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nairobi, kenya — As Africa’s Olympic athletes come home from Paris, the continent’s sports fans can’t help but wonder what might have been. While African countries claimed dozens of medals in Paris, several African-born-and-raised athletes won gold for other countries. Experts warn that a lack of investment in sports and other issues could prompt more African athletes to switch nationalities. African teams won 38 medals at the Paris Olympics. Kenya won the most with 11. But Kenya could have claimed another gold had one of its athletes not chosen to represent Bahrain. Winfred Yavi won gold in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase and even broke the Olympic record. Yavi told Kenyan media that she changed her nationality in 2014 after failing to get picked for the Kenyan team on several attempts. Her coach Gregory Kilonzo, who coaches other athletes from Bahrain, told VOA there are many incentives that can lead an athlete to represent another country. "Here in Bahrain, we go directly to the Olympics. We don't go for trials because we are not many,” Kilonzo said. “Kenya, we go national, we go trials. And then Bahrain pays well. They are serious with their athletes. They take care of their athletes. They pay salaries for the athletes every month. If you get sick, they take you to other countries for medical care." Hammer thrower Annette Echikunwoke was denied a chance to represent Nigeria at the 2020 Tokyo Games because of the country’s non-compliance with drug testing requirements. This year, she competed for the United States and earned a silver medal. Meanwhile, Nigerian athletes competed in 12 events in Paris and returned home without a single gold, silver or bronze. Nigerian officials apologized for the dismal performance and said they will review how people are elected to lead the sporting federation. Other athletes have left Africa to escape poverty, violence or political oppression. Sifan Hassan, an Ethiopian native, fled her country as a refugee and settled in the Netherlands in 2008. She has since won three Olympic golds for her country, including the women’s marathon Sunday in Paris. African athletes who have changed allegiance have complained of a lack of good sporting facilities that cater to their training needs, a lack of good pay and corrupt officials favoring some athletes over others. Richard Wanjohi is a researcher with the African Sports and Creative Institute, an organization that supports African sports through research, advisory and advocacy. He said the trend of African athletes abandoning their birth countries creates concerns that may affect African performance in future competitions, particularly if they lose young athletes. “You see people transitioning maybe between the age of 18 to 21 years, and that's considerably young even in the athletics space and other sporting disciplines that they compete in,” he said, adding that that creates a loss of talent nationally. “Once these individuals move, you are not able to get representation as a country. Or even when you have representation, [it] is not the best talent you would have." To prevent promising athletes from leaving, sports fans on the continent want officials to spot talent among school-age children and give them the training they need to compete on the global stage. Some observers say African countries also need to invest in sports science and technology. To date, most countries have relied on natural advantages such as East Africa’s high altitude to train its athletes. Retired middle-distance runner Martin Keino of Kenya said such methods may not work in the future. "If our countries can invest in sports science and technology — because technology has a huge impact on sports — and if a nation doesn't utilize technology, you are uncompetitive on the global stage,” Keino said. If Africa fails to harness the power of sports science, Keino said, African athletes will fail to win medals, and may not even make it to the finals.

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Almost two weeks after the assassinations of two senior militant leaders, allegedly by Israel, Israelis are on edge, waiting for expected retaliation. Both Hamas and Hezbollah have the potential to strike most of Israel with long-range missiles and cause widespread damage. But they also do not want an all-out war with Israel. Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem.

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Warsaw, POLAND — Poland on Tuesday signed a $10 billion deal to buy 96 Apache attack helicopters from U.S. manufacturer Boeing in an upgrade to the country's military capabilities. Poland has sharply accelerated the modernization of its armed forces since Russia's full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022. "This is the landmark purchase by Poland for its armed forces of ... 96 state-of-the-art AH-64E Apache attack helicopters," Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters. "Today we are taking a milestone in the transformation and equipping of the army," he added, speaking at the Inowroclaw air base, where the Apaches are to be stationed. The deal is the latest in a string of contracts signed by Poland with the United States in recent days. On Friday, Warsaw announced a deal to buy hundreds of AIM-120C AMRAAM air-to-air missiles. On Monay there was a contract to build 48 launchers for the U.S.-designed Patriot air defense systems. Poland, a staunch ally of Ukraine, has announced it would spend more than 4% of its annual economic output on defense this year — twice NATO's target of 2%. The Ukraine war has also solidified the relationship between the United States and Poland, a country on NATO's eastern flank that sees Washington as one of its main allies. The Apache helicopter sale was approved last year by the U.S. State Department and Congress. The deal "changes the face of the Polish army's operations and complements" previous purchases, Kosiniak-Kamysz said, pointing notably at the Abrams tanks that Poland bought in the past years. According to the Polish government, the Apaches are designed to work with the tanks. "For the Abrams, the Apache is an essential element," Kosiniak-Kamysz said. In 2022, Poland bought 250 Abrams tanks in a modern M1A2 variant, which are expected to be delivered later this year. It will be the first country outside the United States with the tanks. The attack helicopter agreement also envisages providing the Polish army with maintenance equipment, technical and training support, flight simulators and spare parts. "Offset, purchase, leasing, pilot training, technology, armament — it was all negotiated together. It's a historic day for helicopter aviation," Deputy Defense Minister Pawel Bejda said. "These $10 billion are the insurance of our country, the insurance of our freedom," Bejda added, saying that the Apaches would serve the Polish efforts to "deter those who have evil intentions." The first U.S.-made helicopters are to be delivered in 2028, but some Polish pilots have already begun training on them. The Apaches will replace outdated Russian Mi-24 helicopters.

KOLKATA — Hospital services were disrupted in several Indian cities on Tuesday after a doctors' protest spread nationwide following the rape and murder of a trainee medic in the city of Kolkata, authorities and media said.  Thousands of doctors marched on Monday in Kolkata and the surrounding West Bengal state to denounce the killing at a government-run hospital, demanding justice for the victim and better security measures.  The 31-year-old doctor was found dead on Friday. Police said she had been raped and murdered and a police volunteer was subsequently arrested in connection with the crime.  Protests spread on Tuesday, with more than 8,000 government doctors in the western Maharashtra state, home to the financial capital of Mumbai, halting work in all hospital departments except emergency services, media said.  In the capital, New Delhi, junior doctors wearing white coats held posters that read, "Doctors are not punching bags," as they sat in protest outside a large government hospital, Reuters Television images showed.  Similar protests in cities such as Lucknow, capital of the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, and in the western tourist resort state of Goa hit some hospital services, media said.  "Pedestrian working conditions, inhuman workloads and violence in the workplace are the reality," the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the biggest grouping of doctors in the country, told Health Minister J P Nadda in a letter released before they met him for talks on Tuesday.  IMA General Secretary Anil Kumar J Nayak told the ANI news agency that his group had urged Nadda to step up security at medical facilities.  The health ministry did not immediately comment.  A high court in Kolkata ordered that the criminal investigation be transferred to India's federal police, the Central Bureau of Investigation, indicating that the authorities were treating the case as a national priority.  Emergency services stayed suspended on Tuesday in almost all the government-run medical college hospitals in Kolkata, state official N S Nigam told Reuters, adding that the government was assessing the impact on health services.  Doctors in India's crowded and often squalid government hospitals have long complained of being overworked and underpaid, and say not enough is done to curb violence leveled at them by people angered over the medical care on offer.

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.

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As Nigeria struggles with food insecurity, young Nigerians and startups are seeking to revolutionize the agricultural sector through technology. In the state of Kaduna, Shamsuddeen Jibril invented a drone that can detect crop diseases. Alhassan Bala has the report from Abuja, Nigeria.

Critics of Vice President Kamala Harris have used her gender as a cudgel, saying subtly and overtly that a woman cannot hold the most powerful job in the free world. Gender scholars say those railing against Harris have also chosen another line of attack: her race. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.

The next time there is a census in the United States in 2030, Americans who trace their ancestral roots to the Middle East and North Africa will have their own demographic category – MENA. VOA’s Genia Dulot went to the Little Arabia neighborhood of Anaheim, California, to see what people think about the change.

Islamabad — Afghanistan’s Taliban officials said Tuesday that at least three civilians were killed on their side of the border in an overnight clash with Pakistan, saying the victims are a woman and two children.  Abdul Mateen Qani, the spokesperson for the Taliban-led interior ministry in Kabul, accused Pakistani forces of initiating Monday’s conflict near the busy Torkham border crossing.  He claimed in a statement that the Pakistani side targeted Afghan civilian homes and, in retaliation, Taliban forces destroyed two Pakistani border outposts. The claims could not be verified by independent sources.   A security official in Pakistan reported that the incident had injured three soldiers. He spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.  The Pakistani military’s media wing did not respond to inquiries regarding the border skirmish and the reported casualties resulting from it.  Multiple Pakistani security officials said that the Afghan side attempted to construct a border post in violation of bilateral agreements, prompting them to open fire when Taliban forces ignored warnings to stop the work.   The clashes closed the historic Torkham border gate to all traffic between the two countries, and it remained closed Tuesday.   The crossing is a major facility for landlocked Afghanistan to conduct bilateral and transit trade with Pakistan and other countries.   Border controversy  Clashes along the nearly 2,600-kilometer border separating the two countries are not uncommon.   Afghanistan disputes parts of the 1893 demarcation that was established during British colonial rule of the Indian subcontinent.   Pakistan rejects Afghan objections, saying it inherited the international border after gaining independence from Britain in 1947.  Cross-border terror  Monday’s deadly clash came amid escalating mutual tensions stemming from Islamabad’s allegations that Kabul is not preventing fugitive militants from using sanctuaries on Afghan soil to plan cross-border terrorist attacks against Pakistani civilians and security forces.  The latest such attack was reported Tuesday in the volatile Pakistani border district of South Waziristan. Security sources said that the predawn raid resulted in the death of at least four soldiers and injuries to 27 others, while four assailants were also killed.   Military officials did not immediately respond to VOA inquiries seeking a response to the deadly militant attack in time for publication.  The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, a globally designated terrorist organization, took responsibility for the attack and confirmed the death of at least one of their militants in the ensuing clashes with security forces.    Pakistan complains that Taliban government forces in Afghanistan are facilitating TTP militants to carry out cross-border attacks.  In its recent reports, the United Nations has also backed Islamabad’s assertions, saying TTP members are being trained and equipped at al-Qaida-run training camps in Afghan border areas.   Kabul denies it is allowing anyone to use Afghan soil to threaten neighboring countries, dismissing U.N. reports about terror group presence in the country as propaganda against their Islamic government, established in August 2021 and not recognized by the world. 

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KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday defended his country’s shock incursion into Russia’s northeastern Kursk region. “Russia brought war to others. Now it is coming home," President Zelenskyy said in a video posted on the social media platform Telegram. In his nightly televised address, Zelenskyy described the incursion as a national security issue, saying Russian forces had launched numerous strikes from Kursk on Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, which borders Kursk.  Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Monday in a video posted on Zelenskyy’s Telegram channel that Kyiv controls about 1,000 square kilometers of the Kursk region.  The Ukrainian operation is taking place under tight secrecy, and its goals — especially whether Kyiv's forces aim to hold territory or are staging hit-and-run raids — remain unclear.    The Kyiv government, including President Zelenskyy, has said little directly about the attack that began on August 6, when Ukrainian forces swiftly rolled into the town of Sudzha, located about 10 kilometers across the border. The forces reportedly still hold the western part of the town, the site of an important natural gas transit station. During a televised meeting earlier Monday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top security officials and regional governors, acting Kursk governor Alexei Smirnov said Ukrainian forces had pushed at least 12 kilometers into Kursk and established a 40-kilometer long front, and captured about 28 villages. Smirnov said 12 civilians have been killed and 121 others wounded, while 121,000 people have evacuated the area, with another 59,000 ordered to leave. The governor of the Belgorod region adjacent to Kursk announced the evacuation of people from a district near the Ukrainian border. President Putin described the Ukrainian incursion as a “provocation” and ordered the military to drive the Ukrainian forces out of Russia. Putin said the incursion is an attempt to divert attention from Moscow’s offensive in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and eventually gain a better negotiating position to end the 2½-year war.  Putin said that Kyiv, in attacking southwest Russia, may have sought to destabilize Russian life but had failed. He said the number of volunteers to join the Russian military has increased and vowed that Russia would achieve its military goals.   The Ukrainian incursion marks the largest attack on Russian soil since World War II. Washington, Kyiv’s top supporter, responded with stern warnings to Moscow over its use of Iranian munitions in the over two-year-long conflict, but said little when asked whether Ukrainian forces might be using U.S.-supplied weapons to hit Russia.  “We're continuing to speak to our Ukrainian counterparts about these operations,” John Kirby, White House national security adviser, said when asked by reporters Monday. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said, "As we and our partners have made clear — both at the G7 and at the NATO summit this summer — together we are prepared to deliver a swift and severe response if Iran were to move forward with the transfer of ballistic missiles, which would, in our view, represent a dramatic escalation in Iran's support for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.”  Patel added: “Iranian officials also continue to deny providing any UAVs to Russia when evidence is plain for the world to see." The assault that caught the Kremlin's forces by surprise came as Russia continued its attempt to gain ground in eastern Ukraine.  The Ukrainian incursion delivered a blow to Putin's efforts to pretend that life in Russia has largely remained unaffected by the war. State propaganda has tried to play down the attack, emphasizing the authorities' efforts to help residents of the region and seeking to distract attention from the military's failure to prepare for the attack and quickly repel it.    Kursk residents recorded videos lamenting that they had to flee the border area, leaving behind their belongings, and pleading with Putin for help. But Russia's state-controlled media kept a tight lid on any expression of discontent.  Nonetheless, retired General Andrei Gurulev, a member of the lower house of the Russian parliament, criticized the military for failing to properly protect the border.  He noted that while the military had set up minefields in the border region, it had failed to deploy enough troops to block enemy raids.  "Regrettably, the group of forces protecting the border didn't have its own intelligence assets," he said on his messaging app channel. "No one likes to see the truth in reports. Everybody just wants to hear that all is good."  Analysts say Ukraine’s move comes as a surprise, and that they see it as a tactic to wear down Moscow. “I think the Ukrainians wanted to bring the war home to the Russians, to say to the Russian people, no, you are not immune from this war,” said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “You are going to feel it on a day-to-day basis.” Analysts are now watching keenly for Putin’s response, and fear that he may use this as an excuse to attack a NATO nation that borders Russia. “Putin now has something in hand,” said Leon Aron, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “He now has evidence that Ukrainians who are armed – and, he claims, trained and egged on – by the West are now attacking Russia itself. So, here he is, and the real question is, having climbed up that tree, how he's going to come down on this, how he's going to explain to the Russians that this happened, and he has done nothing. So, I'm thinking that, yes, I think it is going to be [a] pretty dangerous few days.” Ukraine's progress on Russian territory "is challenging the operational and strategic assumptions" of the Kremlin's forces, according to an assessment late Sunday by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.  It described the Russian forces responding to the incursion as "hastily assembled and disparate."  VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell and VOA’s Kim Lewis contributed to this article. Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France Presse and Reuters.

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