U.S. President Donald Trump’s idea for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip has shocked Israelis and Palestinians. While some Israelis welcome the idea, Palestinians categorically reject it. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem.
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Month: February 2025
Earthquakes keep rattling Greece’s volcanic island of Santorini every few minutes
ATHENS, GREECE — Earthquakes rattled Greece’s volcanic island of Santorini every few minutes through the night and into Wednesday as authorities bolstered their emergency plans in case the hundreds of temblors over the past few days are a harbinger of a larger quake to come.
A coast guard vessel and a military landing craft were in the wider area as a contingency should an evacuation be required, Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said Wednesday during an emergency meeting with security officials, scientists and the prime minister in Athens.
“We are obliged to draw up scenarios for better and for worse regarding the prolonged seismic activity,” Kikilias said during the meeting, which was televised live.
Predicting earthquakes is not scientifically possible, and experts cannot yet determine definitively whether the seismic activity between the islands of Santorini and Amorgos could be a precursor to a significantly larger earthquake, or is part of an earthquake swarm that could continue shaking the area with small or moderate intensity quakes for weeks or months.
“I understand the fear of what it means at the moment to be on a Santorini that is constantly moving,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, as he called on residents to remain calm and follow authorities’ instructions.
Rescue crews with a sniffer dog and drones have been deployed on Santorini as a precaution since Sunday, while authorities have banned access to several coastal areas and ordered schools on several islands to shut for the week. Public events on Santorini have been banned, and local authorities were restricting access to clifftop areas that are among the biggest tourist draws to the island.
Thousands of residents and visitors have already left Santorini, frightened by the hundreds of earthquakes measuring between magnitude 3 and magnitude 5 that have struck the area since the weekend.
Ferry lines and commercial airlines have added ships and flights to their schedules this week to accommodate the increased demand. However, ferry services were disrupted on Wednesday due to rough weather.
The quakes, which all have epicenters beneath the seabed between Santorini and the Amorgos, have so far caused no injuries or major damage, although limited rockslides and cracks in some older buildings have been reported on Santorini. Greece lies in a highly seismically active part of the world and earthquakes are frequent. But it is extremely rare for any part of the country to experience such an intense barrage of frequent earthquakes.
Last week, authorities said monitors had picked up increased volcanic activity within Santorini’s caldera, or flooded crater, but scientists say this is unrelated to the current quakes. They have also said the seismic activity northeast of the island is unlikely to trigger either of the two volcanoes in the area.
Southeast Aegean regional governor Giorgos Hatzimarkos told Greek state television that the country’s electricity provider had sent staff and equipment to the island to prepare contingency plans in case of power cuts, while civil engineers were checking the road network. Digital Governance Deputy Minister Konstantinos Kyranakis said the government was working with telecommunications providers to ensure backup plans in case of a network outage in the area.
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2 Mozambicans with disabilities overcome social stigma
Living with a disability presents unique challenges, but some living with a disability say resilience, determination, and support can help individuals thrive. From Maputo, Mozambique, reporter Amarilis Gule has this story of two Mozambicans who refuse to let disabilities define their lives. (Video edited by Amarilis Gule)
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US deportation flight carrying illegal Indian migrants lands in Punjab
New Delhi — A U.S. deportation flight carrying Indian nationals accused of entering the U.S. illegally landed in the northern state of Punjab Wednesday – the first such flight to India since the Trump administration launched a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
The military aircraft, which landed amid tight security, brought 104 deportees, according to media reports. Authorities did not confirm the number, but said the deportees will be received in a friendly manner.
New Delhi, which does not want to make illegal immigration a contentious issue with Washington, has said that it is open to the return of undocumented Indians in the United States if their nationality is verified.
President Donald Trump said last week that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him that the country would “do what’s right” in taking back illegal immigrants. His comment came following a phone conversation with Modi.
In New Delhi, foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a media briefing on Friday that India and the United States are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration and “cooperation between India and the U.S. is strong and effective in this domain. This will be evident in times to come.”
Trade and migration are expected to be key issues during a meeting that could take place next week between Trump and Modi.
“India does not want to focus on the issue of illegal migrants being deported. We know it is big business in India, sending migrants illegally. Instead, the government’s interest is in ensuring that legal migration channels to the U.S. for Indian nationals are not restricted by the Trump administration,” according to Manoj Joshi, Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.
Those legal routes are H-1B visas for skilled workers and visas for students.
“Both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration, while also creating more avenues for legal migration from India to the U.S.,” Jaiswal has said.
The number of Indian migrants attempting to enter the U.S. unlawfully has grown in recent years, with India now accounting for the largest number of illegal immigrants to the United States from Asian countries, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
Their overall numbers, however, are still small; Indians account for only about 3 percent of illegal crossings.
The United States has identified some 18,000 undocumented Indian migrants to be sent back home, according to a Bloomberg report last week.
Deportation flights to India are not new — between October 2023 and September 2024, more than 1,000 Indian nationals were repatriated, but Wednesday’s flight was the first time that they were sent back via military aircraft.
The deportation flight was routed to Amritsar city in Punjab, which is among the three states where much of the illegal migration from India to the U.S. originates. The others are Haryana in the north and the western state of Gujarat.
Hours before the flight landed, Punjab’s minister for NRI (Non-Resident Indians) Affairs, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, urged people in the state to avoid illegal migration and instead focus on acquiring skills and education to access global opportunities through legal channels.
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South Africa’s unity government steady after stormy start
Johannesburg — In the seven months since it was formed, South Africa’s unlikely unity government has been stretched and cracked but remains intact under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who delivers its first state of the nation address Thursday.
Several loud quarrels have erupted over sticking points such as language education in schools and Ramaphosa’s warm words towards Russia but nothing that has made real the threats and fears of collapse.
“They think we are at each other’s throats. We are not. We continue to meet and talk,” Ramaphosa said in the wake of the latest crisis sparked by his signing of a property expropriation bill last month.
The second-largest partner in the 10-party coalition, the Democratic Alliance, was angry that Ramaphosa signed the act without consulting his partners in the government of national unity (GNU).
“This is not how coalitions work,” DA leader John Steenhuisen fumed. “We will not be reduced to being spectators.”
But the party did not object to the need for land reform in the country, where most farmland is owned by whites. It also sided with Ramaphosa when the bill was attacked by US President Donald Trump for allowing the “confiscation” of property, saying this was untrue.
The DA has six ministries in exchange for propping up Ramaphosa’s ANC in government after it failed to win enough votes in the May election to govern alone, a first since the party took power in 1994 and ended decades of white-minority apartheid rule.
It was an unlikely collaboration, with the DA a long and critical rival of the African National Congress (ANC).
But the GNU, which includes eight other smaller parties, has been credited with bringing some stability to the continent’s most industrialized economy as it faces a host of challenges, from an unemployment rate topping 30%, to high rates of crime.
Big business
While it has fumed and flexed, the center-right DA is also aware that, should it quit the unity government, the ANC could find support from the radical-left EFF and the populist MK parties, now in opposition.
It is a scenario it calls a “doomsday coalition”.
“This is something the DA will move Table Mountain to avoid,” Sunday Times editor-in-chief Makhudu Sefara wrote in a weekend column. “And therein lies the extent to which they’re prepared to compromise.”
The DA will not walk out, said political scientist Sandile Swana.
“It is the political party of big business,” he said. “And the GNU was mandated, or demanded or directed, to come into existence by big business in South Africa.”
Despite some cynical maneuvring at local government level — for example, to push out the DA mayor of the city of Tshwane in September — the coalition will even survive bitter local elections due in late 2026, said political scientist Susan Booysen told AFP.
“They could actually go into a poisonous, toxic local government election campaign and continue with the national coalition,” she said. “It’s such a schizophrenic type of coalition.”
Ramaphosa, meanwhile, is walking a fine line within his own party, where a large faction of the ANC wants him to assert that it “is not in the DA’s pocket,” Booysen said.
But even if Ramaphosa does not complete his term as president, with his future as head of the party not guaranteed after ANC leadership elections in 2027, his successor is also unlikely to end the fractious collaboration, Swana said.
“Even if Ramaphosa is removed, I do not think they will kick the DA out of government,” Swana said.
“The GNU, as things stand, will last the five-year period.”
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China says it is willing to work with EU on ‘global challenges’
BEIJING — China is willing to work with the European Union on boosting cooperation and responding to “global challenges,” its foreign ministry said on Wednesday, as the bloc faces potential U.S. tariffs on its shipments to the world’s largest economy.
China attaches great importance to EU ties and hopes the bloc will become a reliable cooperation partner, said Lin Jian, spokesperson at the Chinese ministry.
The EU’s trade chief said on Tuesday that the bloc wanted to engage swiftly with the United States over President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen forecast negotiations with Washington would be tough.
As transatlantic ties come under strain with Trump’s tariff threats, China hawks within the EU such as von der Leyen are showing signs of willingness to rethink the relationship between Beijing and Brussels, a bond that had been tested by trade tensions and China’s ties with Russia.
Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, von der Leyen said the EU would keep “de-risking” its relationship with China but added that there was room to “find solutions” in their mutual interest and “find agreements” that could even expand trade and investment ties.
She did not give details on what those agreements could be.
In Davos, Switzerland, last month, von der Leyen also said both sides should find solutions of mutual interest.
In October, the EU imposed double-digit tariffs on China-made electric vehicles after an anti-subsidy investigation, in addition to its standard car import duty of 10%. The move drew loud protests from Beijing, which in return, raised market entry barriers for certain EU products such as brandy.
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Decorated pilot Harry Stewart, Jr., one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, dies at 100
Retired Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr, a decorated World War II pilot who broke racial barriers as a Tuskegee Airmen and earned honors for his combat heroism, has died. He was 100.
Stewart was one of the last surviving combat pilots of the famed 332nd Fighter Group also known as the Tuskegee Airmen. They were the nation’s first Black military pilots.
The Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum confirmed his death. The organization said he died peacefully at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, on Sunday.
Stewart earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for downing three German aircraft during a dogfight on April 1, 1945. He was also part of a team of four Tuskegee Airmen who won the U.S. Air Force Top Gun flying competition in 1949, although their accomplishment would not be recognized until decades later.
“Harry Stewart was a kind man of profound character and accomplishment with a distinguished career of service he continued long after fighting for our country in World War II,” Brian Smith, president and CEO of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum, said.
Born on July 4, 1924, in Virginia, his family moved to New York when he was young. Stewart had dreamed of flying since he was a child when he would watch planes at LaGuardia airport, according to a book about his life titled “Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airmen’s Firsthand Account of World War II.” In the wake of Pearl Harbor, an 18-year-old Stewart joined what was then considered an experiment to train Black military pilots. The unit sometimes was also known as the Tuskegee Airmen for where they trained in Alabama or the Red Tails because of the red tips of their P-51 Mustangs.
“I did not recognize at the time the gravity of what we are facing. I just felt as though it was a duty of mine at the time. I just stood up to my duty,” Stewart said of World War II in a 2024 interview with CNN about the war.
Having grown up in a multicultural neighborhood, the segregation and prejudice of the Jim Crow-era South came as a shock to Stewart, but he was determined to finish and earn his wings according to the book about his life. After finishing training, the pilots were assigned to escort U.S. bombers in Europe. The Tuskegee Airmen are credited with losing significantly fewer escorted bombers than other fighter groups.
“I got to really enjoy the idea of the panorama, I would say, of the scene I would see before me with the hundreds of bombers and the hundreds of fighter planes up there and all of them pulling the condensation trails, and it was just the ballet in the sky and a feeling of belonging to something that was really big,” Stewart said in a 2020 interview with WAMC.
Stewart would sometimes say in a self-effacing way that he was too busy enjoying flying to realize he was making history, according to his book.
Stewart had hoped to become a commercial airline pilot after he left the military, but was rejected because of his race. He went on to earn a mechanical engineering degree at New York University. He relocated to Detroit and retired as vice president of a natural gas pipeline company.
Stewart told Michigan Public Radio in 2019 that he was moved to tears on a recent commercial flight when he saw who was piloting the aircraft.
“When I entered the plane, I looked into the cockpit there and there were two African American pilots. One was the co-pilot, and one was the pilot. But not only that, the thing that started bringing the tears to my eyes is that they were both female,” Stewart said.
The Air Force last month briefly removed training courses with videos of its storied Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs in an effort to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The materials were quickly restored following a bipartisan backlash.
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South Africa tests radioactivity in rhino horns to deter poachers
Scientists are testing a novel technique to deter poachers targeting endangered rhinoceros for their prized horns. As part of a pilot study in South Africa, researchers have injected small, radioactive pellets into the horns of live rhinos. The goal is to make the horns radioactive so there is less demand for them on the black market. Marize de Klerk reports from the UNESCO Waterberg Biosphere Reserve in South Africa.
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Senate confirms Pam Bondi as US attorney general
WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Pam Bondi as U.S. attorney general on Tuesday evening.
The vote fell almost entirely along party lines, with only Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, joining with all Republicans to pass her confirmation 54-46.
Bondi, a former Florida attorney general and corporate lobbyist, is expected to oversee a radical reshaping of the department that has been the target of Trump’s ire over the criminal cases it brought against him. She enters with the FBI, which she will oversee, in turmoil over the scrutiny of agents involved in investigations related to the president, who has made clear his desire to seek revenge on his perceived adversaries.
Republicans have praised Bondi as a highly qualified leader they contend will bring much-needed change to a department they believe unfairly pursued Trump through investigations resulting in two indictments.
“Pam Bondi has promised to get the department back to its core mission: prosecuting crime and protecting Americans from threats to their safety and their freedoms,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
But Bondi has faced intense scrutiny over her close relationship with the president, who during his term fired an FBI director who refused to pledge loyalty to him and forced out an attorney general who recused himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into potential ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign.
While Bondi has sought to reassure Democrats that politics would play no part in her decision-making, she also refused at her confirmation hearing last month to rule out potential investigations into Trump’s adversaries. And she has repeated Trump’s claims that the prosecutions against him amounted to political persecution, saying the Justice Department “had been weaponized for years and years and years, and it’s got to stop.”
Bondi’s confirmation vote came just hours after FBI agents sued the Justice Department over efforts to develop a list of employees involved in the January 6 prosecutions, which agents fear could be a precursor to mass firings.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove last week ordered the acting FBI director to provide the names, titles and offices of all FBI employees who worked on the January 6 cases — which Trump has described as a “grave national injustice.” Bove, who defended Trump in his criminal cases before joining the administration, said Justice Department officials would carry out a “review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.”
Justice Department officials have also recently forced out senior FBI executives, fired prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team who investigated Trump and terminated a group of prosecutors in the District of Columbia’s U.S. attorney’s office who were hired to help with the massive Jan. 6 investigation.
Bondi repeatedly stressed at her confirmation hearing that she would not pursue anyone for political reasons, and vowed that the public, not the president, would be her client. But her answers at times echoed Trump’s campaign rhetoric about a politicized justice system.
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Trump orders target several UN bodies
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday stopped U.S. engagement with the U.N. Human Rights Council, extended a halt to funding for the Palestinian relief agency UNRWA and ordered a review of the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO.
“It’s got great potential and based on the potential we’ll continue to go along with it, but they got to get their act together,” Trump told reporters. “It’s not being well run, to be honest and they’re not doing the job.
“A lot of these conflicts that we’re working on should be settled, or at least we should have some help in settling them. We never seem to get help. That should be the primary purpose of the United Nations,” the U.S. president said.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, “From day one, U.S. support for the United Nations has saved countless lives and advanced global security.”
“The secretary-general looks forward to continuing his productive relationship with President Trump and the U.S. government to strengthen that relationship in today’s turbulent world.”
Trump said that he was not looking to take away money from the 193-member world body, though he complained that Washington had to pay a disproportionate amount.
Washington is the U.N.’s largest contributor – followed by China – accounting for 22% of the core U.N. budget and 27% of the peacekeeping budget. The U.N. has said the U.S. currently owes a total of $2.8 billion, of which $1.5 billion is for the regular budget. These payments are not voluntary.
UNRWA
Trump’s order on Tuesday was largely symbolic and mirrored moves he made during his first term in office, from 2017-2021.
Since taking office for a second term on Jan. 20, Trump has ordered the U.S. to withdraw from the World Health Organization and from the Paris climate agreement – also steps he took during his first term in office.
The U.S. was UNRWA’s biggest donor – providing $300 million-$400 million a year – but former President Joe Biden paused funding in January 2024 after Israel accused about a dozen UNRWA staff of taking part in the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian militants Hamas that triggered the war in Gaza.
The U.S. Congress then formally suspended contributions to UNRWA until at least March 2025. UNRWA provides aid, health and education services to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
The United Nations has said that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and were fired. A Hamas commander in Lebanon – killed in September by Israel – was also found to have had a UNRWA job. The U.N. has vowed to investigate all accusations made and repeatedly asked Israel for evidence, which it says has not been provided.
Human Rights Council
The first Trump administration also quit the 47-member Human Rights Council halfway through a three-year term over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform. The U.S. is not currently a member of the Geneva-based body. Under Biden, the U.S. was re-elected and served a 2022-2024 term.
A council working group is due to review the U.S. human rights record later this year, a process all countries undergo every few years. While the council has no legally binding power, its debates carry political weight and criticism can raise global pressure on governments to change course.
Trump’s executive order on Tuesday also asks Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review and report back to him on international organizations, conventions, or treaties that “promote radical or anti-American sentiment.”
He specified that the U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) should be reviewed first because Washington had previously accused it of anti-Israel bias.
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VOA Mandarin: Trump wants ‘Iron Dome’ for US; can it work?
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to establish a nationwide “Iron Dome” missile defense system has sparked debate over its feasibility, funding, and strategic implications. Unlike Israel’s Iron Dome, which intercepts short-range rockets, Trump’s plan aims to defend against intercontinental ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and hypersonic weapons.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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VOA Mandarin: China retaliates by imposing tariffs on US goods
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — The Chinese government on Tuesday launched four consecutive trade measures against the United States, including 10%-15% tariffs, an antitrust investigation on Google, a blacklist of two U.S. companies, and export controls on five types of metals. Analysts said that Beijing’s four consecutive countermeasures were intended not only to retaliate against the United States but also to increase bargaining chips in negotiations with the U.S.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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Scientists test injecting radioactivity into rhino horns to deter poachers
Scientists are testing a novel technique to deter poachers targeting endangered rhinoceroses for their prized horns. As part of a pilot study in South Africa, researchers have injected small, radioactive pellets into the horns of live rhinos. The goal is to make the horns radioactive so there is less demand for them on the black market. Marize de Klerk reports from the UNESCO Waterberg Biosphere Reserve.
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Therapists hack toys to suit young disabled students
Not all children can play with conventional toys. At a school in New York, occupational therapists are taking off-the-shelf toys and adapting them to make them more suitable for disabled students’ needs. Tina Trinh reports.
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As quakes rattle Greek islands, a few brave tourists enjoy having Santorini to themselves
Santorini, Greece — More Greek islands closed schools Tuesday as hundreds of earthquakes rattled the Aegean Sea, while a handful of hardy tourists enjoyed having Santorini’s stunning views to themselves.
Thousands of residents and seasonal workers have left the Cycladic Islands as hundreds of quakes up to magnitude 5 were recorded in the volcanic region since Friday. Ferry and commercial flight operators added services to accommodate departures.
The quakes have caused cracks in some older buildings but no injuries have been reported so far. On Tuesday, schools were shut on 13 islands, up from four the previous day. Santorini earlier canceled public events, restricted travel to the island and banned construction work in certain areas.
Efthimios Lekkas, head of the state-run Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, said that the epicenter of earthquakes in the Aegean Sea was moving northward away from Santorini, emphasizing that there was no connection to the area’s dormant volcanoes.
“This may last several days or several weeks. We are not able to predict the evolution of the sequence in time,” Lekkas told state-run television.
In Santorini’s main town, Fira, the narrow, whitewashed streets along the island’s clifftops were deserted — a rare sight even in the offseason — except for small pockets of tour groups, many from Asian countries.
Joseph Liu, from Guangzhou in southern China, said that he had wanted to visit Santorini for years after seeing it in a documentary. He joined family and tour group members on a balcony deck typically used for high-end wedding receptions.
“This place is amazing, really beautiful. Just like I saw in the program: the mystery, the scenery,” he said. “The [group] leader told us about the earthquakes before we came so it was not a surprise.”
Retired police officer and ship worker Panagiotis Hatzigeorgiou, who has lived on Santorini for more than three decades, said that he has turned down offers to stay with relatives in Athens.
“Older residents are used to the earthquakes … But it’s different this time. It’s not the same to have earthquakes every 2-3 minutes. The main thing is not to worry,” he said, adding with a laugh: “Now we can listen to music alone and have coffee by ourselves.”
In Athens, government officials are continuing to hold daily high-level planning and assessment meetings with briefings from island officials.
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Chadians who worked for now-departed French troops appeal to government for jobs
Yaounde, Cameroon — More than 400 civilians rendered jobless by the departure of French troops from Chad are asking the government to hire them and provide the job benefits they had when they worked for the French. The last French troops left Chad on January 31, following an order by President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno.
Chadian officials say hundreds of civilians who were employed by the French assembled in the capital N’djamena on Monday to ask the government to immediately give them jobs.
French forces departed Chad at the order of the central African state’s president, Field Marshal Mahamat Idriss Deby.
The last French troops left the country on Friday after handing over the Kossei military base in N’djamena, which they had occupied for about 70 years. Earlier, French forces handed over two other bases at Faya-Largeau and Abeche.
Mbaitoubam Bruno, the spokesperson for civilians who worked at the French military bases, spoke to VOA from N’djamena via a messaging app. He said Chad’s government should immediately recruit them because at least half of the over 400 Chadians who lost their jobs as French troops departed are already in precarious situations that do not permit them to support their families.
Mbaitoubam added that it is imperative for Chad’s government to guarantee the security and social well-being of all former workers at French military bases by making sure each and every one of them has a job.
The former workers mostly held jobs in hospitals, schools and dining facilities that served the French troops. Others provided humanitarian assistance to those who lived around the bases.
Mbaitoubam said a majority of the workers were asked to leave French military bases on November 28 when Chad announced an end to military cooperation with France.
The workers say they have remained without jobs and salaries and cannot take care of their medical bills.
Aziz Mahamat Saleh is a member of a Chadian commission overseeing the dismantling of military agreements between Paris and N’Djamena. He is also Chad’s former communications minister and government spokesman.
He said Chad’s president, Field Marshal Mahamat Idriss Deby, ordered the commission to make a census of all civilians who worked with French troops in three bases at Kossei, Faya-Largeau and Abeche. He says after the census, the commission will propose a list of workers whose services are needed to the government of Chad for recruitment.
Mahamat spoke on Chad’s state TV. He said Deby has asked health and humanitarian workers to continue working in hospitals formerly controlled by French troops.
He said he was pleading with the former workers to have confidence in their government, which he said is doing everything possible to protect their rights and provide jobs despite the difficult economic situation the country is facing.
The workers say that under the French, they earned an average salary of more than 130 dollars per month.
Before leaving Chad last week, General Pascal Ianni, the commander of French forces in Africa, told Chadian state TV that their departure was abrupt. Paris has not said anything concerning the former workers, Chad’s government says.
The workers say the decision to order out the French may have been patriotic for the government, but that it undermined their well-being, and did not take into consideration the needs of several thousand civilians who had health care and education thanks to the French troops’ presence.
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Despite the war, Ukrainian culture is blooming
Ukrainian culture is booming amid the war with Russia. That’s despite the constant rocket attacks and damage to almost 500 heritage sites, according to UNESCO. Experts say Ukrainians have never been as interested in their own culture as they are now. As Lesia Bakalets reports from Kyiv, almost any event is sold out, especially in the capital. (Videographer: Vladyslav Smilianets )
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Thai Prime Minister heads to China amid growing global uncertainties
Taipei, Taiwan — Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra kicks off a four-day trip to China on Wednesday that is expected to focus on economic and trade ties. During the visit, which will include a meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping, analysts say the prime minister will also seek Beijing’s help in boosting Chinese tourists’ confidence in traveling to Thailand.
Paetongtarn’s trip comes amid growing concerns among Chinese tourists about the risks of traveling to Thailand. In January a television actor from China, Wang Xing, was abducted from the Southeast Asian country and forced to work in a scam center in neighboring Myanmar.
“China is pretty concerned about what’s going on in Thailand, especially the cyber scam centers, so the Thai Prime Minister’s visit is to assure the Chinese that the Thais are doing whatever they can to deal with the scam center [issue],” said Rahman Yaacob, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute’s Southeast Asia program.
In recent weeks, Thai and Chinese law enforcement joined forces publicly to crack down on the dozens of cyber scam operations dotting the Chinese-Thai-and-Myanmar border, including the arrest of a man suspected of involvement in the abduction of the Chinese artist Wang Xing.
Chinese and Thai officials agreed to further enhance cooperation in the fight against the cyber scam gangs, including setting up a coordination center in Bangkok.
“Thai Prime Minister may allow Chinese police freer rein to operate in Thailand, including working more formally with Thai police and establishing Chinese police stations in Thailand,” Paul Chambers, an expert on Southeast Asian affairs at Naresuan University in Thailand, told VOA in a written response.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign tourism to Thailand plunged, pummeling the economy. Numbers have started to recover and some 35 million visited the country in 2024, with more than 6.2 million from China. The recent abduction case, however, has presented a new challenge.
“Bringing back tourism is so important for Thailand, and they need the Chinese government’s support due to Beijing’s control over the media,” said Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, who focuses on Southeast Asia politics.
While the cyber scam centers have posed challenges to Thailand and China, some analysts say this issue won’t fundamentally change relations between the two countries.
“Some recent cooperation on this front [between China and Thailand] signals that both countries are going to be pragmatic about this and not let the overall concerns rock the official relationship,” Hunter Marston, a research fellow at La Trobe University in Australia, told VOA by phone.
Improving economic ties
In addition to tackling illegal cyber scam operations, experts say the Thai prime minister also will seek to strengthen bilateral cooperation in areas such as infrastructure development with China during her trip. “Thailand may offer China some new choices for infrastructure projects,” Paul Chambers in Thailand said.
One project that is likely to be high on the agenda is the 609-kilometer-long high-speed rail project that Thailand hopes to finish building by 2030. The railway, when complete, will connect Thailand with southern China by traveling through neighboring Laos.
“The high-speed rail will be the priority for Thailand when it comes to their engagement with China, and China sees this project as beneficial to their regional vision for connectivity in the long run,” Marston said.
Despite the mutual interest in deepening collaboration over infrastructure projects, Thailand also faces challenges posed by the influx of cheap Chinese goods. Last year, the Thai government set up a task force made up of 28 agencies to review and revise regulations to curb the threats to Thai businesses posed by cheap Chinese imports.
While these challenges remain serious, Yaacob at Lowy Institute in Australia said Bangkok is likely to focus on more than just trade concerns.
“The Thai government will be keen to look at what areas they can work with the Chinese, such as attracting Chinese investments that could create jobs for the Thai people,” he told VOA in a video interview through Zoom.
Hedging between U.S. and China
Ahead of Paetongtarn’s trip to China, rights groups and countries around the world, including the U.S., have called on Thailand not to deport 48 Uyghur detainees back to China. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had suggested that he would use diplomacy and the “longstanding U.S.-Thailand alliance to keep that from happening.
Marston says the Thai government may comply with Beijing’s demands.
“Thailand might use China’s request for the deportation of Uyghurs to ask for some deliverables from China, such as receiving Chinese support to become an advanced economy or to dominate certain sectors,” he told VOA.
Yaacob believes Thailand is likely to continue its longstanding foreign policy stance of hedging between Beijing and Washington. However, he adds that if the Trump administration comes down hard on Southeast Asia in terms of trade policies, it could give Beijing more room to seek closer ties with Bangkok.
“Southeast Asian countries rely on trade, so if they are affected [by the Trump administration’s policies], they may look at China as an alternative,” Yaacob told VOA.
In his view, security is an area where Beijing may seek to reduce Washington’s influence in Southeast Asia.
“The U.S. has played a major security role in Southeast Asia and China is quite interested in reducing American influence in that domain since they view Southeast Asia as their backyard,” Yaacob said.
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Taliban threaten to use US arms to thwart attempts to retake them
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban have warned that the military weapons left behind by the United States in Afghanistan now belong to them as “spoils of war” and will be utilized to defend against any attempts to reclaim them.
The statement marks the first official response from the internationally unrecognized government in Kabul to President Donald Trump’s pledge on the eve of his Jan. 20 inauguration to retrieve U.S. arms from the de facto Islamist Afghan leaders.
“The weapons that America abandoned in Afghanistan, as well as those provided to the former Afghan regime, are now in the possession of the Mujahideen [or Taliban forces] as spoils of war,” claimed Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief Taliban spokesperson, while participating in an X space session late on Monday.
“The Afghan people now own these weapons and are utilizing them to defend their independence, sovereignty, and Islamic system. No external force can compel us to surrender these weapons, nor will we accept any demands for their surrender,” Mujahid stated. “We will use these weapons to repel invaders who dare to seize them.”
U.S.-led Western troops were stationed in Afghanistan for nearly two decades to counter terrorist groups and protect the internationally backed government in Kabul at the time. They hastily and chaotically withdrew in August 2021, just days after the then-insurgent Taliban stormed back to power.
A U.S. Department of Defense report in 2022 found that about $7 billion worth of military hardware was left behind in Afghanistan after the military withdrawal was completed. The equipment, including aircraft, air-to-ground munitions, military vehicles, weapons, communications equipment, and other materials, was subsequently seized by the Taliban.
Trump stated in his pre-inauguration remarks at a rally in Washington last month that his predecessor, Joe Biden, “gave our military equipment, a big chunk of it, to the enemy.” He went on to warn that future financial assistance to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan would be contingent upon the return of U.S. military arms.
“If we’re going to pay billions of dollars a year, tell them we’re not going to give them the money unless they give back our military equipment,” Trump said then, without elaborating.
Mujahid, while speaking on Monday, rejected Trump’s assertions, saying the Taliban have not received “a single penny” from the U.S. in financial aid since regaining control of the country. He stated that Kabul has neither anticipated nor sought any assistance from Washington.
The Taliban have displayed U.S. military gear in their so-called victory day celebrations since returning to power in Afghanistan.
The U.S. troop exit from Afghanistan stemmed from the February 2020 Doha Agreement that the first Trump administration negotiated with the then-insurgent Taliban. Biden completed and defended the military withdrawal, saying the choice he had was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban.
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Thailand to cut power to Myanmar border areas linked to scam centers
BANGKOK — Thailand will suspend electricity supply to some border areas with Myanmar in an effort to curb scam centres, its government said on Tuesday, amid growing pressure on the illegal compounds that have ensnared vast numbers of people of multiple nationalities.
According to the United Nations, hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked by criminal gangs and forced to work in scam centers and illegal online operations across Southeast Asia, including along the Thai-Myanmar border. A 2023 U.N. report estimated the fast-growing operations generate billions of dollars annually.
“We must take action to cut off the electricity immediately,” Thai Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters, adding authorities would instruct the Provincial Electricity Authority that supplies power to these areas to cut it off.
The scam compounds have come into renewed focus after Chinese actor Wang Xing was abducted after arriving in Thailand last month. He was later freed by Thai police who found him in Myanmar.
Thailand has been concerned about the impact on its vital tourism sector and has sought to allay safety concerns of visitors from China, a key source market.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said talks would be held on Tuesday with the National Security Council on various measures to address the scam compounds, including stopping the power supply.
“What happened has had a huge impact on many Thai people and the image of the country,” she said.
Asked when power would be cut off, she said: “Today, if we talk and it’s clear, then we can do it today.”
The security council’s chief on Monday said evidence showed transnational crime syndicates operating in Myanmar’s Tachileik, Myawaddy, and Payathonzu – outlining areas that the power supply cuts may target.
Myanmar’s state-run Global New Light of Myanmar, in a rare article on scam centers last month, said basic essentials, including power and internet, are not provided by Myanmar but by other countries, in a veiled reference to Thailand.
It said “foreign organizations” were investing in this infrastructure.
Myanmar’s military government has since October 2023 repatriated more than 55,000 foreigners, overwhelmingly Chinese, who were forced to work in scam compounds to their home countries, the newspaper said.
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Russian missile attack kills 4 in Kharkiv
A Russian missile attack Tuesday killed at least four people in the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine, officials said.
Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram the missile hit the central part of the city of Izyum and also injured 20 people.
Syniehubov said the attack damaged a five-story residential building as well as multiple administrative buildings.
Earlier Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said Russian drone attacks overnight damaged houses and other buildings in multiple regions.
Ukraine’s military said its air defenses shot down 37 of the 65 drones that Russian forces launched in the attacks, with intercepts taking place in the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Poltava and Sumy regions.
The Sumy Regional Military Administration said the attacks damaged eight houses and a school in the region.
Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said on Telegram that debris from destroyed drones caused fires at three businesses.
In Kyiv, officials said falling drone debris damaged several schools and a clinic.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday its air defenses destroyed a Ukrainian guided missile over the Sea of Azov.
Rare earth minerals
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he possibly would be interested in continuing U.S. aid to Ukraine in exchange for access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.
“We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earth. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Rare earth minerals like those in Ukraine include lithium and titanium. They are essential for an array of modern high-tech products.
In his daily address Monday, before Trump’s announcement, Ukraine’s president reiterated the country’s need to defend itself against Russia’s ongoing attacks. He said Russia is “focusing primarily” on Ukraine’s energy sector.
“They continue their attacks, constantly adjusting their strikes to the capabilities of our defense, making them more difficult to repel,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
“There is a constant rapid evolution of electronic warfare,” the president said and urged Ukraine to “be much faster” in adjusting to the continuous changes.
The supply of air defense systems for Ukraine is another issue for the Eastern European country. Zelenskyy said that the supplies of the systems for Ukraine are “critical and must not stop.”
“We must constantly search worldwide for ways to strengthen defense, increase production of necessary equipment in Ukraine, expand localization of production and obtain licenses from our partners,” the president said. “This is a huge undertaking, and much of Ukraine’s future depends on it.”
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Rice stockpile eyed as Japan PM orders swift relief from rising prices
TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has ordered the swift implementation of measures to give consumers relief from inflated food prices, including an unprecedented release of stockpiled rice to bring down costs, a minister said on Tuesday.
At a news conference, Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa said Ishiba had instructed the cabinet to proceed quickly with countermeasures as the prices of rice, vegetables and other living costs have soared in recent months.
“Citizens are suffering greatly and feeling pain,” he said, noting that the elevated price of rice had been unexpected.
The average transaction price of rice produced last year jumped 55% to $153 per 60 kg, from the previous year, according to government data.
The agriculture ministry last week agreed on a new policy that would allow the government to sell stockpiled rice to farm cooperatives on the condition that the buyers would sell back the equivalent amount to the government within a year. It would be the first time stockpiled rice has been released to bring down prices.
Details such as the sale price and timing are yet to be decided, a ministry official said on Tuesday.
Japanese consumer prices rose 3.6% in December from the previous year, marking the biggest jump in almost two years, while the share of households’ spending on food hit a four-decade high last year.
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Trump hosting Netanyahu for White House talks amid Gaza ceasefire
U.S. President Donald Trump is set to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks Tuesday at the White House with Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip at the top of the agenda.
The talks come at a key phase in the ceasefire. Israel and Hamas have less than four weeks to agree on the terms of the second phase, which would include the release of all remaining hostages held in Gaza, a permanent halt in fighting and Israel’s withdrawal from the territory.
“I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold,” Trump told reporters Monday.
Ahead of the White House visit, Netanyahu met Monday with U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who was part of the push to secure the ceasefire deal.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the meeting was “positive and friendly,” and that he would meet with his Security Cabinet upon returning from the U.S. in order to “discus Israel’s overall positions regarding the second stage of the deal.”
Witkoff is expected to hold talks with Qatari and Egyptian officials as the three countries continue in their role of mediating the halt in fighting.
In addition to the ceasefire, Netanyahu said he and Trump would discuss countering Iranian aggression and expanding diplomatic relations with Arab countries.
Trump brokered normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab countries in his first term. He now is seeking a wider agreement in which Israel would forge ties with Saudi Arabia.
But Saudi Arabia has said it would only agree to such a deal if the war in Gaza ends and there is a credible pathway to a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
The U.S. supports Palestinian statehood, but Netanyahu’s government is opposed.
Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, has released 18 hostages so far, while Israel has freed hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The war in Gaza began with the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in which Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took about 250 people hostage.
Israel’s counteroffensive during 15 months of warfare has killed more than 47,500 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children. Israel’s military says the death toll includes 17,000 militants it has killed.
Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Rwanda-backed rebels in DRC declare a unilateral ceasefire
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — The Rwanda-backed rebels who seized eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s key city of Goma announced a unilateral ceasefire in the region Monday for humanitarian reasons, following calls for a safe corridor for aid and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
The M23 rebels said the ceasefire would start Tuesday. The announcement came shortly after the U.N. health agency said at least 900 people were killed in last week’s fighting in Goma between the rebels and Congolese forces.
The city of 2 million people is at the heart of a region home to trillions of dollars in mineral wealth and remains in rebel control. The M23 were reported to be gaining ground in other areas of eastern Congo and advancing on another provincial capital, Bukavu.
But the rebels said Monday they did not intend to seize Bukavu, though they earlier expressed ambition to march on Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, a thousand miles away.
“It must be made clear that we have no intention of capturing Bukavu or other areas. However, we reiterate our commitment to protecting and defending the civilian population and our positions,” M23 rebel spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from Congo’s government.
The rebels’ announcement came ahead of a joint summit this week by the regional blocs for southern and eastern Africa, which have called for a ceasefire. Kenya’s President William Ruto said the presidents of Congo and Rwanda would attend.
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies, or G7, urged parties in the conflict to return to negotiations. In a statement on Monday, they called for a “rapid, safe and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians.”
Congolese authorities have said they are open to talks to resolve the conflict, but that such a dialogue must be done within the context of previous peace agreements. Rwanda and the rebels have accused the Congo government of defaulting on previous agreements.
The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, far more than in 2012 when they first briefly captured Goma then withdrew after international pressure. They are the most potent of the more than 100 armed groups vying for control in Congo’s east, which holds vast deposits critical to much of the world’s technology.
The latest fighting forced hundreds of thousands of people who had been displaced by years of conflict to carry what remained of their belongings and flee again. Thousands poured into nearby Rwanda.
The fighting in Congo has connections with a decades-long ethnic conflict.
M23 says it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo. Rwanda has claimed the Tutsis are being persecuted by Hutus and former militias responsible for the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and others in Rwanda.
Many Hutus fled to Congo after the genocide and founded the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda militia group. Rwanda said the group is “fully integrated” into the Congolese military, which denies the charges.
On Monday, families desperate to identify their loved ones besieged morgues as body bags were loaded onto trucks for burials in Goma.
A weeping Chiza Nyenyezi recalled how her son died from a gunshot injury after a bullet went through his chest. “His entire chest was open,” Nyenyezi said.
Louise Shalukoma said her son’s body could not be immediately recovered from the streets because a bomb detonated as people tried to retrieve it.
“My God, my fourth child, when I saw that he was dead I said, ‘Lord, what am I going to do?’” she lamented. “This M23 war came for me in Goma.”
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