RIYADMEDIA

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phoenix — Democrats secured enough votes in the Arizona Senate on Wednesday to repeal a Civil War-era ban on abortions that the state’s highest court recently allowed to take effect.

Voting wasn’t complete but the Senate had the 16 votes it needed to advance the bill.

Fourteen Democrats in the Senate were joined by two Republican votes in favor of repealing the bill, which narrowly cleared the Arizona House last week and is expected to be signed by Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs.

The near-total ban, which predates Arizona’s statehood, permits abortions only to save the mother’s life — and provides no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. In a ruling last month, the Arizona Supreme Court suggested doctors could be prosecuted under the 1864 law, which says that anyone who assists in an abortion can be sentenced to two to five years in prison.

If the repeal bill is signed, a 2022 statute banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would become Arizona’s prevailing abortion law. Still, there would likely be a period when nearly all abortions would be outlawed because the repeal won’t take effect until 90 days after the end of the legislative session, likely in June or July.

Several senators spoke about their motivations for voting as numbers were tallied on the repeal bill.

“This is a clear statement that the Legislature does not want the territorial ban to be enforceable,” said Democratic state Senator Priya Sundareshan, who voted yes to repeal.

There were numerous disruptions from people in Senate gallery, as Republican state Senator Shawnna Bolick explained her vote in favor of repeal, joining with Democrats.

Republican state Senator Jake Hoffman denounced Republican colleagues for joining with Democratic colleagues, calling it an affront to his party’s principles.

“It is disgusting that this is the state of the Republican Party today,” Hoffman said.

Advocates on both sides of the abortion issue arrived outside the Arizona Senate on Wednesday to emphasize their views. They included people affiliated with Planned Parenthood and faith-based groups opposed to abortion.

“I am expecting it will be repealed, but I am praying it won’t be,” said Karen Frigon, who was handing out brochures from the Arizona Right to Life.

Arizona is one of a handful of battleground states that will decide the next president. Former President Donald Trump, who has warned that the issue could lead to Republican losses, has avoided endorsing a national abortion ban but said he’s proud to have appointed the Supreme Court justices who allowed states to outlaw it.

When Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022 though, then-Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, persuaded a state judge that the 1864 ban could again be enforced. Still, the law hasn’t been enforced while the case was making its way through the courts.

Advocates are collecting signatures for a ballot measure allowing abortions until a fetus could survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks, with exceptions — to save the parent’s life, or to protect her physical or mental health.

Republican lawmakers, in turn, are considering putting one or more competing abortion proposals on the November ballot.
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washington — The United States on Wednesday accused Russia of violating the international chemical weapons ban by deploying the choking agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops and using riot control agents “as a method of warfare” in Ukraine.

“The use of such chemicals is not an isolated incident and is probably driven by Russian forces’ desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield,” the State Department said in a statement.

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chloropicrin is listed as a banned choking agent by the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which was created to implement and monitor compliance with the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

German forces fired the gas against Allied troops during World War I in one of the first uses of a chemical weapon.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported the Ukrainian military as saying Russia has stepped up its illegal of use riot control agents as it presses its biggest advances in eastern Ukraine in more than two years.

In addition to chloropicrin, Russian forces have used grenades loaded with CS and CN gases, the Ukrainian military says. It says at least 500 Ukrainian soldiers have been treated for exposure to toxic substances and one was killed by suffocating on tear gas.

While civilians usually can escape riot control gases during protests, soldiers stuck in trenches without gas masks must either flee under enemy fire or risk suffocating.

The State Department said it was delivering to Congress its determination that Russia’s use of chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops violated the CWC.

Moscow’s use of the gas “comes from the same playbook as its operations to poison” the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny in 2020 and Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in 2018 with the Novichok nerve agent, the statement said.

Russia denied involvement in both cases.

The department also determined that Russia has breached the CWC’s prohibition on the use of riot control agents as a method of warfare, the statement said.

It said it was sanctioning three Russian state entities linked to Moscow’s chemical and biological weapons programs, including a specialized military unit that facilitated the use of chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops.

Four Russian companies that support the three entities were also sanctioned, it said.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets belonging to the targeted entities and generally prohibit Americans from doing business with them.

Separately, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on three entities and two individuals involved in purchasing items for Russian military institutes involved in the country’s chemical and biological weapons programs.

The sanctions were among new measures announced by the United States on Wednesday targeting Russia over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The CWC bans the production and use of chemical weapons. It also requires the 193 countries that have ratified the convention, which include Russia and the U.S., to destroy any stocks of banned chemicals.

The State Department was expected to convey its determination that Russia has violated the CWC to the OPCW.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of breaching the treaty in OPCW meetings. But the organization says it has not been formally asked to open an investigation into the use of prohibited substances in Ukraine.

Reuters has not been able to independently verify the use of banned chemical substances by either side.
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GENEVA — More than 800 mine action leaders attending a U.N.-sponsored conference in Geneva this week are warning of the ongoing dangers from unexploded ordnance and landmines in countries affected by conflict.

A focus of the conference is on the war in Gaza, which the United Nations Mine Action Service, or UNMAS, says “has resulted in explosive ordnance contamination on a scale unprecedented for Gaza.”

The agency has been working in Gaza for over a decade providing services to lessen the threat of explosive ordnance to civilians and enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid.

“After October 7, the program has undergone a rapid evolution. We have become an enabler of the humanitarian response into Gaza,” said Charles Mungo Birch, chief of the UNMAS mine action program in the Palestinian territories.

He told journalists Wednesday, “We support humanitarian convoys going north and do explosive hazard assessments of humanitarian sites which allow humanitarian work to continue.”

For example, he said that in December, UNMAS Explosive Ordnance Disposal officers accompanied a World Health Organization convoy along a dangerous route to Shifa hospital.

“That convoy evacuated over 30 premature babies, which we returned to southern Gaza, and only one of them died,” he said.

UNMAS estimates there are 37 million tons of rubble in Gaza, amounting to 300 kilos (660 pounds) per square meter of surface. This, it says, is more rubble than in Ukraine.

“To put this in perspective, the Ukrainian frontline is 600 miles long and Gaza is 25 miles long,” Birch said.

“This rubble is likely heavily contaminated with UXO [unexploded ordnance].  Clearance of this will be further complicated by other hazards in the rubble,” he said, noting that about 800,000 tons of asbestos is estimated to be in the rubble.

Paul Heslop, program manager for mine action, UNDP Ukraine, said a significant amount of contamination from UXO is found on both sides of the frontline of that conflict — however, mine clearance experts are unable to access Russian-occupied areas.

“So, we have not had any work on that side of the conflict zone,” he said. “There has been an extensive use of all types of munitions by both sides in this conflict. We are seeing a level of contamination that we have not seen in Europe since the Second World War.”

UNMAS reports 60 million people around the world are affected by the threat of land mines, leftover ammunition and explosive devices every day. It says the legacy of contamination from these weapons continues decades after a conflict ends, killing and maiming thousands of people.

The agency cites Syria, Yemen, West Africa and the Sahel region, including Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, among the most-contaminated countries in the world.

“Most of the problem in the Sahel is the IUDs, improvised unexploded devices that are homemade, similar to what we have seen in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia,” said Heslop, who was involved in projects in the Sahel for the past 10 years.

“Obviously, they are very low-cost and fairly easy to make.  So, I think the scourge of the Sahel is the use of IUDs in a fairly indiscriminate way,” he said.

UNMAS officials said a mine clearance program the agency ran for many years in Sudan “was incredibly successful.” Therefore, they said, it is “very distressing” to see Sudan once again being contaminated by these lethal weapons, many of which now are in urban areas where the current war is raging.

Last year, UNMAS recorded 1,500 victims of explosive ordnance in the Tigray and Afar regions in northern Ethiopia, with men and young boys accounting for 80% of the victims.

Francesca Chiaudani, chief of the UNMAS mine action program in Ethiopia, said casualties are likely to remain high because the agency has received only 2% of the $10 million needed for mine clearance activities.

Another problem, she said, is difficulty in getting accreditation for nongovernmental organizations to conduct surveys and clearance activities in conflict-affected areas.

“At the moment, some limited or clearance activity has been conducted by the Ethiopian national defense forces. But there is no humanitarian clearance happening in the county because of not having authorization for organizations to do so,” she said.

However, she said, “Accreditation for international NGOs is currently in process, and we are very hopeful that at least four will be accredited in the next month.”
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Washington — The U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady for a sixth straight meeting on Wednesday, keeping the level at a 23-year high to fight stubborn price increases. 

At the end of a two-day meeting, central bank policymakers decided unanimously that the Fed would keep the benchmark lending rate unchanged at 5.25-5.50 percent, citing a “lack of further progress” toward its 2 percent inflation target. 

“The economic outlook is uncertain, and the Committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks,” said the Fed in a statement. 

For months, the U.S. central bank has maintained interest rates at an elevated level to cool demand and rein in price increases — with a slowdown in inflation last year fueling optimism that the first cuts were on the horizon. 

But price increases have accelerated, throwing cold water on hopes of a summer rate cut. 

The Fed also announced on Wednesday that, starting in June, it would slow the pace of decline of its securities holdings, by “reducing the monthly redemption cap on Treasury securities from $60 billion to $25 billion.” 

As hope dwindles for rate reductions in the first half of the year, the Fed faces a growing possibility that eventual cuts will coincide with the run-up to November’s presidential election. 

The timeline may prove uncomfortable given that the Fed, as the independent U.S. central bank, seeks to avoid any appearance of politicization. 
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LONDON — The Scottish government survived a vote of no confidence on Wednesday, giving the Scottish National Party a chance to pick a new leader to replace outgoing First Minister Humza Yousaf. 

Yousaf’s decision to step down as first minister and SNP leader on Monday has thrown the party into chaos and boosted hopes in Britain’s opposition Labour Party that it can regain Scottish seats to win a national election later this year. 

Polls show that Labour is ahead of or level with the SNP in Scotland for the first time in a decade. 

Yousaf said he would resign after he ended a coalition with the Green Party. It means the SNP is seeking a third leader in little over a year, undermining what had once seemed like its iron grip on power in the devolved Scottish government. 

While the Greens made Yousaf’s position untenable by withdrawing their confidence in him personally, they voted with the SNP against Wednesday’s vote of no confidence in the Scottish government. 

The no confidence motion was defeated, 70-58.  

Defeat for the government would have led to the resignation of all ministers and most likely triggered a Scottish election. 

With that outcome averted, Yousaf will remain in office until the SNP chooses a new leader. Former SNP party leader John Swinney and Yousaf’s old leadership rival Kate Forbes have said they are considering running. 

Yousaf took over the party in March last year, after the resignation of longtime leader Nicola Sturgeon, who faced splits in the party over the best route to independence for Scotland and proposed transgender recognition legislation. 

Police have also probed the SNP’s finances, and Sturgeon’s husband has been charged with embezzling funds from the SNP. She has been arrested and questioned but not charged. Both deny wrongdoing. 
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The Center on Holocaust Survivor Care and Institute on Aging and Trauma helps older adults with a history of trauma cope with depression and anxiety resulting from their horrific experiences. These days, the center is also helping Holocaust survivors deal with the trauma of two modern wars in Ukraine and Israel. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Vazgen Varzhabetian  
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According to the World Health Organization, 1.3 million people died from tuberculosis in 2022. The disease is fully treatable but relies on timely diagnosis. Mireille Kamariza, a molecular bioengineer from the University of California, Los Angeles, has developed a test that can detect the bacteria quickly, precisely and inexpensively. VOA’s Genia Dulot has the story.
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SEOUL, South Korea — Workers, activists and others in Asian capitals and European cities took to the streets on Wednesday to mark May Day with protests over rising prices and government labor polices and calls for greater labor rights.

May Day, which falls on May 1, is observed in many countries to celebrate workers’ rights. May Day events have also given many an opportunity to air general economic grievances or political demands.

Police in Istanbul detained dozens of people who tried to reach the central Taksim Square in defiance of a government ban on marking Labor Day at the landmark location.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has long declared Taksim off-limits for rallies and demonstrations on security grounds, but some political parties and trade unions have vowed to march to the square, which holds symbolic value for labor unions.

In 1977, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a May Day celebration at Taksim, causing a stampede and killing 34 people.

Wednesday, police erected barricades and sealed off all routes leading to the central Istanbul square. Public transport in the area was also restricted. Only a small group of trade union representatives was permitted to enter the square to lay a wreath at a monument in memory of victims of the 1977 incident.

Riot police apprehended some 30 members of the left-wing People’s Liberation Party who tried to break through the barriers.

In Indonesia, workers voiced anger at a new law they said violates their rights and hurts their welfare, and demanded protections for migrant workers abroad and a minimum wage raise.

About 50,000 workers from Jakarta’s satellite cities of Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi were expected to join May Day marches in the capital, said Said Iqbal, the president of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions.

They gathered amid a tight police presence near the National Monument park, waving the colorful flags of labor groups and chanting slogans against the Job Creation Law and loosened outsourcing rules during a march to Jakarta’s main sports stadium, Gelora Bung Karno.

“With the enactment of this law, our future is uncertain because many problems arise in wages, severance pay and the contract system,” said Isbandi Anggono, a protester.

Indonesia’s parliament last year ratified a government regulation that replaces a controversial law on job creation, but critics said it still benefits businesses. The law was intended to cut bureaucracy as part of President Joko Widodo’s efforts to attract more investment to the country, which is Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

In Seoul, the South Korean capital, thousands of protesters sang, waved flags and shouted pro-labor slogans at the start of their rally on Wednesday. Organizers said their rally was primarily meant to step up their criticism of what they call anti-labor policies pursued by the conservative government led by President Yoon Suk Yeol.

“In the past two years under the Yoon Suk Yeol government, the lives of our laborers have plunged into despair,” Yang Kyung-soo, leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which organized the rally, said in a speech. “We can’t overlook the Yoon Suk Yeol government. We’ll bring them down from power for ourselves.”

KCTU union members decried Yoon’s December veto of a bill aimed at limiting companies’ rights to seek compensation for damages caused by strikes by labor unions. They also accuse Yoon’s government of handling the 2022 strikes by truckers too aggressively and insulting construction sector workers whom authorities believed were involved in alleged irregular activities.

Since taking office in 2022, Yoon has pushed for labor reforms to support economic growth and job creation. His government has vowed to sternly deal with illegal strikes and demand more transparent accounting records from labor unions.

“The remarkable growth of the Republic of Korea was thanks to the sweat and efforts of our workers. I thank our 28.4 million workers,” Yoon said in a May Day message posted on Facebook. “My government and I will protect the precious value of labor.”

Seoul rally participants later marched through downtown streets. Similar May Day rallies were held in more than 10 locations across South Korea on Wednesday. Police said they had mobilized thousands of officers to maintain order, but there were no immediate reports of violence.

In Japan, more than 10,000 people gathered at Yoyogi park in downtown Tokyo for a May Day event, demanding salary increases that they said could sufficiently set off price increases. During the rally, Masako Obata, the leader of the left-leaning National Confederation of Trade Unions, said that dwindling wages have put many workers in Japan under severe living conditions and widened income disparities.

“On this May Day, we unite with our fellow workers around the world standing up for their rights,” she said, shouting “banzai!” or long life, to all workers.

In the Philippine capital, Manila, hundreds of workers and left-wing activists marched and held a rally in the scorching summer heat to demand wage increases and job security amid soaring food and oil prices.

Riot police stopped the protesting workers from getting close to the presidential palace. Waving red flags and holding up posters that read: “We work to live, not to die” and “Lower prices, increase salaries,” the protesters rallied in the street, where they chanted and delivered speeches about the difficulties faced by Filipino laborers.

Poor drivers joined the protest and called to end a government modernization program they fear would eventually lead to the removal of their dilapidated jeepneys, a main mode of public transport, from Manila’s streets.
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As Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu vows to enter Rafah to rid the Gaza Strip of Hamas, the United States military has started to build a pier off the coast in hopes of providing more aid to civilians trapped in the violence. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb explains why this has some lawmakers worried about what’s next.
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PORTLAND, Ore. — Cheng “Charlie” Saephan wore a broad smile and a bright blue sash emblazoned with the words “Iu-Mien USA” as he hoisted an oversized check for $1.3 billion above his head.

The 46-year-old immigrant’s luck in winning an enormous Powerball jackpot in Oregon earlier this month — a lump sum payment of $422 million after taxes, which he and his wife will split with a friend — has changed his life. It also raised awareness about Iu Mien people, a southeast Asian ethnic group with origins in China, many of whose members fled from Laos to Thailand and then settled in the U.S. following the Vietnam War.

“I am born in Laos, but I am not Laotian,” Saephan told a news conference Monday at Oregon Lottery headquarters, where his identity as one of the jackpot’s winners was revealed. “I am Iu Mien.”

During the Vietnam War, the CIA and U.S. military recruited Iu Mien in neighboring Laos, many of them subsistence farmers, to engage in guerrilla warfare and to provide intelligence and surveillance to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail that the North Vietnamese used to send troops and weapons through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.

After the conflict as well as the Laotian civil war, when the U.S.-backed government of Laos fell in 1975, they fled by the thousands to avoid reprisals from the new Communist government, escaping by foot through the jungle and then across the Mekong River into Thailand, according to a history posted on the website of Iu Mien Community Services in Sacramento, California. More than 70% of the Iu Mien population in Laos left and many wound up in refugee camps in Thailand.

Thousands of the refugees were allowed to come to the U.S., with the first waves arriving in the late 1970s and most settling along the West Coast. The culture had rich traditions of storytelling, basketry, embroidery and jewelry-making, but many initially had difficulty adjusting to Western life due to cultural and language differences as well as a lack of formal education.

There are now tens of thousands of Iu Mien — pronounced “yoo MEE’-en” — in the U.S., with many attending universities or starting businesses. Many have converted to Christianity from traditional animist religions. There is a sizeable Iu Mien community in Portland and its suburbs, with a Buddhist temple and Baptist church, active social organization, and businesses and restaurants.

Cayle Tern, president of the Iu Mien Association of Oregon, arrived in Portland with his family in 1980, when he was 3 years old. He is now running for City Council. His father and uncle assisted American forces in Laos and he was born as his mother fled to a refugee camp in Thailand.

Many Iu Mien in the U.S. have similar stories, and Saephan’s Powerball win sheds light on the new lives they have made in Oregon and elsewhere after such trauma, he said. Tern knows all three of the Powerball winners, he said.

“You know, I think for me it’s more than just about the money. … We’ve been here since the late ’70s, but very little is known of us,” he said while sitting in his uncle’s restaurant in Troutdale, a Portland suburb.

“This attention that we’re getting — people are interested in what the community is, who we are, where we came from. That is to me is equally special.”

Saephan, 46, said he was born in Laos and moved to Thailand in 1987, before immigrating to the U.S. in 1994. He graduated from high school in 1996 and has lived in Portland for 30 years. He worked as a machinist for an aerospace company.

He said Monday that he has had cancer for eight years and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week.

“I will be able to provide for my family and my health,” he said, adding that he’d “find a good doctor for myself.”

The winning Powerball ticket was sold in early April at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in Portland, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months. The Oregon Lottery said it had to go through a security and vetting process before announcing the identity of the person who came forward to claim the prize.

Under Oregon law, with few exceptions, lottery players cannot remain anonymous. Winners have a year to claim the top prize.

The jackpot had a cash value of $621 million before taxes if the winner chose to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes and state taxes in Oregon.

The $1.3 billion prize is the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot in history, and the eighth-largest among U.S. jackpot games, according to the Oregon Lottery.

The biggest U.S. lottery jackpot won was $2.04 billion in California in 2022.
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Tensions on U.S. campuses enter a new phase as a Jewish student files a proposed class action lawsuit alleging students were displaced from Columbia University because its administration could not guarantee their safety. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya has the story.
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Washington — The United States and the European Union say they are keeping their eyes on Pyongyang and Tehran for any possible military cooperation between the two as Iran confirms a North Korean delegation’s visit to the country.

The U.S. “will use all available tools, including interdiction and sanctions, to address such activities,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email to VOA’s Korean Service on Friday.

An EU spokesperson on the same day told VOA Korean that it is also “following closely Iran-DPRK relations and their potential cooperation that could indeed be concerning on certain issues if it violates existing U.N. sanctions.”

North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Pyongyang announced through its state-run KCNA that it sent a delegation led by its External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong Ho to Iran on April 23.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday that a North Korean delegation visited Tehran last week to discuss bilateral trade, according to Reuters.

But Kanaani dismissed any suspected cooperation on their missile programs, saying it is a “biased speculation” based on “untrue” reports.

The U.S. has accused Pyongyang, Tehran and Beijing of supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Tehran has also been involved in conflict with Israel.

Iran attacked Israel on April 13 with more than 300 missiles and drones and said the assault was in retaliation against an Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in Damascus, Syria. Israel responded by launching a counterstrike into Iran on April 18.

“It certainly is possible and even probable” that Pyongyang and Tehran are cooperating militarily in the current Middle East conflict, just as they have done since the 1980s, said Robert Peters, a research fellow for nuclear deterrence and missile defense at the Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for National Security.

Iran is motivated to acquire missiles from North Korea “given Iran’s current approach of laying a siege [around] Israel using missiles supplied to its proxies – Hezbollah, Hamas, and Houthis,” Peters said.

Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis are Iran-backed militant groups that base their operations in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and Yemen, respectively.

Pyongyang’s arms sales to Tehran began in the 1980s during Iran’s war with Iraq. Their cooperation on missile programs continued since then and expanded.

In January 2016, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Iranians for traveling to Pyongyang and collaborating on the development of North Korea’s 80-ton rocket booster. A few months later, North Korea said it had tested a new rocket engine that had a thrust of 80 tons and would be used in a new space launch vehicle.

North Korea has been accusing Israel of committing “terrorism” against Iran since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In December, the Israel Defense Forces said North Korean weapons have been turning up in Gaza.

Bruce Bechtol, a former intelligence officer at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and now a professor at Angelo University in Texas, said arms transfers between Pyongyang and Tehran are “inevitable” regardless of any meeting between the two last week.

“Some of the weapons that North Korea has sent to Russia have gone to Iran first and then up to the Caspian Sea, and Russia has used those weapons in the Ukraine,” said Bechtol, the author of the book “North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa.”

He told VOA that Iran’s Emad medium-range ballistic missiles used in the attack against Israel earlier in the month were made based on the Shahab-3, which Iran first put into use in 2003. That, in turn, was developed from North Korean NoDong missiles that were sent to Tehran in the 1990s.

Bechtol said Iran’s Shahab-3 missiles were developed in a facility that North Korea built for Tehran in the early 2000s. He said Tehran is likely seeking to acquire Pyongyang’s Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Joeun Lee contributed to this report.
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The number of Russian soldiers killed in combat since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine remains a secret that the Kremlin goes to great lengths to hide. However, open-source research has recently yielded figures that show Moscow’s losses have been heavy. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report by Ricardo Marquina.
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tbilsi, georgia — Georgian security forces used water cannon and tear gas against protesters outside parliament late on Tuesday, sharply escalating a crackdown after lawmakers debated a “foreign agents” bill, which is viewed by the opposition and Western nations as authoritarian and Russian-inspired.

Reuters eyewitnesses saw some police officers physically attack protesters, who threw eggs and bottles at them, before using tear gas and water cannon to force demonstrators from the area outside the Soviet-built parliament building.

Earlier, riot police used pepper spray and batons to clear some protesters who were trying to prevent lawmakers from leaving the back entrance of parliament. Some protesters shouted “Slaves” and “Russians” at police.

The bill has deepened divisions in the deeply polarized southern Caucasus country, setting the ruling Georgian Dream Party against a protest movement backed by opposition groups, civil society, celebrities and Georgia’s figurehead president.

Parliament, which is controlled by the Georgian Dream and its allies, is likely to approve the bill, which must pass two more readings before becoming law. Lawmakers ended Tuesday’s session without a vote, and the debate will resume on Wednesday.

The bill would require organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents.”

Georgian critics have labeled the bill “the Russian law,” comparing it to Moscow’s “foreign agent” legislation, which has been used to crack down on dissent there.

Russia is disliked by many Georgians for its support of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia lost a brief war with Russia in 2008.

The United States, Britain and the European Union, which granted Georgia candidate status in December, have criticized the bill. EU officials have said it could halt Georgia’s progress toward integration with the bloc.

‘Prolonging the inevitable’

Tina Khidasheli, who served as Georgian defense minister in a Georgian Dream-led government in 2015-2016, attended Tuesday’s protest against her former government colleagues and said she expected the demonstrators to win eventually.

“The government is just prolonging the inevitable. We might have serious problems, but at the end of the day, the people will go home with victory,” she told Reuters.

Thousands of anti-government demonstrators have shut down Tbilisi’s central streets on a nightly basis since parliament approved the bill’s first reading on April 17.

On Monday, a government-organized rally in support of the bill was attended by tens of thousands of people, many of whom had been bussed in from provincial towns by the ruling party.

At that rally, former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who founded Georgian Dream, harshly criticized the West and hinted at a post-election crackdown on the opposition.

Ivanishvili told attendees that a “global party of war” had hijacked the EU and NATO and that it was bent on using those institutions to undermine Georgian sovereignty.

Ivanishvili, who says he wants Georgia to join the EU, said the foreign agent law would bolster national sovereignty, and he suggested that the country’s pro-Western opposition was controlled by foreign intelligence services via grants to NGOs.

He added that after elections due by October, Georgia’s opposition, which is dominated by the United National Movement Party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, would face “the harsh political and legal judgment it deserves.”
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At former U.S. President Donald Trump’s trial in New York, an ex-tabloid publisher testified about his efforts to help then-candidate Trump by buying negative stories about him and suppressing them. “Catch and kill” is part of a practice known as checkbook journalism. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi explains.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is stepping up his efforts to play a more prominent role in the Gaza conflict. The Turkish leader recently hosted Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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China’s share of the European electric vehicle market has doubled in less than two years, with Chinese automakers accounting for 20 percent of EVs sold in Europe last year. The trend is raising alarm among European carmakers, and they are considering pushing for new tariffs. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report from Alfonso Beato in Barcelona. VOA’s Ricardo Marquina contributed.
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WASHINGTON — House Democrats will vote to save Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s job should some of his fellow GOP lawmakers seek to remove him from the position, Democratic leaders said Tuesday, avoiding a repeat of when eight Republicans joined with Democrats to oust his predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

Johnson, R-La., has come under heavy criticism from some Republicans for moving forward with aid for Ukraine as part of a $95 billion emergency spending package that passed this month. It would take only a handful of Republicans to remove Johnson from the speakership if the Democratic caucus went along with the effort.

But Democratic leaders took that possibility off the table.

“At this moment, upon completion of our national security work, the time has come to turn the page on this chapter of Pro-Putin Republican obstruction,” said a statement from the top three House Democrats, Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar. “We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed.”

Greene, R-Ga., earlier this month filed a resolution with the House clerk — called a motion to vacate — that would remove Johnson from office if approved by the House. And while Greene did not force the resolution to be taken up immediately, she told reporters she was laying the groundwork for future consideration. She had two co-sponsors, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.

Johnson was quick to distance himself from Democrats on the issue, saying he had no conversations with Jeffries or anyone else about saving his job.

“I was laser-focused on getting the supplemental done,” Johnson said, referring to the aid package. “I’ve had colleagues from both parties come up to me on the floor, of course, and say we won’t stand for this. … I’ve not requested assistance from anyone. I’m not focused on that at all.”

Many House Republicans are eager to move past the divisions that have tormented their ranks ever since taking the majority last January. At a closed-door session Tuesday morning, much of the discussion focused on how to create unity in the party heading into the November elections.

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said Republicans heard from Michael Whatley, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, who emphasized that Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, wants to unify the majority in the House. He said that’s a message that certainly helps Johnson.

“What he wants is a unified Republican majority, so my message is singing from the same song sheet as President Trump,” Barr said.

Still, Greene indicated she may still move forward with the effort to remove Johnson, tweeting on X that she believes in recorded votes to put “Congress on record.” She also called Johnson “officially the Democratic Speaker of the House” and questioned “what slimy deal” he made for Democratic support.

“Americans deserve to see the Uniparty on full display. I’m about to give them their coming out party!” Greene tweeted. “Uniparty” is a derisive term some Republicans use to describe cooperation between some fellow Republicans and Democrats.
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LONDON — A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a east London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four others, British authorities said.

A 36-year-old man was arrested in a residential area near Hainault subway station, police said. The incident is not being treated as terror-related or a “targeted attack.”

Police said the 14-year-old died in the hospital from his injuries. Two police officers were in hospital being treated for stab wounds. Two other people were also injured.

Chief Supt. Stuart Bell described the incident as “truly horrific.”

“I cannot even begin to imagine how those affected must be feeling,” he said outside the homes in east London where the crime happened.

The Metropolitan Police said they were called early Tuesday to reports of a vehicle being driven into a house in a residential street and people being stabbed.

Video on British media showed a man in a yellow hoodie holding a long sword or knife walking near houses in the area.

Witnesses say they heard police shouting to the suspect urging him to put down the weapon as they chased after him.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said police do not believe there is a threat to the wider community.

“We are not looking for more suspects,” he said. “This incident does not appear to be terror-related.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the incident was “shocking,” adding: “Such violence has no place on our streets.”

King Charles III said his thoughts and prayers were with the family of the young victim, and he saluted the courage of emergency workers, Buckingham Palace said.

Transport for London said Hainault station was closed due to a police investigation in the area.
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WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — Jordan Vassallo is lukewarm about casting her first presidential ballot for President Joe Biden in November. But when the 18-year-old senior at Jupiter High School in Florida thinks about the things she cares about, she says her vote for the Democratic incumbent is an “obvious choice.”

Vassallo will be voting for a constitutional ballot amendment that would prevent the state of Florida from prohibiting abortion before a fetus can survive on its own — essentially the standard that existed nationally before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional protections to abortion and left the matter for states to decide.

Passage of the amendment would wipe away Florida’s six-week abortion law, which Vassallo says makes no sense.

“Most people don’t know they are pregnant at six weeks,” she said.

Biden, despite her reticence, will get her vote as well.

In Florida and across the United States, voters in Vassallo’s age group could prove pivotal in the 2024 election, from the presidency to ballot amendments and down-ballot races that will determine who controls Congress. She is likely to be among more than 8 million new voters eligible to vote this November since the 2022 elections, according to Tufts University Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

While some of those voters share Vassallo’s priorities of gun violence prevention and abortion rights, recent protests on college campuses about the war between Israel and Hamas, including at some Florida campuses, have thrown a new element of uncertainty into the mix. In Florida and elsewhere, observers across the political spectrum are looking on with intense interest.

Florida Democrats hope young voters will be driven to the polls by ballot amendments legalizing marijuana and enshrining abortion rights. They hope the more tolerant views of young voters on those issues will reverse an active voter registration edge of nearly 900,000 for Republicans in Florida, which has turned from the ultimate swing state in 2000 to reliably Republican in recent years.

According to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of the electorate, about 8 in 10 Florida voters under age 45 in the 2022 midterm elections said the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade had an impact on their decision to vote and who to support. The youngest voters, under age 30, appeared more likely than others to say the decision was the single most important factor in their votes, with about 3 in 10 saying that, compared with about 2 in 10 older voters.

Nathan Mitchell, president of Florida Atlantic University’s College Republicans, questions how impactful abortion will be in the election.

According to AP VoteCast, relatively few Florida voters in the 2022 midterms believed abortion should be either completely banned or fully permitted in all cases. Even among Republicans, just 12% said abortion should be illegal in all cases. About half of Republicans said it should be banned in most cases.

Voters under 45 were slightly more likely than others to say abortion should always be legal, with 30% taking that position.

Mitchell said while abortion is a strong issue, especially for women, he doesn’t think it will drive many younger voters to the polls.

“I think other amendments will probably do that, especially the recreational marijuana amendment,” Mitchell said. “I think that’s going to bring out a lot more voters than abortion will.”

The AP VoteCast survey lends some credence to his thinking. About 6 in 10 Florida voters in the 2022 elections favored legalizing the recreational use of marijuana nationwide, the survey found. Among voters under 45, that was 76%. Still, it’s unclear how important that issue is for younger voters compared with other issues.

The big question is whether other issues can override Biden’s enthusiasm problem among young Florida voters and elsewhere.

Six in 10 adults under 30 nationally said in a December AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll that they would be dissatisfied with Biden as the Democratic Party nominee in 2024. About 2 in 10 said in a March poll that “excited” would describe their emotions if Biden were reelected.

Young voters were crucial to the broad and racially diverse coalition that helped elect Biden in 2020. About 6 in 10 voters under 30 backed Biden nationally, according to AP VoteCas. A Pew Research Center survey showed that those under age 30 made up 38% of new or irregular voters in that election.

In Florida, Biden won 64% of young voters — similar to his national numbers.

New issues that concern young voters have emerged this year. Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war has sparked protests at college campuses across the country, and Biden’s inability to deliver broad-based student loan forgiveness affects many young voters directly. Concern about climate change also continues to grow. AP-NORC data from February shows that majorities of Americans under 30 disapprove of how Biden is handling a range of issues, including the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, immigration, the economy, climate change and abortion policy.

But in Florida, it will be abortion rights and marijuana that give voters actual control over issues beyond a presidential rematch most did not want but got anyway, said Trevian Briskey, a 21-year-old FAU student.

Tony Figueroa, president of Miami Young Republicans, said the abortion issue is important to many young voters, regardless of where they stand. He noted, however, that Florida “is a very conservative state.” That means some of the young voters motivated by the issue favor stricter abortion laws.

“Given how Florida has become so much more red over the past couple of years, really it’s more of a way to galvanize or mobilize young voters where this is an important issue for them,” Figueroa said. “It’s really a way to get them to come out in droves.”

Matheus Xavier, 21, who studies biology at Florida Atlantic University, said he considered voting for Trump at some point, but changed his mind since Biden fell more in line with the things he cares about, including the preservation of abortion rights.

“At the end of the day, you got to go with what you support,” he said. “I guess Biden kind of shows more of that. If there was another option that was actually good, I’d probably go for that.”
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