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Afghan poet falsely claimed that Afghanistan’s Panshir region is part of Iran.

It has been two years since the town of Siversk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region has enjoyed electricity, gas and sewage service. Once a bustling community of over 12,000 people, only about 800 remain today. Anna Kosstutschenko visited Siversk and talked to residents. Video editor: Pavel Suhodolskiy

Six months into the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Israel is at a crossroads. Israeli forces have not been able to eradicate Hamas or free the remaining hostages, and some analysts say the war could escalate further. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem.

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NEW YORK — A New York appeals court judge Tuesday rejected former President Donald Trump's latest bid to delay his hush money criminal trial while he fights a gag order. Barring further court action, the ruling clears the way for jury selection to begin next week.  Justice Cynthia Kern's ruling is yet another loss for Trump, who has tried repeatedly to get the trial postponed. Jury selection is set to start Monday.  Trump's lawyers wanted the trial delayed until a full panel of appellate court judges could hear arguments on lifting or modifying a gag order that bans him from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the hush-money case.  The presumptive Republican nominee's lawyers argue the gag order is an unconstitutional curb on Trump's free speech rights while he's campaigning for president and fighting criminal charges.  "The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable," Trump lawyer Emil Bove said at an emergency hearing Tuesday in the state's mid-level appeals court.  Bove argued that Trump shouldn't be muzzled while critics, including his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels, routinely assail him. Both are key prosecution witnesses.  Bove also argued that the order unconstitutionally restricts Trump's critiques of the case — and, with them, his ability to speak to the voting public and its right to hear from him.  Steven Wu, the appellate chief for the Manhattan district attorney's office, countered that there is a "public interest in protecting the integrity of the trial."  "What we are talking about here is the defendant's uncontested history of making inflammatory, denigrating" comments about people involved in the case, Wu said. "This is not a political debate. These are insults."  He said prosecutors already have had trouble getting some witnesses to testify "because they know what their names in the press may lead to." Wu didn't identify the witnesses but noted they included people who would testify about record-keeping practices.  The gag order still affords Trump "free rein to talk about a host of issues," noting that he can comment on Judge Juan M. Merchan and District Attorney Alvin Bragg and "raise political arguments as he sees fit." Trump has repeatedly lambasted Bragg, a Democrat, and the judge.  Merchan issued the gag order last month at prosecutors' urging, then expanded it last week to prohibit comments about his own family after Trump lashed out on social media at the judge's daughter, a Democratic political consultant, and made what the court system said were false claims about her. Tuesday was the second of back-to-back days for Trump's lawyers in the appeals court. Associate Justice Lizbeth González on Monday rejected their request to delay the trial while Trump seeks to move his case out of heavily Democratic Manhattan.  Trump's lawyers framed their gag order appeal as a lawsuit against Merchan. In New York, judges can be sued to challenge some decisions under a state law known as Article 78.  Trump has used the tactic before, including against the judge in his recent New York civil fraud trial in an unsuccessful last-minute bid to delay that case last fall and again when that judge imposed a gag order barring trial participants from commenting publicly on court staffers. That order came after Trump smeared the judge's principal law clerk in a social media post.  A sole appeals judge lifted the civil trial gag order, but an appellate panel restored it two weeks later.  Trump's hush-money criminal case involves allegations that he falsified his company's records to hide the nature of payments to Cohen, who helped him bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign. Cohen's activities included paying Daniels $130,000 to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.  Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.  Trump has made numerous attempts to get the trial postponed.  Last week, as Merchan swatted away various requests to delay the trial, Trump renewed his request for the judge to step aside from the case. The judge rejected a similar request last August.  Trump's lawyers allege the judge is biased against him and has a conflict of interest because of his daughter Loren's work as president of Authentic Campaigns, a firm with clients that have included President Joe Biden and other Democrats. Trump's attorneys complained the expanded gag order was shielding the Merchans "from legitimate public criticism."  Merchan had long resisted imposing a gag order. At Trump's arraignment in April 2023, he admonished Trump not to make statements that could incite violence or jeopardize safety, but stopped short of muzzling him. At a subsequent hearing, Merchan noted Trump's "special" status as a former president and current candidate and said he was "bending over backwards" to ensure Trump has every opportunity "to speak in furtherance of his candidacy."  Merchan became increasingly wary of Trump's rhetoric disrupting the historic trial as it grew near. In issuing the gag order, he said his obligation to ensuring the integrity of the proceedings outweighed First Amendment concerns.  Trump reacted on social media that the gag order was "illegal, un-American, unConstitutional" and said Merchan was "wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement" by Democratic rivals.  Trump suggested without evidence that Merchan's decision-making was influenced by his daughter's professional interests and made a claim, later repudiated by court officials, that Loren Merchan had posted a social media photo showing Trump behind bars.  After the outburst, Merchan expanded the gag order April 1 to prohibit Trump from making statements about the judge's family or Bragg's family.  "They can talk about me but I can't talk about them???" Trump reacted on his Truth Social platform.

A government-run school in Cameroon’s capital is teaching students how to manufacture plant-based meat, an innovation which the school’s director hopes will contribute to the fight against climate change. Anne Nzouankeu has more from Yaoundé in this report narrated by Moki Edwin Kindzeka.

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.

Amman — Jordanian officials and observers say the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoot, Hamas, are inciting pro-Hamas demonstrations with the aim of destabilizing Jordan, a key U.S. Arab ally. Jordan has been the scene of largely peaceful but growing protests since the start of the Gaza war. Many of the demonstrations have been near the Israeli Embassy in the capital, Amman.  Some demonstrators demand Jordan ends its 1994 peace treaty with Israel, while others voice anger against Israel as they share personal ties with Gazans suffering bombardment and starvation.  Saud Sharafat, a former senior member of Jordanian intelligence and a terrorism analyst, believes some Hamas leaders — and Iran — would like to portray the Jordanian government as “resisting the will of the street.” But authorities in Jordan “have displayed skill in allowing protesters to test the limits of dissent, while also maintaining public order,” he told United Arab Emirates’ The National newspaper.   Recently, several prominent Jordanian government officials as well as journalists have accused the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoot Hamas of inciting the population against the governing authorities. They say this is done in the service of Iran, which seeks to destabilize Jordan and widen the conflict. Jordan has the longest land border with Israel and the majority of its population is of Palestinian origin.  Jordanian analyst Amer Al Sabaileh told VOA that Hamas leaders have specifically targeted Jordan rather than other Arab countries in their speeches, inciting Jordanians to go to the streets.  He questions why protests continue when Jordan’s King Abdullah has repeatedly called for a cease-fire and has been at the forefront of humanitarian aid deliveries, while Jordan’s foreign ministry has criticized Israel’s prosecution of the war.  “There is a political purpose behind mobilizing and insisting that it is legitimate to go to the streets in Jordan, because they are originally Palestinian,” he said. “So, if you are originally Palestinian, it does not give you the right to bring chaos to Jordan or to import the crisis inside a stable country that has also a fragile security situation because this country, since 2003, has been living with threats from Iraq, Syria, terrorism, drugs. We should care about how stable Jordan should be.”    Meanwhile, analyst Osama Al Sharif told VOA that while the Jordanian government may be disturbed by the slogans and spread of the protests, he believes claims of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas making inroads in Jordan is "hyperbole," nor has there been physical proof of Iran's meddling.  “There have been certain thoughts on the internet. A pro-Iranian militia claiming that they can arm 12,000 Jordanians at any given moment. But it’s very difficult to separate truth from fiction when you have this highly charged atmosphere in Jordan with what’s happening in Gaza,” he said. “People are genuinely horrified because of family linkages, or have some sort of relationship, a distant relative, a friend. The king himself has overseen the delivery of aid to Gaza, toured the world defending the Palestinian cause and calling for a cease-fire and warning of a humanitarian disaster unfolding.”  Observers do agree, however, that great uncertainty prevails.  This, they say, is set to continue as the war in Gaza drags on, and while Israel mobilizes troops along its border with Lebanon in preparation for a possible war with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Police in Gabon say a crime wave has hit the capital, Libreville, several days after the country’s transitional president pardoned and set free over 500 prisoners. Civil society groups on Tuesday launched a campaign asking the government to give the former prisoners more support and for freed prisoners to be law-abiding citizens.  General Jean Germain Effayong Onong, commander in chief of Gabon's Penitentiary Administration, told Gabon's state TV that former prisoners caught committing crimes will either be punished or sent back to prison. Onong said the country's transitional government led by General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema wants civilians to live in peace with total freedom to carry out their daily activities. Onong spoke about a week after the government set free more than 560 of the close to 4,000 inmates at the Libreville Central Prison. In December, President Oligui, who seized power from President Ali Ben Bongo following a disputed election last August, promised to set free over 1,000 prisoners. He said most were civilians were unjustifiably held in prison by Gabon's former leaders. The general said a majority of prisoners were held in pretrial detention for a long time with no evidence of wrongdoing. The presidential pardon did not extend to prisoners who had been convicted of drug-related offenses or violent crimes. However, Gabon's police this week reported that many people who regained freedom following the presidential clemency have been arrested for involvement in crimes such as theft, assault and highway robbery.  Firman Ollo'o Obiang is secretary general of S.O.S Prisoners, a non-governmental organization that works for the well-being of Gabon's inmates. Obiang said it is very surprising that less than two weeks after regaining freedom, former prisoners whose liberation was hard earned are again arrested by the police for committing crimes. Obiang said while waiting for families and the government to socially and economically reintegrate the freed prisoners, his organization is providing moral and financial assistance to poor and unemployed civilians who were freed by Gabon's transitional government. Obiang did not say how much financial assistance S.O.S Prisoners provides to the freed inmates. Rights groups and S.O.S Prisoners blame unemployment, the high cost of living and poverty for the crime wave reported by Gabon police. They also say if prisons in Gabon were the correctional facilities they are supposed to be, freed prisoners would not be involved with crime.  Stanislas Kouma is Gabon's director general of penitentiary affairs.  Kouma said Gabon's transitional government is planning to improve living conditions of inmates while in prison and when the inmates eventually regain their freedom. He said conditions deteriorated during ousted president Ali Bongo Ondimba's term in office.  Kouma said Gabon's central prison in Libreville, constructed for less than a thousand inmates, had about 4.000 detainees when General Oligui seized power in an August 30 coup. Shortly after the coup, President Oligui freed several political prisoners who had jailed for years without trial. Included in that release were Jean-Remy Yama, leader of the Coalition of Gabon State Workers Trade Unions, Renaud Allogho Akoue, former director general of Gabon's National Social Insurance and Health Fund, and Léandre Nzué, former mayor of Gabon's capital, Libreville. Hundreds more less prominent prisoners pardoned by Oligui are scheduled to be released by the end of April.

WASHINGTON — Audrey Gray was at a national task force in New Orleans when a colorful zine caught the climate journalist’s eye. Produced by Imagine Water Works, the zine — A Queer/Trans Guide to Storms — took the form of “love notes” to the southeast Louisiana LGBTQ+ community, alongside practical storm preparation tips. As a climate change journalist from Los Angeles, Gray had been reporting on similar content, with an emphasis on how communities adapt to change and protect themselves from extreme weather. The magazine, she said, had useful practical information. “Say you’re going through a transition right there: how to deal with your medication, what to take in your evacuation bag, how to plug into resources that will help you,” Gray told VOA. Gray studied at Columbia Journalism School with the intention of being a climate journalist. Since graduating in 2019, her focus has been writing stories that would make people “feel something” about the issue. “I had been freaked out by climate change really early,” Gray said. Her first stories focused on carbon emissions, but slowly she shifted to covering solutions rather than just the problems. “I really wanted to try to advance the narrative in a way that focused on courage and acts of protection,” said Gray. As a freelancer, Gray’s work has appeared in media outlets including Mother Jones and Wired. Now, as one of the three 2024 grantees for the Kim Wall Memorial Fund, Gray plans to expand her coverage. Established by the International Women’s Media Foundation, or IWMF, the fund commemorates Kim Wall, a Swedish journalist killed off the coast of Denmark in 2017 by a man she was interviewing. Each year, the IWMF awards grants to female or nonbinary journalists who focus on lesser-known stories that reflect Wall’s ideals. Alongside Gray, this year’s grantees are the Netherlands-based documentary filmmaker Zhaoyin Feng and the U.K.-based freelancer Isobel Thompson. Taylor Moore, an associate program manager at the IWMF, is part of the selection panel. She described Gray as “curious” and “excitable,” much like Wall had been. “She's able to distill the science in a way that's understandable for the lay person and really shows the human impacts of climate change,” Moore said. Noting that Gray is one of the few American journalists awarded a grant, Moore told VOA, “We thought this was a story that deserved equal prominence among the international stories we fund.” Gray credits much inspiration to Wall, a journalist who she says was “ahead of her time.” Wall was 30 when she was killed. But she had already made strides in media, traveling the world and writing about marginalized communities. Her work, Gray said, is what she admires about the young reporter. “[Wall] would write stories about people, and climate change wasn’t necessarily the headline, but it’s all there,” said Gray. “She was really skillful at getting herself to a place and then pitching all kinds of stories from that place to different publications.” Gray plans to use her grant to expand reporting on her most recent project: a feature on an emergency management network set up in Maricopa County in the southwestern state of Arizona. Around 500 people died of extreme heat in that region during the summer of 2022. Set up in a historically Black Methodist church, the center helped the community cope with the deadly temperatures outside. “It was only open six hours a day on the weekdays, but all the regulars would go in, and they would get a short break from the worst heat of the day,” said Gray. With a growth in emergency centers following the pandemic and natural disasters, Gray is interested in expanding her coverage of aid efforts in the LGBTQ community. She plans to look at what resources are available to marginalized groups. One focus is emergency shelters in Arizona, a state that has extreme weather and where authorities are proposing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. “Usually, the first shelters that are set up are placed often in churches,” said Gray. But, she said, many of her sources describe having negative experiences in religious establishments, including rejection or abuse. Other people she has interviewed described experiencing violence at emergency shelters and encountering people there who are uncomfortable with them. Gray plans to feature organizations such as QReady, a group focused on emergency management and “amplifying” a sense of agency for the queer community. “I’m not reporting on victims here at all,” she said. “I'm reporting on a community that is taking action to protect itself, and there's this real spirit of ‘We can protect each other, we can create safety.’” The IWMF selected Gray from 141 submissions sent in from more than 50 countries. It was the largest number of applications the foundation has received. As the only journalist based in the U.S. to be selected, Gray says the grant is “so much more meaningful.” The journalist says she has a “deep sense of resonance with [Wall] and a hope that more people will learn from her and put some of her good practices to work.” For Gray, that will include continuing to highlight the stories of people persisting against climate change and protecting their community. “I feel like that’s why I’m here,” she said.

Washington — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles Brown Jr. testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday about the Pentagon's $850 billion budget for 2025 as questions remained as to whether lawmakers will support current spending needs for Israel or Ukraine. The Senate hearing was the first time lawmakers on both sides were able to question the Pentagon's top civilian and military leadership on the administration's Israel strategy following the country's deadly strike on World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid workers in Gaza. It also follows continued desperate pleas by Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that if the U.S. does not help soon, Kyiv will lose the war to Russia. In their opening statements, both Austin and Brown emphasized that their 2025 budget is still shaped with the military's long-term strategic goal in mind — to ready forces and weapons for a potential future conflict with China. About $100 billion of this year's request is set aside for new space, nuclear weapons and cyber warfare systems the military says it must invest in now before Beijing's capabilities surpass it. But the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel are challenging a deeply-divided Congress and have resulted in months of delays in getting last year's defense budget through, which was only passed by lawmakers a few weeks ago. Austin's opening remarks were temporarily interrupted by protesters lifting a Palestinian flag and shouting at him to stop sending weapons to Israel. "Stop the genocide," they said, as they lifted their hands, stained in red, in the air. The Pentagon scraped together about $300 million in ammunition to send to Kyiv in March but cannot send more without Congress' support, and a separate $60 billion supplemental bill that would fund those efforts has been stalled for months. "The price of U.S. leadership is real. But it is far lower than the price of U.S. abdication," Austin told the senators. If Kyiv falls, it could imperil Ukraine's Baltic NATO member neighbors and potentially drag U.S. troops into a prolonged European war. If millions die in Gaza due to starvation, it could enrage Israel's Arab neighbors and lead to a much wider, deadlier Middle East conflict — one that could also bring harm to U.S. troops and to U.S. relations in the region for decades. The Pentagon has urged Congress to support new assistance for Ukraine for months, to no avail, and has tried to walk a perilous line between defending its ally Israel and maintaining ties with key regional Arab partners. Israel's actions in Gaza have been used as a rallying cry by factions of Iranian-backed militant groups, including the Houthis in Yemen and Islamic Resistance groups across Iraq and Syria, to strike at U.S. interests. Three U.S. service members have already been killed as drone and missile attacks increased against U.S. bases in the region. Six U.S. military ships with personnel and components to build a humanitarian aid pier are also still en route to Gaza but questions remain as to how food that arrives at the pier will be safely distributed inside the devastated territory. Lawmakers are also seeing demands at home. For months, a handful of its far-right members have kept Congress from approving additional money or weapons for Ukraine until domestic needs like curbing the crush of migrants at the southern U.S. border are addressed. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is already facing a call to oust him as speaker by Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene because Johnson is trying to work out a compromise that would move the Ukraine aid forward. On Israel, the World Central Kitchen strike led to a shift in tone from President Joe Biden on how Israel must protect civilian life in Gaza and drove dozens of House Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to call on Biden to halt weapons transfers to Israel. Half the population of Gaza is starving and on the brink of famine due to Israel's tight restrictions on allowing aid trucks through.

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Geneva — One year since the conflict in Sudan erupted, thousands of desperate people are still fleeing the country daily "as if the emergency had started yesterday," the U.N. said Tuesday.   More than 8.5 million people have fled their homes since the fighting broke out, with nearly 1.8 million having escaped across the country's borders.   "A year on, the war in Sudan continues to rage, with the country and its neighbors experiencing one of the largest and most challenging humanitarian and displacement crises in the world," said Olga Sarrado Mur, spokeswoman for the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR.   "The ongoing conflict has shattered people's lives, filling them with fear and loss. Attacks on civilians, and conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence, continue unabated," she told a press briefing in Geneva.   "Sudan has experienced the almost complete destruction of its urban middle class: architects, doctors, teachers, nurses, engineers and students have lost everything," she added.     Fighting in Sudan erupted on April 15, 2023, between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The conflict has killed thousands and has sparked a humanitarian disaster.   "Thousands are crossing borders daily as if the emergency had started yesterday," Sarrado Mur said.  Those fleeing the country, mostly women and children, are arriving in remote areas across the borders "with little to nothing and in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medical care," she added.  "As the conflict continues, and the lack of assistance and opportunities deepens, more people will be forced to flee Sudan to neighboring countries or to move further."  Strain on South Sudan The humanitarian response plan for inside Sudan is so far 6 percent funded, while the 2024 regional refugee response plan is 7 percent funded.   The war has destroyed Sudan's already fragile infrastructure and pushed the country to the brink of famine.   Marie-Helene Verney, UNHCR's representative in South Sudan, said 635,000 people had arrived in the country since April 15 — the equivalent of 5 percent of the country's population.   "This is the world's poorest country, so you can imagine the pressure," she said, via video-link from the capital Juba.   Verney said many refugees were urban, educated and middle class, with professional skills that UNHCR is trying to match to shortages in South Sudan, notably in health and education.   "The biggest challenge that we face is really the relentlessness of this crisis ... it could get worse before it gets better," she said.   A lot of unaccompanied children were coming, and single women with "heartbreaking stories" of sexual violence en route, she added.    On Monday, U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said the current situation in Sudan concerning sexual and gender-based violence was "absolutely horrific."   "It is committed by all parties to the conflict in this absolutely senseless war," he said.  Ahead of the anniversary, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement has called on all parties in the conflict to protect civilians and those who can no longer fight.   "When homes, hospitals, and schools are damaged, and people who are not part of the fight are hurt, it not only causes immediate harm but also makes it much harder for communities to heal," the movement said. 

NYON, Switzerland — This week's Champions League games will go ahead as scheduled despite an Islamic State terror threat, the governing body of European soccer said Tuesday.  A media outlet linked to the terror group has issued multiple posts calling for attacks at the stadiums hosting quarterfinal matches in Paris, Madrid and London on Tuesday and Wednesday.  "UEFA is aware of alleged terrorist threats made towards this week's UEFA Champions League matches and is closely liaising with the authorities at the respective venues," UEFA said in a statement. "All matches are planned to go ahead as scheduled with appropriate security arrangements in place."  There are two matches scheduled to be held in Madrid. Real Madrid hosts Manchester City on Tuesday, and Atletico Madrid welcomes Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday.  Arsenal plays Bayern Munich in London on Tuesday, and Paris Saint-Germain hosts Barcelona the following day.  "I want to reassure the public that we have a robust policing plan in place for tonight's match [in London] and we continue to work closely alongside the club's security team to ensure that the match passes peacefully," Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan said.  France Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said police have considerably reinforced security around the Parc des Princes in Paris.  "We have seen, among others, a statement from the Islamic State, which is particularly targeting stadiums. It's not new," Darmanin said. "This morning, we asked the general director of interior security to communicate the information we have with the other [security] services of the other countries hosting the quarterfinals."  Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow on March 22 in which 144 people were killed.  The return matches in the Champions League are scheduled for next week.  PSG defender Danilo said he and his teammates "need to concentrate on the soccer," but coach Luis Enrique said the threat was worrying.  "Who wouldn't be concerned by that? Of course we're concerned," the PSG coach said. "We hope it's only a threat and that nothing will happen." 

LONDON — Lawmaker Simon Harris was elected Ireland's prime minister by a vote in parliament Tuesday, becoming at 37 the country's youngest-ever leader.  Harris takes over as head of Ireland's three-party coalition government from Leo Varadkar, who announced his surprise resignation last month. Harris, who served as higher education minister in Varadkar's government, was the only candidate to replace him as head of the center-right Fine Gael party.  Lawmakers in the Dáil, the lower house of Ireland's parliament, confirmed Harris as taoiseach, or prime minister, by 88 votes to 69.  Harris was first elected to parliament at 24 and has been nicknamed the "TikTok taoiseach" — pronounced TEA-shock — because of his fondness for communicating on social media. He faces challenges including a strained health service, soaring housing costs and an exodus of Fine Gael lawmakers, more than 10 of whom have said they will not run for reelection.  "I commit to doing everything that I can to honor the trust that you have placed in me today," Harris said. "As taoiseach I want to bring new ideas, a new energy and a new empathy to public life."  Varadkar was the previous youngest-ever premier when first elected at age 38, as well as Ireland's first openly gay prime minister. Varadkar, whose mother is Irish and father is Indian, was also Ireland's first biracial taoiseach.  Varadkar, 45, has had two spells as taoiseach — between 2017 and 2020 and again since December 2022 as part of a job-share with Micheál Martin, the head of Fianna Fáil.  Varadkar officially stepped down on Monday when he handed in his letter of resignation to President Michael D. Higgins.  Varadkar told the Dáil on Tuesday that his time in politics had been the "most fulfilling and rewarding time" of his life.  "But today is the beginning of a new era for my party, a new chapter in my life and a new phase for this coalition government," he said.  Harris has said he plans to keep the Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Green Party coalition government going until March 2025, when an election must be held.  Opposition parties argued that the Irish public deserves an early election.  "Another Fine Gael taoiseach is the last thing the people need," said Mary Lou McDonald, leader of left-wing party Sinn Fein. "We need a change of leadership, we need a change of government."

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HANOI, Vietnam — The Vatican's top diplomat began a six-day visit to Vietnam on Tuesday as a part of efforts to normalize relations with the communist nation.  Richard Gallagher, the Holy See's foreign minister, met his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son and expressed the Vatican's "gratitude" for the progress that has been made to improve ties. The visit took place after Archbishop Marek Zalewski became the first Vatican representative to live and open an office in the Southeast Asian country.  "The visit is of great importance," said Son.  Gallagher will also meet Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and visit a children's hospital in the capital, Hanoi, state-run Vietnam News Agency reported. He will hold Mass in Hanoi, Hue in central Vietnam, and the financial hub of Ho Chi Minh City in the south.  Gallagher is the Vatican's No. 2 and his visit to Hanoi was an "important moment" that showed that the relationship was continuing while the sides wait for an upgrade to full diplomatic relations, said Giorgio Bernardelli, the head of AsiaNews, a Catholic Missionary news agency.  Relations between the Vatican and Vietnam were severed in 1975, after the Communist Party established its rule over the entire country following the end of the Vietnam War. Relations have been strained ever since, although the sides have had regular talks since at least the late 1990s.  The agreement to appoint the Vatican's permanent representative in Vietnam was signed in July 2023, during former President Vo Van Thuong's visit to the Holy See. Thuong also extended an invitation to Pope Francis to visit Vietnam. But Thuong has since resigned, becoming the latest victim of an intense anti-corruption campaign.  Bernardelli said that the pope's potential visit was likely to be discussed, adding that it also depended on the political situation in Hanoi following the president's resignation  He said that an improvement in ties with Vietnam could also have implications for the Holy See's ties with communist-ruled China. The relationship with Vietnam had always been a "point of reference, but with important differences," since unlike China, Vietnam has been keen to improve relations with the Vatican and the West.  Beijing severed diplomatic ties with the Vatican in 1951, after the communists rose to power and expelled foreign priests.  Catholicism is officially the most practiced religion in Vietnam, with 5.9 million or 44.6% of the 13.2 million people who identified as religious in a 2019 census saying they were Catholic. That works out to more than 6% of the country's population.