Mongolia ranked 61st out of 63 countries in World Competitiveness Ranking www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Swiss-based IMD World Competitiveness Center has released “World Competitiveness Annual Report 2020.” According to the report, Mongolia has been ranked 61st out of 63 selected countries. In particular, Mongolia was listed at 59th by economic performance, 53rd by government efficiency, 57th by business efficiency and 62nd by infrastructure respectively.

Fossils from Mongolia, Argentina show some dinosaurs laid soft-shelled eggs www.reuters.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have unearthed the first fossils of soft-shelled eggs laid by dinosaurs - two disparate species from Argentina and Mongolia - in a discovery suggesting that the earliest dinosaurs produced such eggs before some lineages turned to hard shells.

After 65 Years, a Wild Ass Is Back in Eastern Mongolia www.atlasobscura.com

WHEN A RAILWAY WAS LAID across Mongolia’s vast expanse, it cleaved the country in two. Constructed in the mid-20th century as a conduit through the Gobi Desert, the rail stretches from southern Russia into northeast China. But the railroad was, of course, built for humans. Which means its builders overlooked how it would affect other species, including the ungulates of the region—most notably Mongolia’s khulan.

Once the track was laid, the damage was done. The khulan, a Mongolian subspecies of the onager, or Asiatic wild ass, soon vanished from the country’s harsh eastern steppe, through which the railway runs.

Back then, in the 1950s, Mongolia “was nearly Terra Incognita,” says Kirk Olson, the Mongolia conservation director for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), via email. “The Gobi-Steppe dwarfs the Serengeti ecosystem in size. The [Mongolian] ecosystem has been defined by the boundary of the range of khulan and Mongolian gazelles.”

In the mid-20th century, the northern stretches of the country housed an eclectic assortment of nomadic herders, remote villages (some of which would soon host train stations), and, of course, the denizen species of the desert—khulan among them. But with the arrival of people, coming through in (relatively) large numbers, the khulan took leave.

“What seems to have occurred is that when the corridor fencing was put in place to keep livestock and people off the tracks (and probably also to prevent vehicles from trying to drive across), the khulan were no longer able to move freely,” Olson says.

A staple species of the steppe ecosystem, the khulan—a tawny, quarter-ton cousin of the donkey—found itself without 6,500 square miles of land on which it used to roam.

“It was often explained to me by some of the older herders when I was first working in Mongolia that [Soviet] soldiers would hunt khulan with great intensity,” says Olson. “The combination of hunting pressure and harassment, herders occupying natural water sources, and the completion of the railroad were likely all interacting to cause their disappearance from the east.”

But with scant field research at the time, Olson says, it’s hard to say for sure. One thing is certain, however: The last time a khulan was reported crossing the tracks was in 1955.

Until now. On March 16, a khulan was seen for the first time in 65 years, about 500 miles from Ulaanbaatar.

Since then, the WCS team has removed a small section of wire fencing from the concrete posts on either side of the tracks, creating a 2,300-foot gap in the hope of opening a wildlife corridor for the diverse species in the area. Herds of Mongolian gazelles began bounding across in no time, but the khulan were more skeptical—until one individual cautiously made the first steps back eastward.

It was a momentous event that happened far more quickly than the team had expected—“a result that could be compared to throwing a dart and hitting the bullseye from [65 feet] back,” Olson says.

It remains to be seen how these ungulates will adapt to their former territory. But one small hoofstep for the khulan certainly represents a larger step for this long-lost species of the steppe.

Mongolian troops arrive in Moscow to partake in Victory Day Parade www.montsame.mn

A military contingent of the Armed Forces of Mongolia, who will participate in a military parade to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, arrived in Moscow city on June 14, by Il-76 aircraft of aerospace of the Russian Federation.Since Mongolian troops have been diagnosed with no infection of COVID-19 with three times repeated tests, they started their training at a sanatorium at the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Charter flight brings 257 transit Mongolians from S.Korea www.montsame.mn

On June 17, at 17:48, a charter flight of the MIAT Mongolian Airlines in route Seoul – Ulaanbaatar landed at Chinggis Khaan International Airport in Ulaanbaatar.

Mongolia halts uranium exploration in Dundgobi www.news.mn

Mongolia has halted uranium explorations in three soums (districts) of the Dundgobi Province after the Gurvansaikhan Company failed an inspection conducted by a working group from the Metropolitan Professional Inspection Department and nuclear and radiation experts. It was discovered that the company had not completed safety standards for preventing against nuclear and radiation leaks. Therefore, the mining company has lost three uranium exploration licenses in the Ulziit, Bayanjargalan, Gurvansaikhan, and Undurshil soums of the province.

The Fall of a Titan www.news.mn

Young Mongolian wrestler E.Oyunbold from the eastern Khentii province has been banned from competitions for two years following a doping scandal. Therefore, his victory in the traditional wrestling at last Naadam festival was cancelled and his title of Titan was revoked. Today (17 June) Ulaanbaatar City Primary Court finally held the trial over E.Oyunbold’s doping case.

John Bolton: Trump sought Xi's help with re-election www.bbc.com

US President Donald Trump tried to get China's Xi Jinping to help him secure re-election, ex-National Security Adviser John Bolton's new book says.

Mr Bolton says Mr Trump wanted China to buy agricultural produce from US farmers, according to details of the forthcoming book previewed by US media.

He also says Mr Trump "remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House".

The Trump administration is trying to block the book from hitting shelves.

But on Wednesday night, the Department of Justice sought an emergency order from a judge to stop the book's release.

The publisher, Simon & Schuster, said in a statement: "Tonight's filing by the government is a frivolous, politically motivated exercise in futility."

It said hundreds of thousands of copies of the book have already been distributed around the world and the injunction would accomplish nothing.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump called in to a Fox News programme and said of Mr Bolton: "He broke the law. This is highly classified information and he did not have approval."

"He was a washed up guy," the president added. "I gave him a chance."

The foreign policy hawk joined the White House in April 2018 and left in September the following year, saying he had decided to quit as national security adviser. President Trump, however, said he had fired Mr Bolton because he disagreed "strongly" with him.

On one hand, the account John Bolton offers in his new book should seem somewhat familiar.

This is hardly the first time a former adviser or anonymous current aide to Donald Trump has offered anecdotes about a president seemingly uninterested in the details of governing and uninformed on basic issues of foreign policy. For nearly three-and-a-half years, there have been plentiful stories about a White House rife with backbiting and internal power struggles.

Mr Bolton's book goes beyond this well-trodden ground, however, in painting a broad portrait of a president willing to bend foreign policy to advance his domestic and personal political agenda. This was the heart of the impeachment case congressional Democrats made against Trump in January.

Mr Bolton confirms their allegations that the president wanted the withholding of military aid to pressure Ukraine to provide damaging information about Democratic rival Joe Biden. Mr Bolton adds that Trump's dealings with China were also done with an eye on his re-election, and that he repeatedly intervened to assist friendly autocrats around the world.

Republicans suggest this is all the work of a disgruntled employee trying to sell books, while Democrats are already growling that Bolton should have volunteered these bombshells during the impeachment proceedings. That ship has sailed, of course, but Bolton's book can still have a bite, distracting a presidential campaign struggling to find its footing less than five months before election day.

What does Bolton allege about the meeting with Xi?
The allegations refer to a meeting between President Trump and President Xi at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in June last year.

The Chinese president had complained that some US critics of China were calling for a new cold war, Mr Bolton said in an extract from the book published in the New York Times.

"Trump, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US presidential election [in 2020], alluding to China's economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win," Mr Bolton said.

"He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome."

When Mr Xi agreed to make discussions on farm products a priority in trade talks, Mr Trump called him "the greatest leader in Chinese history".

Speaking on Wednesday evening, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer disputed Mr Bolton's account, saying the request for help with re-election "never happened".

Mr Bolton also mentions an earlier conversation at the summit's opening dinner, in which they discussed the building of camps in China's western Xinjiang region.

Mr Trump said the construction should go ahead as it was "exactly the right thing to do".

China has detained about a million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in the camps for punishment and indoctrination.

The Trump administration has been publicly critical of China's treatment of Uighurs, and on Wednesday the president signed legislation authorising US sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for the repression of Muslims in Xinjiang province.

Mr Trump's Democratic challenger in this November's election, Joe Biden, said in a statement about the book: "If these accounts are true, it's not only morally repugnant, it's a violation of Donald Trump's sacred duty to the American people."

Why has Trump's niece written a damning memoir?
What does Bolton say on Ukraine?
Mr Bolton says the impeachment inquiry into the president might have had a different outcome this year if it had gone beyond Ukraine and investigated other instances of alleged political interference.

In January, President Trump was impeached for withholding military aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into starting a corruption investigation into Mr Biden and his son Hunter.

The president denied the wrongdoing and was acquitted after a two-week trial in the Republican-controlled Senate in February, which did not include any witnesses.

Mr Bolton - who was criticised by Democrats for declining to testify to the hearings - does not discuss in the book whether he thinks that Mr Trump's actions on Ukraine were impeachable.

The publication contains a number of other explosive allegations:

'Oh, are you a nuclear power?'
Among other things, Mr Trump is alleged to have been unaware that the UK was a nuclear power.

Britain's atomic deterrent came up during a meeting with Theresa May in 2018, when it was mentioned by one of the then-prime minister's officials.

According to the book, Mr Trump said: "Oh, are you a nuclear power?" Mr Bolton said he could tell it "was not intended as a joke".

Mr Trump also once asked his former chief-of-staff John Kelly if Finland was part of Russia, writes Mr Bolton.

Invading Venezuela would be 'cool'
Mr Trump said invading Venezuela would be "cool", according to the book, and that the South American nation was "really part of the United States".

But he was less enthusiastic about another invasion. Of the Afghanistan conflict, Mr Trump is quoted in the book as saying: "This was done by a stupid person named George Bush."

Mr Bolton writes that in a May 2019 phone call Russian President Vladimir Putin pulled off a "brilliant display of Soviet-style propaganda" by likening Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, which "largely persuaded Trump".

Mr Putin's objective was to defend his ally, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Mr Bolton writes. In 2018, Mr Trump labelled the leftist Mr Maduro a dictator and imposed sanctions, but he clung to power.

In an interview with ABC News to be broadcast in full this Sunday, Mr Bolton says of Mr Trump: "I think Putin thinks he can play him like a fiddle."

'This is a bad place'
Mr Bolton writes that many of the president's closest aides privately disparaged him.

When he arrived at the White House, Mr Bolton said Mr Kelly warned him: "You can't imagine how desperate I am to get out of here. This is a bad place to work, as you will find out."

During Mr Trump's 2018 meeting with North Korea's leader, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo passed Mr Bolton a note about the president that said: "He is so full of shit."

He writes that Mr Pompeo, often described as a Trump loyalist, was among aides who considered resigning in disgust in frustration at working for the president.

Mr Bolton writes that the president "saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government."

Journalists should be 'executed'
According to Bolton's account, during a 2019 meeting in New Jersey Mr Trump said reporters - some of whose organisations he often describes as fake news - should have to disclose their sources or face imprisonment.

"These people should be executed. They are scumbags," Trump is quoted as saying.

Australia pension giant pressing Rio over heritage site blasts www.bloomberg.com

Australia’s biggest pension fund said it is pressing Rio Tinto Group on the destruction of a 40,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site, though isn’t yet contemplating selling down its stake in the world’s second-biggest miner.

New sports field opens in Bayanzurkh district www.montsame.mn

Governor of the Capital City and the Mayor of Ulaanbaatar S.Amarsaikhan made a decision to build a football field in each district and it is being successfully implemented. The construction of a football field and sports facilities, covering 1.8 hectares of land near the General Authority for Border Protection in the 4th khoroo of Bayanzurkh district has been completed and opened today.

The construction of the field was implemented by “Mongol Management Center” LLC. Within this framework, a 4.4-meter-wide, four-lane 450-meter jogging track, a 5,500-square-meter football field, an 880-square-meter basketball and volleyball court, an 84-meter-long 1.2-meter-wide walkway, and 1,155 square meters of sidewalks have been built. In addition, the sports field was built with spectator seats, shade, children's playgrounds, parking lots and restrooms, adding one more place for children and youth to visit.

The opening ceremony was attended by Governor of the Capital City and the Mayor of Ulaanbaatar S.Amarsaikhan Member of the Parliament B.Saranchimeg, Deputy Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Sports G.Ganbayar, General Manager of Ulaanbaatar and Head of the Mayor's Office T.Gantumur and athletes of the national football team.

Mayor S.Amarsaikhan first visited the site on May 9, 2019 which is more than a year ago and got acquainted with the situation and instructed relevant organizations including the Mayor's Office of Ulaanbaatar, the Land Management Department of the capital city, the City Planning and Development Department, and the Investment Department to urgently develop a design for the sports field, provide the necessary funds and start the construction work. Accordingly, the construction of a sports field was intensified since last autumn.

Mayor S.Amarsaikhan said, “As part of our people-centered policy, we have been building public parks, sports fields, bicycle paths etc. in stages by revoking the licenses for the land lots which have not been used properly, polluted the environment and most importantly, posed a risk to human life, health and property. Today, the construction work to transform this 1.8 hectares of area into a comprehensive sports field that meets international standards is being inaugurated. In the past, we have built parks in Chingeltei and Bayanzurkh districts and Central square. Currently, a park covering 3.8 hectares of land is being built at the foot of Bayankhoshuu Mountain, and green areas and winter sports arenas are under construction in Takhilt, Tsagdaa Tolgoi and Khan-Uul district. There are also plans to build more green areas and children’s playground in every corner of Ulaanbaatar. I would like to inform you that the park in the central square will be opened soon. In the past year, a total of 158 land lots have been reclaimed by the city for public use.”

Residents of the 4th khoroo of Bayanzurkh district expressed their gratitude to the Mayor and other officials for the construction of the football field and asked for more such places to be established in the future.