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President Vladimir Putin openly admits that demographics present Russia with one of its most serious challenges. U.S. experts believe that even without taking into account the effects of the war with Ukraine, Russia’s population will shrink further substantially in the next several decades, possibly up to 11% by 2045. However, the continuing losses on the …
Read more “VOA Russian: War plunges Russia deeper into demographic crisis “
KYIV, UKRAINE — Moldovan President Maia Sandu visited Kyiv on Saturday for talks with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid growing tensions in Transnistria, a pro-Russian separatist enclave of Moldova that neighbors Ukraine. The territory, which has a population of half a million, has seen heating, hot water and electricity cut-offs since the start of the year …
Read more “Moldovan president visits Kyiv to talk energy, security”
HAIFA, ISRAEL — Naftali Furst will never forget his first view of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, on Nov. 3, 1944. He was 12 years old. SS soldiers threw open the doors of the cattle car, where he was crammed in with his mother, father, brother, and more than 80 others. He remembers the tall chimneys of …
Read more “One of last Auschwitz survivors makes telling the stories his mission”
New online videos recently investigated by VOA’s Russian and Ukrainian services show how artificial intelligence is likely being used to try to create provocative deepfakes that target Ukrainian refugees. In one example, a video appears to be a TV news report about a teenage Ukrainian refugee and her experience studying at a private school in …
Read more “Russian deepfake videos target Ukrainian refugees, including teen”
BELGRADE, SERBIA — A woman rammed a car into a crowd of anti-government protesters in Serbia’s capital and injured one of them Friday, police said, as a student-led strike shut down businesses and drew tens of thousands of people to demonstrations around the country. The nationwide protests took place on the same day that President Aleksandar …
Read more “Driver rams anti-government rally in Serbia’s capital, hurts protester “
WASHINGTON — Ahead of Belarus’ presidential election this weekend, a media advocacy group filed a complaint Friday with the International Criminal Court accusing the country’s longtime leader of crimes against humanity against journalists. The complaint, filed by Reporters Without Borders, known by French acronym RSF, accuses President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating a harsh crackdown on independent …
Read more “Ahead of election, media group accuses Belarus of crimes against humanity”
LONDON — A London judge on Friday rejected a U.S. mother’s challenge to be extradited to Colorado to face murder charges in the deaths of two of her young children. Judge John Zani said in Westminster Magistrates Court that it would now be up to the British Home Secretary to order Kimberlee Singler returned to the …
Read more “London court says US mom can be extradited in children’s killings”
Near Auschwitz’s walls, the former home of the concentration camp’s commandant, Rudolf Hoss, stands as a symbol of denial and complicity, its windows overlooking the site of some of the Holocaust’s worst atrocities. As the world marks the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation (Jan. 27), plans are under way to transform the house into a …
Read more “Reclaiming Rudolf Hoss’s House as center countering hate, extremism and radicalization”
Officials in Ukraine say Russia launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack Friday killing at least two civilians, wounding several others and damaging commercial and residential buildings. The interior ministry said two victims were killed by drone debris in the central Kyiv region. It said a multistory residential building and commercial buildings were …
Read more “Russia, Ukraine report large-scale overnight drone attacks”
NUUK, GREENLAND — The mineral wealth on the Arctic island of Greenland is in the global spotlight after U.S. President Donald Trump said he wants to take control of the territory from Denmark, prompting alarm from European allies. Trump’s words were echoed in a January 12 interview on “Fox News Sunday” by Vice President JD Vance, …
Read more “Will Trump spark a mineral ‘gold rush’ in Greenland?”
President Donald Trump laid out his approach to foreign investment to the world’s largest gathering of global business leaders, offering investors a take-it-or-leave-it deal to build in the U.S. or face stiff tariffs. VOA White House Correspondent Anita Powell reports. …
Italy’s highest court on Thursday upheld the slander conviction of American defendant Amanda Knox in a case related to the sensationalized 2007 murder of her British roommate. Knox was convicted of slandering her former boss, Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba, by falsely accusing him of murdering Meredith Kercher. A 21-year-old exchange student, Kercher …
Read more “Italy’s highest court upholds slander conviction of Amanda Knox”
Greenland’s mineral wealth is in the global spotlight after U.S. President Donald Trump said he wants to take control of the island from Denmark. But until now, Greenland’s mining industry has struggled to turn a profit. Could that be about to change? Henry Ridgwell reports from Greenland’s capital, Nuuk. …
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday invited global businesses to manufacture their products in the U.S. and promised them lower taxes but warned if they choose to produce their goods elsewhere, they would have to pay tariffs to export them to the United States. “America is back and open for business,” Trump, in a …
Read more “Trump promises global businesses lower taxes for products made in US, tariffs if not”
With Belarus set to hold its presidential elections on Jan. 26, the European Parliament and many international experts have already condemned the vote, which they predict will be a sham. Lora Zaitsava has the story. Video editor: Anna Rice. …
LONDON — A British teenager who murdered three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event was jailed for at least 52 years on Thursday, for an atrocity prosecutors said was so violent it appeared he had tried to decapitate one of the victims. On Monday, Axel Rudakubana, 18, admitted carrying out the killings last July …
Read more “UK teenager jailed for at least 52 years for girls’ murders”
London — Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS are facing fresh scrutiny from Britain’s competition watchdog, which announced investigations Thursday targeting the two tech giants’ mobile phone ecosystems under new powers to crack down on digital market abuses. The Competition and Markets Authority said it launched separate investigations to determine whether the mobile ecosystems controlled by Apple …
Read more “UK watchdog targets Apple, Google mobile ecosystems with new digital market powers”
Officials in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said Thursday a Russian ballistic missile attack killed at least one person and injured 24 others. Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram that Russian drones also destroyed an energy facility and knocked out power to tens of thousands of people. In the Mykolaiv region, Governor Vitaliy Kim said …
Read more “Deadly Russian missile attack hits Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region”
A record 47% of the European Union’s electricity now comes from solar and other renewables, a report Thursday said, in yet another sign of the growing gap between the bloc’s push for clean energy and the new U.S. administration’s pursuit of more fossil fuels. Nearly three-quarters of the EU’s electricity doesn’t emit planet-warming gases into …
Nuuk, Greenland — A blizzard whips the Danish, Greenlandic and Faroe Islands flags above the Joint Arctic Command headquarters overlooking the harbor of Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. The small military outpost staffed by around 80 personnel oversees Danish security for the vast Arctic island of some 2.1 million square kilometers. Greenland’s government is largely autonomous, …
Read more “Russia’s Arctic militarization behind Trump’s focus on Greenland”
washington — Last December, Georgia’s parliament chose Mikheil Kavelashvili, a close ally of ruling Georgian Dream party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, as the country’s new president. He replaced Salome Zourabichvili, who had won the presidency in 2018 in a popular vote. Zourabichvili was the country’s fifth president. Opposition parties and Zourabichvili contend that the country’s October 2024 …
U.S. President Donald Trump this week repeated his assertion that American control of Greenland is vital for “international security.” As Henry Ridgwell reports, Denmark, which owns the island, has admitted failing to invest in its security, amid growing threats from Russia and China. …
As U.S. President Donald Trump declared an energy emergency in the United States and signed a sweeping executive order to expand oil and gas drilling, VOA’s Russian Service spoke to experts who predict that if oil prices fall, the Russian budget may feel pressure that could make any further U.S. sanctions against Russia, touted by …
Read more “VOA Russian: Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ may spell trouble for Russian budget”
LONDON — Prince Harry claimed a monumental victory Wednesday as Rupert Murdoch’s U.K. tabloids made an unprecedented apology for intruding in his life over decades and agreed to pay substantial damages to settle his privacy invasion lawsuit. News Group Newspapers offered a “full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion by …
Read more “Murdoch’s UK tabloids apologize to Prince Harry, admit intruding on Diana”