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Washington — The conviction of former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday for falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment ahead of the 2016 election quickly became one of the hottest topics on Chinese social media. Trump’s conviction became the most searched topic on Chinese social media platform Weibo and search engine Baidu on Friday morning in China. On short-video platform Douyin, TikTok's China-based sister application, it also landed among the five most searched topics. While views varied, many Chinese netizens posted they hope the verdict by a New York jury, which found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts, will cause unrest in the U.S. between the former president’s supporters and opponents. Although as president, Trump took a series of punitive measures against China in areas such as technology and trade, some Chinese netizens felt that his conviction was unfair and repeated unfounded claims by his supporters that the verdict was political persecution from U.S. President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. "The Democrats' tactics are really low," one Weibo user under the name Little Rabbit and Evil Cake commented on the news. Other netizens stood by the guilty verdict, declaring Trump's conviction his own doing. "If you do too much evil, you will be killed by yourself," one user under the name Gray Wolf with White Fur wrote on Weibo. But many Chinese netizens were less interested in the verdict than the unrest they hoped it would cause in the U.S. "Trump supporters quickly mobilize and occupy Congress," said one Weibo user in a call for a repeat of the January 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters trying to stop the 2020 election from being certified. Those who stormed the Capitol were repeating Trump's claim, without evidence, that Biden cheated in the election. A Chinese nationalist commentator named Lu Kewen insulted Trump’s supporters in a post that hoped they resort to violence. "Put Trump in jail and wait for the fuming rednecks to draw their guns," he wrote. His was not the only call for violence in the U.S. that as of Friday morning had not been removed from Chinese social media, despite the ability of Beijing’s Great Firewall internet censors to quickly delete posts by China’s own critics and domestic calls for unrest. "Fast forward to the new Civil War. I want to see rivers of blood!" another user under the name Wearing Red Clothes wrote. But there were also more analytical comments from Chinese netizens. Chinese economist Hong Hao posted on his Weibo that Trump's trial is not conducive to the stability of American society. "The biggest issue in the United States right now is not allowing a criminal to run for president. Rather, politicizing the judicial process in these Trump cases has shaken the foundation of the rule of law in the United States," he said. During the 2016 election, Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump in 2006. Such payments are not illegal and are called hush money. Trump was found guilty of falsifying company business records to conceal the reimbursement paid to Cohen. Trump denies the encounter with Daniels or that anything illegal occurred. Trump on Thursday railed against the jury’s verdict and said, without presenting any evidence, that the trial was rigged. "We have a judge who's highly conflicted. He happens to be corrupt. It's the worst confliction that anybody's seen. Nobody has ever seen anything like it," he said. A spokesperson for the White House Counsel's Office responded, saying only, "We respect the rule of law." Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Despite the conviction, Trump is expected to be the Republican presidential nominee for the election on November 5. Trump on Friday said he would appeal the conviction and repeated unfounded claims that the trial was rigged. Biden on Friday said the verdict showed "the American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed" and said it is "reckless, is dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this (trial) was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict." When asked at a regular Chinese Foreign Ministry briefing Friday if Trump’s conviction would prevent him from visiting China, if reelected in November, or present any other difficulties for China-American relations, spokesperson Mao Ning declined to comment, calling it a U.S. domestic affair.

WASHINGTON — Marian Shields Robinson, the mother of Michelle Obama who moved with the first family to the White House when son-in-law Barack Obama was elected president, has died. She was 86. Robinson's death was announced by Michelle Obama and other family members in a statement that said, "There was and will be only one Marian Robinson. In our sadness, we are lifted up by the extraordinary gift of her life." She had been a widow and lifelong Chicago resident when she moved to the executive mansion in 2009 to help care for granddaughters Malia and Sasha. In her early 70s, Robinson initially resisted the idea of starting over in Washington, and Michelle Obama had to enlist her brother, Craig Robinson, to help persuade their mother to move. "There were many good and valid reasons that Michelle raised with me, not the least of which was the opportunity to continue spending time with my granddaughters, Malia and Sasha, and to assist in giving them a sense of normalcy that is a priority for both of their parents, as has been from the time Barack began his political career," Marian Robinson wrote in the foreword to A Game of Character, a memoir by her son, formerly the head men's basketball coach at Oregon State University. "My feeling, however, was that I could visit periodically without actually moving in and still be there for the girls," she said. Robinson wrote that her son understood why she wanted to stay in Chicago but still used a line of reasoning on her that she often used on him and his sister. He asked her to see the move as a chance to grow and try something new. As a compromise, she agreed to move, at least temporarily. Her granddaughters Malia and Sasha were just 10 and 7, respectively, when the White House became home in 2009. In Chicago, Robinson had become almost a surrogate parent to the girls during the 2008 presidential campaign. She retired from her job as a bank secretary to help shuttle them around. At the White House, Robinson provided a reassuring presence for the girls as their parents settled into their new roles, and her lack of Secret Service protection made it possible for her to accompany them to and from school daily without fanfare. "I would not be who I am today without the steady hand and unconditional love of my mother, Marian Shields Robinson," Michelle Obama wrote in her 2018 memoir, Becoming. "She has always been my rock, allowing me the freedom to be who I am, while never allowing my feet to get too far off the ground. Her boundless love for my girls, and her willingness to put our needs before her own, gave me the comfort and confidence to venture out into the world knowing they were safe and cherished at home." Robinson gave a few media interviews but never to the White House press. Aides guarded her privacy, and, as result, she enjoyed a level of anonymity openly envied by the president and first lady. It allowed her to come and go from the White House as often as she pleased on shopping runs around town, to the president's box at the Kennedy Center, and for trips to Las Vegas or to visit her other grandchildren in Portland, Oregon. She attended some White House events, including concerts, the annual Easter Egg Roll and National Christmas Tree lighting, and some state dinners. White House residency also opened up the world to Robinson, who had been a widow for nearly 20 years when she moved to a room on the third floor of the White House, one floor above the first family. She had never traveled outside the U.S. until she moved to Washington. Her first flight out of the country was aboard Air Force One in 2009, when the Obamas visited France. She joined the Obamas on a trip to Russia, Italy and Ghana later that year, during which she got to meet Pope Benedict, tour Rome's ancient Colosseum and view a former slave-holding compound on the African coast. She also accompanied her daughter and granddaughters on two overseas trips without the president: to South Africa and Botswana in 2011, and China in 2014. Craig Robinson wrote in the memoir that he and his parents doubted whether his sister's relationship with Barack Obama would last, though Fraser Robinson III and his wife thought the young lawyer was a worthy suitor for their daughter, also a lawyer. Without explanation, Craig Robinson said his mother gave the relationship six months. Barack and Michelle Obama were married on October 3, 1992. One of seven children, Marian Lois Shields Robinson was born in Chicago on July 30, 1937. She attended two years of teaching college, married in 1960 and, as a stay-at-home mom, stressed the importance of education to her children. Both were educated at Ivy League schools, each with a bachelor's degree from Princeton. Michelle Obama also has a law degree from Harvard. Fraser Robinson was a pump operator for the Chicago Water Department who had multiple sclerosis. He died in 1991.

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.

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U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump says the Biden administration engineered his criminal convictions in New York to gain an advantage in this November’s election. President Joe Biden says the justice system should be respected. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns reports.

islamabad — The Taliban government Friday dismissed the findings of a Pakistan probe that attributed a recent fatal attack against Chinese workers in the country to militants operating from Afghanistan.    Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesman, told an Afghan television station that his country had nothing to do with the March 26 attack on Chinese nationals in northwestern Pakistan, insisting it was an internal issue for the neighboring country to address.     “The report published by Pakistan is an attempt to damage the trust between Afghanistan and China. We have repeatedly denied this report as illogical,” Mujahid told TOLO TV in his audio remarks.     The response came a day after a Pakistani delegation visited Kabul on Thursday and shared with Taliban counterparts the results of Islamabad’s investigation into the killings of five Chinese nationals, along with their local driver, in a suicide car bombing. The victims were working on a China-funded hydropower project in northwestern Pakistan. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson told a weekly news conference in Islamabad on Friday that its delegation also had requested assistance from Afghan authorities to apprehend the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on Chinese workers based on the "concrete evidence" Pakistan had shared with them. "The Afghan side has committed to prevent the use of their soil for any terrorist activity, and they have agreed to examine the findings of the investigation and to work with Pakistan to take the investigation to its logical conclusion,” Mumtaz Baloch said.     Pakistani military and civilian officials maintain that the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, a globally designated terrorist group also known as the Pakistani Taliban, orchestrated the attack on Chinese personnel from Afghan sanctuaries.     The militant group has for years waged deadly attacks in Pakistan, targeting security forces and civilians.    Officials in Islamabad maintain that fugitive TTP leaders and combatants relocated to sanctuaries in Afghanistan after the Taliban retook control of the country nearly three years ago, and they have since intensified cross-border attacks with “greater operational freedom.” The Taliban have consistently denied that foreign extremist groups have a presence in Afghanistan and are using their territory to threaten outside countries. Critics, however, have questioned those claims. This month, a U.S. government quarterly report to Congress noted that the ruling Taliban continued to allow senior al-Qaida leaders, the TTP, and other insurgent groups to operate in Afghanistan. A United Nations report published earlier this year said the Taliban continued to be “sympathetic” to the TTP and supplied it with weapons and equipment, and some Taliban members reportedly joined the TTP in conducting cross-border raids against Pakistan. The Taliban government has not been formally recognized by the international community. China has steadily improved relations with Afghanistan, though, since the fundamentalist Taliban regained power in Kabul in August 2021. Beijing was the first to appoint a new ambassador to Kabul and the first to officially accept a Taliban ambassador.

Washington — Nearly eight months after a freelance journalist disappeared on assignment in Russian-occupied Ukraine, Moscow confirmed that the reporter is in its custody.  Victoria Roshchyna, a contributor to Ukrainian media outlets including Ukrainska Pravda, had planned to report on what life is like for those living under Russian occupation.   But shortly after passing through a border post on Aug. 3, 2023, communication between Roshchyna and her family ended. Since then, her family and colleagues have been trying to locate the journalist.   Then last month, Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed in a letter to the family that the reporter has been detained in Russian territory.   The status of her health — as well as her specific whereabouts — are still unknown. It’s also unclear whether she has been charged with any crime.   For the International Women’s Media Foundation, or IWMF, which awarded Roshchyna its 2022 courage award, there was a certain amount of relief in knowing that the journalist was detained.  “Because there was also serious concern that she had been killed,” IWMF executive director Elisa Lees Munoz told VOA.  Now their attention is on trying to secure Roshchyna’s release.  “There’s no question that the detention is unjust. But there’s also little hope that there will be some sort of real justice applied in the near future,” Munoz said.   The Russian Defense Ministry delivered the news of Roshchyna’s detention in a letter to her father. He then alerted the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, or NUJU, about her detention.  The media union released a statement this week demanding “the immediate and unconditional release from captivity of Victoria Roshchyna and other illegally captured journalists.”  Russia’s Washington embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.   Roshchyna’s family reported the journalist missing to Ukrainian authorities about a week after their last call, during which she said she had passed a border post.   At the time, the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, told the family that the journalist may have been captured by Russian occupation forces.  “We know that Ukrainian journalists working for independent media in the occupied territories are being hunted down by Russian forces,” Jeanne Cavelier, the head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk at Reporters Without Borders, said in an October 2023 statement, about two months into Roshchyna’s disappearance.   Russia ranks among the world’s worst jailers of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. In late 2023, the press freedom group documented 22 journalists jailed by Russia.   Of those, 12 were foreign nationals, including two Americans and 10 Ukrainians.    Roshchyna was previously abducted by Russian forces in March 2022 while reporting in Berdiansk, in occupied southeastern Ukraine. She was released after nine days.   In an interview last year, Roshchyna’s father said that he had asked her to be careful after that incident. But, he said, she was “unstoppable — she was not able to stop covering the news of this war on the occupied territories for her readers.”  Munoz said that Roshchyna has long been known for being “an extremely vocal and brave journalist.”   “She really dedicated her career to writing about some of the most dangerous topics you could write about in Ukraine,” Munoz said.  She recalled how when the IWMF invited Roshchyna to the United States to accept the courage award in person, Roshchyna declined, saying she needed to keep reporting.   “That is who Victoria is,” Munoz said.

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A new Netflix series has turned attention to a historic red-light district in Pakistan. Set in Lahore, "Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar" is one of the most popular non-English series on the streaming platform. But as VOA's Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman reports, not everyone is happy with the attention. Videographer: Wajid Asad; video editor: Malik Waqar Ahmed.

washington — In China, the U.S. and lands in between, social media remain popular places for people to consume information, and they're often a headache for platforms dealing with disinformation and fake news. The short-video application Douyin, the Chinese version of parent company ByteDance’s TikTok, this week announced a new verification mechanism for suspected fake content. In a statement this week, Douyin said it would target "staged videos" intended to mislead audiences and require creators to label such content as fictional or dramatized. Douyin cited a case of a plastic surgeon in China’s Anhui province who staged a video to appear he saved a patient through emergency surgery, attracting a lot of attention. TikTok, Douyin’s sister app outside China, says it, too, has stepped up efforts to moderate and control content that aims to deliberately mislead for political reasons and includes a somewhat surprising target: state media. TikTok, despite being under a Chinese parent company, introduced measures announced on its U.S. website on May 23 that will restrict state media, including from China, from using the platform to spread disinformation and misinformation outside their own countries. "These updates advance our commitment to building a safe and secure platform that remains free from outside manipulation and influence," the company said in a statement. TikTok says that in the first four months of 2024, it disrupted 15 influence operations and removed 3,001 associated accounts, “most of which involved attempts to influence political speech, including around elections.” The TikTok statement cited efforts made on its platform to covertly influence an election in Indonesia and politics in Britain. “Now we’re expanding our state-affiliated media policies to further address state-affiliated media accounts that attempt to reach communities outside their home country on current global events and affairs. When we identify these accounts, they will become ineligible for recommendation, which means their content won't appear in the For You feed,” it said. TikTok said state media also would not be allowed to advertise outside their countries. It was not immediately clear if TikTok’s restrictions would apply to China’s state media in Taiwan. Beijing considers the self-governing island a breakaway province that must one day reunite with the mainland, by force if necessary. Taiwan, U.S. officials and analysts say Beijing, through harassment and intimidation, attempted to influence Taiwan’s elections in January, which saw the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate win an unprecedented third presidential term in a row. While the TikTok announcement on its U.S. website didn’t specifically mention the U.S. presidential election, it highlighted “countering influence operations during a historic election year.” It says it removed in February 16 accounts from China with more than 110,000 followers that were promoting Chinese policies and culture in the U.S. "We assess this network operated from China and targeted a U.S. audience,” it said. “The individuals behind this network created inauthentic accounts in order to artificially amplify positive narratives of China, including support for the People's Republic of China’s (PRC) policy decisions and strategic objectives, as well as general promotion of Chinese culture. This network utilized accounts impersonating high-profile U.S. creators and celebrities in an attempt to build an audience." U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified before Congress on March 12 that the United States "cannot rule out" that China could use TikTok to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Mike Gallagher, the former chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on China, warned that TikTok has a "huge opportunity" to interfere with the 2024 U.S. election. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence's 2024 Annual Threat Assessment Report states that China may attempt to influence the 2024 U.S. election to some extent "because of its desire to sideline critics of China and magnify U.S. societal divisions." U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN in April that the U.S. has seen evidence of China’s attempts to influence and arguably interfere with the upcoming election. Beijing repeatedly has denied interfering in foreign elections, including in the U.S. Lin Jian, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, repeated that in response to a question about Blinken’s allegation at a regular briefing on April 29. “Non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs is a basic principle for China’s diplomacy. The U.S. presidential election is the U.S.’s internal affair. We have never had any interest and will not interfere in any way in the election,” he said, and then accused Blinken of making the allegation for political purposes. Move called insufficient Critics say this week’s TikTok announcement that it aims to combat election interference and disinformation is too little, too late. "I don't think the measures will be successful as long as TikTok's parent, ByteDance, is de facto controlled by the Chinese government. I think TikTok's parent could divest from control by the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]," Joshua Kurlantzick told VOA. He is a senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Nathan Leamer, CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies and former policy adviser to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, told VOA that TikTok's new moves are symbolic. "I have no reason to believe these measures will do anything but promote the CCP’s interests," he said. "TikTok could be the gateway for a foreign adversary to have unprecedented sensitive data," Leamer said, adding that unless ByteDance divests TikTok, there is no way to protect the integrity of the platform. The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn't respond to VOA's request for comment. TikTok’s stated crackdown on state media comes after it filed a lawsuit May 7 against the U.S. government to try to prevent its forced sale of U.S. assets. U.S. President Joe Biden in April signed a bill requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok in the U.S. to retain access to the American market, due to concerns the company could share the private data of U.S. citizens with Chinese authorities. If ByteDance refuses to divest TikTok in the U.S. by January 19, 2025, it would be banned, according to the law. TikTok says the private data of its users is safe and secure, yet analysts note that Chinese law requires the company to cooperate with Chinese authorities, and that the data of users is vulnerable. As of January 2024, TikTok had an estimated 148.9 million U.S. users, making it the largest market for the Chinese application. TikTok’s CEO testified to Congress in March 2023 that ByteDance retains in the PRC at least seven years' worth of U.S. TikTok users’ data. Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

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

The city of Sumy, Ukraine, is just 32 kilometers from the Russian border. Sumy and the region have been shelled more times in the first five months of 2024 than during all of last year, yet some villages on the Russian border still stand. Olena Adamenko visited the city for this story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Oleh Demianenko; Video editor: Mykhailo Zaika

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ABUJA — Armed men killed at least six civilians and five soldiers in an attack in Nigeria's southeastern Abia state, the military said Friday, prompting the state government to offer a $16,850 reward for information on the gunmen.  The attack on Thursday was the latest in a string of raids in a region rife with separatist violence.  The assailants killed five soldiers deployed as peacekeepers in the area, and the six civilians who died were caught in the crossfire, defense spokesperson Major-General Edward Buba said.  No group claimed responsibility, but the army blamed the outlawed separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, which wants the surrounding region to secede from Nigeria.  The attack was at a military checkpoint at Obikabia junction in Obingwa local government area, Buba said in a statement.   "The military will be fierce in its response. We will bring overwhelming military pressure on the group to ensure their total defeat," he said.  Abia information commissioner Prince Okey Kanu urged the military to show restraint in their response.  The military has previously been accused by rights groups of using excessive force and targeting innocent civilians when responding to similar attacks, charges it denies.   The unrest in the southeast has put pressure on a government and military already struggling to contain attacks and kidnappings in the northwest, a 15-year-old Islamist insurgency in the northeast, and sectarian and herder-farmer clashes in central regions.  IPOB campaigns for the secession of southeastern Nigeria, where the majority belong to the Igbo group.  The movement's leader — Nnamdi Kanu, a British citizen arrested in Kenya in 2021 — is now on trial in Nigeria on terrorism charges.  More than a million people died, mostly from starvation, during a three-year civil war in the late 1960s when the region attempted to secede under the name of the Republic of Biafra.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, will lead a high-level delegation to China next week on an official 5-day visit, Islamabad announced Friday.  During the visit that will begin June 4, Sharif will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and hold delegation-level talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, according to the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Sharif, who will be accompanied by ministers and government officials as well as a group of Pakistani business leaders, will also meet high-ranking government officials and tycoons during the trip that will end June 8.  “The two sides will undertake discussions to further strengthen the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership; upgrade China-Pakistan Economic Corridor; advance trade and investment; enhance cooperation in security and defense, energy, space, science and technology, education; and promote cultural cooperation and people-to-people contacts,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch at the weekly news briefing.  The visit, that was expected to occur in May, comes at a time when Islamabad is anxiously seeking to ramp up the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, in a bid to spur its ailing economy. However, Beijing is deeply concerned about the safety of Chinese citizens working in Pakistan on the flagship project of its global Belt and Road Initiative.  In recent weeks, Pakistan has ramped up efforts to meet Beijing’s key demand that Islamabad enhance the security of Chinese workers, and arrest and punish the perpetrators of a March suicide attack that killed five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver on their way to work at a hydropower project in the mountainous north.  Although no group claimed responsibility for the attack, Pakistan has said the attacker was an Afghan citizen whose handlers were based in Afghanistan.  A high-ranking Pakistani delegation visited Kabul Thursday to share the findings of its probe with the Afghan Taliban and demanded cooperation in arresting the perpetrators. Just days earlier, Islamabad revealed arresting 11 suspects that belonged to the banned militant outfit Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.    Along with enhancing security protocols for Chinese nationals, Islamabad also recently announced more than $2.5 million in compensation for the families of the slain foreign workers.  Responding to VOA on whether Pakistan was confident it could satisfy China’s security concerns in the upcoming visit, Baloch said she disagreed with the notion that Beijing has “doubts in our approach on the issue of terrorism.”  “There’s already a robust dialogue on terrorism that takes place between Pakistan and China. The two countries have a history of trust and confidence in each other and that makes our relation much more effective,” the spokesperson said.  When asked if Islamabad had formally requested Beijing talk to Kabul to curb cross-border terrorism in Pakistan, Baloch refused to share details.  “I am not in a position to share the internal deliberations and privileged diplomatic conversations between Pakistan and its iron brother China,” she said responding to VOA.  A joint statement after a mid-May meeting between Pakistani and Chinese foreign ministers in Beijing called for international efforts to help Afghanistan “pursue good-neighborliness and firmly combat terrorism, including not allowing its territory to be used for terrorist acts.”  Despite United Nations’ reports and research by Washington-based research groups indicating otherwise, the Afghan Taliban deny the presence of terror groups on their soil.  Commenting on the Pakistani prime minister’s upcoming visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told media Friday that Chinese and Pakistani leaders will “jointly draw up a blueprint for the growth of bilateral relations.”  “China stands ready to work with Pakistan through this visit to make greater progress in our all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and take new steps in the building of an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era,” she added.  Earlier in the week, Mao expressed support for Pakistan’s efforts to investigate the March attack while assuring cooperation in enhancing security for its workers there. “China supports Pakistan in continuing to get to the full bottom of what happened and hunting down and bringing to justice all the perpetrators,” Mao said. “China will continue to work with Pakistan to strengthen security cooperation and ensure the safety and security of Chinese personnel, projects, and institutions in Pakistan.”  At least 17 Chinese nationals have been killed in targeted attacks in Pakistan in recent years, dealing a blow to CPEC.

New York — A senior United Nations official said Friday that the organization remains “deeply concerned” about growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, following North Korea’s latest attempted launch of a spy satellite and firing of ballistic missiles.  “We encourage all member states, and members of this council, to seek unity, and for all parties to create an environment conducive to dialogue and cooperation,” U.N. assistant political chief Khaled Khiari told a meeting of the Security Council. “At this particularly difficult moment in securing global peace and security, it is imperative to de-escalate the rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”  Several council members, including the United States, Japan and South Korea, requested the meeting after North Korea unsuccessfully launched a spy satellite on May 27. That was followed on Thursday by the firing of a barrage of ballistic missiles toward its eastern sea.  Washington’s envoy said Pyongyang is advancing its prohibited weapons program “at an alarming rate,” and has launched more than 100 ballistic missiles since the beginning of 2022.  “Each of these launches — successful or not — is a flagrant violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions,” U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Robert Wood said. “Each launch informs the DPRK of its capability gaps and allows Pyongyang to further advance its weapons programs.”  DPRK is the abbreviation for North Korea's official name: the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.  While the spy satellite exploded shortly after it was fired, an earlier launch in November was successful. In December, Pyongyang announced that it plans to launch three more military satellites this year.  North Korea’s U.N. envoy was defiant.  “We make it clear once again that the DPRK’s possession of space reconnaissance capabilities is an independent right that can never be abandoned or bartered for anything else,” Ambassador Kim Song told the council. “It is an important undertaking of absolute necessity for defense of the state sovereignty and legitimate self-defense.”  North Korea’s Monday launch took place just hours after a rare trilateral dialogue wrapped up in Seoul among China’s premier, Japan’s prime minister and South Korea’s president, with a call for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.  Chinese Ambassador Fu Cong said Friday it is imperative all parties adopt a rational and practical approach, swiftly resume dialogue, act calmly and not intensify tensions.  He expressed concern about a planned U.S. joint military exercise on the peninsula planned for August.  “Such a plan will only increase tensions and the risk of war and turmoil on the peninsula, making the goal of long-term stability ever more elusive,” he said. “China opposes the plan.”  South Korea’s ambassador said Pyongyang’s nuclear policy and its rhetoric are becoming increasingly hostile and aggressive towards his country.  “Pyongyang no longer regards its nuclear arsenal as just a deterrent against the U.S., but instead as a means to attack my country, the Republic of Korea, which the North Korean leader himself called in January not a fellow nation but, ‘the most hostile foreign enemy to be subjugated,’” Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook said.  Hwang added that North Korea announced Friday that the multiple short-range ballistic missiles it fired on Thursday were aimed at his country, and that Pyongyang says it will not hesitate to carry out a preemptive attack on “the enemies.”  “Faced with these menacing threats, the Republic of Korea has to take all necessary measures to protect national security and our people by maintaining a robust combined defense and deterrence posture,” Hwang said.  Russia-DPRK military cooperation  The United States and several other council members also raised, not for the first time, Russia’s procurement of weapons and munitions from North Korea for use in its war in Ukraine, in violation of the council’s own sanctions and arms embargo.  “The DPRK has also unlawfully transferred dozens of ballistic missiles and over 11,000 containers of munitions to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine, prolonging the suffering of the Ukrainian people,” Ambassador Wood said.  “We continue to monitor closely what North Korea gains in return,” said Ambassador Kazuyuki Yamazaki of Japan. “We cannot let the current situation become the new normal.”  Both Moscow and Pyongyang have previously denied the weapons allegations.  Several council resolutions prohibit North Korea from developing a ballistic missile program, as well as ban it from exporting arms or related material to other states.  Russia’s envoy said accusations that their activity with North Korea is illegal are “absolutely unfounded” and Moscow is simply cooperating with a friendly neighbor.  “The cooperation between Russia and the DPRK is exclusively constructive and lawful in nature,” Deputy Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva said. “It doesn’t threaten anyone or violate anyone, and it will continue.”  On March 28, Russia used its council veto to shut down the panel of experts who monitor implementation of the Security Council’s sanctions on North Korea, drawing criticism that it was trying to shield itself from scrutiny.  Since 2006, the council has adopted several sanctions resolutions intended to limit North Korea's access to funds and materials for its illicit nuclear and ballistic missile weapons programs. The council created the panel of experts in 2009, and since then they have documented implementation and alleged violations of council resolutions. But despite tough sanctions, Pyongyang continues to advance its weapons programs.  VOA Seoul Correspondent William Gallo contributed to this report.

Abuja, Nigeria — Nigerian President Bola Tinubu responded to criticism Thursday over a law he signed this week that changed the country’s national anthem back to the old song adopted when Nigeria achieved independence in 1960. Critics say the president’s priorities are mixed up and he is being insensitive to the plight of people dealing with inflation and insecurity. Human rights activist Deji Adeyanju said, "His government is not serious. They do not understand the times that we’re facing. Our greatest challenge now [is] economic issues. He has one of the worst economic teams. That should've been the primary responsibility and concern of the government, but instead they're spending precious time talking about the old national anthem. How does that solve inflation problems?” The old — and now current — national anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee,” was written in 1960 by British expatriate Lillian Jean Williams and adopted as Nigeria’s anthem when the country won independence that year. It was replaced in 1978 by “Arise O Compatriots,” which was written by a group of Nigerians in the aftermath of a brutal civil war. The bill to restore the old anthem was introduced in parliament and passed within one week — exceptionally fast-paced for Nigeria, where most bills take several months to be considered. Tinubu, in Abuja’s presidential village, said the old anthem represented the beauty of Nigeria's diversity. He also teased critics who object to the old anthem being written by a British expatriate, saying it was Britain who named the country Nigeria, yet the country’s identity remains. Nassarawa state resident Oliver Ugwu said reintroducing the old national anthem without public consultation was a questionable decision. "A greater percentage of the masses are saying there’s no need of going back,” he said. "We have already gotten our independence, so [what] we want now is to move forward for more development.” Another resident, Lukeman Ademola, said the national anthem law is a diversion from the country’s struggling economy. “What do we need national anthem for; what is the national anthem doing in our lives; how does it even help the masses?” Ademola said. “Look at people suffering; the prices of commodities, the prices of goods and services are just going higher. They’re using fuel as a means of taking these things higher, and even if the fuel comes down, the prices still remain like that. How is this going to help us?” Tinubu has faced a turbulent first year in office marked by widespread criticism and protests against his economic reforms, most prominently his scrapping of fuel subsidies that had kept prices more affordable for Nigerians.