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buffalo, new york — Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, they said in a court filing Friday. Payton Gendron, 20, is already serving a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole after he pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism in the 2022 attack. New York does not have capital punishment, but the Justice Department had the option of seeking the death penalty in a separate federal hate crimes case. Gendron had promised to plead guilty in that case if prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. In a notice announcing the decision to seek the death penalty, Trini Ross, the U.S. attorney for western New York, wrote that Gendron had selected the supermarket “in order to maximize the number of Black victims.” The notice cited a range of factors for the decision, including the substantial planning leading to the shooting and the decision to target at least one victim who was “particularly vulnerable due to old age and infirmity.” Relatives of the victims had expressed mixed views on whether they thought federal prosecutors should pursue the death penalty. “I’m not necessarily disappointed in the decision. ... It would have satisfied me more knowing he would have spent the rest of his life in prison being surrounded by the population of people he tried to kill,” Mark Talley, whose 63-year-old mother Geraldine Talley was killed, said Friday. “I would prefer he spend the rest of his life in prison suffering every day," he added. This is the first time Attorney General Merrick Garland has authorized a new pursuit of the death penalty. Under his leadership, the Justice Department has permitted the continuation of two capital prosecutions and withdrawn from pursuing death in more than two dozen cases. There was no immediate comment from other victims' families or prosecutors. The Justice Department has made federal death penalty cases a rarity since the election of President Joe Biden, a Democrat who opposes capital punishment. Garland instituted a moratorium on federal executions in 2021 pending a review of procedures. Although the moratorium does not prevent prosecutors from seeking death sentences, the Justice Department has done so sparingly. It successfully sought the death penalty for an antisemitic gunman who murdered 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue, which had been authorized as a death penalty case before Garland became attorney general. It also went ahead last year with an effort to get the death sentence against an Islamic extremist who killed eight people on a New York City bike path, though a lack of a unanimous jury meant that prosecution resulted in a life sentence. The Justice Department has declined to pursue the death penalty in other mass killings. It passed on seeking the execution of a gunman who killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. On May 14, 2022, Gendron attacked shoppers and workers with a semi-automatic rifle at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo after driving more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) from his home in rural Conklin, New York. He chose the business for its location in a predominantly Black neighborhood and livestreamed the massacre from a camera attached to his tactical helmet. The victims, who ranged in age from 32 to 86, included eight customers, the store security guard and a church deacon who drove shoppers to and from the store with their groceries. Three people were wounded but survived. The rifle Gendron fired was marked with racial slurs and phrases including “The Great Replacement,” a reference to a conspiracy theory that there’s a plot to diminish the influence of white people.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has received enough petitions to reach the cap for the additional 20,716 H-2B visas made available for returning workers for the first half of fiscal year 2024 with start dates on or before March 31, 2024, under the H-2B supplemental cap temporary final rule (FY 2024 TFR).

The US and the UK launch retaliatory air strikes against Houthis in Yemen as fears of a widening conflict grow. Israel is defending itself against charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice. We get an update from Kyiv and a look at the annual report from Human Rights Watch.

Relations between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel have become more fraught since the Hamas attack of October 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza. Many Arab citizens say they worry they could be penalized if they speak freely. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Tel Aviv. VOA footage by Ricki Rosen.

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Geneva — United Nations officials say Palestinians in Gaza are in a state of desperation after nearly three months of being militarily battered and left without sufficient supplies of food, water and medicine. "The level of desperation of people is palpable and breathable. It is a situation of desperation that you can feel it, that you can really touch it with your hands," said Andrea De Domenico, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Speaking from Jerusalem to journalists in Geneva on Friday, De Domenico said hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are crammed into ever smaller spaces and forced to set up makeshift shelters in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions, with no toilets or basic amenities. "There is no public service. There is a lack of shelter, a lack of water, a lack of food, and a lack of health. … This high pressure is turning more and more into increasing tension vis-à-vis the U.N. and vis-à-vis the humanitarian community who are unable to address their basic needs. "[The desperate Palestinians in Gaza] are not aggressive so far, but this tension will increase if we do not scale up our operations," he said, noting that when supply trucks cross the border into Gaza, Palestinians go to the trucks, thank the U.N. for coming and then "take whatever they can for them and their families to survive." The OCHA representative said his team has told him that "the faces of the people who are coming to the trucks … are clearly the faces of people who are starving." This Sunday will mark 100 days since Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups launched their attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people, mostly Israeli, were killed and around 250 hostages taken, among them two children. The brutal assault unleashed a ferocious response by Israel's military, reportedly resulting in the deaths of more than 23,000 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, and the massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, including homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship. "As U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has repeatedly urged, there must be an immediate cease-fire on human rights and humanitarian grounds," said Turk's spokeswoman, Liz Throssell. It is more urgent than ever that there be "a cease-fire to end the appalling suffering and loss of life, and to allow the prompt and effective delivery of humanitarian aid to a population facing shocking levels of hunger and disease," she said, adding that Israeli Defence Forces "must take immediate measures to protect civilians fully in line with Israel's obligation under international law." The U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) echoed this plea for an immediate and long-lasting cease-fire, stressing that this "is the only way to end the killing and injuring of children and their families and enable the urgent delivery of desperately needed aid." Speaking from Jerusalem, Lucia Elmi, UNICEF's special representative in the Palestinian territories, warned that conditions in the Gaza strip — especially for children — continue to deteriorate rapidly. "Children in Gaza are running out of time, while most of the lifesaving humanitarian aid they desperately need remains stranded between insufficient access corridors and protracted layers of inspections," she said. "Thousands of children have already died and thousands more will quickly follow" if the problems of conflict, disease and malnutrition are not quickly addressed, she added. By way of illustration, she noted that in the past two weeks, the number of diarrhea cases among children under five has almost doubled from 40,000 to 70,000. The conflict, along with the increased burden of disease and the increasing severity of malnutrition, is putting at risk over 135,000 children of severe acute malnutrition. "The combination of these three problems plus the lack of water and sanitation in terms of malnutrition is one of the key concerns at the moment," she said.

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ISLAMABAD — Officials in Pakistan have cautioned that relentless cross-border militancy is testing bilateral relations with Afghanistan's Taliban and could eventually push Islamabad to scale back support for the de facto Kabul rulers. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces, both lining Pakistan's 2,600-kilometer (1,600-mile) border with Afghanistan, have experienced almost daily attacks since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in August 2021, killing hundreds of Pakistani security forces and civilians. The violence is mostly being carried out or claimed by the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The group, listed as a global terrorist organization, is believed to be operating out of Afghan sanctuaries, allegedly with the support of Taliban authorities. Both countries have recently held repeated formal talks to discuss the issue, with the latest engagement occurring in early January when Islamabad hosted a high-powered Taliban delegation. But neither side has reported any breakthrough, nor has the diplomatic effort brought about a reduction in TTP-led extremist violence. "Don't expect immediate results; it's a process with pitfalls. However, continuous interaction can help galvanize the process," a senior Pakistani diplomat told VOA, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to interact publicly with the media. Already-troubled relationship The official said that Pakistan's stepped-up diplomatic engagement with the Taliban stems from concerns the TTP could be planning to intensify violence in the upcoming spring and target national elections scheduled for next month. He warned that the increase in violence could deal a critical blow to an already-troubled relationship between the two countries. "That could certainly be a turning point, and the government of Pakistan may also run second thoughts about maintaining their support level with the Taliban," the official cautioned. The United States this week repeated its concerns about an uptick in TTP attacks against Pakistani security forces from the group's bases in Afghanistan, saying the violence has led to a deterioration in bilateral ties. "The relationship between Pakistan and the Taliban at the moment is not good. ... This security issue is dominating the Taliban's relationship with Pakistan," Thomas West, the U.S. special Afghan envoy, told a congressional hearing Thursday while discussing the growing TTP threat to regional stability. "I am very worried about that group. I spoke about it with Pakistani leaders when I visited last month. For regional stability and our own interests and Pakistan's stability, we should hope for concerted efforts to eliminate that group inside Afghanistan," West said. Visit by prominent Pakistani leader A prominent Pakistani religious party leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is known for his traditionally close ties with the Taliban, traveled to Afghanistan this week and held meetings with the leaders of the de facto authorities. He reportedly discussed the TTP, among other issues facing the two countries. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid had confirmed in the run-up to the visit that Kabul had officially invited Rehman to promote better ties between the two countries. Multiple sources confirmed to VOA that Rehman also met with reclusive Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada in his southern Kandahar headquarters, although neither side commented on the reported meeting. The Pakistani cleric also reportedly met with TTP leaders at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan. The host Taliban government reportedly arranged the meeting, but neither side confirmed that this happened. However, Islamabad distanced itself from Rehman's nearly weeklong trip, saying he traveled in "his individual capacity" and not "as an emissary of the government of Pakistan." No peace talks On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters in Islamabad that her government had no intention to engage in peace talks with the TTP. "Our demands from the Afghan authorities haven't changed; they remain the same, which is that the Afghan authorities should take action, effective action, against terrorist elements inside Afghanistan, including TTP leadership," she said. Kabul hosted and mediated talks between Pakistan and the TTP in mid-2022, but the group withdrew from the process later that year and has since renewed its attacks, killing hundreds of security forces and civilians last year alone. Pakistani officials allege Afghan Taliban members also facilitated and joined the TTP in some of the attacks. Taliban authorities reject the charges, advising Pakistan against externalizing its "internal security problems." The violence has also led to a government crackdown on undocumented Afghans in Pakistan, forcing more than half a million to return to their home country in the past few months and straining bilateral relations. No foreign country has recognized the Taliban government in Kabul, but Pakistan is among several neighboring countries, including China and Russia, that have informally maintained ties with Afghanistan's de facto authorities. The landlocked nation has traditionally relied on Pakistani land routes and seaports to conduct bilateral and international trade.

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Yaounde, Cameroon — Transport ministers from landlocked central African countries say increasing commodity prices are causing civil strife in Chad and the Central African Republic. The ministers, meeting Friday in Cameroon, say the three countries want to find immediate solutions to obstacles facing the transportation of goods moving from Cameroon's Douala and Kribi seaports to central African states. The Douala and Kribi seaports handle 90 percent of goods delivered to Chad and the Central African Republic, or C.A.R. The ministers and transport officials, meeting in the city of Kribi this week, said goods now take about a month instead of two weeks to arrive in Chad's capital, N'djamena.  Herbert Gontran Djono Ahaba, C.A.R.'s transport and civil aviation minister, said current food price spikes that are causing daily protests in Chad's towns and villages are fueled by insecurity, illegal police checkpoints, and the deteriorating roads along the more than 1,400 kilometers between the Douala seaport in Cameroon and the C.A.R. capital, Bangui, and the close to 1,600 kilometers between Douala and N'djamena. Chad and the C.A.R. say that last month, police used tear gas to disperse civilians in several towns and villages protesting hikes in commodity prices. There is a close to 35 percent increase in food prices, the two governments say. The ministers say price hikes have also been triggered by rebels, who continue to attack goods in transit to Bangui on the C.A.R. side of the border, and Boko Haram terrorists operating in Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad. Central African states say that rebels last month harassed and seized goods and money from scores of truck drivers on the transport corridor to N'djamena. Laurent Dihoulnet, secretary-general of Chad's Ministry of Transport, said the attacks, illegal police checkpoints and abuses against drivers in transit in Cameroon suffocate trade and increase food shortages and hunger in the sub-Saharan African states. He said Cameroon, C.A.R. and Chad transport ministers have decided to dismantle 16 illegal police and military checkpoints on the corridor from Cameroon's Douala seaport to Bangui. Dihoulnet said the ministers have authorized the creation of seven checkpoints that will assure the safety of drivers and their trucks and make sure goods, especially humanitarian needs, reach their destinations in the C.A.R. and Chad. Cameroon, Chad and the C.A.R. also said they will dismantle over 70 checkpoints they say are illegally set up by Cameroon police and military along the Douala-N'djamena corridor. Cameroon's police and military say the checkpoints are set up to control illicit trafficking of goods and protect truck drivers and their goods from armed groups, but the drivers say they are forced to pay illegal fees or bribes at the checkpoints. The transport ministers say joint military and police convoys will protect the drivers in areas prone to Boko Haram and C.A.R. rebel attacks. Cameroon says it is negotiating with the World Bank, the European Union and other international funding agencies to construct the roads and facilitate the passage of goods on transit. In their New Year's messages, Presidents Mahamat Idriss Deby of Chad and Faustin-Archange Touadera of the C.A.R. called for emergency food support for close to five million people they said are either facing hunger, threatened by food insecurity, or finding it especially hard to cope with rising prices. Chad and the C.A.R. say millions of their citizens are also going hungry because of climate shocks, inter-communal tensions, and rising food and fuel prices. The U.N.'s World Food Program says that 1.4 million people in Chad, a country that has experienced an influx of over 600,000 refugees in less than a year from the fighting in Sudan's Darfur region, and over two million C.A.R. civilians are threatened by a severe hunger crisis. 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced the upcoming launch of a package of customer experience improvements for H-1B cap season. The measures are expected to increase efficiency and ease collaboration for organizations and their legal representatives.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is holding one-hour talks with veteran Chinese diplomat Liu Jianchao Friday morning, a day before Taiwan's presidential and legislative elections — a test for efforts to stabilize tensions between the United States and China.   Washington has cautioned Beijing against using the elections as a pretext for instability in the Taiwan Strait.  Liu, who heads the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department, is the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit the United States since U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit south of San Francisco on November 15.  A source familiar with the meeting said that in diplomacy, it is crucial to convey messages directly to China on "the importance of peace and stability in the region ahead of the Taiwan elections, and in light of recent PRC provocations in the South China Sea.”  This week, the Biden administration announced it would send a high-level unofficial delegation to Taipei after the elections, citing a longstanding precedent. The move is perceived as an effort to preempt a strong reaction from Beijing.  A Chinese spokesperson said Thursday that Taiwan’s elections are “purely China’s internal affairs” and that China firmly opposes any form of official contact between the United States and Taiwan.  The winner of Taiwan’s presidential election will be inaugurated May 20. The transition period is seen as sensitive in cross-strait relations.  Liu is seen as a leading contender to be China’s next foreign minister, according to some media reports and analysts. It is unusual for the minister of the International Liaison Department, a unit under the Communist Party’s Central Committee, to visit the United States, according to Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marshall Fund.  “The most likely explanation for this visit, and the reason that he is being received by Blinken, is that Liu is likely to be China's next foreign minister. The visit provides an opportunity for the U.S. to take his measure in advance of his formal appointment, likely at the upcoming National People’s Congress” in early March, Glaser told VOA.  Senior U.S. officials attending Friday’s meeting include the State Department’s top diplomat on East Asian and Pacific affairs, Daniel Kritenbrink, and its China coordinator, Mark Lambert.   Communication between the world’s two largest economies will continue after Taiwan’s elections, as senior U.S. and Chinese officials are to attend next week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Blinken and Chinese Premier Li Qiang will attend the annual economic meetings at the Swiss mountain resort.     Blinken’s talks with Chinese officials are described as ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication, responsibly manage differences between the two nations and address various issues. These include global and regional security concerns, such as Russia’s war against Ukraine, as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.  According to some estimates, about half of all global trade flows through the Taiwan Strait, and its stability is critical to the global economy. VOA’s Cindy Saine contributed to this report.

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.

He defended the Azovstal steel plant, survived Russian captivity in occupied Olenivka and Donetsk, as well as torture and starvation. Anton Shtukin, a 20-year-old fighter with the National Guard of Ukraine, was released after a year of Russian captivity on May 6, 2023. Anna Kosstutschenko met with him and talked about his liberation. Camera and video edit: Pavel Suhodolskiy

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.

The U.N. estimates more than a million Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar in successive waves. And while most ended up in neighboring Bangladesh, some have taken boats to Indonesia where authorities are now considering using a former refugee island for their resettlement. VOA's Ahadian Utama has more