Month: October 2024

Strasbourg, France — The EU parliament awarded the bloc’s top rights Sakharov prize on Thursday to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and her ally, former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia. They won the prestigious award for their fight for democracy under President Nicolas Maduro’s iron-fisted rule. Machado, 57, played a key role in Venezuela’s presidential …

Read more “Venezuelan opposition figures win EU’s top rights Sakharov prize”

APIA, SAMOA — The leaders of the Commonwealth group of nations will meet at a welcome banquet in Samoa in the South Pacific on Thursday, with climate change and reparations for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade on the agenda of summit discussions. Leaders and officials from 56 countries with roots in Britain’s empire, as …

Read more “Commonwealth nations to discuss slavery reparations, climate change”

VIPPEROD, Denmark — European scientists have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of interpreting pig sounds, aiming to create a tool that can help farmers improve animal welfare. The algorithm could potentially alert farmers to negative emotions in pigs, thereby improving their well-being, according to Elodie Mandel-Briefer, a behavioral biologist at University of Copenhagen who is …

Read more “AI decodes oinks and grunts to keep pigs happy in Danish study”

Officials in Ukraine’s capital said Thursday that Russia attacked the region with about a dozen aerial drones overnight. Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said Ukraine’s air defenses shot down all of the drones and that there were no reports of casualties or damage. In the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, Governor …

Read more “Russian drones target Kyiv region”

The president of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has announced the establishment of the Red Family Fund to honor humanitarian aid workers who have died in the line of duty. Kate Forbes told the organization’s general assembly in Geneva that aid workers find themselves working under “increasingly difficult” conditions …

Read more “Humanitarian aid workers face ‘increasingly difficult’ conditions  “

WASHINGTON — Gathered Wednesday at a summit in the Russian city of Kazan, the members of BRICS adopted a joint declaration calling for the creation of an independent payment system based on their national currencies, a move in response to what they regard as illegal sanctions that are damaging the global economy. BRICS member countries, which …

Read more “China backs Russia-proposed BRICS payment system”

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials are becoming increasingly concerned about the emerging partnership among China, Russia, Iran and North Korea – a bloc being talked about by some in Washington as a new “axis of evil.” Those worries got a major boost on Wednesday with confirmation by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a trip to Rome …

Read more “Analysis: China, Russia, North Korea and Iran described as new ‘Axis of Evil’ by some”

The United States said there is evidence that North Korean troops are in Russia, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv had learned that two North Korean military units were training in Russia for potential combat in Ukraine. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb reports. …

Ankara — Assailants set off explosives and opened fire in an attack Wednesday on the premises of the Turkish state-run aerospace and defense company TUSAS, killing four people and wounding several, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. At least two of the attackers died, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. “We have four martyrs. We have 14 …

Read more “Attack targeting Turkish defense company leaves 4 dead, 14 wounded”

Washington — Ukraine will receive $50 billion in loans, backed by frozen Russian assets, from Group of Seven allies, the White House said Wednesday. Distribution of the money will begin by year’s end, according to American officials who said the United States is providing $20 billion of the total. Leaders of the wealthy democracies agreed earlier …

Read more “G7 allies move ahead with $50 billion loan for Ukraine backed by frozen Russian funds”

Athens — Wildfire-plagued Greece has suffered its worst year in terms of climate conditions in four decades in 2024, its prime minister told parliament on Wednesday. The already sun-baked Mediterranean region has been designated by scientists as a climate change “hotspot”, with warming higher than the global average, according to United Nations reports.  Greece has been …

Read more “Greek PM deplores worst climate conditions in 4 decades”

London — Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday played down allegations made by Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump’s team of “blatant foreign interference” by his Labour Party in the U.S. election, saying it was normal for its volunteers to campaign.    Starmer also insisted that he maintained “a good relationship” with Trump, having met him …

Read more “Britain Prime Minister Starmer plays down Trump team claims of interference “

The European Union’s next foreign policy chief has told lawmakers that strengthening security must be a priority, warning that Europe must be prepared as Russia and “partly China” exploit the continent’s open societies. “European security is deeply personal to me as a native of a country that has long told others that Russia’s imperialistic dream …

Read more “Incoming EU foreign policy chief Kallas warns against Russia and China”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it destroyed 14 Ukrainian aerial drones in areas along the Ukraine-Russia border as well as four uncrewed Ukrainian boats in the Black Sea. The ministry said Russian air defenses destroyed 10 drones over Russia-occupied Crimea, and another four over the Rostov region. Russian forces carried out a second consecutive night …

Read more “Russia, Ukraine trade drone attacks”

Ukraine’s prosecutor general announced his resignation Tuesday amid charges that his office provided exemptions to the military draft for government officials.   “Many shameful facts of abuse have been established within the system of the prosecutor’s offices of Ukraine,” Andriy Kostin said in a statement.   Kostin’s resignation followed a meeting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr …

Read more “Ukraine’s prosecutor general resigns following draft-dodging scandal”

WASHINGTON — Efforts by U.S. adversaries to divide Americans and sow growing distrust in the upcoming presidential election have already begun to intensify, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials, who warn some countries appear to be leaning toward additional measures to spark election-related violence. The latest declassified assessment, issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director …

Read more “US warns ramped-up election influence efforts aim to stoke violence”

President Joe Biden on Tuesday welcomed Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob to the White House, where Biden spoke of the importance of European unity and recognized the small Central European nation’s outsized role in the largest prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia in decades. Biden underscored Ljubljana’s critical role in the August swap that …

Read more “Biden welcomes Slovenian leader Golob to White House”

The war in Ukraine is reshaping the strategic landscape of Europe. While Western and Eastern European nations within the NATO alliance recognize the Russian threat, each day, NATO nations bordering Belarus and Russia feel the immediacy of the threat. In an exclusive interview with VOA’s Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze, Lieutenant General Charles Costanza, …

Read more “VOA interview: US Army General Costanza discusses Russia’s threat to West”

For Lev Skoryakin, a fugitive Russian political activist on the Kremlin’s wanted list for staging anti-government protests, luck ran out in June 2023. Having fled to Kyrgyzstan the previous summer, he managed to keep a low profile for more than a year before Kyrgyz authorities, acting on a Russian government request, found him in the …

Read more “Kremlin moves to silence Russia war critics in Central Asia”

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Chinese President Xi Jinping his “dear friend,” amid growing cooperation between Moscow and Beijing, as the leaders met at the BRICS summit in Kazan.  Xi also expressed his gratitude at the meeting regarding the increasing partnership between Russia and China, saying the “profound relationship” between the two countries has “continuously …

Read more “Xi, Putin embrace growing cooperation between Russia and China at BRICS summit”

The United Nations says the war in Ukraine has displaced more than 6 million people and forced many of them to register as refugees across Europe. More than 60,000 of them — mostly women and children — are living in Hungary. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports from Budapest on a new bilingual …

Read more “Bilingual school in Hungary helps Ukrainian refugee children preserve identity”

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy is showing resilience after bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic but the eurozone’s prospects are gloomier due to recent crises and deeper problems, according to IMF forecasts released Tuesday. In its latest World Economic Outlook report, the International Monetary Fund revised its 2025 eurozone growth forecast down from 1.5% in July …

Read more “US, European economies diverge after pandemic as war rages”