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berlin — It was supposed to be a relaxing dinner with friends in Tbilisi, Georgia, before a move to Berlin. But things didn’t turn out as planned for Irina Babloyan. That evening, the Russian journalist suddenly fell ill. By morning, her head hurt, her hands and feet were red and burning, and her mouth tasted like metal. Doctors later determined poisoning was the most likely cause for the symptoms. The top suspect: Moscow. The incident occurred in October 2022. When Babloyan spoke with VOA this February, she was still suffering the physical and emotional consequences. Her experience underscores the lengths Moscow goes to in order to silence its critics, analysts say. For a while, Babloyan said, she stopped going to restaurants, fearing she might be targeted again. Now, she goes out just to feel normal, albeit with a degree of caution. “If I don’t do it, I will go crazy,” she said. Letting the attack disrupt her life is exactly what the perpetrators wanted, she believes, and Babloyan refuses to give in. “When someone wants to kill you, it’s kind of a difficult thing to understand,” she said. Babloyan is one of a handful of Russian exiles who are believed to have been poisoned since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. More suspected poisonings took place before then. In Berlin, Babloyan was treated at the same hospital as Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who was poisoned in 2020. VOA traveled to the German capital just days after Navalny’s death in a Siberian prison. Memorial flowers and candles had already piled up outside the Russian Embassy. Berlin police are investigating the cases of suspected poisonings of Russians in Germany. The Kremlin dismisses claims of being involved in such attacks. Russia’s Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Berlin did not reply to VOA’s emails requesting comment. Threats to journalists, inside and out of Russia, have increased since the invasion of Ukraine, watchdogs say, and independent media in the country quickly found themselves bound by new laws that effectively made coverage impossible. Outlets have been branded as “foreign agents” and “undesirable organizations,” and 22 journalists — including two Americans — were in jail at the end of 2023, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists. The choices for Russia’s independent journalists are to continue working in Russia and risk prison, or to go into exile, where safety still is not a guarantee. Life on the outside When Babloyan’s symptoms began that night in October, the journalist was preparing to move to Berlin, where colleagues from her outlet, Echo of Moscow, were regrouping after Russian authorities forced them to close several months earlier. Resettling is difficult, and transnational repression only makes it harder, said Penelope Winterhager, managing director at the JX Fund. The threats facing exiled outlets means Winterhager and her entire team are conscious of security and wary of sharing their office address. But from the group’s Berlin building, the sound of the city’s afternoon traffic drifted up to the windows as she described how the JX Fund helps news outlets to regroup in exile and to navigate transnational repression. The phenomenon — in which hostile governments use legal action, threats or attacks to try to target critics outside their borders — aims to intimidate critics, Winterhager said. “They don’t want them to report anymore. They want to frighten them. And if people break into your apartment, if poisonings are happening, if you can only walk around with a bodyguard, this does make you afraid after a while,” she said. Journalists in exile agree. “It’s [an] illusion that when you’re not in Russia, you’re absolutely safe,” said Katerina Abramova, who heads communications at the exiled outlet Meduza. She moved to Latvia before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, then resettled in Berlin. In one of Berlin’s many parks, Abramova spoke about how Meduza decided to spread its staff across several countries. Given the prevalence of Moscow’s transnational repression, they thought it would be safer than having everyone based in one city. But harder still was preventing attacks on their website and coverage. Meduza has faced cyberattacks, and its website is blocked in Russia. The latter tactic, said Anastasiya Zhyrmont, threatens the very survival of exiled Russian media. Zhyrmont, who covers Eastern Europe for the digital rights group Access Now, met with VOA in Berlin’s Treptower Park. “The result is the media is simply dying out in exile because they cannot reach an audience within Russia,” Zhyrmont said. Trauma of exile When it comes to transnational repression, the media often cover the immediate incidents and their direct effects. But the protracted harassment leaves a mark on these journalists. In conversations with them, their deeper trauma is evident in their feelings of paranoia and guilt, loneliness and grief. In the age of Putin’s war in Ukraine, sacrifice is a way of life for Russia’s exiled reporters, said Ekaterina Fomina, who fled Russia shortly after it invaded Ukraine. "We left everything behind,” Fomina said. “For me, maybe it took even a year to realize that your past is erased. “You’re sacrificing everything in order to continue your job,” Fomina told VOA. A journalist who has worked for various independent Russian outlets, Fomina left her home country for Latvia before moving to the Czech Republic, and then on again. Now, Fomina won’t publicly say where she’s based out of fear that she would be physically surveilled by Russian authorities. She is already under investigation for spreading what Moscow views as false information about the Russian military. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years behind bars.   The accusation stems from a 2022 story Fomina published at the independent outlet iStories. In it, a Russian soldier confessed to killing a Ukrainian civilian. Speaking with VOA in what was her seventh apartment in two years, Fomina said, “You’re still a hostage in their hands, because they can influence your life. They can prosecute you even without you being there.” As she spoke, her rescue dog, Cooper — all black save for his white chest and front paws — paced uneasily. Fomina spoke to him soothingly in Russian. The frequent relocations have made it hard for them both to re-create a semblance of home. For Fomina, the legal harassment has only exacerbated the challenges that come with starting life over and over. “After these two years, you simply realize that there is no country and no place in the world where you belong,” said Fomina, who currently reports for the exiled outlet TV Rain, known in Russian as Dozhd. None of the exiled journalists who spoke with VOA feel particularly comfortable in exile. Part of the reason is that their lives still revolve around Moscow. As Meduza’s Abramova said, “You have two different lives.” To try to feel at home, Fomina brings two pieces of art by a Ukrainian artist to each new apartment. But those efforts can feel futile. “I live abroad, but psychologically, I live somewhere in between Russia and Ukraine, and probably on the battlefield,” she said. “You find a flat. You put your pictures there. And technically it’s your home, but it’s not a home for your heart.” With family and friends still in Russia and Ukraine, Fomina said she has a hard time enjoying her personal life as she puts all her energy into her work. The question that hangs over many exiled Russian journalists: Who would do this work if not for them? “Your readers need you now more than ever,” Abramova said. Babloyan agreed. “They need to have information. They need to listen to the truth. They need us,” she said. Babloyan still works for Echo. But even as coverage of her suspected poisoning passed, her life — and health — is far from normal. She still has problems with her skin, she said, and she doesn’t have the same energy that she had in the past. “But much better than a year ago. A year ago, I thought I’m going to die,” Babloyan said. One thing that helped keep Babloyan going is reporting. “The work — oh, my God, I can’t live without it,” she said. “If I stopped doing it, I would go crazy.”

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WASHINGTON — Americans are more worried about legal immigrants committing crimes in the U.S. than they were a few years ago, a change driven largely by increased concern among Republicans, while Democrats continue to see a broad range of benefits from immigration, a new poll shows. The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that substantial shares of U.S. adults believe that immigrants contribute to the country's economic growth and offer important contributions to American culture. But when it comes to legal immigrants, U.S. adults see fewer major benefits than they did in the past, and more major risks. About 4 in 10 Americans say that when immigrants come to the U.S. legally, it's a major benefit for American companies to get the expertise of skilled workers in fields like science and technology. A similar share (38%) also say that legal immigrants contribute a major benefit by enriching American culture and values. Both those figures were down compared with 2017, when 59% of Americans said skilled immigrant workers who enter the country legally were a major benefit, and half said legal immigrants contribute a major benefit by enriching American culture. Meanwhile, the share of Americans who say that there's a major risk that legal immigrants will commit crimes in the U.S. has increased, going from 19% in 2017 to 32% in the new poll. Republicans were more likely than Democrats to say that immigration is an important issue for them personally, and 41% now say it's a major risk that legal immigrants will commit crimes in the U.S., up from 20% in 2017. Overall, Republicans are more likely to see major risks — and fewer benefits — from immigrants who enter the country legally and illegally, although they tend to be most concerned about people who come to the country illegally. Bob Saunders is a 64-year-old independent from Voorhees, New Jersey. He disapproves of President Joe Biden's performance when it comes to immigration and border security and is particularly worried about the number of immigrants coming to the southern border who are eventually released into the country. He stressed that there's a difference between legal and illegal immigration. Saunders said it's important to know the background of the immigrants coming to the U.S. and said legal immigration contributes to the economy. He also noted the immigrants in his own family. "It's not anti-immigration," Saunders said. "It's anti-illegal immigration." Many Republicans, 71%, say there's a risk of people in the country illegally coming to the U.S. and committing crimes, although many studies have found immigrants are less drawn to violent crime than native-born citizens. Even more, 80%, think there's a major risk that people in the country without permission will burden public service programs, while about 6 in 10 Republicans are concerned that there's a major risk of them taking American jobs, that their population growth will weaken American identity or that they will vote illegally — although only a small number of noncitizen voters have been uncovered. Amber Pierce, a 43-year-old Republican from Milam, Texas, says she understands that a lot of migrants are seeking a better life for their children, but she's also concerned migrants will become a drain on government services. "I believe that a lot of them come over here and get free health care and take away from the people who have worked here and are citizens," Pierce said. "They get a free ride. I don't think that's fair." Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely to see benefits from immigration, although the poll did find that only half of Democrats now think that legal immigrants are making important contributions to American companies, a decrease of more than 20 percentage points from 2017. But they're more likely than Republicans to say that the ability of people to come from other places in the world to escape violence or find economic opportunities is extremely or very important to the U.S's identity as a nation. "People who are coming, are coming for good reason. It's how many of us got here," said Amy Wozniak, a Democrat from Greenwood, Indiana. Wozniak said previous waves of immigrants came from European countries. Now immigrants are coming from different countries but that doesn't mean they're not fleeing for justifiable reasons, she said: "They're not all drugs and thugs." There's also a divide among partisans about the value of diversity, with 83% of Democrats saying that the country's diverse population makes it at least moderately stronger, compared with 43% of Republicans and Independents. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say that a shared American culture and set of values is extremely or very important to the United States' identity as a nation, although about half of Democrats also see this as important. U.S. adults — and especially Republicans — are more likely to say that the country has been significantly changed by immigrants in the past five years than they are to say that immigrants have changed their own community or their state. About 3 in 10 U.S. adults say immigrants have had a major impact on their local community while about 6 in 10 say they've had a major impact on the country as a whole. The gap between perceptions of community impact and effects on the country as a whole is particularly wide among Republicans. There is some bipartisan agreement about how immigration at the border between the U.S. and Mexico should be addressed. The most popular option asked about is hiring more Border Patrol agents, which is supported by about 8 in 10 Republicans and about half of Democrats. Hiring more immigration judges and court personnel is also favored among majorities of both parties. About half of Americans support reducing the number of immigrants who are allowed to seek asylum in the U.S. when they arrive at the border, but there's a much bigger partisan divide there, with more Republicans than Democrats favoring this strategy. Building a wall — former President Donald Trump's signature policy goal — is the least popular and most polarizing option of the four asked about. About 4 in 10 favor building a wall, including 77% of Republicans but just 12% of Democrats. Donna Lyon is a Democratic-leaning independent from Cortland, New York. She believes a border wall would do little to stop migrants. But she supports hiring more Border Patrol agents and more immigration court judges to deal with the growing backlog of immigration court cases: "That would stop all the backup that we have." Congress just recently approved money to hire about 2,000 more Border Patrol agents but so far this year, there's been no significant boost for funding for more immigration judges. Many on both sides of the aisle have said it takes much too long to decide asylum cases, meaning migrants stay in the country for years waiting for a decision, but the parties have failed to find consensus on how to address the issue. The poll of 1,282 adults was conducted March 21-25, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

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TOKYO — Oppenheimer finally premiered Friday in the nation where two cities were obliterated 79 years ago by the nuclear weapons invented by the American scientist who was the subject of the Oscar-winning film. Japanese filmgoers' reactions understandably were mixed and highly emotional. Toshiyuki Mimaki, who survived the bombing of Hiroshima when he was 3, said he has been fascinated by the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, often called "the father of the atomic bomb" for leading the Manhattan Project. "What were the Japanese thinking, carrying out the attack on Pearl Harbor, starting a war they could never hope to win?" he said, sadness in his voice, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. He is now chairperson of a group of bomb victims called the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization and he saw Oppenheimer at a preview event. "During the whole movie, I was waiting and waiting for the Hiroshima bombing scene to come on, but it never did," Mimaki said. Oppenheimer does not directly depict what happened on the ground when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, turning some 100,000 people instantly into ashes, and killed thousands more in the days that followed, mostly civilians. The film instead focuses on Oppenheimer as a person and his internal conflicts. The film's release in Japan, more than eight months after it opened in the U.S., had been watched with trepidation because of the sensitivity of the subject matter. Former Hiroshima Mayor Takashi Hiraoka, who spoke at a preview event for the film in the southwestern city, was more critical of what was omitted. "From Hiroshima's standpoint, the horror of nuclear weapons was not sufficiently depicted," he was quoted as saying by Japanese media. "The film was made in a way to validate the conclusion that the atomic bomb was used to save the lives of Americans." Some moviegoers offered praise. One man emerging from a Tokyo theater Friday said the movie was great, stressing that the topic was of great interest to Japanese, although emotionally volatile as well. Another said he got choked up over the film's scenes depicting Oppenheimer's inner turmoil. Neither man would give his name to an Associated Press journalist. In a sign of the historical controversy, a backlash flared last year over the "Barbenheimer" marketing phenomenon that merged pink-and-fun Barbie with seriously intense Oppenheimer. Warner Bros. Japan, which distributed Barbie in the country, apologized after some memes depicted the Mattel doll with atomic blast imagery. Kazuhiro Maeshima, professor at Sophia University, who specializes in U.S. politics, called the film an expression of "an American conscience." Those who expect an anti-war movie may be disappointed. But the telling of Oppenheimer's story in a Hollywood blockbuster would have been unthinkable several decades ago, when justification of nuclear weapons dominated American sentiments, Maeshima said. "The work shows an America that has changed dramatically," he said in a telephone interview. Others suggested the world might be ready for a Japanese response to that story. Takashi Yamazaki, director of Godzilla Minus One, which won the Oscar for visual effects and is a powerful statement on nuclear catastrophe in its own way, suggested he might be the man for that job. "I feel there needs to an answer from Japan to Oppenheimer. Someday, I would like to make that movie," he said in an online dialogue with Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan. Nolan heartily agreed. Hiroyuki Shinju, a lawyer, noted Japan and Germany also carried out wartime atrocities, even as the nuclear threat grows around the world. Historians say Japan was also working on nuclear weapons during World War II and would have almost certainly used them against other nations, Shinju said. "This movie can serve as the starting point for addressing the legitimacy of the use of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as humanity's, and Japan's, reflections on nuclear weapons and war," he wrote in his commentary on Oppenheimer published by the Tokyo Bar Association. 

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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washington — Washington and Tokyo are gearing up to unveil plans to restructure the U.S. military command in Japan in what would be the biggest upgrade to their security alliance in decades. China has already objected, saying it does not want to be a target of the defense plans that Washington and Tokyo are expected to announce at a summit in April. "China always believes that military cooperation between states should be conducive to regional peace and stability, instead of targeting any third party or harming the interests of a third party," Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said Tuesday via email to VOA. A U.S. State Department spokesperson pushed back in an email to VOA's Korean Service on Wednesday. "The U.S.-Japan alliance has served as the cornerstone of peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and across the world for over seven decades and has never been stronger," the spokesperson said. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his Japanese counterpart, Akiba Takeo, met at the White House on Tuesday to discuss "next steps to finalize key deliverables" that President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will announce when they meet April 10 in Washington. During a news briefing Monday in Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said his country was in discussion with Washington about strengthening the command and control of their militaries to enhance readiness. The discussion comes as Indo-Pacific Command chief Admiral John Aquilino told the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on March 20 that the Chinese People's Liberation Army is preparing to invade Taiwan by 2027. 'Long overdue' Ralph Cossa, president emeritus and WSD-Handa chair in peace studies at the Pacific Forum, told VOA via email on Wednesday, "The time is long overdue to upgrade the command structure in Japan so that the U.S. and Japanese militaries can operate together more seamlessly" in the region. The plan to restructure the command is meant to "strengthen operational planning and exercises" between the two and is seen as "a move to counter China," according to the Financial Times, which first reported about the plan on March 24. James Schoff, senior director of the U.S.-Japan NEXT Alliance Initiative at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, said, "This is probably the single most important step that the allies can take to enhance deterrence against regional threats and respond to any sort of major crisis." "This is especially true at this moment as Japan prepares to stand up its first joint operational command and introduces longer-range counterstrike capabilities," he said via email to VOA on Wednesday. Japan plans to set up a joint operations command by March 2025 to improve coordination among its air, ground and maritime Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). The updated command structure within U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ) is expected to complement Japan's establishment of its joint operations command.   Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Indo-Pacific Security Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, said, "Although the details are yet to be determined, the plan is to enhance the USFJ's authority within INDOPACOM [U.S. Indo-Pacific Command]." He continued via email to VOA on Tuesday that the revised U.S. military command "will also have greater institutional ability to communicate and coordinate with the JSDF." Currently, USFJ has limited authority to conduct joint operations with Japan. The commander of USFJ needs to coordinate its operation with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, located in Hawaii. On Tuesday, Biden nominated Air Force Major General Stephen F. Jost as the new commander of USFJ and promoted him to lieutenant general. Schoff said that "the existing parallel chain of command would remain" in the U.S. and Japanese militaries rather than "a single allied chain of command for both U.S. and Japanese forces." This will be unlike the South Korean-U.S. Combined Forces Command led by a U.S. general during wartime. James Przystup, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and its Japan chair specializing in alliance management in the Indo-Pacific, said the upgrades in U.S. military command in Japan "would serve to enhance U.S.-Japan defense cooperation and deterrence in Northeast Asia, both with respect to North Korea and China." He continued via email to VOA on Wednesday, "As for what this might look like in practice, the U.S.-ROK Combined Forces Command could be one model, but not necessarily the one [into which it] eventually evolves." 

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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TAXCO, Mexico — A mob in the Mexican tourist city of Taxco beat a woman to death Thursday because she was suspected of kidnapping and killing a young girl, rampaging just hours before the city's famous Holy Week procession. On the eve of Good Friday, men walk through the colonial streets of Taxco wearing hoods, whipping themselves or carrying heavy bundles of thorns in penitence. That and other Holy Week processions date back centuries in the old silver-mining town. The mob formed after an 8-year-old girl disappeared Wednesday. Her body was found on a road on the outskirts of the city early Thursday. Security camera footage appeared to show a woman and a man loading a bundle, which may have been the girl's body, into a taxi. The mob surrounded the woman's house Thursday, threatening to drag her out. Police took the woman into the bed of a police pickup truck, but then stood by — apparently intimidated by the crowd — as members of the mob dragged her out of the truck and down onto the street where they stomped, kicked and pummeled her until she lay, partly stripped and motionless. Police then picked her up and took her away, leaving the pavement stained with blood. The Guerrero state prosecutors' office later confirmed the woman died of her injuries. "This is the result of the bad government we have," said a member of the mob, who gave her name as Andrea but refused to give her last name. "This isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened," she said, referring to the murder of the girl, "but this is the first time the people have done something." "We are fed up," she said. "This time it was an 8-year-old girl." The mayor of Taxco, Mario Figueroa, said he shared residents' outrage over the killing. Figueroa said a total of three people beaten by the mob — the woman and two men — had been taken away by police. Video from the scene suggested they had also been beaten, though The Associated Press witnessed only the beating of the woman. The state prosecutors' office said the two men were hospitalized. There was no immediate information on their condition. In a statement issued soon after the event, Figueroa complained he did not get any help from the state government for his small, outnumbered municipal police force. "Unfortunately, up to now we have not received any help or answers," Figueroa said. Mob attacks in rural Mexico are common. In 2018, two men were torched by an angry crowd in the central state of Puebla, and the next day a man and woman were dragged from their vehicle, beaten and set afire in the neighboring state of Hidalgo. But Taxco and other cities in Guerrero state have been particularly prone to violence. In late January, Taxco endured a days-long strike by private taxi and van drivers who suffered threats from one of several drug gangs fighting for control of the area. The situation was so bad that police had to give people rides in the back of their patrol vehicles. Around the same time, the bullet-ridden bodies of two detectives were found on the outskirts of Taxco. Local media said their bodies showed signs of torture. In February, Figueroa's own bulletproof car was shot up by gunmen on motorcycles. In Taxco and throughout Guerrero state, drug cartels and gangs routinely prey on the local population, demanding protection payments from store owners, taxi and bus drivers. They kill those who refuse to pay. Residents said they have had enough, even though the violence may further affect tourism. "We know the town lives off of Holy Week (tourism) and that this is going to mess it up. There will be a lot of people who won't want to come anymore," said Andrea, the woman who was in the mob. "We make our living off tourism, but we cannot continue to allow them to do these things to us."

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Russia on Thursday vetoed the annual renewal of a panel of experts that oversees the enforcement of long-standing United Nations sanctions against North Korea. The move comes amid U.S.-led accusations that North Korea has transferred weapons to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine. We talk with Gregg Brazinsky, a professor of history and international affairs at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. More trouble for Israel as the news service Retuers has investigated numerous examples of Israeli soldiers posting photos and videos of themselves toying with lingerie found in Palestinian homes. And traditional Easter chocolate eggs have transformed into sports-themed characters in some Paris chocolate shops, as chocolatiers concoct pieces with a nod to the nearing Olympic Games.

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WASHINGTON — Latin America and the Caribbean should prepare for their worst dengue season ever, as global warming and the El Niño climate phenomenon fuel the mosquito-borne epidemic, a U.N. health agency warned Thursday. In less than three months in 2024, regional health authorities have already tallied more than 3.5 million cases and a thousand deaths from the virus, which is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. "Probably this will be the worst dengue season [in the region]," said Jarbas Barbosa, director of the Pan American Health Organization. The 3.5 million cases recorded so far are three times more than the number of infections at this point in 2023, a record year that saw 4.5 million cases, Barbosa said. Dengue, which can cause hemorrhagic fever, is common in hotter countries and occurs mainly in urban and semi-urban areas. It infects an estimated 100 million to 400 million people yearly, though most cases are mild or asymptomatic, according to the World Health Organization. The increase in the number of infections is seen in all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, but especially in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, which represent 92% of all cases and 87% of deaths. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to go to France and Belgium next week to try to build unity among allies in support of Ukraine in its war against Russia and of Israel in its war against Hamas. Analysts say he faces a tough task. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.

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