The nationwide polls for the 2021 presidential election of Mongolia are about to begin in less than 24 hours - at 7 AM, June 9, Wednesday. Election campaigning for Mongolia’s presidential election has officially ended at 12 AM, June 8, after running for 15 days, with the election silence period now launched.

Candidates - U.Khurelsukh from the Mongolian People’s Party, S.Erdene from the Democratic Party and D.Enkhbat from the Right Person Electorate Coalition - are vying for the presidency. Throughout the campaigning period, the three candidates had travelled throughout the country to meet with voters and undertake campaign activities, including distribution of promotional materials to voters, political advertising on radios, TVs and online, outdoor billboard advertisements and operating campaign offices.

On June 5, Saturday, candidate from the Right Person Electorate Coalition D.Enkhbat tested positive for coronavirus while touring across rural aimags for political campaigning. He cancelled all of his future campaign activities and arrived in Ulaanbaatar for mandatory isolation and treatment at a state hospital. With urging from the Right Person Electorate Coalition, with one seat in the current parliament, the Mongolian People’s Party’s candidate office also agreed to move their presidential campaign online amid the increasing transmission rate of COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

On June 7, the Mongolian National Broadcaster - public service broadcaster of Mongolia, which had been planning to hold a presidential debate on the evening of the same day, announced that it was cancelling the only presidential debate for the 2021 election.

There are a total of 2,151,329 eligible voters registered to vote for the presidential election on the polling day, which is to run from 7 AM to 10 PM of June 9. Out of them, 1,009,755 voters are in Ulaanbaatar city and 1,141,574 voters in the rest of the country.

Mobile voting using sealed ballot boxes are currently underway today, beginning from 9 AM to run until 8 PM, with election officers accompanied by observers and security officers are carrying sealed mobile ballot boxes to the places of residency of the voters. In accordance with the law on presidential election, voters, who are unable to come to the polling station by themselves are allowed to be polled through a mobile box on the day before the polling day.

Those voters include people, who cannot come to the polling station in person due to their health conditions, who are undergoing public mobilization, who are apprehended, detained, or convicted due to administrative offences or who are apprehended or imprisoned due to legal procedure, and who are serving at army and border troop units. The ballot boxes will be opened on the actual polling day and the ballot papers will be put into the voting machines tomorrow morning at the same time of the launch of the polls.

As reported by the General Election Commission, there are 25,619 voters who are eligible for mobile voting, including around 7,000 people who are staying under compulsory isolation at home or hospitals due to COVID-19 infection or coming into close contacts with COVID-19 patients. The presidential election for 2021 is the first election to enable those under COVID-19 isolation to vote, as approved by the government’s temporary regulation on prevention of COVID-19 during the 2021 presidential election.

By the presidential election law, sales and serving of alcoholic beverages between June 8 and 10 will be prohibited as well as any art and cultural performances and sports tournaments involving a large groups of people will not be organized during these days.

For the presidential election, the candidate winning more than 50 percent of the votes cast is awarded the contested seat. If no candidate secures a majority in the first round of the tomorrow's election, another round will be organized with two candidates with the most votes. With latest amendments to the Constitution of Mongolia made in December 2019, the new president will be appointed for a single six-year term, instead of the renewable four-year term.

The Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has said he will fly to space with his brother on the first human flight launched by his space company, Blue Origin.

In an Instagram post, Mr Bezos said space flight was something he had wanted to do "all my life".

Blue Origin is also auctioning off a seat in the capsule, for someone who will join the pair on the inaugural manned flight.

Jeff Bezos is one of the world's richest people.

He has a net worth of $186.2bn (£131.5bn), according to Forbes magazine.

"On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother," he wrote in the Instagram post. "The greatest adventure, with my best friend."

Mr Bezos's brother Mark called it a "remarkable opportunity" in the video.

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Bidding for a seat on the New Shepard - the name of the Blue Origin vehicle - had reached $2.8m when Mr Bezos announced his plan to take the flight. The auction concludes on 12 June.

The New Shepard booster can land vertically on the ground after returning from space. It is named after Alan Shepard, the second person and first US citizen to fly into space.

According to Blue Origin's website the company plans to launch its passengers more than 100km (62 miles) above the Earth's surface, allowing them to experience microgravity. The six-berth capsule will return to Earth under parachutes.

The first manned flight comes just two weeks after Mr Bezos plans to step down as CEO of Amazon.

Instead he will serve as executive chairman of the e-commerce giant he founded 30 years ago in his garage, allowing him "time and energy" to focus on other ventures.

In observance of World Environment Day in Mongolia and to support the National Government to implement their ‘Vision-2050’ development policy to protect and increase the forest zones, People in Need INGO in cooperation with Czech Republic Embassy, and Caritas Czech Republic INGO planted trees in Bogd-Khan Mountain.

Caritas Czech Republic and People in Need (PIN) INGOs have implement numerous projects funded by the Czech Republic and European Union in Mongolia, most of which aim to protect the environment, avert climate change, and promote sustainable livelihoods.

“My wife and I are very pleased to take part in this event organized by two Czech NGOs operating in Mongolia. The Czech Republic has been cooperating with Mongolia in forestry for many years. Our experts from Mendel University and Forest Management Institute have provided Mongolian partners with tools for long-term forest development and management, methodology for identifying and registering forest stands with extraordinary genetic qualities, introduce an effective way for the production of reproductive material, and offer a complex approach to planting, including initial planning, soil preparation, effective planting and protection of seedlings and saplings. Mendel University in Brno has been training young Mongolian forestry experts and it will lead international university consortium in a bigger forestry project funded by the European Union as of this year.” said H.E. Jiri Brodsky, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Mongolia.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the three candidates in the 9th June 2021 presidential election in Mongolia to voice their support for future press freedom reforms as the best way to improve public affairs transparency and combat corruption.

With presidential elections in Mongolia to be held on 9th June 2021, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urges the three presidential candidates, Enkhbat Dangaasuren (Right Person Electorate Coalition), Erdene Sodnomzundui (Democratic Party), and Khurelsukh Ukhnaa (Mongolian People's Party) to commit to supporting future reforms strengthening press freedom and editorial independence, as the best way to improve the transparency of public affairs and combat the country’s endemic corruption.

“When Mongolian journalists can work independently from political or commercial pressure, including from their own boardroom, they will be able to more easily bring corruption cases to the attention of the public which will benefit the country’s democratic institutions,” says Cédric Alviani, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) East Asia bureau head.

Although Mongolia broadly respects the principles of press freedom and media pluralism, its media environment is plagued by conflicts of interest that hinder editorial independence. On 26th April 2017, a few weeks before the previous presidential election, Mongolian television stations replaced their normal programming with blank screens in protest against plans to increase the penalties for defamation, which they feared would force journalists into self-censorship.

Mongolia ranked 68th out of 180 in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

Osaka: A first half header from Mijiddorj Oyunbaatar saw Mongolia sign off their Group F campaign with a 1-0 win over Kyrgyz Republic on Monday in the second round of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and the AFC Asian Cup China 2023.

The result is a setback for Kyrgyz Republic who missed out on the chance to go level on points with regional rivals Tajikistan in second and saw Mongolia avenge their 2-1 defeat in the first meeting between the sides in October 2019.

Due to a positive COVID-19 case among the squad that affected several playing and coaching staff, Kyrgyz Republic kicked off the tie with defender Aizar Akmatov pulling on the gloves in goal.

While Akmatov was untroubled for the opening quarter of an hour, on 17 minutes Baljinnyam Batbold should have tested the stand-in’s skills, but the Mongolia midfielder sliced his effort wide after pouncing on a loose clearance and driving into the area.

However just after the half hour mark, with their next significant chance on goal, Mongolia took the lead.

A fine in-swinging free-kick from the captain Tsend-Ayush Khurelbaatar found Oyunbaatar, and his header, ricocheting off Kyrgyz Republic defender Mustafa Iusupov, left Akmatov with no chance.

Gulzhigit Alykulov sought an immediate reply for the Central Asians, but after he worked space for a shot, lacked sufficient power to trouble Munkh-Erdene Enkhtaivan.

The second half began in much the same vein as the first as Kyrgyz Republic continued to control possession with Enkhtaivan needing to be alert to deny Alimardon Shukurov’s angled cross-cum-shot at his near post eight minutes after the restart.

Opportunities on goal remained at a premium but Kyrgyz Republic substitute Abai Bokoleev could have grabbed a share of the points with four minutes remaining only to be denied by a fine one-handed save from Enkhtaivan.

While Mongolia’s focus will now switch to the next stage of qualifying for AFC Asian Cup China 2023, Kyrgyz Republic will return to Yanmar Stadium Nagai to face Myanmar on Friday, before signing off their Group F campaign four days later against hosts Japan in Suita.

June 7 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia confirmed 1,177 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, raising the national count to 66,443, the country's Health Ministry said Monday.

A total of 6,248 samples were tested across the country in the past day, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the latest confirmed cases were local infections.

Meanwhile, 300 more patients recovered from the disease, taking the total recoveries to 54,081, while the deaths totaled 327, with two more fatalities registered over the past day.

The Asian country launched a national vaccination campaign against COVID-19 in late February, in a bid to inoculate at least 60 percent of its 3.3 million population against the coronavirus.

So far, more than 1,525,500 Mongolians have been fully vaccinated, according to the ministry.

The country reported its first imported COVID-19 case in March 2020 and confirmed its first locally transmitted case in November.

Bilateral trade between Russia and China saw significant growth in the first five months of the current year, the latest data from China’s General Administration of Customs shows.

According to the data, the total volume of trade between the two countries during the period amounted to $50.65 billion, marking year-on-year growth of 23.6%. In May alone, Russia-China trade turnover reached $10.449 billion.

Exports of Chinese goods to Russia increased by 35.3% to $22.921 billion, while imports of Russian products surged 15.4%, and reached $27.735 billion.

Mutual trade between the nations has returned to positive growth this year after pandemic-hit 2020 saw a nearly 3% year-on-year decline.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that despite the economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, trade between Russia and China still exceeded $100 billion, and reached $104 billion last year.

Putin added that Russia-China bilateral trade is expected to reach $200 billion by 2024.

China's imports grew at their fastest pace in 10 years in May, fuelled by surging demand for raw materials, although export growth slowed more than expected amid disruptions caused by COVID-19 cases at the country's major southern ports.

While a brisk recovery in developed markets has bolstered demand for Chinese products, a global semiconductor shortage, higher raw material and freight costs, logistics bottlenecks and a strengthening yuan have dimmed the outlook for the world's largest exporting nation.

China's exports in dollar terms in May grew 27.9% from a year earlier, slower than the 32.3% growth reported in April and missing analysts' forecast of 32.1%.

"Exports surprised a bit on the downside, maybe due to the COVID cases in Guangdong province which slowed down the turnover in Shenzhen and Guangzhou ports," said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, adding that turnover at ports in Guangdong will likely remain slow in June.

Major shipping companies warned clients of worsening congestion at Shenzhen's Yantian port in Guangdong province after the discovery of several cases among port staff. read more

On the ground in Guangdong, factories have yet to report widespread capacity cuts over the outbreak but admitted efficiency issues as they tried to meet overseas demand.

Chen Linsheng, chief operating officer at Anlan, a Shenzhen-based manufacturer of skincare and beauty-care devices, told Reuters while there was no impact on production, staff are now subject to a series of COVID tests and not allowed back into the factory without a negative result.

"We are not allowed going out (of the city). We need to report in advance and cannot even go to Guangzhou or Foshan on our own," said Chen, adding that a lot of meetings have moved back online.

Besides the impact of COVID cases in Guangdong, the global chip shortage has started to hit all of China's export items related to semiconductors, said Iris Pang, Greater China chief economist at ING.

For example, auto processing products and parts, the biggest export item, fell 4% from a year earlier, Pang added.

Two-year average growth for exports dropped to 23.4% in May from 36.3% in April, pointing to weaker export momentum as the reopening of developed economies reduce demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) and work-from-home (WFH) products, analysts at Nomura said in a note.

At the same time, the currency's extended rally in recent weeks to near three-year highs against the dollar could further saddle U.S. consumers with higher prices.

PRICE-DRIVEN SURGE

Imports increased 51.1% on year last month in dollar terms, the fastest growth since January 2011 but slower than the 51.5% rise tipped by the Reuters poll.

However, that figure -- a gauge of import values, not volumes -- was partly flattered by hot raw materials prices with demand for commodities such as coal, steel, iron ore and copper driven by easing pandemic lockdowns in many countries and ample global liquidity.

Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics, said while import prices increased at a rapid pace, import volumes probably edged down in May.

"Once again, supply constraints are partly to blame – inbound shipments of semiconductors continued to drop back," he said. "So too did imports of industrial metals."

Indeed, iron ore futures dipped more than 3% on Monday as the trade data cast a shadow over demand prospects.

China posted a $45.53 billion trade surplus for the month, wider than the $42.86 billion surplus in April but less than the $50.5 billion expected.

The Biden administration is conducting a review of U.S.-China trade policy, ahead of the expiry of the Trump-era "Phase 1" deal at the end of 2021, which called for China to increase purchases of U.S. agricultural goods and manufactured products.

Since President Joe Biden took office in January, China has increased engagement with U.S. trade and economic chiefs. China's Vice Premier Liu He spoke with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week, just days after talks with U.S. Trade chief Katherine Tai.

The United States, Britain and other large, rich nations reached a landmark deal on Saturday to squeeze more money out of multinational companies such as Amazon and Google and reduce their incentive to shift profits to low-tax offshore havens.

Hundreds of billions of dollars could flow into the coffers of governments left cash-strapped by the COVID-19 pandemic after the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies agreed to back a minimum global corporate tax rate of at least 15%.

Facebook (FB.O) said it expected it would have to pay more tax, in more countries, as a result of the deal, which comes after eight years of talks that gained fresh impetus in recent months after proposals from U.S. President Joe Biden's new administration.

"G7 finance ministers have reached a historic agreement to reform the global tax system to make it fit for the global digital age," British finance minister Rishi Sunak said after chairing a two-day meeting in London.

The meeting, hosted at an ornate 19th-century mansion near Buckingham Palace in central London, was the first time finance ministers have met face-to-face since the start of the pandemic.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the "significant, unprecedented commitment" would end what she called a race to the bottom on global taxation.

German finance minister Olaf Scholz said the deal was "bad news for tax havens around the world".

Yellen also saw the G7 meeting as marking a return to multilateralism under Biden and a contrast to the approach of U.S. President Donald Trump, who alienated many U.S. allies.

"What I've seen during my time at this G7 is deep collaboration and a desire to coordinate and address a much broader range of global problems," she said.

Ministers also agreed to move towards making companies declare their environmental impact in a more standard way so investors can decided more easily whether to fund them, a key goal for Britain.

TAXING TIMES

EU's Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe, World Bank President David Malpass, Italy's Finance Minister Daniele Franco, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Canada's Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Managing Director of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva, Germany's Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Mathias Cormann, Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso pose for a family photo during the G7 finance ministers meeting at Lancaster House in London, Britain, June 5, 2021. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

Current global tax rules date back to the 1920s and struggle with multinational tech giants that sell services remotely and attribute much of their profits to intellectual property held in low-tax jurisdictions.

Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice-president for global affairs and a former British deputy prime minister, said: "We want the international tax reform process to succeed and recognise this could mean Facebook paying more tax, and in different places."

But Italy, which will seek wider international backing for the plans at a meeting of the G20 in Venice next month, said the proposals were not just aimed at U.S. firms.

Yellen said European countries would scrap existing digital services taxes which the United States says discriminate against U.S. businesses as the new global rules go into effect.

"There is broad agreement that these two things go hand in hand," she said.

Key details remain to be negotiated over the coming months. Saturday's agreement says only "the largest and most profitable multinational enterprises" would be affected.

European countries had been concerned that this could exclude Amazon (AMZN.O) - which has lower profit margins than most tech companies - but Yellen said she expected it would be included.

How tax revenues will be split is not finalised either, and any deal will also need to pass the U.S. Congress.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he would push for a higher minimum tax, calling 15% "a starting point".

Some campaign groups also condemned what they saw as a lack of ambition. "They are setting the bar so low that companies can just step over it," Oxfam's head of inequality policy, Max Lawson, said.

But Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe, whose country is potentially affected because of its 12.5% tax rate, said any global deal also needed to take account of smaller nations.

The G7 includes the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada.

Bitcoin and most other top cryptocurrencies fell on Sunday on concerns that there may be a further crackdown on the industry in China and as a report from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. served as a reminder that institutional adoption may be a long process.

Bitcoin, Ether and the rest of the top 30 cryptocurrencies excluding stablecoins declined in the past 24 hours as of 1:40 p.m. in Hong Kong, according to pricing data from CoinGecko. Chinese social-media service Weibo suspended some crypto-related accounts -- when trying to view them, a message comes up that says the accounts have been reported for violations of laws, regulations or Weibo rules.

Weibo’s media relations officer didn’t immediately reply to an email request for comment on Sunday. The micro-blogging service took similar action in 2019 when it suspended the accounts of exchange operator Binance Holdings Ltd. and blockchain platform Tron.

Chinese authorities have recently cautioned on crypto trading and Bitcoin mining efforts are being curtailed, which have put pressure on prices. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, is also struggling with technical levels, remaining below its 20-day and 200-day moving averages.

Bitcoin “remains vulnerable to a test of critical support at $29,000 with downside to risk to $20,000,” Evercore ISI technical strategist Rich Ross wrote in a note Friday. He said he’s a “seller” currently, with a $41,000 buy stop.

Bitcoin remains below its 200-day average and near the 20-day

Bitcoin went on a furious rally at the beginning of the year, surging to almost $65,000 amid enthusiasm about institutional adoption, the idea that it’s a store of value akin to “digital gold,” and with endorsements from big-name investors like Paul Tudor Jones and Stan Druckenmiller.

The cryptocurrency has retreated by more than $25,000 since then and was recently trading around $36,100. It’s still up about 25% this year.

In a development that undermines the narrative about institutional adoption, a Goldman Sachs note on Saturday showed that not everyone in finance is eager to jump in.

“We held two CIO roundtable sessions earlier this week, which were attended by 25 CIOs from various long-only and hedge funds,” the strategists led by Timothy Moe wrote. “Their most favorite is Growth style but least favorite on Bitcoin.”

relates to Bitcoin Drops Amid Weibo Crypto Suspensions, Goldman CIO Survey

Still, support for Bitcoin continues to grow in some quarters. In comments from a video broadcast at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miamia, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said he plans to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country, while San Francisco-based Square Inc. said it will invest $5 million to build a solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility. The project will be constructed at a Blockstream Mining site in the U.S. through a partnership with the blockchain technology provider.

Separately, a video posted on YouTube on Friday that appears to be from the group “Anonymous” criticizes Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Office Elon Musk for a variety of reasons including his social-media commentary about Bitcoin. Musk, for his part, continued to tweet actively into the weekend about crypto and other matters.

— With assistance by Tongjian Dong