Voice of America’s immigration news

United Nations — The United Nations said Friday that the detonation of handheld communication devices in Lebanon could constitute a war crime as Beirut's top diplomat accused Israel of orchestrating what he called a terror attack.  The blasts that killed at least 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday targeted communication devices used by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.  Pagers and walkie-talkies exploded as their users were shopping in supermarkets, walking on streets and attending funerals, plunging the country into panic.  "International humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby-trap devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects," the U.N.'s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, told the Security Council during an emergency session on Lebanon requested by Algeria.    "It is a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians," he added, repeating his call for an "independent, rigorous and transparent" investigation.  "I am appalled by the breadth and impact of the attacks," said Turk.  "These attacks represent a new development in warfare, where communication tools become weapons," he added. "This cannot be the new normal."  Speaking at the Security Council, Lebanon's top diplomat, Abdallah Bouhabib, called the attack "an unprecedented method of warfare in its brutality and terror."  "Israel, through this terrorist aggression, has violated the basic principles of international humanitarian law," he said, calling Israel a "rogue state."   Israel has not commented on the device blasts but has said it will widen the scope of its war in Gaza to include the Lebanon front.  "We have no intention to enter a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, but we cannot continue the way it is," Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, told reporters Friday.  Speaking at the Security Council, he said Israel would do "whatever it takes" to restore security in northern areas.   Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the body was "very concerned about the heightened escalation" across the Lebanon-Israel frontier after Friday's Israeli strike on Beirut. He called for "maximum restraint" from all sides.

Wilmington, Delaware — President Joe Biden hosted Australia's prime minister at his Delaware home Friday at the start of a weekend summit with the "Quad" group he has pushed as a counterweight to China.  Biden chose Wilmington for a summit of leaders from Australia, India and Japan — the last of his presidency after he dropped out of the 2024 election against Donald Trump and handed the Democratic campaign reins to Vice President Kamala Harris.  After a one-on-one meeting at his property with Australia's Anthony Albanese on Friday night, he will welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at his home on Saturday.  Biden will then host an "intimate" dinner and full four-way summit that day at his former high school in the city.  "This will be President Biden's first time hosting foreign leaders in Wilmington as president — a reflection of his deep personal relationships with each of the Quad leaders," said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.   Harris will not be attending, the White House said.  The Quad grouping dates to 2007, but Biden has strongly pushed it as part of an emphasis on international alliances after the isolationist Trump years.  China was expected to feature heavily in their discussions amid tensions with Beijing, particularly a series of recent confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea.  "It will certainly be high on the agenda," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said, adding that the four leaders had a "common understanding about the challenges that the PRC [People's Republic of China] is posing."  The White House, however, faced criticism for giving only limited access to the press throughout the weekend, with reporters questioning whether it was at the request of the media-shy Modi.  The prime minister was coaxed to take two questions during a state visit to the White House in 2023 but had not held an open press conference at home in his previous nine years in power.  The White House insisted Biden would not shy away from addressing rights issues with Modi, who has faced accusations of growing authoritarianism.  "There's not a conversation that he has with foreign leaders where he doesn't talk about the importance of respecting human and civil rights, and that includes with Prime Minister Modi," Kirby said.  India is to host the next Quad summit in 2025.  Biden is famously proud of his home in Wilmington, about 176 kilometers from Washington, and he frequently spends weekends there away from the White House. 

Washington — A U.S. soldier who crossed into North Korea last year pleaded guilty to desertion on Friday as part of a plea agreement and was sentenced to 12 months of confinement, his lawyer said. Because of good behavior and time served, the soldier was released, according to the lawyer. Travis King was facing 14 charges related to him fleeing across the border from South Korea into the North in July 2023 while on a sightseeing tour of the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula, and for prior incidents. But he pleaded guilty to just five — desertion, assault on a noncommissioned officer, and three counts of disobeying an officer — as part of a deal that was accepted on Friday by a military judge. "The judge, under the terms of the plea deal, sentenced Travis to one year of confinement, reduction in rank to private (E-1), forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a dishonorable discharge," a statement from King's attorney Franklin Rosenblatt said. "With time already served and credit for good behavior, Travis is now free and will return home," the statement said. "Travis King has faced significant challenges throughout his life, including a difficult upbringing, exposure to criminal environments, and struggles with mental health," Rosenblatt said. "All these factors have compounded the hardships he faced in the military." In a statement, the U.S. Army's Office of Special Trial Counsel confirmed King's guilty plea as part of a deal and said that "pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, all other charges and specifications were dismissed." "The outcome of today's court martial is a fair and just result that reflects the seriousness of the offenses committed by Pvt. King," prosecutor Major Allyson Montgomery said in the statement. At the time of the incident, King had been stationed in South Korea, and after a drunken bar fight and a stay in South Korean jail, he was supposed to fly back to Texas to face disciplinary hearings. Instead, he walked out of the Seoul-area airport, joined a DMZ sightseeing trip and slipped over the fortified border where he was detained by the communist North's authorities. Pyongyang had said that King had defected to North Korea to escape "mistreatment and racial discrimination in the U.S. Army." But after completing its investigation, North Korea "decided to expel" King in September for illegally intruding into its territory.

atlanta — The election board for the U.S. state of Georgia on Friday voted to approve a new rule that requires poll workers to count the number of paper ballots by hand after voting is completed, a change that critics worry could delay the reporting of election night results. The board's decision went against the advice of the state attorney general's office, the secretary of state's office and an association of county election officials. Three Republican board members who were praised by former President Donald Trump during a rally last month in Atlanta voted to approve the measure, while the lone Democrat on the board and the nonpartisan chair voted to reject it.  The State Election Board has found itself mired in controversy in recent months as it considers new rules, many of them proposed by Trump allies. Democrats, legal experts and democracy advocates have raised concerns that new rules could be used by the former president and his supporters to cause chaos in this crucial swing state and undermine public confidence in results if he loses to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November.  In a memo sent to election board members Thursday, the office of state Attorney General Chris Carr said no provision in state law allows hand counting of ballots at precincts. The memo says the rule is "not tethered to any statute" and is "likely the precise kind of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do." It warns that any rule that oversteps the board's authority is unlikely to survive a legal challenge.  Already, two rules the board passed last month having to do with certifying vote counts have been challenged in two separate lawsuits, one filed by Democrats and the other filed by a conservative group. A judge has set an October 1 trial on the Democrats' lawsuit.  Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger last month called the hand counting rule "misguided," saying it would delay the reporting of election results and introduce risks to chain of custody procedures.  The new rule requires that the number of ballots — not the number of votes — be counted at each polling place by three separate poll workers until all three counts are the same. If a scanner has more than 750 ballots inside at the end of voting, the poll manager can decide to begin the count the following day.  Georgia voters make selections on a touchscreen voting machine that prints out a paper ballot that includes a human-readable list of the voter's choices as well as a QR code that is read by a scanner to tally the votes.  Proponents say the rule is needed to make sure the number of paper ballots matches the electronic tallies on scanners, check-in computers and voting machines. The three workers will have to count the ballots in piles of 50, and the poll manager needs to explain and fix, if possible, any discrepancies, as well as document them.  Results could be delayed if polling places decide to wait until the hand tally is finished before they send the memory cards that record the votes in machines to the central tabulation location.  Several county election officials who spoke out against the rule during a public comment period preceding the vote warned that a hand count could delay the reporting of election night results. They also worried about putting an additional burden on poll workers who have already worked a long day.  Leaders of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials raised concerns similar to Raffensperger's in a letter to the State Election Board last month, warning the rule would ultimately undermine confidence in the process. The nonprofit association's members include over 500 election officials and workers statewide, according to the organization.  Janelle King, a board member who worked with the author of the rule on the wording, said she wasn't concerned if election night reporting was slowed a bit in favor of making sure that the number of ballots is accurate.  "What I don't want to do is set a precedent that we're OK with speed over accuracy," she said as the board was discussing the rule proposal, adding that she'd rather wait an extra hour or so for results than hear about lawsuits over inaccurate counts later.  Board chairman John Fervier cautioned that the board was going against the advice of its lawyers and could be exceeding its authority.  "This board is an administrative body. It's not a legislative body," he said. "If the legislature had wanted this, they would have put it in statute."  Some other states already count ballots by hand at the end of voting. Illinois has done so for decades "without complaints of delays or any potential impact on ballot security," Matt Dietrich, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said in a statement. "It's designed to ensure integrity and voter trust and by all accounts has worked."  Guidelines from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission say "the total number of ballots cast should balance with the number of total voters processed at each polling place," but they do not call for a hand count of ballots from a tabulator.  The board also tabled until 2025 a proposal for a similar count at early in-person voting locations. The board considered 11 new rules Friday, adopting a few others that mostly make minor changes and tabling some more complicated ones.  The election officials association had urged the State Election Board in a letter Tuesday not to consider any new rules when Election Day is less than 50 days away, ballots are already going out and poll worker training is well underway.  "We do not oppose rules because we are lazy or because a political operative or organization wants us to," the letter says. "We oppose rules because they are poorly written, inefficient, would not accomplish their stated goals, or go directly against state law." 

Tensions are reaching a boiling point between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Rocket fire pounded northern Israel Friday while Israeli warplanes carried out intense airstrikes on southern Lebanon, including a rare strike on the Beirut suburbs. A Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel shares his concerns for a broader regional conflict. The crisis will be one of many complex global issues world leaders will confront next week at the UN General Assembly. And what does Israel’s expanding military operation mean for any sort of ceasefire deal and the fate of the hostages still being held in Gaza? We’ll speak with a member of the Hostages Family Forum.

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.

UNITED NATIONS — World leaders are set to descend on the United Nations in the coming days to talk about a lengthy list of global challenges. But will they spur significant action on any of them? "We see out-of-control geopolitical divisions and runaway conflicts — not least in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and beyond," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters at a news conference ahead of the annual U.N. General Assembly meetings. Those three wars are set to dominate the agenda — both in leaders' speeches before the assembly and at numerous side meetings. Gaza Getting to a cease-fire in Gaza is even more urgent now that Israel has turned its attention to its northern border with Lebanon and looks determined to build on a significant blow to Hezbollah militants there. "We are at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance on our part," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told soldiers at the northern Ramat David Airbase on Wednesday. "It is critical that we operate in close cooperation between the [security] organizations, at all levels." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plan to address the General Assembly. "President Abbas will focus on the plight of his people — he will focus on the genocide campaign that's taking place, he will warn of the danger of this conflict exploding in the West Bank, and will warn also of the dangers of this conflict not reaching a cease-fire soon, in terms of its implications for the region and regional stability," Randa Slim, senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told VOA. In March, a U.N. official said there were reasonable grounds to believe genocide had been committed in Gaza. Slim continued, "On the other hand, you are going to see the Israeli prime minister reminding people of the terror of October 7, casting the light on the fact that they are in a war of defense, and he is going to reemphasize the priorities of the war … which is the eradication of Hamas." In March, Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said there were "reasonable grounds" to think Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Ukraine More than 2½ years after Russia invaded Ukraine, peace remains elusive. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be in New York calling for international support at a critical time in the war, and as the conflict, in many capitals, has been superseded by the situation in Gaza. "I think Ukrainian diplomats themselves are a bit worried that their war is going down the agenda," Richard Gowan, U.N. director at International Crisis Group, told VOA. "But the reality is that the battle between Israel and Hamas has torn the U.N. apart over the last year, and that is going to be the number one focus for a lot of presidents and prime ministers." On Tuesday, Zelenskyy will address a high-level U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine, and the following day he will speak at the General Assembly. "I think he will emphasize the problem of Russian aggression, and that not only Europe, but the rest of the world, must remain on guard for Russia's attempt to assert its imperial powers," William Pomeranz, senior fellow at the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute told VOA. "And that the support of Ukraine is a crucial part of global security at the present time." On Thursday, Zelenskyy will head to Washington to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be coming to New York, but veteran Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is scheduled to address the General Assembly on September 28. Sudan On the African continent, two rival generals in Sudan have been mired in a brutal 17-month struggle for power that has devastated the country. Violence, famine and disease are stalking the population, and 10 million people have fled their homes in search of safety. The war's current epicenter is the North Darfur capital of El Fasher, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have advanced on the city and the Sudanese Armed Forces inside El Fasher have been trying to repel them. "The lives of hundreds of thousands of people, including more than 700,000 internally displaced persons in and around El Fasher, are at immediate threat," acting U.N. humanitarian chief Joye Msuya told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday. The United States, Saudi Arabia, African Union and others have pursued a variety of peace initiatives for months. They have failed to silence the guns, but the U.S. has been successful in opening up some new routes for humanitarian relief into Sudan. On September 25, ministers will meet to discuss the humanitarian response at a session organized by officials from the U.N., U.S, European Union, African Union, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The head of the Sudanese Armed Forces and chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, General Abdel Fattah Burhan, is coming to New York. U.N. chief Guterres said he would "express my enormous frustration" to him about the lack of a cease-fire and the start of a serious political process. Haiti While it may not grab as many global headlines as Ukraine and Gaza, there is a lot of international solidarity around helping Haiti recover from its latest cycle of insecurity. The U.N. independent expert on the human rights situation in Haiti wrapped up a visit to the country on Friday and told a news conference that human rights violations are rampant. "Sexual violence, used as a weapon by gangs to control the population, has drastically increased in recent months," William O'Neill said. "Gangs have increasingly trafficked children, forcibly recruited them into gangs, and often used them to carry out attacks against public institutions and police operations." A multinational security support mission was approved nearly a year ago in the U.N. Security Council to assist Haitian National Police in subduing criminal gangs terrorizing the capital and other regions. After many delays, the first international police contingent from Kenya deployed in June. There are now about 500 police in total on the ground — 400 from mission leader Kenya and the rest from Jamaica and Belize. Diplomats say they expect other countries will also be deploying. Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille and his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau, are co-chairing a side meeting on Monday that will look at both the urgent humanitarian situation and longer-term development issues. "I think we are all beginning to understand how drastic the damage in Haiti is and how devastating the current attacks by the gangs has proven to be," Canadian Ambassador Bob Rae told VOA. "We are doing everything we can to mobilize international attention on what we can do to turn that around." Hello and goodbye Several new leaders will make their debut at this year's gathering, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. "I'm going to be looking for any signal he is going to give about restarting the nuclear negotiation," MEI's Slim said of the Iranian leader, noting that his administration has indicated an interest in restarting nuclear talks. This will be Biden's final time at the General Assembly podium. "I think his appearance will create mixed emotions among other leaders," said Crisis Group's Gowan. "I think there is still some respect for his engagement with multilateralism, but there is also a lot of regret that he didn't give the U.N. a greater role in dealing with the war in Gaza." Looking to the future Two years ago, Biden announced that the United States supported expanding the number of permanent members on the 15-nation Security Council. On September 12, his U.N. envoy, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, announced that the administration would support two permanent seats for Africa and one for Latin American and Caribbean countries, in addition to India, Japan and Germany — albeit, without veto power. She said Washington is ready to begin text-based negotiations on the expansion. "It means we're ready to work with other countries to negotiate language, prepare amendments, and ready this resolution for a vote in the General Assembly and, ultimately, amend the U.N. Charter," Thomas-Greenfield told an audience last week at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Security Council reform, as it is known, has for decades been a topic of much discussion but no action. U.N. chief Guterres also would like to see the council change. On Sunday, he opens his signature two-day "Summit of the Future," in which institutional reform will be high on the agenda. "And one of the questions that is important in relation to the future relates exactly to the role of the P5 [permanent five members] and to the need to have a certain redistribution of power to make things more fair and more effective," Guterres told reporters. In the seventh year of his 10-year tenure, Guterres wants to see better multilateral cooperation to resolve current conflicts, fight climate change, and ease global hunger and debt. He is also worried about emerging challenges, including the power of artificial intelligence. He is hoping for a strong "Pact for the Future" to be adopted by consensus on Sunday. The document, a policy blueprint to address global challenges and drastic reforms to the U.N. and global financial institutions, has been mired in difficult negotiations. Germany and Namibia have been facilitating the negotiations for months and their leaders will co-chair the summit. The president of the General Assembly, Philemon Yang, has now taken over negotiations to try to get it over the finish line. Diplomats said 19 countries, including Russia, raised objections on Thursday night to some language in the latest draft, including around human rights, climate action and fossil fuels. With less than 48 hours to go until the summit opens, discussions are getting down to the wire. "We very much hope that member states will agree in the coming hours on a way forward for the Summit of the Future, and show ambition and show courage and do whatever they can to get these documents over the finish line," Guterres' spokesperson said.

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.

MBABANE, ESWATINI   — Residents and environmentalists in Eswatini have arrayed against Taiwan’s Michael Lee Enterprises in a battle over mining in the country’s picturesque Malolotja Nature Reserve. The company has been accused of exploiting the park for green chert, a rare mineral found in the area, putting the park’s wildlife and natural beauty at risk. Some locals and environmentalists are calling for an unbiased investigation to determine what damage, if any, is being caused by the green chert mining by Michael Lee Enterprises in the Malalotja reserve. Government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo has maintained that no violations by the mining company have been confirmed and has urged community members to report any potential breaches to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy. “We have spoken to both the Ministry of Natural Resources and we have spoken to the company," Nxumalo said. "The directors themselves, they are disputing what the community members have supposedly told you in respect to this company and its activities. "However, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy has committed that they do investigations from time to time to ensure companies continue with compliance in terms of protecting environment and in terms of complying with the laws governing the mining industry in the kingdom of Eswatini.” Taken to Maputo for export Green chert is used to make jewelry and religious statues and for other religious purposes. After the chert is mined, it is trucked to Matsapha, the southern African kingdom’s main industrial town, then taken by railroad to Maputo in Mozambique for export. In a statement to VOA, Michael Lee Enterprises said it was a “complying company that abides by the environmental regulations authority” in Eswatini. The Makhonjwa Valley, a biodiversity hot spot within the Malolotja Nature Reserve, is a world-renowned ecological, archaeological and geological treasure trove. Decades of research have uncovered rare species of trees, cicadas, birds, amphibians and butterflies. It is also home to pristine waterways, forests and a wealth of untouched natural resources. Environmentalist Dane Armstrong warns that mining in Malolotja is putting the site at severe risk. “The company in question, the Michael Lee Enterprises, is already extracting vast quantities of rock at the head of the valley and has plans to mine an additional 400 hectares," Armstrong said. "This is going to have irreversible damage to the ecological integrity" of the area. "While economic growth and job creation is critical for Eswatini and mining definitely plays an important role in this, there has to be a balance between protecting the very limited, crucially important biodiversity hot spots in our country. Malolotja Nature Reserve is a globally recognized area of extreme importance and a protected area, and it should be treated as such.” Economic growth, jobs The president of a traditional healers group, Makhanya Makhanya, disagrees, and sees the potential for economic growth and job creation as a means to combat poverty in the country, provided that the opportunities are reserved for the people of the former Swaziland. “As a traditional healer," he said, "I support the government’s decision to mine the hidden wealth beneath the Earth's surface if it can bring economic opportunities to the people of Swaziland. However, I caution against outsourcing these jobs to foreigners, and instead, local employment needs to be prioritized in order to truly reap the benefits of this resource.” The government is allowing the mining project to proceed until definitive evidence of environmental risk is uncovered. It is encouraging community-company dialogues for a fair resolution.

washington — The ability of a lone gunman to fire eight shots at Donald Trump during a campaign rally in rural western Pennsylvania was partially the result of multiple failures by the agents charged with protecting the former president, according to a new report.  The Secret Service's internal investigation into the attempted assassination of the one-time U.S. leader and current Republican presidential candidate, released Friday, identified problems with communication and coordination ahead of the July 13 rally in Butler, as well as an over-reliance on state and local law enforcement partners.  “We cannot abdicate or defer our responsibilities to others,” acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told reporters Friday in Washington. “The Secret Service did not give clear guidance or direction to our local law enforcement partners,” he said. “While some members of the advance team were very diligent, there was complacency on the part of others that led to a breach of security protocols.” The attempted assassination shook much of the U.S., and it prompted the then-director of the Secret Service to resign. Law enforcement officials have said the attempt was carried out by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who acted alone and saw Trump as a target of opportunity. Despite the presence of Trump’s protective detail, advance teams, and local law enforcement, Crooks was able to climb to the top of a building overlooking the rally and set up with an AR-style rifle before being detected. The shots wounded Trump and two rally goers, while killing a third. The Secret Service report focuses on what the agency is describing as “communication deficiencies” at the rally, blaming agents for failing to make sure the site and surrounding areas — including the roof of the nearby building — were properly secured.  Rowe said that while there were discussions with local law enforcement about the building in particular, there were no subsequent conversations to make sure adequate protection was in place. “We should have been more direct,” he said. “There was an assumption that they had it covered, but there clearly was not that follow-up to make sure.” Other problems included a failure by the Secret Service to make sure local law enforcement knew how to communicate with agents on the ground, which prevented Trump’s protective detail from learning about the search for a suspicious person. Had the detail been aware, a decision could have been made to relocate the former president to a safer location. Rowe told reporters that Secret Service personnel responsible for the deficiencies will be held accountable, but he denied reports that some had been asked to resign. “This agency has among the most robust table of penalties in the entirety of the federal government, and these penalties will be administered according to our disciplinary process,” he said. The release of the Secret Service report comes less than a week after what officials have described as a second apparent assassination attempt against former President Trump. Sheriff’s deputies in Florida arrested 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, stopping him on a major highway Sunday, about an hour after he fled from the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Officials said data gathered from Routh’s cellphone showed he lay in wait for 12 hours, hiding in bushes along a chain-link perimeter fence between the course’s fifth and seventh holes with an SKS-style rifle.  Routh fled without firing a shot after a member of the Secret Service advance team spotted his rifle sticking out from behind the bushes and fired several shots. The agent’s reaction “is exactly how we trained and exactly what we want our personnel to do,” Rowe said Friday. “He identified a threat, an individual with a long gun, and he made swift decisions and took a swift action to be able to mitigate that.” Rowe also said that since the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump, the Secret Service has been providing Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris with the same level of protection as President Joe Biden. And he said that since Trump left office, his security detail has been “more robust than prior former presidents.”  But the acting Secret Service director said the increased levels of security are coming at a cost, asking U.S. lawmakers for more funding and personnel. “We have finite resources,” Rowe told reporters. “We are burning through a lot of assets and resources. We are stretching those resources to their maximum right now.”

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 — When he walked by the military base entrance, French journalist Arthur Jeanne said he couldn't keep his eyes off the machine guns fixed on him as he headed to a high-security prison.   After what Jeanne described as a "frightening" kilometer-long walk to the Mariscal Zavala prison in Guatemala, he came face-to-face with a man he had only heard stories about: José Rubén Zamora.   The imprisoned journalist appeared to be in good spirits.   "From the first second I met him, I noticed he was a really charismatic and impressive person," Jeanne told VOA. "He's been in jail for almost three years now but is still really bright and active."  Zamora, 68, is the founder of Guatemalan newspaper El Periódico. He was convicted of money laundering in a case that Jeanne says is a response to decades of watchdog reporting against the government.  When Jeanne met Zamora in May 2024, the pair chatted for three hours and started to write a story about the history of El Periódico.   The article is included in a special edition of Society magazine titled "The Prison Papers." The independent French publication partnered with watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, for the special, which highlights the cases of eight jailed journalists.  'Plea for freedom' Through interviews, essays and investigations, combined with artwork and photographs, RSF says the collection presents a "powerful plea for freedom."  The idea of "The Prison Papers" began in Society's newsroom a year ago. Thomas Pitrel, one of three editors-in-chief, told VOA that he had long wanted to cover imprisoned and killed journalists.  "It's important for us to show solidarity to our colleagues around the world," Pitrel told VOA. "We are very passionate about our jobs and want everyone to be able to do it in a safe way."   Pitrel initially thought creating a magazine issue featuring imprisoned journalists would be "impossible." Then he connected with RSF.   RSF's staff welcomed the project immediately, Director of Campaigns Rebecca Vincent told VOA. The teams from Society and RSF collaborated to create a list of cases that RSF considered "critical."   The highlighted journalists include Zamora, Hong Kong's pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai, and reporters across four continents who are in jail.   "We wanted to do something meaningful and creative to highlight cases we consider top priorities around the world," Vincent told VOA. She hopes the magazine inspires readers to mobilize and increases demands for the release of imprisoned journalists globally.  Initially, Vincent had hoped to get bylines from each of the spotlighted reporters. But, because of the severity of most of the cases, the team had to find creative ways to tell the stories, she said.  Society often had to work through a jailed journalist's family, colleagues or lawyers. Jeanne was the only writer to meet his subject in person, traveling from France to Guatemala to do so.   José Carlos Zamora, José Rubén's son, connected with Jeanne in February and helped arrange the reporter's prison visit.    "I think it was fulfilling and important for my father to continue to do journalism," Jose Carlos told VOA.   Other writers, unable to meet with their correspondents, found creative ways to honor the imprisoned journalists. Pierre-Philippe Berson wrote an essay on censorship in Hong Kong through the lens of food and cooking on behalf of "food-lover" Lai, according to Vincent. On behalf of Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak, Emilien Hofman and Nicolas Taiana conducted an investigation with his family into the journalist's indefinite imprisonment in Eritrea.  The eight cases featured in the magazine represent a small fraction of the estimated 581 imprisoned journalists around the world, according to RSF.   "We are committed to doing everything in our power to keep their stories alive and present," Vincent said. "Authorities cannot stop these stories from being told; it is futile to keep targeting journalists." 

Harare, Zimbabwe — A new report released by the main United Nations agency for action on AIDS and HIV says growing public debt is choking sub-Saharan African countries, leaving them with little fiscal room to finance critical HIV services. In the report, launched ahead of the 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS, asks the international community for more funding to ensure Africa eliminates AIDS by 2030. She said Africa, which accounts for the largest number of people living with HIV — some 26 million out of 40 million globally — is overwhelmed by public debt. Robert Shivambu, UNAIDS communication officer, told VOA: “The region's success in having reduced new HIV infections by 56% since 2010 will not be sustained if fiscal space is constrained.” Shivambu said the U.N. believes that when debt payments hinder countries' ability to effectively look after health care needs of their people, global health security is put at risk. Zimbabwe is one of the countries fighting to reduce the rate of HIV infection while dealing with high debt. On Friday, parliament Speaker Jacob Mudenda told colleagues that the country had made strides in fighting HIV/AIDS, starting in 1999 as a pioneer of the AIDS levy — a 3% income tax for individuals and 3% tax on profits of employers. He said that the budget of $387 million for HIV programs — largely foreign sponsored — was no longer enough and that there was need to expand the tax base. “Let’s create wealth, when that wealth is created from our wealth, including mineral resources, we are going to be able to expand the tax base,” he said. “From that expanded tax base we will be able as parliament to come with a very stout budget. These donations are going to dwindle, slowly but surely. This current funding level still falls far short of the estimated $500 million needed annually to achieve [the] ambitious goal of the Zimbabwe national AIDS strategic plan, especially with over 1 million people living with HIV now on anti-retroviral therapy.” Mudenda declined to say if servicing Zimbabwe’s debt — which stands at $17.5 billion, according to the African Development Bank — was one reason funding for HIV programs is falling short. Zimbabwe is battling to service its debt so that it can resume receiving loans from multilateral development banks such as the IMF and World Bank. Shivambu said, “Public debt needs to be urgently reduced and domestic resource mobilization strengthened to enable the fiscal space to fully fund the HIV response and end AIDS. World leaders cannot let a resource crunch derail global progress to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.” That’s the message UNAIDS officials will take to the high-level summit of the U.N. General Assembly beginning next week.

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 — New clashes erupted Friday between U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and Iran-backed Syrian government forces in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, a war monitor and local sources reported.   The fighting began when Syrian government forces and their allied militias launched mortar attacks against positions belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, in the restive province, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.  A resident in the area told VOA that SDF fighters responded by firing at the source of the attacks, using mortars and light weapons. The resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said several SDF fighters sustained light wounds in the clashes, but the Syrian Observatory said there were no confirmed reports of casualties on either side.    Control of Deir el-Zour is divided between the two sides, with the SDF ruling the eastern side of the Euphrates River, while the western side is controlled by Syrian government forces and Iranian-backed militias. Iran has been a staunch sponsor of Syrian government forces since the beginning of the country’s conflict in 2011.  Deir el-Zour province was a major stronghold for the Islamic State terror group until 2019, when SDF troops, aided by a U.S.-led global coalition, ended IS’s so-called caliphate in eastern Syria.    In recent weeks, there has been an increase in confrontations between the two sides. In August, a Syrian government paramilitary group called the National Defense Forces carried out an attack on SDF-controlled parts of Deir el-Zour, killing several civilians, according to local news reports. In response, the SDF launched a major attack, killing at least 20 government troops.   The SDF is a Kurdish-led military alliance that has been a major U.S. partner in the fight against the Islamic State terror group. As part of their continued efforts to combat IS remnants, the U.S. has about 900 troops in northeast Syria, including in Deir el-Zour.   Hoshang Hasan, a reporter at the local North Press agency who closely covers events in eastern Syria, said Syrian government forces and allied Iranian militias have made clear that their goal is to destabilize the situation in Deir el-Zour.  “They are determined to keep this region unstable, and to do that they have been attempting continuously to push out the U.S. forces in the area,” he told VOA.  Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in October 2023, bases housing U.S. and coalition forces in eastern Syria have been targeted by Iranian-backed militias dozens of times.   Jonathan Spyer, director of research at the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum, said there was a need for increased U.S. military support to the SDF to maintain the status quo in the region.  “The goal of the Iran-supported militias in maintaining pressure on the U.S. and its allies is clearly to precipitate a U.S. withdrawal,” he told VOA, adding that “such a withdrawal would remove a major barrier to Iranian control and smuggling and movement of forces from Iraq into Syria and Lebanon in the event of an all-out war against Israel.”  “The current uptick in pressure [in eastern Syria] can't be separated from the more general partial mobilization of Iran-supported forces in the region in the context of the Gaza war,” he underscored.  This story originated in VOA’s Kurdish Service.