Paris — Seven out of 10 French high-speed trains will run Saturday on three key routes, a day after saboteurs paralyzed much of the train network as the Olympic Games started in Paris. No immediate claim of responsibility was made for the coordinated overnight arson attacks on cabling boxes at junctions strategically picked out north, southwest …
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MADRID — The global cruise industry expects to carry 10% more passengers by 2028 than the 31.7 million who took cruise holidays in 2023, when the sector surpassed pre-pandemic levels, but sees some routes exposed to protests over overtourism. Long criticized for its impact on the environment and coastal communities, the industry has ordered 57 more …
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paris — They’re often thought to have practically cornered the market on romance, yet they also can bicker and squabble as though they were Olympic sports. They practically wrote the book on fraternity, liberty and equality — words inscribed on their schools and town halls — but also recognize that those ideals aren’t always applied to …
Read more “‘Les Français,’ Olympic hosts, can’t be pigeonholed”
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s governor on Wednesday signed a law that prohibits discrimination against people wearing Afros, curls, locs, twists, braids and other hairstyles in the racially diverse U.S. territory. The move was celebrated by those who had long demanded explicit protection related to work, housing, education and public services. “It’s a victory …
Read more “Puerto Rico bans discrimination against those who wear Afros, other styles”
KYIV, Ukraine — Signing an agreement with Russia to stop the war with Ukraine would amount to signing a deal with the devil, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as pressure mounts on the country to seek an end to more than two years of fighting. A deal would only buy time for …
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On March 17, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. They are charged with responsibility for the illegal deportation of children from occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia. …
NORWICH, Conn. — Veteran diplomat Martin S. Indyk, an author and leader at prominent U.S. think tanks who devoted years to finding a path toward peace in the Middle East, died Thursday. He was 73. His wife, Gahl Hodges Burt, confirmed in a phone call that he died from complications of esophageal cancer at the couple’s …
Read more “Former US diplomat and author Martin Indyk dies at 73”
PARIS — Vandals targeted France’s high-speed train network with a series of coordinated actions that brought major disruption to some of the country’s busiest rail lines ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony Friday. The state-owned railway operator said arsonists had targeted installations along the lines connecting Paris with cities such as Lille in the north, …
Read more “Arsonists attack French railways hours before Olympic ceremony”
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia overnight attacked Ukrainian energy facilities in two regions with drones, disrupting electricity supplies, Ukraine’s national power grid operator said Friday. Power supplies have, however, been already restored to most consumers in the northern Chernihiv and Zhytomyr regions, Ukrenergo said. Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 20 out of the 22 Russian attack drones launched …
Read more “Russian drones attack Ukrainian power facilities overnight, causing disruptions”
LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s video game performers voted Thursday to go on strike, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections. The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen …
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Washington — Over the past three weeks, Shirali Abdurehim, a 39-year-old Uyghur honey seller in Istanbul, has been detained in an immigration detention center. Abdurehim, a father of nine children, has lived in Turkey with his wife since 2013 as a refugee after fleeing repression in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China. He is …
Read more “Rights advocates cite uptick in Uyghur refugee detentions in Turkey”
kyiv, ukraine — The former prisoners of war still puzzle over the strange events leading up to the night now seared into their memories, when an explosion ripped through the Russian-controlled Olenivka prison barracks and killed so many comrades two years ago. Among the survivors: Kyrylo Masalitin, whose months in captivity and long beard age him …
Athens — Greece formally approved an offer to buy 20 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters from the United States as part of a major defense overhaul, government officials said Thursday. “The letter of acceptance for the F-35s has been signed and sent to the United States,” Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said while visiting a military air base …
Read more “Greece signs deal to buy 20 US-made F-35 jets in major military overhaul”
YouTube star Lily Hevesh has been mesmerizing viewers with domino creations for 15 years. Last weekend, at the National Building Museum in Washington, she completed her most ambitious project yet: she brought down an installation of 100,000 dominoes and set a world record. Maxim Adams reports. Camera: Dmitry Shakhov, Artem Kohan. …
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WASHINGTON — Retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, who was chief of staff on former President Donald Trump’s national security council, spoke with VOA about his vision for ending the war in Ukraine. Kellogg says he is not a formal adviser to the former president and has not presented his plan to Trump, but it is …
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In the internationally accepted economic ranking by nominal GDP, the U.S. remains the world’s leading economy, while Russia ranks 11th. Volodin referred to Russia’s ranking by the purchasing power parity, or PPP, not the actual size and strength of the economy. …
In the Pacific Northwest, there is a marching group that has thrilled parade audiences for more than 70 years. The Seattle Chinese Community Girls Drill Team has brought a sense of community and identity for generations of Chinese American girls. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya reports. …
New Delhi — The United Nations’ cultural agency rejected recommendations Wednesday to place Stonehenge on the list of world heritage sites in danger over concerns that Britain’s plans to build a nearby highway tunnel threaten the landscape around the prehistoric monument. Stonehenge was built on the flat lands of Salisbury Plain in southern England in stages, …
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