Taipei, Taiwan — China has initiated a series of influence campaigns against Taiwan ahead of the island’s inauguration of president-elect Lai Ching-te on May 20. Beijing has increased the scale and frequency of military activities near Taiwan while partially relaxing travel and import restrictions.

Some analysts say Beijing is trying to test how the incoming Taiwanese government will respond to the increased pressure from Beijing while further eroding the longstanding status quo across the Taiwan Strait at a time when Taiwan is preparing for a transition of power.

“In the short term, Beijing is trying to see how the new Taiwanese government under Lai may respond to its pressure campaign,” said Chen Fang-yu, a political scientist at Soochow University in Taiwan.

“At the same time, the Chinese government is attempting to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait when Taipei is focusing on the inauguration,” he told VOA by phone.

Taiwan’s defense ministry detected 26 Chinese military aircraft and five Chinese naval vessels near the island between May 2 and May 3, including 17 Chinese military aircraft crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait. Some Chinese aircraft got as close as about 76 kilometers from Taiwan’s northern port city of Keelung, which hosts an important naval base.

Meanwhile, the director general of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau, Tsai Ming-yen, told Taiwanese lawmakers on May 1 that the Chinese military had incorporated new tactics into its joint combat readiness patrol near the island, including staging night-time combat patrols and using landing ships and minesweepers during these exercises.

Additionally, he said Taiwanese authorities are tracking the increased patrols carried out by the Chinese coast guard near Taiwan’s outlying island, Kinmen. On April 29, Beijing said the Fujian Coast Guard had organized a fleet of ships to increase the frequency of patrols in waters near Kinmen since April.

Beijing also announced plans to allow residents from its southern province of Fujian to travel to Taiwan’s outlying island of Matsu while lifting import restrictions on Taiwanese pomelos and two types of seafood late last month.

The news came after a group of lawmakers from Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, which advocates closer ties between Taipei and Beijing, visited China.

Some experts say the measures rolled out by Beijing in recent weeks are all part of its influence operation against Taipei, which involves using disinformation campaigns, economic coercion, and gray zone operations to impose pressure on Taiwan.

“China’s overall strategy is still to increase pressure on Taiwan but they are also offering some small favors to Taiwan’s opposition parties,” said Su Tzu-yun, a military expert at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

While recent developments should be viewed as part of China’s overall influence operation against Taiwan, Su said part of Beijing’s long-term goal is to increase its control over the Taiwan Strait.

“By increasing the frequency of deploying Chinese coast guard vessels to restricted waters near Kinmen and flying Chinese military aircraft closer to Taiwan’s main island, Beijing is hoping to eventually turn the Taiwan Strait into its territorial water,” he told VOA by phone.

Beijing has repeatedly threatened to achieve reunification with Taiwan through force in recent years, and the Chinese government views Taiwan’s president-elect Lai as an advocate of Taiwan independence.

Since the Chinese military usually concentrates military exercises between June and November, Su said the incoming Taiwanese government needs to closely monitor any increase in Chinese military activities around the island after May 20.

In addition to threats posed by a possible buildup of Chinese military activities, some security analysts say Taiwan should also be mindful of Beijing’s efforts to create division in Taiwan’s domestic politics.

“There is every reason to believe that [the Chinese Communist Party] is ramping up efforts to use Taiwan’s democracy against itself,” J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based security analyst, told VOA in a written response.

He said China will rely on China-friendly political forces in Taiwan to “sabotage the Lai administration” and these efforts will have “serious ramifications for Taiwan’s ability to counter Chinese infiltration and the Taiwan government’s ability to function.”

Prioritizing policy continuity

In light of the increasing Chinese pressure, Lai has appointed some current cabinet members to key positions in charge of national security, foreign policy, and cross-strait relations in his cabinet.

Taiwan’s current foreign minister Joseph Wu will be the secretary general of the National Security Council. The current head of the council, Wellington Koo, will be the new defense minister in the Lai administration.

On the foreign policy front, the current secretary general of Taiwan’s presidential office Lin Chia-lung will be the new foreign minister, and Chiu Chui-cheng, a former deputy political minister for Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which handles cross-strait relations, will be the new head of the council.

Cole said Lai’s personnel picks for national security and foreign policy reflect his intention to continue the policy agenda of the outgoing administration under President Tsai Ing-wen, who has focused on strengthening Taiwan’s relations with like-minded democracies including the United States and Japan.

The decision “will play a major role in reassuring allies and partners around the world that Taiwan will remain committed to the kind of responsible foreign policy that existed under the Tsai administration,” he told VOA.

Chen at Soochow University said the incoming Taiwanese government’s cabinet lineup will benefit the U.S.-led efforts to strengthen security-related cooperation among democratic countries in the Indo-Pacific region.

“Since some of his cabinet members are holdovers from the current administration, they have already established relationships with officials in other countries, and some of the existing cooperations can continue,” he told VOA.
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DHAKA, Bangladesh — Schools in Bangladesh reopened on Sunday and classes were continuing over the weekend after a searing heatwave a week ago that suspended lessons as the country baked in temperatures that surged to well over 40 degrees Centigrade.

Bangladesh has wavered over reopening schools for some 33 million students amid pressure to prepare pupils for exams, even as the worst heatwave in seven decades sent temperatures as high as 43.8 C (110.84° Fahrenheit) last week.

Many people have died across the region, and experts warned the heat could exacerbate inequalities, widen a learning gap between developing and developed nations in the tropics.

Bangladesh, which follows the Islamic work week from Sunday to Thursday, will hold classes on Saturdays until further notice, the education ministry said. Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury has said schools would open on Friday if needed to complete the curriculum.

Parents have welcomed the decision.

“Children don’t want to study at home. This will help them make up for the loss,” said Fatema Akhtar, who was waiting to pick up her grade-two daughter outside a school.

Scientists have said climate change is causing more frequent, severe, and lengthy heat waves during summer months.

The U.N. children’s agency has estimated that one in three children, or nearly 20 million children, in low-lying Bangladesh bear the brunt of such climate change every day.

Separately, a fire that broke out amid the heatwave on Saturday and spread across three acres of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest that is home to the Royal Bengal tiger, was brought under control on Sunday, officials said.

Intense heatwaves have caused water shortages and frequent power cuts, hitting the key apparel sector that accounts for more than 80% of exports and supplies retailers such as H&M, Walmart and Gap Inc.
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Brussels — EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Monday she will press for “fair” competition with China in talks with its President Xi Jinping, who is in Paris on a state visit.

“We have to act to make sure that competition is fair and not distorted,” she said in remarks issued hours before a face-to-face Paris meeting between her, Xi and French President Emmanuel Macron.  

She added that, previously with Xi, “I have made clear that the current imbalances in market access are not sustainable and need to be addressed.”

Von der Leyen’s European Commission, the European Union’s authority on trade issues, has opened a slew of competition probes targeting China in recent months.

Beijing has reacted furiously to the most recent investigation, into suspected inequitable access to China’s medical devices market, calling it a sign of EU “protectionism.”

China is also angry at an EU probe into Chinese wind turbine suppliers for the European market. Other Brussels investigations have focused on Chinese subsidies for solar panels, electric vehicles (EVs) and trains.

Von der Leyen reiterated the EU’s position that it “should derisk its relations, but not decouple from China” — meaning reducing the dependence on Chinese suppliers but not going as far as the United States in penalizing or blocking trade streams in key sectors.

“We have been very clear-eyed about our relationship with China, which is one of the most complex, but also one of the most important,” the commission president said.

“Over the last year, I have met with President Xi twice and we have spent some time discussing the EU-China relations from trade to climate, from global affairs to digital issues,” she said.

Von der Leyen stressed the problem of Chinese overcapacity and the way that was leading to Chinese goods entering the European Union at prices too low for EU firms to compete with.

“China is currently manufacturing, with massive subsidies, more than it is selling due to its own weak domestic demand. This is leading to an oversupply of Chinese subsidized goods, such as EVs and steel, that is leading to unfair trade,” she said.

“Europe cannot accept such market distorting practices that could lead to de-industrialization in Europe.”

Von der Leyen said she would “encourage the Chinese government to address these overcapacities in the short-term,” adding that the EU will work with other wealthy and emerging economies that were “increasingly affected by China’s market distortions.”
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Human rights proponents say political repression in Pakistan has increased in the year since supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan stormed military properties to protest his arrest. VOA Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman has the details. Wajid Asad contributed.
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Some residents of Nairobi’s suburbs are up in arms over what they say is illegal construction of high-rise buildings in their neighborhoods, mainly by Chinese developers. Juma Majanga reports from Nairobi. Camera and video editing by Amos Wangwa.
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Paris — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday arrived in France on a state visit hosted by Emmanuel Macron where the French leader will seek to push his counterpart on issues ranging from Ukraine to trade. 

Xi’s arrival for the visit marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between France and China was the start of his first trip to Europe since 2019 which will also see him visit Serbia and Hungary. 

But Xi’s choice of France as the sole major European power to visit indicates the relative warmth in Sino-French relations since Macron made his own state visit to China in April 2023 and acknowledges the French leader’s stature as an EU powerbroker. 

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the plane carrying Xi had touched down in Paris. 

The leader of the one-party Communist state of more than 1.4 billion people, accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan, was to be welcomed at Paris Orly airport by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. 

Xi is to hold a day of talks in Paris on Monday — also including EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen — followed by a state banquet hosted by Macron. 

Tuesday will see Macron take Xi to the Pyrenees mountains to an area he used to visit as a boy for a day of less public and more intimate talks. 

A key priority of Macron will be to warn Xi of the danger of backing Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, with Western officials concerned Moscow is already using Chinese machine tools in arms production. 

Beijing’s ties with Moscow have, if anything, warmed after the invasion and the West wants China above all not to supply weapons to Russia and risk tipping the balance in the conflict. 

“It is in our interest to get China to weigh in on the stability of the international order,” said Macron in an interview with the Economist published on Thursday. 

“We must, therefore, work with China to build peace,” he added. 

Macron also said in the same interview Europe must defend its “strategic interests” in its economic relations with China, accusing Beijing of not respecting the rules on international trade. 

But he acknowledged in an interview with the La Tribune Dimanche newspaper that Europeans are “not unanimous” on the strategy to adopt as “certain actors still see China essentially as a market of opportunities” while it “exports massively” to Europe. 

The French president had gladdened Chinese state media and troubled some EU allies after his 2023 visit by declaring that Europe should not be drawn into a standoff between China and the United States, particularly over democratic, self-ruled Taiwan. 

China views the island as part of its territory and has vowed to take it one day, by force if necessary. 

“The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must be followers and adapt ourselves to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction,” Macron said at the time, warning against a “bloc versus bloc logic”. 

Rights groups are urging Macron to bring up human rights in the talks, accusing China of failing to respect the rights of the Uyghur Muslim minority and keeping dozens of journalists behind bars. 

“President Macron should make it clear to Xi Jinping that Beijing’s crimes against humanity come with consequences for China’s relations with France,” said Maya Wang, acting China director at Human Rights Watch. 

The group said human rights in China had “severely deteriorated” under Xi’s rule. 

However analysts are skeptical that even with the lavish red carpet welcome and trip to the bracing mountain airs of the Col du Tourmalet over 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) above sea level on Tuesday Macron will be able to exercise much sway over the Chinese leader. 

The other two countries chosen by Xi for his tour, Serbia and Hungary, are seen as among the most sympathetic to Moscow in Europe. 

“The two core messages from Macron will be on Chinese support to Russia’s military capabilities and Chinese market-distorting practices,” said Janka Oertel, director of the Asia program at the European Council on Foreign Relations. 

“However, both messages are unlikely to have a significant impact on Chinese behavior: Xi is not on a mission to repair ties, because from his point of view all is well.” 
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Islamabad — Afghanistan’s hardline Taliban leaders have threatened to militarily suppress unprecedented violent public protests in a northeastern border region against a nationwide ban on poppy cultivation.

The unrest erupted last Friday when the Taliban’s anti-narcotics forces began destroying poppy fields in Badakhshan province, prompting angry farmers to resist it with the support of local residents.

Multiple sources confirmed Sunday that Taliban security forces used firearms to disperse the demonstrators, killing two of them during the two days of protests.

Videos circulating on social media showed residents chanting slogans against reclusive Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who has banned poppy cultivation across Afghanistan through a religious decree. VOA could not ascertain the authenticity of the footage independently.

While Taliban authorities claimed Sunday the situation had returned to normal, residents said tensions were running high, and they were waiting for a high-powered government team to address their complaints.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an overnight official announcement that their army chief, Qari Fasihuddin, a Badakhshan native, would lead the team to thoroughly investigate the violence and circumstances leading to it.

Mujahid said that an anti-poppy campaign in Badakhshan was under way in line with Akhundzada’s decree to prevent the cultivation of the illegal crop and its smuggling.

“This decree extends to all regions without exception. Regrettably, there have been incidents where offenders attempted to attack the security forces involved in the fight against poppy cultivation, resulting in tragic events,” he said.

Fasihuddin reportedly warned on Sunday that he would be compelled to deploy additional military forces to “quell the rebellion” if the demonstrations persist. He reiterated the Taliban’s resolve to eradicate poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and vowed to achieve this goal, come what may.

Badakhshan and surrounding Afghan provinces are ethnically non-Pashtun regions. The province borders Tajikistan and Pakistan.

The Taliban, who represent the country’s majority Pashtun population, were unable to take control of these provinces during their first stint in power in the 1990s.

Following their takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have successfully established control over all 34 Afghan provinces.

However, some experts argue that the public uprising in Badakhshan highlights the potential obstacles that the Taliban may face in maintaining their authority.

The international community has not yet formally recognized the Taliban government, citing its restrictions on Afghan women’s access to education and work, among other human rights concerns.

Afghanistan has faced dire economic problems since the Taliban takeover nearly three years ago. The Afghan banking sector largely remains isolated, and terrorism-related sanctions on Taliban leaders continue to deter donors from resuming financial assistance for development programs.

The restrictions have fueled unemployment and economic problems for the poverty-stricken country’s estimated 40 million population.

The World Bank noted in its latest report released on Thursday that the Taliban’s ban on opium cultivation precipitated a staggering $1.3 billion loss in farmers’ incomes.

Citing U.N. estimates, the report said that the opiate economy’s value has contracted by 90 percent, while the area under cultivation declined by 95 percent, costing Afghans 450,000 jobs at the farm level alone.

The World Bank report noted that Afghanistan’s economic outlook remains uncertain, with the threat of stagnation looming large until at least 2025. “For a sustainable future, Afghanistan needs to address harmful gender policies, invest in health and education, and focus on the comparative advantages it has in the agricultural and extractive sectors,” it said.

Afghanistan used to be the world’s largest opium-poppy producer until the Taliban imposed the ban on cultivation in early 2022.

The ban strictly prohibits the cultivation, production, usage, transportation, trade, export, and import of all illicit drugs in Afghanistan. Afghan poppy farming accounted for 85% of global opium production until recently, according to United Nations estimates.
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tokyo — Japan and India on Saturday decried remarks by U.S. President Joe Biden describing them as “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, which the president said during a campaign fundraising event earlier in the week. 

Japan said Biden’s judgment was not based on an accurate understanding of its policy, while India rebutted the comment, defending itself as the world’s most open society. 

Biden grouped Japan and India as “xenophobic” countries, along with Russia and China as he tried to explain their struggling economies, contrasting the four with the strength of the U.S. as a nation of immigrants. 

Japan is a key U.S. ally, and both Japan and India are part of the Quad, a U.S.-led informal partnership that also includes Australia in countering increasingly assertive China in the Indo-Pacific. 

Just weeks ago, Biden hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on an official visit, as the two leaders restated their “unbreakable alliance” and agreed to reinforce their security ties in the face of China’s threat in the Indo-Pacific. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also made a state visit to Washington last year, when he was welcomed by business and political leaders. 

The White House said Biden meant no offense and was merely stressing that the U.S. was a nation of immigrants, saying he had no intention of undermining the relationship with Japan. 

Japan is aware of Biden’s remark as well as the subsequent clarification, a Japanese government official said Saturday, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue. 

The official said it was unfortunate that part of Biden’s speech was not based on an accurate understanding of Japanese policies, and that Japan understands that Biden made the remark to emphasize the presence of immigrants as America’s strength. 

Japan-U.S. relations are “stronger than ever” as Prime Minister Kishida showed during his visit to the U.S. in April, the official said. 

In New Delhi, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday also rebutted Biden’s comment, saying India was the most open society in the world. 

“I haven’t seen such an open, pluralistic, and diverse society anywhere in the world. We are actually not just not xenophobic, we are the most open, most pluralistic and in many ways the most understanding society in the world,” Jaishankar said at a roundtable organized by the Economic Times newspaper. 

Jaishankar also noted that India’s annual GDP growth is 7% and said, “You check some other countries’ growth rate, you will find an answer.” The U.S. economy grew by 2.5% in 2023, according to government figures. 

At a hotel fundraiser Wednesday, where the donor audience was largely Asian American, Biden said the upcoming U.S. election was about “freedom, America and democracy” and that the nation’s economy was thriving “because of you and many others.” 

“Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden said. “Look, think about it. Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants.” 

Japan has been known for a strict stance on immigration. But in recent years, it has eased its policies to make it easier for foreign workers to come and stay in Japan to mitigate its declining births and rapidly shrinking population. The number of babies born in Japan last year fell to a record low since Japan started compiling the statistics in 1899. 

India, which has the world’s largest population, enacted a new citizenship law earlier this year by setting religious criteria that allows fast-tracking naturalization for Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, while excluding Muslims. 
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MELBOURNE, Australia — A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said Sunday.

The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night.

The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters Sunday.

“There are indications he had been radicalized online,” Cook told a news conference.

“But I want to reassure the community at this stage it appears that he acted solely and alone,” Cook added.

A man was found at the scene with stab wounds to his back. He was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

Police and Australian Security Intelligence Organization agents have been conducting a counterterrorism investigation in the east coast city of Sydney since another 16-year-old boy stabbed an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and priest in a church on April 15.

That boy has been charged with committing a terrorist act. Six of his alleged associates have also been charged with a range of offenses, including conspiring to engage in or planning a terrorist act. All remain in custody.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had been briefed on the latest stabbing in Perth by Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw and ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess, who heads the nation’s main domestic spy agency.

“I’m advised there is no ongoing threat to the community on the information available,” Albanese said.

“We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia,” he added.

Police received an emergency phone call after 10 p.m. from a teenager saying he was going to commit acts of violence, Western Australian Police Commissioner Col Blanch said.

The boy had been participating in a program for young people at risk of radicalization, Blanch added.

“I don’t want to say he has been radicalized or is radicalized because I think that forms part of the investigation,” he said.

Police said they were later alerted by a phone call from a member of the public that a knife attack was underway in the parking lot. Three police officers responded, one armed with a gun and two with conducted energy devices.

Police deployed both conducted energy devices but they failed to incapacitate the boy before he was killed by a single gunshot, Blanch said.

Some Muslim leaders have criticized Australian police for declaring last month’s church stabbing a terrorist act but not a rampage two days earlier in a Sydney shopping mall in which six people were killed and a dozen wounded. The 40-year-old attacker in the mall attack was shot dead by police. Police have yet to reveal the man’s motive.

The church attack is only the third to be classified by Australian authorities as a terrorist act since 2018.

In December 2022, three Christian fundamentalists shot dead two police officers and a bystander in an ambush near the community of Wieambilla in Queensland state. The shooters were later killed by police.

In November 2018, a Somalia-born Muslim stabbed three pedestrians in downtown Melbourne, killing one, before police shot him dead.
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TBILISI, Georgia — Several thousand Georgians marked Orthodox Easter with a candlelight vigil outside Parliament on Saturday evening as daily protests continue against a proposed law that critics see as a threat to media freedom and the country’s aspirations to join the European Union.

The proposed bill would require media, nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofits to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.

Protesters and the Georgian opposition denounce it as “the Russian law,” saying Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatize independent journalists and those critical of the Kremlin.

Demonstrators crowded along a broad avenue in Tbilisi late Saturday, clutching Georgian and EU flags, as a small choir sang Easter songs and activists bustled about distributing food, including handpainted eggs and traditional Easter cakes.

Unlike at mass rallies earlier in the week, which met with a heavy police response, the atmosphere was peaceful. Unarmed police officers stationed sparsely at the vigil’s sidelines received festive foods along with the protesters.

Most Western churches observed Easter on April 9, but Orthodox Christians in Georgia, Russia and elsewhere follow a different calendar.

“It is the most extraordinary Easter I have ever witnessed. The feeling of solidarity is overwhelming, but we should not forget about the main issue,” activist Lika Chachua told The Associated Press, referring to the proposed legislation.

The legislature approved a second reading of the bill Wednesday. The third and final reading is expected later this month.

The proposal is nearly identical to a measure that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw last year after large street protests.

Georgian Dream argues the bill is necessary to stem what it deems as harmful foreign influence over the country’s political scene and to prevent unidentified foreign actors from trying to destabilize the country’s political scene.

But EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has described the parliament’s move as “a very concerning development” and warned that “final adoption of this legislation would negatively impact Georgia’s progress on its EU path.”

Russia-Georgia relations have been strained and turbulent since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the two fought a brief war in 2008 that ended with Georgia losing control over two Russia-friendly separatist regions. In the aftermath, Tbilisi severed diplomatic ties with Moscow, and the issue of the regions’ status remains a key irritant, even as relations have somewhat improved.

The opposition United National Movement accuses Georgian Dream, which was founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who made his fortune in Russia, of serving Moscow’s interests. The governing party vehemently denies that.
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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has recorded its wettest April since 1961, with more than double the usual rainfall for the month, the national weather center said.

The country experienced days of extreme weather in April that killed scores of people and destroyed property and farmland. Experts said Pakistan witnessed heavier rains because of climate change.

Last month’s rainfall for Pakistan was a 164% increase from the usual level for April, according to a report published Friday by Pakistan’s national weather center.

The intense downpours affected the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the southwestern Baluchistan provinces the most.

Devastating summer floods in 2022 killed at least 1,700 people, destroyed millions of homes, wiped out swaths of farmland and caused billions of dollars in economic losses in a matter of months.

At one point, a third of the country was underwater. Pakistani leaders and many scientists worldwide blamed climate change for the unusually early and heavy monsoon rains.
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ISLAMABAD — An Afghan diplomat in India, who was appointed before the Taliban seized power in 2021 and said she was the only woman in the country’s diplomatic service, has resigned after reports emerged of her being detained for allegedly smuggling gold.

Zakia Wardak, the Afghan consul-general for Mumbai, announced her resignation on her official account on the social media platform X on Saturday after Indian media reported last week that she was briefly detained at the city’s airport on allegations of smuggling 25 bricks of gold, each weighing 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds), from Dubai.

According to Indian media reports, she has not been arrested because of her diplomatic immunity.

In a statement, Wardak made no mention of her reported detention or gold smuggling allegations but said, “I am deeply sorry that as the only woman present in Afghanistan’s diplomatic apparatus, instead of receiving constructive support to maintain this position, I faced waves of organized attacks aimed at destroying me.”

“Over the past year, I have encountered numerous personal attacks and defamation not only directed towards myself but also towards … close family and extended relatives,” she said.

Wardak said the attacks have “severely impacted my ability to effectively operate in my role and have demonstrated the challenges faced by women in Afghan society.”

The Taliban Foreign Ministry did not immediately return calls for comment on Wardak’s resignation. It wasn’t immediately possible to confirm whether she was the country’s only female diplomat.

She was appointed consul-general of Afghanistan in Mumbai during the former government and was the first Afghan female diplomat to collaborate with the Taliban.

The Taliban — who took over Afghanistan in 2021 during the final weeks of U.S. and NATO withdrawal from the country — have barred women from most areas of public life and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed despite initial promises of a more moderate rule.

They are also restricting women’s access to work, travel and health care if they are unmarried or don’t have a male guardian, and arresting those who don’t comply with the Taliban’s interpretation of hijab, or Islamic headscarf.
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Washington — The United States, boosted by allies and the private sector, is delivering for Pacific islands even if Washington alone cannot match China’s growing footprint, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Friday. 

Blinken spoke after lawmakers in the Solomon Islands, whose warming security relationship with China has sparked alarm in the United States and Australia, choose another Beijing-friendly prime minister.  

“China covers a lot of ground in the Pacific Islands, maybe more ground than we can cover ourselves,” Blinken told the McCain Institute’s Sedona Forum in Arizona. 

But he said that by partnering with like-minded Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and India, “we cover a lot of ground.” 

“You’re seeing that play out in our ability to help deliver some of the things that people in those countries want,” Blinken said. 

“It is often more effective to say to a country — we’re not asking you to choose, we want to give you a better choice.” 

He pointed to an initiative — announced at a summit last year between U.S. President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese — in which Google is building trans-Pacific cables to improve internet connectivity in South Pacific countries. 

The high-speed cables are an alternative to those on offer from China, whose tech companies have been increasingly active in the South Pacific. 

Tensions have eased between the United States and China, with Blinken last month visiting Beijing for the second time in less than a year, but the Biden administration has declared China to be the top long-term rival to U.S. global leadership.  
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PARIS — France’s world-leading cosmetics sector is counting on talks between Xi Jinping and Emmanuel Macron next week to help minimize the impact on French companies of tough new Chinese import rules requiring the sharing of formulas and manufacturing know-how. 

President Xi’s first visit to Europe in five years comes amid a backdrop of tense trade relations, with the European Union threatening China’s electric vehicle and green energy industries with tariffs. 

But progress toward an agreement between France and China on the regulation of cosmetics, including lipstick and fragrances, could be a bright spot in discussions in Paris next week. 

President Macron’s office said ahead of the meeting that cosmetics would be a topic of “great attention,” and that they sought to “find a solution that also protects the interests of our companies.” 

France is the world’s leading cosmetics exporter, shipping nearly 2 billion euros ($2.15 billion) worth of makeup and skin care products to China last year, second in importance only to aerospace products. 

New Chinese safety rules due to come into effect next year threaten that trade. 

From May 2025, cosmetics exporters will be required to share detailed information on their manufacturing processes with Beijing and receive Chinese inspectors in their factories, a measure that raises concerns about losing control of intellectual property. 

Under a plan proposed in talks between the two sides in the past year, French authorities would take responsibility for assuring the safety of some of its exports without the need for Chinese inspections. 

France would grant some similar measures to China, but it was not clear what areas those would cover. 

“This reciprocity will assure the highest standards of safety to Chinese consumers,” said Emmanuel Guichard, secretary general of France’s cosmetics industry association FEBEA, adding that the plan could be formalized during talks between Xi and Macron. 

FEBEA’s members include L’Oreal, LVMH and Coty. 

Under the agreement, France’s consumer and anti-fraud watchdog DGCCRF would ensure the safety of a number of French manufacturers that qualify for “white list” status. 

The agency said in a report issued Friday on its recent activities that it held its first meeting on certification of French cosmetics for export to China with China’s National Medical Products Administration, or NMPA, in December. 

The Elysee did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The DGCCRF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The NMPA could not be reached for comment on a holiday weekend. Sunday is Labor Day in China, recognized as a national holiday. 
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Kolkata, India — Eighteen-year-old Jaya comes from the Munda tribe in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand. She has not seen her father in more than a decade. In 2013, Jaya’s mother — who works as a daily wage laborer in agricultural fields — took her two daughters and fled her marital home in Ranchi, the capital of the state, to settle down instead on land owned by her parents in their village, located in the interiors of Jharkhand.

“My father is an extreme alcoholic and used to get drunk and badly beat up my mother, my sister and me every single day when we lived with him,” Jaya, who asked that her real name not be used to protect her security, told VOA in a phone interview.

According to the fifth National Family Health Survey of India, more than 30% of Indian women belonging to scheduled tribes — tribal and indigenous communities recognized by the government — reportedly have faced physical domestic abuse.

Experts say the problem of domestic violence — physical, emotional, verbal and sexual — is exacerbated in tribal communities because of the deep-rooted culture of alcoholism in certain areas. Most cases go unreported.

Violence in every home

Rashmi Tiwary, founder of Aahan Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that works to prevent gender-based violence in Jharkhand’s tribes, told VOA that 100% of the girls she has worked with have faced or witnessed domestic violence of some kind.

“Domestic abuse has become a part of the tribal social fabric in Jharkhand, and a lot of it is connected to intergenerational alcohol addiction and inherited trauma. Despite being very strong physically, tribal women will often take extreme beatings simply because they think it is the men’s right to abuse them,” said Tiwary.

“Hadiya, an indigenous alcoholic drink prepared with fermented rice, was traditionally used as a coolant in Indian tribal communities. However, now it is produced in every other rural tribal home, using chemicals for quick fermentation and mass selling. For several such socioeconomically underprivileged families, selling Hadiya may be the only source of livelihood — and often seeps into their family’s culture as well,” she said.

Jaya, who resides with her grandparents, maternal uncles and their families, said that she “is not doing very well here, either.”

“My grandfather, who is an agricultural laborer, drinks often to blow off steam after work. But when he gets drunk, he beats up my mother and me very badly. Sometimes he even withholds food from us. No other family member tries to stop him, because this behavior is considered normal,” she told VOA.

Witch hunting

Rishi Kant, co-founder of Shakti Vahini, a New Delhi-based nongovernmental organization that works closely with several tribal communities, told VOA that domestic violence is “ingrained in the culture” of many tribes, and may not always look like what is conventionally understood as such.

“Superstitions prevail in Jharkhand’s tribes, and women and girls often face the brunt of it. A harrowing but common way in which domestic violence manifests in such cases is through witch hunting,” he said.

“If there is a problem in the family, like an illness or unemployment, a woman of the house is blamed — a daughter-in-law, a young girl, an elderly grandmother and so on. She is deemed as ‘possessed,’ beaten up, hung by the limbs from a tree with her body being mutilated,” Kant said.

In 2022, Jharkhand recorded 11 cases of witch hunting that ended in murder, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, or NCRB. Estimates suggest that between 60 to 70 women are killed for “practicing witchcraft” in Jharkhand every year, many of them belonging to indigenous tribes.

With both their parents often under the influence of alcohol, tribal children — especially girls — often become vulnerable to abuse, trauma and, in many cases, human trafficking.

Tiwary told VOA: “When tribal men become alcoholics, they get violent. But for women, Hadiya often leads them to withdraw from their family and neglect their children.

“There have been cases of young girls burning their hands while cooking because no adult in the house would prepare food. We have also encountered children who are beaten up by their mothers when drunk. Simultaneously, tribal girls take active part in preparing Hadiya and serving to customers — it is all a family business. In rare cases, the children partake in drinking, too,” she said.

Generational trauma

Clinical psychologist and trauma therapist Prachi Saxena Vaish said that witnessing regular domestic violence between parents can make a child especially vulnerable to abuse in future relationships.

“An experience of witnessing abusive relationships in early childhood can create a new normal for a child where they learn to associate ‘love’ with abuse. Even if they feel anger and rebellion toward what they are witnessing, they are unable to break away from this normalized abuse to create a healthy prototype of love in their minds,” she told VOA.

“Later, they may become easy victims of abuse in their own future relationships or adopt abusive behaviors themselves toward their partners because they believe that to be an expression of love,” she said.

Aahan Foundation founder Tiwary said that despite the high rates of violence in their families, tribal communities have little to no access to mental health resources.

“At Aahan, we offer free counselling, trauma therapy and dance therapy — all by licensed professionals — for tribal girls and boys. We also provide peer counseling, and with our main goal being to make the child feel loved, valued and protected through education, arts training and sports,” Tiwary said.

“However, Aahan has only reached the tip of the iceberg. We need support from the government and the global community — rehabilitation centers for tribal men and women struggling with alcohol addiction, improved mental health resources and awareness initiatives.”
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VIENTIANE, LAOS — Large numbers of Laotian workers, facing poor economic conditions, are seeking work in Thailand, South Korea and Japan, bringing Laos millions of dollars in repatriated salaries but exposing the workers to debt traps and human trafficking.

Laos has the region’s lowest minimum wage, a problem exacerbated by inflation and a substantially depreciating currency, the kip. It also is increasingly dependent on China because of debt and substantial Chinese investments in Laos’ energy sector.

Meanwhile, government reports say a shortage of skilled workers – which the Energy and Mines Ministry attributes to a “brain drain” and insufficient funding – hampers domestic hydropower and mining projects.

The Lao Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare reported last year that of the 303,391 Lao workers overseas, 100,230 acquired jobs legally, while 203,161 sought employment in neighboring countries without proper permits.

A report published in February by the Vientiane Times said approximately 228,000 Laotians were working in Thailand, including 70,000 without permits.

Another 13,000 were working in South Korea, the report said. These figures do not include large numbers of migrant workers who illegally cross the borders into neighboring countries, especially China.

There is little recorded data available on Lao migrant workers in China. However, it is reported that some Laotians cross the border for weekly and seasonal jobs in China from some districts in the northern Luang Namtha province, according to a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok.

“Such migrant workers use passports and border passes to cross borders but find irregular work in China through Lao and Chinese brokers. The authorities of both countries, as well as their families, are unaware of their status of working and living in China,” the spokesperson said.

“They cannot even locate the specific areas where they are employed and residing. This doubles their vulnerability to the risk of abuse and exploitation.”

Traffickers, he said, use media channels such as TikTok to lure workers and use deception, brokers, and peer pressure to entice them into fraudulent schemes. Many Lao migrant workers are routinely promised good-paying jobs in online services or in cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, the primary challenge for work migration to South Korea is that Laotian migrant workers must pay all the costs before departure, including domestic travel, new passports — which can take months to obtain — and recruitment agency fees. Workers also must pay back the agencies, which deduct extra fees from their monthly salaries, the IOM spokesperson told VOA.

A 19-year-old recent high school graduate from Luang Prabang told VOA he could make about $560 a month in South Korea, more than twice what he could make in Laos.

He said his brothers, all with bachelor’s degrees, are barely making $375 a month and had advised him to skip college and find a job abroad. In October, Laos raised its minimum wage from $61 per month to $75 in the face of inflation, which hit 40% last year and was around 25% in this year’s first quarter.

Government’s financial gains from migrant workers

Lao workers abroad send back to Laos an average of over $35.5 million monthly, totaling $426 million annually, according to government reports from mid-2023.

In July, Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone highlighted the importance of remittances for the Lao government, announcing initiatives to promote employment opportunities domestically and internationally by decentralizing job placement centers, modernizing job search services, and promoting self-employment.

“We’ve established 18 job placement service points at the provincial level, 36 at the district level, and engaged four domestic and foreign job placement service enterprises,” Sonexay  told the National Assembly.

“Efforts include modernizing the job search service mechanism, connecting databases of Lao and foreign workers, and integrating worker salary information with systems like TaxRis,” he said, referring to the government’s tax collection system.

Additionally, in October, Laos and South Korea initiated a project to streamline cross-border money transfers, with plans for expansion to Thailand and Japan, led by the Lao Labor Ministry, the Bank of Laos, Lao Foreign Commercial Bank, and South Korea’s Global Loyalty Network Company.

Not cost-free

These benefits to Laos come at a cost, though.

Despite promised higher pay for work abroad, deceptive recruitment practices often lead to exploitation and debt bondage because of upfront fees and unclear agreements, said Matthew Friedman, head of the Hong Kong-based Mekong Club, an antislavery organization.

“They often don’t really know what they’re getting into. They then sign agreements without fully understanding what they’re signing or interest rates and fees,” Friedman said from his temporary location in Singapore.

In South Korea, typically Seoul or Busan, workers become ensnared by debt, unable to leave until debts are cleared, he said.

Lao workers, mostly young adults or teenagers who are increasingly migrating to Thailand in search of higher-paying jobs as construction workers, waiters, or maids, often face exploitation and unsafe conditions, according to the IOM.

Despite legal employment agreements between Thailand and Laos, illegal migration continues as loopholes within the legislative frameworks and tracking systems of both countries facilitate the entry of undocumented workers.

The most recent case, on March 3, unfolded in Udon Thani, in northeast Thailand about 75 kilometers from the Laotian border, where local police rescued an 18-year-old Lao woman working as a maid from alleged severe abuse by her employer.
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WASHINGTON — Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and his wife were indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges and taken into custody Friday in connection with a U.S. Department of Justice probe into the couple’s ties to the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.

From 2014 to 2021, Cuellar, 68, and his wife allegedly accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico, according to the indictment. In exchange, Cuellar is accused of agreeing to advance the interests of the country and the bank in the U.S., also according to the indictment.

Among other things, Cuellar agreed to influence legislation favorable to Azerbaijan and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the U.S. House, the indictment states.

The Department of Justice said the couple surrendered to authorities on Friday and were taken into custody. They made an initial appearance before a federal judge in Houston and were each released on $100,000 bond, the DOJ said.

The longtime congressman released a statement Friday saying he and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, 67, “are innocent of these allegations.”

Neither Cuellar nor his attorney immediately responded to calls seeking comment on the matter.

In addition to bribery and conspiracy, the couple face charges including wire fraud conspiracy, acting as agents of foreign principals and money laundering. If convicted, they face up to decades in prison and forfeiture of any property linked to proceeds from the alleged scheme.

The payments to the couple initially went through a Texas-based shell company owned by Imelda Cuellar and two of the couple’s children, according to the indictment. That company received payments from the Azerbaijan energy company of $25,000 per month under a contract, purportedly in exchange for unspecified strategic consulting and advising services.

“In reality, the contract was a sham used to disguise and legitimate the corrupt agreement between Henry Cuellar and the government of Azerbaijan,” the indictment states.

The indictment also alleges an Azerbaijani diplomat referred to Henry Cuellar in text messages as “boss” and also that a member of Cuellar’s staff sent multiple emails to officials at the Department of State pressuring them to renew a U.S. passport for an Azerbaijani diplomat’s daughter.

Cuellar was at one time the co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus.

The FBI searched the congressman’s house in the border city of Laredo in 2022, and Cuellar’s attorney at that time said Cuellar was not the target of that investigation. That search was part of a broader investigation related to Azerbaijan that saw FBI agents serve a raft of subpoenas and conduct interviews in Washington and Texas, a person with direct knowledge of the probe previously told The Associated Press. 
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The latest global press freedom rankings from media watchdog Reporters Without Borders present a discouraging picture, including a lack of political will to defend a free press. Afghanistan, Argentina and the U.S. are among countries whose rank fell. For VOA, Cristina Caicedo Smit has the story.
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OTTAWA — An official probe found evidence of foreign interference in Canada’s last two federal elections, but the results of the votes were not affected, and the electoral system was robust, according to initial findings released on Friday.

The findings in the interim report confirm Trudeau’s assertion that China tried to meddle in the elections to no avail. The commission will release its final report by the end of this year. Beijing has repeatedly denied any interference.

“Acts of foreign interference did occur during the last two federal general elections, but they did not undermine the integrity of our electoral system,” said commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue, who is leading the independent public inquiry.

The Foreign Interference Commission was set up last year by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government under pressure from opposition legislators unhappy about media reports on China’s possible role in the elections. The commission is mandated to investigate allegations of foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections.

“Our system remains sound. Voters were able to cast their ballots, their votes were duly registered and counted, and there is nothing to suggest that there was any interference whatsoever in this regard,” Hogue said in a statement.

“Nonetheless, the acts of interference that occurred are a stain on our electoral process and impacted the process leading up to the actual vote,” she said.
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OTTAWA — Canadian police charged three people on Friday with the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the province of British Columbia in June 2023, Canadian media said, citing court documents. 

Nijjar, 45, was shot to death outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. 

The news of his death came days after the White House expressed concern about the reported role of the Indian intelligence service in assassination plots in Canada and the United States. 

The presence of Sikh separatist groups in Canada has long frustrated New Delhi. Nijjar was labeled a terrorist by India. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in September that Canadian authorities were pursuing allegations linking Indian government agents to the death of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen. New Delhi rejected Trudeau’s claim as absurd. 

CTV and Global News first reported the news of those arrested on Friday, with CTV saying all three were Indian nationals. 

Neither the RCMP nor the Indian mission in Ottawa were immediately available for comment. 

Canada had been pressing India to cooperate in its investigation. 

Last November, U.S. authorities said an Indian government official had directed the plot in the attempted murder of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada. 

Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, in charge of Canadian law enforcement agencies, did not directly confirm the arrests but told reporters the probe into Nijjar’s murder was “still an active police operation.” 

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation earlier cited a source saying investigators had identified the suspects in Canada some months ago and had been keeping them under tight surveillance. 
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Bangkok — Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, says press freedom in Asia continues to see a decline, with 26 out of 31 countries falling on its annual index.

According to the group’s latest press freedom index, Asia is the second-most difficult region for practicing journalism. Five countries in the region — Myanmar, China, North Korea and Vietnam — are among the world’s 10 most dangerous countries for media professionals in the 2024 rankings.

There are no countries in the Asia-Pacific region in the top 15 ranking for press freedom.

China, North Korea and Vietnam, three of the world’s remaining communist governments, have long been near the bottom of RSF’s press freedom index ranking of 180 countries. This year, China was ranked 172, Vietnam 174 and North Korea 177.

Overall, it’s the countries and territories that have shown a drop in press freedom in recent years that have contributed to East Asia becoming a difficult place for media to operate.

Hong Kong was once a model for press freedom in the Asia region, but the city’s ranking recently dropped from 80 to 148 following political unrest and new laws that affect media freedoms.

Since the Beijing-imposed national security law came into force in 2020, at least a dozen media outlets have closed. Beijing says the law has been necessary to stabilize the city following mass political unrest in 2019.

Aleksandra Bielakowska, an advocacy officer at RSF, said Hong Kong’s media freedoms still haven’t improved.

“The worst for Hong Kong is the political and legal factors. Hong Kong’s position is very low; the situation remains very difficult,” she told VOA.

Hong Kong is in the middle of two high-profile national security trials. Jimmy Lai, the media mogul and founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, faces national security charges for “collusion with foreign forces” that could see him sentenced to life in prison. Stand News, which ceased operations in 2021 after a police raid, is also on trial, with its chief editors facing charges under Hong Kong’s colonial-era sedition law. The verdict was recently postponed until August.

Hong Kong’s Justice Secretary Paul Lam recently said that press freedom still exists in the city and that media can criticize the government.

But Emily Lau, a former journalist and former chair of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, said many reporters are unsure whether that is the case.

“There is concern. I don’t know whether that is reassuring. Journalists themselves are concerned. People are not sure whether it is really true,” she told VOA.

Due to the sensitivity of the cases and concerns over press freedom, several media experts in Hong Kong declined to speak to VOA when requested.

Although RSF ranked Hong Kong up five spots to 135 in 2024, that doesn’t mean press freedoms have improved.

“The reasons for that are because of the movement of other countries inside the index itself,” Bielakowska said.

RSF said the deteriorated media environments in Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea, which are the bottom three countries of the rankings, have pushed other countries further up the list.

The same can be applied with Myanmar. The new RSF rankings puts Myanmar up two places to 171, but it doesn’t mean press freedom is improving.

Today, the Southeast Asian country is the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists, only behind China, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Following a military coup led by General Min Aung Hlaing and his troops in 2021, Myanmar’s junta has been accused of arbitrary arrests, harassment and torture, while at least four journalists have been killed by the military, rights groups say.

At least a dozen media outlets have had their licenses revoked by the military government in three years, while hundreds of journalists have been arrested.

Media outlets who are allowed to legally report in Myanmar must be registered with the military government to operate. But registering for press accreditation means journalists must provide the junta with their personal details, which discourages them from doing so over fear of arrest. For the journalists who have continued to report, they have had to work “undercover” to avoid being targeted by military personnel.

Aung Naing Soe, a Myanmar reporter, said journalists are a “primary threat” toward the military’s attempts to rule.

“The junta arrests not only journalists but everyone against them. They see journalists as one of their primary threats since before the coup,” he told VOA.

Since the junta attempted to rule, ousted politicians formed a civilian-led government, while civilian defense forces and ethnic political groups have taken up arms against the military.

But Aung Naing Soe, who is also the filmmaker of the documentary “Undaunted” —about the uprising against military rule — added that the difficulties in reporting come from both sides.

“Everybody knows the risks from the military’s intimidation. We expected a little bit of press freedom from the revolutionary groups, but lately we’ve started seeing some [rebel] groups attempt to control the media,” he said.

“Like everyone else in the country, Myanmar journalists are getting tired. Sometimes we don’t have any energy left to write a short story or make a short interview. We’re all emotionally drained.”

There was some encouraging news for media freedom in East Asia. Thailand saw the biggest jump in the 2024 rankings, moving up 19 spaces to 87. Thailand’s security performance was one of the main reasons for the jump, according to Bielakowska.

“There was less violence than in other years, and the electoral campaign for the general elections of May 2023 did not result in demonstrations of violence against journalists,” she said.

On the other hand, she said that despite the political transition, there has not been notable improvement in the overall political environment.
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ISLAMABAD — A bomb blast in southwestern Pakistan ripped through the car of a regional journalist Friday, killing him and two passersby on World Press Freedom Day.

Local police said that the afternoon attack in the Khuzdar district of Baluchistan province injured seven people, mostly passersby. They identified the slain journalist as Siddique Mengal, the district press club president, and said he apparently was the target.

Ghulam Mustafa Rind, an area police officer, told VOA by phone that Mengal was wheeling slowly through a busy crossing when an unidentified motorcyclist attached a homemade magnetic bomb to his vehicle.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said in a statement that he “expressed deep sorrow and grief over the martyrdom” of Mengal.

No group immediately claimed reasonability for the bombing in natural resources-rich Baluchistan, which has lately experienced almost daily attacks mostly claimed by ethnic Baluch insurgents. Militants loyal to the Islamic State terrorist group and the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, are also active in the province.

Pakistani security forces are also accused of targeting critics of their counterinsurgency operations in the province with attacks and enforced disappearances.

Friday’s attack is yet another instance of the dangers that journalists face in their line of work in Pakistan, both from government forces and militants. Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, which promotes press freedom globally, lists Pakistan as “one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with three to four murders each year that are often linked to cases of corruption or illegal trafficking and which go completely unpunished.”

RSF’s annual World Press Freedom Index, released Friday, dropped Pakistan’s ranking from 150 to 152 in 2024, indicating a worsening situation for press freedom in the country. The index assesses the level of freedom available to journalists and media outlets in various countries.

Death threats

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, on Friday urged Pakistan to immediately investigate death threats and online harassment targeting a prominent television anchor, Hamid Mir.

The global press freedom advocate said in a statement that Mir, who hosts the flagship political show “Capital Talk” on Geo News and has survived at least two previous assassination attempts, told CPJ that he had received multiple death threats on social media and warnings that his life was in danger from two journalists familiar with the situation.

Mir, who has 8.4 million followers on his social media platform X, posted a video of Friday’s attack in Khuzdar, with an accompanying comment that suggested the violence could be “a message to all independent journalists” in Pakistan.

“The threats and online hate campaign against one of Pakistan’s most prominent television anchors illustrate the severity of intimidation and pressure faced by journalists in Pakistan,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ Asia program coordinator. She called on Pakistani security agencies to urgently act against those trying to silence Mir and hold them accountable.

Pakistan ranked 11th on CPJ’s 2023 Global Impunity Index, which ranks countries by how often the killers of journalists go unpunished.

Sharif, in a statement on World Press Freedom Day, said that his government was determined to ensure the safety of Pakistani journalists, stating that freedom of expression “is the foundation of democracy and protection of civil rights.”
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