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Nairobi, Kenya — Kenyan doctors held new demonstrations Tuesday in their push for better pay and working conditions. The doctors are demanding a commitment from the government to fulfill collective bargaining agreements signed in 2017, but President William Ruto says the country has no money to pay the doctors and asked them to return to work. Thousands of striking doctors and medical trainees chanted, “The doctors united, shall never be defeated,” as they protested outside the Kenyan Parliament. Led by officials of Kenya’s main health care professionals union, the doctors want the government to honor the agreement. “The government has not implemented critical components of this collective bargaining agreement and instead, they have begun to violate it outrightly." said Davji Atellah, secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union. "Despite the inflation, despite the challenges [and] changes on all the other civil servants and public servants, doctors and other health workers have remained without it being considered,' Atellah said. "Instead, we realized that the new doctor interns that are being posted, their salaries were reduced by 91%.” President William Ruto has asked the doctors to call off the strike and go back to work, saying the government is struggling with a huge wage bill and cannot afford to review their salaries. “I am telling our friends, the doctors, that we mind about them. We value the service they give to our nation. But we have to live within our means,” Ruto said. Opposition lawmakers who joined the striking doctors Tuesday accuse the president of using the wage bill as an excuse to deny doctors their due pay at a time when there is exorbitant spending in government. “The doctors must not be paid yesterday, they must not be paid tomorrow, but they must be paid today," said Paul Ongili, also known as “Babu Owino,” an opposition member of parliament. "Ruto took loans, and Ruto is collecting taxes. And those taxes must be used to pay these doctors. Ruto is vicariously liable for all the deaths occurring in the hospitals, for all the deaths occurring in this country, because he has refused to pay the doctors.” Another opposition member, Otiende Amollo, said there was support for the strike. “We want to reassure you that we stand with you, and we stand with your right under the constitution to peacefully demonstrate. Nobody has the authority to outlaw a peaceful demonstration by doctors,” Amollo said. Irene Kenyatta, a final year medical student at the University of Nairobi, was among those who joined the doctors in the demonstrations. “I’m fighting for my future. I went to school to have a bright future. It can’t be the moment that I’m going to finish school you are telling me that I can’t have the bright future after all," she said. "I have invested a lot. If I want a bright future, I have to get the bright future, even if it means coming to the streets to fight for my rights.” The 2017 Kenyan doctors' strike that lasted 100 days is the longest in the country’s history.  Implementation of the collective bargaining agreement that ended that strike is the cause of the current strike, now in its fourth week.

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.

Environmental and human rights activists are calling on the Nigerian government to withhold approval of Shell’s plans to sell off its operations in the Niger Delta — unless the oil giant does more to tackle pollution in the region caused by the industry. Henry Ridgwell reports.

Turkey has announced restrictions on trade with Israel and Turkish Airlines has suspended flights to the country as a consequence of the war in Gaza. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the moves come as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reverses his rapprochement efforts, which proved unpopular among voters in last month’s elections

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.

U.S. voters say the economy is one of their biggest concerns in this year’s presidential election. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns looks at how candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump are approaching an economy that the U.S. Labor Department says is adding jobs and lifting wages.

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.

Many Muslims follow a set of religious dietary laws, and businesses that serve food allowed under these laws are described as "halal." For Muslims in Western countries, finding a halal restaurant can be a challenge, but an app is making it much easier. VOA’s Valdya Baraputri reports. Camera: Rendy Wicaksana

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.

tehran, iran — Gunmen ambushed a police convoy in Iran's restive southeast on Tuesday, killing six police officers, media reports said. The attack on a road in Sistan and Baluchistan province also wounded two more police officers, according to Young Journalists Club, a website affiliated with the state broadcasting company. The report said the Jaish al-Adl militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The report could not be independently verified. The militants have allegedly been fighting for greater rights for the ethnic Baluch minority in the region. Iran and some other nations consider it to be a terrorist group. The attack was the second in as many weeks targeting security forces, indicating deterioration of the security situation in the region. Last week's clashes in three separate areas of the province killed 10 Iranian troops and 18 militants. Six more members of the security forces died later in the hospital. The province, bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, has occasionally been the site of deadly clashes involving militants, armed drug smugglers and Iranian security forces. In December, militants killed nearly a dozen police officers in an attack on a police station in the province. Sistan and Baluchistan is one of the least developed parts of Iran. Relations between the predominantly Sunni Muslim residents of the region and Iran's Shiite theocracy have long been strained.

After months of contentious debate and near government shutdowns, Congress approved appropriations for fiscal year 2024, which President Biden quickly signed into law. The spending package contains several important immigration-related appropriations and provisions. Alarmingly, however, $800 million has been cut from the Shelter and Services Program (SSP) under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and […]

The post The Federal Government Is Cutting Aid for Migrant Shelters and Services. What Will States Do Now? appeared first on Immigration Impact.

Washington — The United States Postal Service (USPS) said on Tuesday it wants to raise the price of first-class mail stamps to 73 cents from 68 cents effective July 14. The proposal, which must be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, would raise mailing services product prices by 7.8%. USPS in November reported a $6.5 billion net loss for the 12 months ending Sept. 30 as first-class mail fell to the lowest volume since 1968. Stamp prices are up 36% over the last four years since early 2019 when they were 50 cents. USPS has been aggressively hiking stamp prices and is in the middle of a 10-year restructuring plan announced in 2021 that aims to eliminate $160 billion in predicted losses over the next decade and had previously forecast 2023 as a breakeven year. USPS has been raising stamp prices twice yearly and has said it expects its "new pricing policy to generate $44 billion in additional revenue" by 2031. A number of lawmakers have raised concerns about USPS planned changes to its processing and delivery network that could impact timely deliveries. First-class mail volume fell 6.1% in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2023, to 46 billion pieces and is down 53% since 2006 -- to the lowest volume since 1968 -- but revenue increased by $515 million because of higher stamp prices.

President Biden signed the final 6-bill “minibus” funding package for fiscal year (FY) 2024 on March 23, which includes funding for the agencies that implement our immigration laws. This was the culmination of months of negotiations mired by attempts to insert restrictive border and immigration policy changes into the budget. While the compromise package doesn’t […]

The post FY 2024 Government Funding Package Is a Mixed-Bag on Immigration appeared first on Immigration Impact.

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 Global Terrorism Index ranks Nigeria eighth among the ten countries most impacted by terrorism, while, according to the Global Organized Crime Index, Nigeria has the world’s sixth “highest criminality rate,” far worse than the U.S., which is ranked 67th.

Johannesburg — Former president Jacob Zuma can contest upcoming national elections in May, a South African court ruled Tuesday. Zuma had appealed a ban by the electoral commission, which said last month that Zuma couldn’t compete for a seat in parliament because the constitution bars people who have been convicted of a crime and sentenced to more than one year in prison from running for office.  Zuma, 81, was forced to resign near the end of his second term in 2018 amid numerous corruption scandals. In 2021, he was sentenced to 15 months in jail for contempt of court after he refused to appear in a corruption investigation.  Zuma’s lawyers argued in court Monday that because the former leader, who served just three months before being released on health grounds, was granted a remission, the ban did not apply.  The court’s decision will not be welcome news to the governing African National Congress party, of which Zuma was a lifelong member before throwing his support behind a newly formed political party called uMkhonto weSizwe, or MK, late last year.  The ANC suspended him, and Zuma — who, despite all the allegations against him, still has massive support in his home province of Kwa Zulu-Natal — has since been campaigning as the face of MK.  National elections on May 29 are widely expected to be the most fiercely contested ever, with surveys suggesting the ANC will win less than 50 percent of the vote for the first time since the advent of democracy in 1994.  Political analyst Sandile Swana broke down what the electoral court’s ruling means.  “The reintroduction of Jacob Zuma into mainstream politics is already eating away at the electoral base of the African National Congress led by Cyril Ramaphosa, and they have now been fortified with this decision of the electoral court that Zuma can be the face of the party, he can campaign, he can be the number one candidate for the party,” Swana said.  Outside the court on Monday, Zuma told supporters he’d be happy to lead the country again.  However, Swana noted, there is still a legal question over whether Zuma could ever become president again, as he was already in his second term when he was forced out.  Rather than directly electing a president, South Africans vote for members of parliament. Whichever party wins a majority then puts their leader forward as president.  Independent analyst Asanda Ngoasheng said Tuesday’s developments are concerning.  “We now have the potential of someone who has faced or is facing multiple allegations of corruption and bankrupting the state being able to kind of keep coming back,” Ngoasheng said. “Is Jacob Zuma really turning out to be Mr. Teflon as he has been called, with nothing ever sticking to him, or will something come that will trip him up?” Last month the ANC went to court to try to prevent Zuma’s new party from using the name uMkhonto weSizwe, which was also the name of the ANC’s disbanded armed wing.

Washington — The Pentagon is not backing off on its support for Israel, despite growing frustration by some U.S. lawmakers that Israel is crossing ethical lines as it goes after Hamas in Gaza. During a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday interrupted multiple times by protesters accusing Israel — and the United States — of having innocent blood on its hands, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pushed back. Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican, asked Austin: "Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza?" Austin replied: "Senator Cotton, we don't have any evidence of genocide." But under repeated questioning, Austin acknowledged Israel’s military can and must do more to differentiate between Hamas militants and civilians. "There’s no question that there have been far too many civilian casualties in this conflict,” he said. Austin said he has warned his Israeli counterpart that a failure to allow the delivery of much more humanitarian aid to Gaza “would just create more terrorism.” As for continued talk by Israel about an operation to root out Hamas in Rafah, the secretary of defense was blunt. “It cannot be what we’ve seen in the past in terms of the type of activities that we've seen in Gaza City and in Khan Yunis,” he said. Not all lawmakers were satisfied with those answers. Some expressed frustration that Washington has been forced to step in. "There's no reason the United States should have to build a pier in the eastern Mediterranean. There's no reason we should have to airdrop supplies,” said Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat. "The pace of humanitarian aid is insufficient." Other lawmakers put blame on Hamas. Austin agreed that the U.S.-designated terror group’s ongoing conduct continues to amount to war crimes. The hearing was about President Joe Biden's budget request for the Department of Defense.

Tehran, Iran — Iran released four conservationists who had worked to save the endangered Asiatic cheetah before they were convicted on espionage charges and spent five years in prison, local media reported on Tuesday. The Tehran newspaper Etemad said authorities released on Monday night Niloufar Bayani and Houman Jowkar, who were part of a group of five activists convicted in 2019 on espionage charges that were internationally criticized. On Tuesday, several Iranian media outlets, including the semiofficial ILNA news agency, said two other conservationists were also released, Sepideh Kashani and Taher Ghadirian. The four are among more than 2,000 prisoners granted amnesty on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, which celebrates the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The United Nations Environment Program on Monday welcomed the release of Bayani and Jowkar, who are members of the nonprofit Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. Iranian authorities released Sam Rajabi, another member of the group, in 2023. The conservationists were arrested in 2018, along with Kavous Seyed-Emami, the 64-year-old founder of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. Seyed-Emami, an Iranian Canadian dual citizen, died while awaiting trial under disputed circumstances. Bayani was sentenced to a 10-year prison term in 2019, while the others received six-to-eight-year terms on espionage charges. The case against members of the nonprofit Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation came as protests and unrest shook parts of Iran amid a government-imposed internet shutdown.