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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti's transitional council appointed a new Cabinet on Tuesday, marking the final step in rebuilding the government that will lead a country under siege by gangs.  Government spokeswoman Kettia Marcellus confirmed the existence of the new Cabinet and its ministers to The Associated Press.  Carlos Hercules, the attorney for Prime Minister Garry Conille, was appointed as minister of justice and public security. Conille himself will be interior minister. Jean Marc Berthier Antoine will be defense minister.  Haiti struggles with gangs that control at least 80% of the capital of Port-au-Prince. It is preparing for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from Kenya expected in the coming weeks.  Weeks of coordinated attacks by gangs forced former prime minister Ariel Henry to resign in April, and his Cabinet was dissolved. Gunmen took control of police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remained closed for nearly three months and stormed Haiti's two biggest prisons. More than 2,500 people were killed or injured in the first three months of the year and more than half a million others displaced as Haiti prepares for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from Kenya expected in the coming weeks.  Conille has pledged to crack down on the violence.  Dominique Dupuy, a UNESCO ambassador who was once a member of the transitional council before resigning, will be foreign affairs minister. She resigned in part because of political attacks and death threats.  The new Cabinet has four women. Critics note that Haiti's government barely has female representation. One woman with non-voting powers sits on the transitional council, and no women were interviewed for the post of prime minister.  "It is an insult to the 6 million women and girls in Haiti whose participation is necessary for the transition's success," said Pascale Solages of Nègès Mawon, a Haitian feminist organization.  The new prime minister has publicly acknowledged that women should have their place in government.  "In this pivotal moment in Haiti's democracy, we are being given nothing but a chance to watch men make decisions from the observer seat," said Rosy Auguste Ducena of the National Human Rights Defense Network.  Others in the new Cabinet include Ketleen Florestal, minister of economy and finance. She takes charge as Haiti has deepening poverty, with inflation reaching nearly 30% in recent years. People continue to lose their jobs due to gang violence, which has forced businesses to close. Florestal previously worked at the World Bank as adviser to the executive director for Haiti.  Antoine Augustin will be education minister. Hundreds of schools in Port-au-Prince remain closed because of gang violence.  One thing that stands out about many of the ministers appointed to the new Cabinet is the relative obscurity of their names, said Michael Deibert, author of "Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti," and "Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History."  "There is a smattering of people with international experience … but still, there are not a lot of immediately recognizable high-level names from within Haitian politics," he said. "Some people might think that's a good thing."  He noted that while Dupuy will oversee one of the more important ministries, and that the composition of the Cabinet is an improvement over that of the council, "which appears not to be of the modern world, quite frankly, it's still a low representation of women given how many ministries there are."  It was not immediately clear when the new Cabinet would be sworn in.  The work of the transitional council, however, is not done. It is tasked with appointing a provisional electoral commission, a requirement before general elections can take place. The council's non-renewable mandate expires Feb. 7, 2026, when a new president is scheduled to be sworn in. 

abuja, nigeria — A new report by rights group Amnesty International accuses Nigeria's military of inhumane treatment toward women and girls who survived Boko Haram. Nigerian defense authorities reject the report's findings, saying that military personnel operate within the scope of international laws of conflict. A statement said the military has "self-regulating mechanisms to address any proven case of misconduct" by its operatives. The report from Amnesty International, titled "Help Us Build Our Lives," said women and girls who survived Boko Haram captivity were subjected to further suffering, including prolonged, unlawful detention by the military and inadequate support by authorities for them to rebuild their lives. "We still stand by what we have said," said Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International's Nigeria director. "We believe that if somebody is saying that what you're saying is not true, he should provide evidence. This research took more than a year and it is based on interviews with over 126 people." The Amnesty report said girls who were not detained were left to fend for themselves in camps where they sometimes reunite with former or so-called "repentant" Boko Haram husbands — putting them at risk of continued abuse from the men. "These girls were picked when they were children," said Sanusi. "They didn't give their consent, they were forced. And what they went through is more or less human trafficking and abduction, therefore it is completely based on illegitimacy and it is unacceptable that they will be kept in government-run camps and pretend that they're married or something. Even if the girls say that they want to live with them, an investigation should be done in a free atmosphere without coercion." Nigerian troops have been fighting Boko Haram insurgents in northeast Nigeria since 2009. The group's rebellion has killed more than 35,000 people and displaced millions, according to the United Nations. The Nigerian military's approach and tactics have often sparked criticism. Nigerian authorities said the military will engage with Amnesty International but said authorities were "unperturbed by such self-serving statements targeted at dampening the morale of troops." Security analyst Senator Iroegbu says the matter is a delicate topic and must be treated with caution. "Anything associated with Boko Haram is a sensitive matter, there are a lot of misgivings over this so-called rehabilitation and reintegration of Boko Haram terrorists," said Iroegbu. "For the military, they're also in a very delicate situation. Once these survivors are rescued there's a detention facility where they're being vetted. Now the challenge is how long are they being vetted? The military in the first place are not even trained for the role they're playing." Last year, a Reuters news agency investigation accused the military of secretly running a mass abortion program for girls and women rescued from Boko Haram. Authorities set up an investigation into the matter but Amnesty International says the findings are shrouded in secrecy. Iroegbu says sometimes overzealous personnel are to blame for the misconduct. "The military as an institution might have committed to observing human rights but there are some individual soldiers that might have committed rights violations in their own actions," said Iroegbu, the security analyst. "What I expected the military [to do] is say, 'Okay, we'll investigate.'" Amnesty says before releasing the report, it presented Nigeria's federal and state authorities as well as the United Nations with its findings. The military referred to Amnesty International's sources as "intrinsically unreliable."

Russia says it is holding more than 6,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war. For many of those released, liberation is the start of a painful process of recovery. From Kyiv, Lesia Bakalets brings the story of one former prisoner of war. Videographer: Vladyslav Smilianets

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 Washington — Baghdad has gone a week without reports of American restaurants being damaged by apparent Iran-backed mobs, an indication that the Iraqi government is curbing a recent wave of assaults that have dented its projected image as welcoming to Western investment.   After the last reported mob assault, damaging a restaurant of U.S. chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) on Baghdad’s Palestine Street on June 3, Iraqi authorities reported arresting several rioters. Armed Iraqi security personnel were seen guarding the restaurant the next day.   The mob attacks began in the Iraqi capital in late May and involved masked men vandalizing and setting off small bombs outside American restaurants, including a branch of U.S. chain Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken and a branch of American-style Jordanian chain Chili House. No injuries were reported. Some other U.S. and British businesses also were targeted.   The Iraqi interior ministry published a Facebook photo on June 5, showing eight men whom it says were arrested under Iraq’s anti-terrorism law for alleged involvement in the attacks. The men were dressed in yellow prison uniforms with their faces blurred.   In a report published Friday, the Associated Press cited two officials of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias as saying their supporters carried out the assaults in retaliation for U.S. support of Israel in its war against Hamas. An earlier report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy noted that the behavior and apparel of the perpetrators resembles that seen in past incidents involving Raba Allah, a vigilante unit of Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah (KH).   U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski condemned the violent attacks against U.S. and other international businesses in Baghdad in a May 30 post on the X platform. She also urged the Iraqi government to conduct a "thorough investigation, bring to justice those who are responsible and prevent future attacks.”   In an interview published Friday by news agency Rudaw, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice president for Middle East affairs, Steve Lutes, described the attacks as troubling. He also welcomed the Iraqi government’s efforts to crack down on them.      Anthony Pfaff, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Iraq Initiative, discussed the factors behind the timing of the recent assaults and assessed their impact on Monday’s edition of VOA’s Flashpoint Global Crises program.   Flashpoint Global Crises: The following interview transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.  VOA: Why have we seen Iraq’s Iranian-backed militias change their tactics in fighting the American presence in their country?  Anthony Pfaff, Atlantic Council: Shortly after Kataib Hezbollah’s January strike on the U.S. “Tower 22” base in Jordan, killing three American soldiers, the group said it was going to cease those kinds of attacks because it did not want to embarrass the Iraqi government [which has a partnership with the U.S.].   There was a sense at the time that not only the Iraqi government was exerting pressure on KH for that escalation, but also Tehran was worried about escalating too much with the U.S. in the midst of the war in Gaza. So, you saw a drop off in attacks against U.S. soldiers in the region.   Now, groups like KH are taking advantage of Iraqi popular sentiment that is against U.S. support for Israel, and they are trying to make it appear as if these attacks on American restaurants are part of a popular uprising. Such an uprising would accomplish their goal of putting pressure on the U.S. presence in the Middle East in general, and in Iraq specifically, to diminish it, if not drive it out. The Iranian-backed militias think this strategy will allow them to deflect their responsibility for the attacks, and thus avoid both the kind of pressure that the Iraqi government might otherwise put on them, and the kind of retaliation that the U.S. might engage in.   VOA: You visited Iraq two months ago. What have you learned about public sentiment toward Iranian-backed militias urging people to boycott and damage U.S. businesses?  Pfaff: My sense is that there is not a lot of Iraqi support for the Iranian-backed militias.   I believe the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people do not want to be in the middle of a conflict between Iran and the United States. They have no interest in that. They want to posture themselves as a nation of opportunity rather than a problem.   That lack of Iraqi support for the Iranian-backed militias has been diminishing their ability to operate to some degree.   The Gaza war also has been triggering such a strong Iraqi sentiment against Israel, that some of these recent attacks could be perceived as a spontaneous expression of popular anger. But I seriously doubt that.   It would not be difficult for the Iranian-backed militias to falsely portray the attacks as a popular uprising and to take advantage of that narrative to go after these softer targets as a way of diminishing the U.S. presence in Iraq.   VOA: How credibly can Iraq make the case that it is a place of opportunity for U.S. investment in light of the attacks?   Pfaff: In terms of the impact on U.S. businesses, a lot of the targeted locations are franchises often licensed to an Iraqi company. So there is not a lot of revenue coming out of Iraq to the U.S. through the businesses that are being attacked.   The revenue that stays inside of Iraq is now being denied to those Iraqi companies. So the ones that these militias are really harming — the Iraqis operating and owning these businesses — are the first casualty of the assaults.   Another casualty is Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. His clear message when he traveled to the U.S. in April was that he wants to attract U.S. business to Iraq.  As he visited Washington and Houston, he signed memorandums of understanding with about a dozen U.S. companies to help them not just develop the Iraqi energy sector but other sectors as well. This kind of security situation, of course, is going to dampen the enthusiasm for that.   Some U.S. businesses may find ways to get around the security problem by having a shell company or other group work for them in Iraq without being American-branded. But overall, this is not good for Iraq's future economic prospects. 

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Traditional cooking fuels and technologies are among the major sources of household air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa, with severe health consequences for the population, according to the World Bank. Now, an initiative to promote climate-friendly cooking in the region is introducing stoves that use less charcoal and firewood to improve air quality. Juma Majanga reports from Nakuru, Kenya

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the only thing preventing a ceasefire is Hamas as he is in the Middle East for the 8th time since October 7th. It’s been confirmed that the Malawian Vice President has been killed in a plane crash in the country’s north. A look at Ukraine as a controversial battalion has been given permission to use American weapons in the fight against Russia. Press freedom in Russia and the United States. A new law in Vermont aimed at recouping some of the costs of climate change.

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ISLAMABAD — A United Nations diplomat has encouraged the Taliban to attend a conference on Afghanistan later this month, stating that it would help return much-needed global attention to the crisis-ridden country.  Malick Ceesay, the head of the Pakistan-based liaison office for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told an unofficial dialogue between religious scholars from the two countries that the Ukraine war and Gaza hostilities had dramatically shifted the international attention from Afghanistan. “And that’s a concern for the United Nations. We don’t want Afghanistan to be forgotten,” Ceesay said at the Tuesday meeting, hosted by the independent Center for Research and Security Studies in the Pakistani capital. “We are hopeful that this time around, the Islamic Emirate will send its representatives (to Doha) to be able to engage with the international community in a constructive and effective manner,” the U.N. diplomat said, using the official title of the Taliban government in Kabul.  The two-day U.N. conference of special envoys on Afghanistan will commence in Doha, Qatar, on June 30. According to a U.N. spokesperson, it aims to increase international engagement with the Taliban and Afghanistan at large "in a more coherent, coordinated and structured manner.” The meeting will be the third in the tiny Gulf nation's capital since U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched the process in May 2023. He did not invite the Taliban to the first session, and Afghanistan’s de facto rulers declined an invitation to attend the second this past February. The Taliban have publicly stated their intention to send a delegation to the "Doha III" conference, saying they have shared their conditions with the U.N. and will make a formal announcement after reviewing its “final agenda.”  While they have not revealed their conditions, the Taliban had asked the U.N. in the run-up to the second Doha meeting that their delegates would be accepted as the sole official representatives of the country, meaning that Afghan civil society representatives, women’s rights activists, and members of opposition groups would not be present.  They also sought a meeting between their delegation and the U.N. at “a very senior level.” Guterres rejected the conditions as unacceptable. The international community has not recognized the Taliban government as Afghanistan’s legitimate rulers, and the country remains under U.N. sanctions.  Ceesay said Tuesday that the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s access to education and employment and a lack of inclusivity in the Taliban government continue to raise questions about the Afghan authorities’ legitimacy.  “These are all tied together. The Islamic Emirate leadership knows that this is the reason why the recognition is not coming,” he said. The Muslim U.N. diplomat criticized the Taliban's assertion that their treatment of women aligns with Islamic law. “Islam never says that women should not go to school, and Islam never says that women should not go to work. Which (version of) Islam and which Quran says that? It's not found in there,” he added.  Ceesay said that UNAMA is engaging with all Afghans to help them achieve a broad-based governance system that includes everybody.   “Islamic Emirate is doing a fairly notable job on that, but we want it to increase more so that every Afghan citizen will feel that they belong to the country and the government belongs to them, not just one-sided, 90% one ethnicity. That’s not fair,” he stated. The conservative Taliban are ethnically Pashtun, the majority community in Afghanistan. Ceesay said the Taliban have allowed Afghan females to work in some public offices related to passport, immigration, healthcare, and agriculture. But those concessions have been "overshadowed" due to bans on the remaining women's access to employment and girls’ education beyond grade six, he added. The reclusive Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, who governs the country through edicts based on his harsh interpretation of Islam, has dismissed international criticism and calls for reforming his policies.  In the run-up to the third Doha conference, pro-Taliban social media activists have posted audio of a recent speech by Akhundzada in which he vowed not to budge on his stance under foreign pressure, come what may.  “Who are you to meddle in our land, system, and policies? I am not here to take your orders nor will I take a single step with you or deal with you regarding the Sharia (Islamic law),” Akhudzada said.

GENEVA  — The Office of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights is accusing both Israel and Hamas of actions that “may amount to war crimes” during Israel’s military operation to secure the release of four hostages in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza on Saturday. “We are profoundly shocked at the impact on civilians of the Israeli forces’ operation,” Jeremy Laurence, the high commissioner’s spokesperson, said Tuesday, noting that hundreds of Palestinians, “many of them civilians, were reportedly killed and injured.” “The manner in which the raid was conducted in such a densely populated area seriously calls into question whether the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution, as set out under the laws of war, were respected by the Israeli forces,” he told journalists in Geneva. According to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health, 274 Palestinians were killed and 698 injured in Nuseirat refugee camp during the Israeli raid. “Our Office is also deeply distressed that Palestinian armed groups continue to hold many hostages, most of them civilians, which is prohibited by international humanitarian law,” Laurence said. “Furthermore, by holding hostages in such densely populated areas, the armed groups doing so are putting the lives of Palestinian civilians, as well as the hostages themselves, at added risk from the hostilities. “All these actions, by both parties, may amount to war crimes,” he said. Responding to criticism of its operation, Israel’s military said it had attacked “threats to our forces in the area,” and that a special forces officer was killed in the operation. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz was more blunt in his rebuke of critics, posting a statement saying, “only Israel’s enemies complained about the casualties of Hamas terrorists and their accomplices.” Some 120 hostages reportedly remain in Gaza, with 43 pronounced dead. A total of 116 hostages of some 250 that were abducted by Hamas militants during its brutal attack on Israel October 7 have been freed. “The fact that the four hostages are now free is clearly very good news. These hostages should never have been taken in the first place. That is a breach of international humanitarian law,” Laurence said, adding: “they must be freed — all of them, promptly.” At the same time, he admonished Palestinian armed groups for “holding hostages in densely populated areas.” “Not only are the armed groups putting the lives of Palestinians themselves at risk, but they also are putting the lives of the hostages at risk,” he noted. Responding to the “horrific images of death and devastation” following Israel’s military operation, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths described the Nuseirat refugee camp as the “epicenter of the seismic trauma that civilians in Gaza continue to suffer.” “Seeing shrouded bodies on the ground, we are reminded that nowhere is safe in Gaza,” Griffiths said in a social media post. “Seeing bloodied patients being treated on hospital floors, we are reminded that health care in Gaza is hanging by a thread.” Following the attack on June 8, the World Health Organization conducted an assessment mission to Al Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza. The mission found 270 health workers providing care to an estimated 700 patients. Before the war, Al Aqsa served an estimated 150 inpatient patients daily.

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