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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Voters in the Dominican Republic will take to the polls Sunday in general elections likely to reinforce the government's crackdown on its shared border with Haiti and the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the violence-stricken nation. Leading the presidential race is President Luis Abinader, who is seeking reelection as one of the most popular leaders in the Americas. If he tops 50% of the vote, he will win another term without proceeding to a second round of voting. Trailing behind him are President Leonel Fernández and mayor Abel Martínez. Dominicans will also vote in legislative elections. Abinader's anti-corruption agenda and push to grow the Dominican Republic's economy has resonated with many of the 8 million voters in the Caribbean nation. Much of his popularity, however, has been fueled by the government's harsh crackdown on Haitians and the border the Dominican Republic shares with its crisis-stricken neighbor. "This migratory problem worries me, because we're seeing a massive migration from our neighbor and it feels like it's out of control," said Perla Concepción, a 29-year-old secretary, adding that migration was her main concern as she takes to the polls. The Dominican Republic has long taken a hardline stance with Haitian migrants, but such policies have ramped up since Haiti entered a free fall following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. As gangs have terrorized Haitians, the Dominican government has built a Trump-like border wall along its 400-kilometer border. He has also repeatedly urged the United Nations to send an international force to Haiti, saying such action "cannot wait any longer." The government has also rejected calls to build refugee camps for those fleeing the violence and carried out mass deportations of 175,000 Haitians just last year, according to government figures. While the policy is popular among voters, it has provoked sharp criticisms from human rights organizations which call the policy racist and a violation of international law. "These collective expulsions are a clear violation of the Dominican Republic's international obligations and put the lives and rights of these people at risk. Forced returns to Haiti must end," Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, wrote in an April report.

RIO DE JANEIRO — A 20-minute drive separates the historic Maracana Stadium from the Complexo do Alemao, the biggest complex of favelas in Rio de Janeiro and one of the most impoverished and violent. One of its residents, 15-year-old football player Kaylane Alves dos Santos, hopes her powerful shots and impressive dribbles will allow her to cover that short distance to the stadium in three years to play for Brazil's national team in the final of the 2027 Women's World Cup. That chance, once remote, became more realistic Friday when FIFA members voted to make Brazil the first Latin American country to host the Women's World Cup. Local organizers have suggested that both the opening match and the final are likely to be played at the 78,000-seat Maracana Stadium that staged the final matches of the 1950 and the 2014 men's football World Cups. Teenager dos Santos knows the hurdles for her to ever play for Brazil remain enormous — in 2027 or later. She doesn't have a professional club to play for, she only trains twice a week, and her nutrition is not the best due to limited food choices in the favela. Most importantly, she often can't leave home to play when police and drug dealers shoot at each other in Complexo do Alemao. Still, she is excited and hopeful about Brazil hosting the Women's World Cup, resulting in a big boost to her confidence. "We have a dream (of playing for Brazil in the Women's World Cup), and if we have that chance it will be the best thing in the world," dos Santos told The Associated Press this week after a training session in the Complexo do Alemao. She and about 70 other young women in the Bola de Ouro project train on an artificial grass pitch in a safe region of the 3-square kilometers long community. If not on the pitch, Dos Santos and her teammates will be happy enough just to attend games of a tournament they could only dream of watching up close until FIFA members voted for Brazil over the Germany-Netherlands-Belgium joint bid. The Women's World Cup was played for the first time in 1991 and will have its 10th edition in 2027. A five-time champion in men's football, more than any other country, Brazil has yet to win its first Women's World Cup trophy. By then, it is unlikely superstar Marta, aged 38, will be in the roster. Dos Santos and thousands of young female footballers who have overcome sexism to take up the sport are keen to get inspiration from the six-time FIFA player of the year award winner and write their own history on home soil. As many female footballers experience in Brazil, dos Santos and her teenage teammates rarely play without boys on their teams. Until recently, they also had to share the pitch with 5-year-old girls, which didn't allow the older players to train as hard as they would like. "(The Women's World Cup in Brazil) makes us focus even more in trying to get better. We need to be able to play in this," said 16-year-old Kamilly Alves dos Santos, Kaylane's sister and also a player on the team. "We need to keep training, sharing our things." Their team, which has already faced academy sides of big local clubs like Botafogo, is trained by two city activists who once tried to become players themselves. Diogo Chaves, 38, and Webert Machado, 37, work hard to get some of their players to the Women's World Cup in Brazil, but if that's not possible they will be happy by keeping them in school. Their nonprofit group is funded solely by donations. "At first, basically, the children wanted to eat. But now we have all of this," said Chaves, adding that the project began three years ago. "We believe they can get to the national team. But our biggest challenge is opportunity. There's little for children from here, not only for the girls." Machado said the two coaches "are not here to fool anyone" and do not believe all the young women they train will become professionals. "What we want from them is for they to be honest people, we all need to have our character," Machado said. "We want to play and make them become nurses, doctors, firefighters, some profession in the future." The two dos Santos sisters, as do many of their teammates, believe that reaching the Women's World Cup as Complexo do Alemao residents is possible. Brazil has more than 100 professional women's football teams, with other players living in favelas, too. But it won't be easy. "Sometimes I have to cancel appointments because of shootings, because there's barricades on fire," she said. "Sometimes police tell us to go back home, they say we can't come down and point their guns to me, to my mother," said Kamilly. Her sister hopes the pair will overcome the violence, against the odds. "I want to earn my living in football, fulfill all dreams," Kaylane says. "And I want to leave the Complexo do Alemao. I want to make it happen." 

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HUITZILAC, Mexico — Tailed by trucks of heavily armed soldiers, four caskets floated on a sea of hundreds of mourners. Neighbors peered nervously from their homes as the crowd pushed past shuttered businesses, empty streets and political campaign posters plastering the small Mexican town of Huitzilac. Days earlier, armed men in two cars sprayed a nearby shop with bullets, claiming the lives of eight men who locals say were sipping beers after a soccer match. Now, fear paints the day-to-day lives of residents who say the town is trapped unwillingly in the middle of a firefight between warring mafias. As Mexico's expanding slate of criminal groups see the June 2 election as an opportunity to seize power, they have picked off more than 100 people in politically motivated killings, including about 20 candidates this year, and warred for turf, terrorizing local communities like Huitzilac. "The violence is always there, but there's never been so many killings as there are today. One day they kill two people, and the next they kill another," said 42-year-old mother Anahi, who withheld her full name out of fear for her safety, on Tuesday. "When my phone rings, I'm terrified that it'll be the school saying something has happened to my kids." Cartel violence is nothing new to Mexico, but bloodshed in the country has spiked ahead of the election, with April marking the most lethal month this year, government data shows. But candidates aren't the only ones at risk. Even before the election, it was clear that outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had made pledges to ease cartel warfare, had done little more than stabilize Mexico's high level of violence. Despite disbanding a corrupt Federal Police and replacing it with a 130,000-strong National Guard and focusing on social ills driving cartel recruitment, killings in April reached nearly the same historic high as when López Obrador first took office in 2018. Authorities have declined to pursue cartel leaders in many cases. Cartels have expanded control in much of the country and raked in money — not just from drugs but from legal industries and migrant smuggling. They've also fought with more sophisticated tools like bomb-dropping drones and improvised explosive devices. So far, those vying to be Mexico's next president have only offered proposals that amount to more of the same. "Criminal violence has become much more difficult to resolve today than six years ago. … You can't expect a quick fix to the situation, it's too deeply ingrained," said Falko Ernst, a senior Mexico analyst for International Crisis Group. "It is going to be even harder to unwind now" than it was when López Obrador took power. Saturday's mass shooting in Huitzilac came after waves of other attacks, according to local media and residents. In recent weeks alone, local media reported that three people were slain on the highway running out of town, three more were shot outside a restaurant in a neighboring municipality, and in the nearby tourist city of Cuernavaca, hit men reportedly killed a patient in a private hospital. Josué Meza Cuevas, Huitzilac's municipal secretary general, said it wasn't clear what provoked the bloodshed, but many in the town attribute it to a turf war between the Familia Michoacana, La Unión de Morelos and other cartels, which has made the state of Morelos one of Mexico's most violent. Huitzilac fell eerily silent as businesses shuttered and few dared to venture into the streets on Tuesday. Schools canceled classes "until further notice" amid requests from fearful parents. Anahi, a longtime resident of the town, and her teenage children were among many families that hunkered down in their homes, too scared to wander out in the streets. While Cuevas said "nothing like this has ever happened," Anahi said she has long felt death breathing down her neck. Located little more than an hour from the hipster bars and backpacker hostels in Mexico City, Huitzilac made a name as a town just outside the law's reach. For years, it's been at the center of a tug-of-war between a rotating set of cartels and gangs, making headlines in 2012 when police inexplicably pumped a U.S. Embassy vehicle with 152 bullets. When Anahi's car, her only means of work, was stolen from her garage last year, she said she didn't dare report it because "they might do something to me." But Anahi said she's never been as scared as she has been since local and presidential elections began to heat up in October. "We're going to ask at the school meeting that they do classes remotely until the elections are over so our kids aren't in danger," she said. "What would happen if there's a shootout and our kids are there?" On Monday night, Anahi heard gunshots echo from town and saw armed men moving outside her window. Days before that, her son's friend who once played at their house, was shot dead. Before that, her daughter's friend received death threats on her phone. Such bursts of violence are common before elections, especially in local races. At least 125 have been killed throughout the country this year in politically motivated killings, according to the electoral violence tracker Data Civica, while even more have been threatened, attacked and kidnapped. A mayoral candidate in the southern state of Chiapas was killed Thursday. That goes "hand in hand" with cartels warring for territory and attempts to terrorize communities into submission, said Ernst, the analyst. "Elections are a high-stakes game for criminal groups," he said. "You see upticks in violence as these groups are trying to position themselves to have a more stable negotiating position in the lead up to elections." In Huitzilac, armed National Guard soldiers shifted nervously on Tuesday as they guarded the side of the road. One soldier said that their units have faced a number of attacks since the bloodshed that took place last weekend. An armored vehicle drove past the small neighborhood bar where the eight men were killed, the facade dented by bullets, with candles and flowers laying on the ground below. Marchers cried and prayed as they carried caskets through town, but dozens approached by The Associated Press fell silent and cast their eyes to the ground when asked how they felt. "This is happening to innocent people now. And if you speak, they kill you," said one middle-aged man in a cowboy hat sitting outside a funeral for four of the dead. López Obrador's political ally and front-runner Claudia Sheinbaum faces off against opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez in the June 2 election and the winner will inherit a puzzle more complex than the governments before them, said Victoria Dittmar, a researcher at Insight Crime, a nongovernmental organization tracking organized crime. She noted that increases in forced disappearances and extortion by cartels were particularly worrying. "They're going to have to dismantle these criminal organizations ... but they're more resilient and flexible, with more revenue streams," Dittmar said. Meanwhile, voters like Anahi living under the chokehold of those mafias feel disillusioned. Anahi said she voted for López Obrador in 2018, because she hoped that he would usher in a new era of economic prosperity and reduce violence in areas like hers. "With the violence, I don't know why my government, my president, don't come down with a heavier hand against these people," she said, as she and her children sat trapped in their home. "I feel disappointed. I expected more."

DJENNE, Mali — Kola Bah used to earn a living as a tour guide in Mali's historic city of Djenné, once a center of Islamic learning known for the sprawling mud-brick mosque that has been on the UNESCO World Heritage in Danger list since 2016. The Grand Mosque of Djenné — the world's largest mud-brick building — used to draw tens of thousands of tourists to central Mali every year. Now it's threatened by conflict between jihadi rebels, government forces and other groups. Bah says his income was enough to support his family, which now numbers nine children, and to pay for a small herd of cattle. But these days, few visitors come to the city, and he has been largely out of work. When he needs cash, he sells some of his cattle. Speaking to The Associated Press outside his home in Djenné's old town, Bah said locals believed the crisis would come to an end eventually, and that business would pick up as before. "But the more time passed, the more this dream proved illusory," he said. "Things are really difficult now." Djenné is one of the oldest towns in sub-Saharan Africa and served as a market center and an important link in the trans-Saharan gold trade. Almost 2,000 of its traditional houses still survive in the old town. The Grand Mosque, built in 1907 on the site of an older mosque dating back to the 13th century, is re-plastered every year by local residents in a ritual that brings together the entire city. The towering, earth-colored structure requires a new layer of mud before the rainy season starts, or it would fall into disrepair. Women are responsible for carrying water from the nearby river to mix with clay and rice hulls to make the mud used to plaster the mosque. Adding the new layer of mud is a job reserved for men. The joyful ritual is a source of pride for a city that has fallen on hard times, uniting people of all ages. Bamouyi Trao Traoré, one of Djenné's lead masons, says they work as a team from the very start. This year's replastering took place earlier this month. "Each one of us goes to a certain spot to supervise," he said. "This is how we do it until the whole thing is done. We organize ourselves, we supervise the younger ones." Mali's conflict erupted following a coup in 2012 that created a power vacuum, allowing jihadi groups to seize control of key northern cities. A French-led military operation pushed them out of the urban centers the following year, but the success was short-lived. The jihadis regrouped and launched relentless attacks on the Malian military, as well as the United Nations, French and regional forces in the country. The militants proclaimed allegiance to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Sidi Keita, the director of Mali's national tourism agency in the capital of Bamako, says the drop in tourism was sharp following the violence. "It was really a popular destination," he said, describing tens of thousands of visitors a year and adding that today, tourists are "virtually absent from Mali." Despite being one of Africa's top gold producers, Mali ranks among the least developed nations in the world, with almost half of its 22 million people living below the national poverty line. With the tourism industry all but gone, there are ever fewer means for Malians to make a living. Anger and frustration over what many Malians call "the crisis" is rising. The country also saw two more coups since 2020, during a wave of political instability in West and Central Africa. Col. Assimi Goita, who took charge in Mali after a second coup in 2021, expelled French forces the following year, and turned to Russia's mercenary units for security assistance. He also ordered the U.N. to ended its 10-year peacekeeping mission in Mali the following year. Goita has promised to beat back the armed groups, but the U.N. and other analysts say the government is rapidly losing ground to militants. With Mali's dire economic situation getting worse, Goita's ruling junta ordered all political activities to stop last month, and the following day barred the media from reporting on political activities. Moussa Moriba Diakité, head of Djenne's cultural mission which strives to preserve the city's heritage, said there are other challenges beyond security — including illegal excavations and trash disposal in the city. The mission is trying to promote the message that security isn't as bad is it seems, he said, and also get more young people involved in the replastering ritual, to help the new generation recognize its importance. "It's not easy to get people to understand the benefits of preserving cultural heritage right away," he said. 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s minister for planning and development, Ahsan Iqbal, says his country is not opposed to Afghanistan’s inclusion in a Chinese-funded mega-development project, but would like Beijing to persuade Kabul to crack down on terrorist groups operating on its soil against Islamabad. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s new government, which took office in March, is anxious to revive the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC – a roughly $62 billion flagship project that is part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative – which has suffered a slump in recent years due to political, economic, and security problems in Pakistan. Iqbal recently met officials in China to prepare for Sharif’s upcoming visit aimed at quickening the pace and broadening the scope of CPEC. Securing CPEC Threats against Chinese nationals have emerged as a major impediment to CPEC’s progress in recent years. Since 2021, at least 17 Chinese nationals have died in targeted attacks in Pakistan. In late March, five Chinese workers and their Pakistani driver were killed when a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into their bus. Pakistani authorities identified the attacker as an Afghan national and claimed the attack was planned in Afghanistan. "I think this is a cause for concern," Iqbal said about the alleged use of Afghan territory for attacks on Chinese citizens in Pakistan. Speaking exclusively to VOA, Iqbal said his government would like Beijing to use its influence to push Kabul to take action against cross-border terrorists. "We also hope that China would also persuade Afghanistan because Afghanis [Afghans] also listen to the Chinese government in the region," he said.  The Afghan Taliban deny giving space to terrorists, but research suggests terrorist groups have a presence there. When asked if Islamabad had formally requested Beijing to push the Afghan Taliban to curb anti-Pakistan terrorist groups, Iqbal referred VOA to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The minister rejected the idea that attacks on Chinese nationals were a failure on Pakistan’s part, where a special military unit as well as local law enforcement are tasked with ensuring their safety. "When you’re fighting a war against terrorism, terrorists always find a way," Iqbal said, adding that major powers like the United States and Russia were also victims. Chinese officials are pressing Pakistan publicly to ensure better safety of their workers and to hold those responsible for the killings accountable. Iqbal said Beijing was right to demand better security for its nationals and that it knows Pakistan is doing more. "But the Chinese government has said it very clearly that such cowardly incidents will not deter them from pursuing CPEC," he added. Washington vs. Beijing Chinese funding, while welcome, comes largely in the form of expensive loans. According to research by AidData, a research organization based at the College of William and Mary in the U.S. state of Virginia, between 2000 to 2021, Pakistan’s cumulative debt to China stood at $67.2 billion. Iqbal dismissed Washington’s concerns about Pakistan’s mounting Chinese debt. The United States also accuses China of predatory lending practices, an allegation Beijing denies. "I think China has shown [a] great amount of understanding," he said. "I wish just as China understands Pakistan’s difficulties, [the] IMF [International Monetary Fund] and other friends also would give Pakistan that margin of understanding." When CPEC was starting in 2013, Iqbal said he told officials in Washington that "right now China is giving us $46 billion of hard investment in infrastructure and I doubt very much that you can even get $4 million approved from Congress for Pakistan." Despite being allies in the 20-year U.S.-led Afghan war, Washington and Islamabad share a long history of mistrust. Walking a tightrope between Washington and Beijing while the two battle for geopolitical influence, Iqbal said Islamabad would like to harness the "soft power" of the U.S and send Pakistani scholars and researchers there to earn doctorate degrees. "So, if China is helping us build our infrastructure or hardware, we look forward to the U.S., that it should help us build our software that will run that hardware," Iqbal said. "I think that way Pakistan can really benefit from both its friends, United States and China." CPEC Phase-2 Launched in 2013, CPEC has given nearly 2,000 kilometers of roads to Pakistan, added 8,000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid, and created close to 200,000 jobs, according to Pakistani and Chinese officials. In the much-delayed and much-talked-about Phase 2 of CPEC, Pakistan hopes some of the pending projects from the first phase will be completed. Moving away from government-to-government initiatives, Pakistan wants private Chinese businesses to collaborate with companies in Pakistan in the second phase. It is also eyeing jobs leaving China due to increasing labor costs to come to Pakistan, where manpower is abundant and cheap. "China considers Pakistan as a strategic friend and has confidence in Pakistan," Iqbal said, when pressed why more Chinese companies would come to Pakistan while their counterparts are struggling to get their dues. Pakistan owes almost $2 million to Chinese power producers that set up shop under CPEC. It has an economy of roughly $350 billion but according to the State Bank of Pakistan, the country’s central bank, Pakistan’s total debt and liabilities are hovering near $290 billion. After escaping default last year, Islamabad is seeking a new bailout from the IMF, which expects Pakistan’s economy to grow 2% in 2024. Iqbal said China invested in Pakistan when the country was having difficult times. "When China decided to invest $25 billion in Pakistan, this is [in] 2013, when we had 18 hours of power shortages" and frequent suicide bombings, he said. "At that time they decided to come to Pakistan and support Pakistan," the minister said. "That shows they have trust and confidence in Pakistan." Iqbal said the recent bullish performance of the country’s stock exchange showed, " ... local investors have full confidence in the direction the government is following and I think it is the same sense of confidence that Chinese investors and Chinese government has in this government."

Pakistan's new government is trying to ramp up work on the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. VOA Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman speaks with Pakistan's Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal about why Chinese companies should invest in Pakistan given the country's poor economic and security conditions. Camera: Wajid Asad, Malik Waqar Ahmed

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Atef Al-Buhaisi, 6, once dreamed of a career building houses. Now, all he craves is to return to school. In Israel's war with Hamas, Atef's home has been bombed, his teacher killed and his school in Nuseirat turned into a refuge for displaced people. He lives in a cramped tent with his family in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where he sleeps clinging to his grandmother and fears walking alone even during the day. Since the war erupted October 7, all of Gaza's schools have closed — leaving hundreds of thousands of students like Atef without formal schooling or a safe place to spend their days. Aid groups are scrambling to keep children off the streets and their minds focused on something other than the war, as heavy fighting continues across the enclave and has expanded into the southern city of Rafah and intensified in the north. "What we've lost most is the future of our children and their education," said Irada Ismael, Atef's grandmother. "Houses and walls are rebuilt, money can be earned again ... but how do I compensate for (his) education?" Gaza faces a humanitarian crisis, with the head of the U.N.'s World Food Program determining a "full-blown famine" is already underway in the north. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. About 80% of Gaza's population has been driven from homes. Much of Gaza is damaged or destroyed, including nearly 90% of school buildings, according to aid group estimates. Children are among the most severely affected, with the U.N. estimating some 19,000 children have been orphaned and nearly a third under the age of 2 face acute malnutrition. In emergencies, education takes a back seat to safety, health and sanitation, say education experts, but the consequences are lasting. "The immediate focus during conflict isn't on education, but the disruption has an incredibly long-term effect," said Sonia Ben Jaafar, of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation, a philanthropic organization focused on education in the Arab world. "The cost at this point is immeasurable." Before the war, Gaza was home to more than 625,000 students and some 20,000 teachers in its highly literate population, according to the U.N. In other conflicts, aid groups can create safe spaces for children in neighboring countries — for example, Poland for shelter and schooling during the war in Ukraine. That's not possible in Gaza, a densely populated enclave locked between the sea, Israel and Egypt. Since October 7, Palestinians from Gaza haven't been allowed to cross into Israel. Egypt has let a small number of Palestinians leave. "They're unable to flee, and they remain in an area that continues to be battered," said Tess Ingram, of UNICEF. "It's very hard to provide them with certain services, such as mental health and psychosocial support or consistent education and learning." Aid groups hope classes will resume by September. But even if a cease-fire is brokered, much of Gaza must be cleared of mines, and rebuilding schools could take years. In the interim, aid groups are providing recreational activities — games, drawing, drama, art — not for a curriculum-based education but to keep children engaged and in a routine, in an effort for normalcy. Even then, advocates say, attention often turns to the war — Atef's grandmother sees him draw pictures only of tents, planes and missiles. Finding free space is among the biggest challenges. Some volunteers use the outdoors, make do inside tents where people live, or find a room in homes still standing. It took volunteer teachers more than two months to clear one room in a school in Deir al-Balah to give ad hoc classes to children. Getting simple supplies such as soccer balls and stationery into Gaza can also take months, groups report. "Having safe spaces for children to gather to play and learn is an important step," Ingram said, but "ultimately the children of Gaza must be able to return to learning curriculum from teachers in classrooms, with education materials and all the other support schooling provides." This month, UNICEF had planned to erect at least 50 tents for some 6,000 children from preschool to grade 12 for play-based numbers and literacy learning in Rafah. But UNICEF says those plans could be disrupted by Israel's operation there. Lack of schooling can take a psychological toll — it disrupts daily life and, compounded with conflict, makes children more prone to anxiety and nervousness, said Jesus Miguel Perez Cazorla, a mental health expert with the International Committee of the Red Cross. Children in conflicts are also at increased risk of forced labor, sexual violence, trafficking and recruitment by gangs and armed groups, experts warn. "Not only are children vulnerable to recruitment by Hamas and other militant groups, but living amid ongoing violence and constantly losing family members makes children psychologically primed to want to take action against the groups they consider responsible," said Samantha Nutt of War Child USA, which supports children and families in war zones. Palestinians say they've seen more children take to Gaza's streets since the war, trying to earn money for their families. "The streets are full of children selling very simple things, such as chocolate, canned goods," said Lama Nidal Alzaanin, 18, who was in her last year of high school and looking forward to university when the war broke out. "There is nothing for them to do." Some parents try to find small ways to teach their children, scrounging for notebooks and pens and insisting they learn something as small as a new word each day. But many find the kids are too distracted, with the world around them at war. Sabreen al-Khatib, a mother whose family was displaced to Deir al-Balah from Gaza City, said it's particularly hard for the many who've seen relatives die. "When you speak in front of children," al-Khatib said, "what do you think he is thinking? Will he think about education? Or about himself, how will he die?" On October 7, 14-year-old Layan Nidal Alzaanin — Lama's younger sister — was on her way to her middle school in Beit Hanoun when missiles flew overhead, she said. She fled with her family to Rafah, where they lived crowded in a tent. Since Israel ordered evacuations there, she fled to Deir al-Balah. "It is a disaster," she said. "My dreams have been shattered. There is no future for me without school."

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Even before kicking off a three-day visit to Madrid on Friday, Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei stirred controversy, accusing the socialist government of bringing "poverty and death" to Spain and weighing in on corruption allegations against the prime minister's wife. In such circumstances, a typical visiting head of state may strive to mend fences with diplomacy. Not Milei. The brash economist has no plans to meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during his three days in the Spanish capital — nor the Spanish king, nor any other government official. Instead, he'll attend a far-right summit Sunday hosted by Sánchez's fiercest political opponent, the Vox party. The unorthodox visit was business as usual for Milei, a darling of the global far right who has bonded with tech billionaire Elon Musk and praised former U.S. President Donald Trump. Earlier this year on a trip to the United States, Milei steered clear of the White House and took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, where he railed against abortion and socialism and shared a bear hug with Trump. Milei presented his 2022 book, The Way of the Libertarian, in Madrid on Friday at a literary event organized by La Razón, a conservative Spanish newspaper. The book — withdrawn from circulation in Spain earlier this month because the back-flap biography erroneously said Milei had earned a doctorate — traces his meteoric rise in politics from eccentric TV personality to national lawmaker and outlines his radical free-market economic ideas. To thunderous applause, Milei condemned socialism as "an intellectual fraud and a horror in human terms." "The good thing is that the spotlight is shining on us everywhere and we are making the reds (leftists) uncomfortable all over the world," Milei said. He took the opportunity to promote the results of his harsh austerity campaign in Argentina, celebrating a decline in monthly inflation in April though making no mention of the Buenos Aires subway fares that more than tripled overnight. Repeating a campaign pledge to eliminate Argentina's central bank — without giving further details — Milei promised to make Argentina "the country with the most economic freedom in the world." At the event Milei gave a huge hug to his ideological ally Santiago Abascal, the leader of the hard-right Vox party and the only politician with whom Milei has actual plans to meet in Madrid. The Vox summit Sunday seeks to bring together far-right figures from across Europe in a bid to rally the party's base ahead of European parliamentary elections in June. Milei described his attendance a "moral imperative." He also has plans to meet Spanish business executives Saturday. Tensions between Milei and Sánchez have simmered since the moment the Spanish prime minister declined to congratulate the libertarian economist on his shock election victory last November. But hostility exploded earlier this month when one of Sánchez's ministers suggested Milei had taken narcotics. The Argentine presidency responded with an unusually harsh official statement accusing Sánchez's government of "endangering the middle class with its socialist policies that bring nothing but poverty and death." The lengthy government statement also accused Sánchez of having "more important problems to deal with, such as the corruption accusations against his wife." The allegations of influence peddling and corruption brought by a right-wing group against Sánchez's wife, Begoña Gómez, had prompted Sánchez, one of Europe's longest serving Socialist leaders, to consider stepping down.

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 — Hundreds of protesters rallied within sight of the U.S. Capitol, chanting pro-Palestinian slogans and voicing criticism of the Israeli and American governments as they marked a painful present — the war in Gaza — and past — the exodus of about 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from what is now Israel when the state was created in 1948.  About 400 demonstrators braved steady rains to rally on the National Mall on the 76th anniversary of what is called the Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe. In January, thousands of pro-Palestinian activists had gathered in the nation's capital in one of the larger protests in recent memory.  There were calls in support of Palestinian rights and an immediate end to Israeli military operations in Gaza. "No peace on stolen land" and "End the killings, stop the crime/Israel out of Palestine," echoed through the crowd.  Protesters also focused their anger on President Joe Biden, whom they accuse of feigning concern over the death toll in Gaza.  "Biden Biden, you will see/genocide's your legacy," they said. The Democratic president was in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday.  Reem Lababdi, a George Washington University sophomore who said she was pepper-sprayed by police last week when they broke up an on-campus protest encampment, acknowledged that the rain seemed to hold down the numbers.  "I'm proud of every single person who turned out in this weather to speak their minds and send their message," she said.  This year's commemoration was fueled by anger over the ongoing siege of Gaza. The latest Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking an additional 250 hostage. Palestinian militants still hold about 100 captives, and Israel's military has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.  Speaker Osama Abuirshad, executive director of American Muslims for Palestine, gestured at the Capitol building dome behind him.  "This Congress does not speak for us. This Congress does not represent the will of the people," he said. "We're paying for the bombs. We're paying for the F-16s and F-35s. And then we do the poor Palestinians a favor and send some food."  Speakers also expressed anger over the violent crackdown on multiple pro-Palestinian protest camps at universities across the country. In recent weeks, long-term encampments have been broken up by police at more than 60 schools; just under 3,000 protesters have been arrested.  The demonstrators marched for several blocks on Pennsylvania and Constitution avenues, with police cars closing the streets ahead of them. One lone counter-protester, waving an Israeli flag, attempted to march near the front of the procession. At one point, one of the demonstrators snatched his flag and ran away.  With tensions rising, members of the protesters' "safety team" formed a tight phalanx around the man, both to impede his progress and protect him from the crowd. The standoff was broken up when a police officer intervened, led the man away and told him to go home. 

BANGKOK — A powerful ethnic armed group fighting Myanmar's military government in the country's western state of Rakhine claimed Saturday to have seized a town near the border with Bangladesh, marking the latest in a series of victories for foes of the country's military government. Members of the state's Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority, targets of deadly army-directed violence in 2017, appear to have been the main victims of fighting in the town of Buthidaung, where the Arakan Army claims to have chased out forces of the military government. There are contradictory accounts of who is to blame for the reported burning of the town, compelling its Rohingya residents to flee. The competing claims could not be verified independently, with access to the internet and mobile phone services in the area mostly cut off. Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the Arakan Army, told The Associated Press by text message from an undisclosed location that his group had seized Buthidaung after capturing all the military's outposts there. The Arakan Army is the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, which seeks autonomy from Myanmar's central government. It is also a member of an armed ethnic group alliance that recently gained strategic territory in the country's northeast on the border with China. The group said in a Saturday statement on the Telegram messaging platform that fighting was ongoing on the outskirts of Buthidaung as its fighters chased after the retreating army soldiers and local Muslims it said were fighting alongside them. Khaing Thukha said the Arakan Army's troops were caring for Muslim villagers fleeing the fighting. He denied allegations by Rohingya activists on social media that the Arakan Army had set fire to the town, which is mostly populated by Rohingya. Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations, but they are widely regarded by many in the country's Buddhist majority, including members of the Rakhine minority, as having illegally migrated from Bangladesh. The Rohingya face a great amount of prejudice and are generally denied citizenship and other basic rights. The Rohingya were the targets of a brutal counterinsurgency campaign incorporating rape and murder that saw an estimated 740,000 flee to neighboring Bangladesh as their villages were burned down by government troops in 2017. Ethnic Rakhine nationalist supporters of the Arakan Army were also among the persecutors of the Rohingya minority. However, the 2021 military coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi shifted political alignments, with a resistance movement against military rule, a position shared by the Arakan Army, counting the Rohingya population among its allies. Lingering tensions between the ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and the more than 600,000 Rohingya who are still living in Rakhine flared when the government in February recruited Rohingya living in displacement camps to do military service. Both coercion and promises of citizenship were reportedly employed to get them to join. Nay San Lwin, a co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition group based outside of Myanmar, said in a Friday email to the AP that the Arakan Army had warned Buthidaung's Rohingya residents to evacuate the town by 10 a.m. Saturday, and that more than 200,000 Rohingya seeking refuge there in houses, government buildings, a hospital, and schools, were in an extremely dangerous situation. He also alleged that the Arakan Army had fired on a school and a hospital where displaced Rohingya are sheltering, resulting in deaths and injuries. Aung Kyaw Moe, a Rohingya who is deputy minister for human rights in the resistance movement's shadow National Unity Government, wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday that Buthidaung had been burned to "a pile of ash" and that its residents had fled to rice fields outside of town. He did not clearly lay blame for the arson, but said the situation was dire for those who fled. "A comprehensive and impartial investigation needs to be carried out and those responsible must be held accountable," he wrote. "Revolution against the military dictatorship is not a license to do anything you want. 'War has rules.'" The Arakan Army's Khaing Thukha described the allegations his group was responsible were baseless, claiming the houses caught fire due to the airstrikes by the military government. He also said retreating army troops and what he called their allies in "terrorist organizations" — meaning Rohingya guerrilla groups — and local Muslims inducted into the military also set fire to houses as they retreated. The military government has a well-established record of burning down villages as it battles pro-democracy and ethnic separatist groups opposed to military rule. 

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.

JEBENIANA, Tunisia — Hundreds of Tunisians marched through the streets of Jebeniana on Saturday to protest the presence of sub-Saharan migrants who have found themselves stranded as the country ramps up border patrol efforts. Anti-migrant anger is mounting in impoverished towns like Jebeniana along the Tunisian coastline that have emerged as a launchpad for thousands of people hoping to reach Europe by boat. Chanting slogans to oppose settling migrants in Tunisia, protesters demanded the government act to assist agricultural communities dealing with thousands of migrants living in tarpaulin encampments among their olive groves. "You brought them here and it's your responsibility to send them back to their home countries," Moamen Salemi, a 63-year-old retiree from nearby El Amra, said at the protest. "There is a shortage of food throughout the city of El Amra, including sugar, flour, bread and many other items." A final stop for many before attempting to reach a better life in Europe, Jebeniana and El Amra reflect the compounding problems facing Tunisia, a key transit point for migrants from Syria, Bangladesh and a variety of sub-Saharan African nations. Law enforcement has expanded its presence in the two agricultural towns, where roughly 83,000 Tunisians live among a growing number of migrants from around the world. Protesters say they have borne the cost of Tunisia's effort to prevent migrants from reaching the European Union less than a year after the country brokered an anti-migration pact with the 27-country bloc to better police its sea border and receive more than $1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in aid. The Tunisian Coast Guard has said it has prevented more than 21,000 migration attempts by land or sea this year. Fewer than 8,000 successfully traveled by boat from Tunisia to Italy in the first four months of 2024, a threefold decrease from 2023, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. More Tunisians have traveled by makeshift boat to Italy this year than migrants from sub-Saharan African countries. Anti-migrant protests erupted in the city of Sfax last year, months after Tunisian President Kais Saied called for measures to address violence and crime he said were caused by illegal immigration. But protests are a new development in Jebeniana and El Amra, where a similar one took place earlier this month. Encampments sprung up and expanded on the outskirts of the two towns after local authorities started increasingly clearing them from Sfax last year. The International Organization for Migration's Tunisia office has said roughly 7,000 migrants are living near Jebeniana and El Amra, though residents estimate the number could be much higher.

Dakar, Senegal — An alliance of separatist rebel groups fighting Malian government forces on Saturday accused the army and Russian paramilitary group Wagner of killing 11 civilians earlier in the week. The Malian authorities did not respond to a request for comment from AFP about the allegations posed in a statement from the Permanent Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA), an alliance of predominantly Tuareg armed rebel groups. The CSP-DPA said that Wednesday, the village of Tassik in the northern Kidal region "was targeted by a patrol of mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group and the Malian army, who committed serious violations against the population." The separatist alliance put the death toll at 11 civilians, whose bodies were discovered "burned," with two more civilians reported missing. It added that the patrol had ransacked several stores and vehicles. "The CSP-DPA unreservedly condemns these terrorist operations programmed with the aim of carrying out a targeted ethnic cleansing and accelerated depopulation of the Azawad territory of its Indigenous people," the statement said. Azawad is the name of the territory claimed by separatists in northern Mali. Fighting between the separatists and Mali government troops broke out last August after eight years of calm, as both sides scrambled to fill the vacuum left by the withdrawal of United Nations peacekeepers (MINUSMA), ordered to leave by the ruling junta in Bamako. The offensive in northern Mali has been marked by numerous allegations of abuses against civilians by Malian forces and, since 2022, their Russian allies, which the Malian authorities systematically deny. Since seizing power in 2020, Mali's junta has broken ties with France and turned politically and militarily toward Russia. 

TORONTO — Residents of the Canadian oil town threatened by an out-of-control wildfire can return home, authorities said Saturday, even as they warned the community will have to contend with the blaze for the foreseeable future. Thousands of residents of Fort McMurray, in northern Alberta, had been ordered to leave their homes earlier this month. But favorable weather made returning home possible. "With the current and forecast weather conditions, specifically the amount of rain that has fallen on the fire, combined with continued fire suppression and community protection efforts, I am pleased to announce it is now safe for us to end the current evacuation and allow people to return to their homes," said Sandy Bowman, mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo that includes Fort McMurray. "We thank all of you for your patience, resolve and strength," he said. Fort McMurray is the hub for most of Canada's oil output. The wildfire season is getting an early start one year after a historically fiery 2023 left some remembering a devastating 2016 fire dubbed "The Beast" that forced the evacuation of 90,000 residents, burned down 2,400 buildings and idled more than 1 million barrels per day of oil production. But while conditions are now favorable and the community is not presently under threat, authorities warned they were not yet out of the woods. The fire "is not yet under control," said Alberta Wildfire information office Josee St-Onge. Fire behavior will likely increase when sunshine and warm weather return, she added. "While it is safe for evacuees to return, residents will have to live with an active wildfire near their community for weeks if not months. Bringing a wildfire of this size under control will take time and hard work," she said.