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bangkok — Countries in Southeast Asia are hoping to boost their economies by luring long-staying professionals with digital nomad visas. In recent years East and Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan have launched digital nomad visas, which allow remote workers to live and work within their borders. International tourism and foreigners’ spending contributes significantly to these countries’ economies. Indonesia launched its KITAS E33G visa, known as the remote worker visa, earlier in 2024. Bali, the holiday island hotspot, is one of the most popular destinations for digital nomads in the country. Dustin Steller, from the U.S. state of Missouri, works remotely as the owner of his marketing company and has lived in Bali for two years. “I immediately fell in love with the culture, the food, the lifestyle and the people – both locals and expats,” he told VOA. Bali has become a popular “place to base” for social media influencers and cryptocurrency investors in recent years. With cheaper living costs than in Western countries, living in Bali allows professionals to build their businesses while spending less. “Bali offers tremendous opportunity for serious nomads who want to connect with like-minded people,” Steller told VOA. “Bali is the Silicon Valley of tech, AI and crypto,” he added. “There are highly intelligent people doing some good work here. I have found the community of likeminded entrepreneurs is bigger and more concentrated here in Bali.” Malaysia released its digital nomad visa in 2022, while the Philippines reportedly has plans to announce its own scheme. Remote workers who travel have existed since the development of the internet and the availability of global travel, but the term “digital nomad” has only been popularized in recent years. Five years ago, the digital nomad visa scheme didn’t exist. Estonia became the first country to launch such a scheme in 2020 while many people began working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a recent survey on YouGov, digital nomads favor countries in Asia for their vibrant work culture, solid infrastructure such as reliable internet and modern facilities, and flexible options for visas. The top 15 countries among people from Singapore include Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Cambodia, all Southeast Asian countries. Now Thailand is the latest country in the region to launch its own version of a digital nomad visa. The Destination Thailand Visa (DTV), available since July 15, allows digital nomads, freelancers and remote workers to live, work and travel in the country for up to 180 days per entry and is valid for five years. Applicants can attain the visa if they participate in Thailand’s “soft power” activities, including Muay Thai boxing, and short-term education courses. The fee for the visa is $270, while applicants must be able to show proof of funds equating to approximately $13,855 in savings. For many remote workers, living in Thailand is an exciting prospect. Samantha Haselden, a British expat who owns an IT business with her husband in the United Arab Emirates, is looking into applying. “We’ve been going to Thailand for years. My aunt and uncle retired there; it always feels like home. We’ll be visiting Thailand in a few weeks and will be seeing a solicitor that deals with visas and see what he thinks of our chances of being accepted are,” she told VOA. “We’re in our late 40s. Never fancied Bali because it looks like a place for under 25-year-olds,” she added. Members of several Thailand-visa Facebook groups have also praised Thailand’s quick internet speed, low cost of living, great food and friendly people as reasons for wanting to apply for the DTV visa. But since the announcement, the high volume of interest on social media has provided more questions than answers over eligibility. VOA contacted Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment on this but has yet to receive a response. For Thailand, the importance of overseas arrivals benefiting its economy is evident. Tourism accounted for 11.5% of the country’s overall GDP in 2019 with a record year of 39 million visitors. Thailand is forecasting 36 million arrivals for 2024 and a record-breaking 41 million in 2025. The Thai government also relaxed visa requirements for visitors from 93 countries to enter the country for 60 days. Previously, visitors from dozens of countries were allowed a 30-day stay, and some had to apply for a visa prior to arrival. Gary Bowerman, a tourism analyst based in Kuala Lumpur, says Thailand’s visa exemptions are aimed at boosting its economy. “Thailand’s challenge is to expand the high-yield composition of its tourism base. While it leads Southeast Asia by a long way in terms of visitor arrivals, per-visitor spend[ing] remains comparatively low. These measures are designed to attract more visitors who will stay longer, travel more widely and spend more in different locations,” he told VOA. But questions remain about whether Thailand could suffer from “overtourism.” The term is used when mass tourism disrupts everyday life for residents. Spain has seen street protests against overtourism in multiple locations, including Barcelona and Madrid. Complaints centered on high rental prices, which prompted the Spanish government to ban short-term rentals from 2028. Pravit Rojanaphruk, a veteran journalist at Khaosod English, thinks it's too soon for Thailand to worry about such growth. “Real estate may go up, particularly in Bangkok, and make it less affordable for some locals. But we are far from there, considering that 100 million people visited France in 2023, while only 28 million visited Thailand despite both countries having roughly the same land size and population,” he told VOA.

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Kencho Shacha Gozdi, Ethiopia — Weeping families packed homes in a southern remote part of Ethiopia on Friday to bid farewell to relatives killed following a devastating landslide, as authorities announced three days of mourning.   Mudslides triggered by heavy rain in the tiny locality of Kencho Shacha Gozdi killed at least 257 people, U.N. humanitarian agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing local authorities, said Friday, but warned that the death toll could reach 500.   It is already the deadliest landslide on record in the Horn of Africa nation with rescuers continuing the grim search for bodies.  Things may yet worsen, the OCHA said.  "As more rain is expected, we should not be surprised to see more of these kinds of emergencies hitting Ethiopia," OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke said.  "In that context, we need to sound the alarm on the level of funding available to respond. … international support to humanitarian agencies working in Ethiopia is urgent."  A few kilometers from the hillside that came crashing down on the villagers, distraught families washed the bodies of the victims clawed from the mounds of earth, before wrapping them with shawls ahead of the burial ceremony.   "My heart is filled with joy because I found my wife's body," Ketema Kelsaye, 32, told AFP, his clothes and hands still smudged with mud.   "I wept and searched for five days with shovels and my bare hands in the mud but couldn't find" her body, he said. "Properly burying her has brought relief to my grief."  Ethiopia's parliament announced three days of mourning to start Saturday.   The period of remembrance would allow "comfort to their relatives and all the people of our country," it said in a statement, shared by the state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation.  The Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission said earlier Friday that humanitarian aid and rehabilitation was "well underway" in the region.  It said a "structure for emergency disaster response coordination and integration" had been established, adding that 6,000 people needed to be relocated.  OCHA had said that more than 15,000 people needed to be evacuated because of the risk of further landslides, including small children and thousands of pregnant women or new mothers.  Aid had begun arriving, it said, including four trucks from the Ethiopian Red Cross Society.  Officials said most of the victims were buried when they rushed to help after a first landslide, which followed heavy rains Sunday in the area that lies about 480 kilometers (300 miles) from the capital Addis Ababa.  "The bodies recovered on the first day were easily identified because their limbs were intact," 40-year-old Iyasu Zumayunga told AFP on Friday.   "After we dug them out, we washed their faces. Then we asked which families they belonged to."  International offers of condolences have flooded in, including from the African Union, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is Ethiopian.  Africa's second most populous nation is often afflicted by climate-related disasters and more than 21 million people, or about 18% of the population, rely on humanitarian aid due to conflict, flooding or drought.

washington — Thousands of policymakers, health care professionals and advocates gathered this week in Munich, Germany, to take stock of the global fight against HIV as they try to meet the 2030 deadline set by world leaders for eliminating AIDS as a public health threat. Advocates hailed sub-Saharan Africa’s progress in the global HIV response, with tens of millions of people now on lifesaving drugs. A new UNAIDS survey released during the conference reported that “approximately 30.7 million of the estimated 39.9 million people living with HIV globally were receiving antiretroviral therapy in 2023.” The report called that result a “landmark public health achievement,” and health officials at the conference said it would not be possible without the “immense political will” of regional leaders and NGOs. Anne Githuku-Shongwe, the UNAIDS regional director for eastern and southern Africa, told VOA from Johannesburg that recently there has been a “huge focus” on ensuring that anyone living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa gets access to testing and treatment to ensure virus suppression, so the virus becomes untransmissible. “The data is telling us that 84% of people living with HIV in our region have access to treatment. And 94% of those on treatment have been able to keep [the virus] suppressed so it is untransmissible,” she said. However, Githuku-Shongwe pointed out that despite the progress that has been made, some countries in Africa are lagging behind in the battle against HIV/AIDS, partly because of civil wars, humanitarian setbacks and sheer negligence. She mentioned South Sudan, Angola, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and the Comoros as examples. “[Countries] like Mauritius are barely at 50% of the treatment target,” she said, adding that another critical challenge being faced is the lack of attention to children living with the virus. The report said children aged 0-14 years are still contracting HIV. An estimated 120,000 children got the virus in 2023, bringing the number of children living with HIV globally to 1.4 million, 86% of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the UNAIDS report. Worries about donor funding Githuku-Shongwe said there have been major investments from partners – particularly from PEPFAR, a U.S.-funded initiative to tackle the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. She noted that in some countries, up to 99% of the HIV response is externally funded. “But with time we are seeing that dwindling,” she said. Nearly $19.8 billion was available in 2023 for HIV programs in low- and middle-income countries, almost $9.5 billion short of the amount needed by 2025, the report said. Catherine Connor, vice president in charge of public policy and advocacy at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, a Washington nonprofit, told VOA from Munich that the data on infections in children were “troubling” and pointed to a lackadaisical approach toward pediatric HIV. “The report clearly shows that children are one out of every 10 new infections, which is really high,” she said. “But there’s also an outsized mortality issue around children. Children make up 3% of the HIV-infected population, but they represent 12% of deaths.” Connor said there’s inequity in treatment, particularly for children living with HIV. “Children can’t take themselves to clinics. They often don’t even know they’ve been exposed to HIV," she said. "So they really rely on caregivers, the community around them, to ensure not just that they can be identified as being HIV-exposed or potentially HIV-positive, but also get the needed support to maintain their health, even if they are on treatment.” Connor concluded that world leaders and policymakers should be made aware how significant it is to act on HIV prevention, because if the world fails to take steps to curtail the virus, then “we will not end AIDS.” “It’s almost like having a dam holding back a river of water,” she said. “HIV is preventable and treatable, but it is not curable. And so, if we let cracks in that dam get so bad, it’s going to break, and we are going to see a reemergence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in ways we have never seen,” Connor said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced criticism from a press advocacy group as he visited Washington this week to address Congress and hold talks at the White House. Robin Guess reports from Washington.

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ottawa — A massive wildfire that destroyed about a third of the western Canadian tourist town of Jasper is still out of control, but rain and cooler conditions are helping firefighters, authorities said on Friday.  Jasper is in the middle of Alberta's mountainous Jasper National Park, a major tourist attraction. The town and park, which draw more than 2 million tourists a year to this area of the Rocky Mountains, were evacuated on Monday.  "Rain and cooler temperatures and the incredibly hard work of firefighters have resulted in fire activity that is significantly subdued," said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.  "It is important to note that the fire is still out of control, and it remains unsafe for people to return," she said at a news conference.  Parks Canada said between 10 mm and 15 mm (0.39 and 0.59 inch) of rain had fallen on Thursday and would most likely keep fire behavior low until the weekend.  The Jasper town council said that out of a total of 1,113 structures within the town, 358 – or more than 32% – had been destroyed.  David Leoni, one of the thousands of people evacuated, said his family lost the house they had been living in for 10 years.  "Even a day and a half on from that I'm still feeling very shocked," he told CTV television. "I will gladly go back in to see what remains ... for me psychologically it's – I think it's good to have some closure and to see for myself what it's like."  CN Rail, one of the country's two largest rail companies, resumed the movement of goods through Jasper National Park on Friday after the fire forced it to suspend operations.  CN remains in regular contact with officials and is monitoring weather and fire movements, it said in a statement.  Officials estimated that when the evacuation order was given, there were as many as 10,000 people in the town and an additional 15,000 visitors in the park.  Late on Thursday, authorities said crews had managed to protect all of Jasper's critical infrastructure. This included the hospital, schools and a wastewater treatment plant.  The blaze also damaged bridges around the town and in the park. Most structures intact at Jasper Park Lodge  The Jasper Park Lodge, one of the largest hotels in town, said it had suffered some damage, but most structures remained standing and intact. The 400-room residence is run by Fairmont, a group owned by France's Accor.  The Trans Mountain oil pipeline, which can carry 890,000 barrels per day of oil from Edmonton to Vancouver, runs through the park. The operator said on Thursday there were no signs of damage.  The federal government said in April that high temperatures and tinder-dry forests meant this could be a catastrophic year for wildfires in Canada.  The current fire could be one of the most damaging in Alberta since a 2016 blaze that hit the oil town of Fort McMurray, forcing the evacuation of all 90,000 residents and destroying 10% of all structures there. 

CARACAS, Venezuela — The future of Venezuela is on the line. Voters will decide Sunday whether to reelect President Nicolas Maduro, whose 11 years in office have been beset by crisis, or allow the opposition a chance to deliver on a promise to undo the ruling party's policies that caused economic collapse and forced millions to emigrate.  Historically fractured opposition parties have coalesced behind a single candidate, giving the United Socialist Party of Venezuela its most serious electoral challenge in a presidential election in decades.  Maduro is being challenged by former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, who represents the resurgent opposition, and eight other candidates. Supporters of Maduro and Gonzalez marked the end of the official campaign season Thursday with massive demonstrations in the capital, Caracas.  Here are some reasons why the election matters to the world:  Migration impact  The election will impact migration flows regardless of the winner.  The instability in Venezuela for the past decade has pushed more than 7.7 million people to migrate, which the U.N.'s refugee agency describes as the largest exodus in Latin America's recent history. Most Venezuelan migrants have settled in Latin America and the Caribbean, but they are increasingly setting their sights on the U.S.  The main opposition leader is not on the ballot  The most talked-about name in the race is not on the ballot: María Corina Machado. The former lawmaker emerged as an opposition star in 2023, filling the void left when a previous generation of opposition leaders fled into exile. Her principled attacks on government corruption and mismanagement rallied millions of Venezuelans to vote for her in the opposition's October primary.  But Maduro's government declared the primary illegal and opened criminal investigations against some of its organizers. Since then, it has issued warrants for several of Machado's supporters and arrested some members of her staff, and the country's top court affirmed a decision to keep her off the ballot.  Yet, she kept on campaigning, holding rallies nationwide and turning the ban on her candidacy into a symbol of the loss of rights and humiliations that many voters have felt for over a decade.  She has thrown her support behind Edmundo González Urrutia, a former ambassador who has never held public office, helping a fractious opposition unify.  They are campaigning together on the promise of economic reform that will lure back the millions of people who have migrated since Maduro became president in 2013.  Why is the current president struggling?  Maduro's popularity has dwindled due to an economic crisis caused by a drop in oil prices, corruption and government mismanagement.  Maduro can still bank on a cadre of die-hard believers, known as Chavistas, including millions of public employees and others whose businesses or employment depend on the state. But the ability of his party to use access to social programs to make people vote has diminished as the economy has frayed.  He is the heir to Hugo Chávez, a popular socialist who expanded Venezuela's welfare state while locking horns with the United States.  Sick with cancer, Chávez handpicked Maduro to act as interim president upon his death. He took on the role in March 2013, and the following month, he narrowly won the presidential election triggered by his mentor's death.  Maduro was reelected in 2018, in a contest that was widely considered a sham. His government banned Venezuela's most popular opposition parties and politicians from participating and, lacking a level playing field, the opposition urged voters to boycott the election.  Mismanaged oil industry  Venezuela has the world's largest proven crude reserves, but its production declined over several years, in part because of government mismanagement and widespread corruption in the state-owned oil company.  In April, Venezuela's government announced the arrest of Tareck El Aissami, the once-powerful oil minister and a Maduro ally, over an alleged scheme through which hundreds of millions of dollars in oil proceeds seemingly disappeared.  That same month, the U.S. government reimposed sanctions on Venezuela's energy sector, after Maduro and his allies used the ruling party's total control over Venezuela's institutions to undermine an agreement to allow free elections. Among those actions, they blocked Machado from registering as a presidential candidate and arrested and persecuted members of her team.  The sanctions make it illegal for U.S. companies to do business with state-run Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., better known as PDVSA, without prior authorization from the U.S. Treasury Department. The outcome of the election could decide whether those sanctions remain in place.  An uneven playing field  A more free and fair presidential election seemed like a possibility last year, when Maduro's government agreed to work with the U.S.-backed Unitary Platform coalition to improve electoral conditions in October 2023. An accord on election conditions earned Maduro's government broad relief from the U.S. economic sanctions on its state-run oil, gas and mining sectors.  But days later, authorities branded the opposition's primary illegal and began issuing warrants and arresting human rights defenders, journalists and opposition members.  A U.N.-backed panel investigating human rights violations in Venezuela has reported that the government has increased repression of critics and opponents ahead of the election, subjecting targets to detention, surveillance, threats, defamatory campaigns and arbitrary criminal proceedings.  The mounting actions taken against the opposition prompted the Biden administration earlier this year to end the sanctions relief it granted in October.

On March 17, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. They are charged with responsibility for the illegal deportation of children from occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.

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Cairo — Egyptian, Qatari and U.S. mediators are to meet with Israeli negotiators in the Italian capital on Sunday in the latest push for a Gaza truce, Egyptian state-linked media said.  "A four-way meeting between Egyptian officials and their American and Qatari counterparts, in the presence of Israel's intelligence chief, will be held in Rome on Sunday to reach an agreement on a truce in Gaza," Al-Qahera News, which has links to Egyptian intelligence, reported Friday, citing a "senior official" who was not identified.  Egypt, along with Qatar and the United States, has been involved in months of mediation efforts aimed at ending the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip for more than nine months.  The proposed truce deal would be linked to the release of hostages held by Gaza militants in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.  U.S. news outlet Axios separately reported that CIA Director Bill Burns was expected to hold talks on the issue in Rome on Sunday with Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials.  The official quoted by Al-Qahera News said Egypt insisted on "an immediate cease-fire" as part of the agreement, which should also "ensure the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza" and "safeguard the freedom of movement" of civilians in the Palestinian territory.  Cairo would also like to see a "complete [Israeli] withdrawal from the Rafah crossing" connecting Gaza to Egypt, the official added.  Recent mediation efforts have focused on a framework that U.S. President Joe Biden presented in late May, billing it as an Israeli proposal.  On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.S. Congress, pleading for continued U.S. support, before meeting with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.  Harris, the likely Democratic nominee in the U.S. presidential election later this year, said after the meeting that she would not be "silent" on the suffering in Gaza and that it was time to end the "devastating" conflict.  The Gaza war began after Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people. Out of about 250 people taken hostage that day, more than 100 are still held in the Gaza Strip, including 39 who the Israeli military says are dead.  Israel launched a retaliatory campaign against Gaza rulers Hamas, killing more than 39,000 people in the territory, according to its Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and militant deaths. 

Manzini, Eswatini  — Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, is the only country left in Africa that maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province. Eswatini is nevertheless a growing trade partner with China, which means the country has to be careful as it reaches out to other nations in Asia for new economic opportunities. Eswatini's recent efforts to build stronger ties with South Korea, Singapore and Bhutan could be interpreted as a move away from China, its biggest trading partner in Asia. The kingdom imported more than $109 million in goods from China in 2022. But government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo said such a conclusion was presumptive. He argued that diplomacy is a fluid process, driven by a country's interests, and that Eswatini's current focus on developing relations with other Asian nations reflected a strategic assessment of what is best for the kingdom. “We are establishing diplomatic relations with many countries," Nxumalo said. "Geopolitics is not centered in one position. Geopolitics is controlled and influenced from various corners of the globe. As the kingdom of Eswatini, that’s where we want to make our presence available, and that’s where we want to make our presence felt, where there’s geopolitics activities - whether economical trade or diplomacy or even political processes, we would want to be engaged. ... "So Eswatini is, therefore, according to our cardinal foreign policy, an enemy to none but a friend to all.” Being friends to all has allowed Eswatini to maintain diplomatic relations with both China and Taiwan, despite efforts by Beijing to persuade Eswatini to cut ties with the self-governing island. China has threatened various measures against Eswatini but has never carried them out. Nearly 60% of Eswatini's population lives in poverty, and its economy was hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic, which was followed by a wave of protests that ruined or damaged many businesses. Mavela Sigwane, head of transformation at the Federation of Eswatini Business Community, said the outreach efforts to South Korea, Singapore and Bhutan represent more than diplomacy; they hold the potential for significant economic benefits. “This Korea agreement which has been signed, we are so excited about it," Sigwane said. "It will open a number of avenues for the local businesses to also tap into the available opportunities in Korea." The Korea agreement Signwane referred to is a recent South Korean commitment to spend more than $20 billion in development assistance and investment initiatives in Africa. Eswatini’s King Mswati commended South Korea for the commitments and invited South Korean businesses to invest in Eswatini. Political analyst Sibusiso Nhlabatsi said Eswatini's recent decision to forge economic ties with non-traditional Asian partners illustrated that Eswatini is open to exploring new alliances beyond its historical Western partnerships. “Swaziland seeks to benefit by positioning itself to be more versatile and a multi-aligned actor in that region of Asia," Nhlabatsi said. "Of course, there are geographical implications to this, because Swaziland’s balancing act between China and Taiwan, together with its new partners, just demonstrates that this can be a tiny country but it’s still independent on foreign policy causes, rather than automatically deferring to the interests of larger powers.” Analysts said the expanded trade, increased investment opportunities and shared technology expected from the new alliances could diversify Eswatini's economy, reducing dependency on any single market.

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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s minister for information technology and telecommunication confirmed Friday the government is implementing an internet firewall but rejected talk that the tool will curb free speech online, defending it as a cybersecurity upgrade. “It’s a system. It is not a physical wall that we are putting up,” Shaza Fatima Khawaja, the state minister, told VOA. “It will not curb anything.” The junior minister, currently the ministry’s top official, defended the government’s decision to implement a nationwide internet regulatory tool, saying the country was under daily cyberattacks. “If a cybersecurity system, a capability, comes to the government, it’s a good thing,” Khawaja said in response to a VOA question at a news briefing earlier. Pakistan has allocated more than $70 million for a Digital Infrastructure Development Initiative in the latest budget. Critics and digital rights activists worry the nationwide firewall will be used to silence dissent. Pakistani authorities have hinted at a nationwide censorship tool for months but hesitated to issue a formal statement. In a January interview with a news channel, Pakistan's then-interim prime minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, announced the measure. "Very soon a national firewall will be deployed," Kakar said. A high-ranking government official confirmed to VOA Urdu in June that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government was working to deploy a nationwide tool meant to control internet traffic and filter content available to online users in Pakistan. Sharif’s government has rebuffed calls for clarity, however, while downplaying censorship concerns. “I think if there is a firewall system, it will be about cybersecurity and data security. It will have nothing to do with freedom of speech, as far as I know,” Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said at a news briefing Sunday. Earlier the minister dismissed reports that Pakistan was acquiring an online censorship tool from China. Digital terrorism The firewall comes as the Pakistani military faces severe criticism online for its alleged role in keeping former Prime Minister Imran Khan behind bars while his party continues to face a crackdown. The military, which denies meddling in political affairs, has lately been using the term “digital terrorists” for online critics. “Just as terrorists use weapons to get their demands met, digital terrorists use negative propaganda and fake news on social media platforms, mobiles and computers to create despondency to get their demands met,” Pakistani military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said at a news conference this week. Chaudhry said the military had become the sole target of digital terrorists. He blamed a “certain” political party without naming Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party, which has a formidable social media presence. This week, police raided the PTI’s headquarters in the Pakistani capital, detaining its chief spokesperson and several other media team members, accusing them of running an “anti-state campaign.” Service disruption On Thursday, Pakistani media outlet The News reported recent problems users encountered in sharing content via the Meta-owned messaging app Whatsapp were a result of a test run of the firewall. Refusing to comment on the implementation process of the firewall, the spokesperson of the independent Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said the regulator did not receive any reports of service disruptions. “Our systems were clear. They were up and running. They did not falter anywhere,” Malahat Obaid told VOA, adding that the problems users faced could be because of a technical glitch. Cybersecurity watchdog NetBlocks recorded five incidents of authorities restricting internet access so far this year. The disruptions occurred around February’s general elections.

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Attacks, arrests and restrictions on journalists including over coverage of youth demonstrations is causing concern among Kenyan media. Journalists are taking to the streets to protest. Juma Majanga covered the protests and filed this report from Nairobi, Kenya. Camera: Amos Wangwa

No injuries but lots of delays, frustration and confusion in Paris as a coordinated arson attack set fire to train equipment just hours before the Olympic opening ceremony. Kamala Harris calls for a ceasefire in Gaza after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a look at American foreign policy towards Israel going forward. The EU sends more money to Kyiv as Russia continues its assault on Ukraine’s south and east. Plus, a natural treasure in Canada is threatened by wildfire.