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Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Washington — Sales of U.S. military equipment to foreign governments in 2023 rose 16% to a record $238 billion, the U.S. State Department said on Monday, as countries sought to replenish stocks sent to Ukraine and prepare for major conflicts.   The figures underpin expectations of stronger sales for the likes of Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, whose shares are forecast to rise amid growing global instability.  Arms sales and transfers are viewed as "important U.S. foreign policy tools with potential long-term implications for regional and global security," the State Department said in a statement.  Sales approved in the year included $10 billion worth of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to Poland, $2.9 billion worth of AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-To-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to Germany, and National Advanced Surface to Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) to Ukraine.  Lockheed makes the HIMARS, and RTX, formerly Raytheon, makes AMRAAM. RTX and Norway's Kongsberg produce NASAMS.  Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics expect existing orders for hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, hundreds of Patriot missile interceptors, and a surge in orders for armored vehicles will underpin their results in coming quarters.  There are two major ways foreign governments purchase arms from U.S. companies: direct commercial sales negotiated with a company, or foreign military sales in which a government typically contacts a Defense Department official at the U.S. embassy in its capital. Both require U.S. government approval.  The direct military sales by U.S. companies rose to $157.5 billion in fiscal 2023 from $153.6 billion in fiscal 2022, while sales arranged through the U.S. government rose to $80.9 billion in 2023 from $51.9 billion the prior year.

new york — The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Monday he believes war crimes have been committed by both sides in the Darfur region of Sudan since fighting erupted between rival generals in mid-April.  “Based on the work of my office, it’s my clear assessment that there are grounds to believe that presently Rome Statute crimes are being committed in Darfur by both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and affiliated groups,” Karim Khan told the U.N. Security Council in a remote briefing from Chad’s capital, where he is meeting with Sudanese refugees.  The Rome Statute established the ICC and the four main international crimes it investigates — genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.  “The alleged atrocities that have taken place in El Geneina form a central line of investigations that my office is pursuing at this current moment,” he said of the capital of West Darfur. “I can confirm to the council that we are collecting a very significant body of material, information and evidence that is relevant to those particular crimes.”  The United Nations and human rights groups have raised alarms about ethnically targeted attacks on Masalit people in West Darfur that have killed hundreds of civilians since fighting erupted nine months ago between the Sudanese army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. There has also been widespread looting, burned villages and rampant sexual violence.  Darfur saw large-scale ethnic violence and crimes against humanity in the early 2000s, and the U.N. fears a repeat now.  The U.N. Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, and it is based on that mandate that Khan’s office is investigating recent human rights violations.  Efforts to halt the fighting have so far failed, despite regional efforts by the African Union and the East African regional bloc IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development), as well as the United States, European Union, Saudi Arabia and some of Sudan’s neighbors.  Uncooperative Khan told Security Council members he has received minimal cooperation from the Sudanese government despite a pledge from Burhan, whom he met in New York in September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meetings.  “Thirty-five requests for assistance remain unanswered by the government of Sudan,” Khan said. The only progress he reported was the issuance in December and January of some single-entry visas for his team members after months of requests for multiple entry visas. He said Khartoum has also named a person to be the focal point to deal with his office.  The prosecutor said the RSF has been extremely uncooperative.  “In November, we finally received the names of individuals that they contended were part of an investigative committee,” Khan said. “But not a scrap of paper, not a scintilla of information, has been transferred from the RSF to the office, either.”  Sudan’s envoy denied that his government had been uncooperative. Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed said Sudanese officials have given the court all the documents they have found and invited Khan to come to Sudan four times, but he turned them down.  A group of Security Council diplomats issued a statement expressing alarm about the rampant use of sexual violence in the conflict and called for accountability for perpetrators.  “We commend the decision of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, to accelerate the investigation of recent allegations of crimes in Darfur, prioritizing crimes against children and crimes of sexual and gender-based violence,” the statement said.  “Since the beginning of the conflict in April 2023, different forms of conflict-related sexual violence, including rapes, gang rapes, abductions, sexual slavery and exploitation, trafficking — sometimes used as a tactic of war — have been reported in all conflict-affected areas, in particular in Khartoum, Al Jazira, Darfur states and the Kordofan regions. We fear that the reported numbers are below reality,” they warned.  The United Nations estimates that the conflict in Sudan has displaced 7.1 million people inside the country, and more than 1.5 million have fled to neighboring countries, particularly Chad, Egypt and South Sudan. Nearly 25 million people currently need humanitarian assistance and protection. 

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.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge has ordered an Oregon newspaper not to publish documents that it obtained regarding a sex discrimination lawsuit against sports behemoth Nike. The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that an attorney who represents plaintiffs in the case sent the documents to one of its reporters on January 19 and then asked for them back. When the news outlet declined, the attorney filed a court motion requesting they be returned. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jolie Russo approved the motion on Friday and ordered the news outlet to return the documents. “The Court is aware that certain documents marked ‘Confidential’ and ‘Attorneys’ Eyes Only’ have been inadvertently disclosed by plaintiff’s counsel to the Oregonian via e-mail,” Russo wrote, ordering the outlet to return the records and “agree not to disseminate that information in any way; and to destroy any copies in its possession." Russo said the documents fall under the case’s protective order, which withholds some content from public view. The Oregonian/OregonLive said it planned to appeal. “Prior restraint by government goes against every principle of the free press in this country,” said Editor and Vice President of Content Therese Bottomly. “This is highly unusual, and we will defend our First Amendment rights in court.” Neither the attorney nor Nike immediately responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press. The sex discrimination suit, filed in 2018, alleges Nike’s workplace is hostile toward women and that the Oregon-based company underpays female employees. The Oregonian/OregonLive said it had previously intervened in the lawsuit as part of a media coalition that requested the court to unseal certain legal records. The news outlet said it was working on a separate article based on independent reporting when it received the documents.

NEW YORK — N. Scott Momaday, a Pulitzer Prize-winning storyteller, poet, educator and folklorist whose debut novel "House Made of Dawn" is widely credited as the starting point for contemporary Native American literature, has died. He was 89. Momaday died Wednesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, publisher HarperCollins announced. He had been in failing health. "Scott was an extraordinary person and an extraordinary poet and writer. He was a singular voice in American literature, and it was an honor and a privilege to work with him," Momaday's editor, Jennifer Civiletto, said in a statement. "His Kiowa heritage was deeply meaningful to him and he devoted much of his life to celebrating and preserving Native American culture, especially the oral tradition." "House Made of Dawn," published in 1968, tells of a World War II soldier who returns home and struggles to fit back in, a story as old as war itself: In this case, home is a Native community in rural New Mexico. Much of the book was based on Momaday's childhood in Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico, and on his conflicts between the ways of his ancestors and the risks and possibilities of the outside world. "I grew up in both worlds and straddle those worlds even now," Momaday said in a 2019 PBS documentary. "It has made for confusion and a richness in my life." Despite such works as John Joseph Mathews' 1934 release "Sundown," novels by American Indians weren't widely recognized at the time of "House Made of Dawn." A New York Times reviewer, Marshall Sprague, even contended in an otherwise favorable review that "American Indians do not write novels and poetry as a rule, or teach English in top-ranking universities, either. But we cannot be patronizing. N. Scott Momaday's book is superb in its own right." Like Joseph Heller's "Catch-22," Momaday's novel was a World War II story that resonated with a generation protesting the Vietnam War. In 1969, Momaday became the first Native American to win the fiction Pulitzer, and his novel helped launch a generation of authors, including Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch and Louise Erdrich. His other admirers would range from the poet Joy Harjo, the country's first Native to be named poet laureate, to the film stars Robert Redford and Jeff Bridges. "He was a kind of literary father for a lot of us," Harjo told The Associated Press during a telephone interview Monday. "He showed how potent and powerful language and words were in shaping our very existence." Over the following decades, he taught at Stanford, Princeton and Columbia universities, among other top-ranking schools, was a commentator for NPR, and lectured worldwide. He published more than a dozen books, from "Angle of Geese and Other Poems" to the novels "The Way to Rainy Mountain" and "The Ancient Child," and became a leading advocate for the beauty and vitality of traditional Native life. Addressing a gathering of American Indian scholars in 1970, Momaday said, "Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves." He championed Natives' reverence for nature, writing that "the American Indian has a unique investment in the American landscape." He shared stories told to him by his parents and grandparents. He regarded oral culture as the wellspring of language and storytelling, and dated American culture back not to the early English settlers, but also to ancient times, noting the procession of gods depicted in the rock art at Utah's Barrier Canyon. "We do not know what they mean, but we know we are involved in their meaning," he wrote in the essay "The Native Voice in American Literature." "They persist through time in the imagination, and we cannot doubt that they are invested with the very essence of language, the language of story and myth and primal song. They are 2,000 years old, more or less, and they remark as closely as anything can the origin of American literature." In 2007, President George W. Bush presented Momaday with a National Medal of Arts "for his writings and his work that celebrate and preserve Native American art and oral tradition." Besides his Pulitzer, his honors included an Academy of American Poets prize and, in 2019, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Momaday was married three times, most recently to Barbara Glenn, who died in 2008. He had four daughters, one of whom, Cael, died in 2017. He was born Navarre Scott Mammedaty, in Lawton, Oklahoma, and was a member of the Kiowa Nation. His mother was a writer, and his father an artist who once told his son, "I have never known an Indian child who couldn't draw," a talent Momaday demonstrably shared. His artwork, from charcoal sketches to oil paintings, were included in his books and exhibited in museums in Arizona, New Mexico and North Dakota. Audio guides to tours of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian featured Momaday's avuncular baritone. After spending his teens in New Mexico, he studied political science at the University of Mexico and received a master's and Ph.D. in English from Stanford. Momaday began as a poet, his favorite art form, and the publication of "House Made of Dawn" was an unintentional result of his early reputation. Editor Fran McCullough, of what is now HarperCollins, had met Momaday at Stanford and several years later contacted him and asked whether he would like to submit a book of poems. Momaday did not have enough for a book, and instead gave her the first chapter of "House Made of Dawn." Much of his writing was set in the American West and Southwest, whether tributes to bears — the animals he most identified with — or a cycle of poems about the life of Billy the Kid, a childhood obsession. He saw writing as a way of bridging the present with the ancient past and summed up his quest in the poem "If I Could Ascend":  Something like a leaf lies here within me; / it wavers almost not at all, / and there is no light to see it by / that it withers upon a black field. / If it could ascend the thousand years into my mouth, / I would make a word of it at last, / and I would speak it into the silence of the sun. In 2019, he was the subject of a PBS "American Masters" documentary in which he discussed his belief he was a reincarnation of a bear connected to the Native American origin story around Devils Tower in Wyoming. He told The Associated Press in a rare interview that the documentary allowed him to reflect on his life, saying he was humbled that writers continued to say his work has influenced them. "I'm greatly appreciative of that, but it comes a little bit of a surprise every time I hear it," Momaday said. "I think I have been an influence. It's not something I take a lot of credit for." 

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.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin returned to work at the Pentagon on Monday after nearly a month's absence because of prostate cancer and met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “At this important time, I’m glad to be back at the Pentagon,” said Austin, speaking at the start of the meeting. "I feel good and am recovering well, but still recovering, and I appreciate all the good wishes that I have received thus far.” After that session, Austin went to the White House Situation Room for a meeting of the national security team to discuss the drone attack at a base in Jordan that killed three U.S. troops and wounded several dozen others. He was last in the Pentagon on December 21. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier in December, and he went to a hospital for a surgical procedure for the cancer on December 22. He worked the following week from home. On January 1, he was taken by ambulance to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after experiencing extreme pain and was admitted to the intensive care unit. He stayed there for two weeks but didn’t inform the White House or his deputy that he had cancer, had surgery or had been taken back to the hospital and put in intensive care until days later. He told President Joe Biden and other key leaders about his diagnosis only after he’d been in the hospital more than a week. Austin's lack of disclosure has prompted changes in federal guidelines and has triggered an internal Pentagon review and an inspector general review into his department’s notification procedures. Both reviews are ongoing. Austin has been working from home since he got out of the hospital on January 15, and he made his first public appearance early last week during a virtual Ukraine contact defense group meeting. He gave opening remarks for the meeting via video camera that was streamed online. Doctors at Walter Reed said on Friday that Austin's prostate cancer prognosis is excellent and no further treatments will be needed. He saw doctors for a checkup on Friday. Austin has been criticized for keeping secret his prostate cancer diagnosis, surgery and subsequent hospitalization with complications from the procedure. He was diagnosed in early December and had what the Pentagon described as a “minimally invasive surgical procedure,” called a prostatectomy, to treat the cancer on December 22. He was under general anesthesia during this procedure and had transferred some authorities to his deputy defense secretary, Kathleen Hicks. He was discharged the next day and continued to perform his duties.

Beijing — The Chinese government has protested to the United States over the treatment of Chinese arriving to study in America, saying some have been interrogated for hours, had their electronic devices checked and in some cases were forcibly deported from the country. Xie Feng, the Chinese ambassador in Washington, said dozens of Chinese have been denied entry every month for the past few months when returning to school from overseas travel or visiting relatives in China, according to a post on the Chinese Embassy website. “When they landed at the airport, what awaited them was an eight-hour-long interrogation by officers who prohibited them from contacting their parents, made groundless accusations against them and even forcibly repatriated them and banned their entry,” he said Sunday at an event at the embassy on student exchanges. “This is absolutely unacceptable.” The protest comes as the U.S. and China try to boost student and other exchanges to shore up their relations, which have turned confrontational in recent years over trade, technology, human rights and, more fundamentally, the future direction of the world. Nearly 290,000 Chinese students are in the U.S., about one-third of the foreign students in the country, according to the embassy post. China has more than 1.3 million students studying abroad, more than any other country, it said. In a separate online statement, the Chinese Embassy said it had made “solemn representations” to the U.S. government about the treatment of students arriving at Dulles airport in Washington, D.C. The statement reminded Chinese students to be cautious when entering through the airport. It wasn't clear whether Xie's comments referenced cases only at Dulles or at other entry points as well. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Chinese Embassy statement said the affected students had their electronic devices checked, were prohibited from communicating with anyone outside and, in some cases, held for more than 10 hours. It said the actions of border control officers “have had a serious impact on the studies of international students from China and caused great psychological harm.” The statement also said that the actions ran counter to the agreement between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping at their meeting last November to promote people-to-people exchanges.

BANGKOK — Australian mining companies operating in Myanmar are contributing to military government funding, according to a new report. Justice for Myanmar, an activist group that focuses on campaigning against military-rule, says the mining companies listed in a new report titled “Mining Against Humanity” remain active and create revenue for the military. That activity, the report says, aids the junta in its attacks on opposition forces in the country. Myanmar has been in chaos since military leader General Min Aung Hlaing and his military forces overthrew the democratically elected government in February 2021. The coup sparked mass protests and armed revolution against military rule, which includes the civilian-led National Unity Government, the People’s Defense Force and ethnic armed groups. Fighting has intensified in recent months and most say the country is now in a civil war. According to the report, there are at least 10 Australian-linked mining firms that remain active in Myanmar. “It is unacceptable that three years after the military’s illegal coup attempt, Australia is still failing to take necessary action to block the junta’s sources of funds from mining and other lucrative sectors,” says Justice for Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung. The company ventures listed include Valentis Group, Cornerstone Resources, PanAust, Asia Pacific Mining Limited, Access Resources Asia, Mission Legal, Knight Piesold, Georesources Group and PSI Drilling Ltd, ALS Limited, and Golden Land & Mining Services and MiningWatch Myanmar. All companies were contacted by Justice for Myanmar, who questioned their business status in Myanmar, payments to the military government and entities, and what human rights due diligence they had implemented since the coup. Several of the mining firms didn’t respond to the emails, while others indirectly answered, Justice for Myanmar told VOA. But in documents seen by VOA, Knight Piesold, a global consulting firm that operates in over a dozen countries, acknowledged it still carries out minimal work in Myanmar in response to Justice for Myanmar’s questions.  David Morgan, Managing Director at the company’s Australia office in Perth, stated in emails to the activist group that Knight Piesold was appointed as a consultant by Chinese-owned Myanmar Wanbao Mining Company Ltd in 2013. Their job was to conduct an environment and social impact assessment for two mines in Myanmar. Morgan insisted that his company had not physically extracted any materials and said that since 2020, the company’s services have been limited to environmental issues. He said the company provided a closure plan for one of the mines in 2023. PanAust, an Australian incorporated gold and copper producer that is owned by Chinese state-firm Guangdong Rising H.K. Holding Ltd, states in its annual business and sustainability report for 2022 that it had ceased “all mineral exploration activities” in Myanmar from February 2021 but continues to honor its contractual financial obligations.  Yadanar Maung says Australia needs to take action. “Australia shamefully stands out among Western countries for the heavy engagement of its citizens and businesses in Myanmar’s mining sector, despite the junta’s illegal control of natural resources and the sector’s links to grave human rights abuses and environmental destruction," she told VOA. The U.S., Canada, Britain and the EU have all imposed a variety of sanctions on Myanmar’s military regime and its entities in recent years in efforts to stop its violent crackdown. But the conflict continues. Over 4,400 people have been killed by the military and over 25,000 people arrested since the military seized power, according to rights groups. The U.N. says the number of displaced people in Myanmar since the coup has exceeded 2 million. The conflict has also seen Myanmar’s economy heavily decline and is now 10% lower than it was in 2019. Myanmar is the only country in East Asia that hasn’t recovered its economy to pre-pandemic levels, with little growth expected in 2024 according to a report by the World Bank. But the junta is still able to continue its crackdown on the opposition partly because of the foreign revenue it receives from various enterprises.  Myanmar's mining industry is crucial to the country’s economy, contributing to 5.4% of Myanmar’s gross domestic product in 2019, according to the United States Geological Survey.  Yadanar Maung called for Australia to sanction these mining networks to prevent them from operating with the Myanmar military. “Australia has failed to respond to the urgent need to cut funds to the Myanmar military junta. Australia’s inaction is undermining the efforts of its allies such as the U.S. and Canada, which have sanctioned the junta and its mining enterprises. Australia should stop dragging its feet, catch up with the sanctions long imposed by its allies and actively move to block the junta’s sources of funds, including from mining,” she added. Myanmar is rich in resources, and mining projects include the extraction of jade, ruby, gold, silver, tin, zinc and limestone. The country is also ranked as the fifth largest producer of rare earth elements the world.   According to the U.S. Treasury, the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, or MOGE, is the junta’s largest single source of foreign revenue. The U.S. imposed sanctions on MOGE that came into effect in December that prohibit U.S. financial organizations from offering services to the enterprise.

Hundreds of cargo ships traveling from Asia to Europe are now avoiding the Red Sea and the Suez Canal route due to persistent attacks and hijackings by Houthi militants responding to the Israel-Hamas war. The International Chamber of Shipping, a major trade group, says these incidents have caused significant disruptions in global trade, leading to increased costs and delays. Jonathan Spier narrates this report from Alfonso Beato in Barcelona, one of the main ports in Europe handling cargo from the Red Sea.

BELGRADE, Serbia — A trial started Monday in Serbia for the parents of a teenager who is accused of killing 10 people and injuring six in a mass shooting at his school last May that left the Balkan nation in shock.  The suspected shooter, 13-year-old Kosta Kecmanovic, has been held in a mental institution since the attack and cannot be held criminally liable under Serbian law because of his age. His father and mother were charged with a “serious act against general safety” for failing to safeguard the weapon and ammunition used in the shooting.  The High Court in the capital, Belgrade, decided to keep the entire proceedings closed to the public despite calls by the defense lawyers that they be open. The couple reportedly embraced in the courtroom and wept together, according to local media reports.  The shooting at a school in Belgrade last May 4, which left nine schoolmates and a security guard dead, was followed by another mass slaying a day later in central Serbia that killed eight people and wounded 14. The two attacks triggered months of protests of Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic for allegedly creating a culture of violence in a country that went through a series of bloody wars in the 1990s.  Kecmanovic's father faces additional charges, including an accusation of training the boy how to shoot without properly guarding the weapons at their home. The manager of a shooting range and an instructor also have been charged.  Serbia has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world. The country is full of weapons left over from the conflicts of the 1990s.  Chief prosecutor Nenad Stefanovic told state RTS broadcaster that he expects “a free and fair trial.”  The defense lawyers said Monday they are against keeping the trial closed to the public.  “Today the court made a decision to exclude the public in the entire course of this procedure, stating that this is done to protect the interests of minors and some private interests of the participants in the procedure,” lawyer Irina Borovic said. “Our position is that the decision of the court was absolutely hasty.” 

Washington  — Myanmar’s military government has approved resumption of construction of the Chinese-backed Kyaukphyu deep-sea port after years of delay.    The project is a significant step in China’s push to develop an outlet to the Indian Ocean and bypass the Strait of Malacca, a pirate-infested chokepoint on busy trade routes to the Middle East, Africa and Europe.    The State Administration Council and the Chinese state-owned firm CITIC signed the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port deal, a “supplementary agreement,” to a 2014 deal in the final weeks of 2023. Discussions on the $7.3 billion port project and its adjoining $1.3 billion special economic zone began in 2010. Fighting that erupted after the February 1, 2021, military coup and COVID-era restrictions are the most recent causes of delay.    The port’s 242-hectare site is in the western state of Rakhine. The northern part of the state is home to the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group long subjected to discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. Rakhine is also known for ongoing conflicts between the regime’s army and the Arakan Army from the Buddhist-majority Rakhine ethnic group.  As one of the 14 nations bordering China, Myanmar holds a unique position in the Belt and Road Initiative, a 10-year-old project to connect the world to China and counter what Beijing sees as the current U.S.-dominated international order.   According to a report by the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Myanmar route to the Indian Ocean will help China counter the regional influence of longtime rival, India and secure its oil and gas transportation routes.   But development of the Kyaukphyu port faces the same challenges bedeviling the rest of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, which is part of the BRI — escalating political unrest and armed conflict in Myanmar, according to analysts.   Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia program and director of the China program at the Stimson Center, told VOA Burmese in a telephone interview that China's primary goal in Myanmar is for the unsettled nation to achieve stability through economic development. This aligns with China's broader strategy of leveraging economic cooperation to foster regional peace and stability, she added.    “I also think that if Myanmar is unstable, it will not be able to be a safe transportation corridor for China anyway," Sun said. "So, I think this goes back to the Chinese argument that peace and development are the two sides of the same coin, that if you want peace, you need to have economics development, and economic development will in turn reinforce peace."   A Burmese expert who spoke to VOA Burmese via Zoom and asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns said that China's policy regarding large-scale projects such as the China-Laos-Thailand railway has changed.   "China really doesn't get much out of this project compared to their huge billions of dollars of investment," he said.    "In the past, the countries involved in the BRI projects had concerns about debt traps,” he said, but now China faces an investment trap due to the billions dedicated to large-scale BRI projects. This may prompt Beijing to focus on smaller, more manageable projects, he added.     At the October BRI Summit in Beijing, China said “leaner” and “greener” projects would be the future of the global undertaking.  In Myanmar, longtime observers of the BRI projects agree that many of them are at risk from frequent fighting near project sites. The local analyst noted that since the 2021 military coup, many of the projects have stalled.  Sun said that while China’s projects in Myanmar may not be directly threatened, stabilizing stable trade routes through conflict-affected areas remains a concern.    “You still need transportation between China and the port, and that will have to go through the conflict-affected areas in Myanmar,” she said.   Moe Thuzar, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute who coordinates the Myanmar Studies program, said public perception of BRI in Myanmar has shifted over time in a report for the Carnegie Endowment.   She said the optimism about the initiative's potential for infrastructure development and regional benefits during the previous Aung San Suu Kyi civilian government is now growing apprehensive about China's economic dominance and political influence, especially after the 2021 coup.   But China's approach is to navigate the current instability with an eye toward future stability and cooperation.   "The Chinese are not looking at tomorrow morning. They're looking at five years later, 10 years later. And the situation will, in the Chinese view, become more stable, and that's when those projects will become useful," said Sun. “They want to see a relatively legitimate government in control so that they don't have to deal with the sporadic conflicts.”  China's long-term vision for its projects in Myanmar reflects a strategic calculation that anticipates eventual stabilization and peace.   The expert in Myanmar told VOA, "I think if the political situation becomes more stable, China will continue to make small-scale projects and investments in Myanmar. At least the railway project to Kyaukphyu sea port can start.” 

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.

GENEVA — The World Health Organization says great progress has been made in the global elimination of industrially produced trans fat, with nearly half the world's population protected against the harmful effects of this toxic product. "Five years ago, WHO called on countries and the food sector to eliminate industrially produced trans fats from the food supply. The response has been incredible," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday. "So far, 53 countries have implemented best practice policies, including bans and limits on trans fats, with three more countries on the way. This removes a major health risk for at least 3.7 billion people, or 46% of the world's population. "These policies are expected to save 183,000 lives every year. Just five years ago, only 6% of the world's population was protected from this toxic additive with similar policies," Tedros said. Trans fat is created by adding hydrogen to vegetable oil, which causes the oil to become solid at room temperature. "It is also solid in your body, in your coronary artery," said Tom Frieden, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. "And this is why it was at one point estimated to kill half a million people per year."  With almost half the world covered, Frieden said millions of deaths will be prevented in the coming decades. He said the next two years will be critical, noting that the original deadline for the global elimination of trans fats has been extended from 2023 to 2025 due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. "Global elimination, according to published estimates, would prevent about 17.5 million deaths over 25 years. The progress of reducing trans fat globally show that the noncommunicable diseases can be beaten," Frieden said. He said this was important because "sometimes when it comes to the noncommunicable diseases, we have the sense that we can describe them, we can predict them, but we cannot stop them. In fact, we can, and the progress stopping trans fat shows that that is possible. And there are other areas, as well, where specific results are available." Health officials say no amount of trans fat is safe and regard it as the worst type of fat anyone can eat because it has no known nutritional benefits. Trans fat is cheap to make and is found in margarine, palm oil, fried foods, baked products, pastries and some processed foods.  WHO reports that a high intake of trans fat increases the risk of death from any cause by 34% and from coronary heart disease by 28%.  WHO on Monday held an awards ceremony honoring the achievements of the first five countries to have eliminated trans fat from their food supply.   "Today, we recognize Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Saudi Arabia and Thailand as the first countries to go beyond just adopting policies, to monitoring and enforcing them," Tedros said.   "Congratulations to all these countries. You are leading the world and showing what is possible. You are the first countries to be validated, but you will not be the last," he said. In accepting the award, Ib Petersen, Danish ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said studies show that trans fat elimination policies put in place in his country in 2003 have "led to a reduction of deaths from coronary disease of 11%, which is significant." "It also shows that it is the most financially disadvantaged groups that have benefited most from this policy," he said. Frieden said he hopes more nations will follow the lead of these five countries in putting in place the policies, regulations and enforcement mechanisms needed to rid the world of trans fat. "Of the remaining burden, just five countries — China, Pakistan, Russia, Indonesia, and Iran — account for about 60% of the remaining estimated burden. If these five countries were to implement [the best practice policies], the world would get to about 85% of the estimated burden, banned or trans fat-free," he said. WHO reports progress remains uneven, and a lot of work is still to be done. While many low- and middle-income countries are advancing, it says there is a long way to go, especially in Africa and the western Pacific. "Africa has the lowest policy coverage, but there have been leaders with Nigeria and South Africa implementing," said Frieden. "South Africa is beginning the enforcement process, and Ethiopia, Ghana and Cameroon are considering regulations in the near future.   "They understand that trans fat is not only a toxic product, but one that might be dumped on them if they do not take action when the rest of the world is banning it," Frieden said, adding that governments and the food industry have a responsibility to ensure that does not happen.