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London — British police have charged three men with assisting the Hong Kong intelligence service amid growing concern that hostile states are trying to interfere with democracy and economic activity in the U.K.  The three men were among 11 people arrested earlier this month in Yorkshire and London by counterterrorism police using provisions of a new law that allows suspects in national security and espionage cases to be detained without warrant. The eight other suspects were released without charge.  Chi Leung (Peter) Wai, 38, Matthew Trickett, 37, and Chung Biu Yuen, 63, are also charged with foreign interference, the Metropolitan Police Service said. They will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday.  "A number of arrests were made and searches carried out across England as part of this investigation," Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's counterterrorism command, said in a statement. "While led from London, the Counter Terrorism Policing network has been crucial to disrupting this activity."  The announcement comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak prepares to deliver a speech on Monday in which he is expected to say that Britain is facing an increasingly dangerous future due to threats from an "axis of authoritarian states," including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Tensions with China flared last year after a parliamentary researcher was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing, charges that Chinese officials called a "malicious smear."  Hong Kong's security bureau, Hong Kong police and the office of China's foreign ministry in Hong Kong didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.  The British government last year passed a new national security act that gave police additional powers to tackle foreign espionage. The legislation was needed to combat the "ever-evolving" threat of foreign interference and in "response to the threat of hostile activity from states targeting the U.K.'s democracy, economy, and values," the government said.  The arrests in the current case were made on May 1 and 2. The investigation is continuing, police 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.

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.

MANILA — The Philippine coast guard is committed to sustaining a presence in a disputed area of the South China Sea to ensure China does not carry out reclamation activities at the Sabina Shoal, its spokesperson said Monday. The coast guard said on Saturday it had deployed a ship to Sabina Shoal, where it accused China of building an artificial island, amid an escalating maritime row, adding two other vessels were in rotational deployment in the area. Since the ship's deployment in mid-April, the coast guard said it had discovered piles of dead and crushed coral that had been dumped on the sandbars of Sabina Shoal, altering their sizes and elevation. Philippine coast guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela told a press conference on Monday the coast guard had to make sure it was able to prevent  "China from carrying out a successful reclamation in Sabina Shoal." He said the coast guard was committed to maintaining a presence at the shoal, which Manila calls Escoda. Located within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, the shoal is the rendezvous point for vessels carrying out resupply missions to Filipino troops stationed on a grounded warship at the Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila and China have had frequent maritime run-ins. China has carried out extensive land reclamation on some islands in the South China Sea, building air force and other military facilities, causing concern in Washington and around the region. Tarriela believed the coast guard had been effective in deterring China from doing small-scale reclamation. It had not documented any activity from the Chinese vessels present in Sabina Shoal since it deployed its multi-role response vessel there in mid-April. "China does not want to get caught," Tarriela said. There was no immediate comment from the Chinese Embassy in Manila on Tarriela's remarks. "China has indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea Islands and the adjacent waters," it said in a statement on Sunday. China claims almost all of the vital waterway, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in 2016 that Beijing's claims had no basis under international law, a decision that China rejects.

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SYDNEY — An investigation by Australia's public broadcaster accuses China's secret police service of tracking down dissidents living overseas. A former Chinese spy now living in Australia told Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s Four Corners program that a unit of the Chinese secret service had been operational in Sydney as recently as last year. The spy - named only as "Eric" - has described a shadowy world of deception and abduction.  The former Chinese agent told ABC how he’d been ordered by the secret police in Beijing to target dissidents overseas, including in India, Thailand, Canada and Australia. ‘Eric’ said he would gain their confidence and lure them to countries where they could be kidnapped and sent back to China.   He told journalists from the investigative Four Corners program that he fled last year to Australia.   Australia’s domestic spy agency has not confirmed any of the details of the alleged Chinese spy ring. ‘Eric’ said he worked as an undercover agent for a unit within China's federal police and security agency, the Ministry of Public Security, between 2008 and early 2023. The specialist division is called the Political Security Protection Bureau, or the 1st Bureau, and targets so-called enemies of the Chinese state.  It is alleged to have been working in Sydney as recently as last year. ‘Eric’ told the ABC that he was speaking out to expose the truth. “I believe the public has a right to know the secret world.  I worked for the Chinese Political Security Department for 15 years," he said.  "Today, it is still the darkest department of the Chinese government.” The ABC said is the first time anyone from China’s secret police has ever spoken publicly. It is using a pseudonym to protect his identity. Peter Mattis is a China analyst at the Jamestown Foundation, a U.S-based conservative defense policy research organization.  He told the ABC’s Four Corners program that Beijing wants to curb dissent among the Chinese diaspora. “The Political Protection Bureau has also had a role in trying to silence dissidents as well as to map dissident networks.” The ABC has said that it has seen hundreds of secret documents and correspondence that back up ‘Eric’s’ allegations. The broadcaster has reported that Chinese authorities have used anti-corruption campaigns to return more than 12,000 alleged fugitives to China in the past decade. Chinese authorities have not yet commented on the allegations made in the Australian documentary. There has also been no response from ASIO, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization to the claims.

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JAKARTA — Indonesia's Ibu volcano erupted on Monday morning, spewing thick columns of grey ash several kilometers into the sky, the country's volcanology agency said. The volcano on the remote island of Halmahera erupted at 9:12 a.m. for about five minutes, projecting ash into the sky as high as 5 kilometers, officials said. A smaller eruption was also recorded on Friday. The alert status of the volcano remains at the second-highest level, Hendra Gunawan, head of Indonesia's Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Centre, said in a statement. All activities within a 5-kilometer radius of the volcano were prohibited, he added. "If it starts to rain ash, we recommend people who are near the volcano to wear a mask and glasses," Hendra said. Footage of the eruption shared by the center showed clouds of gray ash billowing from the crater. The official said a booming noise was also heard. No evacuation of residents has been reported so far. Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and has 127 active volcanoes, according to the volcanology agency.  In recent weeks North Sulawesi's Ruang volcano has erupted, spewing incandescent lava as lightning flashed from its crater. The eruption prompted authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people living on a nearby island. In December, more than 20 people were killed after Marapi volcano, one of Sumatra's most active volcanoes, erupted and belched gray clouds of ash as high as 3 kilometers.

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.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a new defense minister, nominating civilian Andrei Belousov, a former deputy prime minister who specializes in economics, for the job more than two years into the Ukraine war. Putin wants Sergei Shoigu, defense minister since 2012 and a long-standing ally, to become the secretary of Russia's Security Council replacing incumbent Nikolai Patrushev. We talk to Rajan Menon, director of the Grand Strategy program at Defense Priorities and Sergey Sanovich is a Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday delivered some of the Biden administration’s strongest public criticism yet of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, saying Israeli tactics have meant “a horrible loss of life of innocent civilians” but failed to neutralize Hamas leaders and fighters and could drive a lasting insurgency. Israeli forces pushed deeper into Rafah.

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 United States has two main political parties – Democrat and Republican. A third-party candidate is a term used for someone who runs as a candidate for a party that forms outside of the two main political parties. A third party is most often discussed during a presidential campaign.