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  Washington — A 35-year-old Chinese national is facing charges related to committing cybercrimes that FBI Director Christopher Wray described as “likely the world’s largest botnet ever.”   The arrest in Singapore was the result of an international coordinated effort that included law enforcement agencies from Germany, Singapore, the United States and Thailand.  YunHe Wang, arrested on May 24, is accused of being the creator of the 911 S5 botnet, a residential proxy service.   Wang, along with other unnamed parties, created the 911 S5 botnet to facilitate “cyber-attacks, large-scale fraud, child exploitation, harassment, bomb threats, and export violations,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a Department of Justice press release on Wednesday.    Wang sold access to infected IP addresses to cybercriminals in exchange for crypto or fiat currency. From these transactions, he received at least $99 million in profits, the DOJ stated.   The cybercriminals Wang transacted with were allegedly able to use the infected IP addresses to “bypass financial fraud detection systems and steal billions of dollars from financial institutions, credit card issuers, and federal lending programs,” according to the DOJ release.   The compromised IP addresses allowed Wang’s customers to create fraudulent unemployment claims that targeted pandemic relief programs. The United States estimates they lost $5.9 billion from these fraudulent claims.   Wang used his profits to buy property in China, St. Kitts and Nevis, the United States, Singapore, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. Wang also spent his money on luxury cars and watches.   Wang faces several charges including substantive computer fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Wang could face up to 65 years in prison if convicted.   Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 

The White House puts Africa front and center as President Biden welcomes Kenyan President William Ruto, celebrating six decades of partnership. This week on Inside Story: Biden’s Africa Outreach.

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.

Nairobi, Kenya — A Kenyan parliamentary committee is visiting central Kenya to hear from locals about the conduct of a British Army training unit that is accused of human rights violations, including the unresolved death of a woman more than ten years ago. The Kenya National Human Rights Commission prompted the inquiry by petitioning parliament to hold the British army accountable for alleged human rights abuses. Kenya's Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Foreign Affairs is visiting Laikipia and Samburu counties. They're there to hear people's complaints and look into reported abuses by the British army in the area. The committee, which started its inquiry on Tuesday, listened to families who blame the deaths of their relatives on unattended explosives around British training camps. The lawmakers also heard complaints of abuses at the hands of British officers, including mistreatment, torture, and unlawful detention and killings.  The committee chair, Nelson Koech, outlines explains some of the other complaints they heard from Laikipia and Samburu residents. "We've listened to people from different areas, to Lolldaiga Hills, where it's believed that officers from British Army lit fire, were burning vegetation and an entire conservancy, and driving animals out of the conservancy to where the human population is because many people have been maimed or killed by animals that now are under distress because of the training that is happening in those grounds, to many other allegations of water becoming heavily polluted. People are now starting to get effects from the fire and having chest problems," Koech said. In March 2021, a British training exercise caused a fire in the Lolldaiga Conservancy that lasted for several days.  Local activist James Mwangi wondered why the British army was allowed to train in water catchment areas with dangerous weapons.  "Lolldaiga supports so many water streams. Why are they allowing the army to train with chemical and poisonous weapons that they don't know how to use," Mwangi said. The inquiry was prompted by a petition to the parliament from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR). Kenya has a defense cooperation agreement with the British government that allows up to 10,000 soldiers per year to conduct exercises in the East African nation. According to the Kenyan government, the presence of the British Army Training Unit in Kenya, or BATUK, provided 3,000 people with jobs and contributed $45 million to the economies of Isiolo, Laikipia, and Samburu. Koech says the parliamentarians will listen to all those who allegedly suffered from British Army activities and other government agencies to verify any abuses and human rights violations.  "You must remember this is one side of the story we have listened to. We will be visiting BATUK, and we will be going there personally to get information from the British army. This inquiry is important to mention that in an inquiry of this nature, the verdict of this inquiry is equivalent to the verdict of a high court of Kenya," Koech said. A spokesperson for the British High Commission in Kenya told the French news agency AFP that they intend to cooperate with the inquiry.  In 2012, Agnes Wanjiru was killed, allegedly by a British soldier. An investigation did not begin until 2019 and the findings of that probe were never made public.  In 2021, the Sunday Times reported that a British officer confessed to killing a 21-year-old in central Kenya to a colleague. Afterward, Kenyan police said they were reopening the inquiry.  Wanjiru’s family told the parliamentary committee to take her killing seriously and remove obstacles that may stop the prosecution of the British soldier.  The killing of Wanjiru has led to tensions between Kenya and Britain regarding the jurisdiction of British soldiers who commit crimes in Kenya.  The committee found that while some victims received compensation, it was usually less than what they were promised.  The committee will present its findings to the full parliament and also closely examine the Kenya’s defense cooperation agreement with the British government.  

Israel claims to have control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the border area between Gaza and Egypt; how will this change the course of the war, or the Israeli relationship with Egypt? Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Moldova to show support for Ukraine’s neighbor amid an increase of pressure from Russia. An update from Kyiv about Russian attacks overnight and Ukrainian successes at sea. North Korea’s attempted satellite launch appears to have also been a message to China, it’s main ally. Plus, democracy advocates convicted in Hong Kong and a human rights protest in Turkey has entered its thousandth week.

United Nations — The U.N. General Assembly drew criticism Thursday for its tribute to the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash, with Washington boycotting the gathering.  Following a minute's silence, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres offered his condolences to the families of the victims of the May 19 incident, as well as to the Iranian people.  "I wish to assure that the United Nations stands in solidarity with the Iranian people and in the quest for peace, development and fundamental freedoms," Guterres said.  "For that, the United Nations will be guided by the Charter to help realize peace and security, sustainable development and human rights for all," he added.  Asked about the U.N. chief offering condolences in the days after the leader's death, Guterres's official spokesman defended his position.  The secretary-general "has never been shy about expressing his deep concerns about the human rights situation in Iran, notably on the issues of women," Stephane Dujarric said.  "It does not stop him from expressing condolences when the head of state of a Member State of this organization, and a foreign minister, with whom he met regularly … dies in a helicopter crash," he added.  The General Assembly pays tribute to any head of state of a U.N. member country who dies in office, including Namibian President Hage Geingob, an independence stalwart, last February, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 2011.  Pakistan's ambassador to the U.N., Munir Akram, spoke for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and hailed what he called Raisi's legacy of "socio-economic and political transformation" in Iran.  No representatives of Western countries spoke at the tribute and some, such as France and the United States, did not send representatives.  "The U.N. should be standing with the people of Iran. Raisi was involved in numerous, horrific human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killings of thousands of political prisoners in 1988," said Nate Evans, spokesman for the U.S. delegation.   "Some of the worst human rights abuses on record took place during his tenure," Evans added.  Outside the U.N. headquarters in New York several dozen protesters opposed to the Iranian authorities chanted "shame on U.N."  Israel's ambassador Gilad Erdan, who condemned the initial minute silence at the Security Council on May 20, also criticized Thursday's event.  "The UN was founded to prevent atrocities, but today it salutes mass-murdering dictators!" he wrote on X last week.

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.

In June, the United States and the West Indies are co-hosting the International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup. Despite its overseas popularity, cricket remains largely unknown in America. VOA’s Muhammad Atif has more.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court gave a boost on Thursday to the National Rifle Association in its free speech dispute with a New York state official it accused of coercing banks and insurers to avoid doing business with the influential gun rights advocacy group.  The justices, in a 9-0 decision authored by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, threw out a lower court's ruling that dismissed the NRA's 2018 lawsuit against Maria Vullo, a former superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services. The NRA has claimed that Vullo unlawfully retaliated against it following a mass shooting in which 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida.  At issue in the dispute is whether Vullo had wielded her regulatory power to coerce New York financial institutions into cutting ties with the NRA in violation of protections under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment against government restrictions on free speech.  "Ultimately, the critical takeaway is that the First Amendment prohibits government officials from wielding their power selectively to punish or suppress speech, directly or, as alleged here, through private intermediaries," Sotomayor wrote.  The case will now return to the lower courts for further analysis of the NRA's allegations under the standard articulated in the Supreme Court's ruling.  Vullo called upon banks and insurers to consider the "reputational risks" of doing business with gun rights groups following the February 2018 Parkland shootings. In the aftermath of the Parkland rampage by a 19-year-old former student armed with an AR-15 rifle, NRA officials lashed out at gun control advocates, arguing that Democratic elites were politicizing the shootings to erode gun rights.  Vullo later fined Lloyd's of London and two other insurers more than $13 million for offering an NRA-endorsed product called "Carry Guard" that Vullo's office found was in violation of New York insurance law. The product provided liability coverage for policyholders who caused injuries from gunfire, even in cases involving the wrongful use of a firearm.   The insurers agreed to stop selling NRA-endorsed products that New York considered illegal.  The NRA's lawsuit, seeking unspecified monetary damages, accused Vullo of unlawfully retaliating against the group for its constitutionally protected gun rights advocacy by targeting it with an "implicit censorship regime." Its suit alleged that New York's "blacklisting" campaign sought to deprive the NRA of basic financial services and threatened its advocacy work.  The case did not involve the Constitution's Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.  The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case in March.  The NRA is the largest and most powerful gun rights organization in the United States and has been instrumental in thwarting Democratic-backed gun restrictions in the U.S. Congress. The nonprofit group is organized under the laws of New York state, with its main offices in Virginia.  A federal judge in 2021 dismissed all of the NRA's claims apart from two free speech counts against Vullo. The Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022 said those also should have been dismissed, prompting the NRA's Supreme Court appeal.  The NRA found an unlikely ally in the case in President Joe Biden's administration. Even though Biden has called gun violence a national embarrassment, his administration had urged the justices to let the NRA pursue its lawsuit.   The administration argued that a lower court should determine whether Vullo's actions crossed the line between permissible criticism of the NRA and coercion aimed at suppressing a disfavored viewpoint in violation of the First Amendment protections.  The case was the latest to come before the Supreme Court involving the NRA, a group closely aligned with Republicans that has opposed gun control measures and backed pivotal lawsuits that have widened U.S. gun rights.   Americans remain deeply divided over how to address firearms violence including mass shootings even as the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has taken an expansive view of gun rights.  Vullo was sued in both her official and personal capacities. But the 2nd Circuit found that Vullo would be protected from suit under the legal defense of qualified immunity that shields officials from civil litigation in certain circumstances.  The Supreme Court by the end of June is expected to issue rulings in two gun rights cases. One involves a challenge to the legality of a federal ban on "bump stock" devices that enable semiautomatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns. The other involves a challenge to the legality of a federal law that makes it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to have guns.

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.