Новости за 12.04.2023

The second of two Black Democrats expelled from the Republican-led Tennessee House will return to the Legislature after a Memphis commission voted to reinstate him Wednesday, nearly a week after his banishment for supporting gun control protesters propelled him into the national spotlight. Hundreds of supporters chanted and cheered as they marched Representative Justin Pearson through Memphis to the Shelby County Board of Commissioners meeting, where officials quickly voted 7-0 to restore his position. Читать дальше...

More than two months after the February 6 earthquake in Turkey and Syria that killed more than 50,000 people, millions of survivors are still living in tents with little hope of returning home anytime soon. As Turkey’s presidential election campaigns enter full swing ahead of the May 14 first-round vote, some survivors say they feel forgotten. Yunus Emre Yildiz, his wife and their three children live in a tent on stony waste ground in their hometown of Hassa in Hatay province. On one side is a busy highway; on the other... Читать дальше...

Rising singer-songwriter Abraham Alexander's debut full length album SEA/SONS is out this week.  The album contains themes of loss, redemption, longing, anguish, and joy, spanning genres of folk, pop, rock, R&B, gospel, and electronic music.

Electronic cigarette-maker Juul Labs will pay $462 million to six states and the District of Columbia, marking the largest settlement the company has reached so far for its role in the youth vaping surge, New York Attorney General Letitia James said Wednesday. The agreement with New York, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Washington, D.C., marks the latest in a string of recent legal settlements Juul has reached across the country with cities and states. The vaping company... Читать дальше...

Militants affiliated to Islamic State group have taken Tidermene in Mali, further isolating the regional capital, Menaka, in a region that has fallen almost entirely under their control, officials and witnesses told AFP on Wednesday.  Tidermene's fall follows months of fighting by Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, or ISGS, to seize the northeastern village of a few thousand inhabitants about 75 kilometers north of Menaka.  All the region's main administrative subdivisions are now under the group's control. Читать дальше...

Residents in northern Ethiopia’s Amhara region say local fighters briefly took over a police station and seized weapons amid ongoing clashes between protesters and the military. The fighting was sparked last week when Ethiopia’s government ordered all regional forces to integrate with federal forces or regional police. Amhara residents say gunfights have erupted in cities and authorities have shut off the internet.  In the Amhara region town of Mezzezo, residents said they heard heavy gunfire early Wednesday as armed Amhara fighters... Читать дальше...

Defendants on trial in the 2016 Brussels attacks recounted on Wednesday the anger they felt at the bombing of the Islamic State group by an international coalition.   Nine defendants are on trial in the March 22, 2016, suicide bomb attacks claimed by the jihadi group that killed 32 people at the Brussels airport and the city's metro.  Investigators believe the IS cell behind the attacks was linked to the group that carried out the November 2015 Paris attacks, which left 130 dead.  Sofien Ayari... Читать дальше...

Broadcaster National Public Radio said Wednesday it would no longer post its news content on 52 official Twitter accounts in protest of the social media site labeling the independent U.S. news agency as "government-funded media."  NPR is the first major news organization to go silent on Twitter. The social media platform owned by entrepreneur Elon Musk at first labeled NPR as "state-affiliated media," the same tag it applies to propaganda outlets in China, Russia and other autocratic countries. Читать дальше...

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

The cost of U.S. tourist and student visas, among other kinds, is increasing on May 30. See the full breakdown in this news release from the U.S. State Department. (March 2023)

Hospitals in Cameroon are reporting an increase in cases of river blindness, a parasitic disease caused by bites from infected blackflies. Hundreds of aid workers have been dispatched to remote, riverside villages to encourage those infected to seek treatment.  In Sa'a district, 74 kilometers north of Cameroon's capital of Yaounde, 45-year-old Jean Christophe Onana says he has not been able to recover his sight after receiving treatment from an African traditional healer for two months. He says... Читать дальше...

When Shamsuzzaman Shams walked out of prison on bail last week, his colleagues draped garlands around the Bangladeshi journalist’s neck. Shams, a reporter for the daily Prothom Alo newspaper, had spent six days in the Dhaka Central Jail over accusations that he published “false news” about food prices. He now faces two legal complaints under the country’s Digital Security Act, and his colleague, Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman, is named in one of those cases. The arrest came as analysts noted... Читать дальше...

An imprisoned opposition activist with Azerbaijan Popular Front Party has been on hunger strike for more than 60 days. Zamin Salayev’s lawyer, who last met with his client on April 7, said Salayev’s health is deteriorating. “There are already lesions on his body, he has lost a lot of weight,” Nemat Karimli told VOA, adding that Salayev is not being closely monitored by doctors. According to Karimli, Salayev is determined to continue his hunger strike until he is released. “He says ‘either... Читать дальше...

Prince Harry will attend the coronation of his father, King Charles III, at Westminster Abbey on May 6, Buckingham Palace said Wednesday, ending months of speculation about his presence.  Harry's wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, will remain in California with the couple's two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, the palace said. The coronation date coincides with their eldest son's birthday.  Harry's attendance comes despite the rift within the House of Windsor prompted by Harry's... Читать дальше...

The Taliban on Wednesday said their decision to forbid local women from working for the United Nations in Afghanistan is an internal matter that all parties should respect. The fundamentalist de facto authorities issued their first formal response a week after the ban on Afghan women staff from the U.N. went into effect. It also came a day after the U.N. mission office in Kabul renewed its condemnation of the "unlawful" restriction and warned it could push the world body to cease operations in the country. Читать дальше...

A prominent Vietnamese journalist who documented protests and human rights violations in the communist-run country was sentenced to six years in jail Wednesday, his lawyer said. Nguyen Lan Thang, an activist and freelance writer who is well-known in Vietnam for his criticism of the government, was convicted of spreading "anti-state propaganda" in the one-day, rare closed-door trial in Hanoi. His lawyer, Nguyen Ha Luan, told AFP that the journalist — who was a contributor to Radio Free Asia Vietnamese blog ... Читать дальше...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday proposed sweeping emissions cuts for new cars and trucks through 2032, a move it says could mean two out of every three new vehicles automakers sell will be electric within a decade. The proposal, if finalized, represents the most aggressive U.S. vehicle emissions reduction plan to date, requiring 13% annual average pollution cuts and a 56% reduction in projected fleet average emissions over 2026 requirements. The EPA is also proposing... Читать дальше...

An Iranian delegation arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Tehran said, to pave the way for reopening diplomatic missions as the Gulf rivals prepare to normalize relations, seven years after an acrimonious split. The announcement came just days after a Saudi delegation made a similar visit to Iran's capital, following a historic meeting in China between the two governments' foreign ministers who vowed to bring stability to the turbulent region. "In accordance with the implementation of the... Читать дальше...

Two-year community colleges, which serve many of the students who need the most support, have the lowest completion rates of any kind of university or college, The Associated Press reported. The availability of advisers, students say, is often a deciding factor in who succeeds, the AP says in its story. (April 2023)

The office of Mexico’s attorney general says it has launched a criminal investigation into the head of the country’s immigration agency in connection with last month’s deadly fire at an immigrant detention facility.  A statement released late Tuesday night said National Immigration Institute (INM) chief Francisco Garduno failed to take steps to prevent the fire at the agency’s facility in the city of Ciudad Juarez that killed 40 migrants on March 27.    The attorney general’s office says the... Читать дальше...

The most senior Chinese government official to visit Australia in six years has arrived for talks in Sydney. Ma Zhaoxu’s visit is the latest sign that diplomatic ties between Canberra and Beijing are easing after years of friction. The visit by Ma, China's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, comes as the two countries agree to resolve a dispute over imports of Australian barley. Ma will hold talks Wednesday with Australian government officials. It is the first visit by a senior Chinese official... Читать дальше...

Myanmar’s ruling junta has confirmed it carried out deadly airstrikes on a village where opposition forces were holding a ceremony.    Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said Wednesday the attack in the Sagaing area in northwest Myanmar on Tuesday was conducted during a ceremony by the People’s Defense Force, the military arm of the National Unity Government, a shadow government made up of members of the civilian government ousted by the military on February 1, 2021. Various news outlets say at least 50 people were killed in the airstrike. Читать дальше...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Philippine leaders at the State Department as the two countries began their largest joint military drills Tuesday, amid increased tensions with China over Taiwan and Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has details.

President Joe Biden headed Tuesday to Belfast, where leaders will discuss a 1998 peace agreement that ended over a quarter-century of sectarian conflict in British-held Northern Ireland between pro-British Unionists and nationalists who wanted to unite with independent Ireland. That deal is now complicated by the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union. VOA’s Anita Powell examines what’s at stake.

American Enterprise Institute researcher Kitaneh Fitzpatrick on renewed wave of poisonings at girls’ schools in Iran. University of Washington sociologist Ramin Jabbarli on Iran looking for new ways to pressure Azerbaijan amid rising bilateral tensions. U.S.-based activist Gazelle Sharmahd on joining forces with families of other Westerners jailed in Iran to fight for their release.