worldwide news
With infection rates falling and vaccination numbers rising, Turkey has lifted nearly all COVID restrictions and is seeking a return to normalcy after several months of lockdown measures. Dorian Jones reports for VOA from Istanbul. …
Belgium’s Africa Museum, once a celebration of the country’s colonial rule, will begin a multi-year process of returning stolen art to Democratic Republic of Congo, the Belgian government said on Tuesday. From the late 19th century to 1960, thousands of art works including wooden statues, elephant ivory masks, manuscripts and musical instruments were likely …
Read more “Belgium Begins Long Road to Returning Looted Congolese Art Works”
Russia reported a record 737 deaths from coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours on Tuesday, pushing the national death toll to 139,316. The country confirmed 23,378 new COVID-19 cases, including 5,498 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 5,658,672. The federal statistics agency has kept a separate …
Since Britain voted five years ago to break with the European Union, there has been an exodus from the country of EU workers, which has gathered pace since the pandemic struck, according to British government figures. Many among the more than one million EU citizens who have left went to Germany and the Netherlands, …
Read more “Britain’s Businesses Complain of Labor Shortage Due to Brexit and Pandemic”
Pope Francis ate breakfast, read the newspapers and took a walk Tuesday as he continued recovering from intestinal surgery, the Vatican said. A statement from the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said tests performed following the pontiff’s Sunday surgery to remove half of his colon yielded “good” and normal results. “His Holiness Pope Francis rested well …
Read more “Pope Francis Eats Breakfast, Takes Walk 2 Days After Surgery”
Germany announced Tuesday it is lowering travel restrictions on Britain and four other European nations imposed due to the appearance of the more contagious delta variant of COVID-19. Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s public health agency, said it has downgraded Britain, Portugal, Russia, India and Nepal from its highest risk category of “areas of variant concern” …
Read more “Germany to Lower Travel Restrictions on 5 European Neighbors “
A U.N. investigator accuses Belarusian authorities of enforcing a policy of repression aimed at purging its society of what the country’s leadership describes as undesirable, dissident elements. The U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Belarus has submitted her report to the U.N. Human Rights Council. U.N. investigator Anais Marin has issued a …
Read more “UN Says Belarus Faces Unprecedented Human Rights Crisis “
A plane with 28 people on board went missing in the Russian Far East region of Kamchatka on Tuesday, local officials said.An Antonov An-26 plane with 22 passengers and six crew members, flying from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the town of Palana, missed a scheduled communication, local emergency officials said. The plane also disappeared …
Read more “Plane with 28 on Board Missing in Russian Far East Region”
Raffaella Carrà, for decades one of Italian television’s most beloved entertainers, a woman affectionately nicknamed the “queen of Italian TV,” died Monday at 78, Italian state TV quoted her family as saying. Rai state TV read a statement from the star’s family, announcing that she died in Rome after a long illness. No further details were …
Read more “Beloved Italian Entertainer Raffaella Carrà Dies at 78”
France’s champagne industry group on Monday blasted a new Russian law that forces foreign producers to add a “sparkling wine” reference to their bottles of Champagne, and called for the halting of exports of the bubbly drink to Russia. The law, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, requires all foreign producers of sparkling wine …
Read more “French Champagne Industry Group Fumes Over New Russian Law”
The United Nations’ special rapporteur to Belarus likened the country to a totalitarian regime Sunday. Anais Marin urged authorities to release over 500 people whom right groups consider political prisoners. Marin cited the case of jailed journalist Raman Pratasevich, whose Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania in May had been diverted to land in Minsk, where he …
Read more “UN Official Likens Belarus to ‘Totalitarian’ State”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britons will no longer be required by law to wear face masks indoors once the government lifts coronavirus restrictions later this month. Johnson confirmed Monday that the government aims to end its latest lockdown on July 19 despite a growing number of coronavirus cases caused by the highly transmissible …
A press watchdog group, Reporters Without Borders, named 37 world leaders Monday as media “predators” who “crack down massively” on press freedom, including for the first time a Western European leader, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.The Paris-based group, in its first such list in five years, included two women, Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s prime minister since …
Read more “Hungary’s Orban a Press ‘Predator,’ Media Watchdog Says”
LGBT campaigners in Georgia have canceled a planned Pride march after opponents attacked activists and journalists and the government and church spoke out against the event.Hundreds of violent counter-protesters took to the streets of Tbilisi against the Pride march scheduled for the evening.At least 15 journalists were attacked by mobs at different locations, including two …
Read more “Georgian LGBT Activists Call Off Pride March After Violent Attacks”
Pope Francis is alert, breathing without assistance, and in a good overall condition following surgery to remove part of his colon, the Vatican said on Monday. The 84-year-old pope is expected to stay in hospital for seven days barring any complications, following his three-hour operation on Sunday night by a 10-person surgical team at Rome’s Gemelli …
Euro zone businesses expanded activity at the fastest rate in 15 years in June as the easing of more coronavirus restrictions brought life back to the bloc’s dominant service industry, a survey showed on Monday. But that surge in growth has come at a cost as inflationary pressures mounted due to labor shortages and …
Read more “Euro Zone Business Activity Soared in June as Lockdowns Lifted”
British royal Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, is self-isolating and has cancelled her engagements after someone she came into contact with subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, her office said on Monday. “Last week the Duchess of Cambridge came into contact with someone who has subsequently tested positive for COVID-19,” a spokesperson for Kensington Palace …
Read more “British Royal Kate Self-Isolating After COVID-19 Contact”
The British government will unveil Tuesday a new immigration bill making it a criminal offense for asylum-seekers to enter Britain without permission. Under the terms of the proposed legislation, anyone caught entering illegally for whatever reason could face a prison term of up to four years.The move is designed to dissuade migrants crossing the English …
Read more “Illegal Migrants, People Smugglers Face Tougher New Penalties in Britain”
From scanning residents’ faces to let them into their building to spotting police suspects in a crowd, the rise of facial recognition is accompanied by a growing chorus of concern about unethical uses of the technology.A report published on Monday by U.S.-based researchers showing that Russian facial recognition companies have built tools to detect a person’s race has raised fears among …
Read more “’Racist’ Facial Recognition Sparks Ethical Concerns in Russia, Analysts Say”
A strong explosion shook the Caspian Sea area where Azerbaijan has extensive offshore oil and gas fields and a column of fire rose late Sunday, but the state oil company said none of its platforms were damaged. The cause of the blast was not immediately determined, but state oil company SOCAR said preliminary information indicated …
Read more “Blast Rocks Caspian Sea Sector Near Azerbaijani Gas Field”
A car with wings recently completed a test flight in Slovakia. Its designers say the successful journey brings us one step closer to flying cars, but experts aren’t so sure that’s happening any time soon. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi …
The Vatican says Pope Francis has gone to a Rome hospital for scheduled surgery for a stenosis, or restriction, of the large intestine. The brief announcement Sunday afternoon didn’t say when the surgery would be performed but it said there would be announcement when the surgery is complete. Just three hours earlier, Francis had cheerfully greeted …
Read more “Pope Francis Goes to Rome Hospital for Intestinal Surgery “
Four people were found dead as a huge fire raged for a second day in Cyprus, razing tracts of forest in a blaze one official called the worst on record.The blaze, fanned by strong winds, affected at least 10 communities over an area of 50 square kilometers in the foothills of the Troodos mountain range, …
The European Union on Saturday deployed aerial assistance to help Cyprus contain a huge forest fire raging north of the cities of Limassol and Larnaca, a blaze one official called the worst on record.The blaze, fanned by strong winds, affected at least six communities in the foothills of the Troodos mountain range, an area of …
Read more “EU Deploys Assistance for Cyprus as Huge Forest Fire Rages”