But their hopes have been uprooted and destroyed. "I have been farming for 38 years, but I have never encountered losses of this magnitude," said the 62-year-old mother of 10. Their financial security and optimism have been shaken by what Kenya's government has called "a clear manifestation of the erratic weather patterns caused by climate change." The rains that started in mid-March have posed immediate dangers and left others to come. They have killed nearly 300 people, left dams at historically high levels and led the government to order residents to evacuate flood-prone areas — and bulldoze the homes of those who don't. Now a food security crisis lies ahead, along with even higher prices in a country whose president had sought to make agriculture an even greater engine of the economy. Kenya's government says the flooding has destroyed crops on more than 67,987 hectares of land, or less than 1% of Kenya's agricultural land. As farmers count their losses — a total yet unknown — the deluge has exposed what opposition politicians call Kenya's ill preparedness for climate change and related disasters and the need for sustainable land management and better weather forecasting. Waema now digs trenches in an effort to protect what's left of the farm on a plain in the farthest outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, in Machakos County. Not everyone is grieving, including farmers who prepared for climate shocks. About 200 kilometers west of Waema's farm, 65-year-old farmer James Tobiko Tipis and his 6½-hectare farm have escaped the flooding in Olokirikirai. He said he had been proactive in the area that's prone to landslides by terracing crops. "We used to lose topsoil and whatever we were planting," he said. Experts said more Kenyan farmers must protect their farms against soil erosion that likely will be worsened by further climate shocks. Jane Kirui, an agricultural officer in Narok County, emphasized the importance of terracing and other measures such as cover crops that will allow water to be absorbed. In Kenya's rural areas, experts say efforts to conserve water resources remain inadequate despite the current plentiful rainfall. At Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, professor John Gathenya recommended practices such as diversifying crops and emphasizing the soil's natural water retention capacity. "The soil remains the biggest reservoir for water," he said, asserting that using it wisely requires much less of an investment than large infrastructure projects such as dams. But soil needs to be protected with practices that include limiting the deforestation that has exposed parts of Kenyan land to severe runoff. "We are opening land in new fragile environments where we need to be even more careful the way we farm," Gathenya said. "In our pursuit for more and more food, we are pressing into the more fragile areas but not with the same intensity of soil conservation that we had 50 years back."

NICE, France — At just 28 years old, Jordan Bardella has helped make the far-right National Rally the strongest political force in France. And now he could become the country's youngest prime minister. After voters propelled Marine Le Pen's National Rally to a strong lead in the first round of snap legislative elections on June 30, Bardella turned to rallying supporters to hand their party an absolute majority in the decisive round on Sunday. That would allow the anti-immigration, nationalist party to run the government, with Bardella at the helm. Who is the National Rally president? When Bardella replaced his mentor, Marine Le Pen, in 2022 at the helm of France's leading far-right party, he became the first person without the Le Pen name to lead it since its founding a half-century ago. His selection marked a symbolic changing of the guard. It was part of Le Pen's decadelong effort to rebrand her party, with its history of racism, and remove the stigma of antisemitism that clung to it in order to broaden its base. She has notably distanced herself from her now-ostracized father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who co-founded the party, then called the National Front, and who has been repeatedly convicted of hate speech. Bardella is part of a generation of young people who joined the party under Marine Le Pen in the 2010s but likely wouldn't have done so under her father. Since joining at age 17, he has risen quickly through the ranks, serving as party spokesperson and president of its youth wing, before being appointed vice president and becoming the second-youngest member of the European Parliament in history, in 2019. "Jordan Bardella is the creation of Marine Le Pen," said Cécile Alduy, a Stanford University professor of French politics and literature, and an expert on the far right. "He has been made by her and is extremely loyal." On the campaign trail, Le Pen and Bardella have presented themselves as American-style running mates, with Le Pen vying for the presidency while pushing him to be prime minister, Alduy said. "They are completely in line politically." How did he become the movement's poster child? It wasn't only having a different last name that made Bardella an attractive prospect for a party seeking to widen its appeal beyond its traditionally older, rural voter base. Bardella was born in the north Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis in 1995 to parents of Italian origin, with Algerian roots on his father's side — and far from seeking to deny these roots, he has used them to soften the tone (if not the content) of his party's anti-immigration stance and its hostility to France's Muslim community. Although Bardella attended a semi-private Catholic school and his father was fairly well-off, party-sanctioned accounts have stressed his upbringing in a rundown housing project beset by poverty and drugs. Never having finished university, Bardella's relatively modest background set him apart from the establishment. What's more, he could tell people directly — and crucially young voters — about it. With over 1.7 million followers on TikTok and 750,000 on Instagram, Bardella has found an audience for his slick social media content, which ranges from more traditional campaign material to videos mocking Macron and seemingly candid glimpses into the life of the National Rally's would-be prime minister. With a neat, clean-shaven look and social media savvy, he has posed for selfies with screaming fans. While his rhetoric is strong on hot-button issues like immigration — "France is disappearing" is his tagline — he has been relatively blurry on specifics. What is he proposing for France? It was Bardella who in a post on X called on Macron to dissolve the parliament and call early elections after the president's centrist group suffered a crushing defeat by the National Rally at European elections in June. When Macron did just that, Bardella, often wearing a suit and tie, hit the campaign trail, toning down his popstar image to seem more statesman-like despite his lack of experience in government. In recent months, the National Rally has softened some of its most controversial positions, including pedaling back some of its proposals for more public spending and protectionist economic policies, and taking France out of NATO's strategic military command. Laying out the party's new program, Bardella said that as prime minister he would promote law and order, tighter regulation of migration and restricting certain social benefits, such as housing, to French citizens only. He said that dual citizens would be barred from some specific key jobs, such as state employees in the defense and security field. He promised to cut taxes on fuel, gas and electricity, and pledged a rollback of Macron's pension changes. His law-and-order minded government would also extend to the nation's public schools, extending the ban on cellphones to high schools. Rivals say his policies could do lasting damage to the French economy and violate human rights. On the international front, Bardella has aimed to counter allegations that Le Pen's party has long been friendly toward Russia and President Vladimir Putin. He said he regards Russia as "a multidimensional threat both for France and Europe," and said he would be "extremely vigilant" of any Russian attempts to interfere with French interests. Although he supports continued deliveries of French weaponry to Ukraine, he would not send French troops to help the country defend itself. He would also not allow sending long-rage missiles capable of striking targets within Russia. For voters with low incomes or who feel left out of economic successes in Paris or the globalized economy, Bardella offers an appealing choice, Alduy said. "The feeling of vulnerability people have to factors that are beyond their control, calls for a radical change in the minds of many voters," she said. "He has a clean slate and comes with no baggage of the past."

PARIS — Voting has begun in mainland France on Sunday in pivotal runoff elections that could hand a historic victory to Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally and its inward-looking, anti-immigrant vision — or produce a hung parliament and years of political deadlock. French President Emmanuel Macron took a huge gamble in dissolving parliament and calling for the elections after his centrists were trounced in European elections on June 9. The snap elections in this nuclear-armed nation will influence the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe's economic stability, and they're almost certain to undercut President Emmanuel Macron for the remaining three years of his presidency. The first round on June 30 saw the largest gains ever for the anti-immigration, nationalist National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen. A bit over 49 million people are registered to vote in the elections, which will determine which party controls the National Assembly, France's influential lower house of parliament, and who will be prime minister. If support is further eroded for Macron's weak centrist majority, he will be forced to share power with parties opposed to most of his pro-business, pro-European Union policies. Racism and antisemitism have marred the electoral campaign, along with Russian cybercampaigns, and more than 50 candidates reported being physically attacked — highly unusual for France. The government is deploying 30,000 police on voting day. The heightened tensions come while France is celebrating a very special summer: Paris is about to host exceptionally ambitious Olympic Games, the national soccer team reached the semifinal of the Euro 2024 championship, and the Tour de France is racing around the country alongside the Olympic torch. The elections wrap up Sunday at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) in mainland France and on the island of Corsica. Initial polling projections are expected Sunday night, with early official results expected late Sunday and early Monday. Voters residing in the Americas and in France's overseas territories of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and French Polynesia voted on Saturday.    The elections could leave France with its first far-right government since the Nazi occupation in World War II if the National Rally wins an absolute majority and its 28-year-old leader Jordan Bardella becomes prime minister. The party came out on top in the previous week's first-round voting, followed by a coalition of center-left, hard-left and Green parties, and Macron's centrist alliance. But the outcome remains highly uncertain. Polls between the two rounds suggest that the National Rally may win the most seats in the 577-seat National Assembly but fall short of the 289 seats needed for a majority. That would still make history, if a party with historic links to xenophobia and downplaying the Holocaust, and long seen as a pariah, becomes France's biggest political force. If it wins the majority, Macron would be forced to share power in an awkward arrangement known in France as "cohabitation." Another possibility is that no party has a majority, resulting in a hung parliament. That could prompt Macron to pursue coalition negotiations with the center-left or name a technocratic government with no political affiliations. Both would be unprecedented for modern France, and make it more difficult for the European Union's No. 2 economy to make bold decisions on arming Ukraine, reforming labor laws or reducing its huge deficit. Financial markets have been jittery since Macron surprised even his closest allies in June by announcing snap elections after the National Rally won the most seats for France in European Parliament elections. Regardless of what happens, Macron said he won't step down and will stay president until his term ends in 2027. Many French voters, especially in small towns and rural areas, are frustrated with low incomes and a Paris political leadership seen as elitist and unconcerned with workers' day-to-day struggles. National Rally has connected with those voters, often by blaming immigration for France's problems, and has built up broad and deep support over the past decade. Le Pen has softened many of the party's positions — she no longer calls for quitting NATO and the EU — to make it more electable. But the party's core far-right values remain. It wants a referendum on whether being born in France is enough to merit citizenship, to curb rights of dual citizens, and give police more freedom to use weapons.

Washington — The NATO summit scheduled for this week will include a discussion among the allies about strengthening security ties with South Korea and Japan against deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, experts said. The leaders of 32 NATO members will convene in Washington July 9 to 11 to discuss ways to provide continued military support to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia, which invaded more than two years ago. Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea — sometimes referred to as the Indo-Pacific 4 or IP4 — are invited to the NATO summit. The United States, Japan and South Korea plan to meet on the sidelines of the summit. Among the items that analysts expect NATO to discuss with Japan and South Korea is the growing military cooperation between Russia and North Korea. "The Russian-North Korean agreement is a problem for both NATO countries and for the countries in the Northeast Asia," said Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation. "I expect that it will be discussed at this meeting. It may become a critical aspect of the meeting, if, by that time, intelligence is saying that North Korea is sending many military personnel to support Russia in Ukraine," Bennett said. After Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a mutual defense pact in Pyongyang last month, some speculated that North Korea could dispatch army engineers to Russian-occupied Donetsk to rebuild the war-torn region. Pentagon press secretary Major General Patrick Ryder said at a press conference on June 25 that the U.S. is keeping an eye on a possible dispatch of troops but warned North Korea about sending military forces, saying they would be "cannon fodder in an illegal war against Ukraine." North Korea on June 27 renewed its support for Russia's war against Ukraine, saying, "We will always be on the side of the Russian army" in "the war of justice." Both Washington and Seoul have estimated that Pyongyang sent about 10,000 containers of munitions to Russia. Moscow and Pyongyang denied arms exchanges between the two. But in the defense pact that Putin and Kim signed last month, they agreed to set up ways to bolster their defense capabilities and openly announced possible military and technical cooperation. "NATO members will discuss the implications of closer Russia-North Korea relations and how best to respond, including in terms of risks and opportunities," said Matthew Brummer, a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo. "Risks primarily include material outcomes, such as how North Korea involvement will come to bear on warfighting in Ukraine. But there are also opportunities to be exploited, including how to use increased North Korea involvement to drive a wedge between China and Russia," he said. "The reemerging axis between China, Russia and North Korea has most certainly precipitated the security link between Europe and Asia. As a result, I expect increased NATO involvement in East Asia, especially with Japan, which is the world's greatest latent military power," Brummer said. Beijing said that it is keeping "a close eye" on the NATO summit and that it hopes the summit does not "target any third party." Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Tuesday that "the Asia-Pacific lies beyond the geographical scope of the North Atlantic" and that "NATO's attempt to make eastward inroads into the Asia-Pacific will inevitably undermine regional peace and stability.” "The countries and people in this region are on high alert against this and firmly oppose any words or actions designed to bring military blocs into this region and stoke division and confrontation," he said. The U.S. State Department did not respond to an inquiry by VOA's Korean Service seeking a response to Beijing's comments. Luis Simon, director of the Elcano Royal Institute in Brussels, Belgium, said he would not rule out NATO countries conducting joint military exercises with its East Asian partners "in the Korean Peninsula context rather than in a China context" because it offers "diplomatically an easier entry point." At the same time, he said, "It will be more with NATO allies rather than the NATO as a whole because NATO as a whole is very clear about being laser focused" on defending Ukraine. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force announced on June 25 that it will hold a series of joint drills in July with Germany, Spain and France — all NATO members. David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, also said that bilateral arrangements between South Korea and individual NATO countries could be possible as "a number of NATO countries are member states of the United Nations Command." The U.N. Command is a multinational military body created during the Korean War of 1950-53 to defend against North Korean aggression. Some analysts said there are limits to NATO's involvement in the Indo-Pacific. "Most of the countries in NATO are focused on the Atlantic area, and those who have projection capabilities" that can go beyond that "have rather small ones," said Barry Posen, Ford international professor of political science at MIT. William Ruger, a nonresident senior fellow at Defense Priorities, said U.S. "capabilities, material and policy bandwidth" are not sufficient to deal with the security of both Europe and Asia.

new york — TikTok and its bite-sized videos arrived in the United States as a global version of the Chinese app Douyin in 2018. Less than six years later, the social media platform is deeply woven into the fabric of American consumerism, having shortened the shelf life of trends and revamped how people engage with food and fashion.  The popularity of TikTok — coupled with its roots in Beijing — led the U.S. Congress — citing national security concerns, to pass a law that would ban the video-sharing app unless its Chinese parent company sells its stake. Both the company, ByteDance, and TikTok have sued on First Amendment grounds.  But while the platform faces uncertain times, its influence remains undisputed.  Interest in bright pink blush and brown lipstick soared last year, for example, after the cosmetics were featured in TikTok videos with looks labeled as "cold girl" and "latte" makeup. An abundance of clothing fads with quirky names, from "cottagecore" to "coastal grandma," similarly owe their pervasiveness to TikTok.    Plenty of TikTok-spawned crazes last only a week or two before losing steam. Yet even mini trends have challenged businesses to decipher which ones are worth stocking up for. A majority of the more than 170 million Americans who use TikTok belong to the under-30 age group coveted by retailers, according to the Pew Research Center. Whether fans of the platform or not, shoppers may have a #tiktokmademebuyit moment without knowing the origin story behind an eye-catching product.  Platform's algorithm is 'secret sauce' What made TikTok such a trendsetter compared to predecessor platforms? Researchers and marketing analysts have often described the platform's personalized recommendation algorithm as the "secret sauce" of TikTok's success. The company has disclosed little about the technology it employs to populate users' "For You" feeds.    Jake Bjorseth, founder of the advertising agency Trndsttrs, which specializes in Generation Z, thinks the app's use of an interest-based algorithm instead of personal contacts to connect like-minded people is what gave TikTok the edge.  TikTok also changed the standard for what was considered desirable in social media content. The beginner-friendly platform featured videos made without filters, lighting setups or production-level audio. TikTok creators could develop more intimate relationships with their followers because they appeared more authentic, Bjorseth said.  The platform has plenty of critics. Some experts argue that TikTok, like other social media sites, can be addictive and promote unnecessary spending. Others accuse TikTok of encouraging harmful behavior, like girls engaging in skin care rituals intended for older women.  Yet for all the detractors who won't mourn TikTok if it goes away, a vocal base of fans hopes it doesn't come to that.  Influencing fashion, accessories Casey Lewis, a trend analyst based in New York, said TikTok's clout in the fashion arena first became apparent to her when videos about Birkenstock's Boston clogs overtook her "For You" feed in 2022.    As the number of TikTok videos exploded, creators advised their followers where they could find the suddenly sold-out clogs. Lewis thought it was odd since her brother, whom she described as a "frat boy" and not a fashionista, wore the cork-soled comfort shoes in college.    "I'm not a psychologist, but I'm sure there's some psychology where your brain goes from thinking like, 'How weird? Is that fashion?' And then suddenly you're obsessed with it," she said.    The pace with which TikTok-shaped trends pop can be dizzying. In the last year, the hot pink ensembles of "Barbiecore" coexisted with the deliberately unsexy looks of "dadcore" — think chunky white sneakers, baggy jeans and polo shirts. The linen-draped "coastal grandma" aesthetic gave way to "eclectic grandpa."    While the rotating cast of "cores" may not drive their adherents to buy entire wardrobes, they're "influencing spending in small ways, and that adds up," Lewis said.    Influencers provide tips, tricks Daniella Lopez White, 21, a recent college graduate on a tight budget, said TikTok influencers provided tips on finding affordable clothes but also connected her to plus-size creators featuring fashions for larger-bodied women, which made her more confident.  "Those TikTok trends really helped me figure out what parts of my body I want to accentuate and feel cute in, and still incorporate my sense of style," she said.  A go-to spot With easy-to-follow cooking videos and clever hacks, TikTok became a go-to spot for home cooks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The platform made humble ingredients a star and earned endorsements from some of the stars of the food world.    "Every day, honestly, I am blown away by the creativity from the FoodTok community," restaurateur and chef Gordon Ramsay said in a TikTok video late last year.    Like the clothing styles of earlier eras, foods that had fallen out of fashion were resurrected via TikTok. U.S. sales of cottage cheese jumped 34% between April 2022 and April 2024 after videos promoting cottage cheese ice cream, cottage cheese toast and other recipes racked up millions of views.  Ben Sokolsky, the general manager of sales and marketing for Dallas-based dairy company Daisy Brand, said cottage cheese is seeing its highest sustained growth in nearly 50 years. The curdled milk product used to be a "secret sensation," but social media helped expose new customers to its benefits, Sokolsky said.  Topics that went viral on TikTok have even spawned analog equivalents. Last summer, TikToker Olivia Maher posted what she called her "girl dinner" of bread, cheese, pickles and grapes. It was a hit, with more than 1.6 million views. A handful of "girl dinner" cookbooks soon followed.    But the eagerness to try trendy foods had a downside. A 14-year-old in Massachusetts died after trying a challenge involving an extremely spicy tortilla chip that appeared on TikTok and other social media sites. An autopsy of the boy, who had a congenital heart defect, found that eating a large quantity of chile pepper extract caused his death. Paqui, the maker of the chip, pulled it off the market.  Upending cosmetic industry TikTok has upended the cosmetics industry by causing ingredients to get labeled as the next miracle cure or to be avoided and featuring videos of people gleefully applying or panning the contents of their latest shopping hauls.  Influencers on TikTok and elsewhere have made freckles an asset with clips showing how to add faux ones with eyebrow pencils or broccoli florets. The "clean girl" aesthetic, a renamed version of the no-makeup makeup look, prompted both luxury and drugstore brands to rush out their own versions of skin tints and lip oils.  Some veteran users of TikTok have noted the platform is almost too good in its role as both a tastemaker and a shopping search engine. A popular category of beauty videos shows influencers "decluttering" drawers filled with piles of barely used lipsticks, blushes and eyeshadow palettes.  Though the desire for clicks can encourage creators to follow the same hair and makeup trends, TikTok's defenders credit the platform with forcing brands to create products for a wider range of skin tones and hair types.  Tiffany Watson, who currently has more than 31,00 followers on TikTok and has done paid partnerships with brands like Colourpop Cosmetics, said the platform has promoted a more inclusive image of beauty compared to other sites.  "I see more diversity on TikTok because (with) every video you're swiping, you're seeing somebody new," she said.