In the northwest corner of the United States, Oregon has fostered a reputation as a left-wing stronghold. Since the 1980s, the Beaver State has consistently elected Democrats in most of its statewide races.

But even in a comfortably blue state like Oregon, the fight to hold onto political power can be competitive.

On Tuesday, the state will hold its latest primary races, with each of the major parties picking its nominees for November’s midterm elections.

But a packed field of roughly 25 contenders, both Democrats and Republicans, is jockeying to replace Tina Kotek as she seeks a second term as governor.

Tuesday’s vote could also serve as an economic bellwether. Voters will weigh in on a referendum that could repeal a state fuel tax, as the US-Israel war on Iran heaps strain on consumers at the gas pump.

Who is running? And which races have attracted the most attention? We tackle those questions and more in this brief explainer.

What time do polls open?

Polls will open on Tuesday at 7am Pacific US time (15:00 GMT) and close at 8pm (4:00 GMT).

Who is running for governor?

Incumbent Governor Kotek is making a bid for a second four-year term. But she is fielding competition from dozens of other candidates, including nine Democrats.

Going into the Democratic primary, Kotek is the frontrunner. Her challengers include a children’s book author, the leader of an Indigenous nonprofit and an inventor who hopes to address water shortages.

Even more contenders are angling for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

Among them is State Senator Christine Drazan, who ran against Kotek in 2022. Drazan has been critical of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies but supportive of his tough stance on immigration.

Also on the Republican ballot is former NBA player Chris Dudley, who was the Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2010. He had the smallest losing margin of any Republican candidate in decades.

State Representative Ed Diehl, meanwhile, is hoping to capitalise on the momentum he gained after leading the charge to block Kotek’s gas tax and fee increase package.

What are the opinion polls saying about the governor’s race?

Polls show Drazan leading the race to receive the Republican nomination, with 35 percent support.

Kotek is likely to grab an easy victory in the Democratic primary, with none of her opponents polling close behind.

What about the Senate race?

Another Democratic incumbent attempting to hold onto his seat is US Senator Jeff Merkley.

The 69-year-old, who began his career working on affordable housing, is running for a fourth consecutive six-year term. He first took office in 2009.

But while the senator faces eight rivals on the campaign trail – one Democrat and seven Republicans – his seat is considered relatively safe.

He is expected to win the Democratic primary on Tuesday and become the frontrunner for November’s general election.

What other positions are up for grabs?

All six of Oregon’s members of the US House of Representatives are running for re-election and will face the primary process on Tuesday.

Five are Democrats. One, Cliff Bentz, is a Republican, and he represents Oregon’s second congressional district, a sprawling area encompassing the entire eastern half of the state.

Also on Tuesday, voters will choose their party representatives in races for the state Senate and House.

The election will also determine a nonpartisan commissioner to lead the state Bureau of Labor and Industries.

Why does this race matter?

Oregon is a closed primary state, meaning that voters choose nominees only for the party they are registered under.

Given the state’s left-wing bent, the winners of the statewide Democratic primaries will likely emerge as frontrunners in November’s midterm races.

Still, there is room for surprise. According to state voter rolls, less than 25 percent of Oregonians are registered Republicans. But only 32 percent are registered Democrats, with the largest proportion of voters identifying as “non-affiliated” with any party.

Primary races in right-leaning areas like Oregon’s second congressional district could signify how closely the state’s Republican politicians want to align with President Trump.

Voters will also have a chance to vote on the referendum that could repeal the gas tax increase on Tuesday’s ballot.

Democrats in the state legislature raised Oregon’s gas tax to pay for roads and supplement the state’s transportation budget.

But as the US-Israel war on Iran causes gas prices to skyrocket, Republicans have used the referendum to appeal to voters on the cost of living. Gas is now averaging about 80 cents more in Oregon.

In addition, there are nearly 100 local measures sprinkled on ballots across the state, tailored to different counties. Many will focus on funding local fire departments, schools and libraries.

When are results expected?

Preliminary results are expected on Tuesday evening, shortly after polls close at 8pm local time.

But ballots will continue to arrive after election day, as mail-in votes and provisional ballots are counted, and some races may not be officially called until days later.

U.S. prosecutors asked a judge Monday to dismiss criminal fraud and conspiracy charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who had been accused of duping investors in a massive solar project in India.

Adani, one of the world’s richest people, was accused in 2024 of paying massive bribes to ensure the project’s success. He was charged with conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud charges in connection with a lucrative arrangement for Adani Green Energy Ltd. and another firm to sell 12 gigawatts of solar power to the Indian government to light millions of homes and businesses.

The Adani Group denied the allegations at the time, calling them baseless.

“The Department of Justice has reviewed this case and has decided, in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Judge Nicholas Garaufis must still approve the request.

Lawyers for Adani and his co-defendants consented to the request, prosecutors said. Adani’s lawyer, Robert Giuffra, declined to comment.

Adani was never arrested in the case or brought to the U.S. to face trial and some in India long expected the case would be shelved after President Donald Trump last year suspended enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. law banning business bribes overseas.

The move to drop the charges comes after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it was settling a related lawsuit against Adani.

Adani built his fortune in the coal business in the 1990s and, over time, the Adani Group embraced a diverse portfolio, investing in industries like renewable energy, defense and agriculture.

The company amassed a clean energy portfolio that included one of the world’s largest solar power plants, and had set a goal of becoming the country’s biggest player in the space by 2030. Adani had close ties with India’s government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

But the company also had its critics.

Short-seller Hindenburg Research, a U.S.-based financial research firm, has accused Adani and his company of “brazen stock manipulation” and “accounting fraud.” The Adani Group labeled the claims “a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations.”

When they charged Adani in 2024, U.S. prosecutors in New York said he and others played two sides of the solar deal, enticing Wall Street investors with a rosy portrayal to pour several billion dollars into the project over five years while offering $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure lucrative contracts.

After the case was announced, Kenya’s president canceled multimillion-dollar airport expansion and energy deals with Adani. Adani Green Energy withdrew its wind energy projects from Sri Lanka after the country sought to renegotiate prices, while a French oil giant also paused new investments.

Analysts say a key factor in Adani’s meteoric rise over the years has been his knack for aligning his group’s priorities with those of the Modi government. His critics accuse him of crony capitalism and of gaining preferential treatment from the government, including in winning contracts, which the group has denied.

EXPLAINER

The fear of renewed US strikes in Iran looms while Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon despite extended ‘ceasefire’.

United States President Donald Trump has warned Iran that the “clock is ticking” to clinch a deal to end the war as reports have emerged that Washington and Israel might be planning to carry out air strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure.

“For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!”

Iranian Ministry of Defence spokesperson Reza Talaei-Nik said on Sunday that the military is “fully prepared” to confront any new aggression from the US and Israel.

Saudi Arabia on Monday said it intercepted three drones, a day after a drone strike hit the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, Israel has continued its bombardment of Lebanon despite another “ceasefire” extension.

As the US-Israeli war on Iran continues for its 80th day, here is what we know:

In Iran

• Mohsen Rezaei, a member of Tehran’s Expediency Council and former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, issued a warning to the US to lift its blockade of Iranian ports, saying the Iranian military is ready for further confrontation. Rezaei made this warning while speaking to state television.
• Talaei-Nik said the Iranian armed forces are “fully prepared to confront any new potential attack by the US and the Israeli regime against the country”.

War diplomacy

• Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s envoy to international organisations in Vienna, suggested in an X post that Iran appoint a special envoy to Moscow, similar to Tehran’s arrangement with China.
• In an X post, Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leading figure of France’s left-wing La France Insoumise party, condemned “European complicity” in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which have triggered a wider regional war.

In the Gulf

• The New York Times reported that the Israeli military has operated two “covert” outposts in Iraq’s western desert and killed a shepherd and a soldier in a bid to hide one of the sites near the town of al-Nukhaib.
• After the drone attack on the nuclear facility caused a fire, the UAE Ministry of Defence said two other drones had been “successfully” dealt with after they were launched from the “western border”. It did not elaborate.
• The drone that got through the UAE’s defences hit an electrical generator outside the inner perimeter of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, the Abu Dhabi Media Office said. Radiological safety levels were unaffected, and there were no injuries, it said. The UAE’s Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation later confirmed that the plant remained safe with no radioactive material released from the strike.
• Saudi Arabia said the three drones it intercepted entered from Iraqi airspace and warned that it would take the necessary operational measures to respond to any attempt to violate its sovereignty and security.

In the US

• Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former US congresswoman and a once-close ally of Trump, has warned in a post on X that any attempt to send US troops into Iran would trigger what she described as a “political revolution”.
• Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, speaking to the NBC broadcaster, urged Trump to “hurt” Iran, including launching attacks on its energy sites, until it agrees to US terms on its nuclear programme. The US and Israel have hit civilian targets multiple times during the war on Iran. Attacks on civilian facilities are considered war crimes under international law.

In Israel

• Israel’s Channel 13 reported that dozens of US cargo planes carrying ammunition from bases in Germany have landed in Tel Aviv.
• Israeli media reported that the military is preparing for renewed hostilities with Iran. The public broadcaster Kan quoted an unnamed security official as saying that Israel would join any new US strikes and target Iranian energy infrastructure.

In Lebanon

• Israeli strikes have continued in southern Lebanon, where Israel issued evacuation orders for four towns and villages and then struck two of those locations.
• Strikes were also reported in Az-Zrariyah on a moving vehicle while another raid in Tayr Debba resulted in some significant casualty numbers, Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto reported from Tyre, Lebanon.

Global markets

• Stalled peace efforts between Iran and the US caused oil prices to rise again on Monday. This pushed the price of the global benchmark Brent crude up to about $111 per barrel, close to its highest level in weeks.

PM Modi in Europe LIVE update: In Oslo, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend the India-Nordic Summit and hold bilateral discussions with Norway’s top leadership.

In Oslo, Modi will participate in the third India-Nordic Summit and hold bilateral talks with Norway’s leadership, PTI reported. The summit, scheduled for Tuesday, will bring together the prime ministers of India, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden.

Takeaways from Sweden

During his Sweden visit, Modi held extensive talks with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, focusing on trade, technology, defence and innovation. Both leaders agreed to elevate India-Sweden ties to a Strategic Partnership, describing it as a major milestone in bilateral relations.

Sharing details of the visit on X, Modi said the discussions delivered several important outcomes that would give “new momentum to India-Sweden relations”. He highlighted the launch of the Joint Innovation Partnership 2.0, the India-Sweden Technology and Artificial Intelligence Corridor, and an ambitious target to double bilateral trade within five years.

On Sunday, Modi was also conferred with the ‘Royal Order of the Polar Star, Degree Commander Grand Cross’ for his “exceptional contribution to the India-Sweden relationship and visionary leadership”.

India-Netherlands signed key agreements

Earlier in the tour, India and the Netherlands signed multiple agreements aimed at expanding cooperation across various sectors. During talks with Dutch Prime Minister Jetten, Modi said India-Netherlands ties had witnessed significant progress over the last decade.

The Netherlands remains one of India’s largest trading partners in Europe, with bilateral trade reaching USD 27.8 billion in 2024-25. It is also India’s fourth-largest foreign investor, with cumulative FDI amounting to USD 55.6 billion.

Modi said India considers the Netherlands among its most important partners, citing the deep-rooted historical and people-to-people ties between the two countries.