Travels News
Here’s a look at what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top diplomats have been doing this week: Sudan The United States called on Sudanese military forces to release all civilian leaders in detention, amid growing international condemnation of the military takeover. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored the U.S. support …
Eyes in Beijing and Moscow are trained on Central Asia, prompted by the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The security threat in Afghanistan and the desire to shut off Central Asia from other powers, such as the U.S., is motivating Beijing and Moscow to cooperate and gloss over their differences, according to Emil Avdaliani, director of …
Read more “China, Russia Working Together on Security Threats in Central Asia”
Iran said Wednesday it would resume talks with world powers about its nuclear development program by the end of November. There was no immediate confirmation of new negotiations from the other parties to the 2015 international pact aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear arms development. The agreement then included the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, …
The Cumbre Vieja volcano continued erupting Wednesday for the 38th consecutive day, and geologists say it could continue for as long as three months. The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute, known as Involcan, posted a video to its Twitter account showing fountains of lava during an eruption. The Associated Press reported that Wednesday’s eruption followed the …
In an effort to stop a 4th wave of COVID, Russian authorities have decided to halt commercial activity and social gatherings. Russia’s national inoculation strategy is falling short: only 33% of the population is fully vaccinated. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report from the VOA Moscow bureau. …
Leaders of Germany’s newly-installed Bundestag – the lower house parliament – said Wednesday they will not extend the “epidemic situation of national scope” when it expires next month, though certain public health measures will remain to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The declaration of the health emergency allows the federal and state governments to …
British Court to Rule on Assange Extradition Request …
Turkey is threatening to launch a new military operation against Syrian Kurdish forces after a deadly attack in Syrian territory where Turkish forces are present. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …
A British court will consider this week whether Julian Assange, founder of the Wikileaks website, can be extradited to the United States on charges of hacking and theft. The two-day hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday in London’s high court. U.S. prosecutors appealed a British district court verdict from January, which ruled that Assange should …
Read more “British Court to Rule on US Extradition of Wikileaks’ Julian Assange”
For the first time since last month’s elections, Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, met Tuesday and elected a new speaker from the winning center-left Social Democrats (SPD) party to lead the 736-member body. The 53-year-old Baerbel Bas, from the western German city of Duisburg, has been in the Bundestag since 2009. She served …
Read more “German Parliament Elects New Speaker as Merkel Steps Aside”
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has pulled out of the COP26 conference in Glasgow next week after she was advised by doctors to rest, Buckingham Palace said on Tuesday, in a blow to the United Nations climate summit. A palace source said the decision to not attend had been taken as a “sensible precaution” and to let …
Read more “UK’s Queen Elizabeth Pulls Out of COP26 Following Advice to Rest”
Global pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions are just a fraction of what’s needed to prevent catastrophic global warming. That’s the warning from the United Nations, ahead of the critical COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, Britain next week – where world leaders will try to agree on further action to combat global warming. Henry Ridgwell …
Read more “COP26 Climate Summit: What’s At Stake For Planet Earth?”
After a 10-month investigation, law enforcement officials in the United States and Europe have arrested at least 150 people suspected of drug trafficking over the darknet, the U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday. Officials also seized over $31 million in cash and cryptocurrency and 45 guns. The darknet is a part of the internet that is accessible only by using specialized anonymity tools such as the …
Read more “At Least 150 Arrested in US-Europe Darknet Drug Bust”
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians, was released from a Washington hospital Monday morning after an overnight stay early in his 12-day visit to the United States. Bartholomew, 81, was scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden later Monday at the White House, and also to meet with Secretary of State …
Read more “Orthodox Patriarch Released from Hospital, Set to Meet Biden”
Journalists who cover Russia’s space program say they may adopt a more cautious approach to their reporting after several aspects of Roscosmos were effectively declared off limits. A Federal Security Service (FSB) order, which took effect October 11, lays out information that it says could be used to threaten national security if received by foreign …
Read more “Parts of Russia’s Space Agency Off Limits in New Security Order “
A German woman received a 10-year prison sentence Monday for allowing a young Yazidi girl, who was being kept as a slave in Iraq by the woman and her husband, to die of thirst in the hot sun. German authorities said the 30-year-old convert to Islam, identified only as Jennifer W., was a member of …
Read more “German Court Sentences Islamic State Member to 10 Years in Prison”
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told British lawmakers Monday that the social media giant “unquestionably” amplifies online hate. In testimony to a parliamentary committee in London, the former Facebook employee echoed what she told U.S. senators earlier this month. Haugen said the media giant fuels online hate and extremism and does not have any incentive to …
Read more “Facebook Whistleblower Presses Case with British Lawmakers “
“Belfast”, a film drama by acclaimed actor and director Kenneth Branagh, chronicles the beginnings, in 1969, of the thirty-year political and sectarian violence in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. Penelope Poulou reports. …
For the world watch section of VOA’s Press Freedom page. Noted Russian journalist Sergei Reznik, who specializes in anti-corruption investigations, has been added to the Interior Ministry’s wanted list. Reznik’s name was added to the wanted list over the weekend, local media reported. He is thought to be living outside of Russia. No details for …
Read more “Noted Russian Investigative Journalist Added to ‘Wanted List’”
The followers of French television talk-show provocateur Eric Zemmour like to compare him to America’s former President Donald Trump, believing he is the man to shake up France. And they were delighted by an opinion poll published Friday suggesting that the 63-year-old Zemmour, an apologist for the Vichy regime which collaborated with Nazi Germany during …
Read more “France’s Far-Right Zemmour Shakes Up Presidential Race, But Likely to Macron’s Favor”
Former Facebook data scientist turned whistleblower Frances Haugen plans to answer questions Monday from lawmakers in the United Kingdom who are working on legislation to rein in the power of social media companies. Haugen is set to appear before a parliamentary committee scrutinizing the British government’s draft legislation to crack down on harmful online content, …
Read more “Whistleblower Haugen to Testify as UK Scrutinizes Facebook”
In a decision with potential ramifications across European museums, France is displaying 26 looted colonial-era artifacts for one last time before returning them home to Benin. The wooden anthropomorphic statues, royal thrones and sacred altars were pilfered by the French army in the 19th century from Western Africa. President Emmanuel Macron suggested that France now …
Read more “129-Year Journey Nears End as France Returns Benin Treasures “
British finance minister Rishi Sunak’s budget this week will include an extra $8.1 billion of spending for the health service over the next few years to drive down waiting lists, the finance ministry said on Sunday. The sum comes on top of an $11 billion package announced in September to tackle backlogs built up over the COVID-19 pandemic, …
Read more “UK Plans $8 Billion Package to Boost Health Service Capacity”
Russians hoping to apply for an immigrant visa to the United States are now required to travel to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, the State Department confirmed Sunday, while blaming restrictions imposed by Moscow. That development came amid unresolved U.S.-Russian tensions, and tit-for-tat expulsions that earlier led Moscow to limit the number of U.S. diplomatic …
Read more “Russians now Must Travel to Warsaw for US Immigrant Visas”