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Mexico will make history on June 2nd, when voters elect a woman as its new leader in a process in which thousands of local and state positions are up for grabs. VOA’s Celia Mendoza reports from Mexico City. Camera: Miguel Angel Boizo

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.

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is guilty of falsifying financial records to hide a payment to an adult film star to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. Tina Trinh reports from New York.

BRUSSELS — Youth leader Rareș Voicu remembers like it was yesterday when he went to the polls five years ago for the European Union elections in his Romanian hometown of Brăila. The problem was that he was 16 years old at the time and not eligible to cast a ballot. Once his family went into the voting booths, he knew he could not. "I had done so much research on the parties and on the candidates, and I knew who I would have voted for," Voicu said. "So I know firsthand the frustration, and how frustrating it can be as a young person when you're 16, when you're 17." Now 21, Voicu is leading a drive to make sure as many 16- and 17-year-olds as possible go to the June 6-9 polls in the five member states of the 27-nation bloc that allow them to vote. In the other nations, the minimum voting age still stands at 18, like it is in the United States. The voting age is set at 16 in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Malta and 17 in Greece. In Belgium, voting is mandatory. Nateo Carnot from Celles in southern Belgium, who is 16, won't have to deal with the issue Voicu had, but he knows that teens like him will have to step up and overcome political apathy, even helplessness. "Youth sees politics as something from up high — men in big ties in big cars that won't listen. So there is a disinterest," he said. "Whatever we do. It won't change anything. They won't listen," is the reasoning of many. Yet lowering the bar to 16, as Belgium did for these elections, shows improvement, Carnot said. "It shows politicians start to show interest in us and realize that we are mature enough to express our voice." Some see the lowering of the minimum voting age as a ploy to get an easy vote from unwitting teens who have barely outgrown childhood. Voicu vehemently disagrees. "When you're 16, when you're 17, you often have the right to make medical decisions for your own body. You have the obligation to pay taxes if you have a job. You can enter civil partnerships or you can get married. So you have all of these duties, all of these obligations," he said. "What we're asking for is for the democratic rights of young people to match their responsibilities. We think it's only fair," said Voicu, who also wants more countries to lower the voting age. Their demands can be heard by the exceptionally young, too, since late teens can also run for office in many nations. The United States has a minimum age of 25 years to run for Congress, but most EU nations allow anyone 18 years or up to represent their electorate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, and Brussels. Kira Marie Peter-Hansen was shocked when she found herself elected to the European Parliament on a Danish Independent Greens party ticket five years ago, at barely 20 years old. "I never expected to get elected, so I never planned for that either. And it wasn't part of my childhood dreams." Yet, she was thrown into EU politics at the deep end. Working the hallowed halls of Parliament early on not only had her puzzled but EU politicians and staff too. "People thinking I'm an intern. And then checking my badge," she said. "The first half year was super difficult and confusing." But she grew into it. "So the last time I was the youth candidate. Now, I am the leading candidate while being young," Peter-Hansen said. If there is one thing she has learned over the past five years, it is that there are few specific youth-versus-elderly issues that need specific approaches. "A lot of younger (and) a lot of older voters are concerned by the climate crisis, the nature crisis. So there are some places where we can meet across generations," she said. Many members of extreme right and populist parties expect that the youngsters will unite with the elderly in rejecting the traditional powers and parties that have ruled the EU Parliament for so long. "They look at the future and the future looks grim," said Tom Vandendriessche of the far-right Flemish Interest party, which is part of the Identity and Democracy Group. "How could they have trust in these traditional parties ... that have been governing us for decades and who brought us into this mess," he said, mentioning the issues of migration and terrorism. "They are looking for answers which are different." Manon Aubry, a member of Parliament from the hard left France Unbowed party, pointed to different issues for the young to get riled up about, such as social exclusion, inequality and poverty. Aubry insisted the elections are the ideal moment to stand up to anyone from the Hungarian prime minister to the French president to the head of the world's largest luxury goods company. "It's the only time, the only place when you, me, any youth has as much power as Viktor Orban, as Emmanuel Macron, as Bernard Arnault, one of the richest guys in the European Union," she said.

GRINDAVIK, Iceland — Lava continued to spurt from a volcano in southwestern Iceland on Thursday but the activity had calmed significantly from when it erupted a day earlier. The eruption Wednesday was the fifth and most powerful since the volcanic system near Grindavik reawakened in December after 800 years, gushing record levels of lava as its fissure grew to 3.5 kilometers in length. Volcanologist Dave McGarvie calculated that the amount of lava initially flowing from the crater could have buried the soccer pitch at Wembley Stadium in London under 15 meters of lava every minute. "These jets of magma are reaching like 50 meters, into the atmosphere," said McGarvie, an honorary researcher at Lancaster University. "That just immediately strikes me as a powerful eruption. And that was my first impression ... then some numbers came out, estimating how much was coming out per minute or per second and it was, 'Wow.'" The activity once again threatened Grindavik, a coastal town of 3,800 people, and led to the evacuation of the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, one of Iceland's biggest tourist attractions. Grindavik, which is about 50 kilometers southwest of Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, has been threatened since a swarm of earthquakes in November forced an evacuation in advance of the initial December 18 eruption. A subsequent eruption consumed several buildings. Protective barriers outside Grindavik deflected the lava Wednesday but the evacuated town remained without electricity and two of the three roads into town were inundated with lava. "I just like the situation quite well compared to how it looked at the beginning of the eruption yesterday," Grindavik Mayor Fannar Jónasson told national broadcaster RUV. McGarvie said the eruption was more powerful than the four that preceded it because the largest amount of magma had accumulated in a chamber underground before breaking the earth's surface and shooting into the sky. The rapid and powerful start of the eruption followed by it diminishing quickly several hours later is the pattern researchers have witnessed with this volcano, McGarvie said. It's unknown when eruptions at this volcano will end. "It could go on for quite some considerable time," McGarvie said. "We're really in new territory here because eruptions like this have never been witnessed, carefully, in this part of Iceland." Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, sees regular eruptions. The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and led to widespread airspace closures over Europe. None of the current cycle of eruptions have had an impact on aviation.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico goes into Sunday's election deeply divided: friends and relatives no longer talk politics for fear of worsening unbridgeable divides, while drug cartels have split the country into a patchwork quilt of warring fiefdoms. The atmosphere is literally heating up, amid a wave of unusual heat, drought, pollution and political violence. It's unclear whether Mexico's next president will be able to rein in the underlying violence and polarization. Soledad Echagoyen, a Mexico City doctor who supports President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's Morena party, says she can no longer talk about politics with her colleagues. "In order to not lose friendships, we decided not to bring up politics starting six years ago, because we were arguing, and the attacks started to get personal," said Echagoyen. Being a critic of the current administration does not appear to be easier. "There's too much hate," said Mexico City student Luis Ávalos, 21. He said some of his friends accuse him of "betraying the country" for not supporting López Obrador. Opposition presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez has focused her ire on López Obrador's "hugs not bullets" policy of not confronting the drug cartels. She faces former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who is running for López Obrador's Morena party. Sheinbaum, who leads in the race, has promised to continue all of López Obrador's policies. López Obrador himself likes to depict every issue as a struggle between the forces of the "good people" and shadowy conservative conspiracies, and he has done a lot to stoke the flames of division and anger. "More than an election, this is a referendum to choose the kind of country we want," López Obrador said recently. And it really is a referendum on him: he — much like Donald Trump in the United States — is the central figure in the campaign. In Mexico, just as across the globe, forces of angry, charismatic populism are fighting it out with an income-polarized liberal democracy. Issues of national identity, the influence of foreigners and economic exclusion have divided the country into warring camps. "In this country, what's being built isn't a sense of citizenship, but rather of voter bases," said Gloria Alcocer, the director of the civic-minded magazine Voz y Voto, roughly "Voice and Vote." López Obrador is prohibited by law from running for reelection to another six-year term. The battle lines are drawn: the ruling Morena Party already holds the governorships of 23 of the country's 32 states, and is going for them all. It already has a simple majority in both houses of Congress, and wants a two-thirds majority so it can amend the constitution at will. It is hard to describe how chilling that is for some Mexicans who spent more than four decades trying to build a formal democracy, with checks and balances, watchdog agencies and strict electoral rules, almost all of which Morena has said it would like to defund or eliminate if it gets the chance. Like the old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party — which held Mexico's presidency without interruption for a record 70 years — Morena hasn't hesitated to use the government's power to influence elections, hand out money or embark on big building schemes that may never be truly finished. But it's also hard to describe how attractive López Obrador policies have been for many Mexicans who have felt excluded under 40 years of what he calls "neo-liberal," market-oriented administrations. Under López Obrador, Mexico has more than doubled its still-tragically low minimum wage (now about $15 per day, or about $2 per hour). While that's not going to change anybody's life — a Big Mac now costs about $5.19 in Mexico, compared to an average of $5.69 in the U.S. — it is the underlying appeal of Morena's platform that draws many voters. The implicit message for many Mexicans during market-oriented governments over the decades was that they were somehow wrong for not learning more English, working in manual labor and not in the tech economy, receiving government subsidies and living in a traditional, family-dominated culture. López Obrador turned this narrative on its head: he intentionally mispronounces English phrases, glorifies manual labor, says subsidies are good, favors state-run companies and says Mexico is strong precisely because of its family values and Indigenous culture: he has even claimed those same values make Mexicans immune to drug addiction. López Obrador says fighting the drug cartels — which have taken over large swaths of Mexico, extorting protection money from all walks of life — is a foreign idea, one imposed on Mexico by the United States. He has opted instead for a "hugs not bullets" approach and limiting cooperation with U.S. authorities in fighting the gangs. Sheinbaum is an academic who lacks López Obrador's charisma, folksy style and mass appeal. She says her administration will follow the outgoing president's policies, but with more data to back up her decisions. Gálvez, a woman who went from a poor Indigenous town to starting her own tech firm, has been the wild card in the race: her plain-spoken, folksy approach has produced both punchy phrases and monumental gaffes. Both women are 61. A third little-known male candidate from a small party has trailed far behind both women. Sunday's elections — which will also decide congressional seats and thousands of local posts — are different from those of the past in other ways. About 27 candidates — mostly running for mayor or town councils — have been killed so far this year. While that number is not much higher than in some past elections, what is unprecedented is the mass shootings: candidates used to be murdered in direct attacks that killed only them, but now criminals have taken to spraying whole campaign events with gunfire. And, as international studies professor Carlos A. Pérez Ricart notes, "where there are no shootings, it's because (local government) institutions have already been taken over" by the cartels. Mexico has also been baking under a heat wave so intense that howler monkeys have literally been dropping dead from the trees. Almost all of the country is suffering some level of water shortage and air pollution has been so bad in the capital, that a fifth of the cars have been banned from driving. All of that is not exactly helping cool tempers or drawing people toward reconciliation. In the present scenario, perhaps the only positive thing is that it doesn't appear the election will be particularly tight. "This country couldn't really handle a narrow margin of victory," said Pérez Ricart. "We are lacking true democrats on both sides."

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.

Donald Trump becomes the first former U.S. president in the nation’s history to be convicted of felony crimes after a New York jury finds him guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election. And with the 2024 election just five months away, Joe Biden and Donald Trump have very different views on fighting climate change. Another European country moves toward recognizing Palestinian statehood. How much for the price of a Big Mac? McDonalds responds to social media posts complaining of price increases

Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a generation, leading to widespread hardship and anger. Some Nigerians are demanding a reversal of government policies one year after authorities embarked on bold but unpopular economic reforms. President Bola Tinubu has so far refused to change course, insisting his reforms will improve Nigeria's ailing economy. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja. Camera: Timothy Obiezu

CAIRO — The U.S. and British militaries said they launched strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Thursday as part of efforts to deter the militant group from further disrupting shipping in the Red Sea, with Houthi media reporting at least two people killed. The U.S. Central Command said in a statement that U.S. and British forces had hit 13 targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The British Defense Ministry said the joint operation targeted three locations in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, which it said housed drones and surface-to-air weapons. The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported at least two deaths and 10 injuries from strikes against a radio building in Hodeidah's Al-Hawk district. "As ever, the utmost care was taken in planning the strikes to minimize any risk to civilians or non-military infrastructure," the British Defense Ministry said in a statement. "Conducting the strikes in the hours of darkness should also have mitigated yet further any such risks." The Houthi-run media said a total of 13 strikes had been launched against Yemen, including six on the capital Sanaa. The Houthis, who control Yemen's capital and most populous areas, have attacked international shipping in the Red Sea since November in solidarity with the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas militants, drawing U.S. and British retaliatory strikes since February.

STATE DEPARTMENT — Senior officials from the United States and the People's Republic of China held diplomatic talks in Washington on Thursday to try to defuse tensions, to discuss efforts to maintain military-to-military communication, and to advance cooperation. Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Kurt Campbell hosted China's Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu at the State Department for talks aimed at maintaining open communication to prevent miscalculations and unintended conflicts, especially during times of tension.  Following two hours of face-to-face discussions, U.S. and Chinese officials had a working lunch at the State Department. Later in the afternoon, U.S. deputy national security adviser Jon Finer continued discussions with Ma. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also stopped by the meeting to greet Ma and exchanged views on key issues. "The two sides discussed ongoing work to continue military-to-military communication and advance cooperation in areas where our interests align, such as counternarcotics," the White House said in a statement, ahead of the expected meeting between U.S. and China defense chiefs during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. They also discussed areas of disagreement. "Finer affirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He underscored U.S. support for international law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. The two sides also discussed Russia's war against Ukraine, challenges in the Middle East, and efforts to advance the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," the White House statement said. The visit by Ma follows U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to Shanghai and Beijing in April.  Officials said it builds on the U.S.'s intensive diplomacy with the PRC to responsibly manage competition in the relationship, even in areas where the two countries disagree.  The State Department has said the U.S. is engaging in face-to-face diplomacy with China to clearly and directly communicate Washington's positions and intentions, aiming to make progress on bilateral, regional and global issues. A spokesperson from PRC's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Ma would also "interact and communicate with representatives from various sectors in the U.S." during his visit to the country Thursday to Sunday. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Thursday that the U.S. would continue its engagement with China at senior levels while raising concerns over contentious issues, including Beijing's support for Russia's war efforts in Ukraine.  "If China does not curtail its support for Russia's defense industrial base, the U.S. would be prepared to take further steps," Patel told reporters during a briefing. He added, "The PRC's reconstitution of the Russian defense industrial base not only threatens Ukrainian security but also threatens European security," a view held by the United States, the G7, the European Union and NATO countries. However, Patel declined to preview any potential U.S. sanctions. While in Beijing last month, Blinken voiced "serious concern" regarding China's support for Russia's defense industry, warning Chinese leaders that Washington could impose sanctions over the matter.  China has defended its approach to Russia, saying it is engaged only in normal economic exchanges with a major trading partner.  On Wednesday, Campbell renewed the U.S. warnings, saying Chinese support was helping to revitalize Russia's military capabilities, including long-range missiles, artillery, drones and battlefield tracking. During his visit to Brussels, Campbell emphasized the urgent need for European and NATO countries "to send a collective message of concern to China about its actions, which we view are destabilizing in the heart of Europe."  The latest U.S.-China talks occur just days after China conducted a large-scale, two-day military exercise involving 111 aircraft and 46 naval vessels around Taiwan. Washington has strongly urged Beijing to exercise restraint and has reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Mark Lambert, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for China and Taiwan, met virtually on May 23 with Hong Liang, the PRC's director-general for boundary and ocean affairs. During the meeting, Lambert expressed profound concerns regarding People's Liberation Army joint military drills in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan.  

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.

JOHANNESBURG — Partial results in South Africa's national election put the long-ruling African National Congress party at well below 50% of the vote as counting continued Thursday, and it could be on the brink of losing its majority for the first time since sweeping to power under Nelson Mandela at the end of apartheid in 1994. That would be a momentous change for South Africa, where the ANC has been dominant for all 30 years of its young democracy and the only governing party many have known. The ANC had the most votes and was well ahead in the early results, as expected. But if it fails to secure a majority, it may have to form a coalition to remain in the government — something that has not happened before in post-apartheid South Africa. Without a majority, the ANC would also need help from other parties to reelect President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second term. "I think we are seeing a massive change in South African politics," Susan Booysen, a political analyst and professor emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said on national broadcaster SABC TV. It was still only an early picture after Wednesday's election. The final results were expected to take days, with the independent electoral commission saying they would be delivered by Sunday, although they could come earlier. The ANC's worst performance in a national election is the 57.5% it won in the last one in 2019. A projection from a government agency and SABC, based on early vote returns, estimated that the ANC would end up with about 42% this time, a drop of more than 15%, which would be a stunning result in the context of South Africa. South Africa may be the continent's most advanced country, but it has struggled to solve a profuse inequality that has kept millions in poverty decades after the segregation of apartheid ended. That inequality and widespread poverty disproportionately affects the Black majority that make up more than 80% of the country's population. South Africa has one of the worst unemployment rates in the world at 32%. Voters repeatedly referred to unemployment as well as other issues like ANC corruption scandals, problems with basic government services and high violent crime as their main grievances.

Lusaka, Zambia  — Police in Zambia have arrested five people on espionage charges following their earlier allegations via social media that the government was involved in the apparent abduction of independent lawmaker Jay Jay Banda last week. Police spokesperson Danny Mwale confirmed to journalists in Lusaka on Thursday the arrests of opposition lawmakers Munir Zulu and Maureen Mubonga, opposition activist Brebner Changala, and opposition party chiefs Edith Nawakwi and Danny Pule. All suspects earlier this week were charged with spreading hate speech related to last weekend’s alleged abduction of Banda, who has since resurfaced. Mwale further said that police charged Zulu, Mubonga and Pule with proposing a tribal war. In Zambia, espionage charges carry up to a maximum 25 years in prison upon conviction while hate speech charges carry a punishment of up to $6,000 in fines and two years in prison. Makebi Zulu, a lawyer representing some of the suspects, all of whom are awaiting court appearances in police custody, called the charges “unacceptable” and demanded immediate courtroom hearings. Political analyst Boniface Cheembe at the University of Zambia has urged political leaders from both the ruling United Party for National Development and the opposition to focus on improving the lives of ordinary Zambians. “We need to do more as a country," Cheembe said, "Our citizens need to demand more from their political leaders to focus on issues" such as economic difficulties, infrastructure needs and provision of services. Earlier this week, President Hakainde Hichilema warned that anyone promoting hate speech and tribalism to disturb social peace would face the full force of the law. Thursday’s arrests came barely a week after opposition Patriotic Front Secretary General Raphael Nakachinda was sentenced to 18 months of hard labor for violating a now-defunct presidential defamation law, stemming from his December 2021 allegations that Hichilema had coerced and intimidated Zambian judges into politically favorable rulings. Human Rights Watch said Nakachinda’s sentencing has had a broad chilling effect on the right to freedom of expression in Zambia.

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.

 Washington — Vietnam protested what is said was China’s violation of its sovereignty after Beijing dispatched a navy hospital ship to the Paracels, a group of small coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea currently occupied by China but claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. China Central Television first reported the story on May 21. Doan Khac Viet, deputy spokesperson for the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said his country objected to the ship’s presence. He spoke May 23 in response to a question from the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper regarding the Youai hospital ship being sent to the archipelago, known as Hoang Sa in Vietnamese. "Vietnam resolutely opposes any activities infringing upon Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa," Viet emphasized. The Youai hospital ship is under the command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command. According to a report in the Global Times, citing China Central Television, the ship sailed around the Paracels, covering around 1,000 kilometers, and stopped at some islands to provide health service and treatment to Chinese soldiers. Viet said Vietnam "objects to any action that hinders and infringes on the sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction" of Vietnam over the Paracels in accordance with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the online VnExpress newspaper reported. VOA contacted the Chinese foreign affairs ministry and its embassy in Washington for comment but received no response at the time of publication. "This would appear to be a pro forma objection by Vietnam, intended to publicly respond to China’s public announcement of the hospital ship’s voyage, and thus register Hanoi’s continued claim of sovereignty over the Paracel Islands," Raymond Powell, a fellow at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, told VOA via email. "China consolidated its control over the Paracels 50 years ago when it seized the western islands from South Vietnam, at a time when Hanoi’s chief interest was in prosecuting its conquest of the South," Powell said. China has since developed and militarized its presence in the Paracels, making any change in the status quo highly unlikely. According to Powell, "This makes Hanoi’s claims largely defensive in nature, more intended as a lawfare bulwark against future encroachments into Vietnam’s waters by staving off international recognition of a Chinese exclusive economic zone claim based on the Paracels." In 1959, China set up government offices in the Paracels, and in 1974, acquired and obtained full control of the islands after its naval battle against the then-South Vietnamese government. The floating hospital, commissioned in November 2020 and equipped with a helicopter landing pad, is expected to provide support in China’s "multidimensional drills in the South China Sea," according to China Military online. Earlier in May, the ship took part in a series of training, including transporting the wounded in emergency situations and rescuing damaged vessels, China Central Television reported. "As Vietnam has recently deepened its relations with both China and the U.S., I think it is a good idea for Vietnam to maintain the quo status in the South China Sea, as well as to continue to occupy its outposts in the Spratly Islands," Hoang Viet told VOA in a recent phone interview. He is an expert on South China Sea disputes at the National University of Ho Chi Minh City. In January, Pham Thu Hang, a spokesperson for Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Vietnam had "sufficient evidence to claim sovereignty over the islands" as it marked the 50th anniversary of China’s invasion of the Paracel Islands. Pham spoke in Hanoi in response to reporters’ questions on Vietnam's position concerning China's invasion of the Hoang Sa Islands in 1974. Four days later, the Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing’s claims of the islands were "fully supported by history and jurisprudence," the Reuters news agency reported. "China was the first to discover, name, develop and manage these islands and archipelagos, and continues to exercise sovereign jurisdiction over them," Wang Wenbin, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said at a regular news conference on January 24. "China always opposes relevant countries' illegal claims on China's territory and will continue to firmly safeguard its sovereignty," Wenbin said. 

Islamabad — Eleven militants accused of being involved in carrying out the deadly March suicide attack on Chinese engineers are in custody, according to Pakistani officials. Following the arrests, Beijing urged Islamabad to continue the investigation. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Monday that China was attaching great importance to the progress made by Pakistan. "China supports Pakistan in continuing to get to the full bottom of what happened and hunting down and bringing to justice all the perpetrators," she said. The suicide attack killed five Chinese engineers on March 26 along with their Pakistani driver. They were on their way to work at the largest dam at Dasu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistani officials said.  A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle filled with explosives into their convoy. Pakistan blames Afghanistan as a launching pad for militants who attack Pakistan – an accusation the Taliban has repeatedly denied. Islamabad said the suicide bomber who targeted the Chinese engineers was an Afghan national. "The attack on the Chinese engineers at Shangla (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) is not the only attack. There are several attacks that are carried out by Afghan nationals in Pakistan, their dead bodies were there, and they were identified as Afghans," Abdullah Khan, an Islamabad-based researcher for the Pakistan Institute of Conflict and Security Studies, told VOA. Mounting security threats have prompted Pakistani officials to introduce security protocols requiring residential addresses of Chinese nationals and information about their mobility in the country. Baloch separatist groups and Islamist militants have been targeting Chinese interests and personnel in Pakistan’s resources-rich southwestern Balochistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Militants associated with the Baloch separatist groups have claimed past attacks on Chinese nationals and interests. Earlier this month, the army said its troops were carrying out 100 intelligence-based operations daily, as part of its fight against terrorism. Militants associated with radical Islamists groups claimed an attack in 2021 targeting a bus carrying workers to the same hydropower project. The attack killed 13 people, including at least nine Chinese nationals. The two Islamist militants accused of the crime were sentenced to death for that attack. No group has accepted the responsibility for the latest suicide attack on the Chinese engineers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.  Pakistan announced on May 23 the government will pay $2.58 million to the victims of the March attack. Pakistan is host to Chinese workers connected to Beijing’s mega projects under the umbrella of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), an initiative with $62 billion in overall Chinese investments. Pakistani officials say the pace on the Chinese projects has slowed in recent years. Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will be visiting Beijing the first week of June to persuade China to revive CPEC, according to media reports. This story originated in VOA’s Deewa Service.

washington — The shadow of five journalist killings since the start of the year is hanging over Pakistan’s media. Karachi-based journalist Amber Rahim Shamsi says the violence has created a sense of numbness among the country’s reporters.  "I don’t know if it’s about fear as much as normalization,” she told VOA. “That kind of numbness, to me, is more worrying than an open expression of fear.” Of the killings so far this year, four took place this month, including a bombing in Balochistan province that killed journalist Muhammad Siddique Mengal. The deaths make May the deadliest month on record for journalists in Pakistan, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. The killings come amid increased risks for Pakistan’s already beleaguered media. Also in May, watchdogs reported on two cases of reporters being disappeared; a press club raid in the city of Quetta; the detention of two reporters for objecting to the raid; and the passing by Punjab’s provincial government of a defamation law that critics warn could be used to stifle the media. 'Dissent is being criminalized' “The space for freedom of expression is shrinking, and dissent is being criminalized,” Iqbal Khattak, the Pakistan representative for Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, told VOA from the capital, Islamabad.  Pakistan’s journalists already work under significant pressure. Despite a historically vibrant media landscape, watchdogs say that reporters are forced to walk a fine line because of the limited space for criticism of the country's powerful military and intelligence agencies. The Inter-Services Intelligence agency in particular has for years been accused by rights groups of forcibly disappearing or even killing critical reporters. Pakistan’s Washington embassy and Foreign Ministry did not reply to VOA’s emails requesting comment.  Some analysts say the recent surge in attacks may be a byproduct of the political turmoil that has gripped Pakistan since former Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted two years ago.   “With political insecurity comes greater pressure on the media,” Khattak said.   Up until March of this year, no journalists had been killed in Pakistan since 2021. But the CPJ has recorded dozens of cases of journalists singled out for attack or killed on risky assignments since it started keeping track in 1992. A lack of justice — or impunity — in targeted cases exacerbates the problem, experts say. Of the 37 cases where CPJ confirmed the journalists were directly slain for their work, 34 cases remain unresolved. In Pakistan, impunity reigns when it comes to journalist killings because the government doesn’t care about holding the perpetrators accountable, according to Saroop Ijaz, who works on Pakistan at Human Rights Watch. “Journalists are viewed as adversaries, as opponents,” Ijaz told VOA from Lahore. Reporters and news outlets are also facing heightened pressure of legal threats. Analysts are concerned by a defamation law that Punjab’s provincial government adopted earlier this month. The law’s supporters say it will help combat the spread of disinformation. But critics are concerned about the harsh penalties, including fines and the threat of entire outlets being shut down. They also warn of potential for abuse, with a coalition of Pakistani media organizations calling it a “black law” for press freedom. On the surface, the law sounds like a good thing because it ostensibly aims to reduce the spread of fake news, according to Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington. But in practice, the law will likely be used to target opposition voices, he said. “Who makes the decision about what is fake news?” Kugelman said. “I fear that it can be used as a pretext to essentially go after anyone who happens to say or write or broadcast anything that happens to be inconvenient or critical.”  Under the law, court proceedings would also be kept secret, which journalist Munizae Jahangir said she finds concerning. “Are these kangaroo courts? Are we going back to the times of martial law?” she told VOA from Islamabad. Jahangir, who hosts the current affairs program “Spot Light” for the Pakistani news channel Aaj TV, serves as co-chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Chilling effect The law may also compound self-censorship. Some red lines shift based on the political tides of the moment, according to Pakistani journalists and experts, but criticism of the country’s military and intelligence agencies, and of Islam, are understood to be off limits. “Pakistan is really like a minefield,” Jahangir said. “You do not know what the no-go areas are. You do not know once you put your foot somewhere what’s going to explode, what’s going to happen to you next. You just have to figure it out.” Shamsi, who has worked for outlets including the BBC World Service and Dawn, said she worries about the next generation of journalists in Pakistan. “They haven’t known anything else,” she said, referring to the poor press freedom landscape. But she finds optimism in the robust history of resistance among Pakistani media in the face of severe safety threats. Jahangir agreed. “We have to tell the truth no matter how high the price may be,” she said. “Journalists in Pakistan have always pushed the envelope.”