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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.

washington — The NASA astronaut knocks loudly three times on what appears to be a nondescript door and calls cheerfully: "You ready to come out?"  The reply is inaudible, but beneath his mask he appears to be grinning as he yanks the door open, and four scientists who have spent a year away from all other human contact, simulating a mission to Mars, spill out to cheers and applause.  Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell, Nathan Jones and team leader Kelly Haston have spent the past 378 days sealed inside the "Martian" habitat in Houston, Texas, part of NASA's research into what it will take to put humans on the Red Planet.   They have been growing vegetables, conducting "Marswalks," and operating under what NASA terms "additional stressors," such as communication delays with "Earth," including their families; isolation and confinement.   It's the kind of experience that would make anyone who lived through pandemic lockdowns shudder, but all four were beaming as they reemerged Saturday, their hair slightly more unruly and their emotion apparent.   "Hello. It's actually so wonderful just to be able to say hello to you," Haston, a biologist, said with a laugh.  "I really hope I don't cry standing up here in front of all of you," Jones, an emergency room doctor, said as he took to the microphone, and nearly doing just that several moments later as he spotted his wife in the crowd.   The habitat, dubbed Mars Dune Alpha, is a 3D-printed, 160-square-meter facility, complete with bedrooms, a gym, common areas, and a vertical farm for growing food.  An outdoor area, separated by an airlock, is filled with red sand and is where the team donned suits to conduct their "Marswalks," though it is still covered rather than being open air.  "They have spent more than a year in this habitat conducting crucial science, most of it nutrition-based and how that impacts their performance ... as we prepare to send people on to the Red Planet," Steve Koerner told the crowd. Koerner is the deputy director at NASA's Johnson Space Center.  "I'm very appreciative," he added.  This mission is the first of a series of three planned by NASA, grouped under the title CHAPEA — Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog.  A yearlong mission simulating life on Mars took place in 2015-2016 in a habitat in Hawaii, and although NASA participated in it, it was not at the helm.  Under its Artemis program, America plans to send humans back to the Moon to learn how to live there long-term to help prepare a trip to Mars, sometime towards the end of the 2030s. 

BARINAS, Venezuela — The chant is concise, but meaningful for millions of Venezuelans in 2024: "Freedom!" The calls for "libertad" have been a staple of the opposition's events ahead of the highly anticipated July 28 presidential election. With the official start of campaigns this week, they were deafening during a massive rally Saturday in the western Venezuelan state of Barinas, the home state of the late fiery President Hugo Chávez. Students, state employees, retirees, agriculture workers and business owners were among the thousands gathered in support of Edmundo González Urrutia, the only candidate with a real chance of ending President Nicolás Maduro's quest for a third term. Their chants, collectively, represent long-sought freedom from the 25-year rule of self-described socialist governments. Individually, people are seeking wide-ranging freedoms, including the freedom to post government criticisms on social media without fearing repercussions. "I want economic freedom, freedom of purchasing power, freedom of a living wage," Virginia Linares, 41, said with teary eyes. "We feel locked in, we feel like something is being taken away from us because a salary that is not decent is a salary that overshadows us as people, we do not achieve the things we want, our dreams." Public employees these days earn a monthly minimum wage of about $3.60 plus $130 in bonuses, while private-sector workers make on average $210 a month. Neither is enough for a family to buy a basic basket of goods, which costs about $380. Linares lost her beauty supply store in 2017 in the social, economic and political crisis that has marked the entirety of Maduro's 11-year presidency. Her business is now online only, and her concerns over the country's economic conditions have increased now that her 17-year-old son has finished high school and is thinking about his future. The July 28 election is shaping up to be the biggest challenge that Venezuela's ruling party has faced since Chávez became president in 1999. The party wants to maintain its absolute control for six more years, but its base, even in Barinas, is divided and disenchanted over the crisis. The state had long been a bastion of the late president's movement, Chavismo. His brothers, Argenis Chávez and Adán Chávez, and father, Hugo de los Reyes Chávez, all served stints as governor from 1998 to 2021. The opposition ended the Chávezes reign and has since used that victory as motivation for its base. Chávez, elected in 1998, promised to improve the lives of Venezuela's poorest using the country's oil. He expanded social services, including housing and education thanks to the country's oil bonanza, which generated revenues estimated at some $981 billion between 1999 and 2011 as oil prices soared. But corruption, a decline in oil production and economic policies led to a crisis that became evident in 2012. Before Chávez's death of cancer in 2013, he picked Maduro as his successor. Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela have fended off challenges by barring rivals from elections and painting them as out-of-touch elitists in league with foreign powers. This time, their government control led to a court ruling blocking the candidacy of opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado, who won the October primary of the Unitary Platform coalition with more than 90% of support. She has thrown her support behind González, a former ambassador who's never held public office. At opposition rallies, including Saturday's, people say they will undoubtedly vote for González but also acknowledge that it is Machado who they see as leader. Venezuela's crisis has motivated more than 7.7 million people to migrate. When González asked the crowd to raise their hand if one of their relatives had migrated, people were quick to react. He promised them to create conditions so that their loved ones can return. Miguel Herrera, a school handyman, is worried that his teenage daughters might end up migrating in a few years if Maduro is reelected. He thinks that just as Barinas ushered the opposition into the governor's office, voters across the country can get González elected later this month. His chants for freedom Saturday were for a change that would give his children the freedom to choose to stay in Venezuela. He also wants his rights to quality health care and other public services to be respected. "I don't want my daughters to go somewhere else, at all," said Herrera, who voted for Maduro in the past two elections. "Politicians made promises and they didn't deliver and people began to wake up until they opened their eyes. We need change."

portland, oregon — Roughly 130 million people were under threat Saturday and into next week from a long-running heat wave that already has broken records with dangerously high temperatures — and is expected to shatter more from East Coast to West Coast, forecasters said. Oppressive heat and humidity could team up to spike temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 degrees Celsius) in parts of the Pacific Northwest, the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, said Jacob Asherman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. In Oregon, records could be broken in cities including Eugene, Portland and Salem, Asherman said. Dozens of other records throughout the U.S. could fall, Asherman added, causing millions to seek relief from the blanket of heat in cooling centers from Bullhead City, Arizona, to Norfolk, Virginia. The National Weather Service said Saturday it was extending the excessive heat warning for much of the Southwest into Friday. "A dangerous and historic heatwave is just getting started across the area, with temperatures expected to peak during the Sunday-Wednesday timeframe," the National Weather Service in Las Vegas, Nevada, said in an updated forecast. Excessive heat will likely continue through Friday, the service said. In sweltering Las Vegas, where the temperature hit 100 F (37.7 C) by 10:30 a.m., Marko Boscovich said the best way to beat the heat is in a seat at a slot machine with a cold beer inside an air-conditioned casino. "But you know, after it hits triple digits it's about all the same to me," said Boscovich, who was visiting from Sparks, Nevada, to see a Dead & Company concert later Saturday night at the Sphere. "Maybe they'll play one of my favorites — 'Cold Rain and Snow.'" Heat records shatter By 10:30 a.m. Saturday, the National Weather Service said the temperature already had risen to 100 F (36.6 C) in Phoenix, which saw a record high of 118 F (47.7 C) for Friday. Meteorologists predict temperatures will be near daily records region-wide through most, if not all, of the coming week with lower desert highs reaching 115 to 120 F (46.1 to 48.8 C). Rare heat advisories had been extended even into the upper elevations, including around Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border. The National Weather Service in Reno, Nevada, warned of "major heat risk impacts, even in the mountains." "How hot are we talking? Well, high temperatures across (western Nevada and northeastern California) won't get below 100 degrees (37.8 C) until next weekend," the service posted online. "And unfortunately, there won't be much relief overnight either." A new heat record for the day was set Friday in California's Death Valley — one of the hottest places on Earth — with the mercury climbing to 127 F (52.8 C). The old mark of 122 F (50 C) was last tied in 2013. Palm Springs, California, hit 124 F (51.1 C) Friday, breaking the city's record of 123 F (50.5 C). More extreme highs are in the near forecast, including 129 F (53.8 degrees C) for Sunday at Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park, and then around 130 (54.4 C) through Wednesday. The hottest temperature ever officially recorded on Earth was 134 degrees (56.67 C) in Death Valley in July 1913, though some experts dispute that measurement and say the real record was 130 F (54.4 C) recorded there in July 2021. Worst yet to come The worst was yet to come across much of the West, with triple-digit temperatures likely higher than average into next week, the National Weather Service said. The Eastern U.S. also was bracing for more hot temperatures. Baltimore and other parts of Maryland were under an excessive heat warning, as heat index values could climb to 110 F (43 C), forecasters said. Heat leads to some deaths In Arizona's Maricopa County, which encompasses Phoenix, there have been at least 13 confirmed heat-related deaths this year, along with more than 160 other suspected heat deaths are still under investigation, according to the county's most recent report. That does not include the death of a 10-year-old boy this week in Phoenix who suffered a "heat-related medical event" while hiking with family at South Mountain Park and Preserve, according to police.

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cairo — Rival Sudanese political factions formally attended reconciliation talks in Cairo on Saturday — the first since a conflict in the country began almost 15 months ago — but admitted there was little prospect of quickly ending the war.  During the conference, the Democratic Bloc, which is aligned with the army, refused to hold joint sessions with the Taqaddum faction, which it accuses of sympathizing with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Neither the army nor the RSF attended.  The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023 and has forced almost 10 million people from their homes, sparked warnings of famine and waves of ethnically driven violence blamed largely on the RSF.  The force this week swept through the state of Sennar, causing new displacement. In response, army head General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said the army would not negotiate with the RSF or its supporters.  "The stark deterioration in the humanitarian situation and the catastrophic consequences of this crisis call on all of us to work to immediately and sustainably to stop military operations," said newly-appointed Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty.  Talks in Jeddah between the army and RSF that were sponsored by the United States and Saudi Arabia broke down at the end of last year.  Taqaddum is a coalition of pro-democracy parties, armed groups, and civil society that has called for an end to the war. The army-aligned Democratic Bloc includes several armed group leaders participating in the fighting.  While Egypt was able to wield its influence to assemble the group, the main attendees were seated at opposite sides of the hall at the conference's opening. The two political factions agreed only to form a small subcommittee to come up with a final communique expected late Saturday.  "We told them not to have high ambitions from this meeting," said finance minister and Democratic Bloc leader Jibril Ibrahim to Reuters.  "Given the situation on the ground, if we sit and eat and drink and laugh — with the people who are allied and partners in the crimes that are happening — we would be sending the wrong message to our citizens and to our soldiers on the field," he said.  He added that an end to the war was not realistic without the withdrawal of the RSF from civilian areas, in line with an agreement signed in Jeddah last year, and the end of material support to the RSF by the United Arab Emirates. U.N. experts have said that accusations of such support are credible though the UAE has denied them.  Former Prime Minister and Taqaddum head Abdalla Hamdok rejected accusations that the coalition was linked to the RSF, saying he awaited the army's agreement to meet.  "A crisis this complicated and deep is not expected to end in one meeting... The lesson is for us to be patient and to build on anything positive that comes out of it," he told Reuters, echoing sentiments from diplomats at the meeting.  U.S. Special Envoy Tom Perriello said he hoped momentum from Saturday's talks would carry on to another meeting called by the African Union next week, another of several initiatives. 

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PARIS — French voters face a decisive choice Sunday in the runoff of snap parliamentary elections that could produce the country's first far-right government since the World War II Nazi occupation — or no majority emerging at all.  Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration, nationalist party National Rally stands a chance of winning a legislative majority for the first time, but the outcome remains uncertain because of a complex voting system and tactical maneuvers by political parties.  What's happening Sunday?  Voters across France and overseas territories can cast ballots for 501 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, the lower and most important of France's two houses of parliament. The other 76 races were won outright in the first round of voting.  The National Rally and its allies arrived ahead in Round 1 with around one-third of the votes. A coalition of center-left, hard-left and greens parties called the New Popular Front came in second position, well ahead of President Emmanuel Macron's struggling centrist alliance.  In the frantic week between the two rounds, more than 200 centrist and left-wing candidates pulled out of races to boost the chances of their moderate rivals and try to keep National Rally candidates from winning.  Final preelection polls suggest the tactic may have diminished the far right's chances of an absolute majority. But Le Pen's party has wider and deeper support than ever before, and it's up to voters to decide.  What are the possible outcomes?  Polling projections suggest the National Rally is likely to have the most seats in the next National Assembly, which would be a first.  If it wins an absolute majority of 289 seats, Macron would be expected to appoint National Rally President Jordan Bardella as France's new prime minister. Bardella could then form a government, and he and Macron would share power in a system called cohabitation.  If the party doesn't win a majority but still has a large number of seats, Macron could name Bardella anyway, though the National Rally might refuse out of fears that its government could be ejected in a no-confidence vote.  Or Macron could seek to build a coalition with moderates and possibly choose a prime minister from the center-left.  If there's no party with a clear mandate to govern, Macron could name a government of experts unaffiliated with political parties. Such a government would likely deal mostly with day-to-day affairs of keeping France running.  Complicating matters: Any of those options would require parliamentary approval.  If political talks take too long amid summer holidays and the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympics in Paris, Macron's centrist government could keep a transitional government pending further decisions.  How does cohabitation work?  If an opposition force wins a majority, Macron would be forced to appoint a prime minister belonging to that new majority. In this cohabitation, the government would implement policies that diverge from the president's plan.  France's modern Republic has experienced three cohabitations, the last one under conservative President Jacques Chirac, with Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, from 1997 to 2002.  The prime minister is accountable to the parliament, leads the government and introduces bills.  The president is weakened at home during cohabitation, but still holds some powers over foreign policy, European affairs and defense and is in charge of negotiating and ratifying international treaties. The president is also the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces and holds the nuclear codes.  What about a hung parliament?  While not uncommon in other European countries, modern France has never experienced a parliament with no dominant party.  Such a situation requires lawmakers to build consensus across parties to agree on government positions and legislation. France's fractious politics and deep divisions over taxes, immigration and Mideast policy make that especially challenging.  That would likely derail Macron's promises to overhaul unemployment benefits or legalize life-ending procedures for the terminally ill, among other reforms. It could also make passing a budget more difficult.  Why is the far right rising?  While France has one of the world's biggest economies and is an important diplomatic and military power, many French voters are struggling with inflation and low incomes and a sense that they are being left behind by globalization.  Le Pen's party, which blames immigration for many of France's problems, has tapped into that voter frustration and built wide online support and a grassroots network, notably in small towns and farming communities that see the Paris political class as out of touch.  Why does it matter?  The National Assembly is the more powerful of France's two houses of parliament. It has the final say in the law-making process over the Senate, dominated by conservatives.  Macron has a presidential mandate until 2027 and said he would not step down before the end of his term. But a weakened French president could complicate many issues on the world stage.  During previous cohabitations, defense and foreign policies were considered the informal domain of the president, who was usually able to find compromises with the prime minister to allow France to speak with one voice abroad.  But both the far-right and the leftist coalition's views in these areas differ radically from Macron's approach and would likely be a subject of tension during a potential cohabitation.  Bardella said that as a prime minister, he would oppose sending French troops to Ukraine — a possibility Macron has not ruled out. Bardella also said he would refuse French deliveries of long-range missiles and other weaponry capable of striking targets within Russia itself. 

Mandalay, Myanmar — Myanmar ethnic minority fighters were battling their way into a town housing a regional military command, one of their leaders said Saturday. Meanwhile, the junta’s second-in-command arrived in China for an official visit. Vice Senior General Soe Win arrived in Qingdao in Shandong province to attend a "Green Development Forum" hosted by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the junta's information office said in a statement. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has not visited China since the 2021 coup that plunged the country into turmoil. Myanmar’s ethnic soldiers were surrounding the northern Shan state town of Lashio, home to the junta's northeastern command, General Tar Bhone Kyaw of the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) told AFP. Lashio also sits on a major highway that runs from Myanmar's second city of Mandalay to China's Yunnan province. Clashes first broke out Wednesday as the ethnic fighters moved into the area. A member of a local group of volunteers helping to treat the injured and bury the dead told AFP on Saturday that at least 16 civilians had been killed since fighting broke out in Lashio. "There has been very strong fighting around the town," the rescuer said. "The fighting is still going on." "We heard they (the TNLA) entered the town yesterday from the south." Flights to the town from commercial hub Yangon had been canceled since Wednesday morning, an airport source in Yangon told AFP earlier this week. The so-called "Three Brotherhood Alliance" of ethnic armed groups launched an offensive last October against the military near Lashio and along the Chinese border. Ethnic minority armed groups were also making progress against junta troops in the town of Mogok, to the west of Lashio, Tar Bhone Kyaw said. "The western part is got," the general said of Mogok, which is surrounded by hills rich with rubies, sapphires, spinel, aquamarine and other semi-precious stones. "We are trying to get the eastern part," he said. The alliance has seized swaths of territory and lucrative border crossings, dealing the junta its biggest blow since it seized power in 2021. China brokered a cease-fire in January between the military and the alliance — made up of the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the TNLA. But late last month, the TNLA launched fresh attacks in Shan state and the neighboring Mandalay region. Myanmar's borderlands are home to a myriad of ethnic armed groups, many of which have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

Beirut, Lebanon — An Israeli strike in eastern Lebanon killed a Hezbollah member Saturday. The Israeli army said he was part of the militant group's air defense unit, as tensions run high between the foes.  Hezbollah has traded near daily fire with the Israeli army across Lebanon's southern border since its Palestinian ally Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, triggering the war in Gaza.   "A local Hezbollah official" was killed in an "Israeli drone" strike on a vehicle near the eastern city of Baalbek, a source close to the group told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.   Lebanon's official National News Agency reported one person was killed when an "enemy drone" targeted a vehicle in the Shaat area, around 15 kilometers north of Baalbek.    The area is northeast of Beirut, about 100 kilometers from Lebanon's southern border with Israel.   The Israeli military said in a statement that the air force "operated in the area of Baalbek to strike and eliminate ... a key operative in Hezbollah's Aerial Defense Unit."   The Hezbollah operative "took part in the planning and carrying out of numerous terror attacks" against Israel and helped build up the group's "arsenal of Iranian weapons," the statement added.    Hezbollah announced that a fighter from the area had been killed.    Recent Israeli strikes in south Lebanon have killed two senior Hezbollah commanders — one of them this week — with the Shiite Muslim movement raining rockets on northern Israel in response.    The cross-border exchanges of fire have largely been restricted to border areas, although Israel has repeatedly struck deep inside eastern Lebanon.   Hezbollah on Saturday claimed several attacks on Israeli positions near the southern border, including one with "explosive drones" that it said came in response to "Israeli enemy attacks" on south Lebanon villages.   Lebanon's news agency reported several Israeli strikes on areas in south Lebanon later Saturday.    Hezbollah says it is acting in support of Palestinians and Hamas with its attacks, which began on October 8.   The escalating violence has raised fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, which last went to war in 2006.    The cross-border exchanges have killed at least 497 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 95 civilians, according to an AFP tally.   Israeli authorities say at least 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed on their side of the border.  

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Japan's foreign minister on Saturday announced a joint project with Cambodia to share knowledge and technology on land mine removal with countries around the world, including Ukraine.  Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa made her comments during a visit to the Cambodian Mine Action Center, which was formed in the 1990s at the end of the Southeast Asian nation's decades of civil war. It seeks to deal with an estimated 4 million to 6 million land mines and other unexploded munitions left strewn around the countryside.   "Cambodia, which has steadily advanced mine removal within its own country, is now a leader in mine action around the world," she noted, adding that Japan has consistently cooperated in Cambodia's mine removal since the civil war.  Cambodian deminers are among the world's most experienced, and several thousand have been sent in the past decade under U.N. auspices to work in Africa and the Middle East. Cambodia in 2022 began training deminers from Ukraine, which also suffers from a high density of land mines and other unexploded munitions as the two-year Russian invasion drags on.  "As a concrete cooperation under the Japan Cambodia Landmine Initiative, Japan will provide full-scale assistance to humanitarian mine action in Ukraine," she said. "Next week, we will provide Ukraine with a large demining machine, and next month, here in Cambodia, we will train Ukrainian personnel on how to operate the machine."  The NGO Landmine Monitor in its 2022 report listed both Cambodia and Ukraine among nine countries with massive mine contamination, meaning they had more than 100 square kilometers of uncleared fields.  Since the end of the fighting in Cambodia, nearly 20,000 people have been killed and about 45,000 have been injured by leftover war explosives, although the average annual death toll has dropped from several thousand to less than 100.  Despite a very active demining program, many dangerous munitions remain in place, posing a hazard to villagers.  Cambodia's training of Ukrainian deminers, in Poland as well as Cambodia, came after former Prime Minister Hun Sen — in an unusual move for a nation that usually aligns itself with Russia and China — condemned Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, saying "Cambodia is always against any country that invades another country."  Cambodia was one of nearly 100 U.N. member countries that co-sponsored a resolution condemning Russia's invasion.  Several other countries, including the United States and Germany, have already provided Ukraine with demining assistance.  Kamikawa also held talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Hun Sen, his father who stepped down last year after ruling for 38 years.  She and her Cambodian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sok Chenda Sophea, signed agreements for a concessional loan from Tokyo of up to $51.6 million for upgrading the highway between the capital, Phnom Penh, to the border with Thailand, and grant aid up to $2.4 million to support junior administrative officials to study in Japan, a Japanese Embassy statement said.  Kamikawa next goes to the Philippines, where she and Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara will hold talks on Monday with their Philippine counterparts. They are set to discuss signing a mutual defense pact that would allow each country to deploy troops on the other's territory. 

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MAYREAU, St. Vincent and the Grenadines — Mayreau is one of the smallest inhabited islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It's so small that it's barely visible — a dot on the map of the Caribbean. Hurricane Beryl nearly erased it from the map.    Beryl pummeled everything along its path, ripping up roofs of schools, crumbling homes and stripping trees of almost every leaf on the 0.46 square miles (1.2 square kilometers) of this island of about 360 people.    "Everything was flying all over the place," Mayreau resident James Alexander said as he recalled the storm. "I saw a tank full of water lifted up and swirl in the air."    Beryl made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane Monday on the Caribbean island of Carriacou in Barbados and close to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, leaving a swath of destruction as it kept moving west and strengthening later into a Category 5.  The storm is the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic. On Friday, it moved over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula after battering the resort of Tulum and reemerged in the Gulf of Mexico, prompting Texas officials to urge coastal residents to prepare as the storm headed their way. Beryl has caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean islands.  Other islands in the Grenadines archipelago, like Canouan, also suffered extensive damage. But tiny Mayreau has been mostly ignored in its pleas for help.  Most lost it all: 98% of the island's structures were severely damaged, according to the latest report from the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Agency.   When the storm hit, some of the people of Mayreau sought refuge in The Immaculate Conception Church. But the sturdy building built more than 100 years ago with local stone did not have a chance against the wrath of the Category 4 hurricane.    People sheltered in the church barely made it out. Almost miraculously, they escaped unharmed but for a few minor injuries. With only one small clinic, which has also been damaged, and one nurse, that the injuries were minor was the only good news for the people of Mayreau.   The storm ripped every roof off every home on the island. Many were left as piles of dust and rubble.   "This church suffered an awful fate as a result of the passage of Hurricane Beryl and it's an indication of what has happened throughout this island," Luke Browne, St. Vincent and the Grenadines' former minister of health, said as he stood in front of the rubble of The Immaculate Conception Church.   Browne said he had been visiting Mayreau since he was a child and had seen the congregation "grow and thrive." He pleaded for help rebuilding the island.   Mayreau residents are now stranded without electricity or shelter — not even a roof — to protect them from the sun and rain.   Islanders are badly in need of everything, from food and water to tents and baby formula for its 14 youngest inhabitants.   Mayreau is far from the mainland, accessible only by a four-hour boat trip from St. Vincent.   Although some aid is expected to trickle in from nearby islands, the need is enormous, and the aid is only guaranteed for the short term. There are no vehicles on Mayreau, so residents form human chains, passing vital bottles of water hand-to-hand to the improvised shelter.   The small population depends on tourism and fishing, both of which were disrupted by the storm.   "I'm just happy," Alexander said, "to be alive." 

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — For the first time since 2020, three female suicide bombers attacked the Nigerian border town of Gwoza, where Boko Haram extremists declared a short-lived caliphate 10 years ago, signaling that the world's longest war on militancy is still ongoing.  This came two days after officials touted success in their war against extremists, with Nigerian military spokesperson Major General Edward Buba telling reporters the often-used phrase: "We have greatly degraded the terrorists."  The first of the three coordinated suicide bombings on June 30 targeted a well-attended wedding, the second was detonated at the victims' funeral, and the third at a hospital attending to the injured.  At least 32 people were killed in the attacks, including nine family members and friends of Mohammed Kehaya, a resident who is now worried about his safety in the state of Borno, a hotbed of Islamic militancy, where extremists once kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in 2014.  No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, but blame quickly fell on Boko Haram, which since 2009 has launched an insurgency to establish its radical interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in northeastern Nigeria. They have since splintered into different factions, together accounting for the direct deaths of at least 35,000 people and the displacement of more than 2 million amid a humanitarian crisis with people in dire need of foreign aid since 2009.  Nigerian authorities maintained that the attacks were not a setback.  Nigerian Defense Chief General Chris Musa said the bombings were rather "a sign of desperation" and described them as a one-off by the militants.  "Some individuals would do everything possible for us not to succeed," he said.  However, several security analysts and locals interviewed about the bombings echoed concerns that the attacks must have taken a lot of planning and coordination and portend danger in Borno, where some villages lack a security presence.  One of the extremists' goals could be to distort the narrative that the security situation in the region has normalized, said Vincent Foucher, consulting senior analyst for West Africa at the International Crisis Group.  "It's a way to show the war goes on," Foucher said.  In Borno, the three bombings sent shock waves across families and left many wondering whether they should pack what was left of their belongings and flee once again.  "Parents have been calling in to ask if their kids would be safe going back to school," said Yusuf Ibn Tom, a public school teacher in Maiduguri. "Everyone here is scared."  At the height of the insurgency in 2014, Boko Haram was considered the world's deadliest terrorist group, killing at least 6,000 people that year alone, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace's Global Terrorism Index. A lot has changed since then, making the extremists far less lethal.  The military has pushed them further into the fringes of the Lake Chad axis, and the 2021 death of the group's founding leader, Abubakar Shekau, demoralized some members and made suicide bombing less popular. Clashes between Shekau's faction and the one linked to the Islamic State group have made the extremists turn against themselves, sometimes shifting the focus of attacks from the military and civilians and even contributing to the defection of thousands who are undergoing a reintegration program.  But what has not changed over the years is the "operational prowess" of the extremists, said Cameron Hudson, an Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  Attacks like the latest one "are rarely one-off incidents and are often part of a wider series," Hudson said. He did not rule out future attacks. "That will give a better indication of the relative strength of the insurgency today as well as the Nigerian military's ability to respond," he added. 

Berlin — The German army will end operations at its air base in Niger by August 31 following the breakdown of talks with the Sahel country's ruling junta, Germany's defense ministry said Saturday.  All Bundeswehr soldiers stationed at the base will be withdrawn by August 31 and German military cooperation with Niger will end, the ministry added.  The breakdown in negotiations marks Niger's latest diplomatic shift away from the West since a coup d'etat in July 2023 ousted President Mohamed Bazoum and brought the current military leadership to power.  Since then, Niger has turned toward Russia and Iran and away from the United States and former colonial ruler France.  A similar shift has taken place in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, which are likewise ruled by military leaders and faced with violence from jihadi groups.  At the end of May, Germany and Niger reached an interim agreement allowing the Bundeswehr to continue operating the air transport base in the capital, Niamey, until the end of August.  But negotiations to extend that agreement broke down, notably because the base's personnel would no longer benefit from immunity from prosecution.  Only 38 Bundeswehr soldiers were stationed at the base in recent times, along with 33 staff from German and foreign companies.  It was notably used for operations to evacuate German nationals in Africa. 

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 Bangkok, Thailand — Journalists reporting on illicit activity connected to the billion-dollar scam center industry in Cambodia say they are facing security risks.  Physical and online harassment, surveillance and legal threats related to media coverage have all been reported by local and foreign journalists.  Reporting on the centers, along with the associated allegations of fraud, human trafficking and other abuses is becoming a "risky endeavor," said American freelancer Danielle Keeton-Olsen.  Details of the scam centers operating throughout the Southeast Asia region, including Cambodia, are outlined in a May report by the United States Institute of Peace, or USIP.  In Cambodia alone, the USIP report found 100,000 scammers generating an estimated $12.8 billion in 2023 — close to half the country's formal GDP. Most compounds that house the scammers are operated by Chinese gangs, though some are allegedly linked to local elites, the report found.  Those working in the centers are often lured into phony business ventures, becoming victims themselves. Reports have highlighted evidence of human trafficking.  VOA contacted the Cambodian government by email and phone but didn't receive a reply.    But Chou Bun Eng, deputy chair of the government's police-led National Committee for Counter Trafficking said earlier this year that 80% of cases alleging human trafficking are "false."   Journalists reporting on the centers say they've been harassed and, in one case, detained.  Journalists risk physical harm  Cambodian journalist Mech Dara says police detained him while he was investigating a scam center in the city of Sihanoukville. At the time, Dara worked for the now shuttered Voice of Democracy, or VOD.   Keeton-Olsen also reported on the scam centers for VOD English.   "We would go around in a site in Sihanoukville and try to figure out everything that we could, get some eyewitness testimonies, try to, like, assert who the ownership is and triangulate from there. That was a really risky endeavor," she told VOA. "There were some close calls, you could get scolded by a security guard or just in general the hair standing up on the back," she said.  While journalists often face difficulties accessing information in Cambodia, they risk the possibility of physical harm reporting on scam centers.  "It's a dangerous industry, and there's evidence that there are gangs involved," she said. "There's evidence of violence happening toward workers or people associated with it. In terms of threats to safety [for journalists], they definitely exist."  With one story, said Keeton-Olsen, a company threatened them with legal action.   "We actually ended up writing about that for VOD because [the company] came in and they were saying 'we might serve you with a legal letter,' so my editor wrote a story about it," she said.  Nathan Paul Southern, a Scottish journalist based in Phnom Penh, said he also received threats.  "We've been told by people who are connected to the government that we do need to watch our backs, that we are in danger," he told VOA. "We have been followed quite a few time ... [and] we've had a few physical altercations in and around the scam centers, where essentially various different gangsters have tried to grab us or stop us from leaving and get close to violent with us."  Thousands 'held against their will' While reporting on an online gambling site working out of a compound in the city of Bavet, Southern said he learned that "thousands of people were being held against their will."  The company denied the allegations, he said, then served him with a cease-and-desist letter.  "It seemed it was to scare us financially," he said. "Most of it, whether that's from the criminal groups or the government, has been them letting us know that they're watching us."  Risks associated with scam center reporting add to an already tough reporting environment, where government officials have cracked down on independent media.  "Journalism continues to be a dangerous profession in Cambodia," said Aleksandra Bielakowska, advocacy officer at Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF.  "Reporters can be arrested and sometimes spend months in prison on trumped-up charges of 'terrorism,'" she told VOA. "At the same time, covering corruption cases that directly or indirectly implicate the government has become virtually impossible."  The country ranks 151 out of 180 on the RSF World Press Freedom Index, where 1 signals a good media environment. In the past year, three media outlets were stripped of their licenses, including VOD.