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PORTLAND, Ore. — Cheng "Charlie" Saephan wore a broad smile and a bright blue sash emblazoned with the words "Iu-Mien USA" as he hoisted an oversized check for $1.3 billion above his head. The 46-year-old immigrant's luck in winning an enormous Powerball jackpot in Oregon earlier this month — a lump sum payment of $422 million after taxes, which he and his wife will split with a friend — has changed his life. It also raised awareness about Iu Mien people, a southeast Asian ethnic group with origins in China, many of whose members fled from Laos to Thailand and then settled in the U.S. following the Vietnam War. "I am born in Laos, but I am not Laotian," Saephan told a news conference Monday at Oregon Lottery headquarters, where his identity as one of the jackpot's winners was revealed. "I am Iu Mien." During the Vietnam War, the CIA and U.S. military recruited Iu Mien in neighboring Laos, many of them subsistence farmers, to engage in guerrilla warfare and to provide intelligence and surveillance to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail that the North Vietnamese used to send troops and weapons through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam. After the conflict as well as the Laotian civil war, when the U.S.-backed government of Laos fell in 1975, they fled by the thousands to avoid reprisals from the new Communist government, escaping by foot through the jungle and then across the Mekong River into Thailand, according to a history posted on the website of Iu Mien Community Services in Sacramento, California. More than 70% of the Iu Mien population in Laos left and many wound up in refugee camps in Thailand. Thousands of the refugees were allowed to come to the U.S., with the first waves arriving in the late 1970s and most settling along the West Coast. The culture had rich traditions of storytelling, basketry, embroidery and jewelry-making, but many initially had difficulty adjusting to Western life due to cultural and language differences as well as a lack of formal education. There are now tens of thousands of Iu Mien — pronounced "yoo MEE'-en" — in the U.S., with many attending universities or starting businesses. Many have converted to Christianity from traditional animist religions. There is a sizeable Iu Mien community in Portland and its suburbs, with a Buddhist temple and Baptist church, active social organization, and businesses and restaurants. Cayle Tern, president of the Iu Mien Association of Oregon, arrived in Portland with his family in 1980, when he was 3 years old. He is now running for City Council. His father and uncle assisted American forces in Laos and he was born as his mother fled to a refugee camp in Thailand. Many Iu Mien in the U.S. have similar stories, and Saephan's Powerball win sheds light on the new lives they have made in Oregon and elsewhere after such trauma, he said. Tern knows all three of the Powerball winners, he said. "You know, I think for me it's more than just about the money. ... We've been here since the late '70s, but very little is known of us," he said while sitting in his uncle's restaurant in Troutdale, a Portland suburb. "This attention that we're getting — people are interested in what the community is, who we are, where we came from. That is to me is equally special." Saephan, 46, said he was born in Laos and moved to Thailand in 1987, before immigrating to the U.S. in 1994. He graduated from high school in 1996 and has lived in Portland for 30 years. He worked as a machinist for an aerospace company. He said Monday that he has had cancer for eight years and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week. "I will be able to provide for my family and my health," he said, adding that he'd "find a good doctor for myself." The winning Powerball ticket was sold in early April at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in Portland, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months. The Oregon Lottery said it had to go through a security and vetting process before announcing the identity of the person who came forward to claim the prize. Under Oregon law, with few exceptions, lottery players cannot remain anonymous. Winners have a year to claim the top prize. The jackpot had a cash value of $621 million before taxes if the winner chose to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes and state taxes in Oregon. The $1.3 billion prize is the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot in history, and the eighth-largest among U.S. jackpot games, according to the Oregon Lottery. The biggest U.S. lottery jackpot won was $2.04 billion in California in 2022.

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Tensions on U.S. campuses enter a new phase as a Jewish student files a proposed class action lawsuit alleging students were displaced from Columbia University because its administration could not guarantee their safety. VOA's Natasha Mozgovaya has the story.

Washington — The United States and the European Union say they are keeping their eyes on Pyongyang and Tehran for any possible military cooperation between the two as Iran confirms a North Korean delegation's visit to the country. The U.S. "will use all available tools, including interdiction and sanctions, to address such activities," a State Department spokesperson said in an email to VOA's Korean Service on Friday. An EU spokesperson on the same day told VOA Korean that it is also "following closely Iran-DPRK relations and their potential cooperation that could indeed be concerning on certain issues if it violates existing U.N. sanctions." North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Pyongyang announced through its state-run KCNA that it sent a delegation led by its External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong Ho to Iran on April 23. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday that a North Korean delegation visited Tehran last week to discuss bilateral trade, according to Reuters. But Kanaani dismissed any suspected cooperation on their missile programs, saying it is a "biased speculation" based on "untrue" reports. The U.S. has accused Pyongyang, Tehran and Beijing of supporting Russia's war against Ukraine. Tehran has also been involved in conflict with Israel. Iran attacked Israel on April 13 with more than 300 missiles and drones and said the assault was in retaliation against an Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in Damascus, Syria. Israel responded by launching a counterstrike into Iran on April 18. "It certainly is possible and even probable" that Pyongyang and Tehran are cooperating militarily in the current Middle East conflict, just as they have done since the 1980s, said Robert Peters, a research fellow for nuclear deterrence and missile defense at the Heritage Foundation's Allison Center for National Security. Iran is motivated to acquire missiles from North Korea "given Iran's current approach of laying a siege [around] Israel using missiles supplied to its proxies – Hezbollah, Hamas, and Houthis," Peters said. Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis are Iran-backed militant groups that base their operations in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and Yemen, respectively. Pyongyang's arms sales to Tehran began in the 1980s during Iran's war with Iraq. Their cooperation on missile programs continued since then and expanded. In January 2016, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Iranians for traveling to Pyongyang and collaborating on the development of North Korea's 80-ton rocket booster. A few months later, North Korea said it had tested a new rocket engine that had a thrust of 80 tons and would be used in a new space launch vehicle. North Korea has been accusing Israel of committing "terrorism" against Iran since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. In December, the Israel Defense Forces said North Korean weapons have been turning up in Gaza. Bruce Bechtol, a former intelligence officer at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and now a professor at Angelo University in Texas, said arms transfers between Pyongyang and Tehran are "inevitable" regardless of any meeting between the two last week. "Some of the weapons that North Korea has sent to Russia have gone to Iran first and then up to the Caspian Sea, and Russia has used those weapons in the Ukraine," said Bechtol, the author of the book “North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa.” He told VOA that Iran's Emad medium-range ballistic missiles used in the attack against Israel earlier in the month were made based on the Shahab-3, which Iran first put into use in 2003. That, in turn, was developed from North Korean NoDong missiles that were sent to Tehran in the 1990s. Bechtol said Iran's Shahab-3 missiles were developed in a facility that North Korea built for Tehran in the early 2000s. He said Tehran is likely seeking to acquire Pyongyang's Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missiles. Joeun Lee contributed to this report.

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New York Police arrest protesters occupying Columbia University building. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel. He is pushing for a cease-fire and increasing aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier on Tuesday vowed to go ahead with a military operation in Rafah despite international concern over the fate of more than 1 million Palestinians sheltering there. Authorities across South and Southeast Asia are warning people of health risks as a life-threatening heat wave bears down across the region. A Polish soccer fan completed a 100-kilometre walk on Sunday to meet the goalkeeper of Radomiak Radom, honoring a pledge he made on social media.

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.

KYIV, Ukraine — A 98-year-old woman in Ukraine who escaped Russian-occupied territory by walking almost 10 kilometers (6 miles) alone, wearing a pair of slippers and supported by a cane has been reunited with her family days after they were separated while fleeing to safety. Lidia Stepanivna Lomikovska and her family decided to leave the front-line town of Ocheretyne, in the eastern Donetsk region, last week after Russian troops entered it and fighting intensified. Russians have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyiv's depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs. "I woke up surrounded by shooting all around — so scary," Lomikovska said in a video interview posted by the National Police of Donetsk region. In the chaos of the departure, Lomikovska became separated from her son and two daughters-in-law, including one, Olha Lomikovska, injured by shrapnel days earlier. The younger family members took to backroads out, but Lydia wanted to stay on the main road. With a cane in one hand and steadying herself with a splintered piece of wood in the other, she walked all day without food and water to reach Ukrainian lines. Describing her journey, said she had fallen twice and was forced to stop to rest at some points, even sleeping along the way before waking up and continuing her journey. "Once I lost balance and fell into weeds. I fell asleep … a little, and continued walking. And then, for the second time, again, I fell. But then I got up and thought to myself: "I need to keep walking, bit by bit,'" Lomikovska said. Pavlo Diachenko, acting spokesman for the National Police of Ukraine in the Donetsk region, said Lomikovska was saved when Ukrainian soldiers spotted her walking along the road in the evening. They handed her over to the "White Angels," a police group that evacuates citizens living on the front line, who then took her to a shelter for evacuees and contacted her relatives. "I survived that war,” she said referring to World War II. "I had to go through this war too, and in the end, I am left with nothing. "That war wasn't like this one. I saw that war. Not a single house burned down. But now – everything is on fire," she said to her rescuer. In the latest twist to the story, the chief executive of one of Ukraine's largest banks announced on his Telegram channel Tuesday that the bank would purchase a house for the pensioner. "Monobank will buy Lydia Stepanivna a house, and she will surely live in it until the moment when this abomination disappears from our land," Oleh Horokhovskyi said.

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washington — State media in China, where social protest is strongly discouraged or punished, have been vocally supporting the pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. campuses while decrying what they describe as a heavy-handed crackdown on free speech by authorities. "Can blindly using violence to suppress students be able to quell domestic dissatisfaction with the government?" wrote Jun Zhengping Studio, a social media account operated by the News Broadcasting Center of the People's Liberation Army, in an April 26 commentary. "If American politicians really have a sense of democracy and human rights, they should stop supporting Israel, stop endorsing Israel's actions, and do more things that are conducive to world peace. Otherwise, the only one who will suffer backlash is the United States itself." The People's Daily, China's state-owned newspaper, said in a video that American students are protesting because they "can no longer stand the double standards of the United States." On social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying echoed that comment and implied the U.S. government was cracking down on protests at home while supporting protests abroad. She posted a clip of U.S. police arresting protesters with the question, "Remember how U.S. officials reacted when these protests happened elsewhere?" The protests this month at scores of universities, including New York's Columbia University and George Washington University in the U.S. capital, have opposed Israel's war against Hamas militants in Gaza over the large number of civilian casualties. The student protesters are demanding that their schools divest from companies with ties to Israel and are calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the protests are a symbol of American democracy, but he criticized the protesters for remaining silent on the attack by Hamas militants in October that killed more 1,200 Israelis and sparked the conflict. Critics say antisemitic rhetoric emerged at some of the protests, and there have been clashes with police. As of Monday, more than 900 students had been arrested, mainly for trespassing because of protest camps they erected on university property. In an email to all faculty members and students, American University stated that the school's policy of supporting free speech has not changed, but it explicitly prohibits "disruptive" behavior such as setting up camps. "Any demonstration that continues to interfere with university operations or violate policies after engagement and de-escalation will not be permitted, and those responsible will face conduct actions, disciplinary sanctions, or arrest as appropriate," the email said. Reactions differ The handling of the protests has been in stark contrast with the Chinese authorities' crackdown on domestic dissent and any form of street protest. China's strict zero-COVID measures and censorship of critical voices during the pandemic spurred street protests in many Chinese cities in November 2022 that became known as the White Paper movement. Protesters would hold up blank sheets of white paper to symbolize support for the protests while not actually saying or doing anything, in hopes of not getting into trouble. Nonetheless, Chinese police arrested and surveilled those caught holding up white paper. Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye accused "external anti-China forces" of being behind the protests and called them a "color revolution." Critics were quick to point out Beijing's double standard when Chinese state media backed U.S. college protesters. Sean Haines, a British man who worked for Chinese state media from 2016 to 2019, told VOA that Chinese state media's extensive coverage of Western demonstrations is a consistent policy. "At Xinhua, when we chose the running order for news, foreign protests were always promoted," he said, "especially if it was around election times. 'Look how scary foreign democracies are, aren't you glad China doesn't have this?'" He said footage of protests is easy to find in places with a free press, such as the United States and the West, while there are almost no images of protests in China, a one-party authoritarian state where public demonstrations are quickly stopped. "It's ironic." he said. "China is using [the] West's free speech, openness, right to protest — against itself." Although Chinese authorities have not declared support for any side in the Israel-Hamas war, they were reluctant to condemn the militants' October attack and repeatedly blamed Israel and the U.S. for the conflict in Gaza. At the same time, antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiments, including conspiracy theories, have been allowed on China's highly censored social media. A popular claim is that U.S. support for Israel is not because of history and democratic values but because a Jewish cabal secretly controls U.S. politics and business. Hu Xijin, a special commentator and former editor-in-chief of China's state-run Global Times, posted on social media site Weibo on April 19 that all walks of life in the U.S. "cannot suppress the protests of college students everywhere, which shows that the Jewish political and business alliance's control over American public opinion has declined." Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

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 — China says it has begun revising its National Defense Education Law, a move analysts say aims to expand military training at universities, high schools and even middle schools. The proposed changes also seek to improve defense education starting with students as young as primary school. According to state media reports, the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress – the country's rubber stamp legislature – began its first reading of the revisions last week. The changes are also open for public comment until late May, though it is unlikely that a broader debate will be allowed. While the previous version of the law was a looser guide, the proposed changes say high school students and those at institutions of higher learning should receive basic military training during school. Junior high school students are also allowed to receive military training, according to the revisions. In addition, the responsibility for military training is put more squarely on central and party authorities, the Ministry of Education and the Communist Party's Central Military Commission – China's top national defense body. The revisions also call on local military bases and central authorities to strengthen the direction, oversight and organization of military training for students. State media have offered some details on the revisions, noting that the changes are for "national defense awareness" for all of society and to help the world's second-biggest economy adapt to "many new domestic and international changes." Reports, however, do not elaborate on what that might mean. Analysts who spoke with VOA's Mandarin Service see a connection between the proposed changes and the impact China's economic downturn and global geopolitical tensions are having on the ruling Chinese Communist Party, or CCP. Timothy Heath, a senior fellow for international defense at the RAND Corp., says the revisions are part of a more systematic approach to national defense education that aims to strengthen Chinese leader Xi Jinping's authority. "The attempt to legislate loyalty betrays the reality of declining popular support for the CCP amid a softening economy, worsening real estate market, and persistent corruption and malfeasance," Heath said in an emailed response. "The law also reflects the CCP's anxiety over an increasingly unsettled international order in which conflicts appear to be rising." Willy Lam, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, said that since Xi took over in 2012, he has focused on patriotism and national defense awareness. Last year, China's Defense Ministry also confirmed an ongoing push to embed militias, known as the "People's Armed Forces" in Chinese companies and state-owned enterprises. "This is all aimed at strengthening the public's preparation for military struggle," Lam said. Although it is not clear when the revisions will be passed, the changes follow a string of other national security moves by Beijing over the past year. Those include last year's passage of revisions to an anti-espionage law, a broad and ongoing public campaign to counter foreign spies and changes to the country's Patriotic Education Law, which went into effect in January. Over the past year, U.S. officials have repeatedly noted China's aim to have the capability to invade Taiwan by 2027. China claims democratically ruled Taiwan as part of its territory. Beijing says unification is the only option for the island of 23 million, and that that must happen, by force, if necessary. Analysts also say that while the extra emphasis on national defense awareness could feed into already rising nationalist sentiments and feed hostility or prejudice against the outside world, it could also encourage more young Chinese to join the military. "The law may aim in part to bolster recruitment for the PLA [People's Liberation Army], which has consistently failed to attract adequate numbers of educated young people, despite high unemployment rates for urban youth," Heath said. China's National Defense Education Law was first passed in 2001 and last modified in 2018. Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

A majority of younger voters in this U.S. presidential election say they wish they had someone other than Joe Biden or Donald Trump to choose from. Some of that has to do with the candidates' ages. But who are the younger voters backing one of the two? VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns reports.

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

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

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.