Voice of America’s immigration news

Yangon, Myanmar — A Myanmar ethnic armed group has seized the country's most popular beach resort town, with junta troops holed up in a nearby airport, military and local sources told AFP on Tuesday. Clashes have rocked western Rakhine state since the Arakan Army attacked the military there in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since the 2021 military coup. For days, fighting has raged around Ngapali beach in the south of the state, where upmarket resorts dot the pristine, palm-fringed sands of the Indian Ocean. The town of Thandwe, a few kilometers from the beach and home to the local airport, was largely deserted as of Monday, a resident who fled that day told AFP. "Almost everyone in the town has fled... Very few people are now in Thandwe," said the resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons. "A rocket shell landed in the town yesterday. We also heard continuous heavy artillery shelling." A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP security forces had retreated to the airport and were in control of the site. A local hotel owner who was no longer in the town told AFP his staff said the military had carried out airstrikes near the airport on Monday. His employees told him there were "some army and police trapped inside the airport building." AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment and has contacted an Arakan Army spokesman. Thandwe airport has been closed since early this month as Arakan Army fighters launched attacks in the area. Analysts say many of the hotels and resorts at Ngapali are owned by businessmen close to the junta or are part of the military's sprawling business empire that includes gems, tourism, tobacco and real estate.  Since launching its offensive in November, the Arakan Army has seized territory along the border with India and Bangladesh, piling further pressure on the junta as it battles opponents elsewhere across the Southeast Asian country. State capital Sittwe is one of the few holdouts for junta troops in Rakhine state. The Arakan Army, which says it is fighting for autonomy for the state's ethnic Rakhine population, has vowed to capture the city, home to an India-backed deep sea port and around 200,000 people.

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.

UNITED NATIONS — The United States and its key European allies clashed with Iran and Russia over Tehran’s expanding nuclear program, with the U.S. vowing “to use all means necessary to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran” in a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday. The U.S., France, Britain and Germany accused Iran of escalating its nuclear activities far beyond limits it agreed to in a 2015 deal aimed at preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, and of failing to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran and Russia accused the U.S. and its allies of continuing to apply economic sanctions that were supposed to be lifted under the deal and insisted that Tehran’s nuclear program remains under constant oversight by the IAEA. The clashes came at a semi-annual meeting on implementation of the nuclear deal between Iran and six major countries — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Under the accord, Tehran agreed to limit enrichment of uranium to levels necessary for the peaceful use of nuclear power in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018. Trump said he would negotiate a stronger deal, but that didn’t happen. The council meeting followed an IAEA report in late May that Iran has more than 142 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade level of 90%. The IAEA said this was an increase of over 20 kilograms from February. The IAEA also reported on June 13 that its inspectors verified that Iran has started up new cascades of advanced centrifuges more quickly enrich uranium and planned to install more. U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the council that the IAEA reports “show that Iran is determined to expand its nuclear program in ways that have no credible civilian purpose.” Wood said the U.S. is prepared to use all means to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, but said it remains "fully committed to resolving international concerns surrounding Iran’s nuclear program through diplomacy.” The three Western countries that remain in the JCPOA — France, Germany and the United Kingdom — issued a joint statement after the council meeting also leaving the door open for diplomatic efforts “that ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon.” They said Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is now 30 times the JCPOA limit and stressed that Iran committed not to install or operate any centrifuges for enrichment under the JCPOA. Their joint statement also noted that “Iranian officials have issued statements about its capacity to assemble a nuclear weapon.” Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani blamed “the unilateral and unlawful U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA” and the failure of the three European parties to the deal “to honor their commitments,” saying it is “crystal clear” they are responsible for the current non-functioning of the agreement. In the face of U.S. and European sanctions, he said, Iran has the right to halt its commitments under the JCPOA. Iravani reiterated Iran’s rejection of nuclear weapons, and insisted its nuclear activities including enrichment are “for peaceful purposes” and are subject to “robust verification and monitoring” by the IAEA. The Iranian ambassador strongly endorsed the JCPOA, calling it a hard-won diplomatic achievement “that effectively averted an undue crisis.” “It remains the best option, has no alternative, and its revival is indeed in the interest of all of its participants,” he said. “Our remedial measures are reversible if all sanctions are lifted fully and verifiably." But France, Germany and the UK said some of Iran’s nuclear advances are irreversible. Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said U.S. promises “to abandon the policy of maximum pressure on Tehran and to return to the nuclear deal remained empty words.” He accused some other JCPOA parties, which he didn’t name, of “doing everything possible to continuously rock the boat, jettisoning opportunities for the implementation of the nuclear deal.” Nebenzia urged the European parties to the agreement and the United States to return to the negotiating table in Vienna and “demonstrate their commitment to the objective of restoration of the nuclear deal.” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the coordinator of the JCPOA, said the compromise text he put forward two years ago for the U.S. to return to the JCPOA and for Iran to resume full implementation of the agreement remains on the table.

WASHINGTON — News that the U.S. Justice Department has reached a plea deal that will lead to freedom for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange brings a stunning culmination to a long-running saga of international intrigue that spanned multiple continents. Its central character is a quixotic internet publisher with a profound disdain for government secrets. A look at Assange, the case and the latest developments: Who is Julian Assange? An Australian editor and publisher, he is best known for having founded the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, which gained massive attention — and notoriety — for the 2010 release of almost half a million documents relating to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His activism made him a cause célèbre among press freedom advocates who said his work in exposing U.S. military misconduct in foreign countries made his activities indistinguishable from what traditional journalists are expected to do as part of their jobs. But those same actions put him in the crosshairs of American prosecutors, who released an indictment in 2019 that accused Assange — holed up at the time in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London — of conspiring with an Army private to illegally obtain and publish sensitive government records. “Julian Assange is no journalist,” John Demers, the then-top Justice Department national security official, said at the time. “No responsible actor, journalist or otherwise, would purposely publish the names of individuals he or she knew to be confidential human sources in war zones, exposing them to the gravest of dangers.” What is he accused of? The Trump administration’s Justice Department accused Assange of directing former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history. The charges relate to WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents, with prosecutors accusing Assange of helping Manning steal classified diplomatic cables that they say endangered national security and of conspiring together to crack a Defense Department password. Reports from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq published by Assange included the names of Afghans and Iraqis who provided information to American and coalition forces, prosecutors said, while the diplomatic cables he released exposed journalists, religious leaders, human rights advocates and dissidents in repressive countries. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of violating the Espionage Act and other offenses for leaking classified government and military documents to WikiLeaks. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017, allowing her release after about seven years behind bars. Why wasn't he already in U.S. custody? Assange has spent the last five years in a British high-security prison, fighting to avoid extradition to the U.S. and winning favorable court rulings that have delayed any transfer across the Atlantic. He was evicted in April 2019 from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had sought refuge seven years earlier amid an investigation by Swedish authorities into claims of sexual misconduct that he has long denied and that was later dropped. The South American nation revoked the political asylum following the charges by the U.S. government. Despite his arrest and imprisonment by British authorities, extradition efforts by the U.S. had stalled prior to the plea deal. A U.K. judge in 2021 rejected the U.S. extradition request in 2021 on the grounds that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. Higher courts overturned that decision after getting assurances from the U.S. about his treatment. The British government signed an extradition order in June 2022. Then, last month, two High Court judges ruled that Assange can mount a new appeal based on arguments about whether he will receive free-speech protections or be at a disadvantage because he is not a U.S. citizen. The date of the hearing has yet to be determined. What will the deal require? Assange will have to plead guilty to a felony charge under the Espionage Act of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States, according to a Justice Department letter filed in federal court. Rather than face the prospect of prison time in the U.S., he is expected to return to Australia after his plea and sentencing. Those proceedings are scheduled for Wednesday morning, local time in Saipan, the largest island in the Northern Mariana Islands. The hearing is taking place there because of Assange’s opposition to traveling to the continental U.S. and the court’s proximity to Australia. On Monday evening, he left a British prison ahead of a court hearing expected to result in his release. Is this case connected to the 2016 election? It's not, but beyond his interactions with Manning, Assange is well-known for the role WikiLeaks played in the 2016 presidential election, when it released a massive tranche of Democratic emails that federal prosecutors say were stolen by Russian intelligence operatives. The goal, officials have said, was to harm the electoral effort of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and boost her Republican challenger Donald Trump, who famously said during the campaign: “WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks.” Assange was not charged as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. But the investigation nonetheless painted an unflattering role of WikiLeaks in advancing what prosecutors say was a brazen campaign of Russian election interference. Assange denied in a Fox News interview that aired in January 2017 that Russians were the source of the hacked emails, though those denials are challenged by a 2018 indictment by Mueller of 12 Russian military intelligence officers.

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.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia — Mongolians go to the polls Friday in parliamentary elections, with the ruling party expected to hold its majority despite voter fatigue over corruption and concern about inflation and the state of the economy. People across the vast, sparsely-populated nation of 3.4 million will elect 126 members of the State Great Khural, a democratic exercise in a country surrounded by authoritarian powers China and Russia. Streets across the capital Ulaanbaatar are decked out with vibrant multi-colored posters advertising candidates from across the political spectrum, from pro-market liberals to hardline nationalists, populist businessmen and environmentalists. Analysts widely expect the ruling Mongolian People's Party, led by Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, to retain the majority it has enjoyed since 2016, allowing it to govern the resource-rich country for the next four years. It can credit much of its success to a boom in coal mining that fueled double digit growth and dramatically improved standards of living for many Mongolians, analysts say. But that belies deep frustrations with the state of the economy, battered by two years of double-digit inflation -- still stubbornly high at seven percent -- as well as what is seen as widespread corruption. On Sunday, as loudspeakers blared out from a packed ruling party rally in downtown Ulaanbaatar's National Park, retired miner Tumurkhuyag Bayanmunkh, 46, complained that the politicians were "all the same." "The parliament is full of wealthy people who promise changes and improvements, but they forget us the next day," Bayanmunkh told AFP as his grandchildren played nearby. "I worked in the mine for 25, 26 years but I can't afford anything," he explained. "A few elites benefit from the (mining) sector, not the ordinary people." The ruling party has promised to crack down on corruption since unrest in late 2022, when hundreds took to the streets of Ulaanbaatar to protest against "coal theft" by officials linked to state coal firms. But under its rule, Mongolia has plummeted in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. "The middle class is shrinking, real incomes are stagnating, and people very much feel like they're not getting the benefits of the mining wealth that is coming to this country," Munkhnaran Bayarlkhagva, an analyst and former adviser on the National Security Council of Mongolia, told AFP. The ruling party has also presided over a plummeting in press freedom rankings as well as notable declines in the rule of law, campaigners say. The arrest and trial of high-profile journalist Naran Unurtsetseg sent ripples through Ulaanbaatar's relatively small community of journalists, compounding fears over a growing crackdown on freedom of speech. According to the Confederation of Mongolian Journalists, the country's main press NGO, 20 journalists are now under some kind of formal investigation for their reporting. And a survey by the Sant Maral Foundation, Mongolia's top independent polling body, suggested more than a third of Mongolians now believe the country is "changing into a dictatorship." Sunday's rally was largely attended by older Ulaanbaatar residents, illustrating a stark generational divide in a country with an overwhelming young population, with an average age of 26 and where almost two thirds are under 35. Twenty-six-year-old IT worker Norovbanzad Ganbat told AFP she was unimpressed by the choices on offer. "Young people don't vote for (the MPP)," she said. Many people her age are giving up on Mongolia altogether, choosing to go to South Korea or the United States in search of a better life, Ganbat said. "I don't want that. I want to live and work happily in my country. I want young people to be valued more," she said. "Young people are undervalued — after we complete higher education, our degree, knowledge and talent is undervalued. The average salary is too low," she told AFP. The successor to the Communist party that ruled Mongolia with an iron grip for almost 70 years, the governing MPP remains popular, particularly among rural, older voters, and commands a sprawling campaigning apparatus across Mongolia. It has benefited from a divided opposition Democratic Party, whose pro-market policies in the last decade remain widely blamed for the country's grinding income inequality. 

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.

Julian Assange is due to plead guilty to violating U.S. espionage law. The European Union opens formal accession talks with Ukraine on Tuesday after Kyiv's decade-long effort to join the organization. We talk to Amy Verdun, a professor of Political Science at University of Victoria. The European Investment Bank intends to ramp up its investments in European defense such as drones and cyber security, aiming to inject 6 billion euros ($6.4 billion) into the sector. UN chief Antonio Guterres accuses Israel of spreading misinformation about him. And TV personality Rachael Ray is a US based chef, author and celebrity. But Ukrainians know her better thanks to her charity work to help the war-torn country.

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 — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will plead guilty to a felony charge in a deal with the U.S. Justice Department that will free him from prison and resolve a long-running legal saga that spanned multiple continents and centered on the publication of a trove of classified documents, according to court papers filed late Monday.  Assange is scheduled to appear in the federal court in the Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Western Pacific, to plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information, the Justice Department said in a letter filed in court.  The guilty plea, which a judge must approve, abruptly ends a criminal case of international intrigue and the U.S. government's yearslong pursuit of a publisher whose hugely popular secret-sharing website made him a cause celebre among many press freedom advocates who said he acted as a journalist to expose U.S. military wrongdoing. Investigators, by contrast, have repeatedly asserted that his actions broke laws meant to protect sensitive information and put the country's national security at risk.  He is expected to return to Australia after his plea and sentencing, which is scheduled for Wednesday morning, local time in Saipan, the largest island in the Mariana Islands. The hearing is taking place there because of Assange's opposition to traveling to the continental U.S., and because of the court's proximity to Australia.  Assange's U.S. attorney, Barry Pollack, did not immediately return messages seeking comment Monday.  The deal ensures that Assange will admit guilt while also sparing him from any additional prison time. He had spent years hiding out in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after Swedish authorities sought his arrest on rape allegations before he was locked up in the United Kingdom.  Prosecutors have agreed to a sentence of the five years Assange has already spent in a high-security British prison while fighting to avoid extradition to the U.S. to face charges, a process that has played out in a series of hearings in London. Last month, he won the right to appeal an extradition order after his lawyers argued that the U.S. government provided "blatantly inadequate" assurances that he would have the same free-speech protections as an American citizen if extradited from Britain. Assange has been heralded by many around the world as a hero who brought to light military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.  But his reputation was also tarnished by rape allegations, which he has denied.  The Justice Department's indictment unsealed in 2019 accused Assange of encouraging and helping U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks published in 2010. Prosecutors had accused Assange of damaging national security by publishing documents that harmed the U.S. and its allies and aided its adversaries.  The case was lambasted by press advocates and Assange supporters. Federal prosecutors defended it as targeting conduct that went way beyond that of a journalist gathering information, amounting to an attempt to solicit, steal and indiscriminately publish classified government documents. It was brought even though the Obama administration Justice Department had passed on prosecuting him years earlier.  The plea agreement comes months after President Joe Biden said he was considering a request from Australia to drop the U.S. push to prosecute Assange.  Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of violating the Espionage Act and other offenses for leaking classified government and military documents to WikiLeaks. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017, allowing her release after about seven behind bars.  Assange made headlines in 2016 after his website published Democratic emails that prosecutors say were stolen by Russian intelligence operatives. He was never charged in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, but the inquiry laid bare in stark detail the role that the hacking operation played in interfering in that year's election on behalf of then-Republican candidate Donald Trump.  Justice Department officials mulled charges for Assange following the documents' 2010 publication, but were unsure a case would hold up in court and were concerned it could be hard to justify prosecuting him for acts similar to those of a conventional journalist.  The posture changed in the Trump administration, however, with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017 calling Assange's arrest a priority.  Assange's family and supporters have said his physical and mental health have suffered during more than a decade of legal battles, which includes seven years spent inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.  Assange took refuge there in 2012 and was granted political asylum after courts in England ruled he should be extradited to Sweden as part of a rape investigation in the Scandinavian country. British police arrested him after Ecuador's government withdrew his asylum status in 2019, and then he was jailed for skipping bail when he first took shelter inside the embassy.  Although Sweden eventually dropped its sex crimes investigation because so much time had elapsed, Assange has remained in London's high-security Belmarsh Prison during the extradition battle with the U.S. 

Pentagon — The U.S. is expected to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine valued at up to $150 million as soon as Tuesday, two U.S. officials tell VOA. The package is being provided to Kyiv under the presidential drawdown authority (PDA), which pulls weapons, ammunition and equipment from U.S. military stockpiles to fulfill Ukraine’s short-term needs.  One of the officials — who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the package ahead of its planned announcement — said the latest round of aid would include munitions for HIMARS and other critical munitions. It does not include cluster munitions, according to the official. Asked whether the aid package includes long-range missiles known as ATACMS, the official replied, “For operational security reasons, we aren’t going into further details.” ATACMS have a range of up to 300 kilometers (about 185 miles) and nearly double the striking distance of Ukraine’s missiles.  When asked by VOA on June 12 if the United States had provided Ukraine with more ATACMS since mid-March, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General C.Q. Brown said, "We're working through the ATACMS piece, and we continue to provide that capability through our PDAs."  Russia has accused Ukraine of using some of the U.S.-provided ATACMS in deadly strikes this week inside Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, and in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine. Russia summoned the U.S. ambassador in Moscow on Monday to protest the use of the missiles. This week’s aid package for Kyiv will dip into the $61 billion in Ukraine funding signed into law by President Joe Biden in April. 

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.