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Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

SYDNEY — Researchers in New Zealand say that artificial intelligence, or AI, can help solve problems for patients and doctors.   A new study from the University of Auckland says that an emerging area is the use of AI during operations using so-called "computer vision." The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, says that artificial intelligence has the potential to identify abnormalities during operations and to unburden overloaded hospitals by enhancing the monitoring of patients to help them recover after surgery at home. The New Zealand research details how AI “tools are rapidly maturing for medical applications.”  It asserts that “medicine is entering an exciting phase of digital innovation.” The New Zealand team is investigating computer vision, which describes a machine’s understanding of videos and images.    Dr. Chris Varghese, a doctoral researcher in the Department of Surgery at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland, led the AI research team. He told VOA the technology has great potential. “The use of AI in surgery is a really emerging field. We are seeing a lot of exciting research looking at what we call computer vision, where AI is trying to learn what surgeons see, what the surgical instruments look like, what the different organs look like, and the potential there is to identify abnormal anatomy or what the safest approach to an operation might be using virtual reality and augmented reality to plan ahead of surgeries, which could be really useful in cutting out cancers and things like that.” Varghese said doctors in New Zealand are already using AI to help sort through patient backlogs.   “We are using automated algorithms to triage really long waiting lists," he said. "So, getting people prioritized and into clinics ahead of time, based on need, so the right patients are seen at the right time.” The researchers said there are limitations to the use of artificial intelligence because of concerns about data privacy and ethics. The report concludes that “numerous apprehensions remain with regard to the integration of AI into surgical practice, with many clinicians perceiving limited scope in a field dominated by experiential” technology. The study also says that “autonomous robotic surgeons…. is the most distant of the realizable goals of surgical AI systems.”

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Ukraine's military said on Tuesday it was moving troops to new positions in the north of Kharkiv region in response to heavy Russian fire and advances. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Ukraine saying Russia should pay for rebuilding Ukraine. After his diplomatic duties he sang and played the guitar at a night club in Kyiv on Tuesday. U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled steep tariff increases on an array of Chinese imports including electric vehicles. We talk to Kyle Handley, an economist who specializes in international trade at the University of California San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. And robots are taking to the seas – performing jobs that are dangerous and mundane.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has told key lawmakers it is sending a new package of more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition to Israel, three congressional aides said Tuesday. It's the first arms shipment to Israel to be announced by the administration since it put another arms transfer — consisting of 3,500 bombs — on hold this month. The administration has said it paused that earlier transfer to keep Israel from using the bombs in its growing offensive in the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah. The White House has come under criticism from both sides of the political spectrum in the U.S. over its military support for Israel's now seven-month war against Hamas in Gaza. Some of President Joe Biden's fellow Democrats have pushed him to limit transfers of offensive weapons to Israel to pressure the U.S. ally to do more to protect Palestinian civilians. Many Republicans condemn any lessening of military backing to Israel. The package being sent includes about $700 million for tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, the congressional aides said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an arms transfer that has not yet been made public. There was no immediate indication when the arms would be sent. It's not clear if this shipment is part of the long-delayed foreign aid package that Congress passed and Biden signed last month, a tranche from existing arms sale or a new sale. The Wall Street Journal first reported the plans to move the package. House Republicans were planning this week to advance a bill to mandate the delivery of offensive weaponry for Israel. Following Biden's move to put a pause on bomb shipments last week, Republicans have been swift in their condemnation, arguing it represents the abandonment of the closest U.S. ally in the Middle East. The White House said Tuesday that Biden would veto the bill if it were to pass Congress. The bill also has practically no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate. But House Democrats are somewhat divided on the issue, and roughly two dozen have signed onto a letter to the Biden administration saying they were "deeply concerned about the message" sent by pausing the bomb shipment. In addition to the written veto threat, the White House has been in touch with various lawmakers and congressional aides about the legislation, according to an administration official. "We strongly, strongly oppose attempts to constrain the President's ability to deploy U.S. security assistance consistent with U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week, adding that the administration plans to spend "every last cent" appropriated by Congress in the national security supplemental package that was signed into law by Biden last month.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — West Virginia Governor Jim Justice and former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan won Republican Senate nominations on Tuesday as voters across neighboring states with antithetical politics decided contests with big implications for the Senate majority fight this fall. At the same time, Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump tried to project strength in low-stakes presidential primaries. Further down the ballot, two congressional candidates on opposite sides of the 2021 Capitol attack serve as a stark reminder that the nation remains deeply divided over the deadly insurrection. Three states hosted statewide primary elections on Tuesday — Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia — as Republicans and Democrats pick their nominees for a slate of fall elections. None were more consequential than Senate primaries in deep-blue Maryland and deep-red West Virginia, where Republicans are eying opportunities that could flip control of Congress' upper chamber for at least two years. Maryland In Maryland, Hogan claimed the Republican Senate nomination, giving Republicans a legitimate chance at picking up a Senate seat in the deep-blue state for the first time in more than four decades. Hogan overcame his years-long criticism of Trump, a position that put him at odds with many Republican primary voters but will undoubtedly help him in the general election this fall. Maryland voters gave Biden a 33-point victory over Trump four years ago. On the Democratic side, Representative David Trone has been locked in a contentious — and expensive — battle with Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. Trone, the co-founder of the Total Wine & More national liquor store chain, has put more than $61 million of his own money into the race. That's just shy of the national record for self-funding a Senate campaign, with much of it going to a months-long TV ad blitz. The three-term congressman says he's better positioned to beat Hogan in November as a progressive Democrat not beholden to special interests. Alsobrooks has been endorsed by many of the state's top officials, including Governor Wes Moore, Senator Chris Van Hollen, Representative Steny Hoyer and a long list of state lawmakers. She has campaigned on growing economic opportunity, investing in education and protecting abortion rights. West Virginia Justice won his primary against U.S. Representative Alex Mooney in the race to replace Senator Joe Manchin. With Manchin gone, the seat is almost guaranteed to turn red come November. Justice, a former billionaire with a folksy personality, is wildly popular in the state. He also earned Trump's endorsement. A former Democrat, Justice switched to the Republican Party in 2017, announcing the change at a Trump rally. Mooney had tried to win over conservatives by labeling Justice as someone who would support Democratic policies. Justice did support Biden's bipartisan infrastructure law, saying West Virginia couldn't afford to turn away the money offered in the bill. West Virginia is also deciding its candidates for governor. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the Republican nominee in the 2018 Senate race against Manchin, is running for the Republican nomination. He's up against former state Representative Moore Capito, whose mother is Senator Shelley Moore Capito. Presidential primary Biden and Trump have already amassed enough delegates to claim the presidential nominations at their respective national conventions this summer. Yet voters on both sides hope to register a significant protest vote Tuesday that will demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the Biden-Trump rematch. Both Biden and Trump won their primaries in West Virginia and Maryland. Still, Maryland progressives especially unhappy with the Biden administration's support for Israel in its war against Hamas had encouraged voters to select "uncommitted to any presidential candidate" instead of Biden. There was no uncommitted option in West Virginia or Nebraska. Everett Bellamy, a Democrat who voted early in Annapolis, said he voted "uncommitted" instead of Biden as a protest against the killing of women and children and noncombatants in Gaza. Meanwhile, Trump's Republican critics cannot choose "uncommitted," but they can choose his former Republican rival Nikki Haley, who will appear on the ballot in Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia despite formally suspending her campaign more than two months ago. Derek Faux, an independent voter from Charleston, West Virginia, said he supported Haley, and in other Republican races, he said he voted for the candidates he believed were least like Trump. Other key races In Nebraska, Republican Senators Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts both face nominal opposition in their primaries, one of the rare occasions when both senators in a state are on the ballot at the same time. And in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, Republican U.S. Representative Don Bacon faces a challenge from his right flank. In North Carolina, voters finalized their pick of the Trump-endorsed Brad Knott in what had become a one-person Republican primary in the state's 13th Congressional District.

ottawa — Nobel Prize-winning Canadian writer Alice Munro, whose exquisitely crafted tales of the loves, ambitions and travails of small-town women in her native land made her a globally acclaimed master of the short story, has died at the age of 92, her publisher said on Tuesday.  Munro died at her home in Port Hope, Ontario, said Kristin Cochrane, chief executive officer of McClelland & Stewart.   "Alice's writing inspired countless writers ... and her work leaves an indelible mark on our literary landscape," she said in a statement.  The Globe and Mail newspaper, citing family members, said Munro had died on Monday after suffering from dementia for at least a decade.  Munro published more than a dozen collections of short stories and was honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013.  Her stories explored sex, yearning, discontent, aging, moral conflict and other themes in rural settings with which she was intimately familiar, the villages and farms in the Canadian province of Ontario. She was adept at fully developing complex characters within the limited pages of a short story.  "Alice Munro was a Canadian literary icon. For six decades, her short stories captivated hearts around Canada and the world," Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said on the X social media network.  Munro, who wrote about ordinary people with clarity and realism, was often likened to Anton Chekhov, the 19th century Russian known for his brilliant short stories, a comparison the Swedish Academy cited in honoring her with the Nobel Prize.  Calling her a "master of the contemporary short story," the Academy also said: "Her texts often feature depictions of everyday but decisive events, epiphanies of a kind, that illuminate the surrounding story and let existential questions appear in a flash of lightning."  In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation after winning the Nobel, Munro said, "I think my stories have gotten around quite remarkably for short stories, and I would really hope that this would make people see the short story as an important art, not just something that you played around with until you'd got a novel written."  Munro's works included "Dance of the Happy Shades" (1968), "Lives of Girls and Women" (1971), "Who Do You Think You Are?" (1978), "The Moons of Jupiter" (1982), "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" (2001), "Runaway" (2004), "The View from Castle Rock" (2006), "Too Much Happiness" (2009) and "Dear Life" (2012).  The characters in her stories were often girls and women who lead seemingly unexceptional lives but struggle with tribulations ranging from sexual abuse and stifling marriages to repressed love and the ravages of aging.  "Last month I reread all of Alice Munro's books. I felt the need to be close to her. Every time I read her is a new experience. Every time changes me. She will live forever," Canadian author Heather O'Neill said in a post on X.  Munro's story of a woman who starts losing her memory and agrees to enter a nursing home titled "The Bear Came Over the Mountain," from "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage," was adapted into the Oscar-nominated 2006 film "Away From Her," directed by fellow Canadian Sarah Polley.  'Shame' a driving force of characters  Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, writing in The Guardian after Munro won the Nobel, summarized her work by saying: "Shame and embarrassment are driving forces for Munro's characters, just as perfectionism in the writing has been a driving force for her: getting it down, getting it right, but also the impossibility of that. Munro chronicles failure much more often than she chronicles success, because the task of the writer has failure built in."  American novelist Jonathan Franzen wrote in 2005, "Reading Munro puts me in that state of quiet reflection in which I think about my own life: about the decisions I've made, the things I've done and haven't done, the kind of person I am, the prospect of death."  The short story, a style more popular in the 19th and early 20th century, has long taken a back seat to the novel in popular tastes and in attracting awards. But Munro was able to infuse her short stories with a richness of plot and depth of detail usually more characteristic of full-length novels.  "For years and years, I thought that stories were just practice, 'til I got time to write a novel. Then I found that they were all I could do and so I faced that. I suppose that my trying to get so much into stories has been a compensation," Munro told the New Yorker magazine in 2012.  Second Canadian to win Nobel Munro was the second Canadian-born writer to win the Nobel literature prize but the first with a distinctly Canadian identity. Saul Bellow, who won in 1976, was born in Quebec but raised in the U.S. city of Chicago, Illinois, and was widely seen as an American writer.  Munro also won the Man Booker International Prize in 2009 and the Giller Prize — Canada's most high-profile literary award — twice.  Alice Laidlaw was born to a hard-pressed family of farmers on July 10, 1931, in Wingham, a small town in the region of southwestern Ontario that serves as the setting for many of her stories, and started writing in her teens.  She married James Munro in 1951 and moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where the two ran a bookstore. They had four daughters, one died just hours old, before divorcing in 1972. Afterward, Munro moved back to Ontario. Her second husband, geographer Gerald Fremlin, died in April 2013. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has taken an unannounced trip to Ukraine to deliver what he called a strong message of reassurance, as Ukrainian forces face fierce attacks by Russia’s military in the east and await new weapons shipments from allies. VOA's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.

WASHINGTON — Boeing has violated a settlement that allowed the company to avoid criminal prosecution after two deadly crashes involving its 737 Max aircraft more than five years ago, the Justice Department told a federal judge on Tuesday. It is now up to the Justice Department to decide whether to file charges against Boeing. Prosecutors will tell the court no later than July 7 how they plan to proceed, the department said. New 737 Max jets crashed in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia, killing 346 people. Boeing reached a $2.5 billion settlement with the Justice Department in January 2021 to avoid prosecution on a single charge of fraud — misleading federal regulators who approved the plane. Boeing blamed the deception on two relatively low-level employees. In a letter filed Tuesday in federal court in Texas, Glenn Leon, head of the Justice Department criminal division's fraud section, said Boeing violated terms of the settlement by failing to make promised changes to detect and prevent violations of federal anti-fraud laws. The determination means that Boeing could be prosecuted "for any federal criminal violation of which the United States has knowledge," including the charge of fraud that the company hoped to avoid with the settlement, the Justice Department said. However, it is not clear whether the government will prosecute Boeing. "The Government is determining how it will proceed in this matter," the Justice Department said in the court filing. Boeing will have until June 13 to respond to the government's allegation, and department said it will consider the company's explanation "in determining whether to pursue prosecution." Boeing Co., which is based in Arlington, Virginia, disputed the Justice Department's finding. "We believe that we have honored the terms of that agreement, and look forward to the opportunity to respond to the Department on this issue," a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement. "As we do so, we will engage with the Department with the utmost transparency, as we have throughout the entire term of the agreement, including in response to their questions following the Alaska Airlines 1282 accident." Boeing has come under renewed scrutiny since that Alaska Airlines flight in January, when a door plug blew out of a 737 Max, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the jetliner. The company is under multiple investigations into the blowout and its manufacturing quality. The FBI has told passengers from the flight that they might be victims of a crime. Prosecutors said they will meet on May 31 with families of passengers who died in the two Max crashes. Family members were angry and disappointed after a similar meeting last month. Paul Cassell, a lawyer who represents families of passengers in the second crash, said the Justice Department's determination that Boeing breached the settlement terms is "a positive first step, and for the families, a long time coming." "But we need to see further action from DOJ to hold Boeing accountable, and plan to use our meeting on May 31 to explain in more details what we believe would be a satisfactory remedy to Boeing's ongoing criminal conduct," Cassell said. Investigations into the crashes pointed to a flight-control system that Boeing added to the Max without telling pilots or airlines. Boeing downplayed the significance of the system, then didn't overhaul it until after the second crash. After secret negotiations, the government agreed not to prosecute Boeing on a charge of defrauding the United States by deceiving regulators about the flight system. The settlement included a $243.6 million fine, a $500 million fund for victim compensation, and nearly $1.8 billion to airlines whose Max jets were grounded for nearly two years.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Washington —  In a move that contrasts with the United States, South Korea had its ambassador in Moscow attend Russian President Vladimir Putin's inauguration, seemingly leaving its options open for maintaining diplomatic relations with Russia amid Moscow's deepening ties with Pyongyang. Seoul said it based its decision for Ambassador Lee Do-hoon to attend Putin's inauguration "after considering all circumstances surrounding South Korean-Russian bilateral relations."  A South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson made the remark to VOA's Korean Service on Friday. The U.S. and most European Union countries boycotted Putin's inauguration held May 7 at the Grand Kremlin Palace. He was reelected in March for his fifth term in office as Russia's war in Ukraine raged on for more than two years since its invasion in 2022. Moscow has turned to Pyongyang to replenish its stockpile of arms to fight Ukraine. "The U.S. directed our embassy not to attend the inauguration in protest of Russia's war against Ukraine," a State Department spokesperson said Thursday in an email sent to VOA's Korean Service. Japan also did not send a representative to the ceremony. Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kobayashi Maki said during a news briefing held in Tokyo the day after the inauguration that its decision was "based upon comprehensive consideration of Russia's aggression against Ukraine." VOA contacted the Russian Embassy in Seoul for comment on Lee's attendance. Its spokesperson, Mira Dzhamalidinova, emailed that it has "no comments for VOA."   Robert Rapson, who served as charge d'affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2018 to 2021, said, "Ambassador Lee's attendance at Putin's inauguration was a small but symbolically significant step by Seoul to signal to Moscow its interest in improving, or at least more effectively managing, deteriorating bilateral relations." He continued, "It put [South] Korea clearly out of a public messaging step with the U.S. and its like-minded partners," and demonstrated "adjustments to its 'signature value-based' foreign policy." Relations between South Korea and Russia have declined as military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang deepened since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Russia in September. In April, South Korea sanctioned two Russian vessels involved in delivering military supplies from North Korea to Russia. In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called Seoul's move "an unfriendly step" that "will affect South Korea-Russia relations in a negative way."  [[ https://www.voanews.com/a/us-pushes-back-at-russia-s-protest-over-south-korean-sanctions/7563881.html ]]    "Washington was likely displeased with South Korea's decision to send a representative to Putin's inauguration," said Dan DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities, a Washington-based think tank. "This is a subtle, low-cost way for the Yoon government [of South Korea] to signal to Moscow that differences over Ukraine and North Korea notwithstanding, it's not going to mimic the U.S. policy of diplomatic isolation" toward Russia, he continued. DePetris added that Seoul likely allowed its representative to attend Putin's inauguration "precisely because North Korea-Russia bilateral ties have strengthened over the last two years" and wants to "keep all options on the table." Pyongyang-Moscow ties have expanded to include several visits to Russia by North Korean delegations recently. On Tuesday, North Korea sent a science and technology delegation to Russia to attend a meeting on trade, economy and science to be held in Moscow, according to North Korea's state-run KCNA. Also, passenger train services between the two countries resumed since they were suspended after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of Russia's northeastern region of Primorsky Krai, bordering North Korea. Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center's Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy Project, said, "Moscow's new partnership with North Korea may have been a factor" that prompted Seoul to make its representation at Putin's inauguration. He continued, however, "I doubt Seoul has illusions about its ability to restrain Russia's ties with Pyongyang" but is "perhaps focused on maintaining economic ties" with Moscow. South Korea's exports to Russia totaled $6.33 billion in 2022, while its imports from Russia amounted to $12.8 billion in the same year, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, an online platform for data collection and distribution. South Korea's investment in Russia reached $4.16 billion in the same year, according to the South Korean Foreign Ministry.  

Bangkok — Defiance and grief poured out Tuesday after a 28-year-old democracy activist in pretrial detention for allegedly defaming Thailand's powerful monarchy died from heart failure after a two-month hunger strike. Netiporn Sanesangkhom, better known by her nickname “Bung,” was a prominent youth leader of pro-democracy group Thaluwang, which emerged during anti-government protests in 2020-22 and was strident in its calls for reform of the monarchy, an institution seen as untouchable before those rallies rocked the country. She was detained and denied bail in January on charges including royal defamation after she was accused of conducting two public polls on the monarchy as protests raged across Thailand, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. She spent nearly four months in detention awaiting trial, entering a hunger strike for the last two months of that period, her lawyers said. The Corrections Department released a statement saying she went into cardiac arrest Tuesday morning and “wasn’t responsive to the treatment, which led her to die peacefully at 11:22 a.m.” It promised a thorough autopsy. Candlelit memorials were held in Bangkok and the northern cities of Chiang Mai and Lampang on Tuesday night as a stunned democracy movement digested the news of the young woman's death. Outside the Criminal Court in Bangkok several dozen mourners gathered around a large candle memorial in the shape of Bung's name. "Nobody should die because of the unjust Thai justice system," 19-year-old Noppasin Treelayapewat told VOA, noting he was a minor some two and a half years ago when he was charged with violating Section 112, or royal defamation. "Today, I believe many can see that someone has died because of Section 112 of the criminal code," said Noppasin, who faces up to 15 years if convicted. U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Robert F. Godec was among several Western envoys to swiftly express their condolences over the activist's passing, saying in a post on X he was "saddened by the tragic death of Bung," highlighting the diplomatic questions likely to face the government in Bangkok over coming days. Irene Khan, U.N. Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression, added her voice to the mounting outcry. "Saddened & distressed at death of detained political activist Bung Thaluwang," Khan said in a post on X. She also urged Thailand to "abolish lese majeste & detention/prosecution for exercising" freedom of expression. Royal defamation carries up to 15 years in jail for each conviction. It has been used against 270 mainly young pro-democracy activists who rocked Thailand with massive rallies calling for systemic reforms of the country's economy, politics and — most controversially — the role of the monarchy in one of Asia's least equal countries. Many of them have been denied bail automatically by the courts, as the establishment ties up key protest leaders in legal cases. There are believed to be at least two other women activists on hunger strikes while in detention for charges including royal defamation. "Her [Bung's] death is a shocking reminder that Thai authorities are denying activists their right to temporary release on bail and using detention to silence the peaceful expression of dissent," Amnesty International Thailand said in a statement. Reform and division Reform of the royal defamation law is now a clear dividing line between many young Thais who voted in the millions for the progressive Move Forward Party (MFP) and older conservatives, many of whom revere the monarchy and the status quo. The monarchy is backed up by business tycoons, politicians and Thailand's army, which has carried out 13 coups in under a century. MFP stunned the establishment by winning an election a year ago with a radical reform agenda, including reform of the 112 law. But MFP was blocked from forming a government by the conservative Senate. Now, over the coming weeks the MFP faces a court ruling that may see it dissolved for its campaign pledge to reform the law. In its place, and leading the government, is a coalition of conservatives patched together by the poll runners-up Pheu Thai party, founded by billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. The ruling coalition vowed not to touch the royal defamation law. Experts say that was part of a pact with the royalist establishment to help it elbow aside the MFP in exchange for a royal pardon for Thaksin, who returned to Thailand last year after a 15-year self-exile to serve a reduced sentence for corruption convictions but did not sleep one night in jail before being released on parole. Pheu Thai's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, a real estate mogul and Shinawatra ally, last September told the United Nations General Assembly in New York that Thailand was ready to join the Human Rights Council as Southeast Asia's candidate for 2025-2027, reaffirming his government's "sincere commitment to the advancement of human rights at home and abroad." But free speech advocates say Bung's death while in pretrial detention is an example of why Thailand is not ready to join the global rights forum. "We will continue campaigning for our demands to be met and one of them is that Thailand should not be allowed to stand for election to the U.N. Human Rights Council," a tearful Kittitach Sriamrung, a friend of Bung's, told reporters. The issue is likely to be awkward for Srettha's government, as the 112 law comes back under scrutiny just as he seeks to drive through his government's economic plans and put distance between his administration and the political troubles caused by last year's divisive election. New rounds of protests may also be possible in Thailand's messy politics. "Bung died, but her quest to see the change hasn't. … we will continue our work to see it through for her," pro-democracy leader Panusaya 'Rung' Sithijirawattanakul, who gave the first monarchy reform speech in 2020 and also faces royal defamation charges, said in a video post on social media. Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse.

President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has launched a digital ad aimed at Latino voters, seeking to remind them of former president Donald Trump's controversial “zero tolerance” family separation policy at the U.S.-Mexico border. VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros has more.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.