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ORSK — Flood sirens blared out in two Russian cities on Tuesday, warning thousands more people to evacuate immediately as two major rivers swelled to bursting point in some of the worst flooding in at least 70 years. Swiftly melting snow across swathes of the Ural Mountains and Siberia has swelled some of the biggest rivers which surge across the wilds of Russia, with at least 10,500 homes recorded as flooded so far and many thousands more at risk. The Ural River, Europe's third largest which flows into the Caspian, burst through an embankment dam on Friday flooding the city of Orsk just south of the Ural Mountains. Downstream, water levels in Orenburg, a city of around 550,000, were rising. Sirens in Kurgan, a city on the Tobol river, a tributary of the Irtysh, warned people to evacuate immediately and Governor Vadim Shumkov urged residents to take the warnings seriously. "We understand you very well: It is hard to leave your possessions and move somewhere at the call of the local authorities," Shumkov said, adding that those demanding to stay in their houses were foolish. "It's better that we laugh at the hydrologists together later and praise God for the miracle of our common salvation. But let's do it alive." The peak is expected in Orenburg on Wednesday. President Vladimir Putin has been monitoring the floods from Moscow but anger boiled over in Orsk when at least 100 Russians begged the Kremlin chief to help and chanted "shame on you" at local officials who they said had done too little. With so much water flowing into rivers, emergencies were declared in Orenburg, Kurgan and Tyumen, a major oil producing region of Western Siberia - the largest hydrocarbon basin in the world. In Kurgan, a region with around 800,000 residents, drone footage showed traditional Russian wooden houses and the golden kupolas of Russian Orthodox Churches stranded among a vast expanse of water. In Zverinogolovskoye, a town in Kurgan region, the water levels of the Tobol rose 74 centimeters in just two hours. More than 19,000 people are risk in Kurgan, the TASS news agency reported. The head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Kurenkov, flew to Orenburg region on Tuesday to monitor the situation after being tasked to do so by Putin, the ministry said. Kurenkov will also visit the Kurgan and Tyumen regions in the Urals, the ministry added. "Preventive measures are already being taken there, rescue teams have been strengthened, and the forces and means of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations have been put on high alert," the ministry said.  Rising water was also forecast in Siberia's Ishim river, a tributary of the Irtysh river, which along with its parent, the Ob, forms the world's seventh longest river system. It was not immediately clear why this year's floods were so bad as the snow melt is an annual event in Russia. Scientists say climate change has made flooding more frequent worldwide. 

STRASBOURG, France — Europe's highest human rights court ruled Tuesday that countries must better protect their people from the consequences of climate change, siding with a group of older Swiss women against their government in a landmark ruling that could have implications across the continent. The European Court of Human Rights rejected two other, similar cases on procedural grounds — a high-profile one brought by Portuguese young people and another by a French mayor that sought to force governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the Swiss case, nonetheless, sets a legal precedent in the Council of Europe's 46 member states against which future lawsuits will be judged. "This is a turning point," said Corina Heri, an expert in climate change litigation at the University of Zurich. Although activists have had success with lawsuits in domestic proceedings, this was the first time an international court ruled on climate change — and the first decision confirming that countries have an obligation to protect people from its effects, according to Heri. She said it would open the door to more legal challenges in the countries that are members of the Council of Europe, which includes the 27 EU nations as well as many others from Britain to Turkey. The Swiss ruling softened the blow for those who lost Tuesday. "The most important thing is that the court has said in the Swiss women's case that governments must cut their emissions more to protect human rights," said 19-year-od Sofia Oliveira, one of the Portuguese plaintiffs. "Their win is a win for us, too, and a win for everyone!" The court — which is unrelated to the European Union — ruled that Switzerland "had failed to comply with its duties" to combat climate change and meet emissions targets. That, the court said, was a violation of the women's rights, noting that the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees people "effective protection by the state authorities from the serious adverse effects of climate change on their lives, health, well-being and quality of life." A group called Senior Women for Climate Protection, whose average age is 74, had argued that they were particularly affected because older women are most vulnerable to the extreme heat that is becoming more frequent. "The court recognized our fundamental right to a healthy climate and to have our country do what it failed to do until now: that is to say taking ambitious measures to protect our health and protect the future of all," said Anne Mahrer, a member of the group. Switzerland said it would study the decision to see what steps would be needed. "We have to, in good faith, implement and execute the judgment," Alain Chablais, who represented the country at last year's hearings, told The Associated Press. Judge Siofra O'Leary, the court's president, stressed that it would be up to governments to decide how to approach climate change obligations. Activists have argued that many governments have not grasped the gravity of the climate change — and are increasingly looking to the courts to force them to do more to ensure global warming is held to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement. As part of meeting those goals, the European Union, which doesn't include Switzerland, currently has a target to be climate-neutral by 2050. Despite those efforts, the Earth shattered global annual heat records in 2023 and flirted with the world's agreed-upon warming threshold, Copernicus, a European climate agency, said in January. Celebrity climate activist Greta Thunberg was in the courtroom as the decision was announced. "These rulings are a call to action. They underscore the importance of taking our national governments to court," the 21-year-old Swede told the AP. "The first ruling by an international human rights court on the inadequacy of states' climate action leaves no doubt," said Joie Chowdhury, senior attorney with the Center for International Environmental Law, "the climate crisis is a human rights crisis."

Yangon — Residents of a Myanmar trade hub fled across the border to Thailand on Tuesday amid the sounds of explosions and after an ethnic minority armed group said they had seized a key military base nearby, locals told AFP. Fighters from the Karen National Union (KNU) said Saturday that they had seized a military base around 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of Myawaddy and that more than 600 soldiers, police and their families had surrendered. Contacted by AFP on Tuesday, residents said they could hear gunfire and explosions. "Some people fled already, especially those staying around the police station," one resident told AFP, requesting anonymity for security reasons. "We are hearing gunfire and explosions at this moment. We heard planes flying over." They said it did not appear KNU fighters were inside the town and that a bridge connecting Myawaddy to the Thai town of Mae Sot just over the border was still open. "I heard two loud explosions," another resident of Myawaddy told AFP, also asking to remain anonymous for security reasons. "Most of the shops are closed today and locals are leaving for Thailand." Myanmar mobile phone services were not working, they said, adding that residents were using Thai SIM cards. The junta has not responded to requests for comment on the KNU claim of the surrenders at the base at Thingannyinaung. AFP has asked the KNU for comment.   A resident of Thingannyinaung said she had fled her home weeks ago following previous clashes and was now sheltering at the Thai border.  "Many IDPs are now staying near the river between Thailand and Myanmar," she said, referring to internally displaced people. "We can see thousands of people from villages are coming to cross the border every day," added the resident, who requested anonymity. Thailand's foreign minister said on Tuesday the country was prepared to accept 100,000 people fleeing Myanmar, as reports of clashes emerged.  Thailand shares a 2,400-kilometre (1,490-mile) border with Myanmar, which has been embroiled in a civil war since the junta overthrew the democratically elected government in 2021. Myawaddy sits on the Asia Highway that runs from the Thai border to Myanmar's biggest city Yangon. It passes through Karen state, which has been riven by decades of fighting between the military and the KNU, which says it is seeking autonomy for the Karen population. Since the military's 2021 coup, the KNU has given shelter to political opponents of the junta and trained newer "People's Defense Forces" battling to overthrow the military's rule. Over $1.1 billion worth of trade passed through Myawaddy from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024, according to the junta's commerce ministry.  The Karen State Border Guard Force, a local military-aligned militia that controls much of Myawaddy town, announced this year that it would no longer take orders from the junta. Analysts said the move would further weaken the military's position in Karen state. 

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.

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washington — U.S. President Joe Biden, the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, hold very different views on key foreign and domestic issues. Here’s an overview of where each nominee stands on domestic policy. Reproductive rights Biden: The Biden administration has protected access to abortion, including: FDA-approved medication abortion; defended access to emergency medical care; supported the ability to travel for reproductive health care; strengthened access to high-quality, affordable contraception; safeguarded the privacy of patients and health care providers and ensured access to accurate information and legal resources, according to a March 7, 2024 White House fact sheet. On March 26, 2024, Biden said, “If America sends me a Congress that are Democrats, I promise you, Kamala and I will restore Roe vs. Wade is the law of the land again." He also warned on March 8, 2024, that “states are passing bans criminalizing doctors, forcing rape and incest victims to leave their state to get care. And now MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump want to pass a national ban on the right to choose, period. Well. Take it seriously, folks, because that's what they're heading for. Hear me loud and clear. This will not happen on my watch.” Trump: Trump’s three Supreme Court nominees during his presidency shifted the balance of the court, resulting in an overturning of Roe vs. Wade, sending the decision to legalize abortion back to the states. Trump announced on April 8, 2024, that he believed abortion legislation should be left up to each state. Previously, he suggested a nationwide ban on abortion after 15 weeks, saying, “Fifteen weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at.” Economy Biden: In a December 5, 2023, speech in Boston, Biden said the economy had created 14 million new jobs — more jobs than any president has created in a four-year term; record economic growth — over 5% just the last quarter; unemployment under 4% for 20 months in a row, and the lowest inflation rate of any of the world’s major economies. Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which authorized $550 billion in new spending. Trump: According to his campaign website, during his presidency, “President Donald J. Trump passed record-setting tax relief for the middle class, doubled the child tax credit, and slashed more job-killing regulations than any administration had ever done before. Real wages quickly increased as a result, and median household income reached the highest level in the history of our country, while poverty reached a record low.” Immigration/border security Biden: President Biden supported the bipartisan Senate Border Security Act that would have provided billions of dollars in additional funding for security and enabled him to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border if daily and weekly border encounters surpassed certain metrics. Former President Trump pressured Republican lawmakers to reject the border security deal, resulting in its failure to pass in the U.S. Congress. On March 9, 2024, Biden said, “On my first day in office as president, I introduced a comprehensive, comprehensive plan to fix our immigration system, secure our border, provide a pathway for citizenship for dreamers and their families, farmworkers, essential workers who helped us through the pandemic and are part of the fabric of our community.” Trump: On the campaign trail in 2024, Trump has pledged to conduct the largest deportation in U.S. history, shift “massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement” and terminate the visas of Hamas sympathizers on college campuses. On his campaign website, Trump said that in cooperative states, he will deputize the National Guard and local law enforcement to assist with rapidly removing illegal alien gang members and criminals. He also pledged to deliver a merit-based immigration system that protects American labor and promotes American values. During his presidency, Trump issued an executive order suspending entry into the United States for everyone from Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen for 90 days and indefinitely for Syrian refugees. He began construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Criminal justice Biden: In multiple executive orders, the president has directed the Justice Department not to renew contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities; directed billions of dollars in public funds to community safety initiatives; and expanded community grants to keep guns off the streets. During his State of the Union speech on March 7, 2024, Biden said, “I'm demanding a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Pass universal background checks. None of this. None of this. I taught the Second Amendment for 12 years. None of this violates the Second Amendment or vilifies responsible gun owners." Trump: During his presidency, Trump launched Operation Legend to combat a surge of violent crime in cities, resulting in more than 5,500 arrests and signed the Safe Policing for Safe Communities executive order to incentivize local police department reforms in line with law and order. The former president made hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of surplus military equipment available to local law enforcement, signed an executive order to help prevent violence against law enforcement officers and signed the bipartisan First Step Act into law, the first landmark criminal justice reform legislation ever passed to reduce recidivism and help former inmates successfully rejoin society. On the campaign trail this year, Trump has made the case he will combat crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. “I do great with the suburban housewives because they want to remain safe. But they [undocumented immigrants] loot the jewelry, they take their purses, electronics, watches, all of their cash. And the people come back and they say, what happened? If you don't want illegal alien criminals crawling through your windows and ransacking your drawers, then you must vote for the fact that we have to throw Crooked Joe Biden out as fast as possible,” he said on April 2, 2024. Climate/energy production Biden: The Democratic president rejoined the Paris climate agreement and signed the Inflation Reduction Act, investing hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy, electric vehicles and environmental justice. His administration also met goals of cutting emissions by at least 50% by 2030 and was among the leaders who launched the Global Methane Pledge, tackling super polluters. Trump: During his presidency, Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement and claimed that Earth’s temperatures “will start getting cooler.” Trump appointees dismantled fossil fuel agreements, kept coal-burning power plants open and launched an anti-trust probe of automakers who agreed to clean air standards. “President Trump will unleash the production of domestic energy resources, reduce the soaring price of gasoline, diesel and natural gas, promote energy security for our friends around the world, eliminate the socialist Green New Deal and ensure the United States is never again at the mercy of a foreign supplier of energy,” according to his campaign website.

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SEOUL, South Korea — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations will travel to the heavily armed Korean border and meet North Korean defectors in South Korea, her office said on Monday, amid faltering U.N. efforts to ensure sanctions enforcement against the North. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield's trip, set for April 14-20, came after Russia rejected the annual renewal of the multinational panel of experts, which has over the past 15 years worked on the implementation of U.N. sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. Washington, Seoul and Tokyo criticized Moscow's veto and China's abstention, which experts said would undermine the sanctions enforcement, with a South Korean envoy likening it to "destroying a CCTV to avoid being caught red-handed." Thomas-Greenfield's trip, which will also include a stop in Japan, was meant to advance bilateral and trilateral cooperation on the sanctions and beyond, U.S. mission to the U.N. spokesperson Nate Evans said. Both South Korea and Japan are currently members of the Security Council. "In both countries, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield will discuss next steps to ensure a continuation of independent and accurate reporting of the DPRK's ongoing weapons proliferation and sanctions evasion activities," Evans said in a statement, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In South Korea, Thomas-Greenfield will travel to the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas, meet young North Korean defectors as well as students at Ewha Womans University, Evans said. In Japan, she will also meet family members of Japanese citizens who were abducted in the early 2000s by North Korea, and visit Nagasaki, which was hit by U.S. nuclear bombing in 1945.

STRASBOURG, France — Europe’s highest human rights court will rule Tuesday on a group of landmark climate change cases aimed at forcing countries to meet international obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The European Court of Human Rights will hand down decisions in a trio of cases brought by a French mayor, six Portuguese youngsters and more than 2,000 members of Senior Women for Climate Protection, who say their governments are not doing enough to combat climate change. Lawyers for all three are hoping the Strasbourg court will find that national governments have a legal duty to make sure global warming is held to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement. Although activists have had successes with lawsuits in domestic proceedings, this will be the first time an international court has ruled on climate change. A decision against any of the countries involved could force them to reduce net emissions to zero by 2030. The EU, which doesn't include Switzerland, currently has a target to be climate-neutral by 2050. The decisions have “the potential to be a watershed moment in the global fight for a livable future. A victory for any of the three cases would be one of the most significant developments on climate change since the signing of the Paris Agreement,” said Gerry Liston, a lawyer with the Global Legal Action Network, which is supporting the Portuguese students. “The extreme heat waves, the rainfalls, followed by heat waves, it is just choking us with greenhouse effects. And what worries me is the frequency in which they started happening more and more. That’s what really scared me. And, I thought to myself, well, what can I do?” 16-year-old André dos Santos Oliveira told reporters ahead of the decision. Together with five more young people, Santos Oliveira took Portugal and 32 other nations to court, arguing the failure to stop emissions violated their fundamental rights. At the other end of the age spectrum, a group of Swiss retirees are also demanding their government do more. Senior Women for Climate Protection, whose average age is 74, say older women’s rights are especially infringed on because they are most affected by the extreme heat that will become more frequent due to global warming. Earth shattered global annual heat records in 2023, flirted with the world’s agreed-upon warming threshold, and showed more signs of a feverish planet, Copernicus, a European climate agency, said in January. In all three cases, lawyers argued that the political and civil protections guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights are meaningless if the planet is uninhabitable. The countries facing the legal challenges hope the cases will be dismissed. They say the blame for climate change cannot rest with any individual country. Switzerland is not alone in being affected by global warming, said Alain Chablais, representative of the country at last year's hearings. “This problem cannot be solved by Switzerland alone.” Acknowledging the urgency of the climate crisis, the court fast-tracked all three cases, including a rare move allowing the Portuguese case to bypass domestic legal proceedings. Judgments from the European Court of Human Rights aren’t legally binding against all 46 of its member states, but they set a legal precedent against which future lawsuits would be judged.

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STATE DEPARTMENT — The United States must refine its Africa policy with a focus on critical minerals, including boosting its diplomatic and commercial presence in African mining hubs, says a report from the Washington-based United States Institute of Peace, or USIP. The group says the changes are needed to safeguard against export controls and market manipulation by geopolitical competitors. The United States heavily relies on imports for many critical minerals for use in electric vehicle batteries and other applications such as cobalt, graphite and manganese. “Especially concerning is that the United States is at or near 100% reliant on ‘foreign entities of concern’ — mainly the People’s Republic of China — for key critical minerals,” says the USIP report. Despite the efforts of the Biden administration and Congress to support U.S. firms in African markets, progress remains measured, with no sign that China and Gulf State competitors are retreating. The USIP report recommends the U.S. government invests in “commercial diplomacy” in Africa. For example, Washington should prioritize to fully realize the potential benefits of a memorandum of understanding signed with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia, following the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in December 2022 to jointly develop a supply chain for electric vehicle batteries. The DRC produces more than 70% of the world’s cobalt, while Zambia is the world’s sixth-largest copper producer and the second-largest cobalt producer in Africa. The USIP report also recommends that the U.S. increase the physical presence of diplomatic and commercial officers in mining centers. Given the proximity of the Congolese city of Lubumbashi to critical minerals, and the high priority placed on the country’s Lobito Corridor, USIP suggests reopening a U.S. consulate in Lubumbashi, provided security levels are acceptable. In the mid-1990s, the United States closed its consulate in Lubumbashi following the end of the Cold War and the redirection of interests and resources. Lubumbashi is the capital of the mineral-rich Katanga Province and the second-largest city in the DRC. Gécamines, the Congolese state mining company, is headquartered in the city, as are other mining companies. Other policy recommendations include prioritizing and leveraging existing U.S. Agency for International Development programs to assist Africans with rule-of-law and fiscal transparency efforts, expanding membership of the Minerals Security Partnership to include African partners, as well as assisting African nations in building technical capacity in the mining sector. Launched in June 2022, the Minerals Security Partnership, or MSP, is a collaboration of 14 countries and the European Union to catalyze public and private investment in responsible critical minerals supply chains globally. U.S. officials say MSP members represent more than 50% of global gross domestic product and currently run 23 projects that involve the extraction and processing of cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, graphite, lithium, manganese, nickel and rare earth elements.  “We need to scale up our critical mineral supply chains to deploy clean technologies more quickly, more effectively,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told an MSP forum in Leuven, Belgium, earlier this month. “The demand is rising. By 2040, demand for lithium is expected to grow by more than 40%. Graphite, cobalt, nickel demand is set to grow 20 to 25 times.”  

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Beijing — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her team are leaving China and returning to Washington after trying to tackle the major questions of the day between the countries. Here's a look at what she tried to accomplish, what was achieved, and where things stand for the world's two largest economies: Unfair trade practices Yellen said she wanted to go into the U.S.-China talks to address a major Biden administration complaint that Beijing’s economic model and trade practices put American companies and workers at an unfair competitive disadvantage by producing highly subsidized solar products, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries at a loss, dominating the global market. Chinese government subsidies and other policy support have encouraged solar panel and EV makers in China to invest in factories, building far more production capacity than the domestic market can absorb. She calls this overcapacity. Throughout the week of meetings, she talked about the risks that come from one nation maintaining nearly all production capacity in these industries, the threat it poses to other nations' industries and how a massive rapid increase in exports from one country can have big impacts on the global economy. Ultimately, the two sides agreed to hold “intensive exchanges” on more balanced economic growth, according to a U.S. statement issued after Yellen and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held extended meetings over two days in the southern city of Guangzhou. It was not immediately clear when and where the talks would take place. “It’s not going to be solved in an afternoon or a month, but I think they have heard that this is an important issue to us,” she said. Money laundering, related crimes After several rounds of meetings, the U.S. Treasury and the Chinese central bank agreed to work together to stop money laundering in their respective financial systems. Nearly all the precursor chemicals that are needed to make the deadly substance fentanyl are coming from China into the U.S. The U.S. says exchanging information on money laundering related to fentanyl trafficking may help disrupt the flow of the precursor chemicals into Mexico and the U.S. “Treasury is committed to using all of our tools, including international cooperation, to counter this threat,” Yellen said in a speech announcing the formation of the group. The new cooperative between the U.S. and China will be part of the two nations' economic working groups that were launched last September, and the first exchange will be held in the coming weeks. TikTok Efforts in the U.S. to ban social media app TikTok, owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance, were raised initially by the Chinese during U.S-China talks, a senior Treasury official told The Associated Press. The firm has in the past promoted a data security restructuring plan called “Project Texas” that it says sufficiently guards against national security concerns. However, U.S. lawmakers have moved forward with efforts to either ban the app or force the Chinese firm to divest its interest in the company, which the White House has supported. In China this week, it was evident that there was little movement on the issue. Yellen said at a news conference Monday that she supported the administration's efforts to address national security issues that relate to sensitive personal data. “This is a legitimate concern,” she said. “Many U.S. social apps are not allowed to operate in China,” Yellen said. "We would like to find a way forward." Financial stability On the second day of Yellen's trip to China, the U.S. and China announced an agreement to work closely on issues related to financial stability, in that U.S. and Chinese financial regulators agreed to hold a series of exercises simulating a failure of a large bank in either of the two countries. The aim is to determine how to coordinate if a bank failure occurs, with the intent of preventing catastrophic stress on the global financial system. Yellen said several exercises have already happened. "I'm pleased that we will hold upcoming exchanges on operational resilience in the financial sector and on financial stability implications from the insurance sector’s exposure to climate risks. “Just like military leaders need a hotline in a crisis,” Yellen said “American and Chinese financial regulators must be able to communicate to prevent financial stresses from turning into crises with tremendous ramifications for our citizens and the international community.” What she ate Yellen is something of a foodie celebrity in China ever since she ate mushrooms that can have psychedelic effects in Beijing last July. This trip was no different. High-ranking Chinese officials brought up her celebrity ahead of important meetings — Premier Li Qiang noted in his opening remarks that Yellen’s visit has “indeed drawn a lot of attention in society” with media covering her trip and her dining habits. And social media was abuzz, following her latest movements around Guangzhou and Beijing. This time in Beijing, Yellen ate at Lao Chuan Ban, a popular Sichuan restaurant. She also had lunch with Beijing Mayor Yin Yong at the Beijing International Hotel. On Monday evening, her last night in China, Yellen visited Jing-A Brewing Co. in Beijing — co-founded by an American — where she ordered a Flying Fist IPA, a beer made with American hops.

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.