White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Trump was raising concerns about mail-in ballots when he floated the idea of delaying the U.S. vote.

“We’re going to hold an election on November 3 and the president is going to win,” Meadows said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Presidential campaign adviser Jason Miller echoed the sentiment on “Fox News Sunday,” saying, “The election is going to be on November 3rd and President Trump wants the election to be on November 3rd.”

Trump on Thursday suggested delaying the U.S. elections, an idea immediately rejected by both Democrats and his fellow Republicans in Congress - the sole branch of government with the authority to make such a change.

Critics and even Trump’s allies dismissed the notion as an unserious attempt to distract from devastating economic news, but some legal experts warned that his repeated attacks could undermine his supporters’ faith in the election process.

The Republican president has been trying to undermine confidence in mail-in balloting, claiming repeatedly and without evidence that it would lead to widespread voter fraud.

Meadows took up his boss’s cause on Sunday, warning that mail-in ballots must be handled properly without providing evidence that they have not been in the past.

Asked if it were irresponsible for Trump to float the idea, Meadows skirted the question, saying “It is responsible for him to say that if we try to go to 100% universal mail-in ballots, will we have an election result on November 3? Now I would suggest we wouldn’t even have it on January 1.”

Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson told CNN on Sunday the election should be held on time and it was up to states to ensure balloting be carried out properly.

“It’s not helpful for the president to think out loud in a public fashion and express some frustration,” he added.

The coronavirus crisis is expected to drive a surge in mail voting in November. State election officials are working to ensure tens of millions of ballots can reach voters in time to be cast and are returned in time to be counted.

Miller criticized efforts by states including Nevada for moving toward expanding mail-in balloting during emergencies like the coronavirus epidemic, as well as other states that will count ballots postmarked Nov. 3 that arrive after Election Day.

Trump early Sunday called for a lawsuit to be filed to counter Nevada’s legislative efforts to extend mail-in balloting. “This is outrageous. Must be met with immediate litigation!,” he said in a Twitter post.

Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Steve Orlofsky

"A total of 455 tests for COVID-19 were conducted across the country yesterday and two of them were positive," Amarjargal Ambaselmaa, head of the NCCD's Surveillance Department, said at a daily press conference.

The latest two cases were servicemen of the Mongolian Armed Forces, who returned home from Afghanistan on a chartered flight in mid-July, said Ambaselmaa.

All the confirmed cases in the country were imported, mostly from Russia, and no local transmissions or deaths were reported, according to the authorities. Enditem

With implementation of the temporary regulation, freight vehicle drivers will have greater access to enter Mongolian and Chinese border checkpoints than before. In addition to it, it enables engineering and technical workers of the two countries, who are required for largest cooperation projects and programs, to mutually travel in the two countries, Ms. T.Battsetseg highlighted in her briefing.

The temporary regulation also has articles targeted to making trading activities easier for Mongolian citizens and entities, promotng online trading as well as reducing time for customs clearance to export agricultural products, which are main export products of Mongolia.

A citizen who made a request to travel according to the “Green Gateway” regulation, will cross the country’s border after getting permission from corresponding organizations of the two countries and getting involved in COVID-19 test. After their passage through the border, they will follow relevant infection prevention rules of that country. Within it, citizens arrived in Mongolia from China will be put into 21+14-day mandatory isolation.

“In general, the regulation can be understood as bilateral joint effort for activating their trade and economic cooperation on the basis of well prevention from spread of the infectious disease and fully satisfying hygiene requirements as before,” Ms. T.Battsetseg remarked.

A total of 190 Chinese workers have submitted their requests so far to take part in large-scale projects such as development of Darkhan-Ulaanbaatar auto road and construction of new Central Wastewater Treatment Plant of Ulaanbaatar city.

She stressed that the newly formed Government is giving priority to increase export and reduce encountering barriers on foreign trade. Since the budget condition is becoming tough with declined performance on foreign trade due to the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign trade, especially export is of great significance to revive the economy and improve payment capacity. In aims of increasing export and promoting foreign trade, the MFA is focusing on the following four main directions.

Firstly, we are attaching attention on boosting export with our two neighbors. To accomplish this goal, works such as strengthening Mongolia’s Trade Representative Offices in Beijing and Moscow and opening Trade Representative Office in Vladivostok, Russia. have started. And more attention will be paid on diversifying products being exported to China, especially raising the volume of meat export. Furthermore, we are ensuring preparations to establish Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union, which includes countries such as Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Armenia.

Secondly, legal basis has been formed by mutually agreeing principles to develop trade, economic and investment cooperation with the third partner countries such as the United States and Japan. In addition, specific works have being carried out to expand trade relations with the Republic of Korea and India.

Thirdly, “Mongol Export” program is successfully running in its second year. The program aims to create export environment and diversify export. And it necessarily requires public-private partnership. Corresponding officials are studying possibilities to export four types of products to other countries passing through the European market with support of the European Union. The products are beauty products, sea buckthorn oil, leather goods, yak and camel wool.

In the fourth place, works are underway to join the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) in regard with expansion of export market. The Parliament of Mongolia ratified this agreement in 2019 and its implementation will begin in 2021. This is a Free Trade Agreement joined by six countries namely China, South Korea, India, Bangladesh, Laos and Sri-Lanka. We see this region as a market with 2.6 billion customers in total. By joining the agreement, it will become able to enjoy tariff discount of 5-100 percent on 10.667 types of products to import and export products to these six countries.

To calm fears of the virus at home, upon his return, Kh.Battulga and the delegation team observed the obligatory quarantine requirement.

According to the Foreign Ministry in Ulaanbaatar, the Chinese side has requested that Mongolia sends the sheep alive in autumn, when they are in peak physical condition. Therefore, the Mongolian Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industries is working to collect 30 thousand sheep and conduct the necessary medical examination. The first herd of sheep is expected to depart for China in September.

Some 1200 Mongolians stranded in Australia have applied to return home; around 300 of them are elderly people aged above 60.

On 6 June, MIAT, Mongolian airlines conducted the first ever direct passenger flight from Ulaanbaatar to Sydney. A total of 150 elderly Mongolians have returned with the two charter flights.

Abramovich and other investors holding 40.06% of the Russia-focused gold miner have agreed to sell their shares to Fortiana Holdings Limited in a deal that values Highland at about $1.4 billion.

Fortiana, a Cyprus-registered company of Russian businessman Vladislav Sviblov, will make an offer to the rest of Highland’s shareholders at the same price of 3-pounds-per-share ($3.94), a 3.8% premium to Thursday’s closing price.

Highland Gold is one of Russia’s top 10 gold producers, operating several mines in the country’s Far East.

The agreement follows Fortiana’s sale last month of about 5% in another Russian gold miner, Petropavlovsk. Selling that interest gave the company cash to pursue other investment opportunities, it said at the time.

Spot gold has climbed about 29% this year on the back mixed factors, including safe-haven demand, a weakening US dollar, negative real yields and a flood of monetary and fiscal stimulus.

Even with the likelihood of gold price volatility in the near term, investment demand should hold up over a longer time period, the World Gold Council said Thursday.

Abramovich sold last year a stake in Nornickel, Russia’s biggest mining company. The deal was the largest share sale by a Russian company since Magnit PJSC’s accelerated bookbuild offering in November 2017.

Fortiana’s acquisition of a stake in Highland Gold is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020.

(With files from Reuters and Bloomberg)

The official manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI)rose to 51.1 in July from June’s 50.9, official data showed on Friday, marking the highest reading since March. Analysts had expected it to slow to 50.7.

The 50-point mark separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis.

Gauges ranging from trade to producer prices have all reflected signs of a further pick-up in manufacturing, but analysts say factories could have a tough time maintaining momentum as pent-up demand wanes and heavy flooding across large swathes of China disrupts economic activity.

“We believe Beijing will likely maintain its easing stance through the remainder of this year as the economy is still far from a full recovery and faces heightened uncertainty,” Nomura analysts wrote Tuesday.

Reporting by Gabriel Crossley; Editing by Shri Navaratnam

The arbitration panel declared that UI violated its obligations to Denison under the related agreements, and ordered UI to pay the company $10-million, plus interest at a rate of 5% a year from November 16, 2016, as well as certain legal and arbitration costs.

The arbitration panel also dismissed all other claims and counterclaims.

In November 2015, Denison completed the sale of its mining assets and operations located in Mongolia to UI pursuant to an amended and restated share purchase. The primary assets, at that time, were the exploration licences for the Hairhan, Haraat, Gurvan Saihan and Ulzit projects.

In September 2016, the Mineral Resources Authority of Mongolia formally issued mining licence certificates for all four projects, triggering Denison's right to receive additional post-closing contingent consideration of $10-million.

Denison has extended the payment due date of the mining licence receivable from November 16, 2016 to July 16, 2017, and agreed to a 5% a year interest rate.

The uranium exploration company turned to arbitration after the required payments were not made.

The Chinese vendor shipped 55.8 million devices, down five percent year on year. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Samsung (which is second in China sales) shipped 53.7 million smartphones, a 30 percent plunge versus the same period last year.

Overall, smartphone shipments in international markets plunged 27 percent year-on-year in the April to June quarter.

Statistics showed that Huawei sold over 70 percent of its smartphones in mainland China in the second quarter. In Europe (a key region for Huawei) the company’s smartphone market share dropped sharply to 16 percent in the second quarter versus 22 percent in the same period in 2019. According to Counterpoint Research, Huawei is the third-largest smartphone maker in Europe behind Samsung and Apple.

Analysts say that given the massive population of China, success there often spurs companies to a large “global” market share.

“It will be hard for Huawei to maintain its lead in the long term,” said analyst at Canalys Mo Jia. “Its major channel partners in key regions, such as Europe, are increasingly wary of ranging Huawei devices, taking on fewer models, and bringing in new brands to reduce risk.”

The analyst added that “Strength in China alone will not be enough to sustain Huawei at the top once the global economy starts to recover.”

The growth in shipments comes as Huawei struggles to do international business amid pressure from the United States. In 2019, the Chinese tech company was placed on the US Entity List, which restricted its access to American technology.

Thus, Huawei could not use licensed Google Android on its latest flagship devices. The company was forced to release its own operating system called HarmonyOS last year.