Voice of America’s immigration news

Artists and other creators say their works have been used to build the multibillion-dollar generative AI industry without any compensation for them. Matt Dibble reports on a proposed U.S. law that would force AI companies to reveal their sources.

Tbilisi, Georgia — Many foreign-funded non-governmental organizations in Georgia say they will not comply with a new foreign agent law that came took effect this month, setting up a showdown with the government ahead of October elections.  The law would force any organization receiving more than 20% of its funding from overseas to register with the government as a foreign agent. Opponents say Georgia’s legislation is based on a similar crackdown in Russia and have dubbed it the “Russian law." They fear the ruling Georgian Dream Party is increasingly copying Moscow’s playbook to stifle scrutiny and criticism. In recent months, the government has launched a propaganda campaign against many NGOs and media organizations, accusing them of acting on behalf of foreign governments and undermining the Georgian state. Among their prime targets is Eka Gigauri, executive director of Transparency International, which has exposed government corruption.  Across the capital, Tbilisi, government propaganda posters feature Gigauri’s face with a threatening red mark scrawled across it, alongside similar depictions of other civil society figures. The captions accuse them of becoming enriched by foreign money or trying to sell out the Georgian state. “Personally, it's not so easy, but you are getting used to such things. At the end of the day, I have realized that I'm fighting for the right cause. I'm serving my country,” Gigauri told VOA in an interview earlier this month, adding that Transparency International will refuse to comply with the new law. “We will not live under the Russian law here. So, that's why we will not register. And this is the decision of each and every person who works for [Transparency International]. “This is the matter of dignity for us. We are the patriots of this country. We were serving this country for many years and the people of this country. And we are not going to put on ourselves the sign of ‘agent’ or ‘spy’ who was undermining the state's interest,” he said. Last week, the United States announced sanctions, including travel bans, against dozens of Georgian officials who supported the legislation.  “These actions risk derailing Georgia’s European future and run counter to the Georgian constitution and the wishes of its people,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on June 7. Miller did not name the individuals singled out for travel bans, citing visa confidentiality laws. Supporters of the new law insist it is necessary to ensure transparency in public debate, dubbing it the "American law,” comparing it with the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act. “I think that every country that has respect for itself should have a similar law. So, we took an example from the United States, where the government makes sure that everything is transparent to it,” said Fridon Injia of the Party of European Socialists, which is closely aligned to Georgian Dream.  Legal experts reject that comparison, noting that the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act was passed in 1938 to counter lobbying on behalf of the Nazi government, while Georgia’s foreign agent law targets nonprofit civil society organizations. Media threat Georgia’s free press is also in the government’s sights. Publika, a small, independent media organization that mainly publishes online, also refuses to register as a foreign agent. “For me, the most unacceptable part is this label as an ‘agent,’ Publika’s editor-in-chief, Lika Zakashvili, said. “Because you imagine that we are a media outlet. We are journalists, and someone is coming here and wants to share their story against, for example, the government, or against some institution. And you are [labeling us] a foreign agent. You are losing your trust.  “It's just to make our work impossible here. And now the second goal … is to demonize the Western world,” Zakashvili told VOA. The new law gives authorities sweeping investigative powers against organizations and individuals, said Aka Zarqua, executive editor at the Governance Monitoring Center, which scrutinizes government spending and conduct. “You have to give them full financial disclosure of your own expenditures, all personal and sensitive information about your expenditures, and private communications," he told VOA. They also have the right to require from employees different information, like personal chats.”  Zarqua said the risks for a small, independent media organization like his are huge and could force it to close, “dismantling the whole civil infrastructure in Georgia.” Some NGOs are seeking ways to circumvent the law, including registering in other European countries such as Estonia — a tactic used by civil society organizations in Russia, Zarqua said. “The Georgian Dream Party is not the first to introduce such a law. It was implemented in Russia already in 2012, so there is some kind of experience there. So, we will try to use this experience and to just prolong our existence here as a non-governmental organization.” Zarqua said the future of his organization depends on the outcome of the fall elections.  “It could be a very different world after October 26,” he said.

Nairobi — The top U.S. law enforcement officer has concluded a five-day visit to Kenya, pledging to continue working with the East African nation to ensure peace and stability in the region. FBI Director Christopher Wray said there was a need for continued cooperation and collaboration with Kenyan security agencies to deal with ongoing terror threats from groups such as al-Shabab. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation will partner with Kenya's security agencies to enhance operations for the stability of Kenya and the region. Speaking at Kenya's Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI), FBI Director Christopher Wray said there was a need to work together to stop criminals who threaten the country and global peace and stability.  "I have said before that the bad guys are not constrained by international borders, so the good guys should not be either. And together, leveraging our collective insights and authorities and perspectives, we're making a huge impact on the threats we face. Terrorism, of course, is very much top among them," he said. While in Kenya, the FBI head visited shopping malls, a national park, and the Dusit D2 Hotel, which was attacked by al-Shabab militants in January 2019, resulting in the deaths of 21 people. In February 2020, a year after the Dusit D2 hotel terror attack, the FBI and the U.S. State Department partnered to assist Kenya in creating the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which consists of the country's security agencies and some ministries. The agencies rely on each other's expertise to fight threats. Kenyan security agencies have been accused of lacking coordination in dealing with terrorists when they storm populated areas like the Westgate Mall attack in 2013 and the Garissa University attack in 2015.  Kenya's head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Amin Mohamed, said the Joint Terrorism Task Force has helped his country provide better security to its citizens and visitors. "Our various security agencies were operating in silos. Then we said, why can't we all bring them like a one-stop shop, whereby now we can exchange information and ideas. And we have really registered a lot of success," he said. Kenyan security expert Richard Tuta said a security collaboration can defeat criminals who have defied borders. "I think what is of importance is that aspect of collaboration. Collaboration in terms of intelligence gathering, intelligence analyzing and intelligence dissemination. That is something that is very important because one thing that we should agree among us, all of us, is that it takes a network to beat a network. Criminals are networked, so security agencies must be networked," said Tuta. He said there are also more persistent security threats and challenges in the world that will require U.S. support for Kenya to manage. “Some aspects of crime defies country boundaries, like, for instance, matters to do with human trafficking, drug trafficking, terrorism, other issues, like, for instance, matters to do with cybercrime. All of it now, it requires a concerted effort to counter such like aspect of crime," said Tuta. The al-Qaida-linked terror group al-Shabab has been unsuccessful in conducting terror attacks in the capital, Nairobi, for the last couple of years, but the group continues to carry out attacks against government forces and civilians in northeastern and coastal regions that border Somalia. In his five-day visit to Nairobi, Wray met with the ethics and anti-corruption agency head and officials, and focused on countering corruption, money laundering, and other economic crimes. Washington said it will provide support, training, and modern investigation tools to help agencies prosecute economic crimes suspects that have contributed to terrorism and insecurity in the continent.  Kenyan government agencies hope the visit will make them better prepared to manage the security of the country and, if need be, the region. 

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.

A flotilla of Russian warships has arrived in Cuban waters to carry out joint maneuvers with Cuban armed forces, a visit that Moscow and Havana assure does not represent a threat to the region. Western governments are watching closely. Jonathan Spier narrates this report by Ricardo Marquina.

BORGO EGNAZIA, ITALY — The United States said Thursday it and other G7 members will provide Kyiv with a loan of up to $50 billion that will be paid back to Western allies using interest income from Russian assets frozen in Western financial institutions. The announcement came as U.S. President Joe Biden meets with leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies Thursday at the luxury resort of Borgo Egnazia in Puglia, Italy, on the first day of their summit. Biden has been pushing G7 leaders to agree to his plan for Western allies to provide funds up front to Ukraine and to be paid back using interest income from the $280 billion in immobilized Russian assets. The frozen funds are expected to generate an interest income of $3 billion a year or more. The $50 billion loan will be paid back with the interest income for 10 years or more or until Russia pays reparation. The European Union in May had agreed on a less aggressive plan, which would provide Ukraine with the interest income as it is generated annually. Other G7 countries are expected to declare how much they’re willing to provide to Ukraine. The U.S. will not be the only lender but part of a “lending syndicate” with other G7 members. However, a senior administration official told reporters Thursday that the U.S. is willing to front the full $50 billion if needed.  The money can be made available “this calendar year” depending on how quickly Ukraine will be able to absorb it. “USAID has loan authority already established from Congress,” the official told VOA during the briefing for reporters. “There's not a set schedule that is required or a capped amount, but we have decided that we can provide up to $50 billion.” Under EU rules, the sanctions regime that freezes the funds must be unanimously renewed every six months by the bloc’s 27 member states. The official said that Germany, France, Italy, the European Commission and the president of the European Council have “committed” to keep the loan immobilized and will seek approval from the full membership of the EU. However, other requirements need to be worked out, including adoption by the EU as well as contracts between lenders, Ukraine and any intermediaries, the official said. In April, Biden signed legislation to seize the roughly $5 billion in Russian assets that had been frozen in U.S. financial institutions. The bulk of the frozen money, $190 billion, is in Belgium, and much of the rest is in France and Germany. Much is still unknown about the plan. However, the U.S. goal is to have a leaders’ declaration at the end of the summit that lays out a “framework that is not generic, that is quite specific in terms of what it would entail,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told VOA Wednesday. Core operational details still need to be worked out, he said. Attending the summit for the second consecutive year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is advocating for the deal to pass. He and Biden are scheduled to sign a separate bilateral security agreement outlining U.S. support for Ukraine and speak in a joint press conference Thursday evening.

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 authorities on Thursday said that American journalist Evan Gershkovich is to stand trial in the city of Yekaterinburg where he was detained over a year ago on charges his employer says are bogus. The Russian prosecutor general’s office said an indictment of Gershkovich has been finalized and his case filed to the Sverdlovsky Regional Court in Yekaterinburg. The city is about 1,400 kilometers east of Moscow. Gershkovich, a Russia correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, has been in custody since his arrest in March 2023 on espionage charges. The 32-year-old is accused of “gathering secret information” about a facility in the Sverdlovsk region that produced and repaired military equipment, the Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement. Gershkovich, his employer and the U.S. government all deny the accusations and the U.S. State Department has declared the reporter wrongfully detained. It is the first time that Russia has publicly detailed the accusations against the journalist. No evidence to substantiate the accusations has been provided in the case against Gershkovich, who was accredited by the Foreign Ministry to work in the country. Russia’s Washington embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment. It is unclear when the trial will take place. Press freedom experts have previously told VOA a trial will almost certainly be a sham, but that it is a necessary step to securing Gershkovich's release through a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington. Gershkovich is one of two American journalists currently jailed in Russia. The second — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Alsu Kurmasheva — has been jailed since October 2023 on charges of failing to self-register as a so-called foreign agent and spreading what Moscow views as false information about the Russian military. Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian national, has denied the charges against her. The U.S. government has also called for her immediate release. Some information in this report came from the Associated Press.

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.

Brussels — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says Ukraine should be able to hit military targets inside Russia to defend against attacks. “Ukraine has the right to strike military targets on Russian territory [as] part of the right for self-defense, and we have the right to support them in defending themselves,” Stoltenberg said Thursday, in response to a question from VOA at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where allies and partners were holding the 23rd meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG). The U.S.-led group brings together about 50 nations to coordinate military support for Kyiv in its fight against Russia’s illegal invasion.   Stoltenberg welcomed the decision by various allies and partners to loosen restrictions on the use of weapons against “legitimate military targets” inside Russia, which started the war by illegally invading Ukraine. “If they [Ukrainians] were not able to do so, then we would actually ask them to try to defend themselves, uphold the right of self-defense, with one hand tied on their back,” he said. “Self-defense is not escalation.” Stoltenberg said Ukraine’s right to cross-border strikes has become more obvious since Russia opened a new front to the north in Kharkiv and began attacking the area directly from Russian territory. “The border and the frontline is more or less the same, and of course, if the Russian forces, the artillery, the missile batteries, were safe as soon as they were on the Russian side of the border, it would become extremely difficult for Ukrainians to defend themselves,” he said. The U.S. recently gave Ukraine permission to strike ground targets inside Russia, specifically to defend against cross-border attacks on the Kharkiv region. Last week, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said the United States has “never” put restrictions on Ukrainians shooting down hostile aircraft, “even if those aircraft are not necessarily in Ukrainian airspace.” Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former head of U.S. Central Command, told VOA this week that Ukrainians should be able to fire on any military targets inside Russia that's attacking Ukraine, “but with certain limits” on areas such as Russian nuclear capable sites. “You can't give them a sanctuary there,” he said. “I think that has significantly hurt the Ukrainian ability to respond this latest offensive.” Reconsidering restrictions For more than a year, the United States would not provide long-range tactical ballistic missiles known as ATACMS to Kyiv due to administration concerns that Russia would view their use for attacks inside Russian territory as an escalation of the war. ATACMS have a range of up to 300km and nearly double the striking distance of Ukraine’s missile arsenal. In late April, the U.S. first acknowledged that it had provided Ukraine with the long-awaited missiles in mid-March. Since then, the United States has announced four presidential drawdown authority packages (PDAs) for Ukrainian security assistance, totaling $1.9 billion, which pull from U.S. military stockpiles to provide Ukraine’s military with immediate needs. Asked by VOA whether the United States had provided Ukraine with more ATACMS since mid-March, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown said, “We’re working through the ATACMS piece, and we continue to provide that capability through our PDAs.” Brown was speaking to reporters aboard a U.S. military aircraft enroute to Brussels for the UDCG. The Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies reported Wednesday that Ukraine used at least 10 ATACMS in a strike against military targets deep inside Crimea this week, with Russia “failing to intercept any of them.” Russia also confirmed the use of ATACMS on targets inside Crimea, but claimed nine of the ATACMS were shot down, according to the Russian state media outlet TASS. Ukraine's military said Wednesday it had hit three Russian surface-to-air missile systems in Russian-occupied Crimea overnight. “One S-300 division near Belbek, as well as two S-400 divisions near Belbek and Sevastopol were attacked. Two radars of the S-300 and S-400 systems were destroyed. Regarding the third radar, information is being clarified,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on X. Brown said the focus of Thursday’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group’s meeting would prioritize Ukrainian air defense, along with sustainment and the ability to train and equip Kyiv’s new forces. “Air defense is one of those things that, as we engage with the Ukrainians, that is the top of their list,” Brown said. Germany has announced it is providing Ukraine with another Patriot surface-to-air missile defense system, and Italy has announced it will deliver a SAMP-T air defense system to Ukraine. The New York Times and the Associated Press report that the United States is also providing another Patriot system, citing defense officials who were granted anonymity to discuss the move. The UDCG has also worked to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jet capability sometime during “this summer,” according to Brown. A number of Ukrainian pilots recently graduated from F-16 training in the U.S. state of Arizona, with more pilots and jet maintainers expected to complete training at various locations in the coming weeks. “It gives them some options in order to be able to extend the range of some of the munitions that they already have,” Brown said of the F-16s. McKenzie told VOA the Western fighter jets “can make a significant difference” for Ukraine, “especially if you allow shots into Russia.” “It will probably allow you to go after some of the standoff Russian airborne platforms that are dropping glide bombs and other weapons that are going deep into Ukraine,” he added. Speaking at the opening of Thursday's meeting, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the group has committed more than $98 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded 840 days ago. He also welcomed Argentina as the newest member of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. Ostap Yarysh in Washington contributed to this report.

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.

BORGO EGNAZIA, ITALY — U.S. President Joe Biden is in Apuglia, Italy, meeting with leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies Thursday, aiming to address global economic security amid wars in Europe and the Middle East and U.S. rivalry with China. The G7 leaders arrived at the luxury resort of Borgo Egnazia, the summit venue, welcomed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Meloni’s hard-right party took nearly 29% of the vote in last weekend’s European Parliament election, making her the only leader of a major Western European country to emerge from the ballots stronger. Meanwhile Biden is dealing with a contentious reelection campaign against Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, and a personal ordeal. On Tuesday, a day before departing for the summit, his son, Hunter, was found guilty on federal charges for possessing a gun while being addicted to drugs. Still, Biden came to the summit hoping to convince the group to provide a $50 billion loan to Ukraine using interest from Russian frozen assets, and deal with Chinese overcapacity in strategic green technologies, including electric vehicles.  The European Union signaled their support by announcing duties on Chinese EVs a day ahead of the summit, a move that echoed the Biden administration’s steep tariff hike on Chinese EVs and other key sectors in May. Biden is also lending his support to key themes in Meloni’s presidency – investing in Africa, international development, and climate change. Those topics were covered in the opening session of the G7 on Thursday, followed by discussions on the Gaza and Ukraine wars.  Gaza cease-fire With cease-fire negotiations at a critical juncture, Biden could face tough questions from leaders on whether he is doing enough to pressure Israel to pause its military campaign, reduce civilian casualties and provide more aid for Palestinians. Leaders are “focused on one thing overall; getting a cease-fire in place and getting the hostages home as part of that,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told VOA as he spoke to reporters on board Air Force One en route to Italy. Biden has “their full backing,” Sullivan added. Leaders will also discuss increasing tension along the Israeli border with Lebanon, Sullivan told reporters Thursday morning.  “They'll compare notes on the continuing threat posed by Iran both with respect to its support for proxy forces and with respect to the Iranian nuclear program,” he added. While the group has thrown its weight behind the cease-fire, G7 members are split on other Gaza-related issues, including the International Criminal Court's decision last month to seek arrest warrants for the leaders of Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The United States denounced the court’s decision, and Britain called it “unhelpful.” France said it supports the court’s “fight against impunity,” while Berlin said it would arrest Netanyahu on German soil should a warrant is released. Sullivan dismissed a United Nations inquiry result released Wednesday that alleges both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes and grave violations of international law. “We’ve made our position clear,” he told VOA, referring to a review published in April by the State Department concluding that Israel’s campaign did not violate international humanitarian law. Russian assets Biden is pushing G7 leaders to provide Kyiv with a loan of up to $50 billion that will be paid back to Western allies using interest income from the $280 billion Russian assets frozen in Western financial institutions, estimated at $3 billion a year, for 10 years or more. The goal is a leaders declaration at the end of the summit, a “framework that is not generic, that is quite specific in terms of what it would entail,” Sullivan told VOA Wednesday. Core operational details would still need to be worked out, he added.  In April, Biden signed legislation to seize the roughly $5 billion in Russian assets that had been immobilized in U.S. financial institutions. The bulk of the money, though, $190 billion, is in Belgium, and much of the rest is in France and Germany. “There's a tension here between a Biden administration ambition on an issue in which they do not have the final say, hitting against very staunch European fiscal conservatism and simply the mechanics of, how do you get something done in Europe in the week of European [parliamentary] elections,” Kristine Berzina, managing director of Geostrategy North at the German Marshall Fund think tank, told VOA. Attending the summit for the second consecutive year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is advocating for the deal to pass. He and Biden will sign a separate bilateral security agreement outlining U.S. support for Ukraine and speak in a joint press conference Thursday evening. From Italy, Zelenskyy heads to Switzerland for a Ukraine peace conference over the weekend. Africa, climate change and development Meloni, a far-right politician who once called for a naval blockade to prevent African migrants from crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, now wants to achieve the goal by bolstering international investments to the continent. Most of the nearly 261,000 migrants who crossed the Mediterranean Sea from northern Africa in 2023 entered Europe through Italy, according to the United Nations. She has aligned her G7 presidency with this agenda, and the group is set to release a statement on providing debt relief for low- and middle-income countries, dealing with irregular migration and calling for more investments in Africa. The G7 statement will reflect the Nairobi/Washington vision that Biden signed with Kenyan President William Ruto, Sullivan said. Meloni invited several African leaders as observers to the G7 meeting, including Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Tunisia's Kais Saied, Kenyan President William Ruto and Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, the president of Mauritania. The invitation follows the first Italy-Africa summit in Rome in January, where Meloni launched her investment initiative called the Mattei Plan for Africa. The Mattei Plan has been integrated into the G7’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, which aims to mobilize $600 billion private infrastructure funding by 2027 as an alternative to Chin's Belt and Road initiative. On climate change, the G7 has an uphill climb. None of the group’s members are on track to meet their existing emission reduction targets for 2030 to align with the Paris Agreement goal, according to data compiled by Climate Analytics.

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.

Geneva — The United Nations refugee agency says forced displacement around the globe surged to historic new heights last year, driven by conflict, persecution, human rights violations, climate crises and other disturbing events. In its 2024 Global Trends Report, UNHCR says 117.3 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide by the end of 2023. Some 68 million were uprooted from their homes by conflict and remain displaced within their own countries. Another 31 million were refugees, while tens of millions more were asylum seekers, returnees or stateless people. The report, released Thursday, finds that the number of forcibly displaced has continued to rise this year and that the current figure now stands at 120 million. "Regrettably, this is the 12th consecutive year in which this figure goes up," U.N. refugee chief Filippo Grandi told journalists in Geneva Monday in advance of the report's publication. "Conflict remains a very, very big driver of displacement." Grandi added that UNHCR "declared 43 emergencies in 29 countries" in 2023. "This figure, until two, three years ago, used to be on average eight, maximum 10 times a year." Grandi deplored changes in the conduct of wars, noting that warring parties almost everywhere nowadays "disregard the laws of war, of international humanitarian law and often with the specific purpose of terrorizing people, of instilling fear in people." "This, of course is a powerful contributor to more displacement than even in the past," he said. The report cites the conflict in Sudan as a key factor driving the current surge in forcible displacement.  By the end of 2023, a total of 10.8 million Sudanese were displaced from their homes — triple the number before the war began in April of that year.  Most of the uprooted Sudanese — 9.1 million — are internally displaced, while another 1.7 million are refugees. Describing himself as "very keen" to speak out about Sudan, Grandi called it "a very forgotten crisis although it is one of the most catastrophic ones — not just in terms of displacement, but in terms of hunger, lack of access, violation of human rights, and so forth." Other crises that have created a spike in new forced displacements are the conflicts in Gaza, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. UNRWA, the UN relief and works agency for Palestine refugees, estimates up to 1.7 million people — over 75% of the population — "have been displaced within the Gaza Strip, with some having been forced to flee multiple times." The report says more than 1.3 million people were displaced within Myanmar in 2023 "by escalating violence following the military takeover in February 2021" and that a resurgence of fighting in the eastern part of DRC uprooted 3.8 million people who "were newly internally displaced" during the year. The U.N. report also touches on what the report calls endless conflicts that continue to displace people in countries that include Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Of the complex mix of diverse factors uprooting populations globally, Grandi described climate change as a particularly virulent driver of conflict and displacement, with one sometimes triggering the other. "It can be a driver of conflict and hence of displacement, especially when the very scarce resources of very poor communities become even scarcer because of climate change," he said. "That drives conflict. We have seen it in so many parts of Africa, in the Sahel, for example. In the Horn of Africa, but also elsewhere." The report debunks a common misperception that many refugees go to rich countries. "The vast majority of refugees are hosted in countries neighboring their own, with 75 percent residing in low-and middle-income countries that together produce less than 20 percent of the world's income," say the report, which also notes that although children account for 30% of the world's population, they account for 40% of all forcibly displaced people. Syria remains the world's largest displacement crisis, UNHCR reports, "with 13.8 million forcibly displaced in and outside the country." The United States is identified as the world's largest recipient of new asylum claims with 1.2 million applications tallied in 2023, followed by Germany, Egypt, Spain, and Canada. Authors of the report acknowledge that solutions for forced displacement are very rare.  They note that only around five million internally displaced people and one million refugees returned home in 2023. Despite this grim assessment, High Commissioner Grandi said that solutions do exist, citing the example of Kenya which has enacted the so-called Shirika plan, to resolve its nagging refugee problem. "The President has decided, and the country's institutions have approved, that for the 600,000 refugees in Kenya, mostly Somalis and South Sudanese, measures will be progressively taken to include them in the communities in which they live. "I consider that a positive trend," he said. "And Kenya being an important country in East Africa, I hope that this will have a positive impact also on other countries."

London, Washington — Hong Kong authorities have canceled the passports of six pro-democracy activists living in self-exile in Britain. A statement issued Wednesday identified Nathan Law, Finn Lau, Christopher Mung, Simon Cheng, Johnny Fok and Tony Choi as “lawless wanted criminals hiding in the United Kingdom.” The statement said the six “continue to blatantly engage in activities that endanger national security,” including making remarks that slander Hong Kong. During a press conference, Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang announced the designation of six individuals as "specified absconders" under the “Safeguarding National Security Ordinance” commonly known as Article 23.    Tang expressed concerns about British entities attempting to influence Hong Kong’s governance and security cases, citing the listed individuals' activities as threats to national security. Tang mentioned that individuals wishing to return to Hong Kong and surrender could seek assistance from its immigration department. Simon Cheng, co-founder of the Hongkongers in Britain group, said the revocation of the passports can be seen as an act of retaliation specifically directed at Hong Kong exiles currently living in the U.K.   Last month, London's Metropolitan Police charged three individuals, including an official from the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, for helping the Hong Kong intelligence service to monitor overseas dissidents. "I believe this is a form of revenge for the 'Hong Kong espionage case' incident, and it also clearly indicates that we, as democratic activists, have become political and diplomatic hostages,” Cheng told VOA. The government has warned that anyone who provides money, leases property or co-owns a business with any of the six activists could face up to seven years in jail. Being on Hong Kong’s wanted list has had minimal impact on the daily lives of the U.K.-based exiles, said Cheng.  Since being on the list, he said, the dissidents no longer rely on Hong Kong SAR passports but use alternate forms of documents when needed. But, Cheng said, people and financial institutions may now have second thoughts when interacting with the six people described as “wanted criminals” who no longer have valid passports.  Nathan Law wrote on his Facebook page that the government’s move was unnecessary since he was granted asylum in Britain in 2021.  Law stated that in 2020, when he sought asylum in the U.K., he surrendered his SAR passport to the U.K.’s Home Office. After his asylum application was granted, Law did not take his passport back.  The cancelation of the passports was based on the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance passed in March by the city’s legislature under Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the mini constitution that took effect when Britain handed the city back to China in 1997.    The law covers treason, insurrection, espionage, theft of state secrets, foreign influence and interference and sabotage, including the use of computers and electronic systems to conduct acts that endanger national security.   "You can cancel my passport, but you can never cancel my identity as a Hong Kong citizen," said Christopher Mung, one of the six. “One day, we will reclaim what we rightfully deserve in a dignified manner.” The Article 23 legislation expanded on a similar national security law imposed on the port city by China four years ago in response to massive pro-democracy demonstrations a year earlier. The national security law punished anyone in Hong Kong believed to be carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces. Since the law took effect, hundreds of democracy advocates have been arrested, tried and jailed, and the city’s once-vibrant civil society has been stifled.   VOA's Cantonese service contributed to this report.

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.