Category World News

Voters in New York City have already begun to cast their ballots, where the upcoming Democratic Party primary has attracted national attention.

Following nine days of early voting that ended on Sunday, polls will open on Tuesday.

The Democratic Party’s leadership in the race, which includes former governor Andrew Cuomo’s son, a former mayor with established experience, and young Democratic socialist state assembly member Zohran Mamdani, who has promised to address cost-of-living issues, has sparked a debate over the party’s future in New York and beyond.

The Democratic primary winner is regarded as the clear favorite to win the city’s November general election, with the incumbent mayor firmly leaning toward the left and the Republican candidate a long shot at winning.

Democratic incumbent mayor Eric Adams announced earlier this year that he would withdraw from the primary.

The city’s ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to rank several candidates based on their preference rather than voting for just one candidate, has also been highlighted by the race.

What are the status of the race as voters turn out for the polls, and what are the ranked choice voting’s advantages and disadvantages? We examine that and more in detail.

When is the last day to vote?

On June 24, the New York City Democratic mayoral primary will be held with voting open from 6am to 9pm. Between June 14 and June 22, early voting took place.

The candidates are who?

Cuomo and Mamdani are in a battle to take the top spot in the country’s largest city, while others are running for the top spot as well.

After a report revealed that he had sexually harassed at least 11 women while serving as governor, Cuomo, a 67-year-old centrist former governor from a political dynasty in New York, launched an effort to resurrect. He eventually succumbed to this demand in 2021.

At a time when the federal government is under greater scrutiny from the administration of US President Donald Trump over issues like immigration enforcement, the former governor has positioned himself as the most experienced figure capable of leading the city.

Mamdani, a 33-year-old Democratic socialist and state legislator with an immigrant background, has started a campaign with low success rates but has risen steadily as the young lawmaker makes an unflinchingly progressive pitch to voters. He has pledged to reform the political structure of the city and pass laws imposing a freeze on rent increases and free public transportation.

Cuomo and Mamdani are among the candidates running, despite the country’s attention currently favoring them.

They include New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, New York City Council member Adrienne Adams, New York City Council member Whitney Tilson, investor Michael Blake, political consultant, and former state senator Zellnor Myrie.

What makes this race so notable?

The race for mayor has been filled with drama, fitting New York’s reputation as one of the best cities in the world.

A stark contrast between competing visions for the city’s future has been drawn between Cuomo’s attempt to retake office after a previous governor’s attempt to do so in addition to Mamdani’s young, vibrant campaign with strong appeals to the city’s pluralistic identity.

Centrist figures like former president Bill Clinton have supported Cuomo, while progressive figures like Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have endorsed Mamdani.

The Middle East conflict has also had a significant impact on the race. Cuomo, a fervent supporter of Israel, has pledged to combat anti-Semitism. Mahmudani, a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, has mentioned receiving anti-Muslim death threats during the campaign.

The Trump administration’s aggressive policy toward immigration enforcement has also been a turning point. When federal immigration agents temporarily detained Lander, the city’s comptroller, while he was escorting a man outside of immigration court, city officials and candidates reacted with fury last week.

What can we infer from the most recent polls?

Recent polls indicate that Mamdani and Cuomo are in a close fight.

In an Emerson poll conducted on Monday, Cuomo received 35 percent of the vote, Mamdani received 33 percent, Lander received 13 percent, and Adrienne Adams received 8 percent.

In a prior Emerson poll in late May, Cuomo received 34 percent, Mamdani received 22 percent, Lander received 10 percent, and Adrienne Adams received 8 percent.

In the final round, Cuomo defeats Mamdani by 45 percent, according to a Marist poll from June, while Emerson poll shows Mamdani with 52 percent, Cuomo with 48 percent, and Mamdani with 45 percent.

When will the outcomes be available?

Polls close at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday (GMT, Wednesday), and some preliminary results should be made soon. Due to the city’s ranked-choice voting system, the final result will take longer to be tabulated.

Since the city is awaiting all mail-in ballots until July 1, ranked choice tabulation will not begin. On July 15, the official results will be released, but they may already be known.

How does ranked choice voting work?

People rank several candidates based on their preferences in ranked choice voting rather than just picking a single candidate.

Supporters claim that this is more complicated than a traditional election because it allows voters to express their preferences without casting an all-or-nothing vote.

Voters in New York order as many as five candidates according to their favorability. Only the first choices are counted during the first round of voting. A candidate’s overwhelming majority of more than 50% of the vote determines their candidacy.

If not, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and the second-choice pick is chosen based on the votes cast by the voters who placed them first.

The process continues until there are only two candidates left, with the winner based on the number of votes cast.

What are its advantages?

Those who support ranked choice voting claim that it gives people the freedom to cast their ballots in favor of the candidate they like the best without worrying about their chances of winning.

You could place Lander first and Mamdani second if you like Mamdani and think he has the best chance of winning, for example.

People can choose to support the candidate they most strongly with the exception of when the other candidates you ranked lose out on the race’s outcome.

Some argue that a candidate’s ranked choice makes it difficult to win if they don’t have a lot of broad support, since candidates gain if they perform well with both their own core supporters and those of several other candidates as well.

What are its shortcomings?

The complexity of the system is one of its drawbacks. Even those who have previously cast ballots using ranked choice voting can be confused about the implications of their rankings, despite the obvious simplicity of the idea of choosing a group of candidates based on preference.

Some people also think that the voting process is less transparent because a computer is assigned the task of tabulating and redistributing votes in each round, making it harder for traditional news organizations to follow developments.

Qatar, which hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East and serves as a trusted intermediary for Tehran, was the “obvious choice” for Iranian retaliation against the US, according to Dorsa Jabbari of Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari after the missile attack near Doha.

In the second major attack this week, 10 people were killed and several others were hurt in Russian airstrikes that hit Kyiv overnight. Valeriy Mankuta, a resident, climbed down a lightning rod to escape his damaged home, surviving a missile strike.

The Israeli press reported that Israel’s recent targeting of key military positions and leaders in Iran was the result of intelligence operations.

An Israeli intelligence agency, which is alleged to have infiltrated much of Iran’s security apparatus, is responsible for the strikes that destroyed a large portion of its key defensive infrastructure and killed military commanders.

Numerous people have reportedly been detained and accused of spying for Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, supporting Israel in the media, or infuriating the general public.

To prevent Israeli hackers from stealing sensitive communications, the Iranian government recently instructed senior officials and their security teams to avoid using smartphones connected to the internet. Meanwhile, it is believed that Iranian security services have reportedly asked the public to report any buildings they’ve rented to businesses or individuals over the past few years.

How extensive has the infiltration been, and how long has it been planning, and what has been characterized as an unprecedented Israeli intelligence operation that led to its recent strikes on Iran?

How significant a part did Israeli intelligence play in the country’s initial counterattacks?

a significant one.

Shortly after Israel launched its attacks on Iran, reports of intelligence operations that came before the “unprecedented” attack began to surface. Details about how both human intelligence and AI were used to carry out the attack, which senior members of Israel’s intelligence community claimed hampered a large portion of Iran’s air defenses, were revealed in interviews with senior officials.

The Associated Press published interviews with 10 Israeli intelligence and military officials who were aware of the strike on June 17 and shortly after.

Sima Shine, the former Mossad research director, told the AP, “This attack is the culmination of years of work by the Mossad to target Iran’s nuclear program.” Additionally, the article provided details on how Israeli agents were able to smuggle a number of drones and missile systems into Iran, which were then used to attack numerous targets created by a US AI model based on information that Israeli agents had provided to it from previous strikes.

Are there still intelligence operations?

They appear to be.

Saeed Izadi and Behnam Shahryari, two senior officers in Iran’s Quds force, were found dead over the weekend, according to Israel’s claim that its intelligence networks had located them.

Major-General Ali Shademani was found and killed by Israel on June 17; that was just four days after his predecessor was killed in a targeted airstrike.

A target would have to completely rid themselves of any electronic devices that could connect to the internet in order to avoid detection, according to Israeli military intelligence specialist Miri Eisin, who spoke to The Observer in the United Kingdom. She said that “most people don’t take themselves out of the grid.” You can reach anyone, they say.

According to defense analyst Hamze Attar from Luxembourg, “Israel likely has around 30 to 40 cells operating inside of Iran,” the majority of which are made up of collaborators, rather than Israeli agents, which also contributes to Iran’s weakening, he said, citing assembly instructions found on the hardware that was seized by authorities.

He said that some of those cells will be accountable for bringing weapons into Israel, others for carrying out attacks, and others for gathering intelligence.

How long has this been occurring?

Israeli intelligence operations inside Iran are not recent. According to analysts, operations designed to monitor, infiltrate, sabotage, and undermine Iranian defenses date back to the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Ali Larijani, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, acknowledged the scope of Israeli operations in Iran in a speech released in November 2024, telling ISNA news agency that the “problem of infiltration had become very serious in recent years.”

The former parliamentary speaker and nuclear negotiator continued, “There have been some instances of negligence for years.”

The Israeli-led Lebanese rebel group Hezbollah only gained access to its supply chain after its infiltration by Israeli intelligence in September 2024, allowing the group to detonate communication devices. Hassan Nasrallah, its leader, was killed in the same manner after Israeli agents found out where he was hiding. Similar plots were employed in the Hamas political leader’s assassination in Tehran in July of that year when an explosive device placed in his residence a few weeks prior to his death exploded.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed by a remote-controlled gun mounted on the back of a pick-up truck in the past 20 years by Israel. The Stuxnet computer virus, which was thought to have infected 30, 000 computers across at least 14 Iranian nuclear facilities, was also caused by Israel.

Does Iran have an Israeli spy agency?

Absolutely.

Seven Israeli citizens were detained in late October on suspicion of spying for Iran, according to Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet. Authorities in Haifa had earlier detained a further group of seven people on suspicion of aiding Iran’s intelligence ministry during the war.

According to Israeli police sources at the time, additional covert networks with Iran-linked connections may exist there.

Why do we know so much about this covert operation?

Because, in the opinion of analysts, publicity can also be a valuable addition to an intelligence agency’s toolkit.

While gaining points at home from other countries, revealing the extent to which a foreign nation’s security infrastructure can be compromised and infiltrated undermines that nation’s morale.

Iran has targeted its military assets in the Middle East in response to the United States’ direct involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict.

According to Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, bases “in the region or elsewhere” could be attacked in retaliation for US attacks the day before.

As Iran attacked Qatar’s largest military base in the Middle East, Al Udeid Air Base, explosions erupted over Doha later that evening as they sounded.

What is the complete Al Udeid information:

Al Udeid, who is he?

The US’s biggest military base in the region, Al Udeid, is located 120 kilometers south of Iran’s border along the Gulf.

The 24-hectare (60-acre) base, which is located in the desert near Doha, serves as the US Central Command’s front office, which oversees US military operations in a sizable area of territory that extends from Egypt to Kazakhstan in the east.

The Qatar Emiri Air Force, the US Air Force, the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom, and other international organizations are housed there.

It houses around 10, 000 troops.

Al Udeid’s “long, well-maintained runways enable rapid deployment, making it a crucial component of US force projection,” according to a Washington, DC-based newspaper earlier this year.

Qatar’s involvement in Al Udeid “has kept it at the forefront of military readiness while saving US taxpayers billions of dollars,” according to The Hill. Qatar spent more than $ 8 billion on infrastructure upgrades over the years, according to the report.

The base has participated in numerous humanitarian missions, including the 2021 evacuation of Kabul, and has been a key player in air campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What makes it news?

In response to Iranian threats, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that it had temporarily closed its airspace.

According to the ministry, “the competent authorities announce the temporary suspension of air traffic in the nation’s airspace as part of a series of precautionary measures taken in response to developments in the region.”

The US and UK embassies in Qatar were forced to close several hours after the statement that there was “an abundance of caution” was made available to the country’s citizens.

A Western diplomat claimed there had been a credible Iranian threat against Al Udeid since Monday at noon, according to a Reuters citation later.

Qatar’s defense minister, who was cited by Al Jazeera in that evening, claimed that the nation’s air defenses had intercepted missiles fired at Al Udeid.

Al Udeid had the attack in mind.

The US appears to have started taking precautionary measures before attacking Iran’s nuclear sites.

Hundreds of US military aircraft were no longer on the tarmac at the base, according to news agency AFP, who based its assessment on satellite images that Planet Labs PBC had provided. US President Donald Trump was considering direct involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict.

On June 5, nearly 40 military aircraft, including transport planes like the Hercules C-130 and reconnaissance planes, were parked on the tarmac at the base, the Pentagon’s Central Command’s regional headquarters. However, three aircraft could only be seen in an image taken on June 19th.

Aircraft that were not in hardened shelters, according to a US official who spoke to Reuters. Additionally, he claimed that US Navy vessels have been moved from Bahrain, where the country’s fifth fleet is based.

The official continued, “It is not a common practice.” The priority is foregoing force protection.

Was Al Udeid a target of US nuclear attacks?

No.

B-2 bombers were reportedly heading to Guam, which was a ruse, prior to the US attack on nuclear sites on Sunday.

Seven B-2 stealth bombers left Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, United States, at 00:01 EDT (04:01 GMT), as all eyes were directed West, reportedly. The top-secret flights directly reached Iran over the Atlantic.

In the US offensive against Iran, none of the US bases in the Middle East were deployed.

How has Qatar responded to Al-Udeid’s attack?

Qatar called the air base attack a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty and blasted it.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ attack on Al Udeid Air Base is a flagrant violation of international law, according to Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesman for the foreign ministry.