Новости за 21.04.2023

Sri Lankan Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera's announcement that authorities were considering exporting 100,000 endangered toque macaque monkeys to a private Chinese company has sparked protests from animal rights activists. While the toque macaque, which is endemic to Sri Lanka, features in the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list of endangered animals, it is not a protected species in Sri Lanka. Amaraweera said last week the Chinese proposal to import the toque macaques... Читать дальше...

U.S. homeland security officials are launching what they describe as two urgent initiatives to combat growing threats from China and expanding dangers from ever more capable, and potentially malicious, artificial intelligence. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Friday that his department was starting a “90-day sprint” to confront more frequent and intense efforts by China to hurt the United States, while separately establishing an artificial intelligence task force. "Beijing... Читать дальше...

Five members the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, are on trial in Washington for seditious conspiracy in connection with the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.   The defendants are accused of plotting and coordinating the bloody rampage in an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power from then-President Donald Trump to Joe Biden, the winner of the 2020 presidential election.  If convicted, the defendants could face up to 20 years in prison.  The trial, now in its fourth month... Читать дальше...

Cameroonian journalists say they remain fearful more than three months after the abduction and killings of investigative journalist Martinez Zogo and radio presenter Jean-Jacques Ola Bebe.  Dieudonne Koutche was among several dozen civilians who who stopped by a memorial to the slain journalists at Amplitude FM radio in Yaounde on April 21, 2023. He said he feels for journalists in Cameroon because it is a country where officials and business executives can decide one morning to abduct and kill a reporter. Читать дальше...

Human rights activists welcome the move by President Yoweri Museveni to return a draft of the anti-homosexuality bill to parliament for review, saying it provides them with more time to fight it. On Thursday, Museveni, in a meeting with legislators of the ruling National Resistance Movement party, congratulated them upon passing the bill in March. But Museveni said that while he agrees with the bill, legislators need to make changes to not frighten someone who, in his words, needs rehabilitation and wants to come out. Читать дальше...

Kenya's Ruto makes offer to mediate the conflict as Sudanese military doesn't acknowledge truce

A man paces a 50-meter stage doing breathing exercises. Crew members chatter while putting together final touches to the set, as a pianist rehearses. Acclaimed South African artist William Kentridge's play "The Head & The Load" is almost ready for its much-awaited African debut. "Being able to show it at home feels very important," Kentridge told AFP of the show, which centers on African porters who, at the call of their colonial masters, hauled arms, cannons and supplies for European forces during World War I. Читать дальше...

Iranian navy commander Shahram Irani told state television on Thursday that Iran's navy forced a U.S. submarine to surface as it entered the Persian Gulf, but the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet denied such an incident had taken place. "The U.S. submarine was approaching while submerged, but the Iranian submarine Fateh detected it and carried out... maneuvers to force it to surface as it went through the Strait (of Hormuz). It had also entered into our territorial waters but ... it corrected its course after being warned," Irani said. Читать дальше...

A new report by the World Meteorological Organization finds many records linked to climate change were broken last year—none of them good. “We have broken records in the main greenhouse gas concentrations, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, and last year we saw the biggest annual increase of methane concentration,” said Petteri Taalas, WMO Secretary-General, who discussed the agency’s State of the Global Climate 2022 report Friday. However, he noted, last year failed to reach the all-time... Читать дальше...

Germany’s train system came to a standstill Friday when railway workers went on strike for eight hours.  EVG, the union representing the state-owned Deutsche Bahn workers, says its members need a raise to counter inflation.   Long distance and regional trains were affected by the strike, which lasted from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m.   The railway strike coincided with a walkout at four major German airports, affecting hundreds of flights. Reuters news agency reports 700 flights were canceled.

Montana's House speaker on Thursday refused to allow a transgender lawmaker to speak about bills on the House floor until she apologizes for saying lawmakers would have "blood on their hands" if they supported a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, the lawmaker said. Rep. Zooey Zephyr, who was deliberately misgendered by a conservative group of lawmakers demanding her censure after Tuesday's comments, said she will not apologize, creating a standoff between the first-term... Читать дальше...

Muslims in Minneapolis can now hear their call to prayer broadcast five times a day from mosques around the city, thanks to a new law. From Minneapolis, Mohamud Mascadde has the story, narrated by Salem Solomon.

Twitter has removed labels describing global media organizations as government-funded or state-affiliated, a move that comes after the Elon Musk-owned platform started stripping blue verification checkmarks from accounts that don't pay a monthly fee. Among those no longer labeled was National Public Radio in the U.S., which announced last week that it would stop using Twitter after its main account was designated state-affiliated media, a term also used to identify media outlets controlled or heavily influenced by authoritarian governments... Читать дальше...

British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has resigned from office, following an investigation that he bullied his colleagues. Several formal complaints were lodged against him.  In a resignation letter posted on Twitter Friday, Raab said, “I called for the inquiry and undertook to resign, if it made any finding of bullying whatsoever.  I believe it is important to keep my word.”  Raab said in the letter that he felt “duty bound to accept the outcome of the inquiry, it dismissed all but two of the claims levelled against me. Читать дальше...

French! That’s according to writer Freddie DeBoer, who cites the hundreds of millions of French speakers across Africa. DeBoer argues that “safe majors” like business or computer science often suffer from high competition, low educational standards, volatile demand and susceptibility to artificial intelligence (AI). Furthermore, the idea of a “practical major” is meaningless, constantly changing and used to blame people for economic issues beyond their control. Read his take on the topic in New York Magazine. Читать дальше...

An Indian court on Thursday acquitted 69 Hindus, including a former minister from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of the murder of 11 Muslims during communal riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002.   The killings occurred in Ahmedabad on Feb. 28, 2002, a day after a suspected Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, setting off one of independent India's worst outbreaks of religious bloodshed.   A total of 86 Hindus were accused of the killings in the Naroda Gam district of Ahmedabad... Читать дальше...

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said Friday it has agreed to a 72-hour truce to begin at 6 a.m., designed to bring at least a temporary halt to the days of deadly fighting in the African country that has killed hundreds. The RSF said in a statement, "The truce coincides with the blessed Eid al-Fitr ... to open humanitarian corridors to evacuate citizens and give them the opportunity to greet their families." The Muslim holiday of Eid marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Читать дальше...

The Pentagon is positioning military forces near Sudan to help evacuate U.S. Embassy personnel in Khartoum, if needed, amid the explosion of violence between the African country’s two warring factions. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other leaders are pushing for a cease-fire until at least Sunday. VOA's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.

The CEO of TikTok tried to calm critics' fears about the security of his company's app during an appearance Thursday. Shou Chew was asked at a TED2023 Possibility conference if he could guarantee Beijing would not use the TikTok app, owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance, to interfere in future U.S. elections. "I can say that we are building all the tools to prevent any of these actions from happening," Chew said. "And I'm very confident that with an unprecedented amount of transparency that we're giving on the platform... Читать дальше...

While artificial intelligence, or AI, is not new, the speed at which the technology is developing and its implications for societies are, for many, a cause for wonder and alarm. ChatGPT recently garnered headlines for doing things like writing term papers for university students. Tom Graham and his company, Metaphysic.ai, have received attention for creating fake videos of actor Tom Cruise and re-creating Elvis Presley singing on an American talent show. Metaphysic was started to utilize artificial... Читать дальше...

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni declined to sign a bill that would require the death penalty for homosexuality in some cases and sent it back to Parliament for "strengthening." Museveni's decision was announced late Thursday after he met with lawmakers in his ruling National Resistance Movement party, almost all of whom supported the bill. The meeting ended with a decision to return the bill to Parliament "with proposals for its improvement," a statement said. It was not clear what the president's recommendations were. Читать дальше...

Reducing global emissions that are triggering climate change remains at the forefront of the world's environmental agenda on Earth Day, which for more than 50 years has been celebrated on April 22. Like last year, Earth Day is focusing on investments that benefit the planet and curtail fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – the largest contributors to climate change. Specifically, organizers are urging people and organizations to invest in companies that take the environment into account. "More... Читать дальше...

President Joe Biden will formally announce his 2024 reelection campaign as soon as next week, three people briefed on the discussions said Thursday. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said they were not aware that a final decision on timing had been made, but that Biden had been eyeing Tuesday, April 25, four years to the day since the Democrat entered the 2020 race. The upcoming announcement is expected to be in the form of a video released to supporters. Читать дальше...

Large parts of the Muslim world marked the end of the fasting month of Ramadan at sundown Thursday and ushered in the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, but the festivities were overshadowed by raging battles for control of Sudan and a deadly stampede in Yemen. In other parts of the region, the holiday came against the backdrop of reconciliation and rapprochement between former rivals. The Islamic calendar is lunar and depends on the sighting of the moon — something Muslim religious authorities tend to disagree on. Читать дальше...

A Biden administration review said the chaotic August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was largely the result of policy decisions made by the Trump administration. VOA's congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson spoke to House Foreign Affairs Committee members about next steps for oversight.