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Mongolia holds an election Friday. Its people see the government as benefiting the wealthy

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Mongolia holds an election Friday. Its people see the government as benefiting the wealthy

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — A parliamentary election will be held in Mongolia on Friday for the first time since the body was expanded to 126 seats, adding some uncertainty to a vote that has been monopolized by two political parties and plagued by corruption.

The election in a relatively new democracy — the country was a single-party communist state until 1990 — comes at a time when many Mongolians have soured on the government, which they see as benefiting business interests and the wealthy.

“We have democracy only in appearance,” said Gantamur Dash, who earns money taking photos of tourists at the central square in Ulaanbaatar, the capital. “Only a few are living luxurious lives and the rest of the population is poor.”

Mongolia is a sparsely populated country of 3.4 million people in East Asia squeezed between China and Russia. The government has sought to maintain ties with its much larger neighbors while also building new ones with the United States and its democratic allies — a delicate task since the two sides are increasingly at odds.

The political system is serving the interests of a few instead of the general population, said Sumati Luvsandendev, the director of the Sant Maral polling organization, adding that the United States faces the same problem.

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Still, he said, most people want to stick with democracy. “Communism doesn’t work for Mongolia,” he said. “It is a collective system and we are … individualists.”

Over 50 countries go to the polls in 2024

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The ruling Mongolian People’s Party is favored to win the vote, though that is not a foregone conclusion. At a minimum, the overwhelming majority it holds in the current parliament could be reduced.

The parliament approved a constitutional change last year that added 50 seats and created two ways of electing members: 78 are chosen from 13 multimember constituencies and 48 are allocated to political parties depending on the percentage of the vote they get in the election.

The new system may give more political parties a chance to win seats in parliament, though they will have to reach a minimum percentage to do so.

Baljinnyam Nemekhjargal, a bank manager, favored having a strong ruling party in the previous election in 2020, but he said he no longer thinks so.

“I think the reforms were right,” he said. “We don’t need a supermajority. The opposition should be strong too.”

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Sukhbaatar Enkhjargal, the head of a tech group that does election monitoring, isn’t convinced the changes will help and worries that they will create new problems. They will give more power to the party leaders, as lawmakers chosen by the party vote will be loyal to their party, not to the voters from a particular constituency.

“At the beginning of the democratic period, we’ve been quite successful,” he said. “We’ve been, like, ‘Oasis of Democracy’ from central Asia, etcetera. But now we really going back.”

Discontent with the government has been fueled by corruption. Large protests broke out in 2022 demanding that officials be held accountable for the alleged theft of 385,000 tons of coal from stockpiles on the border with China, a major buyer of Mongolian coal.

“Mongolian democracy has proven to be resilient over the years but … continued support … in the form of democratic solidarity and increased economic engagement will remain vital to Mongolia’s ‘Oasis of Democracy,’” the International Republican Institute, an American group that promotes democracy worldwide, said this week in an online post on Friday’s election.

The two largest parties, the ruling Mongolian People’s Party and the Democratic Party, have included younger candidates in their mix in a bid to woo potential young voters and reshape their party images to counter public cynicism toward the government.

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Younger voters make up a large part of the voting-age population, but historically they have not turned out in large numbers. If they do, that could benefit the HUN Party, which has emerged as a potential third force in Mongolian politics.

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Associated Press video producer Olivia Zhang contributed to this report.

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Guillermo del Toro Says He’d ‘Rather Die’ Than Use Generative AI in His Films: ‘Not Interested’

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Guillermo del Toro Says He’d ‘Rather Die’ Than Use Generative AI in His Films: ‘Not Interested’

During a recent sit-down with NPR, Guillermo del Toro asserted that he would “rather die” than use artificial intelligence, “particularly generative AI,” in any of his future films. He compared the growing cultural fascination surrounding the controversial tech to the “arrogance” displayed by the titular literary madman in his Netflix adaptation of “Frankenstein.”

“AI, particularly generative AI — I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested,” del Toro said. “I’m 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak. … The other day, somebody wrote me an email, said, ‘What is your stance on AI?’ And my answer was very short. I said, ‘I’d rather die.’”

The “Pan’s Labyrinth” director explained that the true dangers aren’t with the technology itself, but with “natural stupidity,” which could drive the mishandling of AI. He added that “natural stupidity” is what pushes “most of the world’s worst features.” He went on to connect the character of Victor Frankenstein to those at the forefront of AI development.

“I did want it to have the arrogance of Victor [Frankenstein] be similar in some ways to the tech bros,” he said. “He’s kind of blind, creating something without considering the consequences and I think we have to take a pause and consider where we’re going.”

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Del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” adapted from Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel of the same name, stars Jacob Elordi, Oscar Issac, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz and Ralph Ineson. The film comes to Netflix on Nov. 7.

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French officials arrest multiple suspects in Louvre crown jewel heist

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French officials arrest multiple suspects in Louvre crown jewel heist

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Multiple suspects have been arrested in connection with the theft of crown jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris last weekend, French officials said Sunday.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said that investigators made the arrests on Saturday evening, including one man who was taken into custody as he was about to leave the country from Charles de Gaulle airport.

Beccuau did not confirm the number of arrests, though French media BFM TV and Le Parisien newspaper earlier reported that two suspects had been arrested and taken into custody. She did not say whether the jewels had been recovered.

Thieves took less than eight minutes to steal jewels valued at 88 million euros ($102 million) — a high-profile heist that sparked a national reckoning and stunned the world. 

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BRAZEN LOUVRE ROBBERY CREW MAY HAVE BEEN HIRED BY COLLECTOR, PROSECUTOR SAYS

A police car parks in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum, one week after the robbery, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

The crew of thieves used a basket lift to scale the Louvre’s façade, forced open a window, smashed display cases and fled, according to French officials. The Louvre’s director Laurence des Cars acknowledged there was a “terrible failure” in the museum’s security.

Beccuau said investigators from a special police unit in charge of armed robberies, serious burglaries and art thefts made the arrests. She said the premature leak of information could hinder the work of over 100 investigators “mobilized to recover the stolen jewels and apprehend all of the perpetrators.” 

Beccuau said further details will be unveiled after the suspects’ custody period ends.

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Police and moving lift outside the Louvre Museum following jewel heist in Paris.

Police secured the area outside the Louvre Museum in Paris last week, where burglars used a truck-mounted moving lift to reach a second-floor window and steal royal jewelry valued at more than $100 million. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)

LOUVRE DIRECTOR GRILLED ON SPECTACULAR SECURITY FAILURES, INCLUDING CAMERA POINTING AWAY FROM KEY BALCONY

French Interior minister Laurent Nunez praised the investigators for their tireless work, adding that they always had his “full confidence.”

police officers in uniform standing outside the Louvre

Police officers stand near the pyramid of the Louvre Museum after the theft of crown jewels on Oct. 19, 2025. (Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

The thieves slipped away with a total of eight objects, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to 19th-century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense. They also stole an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife, and a reliquary brooch. Empress Eugénie’s diamond diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch — an imperial ensemble of rare craftsmanship — were also part of the loot.

Eugénie’s emerald-set imperial crown with more than 1,300 diamonds was later found outside the museum, damaged but recoverable.

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This is a breaking news story; check back for updates.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Trump meets Brazil’s Lula at ASEAN summit, touts ‘pretty good deals’

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Trump meets Brazil’s Lula at ASEAN summit, touts ‘pretty good deals’

Both countries’ negotiating teams will start ‘immediately’ to address US tariffs and sanctions, says Brazil’s President Lula.

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United States President Donald Trump and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have held what Brazil described as a constructive meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Kuala Lumpur, raising hope for improved relations after stinging US tariffs.

Lula said the Sunday meeting with Trump – who is an ally of his political rival, embattled former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro – was “great” and added that their countries’ negotiating teams would get to work “immediately” to tackle tariffs and other issues.

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“We agreed that our teams will meet immediately to advance the search for solutions to the tariffs and sanctions against Brazilian authorities,” Lula said in a message on X following the meeting.

Trump had linked the July tariff move – which brought duties on most Brazilian goods entering the US to 50 percent from 10 percent – to what he called a “witch hunt” against Bolsonaro, far-right leader who has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup after losing the 2022 presidential election.

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Bolsonaro’s supporters rioted in the political centre of the country’s capital, evoking a riot by Trump’s supporters in Washington, DC on January 6, two years earlier.

The US government has also sanctioned numerous Brazilian officials, including Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the trial that led to Bolsonaro’s conviction.

Ahead of the meeting on Sunday, though, Trump said he could reach some agreements with Lula and expected the two countries to enjoy strong ties despite his concerns about Bolsonaro’s fate.

“I think we should be able to make some pretty good deals for both countries,” Trump said.

Lula previously described the US tariff hike as a “mistake”, citing a $410bn US trade surplus with Brazil over 15 years.

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‘Conclude negotiations in weeks’

Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said that negotiations would start immediately and that Brazil had requested a pause in tariffs while talks proceed, though it was unclear whether the US had agreed.

“We hope to conclude bilateral negotiations that address each of the sectors of the current American [tariffs on] Brazil in the near future, in a few weeks,” Vieira said.

He added that Lula also offered to help mediate between the US and Venezuela, where Washington has deployed its largest warship and threatened ground strikes targeting alleged drug cartels, operations Caracas has denounced as “fabricated” pretexts for war.

Bolsonaro was not mentioned during the Trump-Lula meeting, said Marcio Rosa, the executive secretary for Brazil’s Foreign Ministry.

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Higher US tariffs on Brazilian goods have begun reshaping the global beef trade, pushing up prices in the US and encouraging triangulation via third countries such as Mexico, while Brazilian exports to China continue to boom.

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