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New York — Purdue Pharma on Tuesday received U.S. court approval for a 60-day freeze on lawsuits against its owners — members of the wealthy Sackler family — in its first court appearance since a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling upended its bankruptcy settlement.   U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane granted an injunction at a court hearing in White Plains, New York, saying that a litigation cease-fire will give Purdue a chance to renegotiate a comprehensive settlement of lawsuits alleging that its painkiller OxyContin spurred an opioid addiction crisis in the U.S.   The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 27 that Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy settlement cannot shield the Sacklers, who did not file for bankruptcy themselves, over their role in the nation's deadly opioid epidemic.  The ruling sent Purdue back to the drawing board after nearly five years in bankruptcy and imperils billions of dollars in funding that the company and the Sacklers had promised to pay toward addressing the harms from the crisis.  Lawsuits against Purdue and Sackler family members by state and local governments, as well as by individual plaintiffs, have accused them of fueling the opioid crisis through deceptive marketing of its pain medication. The company pleaded guilty to misbranding and fraud charges related to its marketing of OxyContin in 2007 and 2020.   Purdue's bankruptcy has stopped the opioid lawsuits from proceeding against the Stamford, Connecticut-based drugmaker since 2019, and Purdue has extended that legal protection to the Sacklers, as well.  Purdue's attorney, Marshall Huebner, said the company will engage in "a high-speed, high-stakes mediation" with the Sacklers, state and local governments and other stakeholders. Protecting the Sacklers during a "modest" 60-day negotiating period will give Purdue a real chance to negotiate a new bankruptcy settlement and put money toward stopping opioid overdoses and treating addiction, Huebner said.  "Every single day of delay continues to come at a tragic, tragic cost," Huebner said.  Several stakeholders expressed hope for a settlement but said mediation should not be extended beyond the 60-day schedule proposed by Purdue.  "It is essential to all parties in this case that we bring this five-year Chapter 11 case to a conclusion," said Kenneth Eckstein, an attorney representing a coalition of state and local governments.   During the hearing, Lane also appointed two mediators to aid settlement talks, including retired bankruptcy judge Shelley Chapman, who brokered a previous deal under which the Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6 billion to settle the opioid lawsuits. Eric Green will serve as the other mediator.   If mediation fails, Purdue has said a court-appointed committee representing its creditors should be allowed to sue the Sacklers over claims they drained more thabn $11 billion from the company and that their conduct made Purdue liable for other lawsuits.  The Sacklers have said the creditors' proposed litigation is counterproductive and based on "factual errors." Members of the family have denied wrongdoing and would fiercely oppose any litigation if the settlement talks break down, their attorneys said.   "No one is assured of a recovery in this court or any other court," said Gerard Uzzi, an attorney representing members of the Sackler family.   Purdue's previous bankruptcy settlement was supported by attorneys general from all 50 states, local governments and most of the individual opioid victims who voted on it.   But it has also had detractors such as Carrie McGaha, who has had repeated overdoses and said Tuesday that individuals have been placed at the "bottom of the heap" throughout Purdue's bankruptcy.  

Moki Edwin Kindzeka — Lawmakers with the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement passed a law on Tuesday extending their term of office for one year. The lawmakers were elected in 2020 to serve a five-year term expiring on March 10, 2025. But this week, President Paul Biya asked his government to pass a bill extending terms for all 180 members of Parliament by 12 months — well into 2026. Biya's Cameroon People's Democratic Movement — also known as CPDM — holds 156 of parliament's 180 seats. Government officials say Cameroon's constitution gives Biya the power to consult the Constitutional Council and ask parliament to vote on extensions and postpone elections whenever circumstances warrant. Joshua Osih, a lawmaker and president of the opposition Social Democratic Front, disagrees. Osih said the Social Democratic Front Party he leads strongly condemns as undemocratic the law extending the mandate of parliamentarians, postponing parliamentary elections in Cameroon from February 2025 to February 2026. He said the Cameroon government had five years to prepare for fresh polls in 2025 and should not give the impression that it was taken by surprise. Opposition and civil society groups say Biya ordered CPDM lawmakers to vote on the bill because it makes it difficult for some main opposition leaders, including Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement Party (CRM), to be a candidate in presidential elections expected in October 2025. Opposition says win was stolen Kamto claims he won Cameroon's October 7 presidential polls and that his victory was stolen by Biya. In 2020, his party did not take part in local council and parliamentary elections claiming that Biya had planned to rig the polls in favor of CPDM. Cameroonian laws state that a political leader who aspires to be president must be in a political party that has at least a municipal councilor or is represented by a lawmaker in parliament. Kamtos' CRM party has neither. The CRM said it expected to take part in February's local and parliamentary elections to be able to endorse Kamto. Kamto said the law extending the term of parliamentarians, along with a presidential decision postponing local elections, is another ploy by 91-year-old Biya to remain leader for life. Kamto said he wants to reiterate to the government of Cameroon that his party and followers will not tolerate plans by Biya to stay in power. He said Biya and his government should not continue to take civilians for granted by abusing democratic rights and ruling the country with an iron fist. Kamto said he will disrupt the elections if his rights are abused but did not say how. The government said joint local council and parliamentary elections will take place in 2026 after presidential elections in 2025. Kamto said although Cameroon laws make it possible for presidential aspirants who are not endorsed by political parties to run, submitting 300 signatures from influential politicians, including former ministers, traditional rulers and religious leaders, as the law states, is very difficult. He said the leaders are either scared of Biya or are his political partners. Biya has not said if he will be a candidate. But last March, CPDM supporters marched in the streets urging the world's oldest leader to run for office in the 2025 presidential election, potentially extending his more than four-decade rule. They said Biya is the only one who can bring peace and development to Cameroon, but the opposition says Biya must leave office after running Cameroon for decades. Biya rules with an iron fist and is not ready to relinquish power until he dies, opposition and civil society say. But Biya's supporters say he is a democrat and has won all elections since Cameroon's 1990 return of multi-party politics. If reelected, Biya will rule up to 2032. By then, he will be 98 years old.

washington — The U.S. intelligence chief on Tuesday accused Iran of egging on protests inside the United States against the Gaza war, including by paying demonstrators. Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, stressed she was not alleging that Americans taking to the streets against Israel or U.S. policy were insincere or doing Iran's bidding, but said Tehran was stepping up efforts. "In recent weeks, Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we've seen other actors use over the years," Haines said in a statement. "We have observed actors tied to Iran's government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests and even providing financial support to protesters," she said. "The freedom to express diverse views, when done peacefully, is essential to our democracy, but it is also important to warn of foreign actors who seek to exploit our debate for their own purposes," she said. Iran's clerical state supports Palestinian militants Hamas, whose massive attack on Israel on October 7 has triggered a relentless Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. Iranian state-backed media seized on pro-Palestinian protests that swept U.S. campuses and accused the United States of hypocrisy in the crackdowns on some of the demonstrations. Iran, an arch-nemesis of the United States since the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the pro-Western shah, has faced frequent charges of trying to target dissident voices in the West. The United States has repeatedly condemned what it calls disinformation campaigns by China and especially Russia, including through deceptive social media posts.

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.

The debris on the site has a serial number of the Russian long-range Kh-101 strategic cruise missile. The Russian military launched it and destroyed Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Ukraine's capital Kyiv.

Washington is engaged in wide-ranging efforts to halt arms trafficking to Haiti involving law enforcement agencies, federal and local legislatures, the State Department and the White House.

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.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has halted the expulsion of undocumented migrants from Afghanistan after discussions with the chief of the United Nations refugee agency.  Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, wrapped up his three-day visit Tuesday and called for "a bolstering of efforts towards longer-term solutions" for Afghans in Pakistan.   A post-visit UNHCR statement said, "Grandi expressed appreciation that the 'Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan' had been suspended and sought assurances that it would remain on hold."  A senior Pakistani official who was knowledgeable about Grandi's meetings with leaders in Islamabad confirmed to VOA that Pakistan had halted deportation of Afghans. However, the official did not specify the duration of the suspension. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly to the media.   "Our message to Grandi was that the international community should fulfill its responsibility for the upkeep and repatriation of Afghan refugees. It's a shared responsibility and shouldn't be left to Pakistan to lift the entire burden," the official said.  The decision to suspend the evictions of Afghans was taken on "humanitarian grounds" because of deteriorating economic and humanitarian conditions facing impoverished, war-ravaged Afghanistan, said Pakistani and U.N. officials.   During his visit, Grandi met with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other senior Pakistani officials, and his talks mainly focused on the fate of about 3 million Afghans.   According to Pakistani and U.N. officials, of those, about 1.3 million are officially declared refugees, nearly 900,000 hold Afghan citizenship cards, and the remainder are without documents, or their visas have expired while waiting to seek asylum in third countries after fleeing the August 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.  Repatriation action  Pakistan unleashed a crackdown last November on all foreigners illegally staying in the country, citing a dramatic rise in militant attacks and attributing them to people residing among the refugee populations. The move has largely targeted more than 1 million Afghan migrants and asylum-seekers who lack legal documents or valid visas.   Pakistani and Afghan officials say close to 600,000 Afghans have been repatriated to their homeland since the deportation campaign started.   During his stay in Pakistan, Grandi also traveled to Afghan refugee localities in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, including its capital of Peshawar, and met with their representatives.  "In the meantime, as Pakistan continues to host some 3 million Afghans, all solutions need to be explored in addition to voluntary repatriation, including third-country resettlement and longer-term solutions within Pakistan," concluded the UNHCR statement.  Islamabad maintains that anti-Pakistan militant groups entrenched in sanctuaries in Afghanistan have stepped up attacks against Pakistani security forces and civilians since the Taliban returned to power in the neighboring country three years ago.   Taliban authorities have criticized the expulsion of Afghans from Pakistan and dismissed allegations they are allowing militants to use Afghan soil to threaten neighboring countries and beyond.

tehran, iran — Police in Iran shut down the Turkish Airlines office in the capital of Tehran, Iranian media reported Tuesday, after female employees there apparently refused to wear the mandatory headscarf, or hijab, in an act of defiance of the country's law. The semi-official Tasnim news agency said police officers went to the Turkish Airlines office in Tehran on Monday to issue what is called a first warning over the "non-observance of hijab" by the company's employees. However, the employees — who are Iranian nationals — reportedly "made trouble for the police officers," prompting the closure. The Tasnim report said police subsequently sealed the office over the employees' behavior. According to Tasnim, the Turkish Airlines office will be allowed to reopen on Wednesday and resume business as usual, something that the police did not confirm. The report further said that police would not seal any business due to the non-observance of hijab but issue first warnings. There was no immediate comment from the Turkish Airlines over the incident in Tehran. An open defiance of the headscarf law erupted into mass protests across Iran following the September 2022 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the country's morality police. While those demonstrations appear largely to have cooled, the choice by some Iranian women to remain uncovered in the street poses a new challenge to the country's theocracy. Iranian authorities have over the past years shuttered hundreds of businesses across the country — from shops, restaurants to pharmacies and offices — for quietly allowing their female employees to forgo wearing the hijab. That enforcement was intensified in the months running up to Iran's presidential election in June to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash a month earlier. The fracas at the Tehran office of the Turkish Airlines took place on the same day as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Iran's President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian to congratulate him on his win in Iran's presidential runoff last week. Pezeshkian bested hard-liner Saeed Jalili in the election by promising to reach out to the West and ease enforcement on the country's mandatory headscarf law after years of sanctions and protests squeezing the Islamic Republic. The state-run IRNA news agency quoted Tehran Prosecutor Ali Salehi as saying that no legal proceedings or ruling had been issued regarding the sealing the Turkish Airlines office in Tehran. Iran and Turkey have maintained good relations and in 2023, the volume of bilateral trade between the two stood at $5.4 billion. Turkey is also a popular tourist destination for Iranians, with some 2.5 million visiting last year. Turkish Airlines is a favored carrier among Iranians because of the shorter travel time to the United States and Canada, compared to other long-haul flights from Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.

OKLAHOMA CITY, oklahoma — Former Senator Jim Inhofe, a conservative known for his strong support of defense spending and his denial that human activity is responsible for the bulk of climate change, has died. He was 89.  Inhofe, a powerful fixture in Oklahoma politics for more than six decades, died Tuesday morning after suffering a stroke during the July Fourth holiday, his family said in a statement.  Inhofe, a Republican who underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery in 2013 before being elected to a fourth term, was elected to a fifth Senate term in 2020, before stepping down in early 2023.  'The greatest hoax' Inhofe frequently criticized the mainstream science that human activity contributed to changes in the Earth's climate, once calling it "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."  In February 2015, with temperatures in the nation's capital below freezing, Inhofe brought a snowball on to the Senate floor. He tossed it before claiming that environmentalists focus attention on global warming as it kept getting cold.  As Oklahoma's senior U.S. senator, Inhofe was a staunch supporter of the state's five military installations and a vocal fan of congressional earmarks. The Army veteran and licensed pilot, who would fly himself to and from Washington, secured the federal money to fund local road and bridge projects, and criticized House Republicans who wanted a one-year moratorium on such pet projects in 2010.  "Defeating an earmark doesn't save a nickel," Inhofe told the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce that August. "It merely means that within the budget process, it goes right back to the bureaucracy."  He was a strong backer of President Donald Trump, who praised him for his "incredible support of our #MAGA agenda" while endorsing the senator's 2020 reelection bid. During the Trump administration, Inhofe served as chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee following the death of Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona.  Closer to home, Inhofe helped secure millions of dollars to clean up a former mining hub in northeast Oklahoma that spent decades on the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund list. In a massive buyout program, the federal government purchased homes and businesses within the 104-square-kilometer region of Tar Creek, where children consistently tested for dangerous levels of lead in their blood.  Republican U.S. Representative Frank Lucas, the senior member of the Oklahoma congressional delegation, called Inhofe a true public servant.  "His long career in the United States House and Senate serves as a testament to his strong moral compass and innate desire to better his home state," Lucas said in a statement  In 2021, Inhofe defied some in his party by voting to certify Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election, saying that to do otherwise would be a violation of his oath of office to support and defend the Constitution. He voted against convicting Trump at both of his impeachment trials.  Worked in business, public service Born James Mountain Inhofe on Nov. 17, 1934, in Des Moines, Iowa, Inhofe grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Tulsa in 1959. He served in the Army between 1956 and 1958 and was a businessman for three decades.  He was elected to the state House in 1966 and two years later to the state Senate, where he remained during unsuccessful runs for governor in 1974 and for the U.S. House in 1976. He then won three terms as Tulsa mayor starting in 1978.  Inhofe went on to win two terms in the U.S. House in the 1980s, before throwing his hat into a bitter U.S. Senate race when longtime Senator David Boren resigned in 1994 to become president of the University of Oklahoma. Inhofe beat then-U.S. Representive Dave McCurdy in a special election to serve the final two years of Boren's term and was reelected five times.  Boren, a Democrat, said he and Inhofe worked together in a bipartisan manner when both were in the state Legislature. He later defeated Inhofe in a race for governor.  "While we ran against each other for governor, we were opponents but never enemies and remained friends," Boren said in a statement. "I hope we can rebuild that spirit in American politics."  Frequent flyer Inhofe was a commercial-rated pilot and flight instructor with more than 50 years of flying experience.  He made an emergency landing in Claremore in 1999, after his plane lost a propeller, an incident later blamed on an installation error. In 2006, his plane spun out of control upon landing in Tulsa; he and an aide escaped injury, though the plane was badly damaged.  In 2010, Inhofe landed his small plane on a closed runway at a rural South Texas airport while flying himself and others to South Padre Island. Runway workers scrambled, and Inhofe agreed to complete a remedial training program rather than face possible legal action.  He later sponsored legislation that expanded the rights of pilots when dealing with Federal Aviation Administration disciplinary proceedings.  Inhofe is survived by his wife, Kay, three children and several grandchildren. A son, Dr. Perry Dyson Inhofe II, died in November 2013, at the age of 51, when the twin-engine aircraft he was flying crashed a few miles north of Tulsa International Airport. 

Tehran — Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard forces have dismantled armed bandits in the northwest of the country, state TV reported Tuesday. The report said ground forces of the Revolutionary Guard, known as IRGC in West Azerbaijan province, dismantled a counter-revolutionary terrorist team that was planning to enter Iran from its northwestern borders. Several members of the team were killed and wounded in the operation, and their equipment was confiscated by the Guard, said the state TV.  The Guard warned that any action against the security and territorial integrity of Iran would be met with a decisive and firm response, it added.  The TV report did not elaborate on the exact location of the operation.  The province has borders with two countries, Turkey and Iraq. The border with Turkey is 550 kilometers long.  The area has seen occasional fighting between Iranian forces and Kurdish separatists as well as militants linked to the extremist Islamic State group.  In 2022, Iran's intelligence forces dismantled the biggest spy network affiliated with Israel that allegedly tried to hire thugs to carry out sabotage in the country.

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.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Russia to be part of talks with Syria on the return of millions of refugees. Erdogan’s call this week for dialogue with Syria follows a spate of protests and rioting by Turks who want their government to stop hosting refugees from Syria’s 13-year-old civil war. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.