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Bangkok — Guerrilla fighters from Myanmar's Karen ethnic minority claimed Monday to be close to seizing control of a major trading town bordering Thailand, as soldiers and civil servants loyal to the military government appeared to be preparing to abandon their positions. The occupation of Myawaddy town by the Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Karen National Union, or KNU, appeared imminent as the guerrillas seized or besieged strategic army outposts on the town's outskirts, a spokesperson and members of the KNU said Monday. Myawaddy, in Kayin state, is Myanmar's most active trading post with Thailand, and its fall would be the latest in a series of shock defeats suffered by the army since last October, when an alliance of three other ethnic rebel groups launched an offensive in the country's northeast.  Over the past five months, the army has been routed in northern Shan state, where it conceded control of several border crossings, in Rakhine state in the west, and is under growing attack elsewhere. The military government under Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has acknowledged it is under pressure, and recently introduced conscription to boost its ranks. The nationwide conflict in Myanmar began after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule. Three residents of Myawaddy town, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they fear being arrested by either warring side, told The Associated Press by phone that they had heard no sounds of the fighting outside since Sunday afternoon. They said most residents were working as usual, while others were preparing to flee to Mae Sot, just across the border in Thailand. Two of them said they had not seen any members of the government's security forces since Sunday. The situation was highlighted Sunday night when a Myanmar plane made an unscheduled flight to Mae Sot from Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city. Thai media reported that the plane had received permission from Thai authorities to evacuate people fleeing Myawaddy. It was not clear if those fleeing, described as military and civil servants loyal to Myanmar's military government, had already crossed into Thailand over the river that marks the border. Thailand's Foreign Ministry on Monday confirmed that approval was given for three flights on a Yangon-Mae Sot route to transport passengers and cargo, one each day on Sunday through Tuesday. Myanmar's government later canceled its requests for the remaining two flights. The Thai government was closely monitoring the situation along the border, and is ready to take all necessary measures to maintain peace and order, and to keep the people along the border safe, the Thai ministry said. In times of fighting along the frontier, Thailand has generally granted temporary shelter to Myanmar villagers. There are also about 87,000 living in nine long-term refugee camps. The KNU, which is the leading political body for the Karen minority, said in a statement posted on Facebook that its armed wing and allied pro-democracy forces on Friday had seized the army base on the road to Myawaddy at Thin Gan Nyi Naung. It had served for nearly six decades as the military's regional headquarters. It said that 617 members of the security forces and their family members had surrendered. The KNU posted photos of the weapons that it claimed to have seized and captured military personnel and their family members given shelter in a school. Two Karen guerrillas involved in their group's offensive told AP on Monday that they have surrounded an army garrison about 4 kilometers (3 miles) to the west of Myawaddy that is in charge of the town's security, and an artillery battalion to the south. Negotiations were underway for their surrenders, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release information. They also said the Karen have control of about 60% to 70% of Myawaddy township, and are almost certain to capture the town itself after the two bases surrender or are overrun. The Karen, like other minority groups living in border regions, have struggled for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar's central government. Fighting between the army and Karen armed groups intensified after the military seized power in 2021. Several ethnic rebel groups including the Karen have loose alliances with pro-democracy militias after the military takeover, and also offer refuge to the civilian opponents of the military government.

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Copenhagen, Denmark — Sweden has expelled a Chinese journalist, saying the reporter was a threat to national security, Swedish media reported on Monday. The journalist, an unnamed, 57-year-old woman, was arrested by the Swedish security service in October and expelled by the government in Stockholm last week, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported. She is banned from returning. The woman arrived in the Scandinavian country some 20 years ago. She held a residence permit and was married to a Swedish man, with whom she has children, according to the broadcaster. The woman has had contacts with the Chinese Embassy and with people in Sweden who are connected to the Chinese government, SVT said. Her lawyer, Leutrim Kadriu, told SVT the woman doesn't believe she poses a threat to Sweden. "It is difficult for me to go into exact details given that much is shrouded in secrecy, as this is a national security matter," Kadriu told the broadcaster. In neighboring Norway, broadcaster NRK said the journalist had also reported from there, and from other Nordic countries including Denmark, Finland and Iceland. Relations between Stockholm and Beijing have been tense for years. In 2020, a court in eastern China sentenced Chinese-born Swedish national Gui Minhai to 10 years in prison for selling books that were critical of the ruling Communist Party. He was charged with "illegally providing intelligence overseas." China has rebuked Sweden's demands for Gui's release. He first disappeared in 2015, when he was believed to have been abducted by Chinese agents from his seaside home in Thailand. The case led to an investigation of Sweden's ambassador to China over a meeting she arranged between Gui's daughter and two Chinese businessmen whom the daughter said threatened her father. The ambassador, Anna Lindstedt, was eventually cleared. In 2018, a Swedish court found a man guilty of spying for China by gathering information on Tibetans who had fled to Sweden. Dorjee Gyantsan, a Tibetan who worked for a pro-Tibetan radio station, was found guilty of "gross illegal intelligence activity" and sentenced to 22 months in jail.

Thirty years after the Rwandan genocide, survivors continue to grapple with fear and trauma. Their plight, they say, is exacerbated by ongoing battles against misinformation and genocide denial, prompting calls for increased education and awareness to foster a genocide-free world. Senanu Tord reports from Kigali, Rwanda. Moki Edwin Kindzeka contributed to this report.

Austin, Texas — Chinese migrants coming across the southern U.S. border say they made the treacherous journey to flee China’s authoritarian rule, to seek the American dream or escape growing political and economic uncertainty at home. But the challenges do not end after they arrive, and some are deciding to return to China, while others have no choice. Last April, Xia Yu arrived in the United States after traveling through more than 10 countries over a period of two months. Xia, a Chinese man in his 40s, asked to use a pseudonym so he could speak more freely with VOA Mandarin about his journey. On his way to the U.S. border, he says, all his property was stolen, and his American dream did not come true: In immigration custody, he failed to pass the "credible fear interview” for asylum-seekers. 2023 surge According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, 52,700 Chinese immigrants arrived at U.S. borders without valid entry visas in fiscal 2023 — more than twice the number of just two years earlier. About half of them entered somewhere along the southern U.S. border where they were apprehended by Border Protection agents and sought asylum. Individuals who pass the screening and establish that they have a credible reason to fear torture, persecution, or returning to their country, are allowed to stay in the U.S. to pursue their cases in immigration court. Xia remained in the detention facility in the U.S. for months as he was processed for deportation, eventually landing at Shanghai Pudong Airport last August. Entering Chinese customs, he was fined $71 and had to sign a document admitting his crime of being deported after illegally entering another country. His passport was confiscated, and he was notified that he would be barred from leaving the country for three years. The public security bureau in his hometown also questioned him about whom he encountered while on U.S. soil. "They asked me to delete my foreign social media apps and foreign contacts,” he told VOA. “Then they told me not to contact these people because I would be deceived."  Xia said he thinks his WeChat account is being monitored to prevent him from inciting others to emigrate illegally. He said spending tens of thousands of dollars without even staying in the U.S. is nothing to brag about, and that he’d rather not mention his experience again. 'A full life at home’ At 33, Wang Zhongwei from China’s Anhui Province now lives in Los Angeles, where has become a vocal advocate for immigrants since entering the United States in May. Many Chinese who have crossed the border or are attempting to do so reach out to him for advice. Wang tells VOA Mandarin that while most who make the journey across the border stay, there are those who return because of loneliness, deceit, or family pressure. Wang's friend, Liu Ming, from Sichuan Province, came to the United States in the second half of 2023. Liu, 31, first stayed in Los Angeles for a month or two and then moved to New York to find work. After a long wait, he found a job working for a Chinese boss, but the pay wasn’t good. In January, Liu's boss refused to pay him, so he had no choice but to call the police. After receiving his salary the following day, Liu immediately went to the airport, messaging Wang: "I'm at the airport now and about to go back to China. I don't like it here. See you again if destiny has it." In March, when Wang contacted him again, he found that Liu had used the self-service kiosk when entering China and wasn’t even interviewed by government staff. Within months, Liu had returned to a life in China much as he knew it before. "I am now working in a restaurant in my hometown. I work eight hours and the food is super good,” he told Wang via WhatsApp. "I used to work 12 hours non-stop in a restaurant in the U.S., [where] I was bored and lonely ... but I live a full life at home. At one point, when he got sick in the U.S., he worried about dying in a foreign land. He also complained about not being able to meet women there. "I don't regret the trip to the U.S.,” Liu continued, allowing, however, that on getting sick he’d worried about dying in a foreign land, and that he’d found it difficult to meet women. “What I saw in real life was different from what I saw online,” he concluded. “There are both good and bad things in America." Room for regret Zhang Lin, who is in his 30s and asked to use an alias to protect his privacy, describes himself as a person of double regrets. He first regretted coming to the United States, and now he regrets returning to China. Crossing the U.S. border, Zhang found a job as a massage therapist in Los Angeles because he had the training. There, he made about $150 a day, a substantial wage for an undocumented immigrant. But after only a month he returned to China, where he now runs a foot spa in his hometown. "There were so many things I wasn't used to in the U.S., and I was lonely," he said. "I felt very homesick, so I came back impulsively." When he went to the U.S., Zhang said, he’d hoped to make a lot of money and make his family the envy of his hometown neighbors. But now, after returning to China, where he faced a 12-hour interrogation at customs but faced no penalties, he says he regrets his impulsive decision to return. “Life in my hometown is really hopeless," Zhang said, adding that he hopes to go to the U.S. illegally again. "When you go out, you realize that the outside world is different. Your mind is opened up.” Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

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WILMINGTON, Del. — The Biden administration pledged on Monday to provide up to $6.6 billion so that a Taiwanese semiconductor giant can expand the facilities it is already building in Arizona and better ensure that the most-advanced microchips are produced domestically for the first time.  Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the funding for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. means the company can expand on its existing plans for two facilities in Phoenix and add a third, newly announced production hub.  "These are the chips that underpin all artificial intelligence, and they are the chips that are the necessary components for the technologies that we need to underpin our economy," Raimondo said on a call with reporters, adding that they were vital to the "21st century military and national security apparatus."  The funding is tied to a sweeping 2022 law that President Joe Biden has celebrated and which is designed to revive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. Known as the CHIPS and Science Act, the $280 billion package is aimed at sharpening the U.S. edge in military technology and manufacturing while minimizing the kinds of supply disruptions that occurred in 2021, after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when a shortage of chips stalled factory assembly lines and fueled inflation.  The Biden administration has promised tens of billions of dollars to support construction of U.S. chip foundries and reduce reliance on Asian suppliers, which Washington sees as a security weakness.  "Semiconductors – those tiny chips smaller than the tip of your finger – power everything from smartphones to cars to satellites and weapons systems," Biden said in a statement. "TSMC's renewed commitment to the United States, and its investment in Arizona represent a broader story for semiconductor manufacturing that's made in America and with the strong support of America's leading technology firms to build the products we rely on every day."  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. produces nearly all of the leading-edge microchips in the world and plans to eventually do so in the U.S.  It began construction of its first facility in Phoenix in 2021, and started work on a second hub last year, with the company increasing its total investment in both projects to $40 billion. The third facility should be producing microchips by the end of the decade and will see the company's commitment increase to a total of $65 billion, Raimondo said.  The investments would put the U.S. on track to produce roughly 20% of the world's leading-edge chips by 2030, and Raimondo said they should help create 6,000 manufacturing jobs and 20,000 construction jobs, as well as thousands of new positions more indirectly tied to assorted suppliers in chip-related industries tied to Arizona projects.  The potential incentives announced Monday include $50 million to help train the workforce in Arizona to be better equipped to work in the new facilities. Additionally, approximately $5 billion of proposed loans would be available through the CHIPS and Science Act.  "TSMC's commitment to manufacture leading-edge chips in Arizona marks a new chapter for America's semiconductor industry," Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters.  The announcement came as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is traveling in China. Senior administration officials were asked on the call with reporters if the Biden administration gave China a head's up on the coming investment, given the delicate geopolitics surrounding Taiwan. The officials said only that their focus in making Monday's announcement was solely on advancing U.S. manufacturing.  "We are thrilled by the progress of our Arizona site to date," C.C. Wei, CEO of TSMC, said in a statement, "And are committed to its long-term success." 

BEIJING — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned China on Monday that Washington will not accept new industries being decimated by Chinese imports as she wrapped up four days of meetings to press her case for Beijing to rein in excess industrial capacity.  Yellen told a media conference that U.S. President Joe Biden would not allow a repeat of the "China shock" of the early 2000s, when a flood of Chinese imports destroyed about 2 million American manufacturing jobs.  She did not, however, threaten new tariffs or other trade actions should Beijing continue its massive state support for electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels and other green energy goods.  Yellen used her second trip to China in nine months to complain that China's overinvestment has built factory capacity far exceeding domestic demand, while fast-growing exports of these products threaten firms in the U.S. and other countries.  She said a newly created exchange forum to discuss the excess capacity issue would need time to reach solutions.  Yellen drew parallels to the pain felt in the U.S. steel sector in the past.  "We've seen this story before," she told reporters. "Over a decade ago, massive PRC government support led to below-cost Chinese steel that flooded the global market and decimated industries across the world and in the United States."  Yellen added: "I've made it clear that President Biden and I will not accept that reality again."  When the global market is flooded with artificially cheap Chinese products, she said, "the viability of American and other foreign firms is put into question."  Yellen said her exchanges with Chinese officials had advanced American interests and that U.S. concerns over excess industrial capacity were shared by allies in Europe, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines and other emerging markets.  Pushback  China's parliament, the National People's Congress, said in March the government would take steps to curb industrial overcapacity.  But Beijing says the recent focus by the United States and Europe on the risks to other economies from China's excess capacity is misguided.  Chinese officials say the criticism understates innovation by their companies in key industries and overstates the importance of state support in driving their growth.  They also say tariffs or other trade curbs will deprive global consumers of green energy alternatives key to meeting global climate goals.  Trade curbs on Chinese electric vehicles would be disruptive to a growing industry and contravene World Trade Organization rules, the industry and information technology ministry said in a statement carried by state media CCTV and China Daily.  The ministry added that it was committed to support EV exports and would help "accelerate the overseas development" of the industry including planning for shipping and logistics and support for firms to innovate and meet global standards.  State news agency Xinhua quoted Li as saying the U.S. should "refrain from turning economic and trade issues into political or security issues" and view the topic of production capacity from a "market-oriented and global perspective."  Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao voiced more pointed objections during a roundtable meeting with Chinese EV makers in Paris, saying U.S. and European assertions of Chinese excess EV capacity were groundless.  Rather than subsidies, China's electric vehicle companies rely on continuous technological innovation, perfect production and supply chain systems and full market competition, Wang said on his trip to discuss a European Union anti-subsidy inquiry.  Yellen said a possible short-term solution was for China to take steps to bolster consumer demand with support for households and retirement, and shift its growth model away from supply-side investments.  Yellen spoke about the issue at length with Premier Li Qiang and also met Finance Minister Lan Foan on Sunday. She met People's Bank of China (PBOC) governor Pan Gongsheng and former vice premier Liu He on Monday.  In a CNBC interview after the meetings, Yellen said she was "not thinking so much" about trade curbs on China, as much as shifts in its macroeconomic environment. But she reiterated she would notrule out tariffs.   

On his farm near Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, Clark Lungren studies and breeds wild animals, some of them endangered species. The Canadian, who has been living in the country for several decades, is also giving tourists an opportunity to see his animals up close. But fighting and unrest in the country has put the farm at risk. VOA’s Gildas Da has more in this report narrated by Jackson Mvunganyi. (Solomane Nikiema contributed to this report)

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Paris — French and British troops on Monday swapped roles to take part in the changing of the guard ceremonies outside the palaces of the other country's head of state, in an unprecedented move to celebrate 120 years since the Entente Cordiale. Signed in 1904, the Entente Cordiale accord cemented an improvement in relations after the Napoleonic Wars and is seen as the foundation of the two NATO members' alliance to this day. "Even after Brexit and with war back in Europe, "this entente cordiale is somehow the cornerstone... that allows us to maintain the bilateral relationship," French President Emmanuel Macron said in a video address on X, formerly Twitter. "Long live the entente cordiale and long live the Franco-British friendship," he said, switching to English. Macron and British ambassador to France Menna Rawlings on Monday morning watched British guards taking part in the changing of the guard outside his Elysee Palace. French guards were to do the same in London outside Buckingham Palace, the official residence of King Charles III. At the Elysee, 16 members of the Number 7 Company Coldstream Guards of the UK embassy, wearing their traditional bearskin hats, relieved French counterparts from the first infantry regiment. The French army choir then sang the two national anthems -- God Save the King and La Marseillaise. 'More to defeat Russia' British Foreign Minister David Cameron and his French counterpart, Stephane Sejourne, celebrated their countries' "close friendship" in a joint op-ed published late on Sunday. They said it was key at a time when NATO is mobilized to ensure Ukraine does not lose its fight to repel the Russian invasion. "Britain and France, two founding members and Europe's nuclear powers, have a responsibility in driving the alliance to deal with the challenges before it," the diplomats wrote in Britain's The Telegraph newspaper. "We must do even more to ensure we defeat Russia. The world is watching –- and will judge us if we fail." A French presidential official said it was "the first time in the history of the Elysee" that foreign troops had been invited to participate in the military ritual. At the end of 2023, Macron made the changing of the Republican Guard public again, on the first Tuesday of each month, although the ceremony is much less spectacular than its counterpart outside Buckingham Palace. Two sections of the 1st and 2nd Infantry Regiment of France's Republican Guard were to participate in the London ceremony alongside guards from F Company Scots Guards and other British forces, the French presidential official said. It would be watched by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh -- Prince Edward and his wife Sophie -- accompanied by the UK chief of the general staff, General Patrick Sanders, and French chief of the army staff Pierre Schill. The event on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace was to mark the first time a country from outside the Commonwealth -- which mostly includes English-speaking former British colonies and possessions -- has taken part in the changing of the guard. Tensions after Brexit The signing of the Entente Cordiale on April 8, 1904, is widely seen as preparing the way for France and Britain joining forces against Germany in World War I. While the accord is often used as shorthand to describe the Franco-British relationship, ties have been bedeviled by tensions in recent years, particularly since the United Kingdom left the European Union.  Migration has been a particular sticking point, with London pressuring Paris to halt the flow of migrants across the Channel. But a state visit by King Charles last autumn -- one of his last big foreign engagements before his cancer diagnosis -- was widely seen as a resounding success that showed the fundamental strength of the relationship. 

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MESQUITE, Texas — Millions of spectators along a narrow corridor stretching from Mexico to the U.S. to Canada eagerly awaited Monday's celestial sensation — a total eclipse of the sun — even as forecasters called for clouds. The best weather was expected at the tail end of the eclipse in Vermont and Maine, as well as New Brunswick and Newfoundland. It promised to be North America’s biggest eclipse crowd ever, thanks to the densely populated path and the lure of more than four minutes of midday darkness in Texas and other choice spots. Almost everyone in North America was guaranteed at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting. “Cloud cover is one of the trickier things to forecast,” National Weather Service meteorologist Alexa Maines explained at Cleveland's Great Lakes Science Center on Sunday. “At the very least, it won’t snow.” The cliff-hanging uncertainty added to the drama. Rain or shine, "it’s just about sharing the experience with other people,” said Chris Lomas from Gotham, England, who was staying at a sold-out trailer resort outside Dallas, the biggest city in totality's path. For Monday's full eclipse, the moon was due to slip right in front of the sun, entirely blocking it. The resulting twilight, with only the sun’s outer atmosphere or corona visible, would be long enough for birds and other animals to fall silent, and for planets, stars and maybe even a comet to pop out. The out-of-sync darkness lasts up to 4 minutes, 28 seconds. That's almost twice as long as it was during the U.S. coast-to-coast eclipse seven years ago because the moon is closer to Earth. It will be another 21 years before the U.S. sees another total solar eclipse on this scale. Extending five hours from the first bite out of the sun to the last, Monday's eclipse begins in the Pacific and makes landfall at Mazatlan, Mexico, before moving into Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and 12 other U.S. states in the Midwest, Middle Atlantic and New England, and then Canada. Last stop: Newfoundland, with the eclipse ending in the North Atlantic. It will take just 1 hour, 40 minutes for the moon's shadow to race more than 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers) across the continent. Eye protection is needed with proper eclipse glasses and filters to look at the sun, except when it ducks completely out of sight during an eclipse. The path of totality — approximately 115 miles (185 kilometers) wide — encompasses several major cities this time, including Dallas, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York and Montreal. An estimated 44 million people live within the track, with a couple hundred million more within 200 miles (320 kilometers). Add in all the eclipse chasers, amateur astronomers, scientists and just plain curious, and it’s no wonder the hotels and flights are sold out and the roads jammed. Experts from NASA and scores of universities are posted along the route, poised to launch research rockets and weather balloons, and conduct experiments. The International Space Station’s seven astronauts also will be on the lookout, 270 miles (435 kilometers) up.  

Vatican City — The Vatican on Monday reaffirmed its opposition to sex changes, gender theory and surrogate parenthood, as well as abortion and euthanasia, four months after supporting blessings for same-sex couples.  The Vatican's doctrinal office (DDF) released the "Dignitas infinita" (Infinite dignity) declaration following fierce conservative pushback, especially in Africa, against its document on LGBT issues.  There is no suggestion that the new text, which describes what the Church perceives as threats to human dignity, was prepared in direct response to the rows over same-sex blessings, as it has been five years in the making. But it has undergone extensive revisions over the period.  Pope Francis approved it after requesting that it also mention "poverty, the situation of migrants, violence against women, human trafficking, war, and other themes," the head of the DDF, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, said in a statement.   The declaration said surrogate parenting violated the dignity of both the surrogate mother and the child, and recalled that Francis in January called it "despicable" and urged a global ban.   On gender theory, the declaration said that "desiring a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes, apart from this fundamental truth that human life is a gift, amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God, entering into competition with the true God of love revealed to us in the Gospel."  Gender theory, often called gender ideology by its detractors, suggests that gender is more complex and fluid than the binary categories of male and female, and depends on more than visible sexual characteristics.  On changes of gender, the declaration said that "any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception."  It acknowledged that some people may undergo surgery to resolve "genital abnormalities", but stressed that "such a medical procedure would not constitute a sex change in the sense intended here."  At the same time, the text also denounced as contrary to human dignity the fact that "in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation."  Elsewhere, the declaration doubled down on the Vatican's standing condemnation of abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty, quoting from Francis, his predecessors Benedict XVI and John Paul II and past Vatican documents.   It also mentioned sexual abuse as a threat to human dignity — calling it "widespread in society", including within the Catholic Church — as well as violence against women, cyberbullying and other forms of online abuse.

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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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Preliminary hearings are opening Monday at the United Nations’ top court in a case that seeks an end to German military and other aid to Israel, based on claims that Berlin is enabling acts of genocide and breaches of international humanitarian law in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Nicaragua argues that by giving Israel political, financial and military support and by defunding the United Nations aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, “Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide and, in any case has failed in its obligation to do everything possible to prevent the commission of genocide.” While the case brought by Nicaragua centers on Germany, it indirectly takes aim at Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following the deadly Oct. 7 attacks when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people. More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Its toll doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it has said women and children make up the majority of the dead. Israel strongly denies that its assault amounts to genocidal acts, saying it is acting in self defense. Israeli legal adviser Tal Becker told judges at the court earlier this year that the country is fighting a “war it did not start and did not want.” Germany rejects the case brought by Nicaragua. “Germany has breached neither the Genocide Convention nor international humanitarian law, and we will set this out in detail before the International Court of Justice,” German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer told reporters in Berlin on Friday. Nicaragua has asked the court to hand down preliminary orders known as provisional measures, including that Germany “immediately suspend its aid to Israel, in particular its military assistance including military equipment in so far as this aid may be used in the violation of the Genocide Convention” and international law. The court will likely take weeks to deliver its preliminary decision, and Nicaragua’s case will probably drag on for years. Monday’s hearing at the world court comes amid growing calls for allies to stop supplying arms to Israel as its six-month campaign continues to lay waste to Gaza. The offensive has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s population. Food is scarce, the U.N. says famine is approaching and few Palestinians have been able to leave the besieged territory. The case "will likely further galvanize opposition to any support for Israel,” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame. On Friday, the U.N.’s top human rights body called on countries to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel. The United States and Germany opposed the resolution. Also, hundreds of British jurists, including three retired Supreme Court judges, have called on their government to suspend arms sales to Israel after three U.K. citizens were among seven aid workers from the charity World Central Kitchen killed in Israeli strikes. Israel said the attack on the aid workers was a mistake caused by “misidentification.” Germany has for decades been a staunch supporter of Israel. Days after the October 7 attack by Hamas, Chancellor Olaf Scholz explained why: “Our own history, our responsibility arising from the Holocaust, makes it a perpetual task for us to stand up for the security of the state of Israel,” he told lawmakers. Berlin, however, has gradually shifted its tone as civilian casualties in Gaza have soared, becoming increasingly critical of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and speaking out against a ground offensive in Rafah. Nicaragua’s government, which has historical links with Palestinian organizations dating back to their support for the 1979 Sandinista revolution, was itself accused earlier this year by U.N.-backed human rights experts of systematic human rights abuses “tantamount to crimes against humanity.” The government of President Daniel Ortega fiercely rejected the allegations. In January, the International Court of Justice imposed provisional measures ordering Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and acts of genocide in Gaza. The orders came in a case filed by South Africa accusing Israel of breaching the Genocide Convention. The court last week ordered Israel to take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into the war-ravaged enclave.  

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Mexico City — In Mexico’s first presidential debate on Sunday ahead of June 2 elections, former Mexico City Mayor and frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum appeared comfortable with her polling lead, remaining calm amid ex-Senator Xóchitl Gálvez's personal attacks. Jorge Álvarez Máynez, a candidate from the Citizen Movement party who is polling in single digits, grinned widely and presented himself as an alternative to the other two candidates, who he said represented the “old politics.” In the debate, candidates responded to questions about health, education, corruption, transparency, vulnerable groups and violence against women. Polls have shown Sheinbaum of the Morena party of outgoing leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador leading by more than 20 points over Gálvez, who represents a coalition of opposition parties. If Sheinbaum or Gálvez wins, they would become the first woman president in Mexico, a country with a reputation for gender-based violence and a “macho,” male-dominated culture. Sheinbaum emphasized her connection with the highly popular López Obrador and promised she would continue his policies. “We're going to keep transforming Mexico,” Sheinbaum said. Meanwhile, Gálvez launched personal attacks against her competition, including at Sheinbaum. “Claudia, even if you deny it, you are still cold and heartless. I would call you the ice lady,” Gálvez said. “Claudia, you're not AMLO. You don't have his charisma,” she said, using the president's nickname. Sheinbaum did not respond to several of Gálvez's sharpest attacks. Mentions of López Obrador were surprisingly few in the debate even though the populist leader, who is not eligible for reelection, looms large in the upcoming polls. The candidates also discussed rising migration levels to the United States, agreeing that migrants should be protected and respected on their path through Mexico. That contrasted with the security-focused approach pushed by the U.S. government. Notably, the candidates spoke little of Mexico's soaring levels of violence and the slayings of local candidates, but a subsequent debate is expected to focus on security topics. Sheinbaum briefly mentioned the recent raid of Mexico’s Embassy by Ecuadorian police on Friday, cutting in at the beginning of the debate to thank embassy staff for their bravery.