Новости за 30.06.2023

U.S. legal action against China for economic espionage is a response to Beijing’s large-scale theft of intellectual property.

Getting into Midtown Manhattan is going to get expensive in the coming months when early next year a new congestion pricing plan takes effect and may have some commuters trading their cars for trains and buses. Aron Ranen has the story.

Journalists in Ecuador are under increasing risk, facing threats, letter bombs and attempted killings, says a new report. VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit has the story.

Analysts monitoring Sudan say it might take an internationally supported peacekeeping force to end the ongoing fighting there. That assessment follows multiple failed cease-fire attempts and talks facilitated by Saudi Arabia and the United States. Until two weeks ago, Hala Alkarib lived in Khartoum, where she's the regional director for the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa. But she and other colleagues had to relocate because of the horrors created by the ongoing war, including looting. Читать дальше...

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said Friday that a cybersecurity incident involving one of its IT hardware suppliers has led to the leak of the vendor's company data.  "TSMC has recently been aware that one of our IT hardware suppliers experienced a cybersecurity incident that led to the leak of information pertinent to server initial setup and configuration," the company said.  TMSC confirmed in a statement to Reuters that its business operations or customer information were not affected... Читать дальше...

A Nigerian student working toward a doctorate in geological sciences at the State University of New York, Binghamton, has joined an ocean expedition near Greenland and Iceland. “I was captivated by the potential for groundbreaking research and knew immediately that I wanted to be part of such a significant scientific endeavor,” Halima Ibrahim told BingUNews. She'll work as a ship-based sedimentologist examining sediment drilled from the ocean floor. Read the full story here. (June 2023)

WASHINGTON — A sharply divided Supreme Court on Friday effectively killed President Joe Biden's $400 billion plan to cancel or reduce federal student loan debts for millions of Americans. The 6-3 decision, with conservative justices in the majority, said the Biden administration overstepped its authority with the plan, and it leaves borrowers on the hook for repayments that are expected to resume in the fall. Biden was to announce a new set of actions to protect student loan borrowers and would address the court decision later Friday... Читать дальше...

Hollywood actors may be on the verge of joining screenwriters in what would be the first two-union strike in the industry in more than six decades, with huge consequences for film and television production. Here is a look at how it could play out, and why it's happening. What's happening with actors' negotiations? The contract between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists and the studios, streaming services and production companies that employ them expires Friday night at midnight Pacific time. Читать дальше...

Colleges across the country will be forced to stop considering race in admissions under Thursday's Supreme Court ruling, ending affirmative action policies that date back decades. Schools that have relied on race-conscious admissions policies to build diversity will have to rethink how they admit students. It's expected to result in campuses that have more white and Asian American students and fewer Black and Hispanic students. The impact of the decision will be felt most strongly at the nation’s most selective colleges... Читать дальше...

In a defeat for gay rights, the Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled Friday that a Christian graphic artist who wants to design wedding websites can refuse to work with same-sex couples. The court ruled 6-3 for designer Lorie Smith despite a Colorado law that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, gender and other characteristics. Smith had argued that the law violates her free speech rights. Smith's opponents warned that a win for her would allow a range of businesses to discriminate... Читать дальше...

Iran will be formally approved as a member of the regional Shanghai Cooperation Organization with China, Russia and Central Asian countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday. "At the meeting of heads of state on July 4, the full membership of Iran will be approved," Lavrov said at the opening of an SCO center in Moscow. Iran has intensified its diplomacy with friends and foes alike in recent months, seeking to reduce its isolation, improve its economy and project strength. ... Читать дальше...

Heat waves like the one that engulfed parts of parts of the South and Midwest and killed more than a dozen people are becoming more common, and experts say the extreme weather events, which claim more lives than hurricanes and tornados, will likely increase in the future. A heat dome that pressured the Texas power grid and killed 13 people there and another in Louisiana pushed eastward Thursday and was expected to be centered over the mid-South by the weekend. Heat index levels of up to 112 degrees... Читать дальше...

In the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, women are crafting products from pine needles as part of an initiative that aims at providing them with livelihood opportunities while reducing the risk of forest fires. Anjana Pasricha reports on one project in the district of Mandi. Video: Rakesh Kumar

Russian missile strike in Kramatorsk hit a restaurant and killed at least 12 people, including children.

SYDNEY - Australia on Saturday will become one of the first countries to recognize psychedelic drugs as medicines. In February, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australia’s medical regulator, sanctioned use of psychedelics for some mental health conditions. Experts agree that psychedelic-assisted therapies in Australia are in their infancy. Starting Saturday, authorized psychiatrists in Australia will be able to prescribe methylenedioxy methamphetamine – MDMA, the active ingredient in such... Читать дальше...

WASHINGTON - Amendments to China's counterespionage law that take effect Saturday could create even more challenges for foreign correspondents reporting inside the country, journalists and media analysts say.  Passed in April, the revisions broaden the definition of espionage and ban the transfer of any information deemed related to national security. Some foreign journalists based in China say they are anxiously waiting to see how the changes will affect their work, with press freedom analysts... Читать дальше...

Unaccompanied migrant children in U.S. shelters will now be allowed longer phone calls with loved ones. That’s because of a recent change in guidance announced by the U.S. agency that oversees the care and release of minors. The updated guidance from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, that went into effect on Monday, allows minors to have at least 50-minute phone calls Monday through Friday with parents or other relatives anywhere in the U.S. or outside the country. That’s a change from the two... Читать дальше...

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution Thursday that will establish an independent body to determine what happened to more than 130,000 people missing because of the conflict in Syria. The resolution, an important response to appeals by their families and loved ones, was adopted by the 193-member world body on a vote of 83-11 with 62 abstentions. Among those opposing the resolution was Syria, which said it will not cooperate with the new institution. Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and Iran also voted no.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA - Austrian authorities said Thursday they had seized hundreds of weapons, ammunition and Nazi memorabilia and arrested six people after raids on several premises of the right-wing extremist Bandidos motorcycle gang. Police found a huge weapons stash including about "35 long firearms, 25 submachine guns, 100 pistols, over a thousand weapons components, 400 signal weapons," the interior ministry said. The haul was made following 13 house searches in the neighboring provinces of Upper and Lower Austria carried out Monday... Читать дальше...

With the EU summit underway in Brussels, it looks like Jens Stoltenberg will stay on as NATO chief for a little while longer. In the U.S., the Supreme Court makes a landmark decision on college admissions; Mike Pence goes to Kyiv; and trouble in the streets of Paris.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan together for several days of peace talks in Washington, as residents of the ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan say they have been cut off from food, medicine and gas. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.

DAKAR, SENEGAL —  A slew of extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and instances of torture by Burkina Faso's military has terrorized communities in the country's northeast this year, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday. The violence took place between February and May across the province of Séno. The report identifies at least 27 people who were either summarily executed or disappeared and then killed, most of them members of the Fulani ethnic group. Jihadi fighters... Читать дальше...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday against allowing race to be used as a factor in college and university admissions, ending a decades-long policy intended to improve diversity in American higher education. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.

WASHINGTON - China's waning economic leverage over South Korea is making Beijing less likely to retaliate significantly against Seoul's normalization of the U.S. THAAD anti-missile defense system, experts say. South Korea "will take follow-up measures to normalize the [THAAD] base" and "to resolve the inconvenient situation" for American soldiers, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesperson Jeon Ha-kyu said at a news briefing Tuesday in Seoul. Normalization is the process of turning an ad hoc... Читать дальше...

WASHINGTON —Renewed calls by Chinese officials for the lifting of sanctions in exchange for open lines of communication with the U.S. military are echoing into a diplomatic abyss, even as tensions between the two superpowers continue to mount. The Pentagon on Thursday rejected the demand, arguing there is no good reason for high-level Chinese military officials to avoid conversations with their U.S. counterparts. “From our perspective, there are no obstacles to keeping open lines of communication,” the Pentagon press secretary... Читать дальше...