CNN
 — 

Mongolia has been thrown into fresh political crisis with protesters calling for the resignation of the country’s prime minister over his family’s lavish displays of wealth.

For two weeks, young Mongolians have taken to the streets of the capital putting pressure on Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai who will face a vote of confidence in his government on Monday.

Democratic Mongolia is a landlocked nation of just 3.5 million people sandwiched between authoritarian giants China and Russia, and the latest political crisis has put renewed scrutiny on the stability of the country’s democracy.

Here’s what to know:

Luxury car, designer handbags

The protests were triggered by social media posts that went viral showing the prime minister’s 23-year-old son’s lavish engagement proposal and their apparent extravagant lifestyle including helicopter-rides, an expensive ring, designer handbags and a luxury car.

Suspicion grew over how the son accumulated such wealth – especially as Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene campaigned on being from a rural, not wealthy family.

“With no visible sources of income, their display of luxury bags, private travel, and high-end living was a blatant slap in the face to the average Mongolian citizen,” said Amina, 28, a member of protest group Ogtsroh Amarhan (Resigning is Easy).

Amina, who wanted to go by one name for security reasons, said the protests go beyond the social media posts flaunting wealth, which she said were symptomatic of a widening disconnect between the ruling elite and everyday people.

Deeping the anger is the rising cost of living, soaring inflation in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and choking pollution in the capital that’s home to half the population.

“The cost of living in Mongolia has skyrocketed — many people are paying nearly half of their monthly income in taxes while barely making enough to cover food, rent, or utilities. Most are not living paycheck to paycheck anymore — they’re living loan to loan, debt to debt,” she said.

Protesters have gathered in the capital Ulaanbaatar’s central Sükhbaatar Square, in front of the Government Palace, almost daily for two weeks, calling for Oyun-Erdene to release his finances and resign.

The Prime Minister’s office called the allegations of financial impropriety “completely unfounded.”

“The prime minister makes regular financial declarations annually in line with Mongolian law,” the office said in a statement to CNN.

For decades, Mongolia has struggled with endemic graft and protests often break out over allegations that corrupt officials and business leaders were enriching themselves with public funds.

Mass protests erupted in 2022 over a corruption scandal involving the alleged embezzlement of billions of dollars’ worth of coal destined for China.

Though analysts say there is no evidence of corruption by Oyun-Erdene, his son’s social media posts deepened the frustration of a public long wary of their elected officials misusing public resources.

“I want a fair society where ordinary people have a voice, and where government officials are held accountable. Seeing so much inequality, injustice, and arrogance from those in power pushed me to speak up,” said Ariunzaya Khajidmaa, 23, a resident of Ulaanbaatar who joined the protests with her 2-month-old baby.

Part of public frustration is that even when corruption cases are prosecuted, they are slow to work their way through the judicial system, leading some to question the independence of the judiciary.

The 2024 Freedom House index said “corruption and political influence in the daily work of judges remain concerns.”

“If you look at the corruption index, it has gone down. And one explanation is that, even though the Prime Minister has exposed a lot of the corruption cases, nothing has been done. So now everybody’s looking at the judiciary,” said Bolor Lkhaajav, a Mongolian political analyst and commentator.

The Prime Minister is trying to save his coalition government and parliament, called the State Great Khural, is holding a vote of confidence on Monday.

Oyun-Erdene and his son have submitted themselves to Mongolia’s anti-corruption agency and the prime minister said he would resign if the investigation uncovered any irregularities.

His Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) is the largest in the 126-seat parliament, holding 68 seats. But complicating the confidence vote is that the ruling coalition appears to be breaking up. The MPP kicked out its junior partner, the Democratic Party – which controls 43 seats – after some of its members supported the protesters.

The protests are just “the tip of the iceberg,” said Jargalsaikhan Dambadarjaa, a Mongolian broadcaster and political commentator, who pointed to some of the major economic shifts in the country.

Oyun-Erdene, who was re-elected to a second term in 2024, had promised to diversify the country’s economy, which is dependent on the mining industry accounting for about a quarter of GDP.

Mongolia has huge deposits of coal, copper, gold and phosphorite, and about 90% of Mongolia’s coal exports go to China.

Oyun-Erdene’s coalition government last year announced 14 new mega projects to boost economic growth, including cross-border railway connections and a major expansion of renewable energy.

And one of Oyun-Erdene’s signature policy centerpieces was establishing a national wealth fund, which the government said aimed to redistribute the country’s assets to the people.

The Sovereign Wealth Fund law, approved by parliament in April, allows the government to take a 34% stake in mines considered to have strategic mineral deposits, meaning they are vital for the country’s economy and development.

There are currently 16 such sites and the profits will go into the fund, with portions allocated to benefitting Mongolian people including through financial assistance, healthcare, education, and housing, according to public broadcaster Montsame.

The move has not sat well with the country’s wealthy and powerful mining elite.

“These people, they are now at the edge of losing their power – huge money – which created huge inequality in the country. So they are fighting to the death against this government,” said Jargalsaikhan.

Mongolia has been a parliamentary democracy since its democratic revolution in 1991. But the years since have seen multiple governments toppled, or leaders shuffled.

This instability has led some Mongolians to believe the powers of President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, who is head of state, should be extended. Currently, the president can only serve one six-year term.

“In this mosaic, those who are supporting presidential power argue that, look at Russia and China, they are one-man presidential powers and they are very stable. They say, we tried this parliamentarian system and it looks like it doesn’t work. That’s their idea,” Jargalsaikhan said.

Khurelsukh has repeatedly said he does not want to change Mongolia’s parliamentary democracy. However, some believe amending the constitution to extend presidential term limits is on the table.

“It’s a very crucial time, a very delicate time, and it’s another test to our democracy,” said Jargalsaikhan. “Freedom comes only with the parliamentary system… If we don’t do that, we will be another failed economy, a failed nation.”

In a statement, the prime minister’s office said, “there has been a deliberate attempt to undermine” the reforms of the coalition government by a “hostile campaign” that would “turn Mongolia away from a parliamentary democracy and return power and wealth to a small group driven by self-interest.”

Analysts say Mongolia needs to show it can have stable governance so it can attract broader foreign investment and reduce its economic dependence on China and Russia.

Khurelsukh last year welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin for an official visit to Mongolia, a trip condemened by Ukraine. The visit was Putin’s first to a member country of the International Criminal Court which had issued an arrest warrant for Putin on charges on war crimes.

“A lot of the governments that are looking at Mongolia as an oasis of democracy between Russia and China, so they want to trust us, but at the same time, you have to show some accountability and stability for other governments to say, okay, Mongolia is getting better,” said Bolor.

Those on the streets say they are tired of political games and want to see tangible improvements to their daily lives.

“We want stronger anti-corruption measures, public officials who are held to ethical standards, and a system that ensures no one is above the law,” said Ariunzaya.

“It’s time for the government to listen to its citizens and take meaningful, lasting action—not just offer words.”

Seoul, South Korea
CNN
 — 

After half a year of political turmoil, uncertainty and division, South Korea will vote for a new president to succeed Yoon Suk Yeol, the disgraced former leader who plunged the democratic nation into chaos by declaring martial law in December.

This election feels particularly significant; the country, a US ally and Asian economic and cultural powerhouse, has floundered for months with a revolving door of interim leaders while navigating Yoon’s impeachment trial and a multipronged investigation into the fateful night of his short-lived power grab.

All the while, South Korea’s economy has suffered, with US President Donald Trump’s trade war and a potential global recession looming in the background. Two men are each promising to help the country recover if elected – a lawyer turned politician dogged by legal cases who survived an assassination attempt, and a former anti-establishment activist turned conservative minister.

Polls open on Tuesday morning and a winner could be declared by Wednesday.

Here’s what you need to know.

Who are the main candidates?

The frontrunner is Lee Jae-myung, 60, of the liberal opposition Democratic Party.

A former underage factory worker from a poor family, Lee became a human rights lawyer before entering politics. He is a former mayor and governor, and most recently served as a lawmaker after narrowly losing to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election.

He survived an assassination attempt in January 2024 when a man stabbed him in the neck during a public event.

He again made headlines on December 3, 2024 – the night Yoon declared martial law and sent troops to parliament. Lee was among the lawmakers who rushed to the legislature and pushed past soldiers to hold an emergency vote to lift martial law. He live streamed himself jumping over a fence to enter the building, in a viral video viewed tens of millions of times.

On the campaign trail, Lee promised political and economic reforms, including more controls on a president’s ability to declare martial law, and revising the constitution to allow two four-year presidential terms instead of the current single five-year term.

He has emphasized easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula while holding on to the longtime goal of denuclearizing North Korea; he also supports boosting small businesses and growing the AI industry.

But Lee has also been dogged by legal cases, including several ongoing trials for alleged bribery and charges related to a property development scandal.

Separately, he was convicted of violating election law in another ongoing case that has been sent to an appeals court.

Lee denies all the charges against him. Speaking to CNN in December, he claimed he had been indicted on various charges “without any evidence or basis,” and that the allegations are politically motivated.

Lee’s main rival is Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party (PPP).

When Yoon left the party in May, he urged supporters to back Kim – a 73-year-old former labor minister, who had been a prominent labor activist at university, even being expelled and imprisoned for his protests. He eventually joined a conservative party, and stepped into the nomination after several rounds of party infighting.

The PPP initially selected Kim as its candidate; then dropped him, eyeing former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo instead. The party finally chose Kim after he filed legal challenges.

But the PPP remains deeply divided and its candidate trailed Lee in pre-election polling. In a statement after his nomination, Kim vowed to seek unity and build a “big tent” coalition to take on Lee, according to Reuters.

Kim has also promised to reform the country’s politics, judiciary and election management systems to rebuild public trust. His campaign emphasized making South Korea business-friendly through tax cuts and eased restrictions, and by promoting new technologies and nuclear energy.

Several third-party and independent candidates are also running for the presidency. They include Lee Jun-seok, a former PPP leader who founded his own conservative New Reform Party last year.

At the forefront of voters’ minds is the country’s flailing economy and rising cost of living. Youth unemployment has surged and consumption has declined, with the economy unexpectedly contracting in the first quarter of this year.

Part of that is due to Trump’s trade war – which has hit South Korea’s export-reliant economy hard. South Korea’s exports to the US fell sharply in the first few weeks of April after US tariffs kicked in, and the nation’s largest airline has warned the downturn could cost it up to $100 million a year.

Though officials from both nations have met for tariff talks, the political turmoil at home is likely slowing progress and hampering a possible trade deal until a new South Korean president is elected.

That’s why both main candidates have focused on the economy, promising to stabilize the cost of goods and improve opportunities in housing, education and jobs.

But there’s a host of other problems the next president will have to tackle, too – such as the country’s rapidly aging society and plummeting birth rates, which represent an urgent demographic crisis also seen in other countries in the region like Japan and China. Among the common complaints of young couples and singles are the high cost of childcare, gender inequality and discrimination against working parents.

Then there are regional tensions. There’s the ever-present threat from North Korea, which has rapidly modernized its armed forces, developing new weapons and testing intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach almost anywhere in the United States. Experts have warned in recent years that the country may also be preparing to resume nuclear tests, which it paused in 2018.

Across the Yellow Sea lies China, which South Korea has a strong trade relationship with – but historically fraught diplomatic relations.

South Korea also maintains a close security alliance with the US, and hosts nearly 30,000 American troops in the country. In recent years, South Korea, Japan and the US have drawn closer together, working to counter Chinese influence in the strategically important Asia-Pacific region.

Yoon was removed from office in April following months of legal wrangling, after parliament voted to impeach him late last year.

It was a remarkable fall from grace for the former prosecutor turned politician, who rose to prominence for his role in the impeachment of another president – only to eventually meet the same fate.

Soon after, Yoon moved out from the presidential residency and into an apartment in the capital Seoul. But his legal battles are ongoing; he faces charges including insurrection, an offense punishable by life imprisonment or death (though South Korea has not executed anyone in decades). Yoon denies all charges against him.

CNN
 — 

India’s military has acknowledged for the first time that an unspecified number of its fighter jets were shot down during strikes on Pakistani-controlled territory amid intense fighting between the neighbors in early May.

Indian officials had previously refused to confirm even a single aircraft loss.

Asked by a Bloomberg correspondent on Saturday if Pakistan was correct in its claim that “six Indian jets” were downed, Anil Chauhan, the chief of defense staff of the Indian Armed Forces, initially denied the veracity of the claim, stating: “Absolutely incorrect and that is not information which, as I said, is important.”

But he went on to say that “what is important is why they went down,” seeming to imply that a number of jets were shot down during fighting between the historic foes, although not confirming how many. “That is more important for us. And what did we do after that? That’s more important,” he said, speaking to Bloomberg’s Haslinda Amin while attending the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier defense forum, in Singapore.

The official also accepted that India’s military had made a “tactical mistake,” in response to another question about Pakistan’s claim.

“The good part is we were able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it and then implement it again after two days and flew all our jets, again targeting at long range,” he said.

Pakistan claimed its pilots shot down five Indian fighter jets in aerial battles – including three advanced French-made Rafales – after India launched its military operation against Pakistan in early May. Pakistan said it used Chinese-made fighter jets to shoot down the Indian combat aircraft, including the Rafales.

India initially denied the claims, with Nalin Kohli, spokesperson for India’s Bharatiya Janata Party, telling CNN that “if that was the case, and if something of that extent had happened, we would have said so.”

A high-ranking French intelligence official told CNN at the time that one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force had been downed by Pakistan, and that French authorities were looking into whether more than one was brought down. Indian eyewitnesses also told CNN they saw one aircraft plunging from the sky in flames.

The fighting was a major escalation between the South Asian neighbors and came in response to the killing of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir in April. India blamed Pakistan for the attack, an accusation rejected by Islamabad. A truce between Islamabad and New Delhi was announced on May 10.

CNN’s Benjamin Brown, Matthew Chance, Sophia Saifi and Saskya Vandoorne contributed to this report.