Новости за 25.01.2023

France has received a request from junta-ruled Burkina Faso to withdraw its troops from the Sahel country and will do so within a month, the foreign ministry said Wednesday. "On Tuesday ... we formally received notice from the Burkinabe government of the termination of the 2018 agreement on the status of French armed forces present in the country," a ministry spokeswoman said. "According to the terms of the accord, the termination takes effect a month after reception of written notification. Читать дальше...

The updated COVID-19 boosters from Pfizer Inc PFE.N/BioNTech SE BNTX.O and Moderna MRNA.O helped prevent symptomatic infections against the new XBB-related subvariants, offering new evidence of how the vaccines perform against these fast-spreading strains, U.S. officials said on Wednesday. "Today we have additional evidence to show that these updated vaccines are protecting people against the latest COVID-19 variants," Dr. Brendan Jackson, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID-19 response... Читать дальше...

Officials in Malaysia are nearing the end of an investigation into the cause of a deadly overnight landslide that struck a farm and campsite in December, amid questions as to whether the government allowed development in an area unsuitable for these types of activities. The disaster left 31 people dead at Father’s Organic Farm in the rural community of Batang Kali in Selangor state. Authorities are looking into why the campsite and farm were developed below a steep slope that is downhill from a road cut into the slope decades earlier. Читать дальше...

Preliminary reports from an ongoing investigation into a December landslide that killed 31 people in Malaysia seem to indicate the area used as a farm and campsite was not zoned for agricultural, commercial or recreational use. David Grunebaum reports from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Twenty states with Republican attorneys general on Tuesday sued the Biden administration over a major change in immigration policy that would turn away more migrants but still allow 360,000 people to legally enter each year from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Texas, accuses the Biden administration of arbitrarily creating recent changes and overstepping its authority. Among those leading the challenge is Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has... Читать дальше...

The United States is "actively seeking to reengage" China on counternarcotics, including stopping the flow of illicit synthetic drugs like fentanyl into the U.S., said the State Department ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing in early February. U.S. officials admit engagement between the two countries on these issues "has been limited in recent months." "We don't have any recent meetings to read out or to preview," a State Department spokesperson told VOA on Tuesday,... Читать дальше...

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

The past three years have been brutal for the small businesses that make up Manhattan’s Chinatown. The pandemic forced the closure of several longtime restaurants and stores, but as Tina Trinh reports, two second-generation Asian Americans are harnessing the power of social media to bring foot traffic back.

Tanzania opposition leader Tundu Lissu has returned to the country from self-imposed exile in Belgium, where he had lived since surviving an assassination attempt in 2017 when he was shot 16 times. The outspoken politician arrived at Dar es Salaam airport Wednesday and was welcomed by hundreds of supporters, with many clapping and cheering. Lissu was seen waving his Chadema party flag while perched through the sunroof of a car as he greeted supporters who had gathered along the roads and were following him on foot... Читать дальше...

Hundreds of supporters of South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance protested Wednesday over ongoing power cuts that are crippling the African continent’s most developed economy. South Africa has been mired in an energy crisis for more than a decade, but it has accelerated this year, with the country experiencing daily scheduled blackouts – sometimes for as long as 10 hours a day. Known here as “loadshedding,” the cuts are meant to reduce power on the strained grid. Eskom, the cash-strapped and debt-ridden state power utility... Читать дальше...

A maker of abortion pills and a doctor have filed lawsuits challenging state restrictions on the medication, in the first lawsuits of their kind since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal constitutional right to abortion. In a complaint filed in the federal court in Huntington, West Virginia, GenBioPro Inc. said the state cannot override the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval from 2000 of mifepristone by banning the drug, the first in a two-drug regimen for medication abortions. Читать дальше...

Nigeria’s secret police are investigating Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele for alleged financial crimes, financing terrorism, and graft. But the banker’s supporters say the allegations are politically motivated, with politicians opposed to his currency reforms behind the probe. Nigeria's central bank late last year unveiled new currency to combat crime and rein in vote-buying, sparking debate just a few months ahead of February elections. The charges leveled against Godwin Emefiele by the... Читать дальше...

Drilling for Uganda’s first commercial oil well began this week, as part of a $10 billion project to develop Uganda’s oilfields and a controversial pipeline to Tanzania’s coast. Authorities say they have addressed concerns about the oil projects' effects on the environment and displacing people. However, critics say the dangers are being ignored. Uganda began its oil production journey by switching on a drilling rig Tuesday at the Kingfisher oil field in southwest Kikuube district. The oilfield... Читать дальше...

South Africa and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced plans Wednesday to form a task force that will combat the financing of wildlife trafficking. The task force will combat illicit finance linked to illegal wildlife trade in three key areas, a statement from the U.S. Treasury Department said. These include sharing financial red flags linked to wildlife trafficking cases, increased sharing of financial intelligence, and improving controls to combat money laundering. Yellen made the... Читать дальше...

Nine major storms in three weeks have left 20 people dead and caused widespread flooding in California. This follows years of drought that helped fuel devastating wildfires. Both extremes show the influence of climate change.

The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, warns the departure of European forces from Mali has created a dangerous vacuum in the country.  The European forces completed their withdrawal from Mali in November, ending a 14-year effort to keep the country safe from militant Islamist groups. UNHCR Representative in Mali Mohamed Toure says that effort failed. Speaking from the town of Mopti, he says he has just returned from a long visit to the northern part of Mali to assess the condition and needs of... Читать дальше...

A new report on African governance released Wednesday finds much of the continent is "less safe, secure and democratic" than it was 10 years ago, citing a surge in military coups and armed conflicts. The democratic backsliding now threatens to reverse decades of progress made in Africa, according to an index of governance compiled by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation that notes 23 successful and attempted coups since 2012. "This phenomenon of coup d'etats that was common in the '80s seems to have become fashionable again in certain parts of Africa... Читать дальше...

Days after India blocked a BBC documentary that examines Prime Minister Narendra Modi's role during 2002 anti-Muslim riots and banned people from sharing it online, authorities are scrambling to halt screenings of the film at colleges and universities and restrict clips of it on social media. Critics decry the move by as an assault on press freedom. Tensions escalated in the capital, New Delhi, on Wednesday at Jamia Millia University where a student group said it planned to screen the banned documentary... Читать дальше...

Former vice president Chen Chien-jen will be Taiwan's new premier, the presidential office said on Wednesday, as part of a cabinet reshuffle following heavy losses for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) at local elections last year. Premier Su Tseng-chang submitted his resignation last week along with that of his cabinet ahead of the widely expected government reorganization. Su's move followed the DPP's trouncing at local polls in November, and comes as Taiwan gears up for presidential and parliamentary elections in early 2024. Читать дальше...

Pope Francis criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as "unjust," saying God loves all his children just as they are and called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church. "Being homosexual isn't a crime," Francis said during an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. Francis acknowledged that Catholic bishops in some parts of the world support laws that criminalize homosexuality or discriminate against the LGBTQ community, and he himself referred... Читать дальше...

North Korean authorities have ordered a five-day lockdown in the capital, Pyongyang, amid an increase in unspecified respiratory illnesses, according to Russian diplomats and a Seoul-based news outlet.    NK News, a publication with sources in North Korea, first reported the lockdown, saying Pyongyang residents are required to stay in their homes and undergo mandatory temperature checks from Wednesday through Sunday.     A North Korean government notice announcing the lockdown did not mention COVID-19, NK News said. Читать дальше...

The head of the United Nations’s nuclear monitoring agency says he will travel to Iran next month in hopes of reviving the 2015 accord aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear activities.  Speaking Tuesday in Brussels before members of the European Parliament’s security and defense subcommittee, Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the Islamic Republic has accumulated 70 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity, with another 1,000 kilograms enriched to 20% purity... Читать дальше...

Labour leader Chris Hipkins was sworn in as New Zealand's prime minister in a formal ceremony on Wednesday, following the resignation of outgoing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last week. The Labour Party elected former COVID-19 Response and Police minister Hipkins, 44, to lead the party and the country on Sunday. This comes after the surprise resignation of Ardern, 42, who said she had "no more in the tank" to lead the country. Hundreds gathered on the grounds of Parliament as Ardern left for the final time... Читать дальше...

VOA Persian TV producer on what Iran’s protesters want exiled opposition leaders to do in support. American Enterprise Institute researcher on how Iran’s protest organizers are responding to a lull in protest activity. German lawmaker Ye-One Rhie on what she’s learned from being a political sponsor of jailed Iranian rapper and dissident Toomaj Salehi.

As Californians deal with two mass shootings just days apart, President Joe Biden is supporting gun control measures introduced by California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein to renew the 1994 assault-weapons ban. But as White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports, with Republicans controlling the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court leaning heavily conservative, the legal landscape for more gun control in the U.S. looks bleak.