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brussels — European Union leaders agreed on Thursday to nominate Ursula von der Leyen of Germany for a second five-year term as president of the European Commission, the EU's powerful executive body. At a summit in Brussels, the bloc's 27 national leaders also picked former Portuguese Premier Antonio Costa as the future chair of their European Council meetings and selected Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the next EU foreign policy chief. The leadership package represents continuity for the 27-member bloc, with centrist pro-EU factions keeping hold of top posts despite a far-right surge in elections to the European Parliament earlier this month. The deal was announced by the current European Council president, Charles Michel, on social media. The trio won broad backing from leaders, but diplomats said right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni abstained from the vote on von der Leyen and voted against Costa and Kallas. Von der Leyen's nomination still needs approval from the European Parliament in a secret ballot – widely seen as a trickier proposition than her endorsement by EU leaders. At the summit, the EU also signed a security agreement with Ukraine, debated how to bolster EU defenses against Russia and agreed on the bloc's strategic priorities for the next five years. The security deal underlines EU support for Kyiv fighting off Moscow's invasion for a third year, despite gains by the far-right in European elections, uncertainty created by French snap elections and the U.S. presidential vote in November. The agreement lays out the EU's commitments to help Ukraine in nine areas of security policy, including arms deliveries, military training, defense industry cooperation and demining. "These commitments will help Ukraine defend itself, resist destabilization and deter future acts of aggression – more concrete proof of the EU's unshakable resolve to support Ukraine for the long haul," Michel said. The leaders will reiterate their pledge to support Ukraine as long as it takes, saying that "Russia must not prevail" and that Ukraine must get back the land annexed by Moscow. Defense debate The war in Ukraine laid bare the EU's lack of preparedness for a conflict as the bloc struggles to supply Kyiv with enough weapons against Russia, prompting calls for more EU coordination of defense systems and investment in defense industries. Diplomats said von der Leyen told the summit that between 1999 and 2021, the EU increased military spending by 20%, China by 600% and Russia by 300%, even before Moscow's massive rise in military spending after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to diplomats, von der Leyen told leaders the EU needed to invest 500 billion euros ($535.30 billion) in defense over the next 10 years. Financing options included national contributions, dedicated revenue streams — called the EU's own resources — and joint borrowing, von der Leyen said. Investment in defense is part of the EU's "strategic agenda" that the leaders aimed to agree on before dinner on Thursday — a document that tells EU institutions what European governments want them to focus on during their 2024-29 term. Apart from defense, the agenda calls for a more competitive EU to withstand economic pressure from China and the United States and for preparing the bloc for enlargement that would include Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans.

WASHINGTON — A defunct Russian satellite has broken up into more than 100 pieces of debris in orbit, forcing astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter for about an hour and adding to the mass of space junk already in orbit, U.S. space agencies said.  There were no immediate details on what caused the breakup of the RESURS-P1 Russian Earth observation satellite, which Russia declared dead in 2022.  U.S. Space Command, tracking the debris swarm, said there was no immediate threat to other satellites.  The event took place about noon EDT (1600 GMT) Wednesday, Space Command said. It occurred in an orbit near the space station, prompting U.S. astronauts on board to shelter in their spacecraft for roughly an hour, NASA's Space Station office said.  Russian space agency Roscosmos, which operated the satellite, did not respond to a request for comment or publicly acknowledge the event on its social media channels.  U.S. Space Command, which has a global network of space-tracking radars, said the satellite immediately created "over 100 pieces of trackable debris."  By Thursday afternoon, radars from U.S. space-tracking firm LeoLabs had detected at least 180 pieces, the company said.   Large debris-generating events in orbit are rare but of increasing concern as space becomes crowded with satellite networks vital to everyday life on Earth, from broadband internet and communications to basic navigation services, as well as satellites no longer in use.  The satellite's breakup was at an altitude of roughly 355 km (220 miles) in low-Earth orbit, a popular region where thousands of small to large satellites operate, including SpaceX's vast Starlink network and China's station that houses three of its astronauts.  "Due to the low orbit of this debris cloud, we estimate it’ll be weeks to months before the hazard has passed," LeoLabs said in a statement to Reuters.  The some 25,000 pieces of debris bigger than 10 cm (4 inches) in space caused by satellite explosions or collisions have raised concerns about the prospect of a Kessler effect — a phenomenon in which satellite collisions with debris can create a cascading field of more hazardous junk and exponentially increase crash risks.  Russia sparked strong criticism from the U.S. and other Western countries in 2021 when it struck one of its defunct satellites in orbit with a ground-based anti-satellite (ASAT) missile launched from its Plesetsk rocket site. The blast, testing a weapon system ahead of Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, created thousands of pieces of orbital debris.  In the roughly 88-minute window of RESURS-P1's initial breakup, the Plesetsk site was one of many locations on Earth it passed over, but there was no immediate indication from airspace or maritime alerts that Russia had launched a missile to strike the satellite, space tracker and Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell said.  "I find it hard to believe they would use such a big satellite as an ASAT target," McDowell said. "But, with the Russians these days, who knows."  He and other analysts speculated the breakup more likely could have been caused by a problem with the satellite, such as leftover fuel onboard causing an explosion.  What happens to old satellites?   Dead satellites either remain in orbit until they descend into Earth's atmosphere for a fiery demise years later, or in widely preferred — but less common — circumstances, they fly to a "graveyard orbit" some 36,000 km (22,400 miles) from Earth to lower the risk of crashing into active satellites.  Roscosmos decommissioned RESURS-P1 over onboard equipment failures in 2021, announcing the decision the following year. The satellite has since appeared to be lowering its altitude through layers of other active satellites for an eventual atmospheric reentry.  The six U.S. astronauts currently on the space station were alerted by NASA mission control in Houston late Wednesday evening to execute "safe haven" procedures, where each crew member rushes into the spacecraft they arrived in, in case an emergency departure is required.  NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams boarded their Starliner spacecraft, the Boeing-built capsule that has been docked since June 6 in its first crewed test mission on the station.  Three of the other U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut went into SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule that flew them to the station in March, while the sixth U.S. astronaut joined the two remaining cosmonauts in their Russian Soyuz capsule that ferried them there in September last year.  The astronauts emerged from their spacecraft roughly an hour later and resumed their normal work on the station, NASA said.  The prospects of satellite collisions and space warfare have added urgency to calls from space advocates and lawyers to have countries establish an international mechanism of managing space traffic, which does not currently exist.

oklahoma city, oklahoma — Oklahoma's top education official on Thursday ordered public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades 5 through 12, the latest effort by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms. The directive drew immediate condemnation from civil rights groups and supporters of the separation of church and state, with some calling it an abuse of power and a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The order sent to districts across the state by Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters says adherence to the mandate is compulsory and "immediate and strict compliance is expected." "The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone," Walters said in a statement. "Without basic knowledge of it, Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation which is why Oklahoma educational standards provide for its instruction." Oklahoma law already explicitly allows Bibles in the classroom and lets teachers use them in instruction, said Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for state Attorney General Gentner Drummond. But it's not clear if Walters has the authority to mandate that schools teach it. State law says individual school districts have the exclusive authority to decide on instruction, curriculum, reading lists, instructional materials and textbooks. The head of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized the directive as a clear violation of the Constitution's Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from "establishing" a religion. "We adamantly oppose any requirements that religion be forcefully taught or required as a part of lesson plans in public schools, in Oklahoma, or anywhere else in the country," Adam Soltani said in a statement. "Public schools are not Sunday schools," Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a statement. "This is textbook Christian Nationalism: Walters is abusing the power of his public office to impose his religious beliefs on everyone else's children. Not on our watch." The directive is the latest salvo in an effort by conservative-led states to target public schools: Louisiana has required them to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms, while others are under pressure to teach the Bible and ban books and lessons about race, sexual orientation and gender identity. Earlier this week the Oklahoma Supreme Court blocked an attempt by the state to have the first publicly funded religious charter school in the country. A former public school teacher who was elected to his post in 2022, Walters ran on a platform of fighting "woke ideology," banning books from school libraries and getting rid of "radical leftists" who he claims are indoctrinating children in classrooms. He has clashed with leaders in both parties for his focus on culture-war issues including transgender rights and banning books, and in January he faced criticism for appointing a right-wing social media influencer from New York to a state library committee.

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washington — Recent changes in global migration patterns and smuggling routes have created an opening for terror groups like the Islamic State to set their sights on the U.S. southern border. For years, top U.S. counterterrorism officials have pushed back against critics who sounded alarms about would-be terrorists streaming across the U.S. border with Mexico. But changes within the past year have increased the likelihood of such a reality. "What we face today is a greater vulnerability to the possibility that terrorist organizations might use that pathway to get individuals into the United States," according to Nick Rasmussen, the counterterrorism coordinator for the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS. "The diversity of the migrant population arriving at our borders — this is not in any way, shape or form a problem of the Western Hemisphere," Rasmussen told a conference Thursday in Omaha, Nebraska. "It's a global migration problem with migrants from literally every corner of the world, including from most conflict zones around the world, showing up and arriving on our shores," he said, describing the convergence of the migration routes with concerns about terror groups like Islamic State "relatively recent." Concerns about possible infiltration by migrants linked to the Islamic State, also known as IS or ISIS, have spiked in recent weeks. Earlier this month, The New York Post reported the FBI arrested eight men from Tajikistan who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border partly with the help of an IS-linked network. And earlier this week, NBC News reported more than 400 immigrants from Central Asia crossed into the U.S., again with help from IS-linked smugglers. Of those, some 150 have been arrested, while another 50 remain at large. The officials did not comment on the status of the remaining 200. Senior DHS officials say there is no evidence to suggest any of the 400 Central Asian migrants are IS operatives. But officials have said the eight men from Tajikistan were arrested because of potential ties to IS. All eight are in the middle of removal hearings and face deportation. U.S. officials have sought to allay concerns. White House deputy homeland security adviser Jen Daskal told the counterterrorism conference in Omaha on Wednesday that there is now increased vigilance along the U.S. southern border. "We have enhanced our screening and vetting, instituted recurrent vetting of migrants to identify newly uncovered threats and detain those who pose a public safety threat," Daskal said. "We know that there is a continued risk posed by those inspired by these terrorist organizations, and we are acutely focused on that risk." Rasmussen, speaking a day later, likewise pushed back against fears of a terrorist free for all. "Most of the last decade there have been political critics who have said that terrorists are streaming across the southern border, and we could look at that analytically as our intelligence and law enforcement really did, and say, no, that's actually not happening," he said. "I would argue it's not true today, as well." Rasmussen agreed, though, the newfound focus by groups like IS on exploiting migration to the Western Hemisphere deserves immediate attention. The convergence of migration patterns and terrorism is "probably highest on my worry and priority list today," he said.

washington — The recent defense pact between Russia and North Korea could present a diplomatic opportunity for the United States and China to work together for stability on the Korean Peninsula, an issue of mutual interest to both countries, some experts say. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Monday that China would be “somewhat anxious” about enhanced cooperation between Russia and North Korea, adding that Chinese officials have “indicated so in some of our interactions, and we can see some tension associated with those things.” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters after the Russia-North Korea summit last week in Pyongyang that concern about the new defense agreement between the two countries “would be shared by the People’s Republic of China” — China’s official name. During their keenly watched summit, Russian President Vladmir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty, vowing to challenge the U.S.-led world order. Under the treaty, the two countries, which share a short border along the lower Tumen River, are now required to provide military assistance using all available means if either of them is attacked by a third country. High-precision weapons Putin further raised the stakes in this newly cemented relationship, saying he is not ruling out the possibility of Russia providing high-precision weapons to North Korea. According to some experts in Washington, China’s frustration with its two neighbors could make room for a Sino-American effort to dissuade Russia and North Korea from moving forward with their nascent defense pact. Patrick Cronin, the Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute, told VOA’s Korean Service earlier this week that there is a way for the U.S. to find “some common ground” with China on this issue. He explained that it is in China’s interest not to see the transfer of Russia’s advanced, offensive military technologies to North Korea, which could be destabilizing on the Korean Peninsula. “That opens up a common ground for the United States to deal with China to limit any destabilizing transfer of technology to the Korean Peninsula,” he said. Joseph DeTrani, who served as the special envoy for six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea from 2003 to 2006, told VOA’s Korean Service on Wednesday that the U.S. and China need to come together on this issue. DeTrani said North Korea has to be on the list of “the issues of mutual concern” between the top two powers, as the U.S. pursues dialogue with China on subjects such as artificial intelligence and trade. Dennis Wilder, who served as senior director for East Asia affairs at the White House’s National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, was more cautious about the possibility of U.S.-China coordination. Wilder told VOA’s Korean Service this week that the current state of U.S.-China relations makes Beijing averse to working with Washington on North Korea. “No, they have no interest in joining with us, considering how they feel we are treating them,” Wilder said. “I very much doubt that the Chinese would be interested. A far possibility would be that they might want to share information, but that would be the only place.” No ties to call on Robert Gallucci, who was the chief U.S. negotiator during the 1994 North Korea nuclear crisis, offered a similar view. “We don’t have a relationship with Beijing right now that we could call on,” he said earlier this week. Gallucci told VOA’s Korean Service that China will not appreciate the possibility of its influence on North Korea being undercut. Gary Samore, who served as the White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, told VOA’s Korean Service via email on Wednesday that China might have a limited influence on what is happening between Russia and North Korea, although Washington and Beijing share an interest in keeping things calm on the Korean Peninsula. “I expect that Beijing will discourage any military assistance from Russia to North Korea that could be destabilizing,” he said. “Whether Putin or Kim Jong Un will respect China's wishes, I can't say.” Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA’s Korean Service via email earlier this week that “in principle, China welcomes Russia to consolidate and develop traditional friendly relations with relevant countries,” without referring to North Korea. Meanwhile, Washington is holding out hope that Beijing can still leverage its historical ties with Pyongyang to drive a solution. “We urge Beijing to use its influence to encourage the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to refrain from destabilizing behavior and return to the negotiating table,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA’s Korean Service on Wednesday.

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.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A ship traveling through the Red Sea on Thursday reported being hit in an attack carried out by Yemen's Houthi rebels, authorities said, the latest in the campaign targeting shipping over the Israel-Hamas war. The ship issued a radio call off the coast of the rebel-held port city of Hodeida saying it had been struck, the private security firm Ambrey first reported. A warship in the area was responding to the attack, Ambrey said. The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center later also confirmed the attack. "The nature of the attack is reported as a waterborne improvised explosive device," the UKMTO said. "The vessel and crew are reported as safe, and the vessel is proceeding to their next port of call." The UKMTO did not elaborate, but Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree in a prerecorded message released Thursday night said the rebels used a drone boat in the attack on the vessel. He identified the ship as the Seajoy, a Malta-flagged bulk carrier. The rebels have targeted more than 60 vessels by firing missiles and drones in their campaign, which has killed four sailors. They have seized one vessel and have sunk two since November. A U.S.-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of strikes on May 30 killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the rebels say. The Houthis maintain that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or Britain. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the Israel-Hamas war — including some bound for Iran. Late on Tuesday, Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, said the group was responsible for an attack Monday on the Liberian-flagged, Greek-managed container ship MSC Sarah V. On Wednesday, the Houthis claimed they used a new hypersonic ballistic missile in the assault, which targeted a ship farther away than nearly all of the previous assaults they've launched in the Gulf of Aden. The U.S. military's Central Command also said it destroyed a Houthi radar site. Another attack Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden was suspected to have been carried out by the Houthis, though they have yet to claim it. Meanwhile on Thursday, the U.N. Security Council again demanded that the Houthi rebels immediately halt all attacks on ships in the region and called for the conflicts disrupting maritime security to be addressed — without naming the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The resolution, which also extends the requirement that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres report monthly on Houthi attacks, was approved Thursday by a vote of 12-0 with Russia, China and Algeria abstaining.

WASHINGTON — The United States on Thursday issued fresh sanctions targeting Iran in response to "continued nuclear escalations," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. "Over the past month, Iran has announced steps to further expand its nuclear program in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose," Blinken said. "We remain committed to never letting Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, and we are prepared to use all elements of national power to ensure that outcome." Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Thursday's action imposes sanctions on three companies based in the United Arab Emirates the U.S. accused of being involved in the transport of Iranian petroleum or petrochemical products, as well as 11 associated vessels. Earlier this month, the Group of Seven advanced industrialized economies warned Iran against advancing its nuclear enrichment program, and members said they would be ready to enforce new measures if Tehran were to transfer ballistic missiles to Russia. Iran rebuked the statement, calling on the G7 to distance itself from "destructive policies of the past," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani. Earlier in June, the United Nations nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution calling on Iran to step up cooperation with the watchdog and reverse its recent barring of inspectors. Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity — close to the 90% of weapons grade — and has enough material enriched to that level, if enriched further, for three nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Western powers say there is no credible civilian reason for that. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but officials have recently said it could change its "nuclear doctrine" if it is attacked or its existence was threatened by arch-foe Israel. That has prompted alarm at the IAEA and in Western capitals.

BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities in Baghdad and the administration in the semiautonomous northern Iraqi Kurdish region have been arbitrarily detaining and deporting Syrian refugees to their country, a leading international rights group said Thursday. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said it had documented cases in which Iraqi authorities deported Syrians even though they had legal residency or were registered with the U.N. Refugee Agency, UNHCR. The Syrians reported being arrested in raids at their workplace or on the streets, and, in two cases, at residency offices while trying to renew their permits. According to UNHCR, Iraq hosts at least 260,000 Syrian refugees, with about 90% of them living in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. About 60% live in urban areas, while the rest are in refugee camps. Human Rights Watch spoke to seven Syrians in Irbil and Baghdad between April 19 and April 26 who were being deported — including four at the airport in Irbil waiting to be put on a flight, the statement said. Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher with HRW, said the watchdog was unable to determine the total number of Syrians deported. The group said the deportations have left Syrians in Iraq living in fear. "By forcibly returning asylum-seekers to Syria, Iraq is knowingly placing them in harm's way," Sanbar said. An Iraqi government spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. Iraqi authorities have also made it increasingly difficult for Syrians to stay legally in the country. The Iraqi Kurdish regional government in the north has — at Baghdad's request — suspended visa entry for Syrian citizens as part of broader efforts to regulate foreign labor in Iraq, restricting the Syrians' ability to enter the Kurdish region for work or refuge. Many companies in Iraq employ Syrian workers without legally registering them, making them work long hours for low pay. New rules in the Iraqi Kurdish region require companies to register Syrian workers and pay social security contributions for them. However, some companies make the employees pay half of the social security fees from their salaries. A Syrian worker in the Kurdish region told the AP that on-arrival fees for a one-month visa for Syrians used to cost $150. Those visas could be extended for up to a year. She spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing she could be deported. Now, Syrians must be registered with a social security number showing their employer pays taxes on them, she said. Otherwise, they cannot renew their visas. In Baghdad, a one-year work visa that comes with a social security number costs $2,000. Host countries that have sheltered Syrian refugees have increasingly pushed for their return home, where the country's war, now in its 14th year, is mostly frozen along the former front lines. The United Nations and rights groups say Syria remains unsafe for returns. Human Rights Watch said that in July 2023, returnees from Iraq were reportedly tortured in Syrian military intelligence custody and conscripted into military service.

Washington — Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan was down sharply last year, according to the United Nations and private sources, but the plants are being grown in most provinces despite a ban imposed by the Taliban. Some areas grow more than others. According to sources inside Afghanistan and on Taliban-run social media accounts, farmers in about 29 provinces have been growing poppies since spring. The largest amounts are grown in Badakhshan, Helmand, Herat and Nangarhar provinces. Poppies, which farmers process to make opium, are being grown in the open and hidden behind property walls. Taliban forces conducted thousands of operations to destroy the plant, as was announced on the X social media platform by the Ministry of Interior Counter Narcotics. It listed 29 provinces where they conducted eradication efforts. The Taliban Interior Ministry said that in the past six months, its police conducted more than 15,000 poppy eradication operations on more than 3,600 hectares (8,900 acres). It also said thousands of people were arrested for violating the ban. Abdul Haq Akhundzada, Taliban deputy interior minister for counternarcotics, told VOA there won’t be problems with narcotics this year. “In those provinces, in areas where farmers grow hidden poppy, we conducted operations there as well, and we eradicated their hidden poppy,” he said. Not everyone is peacefully accepting the opium ban and eradication. In northeastern Badakhshan province, violent clashes erupted last month between the Taliban and farmers. Two people were killed. Local Taliban eradication officials reported that in Badakhshan, 35,000 to 40,000 acres were cleared. Aminullah Taib, deputy Taliban governor in Badakhshan, said they were able to eradicate the fall and spring poppy cultivation in eight districts and will not allow further growth. Farmers said the eradication was disrespectful of the local culture as the Taliban went to the villages without talking to the elders and informing the villagers about the process. Abdul Hafiz, a resident of Argo district, where the clash between the farmers and Taliban took place, told VOA the Taliban entered people’s homes and destroyed their poppy crops “without a prayer, notice or acknowledgment.” Poppy growth was at its high in 2021, the year the Taliban regained power. Farmers grew as much as possible, fearing the crop would be banned. While the Taliban banned poppy growth in 2022, they allowed the farmers to harvest what they had already planted. It was a record year. The United Nations estimated that Afghan opium production was 6,800 metric tons (7,500 tons) in 2021 and 6,200 metric tons (6,800 tons) in 2022. Last year, the Taliban were largely successful in banning the crop. In opium-rich Helmand province, poppy crop cultivation was down by 99.9%. Yet how successful the ban was considered depends on the source. The United Nations reported in October that poppy cultivation was down by 95%. Across Afghanistan, the U.N. said, opium cultivation fell from 233,000 hectares (575,755 acres) in 2022 to just 10,800 hectares (26,687 acres) in 2023. But the imaging company Alcis, in its comprehensive satellite survey, says poppy cultivation was down by 86% to 31,088 hectares (76,200 acres). William Byrd, a senior researcher at the U.S. Institute of Peace, told VOA that the 9 percentage-point spread between Alcis and the U.N. makes a difference in how much poppy is estimated to have been harvested for 2023. He said Alcis paints a more complete picture. “Opium poppies’ distinctive characteristics and the tools developed by Alcis over a number of years facilitate the complete-coverage approach,” he said, adding that the U.N. relies on sampling different areas. Alcis analyzes satellite imagery for all agricultural land and poppy fields multiple times during the planting, cultivation and harvesting of opium poppy. Results for 2024 poppy planting are expected by both organizations in the fall. The economic situation in Afghanistan is dire as more than 12 million people face acute food insecurity. The poppy ban takes about $1 billion in income away from the rural economy. So, even faced with the ban, impoverished farmers continue to grow poppies because they have few options for income. For decades now, poppies and the resulting opium have been the biggest cash crop for farmers. Most practice subsistence farming. They have no extra income or time to buy the seeds of other plants and then wait years for them to mature to be harvested and sold. Farmers complain that the Taliban government isn’t helping them with alternative crops. Hassebullah, a farmer in Laghman province, told VOA that farmers need support and that they are still waiting for the Taliban government’s help. “If a farmer doesn’t grow poppy and hashish,” said Hassebullah, who, like most rural Afghans, goes by his first name, “then as an alternative, the government should provide seeds and fertilizer, some agriculture products and other assistance.” Taliban Deputy Counternarcotics Minister Javed Qaem told VOA that until farmers are provided alternatives, “unfortunately, we will be witnessing more clashes in the coming years.”

BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbian police on Thursday banned a festival that promotes cultural exchange with Kosovo in a sign of growing nationalism and government pressure on liberal voices in the Balkan country. A police statement cited security concerns as the reason to ban the "Mirdita, dobar dan" event that was scheduled to start later Thursday in Belgrade with a theater show from Kosovo. The words mean “good day” in Albanian and Serbian, respectively. Serbia does not recognize the 2008 declaration of independence by its former province, which is overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian. The Mirdita, dobar dan festival is organized by youth groups from Serbia and Kosovo seeking to bridge ethnic divisions created by a 1998-99 war and the postwar tensions. Organizers in Serbia, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights group, said that Serbian police violated the country's constitution and European laws: "It is a basic duty of the state to secure the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the law and to sanction all those who limit or violate those freedoms and citizens' rights." The group added that police did not allow the bus with participants to enter Belgrade and ordered that it return to Kosovo under police escort. The police ban came after several dozen right-wing extremists gathered outside the festival venue on Thursday, seeking to prevent the celebration while waving Serbian flags. Police said they wanted to prevent "danger to the security of people and property and to public peace and order on a larger scale." A statement said that the anti-festival gathering is also banned. Liberal groups criticized the police decision. "With the ban on 'Mirdita,' Serbia and its institutions sided with the hooligans and the deepest ethno-nationalist darkness," prominent human rights activist Natasa Kandic said on X. "No longer can a debate about reconciliation or a protest against glorification of war criminals be organized in Serbia. A black hole." The Movement of Free Citizens party urged the Interior Ministry to revoke the ban also, saying the authorities have sided with the extremists who are opposed to regional reconciliation. Several government officials have sharply criticized the festival in the past several days, describing it as anti-Serb. While the festival has been held alternatively in Serbia and Kosovo for the past decade, this year's ban in Serbia illustrates a general toughening of the government's stance toward its critics. Earlier this week, authorities banned a Bosnian actor and author from entering Serbia, saying he was a threat to national security, and deported him back to Sarajevo, Bosnia's capital. In the past months, Serbia's independent and investigative journalists have complained of increased legal pressure and threats. Serbia is formally seeking entry into the European Union, but the increasingly authoritarian government of populist President Aleksandar Vucic has steadily drifted away from the EU's pro-democracy values while nurturing close ties with Russia and China.

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.

Two NASA astronauts are stranded in space with no return date set. Plus, a new climate satellite launches into orbit, and a human-made creepy crawler looks to explore Mars. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.

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Los Angeles — The Center for Investigative Reporting said Thursday it has sued ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its closest business partner, Microsoft, marking a new front in the news industry's fight against unauthorized use of its content on artificial intelligence platforms. The nonprofit, which produces Mother Jones and Reveal, said that OpenAI used its content without permission and without offering compensation, violating copyrights on the organization's journalism. The lawsuit, filed in a New York federal court, describes OpenAI's business as "built on the exploitation of copyrighted works" and focuses on how AI-generated summaries of articles threaten publishers. "It's immensely dangerous," Monika Bauerlein, the nonprofit's CEO, told The Associated Press. "Our existence relies on users finding our work valuable and deciding to support it." Bauerlein said that "when people can no longer develop that relationship with our work, when they no longer encounter Mother Jones or Reveal, then their relationship is with the AI tool." That, she said, could "cut the entire foundation of our existence as an independent newsroom out from under us" while also threatening the future of other news organizations. OpenAI and Microsoft didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. The lawsuit is the latest against OpenAI and Microsoft to land at Manhattan's federal court, where the companies are already battling a series of other copyright lawsuits from The New York Times, other media outlets and bestselling authors such as John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin. The companies also face a separate case in San Francisco's federal court brought by authors including comedian Sarah Silverman. Some news organizations have chosen to collaborate rather than fight with OpenAI by signing deals to get compensated for sharing news content that can be used to train its AI systems. The latest to do so is Time magazine, which announced Thursday that OpenAI will get access to its "extensive archives from the last 101 years." OpenAI and other major AI developers don't typically disclose their data sources but have argued that taking troves of publicly accessible online text, images and other media to train their AI systems is protected by the "fair use" doctrine of American copyright law. CIR's lawsuit says a dataset that OpenAI has acknowledged using to build an earlier version of its chatbot technology contained thousands of links to the website of Mother Jones, a 48-year-old print magazine that's been publishing online since 1993. But the text used for AI training was usually missing information about a story's author, title or copyright notice. Last summer, more than 4,000 writers signed a letter to the CEOs of OpenAI and other tech companies accusing them of exploitative practices in building chatbots. "It's not a free resource for these AI companies to ingest and make money on," Bauerlein said of news media. "They pay for office space. They pay for electricity. They pay salaries for their workers. Why would the content that they ingest be the only thing that they don't [pay for]?" The AP is among the news organizations that have made licensing deals over the past year with OpenAI; others include The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post publisher News Corp., The Atlantic, Axel Springer in Germany and Prisa Media in Spain, France's Le Monde newspaper and the London-based Financial Times. Mother Jones and CIR were both founded in the 1970s and merged earlier this year. Both are based in San Francisco, as is OpenAI. The lawsuit from CIR, also known for its Reveal podcast and radio show, outlines the expense of producing investigative journalism and warns that losing control of copyrighted content will result in less revenue and even fewer reporters to tell important stories in "today's paltry media landscape." "With fewer investigative news stories told, the cost to democracy will be enormous," the lawsuit says.