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Warsaw, Poland — Olga drew her index finger abruptly across her neck as she recounted the threats her husband leveled at her after he returned to Russia, wounded from fighting in Ukraine. "I'm going to cut your head and hands off and beat you up. I'll burn you in acid," he threatened her, she said. Even before her husband went off to fight in Ukraine, he was a violent alcoholic, Olga -- not her real name -- told AFP. When he returned home seven months later, he was even worse. And now he was a war hero, endowed with a sense of impunity and moral righteousness. "He became even more radical," she said. "He said that he was untouchable, that nothing could happen to him." Domestic violence Long before Russia invaded Ukraine, rights groups had sounded the alarm over the country's woeful record on protecting women from domestic violence. In 2017, lawmakers -- with the blessing of the Orthodox Church -- reduced penalties for Russians convicted of beating family members. And the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin has in recent years argued that abuse within families should be resolved by families, not law enforcement. With the war in Ukraine, campaigners say that an already widespread problem could now be getting even worse. While there are no publicly available figures on the scope of violence perpetrated by veterans, campaigners have identified a slew of survivors. Local media, too, is awash with reports of violent crimes committed by ex-soldiers. AFP spoke to two Russian women about the violence they had suffered from veterans of the war in Ukraine. Both requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. Their testimonies are rare, given how the Kremlin has sought to exalt veterans fighting in a war it paints as existential. Moscow has brought in new laws to criminalize criticism of the Russian army and its soldiers. 'Ice-cold' eyes Olga's life in her isolated Russian town had long been marked by violence. Her husband was an alcoholic who regularly raped and beat her, stole money and monitored her every social interaction, she said. Over and over, he would beg for forgiveness after an altercation, only to become violent again, she said. So, when he volunteered for the army in October 2022, Olga hoped that proximity to "death and tears" might calm him down and sober him up. Her hopes were dashed. He returned from the front earlier than expected to recover from a shrapnel wound. "The next evening, I had a nervous breakdown," she said. "He was totally sober, but his eyes were shining. His eyes were ice-cold. He started insulting me," she recalled. Tensions were building at home that evening and Olga called an ambulance for refuge, pre-empting the moment he would raise his hand at her. "If you let me out of this vehicle, he will kill me," she told the ambulance crew. AFP independently reviewed threats Olga received by text message, as well as reports compiled by the rights advocacy group Consortium that support the women's testimonies. 'Dreams of justice' The police took a statement from Olga and told her husband to leave, but otherwise took no action, she said -- a practice that rights campaigners have denounced for years. Her husband remained at liberty, and free to spend the equivalent of the 30,000 euros he had received as compensation for being wounded. The couple eventually divorced, and Olga's ex-husband returned to Ukraine months later in December 2023 -- but not before assaulting her one final time and robbing her of money. Ever since her former partner had left for Ukraine again, Olga said she had become preoccupied with the idea of holding him accountable -- "dreams of justice," as she called it. What triggered it was a television show she watched on domestic violence. "It felt as if they were speaking directly to me." The program prompted Olga to file a complaint with law enforcement and telephone Consortium for advice on how to protect herself. Sofia Rusova from the group told AFP she had received around 10 reports like Olga's involving veterans last year alone. She echoed warnings voiced by other advocacy groups that the Kremlin's decision to invade Ukraine had exacerbated domestic abuse in Russia and normalized extreme violence. "The consequences may be felt for a decade," she warned. 'Won't be punished' The placing of veterans on a pedestal -- part of a push by the Kremlin to shore up support for the devastating conflict -- has endowed them with a feeling that they are above the law, she added. "Women often tell me that their attacker said he wouldn't be punished," Rusova told AFP. "These men flaunt their status." But that feeling among veterans also has roots in the failure of the Russian judicial system to tackle domestic violence, she added. "The system sometimes failed to defend women before, so these men think it will keep failing women, and that the state will be on their side," Rusova said. Regional media outlets across Russia regularly publish reports on violent crimes committed by servicemen or former members of the Wagner paramilitary group that fought for the Kremlin in Ukraine. While in some cases, the defendants are handed long prison sentences, sometimes they get off lightly. In separate cases in the southern regions of Volgograd and Rostov near Ukraine, two veterans were allowed to walk free after having stabbed their girlfriends. One of the victims died. The main difficulty in bringing them to justice is that Russia has limited mechanisms for prosecuting violence within the family. Russia in 2017 decriminalized certain forms of domestic violence, classifying them as an administrative offence and not a crime, with reduced penalties. The weakness of legal protection for women means there is little incentive for law enforcement to go after suspects -- or for those among victims to report the problem in the first place, say activists. This month, AFP asked the Kremlin to comment on the slew of reports in local press describing bouts of violence among veterans. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin had recently met with officials from the interior ministry and that the issue had not been raised. "This kind of violence was not among the areas of concern," he said. 'Pure horror' The Kremlin has also spoken in favor of the military's recruitment drive in prisons, paving the way for dangerous criminals to return to society if they survive a months-long battlefield stint. Rusova, from the Consortium campaign group, said several Russian prisons had confirmed to her that people convicted of domestic violence had been recruited to fight in Ukraine. One woman had voiced relief when she learned her abusive husband had been killed in Ukraine, she told AFP. Nadezhda had to face her abusive ex-husband, a veteran of the Wagner group, when he returned from the front a year ago even more aggressive than before. The Wagner group suffered tens of thousands of losses during some of the bloodiest battles of the war before it was dissolved by Moscow after its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged a short-lived rebellion. When her former husband returned, he had a serious drug problem, said Nadezhda. But he insisted she pay due respect to his service with what he saw as an elite fighting force. She struggled for months with feelings of shame and uncertainty over whether she should seek help, she said. Finally, after one outburst of violence that got her fearing for the lives of her children, she fled to a shelter at the end of last year. A sympathetic police officer helped her file a legal complaint that -- to her surprise -- led to her ex-husband being arrested. "We had got used to the nightmare," she said. "We lived with it. We thought it wasn't serious." "But now that we're processing it all, we understand that it was pure horror," she said. Nadezhda and her children are now receiving psychological support. But even though her ex-husband is behind bars, she is haunted by the fear he might someday return seeking revenge. "Still, you walk around, and there's this fear that he'll jump out," Nadezhda told AFP. "There's always the feeling he's out there with a knife. It's just so ingrained in my head."

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Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Friday that Russia's capture of a major nuclear power plant threatened a radiation catastrophe, as the country marked the anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) in southern Ukraine in the first days of its 2022 invasion. Both sides regularly accuse each other of endangering safety at the site, Europe's largest nuclear facility. "For 785 days now, Russian terrorists have held the Zaporizhzhia NPP hostage," Zelenskyy said on social media. "It is the entire world's responsibility to put pressure on Russia to ensure that ZNPP is liberated and returned to full Ukrainian control, as well as that all Ukrainian nuclear facilities are protected from Russian strikes," he added. "This is the only way to prevent new radiation disasters, which the Russian occupiers' presence at ZNPP constantly threatens." The call came 38 years after the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. The incident, which is considered the world's worst nuclear disaster, contaminated vast areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Swathes of western Europe were also exposed to radiation. "The Chernobyl disaster demonstrated how rapidly deadly threats can emerge," Zelenskyy said Friday. Russian forces captured the decommissioned Chernobyl facility on February 24, 2022 -- the first day of its invasion, when it sent troops into Ukraine from Belarus -- but abandoned it weeks later. Russian troops have controlled the Zaporizhzhia plant since early March 2022. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has dispatched inspectors to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, has expressed concern over safety at the plant. Moscow has accused Ukraine of firing drones at the power station, while Kyiv says Moscow has militarized the facility and is holding it "hostage."

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.

New York — Columbia University backed off late Thursday from an overnight deadline for pro-Palestinian protesters to abandon an encampment there as more college campuses in the United States sought to prevent occupations from taking hold. Police have carried out large-scale arrests in universities across the country, at times using chemical irritants and tasers to disperse protests over Israel's war with Hamas. The office of New York-based Columbia University President Minouche Shafik issued a statement at 11:07 p.m. (0307 GMT Friday) retreating from a midnight deadline to dismantle a large tent camp with around 200 students. "The talks have shown progress and are continuing as planned," the statement said. "We have our demands; they have theirs." The statement denied that New York City police were invited on the campus. "This rumor is false," it said. A student, identifying herself only as Mimi, told AFP she had been at the camp for seven days. "They call us terrorists, they call us violent. But the only tool we actually have are our voices," she said. Student protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the death toll has topped 34,305, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. More than 200 people protesting the war were arrested Wednesday and early Thursday at universities in Los Angeles, Boston and Austin, Texas, where around 2,000 people gathered again Thursday. Riot officers in the southern state of Georgia used chemical irritants and tasers to disperse protests at Emory University in Atlanta. Photographs showed police wielding tasers as they wrestled with protesters on neatly manicured lawns. The Atlanta Police Department said officers responding to the school's request for help were "met with violence" and used "chemical irritants" in their response. The spreading protests began at Columbia University, which has remained the epicenter of the student protest movement. Free speech? The protests pose a major challenge to university administrators who are trying to balance campus commitments to free expression with complaints that the rallies have crossed a line. Pro-Israel supporters and others worried about campus safety have pointed to antisemitic incidents and allege that campuses are encouraging intimidation and hate speech. "I've never felt more scared to be a Jew in America right now," said Skyler Sieradsky, a 21-year-old student of philosophy and political science at George Washington University. "There are students and faculty standing by messages of hate, and standing by messages that call for violence." Demonstrators, who include a number of Jewish students, have disavowed antisemitism and criticized officials equating it with opposition to Israel. "People are here in support of Palestinian people from all different backgrounds... (compelled by) their general sense of justice," a 33-year-old graduate student at the University of Texas, Austin, who said he was Jewish and gave his name as Josh, told AFP.  U.S. ally Israel launched its war in Gaza after the Hamas attack on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. Hamas militants also took roughly 250 people hostage. Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 presumed dead. Coast to coast At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, 93 people were arrested for trespassing on Wednesday, authorities said they were canceling events at the May 10 graduation ceremony. The ceremony, which usually attracts 65,000 people, made headlines this month when administrators canceled a planned speech by a top student after complaints from Jewish groups that she had links to antisemitic groups. She denied the charge. At Emerson College in Boston, local media reported classes were canceled Thursday after police clashed with protesters overnight, tearing down a pro-Palestinian encampment and arresting 108 people. In Washington, students from Georgetown and George Washington University (GW) established a solidarity encampment on the GW campus Thursday. Protests and encampments have also sprung up at New York University and Yale -- both of which also saw dozens of students arrested earlier this week -- Harvard, Brown University, MIT, the University of Michigan and elsewhere. California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt said its campus could remain closed into next week due to protesters occupying buildings. On Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden denounced "blatant antisemitism" that has "no place on college campuses." But the White House has also said the president supports freedom of expression at U.S. universities.

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 — Ukraine has sidelined U.S.-provided Abrams M1A1 battle tanks for now in its fight against Russia, in part because Russian drone warfare has made it too difficult for them to operate without detection or coming under attack, two U.S. military officials told The Associated Press. The U.S. agreed to send 31 Abrams to Ukraine in January 2023 after an aggressive monthslong campaign by Kyiv arguing that the tanks, which cost about $10 million apiece, were vital to its ability to breach Russian lines. But the battlefield has changed substantially since then, notably by the ubiquitous use of Russian surveillance drones and hunter-killer drones. Those weapons have made it more difficult for Ukraine to protect the tanks when they are quickly detected and hunted by Russian drones or rounds. Five of the 31 tanks have already been lost to Russian attacks. The proliferation of drones on the Ukrainian battlefield means “there isn’t open ground that you can just drive across without fear of detection,” a senior defense official told reporters Thursday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide an update on U.S. weapons support for Ukraine before Friday's Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting. For now, the tanks have been moved from the front lines, and the U.S. will work with the Ukrainians to reset tactics, said Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman Adm. Christopher Grady and a third defense official who confirmed the move on the condition of anonymity. "When you think about the way the fight has evolved, massed armor in an environment where unmanned aerial systems are ubiquitous can be at risk," Grady told the AP in an interview this week, adding that tanks are still important. "Now, there is a way to do it," he said. "We’ll work with our Ukrainian partners, and other partners on the ground, to help them think through how they might use that, in that kind of changed environment now, where everything is seen immediately." News of the sidelined tanks comes as the U.S. marks the two-year anniversary of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of about 50 countries that meets monthly to assess Ukraine's battlefield needs and identify where to find needed ammunition, weapons or maintenance to keep Ukraine's troops equipped. Recent aid packages, including the $1 billion military assistance package signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, also reflect a wider reset for Ukrainian forces in the evolving fight. The U.S. is expected to announce Friday that it also will provide about $6 billion in long-term military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said, adding that it will include much sought after munitions for Patriot air defense systems. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public. The $1 billion package emphasized counter-drone capabilities, including .50-caliber rounds specifically modified to counter drone systems; additional air defenses and ammunition; and a host of alternative, and cheaper, vehicles, including Humvees, Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles. The U.S. also confirmed for the first time that it is providing long-range ballistic missiles known as ATACMs, which allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russian-occupied areas without having to advance and be further exposed to either drone detection or fortified Russian defenses. While drones are a significant threat, the Ukrainians also have not adopted tactics that could have made the tanks more effective, one of the U.S. defense officials said. After announcing it would provide Ukraine the Abrams tanks in January 2023, the U.S. began training Ukrainians at Grafenwoehr Army base in Germany that spring on how to maintain and operate them. They also taught the Ukrainians how to use them in combined arms warfare — where the tanks operate as part of a system of advancing armored forces, coordinating movements with overhead offensive fires, infantry troops and air assets. As the spring progressed and Ukraine's highly anticipated counteroffensive stalled, shifting from tank training in Germany to getting Abrams on the battlefield was seen as an imperative to breach fortified Russian lines. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on his Telegram channel in September that the Abrams had arrived in Ukraine. Since then, however, Ukraine has only employed them in a limited fashion and has not made combined arms warfare part of its operations, the defense official said. During its recent withdrawal from Avdiivka, a city in eastern Ukraine that was the focus of intense fighting for months, several tanks were lost to Russian attacks, the official said. A long delay by Congress in passing new funding for Ukraine meant its forces had to ration ammunition, and in some cases they were only able to shoot back once for every five or more times they were targeted by Russian forces. In Avdiivka, Ukrainian forces were badly outgunned and fighting back against Russian glide bombs and hunter-killer drones with whatever ammunition they had left.

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.

COTONOU, Benin — Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone launched large-scale malaria vaccine programs on Thursday under an Africa-focused initiative that hopes to save tens of thousands of children's lives per year across Africa. The three West African countries are the latest to participate after successful rollouts of routine malaria immunization for children in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, the global vaccine alliance GAVI said in a statement. The World Health Organization-approved vaccine is meant to work alongside existing tools such as bed nets to combat malaria, which in Africa kills nearly half a million children under the age of 5 each year. "This introduction ... will help save lives and offer relief to families, communities and hard-pressed health systems," said Aurelia Nguyen, GAVI chief program officer. Benin has 215,900 doses of the vaccine, which will be available to children from around 5 months old, according to GAVI. Sierra Leone has 550,000 doses and neighboring Liberia has 112,000 doses, it said. At the official launch in Benin, which took place in the town of Allada, some 54 kilometers from the country's largest city, Cotonou, 25 children received the vaccine. "I came to have my children vaccinated against malaria. It's important to me because when children get this malaria disease, we spend a lot of money," said Victoire Fagbemi, a 41-year-old mother of four. Another mother, Victoire Boko, who had her 10-month-old child vaccinated at the launch, said the health minister's explanations about the vaccine in the local Fon language had allayed any anxieties she had about its safety. "When I get home, I will share the information ... with my neighbors and friends," she said on the sidelines of the launch. The African region is home to 11 countries that carry approximately 70% of the global burden of malaria, according to GAVI.

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 U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday took up Donald Trump's bid to avoid prosecution over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump’s lawyers argue that former presidents are entitled to absolute immunity for their official acts. We talk to Richard O. Lempert from the University of Michigan School of Law. New York’s highest court on Thursday threw out Harvey Weinstein ’s 2020 rape conviction with a ruling that shocked and disappointed women who celebrated historic gains during the #MeToo era. And paleontologists in Argentina have announced a new herbivorous dinosaur that lived over 90 million years.

As climate change wreaks havoc around the world, the need for sustainable solutions grows more urgent. In Nigeria, a private company recently introduced an Uber-style taxi system made of approximately 200 electric vehicles. The company says the fleet is a step toward a greener future. Gibson Emeka reports from Abuja, Nigeria. Amy Reifenrath narrates.

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.

Bangkok — Thailand’s most popular political party, Move Forward, is facing the familiar threat of dissolution by court order, but senior members say plans are already in place for a swift comeback if they are disbanded, refusing to let their reform movement die. MFP secured a plurality in Thailand’s May 2023 elections with 14 million votes and 151 seats, ending nine years of military-dominated government. The party did it with a radical slate of reforms for equitable governance — to cut the military from power, break up an economic monopoly and amend the royal defamation law, known as lèse-majesté, which criminalizes criticism of the powerful monarchy. Yet the party’s candidate for prime minister, Pita Limjaroenrat, was blocked from forming a government by the appointed Senate of ultraconservatives allied to the generals who seized power in a coup nearly a decade earlier. Forced into the opposition, MFP has since faced an obstacle course of legal challenges brought by rivals determined to kill its reform agenda. Thailand’s Constitutional Court is expected within weeks to decide whether the centerpiece of MFP’s agenda — a proposed amendment of lèse-majesté — is tantamount to subversion. The court dissolved MFP’s previous incarnation, Future Forward, in 2020, triggering vigorous street protests by pro-democracy activists. A repeat of that ruling potentially sets a precedent for any future review of the law, which carries penalties of up to 15 years in prison and has been cited in the prosecution of at least 260 people in the past four years. "We’ve seen party dissolution being used as one of the tools against parties that are opposite from the establishment institution of Thailand," MFP spokesperson Parit Wacharasindhu told VOA. "It’s not normal for any democratic country to have this kind of party dissolution but … if it were to happen, it highlights why there’s a need for a party like Move Forward Party to exist in Thai politics," he said. If banned, MFP will have to rebrand under a new name and work quickly to keep its lawmakers from being poached by the coalition parties led by Pheu Thai — Thailand’s previously dominant electoral force, which now holds the premiership through property tycoon Srettha Thavisin. It will also most likely have to replace Pita, leader Chaithawat Tulathon and several other front-line figures who could be banned from politics for 10 years if the party is ordered to dissolve. Parit, 31, is widely tipped to emerge as the next leader with a strong speaking style and connection with the public. "The party has plans in place for all scenarios," he said, without confirming any possible future role. An MFP lawmaker, who also faces a ban from politics as a possible result of the imminent ruling, summed up the limbo of political life in a country where courts routinely eliminate talented new politicians and parties as feeling similar to "knowing your friend is really sick and knowing he can go any day." "I’ve put in so much in this political career and it could just be the end of it just like that," the lawmaker told VOA, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of political reprisals. MFP is set to present its final argument on May 3, and the head of Thailand’s nine-member constitutional court, Nakarin Mektrairat, has publicly called it "impossible" to prejudge the bench’s decision. But political observers say the dissolution is a virtually done deal as the establishment seeks to politically suffocate Thailand’s most radical movement of the last two decades. Powerful royal legacy Thailand’s monarchy is extremely powerful, and the royal defamation law protects it from criticism, with sentences of up to 15 years per conviction. Dozens of young pro-democracy activists have been jailed in the last few years under the law. MFP leaders have been touring the country, saying the mere fact of a looming court decision signals the rot within Thailand’s current political system. "I’m not sure if those who have the power to dissolve us have asked themselves what they gain by doing it," Pita said before a party meeting April 6. "Sure, it may weaken us in the short term, but it may turbocharge us into the next election … whatever the name of the party may be." Analysts say banning the party is futile given two factors: millions of young people joining the electorate and the looming term limit of Thailand’s 250-member militarily appointed Senate, which has been instrumental in blocking MFP’s progress. "It makes no difference," Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, law professor at Thammasat University, told VOA. "The coalition government will get slightly stronger [without an opposition]. But when it comes to the next election, there will be four million new voters. Without the appointed Senate, it’s highly likely that the MFP’s next version will be the government." But MFP’s "next reincarnation" may have to be politically expedient, softening calls for reform of the royal defamation law to reach power, he added. As MFP awaits its legal fate, party leaders say they are focusing on their work as the opposition, especially challenging the government’s efforts to draft a new constitution to reflect the changing political realities. Meanwhile, the Pheu Thai-led government is newly confident with billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s late-February release from prison. Thaksin, Pheu Thai’s longtime patron, has toured parts of the country and routinely hosted the great and the good of Thai politics at his Bangkok home, where he is serving out a house-arrest sentence for corruption. So long as the kingdom’s old political allegiances continue to crumble and MFP’s call for sweeping social, political and economic reforms continue to resonate with a substantial part of Thailand’s electorate, it may mean the country’s progressive movement, whatever its name may be, emerges stronger in the long-term. "No one is distracted by the legal struggle, no one is less energetic," Parit told VOA.  "We remain as committed as ever in terms of pushing ahead for change …whether by submitting draft laws to the parliament, contesting local elections or expanding party membership." 

washington — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's arrival in China on Wednesday has been met with skepticism, cynicism and suggestions that the absence of a red carpet for the top U.S. diplomat's arrival was a not-so-subtle message from Beijing. Blinken kicked off his three-day visit to China in Shanghai with online commenters and analysts noting China had omitted the usual practice of laying out a red carpet for a distinguished visitor. Posting on X, Hu Xijin, a former editor-in-chief of Chinese state media Global Times, said, "Blinken has arrived in Shanghai, China. Many people noticed when he stepped off the plane that there seemed to be no red carpet on the ground. His China visit should be seen as an 'imploring' one, although the U.S. made some tough public opinion preparations in advance." Gordon Chang, a distinguished senior fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute think tank, responded to Hu Xijin's post, "#China, before #Blinken even stepped off his plane in #Shanghai today, insulted him." An X user under the name Lord Bebo, who claims to be anti-mainstream media, posted, "Blinken arrives in China and is met WITHOUT RED CARPET. No band or anything … he's welcomed like a somebody unimportant." His post received more than 10,000 likes. U.S.-China relations have eased since the two sides resumed high-level contacts, but many differences remain. Before Blinken's visit, U.S. media reported that the U.S. discussed sanctioning some Chinese banks to counter their support for Russia. Blinken also stated in releasing the State Department's 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices that the Uyghurs in Xinjiang are victims of genocide and crimes against humanity. He arrived in China the same day President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that includes Taiwan military aid and pushes TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. operations. "What an awkward moment for Blinken as he lands in China," Canadian geopolitics expert Abishur Prakash said. "The U.S. is full-steam ahead on taking on China, led by the bills around TikTok, Taiwan and support nations in the Indo-Pacific against Beijing." 'Face-to-face diplomacy matters' On his day of arrival, Blinken posted a video speech against a backdrop of Shanghai's iconic buildings, such as the neon-lit Oriental Pearl Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. "We just arrived here in Shanghai in the People's Republic of China to work on issues that matter to the American people," he said in the video. "One of those is fentanyl, synthetic opioids, the leading killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49. "President [Joe] Biden, President Xi [Jinping], when they met in San Francisco at the end of last year, agreed to cooperate to help prevent fentanyl and the ingredients that make it from getting to the United States. We will be working on that." Blinken said he would be talking not only to his counterparts in the Chinese government, but also to students, academics, business leaders and "the people who are building bridges and ties between our countries. "And of course, we will be dealing with areas where we have real differences with China, dealing with them directly, communicating clearly. Face-to-face diplomacy matters," he said. "It's important to avoid miscommunications, misperceptions, and to advance the interests of the American people." Reaction takes anti-American tone On Chinese social media, Blinken's overtures were met with cynicism. On Weibo, China's largest social platform, Blinken's second visit to China had limited coverage, and the discussion was dominated by an anti-American tone. A Weibo user under the name of Xiao Fan Hao She argued that the United States has not officially listed all fentanyl-like substances on the control list. "We ask whether the United States believes that it can solve the domestic problems in the United States by shifting the blame externally, shirking responsibility, and smearing China's image," she wrote. A Weibo user under the name of An Hao Xin said, "Coming with him is also the bargaining chip of 'bank sanctions.' To be honest, if you want to kick SWIFT out, just do it quickly. Why are you hesitating?" Another commenter said, "If you dare to overturn the table, then we just aid Russia with weapons and see who suffers." Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of Human Rights Watch and visiting professor at Princeton University, linked the visit to U.S. Middle East policy, saying on X that Blinken "would have an easier time telling the Chinese government not to provide military supplies to Russia as it commits war crimes in Ukraine if the U.S. government were not arming Israel as it commits war crimes in Gaza." But Roth also said, "It will be shameful if Blinken is so determined to make nice to Beijing that he doesn't publicly mention its crimes against humanity targeting Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang." Jonathan Cheng, the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, said on X, "Unnamed Chinese official to Blinken: 'Perception is always the first button that must be put right. Whether China and the United States are rivals or partners is a fundamental issue, on which there must not be any catastrophic mistake.' " Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

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.

Thirty-eight years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, hundreds of people work to dismantle the long-defunct power plant and control the contaminated exclusion zone, a 30-kilometer area surrounding it. Lesia Bakalets has the story of a man who lived through the tragedy and still works there.