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nicosia, cyprus — Cyprus and the United States have signed a defense cooperation framework agreement that outlines ways the two countries can enhance their response to regional humanitarian crises and security concerns, including those arising from climate change. Cyprus Defense Minister Vassilis Palmas and U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander hailed the agreement Monday as another milestone in burgeoning Cypriot-U.S. ties in recent years that saw the lifting in 2022 of a decades-old U.S. arms embargo imposed on the east Mediterranean island nation. “The Republic of Cyprus is a strong partner to the United States, in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, and plays a pivotal role at the nexus of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East,” Wallander said after talks with Palmas. The U.S. official praised Cyprus for acting as a haven for American civilians evacuated from Sudan and Israel last year and for its key role in setting up a maritime corridor to Gaza through which more than 20 million pounds of humanitarian aid has been shipped to the Palestinian territory. “It is evident that Cyprus is aligned with the West,” Wallander said. Palmas said Cyprus would continue building toward “closer, stronger and beneficial bilateral defense cooperation with the United States.” According to a joint statement, the agreement also foresees working together on dealing with “malicious actions” and bolstering ways for the Cypriot military to operate more smoothly with U.S. forces.  

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The United States hints of a new peace proposal in the coming days as U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk called on countries to make ending the war in Gaza a priority. An Israeli apartment building is damaged in a rocket attack. Ukrainians are looking nervously towards the U.S. election in November and Russian mercenaries are leaving Burkina Faso. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to England. Storms wreak havoc in Asia, causing a bridge to collapse in Vietnam and wildfires burn in California.

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Tropical Storm Francine formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and was expected to drench the Texas coast with rain before coming ashore in Louisiana as a hurricane on Wednesday night.  "We're going to have a very dangerous situation developing by the time we get into Wednesday for portions of the north-central Gulf Coast, primarily along the coast of Louisiana, where we're going to see the potential for life-threatening storm surge inundation and hurricane force winds," said Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.  Heavy rain was already falling in northeastern Mexico and deep South Texas, where some places could get up to 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) into Monday night, Brennan said.  Francine is taking aim at a stretch of coastline that has yet to fully recover since hurricanes Laura and Delta decimated Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 2020, followed a year later by Hurricane Ida. Over the weekend, a 22-story building in Lake Charles that had become a symbol of the destruction was imploded after sitting vacant for nearly four years, its windows shattered and covered in shredded tarps.  The storm surge pushed by Francine could reach as much as 3 meters (10 feet) along a stretch of Louisiana coastline from Cameron to Port Fourchon and into Vermilion Bay. And if the current track holds, the storm could blow northward up the Mississippi River, into the Illinois area by Saturday.  "Francine is expected to bring multiple days of heavy rainfall, considerable flash flooding risk," Brennan said.  Residents of Baton Rouge, Louisiana's riverfront capital, began forming long lines as people filled up their gas tanks and stocked up on groceries. Others went to fill sandbags at city-operated locations to try to keep floodwaters from entering their homes.  "It's crucial that all of us take this storm very seriously and begin our preparations immediately," Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said during a news conference Monday morning.  She urged residents to prepare a disaster supply kit, complete with enough food, water and essential supplies for three days.  The hurricane center said Monday morning that Francine was located about 395 kilometers (245 miles) southeast of the mouth of the Rio Grande, and about 770 kilometers (478 miles) south-southeast of Cameron, Louisiana, sustaining top winds of about 85 kilometers (53 miles) per hour.  The storm is expected to be centered just offshore through Tuesday, and then intensify significantly from Tuesday night into Wednesday as it nears the upper Texas coast and Louisiana, according to the hurricane center.  A storm surge watch has been issued from just east of Galveston, Texas, to the Mississippi-Alabama border, while a hurricane watch has been issued for much of the Louisiana coast, from Cameron to Grand Isle. 

DAKAR, Senegal — A boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Senegal over the weekend, leaving at least four people dead and several others missing, local authorities said Monday.  The artisanal fishing boat left the town of Mbour, nearly 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the capital, Dakar, heading to Europe on Sunday afternoon before capsizing a few miles off the coast, Amadou Diop, the district's prefect, told The Associated Press.  Local fishermen rescued three people who were brought back to shore by naval authorities.  Senegal’s navy is looking for those missing, Diop said, adding that the exact number of passengers remained unknown.  In recent years, the number of migrants leaving West Africa through Senegal has surged with many fleeing conflicts, poverty and the lack of job opportunities. Most head to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of West Africa, which is used as a stepping stone to continental Europe.  Since the beginning of the year, more than 22,300 people have landed on the Canary Islands, 126% more than the same period last year, according to statistics released by Spain’s Interior Ministry.  Last month, the Senegalese army said it had arrested 453 migrants and “members of smuggling networks” as part of a 12-day operation patrolling the coastline. More than half of the arrested were Senegalese nationals, the army said.  In July, a boat carrying 300 migrants, mostly from Gambia and Senegal, capsized off Mauritania. More than a dozen died and at least 150 others went missing.  The Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest in the world. While there is no accurate death toll because of the lack of information on departures from West Africa, the Spanish migrant rights group Walking Borders estimates the victims are in the thousands this year alone.  Migrant boats that get lost or run into problems often vanish in the Atlantic, with some drifting across the ocean for months until they are found in the Caribbean and Latin America carrying only human remains.

london — Kate, the princess of Wales, has completed chemotherapy and will make a limited number of public appearances in the coming months, bolstering Britain's royal family after it was rocked by the twin cancer diagnoses of the princess and King Charles III. The 42-year-old wife of Prince William on Monday released a video in which she appeared alongside her husband and children as she described how difficult the past nine months have been for her family and expressed "relief" at completing her course of treatment. "Life as you know it can change in an instant, and we have had to find a way to navigate the stormy waters and road unknown,'' she said in the video, which was shot in a woodland near the family's summer home in Norfolk. "The cancer journey is complex, scary and unpredictable for everyone, especially those closest to you. With humility, it also brings you face to face with your own vulnerabilities in a way you have never considered before, and with that, a new perspective on everything." The royal family has been buffeted by health concerns for much of this year, beginning with the announcement in January that the king would receive treatment for an enlarged prostate and Kate would undergo abdominal surgery. In February, Buckingham Palace announced that Charles was receiving treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer. Six weeks later, Kate said she, too, was undergoing treatment for cancer, quieting the relentless speculation about her condition that had circulated on social media since her surgery. While the announcements triggered an outpouring of good wishes for the ailing royals, they also put the royal family under tremendous pressure. Queen Camilla and Princess Anne, the king's sister, took on additional duties to cover the seemingly endless list of public events that make up the daily routine of the House of Windsor. William also took time off to support his wife and their three young children. Charles began his return to public duties in late April when he visited a cancer treatment center in London. He is scheduled to make the first long-haul trip since his diagnosis when he travels to Australia and Samoa in the fall. Kate said Monday that while she had completed her chemotherapy treatment, the path to full recovery would be long and she would "take each day as it comes." "William and I are so grateful for the support we have received and have drawn great strength from all those who are helping us at this time," she said. "Everyone's kindness, empathy and compassion has been truly humbling." In June, the princess acknowledged that she had good days and bad days while undergoing treatment. While she stepped away from most public duties during her treatment, Kate has made two appearances this year. First, during the king's birthday parade in June, known as Trooping the Colour, and most recently during the men's final at Wimbledon in July, where she received a standing ovation. "To all those who are continuing their own cancer journey — I remain with you, side by side, hand in hand," Kate said Monday. "Out of darkness, can come light, so let that light shine bright."

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WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s security officials said Monday they have foiled cyberattacks and online blackmail attempts by groups acting for Russian and Belarusian services.  Poland has registered up to 1,000 online attacks daily targeting government institutions and agencies, officials said, linking them to the country's support for neighboring Ukraine in its 2 1/2-year war against Russia's invasion.  The group that was broken up was seeking access to information in state and individual companies with the goal of blackmailing them, said Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski.  He said that in the first half of 2024, more than 400,000 attempted or successful cyberattacks were recorded, compared to 370,000 in all of last year.  The government plans new legislation to increase Poland's cybersecurity, Gawkowski said. The government would like internet operators to store data on servers in Poland, not abroad, to ensure better internal protection and oversight by national authorities.

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Washington — Being able to open a door whenever she wants is one of the many freedoms Alsu Kurmasheva is enjoying after months of wrongful detention in Russia. “I’m enjoying freedom. I’m loving every minute of it,” the American journalist told VOA, just a few weeks after she was freed as part of a historic prisoner swap between the United States and Russia. An editor with VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, Kurmasheva was back in Washington late last month to accept an award from the National Press Club. The visit was the start of what she described as her “thank you tour.” A dual U.S.-Russian national, Kurmasheva traveled to Russia in May 2023 to visit her ailing mother in the Tatarstan city of Kazan. But authorities blocked her from leaving and later jailed her for more than nine months on bogus charges. “What happened to me was so wrong, and it shouldn’t happen to any innocent person. It shouldn’t happen to any journalist,” Kurmasheva said. “I was jailed for 288 days, and every minute of it is suffering. It’s going through humiliation. And inmates in Russia and Belarus, they don’t have any rights.” In prison, daily life was monotonous for Kurmasheva. “It was endless,” she said, adding that she forced herself to remain optimistic. “I couldn’t write in my letters to my mom or to my husband or family or friends that I was falling apart, that I was collapsing, because I knew they were trying so hard to get me out,” she said. Letters that she received from supporters from all over the world helped, said Kurmasheva, holding up some of the postcards she received from supporters in New York and Oregon. “When my spirit was really low, I just opened my cards and letters, and I kept reading them,” she said. At one point during her detention, Kurmasheva shared a cell with nine other women. There was more social interaction, she said, but that didn’t make the situation any easier. “The doors were still locked, and every woman was there with her own bad luck and uncertain future,” she said. When it was time for Kurmasheva’s release, her captors obscured that she was being freed, telling the journalist she was heading to a destination other than Moscow. It wasn’t until she was hugging her husband and daughters at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington that reality set in. “Only then I felt it was real,” Kurmasheva said. “That was the moment I was dreaming of for months and months.” Before returning home to Prague, Kurmasheva went to a military base in Texas, where she received care from doctors and psychologists. The recovery process after wrongful detention varies greatly from person to person, according to Katherine Porterfield, a consulting psychologist at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma in New York. “The experience of incarceration is one of loss of liberty, loss of agency, loss of freedom of movement, as well as lots of other disconnections,” Porterfield told VOA, speaking generally about how journalists and others are helped after a wrongful detention. “It’s basically moving a person from powerlessness to a sense of agency again,” Porterfield said. Throughout Kurmasheva’s imprisonment, press freedom groups criticized the State Department for not declaring her wrongfully detained. The designation — which The Wall Street Journal’s Gershkovich received within two weeks of his arrest — opens up extra resources and support for families and commits the U.S. government to secure their release. The State Department in August said it had declared Kurmasheva wrongfully detained shortly before the prisoner swap took place. “If any journalist is detained anywhere in the world doing their job, they should immediately be designated as wrongfully detained,” Kurmasheva said. Kurmasheva’s own freedom feels bittersweet, she admits. At the top of her mind are her three RFE/RL colleagues who are still unjustly jailed. Andrey Kuznechyk and Ihar Losik are jailed in Belarus, and Vladyslav Yesypenko is jailed in Russian-occupied Crimea. RFE/RL has condemned all three cases as politically motivated. Kurmasheva isn’t sure whether she wants to stick with journalism or try something new, she said, but she does know that she wants to help free her jailed colleagues and other political prisoners. “I feel the pain that their families are going through,” she said. “I feel the pain of those journalists.” With Kurmasheva’s own family, she takes every opportunity to thank her daughters, as well as her husband, for fighting so hard to secure her release. “They were the leaders of my advocacy group. It all started at home,” she said. Noting how her daughters have matured significantly in the time Kurmasheva was in jail, she says she is relishing her newly reclaimed freedom and figuring out what comes next. “I want to enjoy my life from now on,” she said.

RABAT, Morocco — Torrential downpours hit North Africa's normally arid mountains and deserts over the weekend, causing flooding that killed more than a dozen people in Morocco and Algeria and destroyed homes and critical infrastructure. In Morocco, officials said the two days of storms surpassed historic averages, in some cases exceeding the annual average rainfall. The downpours affected some of the regions that experienced a deadly earthquake one year ago. Meteorologists had predicted that a rare deluge could strike North Africa’s Sahara Desert, where many areas receive less than an inch of rain a year. Officials in Morocco said 11 people were killed in rural areas where infrastructure has historically been lacking, and 24 homes collapsed. Nine people were missing. Drinking water and electrical infrastructure were damaged, along with major roads. Rachid El Khalfi, Morocco’s Interior Ministry spokesperson, said Sunday in a statement that the government was working to restore communication and access to flooded regions in the “exceptional situation” and urged people to use caution. In neighboring Algeria, which held a presidential election over the weekend, authorities said at least five died in the country's desert provinces. Interior Minister Brahim Merad called the situation “catastrophic” on state-owned television. Algeria’s state-run news service APS said the government had sent thousands of civil protection and military officers to help with emergency response efforts and rescue families stuck in their homes. The floods also damaged bridges and trains in the area.

BERLIN — Germany's interior minister on Monday ordered temporary controls at all German land borders as a response to irregular migration and to protect the country from extremist threats.  Nancy Faeser said at a news conference that the government is extending temporary border controls to all German land borders.  "We are strengthening our internal security through concrete action and we are continuing our tough stance against irregular migration," Faeser said.  The ministry said that it notified the European Union on Monday of the order to set up border controls at the land borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark for a period of six months. They will begin next week on September 16.  This adds to restrictions already in place on the land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland.

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.

A lack of opportunities has resulted in underrepresentation of Black designers, stylists and other creatives in the fashion industry. It’s also created a new wave of Black entrepreneurs who are passing on lessons of the business. Tina Trinh reports. (Camera and Produced by: Tina Trinh)

They call themselves Bucha Witches – an all-female volunteer air defense unit near Kyiv targeting the Iranian Shahed drones that Russia fires at Ukraine. They operate 24/7 and are using unconventional but effective weapons to bring down the deadly aerial vehicles. Anna Kosstutschenko has their story. VOA footage and video editing by Pavel Suhodolskiy.

Seoul, South Korea — Less than two years after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged his country would not seek nuclear weapons, his newly appointed defense minister is openly envisioning scenarios in which South Korea might reconsider that stance.  The comments by Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who took office on Friday, are the latest evidence that the once-taboo idea of nuclear armament has gone mainstream in Seoul, amid growing concerns about North Korea's rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal and the long-term reliability of U.S. protection.  As an academic and retired military officer, Kim has long argued that South Korea may need nuclear weapons in some form to counter North Korea. In recently unearthed footage from a 2020 seminar, Kim warned South Korea has “no survival or future” without such a deterrent. During his confirmation process last week, Kim stood by those comments, saying “all options” should remain open if the U.S. nuclear umbrella proves insufficient. It appears to be the first time a sitting South Korean defense minister has publicly entertained the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons, and marks a sharp departure from his predecessor, who repeatedly and firmly rejected the proposal under any condition. Contacted by VOA, a South Korean defense ministry spokesperson maintained there has been “no change in the principle or position” that Seoul relies on U.S. extended deterrence and the U.S.-South Korea alliance to address the North Korean nuclear threat. “However, if we cannot guarantee the survival and security of the state, all means and methods are open,” the spokesperson added, emphasizing the need to work closely with the United States. A spokesperson for Yoon’s presidential office declined to comment for this story. Most observers doubt South Korea will pursue nuclear weapons any time soon due to the massive economic and national security risks it would entail. Not only would South Korea risk enraging China, but Seoul could upend its alliance with the United States and invite painful international sanctions, all while possibly encouraging others in the region to consider nuclear weapons of their own.  Despite the risks, Yoon continues to drive the once unthinkable idea further into the mainstream, raising concerns that the proposal could become more acceptable — and eventually turn into reality. Nuke calls now routine Yoon himself suggested last January that South Korea could develop nuclear arms if the North Korean threat escalated – raising alarm in Washington, where non-proliferation has long been a priority. Three months later, Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden signed what is known as the Washington Declaration, which bolstered U.S. defense assurances while reaffirming South Korea’s commitments under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Yoon’s appointment of Kim, however, appears to contradict the spirit of that agreement, said Lee Sang-sin, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. What stands out most, Lee said, is the lack of public reaction to Kim’s remarks. Kim’s appointment has drawn little attention from South Korean media and been largely ignored by Western outlets — a possible indication that calls for South Korea’s nuclear armament have become routine. “That’s what I have warned about,” said Lee. “[This conversation] has been normalized.”  When contacted by VOA, the White House National Security Council declined to directly comment on Kim's statements, instead emphasizing South Korea’s pledge under the non-proliferation treaty as outlined in the Washington Declaration. “We will continue to work with our ROK allies to strengthen our alliance and ensure we are well-positioned to deter nuclear threats,” an NSC spokesman added. Driving the conversation Polls have long suggested a majority of South Koreans support acquiring nuclear weapons, although such views were once confined to the political fringes. Under Yoon’s presidency, the debate has become so entrenched that even some state-backed research institutions are exploring the possibility of nuclear armament. A June report by the state-run Institute for National Security Strategy recommended that Seoul consider government reviews and public debates on various options, including the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons, NATO-style nuclear sharing, and South Korea developing its own arsenal. Such calls are not only coming from Seoul. A growing number of former Trump officials have expressed an openness to the idea, with some even highlighting the geopolitical advantages of South Korea getting its own weapons – an idea that Trump himself once teased.  The possibility of Trump’s return, along with his "America First" stance, has fueled concerns in Seoul that U.S. protection may be less reliable long-term, further accelerating the nuclear debate. Some in South Korea appear eager to capitalize on the trend. In an opinion piece this month, Choi Kang, president of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, an influential conservative research group, argued South Korean nuclear weapons should be presented as beneficial to the U.S.-South Korea alliance.  “If a South Korean nuclear arsenal aligned with U.S. security interests and came to be regarded as a ‘common asset’ of the alliance, then the United States might accept it or even support it,” Choi wrote.  Reality check? But many analysts caution that such statements downplay the risks of nuclear armament. “There really needs to be greater questioning of whether more nukes and more countries with nukes truly increases any country’s security situation and a serious examination of what Seoul stands to lose by choosing that path,” said Jenny Town, a North Korea specialist with the Washington-based Stimson Center. Others, like Mason Richey, who teaches international politics at Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, argue it is unlikely South Korea would pursue nuclear weapons barring profound U.S.-South Korea alliance problems and/or severe regional instability. “That said, every elite policymaker who engages the South Korea nuclear debate makes it easier to continue down the slippery slope of thinking about nuclear weapons, studying how to develop them, assuring a latent capability, deciding to develop them, and then actually building them,” he added.   White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.

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