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washington — The United States will withdraw its troops from Niger, a source familiar with the matter said late on Friday, adding that an agreement was reached between U.S Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Niger's leadership.  As of last year, there were a little more than 1,000 U.S. troops in Niger, where the U.S. military operated out of two bases, including a drone base known as Air Base 201 near Agadez in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million.  Since 2018, the base has been used to target Islamic State militants and Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, an al-Qaida affiliate, in the Sahel region.   Last year, Niger's army seized power in a coup. Until the coup, Niger had remained a key security partner of the United States and France.   But the new authorities in Niger joined juntas in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso in ending military deals with one-time Western allies like Washington and Paris, quitting the regional political and economic bloc ECOWAS, and fostering closer ties with Russia.  In the coming days, there will be conversations about how that drawdown of troops will look, the source told Reuters, asking not to identified.  The source said there would still be diplomatic and economic relationships between the U.S. and Niger despite this step.  Earlier Friday, The New York Times reported that more than 1,000 American military personnel will leave Niger in coming months.  Last month, Niger's ruling junta said it revoked with immediate effect a military accord that allowed military personnel and civilian staff from the U.S. Department of Defense on its soil.  The Pentagon had said thereafter it was seeking clarification about the way ahead. It added that the U.S. government had "direct and frank" conversations in Niger ahead of the junta's announcement and was continuing to communicate with Niger's ruling military council.  Hundreds took to the streets of Niger's capital last week to demand the departure of U.S. troops after the ruling junta further shifted its strategy by ending the military accord with the United States and welcoming Russian military instructors.  Eight coups in West and Central Africa over four years, including in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, have prompted growing concerns over democratic backsliding in the region. 

Restored mangroves earn Pakistan millions of dollars in global carbon credit markets. But political turmoil is keeping Pakistan from using the funds to strengthen its defense against climate change. VOA Pakistan Bureau Chief Sarah Zaman reports from deep in the Indus River delta.

Will Israel and Iran heed the call of world leaders to de-escalate tensions that could potentially lead to a region-wide war. Iran vowed a massive response but has so far had a muted reaction. In another tense part of the world, U.S. and European leaders stress the urgency of air defense for Kyiv as Russin attacks intensify. After months of delay, U.S. lawmakers plan to vote on aid for Ukraine Saturday. And a look at a coordinated international effort to support Ukraine’s government in its investigation and prosecution of Russian war crimes since its invasion in February 2022.

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.

United Nations — Two senior United Nations officials raised the alarm Friday that an attack on the North Darfur capital of El Fasher could be imminent and may trigger a deadly intercommunal conflict across Darfur. "In Darfur, recent reports indicate a possible imminent RSF attack on El Fasher, raising the specter of a new front in the conflict," U.N. political and peacebuilding chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council. The RSF are the Rapid Support Forces, the rebel militia that has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for the past year. The two generals leading them were once allies in Sudan’s transitional government after a 2021 coup but have become rivals for power. The war began last April in the capital, Khartoum. It has since spread to other parts of the country, forcing more than 8 million people from their homes in search of safety. Nearly 2 million of them have fled Sudan to neighboring countries. Of those who remain, 25 million need humanitarian assistance. DiCarlo said clashes between the RSF and SAF-aligned members of the Joint Protection Forces have erupted in Mellit, a strategic town to the north of El Fasher. "Fighting in El Fasher could unleash bloody intercommunal strife throughout Darfur," she said. "It would also further impede the delivery of humanitarian assistance in an area already on the brink of famine." El Fasher is an established humanitarian hub. Fighting there would make it even more dangerous and complicated to store and deliver aid. "Beyond Darfur, greater Khartoum continues to be the epicenter of fighting between the SAF and the RSF," DiCarlo added. "Galvanized by recent gains, the SAF has intensified aerial raids in Khartoum, the Kordofan regions and parts of Darfur." The U.N. says the violence threatens 800,000 civilians living in El Fasher and risks setting off more violence in other parts of Darfur – where more than 9 million people need humanitarian assistance. "On 13 April, following weeks of rising tensions and airstrikes, RSF-affiliated militias attacked and burned villages west of El Fasher," Edem Wosornu told council members. "Since then, there have been continuing reports of clashes in the eastern and northern parts of the city, resulting in more than 36,000 people displaced," the director of operations and advocacy in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. She said medical charity Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, has reported that more than a hundred trauma patients have arrived at their El Fasher facility in recent days but said the number of civilian casualties is likely much higher. Final battle for Darfur A report released Friday by the Yale University Humanitarian Research Lab says satellite imagery and open-source information indicates that the RSF is either close to El Fasher or already inside its eastern and northeastern neighborhoods. "At least 11 villages are confirmed burned to the ground on the western access on the approach to El Fasher," Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the lab, told VOA. He said it is their assessment that the RSF likely controls the north, east and west roads into El Fasher, and they have credible reports that the Sudanese army had to be re-supplied by air in the past week. "This suggests that SAF has already assessed that they do not have a ground route for resupply or escape," Raymond said. That means civilians are also trapped, including thousands of African Zaghawa, Masalit, Fur, and other non-Arab ethnic groups. "This is the final battle for Darfur," Raymond said. "If RSF is victorious, then they will be able to complete the genocide begun at the beginning of the 21st century, and all indications are consistent with the fact that they intend to." He said a victory in El Fasher would be pivotal, giving the RSF control over all the regional capitals in the Darfur region and creating a stronghold from which they can fight the remaining elements of the SAF for years to come. Darfur saw large-scale ethnic violence, crimes against humanity and genocide in the early 2000s when Arab "Janjaweed" militias targeted the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa. 

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.

Ukraine has appealed for its European allies to urgently step up weapons supplies as it struggles to hold ground against invading Russian forces. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Germany has called for allies to provide more air defense systems, as Russian drones and missiles rain down on Ukrainian cities.

Russia’s top diplomats walked out of the U.N. Security Council meeting when Israel’s representative took the stage.

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 — A man set himself on fire on Friday outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump's historic hush-money trial was taking place as jury selection wrapped up, but officials said he did not appear to have been targeting Trump. The man burned for several minutes in full view of television cameras that were set up outside the courthouse, where the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president is being held. "I see a totally charred human being," a CNN reporter said on the air. Officials said the man survived and was in critical condition at a local hospital. Witnesses said the man pulled pamphlets out of a backpack and threw them in the air before he doused himself with a liquid and set himself on fire. One of those pamphlets included references to "evil billionaires" but portions that were visible to a Reuters witness did not mention Trump. The New York Police Department said the man, who they identified as Max Azzarello of St. Augustine, Florida, did not appear to be targeting Trump or others involved in the trial. "Right now, we are labeling him as sort of a conspiracy theorist, and we are going from there," Tarik Sheppard, a deputy commissioner with the police department, said at a news conference. In an online manifesto, a man using that name said he set himself on fire and apologized to friends, witnesses and first responders. The post warns of "an apocalyptic fascist coup" and criticizes cryptocurrency and U.S. politicians, but it does not single out Trump in particular. Witnesses said they were disturbed by his actions. "He was on fire for quite a while," one witness, who declined to give his name, told reporters. "It was pretty horrifying." The smell of smoke lingered in the plaza shortly after the incident, according to a Reuters witness, and a police officer sprayed a fire extinguisher on the ground. A smoldering backpack and a gas can were visible. The downtown Manhattan courthouse, heavily guarded by police, drew a throng of protesters and onlookers on Monday, the trial's first day, though crowds have dwindled since then. The shocking development came shortly after jury selection for the trial was completed, clearing the way for prosecutors and defense attorneys to make opening statements next week in a case stemming from hush money paid to a porn star.

vancouver, british columbia — Just as the world is getting used to the rapidly expanding use of AI, or artificial intelligence, AGI is looming on the horizon. Experts say when artificial general intelligence becomes reality, it could perform tasks better than human beings, with the possibility of higher cognitive abilities, emotions, and ability to self-teach and develop. Ramin Hasani is a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the CEO of Liquid AI, which builds specific AI systems for different organizations. He is also a TED Fellow, a program that helps develop what the nonprofit TED conference considers to be “game changers.” Hasani says that the first signs of AGI are realistically two to five years away from being reality. He says it will have a direct impact on our everyday lives. What's coming, he says, will be "an AI system that can have the collective knowledge of humans. And that can beat us in tasks that we do in our daily life, something you want to do ... your finances, you're solving, you're helping your daughter to solve their homework. And at the same time, you want to also read a book and do a summary. So an AGI would be able to do all that.” Hasani says that advancing artificial intelligence will allow for things to move faster and can even be made to have emotions. He says proper regulation can be achieved by better understanding how different AI systems are developed. This thought is shared by Bret Greenstein, a partner at London-based  PricewaterhouseCoopers who leads its efforts on artificial intelligence. “I think one is a personal responsibility for people in leadership positions, policymakers, to be educated on the topic, not in the fact that they've read it, but to experience it, live it and try it. And to be with people who are close to it, who understand it," he says. Greenstein warns that if it is over-regulated, innovation will be curtailed and access to AI will be limited to people who could benefit from it. For musician, comedian and actor Reggie Watts, who was the bandleader on "The Late Late Show with James Corden" on CBS, AI and the coming of AGI will be a great way to find mediocre music, because it will be mimicked easily. Calling it “artificial consciousness,” he says existing laws to protect intellectual property rights and creative industries, like music, TV and film, will work, provided they are properly adopted. “I think it's just about the usage of the tool, how it's ... how it's used. Is there money being made off of it, so on, so forth. So, I think that that we already have ... tools that exist that deal with these types of situations, but [the laws and regulations] need to be expanded to include AI because they'll probably be a lot more nuance to it.” Watts says that any form of AI is going to be smarter than one person, almost like all human intelligence collected into one point. He feels this will cause humanity to discover interesting things and the nature of reality itself. This year’s conference was the 40th year for TED, the nonprofit organization that is an acronym for Technology, Entertainment and Design.

The Biden administration said it was not involved in Israel’s predawn drone strike inside Iran on Friday. As White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports, both Iran and Israel appear to be heeding calls for de-escalation, at least for now.

washington — China is challenging Japan’s latest analysis of the threat posed to the Indo-Pacific region by Beijing as a hyped-up threat and false accusation. In the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s annual Diplomatic Bluebook that was published Tuesday, China's military moves are described as posing "the greatest strategic challenge," according to Japanese media. An official English version has not been published. The Bluebook reportedly condemns China's actions in the South China Sea and its attempts to change the status quo in the East and South China Sea. At the same time, according to Japanese media, it says for the first time since 2019 that Japan seeks to build "a mutually beneficial relationship" with China "based on common strategic interests." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian rejected Japan's criticisms at a news briefing on Tuesday. "Japan has resorted to the same old false accusations against China and hype of 'China threat' in its 2024 Diplomatic Bluebook," he said. He continued: "We urge Japan to change its wrong course of actions, stop stoking bloc confrontation, truly commit itself to advancing a strategic relationship of mutual benefit with China and work to build a constructive and stable China-Japan relationship fit for the new era." Yuki Tatsumi, director of the Japan Program at the Washington-based Stimson Center, said, "Japan's concerns about Chinese behavior, both military and paramilitary, have been intensified for the last few years due to the acceleration of Beijing's aggressive behavior in East and South China Sea." She continued, "In addition, Tokyo has been put on alert about Beijing's increasingly hostile and aggressive rhetoric and behavior toward Taiwan." Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin could meet in early May in Hawaii, according to a Thursday report by The Japan Times citing unnamed Japanese officials. Kihara and Austin would discuss setting up a proposed allied command and control structure and a body to identify kinds of weapons the two countries will develop and produce together, said the report. These plans were announced April 10 at a bilateral summit in Washington. The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) announced on Tuesday that it will conduct a naval deployment including six surface ships, submarines, and two air units starting May 3 to support a free and open Indo-Pacific. The deployment includes visits to more than a dozen countries including the U.S., the Philippines, India, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Marshall Islands, Fiji and Palau. It is meant "to strengthen cooperation with the allied partner navies through conducting exercises," said JMSDF. Daniel Sneider, lecturer in international policy and East Asia Studies at Stanford University, said even as Tokyo is building its defenses and is concerned about Beijing's assertiveness and especially its relations with Moscow, its mention in the Diplomatic Bluebook of wanting to build relations with Beijing reflects Tokyo's balanced approach toward China. "The Bluebook reflects a balance between, on one hand, some degree of warning the Chinese off doing things that disrupt the order" in the region "and, on the other hand, making it clear that Japan really is not interested in some type of full-scale confrontation with China," including economic warfare, said Sneider. As to China, it tends to see "any attempts on the part of the Koreans and the Japanese to engage and improve relations as a sign of weakness," continued Sneider. China, Japan and South Korea plan to hold trilateral talks in May for the first time since 2019. They will meet in Seoul ahead of a Washington-Seoul-Tokyo trilateral summit expected in July.

washington — The threat of a wider war between Israel and Iran may give U.S. President Joe Biden more breathing room to provide military assistance to Israel without restrictions sought by progressive lawmakers of his own party. Iran's massive April 13 aerial assault on Israel and Israel's more limited counterstrike early Friday have left the region on edge, fearing an escalation of the 6-month-old Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. An aid package is set to be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives as soon as Saturday. The bill provides $26.4 billion for Israel's security, part of a package of bills that would help Israel and Ukraine while seeking to deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific. A total of $95 billion in foreign aid funding is proposed. On Wednesday, Biden urged passage of the bills and vowed to immediately sign them into law. For months, top Democrats have called on Biden to condition at least some types of military aid to Israel to avoid American weapons from being used to facilitate human rights violations, which is illegal under the U.S. "Leahy Law." But analysts say the flare-up between Israel and Iran may have eased some of that pressure, at least for now. "He has more maneuvering room with his left flank now," said Richard Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "He has a moment where he can remind the country, he can remind Democrats that they need to zoom out and understand who's really behind all of the different fires that have been set throughout the Middle East," he said. Biden: 'Unthinkable' to stand by In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Biden warned of the U.S. being drawn into war. "Israel is our strongest partner in the Middle East; it's unthinkable that we would stand by if its defenses were weakened and Iran was able to carry out the destruction it intended this weekend," he said, referring to the April 13 drone and missile attacks on Israeli soil. Such an outcome is less likely if the U.S. provides military aid now, he argued, so that Israel's defenses "can remain fully stocked and ready." Proposed aid for Israel The proposed Israeli aid includes $4 billion to replenish Iron Dome and David's Sling missile defense systems, and $1.2 billion for the Iron Beam defense system to counter short-range rockets and mortars. Those are weapons systems that thwarted most of the hundreds of drones and missiles launched on April 13 by Tehran and its proxies, including Hezbollah, which frequently lobs missiles from Lebanon on Israel's northern border. Most Democrats support aid for systems that protect Israeli skies, but some are concerned about funding for the types of arms that have killed civilians in Gaza. The aid bill includes $1 billion to enhance the production and development of artillery and other munitions, and $4.4 billion to replenish defense articles and defense services provided to Israel, which could cover various types of munitions. There's also $3.5 billion set aside for the procurement of weapons and defense services through the Foreign Military Financing, or FMF program. FMF is financing from the U.S. government for allies to procure defense articles or services through either Foreign Military Sales, FMS, or Direct Commercial Sales, also called DCS. That $3.5 billion allocation can essentially be used to purchase any type of weaponry, said Josh Paul, a former director of congressional and public affairs at the State Department bureau that handles arms transfers. The bill "also expands the scope through which weapons can be transferred, and frankly the speed through which they can be transferred," he told VOA. Procurement under FMF could include arms used in Gaza and the West Bank, said Ari Tolany, director of security assistance, arms trade and technology at the Center for International Policy. It is "non-specific and could capture most munition types, as well as things like targeting support and surveillance technology," she said. A summary of the bill notes it provides "additional flexibility for transfers of defense articles to Israel from U.S. stockpiles held abroad," and prohibits funds to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA provides support for Palestinian refugees and has come under intense criticism since Israel alleged some of its staff were involved in Hamas' October 7 attack, which killed 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 200 hostages. Israel's response has killed nearly 34,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry there. International aid organizations have warned of famine in the Palestinian enclave. Earlier this week, the ProPublica investigative news organization reported that a special U.S. State Department panel recommended months ago that Secretary of State Antony Blinken stop aid to some Israeli military and police units over allegations of human rights violations in the West Bank, mostly before October 7. On Friday, Blinken said his department had concluded investigations to determine whether the "very important" Leahy Law was violated and will announce the results in coming days. Waiver on congressional oversight The House Israel bill includes a provision that congressional notification of an FMF obligation may be waived if the secretary of state determines that a national security emergency exists requiring the immediate transfer of arms. The provision is similar to a waiver that currently applies to FMS, Tolany said. "Normally, that obligation of FMF still needs to be notified to Congress, but if this bill passes, that will not be the case," she said. That means up to $3.5 billion of weapons can potentially be provided to Israel without notification from the administration. "The public and Congress would have virtually no insight into what kind of munitions are transferred," she said. VOA asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during Friday’s news briefing if American taxpayers have the right to know what kinds of weapons the administration sends to Israel. “This is about our national security,” she said. “We have to continue our strong commitment to Israel's security. That continues to be ironclad.” The FMS emergency authority waiver is rarely used, but Blinken invoked it twice in December to transfer more than $250 million in weapons to Israel. That move galvanized some Democratic lawmakers to strengthen congressional oversight. Senator Tim Kaine of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees introduced an amendment to strike down the FMF congressional notification waiver in the Senate's supplemental funding bill. Despite support from prominent Democrats for Kaine's amendment, the Senate's supplemental package passed in February without a vote on it, leaving the notification waiver for the FMF in place. Congressman Joaquin Castro introduced a similar amendment to the House appropriations bill, but it's also unlikely to be brought to a vote. The Israeli House supplemental package includes $2.4 billion for "current U.S. military operations in the region in response to recent attacks." That would include Iran's April 13 airstrikes, which Tehran says were conducted in retaliation for Israel's April 1 bombing of Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus, Syria. The U.S. said it was not "involved in any offensive operations" in Israel's subsequent Friday counterstrike on Iran.