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WHITE HOUSE — Families of American Israeli hostages demanded an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, saying it is the only means to win the release of their loved ones who have been held by Hamas since the militant group attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, the families said they are working with the Biden administration to “encourage all our parties to reach a deal.” Only by doing so, “the horror” that the civilians of Gaza have been experiencing for the last six months can also come to an end, said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen. The White House briefed the families on the Biden administration’s efforts to secure the release of all hostages and an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, during a meeting earlier Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris. “The Vice President underscored that President [Joe] Biden and she have no higher priority than reuniting the hostages with their loved ones,” according to a White House readout of the meeting. “She also reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to bring home the remains of those who have been tragically confirmed to be deceased.” The U.S. is pushing Hamas to accept a deal with Israel to halt fighting in Gaza for six weeks while releasing some of the more than 130 hostages held by the U.S.-designated terror group in exchange for Israel freeing hundreds of Palestinians it has jailed.   U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that a “very serious” proposal was presented to Hamas in Cairo last weekend and “should be accepted.” “The ball is in Hamas’ court,” Blinken said. “The world is watching to see what it does.” One of the hostage families rejected efforts to separate the hostage release from military de-escalation in Gaza.  “These two things must be linked. No conversation about the region should be had without it starting with ‘133 hostages must come home,’” said Jonathan Polin, father of American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the dozens who were kidnapped during a music festival in Israel on Oct. 7. The hostage families expressed sympathy for the Palestinians in Gaza. “You can believe, as we do, that it is horrible that innocent civilians in Gaza are suffering,” said Rachel Goldberg, Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s mother. “And at the same time, you can also know that it is horrible and against international law, for hostages to be held against their will.” About 1,200 people were killed during the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. Around 250 were taken hostage. As of mid-February, 112 hostages had been freed, most during a weeklong cease-fire in November, while 36 more are believed to have died or been killed in Gaza during the six months of fighting. No cease-fire deal as Ramadan ends President Biden had originally set the beginning of Ramadan, which started on March 10, as the deadline for another Israel-Hamas cease-fire. In response to VOA’s question during the White House briefing Tuesday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan blamed Hamas for the fact that the Muslim month of fasting is set to end on Wednesday with still no cease-fire. “The world should say at this moment to Hamas, ‘It's time. Let's go. Let's get that cease-fire,'” he said. “We're ready. I believe Israel is ready and I think Hamas should step up to the table and be prepared to do so as well.” Sullivan said that as of Tuesday morning, Qatari negotiators facilitating the cease-fire talks had not received a response from Hamas on whether they’ll accept the latest U.S. proposal presented in Cairo over the weekend by CIA Director Bill Burns.  The proposal was sent days after a tense phone call between Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu, during which the U.S. president pressed the Israeli prime minister “to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home.” From the Israeli perspective, Netanyahu has flexibility in negotiating the number of Palestinian terrorists to be released as part of the deal, said Jonathan Rynhold, head of the Department of Political Studies at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University. “There's much less flexibility on permanent cease-fire, on things that Israel would believe would give Hamas a military advantage,” he told VOA.  Israel’s counter-offensive in Gaza has killed more than 33,000 people, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials. The Israeli military says several thousand Hamas fighters are among those killed.

Nairobi, Kenya — Kenyan doctors held new demonstrations Tuesday in their push for better pay and working conditions. The doctors are demanding a commitment from the government to fulfill collective bargaining agreements signed in 2017, but President William Ruto says the country has no money to pay the doctors and asked them to return to work. Thousands of striking doctors and medical trainees chanted, “The doctors united, shall never be defeated,” as they protested outside the Kenyan Parliament. Led by officials of Kenya’s main health care professionals union, the doctors want the government to honor the agreement. “The government has not implemented critical components of this collective bargaining agreement and instead, they have begun to violate it outrightly." said Davji Atellah, secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union. "Despite the inflation, despite the challenges [and] changes on all the other civil servants and public servants, doctors and other health workers have remained without it being considered,' Atellah said. "Instead, we realized that the new doctor interns that are being posted, their salaries were reduced by 91%.” President William Ruto has asked the doctors to call off the strike and go back to work, saying the government is struggling with a huge wage bill and cannot afford to review their salaries. “I am telling our friends, the doctors, that we mind about them. We value the service they give to our nation. But we have to live within our means,” Ruto said. Opposition lawmakers who joined the striking doctors Tuesday accuse the president of using the wage bill as an excuse to deny doctors their due pay at a time when there is exorbitant spending in government. “The doctors must not be paid yesterday, they must not be paid tomorrow, but they must be paid today," said Paul Ongili, also known as “Babu Owino,” an opposition member of parliament. "Ruto took loans, and Ruto is collecting taxes. And those taxes must be used to pay these doctors. Ruto is vicariously liable for all the deaths occurring in the hospitals, for all the deaths occurring in this country, because he has refused to pay the doctors.” Another opposition member, Otiende Amollo, said there was support for the strike. “We want to reassure you that we stand with you, and we stand with your right under the constitution to peacefully demonstrate. Nobody has the authority to outlaw a peaceful demonstration by doctors,” Amollo said. Irene Kenyatta, a final year medical student at the University of Nairobi, was among those who joined the doctors in the demonstrations. “I’m fighting for my future. I went to school to have a bright future. It can’t be the moment that I’m going to finish school you are telling me that I can’t have the bright future after all," she said. "I have invested a lot. If I want a bright future, I have to get the bright future, even if it means coming to the streets to fight for my rights.” The 2017 Kenyan doctors' strike that lasted 100 days is the longest in the country’s history.  Implementation of the collective bargaining agreement that ended that strike is the cause of the current strike, now in its fourth week.

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Environmental and human rights activists are calling on the Nigerian government to withhold approval of Shell’s plans to sell off its operations in the Niger Delta — unless the oil giant does more to tackle pollution in the region caused by the industry. Henry Ridgwell reports.

Turkey has announced restrictions on trade with Israel and Turkish Airlines has suspended flights to the country as a consequence of the war in Gaza. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the moves come as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reverses his rapprochement efforts, which proved unpopular among voters in last month’s elections

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.

U.S. voters say the economy is one of their biggest concerns in this year’s presidential election. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns looks at how candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump are approaching an economy that the U.S. Labor Department says is adding jobs and lifting wages.

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Many Muslims follow a set of religious dietary laws, and businesses that serve food allowed under these laws are described as "halal." For Muslims in Western countries, finding a halal restaurant can be a challenge, but an app is making it much easier. VOA’s Valdya Baraputri reports. Camera: Rendy Wicaksana

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tehran, iran — Gunmen ambushed a police convoy in Iran's restive southeast on Tuesday, killing six police officers, media reports said. The attack on a road in Sistan and Baluchistan province also wounded two more police officers, according to Young Journalists Club, a website affiliated with the state broadcasting company. The report said the Jaish al-Adl militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The report could not be independently verified. The militants have allegedly been fighting for greater rights for the ethnic Baluch minority in the region. Iran and some other nations consider it to be a terrorist group. The attack was the second in as many weeks targeting security forces, indicating deterioration of the security situation in the region. Last week's clashes in three separate areas of the province killed 10 Iranian troops and 18 militants. Six more members of the security forces died later in the hospital. The province, bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, has occasionally been the site of deadly clashes involving militants, armed drug smugglers and Iranian security forces. In December, militants killed nearly a dozen police officers in an attack on a police station in the province. Sistan and Baluchistan is one of the least developed parts of Iran. Relations between the predominantly Sunni Muslim residents of the region and Iran's Shiite theocracy have long been strained.

Washington — The United States Postal Service (USPS) said on Tuesday it wants to raise the price of first-class mail stamps to 73 cents from 68 cents effective July 14. The proposal, which must be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, would raise mailing services product prices by 7.8%. USPS in November reported a $6.5 billion net loss for the 12 months ending Sept. 30 as first-class mail fell to the lowest volume since 1968. Stamp prices are up 36% over the last four years since early 2019 when they were 50 cents. USPS has been aggressively hiking stamp prices and is in the middle of a 10-year restructuring plan announced in 2021 that aims to eliminate $160 billion in predicted losses over the next decade and had previously forecast 2023 as a breakeven year. USPS has been raising stamp prices twice yearly and has said it expects its "new pricing policy to generate $44 billion in additional revenue" by 2031. A number of lawmakers have raised concerns about USPS planned changes to its processing and delivery network that could impact timely deliveries. First-class mail volume fell 6.1% in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2023, to 46 billion pieces and is down 53% since 2006 -- to the lowest volume since 1968 -- but revenue increased by $515 million because of higher stamp prices.

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The Global Terrorism Index ranks Nigeria eighth among the ten countries most impacted by terrorism, while, according to the Global Organized Crime Index, Nigeria has the world’s sixth “highest criminality rate,” far worse than the U.S., which is ranked 67th.

Johannesburg — Former president Jacob Zuma can contest upcoming national elections in May, a South African court ruled Tuesday. Zuma had appealed a ban by the electoral commission, which said last month that Zuma couldn’t compete for a seat in parliament because the constitution bars people who have been convicted of a crime and sentenced to more than one year in prison from running for office.  Zuma, 81, was forced to resign near the end of his second term in 2018 amid numerous corruption scandals. In 2021, he was sentenced to 15 months in jail for contempt of court after he refused to appear in a corruption investigation.  Zuma’s lawyers argued in court Monday that because the former leader, who served just three months before being released on health grounds, was granted a remission, the ban did not apply.  The court’s decision will not be welcome news to the governing African National Congress party, of which Zuma was a lifelong member before throwing his support behind a newly formed political party called uMkhonto weSizwe, or MK, late last year.  The ANC suspended him, and Zuma — who, despite all the allegations against him, still has massive support in his home province of Kwa Zulu-Natal — has since been campaigning as the face of MK.  National elections on May 29 are widely expected to be the most fiercely contested ever, with surveys suggesting the ANC will win less than 50 percent of the vote for the first time since the advent of democracy in 1994.  Political analyst Sandile Swana broke down what the electoral court’s ruling means.  “The reintroduction of Jacob Zuma into mainstream politics is already eating away at the electoral base of the African National Congress led by Cyril Ramaphosa, and they have now been fortified with this decision of the electoral court that Zuma can be the face of the party, he can campaign, he can be the number one candidate for the party,” Swana said.  Outside the court on Monday, Zuma told supporters he’d be happy to lead the country again.  However, Swana noted, there is still a legal question over whether Zuma could ever become president again, as he was already in his second term when he was forced out.  Rather than directly electing a president, South Africans vote for members of parliament. Whichever party wins a majority then puts their leader forward as president.  Independent analyst Asanda Ngoasheng said Tuesday’s developments are concerning.  “We now have the potential of someone who has faced or is facing multiple allegations of corruption and bankrupting the state being able to kind of keep coming back,” Ngoasheng said. “Is Jacob Zuma really turning out to be Mr. Teflon as he has been called, with nothing ever sticking to him, or will something come that will trip him up?” Last month the ANC went to court to try to prevent Zuma’s new party from using the name uMkhonto weSizwe, which was also the name of the ANC’s disbanded armed wing.

Washington — The Pentagon is not backing off on its support for Israel, despite growing frustration by some U.S. lawmakers that Israel is crossing ethical lines as it goes after Hamas in Gaza. During a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday interrupted multiple times by protesters accusing Israel — and the United States — of having innocent blood on its hands, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pushed back. Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican, asked Austin: "Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza?" Austin replied: "Senator Cotton, we don't have any evidence of genocide." But under repeated questioning, Austin acknowledged Israel’s military can and must do more to differentiate between Hamas militants and civilians. "There’s no question that there have been far too many civilian casualties in this conflict,” he said. Austin said he has warned his Israeli counterpart that a failure to allow the delivery of much more humanitarian aid to Gaza “would just create more terrorism.” As for continued talk by Israel about an operation to root out Hamas in Rafah, the secretary of defense was blunt. “It cannot be what we’ve seen in the past in terms of the type of activities that we've seen in Gaza City and in Khan Yunis,” he said. Not all lawmakers were satisfied with those answers. Some expressed frustration that Washington has been forced to step in. "There's no reason the United States should have to build a pier in the eastern Mediterranean. There's no reason we should have to airdrop supplies,” said Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat. "The pace of humanitarian aid is insufficient." Other lawmakers put blame on Hamas. Austin agreed that the U.S.-designated terror group’s ongoing conduct continues to amount to war crimes. The hearing was about President Joe Biden's budget request for the Department of Defense.

Tehran, Iran — Iran released four conservationists who had worked to save the endangered Asiatic cheetah before they were convicted on espionage charges and spent five years in prison, local media reported on Tuesday. The Tehran newspaper Etemad said authorities released on Monday night Niloufar Bayani and Houman Jowkar, who were part of a group of five activists convicted in 2019 on espionage charges that were internationally criticized. On Tuesday, several Iranian media outlets, including the semiofficial ILNA news agency, said two other conservationists were also released, Sepideh Kashani and Taher Ghadirian. The four are among more than 2,000 prisoners granted amnesty on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, which celebrates the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The United Nations Environment Program on Monday welcomed the release of Bayani and Jowkar, who are members of the nonprofit Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. Iranian authorities released Sam Rajabi, another member of the group, in 2023. The conservationists were arrested in 2018, along with Kavous Seyed-Emami, the 64-year-old founder of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. Seyed-Emami, an Iranian Canadian dual citizen, died while awaiting trial under disputed circumstances. Bayani was sentenced to a 10-year prison term in 2019, while the others received six-to-eight-year terms on espionage charges. The case against members of the nonprofit Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation came as protests and unrest shook parts of Iran amid a government-imposed internet shutdown.

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland — Maryland Governor Wes Moore said he plans to meet with members of Congress this week to discuss support for rebuilding the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, which has blocked the main shipping channel at Baltimore's port for nearly two weeks.  "I'm going to be spending part of this week with our delegation going down and meeting with leaders and ranking members in the Congress and letting them know that this issue is not partisan. This is a patriotic responsibility to be able to support one of this country's great economic engines," Moore said Monday. "This is an opportunity to support a port that is directly responsible for the hiring of tens of thousands of people."  As Maryland lawmakers reached the end of their legislative session Monday, a measure authorizing use of the state's rainy-day fund to help port employees was approved and sent to Moore's desk. The governor planned to sign the emergency legislation Tuesday, putting it into effect right away.  The bridge collapsed March 26 after being struck by the cargo ship Dali, which lost power shortly after leaving Baltimore, bound for Sri Lanka. The ship issued a mayday alert with just enough time for police to stop traffic, but not enough to save a roadwork crew filling potholes on the bridge.  Authorities believe six workers — immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — plunged to their deaths in the Patapsco River. Two others survived. The bodies of three workers have been recovered, but the search for the other victims continues.  Moore said the state remains focused on supporting the families of the six workers.  "We are still very much focused on bringing closure and comfort to these families, and the operations to be able to bring that closure to these families," Moore said. "It has not stopped. It continues to be a 24/7 operation."  Temporary, alternate channels have been cleared, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said last week that it expects to open a limited-access channel for barge container ships and some vessels moving cars and farm equipment by the end of April. Officials are aiming to restore normal capacity to Baltimore's port by the end of May.  Moore was upbeat about progress in reopening channels.  He said that if he had been told the morning of the collapse that there would be two channels open in two weeks, "I would have said that sounds really ambitious, considering what we saw, but that's where we are."  The governor also spoke of progress in removing debris, saying crews pulled 318 metric tons (350 tons) of steel from the Patapsco River on Sunday.  More than 50 salvage divers and 12 cranes are on site to help cut sections of the bridge and remove them from the key waterway. Crews began removing containers from the deck over the weekend, and they're making progress toward removing sections of the bridge that lie across the ship's bow so it can eventually move, according to the Key Bridge Response Unified Command.