Angolan fishermen blame Chinese trawlers for declining fish stock 

In the port of Benguela on Angola’s Pacific coast, fishermen and fish traders are struggling to make ends meet. They say their catch is getting smaller and they blame illegal fishing by Chinese  trawlers. For Joao Marcos, Barbara Santos has this report.  (Mayra de Lassalette contributed)

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Ukrainian civilians help build up their country’s drone fleet

Inexpensive first-person view – or radio controlled – drones have become a powerful weapon in Ukraine’s war against Russian invaders. As the country presses the West for more military aid, many Ukrainian civilians are stepping in to help by making homemade attack drones. Lesia Bakalets has the story from Kyiv.

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Biden administration imposes first-ever national drinking water limits on toxic PFAS 

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Activists urge Nigeria to refuse Shell’s oil selloff plans 

London — Environmental and human rights activists are calling on the Nigerian government to withhold approval of plans by the London-based oil giant Shell to sell off its operations in the Niger Delta, unless the oil giant does more to tackle pollution in the region caused by the industry.

For decades, foreign energy firms have extracted hydrocarbons from the Niger Delta, and Shell is by far the biggest investor. It has earned the companies — and the Nigerian government — billions of dollars. Locals, however, have long complained of massive environmental damage.

“You can’t grow crops. You can’t drink the water. You can’t fish because the fish are dying or they’re dead,” said Florence Kayemba, Nigeria director at the civil society group Stakeholder Democracy Network, based in Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta.

Shell Oil announced in January it is pulling out of its onshore and shallow water operations the region. It intends to sell its Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), to Renaissance, a consortium of five mainly local firms. The sale would include existing mining licenses and infrastructure. Shell says it is part of a plan to transition away from fossil fuels.

Civil society groups say Shell must do more to clean up the environment before it leaves. A recent report by a Dutch organization, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, or SOMO, warned the divestment plan is a “ticking time bomb.”

“Communities fear that, once Shell exits, they will never see their environment restored or receive compensation for lost livelihoods,” the SOMO report said. “Most people in the Delta depend on farming and fishing, occupations that are impossible when the soil and waterways are deeply contaminated.”

Florence Kayemba of the Stakeholder Democracy Network, which contributed to the SOMO report, told VOA that the Nigerian government must scrutinize the sale more closely.

“We are very concerned about the legacy of pollution being left behind by Shell — not only Shell but also other oil companies that have divested their assets from the Niger Delta,” she said.

“We believe that it’s very important for the federal government to look into these issues, because the oil is not going to flow forever,” Kayemba added. “You will have a post-oil Nigeria. You will have a post-oil Niger Delta. And we need to have an environment that is functional.”

Oil companies like Shell have often blamed theft and sabotage for oil spills, a claim contested by environmental groups. Locals also seek to make money from unlicensed small-scale production known as “artisanal refining,” according to Kayemba.

“What you have is a situation where artisanal oil refining is just reinforcing what has been happening,” she said. “And yet that pollution had already existed. So, by the time you get to disentangle this, it becomes really difficult. Who is to blame who?”

A report commissioned in May 2023 by Bayelsa State, one of the major oil producing regions in the Niger Delta, estimated that it would cost some $12 billion to clean up decades-old oil spills in the state over a 12-year period. It blamed Shell and the Italian oil firm ENI for most of the damage.

Both Shell and ENI dispute the findings.

The SOMO report claims Shell is now selling its operations to domestic companies that may not have the capability to deal with the aging infrastructure and legacy of oil exploration.

“Shell is selling its oil blocks and infrastructure as going concerns to companies that appear, in several cases, to lack the finances and willingness both to deal with the old and damaged infrastructure and to undertake responsible closure and decommissioning when this becomes necessary,” the report said.

“Shell’s exit exposes the communities of the Niger Delta to major ongoing risks to their environment, health, and human rights, long after the oil industry ceases and likely for generations to come,” it added.

In a statement to VOA, Shell said that “Onshore divestments by international energy companies are part of a wider reconfiguration of the Nigerian oil and gas sector in which, after decades of capability building, domestic companies are playing an increasingly important role in helping the country to deliver its aspirations for the sector.”

“As divestments occur, mandatory submissions to the Federal Government allow the regulators to apply scrutiny across a wide range of issues and recommend approval of these divestments, provided they meet all requirements,” the statement said.

Shell added that it will continue to deploy its “technical expertise” under the terms of the sale to the new buyers.

The Nigerian government has indicated it intends to approve Shell’s divestment plans. Heineken Lokpobiri, Nigeria’s petroleum minister, told the World Economic Forum in Davos that the government is committed to “fostering a business-friendly environment” in the sector.

“On the part of the government, once we get the necessary documents, we will not waste time to give the necessary considerations and consent,” Lokpobiri said at Davos January 18, according to Reuters.

The Nigerian Ministry for Petroleum Resources did not respond to VOA requests for comment.

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Myanmar opposition advances on key border town

Bangkok, Thailand — In the latest setback for Myanmar’s military rulers, resistance forces have seized nearly total control of a key border town straddling the main overland trade route between Myanmar and Thailand.

The junta’s defeat in Myawaddy town on Myanmar’s eastern border follows previous territorial losses in the north along the Chinese border and in the western state of Rakhine, bordering Bangladesh.

The armed wing of the Karen National Union, or KNU, Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armed organization and group, says it is now in control of most of the town and pursuing remaining junta forces in the area.

Myanmar has been in chaos since General Min Aung Hlaing and his military forces overthrew the democratically elected government in February 2021. The coup sparked widespread armed resistance by a loose alliance of ethnic groups and civilian-led defense forces.

Most of the conflict has been confined to rural areas. But on Friday the KNU announced it had seized a major junta base in Myawaddy with the surrender of 617 military personnel and family members.

The KNU says it now controls most of the town, which sits on the main highway between Thailand and Myanmar. Billions of dollars’ worth of goods pass through it each year.

Padoh Saw Taw Nee, spokesperson for the KNU, told VOA early Tuesday that the junta’s 275 Battalion is “still in Myawaddy town with their division commander with them. It might be not more than 300 or 400 [personnel] left. We don’t hear anything about [new] fighting yet, negotiations are continuing.”

The Irrawaddy, a Myanmar news outlet, reported later Tuesday that the Karen National Liberation Army and its allies had launched an attack on the battalion, the last junta forces in the area.

Padoh Saw Taw Nee said things are in place for the KNU to take over administrative duties, adding that junta forces who surrendered in Myawaddy are still being accounted for. He said the KNU are bracing for a heavy response from the military.

“Usually, they make a heavy retaliation with the airstrikes. They always say, ‘Whenever you take a place, it doesn’t matter, you can take the territory, but we just have to destroy the place so you can’t set up your administration.’ So, we need to be very careful about it,” he said.

The ruling State Administrative Council, or SAC, has violently cracked down on dissidents since the coup, with more than 4,800 people killed and more than 20,000 people detained, according to Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma, a monitoring group in Thailand.

But the military has been on the defensive since a coalition of resistance forces staged a sudden counteroffensive in October. Armed ethnic groups captured dozens of military-held townships and posts in northern Shan State, while the ethnic Arakan Army has made significant gains in Rakhine state in the west.

In another sign of changing fortunes, Myanmar’s shadow government, the National Unity Government, or NUG, claimed responsibility last week for more than a dozen drone attacks on junta bases in the capital, Naypyidaw.

“The SAC is facing multiple battlefield defeats, in Karen State most dramatically, with the possible takeover of the border town of Myawaddy after months of fighting,” said David Scott Mathieson, an independent Myanmar analyst. “On the ground, the SAC is in retreat in multiple locations, in Kachin, Arakan, and Karenni and Shan [states].”

But, Mathieson told VOA, the military “has a large country to retreat into, with a network of bases and arms production. They may be losing but this doesn’t indicate they’re finished just yet. Their reaction to further losses or the spread of fighting into central Myanmar will be extreme force. For the SAC, savagery is a strategy.”

In a bid to stem its run of defeats, the military recently activated a national conscription law with the aim of drafting 60,000 new recruits a year, including 5,000 by the end of April.

The law is hugely unpopular, with many young people seeking to avoid the draft. Many have fled to Thailand, which has taken in an estimated 45,000 Burmese refugees since the coup in 2021. Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said this week that Thailand is preparing to receive 100,000 more.

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US, Israel ‘ready’ for cease-fire but say Hamas must free hostages

The White House blames militant group Hamas for the failure to reach a cease-fire with Israel before the end of Ramadan, as Washington prepares for a high-level meeting on Israel’s plans to invade Rafah and faces lingering questions over the killing of aid workers by Israeli forces. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.

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Generals: Proposal to move guardsmen into Space Force would ‘jeopardize’ national security

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Blinken, Cameron implore Republican lawmakers to unblock aid to Ukraine

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington to help push for a new aid package for Ukraine. He also met with former President Donald Trump in Florida, as VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.

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Russia, Kazakhstan evacuate 100,000 people in worst flooding in decades

ORSK, Russia — Russia and Kazakhstan ordered more than 100,000 people to evacuate after swiftly melting snow swelled rivers beyond bursting point in the worst flooding in the area for at least 70 years. 

The deluge of melt water overwhelmed scores of settlements in the Ural Mountains, Siberia and areas of Kazakhstan close to rivers such as the Ural and Tobol, which local officials said had risen by meters in a matter of hours to the highest levels ever recorded. 

Late on Tuesday, levels of the Ural River in Orenburg, a city of around 550,000, reached 9.31 meters (30.54 feet) exceeding the critical level of 9.30 meters (30.51 feet), the regional governor said. He urged residents in areas at risk to evacuate. 

“I am calling for caution and for those in flooded districts to evacuate promptly,” Denis Pasler said on Telegram. 

City residents paddled along roads as though they were rivers. Dams and embankments were being strengthened.  

Upstream on the Ural, floodwaters burst through an embankment dam in the city of Orsk last Friday. 

Regional officials said water levels in Orsk had subsided by 21 centimeters (.68 feet) and now stood at 9.07 meters 29.75 feet), still well over the official danger level of about 7 meters (22.96 feet). Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said water levels had declined in a number of areas but described the situation as “still difficult.” 

The Ural is Europe’s third-longest river, which flows through Russia and Kazakhstan into the Caspian. 

Evacuation order 

Sirens in Kurgan, a city on the Tobol River, a tributary of the Irtysh, warned people to evacuate immediately. Regional officials said floodwaters would continue to rise for three days and predicted a “difficult situation” until the end of April. 

A state of emergency was also declared in Tyumen, a major oil-producing region of Western Siberia, the largest hydrocarbon basin in the world. Russian news agencies said Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov had arrived in the city as part of a regional tour assessing flood danger. 

“The difficult days are still ahead for the Kurgan and Tyumen regions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “There is a lot of water coming.” 

Tyumen is about 200 kilometers (124.27 miles) north of Kurgan. 

President Vladimir Putin spoke to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, where more than 86,000 people have been evacuated because of the flooding. Tokayev said the flooding was probably the worst in 80 years. 

The most severely hit areas are Atyrau, Aktobe, Akmola, Kostanai, Eastern Kazakhstan, Northern Kazakhstan and Pavlodar regions, most of which border Russia and are crossed by rivers originating in Russia such as the Ural and the Tobol. 

Russians beg for help

In Russia, anger boiled over in Orsk when at least 100 Russians begged the Kremlin chief for help and chanted “shame on you” at local officials who they said had done too little. 

The Kremlin said Putin was being updated on the situation but had no immediate plans to visit the flood zone as local and emergency officials were doing their best to tackle the deluge.  

In Kurgan, a region with 800,000 residents, drone footage showed traditional Russian wooden houses and the golden kupolas of Orthodox Churches stranded alongside an expanse of water.  

Russian officials have said some people ignored calls to evacuate. Kurgan Governor Vadim Shumkov urged residents to take the warnings seriously. 

“We understand you very well: It is hard to leave your possessions and move somewhere at the call of the local authorities,” Shumkov said. “It’s better that we laugh at the hydrologists together later and praise God for the miracle of our common salvation. But let’s do it alive.” 

In Kurgan, water levels were rising in the Tobol. Russia said 19,000 people were at risk in the region.  

Rising waters were also forecast in Siberia’s Ishim River, also a tributary of the Irtysh, which along with its parent, the Ob, forms the world’s seventh-longest river system. 

It was not immediately clear why this year’s floods were so severe as the snow melt is an annual event in Russia. Scientists say climate change has made flooding more frequent worldwide. 

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Report: Legal harassment of Cambodian journalists increasing

Phnom Penh, Cambodia — Threats by the Cambodian government to take legal action against journalists are increasing, sparking concerns about constraints on press freedom, says an annual report by the Cambodian Journalists Association (CamboJA). 

The group monitors incidents of harassment and restrictions on journalists. Pressure on independent media outlets has increased since the government of former Prime Minister Hun Sen began cracking down on political dissent before the 2018 general election. Several independent media outlets have closed since then, and six media licenses were revoked in 2023, compared to two cases in 2022. 

In “Cambodian Journalism Situation Report 2023,” released on March 20, CamboJA recorded 32 cases of harassment of 59 journalists, six of them women. In 2022, CamboJA recorded 35 cases of harassment against 54 journalists, eight of them women.

Legal action was involved in 15 of the 32 cases. These included lawsuits, license revocation, arrests or threats of legal action. At least five journalists were sued, charged with crimes or imprisoned. 

“We caution against drawing any firm conclusions from these numbers,” the report said, adding that some journalists “are understandably afraid to report for fear of further reprisal.”

Nop Vy, executive director of CamboJA, told VOA Khmer that harassment has had a significant impact on journalists’ performance and writing. He said this affects people’s rights to access information to get comprehensive information.

“When journalists do not have the time or ability to write in-depth information, quality information helps the society. People cannot get information about various aspects of the society in every aspect,” he said.

Nop Vy urged the government to prosecute those who harass or intimidate journalists and to end the impunity that has permitted the harassment to continue.

Ministry of Information spokesman Tep Asnarith challenged the report’s findings, citing ministry data showing that journalists were able to carry out their responsibilities in all parts of the country last year.

“Tens of thousands of journalists, as well as more than 2,000 traditional and modern media outlets, have been working to cover, produce and disseminate all forms of information, as well as to report freely and safely at all times by professional manner, with transparency and gaining the trust and support of the general public,” he said. 

At an editors’ forum in December, Prime Minister Hun Manet said the achievements and success of the government are due to the participation of journalists in partnership with the government.

He said the government has always promoted freedom of expression and the press, as well as encouraged more capacity building in the field of journalism and the strengthening of media professionalism and ethics.

CamboJA launched a new website in March that will report on journalist harassment, provide quarterly and annual updates on the status of journalists, provide data sources, and support advocacy efforts for press freedom.

Press freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders ranked Cambodia 147th out of 180 countries in 2023 for its escalation of government persecutions of the independent media.

Ser Davy in Phnom Penh contributed to this report.

 

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Malawi police arrest journalist over fraud story

Blantyre, Malawi   — Police in Malawi have arrested a newspaper journalist over an online story published last year exposing fraudulent activities involving a corruption suspect charged with conspiracy to defraud the Malawi government.  

The journalist, Macmillan Mhone, who works for the daily Nation Newspaper in Blantyre, was arrested Monday following the story he allegedly wrote in August of last year when he was working for the online publication Malawi24. The story exposed fraudulent activities involving corruption suspect Abdul Karim Batatawala, who was charged with conspiracy to defraud the Malawi government. 

Mhone’s lawyer, Joseph Lihoma, told VOA on Tuesday that Mhone was yet to be charged.  

Mhone’s preliminary charges include conduct likely to cause breach of peace and cause public alarm.   

The arrest comes two months after another local investigative journalist, Gregory Gondwe, went into hiding following a tip from military sources about plans to arrest him for writing a story about corruption in the military. 

Several press freedom advocates and human rights campaigners, including the Committee for Protection of Journalists and the Media Institute for Southern Africa — known as MISA-MALAWI — have condemned Mhone’s arrest.   

Golden Matonga, the chairperson for the Media Institute for Southern Africa in Malawi, called on police to release the journalist without conditions.    

“Malawi is one of [the] beacons of hope for democracy,” said Mantonga. “To see this backsliding of our democracy is saddening for us in the journalism profession and also for everyone who wished our democracy to continue to grow.” 

In a statement, MISA-Malawi also said the story in question does not cause fear or public alarm. 

Pearson Nkhoma, the director of the board of the online publication Malawi24, where the story was published, said police have arrested Mhone based on wrong information because he never wrote the story. 

“If anyone has a screenshot indicating that Macmillan has the byline, then those people are basically lying,” he said. 

Nkhoma said it is surprising that police have arrested someone who no longer works for Malawi24 on the matter concerning the publication.   

VOA did not get a comment from the police because calls to the national police spokesperson went unanswered. 

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US pushes back at Russia’s protest over South Korean sanctions

WASHINGTON — The United States is welcoming South Korean sanctions imposed on Russian vessels suspected of transporting weapons from North Korea, despite Russian protests. 

“We applaud the recent actions taken by the ROK to disrupt and expose arms transfers between the DPRK and Russia – including the sanctions … on two Russian vessels involved in arms transfers to Russia,” a State Department spokesperson said.

“It is important for the international community to send a strong, unified message that the DPRK must halt its irresponsible behavior, abide by its obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions, and engage in serious and sustained diplomacy,” the spokesperson said Friday via email to the VOA Korean Service.

South Korea on April 2 unilaterally sanctioned two Russian vessels involved in delivering military supplies from North Korea to Russia.  

The next day at a press briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called Seoul’s move “an unfriendly step” that “leads only to escalation of tensions” and “will affect South Korea-Russia relations in a negative way.” 

She said Moscow would respond to the sanctions but did not specify how. 

On Friday, Russia said it had summoned South Korea’s ambassador.  

The South Korean sanctions followed Russia’s veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the annual extension of the U.N. experts panel that monitors sanctions on North Korea. The panel’s mandate ends at the end of April.

The ties between Pyongyang and Moscow have been growing since a summit in September. Since then, North Korea has been providing munitions that Russia needs to fight its war in Ukraine.

“The ROK government getting involved in applying sanctions, seizures, and other active counterproliferation authorities and capabilities against the North is a huge step forward in joint cooperation to counter, protect and contain the DPRK regime’s weapons exports,” said David Asher, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.   

Asher worked on disrupting North Korea’s illicit financial, trading and weapons of mass destruction networks under the George W. Bush administration.

In an email to VOA on Monday, Asher added, “I fully expect ROK-U.S.-Japan cooperation to expand in counterproliferation, including the identification and targeting of weapons supply networks using intelligence operations, law enforcement, and sanctions.”

A day after announcing the sanctions, Seoul said it had seized a vessel that was suspected of violating U.N. sanctions on North Korea. South Korea said it was investigating the DEYI, a cargo ship that was en route to Russia from North Korea via China, after seizing it in waters off the South Korean port city of Yeosu.

“This reinforces that countries can implement U.N. sanctions, on their own, as they have responsibility to do so,” especially after Russia blocked the U.N. experts panel’s mandate, said Anthony Ruggiero, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Ruggiero has over 19 years working on financial sanctions and proliferation issues, including ones involving North Korea.

There is a broad international and domestic set of legal authorities that countries like South Korea could rely on to go after illicit exports and maritime activities by North Korea, but it is a matter of “whether countries are willing to stop” vessels making illegal actions, Ruggiero said during a telephone interview on Monday. 

A U.N. Security Council resolution passed in 2017 authorizes member states to seize, inspect, freeze and impound vessels in their territorial waters found to be conducting illicit activities with Pyongyang and carrying banned goods from North Korea.  

A State Department spokesperson told VOA’s Korean Service on Thursday that the U.S. is “coordinating closely with the ROK in its investigation of this ship in connection with U.N. sanctions violations.”

“Despite Russia’s veto of the 1718 Committee Panel of Experts mandate in order to bury reporting on its violation of U.S. Security Council resolutions, U.N. sanctions on the DPRK remain in place, and all U.N. member states are still required to implement them,” the spokesperson said.

Nate Evans, the spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the U.N., said Monday that U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield will travel to South Korea and Japan next week to discuss ways to monitor international sanctions on North Korea.

South Korea estimated in March that North Korea has shipped about 7,000 containers full of munitions to Russia since last year. The U.S. assessed the same month the number of containers to be 10,000.

Joshua Stanton, an attorney based in Washington who helped draft the Sanctions and Policy Enforcement Act in 2016, told VOA on Monday via email that Seoul could seize ships carrying weapons from North Korea to Russia if certain criteria are met. 

Seoul could do so “if South Korea has reasonable cause to believe that the vessel is engaged in sanctions evasion, and if one of the following conditions is also met: the [vessel’s] flag state consents, the vessel is stateless, or the ship enters a South Korean port.”

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Striking Kenyan doctors hold demonstrations in Nairobi amid stalemate

Nairobi, Kenya — Kenyan doctors held new demonstrations Tuesday in their push for better pay and working conditions.

The doctors are demanding a commitment from the government to fulfill collective bargaining agreements signed in 2017, but President William Ruto says the country has no money to pay the doctors and asked them to return to work.

Thousands of striking doctors and medical trainees chanted, “The doctors united, shall never be defeated,” as they protested outside the Kenyan Parliament.

Led by officials of Kenya’s main health care professionals union, the doctors want the government to honor the agreement.

“The government has not implemented critical components of this collective bargaining agreement and instead, they have begun to violate it outrightly.” said Davji Atellah, secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union.

“Despite the inflation, despite the challenges [and] changes on all the other civil servants and public servants, doctors and other health workers have remained without it being considered,’ Atellah said. “Instead, we realized that the new doctor interns that are being posted, their salaries were reduced by 91%.”

President William Ruto has asked the doctors to call off the strike and go back to work, saying the government is struggling with a huge wage bill and cannot afford to review their salaries.

“I am telling our friends, the doctors, that we mind about them. We value the service they give to our nation. But we have to live within our means,” Ruto said.

Opposition lawmakers who joined the striking doctors Tuesday accuse the president of using the wage bill as an excuse to deny doctors their due pay at a time when there is exorbitant spending in government.

“The doctors must not be paid yesterday, they must not be paid tomorrow, but they must be paid today,” said Paul Ongili, also known as “Babu Owino,” an opposition member of parliament. “Ruto took loans, and Ruto is collecting taxes. And those taxes must be used to pay these doctors. Ruto is vicariously liable for all the deaths occurring in the hospitals, for all the deaths occurring in this country, because he has refused to pay the doctors.”

Another opposition member, Otiende Amollo, said there was support for the strike.

“We want to reassure you that we stand with you, and we stand with your right under the constitution to peacefully demonstrate. Nobody has the authority to outlaw a peaceful demonstration by doctors,” Amollo said.

Irene Kenyatta, a final year medical student at the University of Nairobi, was among those who joined the doctors in the demonstrations.

“I’m fighting for my future. I went to school to have a bright future. It can’t be the moment that I’m going to finish school you are telling me that I can’t have the bright future after all,” she said. “I have invested a lot. If I want a bright future, I have to get the bright future, even if it means coming to the streets to fight for my rights.”

The 2017 Kenyan doctors’ strike that lasted 100 days is the longest in the country’s history. 

Implementation of the collective bargaining agreement that ended that strike is the cause of the current strike, now in its fourth week.

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Turkey’s rapprochement with Israel stops as Ankara restricts trade

Turkey has announced restrictions on trade with Israel and Turkish Airlines has suspended flights to the country as a consequence of the war in Gaza. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the moves come as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reverses his rapprochement efforts, which proved unpopular among voters in last month’s elections

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Poll: Economy a top issue among US voters  

U.S. voters say the economy is one of their biggest concerns in this year’s presidential election. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns looks at how candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump are approaching an economy that the U.S. Labor Department says is adding jobs and lifting wages.

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New app helps Muslims find halal restaurants

Many Muslims follow a set of religious dietary laws, and businesses that serve food allowed under these laws are described as “halal.” For Muslims in Western countries, finding a halal restaurant can be a challenge, but an app is making it much easier. VOA’s Valdya Baraputri reports. Camera: Rendy Wicaksana

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