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caracas, venezuela — It doesn't feel like Christmas in Venezuela. At least not yet. Even if the president wants it to be.  Residents of the capital Caracas woke up Tuesday to a towering Christmas tree standing in a popular public square, weeks after President Nicolas Maduro declared the jolly season would start earlier this year in the South American country.  Workers rushed to set up decorations in neighborhoods, but the mood was far from festive.  "I think it's terrible because it's October," said Desire Aguiar, 32, before setting up her jewelry and accessories booth in a local market. "Halloween hasn't even passed, and it's already Christmas? Are we celebrating them together?"  Venezuelans, particularly those who remember life at the turn of the century, have long associated Christmas with careless shopping and bulging wallets thanks to profit-sharing and holiday bonuses employers paid at the end of the year. Employees often received three times their monthly salary all at once. The smell of fresh paint even signaled the arrival of Christmas because so many put a new coat on their walls.  These days, however, meager wages and bonuses resulting from the country's economic collapse have turned the season into a time of have and have-nots. And this year, the season arrived amid a collective pessimism that followed the July 28 election.  "If they start paying ... the Christmas bonus in advance, we won't have anything left in December," Aguiar lamented. "I think it's a really bad idea."  Few dare speak out It remains unclear whether public and private employers will make changes to bonus payments this year. Maduro, whom electoral authorities handed a third six-year term, surprised the country on September 2 when he declared on state television that the Christmas season would start earlier than ever.  Mockery followed Maduro's decree across social media, but on the streets, few dared to say anything about the decision — another sign of the chilling effect resulting from the repression campaign unleashed by the government after the highly anticipated election.  Thousands of people, including minors, took to the streets across Venezuela hours after ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner without showing any vote tallies. The protests were largely peaceful, but demonstrators also toppled statues of Maduro's predecessor, the late leader Hugo Chavez, threw rocks at law enforcement officers and buildings, and burned police motorcycles and government propaganda.  Maduro and his ruling party allies, who control all aspects of government, responded to the demonstrations with full force. Security forces detained more than 2,000 people, including minors, and more than 20 protesters were killed.  Maduro also called on Venezuelans to denounce election doubters via a government-run app originally created to report power outages and complaints about state-provided services. This prompted people to delete photos, videos, memes, messages and apps from their phones to avoid prosecution.  'Christmas is in December' On Tuesday, while some rejected Maduro's decree for economic or political reasons, others rejected it for puritanical reasons.  "Christmas is in December. We must be clear about that, we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ," Wilfredo Gutierrez, 61, said while observing a group of workers setting up decorative lights along a main avenue in Caracas.  "The one good thing is that they picked up the trash. Normally, this place is dirty." 

In the United States, nearly 24 million immigrants are eligible to vote in November’s presidential election, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. census data. VOA’s Jeff Swicord spoke with two naturalized citizens about the choices they are making in this vote.

beijing — The European Commission's decision to press ahead with tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles threatens to undermine decades of cooperation between China and the EU, and endangers climate-change goals, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. On Friday, the EU said it would push forward with hefty tariffs on China-made EVs, even after the bloc's largest economy Germany rejected them. The dispute is its biggest trade row with Beijing in a decade. State-run Xinhua said the move revealed a "deep-seated protectionist impulse." "Instead of fostering co-operation, these tariffs risk sparking a trade conflict that could harm not only China-EU relations but also Europe's own ambition for a green transition," it said. "The path forward is clear: Protectionist tariffs must be abandoned in favor of continued negotiations." European imports of Chinese-made EVs have soared in recent years, raising concerns among some domestic EV producers that they could suffer significant losses from a wave of cheap Chinese electric vehicles. The proposed duties on EVs built in China of up to 45% would cost carmakers billions of extra dollars to bring cars into the bloc and are set to be imposed from next month for five years. The Commission, which oversees the bloc's trade policy, has said the tariffs would counter what it sees as unfair Chinese subsidies after a yearlong anti-subsidy investigation. It said on Friday, however, that it would continue talks with Beijing. A possible compromise could be to set minimum sales prices. China's Commerce Ministry has expressed strong opposition to the planned tariffs, calling them "unfair, non-compliant and unreasonable." It has launched a challenge to them at the World Trade Organization. In what has been seen as retaliatory moves, Beijing this year launched probes into imports of EU brandy, dairy and pork products. The U.S. imposes a 100% duty on imported Chinese EVs.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan said Saturday that insurgents ambushed a military convoy overnight in a volatile district bordering Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of at least six soldiers, including an officer. The ambush occurred in North Waziristan, a former stronghold of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, a globally designated terrorist organization. A brief military statement said that six assailants were killed in the ensuing exchange of fire. It identified the slain militants as "Khwarij," an official reference to TTP. Multiple area security sources confirmed to VOA that the gunfire had also injured at least 22 Pakistani soldiers. The Waziristan district is in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which has experienced a dramatic surge in TTP bombings and gun raids since the Taliban regained power in Kabul three years ago. Separately, the military reported that an intelligence-driven security operation in the province’s Swat district late on Saturday killed two TTP militant commanders and captured another. Pakistan says TTP, also referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is based in Afghanistan and stages cross-border attacks with the help of that country’s Taliban government. Islamabad alleges that insurgents active in its southwestern Balochistan border province are increasingly using Afghan sanctuaries to orchestrate deadly attacks against the country. A report this week by the Center for Research and Security Studies documented nearly 1,000 deaths of Pakistani civilians and security forces in the first nine months of this year. The Islamabad-based think tank reported that attacks by TTP and Baloch insurgents caused most of casualties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The Taliban government, which is officially not recognized by any country, denies Pakistani allegations and insists that neither TTP nor other foreign militant groups are on Afghan soil. However, recent United Nations Security Council assessments have disputed the Taliban’s assertions and described TTP as "the largest terrorist group" in Afghanistan. Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi again questioned U.N. security assessments Friday, claiming their government restored "security and stability nationwide." He emphasized, while addressing a Russian-hosted regional conference, that they are in control of the entire Afghan territory and that no one can use it to threaten regional security. "Occasionally, representatives of some countries in the U.N. Security Council and the media express their concern about the existence of threats on Afghan soil," Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said. "We believe that the information gap about Afghanistan or disinformation by antagonist circles has found its way to international organizations," he said, without elaborating.  

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM — An Israeli strike hit Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli for the first time early on Saturday, a Lebanese security source said, after more bombardment hit Beirut's suburbs and Israeli troops sought to make new ground incursions into southern Lebanon. The source told Reuters a Hamas official, his wife and two children were killed in the strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli. Hamas-affiliated media said the strike killed a leader of the group's armed wing. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike on Tripoli, a Sunni-majority port city. Israel has sharply expanded its strikes on Lebanon in recent weeks after nearly a year of exchanging fire with Lebanon's Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah. Fighting had been mostly limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area, taking place in parallel to Israel's year-old war in Gaza against Hamas. Israel has been carrying out nightly bombardment of Beirut's once densely populated southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah. Overnight, a military spokesman issued three alerts for residents there to evacuate, and Reuters witnesses then heard at least one blast. On Friday, Israel said it had targeted Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters in the southern suburbs and was assessing the damage after a series of strikes on senior figures in the group. Israel has eliminated much of Hezbollah's senior military leadership, including Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an air attack on September 27. Lebanon's government says more than 2,000 people have been killed there in the past year, most in the past two weeks. Strikes on medical teams and facilities, including the Lebanese Red Cross, Lebanese public hospitals and rescue workers affiliated to Hezbollah, have also increased. Lebanon's government says more than 1.2 million Lebanese have been forced from their homes, and the United Nations says most displacement shelters in the country are full. Many had gone north to Tripoli or to neighboring Syria, but an Israeli strike on Friday closed the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called the toll on Lebanese civilians "totally unacceptable." Iran defiant, Israel weighs options Israel has been weighing options in its response to Iran's ballistic missile attack on Tuesday. Oil prices have risen on the possibility of an attack on Iran's oil facilities as Israel pursues its goals of pushing back Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and eliminating their Hamas allies, also backed by Tehran, in Gaza. U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday urged Israel to consider alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields, adding that he thinks Israel has not yet concluded how to respond to Iran. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a rare appearance leading Friday prayers, told a huge crowd in Tehran that Iran and its regional allies would not back down. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi landed in Syria on Saturday for talks after a visit to Lebanon, in which he reiterated support for Lebanon and Hezbollah. In Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs, many buildings have been reduced to rubble. "We're alive but don't know for how long," said Nouhad Chaib, a 40-year-old man already displaced from the south. On Friday, Hezbollah fired more than 200 rockets into Israel, according to the Israeli military, and air raid sirens continued to sound in its north on Saturday. The latest bloodletting in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered by the Palestinian Hamas group's attack on October 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 and in which about 250 were taken as hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, and displaced nearly all of Gaza's population. Ground operations The Lebanese government has accused Israel of targeting civilians, pointing to dozens of women and children killed. It has not broken its total death toll down between civilians and Hezbollah fighters. Israel says it targets military capabilities and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians. It accuses Hezbollah and Hamas of hiding among civilians, which they deny. Israel, which began ground operations targeting southern Lebanon this week, says they are focused on villages near the border and has said Beirut "was not on the table," but has not specified how long the ground incursion would last. It says the operations aim to allow tens of thousands of its citizens to return home after Hezbollah bombardments, which began on October 8, 2023, forced them to evacuate from its north. Iran's missile salvo was partly in retaliation for Israel's killing of Nasrallah, a dominant figure who had turned the group into a powerful armed and political force with reach across the Middle East. Axios cited three Israeli officials as saying that Hashem Safieddine, rumored to be Nasrallah's successor, had been targeted in an underground bunker in Beirut on Thursday night, but his fate was not clear. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted a photo of Safieddine and Nasrallah on X on Saturday and urged Khamenei to "take your proxies and leave Lebanon." 

caracas, venezuela — It doesn't feel like Christmas in Venezuela. At least not yet. Even if the president wants it to be.  Residents of the capital Caracas woke up Tuesday to a towering Christmas tree standing in a popular public square, weeks after President Nicolas Maduro declared the jolly season would start earlier this year in the South American country.  Workers rushed to set up decorations in neighborhoods, but the mood was far from festive.  "I think it's terrible because it's October," said Desire Aguiar, 32, before setting up her jewelry and accessories booth in a local market. "Halloween hasn't even passed, and it's already Christmas? Are we celebrating them together?"  Venezuelans, particularly those who remember life at the turn of the century, have long associated Christmas with careless shopping and bulging wallets thanks to profit-sharing and holiday bonuses employers paid at the end of the year. Employees often received three times their monthly salary all at once. The smell of fresh paint even signaled the arrival of Christmas because so many put a new coat on their walls.  These days, however, meager wages and bonuses resulting from the country's economic collapse have turned the season into a time of have and have-nots. And this year, the season arrived amid a collective pessimism that followed the July 28 election.  "If they start paying ... the Christmas bonus in advance, we won't have anything left in December," Aguiar lamented. "I think it's a really bad idea."  Few dare speak out It remains unclear whether public and private employers will make changes to bonus payments this year. Maduro, whom electoral authorities handed a third six-year term, surprised the country on September 2 when he declared on state television that the Christmas season would start earlier than ever.  Mockery followed Maduro's decree across social media, but on the streets, few dared to say anything about the decision — another sign of the chilling effect resulting from the repression campaign unleashed by the government after the highly anticipated election.  Thousands of people, including minors, took to the streets across Venezuela hours after ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner without showing any vote tallies. The protests were largely peaceful, but demonstrators also toppled statues of Maduro's predecessor, the late leader Hugo Chavez, threw rocks at law enforcement officers and buildings, and burned police motorcycles and government propaganda.  Maduro and his ruling party allies, who control all aspects of government, responded to the demonstrations with full force. Security forces detained more than 2,000 people, including minors, and more than 20 protesters were killed.  Maduro also called on Venezuelans to denounce election doubters via a government-run app originally created to report power outages and complaints about state-provided services. This prompted people to delete photos, videos, memes, messages and apps from their phones to avoid prosecution.  'Christmas is in December' On Tuesday, while some rejected Maduro's decree for economic or political reasons, others rejected it for puritanical reasons.  "Christmas is in December. We must be clear about that, we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ," Wilfredo Gutierrez, 61, said while observing a group of workers setting up decorative lights along a main avenue in Caracas.  "The one good thing is that they picked up the trash. Normally, this place is dirty." 

KAMITUGA, Congo — It's been four months since Sifa Kunguja recovered from mpox, but as a sex worker, she said, she's still struggling to regain clients, with fear and stigma driving away people who've heard she had the virus.  "It's risky work," Kunguja, 40, said from her small home in eastern Congo. "But if I don't work, I won't have money for my children." Sex workers are among those hardest-hit by the mpox outbreak in Kamituga, where some 40,000 of them are estimated to reside — many single mothers driven by poverty to this mineral-rich commercial hub where gold miners comprise the majority of the clientele. Doctors estimate 80% of cases here have been contracted sexually, though the virus also spreads through other kinds of skin-to-skin contact. Sex workers say the situation threatens their health and livelihoods. Health officials warn that more must be done to stem the spread — with a focus on sex workers — or mpox will creep deeper through eastern Congo and the region. Mpox causes mostly mild symptoms such as fever and body aches, but serious cases can mean prominent, painful blisters on the face, hands, chest and genitals. Kunguja and other sex workers insist that despite risks of reinfection or spreading the virus, they have no choice but to keep working. Sex work isn't illegal in Congo, though related activities such as solicitation are. Rights groups say possible legal consequences and fear of retribution — sex workers are subject to high rates of violence including rape and abuse — prevent women from seeking medical care. That can be especially detrimental during a public health emergency, according to experts. Health officials in Kamituga are advocating for the government to shutter nightclubs and mines and compensate sex workers for lost business. Not everyone agrees. Local officials say they don't have resources to do more than care for those who are sick, and insist it's sex workers' responsibility to protect themselves. Kamituga Mayor Alexandre Bundya M'pila told The Associated Press that the government is creating awareness campaigns but lacks money to reach everyone. He also said sex workers should look for other jobs, without providing examples of what might be available. Sex work a big part of economy Miners stream into Kamituga by the tens of thousands. The economy is centered on the mines: Buyers line streets, traders travel to sell gold, small businesses and individuals provide food and lodging, and the sex industry flourishes. Nearly a dozen sex workers spoke to AP. They said well over half their clients are miners. The industry is well organized, according to the Kenyan-based African Sex Workers Alliance, composed of sex worker-led groups. The alliance estimates that 13% of Kamituga's 300,000 residents are sex workers. The town has 18 sex-worker committees, the alliance said, with a leadership that tries to work with government officials, protect and support colleagues, and advocate for their rights. But sex work in Congo is dangerous. Women face systematic violence that's tolerated by society, according to a report by UMANDE, a local sex-worker rights group. Many women are forced into the industry because of poverty or because, like Kunguja, they're single parents and must support their families. Getting mpox can put sex workers out of business The sex workers who spoke to AP described mpox as an added burden. Many are terrified of getting the virus — it means time away from work, lost income and perhaps losing business altogether. Those who recover are stigmatized, they said. Kamituga is a small place, where most everyone knows one another. Neighbors whisper and tell clients when someone is sick — people talk and point. Since contracting mpox in May, Kunguja said she's gone from about 20 clients daily to five. She's been supporting her 11 children through sex work for nearly a decade but said she now can't afford to send them to school. To compensate, she's selling alcohol by day, but it's not enough. Experts say information and awareness are key Disease experts say a lack of vaccines and information makes stemming the spread difficult. Some 250,000 vaccines have arrived in Congo, but it's unclear when any will get to Kamituga. Sex workers and miners are among those slated to receive them first. Community leaders and aid groups are trying to teach sex workers about protecting themselves and their clients via awareness sessions where they discuss signs and symptoms. They also press condom use, which they say isn't widespread enough in the industry. Sex workers told AP that they insist on using condoms when they have them, but that they simply don't have enough. Kamituga's general hospital gives them boxes of about 140 condoms every few months. Some sex workers see up to 60 clients a day — for less than $1 a person. Condoms run out, and workers say they can't afford more. Dr. Guy Mukari, an epidemiologist working with the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Congo, noted that the variant running rampant in Kamituga seems more susceptible to transmission via sex, making for a double whammy with the sex industry.

Mozelos, Portugal — Portugal, the world's leading cork producer, is finding new uses for the material, from footwear to furniture, as demand for wine bottle stoppers wanes. Producers highlight the environmentally friendly properties of cork, which is lightweight, recyclable, waterproof and fire-resistant, to encourage its use in diverse settings. Cork is obtained by stripping the bark of cork oak trees every nine years in a careful process that allows the tree to regenerate and grow, making the industry naturally sustainable. The material has "a negative carbon footprint because it comes from a tree that captures CO2 day and night", Antonio Rios de Amorim, the CEO of the world's largest cork producer Corticeira Amorim, told AFP. The push to diversify comes as global sales of wine decline, reducing demand for cork wine stoppers which have long faced competition from cheaper plastic stoppers and screw tops. "Periods of slowdown must be used to question what we do," said Amorim, whose ancestors founded Corticeira Amorim 154 years ago in the northern village of Mozelos, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of second city Porto. Booster rockets, metro seats Thanks to cork's cell-like structure, the material is elastic and highly impermeable, making it suitable to make shoes as well as ties, pants and other clothes. Furniture designers are also increasingly drawn to the material. British designer Tom Dixon has called it a "dream material" and put out a range of dark cork furniture that includes tables, stools and shelves using cork from Portugal. The Lisbon metro in 2020 replaced the fabric lining on all seats of its train fleet with cork, an easier to maintain material. Builders have been drawn to the material because of its unique thermal insulation and sound absorption properties. Cork is also finding its way into space. It is used in thermal protection coating on booster rockets because of its resistance "to strong variations in temperature", said Amorim. Making wine bottle stoppers, however, remains the main activity for Portugal's cork industry, which employs around 8,000 people. Corticeira Amorim makes some six billion cork wine bottle stoppers per year, almost all of them for export mainly to Chile, France and the United States. It accounts for 70 percent of the global market share for cork stoppers and posted sales of 985 million euros (one billion dollars) in 2023, slightly lower than in the previous year. Traditional methods Cork is made from the bark of the cork oak (Quercus suber) found in countries of the Mediterranean basin. Portugal is home to about a third of the world's total area dedicated to this tree — more than any other country — and accounts for nearly half the world's supply of cork. There are also plantations in France, Spain, Italy. Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. In the province of Ribatejo around 80 kilometers east of Lisbon, cork oaks stretch as far as the eye can see. The bark is removed from the tree in summer using traditional methods handed down from generation to generation. It is a highly precise technique "that takes several years to learn", said Nelson Ferreira, a 43-year-old cork bark harvester, adding he takes great care not to damage the tree. The bark is then taken to Corticeira Amorim's factories in the north of Portugal where it is steam-treated, cut into smaller pieces and then fed into machines that punch out stoppers. The preservation of cork oaks is crucial for Portugal, which has made them a protected species since it takes an average of 40 years for a tree to start producing cork that can be used by cork makers.

SEOUL, South Korea — They began a pilgrimage that thousands before them have done. They boarded long flights to their motherland, South Korea, to undertake an emotional, often frustrating, sometimes devastating search for their birth families. These adoptees are among the 200,000 sent from South Korea to Western nations as children. Many have grown up, searched for their origin story and discovered that their adoption paperwork was inaccurate or fabricated. They have only breadcrumbs to go on: grainy baby photos, names of orphanages and adoption agencies, the towns where they were said to have been abandoned. They don't speak the language. They're unfamiliar with the culture. Some never learn their truth. "I want my mother to know I'm OK and that her sacrifice was not in vain," says Kenneth Barthel, adopted in 1979 at 6 years old to Hawaii. He hung flyers all over Busan, where his mother abandoned him at a restaurant. She ordered him soup, went to the bathroom and never returned. Police found him wandering the streets and took him to an orphanage. He didn't think much about finding his birth family until he had his own son, imagined himself as a boy and yearned to understand where he came from. He has visited South Korea four times, without any luck. He says he'll keep coming back, and tears rolled down his cheeks. Some who make this trip learn things about themselves they'd thought were lost forever. In a small office at the Stars of the Sea orphanage in Incheon, South Korea, Maja Andersen sat holding Sister Christina Ahn's hands. Her eyes grew moist as the sister translated the few details available about her early life at the orphanage. She had loved being hugged, the orphanage documents said, and had sparkling eyes. "Thank you so much, thank you so much," Andersen repeated in a trembling voice. There was comfort in that — she had been hugged, she had smiled. She'd come here searching for her family. "I just want to tell them I had a good life and I'm doing well," Andersen said to Sister Ahn. Andersen had been admitted to the facility as a malnourished baby and was adopted at 7 months old to a family in Denmark, according to the documents. She says she's grateful for the love her adoptive family gave her, but has developed an unshakable need to know where she came from. She visited this orphanage, city hall and a police station, but found no new clues about her birth family. Still she remains hopeful, and plans to return to South Korea to keep trying. She posted a flyer on the wall of a police station not far from the orphanage, just above another left by an adoptee also searching for his roots. Korean adoptees have organized, and now they help those coming along behind them. Nonprofit groups conduct DNA testing. Sympathetic residents, police officers and city workers of the towns where they once lived often try to assist them. Sometimes adoption agencies are able to track down birth families. Nearly four decades after her adoption to the U.S., Nicole Motta in May sat across the table from a 70-year-old man her adoption agency had identified as her birth father. She typed "thanks for meeting me today" into a translation program on her phone to show him. A social worker placed hair samples into plastic bags for DNA testing. But the moment they hugged, Motta, adopted to the United States in 1985, didn't need the results — she knew she'd come from this man. "I am a sinner for not finding you," he said. Motta's adoption documents say her father was away for work for long stretches and his wife struggled to raise three children alone. He told her she was gone when he came back from one trip, and claimed his brother gave her away. He hasn't spoken to the brother since, he said, and never knew she was adopted abroad. Motta's adoption file leaves it unclear whether the brother had a role in her adoption. It says she was under the care of unspecified neighbors before being sent to an orphanage that referred her to an adoption agency, which sent her abroad in 1985. She studied his face. She wondered if she looks like her siblings or her mother, who has since died. "I think I have your nose," Motta said softly. They both sobbed.

cairo — As the performers took the stage and the traditional drum beat gained momentum, Sudanese refugees sitting in the audience were moved to tears. Hadia Moussa said the melody reminded her of the country's Nuba Mountains, her family's ancestral home.  "Performances like this help people mentally affected by the war. It reminds us of the Sudanese folklore and our culture," she said.  Sudan has been engulfed by violence since April 2023, when war between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces broke out across the country. The conflict has turned the capital, Khartoum, into an urban battlefield and displaced 4.6 million people, according to the United Nations migration agency, including more than 419,000 people who fled to Egypt.  A band with 12 Sudanese members now lives with thousands of refugees in Egypt. The troupe, called "Camirata," includes researchers, singers and poets who are determined to preserve the knowledge of traditional Sudanese folk music and dance to keep it from being lost in the ruinous war.  Founded in 1997, the band rose to popularity in Khartoum before it began traveling to different states, enlisting diverse musicians, dancers and styles. They sing in 25 different Sudanese languages. Founder Dafallah el-Hag said the band's members started relocating to Egypt recently, as Sudan struggled through a difficult economic and political transition after a 2019 popular uprising unseated longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir. Others followed after the violence began. El-Hag arrived late last year.  The band uses a variety of local musical instruments on stage. El-Hag says audiences are often surprised to see instruments such as the tanbour, a stringed instrument, being played with the nuggara drums, combined with tunes of the banimbo, a wooden xylophone.  "This combination of musical instruments helped promote some sort of forgiveness and togetherness among the Sudanese people," el-Hag said, adding that he is eager to revive a museum in Khartoum that housed historic instruments and was reportedly looted and damaged.  Fatma Farid, 21, a singer and dancer from Kordofan, moved to Egypt in 2021. Her aunt was killed in 2023 when an explosive fell on their house in al-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan.  "The way I see art has changed a lot since the war began," she said. "You think of what you present as an artist. You can deliver a message."  Kawthar Osman, a native of Madani city who has been singing with the band since 1997, feels nostalgic when she sings about the Nile River, which forms in Sudan from two upper branches, the Blue and White Nile.  "It reminds me of what makes Sudan the way it is," she said, adding that the war only "pushed the band to sing more for peace."  More than 2 million Sudanese fled the country, mostly to neighboring Egypt and Chad, where the Global Hunger Index has reported a "serious" level of hunger. Over half a million forcibly displaced Sudanese have sought refuge in Chad, mostly women and children.  Living conditions for those who stayed in Sudan have worsened as the war spread beyond Khartoum. Many made hard decisions early in the war either to flee across frontlines or risk being caught in the middle of fighting. In Darfur, the war turned particularly brutal and created famine conditions, with militias attacking entire villages and burning them to the ground.  Armed robberies, lootings and the seizure of homes for bases were some of the challenges faced by Sudanese who stayed in the country's urban areas. Others struggled to secure food and water, find sources for electricity, and obtain medical treatment since hospitals were raided by fighters or hit by airstrikes. Communications networks are often barely functional.  The performers say they struggle to speak with family and friends still in the country, much less think about returning.  "We don't know if we'll return to Sudan again or will see Sudan again or walk in the same streets," Farid said. 

beirut — A dog clings to Hussein Hamza inside a car as he pans his camera around to show the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon.  "Poor thing. Look at this, he's clinging to me out of fear," Hamza says in the video he posted online. "A missile hit here," he said, his voice shaking.  As Israel pummels southern Lebanon with airstrikes, tens of thousands of residents are fleeing their homes in fear. But Hamza is staying. His mission is to care for the dogs and other animals left behind.  He runs an animal shelter that houses 200 dogs in the village of Kfour. Recently, he has also been driving around towns and villages in the south, looking for stray animals and abandoned pets to feed.  "I opened bags of food and left them water. I'm relying on God," said Hamza as he spread food hundreds of meters away from the shelter he runs, in case the dogs need to escape the facility when airstrikes come too close.  Israel has dramatically stepped up its airstrikes across many parts of Lebanon, which it says target Hezbollah and its weapons. However over 1,000 people have been killed in the country in the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.  The Lebanese government said the fighting might have displaced up to 1 million people, although the United Nations estimate is around 200,000.  With his town under constant bombardment, Hamza, 56, refused to abandon the animals in his care.  Despite the danger, Hamza drives around looking for stray animals and pets left behind by families, many of them abandoned behind locked gates. He brings them food, and then posts the videos online.  "Come here, come here! I got you food," Hamza called to a dog hiding behind a fence in one of his online videos. "At least unleash your dogs," he pleads with residents in his videos. "The dog owners had to escape on foot and couldn't take them."  In the midst of the chaos, Hamza has become a lifeline for many who reach out to him, hoping he can get food to their pets.  "This nice man called me, crying. They (the family) left the dogs behind the fence, and they couldn't take them," he said. "I just got the dogs dry food."  Hamza's journey has been perilous. On more than one occasion, he's narrowly avoided airstrikes.  His work extends beyond dogs. "We found a chicken on the road," Hamza explained in another clip. "It flew from a pickup truck. I will take it home."  Hamza's shelter has attracted support online, allowing him to buy 200 bags of dog food to distribute to the dogs in the region.  Even so, the danger keeps mounting. "I hope someone can take some load off my shoulders," Hamza said as he picked up an elderly stray dog off the street and into his car.  "God help people. At the time of a strike, people lose it and don't know what to do," he said while dropping off food and water in remote areas.  With an Israeli ground invasion of south Lebanon looking increasingly likely, Hamza worries about what comes next.  But for now, his focus remains on the animals.  "As long as I can reach the dogs and leave them food and water, I will not leave," he said. "I have a responsibility. I can't leave them." 

milan — Ticket prices for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics range from 30 euros (U.S. $33) for men's and women's preliminary hockey games all the way up to nearly 3,000 euros ($3,300) for the most costly seats at the closing ceremony inside Verona's Arena, a large Roman amphitheater.  The most expensive sports event is the men's hockey final with prices ranging from 450 to 1,400 euros ($500 to $1,545).  Local organizers announced Thursday that more than 20% of the tickets for the games in February, 2026, are available for under 40 euros ($44) and more than half are priced at under 100 euros ($110).  Anyone interested in attending should register on the official ticketing platform to enter a draw that will allocate specific time slots for purchasing tickets in the first phase of sales.  Ticket prices for the Winter Paralympics in March, 2026, start at 10 euros ($11) for children under 14, with more than 200,000 tickets — about 90% of the total — available for less than ($40) euros each.  It's not necessary to register for a draw for Paralympics tickets, which will go on sale in March, 2025.  Starting in April, 2025, both Olympic and Paralympic tickets will be available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis, with no need to register in advance.  The 2026 Games will be held across a large swath of northern Italy, with ice sports in Milan, Alpine skiing in Bormio and Cortina, snowboard and freestyle in Livigno, Nordic sports in Val di Fiemme and biathlon in Anterselva.  Questions remain whether the sliding center in Cortina will be completed in time or if bobsled, luge and skeleton events will be moved to another track in Austria (Igls), Switzerland (St. Moritz) or New York (Lake Placid). 

jerusalem — Israel's multilayered air-defense system appears to have passed another test after fending off Iran's latest missile barrage.  In Tuesday's night's strike, Iran fired over 180 missiles toward Israel. The attack set off air raid sirens across the country and sent residents scrambling for shelter, but caused only a handful of minor injuries and limited damage, in large part because many were intercepted or landed in open areas.  It was the latest success for an air-defense system that over the past year has intercepted projectiles fired from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran. They have ranged from short-range rockets to medium-range missiles to attack drones to long-range ballistic missiles like those fired Tuesday night.  In Tuesday's attack, the U.S. and Britain said they assisted in shooting down the incoming missiles. Explosions also were seen over the skies of Jordan, though it remains unclear who carried out the interceptions.  But the vast majority of Israel's air defense over the past year has been carried out by Israel itself. Over the decades, Israel has developed a sophisticated system capable of detecting incoming fire and deploying only if the projectile is headed toward a population center or sensitive military or civilian infrastructure. Israeli leaders say the system isn't 100% guaranteed, but they credit it with preventing serious damage and countless casualties.  Here's a closer look at Israel's multilayered air-defense system:  The Arrow  This system developed with the U.S. is designed to intercept long-range missiles, including the types of ballistic missiles Iran launched on Tuesday. The Arrow, which operates outside the atmosphere, has also been used in the current war to intercept long-range missiles launched by Houthi militants in Yemen.  David's Sling  Also developed with the U.S., David's Sling is meant to intercept medium-range missiles, such as those possessed by Hezbollah in Lebanon. It has been deployed on multiple occasions throughout the war.  Iron Dome  This system, developed by Israel with U.S. backing, specializes in shooting down short-range rockets. It has intercepted thousands of rockets since it was activated early last decade – including thousands of interceptions during the current war against Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel says it has a success rate of over 90%.  Iron Beam  Israel is developing a new system to intercept incoming threats with laser technology. Israel has said this system will be a game changer because it would be much cheaper to operate than existing systems. According to Israeli media reports, the cost of a single Iron Dome interception is about $50,000, while the other systems can run more than $2 million per missile. Iron Beam interceptions, by contrast, would cost a few dollars apiece, according to Israeli officials — but the system is not yet operational.

ISLAMABAD — Russia reported Friday that a "principal decision" had already been made to remove Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban from Moscow’s list of terrorist organizations. Zamir Kabulov, the Russian presidential envoy for the South Asian nation, was quoted by state-run TASS news agency as saying that the foreign ministry and national security agencies "are putting finishing legal touches" on the Taliban's delisting in line with federal laws. "A principal decision on this has already been made by the Russian leadership," said Kabulov. "Hopefully, the final decision will be announced soon." The remarks were reported on the same day that Moscow hosted a conference of regional countries to discuss Afghanistan, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov presiding over the proceedings. Lavrov later held bilateral talks with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who led his delegation at Friday’s multilateral event in the Russian capital, organized under the Moscow Format platform. "We firmly believe in the importance of maintaining a pragmatic dialogue with the current Afghan government," Lavrov said in his inaugural speech to delegates from countries such as China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. "Moscow will continue to develop political, trade, and economic ties with Kabul," Lavrov pledged. Russia launched the Moscow Format in 2017 and it has since become a regular platform for discussing challenges facing impoverished, war-torn Afghanistan. Muttaqi, in his broadcast address to Friday’s gathering, welcomed Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan's recent announcements that they will remove the Taliban from their lists of outlawed groups. "We also appreciate the positive remarks [made] by the high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation in this regard and hope to see more effective steps soon," said the Taliban chief diplomat. Russia's involvement in Afghanistan has been tumultuous. The Soviet army entered the country in 1979 to help a pro-Moscow government in Kabul but pulled out a decade later due to heavy losses inflicted by U.S.-backed Afghan insurgents, or mujahideen. Moscow has developed close informal ties with the Taliban since they regained power in Afghanistan three years ago after the United States and NATO forces withdrew ending 20 years of war. President Vladimir Putin stated in July that Russia considered the Taliban an ally in the fight against terrorism. The former Afghan insurgent group has been on the Russian list of terrorist organizations since 2003. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov praised the Taliban for combating narcotics in Afghanistan and fighting a regional Islamic State affiliate known as IS-Khorasan (IS-K). "We support the Afghan authorities’ resolve to combat the terrorist threat," he told the conference Friday. Muttaqi called on all regional countries "to cooperate in preventing the recruitment of their citizens by ISIS and then send them to Afghanistan and other countries to carry out subversive operations." He used an acronym for IS-K, which the United Nations describes as the most significant terrorist regional threat emanating from Afghan soil. The Taliban foreign minister did not name any country, but Kabul formally alleged last week that the terrorist group is orchestrating attacks from bases in Pakistan, charges officials in Islamabad have refuted as unfounded. No country has officially recognized the de facto Taliban government, although China and the United Arab Emirates have formally accepted Taliban-appointed ambassadors. Washington remains opposed to any step toward easing sanctions or moving toward recognition of the Taliban as Afghanistan’s rightful government, saying Kabul must improve its human rights record to win international legitimacy and support. "We will look for interest in any outcomes and deliverables from the upcoming Moscow Format meeting, but we do not participate," Karen Decker, the head of the Doha-based U.S. diplomatic mission for Afghanistan, told reporters Thursday. The U.S. has never attended a Moscow Format meeting because it is seen as a regional conversation, said Decker, who has also been tasked with overseeing Afghan diplomacy. 

ASHEVILLE, North Carolina — Nearly a week after Hurricane Helene brought devastation to western North Carolina, a shiny stainless steel tanker truck in downtown Asheville attracted residents carrying 19-liter containers, milk jugs and buckets to fill with what has become a desperately scare resource — drinking water. Flooding tore through the city's water system, destroying so much infrastructure that officials said repairs could take weeks. To make do, Anna Ramsey arrived Wednesday with her two children, who each left carrying plastic bags filled with 7.6 liters of water. "We have no water. We have no power. But I think it's also been humbling," Ramsey said. Helene's path through the Southeast left a trail of power outages so large the darkness was visible from space. Tens of trillions of liters of rain fell and more than 200 people were killed, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005. Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for, and search crews must trudge through knee-deep debris to learn whether residents are safe. It also damaged water utilities so severely and over such a wide inland area that one federal official said the toll "could be considered unprecedented." As of Thursday, about 136,000 people in the Southeast were served by a nonoperational water provider and more than 1.8 million were living under a boil water advisory, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Western North Carolina was especially hard hit. Officials are facing a difficult rebuilding task made harder by the steep, narrow valleys of the Blue Ridge Mountains that during a more typical October would attract throngs of fall tourists. "The challenges of the geography are just fewer roads, fewer access points, fewer areas of flat ground to stage resources" said Brian Smith, acting deputy division director for the EPA's water division in the Southeast. After days without water, people long for more than just a sponge bath. "I would love a shower," said Sue Riles in Asheville. "Running water would be incredible." The raging floodwaters of Helene destroyed crucial parts of Asheville's water system, scouring out the pipes that convey water from a reservoir in the mountains above town that is the largest of three water supplies for the system. To reach a second reservoir that was knocked offline, a road had to be rebuilt. Boosted output from the third source restored water flow in some southern Asheville neighborhoods Friday, but without full repairs schools may not be able to resume in-person classes, hospitals may not restore normal operations, and the city's hotels and restaurants may not fully reopen. Even water that's unfit to drink is scarce. Drew Reisinger, the elected Buncombe County register of deeds, worries about people in apartments who can't easily haul a bucket of water from a creek to flush their toilet. Officials are advising people to collect nondrinkable water for household needs from a local swimming pool. "One thing no one is talking about is the amount of poop that exists in every toilet in Asheville," he said. "We're dealing with a public health emergency." It's a situation that becomes more dangerous the longer it lasts. Even in communities fortunate enough to have running water, hundreds of providers have issued boil water notices indicating the water could be contaminated. But boiling water for cooking and drinking is time consuming and small mistakes can cause stomach illness, according to Natalie Exum, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Every day that goes by, you could be exposed to a pathogen," Exum said. "These basic services that we take for granted in our everyday lives actually do do a lot to prevent illness." Travis Edwards' faucet worked immediately after the storm. He filled as many containers as he could for himself and his child, but it didn't take long for the flow to weaken, then stop. They rationed water, switching to hand sanitizer and barely putting any on toothbrushes. "(We) didn't realize how dehydrated we were getting," he said. Federal officials have shipped millions of liters of water to areas where people also might not be able to make phone calls or switch on the lights. Power has been restored to about 62% of homes and businesses and 8,000 crews are out working to restore power in the hardest hit parts of North Carolina, federal officials said Thursday. In 10 counties, about half of the cell sites are still down. The first step for some utilities is simply figuring out how bad the damage is, a job that might require EPA expertise in extreme cases. Ruptured water pipes are a huge problem. They often run beneath roads, many of which were crumpled and twisted by floodwaters. "Pretty much anytime you see a major road damaged, there's a very good chance that there's a pipe in there that's also gotten damaged," said Mark White, drinking water global practice leader at the engineering firm CDM Smith. Generally, repairs start at the treatment plant and move outward, with fixes in nearby big pipes done first, according to the EPA. "Over time, you'll gradually get water to more and more people," White said. Many people are still missing, and water repair employees don't typically work around search and rescue operations. It takes a toll, according to Kevin Morley, manager of federal relations with the American Water Works Association. "There's emotional support that is really important for all the people involved. You're seeing people's lives just wiped out," he said. Even private well owners aren't immune. Pumps on private wells may have lost power and overtopping floodwaters can contaminate them. There's often a "blind faith" assumption that drinking water won't fail. In this case, the technology was insufficient, according to Craig Colten. Before retiring to Asheville, he was a professor in Louisiana focused on resilience to extreme weather. He hopes Helene will prompt politicians to spend more to ensure infrastructure withstands destructive storms. And climate change will only make the problem more severe, said Erik Olson, a health and food expert at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council. "I think states and the federal government really need to step back and start looking at how we're going to prepare for these extreme weather events that are going to be occurring and recurring every single year," he said. Edwards has developed a system to save water. He'll soap dirty dishes and rinse them with a trickle of water with bleach, which is caught and transferred to a bucket — useable for the toilet. Power and some cell service have returned for him. And water distribution sites have guaranteed some measure of normalcy: Edwards feels like he can start going out to see friends again. "To not feel guilty about using more than a cup of water to, like, wash yourself … I'm really, really grateful," he said. 

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, ((eds.: pronounced ROO-tuh)) who took up the role this week, visited Ukraine Thursday and pledged to prioritize the alliance’s support for Kyiv. But Rutte faces daunting challenges in his new job, as Henry Ridgwell reports.