Новости за 12.07.2023

Environmental activists in Nigeria are raising alarms after the military this week burned a ship with more than 800,000 liters of stolen crude oil. Nigerian officials said the ship was caught smuggling the oil to Cameroon and was destroyed to set an example for would-be criminals. But critics pointed out the damage to the environment and questioned the circumstances of the ship's interception by a controversial security outfit run by a former militant leader. Nigeria's National Petroleum Company Ltd.... Читать дальше...

BEIJING — Employers across much of China were ordered Monday to limit outdoor work due to scorching temperatures, while the east and southwest were warned to prepare for torrential rain as the country struggled with heat, flooding and drought. Temperatures as high as 40 C (104 F) were reported in cities including Shijiazhuang, southwest of Beijing, the capital. Highs of 35 C (95 F) to 38 C (100 F) were reported in Beijing, Guangzhou in the south, Chongqing in the southwest and Shenyang in the northeast. Читать дальше...

Uganda's government is rejecting claims that top officials, including President Yoweri Museveni and his son, were responsible for the torture of political opponents. The International Criminal Court this week received testimonies from hundreds of Ugandans who say they were tortured by officials. A government spokesperson called it attention-seeking propaganda. Uganda’s opposition party, the National Unity Platform, says it wants justice for people who allege they were tortured by the Ugandan government. Читать дальше...

Zimbabwe's Electoral Court has disqualified a former minister and senior ruling party official who fled the country from running in next month's election. The court ruled Savior Kasukuwere, who left Zimbabwe after the 2017 overthrow of former President Robert Mugabe, hasn't been in the country long enough to be a candidate.  ZANU-PF member Lovedale Mangwana asked the court to remove Kasukuwere from the ballot paper, arguing that he had not been in Zimbabwe for the required 18 months necessary to... Читать дальше...

HBO dominated Wednesday morning's Emmy nominations, with the elite trio of "Succession," "The White Lotus" and "The Last of Us" combining for a whopping 74, but the dominant theme darkening the scene is the ongoing writers strike and the looming possibility that actors may join them in as little as a day. "Succession" and its deeply dysfunctional dynasty of 1 percenters led all Emmy nominees in its fourth and final season with 27, including best drama, which it has won two of the past three years. Читать дальше...

U.S. consumer prices rose 3% in June compared with a year ago, a marked drop in the inflation rate that was the smallest 12-month increase in more than two years, the government reported Wednesday. A year ago, the U.S. inflation rate soared to an annualized rate of more than 9%, a four-decade high, but since then it has dipped steadily. Last month's figure is close to the 2% annual inflation rate sought by policymakers at the country's central bank, the Federal Reserve, and a further drop from the 4% annualized figure recorded in May. Читать дальше...

The Webb Space Telescope is marking one year of cosmic photographs with one of its best yet: the dramatic close-up of dozens of stars at the moment of birth.  NASA unveiled the latest snapshot Wednesday, revealing 50 baby stars in a cloud complex 390 light-years away. The region is relatively small and quiet yet full of illuminated gases, jets of hydrogen and even dense cocoons of dust with the delicate beginnings of even more stars.  "Prepare to be awestruck!" NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted... Читать дальше...

A Chinese student injured at a shooting at Michigan State University intends to sue, MLive.com reports. Yukai “John” Hao alleges that the school “acted with gross negligence and failed to take reasonable steps to protect students and visitors on its campus from harm," the site reports. The shooting left him paralyzed from the chest down, his lawyers say. Three students were killed and five more were injured Feb. 13 when a 43-year-old man allegedly came on campus and opened fire. (June 2023)

Ministers from eight of Africa's Sahel region countries are meeting in Cameroon to try to end conflicts between farmers and nomadic herders. The ministers say seasonal movement of livestock north from the Sahel is fueling clashes between the communities and say a peacekeeping effort is needed. African ministers of Transboundary Transhumance, or seasonal movement of livestock, say the practice is threatening resources and fueling farmer-herder conflicts. Video report by Henry Wilkins The meeting... Читать дальше...

A growing number of Kurdish women in northeast Syria are signing up for the local traffic police force. The development is helping to break stereotypes about the role of women in society. VOA's Zana Omer has the story from Qamishli, narrated by Sirwan Kajjo.

Eighteen-year-old American citizens of the Gen Z generation will be eligible to vote in a US presidential election for the first time next year. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias interviewed several young adults about what political and legal issues are important to them

One of Venezuela’s oldest radio stations has fallen silent for the first time in its 93-year history. Radio Caracas Radio or RCR, broadcast its last show on June 30 with staff saying they could no longer keep the station operating under increasingly difficult circumstances. The station since April 2019 had been broadcasting via YouTube after the telecommunications regulatory agency closed down its signal, without providing a reason. And earlier this year, the state-owned phone company CANTV cut service to all its telephone lines. Читать дальше...

Hackers, possibly linked to China’s intelligence agencies, are being blamed for a monthlong campaign that breached some unclassified U.S. email systems, allowing them to access to a small number of accounts at the U.S. State Department and a handful of other organizations. Microsoft first announced the intrusion Tuesday, attributing the attack on its Outlook email service to Chinese threat actors it dubbed Storm-0558. The company said in a blog post that the hackers managed to forge a Microsoft... Читать дальше...

Thailand’s election commission says opposition lawmaker Pita Limjaroenrat, a top candidate for prime minister, should be disqualified because he violated election laws. The case has been referred to Thailand’s Constitutional Court for a final ruling. In a statement issued Wednesday, one day before Pita is expected to run in parliament for the prime minister’s post, the commission said there is evidence the leader of the Move Forward Party owns shares in a media company, a violation that would bar him from running for office. Читать дальше...

Authorities in Pakistan said Wednesday that an insurgent assault on a military base in turbulent southwestern Baluchistan province killed at least four soldiers and "critically injured" five others. The army's media wing said that five "terrorists" had attempted "to sneak into the facility" in the province's northern Zhob district early in the morning but troops intercepted them.   "In the ensuing heavy exchange of fire the terrorists have been contained into a small area at the boundary," a statement said... Читать дальше...

Vietnam's move to ban the Warner Bros. film "Barbie" from domestic distribution over a scene showing China's claimed territory in the South China Sea encapsulates an age-old territorial dispute between the two countries, experts said. A nine-dash line encompassing about 90% of the South China Sea has appeared on Chinese maps since the 1950s. More recently, China has been aggressive about exercising its claimed sovereignty, to the consternation of the other countries bordering the sea. Among them is Vietnam... Читать дальше...

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Tuesday it has extended its probe into Novo Nordisk's diabetes drugs Ozempic and weight-loss treatment Saxenda, following two reports of suicidal thoughts, to include other drugs in the same class. The agency began its review on July 3 after Iceland's health regulator flagged the reports of patients thinking about suicide and one case of thoughts of self-harm after use of Novo Nordisk's drugs. There have been issues of suicidal thoughts linked to another class of weight-loss drugs... Читать дальше...

The Myanmar military has demanded that two independent news channels that it had shuttered now pay the junta thousands of dollars in transmission fees. The military’s Ministry of Information on Sunday said that Mizzima TV and Democratic Voice of Burma TV or DVB owed about $47,800 in fees for using channels on the state-owned Myanmar Radio and Television, or MRTV, to broadcast their programs. The ministry said it would take legal action if the two outlets fail to pay. But the media outlets say... Читать дальше...

The Supreme Court of India Tuesday ordered a hearing on multiple petitions challenging the government of India’s revocation four years ago of the special status of the Indian side of Jammu and Kashmir or J&K. Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, Chief Justice of India announced that the Constitution Bench would commence the hearing on August 2. Twenty-one petitions have been filed challenging the government’s decision in August 2019 to abrogate Article 370 and Article 35(A) of the Indian constitution. Читать дальше...

Hong Kong national security police on Tuesday took away exiled activist Nathan Law's parents and brother for questioning, local media reported, one week after the police issued an arrest warrant and a bounty on Law's head. Local media, citing unnamed sources, said Law's relatives were taken away from their homes in Hong Kong for questioning, then released. The Hong Kong police said in a statement that they "took away two men and a woman for investigation" from the island of Lantau on suspicion... Читать дальше...

Some three dozen South African firefighters, clad in their bright yellow jackets and dark blue pants, danced, sang and cheered in a sprawling parking lot near the majestic woods of central Alberta. The mood was light as the men and women smiled and clapped, some taking out smartphones to record video of their dancing colleagues before heading off to another day battling the fires raging through Canada. The group gathered on an early July day in the small town of Fox Creek had traveled nearly... Читать дальше...

Australian scientists say they have developed a special glue that can be used to repair parts of the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef. Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology believe the biodegradable putty has the potential to help the coral recover after it's been damaged by cyclones, hit by boats or suffered bleaching. The Great Barrier Reef is arguably Australia’s most valuable natural treasure. It is the world's largest coral system and faces an array of threats, including climate change... Читать дальше...

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi began a three-nation African trip Wednesday in Kenya as he seeks to expand Iran’s economic partnerships amid the effects of U.S. sanctions. Iranian and Kenyan officials signed five memorandums of understanding on areas that included information technology, investment promotion, fisheries, and livestock products. In addition to Kenya, Raisi’s trip has scheduled stops in Uganda and Zimbabwe.  He is the first Iranian president to visit Africa in more than a decade. Читать дальше...

Iowa’s Republican-led Legislature passed a bill banning most abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy during a marathon special session Tuesday that continued late into the night. Governor Kim Reynolds immediately said in a statement she would sign the bill Friday.  The bill passed with exclusively Republican support in a rare, one-day legislative burst lasting more than 14 hours over the vocal — and sometimes tense — objections from Democratic lawmakers and abortion rights advocates protesting at the Capitol. Читать дальше...

The chair of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations says diplomacy is the only way to resolve the bloody two-and-a-half year old crisis in Myanmar.    Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi made the remarks Wednesday in Jakarta at the start of a second day of talks of ASEAN foreign ministers.    Myanmar's ruling military junta agreed to a five-point "consensus" crafted by ASEAN just months after overthrowing the democratically-elected government of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021. Читать дальше...