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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.

In Peshawar, Pakistan, former schoolteacher Zarghona Hamidi is teaching other young Afghan refugee women like her how to make fashion jewelry so they can help support their families. Muska Safi has the story, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. Camera: Muska Safi

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.

TEL AVIV, Israel — The fate of the proposed cease-fire deal for Gaza hinges in many ways on two men: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas' leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. Each leader faces significant political and personal pressures that may be influencing their decision-making. And neither seems to be in a rush to make concessions to end the devastating eight-month-long war and free hostages taken by Hamas in its October 7 attack. Hamas has accepted the broad outline of the plan but requested "amendments." Netanyahu has publicly disputed aspects of it, even though the U.S. has framed it as an Israeli plan. Among the major sticking points is how to move from an initial temporary truce in the deal's first phase to a permanent cease-fire that includes an end to the fighting and full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Here is a look at what may be driving the two leaders: Netanyahu is 'buying time' Throughout the war, the long-serving Israeli leader has been criticized for letting political considerations get in the way of his decision-making. His government is buoyed by two ultranationalist parties that oppose cease-fire deals. Instead, they prefer continuous military pressure to try to defeat Hamas and free the hostages. They also talk about "encouraging" Palestinians to leave and reestablishing Israeli settlements, which were dismantled when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation. Netanyahu himself has taken a tough line on the cease-fire, saying he will not end the war until Hamas' military and governing capabilities are destroyed. But with his hard-line partners pledging to topple the government if a cease-fire is struck, Netanyahu has been pushed even farther into the corner. His reliance on them to remain in power recently intensified after a centrist member of his war Cabinet, former military chief Benny Gantz, quit over frustrations with Netanyahu's handling of the conflict. Netanyahu has had to balance internal pressures against demands from the Biden administration, which is promoting the latest cease-fire proposal, and from families of hostages who believe only a deal can set their loved ones free. Tens of thousands of Israelis have joined mass protests in support of the hostage families. Netanyahu appears to be siding with his far-right governing partners for the moment, knowing they hold the key to his immediate political survival, although he says he has the country's best interests in mind. Their departure from the government could lead to new elections, which would open him up to a vote that could end his rule and likely the start of investigations into the failures of October 7. Netanyahu is also on trial for corruption, proceedings that have continued throughout the war yet have faded from the public consciousness. A cease-fire deal could refocus attention on the charges, which have dogged the Israeli leader for years and which he adamantly denies. Netanyahu's political fortunes appear to have improved over the course of the war. His public support plummeted in the aftermath of Hamas' surprise attack on southern Israel. But over time it has gradually ticked up. While he would still face a tough path toward reelection, he isn't a write-off. "He runs the war as he wants, which means very slowly. He's buying time," said Gideon Rahat, a senior fellow at the Israeli Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think thank, and chairman of the political science department at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. Rahat said Netanyahu is also keen to push on with the war in the hopes that former U.S. President Donald Trump returns to office, possibly giving Israel more leeway in its fight against Hamas. "I don't see any cease-fire that really comes close to being something he adopts," Rahat said. "But he's not the only one that controls reality." Sinwar's mission is to survive Hamas' leader in Gaza also appears to be in no rush to sign on to a deal. The militant group's exiled leadership is somewhat varied in its opinion on how to approach a cease-fire agreement. But Sinwar — the mastermind of the October 7 attacks — has particular weight on the matter. As a Hamas stalwart who spent decades in Israeli prisons, he has incentives to keep the war going. On a personal level, his life may be on the line. Israel vowed to kill him in response to the October assault, and Sinwar is believed to be hiding deep within Gaza's underground tunnels surrounded by Israeli hostages. If a cease-fire takes hold, Sinwar will be taking a great risk stepping out in public. "I think he understands that he's kind of a dead man walking. But it's a matter of how long can he hold out?" said Khaled el-Gindy, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute think tank. But Sinwar is motivated by more than just his own personal fate. Steeped in Hamas' radical ideology, Sinwar seeks Israel's destruction and has made political gains by watching the war harm Israel's international standing and boost support for the Palestinian cause. Israel has faced surging international criticism — from its Western allies, from the international justice system, from protesters around the world — over its conduct during the war. That has deepened Israel's global isolation, brought accusations that it is committing genocide against Palestinians and driven the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court to seek the arrests of Israeli leaders. Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, wrote on the social platform X that Sinwar was also "counting on the sustained global outcry due to the horrendous killing of Gazans to force Israel to stop the war eventually," on his own terms. But Sinwar could face some difficult questions of his own when the war ends — not only over his personal role in the atrocities of October 7 but also from the Palestinian public as the full extent of the wartime devastation and the years-long process of reconstruction sink in. El-Gindy said Sinwar wasn't deterred by the high price Palestinian civilians in Gaza are paying in the war, seeing it as an unavoidable sacrifice on the road toward liberation. From Sinwar's perspective, continuing to fight Israel's powerful army, even if only through pockets of resistance, denies Israel a victory, el-Gindy said. "Their whole mission is to survive," he said. "If they survive, they win."

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.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Vietnam early on Thursday for talks with the country's communist leaders after concluding a defense pact with North Korea It is his final stop on a two-nation tour of Asia. The head of a United Nations Commission of Inquiry, Navi Pillay, said on Wednesday that the Israeli military is carrying out the "extermination" of Palestinians. From Mecca to Maryland global heat waves create dangerous conditions. And Naomi Campbell becomes the first model to be featured in an exhibition at the V&A museum in London.

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.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine military chief demanded Wednesday that China return several rifles and equipment seized by the Chinese coast guard in a disputed shoal and pay for damages in an assault he likened to an act of piracy in the South China Sea. Chinese personnel on board more than eight motorboats repeatedly rammed then boarded the two Philippine navy inflatable boats Monday to prevent Filipino navy personnel from transferring food and other supplies including firearms to a Philippine territorial outpost in Second Thomas Shoal, which is also claimed by Beijing, according to Philippine officials. After a scuffle and repeated collisions, the Chinese seized the boats and damaged them with machetes, knives and hammers. They also seized eight M4 rifles, which were packed in cases, navigation equipment and other supplies and wounded a number of Filipino navy personnel, including one who lost his right thumb, two Philippine security officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to publicly discuss the sensitive conflict. Video and photographs issued by the Philippine military Wednesday night show the chaotic faceoff at the shoal, with Chinese personnel onboard boats brandishing knives, axe and sticks while surrounding two Philippine navy supply boats beside Manila's ship outpost. Sirens blare constantly as both sides yell at each other and the Chinese smash the Philippine navy boat with a pole and grab what appears to be a bag with a stick. Pictures show a damaged Philippine navy boat with its side floaters slashed and deflated and another boat with its windshields and navigational screens shattered. A man displays a damaged cellphone. "We are demanding that the Chinese return our rifles and our equipment and we're also demanding that they pay for the damage they caused," Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., head of the Philippine armed forces, said in a news conference in western Palawan province, where he pinned a medal on the wounded navy officer. "They boarded our boats illegally and seized our equipment," Brawner said. "They're now like pirates with this kind of actions." Armed with long knives and machetes, the Chinese coast guard personnel tried to beat the unarmed Filipinos, who resisted with their bare hands by parrying the blows and pushing back the Chinese, Brawner said. "Our objective is also to prevent war." Some of the Chinese pointed their knives at the Filipino navy personnel, he said. China blamed the Philippines for the confrontation, saying the Filipino personnel "trespassed" into the shoal in defiance of its warnings. "This is the direct cause of the incident," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in Beijing. "The Chinese coast guard at the scene has taken professional law-enforcement measures with restraint aimed at stopping the illegal supply mission by the Philippine vessels and no direct measures were taken against the Philippine personnel." The United States renewed a warning Tuesday that it is obligated to defend the Philippines, a treaty ally. Second Thomas Shoal, part of the disputed Spratly Islands, has been occupied by a small Philippine navy contingent aboard a grounded warship that has been closely monitored by China's coast guard and navy in a yearslong territorial standoff. China claims the South China Sea virtually in its entirety. There is fear that disputes in the South China Sea, long regarded as an Asian flashpoint, could escalate and pit the United States and China in a larger conflict. Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have conflicting territorial claims in the busy waterway. Since last year, hostilities between China and the Philippines have escalated in the disputed waters, particularly in Second Thomas Shoal, which is less than 370 kilometers from the Philippine coast and where the BRP Sierra Madre, now encrusted with rust, was deliberately grounded in 1999 to create a territorial outpost. The ship remains an actively commissioned military vessel, meaning an attack on it could be considered by the Philippines as an act of war.

LONDON — Global fossil fuel consumption and energy emissions hit all-time highs in 2023, even as fossil fuels' share of the global energy mix decreased slightly on the year, the industry's Statistical Review of World Energy report said on Thursday. Growing demand for fossil fuel despite the scaling up of renewables could be a sticking point for the transition to lower carbon energy as global temperature increases reach 1.5C (2.7F), the threshold beyond which scientists say impacts such as temperature rise, drought and flooding will become more extreme. "We hope that this report will help governments, world leaders and analysts move forward, clear-eyed about the challenge that lies ahead," Romain Debarre of consultancy Kearney said. Last year was the first full year of rerouted Russian energy flows away from the West following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and also the first full year without major movement restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall global primary energy consumption hit an all-time high of 620 Exajoules, the report said. (An Exajoule is equal to 1018 joules.) Emissions exceeded 40 metric gigatons of CO2 for the first time, the report said. "In a year where we have seen the contribution of renewables reaching a new record high, ever increasing global energy demand means the share coming from fossil fuels has remained virtually unchanged," Simon Virley of consultancy KPMG said. The report recorded shifting trends in fossil fuel use in different regions. In Europe, for example, the fossil fuel share of energy fell below 70% for the first time since the industrial revolution. "In advanced economies, we observe signs of demand for fossil fuels peaking, contrasting with economies in the Global South for whom economic development and improvements in quality of life continue to drive fossil growth," Energy Institute Chief Executive Nick Wayth said. The Energy Institute, together with consultancies KPMG and Kearney, has published the annual report since 2023. They took over from BP last year, which had authored the report, a benchmark for energy professionals, since the 1950s. Fossil fuel accounted for almost all demand growth in India in 2023, the report said, while in China fossil fuel use rose 6% to a new high. But China also accounted for over half of global additions in renewable energy generation last year. “China adding more renewables than the rest of the world put together is remarkable," KPMG's Virley told reporters.

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.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi is marking World Refugee Day in Sudan and South Sudan, where he has been traveling this week, highlighting the situation of millions of people displaced by war. VOA United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer spoke to him from New York.

Washington — Families of Boeing 737 MAX crash victims on Wednesday asked U.S. authorities to impose a fine of up to $24.8 billion on the aviation giant and proceed with criminal prosecution. The move comes a day after Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun acknowledged the gravity of the company's safety problems and assured a U.S. congressional panel that it was making progress on the issue. Sitting behind him in the audience were relatives of victims of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019, who held up victims' photos. "Because Boeing's crime is the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history, a maximum fine of more than $24 billion is legally justified and clearly appropriate," Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice. The 32-page document explains the calculations behind the amount sought, saying Boeing "should be fined the maximum — $24,780,000,000 — with perhaps $14,000,000,000 to $22,000,0000,000 of the fine suspended on the condition that Boeing devote those suspended funds to an independent corporate monitor and related improvements in compliance and safety programs as identified below." It added: "And Boeing’s Board of Directors should be ordered to meet with the families." The families also believe the government should promptly "launch criminal prosecutions of the responsible corporate officials at Boeing at the time of the two crashes." The case relates to crashes in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia that together claimed 346 lives and comes as Boeing faces intensifying scrutiny following recent manufacturing and safety problems. The aviation giant has again been in the public spotlight since a January 5 incident in which a 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing after a fuselage panel blew out midflight.

United Nations — Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, on Wednesday urged an end to the war in Sudan, where hunger and violence have driven millions from their homes. "They are fleeing horrible violence, very severe violations of human rights," Grandi told VOA in an interview from Juba, South Sudan, after field visits to Renk in South Sudan and across the border in Kosti, a city in Sudan's White Nile state. Thursday is World Refugee Day, and Grandi hopes to put this neglected crisis in the global spotlight. The United Nations has warned that 5 million Sudanese are on the brink of famine. Millions more are severely food insecure. Harvests have been lost, markets looted and burned, and humanitarians obstructed from delivering adequate aid. "But increasingly they are also fleeing deprivation — and in particular food insecurity, and in some cases, hunger," Grandi said. "So you have a multiplication of factors that are all generated clearly by this insane war that doesn't seem to end." The United Nations says the 14-month-long war between rival generals has internally displaced more than 6 million people on top of the nearly 4 million who were displaced before the current conflict. Another 2 million have fled to neighboring countries, including Chad, South Sudan and Ethiopia. "Let's not forget that these people are coming, like here in South Sudan, to countries that are already very fragile — they have huge challenges of their own in terms of security, political fragility, governance, economic problems and so forth," Grandi said, praising them for keeping their borders open and offering shelter. A U.N. panel of experts said earlier this year that external actors are fueling Sudan's conflict by providing the warring generals with weapons and ammunition. "My appeal is really to everybody who has any influence on the parties in this conflict: Push them not towards the battlefield, but to the negotiating table," Grandi said. "This is what is most needed: a cease-fire first and then the possibility that there is a political solution. Without that, I am afraid we will see more refugees and more suffering." The head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has been locked in an armed power struggle with the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces for the past 14 months. The fighting has spread from Sudan's capital, Khartoum, to other parts of the country, leaving death, destruction and a humanitarian catastrophe in its wake.

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.

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Louisiana has become the first U.S. state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom, the latest move from a Republican-dominated legislature pushing a conservative agenda under a new governor.  The legislation that Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed into law on Wednesday requires a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in "large, easily readable font" in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities.  Opponents questioned the law's constitutionality and vowed to challenge it in court. Proponents said the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the language of the law, the Ten Commandments are "foundational documents of our state and national government."  The posters, which will be paired with a four-paragraph "context statement" describing how the Ten Commandments "were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries," must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025.  Under the law, state funds will not be used to implement the mandate. The posters would be paid for through donations.  The law also "authorizes" but does not require the display of other items in K-12 public schools, including: The Mayflower Compact, which was signed by religious pilgrims aboard the Mayflower in 1620 and is often referred to as America's "First Constitution"; the Declaration of Independence; and the Northwest Ordinance, which established a government in the Northwest Territory — in the present day Midwest — and created a pathway for admitting new states to the Union.  Opponents vow to challenge law Not long after the governor signed the bill into law at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School in Lafayette on Wednesday, civil rights groups and organizations that want to keep religion out of government promised to file a lawsuit challenging it.  The law prevents students from getting an equal education and will keep children who have different beliefs from feeling safe at school, the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation said in a joint statement Wednesday afternoon.  "Even among those who may believe in some version of the Ten Commandments, the particular text that they adhere to can differ by religious denomination or tradition. The government should not be taking sides in this theological debate," the groups said.  The controversial law, in a state ensconced in the Bible Belt, comes during a new era of conservative leadership in Louisiana under Landry, who replaced two-term Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards in January. Republicans hold a supermajority in the legislature, and Republicans hold every statewide elected position, paving the way for lawmakers to push through a conservative agenda.  Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states, including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, no state besides Louisiana has succeeded in making the bills law.  Similar law ruled unconstitutional Legal battles over the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms are not new.  In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can "make no law respecting an establishment of religion."   The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose. 

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.

Quito, Ecuador — Ecuador suffered a nationwide blackout for several hours on Wednesday as the electrical grid failed, with metro services, traffic lights and other critical services crippled. The blackout hit abruptly just after 3 p.m. local time, surprising subway riders in the capital, Quito, as trains came to a halt and hundreds of people were evacuated. Some were forced to walk long distances through dark metro tunnels until they found an exit. Three hours after the stoppage hit, Energy Minister Roberto Luque said on X that 95% of the service had been restored nationwide. Earlier, he had announced a "breakdown in the transmission line, which caused a chain of disconnections" leading to a countrywide failure. "For years there has been a lack of investment in these systems and electrical grids and today we are suffering the consequences," Luque said. Traffic lights in Quito went on the blink and police manned intersections to maintain some semblance of order in the city of 3 million people. Within about an hour, power started returning gradually in the capital. "The incident must have been major because it even knocked out power to the metro, which has its own separate system," Quito Mayor Pabel Munoz said on X. He had ordered the deployment of special teams to help anyone who may be trapped, prevent accidents and "take care of public spaces." Chaos also hit the Pacific port city of Guayaquil, according to an AFP correspondent. People found themselves stranded in elevators in office and residential buildings, and the public water company urged the population to stock up just in case. Street cars in the southern city of Cuenca stopped running. And in Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, in the center of the South American country, the situation was similar, and traffic agents had their hands full. Ecuador suffered rolling blackouts in April as a major drought left key hydroelectric reservoirs nearly depleted, and Colombia halted the exportation of electricity to its neighbor amid its own dry spell. Ecuadorans had to contend with planned cuts of up to 13 hours at a time. The situation returned to normal when the rainy season arrived and the country suspended electricity rationing in May. Ninety-two percent of the country's electricity comes from hydroelectric plants.