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BERLIN — Two German-Russian men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of espionage, one of them accused of agreeing to carry out attacks on potential targets including U.S. military facilities in hopes of sabotaging aid for Ukraine, prosecutors said Thursday. The two, identified only as Dieter S. and Alexander J. in line with German privacy rules, were arrested Wednesday in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth, federal prosecutors said. Prosecutors allege Dieter S. had been discussing possible acts of sabotage in Germany with a person linked to Russian intelligence since October, and that the main aim was to undermine military support given by Germany to Ukraine. The suspect declared himself willing to carry out bombing and arson attacks on infrastructure used by the military and industrial sites in Germany, prosecutors said in a statement. They added that he gathered information on potential targets, including U.S. military facilities. Alexander J. allegedly helped him to do so starting in March at the latest, while Dieter S. scouted out some of the sites, took photos and videos of military goods and passed the information to his intelligence contact. A judge on Wednesday ordered Dieter S. kept in custody pending a possible indictment, and Alexander J. was ordered held on Thursday. Dieter S. also faces separate accusations of belonging to an armed unit of pro-Russian separatist forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine between December 2014 and September 2016. Germany has become the second-biggest supplier of weapons to Ukraine after the United States since Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. The U.S. has a large military presence in Germany, including in Bavaria. Prosecutors did not name any specific locations in the suspects' sights. German news agency dpa and magazine Der Spiegel reported, without citing sources, that the locations allegedly snooped on include the U.S. Grafenwoehr military base. Germany's top security official, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, said Russia's ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin. She vowed that Germany will continue to thwart any such Russian threats. "We will continue to give Ukraine massive support and will not let ourselves be intimidated," she said. Faeser wouldn't comment on details of the investigation. She said that Germany has increased its security measures since Russia sent its troops into Ukraine in 2022 and will keep evaluating them. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he couldn't comment on the reported arrests, saying that he doesn't have "any information on this matter." European officials have recently warned of Russia-linked interference networks trying to undermine European support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

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.

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.

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.

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.

India’s mammoth phased election that begins April 19 will pit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party against an opposition alliance of over two dozen parties. While Modi is wooing voters by promising to continue the country’s development, the opposition has raised concerns about threats to democracy. Anjana Pasricha reports from New Dehli.

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.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is steadfast that Israel will make its own decisions about how to defend itself after a barrage of Iranian missiles and drones launched from Tehran last Saturday. Western countries meanwhile are pleading for a restrained response from Isarel. Jordan’s King Abdullah says his country will not be a battleground for any party in the confrontation between Israel and Iran and the protection of its citizens and sovereignty are paramount. Michael Cohen, who once said he would take a bullet for Donald Trump, is now poised to serve as a star prosecution witness in the former U.S. president's criminal trial on charges of covering up hush money paid to an adult film star.

London/Cairo — From her home in Cairo, Etemad Abu Tahoun watches with terror as -- hour by hour -- the television news relays the devastation wrought on Gaza. Her only son, 23-year-old Momen, is trapped in the Palestinian territory. A brief, broken video call confirms he is still alive – before the signal cuts off. She is trying to crowdfund enough money to pay for her son’s escape. "I will help him to escape from the killing," she said. "And his presence will be my support as I navigate the challenges that lie ahead." But escaping Gaza isn’t easy. Egypt has closed the Rafah crossing to most Palestinians, fearing an exodus of refugees. Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October, Egypt has permitted just a single travel agency, called Hala, to operate cross-border journeys from Gaza into Egypt – what it terms a "coordination." The firm is based in the office of its parent company, Organi, in Cairo. Its fees have reportedly risen 14-fold from the pre-war price, to $5,000 per adult and half that for children. That’s far beyond the means of most Palestinians – especially those who have lost their homes and livelihoods in the war. Mohammed Ra’ed, a Palestinian medical student based in Cairo, is crowdfunding to pay for six displaced family members to escape a refugee camp in Gaza. "If I want to continue my studies here and succeed in my life, I want to see it [that satisfaction] in the faces and eyes of my family. If they're not here with me, all my efforts, all the things I do, it's all in vain," he said. Hala did not respond to VOA requests for comment. The agency now accounts for 40% of all crossings from Gaza into Egypt, according to the Cairo-based Arab Organization for Human Rights. Organization director Alaa Shalaby said accusations of profiteering are an attempt to divert attention from Israel’s actions – and praises Egypt’s effort to send aid into Gaza. "We commend the admirable efforts of this community and country, grappling with their own economic difficulties, for providing significant support," Shalaby said. Despite protests in Cairo calling for a change of policy, the Egyptian government says it has no plans to open the Rafah crossing with Gaza. Hamada Elrasam contributed to this report.

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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 — U.S. intelligence and security agencies are trying to prepare election officials for a wave of new attacks aiming to destroy voter confidence in November's presidential election, just as a series of reports warn some familiar adversaries are starting to ramp up their efforts. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the FBI, issued a new warning on Wednesday that "the usual suspects" — Russia, China and Iran — are looking for ways to stoke tensions and divide American voters. All three countries, the guidance said, are "leveraging influence operations exploiting perceived sociopolitical divisions to undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions." The new guidance warned that the three countries are using fake online accounts and various proxies, including state-sponsored media organizations, to spread disinformation and sow doubt. It also cautioned that Russia, China and Iran are using real people, including social media influencers, "to wittingly or unwittingly promote their narratives." "The elections process is the golden thread of American democracy, which is why our foreign adversaries deliberately target our elections infrastructure with their influence operations," CISA senior adviser Cait Conley said in a statement to reporters. "CISA is committed to doing its part to ensure these [state and local] officials — and the American public — don't have to fight this battle alone." Agency warns of new tactics The latest guidance, posted on CISA's website, warns that in addition to resorting to familiar tactics, Russia, China and Iran are likely to employ new tricks to try to  confuse U.S. voters and erode confidence in the election process. One such technique is voice cloning — using a fake recording of a public official or figure to try to cause confusion. The agencies cited an example from last year's election in the Slovak Republic, when a fake recording of a key party leader purported to show him discussing how to rig the vote. The guidance also warned that Iran could try to employ "hack and leak" cyberattacks in the U.S., using lessons learned from similar operations against Israel in recent months. And it said Russia and China have separately sought to spark alarm among voters by spreading fake documents alleging to show evidence of security incidents impacting physical buildings or computer systems. China denied the allegations. "China has always adhered to noninterference in other countries' internal affairs," Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in an email to VOA. "Speculating or accusing China of using social media to interfere in the U.S. politics is completely groundless and malicious," Liu added. VOA also contacted representatives for the Russian and Iranian governments, who have yet to respond. For now, CISA, ODNI and the FBI are advising U.S. election officials that they can try to mitigate the impact of election meddling attempts by creating trusted portals for information, such as official U.S. government websites, and by proactively debunking false information. But the challenge is likely to grow. Russia already interfering, says Microsoft Tech giant Microsoft warned on Wednesday it is seeing signs that Russia, at least, is already ramping up its election interference efforts. "The usual Russian election influence actors kicked into gear over the last 45 days," according to a report by Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center. The Russian effort so far, the report said, "employs a mix of themes from 2020 with a renewed focus on undermining U.S. support for Ukraine." Microsoft further warned that Russia, China and Iran have "leveraged some form of generative AI [artificial intelligence] to create content since last summer." "We anticipate that election influence campaigns will include fakes — some will be deep, most shallow — and the simplest manipulations, not the most complex employment of AI, will likely be the pieces of content that have the most impact," the report added. At the same time, there is concern about domestic extremists impacting the presidential election. "There is a serious risk of extremist violence," the Council on Foreign Relations wrote in a report issued Wednesday. "While the risk of far-right election-related violence is greater, the possibility of far-left extremist violence cannot be dismissed," it said, pointing to the possibility of attacks on pre-election political events or gatherings, on polling places during Election Day, and against election offices in the days following the election. Such warnings are consistent with those issued by U.S. officials in recent months. "Some DVEs [domestic violent extremists], particularly those motivated by conspiracy theories and anti-government or partisan grievances, may seek to disrupt electoral processes," the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned in a threat assessment issued this past September. "Violence or threats could be directed at government officials, voters, and elections‑related personnel and infrastructure, including polling places, ballot drop box locations, voter registration sites, campaign events, political party offices and vote-counting sites," it said.