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Berlin — It's a cold, overcast afternoon, but Su Yutong is in a cheerful mood as she walks in a Berlin park. Her hat askew and hair in pigtails, the 47-year-old proves popular among the animals. A French bulldog runs over to greet her. Swans and ducks paddle close. Swinging her sequined purse as she walks, Su brags to me about how well she plays ping pong. Her manner is a contrast to the Berliners hurrying by on this windy day. But the journalist's seemingly carefree attitude belies something darker. Heading back to her apartment, Su says the buildings look different in the daylight. As someone targeted frequently by the Chinese government, the Radio Free Asia reporter prefers to walk at night. "Because in the evening, no one knows me," she said. You don't have to hear much of Su's story to understand why she prefers anonymity. Held under house arrest in China before fleeing to Europe, the journalist is still targeted for her coverage of human rights and politics. From smear campaigns and people sharing her address on an underground sex website, to false bomb threats made in her name, the harassment has left a deep mark. "I keep telling the truth, so they want me to shut up, including by threatening me," she said, in reference to the Chinese government, which she and others say is behind the attacks. For more than a decade, Beijing-backed harassment has been the reality for Su. China ranks among the worst perpetrators of what is known as transnational repression, but even by those standards, Su's case is extreme, experts say.   "The everyday implications of transnational repression are vast," said Gözde Böcü, a researcher at the Citizen Lab. The University of Toronto group focuses on digital threats to human rights. There's the immediate effect, but the daily fallout is more severe. Long-term consequences include paranoia, depression and isolation, which experts say can also give perpetrators what they want most: silence. Over the past decade, at least 26 governments have targeted journalists abroad, according to Freedom House. The harassment against Su underscores a broader pattern in which authoritarian governments are increasingly comfortable reaching across borders to target their critics. Neither China's Foreign Ministry nor its embassy in Berlin replied to VOA's multiple emails requesting comment for this story. It's been more than 10 years since Su last set foot in China, but Beijing is still home. Born and raised in the country's capital, Su decided to pursue a career in journalism because of the lack of free-flowing information there. "China blocks the truth. It needs to have a lot of journalists to tell the real stories, tell the real events and the truth, so I decided to become a reporter," Su said. She worked at Radio Beijing but left in 2004 due to government censorship. In 2010, Su made a fateful decision: She distributed Li Peng Diary, a book by the former premier about Tiananmen Square that's banned in China. "I had to make it public," she said. "After it was published, I became very dangerous." Authorities raided Su's home and detained her, but public pressure pushed authorities to place Su under house arrest. During the Dragon Boat Festival in June that year, only one officer was left guarding Su's house. The journalist seized the opportunity to escape. "I called my mom on a public phone. I didn't say goodbye. I didn't tell her I was leaving," she said. "It was a very painful and sudden decision." With the help of colleagues and friends, Su fled to Hong Kong and then on to Germany. More than 7,300 kilometers lie between Berlin and Beijing, and for a while that distance helped Su feel safe. Slowly rebuilding her life, she worked first at the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle before moving to VOA's sister outlet Radio Free Asia. "When I arrived in Germany, at least I was able to write freely," she said. "I thought Germany was very safe."   But the distance began to shrink. And that, says Mareike Ohlberg, is often the goal. Ohlberg researches China at the German Marshall Fund think tank in Berlin. From her office, with a view of the Reichstag, she said, "The basic tactics of transnational repression are usually geared towards showing people that they can't get away from the Chinese government. To show that we can get you anywhere, we can find you anywhere." What's known in China as the "three afflictions" helps explain why Beijing's harassment is so aggressive, according to Ohlberg. Under Mao Zedong, China no longer had to worry about being bullied by foreign powers. In turn, Deng Xiaoping addressed poverty and hunger. As this narrative goes, Ohlberg said, the last main affliction is criticism of China, and it's President Xi Jinping's responsibility to root it out. "The Party can shut up criticism inside of China. But is it really a strong country if it can't do the same overseas?" Ohlberg said about Beijing's mindset. "That is a big part of what we're seeing." In 2011, Su led a solidarity campaign for Ai Weiwei after the artist was secretly detained in China. In response, a Chinese-run news site posted doctored photographs appearing to show Su naked and falsely referring to her as Ai Weiwei's mistress. From there, the harassment escalated. Government-run outlets including the Global Times launched campaigns against her. On the social media platform X, then known as Twitter, insults like "prostitute" and "dog" were common. Death and rape threats were frequent, too. Deepfake pornographic images spread on social media. Su says she was surveilled at protests outside the Chinese Embassy in Berlin, and on multiple occasions, Chinese authorities offered her large sums of money to stop work. In a more unsettling case, in 2022, men began ringing the doorbell to her apartment, saying they were responding to a sex worker advertisement on an underground website. Su suspects Chinese operatives posted her address to the site. "I felt very disgusted and very humiliated," Su said, adding, "I was afraid to walk down the street." The sexualized harassment mirrors broader strategies that repressive governments use to target women abroad, says the Citizen Lab's Böcü. It's "a devastating practice that can silence female journalists," she said. The fake advertisement isn't the only time Su's identity was stolen and used against her. In February 2023, unknown people began booking rooms at luxury hotels around the world, from Houston to Istanbul, under the names of Su and two other activists. They then called in fake bomb threats in a process known as swatting. Again, the Chinese government is the prime suspect. At the time, a spokesperson from China's Washington embassy told VOA they were aware of the specifics of the case but that China "firmly opposes" the U.S. smearing its reputation. "The accusation of 'transnational repression' is totally made out of thin air. The U.S. attempt to hype up 'China threat' and tarnish China's reputation is doomed to fail," the spokesperson said via email. Transnational repression is typically either digital or physical. The former is easier and cheaper to perpetrate, according to Ohlberg. By contrast, what Su has faced is more expensive and time-consuming to carry out. "That tends to be reserved for people that are at the top of the Chinese government's list," Ohlberg said. "Pretty much anything goes — anything that the party-state thinks it can get away with internationally." Following the harassment directed at Su, Berlin police recommended she change her address. It's been 10 months since Su moved, and her new apartment is still mostly empty. White walls meet high ceilings with ornate crown molding. Su is learning her way around. Coming home after a walk, she accidentally bumps a light switch in the foyer, triggering an unexpected display of disco lights. Erupting into laughter, Su says the previous owner left them. Over the years, Su has left a trail of apartments in her wake. There's the old apartment she still owns in Beijing. She wants to sell, she said, but China has resisted giving her a document necessary for the sale. There's also her other Berlin apartment. Both still have their furniture and decorations: time capsules of periods of a life she can't retrieve. Being forced to move is one of the obvious effects of the harassment Su has faced. Other ramifications are subtler and deeper felt, like food. "I think everyone has memories of food as a child," she said. The German capital has a respectable Chinese food scene, but Su can rarely enjoy it. Dining out increases the risk of running into officials from China's Berlin embassy, she said. Another concern is that some Chinese restaurants around the world have been found to be secret overseas police stations run by Beijing, according to a report by the human rights group Safeguard Defenders. Unable to enjoy the comforts of a meal in a Chinese restaurant, Su has become a skilled chef. "I slowly learned everything," she said. Over a conversation reaching into the night, Su whips up several dishes: fried rice, tofu, cucumber salad, fish, dumplings, sesame buns. Wearing a hat — she always wears a hat — she serves jasmine tea and red wine, the latter a gift from a German lawmaker. The journalist alternates in and out of levity. She boasts that unlike Elon Musk, she can get into the exclusive Berlin club Berghain. (Vice reported in 2022 that bouncers turned the tech billionaire away. Musk tells a different version.) Su smirks at the comparison then switches to more serious matters, like how her suspicion about Chinese restaurants has given way to suspicion about Chinese people in general. In her free time, Su likes to help fellow dissidents still inside China. But in Germany, she worries whether members of the diaspora are actually reporting back to Beijing. "I became very, very cautious," she said. That wariness is common among those targeted by transnational repression, according to Böcü. "People fear that other actors or individuals within the community could spy on them. And these fears are not unfounded," she said. "Growing mistrust in these different communities is also a big problem." Su is doing better now, but for a two-year period she hardly left her apartment. And when she did, she said, "I kept checking to see if there were any suspicious people around me." But, says Su, fear is what she believes drives Chinese authorities. "They are afraid of information, afraid of the truth," she said. And while the harassment hasn't stopped, Su says the harmful effects are waning. Through everything, Su never stopped reporting because backing down to the Chinese government was never even a consideration for her. "They didn't expect me to slowly come out of that shadow. I think they should be afraid, not me," she said. "They can't shut me up. They can't achieve this goal." Reporter: Liam Scott; Editors: Jessica Jerreat, Holly Franko; Camera: Jonathan Spier

Washington — For the fifth year in a row, about eight out of 10 Americans have unfavorable views of China, with many saying limiting Beijing’s power is a top priority, according to a public opinion survey released Wednesday. According to the Washington-based Pew Research Center, 81% of Americans have an unfavorable view of China, including 43% who hold a very unfavorable view of the country.  “Views of China across all Americans remain critical — pretty negative,” Pew research associate Christine Huang told VOA.   “China is becoming an increasingly powerful player on the international stage, and so it’s important for us to track how Americans and people around the world view China and its actions, and to see how public opinion will shape or not affect foreign policy of countries,” Huang added.   Political ideology and age were found to have a distinct impact on people’s perception of China.  “Not all Americans see China equally negatively. Some groups stand out for having especially negative views of China,” Huang said.   Republicans are far more likely to hold negative views of China than Democrats are, according to Pew. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are about twice as likely as Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents to hold a very unfavorable view of China and to consider China an enemy of the U.S., the report said.  Conservative Republicans are more likely than moderate or liberal Republicans to hold negative views of China and view Beijing as an enemy. Meanwhile, older people are also more likely to be wary of China, with Americans over the age of 65 tending to hold more unfavorable views of Beijing.  Pew doesn’t look into why most Americans have negative views of China, but the study does examine perceptions of Chinese influence, according to Huang. “Most people in America, for example, think that China’s power and influence has gotten stronger in recent years,” Huang said. “So there is a connection between the sense that it’s becoming more powerful and being more negative towards the country.”  Those views are particularly clear when it comes to considering China’s economic influence on the United States. More than 80% of Americans think China has at least a fair amount of influence on U.S. economic conditions, the report said. Of the people who think Beijing has at least some influence on the U.S. economy, 79% think that influence is negative, compared to just 18% who think it’s positive, according to Pew.  Something that stood out in this year’s study, according to Huang, is American concern over China’s territorial disputes. Beijing has laid claim to large swathes of the South China Sea, for instance, despite strong pushback from countries like Vietnam and the Philippines.  About six out of 10 Americans, or 61%, say they are at least somewhat concerned about territorial disputes between China and its neighbors, including 20% who say they are very concerned, the report found.   “Americans are looking beyond just the immediate impact to themselves,” Huang said. 

washington — The United Methodist Church, which has some 10 million members around the world, repealed on Wednesday a ban on ordaining gay clergy and same-sex marriage. Church leadership, at a conference held in North Carolina, approved the moves in a 692-51 vote. The church removed its 1984 ban on the ordination of clergy who are "self-avowing practicing homosexuals." It also decided that clergy who perform same-sex marriages will not be subject to any penalties. Neither will clergy or churches which refuse to hold same-sex weddings. "Delegates and observers applauded after the vote," the church news agency said. "Many hugged and more than a few cried, in a mass release of joy for those who had pushed, some for decades, to make The United Methodist Church fully inclusive," it added. The LGBTQ moves have not been without controversy. Thousands of more conservative United Methodist congregations have left the denomination in the past few years over the issue. About half of the church's global membership is in the United States.

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Hundreds of thousands of workers across Cameroon are observing International Labor Day on May 1 by marching against abuses they say include illegal dismissals and failure to pay the $70 monthly minimum wage, even as the cost of living increases. Trade unions say tens of thousands of trained teachers, doctors and nurses have fled the country in the past year because of unemployment and tough working conditions, with monthly salaries at half the minimum.  Celestin Bama, secretary general of the Confederation of Cameroon Workers Trade Union, or CSTC, addressed workers gathered at the May 20 Boulevard in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.  Bama said the government of Cameroon has not done anything substantial within the past 30 years to improve the conditions of workers. Thirty years ago, Cameroon imposed a 70 percent salary cut on government workers, Bama said, adding that there is a growing need to increase wages as prices of basic commodities have spiked 40 percent. Cameroon trade unions say a 20 percent fuel price hike imposed by the government in February without a corresponding salary increase has also made living very difficult. Anong Jacob, a member of the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union, or CATTU, said some private school owners pay teachers as little as $50 a month.    "What do you expect from a teacher who earns 40,000 or 30,000 francs in a town like Yaounde or Douala or Bamenda, Bafoussam? What quality of shoe or dress would you expect them to put [wear] and come to school? You see the poor teacher with twisted shirts, with twisted shoes and all of that. Sometimes they don't have money to pay electricity bills. They suffer a lot of humiliation,” Anong said. “I think the government should put some policies [in place] to see that proprietors and proprietresses respect the minimum wage."   Cameroon's agreed minimum wage is $70 per month. Hilary Mbuwel, a teacher and social critic, said private employers do not respect the minimum wage because the government does not police private companies.   "Proprietors know that if they do not respect the minimum wage, nobody calls them to account and so, since there is nobody to call them to account, nobody to punish them, they do it with impunity," Mbuwel said.  The government says there has been a 10 percent pay raise since 2023, but workers say with inflation so high, the raise is negligible. The government says the inflation rate is about 8 percent.   Cameroon Minister of Labor and Social Security Gregoire Owona said the fragile world economy and several armed conflicts that the government has to manage make it impossible for the state and private investors to satisfy the needs of all workers.  Owona said limited financial resources make it difficult for the government of Cameroon to solve the myriad problems affecting workers. He added that Cameroon President Paul Biya has ordered officials to make sure the wages of all government workers are paid regularly and as agreed in their employment contracts, while the possibility of improved workers' rights, decent working conditions and fair compensation are being examined.   Owona said the Cameroon government has instructed police and the National Insurance Fund to investigate and punish private employers who neither register their staff members to social security schemes nor respect the minimum wage.  The government says respecting agreed wages and providing retirement benefits and disability income to qualified workers and their families will reduce the current massive migration of workers for lucrative jobs elsewhere, especially in Europe and North America.  Cameroon says at least 10,000 trained professionals have fled the central African state within the past year because of unemployment, poor pay or poor working conditions.  

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.

London — Climate change will cut the average income of people around the world by one-fifth by 2050, according to a new report published in the journal Nature by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. As many parts of the world experience extreme weather, the global impacts of a changing climate are set to cost $38 trillion a year by the middle of the century, the report warns — a reduction in the world’s average income of some 19%. The losses are already locked in, independent of future emission choices, the report says. Maximilian Kotz, co-author of the report, told VOA there is little the world can do to mitigate the impact. “What we find is that over the next 25 to 30 years, impacts on the economy are consistent across different emissions scenarios, regardless of whether we enter a high-emission or low-emission world,” he said. Climate change, and especially higher temperatures, have been shown to impact worker productivity, said Kotz. “That’s then going to be manifest across numerous different industries — although it’s particularly strong, those impacts, when workers are outdoors, so in contexts like manufacturing sectors,” he said. “And then, we also know that impacts on agricultural productivity are very strong from again, particularly high temperatures.” The research looked at climate and economic data from the past 40 years from more than 1,600 regions across the world and used it to assess future impacts. Those least responsible for global emissions are likely to be worst hit. “Committed losses are projected for all regions except those at very high latitudes, at which reductions in temperature variability bring benefits. The largest losses are committed at lower latitudes in regions with lower cumulative historical emissions and lower present-day income,” the report said. The authors conclude that tackling climate change would be far cheaper than putting up with the economic damage and estimate the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions would be just one-sixth of the $38 trillion impact of climate change by 2050. The research is likely to underestimate the total economic impact of climate change. “Important channels such as impacts from heatwaves, sea-level rise, tropical cyclones and tipping points, as well as non-market damages such as those to ecosystems and human health, are not considered in these estimates,” the report said.

Kigali — Hate speech fueled Rwanda’s tragic 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, resulting in the loss of around 800,000 people. Today, a new generation – including some very determined Generation Z members in Rwanda – is leading the charge to stop hate speech from spreading again and working towards a future of unity and understanding. In a quiet dark room, Clara, a young Rwandan, tearfully confronts her mother. Born long after a genocide forced her family to flee, she seeks the truth about her roots. Clara is a fictional character in a stage play presented by the Rwandan youth organization Peace and Love Proclaimers, or PLP. She represents a majority of Rwandan Gen Z’s, said the group's head, Israel Nuru Mupenzi. Over 100 days in 1994, Hutu extremists massacred some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in what is known today as the Rwandan Genocide against Tutsis. Thirty years on, a new generation feels lost in a broken society, said Mupenzi. “We were not there, but we are now facing the aftermath. We are seeing our parents and our neighbors closing doors to each other because of lack of trust. Some couples are breaking up because of that. They say, ‘My parents said they can’t, he can't allow me to be married to that family,” said Mupenzi. Parents haunted by the past are reluctant to share why. “They kinda try to hide it. ‘Dad, you don't want to talk about this? But you know you have to tell me about this so I can know what to do,” said Mupenzi. So, they go to the internet and social media for answers. But social media influencer Noella Shyaka said the space is very unhealthy. She explained that perpetrators of the 1994 crimes fled the country and continue to use social media to spread hate. Their goal, she said, is to radicalize the youth against each other.  “So, we get attacked. Certain groups, they target you, they always come in your comments, they call you names, ‘Slut’ ‘Tutsis’, yeah, we are not comfortable,” said Shyaka. Many youths are angry, according to Rwandan artist and PLP creative director Colin Kazungu. He said some youth react to these hate speeches by writing songs and poems about violence and revenge. To help, he is using entertainment, arts, and sports to dispel the hate and also create a safe space for genocide conversation. “Art has a way to your heart even when a speech or a president's speech cannot go straight to your heart. But I can talk to your heart with music even before a government official gets a platform to talk to you. Because many people follow music than they follow political things,” he said. Kazunga said the toxicity around genocide conversations drives most youths away from the topic, but through art, entertainment and other fun events, PLP has seen them re-engage. “People are now starting to understand that we need to take part in this journey, in this journey to fight genocide ideology, in this journey to say never again, to make never again a reality,” he said.    The Peace and Love Proclaimers together with youth artists in Rwanda continue to raise awareness through community and school engagements. They have about 60 partner schools where they organize entertainment and education events, including peace walks all year round.

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

The average income of people around the world will be cut by one-fifth because of climate change by the middle of the century, according to a new report by Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, published in the journal Nature. Henry Ridgwell has more.

LONDON — The Scottish government survived a vote of no confidence on Wednesday, giving the Scottish National Party a chance to pick a new leader to replace outgoing First Minister Humza Yousaf.  Yousaf's decision to step down as first minister and SNP leader on Monday has thrown the party into chaos and boosted hopes in Britain's opposition Labour Party that it can regain Scottish seats to win a national election later this year.  Polls show that Labour is ahead of or level with the SNP in Scotland for the first time in a decade.  Yousaf said he would resign after he ended a coalition with the Green Party. It means the SNP is seeking a third leader in little over a year, undermining what had once seemed like its iron grip on power in the devolved Scottish government.  While the Greens made Yousaf's position untenable by withdrawing their confidence in him personally, they voted with the SNP against Wednesday's vote of no confidence in the Scottish government.  The no confidence motion was defeated, 70-58.   Defeat for the government would have led to the resignation of all ministers and most likely triggered a Scottish election.  With that outcome averted, Yousaf will remain in office until the SNP chooses a new leader. Former SNP party leader John Swinney and Yousaf's old leadership rival Kate Forbes have said they are considering running.  Yousaf took over the party in March last year, after the resignation of longtime leader Nicola Sturgeon, who faced splits in the party over the best route to independence for Scotland and proposed transgender recognition legislation.  Police have also probed the SNP's finances, and Sturgeon's husband has been charged with embezzling funds from the SNP. She has been arrested and questioned but not charged. Both deny wrongdoing. 

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.

Jerusalem — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday as talks continue in Cairo to resolve details of an elusive bid for a cease-fire in Israel’s war with Hamas militants in Gaza. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Blinken “emphasized that it is Hamas that is standing in the way of a cease-fire.” The militants so far have refused to accept a plan calling for a several-week halt in nearly seven months of warfare, along with Hamas failing to free hostages it is holding in exchange for the release of Palestinians jailed by Israel. But even as Blinken blamed Hamas for the lack of a truce, Miller said the top U.S. diplomat told Netanyahu that the U.S. remains opposed to the Israeli leader’s call for a ground attack on the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where Israel says it plans to root out four remaining battalions of Hamas fighters. The U.S., the United Nations and numerous world officials have voiced opposition to an attack on Rafah because more than a million Palestinian refugees are sheltering there, many of them ordered by the Israeli military to flee there from their homes in northern Gaza during the earliest weeks of the war. Netanyahu says the offensive is necessary to meet Israel’s goal of erasing Hamas control of Gaza, and that it will happen regardless of whether there is a cease-fire and hostage-release deal with Hamas. After an earlier meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, Blinken said of the truce talks, “There is a proposal on the table, and as we’ve said, no delays, no excuses, the time is now.” Cairo has been hosting talks involving U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators that have produced the latest cease-fire proposal. Blinken also placed a continued emphasis on getting more humanitarian aid into Gaza to feed famished Palestinians. “At the same time, even as we’re working with relentless determination to get the cease-fire that brings the hostages home, we also have to be focused on people in Gaza who are suffering in this crossfire of Hamas’ making,” Blinken said. The top U.S. diplomat has repeatedly called on Hamas to accept the cease-fire proposal during a trip to the region that included earlier stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Herzog said the return of hostages held by Hamas “is and should be the top priority of the international community.” Following the meeting with Herzog, Blinken spoke with demonstrators outside who held signs and chanted slogans calling for the hostages in Gaza to be brought home. Blinken told the demonstrators he had met with families of the hostages and told them, “Bringing your loved ones home is at the heart of everything we’re trying to do.” Hamas is believed to still be holding about 100 hostages, along with the remains of about 30 others, after taking about 250 people hostage in the October 7 attack on Israel in which the militants killed 1,200 people. Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,500 people, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza. Israel says the death toll includes several thousand Hamas militants it has killed. Blinken met Tuesday with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and King Abdullah II, before meeting with Sigrid Kaag, U.N. senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza. Blinken thanked Abdullah for Jordan’s leadership in facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, including joint U.S.-Jordan airdrops that to date have delivered more than 1,000 tons of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. The two leaders discussed joint efforts to expedite the flow of additional urgently needed aid to Gaza from Jordan through land routes. Blinken also commended the king’s commitment to economic modernization and vital public sector reforms. Later Tuesday, Blinken met with Palestinians from Gaza at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs before meeting with Kaag. Blinken told Kaag he was anxious to hear directly from her, adding, “The entire team is doing extraordinary work to ensure that people in Gaza get the help and support and the assistance they need.” VOA’s Cindy Saine contributed to this report.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Tourists were evacuated by air from Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve Wednesday after more than a dozen hotels, lodges and camps were flooded as heavy rains continue to batter the country. Tourist accommodation facilities were submerged after a river within the Maasai Mara broke its banks early Wednesday. The reserve, in southwestern Kenya, is a popular tourist destination because it features the annual wildebeest migration from the Serengeti in Tanzania. The Kenya Red Cross said it rescued 36 people by air and 25 others by land. The Narok County government said it deployed two helicopters to carry out evacuations in the expansive conservation area. More than 170 people have died across Kenya since mid-March when the rainy season started, causing flooding and landslides and destroying infrastructure. The Meteorology Department has warned that more rain is expected this week. On Monday, a river broke through a clogged tunnel in the Mai Mahiu area in western Kenya, sweeping houses away and damaging roads. The incident killed 48 people, and more than 80 others were missing. Search and rescue operations across the Mai Mahiu area are ongoing. President William Ruto on Tuesday ordered the military to join in the search. Locals say rescue efforts have been slow due to lack of equipment to dig through the debris. The government has urged people living in flood-prone areas to evacuate or be moved forcefully as water levels in two major hydroelectric dams rise to a "historic high."