China

MELBOURNE, Australia — King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrived in Sydney on Friday for the first Australian visit by a reigning monarch in more than a decade, a trip that has rekindled debate about the nation’s constitutional links to Britain. The Sydney Opera House’s iconic sails were illuminated with images of previous royal visits to welcome the couple, whose six-day trip will be brief by …

seoul, south korea — North Korea claimed Saturday it had discovered the remains of at least one crashed South Korean military drone in the capital Pyongyang, releasing images of the device that some analysts confirmed was South Korean. The nuclear-armed North recently accused Seoul of using drones to drop anti-regime propaganda leaflets on the capital. Pyongyang’s defense ministry spokesperson said security authorities found the remains of …

washington — Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday reiterated her call to end the bloodshed in Gaza, underscoring that the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar creates an opportunity “to end this war and bring the hostages home.” She spoke between campaign events in Michigan, a state home to the largest percentage of Arab Americans in the country, many of whom are outraged over the Biden …

bangkok — Vietnam is anxious for international media to tell its story, but a restrictive environment makes accurate and impactful coverage difficult, say media analysts. That conflict of interests will be tested by the decision of The New York Times to open a bureau in the Southeast Asian country, where limited options exist for local independent journalism. The announcement of the newspaper’s return to the country …

geneva — A U.N. official Friday accused the Israel Defense Forces of repeatedly targeting U.N. peacekeepers along the blue line, the U.N.-drawn provisional border between Israel and Lebanon. “We have been targeted several times and deliberately attacked once inside the borders in Naqoura, injuring two peacekeepers,” Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for UNIFIL, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, told journalists in Geneva from Beirut. “They hit the …

Some observers say Israel is attempting to promote internal divisions in Lebanon as part of its campaign against Hezbollah. But even amid a devastating war, some Lebanese see an opportunity to unify the country. Jacob Russell reports from Aitou, in the north of Lebanon. …

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Analysts expect a departure in style and substance from Prabowo Subianto, set to be inaugurated Sunday as Indonesia’s eighth president, compared to predecessor Joko Widodo.   “Prabowo will be a foreign policy president and have a hands-on approach in dealing with foreign policy matters,” said Fadli Zon, his longtime political party confidant and the chairperson of the House Committee for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation.   “Just look …

BEIJING/LONDON — China and Britain took steps toward further reconciliation on Friday, with Beijing heralding the new Labour government’s plan to develop “pragmatic” bilateral ties as a “new starting point.” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy is only the second top U.K. diplomat to visit China in six years, and his trip seeks to demonstrate that Britain is taking a strategic approach to building ties with Beijing, …

An Iranian newspaper implying that the public needed to have the patience of the Biblical figure Job in waiting for President Masoud Pezeshkian to lift restrictions on the internet now faces potential criminal charges. The reported case against the pro-reform newspaper Ham Mihan represents one of the first media freedom issues to be faced under Pezeshkian, himself a reformist who has promised to ease a …

Taipei, Taiwan — It has been seven years since the Paris-based press freedom advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) established an Asia-Pacific office in Taipei. The organization’s new Director General Thibaut Bruttin led a delegation to Taiwan this week and met with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on Wednesday. Taiwan ranked first in Asia this year in the “World Press Freedom Index” released by Reporters Without Borders, …

The United States and its allies are pressing ahead with efforts to enforce UN sanctions on North Korea, despite what they describe as a lack of cooperation from Russia and China. VOA’s Bill Gallo joined a Canadian military flight on the front lines of those efforts, and reports from the East China Sea. …

Jerusalem — Israel conducted raids on Gaza on Friday, pressing its yearlong war to crush Hamas after dealing it a massive blow with the killing of its leader, Yahya Sinwar. Hailing the killing of Sinwar, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war sparked by Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack was not over but added that it was “the beginning of the end.” He called the …

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine police said Friday it has launched a search after gunmen reportedly abducted an American national, who was shot in the leg as he tried to resist before being spirited away from a southern Philippine coastal town by speedboat. If confirmed to be a case of kidnapping for ransom, it would be the latest reminder of the long-running security problems that have …

Washington — A question of legitimacy surrounds a new body created to monitor the enforcement of sanctions on North Korea in the absence of a U.N. experts panel with authority to track Pyongyang’s expanding illegal military transfers to Moscow. The United States, South Korea and Japan announced the formation of a Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) on North Korea as an alternative to the dissolved U.N. …

Washington — The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar after what appears to have been a chance encounter with Israeli forces has sparked renewed hope in Washington that the conflict that has ravaged Gaza and set the Middle East on the brink of a regional war could give way to a potentially peaceful resolution. In the hours following Israeli confirmation of Sinwar’s death Thursday, in fighting …

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday new guidelines offering temporary immigration protection to some Lebanese nationals in the United States, allowing them to remain and work in the country. These protections include Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) and a new Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Lebanon, following months of escalating conflict and instability in the region. Eligible Lebanese nationals who have been …

washington — As North Korea escalates tensions on the Korean Peninsula, a new debate has ignited in Seoul over whether South Korea should have the right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel — a step that would allow for the extraction of a fissile material that can be used to build nuclear weapons.     According to the South Korean Embassy in Washington, Ambassador to the U.S. Cho …

washington — China hosted its sixth World Media Summit this week in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, in northwestern China. Organizers say more than 500 participants from 208 leading media organizations participated in the event, which was cohosted by state-run Xinhua News Agency and the Xinjiang regional government.  The three-day summit, which ended on Thursday, focused on “Artificial Intelligence and Media Transformation.”  Chinese media highlighted the …

UNITED NATIONS — A United Nations-backed food security report warned Thursday that most of the residents of the Gaza Strip will face emergency levels of hunger in the coming months and that the threat of famine persists as aid dwindles and winter approaches. “Famine looms. This is intolerable,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on social media platform X. He said crossing points must open immediately, bureaucratic …

With Israel continuing its Lebanon offensive, the United Nations says a quarter of a million people have sought sanctuary in Syria. And with the numbers expected to grow, Turkey is bracing for a new exodus. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …

washington — The United States on Thursday announced fresh sanctions targeting Chinese and Russian entities for their role in designing, building and shipping attack drones that have resulted in mass casualties in Ukraine. The sanctions target two Chinese entities, Xiamen Limbach Aircraft Engine Co., Ltd., and Redlepus Vector Industry Shenzhen Co Ltd (Redlepus), Russian entity TSK Vektor and TSK Vektor’s General Director Artem Mikhailovich Yamshchikov. A …

Fawzia Amin Saydo was just 11 years old when she was enslaved by ISIS in 2014. On October 1, she was rescued by an international team. She spoke with VOA’s Kawa Omar about the last 10 years of her life. Amy Katz narrates this report. …

Israel’s military said Thursday it killed a Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, while also announcing a new round of evacuation orders in the Bekaa Valley. The Israel Defense Forces identified the commander killed as Hussein Awada and said he was responsible for firing projectiles across the border into Israel. Israel has issued multiple rounds of evacuation orders for parts of Lebanon, saying people need to …

ZURICH — Unemployment in Gaza has soared to nearly 80% since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, with the devastated enclave’s economy in almost total collapse, the International Labour Organization said Thursday. Economic output has shrunk by 85% since the conflict with Israel began a year ago, plunging almost the entire 2.3 million population into poverty, the United Nations agency said. The conflict has caused “unprecedented and wide-ranging …