DruamAmericas

Federal judge pauses Trump order restricting gender-affirming care for trans youth

BALTIMORE — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s recent executive order aimed at restricting gender-affirming health care for transgender people under age 19.

The judge’s ruling came after a lawsuit was filed earlier this month on behalf of families with transgender or nonbinary children who allege their health care has been compromised by the president’s order. A national group for family of LGBTQ+ people and a doctors organization are also plaintiffs in the court challenge, one of many lawsuits opposing one of the many executive orders Trump has issued.

Judge Brendan Hurson, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden, granted the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order following a hearing in federal court in Baltimore. The ruling, in effect for 14 days, essentially puts Trump’s directive on hold while the case proceeds. The restraining order could also be extended.

Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order directing federally run insurance programs to exclude coverage for gender-affirming care. That includes Medicaid, which covers such services in some states, and TRICARE for military families. Trump’s order also called on the Department of Justice to vigorously pursue litigation and legislation to oppose the practice.

The lawsuit includes several accounts from families of appointments being canceled as medical institutions react to the new directive.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue Trump’s executive order is “unlawful and unconstitutional” because it seeks to withhold federal funds previously authorized by Congress and because it violates anti-discrimination laws while infringing on the rights of parents.

Like legal challenges to state bans on gender-affirming care, the lawsuit also alleges the policy is discriminatory because it allows federal funds to cover the same treatments when they’re not used for gender transition.

Some hospitals immediately paused gender-affirming care, including prescriptions for puberty blockers and hormone therapy, while they assess how the order affects them.

Trump’s approach on the issue represents an abrupt change from the Biden administration, which sought to explicitly extend civil rights protections to transgender people. Trump has used strong language in opposing gender-affirming care, asserting falsely that “medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex.”

Major medical groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics support access to gender-affirming care.

Young people who persistently identify as a gender that differs from their sex assigned at birth are first evaluated by a team of professionals. Some may try a social transition, involving changing a hairstyle or pronouns. Some may later also receive puberty blockers or hormones. Surgery is extremely rare for minors.
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DruchinaChina

Trump wants denuclearization talks with Russia and China, hopes for defense spending cuts

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he wants to restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China and that eventually he hopes all three countries could agree to cut their massive defense budgets in half.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump lamented the hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in rebuilding the nation’s nuclear deterrent and said he hopes to gain commitments from the U.S. adversaries to cut their own spending.

“There’s no reason for us to be building brand-new nuclear weapons. We already have so many,” Trump said. “You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons.”

“We’re all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully, much more productive,” Trump said.

While the U.S. and Russia have held massive stockpiles of weapons since the Cold War, Trump predicted that China would catch up in its capability to exact nuclear devastation “within five or six years.”

He said if the weapons were ever called to use, “that’s going to be probably oblivion.” 

Trump said he would look to engage in nuclear talks with the two countries once “we straighten it all out” in the Middle East and Ukraine.

“One of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi [Jinping] of China, President [Vladimir] Putin of Russia. And I want to say, ‘Let’s cut our military budget in half.’ And we can do that. And I think we’ll be able to.”

Trump in his first term tried and failed to bring China into nuclear arms reduction talks when the U.S. and Russia were negotiating an extension of a pact known as New START. Russia suspended its participation in the treaty during the Biden administration, as the U.S. and Russia continued on massive programs to extend the lifespans or replace their Cold War-era nuclear arsenals.
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DruasiaAsia

Global AI race is on, world leaders say at Paris summit

At this week’s Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, world leaders and technologists gathered to discuss the rapidly evolving field of generative artificial intelligence. Many are eager to join the global AI race, while others are proceeding with caution. Tina Trinh reports.
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DruafAfrica

AI-driven biometric fraud surges in Africa, fueling financial crimes

Nairobi, Kenya — A new report says the emergence of cheap artificial intelligence tools is leading to a wave of biometric fraud in Africa. The report says fraudsters are using AI to create fake documents, voices, and images that facilitate identity theft and financial crimes. 

In July 2024, Japhet Ndubi, a Kenyan journalist, lost his phone and could not trace it. He replaced the SIM card, bought a new phone, and went on with his life.

Four days later, while on a lunch break, he received a text alerting him that he had sent money to a certain number.

“Now I am using a new phone. When I saw money was sent to a certain number, I was surprised because I have my phone here. I called Safaricom to inquire, ‘How come some money is sent to a certain number without my authorization?’ It’s when they told me, ‘Are you sure you are not the one who has withdrawn? Because we see a transaction has been carried out and sent to this number, and we can see you have used your fingerprints to withdraw the money,’” he said.

The fraudsters even took out a loan that took him months to pay off. Authorities never made an arrest even though his phone was recovered.

Nudbi was a victim of biometric fraud — a type of criminal activity where someone copies another person’s unique characteristics, like their voice or fingerprints, to impersonate them and gain access to their devices or financial accounts.

Smile ID is a U.S.-based company with offices in Kenya that develops software to protect people’s privacy. A report it released late last month says cases of document forgery and deepfakes are on the rise across Africa, as are simpler phishing attempts — all in an effort to steal money from innocent victims.

The Smile ID researchers found that fraudsters especially targeted vulnerable people in low-literacy regions through phishing, data breaches, and making purchases through illicit sources.

Stolen data is then exploited to create fraudulent bank accounts to be used for money laundering operations.

Joshua Kumah, a Ghanaian, received a fake text claiming that money had been transferred to his mobile banking account. The text led to him losing control of his account and SIM card.

“The person told me to follow a short code that the money would be transferred back to him, so I did that without paying attention to the details. So, by the time I realized it was already too late, I had already given him access to my sim card, so I had to report to cancel that sim card. So, I lost the money I had on that sim. I had to start all over again,” he said.

Ndubi is still in shock at how his fingerprints were used to access money through his mobile phone. He says that has changed how he uses the device.

“I was very surprised that they were able to use fingerprints, and I kept asking the telecom provider how they were able to access it but they were not able to tell me. So, I even lost faith in the Mpesa mobile banking application; actually, I have never used it,” he said.

To prevent fraud, authorities and businesses now sometimes insist that people present themselves physically and produce valid identification cards to prove their identities.

As for average Kenyans, many are trying to avoid using mobile apps on their phones, and are checking with banks and telecom operators about any transactions made in and out of their accounts. 
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DruamAmericas

US aircraft carrier collides with merchant ship near Egypt

WASHINGTON — The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman was involved in a collision at sea with a merchant vessel near Port Said, Egypt, the Navy said Thursday.

The collision occurred late Wednesday while both ships were moving. It did not result in flooding or injuries aboard the carrier, and there was no damage to the ship’s propulsion systems, the Navy said in a statement.

None of the crew on the merchant ship, the Besiktas-M, were injured either, according to a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that had not yet been made public.

The Truman, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, deployed in September to the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It had just completed a port call in Souda Bay, Greece.
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DruasiaAsia

Trump hosts India’s leader, pushes US defense, energy sales

THE WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on Thursday, where administration officials say he will seek to boost U.S. defense and energy sales and further strengthen Washington’s relationship with the world’s most-populous nation as China flexes its muscles in the region.

“We will aim to build on defense sales to India to ensure they are prioritizing the use of American technology,” said an administration official in a briefing with reporters Thursday morning. As is custom when briefing journalists, the official is not being named.

“The president is also focused on unleashing American energy to the rest of the world and will prioritize India as a key importer of America’s natural resources to power their economy,” the official said. “The two leaders will discuss how we can improve our trade relationship that brings down our bilateral trade deficit and ensure an expanded fair-trade relationship.”

When asked directly about New Delhi’s largest concern — of being caught in the wave of reciprocal tariffs Trump has recently imposed as part of an escalating trade war with the world — a second administration official said, “What you’ll see coming out of a meeting today is further momentum towards a solidified, fair — and I emphasize that word ‘fair’ — bilateral trade arrangement between our two dynamic and growing economies. And the hope would be to have such a deal in place in the calendar year 2025.”

That official also touted announcements on “semiconductors, critical minerals, supply chain resilience and diversification.”

Modi said on X that he was “looking forward to meeting @POTUS Donald Trump and building upon the India-USA Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. Our nations will keep working closely for the benefit of our people and for a better future for our planet.”

Analysts say China also looms large in these talks, and the White House added that the two leaders would discuss the elevation of the Quad grouping of the United States, India, Australia and Japan.

“The sharp deterioration in India-China relations after the 2020 Galwan Valley incident,” in which Indian and Chinese troops clashed over road construction in disputed territory, “undoubtedly encouraged New Delhi to be more enthusiastic about its strategic partnership with Washington,” said Daniel Markey, a senior adviser at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

And India-focused analyst Rick Rossow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told VOA about India’s goals.

“As President Trump kind of initiates a trade war against the world, India’s got bigger stakes than a lot of countries do in that, and they need to make sure that the relations remain stable,” Rossow said. “So, they want to be here. They want to be in front. They want to talk about things they can buy from the United States. They want to talk about policies they can resolve and try to make sure that things remain on an even keel, because this relationship, it’s important for us. It’s vital for India.”

VOA’s Paris Huang contributed to this report.
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DruasiaAsia

Thai lawyers’ council to investigate alleged killing by soldiers

Bangkok — An influential lawyers’ association in Thailand said Thursday it is launching an investigation into the alleged killing of a Myanmar man by Thai soldiers last year, a move it says could lead to lawsuits against any officers involved.

The Lawyers Council of Thailand, which accredits the country’s attorneys, announced the probe after accepting a formal complaint about the case from Fortify Rights, an international advocacy group that previously carried out an investigation into the case.

In a report published last year, Fortify Rights alleged that three unidentified soldiers brutally beat Aung Ko Ko to death with bamboo rods in Baan Tai village, near the Myanmar border, on January 12, 2024, after disputing his membership in a security patrol team made up of local civilians.

The courts never charged any soldiers in the case, but convicted another civilian and Myanmar national, Sirachuch, who goes by one name, with manslaughter in September. Fortify Rights claims Sirachuch is being used as a scapegoat. Sirachuch has said he saw the soldiers attack Aung Ko Ko.

“After the Lawyers Council has taken the complaint, we will then investigate the nature and circumstances of the death of Aung Ko Ko. After that, we will take appropriate legal action,” Council President Wichien Chubthaisong told a press conference in Bangkok announcing the move.

“We will set up a subcommittee to conduct a fact-finding operation, hoping this will lead to the consideration of legal aid services and ensure that justice prevails for the family of Aung Ko Ko,” he added.

“Everyone has the right to have their human rights protected and respected under the law. Citizens in general should not be punished arbitrarily,” the chairman said.

Afterward, Wichien told VOA the evidence that Fortify Rights has gathered implicating the army appeared credible and that the council could pursue civil or criminal charges against any soldiers it identifies as suspects.

“With credible evidence and a strong case, I think what we can continue to do is to prosecute other people involved in this case,” he said.

Neither the Royal Thai Armed Forces nor the Royal Thai Police, which investigated Aung Ko Ko’s death last year and filed the charges that led to Sirachuch’s conviction, replied to VOA’s requests for comment.

Fortify Rights says the army has denied any responsibility for Aung Ko Ko’s death, both to local media and a House of Representatives committee hearing, claiming he was tortured on the Myanmar side of the border before his body was dumped on Thai soil.

The rights group denies the army’s claim and says it undermines the authorities’ case against Sirachuch, which rests on Thailand having jurisdiction over an attack by Sirachuch on Aung Ko Ko in Thailand.

Sirachuch, who is now serving a prison sentence of three years and four months, confessed to striking Aung Ko Ko once on the back and twice on the shins.

Fortify Rights, though, says that falls well short of manslaughter. It says the post-mortem report by the hospital that examined Aung Ko Ko’s body states he died of “head injuries caused by physical assault,” and that three eyewitnesses to the attack, Sirachuch included, claim it was the soldiers who beat Aung Ko Ko on the head.

“This is a grave miscarriage of justice at multiple levels and we are very heartened to see Thai leaders like Dr. Wichien willing to take a closer look at this case,” Fortify Rights CEO Matthew Smith said at Thursday’s press conference.

Afterward, Smith said his group pursued the council’s help because of its influence and connections with Thai authorities, especially its links to the Department of Special Investigation, or DSI. The department is a special Ministry of Justice unit that investigates some of the country’s highest profile and sensitive cases, including those that may involve public corruption and abuse of power. Wichien is on the department’s board of special cases, which guides its work and is chaired by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

“So, the fact that the Lawyers Council is willing to take a closer look at this case, we hope, is one important step closer to DSI also doing a formal investigation,” Smith told VOA.

“This is the type of situation where DSI can get involved and actually uncover the truth and ensure actual justice takes place,” he added. “In some ways, DSI can unravel coverups, and DSI has the skills and ability and the influence and power to ensure justice in these really difficult cases.”

In its report on Aung Ko Ko’s death, Fortify Rights says it interviewed 23 people during its investigation, including witnesses, acquaintances and relatives, and spoke with local police. It says he had been living in Thailand for many years and was a well-known member of the community’s civilian security team, known locally as Chor Ror Bor, which is trained and organized by Thai authorities.

The report says the soldiers who detained Aung Ko Ko the day he died, and who later beat him, disputed his membership in the team, even after other members arrived to vouch for him. After the attack, it adds, Aung Ko Ko, badly bruised and bloodied, was being helped to the Myanmar border by other locals, on orders from the soldiers, when he collapsed and died of his wounds.
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DruafAfrica

UNICEF says armed men in eastern DR Congo raped hundreds of children

Dakar, Senegal — Armed men in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo raped hundreds of children and recruited child soldiers at unprecedented levels, the U.N. children’s fund said Thursday, as the conflict in the mineral-rich region intensified in recent weeks.

“In the North and South Kivu provinces, we are receiving horrific reports of grave violations against children by parties to the conflict, including rape and other forms of sexual violence at levels surpassing anything we have seen in recent years,” UNICEF’s Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

“One mother recounted to our staff how her six daughters, the youngest just 12 years old, were systematically raped by armed men while searching for food,” Russell added.

More than 100 armed groups are vying for control of Congo’s mineral-rich east in a decades-long conflict that has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. The M23 rebels — the most prominent armed group in the region— captured Goma, the region’s largest city, in late January in a major escalation of the yearslong fighting with government forces.

During the week of Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, health facilities in the restive region reported 572 rape cases, a more than fivefold increase compared to the previous week, Lianne Gutcher, Chief of Communications at UNICEF in the Democratic Republic of Congo, told The Associated Press. 170 of those treated were children, she added.

Armed men perpetrated the rapes but it was unclear what specific armed group or army they belonged to, Gutcher said. “It is suspected that all parties to the conflict committed sexual violence,” she added.

Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Council launched a commission that will investigate the atrocities, including rapes and summary executions, committed by both Congo’s army and M23 in eastern Congo since the beginning of the year.

On Monday, 84 Congolese soldiers accused of murder, rape and other crimes against civilians in the country’s conflict-battered east were put on trial.
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DruasiaAsia

Pakistan, Turkey to boost strategic ties

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan and Turkey pledged to deepen cooperation in defense, mining, energy and other sectors during the seventh round of the Pakistan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council in Islamabad on Thursday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan co-chaired the highest-level bilateral discussion forum with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

After the closed-door delegation-level talks Thursday, the two sides exchanged 24 signed documents, including a joint declaration, a few agreements, and several memoranda of understanding.

“We have agreed to further strengthen our relations,” Erdogan said in remarks broadcast live after the talks.

The text of the joint declaration was not released. However, a brief statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “gives a roadmap for further deepening, diversifying and institutionalizing the strategic partnership between Pakistan and Turkey.”

Sharif and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari welcomed the Turkish leader Wednesday night at a military airbase near the capital with much fanfare.

From a 21-gun salute to a fighter jet flyby and traditional Pakistani dancers on the motorcade’s route, to a special song honoring Erdogan blaring across TV channels, Islamabad pulled out all the stops for the Turkish president, who returned after five years for a brief visit ending Thursday night.

Broad cooperation

Both sides agreed to cooperate in air force electronic warfare and to collaborate on defense production, with a memorandum of understanding, or MoU, signed between Turkey’s Secretariat of Defense Industries and Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense Production and another MoU between Turkey’s state-owned Aerospace Industries and Pakistan’s Naval Research and Development Institute.

Over the last decade Pakistan and Turkey have ramped up defense production cooperation. That cooperation includes joint production of four MILGEM corvette warships for delivery to Pakistan, helping the South Asian country upgrade its aging fighter jet fleet, and the sharing and transfer of defense technologies.

Pakistan and Turkey also agreed to upgrade their existing trade agreement and reiterated a past pledge to boost annual bilateral trade volume to $5 billion from roughly $1.5 billion. In May 2023, the two signed a Preferential Trade Agreement, reducing Pakistani tariffs on 130 product categories, while Turkey cut down tariffs on 261 product lines.

Sharif announced Turkish firms will build a special economic zone in Pakistan for industrial production, despite Pakistan’s struggle to attract investment to special economic zones set up as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Both sides agreed on a protocol to amend their existing agreement of cooperation in the field of hydrocarbons and signed an MoU to help Pakistan’s energy transition. The South Asian country is aiming to decrease reliance on expensive foreign fuel and transition to affordable and abundant green energy.

Pakistan reached an MoU with Turkey on mining cooperation as well, a sector Islamabad is anxious to bring foreign investment to.

Under the bilateral strategic cooperation council, six joint standing committees cover a broad array of sectors, including trade, investment, banking, finance, culture, tourism, energy, defense, agriculture, transportation, communication, IT, health, science and technology, and education. Both sides signed cooperation documents in almost all the fields.

In his brief remarks after the talks, Sharif pledged to fight terrorism jointly with Turkey. The Pakistani leader then singled out Afghanistan as a source of the violence.

“Afghanistan is a neighboring country, and we expect that Afghanistan will cooperate in fighting terrorism and not spreading terrorism and in that we are together,” Sharif said.

Although Erdogan expressed support for Pakistan’s fight against terrorism in his remarks, the Turkish leader stopped short of naming Afghanistan as a root cause. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers reject accusation of harboring anti-Pakistan fighters on their soil.

Critical timing

The two allies held their highest-level dialogue at a critical time in the Middle East.

“We discussed not only our bilateral relations but also regional and global developments extensively,” Erdogan said.

The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria has strengthened Ankara’s position in the region, but it has also put Turkey in direct competition with Israel, whose troops have advanced into Syrian territory.

“Turkey understands that increasing defense and strategic ties with countries like Pakistan, another established middle-sized defense power, are even more for interest for Turkey,” Umer Karim, a researcher at the University of Birmingham, told VOA.

“Sharing bilateral defense production technologies and learning is a key aspect,” Karim said.

The civil war in Syria also has deeply affected militancy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Fighters from those countries fought alongside Syrian militias. But Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, a regional offshoot of the terror outfit IS, has brought more violence to the two South Asian neighbors.

With Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, now controlling Syria, security observers say Ankara and Islamabad need help from each other to manage nonstate actors.

“With Shia militias and movement from various nonstate actors, from Sunni militias moving into Syria as well, and now that the conflict has subsided, their ultimate return and its impact on the region is going to play a tremendous amount of role,” Iftikhar Firdaus, editor of The Khorasan Diary, told VOA. The online platform monitors militant activity.

A delegation of Turkish corporate leaders joined Erdogan on the visit to boost trade ties with Pakistan. Sharif and Erdogan also addressed the Pakistan-Turkey Business Forum in Islamabad on Thursday.

“Turkey can explore Pakistan in two ways,” Khurram Schehzad, advisor to Pakistan’s finance minister, told VOA. “One is as an investment corridor; the second is that Pakistan can become Turkey’s export hub into the Asia-Pacific region.”

Schehzad acknowledged that despite deep strategic and people-to-people ties, Pakistan and Turkey have failed to develop a strong economic relationship.

“What I would like to have is, how the follow-up is done post-MoUs and how that MoU is converted into value,” Schehzad said.

The previous session of the Pakistan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council was held in Islamabad in February 2020.
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DruchinaChina

China’s fuel demand may have passed its peak, IEA says

London — China’s demand for road and air transport fuels may have passed its peak, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday, citing data showing that the country’s consumption of gasoline, gasoil and jet fuel declined marginally in 2024. 

Combined consumption of the three fuels in China last year was at 8.1 million barrels per day (bpd), which was 200,000 bpd lower than in 2021 and only narrowly above 2019 levels, the IEA said in a monthly report. 

“This strongly suggests that fuel use in the country has already reached a plateau and may even have passed its peak,” it said. 

After decades of leading global oil demand growth, China’s contribution is sputtering as it faces economic challenges as well as making a shift to electric vehicles (EVs). 

The decline in China’s fuel demand is likely to accelerate over the medium term, which would be enough to generate a plateau in total China oil demand this decade, according to the Paris-based IEA. 

“This remarkable slowdown in consumption growth has been achieved by a combination of structural changes in China’s economy and the rapid deployment of alternative transportation technologies,” the IEA said. 

A slump in China’s construction sector and weaker consumer spending reduced fuel demand in the country, it said, adding that uptake of EVs also weighed.  

New EVs currently account for half of car sales and undercut around 250,000-300,000 bpd of oil demand growth in 2024, while use of compressed and liquified natural gas in road freight displaced around 150,000 bpd, it said. 
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DruamAmericas

Chinese apps face scrutiny in US but users keep scrolling 

Seoul — As a high school junior in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, Daneel Kutsenko never gave much thought to China.

Last month, though, as the U.S. government prepared to ban TikTok – citing national security concerns about its Chinese ownership – Kutsenko downloaded RedNote, another Chinese video-sharing app, which he felt gave him a new perspective on China.

“It just seems like people who live their life and have fun,” Kutsenko told VOA of RedNote, which reportedly attracted hundreds of thousands of U.S. users in the leadup to the now-paused TikTok ban.

Kutsenko’s move is part of a larger trend. Even as U.S. policymakers grow louder in their warnings about Chinese-owned apps, they have become a central part of American life.

TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, boasts 170 million U.S. users. China’s AI chatbot DeepSeek surged to the top of Apple’s App Store rankings, including those in the United States, for several days after its release last month.

Another major shift has come in online shopping, where Americans are flocking to digital Chinese marketplaces such as Temu and Shein in search of ultra-low prices on clothes, home goods, and other items.

According to a 2024 survey by Omnisend, an e-commerce marketing company, 70% of Americans shopped on Chinese platforms during the past year, with 20% doing so at least once a week.

Multifaceted threat

U.S. officials warn that Chinese apps pose a broad range of threats – whether to national security, privacy, human rights, or the economy.

TikTok has been the biggest target. Members of Congress attempting to ban the app cited concerns that China’s government could use TikTok as an intelligence-gathering tool or manipulate its algorithms to push narratives favorable to Beijing.

Meanwhile, Chinese commerce apps face scrutiny for their rock-bottom prices, which raise concerns about ethical sourcing and potential links to forced labor, Sari Arho Havrén, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based research organization, said in an email conversation with VOA.

“It raises questions of how sustainably these products are made,” Havrén, who focuses on China’s foreign policy and great power competition, said. Moreover, he said, “the pricing simply kills local manufacturers and businesses.”

Many U.S. policymakers also warn Chinese apps pose greater privacy risks, since Chinese law requires companies to share data with the government on request.

‘Curiosity and defiance’

Still, a growing number of Americans appear unfazed. Many young people in particular seem to shrug off the privacy concerns, arguing that their personal data is already widely exposed.

“They could get all the data they want. And anyway, I’m 16 – what are they going to find? Oh my gosh, he goes to school? There’s not much,” Kutsenko said.

Ivy Yang, an expert on U.S.-China digital interaction, told VOA many young Americans also find it unlikely that they would ever be caught up in a Chinese national security investigation.

“What they’re chasing is a dopamine peak. They’re not thinking about whether or not the dance videos or the cat tax pictures they swipe on RedNote are going to be a national security threat,” Yang, who founded the New York-based consulting company Wavelet Strategy, said.

Yang said the TikTok ban backlash and surge in RedNote downloads may reflect a shift in how young Americans see China – not just as a geopolitical rival, but as a source of apps they use in daily life.

She also attributes their skepticism to a broader cultural mindset – one shaped by a mix of curiosity, defiance, and a growing distrust of institutions, including conventional media.

Jeremy Goldkorn, a longtime analyst of U.S.-China digital trends and an editorial fellow at the online magazine ChinaFile, said growing disillusionment with America’s political turmoil and economic uncertainty has intensified these shifts.

“It makes it much more difficult for, particularly, young people to get worked up about what China’s doing when they feel so horrified about their own country,” Goldkorn said during a recent episode of the Sinica podcast, which focuses on current affairs in China.

Polling reflects this divide. A 2024 Pew survey found 81% of Americans view China unfavorably, but younger adults are less critical – only 27% of those under 30 have strongly negative views, compared to 61% of those 65 and older.

Digital barrier

While Chinese apps are expanding in the United States, in many ways the digital divide remains as impenetrable as ever.

China blocks nearly all major Western platforms and tightly controls its own apps, while the U.S. weighs new restrictions on Chinese tech.

Though President Donald Trump paused the TikTok ban, his administration has signaled broader efforts to curb China’s tech influence.

Trump officials have hinted they could take steps to regulate DeepSeek, the Chinese digital chatbot.

The Trump administration also recently signaled it intends to close a trade loophole that lets Chinese retailers bypass import duties and customs checks.

Broader challenges

Even as Washington debates how to handle the rise of Chinese apps, some analysts say the conversation risks obscuring the deeper issue of the broader role of social media itself.

Rogier Creemers, a specialist in digital governance at Leiden University, told VOA that while Chinese apps may raise valid concerns for Western countries, they are just one part of a larger, unaddressed problem.

“There’s a whole range of social ills that emerge from these social media that I think are far more important than anything the Chinese Communist Party could do,” he said, pointing to issues like digital addiction, declining attention spans, and the way social media amplifies misinformation and political unseriousness.

“And that would apply whether these apps are Chinese-owned or American-owned or Tajikistani-owned, as far as I’m concerned,” he added.

The United States, Creemer said, has taken a more hands-off approach to regulating online platforms, in part due to strong free speech protections and pushback by the tech industry.

Apps or influence?

For millions of Americans, the bigger debates about China and digital influence barely register when they open TikTok.

Kutsenko said neither he nor his friends have strong opinions about U.S.-China tensions. They just wanted an alternative to TikTok – one that felt fun, familiar, and easy to use.

It’s a sign that while policymakers see Chinese apps as part of a growing tech rivalry, for many Americans they’re just another way to scroll, shop, and stay entertained, no matter where they come from.
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Suicide bombing at Afghan ministry kills 1, injures several

ISLAMABAD — Taliban officials said Thursday a suicide bomb explosion outside a ministry building in the Afghan capital of Kabul killed at least one person and injured several others.

The blast occurred when security guards at the entrance to the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing intercepted and killed a suicide bomber, an Interior Ministry spokesperson told VOA.

Abdul Mateen Qani confirmed the casualties, saying a member of Taliban security was killed, and three others were wounded in the ensuing explosion.

No immediate claims of responsibility were made, but suspicions fell on a regional Islamic State group affiliate, Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K.

The attack came two days after IS-K took credit for a suicide bombing outside a bank in the northeastern Afghan city of Kunduz that killed at least five people and wounded several others. Multiple sources reported that the victims of the Tuesday blast were predominantly Taliban security personnel who had assembled to collect their salaries.

IS-K has plotted repeated high-profile attacks since the Taliban retook control of the country in 2021. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including senior Taliban leaders, religious figures and members of the Afghan Shiite community.

The back-to-back bombings this week followed the Taliban’s renewed claims that their security forces nearly eliminated IS-K presence in the country, rendering the group incapable of posing a threat within or beyond Afghan borders.

The United Nations and independent critics remain skeptical about the Taliban’s assertions. U.N. counterterrorism officials warned during a Security Council meeting on Monday that IS-K is one of the “most dangerous” Islamic State branches and “continued to pose a significant threat in Afghanistan, the region and beyond.”
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US allies seek clarity on Ukraine support at Munich Security Conference

LONDON — Hundreds of world leaders and delegates are set to attend the Munich Security Conference in Germany this weekend, with conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo high on the agenda, alongside simmering tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.

It’s the first major global summit for the new administration in Washington under President Donald Trump and comes amid speculation that his America First agenda could presage significant changes in U.S. foreign policy.

US delegation

The U.S. delegation includes Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“We are very happy that we will have a strong representation of both the administration of the new American government there, as well as representation from Congress,” said conference chairman Christoph Heusgen.

“And so, the American point of view will also be presented on stage, as will the European point of view, and that of other regions. And then, and that is what Munich stands for, there will be a dialogue, a discussion about the many issues at hand,” Heusgen told Reuters.

Vance is scheduled to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Munich.

Ukraine’s war against Russia’s full-scale invasion is about to enter its fourth year. Zelenskyy said this week he shared a “common vision” with the Trump administration.

“Of course, there may be different opinions, but a common vision of the main things — of how to stop [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and how to give guarantees of security to Ukraine and Ukrainians,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Monday.

‘Unrealistic’

However, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that American troops would not be deployed to Ukraine following any ceasefire deal with Russia and ruled out NATO membership for Kyiv. He also described Ukraine’s hopes to return to its pre-2014 borders with Russia as unrealistic.

“European allies must lead from the front,” Hegseth told reporters in Brussels following a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

President Trump has made clear he wants a quick end to the war but it’s not clear how that might be achieved. Trump announced Wednesday he and Putin agreed in a phone call to “immediately” begin negotiations with Ukraine to bring an end to the nearly three-year-conflict.

NATO allies

Nevertheless, U.S. allies sense a change in tone from the president since his inauguration last month, said Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform, a London-based research group.

“Though Trump has said a lot of things to worry a lot of people on tariffs, on trade, on Gaza and so on, he hasn’t yet said anything particularly crazy from a European point of view about Ukraine or NATO. He hasn’t repeated his threat to pull out of NATO. He said the Europeans should spend more [on defense] but most of us agree with him on that. He hasn’t said he’s going to cut off all aid for Ukraine,” Grant told VOA.

“One of the issues that will come up in Munich is to what extent the Europeans should help to keep the peace if there is a ceasefire in Ukraine. And certainly, President [Emmanuel] Macron of France, and to some degree the British, and possibly Friedrich Merz who may well be the next German chancellor, are all in favor of sending troops to keep the peace in Ukraine, if there’s a peace to be kept,” Grant added.

Ukrainian hopes

On the streets of Kyiv, some Ukrainians expressed hope that the Munich conference will strengthen Ukrainian ties with the Trump administration.

“We hope that this personal meeting between President Zelenskyy and Vice President Vance will give an opportunity to convey the real situation of what is happening today in the Russian-Ukrainian war,” sociologist Asked Ashurbekov told The Associated Press.

Ukrainian journalist Borden Semeniuk was less optimistic.

“The country has been living in expectation for three years, and because of this, belief in this expectation has decreased. … I would like to see some relief from the situation. But it is impossible to live in the hope that it will 100 percent happen at this meeting,” Semeniuk told AP.

Russia and Iran have not been invited to Munich. Last year, the conference organizers said their governments had not shown a serious interest in negotiations.

China

The official report of the Munich Security Conference cites the “multipolarization of the international order” — a theme welcomed by China, which is sending a large delegation to the summit.

“The report shows that the international community’s acceptance of a multipolar world is on the rise. … China has always called for an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization,” Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday.

Earlier this week, the U.S Navy sailed two warships through the Taiwan Strait, prompting an angry response from Beijing.

China has ramped up military activity around Taiwan in recent months. China considers Taiwan a breakaway province that someday will be reunified with the mainland, while Taipei considers the island a sovereign state.

Secretary of State Rubio is due to hold a trilateral meeting with allies Japan and South Korea while in Munich.

Gaza

Conflict in the Middle East will also top the agenda at the Munich conference, amid fears that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is at risk.

President Trump’s repeated suggestion that Palestinians should leave Gaza will overshadow the conference, said analyst Charles Grant.

“I don’t see it happening because you can’t just eliminate 2 million people and put them nowhere at all,” Grant said.

“But I think most European governments are hoping that Trump will just push this for a while, and he’ll get bored of it and talk about something else – and hope he will kind of move on and forget it. But so long as he does talk about it, it’s very disruptive and creates a lot of ill-feeling between European and many other governments, and the U.S.,” Grant told VOA.

The conference will also host sessions on the conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Climate change, energy security and artificial intelligence also feature on a packed agenda across the three-day conference.
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DruasiaAsia

Modi, Trump to meet with focus on trade, immigration, strategic ties

NEW DELHI — U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks Thursday at the White House.

Officials in New Delhi expressed optimism Modi’s visit will herald a renewed and substantive partnership. However, analysts said there will be contentious issues to navigate on trade and immigration, which are among Trump’s top priorities. 

Underlining that Modi will be meeting Trump within weeks of his taking office, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri – the ministry’s top civil servant — said India-U.S. ties are solid and that “this has been one of our strongest international partnerships.” 

Trade is important for both countries and India has taken steps to demonstrate that it is ready to address concerns of Trump, who has named India among countries that are “very big tariff abusers.” In a phone conversation with Modi last month, Trump called for moving toward a fair bilateral trading relationship. 

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, repeated such concerns on Monday. “India has enormously high” tariffs that lock out imports, he said in an interview with CNBC. 

New Delhi, which wants to avoid trade tensions with the U.S., announced earlier this month that it would lower import duties on some items that will benefit American exports such as high-end motorcycles and cars. 

It also may offer other concessions that could help American goods gain Indian market access and boost energy imports from the U.S., analysts say. 

“New Delhi thought it would take a first step and try to resolve differences on trade. But, certainly, as a great negotiator and bargainer, he [Trump] will ask for more,” said Chintamani Mahapatra, founder of the Kalinga School of Indo Pacific Studies. “India also bargains very well. So, somehow, we will try to make a compromise that will benefit both.” 

For India, the stakes are high — the United States is its largest trading partner. Bilateral trade between the two countries was $118 billion, with an Indian surplus of about $32 billion in 2023. 

India has not been affected so far by Trump’s tariff impositions – the latest 25% tariffs he imposed on steel and aluminum imports will have an only marginal affect on India, as New Delhi is a small exporter of steel to the U.S., according to Indian officials. 

Strengthening security and defense ties with the U.S., Indian officials say will also be discussed in Washington. According to analysts that could include potential purchases of weapon systems and technology.  In the recent phone conversation with Modi, Trump had called on Modi to increase procurement of U.S.-made security equipment 

India, the world’s largest spender on military equipment, needs a range of weapons systems to modernize its military. As it diversifies its purchases from its traditional weapons supplier, Russia, India has been purchasing more arms from countries such as France, Israel and the United States.  

“The U.S. is a little concerned that it is losing out on the India [security] buys, so it has stepped up pressure to sell India a lot more defense equipment than India has bought in the last few years,” according to Rahul Bedi, a defense analyst in New Delhi. “There is likely to be initiatives on transport aircraft, surveillance aircraft for the navy, and possibly even fighter aircraft, as well as a lot of technology transfers for aircraft engines, infantry combat vehicles.”   

Immigration is another issue of concern to both countries. Although India has cooperated with the U.S. and said it is ready to take back undocumented migrants, reports of 104 undocumented Indians being shackled for 40 hours while being brought back to India on a military plane last week from the U.S. led to an uproar and protests by opposition parties.   

Indian officials have said that New Delhi will call for better treatment during future deportations. 

At the same time, India’s top priority during discussions will be to protect legal channels of immigration for skilled Indian workers and students heading to American universities. Indians are the largest beneficiaries of H1B visas, which allow U.S. employers to hire foreign professionals in specialized fields, such as technology.   

“People-to-people relationships constitute the bedrock of our deepening ties with the United States,” Indian foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told lawmakers, while responding to concerns about the transport and treatment of the deportees. 

In a statement before leaving New Delhi, Modi called his upcoming meeting with Trump an opportunity to build upon the successes of their collaboration in Trump’s first term.  

Mutual concerns about an assertive China are likely to keep the two countries aligned, according to analysts. Along with the U.S., Australia and Japan, India is a partner in the Quad, a strategic security grouping focused on the Indo-Pacific. Analysts say the two countries have convergence on geostrategic issues. 

“It was President Trump in his first term, who dusted off the Quad, which was in a dormant state for about 10 years, and he was solely responsible for reviving it,” said Mahapatra. “This is an area where both the countries have a lot of things in common for maintaining peace, stability and contributing to the growth story in the Indo-Pacific region.”
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DruamAmericas

Democratic lawmakers concerned USAID freeze may cause irrevocable harm

U.S. Democratic lawmakers said Wednesday the Trump administration’s freeze of U.S. foreign assistance might permanently damage America’s security and standing abroad. Republicans counter that the review of U.S. Agency for International Development programs is necessary to combat waste and fraud. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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Lawsuit by US rights group seeks access to migrants sent to Guantanamo Bay

washington — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking access to dozens of migrants flown to a U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying they were being denied the right to an attorney. 

ACLU filed the complaint on behalf of families of detainees, who say the detainees themselves cannot sue because they are being held without the ability to communicate with the outside world. The suit seeks immediate phone and video access to detainees, as well as in-person visitation. 

President Donald Trump, a Republican, kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown after taking office on Jan. 20, including the transfer of dozens of migrants to a detention site on Guantanamo Bay, which is best known for the separate high-security U.S. prison used for suspected foreign terrorists. 

The lawsuit follows a letter sent by ACLU and other civil and immigrant rights groups to top Trump officials last week, demanding a way to speak to detainees. 

“Shipping immigrants off to Guantanamo without access to lawyers or the outside world cannot be reconciled with our country’s laws or principles,” said Lee Gelernt, ACLU lawyer and lead counsel on the case. “It will now be up to the courts to reaffirm that the rule of law governs our nation.” 

The lawsuit cites the cases of three Venezuelan men believed to be detained at Guantanamo. 

Angela Carolina Sequera, one of the plaintiffs, said she was in almost daily contact with her son while he was in a Texas immigration detention center and last spoke to him on Saturday, the complaint stated. On Sunday, she received a call from the detention center saying her son would be sent to Guantanamo. 

“Ms. Sequera has made numerous calls to try to locate her son and speak to him, to no avail,” the complaint said. “She is distraught over the lack of information, and she desires that her son be provided with the ability to communicate with legal counsel regarding his detention at Guantanamo.” 

The plaintiffs also include four nonprofit legal service providers who said they were unable to represent migrants shuttled to the naval base. The providers have clients in Texas and Florida.

The Trump administration has provided few specifics about the detainees sent to Guantanamo Bay but said the first flight carried alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.  

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said there is a system at the Guantanamo detention site for migrants to phone lawyers. She questioned the ACLU raising concerns about “highly dangerous criminal aliens including murderers and vicious gang members” rather than U.S. citizens.  

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who visited the base on Friday, said in a social media post that some of the detainees had allegedly been charged or convicted of homicide, robbery and other crimes.  

The ACLU lawsuit said the U.S. had never before moved migrants held on civil immigration charges from the U.S. to the Guantanamo Bay base and now held them “incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family or the outside world.” 

The complaint said that despite significant public concern, the Trump administration had offered no explanation of its legal authority to move the detainees.
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DruchinaChina

VOA Mandarin: US lawmaker vows to end China’s trade status

WASHINGTON — The U.S. will have to get more aggressive to make its relationship with China authentic and reciprocal, said Representative John Moolenaar, the Republican chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party on Tuesday. He said he and others on the committee have introduced legislation that would revoke China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations and end the de minimis exemption, one that would put tariffs directly China, especially some key sectors at 100% and lesser sectors around 35%.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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DruasiaAsia

261 trafficking victims rescued from Myanmar scam center

WASHINGTON — More than 260 foreign nationals have been rescued from online scam operations in Myanmar and handed over to authorities in Thailand. The rescue is part of an escalating crackdown on human trafficking and cyber fraud along the two countries’ border.

A Myanmar insurgent group, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, which recently raided scam centers in the region, handed the victims over to Thai authorities on Feb. 12.

DKBA Chief of Staff Major Saw San Aung told VOA’s Burmese Service in a telephone interview that the group’s forces raided casinos in Myawaddy District, Karen State, in search of trafficked foreign workers.

“On February 11, we identified 261 victims and transferred them to Thai authorities on February 12,” he said.

“We are handing over everyone we find today, but the process is difficult. The [Myanmar] junta’s immigration department is making demands, and the terrain is challenging. We have to retrieve the victims ourselves before transferring them to the nearest Thai authorities,” Major Saw San Aung said.

A rescue worker and eyewitness who requested anonymity for security reasons told VOA in a phone interview on Wednesday that online scam gangs force victims of trafficking “to meet monthly earnings targets of up to $50,000. If they failed, they were tortured. They were only allowed to sleep for two to three hours a day and worked nonstop. They were kept in dark cells and subjected to continuous abuse.”

Thai officials confirmed that the rescued individuals were taken by boat to Phop Phra, Thailand, before being moved to a secure facility.

China pressured to crack down on scammers

Tensions between China and Myanmar escalated after Chinese actor Wang Xing was abducted and held captive in Myanmar in January, before eventually being rescued from scam centers in Myawaddy.

In response to this incident, China pressured Thailand to crack down on scam networks operating in the region.

This pressure is widely believed to be a key factor behind Thailand’s decision to cut off electricity and fuel supplies to Myanmar, significantly impacting areas controlled by ethnic Karen armed groups.

The Wednesday handover follows another transfer on Feb. 6 when Myanmar’s ruling junta and another armed group, the Karen Border Guard Force handed over 61 trafficked individuals, including 39 Chinese nationals, to Thai custody.

Among those rescued and returned on Thursday, many were from Africa, including 46 Ethiopians and 33 Kenyans, according to the DKBA.

In recent days, Myanmar’s military leadership has also highlighted its efforts to crackdown on illegal online gambling and scam operations in cooperation with the international community.

In audio message shared with the news media last Friday, military junta spokesperson General Zaw Min Tun said many victims of trafficking were lured with promises of high-paying jobs in computer-related and translation fields.

“They were deceived by the prospect of high salaries and good working conditions. Most of them arrived in Mae Sot from Bangkok before being taken across the border illegally by online money-laundering gangs,” General Zaw Min Tun said.

Myawaddy: haven for scam syndicates

Myawaddy, located in Karen State along the Thai border, is controlled by Karen armed groups, including the DKBA and the Karen BGF, the latter was previously aligned with the Myanmar military.

The BGF-controlled town of Shwe Kokko in particular has turned into a notorious hub for online fraud.

As of May 2022, reports indicated that 1,225 Chinese nationals, along with individuals from Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, and the Philippines, were trafficked into Shwe Kokko to work in online scam operations. These victims were lured by fake job offers and later forced into online fraud schemes.

Since the Karen BGF severed ties with the Myanmar military and rebranded itself as the Karen National Army last year, the scam operations have faced increased scrutiny.

The U.S. Institute of Peace has warned that online scams originating from Southeast Asia, particularly Myanmar, are a major security threat and cause significant financial losses in the U.S.

In 2023, USIP estimated that Americans lost $3.5 billion to scams from the region. These scams, including forced labor, scams using romantic relationships and other financial crimes, target U.S. residents through fraudulent job applications and false high-tech job ads.

Aye Aye Mar from VOA’s Burmese Service contributed to this report.
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DruafAfrica

Audit shows Senegal’s previous government misreported debt, other key data

DAKAR, SENEGAL — Senegal’s Court of Auditors released a long-awaited review of the country’s finances on Wednesday that confirmed the previous government misreported key economic data including debt and deficit figures.

Senegal’s sovereign Eurobonds tumbled following release of the report.

“The work carried out by the Court shows that outstanding debt is higher than that shown in the reporting documents,” the court’s report said.

The court’s report confirmed an audit that had been ordered by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who took office in April 2024.

At the end of 2023, the total outstanding debt represented 99.67% of gross domestic product, the court’s report said. That compared with a previously recorded figure of 74.41%.

The audit ordered by Faye had revealed that Senegal’s debt and budget deficit were much wider than former President Macky Sall’s administration had reported.

As a consequence of the audit, Faye’s government decided in June not to present a request for further disbursement under its three-year $1.8 billion credit facility with the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF had suspended the program pending the Court of Auditors’ review.

The IMF said on Wednesday that it would analyze the report and initiate consultations with authorities to address issues raised.

“The IMF remains committed to supporting the authorities moving forward,” an IMF spokesperson said via email.

The court’s report, which covers public finances from 2019 to March 2024, said it detected other anomalies and data discrepancies between the reported and the actual numbers.

“The deficit calculated and reported to the IMF for the period under review is very far from its real value, if the exact volume of project loan disbursements is taken into account,” the court said in the report.

The reviewed budget deficit for 2023 stood at 12.3% of GDP compared with 4.9% reported by the previous administration, the court said.

Leo Morawiecki, associate investment specialist for emerging market debt at Abrdn, an investment company, said the debt-to-GDP ratio for 2024 was likely to be in excess of 110% given the large deficit being run.

“In response, the IMF will almost certainly move Senegal from moderate to high risk of debt distress,” he said in a note, adding that the government seemed committed to fiscal consolidation and an IMF program.

In a note to investors after the report’s release, Senegal’s finance ministry said it would centralize management of its public debt and implement strict controls over projects financed from external resources.

The ministry will shortly organize a call with global investors, the note said.
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Malawi university students feel impact of US aid freeze

BLANTYRE, MALAWI — Public universities in Malawi have ordered all students sponsored by USAID to drop out or seek other sources of funding if they want to remain in school. This follows the 90-day freeze on U.S. foreign assistance recently announced by President Donald Trump.

However, Malawi’s government says it is working to ensure that students can continue their education. 

USAID has provided financial support to thousands of students in several Malawi universities, including the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mzuzu University, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, and the Malawi University of Science and Technology or MUST. 

James Mphande, the communications manager at MUST, said the U.S. foreign aid freeze is a big blow to several USAID-funded projects the school was implementing. 

“And what it means now is that everything has been suspended,” he said. “So, if we were developing a curriculum, we can’t proceed. If we had some outreach activities, we can’t proceed. If we were in the process of making some procurements, we can’t proceed.” 

He said some sponsored students may face the impact next semester. 

“Fortunately, we are in the middle of a semester. So, probably fees or support for this semester was already sorted out. But for the upcoming semesters or years, it means the students will have to look elsewhere for support or they risk withdrawing,” Mphande said.  

However, Patience Yamikani Chakwana, a beneficiary of USAID at MUST, told VOA that she is already feeling the impact.  

Chakwana, a first-year student in business information technology, said the foreign aid suspension was imposed before students received money for their daily upkeep. 

“It was really unexpected. It was, like, we have just started school after a week, then we are getting the news,” she said. “At the time, we didn’t have the money, and the pocket money had not been given. … I heard the news while I was in class. I didn’t know what to do. That was the only hope I had.” 

Chakwana said USAID was paying for her tuition and accommodation, as well as giving her money for groceries and the internet connection for her mobile phone. 

She said she now survives on money she borrows from friends. 

Jessie Kabwila, Malawi’s minister of higher education, said the aid suspension is discouraging, but the Malawi government is working to find other sources to help students. 

“We have engaged local partnerships that are in the private sector to see how they can help us. We have also engaged international partners. For example, we have got a standing agreement with the Republic of Morocco. We have also engaged the Czech Republic, and we will be engaging others, too,” Kabwila said. 

Alexander Kude, deputy director for the Commonwealth Students Association, told VOA that the U.S. foreign aid suspension should be a wake-up call for developing countries to start investing more in education and reduce overdependence on foreign aid. 

“Look, the budget that the United States of America uses to fund us through USAID, it’s just a percent of their money and budget. If you look how much that is and where they get it from, why not stand alone and do it ourselves?” Kude said.

The Trump administration says it imposed the 90-day freeze to review USAID spending and make sure it aligns with U.S. policy and interests. The freeze will extend through April 20.
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DruasiaAsia

US warns citizens of potential terror threats at key mosque in Pakistan’s capital

ISLAMABAD — The United States advised its citizens Wednesday to steer clear of a popular mosque in Pakistan’s capital due to potential terrorist threats. 

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad issued the threat alert following the emergence of a social media video earlier this week featuring a purported militant operative at the city’s Faisal Mosque, a major tourist destination. 

The brief video showed the individual displaying a hand-drawn pamphlet featuring the flag of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which the United Nations has listed as a global terrorist organization. The video was shared on Monday via social media affiliated with TTP. 

The U.S. diplomatic mission has prohibited employees from traveling to the mosque area until further notice. The advisory also urged American citizens to avoid the area, stating that “TTP militants have issued threats against Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.” 

The terror threat alert was issued on the day Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Islamabad for a bilateral visit, amid heightened security measures. 

TTP routinely stages suicide bombings and gun attacks against Pakistani security forces and other official targets, mainly in districts near and on the country’s border with Afghanistan. The violence has killed hundreds of people in recent years.  

Islamabad has maintained that the group orchestrates terrorist attacks from sanctuaries in Afghanistan and has persistently called on the neighboring country’s Taliban leaders to rein in TTP militants.  

The Taliban government in Kabul, not recognized by any country, denies the presence of TTP or any other foreign militant organizations on Afghan soil. It claims that no one is allowed to threaten neighboring countries and beyond from Afghanistan. 

Critics have questioned the Taliban’s denial, pointing to the frequent high-profile attacks claimed or attributed to the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), an Afghan affiliate of the transnational Islamic State terrorist network. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including senior Taliban leaders, religious figures and members of the Afghan Shiite community, since the Taliban reclaimed control of the country in 2021. 

On Monday, U.N. counterterrorism officials warned during a Security Council meeting that IS-K is one of the “most dangerous” Islamic State branches. 

“ISIL-Khorasan has continued to pose a significant threat in Afghanistan, the region and beyond,” Vladimir Voronkov, U.N. undersecretary-general for counterterrorism, told the meeting, using another acronym for IS-K. 

The latest IS-K-claimed attack occurred on Tuesday when a suicide bomber detonated himself outside a bank in the northeastern Afghan city of Kunduz. Taliban officials said the blast killed five people and injured seven others. Multiple sources reported that the victims were primarily members of the Taliban security forces.
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DruamAmericas

Trump vows to ‘immediately’ negotiate for end to Ukraine war

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he and Russia’s leader agreed in a phone call to “immediately” begin negotiations with Ukraine’s leader to bring an end to the nearly three-year-conflict.  

“We will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social. “I have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful.”

Trump did not specify what the terms might be to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. But Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in Germany Wednesday for a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, ruled out a key demand by Ukraine’s: eventual membership in NATO.

“The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth said.  

Trump’s top hostage negotiator on Wednesday credited Trump’s “great friendship” with Russia’s leader and with Saudi Arabia’s prince as key in releasing American teacher Marc Fogel from Russian custody late Tuesday.  

“I think that getting Mark Fogel out was critical and the Russians were very, very helpful in that effort and very accommodating,” Witkoff said, speaking to reporters at the White House. “And I think that’s maybe a sign about how that working relationship between President Trump and President Putin will be in the future and what that may portend for the world at large for conflict and so forth. I think they had a great friendship. And I think now it’s going to continue and it’s a really good thing for the world.”

Trump welcomed Fogel to the White House late Tuesday. He had been detained since August 2021 for bringing medically prescribed marijuana into the country.  

“I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now,” Fogel said as he stood next to Trump at the White House late Tuesday.

Trump said he appreciated what Russia did in letting Fogel go home but declined to specify the details of any agreement with Russia beyond calling it “very fair” and very reasonable.”  

Trump also said another hostage release would be announced Wednesday.  

Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said earlier Tuesday the United States and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to free Fogel but gave no details about what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. In such deals in recent years, the U.S has often released Russian prisoners that Moscow wanted in exchange.  

Instead, Waltz cast the deal for Fogel’s release in broader geopolitical terms, saying it was “a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” an invasion Russia launched against its neighbor in February 2022, with hundreds of thousands killed or wounded on both sides.  

Trump had vowed to broker an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine before taking office January 20, but his aides more recently have said he hopes to do it within the first 100 days of his new administration, roughly by the end of April.  

“Since President Trump’s swearing-in, he has successfully secured the release of Americans detained around the world, and President Trump will continue until all Americans being held are returned to the United States,” Waltz said. The recent release of six Americans held in Venezuela and Fogel’s freeing are the only publicly known instances.  

Fogel had been traveling with a small amount of medically prescribed marijuana to treat back pain. Once convicted by a Russian court, he began serving his 14-year sentence in June 2022, with the outgoing administration of former President Joe Biden late last year classifying him as wrongfully detained. 
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DruasiaAsia

UN rights office estimates up to 1,400 killed in crackdown on protests in Bangladesh

Geneva — The U.N. human rights office on Wednesday estimated that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in Bangladesh over three weeks last summer in a crackdown on student-led protests against the now-ousted former prime minister. 

In a new report, the Geneva-based office says security and intelligence services “systematically engaged” in rights violations that could amount to crimes against humanity and require further investigation. 

Citing “various credible sources,” the rights office said it estimated that as many as 1,400 people may have been killed in the protests between July 15 and Aug. 5 — the day longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India amid the uprising. 

Thousands more were injured in the weeks leading up to and after the protests, and the vast majority of those killed and injured “were shot by Bangladesh’s security forces,” the report said. 

Over 11,700 people were detained, the report said, citing information from security services. It said that about 12 to 13% of people estimated to have be killed —- or as many as about 180 people — were children. 

In some cases, “security forces engaged in summary executions by deliberately shooting unarmed protesters at point blank range,” it said. 

U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk cited signs that “extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture” were conducted with the knowledge and coordination of the political leadership and top security officials as a way to suppress the protests. 

The U.N. fact-finding team was deployed to Bangladesh at the invitation of the country’s interim leader, the Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, to look into the uprising and violent crackdown. 

The team of investigators said the interim government has reportedly made 100 arrests in connection with attacks on religious and indigenous groups. The report said “many perpetrators of acts of revenge, violence and attacks on distinct groups apparently continue to enjoy impunity.” 

The human rights situation in Bangladesh continues to raise concerns, the U.N. office said. 

While the government has changed, “the system has not necessarily changed,” Rory Mungoven, head of the rights office’s Asia-Pacific region, told reporters. “Many officials and people who had served or been appointed under the previous regime continue to function,” he said. 

Such a situation creates “a potential conflict of interest” and could impede reforms and accountability, Mungoven added. 

The investigators issued dozens of recommendations to the government, such as steps to improve the justice system and setting up a witness protection program. It also recommended banning the use of lethal firearms by security forces to disperse crowds unless they are faced with “imminent threat of death or serious injury.” 

In a statement after the report was published, Yunus reiterated his government’s commitment to upholding the rule of law and said it was crucial to reform the country’s law enforcement and justice sectors. 

“I call on everyone working inside these institutions to side with justice, the law, and the people of Bangladesh in holding to account their own peers and others who have broken the law and violated the human and civil rights of their fellow citizens,” he said. 

What began as peaceful demonstrations by students frustrated with a quota system for government jobs unexpectedly grew into a major uprising against Hasina and her ruling Awami League party. 

A High Court decision in early June that reinstated the quota system was the “immediate trigger” to the protests, which were also fueled by long standing grievances about economic inequality and a lack of rights, the report said. 
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DruamAmericas

Russian fashion designer’s skirts portray life struggles of immigrant women 

Russian-born fashion designer Dasha Pomeranz tells stories with the clothing she creates. Her latest collection is a tribute to women who were forced to leave their native countries and start new lives in the United States. Karina Bafradzhian has the story. (Videographer: Sergii Dogotar ; Produced by: Sergii Dogotar, Anna Rice   ) 
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