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OROVILLE, Calif. — Firefighters lined roads to keep flames from reaching homes as helicopters dropped water on a growing wildfire Wednesday in Northern California that has forced at least 26,000 people to evacuate, as the state sweltered under extreme heat. The Thompson fire broke out before noon Tuesday about 110 kilometers north of Sacramento, near the city of Oroville in Butte County. It sent up a huge plume of smoke that could be seen from space as it grew to more than 14 square kilometers. There was no containment. But Oroville Mayor David Pittman said by Wednesday afternoon there had been a "significant drop in the fire activity," and he was hopeful that some residents could soon be allowed to return home. The fire's progress was stopped along the southern edge and firefighters working in steep terrain were trying to build containment lines on the northern side. "On that north side they have some real struggles in terms of the topography," Pittman said. More than a dozen other blazes, most of them small, were active in across the state, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. A new fire Wednesday afternoon prompted a small number of evacuations in heavily populated Simi Valley, about 65 kilometers northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The state's largest blaze, the Basin Fire, covered nearly 57 square kilometers of the Sierra National Forest in eastern Fresno County and was 26% contained. In Oroville, a state of emergency was declared Tuesday night and evacuation centers were set up. The evacuation zone expanded Wednesday into foothills and rural areas beyond the city that's home to about 20,000 people. With July Fourth in mind, authorities also warned that fireworks are banned in many places, including most of Butte County. There was no immediate official report on property losses. An Associated Press photographer saw fire burn three adjacent suburban-style homes in Oroville. The fire ignited sprigs of grass poking from the concrete edges of Lake Oroville as gusty winds whipped up American flags lining a bend of the state's second largest reservoir and the nation's tallest dam. Residents stood on hillsides in the night, watching the orange glow, as aircraft made water drops to keep the fire from spreading. A crew of more than a dozen firefighters saved one home as goats and other farm animals ran to find safety. The fire's cause is being investigated. Red flag warnings for critical fire weather conditions, including gusty northerly winds and low humidity levels, were in effect when it erupted. The warnings were expected to remain in effect until 8 p.m. Wednesday, said Garrett Sjolund, the Butte County unit chief for Cal Fire. "The conditions out there that are in our county this summer are much different than we've experienced the last two summers," Sjolund said in an online briefing. "The fuels are very dense, brush is dry. And as you can see, any wind will move a fire out very quickly." The conditions led Pacific Gas & Electric to implement targeted public safety power shutoffs in parts of some Northern California counties to prevent fires from being ignited by downed or damaged wires. More high temperatures above 100 degrees (37.8 Celsius) were forecast Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. Hot conditions were expected to continue into next week. Authorities warned of full legal consequences for any illegal use of fireworks during the Fourth of July holiday. "Don't be an idiot, cause a fire and create more problems for us," said Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea. "No one in the community is going to want that. And we certainly don't want this." The governor's office announced late Tuesday that federal funding had been approved to help with firefighting efforts. Gov. Gavin Newsom this week activated the State Operations Center to coordinate California's response, dispatch mutual aid and support communities as they respond to threats of wildfire and excessive heat. In Southern California, Joshua Tree National Park officials closed Covington Flats, an area with most of the park's important Joshua tree populations, on Wednesday because of extreme fire risk after spring rains led to abundant grass that has now dried. A June 2023 fire burned 4.14 square kilometers of Joshua trees and desert tortoise habitat.

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM — Analysts cite an effort to strengthen Vietnam’s South China Sea territorial claims as a key reason Hanoi welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month, despite potential fallout from links to Moscow in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They also say Russian investment in offshore oil and gas reserves off Vietnam’s coast in the South China shows Hanoi strengthening its territorial claims. Vietnam and Russia signed 11 agreements during the visit. They included, according to the Kremlin, granting an investment license for a hydrocarbon block off Vietnam’s southeastern coast to Zarubezhneft, a state-owned Russian oil and gas firm with a history of joint ventures with Vietnam. Ian Storey, senior fellow at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof-Ishak Institute, told VOA that Vietnam wants to expand its oil and gas operations with Russia inside its exclusive economic zone for two reasons. "First, the resources in the fields being worked by Vietsovpetro [a Russian-Vietnamese oil and gas joint venture] are running low and it's time to start operations in new blocks," Storey wrote over email on June 25, referring to an existing oil partnership. "Second," he wrote, "Vietnam wants to internationalize the energy projects in its EEZ because it adds legitimacy to its jurisdictional claims in the South China Sea." Storey added that although there have been reports of Hanoi making an arms purchase by using funds from the joint oil enterprise Rusvietpetro, it is unlikely that the leaders settled plans for a weapons sale during the visit. "While there have been reports that Russia is considering providing loans to Vietnam to buy military hardware using the profits from their joint venture in Siberia, it is unclear whether the two sides have reached a final agreement," Storey wrote. The New York Times reported on a leaked March 2023 document from Vietnam's Finance Ministry that outlined plans for Hanoi to purchase Russian weapons using loans from Rusvietpetro. "The absence of Russian Defence Minister [Andrei] Belousov from Putin's entourage to Vietnam suggests they have not," he wrote. Protecting disputed waters Although Vietnamese territory stretches 370 kilometers off its coast according to international law, China claims the vast majority of the South China Sea with its disputed so-called nine-dash line delineating its claims in the sea. Ray Powell, director of the Sea Light Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University, wrote over WhatsApp on June 27 that the block licensed to Zarubezhneft "appears to be inside" the nine-dash line. Nguyen The Phuong, a maritime security expert and Ph.D. candidate at the University of New South Wales Canberra, told VOA during a call on June 26 that the key takeaway from Putin's visit is Hanoi's intention to secure its territorial integrity. "Vietnam wants Russia to have more presence in the South China Sea because, different from the United States or Western countries, the presence of Russia will not infuriate China," Phuong said. "It could somehow prevent China from going overboard, from being overly aggressive." Alexander Vuving, professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, said it is important for Hanoi to maintain strong ties with Moscow after Putin's invasion of Ukraine. "The Ukraine war is pushing Russia closer to China, and that is the Vietnamese nightmare," Vuving said during a Zoom call with VOA on June 27, noting that Moscow is Hanoi’s leading partner to counter Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. "From Vietnam's perspective, they need Russia," he said. Vietnam is attempting to diversify its military equipment away from Russia, which has been its primary supplier, and it is not clear whether the two sides agreed on an arms sale during this visit. Nevertheless, Russia remains Hanoi's top option to update its aging military arsenal, Vuving said. "[Vietnam] is still trying to buy arms from Russia for many reasons," he said. "The price is not so high like some other alternative sources but there's also the question of the issue of trust – Vietnam would trust Russia," Vuving said. That trust comes from a long history of support from the former Soviet Union and later Russia, Nguyen Hong Hai, senior lecturer at Hanoi's Vinuniversity, told VOA. Along with military aid to support Vietnam's fights for independence, the Soviet Union and Russia helped to bring the country out of poverty and most of Vietnam's top leaders trained there, Hai said. "For the generation who lived during that period of time, they still have very fond memories of the Soviet Union's and Russian assistance to Vietnam," Hai said June 25 by Zoom. Some see dangers Even with the historic connection, some point to the dangers of welcoming Putin after the invasion of Ukraine and Putin's visits to China and North Korea. "This trip was made right after Putin visited [Chinese President] Xi Jinping and [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un. The two most brutal dictators in East Asia," Tran Anh Quan, a Ho Chi Minh City-based social activist wrote to VOA in Vietnamese over Telegram. "If Putin can link up with Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, and To Lam, it will form an alliance of tyrants of the world's major dictatorial states," Quan said, referring to former public security minister To Lam, who became president in May. Quan said he has not seen much response from the Vietnamese public to Putin's Hanoi visit. He said many are afraid to speak out in the current political environment and the public is more focused on the case of Thich Minh Tue – a monk who is not part of a state-sanctioned Buddhist group and became famous for walking barefoot across the country before he was detained by police in early June. "Vietnam is increasingly suppressing critical voices, so people dare to speak out less than before," Quan said. Zachary Abuza, Southeast Asia expert and professor at the National War College in Washington, also noted the negative image Putin's visit casts, adding that Russia's war on Ukraine highlights the degradation of international laws, crucial to Vietnam, given its territorial tensions with neighboring China. "The optics of it are terrible," he told VOA on June 17. "This is the leader who is trying to upend the international rules-based order and change borders through the use of force. … The legal rationale that Russia and Putin have come up with for the invasion of Ukraine is really dangerous for Vietnam." Still, Hai said that although Vietnam and Ukraine are two small nations neighboring larger powers, it is too simplistic to compare the relationships between Vietnam and China with Ukraine and Russia. "[Vietnam] has coexisted with China for over 4,000 years and understands its neighbor well," he said, while noting the countries continue to have territorial disputes and had a border war in 1979. "Since normalizing relations in 1991, the two countries have managed their relationship effectively,’’ Hai said. ‘’Both nations aim to avoid conflict." Further, he added that Hanoi does not "take sides" with Russia, and when leaders express their debt to the Soviet Union, that includes its former republic, Ukraine. "In the joint statement between Vietnam and Russia during the Putin visit … Vietnam was very careful to show it does not side with Russia," Hai said.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

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.

WASHINGTON — General Motors will pay nearly $146 million in penalties to the federal government because 5.9 million of its older vehicles do not comply with emissions and fuel economy standards. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement Wednesday that certain GM vehicles from the 2012 through 2018 model years did not comply with federal fuel economy requirements. The penalty comes after the Environmental Protection Agency said its testing showed the GM pickups and SUVs emit more than 10% more carbon dioxide on average than GM's initial compliance testing claimed. The EPA says the vehicles will remain on the road and cannot be repaired. The GM vehicles on average consume at least 10% more fuel than the window sticker numbers say, but the company won't be required to reduce the miles per gallon on the stickers, the EPA said. "Our investigation has achieved accountability and upholds an important program that's reducing air pollution and protecting communities across the country," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. GM said in a statement that it complied with all regulations regarding the pollution and mileage certification of its vehicles. The company said it is not admitting to any wrongdoing nor that it failed to comply with the Clean Air Act. The problem stems from a change in testing procedures that the EPA put in place in 2016, GM spokesperson Bill Grotz said. Owners don't have to take any action because there is no defect in the vehicles, Grotz said. "We believe this voluntary action is the best course of action to resolve the outstanding issues with the federal government," he said. The enforcement action involves about 4.6 million full-size pickups and SUVs and about 1.3 million midsize SUVs, the EPA said. The affected models include the Chevy Tahoe, Cadillac Escalade and Chevy Silverado. About 40 variations of GM vehicles are covered. GM will be forced to give up credits used to ensure that manufacturers' greenhouse gas emissions are below the fleet standard for emissions that applies for that model year, the EPA said. In a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, GM said it expects the total cost to resolve the matter will be $490 million. Because GM agreed to address the excess emissions, EPA said it was not necessary to make a formal determination regarding the reasons for the excess pollution. But David Cooke, senior vehicles analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, questioned how GM could not know that pollution exceeded initial tests by more than 10% because the problem was so widespread on so many different vehicles. "You don't just make a more than 10% rounding error," he said. Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign for the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, said the violations by GM "show why automakers can't be trusted to protect our air and health, and why we need strong pollution rules. Supreme Court, take notice!" In similar pollution cases in the past, automakers have been fined under the Clean Air Act for such violations, and the Justice Department normally gets involved, Cooke said. Hyundai and Kia, for instance, faced Justice Department action in a similar case. The Justice Department declined to comment, and GM said the settlement resolves all government claims. Cooke said it's possible that GM owners could sue the company because they are getting lower gas mileage than advertised. In 2014, Hyundai and Kia entered into a settlement in which they had to pay a $100 million civil penalty to end a two-year investigation into overstated gas mileage on window stickers of 1.2 million vehicles.

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Nicole Lindsay thought she could beat the holiday-week travel rush by booking an early morning flight. It didn't work out that way. "I thought it wouldn't be that busy, but it turned out to be quite busy," the Baltimore resident said as she herded her three daughters through Palm Beach International Airport in Florida. "It was a lot of kids on the flight, so it was kind of noisy — a lot of crying babies." Lindsay said the flight was full, but her family arrived safely to spend a few days in Port Saint Lucie, so she was not complaining. Airlines hope the outcome is just as good for millions of other passengers scheduled to take holiday flights over the next few days. AAA forecasts that 70.9 million people will travel at least 80 kilometers from home over a nine-day stretch that began June 27, a 5% increase over the comparable period around the Fourth of July last year. Most of those people will drive, and the motor club says traffic will be the worst between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. most days. Federal officials expect air-travel records to fall as Americans turn the timing of July Fourth on a Thursday into a four-day — or longer — holiday weekend. The Transportation Security Administration predicts that its officers will screen more than 3 million travelers at U.S. airports on Sunday. That would top the June 23 mark of more than 2.99 million. American Airlines said Sunday is expected to be its busiest day of the entire summer; it plans more than 6,500 flights. TSA was created after the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, and replaced a collection of private security companies that were hired by airlines. Eight of the 10 busiest days in TSA's history have come this year, as the number of travelers tops pre-pandemic levels. The head of the agency, David Pekoske, said Wednesday that TSA has enough screeners to handle the expected crowds this weekend and through the summer. "We have been totally tested over the course of the last couple of months in being able to meet our wait-time standards of 10 minutes for a PreCheck passenger and 30 minutes for a standard passenger, so we are ready," Pekoske said on NBC's Today show. Peggy Grundstrom, a frequent traveler from Massachusetts who flew to Florida to visit her daughter and granddaughter, said the line for security in Hartford, Connecticut, was unusually long. "It was busier than I have personally seen in the past," Grundstrom said. "But, you know, I prefer to fly unless it's very local. I'm at a stage where I don't want to travel in a car for long periods of time." Polls consistently show that a high percentage of Americans think the economy is poor, but that is not stopping them from traveling this summer. "My finances are always pretty tight," said Madison Tilner, a law-school student at Northwestern University who was waiting for a flight at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. But with a work life looming ahead of her, she said, "I'm trying to travel more and use my free time while I can. I think a lot of people feel that way in summer." Passengers on about 3,000 flights Wednesday were spending some of their free time hanging around airports because of flight delays, according to FlightAware.

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.

NATO will roll out "concrete ways" to accelerate Ukraine’s eventual membership in the Atlantic alliance during a summit next week in Washington. The summit will also address top security concerns amid Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine and challenges in the Indo-Pacific region. VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching has the story, narrated by Elizabeth Cherneff.

washington — Russian courts last month issued arrest warrants for three journalists who are in exile, in a move that analysts say is designed to harass critics outside the country’s borders. A Moscow court on June 17 ordered the arrests of Ekaterina Fomina and Roman Anin on charges of spreading what the Kremlin views as false information about the Russian military. In a separate case on June 27, a court issued an arrest warrant for Farida Kurbangaleyeva on charges of justifying terrorism and spreading what Moscow views as false information about the Russian military. Kurbangaleyeva has reported for Russian and international channels and runs a YouTube channel where she interviews Ukrainian and Russian politicians, according to reports. The case involving Fomina stems from a 2022 documentary she worked on at the investigative outlet IStories, which Anin founded. In the documentary, a Russian soldier confessed to killing a Ukrainian civilian. “If you’re openly speaking against the current Russian regime, you can’t be safe anywhere,” Fomina told VOA. “We can’t say that we can continue our normal life.” Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has stepped up repressive tactics against journalists inside and outside the country, say watchdogs. And while arrests in absentia are less severe than other forms of harassment that Moscow is accused of carrying out, like poisoning and surveillance, experts say they’re still a cog in the transnational repression machine. Such warrants serve to both intimidate exiled journalists and signal to Russia’s domestic audience that criticism is not tolerated, according to Grady Vaughan of Freedom House in Washington. “It does send the message that just because this person left Russia doesn’t mean we forgot about them,” Vaughn told VOA. Russia is among at least 26 governments that have targeted journalists and critics overseas over the past decade, according to a 2023 report by Freedom House. Karol Luczka, who covers Eastern Europe at the International Press Institute, believes the practice may be part of an effort “to satisfy on-paper internal management demands for a certain amount of repressed journalists, activists and other dissenting figures within a given time frame.” Luczka mentioned that on Friday evenings, for example, Russia’s Ministry of Justice typically adds four or five names — often including a journalist — to the country’s list of so-called “foreign agents.” Arrest warrants can also “contribute to discrediting journalists among [Russia’s] own population,” said Luczka, who is based in Vienna. Russia’s Washington embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment. Earlier this year, Fomina spoke with VOA about the psychological toll of starting over in new cities and the legal threats that she has faced for more than six months. The Russian journalist has lived in Europe since 2022 but she won’t publicly say where she’s based out of fear that Russian authorities may surveil her. One of the hardest realizations for Fomina is that the arrest warrant will pose limitations on where she can safely travel — and report from — over concerns that certain governments could extradite her to Russia. “I used to be an independent journalist, very flexible, very mobile, ready to fly in one hour if something happened,” she said. “Now, I’m really limited, and I can’t go to many countries.” Fomina, who now works at the exiled Russian outlet TV Rain, said she’s concerned that the action might make it harder for her to find sources in Russia who are willing to speak with her. She expects that a court will eventually try and convict her in absentia. Despite that, she remains undeterred. “I truly believe that we can’t be silent,” she said. “I’m standing on my values.”  

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

As Ukraine’s war against Russia’s invasion drags on, Ukrainians are fighting to preserve their history. They say Russia is deliberately attacking cultural monuments in a bid to erase the country’s history and identity as a separate nation. For VOA, Anna Chernikova reports from Kyiv. VOA footage by Eugene Shynkar, Vladyslav Smilianets.

GENEVA  — Human rights experts warn Syria’s people are trapped in a society riven by impunity, lawlessness and fragmentation after 13 years of conflict with no end in sight.   In its latest update to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the three-member Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria presented a blistering account of the grim reality facing civilians in a country “with a crumbling economy and a devastating humanitarian situation.”  “For more than a decade, we have documented extensive human rights violations and war crimes across the Syrian territory by all parties to the conflict,” commission chair Paulo Sergio Pinheiro told the council Wednesday, noting that throughout the prolonged conflict “there has been a consistent disregard for the lives and well-being of the Syrian people with no end in sight.”  He said appalling cycles of violence continue, as do massacres that “invoke the atrocities committed with impunity during the conflict,” including during the darkest days of Daesh or Islamic State rule.  Syria’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Haydar Ali Ahmad, rejected the findings, calling details of the commission’s work “detached from reality.”  The conflict, which began in March of 2011, has taken a heavy toll on the population. The U.N. says more than 350,000 civilians have been killed and more than 13.5 million people — over 60% of the population — have been displaced. That includes 6.8 million people inside Syria and 5.4 million as refugees in neighboring countries.  The report says 155,000 Syrians have been detained or forcibly disappeared, a phenomenon that, according to the commission, persists to this day. The report accuses predatory security forces and militias of overseeing criminal fiefdoms while “extorting monetary gain from civilians.”  “Incommunicado detention and enforced disappearances continue, with families of those unlawfully detained often compelled to pay large sums of money to try to obtain information on the fate of their loved ones,” Pinheiro said.  The report describes a thriving drug trafficking and smuggling trade in Syria involving both pro- and anti-government factions causing further insecurity.  The commission says unlawful occupation, confiscation and destruction of the homes, land and property of internally displaced people and refugees continue in a “slow-motion” but steady fashion, thus “further eroding their rights and rendering the prospects of their return home more elusive every day.”  While the fierce battles of previous years have generally subsided, there continue to be sporadic clashes throughout the country with devastating results.     “Six foreign armies are engaged militarily in the country,” Pinheiro said. “Adding further complexity to this landscape is the risks posed by the Israel-Palestine conflict and the likelihood for further escalation in Syria and the region.”  He warns that the long-running conflict and its consequences have become entrenched. “Impunity and lawlessness have shaped a grim reality for all Syrians, with no end in sight.  “World leaders involved with the conflict in Syria are failing to achieve progress towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict; and they and the Syrian government are failing the Syrian people,” he said.  The three-member panel noted that efforts by some Arab states last year to normalize relations with Syria and have the country rejoin the League of Arab States have gone nowhere as “no further meaningful concessions were made by the Syrian government.”  In a bleak assessment of prevailing human rights conditions, the commission finds that “arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, and death in detention continue while violence and insecurity plague different parts of the country and the economy flat-lines.”  Given the prevailing situation, the commission says the voluntary return of refugees to Syria is not a viable option and is fraught with danger. It also expresses concern about the forced return of refugees to Syria from neighboring countries of refuge.  Commission chair Pinheiro said Syrians “are increasingly at risk of deportation and forced return to Syria, where they risk being arrested or disappeared, or returning to find their homes and farms destroyed and no means of livelihood.”  Ambassador Ahmad took umbrage at the commission’s report, telling the council, “What you have just listened to … does not deserve any comment. There is no point in going into the details of the work of this commission.”  He chided the council for “engaging in absurd political showoff, which we witnessed in each interactive dialogue with this commission.”  He accused the council of wasting time and resources in the name of promoting human rights, while aiming “to cover up practices of aggression, occupation, illegal military presence, supporting separatist militias and terrorist groups.”  All of which, he said, constitute “direct support for these groups and threatens the unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic.”

United Nations — Haiti’s transitional prime minister assured the international community Wednesday that his violence-plagued nation is at the “dawn of a new era,” and he expressed confidence that a Kenyan-led police mission would help subdue gangs terrorizing the island nation. “Our country is at a crucial turning point in our history,” Prime Minister Garry Conille told a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Haiti. “We find ourselves facing a huge challenge but also an excellent opportunity to restore peace and security in our nation.” He said 12,000 armed gang members are holding Haiti’s population of 12 million people hostage, and he welcomed the arrival on June 25 of the first police contingent from Kenya. It will lead a multination security support mission of about 2,500 police officers expected to deploy to help Haiti’s police stabilize the country. “We will restore our territory house by house, neighborhood by neighborhood,” Conille said. “This isn’t just a security operation; it is a renaissance of the national spirit.” Conille, 58, a physician and former UNICEF and international development official, was elected in May by the Presidential Transitional Council to lead the transitional government and took up his post on June 3. “At this decisive juncture, no project, be it economic or political, can be tackled without addressing the security issue,” he said, acknowledging the many challenges facing the new government. The latest U.N. report on Haiti, issued last Thursday, says gang intimidation and attacks have displaced 578,000 people, mostly in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince, with the majority fleeing to rural areas in the south and north. Murders are up significantly. The U.N. political mission in Haiti, known as BINUH, said in the first five months of this year, 3,252 people have been killed — an increase of 800 people over the last five months of 2023. Kidnappings are also high, with nearly 1,000 abductions between January and May 2024. At least 80% of Port -au-Prince is no longer under the control of the Haitian authorities, and violence is spreading to other parts of the country. The Haitian National Police, or HNP, have been targeted and attacked, and 20 officers have been killed so far this year. Gangs also have demolished three police stations and three prisons. The humanitarian situation is equally bleak. Nearly 5 million Haitians are in emergency or worse levels of food insecurity, and more than 275,000 children under age 5 are likely to suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of this year. The United States is the largest funder of the multinational security support force — also known as the MSS — having pledged more than $300 million focused on logistics, equipment and training. “The Haitian people deserve, at long last, to live in peace — to go to work, school or a house of worship without the threat of violence,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in the council. In helping restore security to Haiti, the MSS will also be helping to create conditions for the holding of credible elections. Haiti hopes to hold them no later than February 2026. The multinational security support mission has been beset with delays, including court challenges in Kenya and a shortage of funding. Haiti has been in turmoil since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moise at his home in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petion-Ville. Armed gangs now control much of the capital and have spread to other parts of the country, where they have carried out massacres, kidnappings, human trafficking and sexual violence.