Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene resigns after no confidence vote

Today's news: South Koreans go to the polls for presidential elections; UN Secretary-General calls for independent investigation into killings of Palestinians near aid distribution centre in Gaza; New casualties in Ukraine after Russian attack, no truce in Istanbul negotiations; In Japan, the first whales have been caught since the reopening of whaling.

MONGOLIA

Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene has resigned after losing a vote of no confidence in Parliament, called following days of mass protests in the streets over allegations of corruption, fuelled by social media posts of a lavish party for his son. In office since 2021, the head of government will remain in office on an interim basis until a successor is appointed within 30 days. He was forced to resign because he failed to secure a majority, i.e. 64 of the 126 seats in Parliament. Approximately 82 lawmakers took part in the secret ballot, with 38 voting against.

SOUTH KOREA

Millions of South Koreans are heading to the polls for presidential elections, called ahead of schedule following the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol for attempting to introduce martial law. According to the latest polls, opposition candidate Lee Jae-myung is ahead of his rival, former government member Kim Moon-soo. Polling stations will close at 8 p.m. local time and results are expected within a few hours.

GAZA - UN

The UN Secretary-General has called for an independent investigation into yesterday's killing of Palestinians near an aid distribution centre in Gaza, with reports (contested by Israel) that defence forces opened fire on people waiting there. Witnesses reported being hit while waiting for food from the Rafah centre, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The Red Cross reported 179 wounded and 21 dead (31 according to Hamas).

RUSSIA - UKRAINE - TURKEY

The meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul ended after about an hour with the presentation of memoranda on proposals for resolving the conflict. According to sources in the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the talks ended “not negatively”, with the prospect of a new prisoner exchange, as Volodymyr Zelenskyj also stated in Vilnius. Moscow would only agree to end the war if Kiev renounces territories and restrictions on the army; one victim in Russian night attacks in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv.

INDIA

At least 34 people have died in north-eastern India after heavy flooding caused landslides over the past four days, with the meteorological department forecasting further rain. Over a thousand tourists trapped in the Himalayan state of Sikkim were evacuated yesterday, and army rescue teams are concentrated in the state of Meghalaya to save more than 500 people stranded in flooded areas.

JAPAN

Japan has hunted down at least 25 fin whales, for the first time since Tokyo withdrew from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 2019. The cetaceans were caught in the Sea of Okhotsk, north of the northern island of Hokkaido. Of the 320 tonnes of whale meat, about 1.6 tonnes will be transported to six markets across the country, including Tokyo and Osaka, as raw meat. The Japanese agency has set a quota of 60 for this year.

THAILAND

A new road safety law that came into force on 1 June is raising doubts and controversy. The “Safe Roads Project”, promoted by the police to reduce accidents, will see increased checks on motorcyclists and passengers not wearing helmets; offenders now face a fourfold increase in fines of up to 2,000 baht (approximately £45). According to the authorities, the law aims to tackle the high rate of road accidents and injuries in Thailand, particularly among motorcyclists.

GEORGIA

In the first four months of 2025, Georgia deported more foreign nationals than in the whole of the previous year (363), according to statistics published by the Ministry of the Interior in Tbilisi. There are already 394, including 71 Afghans, 54 Iranians, 33 Indians, 31 Turks, 31 Nigerians and 20 Russians, with a steady increase since 2023, when there were 190 in total.