Voice of America’s immigration news

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.

After weeks of pro-Palestinian protests escalating at universities across the U.S., President Joe Biden warned Thursday that order must prevail, even as he underscored that dissent is “essential for democracy.” White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.

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.

As UNESCO marks World Press Freedom Day on May 3, we celebrate the dedication of journalists and independent media in delivering credible news to audiences in censored countries. This week on The Inside Story: World Press Freedom Day. #PressFreedom #TheInsideStory

Tehran, Iran — Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that efforts underway to normalize ties between Israel and Arab countries will not resolve the crisis in the Middle East.   "Some people think that by forcing neighboring countries to normalize their ties [with Israel] the problem will be solved," Khamenei said in remarks made Wednesday. "They are wrong."   Khamenei's remarks came after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said Washington is nearly ready with a security package to offer Saudi Arabia if it normalizes relations with Israel.   Saudi Arabia had been in talks over a potential normalization with Israel, but they were paused when the Gaza war broke out.  The war erupted after Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. About 250 people were taken hostage by Hamas, which has been designated a terror group by the U.S., U.K., EU and others.    Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least more than 34,500 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.   Regional tensions have soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, drawing in Iran-backed militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.   The Islamic republic backs Hamas but has denied any direct involvement in the group's attack on arch-foe Israel.  Iran does not recognize Israel and has made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.   "Palestine should be returned to them [Palestinians]," Khamenei said.  "They should form their own regime, their own system. Then that system should decide how to deal with the Zionists," he said. 

Tehran — Iran announced on Thursday sanctions on several American and British individuals and entities for supporting Israel in its war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.  The Islamic republic, the regional arch-foe of Israel, unveiled the punitive measures in a statement from its Foreign Ministry.  It said the sanctions targeted seven Americans, including General Bryan P. Fenton, commander of the U.S. special operations command, and Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, a former commander of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.  British officials and entities targeted include Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps, commander of the British army strategic command James Hockenhull, and the U.K. Royal Navy in the Red Sea.  Penalties were also announced against U.S. firms Lockheed Martin and Chevron and British counterparts Elbit Systems, Parker Meggitt, and Rafael UK.  The ministry said the sanctions include "blocking of accounts and transactions in the Iranian financial and banking systems, blocking of assets within the jurisdiction of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as prohibition of visa issuance and entry to the Iranian territory."  The impact of these measures on the individuals or entities, as well as their assets or dealings with Iran, remains unclear.  The war in the Gaza Strip erupted after the October 7 attack by Palestinian militants on Israel which killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.  Iran backs Hamas but has denied any direct involvement in the attack.  Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has since killed at least 34,568 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's Health Ministry.         

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.

LONDON — British police arrested 45 people on Thursday after a violent protest in London against the transfer of asylum seekers form a hotel to a barge off southern England. Dozens of protesters outside the hotel in Peckham, southeast London, attempted to stop a bus carrying the asylum seekers from leaving, reportedly deflating its tires and obstructing the vehicle by surrounding it, London's Metropolitan Police said. Tackling illegal migration is one of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's top priorities, and to bring down the high costs of accommodating migrants in hotels while their asylum claims are processed, the government has been trying to use barges and former military sites. Critics, however, have called the Bibby Stockholm barge — which is docked at Portland Port in Dorset and can house up to 500 men — inhumane and compared it to a prison ship. Several police officers were assaulted during the protest in Peckham, but none were seriously hurt, police said. "We will always respect the right to peaceful protest, but when officers are assaulted and obstructed from their duty, then we can and will take decisive action," Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said. Arrests were made for offenses that included obstruction of the highway, obstructing police and assault on police. "Housing migrants in hotels costs the British taxpayer millions of pounds every day," Home Secretary James Cleverly said on social media platform X, alongside a video of the protest. "We will not allow this small group of students, posing for social media, to deter us from doing what is right for the British public," he said.

NASA may soon have another way to get astronauts into space. Plus, the agency reconnects with an old friend and how to train a dog for a walk ... on the moon. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.

Tehran — Iran's judiciary rejected on Thursday a BBC report suggesting a teenage girl was sexually assaulted and killed by Revolutionary Guards during the 2022 protests triggered by Mahsa Amini's death. Protests erupted across Iran over the September 2022 death of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.  The body of 16-year-old Nika Shakarami, who disappeared on September 20 after joining one of those demonstrations in the capital, was found after a week.  At the time, the authorities in Iran denied the death was linked to the protests and said she committed suicide by jumping from a building.  But a BBC report this week contained allegations the teenager had been sexually assaulted and killed after being arrested by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.  In an article on its website, the BBC News said it had no immediate comment. "The so-called investigative report of BBC World about Nika Shakarami showed that this media outlet ... is not committed to truth and reality," said a statement posted on the judiciary's Mizan Online website.  It added that the report showed the British broadcaster "did not and does not pay attention to the most basic principle of a documented report, which is the possibility of verifying and validating the sources and documents".  The judiciary's statement, which contains a number of photos and documents from Tehran's Legal Medicine Organization, rejected the molestation claim and said the teenager had committed suicide.  Months of unrest following Amini's death saw hundreds of people killed including dozens of security personnel, and thousands more arrested.  Iranian officials labelled the protests as riots and accused Tehran's foreign enemies of fomenting the unrest.  Nine men have been executed in protest-related cases involving killings and other violence against security forces. 

United Nations — The United Nations said Thursday that the war in the Gaza Strip has set back development there by 40 years, and that rebuilding will cost billions of dollars over many years. “An early recovery program for three years to bring back hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to temporary shelters in their original locations with comprehensive community support, will cost between $2-3 billion,” said Abdallah Al Dardari, director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States at the U.N. Development Program (UNDP). “The overall reconstruction of Gaza today according to our estimate will be between $40-50 billion, at least.” Dardari spoke to reporters from Amman, Jordan, where he launched an updated UNDP report on expected socioeconomic impacts of the war between Israel and Hamas, which hits the seven-month mark on Tuesday. The conflict has taken a toll on Palestinian lives, with more than 34,000 killed and nearly 78,000 injured to date, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. By mid-April, UNDP says deaths and injuries amounted to at least 5% of Gaza’s population. During the October 7 Hamas terror attacks inside Israel, at least 1,200 people were killed and 250 others kidnapped. More than 30 of those still in captivity are believed to be dead. The fighting has leveled much of Gaza, damaging or destroying some 370,000 housing units and 9% of commercial properties. UNDP says even in its best-case scenario it would take 16 years — until 2040 — to reconstruct the destroyed homes, without repairing the damaged ones. If reconstruction timelines follow the same pattern as after the 2014 and 2021 wars between Hamas and Israel, the report says, Gaza would need approximately 80 years to restore the destroyed homes. Regression to 1980 levels Dardari said 40 years of development gains in Gaza have been lost, amounting to an investment of nearly $50 billion. “That means that the levels of education and literacy will be affected dramatically at the end of this conflict,” he said. “But more dangerously, in our analysis, the impact of the conflict will stay with us for a long time, unless we quickly address temporary schooling, temporary health care, psycho-social support to the population, and bringing back basic services like water, sanitation, and electricity.” While every Palestinian has been affected in some way by the conflict, the report found that the middle class has been most affected. If the war continues until July, it would bring a large part of the middle class below the poverty line, increasing the total number of Palestinians pushed into poverty to 3.32 million — or just over 60% of the population. Palestinian GDP has also suffered dramatically since the war started, declining 25% — or nearly $7 billion. Dardari said that could reach 29% if the war continues into July.

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.

Demonstrations against Israel's military action in Gaza continue around the world as police raid the protester's encampment on the campus of UCLA. Joe Biden reacts to the protesters and the politics. A look at security in Asia, plus, tomorrow is World Press Freedom Day.

Witnesses and survivor accounts, photographs, and videos as well as satellite images place Burkina Faso troops at the scene of the attack reported by Human Rights Watch, an international watchdog with a decades-long history of documenting abuses.

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.

BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbian lawmakers on Thursday voted into office a new government that reinstated two pro-Russia officials who are sanctioned by the United States, reflecting persistent close ties with Moscow despite the Balkan nation's proclaimed bid to join the European Union.  Prime Minister Milos Vucevic's government got backing in a 152-61 vote in the 250-member parliament. The remaining 37 lawmakers were absent.  The government includes former intelligence chief Aleksandar Vulin, who has made several visits to Russia in recent months, as one of several vice-premiers, along with Nenad Popovic, another Russia supporter who has faced U.S. sanctions.  The foreign minister in the previous government, Ivica Dacic, also a pro-Russia politician, will be in charge of the Interior Ministry in the new Cabinet.  The vote followed a heated two-day debate. President Aleksandar Vucic's ruling nationalist conservative Serbian Progressive Party holds a comfortable majority after an election in December that fueled political tensions because of reports of widespread irregularities.  The increasingly authoritarian Vucic has refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, though Serbia has condemned the aggression.  Vucevic, the new prime minister, reiterated that Belgrade doesn't intend to impose sanctions on Russia and "cannot and will not give up" the friendship with Russia. Integration into the EU remains a "strategic goal," Vucevic said.  "Best possible" relations with the U.S. also are in Serbia's interest, Vucevic added. "I firmly believe that our relations can once again be on a high level."  Security analyst and a Belgrade university professor Filip Ejdus described the new government's composition as a "spin" designed to send a message both to the West and Russia, and to voters at home.  "It sends a message to the EU that they should not push Belgrade too much over democracy, rule of law, or Kosovo if they want to keep Serbia in its orbit," Ejdus said. "At the same time, it signals to Moscow a readiness to strengthen the strategic partnership with Russia."  The U.S. imposed sanctions on Vulin in July, accusing him of involvement in illegal arms shipments, drug trafficking and misuse of public office.  The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control said that Vulin used his public authority to help a U.S.-sanctioned Serbian arms dealer move illegal arms shipments across Serbia's borders. Vulin is also accused of involvement in a drug-trafficking ring, according to U.S. authorities.  Vulin, who in the past had served as both the army and police chief, has recently received two medals of honor from Russia, one from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, and the other awarded to him by Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Popovic, a businessman and a former government minister, has "used his Russia-based businesses to enrich himself and gain close connections with Kremlin senior leaders," the U.S. Treasury said last November in a statement.  The U.S. sanctions against individuals and companies in the Balkans are designed to counter attempts to undermine peace and stability in the volatile region and Russia's "malign" influence.  The West has stepped up efforts to lure the troubled region into its fold, fearing that Russia could stir unrest to avert attention from the war in Ukraine. The Balkans went through multiple wars in the 1990s, and tensions still persist.  Serbia's falling democracy record has pushed the country away from EU integration, explained Ejdus. Reports of election fraud at the December 17 vote triggered street protests and clashes.  "Vucic is still pretending to be on the EU path because it's beneficial for Serbia's economy, and the EU tolerates his authoritarian tendencies out of fear of instability that could be caused in its backyard if Belgrade was lost to Russia and China," Ejdus said.