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Moscow — A U.S. citizen arrested on drug charges in Moscow amid soaring Russia-U.S. tensions over Ukraine appeared in court on Monday. Robert Woodland Romanov is facing charges of trafficking large amounts of illegal drugs as part of an organized group — a criminal offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He was remanded into custody in January, and the trial began in the Ostankino District Court in late March. A new court hearing is scheduled for next week. In January, the U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports of the recent detention of a U.S. citizen and noted that it "has no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas," but refrained from further comment, citing privacy considerations. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a similar statement at the time. Russian media noted that the name of the accused matches that of a U.S. citizen interviewed by the popular daily Komsomolskaya Pravda in 2020. In the interview, the man said that he was born in the Perm region in the Ural Mountains in 1991 and was adopted by an American couple when he was two. He said that he traveled to Russia to find his Russian mother and eventually met her in a TV show in Moscow. The man told Komsomolskaya Pravda that he liked living in Russia and decided to move there. The newspaper reported that he settled in the town of Dolgoprudny just outside Moscow and was working as an English teacher at a local school. Arrests of Americans in Russia have become increasingly common as relations between Moscow and Washington sink to Cold War lows. Washington accuses Moscow of targeting its citizens and using them as political bargaining chips, but Russian officials insist they all broke the law. Some have been exchanged for Russians held in the U.S., while for others, the prospects of being released in a swap are less clear.

Nairobi, Kenya — Today marks one year since the war between Sudan’s army and its paramilitary wing, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), began. The war has created widespread hunger, as fields lay uncultivated and aid agencies struggle to reach millions of Sudanese displaced from their homes. Despite the challenges, some farmers are getting support from a British aid organization.  On April 15, 2023, Sudanese awakened to the sound of gunfire, shelling, and the roar of military aircraft as the Sudanese army and the RSF began fighting for control of the capital, Khartoum. The fighting made it difficult for humanitarian aid organizations to distribute food, and hard for farmers in the conflict zones to plant crops.  The spreading clashes killed thousands and displaced millions from their homes. Practical Action, a U.K.-based aid group, is working with farmers in states not affected by the war to produce food, fight hunger and improve their economic conditions.   The organization is supporting at least 200,000 farmers and families. Muna Eltahir, the country director of Practical Action Sudan, says her organization is focused on easing food insecurity.       “We have a project in Al-Gedaref and Kassala,” she said. “We have another project in the Blue Nile to support small farmers in increasing their production and productivity through the provision of seed seedlings and some knowledge for the farmers. And this is also successful and can bridge some gaps, but at a very limited scale because we are one of the very, very few organizations working on sustaining agriculture and farmers rather than distribution of relief.”   According to the United Nations, more than 18 million Sudanese are food insecure, with most trapped in areas of active fighting. The conflict has disrupted agricultural production, damaging infrastructure and farmers' livelihoods.  Jalal Babiker, leader of the Elekhia Farmers Association, told VOA that farmers in his area have increased production and are cultivating more land.  He said using about 50 feddan of land — equal to about 50 acres — farmers cultivate a variety of crops including potatoes, grapefruit, lemons, bananas, and various vegetables. This year, in collaboration with Practical Action, he said, the farmers embarked on a potato cultivation project in Kassala state, planting approximately 24 feddan across three designated areas. Residents of Kassala state previously depended on El Gezira and Khartoum for their potatoes and other produce, but the conflict has disrupted the supply chain, and the region is forced to be self-sufficient. Babiker said the goal in planting potatoes in Kassala state is to improve the business situation of small farmers — planting potatoes to offer farmers cheap potatoes and seedlings and to create employment opportunities for the youth in the region. Babiker is optimistic about the future of agriculture in his country. However, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned Monday of an escalation of the conflict as more armed groups join the fighting. Eltahir worries that Sudan’s war will hinder her work with farmers. "My nightmare is the conflict will expand to the safe areas where we have our activities,” she said. “Then they will loot the harvest, or they will destroy the cultivated land. And then that would be a real disaster. And everything is expected because, like yesterday, they attacked Al-Gedaref." Calls from the U.N. and international agencies — urging the warring parties to cease hostilities — so far, have been ignored.

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.

Irbil, Iraq / Istanbul — Iraq, perhaps unsurprisingly, is a hotbed of gallows humor.  But the tired old joke: “Iran and the West will keep fighting here until every Iraqi is dead,” is no funnier now than it was years ago.  Hundreds of missiles and drones soared over the Middle East this weekend from Iran to Israel, turning the region's "shadow war" into a direct conflict. And while further escalation is not imminent, people inside Iraq say they have long been in the line of fire, and if the conflict continues like this, it will likely rain violence down on them.  “Many people feel insecure, not safe and that there is a danger to their lives,” said Mazin Mohammed, a father of two and a public relations officer for a women’s rights organization in Baghdad. “Especially that Iraq is considered as one of Iran’s wings.”  Iraq is one of the world’s few Shiite Muslim majority countries, and home to several powerful Iran-backed Shiite militias. But it is also politically, religiously, and ethnically divided, with about 45% of the country being non-Shiite.  Many Iraqi leaders and some entire regions hold strong alliances with the West, particularly with the United States, which operates multiple large military bases in the country.  Iraq’s competing alliances, coupled with decades of war, insecurity and deep poverty, leave its residents especially vulnerable if Israel and Iran continue to fight — either directly or via proxies within its own borders.  Literally in the line of fire between Iran and Israel, Iraq saw parts of missiles fall on its terrain over the weekend.  “I don't think that the war will be only inside Israel or Iran,” said Mohammed.   Iranian fears  In Irbil, the capital of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, Ebrahim, 29, is an Iranian English teacher who hasn’t lived in his country for 10 years. Yet still, he prefers not to share his surname for fear of retaliation from the Iranian government.  Ibrahim grew up attending anti-Western rallies and hearing calls for the destruction of Israel. But he believes that for many Iranians, the idea is now dated, despite widespread sympathy for civilians in Gaza.  “The people of Iran, they don't feel that this is their war,” he said by phone on Sunday evening. “And if they want to think about the outcomes and the ramifications or the consequences, then people are going to be hurt.”  Regardless of popular opinion, however, the war has escalated and may continue to do so, added Sanam Vakil, Middle East and North Africa program director at Chatham House, in a statement on Sunday.  “Iran has tried to reinstate deterrence, showcased its defense capabilities,” he said. “But it’s uncertain if it can avoid an Israeli counterattack on Iran directly.”  But fears of escalation may be overblown, as it’s hard to see who would be served by a larger conflict, according to Ebrahim. Iran has suffered a decade of economic turmoil that plunged millions into poverty as the price of basic goods, like food, has soared.  The Iranian government has also grown increasingly unpopular in recent years, according to analysts, and further conflict would risk a deeper economic crisis, and perhaps a tightening of the sanctions that continue to cripple Iranian attempts at economic recovery.  “I don't think that the Islamic Republic is at any point of being able to wage this war,” said Ebrhahim. “Or afford it.”  Eclectic interests  Far from the urban chaos of Baghdad or the manicured streets of Irbil, in the breezy Kurdistan hills near the Iranian border, some Iranian-Kurdish dissidents see a potential advantage to the conflict.  Jina, 32, fled her country in 2022 after sustaining gunshot wounds in protests over the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish-Iranian woman. Her death set off a nationwide opposition movement in Iran, calling for women’s rights and other freedoms.  Nationwide crackdowns eventually crushed the protests, but recent lackluster national elections indicate the crackdown did little to quell discontent. According to Jina, any international actions, including attacks, that weaken the Iranian government are a potential boon for human rights and freedoms. “Iran is not even taking care of its own people, while launching missiles against Israel or other countries,” said Jina, who also doesn’t want to use her full name for fear of retaliation. “Iran uses this creation of problems to shift the focus off their own bad behaviors.”  But like families in Iraq, Jina also fears that civilians will ultimately be the victims of the war.  “I called my family and asked them to stay inside and not to leave home,” she said. “I asked my sister-in-law not to let her kids go to school.”

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.

Taipei, Taiwan — A U.S.-based human rights organization says Chinese authorities have been “collectively punishing” families of human rights defenders in recent years, warning that the persecution appears to be part of a “state policy.”  In a new report, Chinese Human Rights Defenders said authorities have held the children of detained human rights defenders in custody and put them in psychiatric hospitals or orphanages, forced school-age children to drop out of school, imposed exit bans on children of human rights defenders and imprisoned some family members of rights activists.  The collective punishment carried out against families of Chinese human rights defenders “is completely illegal and violates all sorts of international human rights laws and conventions,” Renee Xia, director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said during an online press briefing on April 11.    “The most heartbreaking part is [how the Chinese authorities are] inflicting so much pain on the children of human rights defenders and the experience of watching their parents being mistreated growing up leaves long-term psychological trauma on them,” she added.     VOA has reached out to China’s foreign ministry for comment but has yet to receive a response. During a Universal Periodic Review held by the U.N. Human Rights Council in January, China’s top diplomat in Geneva said Beijing is dedicated to “safeguarding the rights of specific groups” and “children's development.”  Forced to drop out of school   As part of the collective punishments against families of human rights activists, some have experienced repeated forced evictions while schools are repeatedly turning away their children due to pressure from local authorities.   Wang Quanzhang is a prominent human rights lawyer who was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison on charges of subversion during the “709 crackdown” in 2015. Wang has been evicted by landlords or hotels more than a dozen times since last April. He described the forced evictions as part of Chinese authorities’ retaliation against him and his family. The 2015 crackdown is known in China as the 709 crackdown because it began on July 9, 2015. On that date, authorities began targeting independent legal advocates and arrested hundreds of lawyers.   “The authorities think our community has been trying to humiliate them, so they want to use all the means at their disposal to punish human rights lawyers,” Wang told VOA in a phone call.   Apart from the forced evictions, Wang said his 11-year-old son has been turned away by schools several times over the last year. “Since we were forced to move to new places so frequently over the last year, it’s been difficult for my son to remain at the same school for long enough,” he said, adding that some schools would turn away his son due to pressure from authorities.   Wang tried to send his son abroad last year, hoping to protect him from the harassment.   “When we tried to leave China last October, the customs officers stopped my son and the daughter of another human rights lawyer and said they weren’t allowed to leave the country since they could be a threat to national security,” he said.   Since then, Wang and his family have moved to the southern province of Guangzhou and tried to admit his son to a private academy recommended by his friends.   “After just a week, close to 20 people suddenly showed up at the academy to conduct ‘inspection’ and following their repeated harassment, the academy was forced to move to a more discreet location,” Wang said.   Since it’s not clear when his son may return to school, Wang is signing him up for some online classes to make sure he is still learning something. “The authorities know my son is my biggest weakness so they try to make it difficult for him to go to school, hoping it could stop me from criticizing them,” he told VOA.   In addition to Wang’s son, the children of other detained human rights activists have also experienced persecution from Chinese authorities. According to the CHRD report, the 11-year-old son of detained Chinese activist He Fangmei has been put into a foster home since her detention in February 2021 and her two daughters, ages four and one month old at the time, were left at a psychiatric hospital despite repeated pleas from relatives.    Meanwhile, Yu Zhenyang, the 19-year-old son of detained human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan, was briefly detained and tried to commit suicide twice since last November.    Family of rights defenders detained    Apart from targeting children as part of their collective punishments against Chinese activists, CHRD said Chinese authorities have detained or imposed tight control on family members of imprisoned activists.    Wang Li, the wife of imprisoned Chinese artist Wang Zang, was sentenced to two-and-half years in prison in December 2022 after she demanded that authorities release her husband.    In addition to that, VOA previously reported that several family members of detained Chinese activist Peng Lifa, who famously draped protest banners on a bridge in Beijing calling Chinese leader Xi Jinping a “national traitor,” have been put under strict surveillance.   In its report, the group demands that China “immediately cease all harassment and extralegal detention of the family members of human rights defenders.” CHRD has also called on the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, to issue robust statements on rights violations committed by the government and provide regular updates on the progress of dialogue with officials.

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.

Sydney — Police in Australia say a man has been arrested after a bishop and three churchgoers were stabbed in Sydney. There are no life-threatening injuries. It occurred during a televised service at the church on Monday evening, police said. The Orthodox Assyrian church streams services online. A video on social media shows a man dressed in black approaching a cleric at the altar identified as the bishop at Christ the Good Shepherd in suburban Wakely and appearing to stab him repeatedly in the head and upper body. Members of the congregation are seen screaming and rushing to the bishop's aid. The church website identified the bishop as Mar Mari Emmanuel. NSW Ambulance service said it had treated a man in his 50s for multiple cuts and taken him to a hospital, and three others were treated for one or more cuts at the scene. "A large police response is underway and the public is urged to avoid the area," police said. Australians are still in shock after a lone assailant stabbed six people to death in a busy Sydney shopping mall on Saturday and injured more than a dozen others. Christ the Good Shepherd had been preparing for Palm Sunday later this month. The bishop was featured in national news last year. A video posted in May 2023 by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about a campaign targeting the LGBTQ+ community showed the bishop in a sermon saying that "when a man calls himself a woman, he is neither a man nor a woman, you are not a human, then you are an it. Now, since you are an it, I will not address you as a human anymore because it is not my choosing, it your choosing."

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.