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The Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES, is back in Las Vegas [January 9 – 12] with more than 3,500 companies from around the globe showcasing the latest developments in artificial intelligence, health care, transportation and much more. VOA’s Julie Taboh gives us a preview. Video edit: Adam Greenbaum. Tina Trinh contributed to this report

A former news anchor in Indian-controlled Kashmir is forging a new career in the food industry after restrictions on media forced her out of a job. Muheet Ul Islam has more from Srinagar. Camera and video edit: Wasim Nabi

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.

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.

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.

MUWASI, Gaza Strip — Stranded in a corner of southern Gaza, members of the Abu Jarad family are clinging to a strict survival routine. They fled their comfortable three-bedroom home in northern Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war broke out nearly three months ago. The 10-person family now squeezes into a 16-square meter tent on a garbage-strewn sandy plot, part of a sprawling encampment of displaced Palestinians. Every family member is assigned daily tasks, from collecting twigs to build a fire for cooking, to scouring the city’s markets for vegetables. But their best efforts can’t mask their desperation. At night "dogs are hovering over the tents," said Awatif Abu Jarad, an older member of the family. "We are living like dogs!” Palestinians seeking refuge in southern Gaza say every day has become a struggle to find food, water, medicine and working bathrooms. All the while, they live in fear of Israeli airstrikes and the growing threat of illnesses. Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, now in its 13th week, have pushed almost all Palestinians toward the southern city of Rafah along the Egyptian border. The area had a prewar population of around 280,000, a figure that has bulged to more than 1 million in recent days, according to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Rafah’s apartment blocks are crammed with people, often extended families who have opened their doors to displaced relatives. West of the city, thousands of nylon tents have sprung up. Thousands more people are sleeping in the open, despite the cool and often rainy winter weather. Most of northern Gaza is now under the control of the Israeli army, which early in the war urged Palestinians to evacuate to the south. As the war progressed, more evacuation orders were issued for areas in the south, forcing Palestinian civilians to crowd into ever smaller spaces, including Rafah and a nearby sliver of land called Muwasi.  Even these purportedly safe spaces are often hit by airstrikes and shelling. The war broke out on October 7 after Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 240 others. The fighting has killed over 22,400 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. According to Nouman, Awatif’s brother, the conflict drove the family the entire length of Gaza. They fled their home in the northern border town of Beit Hanoun on the first day of the war and stayed with a relative in the nearby town of Beit Lahia. Six days later, the intensity of Israeli strikes in the border area sent them south to Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City. As people started to evacuate the hospital two days later, they traveled to the Nuseirat urban refugee camp in central Gaza, making the 10-kilometer journey on foot. They stayed in a cramped U.N. school building in Nuseirat for over two months, but left on December 23 as the Israeli army turned its focus toward Hamas targets in central Gaza refugee camps. They escaped to Muwasi on December 23, believing it was the safest option. On the first night, they slept out in the open. Then they bought nylon and wood in a Rafah market to build a tent. Nouman, an accountant, sleeps on the nylon-covered floor with his wife, sister, six daughters and one grandchild. They sleep on their sides to conserve space. He said the tent cost 1,000 shekels, about $276. "It is completely crazy," he said. In Rafah’s demand-driven war economy, larger pre-built family tents now range from $800 to $1,400. The family’s hardship begins at 5 a.m. Nouman said his first job is to start a small fire to cook breakfast, while his wife and daughters knead dough for flatbread and then wash their utensils and metal cooking griddle. After eating, their attention turns to fetching water and food, tasks that take up most of the daylight hours. Nouman said he and several of his younger relatives collect jugs of water from one of the public pipes nearby, water that is exclusively used for washing and not suitable for drinking. Next, they head to one of the dozens of drinking water tankers dotted across the city, where they wait in line for hours. A gallon of drinking water costs one shekel, or 28 cents. Some, so desperate for cash, wait in line just to sell their space. After the water is fetched, family members move between several open markets to hunt for vegetables, flour and canned food for that evening’s meal. Meanwhile, Nouman busies himself with scouring the ground for twigs and bits of wood to make a fire. Food prices have soared. Gaza is facing acute food and medicine shortages and is dependent largely on aid and supplies that trickle in through two crossings, one Egyptian and one Israeli, and what has been grown in the recent harvest. More than half a million people in Gaza — roughly a quarter of the population — are starving, the United Nations said in late December. Dalia Abu Samhadana, a young mother sheltering with her uncle’s family in a crowded house of 20 in Rafah, says the only food staples at her local market are tomatoes, onions, eggplants, oranges and flour. All are virtually unaffordable. A 25-kilogram bag of flour before Oct. 7 cost around $10. Since then it has fluctuated between $40 and $100. "My money has almost run out," said Abu Samhadana, unsure of how she will be able to feed her daughter. Displaced Palestinians in Rafah are entitled to free aid if they register with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which hands out flour, blankets, and medical supplies at 14 spots across southern Gaza. They often spend hours in line waiting for the aid to be distributed. Abu Samhadana, who is originally from the nearby southern town of Khan Younis, said she has tried to register for free aid several times but has been turned away due to the lack of available supplies. The U.N. agency is simply overwhelmed and is already providing support to 1.8 million people in Gaza, according to Juliette Touma, its communications director. She said she did not know if the agency had stopped registering new aid seekers. With few options left, some hungry Palestinians in Rafah have resorted to grabbing packages from aid trucks as they pass by. The U.N. refugee agency confirmed that some supplies of aid had been snatched from moving trucks but did not provide any details. Hamas police escorting aid trucks from border crossings to U.N. warehouses have been seen beating people, mostly teenagers, as they try to grab what they can. In some cases, they have fired shots into the air. In one incident, a 13-year-old boy was killed when Hamas police opened fire. Meanwhile, health officials warn of the growing spread of diseases, especially among children. The World Health Organization has reported tens of thousands of cases of upper respiratory infections, diarrhea, lice, scabies, chickenpox, skin rashes and meningitis in U.N. shelters. The rapid spread of disease is mainly due to overcrowding and poor hygiene caused by a lack of toilets and water for washing. The Abu Jarad family dug its own makeshift toilet attached to the tent to avoid communal bathrooms. Still, the family is vulnerable to disease. "My granddaughter is 10 months old, and since the day we came to this place, she has been suffering from weight loss and diarrhea," said Majeda, Nouman’s wife. Going to the pharmacy offers little help. "We can’t find any (suitable) medicines available," she said.

NEW YORK — Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie Mary Poppins and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be Send in the Clowns by Stephen Sondheim, has died. She was 100. Mitch Clem, her manager, said she died Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles of natural causes. "Today’s a sad day for Hollywood," Clem said. "She is the last of the last of old Hollywood." Johns was known to be a perfectionist about her profession — precise, analytical and opinionated. The roles she took had to be multifaceted. Anything less was giving less than her all. "As far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in playing the role on only one level," she told The Associated Press in 1990. "The whole point of first-class acting is to make a reality of it.  To be real. And I have to make sense of it in my own mind in order to be real." Johns’ greatest triumph was playing Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, for which she won a Tony in 1973. Sondheim wrote the show’s hit song Send in the Clowns to suit her distinctive husky voice, but she lost the part in the 1977 film version to Elizabeth Taylor. "I’ve had other songs written for me, but nothing like that," Johns told the AP in 1990. "It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever been given in the theater." Others who followed Johns in singing Sondheim’s most popular song include Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Sarah Vaughan and Olivia Newton-John. It also appeared in season two of Yellowjackets in 2023, sung by Elijah Wood.  Back when it was being conceived, A Little Night Music had gone into rehearsal with some of the book and score unfinished, including a solo song for Johns. Director Hal Prince suggested she and co-star Len Cariou improvise a scene or two to give book writer Hugh Wheeler some ideas.  "Hal said 'Why don’t you just say what you feel,'" she recalled to the AP. "When Len and I did that, Hal got on the phone to Steve Sondheim and said, 'I think you’d better get in a cab and get round here and watch what they’re doing because you are going to get the idea for Glynis’ solo.'" Johns was the fourth generation of an English theatrical family. Her father, Mervyn Johns, had a long career as a character actor, and her mother was a pianist. She was born in Pretoria, South Africa, because her parents were visiting the area on tour at the time of her birth. Johns was a dancer at 12 and an actor at 14 in London’s West End. Her breakthrough role was as the amorous mermaid in the title of the 1948 hit comedy Miranda. "I was quite an athlete, my muscles were strong from dancing, so the tail was just fine; I swam like a porpoise," she told Newsday in 1998. In 1960’s The Sundowners, with Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum, she was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar. (She lost out to Shirley Jones in Elmer Gantry.) Other highlights include playing the mother in Mary Poppins, the movie that introduced Julie Andrews and where she sang the rousing tune Sister Suffragette. She also starred in the 1989 Broadway revival of The Circle, W. Somerset Maugham’s romantic comedy about love, marriage and fidelity, opposite Rex Harrison and Stewart Granger. "I’ve retired many times. My personal life has come before my work. The theater is just part of my life. It probably uses my highest sense of intelligence, so therefore I have to come back to it, to realize that I’ve got the talent. I’m not as good doing anything else," she told the AP. To prepare for A Coffin in Egypt, Horton Foote’s 1998 play about a grand dame reminiscing about her life on and off a ranch on the Texas prairie, she asked the Texas-born Foote to record a short tape of himself reading some lines and used it as her coach. In a 1991 revival of A Little Night Music in Los Angeles, she played Madame Armfeldt, the mother of Desiree, the part she had created. In 1963, she starred in her own TV sitcom, Glynis.  Johns lived all around the world and had four husbands. The first was the father of her only child, the late Gareth Forwood, an actor who died in 2007.

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.

PRETORIA, South Africa — Officials say South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has been released from prison on parole and is now at home. The Department of Corrections gave no more details of Pistorius' release. The announcement came at around 8:30 a.m., indicating officials released the world-famous double-amputee Olympic runner in the early hours. Pistorius has served nearly nine years for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013. He’d been sentenced to 13 years and five months. He was approved for parole in November. Serious offenders in South Africa are eligible for parole after serving at least half their sentence. Steenkamp's mother, June Steenkamp, said in a statement that she had accepted Pistorius' parole as part of South African law. "Has there been justice for Reeva? Has Oscar served enough time? There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back, and no amount of time served will bring Reeva back," June Steenkamp said. "We who remain behind are the ones serving a life sentence." "With the release of Oscar Pistorius on parole, my only desire is that I will be allowed to live my last years in peace with my focus remaining on the Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation, to continue Reeva's legacy." Pistorius will live under strict conditions until the remainder of his sentence expires in December 2029, the Department of Corrections said. It emphasized that the multiple Paralympic champion's release — like every other offender on parole — does not mean that he has served his time. Some of Pistorius' parole conditions include restrictions on when he's allowed to leave his home, a ban on consuming alcohol, and orders that he must attend programs on anger management and on violence against women. He will have to perform community service. Pistorius will also have to regularly meet with parole officials at his home and at correctional services offices and will be subjected to unannounced visits by authorities. He is not allowed to leave the Waterkloof district without permission and is banned from speaking to the media until the end of his sentence. He could be sent back to jail if he is in breach of any of his parole conditions. South Africa does not use tags or bracelets on paroled offenders, so Pistorius will not wear any monitoring device, Department of Corrections officials said. But he will be constantly monitored by a department official and will have to inform the official of any major changes in his life, such as if he wants to get a job or move to another house. Pistorius has maintained that he shot Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and law graduate, by mistake. He testified that he believed Steenkamp was a dangerous intruder hiding in his bathroom and shot through the door with his licensed 9 mm pistol in self-defense. Prosecutors said he killed his girlfriend intentionally during a late-night argument. Steenkamp's family did not oppose his parole application in November, although June Steenkamp said in a victim statement submitted to the parole board that she didn't believe Pistorius had been fully rehabilitated and was still lying about the killing. Before the killing, Pistorius was held up as an inspiring role model after having had both of his legs amputated below the knee as a baby because of a congenital condition. He became a champion sprinter on his carbon-fiber running blades and made history by competing at the 2012 London Olympics. But his murder trial destroyed his image. He was accused of being prone to angry outbursts and acting recklessly with guns, while witnesses testified about various altercations he had with others, including an argument in which he allegedly threatened to break a man's legs. Pistorius was first convicted of culpable homicide — a charge comparable to manslaughter — and sentenced to five years in prison for killing Steenkamp. After appeals by prosecutors, he was ultimately found guilty of murder and had his sentence increased, although that judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeal still didn't definitively rule that he knew it was Steenkamp behind the toilet door. Pistorius was first sent to prison in 2014, was released on house arrest in 2015 during an appeal and was sent back to prison in 2016. He was initially incarcerated at the maximum security Kgosi Mampuru II Prison in Pretoria but was moved to Atteridgeville early in his sentence because it is better suited to holding disabled prisoners. Reaction to Pistorius' parole has been muted in South Africa, a stark contrast to the first days and months after Steenkamp's killing, which sparked angry protests outside of Pistorius' court hearings calling for him to receive a long prison sentence. There is no death penalty in South Africa. "He has ticked all the necessary boxes," said Themba Masango, secretary general of Not In My Name International, a group that campaigns against violence against women. "And we can only wish and hope Oscar Pistorius will come out a better human being." "We tend to forget that there is a possibility where somebody can be rehabilitated."

WASHINGTON — Taiwan's election next week poses challenges for Washington no matter who wins, with a victory for the ruling party sure to exacerbate tensions with China while an opposition triumph may raise awkward questions about the island's defense policies. The January 13 presidential and parliamentary contests represent the first real wild card in 2024 for the Biden administration's goal of stabilizing ties with China. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and has gone as far as to cast the island's elections as a choice between war and peace across the Taiwan Strait, warning that any attempt to push for Taiwan's formal independence means conflict. Taiwan's government rejects China's sovereignty assertion. U.S. officials have been careful to avoid appearing to steer or to interfere with the island's democratic process. "Our strong expectation and hope is that those elections be free of intimidation or coercion, or interference from all sides. The United States is not involved and will not be involved in these elections," U.S. ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said in December. Such detachment has proved tricky in the past. The Obama administration raised eyebrows before Taiwan's 2012 election when a senior U.S. official aired doubts about whether then-presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen could maintain a stable relationship with China. Tsai, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), lost that year but won the presidency in 2016 and reelection in 2020 and tensions with China soared, raising fears Beijing might act on its vow to bring Taiwan under its control by force if necessary. Term limits bar Tsai from running again, but China has branded this year's DPP candidate and current Taiwan Vice President Lai Ching-te as a separatist, and analysts expect Beijing to ramp up military pressure should he prevail. Both the DPP and Taiwan's largest opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), say only they can preserve the peace and have committed to bolstering Taiwan's defenses. Both say only Taiwan's 23 million people can decide their future, although the KMT says it strongly opposes independence. Washington also says it does not support independence, but there is some concern in the U.S. capital that a victory by the KMT's Hou Yu-ih could undermine U.S. efforts to beef up Taiwan's military deterrence. The party traditionally favors closer ties to China, though denies being pro-Beijing. "Administration officials' lips say they are neutral, but their body language, reflected in overall policy statements about China, say they support the DPP they know rather than the KMT they are unsure about," said Douglas Paal, a former unofficial U.S. ambassador to Taiwan. Paal said there is ambivalence in Taiwan about heavier investment in defense, and that the KMT sees better ways to maintain peace than military spending, which would mean higher taxes with no prospect of matching China's capabilities. "With wars in Gaza and Ukraine, American capacity stretched, and its future direction debated at home, the status quo has to look preferable to many in Washington," he said. Laura Rosenberger, chair of the American Institute in Taiwan, a Virginia-based office that manages unofficial U.S. ties with Taiwan, met both Lai and Hou on their U.S. visits last year. "U.S. policy on Taiwan will remain the same regardless of which party is in power. We look forward to working with whomever Taiwan voters elect," a State Department spokesperson said. Some U.S. officials are bracing for China to increase pressure on Taiwan militarily, economically and diplomatically regardless of who is elected. "This will likely be a period of heightened tensions that requires diplomacy, clear channels of communication, and reiteration of the importance of peace, stability, and the status quo," a senior U.S. administration official told Reuters. "We've been pretty clear in the meetings (with China), expressing our concern about military, economic and other coercion across the board," the official said. Buy time for defense? One person familiar with U.S. policy said U.S. officials had "developed deep relations" with each candidate and had stressed the "importance of continuity in key policy areas," including on defense and maintaining the cross-Strait status quo. Over the years, Washington has stressed that it cannot take the issue of Taiwan's defense more seriously than the island itself, and has pushed Taipei hard to make itself a "porcupine" against possible Chinese military action by investing in cost-effective, mobile and harder-to-destroy military assets. U.S. congressional support for Taiwan is strong, but one of the few things that could erode this would be any move by the wealthy island to pause or reverse commitments to improve its own self-defense capabilities, analysts say. Any defense policy paralysis in Taiwan should the elections yield a split between a new Taiwan administration and majority control over its parliament would likely cause consternation in Washington. While some question whether the KMT would be as committed to defense reforms and spending as the DPP, a KMT win could let some steam out of cross-Strait dynamics, which China says is the most dangerous issue in U.S.-China relations. Kharis Templeman of Stanford University's Hoover Institution said questions about the KMT's commitment to defense cooperation were valid, but there were genuine differences of opinion in Washington about which candidate would be best for U.S. interests. "A Hou presidency could help stabilize cross-Strait relations, lower the near-term threat level, and buy more time for Taiwan's defense reforms to be implemented," Templeman said.

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.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — North Korea fired more than 200 artillery shells near two South Korean islands on Friday, prompting evacuation orders for their residents, Seoul's defense ministry and local officials said. The live firing follows repeated warnings from Kim Jong Un's regime in Pyongyang that it is prepared for war against South Korea and its U.S. ally. "The North Korean military conducted over 200 rounds of firing today from around 09:00 to 11:00 (1200 to 0200 GMT) in the areas of Jangsan-got in the northern part of Baengnyeong Island and the northern areas... of Yeonpyeong Island," a defense ministry official said at a briefing. Yeonpyeong local officials told AFP that civilians had been told to evacuate, describing the order as a "preventative measure." South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island is situated in the Yellow Sea. It is located approximately 80 kilometers west of Incheon and 12 kilometers south of the coastline of Hwanghae Province, North Korea. Authorities on Baengnyeong Island also reported an evacuation order there. "We are making the evacuation announcements at the moment," a local district official at the Baengnyeong Island told AFP, adding that he had been told the South Korean military would conduct a naval drill shortly. Pyongyang fired a barrage of 170 artillery shells onto Yeonpyeong island in November 2010, killing four people including two civilians in the first North Korean attack on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War. Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in decades, after Kim enshrined the country's status as a nuclear power into the constitution while test-firing several advanced ICBMs. At Pyongyang's key year-end policy meetings, Kim warned of a nuclear attack on the South and called for a build-up of the country's military arsenal ahead of armed conflict that he warned could "break out any time." Kim accused the United States of posing "various forms of military threat" and ordered his armed forces to maintain the "overwhelming war response capability," according to KCNA's account of the meeting that ended Saturday. The meeting concluded that it is a "fait accompli that a war may break out on the Korean peninsula any time due to the enemies' reckless moves for invading the DPRK," KCNA said, using the acronym of the North's official name. In an effort to deter Pyongyang, Washington deployed a nuclear-powered submarine in the South Korean port city of Busan this month and flew its long-range bombers in drills with Seoul and Tokyo. The North has described the deployment of Washington's strategic weapons, such as B-52 bombers, in joint drills on the Korean peninsula as "intentional nuclear war provocative moves." The military "should rapidly respond to any possible nuclear crisis and put continuous spurs to the preparations for a great event to suppress the whole territory of south Korea by mobilizing all physical means and forces including nuclear forces in contingency," Kim said. In 2023, the North successfully launched a reconnaissance satellite, after receiving what Seoul claimed was help from Russia in exchange for arms transfers for Ukraine.

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.