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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.

Ugandan film producer Allan Manzi is an award-winning filmmaker known for his work on a Ugandan local series called “Juniors Drama Club.” VOA’s Jackson Mvungani spoke with him about the state of the Ugandan film industry. Videographer: Mugue Davis Rwakaringi.

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.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, the West responded, sending military weaponry and aid to the embattled nation. But as the war drags on, there is also a need for doctors. One nonprofit is sending American surgeons to Ukraine, and Ukrainian surgeons to train in the United States. Iryna Solomko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Pavlo Terekhov.

Rawalpindi, Pakistan — Pakistan fans were dejected Monday after a loss to arch-rivals India compounded their cricket T20 World Cup misery, with some declaring their campaign a lost cause after only two matches.  "Cricket is finished for Pakistan," one spectator told his companions in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, among fans who abandoned a big-screen viewing event before the final ball was bowled.  As night fell on Sunday, crowds had surged into the 15,000-seat Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium hoping to see a victory for captain Babar Azam's beleaguered side in a match halfway around the globe in New York.  However, a low-scoring thriller saw India beat Pakistan by six runs on a tricky batting surface, and in the moments after midnight supporters hurled plastic bottles at the screens in frustration.  "Fate had something else in mind," 26-year-old Ahsan Ullah told AFP, as resigned fans streamed out of the stadium. "Right now, our hearts are a little broken." The loss follows the major humiliation of Pakistan's defeat to USA on Thursday, with the co-host debutants beating the 2022 finalists and 2009 champions in a Super Over thriller in Texas. ‘Used to embarrassment’ Pakistan and India's cricket rivalry is one of the world's great international sporting feuds. The game is by far the most popular sport in both countries, which have a combined population of more than 1.6 billion.  Matches attract staggering numbers of viewers -- though the sides face each other only in larger tournaments and in third countries because of long-standing political tensions.  Sunday's match was the 13th time the nuclear-armed neighbors have clashed in cricket's shortest format, with India now dominant as the victors of 10 of those face-offs.  The rivalry runs so deep that India's national anthem was muted on the big screens at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, where queues snaked outside ahead of a rain-delayed coin toss.  Green spotlights raked the skies as the match began and Pakistan flags whipped back and forth in stands named after storied players like Imran Khan and Shoaib Akhtar. Whistles, chants and cheers blared in the early overs, before midnight passed and a sober mood took hold as Pakistan struggled to chase down India's 119 runs.  Asked for his diagnosis of the team's ills, Mohammad Hisham Raja -- seeking solace at a nearby restaurant after the match -- responded with one word: "batting.”  "Maybe we got too much in our heads," the 24-year-old said. "It's not an embarrassment because we're used to it now."  "Cricket is an escape for us -- from our daily routine, from our daily lives, from things that cause us problems," he added. "But there are more problems in this."  "I think once they come back, they'll see how dissatisfied the population is, so they will obviously make some big changes," he added, predicting Azam would be ousted from his post. ‘Choked’ "Pakistan choked in the final sequence of their World Cup 2024 clash with India to somehow surrender a tie they dominated for large parts of the game," said the website of the English-language Dawn newspaper.  ] "For the first time, it seems Pakistanis are struggling to find comfort in the hopes of a 'next time.' "  Pakistan next face Canada in New York on Thursday and then take on Ireland in Florida on Sunday.  They may still advance to the Super Eight in the tournament co-hosted by the USA and West Indies, with a final slated for Barbados on 29 June.  ] But 32-year-old Abdul Rasheed, among the final straggling fans in the stadium, predicted "a comeback is going to be very difficult.”  "Previously, things were great but now I don't know what's going on," chimed in 17-year-old Adan Mustafa. "The future doesn't seem bright."

Washington — An American cargo plane dropped more than 10 metric tons of rations into northern Gaza on Sunday, the U.S. military said, after a suspension of such deliveries due to Israeli operations in the area. Gaza's population is in dire need of humanitarian assistance after eight months of devastating conflict, and the United States turned to delivering it by air and sea as Israel delayed the entry of aid via land. The air drop provided "life-saving humanitarian assistance in northern Gaza," the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. "To date, the U.S. has airdropped more than 1,050 metric tons of humanitarian assistance" in addition to aid delivered via a temporary pier attached to the Gaza coast, it said. "These airdrops are part of a sustained effort, and we continue to plan follow-on aerial deliveries," CENTCOM added.  The Pentagon said in late May that factors including Israeli operations and weather conditions were affecting the drops, while deputy CENTCOM commander Vice Admiral Brad Cooper said Friday that they had been "suspended due to the kinetic operations happening in the north" but were expected to resume soon.  The latest air drop came a day after aid deliveries were restarted via the pier, which was damaged by bad weather last month and had to be repaired in a nearby port before being reattached to the coast.  Gaza is suffering through its bloodiest-ever war, which broke out after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.  Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,084 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

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.

Manama, Bahrain — A missile attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels hit an Antigua- and Barbuda-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden, the latest assault on shipping in the region. The missile hit the ship's forward station late Saturday, starting a fire that those on board later put out, the private security firm Ambrey said. A second missile fired at the ship missed and people "on board small boats in the vicinity opened fire on the ship during the incident," Ambrey added, though no one was hurt onboard. The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center similarly reported the attack and fire in the same area off Aden, saying "damage control is underway." Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed the attack in a prerecorded video message Sunday, saying the vessel had been targeted with both missiles and drones. He identified the vessel as the Norderney, a ship that tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed was still in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday afternoon. Saree also claimed unreported attacks on a warship and another vessel in the Arabian Sea, without providing any evidence to support his claim. The Houthis have exaggerated some of their attacks since launching their campaign. The Houthis, who seized Yemen's capital nearly a decade ago and have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition since shortly after, have been targeting shipping throughout the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. They say the attacks are aimed at stopping the war and supporting the Palestinians, though the attacks often target vessels that have nothing to do with the conflict. The war in Gaza has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians there, while hundreds of others have been killed in Israeli operations in the West Bank. It began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 others hostage. The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, killed three sailors, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. A U.S.-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of strikes May 30 killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the rebels say. But while gaining more attention internationally, the secretive group has cracked down on dissent at home. Eleven Yemeni employees of United Nations agencies and others working for aid groups have been detained by the Houthis under unclear circumstances, as the rebels face increasing financial pressure and airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition. The rebels also recently sentenced 44 people to death.

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.

The number of adults in the United States identifying as something other than heterosexual is holding steady at about 7.2%, and the two presidential candidates are taking note. VOA senior Washington correspondent Carolyn Presutti tells us how they are trying to attract that population.

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.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti — Haiti's new prime minister, Garry Conille, left the hospital Sunday in stable condition after being admitted for a respiratory issue one day earlier, two government sources told AFP. Conille shared a video clip Sunday afternoon, addressing the camera while standing, telling viewers: "I am posting this video to assure you that I am fine." A government source, speaking anonymously, had told AFP that the prime minister had suffered an asthma attack. Conille, 58, was appointed to the premiership by Haiti's Presidential Transitional Council on May 29 and was sworn in only last Monday. The job before him is monumental: to relieve the political, security and humanitarian crises devastating the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and to pave the way for the first elections since 2016. "After a week of intense activity," Conille "suffered a slight illness on the afternoon of Saturday, June 8, 2024, and went to hospital for treatment," a statement by the prime minister's press office said Saturday. A medical doctor by training, Conille served as Haiti's premier for a short period in 2011-2012 and was until recently regional director for the U.N. aid agency UNICEF. Since his appointment as prime minister, he has been holding a series of meetings with stakeholders and representatives, while working with the Council on forming a cabinet. In his video Sunday, Conille promised that his cabinet would be completed this week. Gang violence has long wracked Haiti, but at the end of February armed groups launched coordinated attacks on strategic sites in Port-au-Prince, claiming they wanted to overthrow the unelected and unpopular Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Henry, who had been running the country since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, eventually agreed to resign and hand over power to the nine-member transitional council. Before his collapse on Saturday, Conille visited the international airport in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, praising the efforts of the security forces which had enabled flights to resume after being halted for more than three months due to gang attacks. The violence has severely affected food security and humanitarian access, with much of the capital in the hands of gangs accused of abuses including murder, rape, looting and kidnappings. Last year, a U.N.-backed security force to be led by Kenya was promised as a boost to the struggling Haitian police, but its deployment has been repeatedly delayed. On Sunday the east African country's president, William Ruto, said Kenyan police will deploy probably within weeks. Kenya is scheduled to send 1,000 officers for the mission alongside personnel from several other countries.

Beijing — A top executive at a major Chinese state-backed investment company is under investigation for corruption, the government's anti-corruption body said Sunday, as an unrelenting crackdown on graft sweeps through the finance sector. Xu Zuo, vice president at China Citic Group, is "suspected of serious disciplinary and legal violations," the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in an online statement, without giving further details. Citic Group is a vast state-run investment conglomerate with the equivalent of over $1.5 trillion in total assets as of last year, according to its official website. Xu, a senior economist with a background in overseas acquisitions and restructuring, has been on the firm's executive committee since 2019. Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged a near-constant crackdown on official corruption since coming to power over a decade ago. Proponents say the campaign encourages clean governance, while critics argue it also serves as a vehicle for Xi to purge political rivals. Anti-graft bodies have trained their sights on the financial sector in recent months, including banking, insurance and state-owned enterprises. Last month, Bai Tianhui, the former general manager at another huge state-backed asset management firm, Huarong, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of taking over 1.1 billion yuan ($151.8 million) in bribes.

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.