Новости за 08.06.2023

The timing of new U.S.-sponsored peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which had been expected to start Monday, is now uncertain despite the U.S. administration's conviction that direct dialogue between the two nations is key to any stable peace agreement. "At the request of the Azerbaijani side, the next round of discussions planned to take place next week in Washington D.C. is postponed," Armenia's foreign ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan said in a statement Thursday on social media.... Читать дальше...

We explore the importance of a free press and speak to a mental health expert about how journalists cope with covering difficult stories of horror. This week on The Inside Story, A Free Press Matters.

The Pentagon says reports that China and Cuba have reached a secret pact allowing Beijing to build an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island that is 160 kilometers from the United States are "not accurate." "I can tell you, based on the information that we have, that that is not accurate - that we are not aware of China and Cuba developing any type of spy station," Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon's press secretary, told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday. According to the reports... Читать дальше...

The Pentagon says reports that China and Cuba have reached a secret pact allowing Beijing to build an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island that is 160 kilometers from the United States are “not accurate.” “I can tell you, based on the information that we have, that that is not accurate. That we are not aware of China and Cuba developing any type of spy station,” Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday. According to the reports... Читать дальше...

Hong Kong is aiming to ban digital and public performances of a song that was widely used during the pro-democracy protests four years ago, a move critics say is part of a broader trend to stamp out dissent. The ban, if implemented, would present new challenges for tech companies operating in Hong Kong, analysts add. During the political unrest of 2019, "Glory to Hong Kong" became the unofficial anthem of the pro-democracy movement. But on June 5, Hong Kong's Department of Justice announced that... Читать дальше...

A painter in Ghana is using her art to campaign against child marriage. Awanle Ayiboro was forced into marriage as a teenager and is using her own experience to dispel misconceptions about the development of girls and young women. Victoria Amunga reports from Accra. Camera: Senanu Tord.

In the Pacific Northwest, one of America’s biggest community garden projects is celebrating its 50th anniversary. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya gives us a look.

Like most journalists, Kenya’s are dealing with an increase in disinformation that threatens to discredit their profession. They are also being targeted with violence for doing their jobs. For VOA, Saida Swaleh has the story from Nairobi. Camera: Rashid Ibrahim

On air quality maps, purple signifies the worst of it. In reality, it's a thick, hazardous haze that’s disrupting daily life for millions of people across the U.S. and Canada, blotting out skylines and turning skies orange. With weather systems expected to barely budge, the smoky blanket billowing from wildfires in Quebec and Nova Scotia and sending plumes of fine particulate matter as far away as North Carolina and northern Europe should persist into Thursday and possibly the weekend. That... Читать дальше...

Colleges and universities are allowed to give underrepresented minorities a boost when applying. But later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court is widely expected to ban colleges from considering race in admissions. How will the schools respond? Read this story from Dan Friedell of VOA Learning English, adapted from a piece by Reuters. (June 2023)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday handed a major victory to Black voters who challenged a Republican-drawn electoral map in Alabama, finding that the state violated a landmark federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. The 5-4 ruling affirmed a lower court's decision that the map diluted the voting power of Black Alabamians, running afoul of a bedrock U.S. civil rights law, the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the ruling, which was joined by the... Читать дальше...

Schools across the U.S. East Coast canceled outdoor activities, airline traffic slowed, and millions of Americans were urged to stay indoors Wednesday as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south, blanketing cities in thick, yellow haze, Reuters reported. The U.S. National Weather Service issued air quality alerts for virtually the entire Atlantic seaboard.

El Nino has officially returned and is likely to yield extreme weather later this year, from tropical cyclones spinning toward vulnerable Pacific islands to heavy rainfall in South America to drought in Australia.  After three years of the La Nina climate pattern, which often lowers global temperatures slightly, the hotter El Nino is back in action, according to an advisory issued on Thursday by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center.  El Nino is... Читать дальше...

About 300 infants, toddlers and older children have been rescued from an orphanage in Sudan’s capital after being trapped there while fighting raged outside, aid officials said Thursday. The evacuation came after 71 children died from hunger and illness in the facility since mid-April. The tragedy at the Al-Mayqoma orphanage made headlines late last month as fighting raged outside between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The deaths have highlighted the heavy toll inflicted... Читать дальше...

A local representative says at least 13 people are dead and 21 have been wounded in clashes at a United Nations site in South Sudan for the protection of displaced civilians. The fighting erupted Thursday morning in the Malakal site between members of the Shilluk and Nuer ethnic groups. The cause of the fighting was not immediately clear. The situation remained tense amid fears that the fighting would resume, Yoannes Kimo, deputy chairperson representing displaced people at the site, told The Associated Press by phone. Читать дальше...

Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh protested on Thursday, demanding to be repatriated to Myanmar, so that they could leave the squalid camps they have lived in since fleeing a brutal military crackdown in their homeland in 2017. More than a million Rohingya have been crammed into the camps in southeastern Bangladesh, the world's largest refugee settlement. Most fled the crackdown by Myanmar's military almost six years ago, although some have been there for longer. During Thursday's... Читать дальше...

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday that the U.S. is investing more than $100 million in the Caribbean region to crack down on weapons trafficking, help alleviate Haiti's humanitarian crisis and support climate change initiatives. The announcement was made ahead of an official trip to the Bahamas for a meeting of Caribbean and U.S. leaders hosted by Harris and Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis. As part of the initiatives, the U.S. Justice Department expects to appoint a coordinator... Читать дальше...

Nearly a year since being sworn in as president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is getting mixed reviews from political analysts. “We have really yet to see any major achievements, especially for the lives of the ordinary people,” said Cleve Arguelles, chief executive of WR Numero Research, a polling firm in the Philippines. “Although much has been said about bringing down the prices of rice and other agricultural products, we really have yet to see significant improvements in these areas. Читать дальше...

Almost one-year after taking office, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Junior is getting mixed reviews from political analysts as he faces challenges domestically and abroad. Dave Grunebaum has the story.

A Syrian national wounded four children and an adult in a knife attack in a park in the southeastern French town of Annecy on Thursday, police said, leaving some of the victims critically ill in hospital. The attacker was a Syrian national with legal refugee status in France, a police official told Reuters. He was not known to security agencies and his motives were unclear, an investigative source said. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Twitter that the attacker had been arrested. Читать дальше...

A bomb blast ripped through a mosque in Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan province during a memorial ceremony Thursday for the Taliban provincial deputy governor who was assassinated in an Islamic State group attack this week. The explosion in the provincial capital of Faizabad killed at least 11 worshipers and wounded more than 30 others, the Taliban-led Afghan interior ministry said on Twitter. Moazuddin Ahmadi, the head of the area information office, told VOA by phone that a former Taliban... Читать дальше...

A Japanese court on Thursday said a ban on same-sex marriage was constitutional but it raised concerns about the dignity and human rights of same-sex couples, a ruling short of activists' expectations but still seen as a step forward. The judgement by the Fukuoka district court came a week after another district court said it was unconstitutional to ban same-sex marriage, bolstering hopes for change among the LGBTQ community in Japan, the only Group of Seven nation without legal protection for same-sex unions. Читать дальше...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that when it comes to defeating the Islamic State militant group, the “fight is not yet done.” Speaking in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the start of a ministerial meeting of the 80-member Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, Blinken said the group has achieved territorial defeat of the group in Iraq and Syria, taken out its leaders and prevent large-scale attacks. But Blinken highlighted several areas of focus to achieve what he called the “enduring end” of the Islamic State group. Читать дальше...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit Beijing in coming weeks, rescheduling a trip canceled in February amid tensions that included a Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States. Officials speaking on condition of anonymity discussed the updated plans with reporters but did not give information on the exact timing of the expected trip to China. The Financial Times reported the visit could come this month. When asked about the issue Monday, State Department spokesperson... Читать дальше...

Schools across the U.S. East Coast canceled outdoor activities, airline traffic slowed, and millions of Americans were urged to stay indoors Wednesday as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south, blanketing cities in thick, yellow haze. The U.S. National Weather Service issued air quality alerts for virtually the entire Atlantic seaboard. Health officials from Vermont to South Carolina and as far west as Ohio and Kansas warned residents that spending time outdoors could cause respiratory problems... Читать дальше...