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Survivors of radiation exposure in New Mexico are urging Congress to expand a soon-expiring law that compensates Americans who were exposed to radiation by federal nuclear tests. Gustavo Martínez Contreras has our story from Albuquerque. (Camera: Gustavo Martínez Contreras; Produced by:  Bakhtiyar Zamanov)

Seoul, South Korea — Tensions between North Korea and China surfaced publicly this week for the first time in years, after Pyongyang lashed out at a joint statement signed by Beijing mentioning the possibility of denuclearization. The apparent rift between the two allies emerged as North Korea’s latest attempt to launch a military spy satellite interrupted a major diplomatic initiative by China. North Korea announced that it would conduct the launch as China’s premier, Li Qiang, was in Seoul preparing to meet the top leaders of Japan and South Korea as part of a trilateral dialogue that had not occurred in almost five years. The launch, which ended in a fiery explosion just after liftoff, occurred several hours after the trilateral dialogue wrapped up late Monday. Although not unprecedented, it was a rare North Korean disruption of a major political event involving China, which has long been the main ally and economic lifeline for the isolated North. The developments suggest fissures in a relationship that both sides have long insisted is “as close as lips and teeth,” according to Jean Lee, a Korea specialist at the East-West Center in Hawaii. “I think what we’re seeing is that those fissures can break wide open with just a little bit of pressure,” she said. Uncomfortable spot North Korea’s actions left China's Li in an awkward position, standing alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who both condemned the impending launch. Things got more uncomfortable from there. After the three men released a joint statement calling, among other things, for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, North Korea erupted. In a statement posted in the state-run Korean Central News Agency, North Korea's foreign ministry accused the three countries of “mockery and trickery,” denouncing what it described as a “blatant challenge” to its sovereignty and “wanton interference” in its internal affairs. Though the North Korean statement was primarily directed at summit host South Korea, it was also a “veiled but undeniable swipe” at China, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a North Korea watcher and senior fellow at the Washington-based Stimson Center. “The North’s relations with China have looked to be cooling over the last year, but this is the first time in recent years any signs of trouble have broken into the open,” she wrote in a blog post on 38 North, a North Korea-focused website. China has long called for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula – a formulation often embraced by other countries, including the United States and its allies. North Korea has also accepted the idea of denuclearization in some settings, including perhaps most notably the joint statement signed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former U.S. president Donald Trump following their first summit in 2018. However, North Korea last year enshrined nuclear weapons in its constitution – a status Kim now calls “irreversible.” North Korea's moves have sparked major concerns among the U.S. and its allies, which have responded by ramping up their own displays of military strength. In public settings, Chinese officials have called for all sides to show restraint, even while pressing the United States to make concessions in order to advance the denuclearization process. Ups and downs North Korea has not criticized China so blatantly since 2017, when Beijing backed United Nations Security Council sanctions over the North’s nuclear and missile tests. Since then, North Korea-China ties have improved. China now opposes new sanctions, even as North Korea dramatically expanded its ballistic missile tests that are banned by the U.N. resolutions it once supported. But there have been signs of trouble beneath the surface. For instance, Chinese leader Xi Jinping hasn’t met with Kim in over five years. Meanwhile, Kim in September traveled to Russia's far east, where he agreed to expand military cooperation with President Vladimir Putin. According to Kremlin officials, plans are underway for Putin to soon visit North Korea. Putin now uses North Korean missiles and other weapons to wage war in Ukraine. In return, Putin may be aiding North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, according to some U.S. officials, who have not provided evidence. Some analysts say China may be uncomfortable if Russia is enabling a significant nuclear buildup on its border — which may explain some of the current tensions. China may also be trying to show that it is not as close to North Korea – and to Russia – as some Western nations imply, according to Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a professor of international relations at King’s College London. “Kim Jong Un would have been invited already – or would have essentially been dragged to China to meet Xi Jinping. And this hasn’t happened,” said Pacheco Pardo. That stands in contrast to the past, when Xi went out of his way to demonstrate that he was the world leader with the closest relationship to Kim, Pacheco Pardo added. North Korea’s actions this week suggest it has been emboldened by its cooperation with Russia and now wants to demonstrate some level of independence from Beijing, he said. However, analysts have questioned whether Russia's current level of support for North Korea will outlast its war in Ukraine. While North Korea appears to be less reliant on China for now, Pacheco Pardo said, “in the future, it might be different.”

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.

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Tensions between North Korea and China surfaced publicly this week for the first time in years. The apparent rift between the two allies emerged as North Korea’s attempt to launch a spy satellite interrupted a major diplomatic initiative by Beijing. VOA’s William Gallo has more from Seoul, South Korea. (Camera: William Gallo)

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.

MIDRAND — The African National Congress appeared on course to lose the parliamentary majority it has held for 30 years, partial results from South Africa's national election showed, in what would be the most dramatic political shift since the end of apartheid. With results in from 16% of polling stations, the ANC's share of the vote in Wednesday's election stood at 42.6%, with the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) on 25.8% and the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on 8.5%, data from the electoral commission showed. If the final results were to resemble the early picture, the ANC would be forced to make a deal with one or more other parties to govern - a situation that could lead to unprecedented political volatility in the coming weeks or months. "There will be checks and balances on the ANC power, but the ultimate risk is that the infighting could make governance ineffective," said Simon Harvey, head of foreign exchange analysis at Monex Europe. He added that the speed at which a coalition could be formed would be an indication of what was to come. "If it is protracted, you may start to worry about a political gridlock going forward," he said. The uncertainty weighed on South African markets. The rand slipped more than 1% against the U.S. dollar to hit its weakest level in four weeks while the wider equity index dropped more than 2% in its worst day in six weeks and the country's international bonds lost as much as 1 cent in the dollar. The ANC has won national elections held every five years since the landmark 1994 election, which marked the end of apartheid and the ascent of Nelson Mandela as president. But since those heady days the ANC's support has declined because of disillusionment over issues such as high unemployment and crime, frequent power blackouts and corruption. Based on the early results, the ANC is projected to have roughly 42% of the vote when the count is over, according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research which was providing projections to the state broadcaster SABC. In the previous election in 2019, the ANC won 57.5% of the vote, with 20.8% for the DA and 10.8% for the EFF, on a turnout of 66% of registered voters, which the commission has already said is likely to be higher this time. The Zuma factor Under South Africa's constitution, the newly elected National Assembly will elect the next president. With the ANC still on course to be the largest party, its leader Cyril Ramaphosa is likely to remain as the country's president, although a poor showing could make him vulnerable to a leadership challenge from within party ranks. The early results showed the ANC on 38%, the DA on 27.8%% and the EFF on 10.9% in the key province of Gauteng, which includes the country's business capital Johannesburg and the sprawling townships of Soweto and Alexandra. In KwaZulu-Natal, a populous eastern province where the major city of Durban is located, a new party led by former president Jacob Zuma, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), was performing strongly, with 42.7% of the vote versus 21.4% for the ANC. Zuma was forced to quit as president in 2018 after a string of scandals and has since fallen out with the ANC leadership, leading him to throw his weight behind MK. The party, named after the ANC's armed wing from the apartheid era, appeared to be costing both the ANC and the EFF votes, especially in KwaZulu-Natal. By law, the electoral commission has seven days to declare full results, but in practice it is usually faster than that. In the last election, in 2019, voting took place on a Wednesday like this year and final results came on the Saturday. The new parliament must convene within 14 days of final results being declared and its first act must be to elect the nation's president. This means that if the ANC is confirmed to have lost its majority there could be two weeks of intense and complex negotiations to agree on how to form a new government.

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

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

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

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

WASHINGTON — Ten days after Iran’s president died in a helicopter crash in the country’s north, Iranian authorities have not explained why his was the only helicopter that crashed in dense cloud cover out of three that had been flying officials back to Iran from a visit to the Azerbaijani border.    Another unresolved question is how one of the passengers on the ill-fated helicopter apparently survived the May 19 crash in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province for several hours and answered several phone calls, according to Iranian state media, before rescuers reached the site and found him dead.  The passenger was identified as Iranian cleric Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, the East Azerbaijan representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. There were no survivors among the helicopter’s eight passengers and crew, including President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.  The Iranian government’s latest assessment of the crash, shared in a TV report broadcast Sunday on state-run channel Network One, said the Armed Forces General Staff was “still investigating the cause of the accident.”  The report repeated an assessment shared by state TV several days earlier. It stated that the pilot of Raisi’s helicopter had instructed the other pilots to increase their altitude to emerge from the cloud cover. He apparently lost contact with the other helicopters 30 seconds later. The report said those aircraft made emergency landings at the Sungun copper mine 20 minutes after that, at 2 p.m. local time.  One significant new detail in the Network One TV report is that after the two helicopters landed, an official from one of those helicopters, Iranian Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian, spoke by phone to Ale-Hashem in the first few hours after the crash of Raisi’s aircraft. The report contained a brief clip of Mehrabian holding a phone and asking the cleric if he was OK.  Earlier, an second official who had been on one of the other helicopters, Raisi’s chief of staff Gholamhossein Esmaili, had told state TV on May 22 that after landing he also had spoken to Ale-Hashem by phone and heard that the cleric was hurt.  Farzin Nadimi, a Washington Institute for Near East Policy senior fellow specializing in Iranian security affairs, shared his assessment of some of the main unresolved questions from the Raisi helicopter crash in Wednesday’s edition of VOA’s Flashpoint Global Crises program.  The following interview transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity. VOA: Why do you think two of the helicopters in Raisi’s convoy succeeded in rising above the cloud cover while his aircraft did not? Farzin Nadimi, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy: Of the three helicopters in the convoy, the one in the front was a (Canadian-built) Bell 212, and the middle one carrying the VIPs also was a Bell 212. The third helicopter in the rear was a (Russian-built) MIL Mi-171.  The lead helicopter was equipped with a weather radar. The middle one with the VIPs was not, but apparently its pilot was in command of the convoy. There is no evidence that the pilot of the radar-equipped lead helicopter, who usually has a pathfinding role in bad weather, was in contact with the other helicopters. We do not have access to any recording of the pilots' communications. But the lead pilot should have warned the rear helicopters that they were encountering some bad conditions and low cloud cover.  Why the middle helicopter could not manage to increase altitude in time to clear the mountainous terrain, we do not know. For some reason, that pilot was not able to increase altitude quickly enough. Some technical malfunction might have contributed to this failure, or he may have calculated the barometric pressure incorrectly and thought he was able to clear the terrain.  VOA: Another curious aspect of the crash is the apparent initial survival of the cleric, Ale-Hashem, and his reported phone calls with several officials in the first few hours after impact. How could that have been possible?  Nadimi: It is a strange turn of events. The pilot of Raisi’s helicopter seems to have made a “controlled flight into terrain” [an aviation term meaning the aircraft accidentally hit the ground while under the pilot’s control].  While other clues may be found later and point us in a different direction, for now we believe the pilot flew into the terrain due to a mistake or technical issue. The aircraft’s attitude [an aviation term meaning its orientation relative to Earth's horizon] at the point of impact suggests that it crashed with heavy force. Some of the crew members and passengers were badly burned. However, in the initial stages of the crash, the force of impact probably threw this individual out of the cabin. For some reason, he miraculously survived the fall, and despite being badly injured, he had access to the pilot’s mobile phone.  VOA: That seems odd, doesn’t it? Nadimi: It does seem odd, given the fact that the pilot and copilot would have been sitting in the front of the helicopter and would have absorbed the main force of impact. Their bodies seemed to have burned beyond recognition, but somehow, the pilot’s phone survived this impact and ended up close enough to this individual for him to answer the phone calls. That might be what actually happened. But such circumstances would be very strange. 

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.

Taipei, Taiwan — Hong Kong’s High Court found 14 prominent pro-democracy figures guilty of conspiracy to subvert state power Thursday, as diplomats, foreign media outlets, and civil society organizations closely followed the verdicts in the biggest trial since China imposed the controversial national security law on Hong Kong in 2020. Ahead of Thursday’s verdicts, 16 defendants in the subversion case, which involves 47 prominent pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, had not pleaded guilty while 31 defendants had pleaded guilty in the hope of receiving more lenient sentences. In the end, two defendants were acquitted. The verdicts come more than three years after police arrested the 47 prominent pro-democracy activists in a city-wide pre-raid at dawn for taking part in an unofficial primary election organized by the pro-democracy camp to select candidates running for the 2020 legislative council election. They were later charged with "conspiracy to commit subversion" under the national security law that China imposed on Hong Kong in 2020. Authorities accused the defendants of trying to topple the Hong Kong government but the defendants argued that they were only trying to secure a majority in the legislature and used the power to veto government budgets to force the city’s chief executive to resign. Most defendants have been denied bail and have been in detention since the trial began in March 2021. While 31 defendants in the case, including prominent pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, legal scholar Benny Tai, and former pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo, had already pleaded guilty, 16 of them didn’t plead guilty, including prominent journalist-turned-activist Gwyneth Ho and former lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung. The prosecution of the 47 prominent figures has dealt a serious blow to the once-vibrant political activism in Hong Kong and dampened hopes of pursuing democracy in the city. Some activists said Thursday’s verdicts didn’t come as a surprise. "We have expected most defendants to be found guilty while maybe around two would be cleared of the charges because the government wants to offer an impression that they have considered all the evidence and handed down the verdicts in a fair manner," Patrick Poon, a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo, told VOA by phone. Some analysts say the verdicts Thursday show that it’s becoming extremely difficult and risky for Hong Kong’s civil society to organize activities similar to the unofficial primary. The verdicts show that "the use of peaceful means to pressure the Hong Kong government could become a criminal activity," Eric Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asi Law in the United States, told VOA by phone. Due to the huge amount of attention on the case, Hong Kong authorities deployed heavy police presence to areas around the court. Despite that, dozens of people, including family members and friends of some defendants, lined up outside the court since early hours on Thursday.   Several prominent activists, including veteran activist Alexandra Wong and members of the League of Social Democrats, one of the last remaining pro-democracy organizations in Hong Kong, staged brief protests near the court. Diplomats from several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, and members of several foreign media outlets were also present at the scene. While the court determined that the defendants were plotting a conspiracy to subvert state power through the unofficial primary, some participants in the primary said the pro-democracy camp was merely trying to “create some opportunities” to force the Hong Kong government to respond to some demands made by Hong Kong people during the months-long anti-government protest in 2019. "I think it’s absurd for the government to accuse people who took part in the primary for trying to subvert state power when they were simply planning to exercise a legislative power protected under Hong Kong’s Basic Law," Sunny Cheung, an associate fellow for China studies at the Jamestown Foundation and participant in the 2020 primary, told VOA by phone. Given the prominence of the 47 defendants and the fact that they represent a wide swath of Hong Kong’s civil society, some observers say the Hong Kong government is warning the rest of the city not to engage in activities that would be deemed subversive in the future. "Due to the prominence of these defendants, today’s verdicts will set a precedence for other national security cases in Hong Kong," Maya Wang, the interim China director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA by phone. Lai at Georgetown said the case of the 47 pro-democracy activists reflects the dramatic changes that Hong Kong’s civil society has undergone since Beijing imposed the national security law on the former British colony in 2020. "The Hong Kong government has instrumentalized the courts to punish opposition forces, a method widely used by other autocratic regimes," he told VOA, adding that authorities have imposed a new order on the city that forces the defense of human rights, the defense of the rule of law, and independent watchdogs to disappear. According to data collected by the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, 286 individuals were arrested under the national security law and 156 have been charged under that law or a seditious law dating back to the British colonial era. Following Thursday’s verdicts, the 45 defendants found guilty under the subversion charges must wait for their final sentences in custody. The maximum punishment they could face is life imprisonment. While dozens of them, including Joshua Wong and Benny Tai, had pleaded guilty before Thursday’s verdicts, Poon in Tokyo said the new national security legislation that the Hong Kong government passed in March could prevent defendants who have pleaded guilty from receiving early releases from prison. "I don’t expect the 45 defendants to receive short sentences and for some of the main defendants, I think they might be given really long sentences as a way for the government to create a chilling effect in Hong Kong’s civil society," he told VOA. 

STATE DEPARTMENT — Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Kurt Campbell is hosting China’s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu in Washington on Thursday. The talks are aimed at maintaining open communication channels to prevent miscalculations and unintended conflicts, especially during times of tension. Following two hours of face-to-face discussions, officials from the United States and the People's Republic of China will have a working lunch at the State Department. Later in the afternoon, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer will continue discussions with Ma. The visit by Ma Zhaoxu follows U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Shanghai and Beijing in April. Officials said it builds on U.S.’s intensive diplomacy with the PRC to responsibly manage competition in the relationship, even in areas where the two countries disagree.   “As we continue to take actions to protect our interests and values and those of our allies and partners, we are also using face-to-face diplomacy with the PRC to clearly and directly communicate our positions and intentions, and make progress on bilateral, regional, and global issues that matter to the American people and the world,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.   A spokesperson from PRC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Ma will also “interact and communicate with representatives from various sectors in the U.S.” during his visit to the U.S. from May 30 to June 2. While in Beijing last month, Blinken voiced "serious concern" regarding China's support for Russia's defense industry, warning Chinese leaders that Washington could impose sanctions over the matter. China has defended its approach to Russia, saying it is only engaged in normal economic exchanges with a major trading partner.  Wednesday, Campbell renewed the U.S. warnings. He said Chinese support was helping to revitalize Russia's military capabilities, including long-range missiles, artillery, drones and battlefield tracking. During his visit to Brussels, the State Department's second-highest diplomat emphasized the urgent need for European and NATO countries "to send a collective message of concern to China about its actions, which we view are destabilizing in the heart of Europe." The latest U.S.-China talks occur just days after China conducted a large-scale, two-day military exercise involving 111 aircraft and 46 naval vessels around Taiwan. Washington has strongly urged Beijing to exercise restraint and has reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert met virtually with PRC’s Director-General for Boundary and Ocean Affairs Hong Liang on May 23.  During this meeting, Lambert expressed profound concerns regarding People’s Liberation Army joint military drills in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan.  

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.