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Jerusalem — Israel's Holocaust commemorations this year have a searing significance for six elderly survivors now deeply scarred by the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7 that sparked the ongoing Gaza war. The killing and kidnapping spree by Palestinian infiltrators on a Jewish holiday morning shook the sense of security of Israelis - not least, those who had witnessed the state emerge as a safe haven after the Nazi genocide. For Bellha Haim, 86, the upheaval is especially profound. Her grandson Yotam — like her, a resident of a village near the Gaza border — was taken hostage by Hamas and managed to escape, only to be accidentally shot dead by Israeli soldiers. The trauma drove Haim to return to her native Poland, which she had fled with her family as a child during World War II, and where she will on Monday take part of the "March of the Living" at the site of the Auschwitz death camp. The annual ceremony is timed to coincide with Israel's Holocaust memorial day. "I never went back, and I wasn't convinced to go back," she said during a meeting with other survivors ahead of the trip. "But this time, when they told me that they were connecting the Holocaust and what I call the 'Holocaust of October 7' — because then in the Holocaust we [Jews] were not a united people, we didn't have a country, and suddenly this pride of mine that has been broken, my pride in my people and my country that was shattered in front of my eyes — I said, 'This time I will break my oath and I will go out.'" As a teenager, Yotam had taken part in the annual Auschwitz vigil and Haim said she saw the event as a chance for communion with him and other victims of the Hamas attack. "I will go out in the name of Yotam, who marched there when he was in high school, and I will go out there to shout out the cry of the slain, of the babies, of all my good friends that I will never meet again,” she said. Arabic yelling and gunfire Among those joining her will be 90-year-old Daniel Louz, whose hometown Kibbutz Beeri lost a tenth of its residents to the Palestinian attackers. In some ways, he said, that ordeal was worse for him than the European war, when he escaped Nazi roundups in his native France although half his family perished in Poland. After he awoke to the sound of Arabic yelling and gunfire, "I was constantly busy with surviving and figuring out what to do," Louz said. "In France, as a child, I suffered all kinds of post-traumas that I’ve learned to cope with. But in Beeri, it was the first time that I felt the fear of death." A neighboring house was riddled with bullets. Louz's was untouched. He says he imagined the souls of the 6 million Holocaust victims steering Hamas away from him. "They probably wanted me to be here to tell this story," he said, weeping. Other Holocaust survivors participating in the March of the Living include Smil Bercu Sacagiu, 87, whose home was hit by a rocket from Gaza, and Jacqueline Gliksman, 81, whose home was torched by a Palestinian infiltrator. "What was left, and luckily the terrorist didn’t see it, is my grandchildren," she said, referring to gold figurines on a necklace she was wearing. "That's the only thing I have left." Before he was seized, Haim's grandson left a text message: "They’re burning down my house. I smell gas. I'm scared." She said that reminded her of a Holocaust-era song in Yiddish, invoking centuries of pogroms, with the refrain "fire, Jews, fire." A veteran campaigner for peace with the Palestinians, Haim said she would no longer pursue that activism. "I'm not able to," she said. "Now what interests me is only my people.”

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — Tanzania said a cyclone that made landfall on Saturday has lost its strength and was no longer a threat to the country.    Tropical Cyclone Hidaya had triggered heavy rains and winds as it rolled towards Tanzania and neighboring Kenya, countries already battered by torrential downpours and floods that have left more than 400 people dead across East Africa in recent weeks.   In a statement published early Sunday on X, the Tanzania Meteorological Authority said that Hidaya had "completely lost its strength" after making landfall on Mafia Island in the Indian Ocean on Saturday.    "Therefore, there is no further threat of Tropical Cyclone 'Hidaya' in our country," it added.    Beaches on the Indian Ocean coast were deserted, shops were closed and marine transport suspended in the Zanzibar archipelago as the country braced for the cyclone.    As it approached, the storm had caused much heavier rainfall than normal in coastal areas but no casualties or damage were reported.    At least 155 people have died in Tanzania as heavier-than-usual torrential rains linked to the El Nino weather pattern triggered floods and landslides last month.    In neighboring Kenya, which had also taken precautions for the cyclone, a total of 210 people have been killed in flood-related incidents.   

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CAIRO — Hamas leaders held a second day of truce talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators Sunday, with no apparent progress reported as the Islamist group maintained its demand that any agreement must end the war in Gaza, Palestinian officials said. One Palestinian official, close to the mediation effort, said the Hamas delegation had arrived in Cairo with a determination to reach a deal "but not at any price." "A deal must end the war and get Israeli forces out of Gaza and Israel hasn't yet committed it was willing to do so," the official told Reuters, asking not to be named. Israel wants a deal to free at least some of the around 130 hostages held by Hamas but an Israeli official signaled on Saturday that its core position was unchanged, saying Israel would "under no circumstances" agree a deal to end the war, which it has pursued with the aim of disarming and dismantling Hamas for good. Another Palestinian official told Reuters the negotiations are "facing challenges because the occupation [Israel] refuses to commit to a comprehensive cease-fire" but added that the Hamas delegation was still in Cairo in the hope mediators could press Israel to change its position. As the latest talks were under way, residents and health officials said Israeli planes and tanks continued to pound areas across the Palestinian enclave overnight, killing and wounding several people. The war began after Hamas stunned Israel with a cross-border raid on October 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 252 hostages taken, according to Israeli tallies. More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed and more than 77,000 have been wounded in Israel's assault, according to Gaza's health ministry. The bombardment has devastated much of the coastal enclave and caused a humanitarian crisis. Qatar, where Hamas has a political office, and Egypt are trying to mediate a follow-up to a brief November cease-fire, amid international dismay over the soaring death toll in Gaza and the plight of its 2.3 million inhabitants. Egyptian sources said CIA Director William Burns, who has also been involved in previous truce talks, arrived in Cairo on Friday. Washington -- which, like other Western powers and Israel, brands Hamas a terrorist group -- has urged it to enter a deal. Israel has given a preliminary nod to terms that one source said included the return of between 20 and 33 hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a truce of several weeks. That would leave around 100 hostages in Gaza, some of whom Israel says have died in captivity. The source, who asked not to be identified by name or nationality, told Reuters their return may require an additional deal. Thousands of Israelis protested Saturday, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accept a cease-fire agreement with Hamas that would see the remaining hostages brought home. 

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RIO DE JANEIRO — Madonna put on a free concert on Copacabana beach Saturday night, turning Rio de Janeiro's vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor teeming with a multitude of her fans. It was the last show of The Celebration Tour, her first retrospective, which kicked off in October in London. The "Queen of Pop" began the show with her 1998 hit Nothing Really Matters. Huge cheers rose from the buzzing, tightly packed crowd, pressed up against the barriers. Others held house parties in brightly lit apartments and hotels overlooking the beachfront. Helicopters and drones flew overhead, and motorboats and sailboats anchored off the beach filled the bay. "Here we are in the most beautiful place in the world," Madonna, 65, told the crowd. Pointing out the ocean view, the mountains and the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking the city, she added: "This place is magic." Madonna performed her classic hits, including Like a Virgin and Hung Up. For the introduction to Like a Prayer, her head was completely covered in a black cape, a rosary gripped in her hands. The star paid an emotional tribute to "all the bright lights" lost to AIDS as she sang Live to Tell, with black and white photos of people who died from the illness flashing behind her. Later, she was joined on stage by Brazilian artists Anitta and Pabllo Vittar. Rio spent the last few days readying itself for the performance. An estimated 1.6 million people attended the show, G1 reported, citing Rio City Hall's tourism agency. That is more than 10 times Madonna's record attendance of 130,000 at Paris' Parc des Sceaux in 1987. Madonna's official website hyped the show as the biggest ever in her four-decade career. In recent days, the buzz was palpable. Fans milled outside the stately, beachfront Copacabana Palace hotel, where Madonna is staying, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pop star. During the sound check on the stage set up in front of the hotel, they danced on the sand. By midday Saturday, fans crowded in front of the hotel. A white-bearded man carried a sign saying, "Welcome Madonna you are the best I love you." Flags with "Madonna" printed against a background of Copacabana's iconic black and white waved sidewalk pattern hung from balconies. The area was packed with street vendors and concert attendees kitted out in themed T-shirts, sweating under a baking sun. "Since Madonna arrived here, I've been coming every day with this outfit to welcome my idol, my diva, my pop queen," said Rosemary de Oliveira Bohrer, 69, who sported a gold-colored cone bra and a black cap. "It's going to be an unforgettable show here in Copacabana," said Oliveira Bohrer, a retired civil servant who lives in the area. Eighteen sound towers were spread along the beach to ensure that all attendees could hear the hits. Her two-hour show started at 10:37 p.m. local time, nearly 50 minutes behind schedule. City Hall produced a report in April estimating that the concert would inject 293 million reals ($57 million) into the local economy. Hotel capacity was expected to reach 98% in Copacabana, according to Rio's hotel association. Fans hailing from across Brazil and even Argentina and France sought out Airbnbs for the weekend, the platform said in a statement. Rio's international airport had forecast an extra 170 flights during May 1-6, from 27 destinations, City Hall said in a statement. "It's a unique opportunity to see Madonna, who knows if she'll ever come back," said Alessandro Augusto, 53, who flew in from Brazil's Ceara state — approximately 2,500 kilometers from Rio. "Welcome Queen!" read Heineken ads plastered around the city, the lettering above an image of an upturned bottle cap resembling a crown. Heineken wasn't the only company seeking to profit from the excitement. Bars and restaurants prepared Like a Virgin cocktails. A shop in the downtown neighborhood famed for selling Carnival attire completely reinvented itself, stocking its shelves with Madonna-themed costumes, fans, fanny packs and even underwear. Organization of the mega-event was similar to New Year's Eve, when millions of people gather on Copacabana for its fireworks display, local authorities said. That annual event often produces widespread thefts and muggings, and there was some concern such problems might occur at Madonna's show. Rio state's security plan included the presence of 3,200 military personnel and 1,500 civilian police officers on standby. In the lead-up to the concert, Brazil's navy inspected vessels that wished to position themselves offshore to follow the show. A number of huge concerts have taken place on Copacabana beach before, including a 1994 New Year's Eve show by Rod Stewart that drew more than 4 million fans and was the biggest free rock concert in history, according to Guinness World Records. Many of those spectators also came to see Rio's fireworks show, though, so a more fitting comparison might be to the Rolling Stones in 2006, which saw 1.2 million people crowd onto the sand, according to Rio's military police, the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported at the time. Ana Beatriz Soares, a fan who was at Copacabana on Saturday, said Madonna has made her mark across the decades. "Madonna had to run so that today's pop artists could walk. That's why she's important, because she serves as an inspiration for today's pop divas," Soares said. "And that's 40 years ago. Not 40 days, 40 months. It's 40 years," she said.

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Porto Alegre, Brazil — Raging floods and mudslides have killed at least 57 people in southern Brazil and forced nearly 70,000 to flee their homes, the country's civil defense agency said on Saturday. At least 74 people were injured and another 67 missing from the catastrophic flooding, civil defense said. The toll did not include two people who died in an explosion at a flooded gas station in Porto Alegre, witnessed by an AFP journalist, where rescue crews were attempting to refuel. Fast-rising water levels in the state of Rio Grande do Sul were straining dams and particularly threatening economically important Porto Alegre, a city of 1.4 million. The Guaiba River, which flows through the city, is at a historic high of 5.04 meters, well above the 4.76 meters that had stood as a record since devastating 1941 floods. Authorities scrambled to evacuate swamped neighborhoods as rescue workers used four-wheel-drive vehicles -- and even Jet Skis -- to maneuver through waist-deep water in search of the stranded. In addition to the 69,200 residents forced from their homes, civil defense also said more than a million people lacked access to potable water amid the flooding, describing damage as incalculable. Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite said his state -- normally one of Brazil's most prosperous -- would need a "Marshall Plan" of heavy investment to rebuild after the catastrophe. In many places, long lines formed as people tried to board buses, although bus services to and from the city center were canceled. The Porto Alegre international airport suspended all flights on Friday for an undetermined period. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva posted a video of a helicopter depositing a soldier atop a house, where he used a brick to pound a hole in the roof and rescue a baby wrapped in a blanket. Joao Guilherme, a 23-year-old salesman, found his way to safety in the state capital -- but without his cellphone. "I have no communication with anybody, I'm very shaken," he said. The speed of the rising waters unnerved Greta Bittencourt, 32, a professional poker player. "It's terrifying because we saw the water rise in an absurd way, it rose at a very high speed," Bittencourt said. 'Going to be much worse' With waters starting to overtop a dike along another local river, the Gravatai, Mayor Sebastiao Malo issued a stern warning on social media platform X, saying, "Communities must leave!" He urged people to ration water, after four of the city's six treatment plants had to be closed. In a live transmission on Instagram, Governor Leite said the situation was "absolutely unprecedented," the worst in the history of the state, home to agroindustrial production of soy, rice, wheat and corn. Residential areas were underwater as far as the eye could see, with roads destroyed and bridges swept away by powerful currents. Rescuers faced a colossal task, with entire towns inaccessible. At least 300 municipalities have suffered storm damage in Rio Grande do Sul since Monday, according to local officials. 'Disastrous cocktail' Roughly a third of the displaced have been brought to shelters set up in sports centers, schools and other facilities. The rains also affected the southern state of Santa Catarina, where one man died Friday when his car was swept away by raging floodwaters in the municipality of Ipira. Lula, who visited the region Thursday, blamed the disaster on climate change. The devastating storms were the result of a "disastrous cocktail" of global warming and the El Nino weather phenomenon, climatologist Francisco Eliseu Aquino told AFP on Friday. South America's largest country has recently experienced a string of extreme weather events, including a cyclone in September that claimed at least 31 lives. Aquino said the region's geography meant it was often confronted by the effects of tropical and polar air masses colliding -- but these events have "intensified due to climate change."

NAIROBI, Kenya — When Ademola Adesina founded a startup to provide solar and battery-based power subscription packages to individuals and businesses in Nigeria in 2015, it was a lot harder to raise money than it is today. Climate tech was new in Africa, the continent was a fledgling destination for venture capital money, there were fewer funders to approach and less money was available, he said. It took him a year of "running around and scouring" his networks to raise his first amount — just under $1 million — from VC firms and other sources. "Everything was a learning experience," he said. But the ecosystem has since changed, and Adesina's Rensource Energy has raised about $30 million over the years, mostly from VC firms.  Funding for climate tech startups in Africa from the private sector is growing, with businesses raising more than $3.4 billion since 2019. But there's still a long way to go, with the continent requiring $277 billion annually to meet its climate goals for 2030. Experts say to unlock financing and fill this gap, African countries need to address risks like currency instability that they say reduce investor appetite, while investors need to expand their scope of interest to more climate sectors like flood protection, disaster management and heat management, and to use diverse funding methods. Still, the investment numbers for the climate tech sector — which includes businesses in renewable energy, carbon removal, land restoration and water and waste management — are compelling: Last year, climate tech startups on the continent raised $1.04 billion, a 9% increase from the previous year and triple what they raised in 2019, according to the funding database Africa: The Big Deal. That was despite a decline in the amount of money raised by all startups in total on the continent last year. That matters because climate tech requires experimentation, and VC firms that provide money to nascent businesses are playing an essential role by giving climate tech startups risk capital, said Adesina. "In the climate space, a lot of things are uncertain," he said. The money raised by climate tech startups last year was more than a third of all funds raised by startups in Africa in 2023, placing climate tech second to fintech, a more mature sector. Venture capital is typically given to businesses with substantial risk but great long-term growth potential. Startups use it to expand into new markets and to get products and services on the market. Venture capitalists "can take risks that other people cannot take, because our business model is designed to have failures," said Brian Odhiambo, a Lagos-based partner at Novastar Ventures, an Africa-focused investor. "Not everything has to succeed. But some will, and those that do will succeed in a massive way." That was the case for Adetayo Bamiduro, co-founder of MAX, formerly Metro Africa Xpress, which makes electric two- and three-wheelers and electric vehicle infrastructure in Nigeria and has raised just under $100 million since it was founded in 2015. Adetayo said venture capitalists "are playing a catalytic role that is extremely essential." "We all know that in order to really decarbonize our economies, investments have to be made. And it's not trivial investment," he said. The funds can also bridge the gap between traditional and non-traditional sectors, said Kidus Asfaw, co-founder and CEO of Kubik, a startup that turns difficult-to-recycle plastic waste into durable, low-carbon building material. His company, which operates in Kenya and Ethiopia, has raised around $5.2 million since it was launched in 2021. He cites waste management and construction as examples of traditional sectors that can connect with startups like his. "There's so much innovation in these spaces that can transform them over time," he said. "VCs are accelerating that pathway to transforming them." Besides venture capital, other investments by private equity firms, syndicates, venture builders, grant providers and other financial institutions are actively financing climate initiatives on the continent. But private sector financing in general lags far behind that of public financing, which includes funds from governments, multilaterals and development finance institutions. From 2019 to 2020, private sector financing represented only 14% of all of Africa's climate finance, according to a report by the Climate Policy Initiative, much lower than in regions such as East Asia and Pacific at 39%, and Latin America and the Caribbean at 49%. The low contribution in Africa is attributed to the investors putting money in areas they're more familiar with, like renewable energy technology, with less funding coming in for more diverse initiatives, said Sandy Okoth, a capital market specialist for green finance at FSD Africa, one of the commissioners of the CPI study. "The private sector feels this (renewable energy technology) is a more mature space," he said. "They understand the funding models." Technology for adapting to climate change, on the other hand, is "more complex," he said. One startup working in renewable energy is the Johannesburg-based Wetility, which last year secured funding of $48 million — mostly from private equity — to expand its operations. The startup provides solar panels for homes and businesses and a digital management system that allows users to remotely manage power usage, as it tries to solve the problems of energy access and reliability in southern Africa. "Private sector financing in African climate is still rather low," said founder and CEO Vincent Maposa. "But there's visible growth. And I believe that over the next decade or so, you'll start to see those shifts." Investors are also starting to understand the economic benefits of adapting to climate change and solutions as they have returns on investment, said Hetal Patel, Nairobi-based director of investments at Mercy Corps Ventures, an early-stage VC fund focused on startups building solutions for climate adaptation and financial resilience. "We're starting to build a very strong business case for adaptation investors and make sure that private capital flows start coming in," he said. Maelis Carraro, managing partner at Catalyst Fund, a Nairobi-based VC fund and accelerator that funds climate adaptation solutions, urged more diverse funding, such as that which blends private and public sector funding. The role of public financing, she said, should be to de-risk the private sector and attract more private sector capital into financing climate initiatives. "We're not gonna go far enough with just the public funding," she said. "We need the private sector and the public sector to work together to unlock more financing. And in particular looking beyond just a few industries where the innovation is writ large."

FORT LIBERTY, North Carolina — The video is unsettling, with haunting images of faceless people, fire and soldiers. The voiceover is a cascade of recognizable historical voices as the screen pulses cryptic messages touting the power of words, ideas and "invisible hands." Hints of its origin are tucked into frames as they flash by: PSYWAR. The U.S. Army's psychological warfare soldiers are using their brand of mental combat to bring in what the service needs: recruits. And if you find the video intriguing, you may be the Army's target audience as it works to enlist soldiers to join its Special Operations Command. Released early Thursday, the video is the second provocative recruiting ad that, in itself, exemplifies the kind of work the psyop soldiers do to influence public opinion and wage the war of words overseas. Called "Ghosts in the Machine 2," it is coming out two years after the inaugural video was quietly posted on the unit's YouTube site and generated a firestorm of online chatter. "It's a recruiting video," said the Army major who created it, speaking with The Associated Press before the release. "Someone who watches it and thinks, wow, that was effective, how was it constructed — that's the kind of creative mindset we're looking for." The soldier, a member of the 8th Psychological Operations Group based at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, also made the first video. He asked that his name not be used to protect his identity, as is common among special forces troops. Psyop units are used for an array of missions that can range from simple leaflet drops to more sophisticated propaganda and messaging aimed at deceiving the enemy or shaping opinion on foreign soil. It's illegal for the U.S. military to conduct psychological operations on Americans. Army Special Operations Command leaders and special forces recruiters hope that a new stream of chatter inspired by the video will help bring in recruits to an often unseen and little known job. "From a tactical level, the psyop mission is extremely hard to show and tell," said Lt. Col. Steve Crowe, commander of the Special Forces Recruiting Battalion. And it's the job in Army special forces that recruiters say is the hardest to fill. Across the military, the armed services have been struggling to meet enlistment goals, with most falling far short of their targets in recent years. The Army, which is the largest service, has had the most trouble, missing its goal by about 15,000 soldiers for the past two years. But most of the services say things are improving this year. The Army's Special Operations recruiters who recruit from already-serving soldiers say they are making about 75% of their overall goal, which is between 3,000 and 4,000. Of that, they have to bring in about 650 active-duty soldiers to psychological operations per year. Officials blame the nation's low unemployment, increased competition from corporate businesses, which can pay more and offer similar benefits, and a sluggish return from several years of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that prevented recruiters from visiting schools and attending other public events. Recruiting struggles in Army Special Operations Command have mirrored those of the larger Army. The recruiters said they are responsible for bringing in several types of special forces — the most well-known are the Green Berets and Delta Force, but there are also Civil Affairs, Psychological Operations and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers. The Army has said it intends to trim the number of psyop soldiers but still has struggled to fill the ranks. Perhaps the most celebrated psyop was in World War II, when the so-called U.S. Ghost Army outwitted the Germans using inflatable tanks, radio trickery, costumes and impersonations. In what was dubbed Operation Viersen, the soldiers used the inflatables, sound trucks and phony headquarters to draw German units away from the point on the Rhine River where the 9th Army was actually crossing. Several of the last surviving members of the unit were recently awarded the Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony in Washington. These days, psyop activities are often classified. But one of the last U.S. service members to die in Afghanistan — killed by a suicide bomber at Abbey Gate during the chaotic evacuation in 2021 — was a psyop soldier: Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee. His task that day was largely crowd control and influence, by using a bullhorn to communicate with the frantic throngs of Afghans and get them moving in the right direction. A more recent example would be assistance to Ukraine. U.S. psychological operations soldiers have advised and assisted Ukrainian troops in their efforts to counter Russian disinformation campaigns since 2014. After the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian forces used a range of tactics — including leaflets and social media — to entice Russian troops to surrender and tell them how and where to give themselves up. About half of the psychological operations troops are young people who join when they enlist. The rest are recruited from within the Army's existing ranks. The command's recruiters focus on the internal audience, which has its own challenges. A growing hurdle, according to Crowe and Army Maj. Jim Maicke, executive officer of the Special Forces recruiting battalion, is that these days regular soldiers across the Army have less interaction with special operations forces than they did during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In those conflicts, soldiers often worked side-by-side with commandos, or were deployed at the same bases and had a better view of what they did. "Business was generally pretty good. And the reason, we believe, was all the interaction that was happening between special operations and conventional forces," said Crowe, adding that soldiers "got to see behind the curtain, how we operate. We don't have that anymore." It's particularly difficult for psyops soldiers, whose work is often less visible than that of the more celebrated Army commandos and not always understood. "We're all nerds for sure," said the Army major who created the ad. "But we're all nerds in different ways." Usually, those who are drawn to the job are "planners," he said. "They're writers, they're great thinkers. They're idea people." Often, he said, they are creative, such as artists and illustrators, but others are tech experts who can bring those ideas to life in videos or online messaging. The new "Ghosts in the Machine" video is aimed at that audience. Recruiters say the first video was successful. "I think what he does with 'Ghosts in the Machine' is it tells you what psychological operations is, and shows you it, without telling you in words," said Crowe. "You watch the video and you're like, OK, this is how I'll influence and change behavior." On a recent recruiting trip to the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, the recruiters brought a psyop officer and a civil affairs officer along to speak with the cadets. "We had a very limited amount of time to engage about 450 cadets," said Maicke, a graduate of the college. "And the psyop officer chose to give a brief introduction and then immediately turn on the 'Ghosts in the Machine' video. He ended with, 'if anyone has any questions about this, I'm right over here,' and business was booming." In fact, about six months after the first video was released, the command began surveying soldiers who applied for the psyop mission and got into the assessment and selection course. More than 51% said the video had a medium to high level of influence on their decision to try out for the job, recruiters said. That, said the Army major, is the goal of the second video, which ends with a crescendo of music, shots of marching military troops with their arms raised in surrender, and a question streaming across the screen: "Do you believe in the power of words and ideas. Will You. We Believe." The final frames say PSYWAR and show the website: goarmysof.com.

CHENGDU, China — In 2018, the censors who oversee Chinese media issued a directive to the nation's entertainment industry: Don't feature artists with tattoos and those who represent hip-hop or any other subculture. Right after that, a well-known rapper, GAI, missed a gig on a popular singing competition despite a successful first appearance. Speculation went wild: Fans worried that this was the end for hip-hop in China. Some media labeled it a ban. The genre had just experienced a banner year, with a hit competition-format TV show minting new stars and introducing them to a country of 1.4 billion people. Rappers accustomed to operating on little money and performing in small bars became household names. The announcement from censors came at the peak of that frenzy. A silence descended, and for months no rappers appeared on the dozens of variety shows and singing competitions on Chinese TV. But by the end of that year, everything was back in full swing. What had looked like the end for Chinese hip-hop was just the beginning. "Hip-hop was too popular," says Nathanel Amar, a researcher of Chinese pop culture at the French Center for Research on Contemporary China. "They couldn't censor the whole genre." Since then, hip-hop's explosive growth in China has only continued. It has done so by carving out a space for itself while staying clear of the government's red lines, balancing genuine creative expression with something palatable in a country with powerful censors. The effort has succeeded: Today, musicians say they're looking forward to an arriving golden age. Much of the energy can be found in Chengdu, a city in China's southwestern Sichuan region. Some of the biggest acts in China today hail from Sichuan; Wang Yitai, Higher Brothers and Vava are just a few of the names that have made Chinese rap mainstream, performing in a mix of Mandarin and the Sichuan dialects. Although Chinese rap has been operating underground for decades in cities like Beijing, it is the Sichuan region — known internationally for its spicy cuisine, its panda reserve and its status as the birthplace of the late leader Deng Xiaoping — that has come to dominate. The dialect lends itself to rap because it's softer than Mandarin Chinese and there are a lot more rhymes, says 25-year-old rapper Kidway, from a town just outside Chengdu. "Take the word 'gang' in English. In Sichuanese, there's a lot of rhymes for that word 'fang, sang, zhuang,' the rhymes are already there," he says. Part of the city's hip-hop lore centers around a collective called Chengdu Rap House or CDC, founded by a rapper called Boss X, whose fans affectionately call him "Xie laober" in the Sichuan dialect. The city has embraced rap, as its originators like Boss X went from making music in a run-down apartment in an old residential community to performing in a stadium for thousands. "When I came to mainland China, they showed me more love in like three or four months than I ever received in Hong Kong," says Haysen Cheng, a 24-year-old rapper who moved to the city from Hong Kong in 2021. The price of going mainstream means the underground scene has evaporated. Chengdu was once known for its underground rap battles. Those no longer happen, as freestyling usually involves a lot of curse words and other content the authorities deem unacceptable. These days it's all digital, with people uploading short clips of their music to Douyin, TikTok's Chinese version, to get noticed. Rarely can a single cultural product be said to have originated a whole genre of music. But the talent competition/reality TV show The Rap of China has played an outsized role in building China's rap industry. The first season, broadcast on IQiyi, a web streaming platform, brought rap to households across the country. The first season's 12 episodes drew 2.5 billion views online, according to Chinese media reports. In the first season, the show relied on its judges' star power to draw in an audience. Two winners emerged from the first season: GAI and PG One. Shortly after their win, the internet was awash with rumors about the less than perfect doings of PG One's personal life. The Communist Youth League also criticized one of his old songs for content that appeared to be about using cocaine, very much violating one of the censor's red lines. Then came the 2018 meeting where censors reminded TV channels of who could not appear on their programs, namely anyone who represented hip-hop. PG One was finding that any attempts to release new music were quickly taken down by platforms. The platform, IQiyi, even took down the entire first season for a while. But by late summer 2018, fans were excited to hear that they could expect a second season of The Rap of China, though there was a rebrand. The name in English stayed the same, but in Chinese the show's name changed from China Has Hip-Hop to China Has 'Shuochang,' a term that also refers to traditional forms of storytelling. Regulators had given the go-ahead for hip-hop to continue its growth in China, but artists had to obey the government censors. Hip-hop had to stay away from mentions of drugs and sex. Otherwise, though, it could proceed. "It was a success for the Chinese regulators," Amar says. "They really succeeded in coopting the hip-hop artists." With tight censorship on the entertainment industry and a ban on mentions of drugs and sex in lyrics, artists have reacted in two ways. Either they wholeheartedly embrace the displays of patriotism and nationalism or they avoid the topics. Some, like GAI, have fully taken on the government's mantle in the mainstreaming of hip-hop. He had won The Rap of China with a song called Not Friendly in which, in classic hip-hop fashion, he dissed other rappers. Just a few years later, Gai is singing about China's glorious 5,000 years of history on the CCTV's Spring Festival New Year's Gala broadcast. The red lines have also pushed artists to be more creative. But developing a genuine Chinese brand of rap remains a work in progress. Hip-hop got its start from New York's boroughs of Brooklyn and the Bronx, where rappers made music from their tough circumstances. In China, the challenge is about finding what fits its context. Wang Yitai, who was a member of Chengdu's rap collective CDC, is now one of the most popular rappers in China. His style has infused mainstream pop sounds. "We're all trying hard to create songs that not only sound good, but also topics that fit for China," Wang says. "I think hip-hop's spirit will always be about original creation and will always be about your own story."

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of U.S. airpower. But the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence, not a human pilot. And riding in the front seat was Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning for an AI-enabled fleet of more than 1,000 unmanned warplanes, the first of them operating by 2028. It was fitting that the dogfight took place at Edwards Air Force Base, a vast desert facility where Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound and the military has incubated its most secret aerospace advances. Inside classified simulators and buildings with layers of shielding against surveillance, a new test-pilot generation is training AI agents to fly in war. Kendall traveled here to see AI fly in real time and make a public statement of confidence in its future role in air combat. "It's a security risk not to have it. At this point, we have to have it," Kendall said in an interview with The Associated Press after he landed. The AP and NBC were granted permission to witness the secret flight on the condition that it would not be reported until it was complete because of operational security concerns. The AI-controlled F-16, called Vista, flew Kendall in lightning-fast maneuvers at more than 800 kph that put pressure on his body at five times the force of gravity. It went nearly nose to nose with a second human-piloted F-16 as both aircraft raced within 305 meters of each other, twisting and looping to try force their opponent into vulnerable positions. At the end of the hour-long flight, Kendall said he'd seen enough to trust this still-learning AI to decide whether to launch weapons in war. There's a lot of opposition to that idea. Arms control experts and humanitarian groups are deeply concerned that AI one day might be able to autonomously drop bombs that kill people without further human consultation, and they are seeking greater restrictions on its use. "There are widespread and serious concerns about ceding life-and-death decisions to sensors and software," the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned. Autonomous weapons "are an immediate cause of concern and demand an urgent, international political response." Kendall said there will always be human oversight in the system when weapons are used. The military's shift to AI-enabled planes is driven by security, cost and strategic capability. If the U.S. and China should end up in conflict, for example, today's Air Force fleet of expensive, manned fighters will be vulnerable because of gains on both sides in electronic warfare, space and air defense systems. China's air force is on pace to outnumber the U.S. and it is also amassing a fleet of flying unmanned weapons. Future war scenarios envision swarms of American unmanned aircraft providing an advance attack on enemy defenses to give the U.S. the ability to penetrate an airspace without high risk to pilot lives. But the shift is also driven by money. The Air Force is still hampered by production delays and cost overruns in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which will cost an estimated of $1.7 trillion. Smaller and cheaper AI-controlled unmanned jets are the way ahead, Kendall said. Vista's military operators say no other country in the world has an AI jet like it, where the software first learns on millions of data points in a simulator, then tests its conclusions during actual flights. That real-world performance data is then put back into the simulator where the AI then processes it to learn more. China has AI, but there's no indication it has found a way to run tests outside a simulator. And, like a junior officer first learning tactics, some lessons can only be learned in the air, Vista's test pilots said. Vista flew its first AI-controlled dogfight in September 2023, and there have only been about two dozen similar flights since. But the programs are learning so quickly from each engagement that some AI versions being tested on Vista are beating human pilots in air-to-air combat. The pilots at this base are aware that in some respects, they may be training their replacements or shaping a future construct where fewer of them are needed. But they also say they would not want to be up in the sky against an adversary that has AI-controlled aircraft if the U.S. does not also have its own fleet. "We have to keep running. And we have to run fast," Kendall said.

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.

MELBOURNE, Australia — A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said Sunday. The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night. The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters Sunday. "There are indications he had been radicalized online," Cook told a news conference. "But I want to reassure the community at this stage it appears that he acted solely and alone," Cook added. A man was found at the scene with stab wounds to his back. He was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Police and Australian Security Intelligence Organization agents have been conducting a counterterrorism investigation in the east coast city of Sydney since another 16-year-old boy stabbed an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and priest in a church on April 15. That boy has been charged with committing a terrorist act. Six of his alleged associates have also been charged with a range of offenses, including conspiring to engage in or planning a terrorist act. All remain in custody. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had been briefed on the latest stabbing in Perth by Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw and ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess, who heads the nation's main domestic spy agency. "I'm advised there is no ongoing threat to the community on the information available," Albanese said. "We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia," he added. Police received an emergency phone call after 10 p.m. from a teenager saying he was going to commit acts of violence, Western Australian Police Commissioner Col Blanch said. The boy had been participating in a program for young people at risk of radicalization, Blanch added. "I don't want to say he has been radicalized or is radicalized because I think that forms part of the investigation," he said. Police said they were later alerted by a phone call from a member of the public that a knife attack was underway in the parking lot. Three police officers responded, one armed with a gun and two with conducted energy devices. Police deployed both conducted energy devices but they failed to incapacitate the boy before he was killed by a single gunshot, Blanch said. Some Muslim leaders have criticized Australian police for declaring last month's church stabbing a terrorist act but not a rampage two days earlier in a Sydney shopping mall in which six people were killed and a dozen wounded. The 40-year-old attacker in the mall attack was shot dead by police. Police have yet to reveal the man's motive. The church attack is only the third to be classified by Australian authorities as a terrorist act since 2018. In December 2022, three Christian fundamentalists shot dead two police officers and a bystander in an ambush near the community of Wieambilla in Queensland state. The shooters were later killed by police. In November 2018, a Somalia-born Muslim stabbed three pedestrians in downtown Melbourne, killing one, before police shot him dead.

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.