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MOSCOW — Russia's Foreign Ministry on Monday said it has rescinded the accreditation of a correspondent for Austria's public broadcaster ORF and told her to leave the country in response to Austria's expulsion of a journalist for Russian state news agency Tass.  The ministry said in a statement that Maria Knips-Witting was ordered to hand over her accreditation and instructed to leave "in the near future." Knips-Witting had been based in Moscow since January, according to ORF's website.  The order was in response to Austria's removal of Tass correspondent Ivan Popov's accreditation six weeks ago, the ministry said.  It was the latest action against foreign journalists in Russia.  Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich was arrested nearly 15 months ago on charges of espionage and remains in jail awaiting trial. U.S.-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was taken into custody in October 2023 for failing to register as a "foreign agent."  Eva Hartog, a Dutch journalist working for Politico, was denied a renewal of her visa in August 2023. In March, Xavier Colas of Spanish newspaper El Mundo said he was forced to leave the country when authorities denied him a new visa.

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Baramulla, Indian-administered Kashmir  — On June 4, 2024, the Langate neighborhood in Kupwara district on the Indian side of Kashmir reverberated with chants of “Cooker, cooker, pressure cooker,” after the local election commission office declared election results for the three constituencies in the region.  The results were part of the Indian general elections that ended June 1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to secure an absolute majority in the voting but he retained office for a rare third term with the support of the Telugu Desam Party, or TDP, and Janata Dal United, or JDU.  Kashmir Valley exit polls normally favor the oldest regional political party, the National Conference, or NC. In the recent election, however, imprisoned firebrand politician Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as "Engineer Rashid," won a landslide victory.   He defeated Omar Abdullah, former chief minister and vice president of the NC, and Sajad Ghani Lone, a separatist-turned-mainstream politician and founder of the People’s Conference, or PC, by over 200,000 votes.  Rashid was arrested days before the government of India revoked the disputed Himalayan region’s semiautonomous status in August 2019. He was later charged in a terror-funding case and is currently imprisoned in New Delhi’s Tihar jail.   He is also the founder of the Awami Ittehad Party, or AIP.  “My father showed interest after being approached by his party members. He said that he would contest the election from the Baramulla parliamentary constituency if the AIP members thought he was a good fit for the position,” Abrar Rashid, son of Engineer Rashid, told VOA. “AIP had decided to contest the election in October last year,” he added.  AIP started its campaign late after filing the party chief’s nomination papers on April 30. Despite low resources to cover his campaign expenses, the junior Rashid attracted a massive crowd in support of his father.  “Initially, the response was moderate. But soon people, especially youth, began showing great interest in our campaigns. They [youth] spent their own money to support the election campaign. We faced a minor issue, as we couldn’t use our traditional party symbol, a cooking gas cylinder, because our party is not registered with the election commission,” Rashid said, adding that a pressure cooker was chosen as a new symbol, and it became popular among the masses in the region.  Political analysts attribute Engineer Rashid’s landslide victory as an outcome of sympathy and resistance politics.  “It was altogether a sympathy vote where people thought Engineer Rashid would be released soon after being elected as a member of parliament from north Kashmir,” Muzamil Maqbool, a political analyst and host of the podcast “Plain Talk,” told VOA.  “Secondly, people, especially the youth, are sick and tired of the same old dynasty politicking. They didn’t see Omar Abdullah or Sajad Lone as suitable candidates to represent them in the Indian parliament,” Maqbool added.  AIP disagreed, saying Rashid did not win because of sympathy votes but because of the party agenda, which includes the “unconditional release of all prisoners, the preservation of the culture and identity of Jammu and Kashmir, and ensuring full respect for human rights and freedom of expression of the local population.”  “Engineer Rashid has already proven himself as an honest, humble, pro-poor and fearless leader. Despite being imprisoned in Tihar since 4 August 2019 for speaking up for the people of Kashmir he remains calm and committed to his duty,” AIP spokesperson Firdous Baba said. “Engineer Rashid left his office to represent the nation, inventing a style of politics that brought him suffering but gave hope to the people. His arrest was due to his true interpretation of Kashmir, and he has remained steadfast in his position despite the challenges.” Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a Kashmiri political analyst and a prominent scholar of human rights and international law, also believes that sympathy worked for AIP and its founder.  “I would say sympathy, as well as his continued identification with resistance politics, played a crucial part in his victory,” Hussain said. “People had a third option — a former chief minister, a proxy candidate and a person in jail,” he said, referring to Lone, who was covertly supported by Modi’s BJP, without mentioning his name.  Rashid’s charisma was not confined to the north, as people from south and central Kashmir voluntarily campaigned for him — igniting the flame that led to his victory.  “Engineer Rashid is the voice of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and I felt the need to support him,” Mudasir Thoker, a resident of south Kashmir’s Shopian district, told VOA. “I traveled from south to north continuously for 18 hours to extend my support. My message was clear that the youth of Jammu and Kashmir will support a leader who understands the struggles of the local population.”  Kashmir is a disputed territory between India and Pakistan. The two nuclear-armed South Asian neighboring countries control different parts of the Himalayan territory since their independence from British rule in 1947. A small portion is also under Chinese control.

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ISLAMABAD — Pakistani government officials are hailing as a success a recent five-day visit to China by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Observers, however, say that despite the usual display of warm relations from both sides, hurdles remain in improving the economic partnership between Beijing and Islamabad, largely because of Pakistan’s poor policies. Prime Minister Sharif’s visit to China late last week comes as Pakistan is seeking more foreign investment and looking to boost exports to help with its economic crisis amid security concerns. At a press conference Monday, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar called the visit “extremely successful and historic.” “The fruits of the historic visit to China will reach the people of Pakistan,” Tarar said. Sharif visited China at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart, Premier Li Qiang, with whom he held delegation-level talks in Beijing. Sharif also visited Shenzhen and Xi’an to help build business-to-business ties and to observe China’s advancements in agriculture, technology, and business facilitation. China-Pakistan economic corridor In China, both sides committed to “forging an upgraded version” of the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, by boosting construction, mining and exploration, and industrial cooperation. Some critics say in its bid to ramp up CPEC, Pakistan is ignoring some harsh lessons from the first decade of the energy and infrastructure project. “The corridor’s original sin was that Pakistan signed up for a large number of projects that added obligations in foreign currencies and this conflicted with Pakistan’s domestic-oriented exchange rate and industrial policies,” said economist Ali Hasanain. “Those obligations have gradually and predictably narrowed Pakistan’s fiscal space,” added Hasanain, an associate professor at Lahore University of Management Sciences. Pakistan owes more than $7.5 billion in project debt to power plants set up under CPEC. The country also owes nearly $2 billion in circular debt, or unpaid bills, to Chinese power producers. Unable to boost exports on the back of new roads and added power generation capacity acquired through CPEC, Pakistan now faces a debt crisis where it is seeking new loans to pay past debt. Many Pakistani economists blame Islamabad for the crisis. Hasanain pointed to the Sharif government’s push to upgrade a crumbling cross-country railway line as an example of CPEC projects that will add to the country’s debt burden. The scope of the much-delayed Mainline-1 or ML-1 project has been reduced to bring down the cost, but the roughly $6.8 billion project is struggling to attract Chinese investment. “While this upgradation will eventually be needed, there has been little consideration of the financial stress it will cause, and how the country will honor resultant obligations in the future,” Hasanain told VOA. Economic cooperation According to a joint statement issued at the end of the visit, China and Pakistan signed 23 agreements and Memoranda of Understanding, or MOUs, in a myriad of fields including cooperation on agriculture, infrastructure, industrial cooperation, inter-governmental development assistance, market regulation, surveying and mapping, media, and film. Ammar Habib Khan, a Karachi-based business affairs expert, says Chinese firms are interested in investing in Pakistan because it is a strategic partner. “Economic impact extends much longer into the future, maybe 30, 40, even 50 years. With a 30-year horizon or a 20-year horizon it makes sense to continue to invest in Pakistan,” Khan said, adding that the first phase of CPEC has been successful given the infrastructure development it brought. More than 100 Pakistani business leaders accompanied Sharif on the trip that included a convention with Chinese businesses. “There is an opportunity here to bring lots of Chinese energy-intensive industry to Pakistan where a lot of surplus power can essentially be used,” Khan said. “CPEC 2.0 will actually be more about utilizing the infrastructure that is in the country and how it can be optimized.” Khan acknowledged that the renewed focus on CPEC would require Pakistan to first fix its finances. The joint statement noted Beijing will encourage companies to invest in Pakistan in accordance with the market and commercial principles, signaling that it will not push firms to take unwanted risks or to give any concession to Pakistani companies. Debt relief Pakistan’s nearly $375 billion economy is facing a debt burden of almost $290 billion. According to data compiled by CEIC, an online economic database, Pakistan's foreign debt is close to $130 billion. Chinese officials say around 13 percent of Pakistan’s external debt is owed to China, but the International Monetary Fund put the figure at almost 30 percent in a 2022 report. Experts believe China will have to restructure the debt Pakistan owes. During Sharif’s visit, however, no public statement was issued on the topic. “The Pakistani side entered these meetings with realistically low expectations about winning concessions in the form of restructuring Pakistan’s outstanding debt to China. Some form of relief may yet come, but is unlikely to be significant,” said Hasanain. Khan believes, even if China agrees to much-needed debt restructuring with Pakistan, it will do so quietly. “They [the Chinese] are dealing with around 50 countries, all needing some kind of debt relief. If they [Chinese] give public statements, that basically becomes a precedence,” he said. Security During the visit, the Pakistani leader, along with the country’s powerful army chief, Gen. Asim Munir, held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping for more than three hours. The security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan is a key concern for Beijing. Five Chinese workers died in a suicide attack in northwest Pakistan in March, while at least a dozen more have died in targeted attacks in recent years. “The fact that the army chief accompanied the prime minister shows that we are taking security issues seriously,” Tarar told the press Monday. “We did not spare any effort in satisfying China’s security concerns.” Naghmana Hashmi, a former Pakistani ambassador to China, told VOA that Beijing is talking tough with Islamabad on the security of Chinese nationals to avoid a backlash from its own people. “Their people ask questions, their journalists ask questions that here is our best friend and we don’t have people dying anywhere except when they go to Pakistan,” Hashmi said. “Now, everybody does not understand the politics of it so the optics of it are very bad,” the former diplomat said, reiterating Pakistani officials’ stance that adversaries want to derail CPEC. In the joint statement at the end of the visit, Beijing appreciated Pakistan’s probe of the March 26 attack. “[The Chinese side] … hoped that the Pakistani side would continue to make every effort to hunt down any perpetrators and make sure they receive deserved severe punishment.” “The Pakistani side was committed to enhancing security forces deployment,” the statement continued. Pakistan has blamed the attack on militants based in Afghanistan. In the joint statement, both sides called on Afghanistan to “firmly combat terrorism, including not allowing its territory to be used for terrorist acts.” The ruling Afghan Taliban have rejected Pakistan’s assertion that militants based in Afghanistan attacked Chinese nationals, saying Islamabad is attempting to poison Kabul’s relations with Beijing.

Four Israeli hostages are rescued from Hamas captivity in a bloody raid in Nuseirat and a key member of Netanyahu’s wartime cabinet resigns, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Cairo. Election results from the EU show right wing parties gaining popularity while in India Narendra Modi loses his majority. An update on the war in Ukraine and cricket – in New York.

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban government in Afghanistan has said that the eviction of hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees from Pakistan and Iran continues unabated, with around 2,000 individuals arriving in the country daily.  “The two neighboring countries have forcibly deported over 400,000 refugees since the start of 2024, with Pakistan responsible for 75% of the deportations,” said Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, the spokesperson for the Taliban’s commission assisting and resettling returnees to their native Afghan districts.   “They are being well served here, and efforts are being made to provide them with additional amenities of life,” Ahmadi claimed.  Meanwhile, the United Nations warned Monday that recovery from years of conflict and "entrenched poverty" in Afghanistan is increasingly challenged by worsening humanitarian and economic conditions as well as a decline in foreign aid since the Taliban seized power almost three years ago.  Taliban officials have denounced deportations of Afghan migrants by Iran and Pakistan, calling for better coordination in repatriating the displaced families in line with international laws and taking into account the situation in Afghanistan.  Tehran and Islamabad maintain their deportation drives target only undocumented Afghan migrants, following laws enforced in countries around the world.  Pakistan formally launched its crackdown on foreigners residing illegally, including Afghans, last October, blaming them for a surge in nationwide terrorist acts. Nearly 600,000 Afghans have since gone back to their home country, with Pakistani officials claiming “more than 95%” returned voluntarily.  Islamabad has repeatedly clarified its crackdown is not targeted at the 1.4 million officially declared Afghan refugees being hosted by the country, nor is it aimed at nearly 800,000 migrants holding Afghan citizenship cards.  The U.N. estimates that more than 1.5 million refugees have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan and Iran since January 2023, including voluntary returnees.  The U.N. humanitarian agency reiterated in a Monday statement that more than half of the population in Afghanistan — 23.7 million people, including 9.2 million children — need relief assistance.   The agency noted that the U.N. appealed for around $3 billion in funding to support Afghan humanitarian programs in 2024, but the appeal is only 20% funded six months into the year, hampering relief activities in the country, where 48% of people live below the poverty line.   Critics attribute the aid decline, among other factors, to the Taliban’s sweeping restrictions on Afghan women’s access to education and work.  De facto fundamentalist Afghan rulers have barred girls from seeking education beyond the sixth grade and prohibited many women from public and private workplaces.   The U.N. noted Monday that the imposition by the Taliban “of ever-more restrictive policies on women and girls’ rights and basic freedoms” have hindered their access to assistance and services and their involvement in public life. 

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 — A deadly clash over the weekend between two clans in central Somalia has killed at least 50 people, residents and medical officials told VOA on Monday.  Another 155 people are said to have been injured in the clashes in the Galgudud province near Somalia’s border with Ethiopia.  The fighting between the Dir and Marihan clans erupted on Saturday in rural areas between Abudwaq and Herale towns over grazing land and watering points, said Feysal Abdullahi Kheyre, a commissioner and resident of Herale.  Witnesses who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals said about 400 militiamen fought each other during the clashes, using anti-tank weapons and heavy machine guns mounted on pickup trucks.  “The reason behind the high casualties is the fact that the fighting took place in an open ground and that the clan militias are heavily armed,” said Muhidin Aden Wali, a commissioner and resident of Abudwaq.  Neither commissioner denied there were high casualty figures but said that they did not know specific numbers.   Following the clashes, the Somali government announced Sunday that it was forming a committee to find an immediate solution for tribal conflicts.  The Somali National News Agency (SONNA) said the committee consisted of five ministers appointed by president of Galmudug State, Ahmed Abdi.  “The purpose of this committee is to go to conflict areas in the cities [of Abu Dawaq and Harali] to end the bloody fighting there,” SONNA reported.  Witnesses said Monday units of Somali’s army were deployed in the area to prevent further clashes.  The clans have a recent history of fighting over pastoral land and water wells.  Revenge killings  According to residents and local elders, revenge killings and land disputes have been fueling inter-clan violence in Somalia for years, with some of the heaviest fighting taking place in Galgudud and Mudug.  “It was unfortunate fighting between brotherly and neighboring nomadic people and it is as it has always been, over land disputes, water and clan vendetta,” Abdullahi Sa’id Farah, a clan elder and resident of Abudwaq, told VOA.  “Our sons and husbands are those dying from both sides in the clan conflicts in central Somalia and this has had a painful impact on Somali mothers for many years,” said Irado Mohamed Igal, an activist in the region.  Regional officials accused militant group al-Shabab of sparking the renewed clan clashes.  “Al-Shabab continues to pit Somali clans against each other so that it would benefit by distracting the local governments and local people from their fight against al-Shabab,” a security adviser to the president of Galmudug state, Ahmed Shire Falagle, told VOA Somali by phone.  VOA could not independently verify the involvement of al-Shabab in this weekend’s clan violence.  The clashes add weight to the security tasks of Somalia's federal government, which is struggling to contain the threat posed by the militants.  On Saturday, al-Shabab militants attacked government forces in the central town of El-Dheer.  Al-Shabab, through its Telegram channel, said its forces overran two government military camps, a claim denied by the Somali government.  Residents and witnesses who spoke to VOA said at least 16 people were killed during the attack, which they said was repelled by the government soldiers aided by local clan militias.  VOA reporter Abdiwahid Isaq contributed this report from Galkayo in central Somalia. 

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Bangkok — Thailand’s democracy movement faces a pivotal week as the Constitutional Court considers whether to dissolve the election-winning Move Forward Party (MFP), a ruling which would effectively nullify the votes of 14 million people and trigger a new period of political instability.  MFP became Thailand’s largest party at the May 2023 polls, winning 151 parliamentary seats and igniting calls to cut the army from politics and redistribute wealth and power more evenly.   But it was blocked from forming a government and has since run into endless obstacles brought by a conservative establishment rattled by its success.   The court will meet on June 12 to consider MFP’s fate on an allegation that it breached the Thai constitution by calling for reform of the royal defamation law — which protects the monarchy from criticism — during its election campaign.  Party frontman Pita Limjaroenrat says MFP had no intention of overthrowing the monarchy, as alleged, with a call to amend a law that has seen scores of young pro-democracy activists charged since 2020.  The activists came out to protest when the same court dissolved Move Forward’s predecessor — Future Forward.   “No one can really say how the court is going to rule but if we are to be dissolved this would be two parties in five years,” Pita told reporters Sunday at a news conference.  “I don’t even want to think or forecast how this might affect Thailand especially when our society, economy, and politics are still fragile,” he added.    The court is widely expected to strike out the party, which has the potential to stir a new round of political uncertainty.  “In the short term, there may be big protests across the country like those that happened when they dissolved Future Forward,” Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang, a constitutional scholar at Chulalongkorn University, told VOA.  “But in the long term I’m more concerned that the conservative elite will actually succeed in slowly weakening the progressive movement, by banning MPs and dissolving whatever the next party incarnation is.”  The monarchy sits at the head of Thai power, backed by an army which has carried out 13 coups since the kingdom became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.  Where coups have failed to end the democracy cause, the courts have stepped in by banning parties and popular politicians, mainly from groups which threaten the status quo.   The Constitutional Court can also impose a decade-long political ban on the party leader — including Pita — when it renders a decision.  What happened  Move Forward emerged from last year’s poll as the most serious threat to the elite order in a generation. Harvard-educated leader Pita appeared primed for the premiership.  But he was blocked from taking office by senators who were appointed by generals after the last coup in 2014. The party was subsequently forced into the role of the opposition.  Instead, conservatives rallied behind the Pheu Thai party, formerly Thailand’s most radical group, to take the reins of government.  The courts have previously taken out parties linked with Pheu Thai’s founder, 74-year-old telecoms billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra. Until its deal to lead the government, Pheu Thai was seen as the gravest threat to the establishment.   Now it finds itself aligned with its former enemies.   “There’s no such thing as normal politics in this country,” Sirote Klampaiboon, an independent scholar and political commentator, told VOA.   Referring to the establishment’s opposition, Klampaiboon said, “A political entity can be destroyed at any time. Participatory democracy can be destroyed at any time.”  Even the current coalition government is now also being destabilized by court cases against its prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, and Pheu Thai’s patron, Thaksin.  Experts say it is a sign of the kingdom’s conservatives exerting their behind-the-scenes control over politics despite losing the popular vote.   If Move Forward is dissolved, most of its lawmakers are expected to regroup under a new banner, whose name has yet to be announced.   Others, however, may defect to coalition parties — a common practice in Thai politics — weakening its parliamentary hand.   Thailand’s latest democracy movement stems from Future Forward, founded by the billionaire scion of an auto parts empire, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit.  Future Forward won 6 million votes in the 2019 election but was dissolved a year later with Thanathorn banned from politics for a decade for breaching media shareholding rules, which he denied.   Four years on, the party’s successor Move Forward won 14 million votes.  Thanathorn, a charismatic figure who still pulls large crowds wherever he goes, says the future belongs to a new era in politics.   “If Pita was our prime minister this would already be the beginning of a new era of progressive Thailand,” he told the audience at a June 1 screening of a documentary about his rise from nowhere to the center of Thai politics.  “I’m confident that by 2027, when we will have the next election, our political horizons will be closer. Whatever our party name will be… we will absolutely be ready.”

Since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has carried out a campaign of repression against local and foreign journalists including via intimidation, threats, expulsions and arrests. Marcus Harton narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina.

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.