CAIRO — The U.S. and British militaries said they launched strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Thursday as part of efforts to deter the militant group from further disrupting shipping in the Red Sea, with Houthi media reporting at least two people killed.

The U.S. Central Command said in a statement that U.S. and British forces had hit 13 targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

The British Defense Ministry said the joint operation targeted three locations in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, which it said housed drones and surface-to-air weapons.

The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported at least two deaths and 10 injuries from strikes against a radio building in Hodeidah’s Al-Hawk district.

“As ever, the utmost care was taken in planning the strikes to minimize any risk to civilians or non-military infrastructure,” the British Defense Ministry said in a statement.

“Conducting the strikes in the hours of darkness should also have mitigated yet further any such risks.”

The Houthi-run media said a total of 13 strikes had been launched against Yemen, including six on the capital Sanaa.

The Houthis, who control Yemen’s capital and most populous areas, have attacked international shipping in the Red Sea since November in solidarity with the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas militants, drawing U.S. and British retaliatory strikes since February.
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  Washington — A 35-year-old Chinese national is facing charges related to committing cybercrimes that FBI Director Christopher Wray described as “likely the world’s largest botnet ever.”  

The arrest in Singapore was the result of an international coordinated effort that included law enforcement agencies from Germany, Singapore, the United States and Thailand. 

YunHe Wang, arrested on May 24, is accused of being the creator of the 911 S5 botnet, a residential proxy service.  

Wang, along with other unnamed parties, created the 911 S5 botnet to facilitate “cyber-attacks, large-scale fraud, child exploitation, harassment, bomb threats, and export violations,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a Department of Justice press release on Wednesday.   

Wang sold access to infected IP addresses to cybercriminals in exchange for crypto or fiat currency. From these transactions, he received at least $99 million in profits, the DOJ stated.  

The cybercriminals Wang transacted with were allegedly able to use the infected IP addresses to “bypass financial fraud detection systems and steal billions of dollars from financial institutions, credit card issuers, and federal lending programs,” according to the DOJ release.  

The compromised IP addresses allowed Wang’s customers to create fraudulent unemployment claims that targeted pandemic relief programs. The United States estimates they lost $5.9 billion from these fraudulent claims.  

Wang used his profits to buy property in China, St. Kitts and Nevis, the United States, Singapore, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. Wang also spent his money on luxury cars and watches.  

Wang faces several charges including substantive computer fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Wang could face up to 65 years in prison if convicted.  

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 
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United Nations — The U.N. General Assembly drew criticism Thursday for its tribute to the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash, with Washington boycotting the gathering. 

Following a minute’s silence, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres offered his condolences to the families of the victims of the May 19 incident, as well as to the Iranian people. 

“I wish to assure that the United Nations stands in solidarity with the Iranian people and in the quest for peace, development and fundamental freedoms,” Guterres said. 

“For that, the United Nations will be guided by the Charter to help realize peace and security, sustainable development and human rights for all,” he added. 

Asked about the U.N. chief offering condolences in the days after the leader’s death, Guterres’s official spokesman defended his position. 

The secretary-general “has never been shy about expressing his deep concerns about the human rights situation in Iran, notably on the issues of women,” Stephane Dujarric said. 

“It does not stop him from expressing condolences when the head of state of a Member State of this organization, and a foreign minister, with whom he met regularly … dies in a helicopter crash,” he added. 

The General Assembly pays tribute to any head of state of a U.N. member country who dies in office, including Namibian President Hage Geingob, an independence stalwart, last February, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 2011. 

Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.N., Munir Akram, spoke for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and hailed what he called Raisi’s legacy of “socio-economic and political transformation” in Iran. 

No representatives of Western countries spoke at the tribute and some, such as France and the United States, did not send representatives. 

“The U.N. should be standing with the people of Iran. Raisi was involved in numerous, horrific human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killings of thousands of political prisoners in 1988,” said Nate Evans, spokesman for the U.S. delegation.  

“Some of the worst human rights abuses on record took place during his tenure,” Evans added. 

Outside the U.N. headquarters in New York several dozen protesters opposed to the Iranian authorities chanted “shame on U.N.” 

Israel’s ambassador Gilad Erdan, who condemned the initial minute silence at the Security Council on May 20, also criticized Thursday’s event. 

“The UN was founded to prevent atrocities, but today it salutes mass-murdering dictators!” he wrote on X last week.
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The Midwestern U.S. city of Detroit is known as the home of American automakers. What’s less known are the contributions of the Chinese residents in the city’s history. Some of them did the laundry of the autoworkers and others even cooked up what’s become a local favorite. VOA’s Chris Casquejo has more on Detroit’s two Chinatowns and what happened to them. Videographer and video editor: Yu Chen
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In early May, the state of California announced the estimated opening of what will be the world’s largest bridge for animals. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, just outside of Los Angeles, will offer wildlife safe passage across a ten-lane highway. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Vazgen Varzhabetian.
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STATE DEPARTMENT — Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Kurt Campbell is hosting China’s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu in Washington on Thursday. The talks are aimed at maintaining open communication channels to prevent miscalculations and unintended conflicts, especially during times of tension.

Following two hours of face-to-face discussions, officials from the United States and the People’s Republic of China will have a working lunch at the State Department. Later in the afternoon, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer will continue discussions with Ma.

The visit by Ma Zhaoxu follows U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Shanghai and Beijing in April. Officials said it builds on U.S.’s intensive diplomacy with the PRC to responsibly manage competition in the relationship, even in areas where the two countries disagree.  

“As we continue to take actions to protect our interests and values and those of our allies and partners, we are also using face-to-face diplomacy with the PRC to clearly and directly communicate our positions and intentions, and make progress on bilateral, regional, and global issues that matter to the American people and the world,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.  

A spokesperson from PRC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Ma will also “interact and communicate with representatives from various sectors in the U.S.” during his visit to the U.S. from May 30 to June 2.

While in Beijing last month, Blinken voiced “serious concern” regarding China’s support for Russia’s defense industry, warning Chinese leaders that Washington could impose sanctions over the matter.

China has defended its approach to Russia, saying it is only engaged in normal economic exchanges with a major trading partner. 

Wednesday, Campbell renewed the U.S. warnings. He said Chinese support was helping to revitalize Russia’s military capabilities, including long-range missiles, artillery, drones and battlefield tracking.

During his visit to Brussels, the State Department’s second-highest diplomat emphasized the urgent need for European and NATO countries “to send a collective message of concern to China about its actions, which we view are destabilizing in the heart of Europe.”

The latest U.S.-China talks occur just days after China conducted a large-scale, two-day military exercise involving 111 aircraft and 46 naval vessels around Taiwan. Washington has strongly urged Beijing to exercise restraint and has reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert met virtually with PRC’s Director-General for Boundary and Ocean Affairs Hong Liang on May 23.  During this meeting, Lambert expressed profound concerns regarding People’s Liberation Army joint military drills in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan.  
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the Pentagon   — The first Ukrainian pilots have completed F-16 fighter jet training at a military base in Arizona, with others soon to follow this summer.

“The first batch has graduated, and other Ukrainian pilots are finishing their training here by the end of August,” Arizona National Guard spokesperson Capt. Erin Hannigan told VOA.

The graduates include a handful of Ukrainian pilots who had trained at Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson, according to a U.S. official who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity because of security sensitivities.

Out of an abundance of caution for the pilots’ safety, officials declined to provide an exact number of how many had graduated or the number of those who remain in F-16 training.

The 162nd Wing at Morris is considered the Air National Guard’s premier F-16 training unit and houses the Air Force’s only school dedicated to training pilots from more than 20 countries on the fighter.

Kyiv pleaded for Western aircraft when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of their country in February 2022. In August 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden approved a plan for Western allies to send F-16s to Ukraine once pilot training was complete.

Last August, Ukraine was gaining momentum in the conflict against Russia, but that was before a monthslong delay by Congress to approve new military assistance for Kyiv.

Since then, Ukrainian officials reported that troops were forced to ration supplies as ammunition ran low. Analysts say Russia has capitalized on Kyiv’s disadvantage to make gains on the battlefield.

Last month, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said his country’s promised jets would be delivered to Kyiv by the end of the year. 
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Jurors are deliberating in a criminal case against U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. He is charged with falsifying financial records to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. Campaigning continued outside the New York courthouse. VOA’s Scott Stearns reports. Camera: Michael Eckels.
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Washington — Justice Samuel Alito is rejecting calls to step aside from Supreme Court cases involving former President Donald Trump and Jan. 6 defendants because of the controversy over flags that flew over his homes.

In letters to members of Congress on Wednesday, Alito said his wife was responsible for flying an upside-down U.S. flag over his home in 2021 and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at his New Jersey beach house last year.

Neither incident merits his recusal, he wrote.

“I am therefore duty-bound to reject your recusal request,” he wrote.

The court is considering two major cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of Trump supporters on the Capitol, including charges faced by the rioters and whether Trump has immunity from prosecution on election interference charges.

Alito has rejected calls from Democrats in the past to recuse on other issues.

The New York Times reported that an inverted American flag was seen at Alito’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, less than two weeks after the attack on the Capitol. The paper also reported that an “Appeal to Heaven” flag was flown outside of the justice’s beach home in New Jersey last summer. Both flags were carried by rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in January 2021 echoing Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

Alito said he was unaware that the upside-down flag was flying above his house until it was called to his attention. “As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused,” he wrote in nearly identical letters to Democrats in the House and Senate.
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With five months until the November election and no diplomatic solution in sight for wars in Ukraine and Gaza, President Joe Biden, who in 2020 ran on a campaign to end “forever wars,” is shifting voters’ attention away from American entanglements abroad by focusing on domestic priorities. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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Harassment, arrests, declining trust and economic constraints make the work of journalists in the United States tough. The country’s media are mostly free from interference, but the U.S. still dropped 10 points on the World Press Freedom Index in 2024. VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit and Michael Lipin have the story, as narrated by Caicedo Smit. Videographer: Keith Lane
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Tbilisi, Georgia — Georgia’s parliament on Tuesday overrode the president’s veto of a controversial foreign agent law, despite protests at home and criticism in Western capitals, including a U.S. threat to impose sanctions.

The new measure is officially called the “Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence.” However, opponents have dubbed it the “Russian law,” a reference to Russia’s foreign agent law, which requires anyone who receives support from outside Russia, or is seen as acting under “foreign influence,” to register as foreign agents.

The Georgian law requires civil society organizations, media and other entities receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign interests. The law primarily targets U.S. and European Union democracy assistance programs.

President Salome Zourabichvili vetoed the legislation on May 18, but it was widely expected that the ruling Georgian Dream party’s parliamentary majority would override the veto.

Georgian Dream reintroduced the law in April, a year after it abandoned in March 2023 after it sparked mass protests.

Protesters view the law as a move by the government to tilt the country toward Moscow, even though polls show more than 80% of Georgians support Georgia’s path toward EU membership and 73% endorse the country’s bid to join NATO.

General elections in October will determine whether the Georgian Dream party remains in power for a fourth term. Georgian nongovernmental organizations say the foreign agent law may hinder international organizations’ ability to observe the October vote. While the government claims the law promotes transparency, local NGOs and Georgia’s Western partners view it as targeting Western funding for Georgian civil society.

“Having no chances of victory in the upcoming general elections in October if they are conducted freely and fairly, [Bidzina] Ivanishvili” — Georgian Dream’s shadow leader — “is tightening his grip on power through harsh authoritarian measures and is openly driving the country into Russian influence,” former Georgian ambassador to the United States David Sikharulidze told VOA outside the parliament building in Tbilisi.

“It’s very much in line with Putin’s tactics,” he said.

“This law is a Russian law in essence and spirit, which contradicts our constitution and all European standards,” Zourabichvili said in her veto statement.

Zourabichvili, whose election as president in 2018 was supported by Georgian Dream, has increasingly found herself at odds with the party.

Apprehension over the domestic and foreign policy trajectory of Georgia’s government has grown since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Official Tbilisi refused to side with Ukraine publicly or to join sanctions against Moscow, while attacking Ukrainian officials publicly and echoing anti-Western rhetoric.

In addition, U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns about Georgia’s role in helping Russia evade Western sanctions.

For more than a month and a half, tens of thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets to protest the foreign agent law, the largest protests the country has seen since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

“Georgian people have erupted in protest. They deserve more than just statements from the Western partners,” Sikharulidze said.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions against those “responsible for undermining democracy in Georgia.”

“The Department of State is implementing a new visa restriction policy for Georgia that will apply to individuals who are responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Georgia, as well as their family members,” Blinken said in a statement. “This includes individuals responsible for suppressing civil society and freedom of peaceful assembly in Georgia through a campaign of violence or intimidation.”

Georgian Dream officials dismissed the visa restrictions as interference in Georgia’s internal affairs.

“The blackmail with visa restrictions are nothing but a crude attempt to limit the independence and sovereignty of Georgia,” the Georgian Dream party said in a statement, labeling the move “anti-Georgian.”

For their part, European Union officials have warned that adopting the foreign agent law would jeopardize Georgia’s bid for EU membership.

“The law of foreign influence is not in line with EU values. If the law is enacted, it will impact Georgia’s EU path,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Georgian officials have dismissed the critical voices in Washington and Brussels as part of what they call the “Global War Party,” which one Georgian Dream MP described to a British podcaster as a “‘force akin to the Freemasons.”
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Africa’s Sahel has become the epicenter of global terrorism, prompting nations to intensify efforts to counter the violence through military training such as the Flintlock 2024 drills in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Analysts, however, say that addressing economic deficiencies in the region would be a more effective deterrent. Senanu Tord reports from Tamale, Ghana.
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America’s oldest Chinatown sustains traditions even as members of the Chinese diaspora continue to spread out and evolve. Matt Dibble has the story from San Francisco, California.
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U.S. presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump are both campaigning for the support of Black voters. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns looks at how the presidential campaigns are trying to build African American support.
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Washington — President Joe Biden marked Memorial Day with a pledge that the country would continue the work of the nation’s fallen toward creating a more perfect union, “for which they lived, and for which they died for.”

Delivering remarks at a solemn remembrance ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Biden said each generation must ensure the sacrifice of the country’s service members is not in vain.

“Freedom has never been guaranteed,” Biden said under gray skies in the memorial amphitheater. “Every generation has to earn it, fight for it, defend it in the battle between autocracy and democracy, between the greed of a few, and the rights of many.”

He added: “On this day, we came together again to reflect, to remember, and above all, to recommit to the future they fought for, a future grounded in freedom, democracy, opportunity and equality. Not just for some, but for all.”

Before the ceremony began, Biden, joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

In his remarks, Biden invoked the anniversary this week of the death of his son Beau, who served in Iraq and later died from brain cancer that the president attributes to his time stationed near toxic burn pits, to highlight the importance of honoring the service of those who came home with injuries, in addition to the dead.

“Last year, the VA delivered more benefits and processed more claims than ever in our history,” Biden said, crediting the PACT Act which grants automatic coverage for certain health conditions suffered by veterans by presuming they result from their military service. “For too long after fighting for our nation, these veterans had to fight to get the right health care, to get the benefits they had earned, not anymore.”

Biden began the day hosting a breakfast at the White House for administration officials, military leaders, veterans, and Gold Star family members.
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