Новости за 15.07.2017

Israel will reopen the Noble Sanctuary-Temple Mount compound on Sunday, a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday. The holy site had been shut down after a deadly shooting. On Friday, three Arab-Israeli gunmen shot dead two Israeli policemen on the outskirts of the compound, holy to Muslims and Jews, and were then killed by security forces. It was one of the most serious attacks in the area in years. Israeli authorities then shut the compound down, citing security concerns, just hours before Muslim Friday prayers. Читать дальше...

The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the State of Hawaii to respond by Tuesday at noon to President Donald Trump's motion to block a judge's ruling that prevented his travel ban from being applied to grandparents of U.S. citizens and refugees already being processed by resettlement agencies, a lawyer representing  Hawaii said on Twitter. In a court filing on Friday, the administration asked the justices to overturn Thursday's decision by a U.S. district judge in Hawaii, which limited the scope of the... Читать дальше...

Sweat rolled down the faces of women dressed in super hero costumes at the recent noon SoulCycle class in San Mateo, California.   Despite the thumping beat of the music, this was no routine workout. These Silicon Valley women were cycling as a protest, part of a response to an array of claims of gender inequity brought to light in recent months.   Travis Kalanick, the former chief executive of Uber, resigned from the company he co-created after women complained about the ride-hailing firm’s culture. Читать дальше...

Chess legend Garry Kasparov didn't need any arm-twisting to be persuaded to return to competition next month in St. Louis. In fact, it was Kasparov's idea. The man who dominated chess for two decades has been retired from competitive play since 2005. But Kasparov will compete against many of the world's best players at the inaugural St. Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament August 14-19.   “I think it's quite a compliment to the city of St. Louis that he would choose this venue to come back,” said billionaire Rex Sinquefield... Читать дальше...

Spain’s Garbine Muguruza has won her first Wimbledon title, defeating American Venus Williams in straight sets Saturday, 7-5, 6-0. The 10th seeded Williams, 37, had been seeking to become the oldest women’s Grand Slam champion but couldn’t overcome the 14th seeded Muguruza. Muguruza, who lost in the Wimbledon finals in 2015 to Venus’ sister, Serena, saved two set points in the 10th game of the first set and then won nine straight games to clinch the championship. It is her second Grand Slam title. Читать дальше...

Afghanistan's all-girl robotics team has arrived in the U.S. for a competition after President Donald Trump personally intervened to allow them into the country. The U.S. embassy in Kabul had denied visas for the girls earlier this month for unknown reasons. However, VOA's White House bureau chief, Steve Herman, reported Wednesday that Trump granted the girls what is known as a parole — reversing the earlier decision to bar them from the U.S. — that will allow them to come to Washington for 20 days. Читать дальше...

After months of delay, the Trump administration is finalizing plans to revamp the nation's military command for defensive and offensive cyber operations in hopes of intensifying America's ability to wage cyber war against the Islamic State group and other foes, according to U.S. officials.   Under the plans, U.S. Cyber Command would eventually be split off from the intelligence-focused National Security Agency.   Details are still being worked out, but officials say they expect a decision and announcement in the coming weeks. Читать дальше...

France's foreign minister has expressed concern about the deterioration of relations between Qatar and its Arab neighbors and urged all sides to find a way to end the diplomatic standoff. Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke to reporters after talks with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, in Doha on Saturday. A group of nations that includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt accuses Qatar of supporting terrorism and has given Doha a 13-point list of... Читать дальше...

Australia wants to pass new laws to force major tech companies to decode encrypted messages and hand them over to crime fighters.  The government in Canberra says the measures are needed to fight extremism, drug smuggling and child abuse. But technology experts say it is difficult to see how the legislation would work in practice. The cybersecurity law would compel international technology giants such as Google, Apple and Facebook to help law enforcement agencies by helping to decode encrypted... Читать дальше...

The ashes of Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo were scattered at sea Saturday after a muted cremation ceremony that was under government watch in the Chinese city of Shenyang. Liu, who was often called China's best-known human rights prisoner, died Thursday at age 61 following a high-profile battle with liver cancer that made his death as controversial as his life.   He spent his last eight years as a prisoner of conscience and died at a hospital in Shenyang, where he had... Читать дальше...

Pakistan says it finds it necessary to build a fence along its long porous border with Afghanistan, in part because of a lack of cooperation from authorities in Kabul. The border region has long been a source of instability, with militant groups, terrorists and smugglers using the remote, mountainous terrain as cover. Pakistan says it is now moving forward unilaterally to improve security in the region, and increase the monitoring of millions of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan. Afghanistan... Читать дальше...

Germany has confirmed that two of its nationals were stabbed to death in an attack at an Egyptian resort hotel. A German Foreign Ministry statement said "We can now sadly confirm that two German tourists died in the attack at Hurghada." Officials say the female tourists were killed Friday when the assailant swam ashore from another Red Sea beach. Egyptian authorities say the man has been arrested. A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said, "According to what we know, the act was a deliberate... Читать дальше...

Authorities in Pakistan’s capital are investigating the water in the city’s main reservoir after tons of dead fish were found in a lake on the city’s outskirts.    Police officer Imran Haider says Saturday samples of water and dead fish from Rawal Lake have been collected and sent for forensic testing after a complaint received from the capital’s fisheries department.   According to Haider, Mohammad Sadiq Buzdar of the fisheries department said there has been an increasing number of dead fish... Читать дальше...

The United Nation’s envoy to Syria has ended the latest round of peace talks, saying there have been no major breakthroughs but that “incremental progress” was made. “We have made, as we were expecting and hoping, incremental progress. No breakthrough, no breakdown, no one walking out,” United Nations mediator Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Geneva. He said he planned to convene an eighth round of indirect peace talks in early September between President Bashar Assad’s government and opposition... Читать дальше...

A senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader has described Iraq’s liberation of Mosul from Islamic State (IS) as a victory for Tehran. Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told reporters, “Liberation of the Iraqi city of Mosul from the hands of IS marks a triumph for Iran as well as for Iraq.” Majid Rafizadeh, a political scientist at Harvard University, said the victory by Iraqi forces “helped Tehran tip the regional balance of power against its Sunni-dominated rivals... Читать дальше...

Imagine being lost and unable to find the nearest bus stop. Now imagine looking for that same bus stop as a person who is blind. “If there are no sighted people available to guide you,” said Luiza Aguiar, executive director of Perkins Solution. “You are out of luck.” Someone with blindness typically relies on a smartphone’s voiceover and GPS functions to help them get around, but there’s a big catch: Devices with GPS usually get people within 30 feet of their final destination. “But that last 30 feet... Читать дальше...

As recently as last year, Rinat Akhmetshin could be seen regularly pedaling through downtown Washington, D.C., nattily dressed, with a pocket square and heavy-framed thick glasses, riding a retro hipster orange bicycle.  He also showed an affinity for vintage motorcycles, which he parked for two years in the Washington driveway of renowned investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.  Hersh later gave a public endorsement to a controversial film linked to Akhmetshin that sought to undermine a 2012 U.S.... Читать дальше...

Navigating public transit systems can be difficult, especially if you're blind. But in Boston the BlindWays app is a virtual GPS for the visually impaired. The app's contributors aren't coders or programmers, but everyday citizens. VOA's Tina Trinh explains.

A Chinese legal activist who founded a loose network of socially conscious citizens was released from prison Saturday at the end of a four-year sentence, his lawyer said.   Xu Zhiyong helped found the New Citizens Movement, which at the time organized monthly dinners to discuss China’s constitution and other legal issues.    Zhang Qingfang, Xu’s attorney, said he was freed Saturday morning from a prison in Beijing. He said Xu was in good health, but had no further details to share. Disrupting... Читать дальше...

Indonesia says it’s blocking web versions of the encrypted Telegram instant messaging app and will block the app completely if it continues to be a forum for radical propaganda and violent militants.   The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said in a statement Friday evening that it has asked internet companies in the world’s most populous Muslim nation to block access to 11 addresses that the web version is available through.   It said “this blocking must be done” because... Читать дальше...

Turkey marks the one-year anniversary Saturday of a defeated military coup. Since then, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dismissed at least 100,000 civil servants he has characterized as supporters of the aborted coup. The government has arrested another 50,000 people. Turkish officials have declared July 15 a national holiday of “democracy and unity.” The Turkish opposition says that Erdogan’s government is moving toward authoritarianism, while the Turkish leader says that the crackdown... Читать дальше...

Ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft have been so disruptive to New York City’s taxi industry, they are causing lenders to fail.   Three New York-based credit unions that specialized in loaning money against taxi cab medallions, the hard-to-get licenses that allow the city’s traditional cab fleet to operate, have been placed into conservatorship as the value of those medallions has plummeted.   Just three years ago, cab owners and investors were paying as much as $1.3 million for a medallion. Читать дальше...

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.