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Geneva — Swiss voters were expected to approve in a referendum Sunday a law aimed at accelerating the development of renewable energy as the country aims for carbon neutrality by 2050. According to the final opinion polls published in May, 73% of voters are set to approve the law on "a secure electricity supply based on renewable energies." Less than two months ago Switzerland became the first country ever to be condemned by an international court for not doing enough to combat climate change, in a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. The new law was approved by parliament last year, and most environmental organizations back the legislation and its ambitions. However, a few smaller environmental groups that oppose it managed to garner enough support to trigger a referendum. They fear it will fast-track large-scale energy projects and see Switzerland's pristine Alpine landscapes plastered in wind turbines and solar panels. They also deplore limitations on the possibilities for local residents to launch appeals against the construction of new renewable energy installations. Retired economist Pierre-Alain Bruchez, who spearheaded the referendum push, said there was "no reason to put solar panels on mountain pastures, when there is so much space" on buildings. He launched the battle after learning of the Grengiols-Solar project, aimed at installing around 230,000 solar panels in the mountainous Wallis canton, at an altitude of 2,500 meters, calling it a "vision of horror." Largest party opposes law Switzerland's largest party, the hard-right Swiss People's Party (SVP), supports the referendum, above all in the name of defending civil nuclear power, which provided 32% of total energy production last year. The SVP thinks renewable energies do not guarantee energy security due to their fluctuating nature. The law is backed by major nongovernmental organizations such as Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature. It aims to boost wind and solar power's current minuscule contribution to Switzerland's energy mix and rapidly increase hydro power production so that the wealthy landlocked country is less dependent on importing electricity. The law envisages installing solar panels on building roofs and facades. It also eases planning conditions for wind turbines and large solar installations. The government acknowledges that court appeals against large energy projects "will probably be less likely to succeed than before." But it stressed that projects would be examined on a case-by-case basis and constructing large installations in "biotopes of national importance" and migratory bird reservations will remain outlawed, albeit with some exceptions. The law also outlines 16 hydroelectric projects, a sector which last year represented 57% of national electricity production. These involve building new dams or heightening existing ones. Votes on health issues Under Switzerland's direct democracy system, citizens can trigger nationwide votes on topics by collecting 100,000 valid signatures within 18 months. Voting takes place every three months. Most voters have cast their ballots in advance by post for Sunday's referendum, with polling stations only open until noon (1000 GMT) and results expected later in the day. National votes are also taking place on three popular initiatives -- topics proposed by the public -- linked to health. One aims to cap health contributions at 10% of income, while another is also aimed at limiting health costs. A third, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, does not mention vaccinations but demands a patient's consent be obtained for invasive procedures that may affect their physical or mental integrity -- and that a person who refuses consent may neither be penalized nor disadvantaged. At the cantonal level, in the Geneva region, a vote is taking place on whether to ban the exhibition or wearing of symbols of hatred, in particular Nazi symbols, in public spaces. Geneva residents will also have to decide on whether to repeal a provision preventing nursing homes from refusing to allow assisted suicide on their premises. 

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea says it will restart anti-North Korean propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts in border areas in response to continuing North Korean campaigns to drop trash on the South with balloons. Following an emergency security meeting led by South Korean national security director Chang Ho-jin, the officials decided to install and begin the loudspeaker broadcasts in border areas on Sunday, Seoul's presidential office said in a statement. The move is certain to anger North Korea and potentially prompt it to take its own retaliatory military steps. Chang and other South Korean security officials berated Pyongyang for attempting to cause "anxiety and disruption" in South Korea and stressed that North Korea will be "solely responsible" for any future escalation of tensions between the Koreas. North Korea over the weekend flew hundreds of trash-carrying balloons to South Korea in its third such campaign since late May, the South's military said, just days after South Korean activists floated their own balloons to scatter propaganda leaflets in the North. North Korea has so far sent more than 1,000 balloons to drop tons of trash and manure in the South in retaliation against South Korean civilian leafletting campaigns, adding to tensions between the war-divided rivals amid a diplomatic stalemate over the North's nuclear ambitions. The resumption of South Korea's loudspeaker broadcasts has been widely anticipated since last week, when South Korea suspended a 2018 tension-easing agreement with North Korea. The move allowed for the South to resume propaganda campaigns and possibly restart live-fire military exercises in border areas. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the North launching around 330 balloons toward the South since Saturday night and about 80 were found in South Korean territory as of Sunday morning. The military said winds were blowing eastward on Saturday night, which possibly caused many balloons to float away from South Korean territory. The South's military said the balloons that did land dropped trash, including plastic and paper waste, but no hazardous substances were discovered. The military, which has mobilized chemical rapid response and explosive clearance units to retrieve the North Korean balloons and materials, alerted the public to beware of falling objects and not to touch balloons found on the ground but report them to police or military authorities. Saturday's balloon launches by North Korea were the third of their kind since May 28. In North Korea's previous two rounds of balloon activities, South Korean authorities discovered about 1,000 balloons that were tied to vinyl bags containing manure, cigarette butts, scraps of cloth, waste batteries and waste paper. Some were popped and scattered on roads, residential areas and schools. No highly dangerous materials were found and no major damage has been reported. The North's vice defense minister, Kim Kang Il, later said his country would stop the balloon campaign but threatened to resume it if South Korean activists sent leaflets again. In defiance of the warning, a South Korean civilian group led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said it launched 10 balloons from a border town on Thursday carrying 200,000 anti-North Korean leaflets, USB sticks with K-pop songs and South Korean dramas, and U.S. $1 bills. South Korean media reported another activist group also flew balloons with 200,000 propaganda leaflets toward North Korea on Friday. South Korean officials called the North Korean trash balloon launches and other recent provocations "absurd" and "irrational" and vowed strong retaliation. With the loudspeakers, South Korea may blare anti-Pyongyang broadcasts, K-pop songs and outside news across the rivals' heavily armed border. North Korea is extremely sensitive to such broadcasts because it fears it could demoralize front-line troops and residents and eventually weaken leader Kim Jong Un's grip on power, analysts say. In 2015, when South Korea restarted loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired artillery rounds across the border, prompting South Korea to return fire, according to South Korean officials. No casualties were reported. Kim in recent years has waged an intensifying campaign to eliminate South Korean cultural and language influences. In January, Kim declared the North will abandon its longstanding goal of a peaceful unification with the South and rewrite its constitution to cement the South as a permanent enemy. Experts say Kim's efforts to reinforce the North's separate identity may be aimed at strengthening the Kim family's dynastic rule. North Korea's balloon campaign is also possibly meant to cause a divide in South Korea over its conservative government's hard-line approach on North Korea. Liberal lawmakers, some civic groups and front-line residents in South Korea have called on the government to urge leafleting activists to stop flying balloons to avoid unnecessary clashes with North Korea. But government officials haven't made such an appeal in line with last year's constitutional court ruling that struck down a law criminalizing an anti-North Korea leafletting as a violation of free speech.

BRUSSELS — Polling stations opened across Europe on Sunday as voters from 20 countries cast ballots in elections that are expected to shift the European Union's parliament to the right and could reshape the future direction of the world's biggest trading bloc. War in Ukraine, the impact of climate policy on farmers and migration are some of the issues weighing on voters' minds from Portugal in the west to the alpine nation of Austria to Poland in the east and Cyprus in the Mediterranean as they cast ballots to elect 720 members of the European Parliament. Sunday's voting marathon winds up a four-day election cycle that began in the Netherlands on Thursday. Official results of the polls, which are held every five years, cannot be published before the last polling stations in the 27 EU nations close – those in Italy at 11 p.m. (2100 GMT). Unofficial estimates are due to trickle in from 1615 GMT, but results will only become clear on Monday. An unofficial exit poll on Thursday suggested that Geert Wilders' anti-migrant hard right party should make important gains in the Netherlands, even though a coalition of pro-European parties has probably pushed it into second place. Should that trend continue, lawmakers will find it harder to pass legislation and make decisions. Since the last EU election in 2019, populist or far-right parties now lead governments in three nations — Hungary, Slovakia and Italy — and are part of the ruling coalition in others, including Sweden, Finland and, soon, the Netherlands. Polls give the populists an advantage in France, Belgium, Austria and Italy. The elections come at a testing time for voter confidence in a bloc of some 450 million people. Over the last five years, the EU has been shaken by the coronavirus pandemic, an economic slump and an energy crisis fueled by the biggest land conflict in Europe since the Second World War. The polls also mark the beginning of a period of uncertainty for the Europeans and their international partners. Beyond the wrangling to form political groups and establish alliances inside parliament, governments will compete to secure top EU jobs for their national officials. Chief among them is the presidency of the powerful executive branch, the European Commission, which proposes laws and watches to ensure they are respected. The commission also controls the EU's purse strings, manages trade and is Europe's competition watchdog. Other plum posts are those of European Council president, who chairs summits of presidents and prime ministers, and EU foreign policy chief, the bloc's top diplomat.  EU lawmakers have a say on legislation ranging from financial rules to climate or agriculture policy. They also approve the EU budget, which apart from funding the bloc's political priorities bankrolls things like infrastructure projects, farm subsidies or aid delivered to Ukraine. But despite their important role, political campaigning often focuses on issues of concern in individual countries rather than on broader European interests. Voters routinely use their ballots to protest the policies of their national governments. Surveys suggest that mainstream and pro-European parties will retain their majority in parliament, but that the hard right, including parties led by politicians like Wilders or France's Marine Le Pen, will eat into their share of seats. The biggest political group – the center-right European People's Party (EPP) – has already edged away from the middle ground, campaigning on traditional far-right issues like more security, tougher migration laws, and a focus on business over social welfare concerns. Much may depend on whether the Brothers of Italy — the governing party of populist far-right Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, which has neo-fascist roots — stays in the more hard-line European Conservatives and Reformists, or becomes part of a new hard right group that could be created in the wake of the elections. Meloni also has the further option to work with the EPP. The second-biggest group — the center-left Socialists and Democrats — and the Greens refuse to align themselves with the ECR. A more dire scenario for pro-European parties would be if the ECR joins forces with Le Pen's Identity and Democracy to consolidate hard-right influence. Questions remain over what group Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's staunchly nationalist and anti-migrant Fidesz party might join. It was previously part of the EPP but was forced out in 2021 due to conflicts over its interests and values.The EPP has campaigned for Ursula von der Leyen to be granted a second term as commission president but nothing guarantees that she will be returned even if they win. National leaders will decide who is nominated, even though the parliament must approve any nominee.

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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.

MEXICO CITY — Amid Mexico's heat wave and drought, suffering birds are getting air-conditioning and monkeys with heatstroke are being rescued by non-governmental groups. The government, meanwhile, has been more preoccupied with cooling down animals at state-run zoos, giving lions frozen meat popsicles. It's not the only frosty treat: One rescue group is feeding distressed owls with rat carcasses shipped in frozen from Mexico City. A heat dome, an area of strong high pressure centered over the southern Gulf of Mexico and northern Central America, has blocked clouds from forming and caused extensive sunshine and hot temperatures all across Mexico, as well as in the United States. Much of the impact on wildlife is being felt in central and southern Mexico, because while temperatures are also high in the north, it is mostly desert and the animals there have some coping mechanisms for extreme heat and drought. On the steamy Gulf coast, an animal park has set up air-conditioned rooms for eagles, owls and other birds of prey. In the south, howler monkeys continue to fall dead out of the trees with heatstroke. Deaths now probably number over 250. In the southern state of Tabasco, the few monkeys that can be saved from dehydration and heat stroke are mostly being saved by NGOs like the Biodiversity Conservation of The Usumacinta group. Known by its initials as COBIUS, the group has saved and stabilized 18 of the monkeys. Wildlife biologist Gilberto Pozo, the head of the group, has been accompanying teams of biologists and veterinarians out into the jungle to look for ailing monkeys. Many times, they get there too late. "Yesterday we lost three of the animals," Pozo said as he bounced in a truck along a rural road in the southern Gulf coast state of Tabasco, the worst-hit area. "We went out to rescue them. We couldn't stabilize them." The monkeys — mid-sized primates known for their roaring calls — were too far gone with a kind of severe fluid loss as Mexico grapples with drought along with heat. As of May 31, the Environment Department acknowledged that a total of 204 howler monkeys had died, 157 of them in Tabasco. Pozo said the number in Tabasco alone has since risen to 198, suggesting the nationwide toll is now near 250. "The only rescue plan or program is the one our organization is doing," Pozo said. Amid budget cuts for many environmental agencies, the government now has to rely on NGOs. In a statement, the Environment Department said, "Federal environmental authorities have attended to reports of these events, in a coordinated approach with civic groups and academics." It said the government has provided food, lodging and water for the NGO teams and sick animals. The department says tests indicate the primates are dying of heat stroke, but adds that the drought has caused a "lack of water in the streams and springs in the areas where the monkeys live" and that appears to also play a role. Some NGOs are struggling to pay for the care and are calling for donations, like the Selva Teenek, a nonprofit wildlife park in the jungled region of La Huasteca, farther north. On May 9, temperatures in that area soared to around 50 degrees Celsius, and rescuers and staff brought in 15 birds of various species that were found lying on the ground. "This had never happened before," said Laura Rodríguez, the park's veterinarian. "One hundred percent of the animals ... they needed rehydration. Some were so dehydrated we couldn't give them water orally." Ena Mildred Buenfil, leader of the animal rescue group Selva Teneek, said birds — like the howler monkeys — are simply dropping dead. "The birds started having problems, and some of them literally started dropping dead in flight," Buenfil said. "Some of the most affected were the newborns ... people sent photos to us of dozens of dead parrots on the ground." The birds were suffering from heat stress, dehydration and malnutrition, simultaneously. Rescuers had to get them out of the heat, give them water and feed them. That included a shipment of frozen dead rats from Mexico City. "The adult (owls) need rats. Fortunately, we have rats," Buenfil said, but noted the staff has to thaw them a bit to skin them and remove their innards before they can be given to the birds. Since then, dozens of more birds — and a few bats, lynxes and and coyotes — have been found alive but suffering, and have also been brought in to the Teneek park. The situation got so crowded in the three rooms that have air-conditioning at the park that the staff had to put up sheets or curtains to separate the birds of prey from other birds that are their prey. Several birds died, but some species — like the kinkajous that roam the park - only need the air-conditioning during the day, and are let out at night. Others, like the ant eaters, can get by with the breeze from a fan. The lions at Mexico City's Chapultepec zoo got a frozen treat of blood and animal bones mixed with water. Alberto Olascoaga, the head of the capital's zoo, said the animals like it — and it helps hydrate them. "They play with the popsicle. They lick it, they break it up, they bite it, and they are getting refreshed and drinking this cold water as it melts," Olascoaga said. Claudia Sheinbaum, the environmental scientist who won the June 2 presidential election to succeed Andrés Manuel López Obrador, offered some hope that testy relations over how to deal with the plight of wildlife might change when she takes office October 1. "I have spent my whole life studying the environment, it is part of my cause," she wrote in her Instagram account Wednesday.

TOKYO — Japanese police are searching for the suspects who spray-painted the word "toilet" on a Tokyo shrine that commemorates the country's war dead, in an apparent protest against the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, officials and news reports said. The red graffiti on a stone pillar at the entrance of Yasukuni Shrine was discovered early Saturday. In a video posted on Chinese social media, a man who identified himself as Iron Head criticized the discharge of wastewater from the damaged nuclear power plant into the ocean. "Faced with the Japanese government's permission to discharge nuclear wastewater, can we do anything?" the man asks. "No, I will give them some color to see." In another part of the video taken at night, he is seen apparently urinating on the pillar and using spray paint to write "toilet" in English. Tokyo police are investigating at least two suspects, the person who appeared in the video and another who shot it, according to Japanese media including NHK public television and Kyodo News agency. The reports said police believed the incident occurred late Friday after the shrine closed and that the perpetrator is believed to have already left Japan, they said. Police declined to confirm the reports. Yasukuni Shrine, in a statement emailed to The Associated Press, said the graffiti was "extremely regrettable" and said it was "an act of degrading the dignity of the shrine." The shrine said it will continue patrolling so that visitors can pay respects in "a tranquil environment." Yasukuni Shrine declined further comment, saying it has reported the damage to police and investigation is under way. The discharge of wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has been opposed by fishing groups and neighboring countries, especially China, which imposed a ban on all imports of Japanese seafood immediately after the release began in August. The ban has particularly affected Japanese scallop growers and exporters to China. Yasukuni Shrine honors about 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression during the first half of the 20th century, especially China and the Koreas, see the shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism. The countries criticize visits by Japanese lawmakers to the shrine as signs of their lack of remorse over Japan's wartime actions. The graffiti appeared to have been cleaned by Monday.

VERONA, Italy — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni joined top political and cultural figures at Verona's ancient Arena amphitheater Friday night for an open-air celebration of Italian lyric opera's recognition by UNESCO as a global cultural treasure. Conductor Riccardo Muti presided over an orchestra of 170 musicians from Italy's 14 opera houses, joined by over 314 choral singers and a cast of global star opera stars who delivered a greatest hits of Italian opera from Verdi to Puccini, Donizetti to Bellini for an appreciative crowd. La Scala's two star dancers, Roberto Bolle and Nicoletta Manni, also performed. "I am here to testify to my enthusiasm and my pride for the fact that Italian lyric opera has received this great recognition," Muti told the crowd. "Of course, this is an important moment, because recognition is never a point of arrival but a point of departure." "The great masterpieces are our heritage, which we Italians have given to the world," Muti added in a prepared message for the television audience. While UNESCO included Italian opera on its intangible cultural heritage list in December, the Arena proved a fitting place to celebrate the milestone. The ancient stone amphitheater built by the Romans is home to a popular summer opera festival that for generations has made opera accessible to the uninitiated with lavish productions. More than half of the 400,000 spectators at the Arena each summer are foreigners. "We have brought together the entire Italian opera system to celebrate, together with the great singers of the world," said the Arena's deputy artistic director, Stefano Trespidi. "I am convinced that this evening will bring benefits to the entire music and opera system." Joining Italian opera stars like Luca Salsi, Francesco Meli and Vittorio Grigolo were international stars including German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, Australian soprano Jessica Pratt and Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez. Russian soprano Anna Netrebko canceled at the last minute due to illness. Though a previous center-left government prepared the UNESCO bid for Italian lyric opera, the recognition has been embraced by Italy's far-right-led government. Besides Meloni, also attending the gala were Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano — who has set out to replace foreign opera house directors with Italians — and Senate speaker Ignazio La Russa, both members of her Brothers of Italy Party. The loudest applause was reserved for Italy's nonpartisan president, Sergio Mattarella. And Muti seemed to be making a point against Eurosceptics on the far-right when he transitioned from the Italian anthem, with its "Brothers of Italy" refrain echoing the name of Meloni's party, to Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which is the European Union anthem. Europeans are voting for European Parliament seats in an election that concludes Sunday and could determine whether far-right parties will have a greater say in the direction of the 27-member bloc.

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ROME — The total global volume of fish, shrimp, clams and other aquatic animals that are harvested by farming has topped the amount fished in the wild from the world's waters for the first time ever, the United Nations reported Friday. The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, in its latest report on fisheries and aquaculture — or farming in water — says the global catch and harvest brought in more than 185 million tons of aquatic animals in 2022, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Experts say the milestone in human history had been expected, as the hauls from fisheries have largely stagnated over the last three decades — largely because of limits in nature. Manuel Barange, who heads FAO's fisheries and aquaculture division, said aquaculture has benefited from a growing recognition of the nutritional benefits — like omega-3 and other micronutrients found in food from aquatic animals — and lesser environmental impact than food derived from land animals. The total amount of aquatic animals captured in the wild fell from 91.6 million tons in 2021 to 91 million tons the following year, FAO said in its latest State of the World's Fisheries and Aquaculture report. Global production rose to 94.4 million in 2022, up from 91.1 million a year earlier, it said. Asia was the source of more than 90% of all aquaculture production of aquatic animals, the FAO added. Some 90% of aquatic animals that are farmed or fished go to human consumption, with the remainder going to other uses like feed for other animals or fish oils. The most common fish that are captured in the world's oceans, seas, rivers, lakes and ponds include Peruvian anchovies, skipjack tuna and Alaskan pollock, while freshwater carp, oysters, clams, shrimp, tilapia and prawns are among the most harvested animal life.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, New York — When Luis Saez first rode Dornoch at Saratoga Race Course last summer, he told trainer Danny Gargan, "You have the Derby winner." While that did not come true, Dornoch made good on that optimism Saturday by winning the first Belmont Stakes at Saratoga, hugging the rail and holding off Mindframe to spring a major upset in the Triple Crown finale at odds of 17-1. The horse co-owned by World Series champion Jayson Werth won the Belmont five weeks after a troubled trip led to a 10th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. This time, Dornoch sat off leader Seize the Grey, passed the Preakness winner down the stretch and held on for a 1 1/2-length victory. "I would put it right up there with winning on the biggest stage. Horse racing is the most underrated sport in the world, bar none," said Werth, who won Major League Baseball's championship with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008. "It's the biggest game: You get the Derby, the Preakness, the Belmont. We just won the Belmont. This is as good as it gets in horse racing. It's as good as it gets in sports." It's the first win in any Triple Crown race for Gargan and the second in the Belmont for Saez, who said he never lost faith in Dornoch. "He's one of the top 3-year-olds in the country, and we've always thought it," Gargan said. "We let him run his race, and he won. If he gets to run, he's always going to be tough to beat." It's the sixth consecutive year a different horse won each of the three Triple Crown races. Sierra Leone, the Derby runner-up who went off as the favorite, was third and Honor Marie fourth. Dornoch paid $37.40 to win, $17.60 to place and $8.10 to show. Todd Pletcher-trained Mindframe paid $6.80 to place and $4.20 to show and Sierra Leone paid $2.60 to show after a jumbled start and more directional problems. There were no such issues for Dornoch, who triumphed at the track known as the graveyard of favorites for its penchant for upsets. "No one believed in this horse," Gargan said. "It's speechless. He's such a talented horse." Despite there not being a Triple Crown on the line, it's a historic Belmont because the race was run at Saratoga for the first time in the venue's 161-year history. It returns next year while Belmont Park undergoes a massive, $455 million reconstruction with the plan for the Triple Crown race to go back to the New York track in 2026. Having it at Saratoga necessitated shortening the race to 1 1/4 miles from the usual "test of the champion" 1 1/2-mile distance that has been a hallmark of the Belmont for nearly a century. The temporary change contributed to getting more quality horses into the field who previously ran in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness or both. At 1 1/4-mile distance, Dornoch crossed the wire in a time of 2:01.64. 

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CAIRO — British security firm Ambrey said Sunday an Antigua and Barbuda-flagged general cargo ship was struck by a missile 83 nautical miles southeast of Yemen's Aden and caught fire, which was later contained. Earlier, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it had received a report from a captain of a vessel regarding an incident 80 nautical miles southeast of Yemen's Aden. UKMTO said it also received a report from a master of a vessel about another incident 70 nautical miles southwest of Aden. The Houthi militia, which controls the most populous parts of Yemen and is aligned with Iran, has attacked ships off its coast for months, saying it is acting in solidarity with Palestinians fighting Israel in Gaza. "The ship was heading southwest along the Gulf of Aden at speed 8.2kts when the forward station was struck by a missile. A fire started but was neutralized," Ambrey said in an advisory note. "A second missile was sighted but did not hit the ship. Persons on board small boats in the vicinity opened fire on the ship during the incident." Ambrey said the ship changed its course to port with increased speed, adding that "no injuries were reported."  The Houthi fighters have aimed drone and missile strikes at the Bab al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden, forcing shippers since November to take longer and more costly journeys around southern Africa. 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti's newly selected prime minister, Garry Conille, was hospitalized late Saturday in the capital of Port-au-Prince, an official told The Associated Press.  It wasn't immediately known why Conille was hospitalized.  Louis Gerald Gilles, a member of the transitional presidential council that recently chose Conille as leader of the troubled Caribbean country, said he was en route to the hospital and did not have further information.  A spokesman for Conille did not immediately return a message for comment.  Conille was chosen as prime minister on May 28 after a convoluted selection process. He arrived in Haiti on June 1, having worked outside the country until recently as UNICEF's regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, a post he assumed in January 2023. He previously served as Haiti's prime minister from October 2011 to May 2012 under then President Michel Martelly.  Conille has been meeting with multiple officials and visiting various parts of Port-au-Prince since arriving, including climbing into an armored vehicle to go along on a patrol with officers from Haiti's National Police.  Earlier Saturday, Conille toured Haiti's main international airport, which recently reopened after gang violence forced it to close for nearly three months. 

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea resumed flying balloons on Saturday in a likely attempt to drop trash on South Korea again, South Korea's military said, two days after Seoul activists floated their own balloons to scatter propaganda leaflets in the North. Animosities between the two Koreas have risen recently because North Korea launched hundreds of balloons carrying manure and trash toward South Korea in protest of previous South Korean civilian leafletting campaigns. In response, South Korea suspended a tension-easing agreement with North Korea to restore front-line military activities. Saturday's balloon launches by North Korea were the third of their kind since May 28. It wasn't immediately known if any of the North Korean balloons had landed on South Korean territory across the rivals' tense border. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that North Korean balloons likely carrying trash were moving in an eastward direction, but they could eventually fly toward the south because the wind direction was forecast to change later. The Joint Chiefs of Staff advised the public to beware of falling objects and not to touch balloons found on the ground but report them to police or military authorities. After the North's two rounds of balloon activities, South Korean authorities discovered about 1,000 balloons which were tied to vinyl bags containing manure, cigarette butts, scraps of cloth, waste batteries and waste papers. Some had popped and scattered on roads, residential areas and schools. No highly dangerous materials were found, and no major damage has been reported.\ The North's vice defense minister, Kim Kang Il, later said his country would stop the balloon campaign but threatened to resume it if South Korean activists sent leaflets again. In defiance of the warning, a South Korean civilian group led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said it launched 10 balloons from a border town on Thursday carrying 200,000 anti-North Korean leaflets, USB sticks with K-pop songs and South Korean dramas, and U.S. $1 bills. South Korean media reported another activist group also flew balloons with 200,000 propaganda leaflets toward North Korea on Friday. South Korean officials called the North Korean trash balloon launches and other recent provocations "absurd, irrational" and vowed strong retaliation. South Korea's suspension of the 2018 military agreement with North Korea would allow it to restart live-fire military drills and anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts at border areas, actions that are certain to anger North Korea and prompt it to take its own retaliatory military steps. North Korea is extremely sensitive to South Korean civilian leafletting campaigns and front-line propaganda broadcasts as it forbids access to foreign news for most of its 26 million people. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is a third generation of his family to rule North Korea with an iron fist since 1948. Experts say North Korea's balloon campaign is also meant to cause a divide in South Korea over its conservative government's tough approach on North Korea. Liberal lawmakers, some civic groups and front-line residents in South Korea have called on the government to urge leafleting activists to stop flying balloons to avoid unnecessary clashes with North Korea. But government officials haven't made such an appeal in line with last year's constitutional court ruling that struck down a law criminalizing an anti-North Korea leafletting as a violation of free speech.

WASHINGTON — Badly needed aid has been delivered into Gaza from a newly repaired American-built pier, a U.S. official said Saturday, following problems that had plagued the effort to bring supplies to Palestinians by sea. The pier constructed by the American military was only operational for about a week before it was blown apart in high winds and heavy seas on May 25. The damaged section was reconnected to the beach in Gaza on Friday after undergoing repairs at an Israeli port. Crews delivered about 492 metric tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza via the pier Saturday, the U.S. official said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement of the delivery. It came the same day that Israel mounted a heavy air and ground assault that rescued four hostages, who had been taken by Hamas during the October 7 assault that launched the war in Gaza. At least 210 Palestinians, including children, were killed, a Gaza health official said. It brings back online one way to get desperately needed food and other emergency supplies to Palestinians trapped by the eight-month-old Israel-Hamas war. Israeli restrictions on land crossings, and fighting, have greatly limited the flow of food and other vital supplies into the territory. The damage to the pier was the latest stumbling block for the project and the persistent struggle to get food to starving Palestinians. Three U.S. service members were injured, one critically, and four vessels were beached due to heavy seas. Early efforts to get aid from the pier into the Gaza Strip were disrupted as crowds overran a convoy of trucks that aid agencies were using to transport the food, stripping the cargo from many of them before they could reach a U.N. warehouse. Officials responded by altering the travel routes, and aid began reaching those in need. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Friday that the lessons learned from that initial week of operations made him confident greater amounts of aid could be delivered now. He said the goal was to get 450 metric tons of food and other supplies moving through the pier into Gaza every two days. Before the causeway broke apart in the storm, more than 1,000 metric tons of aid were delivered, Pentagon officials said. The U.S. Agency for International Development is working with the U.N. World Food Program and their humanitarian partners working in Gaza to distribute food, high-nutrition emergency treatment for starving children, and other aid via the sea route. Relief agencies have pressed Israel to reopen land routes that could bring in all the needed aid. Israel says it has allowed hundreds of trucks to enter through a southern checkpoint and pointed the finger at the U.N. for not distributing the aid. The U.N. says it is often unable to retrieve the aid because of the security situation. U.N. agencies have warned that over 1 million Palestinians in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by the middle of next month if hostilities continue. President Joe Biden's administration has said from the start that the pier wasn't meant to be a total solution and that any amount of aid helps. Biden, a Democrat, announced his plan for the U.S. military to build a pier during his State of the Union address in early March, and the military said it would take about 60 days to get it installed and operational. It took a bit longer than planned, with the first trucks carrying aid for the Gaza Strip rolling down the pier on May 17. The initial cost was estimated at $320 million, but the Pentagon said this past week that the price had dropped to $230 million, due to contributions from Britain and because the cost of contracting trucks and other equipment was less than expected. 

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white house — Protesters formed a symbolic red line around the White House on Saturday, calling for an end to the eight-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and urging American leaders to press Israel not to invade Rafah, where airstrikes were reported Saturday.  As the conflict enters its ninth month, the demonstrators chanted "From D.C. to Palestine, we are the red line" while holding a long banner listing the names of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.  President Joe Biden has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch a major military operation, calling it a red line, but Israel Defense Forces have been carrying out military operations in and near Rafah since early May.  In late May, an Israeli airstrike on a camp in southern Gaza killed at least 45 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. When asked if this breached the president's red line, John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser, said the administration does not believe Israel's actions in Rafah constitute a "major ground operation."   That view was rejected by the protesters in Washington on Saturday.  "I no longer believe any of the words that Joe Biden says," said 25-year-old protester Zaid Mahdawi from Virginia, whose parents are Palestinian.   "This 'red line' in his rhetoric is rubbish... it shows his hypocrisy and his cowardice," Mahdawi told Agence France-Presse.  The protest was organized by several groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CODEPINK, and others.   CODEPINK, a left-wing anti-war organization, is supported by many at the protest for its stance on Palestinian statehood but criticized by others for opposing U.S. support for Ukraine during Russia's invasion. Some protesters said they were not affiliated with any movement.   Organized buses brought people to the capital from at least 13 states. There was no official count of protesters, but the crowd formed a symbolic red line around the White House. Biden was not at the White House to see the protest, as he is in France until Sunday.   The White House is waiting for Hamas' official response to the latest hostage deal and cease-fire proposal. Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed Gaza in their bilateral meeting Saturday.  VOA asked the White House for a reaction to the protest and the protesters' demands and received the U.S. Secret Service's statement: "In preparation for the events this weekend in Washington, D.C., which have the potential to attract large crowds, additional public safety measures have been put in place near the White House complex."   A LGBTQ+ pride parade was among the events in the U.S. capital Saturday.   Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse.