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

Taipei, Taiwan — A recent attempt by a Chinese man to illegally enter Taiwan after crossing the 180-kilometer-wide Taiwan Strait in a rubber boat is raising concerns on the island about its coastal defense capabilities and overall preparedness amid rising tensions between Beijing and Taipei.  Last Saturday, a 30-year-old Chinese man surnamed Wang was spotted in a dinghy about 100 meters offshore near Taiwan’s northern Linkou District in New Taipei City at about 6:30 in the morning.  After being treated for severe dehydration at a nearby hospital, Wang was detained by local authorities for illegally entering Taiwan. Wang told authorities that he was in debt in China and wanted to start a new life in Taiwan. Wang is one of 18 Chinese nationals who have tried to illegally enter Taiwan since July of last year. When reached for comment on the cases, Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration declined to share how many of them were able to reach Taiwan’s shores, like Wang.  In June, a former Chinese naval captain was able to reach the Tamsui ferry pier in Northern Taiwan on a speedboat, shocking many because of how far he was able to get before being detected. At the time, a Chinese man surnamed Ruan said he was fleeing to Taiwan seeking freedom after being threatened by Chinese police for sharing articles critical of the Chinese government. On Wednesday, however, a court in Taipei sentenced Ruan to eight months in prison for illegally entering Taiwan. He confessed to the crime but claimed his deep knowledge of the Chinese military could help Taiwan cope with threats posed by Beijing. Some experts say the two Chinese men’s attempts to illegally enter Taiwan expose loopholes in Taiwan’s coastal defense capabilities.  “Even though Taiwan’s defense ministry has highlighted the strategic importance of defending coastal areas in northern Taiwan, Taiwan’s coast guard, which is in charge of coastal defense, has not prioritized setting up advanced surveillance technologies, such as infrared thermal cameras, in these areas, which lead to their failure of detecting the two Chinese men before they reach Taiwanese shores,” said Chieh Chung, a military researcher at the National Policy Foundation in Taiwan.  Some lawmakers from Taiwan’s main opposition party Kuomintang, who favor friendly relations with China, say the two incidents show the Taiwanese government has failed to provide the coast guard with adequate funding and the right equipment to monitor attempted illegal entry. In response to opposition lawmakers’ criticism of underfunding the coast guard, Taiwan’s Premier Cho Jung-tai vowed to accelerate the review of the recent incidents and determine whether the coast guard needs more advanced technologies or personnel to support their work. Apart from accelerating the installation of advanced surveillance technologies along coastal areas in northern Taiwan, Chieh said Taiwan’s coast guard should consider strengthening coastal patrols by purchasing commercial drones and increasing coordination with Taiwanese fishermen.  “Taiwan’s coast guard can use commercial drones to help conduct patrols along coastal areas during the day and Taiwanese fishermen could immediately inform the coast guard if they spot any unusual vessels in waters near Taiwanese shores,” he told VOA in a phone interview.  Growing gray zone challenges  Intrusions into Taiwanese waters by Chinese coast guard vessels also are posing a problem for Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration and raising questions about preparedness. This is particularly true in waters off Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen and Matsu islands, which are just a few kilometers from China’s coast.  Late last week, Taiwan said four Chinese coast guard vessels entered restricted waters near Kinmen, prompting Taipei to deploy four coast guard vessels to drive away the Chinese vessels. The incident was the 39th incursion carried out by Chinese coast guard vessels this year, officials said. While Beijing describes the incursions, which include boarding Taiwanese vessels, as being part of “law enforcement patrols,” analysts in Taiwan say they challenge Taipei’s territorial claims around its outlying islands and are unilaterally seeking to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. Chieh said since the Taiwanese government has focused on enhancing wartime coordination between the coast guard and the navy over the last few years, it has overlooked the need to strengthen the Taiwanese coast guard’s maritime law enforcement capabilities and upgrade its vessels and training.     “Some of the coast guard vessels that Taiwan purchased in previous years are not suitable to engage in close-range encounters with Chinese coast guard vessels because the structure of those vessels is not solid enough,” he told VOA.     Some analysts suggest Taiwan should carry out a series of reforms to rapidly enhance the coast guard’s capabilities.     “The Taiwanese government should enhance the coast guard’s budget, increase their manpower, and strengthen their law enforcement capabilities by arranging exchanges with other countries’ coast guard,” Su Tzu-yun, a military expert at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told VOA by phone.     Military analysts say China likely will maintain high-level pressure on Taiwan through repeated coast guard incursions in the coming months, and Taipei should ensure its coast guard has enough support to cope with the wide range of challenges that Beijing poses.     “Instead of letting the coast guard oversee both Taiwan’s maritime defense and coastal defense, the Taiwanese government should consider assigning some of the responsibilities to the army or the navy,” Lin Ying-yu, a military expert at Tamkang University in Taiwan, told VOA by phone. 

New York — Boeing said Wednesday it would start temporary furloughs of professional and white-collar staff as it seeks to conserve cash amid a labor strike that has shuttered Seattle manufacturing plants. The furloughs, which pertain to executives, managers and workers, will be initiated in the coming days and affect tens of thousands of Boeing employees, company officials said. Boeing plans for "selected employees to take one week of furlough every four weeks on a rolling basis for the duration of the strike," said a message to employees from CEO Kelly Ortberg. The new Boeing boss added that he and the rest of the leadership team "will take a commensurate pay reduction for the duration of the strike." Boeing had said that furloughs were on the table earlier in the week when it announced a hiring freeze, travel budget austerity measures and a reduction of supplier expenditures. About 33,000 Seattle-area Boeing workers with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 walked off the job Friday after overwhelmingly rejecting a contract renewal. The two sides resumed talks Tuesday with the assistance of mediators from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The IAM blasted Boeing in a bargaining update posted late Tuesday. "We are frustrated," the IAM said. "The company was not prepared and was unwilling to address the issues you've made clear are essential for ending this strike: Wages and Pension. The company doesn't seem to be taking mediation seriously." Ortberg's message to employees reiterated his commitment to "resetting our relationship with our represented employees and continuing discussions with the union to reach a new agreement that is good for all of our teammates and our company as soon as possible."

Every four years, the U.S. presidential race zeroes in on "swing states." These battlegrounds, unlike most states that consistently favor one party, can flip between elections and often determine who wins the White House. With just a few states typically in play, campaigns pour resources into these crucial arenas. Their electoral votes frequently decide the outcome, making them the focus of intense campaigning. Understanding swing states is essential to grasping how America picks its president, shaping strategies and potentially altering the nation's political landscape.

Washington — The U.S., Canada and Australia hit a group of Iranian officials with sanctions Wednesday for their participation in suppressing protests and detaining people in relation to the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who died in the custody of Iran's morality police two years ago for improperly wearing a mandatory headscarf. Amini, 22, died on Sept. 16, 2022, in a hospital after being arrested for allegedly not wearing her mandatory headscarf, or hijab, to the liking of the authorities. Her death sparked nationwide protests against the country's hijab laws and its ruling theocracy. Included in Wednesday's sanctions are a dozen officials accused of killing and detaining protesters, suppressing protests in 2019 and 2022 and arresting journalists. The country's new reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian campaigned on a promise to halt the harassment of women by morality police. Still, since Amini's death, videos have emerged of women and girls being roughed up by officers. In 2023, a teenage Iranian girl was injured in a mysterious incident on Tehran's Metro while not wearing a headscarf and later died in the hospital. In July, activists say police opened fire on a woman fleeing a checkpoint in an attempt to avoid her car being impounded for her not wearing the hijab. U.S. Treasury official Bradley T. Smith said, "Despite the Iranian people's peaceful calls for reform, Iran's leaders have doubled down on the regime's well-worn tactics of violence and coercion." The U.S. and its allies "will continue to take action to expose and hold accountable those responsible for carrying out the Iranian regime's cruel agenda," Smith said. The sanctions, which block access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with the U.S. are largely symbolic since many of the individuals do not interact with the U.S. In March, a United Nations fact-finding mission determined that Iran is responsible for the "physical violence" that led to the death of Amini. It also found that the Islamic Republic employed "unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force" to put down the demonstrations that erupted following Amini's death and that Iranian security forces sexually assaulted detainees. Increasingly, on the streets of Iranian cities, it's becoming more common to see a woman passing by without a mandatory headscarf.

A group of young activists in Turkey known as 1000 Youth for Palestine is posing a rare and potent challenge to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by using social media to expose Turkey's ongoing trade with Israel. This, despite Erdogan's public claims that he has imposed a strict trade embargo on Israel over the war in Gaza. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the group's message is crossing the deep political, social and religious divides of Turkey.

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 — The United States has identified and taken down a botnet campaign by China-directed hackers to further infiltrate American infrastructure as well as a variety of internet-connected devices. FBI Director Christopher Wray announced the disruption of what he called Flax Typhoon during a cyber summit Wednesday in Washington, describing it as part of a much larger campaign by Beijing. “Flax Typhoon hijacked Internet-of-Things devices like cameras, video recorders and storage devices — things typically found across both big and small organizations,” Wray said. “And about half of those hijacked devices were located here in the U.S.” Wray said the hackers, working under the guise of an information security company called the Integrity Technology Group, collected information from corporations, media organizations, universities and government agencies. “They used internet-connected devices — this time, hundreds of thousands of them — to create a botnet that helped them compromise systems and exfiltrate confidential data,” he said. But Flax Typhoon’s operations were disrupted last week when the FBI, working with allies and under court orders, took control of the botnet and pursued the hackers when they tried to switch to a backup system. “We think the bad guys finally realized that it was the FBI and our partners that they were up against,” Wray said. “And with that realization, they essentially burned down their new infrastructure and abandoned their botnet.” Wray said Flax Typhoon appeared to build on the exploits and tactics of another China-linked hacking group, known as Volt Typhoon, which was identified by Microsoft in May of last year. Volt Typhoon used office network equipment, including routers, firewalls and VPN hardware, to infiltrate and disrupt communications infrastructure in Guam, home to key U.S. military facilities. The Chinese Embassy in Washington Wednesday rejected the U.S accusations. "Without valid evidence, the U.S. jumped to an unwarranted conclusion and made groundless accusations" Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told VOA in an email, responding to the allegations about Flax Typhoon. "The U.S. itself is the origin and the biggest perpetrator of cyberattacks," Liu added. "We urge the U.S. to stop its worldwide cyber espionage and cyberattacks, and stop smearing other countries under the excuse of cyber security." The FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have previously warned that Chinese-government directed hackers, like Volt Typhoon, have been positioning themselves to launch destructive cyberattacks that could jeopardize the physical safety of Americans. Following Wednesday’s announcement by the FBI, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) issued an advisory encouraging anyone with a device that was compromised by Flax Typhoon to apply needed patches. It said that as of this past June, the Flax Typhoon botnet was making use of more than 260,000 devices in North America, Europe, Africa and Southeast East. The NSA said almost half of the compromised devices were in the U.S. Another 18 countries, including Vietnam, Bangladesh, Albania, China, South Africa and India, were also impacted.  

AVIGNON, France — Gisele Pelicot, who was drugged and raped by dozens of men recruited by her husband, said on Wednesday "forgiveness does not exist," rejecting claims by him and one of his chief accomplices that they regretted harming the women they loved. The trial in the southern French town of Avignon of Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men accused of raping his wife has shocked the world. The case has also triggered protests across France in support of Gisele Pelicot, who has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence. "These men are degenerates. They committed rape," Gisele Pelicot, 72, told the court after her now ex-husband Dominique and the accomplice, Jean-Pierre Marechal, gave testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. "When they see a woman sleeping on her bed, no one thought to ask themselves a question? They don't have brains?" Dominique Pelicot, 71, is also accused of having raped Marechal's wife at her home after drugging her, with the collaboration of her husband. Gisele Pelicot insisted on a public trial to expose her former husband and the 50 men he is accused of inviting to rape her in a small village in southern France. "Today forgiveness does not exist," Gisele Pelicot told the court as she described how her former husband had taken mistresses without hiding the fact from her, and she defended herself from some of the criticisms leveled against her. "I have felt humiliated while I've been in this courtroom. I have been called an alcoholic, a conspirator of Mr. Pelicot," she said, adding her life had been "destroyed" for 10 years. "In the state I was in, I absolutely could not respond. I was in a comatose state; the videos show that." The Pelicots' daughter Caroline, whose photographs were found on her father's devices along with images of her mother being raped, was on the verge of tears in the courtroom as her mother spoke. Dominique Pelicot has denied drugging or sexually abusing Caroline. She has told French media that she started publicly campaigning to fight drug-induced sexual assault to cope with the shock following her father's arrest. In court, Dominique Pelicot admitted orchestrating the mass rape of his then-wife. He asked for forgiveness and said he ultimately hoped to win back his former partner, who filed for divorce after learning of the rapes from investigators. Because of a skirmish between some supporters of Gisele Pelicot and some of the accused on Tuesday evening, the court told attendees not to boo the suspects in the case, telling them they were innocent until proven guilty. But the court also said it was not a problem if supporters applauded Gisele Pelicot when she emerged from the courtroom, as some have been doing. Earlier on Wednesday, Marechal, 63, admitted to working with Dominique Pelicot to drug and both rape Marechal's wife, Cilia, after the men met on a now-shuttered website. Marechal blamed his mentor and a troubled childhood for his actions. Marechal is not among those accused of raping Gisele Pelicot. "I regret my actions. I love my wife," Marechal said in the courtroom. "If I had not met Mr. Pelicot, I would have never committed this act." Marechal met Dominique Pelicot on a website called Coco, where Pelicot shared with him images of the rapes of his wife by the men he had recruited, describing how he had drugged her. Marechal said in the courtroom he stumbled across the website by accident and initially refused Pelicot's request to rape his own wife before acquiescing. Prosecutors say Pelicot drugged Marechal's wife and raped her while Marechal watched. Gisele Pelicot said Marechal's explanation of his childhood was insufficient to explain his actions. "I've had trauma but I have not committed crimes," she said. Dominique Pelicot acknowledged his guilt in raping Marechal's wife and said he regretted his actions, adding that he cut contact with them after she woke up while he was in her room. Prosecutors say Dominique Pelicot was recorded in at least three of 12 assaults against Marechal's wife Cilia.

Egypt ruffled Ethiopia’s feathers after Cairo sent military aid to Somalia, which had accused Ethiopia of planning to annex its territory. The two countries are locked in yet another battle over a dam Addis Ababa has been constructing on a major tributary of the Nile River.

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.

BALTIMORE — The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday sued the owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the Baltimore bridge collapse, seeking to recover more than $100 million that the government spent to clear the underwater debris and reopen the city's port.  The lawsuit filed in Maryland alleges that the electrical and mechanical systems on the ship, the Dali, were improperly maintained, causing it to lose power and veer off course before striking a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.  "This tragedy was entirely avoidable," according to the lawsuit.  The collapse snarled commercial shipping traffic through the Port of Baltimore for months before the channel was fully opened in June.  "With this civil claim, the Justice Department is working to ensure that the costs of clearing the channel and reopening the Port of Baltimore are borne by the companies that caused the crash, not by the American taxpayer," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in written statement.  The case was filed against Dali owner Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and manager Synergy Marine Group, both of Singapore. The companies filed a court petition days after the collapse seeking to limit their legal liability in what could become the most expensive marine casualty case in history.  The ship was leaving Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka when its steering failed because of the power loss. Six members of a road work crew on the bridge were killed in the collapse. The men were working an overnight shift filling potholes on the bridge deck when it suddenly crumbled beneath them, sending them tumbling into the water.  "This accident happened because of the careless and grossly negligent decisions made by Grace Ocean and Synergy, who recklessly chose to send an unseaworthy vessel to navigate a critical waterway and ignored the risks to American lives and the nation's infrastructure," said Chetan Patil, the acting deputy assistant attorney general.  On Tuesday, the victims' families declared their intent to file a claim seeking to hold the ship's owner and manager fully liable for the disaster. Several other interested parties, including city officials and local businesses, have filed opposing claims accusing the companies of negligence.  The families are also calling for more robust workplace protections, especially for immigrant workers. All the victims were Latino immigrants who came to the United States in search of better-paying jobs and opportunities.

Effective Sept. 10, 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services automatically extended the validity of Permanent Resident Cards (also known as Green Cards) to 36 months for lawful permanent residents who file Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card.  

Existing laws governing internet free speech are being questioned across the U.S. political spectrum. VOA’s Matt Dibble looks at how candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump view the issue.

Tuberculosis remains a critical public health issue in many countries and is a leading cause of death in South Africa. Over the past six years, the BEAT Tuberculosis study, conducted in South Africa and focused on children and pregnant women, has revealed a promising new oral treatment that could mark a significant breakthrough in the fight against drug-resistant TB. Zaheer Cassim reports.

For the first time in over a decade, elections for 90 seats in Indian-administered Kashmir's general assembly are being held. This is the first vote since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government revoked the region's semi-autonomous status. Separatist leaders and parties are participating in the election against Modi’s party. VOA’s Yusuf Jameel has more from Srinagar, Kashmir. Camera: Zubair Dar

According to the U.N., one in four girls ages 15 to 19 in Tanzania is either pregnant or has given birth. Policies that forced teen moms to drop out of school were lifted in 2021. But despite these rules, many are still unable to be a mother and receive an education at the same time. Juhudi Mmari has the report from Dodoma, Tanzania, narrated by Salem Solomon.

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.

Russia’s invasion has riddled the farmland in Ukraine's Kharkiv region with land mines, leaving many local farmers without a job. But since the occupying forces left, some are growing what they can, where they can, and selling it to make ends meet. And they’re getting help from a group of volunteers.  Anna Kosstutschenko has the story.