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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — The United States and China have agreed to hold talks and create two economic groups focused on a wide range of issues — including addressing American complaints about China’s economic model, growth in domestic and global economies and efforts against money laundering — according to a statement released Saturday by the U.S. Treasury Department. The agreement comes on the second day of an official visit to China by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, during which she has urged Chinese leaders to change their domestic manufacturing policies. The two sides are set to hold “intensive exchanges” on cultivating more balanced economic growth and combating money laundering. Yellen said the efforts would establish a structure for Beijing and Washington to exchange views and address Chinese industrial overcapacity, its ability to supply more product than is demanded. “I think the Chinese realize how concerned we are about the implications of their industrial strategy for the United States, for the potential to flood our markets with exports that make it difficult for American firms to compete,” she told journalists after the announcement Saturday. Yellen was en route to Beijing after beginning her five-day visit in the southern city of Guangzhou, which is a key manufacturing and export center for China. While the issue of China’s industrial overcapacity will not be resolved instantly, Yellen said Chinese officials understand it’s an “important issue” for Americans, adding that her exchanges with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will facilitate a discussion around macroeconomic imbalances and their connection to overcapacity. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported Chinese officials “comprehensively responded” to the issue of industrial overcapacity raised by the Americans. “Both sides agreed to continue to maintain communication,” an official readout said. The announcement came a day after Yellen urged Beijing to reform its trade practices and create “a healthy economic relationship” with the U.S. It also follows Chinese state media’s warning that Washington may consider rolling out more protectionist policies to shield U.S. companies.” Some analysts say the announcement reflects Yellen’s effort to push forward on collaboration in areas the U.S. and China agreed on during U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s San Francisco summit last November. “When Xi met Biden in November, they agreed to set up working groups, so Yellen is continuing to push that forward with the meeting,” Dexter Roberts, director of China affairs at the University of Montana's Mansfield Center, told VOA by phone. While he called the announcement a positive development, Roberts said he does not think Beijing and Washington will reach agreement on contentious trade issues during Yellen’s trip. “There could be temporary things like China easing off on subsidizing electric vehicles a bit, but it’s unclear how either side is going to change what's happening in a way that allows the tension over trade to lessen,” he said. Beijing’s displeasure While Washington highlighted threats posed by China’s industrial overcapacity, Beijing focused on its concerns about U.S. export controls on Chinese companies during the meeting between Yellen and He. “The Chinese side expressed serious concerns over Washington’s restrictive economic and trade measures against China,” read the Chinese readout published by Xinhua. Some experts say the United States and China could make progress on U.S. export restrictions on Chinese companies. “Some U.S. businesses are calling for the government to remove some of the export restrictions, especially for chips [integrated circuits],” Victor Shih, director of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California in San Diego, told VOA by phone. Since China is either already making, or is on the cusp of making, some of the computer chips on the sanctions list, Shih said he thinks restricting U.S. companies from selling some of the chips to China will only hurt American interests. “It’s really not hurting China that much,” he said. In addition to U.S. controls on exports to Chinese entities, Shih said the other big topic Chinese officials are likely to raise in meetings with Yellen is potential tariffs Washington may impose on Chinese products. “Since China is the largest exporter in the world, it’s not in its interest for there to be a lot of tariffs around the world, especially for major importers like the U.S.,” he said, adding that talking to Washington about lowering tariffs and not enacting new ones will be an important agenda item for Beijing. While she has not explicitly promised to impose new sanctions on Chinese products, Yellen said she would not rule out the possibility of adopting more measures to safeguard the American supply chain for electric vehicles, batteries or solar panels from heavily subsidized Chinese green energy products. During a phone call Tuesday with Biden, Xi warned that if the United States is “adamant on containing China's high-tech development and depriving China of its legitimate right to development, China is not going to sit back and watch.” Bilateral communication Despite persistent differences over contentious trade issues, Yellen and He underscored the importance for China and the U.S. to “properly respond to key concerns of the other side” to build a more cooperative economic relationship. “It also remains crucial for the two largest economies to seek progress on global challenges like climate change and debt distress in emerging markets in developing countries, and to closely communicate on issues of concern such as overcapacity and national security-related economic actions,” Yellen said Friday. Based on Yellen and He’s comments and signals from the Biden-Xi call Tuesday, some analysts say the U.S. and China will continue to put guard rails around the bilateral relationship to prevent it from further deteriorating. “The two sides have come to the realization that they will have to live together, perhaps uncomfortably at times,” said Zhiqun Zhu, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Bucknell University. While the relationship will remain highly competitive, Zhu said he thinks Beijing and Washington will “stay engaged and seek cooperation in areas of common interest.” “Maintaining stability is the priority for both Xi and Biden now,” he said. Yellen is scheduled to have meetings with other senior officials Sunday and Monday in Beijing.

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GENEVA — Warning that the war in Sudan risks triggering the world’s worst hunger crisis, the World Food Program said Friday that it finally has managed to bring desperately needed food aid into the war-wracked Darfur region for the first time in months. The U.N. food agency said two convoys crossed the border from Chad into Darfur late last week, carrying food and nutrition assistance for about a quarter-million people in north, west and central Darfur. It said the long-delayed mission was given the go-ahead following lengthy negotiations to reopen convoy routes after the Sudanese Armed Forces had revoked permission for humanitarian corridors from Chad in February. “Cross-border operations from Chad to Darfur are critical to reach communities where children are already dying of malnutrition,” said Leni Kinzli, the WFP communications officer for Sudan. Speaking in Nairobi, Kenya, she said that “All corridors to transport food must remain open, particularly the one from [the city of] Adre in Chad to West Darfur, where levels of hunger are alarming.” While expressing relief that lengthy negotiations to reopen the routes have paid off, she warned that unless the people of Sudan receive a constant flow of aid through all possible humanitarian corridors, “the country’s hunger catastrophe will only worsen.” Since the rival Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces plunged the country into war nearly one year ago, the United Nations says more than 8.5 million people have become displaced — 6.5 million within the country. The WFP says 18 million people are facing acute hunger, 90% of them in hard-to-reach areas. A World Health Organization Public Health Situation Analysis of the Sudan conflict finds a record 24.8 million people — almost every other person — need urgent humanitarian assistance in 2024. “This is 9 million more than in 2023. So, how catastrophic is that,” said Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson. “People have been forced to flee their homes due to the humanitarian situation and the destruction of essential infrastructure, such as roads, hospitals, medical facilities and schools. “Also, power, water, communication services, everything — all the infrastructure you need to lead a normal life” has been destroyed, she said. The WHO says at least 14,600 people have been killed and 33,000 injured. It says two-thirds of the population lack access to medical care, noting that disease outbreaks, including cholera, measles, malaria, poliovirus type 2 and dengue, are increasing. “Food insecurity is also at a record high, with nearly half of children acutely malnourished,” said the WHO, underscoring that “urgent action is needed to prevent further catastrophe.” The WFP’s Kinzli said it was critical that aid be quickly and easily delivered to needy people in Darfur through the Tine border crossing or across conflict lines from within Sudan. She said, however, that “fierce fighting, lack of security and lengthy clearances by the warring parties” have led to delays in the distribution of assistance. She noted it was impossible for aid workers to provide help “to people trapped in Sudan’s conflict hotspots.” The “WFP needs aid to be consistently reaching war-ravaged communities through every possible route,” Kinzli said, warning that hunger in Sudan will increase as the lean season starts — the period of the year when food stocks are at their lowest. “Our greatest fear is that we will see unprecedented levels of starvation and malnutrition sweep across Sudan this lean season, and that the Darfur region will be particularly hard hit.” She pointed out that crop production is at an all-time low because the fighting is preventing farmers from harvesting their crops. “Recent crop reports show that the harvest for cereals in Darfur this year was 78% below the five-year average,” she said. “That is why WFP is deeply concerned about how serious the hunger crisis will get this lean season.” Kinzli expressed deep concern that the lean season, which normally runs from May to September, could begin as early as next week and last much longer than usual.

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.

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JERUSALEM — Israeli commandos have recovered the body of a hostage held in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said on Saturday, three months after he pleaded for his release in a video issued by his Islamic Jihad captors. Elad Katzir, a 47-year-old farmer from Kibbutz Nir Oz, was among 260 people dragged into Gaza during an October 7 cross-border rampage by Hamas-led gunmen that triggered Israel's ongoing offensive in the enclave. Katzir was killed by Islamic Jihad, the military statement said, citing intelligence information that it did not detail. There was no immediate comment on the Telegram channel used by Islamic Jihad during the war. Katzir's father, Avraham, was among some 1,200 people killed in Israel on October 7, according to official tallies, while his mother, Hanna, was also taken hostage but freed in November under a cease-fire with the terrorist group Hamas. Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been trying, so far fruitlessly, to secure another truce that might return some of the 130 remaining hostages. Hamas wants any deal to end the war, which Gaza health officials say has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians. But Israel intends to fight on until Hamas falls. In a Jan. 8 video posted by Islamic Jihad online, Katzir said: "I was close to dying more than once. It's a miracle I'm still alive. ... I want to tell my family that I love them very much, and I miss them very much." Based on various sources of information, Israel has declared at least 35 hostages as dead in Gaza captivity. Palestinian factions have said some were killed in Israeli strikes. While confirming this in several cases, Israel says that, in others, hostages whose bodies were recovered bore signs of execution.

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.

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GAZA STRIP — American and Israeli negotiators were expected in Cairo over the weekend for a renewed push to reach a cease-fire-hostage deal in a war that has raged for nearly half a year. Ahead of the talks, U.S. President Joe Biden wrote to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar urging them to dial up pressure on Hamas to "agree to and abide by a deal," a senior administration official told AFP on Friday night. The United States, Qatar and Egypt have engaged for months in behind-the-scenes talks to broker a cease-fire and an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners but have made no headway since a week-long truce in November. The White House confirmed that negotiations would occur this weekend in Cairo but would not comment on U.S. media reports that CIA Director Bill Burns would be attending, along with Israel spy chief David Barnea, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel. Israel and Hamas, which negotiate through intermediaries, have traded blame for the lack of progress. "This basic fact remains true: There would be a cease-fire in Gaza today had Hamas simply agreed to release this vulnerable category of hostages -- the sick, wounded, elderly, and young women," the senior Biden administration official said. Hamas officials and Qatari mediator al-Thani have previously accused Israel of stymying the truce with objections over the return of displaced Gazan civilians and the ratio of prisoners to hostages. During a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, Biden pushed him to "fully empower" his negotiators to reach a deal. A staunch backer of Israel, Biden's patience with the immense toll inflicted by the war on Gaza appears to be waning, especially after the killing of seven aid workers. With both international and domestic outrage mounting, Biden has warned of a reassessment of U.S. support if more is not done to protect civilians. Allies have been pressing Biden to leverage the billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Israel. More than three dozen U.S. lawmakers on Friday signed a letter to Biden urging him to reconsider the "recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel, and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the airstrike is completed." 'Inhumane ferocity' The Israeli army, known as the IDF, announced it was firing two officers after finding a series of "grave mistakes" led to the drone strikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers Monday. It was a rare admission of wrongdoing by Israel in its campaign to root the militant group Hamas out of the Gaza Strip, where the Hamas-run health ministry says more than 33,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed. In response to the IDF's preliminary findings on the strike, Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Saturday it was "not sufficient." World Central Kitchen said Israel "cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza," noting that its staff was attacked despite having "followed all proper communications procedures." WCK said its operations in Gaza remain suspended after the attack, while top global aid groups said relief work has become almost impossible. "In its speed, scale and inhumane ferocity, the war in Gaza is the deadliest of conflicts -- for civilians, for aid workers, for journalists, for health workers and for our own (U.N.) colleagues," U.N. chief Antonio Guterres told a U.N. Security Council briefing on Friday. At the same briefing, Israeli ambassador Gilad Erdan insisted the "only reason" aid fails to reach Gazan civilians "is because Hamas loots it and the UN is incapable of handling the capacity of supplies." Following the Biden-Netanyahu call, Israel said it would allow "temporary" deliveries through additional aid routes, without specifying when that would begin. For the 2.4 million Gazans, simply procuring food and water in the relentlessly bombarded strip has become a torturous struggle. Since January, Palestinians in famine-threatened northern Gaza have eaten an average of just 245 calories per day -- less than a can of beans -- since January, according to Oxfam. "Living in tents is difficult, everything is hard. Securing water and food is difficult," said Gazan Siham Ashour, who like more than a million others has been displaced to the sprawling encampment in the strip's southernmost city Rafah. Wider conflict The war has also consumed much of the wider region, with hostilities between Israel and Iran and its proxies triggering fears of a broader conflict. In Iran, thousands of people chanted "Death to Israel" at a funeral in Tehran on Friday that coincided with annual commemorations in support of Palestinians. Iran has blamed Israel for a strike on its consulate in Damascus that killed seven Revolutionary Guards and has vowed retaliation. Hezbollah said Friday that three of its fighters had been killed in exchanges with Israel. Its ally Amal said it had also lost three fighters to an airstrike in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army said in a communique that it had bombed a "military complex" used by Amal and targeted several regions of southern Lebanon. The war in Gaza began with Tehran-backed Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which left 1,170 people, mostly civilians, dead in southern Israel. Palestinian militants also took around 250 hostages, about 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the army says are dead. Tehran has denied any direct involvement in the attack.

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.

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PHILADELPHIA — He surveyed the Arizona crowd that had paid to catch a wrestling glimpse of the planet's mightiest heavyweight, as measured in both box-office heft and ink-stained muscles. Then The Rock let the abuse fly. And as with so many public outbursts these days, attacking his opponents wasn't enough. He had to insult the people, too. "The Rock did a little bit of research, and here's what he found out. This is the truth. This is a fact. The No. 1 city in America for cocaine and meth use is Phoenix, Arizona," The Rock said to a roaring crowd that seemed to revel in the insults. Then and only then did he lay the smack down on his WrestleMania opponents. Were The Rock's assertions true? Or just an engine for vigorous trash talk? Most importantly: Does anyone really care, as long as the entertainment value is cranked to 11 and WWE churns out more fans to watch and fork over cash for its signature spectacle, WrestleMania, unfolding in Philadelphia this weekend? Along the murky lines that intertwine sports, entertainment and, yes, politics, the ethos of being bad has never been so good. Say what you want. Do you want. The public eats it up. And for decades, somehow, the garish world of professional wrestling has sat smack in the middle of it all. Outside the ring, the Superman spandex traded for Clark Kent glasses and a leather jacket, Dwayne Johnson crafts his good-guy image to plug his movies, his tequila label, his men's care line, his football league — business interests where the bottom line doesn't require calling the competition a bunch of "roody-poo candy-asses." But under the house lights each week on live TV, Johnson knows storylines are sold on his Hollywood heel persona. "I feel like everybody wants to be the good guy, the good girl. Everyone wants to be loved and cheered and considered the hero, which is great and it's natural," he says. "But, I have felt in my career, the rare air is when you have the opportunity to grab it by the throat, you don't let it go. And that's the opportunity to be a great bad guy." Wrestlemania and its cultural pull The Rock is set to headline one of two nights of the annual WrestleMania event this weekend in Philadelphia, where more than 70,000 fans each night are expected to pack the NFL stadium that is home to the Eagles. Banners of your favorite wrestlers, or the ones you love to hate, have smothered city street poles. Philly has been overrun by wrestling conventions, autograph signings, independent wrestling shows, podcast tapings, a 2K24 gaming tournament and all the other trappings that have turned the industry into a mainstream cultural phenomenon. From the start, WrestleMania was born to be different. Mr. T and Muhammad Ali helped pack Madison Square Garden in 1985, and "The Showcase of the Immortals" quickly turned a night of wrestling usually reserved for smoky arenas into the Super Bowl of entertainment. As WrestleMania approaches 40, it's never been bigger — even with brainchild Vince McMahon a pariah and ousted from the company in the wake of a sex abuse lawsuit. Yes, McMahon and Donald Trump even tangled at WrestleMania in 2007 in a "Battle of the Billionaires" match. "Donald Trump, to a certain extent, represents a great deal of Americana," McMahon said in 2007. "He's larger than life, which really fits into what the WWE is." Maybe wrestling really does represent who we are as a nation. But even if you still scrunch your nose like you took a whiff of curdled milk over the very idea that anyone would like this flavor of wrestling, odds are you've still heard of The Rock and Hulk Hogan. Andre the Giant and John Cena. You've snapped into a Slim Jim because Randy Savage ordered you to, or let out a "Woooo!" at a hockey game like Ric Flair. Dave Bautista won a WrestleMania championship before he ever guarded the galaxy. "Look at the way it was marketed in the 80s, when Vince McMahon really changed the whole industry forever," said author Brad Balukjian, whose new book is on 1980s WrestleMania stars. "He's got the action figures, he's got the cartoon and the bedsheets and the lunch boxes. He turned these guys into the Batmans and the Marvel Cinematic Universe of the 80s, in a way." Revel in the universally accepted fakery Fans have long been in on the con — and embraced it. It's a mutual agreement forged for even paying customers to play their own roles in the four-sided ring performance. So they cheer. They boo. And despite all evidence to the contrary, they openly accept that each move is as legitimate a sporting action as anything found in a weeknight ballgame. Wrestling pretended for so long to be on the up-and-up. Comedian Andy Kaufman drew gasps when he was slapped by wrestler Jerry Lawler on Late Night with David Letterman. But the curtain was yanked open long ago. On Wednesday, Johnson and WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns appeared on the The Tonight Show without any manufactured theatrics on their final hype job ahead of WrestleMania. Former WWE star Dave Schultz slapped a 20/20 reporter in the 1980s for calling wrestling fake. Now ESPN, The Athletic, Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports have dedicated pages that report on both storylines and behind-the-scenes news, where the real drama is more likely found. Wrestling news is treated as seriously as any other sport's. But is it? A sport, that is. Debate the definition all you want. Wrestling — a precursor to reality TV and all the Real Housewives — isn't going anywhere. And its biggest fans are often the athletes who want to emulate the super-sized stars. This week, Joel Embiid was about to divulge that he suffered from depression during an injury that cost him two months of his NBA career. But before the Philadelphia 76ers big man unburdened himself, he pulled on a WWE T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan of the wrestling company's most boorish faction, Degeneration X: "Suck It." For pro wrestling, momentum is at hand. WWE's weekly television show Raw will move to Netflix next year as part of a major streaming deal worth more than $5 billion. That's some serious cash that even the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase would envy. So go ahead. Sneer at wrestling. Or let go, turn a blind eye to the subterfuge and embrace Hulkamania and the frenzy that followed as a staple of the global sports landscape. Because it's not leaving the building anytime soon. Consider John Kruk, retired Phillies star and team broadcaster. You'd think that the pinnacle moment of baseball each year would be a must-see for him. But if pro wrestling is coming to town, as he told wrestler Kofi Kingston on TV recently, other priorities prevail. "If it was a World Series game, if the Phillies aren't participating, and wrestling was on," Kruk said, "I'm watching wrestling."

washington — In recent weeks, the United States, Britain and the European Union have issued the strictest regulations yet on the use and development of artificial intelligence, setting a precedent for other countries. This month, the United States and the U.K. signed a memorandum of understanding allowing for the two countries to partner in the development of tests for the most advanced artificial intelligence models, following through on commitments made at the AI Safety Summit last November. These actions come on the heels of the European Parliament’s March vote to adopt its first set of comprehensive rules on AI. The landmark decision sets out a wide-ranging set of laws to regulate this exploding technology. At the time, Brando Benifei, co-rapporteur on the Artificial Intelligence Act plenary vote, said, "I think today is again an historic day on our long path towards regulation of AI. … The first regulation in the world that is putting a clear path towards a safe and human-centric development of AI." The new rules aim to protect citizens from dangerous uses of AI, while exploring its boundless potential. Beth Noveck, professor of experiential AI at Northeastern University, expressed enthusiasm about the rules. “It's really exciting that the EU has passed really the world's first … binding legal framework addressing AI. It is, however, not the end; it is really just the beginning.” The new rules will be applied according to risk level: the higher the risk, the stricter the rules. “It's not regulating the tech,” she said. “It's regulating the uses of the tech, trying to prohibit and to restrict and to create controls over the most malicious uses — and transparency around other uses. “So things like what China is doing around social credit scoring, and surveillance of its citizens, unacceptable.” Noveck described what she called “high-risk uses” that would be subject to scrutiny. Those include the use of tools in ways that could deprive people of their liberty or within employment. “Then there are lower risk uses, such as the use of spam filters, which involve the use of AI or translation,” she said. “Your phone is using AI all the time when it gives you the weather; you're using Siri or Alexa, we're going to see a lot less scrutiny of those common uses.” But as AI experts point out, new laws just create a framework for a new model of governance on a rapidly evolving technology. Dragos Tudorache, co-rapporteur on the AI Act plenary vote, said, "Because AI is going to have an impact that we can't only measure through this act, we will have to be very mindful of this evolution of the technology in the future and be prepared." In late March, the Biden administration issued the first government-wide policy to mitigate the risks of artificial intelligence while harnessing its benefits. The announcement followed President Joe Biden’s executive order last October, which called on federal agencies to lead the way toward better governance of the technology without stifling innovation. “This landmark executive order is testament to what we stand for: safety, security, trust, openness,” Biden said at the time,” proving once again that America's strength is not just the power of its example, but the example of its power.” Looking ahead, experts say the challenge will be to update rules and regulations as the technology continues to evolve.

BRASILIA, Brazil — Many Yanomami, the Amazon's largest Indigenous tribe in relative isolation, have been contaminated with mercury coming from widespread illegal gold mining, according to a report released on Thursday by Brazil's top public health institute. The research was conducted in nine villages along the Mucajai River, a remote region where illegal mining is widespread. Mercury, a poison, is commonly used in illegal mining to process gold. The researchers collected hair samples from nearly 300 Yanomami of all ages. They were then examined by doctors, neurologists, psychologists and nurses. The vast majority, 84% of Yanomami tested, had contamination equal to or above 2 micrograms per gram, a level of exposure that can lead to several health problems, according to standards by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization. Even more worrying, a smaller part of this group, 10%, surpassed the 6 micrograms per gram threshold, a contamination level often associated with more severe medical conditions. Research teams also tested fish in the area, finding high levels in them. Eating fish with high mercury levels is the most common path of exposure. Exposure studies usually test for methylmercury, a powerful neurotoxin formed when bacteria, in this case in rivers, metabolize inorganic mercury. Ingestion of large amounts over weeks or months damages the nervous system. The substance also can pass through a placenta of a pregnant woman, exposing a fetus to developmental abnormalities and cerebral palsy, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health effects can include decreased sensitivity in the legs, feet, and hands, overall weakness, dizziness, and ringing in the ears. In some cases, a compromise of the central nervous system can lead to mobility issues. "Chronic exposure to mercury settles in slowly and progressively," Paulo Basta, an epidemiologist with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, which led the testing, told The Associated Press. "There's a wide spectrum of clinical actions that range from mild to severe symptoms." Concerted global efforts to address mercury pollution led to the 2013 Minamata Convention, a U.N.-backed agreement signed by 148 parties to curb emissions. The treaty is named after the Japanese city of Minamata, whose population was contaminated by decades-long emissions of mercury dumped along with wastewater. Brazil and the United States were among the signatories. The Brazilian government report has not been peer reviewed but synthesizes three papers published recently in the journal Toxics, all based on the same field work. One of the studies noted that determining what long-term mercury exposure levels constitute a significant risk for health remains a challenge. The study's findings align with prior research in other areas of the Amazon, said Maria Elena Crespo López, a biochemist at the Federal University of Pará who was not involved in the report and has studied the subject for 20 years. "The mercury problem is widespread throughout the Amazon," she told the AP. "Since the 1970s, when the first major gold rush happened here, mercury has been released for decades and ends up being transported over long distances, entering the food chain." A global review of mercury exposure in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives in 2018 identified Amazon river tributary communities as one of four communities of most concern. The World Health Organization ranks small-scale gold mining as the single largest source of human-led contamination. The Yanomami territory, which spans the size of Portugal and has a population of 27,000, has endured decades of this illegal activity. The mining problem significantly expanded during the four-year term of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, which ended in 2022. He defanged Brazil's environment protection agencies amid rising gold prices. The combination caused a rush of thousands of miners onto Yanomami lands. Basta said that during the fieldwork, which took place near the end of Bolsonaro's term, Mucajai was teeming with illegal miners. Upon arrival by plane, the 22-strong team had to wait for about hours to proceed by boat due to heavy gold barge traffic in the Mucajai River. During ten days of testing, researchers were guarded by four military police carrying machine guns and grenades. Basta recalls counting 30 to 35 small planes flying to and from illegal mining sites each day. "The tension was present throughout our entire stay in the village. I have been working in Indigenous villages for 25 years, and it was the most tense work I have done," he said. Current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged to expel gold prospectors from Yanomami territory and improve health conditions, but the task is far from complete. "Mining is the biggest threat we face in Yanomami land today," Yanomami leader Dário Kopenawa said in a statement. "It's mandatory and urgent to expel these intruders. If mining continues, so will contamination, devastation, malaria, and malnutrition. This research provides concrete evidence of it."

NANTES, France — Dieudonne Boutrin is a descendant of people enslaved in the Caribbean. Pierre Guillon de Prince's ancestors, from Nantes, were ship-owners transporting those enslaved. Although contrasting, their families' histories are linked. They met in 2021 in Nantes, which was France's largest port for transatlantic slavery, and have since been working together to raise awareness about the past and its legacy in today's society. Originally from the Caribbean island of Martinique, 59-year-old Boutrin moved to Nantes in the 1980s. It was only then that he fully learned about the true extent of slavery. From the 15th to the 19th century, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported by mostly European ships and sold into slavery. Researchers estimate at least 2 million people died in the grueling "Middle Passage" voyage across the Atlantic. France trafficked an estimated 1.3 million people to the Americas, including the Caribbean. "The more I got into the story, the more anger there was," Boutrin said. "(So) I decided to put all my energy into paying tribute to these men and women." Boutrin is the president of the Nantes-based Coque Nomade-Fraternité, an association that wants to "break the silence" around slavery through education. In 2001, France officially recognized transatlantic slavery as a crime against humanity but, according to the French Foundation for the Remembrance of Slavery, racism persists. Several cases of police using excessive force against Black people in recent years have highlighted accusations of systemic racism in the French police by human rights groups. Boutrin's association is raising funds to finish a 2018 project to build a replica of a 18th century ship that transported captive Africans enslaved by people such as Guillon de Prince's ancestors. The replica will work as a learning center. "People will be able to understand the conditions the captives lived in," he said. Through the association, Boutrin joined forces with Guillon de Prince, 83, to give guided tours that explore Nantes' links to slavery. One of the stops is the city's slavery memorial. Guillon de Prince has always known his ancestors were involved in slavery as ship-owners, but he made the decision to look deeper into the past in 2015. They are now encouraging other descendants to join a group they have created to continue what they have described as "memory work." "I feared this would be forgotten so I wanted to pass it down to my grandchildren," Guillon de Prince said. "We will not solve issues of racism if the two (descendants of enslaved and enslavers) do not talk to each other."

RABAT, Morocco — When Morocco 's King Mohamed VI visited Havana in 2017, Cuban-American gallery owner Alberto Magnan impressed him with a "full immersion" in the Caribbean island's art and culture, drawing a line between the cultural and historical themes tackled by Cuban artists and those from across Africa. Seven years after that encounter, one of the first exhibitions of Cuban art at an African museum is showing at Morocco's Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. It's part of an effort to give visitors a view beyond the European artists who often remain part of the school curriculum in the North African nation and other former French colonies, museum director Abdelaziz El Idrissi said. "The Moroccan public might know Giacometti, Picasso or impressionists," El Idrissi said. The museum has shown them all. "We've seen them and are looking for other things, too." The Cuba show contains 44 pieces by Wifredo Lam — a major showing of the Afro-Cuban painter's work more than a year before New York City's Museum of Modern Art will honor him with a career retrospective show in 2025. "We're kind of beating MoMA to the punch," Magnan said. The Morocco show also marks the first time that the work of another luminary, Jose Angel Toirac, is being displayed outside Cuba. Previously, his paintings depicting the country's late anti-capitalist president Fidel Castro in the iconography of American advertisements and consumer culture were not allowed off the island. Other works in Cuban Art: On the other side of the Atlantic — open until June 16 — show prevalent themes in Cuban art ranging from isolation and economic embargo to heritage and identity. In Cuba, almost half of the population identifies as mixed race and more than 1 million people are Afro-Cuban. The island's diversity is a recurring subject for its painters and artists, including Lam. That's why it was important to show his work — including paintings of African-inspired masks and use of vibrant color — in Africa, Magnan said. Morocco is among countries that have shown new interest in Cuban art since the United States restored diplomatic ties with Cuba in 2014 and Castro died in 2016. American art dealers and major museums flocked to the previously difficult-to-visit island. But the intrigue was curbed by the COVID-19 pandemic and former U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to redesignate the country as a "state sponsor of terrorism," Magnan said. Meanwhile, Morocco has increased funding for arts and culture in an effort to boost its "geopolitical soft power" in North Africa and beyond. In both Morocco and Cuba, 20th century artists responded to political transition — decolonization in Morocco, revolution in Cuba — by drawing from history and engaging in trends shaping contemporary art worldwide. But the current show does not touch on Moroccan-Cuban diplomatic relations, which were restored following King Mohamed VI's 2017 visit to Cuba. The countries had cut ties decades ago over Cuba's position on the disputed Western Sahara, which Morocco claims. Cuba has historically trained Sahrawi soldiers and doctors and backed the Polisario Front's agenda at the United Nations. 

paris — The universe is still expanding at an accelerating rate, but it may have slowed down recently compared with a few billion years ago, early results from the most precise measurement of its evolution yet suggested Thursday. The preliminary findings are far from confirmed, but if they hold up, it would further deepen the mystery of dark energy - and likely mean there is something important missing in our understanding of the cosmos. These signals of our universe's changing speeds were spotted by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which is perched atop a telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in the U.S. state of Arizona. Each of the instrument's 5,000 fiber-optic robots can observe a galaxy for 20 minutes, allowing astronomers to chart what they have called the largest-ever 3D map of the universe. "We measured the position of the galaxies in space but also in time, because the farther away they are, the more we go back in time to a younger and younger universe," Arnaud de Mattia, a co-leader of the DESI data interpretation team, told AFP. Just one year into its five-year survey, DESI has already drawn up a map that includes 6 million galaxies and quasars using light that stretches up to 11 billion years into the universe's past. The results were announced at conferences in the United States and Switzerland on Thursday, ahead of a series of scientific papers being published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. DESI is on a mission to shed light on the nature of dark energy - a theoretical phenomenon thought to make up roughly 70 percent of the universe. Another 25 percent of the universe is composed of the equally mysterious dark matter, leaving just 5 percent of normal matter - such as everything you can see. An inconstant constant? For more than a century, scientists have known that the universe started expanding after the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago. But in the late 1990s, astronomers were shocked to discover it has been expanding at an ever-increasing rate. This was a surprise because gravity from matter - both normal and dark - was thought to have been slowing the universe down. But obviously something was making the universe expand at ever-faster speeds, and the name "dark energy" was given to this force. More recently, it was discovered that the acceleration of the universe significantly sped up around 6 billion years after the Big Bang. In the push-and-pull between matter and dark energy, the latter certainly seems to have the upper hand, according to the leading model of the universe called the Lambda CDM. Under this model, the quickening expansion of the universe is called the "cosmological constant," which is closely linked to dark energy. DESI director Michael Levi said that so far, the instrument's early results were showing "basic agreement with our best model of the universe." "But we're also seeing some potentially interesting differences, which could indicate that dark energy is evolving with time," Levi said in a statement. In other words, the data seem to show "that the cosmological constant Lambda is not really a constant," because dark energy would be displaying "dynamic" and changing behavior, De Mattia said. Slowing down in old age This could suggest that - after switching into high gear 6 billion years after the Big Bang - the speed at which the universe has been expanding has been "slowing down in recent times," DESI researcher Christophe Yeche said. Whether dark energy does in fact change over time would need to be verified by more data from DESI and other instruments, such as the space telescope Euclid. But if it was confirmed, our understanding of the universe will likely have to be changed to accommodate for this strange behavior. For example, the cosmological constant could be replaced by some kind of field linked to some as-yet-unknown particle. It could even necessitate updating the equations of Einstein's theory of relativity "so that they behave slightly differently on the scale of large structures," De Mattia said. But we are not there yet. The history of science is full of examples in which "deviations of this type have been observed then resolved over time," De Mattia said. After all, Einstein's theory of relativity has withstood more than a century of scientific poking and prodding and still stands stronger than ever.

gaza — Before the Israel-Hamas war erupted, the tiny enclave run by the Palestinian militant group Hamas was impoverished and densely populated, but full of life — restaurants, shops, makeshift soccer pitches, universities and hospitals. Six months after the conflict began, Reuters cameramen rode bicycles along its ruined streets to gauge the destruction left by Israeli air strikes that have killed more than 33,000 people in retaliation for Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel. Few signs of life The same scene played out on one road after another — pile after pile of rubble on each side in the strip, home to 2.3 million people who lack medicine, medical care and food in a deepening humanitarian crisis. Many live in shelters or tent cities after moving from one part of the enclave to another to try to escape the relentless bombardment. Movement along its quiet streets is limited. There are few signs of life. Men drive by on a motorbike. A young boy pushes a wheelbarrow along a dirt road past obliterated buildings through clouds of dirt. A mosque was not spared destruction. On another, a man walks along with a sack of flour on his shoulder. Food is scarce in Gaza where Palestinians say attempting to secure supplies is a life-or-death scramble like the one that cost more than 100 Palestinians their lives in February trying to get food from an aid convoy. Israel said many were trampled to death in the chaos, while Gaza's health authorities say Israeli troops opened fire on crowds. Famine looms Israel is carrying out the offensive in retaliation for a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. The United Nations has warned of a looming famine and complained of obstacles to getting aid in and distributing it throughout Gaza. The United States also says famine is imminent. Israeli officials say they have increased aid access to Gaza, are not responsible for delays, and that the aid delivery inside Gaza is the responsibility of the U.N. and humanitarian agencies. Israel also has accused Hamas of stealing aid, a charge Hamas denies. Underscoring the chaos in Gaza, citizens from Australia, Britain and Poland were among seven people working for celebrity chef Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza on Monday, the nongovernmental organization said. For now, Palestinians can walk only on streets lined with debris and watch the wasteland grow with each airstrike. The cameramen on bicycles saw little signs of life in a sea of rubble. Two women walked with a young child. A few people sat under a colorful umbrella. Men moved along with a donkey on a cart. Burned-out cars sat on the edge of streets.

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Washington — Ukrainian officials are cultivating closer ties with India, pursuing mutual economic benefits while hoping to nudge the Asian giant away from its historic close ties with Kyiv’s war enemy, Russia. Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba visited India on March 28-29, the first visit of a top Ukrainian diplomat to the country in seven years. Days before that, the countries’ presidents spoke by phone. The primary task for Kuleba`s visit — Ukrainian Ambassador to India Oleksandr Polishchuk said in an interview with VOA — was to restore high-level political cooperation. The parties agreed that a high-ranking Indian official will participate in a Global Peace Summit set for this summer in Switzerland with the goal of supporting Ukraine. India will also work on a possible visit to Ukraine by its external affairs minister and organize other top-level mutual visits, he said. The parties also agreed to resume the work of the India-Ukraine Inter-Governmental Commission, inactive since 2018. The two countries “agreed to restore the level of cooperation between our countries that existed prior to the full-scale war launched by Russia," Kuleba wrote on X. "Our immediate goal is to get trade back to earlier levels," wrote his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. In an interview with the Financial Times (FT), Kuleba said that India could greatly benefit from expanding trade and technological ties with Ukraine and participate in post-war reconstruction. Kuleba noted that India's close ties with Russia are based on a "Soviet legacy" that is "evaporating." One such legacy is India's imports of Russian weapons, the share of which dropped from 76% in 2009-13 to 36% in 2019-2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Polishchuk said that since Russia cannot fulfill all of its obligations to supply new equipment and spare parts, India is trying to establish its own military production based on Western standards. "Ukraine can partially meet the needs of the Indian armed forces, particularly the navy, since many warships use gas turbine engines produced in Ukraine," said the ambassador. In an interview with The Times of India newspaper, Kuleba also softened Ukraine's position toward India's import of Russian oil, saying that Ukraine doesn’t object to it because the deal was structured in a way that Russia can't invest the profit “in the production of tanks, missiles, and weapons." Paradoxes of India-Ukraine relations Mridula Ghosh, a lecturer at the Ukraine National University of Kyiv-Mohyla and a native of India, pointed to two paradoxes in the relations between the two countries. First, she told VOA, that ties between India and Ukraine are strengthening while the U.S. Congress is unable to approve aid to Ukraine and the U.S. and some European countries use the assistance to Ukraine as a bargaining chip in electoral politics. In India, she said, foreign policy is not part of the electoral debates because it is of little interest to the voters. Second, the warming of relations between the two countries on the highest level happened while Russia increased its propaganda and influence on Indian society. "When the full-scale war began, society was ready to condemn this aggression. The authorities, on the contrary, reacted restrainedly. Now, many people in power and intellectual circles clearly and correctly understand what is happening in Ukraine. But the media began actively disseminating Russian propaganda," Ghosh explained. Mediator between Russia and Ukraine? In New Delhi, Kuleba called on India to play a more active role in the peace process. "With India's more active involvement in this process, we expect that the number of countries looking at India and its role in this process will also grow," Polishchuk said. However, observers doubt that India could mediate between Ukraine and Russia or influence Moscow to end the war. While India leaned closer to the U.S. and the West in recent years, it "will not undertake steps that would significantly affect Russia strategically, just as Russia would not take an adverse position to affect India strategically in favor of China or Pakistan," said Nandan Unnikrishnan, a distinguished fellow at the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation to the South China Morning Post. Former U.S. Consul General to India Katherine Hadda doubts that India would act as a mediator in a peace process where one of the parties is absent — Russia does not participate in summits based on the peace formula proposed by Ukraine. "India has stressed that it will serve as a mediator [only] at both sides’ request," said Hadda in the same article. In a column for the Indian NDTV news outlet, Harsh V. Pant, a professor of international relations at King's College London, writes that achieving peace in Eurasia is not India’s job. "New Delhi would like to see a resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war soon. But ultimately, it is for the main protagonists in this conflict — Russia, Ukraine, and the West — to decide what kind of Eurasian security architecture they can live with." Since the beginning of the full-scale aggression, India has not condemned Russia's actions, gas abstained from voting for Ukrainian initiatives at the U.N. and has not joined the sanctions against Russia. Still, Ghosh believes India is moving away from Moscow. "The Indian elephant is slow but steady in reacting. At the beginning of the full-scale war, it was reluctant to make strong positional statements, but now it is reviewing many things. There is a decoupling from Russia."