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TUNIS — A Tunisian court on Wednesday sentenced two journalists to one year in prison on charges of publishing false news that harms public security, a judicial official said, amid growing fears of a crackdown targeting all critical voices.  Mourad Zghidi and Borhan Bsaiss, both journalists with IFM radio, were detained this month over political comments made on the radio.  Tunisia has now imprisoned a total of six journalists, including Zghidi and Bsaiss, while dozens of others face judicial prosecution, according to the national journalists syndicate, which is the country's main union for journalists.   In May, police arrested 10 people, including journalists, lawyers and officials of civil society groups, in what Amnesty International called a deep crackdown targeting activists and journalists. Human Rights Watch has called on Tunisia to respect free speech and civil liberties.  "The judge decided to imprison them for a year following social media posts and radio comments that harm public security,” said Mohamed Zitouna, the Tunis court spokesperson.  Lawyers for Bsaiss and Zghidi were not immediately available for comment.  During his trial session, Bsaiss said, “I am a program presenter who presents all issues, and what I did was journalistic work.”   Zghidi also defended himself during the session.  “I did not make a mistake. .... My work requires analyzing the political and economic situation ... and I bear my responsibility,” he said.  Tunisian journalists gathered near the court on Wednesday, demanding an end to ongoing restrictions against journalists.  “Tunisia has become an open prison for journalists," said Zied Dabbar, head of the national journalists syndicate.  "Threats and restrictions facing journalists in Tunisia are unprecedented. We will move to escalation,” he added, without giving details.  Since Tunisia's 2011 revolution, the country has been considered one of the more open media environments in the Arab world.  But politicians, journalists and unions say freedom of the press faces a serious threat under the rule of President Kais Saied, who came to power following free elections in 2019.  Two years later, he shut down the elected parliament and moved to rule by decree. He also assumed authority over the judiciary, a step that the opposition called a coup.  Saied rejects accusations of authoritarian rule and says his steps aim to end years of chaos and corruption.

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COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Nikki Haley said Wednesday that she would be voting for Donald Trump in the general election, and she encouraged the presumptive Republican nominee to work hard to win support from those who backed her in the primary.  "I will be voting for Trump," Haley, Trump's former U.N. ambassador, said during an event at the Hudson Institute in Washington.  But Haley also made it clear that she felt Trump has work to do to win over voters who supported her during the primary campaign and continue to cast votes for her in ongoing primary contests.  "Having said that, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech," Haley added. "Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they're just going to be with him. And I genuinely hope he does that."  Haley shuttered her own bid for the Republican nomination two months ago but did not immediately endorse Trump. Both candidates were sharply critical of each other during the primary.

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OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA — The U.S. Department of Justice sued Oklahoma on Tuesday, seeking to block a law that aims to impose criminal penalties on those living in the state illegally. The lawsuit in federal court in Oklahoma City challenges a law that makes it a state crime — punishable by up to two years in prison — to live in Oklahoma without legal immigration status. Similar laws passed in Texas and Iowa already are facing challenges from the Justice Department. Oklahoma is among several Republican-led states jockeying to push deeper into immigration enforcement as Republicans and Democrats seize on the issue. Other bills targeting migrants have been passed this year in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. The Justice Department says the Oklahoma statute violates the U.S. Constitution and is asking the court to declare it invalid and bar the state from enforcing it. "Oklahoma cannot disregard the U.S. Constitution and settled Supreme Court precedent," U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, head of the Justice Department's Civil Division, said in a statement. "We have brought this action to ensure that Oklahoma adheres to the Constitution and the framework adopted by Congress for regulation of immigration." Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt called the bill necessary, saying the Biden administration is failing to secure the nation's borders. "Not only that, but they stand in the way of states trying to protect their citizens," Stitt said in a statement. The federal action was expected, as the Department of Justice warned Oklahoma officials last week the agency would sue unless the state agreed not to enforce the new law. In response, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond called the DOJ's preemption argument "dubious at best" and said that while the federal government has broad authority over immigration, it does not have "exclusive power" on the subject. "Oklahoma is exercising its concurrent and complementary power as a sovereign state to address an ongoing public crisis within its borders through appropriate legislation," Drummond wrote in a letter to the DOJ. "Put more bluntly, Oklahoma is cleaning up the Biden Administration's mess through entirely legal means in its own backyard — and will resolutely continue to do so by supplementing federal prohibitions with robust state penalties." Texas was allowed to enforce a law similar to Oklahoma's for only a few confusing hours in March before it was put on hold by a federal appeals court's three-judge panel. The panel heard arguments from supporters and opponents in April and will next issue a decision on the law's constitutionality. The Justice Department filed another lawsuit earlier this month seeking to block an Iowa law that would allow criminal charges to be brought against people who have outstanding deportation orders or who previously have been removed from or denied admission to the United States. The law in Oklahoma has prompted several large protests at the state Capitol that included immigrants and their families voicing concern that their loved ones will be racially profiled by police. "We feel attacked," said Sam Wargin Grimaldo, an immigration attorney who attended a rally last month wearing a shirt that read, "Young, Latino and Proud." "People are afraid to step out of their houses if legislation like this is proposed and then passed," he said. The Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police and the Metro Law Enforcement Agency Leaders issued a joint statement earlier this month saying they weren't involved in drafting the bill and raised concerns that it would put crime victims at risk because they might fear reporting to law enforcement. "This law has the potential to destroy the connections and relationships we have built within our local immigrant communities and set us back for many years to come," they said.

New York — A Michigan dairy worker has been diagnosed with bird flu — the second human case associated with an outbreak in U.S. dairy cows.  The patient had mild eye symptoms and has recovered, U.S. and Michigan health officials said in announcing the case Wednesday. The worker had been in contact with cows presumed to be infected, and the risk to the public remains low, officials said.  A nasal swab from the person tested negative for the virus, but an eye swab tested positive, "indicating an eye infection," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.  The first case happened in late March, when a farmworker in Texas was diagnosed in what officials called the first known instance globally of a person catching this version of bird flu from a mammal. That patient also reported only eye inflammation and recovered.  Since 2020, a bird flu virus has been spreading among more animal species — including dogs, cats, skunks, bears and even seals and porpoises — in scores of countries. The detection in U.S. livestock earlier this year was an unexpected twist that sparked questions about food safety and whether it would start spreading among humans.  That hasn't happened, although there's been a steady increase of reported infections in cows. As of Wednesday, the virus had been confirmed in 51 dairy herds in nine states, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department.  Fifteen of the herds were in Michigan. Health officials there have declined to say how many people exposed to infected cattle have been tested or monitored.  The virus has been found in high levels in the raw milk of infected cows, but government officials say pasteurized products sold in grocery stores are safe because heat treatment has been confirmed to kill the virus.  The new case marks the third time a person in the United States has been diagnosed with what's known as Type A H5N1 virus. In 2022, a prison inmate in a work program picked it up while killing infected birds at a poultry farm in Montrose County, Colorado. His only symptom was fatigue, and he recovered. That predated the virus's appearance in cows. 

Three European nations announced Wednesday that they intend to officially recognize Palestinian statehood, prompting a furious response from Israel, which is at war with Hamas militants in Gaza. Henry Ridgwell reports.

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Everett, Washington/Washington, DC — When a superyacht worth $230 million pulled into the port of Everett, Washington, for repairs last month, it made a big splash in the city of 110,000 residents.  The 106-meter luxury behemoth known as the Amadea is currently in possession of the U.S. government, which alleges the yacht belongs to sanctioned Russian oligarch and politician Suleyman Kerimov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Looking out over the port, Everett resident Bob Templeton wondered who was paying for the superyacht's upkeep. “They ought to sell it to somebody and get a lot of money,” he told VOA with a laugh.  Easier said than done. Templeton’s offhand remark cuts to the core of a dilemma faced by the United States as it attempts to use sanctions to rein in Russian aggression against Ukraine.  The U.S. government has moved to take ownership of the Amadea through a legal procedure called civil forfeiture. The end goal is to sell the vessel and transfer the proceeds to Ukraine.  But another Russian businessman, who is not under sanctions, has challenged that move, claiming that he is the Amadea’s true owner.  As the courts try to sort out the yacht’s ownership, U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill: over half-a-million dollars a month for maintenance.  And the complex legal battle could drag on for a long time, increasing the costs for the U.S. and delaying any benefit to Ukraine from the yacht’s seizure, according to Stefan Cassella, a former U.S. federal prosecutor and expert in civil forfeiture.  “Nobody who is a sanctioned oligarch owns anything in his own name,” he said. “You have an entire zoo of third parties who claim they own the property.”  Kerimov did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.  Kleptocapture win  In May 2022, just months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, law enforcement in Fiji seized the Amadea at the request of the U.S. government.  That was a major victory for Task Force Kleptocapture, a unit of the U.S. Department of Justice created in the wake of the Russian invasion to enforce sanctions.  But completing the job has proved more complicated.  Since the 1980s, civil forfeiture has been the Department of Justice’s go-to tool for targeting drug dealers, the mafia and money laundering operations, according to David Smith, a former DOJ prosecutor who pioneered the practice.  It allows law enforcement to seize assets without convicting their owner of a crime. All that prosecutors must prove is that the assets were used in a crime, profited from a crime or resulted from criminal activity.  But when that crime is a sanctions violation, proving the asset is owned by a sanctioned person is critical.  Lawyers representing the company that owns Amadea have claimed the yacht actually belongs to Eduard Khudainatov, a former CEO of the Russian state oil company Rosneft, who is not subject to sanctions.  He and his legal team say the seizure is unlawful and based on a “misleading” FBI affidavit.  “Eduard Khudainatov is, and always has been, the rightful owner of the Amadea. The Biden Administration’s unconstitutional seizure of the vessel was based on demonstrable falsehoods that we will establish in court,” his spokesperson said in a statement to VOA. “The government asserts factual and legal theories that are divorced from forfeiture sanctions and money laundering laws, and unsupported by the cases interpreting those laws. This boondoggle is nothing more than political theater that has cost American taxpayers more than $20 million to date.”  The U.S. government disagrees, referring to Khudainatov as a “straw owner” of the Amadea.  According to prosecutors, Khudainatov is “supposedly the beneficial owner of at least eight yachts or yacht projects” — a fleet valued at over $1 billion. They include a yacht that prosecutors state is actually owned by Igor Sechin, the sanctioned incumbent CEO of Rosneft and a Putin ally.  Journalists have linked another one of the superyachts, the Scheherazade, to Putin himself. In May 2022, it was impounded in Italy.  While Khudainatov’s lawyers were unable to prevent the Amadea's transfer to the United States, they are currently fighting forfeiture in a New York court.  The DOJ states that Kerimov purchased the yacht in 2021, three years after he was added to sanctions list. Prosecutors allege that the oligarch or his proxies routed dollar transactions through U.S. financial institutions to maintain the Amadea, which would constitute a sanctions violation.  But proving Kerimov’s ownership — and disproving Khudainatov’s claim — is no simple task.  Assets like superyachts are often owned through a series of proxy owners, offshore companies and trusts. These entities are often registered in jurisdictions chosen for their secrecy.  Cassella, who has studied the case, says that Khudainatov’s legal team is dragging out proceedings, while the U.S. government is trying to compel him to answer questions and provide documentation that would prove he is not the Amadea's owner.  “This is civil forfeiture defense 101 for anybody who’s got an infinite amount of money to pay lawyers to oppose the forfeiture,” Cassella said.  Expensive process  While the legal battle goes forward, the U.S. government is paying to keep the Amadea running.  According to court filings, upkeep of the yacht costs roughly $600,000 a month. Insurance costs another $144,000 monthly, and there are other periodic expenses.  In a February filing, an official of the U.S. Marshals Service stated that the Amadea was also scheduled to undergo drydocking in March, which appears to have been delayed.  That procedure, which involves removing a vessel from the water to conduct repair work, was estimated to cost $5.6 million — although the government negotiated not to pay the other monthly costs during that period, the official noted.  In recent months, however, the U.S. government has taken steps to decrease the cost.  In February, it petitioned the court to sell the Amadea, citing the excessive costs of maintaining the yacht. Such a sale would effectively convert the yacht into cash, but not settle the ownership question.  In a filing opposing the sale, Khudainatov’s legal team stated that he had consistently offered to cover the cost of maintaining the Amadea.  On May 17, the U.S. government also submitted a motion to reject Khudainatov’s ownership claim, stating that he lacks standing to contest forfeiture.  If a judge agrees, that could allow the forfeiture to proceed.  Controversial, challenging strategy  While confiscating the assets of Russian oligarchs and top officials may not face fierce opposition from most Americans, civil forfeiture is controversial in the United States.  Advocacy organizations, both liberal and conservative, have criticized the practice, arguing that it allows law enforcement to seize private property without convicting the owner of a crime.  Smith, the former DOJ prosecutor, says the burden falls hardest on low-income Americans who struggle to pay for a lawyer.  This was one of the reasons why eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives in April 2022 voted against a bill calling for the Biden administration to seize sanctioned Russians’ assets to fund Ukraine.  Smith believes applying civil forfeiture to oligarchs is “arbitrary” and he is unsure whether the U.S. will be able to seize enough assets from oligarchs to make a meaningful difference for Ukraine.  “I would rather spend the money [subsidizing forfeiture investigations and proceedings] on other things than trying to forfeit these yachts,” he said. “And who knows how many will ultimately be forfeited.”  That concern is not unfounded. The Kleptocapture Task Force is working to forfeit or restrain around $700 million, but, so far, the United States has been able to transfer forfeited assets to Ukraine in only a handful of cases.  In May 2023, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland authorized sending $5.4 million to Ukraine that the U.S. had seized from sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev. It represented the first such transfer of forfeited funds to Ukraine.  Later that year, the U.S. transferred over a million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine after seizing them en route from Iran to Yemen. In February 2024, the U.S. government, after breaking up a scheme to illegally procure military-grade technology for Russia, transferred $500,000 in forfeited Russian funds to Estonia to provide aid to Ukraine.  In April, the U.S. transferred another shipment of weapons seized from Iran to Ukraine. Those transfers put funds and ammunition in the hands of the Ukrainian government, but they were also of a significantly lower value than the Amadea.  Bigger cases involving oligarch assets may prove more difficult.  “It wouldn’t surprise me if it took 10 years to resolve some of these cases,” said former prosecutor Cassella.  Natasha Mozgovaya reported from Everett, Washington. Matthew Kupfer and Oleksii Kovalenko reported from Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is canceling student loans for 160,000 more borrowers through a combination of existing programs.  The U.S. Education Department announced the latest round of cancellations on Wednesday, saying it will erase $7.7 billion in federal student loans. With the latest action, the administration said it has canceled $167 billion in student debt for nearly 5 million Americans through several programs.  "From day one of my administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity," President Joe Biden said in a statement. "I will never stop working to cancel student debt — no matter how many times Republican-elected officials try to stop us."  The latest relief will go to borrowers in three categories who hit certain milestones that make them eligible for cancellation. It will go to 54,000 borrowers who are enrolled in Biden's new income-driven repayment plan, along with 39,000 enrolled in earlier income-driven plans, and about 67,000 who are eligible through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.  Biden's new payment plan, known as the SAVE Plan, offers a faster path to forgiveness than earlier versions. More people are now becoming eligible for loan cancellation as they hit 10 years of payments, a new finish line that's a decade sooner than what borrowers faced in the past.  The cancellation is moving forward even as Biden's SAVE Plan faces legal challenges from Republican-led states. A group of 11 states led by Kansas sued to block the plan in March, followed by seven more led by Missouri in April. In two federal lawsuits, the states say Biden needed to go through Congress for his overhaul of federal repayment plans.  A separate action by the Biden administration aimed to correct previous mistakes that delayed cancellation for some borrowers enrolled in other repayment plans and through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which forgives loans for people who make 10 years of payments while working in public service jobs.  The Biden administration has been announcing new batches of forgiveness each month as more people qualify under those three categories.  According to the Education Department, one in 10 federal student loan borrowers has now been approved for some form of loan relief.  "One out of every 10 federal student loan borrowers approved for debt relief means one out of every 10 borrowers now has financial breathing room and a burden lifted," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.  The Biden administration has continued canceling loans through existing avenues while it also pushes for a new, one-time cancellation that would provide relief to more than 30 million borrowers in five categories.  Biden's new plan aims to help borrowers with large sums of unpaid interest, those with older loans, those who attended low-value college programs, and those who face other hardships preventing them from repaying student loans. It would also cancel loans for people who are eligible through other programs but haven't applied.  The proposal is going through a lengthy rulemaking process, but the administration said it will accelerate certain provisions, with plans to start waiving unpaid interest for millions of borrowers starting this fall.  Conservative opponents have threatened to challenge that plan, too, calling it an unfair bonus for wealthy college graduates at the expense of taxpayers who didn't attend college or already repaid their loans.  The Supreme Court rejected Biden's earlier attempt at one-time cancellation, saying it overstepped the president's authority. The new plan is being made with a different legal justification. 

Tehran, Iran — Concerns are growing among some people in Iran about who will replace Ebrahim Raisi as president of the Islamic republic after his death in a helicopter crash on Sunday.  "I'm more worried than sad," Mohadeseh Jalali said at Wednesday's funeral in Tehran for Raisi and his entourage who died when their aircraft hit a mountain in northwest Iran during bad weather.  The country is now set to hold an election on June 28 to elect a successor to Raisi.  "How do I find someone like him? I'm really worried about that," said 31-year-old cleric Mohsen, as state media reported a "million-strong" crowd in capital for the funeral.  "As far as I know, we don't have anyone of his stature," added Mohsen, who gave only his first name and who comes from Iran's clerical capital Qom.  Ahead of next month's election, campaigning is expected to begin after five days of national mourning announced on Monday.  A presidential election in Iran had not been expected until next year, and Sunday's crash has caused some uncertainty as to who will succeed Raisi.  The ultraconservative Raisi had been in office since a 2021 election that saw reformist and moderate candidates disqualified.  "I don't know what will happen" in these elections, Mohsen told AFP, adding that "among potential candidates, there is no consensus among the conservatives."  Conservatives and ultraconservatives further tightened their grip on power in March when they secured a landslide victory in parliamentary elections.  However, polling was marked by a turnout of 41%, the lowest since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.  Again, reformists and moderates had been mostly sidelined and disqualified from standing.  Raisi, during his three years in office, was not beyond criticism, including over his firm response to the widespread women's protest movement that began in September 2022.  That began after a 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd, died in morality police custody in Tehran for allegedly breaching the strict dress code for women.  Months of unrest that followed saw hundreds of people killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands arrested.  Iran's economic crisis — intensified by American sanctions — and worsening tensions with its sworn enemy Israel under Raisi also added to critical voices raised during his tenure.  "I voted for him in the presidential elections of 2017 [when he finished second] and also in 2021," said Mostafa, 37, another cleric who asked that only his first name be used.  "I have no regrets at all," he said, adding, however, that "the government's economic performance can be criticized."  Mostafa said the late president "was not focused on the West" and "did not forget the countries" of the Middle East, such as Sunni Muslim regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia.  Mostly Shiite Iran and Saudi Arabia resumed ties in March 2023 in a China-brokered deal that ended seven years of hostility.  This resumption came under Raisi and when Hossein Amir-Abdollahian — another victim of Sunday's crash — was foreign minister.  Mohsen told AFP he believed Iran has gained enough experience since the 1979 Islamic revolution to be able to manage delicate successions.  As an example, he cited Ayatollah Ali Khamenei becoming supreme leader after the death in June 1989 of the founder of the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.  Khamenei, who was president at the time, was designated to become head of the country and "there was no problem", Mohsen said.  Raisi, also an ayatollah, had been considered by many as a potential successor to Khamenei, who is 85, as has the supreme leader's son, Mojtaba Khamenei.  "The issue of leadership is a divine one," said Mohsen. "Whatever God wills, that will happen."  Civil servant Ali Mousavi Nejad, 35, said he was attending Wednesday's funeral to pay tribute to the victims of the crash and "to carry on their legacy."  He said the presence of so many people "sends a message to the enemies of the revolution — the path of these martyrs continues, and the people will not be dissuaded from supporting the revolution." 

The latest numbers show migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped. Illegal crossings usually increase in the spring, but officials say this April they fell by more than 6% compared with March. VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros has more.

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

Spain, Ireland and Norway recognize the state of Palestine on Wednesday, Israel says they’re rewarding terrorism. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that the International Criminal Court’s announcement that it is seeking an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endangers hopes for a cease-fire in Gaza. The latest from Kyiv and the frontlines in eastern Ukraine, a look at the violence in New Caledonia and French President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to visit. Plus, a preview of Kenyan President William Ruto’s visit to the White House.