Новости за 28.06.2023

WASHINGTON - Four months into a social media ban, communications businesses and civil rights groups in Ethiopia are feeling the impact. Strict regulations are making it harder for them to reach audiences or verify information. In March, the country blocked access to Facebook, TikTok, Telegram and YouTube nationwide following a disagreement with the country’s Orthodox Church, where some religious leaders called for protests. But human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have said the... Читать дальше...

WASHINGTON - The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said Wednesday that he expected a greater U.S.-India partnership over issues in the South China Sea, where China has been at the center of numerous territorial disputes with regional countries. The United States and India declared themselves "among the closest partners in the world" last week during a state visit to Washington by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and emphasized adherence to international law in addressing challenges to the maritime rules-based order... Читать дальше...

U.S. President Joe Biden says he wants to make sure that every American has access to high-speed internet. VOA’s Julie Taboh has our story about the United States' more than $40 billion-dollar investment to expand the service. (Videographer:  Adam Greenbaum; Produced by Julie Taboh, Adam Greenbaum)

Smoke from raging Canadian wildfires hung over the U.S. Midwest and parts of the East Coast on Wednesday, creating hazy skies and worsening air quality, making for dangerous, unhealthy conditions for millions of Americans. A wide swath of the Midwest, reaching from western Iowa through Illinois and Wisconsin and into Michigan, was under an air quality alert that was expected to last through the day and into Thursday or even longer, the National Weather Service said. Air quality alerts were also... Читать дальше...

Muslims in Nigeria are tightening their belts to mark Eid Al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice. Inflation triggered by President Bola Tinubu's decision to remove fuel subsidies in May has seen food prices jump, in some cases more than doubling. Many of Nigeria's Muslims can't afford to travel to see their families or buy traditional holiday foods. Abuja-based trader Umar Abdulkadir was up early Wednesday to get his family ready for the Eid-al-Adha prayers and celebrations. Abdulkadir had traveled... Читать дальше...

LA-based pop singer and TikTok star Emilee Moore’s viral song, "Up In The Sky,” pays tribute to her late grandmother and others who passed away from COVID. It’s one of several new songs that Emilee has released in recent months. The video went viral, accumulating 2.5 million views and more than 20 million additional views through the use of the sound by other creators.

More than 100 Kenyan traders are suing the government, saying that Chinese-owned businesses are illegally undercutting their prices. Meanwhile, many Kenyan consumers are welcoming the competitive prices. For VOA, Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi.

U.N. agencies are warning that the food security and nutrition crises in northeastern Nigeria have reached alarming new heights and that swift global action is needed to head off a catastrophic outcome. Matthias Schmale, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, last briefed international donors a year ago on the critical situation in the northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. “Unfortunately, one year on, the situation has in many respects worsened,” he said Wednesday in Geneva. He said in just one year... Читать дальше...

Gustavo Santaolalla was persecuted in subtle but ominous ways by the military dictatorship of the 70’s in Argentina. He protested and was outspoken which frequently landed him in jail.  He immigrated to the U.S.  in 1978 and started over from scratch.  He is the winner of two Oscars for Best Original Score for Brokeback Mountain and Babel, he has also written music for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams"; Walter Salles’ "Motorcycle Diaries" and "On the Road"; HBO’s "Deadwood";... Читать дальше...

The husband of jailed Iranian journalist Niloufar Hamedi says there has been no response from Iranian authorities despite his wife’s written request to meet with her lawyers. Mohammad Hossein Ajorlou voiced his disappointment over his wife’s case in a post on Instagram and accused Iran’s judiciary of waiting for "Niloufar Hamedi's name to be forgotten." Hamedi, of the Shargh newspaper, reported on the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police last September. The death of Amini... Читать дальше...

Zimbabwe opposition lawmaker Job Sikhala was found guilty in May of obstruction of justice and is now on trial on additional charges of incitement to commit violence, and disorderly conduct. But he's not alone. Rights groups say the charges against Sikhala are part of a wider crackdown on the opposition ahead of August 23 elections. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare, Zimbabwe. Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe.

More than three million Syrians have made Turkey home since the start of their country’s conflict in 2011. Despite the challenges of life in Turkey, many have remained active, trying to help other Syrian refugees. VOA's Eyyup Demir has the story from Ankara, narrated by Sirwan Kajjo. Usama al-Bushi has been living in Turkey since 2016 after witnessing the horrors of war in his native Syria. The 24-year old dreamed of becoming a doctor before fleeing the country. Now he works as a flooring contractor in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Читать дальше...

Farooq Ahmad Gannie’s one-hectare of land in the Tahab area of Pulwama district, located on the Indian side of Kashmir, is covered with orchids at the front and paddy fields at the back. Five years ago, the land was once a flourishing apple orchard. However, the 70-year-old landowner made the decision to convert it due to the decade-long decline in apple prices. “The prices of various commodities soared but to my dismay the price of an apple box kept decreasing,” Gannie told VOA. “After carefully crunching the numbers... Читать дальше...

South Korea has for the first time placed sanctions on a former South Korean national for setting up business entities to bypass United Nations Security Council resolutions against North Korea and its nuclear weapons program. Choi Chon Gon is suspected of engaging in illicit financial deals on behalf of Pyongyang, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Wednesday, including co-investing in a Russia-based trade company, Epsilon, with a North Korean. Choi fled South Korea while under investigation by local authorities... Читать дальше...

South Korea is changing the way it calculates a person's age.  Under a new law that takes effect Wednesday, South Korea is adopting the international method that uses a person's actual date of birth to determine their age.    Under its traditional method, South Koreans are considered to be one year old at birth, including their months in the womb, and become a year older every January 1 regardless of their actual date of birth.  The new law that takes effect Wednesday means all South... Читать дальше...

Since the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT launched last fall, a torrent of think pieces and news reports about the ins and outs and ups and downs of generative artificial intelligence has flowed, stoking fears of a dystopian future in which robots take over the world.   While much of that hype is indeed just hype, a new report has identified immediate risks posed by apps like ChatGPT. Some of those present distinct challenges to journalists and the news industry.   Published Wednesday... Читать дальше...

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security downplayed or ignored "a massive amount of intelligence information" ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S Capitol, according to the chairman of a Senate panel that on Tuesday released a new report on the intelligence failures ahead of the insurrection.    The report details how the agencies failed to recognize and warn of the potential for violence as some of then-President Donald Trump's supporters openly planned the siege in messages and forums online. Читать дальше...

Five years after the single worst attack on U.S. media in history, the city of Annapolis in Maryland still honors the lives lost at the Capital Gazette newspaper. VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit has the story.

Ahead of President Joe Biden's 2024 reelection campaign, the White House is promoting the term "Bidenomics" to make the case that his policies to "grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out" have succeeded in taming inflation and lowering unemployment. "The share of working-age Americans in the workforce is higher now than it has been for 15 years," Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, said Tuesday during a news briefing. "While we have more work to do... Читать дальше...

Former President Donald Trump and current Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held dueling events in the early primary state of New Hampshire on Tuesday, as campaigning among the dozen or more Republicans seeking the presidency next year escalates. DeSantis was on the stump in the town of Hollis, just before Trump spoke 65 kilometers (40 miles) to the north in Concord, the state capital. The two rivals' common target on Tuesday: President Joe Biden, who at the age of 80 is running for a second term. Читать дальше...

Yevgeny Prigozhin arrives in Belarus, where he will remain in exile; Donald Trump faces more legal trouble over secret documents; the U.S. Supreme Court has a major ruling in an elections case; and an Eid cease-fire in Sudan. Plus what affect do Taylor Swift and Beyonce have on the economy?

A dangerous and prolonged heat wave blanketed large parts of the southern United States on Tuesday, buckling highways and forcing people to shelter indoors in what scientists called a climate-change supercharged event.  Excessive heat warnings were in place from Arizona in the southwest to Alabama in the southeast, with south and central Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley worst hit, the National Weather Service said.  Victor Hugo Martinez, a 57-year-old foreman who was leading workers repairing a road in Houston... Читать дальше...

American Enterprise Institute’s Kita Fitzpatrick on measuring the success of Iran’s diplomatic outreach to Arab states. Tel Aviv University’s Dina Lisnyansky on how Iran used its proxies to build a terror stronghold in West Bank. Independent researcher Nik Ahang Kowsar on why flash floods in northern Iran this month left much of Tehran without clean water.

U.S. efforts to ease tensions with China are complicated by apparent differences of opinion over what commitments each side has made to the other.  Chinese officials and state media insist that U.S. President Joe Biden has made a series of promises to China's Xi Jinping — described by Beijing as the "four no's and one no-intention" — which ought to guide official U.S. conduct toward China.  "I hope the U.S. side will … stick to the consensus President Biden and I arrived at during our meeting... Читать дальше...