Feed aggregator

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.

united nations — The Palestinians failed to pass a major hurdle in their renewed effort to seek full United Nations membership on Thursday when the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution recommending their admission. “It remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the support of the United States and other partners,” said U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Robert Wood. He also expressed concern about unresolved questions as to whether the Palestinians meet the criteria to be considered a state. “We have long called on the Palestinian Authority to undertake necessary reforms to help establish the attributes of readiness for statehood and note that Hamas – a terrorist organization – is currently exerting power and influence in Gaza, an integral part of the state envisioned in this resolution,” he said. Twelve of the 15 council members voted in favor, while Britain and Switzerland abstained. Britain’s ambassador affirmed support for a two-state solution for the Israelis and Palestinians, saying the Palestinians need a credible and irreversible route to a state. “We believe that such recognition of Palestinian statehood should not come at the start of a new process, but it doesn’t have to be at the very end of the process,” Barbara Woodward said. “We must start with fixing the immediate crisis in Gaza.” Switzerland’s envoy, Pascale Baeriswyl, said Palestinian membership should be considered at a future stage once there is peace. U.N. membership begins in the Security Council and if the council recommends admission, it then goes to the full 193-member General Assembly for a vote. A new state needs a two-thirds majority of votes to win admission. “We don’t want to replace anyone; we want to enter your club as equals,” Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour told the council.  He said they would not give up because the resolution was vetoed. “The State of Palestine is inevitable,” he said. “It is real.” Israel’s envoy was adamant that the council should not support Palestinian full membership, saying it would reward Hamas terrorists who had carried out the October 7 attack inside Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. “Most of you, sadly, decided to reward Palestinian terror with a Palestinian state,” Ambassador Gilad Erdan said. “It’s very sad, because your vote will only embolden Palestinian rejectionism even more and make peace almost impossible.” He thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for “standing up for truth and morality in the face of hypocrisy and politics.” Despite the U.S. veto, the Palestinians had the support of the majority of council members. "For Guyana, at its core, the Palestinian question is a question of justice,” Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett said. “Thus far, justice has been delayed and, therefore, justice has been denied to the people of Palestine for more than seven decades.” Algeria, as the representative of the Arab bloc of nations on the council, put forward the failed two-paragraph draft resolution recommending “to the General Assembly that the State of Palestine be admitted to membership in the United Nations.” “This is an historic right that has not been implemented,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said. “And the lack of implementation of this right is the cause of the prolongation of this Arab-Israeli conflict. This is the cause of the lack of security and safety in our region – a region that has not known peace for over 70 years.” Russia’s ambassador said based on “all moral imperatives” the Palestinians’ aspirations for membership should be met. “Palestine has walked a lengthy and agonizing path towards this point,” Vassily Nebenzia said. “Since 2012, it has enjoyed a singular status at the U.N. – a nonmember observer state. It is one step away from permanent membership.” After an initial bid in 2011 for full membership that stalled in the Security Council without ever coming to a vote, the Palestinians sought and received an upgrade in status at the General Assembly the following year to a “nonmember state.” They still cannot vote, but the upgrade allowed them to become a party to treaties that are deposited with the U.N. secretary-general and to join U.N. bodies like the World Health Organization and the International Criminal Court.

U.S. President Joe Biden wants to triple tariffs on some steel imports from China because he says they are unfairly undermining U.S. jobs. It’s an appeal to American workers in a state that is central to this presidential campaign. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns has the story.

washington — The White House's strategy for curbing migration to the United States from Central America zeroes in on job creation, economic investment and support for human rights. Biden administration officials say is showing results, but analysts caution against unrealistic expectations. A sharp increase of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border presented a political crisis for President Joe Biden at the beginning of his administration. He asked Vice President Kamala Harris to spearhead a "root causes" strategy, banking heavily on using American investments to improve living conditions in three Central American nations known as the Northern Triangle: Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Specialists in migration say reducing irregular migration through investments will take decades. “And I think this administration knows [that],” said Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. “The problem is in the public sphere,” he said, explaining that the public expects to see real-time results in one or two years, “and that just simply is not the case economically, even if we had the investment capacity to do so.” Ruiz Soto says the success of this strategy depends on more than what the White House is doing. It needs governments in the region that are committed to significant improvements. “For example, if Microsoft wanted to set up a hub in Guatemala, they would need not only to include money to build the building, to hire workers, provide training, but also a counterpart allocation from the Guatemalan government to build the roads, to have the infrastructure for the electricity, to have broadband internet,” he said. That it is not something that can be accomplished in just a few years, Ruiz Soto said. Not new The strategy is not new. Under former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, there was a U.S. strategy for engagement in Central America that focused on pillars similar to the five in the Biden administration strategy. “The difference is that they are prioritizing different things, but investing in Central America with the efforts to reduce irregular migration is not new,” Ruiz Soto said. In March, the White House published an updated fact sheet showing $5.2 billion in financial commitments from private organizations. The investment, the White House said, is expected to create economic opportunities in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. “And I think that perhaps the best achievement of the Biden administration has been the investment in Central America has become more localized. It is more targeted, and it has become more realistic. But it has not become less political, because everybody wants results right away, and that's not going to happen,” Ruiz Soto said. Symptom of larger issues Administration officials argue the border situation is a symptom of larger issues. Many migrants are driven to come to the U.S. seeking better economic prospects or to escape violence. Biden officials say fewer individuals would risk the dangerous journey northward if the economic, security and political challenges in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala are addressed. “Migration needs to be understood in context — with the number of migrants increasing globally, including from countries that have only recently become so-called migrant source countries,” a U.S. National Security Council spokesperson told VOA by email. They spoke on background, a method often used by U.S. authorities to share information with reporters without being identified. The NSC spokesperson wrote that through the administration’s root-causes program, more than 250,000 jobs have been created in the region, and 3 million young people are being supported through education and job training. “As a result of these investments in the region, we have seen double-digit [percentage] decrease in people from Central America who intend to migrate,” the NSC spokesperson said. Border numbers fluctuate According to an April analysis by the human rights organization Washington Office on Latin America, or WOLA, December saw the highest monthly of apprehensions at the border since 2000, but those numbers dropped by half over the next three months. Some Republicans have criticized Harris’ Central America plan, arguing that it is ineffective or that it focuses too much on foreign aid rather than border security. They say Harris has focused too much on long-term solutions rather than the immediate border migrant flows. Working together In an email to VOA, the NSC spokesperson drew attention to the Los Angeles Declaration for Migration and Protection that brought together more than 20 countries across the Western Hemisphere to cooperate on deterring irregular migration through border enforcement in the region, expanded lawful pathways, and expand new measures to address the root causes. “We have begun building the foundation for a more competitive regional economy that will galvanize investment and create better job opportunities throughout the Americas,” the spokesperson said. Ruiz Soto said continuity is key. “The problem is, or at least the way that's been implemented, is that there are differences in how the U.S. is engaging in the region across presidents,” he said. He added that even with U.S. funding, it is not enough to try to improve the situation in these countries by itself. As the United States seeks strategies for responding to the growing number of migrants fleeing poverty, violence and other challenges in the Central American region, Ruiz Soto said governments from the Northern Triangle countries must commit to governance based on accountability, transparency and development. “It is fundamentally required that Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador put in more than what the U.S. does to try to increase the conditions that they have. One, in funding, but also in political assistance and political will to change the institutions,” he said.

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 — Efforts by China-linked hackers to infiltrate computer systems and networks that run key sectors of the U.S. economy — only to lie in wait for an opportunity to strike — appear to predate Chinese cyber operations that sparked warnings by U.S. officials earlier this year. FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday said Chinese government efforts to penetrate critical U.S. infrastructure for the purpose of setting up a possible cyberattack go back more than a decade. "China-sponsored hackers pre-positioned for potential cyberattacks against U.S. oil and natural gas companies way back in 2011," Wray told the audience at a Vanderbilt University security conference in Nashville, Tennessee. "It took the hackers all of 15 minutes to steal data related to the control and monitoring systems while ignoring financial and business-related information, which suggests their goals were even more sinister than stealing a leg up economically," he said. Multiple U.S. agencies, led by the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, warned in February that hackers associated with a Chinese-linked group known as Volt Typhoon had been hiding in key computer systems and networks for at least five years. At the time, CISA's director said China's penetration of key systems linked to U.S. communications, energy, water and wastewater, and transportation sectors was "likely the tip of the iceberg." But Wray on Thursday made clear China's attempts to hack into systems and hide while waiting to attack — a technique known as "living off the land" — is part of Beijing's long-running strategy. "The PRC [People’s Republic of China] has made it clear that it considers every sector that makes our society run as fair game in its bid to dominate on the world stage," he said. "Its plan is to land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic and break America's will to resist." Chinese government officials did not respond directly to the latest allegations, pointing instead to comments earlier this week by a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson. The spokesperson denied any connection between Beijing and Volt Typhoon, saying the cyber threat group "is not sponsored by any state or region." The spokesperson also accused U.S. intelligence and cybersecurity agencies of passing false information about China's activities in cyberspace "in order to receive more congressional budgets and government contracts."  Wray's comments, however, came just one day after another top U.S. cyber official called out Chinese behavior in cyberspace while speaking at the same conference. "The PRC is engaged in a deliberate campaign to challenge the United States and our allies technologically while putting our critical systems and national infrastructure at risk," said General Timothy Haugh, who heads both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. Haugh was especially critical of the actions taken by Volt Typhoon, calling it "an example of how China has approached establishing access to put things under threat." "There is not a valid intelligence reason to be looking at a water treatment plant from a cyber perspective," he said. China is "sending a pretty loud signal of how they intend to use cyberspace in a crisis. We should listen to that." A threat assessment published last week by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency also concluded China uses its cyberspace capabilities "to lay the groundwork for malicious cyber activities and cyberattacks." The DIA report also noted that China's military "has called for using space, cyber operations and electronic warfare as weapons to paralyze adversary information systems during a conflict."

jakarta, indonesia — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticized the United States on Thursday for its votes on previous United Nations resolutions for a Gaza cease-fire, following talks in Jakarta with his Indonesian counterpart, Retno Marsudi. During the talks, Wang highlighted the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East, and he called on all parties to exercise restraint in the conflict. “The conflict in Gaza has lasted for half a year and caused a rare humanitarian tragedy in the 21st century. The United Nations Security Council responded to the call of the international community and continued to review the resolution draft on the cease-fire in Gaza, but it was repeatedly vetoed by the United States,” Wang said at a news briefing at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry. Wang acknowledged the passage of a Security Council cease-fire resolution in March, saying, "This time, the U.S. did not dare to stand in opposition to international morality and chose to abstain." He added that the U.S. claimed the resolution was not binding and said, "In the eyes of the United States, international law seems to be a tool that can be used whenever it finds useful and discarded if it does not want to use it." The United States has said it vetoed previous resolutions for not being linked to the release of Hamas hostages. Both ministers expressed frustration over the humanitarian disaster caused by the Palestinian-Israel conflict. “We agree that the U.N. Security Council resolution on a cease-fire must be fully implemented and without any condition," said Wang. China and Indonesia both support full Palestinian membership in the United Nations. Currently, the Palestinian Authority is a nonmember observer state, but it has sought full membership since 2011. Indonesia does not recognize Israel and has strongly supported the Palestinian cause. Meeting with Widodo At a meeting with President Joko Widodo, Wang expressed China’s interest in deepening cooperation and investment in energy transition, infrastructure, and the production and marketing of refined petroleum products. Widodo highlighted bilateral trade between Indonesia and China and expressed hopes that China will further open its market for Indonesian goods, including by resolving disputes over Indonesian agricultural and fishery products. Widodo also urged the construction of a strategic petrochemical project in Northern Kalimantan and further collaboration on food security, including replicating Chinese-style cultivation methods in growing rice, horticultural crops and durian fruit. China is Indonesia’s biggest trade partner, with a yearly trade volume reaching more than $127 billion. China is also one of Indonesia’s biggest foreign investors, with an investment value of more than $7.4 billion in 2023. Indonesia and China will discuss the details of increasing cooperation on Friday in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara province. Apart from economic cooperation, Marsudi said that efforts to tackle cross-border crimes, including online fraud, will be discussed at the event. Wang will also visit Papua New Guinea and Cambodia. Later Thursday, Wang met with Widodo and his soon-to-be successor, President-elect Prabowo Subianto, the current defense minister of Indonesia. Prabowo won the presidential election in February, and like his predecessor, he supports close ties with Beijing while seeking to balance diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China. The Indonesian Defense Ministry said Thursday that Wang and Prabowo discussed plans for joint military exercises. Some information for this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.

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.

state department — The Group of Seven on Thursday reaffirmed its support for Ukraine's defense, addressing both its urgent short-term financing needs and long-term reconstruction. Germany will host a Ukraine recovery conference in Berlin this year, while Italy will host the conference in 2025. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at a bilateral meeting on the margins of G7 foreign ministers talks in Capri, Italy, that the United States is committed to helping Kyiv defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity against Russia’s aggression, including the recent attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant have raised concerns about the potential for a major nuclear accident. Blinken also underlined the urgency of U.S. congressional action on aid for Ukraine. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is expected to hold its much-anticipated vote on aid for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific as early as Saturday. "In these turbulent times, it is a hopeful sign that there are now signals from the Republicans in the U.S. that support for Ukraine can be continued intensively," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said during a news conference. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Kuleba later participated in the G7 foreign ministers session focusing on supporting Ukraine. Stoltenberg said the alliance is actively working to provide additional air defense systems soon. In Washington, the G7 finance ministers wrapped up talks on the margins of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group spring meetings earlier this week. In a statement, G7 finance ministers said they are working with the European Union to “provide stable, predictable and sustainable financial support” covering a portion of Ukraine’s financing needs until 2027, including through support for investment and access to finance. “We reiterate our commitment to support Ukraine’s long-term recovery and reconstruction needs, which the World Bank currently estimates to amount to almost USD 486 billion over 10 years,” the finance ministers said in the statement. Some information for this report came from Reuters. 

washington — Once hailed for its strides in economic growth and social advancement, Bangladesh now grapples with an uncertain trajectory as its faltering economy threatens to reverse hard-won gains in poverty alleviation. Recent data from the national statistics agency reveals a stark reality: The economy is falling significantly short of expectations. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the country's gross domestic product, or GDP, expanded by 3.78% in the second quarter of the current fiscal year, a notable decline from the 7% growth recorded in the corresponding period the prior year. With inflation hovering around 10%, the economic landscape appears bleak. Industrial output grew 3.24%, which compared poorly with 10% growth in the same period last year. Similarly, the service sector grew 3.06% in the second quarter of fiscal 2024, less than half its growth rate a year ago. These two sectors together account for more than 80% of the economy. Such sluggish performance has caused the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, to revise its forecast for the year to 5.7% – lowered from the 6% growth it had predicted for Bangladesh earlier. Economists such as Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow at the Center for Policy Dialogue in Dhaka, are concerned that low growth will mean fewer job opportunities and lower income, which would hit hardest the people who have the least. "An increase in the number of people in poverty is a high possibility, and a deepening of inequality in income and consumption," Bhattacharya told VOA. However, Bangladeshi Finance Minister Hasan Mahmood Ali has dismissed fears about the IMF revision, saying reforms undertaken by the government "are beginning to bear fruit." Bangladesh made significant progress over the past decade, bringing down the poverty level from 41.5% in 2006 to 18.7% in 2022. The economic slowdown has not come as a surprise to Bhattacharya, who said such figures could be predicted for some time. "The main reason is, in order to have growth we need investment, and [to] allow the investors to import goods, but we are not able to do that because of lack of foreign currency." Foreign currency reserves have come under pressure since the economy reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the central bank's figures, reserves declined from a high of $48 billion in August 2021 to below $20 billion in April 2024. Bhattacharya said the high rate of inflation, which has affected people across the board, but particularly middle- and low-income groups, has seriously slowed demand and consumption. According to government figures, inflation in Bangladesh is currently running above 9%. Economic analysts such as Mamun Rashid, however, believe the real figure is much higher. Currently the chairman at Financial Excellence Ltd., a private company, he recently retired as managing partner at Pricewaterhouse Coopers in Dhaka, and he earlier was managing director at Citibank N.A in Bangladesh, among other jobs. Rashid said consumption in Bangladesh is driven by export earnings, inflow of remittances sent by migrant workers and money circulation. While exports and remittances have held steady, money circulation has been squeezed by the central bank's efforts to combat inflation by raising interest rates. The veteran banker said corruption and weak regulation were key factors underpinning the foreign currency crisis, which has hit business hard. "When there is a lot of money floating around from corruption or undocumented work, it fuels capital flight and reduces inward flow of dollars," he said. According to Washington-based anti-corruption watchdog Global Financial Integrity, from 2004 to 2013, Bangladesh lost an average of $5.5 billion annually through illicit outflows. Bangladesh also does not receive all of its export receipts, as billions of dollars are siphoned off annually through trade misinvoicing. Before the pandemic hit in early 2020, Bangladesh grew at an average of more than 6%, fueled by garment exports, agriculture and huge government investment in infrastructure such as bridges, roads and highways. The World Bank in 2021 called it "one of the great development stories." The growth was achieved despite several structural flaws in the economy that are becoming more visible, according to Bhattacharya. The current government in its three successive terms in office (since 2009) has not increased private investment's share of the GDP. The private investment-to-GDP ratio has remained at 23% for 13 to 14 years. Foreign direct investment has remained below 2% of GDP. Despite the problems, international development institutions such as the World Bank, IMF and the U.N. Development Program remain on board. "They still believe in Bangladesh. That's why Bangladesh can count on around $10 billion worth of multilateral aid," Rashid said. While Rashid is optimistic that export earnings and remittances from the 6 million Bangladeshis working abroad can increase and reignite the engine of growth, Bhattacharya says the current "growth narrative" is no longer sustainable without major reforms in the banking, financial and energy sectors. "The time of reckoning has come," he said. This story originated in VOA's Bangla Service.

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.

In a historic moment, Iran launches a direct attack on Israel with hundreds of missiles, resulting in minimal damage. In Nigeria, the fate of dozens of young girls kidnapped by Boko Haram remains a mystery ten years after hundreds were abducted. This week on the Inside Story: Mideast Tension.

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.