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After a rocket attack in eastern Ukraine, half of Rambo’s face was mangled and bloody. Shrapnel had ravaged the right side of his head, and it was uncertain if he would survive. The 3-year-old German shepherd, who had accompanied Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines of the war, received emergency surgery that saved his life. Now, Rambo is training with the Budapest police department in neighboring Hungary and serving as a reminder that dogs — and people — with disabilities can do great things. Recovered from his brush with death in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv province, Rambo is learning how to interact with children, older adults and disabled people at police demonstrations and rehabilitation institutions, according to Lt. Col. Maria Stein with the Budapest Metropolitan Police. Demonstrating the tasks performed by canine units is part of the department’s crime prevention program, with a goal of teaching young people to be more tolerant and to respect one another’s differences, Stein said. “Nowadays, unfortunately, it happens that children mock each other because they wear glasses, because they have braces, because their ears look funny or whatever — because they’re different,” she said. “With Rambo, we might be able to sensitize these children a little and show them that yes, he is injured, he’s different, but he can do the same things as other dogs.” Rambo’s journey to police service didn’t come easy. Last year, shrapnel from the rocket attack, which also injured some Ukrainian soldiers, blew away pieces of skull, damaging his jaw and severely mangling his right ear. After his initial surgery, Rambo was taken to safety in western Ukraine. Violetta Kovacs, head of a Hungarian organization dedicated to rescuing German shepherds, soon collected him and brought him to a rehabilitation center near Budapest. “The dog needed immediate help,” Kovacs, head of the German Shepherd Breed Rescue Foundation, said. “We had to operate again here in Hungary because several of his teeth were causing him great pain because of the injury, which required immediate intervention.” Rambo spent eight months at the center, where his jaw was reconstructed, his right ear amputated and several teeth removed. He underwent training to be socialized with other dogs, Kovacs said, but his fondness for children was clear from the start. Gyula Desko, a lieutenant colonel with the Budapest Metropolitan Police, then adopted Rambo, providing him with further training and a home. He called Rambo a “very friendly, good-natured dog” who is making good progress in his training and whose survival was “a miracle.” “Working with him requires more patience and more attention, as we do not know what kind of mental problems his head injury caused him,” Desko said, but Rambo is “so open with people and accepts them, despite his injuries and the shock that befell him.” It’s those qualities, Desko said, that the police force hopes will inspire those who meet Rambo to open themselves to kindness and acceptance. “As a police dog, one can see through him that you can live a full life even when injured and can be a useful member of society and do very diverse things,” Desko said.

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A rare South African earthquake shook Johannesburg early Sunday. The 5.0 magnitude tremblor hit South Africa’s largest city, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, at a depth of 10 kilometers. An Associated Press reporter said the experience was similar to being on a moving train. There have been no immediate reports of any major damage or casualties. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.

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Ten Chinese air force planes crossed Taiwan Strait median line, Taiwan’s National Defense Ministry said Sunday. The strait is generally viewed as the unofficial border between Taiwan and China. The ministry also said four Chinese ships conducted combat patrols Sunday. Taiwan deployed its own aircraft and ships in response to China’s moves. This marks the second time in less than a week that China has stepped up military activities around Taiwan. On Thursday, Taiwan reported that 37 Chinese military aircraft had flown into China’s air defense zone. Taiwan is democratically governed, but China claims it as Chinese territory. 

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Huge strides in life expectancy worldwide are bringing new challenges that come with increased longevity, the Dutch health minister told VOA this week. “If you look at it from a global perspective, we’ve seen that over the past 25 years, on average we added more than five years of global life expectancy,” Ernst Kuipers, Dutch minister of health, welfare and sport, noted during a stop in Washington. Looking at it another way, the former internist continued, “It actually means that for more than 20 years in a row, every week we added more than a day to the life expectancy of our world population. That is huge!” Kuipers and a Dutch delegation co-led by the country’s minister of economy are in the U.S. to take part in a trade fair focused on international health and life sciences in Boston. The Dutch are known to be the tallest people in the world and rank high in the world longevity list. Kuipers looked at the global picture when discussing the worldwide jump in life expectancy in the past quarter century. While clean water supply, improved hygiene, sanitation conditions, access to vaccines, medicines and medical treatments have contributed to rising life expectancy in low-income countries, breakthroughs in many areas of life sciences have helped prolong life in higher-income countries, he pointed out. “For example, new drugs in cancer treatment, newly developed interventions to treat cardiovascular diseases, and also improvement in public health.” The good news about longevity aside, the former doctor pointed out some of the challenges that come with longer lifespans. “We have an aging population [in the Netherlands], like in most places. People tend to get older, but they live longer usually with certain [health] conditions, with reduced mobility, etc., very similar to here,” Kuipers said. Kuipers said his country is also experiencing a shortage in health care personnel, even as the number of working men and women affiliated with the health care industry takes up an increasing percentage of the workforce. “If you look at the Netherlands, at the moment, one out of every six people with a job works in health care,” he said. That figure includes not just nurses or physicians, but also those serving the health care industry in human resources, finance and legal matters. If the current pattern continues, one in five Dutch jobs will be related to health care by the year 2030, and that number will increase to one in four by the year 2040. Kuipers said this pattern will be very, very difficult, if not impossible, to sustain, “simply because we’re also going to need people in other areas of society.” Given that health care is very labor intensive, Kuipers said governments and societies have no choice but to think of ways to meet the demands in a different, yet still effective way, to successfully cope with changing demographics. In addition to the shortage of manpower, increased life expectancy also requires more money to care for the elderly, causing each country and government to think harder about budget priorities. “Like the U.S., we have many burning issues, whether it’s energy transmission, preparation for climate change, infrastructure, you name it – the question of how to deliver and provide high-quality, good-access care to everyone while also limiting the increase in budget, that is very, very relevant, like it is here,” the Dutch minister said. The Netherlands has universal health insurance and caps most people’s out of pocket expenses at 385 euros a year, a little more than 400 U.S. dollars a year. “So far we [the country as a whole] can still afford this,” he said, “but it’s a continuous debate.” The problem is especially acute in the case of certain very expensive drugs, the cost of which is increasing “very, very rapidly” and putting the “solidarity underlying our system” under pressure, the minister said. He cited “orphan drugs,” which are needed by only a small number of people but are often a matter of life and death for those patients. Kuipers and the Dutch delegation are among over 10,000 health science professionals and government officials from around the world who gathered in Boston this week to exchange ideas and find out the latest in health science at a biotech trade fair put together by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.

Pakistan is continuing a months-long crackdown on Afghan refugees living in the country, detaining hundreds of people accused of lacking proper documentation. Taliban leaders have asked Pakistan to stop the process "immediately." Not only has it continued, but Afghan refugees in Pakistan have told VOA that the crackdown in recent days has intensified in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and adjacent areas. "Unfortunately, the detentions have intensified, and it still continues," said Shukria, an Afghan refugee who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover. Shukria, who asked that her full name be withheld, told VOA that the security forces arrested "even those refugees who have UNHCR’s documents." She added that some Afghan refugees were arrested at their homes. "In the places where most Afghans live, Pakistani police arrest Afghans from their houses. They know where they are living ... as they were required to register in the nearest police station," she said. Shukria said that "among those arrested include women and children." She added that Afghan refugees are "terrified." "Most of the Afghans do not want to get out of their houses," she said. The Afghan Embassy in Islamabad, in a tweet Thursday, said that Taliban officials at the embassy met with officials of Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior and had a "serious discussion on the detentions and harassment of Afghans in Pakistan, and it should stop immediately." "The Pakistani side assured the leadership of the [Afghan] embassy of cooperation and added that they only arrest those who do not have legal documents." Abdul Karim Haqqani, a Taliban official in the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad, told VOA on Wednesday that 300-400 Afghans have been detained by Pakistani security forces. He added that they are trying to negotiate with the Pakistani officials for their "immediate release." Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s newly appointed special envoy to Afghanistan, told VOA that those Afghans "without proper documents, or he or she has overstayed their visa limit, there is a law that they will be detained." Quoting Pakistani officials, local media reported that undocumented Afghans face deportation. But Arsala Khan, an Afghan refugee who works as a laborer at Islamabad’s Fruit and Vegetable Market, told VOA that he was detained while working even though he had his refugee card on him. "I was halfway loading a car. I was arrested though I showed my smart card to them," said Khan, who said he was later released on bail. The government of Pakistan, with the support of the United Nations, began issuing smart cards to Afghan refugees in Pakistan in April 2021. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stated that more than 1.3 million registered Afghan refugees are in Pakistan. The U.N. refugee agency says about 3.7 million Afghans are living in Pakistan. Of about 1.6 million Afghans who fled Afghanistan to neighboring countries after the Taliban seized power in August 2021, about 600,000 went to Pakistan, according to the agency. Devon Cone, senior advocate for women and girls at Refugees International, told VOA that refugees who fled to Pakistan after August 2021 "bring a lot of challenges." Cone said that the Afghans who arrived in Pakistan after the fall of Afghanistan into the hands of the Taliban have "limited opportunities." Cone added that newly arrived Afghan refugees in Pakistan are "running out of money. Most of them sold all their belongings in Afghanistan, and almost two years later, they’ve run out of money ... Their visas expired. They can’t work in the labor market. They can’t access public education." "And finally, they have mental stress and trauma from having had to flee Afghanistan, [and] not being able to go back," Cone said. Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, told VOA that once refugees cross the border, they have "a right to international protection." "All [refugees] have the right to have their asylum cases treated seriously and fairly," he said. This story originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.

In a good month, Celina Chanthanouvong has about $200 left after rent, groceries and car insurance. That doesn't factor in her student loans, which have been on hold since the start of the pandemic and are estimated to cost $300 a month. The pause in repayment has been a lifeline keeping the 25-year-old afloat.  "I don't even know where I would begin to budget that money," said Chanthanouvong, who works in marketing in San Francisco.  Now, after more than three years, the lifeline is being pulled away.  More than 40 million Americans will be on the hook for federal student loan payments starting in late August under the terms of a debt ceiling deal approved by Congress last week. The Biden administration has been targeting that timeline for months, but the deal ends any hope of a further extension of the pause, which has been prolonged while the Supreme Court decides the president's debt cancellation.  Without cancellation, the Education Department predicts borrowers will fall behind on their loans at historic rates. Among the most vulnerable are those who finished college during the pandemic. Millions have never had to make a loan payment, and their bills will soon come amid soaring inflation and forecasts of economic recession.  Advocates fear it will add a financial burden that younger borrowers can't afford. "I worry that we're going to see levels of default of new graduates that we've never seen before," said Natalia Abrams, president of the nonprofit Student Debt Crisis Center. Chanthanouvong earned a bachelor's in sociology from the University of California-Merced in 2019. She couldn't find a job for a year, leaving her to rely on odd jobs for income. She found a full-time job last year, but at $70,000, her salary barely covers the cost of living in the Bay Area.  "I'm not going out. I don't buy Starbucks every day. I'm cooking at home," she said. "And sometimes, I don't even have $100 after everything."  Under President Joe Biden's cancellation plan, Chanthanouvong would be eligible to get $20,000 of her debt erased, leaving her owing $5,000. But she isn't banking on the relief. Instead, she invited her partner to move in and split rent. The financial pinch has them postponing or rethinking major life milestones.  "My partner and I agreed, maybe we don't want kids," she said. "Not because we don't want them, but because it would be financially irresponsible for us to bring a human being into this world."  Out of the more than 44 million federal student loan borrowers, about 7 million are below the age of 25, according to data from the Education Department. Their average loan balance is less than $14,000, lower than any other age group.  Yet borrowers with lower balances are the most likely to default. It's fueled by millions who drop out before graduating, along with others who graduate but struggle to find good jobs. Among those who defaulted in 2021, the median loan balance was $15,300, and the vast majority had balances under $40,000, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Resuming student loan payments will cost U.S. consumers $18 billion a month, the investment firm Jefferies has estimated. The hit to household budgets is ill-timed for the overall economy, Jefferies says, because the United States is widely believed to be on the brink of a recession.  Despite the student loan moratorium, Americans mostly didn't bank their savings, according to Jefferies economist Thomas Simons. So they'll likely have to cut back on other things — travel, restaurants — to fit resumed loan payments into their budgets. Belt-tightening could hurt an economy that relies heavily on consumer spending.  Noshin Hoque graduated from Stony Brook University early in the pandemic with about $20,000 in federal student loans. Instead of testing the 2020 job market, she enrolled at a master's program in social work at Columbia University, borrowing $34,000 more.  With the payments paused, she felt a new level of financial security. She cut costs by living with her parents in New York City and her job at a nonprofit paid enough to save money and help her parents.  She recalls splurging on a $110 polo shirt as a Father's Day gift for her dad.  "Being able to do stuff for my parents and having them experience that luxury with me has just been such a plus," said Hoque, who works for Young Invincibles, a nonprofit that supports student debt cancellation.  It gave her the comfort to enter a new stage of life. She got married to a recent medical school graduate, and they're expecting their first child in November. At the same time, they're bracing for the crush of loan payments, which will cost at least $400 a month combined. They hope to pay more to avoid interest, which is prohibited for them as practicing Muslims.  To prepare, they stopped eating at restaurants. They canceled a vacation to Italy. Money they wanted to put toward their child's education fund will go to their loans instead.  "We're back to square one of planning our finances," she said. "I feel that so deeply." Even the logistics of making payments will be a hurdle for newer borrowers, said Rachel Rotunda, director of government relations at National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. They'll need to find out who their loan servicers are, choose a repayment plan and learn to navigate the payment system.  "The volume of borrowers going back on the system at the same time — this has never happened before," Rotunda said. "It's fair to say it's going to be bumpy." The Education Department has promised to make the restart of payments as smooth as possible. In a statement, the agency said it will continue to push for Biden's debt cancellation as a way to reduce borrowers' debt load and ease the transition.  For Beka Favela, 30, the payment pause provided independence. She earned a master's in counseling last year, and her job as a therapist allowed her to move out of her parents' house. Without making payments on her $80,000 in student loans, she started saving. She bought furniture. She chipped away at credit card debt. But once the pause ends, she expects to pay about $500 a month. It will consume most of her disposable income, leaving little for surprise costs. If finances get tighter, she wonders if she'll have to move back home. "I don't want to feel like I'm regressing in order to make ends meet," said Favela, of Westmont, Illinois. "I just want to keep moving forward. I'm worried, is that going to be possible?" 

A real estate deal in Jerusalem's Old City, at the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has sent the historic Armenian community there into a panic as residents search for answers about the feared loss of their homes to a mysterious investor.  The 99-year lease of some 25% of the Old City's Armenian Quarter has touched sensitive nerves in the Holy Land and sparked a controversy extending far beyond the Old City walls. The fallout has forced the highest authority of the Armenian Orthodox Church to cloister himself in a convent and prompted a disgraced priest who is allegedly behind the deal to flee to a Los Angeles suburb.  "If they sell this place, they sell my heart," Garo Nalbandian, an 80-year-old photojournalist, said of the Ottoman-era barracks where he has lived for five decades among a dwindling community of Armenians. Their ancestors came to Jerusalem over 1,500 years ago and then after 1915, when Ottoman Turks killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in what's widely regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century. Alarm over the lease spread in April, following a surprise visit by Israeli land surveyors. Word got around that an Australian-Israeli investor, whose company sign appeared on the site, planned to transform the parking lot and limestone fortress of Armenian apartments and shops into an ultra-luxury hotel.  As anger, confusion and fears of possible evictions mounted, the Armenian patriarchate — the body managing the community's civil and religious affairs — acknowledged that the church had signed away the patch of land. The Armenian patriarch, Nourhan Manougian, alleged that a now-defrocked priest bore full responsibility for the "fraudulent and deceitful" deal that the patriarch said took place without his full knowledge.  The admission inflamed passions in the Armenian Quarter, where activists decried the deal as a threat to the community's longtime presence in Jerusalem. Jordan, with its historic ties to Jerusalem's Christian sites, said it feared for the "future of the holy city."  Palestinian officials accused Manougian of helping Israel in a decades-long battle between Israel and the Palestinians over a city that both sides claim as their capital. For Palestinians, such struggles over real estate are the centerpiece of the decades-old conflict, emblematic of what they see as a wider Israeli effort to remove them from strategic areas in east Jerusalem. "From a Palestinian point of view, this is treason. From a peace activist point of view, this undermines possible solutions to the conflict," said Dimitri Diliani, president of the National Christian Coalition of the Holy Land.  In a dramatic move, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II suspended recognition of Manougian, the patriarch who has served for the past decade in what is normally a lifelong position. That renders him unable to sign contracts, make transactions and make decisions in the Palestinian territories and Jordan.  The priest who coordinated the deal, Baret Yeretsian, was deposed, assaulted by a mob of angry young Armenians and whisked away by Israeli police before seeking refuge in Southern California. Manougian has barricaded himself in the Armenian convent, unwilling or unable to be seen publicly, according to residents. "This quarter is everything to me. It's the only place we have for Armenians to gather in the Holy Land," said 22-year-old community leader Hagop Djernazian. "We have to fight for it." The quarter is home to some 2,000 Armenians with the same status as Palestinians in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem — residents but not citizens, effectively stateless. Israel annexed east Jerusalem, where the Old City is located, after capturing it in 1967, a move not recognized internationally. For the past month — most recently last Friday — protesters have formed a human chain around the quarter and gathered under Manougian's window, shouting "traitor" and demanding that he come clean about who has leased the land and how. While the Armenian church has refused to disclose details about the sale, Yeretsian identified the investor as Australian-Israeli businessman Danny Rothman. As the church's real estate manager, Yeretsian said he was acting at the request of the patriarch. There is very little information available about Rothman, who also has used the last name Rubinstein, according to a 2016 Cyprus regulatory decision fining him for falsifying his academic background. His LinkedIn page describes him as chairman of a hotel company called Xana Capital. Records show the firm — formed in the United Arab Emirates — was registered in Israel in July 2021. Weeks later, a dozen Armenian priests raised the first alarm about a property deal being struck without their consent. A sign recently popped up marking the Armenian parking lot as the property of Xana Capital. Rothman, who is based in London, declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. "I never get interviewed by the press. I'm a private person," he said before hanging up. The self-exiled priest, Yeretsian, said that Rothman plans to develop a high-end resort in the Armenian Quarter. The project, he added, would be managed by the One&Only hotel company based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020. The deal appears to be one of the most high-profile — and controversial — to come out of the business ties that were forged under the U.S-brokered agreements known as the Abraham Accords.  Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to comment, citing the political sensitivity. Kerzner International, owner of One&Only Resorts, also declined to comment. The Dubai-based company said only that it is "always exploring opportunities to grow its portfolio of ultra-luxury resorts."  Renowned Israeli architect Moshe Safdie told the AP that Rothman would fund the project and that he would design it. Construction, he said, would start following excavations at the parking lot. It is unclear whether residents will be evicted, but the patriarchate has promised to assist any residents who are displaced. The saga reflects the struggle over politics and real estate that has bedeviled the Holy Land for centuries. Jewish investors in Israel and abroad long have sought to buy east Jerusalem properties. The Armenian Quarter is desirable because it abuts the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray. Their goal is to expand the Jewish presence in east Jerusalem, cementing Israeli control of the part of the city claimed by Palestinians as their capital. Scandals involving land sales to Jewish settlers have previously embroiled the Greek Orthodox Church, the custodian of many Christian sites in the region. Two decades ago, the Greek Church sold two Palestinian-run hotels in the Old City to foreign companies acting as fronts for a Jewish settler group. The secretive deals led to the downfall of the Greek patriarch and prompted international uproar. Yeretsian, in California, dismissed fears of an Israeli settler take-over of the Armenian Quarter as "propaganda" based solely on Rothman's Jewish identity. "The intention was never to Judaize the place," he said, claiming that Rothman has no political agenda. He insisted that the Armenian patriarch was fully engaged in the long-running negotiations and personally signed off on the contract. "I did my job faithfully in the best interest of the patriarchate," he said, declining to offer further details about the lease that he said expires after a century. The patriarchate declined to say what it would do with the money from the deal. Meanwhile, Jerusalem's Armenians — long ruled by foreign powers, displaced by wars and squeezed between Israelis and Palestinians — are filled with nagging dread. "Our lands were acquired inch by inch with blood and sweat," said 26-year-old resident Setrag Balian. "With one signature, they were given away." 

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The Pakistan Meteorological Department said Sunday that Cyclone Biparjoy, a “very severe cyclonic storm,” is over the east-central Arabian Sea. It is “maintaining its intensity” and is located about 840 kilometers south of Karachi, 830 kilometers south of Thatta and 930 kilometers southeast of Ormara. Biparjoy is traveling with maximum sustained winds of 130 to 140 kph, with maximum wave heights between 7.5 and 8.5 meters. The weather forecasters say Biparjoy could evolve into an “extremely severe cyclonic storm.” The Pakistan Meteorological Department predicts Biparjoy will “most likely” travel in a north-northeast direction toward Southeast Sindh-Indian Gujarat coast.

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Romania has recalled its ambassador to Kenya after Dragos Tigau allegedly compared Africans to monkeys. Tigau is reported to have said, “The African group has joined us,” when a monkey appeared outside a window during a meeting in April at a United Nations building in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. CNN reports it has obtained documents showing that African diplomats formally condemned the Romanian diplomat’s remarks during a meeting with Eastern European envoys at an April meeting. CNN reports that it has also seen two letters of apology Tigau sent to the diplomats. Romania said Saturday that it had just recently learned about the April incident. Romania’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, "We deeply regret this situation and offer our apologies to all those who have been affected."

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Thousands of people who fled their homes in the central Philippines to escape a restive volcano must now contend with another threat that's complicating the ongoing evacuations: monsoon rains that could be unleashed by an approaching typhoon. More than 6,000 villagers have been forced to leave rural communities within a 6-kilometer radius of Mayon volcano's crater in northeastern Albay province. Thousands more need to be moved to safety from the permanent danger zone, officials said. Others living outside the perimeter have packed their bags and voluntarily left with their children for evacuation centers in Albay, which was placed under a state of calamity on Friday to allow more rapid disbursement of emergency funds in case a major eruption unfolds. Authorities raised the alert level for the volcano on Thursday after superheated streams of gas, debris and rocks cascaded down its upper slope, indicating activity below the surface that could precede a hazardous eruption within days or weeks. A key tourist attraction for its picturesque conical shape, the 2,462-meter Mayon is one of the country's most active volcanoes. It last erupted violently in 2018, displacing tens of thousands of villagers. Authorities warned that Typhoon Guchol, which is approaching the Philippines from the Pacific but is projected to skirt the archipelago, may still dump heavy rains — unwelcome news for those living near Mayon's slopes. "There's a typhoon and floodwaters may rush down Mayon and swamp this village. That's one of our fears," Villamor Lopez, a house painter, told The Associated Press. He sat worriedly with his relatives clinging to bags of clothes, rice in pouches and bottles of drinking water on a truck hauling villagers from Daraga town in Albay to an emergency shelter several kilometers away. Other residents chatted on a roadside near a chapel, still undecided whether to leave. A loudspeaker in their laid-back community of low-slung rural houses and narrow dirt alleys warned people to prepare to evacuate quickly if the situation worsens. In the overcast sky above them, the volcano lay hidden by thick rainclouds. Village leader Dennis Bon, who was preparing to drive Lopez and others to the shelter, said he would not risk waiting until the last minute. "We have children, persons with disabilities and elderly residents here," Bon said, before he drove off. Albay Governor Edcel Greco Lagman and Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian said they were prepared if monsoon rains were to trigger mudflows and rockfalls. "We will still make sure that we will have no casualties from any compounded calamities," Lagman said. Despite growing worries among many villagers, those who have survived Mayon's eruptions over decades were taking the latest threats in stride. In Bonga village near the volcano, a few men gingerly took a bath in a stream of spring water flowing down Mayon's lush foothills and washed two motorcycles near boulders as big as cars that rolled down years ago during past eruptions. They shrugged and smiled when asked if the volcano's new rumblings had struck fear. The Philippines lies along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," the area around the ocean rim where tectonic plates meet that is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. A long-dormant volcano, Mount Pinatubo, blew its top north of Manila in 1991 in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing hundreds of people.

Staying in touch with a loved one after their death is the promise of several start-ups using the powers of artificial intelligence, though not without raising ethical questions. Ryu Sun-yun sits in front of a microphone and a giant screen, where her husband, who died a few months earlier, appears. "Sweetheart, it's me," the man on the screen tells her in a video demo. In tears, she answers him, and a semblance of conversation begins. When Lee Byeong-hwal learned he had terminal cancer, the 76-year-old South Korean asked startup DeepBrain AI to create a digital replica using several hours of video. "We don't create new content" such as sentences that the deceased would have never uttered or at least written and validated during their lifetime, said Joseph Murphy, head of development at DeepBrain AI, about the "Rememory" program. "I'll call it a niche part of our business. It's not a growth area for us," he cautioned. The idea is the same for StoryFile, a company that uses 92-year-old "Star Trek" actor William Shatner to market its site. "Our approach is to capture the wonder of an individual, then use the AI tools," said Stephen Smith, boss of StoryFile, which claims several thousand users of its Life service. Entrepreneur Pratik Desai caused a stir a few months ago when he suggested people save audio or video of "your parents, elders and loved ones," estimating that by "the end of this year" it would be possible to create an autonomous avatar of a deceased person, and that he was working on a project to this end. The message posted on Twitter set off a storm, to the point that, a few days later, he denied being "a ghoul." "This is a very personal topic and I sincerely apologize for hurting people," he said. "It's a very fine ethical area that we're taking with great care," Smith said. After the death of her best friend in a car accident in 2015, Russian engineer Eugenia Kyuda, who emigrated to California, created a "chatbot" named Roman like her dead friend, which was fed with thousands of text messages he had sent to loved ones. Two years later Kyuda launched Replika, which offers personalized conversational robots, among the most sophisticated on the market. But despite the Roman precedent, Replika "is not a platform made to recreate a lost loved one," a spokesperson, said. Somnium Space, based in London, wants to create virtual clones while users are still alive so that they then can exist in a parallel universe after their death. "It's not for everyone," CEO Artur Sychov conceded in a video posted on YouTube about his product, Live Forever, which he is announcing for the end of the year. "Do I want to meet my grandfather who's in AI? I don't know. But those who want that will be able to," he added. Thanks to generative AI, the technology is there to allow avatars of departed loved ones to say things they never said when they were alive. "I think these are philosophical challenges, not technical challenges," said Murphy of DeepBrainAI. "I would say that is a line right now that we do not plan on crossing, but who knows what the future holds?" he added. "I think it can be helpful to interact with an AI version of a person in order to get closure — particularly in situations where grief was complicated by abuse or trauma," Candi Cann, a professor at Baylor University who is currently researching this topic in South Korea. Mari Dias, a professor of medical psychology at Johnson & Wales University, has asked many of her bereaved patients about virtual contact with their loved ones. "The most common answer is 'I don't trust AI. I'm afraid it's going to say something I'm not going to accept.' … I get the impression that they think they don't have control" over what the avatar does.