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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.