B.Ooluun

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump first agreed in early April to create an action plan by mid-July that would address trade imbalances. Both sides are set to hold their first Comprehensive Economic Dialogue this Wednesday.

The two got the ball rolling in May when China formally agreed to allow imports of U.S. beef, previously banned due to concerns about mad cow disease. In return, Washington pledged to cooperate with Beijing's Belt and Road infrastructure-building initiative.

"The agreements changed the view that the U.S. and China are starting a trade war," said a senior official in China's Commerce Ministry.

Back then, the two nations were on relatively friendly terms since the White House planned to soften its economic stance on China if Beijing would cooperate in resolving the North Korean problem.

Then Pyongyang engaged in a series of missile tests that culminated with an intercontinental ballistic missile that experts fear can reach the continental U.S. Despite that development, Beijing still favors dialogue with Kim Jong Un's regime above harsher sanctions, such as cutting off Chinese petroleum exports.

Trump's patience is seemingly wearing thin. "We've asked [Xi] for some assistance with respect to North Korea," the president said during his visit to France Thursday. "Probably, he could do a little bit more."

With the brief honeymoon over, Washington is readying a much tougher stance, according to a source close to U.S.-China diplomatic channels. And Chinese steel dumping will be brought front and center.

Back in May, both sides agreed to make an effort on the issue, electing to hammer out a concrete plan of action at a later date. China exported nearly 1.2 million tons of steel to America last year. That sum is a third of the peak, but Washington suspects China of pumping in more steel through third-party nations.

Trump is looking at raising tariffs and imposing volume sales caps, which would likely be met with a furious pushback from Beijing during negotiations.

Mongolia has been taking much pride in its pristine untouched land, water, fresh air and sunny days with Eternal Blue sky. However, when we dream about visiting you all our lives and spend thousands of dollars and finally arrive, we are greeted with littered grassland, streets and polluted rivers and mountains, full of vodka bottles, cigarette butts, soiled diapers, plastic bottles and aluminum cans. This IS NOT THE MONGOLIA we imagined and hoped for!

LITTERING IN MONGOLIA HAS TO STOP! We love your country, honor your heritage and often come to you to escape from hectic modern cities and to ponder the meaning of life and find ourselves in your beautiful mountains and vast steppes. We come to reconnect with Mother Nature and find peace and adventure. We WANT CLEAN MONGOLIA BACK and want to BRAG TO THE WHOLE WORLD that visiting Mongolia is once in a lifetime opportunity for everyone! We want to brag that MONGOLIA IS AN EXEMPLARY NATION that cherishes their vast land that they inherited from the Chinggis Khaan, which he loved dearly.

Until each and every one of you takes REAL action toward returning Mongolia’s pristine, unlittered beauty, your words about “beautiful” Mongolia is are empty! ACT NOW before it's too late! We know you can do it! You are the children of legendary men and women who have honored the Mother Earth through centuries!

After the hearing, Prime Minister J.Erdenebat instructed relevant Ministers and authorities to take the following measures:
1. To temporarily prohibit travel and picnics in green zones, most importantly to strengthen the enforcement of this decision and to increase the number of patrols.
2. First of all, to stop the fire spread immediately with effective management of personnel and equipment and to inform the Prime Minister on the situation and get necessary assistance.
3. To mobilize the armed forces and their powerful machines and equipment, if the NEMA wants support, assessing the situation and to provide preparedness and readiness for it.
4. To use cloud seeding in the areas where fires are burning, in possible meteorological conditions.
5. To define the cause of the fires and to impose liability on the persons who is responsible for the fires.

The PM officially expressed his gratitude for the initiative of people who volunteered to join to extinguish the wildfires. “- But it is a very responsible task for specially trained people to be done in special clothing and with particular equipment. Therefore, volunteering for fire extinguishing takes a risk to human life, and it can also cause burdens to the professionals working there. Presently, the NEMAs considers it possible to stop the spread of the fires and extinguish by their own capacity and force, as well as the National Weather and Research Institute informed that cloud seeding in the fire burning areas is possible as rain clouds are expected to accumulate in the fire burning regions on July 17-19” said the PM appealing people to be calm and understanding. The NEMA was obliged to bring donations from the public to the fire sites.
B.Ooluun

During his election campaign, Battulga made concerted efforts to associate himself not only with Russia, but personally with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The case was made with campaign materials depicting Battulga and Putin together, despite no known history of any connection between the two.

More curiously, a Mongolian Democratic Party newsletter published photos of Putin and Battulga shaking hands at center stage during a formal event in the Kremlin. Experts and independent observers have questioned the authenticity of the photos, with the photographer who worked the event for the Russian news agency RIA Novosti claiming he had no record of such a meeting taking place. Just days before the election, it was reported that representatives from United Russia, Russia’s ruling party, met with Battulga.
The new president's platform was a populist one playing up suspicions of China and promising more Russia ties for security and balance—which plays well in the country:

Battulga has matched his pro-Russian platform with hostility toward China, repeatedly referring to “threats” emanating from the east. In 2014 he openly questioned Mongolia’s economic dependence on the country: “The resources will finish in 40 to 50 years and there will definitely be conflict between the Mongolians and the Chinese.”

Despite China’s critical importance to Mongolia’s economy, Russian influence is, for historical reasons, more welcomed. Historical memory of Mongolia’s time as a Chinese province from 1691 to 1911 runs deep. In 2004, in a widely-cited national poll, Mongolians were asked to choose two countries they considered the best potential partners for Mongolia. Russia came in first place, receiving twice as many votes as the second place United States. China came in a distant fourth, following Japan.
Moscow will welcome the rise of such a pro-Russian politician, but won't be interested in getting into any anti-Chinese squabbles.

Tenzin Choeying set himself on fire on Friday at the Central University for Tibetan Studies in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh state.

Self-immolation has regularly been used as a protest against China's actions in Tibet. But Indian police said they are also investigating the 20-year-old's recent exam failures as being a possible cause for his actions.

The International Campaign for Tibet identified the student as Tenzin Choeying. It quoted Chime Namgyal, head of the Tibetan Youth Congress activist group in Varanasi, as saying Choeying shouted "Victory to Tibet".

Tenzin Tsundue, who visited Choeying at the hospital in Varanasi, told Al Jazeera that the patient is expected to survive.

"He is stable, the next five days are crucial, the doctor says," he wrote in a Whatsapp message to Al Jazeera.

"My concern, as his brother, is to arrange for him the best treatment, and get him back to life."

Tsundue also sent to Al Jazeera a note, which he said Choeying wrote before the incident.

In in Choeying wrote in English, "Please don't cry. Tell everyone that my body is for Tibet."

Police said they were still investigating and will take statements from Choeying and his family. "The boy is recovering at the hospital. He can speak but has around 50 percent burns," Sanjay Tripathi, a Varanasi police spokesman, told AFP news agency.

Religious repression accusations
China says its troops "liberated" Tibet in 1951, but many Tibetans accuse the government of religious repression and eroding their culture.

China rejects the accusations and blames the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader who lives in exile in the Indian hill town of Dharamshala, of inciting self-immolations in a bid to split Tibet from the rest of the nation.

A young farmer self-immolated in southwest China in March, the first Tibetan to set themselves on fire in 2017.

The Tibetan government in exile in India said he was the 146th Tibetan to self-immolate since 2009.

Choeying is the not the first Tibetan to set himself on fire in India. A Tibetan exile set himself alight and died two days later in New Delhi in 2012.