Feed aggregator

The United States says it is providing additional humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the surrounding region in response to dire humanitarian conditions. The aid package came hours before Hamas responded to a U.N. cease-fire resolution. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has more. (Produced by: Bakhtiyar Zamanov)

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.

A 12-member jury in Wilmington, Delaware, federal court found Hunter Biden guilty on all three counts against him, making him the first child of a sitting U.S. president to be convicted of a crime. Hamas' response to a proposed Gaza cease-fire deal. The Humboldt penguin population has dramatically decreased in areas along the central coast of Chile, making them one of the most vulnerable of the world's 18 penguin species. And a private club in Los Angeles – where the dogs are the members, and the humans are the guests.

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.

Seoul, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said his country is an "invincible comrade-in-arms" with Russia in a message to President Vladimir Putin, state media KCNA said on Wednesday, amid speculation over Putin's impending visit to North Korea. Marking Russia's National Day, Kim said his meeting with Putin at a Russian space launch facility last year elevated the ties of their "century-old strategic relationship." The message came after Russia's Vedomosti newspaper on Monday reported Putin would visit North Korea and Vietnam in the coming weeks. An official in Vietnam told Reuters the Vietnam trip was planned for June 19 and 20 but has not yet been confirmed. The Kremlin has said Russia wants to foster cooperation with North Korea "in all areas" but has not confirmed the date of the visit. Kim traveled to Russia's Far East last September, touring the Vostochny Cosmodrome space launch center, where Putin promised to help him build satellites. Kim also lauded Russia for achieving results from its efforts to build a strong country by "suppressing and crushing all the challenges and sanctions and pressures of hostile forces." Pyongyang and Moscow have increasingly stepped up diplomatic and security relations, hosting government, parliamentary and other delegations in recent months. A group of North Korean officials in charge of public security was set to visit Russia this week. Officials in Washington and Seoul have accused North Korea of shipping weapons to Russia to support its war against Ukraine in exchange for technological aid with its own nuclear and missile programs. 

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 — Military experts are warning of an increased risk of war with China following recent announcements by Beijing providing for more aggressive enforcement of its claims to disputed regions of the South China Sea.   Late last month, China announced its coast guard will be empowered to investigate and detain for up to 60 days "foreigners who endanger China's national security and interests" in the disputed waters. The policy will take effect on June 15.     And on June 8, it announced it would permit the Philippines to deliver supplies and evacuate personnel from an outpost on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, which has been determined by an international tribunal to lie within Philippine waters, only if it first notifies Beijing.     The Philippine National Security Council replied that the country will continue to maintain and supply its outposts in the South China Sea without seeking permission from any other country.     In a formal statement under the council's letterhead, national security adviser Eduardo Ano dismissed the suggestion as"absurd, ridiculous and unacceptable." According to a June 10 report in the South China Morning Post, a survey released by independent polling agency OCTA Research showed that 73% of Filipinos support further military action to safeguard the Philippines' territorial rights, including expanded naval patrols and the dispatch of additional troops.    Philippine media believe the new procedures will empower the Chinese coast guard to "arbitrarily" arrest Filipinos in their own waters. China's claims to almost the entire sea reach into the internationally recognized economic zones of several Southeast Asian countries.     Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called the new rules "totally unacceptable" and said he will take all necessary measures to "protect citizens" and continue to"defend the country's territory."   In his keynote speech at the Shangri-La Security Dialogue in Singapore on May 31, the president pointed out that if a Filipino was killed in a South China Sea conflict with China, it would"almost certainly" cross a red line and come "very close" to what the Philippines defines as an act of war.   John C. Aquilino, former head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, testified before the U.S. Congress last month that Manila could invoke the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty in such a case.   Bob Savic, head of international trade at the Global Policy Institute in London, said last week that this could bring the United States and China into a direct conflict.   "The trigger for the First World War occurred on June 28, 1914, with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in a country in Southeast Europe. This time, the trigger could be the death of a Filipino sailor in the tropical waters of Southeast Asia," he wrote in an article published in the Asia Times.   He believes if Manila is forced to request U.S. assistance under the Mutual Defense Treaty, it is conceivable that China Coast Guard ships would quickly confront U.S. warships maintaining freedom of navigation in the region. \"The U.S. and China must ensure they don't sleepwalk into a repeat of the 1914 tragedy in the second half of June 2024 or, indeed, at any point in the future," Savic wrote.   'It might trigger escalation' Andrea Chloe Wong, a nonresident research fellow at the Institute for Indo-Pacific Affairs, told VOA at a June 6 seminar hosted by the National Bureau of Asian Research that if the Mutual Defense Treaty is invoked, "it might trigger escalation or conflict between the Philippines and China."   The safety of Filipino personnel has become the focus of recent rounds of South China Sea disputes. On June 7, the Philippines accused a Chinese coast guard ship of ramming a Philippine ship, deterring the evacuation of a sick soldier from a grounded warship which serves as a Philippine military outpost on the Second Thomas Shoal.  Romeo Brawner, chief of staff of the armed forces of the Philippines, told reporters June 4 that Chinese coast guard officers had seized some food that a plane dropped for Philippine naval personnel aboard the aging warship. He also released video of the incident, AP reported.    Despite the rising tension, Oriana Skylar Mastro, a Center Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, told VOA that the possibility of World War III breaking out in the South China Sea is not high.   She believes that China will not choose to fight a war in the South China Sea at this time because they know they would lose.   "They can't project power across those kinds of distances yet. When I talk to the PLA [People's Liberation Army, China's principal military force], they say the only reason they haven't declared internal waters in the Spratly [chain] is because there's no way they can enforce that."   US promises assets, say reports The United States Coast Guard has promised to send assets to the South China Sea to help Manila uphold sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone, ABS-CBN News said Tuesday, citing the Philippine Coast Guard.  In a statement, the Philippine Coast Guard said the U.S. Coast Guard will deploy its North Pacific Coast Guard following a proposal by Philippine Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan. Gavan called for a "greater deployment" in the high seas "to address the forthcoming threat" posed by China's threat to arrest foreigners inside what it claims as its maritime boundaries.   In a research report released last month by the National Bureau of Asian Research, Michael Shoebridge of the Strategic Analysis Australia pointed out that collective action by the Philippines and its allies could effectively reduce risks in the South China Sea.   "The risk of such collective action escalating into conflict is real. However, it could be mitigated by the militaries clearly acting within international law and coordinating a united political response to demonstrate and communicate this,” he wrote. "That would counter Chinese efforts"to intimidate others and cast such lawful action as aggression."   Shoebridge, who also attended the National Bureau of Asian Research's June 6 seminar, said at the meeting that "unless we cause Chinese policy and action to fail, we are leaving all the leverage with Beijing, and we are waiting for our servicemen and women to be killed by the PLA. And that's not the future that I want."   Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

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.

At the Group of Seven summit this week, U.S. President Joe Biden will seek agreement on using interest from frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine’s war effort. He will also push for unity in tackling global challenges such as infrastructure funding, artificial intelligence, and Chinese overcapacity in green technologies. However, as White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports, a shift right in the European political landscape could complicate his plans.

washington — Two men convicted by a U.S. jury in November of trying to sell Iranian petroleum in violation of sanctions imposed by Washington and of conspiracy to commit money laundering were sentenced on Tuesday. Each of the Texas men were sentenced to 45 months in prison, the Justice Department said.  Zhenyu Wang, 43, a Chinese citizen, and Daniel Ray Lane, 42, of McKinney, Texas, schemed with co-conspirators to evade U.S. economic sanctions against Iran from July 2019 to February 2020 by facilitating the purchase of sanctioned oil from Iran, masking its origins and then selling it to a refinery in China, the department said in a statement.  Lane was president of privately held Stack Royalties, a Texas-based company that sells oil and gas mineral rights to investment funds and private equity groups.  Lane's attorney, Paul Hetznecker, told Reuters late last year that the case was based on undercover government agents who offered Lane "millions of dollars in profits" if he took part in the scheme, after initially rebuffing their approaches. The attorney had called the case "an outrageous example of government overreach."  The pair were charged, along with three others, in 2020 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. At least two co-conspirators have since pleaded guilty, court records showed.  China is the world's only major importer of Iranian oil despite sanctions that former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally reimposed on Tehran's petroleum exports in 2018 after withdrawing the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

united nations — The United Nation's secretary-general has included Israel's military and Hamas on the annual blacklist of perpetrators who harm children. "I am appalled by the dramatic increase and unprecedented scale and intensity of grave violations against children in the Gaza Strip, Israel and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem," Antonio Guterres said in the report, which was sent to U.N. Security Council members on Tuesday but has not yet been published. The annual Children and Armed Conflict report names and shames those who recruit, kill, maim or abduct children, commit sexual violence against them, deny them humanitarian assistance, or attack schools and hospitals. Guterres' special representative Virginia Gamba is mandated by the Security Council to work to prevent and end these violations. In the report, obtained by VOA, the United Nations said it has verified 8,009 grave violations against Israeli and Palestinian children, but the process is ongoing and slow due to the conflict. Of them, 113 were against Israeli children, and the rest were against Palestinian children in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The report says most child casualties in Gaza from October 7 to the end of last year were caused by "the use of explosive weapons in populated areas by Israeli armed and security forces." In addition to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad was also listed. Both groups are listed for the first time, accused of killing, maiming and abducting children. The report covers the period from January to December 2023. Hamas carried out its terror attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering the war that is now in its ninth month. The report covers only the casualties reported or verified in 2023. This is the first time either Israel or Hamas has been included on the report's blacklist, despite the killing and maiming of hundreds of children in at least three previous wars in Gaza. Israel's armed and security forces are listed for the killing and maiming of children and for attacks on schools and hospitals. "The inclusion of Israeli forces on the U.N.'s 'list of shame' is long overdue and reflects overwhelming evidence of grave violations against children," Jo Becker, children's rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA in an email. Israeli officials have expressed outrage at being included on the list, which also includes the Taliban and terror groups al-Qaida and Islamic State. A U.N. spokesperson said last week that Israel was notified of its inclusion "as a courtesy." The country promptly sought to get ahead of the report's publication, dismissing it as more anti-Israel action by the United Nations. "Today, the U.N. added itself to the blacklist of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday. "The IDF is the most moral army in the world. No delusional U.N. decision will change that." His United Nations ambassador went further, publishing the video of part of his phone call with Guterres' chief of staff. "I'm utterly shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision of the secretary-general," Gilad Erdan said in the call on Friday, adding that it would reward Hamas and extend the war. Russia makes blacklist again Last year, Russia's armed forces landed on the blacklist for their war in Ukraine. This year, they remained listed despite a significant drop in the number of violations attributed to them. The United Nations verified the killing of 80 children and the maiming of 339 others attributed to Russian forces and affiliated groups. A senior U.N. official said a decrease was not enough. Russia must continue this trend for at least a year and also sign a joint action plan with Gamba's office to be delisted. No party previously on the list was delisted this year. Both sides in Sudan conflict make list  The situation in Sudan, which devolved into brutal violence in April 2023 when two rival generals went to war in a power struggle that continues today, has seen the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces both land on this year's blacklist. The report found a dramatic increase in 2023 in the military recruitment and use of children in Sudan, as well as their killing, maiming and sexual abuse. Attacks on schools and hospitals were also reported. "I urge all parties to take preventive and mitigating actions to avoid and minimize harm and better protect children, including to refrain from the use of explosive devices," Guterres said in the report. The 2023 report verified nearly 33,000 grave violations committed against the world's children in several countries experiencing conflict — an increase of 21% over the previous year. There were 11,649 confirmed child killings and maimings. Recruitment is again on the rise, after trending downward for the past two years. Grave violations were reported in countries including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Congo, Myanmar, Somalia and Syria, among others.

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.