By Salem Solomon, VOA Staff Writer - In 2003, Roger Thurow was a journalist assigned to cover the looming famine in Ethiopia. Upon arriving in the country, he was given a warning by a World Food Program worker who told him that “looking into the eyes of someone dying of hunger becomes a disease of the soul.” Thurow soon found that to be all too true. While visiting the emergency feeding tents he met a little boy named Hagirso who was five years old and weighed under 14 kilograms when his dad ca... Read more

By VOA Digital Journalist Salem Solomon - A U.S. congressional delegation returned from central Africa last week with one overriding question: what can be done to stop South Sudan's war and help the refugees streaming into Uganda, suffering from a lack of food? Representative Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, says the answer lies with the parties in South Sudan's conflict, especially the government and military, which have been accused of blocking food aid to needy populations, using ra... Read more

By Star Ledger Staff Writer Jonathan Salant - The new KC-46A refueling tankers will be delivered first to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and then to the second base selected to house the planes, according to Rep. Chris Smith. Smith (R-4th Dist.), whose district includes part of the base, called the Air Force announcement "a big win for the base and a monumental step that will further secure its future and thousands of New Jersey jobs for decades come." He said the refueling mission "allows the... Read more

By Asbury Park Press Staff Writer Kala Kachmar - Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst will get the newest refueling tankers in 2021 — two years before the other base also chosen to get them. For the Joint Base, that means $154 million in military construction sooner than originally expected and insurance of the economic viability of the base for decades to come, officials said. The 24 new KC-46A Pegasus planes are expected to secure a future for the base that's been on the chopping block in the past... Read more

By Herb Jackson, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT - Eric M. Mellinger was a Marine colonel directing humanitarian relief in the Philippines in 2013 when a delegation from Congress showed up that included Rep. Chris Smith, a 36-year veteran and dean of the New Jersey delegation. “He looks over and he goes, ‘Do you remember me?’ ” Smith, R-Mercer County, recalled last week. “I didn’t remember his face, but I did remember the name.” Mellinger was a high school student from Old Bridge and Smith was serving ... Read more

By Asbury Park Press Staff Writer Jerry Carino - T.J. Fearon paid a price for serving in the Vietnam War. He was poisoned by Agent Orange and came home with post-traumatic stress disorder. “I’m not a hero,” the Navy man said, “but I did my job.” He documented that job as part of the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress, which has been collecting firsthand accounts of war since 2000. While providing his testimony a few years back, Fearon offhandedly told his interviewer, “This will... Read more

By Catholic News Service WASHINGTON -- A U.S. congressman told attendees at a Washington summit on Christian persecution that "more than ever before, vigorous U.S. leadership and diplomacy are needed to address religious freedom violations globally." "Religious persecution is festering and exploding around the world. What has been unconscionable for decades, centuries, has gotten worse," Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, said May 12 in remarks at the World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christian... Read more

By David Levinsky, BCT staff writer - The first KC-46 air-refueling tankers aren't due to arrive at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst until 2020, but members of New Jersey's congressional delegation are already mobilizing to get the base ready. U.S. Reps. Tom MacArthur, Chris Smith, Frank LoBiondo and Donald Norcross teamed on a letter sent to U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis on Wednesday seeking the inclusion of funding for construction of new hangars for the KC-46 tankers in the upcoming ... Read more

By Herb Jackson Gannett Staff Writer - Flight attendants, hotel clerks and government purchasing officers would join prosecutors and diplomats in the global fight against trafficking human beings for sex or labor under a bill sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith that the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved in a unanimous voice vote Wednesday. Smith, a Republican from Mercer County, was an original sponsor of the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and the latest renewal of that law -- most fe... Read more

by KALHAN ROSENBLATT and CHANDELIS R. DUSTER Members of Congress have introduced a bipartisan bill named for American abolitionist Frederick Douglass that would seek to curb human trafficking. The new legislation, titled the "Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act of 2017," is co-sponsored by New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith and California Democrat Rep. Karen Bass. Seven other sponsors have put their support behind the bill, which would reauthorize $130 milli... Read more