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taipei, taiwan — A Vietnamese delegation’s visit to China last week has underscored increasingly close economic ties between the territorial rivals, which analysts say is posing a challenge to the dominance of South Korean investment in Vietnam. Vietnam’s National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue led the high-level delegation from April 7 to 12 and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Hue proposed the two countries create a new push for trade development and "connect Vietnam to China's large development strategies." He also met with the heads of many large Chinese companies that want to participate in Vietnam's infrastructure construction. China is Vietnam’s largest trade partner and on the way to becoming its biggest foreign direct investor. A representative of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, or KCCI, in Vietnam last week told Nikkei Asia that Chinese companies are pushing back South Korean firms as China steps up investment in Vietnam. "Looking at the cumulative amount of investment in Vietnam since 1988, South Korea ranks first with $85.8 billion, ahead of Singapore and Japan. However, in recent years, Korea has been in a neck-to-neck competition with China," Kim Hyong-mo told the Japan-based Asia news magazine. More current figures provided by Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment put South Korean foreign direct investment since 1988 at $87 billion, accounting for more than 18% of the total, followed by Singapore at $76 billion, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. But in 2023, South Korea ranked fifth after Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and China, which led in terms of newly registered projects. According to Joeffrey Maddatu Calimag, an assistant professor at the Department of Global Business Management at Kyungsung University in Busan, South Korea, competition between South Korean and Chinese companies is increasingly fierce. "South Korean conglomerates like Samsung Electronics Limited have notably ramped up or increased their investment or R&D spending to counter the investments of China's in terms of this sector, the mobile technology,” he told VOA. “And Chinese companies have demonstrated impressive R&D growth, which can heighten the competition for South Korean firms in Vietnam. These combined with China's technological advancements, presents a formidable challenge to South Korean companies operating in the region," he said. South Korea’s Samsung is by far the largest single foreign investor in Vietnam. Vietnam’s Hanoi Times newspaper reports Samsung invested more than $1 billion in Vietnam in 2023, for a total of more than $22 billion, and is expected to invest a further $1 billion per year. South Korean lens module manufacturer LG Innotek announced last year that it would invest an additional $1 billion in capital in Haiphong City, bringing the company's total investment in Vietnam to more than $2 billion. But China’s investment is heating up. Vietnam's Trade Ministry said this month that Chinese automaker Chery signed a joint venture agreement with a Vietnamese company to build a factory in Vietnam at an investment of $800 million, becoming the first Chinese EV manufacturer in Vietnam. China’s BYD, the world’s largest EV maker, also plans to set up a factory in Vietnam. Reuters reported in November that Chinese solar panel manufacturer Trina Solar, one of five Chinese solar firms the U.S. says used plants in Southeast Asia to avoid duties on panels made in China, plans to nearly double its investment in Vietnam to almost $900 million. China-based economist and finance commentator He Jiangbing notes that since U.S.-China trade tensions erupted in 2018, many Chinese companies have invested in Southeast Asia to avoid made-in-China tariffs. He says China's domestic overcapacity has also forced Chinese companies to accelerate their overseas deployment. "The focus of Southeast Asia is Vietnam because [China and Vietnam] are geographically closer. Vietnam also has a large population, with more than 100 million people. It also hoards a large part of the industrial chain transferred from mainland China," He said. "Wherever the industrial chain moves, Chinese companies will follow." Nguyen Tri Hieu, a Vietnamese American economist, says Vietnam is politically closer to China, a fellow one-party communist state, than democratic South Korea. "In Vietnam, there is a saying that the relationship between China and Vietnam is just like the teeth and the lips,” he told VOA. “South Korea is politically more remote. I would say [South] Korea is important but is not in the same position as China." But unlike Hanoi, Seoul has no territorial dispute with Beijing that could threaten to upend the relationship. China’s and Vietnam’s competing claims to areas in the South China Sea have not halted trade and investment but they have at times slowed it down amid clashes and tensions. Beijing claims most of the South China Sea as its own, putting it in conflict with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.   Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

The Biden Administration has launched a new effort to tackle the drug overdose epidemic in the United States, which in 2022 took more than 100,000 lives, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But as VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports, some critics say there are some gaps in the government’s strategy to save lives.

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Washington — The Republican leader in the House of Representatives announced Wednesday a vote on renewing long-delayed US military aid to Ukraine, as well as to Israel. The move sets up a showdown with his own far-right wing that for months has blocked helping the outgunned Ukrainian forces. "We expect the vote on final passage on these bills to be on Saturday evening," Speaker Mike Johnson announced. With Ukraine struggling to hold back Russia in the third year of President Vladimir Putin's invasion, Johnson faces huge pressure from the White House and much of Congress to allow the lower house to vote for aid already approved in the Senate. However, with loyalists to Donald Trump holding the balance of power in his party, the speaker's own position hangs by a thread. The announcement by Johnson came shortly after President Joe Biden described Ukraine and Israel as two US allies desperate for help in their conflicts. "While both countries can capably defend their own sovereignty, they depend on American assistance, including weaponry, to do it. And this is a pivotal moment," Biden wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. Biden called the Senate-approved version of the Ukraine and Israel aid package "strong and sensible." "It shouldn't be held hostage any longer by a small group of extreme Republican House members," he said. Investing in America Biden argued in the Journal that the aid is needed to help Ukraine, which is running out of ammunition, and Israel in the wake of last weekend's mass Iranian drone attack. But he said the assistance is just as important for US security. "Both Ukraine and Israel are under attack by brazen adversaries that seek their annihilation. Mr Putin wants to subjugate the people of Ukraine and absorb their nation into a new Russian empire. The government of Iran wants to destroy Israel forever -- wiping the world's only Jewish state off the map," Biden wrote. "America must never accept either outcome -- not only because we stand up for our friends, but because our security is on the line, too." In an attempt to address Republican criticism that the United States cannot afford to spend money on Ukraine's fight against Russia, Biden said it would not be "blank checks." The weaponry for Ukraine would be built in US factories, he said. "We'd be investing in America's industrial base, buying American products made by American workers, supporting jobs in nearly 40 states, and strengthening our own national security. We'd help our friends while helping ourselves," Biden said. He also sought to allay concerns about the aid to Israel within his own Democratic party, where growing numbers of members oppose arming Israel during its devastating war against Hamas in civilian-packed Gaza. The bill approved by the Senate, Biden said, includes funding to "continue delivering urgent humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza."

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — The state of health care in Cameroon is a source of growing concern, with thousands of doctors fleeing the central African country for lucrative jobs elsewhere, especially in Europe and North America, according to officials.  The number of people, including doctors, acquiring passports and applying for visas has increased by 70 percent, officials say. In addition, 75 percent of the 1,000 doctors that Cameroon’s government trains each year are leaving.   Cameroon's Ministry of Public Health reports that several hundred doctors are enrolled in what members of the profession see as lucrative schemes to emigrate to Canada. Also, the number of health workers, including doctors, applying for the U.S. government’s Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, also known as the Green Card Lottery, is rising.  The Cameroon Medical Council, an association of doctors, says the doctor-patient ratio in Cameroon has sunk to one doctor per 50,000 people, instead of the World Health Organization’s recommended ratio of one doctor per 10,000 patients. The group reports that the doctors are fleeing to escape hardship, poor pay, difficult working conditions and unemployment.  Doctor Peter Louis Ndifor, the council's vice president, said it is unfortunate that Cameroon trains but does not recruit thousands of its doctors. He spoke to VOA via telephone from Buea, an English-speaking town in southwestern Cameroon.  "The number of registered doctors on the roll[s] of the Cameroon Medical Council is about 13,000, but we have 5,000 to 6,000 doctors in Cameroon presently,” he said. “Doctors quitting Cameroon is an eloquent testimony that doctors are in discomfort, doctors are in distress.”  Cameroon says it currently needs at least 30,000 health workers, including doctors. The country is facing attacks from Boko Haram that have left more than 36,000 people dead, a separatist crisis that has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced about 750,000 others, and the spillover of sectarian violence from neighboring Central African Republic.   The Cameroon Medical Council says the central African country in 2013 launched a program to train about 1,000 doctors in order to improve the doctor-patient ratio, which was then one doctor per 17,000 patients.  However, the government recruits less than 100 doctors each year due to financial constraints, officials say. Cameroon's Ministry of Public Health says it expected privately owned hospitals to recruit a majority of the doctors upon graduation from medical school, but hospitals owned by individuals, communities and churches also recruit less than 100 doctors each year.   Even when recruited, the doctors say they are paid about $100 per month in private hospitals and about $220 per month in government hospitals. Jathor Godlove, 29, is an unemployed doctor. After seven years of study at the faculty of medicine of Cameroon’s University of Bamenda, he says hardship is forcing him to consider leaving the country.  "I find myself being very restrained and restricted in my capacity to help my family,” he said. “I even have some peers who venture out of medicine because they see that as a medic, when you get somewhere to offer your services, they will tell you they want to pay you 50,000 [Central African CFA] francs a month [around $80 U.S.], which is very funny. Some of them have families, when they find themselves in such situations, they see better opportunities abroad. I think you can't blame them."   He says poor working conditions — including the lack of hospital equipment and poor pay — are pushing nurses, midwives and laboratory technicians to join doctors in leaving Cameroon for Europe and North America.  However, some medical staff members who have not been able to travel out of Cameroon offer voluntary services in hospitals like in Bamenda, capital of Cameroon's English-speaking Northwest Region.   Doctor Denis Nsame, director of the Regional Hospital in Bamenda, says unemployed health care workers outnumber health workers hired by the government.  "At the Regional Hospital in Bamenda, out of 600 staff, only 146 are state-employed staff, and we consult on average 45,000 patients per year, carry out about 1,900 surgeries per year, we have deliveries [of babies] close to 250 to 300 every month," Nsame said.  The Cameroon Medical Council says that some health workers, including doctors, at times go several months without pay. Many of the health workers count on donations and consultation fees from well-wishers and patients to make a living.   In a message to Cameroonian youths last February 11, Cameroonian President Paul Biya said young people’s growing desire to emigrate is increasingly a cause for concern. He said Cameroonians should be patriotic and serve their homeland because the country is facing difficulties and leaving is not a solution.   Doctors and other health workers say the president, if he wants to curb emigration, should improve their living conditions and hospital equipment.

New Delhi — Mounting hostility between Israel and Iran is creating a diplomatic problem for India, which has long-standing and important relations with both countries. Kallol Bhattacherjee, a senior foreign affairs analyst, says in the event of an Iran-Israel war, New Delhi cannot afford to support or oppose either of them. Speaking to VOA, Bhattacherjee said 7 million Indians work in the Gulf countries and send more than $90 billion in foreign exchange to India annually. In the event of a war in the Middle East, Indian workers will be the most affected and remittances will stop. Senior foreign affairs analyst Umashankar Singh says India has a strategic relationship with Israel and has a historical relationship with Iran. He said India and Israel have been cooperating in various fields, including defense and technology, for decades, and Israel is the largest supplier of arms to India. According to him, Iran was the second-largest supplier of oil to India before sanctions were imposed on it due to its nuclear program. Although India has not been able to buy oil from Iran for the past four years, the two countries still have close relations. India and Iran signed a defense pact in 2002, while New Delhi has invested in the construction of Iran's Chabahar Port. According to Bhattacherjee, Iran has helped India on issues including relations with Central Asian countries, communications with the Taliban and other security and defense matters. Iran, Russia and India established the multilateral corridor model in September 2000 to promote cooperation in the transport sector. Later, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Oman, Syria and Bulgaria were included in this corridor. The number of Indian workers in Iran is not high. According to India’s ministry of external affairs, there are 4,000 Indian immigrants in Iran, while 18,000 Indians are working in Israel, many of them as caregivers, according to The Hindu newspaper. Another 6,000 are expected to arrive shortly to fill construction jobs left vacant by Palestinians because of the Israel-Hamas war, the newspaper said.  India and Israel had signed an agreement to send another 1,500 Indian workers to Israel, of whom the first group of 65 people arrived on April 2. The dispatch of a second group was postponed because of the threat of further Iran-Israel conflict. Naor Gilon, Israeli ambassador in India, has said protection will be provided to the Indian workers. This story originated in VOA’s Urdu Service. 

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The Swedish parliament passed a law Wednesday lowering the age required for people to legally change their gender from 18 to 16. Young people under 18 will still need approval from a guardian, a doctor, and the National Board of Health and Welfare. However, a gender dysphoria diagnosis — defined by medical professionals as psychological distress experienced by those whose gender expression does not match their gender identity — will no longer be required. Following a debate that lasted for nearly six hours, 234 lawmakers voted for the plans, 94 against and 21 were listed as absent. The center-right coalition of Sweden's conservative prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has been split on the issue, with his own Moderates and the Liberals largely supporting the law while the small Christian Democrats were against it. Sweden Democrats, the populist party with far-right roots that support the government in parliament but are not part of the government, also opposed it. Denmark, Norway, Finland and Spain are among countries that already have similar laws. Last Friday, German lawmakers approved a similar legislation, making it easier for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to change their name and gender in official records directly at registry offices. In the U.K., the Scottish parliament in 2022 passed a bill allowing people aged 16 or older to change their gender designation on identity documents by self-declaration. It was vetoed by the British government, a decision that Scotland's highest civil court upheld in December. The legislation set Scotland apart from the rest of the U.K., where the minimum age is 18 and a medical diagnosis is required. Jimmie Akesson, the leader of the Sweden Democrats, told reporters it was "deplorable that a proposal that clearly lacks the support of the population is so lightly voted through." But Johan Hultberg, of Kristersson's Moderates, said that the outcome was "gratifying." The newly approved law was "a cautious but important reform for a vulnerable group. I'm glad we're done with it," he said. Peter Sidlund Ponkala, chairman of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights, known by its Swedish acronym RFSL, called Wednesday's news "a step in the right direction" and "a recognition for everyone who has been waiting for decades for a new law." Elias Fjellander, chairman of the organization's youth branch, said it "will make life better for our members." "Going forward, we are pushing to strengthen gender-affirming care, to introduce a third legal gender and to ban conversion attempts," Fjellander said in a statement.

Washington — The United States has barred four former officials of the Malawi government from entry because of their involvement in significant corruption, the State Department said on Wednesday. The officials designated are former solicitor general and secretary of justice Reyneck Matemba, former director of public procurement and disposal of assets John Suzi-Banda, former Malawi Police Service attorney Mwabi Kaluba, and former Inspector General of the Malawi Police Service George Kainja, the department said. The four were cited by the State Department as having "abused their public positions by accepting bribes and other articles of value" from a private business person in exchange for a government police contract. "The United States stands with Malawians working towards a more just and prosperous nation by promoting accountability for corrupt officials, including advocating for transparency and integrity in government procurement processes," department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. Matemba expressed surprise when contacted by Reuters. "I am still in Malawi and have never traveled outside the country since 2021. I am on bail, therefore I can't travel because my passport is technically with the police," Matemba said. Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera has waged a crackdown on corruption in recent years. In January 2022, he dissolved the country's entire Cabinet on charges of corruption against three serving ministers. Later that year, Malawi's Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested and charged the country's vice president, Saulos Klaus Chilima, over graft allegations. The group has been investigating public officers in Malawi over alleged plundering of state resources by influencing awarding of contracts through the country's public procurement system. Malawi is one of the world's poorest countries, with nearly three-quarters of the population living on less than $2 a day. Though small in size, it features in the top 10 in Africa in terms of population density.

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GENEVA — Decades of progress in sexual and reproductive health are being rolled back with the poorest, most vulnerable members of society at greatest risk of losing out on lifesaving services, according to the 2024 State of World Population report.   The report, issued Wednesday by the U.N. Population Fund, UNFPA, says, “The data are damning.”   “Women and girls who are poor, belong to ethnic, racial and indigenous minority groups, or are trapped in conflict settings, are more likely to die because they lack access to timely health care.”   Thirty years ago, 179 governments that attended the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo pledged that they would place sexual and reproductive health at the core of sustainable development, to empower women and girls, and achieve gender equality.   “There was a moment in Cairo when humanity came together in agreement that women should not die while giving life. And this is a worthy pursuit,” Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA executive director, told journalists in Geneva on Monday, in advance of the report’s publication.   Unfortunately, she said, the promise of Cairo is not being met. Women are still being left behind. That, she added, is happening after a generation of notable achievement in reducing the rate of unintended pregnancy, in lowering maternal deaths by one-third, and in securing laws against domestic violence in more than 160 countries.   “In the report, we show that inequalities are widening, human reproduction is being politicized. The rights of women, girls and gender-diverse people are the subject of increasing pushback … progress is slowing and by many measures it has stalled completely,” she said.   “Annual reductions in maternal deaths have flatlined. Since 2016, the world made zero progress in saving women from preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth,” she said, noting that 800 women die every day giving birth.   Instead of being empowered, she said women continue to be repressed and denied their rights. “One woman in four cannot make her own health care decisions, one woman in four cannot say no to sex, and nearly one in 10 are unable to make their own choices about whether or not to use contraception,” she said.   The report finds racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination are blocking women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and that those living in poor, developing countries are far more likely to die from a lack of services than are women and girls in richer countries.   The report says African women are most at risk. It says an African woman who experiences pregnancy and childbirth complications is around 130 times more likely to die from them than a woman in Europe or North America.   It says nearly 500 deaths a day, more than half of all preventable maternal deaths, occur in countries with humanitarian crises and conflicts.   The report notes that women of African descent across the Americas are more likely to die in childbirth than white women, noting, “In the United States, the rate is three times higher than the national average.”   Kanem says the data show that “inequalities are killing women,” adding they are dying because “health systems today are weak, tainted by gender inequality, by racial discrimination, and by misinformation.”   For example, she notes that midwives are undervalued, underpaid and under-supported in male-dominated health systems “even though increasing midwifery coverage could avert more than 40 percent of maternal deaths.”   “We also see that women of African descent experience higher rates of mistreatment and neglect by health providers. Indigenous women are routinely denied culturally appropriate maternal health care.   “As a result, these groups are much more likely and, in some places, six times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth,” she said.   Nowhere in the 168-page report does the word “abortion” appear in the text. Kanem explains that as a U.N. entity, UNFPA does not take a position on member state policies and complies with whatever national governments determine “about that procedure.”   However, she noted that UNFPA believes that, “Where legal in countries it should be safe and accessible and where not legal, it should be clear that post-abortion services, typically presenting as hemorrhage and bleeding, must be available, no matter the legal status.  “In my mind, it is clear that unsafe abortion, the result of not having contraception … is a leading cause of this stubborn maternal death globally,” indicating that deaths from unsafe abortions are likely to be higher than the data suggest.   “Often the physician is not going to put ‘unsafe abortion’ on the death certificate. You will see hemorrhage or some other concomitant cause,” she said.   The report shows that investing in sexual and reproductive health benefits everyone and would contribute trillions of dollars to the global economy.   Authors of the report say that spending an additional $79 billion in low- and middle-income countries by 2030 “would avert 400 million unplanned pregnancies, save one million lives and generate $660 billion in economic benefits.”

CAPRI, Italy — Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies gathered on the Italian island of Capri on Wednesday for three days of talks overshadowed by expectations of an Israeli retaliation against Iran for missile and drone attacks. The continuing escalation of tensions between Israel and Iran and the wars in Gaza and in Ukraine will dominate the agenda of the ministers from the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan.   Italy, which holds the G7's rotating presidency, is pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza and a de-escalation of Middle East tensions, but Israel looks very likely to retaliate against Iran's weekend attacks despite Western calls for restraint. "Against a background of strong international tensions, the Italian-led G7 is tasked with working for peace," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in a statement. The G7 nations pledged support for Israel after the attack, which came in response to a presumed Israeli airstrike on Iran's embassy compound in Damascus on April 1 which killed two generals and several other Iranian officers. The U.S. said on Tuesday it was planning to impose new sanctions on Tehran's missile and drone program in the coming days and expected its allies to follow suit. Tajani told Reuters this week that any sanctions might just focus on individuals. The Iranian missiles and drones launched on Saturday were mostly shot down by Israel and its allies, and caused no deaths. But Israel says it must retaliate to preserve the credibility of its deterrents. Iran says it considers the matter closed for now but will retaliate again if Israel does. Ukraine Russia's invasion of Ukraine will also be a major topic in Capri, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg scheduled to join the talks on Thursday. Germany said on Wednesday the G7 ministers would discuss how to get more air defenses to Ukraine as Kyiv faces increasing pressure from relentless Russian air strikes on its energy network. Another key issue will be ways of utilizing profits from some $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets held in the West to help Ukraine, amid hesitation among some European Union member states over the legality of such a move. The opening session of the meeting on Wednesday evening will focus on Gaza and Iran, with the situation in the Red Sea under scrutiny on Thursday morning. Before turning to Ukraine, the ministers will look at ways of strengthening ties with Africa. The G7 ministers will also discuss stability in the Indo-Pacific region, Italy has said, and hold debates on issues including infrastructure connectivity, cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and the fight against fake news.

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NEW YORK — National Public Radio has suspended a veteran editor who wrote an outside essay criticizing his employer for, in his view, journalism that reflects a liberal viewpoint with little tolerance for contrary opinions. Uri Berliner, a senior editor on NPR's business desk, was suspended five days without pay, according to an article posted Tuesday by NPR's media correspondent, David Folkenflik. He wrote that Berliner was told he violated the company's policy that it must approve work done for outside news organizations. Berliner told NPR that he was not appealing the suspension. An NPR spokeswoman said the company would not comment on individual personnel matters. He wrote his essay last week for The Free Press. Berliner wrote that NPR has always had a liberal bent, but for most of his 25-year tenure had an open-minded, curious culture. "In recent years, however, that has changed," he wrote. "Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population." His commentary became an instant hit with outside conservative activists who have made similar criticisms of NPR. He specifically criticized his employer for its coverage of former President Donald Trump, of accusations against the president's son, Hunter Biden, and of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following publication, NPR's top editor, Edith Chapin, said she strongly disagrees with Berliner's conclusions and is proud to stand behind NPR's work. One of his NPR colleagues, "Morning Edition" co-host Steve Inskeep, wrote on Substack Tuesday that Berliner's essay in The Free Press was filled with errors and assumptions. "If Uri's 'larger point' is that journalists should seek wider perspectives, and not just write stories that confirm their prior opinions, his article is useful as an example of what to avoid," Inskeep wrote.

New Delhi — Nearly a billion Indians will be eligible to start voting Friday in the world’s biggest election, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third term in office. Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP is pitted against an opposition alliance led by the Congress Party that was formed to put up a united challenge to the powerful leader, who is widely seen as the frontrunner.   Modi has highlighted economic growth and welfare measures for the poor as his biggest achievements. At election rallies he exhorts huge crowds to vote for him to ensure that he can continue the momentum and make India a developed country by 2047.  “In the last 10 years, by lifting 250 million people out of poverty, we proved that we work to get results,” Modi said while releasing his party’s election manifesto last week.  The INDIA or Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, which consists of over two dozen opposition parties, has flagged joblessness and what it says is a threat to the country’s democratic and secular credentials as key issues in the race.   It accuses the pro-Hindu leader of polarizing the country along religious lines and weakening opposition ranks with corruption probes by federal investigative agencies. One key leader, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, was arrested weeks before the election in connection with graft allegations. The government denies the charges of politically motivated investigations. “This election is fundamentally a different election. I don’t think that democracy has been as much at risk, the constitution has been as much at risk as it is today,” said Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the main opposition Congress Party, as he released his party’s manifesto this month. Although Gandhi has not been projected as a prime ministerial candidate, he is widely seen as the main challenger to Modi. Voters will choose between the competing narratives offered by Modi and the opposition over the next six weeks -- the election to fill 543 of 545 seats in the lower house of parliament will be conducted in seven phases until June 1. Votes will be counted on June 4. The staggered vote enables security forces to move around the country.  Recent surveys project that Modi will easily secure a rare, consecutive third stint in office, a feat managed only by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Ten years since he took power after decimating the Congress Party that dominated India since independence, the Indian prime minister remains hugely popular.   He is seen as a strong, nationalist, pro-Hindu leader, who has fast-tracked development, boosted India’s global stature and delivered on promises like building a temple on the site of a razed mosque to Hindu Lord Rama – a decades-long demand by devotees in the Hindu majority country.    “The BJP is very clearly going into this election on the shoulders of the prime minister’s image. They are very clearly keeping the Modi factor right up in front,” political analyst Sandeep Shastri told VOA. “That will help them to a certain extent offset anti-incumbency that has come in after 10 years.”  The anti-incumbency sentiment largely centers on concerns about unemployment and inflation, which have been cited as key issues for the public, according to recent surveys. While India’s economy is growing rapidly, young, educated people are facing challenges in finding jobs.  In a busy market in the Indian capital, New Delhi, opinion is divided on how the economy is faring. Some, like Rushil Mattta, a software engineer, are upbeat.  “I am very optimistic. I have hope for this country and I am staying here,” said Matta, referring to the trend in earlier decades of software professionals migrating to Western countries for better opportunities. That sentiment is not shared by others, like Surinder Ojha, a hawker who sells bags to make a living. “Livelihood is a problem. But no government solves this problem for the poor,” he says despondently.  To woo voters, the main opposition Congress Party has promised to boost social spending and welfare payments for women, and provide 3 million government jobs and apprenticeships to college students. It also promises to reverse what it views as India's democratic backsliding under Modi.  Rahul Gandhi has undertaken two cross-country marches over the past 18 months to boost support for the Congress Party, but it is unclear whether that will translate into votes. The party only holds 52 seats in parliament after being routed in the last two elections and Gandhi is perceived by many as an ineffective opponent to Modi.    “As far as Mr. Modi is concerned, there is no one on the opposite side to match him,” says political analyst Neerja Chowdhury. “Lot of people who are dissatisfied today with the BJP rule and face economic hardship, rising prices. They talk about it but turn around and say who is there on the other side?”  The INDIA group’s hopes largely rest on putting up common candidates against the BJP to prevent splitting of opposition votes. So far, it has only been able to do that in some states. The alliance includes many powerful regional parties but has failed to come up with a common program to counter the Indian leader. “They have the issues before them, but can they bring these before voters as a credible alternative is the question. What we see is each member of the alliance is speaking in their own voice. Each for example has its own manifesto,” says analyst Shastri. “If you need to launch a concerted attack on the government, you need to have a clear-cut strategy, but that seems to be missing and that to a certain extent is pulling them down.”  Surveys project Modi’s BJP could surpass its 2019 performance when it won 303 seats in parliament. But the Congress Party says that when votes are counted on June 4, the results will be much closer than expected. 

Islamabad, Pakistan — The Taliban government in Afghanistan has suspended the broadcast of two privately run local TV channels over alleged violations of official regulations and “Islamic values.” Free media advocates Wednesday criticized the overnight suspension, calling it a violation of Afghanistan’s media-governing laws. The Taliban-run information ministry’s Media Violations Commission said in a statement late Tuesday that a court will examine the activities of the two channels, Noor TV and Barya TV, and decide on their fate.  Hafizullah Barakzai, the commission spokesman, said that the broadcasters are barred from conducting operations until then.  Barakzai criticized the channels for not following “journalistic principles” and “not considering “national and Islamic values” during their coverage despite repeated government warnings and recommendations. He reported that Noor TV was broadcasting music and that its female hosts and guests were not following the official dress code, which requires women to cover their faces, leaving only their eyes visible. Barakzai cited a controversial speech for suspending Barya TV but did not elaborate. The Afghanistan Journalists Center or AFJC, an independent media watchdog, said in a statement that the suspensions were “against the country’s public media law” and marked another step toward stifling free media in the Taliban-ruled country. The watchdog demanded that Afghan authorities immediately withdraw the order and reopen the two media outlets unconditionally. The two channels did not immediately comment on the allegations and suspension of their operations.  Noor TV has been operating in Afghanistan since 2007 and is backed by the country’s Jamiat-e-Islami party of former Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, who fled the country after the hardline Taliban returned to power nearly three years ago. Barya TV, which launched its operations in 2019, is owned by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister and the leader of his Hizb-e-Islami party.  Critics noted that Afghan media professionals have dealt with work conditions requiring them to strictly follow a set of media guidelines the Taliban introduced after reclaiming power in 2021.  Some directives prevent women from working in national radio and television stations, enforce “gender-based segregation” in workplaces, and prohibit broadcasting female voices and phone calls in certain provinces. The Taliban have banned television dramas that include female performers, and female news presenters must wear an officially prescribed “Islamic hijab” on air. Last month, Taliban officials warned media representatives to bar females from media platforms unless the women comply with the official dress code.  “The Afghan repression continues to intensify and specifically targets women's access to the media, whether as journalists or as listeners and spectators,” said France-based Reporters Without Borders in a statement last month. The Taliban have prohibited teenage Afghan girls from receiving an education beyond the sixth grade and banned women aid workers from working for nongovernmental humanitarian groups, including the United Nations, except in the health sector. They have placed travel restrictions on women without a male guardian, and access to public parks and gyms is also restricted for women.