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June 1 (Asia Today) — South Korea is expected to begin procedures to appoint a special inspector general after Wednesday’s local elections, potentially reviving a presidential watchdog post that has been vacant for nearly a decade.

The special inspector general is tasked with inspecting possible misconduct involving the president, the president’s relatives and senior presidential office officials.

The system was introduced in 2014 under then President Park Geun-hye, but the post has remained vacant since 2016. Neither the Moon Jae-in administration nor the Yoon Suk Yeol administration appointed a special inspector general.

Political sources said Sunday that the ruling Democratic Party is preparing to begin the recommendation process shortly after the June 3 local elections.

The main opposition People Power Party has already selected Kang Ji-sik, a former prosecutor and lawyer at Baeksong Law Firm, as its candidate for the opposition’s share of the nomination process. Kang graduated from the Judicial Research and Training Institute in its 27th class.

The Democratic Party formally said it would begin the recommendation process after Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik publicly asked the National Assembly in April to move forward. But the process appears to have been delayed by the party’s floor leader election and the local elections.

Han Byeong-do, floor leader of the Democratic Party, said the party would proceed under the rules and procedures, though he did not specify a date.

A presidential official said the Blue House had asked that the appointment process move as quickly as possible.

“With the new party leadership in place and the election nearing completion, the process appears likely to begin immediately after the election,” the official said.

Under the law, the National Assembly recommends three candidates and the president selects one. The ruling and opposition parties each recommend one candidate, while the Korean Bar Association selects the third, who is jointly recommended by both parties.

The president’s nominee must then go through a parliamentary confirmation hearing before final appointment. The special inspector general serves a three-year term.

Lee said at a news conference marking his first 30 days in office last July that power should be subject to checks.

“Power should be checked,” Lee said at the time. “Even for the safety of those who hold power, it is better to be checked. I have already ordered the appointment of a special inspector general.”

After the National Assembly showed little movement, Kang Hoon-sik again urged lawmakers in December to quickly recommend candidates.

Lee renewed the request on April 19 before leaving for visits to India and Vietnam.

“President Lee believes the appointment of a special inspector general is essential under the principles of democracy and popular sovereignty, which require all power to be subject to institutional oversight,” Kang Hoon-sik said at the time.

“As the president has expressed his firm will, we ask the National Assembly to begin the relevant procedures as soon as possible,” he said.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260601010000407

June 1 (UPI) — The Trump administration unveiled a new rule Monday adding work requirements to Medicaid eligibility, attracting concern from patient groups and condemnation from Democrats.

Republicans instituted the requirement as part of President Donald Trump‘s massive tax cut and spending bill signed into law in July.

The Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services said in a statement that the Interim Final Rule tying eligibility to an 80-hour-per-month work requirement promotes “economic stability, self-sufficiency and independence.”

“This rule helps Americans build skills and independence through work, education, job training or community service, creating new opportunities for themselves and their families,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said in a statement.

Medicaid is a joint federal-state program helping those with limited income and resources pay their medical bills. The new rule will is the implementation of a Medicaid work requirement provision that Congress put into President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill.

Democrats had vocally opposed the measure before the Republican-controlled Congress passed it into law, arguing it would create bureaucratic obstacles to hinder the ability of those who need the coverage.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said Monday that the rule is “the dark heart of Republican plan to kick millions of working Americans and their children off their health insurance by placing a mountain of paperwork in front of them.”

“When these requirements go into effect at the beginning of next year, it’s going to be a complete train wreck for America, and not just for the Americans caught in the bureaucratic maze Republicans have created: every community will be left with worse healthcare,” he said in a statement.

The provision requires most adults ages 19 through 64 to “demonstrate work requirement activities,” including employment, participating in certain work programs or community service.

Those exempt include people who are pregnant or have recently given birth, parents and caretakers of children or those with disabilities, the disabled or medically frail and American Indians and Alaska Natives, among others.

States generally have until Jan. 1 to implement the new rule, according to a CMS fact sheet.

While Republicans and the White House have described the move as installing safeguards against fraud, medical groups are voicing concern that it will cut patients, including those fighting cancer, from coverage.

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network President Lisa Lacasse said the requirements mean those with cancer or suffering from sides effects of the disease or treatment would have to prove that they can’t work, a task she said is likely too difficult and time-consuming for them.

The 80-hour requirement may also be too much even for those who are able to work, she said.

“Cancer patients who can still work — and many want to, for example, when they are well enough to work in between chemo rounds — will have to choose between losing their Medicaid coverage, working the required 80 hours per month or giving up working altogether to qualify for an exemption,” she said in a statement.

The social welfare advocacy group Protect Our Care lambasted Republicans for “weaponizing government bureaucracy against the American People” instead of using the government to lower medical costs or make care more accessible.

“They are betting that if they make the process confusing and exhausting enough, millions of people will fall through the cracks and lose the care they depend on to survive,” Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse said in a statement.

“Hospitals will suffer, providers will be pushed further to the brink and families across the country will pay the price while Republicans once again put wealthy donors and corporate greed ahead of the health and well-being of everyday Americans.”

June 1 (UPI) — At least seven people, including the suspected shooter, are dead Monday following a series of shootings in an Iowa city that authorities said stemmed from a domestic dispute.

The suspect was identified as Ryan Willis McFarland, 52, of Muscatine, located along the eastern Iowa border with Illinois.

Authorities said he shot six people, all believed to be family members, before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound that was fired after being confronted by police on the Riverfront Trail near a pedestrian bridge.

“Today, I simply do not have the words [for] this act of evil and what it has done to our community,” Muscatine Police Chief Anthony Kies told reporters at a press briefing.

The identities of the victims were not made public, but Kies said they are all believed to be related to McFarland.

The investigation began at about 12:12 p.m. CDT when police received a report of a shooting at 210 Park Avenue. Officers arrived to find four people who had sustained gunshot wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene.

McFarland was identified as a suspect and was then confronted. EMS personnel rendered aid after McFarland shot himself, but he was soon after pronounced dead at the scene, Kies said.

As the investigation progressed, investigators developed information indicating there may be additional victims, leading to the discovery of two men dead from apparent gunshots — one inside a 1509 Mill Street residence and the other inside a 808 Grandview Avenue business.

“Preliminary findings indicate that the shootings stemmed from a domestic-related dispute,” Muscatine Police Department said in a release.

Kies told reporters that the suspect had a criminal record, but would not elaborate. The weapon used in the shooting was also not mentioned.

The investigation is ongoing, authorities said.

According to The Gun Violence Archive, the Muscatine incident is the second mass shooting involving four or more victims in the United States in the last 24 hours. There have also been more than 163 mass shootings in the country so far this year, the organization’s statistics show.

Less than two hours after polling stations closed on Sunday, it was clear that Colombia’s presidential race would be settled in a run-off between two finalists: hard-right political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella and leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda.

Though the overall result surprised few, de la Espriella’s strong showing upended pollsters’ predictions.

Cepeda, President Gustavo Petro’s chosen successor, had been expected to win the most votes, based on public opinion surveys.

But instead, de la Espriella came in first place, winning 43.74 percent of the vote. Cepeda trailed with 40.90 percent.

Supporters of de la Espriella, a criminal defence lawyer, held rapturous celebrations in the coastal city of Barranquilla, where the candidate has an office.

“Colombia won, and with more than 10 million votes, democracy won,” said Elsa Suarez, a de la Espriella voter living in Bogota.

The far-right candidate has modelled himself after politicians like Donald Trump in the United States and Javier Milei in Argentina, flamboyant media personalities who won the presidency despite having little to no political experience.

Like them, de la Espriella has pledged a return to “law and order”, as well as a pared-back national government and policies to support traditional family values.

Notably, he promises to use an “iron fist” to stamp out crime and build megaprisons to jail criminals, mimicking the policies of Salvadoran strongman Nayib Bukele.

Analysts say de la Espriella’s populist messaging resonated with voters in Colombia’s interior, where urban crime is a growing concern.

Electoral maps show de la Espriella besting Cepeda in 16 of the country’s 32 departments, primarily in the heart of Colombia and along the border with Venezuela.

“In more central areas and closer to the capitals, people prioritise security,” explained Laura Bonilla, the deputy director at the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation (PARES), a Bogota-based research nonprofit.

By contrast, de la Espriella’s security messaging failed to sway voters along the coast and in border areas afflicted by rebel violence.

Bonilla argues that people in these regions instead place greater value on the socioeconomic issues that Cepeda represents, as the continuity candidate for Petro’s Historic Pact party.

“Over the past four years, they have received constant attention from the government,” said Bonilla, citing state development projects under the Petro administration.

A blow to the conservative establishment

De la Espriella’s success also highlights growing anti-establishment sentiment in Colombia, according to experts.

The lawyer, who has never run for public office before, comfortably beat his main rival on the right, Senator Paloma Valencia, who was backed by former President Alvaro Uribe, the figurehead of Colombian conservatism.

Initially, Sunday’s election was predicted to be a close race between Valencia and de la Espriella, both of whom lagged behind Cepeda in the polls.

But as Sunday’s ballots were tallied, Valencia flopped with less than 7 percent of the vote.

Miguel Silva, a Colombian political consultant, credited some of de la Espriella’s success to his campaign messaging.

De la Espriella, he explained, used his campaign to draw a distinction between the haves and the have-nots, those who have benefitted from the government and those who feel ignored.

“He [succeeded] by portraying himself and the people he represents as ‘Los Nunca’ and by portraying Paloma and her followers as ‘Los Siempre’,” Silva said, using the Spanish words for “The Nevers” and “The Always”.

Pollsters predicted the right would be divided in the first round, paving the way for Cepeda to win the most votes, but de la Espriella captured millions of votes from traditional conservatives, marking a shift in Colombia’s political landscape.

In Bogota, the only province in the country’s interior to vote for Cepeda, the left-wing candidate’s supporters were shocked by Sunday’s results.

“Everyone is a little surprised,” said Juan Camilo Rodriguez, who voted for Cepeda. “These results don’t match the polls.”

Petro himself had hammered his base to flood the polls, warning that the left’s chances of success could be hampered by electoral fraud.

The outgoing president rejected last night’s results, which were based on the “pre-conteo”, or preliminary count, a non-legally binding process.

Instead, Petro called on the public to wait for the official, scrutinised count, which will be released in the coming days.

Cepeda echoed the president’s scepticism in a speech on Sunday night. “Only once the vote-counting committees have fully, clearly, and thoroughly clarified this matter, will we comment on tonight’s results,” he told supporters.

But the candidate appeared to mellow his stance this morning, acknowledging that there was no evidence of irregularities in the vote. He trailed de la Espriella by more than 670,000 votes.

Experts warn that Cepeda is losing precious time by focusing on fraud allegations and should instead concentrate on swaying moderate voters.

“By crying fraud so early, it’s hard to bring more voters to the table,” said Silva.

A second round of voting, between Cepeda and de la Espriella, is scheduled for June 21.

Up for grabs are more than a million votes for centrist candidate Sergio Fajardo and 1.6 million for Paloma Valencia. While Valencia endorsed de la Espriella, her running mate, moderate politician Juan Daniel Oviedo, did not.

Miguel Jaramillo Lujan, a Colombian political strategist, said the final two candidates must tread carefully in the next three weeks to prevail.

“As the saying goes, whoever makes fewer mistakes will be the winner.”

June 1 (UPI) — President Donald Trump is backing off plans for a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund after bipartisan criticism, sources said Monday.

Politico, The New York Times and CNN reported Monday evening that sources familiar with the matter said the Trump administration has told Republican congressional leaders that plans for the fund would be at least paused or dropped. Trump has not yet committed publicly to this change.

Earlier Monday, the Justice Department issued a public statement that it would abide by a federal court ruling putting the fund on hold, although it “disagrees strongly” with the ruling. It was unclear whether this was the halt to the fund communicated later or if a more permanent halt is planned.

The controversy over the fund has caused issues for Republican agendas on immigration enforcement, with Republicans splitting on the issue and Democrats vowing to force votes on amendments related to the fund.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier Monday that Democrats will have amendments ready to stop the fund, which has been criticized as a way to pay Trump allies, including those prosecuted for their actions in the Jan. 6 riot.

“This week, Senate Democrats will launch a coordinated effort to kill the slush fund before one cent goes out the door,” Schumer wrote in a letter to Senate Democrats. “And no matter what Republicans do, we will force them to vote. If Republicans return to reconciliation, we will be ready with amendments to shut the fund down. If they try to bury the issue, we will force them to the Senate floor. If they try to sneak behind appropriations, we will fight them there too.”

Some Republicans have proposed adding restrictions to the fund. As it is written, there are no clear oversight mechanisms and the Justice Department has not provided details on the process of reviewing claims and making payments.

The Senate is facing a $72 billion budget reconciliation package that would fund immigration enforcement efforts through 2029. The Senate recessed for Memorial Day without any action on the package taking place.

June 1 (UPI) — Hundreds of residents in central Kenya marched Monday in protest of plans for a U.S.-run field hospital in which Americans exposed to Ebola would be treated and quarantined.

Officers from the U.S. Public Health Service would run the facility at Laikipia Air Base near Nanyuki, Kenya. The hospital was supposed to open last Friday. However, a Kenyan court blocked that opening, with another hearing set for Tuesday, The Washington Post reported.

Kenya has had no cases of Ebola in this outbreak thus far, but there have been about 1,000 cases worldwide, with about 200 suspected deaths, mostly in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kenya has increased screening and security measures to lessen the risk of the disease spreading to the country.

Nanyuki residents said the hospital facility would endanger the lives of those living nearby.

“If it is not good for America, why is it good for us? Why does the U.S. only care about itself?” Gibson Maina, 25, said to The Washington Post. “The moment we get sick people here, how sure are we that we will be able to contain the disease and that we will be able to survive it?”

The protests were largely peaceful with “localized disruptions,” Capital News in Kenya reported. The Post, however, said some demonstrators set fires and “clashed with the police.”

Officials have said the hospital would keep U.S. citizens with Ebola from returning to the United States for treatment. Katiba Institute, a constitutional rights advocacy group in Kenya, filed the lawsuit that blocked the facility from opening.

The Law Society of Kenya has also opposed the hospital, Capital News reported. Charles Kanjama, leader of the society, said that Ebola treatment centers should be closed to the outbreaks and not in countries with no cases.

“We owe patients human solidarity, but public health requires facilities to be placed near outbreak epicenters,” Kanjama said.

Sarah Korere, a local leader, also said such a hospital should be closer to the problem areas.

“As residents of Nanyuki, we have said we do not want the Ebola rescue center in Nanyuki,” she said to Capital News. “And it’s not just Nanyuki; we’ve said we do not want it in Laikipia, and not yet Laikipia, we don’t want it in Kenya.”

Kenyan Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said any international agreement for Ebola treatment facilities must comply with Kenyan laws and public health protocols. The United States said in a statement last week that it was in talks with Kenyan officials after the lawsuit.

June 1 (UPI) — Research shows that a rise in remote work since the COVID-19 pandemic is connected to a rise in unemployment among younger employees, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Monday.

In a blog post, the research authors said they estimate about 64% of the rise in unemployment among recent college graduates has to do with the connection to remote work, which “makes it more difficult for manager sto train and mentor new employees,” they wrote.

“Accordingly, companies may be reluctant to hire less-experienced workers in distributed work arrangements,” the post continued.

The authors said that unemployment among those younger than 29 was an average of 3.1% in 2017-19, compared to an average of 3.7% in 2022-25. Conversely, they wrote, the unemployment rate for more experienced college graduates fell from 1.9% in 2017-19 to 1.8% in 2022-25.

The researchers said they used data on both “remotable” and “non-remotable” jobs, comparing how easily common tasks for a given job can be done remotely. They also used proprietary data from an unnamed Fortune 500 company.

“We show that when people work next to their colleagues, they receive more feedback on their output and more mentorship,” the authors wrote. “When they are separated by even a short distance, that feedback tapers off dramatically. The loss in feedback is more pronounced for younger workers, who miss out on constructive comments that spur their development.”

However, Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University who studies remote work, said that even companies that have remote work often have opportunities for time on site, CNBC reported.

“I don’t think there is any evidence this is slowing employment,” Bloom said. “Indeed, quite the reverse, as it’s easier for people to work and so labor supply looks to be rising.”

June 1 (UPI) — Artificial intelligence company Anthropic confidentially filed Monday for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission, joining SpaceX and OpenAI in plans to go public this year.

“This gives us the option to go public after the SEC completes its review,” Anthropic said in a statement, CNBC reported. “The proposed initial public offering will depend on market conditions and other factors.”

That makes three prominent companies with IPO plans in 2026. SpaceX plans to debut next week, while OpenAI is preparing to file. Anthropic’s filing did not give any further information on timing, but it could go public as soon as this fall, The New York Times reported.

Last week, Anthropic passed OpenAI in valuation, reporting $965 billion as opposed to OpenAI’s $852 billion reported in March, CNBC reported. The company, based in San Francisco, is the creator of the Claude chatbot and the Claude Mythos Preview AI model. It has a focus on software coding.

Anthropic’s founders left OpenAI in 2021 to found the new company after concerns about OpenAI’s direction. Anthropic leaders have stressed safety in the use of AI, which caused issues with the U.S. Department of Defense after the company wanted limits on military and intelligence usage of its products.

President Donald Trump then called it a “radical left, woke company” and ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic products, while Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, called the company a supply chain risk to national security. Anthropic has sued the Trump administration to reverse the blacklisting, and that lawsuit is ongoing. Meanwhile, the company’s growth in the private sector has accelerated, CNBC reported.

ASUNCION, Paraguay, June 1 (UPI) — Paraguayan authorities are investigating a suspected international drug-trafficking operation after discovering 577 pounds of hashish and cannabis aboard a private jet whose pilot left the country before the drugs were found.

The drugs were valued at approximately $3.6 million, making the case one of Paraguay’s largest recent air-related drug seizures.

The tale began at 9:12 p.m. Friday, when a Bombardier Challenger 604 arrived at Silvio Pettirossi International Airport from Panama carrying Estonian pilot Keith Siilats, American co-pilot Jabari Stephen Brown and three American passengers.

The aircraft landed without incident and all occupants left the airport terminal, authorities said.

About 10:30 a.m. Saturday, one of the passengers returned to retrieve luggage that had been left behind. Airport police said the man was reluctant to undergo a routine inspection and claimed the suitcase contained musical instruments.

His behavior raised suspicions among officers, who notified the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Drug Secretariat and the National Directorate of Civil Aeronautics.

Minutes later, authorities detected hashish in one of the inspected pieces of luggage. The discovery led to a broader inspection of the aircraft and its cargo.

Authorities ultimately found the 577 pounds of hashish and premium cannabis varieties concealed in bags inside the jet.

Jalil Rachid, minister of Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat, said the operation represents one of the most significant air-related drug seizures carried out by Paraguay.

Authorities later determined that Siilats left Paraguay on a commercial flight Saturday morning, hours before the drugs were discovered and the investigation began.

Anti-drug prosecutor Ingrid Cubilla told Paraguayan media that Siilats remains under an arrest warrant.

Investigators have identified Siilats, 47, as one of the central figures in the case. He is known in the United States as co-founder and former chief technology officer of Bolt Mobility, an electric scooter and micromobility company that ceased operations in 2022.

Brown, a 21-year-old American who gained attention on social media after winning a competition organized by content creator MrBeast and receiving a multimillion-dollar business jet as a prize, was released by order of prosecutors.

The three American passengers who remain in custody were identified as Troy Anthony Vasquez, 42, whom investigators said rented the aircraft; David Thomas Wise, 57; and Marisol Rivas, 39.

Anti-drug prosecutor Cubilla charged all three with international drug trafficking and unauthorized possession of narcotic substances. All remain in pretrial detention.

Rachid said Paraguayan authorities are sharing information with international agencies and working with Panama and other countries to determine the route of those involved and possible regional connections.

According to Rachid, authorities believe Paraguay was only a transit pointm and that the final destination of the shipment was Brazil.

“We are certain that the final market for this type of drug, especially given the quantity, is Brazil,” he said.

“There is not very high consumption here precisely because of the cost of this type of drug.”

Anthropic, which operates AI chatbot Claude, did not disclose the size or the terms of the offering.

Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic has confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States, teeing up what could become a watershed moment for Wall Street’s AI frenzy.

The move, announced on Monday, sets up a high-stakes test of whether investor appetite for the AI revolution that has reshaped white-collar work around the world can match the sky-high expectations surrounding the booming sector.

Anthropic, which operates AI chatbot Claude, did not disclose the size or the terms of the offering. Confidential submissions let companies advance IPO preparations while shielding sensitive financial details from rivals and the public.

Anthropic last raised $65bn at a post-money valuation of $965bn in late May, putting it ahead of rival OpenAI. The company said at the time it was making annualised revenue of $47bn from selling its technology to people and organisations using Claude to write code and do other work and personal tasks on their behalf.

The crucial step towards a listing comes on the heels of SpaceX’s mega-IPO, which is on course to rewrite the record books as the Elon Musk-led company pursues a $75bn offering at a $1.75 trillion valuation.

Anthropic was formed in 2021 by ex-OpenAI leaders, and now both AI firms, along with Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company SpaceX, are all expected to become publicly traded. All three are also still losing more money than they make, fuelling concerns of an AI bubble.

OpenAI and Anthropic have become the face of the AI boom that has redrawn corporate strategies, sparked a global arms race for computing power and talent, and turned AI-linked companies into some of the market’s most richly valued firms.

Anthropic’s rapid rise in early 2026 rattled markets, triggering sharp sell-offs in software and IT stocks as investors worried its increasingly autonomous AI tools could upend traditional business models and accelerate disruption across industries.

“OpenAI and Anthropic are in a race to go public before capital runs out,” said analyst Gil Luria from the investment firm DA Davidson.

“The other reason for Anthropic to try to beat OpenAI out to the public market is that they will get to set the agenda for how a frontier model reports financials and do so in a way that is favourable to their financial model.”

OpenAI is also preparing to confidentially file for a US IPO in the coming weeks, adding to a wave of blockbuster ‌listings anticipated in the year ahead.

A market milestone

As many blockbuster listings race towards public markets, companies from SpaceX to AI giants are competing for a finite pool of investor capital.

“The combined demand for capital from SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic will be so considerable that it is likely to create disruptions in the capital markets, so going early will be a great advantage,” Luria said.

The listing would represent one of the most consequential stock market debuts in years, potentially reshaping benchmark indexes, investor flows and the broader narrative driving US equities.

At close to a $1 trillion valuation, Anthropic would vault into the top tier of the S&P 500, alongside a handful of elite companies that dominate global equity markets.

An Anthropic debut would be a major boost for the long-sluggish IPO market, though experts and bankers warn an offering of such scale could drain liquidity and investor attention from smaller listings.

June 1 (UPI) — People Inc. issued an $18 billion takeover bid for MGM Resorts, CEO Barry Miller announced Monday.

People Inc., which already owns 26.1% of the outstanding common stock of MGM, offered to acquire all remaining outstanding shares for $48.30 per share. The offer represents a 10.6% premium over MGM Resorts’ closing price Friday and 30% premium to the stock’s volume-weighted average price for 90 days.

“We began investing in MGM nearly six years ago because we believed it represented a rare kind of business: one with real-world assets that [artificial intelligence] cannot easily replicate or disintermediate and exceptional digital growth opportunities,” said Miller, who is also chairman of the board at People Inc.

“We continue to believe the market materially undervalues the power and durability of MGM’s assets. We believe MGM’s management team is superb and that there is a compelling opportunity to support MGM’s next phase of growth and help unlock its full value.”

Diller also sits on the board of directors at MGM.

People Inc., previously known as Dotdash Meredith until a 2025 rebranding, is a digital media company that operates dozens of brands, including People magazine, Investopedia, Serious Eats, Entertainment Weekly and Martha Stewart Living.

June 1 (UPI) — Iran has stopped peace negotiations with the United States as it alleges the terms of its cease-fire agreement have been violated, Iran state media reported Monday.

The Tasnim News Agency cited Israel’s continued military operations in Lebanon as a violation of its cease-fire terms, calling for a cease-fire in Lebanon.

At least 3,422 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel began its operations there on March 2.

The Iranian news agency added that Iran will block the Strait of Hormuz and is looking to “activate” its “resistance front” in other areas.

“The United States and Israel bear responsibility for the consequences of any breach of the truce,” Abbas Araghchi, Iranian foreign minister, wrote on social media.

Despite the cease-fire between the United States and Iran, both sides have continued to exchange fire through the weekend. U.S. Central Command reports striking down two Iranian drones that were threatening ships. The United States has also been enforcing a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, confronting any ships going to and from Iranian ports.

While Iranian news reports Iran is ending peace talks, President Donald Trump claimed early Monday morning that Iran “really wants to make a deal,” in a post on social media.

“Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end — It always does!” Trump wrote.

June 1 (UPI) — French President Emmanuel Macron said the country’s navy intercepted a sanctioned crude oil tanker that departed from a Russian port.

Macron wrote on X that a ship called the Tagor was seized Sunday by the French navy “in international waters, with the support of several partners including the United Kingdom, in strict compliance with the law of the sea.”

The Tagor, registered in Madagascar, departed from the Russian port of Umba and appeared on ship tracking sites in the North Atlantic last week, CNN reported.

The European Union, Britain and the United States have all sanctioned the Tagor.

“It is unacceptable for ships to circumvent international sanctions, violate the law of the sea, and fund the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine for more than four years,” Macron wrote. “These vessels, which fail to adhere to the most basic rules of maritime navigation, also pose a threat to the environment and to everyone’s safety.”

The Tagor is the third ship to be seized on suspicion of being part of a Russian shadow fleet. An oil tanker was intercepted by France between the southern coast of Spain and the northern coast of Morocco in Morocco. Another was intercepted by Belgium with French assistance in March.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov released a statement that Sunday’s seizure was “illegal, bordering on international piracy.”

“We absolutely disagree that they are being carried out in full compliance with international law,” Peskov said of the seizures.

The Russian embassy in Paris told Russian state-run news agency TASS that the captain of the Tagor is believed to be a Russian citizen, and the embassy has requested information from French officials about whether other Russian citizens were present on the vessel.

India says it will continue engaging with Myanmar after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the country’s military government, in New Delhi.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters on Monday that India’s policy is “not intended to be a commentary on the internal political arrangements” in Myanmar and that New Delhi believes engagement is the best way forward.

Western nations have sought to isolate Myanmar’s military rulers since they overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a 2021 coup that triggered a crackdown on opponents and a brutal civil war.

The conflict began when the country’s army leader, Min Aung Hlaing, ousted the government and detained civilian leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Some critics and human rights groups have said Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to India risks lending legitimacy to the military-backed government.

“We have always proceeded on the principle that sustained dialogue is what is important,” Misri said, adding that isolating Myanmar would be counterproductive.

“History has shown that disengagement doesn’t give us any results that are better than engagement.”

The visit is Min Aung Hlaing’s first to India since he was sworn in as president in April following an election that critics say was designed to cement his hold on power. His last visit to India was in 2019, when he served as Myanmar’s military chief.

He arrived in India on Saturday, first in the eastern state of Bihar, with a visit to the Buddhist pilgrimage site of Bodh Gaya, where believers say that the Buddha attained enlightenment.

India shares a 1,643-kilometre (1,020-mile) border with Myanmar and a maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal.

Strategic partnership

Myanmar is also strategically important to India’s security interests. The two countries have cooperated on border security and intelligence sharing to combat armed rebel groups.

Modi and Min Aung Hlaing did not address the media after their meeting, as usually occurs after most bilateral talks involving visiting heads of state or government in New Delhi.

But Misri said the two leaders discussed trade, defence and security cooperation, border management, and regional issues, with talks also focusing on expanding economic and technology ties. He said both sides agreed to deepen collaboration across sectors, including trade, energy and critical minerals, and to accelerate major connectivity projects.

Min Aung Hlaing is expected to hold talks with business representatives during his five-day visit, and will travel to the financial hub, Mumbai.

Bilateral trade was $1.95bn in 2025-2026, according to New Delhi.

The leaders also discussed cooperation against cybercrime and human trafficking, issues that have affected thousands of Indians lured to scam centres in the region.

Misri said India and Myanmar have worked together to rescue more than 2,400 Indian nationals over the past 18 months.

Resistance groups formed after the 2021 coup have captured swaths of Myanmar. Others sought out and fought under the leadership of ethnic armies in exchange for training and weapons with which to fight the military.

These resistance groups, known as the People’s Defence Force (PDF), nominally operate under the leadership of the National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow government formed by Myanmar lawmakers removed by the military coup.

Zin Mar Aung, the foreign minister of the NUG, wrote a letter to Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the minister of external affairs for India, on May 28, expressing concern about the visit.

“Since the military coup of 2021, which overturned the democratic will of the people, Myanmar has endured prolonged conflict, instability, and immense humanitarian suffering,” she said.

“India has long championed democratic governance, the rule of law, and regional stability. We therefore urge the Government of India to weigh carefully the broader implications of formal engagement that may normalise or legitimise military rule in Myanmar.”

June 1 (UPI) — Rescue workers in Laos said they heard a knocking sound while searching flooded caves for villagers who went missing on May 19.

The search continues in the Xaisomboun province for two of seven villagers who descended into the caves searching for gold last month. The rescue workers said Monday they knocked on the cave walls and heard a “knocking response” from deep inside the cave system within the last 24 hours.

An eighth villager went into the cave with the group but was able to escape and alert of the seven others who were trapped.

“Yesterday, when we knocked, there was a signal responding back,” Kengkaj Bongkawong, head of Metta Tham Rescue Kalasin, a Thai rescue team, wrote on Facebook. “It was a knocking sound meant to be heard. Based on our initial assessment, this is considered not to be a reflection or an echo of the sound.”

The sound was discovered after the rescue team rappelled down a vertical shaft they had discovered. They report hearing a knocking response twice in the last 24 hours.

Flash flooding after the villagers went into the cave caused them to be trapped. Five of the villagers were rescued last week when a rescue team pumped water out of the cave to help them get out.

One of the villagers was trained to scuba dive and was able to swim out of the cave.

“Moving forward, it won’t just be a matter of sitting around waiting for water to be pumped out,” Bongkawong wrote.

It has been more than four years since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, expanding its occupation of Ukrainian lands, which started in 2014. In the chaos and violence of the first months of the invasion, families were separated, and childcare institutions were cut off from the control of the central authorities in Kyiv. As a result, the occupation forces forcibly transferred more than 20,000 Ukrainian children to Russia.

Russian officials claimed that they did not abduct Ukrainian children, but “saved” them through humanitarian evacuations. However, international investigations have since found that many such transfers were unlawful under international humanitarian law. In many documented cases, transfers were carried out without the consent of the living parent or legal guardians of the child.

International humanitarian law prohibits all forcible transfers and deportations of protected people from occupied territory, except for evacuations strictly required to ensure the population’s safety. Even then, evacuation must happen within occupied territory, be temporary, preserve family unity and return evacuees home as soon as hostilities cease.

Today, the lives of thousands of Ukrainian children are devastated by this forcible transfer. Instead of abiding by international legal obligations and returning them to their homeland, Russia has transformed the issue into yet another bargaining chip against the Ukrainian people.

But Ukraine refuses to abandon its children. For the past four years, there have been intense efforts from families, NGOs and the Ukrainian government to bring them back.

Take the case of Lesya (the name has been changed to protect her identity), whose testimony was recorded by The Reckoning Project— a global team of journalists and lawyers documenting and publicising atrocities committed in the war. Lesya was 15 years old when Russian forces occupied her village in the Kherson region in 2022. When the occupation authorities imposed a mandatory evacuation, she was put on a truck with more than 30 other children and was sent to a rehabilitation centre in Feodosia, Crimea. A woman accompanying the children told her that her mother would join her shortly.

At the facility, Lesya and other Ukrainian children were subjected to a strict routine, forced to do chores and study in Russian, using Russian textbooks. They were kept under surveillance indoors most of the time in a building with windows that could not be opened. Two days a week, the children underwent military training.

Eventually, a relative located her, and with the help of Save Ukraine, a Ukrainian NGO facilitating children’s return, her mother managed to bring her back.

But Lesya’s case is the exception rather than the rule. More than 2,000 Ukrainian children have been brought back thanks to efforts by NGOs, the government and foreign mediators.

Pressure through international institutions has also been pursued, but that has not accelerated the process of return.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued warrants of arrest for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children.

In July 2025, the European Court of Human Rights, in Ukraine and the Netherlands v Russia, found Russia responsible for a number of human rights violations, including the organised removal of children. The court also required Russia to cooperate in establishing a mechanism to find and safely return children.

In March this year, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded that Russia’s deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children amount to crimes against humanity. The report identifies the removal of Ukrainian children as a part of a well-planned and systematically executed policy, conceived at the highest level.

On May 11, the European Union sanctioned 16 individuals and seven entities, while the United Kingdom sanctioned 29 individuals and entities responsible for the deportation, forced transfer, forced assimilation, indoctrination, militarisation and unlawful adoption of Ukrainian children. Overall, the EU has sanctioned more than 130 people and organisations for these actions. The United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland and several other countries have introduced similar measures.

The lack of progress on this issue has driven families to desperation. Some have tried to bring their children back on their own or through often-daring missions by Save Ukraine and five other Ukrainian NGOs.

There should be no need for these risky missions. Under international humanitarian law, Russia is obligated to identify and register Ukrainian children in their care, facilitate family reunification, and permit access to neutral actors assisting Ukrainian children.

As negotiations for the end of the war have stalled and other global events have displaced Ukraine from global headlines, we urgently need to put the issue of the abducted Ukrainian children back in the spotlight.

There are several areas in which existing efforts can expand.

First, a comprehensive tracing mechanism needs to be established and financed to track abducted Ukrainian children and prevent their disappearance into dispersed care and adoption systems.

Second, ongoing legal efforts to hold to account Russian officials involved in the abduction should be intensified. This means coordinated prosecutions in states where the universal jurisdiction principle can be applied, as well as joint investigation strategies supported by Eurojust, the EU’s judicial hub. Ukraine’s partners should support its judicial processes launched against Russian officials and cooperate where needed, including through extraditions where legally applicable and other lawful transfer mechanisms. While justice may be slow, the prospect of accountability can have a deterrent effect.

Third, states can and should fully implement sanctions, trade restrictions and other obligations they assumed but did not consistently observe in practice. The sanctions regime on Russia has severely hurt its economy, but it has also seen continuous evasion. A strict implementation can help put more pressure on the regime in Moscow.

While stories of family reunions are heartening, they are just a drop in a bucket compared with the number of children who continue to be separated from their families and absorbed into a system of indoctrination and militarisation.

We must not allow the issue of returning Ukrainian children to be yet another negotiating chip for Moscow. It cannot be put on hold because negotiations have stalled or because other priorities have captured the world’s attention.

Four years is a long time in a child’s life. Each passing day further erodes their national identity and deepens the pain of separation, as they grow up in a hostile environment. There is no principle more universal than the belief that children belong with their parents and loved ones, and Ukrainian children deserve this basic human right today, not at some point in the future.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Athens, Greece – Bashir is a Syrian Muslim who has lived in Greece since 2014. He married a fellow Syrian in the country, and three months ago, they had a son. After years of picking olives and oranges, learning Greek and a trade in metalwork, and finally buying his own equipment to start work as an independent trader, Bashir felt his life was finally coming together.

Two months ago, the authorities handed him a piece of paper asking him to restate his reasons for coming to Greece and why he should now return to Syria.

Bashir, who requested to withhold his surname, had been granted asylum in Greece in 2015 because of the civil war then raging in Syria. The war ended in December 2024, and Bashir became one of 1,200 Syrians whose asylum cases were reopened in February.

“It’s a catastrophe,” he told Al Jazeera. “I don’t understand how this can happen. If they decide I should leave the country, should my family stay here?”

Bashir’s lawyer said only men are currently receiving such notices – and not just from Syria but Afghanistan, another country whose civil war is deemed to have ended, with the Taliban’s sweeping victory in August 2021.

But neither Syria nor Afghanistan is necessarily safe to return to, said the lawyer, Angeliki Theodoropoulou.

“We believe this has to do with the European Union’s stance towards Syria and Afghanistan, and with the fact that there are quite a few voluntary returns, which encourages authorities to say, ‘Let’s see if these people can return’,” Theodoropoulou told Al Jazeera.

She said the entire regime of international protection was being tightened for these two nationalities. “We’re also seeing asylum being given in very few cases, and a lot of rejections,” she said.

“We don’t understand on what criteria they decided Syria is safe,” Bashir said.

Earlier this year, renewed clashes erupted between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), while Israel has continued attacks on the country sporadically.

Bilal said he feels uncomfortable about the idea of living in Syria for cultural and political reasons, having spent 15 years away.

“Many of the refugees here are like me,” he said.

Jihad, who requested to withhold his surname, has similar concerns but for the opposite reason. He has lived in Greece legally since 2001 and runs a small clothes shop. When the regime of Bashar al-Assad fell, the rest of his family also fled, because he and his family were Assad supporters.

He fears that he would be mistreated in Syria over his views.

“If they just look at my Facebook page or look at things I wrote in the past, they will send me to jail for sure,” Jihad said. “I’m afraid even to go to the embassy. I have never held a gun, I have never killed anyone, I just have an opinion.”

Both men have clean criminal records, pay taxes and social security contributions, and have nurtured families in Greece. Both say they would flee to another country rather than return to Syria. So why is Greece considering their eviction?

Greece’s turn to exclusion

Greek Migration Minister Thanos Plevris announced in February that he had ordered a reopening of any asylum cases that could be revoked. As a temporary status, it can be.

Last year, Greece revoked the asylum of almost 200 people, compared with 400 in the previous decade. Dozens more cases are under review this year. And there appears to be a religious element to the policy.

Greece suspended asylum applications for mainly Muslim asylum seekers arriving from Libya for three months last year. Most of the people whose asylum is being revoked are from majority-Muslim countries.

At a recent parliamentary committee hearing, Plevris stated clearly that Greece prefers non-Muslim migrant workers.

“There are countries with which we don’t have common values, and that’s mainly because of religion, let’s be clear, it’s because of hardcore Islam,” Plevris said. “So, you have to pick countries that are religiously neutral or Christian. We’re talking to Georgia, the Philippines, Armenia, India.”

Greece has been tightening its migration policy in other ways as well.

In September 2025, it adopted what Plevris described as “the strictest returns policy in the whole EU”, empowering the government to imprison people who refuse to be deported. Rejected asylum applicants can be fitted with ankle monitors and given just two weeks to remove themselves voluntarily. If they don’t, they face a 5,000-euro fine ($5,870) and two to five years’ confinement in closed camps.

In February, the governing conservative New Democracy party passed a law stipulating that if any aid worker is charged with helping to smuggle asylum seekers into Greece, their entire aid organisation can be delisted from the ministry’s registry. That means they could lose their funding and access to refugee camps, and could shut down.

The broader context

Europe is undergoing a transition as it prepares to put into force an Asylum and Migration Pact next month. The pact demands a hard-border policy and a returns policy for rejected asylum seekers, both of which each member state must manage itself.

“We’re at a pivotal point in time. We’re about to see the implementation of the European pact. This will fundamentally change the way that migration works,” Kristin Fabbe, chair in Business and Comparative Politics at the European University Institute, recently told a Delphi Economic Forum event in Athens.

The largest bottleneck, she said, “is that Europe has not yet figured out how to do returns at scale … in order to reform asylum and reform migration, you have to execute returns at scale, and the data show that that has been impossible”.

Greece, an EU front-line state, already has 938,000 legally resident migrants in a population of 10.3 million, a relatively high number. Of these, more than 137,000 are recipients of asylum or international protection.

As the Middle East and North Africa region remains unstable, the government is worried about the potential scale of future refugee flows.

More than a million asylum seekers crossed the Greek borders in 2015. In the years that followed, certain EU members took on thousands of asylum cases from Greece and Italy in a show of solidarity, and tens of thousands more asylum recipients in Greece moved to other EU states. Those states have agreed to keep them, but that would not necessarily happen again under the pact.

Observers say this explains Greece’s hardline attitude.

Commenting on the political mood in Europe, Fabbe said, “The legality, the sanctity of the [returns] solutions is being challenged, but I think we’re going to see the proliferation of those solutions and new institutional mechanisms.”

Kuwait activated its air defences after what its foreign ministry later described as a ‘heinous Iranian attack’. Iran says it targeted a US base in retaliation for being used, according to Tehran, to launch recent attacks on Iran.

A special counsel team has determined former President Yoon Suk Yeol had prepared to declare martial law since late 2023, about a year before his failed bid in December 2024, officials said Monday.

Assistant special counsel Kim Ji-mi said in a briefing that the team has determined that Yoon had made preparations for martial law since November 2023 after questioning former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Kim Myung-soo.

The now-retired admiral is said to have told the team last month that Yoon asked him whether he would do anything he would order when they met on Nov. 29, 2023.

Yoon allegedly flew into a rage when he said he would follow them if they were just orders.

The team, led by special counsel Kwon Chang-young, has left open the possibility that Yoon’s alleged remarks may have been part of preliminary efforts to recruit top military officials for his martial law bid.

Kwon’s team earlier said Yoon appeared to be preparing for martial law since the first half of 2024, citing the outcome of its questioning of a military counterintelligence official.

Meanwhile, a separate special counsel team that ended its mandate late last year after a probe into Yoon had determined that martial law preparations took place before October 2023. The team cited a notebook belonging to a retired general convicted in connection with Yoon’s martial law bid.

A Seoul court, however, did not recognize the notebook as evidence during Yoon’s insurrection trial, where he was sentenced to life imprisonment over his failed martial law bid.

Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.

SEOUL, June 1 (UPI) — Five workers were killed and two others injured Monday after an explosion and fire at a Hanwha Aerospace defense facility in the central South Korean city of Daejeon, officials said.

The blast occurred around 10:59 a.m. at Hanwha’s plant in Yuseong District, fire authorities told reporters. Some 100 personnel were dispatched and extinguished the blaze shortly after 1 p.m.

All five fatalities were found inside the work area, while two injured workers were rescued and taken to nearby hospitals, officials said. One suffered burns over his entire body and remained in critical condition, while the other sustained relatively minor burns to the neck.

Authorities said the bodies of the victims were severely damaged, making identification difficult.

Hanwha officials said the explosion occurred during a cleaning operation involving tools and equipment used in the rocket-propellant manufacturing process. The company said the exact cause of the blast remains under investigation.

A company official said the cleaning process had not previously been regarded as particularly hazardous because it involved washing equipment with water. The seven people involved in the accident were site workers rather than researchers, he added.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ordered authorities to mobilize all available resources for emergency response efforts and conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident, according to his office.

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok issued similar instructions, calling for all available personnel and equipment to be deployed for firefighting and rescue operations and to prevent additional casualties.

Hanwha Aerospace Chief Executive Officer Son Jae-il apologized to the victims and their families following the deadly incident.

“We failed to protect the lives of those who were working at what should have been a safe workplace,” Son said. “As the company’s chief executive, I feel a heavy responsibility for this accident.”

Son pledged full cooperation with authorities investigating the cause of the explosion and said the company would conduct a comprehensive review of its safety systems to prevent a recurrence.

The company said it had established an emergency response headquarters at the site and was working with fire, police and other authorities on response and recovery efforts.

The Daejeon facility is one of Hanwha Aerospace’s key defense production sites and develops propulsion systems and tactical weapon technologies.

The accident was the latest in a series of deadly incidents at the complex. Explosions at the facility killed five workers in 2018 and three more in 2019.

EXPLAINER

While a peace deal between the US and Iran remains elusive, Israel has deepened its offensive into southern Lebanon.

The United States military says it has struck Iranian military sites, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has targeted a US base in response, the latest in a series of exchanges as negotiations to end the three-month US-Israel war on Iran are conducted.

US President Donald Trump also on Monday described Iran as eager to reach an agreement.

“Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the USA and those that are with us,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.

Here is the latest on the US-Iran negotiations as both sides announced on day 94 of the war on Iran that they traded attacks:

In Iran

• Production restored at South Pars: Iran has restored gas production at three offshore platforms in the South Pars gasfield after Israel attacked them in March.
• US says it attacks Iranian military sites: The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said it conducted “self-defense strikes” on Iranian radar and drone sites in the city of Goruk and on Qeshm Island at the weekend.
• Iran executes two men over January protests: Iran executed two men convicted over their role in antigovernment protests in January, according to the Mizan news agency. The men were found guilty of setting fire to a mosque in Tehran, damaging public property and clashing with security forces, Mizan reported.

War diplomacy

• Iran says messages being sent to US: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is continuing to exchange messages with the US on a deal to end the war.

• Trump’s stance: Araghchi’s comments came after US media reported that Trump has called for tougher terms in the preliminary agreement.

In the Gulf

• Kuwait intercepts missiles and drones: The General Staff of the Kuwaiti army said its air defences were “confronting hostile missile and drone attacks”. If sounds of explosions are heard, they are the result of air defences intercepting the projectiles, the army added.

In Lebanon

• Israel pushes farther into Lebanon: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israel’s military to push farther into Lebanon after Israeli forces made their deepest incursion into the country in more than 25 years.
• Hezbollah says it downs Israeli drone: The Lebanese armed group said it shot down an Israeli Hermes 450 drone over the western sector of southern Lebanon using a surface-to-air missile on Sunday evening. It said in a statement on Telegram that the strike was in response to Israeli violations of a ceasefire that went into effect on April 8.
• Hezbollah strikes Israeli forces in southern Lebanon: Hezbollah also said its fighters fired a large number of rockets and artillery shells at Israeli forces on the eastern outskirts of the town of Yohmor al-Shaqif in southern Lebanon early on Monday.
• US proposes new plan: The US has put forward a proposal to de-escalate hostilities in Lebanon, a US official told Al Jazeera, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio held separate talks with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Netanyahu.

In Israel

• Israel said rocket fired from Lebanon intercepted: The Israeli military said it intercepted a rocket that set off sirens in northern Israel and destroyed the launcher from which Hezbollah fired the projectile. Earlier, Israel’s Ynet News website reported that air raid sirens had been heard in Western Galilee, the town of Kiryat Shmona and surrounding areas.

In the US

• The IRGC says it strikes US airbase: The IRGC said it struck an airbase that was used for an attack on a telecommunications tower on Sirik Island, located in the southern province of Hormozgan, Iran’s Fars news agency reported. The IRGC did not specify the location of the facility.
• Trump says Iran wants to make a deal: In a new Truth Social post, Trump claimed Tehran “really wants to make a deal” and whatever deal is reached will “be a good one” for the US “and those that are with us”.

Colombia’s election heads to a June 21 runoff after a tight first round between Abelardo de la Espriella and Ivan Cepeda. The night was marked by mutual accusations, with Cepeda calling for verification of results and De la Espriella celebrating his lead.