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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.

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.

Paris — Humanity has made strides tackling global warming but remains on track for a "ruinously high" rise in the Earth's temperature, the U.N.'s climate chief said as crucial negotiations began Monday.   Diplomats meet every June in Bonn to try and advance the stickiest points in climate negotiations so that political leaders can finalize agreements at the year-end COP summit.   At this year's Bonn talks, which run until June 13, the main issue is money — how much wealthy nations should pay to help low-income nations cope with climate change.   A new, longer-term goal for climate aid is supposed to be agreed by nearly 200 nations at the COP29 summit in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in November.   Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, urged those attending the Bonn midyear talks "to make every hour here count."   "We cannot afford to reach Baku with too much work still to do," he told negotiators in the German city.   International diplomacy had avoided a scenario where the planet warmed by five degrees — a world in which "most of humanity likely couldn't survive," Stiell said.   "We are now headed for around 2.7 degrees. This is still ruinously high and there's a long and steep road ahead," he added.   Under the Paris agreement in 2015, nations agreed to limit global warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, and to strive for a safer 1.5 C cap.   Incoming COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev said progress made at Bonn "will be the foundation stones of tangible results at COP29."  In 2009, wealthy nations most responsible for climate change to date agreed to raise $100 billion a year by 2020 for countries without the means to invest in clean energy and adapt to extreme weather.   They only met this target for the first time in 2022, two years past the deadline set. Donors have also been criticized for extending loans instead of grants.   The next round of financial pledges looks beyond 2025 but there is no consensus on how much should be raised, who should pay it, and where it should go first.   There has been pushback to calls for prosperous emerging economies like China and Gulf nations to chip in.   Some countries want the level of their climate action contingent on how much money is made available. Countries are supposed to submit their updated climate plans by early 2025.

Islamabad — The United Nations said Monday that flash floods in Afghanistan, caused by extreme weather events related to climate change, are impacting tens of thousands of children, especially in northern and western provinces. The impoverished South Asian country has experienced unusually heavy seasonal rainfall and flash flooding over the past month, affecting more than 100,000 people and resulting in loss and damage to houses, infrastructure, and the livelihoods of people in 32 out of 34 Afghan provinces.  The calamity has killed at least 350 people, including women and children, damaging close to 8,000 homes and displacing more than 5,000 families besides destroying crops and agricultural land, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund, or UNICEF. “The recent extreme weather in Afghanistan has all the hallmarks of the intensifying climate crisis — some of the affected areas experienced drought last year,” the agency noted in a Monday statement. It attributed the loss of lives and livelihoods and damage to infrastructure to an increase in the “frequency and ferocity” of extreme weather events in the country.  Aid agencies have cautioned that many flood survivors cannot make a living and have been left with no homes, no land, and no source of livelihood.  Tajudeen Oyewale, the UNICEF representative in Afghanistan, urged the international community to redouble efforts and investments to support communities to alleviate and adapt to the impact of climate change on children. “The growing number and severity of extreme weather events will require UNICEF and other humanitarian actors to step in with even more rapid and large-scale humanitarian responses,” Oyewale added.   He stressed the need for UNICEF and the humanitarian community to prepare themselves for “a new reality of climate-related disasters in Afghanistan. The war-ravaged country ranks 15th out of 163 countries in the Children’s Climate Risk Index. “This means that not only are climate and environmental shocks and stresses prominent in the country, but children are particularly vulnerable to their effects compared with elsewhere in the world,” UNICEF said.  The Save the Children charity has warned through a recent statement that about 6.5 million Afghan children are forecast to experience crisis-level hunger this year, citing the impact of floods, prolonged drought, and the return of hundreds of thousands of undocumented Afghans from neighboring Pakistan. The World Food Program estimates that 3 million Afghan children are malnourished, and it can only reach one-third of them. The decline in international assistance has led to a rise in children’s admissions to malnutrition clinics in Afghanistan, the agency cautioned.   Afghanistan, one of the countries most at risk of global climate crisis, is among the least responsible for carbon emissions.  Afghan children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate and environmental shocks and stresses compared to elsewhere in the world, the statement said.  The return of the fundamentalist Taliban to power in Kabul in 2021 has led to the immediate termination of financial aid to the country, while international humanitarian assistance has recently also declined. This has worsened humanitarian conditions and pushed Afghanistan’s economy to the brink.

LA JUNQUERA/IRUN, Spain — Spanish and French farmers blocked roads along the border through the Pyrenees mountains on Monday ahead of European Parliament elections to protest against what they say is unfair competition from outside the European Union.   Earlier this year, farmers obstructed roads for weeks in countries across the EU, saying they faced rising costs and taxes, red tape, excessive environmental regulations and unfair competition from cheap food imports.   With EU elections looming on June 6-9, French and Spanish farmers used dozens of tractors to block both sides of the border on the AP-8 highway in the Basque Country and the AP-7 highway in Catalonia.   "Since we have European elections, let's see if our politicians take the sector seriously and listen to our demands," Spanish farmer Josep Juscafrase, 54, told Reuters.   Weeks of farmer protests compelled the EU in May to extend subsidy allowances by six months to support the 27-nation bloc's agricultural sector.   The EU also watered down parts of its flagship Green Deal environmental policies, removing a goal to cut farming emissions from its 2040 climate roadmap.   "It's important (to hold the protest) because in France, agriculture is hard. It's been neglected for around 20 years or even longer. And we feed the people, you know," French farmer Sylvain Fourriques, 39, said.   At the Catalan border with France, farmers played soccer and cooked paellas while blocking crossings, creating long queues of cars and trucks.   "While thousands of truck drivers remain blocked on many roads without being able to get out or even eat..., farmers calmly prepare to eat a good paella. And where are the police?" Spanish transport association Fenadismer, which estimates 20,000 trucks cross the border with France each day, said on X.   The European Parliament election begins on Thursday, although most countries will cast their ballots on Sunday.

ORAN, Algeria — Algeria wants to lure more visitors to the cultural and scenic treasures of Africa's largest country, shedding its status as a tourism backwater and expanding a sector outshone by competitors in neighboring Morocco and Tunisia.   The giant north African country offers Roman and Islamic sites, beaches and mountains just an hour's flight from Europe, and haunting Saharan landscapes, where visitors can sleep on dunes under the stars and ride camels with Tuareg nomads.   But while tourist-friendly Morocco welcomed 14.5 million visitors in 2023, bigger, richer Algeria hosted just 3.3 million foreign tourists, according the tourism ministry.   About 1.2 million of those holiday-makers were Algerians from the diaspora visiting families.   The lack of travelers is testimony to Algeria's neglect of a sector that remains one of world tourism's undiscovered gems.   As Algeria's oil and gas revenues grew in the 1960s and 70s, successive governments lost interest in developing mass tourism. A descent into political strife in the 1990s pushed the country further off the beaten track.   But while security is now much improved, Algeria needs to tackle an inflexible visa system and poor transport links, as well as grant privileges to local and foreign private investors to enable tourism to flourish, analysts say.   Saliha Nacerbay, General Director of the National Tourism Office, outlined plans to attract 12 million tourists by 2030 - an ambitious fourfold increase.   "To achieve this, we, as the tourism and traditional industry sector, are seeking to encourage investments, provide facilities to investors, build tourist and hotel facilities," she said, speaking at the International Tourism and Travel Fair, hosted in Algiers from May 30 to June 2.   Algeria has plans to build hotels and restructure and modernize existing ones. The tourism ministry said that about 2,000 tourism projects have been approved so far, 800 of which are currently under construction.   The country is also restoring its historical sites, with 249 locations earmarked for tourism expansion. Approximately 70 sites have been prepared, and restoration plans are underway for 50 additional sites, officials said.   French tourist Patrick Lebeau emphasized the need to improve infrastructure to fully realize Algeria's tourism prospects.   "Obviously, there is a lot of tourism potential, but much work still needs to be done to attract us," Lebeau said.   Tourism and travel provided 543,500 jobs in Algeria in 2021, according to the Statista website. In contrast, tourism professionals in Morocco estimate the sector provides 700,000 direct jobs in the kingdom, and many more jobs indirectly.

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.

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Chad’s female leaders and activists have strongly condemned what they say is their negligible representation in President Mahamat Idriss Deby's first civilian government after a three-year transition from military rule. The women voiced their concerns during a meeting in Chad's capital, N'djamena, on Monday. Several dozen female activists and opposition members say they are upset with what they call Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby's decision to exclude them from political issues in his first civilian government. The women who met in N'djamena on Monday, said Deby should have rejected the government appointed by new Prime Minister Allamaye Halina last week. Halina was appointed by Deby to replace Succes Masra, who resigned after his defeat in Chad's May 6 presidential election. Masra was in office for four months. Amina Tidjani Yaya is the coordinator of Voix De La Femme, or Women's Voice, a nongovernmental organization that advocates for the respect of women's rights and political participation. She says female leaders and activists do not understand why Chad's new prime minister, Allamaye Halina, decided to reduce the number of female ministers from 12 during Chad's three-year transitional period to eight in the first civilian government he appointed May 27. Yaya says Chadian officials have not respected the resolution of the central African nations’ 2022 Inclusive and Sovereign National Dialogue, which states that more women should be appointed to government positions. Chad's new government has 35 ministers. Twenty-three served in the previous administration before Deby was declared the winner of Chad's May 6 presidential election, ending three years of military transition, returning to constitutional order. During his inauguration, Deby promised to involve opposition parties, youths and women in executing his immediate task, which he said is to reconcile differences among all Chadians and make the central African state a better place in which to live. The female leaders and activists say increasing women's political participation would have been synonymous with improving respect for human rights, justice, the rule of law, governance and democracy. They say women constitute the majority of Chad's population and can have more influence than men in peacekeeping processes. Female leaders say there have been tensions and conflicts involving armed groups who accused the new president of using the military to prolong his family’s rule. Deby's family has had a firm grip on power since his father, Idriss Deby Ino, took over in a 1990 coup and died in April 2021 before the younger Deby took power. The women say Deby should have involved more women in the current government because Chad is a signatory to the Maputo Protocol, a commitment by African nations through the African Union to ensure gender equality in political decision making. Chad's government has not responded to the women's request for more representation in politics. But the central African state’s prime minister, after officially taking office on May 24, pleaded with all Chadians to resolve their differences and collaborate with the new government which he maintained will work for the well-being of all citizens. Senoussi Hassana Abdoulaye, a jurist and lecturer at Chad's university of Ndjamena, told state TV on Monday that Deby and his new civilian government cannot be officially held responsible for reducing the number of female ministers because no law in Chad imposes gender equity in political appointments. He says all women in Chad should register and massively take part as candidates and voters in local council and parliamentary elections that President Mahamat Idriss Deby says will take place before December of this year. He says if women succeed in having a majority of seats in parliament, they can enact laws that compel government officials to respect political equality between men and women. In February, female leaders and activists from Burkina Faso, Chad, Gabon, Guinea, Mali and Niger met in N’djamena and said they want to be involved in the highest decision-making circles of the African military governments involved with political transitions. The meeting, which took place under the theme African Women in Transitional Governments, reiterated that women constitute a majority of civilians in the six states, bear the brunt of violence from military takeovers and are highly underrepresented in decision-making circles. The women promised to make their participation in transitional governance a subject of discussion during important events like their countries’ national days and international events organized by the United Nations and African Union.

Islamabad — Police and relatives in majority-Muslim Pakistan reported Monday that a Christian man who was severely injured in a mob attack a week ago over disputed blasphemy allegations has died due to his injuries. Nazir Masih, the 70-year-old victim, was receiving treatment for severe head injuries at a military-run hospital near the capital, Islamabad, after being rescued, along with family members, from angry protesters gathered outside his residence in the city of Sargodha on May 25. He underwent multiple surgeries but could not survive, a police official said. The mob ransacked Masih’s house and burned down his shoe shop, claiming he had desecrated Islam’s holy book, the Quran, allegations his relatives rejected as baseless. Social media videos from Sargodha showed Christians carrying Masih’s coffin through the street, shouting “Praise to Jesus” and “Jesus is great.” The coffin was covered in black fabric and had a small crucifix on it. Christian community leaders lamented the latest mob lynching and urged the Pakistani government to ensure the protection of religious minorities and to punish those responsible for inciting mob violence in the name of religion over controversial blasphemy charges.   “Yet again, hate has brought us to the place where we must ask questions,” Bishop Asad Marshall, the president of the Church of Pakistan, said in a statement posted on X Monday. “The question is when will those who make a change and those who pursue justice seek truth and cry for a more just and fair world? When will those lives rise up for the sake of Pakistan’s own?” Marshall asked. ‘’We lift our voices in lament, regret, solidarity, and for an honest plea for justice.” Police have arrested dozens of suspects in connection with the mob attack under Pakistan’s anti-terrorism law. They had also launched an investigation into the blasphemy charges against Masih.  Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan, and mere allegations have led to mobs lynching dozens of suspects — even some in police custody. Insulting the Quran or Islamic beliefs is punishable by death under the country's blasphemy laws, though no one has ever been executed. The Sargodha incident revived memories of one of the worst attacks on Christians in August 2023 in Jaranwala, another city in the central Punjab province, the country’s most populous. That attack involved thousands of Muslim protesters attacking a Christian settlement and burning 21 churches as well as damaging more than 90 properties over allegations two Christian brothers had desecrated the Quran.  The violence prompted several Christian families to flee their homes. A subsequent police crackdown arrested scores of people, including the Christians accused of blasphemy.  Critics have long called for reforming the blasphemy laws, saying they are often misused to settle personal scores. Hundreds of suspects, mostly Muslims, are languishing in jails in Pakistan because external pressures deter judges from moving their trials forward.  "While the majority of those imprisoned for blasphemy were Muslim, religious minorities were disproportionately affected,” the U.S. State Department noted in its recent annual report on human rights practices in Pakistan.  The report noted that Pakistani courts often failed to adhere to basic evidentiary standards in blasphemy cases. The U.S. report attributed the lack of adherence “to fear of retaliation from religious groups if they acquitted blasphemy defendants, and most convicted persons spent years in jail before higher courts eventually overturned their convictions or ordered their release.”

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.

In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, many residents of Chinese descent still live and work in the city's Chinatown, as they have for hundreds of years. It’s an area that continues to evolve as traditional shops compete with modern chains. VOA's Ahadian Utama reports. (Camera: Ahadian Utama, Indra Yoga; Produced by: Ahadian Utama,)

LONDON — Britain intends to begin deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda on July 24, a government lawyer said on Monday, although the hotly contested scheme is dependent on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party winning the upcoming election. Sending asylum seekers who have arrived in Britain without permission to Rwanda is one of Sunak's flagship policies, but legal and parliamentary obstacles have meant it has never got off the ground. Sunak has said the deportation flights will not leave before the July 4 election but has promised if he wins they would begin soon after. The opposition Labour Party, leading by about 20 points in opinion polls, has pledged to scrap the plan if elected. In documents submitted to the London High Court as part of a challenge to the policy by charity Asylum Aid, government lawyers said the intention was "to effect removals with a flight to Rwanda on 23 July 2024 [and not before]." However, government lawyer Edward Brown later told the court that an "operational update" from the Home Office (interior ministry) said the first flight would in fact leave on July 24. The scheme — first drawn up by one of Sunak's predecessors, Boris Johnson, in 2022 — aims to deter asylum seekers making the dangerous journey across the Channel in small boats from France. Last November, the UK Supreme Court declared the policy unlawful, prompting Sunak to sign a new treaty with the East African country and to pass new legislation to override this. Asylum Aid's lawyer Charlotte Kilroy said the date earmarked for the flight was "news to us." The judge, Martin Chamberlain, remarked: "This is all going to be subject to the outcome of the general election, but we obviously cannot make any predictions about that." The numbers of asylum seekers crossing the Channel has risen to record numbers this year, with more than 10,000 people arriving so far, after numbers fell by a third in 2023.