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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.

BEIJING — Russian President Vladimir Putin focused on trade and cultural exchanges Friday during his state visit to China that started with bonhomie in Beijing and a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping that deepened their "no limits" partnership as both countries face rising tensions with the West. Putin praised China at a China-Russia Expo in the northeastern city of Harbin, hailing the growth in bilateral trade. He will also meet with students at Harbin Institute of Technology later Friday. Harbin, capital of China’s Heilongjiang province, was once home to many Russian expatriates and retains some of those historical ties in its architecture, such as the central Saint Sophia Cathedral, a former Russian Orthodox church. Though Putin's visit is more symbolic and is short on concrete proposals, the two countries nonetheless are sending a clear message. "At this moment, they’re reminding the West that they can be defiant when they want to," said Joseph Torigian, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institute. At the exhibition in Harbin, Putin emphasized the importance of Russia-China cooperation in jointly developing new technologies. "Relying on traditions of friendship and cooperation, we can look into the future with confidence," he said. "The Russian-Chinese partnership helps our countries’ economic growth, ensures energy security, helps develop production and create new jobs." Putin started the second day of his visit to China on Friday by laying flowers at a monument to fallen Soviet soldiers in Harbin who had fought for China against the Japanese during the second Sino-Japanese war, when Japan occupied parts of China. At their summit Thursday, Putin thanked Xi for China’s proposals for ending the war in Ukraine, while Xi said China hopes for the early return of Europe to peace and stability and will continue to play a constructive role toward this. Their joint statement described their world view and expounded on criticism of U.S. military alliances in Asia and the Pacific. The meeting was yet another affirmation of the friendly "no limits" relationship China and Russia signed in 2022, just before Moscow invaded Ukraine. Putin has become isolated globally for his invasion of Ukraine. China has a tense relationship with the U.S., which has labeled it a competitor, and faces pressure for continuing to supply key components to Russia needed for weapons production. Talks of peacefully resolving the Ukraine crisis featured frequently in Thursday's remarks, though Russia just last week opened a new front in the Ukraine war by launching attacks at its northeastern border area. The war is at a critical point for Ukraine, which had faced delays in getting weapons from the U.S. China offered a broad plan for peace last year that was rejected by both Ukraine and the West for failing to call for Russia to leave occupied parts of Ukraine. In a smaller meeting Thursday night at Zhongnanhai, the Chinese leaders' residential compound, Putin thanked Xi for his peace plan and said he welcomed China continuing to play a constructive role in a political solution to the problem, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency. They also attended events to celebrate 75 years of bilateral relations. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Russia has increasingly depended on China as Western sanctions have taken a bite. Trade between the two countries increased to $240 billion last year, as China helped its neighbor defray the worst of Western sanctions. European leaders have pressed China to ask Russia to end its invasion in Ukraine, to little avail. Experts say China and Russia's relationship with each other offer strategic benefits, particularly at a time when both have tensions with Europe and the U.S. "Even if China compromises on a range of issues, including cutting back support on Russia, it’s unlikely that the U.S. or the West will drastically change their attitude to China as a competitor," said Hoo Tiang Boon, who researches Chinese foreign policy at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. "They see very little incentive for compromise." Xi and Putin have a longstanding agreement to visit each other’s countries once a year, and Xi was welcomed at the Kremlin last year. 

WASHINGTON — Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip rolled across a newly built U.S. floating pier into the besieged enclave for the first time Friday as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hinder food and other supplies reaching people there. The shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day entering the Gaza Strip as Israel presses in on the southern city of Rafah as its seven-month offensive against Hamas rages on. But the U.S. and aid groups also warn that the pier project is not considered a substitute for land deliveries that could bring in all the food, water and fuel needed in Gaza. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered Gaza on an average day. The operation's success also remains tenuous due to the risk of militant attack, logistical hurdles and a growing shortage of fuel for the trucks to run due to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip since Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel's offensive since then has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, local health officials say, while hundreds more have been killed in the West Bank. The U.S. military's Central Command acknowledged the aid movement in a statement Friday, saying the first aid crossed into Gaza at 9 a.m. It said no American troops went ashore in the operation. "This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature, and will involve aid commodities donated by a number of countries and humanitarian organizations," the command said. Troops finished installing the floating pier Thursday. Hours later, the Pentagon said that humanitarian aid would soon begin flowing and that no backups were expected in the distribution process, which is being coordinated by the United Nations. The U.N., however, said fuel deliveries brought through land routes have all but stopped and this will make it extremely difficult to bring the aid to Gaza’s people. "We desperately need fuel," U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said. "It doesn’t matter how the aid comes, whether it’s by sea or whether by land, without fuel, aid won’t get to the people." Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the issue of fuel deliveries comes up in all U.S. conversations with the Israelis. She also said the plan is to begin slowly with the sea route and ramp up the truck deliveries over time as they work the kinks out of the system. Aid agencies say they are running out of food in southern Gaza and fuel is dwindling, while the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Food Program say famine has taken hold in Gaza’s north. Israel asserts it places no limits on the entry of humanitarian aid and blames the U.N. for delays in distributing goods entering Gaza. The U.N. says fighting, Israeli fire and chaotic security conditions have hindered delivery. Israel also fears Hamas will use the fuel in its fight against Israeli troops. Under pressure from the U.S., Israel has in recent weeks opened a pair of crossings to deliver aid into hard-hit northern Gaza and said that a series of Hamas attacks on the main crossing, Kerem Shalom, have disrupted the flow of goods. There's also been violent protests by Israelis disrupting aid shipments. Israel recently seized the key Rafah border crossing in its push against Hamas around that city on the Egyptian border, raising fears about civilians' safety while also cutting off the main entry for aid into the Gaza Strip. U.S. President Joe Biden ordered the pier project, expected to cost $320 million. The boatloads of aid will be deposited at a port facility built by the Israelis just southwest of Gaza City and then distributed by aid groups. U.S. officials said the initial shipment totaled as much as 500 tons of aid. The U.S. has closely coordinated with Israel on how to protect the ships and personnel working on the beach. But there are still questions on how aid groups will safely operate in Gaza to distribute food, said Sonali Korde, assistant to the administrator of USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, which is helping with logistics. "There is a very insecure operating environment," and aid groups are still struggling to get clearance for their planned movements in Gaza, Korde said. The fear follows an Israeli strike last month that killed seven relief workers from World Central Kitchen whose trip had been coordinated with Israeli officials and the deaths of other aid personnel during the war. Pentagon officials have made it clear that security conditions will be monitored closely and could prompt a shutdown of the maritime route, even just temporarily. Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, a deputy commander at the U.S. military’s Central Command, told reporters Thursday that "we are confident in the ability of this security arrangement to protect those involved." Already, the site has been targeted by mortar fire during its construction, and Hamas has threatened to target any foreign forces who "occupy" the Gaza Strip. Biden has made it clear that there will be no U.S. forces on the ground in Gaza, so third-country contractors will drive the trucks onto the shore. Cooper said "the United Nations will receive the aid and coordinate its distribution into Gaza." The World Food Program will be the U.N. agency handling the aid, officials said. Israeli forces are in charge of security on shore, but there are also two U.S. Navy warships nearby that can protect U.S. troops and others. The aid for the sea route is collected and inspected in Cyprus, then loaded onto ships and taken about 320 kilometers to a large floating pier built by the U.S. off the Gaza coast. There, the pallets are transferred onto the trucks that then drive onto the Army boats. Once the trucks drop off the aid on shore, they immediately turn around the return to the boats.

MOSCOW — Ukraine launched a wave of drones at Russia and the annexed Crimea peninsula overnight, killing two people, including a child, and setting an oil refinery ablaze, officials said Friday. The attack was Ukraine's largest aerial offensive in weeks and comes as Russian forces advance along the frontline, making their biggest territorial gains in 18 months as Kyiv struggles with ammunition and manpower shortages. Russia's military said it had intercepted or destroyed more than 100 Ukrainian air and sea drones in the south of the country, and over annexed Crimea and Black Sea overnight. "Fifty-one UAVs were destroyed and intercepted over Crimea, 44 over the Krasnodar region, six over the Belgorod region and one over Kursk region," it said, adding naval forces destroyed six drone boats. One drone struck a family driving near the border in Russia's Belgorod region, killing a mother and her 4-year-old son, the region's governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. "The child was in critical condition. Doctors did everything possible to save him," he said, but "to much grief, the 4-year-old died in hospital." The father was injured but "is in shock" and refused medical help, while the driver of the car was treated for shrapnel wounds to his hands, he added. Another drone attack caused a fire at a gas station in the village of Bessonovka, but the flames were quickly put out, according to the governor. In the coastal town of Tuapse in the southern Krasnodar region, two Ukrainian drones hit an oil refinery, sparking a large fire but without causing any casualties, authorities said. The Russian-controlled port of Sevastopol on the annexed Crimean peninsula suffered a "partial blackout" after debris from downed drones fell on an electrical substation, the city's Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said. "While restoration work continues, the city will not be able to receive enough energy. There will be isolated blackouts," he warned, adding that schools would cancel lessons. Ukraine did not immediately comment but in the past has denied targeting civilians. The drone wave comes as Russian forces push into Ukraine's northeast after storming across the border in a fresh offensive last week. Ukraine has evacuated almost 9,000 civilians from the border area, as Russia advances towards Vovchansk and nearby villages.

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.

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.

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.

HOUSTON — Fast-moving thunderstorms pummeled southeastern Texas on Thursday for the second time this month, killing at least four people, blowing out windows in high-rise buildings, downing trees and knocking out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area. Officials urged residents to keep off roads, as many were impassable and traffic lights were expected to be out for much of the night. "Stay at home tonight. Do not go to work tomorrow, unless you're an essential worker. Stay home, take care of your children," Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in an evening briefing. "Our first responders will be working around the clock." The mayor said four people died during the severe weather. At least two of the deaths were caused by falling trees, and another happened when a crane blew over in strong winds, officials said. Streets were flooded, and trees and power lines were down across the region. Whitmire said wind speeds reached 160 kph, "with some twisters." He said the powerful gusts were reminiscent of 2008's Hurricane Ike, which pounded the city. Hundreds of windows were shattered at downtown hotels and office buildings, with glass littering the streets below, and the state was sending Department of Public Safety officers to secure the area. "Downtown is a mess," Whitmire said. There was a backlog of 911 calls that first responders were working through, he added. At Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros, the retractable roof was closed due to the storm. But the wind was so powerful it still blew rain into the stadium. Puddles formed on the outfield warning track, but the game against the Oakland Athletics still was played. The Houston Independent School District canceled classes Friday for some 400,000 students at all its 274 campuses. The storm system moved through swiftly, but flood watches and warnings remained for Houston and areas to the east. The ferocious storms moved into neighboring Louisiana and left more than 215,000 customers without power. Flights were briefly grounded at Houston's two major airports. Sustained winds topping 96 kph were recorded at Bush Intercontinental Airport. About 900,000 customers were without electricity in and around Harris County, which contains Houston, according to poweroutage.us. The county is home to more than 4.7 million people. The problems extended to the city's suburbs, with emergency officials in neighboring Montgomery County describing the damage to transmission lines as "catastrophic" and warning that power could be impacted for several days. Heavy storms slammed the region during the first week of May, leading to numerous high-water rescues, including some from the rooftops of flooded homes.

Washington — Aleksander Dugin, a Russian nationalist ideologue and strong supporter of President Vladimir Putin, has been bombarded with attacks on Chinese social media, where netizens criticized and mocked his Russian expansionist views that had once included the dismembering of China. Two years after Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine, pro-Russia sentiment has been prevalent on Chinese internet. But the backlash against Dugin has revealed a less mentioned side of what has so far appeared to be a cozy alliance between Beijing and Moscow -- hostility between Chinese nationalists and their Russian counterparts, the result of centuries of territorial disputes and political confrontations that Beijing has been reticent about displaying publicly in recent decades. On May 6, Dugin opened an account on two of the most popular Chinese social media apps Weibo, China’s X, formerly known as Twitter, and Bilibili, a YouTube-like video site. In the first video posted on both Weibo and Bilibili, Dugin greeted the Chinese audience and praised Beijing’s economic and political achievements in recent decades. In the same video, he also criticized an article published in April in The Economist by Feng Yujun, director of Russian and Central Asian studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. Feng said in the article that Russia will inevitably lose the Ukraine war. Dugin countered that Feng and some Chinese people underestimated Russia's "tenacity and perseverance." The video was quickly condemned by Chinese citizens, who posted comments such as "Russia must lose," which received thousands of likes. "This is an extremist who is extremely unfriendly to China and has made plans to dismember China," another message posted by a Weibo user named "Zhixingbenyiti" said. Dugin, 62, was born in Moscow. In the 1980s, he became an anti-communist dissident. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he began to promote Russian expansionism. He believes that Moscow's territorial expansion in Eurasia will allow it to counter Western forces led by the United States. In his 1997 book, Foundations of Geopolitics, Dugin wrote that dismembering China was a necessary step for Russia to become strong. People within Putin’s inner circle have reportedly shown interest in Dugin’s writing, which gave rise to his nickname "Putin’s brain." However, Dugin's attitude toward China has changed significantly in recent years. In 2018, he visited China for the first time. In a speech at Fudan University, he praised China's economy, culture and leadership in the fight against colonialism. He also changed his previous support for containing China and said in a speech that China and Russia could work together to "form a very important and non-negligible containment/pull effect" on Western powers. Dugin is now a senior fellow at Fudan University's China Institute and one of the columnists for China's nationalist news organization, Guancha. Before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Dugin said in a column that the alliance between China and Russia would "mean the irreversible end of Western hegemony." Philipp Ivanov, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told VOA that "Dugin is an opportunist. As the Ukraine war dramatically accelerated the alignment between China and Russia, his position started to change, resulting in his current attempt to engage with China's intellectual and broader community." Ivanov also thinks Dugin's influence on the Kremlin has been exaggerated. Since joining Chinese social media, Dugin has gained more than 100,000 followers on Weibo and 25,000 followers on BiliBili. He has published fewer than five posts on Weibo, but nearly every one of them has more than 1,000 comments, most of which criticized him. Under a post in which Dugin supported Putin on his fifth presidential term, people responded with comments such as "Russia is about to lose the war" and "The gates of hell are waiting for you." Wang Xiaodong, China's most influential nationalist scholar, shared a Weibo post he made two years ago criticizing Dugin and Chinese pro-Russian groups. "Introducing Dugin's ideas is not because I worry that the Kremlin will implement his ideas; He has the intention but not the strength! I just want to tell the Chinese people how some Russians, including elites in the powerful departments, view China. Do we Chinese need to risk our lives for them?" the post read. Ivanov was not surprised by the attacks on Dugin on the Chinese internet. "While Chinese netizens may support Putin's anti-Western/anti-US agenda, they are skeptical or outright negative about Russia's assault on an independent country's sovereignty and Russian expansionism, nationalism and chauvinism (which Dugin represents)," he told VOA in an email. He said the history of China-Russia relations is predominantly about confrontation, competition and mistrust. Among the attacks on Dugin, many netizens also brought up former Chinese territories that Russia occupied in the past 200 years. "For the sake of ever-lasting friendship between China and Russia, please return Sakhalin and Vladivostok," one Weibo comment posted by "lovejxcecil" read. Although China has not been involved in the war, the Russia-Ukraine war has been a hot topic on the Chinese internet. According to Eric Liu, a former Weibo censor, Dugin's joining the platform undoubtedly brought more traffic to Weibo. However, it also means that Weibo needs to invest more resources in censorship to prevent him from making remarks that Beijing considers sensitive. "He is a foreigner. He has no idea about China's 'political correctness’ or where the boundaries are," Liu said. "This risk will have to be taken care of by Weibo, which brought him in." On Thursday, Dugin posted on Weibo that China and Russia could achieve "anything" together. His comment section has been turned off. 

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.

Russian forces are expanding their attacks on Ukrainian border settlements close to the northeastern city of Kharkiv, opening up a new front in the war. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned what they cast as increasingly aggressive U.S. behavior on Thursday and pledged to deepen their countries' already close defense and military ties. In India, 18 million first time voters in the country’s ongoing general elections include millions of college students, but they want more focus on issues like development and jobs and less on religious issues that have dominated the campaign so far. And Kimia Alizadeh made history by becoming the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal back in 2016. After defecting, the taekwondo athlete is aiming for gold at this year's Paris Games under Bulgaria's flag.

WASHINGTON — U.S. prosecutors on Thursday announced the arrests of an American woman and a Ukrainian man they say helped North Korea-linked IT workers posing as Americans to obtain remote-work jobs at hundreds of U.S. companies. The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said the elaborate scheme, aimed at generating revenue for North Korea in contravention of international sanctions, involved the infiltration of more than 300 U.S. firms, including Fortune 500 companies and banks, and the theft of the identities of more than 60 Americans. A DoJ statement said the overseas IT workers also attempted to gain employment and access to information at two U.S. government agencies, although these efforts were "generally unsuccessful." An earlier State Department statement said the scheme had generated at least $6.8 million for North Korea. It said the North Koreans involved were linked to North Korea's Munitions Industry Department, which oversees development of the country's ballistic missiles, weapons production, and research and development programs. An indictment filed in federal court in Washington last week and unsealed on Thursday said charges had been filed against Christina Marie Chapman, 49, of Litchfield Park, Arizona; Ukrainian Oleksandr Didenko, 27, of Kyiv; and three other foreign nationals. A Justice Department statement said Chapman was arrested on Wednesday, while Didenko was arrested on May 7 by Polish authorities at the request of the United States, which is seeking his extradition. The State Department announced a reward of up to $5 million for information related to Chapman's alleged co-conspirators, who used the aliases Jiho Han, Haoran Xu and Chunji Jin, and another unindicted individual using the aliases Zhonghua and Venechor S. Court records did not list lawyers for those arrested and it was not immediately clear whether they had legal representation. The head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, Nicole Argentieri, said the alleged crimes "benefited the North Korean government, giving it a revenue stream and, in some instances, proprietary information stolen by the co-conspirators." The charges "should be a wakeup call for American companies and government agencies that employ remote IT workers," she said in the statement. It said the scheme "defrauded U.S. companies across myriad industries, including multiple well-known Fortune 500 companies, U.S. banks, and other financial service providers." The DoJ said Didenko was accused of creating fake accounts at U.S. IT job search platforms, selling them to overseas IT workers, some of whom he believed were North Korean. It said overseas IT workers using Didenko’s services were also working with Chapman. Didenko's online domain, upworksell.com, was seized Thursday by the Justice Department, the statement said. The DOJ statement said the FBI executed search warrants for U.S.-based "laptop farms" - residences that hosted multiple laptops for overseas IT workers. It said that through these farms, including one Chapman hosted from her home, U.S.-based facilitators logged onto U.S. company computer networks and allowed the overseas IT workers to remotely access the laptops, using U.S. IP addresses to make it appear they were in the United States. The statement said search warrants for four U.S. residences associated with laptop farms controlled by Didenko were issued in the Southern District of California, the Eastern District of Tennessee, and Eastern District of Virginia, and executed between May 8 and May 10. North Korea is under U.N. sanctions aimed at cutting funding for its missile and nuclear weapons programs and experts say it has sought to generate income illicitly, including through IT workers. Confidential research by a now-disbanded U.N. sanctions monitoring panel seen by Reuters on Tuesday showed they had been investigating 97 suspected North Korean cyberattacks on cryptocurrency companies between 2017 and 2024, valued at some $3.6 billion. The U.N. sanctions monitors were disbanded at the end of April after Russia vetoed renewal of their mandate. A research report from a Washington think tank in April said North Korean animators may have helped create popular television cartoons for big Western firms despite international sanctions. 

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.

white house — International and domestic pressure is mounting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to establish a strategic endgame for the Israel-Hamas war that would tie Israeli military gains to a political solution for the Palestinian enclave. In his harshest public rebuke yet to Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant gave televised remarks Wednesday, urging the prime minister to make "tough decisions" on postwar Gaza at whatever political cost. Gallant warned Israelis that inaction will erode war gains and put the nation's long-term security at stake. Gallant criticized Netanyahu for his lack of postwar plans to replace Hamas rule. "Since October, I have been raising this issue consistently in the Cabinet and have received no response," he said. Gallant's comments echoed earlier remarks by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who told reporters Monday that Israel had yet to "connect their military operations" to a political plan on who will govern the Palestinian territory once fighting ends. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the message Wednesday, saying Israel needs a "clear and concrete plan" for the future of Gaza to avoid a power vacuum that could become filled by chaos. Gallant ruled out any form of Israeli governance of postwar Gaza, saying that the territory should be led by "Palestinian entities" with international support, a position that has been long supported by the Biden administration. The administration would not confirm it coordinated Gallant's statements with those of its top officials. "I'm not going to speak to timing. I'm not going to give an analysis on it," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in response to VOA's question during her briefing on Thursday. "We've made our point," she added, underscoring ongoing conversations with the Israeli government. A senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters said the administration shares Gallant's concern that Israel has not developed any plans for holding and governing territory that the Israel Defense Forces have cleared, thereby allowing Hamas to regenerate in those areas. "Our objective is to see Hamas defeated," the official said in a statement sent to VOA. Netanyahu focuses on destroying Hamas Netanyahu maintains that postwar planning is impossible without first destroying Hamas. While his government and Washington agree that Hamas cannot continue to run Gaza, they differ on who should be in charge after the war that began with the militant group's October 7 cross-border attack on Israel. "We do not support and will not support an Israeli occupation," Blinken reiterated Wednesday. Gallant's statement reflects comments by other current and former Israeli officials and frustration of a war-weary Israeli public, said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine at the International Crisis Group. "It's not surprising. It's not new," she told VOA. "But I think it's reaching an inflection point for certain people in the government, because the hostage deal and cease-fire is at an impasse because decisions are not being made about how much longer this war is going to go." Netanyahu told reporters Thursday he is planning to summon his defense minister for "a conversation" following Gallant's public criticism. Chances of cease-fire faint Meanwhile, prospects for a cease-fire deal appear dim since talks in Cairo broke down earlier this month. "Any efforts or agreement must secure a permanent cease-fire, a comprehensive pullout from all of the Gaza Strip, a real prisoner swap deal, the return of the displaced, reconstruction and lifting the blockade," Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday. Israel has so far refused to provide any commitment to end its military campaign in Gaza. So fundamentally, the strategic endgames of the warring parties are "almost as far as possible from each other," said Nimrod Goren, senior fellow for Israeli affairs at the Middle East Institute. The mediators — the United States, Egypt and Qatar — don't see any way forward at the moment, Goren told VOA, even as reaching a cease-fire deal "becomes more urgent, not only because of Gaza, but because of Lebanon." Cross-border bombardments between Israel and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed group, have escalated since Israel's campaign in Gaza, displacing tens of thousands of people along Israel's border with Lebanon. While a comprehensive and permanent truce may be out of reach at this point, there is yet hope to accomplish the first phase of the cease-fire deal that is currently structured under three phases, Goren said. Put simply, that means a six-week pause in fighting, a swap of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails, and an increase in humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza. However, a longer-term cease-fire has not appeared viable since negotiations began. "There's just been mutually exclusive demands," Zonszein said. "Hamas wants an end to the war and full withdrawal of [Israeli] troops, and Israel's not willing to do that." Israel also wants Hamas completely dismantled and its leaders killed, while Haniyeh declared Wednesday that he would reject any proposal that excludes the group's role in postwar Gaza. US still seeks 2-state solution As bleak as immediate prospects may appear, the Biden administration is keeping its eye on the long-term political horizon: the two-state solution — the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Sullivan is traveling to Saudi Arabia this weekend to further talks on securing a major agreement that would see Riyadh establishing diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv, a key element to achieving the two-state solution. Normalization with the leading Sunni kingdom would likely lead to diplomatic recognition of Israel from other Arab countries and Muslim-majority countries in other parts of the world. At the same time, Sullivan is set to urge Israel to refrain from an all-out ground invasion of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. Washington believes a wider operation in Rafah would threaten a normalization deal with the Saudis. "Israel's long-term security depends on being integrated into the region and enjoying normal relations with the Arab states, including Saudi Arabia," Sullivan said Monday. He said he will be meeting with Israeli officials "in a matter of days" and signaled that the U.S. expects Israel will not move into Rafah until then. Last week, the IDF launched what it calls a "targeted operation" in eastern Rafah, even as the Biden administration announced it is pausing the shipment of 3,500 massive-sized bombs for fear that Israel might use it in the densely populated city.

The Republican-majority U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would force President Joe Biden to send arms to Israel to aid its fight against Hamas. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports from Capitol Hill.

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.

PANAMA CITY — Panama's next government is considering erecting new checkpoints along a stretch of thick jungle on its southern border that has become a treacherous part of the journey for growing masses of U.S.-bound migrants, the incoming security chief said Thursday. The additional checkpoints, where deportation orders could be issued to migrants, appear to be part of President-elect Jose Raul Mulino's campaign pledge to close the so-called Darien Gap, even though he has yet to announce a detailed plan. Frank Abrego, Mulino's incoming security chief, floated a formal border closure along with the checkpoints to process migrants. He spoke to reporters immediately after a press conference in the capital, where the next president presented part of his Cabinet. The government of Mulino, himself a former security minister, takes office on July 1. Last year, a record 520,000 migrants crossed the jungle between Colombia and Panama, mostly fleeing Venezuela, Ecuador, Haiti and China. The main migration routes hug Panama's northern Caribbean coast, offering the most direct path to traverse the roadless jungle. The area, running about 100 kilometers, is known as the "gap" on Panama's Darien isthmus since it is the only missing section of the Pan-American highway that stretches from Alaska to Argentina. "If a border closure were declared tomorrow, we establish the checkpoints where we can detain ... these illegal immigrants," Abrego said. "I think that's going to happen," he added. In his presidential campaign, Mulino repeatedly promised to close the Darien Gap, vowing Panama should not be a transit country for migrants and pledged to ask for help from nations including the United States and Colombia. Mulino again vowed to take a tough stance against unlawful crossings during a speech last week. "Those who arrive here are going to be returned to their country of origin," he said. 

FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta — A wildfire that has forced thousands of people out of their homes in Canada's oil hub city of Fort McMurray was held in place Thursday, as rain and cooler temperatures swept the area. Alberta provincial wildfire information officer Christie Tucker said the blaze remained out of control — the only such designated fire in the province — but it did not grow overnight and remained at 200 square kilometers in size. "We're seeing rain and cooler temperatures in much of the province this week, but unfortunately the northern part of the province is expected to stay drier and warmer," Tucker told a news conference in the provincial capital of Edmonton. The blaze remained just under 6 kilometers from the southwest outskirts of the community and less than 5 kilometers from the main highway south. "The rain will damper things," Alberta Wildfire Information Officer Josee St.-Onge said. In Fort McMurray, crews woke up to light rain, overcast skies and cooler temperatures. "With some help from the weather I am very hopeful that this is headed in the right direction," said Sandy Bowman, mayor of the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo that contains Fort McMurray. Evacuated residents are likely to remain out of their homes until at least next Tuesday. The rest of the city and other surrounding subdivisions remain under evacuation alert. It was familiar terrain for the Albertan city, which survived a catastrophic blaze in 2016 that destroyed 2,400 homes and forced more than 80,000 people to flee. Other fires across western Canada have also forced residents out of their homes. In northeastern British Columbia, a widening area around Fort Nelson, a town of 4,700, remained under evacuation. On Wednesday evening, it had covered about 127 square kilometers. The BC Wildfire Service said light rain and cooler temperatures were in the forecast and could stop the fire from spreading closer to the town. In Manitoba, about 500 people remained out of the remote northwestern community of Cranberry Portage. Officials said the fire there was about 80% contained and residents might be able to return this weekend.

U.S. and Nigerien leaders held high-level talks Thursday on plans to withdraw all American military forces from the country, a U.S. military official told VOA. Carla Babb has more on how the withdrawal affects counterterrorism efforts in the Sahel region of Africa.

A new report by Human Rights Watch has called on the United Nations and African Union to place an arms embargo on Sudan amid ongoing ethnic cleansing in Darfur. Henry Wilkins speaks to the author of the report, who says the response by the international community has been disappointing. Camera: Henry Wilkins