Category: World

Garbine Muguruza of Spain won her first Wimbledon tennis title on July 15, defeating U.S. star Venus Williams, who was attempting to win her sixth career Wimbledon championship. …

Hundreds of people rallied in front of the National Rifle Association headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, Friday to protest gun violence and recent controversial advertisements released by the organization. Gun rights advocates were also out to counter the protest. …

The tragedy of human trafficking was in the spotlight this week on Capitol Hill as a rare bipartisan vote by the U.S. House of Representatives renewed $520 million in funding for efforts to combat trafficking and aid survivors. VOA’s congressional reporter Katherine Gypson spoke with two lawmakers leading the fight against this worldwide threat. …

Sanctions policies targeting rogue states risk being ineffective because of a lack of coordination between the European Union and the United States, according to a new report from British analyst group the Royal United Services Institute. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. …

The U.S. Justice Department on July 14 asked the Supreme Court to block a lower court ruling against President Donald Trump’s order temporarily barring refugees and travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries even if they have American relatives. …

Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov dismissed the United States as too weak to be an enemy of Russia, and once again insisted there are no gays in his North Caucasus republic in an interview with the HBO television channel posted on YouTube on July 14. …

The Associated Press is reporting that a Russian lobbyist who met with U.S. President Donald Trump’s son last year gave him a portfolio of information she said was damaging to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. …

An Azerbaijani prosecutor has asked a court in Baku to sentence Russian-Israeli blogger Aleksandr Lapshin, who is charged with calling for the violation of the country’s territorial integrity, to 6 1/2 years in prison. …

The Russian lawyer who met with the eldest son of U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials of his presidential campaign in June 2016 was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist who is a former Soviet counterintelligence officer, according to a report by the U.S. television network NBC. …

Russian police have created a special questionnaire for youths who participated in anticorruption rallies organized by opposition politician Aleksei Navalny in March, according to a report by the RBK information agency. …

Thailand is facing a renewed dilemma over the fate of more than 60 ethnic Uighur asylum seekers amid reports of pressure by China for the group’s return. The 62 men and women, held in detention centers, represent the last of more than 350 Uighurs found by authorities in Southern Thailand in 2014 who were seeking …

Read more “Thailand Facing Dilemma Over Fate of Ethnic Uighurs”

Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a security vehicle Friday killing five policemen just a short distance from some of Egypt’s oldest pyramids in Giza, officials said. The shooting in the early hours of the morning took place in the village of Abusir in Badrashin, part of Greater Cairo, and the slain policemen were …

Read more “Gunmen Kill 5 Policemen Near Egypt’s Oldest Pyramids in Giza”

U.N. officials say more than 52,000 Venezuelans have applied for asylum this year, nearly twice the number in all of 2016, and are urging all sides to renounce violence amid a political crisis. The U.N. refugee agency says the United States is the top destination for Venezuelan asylum-seekers, with 18,300 requests, followed by 12,960 in …

Read more “UN Agency: Asylum Requests by Venezuelans Surge This Year”

Moscow expects “substantial” proposals on improving relations during diplomatic talks between the United States and Russia set for Washington on July 17. …

They’ve been kidnapped by bandits, accused of witchcraft, arrested, robbed, and swept away by flash floods. They’ve also been mobbed by angry voters and confronted by men offended that their wives are being interviewed instead of them. The work of political pollsters is still widely misunderstood in Kenya, with international companies like Ipsos accused of …

Read more “Mobbed, Robbed, Accused of Witchcraft, Pollsters in Kenya Say They’re Misunderstood”

A Russian university student claims he was expelled over his opposition activism, the latest clash between young people and school officials over anticorruption protests led by Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny. …

A look at the best news photos from around the world. …

French President Emmanuel Macron said it was important to maintain direct contact with Russia and President Vladimir Putin despite having disagreements. At a news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump after the two leaders met in Paris on July 13, Macron was asked if he thought Trump was taking a hard enough line on Russia …

Read more “Macron Says Direct Relationship With Russia Is ‘Very Important’”

U.S. President Donald Trump has again defended his son’s meeting last year with a Russian lawyer, saying “most people would have taken that meeting.” …

U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed spending plan over the next decade would not come close to balancing the national government’s budget as it had promised, an independent analysis said Thursday.   The Congressional Budget Office said the proposed White House budget would result in a $720 billion deficit at the end of 10 years, not …

Read more “Independent Analysis: Trump Budget Plan Would Not Cut Deficit”

A new exhibition in southern Poland shows the brutality of the Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz through the artistic work of its inmates. Some of the artworks are being shown publicly for the first time. The “Face to Face: Art in Auschwitz” exhibition opened last week at the Kamienica Szolayskich (Szolayski Tenement House) of …

Read more “Art Exhibit in Poland Shows Auschwitz Through Inmates’ Eyes”

Guatemala is ready to turn over to Mexico next week a former state governor wanted on charges of embezzlement and organized crime, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday, in a case that further tarnished the Mexican ruling party’s record on corruption. Javier Duarte, who governed the Gulf state of Veracruz for President Enrique Pena Nieto’s …

Read more “Guatemala: Ex-Mexican Governor Could be Extradited Within a Week”

Introducing a brand-new, multimillion-dollar intergalactic adventure film based on a French comic book strip during a summer box office dominated by superheroes and sequels may be considered a big risk to take by an independent filmmaker. But French director Luc Besson was so confident in his vision for adapting the Valerian and Laureline sci-fi comics …

Read more “Stakes High for Besson’s Intergalactic Leap Into ‘Valerian’”

U.S. President Donald Trump has said in an interview that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin “get along very, very well” and that the two had “an excellent meeting” on the sidelines of last week’s Group of 20 meeting in Germany. …