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phoenix — The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state can enforce its long-dormant law criminalizing all abortions except when a mother's life is at stake. The case examined whether the state is still subject to a law that predates Arizona's statehood. The 1864 law provides no exceptions for rape or incest but allows abortions if a mother's life is in danger. The state's high court ruling reviewed a 2022 decision by the state Court of Appeals that said doctors couldn't be charged for performing the procedure in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. An older court decision blocked enforcing the 1864 law shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issued the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a constitutional right to an abortion. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, then state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, persuaded a state judge in Tucson to lift the block on enforcing the 1864 law. Brnovich's Democratic successor, Attorney General Kris Mayes, had urged the state's high court to side with the Court of Appeals and hold the 1864 law in abeyance. Since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 decision ending a nationwide right to abortion, most Republican-controlled states have started enforcing new bans or restrictions and most Democrat-dominated ones have sought to protect abortion access. Currently, 14 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions. Two states ban the procedure once cardiac activity can be detected, which is about six weeks into pregnancy and often before women realize they're pregnant. Nearly every ban has been challenged with a lawsuit. Courts have blocked enforcing some restrictions, including bans throughout pregnancy in Utah and Wyoming. A proposal pending before the Arizona Legislature that would repeal the 1864 law hasn't received a committee hearing this year. "Today's decision to reimpose a law from a time when Arizona wasn't a state, the Civil War was raging, and women couldn't even vote will go down in history as a stain on our state," Mayes said Tuesday. The justices said the state can start enforcing the law in 14 days. Former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, who signed the state's current law restricting abortion after 15 weeks, posted on X saying Tuesday's ruling was not the outcome he would have wanted. "I signed the 15-week law as governor because it is thoughtful policy, and an approach to this very sensitive issue that Arizonans can actually agree on," he said. President Joe Biden called the 1864 Arizona law cruel. "Millions of Arizonans will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their health is at risk or in tragic cases of rape or incest," he said in a statement. "Vice President Harris and I stand with the vast majority of Americans who support a woman's right to choose. We will continue to fight to protect reproductive rights and call on Congress to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade."

White House — President Joe Biden is set to welcome Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the White House Tuesday evening for an official visit that will mark one of the biggest structural upgrades of the U.S.-Japan security alliance in several decades. The visit will also usher in Tokyo’s further integration into Washington’s security framework with other allies in the region, a key factor to deter Beijing. Biden and Kishida will announce steps that for the first time will allow the United States and Japan to collaborate more closely on the development and potentially co-production of vital military and defense equipment, said Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell in a recent event hosted by the Center for a New American Security. It's a milestone in the U.S. alliance with Japan, what Campbell describes as the “cornerstone of our engagement in the Indo-Pacific.”   The two leaders are also set to declare their intention to modernize a framework that has for decades guided interaction between Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the approximately 54,000 U.S. troops in Japan. Tokyo wants the U.S. military to strengthen the functions of its command headquarters in Japan to allow for better coordination. Under the current system, major decisions are coordinated with the U.S. military's Indo-Pacific Command, located more than 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles) and five time zones away in Hawaii. Under its new national security strategy, Japan is establishing a joint operational command for its self-defense force, said Tetsuo Kotani, senior fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs. “In that sense we have done our homework and now it’s time for the United States to upgrade their command-and-control structure in the Indo-Pacific,” he told VOA. Broader regional frameworks The leaders agree on the goal of expanding bilateral security ties into broader regional frameworks with other U.S. allies, including the Philippines and Australia. The pair will be joined later this week by Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in a summit set to bolster trilateral maritime cooperation in the South China Sea. An announcement on some form of trilateral joint naval patrol activity is widely expected. Beyond bolstering naval defense amid Beijing’s ramped-up aggression in the South China Sea, Tokyo has signaled it wants to link Japan into a broader integrated air and missile defense network with the U.S. and Australia. “Pushing ahead on cooperation with like-minded countries on security, including defense equipment and technology, will lead to the establishment of a multilayered network, and by expanding that we can improve deterrence,” Kishida said Friday. Considering the difficulties of integrating such systems, talks will likely begin with establishing greater situational awareness among the three countries for their individual air and missile defenses, said Jeffrey Hornung, the Japan Lead for the RAND National Security Research Division and a senior political scientist at RAND. “Any cooperation on this front will help dilute Chinese anti-access, area denial efforts by enabling the three countries to pass information on Chinese activities,” he told VOA. Biden and Kishida are also set to discuss Japan’s potential involvement in AUKUS, a trilateral security partnership formed in 2021 among the U.S., Australia and the United Kingdom. “Recognizing Japan's strengths and its close bilateral defense partnerships with all three countries, we are considering cooperation with Japan on AUKUS Pillar II advanced capability projects," the group said in joint statement published by the British government.   “Pillar II” of AUKUS is focused on delivering advanced capabilities and sharing technologies across a range of areas including quantum computing, undersea, hypersonic, artificial intelligence and cyber technology. The step takes the group’s effort to push back against China beyond its first pillar — delivery of nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia, for which there are no known plans to include Japan. Any multinational defense industrial partnership is an extremely complicated endeavor, said Yuki Tatsumi, director of the Japan Program at the Stimson Center. Many aspects need to be harmonized, from industrial security standards and export licensing regulations to the arrangement on intellectual property rights, she told VOA. “Making it a reality will take many months of careful consultation among all four countries.” Nippon Steel A potential rift remains between Biden and Kishida over the proposed sale of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan, a deal that has become embroiled in protectionist campaign rhetoric ahead of the November U.S. presidential election. Last month Biden announced his opposition to the deal, saying the U.S. needs to “maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steelworkers.” His prospective opponent, former President Donald Trump, has promised to block the $14 billion deal if he is elected again. The optics of a Japanese firm trying to buy an American manufacturing company during an election year is bad for Biden, Tatsumi said, and the pair will want to avoid airing their differences publicly. In a Tuesday event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel sought to downplay the impact of Biden’s opposition to the U.S. Steel acquisition to the relationship. He noted that in February the Biden administration approved a plan that would drive billions of dollars in revenue to a U.S.-based subsidiary of the Japanese company Mitsui for crane production in the United States. Kishida and Japanese first lady Yuko Kishida will be briefly welcomed at the White House on Tuesday evening ahead of Wednesday’s official visit and formal state dinner, the fifth that Biden will have hosted since taking office in 2021. VOA’s William Gallo contributed to this report.

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GENEVA — The United Nations refugee agency says thousands of people are still fleeing Sudan every day as clashes between two warring army factions, raging for nearly a year, show no signs of abating.   The latest UNHCR figures show that more than 8.5 million people in Sudan have been forced to flee their homes since war erupted on April 15, 2023, making this one of the largest displacement and humanitarian crises in the world.   The number includes 1.8 million Sudanese who have fled to neighboring countries seeking refuge.   The UNHCR says fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has shattered peoples’ lives. It says attacks on civilians are escalating, human rights violations are widespread and rampant, conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence continues without stop, and the economy has collapsed.   “While the war started one year ago, thousands are crossing borders daily as if the emergency had started yesterday,” UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado told journalists in Geneva Tuesday.   “Chad has experienced the largest refugee arrivals in its history. While teams from UNHCR and partners continue to work and relocate refugees to expanded and new settlements, over 150,000 remain in border areas in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, mainly and largely due to funding shortfalls,” she said.   The UNHCR says more than 1,800 people are arriving daily in South Sudan alone, increasing pressure on the country’s overstretched infrastructure and worsening vast humanitarian needs.   “Some 635,000 people have arrived in South Sudan since the 15th of April last year, which represents more than 5% of the population of South Sudan,” said Marie-Helene Verney, UNHCR representative in South Sudan, speaking from the capital, Juba.  To put that number in perspective, she said 635,000 people would be equivalent to 4.5 million people arriving in less than one year in Germany or about 17.6 million people arriving in less than one year in the United States.  “This is the world’s poorest country, so you can imagine the pressure that is being put on this country,” she said. “There are very few roads, pretty much all humanitarian assistance has to be airlifted, at significant cost. We are approaching the rainy season again, so we are facing the risk of disease, particularly cholera.  “Unfortunately, we all know that the risk of sexual violence is high during transit,” she said, “and we have heard of heartbreaking stories of what has happened to women who have had to flee when they were in Sudan.”  Verney said the profile of many of the refugees presents challenge and opportunity as “many tend to be very urban.”   She said those who arrive from Sudan mostly lived in the capital, Khartoum, and the city of Wad Madani and “are very middle class, very educated, and have professional skills, mainly in health and education.”   The urban people are “reluctant to live in refugee camps,” she said, so UNHCR is working with South Sudan to match their skills with the gaps that exist in the country.  The UNHCR’s Sarrado notes other countries of asylum, including the Central African Republic, Egypt and Ethiopia, also are experiencing large daily inflows of Sudanese refugees and the many logistical challenges that come with them.  “Those crossing borders, mostly women and children, are arriving in remote areas with little to nothing and in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medical care. Many families have been separated and arrive in distress. People and children have witnessed or experienced appalling violence, making psychosocial support a priority. Many children arrive malnourished,” she said.  As the conflict continues and the lack of assistance and opportunities deepens, Sarrado warned that “more people will be forced to flee Sudan to neighboring countries or to move further, risking their lives by embarking on long, dangerous journeys,” seeking safety in countries further afield.   In the last year, the UNHCR reports Uganda has welcomed 30,000 Sudanese refugees, including over 14,000 since the start of the year.  Additionally, UNHCR statistics show more Sudanese refugees are going to Europe, with 6,000 arriving in Italy from Tunisia and Libya since the beginning of 2023 — an almost six-fold increase from the previous year.  Despite the magnitude of the crisis, Sarrado said funding remains critically low, saying that “only 7%” of the UNHCR’s $1.4 billion 2024 Regional Refugee Response Plan for Sudan has been received.  She said UNHCR and partners are saving lives in many locations, but firm commitments from international donors to support Sudan and the countries hosting refugees “are needed to ensure those forced to flee by the war can live in dignity.” 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel will go forward with its planned operation into Rafah to root out remaining Hamas fighters. The Iranian foreign minister visits Damascus after the embassy there was attacked. An update from Kyiv and a look at drought in Africa

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Afghan poet falsely claimed that Afghanistan’s Panshir region is part of Iran.

It has been two years since the town of Siversk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region has enjoyed electricity, gas and sewage service. Once a bustling community of over 12,000 people, only about 800 remain today. Anna Kosstutschenko visited Siversk and talked to residents. Video editor: Pavel Suhodolskiy

Six months into the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Israel is at a crossroads. Israeli forces have not been able to eradicate Hamas or free the remaining hostages, and some analysts say the war could escalate further. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem.

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NEW YORK — A New York appeals court judge Tuesday rejected former President Donald Trump's latest bid to delay his hush money criminal trial while he fights a gag order. Barring further court action, the ruling clears the way for jury selection to begin next week.  Justice Cynthia Kern's ruling is yet another loss for Trump, who has tried repeatedly to get the trial postponed. Jury selection is set to start Monday.  Trump's lawyers wanted the trial delayed until a full panel of appellate court judges could hear arguments on lifting or modifying a gag order that bans him from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the hush-money case.  The presumptive Republican nominee's lawyers argue the gag order is an unconstitutional curb on Trump's free speech rights while he's campaigning for president and fighting criminal charges.  "The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable," Trump lawyer Emil Bove said at an emergency hearing Tuesday in the state's mid-level appeals court.  Bove argued that Trump shouldn't be muzzled while critics, including his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels, routinely assail him. Both are key prosecution witnesses.  Bove also argued that the order unconstitutionally restricts Trump's critiques of the case — and, with them, his ability to speak to the voting public and its right to hear from him.  Steven Wu, the appellate chief for the Manhattan district attorney's office, countered that there is a "public interest in protecting the integrity of the trial."  "What we are talking about here is the defendant's uncontested history of making inflammatory, denigrating" comments about people involved in the case, Wu said. "This is not a political debate. These are insults."  He said prosecutors already have had trouble getting some witnesses to testify "because they know what their names in the press may lead to." Wu didn't identify the witnesses but noted they included people who would testify about record-keeping practices.  The gag order still affords Trump "free rein to talk about a host of issues," noting that he can comment on Judge Juan M. Merchan and District Attorney Alvin Bragg and "raise political arguments as he sees fit." Trump has repeatedly lambasted Bragg, a Democrat, and the judge.  Merchan issued the gag order last month at prosecutors' urging, then expanded it last week to prohibit comments about his own family after Trump lashed out on social media at the judge's daughter, a Democratic political consultant, and made what the court system said were false claims about her. Tuesday was the second of back-to-back days for Trump's lawyers in the appeals court. Associate Justice Lizbeth González on Monday rejected their request to delay the trial while Trump seeks to move his case out of heavily Democratic Manhattan.  Trump's lawyers framed their gag order appeal as a lawsuit against Merchan. In New York, judges can be sued to challenge some decisions under a state law known as Article 78.  Trump has used the tactic before, including against the judge in his recent New York civil fraud trial in an unsuccessful last-minute bid to delay that case last fall and again when that judge imposed a gag order barring trial participants from commenting publicly on court staffers. That order came after Trump smeared the judge's principal law clerk in a social media post.  A sole appeals judge lifted the civil trial gag order, but an appellate panel restored it two weeks later.  Trump's hush-money criminal case involves allegations that he falsified his company's records to hide the nature of payments to Cohen, who helped him bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign. Cohen's activities included paying Daniels $130,000 to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.  Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.  Trump has made numerous attempts to get the trial postponed.  Last week, as Merchan swatted away various requests to delay the trial, Trump renewed his request for the judge to step aside from the case. The judge rejected a similar request last August.  Trump's lawyers allege the judge is biased against him and has a conflict of interest because of his daughter Loren's work as president of Authentic Campaigns, a firm with clients that have included President Joe Biden and other Democrats. Trump's attorneys complained the expanded gag order was shielding the Merchans "from legitimate public criticism."  Merchan had long resisted imposing a gag order. At Trump's arraignment in April 2023, he admonished Trump not to make statements that could incite violence or jeopardize safety, but stopped short of muzzling him. At a subsequent hearing, Merchan noted Trump's "special" status as a former president and current candidate and said he was "bending over backwards" to ensure Trump has every opportunity "to speak in furtherance of his candidacy."  Merchan became increasingly wary of Trump's rhetoric disrupting the historic trial as it grew near. In issuing the gag order, he said his obligation to ensuring the integrity of the proceedings outweighed First Amendment concerns.  Trump reacted on social media that the gag order was "illegal, un-American, unConstitutional" and said Merchan was "wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement" by Democratic rivals.  Trump suggested without evidence that Merchan's decision-making was influenced by his daughter's professional interests and made a claim, later repudiated by court officials, that Loren Merchan had posted a social media photo showing Trump behind bars.  After the outburst, Merchan expanded the gag order April 1 to prohibit Trump from making statements about the judge's family or Bragg's family.  "They can talk about me but I can't talk about them???" Trump reacted on his Truth Social platform.

A government-run school in Cameroon’s capital is teaching students how to manufacture plant-based meat, an innovation which the school’s director hopes will contribute to the fight against climate change. Anne Nzouankeu has more from Yaoundé in this report narrated by Moki Edwin Kindzeka.

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Amman — Jordanian officials and observers say the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoot, Hamas, are inciting pro-Hamas demonstrations with the aim of destabilizing Jordan, a key U.S. Arab ally. Jordan has been the scene of largely peaceful but growing protests since the start of the Gaza war. Many of the demonstrations have been near the Israeli Embassy in the capital, Amman.  Some demonstrators demand Jordan ends its 1994 peace treaty with Israel, while others voice anger against Israel as they share personal ties with Gazans suffering bombardment and starvation.  Saud Sharafat, a former senior member of Jordanian intelligence and a terrorism analyst, believes some Hamas leaders — and Iran — would like to portray the Jordanian government as “resisting the will of the street.” But authorities in Jordan “have displayed skill in allowing protesters to test the limits of dissent, while also maintaining public order,” he told United Arab Emirates’ The National newspaper.   Recently, several prominent Jordanian government officials as well as journalists have accused the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoot Hamas of inciting the population against the governing authorities. They say this is done in the service of Iran, which seeks to destabilize Jordan and widen the conflict. Jordan has the longest land border with Israel and the majority of its population is of Palestinian origin.  Jordanian analyst Amer Al Sabaileh told VOA that Hamas leaders have specifically targeted Jordan rather than other Arab countries in their speeches, inciting Jordanians to go to the streets.  He questions why protests continue when Jordan’s King Abdullah has repeatedly called for a cease-fire and has been at the forefront of humanitarian aid deliveries, while Jordan’s foreign ministry has criticized Israel’s prosecution of the war.  “There is a political purpose behind mobilizing and insisting that it is legitimate to go to the streets in Jordan, because they are originally Palestinian,” he said. “So, if you are originally Palestinian, it does not give you the right to bring chaos to Jordan or to import the crisis inside a stable country that has also a fragile security situation because this country, since 2003, has been living with threats from Iraq, Syria, terrorism, drugs. We should care about how stable Jordan should be.”    Meanwhile, analyst Osama Al Sharif told VOA that while the Jordanian government may be disturbed by the slogans and spread of the protests, he believes claims of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas making inroads in Jordan is "hyperbole," nor has there been physical proof of Iran's meddling.  “There have been certain thoughts on the internet. A pro-Iranian militia claiming that they can arm 12,000 Jordanians at any given moment. But it’s very difficult to separate truth from fiction when you have this highly charged atmosphere in Jordan with what’s happening in Gaza,” he said. “People are genuinely horrified because of family linkages, or have some sort of relationship, a distant relative, a friend. The king himself has overseen the delivery of aid to Gaza, toured the world defending the Palestinian cause and calling for a cease-fire and warning of a humanitarian disaster unfolding.”  Observers do agree, however, that great uncertainty prevails.  This, they say, is set to continue as the war in Gaza drags on, and while Israel mobilizes troops along its border with Lebanon in preparation for a possible war with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Police in Gabon say a crime wave has hit the capital, Libreville, several days after the country’s transitional president pardoned and set free over 500 prisoners. Civil society groups on Tuesday launched a campaign asking the government to give the former prisoners more support and for freed prisoners to be law-abiding citizens.  General Jean Germain Effayong Onong, commander in chief of Gabon's Penitentiary Administration, told Gabon's state TV that former prisoners caught committing crimes will either be punished or sent back to prison. Onong said the country's transitional government led by General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema wants civilians to live in peace with total freedom to carry out their daily activities. Onong spoke about a week after the government set free more than 560 of the close to 4,000 inmates at the Libreville Central Prison. In December, President Oligui, who seized power from President Ali Ben Bongo following a disputed election last August, promised to set free over 1,000 prisoners. He said most were civilians were unjustifiably held in prison by Gabon's former leaders. The general said a majority of prisoners were held in pretrial detention for a long time with no evidence of wrongdoing. The presidential pardon did not extend to prisoners who had been convicted of drug-related offenses or violent crimes. However, Gabon's police this week reported that many people who regained freedom following the presidential clemency have been arrested for involvement in crimes such as theft, assault and highway robbery.  Firman Ollo'o Obiang is secretary general of S.O.S Prisoners, a non-governmental organization that works for the well-being of Gabon's inmates. Obiang said it is very surprising that less than two weeks after regaining freedom, former prisoners whose liberation was hard earned are again arrested by the police for committing crimes. Obiang said while waiting for families and the government to socially and economically reintegrate the freed prisoners, his organization is providing moral and financial assistance to poor and unemployed civilians who were freed by Gabon's transitional government. Obiang did not say how much financial assistance S.O.S Prisoners provides to the freed inmates. Rights groups and S.O.S Prisoners blame unemployment, the high cost of living and poverty for the crime wave reported by Gabon police. They also say if prisons in Gabon were the correctional facilities they are supposed to be, freed prisoners would not be involved with crime.  Stanislas Kouma is Gabon's director general of penitentiary affairs.  Kouma said Gabon's transitional government is planning to improve living conditions of inmates while in prison and when the inmates eventually regain their freedom. He said conditions deteriorated during ousted president Ali Bongo Ondimba's term in office.  Kouma said Gabon's central prison in Libreville, constructed for less than a thousand inmates, had about 4.000 detainees when General Oligui seized power in an August 30 coup. Shortly after the coup, President Oligui freed several political prisoners who had jailed for years without trial. Included in that release were Jean-Remy Yama, leader of the Coalition of Gabon State Workers Trade Unions, Renaud Allogho Akoue, former director general of Gabon's National Social Insurance and Health Fund, and Léandre Nzué, former mayor of Gabon's capital, Libreville. Hundreds more less prominent prisoners pardoned by Oligui are scheduled to be released by the end of April.

WASHINGTON — Audrey Gray was at a national task force in New Orleans when a colorful zine caught the climate journalist’s eye. Produced by Imagine Water Works, the zine — A Queer/Trans Guide to Storms — took the form of “love notes” to the southeast Louisiana LGBTQ+ community, alongside practical storm preparation tips. As a climate change journalist from Los Angeles, Gray had been reporting on similar content, with an emphasis on how communities adapt to change and protect themselves from extreme weather. The magazine, she said, had useful practical information. “Say you’re going through a transition right there: how to deal with your medication, what to take in your evacuation bag, how to plug into resources that will help you,” Gray told VOA. Gray studied at Columbia Journalism School with the intention of being a climate journalist. Since graduating in 2019, her focus has been writing stories that would make people “feel something” about the issue. “I had been freaked out by climate change really early,” Gray said. Her first stories focused on carbon emissions, but slowly she shifted to covering solutions rather than just the problems. “I really wanted to try to advance the narrative in a way that focused on courage and acts of protection,” said Gray. As a freelancer, Gray’s work has appeared in media outlets including Mother Jones and Wired. Now, as one of the three 2024 grantees for the Kim Wall Memorial Fund, Gray plans to expand her coverage. Established by the International Women’s Media Foundation, or IWMF, the fund commemorates Kim Wall, a Swedish journalist killed off the coast of Denmark in 2017 by a man she was interviewing. Each year, the IWMF awards grants to female or nonbinary journalists who focus on lesser-known stories that reflect Wall’s ideals. Alongside Gray, this year’s grantees are the Netherlands-based documentary filmmaker Zhaoyin Feng and the U.K.-based freelancer Isobel Thompson. Taylor Moore, an associate program manager at the IWMF, is part of the selection panel. She described Gray as “curious” and “excitable,” much like Wall had been. “She's able to distill the science in a way that's understandable for the lay person and really shows the human impacts of climate change,” Moore said. Noting that Gray is one of the few American journalists awarded a grant, Moore told VOA, “We thought this was a story that deserved equal prominence among the international stories we fund.” Gray credits much inspiration to Wall, a journalist who she says was “ahead of her time.” Wall was 30 when she was killed. But she had already made strides in media, traveling the world and writing about marginalized communities. Her work, Gray said, is what she admires about the young reporter. “[Wall] would write stories about people, and climate change wasn’t necessarily the headline, but it’s all there,” said Gray. “She was really skillful at getting herself to a place and then pitching all kinds of stories from that place to different publications.” Gray plans to use her grant to expand reporting on her most recent project: a feature on an emergency management network set up in Maricopa County in the southwestern state of Arizona. Around 500 people died of extreme heat in that region during the summer of 2022. Set up in a historically Black Methodist church, the center helped the community cope with the deadly temperatures outside. “It was only open six hours a day on the weekdays, but all the regulars would go in, and they would get a short break from the worst heat of the day,” said Gray. With a growth in emergency centers following the pandemic and natural disasters, Gray is interested in expanding her coverage of aid efforts in the LGBTQ community. She plans to look at what resources are available to marginalized groups. One focus is emergency shelters in Arizona, a state that has extreme weather and where authorities are proposing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. “Usually, the first shelters that are set up are placed often in churches,” said Gray. But, she said, many of her sources describe having negative experiences in religious establishments, including rejection or abuse. Other people she has interviewed described experiencing violence at emergency shelters and encountering people there who are uncomfortable with them. Gray plans to feature organizations such as QReady, a group focused on emergency management and “amplifying” a sense of agency for the queer community. “I’m not reporting on victims here at all,” she said. “I'm reporting on a community that is taking action to protect itself, and there's this real spirit of ‘We can protect each other, we can create safety.’” The IWMF selected Gray from 141 submissions sent in from more than 50 countries. It was the largest number of applications the foundation has received. As the only journalist based in the U.S. to be selected, Gray says the grant is “so much more meaningful.” The journalist says she has a “deep sense of resonance with [Wall] and a hope that more people will learn from her and put some of her good practices to work.” For Gray, that will include continuing to highlight the stories of people persisting against climate change and protecting their community. “I feel like that’s why I’m here,” she said.

Washington — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles Brown Jr. testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday about the Pentagon's $850 billion budget for 2025 as questions remained as to whether lawmakers will support current spending needs for Israel or Ukraine. The Senate hearing was the first time lawmakers on both sides were able to question the Pentagon's top civilian and military leadership on the administration's Israel strategy following the country's deadly strike on World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid workers in Gaza. It also follows continued desperate pleas by Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that if the U.S. does not help soon, Kyiv will lose the war to Russia. In their opening statements, both Austin and Brown emphasized that their 2025 budget is still shaped with the military's long-term strategic goal in mind — to ready forces and weapons for a potential future conflict with China. About $100 billion of this year's request is set aside for new space, nuclear weapons and cyber warfare systems the military says it must invest in now before Beijing's capabilities surpass it. But the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel are challenging a deeply-divided Congress and have resulted in months of delays in getting last year's defense budget through, which was only passed by lawmakers a few weeks ago. Austin's opening remarks were temporarily interrupted by protesters lifting a Palestinian flag and shouting at him to stop sending weapons to Israel. "Stop the genocide," they said, as they lifted their hands, stained in red, in the air. The Pentagon scraped together about $300 million in ammunition to send to Kyiv in March but cannot send more without Congress' support, and a separate $60 billion supplemental bill that would fund those efforts has been stalled for months. "The price of U.S. leadership is real. But it is far lower than the price of U.S. abdication," Austin told the senators. If Kyiv falls, it could imperil Ukraine's Baltic NATO member neighbors and potentially drag U.S. troops into a prolonged European war. If millions die in Gaza due to starvation, it could enrage Israel's Arab neighbors and lead to a much wider, deadlier Middle East conflict — one that could also bring harm to U.S. troops and to U.S. relations in the region for decades. The Pentagon has urged Congress to support new assistance for Ukraine for months, to no avail, and has tried to walk a perilous line between defending its ally Israel and maintaining ties with key regional Arab partners. Israel's actions in Gaza have been used as a rallying cry by factions of Iranian-backed militant groups, including the Houthis in Yemen and Islamic Resistance groups across Iraq and Syria, to strike at U.S. interests. Three U.S. service members have already been killed as drone and missile attacks increased against U.S. bases in the region. Six U.S. military ships with personnel and components to build a humanitarian aid pier are also still en route to Gaza but questions remain as to how food that arrives at the pier will be safely distributed inside the devastated territory. Lawmakers are also seeing demands at home. For months, a handful of its far-right members have kept Congress from approving additional money or weapons for Ukraine until domestic needs like curbing the crush of migrants at the southern U.S. border are addressed. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is already facing a call to oust him as speaker by Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene because Johnson is trying to work out a compromise that would move the Ukraine aid forward. On Israel, the World Central Kitchen strike led to a shift in tone from President Joe Biden on how Israel must protect civilian life in Gaza and drove dozens of House Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to call on Biden to halt weapons transfers to Israel. Half the population of Gaza is starving and on the brink of famine due to Israel's tight restrictions on allowing aid trucks through.