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USCIS’ San Francisco Asylum Office is opening an additional temporary location in Oakland, California. Effective May 15, 2024, asylum applicants under the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Asylum Office may receive an interview notice to appear at the asylum office located in Oakland instead of San Francisco.

Gazans are heeding Israeli warnings and fleeing the city of Rafah as Israel’s actions continue to draw condemnation from the U.S. and are even playing an out-sized role in the upcoming presidential election. People have taken to the streets in Tbilisi, Georgia in bitter protests against a new law that many see as authoritarian, just as the country is seeking greater ties with the West. The Russian army continues to advance in Ukraine as a new defense minister is named. Plus, some analysis following the recent election in Chad.

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London — Britain's King Charles handed over a senior military role to his son Prince William at a ceremony Monday, marking a rare joint appearance for the pair as the king steps up his return to public duties after his cancer diagnosis. Charles presented William with the title of Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps, a position the 75-year-old monarch held for 32 years, in front of an Apache helicopter, and watched by service personnel at the Army Flying Museum in southern England. "He's a very good pilot indeed," Charles said of his son, a former helicopter search and rescue pilot for Britain's Royal Air Force. The visit was Charles' latest engagement since he returned to work at the end of April, almost three months after Buckingham Palace announced he was being treated for an unspecified type of cancer. William, 41, had also taken a break from official duties for several weeks in March and April this year, choosing to spend time with and care for his wife after she revealed she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy for cancer. He said on Friday she was "doing well." At the handover ceremony, Charles said he was saying goodbye with "sadness," but the Army Air Corps would go from "strength to strength" under his son. "Look after yourselves and I can't tell you how proud it has made me to have been involved with you all this time," Charles said. The title transfer was announced last August after Charles' accession to the throne. William spent time with the Corps, viewing training, equipment and hearing from soldiers later Monday.

Berlin — Burmese writer Ma Thida doesn’t like to think of herself as exiled. She left Myanmar in 2021, just a few months after the military seized power in a coup that overthrew the civilian-led government. And while Ma Thida says it would not be safe for her to return anytime soon, exile implies a permanence the writer isn’t quite comfortable with. “My aim is not to be exiled — just to keep away from the country. And as soon as I get a chance, I would definitely go back,” she said, speaking with VOA in Berlin, where she is currently living. Born and raised in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, Ma Thida studied medicine in the 1980s and became a physician. She worked as an aide and medic for pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and wrote her first novel in 1992. Titled “The Sunflower,” the book explored the population’s expectations of Suu Kyi, who at that time was under house arrest. But the book was banned shortly before being published in 1993, and Myanmar’s junta sentenced Ma Thida to 20 years in Insein Prison for “endangering public peace, having contact with illegal organizations, and distributing unlawful literature.” International pressure led to her early release in 1999. “The Sunflower” was finally published, and Ma Thida started writing again. Her latest book “A-Maze,” published in May, explores Myanmar’s struggle for democracy and the post-coup Spring Revolution. “I try to understand what’s going on right now and why it happened,” Ma Thida said. “So, this is my attempt to understand the whole situation, but at the same time, my attempt to convince the readers to understand what our struggle is.” Ma Thida, who is chair of the Writers in Prison Committee run by the free expression group PEN International, said her jailing in the 1990s made her realize it was too dangerous to stay in Myanmar following the 2021 coup. “A lot of writers were already at risk or were already being arrested,” she said, recalling how anxious she felt at Yangon Airport the day she left. Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, has detained thousands of people, including journalists and writers. “They’re trying to silence all forms of dissent,” said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, a Myanmar expert at PEN America in New York. “Many people are still either underground and hiding within Myanmar, or in exile.” Some writers were among the prisoners released at the beginning of 2024 in an annual mass amnesty. But several remain behind bars. Their cases show that the military has not wavered on its aversion to free expression, Karlekar said. Karlekar cited the case of filmmaker Shin Daewe, who covered environmental issues and human rights. Authorities sentenced her to life in prison earlier this year for buying a drone. “Those sentences are really, really extreme and are a signal to anyone else in the writing and creative community that if they step out of line in any way, in terms of even just expressing criticism of the junta, that this is a possibility,” Karlekar said. Myanmar’s military did not reply to VOA’s request for comment. For now, Ma Thida is grateful to have the freedom and safety to continue her work. Her latest book, published in English, is primarily intended for an international audience. “Some people think this is just war — not the revolution, not the resistance,” she said about what she hopes readers take away from the book. “It’s more than that.” Despite her situation and the years already spent in prison, laughter is still instinctive for Ma Thida. She pokes fun at her own misfortunes, including her passport troubles. Myanmar’s embassy in Berlin has resisted renewing Ma Thida’s expired passport, which she believes is in retaliation for her writing. The embassy did not reply to VOA’s request for comment. Ma Thida has faced this problem before. After her release from prison in 1999, she was unable to obtain a passport for five years. “I have so many problems with passports,” she said, chuckling. Withholding travel documents from exiled dissidents is something PEN America is seeing more frequently as a method of control, Karlekar said. For now, the German government has given Ma Thida a passport reserved for people unable to obtain a passport from their home country. And while Berlin is safer for dissidents than Yangon these days, Myanmar will always be home for Ma Thida. “I look at my country as my own home because I got my education there. I got my understanding of life there. I got my belief in freedom there,” she said. “I always want to go back home.”

Antonov manipulated statistical data omitting key distinctions that point to Russia as the world’s largest sponsor of political cybercrime.

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New York — Jury selection began on Monday in the corruption trial of U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, a case that could affect the Democrat's political future and help determine which party controls the Senate next year. Menendez, 70, faces 16 criminal charges including bribery, fraud and acting as a foreign agent, and is being tried alongside two New Jersey businessmen in Manhattan federal court. The senator's wife, Nadine Menendez, has also been charged but will be tried separately. All four defendants have pleaded not guilty. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein told prospective jurors that the trial could last six to seven weeks. Menendez, New Jersey's senior senator, is up for re-election in November and if exonerated hopes to run for a fourth full term as an independent. Recent polls show Menendez is deeply unpopular among New Jersey voters, and many Democratic senators including New Jersey's Cory Booker have called for him to resign. Democrats and independents who caucus with them hold a 51-49 Senate majority. Prosecutors said the Menendezes accepted cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for the senator wielding his political influence in New Jersey and to help the governments of Egypt and Qatar.   The senator allegedly promised to help Egypt obtain arms sales and other military aid, and helped defendant Wael Hana, an Egyptian American businessman, obtain a lucrative monopoly on the certification of halal meat exports to Egypt. Prosecutors also said Menendez tried to help defendant Fred Daibes, a prominent New Jersey developer, obtain millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund, and sought to disrupt a federal criminal case against Daibes in New Jersey. Much of the cash received by the Menendezes was stuffed inside clothing at their home, prosecutors said. Menendez and his wife also face obstruction of justice charges. The alleged crimes occurred between 2018 and 2023. A fifth defendant, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges in March and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Nadine Menendez's trial is scheduled for July 8. Her case was separated after her lawyers said she developed a serious medical condition that required a lengthy recovery. Lawyers for Robert Menendez have suggested in court papers that if he testified he may try to blame his wife, disclosing marital communications that would "tend to exonerate" him but could incriminate her. His lawyers said Menendez could explain what they discussed during dinners with Egyptian officials and offer his wife's explanation for why Hana and Uribe "provided her certain monetary items." The defense team also wants a psychiatrist to testify that the senator routinely stored cash in his home because of a "fear of scarcity." Defense lawyers said Menendez did this as a "coping mechanism" after the Cuban government seized his family's assets before he was born, and his father died by suicide after his son stopped paying his gambling debts. Menendez's corruption trial is his second. In 2017, a New Jersey federal judge declared a mistrial after jurors deadlocked on whether Menendez broke the law by providing help to a wealthy ophthalmologist, Salomon Melgen, in exchange for lavish gifts and political contributions. Menendez became a senator in 2006. He had chaired the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee but stepped down last September after first being indicted. Several other current and former members of Congress also face federal criminal charges, including Representative Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, and former representative George Santos, a New York Republican. While New Jersey's voting population leans Democratic, public support for Menendez collapsed following his indictment. Fewer than one in six voters polled in March by Monmouth University and Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill said they approved of Menendez's job performance. Even fewer said they would vote for him as an independent. Several Senate seats held by Democrats or independents may be closely contested in November. A seat now held by West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, who is not seeking reelection, is expected to turn Republican. 

Islamabad — Pakistan announced a multi-billion-dollar grant Monday to provide urgent economic relief to residents of Kashmir under its control after a weekend of violent protests rocked the valley. Still, violence showed no immediate signs of abating as locals torched a vehicle of the Rangers, a Pakistani paramilitary force, as its convoy attempted to reach the region's capital Muzaffarabad in a rare show of force. Reports indicate paramilitary troops fired at demonstrators blocking their way injuring several. At least three of the wounded died. More casualties are feared as clashes continue in parts of the region. Life on the Pakistani side of the territory disputed with India has been at a standstill since Friday as protesters demonstrate against inflation and demand improved local services. Schools, businesses and government offices were shut across the valley Monday. However, mobile internet services — suspended since early Sunday — were briefly restored before being taken down as violence intensified. Protest movement Protests primarily aimed at seeking government subsidy for wheat flour, and a reduction in the price of locally produced electricity began in the valley last year. Clashes erupted Friday with locals pelting stones at security vehicles as authorities rounded up organizers of a long-march, and blocked roads to prevent protesters from reaching Muzaffarabad. The ensuing violence that saw dozens arrested, a police officer killed and several injured subsided Sunday. Since then, groups of marchers, led by the Joint Public Action Committee, a civic rights movement, proceeded to the regional capital, largely unimpeded. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called an emergency meeting with representatives of the regional government of Pakistani Kashmir on Monday. An official statement after the meeting announced a cut in flour prices and a reduction in electricity tariffs through a grant of over $82.6 million. Expressing “deep concern” over the violence in the rare mass protest in the region, Sharif on Sunday took to social media platform X, to urge calm. “While debate, discussion and peaceful protests are the beauties of democracy, there should be absolutely no tolerance for taking the law in one's own hands and damaging government properties,” Sharif said. “I urge all parties to resort to [a] peaceful course of action for resolution of their demands. Despite best efforts of detractors, the matter will hopefully be settled soon.” The issue The protests ostensibly about inflation represent a struggle for autonomy over regional resources, local journalist Jalaluddin Mughal told VOA. The Pakistani constitution recognizes Kashmir as a disputed territory until India and Pakistan both conduct a plebiscite, a direct vote by eligible voters to decide the issue, according to United Nations resolutions. India ended the autonomous status of its part of Kashmir in 2019, prompting fierce diplomatic protests from Pakistan. While Islamabad does not recognize Pakistani-controlled Kashmir as a province or a federating unit, it utilizes the region’s resources all the same. Kashmir’s rivers are a lifeline for the South Asian nation that relies on them for agriculture and electricity production. Locals have been demanding that electricity produced from Kashmir’s rivers be sold to them at a price that is close to the cost of production. They want Pakistan to remove most additional taxes and administrative charges. “If the government accepts this, it will accept the right of the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir to [own and control] the natural resources,” Mughal explained. For protesting residents facing hours-long blackouts and skyrocketing utility bills, the latest reduction in electricity tariffs is a temporary relief, according to Mughal, as the government statement does not clarify the duration of the grant or if it will be renewed. As protests intensify again, the Joint Public Action Committee has not yet announced if it will accept the government’s offer and end the long march.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

ISTANBUL — Greece's leader arrived in Turkey's capital on Monday for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as both countries pursue a normalization program and seek to put aside decades-old disputes. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was welcomed by Erdogan and a military guard of honor at the presidential palace in Ankara before the leaders' fourth meeting over the past year. They are expected to hold two hours of discussions followed by a news conference. Turkey and Greece, which are NATO members, have been at odds for decades over a series of issues, including territorial claims in the Aegean Sea and drilling rights in the Mediterranean, and have come to the brink of war three times in the last half-century. A dispute over energy exploration rights in 2020 led to the two countries' warships facing off in the Mediterranean. They agreed last December to put their disputes aside and focus on areas where they can find consensus. The list of items on the so-called positive agenda includes trade, energy, education and cultural ties. Since that summit in Athens, the regional rivals have maintained regular high-level contacts to promote fence-mending initiatives, such as allowing Turkish citizens to visit 10 Greek islands without cumbersome visa procedures. The propensity for quarrels remains, however. The recent opening of a former Greek Orthodox church in Istanbul for use as a mosque led to Greece accusing Turkey of "insulting the character" of a World Heritage Site. Turkey, meanwhile, criticized a Greek plan unveiled last month for "marine parks" in parts of the Ionian and Aegean Seas. Ankara said the one-sided declaration was "a step that sabotages the normalization process." But such low-level disputes are far removed from relations a few years ago, when energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean resulted in a naval confrontation and a vow by Erdogan to halt talks with Mitsotakis' government. The two countries are also locked in a dispute over Cyprus, divided since 1974 between its ethnic Greek and Turkish populations. For the past seven years, Turkey has rejected a long-standing agreement for a reunified Cyprus under a federal system. Instead, Ankara and the Turkish Cypriot administration, which is only recognized by Turkey, have proposed a two-state solution. Erdogan and Mitsotakis have sharp differences over the Israel-Hamas war, but are keen to hold back further instability in the Mediterranean as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine grinds on. The recent thaw in relations was partly helped by Greek solidarity after last year's devastating earthquake in southern Turkey. Erdogan has initiated a broader effort to reengage with Western countries following an election victory last year that saw him extend his two-decade rule by a further five years. Speaking before the meeting, Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said that the leaders would review progress in bilateral relations and the agreed upon areas of cooperation. "Our country seeks to maintain the climate of dialogue with the neighboring country," he said, adding that "we believe that dialogue is only positive for the two countries."

Washington — The spectacular auroras that danced across the sky in many parts of the world over the weekend are fading, scientists said Monday, as the massive sunspot that caused them turns its ferocious gaze away from Earth. Since Friday, the most powerful solar storm to strike our planet in more than two decades has lit up night skies with dazzling auroras in the United States, Tasmania, the Bahamas and other places far from the extreme latitudes where they are normally seen. But Eric Lagadec, an astrophysicist at France's Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, told AFP that the "most spectacular" period of this rare event has come to an end. The first of several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) -- expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun -- came just after 1600 GMT Friday, according to the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The event was later upgraded to an "extreme" geomagnetic storm -- the first since the "Halloween Storms" of October 2003 that caused blackouts in Sweden and damaged power infrastructure in South Africa. Excitement over the phenomenon -- and otherworldly photos of pink, green and purple night skies -- broke out across the world, from Austria to Australia's island state of Tasmania. The storm had been forecast to intensify again until 0600 GMT Monday, the NOAA said, adding that auroras could be viewable as far south as New York. But thousands of people who came out on Sunday night in the hope of seeing the aurora borealis over the Joshua Tree National Park in California instead saw the Milky Way. AFP pictures showed stars shining clearly in the night sky. Lagadec said that while there were further solar outbursts on Sunday, it is unlikely that more auroras will be visible to the naked eye in lower latitudes such as in France. "Only the most experienced photographers will be able to capture them" in such areas, said Lagadec, who was moved by witnessing an aurora during the event's peak on Friday night. The solar storm emanated from a massive sunspot cluster that is 17 times wider than our planet. The storm has not ended, and auroras are expected to continue in the far northern or southern regions where they are normally visible. But "the source of the storm is a sunspot that is now on the edge of the Sun, (so) we do not expect the next coronal mass ejections to head in Earth's direction," Lagadec said. Scientists had already warned that the intensity of anything seen on Sunday night would unlikely reach the level of Friday's show. "This is likely the last of the Earth-directed CMEs from this particular monster sunspot," Mathew Owens, a professor of space physics at the UK's University of Reading, told AFP. When charged particles from solar winds are captured by Earth's magnetic field, they accelerate towards the planet's magnetic poles, which is why auroras are normally seen there. But during periods of heightened solar activity, the effects extend farther toward the equator. Unlike during 2003's solar storms, no major disruptions to power or communications networks appear to have been reported this time around. Elon Musk's satellite internet operator Starlink said on X that its thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit had "weathered the geomagnetic storm and remain healthy". Unlike solar flares, which travel at the speed of light and reach Earth in around eight minutes, CMEs travel at a more sedate pace, with officials putting the current average at 800 kilometers (500 miles) per second. People with eclipse glasses can still look for the sunspot cluster during the day. Fluctuating magnetic fields associated with geomagnetic storms induce currents in long wires, including power lines, which can lead to blackouts. Long pipelines can also become electrified. Spacecraft are at risk from high doses of radiation, although the atmosphere prevents this from reaching Earth. NASA can ask astronauts on the International Space Station to move to better-shielded places within the outpost. Even pigeons and other species that have internal biological compasses can be affected.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

U.S. lawmakers, Capitol Hill staffers, famous athletes and international diplomats came together for a full day of soccer activities in Washington. The event raised money for youth soccer programs in underserved communities. Saqib Ul Islam has more from Audi Field in the U.S. capital. Igor Tsikhanenka contributed.

The South African government is hoping to strengthen protections for whistleblowers who report on corruption in business and government. Proponents say it's not only about making whistleblowers feel comfortable coming forward, but also about protecting them from retaliation. VOA’s Ihsaan Haffejee reports

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.