World Tour: Election in Egypt

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Nigeria, Onize Ohikere.

AUDIO: [Voting process]

ONIZE OHIKERE: Egypt election — We start today in Egypt, where polling units closed yesterday after a presidential election.

The vote comes as Egypt battles an economic crisis and the Israel-Hamas war along its eastern border. Refugees have also flooded over the southern border from Sudan as a war continues there.

RESIDENT: [Speaking Arabic]

This Cairo resident says security and safety are top concerns.

Incumbent President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is widely expected to clinch a third term. He came into office in 2014 and has cemented his hold on power since then. Officials will announce the election results on Monday.

India Kashmir ruling — Over in India, the Supreme Court on Monday upheld a measure that revoked the special status of the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir.

JILANI: We have held that Article 370 is a temporary provision on a reading of the historical context in which it was included.

The court also ordered the country’s electoral commission to hold legislative polls in the region by next September.

Back in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government stripped the Muslim-majority region of its special status. Jammu and Kashmir had operated as a semi-autonomous region with a separate constitution and land and job protections.

India and neighboring Pakistan have fought over control of the region since August 1947, when both nations gained independence from Britain.

Pakistan has rejected the ruling and India’s right to make that decision.

Here’s Pakistan’s caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani.

JILANI: Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute which remains on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council for over seven decades. The final disposition of Jammu and Kashmir is to be made in accordance with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

The ruling is expected to boost the electoral prospects of Modi’s party ahead of national polls next year.

AUDIO: [Sound from meeting]

EU AI law — In the European Union, negotiators reached a landmark deal on a comprehensive set of rules to guide the use of artificial intelligence.

The first-of-its-kind agreement on Friday followed marathon closed-door talks.

The AI Act was initially created to block any dangers from specific AI functions based on risk levels. But lawmakers pushed to extend it to foundational models. That’s the advanced systems that make up general purpose AI services like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard chatbot.

Here’s Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for the internal market.

BRETON: It's a launchpad for the European startups and also researchers to lead the global race for what our citizens want, a trustworthy AI.

Some big tech companies have raised concerns about overregulation. The European Parliament still needs to vote on the act early next year.

AUDIO: [Cheering]

Iran Nobel Prize collection — We close today in Norway, with the twin children of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi.

Iran has detained Mohammadi since 2021 in Tehran’s Evin prison over her campaign against the mandatory hijab requirement for women.

Her 17-year-old children read the Nobel acceptance speech she smuggled out of her cell.

TEEN: [TRANSLATED] I think the most important has been said but what we are asking people in the world is to be our voice, to support us, to share what is happening in Iran because as you are defending our democracy, you are also defending your own democracy.

That’s it for today’s WORLD Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

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