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This is VOA News. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd. President Joe Biden welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to the White House Friday for his first visit from a foreign leader since taking office. At a joint news conference, the president said Tokyo and Washington must have a good partnership to ensure the Indo-Pacific region remains free and open. "We committed to working together to take on the challenges from China and on issues like the East China Sea, the South China Sea, as well as North Korea, to ensure a future of a free and open Indo-Pacific." The meeting underscores Biden's emphasis on alliances to deal with an increasingly assertive China. Biden and Suga are also looking to counter messaging from Chinese President Xi Jinping that America and democracies in general are on the decline after the political turmoil and international withdrawal that marked Donald Trump's presidency.
The United Nation says it has suspended aid operations in the Nigerian town of Damasak after armed groups attacked aid workers and humanitarian agencies. The U.N. says up to 65,000 people have fled fighting in the town located near the border with Niger. The spokesman for the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke, said Friday that agencies were forced to shut down because of targeted attacks by insurgents against aid workers, humanitarian assets and facilities. "And recently, also conducting house to house searches, reportedly looking for civilians identified as aid workers." Violence in the Lake Chad Basin has uprooted 3.3 million people since 2009, when the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram launched its insurgency. Visit VOA voanews.com for more. This is VOA News.
