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HARARE, ZIMBABWE — The U.N. says an estimated 60 million people in southern Africa are food insecure due to the El Nino-induced drought -- and the problem is not only in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, countries that have made international appeals for help. In a statement, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization said Angola, eSwatini, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania are also being affected by the drought hitting southern Africa. Plaxedes Madzikatire, who lives about 100 kilometers south of Harare, is one of the millions struggling to cope with the drought. She is getting $65 a month from the World Food Program (WFP) which she is using to take care of her four children after her crops dried up and died. She said from the money, $25 is used to pay for food and $20 for school fees. She uses the remaining $20 to finance and upgrade her business of selling hoes and axes she makes from scrap metal. She’s hoping the WFP can extend its assistance by a few more months. WFP winds up assistance in Madzikatire’s area next month, but the organization hopes to restart soon -- and in the whole of Zimbabwe -- as the effects of the El Nino drought intensify. In a recent interview via Skype from Zambia’s capital Lusaka, WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain, who was visiting the region to assess the impact of drought, described it as a disaster. "These people have lost everything," she said. "They have no income. They have no way of surviving without assistance for the whole year because their next growing season will not be harvested until next May. These people depend on the stores they get from their crops, they didn’t get any this time." McCain said the recurrence of droughts due to climate change calls for greater investment into weather forecasts so people can be prepared for what is coming. And that’s not all, she said. Drought-resistant crops and good water-management practices can help, too. "We should treat and manage this drought crisis, the same way we would an emergency crisis in a war zone, let’s say," she said. "This is very serious and can devastate a country. So, it’s important that we can better use the tools we have and offer new science and technology to help farmers to be able to grow." Last month, at a virtual summit of SADC heads of state and government on the El Nino-induced humanitarian crisis, regional leaders appealed for $5.5 billion. The FAO says as El Nino's grip loosens, La Nina looms and the region should brace for new challenges, as that weather phenomenon usually leads to heavy rainfall and flooding, leading to crop damage and displacement of people.

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GENEVA — More than half of Gaza's agricultural land, crucial for feeding the war-ravaged territory's hungry population, has been degraded by conflict, satellite images analyzed by the United Nations show. The data reveals a rise in the destruction of orchards, field crops and vegetables in the Palestinian enclave, where hunger is widespread after eight months of Israeli bombardment. The World Health Organisation warned on Wednesday that many people in Gaza were facing "catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions." Using satellite imagery taken between May 2017 and 2024, United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that 57% of Gaza's permanent crop fields and arable lands essential for food security had shown a significant decline in density and health. "In May 2024, crop health and density across the Gaza Strip showed a marked decline compared to the average of the previous seven seasons," UNOSAT said on Thursday. "This deterioration is attributed to conflict-related activities, including razing, heavy vehicle movement, bombing, and shelling." The decline, UNOSAT said, marked a 30% increase in damaged agricultural land since it published its last analysis in April. Israel's ground and air campaign was triggered when Hamas stormed southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The offensive has killed more than 37,000 people in Gaza, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, and has caused mass destruction and cut off routes for aid. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday there were more than 8,000 children younger than 5 in Gaza who had been treated for acute malnutrition. As well as damage to crop fields and orchards, greenhouses across the Gaza Strip had also sustained significant damage, UNOSAT said. The Gaza Strip has an estimated 151 square kilometers of agricultural land, which makes up about 41% of the coastal enclave's territory, according to data from UNOSAT. 

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.

MINA, Saudi Arabia — In sweltering temperatures, Muslim pilgrims in Mecca converged on a vast tent camp in the desert Friday, officially opening the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Ahead of their trip, they circled the cube-shaped Kaaba in the Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site. More than 1.5 million pilgrims from around the world have already amassed in and around Mecca for the Hajj, and the number was still growing as more pilgrims from inside Saudi Arabia joined. Saudi authorities expected the number of pilgrims to exceed 2 million this year. This year's Hajj came against the backdrop of the raging war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestinian militants, which pushed the entire Middle East to the brink of a regional war between Israel and its allies on one side and Iran-backed militant groups on the other. Palestinians in the coastal enclave of Gaza were not able to travel to Mecca for Hajj this year because of the closure of the Rafah crossing in May when Israel extended its ground offensive to the strip's southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt. Palestinian authorities said 4,200 pilgrims from the occupied West Bank arrived in Mecca for Hajj. Saudi authorities said 1,000 more from the families of Palestinians killed or wounded in the war in Gaza also arrived to perform Hajj at the invitation of King Salman of Saudi Arabia. The 1,000 invitees were already outside Gaza — mostly in Egypt — before closure of the Rafah crossing. "We are deprived of (performing) Hajj because the crossing is closed, and because of the raging wars and destruction," said Amna Abu Mutlaq, a 75-year-old Palestinian woman from Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis who had planned to perform Hajj this year. "They (Israel) deprived us from everything." This year's Hajj also saw Syrian pilgrims traveling to Mecca on direct flights from Damascus for the first time in more than a decade. The move was part of an ongoing thaw in relations between Saudi Arabia and conflict-stricken Syria. Syrians in rebel-held areas used to cross the border into neighboring Turkey in their exhausting trip to Mecca for Hajj. "This is the natural thing: Pilgrims go to Hajj directly from their home countries," said Abdel-Aziz al-Ashqar, a Syrian coordinator of the group of pilgrims who left Damascus this year for Hajj. The pilgrimage is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, and all Muslims are required to make the five-day Hajj at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to do it. It is a moving spiritual experience for pilgrims who believe it absolves sins and brings them closer to God, while uniting the world's more than 2 billion Muslims. It's also a chance to pray for peace in many conflict-stricken Arab and Muslim countries, including Yemen and Sudan, where more than a year of war between rival generals created the world's largest displacement crisis. For many Muslims, the Hajj is the only major journey that they made in their life. Some spend years saving up money and waiting for a permit to embark on the journey in their 50s and 60s after they raised their children. The rituals during the Hajj largely commemorate the Quran's accounts of Prophet Ibrahim, his son Prophet Ismail and Ismail's mother Hajar — or Abraham and Ismael as they are named in the Bible. Male pilgrims wear an ihram, two unstitched sheets of white cloth that resemble a shroud, while women dress conservative, loose-fitting clothing with headscarves, and forgo makeup and perfume. They have been doing the ritual circuit around the cube-shaped Kaaba, counter-clockwise in the seven-minaret Grand Mosque since arriving in Mecca over recent days. Saudi authorities have adopted security restrictions in and around Mecca, with checkpoints set up on roads leading to the city to prevent those who don't have Hajj permits from reaching the holy sites. Security authorities arrested many people who attempted to take pilgrims to Mecca who didn't have Hajj permits, said Lt. Gen. Muhammad al-Bassami, head of Hajj Security Committee. Most of them were expelled from the country, while travel agents faced jail for up to six months, according to the Interior Ministry. On Friday, the pilgrims made their way to Mina, officially opening the Hajj. They then will move for a daylong vigil Saturday on Mount Arafat, a desert hill where the Prophet Muhammad is said to have delivered his final speech, known as the Farewell Sermon. Healthy pilgrims make the trip on foot, others use bus or train. The time of year when the Hajj takes place varies, given that Hajj is set for five days in the second week of Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month in the Islamic lunar calendar. Most of the Hajj rituals are held outdoors with little if any shade. When it falls in the summer months, temperatures can soar to over 40 Celsius. The Health Ministry has cautioned that temperatures in the holy sites could reach 48 Celsius. Many pilgrims carried umbrellas against the burning sun. After Saturday's warship in Arafat, pilgrims will travel a few kilometers to a site known as Muzdalifa to collect pebbles that they will use in the symbolic stoning of pillars representing the devil back in Mina. Pilgrims then return to Mina for three days, coinciding with the festive Eid al-Adha holiday, when financially able Muslims around the world slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor. Afterwards, they return to Mecca for final circumambulation, known as Farewell Tawaf. In recent years, the annual pilgrimage has returned to its monumental scale after three years of heavy restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, more than 1.8 million pilgrims performed Hajj, approaching the 2019 level when more than 2.4 million pilgrims participated in the pilgrimage.

QUITO, Ecuador — Spiraling criminal violence in one of Ecuador's most dangerous cities caused a buildup of unidentified and unclaimed bodies that exceeded the capacity of Guayaquil's main morgue, officials confirmed Thursday. The government of Guayas, the province of which Guayaquil is the capital, said Thursday afternoon in a statement that "the problem that has arisen in recent days in the morgue" has been resolved, its first acknowledgment the problem existed in the first place. Local television and media reports had said about 200 bodies in excess of the Forensic Medicine Service morgue's capacity had accumulated and a refrigeration unit used to store them had failed, causing nearby residents to complain of foul odors. Ecuadorian media outlets Ecuavisa and Teleamazonas broadcast images taken with drones showing morgue workers removing bodies from a refrigerated container and spraying the container's entrance with a product the outlets said was meant to neutralize the putrid liquids seeping out of it. Both the Forensic Medicine Service and the Ministry of Health did not respond to requests for information from The Associated Press made Wednesday. The government statement did not say how many bodies were involved but said a malfunctioning refrigerated unit where bodies are kept when the morgue is full had been repaired. During the past week, forensic services collected 40 bodies that were victims of violence in a city that in 2023 recorded a total of 3,762 violent deaths, according to police figures. Most of the deaths are the result of clashes between gangs fighting over territory and drug distribution routes, which has created unprecedented levels of violence in this port city of 2.72 million inhabitants. The former head of forensic medicine at the Guayaquil morgue, Juan Montenegro, told the AP that the "bodies are stored in containers without taking into account their cooling capacity," meaning the decomposition process is accelerated and bad odors spread and putrid liquids seep untreated into pipes. "I don't understand why they haven't sent the bodies to a mass grave in a timely manner, donated them to the universities, or why they haven't handed them over to the relatives, who are on the street demanding the bodies," he said.

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U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement on Thursday aimed at bolstering Ukraine's defense against Russian invaders and getting Ukraine closer to NATO membership. Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies agreed an outline of a deal on Thursday to provide $50 billion in loans for Ukraine using interest from Russian sovereign assets frozen after Moscow launched its invasion of its neighbor in 2022. We talk to Sergey Sanovich - a Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. And Chinese scientists at a giant panda sanctuary in Ya’an say efforts to introduce the captive-bred bears back into the wild are “paying off” and that the wild giant panda population is growing.

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida — A tropical disturbance that brought a rare flash flood emergency to much of southern Florida delayed flights at two of the state's largest airports and left vehicles waterlogged and stalled in some of the region's lowest-lying streets. "Looked like the beginning of a zombie movie," said Ted Rico, a tow truck driver who spent much of Wednesday night and Thursday morning helping to clear the streets of stalled vehicles. "There's cars littered everywhere, on top of sidewalks, in the median, in the middle of the street, no lights on. Just craziness, you know. Abandoned cars everywhere." Rico, of One Master Trucking Corp., was born and raised in Miami and said he was ready for the emergency. "You know when it's coming," he said. "Every year it's just getting worse, and for some reason people just keep going through the puddles." Travelers across the area were trying to adjust their plans on Thursday morning. More than 50 centimeters of rain had fallen in some areas of South Florida since Tuesday, with more predicted over the next few days. Ticket and security lines snaked around a domestic concourse at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport just before noon Thursday. The travel boards showed about half of that terminal's flights had been canceled or postponed. Bill Carlisle, a Navy petty officer first class, had spent his morning trying to catch a flight back to Norfolk, Virginia. He had arrived at Miami International Airport about 6:30 a.m., but 90 minutes later he was still in line and realized he couldn't get his bags checked and through security in time to catch his flight. "It was a zoo," said Carlisle, a public affairs specialist. He was speaking for himself, not the Navy. "Nothing against the [airport] employees — there is only so much they can do." He used his phone to book an afternoon flight out of Fort Lauderdale. He took a shuttle the 32 kilometers north, only to find that the flight had been canceled. He was then heading back to Miami for a 9 p.m. flight, hoping it wouldn't get canceled by the heavy rains expected later in the day. He was resigned, not angry. "Just a long day sitting in airports," Carlisle said. "This is kind of par for the course for government travel." Wednesday's downpours and subsequent flooding blocked roads, floated vehicles and even delayed the Florida Panthers on their way to Stanley Cup games in Canada against the Edmonton Oilers. The disorganized storm system was pushing across Florida from the Gulf of Mexico at roughly the same time as the early June start of hurricane season, which this year is forecast to be among the most active in recent memory amid concerns that climate change is increasing storm intensity. The disturbance has not reached cyclone status and was given only a slight chance to form into a tropical system once it moves into the Atlantic Ocean after crossing Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center. In Hallandale Beach, Alex Demchemko was walking his Russian spaniel Lex along the still-flooded sidewalks near the Airbnb where he's lived since arriving from Russia last month to seek asylum in the U.S. "We didn't come out from our apartment, but we had to walk with our dog," Demchemko said. "A lot of flashes, raining, a lot of floating cars and a lot of left cars without drivers, and there was a lot of water on the streets. It was kind of catastrophic." On Thursday morning, Daniela Urrieche, 26, was bailing water out of her SUV, which got stuck on a flooded street as she drove home from work on Wednesday afternoon. "In the nine years that I've lived here, this has been the worst," she said. "Even in a hurricane, streets were not as bad as it was in the past 24 hours." The flooding wasn't limited to the streets. Charlea Johnson spent Wednesday night at her Hallendale Beach home barreling water into the sink and toilet. "The water just started flooding in the back and flooding in the front," Johnson said. By Wednesday evening, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and mayors in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Miami-Dade County each declared a state of emergency. It's already been a wet and blustery week in Florida. In Miami, about 15 centimeters of rain fell Tuesday and 17 centimeters fell in Miami Beach, according to the National Weather Service. Hollywood got about 12 centimeters. More rain was forecast for the rest of the week, with some areas getting another 15 centimeters of rain. The western side of the state, much of which has been in a prolonged drought, also got some major rainfall. Nearly 16.5 centimeters of rain fell Tuesday at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, the weather service said, and flash flood warnings were in effect in those areas as well. Forecasts predict an unusually busy hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates there is an 85% chance that the Atlantic hurricane season will be above average, predicting between 17 and 25 named storms in the coming months, including up to 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes. An average season has 14 named storms. 

US President Joe Biden and leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are meeting in Italy, underscoring support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion and the need for a cease-fire in Gaza. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara is traveling with the president and brings this report from Borgo Egnazia, the G7 summit venue.

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GENEVA — The Taliban must provide Ryan Corbett, an American held in Afghanistan for nearly two years, with immediate medical care to prevent irreparable harm to his health or even his death, a United Nations expert said on Thursday. "The Taliban must provide Ryan Corbett with medical treatment in a civilian hospital without delay," said Alice Jill Edwards, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Corbett, an aid worker, has been held without charge in conditions "utterly inadequate and substantially below international standards," she said. "This is having a significant impact on his physical and mental health, which is declining rapidly," Edwards added. She said she had raised the issue directly with the Taliban. "Without adequate medical care, he is at risk of irreparable harm or even death," she said. The United States is in contact with Edwards' office and welcomes efforts to call for more humane conditions for Corbett and others held by the Taliban, a spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations in New York said. "We consider Ryan's detention to be wrongful and we will continue to work securing his immediate release," the spokesperson said. Corbett and his family moved to Afghanistan in 2010. He worked with nongovernmental organizations and then started his own — Bloom Afghanistan — to bolster the country's private sector through consulting, microfinance and project evaluation. He left with his family following the Taliban takeover in 2021 but continued working with his organization, returning in January 2022 to renew his business visa. Despite having a valid visa, he was arrested by the Taliban in August 2022 after he returned to pay and train his staff, his lawyers said. A German and two Afghans with whom Corbett was arrested have since been released. The U.N. expert said Corbett has developed several medical problems, including ringing in his ears, and severe weight loss. He has also repeatedly expressed intentions of suicide and self-harm. The United States has had no diplomatic presence in Kabul since it fell to the Taliban in August 2021 as U.S. troops pulled out after 20 years of war.

beirut — Hezbollah said it had launched rockets and weaponized drones at nine Israeli military sites in a coordinated attack Thursday, ramping up hostilities on Lebanon's southern border for the second consecutive day.  The attacks were carried out in retaliation for an Israeli strike Tuesday that killed a senior Hezbollah field commander. A security source told Lebanon it was the largest attack waged by Hezbollah since October, when the group started exchanging fire with Israel in parallel with the Gaza war.   In the early hours of Friday, a strike on a building east of the port city of Tyre left one civilian woman dead and more than a dozen people wounded, many of them children, according to two Lebanese security sources. Asked about the incident, the Israeli military said it was looking into it.   Hezbollah said in a statement earlier that it had fired volleys of Katyusha and Falaq rockets at six Israeli military locations. Its Al-Manar television reported more than 100 rockets were fired at once.  Hezbollah's statement said it had also launched attack drones at the headquarters of Israel's northern command, an intelligence headquarters and a military barracks.   A security source told Reuters that involved firing at least 30 attack drones at once, making it the group's largest drone attack to date in the eight-month war.   The Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel have been trading near-daily fire since the eruption of the Gaza war in October, but the last two days have seen a sharp rise following the Israeli strike that killed the Hezbollah commander.  On Wednesday, Hezbollah said it carried out at least eight attacks that day in retaliation.   Air raid sirens sounded across cities in northern Israel on Thursday, and Israeli officials said about 40 rockets had been fired from Lebanon in the afternoon.   State broadcaster Kan aired footage of numerous midair interceptions of rockets above Israeli towns, including in Safed, 12 km from the border.  Two people were wounded by shrapnel, Israel's national ambulance service said.  Israeli strikes have killed more than 300 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, more than it lost in 2006, when the sides last fought a major war, according to a Reuters tally. The number of civilians killed is around 80, the tally says. Attacks from Lebanon have killed 18 Israeli soldiers and 10 civilians, Israel says.  The exchanges of fire have also displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.

washington — The U.S. Department of Defense picked Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Elon Musk's SpaceX and Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA) to compete for national security space missions, making initial selections under a $5.6 billion award program.  The Pentagon did not say which of the companies' rockets it selected but noted seven companies bid for entry into the program, which seeks rockets that must be ready to fly their first missions to space by December.  The three companies are the first to be selected under the Pentagon's lucrative National Security Space Launch Phase 3 procurement program, a multibillion-dollar competition among U.S. rocket companies vying to launch some of the country's most sensitive military and intelligence satellites into space for roughly the next decade.  SpaceX and ULA, two titans in the launch industry, have since 2020 been the Pentagon's primary rocket launch providers under a predecessor program, called Phase 2. That program gave ULA a 60% share of all Pentagon missions through 2027, with SpaceX getting the rest.  But in the program's third phase, the Pentagon has sought a wider variety of companies for its space missions into the next decade, mainly to stimulate more competition in the U.S. launch sector.  The announcement on Thursday brings Bezos' rocket launch and human spaceflight company Blue Origin into a competitive arena it has long wanted to enter as it tries to bring its giant New Glenn rocket to market and ramp up its competitive footing with SpaceX.  SpaceX's partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket has dominated the launch industry while the company test launches its next-generation Starship rocket, a massive, fully reusable launch system that Musk sees as crucial to flying humans into space and launching large batches of satellites into orbit.  While ULA's workhorse Atlas 5 rocket nears retirement, its next-generation Vulcan rocket is poised to become the company's centerpiece launcher. Vulcan first launched this year, and its second mission – a crucial step to receive certification for Pentagon missions – has been delayed but is expected to fly later this year.  The three companies did not immediately reply to requests for comment about their rockets' role in the Pentagon program.  The Pentagon's Phase 3 program is divided into two categories, Lane 1 and Lane 2. Lane 1, the category of Thursday's announcement, allows more novel or specialized rockets to fly national security missions that have less-stringent requirements. More companies, such as Rocket Lab, are expected to be added to Lane 1 in the coming years.  The U.S. Space Force, which manages the launch procurement program, said Blue Origin received $5 million to provide an assessment of how it will meet the Pentagon's launch requirements. SpaceX and ULA – companies Space Force is more familiar with – each got $1.5 million.  Lane 2, whose awards are expected in autumn, will tap three companies whose rockets are capable of meeting a wider variety of national security mission requirements, indicating the most experienced players such as SpaceX and ULA will be most fit for awards. 

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