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Kigali — Hate speech fueled Rwanda’s tragic 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, resulting in the loss of around 800,000 people. Today, a new generation – including some very determined Generation Z members in Rwanda – is leading the charge to stop hate speech from spreading again and working towards a future of unity and understanding. In a quiet dark room, Clara, a young Rwandan, tearfully confronts her mother. Born long after a genocide forced her family to flee, she seeks the truth about her roots. Clara is a fictional character in a stage play presented by the Rwandan youth organization Peace and Love Proclaimers, or PLP. She represents a majority of Rwandan Gen Z’s, said the group's head, Israel Nuru Mupenzi. Over 100 days in 1994, Hutu extremists massacred some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in what is known today as the Rwandan Genocide against Tutsis. Thirty years on, a new generation feels lost in a broken society, said Mupenzi. “We were not there, but we are now facing the aftermath. We are seeing our parents and our neighbors closing doors to each other because of lack of trust. Some couples are breaking up because of that. They say, ‘My parents said they can’t, he can't allow me to be married to that family,” said Mupenzi. Parents haunted by the past are reluctant to share why. “They kinda try to hide it. ‘Dad, you don't want to talk about this? But you know you have to tell me about this so I can know what to do,” said Mupenzi. So, they go to the internet and social media for answers. But social media influencer Noella Shyaka said the space is very unhealthy. She explained that perpetrators of the 1994 crimes fled the country and continue to use social media to spread hate. Their goal, she said, is to radicalize the youth against each other.  “So, we get attacked. Certain groups, they target you, they always come in your comments, they call you names, ‘Slut’ ‘Tutsis’, yeah, we are not comfortable,” said Shyaka. Many youths are angry, according to Rwandan artist and PLP creative director Colin Kazungu. He said some youth react to these hate speeches by writing songs and poems about violence and revenge. To help, he is using entertainment, arts, and sports to dispel the hate and also create a safe space for genocide conversation. “Art has a way to your heart even when a speech or a president's speech cannot go straight to your heart. But I can talk to your heart with music even before a government official gets a platform to talk to you. Because many people follow music than they follow political things,” he said. Kazunga said the toxicity around genocide conversations drives most youths away from the topic, but through art, entertainment and other fun events, PLP has seen them re-engage. “People are now starting to understand that we need to take part in this journey, in this journey to fight genocide ideology, in this journey to say never again, to make never again a reality,” he said.    The Peace and Love Proclaimers together with youth artists in Rwanda continue to raise awareness through community and school engagements. They have about 60 partner schools where they organize entertainment and education events, including peace walks all year round.

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.

The average income of people around the world will be cut by one-fifth because of climate change by the middle of the century, according to a new report by Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, published in the journal Nature. Henry Ridgwell has more.

LONDON — The Scottish government survived a vote of no confidence on Wednesday, giving the Scottish National Party a chance to pick a new leader to replace outgoing First Minister Humza Yousaf.  Yousaf's decision to step down as first minister and SNP leader on Monday has thrown the party into chaos and boosted hopes in Britain's opposition Labour Party that it can regain Scottish seats to win a national election later this year.  Polls show that Labour is ahead of or level with the SNP in Scotland for the first time in a decade.  Yousaf said he would resign after he ended a coalition with the Green Party. It means the SNP is seeking a third leader in little over a year, undermining what had once seemed like its iron grip on power in the devolved Scottish government.  While the Greens made Yousaf's position untenable by withdrawing their confidence in him personally, they voted with the SNP against Wednesday's vote of no confidence in the Scottish government.  The no confidence motion was defeated, 70-58.   Defeat for the government would have led to the resignation of all ministers and most likely triggered a Scottish election.  With that outcome averted, Yousaf will remain in office until the SNP chooses a new leader. Former SNP party leader John Swinney and Yousaf's old leadership rival Kate Forbes have said they are considering running.  Yousaf took over the party in March last year, after the resignation of longtime leader Nicola Sturgeon, who faced splits in the party over the best route to independence for Scotland and proposed transgender recognition legislation.  Police have also probed the SNP's finances, and Sturgeon's husband has been charged with embezzling funds from the SNP. She has been arrested and questioned but not charged. Both deny wrongdoing. 

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Jerusalem — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday as talks continue in Cairo to resolve details of an elusive bid for a cease-fire in Israel’s war with Hamas militants in Gaza. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Blinken “emphasized that it is Hamas that is standing in the way of a cease-fire.” The militants so far have refused to accept a plan calling for a several-week halt in nearly seven months of warfare, along with Hamas failing to free hostages it is holding in exchange for the release of Palestinians jailed by Israel. But even as Blinken blamed Hamas for the lack of a truce, Miller said the top U.S. diplomat told Netanyahu that the U.S. remains opposed to the Israeli leader’s call for a ground attack on the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where Israel says it plans to root out four remaining battalions of Hamas fighters. The U.S., the United Nations and numerous world officials have voiced opposition to an attack on Rafah because more than a million Palestinian refugees are sheltering there, many of them ordered by the Israeli military to flee there from their homes in northern Gaza during the earliest weeks of the war. Netanyahu says the offensive is necessary to meet Israel’s goal of erasing Hamas control of Gaza, and that it will happen regardless of whether there is a cease-fire and hostage-release deal with Hamas. After an earlier meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, Blinken said of the truce talks, “There is a proposal on the table, and as we’ve said, no delays, no excuses, the time is now.” Cairo has been hosting talks involving U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators that have produced the latest cease-fire proposal. Blinken also placed a continued emphasis on getting more humanitarian aid into Gaza to feed famished Palestinians. “At the same time, even as we’re working with relentless determination to get the cease-fire that brings the hostages home, we also have to be focused on people in Gaza who are suffering in this crossfire of Hamas’ making,” Blinken said. The top U.S. diplomat has repeatedly called on Hamas to accept the cease-fire proposal during a trip to the region that included earlier stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Herzog said the return of hostages held by Hamas “is and should be the top priority of the international community.” Following the meeting with Herzog, Blinken spoke with demonstrators outside who held signs and chanted slogans calling for the hostages in Gaza to be brought home. Blinken told the demonstrators he had met with families of the hostages and told them, “Bringing your loved ones home is at the heart of everything we’re trying to do.” Hamas is believed to still be holding about 100 hostages, along with the remains of about 30 others, after taking about 250 people hostage in the October 7 attack on Israel in which the militants killed 1,200 people. Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,500 people, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza. Israel says the death toll includes several thousand Hamas militants it has killed. Blinken met Tuesday with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and King Abdullah II, before meeting with Sigrid Kaag, U.N. senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza. Blinken thanked Abdullah for Jordan’s leadership in facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, including joint U.S.-Jordan airdrops that to date have delivered more than 1,000 tons of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. The two leaders discussed joint efforts to expedite the flow of additional urgently needed aid to Gaza from Jordan through land routes. Blinken also commended the king’s commitment to economic modernization and vital public sector reforms. Later Tuesday, Blinken met with Palestinians from Gaza at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs before meeting with Kaag. Blinken told Kaag he was anxious to hear directly from her, adding, “The entire team is doing extraordinary work to ensure that people in Gaza get the help and support and the assistance they need.” VOA’s Cindy Saine contributed to this report.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Tourists were evacuated by air from Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve Wednesday after more than a dozen hotels, lodges and camps were flooded as heavy rains continue to batter the country. Tourist accommodation facilities were submerged after a river within the Maasai Mara broke its banks early Wednesday. The reserve, in southwestern Kenya, is a popular tourist destination because it features the annual wildebeest migration from the Serengeti in Tanzania. The Kenya Red Cross said it rescued 36 people by air and 25 others by land. The Narok County government said it deployed two helicopters to carry out evacuations in the expansive conservation area. More than 170 people have died across Kenya since mid-March when the rainy season started, causing flooding and landslides and destroying infrastructure. The Meteorology Department has warned that more rain is expected this week. On Monday, a river broke through a clogged tunnel in the Mai Mahiu area in western Kenya, sweeping houses away and damaging roads. The incident killed 48 people, and more than 80 others were missing. Search and rescue operations across the Mai Mahiu area are ongoing. President William Ruto on Tuesday ordered the military to join in the search. Locals say rescue efforts have been slow due to lack of equipment to dig through the debris. The government has urged people living in flood-prone areas to evacuate or be moved forcefully as water levels in two major hydroelectric dams rise to a "historic high."

Egypt’s eighth annual Aswan International Women Film Festival took place from April 20 to 25. This year's focus was on the resilience of women, with Egypt's economic turmoil and the war in neighboring Gaza as a backdrop. Cairo-based photojournalist Hamada Elrasam captured scenes around the festival in Aswan, Egypt's southernmost city known as the country's ancient gateway. Captions by Elle Kurancid.

The Center on Holocaust Survivor Care and Institute on Aging and Trauma helps older adults with a history of trauma cope with depression and anxiety resulting from their horrific experiences. These days, the center is also helping Holocaust survivors deal with the trauma of two modern wars in Ukraine and Israel. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Vazgen Varzhabetian  

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.

According to the World Health Organization, 1.3 million people died from tuberculosis in 2022. The disease is fully treatable but relies on timely diagnosis. Mireille Kamariza, a molecular bioengineer from the University of California, Los Angeles, has developed a test that can detect the bacteria quickly, precisely and inexpensively. VOA’s Genia Dulot has the story.

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.

BEIJING — The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China said he was allowed back into his lab after he spent days locked outside, sitting in protest. Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post on Wednesday, just past midnight, that the medical center that hosts his lab had "tentatively agreed" to allow him and his team to return and continue their research for the time being. "Now, team members can enter and leave the laboratory freely," Zhang wrote in a post on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. He added that he is negotiating a plan to relocate the lab in a way that doesn't disrupt his team's work with the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, which hosts Zhang's lab. Zhang and his team were suddenly told they had to leave their lab for renovations on Thursday, setting off the dispute, he said in an earlier post that was later deleted. On Sunday, Zhang began a sit-in protest outside his lab after he found he was locked out, a sign of continuing pressure on Chinese scientists conducting research on the coronavirus. Zhang sat outside on flattened cardboard in drizzling rain, and members of his team unfurled a banner that read "Resume normal scientific research work," pictures posted online show. News of the protest spread widely on Chinese social media, putting pressure on local authorities. In an online statement Monday, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said that Zhang's lab was closed for "safety reasons" while being renovated. It added that it had provided Zhang's team an alternative laboratory space. But Zhang responded the same day his team wasn't offered an alternative until after they were notified of their eviction, and the lab offered didn't meet safety standards for conducting their research, leaving his team in limbo. Zhang's dispute with his host institution was the latest in a series of setbacks, demotions and ousters since the virologist published the sequence in January 2020 without state approval. Beijing has sought to control information related to the virus since it first emerged. An Associated Press investigation found that the government froze domestic and international efforts to trace it from the first weeks of the outbreak. These days, labs are closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out and some Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country. Zhang's ordeal started when he and his team decoded the virus on Jan. 5, 2020, and wrote an internal notice warning Chinese authorities of its potential to spread — but did not make the sequence public. The next day, Zhang's lab was ordered to close temporarily by China's top health official, and Zhang came under pressure from authorities. Foreign scientists soon learned that Zhang and other Chinese scientists had deciphered the virus and called on China to release the sequence. Zhang published it on Jan. 11, 2020, despite a lack of permission from Chinese health officials. Sequencing a virus is key to the development of test kits, disease control measures and vaccinations. The virus eventually spread to every corner of the world, triggering a pandemic that disrupted lives and commerce, prompted widespread lockdowns and killed millions of people. Zhang was awarded prizes overseas in recognition for his work. But health officials removed him from a post at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and barred him from collaborating with some of his former partners, hindering his research. Still, Zhang retains support from some in the government. Though some of Zhang's online posts were deleted, his sit-in protest was reported widely in China's state-controlled media, indicating divisions within the Chinese government on how to deal with Zhang and his team. "Thank you to my online followers and people from all walks of life for your concern and strong support over the past few days!" Zhang wrote in his post Wednesday.

Washington — A majority of Americans believe that China uses TikTok to shape U.S. public opinion, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted as Washington moves closer to potentially banning the Chinese-owned short-video app. Some 58% of respondents to the two-day poll, which closed on Tuesday, agreed with a statement that the Chinese government uses TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, to "influence American public opinion." Some 13% disagreed, and the rest were unsure or didn't answer the question. Republicans were more likely than Democrats to see China as using the app to affect U.S. opinions. TikTok says it has spent more than $1.5 billion on data security efforts and would not share data on its 170 million U.S. users with the Chinese government. The company told Congress last year that it does "not promote or remove content at the request of the Chinese government." TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. President Joe Biden last week signed legislation giving ByteDance 270 days to divest TikTok's U.S. assets or face a ban. TikTok has vowed to challenge the ban as a violation of the protections of free expression enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and TikTok users are expected to again take legal action. A U.S. judge in Montana in November blocked a state ban on TikTok, citing free-speech concerns. The Reuters/Ipsos poll found 50% of Americans supported banning TikTok, while 32% opposed a ban and the rest were unsure. The poll only surveyed U.S. adults and doesn't reflect the views of people under age 18, who make up a significant portion of TikTok's users in the United States. About six in 10 poll respondents aged 40 and older supported a ban, compared with about four in 10 aged 18-39. The poll showed 46% of Americans agreed with a statement that China is using the app to "spy on everyday Americas," an allegation Beijing has denied. The app is ubiquitous in America. Even Biden's re-election campaign is using it as a tool to win over voters ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election. Biden's rival, Republican Donald Trump, who has criticized a potential ban and is the majority owner of the company that operates his social media app Truth Social, has not joined. A majority of Americans, 60%, said it was inappropriate for U.S. political candidates to use TikTok to promote their campaigns. Biden's signing of the law sets a Jan. 19 deadline for a sale — one day before his term is set to expire — but he could extend the deadline by three months if he determines that ByteDance is making progress on divesting the app. The poll, which was conducted online, gathered responses from 1,022 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of about 3 percentage points.

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.

TBILISI — Georgian lawmakers tussled in parliament on Wednesday as lawmakers resumed debating the second reading of a bill on "foreign agents" that has sparked weeks of protest, and a violent police crackdown on Tuesday. Georgian television showed commotion in the chamber. One pro-government deputy was seen throwing a book at opposition legislators, while others shouted and physically confronted opponents. The foreign agent bill has prompted an upsurge of violence in Georgia's often-rowdy parliament. Georgian security forces used water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades against protesters outside parliament late on Tuesday, sharply escalating the crackdown after lawmakers debated the "foreign agents" bill viewed by the opposition and Western nations as authoritarian and Russian-inspired. During the protests in Tbilisi Tuesday, police detained 63 people and six police officers were injured, Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze said. Levan Khabeishvili, leader of the United National Movement party, Georgia's largest opposition bloc, spoke in parliament on Wednesday with his face heavily bandaged. His party said he was badly beaten by police at the protest, leaving him with concussion, broken facial bones, and missing four teeth. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote in a post on X on Wednesday: "I strongly condemn the violence against protesters in Georgia who were peacefully demonstrating against the law on foreign influence." The EU, which gave Georgia candidate status in December, has said the bill could derail Tbilisi's hopes of European integration if passed. Supporters of the bill, including Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party and former prime minister, say the foreign agent law would bolster national sovereignty amid what he said were Western attempts to lead Georgia into a confrontation with Russia.