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Armenian Americans in Southern California celebrated their culture with a flowered float in the annual Rose Parade, moving on from a turbulent year that included Armenians' exodus from their former enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan's borders. Genia Dulot has our story from Pasadena.

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.

Taipei, Taiwan — China is increasing pressure on Taiwan ahead of the island’s hotly contested presidential and legislative election on Jan. 13, doubling down on the rhetoric that reunification with China is inevitable and conducting military maneuvers in areas around Taiwan. Some analysts say China’s efforts to ratchet up pressure on Taiwan reflect Beijing’s longstanding tactics. “With every election and every period between elections, Beijing uses a combination of carrots and sticks to both woo and coerce the people in Taiwan,” J. Michael Cole, senior adviser on Countering Foreign Authoritarian Influence with the International Republican Institute in Taiwan, told VOA in a written response. In his view, Beijing will adjust the intensity of its strategies to fit the conditions in Taiwan. “With [opposition candidates] vocal in their rhetoric that a vote for [the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate Lai Ching-te] is tantamount to a vote for war, it is no surprise that Beijing would weigh in with highly visible reminders of what it can do kinetically,” Cole added. During his New Year’s address, Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated that Taiwan and China will surely be reunited. “All Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” he said. In addition to the warning from Xi, the Taiwan Affairs Office, which oversees cross-strait relations in Beijing, also called on Taiwanese people to promote “peaceful unification,” saying it’s the common desire of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. “We firmly believe that as long as compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are united and join hands, we will be able to create a better future for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and we will be able to accomplish the great cause of reunification of the motherland,” Song Tao, the head of the Taiwan Affairs Office, said in his new year message released Tuesday. Cole in Taipei said Beijing wants to underscore the inevitability of the reunification between Taiwan and China and further constrain Taiwanese people’s choices. “Beijing’s messaging on the unification question is contingent on its reading of the mood in Taiwan and what tactical advantages it thinks it may have,” he told VOA. Gray zone tactics around Taiwan with balloons Apart from repeating and emphasizing the rhetoric of reunification, China continues to conduct gray zone operations around Taiwan, deploying military aircraft, naval vessels, tugboats, and balloons near the island. Gray zone operations refer to the use of military and non-military offensive tactics to intimidate or coerce. According to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, China has sent dozens of military aircraft and naval vessels near Taiwan. In addition, Taiwan’s defense ministry detected at least six Chinese balloons since Jan. 1 that have crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, with four flying directly above Taiwan. Some experts say the deployment of balloons is a relatively new gray zone tactic that China has adopted since last month. “The deployment of balloons is an intentional move by Beijing to influence Taiwanese voters and showcase their capabilities to intrude Taiwan’s airspace,” Su Tzu-yun, a military expert at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told VOA by phone. Su said the defense ministry’s information shows that the Chinese balloons generally operate between 12,000 feet to 20,000 feet, approximately the same height as civilian airplanes. “There is a potential flight safety problem and this shows that Beijing’s approach is irresponsible,” he said. Taiwan’s coast guard also drove away four Chinese tugboats that were sailing about four nautical miles off the island’s southern coast Tuesday. While China’s intimidation campaigns have traditionally resulted in election outcomes viewed as unfavorable by Beijing, some experts say Chinese authorities are still trying to test whether its influence campaigns can lead more Taiwanese voters preferring peace across the Taiwan Strait to come out and vote for candidates favoring closer ties with China. “Beijing has noticed that Taiwan’s 2024 election campaign has focused on corruption scandals rather than cross-strait relations, so they may think if they further increase the pressure on Taiwan, they may at least prevent the ruling Democratic Progressive Party from securing a majority in the legislature, which would be a favorable outcome for the Chinese government,” Yao-Yuan Yeh, a political scientist at the University of St. Thomas in Texas, told VOA by phone. Facing the wide range of Chinese attempts to influence Taiwan’s election, Taiwanese officials continue to highlight and expose Beijing’s efforts, hoping to maintain public awareness. Despite these efforts, Yeh in Texas said that message may be overshadowed by other information related to the election. “[One possible scenario] is that Taiwanese people will be aware of China’s intimidation campaign but they probably won’t track the development of the campaign,” he told VOA, adding that it could desensitize Taiwanese people from threats posed by China in the long run. “This would be the goal that China has long been hoping to achieve,” he 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.

New Delhi — Pappu Kumar has harvested his first crop of turmeric from the farm that he abandoned many years ago when he migrated to work in the Indian capital. He hopes the spice, which is widely used in Indian cooking, will turn his farm in Hardial village in North India into a lucrative venture. “Traditional crops that we used to plant like corn and wheat often got diseases. Stray animals or even wild animals like deer used to enter the fields and eat the crops. That does not happen with turmeric,” said Kumar. Disheartened with the challenges of tilling their land and the meager income it yielded, he was among thousands who migrated from rural areas to work in towns and cities.  Over the years, vast tracts of farmland in Himachal Pradesh state became fallow. But when the COVID-19 pandemic dried up livelihoods in cities and triggered a wave of reverse migration into villages, Kumar was among hundreds who returned. Now many of the returnees are exploring alternative farming as they try to rebuild their lives in the countryside. Kumar was inspired to grow turmeric by a man who had transformed his own farms by planting the spice. “I grew turmeric because this is a hardy crop that is not affected by diseases, it itself has antibiotic properties,” said former army colonel P.C. Rana who came back to his village after he retired. Growing turmeric needs less labor and water. Moreover, crops are not attacked by animals such as monkeys, which have become a huge menace for farmers in India. Displaced by shrinking forests, they scour farms for food and destroy crops worth millions of dollars every year. After studying the cultivation of turmeric in Indian states where it was being grown, Rana planted a variety with a high percentage of the compound curcumin which gives the spice its yellow color and health benefits. The “turmeric man of Himachal Pradesh” as he is now known, grows it organically, which protects the soil and yields higher profits. "I follow the principles of natural farming — no tractors should till the fields, no chemicals and pesticides should be used, and weeds and crop stubble should be recycled to fertilize the land,” he said. Rana’s success has prompted scores of farmers to cultivate turmeric. Others are growing herbs such as aloe vera and lemongrass, for which demand is increasing and which are also not attacked by animals. In the hilly state that is crisscrossed by cold water streams, other options to traditional agriculture are also getting attention. Those whose homes lie close to streams have built ponds to breed trout, a fish for which demand is increasing hugely in affluent cities and among tens of thousands of tourists who visit the state. Since starting his trout farm about three years ago, Arjun Kumar, a former building contractor, has built a successful venture selling trout and setting up a hatchery to produce fertilized fish eggs. “In the last two years I have sold fish seed for $6,000 a year and trout worth about $70 a day,” Kumar says. The hope is that such alternative farming ventures will boost rural economies and create new livelihoods. Nearly half of India’s population relies on agriculture for a living, but over the years, farm incomes have stagnated. India’s agriculture is dominated by wheat and rice cultivation – a trend the government had encouraged in the 1960s and 1970s due to severe shortages of food grains in the country. But with India now producing surplus rice and wheat, experts say farmers, who complain of dwindling incomes, need to explore other options. “Moving to growing alternate crops or other farm ventures is a step in the right direction,” according to Devendra Sharma, an agriculture expert. “I always advise farmers to diversify at least part of their land away from staples such as wheat. This is a trend which even local governments are now encouraging.” The hope is that new farm-based ventures will also boost employment in a country struggling to create jobs for its 1.4 billion people. With two-thirds of the population under 35, joblessness is highest among the young. “Trout fish farming is a good venture for unemployed youth. After the COVID-19 pandemic, so many have come back to their home and are searching for such opportunities,” according to Madhu Sharma, head of the fisheries department at the CSK Agricultural University in Palampur. There are pitfalls ahead — such as global warming which is altering weather patterns. “Water temperature is changing. That impacts the breeding of fish. The water temperature rose by one or two degrees in May and June. That puts stress on the fish,” pointed out Sharma. But despite challenges, many are vowing to persevere in their effort to resettle in the countryside, where they say life is better than in the crowded towns and mega cities where they worked for decades. Pappu Kumar has made a modest beginning by cultivating turmeric, but he hopes to expand this year. “Rather than search for work outside, I want to turn my farm into a profitable business. I still have a lot to learn about turmeric cultivation, but I will plant it across more land,” said the optimistic farmer as he prepared to take the harvested crop to sell in the local market.

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.