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WASHINGTON — Since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris has quickly consolidated power and energized a campaign that many Democrat leaders had worried about. Meeting no meaningful challenge from other Democrats, Harris secured votes to be the nominee from 4,567 delegates — 99% of the participating delegates — in a virtual call earlier this month.  The campaign, together with the Democratic National Committee and other joint fundraising committees, raised a historic $310 million in July, dwarfing the tally for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, in the same month. More than $200 million of Harris’ haul came during the first week of her candidacy.    “We’ve seen a groundswell of support. The type of grassroots support -- organizing and fundraising — that wins elections,” said Kevin Munoz, a Harris campaign spokesperson.   The campaign’s optimism is reflected in the polls. After another series of very strong surveys in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Harris now has a 55% chance of winning, said election data analyst Nate Silver. Silver gave Biden a 27% chance of winning when he was the Democratic nominee. However, the Trump campaign insists that the fundamentals of the race have not changed. “The Democrats deposing one Nominee for another does NOT change voters discontent over the economy, inflation, crime, the open border, housing costs not to mention concern over two foreign wars,” Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio said in a memo. Harris’ “honeymoon” will soon end, he said. “While the public polls may change in the short run and she may consolidate a bit more of the Democrat base, Harris can’t change who she is or what she’s done.” While the fundamentals have not changed, they were “being obstructed by concern about Biden’s age and cognitive abilities,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “Donald Trump is as unpopular as ever, and now he has an opponent who is much more appealing,” he told VOA. “Democrats are back in the game.” Battleground states In the United States, elections are not determined by winning the popular vote but by winning Electoral College votes, which are allotted to each state roughly in proportion to its population. In all but two states, the candidate getting the most votes in a state gets all its Electoral College votes. Harris’ team has been investing heavily in campaign infrastructure, opening offices, recruiting new staff and enlisting tens of thousands of volunteers in what is considered battleground or swing states that could help determine the 2024 electoral victory — Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia.  In 2020, those seven states were won by a margin of 3 percentage points or less. Currently, Harris is polling slightly ahead but still within the polling margin of error in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump is ahead in Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and North Carolina. He is leading by more than the polling error margin in Georgia. Both Trump and Harris will be hard-pressed to win without Pennsylvania, said Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky. Pennsylvania has 19 Electoral College votes, the most of any swing state.     “They can each afford to lose it but would have to run the table in most, if not all, of the other swing states, which include Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina,” Roginsky told VOA.  A candidate needs to secure at least 270 out of the 538 electoral college votes to win. Ultimately, it comes down to winning more Electoral College votes than your opponent, however you make that math happen, said Kelly Dittmar, associate professor of political science at Rutgers University-Camden. “Winning swing states with a high number of Electoral College votes, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania — both states where Democrats have recently won statewide and where Biden won in 2020 — is one solid path toward [Harris] achieving success,” Dittmar told VOA.    In Michigan, a state with a large population of Arab Americans, Harris will need to convince the more than 100,000 people, angry over the Biden administration's staunch support for Israel, who wrote “uncommitted” on their primary ballots. Thirty members of the so-called Uncommitted National Movement have earned delegate spots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week.   Harris also inherits opposition from the “Abandon Biden” movement over the same cause.   “We are saying do not vote for those who are supporting or endorsing what's happening currently in Gaza,” Hudhayfah Ahmad, the campaign’s media representative, told VOA. “Quite frankly, that applies to both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.”  Inflation and immigration  While Democrats’ enthusiasm has soared, Harris must deal with voters’ frustration over high inflation, a problem that Republicans blame on the Biden-Harris administration. Trump previously held a commanding lead among voters on key economic issues, with various polls showing Americans think they will be better off financially under Trump than Biden.  However, a survey conducted for the Financial Times and the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business published this week found that 41% trust Trump to be better at handling the economy, while 42% believe Harris would be better – a figure up seven points from Biden's numbers in July. Immigration is another weak spot for Biden, and by extension Harris. The Trump campaign has sought to paint her as the nation’s “Border Czar” responsible for the “invasion” of Central American migrants crossing into the United States from the border with Mexico. Her campaign is now aiming to present their candidate as someone who is pro-immigration but tough in enforcing the law, by highlighting Harris’ life story as the daughter of immigrants and experience as a former attorney general of California, the state with the largest number and share of immigrants. “I was attorney general of a border state,” Harris said at a recent rally in Arizona, a swing state where immigration is a top concern for voters. “I went after the transnational gangs, the drug cartels and human traffickers. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won.” Will she win in November?  In such a tight race in an ever-changing political environment, analysts have avoided saying that any candidate’s path to victory is clear. The Harris campaign said they believe this will be a very close election, decided by a very small number of voters, in just a few states. Even with this momentum, said Harris campaign spokesperson Munoz, “we are the underdogs in this race, and we’re taking nothing for granted.”

GULU, UGANDA — A Ugandan court found former Lord’s Resistance Army commander Thomas Kwoyelo guilty Tuesday of 44 out of 78 war crimes charges brought against him. The charges included murder, kidnap with intent to murder, pillaging, cruel treatment, torture, rape and crimes against humanity. The Lord’s Resistance Army was founded by Joseph Kony, who led a rebellion from 1986 to 2005 against President Yoweri Museveni’s government. The group was accused of carrying out multiple massacres. Kony is still at large. Kwoyelo, now 50, was captured in 2009 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has been in detention since. His trial began in 2019. Dressed in a black suit and maroon tie, Kwoyelo sat in the courtroom Tuesday and at times stood tensely, listening as the verdict was announced. 'It's some progress' Stella Angel Lanam, founder of the War Victims and Children Networking initiative, also listened closely as the judge announced Kwoyelo guilty of forced child marriages and forceful sexual intercourse. At the age of 10, Lanam was abducted by the LRA and held captive for nine years. She was forced to marry a then-38-year-old Lord’s Resistance Army commander. She had a child at the age of 13 and suffered a pregnancy complication known as a uterine inversion. After the verdict, Lanam, now 38, said it was a good start. “This court has taken a long time," she said. "I’m happy today. The victims today will sleep. Because the judgment, at least it is there. It’s some progress.” Lanam returned in 2006, when most rebels decided to take an amnesty offer announced in 2000. She said she was shocked that her own family and community rejected her and her child because the baby was fathered by a rebel. Lanam says she and other women in similar circumstances have a simple request. “How can you be with a person who still has trauma?" she asked. "Between the government of Uganda and the LRA, they should give justice to the victims.” Man says LRA devastated home, family  Paul Ogena lost eight family members in the insurgency led by the LRA. He said the LRA devastated his home and took his parents, whose remains have never been found. “If we could get their remains and make a decent burial, it would be even far better." he said. "But the person who did it should get a fair judgment, which judgment we have already heard today.” Kwoyelo’s sentencing date has not yet been set.

washington — A U.S. Army intelligence analyst on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to sell military secrets to China, the Department of Justice said.  Korbein Schultz was charged in March with conspiracy to disclose national defense information, exporting defense articles and technical data without a license, and bribery of a public official.  Schultz, who held top secret clearance, conspired with an individual who lived in Hong Kong — who he suspected of being associated with the Chinese government — to collect national defense information, including classified information and export-controlled technical data related to U.S. military weapons systems, in exchange for money, according to charging and plea documents.   "Governments like China are aggressively targeting our military personnel and national security information and we will do everything in our power to ensure that information is safeguarded from hostile foreign governments," FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells said in a statement.   Before he was arrested, Schultz sent dozens of sensitive and restricted, but unclassified, military documents, the Department of Justice said.  A document discussing the lessons learned by the Army from the Russia-Ukraine war that it would apply in a defense of Taiwan, documents relating to Chinese military tactics, and a document relating to U.S. military satellites were among the items collected and sent by Schultz.  Schultz was paid about $42,000 for the information, according to the department.   "By conspiring to transmit national defense information to a person living outside the United States, this defendant callously put our national security at risk to cash in on the trust our military placed in him," Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said.  Schultz is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 23, 2025.  

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 — President Joe Biden on Tuesday visited Louisiana's infamous "Cancer Alley" to strike at what he identified as a top priority of his dwindling presidency: announcing $150 million in research funding toward the goal of dramatically reducing cancer deaths in the United States. The Cancer Moonshot is an initiative close to Biden's heart. Both he and first lady Jill Biden have had brushes with skin cancers. And in 2015, an aggressive brain cancer took the life of their eldest son, Beau. "We're moving quickly," Biden said of the initiative, which has a goal of reducing the U.S. cancer death rate by at least half by 2047. "Because we know that all families touched by cancer are in a race against time." Cancer is the second-biggest cause of death worldwide. The National Cancer Institute predicts that 2 million Americans will be diagnosed this year with the immune-mediated disease, which can manifest in organs, bone marrow and blood and which comes in hundreds of different varieties. "Cancer touches us all," the first lady said. "When Joe and I lost our son to brain cancer, we decided to turn our pain into purpose. We wanted to help families like ours so that they won't have to experience this terrible loss, and as president, Joe has brought his own relentless optimism to the Biden Cancer Moonshot to end cancer as we know it. It's ambitious, but it's also within our reach – maybe not yet, but one day soon." Biden launched the initiative when he was vice president. Since he restored the program as president, the research agency he created has invested more than $400 million in the cause. Cancer advocates praised the move but stressed the need for long-term engagement. "We've made tremendous strides in how we prevent, detect, treat and survive cancer, but there is still much work to be done to improve the lives of those touched by this disease," said Dr. Karen E. Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. "Cancer cases are estimated to hit an all-time high this year, and we cannot relent in driving forward public policies that will address this," Knudsen said. "Funding more researchers across the country focused on more effective and innovative treatments will bring us closer to future cancer breakthroughs and ending cancer as we know it, for everyone." And cancer is often compounded by environmental causes – such as those in the 140-kilometer (85-mile) stretch of communities between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, home to a string of major fossil fuel and petrochemical operations. Karl Minges, associate dean in the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven, told VOA that while the disease itself doesn't discriminate, social factors often make it hit harder in lower-income communities. "Any time that money from the federal government and publicity is put on a topic, I think it's something that has the ability to actually make a significant difference," he told VOA. And, he said, the fact that this federal money is going toward research institutions – and not private pharmaceutical companies – means the lessons learned can be shared well beyond the United States. "The U.S. is always on sort of the cutting edge with regard to [research and development] of new drugs and treatments and methodologies," he said. "But by giving the money to the institutes, it's sort of available as public funding for researchers to access, and anytime that's the case, there's an imperative, whether it's a clinical trial or it's a an observational study, that the results are in the public domain, so that can be then subsumed by other countries outside of the United States who face similar issues," Minges 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.

Abuja, Nigeria — Nigeria has launched the country's first National Elephant Action Plan. Authorities say the measure is designed to protect the small and rapidly declining population of elephants in the country. Human-caused activities, including poaching, have forced Nigerian elephants to the verge of extinction. The plan aims to save the remaining elephants by reducing illegal killings and trade, maintaining elephant habitats, creating public awareness and promoting community-led vigilance. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, Nigeria's minister of state for environment, said the National Elephant Action Plan will be a comprehensive approach to ensure the protection of wildlife. "What we're seeing today is an upscaling of the commitment of Nigeria to ensure that our natural resources are protected and preserved,” Salako said. “We're also focusing on the host communities, because these elephants live around some people. We're going to see a situation where people can see alternative livelihoods from preservation of our elephants." Over the last decade, Nigeria has emerged as a key source, transit and destination country for illegal wildlife trade. Elephant ivories and pangolin scales are some of the most trafficked items. The Elephant Protection Initiative Foundation said Nigeria accounts for nearly a quarter of the world's seized ivory. As a result, Nigeria's elephant population — about 300 to 400 animals — is a fourth of the population size three decades ago. Authorities say that along with the threats from poachers and habitat destruction, human-elephant conflict due to the animals’ invasion of farms is leading to more elephant killings. Andrew Dunn, country director of the Wildlife Conservation Society, is author of the National Elephant Action Plan. He said the plan has eight main objectives ranging from law enforcement to conservation education to sustainable livelihoods. "It's quite a comprehensive document,” he said. “There are a lot of actions in there, including the importance of reducing conflicts between farmers and elephants. That's a serious problem. “Nigeria is unthinkable without elephants,” he added. “It's time we came together and protect the last of our elephants. It would be criminal, sad and catastrophic if we lose them." In 2010, all 36 African elephant range states committed to developing measures to ensure a secure future for the continent’s elephants. And in April, Nigeria and Cameroon agreed to a wildlife protection partnership to tackle cross-border wildlife crimes. As the world marked World Elephant Day on August 12 to raise awareness about the numerous threats elephants face, Nigerian authorities say the launch of the National Elephant Action Plan is a boost to the pact.

Minneapolis, Minnesota — Democratic U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, one of the progressive House members known as the "Squad" and a sharp critic of how Israel has conducted the war in Gaza, is trying to avoid the fate of two of her closest allies when Minnesota holds its primary elections Tuesday. Omar is defending her Minneapolis-area 5th District seat against a repeat challenge from former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, a more centrist liberal whom she only narrowly defeated in the 2022 primary. In the main statewide race on the ballot, conservative populist and former NBA player Royce White is facing a more conventional Republican candidate, Navy veteran Joe Fraser, for the right to challenge Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar. Meanwhile, two newcomers are in a bitter fight for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Representative Angie Craig in November in the mostly suburban 2nd District. Omar's fellow Squad member Representative Cori Bush lost the Democratic nomination in Missouri last week. Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York lost his primary in June. The only charter member not facing a primary challenge is Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. Both Bush and Bowman faced well-funded challengers and millions of dollars in spending by the United Democracy Project, a super political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which appears to be sitting out the Minnesota race. But Omar isn't taking victory for granted. Omar reported spending $2.3 million before the 2022 primary. In the same period this year, she reported raising about $6.2 million. Samuels has raised about $1.4 million. Omar — a Somali American and Muslim — came under fire from the Jamaican-born Samuels and others in her first term for comments that were widely criticized for invoking antisemitic tropes and suggesting Jewish Americans have divided loyalties. This time, Samuels has criticized her condemnation of the Israeli government's handling of the Israel-Hamas war. While Omar has also criticized Hamas for attacking Israel and taking hostages, Samuels says she's one-sided and divisive. The winner in the overwhelmingly Democratic district will face Republican Dalia Al-Aqidi, an Iraqi American journalist and self-described secular Muslim who calls Omar pro-Hamas and a terrorist sympathizer. In the U.S. Senate race, White — an ally of imprisoned former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones — shocked many political observers when he defeated Fraser at the party convention for the Republican endorsement. White's social media comments have been denounced as misogynistic, homophobic, antisemitic and profane. His legal and financial problems include unpaid child support and questionable campaign spending, including $1,200 spent at a Florida strip club after he lost his primary challenge to Omar in 2022. He argues that, as a Black man, he can broaden the party's base by appealing to voters of color in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and others disillusioned with establishment politics. Fraser has said White's confrontational style and message won't attract the moderates and independents needed for a competitive challenge to Klobuchar, who's seeking a fourth term. He said he offers a more mainstream approach, stressing fiscal conservativism, a strong defense, world leadership and small government. Fraser has also highlighted his 26 years in the Navy, where he was an intelligence officer and served a combat tour in Iraq. Neither has anywhere near the resources that Klobuchar has. White last reported raising $133,000, while Fraser has taken in $68,000. Klobuchar, meanwhile, has collected about $19 million this cycle and has more than $6 million available to spend on the general election campaign. Craig is preparing for what's expected to be Minnesota's most competitive House race in November. Vying to challenge her are former federal prosecutor Joe Teirab and defense attorney Tayler Rahm. Teirab has the support of Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and the National Republican Congressional Committee. He was better funded than Rahm, who won the endorsement at the district convention with support from grassroots conservatives. While Rahm announced in July that he was suspending his campaign and would instead serve as a senior adviser for Trump's Minnesota campaign, he will still be on the ballot and didn't fully pull the plug on his 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.

Blantyre, Malawi — A trio of Paralympic athletes from Malawi, Uganda and the United Kingdom is advocating for the voices of youth with disabilities to be heard at the United Nations’ upcoming Summit of the Future, scheduled for September in New York. Their campaign, with support from the international charity Sightsavers, emphasizes the importance of including the voices of disabled youth on the international stage. Taonere Banda participates in 400 meters and 1,500 meters Paralympics races, and broke a record in 2016 to become the first athlete to represent Malawi at the Paralympic Games in Brazil. Husnah Kukundakwe is a Paralympic swimmer from Uganda. And Susie Rodgers is a former Paralympic swimmer for Britain’s team, who competed at the Paralympic Games in London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. Sightsavers says the three athletes are spokespeople for its Equal World campaign, which wants the voices of disabled youth to be included in discussions in September about the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals at the Summit of the Future in New York.  Currently, Banda and Kukundakwe are in a camp preparing for the Paris Paralympics. Banda hopes the campaign will address the stigma and discrimination people with disabilities have long faced. “We are also human beings and we want to be treated equally,” she said. “It’s sad that we are often being discriminated against. For example, we are often sidelined in various developmental programs, including during the distribution of some relief items.” She fears that without such a campaign, people with disabilities risk, once again, being left behind, and that the Sustainable Developmental Goals will fail. Banda said the summit should ensure that there are programs benefiting people with disabilities. Simon Munde, executive director for the Federation of Disability Organizations in Malawi, welcomed the campaign. “It’s important that these para-athletes carry the voices of fellow young people with disabilities to the world leaders so that these world leaders, even our leaders from Africa, really champion the issues of inclusion of persons with disabilities.” Munde said it was high time for people with disabilities to have an equal share of the development cake. “Taxpayers’ money should actually be used for the development of the nation, or even the resources from the development partners should be used for development, but those kinds of development initiatives leave behind persons with disabilities,” Munde said. Last week, the Malawi government, with support from the United Nations, convened a high-level consultation with representatives from government ministries, civil society organizations, the private sector, academia and the media to prepare for the Summit of the Future. A statement from the U.N. office in Malawi says the primary objective of the meeting was to gather diverse perspectives and input that will inform Malawi's position and contributions to the Summit of the Future in New York. During the meeting, various issues were discussed, including those seeking to address the needs of youth and future generations.

PARIS — Ethiopian Olympians returned to Addis Ababa on Tuesday to a mixed reaction as some fans expressed dissatisfaction with what they say was the “below par” performance of the team at the recent Paris Olympics. While team Ethiopia was welcomed at the airport, some sports fans said they were disappointed to see Ethiopia lose races that it has previously won. Ethiopia secured one gold medal and three silver medals at the Paris Olympics. By Ethiopia’s standards, that was an underachievement, according to residents in the capital, Addis Ababa. “The result in general did not satisfy me,” Admassu Hussein told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service. “We did not perform well in 5,000 and 10,000 meters. We did not repeat our performances in the previous Olympics. It is a very sad result.” Another resident of the capital, Abush Fantu, urged the Ethiopian Athletes Federation to “look into itself and find out why this happened.” “Our performance in this year's Olympics is below par,” he said. “I am feeling bad about this.” At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Ethiopian athletes won four gold medals, followed by three gold medals in 2012 in London. Tamirat Tola was the winner of the only gold medal for Ethiopia this year. He won the men’s marathon, saying his victory was “God’s blessing.” He won the race in 2 hours, 6 minutes and 26 seconds, Tola broke a previous Olympic record, although he says that when he competed, he did not assume that he would set a record. The earlier record, by Kenya’s Samuel Wanjiru, was 2:06:32. “No athlete runs with the expectation of winning 100%,” he told VOA’s Horn of Africa. “You never know who wins, but you think you can do the best possible to achieve something good.” Tola said the surface he was running on was “difficult” but was “possible with the help of God.” It was the first men’s marathon victory for Ethiopia in 24 years. “It’s God’s blessing; it’s people’s blessing,” Tola said. “Since no won received gold until that point, people were disappointed, but God facilitated this to happen.” One of the three silver medals came from female marathon runner Tigist Assefa. The others were Tsige Duguma and Berihu Aregawi, who finished second in the women’s 800 meters and men’s 10,000 meters, respectively. This story originated in VOA’s Horn of Africa Afan Oromo Service.

GENEVA — United Nations agencies warn Sudan is at a breaking point after more than 15 months of conflict because of what they call a crisis of neglect.   “Sudan’s humanitarian crisis for children is, by numbers, the biggest in the world. It is also a crisis of neglect,” James Elder, UNICEF spokesman said, adding, “This is not a forgotten crisis. This is known and this is, in many aspects, ignored.”  The United Nations children’s agency reports the extent of the horrors and atrocities inflicted upon children in Sudan is going unnoticed because it is not being reported. At the same time, it says the crimes committed against children are overlooked because aid organizations have very limited access to the country’s hotspots.  Despite this, the agency says the news is trickling out, and it is not good.   Speaking from the capital Khartoum, UNICEF spokesman Elder told journalists Tuesday in Geneva that he has met people who have witnessed the suffering and violence to which children are being subjected, who have seen children killed and wounded while playing football and doing the things that children do.  “Yesterday, in Khartoum, I spoke to a senior medical worker who gave an insight into the magnitude of sexual violence during this war. She explained she had direct contact with hundreds, hundreds of women and girls, some as young as 8 years old, who have been raped. Many have been held captive for weeks on end.  “Thousands of children have been killed or injured in Sudan’s war. Sexual violence and military recruitment are increasing,” he said.  The United Nations calls Sudan the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Since the country’s rival generals plunged the country into war in mid-April 2023, the United Nations reports more than 18,800 people have been killed and upwards of 33,000 injured.  The International Organization for Migration reports more than 10.7 million people, nearly half of them children, are displaced inside Sudan and more than 2 million people have fled as refugees into neighboring countries.  “The people of Sudan are facing one crisis after another, with no end in sight. Every day, and it seems like almost every hour, the situation in Sudan worsens,” said Mohamed Refaat, IOM Sudan chief of mission.  Speaking from his base in Port Sudan, he warned that heavy rains and flooding are creating new hardships for thousands of people already suffering from the ongoing conflict.  “Families are being uprooted, entire communities shattered. The floodwaters have turned homes into ruins, and the violence has turned neighborhoods into graveyards,” he said, adding that “hunger has reached catastrophic levels” on a scale not seen since the Darfur crisis in the early 2000s.  “Almost all people displaced across Sudan — 97 percent — are in areas with acute food insecurity or worse,” he said. “Over the next three months, an estimated 25.6 million people will face severe food insecurity as the conflict spreads and coping mechanisms are exhausted. One out of two are struggling to put food on the table every single day.”   In late June, the IPC’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Famine Review Committee reported that 13 areas in Sudan are on the brink of famine. On August 1, the committee declared famine in Zamzam Camp in North Darfur, which houses about half a million internally displaced people.  UNICEF estimates 730,000 children are projected to suffer severe acute malnutrition this year, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition.  “Without action, tens of thousands of Sudanese children may die over the coming months,” UNICEF’s Elder warns. “And that is by no means a worst-case scenario. Any disease outbreak will see mortality skyrocket. Disease is our great fear.”  Under current living conditions, and with heavy rains and flooding, he said outbreaks of measles, diarrhea, respiratory infections and other diseases would spread like wildfire.   Aid agencies report they are seriously underfunded and do not have the money to scale up life-saving humanitarian operations to head off tens of thousands of preventable civilian deaths in the coming months.  Elder contends there is a pragmatic as well as moral reason for the international community to support efforts to stave off this impending multi-pronged tragedy.   He notes it is much cheaper to fund a crisis before it reaches “those utterly catastrophic levels of food insecurity for children.”  “We know when there are famine declarations that the money pours in. We also know it is too late. Children are dying. If that famine does spread into some of those 13 areas at risk of famine, the money will flow,” he said, however, “the children will also be dead.”

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.

JERUSALEM — Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Tuesday Jews should be allowed to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount, launching a fresh challenge to rules covering one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly denied there would be any change to rules that prohibit Jews from praying at the site, which is holy to both Muslims and Jews, and issued a rebuke to Ben-Gvir, the head of one of the nationalist religious parties in the ruling coalition.  "There is no private policy of any minister on the Temple Mount — neither the Minister of National Security nor any other minister," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.  The row with Ben-Gvir was the second time this week that Netanyahu has clashed with one of his senior ministers, following a sharp reprimand issued to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday over the aims of the Gaza war.  Ben-Gvir's remarks, during a visit to the complex to mark the Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the ancient temples, come at an especially sensitive time, with the war in Gaza at risk of escalating into a wider conflict, potentially drawing in Iran and its regional proxies.  The Al-Aqsa compound, revered by Jews as a vestige of their two ancient temples, is administered by a Jordanian religious foundation and under rules dating back decades, Jews are allowed to visit, but may not pray there.   "Our policy is to allow prayer," Ben-Gvir said as he passed a line of Jewish visitors who prostrated themselves on the ground, while others sang and clapped their hands in celebration. The Waqf, the foundation that administers the site, said around 2,250 Jews entered the site on Tuesday.  The spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced Ben-Gvir's visit as a "provocation" and called on the United States to intervene "if it wants to prevent the region from exploding in an uncontrollable manner".  The U.S. State Department said Washington was firmly committed to the status quo arrangements at the Jerusalem holy sites and any unilateral action would be unacceptable.  Ben-Gvir has clashed repeatedly with other ministers over his calls to allow prayer at the compound, which has helped trigger repeated conflicts with the Palestinians over the years, including a 10-day war with Hamas in 2021.  Moshe Gafni, head of United Torah Judaism, one of the religious parties in the government, criticized Ben-Gvir's visit to the compound, which many Orthodox Jews believe is too sacred a place for Jews to enter.  "The damage it causes to the Jewish people is unbearable, and it also causes unfounded hatred on the day of the destruction of the Temple," he said in a statement.  The row with Ben-Gvir was the latest in a long series that have laid bare the divisions that have been a feature of Netanyahu's right-wing coalition since its formation at the end of 2022.  With opinion polls indicating that new elections would see the defeat of both Netanyahu's Likud party and the nationalist-religious bloc headed by Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the coalition has so far held together for much longer than many previous governments. But none of the ministers make even a pretense of cabinet unity.  Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have clashed repeatedly with Gallant over issues ranging from the conduct of the war in Gaza to policy regarding the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moves to curb the power of the courts.  For his part, Gallant has been determined to remain in government to act as a counterweight to the nationalist religious bloc and Netanyahu with whom he has openly disagreed on multiple occasions.  On Monday, Netanyahu's office reprimanded Gallant after the minister was quoted in the Israeli press dismissing as "nonsense" Netanyahu's often repeated aim of "total victory" in the war with the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, now in its 11th month.  Last year, Netanyahu tried to sack Gallant over his opposition to plans to curb the power of the Supreme Court, only to have to reverse course in the face of mass protests by hundreds of thousands of Israelis.  On Tuesday, Ben-Gvir repeated his call for final victory in Gaza, saying the aim of the war should be to defeat Hamas, and "bring them to their knees."  Benny Gantz, a centrist former general who joined Netanyahu's government shortly after the start of the Gaza war as a gesture of unity before quitting earlier this year, said Ben-Gvir had defied the prime minister and endangered the state and should be stripped of his official powers.  "You don't trust your partner and they don't trust you," he said in a statement. 

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is to travel to Turkey on Wednesday for a two-day visit. Observers say Ankara will seek to use the visit to reassert its regional influence in the wake of growing isolation and the assassination of key ally Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.