Single-engine plane crashes near Pennsylvania airport

A single-engine airplane carrying five people crashed and burst into flames Saturday in the parking lot of a retirement community near a small airport in suburban Pennsylvania, and everyone on board survived, officials and witnesses said.

The fiery crash happened around 3 p.m. just south of Lancaster Airport in Manheim Township, police Chief Duane Fisher told reporters at an evening briefing. All five victims were taken to hospitals in unknown condition. Nobody on the ground was hurt, the chief said.

Brian Pipkin was driving nearby when he noticed the small plane climbing before it suddenly veered to the left.

“And then it went down nose first,” he told The Associated Press. “There was an immediate fireball.”

Pipkin called 911 and then drove to the crash site, where he recorded video of black smoke billowing from the plane’s mangled wreckage and multiple cars engulfed in flames in a parking lot at Brethren Village. He said the plane narrowly missed hitting a three-story building at the sprawling retirement community about 120 km west of Philadelphia.

A fire truck from the airport arrived within minutes, and more first responders followed quickly.

“It was so smoky and it was so hot,” Pipkin said. “They were really struggling to get the fire out.” A dozen parked cars were damaged, Fisher said.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed there were five people aboard the Beechcraft Bonanza.

Air traffic control audio captured the pilot reporting that the aircraft “has an open door, we need to return for a landing.” An air traffic controller is heard clearing the plane to land, before saying, “Pull up!” Moments later, someone can be heard saying the aircraft was “down just behind the terminal in the parking lot street area.”

The FAA said it will investigate.

The crash comes about a month after seven people were killed when an air ambulance burst into flames after crashing onto a busy Philadelphia street.

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Panama releases dozens of detained deportees from US into limbo

Panama City — After weeks of lawsuits and human rights criticism, Panama on Saturday released dozens of migrants who were held for weeks in a remote camp after being deported from the United States, telling them they have 30 days to leave the Central American nation.

It thrust many like Hayatullah Omagh, a 29-year-old who fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban took control, into a legal limbo, scrambling to find a path forward.

“We are refugees. We do not have money. We cannot pay for a hotel in Panama City, we do not have relatives,” Omagh told the Associated Press in an interview. “I can’t go back to Afghanistan under any circumstances … It is under the control of the Taliban, and they want to kill me. How can I go back?”

Authorities have said deportees will have the option of extending their stay by 60 days if they need it, but after that many like Omagh don’t know what they will do.

Omagh climbed off a bus in Panama City alongside 65 migrants from China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and other nations after spending weeks detained in poor conditions by the Panamanian government, which has said it wants to work with the Trump administration “to send a signal of deterrence” to people hoping to migrate.

Human rights groups and lawyers advocating for the migrants were waiting at the bus terminal, and scrambled to find the released migrants shelter and other resources.

Dozens of other people remained in the camp.

Among those getting off buses were migrants fleeing violence and repression in Pakistan and Iran, and 27-year-old Nikita Gaponov, who fled Russia due to repression for being part of the LGBTQ+ community and who said he was detained at the U.S. border but not allowed to make an asylum claim.

“Once I get off the bus, I’ll be sleeping on the ground tonight,” Gaponov said.

Others turned their eyes north once again, saying that even though they had already been deported, they had no other option than to continue after crossing the world to reach the U.S.

The deportees, largely from Asian countries, were part of a deal stuck between the Trump administration and Panama and Costa Rica as the U.S. government attempts to speed up deportations. The administration sent hundreds of people, many families with children, to the two Central American countries as a stopover while authorities organize a way to send them back to their countries of origin.

Critics described it as a way for the U.S. to export its deportation process.

The agreement fueled human rights concerns when hundreds of deportees detained in a hotel in Panama City held up notes to their windows pleading for help and saying they were scared to return to their own countries.

Under international refugee law, people have the right to apply for asylum when they are fleeing conflict or persecution.

Those that refused to return home were later sent to a remote camp near Panama’s border with Colombia, where they spent weeks in poor conditions, were stripped of their phones, unable to access legal council and were not told where they were going next.

Lawyers and human rights defenders warned that Panama and Costa Rica were turning into “black holes” for deportees, and said their release was a way for Panamanian authorities to wash their hands of the deportees amid mounting human rights criticism.

Upon being released Saturday night, human rights lawyers identified at least three people who required medical attention. One has been vomiting for over a week, another deportee had diabetes and hadn’t had access to insulin in the camp and another person had HIV and also didn’t have access to medicine in detention.

Those who were released, like Omagh, said they could not return home.

As an atheist and member of an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan known as the Hazara, he said returning home under the rule of the Taliban — which swept back into power after the Biden administration pulled out of the country — would mean he would be killed. He only went to the U.S. after trying for years to live in Pakistan, Iran and other countries but being denied visas.

Omagh was deported after presenting himself to American authorities and asking to seek asylum in the U.S., which he was denied.

“My hope was freedom. Just freedom,” he said. “They didn’t give me the chance. I asked many times to speak to an asylum officer and they told me ‘No, no, no, no, no.’”

Still, he said that leaving the camp was a relief. Omagh and other migrants who spoke to the AP detailed scarce food, sweltering heat with little relief and aggressive Panamanian authorities.

In one case, Omagh and others said, a Chinese man went on a weeklong hunger strike. In another, a small riot broke out because guards refused to give a migrant their phone. The riot, they said, was suppressed by armed guards.

Panamanian authorities denied accusations about camp conditions, but blocked journalists from accessing the camp and canceled a planned press visit last week.

While international aid organizations said they would organize travel to a third country for people who didn’t want to return home, Panamanian authorities said the people released had already refused help.

Omagh said he was told in the camp he could be sent to a third country if it gives people from Afghanistan visas. He said that would be incredibly difficult because few nations open their doors to people with an Afghan passport.

He said he asked authorities in the camp multiple times if he could seek asylum in Panama, and said he was told that “we do not accept asylum.”

“None of them wants to stay in Panama. They want to go to the U.S.,” said Carlos Ruiz-Hernandez, Panama’s deputy foreign minister, in an interview with the AP last month.

That was the case for some, like one Chinese woman who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions from Panamanian authorities.

Upon getting off the bus, the first thing she wanted to do was find a Coca-Cola. Then, she’d find a way back to the U.S.

“I still want to continue to go to the United States and fulfill my American dream,” she said.

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Korean moon jars shine in Colorado show

Traditional Korean moon jars and modern takes on the elegant white vases are the focus of a new art exhibit in the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns has the story from Denver.

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Selma marks 60th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’ protest attack

SELMA, Ala. — Charles Mauldin was near the front of a line of voting rights marchers walking in pairs across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965. 

The marchers were protesting white officials’ refusal to allow Black Alabamians to register to vote, as well as the killing days earlier of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a minister and voting rights organizer who was shot by a state trooper in nearby Marion. 

At the apex of the span over the Alabama River, they saw what awaited them: a line of state troopers, deputies and men on horseback. After they approached, law enforcement gave a warning to disperse and then unleashed violence. 

“Within about a minute or a half, they took their billy clubs, holding it on both ends, began to push us back, to back us in, and then they began to beat men, women and children, and tear gas men, women and children, and cattle prod men, women and children viciously,” said Mauldin, who was 17 at the time. 

Selma on Sunday marked the 60th anniversary of the clash that became known as Bloody Sunday. The attack shocked the nation and galvanized support for the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965. The annual commemoration paid homage to those who fought to secure voting rights for Black Americans and brought calls to recommit to the fight for equality. 

For foot soldiers of the movement, the celebration comes amid concerns about new voting restrictions and the Trump administration’s effort to remake federal agencies they said helped make America a democracy for all. 

“This country was not a democracy for Black folks until that happened,” Mauldin said of voting rights. “And we’re still constantly fighting to make that a more concrete reality for ourselves.” 

Speaking at the pulpit of the city’s historic Tabernacle Baptist Church, the site of the first mass meeting of the voting rights movement, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said what happened in Selma changed the nation. But he said the 60th anniversary comes at a time when there is “trouble all around” and some “want to whitewash our history.” But he said like the marchers of Bloody Sunday, they must keep going. 

“At this moment, faced with trouble on every side, we’ve got to press on,” Jeffries said to the crowd that included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, multiple members of Congress and others gathered for the commemoration. 

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama said they are gathering in Selma for the 60th anniversary “at a time when the vote is in peril.” 

Sewell noted the number of voting restrictions introduced since the U.S. Supreme Court effectively abolished a key part of the Voting Rights Act that required jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to pre-clear new voting laws with the Justice Department. 

Sewell this week reintroduced legislation to restore the requirement. The proposal has repeatedly stalled in Congress. The legislation is named for John Lewis, the late Georgia congressman who was at the lead of the Bloody Sunday march. 

The annual celebration will conclude with a ceremony and march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. At the time, the Bloody Sunday marchers walked in pairs across the Selma bridge. Mauldin was in the third pair of the line led by Lewis and Hosea Williams. 

“We had steeled our nerves to a point where we were so determined that we were willing to confront. It was past being courageous. We were determined, and we were indignant,” Mauldin recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. 

Mauldin, who took a blow to the head, said he believes law enforcement officers were trying to incite a riot as they attacked marchers. 

Kirk Carrington was just 13 on Bloody Sunday. As the violence erupted, a white man on a horse wielding a stick chased him all the way back to the public housing projects where his family lived. 

Carrington said he started marching after witnessing his father get belittled by his white employers when his father returned from service in World War II. Standing in Tabernacle Baptist Church where he was trained in non-violent protest tactics 60 years earlier, he was brought to tears thinking about what the people of his city achieved. 

“When we started marching, we did not know the impact we would have in America. We knew after we got older and got grown that the impact it not only had in Selma, but the impact it had in the entire world,” Carrington said. 

Dr. Verdell Lett Dawson, who grew up in Selma, remembers a time when she was expected to lower her gaze if she passed a white person on the street to avoid making eye contact. 

Dawson and Mauldin said they are concerned about the potential dismantling of the Department of Education and other changes to federal agencies. Trump has pushed to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government. 

Support from the federal government “is how Black Americans have been able to get justice, to get some semblance of equality, because left to states’ rights, it is going to be the white majority that’s going to rule,” Dawson said. 

“That that’s a tragedy of 60 years later: what we are looking at now is a return to the 1950s,” Dawson said. 

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Clashes continue in eastern DRC days after attack on civilians left many dead

Fighting between M23 rebels and pro-Congo militias was underway Sunday in Nyabiondo, about 100 km north of Goma in eastern Congo, residents said, days after a nearby attack left a heavy civilian death toll, according to the United Nations and an NGO. 

The M23 rebel group has seized swathes of mineral-rich eastern Congo since the start of the year. 

“M23 has taken Nyabiondo since 11 a.m. [local time] (0900 GMT), following clashes,” Kipanda Biiri, an official from the local administrative authority who was fleeing the area, told Reuters. 

“The enemy opened a large-scale assault on Nyabiondo this morning,” said Telesphore Mitondeke, a civil society rapporteur in Masisi, the area where Nyabiondo is located, referring to the M23 rebels. 

“For the moment there is shooting from every direction in the center of Nyabiondo, where the clashes are taking place.” 

The fighting follows clashes last week between M23 and a pro-Congolese government militia in the village of Tambi, about 18 km northeast of the town of Masisi, which culminated in an attack overnight on March 5 leaving many civilian casualties, according to the head of a local NGO. 

An internal United Nations memo seen by Reuters said Sunday that between 13 and 40 civilians were believed to have been killed in that attack. 

Separately, a spokesperson for the rebel alliance that includes M23 said Sunday on X that one of the pro-government militias that operates in eastern Congo had switched sides and joined its alliance. 

The spokesperson for the group that militia had been a part of said in a statement that the rest of the group remained loyal to the Congolese government and its army. 

M23 rebels say that they intend to seize power in Congo’s capital Kinshasa. They also accuse Congo’s government of not living up to previous peace deals and fully integrating Congolese Tutsis into the army and administration. 

The group’s spread into new mineral-rich territories this year also gives it scope to acquire more mining revenue, analysts say. 

The Democratic Republic of Congo government has repeatedly accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebel group, a claim that Rwanda denies. Kigali, in turn, alleges that Kinshasa collaborates with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or the FDLR, a Hutu armed group with ties to the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, an allegation the DRC rejects. 

The DRC has officially designated the M23 rebel group as a terrorist organization, while the United Nations and the United States classify it as an armed rebel group. 

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In tense relations with India, Pakistani TV dramas build bridges

KARACHI, PAKISTAN — Two Pakistani women sit together on a couch, rehearsing their lines while a director scrutinizes them.

Waiting off camera for his scene is the male lead, an actor blessed with Bachelor hair and fine bone structure. Also out of sight: the Islamabad homeowners, who are holed up in a separate room and whose furniture and knickknacks will be seen by millions of viewers — many from the society that has been their country’s neighbor and uneasy sparring partner for much of the past century.

This is the set of the Pakistani drama Adhi Bewafai, or Half Infidelity — one of what some in other nations would call “soap operas.”

But these dramas, it turns out, are not just for Pakistanis. Realistic settings, natural dialogue and almost workaday plots about families and marriages make Pakistani dramas a hit with viewers at home and abroad — especially in the neighboring country that split with Pakistan in 1947 and is its nuclear archrival today: India.

Television, it seems, is succeeding where diplomacy sometimes can’t.

A glimpse into life across the border

Several thousand people work in Pakistan’s drama industry; the country produces between 80 to 120 shows a year, each one a source of escapism and intrigue. They offer Indians a tantalizing glimpse into life across the border — and manage to break through decades of enmity between the two governments.

Maheen Shafeeq, a research associate at the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad, says there is effectively no relationship between the two governments. Each government is fixed on a single issue it cannot move past — for India, it’s terrorism; for Pakistan, the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

“The governments are very much opposed to each other,” she says. “They don’t agree what they should talk about.”

Although it’s difficult for Indians to visit Pakistan, where these shows are filmed, they faithfully follow the plot twists and turns through platforms like YouTube, ZEE5, and MX Player.

For those of a certain generation, however, it wasn’t always so easy to keep up.

Kaveri Sharma, a writer in the Indian city of Patna, recalls her mother-in-law and aunt jiggling antennas in the 1980s and 1990s in hopes of catching a signal from Pakistan’s state broadcaster, PTV. It’s how Sharma first realized that the country next door was a drama powerhouse. It inspired her to discover the shows for herself years later, even going on to watch them with her own daughter.

“They feel familiar, but they are also a break from our own lives,” Sharma says. “I don’t see any differences between the two countries. Everything is relatable. I see Karachi and think that it could be Lucknow or Patna. What happens on the shows could happen to me or my friends.”

She had heard only negative things about Pakistan since childhood — that it was the enemy that would take everything from India. The TV dramas have added subtlety and detail to this image for her. She would love to visit, but is unlikely to get the opportunity. So she explores Pakistan through the locations, malls, offices, streets and restaurants depicted on the small screen.

The names of popular Karachi neighborhoods roll off her tongue. Sharma, like Bibi Hafeez in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad and Punita Kumar in the central Indian city of Raipur, raves about the dramas’ universality of themes, the strong characterization and the emotional range.

“Pakistani characters are not only heroes or villains. They have shades to them, and that is very human,” says Kumar, who chanced upon a Pakistani drama through a chunky videocassette when she was a teenager living in the northern Indian city of Aligarh. It was love at first watch.

“They captivated me. We got a cable connection that offered PTV. Then YouTube came and I realized I could search for whatever drama I wanted. I haven’t taken a stop,” she said. “We get exposure to Pakistani life in the scenes, but the struggles the characters have with their relatives are ones I would have with my own.”

Pakistani TV veteran Khaled Anam is delighted by Indians’ enthusiasm for the country’s serials and the barriers they help erode.

“What Bollywood is to India, dramas are to Pakistan,” says Anam, who is based in Karachi and has worked as an actor since the 1980s. He has appeared in many dramas, including the ratings smash Humsafar (Life Partner).

India’s productions go big, while Pakistan’s are more low key

India dominates the movie market in South Asia and beyond, with big stars and bigger budgets. Pakistanis have been exposed to Bollywood films for decades, although the prevailing hostile political climate means they can’t watch them in movie theaters. The bans are mutual, though. India, like Pakistan, restricts content from across the border in movie theaters and TV channels.

And while India is no slouch when it comes to TV production, it doesn’t offer viewers what Pakistan does, according to Anam: simplicity, depth of writing and a limited number of episodes.

“There are 15-minute flashbacks in Indian serials. (The characters) are decked out and dolled up. It’s a fantasy world. The shows go on forever. Everything is ‘DUN dun dun!'” says Anam, mimicking a dramatic musical riff and shaking his hands.

The actors on the couch in Islamabad are rehearsing lines about a woman who is disrespectful and so, according to one of them, is an unsuitable marriage prospect. The delivery and grammar could be heard in virtually any South Asian household.

“Pakistanis are generally emotional people, and that is in their dramas also,” says Islamabad-based director Saife Hassan. “It would take me less than two minutes to explain the plot of the super-duper hit Kabhi Main, Kabhi Tum (Sometimes Me, Sometimes You). It’s about the emotions between a husband and wife.”

Hassan, who began his TV career in the 1990s, says Indians frequently comment on his social media pages and send him direct messages about his work. He even recalls Indian viewers praying for the recovery of a character who was in a coma.

Hassan would love to see more homegrown dramas make it onto platforms like Netflix, as some Indian shows have with great success. But he wonders whether international audiences would understand and connect with Pakistani stories or lives: “The way we think is different from the West. Our shows are not driven by events. They are driven by emotions.”

There is also a lack of raunch in Pakistani dramas, which are family-friendly with little to no vulgarity, violence, or even action. Indians, therefore, are a natural audience for Pakistani dramas, Hassan says. “They are our people. They are like us. They eat like us,” he says. “I love India, and I love Indians. They have grown out of this animosity.” 

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Trump to keep tariffs to pressure Mexico, Canada, China on fentanyl, aides say

U.S. President Donald Trump is keeping new tariffs in place on Mexico, Canada and China to pressure them to block the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States, top White House economic officials said Sunday.

“If fentanyl ends, I think these [tariffs] will come off,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NBC’s “Meet the Press” show.

“But if fentanyl does not end, or he’s uncertain about it, he will stay this way until he is comfortable,” he said. “This is black and white. You got to save American lives.”

Trump last week issued a string of whip-sawing tariff decisions that plunged the three major U.S. stock market indexes and roiled relations with Canada and Mexico, which are long-time U.S. allies and its closest neighbors, as well as its two biggest trading partners.

Trump at first imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican exports to the U.S., then exempted the duties on Mexican- and Canadian-made vehicles being transported into the U.S. and later by week’s end delayed the tariffs on almost all items for four weeks until April 2.

But Lutnick said 25% U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports will take effect Wednesday as scheduled. Canada and Mexico are both top exporters of the metals to U.S. markets, with Canada accounting for most aluminum imports.

The Commerce chief also rebuffed fears that Trump’s global tariffs would cause a recession in the United States.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “There’s going to be no recession in America.”

But Lutnick acknowledged that the tariffs would lead to higher prices for U.S. consumers on foreign-made goods.

“Some products that are made foreign might be more expensive, but American products will get cheaper, and that’s the point,” Lutnick said. It was not clear how U.S.-produced goods would become cheaper, except in comparison to foreign-manufactured products.

Trump, in a taped interview with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” show, dodged a question about a possible recession because of his tariff boosts, but said, “There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big.”

“There could be a little disruption,” he said about stock market losses last week. “Look, what I have to do is build a strong country. You can’t really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective. We go by quarters. And you can’t go by that.”

Trump has at various times said his new tariffs are aimed at raising government revenue, protecting U.S. jobs and pressuring foreign manufacturers to relocate their operations to the U.S., and to curb the flow of fentanyl.

Like Lutnick, Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, emphasized the fentanyl issue in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week” program. He said Trump’s tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico, along with doubling a previous 10% duty on Chinese exports to 20%, are aimed at cutting the tens thousands of fentanyl deaths that have occurred in recent years.

“We launched a drug war, not a trade war,” he said. “We hope we’ll round up the cartels” while there is a pause in the tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

“It is a big problem,” he said. “Get the drug cartels out of Canada and Mexico.”

Both Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Trump in phone conversations last week they have made strides in curbing the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. Sheinbaum sent 10,000 troops to Mexico’s northern border with the U.S. to try to curb the flow of drugs and undocumented migrants while Trudeau also ramped up border enforcement.

But it is unclear whether Trump will be satisfied enough with the Mexican and Canadian efforts to drop the tariff increases next month.

Even with the White House effort targeting fentanyl, Hassett said Trump’s economic concerns remain as important.

“He’s trying to make it so when we produce something, we produce it at home,” not in another country, Hassett said. “Bring the jobs home, bring the wealth home. If you want to increase the welfare of Americans, then produce the jobs here.”

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US orders nonemergency government staff to leave South Sudan as tension grows over fighting  

NAIROBI, Kenya — The U.S. State Department on Sunday ordered nonemergency government personnel to leave South Sudan’s capital as tension escalates because of fighting in the north.

The travel advisory issued on Sunday stated that fighting was ongoing and that “weapons are readily available to the population.”

An armed group clashed with the country’s army on Tuesday, leading to the arrests of two government ministers and a deputy army chief allied to former rebel turned Vice President Riek Machar.

Machar’s home was surrounded by the army as his supporters said that the arrests were threatening the country’s peace agreement.

South Sudan descended into a civil war from 2013 to 2018, during which more than 400,000 people were killed. President Salva Kiir and Machar, his rival, signed a peace agreement in 2018 that is still in the process of implementation.

On Friday, an attack on a U.N helicopter that was on an evacuation mission in the north complicated the security situation and a U.N rights body said that it was “considered a war crime.”

The U.N Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan on Saturday said that the violence in the north and tension in Juba, the capital, was “threatening to derail” South Sudan’s peace agreement.

“We are witnessing an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won progress. Rather than fueling division and conflict, leaders must urgently refocus on the peace process, uphold the human rights of South Sudanese citizens, and ensure a smooth transition to democracy,” said the chairperson, Yasmin Sooka.

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Thousands in Nepal want monarchy back as public frustration with politics grows

KATHMANDU — Thousands of supporters greeted Nepal’s former king in capital Kathmandu on Sunday and demanded his abolished monarchy be reinstated and Hinduism brought back as a state religion. 

An estimated 10,000 supporters of Gyanendra Shah blocked the main entrance to Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport as he arrived from a tour of western Nepal. 

“Vacate the royal palace for the king. Come back king, save the country. Long live our beloved king. We want monarchy,” the crowds chanted. Passengers were forced to walk to and from the airport. 

Hundreds of riot police blocked the protesters from entering the airport and there was no violence. 

Massive street protests in 2006 forced Gyanendra to give up his authoritarian rule, and two years later the parliament voted to abolish the monarchy as Gyanendra left the Royal Palace to live the life of a commoner. 

But many Nepalis have grown frustrated with the republic, saying it has failed to bring about political stability and blaming it for a struggling economy and widespread corruption. Nepal has had 13 governments since the monarchy was abolished in 2008. 

Rally participants said they were hoping for a change in the political system to stop the country from further deteriorating. 

“We are here to give the king our full support and to rally behind him all the way to reinstating him in the royal throne,” said Thir Bahadur Bhandari, 72. 

Among the thousands was 50-year-old carpenter Kulraj Shrestha, who had taken part in the 2006 protests against the king but has changed his mind and now supports the monarchy. 

“The worst thing that is happening to the country is massive corruption and all politicians in power are not doing anything for the country,” Shrestha said. “I was in the protests that took away monarchy hoping it would help the country, but I was mistaken and the nation has further plunged so I have changed my mind.” 

Gyanendra has not commented on the calls for the return of monarchy. Despite growing support for the former king, Gyanendra has slim chances of immediately returning to power. 

He became the king in 2002, after his brother and family were massacred in the palace. He ruled as the constitutional head of state without executive or political powers until 2005, when he seized absolute power. He disbanded the government and parliament, jailed politicians and journalists and cut off communications, declaring a state of emergency and using the army to rule the country. 

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Rubio says Syria must hold accountable ‘perpetrators of massacres’ 

Washington — U..S Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday condemned the “radical Islamist terrorists” behind “massacres” of minorities in Syria and demanded that the interim administration hold those responsible to account.

“The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days,” Rubio said in a statement.

“The United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities, and offers its condolences to the victims and their families,” he said.

“Syria’s interim authorities must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.”

The violence against minorities erupted after gunmen loyal to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, attacked the new security forces.

War monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights later reported that security forces and allied groups killed at least 745 Alawite civilians in Latakia and Tartus provinces.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that spearheaded the lightning offensive that toppled Assad, called for national coexistence after the killings.

The United States under former president Joe Biden engaged with Sharaa after he came to power but said that any greater normalization would depend on meeting conditions including the protection of minorities.

Donald Trump, then president-elect, said at the time that the United States had little interest in Syria and should stay out, and he has previously spoken of removing U.S. troops in the country to fight the Islamic State movement.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has said little about Syria but has severely slashed assistance to groups assisting civilians in the war-ravaged country.

The United States did not join Britain on Thursday in announcing an easing of Assad-era sanctions on Syria.

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China far outpacing US in military, commercial ship numbers

When President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he had created a new White House office to “resurrect” American military and commercial shipbuilding, he elevated long-standing calls to fix the struggling industry that he said is vital to national security. His clarion call to build more ships “very fast and very soon” comes at a time of rising strategic competition with China.

“Our shipbuilding industry is shrunk down to bare minimum right now,” Marine Corps Commandant General Eric Smith told VOA in an exclusive interview at the Pentagon late last year.

The anemic state of American shipbuilding and ship maintenance, and the risks they raise for the military, was shared with VOA through more than a dozen interviews with U.S. military and industry officials spanning several months and conducted ahead of Trump’s announcement.

The U.S. Navy is still considered the most powerful in the world when it comes to firepower and tonnage, but the number of Navy ships has fallen behind China’s. The United States has 296 ships in its fleet, while China’s is on pace to surpass 400 ships this year.

Shrinking fleet

 

Despite the U.S. Navy’s goal of increasing the size of its fleet, in recent years the number of ships has been shrinking. Last year’s budget funded just six new Navy ships, while decommissioning 15 from the fleet, for a net loss of nine. The fiscal 2025 budget plan funds six new ships while decommissioning 19, for a net loss of 13.

The lifeblood for maritime industry titans like British-based BAE, U.S.-based Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) and Fairbanks Morse Defense runs almost exclusively through the U.S. military. Industry leaders say they have the space to build and repair more ships but that Navy contracts have been scarce.

“We’re operating at half-capacity,” said Brad Moyer, vice president of BAE Systems Ship Repair. Although the company is one of the largest for ship repair in the United States, when VOA toured BAE’s Norfolk yard in Virginia in November, most of the docking spaces for ships were empty.

Shipbuilding demand has fluctuated wildly based on Navy budgeting strategies, creating an industry atmosphere of feast or famine that is shrinking the supply chain.

“There’s thousands and thousands of suppliers that have gone out of business, and it’s a real risk,” George Whittier, the CEO of Fairbanks Morse Defense, told VOA. The company is the largest engine manufacturer in North and South America and the sole company supplying the biggest engines used in the military’s amphibious warfare ships. Each engine is about the size of a small school bus.

“We should have two engine suppliers. But the reality is, if the Navy is only going to build six ships a year, it’s a struggle to keep one engine supplier in business, let alone two. We’re going to have to grow our way out of this, and that’s the only way we’re going to do it,” Whittier said.

He is not alone. VOA found multiple examples of companies that were the only supplier of specific ship parts. The U.S. military and other industry leaders say they are worried there will not be a backup for parts should more industry businesses go under. And those suppliers who have survived say when business is not steady, it takes longer to provide the parts, and it costs more to procure the materials.

Acting Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jim Kilby, while advocating for a bigger fleet, says he has not had the budget to replace all of his aging ships and submarines, much less grow the force.

“When we get a new ship, we’ll replace an old ship, because that old ship is more expensive and harder to maintain,” he said in a recent interview.

Maintenance delays, layoffs

Military contracting delays and project cancellations have led to layoffs. Even though BAE is one the largest companies in the industry, its West Coast shipyard laid off nearly 300 employees in 2023 due to a shortage of work.

In the city of Norfolk, on America’s East Coast, the number of Navy ships available for repair work dropped from 44 ships about a decade ago to fewer than 30 today. About 60% of the workforce was furloughed in that time, officials said.

The result, General Smith says, is a hollowed-out workforce that is not centered on shipbuilding.

“There’s no one who grew up as a shipbuilder. There’s welders and steam fitters and electricians, but if there’s not steady work for them, they’ll go to work for Harley-Davidson or Ford Motor Company or Chevy or whoever,” he said.

Whittier and Moyer blame the budgeting process in Congress, along with the way the Navy structures its ship maintenance.

“The system is broken,” Whittier says.

Congress has not passed a budget on time since 2019. When continuing resolutions (CRs) are used to fund the government, new projects cannot be started. In the case of the fiscal 2024 budget, Congress funded government with CRs for half a year, which Whittier says gave companies six months to do 12 months of work.

“It ends up being not just a big challenge in how to run a company, but it’s a big challenge for the Navy in trying to figure out how are they getting their maintenance done. … It’s frustrating all around for everybody,” the Fairbanks Morse Defense CEO told VOA.

Senator Mark Kelly, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, agrees that CRs are bad, adding that the only thing worse would be shutting down the government.

“People are always going to try to blame somebody else, but I’d just say collectively, we’ve taken our eye off the ball here,” he added.

Shipbuilding struggles

There is also a shortage of skilled workers needed to keep the shipbuilding industry afloat.

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, along the coast of the Gulf of America is the only yard in the United States that builds the Navy’s two types of amphibious warfare ships: Landing Helicopter Assault ships (LHAs) that look like mini-aircraft carriers, and smaller landing platform docks (LPDs).

HII also builds Navy destroyers and Coast Guard cutters.

Kari Wilkinson, executive vice president at HII, says that keeping staffing levels around the more than 11,000 workers needed to build cutters, destroyers and amphibious ships is getting more difficult, particularly in the post-pandemic economy.

Just a few years ago, the shipyard was able to offer wages much higher than other jobs in the area that do not require a college degree. Now, Wilkinson says they are competing with everyone from coffee providers to fast food restaurants.

“The wage circumstance has changed. There is not that big gap anymore,” she told VOA.

As a result, Wilkinson says, HII now loses workers at roughly double the rate of its pre-pandemic levels.

To save money on materials, Congress authorized the military to buy four amphibs from HII at once, a move known as a multi-ship block buy. Buying them in bulk saved the Pentagon $900 million.

“That was a huge win for us,” General Smith said.

Now, HII must figure out how to better retain its workforce. To make the worksite more attractive, HII has invested in air conditioning and giant shades to shield workers from the elements like the hot Mississippi sun. The Pascagoula shipyard hired 7,000 people in the last two years, Wilkinson says, but it will need about 1,000-2,000 more hires each year to complete the new ship orders.

“We’ve got to find ways to pay people competitive wages that are in accordance with the type of work they’re doing,” Kelly told VOA.

Commercial shipping

Congress is expected to increase the military’s budget to surge resources for its shipbuilding shortfalls.

But Kelly tells VOA the U.S. commercial shipping is also in need of saving.

“We went from 10,000 ships during World War II to 85 today. So, in case of an emergency, in case of a conflict with a near peer adversary, we’re quite limited to getting all those supplies and equipment and troops across the ocean,” he said.

The United States builds about five commercial ships each year. China builds more than 1,000.

“They have one shipyard, just one shipyard, that’s bigger than all of our shipyards put together,” the senator told VOA.

Kelly in December introduced bipartisan legislation called the Ships for America Act. The bill aims to increase the U.S. commercial fleet by 250 ships in 10 years, which will also increase the supply chain for military ships.

“You wouldn’t really think those two things are connected. But they are very closely connected,” he said. “A lot of the parts that go into a U.S. aircraft carrier, some of those same parts for those systems go in merchant ships.”

The bill calls for tax incentives, along with fees on cargo coming into the country, to help shipbuilders increase their capacity.

The provisions of the bill are “fully paid for,” Kelly said, without adding to the annual deficit.

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Iran, Russia, China to hold joint military exercises

TEHRAN, IRAN — The navies of Iran, Russia and China will hold military drills off the coast of Iran this week in a bid to boost cooperation, Iranian media reported Sunday.

The three countries, which share a common desire to counter what they characterize as American hegemony, have held similar exercises in the region in recent years.

The drills “will begin on Tuesday in the port of Chabahar,” located in southeast Iran on the Gulf of Oman, the Tasnim news agency said, without specifying their duration.

“Warships and combat and support vessels of the Chinese and Russian naval forces, as well as the warships of Iran’s naval forces of the army and the Revolutionary Guards,” the ideological arm of Iran’s military, are expected to participate, according to Tasnim.

The exercises will take place “in the northern Indian Ocean” and aim to “strengthen security in the region, and expand multilateral cooperation between participating countries,” Tasnim said.

Azerbaijan, South Africa, Oman, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Qatar, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka will attend as observers.

China will deploy “a destroyer and a supply ship,” Beijing’s defense ministry said on the WeChat social media network.

The Iranian army conducted drills in the same area in February to “strengthen defense capabilities against any threat.” 

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Trump administration ends Iraq’s waiver to buy Iranian electricity

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration rescinded a waiver on Saturday that had allowed Iraq to pay Iran for electricity, as part of President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran, a State Department spokesperson said.

The decision to let Iraq’s waiver lapse upon its expiration “ensures we do not allow Iran any degree of economic or financial relief,” the spokesperson said, adding that Trump’s campaign on Iran aims “to end its nuclear threat, curtail its ballistic missile program and stop it from supporting terrorist groups.”

Trump restored “maximum pressure” on Iran in one of his first acts after returning to office in January. In his first term, he pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, a multinational agreement to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

The U.S. government has said it wants to isolate Iran from the global economy and eliminate its oil export revenues in order to slow Tehran’s development of a nuclear weapon.

Iran denies pursuing nuclear weapons and says its program is peaceful.

For Iraq, the end of the waiver “presents temporary operational challenges,” said Farhad Alaaeldin, foreign affairs adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

“The government is actively working on alternatives to sustain electricity supply and mitigate any potential disruptions,” Alaaeldin told Reuters. “Strengthening energy security remains a national priority, and efforts to enhance domestic production, improve grid efficiency and invest in new technologies will continue at full pace.”

Washington has imposed a range of sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program and support for terrorist organizations, effectively banning countries that do business with Iran from doing business with the U.S.

“President Trump has been clear that the Iranian Regime must cease its ambitions for a nuclear weapon or face Maximum Pressure,” said national security spokesperson James Hewitt. “We hope the regime will put the interests of its people and the region ahead of its destabilizing policies.”

Pressure on Baghdad

Trump initially granted waivers to several buyers to meet consumer energy needs when he reimposed sanctions on Iran’s energy exports in 2018, citing its nuclear program and what the U.S. calls its meddling in the Middle East.

His administration and that of Joe Biden repeatedly renewed Iraq’s waiver while urging Baghdad to reduce its dependence on Iranian electricity. The State Department spokesperson reiterated that call on Saturday.

“We urge the Iraqi government to eliminate its dependence on Iranian sources of energy as soon as possible,” the spokesperson said. “Iran is an unreliable energy supplier.”

The U.S. has used the waiver review in part to increase pressure on Baghdad to allow Kurdish crude oil exports via Turkey, sources have told Reuters. The aim is to boost supply to the global market and keep prices in check, giving the U.S. more room to pursue efforts to choke off Iranian oil exports.

Iraq’s negotiations with the semiautonomous Kurdish region over the oil export resumption have been fraught so far.

“Iraq’s energy transition provides opportunities for U.S. companies, which are world-leading experts in increasing the productivity of power plants, improving electricity grids, and developing electricity interconnections with reliable partners,” the State Department spokesperson said.

The spokesperson played down the impact of Iranian electricity imports on Iraq’s power grid, saying, “In 2023, electricity imports from Iran were only 4% of electricity consumption in Iraq.” 

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VOA Mandarin: China’s global propaganda campaigns, foreigners make a fortune in China 

Frenchman Marcus Detrez once became a social media sensation in China after donating what he claimed to be his family’s treasured photographs of Japan’s invasion of China, earning widespread praise.

However, just six months later, his story was exposed as a carefully orchestrated hoax. As the truth emerged, people began to reflect on the kind of public opinion environment and commercial operations that allowed him to rise to fame so quickly in China — and how he managed to deceive the public for so long. 

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.

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Women’s rights advocates warn UN to confront backlash against progress

UNITED NATIONS — Female activists raised their voices at the United Nations on Friday as they marked International Women’s Day amid a global trend of backsliding on hard-won rights.

“International Women’s Day is a powerful moment, and this year, more than ever, the call of gender equality has never been more urgent, nor the obstacles in our way more apparent, but our determination has never been more unshakable,” said Sima Bahous, executive director of U.N. Women.

Bahous called on women everywhere to confront the backlash, emphasizing that their movement is powerful and growing.

“Equality is not to be feared, but instead to be embraced,” she said. “Because an equal world is a better world.”

Women in all parts of the world are facing challenges to their reproductive rights, personal safety, education, equal pay and political participation.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of a women’s conference in Beijing that recognized women’s rights as human rights, producing an action platform that has helped drive policy and progress.

The United Nations says more girls are in school and more women hold positions of power today than before, but they still face violence, discrimination and financial inequality.

“We cannot stand by as progress is reversed,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the gathering. “We must fight back.”

At the current pace, he said, eradicating extreme poverty for women and girls will take 130 years.

“The fight for gender equality is not just about fairness,” Guterres emphasized. “It is about power — who gets a seat at the table and who is locked out.”

U.N. goodwill ambassador for Africa Jaha Dukureh endured female genital mutilation (FGM) as an infant. At age 15, she was forced into marriage with a much older man in her homeland, Gambia. Her organization, Safe Hands for Girls, works to end the practice of FGM and address the physical and psychological toll on its victims.

Dukureh told the gathering that governments have a duty to invest in social protection and education for women and girls.

“For all women and girls, economic independence is the foundation of freedom,” she said. “A woman who can provide for herself can make choices. A girl who has an education can build her own future.”

Commission on the Status of Women

On Monday, hundreds of women’s advocates and activists will descend upon U.N. headquarters to hold their annual meeting known as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The 10-day gathering is dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the rights and empowerment of women.

Sarah Hendriks, director of policy for U.N. Women, told reporters on Thursday that anti-women’s rights actors are increasingly well-funded and coordinated.

“Where they cannot roll back legal or policy gains altogether, they seek to either block or slow down their implementation,” she said.

Thirty years after Beijing, Hendriks said, progress is still too slow, too fragile, too uneven and not guaranteed. She said U.N. Women is proposing an action agenda to accelerate progress on the sustainable development goals, of which goal number five focuses on achieving gender equality.

“It is our ambition that 2025 will be remembered as a pivotal year,” she said. “That it will be remembered as a year that history looks back and says, ‘This was the year that we refused to back down, that we held ground, that we refused to step back, that we indeed actually stood our ground.'”

CSW is expected to approve a political declaration by consensus on the first day.

Negotiations on the document have been going on for about two weeks. But how strong it will be and what will be missing from it — for instance, reproductive rights — remains to be seen.

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VOA Mandarin: China talks tough, but analysts say Beijing lacks bargaining chips 

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a press conference on Friday where he called the U.S. “double-faced” and its Indo-Pacific strategy “a failure.” Analysts, however, said that thus far, China has been put in a disfavored position in dealing with the tariff war that the Trump administration began.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.

 

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Wind-driven brush fire in New York 50% contained

NEW YORK — Fast-moving brush fires burned through a large swath of land on New York’s Long Island on Saturday fanned by high winds, spewing gray smoke and prompting the evacuation of a military base and the closure of a major highway. 

Officials said three of the four fires were fully contained while the other one, in Westhampton, was 50% contained. Two commercial buildings were partially burned, but officials said homes were not in the line of fire. One firefighter was flown to a hospital to be treated for burns to the face. 

“Our biggest problem is the wind,” Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said. “It is driving this fire.” 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency and said state agencies were responding to the fires around the Pine Barrens, a wooded area that is home to commuter towns east of New York City. 

“This is still out of control at this moment,” Hochul told Long Island TV station News 12. 

“We’re seeing people having to be evacuated from the Westhampton area,” she said, adding that more evacuations may be needed. 

Hochul said homes, a chemical factory and an Amazon warehouse were at risk. 

Videos posted to social media showed flames shooting into the air and columns of black smoke rising above roads. 

Air National Guard helicopters dropped water on the flames. 

The Town of Southampton issued a warning in the afternoon against starting recreational fires due to the wildfire risk. That came around the time that the videos began appearing. 

In a statement, Hochul said the National Guard was providing support by helicopter and working with local law enforcement. 

“Public safety is my top priority, and I’m committed to doing everything possible to keep Long Islanders safe,” she said. 

In her comments to News 12, Hochul declined to estimate the extent of the flames, saying only that they were growing rapidly. 

Rough satellite data indicated that fire and smoke stretched roughly 3 kilometers (2.5 miles) along Sunrise Highway, according to NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System. 

Police closed a section of the highway, which is a thoroughfare to the East End of Long Island. 

The fires raged near the Francis S. Gabreski Airport, from which the National Guard launched at least one helicopter. One of the commercial buildings that partially burned was near the airport. 

Personnel at the base evacuated as a precautionary measure starting around 1:45 p.m., spokesman Cheran Cambell said in a statement. 

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Somali activists mark International Women’s Day with eye toward future

WASHINGTON — As the world commemorates International Women’s Day, the stories of courageous women like Zahra Mohamed Ahmad highlight their resilience amid ongoing conflict and struggles for equality. From advocating for human rights to supporting their communities, these women continue to shape the future of Somalia.

Somali human rights defender Zahra Mohamed Ahmad is one of an extraordinary group of women who made sacrifices for her country.

She fled from the country, following the 1991 collapse of the central government of Somalia.

Mama Zahra, as she is affectionately known, returned to Somalia in 2000 and has fought since then for “justice, equality, and Somali unity.”

Her biggest loss, she said, came when her only son was killed by unknown men who stopped him as he was walking along one of the streets of Mogadishu. Despite that tragedy, she and her colleagues at the organization she founded, the Somali Women Development Center (SWDC), continue to support the voiceless and marginalized.

In 2021, the U.S. State Department recognized her exceptional bravery in defending the rights of the most vulnerable and awarded her the International Women of Courage Award.

This year, Ahmed was among several Somali women who shared their feelings with VOA Somali to commemorate International Women’s Day.

“The gloomy ugly days that followed the ouster of the former Siad Barre regime, the days our children were dying for starvation and famine, the days mothers, children, and the old people dying on the streets fleeing from their homes, are still fresh in my memory,” Ahmed said. “And every year March 8 reminds many Somali women of the plight conditions they have gone through, in which many of them still live,” said Ahmad.

Duniyo Mohamed Ali, a Somali woman activist in Mogadishu, remembers the role of Somali women for the survival of family in a nation devastated by civil war.

“After the civil war broke out in 1991, the Somali women were the saviors of their families. They built schools and smaller clinics; mediated peace talks between clans; and became entrepreneurs to get bread on the tables of their families,” Ali said.

In the country’s northeastern state of Puntland, women turned their celebration for Women’s Day this year into campaigns of preparing food for Puntland security forces, who are at the front lines fighting with Islamic State terrorists.

The chairperson of the Bari Region Women’s Organization, Kafi Ali Jire, said they could not celebrate the day with music and events because of the ongoing Puntland war with ISIS.

“Many women are mourning for the deaths of their husbands in the battle; others are sad because their husbands were injured, and many others whose husbands, sons and brothers are on the front lines are worrying about the safety of their loved ones, so instead of celebrating with colored events, [annual celebrations of the day that used to be held with arts, food and politicians], we have decided to dedicate the day to support our brave soldiers,” said Jire.

In politics, as it has been the case for years, Somali women do not have much to celebrate this International Women’s Day because they are still struggling to reach a 30% quota set for women lawmakers in the country and other decision-making political offices.

“As of today, female candidates have secured only half the needed seats to reach the quota,” said Lul Mohamed Sheikh, a women’s rights activist in Mogadishu who has a doctorate. “Our dream was that each community with three or more seats should have allocated one seat for the women. It sadly did not happen.”

Sheikh said the social and cultural norms that prevented women from getting constitutionally allocated seats are still in place.

“Clan elders, who play a key role in selecting potential lawmakers, have been blocking women from seeking office,” she said.

“Other challenges include that the country’s leaders do not nominate a good number of women into the top political offices and lack of unity among women,” Sheikh added.

Out of the 275 seats for Somalia’s Lower House, clans have so far selected only 52 women.

As Somalia’s women continue to navigate the challenges posed by conflict and societal norms, their stories of resilience and determination serve as a powerful reminder of their essential role in shaping the nation’s future.

Humanitarian crisis

This year International Women’s Day comes as Somali women suffer from displacement caused by the ongoing war against al-Shabab and Islamic State in the country’s Northeast and Central regions.

Somalia, an aid-dependent nation that averted famine in 2022 through increased humanitarian assistance, is now witnessing a resurgence of food insecurity.

Currently, 3.4 million people are acutely food insecure, and this number is projected to rise to 4.4 million between April and June — nearly a quarter of the population, Somali officials and the United Nation’s humanitarian agencies said this week.

The World Food Program (WFP) estimates that approximately 1.7 million children under the age of five require immediate support, with 466,000 likely to be severely acutely malnourished and at risk of death this year.

“We have learned in Somalia from past experience that delays can be deadly, and we need resources to provide support to these very vulnerable groups,” said WFP spokesperson Jean-Martin Bauer from Rome.

He urged donors and partners to increase funding for the country of 19 million people as it faces this escalating crisis.

This story originated in the Somali Service.

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VOA Uzbek: Migrant workers in Russia feel pressure

The war in Ukraine and the terrorist attacks in Moscow have led to unprecedented pressure on migrant workers in Russia, both in the political sphere and among the Russian public. Thousands of Uzbeks working in Russia are now considering returning home to help with the construction of “New Tashkent” development projects. 

Click here for the full story in Uzbek. 

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House Republicans unveil spending bill to avoid shutdown

WASHINGTON — House Republicans unveiled a spending bill Saturday that would keep federal agencies funded through Sept. 30, pushing ahead with a go-it-alone strategy that seems certain to spark a major confrontation with Democrats over the contours of government spending.

The 99-page bill would provide a slight boost to defense programs while trimming non-defense programs below 2024 budget year levels. That approach is likely to be a nonstarter for most Democrats who have long insisted that defense and non-defense spending move in the same direction.

Congress must act by midnight Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, is teeing up the bill for a vote on Tuesday despite the lack of buy-in from Democrats, essentially daring them to vote against it and risk a shutdown. He also is betting that Republicans can muscle the legislation through the House largely by themselves.

Normally, when it comes to keeping the government fully open for business, Republicans have had to work with Democrats to craft a bipartisan measure that both sides can support. That’s because Republicans almost always lack the votes to pass spending bills on their own.

Crucially, the strategy has the backing of President Donald Trump, who has shown an ability so far in his term to hold Republicans in line.

Trump praised the bill, writing on X that Republicans have to “remain UNITED — NO DISSENT — Fight for another day when the timing is right.”

“Great things are coming for America, and I am asking you all to give us a few months to get us through to September so we can continue to put the Country’s ‘financial house’ in order,” he said.

House Republicans’ leadership staff outlined the contours of the measure, saying it would allow for about $892.5 billion in defense spending and about $708 billion in non-defense spending. The defense spending is slightly above the prior year’s level, but the non-defense spending, the aides said, was about $13 billion below last year.

The measure also will not include funding requested by individual lawmakers for thousands of community projects around the country, often referred to as earmarks.

The bill does not cover the majority of government spending, including programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Funding for those two programs are on auto pilot and are not regularly reviewed by Congress.

The top Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro and Washington Senator Patty Murray, both issued statements blasting the legislation.

“I strongly oppose this full-year continuing resolution,” DeLauro said.

Murray said the legislation would “give Donald Trump and Elon Musk more power over federal spending — and more power to pick winners and losers, which threatens families in blue and red states alike.”

Maine Senator Susan Collins, who heads the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the focus must be on preventing a shutdown because closures have negative consequences all across government.

“They require certain essential government employees, such as Border Patrol agents, members of our military and Coast Guard, TSA screeners, and air traffic controllers, to report to work with no certainty on when they will receive their next paycheck,” Collins said. “We cannot allow that to occur.”

Trump’s request for unity appears to be having an effect. Some conservatives who almost never vote for continuing resolutions expressed much openness to one last week.

Representative Ralph Norman said he has never voted for a continuing resolution — what lawmakers often call a CR — but he is on board with Johnson’s effort. He said he has confidence in Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, a team led by Elon Musk, to make a difference on the nation’s debt.

“I don’t like CRs,” Norman said. “But what’s the alternative? Negotiate with Democrats? No.”

“I freeze spending for six months to go identify more cuts? Somebody tell me how that’s not a win in Washington,” added Republican Representative Chip Roy, another lawmaker who has frequently voted against spending bills but supports the six-month continuing resolution.

Republicans are also hoping that resolving this year’s spending will allow them to devote their full attention to extending the individual tax cuts passed during Trump’s first term and raising the nation’s debt limit to avoid a catastrophic federal default.

Democratic leaders are warning that the decision to move ahead without consulting them increases the prospects for a shutdown. One of their biggest concerns is the flexibility the legislation would give the Trump administration on spending.

The Democratic leadership in both chambers has stressed that Republicans have the majority and are responsible for funding the government. But leaders also have been wary of saying how Democrats would vote on a continuing resolution.

“We have to wait to see what their plan is,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “We’ve always believed the only solution is a bipartisan solution, no matter what.”

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said earlier this week that the Democratic caucus would meet and discuss the legislation at the “appropriate moment.” But he struck a more forceful tone Friday.

Jeffries said Democrats are ready to negotiate a “meaningful, bipartisan spending agreement that puts working people first.” But he said the “partisan continuing resolution” threatens to cut funding for key programs, such as veterans benefits and nutritional assistance for low-income families.

“That is not acceptable,” Jeffries said.

Trump has been meeting with House Republicans in an effort to win their votes on the legislation. Republicans have a 218-214 majority in the House, so if all lawmakers vote, they can afford only one defection if Democrats unite in opposition. The math gets even harder in the Senate, where at least seven Democrats would have to vote for the legislation to overcome a filibuster. And that’s assuming all 53 Republicans vote for it.

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UN urges Taliban to end restrictions on girls on International Women’s Day

WASHINGTON — Four years ago, Yalda never imagined that she would not be able to continue her education or achieve her dream of graduating from school.

“My parents would often talk about the Taliban’s first rule [in the 1990s],” recalled Yalda, who requested that her full name not be used for security reasons. “I used to think it was fortunate I wasn’t born during those days. Sadly, we ended up experiencing the same fate.”

Yalda, who was in 10th grade when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, is one of the 1.5 million girls deprived of an education in Afghanistan.

Like most school-age girls, she is now confined to her home.

“I think I live in a prison. I am so hopeless, and wish I had not been born a girl,” Yalda said.

In addition to banning girls from secondary and university education, the Taliban have barred them from working with government and nongovernment organizations, traveling long distances without a close male relative, and going to parks, public baths and salons.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, in a statement issued on March 8, condemned the “progressive erasure of women and girls from public life” and called on the Taliban to lift restrictions on Afghan women.

“These restrictions are not only violations of human rights but also barriers to Afghanistan’s progress, deepening poverty and isolation for millions,” said UNAMA’s statement.

The Taliban rejected the U.N. call, saying that women in Afghanistan are given their due rights “in accordance with Islamic Sharia law.”

“At present, Afghan women reside in a state of complete physical and psychological security,” they said.

An Afghan teacher, who did not want her identity to be disclosed for fear of reprisal, told VOA that Afghan women do not feel safe in the country.

“We don’t have safety. I can’t teach anymore. We don’t have any future,” said the teacher. “We are not considered as equal human beings in this country.”

Afghanistan is listed last — 177th out of 177 countries — on Georgetown University’s global Women Peace and Security Index of inclusion, justice and security for women.

The teacher said that women in Afghanistan are filled with despair, saying that “any change by the group is unlikely.”

Hoda Jaberian, the UNESCO program coordinator for education emergencies in Paris, called the Taliban’s restriction “a war against women.”

She told VOA that women’s rights in Afghanistan should remain a top priority for the international community.

“This is the responsibility of the international community to ensure that the rights of Afghan women and girls are restored without any delay,” Jaberian said.

No country has yet formally recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

Adela Raz, a former Afghan ambassador to the United States, told VOA that one of the main reasons for not recognizing the Taliban’s government is the group’s failure to grant women their rights.

She added that, alongside the United Nations, Muslim-majority nations and neighboring countries should pressure the Taliban to respect women’s rights in Afghanistan.

“The neighboring countries, to an extent, have ties with the Taliban and their position is important” to apply pressure on the Taliban to uphold women’s rights.

Yalda says that she and other girls in Afghanistan, however, are losing hope.

“They [the Taliban] haven’t changed in the past 3½ years. I don’t think they will,” said Yalda.

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Iran’s top leader rejects talks with US after Trump makes overture

TEHRAN, IRAN — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he rejects a U.S. push for talks between the two countries because they would be aimed at imposing restrictions on Iranian missile range and its influence in the region.

Speaking to a group of officials on Saturday, Khamenei did not identify the United States by name but said a “bullying government” was being persistent in its push for talks.

“Their talks are not aimed at solving problems, it is for … let’s talk to impose what we want on the other party that is sitting on the opposite side of the table,” he said.

Khamenei’s remarks came a day after President Donald Trump acknowledged sending a letter to Khamenei seeking a new deal with Tehran to restrain its rapidly advancing nuclear program and replace the nuclear deal he withdrew America from during his first term in office.

Khamenei said U.S. demands would be military and related to the regional influence of Iran.

“They will be about defense capabilities, about international capabilities of the country,” he said. They will urge Iran “not to do things, not to meet some certain people, not to go to a certain place, not to produce some items, your missile range should not be more than a certain distance. Is it possible for anybody to accept these?”

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, said such talks would not address solving problems between Iran and the West. Although Khamenei did not name any person or country, he said the push for talks creates pressure on Iran in public opinion.

“It is not negotiation. It is commanding and imposition,” he said.

Trump, in comments to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, did not mention the letter directly. But he made a veiled reference to possible military action, saying, “We have a situation with Iran that, something’s going to happen very soon. Very, very soon.”

Trump’s overture comes as Israel and the United States have warned they will never let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon, leading to fears of a military confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at near-weapons-grade levels — something done only by atomic-armed nations.

Tehran has long maintained its program is for peaceful purposes, even as its officials increasingly threaten to pursue the bomb as tensions are high with the U.S. over its sanctions and with Israel as a shaky ceasefire holds in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Iran’s accelerated production of near-weapons-grade uranium puts more pressure on Trump. He has repeatedly said he’s open to negotiations with the Islamic Republic while also increasingly targeting Iran’s oil sales with sanctions as part of his reimposed “maximum pressure” policy.

Late in August, Khamenei in a speech opened the door to possible talks with the U.S., saying there is “no harm” in engaging with the “enemy.” However, more recently the supreme leader tempered that, saying that negotiations with America “are not intelligent, wise or honorable,” after Trump floated the possibility of nuclear talks with Tehran.

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Myanmar junta chief announces election for December or January

Myanmar’s military government will hold a general election in December 2025 or January 2026, state media said Saturday, citing the junta chief, who provided the first specific time frame for the long-promised polls in the war-torn nation.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since early 2021, when the military ousted an elected civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering a protest movement that morphed into an armed rebellion against the junta across the Southeast Asian country.

The junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, vowed to hold an election, but his administration repeatedly extended a state of emergency, even as the military was battered by a collection of anti-junta opposition groups.

Critics have widely derided the promised polls as a sham to keep the generals in power through proxies, given that dozens of political parties have been banned, and the junta has lost its grip over large parts of Myanmar.

“We plan to hold a free and fair election soon,” Min Aung Hlaing said during a visit to Belarus, where he announced the time frame, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

“Fifty-three political parties have already submitted their lists to participate in the election,” he said.

The junta was able to conduct a full, on-the-ground census in only 145 of the country’s 330 townships to prepare voter lists for the elections, according to a census report published in December.

The election also brings the risk of more violence as the junta and its opponents push to increase their control of territory in Myanmar, where the widening conflict has left the economy in tatters and displaced over 3.5 million people.

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India says it is working to cut tariffs as it eyes US trade deal

NEW DELHI — India said Friday it is working to lower trade barriers with the United States as it tries to reach a bilateral trade deal with Washington this year.

The two countries said after a February White House meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that they will try to reach a deal by fall, aiming to increase bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters Friday the objective of the bilateral trade agreement would be “to strengthen and deepen India-U.S. two-way trade in the goods and services sector, increase market access, reduce tariff and nontariff barriers, and deepen supply chain integration between the two countries.”

Trump has accused Delhi of imposing unfair trade barriers through high tariffs and has been putting pressure on India to cut duties on U.S. imports. India, for example, imposes tariffs of up to 110% on all car imports.

“India charges us massive tariffs. Massive. You cannot even sell anything in India,” Trump said Friday at the White House. “They have agreed. By the way, they want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody is finally exposing them for what they have done.”

There was no immediate comment from Indian officials.

Conciliatory approach

Analysts say India has adopted a conciliatory approach on tariffs, opting to engage the U.S. in talks as it looks to avoid friction. India already has lowered duties on some imports that will benefit American companies, such as high-end motorcycles and bourbon.

“The U.S. is, first of all, India’s largest export market, so we do not want to upset that,” said New Delhi-based trade analyst Biswajit Dhar. “Then there are other considerations at play. There is a sense that the U.S. is a valued strategic partner, so we don’t want trade tensions to upset that equilibrium, also.”

While India has been spared tariffs so far from the Trump administration, reciprocal tariffs that Trump has said he will be announcing early next month could affect Indian exports to the U.S. in areas from pharmaceuticals and drugs to auto components. Two-way trade in goods between the countries was more than $129 billion last year, with Indian exports surpassing $87 billion.

Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal visited Washington this week to discuss trade issues with American officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

During remarks to an Indian television network, Lutnick called on India to reconsider its tariffs in light of the “special relationship” with the United States.

“It’s time to do something big, something grand, something that connects India and the United States together, but does it on a broad scale, not product-by-product, but rather the whole thing,” he said speaking Friday from Washington to India Today TV.

Defense purchases

He also said India must shift defense equipment purchases away from Russia and buy more from the U.S.

Analysts say purchasing more military hardware from the U.S. could help bridge India’s trade surplus with the U.S., which stood at more than $40 billion last year.

Lutnick also said he wanted India to open its market to U.S. farm exports, which New Delhi has long resisted for fear it will hurt tens of millions of India’s small farmers.

In New Delhi, trade analysts said there is room for India to lower tariffs in several areas outside of agriculture.

“I think we can lower tariffs to zero level on most industrial goods, but agriculture we don’t want to touch. It is very sensitive,” said Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative think tank in New Delhi. “For us, that is not a trade issue but a livelihood issue, with more than 700 million farmers depending on it for their incomes.”

Other analysts agree that tariffs on imports of farm products, a key area in which the U.S. wants access, could pose a hurdle for the two countries during negotiations.

“Agricultural products are a strict ‘no’ for India. This will cause unease here and could become a sticking point as they try to clinch a trade deal,” trade analyst Dhar said.

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