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NEW YORK — Columbia University on Monday began suspending pro-Palestinian activists who refused to dismantle a tent encampment on its New York City campus after the Ivy League school declared a stalemate in talks seeking to end the polarizing protest. University President Nemat Minouche Shafik said in a statement that days of negotiations between student organizers and academic leaders had failed to persuade demonstrators to remove the dozens of tents set up to express opposition to Israel's war in Gaza. The crackdown at Columbia, at the center of Gaza-related protests roiling university campuses across the U.S. in recent weeks, came as police at the University of Texas at Austin arrested dozens of students whom they doused with pepper spray at a pro-Palestinian rally. Columbia sent a letter on Monday morning warning that students who did not vacate the encampment by 2 p.m. ET and sign a form promising to abide by university policies would face suspension and become ineligible to complete the semester in good standing. "We have begun suspending students as part of this next phase of our efforts to ensure safety on our campus," said Ben Chang, a university spokesperson, at a briefing on Monday evening. "The encampment has created an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with the teaching, learning and preparing for final exams," Chang said. Earlier, Shafik said Columbia would not divest from finances in Israel, a key demand of the protesters. Instead, she offered to invest in health and education in Gaza and make Columbia's direct investment holdings more transparent. Protesters have vowed to keep their encampment on the Manhattan campus until Columbia meets three demands: divestment, transparency in university finances, and amnesty for students and faculty disciplined for their part in the protests. "These repulsive scare tactics mean nothing compared to the deaths of over 34,000 Palestinians. We will not move until Columbia meets our demands or we are moved by force," leaders of the Columbia Student Apartheid Divest coalition said in a statement read at a news conference following the deadline. Hundreds of demonstrators, many wearing traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, marched in circles around the exterior of the encampment chanting, "Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest." Shafik faced an outcry from many students, faculty and outside observers for summoning New York City police two weeks ago to dismantle the encampment. After more than 100 arrests were made, students restored the encampment on a hedge-lined lawn of the university grounds within days of the April 18 police action. Since then, students at dozens of campuses from California to New England have set up similar encampments to demonstrate their anger over the Israeli operation in Gaza and the perceived complicity of their schools in it. The pro-Palestinian rallies have sparked intense campus debate over where school officials should draw the line between freedom of expression and hate speech Students protesting Israel's military offensive in Gaza, including some Jewish peace activists, have said they are being censured as antisemitic merely for criticizing the Israeli government or for expressing support for Palestinian rights. "The movement itself is not antisemitic," said Nicholas Fink, a freshman history major at Columbia who has not participated in the protests. He is among a few dozen Jewish students who met privately with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson during a campus visit by Republican members of Congress last week. Johnson and other congressional Republicans have claimed that Columbia and other universities have turned a blind eye to antisemitic hostility and harassment on campus. Some Jewish groups argue that anti-Israel rhetoric frequently delves into or feeds overt forms of anti-Jewish hatred and calls for violence, and thus should not be tolerated Student protests abound At the University of California, Los Angeles, where opposing sides clashed over the weekend, pro-Israeli activists set up a large screen and loudspeakers to play a tape loop of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants. The video appears aimed at countering pro-Hamas chants that seeped into campus protests in support of Palestinian civilians besieged in Gaza. UCLA also stepped-up security around a pro-Palestinian encampment, consisting of more than 50 tents surrounded by metal fencing near the main administration building on campus. Civil rights groups have criticized law enforcement tactics on some campuses, such as Atlanta's Emory University and the University of Texas at Austin, where police in riot gear and on horseback moved against protesters last week, taking dozens into custody before charges were dropped for lack of probable cause. Protests, and arrests, flared anew on the Austin campus on Monday. Campus police backed by Texas state troopers attempted to break up a large student protest using pepper spray and flash-bang charges, arresting at least 43 people, according to defense attorney George Lobb, who said he confirmed the number with court and jail staff processing the detentions. Video posted on social media showed police pulling individual students from a gathering on a grassy area where demonstrators sat and locked arms, some of them shouting, "Let them go!" State troopers in riot gear stood guard behind the uniformed police. Virginia Tech said on Monday that 91 protesters arrested on Sunday night at a student-led encampment had been charged with trespassing. Video posted on social media showed demonstrators chanting, "Shame on you" as some were taken into custody.

SALEM, Oregon — One of the winners of a $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot this month is an immigrant from Laos who has had cancer for eight years and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week. Cheng "Charlie" Saephan, 46, of Portland told a news conference held by the Oregon Lottery on Monday that he and his 37-year-old wife, Duanpen, are taking half the money, and the rest is going to a friend, Laiza Chao, 55, of the Portland suburb of Milwaukie. Chao had chipped in $100 to buy a batch of tickets with them. They are taking a lump sum payment, $422 million after taxes. "I will be able to provide for my family and my health," he said, adding that he'd "find a good doctor for myself." Saephan, who has two young children, said that as a cancer patient, he wondered, "How am I going to have time to spend all of this money? How long will I live?" After they bought the shared tickets, Chao sent a photo of the tickets to Saephan and said, "We're billionaires." It was a joke before the actual drawing, he said, but the next day they won. Chao, 55, was on her way to work when Saephan called her with the news: "You don't have to go anymore," he said. Saephan said he was born in Laos and moved to Thailand in 1987, before immigrating to the U.S. in 1994. He wore a sash at the news conference identifying himself as Iu Mien, a southeast Asian ethnic group with roots in southern China. Many Iu Mein were subsistence farmers and assisted American forces during the Vietnam war; after the conflict, thousands of Iu Mien families fled to Thailand to avoid retribution and eventually settled in the U.S. Tens of thousands of Iu Mien people live along the West Coast, with a sizeable and active community in Portland. Saephan graduated from high school in 1996 and has lived in Portland for 30 years. He worked as a machinist for an aerospace company. In the weeks leading up to the drawing, he wrote out numbers for the game on a piece of paper and slept with it under his pillow, he said. He prayed that he would win, saying, "I need some help — I don't want to die yet unless I have done something for my family first." 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.

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.

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University, a small Catholic and historically Black school in New Orleans, formally signed an agreement Monday with Ochsner Health to establish a medical school. When it opens, the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine will join the nation’s four existing historically Black medical schools: Howard University College of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Another historically Black institution, Maryland’s Morgan State University, also is setting up a medical school. There's no firm opening date yet. It will likely take three years for the school to get accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. Then it can start recruiting an initial class of 50. Officials with the planned Xavier Oschner College of Medicine named the institution’s founding dean, Dr. Leonardo Seoane. He is currently the executive vice president and chief academic officer of Ochsner Health. Plans for a medical school at Xavier were first announced in 2022. The agreement with Ochsner was formally announced in January of 2023. The Xavier University of Louisiana Board of Trustees and the Ochsner Health Board of Directors voted this past February to approve the formation of the new medical school. The new medical school will be in an office tower next to the Superdome in an area designated as BioDistrict New Orleans, which is dedicated to economic development and jobs in the biological sciences. Xavier was founded in 1925 and has developed a reputation for getting high numbers of African American students into medical schools. “With the establishment of the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine, Ochsner and Xavier aim to address long-standing health disparities and foster stronger, healthier communities in pursuit of the mission to promote a more just and humane society gifted to Xavier nearly 100 years ago by our foundress, St. Katharine Drexel and her Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament,” Xavier President Reynold Verret said in a statement. New Orleans-based Ochsner Health has 46 hospitals and more than 370 health and urgent care centers in the Gulf South.

new york — The U.S. Soccer Federation and its Mexican counterpart dropped their joint bid to host the 2027 Women's World Cup on Monday and said they instead will focus on trying to host the 2031 tournament. The decision left a proposal from Brazil and a joint Germany-Netherlands-Belgium plan competing to be picked for 2027 by the FIFA Congress that meets May 17 in Bangkok. The USSF said the 2031 bid will call for FIFA to invest equally in the men's and women's World Cups. FIFA said last year it planned to spend $896 million in prize money for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. The governing body devoted $110 million in prize money for last year's Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. "Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," USSF President Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement. "I'm proud of our commitment to provide equitable experiences for the players, fans and all our stakeholders. Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women's World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women's game both here at home as well as across the globe." In detailing the bid in December, the USSF proposed U.S. sites from among the same 11 to be used in the 2026 men's World Cup. Mexico listed Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey — its three sites for the men's World Cup — and in addition for 2027 listed as possibilities Leon and Querétaro. "We feel that moving our bid back to 2031 will allow us to promote and build up to the most successful Women's World Cup ever," MFF President Ivar Sisniega said in a statement. "The strength and universality of our professional women's leagues, coupled with our experience from organizing the 2026 World Cup, means that we will be able to provide the best infrastructure as well as an enthusiastic fan base that will make all the participating teams feel at home and to put together a World Cup that will contribute to the continued growth of women's football."

new york — Unionized hotel workers demanding significant pay raises will rally on May Day in 18 U.S. and Canadian cities, as talks are beginning with hotel operators Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide Holdings and Hyatt Hotels Corp. Talks will cover about 40,000 workers who look to secure new contracts for the first time since the pandemic. Workers want to reverse pandemic-era staffing and service cuts, as well as duplicate the big pay hikes that organized workers across the nation have been winning in recent years. Demonstrators rallying for raises on May 1, the international workers' holiday, may face some pressure in markets still recovering from the pandemic, such as San Francisco and Hawaii, analysts say. "There have been a series of staffing and service cuts that have led to both painful working conditions for the workers and reduced services for the guests," said Gwen Mills, international union president at Unite Here, which represents nearly 300,000 workers in hotels, casinos, food service, airports and other industries across the U.S. and Canada. After domestic travel cratered during the pandemic, hotel operators hiked up room rates in the travel boom that followed. In response, workers are demanding a larger share of profits. Workers will march through downtown Boston, Greenwich and several cities in California. Others in Baltimore, New Haven and Toronto will picket outside hotels. In Honolulu, workers will rally on the main thoroughfare in Waikiki. 2023 was a significant year for labor negotiations in the U.S. with manufacturing, auto and hospitality workers in Las Vegas among those who landed record contracts as a tight labor market allowed employees to flex more bargaining power. The Culinary and Bartenders Unions in Las Vegas, Unite Here affiliates, said its workers got a 10% wage increase in the first year of its new five-year contract and a total 32% in raises, a record in its history. This will be Unite Here's first multi-city contract campaign since 2018, when about 7,000 Marriott workers went on strike in eight cities. The union secured substantial wage increases, affordable health care and protections against sexual harassment, including panic buttons for housekeepers. Marriott said in 2018 that the renegotiated contract following the strike led to a roughly 4% rise in labor costs. Negotiations have already started in Washington, D.C., Hawaii and Boston. The union said negotiations will be held with each hotel to secure an individual contract. The result of these negotiations could be far-reaching as "non-union hotels will likely also increase wages to attract and maintain employees," said Emmy Hise, CoStar Senior Director of Hospitality Analytics. "We look forward to negotiating fair contracts with Unite Here locals across the country that have expiring collective bargaining agreements this year," said Michael D’Angelo, Hyatt head of labor relations in the Americas. Marriott and Hilton did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The bulk of negotiations are set to take place during the summer, the union said. U.S. gross operating profit per room in 2023 increased 8.6% year-over-year and 0.5% compared to the same period in 2019, according to commercial real estate analytics firm CoStar. Hotel staffing per occupied room is down 13% since 2019, the union said. U.S. hotel revenue per available room, a key metric in the hospitality industry, in 2023 was the highest for any year on record at $97.97, which increased 4.9% from 2022, according to Costar. Room revenue growth is expected to moderate to 4.1% in 2024. Hilton's U.S. room revenue fell 0.4% during the first quarter. In San Francisco, "profitability for hotel owners is still way off of 2019 levels, so hotel owners will be very reluctant to give an inch to the unions as they really can’t afford to do so," said Patrick Scholes, Truist Equity Analyst. The same may hold true for lodging Real Estate Investment Trusts, a growing share of hotel owners, who are concentrated in union markets and have operating margins that are under pressure due to higher costs.

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.

U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump is planning to campaign in the Midwest state of Michigan this week. It’s one of a handful of states that could swing the results of November’s presidential election. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns has our story.

washington — Rights groups see Iraq's new anti-LGBTQ+ law, which criminalizes same-sex relations, as another attempt to curb individual freedoms in the country. Passed Saturday, the law, an amendment to an existing anti-prostitution rule, says those found guilty of same-sex relations will face 10 to 15 years in jail. Additionally, the law criminalizes those who seek or perform gender-affirming medical treatments. Transgender people or the doctors who help them can face a prison term of one to three years. The United Nations said it was “alarmed” by the passage of the law. “The law runs contrary to several human rights treaties and conventions ratified by Iraq, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and should be shelved,” U.N. Human Rights Office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement Monday. “Everyone, without distinction, is entitled to enjoy all human rights, including the right to privacy, the right to be treated as equal before the law and the right to protection from discrimination on various grounds that include sexual orientation and gender identity,” she added. Rasha Al Aqeedi, an Iraq consultant with Freedom House, a Washington think tank, said the new law surpasses in its severity all pre-existing laws and leaves no room to advocate for the protection of the LGBTQ+ community in the majority-Muslim country. “Iraq has long been a conservative country where the potential for advancing LGBTQ+ rights was dim, but homosexual individuals were often left alone in a ‘don't ask, don't tell’ style,” Al Aqeedi told VOA. “There is denial in Iraq that homosexuality is global, common and has been around as long as mankind,” she said. “In recent years, it has been portrayed as a Western-imported phenomenon aimed at corrupting youth. In reality, everyone in Iraq knows someone who is part of the LGBTQ+ community, but it's a reality Iraqis refuse to accept after decades of social conditioning and homophobia.” Previous discrimination Even before the new law was passed, rights groups said LGBTQ+ individuals faced discrimination by the Iraqi authorities. The U.S. State Department said in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released last week, that Iraqi authorities used public indecency or prostitution charges to prosecute individuals involved in same-sex sexual acts. “Despite repeated threats and violence targeting [LGBTQ+] individuals, specifically gay men, the government failed to identify, arrest or prosecute attackers or to protect targeted individuals,” the report said. Iraqi officials have defended the new law, describing it as a necessary measure to protect the country’s societal values. But IraQueer, an Iraq-based LGBTQ+ human rights organization, said the LGBTQ+ community in Iraq doesn’t pose any threat to the Iraqi population. “Our government has yet again let its people down. This is what they’re most known for — ignoring the truly needy, and focusing on what benefits their own agendas. The LGBT[Q+] community in Iraq has no agenda. We only want to exist in peace,” the group said Monday in a statement posted on social media. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that “limiting the rights of certain individuals in a society undermines the rights of all” and could also weaken Iraq’s ability to attract foreign investment. “International business coalitions have already indicated that such discrimination in Iraq will harm business and economic growth in the country,” he said in a statement.     Miller added that the law undermines the government’s political and economic reform efforts. This decision came days after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani concluded a visit to Washington where he met with President Joe Biden and other senior officials. Economic and political reforms were among the issues discussed. Al Aqeedi said the law “demonstrates the near nonexisting influence the U.S. has on domestic and social matters in Iraq, contrary to the belief still held by some.”

new york — A senior U.S. official warned Monday that more than 2 million people in El Fasher, in Sudan’s western Darfur region, are under imminent threat of a “large-scale massacre” from a paramilitary group’s attack and urged the international community to pressure the warring parties to de-escalate. “There are already credible reports that the RSF and its allied militias have razed multiple villages west of El Fasher,” U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters at the United Nations. “And as we speak, the RSF is planning an imminent attack on El Fasher.” The RSF is the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group that is made up of elements of the Janjaweed fighters who carried out a genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s. The head of the RSF has been locked in an armed power struggle with the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces for just over a year. The fighting has spread from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, to other parts of the country, and now looks ready to engulf North Darfur and the civilians trapped there. The U.N. Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss the situation Monday and was briefed by U.N. political and humanitarian officials. “A crisis of epic proportions is brewing, and to avoid further death, destruction and suffering, five things need to happen, immediately,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “First, the RSF must end its siege and buildup of military forces in El Fasher and swear off any attack on the city. All parties to the conflict must take urgent steps to de-escalate.” She also called for protection of civilians and respect for international law; for external actors to stop providing the combatants with weapons; and for safe and unimpeded aid access. She also demanded the parties return to the negotiating table. "Because this conflict will not be solved on the battlefield, it will be solved at the negotiating table," Thomas-Greenfield said. “The last thing that Sudan needs is a further escalation on top of this conflict that's been going on for a whole year,” British Deputy U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki told reporters after the meeting. “The council is concerned about the humanitarian crisis — about the scale of the famine risk — and it is concerned about the displacement of people.” In a statement Saturday, the 15-members of the U.N. Security Council repeated their call for an immediate cessation of hostilities, leading to a sustainable cease-fire. They also reminded countries of their obligations to comply with a U.N. arms embargo on Sudan. Alarm bells The U.N. began raising the alarm on the situation in El Fasher earlier this month, warning that fighting there could “unleash bloody intercommunal strife throughout Darfur." El Fasher is also a long-established humanitarian hub, and fighting there would further complicate aid deliveries. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Monday that the security situation has already effectively cut off humanitarian access to El Fasher. In a statement, OCHA said more than a dozen aid trucks with supplies for 122,000 people are stranded in neighboring Northern State. The trucks cannot continue to El Fasher because of the insecurity and lack of guarantees for safe passage. The U.N. says 330,000 people are dealing with acute food insecurity in El Fasher — many of them displaced persons who moved there seeking safety. The World Food Program reached 40,000 of them in the past month. On Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ office said his special envoy for Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, is engaging with the parties to try to de-escalate tensions in El Fasher. Analysts at the Yale University Humanitarian Research Lab have also been tracking the situation and warned in a report on April 19 that the RSF likely already control the north, east and west roads into the city and have essentially trapped the Sudanese Armed Forces in El Fasher with no resupply or escape route. That means civilians are also trapped, including tens of thousands of African Zaghawa, Masalit, Fur and other non-Arab ethnic groups, whose communities were victims of the genocide two decades ago. The United Nations has called on the parties to allow civilians safe passage out of the city. Since the war began last April, more than 8 million people have been forced from their homes in search of safety. Nearly 2 million of them have fled Sudan to neighboring countries. Of those who remain, 18 million are facing acute hunger, with 5 million a step away from famine.

geneva — Countries trying to negotiate a new global agreement on combating future pandemics began bridging their differences Monday, but they're racing against time to seal a deal.  The 194 nations in the World Health Organization are back at its Geneva headquarters for one last round of negotiations, after a two-year effort to secure a landmark accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response overran last month's deadline.   Issued with a new, slimmed-down draft text that kicks some of the tougher topics down the road, countries began going through its 37 articles in turn.   However, the handful of articles opened Monday were still being negotiated as the day's session was ending, with side discussion groups trying to come up with solutions.   "It's going as was to be expected. Most member states indicated that with this new text we are on the right track, but at the same time there are still a lot of things that need to be addressed," talks co-chair Roland Driece told AFP.   "The process is very time-consuming, and time is our biggest enemy," the Dutch health diplomat said. "There are outstanding issues which are complicated — but time is not our friend."  Sting of COVID  The goal of the talks, which last 12 hours a day and run until May 10, is to get an agreement ready for adoption at the WHO's annual assembly of member states, which starts May 27.   In December 2021, the raw sting of COVID-19 — which shredded economies, crippled health systems and killed millions — motivated countries to seek a binding framework of commitments aimed at preventing another such disaster.   But big differences quickly emerged on how to go about it.   The main disputes revolve around access and equity: access to pathogens detected within countries; access to pandemic-fighting products such as vaccines produced from that knowledge; and equitable distribution of not only counterpandemic tests, treatments and vaccinations but the means to produce them. The new draft focuses on setting up the basic framework and pushes some of the trickier details into further talks running into 2026, notably on how the planned WHO Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) System will work in practice.   Clash of narratives    One senior figure in the negotiations said there was a positive spirit, but that needed to be translated into "concrete action." Another said the talks were "in the swing now," with movement expected Tuesday.   Nongovernmental organizations following the talks at WHO headquarters said it was difficult to read how they were progressing.   "We're witnessing a clash of narratives: We are either near the collapse, or the light at the end of the tunnel," Jaume Vidal, senior policy adviser with Health Action International, told AFP.   "I was convinced that the situation was worse than it seems," Vidal said. "Discussions are taking place — that's already a step forward — but we're still missing some specific steps. We need public commitments on some of the articles."  African unity  Alongside the African group, the Group for Equity bloc of countries is trying to ensure developing nations are not cut adrift again when it comes to accessing vaccines, tests and treatments.  African Union health ministers released a statement Monday committing to getting "legal certainty for both users and providers" from the PABS system.   "Africa stands ready to play its part and commits to engage actively in the ongoing negotiations," the ministers said, following a meeting in Addis Ababa.  They called for an international financing mechanism with explicit new, sustainable and increased funding from developed countries for pandemic preparedness and response.  Indonesia has been a key player in the Group for Equity.  Wiku Adisasmito, one of Indonesia's lead negotiators at the Geneva talks, said both parts of the PABS system — having quick access to detected pathogens, and sharing the resulting benefits, such as vaccines — needed to be on an equal footing.  "That's key, not only for Indonesia but for most developing countries," he told AFP.  "All countries are not equal in terms of capacity, and the pathogens are only coming from hot spots," he said, explaining that developing countries needed financial support to ramp up their surveillance for emerging dangerous pathogens in animals and the environment.  If the talks needed an even greater reminder of urgency, the WHO has raised  alarm in recent weeks about the exponential growth of H5N1 bird flu, with concerns about what could happen if it starts being transmitted between humans. 

U.S. officials are negotiating the removal of American troops from Niger after the country's military junta ended a longstanding pact. Niger is the latest Sahel country to eject Western forces and replace them with Russian troops. Analysts say similar moves have not improved military security for Niger's neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso. Henry Wilkins 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.

pentagon — The Pentagon says a floating pier that will be used for bringing more aid into Gaza will cost about $320 million. Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Monday the cost includes the transportation and construction of the equipment and pier sections from the United States to the coast of Gaza. It also includes the cost of aid delivery operations. Crews from the USNS Roy P. Benavidez and several Army vessels started building the floating platform for the operation last week, according to a senior military official. Next will come construction of the causeway, which will be anchored to the shore by Israel Defense Forces. The entire system is called Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS. U.S. and Israeli officials have said they hope to complete construction and begin operations by early May. U.S. military officials say aid will be loaded onto commercial ships docked in Cyprus, which will transfer the aid to the floating platform now under construction. At the platform, aid will be transferred to trucks loaded onto smaller ships and transported to the floating, two-lane causeway anchored to the beach. The new port sits just southwest of Gaza City. A mortar attack targeted the port site on Wednesday, but officials said no one was hurt. A senior military official told reporters the Pentagon expects deliveries to “begin at about 90 trucks a day … and then quickly scale up to 150 trucks a day.” Aid has been slow getting into Gaza due to long backups of vehicles at Israeli inspection points. The U.S. and other nations have been airdropping food into Gaza, but each airdrop via military place only accounts for about one to three truckloads of food, a U.S. official told VOA. Aid organizations have said several hundred truckloads of food are needed in Gaza each day. Israel attacked Hamas in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 terror attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw hundreds more taken hostage. In the nearly seven months since the attack, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive against the militant group, according to health officials in Hamas-run Gaza.

Ukraine and its Western partners are in a race against the clock to deploy critical new military aid to counter costly Russian advances across Ukraine’s eastern frontlines and support for Kyiv’s ability to thwart drone and missile attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Kyiv on Monday said new Western supplies have started arriving, but slowly. A Ukrainian 'Grandpa' is leading an over-60s unit fighting Russia. Thirty-eight years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, hundreds of people continue the work to dismantle the long-defunct power plant and control the contaminated exclusion zone, a 30-kilometer area surrounding it.

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.