ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — The ruling party has won Mongolia’s parliamentary election but by only a slim margin as the opposition made major gains, according to tallies by the party and news media based on near-complete results.

Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai told the media early Saturday that the Mongolia People’s Party won 68 to 70 seats in the 126-seat body, based on preliminary results, “meaning we have won the election.”

Although the official results haven’t been announced, that has less to do with the certainty of the ruling Mongolian People’s Party’s victory and more to do with the difficulties of gathering results from far-flung corners of the nation.

These results are a setback from Luvsannamsrai and his party. They had won won 62 of the-then 76 seats in the parliament in 2020. This time, in a parliament expanded to 162 seats — 50 more than in the previous election in 2020 — they are much less dominant.

With 99% of the vote counted, tallies by Mongolian media indicate the opposition Democratic Party won about 40 seats — a big jump from 2020. The results indicate that opposition parties have been able to capitalize on voter discontent and eat into the ruling party’s majority,

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s incoming President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday announced five additional members of her future cabinet, presenting a group of scientists and former colleagues including Luz Elena González, an expert in sustainable development, as the next secretary of energy.

Sheinbaum highlighted González’s experience in renewable energy and in handling finances, an area that will prove useful in the department’s relationship with state-run companies like oil giant Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission. Previous to her appointment, González was in charge of Mexico City’s finances.

Sheinbaum also appointed Raquel Buenrostro as secretary of public administration. Buenrostro, who served for more than two decades in government tax, treasury and economic agencies, was described by the future president as an “incorruptible woman” with 28 years of experience in public administration.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s lower house on Friday approved President Javier Milei’s sweeping economic overhaul bills, sealing a much-needed legislative victory for the libertarian leader after six months of bruising battles and raucous protests that had raised questions about his ability to govern.

Milei’s landmark legislation, which seeks to support his “zero fiscal deficit” plan and attract foreign investment, passed a final vote in the lower house to become law on Friday.

The approval — widely expected after the bills squeaked through the Senate earlier this month despite fierce political opposition — strengthens the president’s hand at home and abroad as economic pressures mount. Milei rode to power on a promise to pull Argentina out of a dire economic crisis that has deepened poverty and driven annual inflation near 300%.

Milei’s administration hailed the law’s passing as setting Argentina “on the path toward the free and prosperous country that Argentines chose” in last November’s election. The government blamed the turbulent process on “obstructionism” by Milei’s hard-line opponents.

Milei’s party controls less than 15% of congressional seats and has so far relied on executive powers to slash public spending and impose the president’s radical small-state vision. Analysts have said that only congressional approval could offer Milei the support he needs to boost investor confidence in Argentina, a country with a long history of defaulting on payments and breaching contracts.

BNEI BRAK, Israel (AP) — Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men blocked a major highway in central Israel for two hours on Thursday to protest a recent Supreme Court decision ordering young religious men to enlist for military service.

Military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel. But politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties have won draft exemptions for their followers that allow them instead to study in religious seminaries.

This long-standing arrangement has bred widespread resentment among the broader public — a sentiment that has grown stronger during the eight-month war against Hamas in Gaza. Over 600 soldiers have been killed, and tens of thousands of reservists have been activated, straining careers, businesses and family lives.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivian officials announced Friday they had arrested four more military officers in connection with Wednesday’s thwarted coup against the government of President Luis Arce, raising to 21 the number of detainees allegedly linked to a rogue general’s mutiny attempt.

In a press conference, senior Cabinet member Eduardo del Castillo said those arrested include the driver of a tank that repeatedly rammed into the doors of the government headquarters and a former infantry captain accused of giving orders to soldiers who took over the capital’s central Plaza Murillo.

“These people commanded the destruction of Bolivian heritage,” del Castillo said.

The coup attempt was led by Juan José Zuñiga, who until his public sacking and arrest Wednesday was the commanding general of the army. Zuñiga has alleged, without providing evidence, that Arce ordered him to carry out the rebellion in a ruse to boost his flagging popularity as he struggles to manage a spiraling economy and bubbling public discontent.

Arce on Thursday night vigorously denied accusations that he had carried out a “self-coup” to garner political support.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The pier built by the U.S. military to bring aid to Gaza is being removed due to weather to protect it, and the U.S. is considering not re-installing it unless aid begins flowing out into the population again, several U.S. officials said Friday.

While the military has helped deliver desperately needed food through the pier, the vast majority of it is still sitting in the adjacent storage yard because of the difficulty that agencies have had moving it to areas in Gaza where it is most needed, and that storage area is almost full.

PARIS (AP) — France’s government on Wednesday ordered the dissolution of multiple extreme right and radical Muslim groups, four days before the first round of high-stakes legislative elections that may see a surge in support for political extremes.

Snap national elections called by pro-business moderate President Emmanuel Macron have plunged the country into a hasty and disorderly electoral race, in which hate speech is becoming a growing concern.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced Wednesday that the government ordered the shutdown of several groups peddling extremist hatred. A series of decrees announcing the shutdown outlined investigations into the groups and said they posed risks of violence.

The groups affected include GUD, known for violence and antisemitism. Its members have supported far-right political leader Marine Le Pen in the past.

Le Pen’s National Rally party is leading all polls ahead of the two-round elections, June 30 and July 7, while Macron’s centrist alliance is lagging far behind. However, the outcome remains highly uncertain due to the complex, two-stage voting system and potential political alliances.

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — A parliamentary election will be held in Mongolia on Friday for the first time since the body was expanded to 126 seats, adding some uncertainty to a system that has been monopolized by two political parties and plagued by corruption.

The election in a relatively new democracy — the country was a single-party communist state until 1990 — comes at a time when many Mongolians have soured on the government, which they see as benefiting business interests and the wealthy.

“We have democracy only in appearance,” said Gantamur Dash, who earns money taking photos of tourists at the central square in Ulaanbaatar, the capital. “Only a few are living luxurious lives and the rest of the population is poor.”

Mongolia is a sparsely populated country of 3.4 million people in East Asia squeezed between China and Russia. The government has sought to maintain ties with its much larger neighbors while also building new ones with the United States and its democratic allies — a delicate task since the two sides are increasingly at odds.

The political system is serving the interests of a few instead of the general population, said Sumati Luvsandendev, the director of the Sant Maral polling organization, adding that the United States faces the same problem.

Still, he said, most people want to stick with democracy. “Communism doesn’t work for Mongolia,” he said. “It is a collective system and we are ... individualists.”

Iranians are set to go to the polls to cast their ballots in an upcoming vote to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi. Associated Press news director Jon Gambrell explains how Iran’s foreign policy could be affected by the election this Friday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Two candidates in Iran’s presidential election withdrew from the race as the country on Thursday prepared for the upcoming vote, an effort by hard-liners to coalesce around a unity candidate in the polls to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi.

Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, 53, dropped his candidacy and urged other candidates to do the same “so that the front of the revolution will be strengthened,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported late Wednesday night.

Ghazizadeh Hashemi served as one of Raisi’s vice presidents and as the head of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs. He ran in the 2021 presidential election and received some 1 million votes, coming in last place.

On Thursday, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani also withdrew, as he did previously in the 2021 election in which Raisi was voted into office.

Zakani said he withdrew to “block the formation of a third administration” of former President Hassan Rouhani, a reference to reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian.

Pezeshkian is running with the support of former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who under Rouhani negotiated and eventually struck the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The deal later collapsed and Iran has since stepped up enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels.

Such withdrawals are common in the final hours of an Iranian presidential election — particularly in the last 24 hours before the vote is held, when campaigns enter a mandatory quiet period without rallies.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli authorities say 68 people — 19 sick or wounded children plus their companions — have been allowed out of the Gaza Strip and into Egypt in the first medical evacuation since early May, when the territory’s sole travel crossing was shut down after Israel captured it.

The nearly nine-month Israel-Hamas war has devastated Gaza’s health sector and forced most of its hospitals to shut down. Health officials say thousands of people need medical treatment abroad, including hundreds of urgent cases.

The Israeli military body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, known by its acronym COGAT, said Thursday that the evacuation was carried out in coordination with officials from the United States, Egypt and the international community.

The children and their companions left Gaza via the Kerem Shalom cargo crossing, and the patients were to travel to Egypt and farther abroad for medical treatment.

The day after a chaotic and short-lived coup, the general who organised the assault has been arrested and Bolivians took to the streets in support of democracy.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Supporters of Bolivia’s president rallied outside his palace on Thursday, giving some political breathing room to the embattled leader as authorities made more arrests in a failed coup that shook the economically troubled country a day earlier.

Bolivia’s government announced that a total of 17 people had been arrested for their alleged involvement in the attempted government takeover, including the army chief, Gen. Juan José Zúñiga, and former navy Vice Adm. Juan Arnez Salvador, who were taken into custody the day before.

The South American nation of 12 million watched in shock and bewilderment Wednesday as military forces appeared to turn on the government of President Luis Arce, seizing control of the capital’s main square with armored vehicles, repeatedly crashing a small tank into the presidential palace and unleashing tear gas on protesters.

Senior Cabinet member Eduardo del Castillo did not elaborate on the other 15 people who were arrested, except to identify one civilian, Aníbal Aguilar Gómez, as a key “ideologue” of the thwarted coup. He said the alleged conspirators began plotting in May.

President Luis Arce called on Bolivians to "mobilize in favor of democracy" after the military broke into his residence in La Paz. World leaders condemned the coup attempt before soldiers began to withdraw.

A brief attempted coup appeared to come to an end after Bolivian forces withdrew from government areas in the capital La Paz on Wednesday, hours after armored vehicles were seen ramming the door of the presidential palace.

Soldiers were also seen entering the building around 4 p.m. local time (2000 GMT/UTC). They later withdrew following condemnation from President Luis Arce and other officials.

CNN —

The Biden administration is moving toward lifting a de facto ban on American military contractors deploying to Ukraine, four US officials familiar with the matter told CNN, to help the country’s military maintain and repair US-provided weapons systems.

The change would mark another significant shift in the Biden administration’s Ukraine policy, as the US looks for ways to give Ukraine’s military an upper hand against Russia.

The policy is still being worked on by administration officials and has not received final sign-off yet from President Joe Biden, officials said.

Moscow’s influence over the company was found to pose a significant risk, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

The Biden administration on Thursday announced plans to bar the sale of antivirus software made by Russia’s Kaspersky Lab in the United States, citing the firm’s large U.S. customers, including critical infrastructure providers and state and local governments.

Russia’s northern offensive isn’t going well.

Ukrainian forces have captured dozens of Russian troops in the embattled town of Vovchansk, just south of the Russia-Ukraine border, dealing a major setback to Russia’s faltering northern offensive.

In heavy fighting over the weekend, Ukrainian troops surrounded as many as 400 Russians in and around a chemical plant in central Vovchansk. Thirty Russians surrendered after repeated attempts to rescue them failed, the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies reported.

On May 10, a force of tens of thousands of Russian troops opened a new front in Russia’s 28-month wider war on Ukraine. Attacking south across the Russia-Ukraine border, Russian battalions quickly captured a chain of lightly defended border villages—and then advanced on Vovchansk, the first big town between the border and the city of Kharkiv, 25 miles to the south.

It was there in Vovchansk that the Ukrainians chose to stand fight. Elements of several Ukrainian brigades—including the elite 82nd Air Assault Brigade—rushed north and, in several weeks of hard fighting, blocked the Russian advance just north of the Vovcha River, which threads from east to west through central Vovchansk.

The Russians rallied. The equivalent of at least two battalions with hundreds of infantry stormed the PJSC Volchansky chemical plant, on the Vovcha River’s right bank. Factories and other industrial facilities are often the locus of the fighting in Ukraine, as their big sturdy buildings can shelter troops and protect them from artillery and drones.

The Russians’ plan was apparently to capture the chemical plant and then, from there, launch a river-crossing operation in order to force their way into southern Vovchansk.

The plan failed when Ukrainian troops—perhaps from the 9th Rifle Battalion, Russian Volunteer Corps or 36th Marine Brigade—attacked west of the chemical plant and advanced several blocks to the north, cutting off the Russians in the plant from their comrades to the west.

“The Russians are surrounded here with zero chances of evacuation or reinforcements,” one Ukrainian drone operator crowed. “A bunch of dead and wounded orcs,” they added, using a slang term for Russian soldiers.

The Portuguese centre-left party (S&D) and the Liberal party (Renew) were the winners of Sunday’s European elections in Portugal, which, unlike most other EU countries, saw the defeat of the far-right Chega party (ID).

While the Portuguese electorate voted for the Socialist Party, taking 11 of the 18 districts and outperforming the Democratic Alliance (PSD-CDS-PPM, EPP), which won the general elections three months ago, the party won eight of Portugal’s 21 MEP seats, losing one seat compared to 2019 despite winning more votes overall.

However, the Socialists won by the narrowest of margins over the AD (less than 40,000 votes and one percentage point), which does not give them any hope of returning to power in the short term following a hypothetical political crisis caused by the rejection of the state budget for 2025.