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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday that a senior North Korea diplomat based in Cuba has fled to South Korea, the latest in a series of defections by members of the North’s ruling elite in recent years. The National Intelligence Service said media reports on the defection of a North Korean counselor of political affairs in Cuba were true. A brief statement by the NIS public affairs office gave no further details. South Korea’s mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported earlier Tuesday that diplomat Ri Il Kyu fled to South Korea with his wife and children in November. Chosun Ilbo cited Ri as telling the newspaper in an interview that he had decided to defect because of what he called disillusionment with North Korea’s political system, an unfair job evaluation by Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry, and the ministry's disapproval of his hopes to visit Mexico to treat his neural damage. He said that hospitals in Cuba didn't have the necessary medical equipment to treat his health problem due to international sanctions. Other South Korean media outlets carried similar reports later Tuesday. Ri defected before South Korea and Cuba established diplomatic ties in February, an event that experts say likely posed a political blow to North Korea, whose diplomatic footing is largely dependent on a small number of Cold War-era allies like Cuba. The Chosun report said Ri had been engaged in efforts to block Cuba from opening diplomatic ties with South Korea until his defection. The report said Ri won a commendation from leader Kim Jong Un for his role in negotiations with Panama that led to the release of a ship detained in 2013 for allegedly carrying banned items like missiles and fighter jet parts. The report said Ri was then a third secretary of the North Korean Embassy in Cuba. The South Korean government says the number of highly educated North Koreans with professional jobs escaping to South Korea has steadily increased in recent years. But it's still unusual for a member of the North’s ruling elite to come to South Korea. About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea to avoid economic hardship and political suppression since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. A majority of them are women from the North’s poorer northern regions who arrived in South Korea since the mid-1990s, when North Korea suffered a devastating famine that was estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people. In 2016, Tae Yongho, then a minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, defected to South Korea. He told reporters in Seoul that he decided to flee because he didn’t want his children to live “miserable” lives in North Korea and he fell into “despair” after watching North Korean leader Kim execute officials and pursue development of nuclear weapons. North Korea has called him “human scum” and accused him of embezzling government money and committing other crimes. Tae was elected to South Korea’s parliament in 2020. In 2019, North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, Jo Song Gil, arrived in South Korea. Also in 2019, North Korea’s acting ambassador to Kuwait arrived in South Korea with his family. In 2021, lawmakers cited the NIS as telling them the diplomat changed his name to Ryu Hyun-woo after arriving in South Korea. South Korea’s unification and foreign ministries said they couldn’t confirm reports about Ri’s defection. The highest-level North Korean to seek asylum in South Korea is Hwang Jang-yop, a senior ruling Workers’ Party official who once tutored Kim Jong Un’s late father, dictator Kim Jong Il. Hwang’s 1997 defection was hailed by many South Koreans as an intelligence bonanza and a sign that the North’s political system was inferior to the South’s. Hwang died in 2010.

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Jakarta, Indonesia — Deforestation at one of Indonesia's largest nickel processing hubs is threatening an Indigenous group that is among the country's last uncontacted tribes, rights groups allege. Nickel is a key component in the batteries of electric vehicles, and Indonesia is both the world's largest producer and home to the biggest known reserves globally. The government is keen to boost output, but there are growing concerns about the environmental consequences and impact on local residents. Two NGOs told AFP that mining operations in North Maluku province are endangering the O'Hongana Manyawa people by stripping forests and pumping pollution into surrounding waters. The Weda Bay nickel mine on Halmahera island — by some estimates the largest in the world — has left the Indigenous group encircled, said Syamsul Alam Agus, an advocate at the Association of Indigenous Peoples' Defenders. "They are surrounded... their territory is controlled," he told AFP. While some of the community have settled over decades, an estimated 300-500 people from the group maintain a nomadic, hunter-gatherer existence isolated from outsiders. As they lose more land and sources of food, they are being forced into more human contact, potentially exposing them to novel diseases, experts said. "The world has become apocalyptic for the O'Hongana Manyawa," said Callum Russell, an advocacy officer at Indigenous rights NGO Survival International. They are being "forced to essentially surrender" their lifestyle and "often come out to beg for food," he told AFP. 'This is our home' Apparent encounters between the tribe and mine workers have recently circulated on social media, sometimes going viral in Indonesia. In one, two men hold spears as they apparently face off against workers and a bulldozer. Another shows a man and two women appearing to approach mine workers to ask for food. AFP could not immediately verify the videos but Dewi Anakoda, a local environmentalist who describes herself as a "companion" of the O'Hongana Manyawa, confirmed they are authentic. "It's not them entering the concession area but Weda Bay Nickel that entered their area," she told AFP. "They have always lived in the forest. They say, 'this is our territory, this is our home. We never bother you, why do you disturb us?'" Weda Bay began operations in 2019, with the deposits being developed by Indonesian company PT Weda Bay Nickel. The firm is majority-owned by Strand Minerals, whose shares are divided between French mining giant Eramet and Chinese steel major Tsingshan. According to Eramet, about 6,000 hectares of Weda Bay Nickel's 45,000-hectare concession will be mined over a 25-year period. It says around 2,000 hectares have been "exploited," including for a nickel plant part of the sprawling Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP). NGO Climate Rights International (CRI) this year found that around 1,400 hectares of forest had already been lost inside Weda Bay Nickel's concession. Citing interviews with local residents, it alleged "people living near IWIP have had their land taken, deforested, or excavated by nickel companies and developers without their consent." It said sampling of local rivers and coastal waters found contamination from heavy metals believed to be linked to mining. Deforestation Weda Bay Nickel, Tsingshan, Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board and its Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. Eramet told AFP it is aware of the O'Hongana Manyawa and understands the "critical importance" of responsible mining and the well-being of Indigenous people. It also touted the project's economic benefits, including the creation of 14,000 direct jobs and more than $1.52 million in "community investment spending." Deforestation is a longstanding problem in Indonesia, and primary forest loss jumped 27 percent in 2023 after falling for several years from a peak in 2015-2016, according to the World Resources Institute. Much of that is linked to fires or palm oil and wood pulp plantations, but mining-related deforestation accounted for the loss of about 10,000 hectares of primary forest last year, according to conservation start-up The TreeMap. Concerns about Weda Bay's environmental cost prompted a campaign urging German firm BASF to abandon plans with Eramet to build a nickel-cobalt refinery project in the area. The $2.6 billion project was scrapped last month, though both firms said the decision was motivated by changing market conditions. The move does not affect existing operations. NGOs have called on the government to set up protected areas for the O'Hongana Manyawa. Dewi warned the development poses a threat to wildlife as well as humans. It's "not only the O'Hongana Manyawa tribe, there are Halmahera's endemic birds, other birds, other habitats," she said. "I think in less than 20 years our forests will be completely cleared and we will feel the lasting ecological impact."

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.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has picked U.S. Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate as the Republican National Convention opens. We talk to John Mark Hansen from the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. A federal judge in Florida has dismissed the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump, siding with defense lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the Justice Department. We talk to Harold Krent, a professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law. And, honoring the former fire chief who was killed while shielding his daughters during the Trump campaign.

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.

BERLIN — German authorities had fewer security problems and crimes to deal with than they expected at the European Championship, the country's top security official said Monday. The tournament ended on Sunday with Spain beating England 2-1 in the final in Berlin and no reports of serious disturbances. That capped a month-long event that mostly saw only isolated and relatively minor incidents, a contrast with violence at some past tournaments. Germany's Interior Ministry said that about 2.6 million people attended matches in the 10 host cities, and another 6 million watched games in the designated fan zones. Over the course of the tournament, it said, there were a total of about 170 arrests and 320 temporary detentions. Police recorded about 2,340 offenses linked to the tournament, including some 700 involving bodily harm and 120 thefts. There were about 140 cases involving violence against police officers. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the country had been “prepared for all conceivable dangers from Islamist terrorism, through hooligan violence to cyberattacks and dangerous drone flights.” “There were significantly fewer security incidents and offenses than our security authorities had expected beforehand at an event with millions of people,” Faeser said in a statement. “Above all, the very high police presence across the country was decisive in this.” Germany introduced temporary border controls at all its frontiers during Euro 2024, something that has become standard practice during such events in Europe's nominally ID check-free travel zone, the Schengen area. Those are due to run through Friday. They will then be dropped at the borders with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. However, the government is ordering checks on the border with France before and during the upcoming Olympic Games, and longer-standing checks on the eastern and southern borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland that were motivated by concerns about migration will be kept in place.

BALTIMORE — Baltimore's mayor and city council have filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a proposal that would let voters decide whether to give all new parents a one-time $1,000 "baby bonus" meant to help alleviate childhood poverty from birth. The complaint was filed Thursday, according to online court records. It came not long after organizers secured the necessary 10,000 signatures to bring the question to voters as a ballot initiative in November. City leaders argue that the proposal is unconstitutional and should be blocked from the ballot because it would give voters too much say over legislative decisions, effectively "usurping those powers" from their elected officials. An estimated 7,000 children are born in Baltimore each year, so the program would cost about $7 million annually. That amounts to roughly 0.16% of the city's annual operating budget, according to supporters. It wouldn't result in higher taxes, but it would be up to the city council to allocate the necessary funds. The lawsuit claims that the charter amendment process is meant to address changes to the form and structure of government, not specific legislative or budgetary questions. But supporters of the baby bonus say the lawsuit is a political power grab. "We are fully confident the courts will reject this attack on democracy," the Maryland Child Alliance said in a statement posted to social media last week. The group was founded by Baltimore teachers advocating for legislation to alleviate child poverty. They say more systemic change is needed on a national level to help lift families out of poverty, but giving new parents a modest financial boost could prove an important first step. The proposal is loosely modeled on a program implemented this year in Flint, Michigan, where women receive $1,500 during mid-pregnancy and $500 per month for the first year after giving birth. Officials said the Flint program was the first of its kind in the U.S. Countries in Europe and Asia have experimented with larger cash payments, but those programs are meant to encourage people to have more kids, not address child poverty. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott's administration, which launched a guaranteed income pilot program targeting young single parents in 2022, said in a statement that he's "supportive of the proposed amendment's objectives" even though he wants it off the ballot.

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SAN DIEGO — Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico plunged 29% in June, the lowest month of Joe Biden's presidency, according to figures released Monday that provide another window on the impact of a new rule to temporarily suspend asylum. Arrests totaled 83,536 in June, down from 117,901 in May to mark the lowest tally since January 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. A seven-day average of daily arrests fell more than half by the end of June from Biden's announcement on June 4 that asylum processing would be halted when daily arrests reach 2,500, which they did immediately, said Troy Miller, acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner. "Recent border security measures have made a meaningful impact on our ability to impose consequences for those crossing unlawfully," Miller said. Arrests had already fallen by more than half from a record high of 250,000 in December, largely a result of increased enforcement by Mexican authorities, according to U.S. officials. Sharp declines registered across nationalities, including Mexicans, who have been most affected by the suspension of asylum, and Chinese people, who generally fly to Ecuador and travel to the U.S. border over land. San Diego was the busiest of the Border Patrol's nine sectors bordering Mexico by number of arrests, followed by Tucson, Arizona. More than 41,000 people entered legally through an online appointment app called CBP One in June. The agency said 680,500 people have successfully scheduled appointments since the app was introduced in January 2023. Nearly 500,000 people from four countries entered on a policy to allow two-year stays on condition they have financial sponsors and arrive at an airport. They include 104,130 Cubans, 194,027 Haitians, 86,101 Nicaraguans and 110,541 Venezuelans, according to CBP.

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday he made a mistake when he told supporters to put rival Donald Trump in a "bull’s-eye" in an effort to focus attention on his rival's behavior but said Trump regularly employed rhetoric that was inflammatory. "It was a mistake to use the word," Biden said in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt. "I meant focus on it, focus on what he's doing," Biden said. On July 8, Biden, 81, spoke to some of his biggest donors and said they needed to shift the election campaign's focus from him and his poor debate performance to former President Trump, the Republican nominee in the Nov. 5 election. "I have one job and that’s to beat Donald Trump ... We’re done talking about the debate. It's time to put Trump in the bull’s-eye," he said. Some Republicans zeroed in on that comment as they blamed Biden for creating a climate that sparked the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Biden has repeatedly decried political violence. The president has endured more than two weeks of questions about his political future, so far facing down calls to step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate after his poor performance against Trump in the debate on June 27 sparked a crisis within his party. He reiterated in the interview that he is not leaving the race, while acknowledging that people's questions about his age were legitimate. Biden also weighed in on Trump's selection of Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate. Asked by NBC's Lester Holt what Vance's selection said about Trump's values, Biden replied: "He's going to surround himself with people who agree completely with him." Biden, chuckling, also noted some of Vance's previously critical comments about Trump. The president has sought to turn attention to his opponent, highlighting Trump's falsehoods, his refusal to accept the 2020 election results and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. "I'm not the guy that said I want to be a dictator on day one. I'm not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election," Biden said. He said Trump had engaged in inflammatory rhetoric, citing the former president's comments about a bloodbath ensuing if he loses the 2024 election and making fun when former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul was attacked by an intruder with a hammer at their home. "How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?" Biden said. "I have not engaged in that rhetoric. Now ... my opponent's engaged in that rhetoric." Biden, who is seeking to prove that he is fit to stand for reelection and govern for a second four-year term despite concerns about his age, noted that millions of people had voted for him to be the Democratic Party's nominee. "I listen to them," he said.

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Milwaukee — Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday selected J.D. Vance, a senator from the Midwestern state of Ohio, as his running mate in November’s presidential election. Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social media platform, saying he decided the Marine Corps veteran and Yale Law School graduate is “the person best suited” to become vice president of the United States. Shortly after Trump’s naming of the 39-year-old Vance, the bearded senator took a victory lap on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee as thousands of delegates cheered. Vance is expected to address the gathering on Wednesday, the night before Trump formally accepts the party’s presidential nomination for the third consecutive time. “I think it was an excellent choice,” an excited Ginger Howard, a party national committeewoman from Georgia, told VOA on the floor of the convention. “I think they’re going to make a great team." Just before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, President Joe Biden, responding to a reporter’s question about Vance’s selection, termed the senator “a clone of Trump on the issues. I don’t see any difference.” Biden’s reelection campaign was quick to elaborate, characterizing Vance as a willing servant to Trump’s more autocratic and regressive undertakings. Trump, twice impeached and now a convicted felon for falsifying business records, picked Vance because he “will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people,” said Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, who chairs the Biden-Harris campaign. Trump has downplayed the severity of the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, framing it as a legitimate protest against what he claimed without evidence was a "stolen" 2020 presidential election. He has also criticized the subsequent federal investigation and prosecution of those involved, labeling it a witch hunt politically motivated by Biden, his opponent in a second consecutive election. Biden’s running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, is “fully prepared” to debate Vance under the format proposed by CBS News, according to the Democrats’ campaign. “Trump’s VP pick is great news for wealthy Americans and terrible for everybody else,” Senator Elizabeth Warren told reporters on a Biden-Harris campaign conference call shortly after the former president’s announcement of his running mate. “Social Security and Medicare cuts will bear down on seniors like an avalanche” if Trump and Vance are elected, predicted Warren. “Millions will face losing access to health insurance.” Vance has emerged as a strong advocate of Trump and his hard-line policies, from immigration restrictions to cuts for social programs. But as was true of numerous other prominent Republicans when the New York real estate developer first ran for president eight years ago, Vance had been highly critical of Trump. “Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us,” Vance said on Twitter in October 2016. He subsequently deleted the tweet. Vance, a venture capitalist before being elected a senator, first rose to prominence with his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which was made into a Hollywood movie. The book and film chronicle his experiences coming of age in a struggling working-class family in the Appalachian region. With his name aside Trump’s on the 2024 ticket, Vance immediately becomes the most prominent Republican to be passed the torch of a political party radically reframed by Trumpism. Trump, if he is elected again and serves a full second term, would be 82 the day he leaves office. Biden’s cognitive abilities at his current age of 81 have emerged as a major campaign issue and divided his own Democratic Party, with a growing number of prominent Democrats in and out of Congress calling for him to abandon his reelection bid in favor of a younger replacement. “Trump wanted a younger candidate who can campaign and connect with working-class voters, especially in the Midwest. Vance is also the first millennial to appear as a major party nominee on a presidential ticket, representing a generational change in U.S. politics,” said Cayce Myers, a Virginia Tech professor of public relations. Vance would become the second-youngest vice president in U.S. history if elected along with Trump. Democrat John C. Breckinridge was 36 when he took the oath of office as vice president on March 4, 1857, under President James Buchanan. Republican Richard Nixon, as President Dwight Eisenhower’s vice president, was 40 when he took on the role in 1953. Breckinridge failed in his subsequent quest for the presidency. Nixon was elected president in 1968 after a losing bid eight years earlier. Roman Mamonov of VOA’s Russian Service contributed to this report.

kigali, rwanda — Rwandan President Paul Kagame has won the country’s presidential election with 99% of the vote, according to preliminary election results released late Monday evening. Kagame had won 99% of the 79% of ballots counted so far, the country’s electoral body said. The president, who has been in power in various roles since 1994, won by a similar amount in 2017. People stood in line patiently starting at 7 a.m. local time Monday to cast their ballots, saying they were excited to exercise their civic duty. Some told VOA they wanted a leader who could deliver what the population desired. Others said they’d seen progress and would vote for that to continue. Kagame cast his vote around 1:30 p.m. at a voting center in Kigali. He had said that his priorities of building the country toward prosperity would not change. Kagame, who was first elected president in 2000, faced two other candidates: the Democratic Green Party's Frank Habineza and independent Philippe Mpayimana. Habineza was in second place with 0.53% of the vote while Mpayimana had  0.32%. This was the second bid for the top job by Mpayimana, a journalist-turned-politician whose manifesto initiatives to develop agriculture, transportation, fishing and other industries received coverage in 50-plus articles. Habineza, who also ran against Kagame in the last election, told VOA he was in the race again this year because the incumbent has been in office too long and it was time for a new vision for the country. Several other candidates, including some of Kagame’s most vocal critics, were barred from running for president. About 9 million out of a population of 14 million Rwandans were registered to vote. That was 2 million more than last time, according to the National Electoral Commission. NEC Chairwoman Oda Gasinzigwa said that more than 300 international observers were present in Rwanda, along with about 700 local observers. One reason Kagame, 66, cruised to victory, critics said, was that he has governed with a heavy hand and has stifled dissent. But another reason, analysts said, was his ability to guide the East African country toward internal peace since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.

The United States Secret Service says it’s “confident” in its ability to safeguard this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This, after the party’s leader, Donald Trump, survived an assassination attempt over the weekend. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.

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