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GENEVA — Conflicts and violence have pushed the number of internally displaced people around the world to a record-breaking high of 75.9 million, with nearly half living in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center.   The report finds conflicts in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Palestinian territories accounted for nearly two-thirds of new displacements due to violence, which in total spanned 66 countries in 2023.   “Over the past two years, we have seen alarming new levels of people having to flee their homes due to conflict and violence, even in regions where the trend had been improving,” Alexandra Bilak, IDMC director said. In a statement to coincide with the publication of the report Tuesday, she said that the millions of people forced to flee in 2023 were just “the tip of the iceberg.” “Conflict, and the devastation it leaves behind, is keeping millions from rebuilding their lives, often for years on end,” she said. The report notes the number of internal displacements, that is the number of times people have been forced to move throughout the year to escape conflict within their country, has increased in the last couple of years. “While we hear a lot about refugees or asylum-seekers who cross the border, the majority of the displaced people actually stay within their country and they are internally displaced,” Christelle Cazabat, head of programs at IDMC, told journalists in Geneva Monday, in advance of the launch of the report. In its 2023 report on forcibly displaced populations, the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, reported that 62.5 million people had been internally displaced people at the end of 2022 compared to 36.4 million refugees who had fled conflict, violence and persecution that same year. According to the IDMC, new internal displacements last year were mostly due to the conflict in Ukraine, which started in 2022, as well as to the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the eruption of war in mid-April 2023 in Sudan. The war in Sudan resulted in 6 million internal displacements last year, which was “more than its previous 14 years combined” and the second most ever recorded in one country during a single year after Ukraine’s 16.9 million in 2022, according to the report. “As you know, it is more than a year that this new wave of conflict erupted (in Sudan) and as of the end of last year, the figure was 9.1 million” displaced in total by the conflict, said Vicente Anzellini, IDMCs global and regional analysis manager and lead author of the report. “This figure is the highest that we have ever reported for any country, this 9.1 million internally displaced people.”   In the Gaza Strip, IDMC calculated 3.4 million displacements in the last three months of 2023, many of whom had been displaced multiple times during this period. It says this number represented 17% of total conflict displacements worldwide during the year, noting that a total of 1.7 million Palestinians were internally displaced in Gaza by the end of the year. The last quarter of 2023 is the period following the Hamas terrorists’ brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7, eliciting a military response from Israel on the Palestinian enclave. “There are many other crises that are actually displacing even more people, but we hear a little bit less of them,” said Cazabat, noting that little is heard about the “acute humanitarian crisis in Sudan” though it has the highest number of people “living in internal displacement because of the conflict at the end of last year.”  In the past five years, the report finds the number of people living in internal displacement because of conflict and violence has increased by 22.6 million.   Sudan topped last year’s list of 66 countries with 9.1 million people displaced internally because of conflict, followed by Syria with more than 7 million, the DRC, Colombia and Yemen.   Besides the total of 68.3 million people who were displaced globally by conflict and violence in 2023, the report says 7.7 million were displaced by natural disasters, including floods, storms, earthquakes and wildfires. As in previous years, the report notes that floods and storms caused the most disaster displacement, including in southeastern Africa, where cyclone Freddy triggered 1.4 million movements across six countries and territories. The earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria triggered 4.7 million displacements, one of the largest disaster displacement events since records began in 2008. Anzellini observed many countries that have experienced conflict displacement also have experienced disaster displacement. “In many situations, they are overlapping. This is the case in Sudan, in South Sudan, but also in Somalia, in the DRC, and other places,” he said. “So, you can imagine fleeing from violence to save your life and then having to escape to higher ground with whatever you can carry as the storm or a flood threatens to wash away your temporary shelter.”  He said that no country is immune to disaster displacement.   “Last year, we recorded disaster displacements in 148 countries and territories, and these include high-income countries such as Canada and New Zealand, which recorded their highest figures ever. “Climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and more intense and that can lead to more displacement, but it does not have to,” he said, noting that climate change is one of many factors that contribute to displacement. “There are other economic, social and political factors that governments can address to actually minimize the impacts of displacement even in the face of climate change,” he said, including early warning systems and the evacuation of populations before a natural disaster is forecast to strike.

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Russia pummeled towns and villages in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region on Monday, days after launching a surprise ground offensive over the border that has forced thousands to evacuate. Russia is becoming more aggressive in the Arctic in and around a remote Norwegian community. Polls closed in India for the fourth phase of its massive general elections on Monday after voters turned out to cast their ballots across several regions. And the release of a new AI model called GPT-4o, capable of realistic voice conversation and able to interact across text and vision is a big step forward in Artificial Intelligence.

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.

Washington says it is working to resolve the many issues in the continuing conflict in Gaza as negotiations continue and Israel plans to launch a full-scale operation in the southern city of Rafah over U.S. objections. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.

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As Russia pushed into northern Ukraine this week, the U.S. presidential race between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump remained focused on another foreign policy crisis -- the war in Gaza. As VOA’s congressional correspondent, Katherine Gypson, reports, keeping American attention on Ukraine could be difficult.

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NEW YORK — The trial of Archegos founder Bill Hwang for alleged securities fraud and market manipulation opened in New York on Monday, and focused on the fund's spectacular 2021 implosion that cost large banks billions of dollars. The family-owned hedge fund run by Hwang had taken huge bets on a few stocks with money borrowed from banks, and when several of those bets turned sour, the fund was unable to meet "margin calls" to cover the losses. The 2021 collapse of the fund sent shock waves through financial markets and caused $10 billion in losses for Credit Suisse, Nomura, Morgan Stanley and other leading financial institutions. Hwang and Patrick Halligan, chief financial officer of Archegos, were both arrested by the FBI in April 2022. "Their alleged crimes jeopardized not only their own company but also innocent investors and financial institutions around the world," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told reporters at the time. The two men, who deny the charges, went on trial in Manhattan federal court. "Bill Hwang was a billionaire, and yet he risked nearly everything because he wanted more: more money, more success, more power," prosecutor Alexandra Rothman told the jury. Archegos was a "house of cards built on manipulation and lies," she was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal. 'Deceptive conduct'  Hwang and Halligan used the firm "as an instrument of market manipulation and fraud, with far-reaching consequences for other participants in the United States securities markets," according to the indictment.  Hwang and other conspirators, including head trader William Tomita, sought to defraud investors by convincing them that shares in the fund's portfolio were on the rise when in fact the stock price increases "were the artificial product of Hwang's manipulative trading and deceptive conduct that caused others to trade," the indictment said. They also repeatedly made "false and misleading statements" to convince others to trade with and extend credit to the firm, it said. The fund used derivatives to take large stakes in top Chinese companies such as Baidu, Tencent Music Entertainment Group and Vipshop Holdings, plus U.S. giants such as ViacomCBS and Discovery. The plan initially worked, and the fund tripled in size in just a year, while Hwang's personal fortune soared to $35 billion from $1.5 billion, turning him and the firm into "significant economic forces in the United States securities markets," the filing said. The move to inflate share prices caused the firm to expand rapidly, "increasing in value from approximately $1.5 billion with $10 billion in exposure in March 2020 to a value of more than $36 billion with $160 billion in exposure at its peak in March 2021," said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the market regulator. Hwang studied in the United States and went to work for Tiger Management, rising to form his own Tiger Asia Management. In 2012, Hwang paid $44 million to settle with the SEC over an insider trading case and shuttered the firm.

mumbai, india — At least four people are dead, 61 injured and more than 40 feared trapped after a massive billboard fell during a rainstorm in India's financial capital of Mumbai on Monday, local officials said. The rainstorm was accompanied by gusty winds, causing the billboard, located next to a busy road in the eastern suburb of Ghatkopar, to collapse on some houses and a gas station. A rescue operation for the people remaining trapped under the billboard is ongoing. Fire services, police, disaster response officials and other authorities are all involved in the rescue efforts, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the civic body that runs Mumbai, said on X. News channels and posts on social media showed the towering billboard billowing in the wind for a while before it gave way and crashed to the ground. The local weather department had predicted that moderate spells of rain, accompanied by gusty winds reaching 40-50 kilometers per hour were likely to occur in parts of Mumbai district on Monday. There were temporary flight disruptions at the Mumbai airport, with 15 flight diversions and operations suspended for a little over an hour, Asian News International, in which Reuters has a minority stake, reported. Mumbai, like several Indian cities, is prone to severe flooding and rain-related accidents during the monsoon season, which usually lasts from June until September every year.

islamabad — The United States and Pakistan have concluded their latest round of counterterrorism talks, agreeing to intensify their collaboration in the fight against terrorist organizations like the Pakistani Taliban and a regional Islamic State affiliate. Washington and Islamabad issued a joint statement simultaneously on Monday, saying the May 10 bilateral dialogue hosted by the U.S. was centered on tackling “the most pressing challenges to regional and global security.” The meeting came amid a recent surge in terrorism in Pakistan, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people, including security forces. The violence is mostly claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistani Taliban, who are believed to operate from sanctuaries in neighboring Afghanistan. “Pakistan and the United States recognize that a partnership to counter ISIS-Khorasan, TTP, and other terrorist organizations will advance security in the region and serve as a model of bilateral and regional cooperation to address transnational terrorism threats,” the statement read. The statement used an acronym for an Afghanistan-based Islamic State affiliate known as IS-Khorasan, which routinely carries out terrorist attacks in the country and beyond its borders. Pakistani and U.S. officials at Friday’s talks in Washington resolved to step up communication and continue collaboration “to detect and deter violent extremism through whole-of-government approaches.” According to the statement, the two sides stressed the importance of capacity building, including sharing technical expertise and best practices, providing investigative and prosecutorial assistance and enhancing border security infrastructure and training. Islamabad maintains that TTP-led terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil have intensified since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021 following the withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO forces after a 20-year counterterrorism mission. Pakistani authorities allege that members of the Afghan Taliban are facilitating TTP fighters in carrying out cross-border attacks. The Taliban government in Kabul denies the allegations, saying it is not allowing anyone to threaten other countries, including Pakistan, from Afghan soil. In a new report slated for release on Tuesday, the U.S. Institute of Peace has warned that Afghanistan “presents growing space for terrorist groups compared to the period before the U.S. withdrawal.” USIP published a summary of the study on its website, noting that ISIS-K poses “a rising threat with reach beyond the immediate region, greater than during the pre-withdrawal period,” and the TTP "has also returned as a regional security threat.” The report also stated that al-Qaida and its South Asia affiliate “continue to maintain ties with and receive support” from Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.

islamabad — The United States and Pakistan have concluded their latest round of counterterrorism talks, agreeing to intensify their collaboration in the fight against terrorist organizations like the Pakistani Taliban and a regional Islamic State affiliate. Washington and Islamabad issued a joint statement simultaneously on Monday, saying the May 10 bilateral dialogue hosted by the U.S. was centered on tackling “the most pressing challenges to regional and global security.” The meeting came amid a recent surge in terrorism in Pakistan, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people, including security forces. The violence is mostly claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistani Taliban, who are believed to operate from sanctuaries in neighboring Afghanistan. “Pakistan and the United States recognize that a partnership to counter ISIS-Khorasan, TTP, and other terrorist organizations will advance security in the region and serve as a model of bilateral and regional cooperation to address transnational terrorism threats,” the statement read. The statement used an acronym for an Afghanistan-based Islamic State affiliate known as IS-Khorasan, which routinely carries out terrorist attacks in the country and beyond its borders. Pakistani and U.S. officials at Friday’s talks in Washington resolved to step up communication and continue collaboration “to detect and deter violent extremism through whole-of-government approaches.” According to the statement, the two sides stressed the importance of capacity building, including sharing technical expertise and best practices, providing investigative and prosecutorial assistance and enhancing border security infrastructure and training. Islamabad maintains that TTP-led terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil have intensified since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021 following the withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO forces after a 20-year counterterrorism mission. Pakistani authorities allege that members of the Afghan Taliban are facilitating TTP fighters in carrying out cross-border attacks. The Taliban government in Kabul denies the allegations, saying it is not allowing anyone to threaten other countries, including Pakistan, from Afghan soil. In a new report slated for release on Tuesday, the U.S. Institute of Peace has warned that Afghanistan “presents growing space for terrorist groups compared to the period before the U.S. withdrawal.” USIP published a summary of the study on its website, noting that ISIS-K poses “a rising threat with reach beyond the immediate region, greater than during the pre-withdrawal period,” and the TTP "has also returned as a regional security threat.” The report also stated that al-Qaida and its South Asia affiliate “continue to maintain ties with and receive support” from Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.

washington — President Joe Biden on Monday issued an order blocking a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining firm from owning land near a Wyoming nuclear missile base.  The order forces the divestment of property operated as a crypto mining facility near Francis E. Warren Air Force Base. It also forces the removal of certain equipment owned by MineOne Partners Ltd., a firm that is partly owned by the Chinese state.  This comes as the U.S. is slated on Tuesday to issue major new tariffs on electric vehicles, semiconductors, solar equipment and medical supplies imported from China, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the plan.  The divestment order was made in coordination with the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States — a little-known but potentially powerful government agency tasked with investigating corporate deals for national security concerns that holds power to force the company to change.  A 2018 law granted CFIUS the authority to review real estate transactions near sensitive sites across the U.S., including F.E. Warren Air Force Base.  The order was vague about the specific national security concerns, with the Treasury Department saying only that there were issues with "specialized and foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities" that "presented a significant national security risk."  According to CFIUS, the purchase was not filed with the body, as required, until after the panel received a public tip.  Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who serves as the chairperson of CFIUS, said the role of the committee is "to ensure that foreign investment does not undermine our national security, particularly as it relates to transactions that present risk to sensitive U.S. military installations as well as those involving specialized equipment and technologies."

pittsburgh — Dr. Cyril Wecht, a pathologist and attorney whose biting cynicism and controversial positions on high-profile deaths such as President John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination caught the attention of prosecutors and TV viewers alike, died Monday. He was 93. Wecht's death was announced by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, which did not disclose a cause or place of death, saying only that he "passed away peacefully." Wecht's almost meteoric rise to fame began in 1964, three years after he reentered civilian life after serving a brief stint at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. At the time, Wecht was serving as an assistant district attorney in Allegheny County and a pathologist in a Pittsburgh hospital. The request came from a group of forensic scientists: Review the Warren Commission's report that concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated Kennedy. And Wecht, with his usual thoroughness, did just that — the beginning of what became a lifelong obsession to prove his theory that there was more than one shooter involved in the killing. After reviewing the autopsy documents, discovering the president's brain had gone missing, and viewing an amateur video of the assassination, Wecht concluded the commission's findings that there was a single bullet involved in the attack that killed Kennedy and injured Texas Governor John Connally was "absolute nonsense." Wecht's lecture circuit demonstration detailing his theory that it was impossible for one bullet to cause the damage it did on that November day in Dallas made its way into Oliver Stone's movie "JFK" after the director consulted with him. It became the famous courtroom scene showing the path of the "magic bullet." Wecht's outspokenness on the Kennedy assassination, and the publicity he generated, later made him a go-to pathologist on dozens of other high-profile cases ranging from Elvis Presley to JonBenet Ramsey, the child beauty queen whose death remains unsolved. At the homicide trial of school head Jean Harris, accused of murdering "Scarsdale Diet" physician Herman Tarnower, Wecht testified unsuccessfully for the defense. His testimony at the trial of Claus von Bulow may have helped acquit Von Bulow of charges he tried to kill his heir wife, Sunny. After studying Elvis' autopsy report, Wecht concluded, and shared his findings on national television, that Presley had likely died of an overdose, not heart disease. His findings spurred Tennessee officials to reopen the case in 1994, though, in the end, the official cause of death remained unchanged. In the months preceding the O.J. Simpson homicide trial in 1994, Wecht was a frequent talk show guest, conjecturing on the "Today" show and "Good Morning America" about the significance of blood samples and other evidence. When Michael Jackson died in 2009, Wecht again took to the airwaves, discussing the deadly mix of drugs and sedatives that killed the King of Pop. Wecht detailed many of his cases in six books. In Cause of Death — a book authored by Wecht, his son Benjamin, and Mark Curriden, formerly a writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Dallas Morning News — attorney Alan Dershowitz praised the pathologist as the "Sherlock Holmes of forensic sciences." The son of a grocer, Wecht attended undergraduate school at the University of Pittsburgh and later received medical and law degrees from the same school. He served two stints as Allegheny County's coroner, ending his second in 2006, when he resigned after being indicted with fraud and theft charges. His first term, from 1970 to 1980, was also fraught. Then, too, he was accused of using county morgue facilities for his private forensic business while coroner. He paid $200,000 in restitution following a lengthy legal fight. He also served a four-year term as an Allegheny County commissioner. A run for U.S. Senate against John Heinz III in 1982 was unsuccessful.

new york — Less than three years ago, Mary Ann and David Giordano were taking turns lying on the living room floor with their Afghan hound, Frankie, hand-feeding the desperately ill dog anything she would eat.  She had developed severe kidney problems after contracting Lyme disease, despite being on medications meant to repel the ticks that carry the bacteria that cause it. Veterinarians weren't sure she would survive.  Yet on Monday, Frankie was at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, healthy and ready to compete. She would face off against over a dozen other Afghan hounds — including the winner of last month's World Dog Show in Croatia — for a chance to advance to the next round of the United States' most prestigious canine event.  "It was really tough," Mary Ann Giordano said, her voice halting as she described Frankie's eight-month ordeal. "But she made it."  For all the pooch pageantry of Westminster — the coiffed poodles, the top-knotted toy dogs, the formality of dogs trotting around a ring — it's also an illustration of the bond people form with dogs, and what each will do for the other.  Like setting up an array of box fans and even a portable dehumidifier to get a puli's long, thick cords dry after a bath, a process that can take 24 hours, in Valarie Cheimis' experience. The cords form naturally, though owners aid the process by separating them.  Why go through all that?  "These are fun dogs. They're full of personality," Cheimis said as she petted Csoki, one of her pulik (the proper plural), ahead of ring time.  Sure, the Hungarian herding breed can be stubborn and barky, Cheimis said, but Csoki also looks after her geese and chickens at home in Kingfield, Maine, even lying down next to the goslings.  Mister, a bloodhound who won a merit award in his breed Monday, also puts his breed's ancient instincts to work. He's qualified to trail missing people, though his calls so far have been resolved before they got into the field, said co-owner, breeder and handler Renee Wagner of Niagara Falls, New York.  The 148th Westminster show kicked off Saturday with an agility competition — won by a mixed-breed dog for the first time since Westminster added the event in 2014. Nimble, the winner, was handled by Cynthia Hornor, who took the trophy with a border collie last year.  Monday marked the start of the traditional judging that leads to the best in show prize, to be awarded Tuesday night. Semifinals begin Monday night, pitting the winners of each breed against others in their "group," such as hounds or herding dogs.  The 2,500-plus first-round entrants range from tiny Yorkshire terriers to towering Great Danes. They include a newly added breed, the Lancashire heeler, represented Monday by a single contestant named Mando.  If he knew a lot was riding on his little shoulders, he didn't show it as he appeared in the first-round ring and someone in the audience yelled, "Yay! History!"  "He just has a rock-star attitude," handler Jessica Plourde said afterward.  The show also was a first for Alfredo Delgado and Maria Davila, who had traveled from Juncos, Puerto Rico, with their French bulldog, Duncan.  Their path started when Delgado's brother found a lost Frenchie. It was soon reunited with its owner, but Delgado was intrigued by the breed.  Fast-forward some years, and he was in the Westminster ring as Duncan's breeder, owner and handler, with Davila cheering him on.  "We made a dream come true to be here," Davila said afterward. "To share with experienced people in the ring — that was awesome."  Westminster routinely attracts a roster of dog showing's heavy hitters. This year's field includes Stache, a Sealyham terrier who won the National Dog Show televised last Thanksgiving, and Comet, a shih tzu who won the huge American Kennel Club National Championship that was televised on December 31.  Comet is "just everything you would want in a shih tzu," co-owner, breeder and handler Luke Ehricht said after Comet won his breed Monday morning. With a flowing coat like a vanilla-and-caramel ice cream sundae that's melting onto the table, the dog looked up at his handler with the sweet expression that's prized in the breed.  "He's a very sweet, loving dog" who knows when it's time to perform and when it's time to relax, said Ehricht, of Monclova, Ohio.  Later, Frankie, the recovered Afghan hound, and her littermate Belle stood side-by-side in their breed's ring. So did the Giordanos, an Annandale, New Jersey, couple who have been side-by-side since high school. David handled Frankie, while his wife led Belle.  Both dogs took jaunty spins around the ring, but neither won. Nor did the recent World Dog Show winner, named Zaida. The ribbon went to another highly ranked Afghan, named Louis.  "This breed's supposed to be 'the king of dogs,' and he knows he is," handler and co-owner Alicia Jones said.