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JERUSALEM — Humanitarian workers have started moving tons of aid that piled up at a United States-built pier off the Gaza coast to warehouses in the besieged territory, the United Nations said Saturday, an important step as the U.S. considers whether to resume pier operations after yet another pause due to heavy seas. It was not clear when the aid might reach Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where experts have warned of the high risk of famine as the war between Israel and Hamas militants is in its ninth month. This is the first time trucks have moved aid from the pier since the U.N.’s World Food Program suspended operations there due to security concerns on June 9. Millions of pounds of aid have piled up. In just the last week, more than 4.5 million kilograms (10 million pounds) were moved ashore, according to the U.S. military. A WFP spokesperson, Abeer Etefa, told The Associated Press this is a one-time operation until the beach is cleared of the aid and is being done to avoid spoilage. Further U.N. operations at the pier depend on U.N. security assessments, Etefa said. The U.N. is investigating whether the pier was used in an Israeli military operation last month to rescue three hostages. If WFP trucks successfully bring the aid to warehouses inside Gaza, that could affect the U.S. military’s decision whether to reinstall the pier, which was removed due to weather Friday. U.S. officials said they were considering not reinstalling the pier because of the possibility that the aid would not be picked up. Even if the U.N. decides to keep transporting aid from the pier into Gaza, lawlessness around humanitarian convoys will be a further challenge to distribution. The convoys have come under attack in Gaza. While most aid deliveries come by land, restrictions around border crossings and on what items can enter Gaza have further hurt a population that was already dependent on humanitarian aid before the war. The June 9 pause at the pier came after the Israeli military used a nearby area to fly out hostages after their rescue in a raid that killed more than 270 Palestinians, prompting a U.N. review over concerns that aid workers’ safety and neutrality may have been compromised. Battles continue More than 37,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war since it began with Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its toll. The ministry said the bodies of 40 people killed by Israeli strikes had been brought to local hospitals over the past 24 hours. At least two people were killed and six injured, including a child, in a strike in Bureij camp in central Gaza. The October 7 Hamas attack killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and another 250 people were taken hostage. Israeli forces have been battling Palestinian militants in an eastern part of Gaza City over the last week. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes, according to the U.N. “It’s like the first weeks of the invasion,” one resident, Mahmoud al-Masry, said of the intensity of the fighting. “Many people were killed. Many houses were destroyed. They strike anything moving.” The Israeli military acknowledged an operation against Hamas fighters in Shijaiyah and Saturday noted “close-quarters combat.” Elsewhere, thousands of Palestinians who remained in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah fled Friday for Muwasi, a crowded coastal tent camp designated by the Israeli army as a safe zone. Some told the AP they evacuated because Israeli gunfire and missiles had come close to where they were sheltering. Over 1.3 million Palestinians have fled Rafah since Israel’s incursion into the city in early May, while aid groups warn there are no safe places to go. With the heat in Gaza reaching over 32 degrees Celsius (89 Fahrenheit), many displaced people have found tents unbearable. The territory has been without electricity since Israel cut off power as part of the war, and Israel also stopped pumping drinking water to the enclave. “Death is better than it, it is a grave,” said Barawi Bakroun, who was displaced from Gaza City, as others fanned themselves with pieces of cardboard.

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SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Air tankers and helicopters helped douse flames from the sky as nearly 200 firefighters on the ground battled a wildfire northeast of Phoenix on Friday that threatened scores of homes and forced dozens of residents to evacuate. Authorities expanded the evacuation area in a subdivision on the northeast outskirts of Scottsdale, closed roads and shut down part of a nature preserve as gusty winds continued to fan the flames in extremely hot, dry conditions. But there were no immediate reports of injuries or structure damage, Arizona fire officials said. Near Phoenix, where the high reached 43.3 degrees Celsius (110 Fahrenheit) Friday, about 60 residents evacuated homes in the Boulder Heights subdivision overnight after the human-caused fire broke out about 2:30 p.m. Thursday. Fire officials said they were investigating exactly what sparked the blaze about 8 kilometers (5 miles) east of Carefree, just outside northern Scottsdale on the edge of the Tonto National Forest. Dubbed the Boulder View Fire, it has burned about 13 square kilometers (5 square miles) with zero containment, authorities said. “The southeast side of the fire remained active throughout the night producing 20-to-40-foot flame lengths in areas,” Tiffany Davila, a spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, said in a statement. “Additional resources were redirected to that side of the fire last night to begin structure protection and help crews start firing operations to tie the fire into nearby roads," she said. The Red Cross set up an evacuation center at a high school in Scottsdale, and shelters for horses and other large animals were established at several locations, including the rodeo grounds at nearby Cave Creek. Scottsdale officials closed part of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve as a precaution but said there was no immediate threat. The air tankers armed with red retardant and helicopters hauling giant buckets of water helped ground crews keep the flames away from power lines in the area so far, fire officials said. The National Weather Service said above-normal temperatures will persist well into next week, with many lower desert locations seeing highs near or exceeding 43.3 degrees C (110 F) each afternoon. Meanwhile in central Oregon, fire officials were releasing some crews from the lines south of Bend because conditions have improved, and the threat posed by a wildfire to the community around La Pine has decreased after hundreds were evacuated earlier this week. Firefighters said Friday they had dug fire lines around nearly half of the Darlene 3 fire, near La Pine, which has now burned an estimated 15.5 square kilometers (6 square miles) and was listed at 42% containment. And in Central California, about 200 firefighters were making progress on a large blaze that has burned an estimated 23.3 square kilometers (9 square miles) about 97 kilometers (60 miles) east of Fresno. It was the only one still burning of 18 fires that were sparked by lightning along the western edge of the Sierra Nevada when a storm moved through this week, officials said.

NEW DELHI — Five Indian soldiers were killed when a military tank they were traveling in sank while crossing a river in the remote region of Ladakh, which borders China, officials said Saturday. The tank sank early Saturday due to sudden increase in the water levels of Shyok River during a military training activity, according to an Indian army command center statement. It said the accident took place in Saser Brangsa near the Line of Actual Control that divides India and China in the Ladakh region. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh called it an “unfortunate accident.” “We will never forget exemplary service of our gallant soldiers to the nation. My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. The nation stands firm with them during this hour of grief,” Singh wrote on the social platform X. The Indian and Chinese militaries have been locked in a standoff in Ladakh since May 2020, when they clashed along their land border in the region, with 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers killed. The skirmish turned into a long-running standoff in the rugged mountainous area, where each side has stationed tens of thousands of military personnel. New Delhi and Beijing have held a series of diplomatic and military talks to resolve their worst military conflict in decades. The border dispute between India and China dates to the 1950s, and the two sides fought a war over it in 1962.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Tropical Storm Beryl chugged toward the southeast Caribbean on Saturday as forecasters warned it was expected to strengthen into a dangerous major hurricane before reaching Barbados late Sunday. A major hurricane is considered Category 3 or higher when it has winds of at least 178 kilometers per hour (111 miles per hour). Hurricane watches were in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, while a tropical storm watch was issued for Martinique and Tobago. Beryl's center is forecast to pass about 45 kilometers (26 miles) south of Barbados, said Sabu Best, director of the island's meteorological service's director. On Saturday, Beryl was located about 1,320 kilometers (820 miles) east-southeast of Barbados, with maximum sustained winds of 100 kph (65 mph). It was moving west at 37 kph (23 mph). “Rapid strengthening is now forecast,” the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. Warm waters are fueling Beryl, with ocean heat content in the deep Atlantic the highest on record for this time of year, according to Brian McNoldy, University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher. Beryl is the strongest June tropical storm on record that far east in the tropical Atlantic, noted Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher. “We need to be ready,” Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley said in a public address late Friday. “You and I know when these things happen, it is better to plan for the worst and pray for the best.” She noted that thousands of people are in Barbados for the Twenty20 World Cup cricket final, with India and South Africa playing in the capital, Bridgetown, on Saturday. Beryl is the second named storm in what is predicted to be a busy hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30 in the Atlantic. Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Alberto came ashore in northeast Mexico with heavy rains that resulted in four deaths.

Bangkok — Crime empires embedded in Asia’s “Golden Triangle” border areas are getting richer and more powerful, blurring the lines between the illicit economy and the legitimate one as they diversify from drugs to wildlife trafficking, cyber scams and money laundering, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The Golden Triangle, which cuts across the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, is home to an array of transnational crime organizations that run multibillion-dollar enterprises with virtual impunity — and they are embracing new technology to make more profit. Myanmar, which borders five countries, has long been the epicenter of many illegal Asia-Pacific trades. It has sunk into chaos since a 2021 coup, allowing crime groups to flourish in the lack of governance, especially in remote Shan State, which borders Thailand to the south and China to its east. “Some of the challenges in Myanmar are really at the heart of the criminality we are seeing in and around the Golden Triangle,” said Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC deputy regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. “At the same time, Myanmar’s border areas are now much more connected to the rest of the region, and the spillover into Southeast Asia is growing,” he told VOA. Fortunes carved out on unfettered methamphetamine production are now being multiplied with cyber scam parks and illicit wildlife trafficking — including bear bile and elephant ivory into southern China — and then laundered through casinos, the U.N. agency said in its annual World Drug Report earlier this week. In the absence of serious law enforcement threats to their empires, the criminal networks working alongside armed groups in the Golden Triangle are getting bigger and more sophisticated in the ways they wash their money. They have been using an “underground banking infrastructure” of casinos, crypto and traditional currency exchanges to clean billions of dollars, Hofmann said. “The line between the formal economy and criminal business is increasingly blurred, and corruption weakens governance systems in the region,” he said. Increased Golden Triangle meth production is pushing drugs into new markets, as the price of yaba — addictive caffeine-laced meth pills taken across the Mekong River — crumbles to as low as $1 to $2 per pill, or less than a can of coke. But cheaper meth has not come with “fluctuations in purity,” the study stated, driving up addiction rates in a region with limited resources and patchy political will for drug treatment and rehabilitation. “There is a stronger focus now on a more balanced approach to drug control, taking into account both supply and demand of illicit drugs,” Hofmann said. “But as drugs are getting cheaper and more accessible, including for very poor and young people, it is clear much more needs to be done in resourcing prevention and treatment systems that take care of those amongst the most vulnerable parts of society,” he said. Myanmar’s conflict and chaos have exacerbated poverty in the border areas, in turn driving a surge in opium poppy production by poor rural communities. Just this week, Myanmar’s Home Affairs Minister Lieutenant General Yar Pyae said in a statement: "In 2023, Myanmar saw a slight increase in illegal opium poppy cultivation. Therefore, the persuasion by the Myanmar Tatmadaw, Myanmar Police Force, and various departments to local ethnic communities in drug prevention efforts through educational activities has led to the destruction of a total of 6,181 acres of poppy fields during the 2023-2024 opium poppy cultivation season. The alternative development management sector is continuously carrying out the implementation of opium alternative development activities, the crop substitution sector, and the livestock breeding sector." Yet, Myanmar is now the world’s number one opium producer, as the Taliban cracks down on poppy cultivation — the base ingredient of heroin — in Afghanistan, the study said. The report also warned of mounting environmental damage caused by the rampant meth trade. While there are no studies in hard-to-reach areas, the UNODC said as a rule, every kilogram of methamphetamine produced creates 5 to 10 kilograms of toxic chemical waste. Thailand alone burned upwards of 340 tons of seized narcotics in December and a further 20 tons on June 26, world drug day. The kingdom has launched a renewed drug crackdown, but methamphetamine, ketamine and heroin continue to pour through its borders and ports to the rest of Southeast Asia. “The drug producers are still operating along the borders, pumping out hundreds of thousands of pills a day,” Krisanaphong Poothakool, a prominent criminologist and former senior Thai police officer, told VOA. The latest seizures with new packets of branding point to new players entering the meth trade, as traffickers get increasingly skillful in the way they move their drugs. “Producers in Thailand are also making the pills on the go in moving vehicles. It’s nearly impossible to intercept them all,” he said. Insulated from crackdowns by remote Golden Triangle locations, alliances with powerful armed groups and easily corrupted officials, the crime organizations of Southeast Asia show no sign of slowing down. Security experts warn that cyber scams with bases in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia have made new fortunes for the crime lords and are becoming increasingly advanced with artificial intelligence and the reach of the internet. "We are only at the beginning of a technology-driven revolution of the criminal ecosystem here, with implications for people far beyond this region," Hofmann said.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

GIMHAE AIR BASE, South Korea — The United States wrapped up its first multidomain exercise with Japan and South Korea in the East China Sea on Saturday, a step forward in Washington's efforts to strengthen and lock in its security partnerships with key Asian allies in the face of growing threats from North Korea and China. The three-day Freedom Edge increased the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The exercise, which is expected to expand in years to come, was also intended to improve the countries' abilities to share missile warnings — increasingly important as North Korea tests ever-more sophisticated systems. Other than Australia, Japan and South Korea are the only U.S. partners in the region with militaries sophisticated enough to integrate operations with the U.S. so that if, for example, South Korea were to detect a target, it could quickly relay details so Japanese or American counterparts could respond, said Ridzwan Rahmat, a Singapore-based analyst with the defense intelligence company Janes. “That’s the kind of interoperability that is involved in a typical war scenario,” Rahmat said. “For trilateral exercises like this, the intention is to develop the interoperability between the three armed forces so that they can fight better as a cohesive fighting force.” Such exercises also carry the risk of increasing tensions, with China regularly denouncing drills in what it considers its sphere of influence, and North Korea already slamming the arrival of the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier group in the port of Busan — home to South Korea’s navy headquarters and its Gimhae Air Base — in preparation for Freedom Edge as “provocative” and “dangerous." On Wednesday, the day after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the Roosevelt in Busan, becoming the first sitting South Korean president to board a U.S. aircraft carrier since 1994, North Korea tested what it said was a multiwarhead missile, the first known launch of the developmental weapon, if confirmed. South Korea’s military said a joint analysis by South Korean and U.S. authorities assessed that the North Korean missile launch failed. The defense cooperation involving Japan and South Korea is also politically complex for Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, due to the lingering resentment over Imperial Japan’s brutal occupation of Korea before and during World War II. The two countries have the largest militaries among American allies in East Asia — and together host some 80,000 American troops on their territories — but the U.S. has tended to work with them individually rather than together due to their history. Kishida's increase of defense spending and cooperation with South Korea have generally been well received by the Japanese public but has caused friction with the right wing of his own party, while Yoon's domestic appeal has weakened, but he has stayed the course. “South Korea’s shift under the Yoon administration toward improving its relations with Japan has been extremely significant,” said Heigo Sato, international politics professor and security expert at Takushoku University in Tokyo. Both leaders are seen to be trying to fortify their defense relationships with Washington ahead of the inauguration of a new president, with South Korean officials saying recently that they hope to sign a formal security framework agreement with the U.S. and Japan this year that would lock in a joint approach to responding to a possible attack from North Korea. U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has also long been working to increase cooperation between South Korea and Japan — something that many didn't think was possible at the start of his presidency, said Euan Graham, a defense analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. “Credit where it’s due — the fact that it’s happening is a significant achievement from the administration’s regional policy,” he said. Former U.S. President Donald Trump caused friction with both allies during his time in office by demanding greater payment for their hosting of U.S. troops while holding one-on-one meetings with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Under Biden, Washington is seeking to solidify its system of alliances, both with increasingly sophisticated exercises and diplomatic agreements, Graham said. Tensions with North Korea are at their highest point in years, with the pace of Kim Jong Un’s weapons programs intensifying, despite heavy international sanctions. China, meanwhile, has been undertaking a massive military buildup of nuclear and conventional weapons, and now has the world’s largest navy. It claims both the self-governing island of Taiwan and virtually the entirety of the South China Sea as its own territory and has increasingly turned to its military to press those claims. China and North Korea have also been among Russia’s closest allies in its war against Ukraine, while Russia and China are also key allies for North Korea, as well as the military leaders of Myanmar who seized power in 2021 and are facing ever-stiffer resistance in that country’s civil war. In Pyongyang this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim concluded a mutual defense pact, agreeing to come to the other's aid in the event of an attack, rattling others in the region. Despite a greater number of ships overall, China still only has three aircraft carriers compared to the U.S. fleet’s 11 — probably the most effective tool a country has to bring vast amounts of power to bear at a great distance from home. China’s advantage, however, is that its primary concern is the nearby waters of the Indo-Pacific, while Washington’s global focus means that its naval assets are spread widely. Following the exercises in the East China Sea with Japan and South Korea, the Roosevelt is due to sail to the Middle East to help protect ships against attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. That has made strong security partnerships even more important, not only with Japan and South Korea but with Australia, the Philippines, Taiwan and others in the region, and building those up has been a priority for the Biden administration.

Despite the war, schools across Ukraine are celebrating the end of the academic year. Some of them have a military air to them. About 7,000 Ukrainian teenagers are studying in more than 20 military academies around the country. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story. Videographer: Yuriy Dankevych.

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.

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.

BELGRADE, Serbia — An attacker with a crossbow wounded a Serbian police officer guarding the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade on Saturday, Serbia’s interior ministry said. The officer responded by fatally shooting the assailant. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said in a statement that the attacker shot a bolt at the officer, hitting him in the neck. He said the officer than "used a weapon in self-defense to shoot the attacker, who died as a result of his injuries.” The policeman was conscious when he was transported to Belgrade's main emergency hospital, where an operation to remove the bolt from his neck will be performed, it said.The identity of the attacker is still being determined. "All the circumstances of the attack and possible motives are being investigated,” Dacic said. Serbia has maintained close relations with Israel amid its armed intervention in Gaza.

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban on Saturday ruled out any discussions on “internal issues” of Afghanistan, including women’s rights, with international envoys at a crucial United Nations-hosted meeting in Doha, Qatar. Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban government spokesperson and head of its delegation attending the conference in the capital of the Gulf state, said before his visit to Doha that the two-day talks commencing Sunday would primarily center on Afghan economic issues and counternarcotics efforts. “We acknowledge women are facing issues, but they are internal Afghan matters and need to be addressed locally within the framework of Islamic Sharia,” Mujahid told a news conference in the capital, Kabul, when asked whether Afghan women’s rights would be on the meeting agenda. “Our meetings, such as the one in Doha or with other countries, have nothing to do with the lives of our sisters, nor will we allow them to interfere in our internal affairs,” he noted. Special envoys from around two dozen countries, including the United States, will gather in Doha Sunday to interact with Taliban representatives for the first time since U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres initiated what is referred to as the "Doha process" a year ago. The dialogue is aimed at developing a unified and coherent international approach to increase engagement with the fundamentalist Afghan authorities. The Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021 as the U.S.-led foreign forces departed the country after almost two decades of involvement in the Afghan war. They have imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law, banning girls from schools beyond the sixth grade and many Afghan women from public and private workplaces, including the U.N., among other restrictions on their freedom. The international community has refused to formally recognize the male-only Taliban government until it removes the restrictions on women and girls. The Taliban defend their governance, saying it is aligned with Afghan culture and Islamic law. They were not invited to the first Doha meeting in May 2023, and they refused an invitation to the second in February. Both events were hosted by Guterres himself. The U.N. is under fire for excluding women Afghan representatives from Sunday’s talks. The decision has triggered outrage among global human rights groups and female rights advocates, who argue that the Taliban’s curbs on women and girls should be a central focus of any discussions about the future of Afghanistan. Mujahid defended the decision to skip previous Doha talks, saying Taliban representatives were invited only for limited interactions and they were refused a meeting with the U.N. secretary-general. He said that other groups promoting “violence and disharmony” in Afghanistan also were invited to those sessions as representatives of the country despite Taliban objections. “Now the [Taliban] conditions have been accepted that this time it will not happen,” Mujahid claimed. The U.N. spokesperson announced on Friday that Rosemary DiCarlo, its undersecretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, will host the Doha meeting of special international envoys on behalf of Guterres and raise women’s issues. In addition, Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York that DiCarlo and special international envoys will meet on Tuesday with representatives of Afghan civil society, including human rights and women's organizations and advocates — a day after the two-day session with the Taliban ends. “The undersecretary-general will raise the rights of women and girls, human rights in general, and political inclusion in the discussions in Doha that she will be having with the de facto [Taliban] authorities,” Dujarric said. “The ultimate objective of the process is an Afghanistan at peace with itself and its neighbors, fully integrated into the international community and meeting its international obligations, including on human rights, and particularly on the rights of women and girls,” Dujarric said. Mujahid insisted that the Taliban's participation in Sunday’s Doha meeting would mutually benefit Afghanistan and the world and help restore the country’s dialogue with the West. The U.S. and Western countries at large have isolated the Taliban over their harsh treatment of Afghan women and other human rights concerns. They moved their diplomatic missions to Doha after the Taliban takeover, terminated economic development aid for the country, and isolated the Afghan banking sector over terrorism-related sanctions on many leaders of the de facto government in Kabul. However, most of Afghanistan’s neighbors, including China, Iran and Pakistan, and many regional countries such as Russia and Turkey have retained their embassies and increased diplomatic engagement with the Taliban. The Taliban maintain they have restored peace in war-torn Afghanistan, and their crackdown on narcotics, including a nationwide ban on poppy cultivation, has almost ended illicit drug production in the country. The U.N. has endorsed those claims, stating that the prohibition has resulted in a 95% decrease in drug production in a country that was previously the world's largest producer.

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Tehran, IRAN — Iran on Saturday warned that "all Resistance Fronts," a grouping of Iran and its regional allies, would confront Israel if it attacks Lebanon. The comment from Iran's mission to New York comes with fears of a wider regional war involving Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. The two sides have engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire since the war in Gaza began. Such exchanges have escalated this month, alongside bellicose rhetoric from both sides. Israel's military said plans for a Lebanon offensive had been "approved and validated," prompting Hezbollah to respond that none of Israel would be spared in a full-blown conflict. In a post on social media platform X, the Iranian mission said it "deems as psychological warfare the Zionist regime's propaganda about intending to attack Lebanon." But, it added, "should it embark on full-scale military aggression, an obliterating war will ensue. All options, incl. the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table." The war in Gaza began in October when Hamas Palestinian militants attacked southern Israel. Iran, which backs Hamas, has praised the attack as a success but has denied any involvement. Alongside Hezbollah's attacks on northern Israel, Iran-backed rebels in Yemen have repeatedly struck commercial ships in the Red Sea area in what they say are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians. Iran also backs other groups in the region. The Islamic republic has not recognized Israel since the 1979 revolution that toppled Iran's United States-backed shah. Fears of regional war also soared in April, after an air strike that leveled Iran's consulate in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals. Iran hit back with an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel on April 13 and 14. Iran's state media later reported explosions in the central province of Isfahan as U.S. media quoted American officials saying Israel had carried out retaliatory strikes on its arch-rival. Tehran downplayed the reported Israeli raid.

Geneva — Gazans are forced to live in bombed-out buildings or camp next to giant piles of trash, a United Nations spokesperson said Friday, denouncing the "unbearable" conditions in the besieged territory. Louise Wateridge from UNRWA, the U.N. agency supporting Palestinian refugees, described the "extremely dire" living conditions in the Gaza Strip. "It's really unbearable," she told reporters in Geneva, via video-link from central Gaza. Wateridge, who returned Wednesday after four weeks outside the territory, said that even in that time the situation had "significantly deteriorated." "Today, it has to be the worst it's ever been. I don't doubt that tomorrow again will be the worst it's ever been," she said. Nearly nine months into the war between Israel and Hamas, Wateridge said, the Gaza Strip had been "destroyed." She said she had been "shocked" on returning to Khan Yunis in central Gaza. "The buildings are skeletons, if at all. Everything is rubble," she said. "And yet people are living there again.” "There's no water there, there's no sanitation, there's no food,” she said. “And now, people are living back in these buildings that are empty shells," with sheets covering the gaps left by blown-out walls. With no bathrooms, "people are relieving themselves anywhere they can." “Adding misery” The war in Gaza started with Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 37,700 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Wateridge said the struggle to bring fuel into Gaza and distribute it safely was having an impact on the ability to deliver aid. "Without the fuel, the humanitarian response really grinds to a halt," she said. About 150 meters (490 feet) away from where she was speaking, she said, a pile of around 100,000 tons of waste was building up, with makeshift tents pitched all around it. "The population is living among it," she said. "With the temperatures rising, it's really adding misery to the living conditions." Friends “unrecognizable” Wateridge said that before the war, sanitation units would clear all the trash from refugee camps to landfill sites. Now, appeals to the Israeli authorities for access to the landfill sites were frequently denied, she said. And lacking fuel meant that even when access was granted, trucks could not go in to clear out the mess. Wateridge said food insecurity in the territory was having a visible effect on the population. "When I see my colleagues, my friends here, they're visibly unrecognizable because having such unsustained access to food for so long, you start to age, you look unhealthy, your skin changes color," she said. "Waiting for death” Thursday saw the first medical evacuations from Gaza into neighboring Egypt since the Rafah border crossing was closed in early May, when Israeli forces took over the Palestinian side. The World Health Organization says 10,000 patients need to be evacuated from Gaza for treatment. Wateridge said one of her own UNRWA colleagues, Abdullah, had to wait for two months before being evacuated in April. He was injured in a strike and had his legs amputated in late February. Since then, he had spent weeks in the devastated Al Shifa hospital — once Gaza's largest medical complex — when it was under siege. And he spent two months waiting in a medical tent, "some days waiting for death," she said. "Multiple times, he very nearly lost his life." Wateridge said that in late April, she visited Abdullah with a colleague who "donated her blood on the spot to him to keep him alive.” "It is not acceptable for people to be experiencing this and be treated like this,” she said.

La Paz, BOLIVIA — Three suspected leaders of a failed coup against Bolivian President Luis Arce were remanded in custody on Friday for six months, the country's top prosecutor said. Former army chief Juan Jose Zuniga, former head of navy Juan Arnez, and Alejandro Irahola, former head of the army's mechanized brigade, will be held in a high-security prison not far from the capital, La Paz. "This pretrial detention ordered by the judge will undoubtedly set a precedent and is a good signal for the investigation to move forward," said Attorney General Cesar Siles. The three officers face charges of engaging in an armed uprising and terrorism and face up to 20 years in prison, Siles said on state television. A total of 21 active, retired and civilian military personnel were arrested in connection with Wednesday's attempted coup, in which troops and tanks were deployed in the heart of the capital, where they tried to break down a door of the presidential palace. Zuniga said his goal was to "restructure democracy" in Bolivia. He was soon captured, and the troops pulled back. In an unusual twist, Zuniga claimed he was following Arce's orders and that the president had hoped for the coup to trigger a crackdown that would boost his popularity. Arce denied the allegations. "How could one order or plan a coup on oneself?" he told reporters. Tensions in the Andean nation have been rising in recent weeks over surging prices, shortages of dollars and fuel, and a feud between Arce and powerful former president Evo Morales ahead of the 2025 election. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced Thursday that he would soon visit his Arce to support him following the unrest. Russia "strongly" condemned the attempted military coup, its foreign ministry said Thursday, warning against "destructive foreign interference" in the South American country. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres "welcomes the peaceful resolution of the situation," his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said, having earlier expressed alarm over the abortive coup. Condemnations of the coup bid also poured in from Madrid, Washington and across Latin America. Bolivia, which has a long history of military coups, has in recent weeks been rocked by an economic crisis due to a drop in natural gas production, its main source of foreign currency until 2023. The country has had to reduce fuel imports, and there is a shortage of dollars, which has triggered protests by powerful unions of merchants and freight transporters. Gustavo Flores-Macias, a professor of government at Cornell University in New York, told AFP the failed coup was "a symptom of a significant and broad discontent" in the country. For now, "we must carefully evaluate how widespread the discontent is within the armed forces," he said, adding that Arce's government was facing "a critical moment of weakness." Bolivia is also deeply polarized after years of political instability, and the ruling Movement Towards Socialism party is riven by internal conflict between supporters of Arce and his former mentor, Morales.

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille left Port-au-Prince on Friday to travel to Washington and New York, as freshly deployed Kenyan police officers began patrolling the city as part of a U.N.-backed mission to battle armed gangs that have taken over the capital. Conille's office said he would travel with Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy, Finance Minister Ketleen Florestal and Chief of Staff Nesmy Manigat, while Justice Minister Carlos Hercule would stay as acting prime minister on his behalf. "The delegation will have important work meetings with officials from international financial institutions, among others. It will also inspect Haiti's embassy in Washington," theoffice said, without giving further details. A spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council said Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer would meet with Conille on Monday. The United States is the principal financial backer of a Kenya-led international security force the United Nations has ratified be sent to Haiti to help its police battle armed gangs that have plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis. Haiti's former government first requested the force in 2022, and a first deployment of Kenyan police arrived this week, although it is unclear when the rest of the force — expected to number over 2,500 — is set to arrive. As armed khaki-clad Kenyan police in bullet-proof jackets and helmets patrolled the city in black armored vans, Port-au-Prince residents said they hoped the force could stop the indiscriminate killings and allow business to restart. "We need peace. If the Kenyan police forces are here, it's so we can return to the lives we used to have. We hope they've come to work seriously," said resident Kloud Dine. "We need the Kenyans here a while because the gang members make us suffer too much," added Louise Baret, a painter. "Enough is enough." In a video shared on social media on Wednesday, gang leader Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier rallied armed men, telling them to fire on Kenyan police and pledging to fight to the death: "I don't care if they are white or black. If they're not Haitian and they're on Haitian soil, they're invaders," he said. Over half a million people have fled their homes due to the violence, and around half the population is going hungry.