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LONDON — Chinese President Xi Jinping offered few concessions to his counterpart and host Emmanuel Macron as he wrapped up a two-day visit to France on Tuesday evening. Both presidents are seeking to mend ties on Xi's first trip to Europe in five years, after relations were soured by trade disputes and Beijing's support for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Macron invited Xi high into the Pyrenees Mountains, the home region of the French president's maternal grandmother. Beneath snowy peaks shrouded in fog, the two leaders and their wives watched traditional dancers before dining on locally produced ham, lamb, cheese and blueberry pie. French officials said the mountain trip on Tuesday would provide a chance for less- formal one-on-one discussions after the pomp and ceremony of Xi's official state welcome in Paris on Monday. Relations have worsened significantly since Xi last visited the region in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic. Europe accuses Beijing of subsidizing industries that are undercutting its own companies in areas such as electric vehicles — but Macron told his Chinese guests that the European Union is not seeking to cut economic ties. "Our shared objective is to continue our relationship," Macron told delegates Monday at the Franco-Chinese Business Council in Paris. "There is no logic in decoupling from China. It's a desire to preserve our national security, just as you do for your own. It's a desire for mutual respect and understanding, and a desire to continue to open up trade, but to ensure that it is fully fair at all times, whether in terms of tariffs, aid or access to markets.” WATCH: While visiting France, Xi offers few concessions over trade, Russia China's response Xi made no immediate concessions, said analyst Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. "Xi Jinping does not feel that China has an overcapacity issue. And he feels that the European position on Chinese EVs, for example, is unreasonable. But then of course he is also trying to engage with the French and potentially having a leading Chinese car manufacturer setting up facilities in France, as a kind of incentive to persuade that maybe it's in France's interest to engage with China and welcome Chinese EVs," Tsang told VOA. The trade relationship is tilted in Beijing's favor, according to Nicholas Bequelin, a senior fellow at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center. China "has a major export economy towards Europe. The trade deficit in Europe is huge and growing. The de-risking or anti-subsidy policies that the European Union wants to put in place will take a lot of time — and because they affect the different countries in the European Union differently, it is very difficult to get to an agreement," Bequelin said. Russia threat Europe faces the more pressing security threat of Russia, as the Kremlin's forces slowly advance in eastern Ukraine. China has given Moscow diplomatic and economic support, despite Western appeals for Beijing to help end the illegal invasion. Xi declared a "no limits" partnership when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing in February 2022, just days before the Kremlin's tanks rolled across the Ukrainian frontier. A recent U.S. assessment concluded that China is providing vital components such as machine tools and microelectronics that Russia is using to make weapons. Last year, trade between China and Russia hit a record $240 billion. Speaking in Paris Monday, Xi rejected European accusations that China was aiding Russia's war. "China is neither the creator of the crisis, nor a party, a participant of the war. However, we didn't just watch the fire burning across the river but have been playing an active role in achieving peace," Xi told reporters. Europe's message China's claim is demonstrably false — and European leaders must take a tougher line, said analyst Igor Merheim-Eyre, a policy adviser at the European Parliament and research fellow at the University of Kent. "We've already had [German] Chancellor Olaf Scholz, we've had Macron, we've had Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, we have [EU Commission] President [Ursula] von der Leyen, all making trips to Beijing and repeating the same message: that China should not be supporting Russia in its aggression against Ukraine. And in those two years, I see no change," Merheim-Eyre told VOA. "What they've really failed at is spelling out to Xi Jinping what will be the cost of China supporting Russia's war of aggression — which it clearly is. I mean if it wasn't, we wouldn't already have four Chinese companies on the EU sanction list. And the circumventions are much broader than that," he said. Costs for China Europe should make the costs clear, said analyst Tsang, because China's "policy has always been one of declaring neutrality, supporting Putin and refusing to pay a price for that." Sanctioning Chinese companies that are supplying Russia's military would likely be effective, he said. "For Xi Jinping, the important thing is that he stays in power, and that means he has to keep the Chinese economy on an even keel. Supporting Putin is a desirable thing — but fundamentally staying in power overrides the aspirational goal of undermining U.S. global preeminence and leadership." Tsang said. “Shared interest” Von der Leyen on Monday urged Beijing to help end the war. "We agree that Europe and China have a shared interest in peace and security. We count on China to use all its influence on Russia to end Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine," she said in a recorded video address. But European leaders should be more realistic about Beijing's ambitions, argued analyst Merheim-Eyre. "I'm looking at my world map, and I'm trying to see where exactly this common interest lies. Because wherever I look, from Africa to the South China Sea to Ukraine, China is playing a destructive role, and I do not see common areas of interest in these matters." After visiting France, Xi was headed Tuesday for Serbia, a key Balkan partner in Beijing's Belt and Road investment program. On Wednesday, Xi is due to travel to Hungary, his closest European ally and a longtime thorn in the side of EU unity on Russia and China policy. VOA’s Mandarin Service contributed to this story.

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Blantyre, malawi — Malawi's Vice President Saulos Chilima was arrested in November of 2022 after being named among 84 individuals suspected to have received bribes from a U.K.-based businessman, Zuneth Sattar.  Malawi's Anti-Corruption Bureau accused Chilima of receiving kickbacks from Sattar in exchange for government contracts.    However, early this month, Director of Public Prosecutions Masauko Chamkakala filed a notice to the High Court to drop the case in which Chilima had not taken a plea after 18 months.  An order from High Court Judge Redson Kapindu issued Monday says all charges Chilima was answering to in connection to the case have been dropped.  Moses Mkandawire, the chairperson for the National Alliance Against Corruption, told VOA that the Malawi government should have let the case proceed in court if it wants to be taken seriously in its efforts to curb corruption.  "We have to look at what the law says if someone has offended, violated, abused a particular law," Mkandawire said. "It's extremely important that that person is brought before the courts of law because otherwise, we are just paying lip service to the fight against corruption."  Mkandawire said it's unfortunate that Malawi's fight against corruption continues to favor high-profile individuals despite commitments by President Lazarus Chakwera to fight corruption without fear or favor.    In May of last year, the DPP dropped a corruption case against former President Bakili Muluzi, who was accused of diverting $11 million donation to his personal bank account while in office between 1994 and 2004.  This came a month after President Chakwera pardoned a former minister of homeland security, Uladi Mussa, as an act of mercy during Easter. Musa was jailed in 2020 for corruption and placed on a U.S. travel ban.  In July of last year, Chakwera also pardoned the country's former minister of information Henry Mussa on poor health grounds. He was serving a nine-year jail term after being convicted of conspiracy to steal government property.  George Phiri, a former lecturer of political science at the University of Livingstonia, said dropping the case against Chilima is detrimental to the fight against corruption.  "Discontinuing a high-profile case, forgiving people whom the court has justified that they were guilty of an offense, I think, does not send a good message in the fight against corruption in Malawi," he said. Malawian government authorities said dropping court cases is constitutional because the country's laws give the director of public prosecution the power to discontinue any case.  Reacting to the development, members of the United Transformation Movement party of Chilima on Tuesday took to the streets of the capital, Lilongwe, to celebrate the discontinuation of the case.  "We are excited of course as a party but the chief factor in this whole thing is the behavior of the vice president during the process," said party spokesperson Felix Njawala. "We have understood that really he is a man who respects the rule of law because he advised members of the party not to interfere with the process."  According to the court order, the director of public prosecutions must brief parliament on the reason for dropping the case against Chilima within 10 days. 

The US and Turkey have resumed security cooperation talks, and analysts say Turkish forces are poised to fill a vacuum should American forces pull out of Syria. Pentagon officials say there are no plans for a withdrawal, but analysts point to signs it may happen. Meanwhile, the speculation is causing concern among Kurdish forces in Syria. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.

Maputo — Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo party picked Daniel Francisco Chapo, the 47-year-old governor of a southern province, to be its candidate for October’s presidential election, after heated internal debates that lasted three days.  Sunday’s selection of Chapo halted speculation that President Filipe Nyusi planned to cling to power at the conclusion of his term through an amendment to the constitution.  Nyusi said the endorsement puts an end to a soap opera of rumors, including talk of a possible third term. Frelimo respects the laws, he added, so there was no reason to speculate about new term limits. Nyusi also encouraged party members to support Chapo in the upcoming elections. Since Mozambique’s independence in 1975, all heads of state have been nominated by Frelimo.   The party has won all elections since multi-party democracy was introduced 30 years ago at the end of a crippling 16-year civil war which left over one million people dead and five million others internally displaced.   Chapo has been governor of Inhambane province since 2016. He holds a master’s degree in development management from a university in Mozambique. Prior to entering politics, he taught constitutional law and political science at the Universidade Catolica in the port city of Beira, and worked as an announcer at a private radio station in the same city.   After being confirmed as Frelimo’s candidate, Chapo promised to work to promote the country’s economic development.   If elected, Chapo will become Mozambique’s fourth democratically elected head of state.   Chapo is viewed by analysts as a leader who may be able to restore security in the troubled oil- and gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado, where Islamic State-linked insurgents have been terrorizing civilians and destroying public infrastructure since 2017, forcing the interruption of multibillion-dollar projects.  The violence has continued despite support by troops from other countries of the Southern African Development Community, and soldiers from Rwanda.  Economic analyst and university lecturer Alcidio Bachita has high hopes for Chapo.  “He is an individual who has not been accused of any corruption schemes,” Bachita said. “And I believe that this change of leadership will open a new page in the history of Mozambique, given that he is a young man and was born after [the] independence period of the country. So I believe that the economy of Mozambique will witness a great performance in the coming years.”   Mozambique will hold its seventh presidential and legislative elections on October 9. The deadline for presenting lists of candidates for president to the Constitutional Council is June 10.  

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.

U.S. President Joe Biden commemorated Holocaust Remembrance Day by condemning antisemitism and making the case that protests must be peaceful. Meanwhile, Israel rachets up its military action in Rafah and closes the border crossing there as peace talks in Cairo devolve. Ukraine and the U.S. claim that there has not been any increase in Russian military activity in Russia’s west, despite the announcement that Russia would begin training with tactical nuclear weapons there. The International Organization for Migration released its annual report. Plus, Myanmar before monsoon season starts. And are American troops headed to Nigeria?

Jerusalem — Israel is sending a delegation back to Cairo for more talks on the details of a cease-fire. The Israeli move came a day after Hamas made a surprise announcement that it accepted an Egyptian cease-fire proposal that Israel had previously accepted. But on Tuesday, Israeli officials said that the terms Hamas accepted are not the same as those in the original Egyptian proposal, and that the changes that Hamas is demanding make it impossible for Israel to agree. Israeli officials said the first stage of the deal envisions the release of 33 “humanitarian” hostages, meaning women, the elderly and the sick, in exchange for a six-week cease-fire and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. But now Hamas says that some of those 33 who would be freed have died. There are also questions on the timing of the release and how many Palestinian prisoners will be freed for each hostage. Brigadier General Yisrael Ziv, a former commander of the Gaza district, said that Israel’s first priority must be to bring the hostages home. “The first priority is to maximize the option for the deal,” Ziv said. “We understand that the time is running out for the life of the hostages and the maximum pressure is about that – how many people alive we can evacuate through such a deal.” Israel also has questions about reported guarantees that the U.S. and Egypt gave Hamas that Israel will not restart the war in Gaza and that the cease-fire will continue indefinitely. A U.S. government spokesman would not comment on the reports. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said that even though the Hamas proposal falls far short of what Israel wants, Israel will negotiate in good faith. “The war cabinet unanimously decided that Israel will continue its operation in Rafah in order to apply military pressure on Hamas to release our hostages and achieve all the war’s objectives,” Mencer said. “Despite Hamas’ grandstanding, Hamas’ proposal is far from Israel’s core demands. Nevertheless, Israel will dispatch a ranking delegation to Egypt to maximize any chance of an agreement on terms acceptable to Israel.”   On Tuesday, Israeli tanks and troops took over the Palestinian side of the crossing between Israel and Egypt. The Palestinian Authority called on the U.S. to stop Israel from invading the city of Rafah. Ziv said the Israeli action to take over the crossing was a limited operation and not the large-scale invasion Israel has threatened. “The purpose of the operation is mainly to leverage the negotiations being done this time,” Ziv said, “trying to get a better deal, or to lower the demands of Hamas asking Israel to stop the war and to get into a full cease-fire.” As the war hits the seven-month mark, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said the death toll is close to 35,000, although that includes fighters and civilians. More than 1,300 people in Israel have been killed – most of them in the initial October 7 attack by Hamas – and more than 130 Israelis are still being held hostage by the militant group.

Harare — Faced with an inability to access offshore credit lines — due to defaulting on previous loans — the government of Zimbabwe is appealing to its diaspora population and foreigners to invest in the Southern African nation. Some citizens in the diaspora are skeptical that their investments would pay off. The government says the Zimbabwe Investment Summit, held Thursday to Saturday in South Africa, was meant to present the Southern African nation positively to the world. Speaking at the conference, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said Zimbabwe’s economy was one of the fastest-growing in the region, and investors should get on board. “Zimbabwe economic recovery, post-COVID, is strong," he said. "We've seen it move from strength to strength after a dip in 2019 and 2020. In 2021, the economy has been on a positive trajectory, with real GDP growth at 8.5% terms of growth — that is 6.5% in 2022 and a growth rate of 5.5% in 2023. And the growth rate is projected at 3.5% this year, slower growth than the previous three years due to the climate change shocks.” At the conference, Ncube also promoted various tax rebates and incentives for investors who import equipment, such as buses for a tourism company. However, Treasure Basopo, an economist who left Zimbabwe three years ago for Norway, says before investors can get interested, inflation has to be tamed and the country must establish confidence in the new currency, the ZiG. The currency is backed by Zimbabwe’s gold reserves, a method of establishing value that most countries abandoned many decades ago. Basopo is skeptical. "The introduction of ZiG defeats by all definitions and by all intents and purposes the characteristics or the traditional characteristics of what is money, which is basically the ability to store a valid durability, scarcity and acceptability,” he said. Inflation, meanwhile, is running at an annual rate of 55% — lower than the hyperinflation which plagued Zimbabwe in the past, but still high enough to make the cost of living difficult for most ordinary Zimbabweans. At the investment conference, Ncube voiced support for the ZiG, saying the country needs a domestic currency. “It’s a currency that is backed by reserves, gold and other precious minerals, as well as hard currency. The exchange still fluctuates," he said. "Will we share with the public how much reserves we have? Yes, we will. There will be an audit of the reserves in our vault of the reserves, and we will be able to share that information periodically to make sure that we can build the necessary confidence in the new currency.” Basopo said besides lower inflation and a stable currency, investors in the diaspora also want the right to vote in Zimbabwe's elections. “This is a government which has lost all its goodwill, and it has lost all of its international credibility to access credit facilities, and they want to harvest that money from the citizens for you to demonstrate patriotism. Which is OK, but what we need right now is for the diaspora to have the political rights enshrined within the constitution of the land — right to vote. You cannot invest in a country in which you cannot have a say. You can’t put your money without also having security of the vote,” he said. VOA made repeated efforts to talk to government officials about the conference but did not get a response. Government officials say several hundred people attended the three-day event but have not announced any new investments from the conference.

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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said Tuesday his country will not back off from building a much-delayed gas pipeline with Iran.  “We will not let anyone use their veto,” Dar said at a press briefing Tuesday, without naming the United States.  Pakistan and Iran signed a Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement in June of 2009 for a pipeline that would supply 750 million to 1,000 million cubic feet per day of gas to energy-starved Pakistan from Iran's South Pars Field.  While Iran claimed in 2011 that it had completed its side of the pipeline, construction delays continue on the Pakistani side, primarily for fear of invoking U.S. sanctions.  The Biden administration has repeatedly said it does not support the Pakistan-Iran pipeline as Tehran is under U.S. sanctions for its nuclear program.  “The government will decide what, when, and how to do anything based on Pakistan’s interests. It cannot be dictated to us,” Pakistan’s foreign minister told reporters in Islamabad.  In February, Pakistan’s outgoing caretaker government approved building a small patch of the pipeline from the Iranian border into Pakistani territory to avoid billions of dollars in penalties for project delays. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government, which took office in March, has not begun construction on the project.  The pipeline received only a passing mention in a lengthy joint statement issued at the end of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to Pakistan in late April, prompting speculation the project was not on track.  “We have to watch our interest. We have to look at our commitments,” Dar said, rejecting the notion Pakistan was delaying the project under U.S. pressure. However, he conceded the pipeline is “an issue that is quite complicated.”  After Raisi’s visit in which both sides agreed to boost bilateral trade to $10 billion dollars, the U.S. State Department warned, yet again, that Islamabad could face trouble for doing business with Tehran.  “Broadly we advise anyone considering business deals with Iran to be aware of the potential risk of sanctions,” Vedant Patel, State Department deputy spokesperson, said during a briefing last month.  Energy-starved and cash-strapped, the South Asian nation of some 240 million people needs cheap fuel from its neighbor. Pakistan currently meets much of its needs with expensive oil and gas imports from Gulf countries.  Iran’s arch-rival Saudi Arabia, on whom Pakistan relies heavily for financial support, is also widely believed to be opposed to the pipeline.  Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson of Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, told media in late April that Islamabad was in talks with Washington to address concerns surrounding the pipeline.  “We have noted some statements have been made by the United States. We are also engaged with the United States and discussed the various aspects of Pakistan's energy needs,” Baloch said at a weekly press briefing.  Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs contended in the past that Islamabad does not need a sanctions waiver from Washington to build the pipeline with Tehran.  However, experts say sanctions will kick in once gas is pumped.  Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Energy have not confirmed if Islamabad has applied for a sanctions waiver from Washington.   Donald Lu, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, told a Congressional hearing in March that Pakistan had not requested the waiver to purchase Iranian gas.

Geneva — U.N. humanitarian agencies say both the Rafah and Karem Shalom crossings into the Gaza Strip are “closed to goods and people” in both directions, essentially cutting off a lifeline for more than 2 million civilians in the embattled Palestinian territory. “We currently have no physical presence at the Rafah crossing as our access to go to that area for coordination has been denied by COGAT,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. COGAT is the Israeli agency that coordinates government activities in the Palestinian territories. “That means that the two main arteries for getting aid into Gaza have been choked off,” he said. “We are seeing the beginning of a military incursion. Rafah is in the crosshairs. IDF is ignoring all warnings about what this could mean for civilians — and the humanitarian operation — in Rafah and the entire strip,” he said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. Laerke told journalists in Geneva Tuesday that Rafah is the only entry point for fuel, noting that without diesel for trucks to transport aid inside Gaza, and without fuel to run generators, equipment, and communication, “the entire aid operation is in jeopardy.” “We have been told that there is about one day of fuel available for all of Gaza,” he said.  “If no fuel comes in for a long, prolonged period of time, it would be a very effective way of putting the humanitarian operation in its grave.” Israel ordered 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate eastern Rafah Monday to so-called safe zones, in advance of a military offensive in the southern Gaza city. This, despite Hamas agreeing Monday to a truce proposal that would see some Israeli hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office said the cease-fire proposal was “far from Israel’s essential demands,” but that Israel would send negotiators to Cairo on Tuesday to continue talks.    The United Nations says that the IDF has designated 76% of Gaza’s territory as “an evacuation zone.” That, it warns, will have terrible repercussions for the 1.2 million people in Rafah as many of the obligations enshrined in international humanitarian law governing evacuation orders are not being met. “What this means in humanitarian terms is that people are being forcibly relocated, yet again, sometimes for the fourth, fifth, sixth time, to places that are not safe,” said Ravina Shamdasani, U.N. human rights spokesperson. “These people include people who have been disabled as a result of the conduct of hostilities,” she said. “They are being relocated to places that do not have the infrastructure or the resources to be able to host the mass displacement of this large number of people with such diverse needs. “Israel has strict obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure the safety and access of these individuals to medical care, to adequate food, to sanitation,” she said. “Failure to meet these obligations may amount to forced displacement, which is a war crime.” UNICEF warns that a military incursion in Rafah “would pose catastrophic risks” to hundreds of thousands of children sheltering in the enclave. “Rafah is a city of children. More than half of every single girl and boy in Gaza live in Rafah,” said James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson. “Our worst fear — Gazans’ nightmare — appears to be a reality,” he said. “If we define safety — as International Humanitarian Law says we must — as freedom from bombardment, as well as access to safe water, sufficient food, shelter and medicine —then there is nowhere safe on the Gaza strip to go to. “Families’ coping capacity has been smashed. They are hanging on — physically and psychologically — by a thread,” he said. “People are exhausted. People are malnourished. Children are sick. “In fact, hundreds of thousands of children in Rafah have a disability or vulnerability that puts them in even greater jeopardy and makes it that much more difficult for them to relocate, even if there was somewhere left to go.” The World Health Organization says only three hospitals currently are functioning in the Rafah area and “all are overwhelmed” and receiving more cases than they can handle. WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said Israel has advised people in El-Najar hospital in Rafah to leave. “Now they are not moving. They are staying open and continuing to accept patients,” she said. “They are also the only place now in Gaza where dialysis is taking place. They are doing around 200 dialyses per day. So, again, if they are no longer functioning if they are shut down, it means that those people will die simply from kidney failure because that is what is keeping them alive.” UNICEF’s Elder said children in Gaza are suffering from “an unprecedented level of trauma,” especially after this weekend’s events, which saw the continued killing of children, more attacks from the warring parties, “and now evacuation orders.” “That is what we are seeing again in these children who are told pick up your last surviving remnants of your life and we move from tent to tent.  That is also what is happening to children in Rafah now. “That has to change. Indeed, this is the last chance for this to change,” he said.

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Moscow — Russia on Tuesday said it had declared U.S.-funded rights group Freedom House an "undesirable organization", effectively banning anyone from working for or having links with the group. Authorities in Russia have declared dozens of media outlets, think tanks and non-profit organizations "undesirable" since 2015, a label rights groups say is designed to deter dissent. In a statement, Russia's Prosecutor General said Freedom House had called for "comprehensive assistance to Ukraine to defeat Russia" and had "discredited" the Russian army. "The organization provides information, financial, legal and other support to Russian opposition structures, pro-Western and LGBT activists, communities defending their interests, and persons convicted of terrorist crimes," it said. Freedom House says it supports and provides funding to local democracy activists and civil liberty groups in more than 30 countries, receiving much of its financing from the U.S. State Department. It is best known for its "Freedom in the World" index that measures each country's civil liberties and labels them "Free" or "Not Free". Russia is labelled "Not Free". Since launching its offensive in Ukraine, Moscow has waged an unprecedented crackdown on dissent that rights groups have likened to Soviet-era mass repression. Among other organizations labelled as "undesirable" in Russia are the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, Transparency International and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.