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SYDNEY — Senior Australian ministers are in Papua New Guinea to discuss security and development amid China’s growing ambitions in the region. The ministerial forum comes at a critical time with the Canberra government hoping to maintain its position as a dominant trade and security partner in the Pacific. Papua New Guinea is boosting trade ties with China and has had negotiations with Beijing over policing cooperation, which has caused alarm in Canberra and Washington, which struck a defense accord with Papua New Guinea last year.  Australia's high-level delegation to Papua New Guinea includes Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, Defense Minister Richard Marles, and ministers for cyber security, agriculture and fisheries, trade and international development. They will join their counterparts for talks Wednesday on economic and security cooperation. Wong told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that Canberra will pursue its own interests, while Beijing will do the same. “We do not expect China to stop being China. China will continue to assert its interests," she said. "How we deal with that is to assert ours and we do so both in the bilateral relationship but also in the way we engage in the region and the way we engage with other powers.” Meg Keen, director of the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based research organization, told VOA that both Canberra and Washington want to limit Beijing’s influence in Papua New Guinea. China has already sent police to neighboring Solomon Islands and Kiribati, insisting it has a plan to help Pacific Island countries maintain social order. Australia has, however, said that Beijing should have “no role” in policing the Pacific Islands, and that the Canberra government will train more local security forces to fill gaps. Keen said China has strategic ambitions in the Pacific region. “China is in a competition with Taiwan for recognition and since 2019 it has been able to win the support away from Taiwan of three countries in the region. That is significant. Kiribati is one of those," Keen said. "So, while these are small countries they have enormous ocean territories. They sit in a very strategic place between the United States, Australia and Asia.” This week, the Chinese Premier Li Qiang held talks with senior government officials in Australia. It was a further sign that bilateral relations, which have been strained over various geopolitical and trade disputes, are improving. However, differences between the two sides remain over human rights, the South China Sea, allegations of cyber espionage and, increasingly, over Beijing’s ambitions in the Pacific, a region Australia has traditionally considered to be its sphere of influence.

AMBLETEUSE, France — The rising tide crept above their waists, soaking the babies they hugged tight. Around a dozen Kurds refused to leave the cold waters of the English Channel in a futile attempt to delay the inevitable: French police had just foiled their latest attempt to reach the United Kingdom by boat. The men, women and children were trapped again on the last frontier of their journey from Iraq and Iran. They hoped that a rubber dinghy would get them to better lives with housing, schooling and work. Now it disappeared on the horizon, only a few of its passengers aboard. On the beach of the quiet northern French town of Ambleteuse, police pleaded for the migrants to leave the 10-degree Celsius water, so cold it can kill within minutes. Do it for the children’s sake, they argued. “The boat is go!” an increasingly irritated officer shouted in French-accented English. “It’s over! It’s over!” The asylum-seekers finally emerged from the sea defeated, but there was no doubt that they would try to reach the U.K. again. They would not find the haven they needed in France, or elsewhere in the European Union. Europe's increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants were pushing them north. While the U.K. government has been hostile, too, many migrants have family or friends in the U.K. and a perception they will have more opportunities there. EU rules stipulate that a person must apply for asylum in the first member state they land in. This has overwhelmed countries on the edge of the 27-nation bloc such as Italy, Greece and Spain. Some migrants don't even try for new lives in the EU anymore. They are flying to France from as far away as Vietnam to attempt the Channel crossing after failing to get permission to enter the U.K., which has stricter visa requirements. “No happy here,” said Adam, an Iraqi father of six who was among those caught on the beach in a recent May morning. He refused to provide his last name due to his uncertain legal status in France. He had failed to find schooling and housing for his children in France and had grown frustrated with the asylum office’s lack of answers about his case. He thought things would be better in the U.K., he said. While the number of people entering the EU without permission is nowhere near as high as during a 2015-2016 refugee crisis, far-right parties across Europe, including in France, have exploited migration to the continent and made big electoral wins in the most recent European Parliamentary elections. Their rhetoric, and the treatment already faced by many people on the French coast and elsewhere in the bloc, clash with the stated principles of solidarity, openness and respect for human dignity that underpin the democratic EU, human rights advocates note. In recent months, the normally quiet beaches around Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne-Sur-Mer have become the stage of cat-and-mouse games — even violent clashes — between police and smugglers. Police have fired tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets. Smugglers have hurled stones. While boat crossings across the Channel represent only a tiny fraction of migration to the U.K., France agreed last year to hold migrants back in exchange for hundreds of millions of euros. It’s an agreement akin to deals made between the European Union and North African nations in recent years. And while many people have been stopped by police, they are not offered alternative solutions and are bound to try crossing again. About 10,500 people have reached England in small boats in the first five months of the year, some 37% more than the same time period last year, according to data published by the U.K.'s Home Office. The heightened border surveillance is increasing risks and ultimately leading to more deaths, closer to shore, said Salomé Bahri, a coordinator with the nongovernmental organization Utopia 56, which helps migrants stranded in France. At least 20 people have died so far this year trying to reach the U.K., according to Utopia 56. That's nearly as many as died in all of last year, according to statistics published by the International Organization of Migration. People are rushing to avoid being caught by authorities and there are more fatalities, Bahri said. In late April, five people died, including a 7-year-old girl who was crushed inside a rubber boat after more than 110 people boarded it frantically trying to escape police.

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SEATTLE — The U.S. government on Tuesday acknowledged, for the first time, the harmful role it has played over the past century in building and operating dams in the Pacific Northwest — dams that devastated Native American tribes by inundating their villages and decimating salmon runs while bringing electricity, irrigation and jobs to nearby communities. In a new report, the Biden administration said those cultural, spiritual and economic detriments continue to pain the tribes, which consider salmon part of their cultural and spiritual identity, as well as a crucial food source. The government downplayed or accepted the well-known risk to the fish in its drive for industrial development, converting the wealth of the tribes into the wealth of non-Native people, according to the report. "The government afforded little, if any, consideration to the devastation the dams would bring to Tribal communities, including to their cultures, sacred sites, economies, and homes,” the report said. It added: “Despite decades of efforts and an enormous amount of funding attempting to mitigate these impacts, salmon stocks remain threatened or endangered and continued operation of the dams perpetuates the myriad adverse effects.” The Interior Department's report comes amid a $1 billion effort announced earlier this year to restore the region’s salmon runs before more become extinct — and to better partner with the tribes on the actions necessary to make that happen. That includes increasing the production and storage of renewable energy to replace hydropower generation that would be lost if four dams on the lower Snake River are ever breached. Tribes, conservationists and even federal scientists say that would be the best hope for recovering the salmon, providing the fish with access to hundreds of miles of pristine habitat and spawning grounds in Idaho. “President Biden recognizes that to confront injustice, we must be honest about history – even when doing so is difficult,” said a statement from White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary. “In the Pacific Northwest, an open and candid conversation about the history and legacy of the federal government’s management of the Columbia River is long overdue.” Northwest Republicans in Congress and some business and utility groups oppose breaching the dams, saying it would jeopardize an important shipping route for farmers and throw off clean-energy goals. GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who represents eastern Washington, called Tuesday's report a “sham." “This bad faith report is just the latest in a long list of examples that prove the Biden administration’s goal has always been dam breaching," she said in a written statement. The document was a requirement of an agreement last year to halt decades of legal fights over the operation of the dams. It lays out how government and private interests in the early 20th century began walling off the tributaries of the Columbia River, the largest in the Northwest, to provide water for irrigation or flood control, compounding the damage that was already being caused to water quality and salmon runs by mining, logging and rapacious non-tribal salmon cannery operations. The report was accompanied by the announcement of a new task force to coordinate salmon recovery efforts across federal agencies. Tribal representatives said they were gratified with the administration’s formal, if long-belated, acknowledgment of how the U.S. government ignored their treaty-based fishing rights and their concerns about how the dams would affect their people. “The salmon themselves have been suffering the consequences since the dams first were put in,” said Shannon Wheeler, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe. “The lack of salmon eventually starts affecting us, but they're the ones who have been suffering the longest. ... It feels like there's an opportunity to end the suffering.” Salmon are born in rivers and migrate far downstream to the ocean, where they spend their adult lives before returning to their natal rivers to spawn and die. Dams can disrupt that by cutting off access to upstream habitat and by slowing and warming water to the point that fish die. The Columbia River Basin, an area roughly the size of Texas, was once the world’s greatest salmon-producing river system, with as many as 16 million salmon and steelhead returning every year to spawn. Now, scientists say, about 2 million salmon and steelhead return to the Columbia and its tributaries each year, about two-thirds of them hatchery raised. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribe in southeastern Idaho said it once harvested enough salmon for each tribal member to have 700 pounds of fish in a year. Today, the average harvest yields barely 1 pound per tribal member. Of the 16 stocks of salmon and steelhead that once populated the river system, four are extinct and seven are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Another iconic but endangered Northwest species, a population of killer whales, also depend on the salmon. There has been growing recognition across the U.S. that the harms some dams cause to fish outweigh their usefulness. Dams on the Elwha River in Washington state and the Klamath River along the Oregon-California border have been or are being removed. The construction of the first dams on the main Columbia River, including the Grand Coulee and Bonneville dams in the 1930s, provided jobs to a country grappling with the Great Depression, as well as hydropower and navigation. As early as the late 1930s, tribes were warning that the salmon runs could disappear, with the fish no longer able to access spawning grounds upstream. The tribes — the Yakama Nation, Spokane Tribe, confederated tribes of the Colville and Umatilla reservations, Nez Perce, and others — continued to fight the construction and operation of the dams for generations. Tom Iverson, regional coordinator for Yakama Nation Fisheries, said that while the report was gratifying, it remains “hopes and promises” until funding for salmon restoration and renewable power projects comes through Congress. “With these agreements, there is hope," Iverson said. "We feel like this is a moment in time. If it doesn’t happen now, it will be too late.”

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.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in North Korea for his first visit in 24 years and pledged strong support. We talk to Naoko Aoki, an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation. June 19th is the U.S. holiday known as Juneteenth, which marks the day in 1865 when slavery ended in the former Confederate states of the American Civil War. U.S. lawmakers grilled Boeing's chief executive Tuesday about the company's plans to fix its manufacturing problems. Nvidia passes Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company.

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.

The White House — For Javier Quiroz Castro, entering America's most famous home was an impossible dream – his parents brought him to the U.S. from Mexico at age 3, without legal immigration status.  But on Tuesday, in a blue suit with an American flag pinned to his lapel, Quiroz Castro – now a registered nurse – spoke these words at the White House.  "Growing up undocumented, it was not easy," said the Houston resident, who used the 12-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to change his status. "Like thousands of other immigrants, my parents endured hard labor in order to provide for the family. They are a symbol of the American dream." Beside him stood President Joe Biden, who used the 12-year anniversary of that landmark immigration policy to announce a move to offer protections to undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens. The new move could affect approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, plus 50,000 noncitizen children who have a parent married to a U.S. citizen.  "These couples have been raising families, sending their kids to church and school, paying taxes, contributing to our country for 10 years or more," Biden said. "And as a matter of a fact, the average time they've spent here is 23 years, the people that are affected today. They've been living in the United States all this time, in fear and uncertainty. We can fix that. And that's what I'm going to do today." But, as the White House laid out in its fact sheet on the announcement, it is a bit more complicated.  To be eligible, a person must have lived in the U.S. for 10-plus years and be legally married to a citizen. It is retroactive – only those married before June 17, 2024, qualify.  Those who meet those two criteria – and whose application is approved by the Department of Homeland Security – then have three years to apply for permanent residency. They will be allowed to remain in the U.S., with their families, and be eligible for work authorization during this time. Also included in Tuesday's announcement is a plan to accelerate the process of obtaining work visas for certain DACA recipients who have a U.S. degree and an employment offer relating to their field.  Both Biden and his main challenger have repeatedly brought up immigration on the stump, and Biden has made several recent moves on immigration, including a recent executive order that will temporarily restrict asylum eligibility at the U.S.-Mexico border whenever the number of migrants crossing unlawfully or without authorization reaches a daily average of 2,500. Those who cross the border illegally won't be eligible for asylum unless there are extraordinary reasons why they should be allowed to stay. For many American voters in a tight election year, immigration is a more cleanly divisive topic that falls neatly along party lines. The divide was reflected in the wildly divergent reactions from two representatives from the border state of Texas.  "I applaud the Biden-Harris administration for heeding the call of so many of us to use its executive authority to keep American families together, support our Dreamers in the workforce, and boost our economy," Democratic congresswoman Sylvia Garcia said in a statement.  Whereas Ted Cruz, the Canada-born junior Republican senator from Texas, said: "While our border is being overrun by ISIS terrorists and cartel criminals, Joe Biden's top priority is to give amnesty to illegal aliens. He has utterly abandoned the American people. This amnesty program allows illegal aliens to get citizenship and vote in future elections. Make no mistake: Joe Biden views every illegal alien as a future Democrat voter."  And Republican candidate Donald Trump has gone further. He blames both Biden's policies and immigrants in general – often without clear evidence, and sometimes in the face of facts – for a number of ills, including crime, inflation, and even disease and terrorism.  "This is a Biden migrant invasion," Trump said at a recent campaign event. "An estimated 50% of inflation has been caused by the soaring cost of housing which is skyrocketing due to Joe Biden's tidal wave of illegal immigration and high interest rates." On Tuesday, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused Biden of using this sensitive issue to gain votes. "Biden only cares about one thing — power — and that's why he is giving mass amnesty and citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegals who he knows will ultimately vote for him and the Open Border Democrat Party," she said, echoing some of Trump's concerns about the economy. "Biden has created another invitation for illegal immigration through his mass amnesty order."   Immigration advocates disagree, saying research shows that those who benefit from this policy contribute about $13 billion in spending power to the U.S. economy each year.  "We estimate that if they were to be U.S. citizens years down the line, they could actually increase that amount by about $5 billion each year," Phillip Connor, a senior demographer at bipartisan immigration-advocacy group FWD.us, told VOA.  "These individuals are already working in industries that already have labor shortages with some kind of legal status that will be permitted through this policy that will allow them to go into careers that are barred from them right now, and to be more productive into our economy, which will be beneficial for their families, but also beneficial for our society as a whole,” Connor said. And families affected by these policies say they can't put a price on it.  Rebecca Shi's mother was undocumented for nearly two decades – gaining legal status changed her life.  "She was a doctor in China, but for 19 years, undocumented here, so she worked in Chinese restaurants, she worked in nursing homes, caring for the elderly and emptying bedpans and wasn't able to practice her profession," Shi, who is executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition, told VOA.  "And so when she was able to get parole in place and get her Green Card, she went back to the medical field and it's been thrilling and deeply humanizing for her and just showing that when you legalize people who are here for decades already contributing, you unleash their economic potential, and that's good for every American,” Shi said. Quiroz Castro echoed that thought, telling the friendly crowd of congressional Democrats, immigration advocates and immigrants how he worked to return the warm embrace he got from the country he calls home. "Being a nurse has allowed me to give back to my community while supporting my family especially during the pandemic, I helped take care of patients in our COVID-19 critical care unit," he said. "Saving American lives was only possible because of DACA. It allowed me to live and work and build a family in the only country I have ever known and loved." Kim Lewis contributed from Washington.

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 — Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming visit to Vietnam will put the Southeast Asian country in a difficult position and could even be seen as risky for Hanoi, according to three international relations experts who spoke on Monday to VOA. They expected no breakthrough from the visit. Putin is scheduled to visit Vietnam on Wednesday and Thursday, after his Tuesday-Wednesday trip to North Korea. Risks for Hanoi “Hosting Putin in a combined trip that brings him to North Korea is bad optics for Hanoi and will bring some risks. This may make Vietnam less trustful in the eyes of the West, Japan and South Korea. But on the other hand, Hanoi would gain more trust in the eyes of Russia,” said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. According to Vuving, the link between Putin's visits to North Korea and Vietnam lies mostly in logistics: It makes more sense for Putin's schedule to go to these countries in one trip rather than in two separate trips. “But it also highlights the fact that Vietnam, like North Korea, is a close friend of Russia,” he said. Nguyen Ngoc Truong, former president of the Center for Strategic Studies and International Development, a government-affiliated think tank in Hanoi, said Vietnam had sent a message telling Russia they did not want Putin to combine the North Korea and Vietnam stops in one trip "because it could cause international misunderstandings." But the combined trip will still take place because "in terms of foreign affairs, Vietnam must consider all aspects," Truong said. 'Traditional and dearest friend’ Truong pointed out that the Vietnamese leadership is grateful for the assistance Vietnam received in past wars from the former Soviet Union. Therefore, they consider Russia a "traditional and dearest friend." “Vietnamese people, especially those who understand geopolitics, cannot turn their backs on their friends because of immediate events. Russians stood shoulder to shoulder with Vietnam through the darkest and happiest moments, including assisting with weapons,” Truong said. Hoang Viet, a Ho Chi Minh City Law University lecturer and international dispute expert, stressed that Vietnam "does not want to lose its long-standing relationship" with Russia, a major power holding a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Viet noted that Russia has never had any disputes or conflicts with Vietnam. "Given the current harsh Western sanctions, Putin's visit puts Vietnam in a difficult position. But Vietnam still has to maintain its relations because with the Vietnamese way of thinking, they must honor traditional friendship," Viet observed. Relationship with U.S. Just nine months ago, Vietnam welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden, and on that occasion, Hanoi and Washington upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, on par with the relationship that Vietnam had for many years with Russia, China and a few other countries. Viet noted that while the U.S. views Vietnam as an important player in its Indo-Pacific strategy, Vietnam still largely relies on Russian weapons for its defense strength. Therefore, Vietnam must balance its relations with Russia and the U.S. "No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities," a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi told Reuters on Monday when asked about the impact of the visit on ties with the United States. "If he is able to travel freely, it could normalize Russia's blatant violations of international law," the spokesperson added, referring to the invasion of Ukraine that Putin launched in February 2022. The Hague-based International Criminal Court in March 2023 issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president over alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Vietnam, Russia and the U.S. are not members of the ICC. No breakthrough expected Viet expected that during the visit, Russia and Vietnam would enter into deals on weapons and oil and gas, which he called "traditional deals," while Hanoi tries "not to violate Western sanctions."  Truong expected there would be no special outcomes, saying "It will be just a friendly visit. There will probably not be any breakthroughs between the two countries. Military and defense cooperation in the current situation is unlikely to develop at all." Vuving said he thought the top issues likely to be discussed by Vietnam and Russia will be the ways to boost bilateral trade in the face of Western sanctions, cooperation in the energy sector, including oil, gas, solar and nuclear energy, and Vietnam's purchase of weapons from Russia. “Issues like payments and direct flights will likely be high on the agenda, as they are critical for restoring bilateral trade,” Vuving said. He assessed that “Russia will benefit more from the visit.” Noting that Vietnam will be the farthest destination for Putin since his invasion of Ukraine, Vuving commented that the visit will show that after the invasion, “many friends remain loyal to Moscow. These friends are not only in Russia's neighborhood, and some are friends to Russia not because they are enemies of the West,” he said. “But Vietnam also benefits from the visit as it helps to gain more trust from Russia and helps to keep Russia on Vietnam's side in the South China Sea disputes with China,” he said. Neutral stance toward war Vuving added that Vietnam has been trying to maintain a largely neutral stance toward the war in Ukraine. However, the hosting of Putin will carry big risks to this stance. Viet said despite trying to balance its heart for both Ukraine and Russia, two former Soviet republics that provided colossal help to Vietnam, Hanoi still leans more to one side. “Russia's strength is different; Russia is also a great power. In geopolitics, interests are important. Vietnam finds more benefits in Russia than in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, the Vietnamese government still seems more inclined to maintain relations with Russia than with Ukraine,” Viet said. Truong commented, "Ukrainians may not like this trip, but they are also a people who have gone through many tough and tragic events in their history, and they understand everything very well. As a country living next to a giant neighbor [like Vietnam], they have similar views and similar feelings."

CAIRO/LOS ANGELES — Yemen's Houthi militants are believed to have sunk a second ship, the Tutor, in the Red Sea, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Tuesday. The Greek-owned Tutor coal carrier was struck by missiles and an explosive-laden remote-controlled boat last Wednesday and had been taking on water, according to previous reports from UKMTO, the Houthis and other sources. "Military authorities report maritime debris and oil sighted in the (Tutor's) last reported location," UKMTO, a capability of the Royal Navy, said in a security update. The Tutor's manager could not immediately be reached for comment. One crew member, believed to be in the Tutor's engine room at the time of the attacks, remains missing. The U.K.-owned Rubymar was the first ship sunk by the Houthis. It went down on March 2, about two weeks after being struck by missiles. The UKMTO's report of the suspected Tutor sinking comes a week after the Houthis seriously damaged that Liberia-flagged ship, as well as the Palau-flagged Verbena, which was loaded with wood construction material. Sailors from the Verbena abandoned ship when they were unable to contain a fire sparked by the attacks. The Verbena is now drifting in the Gulf of Aden and vulnerable to sinking or further assaults. U.S. and British forces on Monday conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen's Hodeidah International Airport and Kamaran Island near the port of Salif off the Red Sea in what appeared to be retaliation for last week's ship attacks. The Iran-aligned Houthis have been targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea region since November, in what they say are attacks in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The Houthi drone and missile assaults have forced shipping firms to divert vessels from the Suez Canal to the longer route around Africa, disrupting global trade by delaying deliveries and sending costs higher. In November, the Houthis seized another vessel, the Galaxy Leader cargo ship. On Tuesday its manager renewed calls for the Houthi to release the ship’s 25 crew, who have been held for seven months. The militants used helicopters to attack the Bahamas-flagged ship on Nov. 19. They captured the Bulgarian ship master and chief officer, along with 17 Filipinos and other sailors from Ukraine, Mexico and Romania, STAMCO Ship Management said in a statement. "There is nothing to be gained by the Houthis in keeping the 25 crew members," said STAMCO, which requested that they be released to their families without further delay.