Voters in Rwanda lined up at polling stations on Monday to elect their next president, with 66-year-old incumbent Paul Kagame, who has ruled the central African country for nearly a quarter of a century, expected to cruise to victory.

Kagame has won more than 93% of the vote at each of the three previous elections. Eight candidates had applied to run against him, but only two were retained in the final list validated by the electoral commission.

The others, including Kagame’s most vocal critics, were barred for various reasons that included prior criminal convictions.

At the Rwandexco polling center in the capital Kigali, people started queueing 90 minutes before polls opened.

Voter Barimukije Pheneas said he had chosen to re-elect Kagame, who is praised for rebuilding the country in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide by prioritizing development and putting in place effective social services.

“We voted smoothly without any crowding, and we are happy,” Pheneas said. “I voted for Paul Kagame because he has achieved a lot for us; he united us.”

Kagame is running against two other candidates, Frank Habineza and Philippe Mpayimana, who also challenged him at the last poll in 2017.

He is looking to win the endorsement of the more than 9 million eligible voters, who are also electing members of parliament. Provisional results are expected by July 20.

Motorcycle taxi driver Karangwa Vedaste said the voting process was calm and peaceful.

“I voted for a leader I trust. The one I voted for is a secret in my heart. We will share it when he wins,” Vedaste said.

Kagame won nearly 99% of the vote in the 2017 poll, which followed a constitutional change removing term limits that would have prevented him from standing again.

He has won acclaim for transforming Rwanda into a thriving economy but has also faced criticism from rights activists and Western nations for muzzling the media, stifling opposition and backing rebel groups in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rwanda’s government has denied all the accusations against it, and while campaigning, Kagame promised continued development and stability.

Its human rights record was thrown into the spotlight when Rwanda struck a migration deal in 2022 with the UK to receive thousands of asylum seekers. Britain’s new government has said it would scrap the deal.

Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla are planning to head down under.

The royal couple will travel to Australia in October as part of a tour that will also see them visit Samoa for this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Buckingham Palace announced on Sunday.

The forthcoming visit to Australia will be the 75-year-old British monarch’s first trip to a Commonwealth realm since he ascended the throne. In addition to the United Kingdom, Charles is also head of state in 14 realms including Australia, New Zealand and Canada, though his role is largely ceremonial.

Charles and Camilla are visiting the nation “at the invitation of the Australian government, where their program will feature engagements in the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales,” the palace said.

He last visited Australia with his wife six years ago, when they traveled to the Gold Coast for the opening of the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings – or CHOGM as they are known – are held every two years, with member states taking turns as host. The theme of this year’s event in Samoa, Charles’ first as head of the organization, is “One Resilient Future: Transforming Our Common Wealth,” and will see delegations from the 56 member states come together.

“Their majesties’ state visit to Samoa will celebrate the strong bilateral relationship between the Pacific Island nation and the UK,” the palace added.

Charles, who resumed public-facing duties in April as he continues his treatment for cancer, has had a busy calendar in recent months. Last month, he attended D-Day commemorations in France.

More recently, he appointed Keir Starmer as prime minister after the Labour Party won a landslide victory at the polls, traveled to Scotland for the annual “Holyrood Week” celebrating Scottish culture and on Thursday visited the Welsh parliament in Cardiff to mark 25 years since Welsh devolution. On Monday, the royal couple are headed to the Channel Islands for a two-day visit.

Further details on the king and queen’s tours are expected to be revealed in the coming months. However, a palace spokesperson said that similarly to all of Charles’s recent engagements, “his program in both countries will be subject to doctors’ advice, and any necessary modifications on health grounds.”

Some may wonder why the royal couple are not going to New Zealand while they are in the region. The palace spokesperson said that decision was made in consultation with the king’s medical team who advised that “such an extended program should be avoided at this time” in order to prioritize his continued recovery.

“In close consultation with the Australian and New Zealand prime ministers, and with due regard for the pressures of time and logistics, it has therefore been agreed to limit the visit to Samoa and Australia only,” the spokesperson said.

“Their majesties send their warmest thanks and good wishes to all parties for their continued support and understanding,” they added.

The king’s absence from undertaking any visits to any of the Commonwealth realms since his accession had raised eyebrows. There was much surprise when his first overseas tours as monarch were announced as France and Germany. Those were followed by travel to Kenya, which is a Commonwealth member but not a realm.

Charles’ visit to Australia will be a key test of his popularity as head of state. The nation – which was colonized by the British in 1788 – has long debated whether a long-distance monarch is still needed. A 1999 referendum on the issue saw voters opt to remain a constitutional monarchy, 55% to 45%.

In other Commonwealth nations, Queen Elizabeth II’s death renewed rumblings – some louder than others – of moves to sever ties with the crown and become republics. But in Australia, despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s pro-republic views, there has been no immediate push in that direction.

Albanese had proposed to hold a referendum over whether the nation should become a republic if he secured a second term in 2025. However, those plans appear to have been shelved to focus on more pressing challenges at home like the cost-of-living crisis.

As dramatic images of the failed assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump spread around the world Saturday, news of the attack also sparked immerse online interest – as well as pointed criticism of the US – on China’s heavily censored internet.

Discussion of the assassination attempt, in which a gunman opened fire at a Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening, dominated Chinese social media in the hours after the attack.

Related hashtags garnered hundreds of millions of views on China’s X-like social media platform Weibo, where Trump – who as president played an outsized role reframing the US-China relationship into the more contentious one that exists today – has for years been a frequent subject of discussion, fascination and often ridicule.

Some social media users were quick to hail former president and presumptive Republican US presidential nominee as “lucky” that he didn’t sustain more serious injury and praised Trump’s “quick reflexes,” while many others made quips about how the situation would boost his re-election bid.

Trump, who said he was shot in the ear, was declared safe following the incident.

As shots rang out during his speech at the rally, the former president ducked to the ground and was covered by Secret Service agents. He then raised his fist in a defiant pose with blood visible on his face before agents took him off the stage – a gesture captured in an image widely shared worldwide and in China.

“Just judging by his quick reaction and agility to duck, I’d vote for Trump. I bet (US President Joe) Biden would take ages to crouch down,” read one social media comment that got thousands of likes and appeared to allude to concerns about Biden’s age.

One blogger with over a million followers noted that the incident made Trump look more like a “a traditional Hollywood president.”

Other commentators made morbid parallels between the incident and the 2022 assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for example noting that the two ex-leaders did not end up “meeting” over the weekend.

There were also repeated links made between the attack and recurring instances of gun violence in the United States, which are often highlighted by Chinese state media as an example of the country’s failings.

“In the land of liberty, gunshots ring out every day,” said one comment on Weibo with several thousand likes, while another said Trump would be “confirmed as the next president with gunfire.”

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs put forward an official comment Sunday, with a spokesperson saying Chinese leader Xi Jinping “expressed sympathy” to Trump.

State-linked media also stepped in to shape public discussion around the incident. Several op-eds or editorials published by such outlets framed Saturday’s violence as a symptom of American democracy, echoing Beijing’s longstanding rhetorical push to portray the US political system as dysfunctional and inferior to its own.

An editorial published by the state-linked Beijing News on Sunday claimed the incident had “combined all the political symbols typical of an American election: violence, uncertainty, and tough guys.”

State-run nationalist tabloid Global Times on Monday published an op-ed from a Beijing-based professor describing how “the escalation of political polarization into violence shows that more people are feeling hopeless about American democracy.”

“Political polarization and violence stem from severe income inequality and hopelessness about social change,” the piece said, while the outlet’s English-language arm repeated similar themes in an editorial for international audiences.

As such commentary filtered across China’s media, Biden, in an Oval Office address Sunday evening, took aim at what he described as “foreign actors” who “fan the flames of our division.

Their aim is “to shape the outcomes consistent with their interests, not ours,” Biden said in an apparent reference to Washington’s concern that China, Russia and other rivals are playing on existing social divisions in the US in influence campaigns, something Beijing denies.

“Tonight, I’m asking every American to recommit …. (to) think about what’s made America so special,” the US president said.

The rapt focus on the attempted assassination in China adds to what has already been frequent discussion of Trump on the Chinese internet, where he earned the nickname “Chuan Jianguo,” or “Trump, the (Chinese) nation builder” during his time in office – a quip to suggest his isolationist foreign policy and divisive domestic agenda were actually helping Beijing to overtake Washington on the global stage.

Trump’s re-election bid is also believed to be watched closely in Beijing, not least because the former president has threatened, if re-elected, to raise tariffs that experts say could trigger a de facto decoupling between the US and Chinese economies – a shock that would hit as China grapples with numerous internal fiscal challenges.

A man has been charged with two counts of murder following the discovery of human remains at a famous bridge in southwest England.

Yostin Andres Mosquera, a 34-year-old Colombian national, was arrested in Bristol early Saturday and charged on Monday, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The remains were found in suitcases at Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol last week, as well as at Mosquera’s address in Shepherd’s Bush, a neighborhood in west London.

The two victims have been named as Albert Alfonso, 62, and Paul Longworth, 71. The two men had previously been in a relationship and still lived together at the London apartment.

Mosquera had also been staying with them in the apartment for a short while, police said.

Longworth was British and Alfonso was originally from France but had obtained British citizenship.

The Metropolitan Police said it is “making thorough enquiries” to find out whether there are any linked offenses in the United Kingdom or internationally, but none has yet been identified.

Andy Valentine, the Met’s deputy assistant commissioner, said that his thoughts are “first and foremost with Albert and Paul’s loved ones who are coming to terms” with the grisly news.

“I know that this awful incident will cause concern not just among residents in Shepherd’s Bush but in the wider LGBTQ+ community across London,” he said.

“I hope it will be of some reassurance that whilst enquiries are still ongoing and the investigation is at a relatively early stage, we are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with the two murders,” Valentine added.

Police said the evidence gathered so far “does not suggest there was a homophobic motive in this case” but, following national guidelines, have provisionally categorized the incident as a hate crime. The Met will continue to review this as more evidence becomes available, it said.

Israel has announced that a Hamas commander was killed in Saturday’s strike on southern Gaza, but the fate of the major target, Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, remains uncertain.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Sunday that Rafe Salama, the head of the Khan Younis brigade and Deif’s deputy, was “eliminated” in the attack.

According to the statement, Salama was “one of the closest associates” of Deif, as well as “one of the masterminds” of Hamas’ attack on October 7.

It remains unclear if Deif himself died in Saturday’s strike. The Israeli military is verifying whether he was killed while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also acknowledged it is uncertain whether he died.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said the strike killed at least 90 Palestinians and injured 300 others in Al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian zone.

The UN’s Scott Anderson described what he saw at a nearby hospital in the aftermath of the strikes as “the most horrific scenes I have seen in my nine months in Gaza.”

An elusive and powerful figure, Deif is understood to be one of the architects behind the October 7 attacks. He has led the Palestinian militant group’s armed wing for more than two decades.

If his death is confirmed, Deif would be the highest profile Hamas leader killed since the war in Gaza began nine months ago. Israel has been seeking to dismantle Hamas following the October 7 attacks but with fighting ongoing and senior Hamas figures at large, that goal has seemed distant.

Israeli intelligence services said this past week they killed a total of 25 Hamas operatives involved in the October 7 attacks.

Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s intelligence agency, the Shin Bet announced the figure during a meeting with commanders from the IDF’s Southern Command and 162 Division held in Rafah on Saturday. Bar commended the results of the Shin Bet’s “intensified activity” within Gaza.

Meanwhile, a fresh Israeli airstrike that hit a UN agency school in a camp for displaced people in central Gaza on Sunday has killed at least 15 and injured more than 100 others, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza and officials at a nearby hospital.

Video from the scene in Al-Nuseirat camp shows bodies and injured people — some bleeding and covered in rubble — being rushed to ambulances.

A statement from the IDF on Sunday said the Israeli Air Force struck “a number of terrorists” who were operating in the area of the school in Nuseirat.

At least 22 people were killed in a strike Saturday that hit a makeshift mosque in a displacement camp in west Gaza City, according to an official at the hospital treating the casualties.

Video of the scene shows bodies lying on what appear to be mats laid out for prayer. Multiple dead and wounded people can be seen missing limbs.

The UN Human Rights Office also commented on the incident in its daily briefing on Saturday, saying, “Around 1300 hours, the IDF reportedly struck a makeshift mosque inside Ash Al Shati’ Refugee Camp, west Gaza City. Reports indicate that because the IDF struck shortly after the noon prayer, many people were still inside or near the mosque.”

“The IDF has not made any comments on the incident so far. There was no report of a prior warning for either of the attacks,” UN OHCHR said, also referring to an Israeli strike on a displacement camp in southern Gaza, which Israel said targeted Hamas’ military chief who was an alleged mastermind of the October 7 attacks.

This is a developing story and will be updated

A small corner of Venezuela is spreading slowly along 77th Street in Bogota, the capital of Colombia.

Municipal maps formally refer to that neighborhood as Unir II (“unite”), but to many of its inhabitants it is known as Barrio Hugo Chavez, after the late Venezuelan president.

Many of the more than seven million Venezuelans who fled their country over the past decade or more now call Bogota home. The city is brimming with informal communities where migrants come together to help each other integrate and combat the ever-present melancholy and homesickness.

Maria Alvarez is one such migrant. A 27-year-old single mother from Valencia, Alvarez left Venezuela in 2017 when her son Gabriel was only one. They haven’t returned since. Gabriel knows his grandparents only from the photos on his mother’s phone and the occasional video call.

Most of those seven million migrants left Venezuela after 2014, according to the United Nations, amid an economic and political crisis brought about by a crash in the price of oil – a key export for Venezuela – combined with chronic corruption and mismanagement at the hands of government officials.

Almost two million of them have been granted work permits to work in Colombia, where life is working out well for Alvarez and many others like her. After the Covid pandemic, she helped create a foundation in Unir II to provide Venezuelans and Colombians with professional classes and psychological counseling. She now makes a living as a manicurist and has met a new partner.

An election and a credible opposition

But with the authoritarian government of Nicolas Maduro firmly ensconced in power, for many years those dreams of returning have remained just that. Until now.

This month, for the first time in a decade, Venezuela will hold an election in which Maduro’s government is being challenged by an opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, who has a credible chance of winning.

In October last year, Maduro formally pledged to grant free and fair elections in 2024 at the end of a long and secretive negotiation process with the US State Department.

That pledge was at least partially compromised amid a new spat between Washington and Caracas: the leading opposition candidate, Maria Corina Machado, was barred from running earlier this year, as was her immediate replacement Corina Yoris. The Venezuelan government has accused the White House of not lifting all economic sanctions against government officials, and in recent weeks opposition supporters and members of Machado’s team have been detained.

Even so, many experts believe that come the July 28 election the opposition has a real chance of pushing Maduro out of power.

Recent polls put Gonzalez more than twenty percentage points ahead of Maduro and, for the first time in years, electoral observers from the Carter Center and the UN have been invited to monitor the election.

Such a lead would make Gonzalez the heavy favorite if this were almost any other democratic country. Yet in Venezuela, the government has a habit of clinging to power. Critics have long accused it of rigging votes and silencing the opposition.

Opposition protests were repeatedly repressed in 2014, 2017 and 2019, and hundreds of opposition leaders have been arrested, or exiled.

Still, to many, this year feels different.

“I personally find it difficult to believe Maduro will just give up power,” said Laura Dib, a Venezuela expert at the Washington Office for Latin America.

Alvarez and many other migrants in Bogota, think similarly: “Maduro can only win the election if he steals it. But if there’s a new government, I’d go back the same day. Not just me, hundreds, thousands… there won’t be enough planes for everyone to return home,” said Endel Gonzalez, a 54-year-old from Maracaibo who has worked as a food courier in Bogota for the past five years.

What it means for America

It’s the fate of migrants like Alvarez and millions of others like her that are making this such a closely watched election.

Before the pandemic, it was common for Venezuelan migrants to seek opportunities in neighboring countries, but in the past three years more than half a million have headed to the United States’ southern border, moving directly via land from Colombia to Panama and Central America, all the way to Northern Mexico.

Venezuelans were the second largest group of migrants apprehended by US Customs and Border Patrol in 2023, totaling over 260,000 encounters, a fivefold increase from 2020 when there were less than 50,000, putting pressure on the White House to stem the flow.

With the Democratic administration facing an uncertain election in November and migration policies squarely on the ballot, this month’s contest in Caracas could hold profound consequences for US President Joe Biden.

In the early years of Venezuela’s migration boom, many Latin American countries offered emergency permits and ad hoc policies for migrants from the country, but now many are erecting barriers to deter the free movement of people.

Colombia for example has stopped issuing documents for recently arrived migrants, while the newly elected president of Panama, Jose Raul Mulino, has proposed fencing off the jungles that connect his country to Colombia.

Dib estimates that up to two million more migrants could be on the move by next year.

What next?

The Biden administration has been instrumental in reaching this moment. Maduro’s agreement to a free and fair election came only after the US partially lifted oil sanctions, and only after repatriation flights for undocumented migrants back to Caracas resumed in October.

Direct negotiations between Maduro and the State Department seem to have halted, although Maduro announced last week that his chief negotiator, Jorge Rodriguez, held a meeting with US officials to resume talks.

Washington is openly supporting Gonzalez, apparently reasoning that a transition to democracy in Venezuela would not only help negotiations around energy policy and migration, but also help turn Caracas from its ideological alliances with the likes of China, Russia and Iran.

But with both countries going to the polls this year, it may be what voters decide in November, rather than July, that really makes the difference.

“If the Biden administration remains in power, I believe (bilateral) negotiations will continue,” Dib said.

“Now, if there’s a Trump administration, most likely it’s just conducting business… without much regard on what happens in terms of democracy and human rights.”