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Bangkok — An ever-expanding array of underground services and the deft uptake of new technologies including artificial intelligence are fueling the continued growth of Southeast Asia’s cyber scam gangs and helping them stay a step ahead of law enforcement, the United Nations said in a new report released Monday. The report said most of the estimated $18 billion to $37 billion lost to cyber scam syndicates last year across East and Southeast Asia were stolen by groups based in the countries of the lower Mekong River. The U.N. calls these countries “a key testing ground” for cyberfraud groups with a growing global reach in the victims they scam out of their money and the workers they lure into prison-like compounds as forced labor to run their cons. Last year, the U.N. estimated that more than 200,000 people were forced to work in “scam centers” in Myanmar and Cambodia alone. “This is ground zero for the scamming industry in terms of innovation, in terms of the way that things develop,” Benedikt Hofmann, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime’s deputy representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, told VOA ahead of the report’s release. The report details the ways in which the syndicates adopt cryptocurrencies and other new technologies to run their scams and integrate them with the region’s casinos to move their criminal profits around. “All of this is coming together in basically what is a criminal service economy that’s grown around these scam centers and casinos in the Mekong region. And that’s really been at the core of the growth in this industry that we’ve been seeing,” Hofmann said. Erin West, a deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County, California, agreed. “Southeast Asia is absolutely the heart of the massive international threat that is coming from scamming worldwide right now,” she said. As part of a task force of local law enforcement agencies focused on advanced tech crime, West has become a leading figure in the fight against cyber scammers. The Mekong countries, she told VOA, are “where the organized crime syndicates have deliberately placed their compounds and their casino towers because … there are places where they know they can conduct this dirty business without much interference from government.” Besides merely using cryptocurrencies to hide their money moves, the UNODC says the syndicates have a growing and increasingly sophisticated choice of “high-risk virtual asset service providers” — essentially cryptocurrency exchanges operating with little to no rules on reviewing, recording or reporting who is using them. Perhaps the largest of the syndicates, the UNODC adds, is Huione Guarantee, an online marketplace run by the Huione Group, a sprawling Cambodian conglomerate with ties to the country’s ruling Hun family. Huione Pay, a subsidiary of the group providing a host of currency services, lists Hun To, a cousin of Prime Minister Hun Manet, as a director. Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, recently estimated that Huione Guarantee has processed more than $49 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since 2021. While much of it may be legal, Chainalysis and others have linked millions of dollars worth of transfers to known criminal syndicates including the Lazarus Group, a hacking collective the U.S. says is helping fund North Korea’s weapons program. These analytics firms say many of the merchants using Huione Guarantee make thinly veiled offers of services ripe for criminal exploitation, from mule accounts to digital face altering programs and electric shackles for binding “runaway dogs,” a reference to scam center workers who try to escape. Huione Group did not immediately reply to VOA’s request for comment on the allegations. Another emerging threat is the scammers’ uptake of artificial intelligence to help write malware programs or generate increasingly convincing deepfakes for video calls. “It makes things much more complicated for both the law enforcement side but especially the consumer side,” Hofmann said. “If you receive a video call from someone who you think might be either some official or family member or someone, that’s so many more times more convincing than if you just receive it like a WhatsApp message or some other messenger message out of the blue,” he added. West says she also has seen Southeast Asia’s scammers using more AI to help them do “exponentially” more with less. “We’ve seen them using technology to be able to conduct multiple conversations at a time using AI, which limits the need for as many people,” she said. “It’s scary to realize the access that they have to that kind of technology,” she added. “They’re consistently way ahead of us in a lot of their craft. They’re just very good at it, and things that we used to be able to exploit, we’re no longer able to exploit because they’ve adapted and gotten better, smarter, faster.” In Southeast Asia, the UNODC report also describes what it calls a “breakdown” in cooperation among law enforcement agencies across some borders, another weak spot it says the cyberfraud syndicates are exploiting. Despite some successful cases of cross-border cooperation, Hofmann said it remains piecemeal. Colonel Jessada Burinsuchat, superintendent of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau of the Royal Thai Police, echoed that view at a forum on cyberfraud in Bangkok last week, organized by the UNODC. “We have cooperation with all the neighboring countries, but it’s very little when comparing with Thai police [and] USA, China, Japan or Russia. I can say that around Thailand, maybe we have the very least cooperation. It’s not systematic; it’s very individual, and it’s very … inconsistent,” he said. At the same event, Hofmann called out a particularly “weak link” in Myanmar, where non-state armed groups have for decades controlled autonomous and often crime-riddled enclaves along the country’s porous border with Thailand. Many of those groups have only grown stronger since Myanmar’s military seized control from the country’s elected government in 2021, setting off a civil war that shows no sign of letting up. Given the trends, analysts and experts say the region’s cyberfraud epidemic is likely to worsen before it gets better. “It’s very clear that an ecosystem has been created that fosters innovation,” said Hofmann, making it ever easier for the scammers to work and harder for law enforcement to fight. “Based on that,” he added, “you can just see the scale of this continuing to expand going forward.”

Washington — The Middle East is on the brink. Just days after a massive missile attack on Israel, Iran is threatening more strikes. Israel, already battling Iranian-backed militias on two fronts, is vowing retaliation. The U.S. has deployed thousands of troops to the region.   While no one is expecting all-out war, fears of a broader conflict are rising, keeping the region and the world on edge.   How did we get here and what happens next? To understand the current crisis, some historical perspective is in order.  The roots of the conflict   The current confrontation may be between Iran and Israel, but it is part of a much older conflict in the region, with its roots going back to the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.    While historians trace the conflict’s origins even further back, the creation of Israel catalyzed a conflict that still reverberates across the region.    Israel emerged from a 1947 U.N. plan to partition then British-controlled Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under U.N. administration.    The Jewish minority, promised 56% of the land, accepted the plan, but the Arab majority opposed it. And when Israel declared independence the following year, Arab armies from Egypt to Jordan attacked.      But Arab hopes of stopping Israel were dashed. Months of fighting led to Israeli victory, enabling it to further expand its control of Palestine. In an historically resonant episode known as “nakbah,” or catastrophe, some 750,000 Palestinians were displaced, fleeing to Gaza, the West Bank and several Arab countries.   An armistice restored peace but the larger conflict remained unresolved. In the decades that followed, the Arabs and Israelis engaged in period clashes and fought three major wars — in 1956, 1967 and 1973.   The 1967 Six-Day War changed the region’s map. Israel occupied the remaining Arab territories, including East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, deepening the conflict and leading to decades of fraught negotiations over their status.   The 1973 Yom Kippur War began with Egypt and Syria launching a surprise attack on Israel to recover lost territories, drawing in the United States and the Soviet Union. Despite early Arab advances, Israel scored another victory, but the conflict’s dynamics were left unaltered.  Changing character of the conflict  The Yom Kippur War marked the last battlefield confrontation between Israeli and Arab armies. In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, followed by Jordan in the 1990s and other Arab states followed in recent years through the Abraham Accords negotiated by the former Trump administration.   Meanwhile, the nature of the conflict changed. As historian Eugene Rogan has noted, what was once primarily an Israeli-Arab conflict has evolved into more of an Israeli-Palestinian conflict.   In the 1970s and early 1980s, Palestinian groups based in Lebanon, primarily the Palestinian Liberation Organization, staged frequent attacks on Israel, prompting Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The PLO was expelled from the country, but tensions flared up in the West Bank and Gaza, sparking the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in 1987. Hamas, an Islamist militant group, emerged out of the uprising.   The first intifada culminated in the 1993 Oslo Accords between PLO and Israel. A second intifada broke out in 2000 following the collapse of Camp David peace talks, lasting until 2005 when Israel withdrew from Gaza. Since 2006, Hamas has ruled Gaza, while the Palestinian Authority has governed the West Bank, its influence shrinking in the face of frequent Israeli raids and settler violence.    Iran’s regional ambitions   Meanwhile, Iran, led by Islamist clerics since 1979, emerged as Israel’s biggest foe, supporting Hamas, Hezbollah and other proxies as part of a so-called “axis of resistance” designed to counter U.S. and Israeli influence in the region.    Except for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, members of the network — armed, trained and funded by the foreign arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps — are all Shiite. While sharing Iran’s ideological goals, each pursues its own interests and maintains a degree of autonomy.   Hezbollah, which emerged in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and operates as something of a “state within a state,” is considered the “crown jewel” of the proxy network.  Both Hamas and Hezbollah have been deeply in politics, with Hezbollah boasting 13 members in Lebanon’s parliament.   Nevertheless, in 1997, the U.S. State Department designated both Hezbollah and Hamas as foreign terrorist organizations. Many other countries also label them as terrorist groups, although some apply the designation only to their military wings.   Houthi insurgents, another Iranian proxy locked in a decade-long civil war in Yemen, have engaged in missile and drone attacks against U.S. ships and Israel. Washington relisted the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group in January of this year.  Other proxy groups were recruited from outside the region. In Syria, Iran’s Quds Force — a branch of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — operates the Fatemiyoun, a group made up of Afghan refugees, and the Zainebiyoun brigade, made up of Pakistani refugees.   James Jeffrey, chair of the Middle East program at the Wilson Center in Washington, holds that a turning point in Iran’s drive for regional influence came after al-Qaida’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. With the U.S. diplomatic and military position in the region weakened, an increasingly bold Iran expanded its influence into four Arab states — Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon — plus Gaza.    October 7   All that changed last October 7 when Hamas launched a surprise terrorist attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign residents and taking hostage more than 200 others. It was the deadliest attack in Israel’s 75-year history.  Hamas had crossed a red line. In response, Israel launched a devastating military campaign in Gaza that has so far left more than 40,000 Palestinians dead and nearly 100,000 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, leading to charges of genocide that Israel denies.    But Israel didn’t stop there. Under incessant fire from Hezbollah and Houthi rebels as well as some militias in Iraq, Israel began taking the fight to its enemies, targeting Iranian proxies across the region.    In April, it bombed an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus, killing a top Quds Force commander who served as a liaison between Iran and Hezbollah.   In July, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, was killed in a suspected Israeli bombing in Tehran.   Then last month Israel ratcheted up its campaign against Hezbollah.   First, thousands of hand-held pagers and hundreds of walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon and Syria in two separate attacks, killing dozens and injuring thousands.  Then, a massive bombing of a Hezbollah hub south of Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other top leaders.   With Hamas and Hezbollah reeling and Iran seen reluctant to take on Israel, the tide seemed to have turned in Israel’s favor.   What’s next?   Then came Iran’s missile attack on Tuesday, just hours after Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon. Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles towards Israel and warned of “crushing” attacks if Israel responded. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had made “a big mistake” and would pay a price.    What comes next is anyone’s guess. How Israel responds to the latest Iranian attack and how Iran in turn responds to that will offer clues.   A narrowly targeted Israeli attack, like the one in April, could end the exchange. On the other hand, a larger response could trigger a tit for tat, potentially leading to a shooting war.   Israel’s stated goal in Lebanon is to push Hezbollah away from the border region so that displaced Israelis can return to their homes.   But experts say Israel seems to have a larger goal of neutralizing Hezbollah and other proxies in the region. If Israel succeeds in that, it could enhance its security.  But as long as the conflict at the heart of the current crisis — the Palestinian quest for statehood — remains unresolved, peace will be elusive, some experts say.   “This is a mowing the lawn operation, which is Israel’s tactic and it has worked so far except that it doesn’t bring peace,” said Joshua Landis, professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Oklahoma. 

savannah, georgia — The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday halted a ruling striking down the state's near-ban on abortions while it considers the state's appeal. The high court's order came a week after a judge found that Georgia unconstitutionally prohibits abortions beyond about six weeks of pregnancy, often before women realize they're pregnant. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled Sept. 30 that privacy rights under Georgia's state constitution include the right to make personal health care decisions. It was one of a wave of restrictive abortion laws passed in Republican-controlled states after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and ended a national right to abortion. It prohibited most abortions once a "detectable human heartbeat" was present. At around six weeks into a pregnancy, cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in an embryo's cells that will eventually become the heart. Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed it in 2019, but it didn't take effect until Roe v. Wade fell. McBurney wrote in his ruling that "liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices." "When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then — and only then — may society intervene," McBurney wrote. The judge's decision rolled back abortion limits in Georgia to a prior law allowing abortions until viability, roughly 22 to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. "Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge," Kemp said in a statement in response to McBurney's decision. "Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn." Abortion providers and advocates in Georgia had applauded McBurney's ruling but expressed concern that it would soon be overturned.

Tirana, Albania — Opposition forces in Albania on Monday were holding a nationwide protest in the country's capital demanding that the government be replaced by a technocratic caretaker Cabinet before next year’s parliamentary election. The conservative opposition accuses the leftist government of manipulating earlier voting and of usurping powers, including that of the judiciary. The Democratic Party of former Prime Minister Sali Berisha has been holding protests at the parliament in the last week after one of their colleagues was convicted of slander and imprisoned, which they considered as being politically motivated. Ervin Salianji in 2018 demanded the resignation of the then interior minister over allegations of his brother’s illegal activity that later proved to be fabricated. Salianji, who began serving a one-year sentence more than a week ago, has appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court. The Democrats are asking for a Cabinet made up of technocrats and blaming Prime Minister Edi Rama of the governing leftist Socialist Party of manipulating earlier voting. They have long accused Rama’s Socialists of usurping power, including the judiciary, and have staged violent protests against the government since 2013. The Democrats also call for Berisha’s release from house arrest which he was put under during an investigation of alleged corruption. The opposition has called for civil disobedience, starting the protest with a gathering in front of the main government building, where there will be no speeches, and then extending it by blocking traffic at Tirana’s main intersections. A vehicle tire was burned in front of the presidential office, not far from the main government offices. Hundreds of police officers, equipped with anti-gas masks, have taken up positions to protect the government's main institutions. Police have said that traffic is blocked on many streets in downtown Tirana. The U.S. Embassy in Tirana has warned its citizens to stay away from the protest. Albania holds a parliamentary election next year. The European Union and the United States have urged the opposition to resume dialogue with the government, saying violence won't help the country integrate into the 27-nation bloc. In 2020, the EU decided to launch full membership negotiations with Albania, and later this month Tirana will start discussions with the bloc on how it aligns with the rule of law, functioning of democratic institutions and the fight against corruption.

Chikwawa, Malawi — In Malawi, the U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP) is working to address a rising number of malnourished children amid an ongoing drought, the worst to hit southern Africa in decades. The WFP’s efforts include providing supplementary feeding for children in health facilities and distributing emergency food items to affected households. Malawi has faced food insecurity for the past three years because of natural disasters that also affected other parts of southern Africa. These include Tropical Storm Ana in 2022, Tropical Cyclone Freddy in 2023 and the El Nino weather phenomenon this year, which has led to severe drought in the region. Climate change is also believed to play a part. The WFP says in Malawi, the drought has damaged 44% of crops leaving 5.7 million people without food. This is over a quarter of Malawi’s population. Gertrude Chasafali is among those affected. She said she grows various types of crops including some vegetables but now struggles to find something to eat. Sometimes she eats one meal a day, or none at all. Health experts say the food shortage situation has increased malnutrition cases among vulnerable groups such as pregnant and lactating women, and children under 5 years of age. Feston Katundu is a nutrition officer in the Chikwawa district of southern Malawi, one of the hardest hit areas. “The prevalence of underweight children is 18%, which is high compared to Malawi as a nation because Malawi is at 13%,” Katundu said. “For wasting we are also at 5%, while Malawi is [usually] at 3%, meaning that we are not doing well.” Katundu also said 34% of children under the age of 5 in Chikwawa are suffering stunted growth. The situation has forced the WFP to provide supplementary feeding to malnourished children. Paul Turnbull, WFP country director in Malawi, said in recent years the country could manage the situation but now needs help. “In the last few years, the level of moderate acute malnutrition were possible by the Ministry of Health to manage by itself,” Turnbull said. “But with [the] increase in number[s] now, we want to be able to ensure that the capacity is there in the Ministry of Health. So, we are supplying additional products and doing training so that children who have got acute moderate malnutrition won’t deteriorate further.” Charles Kalemba, commissioner for the Department of Disaster Management Affairs in Malawi, said another reason the country faces food shortages is because of its dependence on rain-fed agriculture. “If we can put our act together by moving away from rain-fed agriculture to irrigated agriculture we may solve this problem once and for all,” Kalemba said. In the meantime, the WFP and Malawi’s government are delivering emergency food assistance to millions of Malawians impacted by the drought.

GENEVA  — Billions of people are facing a future of water scarcity as global rivers dry up, glaciers melt, and intense heat and other extreme weather events caused by climate change create critical changes in water availability around the world, according to the State of Global Water Resources report issued Monday by the World Meteorological Organization.  “Water is the canary in the coal mine of climate change,” said Celeste Saulo, WMO secretary-general. “Water is the basis of life on this planet, but it can also be a force of destruction.”   She told journalists at a briefing in Geneva that “water is becoming increasingly unpredictable, what we call an erratic hydrological cycle, leading to extreme rainfall, sudden floods, and severe droughts.”    “Climate change is one of the causes of these extreme behaviors,” she said, noting that these extreme events “wreak a heavy toll on lives, ecosystems and economies.”  “Melting ice and glaciers threaten long-term water security for many millions of people. And yet we are not taking the necessary urgent action,” she warned.  “To mitigate the impact of such potential catastrophes, we must gather reliable data. After all, we cannot appropriately manage what we do not measure,” she said, adding that scientific data gathered by WMO “indicates the situation will worsen over the coming years.”  The report finds 2023 was the driest year for global rivers in 33 years, marking the last of five consecutive years of widespread below-normal conditions for river flows, thereby reducing “the amount of water available for communities, agriculture and ecosystems, further stressing global water supplies.”  It notes that 2023 was also the second consecutive year in which all regions in the world with glaciers reported ice loss, the year in which “glaciers suffered the largest mass loss ever registered in 50 years.”  “The glaciers are retreating rapidly,” said Stefan Uhlenbrook, WMO director of hydrology, water and cryosphere. “The latest data for this year actually shows that in the Swiss Alps, at least, it has been continuing and more glaciers have been reduced.  “If a glacier is melting more and more, that means more water becomes available downstream,” he said. “However, if the glacier is gone in a few more decades, it will be very dramatic because then the summer high flows from the melting glaciers will disappear because there is no storage anymore.  “If the glacier disappears, that changes completely the hydrological regime. It changes completely the conditions for ecosystems. It changes completely the availability of water for farmers. So, it has really severe consequences,” he said.  One manifestation of this was seen last week when Switzerland and Italy redrew part of their shared border in the Alps because melting glaciers due to climate change had moved their long-defined national border.  The report says 3.6 billion people currently face inadequate access to water at least one month a year, and this is expected to increase to more than 5 billion by 2050.    While no region is spared from disastrous hydrological extreme events, it says floods and droughts affected Africa most in terms of human casualties. The report says major flooding in Libya due to two collapsed dams, triggered by Storm Daniel, killed more than 11,000 people. Floods also impacted the Greater Horn of Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Mozambique and Malawi.  “Jordan is one of the most water scarce countries because of the high population density and the very arid conditions,” Uhlenbrook observed, adding that many parts of Asia, North and South America, and Russia among other regions are “very vulnerable to the changes we see from climate change.”  “We see the increasing variability of the hydrological cycle causing tension and stress and providing the source of conflict in many parts of the world,” he said.  The WMO report is calling for urgent action and international cooperation to address the scarce water issues. It says cooperation through data sharing and building of trust between nations is critical for managing shared water resources.  “We must fill the gaps in our understanding. We need to expand our hydrological monitoring, especially in regions where data is scarce. We cannot afford blind spots when it comes to our water resources,” WMO chief Saulo said. “I urge nations to invest in hydrological monitoring and commit to sharing this critical data, because without it, we are navigating without a map.”  She underscored the importance of early warning systems in addressing climate-induced disasters such as floods and extreme weather events. “These global challenges transcend borders and conflicts because water is once again the basis of life on Earth, so we must work together to address the water issues,” she said. 

Vientiane, Laos — The failure of Myanmar’s junta to end the country’s violence, allow humanitarian assistance and implement other elements of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ “Five-Point Consensus” will be the focus of ASEAN’s summit this week in Laos. For the first time since the junta seized power three years ago, Myanmar will send a Foreign Ministry official to the summit. But that move has drawn criticism from some human rights groups, NGOs and opponents of the junta inside the country, who have said allowing Myanmar to participate legitimizes the regime. ASEAN’s highest profile 2024 gathering is set for Oct. 8-11 in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Neither Myanmar’s junta nor Laos’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs would name the junta’s representative to the summit. Myanmar’s shadow government, the National Unity Government (NUG), has called for the junta's exclusion from ASEAN meetings and praised the creation of a group of three countries, consisting of Indonesia, which chaired the bloc last year, Laos and Malaysia, to address the crisis.  “The military council does not represent Myanmar, and no one appointed by them should be invited,” NUG spokesperson, Kyaw Zaw told VOA on Sunday from an undisclosed location due to security concerns. “If anyone represents Myanmar, it must be the people’s true voice. Over 200 civil organizations have demanded an end to the conflict, and while we’ve supported the Five-Point Consensus, lack of cooperation has blocked progress.” Kyaw Zaw also emphasized the need for urgent international action, including from ASEAN, to hold the junta accountable. “Myanmar is in a humanitarian crisis with 4 million war refugees and over a million flood victims. ASEAN and the global community must step in effectively,” he said. The Five-Point Consensus is an ASEAN peace plan from 2021 aimed at resolving Myanmar’s crisis, calling for an end to violence, dialogue, and humanitarian aid. However, the junta’s non-compliance has stalled progress, limiting ASEAN’s ability to influence the situation. Civil society demands junta exclusion In an open letter, 237 organizations, consisting of human rights and public-interest and civil society groups across the region, urged ASEAN to exclude Myanmar’s military junta from future meetings, noting the junta’s attendance at over 500 ASEAN meetings since 2021, with little progress toward peace.   These groups, led by Defend Myanmar Democracy, a Myanmar human rights international advocacy group, argued that allowing the junta to participate damages ASEAN’s credibility and helps legitimize the regime. Defend Myanmar Democracy spokesperson Naw Aung condemned the decision to allow Myanmar to host a series of ASEAN meetings this month.  “Rewarding the junta disregards the suffering of Myanmar’s people, who are being murdered, raped, and tortured by the regime,” the group said in a statement released on October 3. “ASEAN is not relevant in this picture because it has yet to establish a clear position,” said Debbie Stothard, founder of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, Altsean, by phone to VOA. Stothard, a human rights advocate in Burma and the ASEAN region for over three decades, has been at the forefront of promoting democracy and accountability in the region. “We are now witnessing what could be called a second wave of genocide against the Rohingya,” Stothard said. “Myanmar’s military airstrikes have surged to over 100 per month, yet ASEAN continues to shield an illegal regime.” “The Five-Point Consensus is no longer relevant,” Stothard added, calling for a focus on the banking system and long-term planning for post-coup in Myanmar. “We already know from [U.N. special Rapporteur] Tom Andrews’ reports that Thai and Singaporean banks have been involved in transactions which fund war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Myanmar,” says Stothard. “If ASEAN banks are found to have done nothing to prevent these activities, they will be in serious trouble.” “Additionally,” Stothard continued, “The organization must plan how it will participate in the post-junta transition: how will ASEAN support the resistance to restore the rule of law and help rebuild the economic and social institutions that the junta has destroyed in just under four years?” ASEAN has planned 19 official meetings in Myanmar this month, covering topics from women’s rights to tourism, hosted by junta-controlled ministries in Naypyitaw, the junta’s administrative headquarters. As of now, ASEAN has not provided a specific public explanation for why they are holding 19 meetings in Myanmar. The meetings were announced on ASEAN’s official website as part of the standard procedure for member countries. Broader summit discussions Beyond Myanmar, the summit will include wider, global issues, including the Ukraine-Russia war and the Israel-Hamas conflict. These global tensions are directly affecting ASEAN member states, some of which report citizens caught in the conflicts. On Oct. 11, Laos will pass the ASEAN chairmanship to Malaysia. The new leadership will play a key role in shaping the region’s future, especially with long-term goals such as the ASEAN Community Vision 2045, which prioritizes digital transformation and sustainability.

Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan’s former president Tsai Ing-wen kicks off an eight-day trip to the Czech Republic and two other European countries on October 12 – her first international tour since leaving office in May. While China is likely to voice its opposition to the trip, analysts say it highlights the close ties that Taipei has forged with European countries in recent years.   China says democratically ruled Taiwan is part of its territory and opposes any formal contacts between Taiwan officials and other nations.  In a statement released Monday, Taiwan’s presidential office said current President Lai Ching-te has delegated the National Security Council and Foreign Ministry to carefully plan Tsai’s trip to Europe. Lai also said he hopes her trip will continue to deepen Taiwan’s friendship with Europe and make bilateral relations closer and more solid.  In the Czech Republic, Tsai is expected to attend the Forum 2000 and deliver a 10- to 15-minute speech. In addition to Prague, Reuters news agency reported that the former Taiwanese president will also visit France and Belgium, citing anonymous diplomatic sources. The trip will mark a former Taiwanese leader’s first trip to Europe.   In response to media reports of her trip, Tsai’s office said her team would publicize her itinerary once it is finalized.   The Chinese Foreign Ministry and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which handles relations with Taiwan, did not respond to requests for comment on the trip from VOA.   Analysts say Tsai’s trip highlights how Europe remains a key focus of Taiwan’s diplomatic efforts.   “Tsai Ing-wen has pursued a strategy of diversification of Taiwan's foreign relations during her eight years of presidency and some of the most tangible results of the strategy are visible in the relations between Taiwan and Europe,” said Marcin Jerzewski, the head of Taiwan Office at the European Values Center for Security Policy.   In his view, Tsai’s trip sends a strong signal to European countries that “Taiwan wants to be seen as a consistent partner for Europe as a whole as well as for individual European countries.”  Tsai’s trip follows Taiwanese Vice President Hsiao Bi-Khim’s trip to Europe in March, during which she met with lawmakers from the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, and the European Parliament. It also comes on the heels of renewed trade tensions between the European Union and China, after EU member states backed a proposal to impose tariffs of up to 45% on electric vehicles imported from China.  During Tsai’s second term in office, between 2020 and 2024, Taiwan opened an office in Lithuania that used the name “Taiwanese Representative Office” instead of “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office” that the democratically ruled island uses in other places.  Taiwan deepened trade and investment exchanges with several Central and Eastern European countries, and sent a former foreign minister, Joseph Wu, to the region on several high-profile trips.  The Czech Republic is one of the European countries that has significantly deepened its engagement with Taiwan during Tsai’s time in office. Czech President Petre Pavel had a phone call with Tsai after winning the presidential election in January 2023, and Prague has increased the frequency of its parliamentary diplomatic engagement with Taiwan since 2020.  Taiwan and the Czech Republic have also collaborated in the efforts to rebuild basic infrastructure in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022, rebuilding schools and basic health care systems across Ukraine. Experts say the fact that Tsai’s stop in Prague has been made public reflects the Czech Republic’s willingness to make its engagement with Taiwan more visible.    “The Czech Republic is the country that’s been the most willing to be loud about their relationship with Taiwan in ways that other European countries probably are not, but that doesn’t mean other countries aren’t willing to maintain good relations with Taiwan,” Lev Nachman, a political scientist at National Taiwan University, told VOA by phone.   Some Taiwanese analysts say Tsai’s decision not to disclose the full itinerary of her trip reflects the precaution that current and former Taiwanese officials often have to exercise when planning overseas trips.   “Since China will use different ways to obstruct most Taiwanese politicians’ overseas trips, I think Tsai’s decision not to publicize certain parts of her trip may be a way to reduce the chance of Beijing complicating her trip to Europe,” said Chen Fang-yu, a political scientist at Soochow University in Taiwan.   In his view, keeping her itinerary low-key may allow Tsai to have more constructive meetings with European politicians and officials in private.   “Judging from Taiwan’s situation, keeping overseas trips low profile may allow current or former Taiwanese officials to achieve more concrete goals while reducing the chances of the host countries experiencing Chinese retaliation,” Chen told VOA by phone.   Despite Tsai’s cautionary approach to planning the trip, Chen still expects Beijing to retaliate against countries that host the former Taiwanese leader.   “Since Beijing often imposes economic sanctions against countries that have friendly interactions with Taiwan or introduce Taiwan-friendly policies, I expect them to respond to Tsai’s Europe trip in similar ways,” he added.   Following Taiwanese Vice President Hsiao’s trip to the Czech Republic in March, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it opposes any official exchanges between Taiwan and its diplomatic allies and urged Prague to “take effective measures to eliminate the negative impact” of Hsiao’s trip.  Since Tsai is no longer in office, Nachman said Tsai’s trip to Europe carries more symbolic importance and won’t deliver too many substantive results. “Her trip is about reassuring Central and Eastern European countries that Taiwan wants to continue these strong, unofficial relations with them,” he told VOA.   While Tsai’s trip is mainly about signaling Taiwan’s desire to prioritize engagement with European countries, Jerzewski said he expects the current Taiwanese government under Tsai’s successor Lai Ching-te to focus on deepening trade and economic relations with Central and Eastern European countries.   “Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry has already begun to recalibrate Taipei’s approach to Europe and since some of the first special industrial zones that the ministry has announced will be in the Czech Republic, this reflects the current Taiwanese government’s approach to prioritize substance in developing relations with European countries,” he told VOA. 

Yaounde — Officials in Cameroon say fresh flooding has forced at least 70,000 people out of temporary camps that were set up for flood victims along the country’s northern border with Chad and Nigeria. Some of the displaced flood victims have now moved to neighboring Chad, where at least two million people have been rendered homeless by this year's ceaseless floods according to Chad's government. Kamsouloum Abba Kabir urged flood victims in Kousseri, a town on Cameroon's northern border with Chad, to rush to safety in surrounding schools, mosques and churches. Kamsouloum is a lawmaker representing Kousseri civilians in Cameroon's lower house of parliament. He told civilians in several villages that waters from the Lake Chad basin are overflowing and causing havoc to civilians, animals and the environment. In a video, broadcast on Cameroon state TV on Monday, Kamsouloum, accompanied by Cameroon government officials, said the lives of over 70,000 civilians rendered homeless by recent floods are again threatened by fresh floods sweeping through more villages and camps. Thirty-nine-year old farmer Nogoue Shivom is among the flood victims chased by fresh floods from a camp constructed by the government to temporarily host flood victims. Shivom said floods woke her from her bed in the Kousseri camp for flood victims at about 10 pm on Sunday. She said she was able to save the lives of her three children, but books, food and clothes she was given by a charity organization after the first floods swept through her village were carried away by last night's floods. In September, Cameroon reported that floods had affected over 2 million civilians on its northern border with Chad and rendered over two hundred thousand homeless. The central African state said farm plantations were devastated and cattle, goats, fouls and sheep either killed or swept away by the floods. Cameroon warned of a looming famine and began transferring civilians rendered homeless by floods to several camps including Kousseri. Rebeka, who goes by only one name, is the highest government official in Kousseri. He said by Sunday night, several thousand flood victims fled from their camp and surrounding villages and are seeking refuge in safer places. He said a greater portion of the victims who left the camp have crossed over to Chad's capital N'djamena where they hope to find safety. The Cameroon government reports that about 70,000 flood victims have either crossed into Chad or are seeking refuge in border villages. The government says scores of people have died in the floods but gives no further details. The report comes when Chad's government says it is pleading for international support after floods caused by severe rainfall since July of this year have killed at least 500 people and displaced about 2 million civilians. Chad has not commented on the influx of Cameroon flood victims. It is not the first time Cameroonians have sought refuge in Chad. In 2021, Cameroon reported that at least a hundred thousand civilians fled its northern border to Chad after conflicts over water between cattle ranchers and fishermen killed 40 people and wounded 70. Last month Doctors Without Borders reported that a coordinated and rapid international response is needed to save the lives of thousands of people who have fled floodwaters and are seeking refuge with desperate shortages of food, shelter, drinking water and health care. Cameroon and Chad said last August that the lives of more than 5 million people in the two countries were threatened by a severe humanitarian crisis triggered by climate shocks. The two countries also said the floods will lead to famine and conflicts over food and drinkable water.

WASHINGTON — The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on an international Hamas fundraising network, accusing it of playing a critical role in external fundraising for the Palestinian militant group, in action marking the first anniversary of the Gaza war.  The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it imposed sanctions on three people and what it called a "sham charity" that it accused of being prominent international financial supporters of Hamas, as well as on the Al-Intaj Bank in Gaza that it said was controlled by the group.  Also targeted was a longstanding Hamas supporter, a Yemeni national living in Turkey, and nine of his businesses, Treasury said.  “As we mark one year since Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack, Treasury will continue relentlessly degrading the ability of Hamas and other destabilizing Iranian proxies to finance their operations and carry out additional violent acts,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the statement.  “The Treasury Department will use all available tools at our disposal to hold Hamas and its enablers accountable, including those who seek to exploit the situation to secure additional sources of revenue.”  In their rampage through Israeli towns and kibbutz villages near the Gaza border a year ago, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli figures.  The huge Israeli security lapse led to the single deadliest day for Jews since the Nazi Holocaust, shattered many citizens' sense of security and sent their faith in its leaders to new lows.  The Hamas assault unleashed an Israeli offensive on Gaza that has largely flattened the densely populated enclave and killed almost 42,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say.  The Treasury on Monday said: "Hamas has exploited the suffering in Gaza to solicit funds through sham and front charities that falsely claim to help civilians in Gaza," adding that as of early this year, the group may have received as much as $10 million a month through such donations. The Treasury said Hamas considers Europe to be a key source of fundraising.  Monday's action targeted an Italy-based Hamas member the Treasury said established the sham Charity Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which it accused of helping bankroll Hamas' military wing.  Also targeted was a senior Hamas representative in Germany and a Hamas representative in charge of the group's activity in Austria.  Hamas is a U.S. designated terrorist group.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A spacecraft blasted off Monday to investigate the scene of a cosmic crash.  The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft rocketed away on a two-year journey to the small, harmless asteroid rammed by NASA two years ago in a dress rehearsal for the day a killer space rock threatens Earth. Launched by SpaceX from Cape Canaveral, it's the second part of a planetary defense test that could one day help save the planet.  The 2022 crash by NASA's Dart spacecraft shortened Dimorphos' orbit around its bigger companion, demonstrating that if a dangerous rock was headed our way, there's a chance it could be knocked off course with enough advance notice.  Scientists are eager to examine the impact's aftermath up close to know exactly how effective Dart was and what changes might be needed to safeguard Earth in the future.  "The more detail we can glean the better as it may be important for planning a future deflection mission should one be needed," University of Maryland astronomer Derek Richardson said before launch.  Researchers want to know whether Dart — short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test — left a crater or perhaps reshaped the 150-meter (500-foot) asteroid more dramatically. It looked something like a flying saucer before Dart's blow and may now resemble a kidney bean, said Richardson, who took part in the Dart mission and is helping with Hera.  Dart's wallop sent rubble and even boulders flying off Dimorphos, providing an extra kick to the impact's momentum. The debris trail extended more than 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) into space for months.  Some boulders and other debris could still be hanging around the asteroid, posing a potential threat to Hera, said flight director Ignacio Tanco.  "We don't really know very well the environment in which we are going to operate," said Tanco. "But that's the whole point of the mission is to go there and find out."  European officials describe the $400 million (363 million euro) mission as a "crash scene investigation."  Hera "is going back to the crime site and getting all the scientific and technical information," said project manager Ian Carnelli.  Carrying a dozen science instruments, the small car-sized Hera will need to swing past Mars in 2025 for a gravity boost, before arriving at Dimorphos by the end of 2026. It's a moonlet of Didymos, Greek for twin, a fast-spinning asteroid that's five times bigger. At that time, the asteroids will be 195 million kilometers (120 million miles) from Earth.  Controlled by a flight team in Darmstadt, Germany, Hera will attempt to go into orbit around the rocky pair, with the flyby distances gradually dropping from 30 kilometers (18 miles) all the way down to 1 kilometer (a half-mile). The spacecraft will survey the moonlet for at least six months to ascertain its mass, shape and composition, as well as its orbit around Didymos.  Before the impact, Dimorphos circled its larger companion from 1,189 meters out. Scientists believe the orbit is now tighter and oval-shaped, and that the moonlet may even be tumbling.  Two shoebox-sized Cubesats will pop off Hera for even closer drone-like inspections, with one of them using radar to peer beneath the moonlet's boulder-strewn surface. Scientists suspect Dimorphos was formed from material shed from Didymos. The radar observations should help confirm whether Didymos is indeed the little moon's parent.  The Cubesats will attempt to land on the moonlet once their survey is complete. If the moonlet is tumbling, that will complicate the endeavor. Hera may also end its mission with a precarious touchdown, but on the larger Didymos.  Neither asteroid poses any threat to Earth — before or after Dart showed up. That's why NASA picked the pair for humanity's first asteroid-deflecting demo.  Leftovers from the solar system's formation 4.6 billion years ago, asteroids primarily orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter in what's known as the main asteroid belt, where millions of them reside. They become near-Earth objects when they're knocked out of the belt and into our neck of the woods.  NASA's near-Earth object count currently tops 36,000, almost all asteroids but also some comets. More than 2,400 of them are considered potentially hazardous to Earth. 

PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo's government said Monday it would lift a ban on the entry of products from Serbia at one border crossing, 16 months after it halted imports to prevent what it said could be hidden shipments of weapons for Serb separatists.  The reopening is in line with efforts by Western partners to promote reconciliation and cooperation between the two neighboring Balkan nations. Tensions between them flared in May 2023 when Kosovo police seized municipal buildings in Serb-majority communities in northern Kosovo where residents rejected the ethnic Albanian mayors elected in a vote boycotted by Serbs.  Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said the Merdare border crossing would reopen with stepped-up, hands-on monitoring of goods by customs agents at a location just 300 meters from the border.  The other five border crossings would open once they can be equipped with new scanners, he said.  Kosovo has cited the seizure of four large caches of weapons that Kurti says could have been brought through the border disguised as trade, as well as the movements of troops by Serbia near the border, as reasons for its move in June 2023 to curb cross-border trade.  "These were steps of security, never commercial ones," Kurti told journalists Monday.  Local media in Kosovo have reported that Germany warned Kosovo that unless it reestablished trade it could be excluded from the Central European Free Trade Agreement and the Berlin Process, aimed at boosting cooperation among six western Balkan nations and the European Union.  Kosovo was a Serbian province until NATO's 78-day bombing campaign in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, which left about 13,000 dead, mainly ethnic Albanians, and pushed Serbian forces out. Kosovo proclaimed independence in 2008, which Serbia doesn't recognize.  The European Union and the United States are pressing both sides to implement agreements that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kurti reached in February and March last year. They include a commitment by Kosovo to establish an Association of the Serb-Majority Municipalities. Serbia is also expected to deliver on the de-facto recognition of Kosovo, which Belgrade still considers its province.  The NATO-led international peacekeepers known as KFOR have increased their presence in Kosovo after last year's tense moments.

Washington — Soon, the ballots will be cast, the polls will close and a campaign marked by assassination attempts, animosity and anxiety will come to an end. But for U.S. adversaries, the work to meddle with American democracy may be entering its most critical phase. Despite all the attention on efforts to spread disinformation in the months before the Nov. 5 election, the hours and days immediately after voting ends could offer foreign adversaries like Russia, Iran and China or domestic extremist groups the best chance to mess with America's decision. That's when Americans will go online to see the latest results or share their opinions as the votes are tabulated. And that's when a fuzzy photo or AI-generated video of supposed vote tampering could do its most damage, potentially transforming online outrage into real-world action before authorities have time to investigate the facts. It's a threat taken seriously by intelligence analysts, elected officials and tech executives, who say that while there's already been a steady buildup of disinformation and influence operations, the worst may be yet to come. "It's not like at the end of election night, particularly assuming how close this election will be, that this will be over," said Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. "One of my greatest concerns is the level of misinformation, disinformation that may come from our adversaries after the polls close could actually be as significant as anything that happens up to the closing of the polls." Analysts are blunter, warning that a particularly effective piece of disinformation could be devastating to public confidence in the election if spread in the hours after the polls close, and if the group behind the campaign knows to target a particularly important swing state or voting bloc. Possible scenarios include out-of-context footage of election workers repurposed to show supposed fraud, a deepfake video of a presidential candidate admitting to cheating or a robocall directed at non-English speakers warning them not to vote. When a false or misleading claim circulates weeks before the election, there's time for local election officials, law enforcement or news organizations to gather the facts, correct any falsehoods and get the word out. But if someone spreads a deceptive video or photo designed to make a big chunk of the electorate distrust the results the day after the election, it can be hard or even impossible for the truth to catch up. It happened four years ago, when a drumbeat of lies about the 2020 results spurred the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Often, those arrested on accusations of trying to interfere with the transfer of power have cited debunked election fraud narratives that circulated shortly after Election Day. An especially close election decided in a handful of swing states could heighten that risk even further, making it more likely that a rumor about suitcases of illegal ballots in Georgia, to cite an example from 2020, could have a big impact on perceptions. President Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump in 2020 wasn't especially close, and no irregularities big enough to affect the result were found — and yet false claims about vote-rigging were still widely believed by many supporters of the Republican, who's running for president again. The relatively long run-up to Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 gives those looking to sow doubt about the results ample time to do so, whether they are propaganda agencies in Moscow or extremist groups in the U.S. like the Proud Boys. Ryan LaSalle, CEO of the cybersecurity firm Nisos, said he won't feel relief until a new president is sworn in without any serious problems. "The time to stay most focused is right now through the peaceful transfer of power," LaSalle said. "That's when real-life activities could happen, and that's when they would have the greatest chance of having an impact on that peaceful transfer." Another risk, according to officials and tech companies, is that Russia or another adversary would try to hack into a local or state election system — not necessarily to change votes, but as a way of making voters question the security of the system. "The most perilous time I think will come 48 hours before the election," Microsoft President Brad Smith told lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee last month. The hearing focused on American tech companies' efforts to safeguard the election from foreign disinformation and cyberattacks. Election disinformation first emerged as a potent threat in 2016, when Russia hacked into the campaign of Democrat Hillary Clinton and created networks of fake social media accounts to pump out disinformation. The threat has only grown as social media has become a leading source of information and news for many voters. Content designed to divide Americans and make them mistrust their own institutions is no longer tied only to election seasons. Intelligence officials say Russia, China and other countries will only expand their use of online disinformation and propaganda going forward, a long-range strategy that looks beyond any one election or candidate. Despite the challenges, election security officials are quick to reassure Americans that the U.S. election system is impervious to any attack that could alter the outcome of the vote. While influence operations may seek to spread distrust about the results, improvements to the system make it stronger than ever when it comes to efforts to change votes. "Malicious actors, even if they tried, could not have an impact at scale such that there would be a material effect on the outcome of the election," Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told The Associated Press.

Washington — The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a bid by President Joe Biden's administration to enforce in Texas federal guidance requiring hospitals to perform abortions if needed to stabilize a patient's emergency medical condition.   The justices turned away the Justice Department's appeal of a lower court's decision that halted enforcement of the guidance in Texas, where a Republican-backed near-total ban on abortion is in effect, and against members of two anti-abortion medical associations.   The Biden administration issued the guidance in July 2022 to protect access to abortion after the Supreme Court's conservative majority the previous month overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide.   The guidance reminded healthcare providers across the country of their obligations under a 1986 federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) to ensure Medicare-participating hospitals offer emergency care stabilizing patients regardless of their ability to pay. Medicare is the government healthcare program for the elderly. Hospitals that violate EMTALA risk losing Medicare funding.   The guidance made clear that under that law physicians must provide a woman an abortion if needed to resolve a medical emergency and stabilize the patient even in states where the procedure is banned, and that the measure preempts state bans that offer no exceptions for medical emergencies or with exceptions that are too narrow. Texas law prohibits abortions unless the pregnancy places the woman at risk of death or "substantial impairment of a major bodily function." Republican-governed Texas and two anti-abortion medical associations - the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, sued the administration, arguing that the guidance unlawfully purports to compel healthcare providers to perform abortions. U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix in 2022 blocked enforcement of the guidance, finding that it is an unlawful interpretation of the EMTALA statute, and would allow abortions beyond what is permitted by Texas law. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 2 upheld Hendrix's decision, ruling that "EMTALA does not mandate any specific type of medical treatment, let alone abortion." The 5th Circuit's decision came a month after the top court in Texas ruled against a woman who was seeking an emergency abortion of her non-viable pregnancy.   Abortion rights advocates have challenged the scope of abortion ban exceptions in several states due to uncertainty, including among physicians, about what medical emergencies during pregnancy would permit health providers to perform the procedure. In a similar case in June, the Supreme Court permitted, for the time being, abortions to be performed in Idaho when pregnant women are facing medical emergencies. The Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling in the Idaho case revived a federal judge's decision that EMTALA takes precedence over Idaho's Republican-backed near-total abortion ban when the two conflict. While the justices lifted a block they had placed on the judge's ruling in the case, they did not resolve the dispute on its merits, opting instead to dismiss it as "improvidently granted."

Washington/New York — One year has passed since Hamas launched a violent attack on southern Israel, triggering a deadly conflict and an unprecedented number of journalist deaths. Twelve months on, journalists are continuing to navigate how to cover the conflict. When Tareq Hajjaj, a Gaza correspondent for the news website Mondoweiss, ventured into the field to report, he said he sometimes saw Israeli warplanes and drones circling above and worried that he would be killed. "Every time I was going to do a story to report something, I was feeling that death is so close, like in any second I can be killed," Hajjaj told VOA from Cairo. The journalist was permitted to leave Gaza for Egypt in April, but he still reports on the war from afar. Founded as a progressive news site, Mondoweiss has faced criticism for what some say are anti-Israel views and an activist approach. "That was really dangerous to go in the field to report. It was a journey of death every day," he added. Figures from the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, reflect that danger. As of October 4, at least 128 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war began on October 7 last year,making the war the deadliest conflict on record for journalists. Journalists in Gaza have borne the brunt of the violence. Of the journalists killed, 123 of them — or about 96% — were Palestinian, according to CPJ. "They bear the full weight of responsibility of reporting on the impact of the war on Gaza," CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg told VOA in New York. The high rate of killed journalists has raised concerns that the Israeli military is deliberately targeting the media, according to Ginsberg. "That is particularly worrying because journalists are civilians and must never be targeted in war, and that would constitute a war crime," she said. Two Israeli journalists and three Lebanese journalists have also been killed since the war began, according to CPJ. The two Israeli journalists were among about 1,200 people killed by Hamas militants in the initial October 7 attack. Hamas also captured about 250 hostages. Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza, meanwhile, has killed more than 41,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. More than 95,000 others have been injured in Israel's bombardments, which have all but reduced the small enclave of Gaza to rubble. In response to a request for comment, Israel's Foreign Ministry referred VOA to the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF. The IDF did not reply to VOA's email requesting comment. Threats to journalist safety — particularly in Gaza — are among the most pressing issues facing reporters as they cover the war, according to media experts. While those in Gaza have found themselves preoccupied with survival, journalists are also tasked with the additional duty of covering and explaining what is happening to local and international audiences. In the past, Hamas has harassed and arrested journalists in Gaza over their reporting, but CPJ has not received any reports of the U.S.-designated terrorist group targeting journalists since the war began. Last year, the Israeli military said it could not guarantee the safety of journalists in Gaza. The military has also said it does not target journalists. But press freedom groups and other analysts aren't convinced. "It used to be that if you wore an insignia saying you were with the press or you're with television that that would protect you. I think we understand now that wearing that kind of insignia makes you a target," John Daniszewski, standards editor at The Associated Press, told VOA from New York. Daniszewski added that the war is the most polarizing issue he has covered in his career. "One side or the other is very concerned that their victimhood is not being centered," he said. Another issue that makes covering the war more difficult is lack of access, since Israel tightly restricts media access to Gaza. The only way for journalists to enter Gaza is by embedding with the IDF, but those infrequent trips are highly controlled, with journalists seeing only what the Israeli military permits them to see. In early September, the Foreign Press Association, or FPA, in Israel reiterated its calls for the Israeli government to allow increased independent access for journalists in Gaza. "This is a highly excessive measure that is unprecedented in scale and scope and duration and runs counter to the tenets of democracy and freedom of the press," former FPA chairperson Dan Perry told VOA about the tight restrictions. Now a Tel Aviv-based columnist, Perry previously worked as the Jerusalem bureau chief for The Associated Press. Restricted media access to Gaza risks hampering international audiences' understanding of what's happening in the territory, according to Ginsberg, and increases the space for misinformation and disinformation to flourish. "It means that we are not able to necessarily get a full picture of what's happening in Gaza," she said. A throughline over the past year has also been the Israeli government's targeting of the Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera. In May, the Israeli government shut down the outlet over alleged national security concerns in a move that press freedom groups condemned. Al Jazeera reporters still cannot report from inside Israel. Then in late September, the Israeli military raided Al Jazeera's bureau in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and forced the bureau to cease operations for at least 45 days. The closure order accuses Al Jazeera of incitement and supporting "terrorism." "The raid on the office and seizure of our equipment is not only an attack on Al Jazeera, but an affront to press freedom and the very principles of journalism," Al Jazeera said in a statement. During the raid, Israeli soldiers tore down a poster of U.S.-Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot in the head and killed in 2022 while covering an Israeli army operation in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military has said the journalist was likely, but unintentionally, shot by an Israeli soldier. No one has been held accountable for her killing. "The shutdown of Al Jazeera is part and parcel of a much broader attempt by Israel to censor the media," Ginsberg said. Back in Gaza, one of the biggest challenges that journalists face is the abundance of stories there are to tell, according to Hajjaj. "There always are more stories that need to be done," he said. Although about half a year has passed since Hajjaj managed to leave Gaza for Egypt, he says his home never feels that far away. "Even if my body left Gaza, all my senses are still there," he said.

Everyone in Israel has been affected by the last year of war. Many have lost loved ones; others had their homes and communities destroyed during the Hamas attack on October 7. VOA visited some of the hardest-hit sites. Linda Gradstein reports. Camera: Ricki Rosen         

On Mexico's northern border, migrants awaiting entry to the United States have found an unexpected source of solace: cultivating their own food. In this report, narrated by Veronica Villafañe, César Contreras shows how a community garden in Ciudad Juárez is sowing seeds of hope.