Новости за 15.07.2023

Sudanese representatives have arrived in Saudi Arabia's Jeddah to resume talks with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudanese government sources told Reuters Saturday, after three months of fighting between the army and RSF. Previous talks in Jeddah facilitated by Saudi Arabia and the United States were suspended by both countries in early June after numerous cease-fire violations. Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have yet to confirm the resumption of talks between Sudan's warring factions. Читать дальше...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered the hospital Saturday with apparent dehydration after a coastal break during a heat wave, delaying the weekly Cabinet meeting even though he declared himself well. Netanyahu's office said the 73-year-old was admitted to Sheba Hospital, close to his private residence, after experiencing dizziness, and would stay there overnight. In a video from hospital, a smiling Netanyahu said he had taken holiday on Friday at the Sea of Galilee in temperatures... Читать дальше...

More than 2,000 people were evacuated Saturday as a wildfire rages "out of control" on La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands, destroying around a dozen homes, authorities said.  The blaze has affected an area of about 4,500 hectares (11,000 acres) and officials warned residents that the situation could worsen because a heat wave has made the terrain tinder dry.  "The fire has spread very fast," Canary Islands regional president Fernando Clavijo said. "The fire is out of control."  He said... Читать дальше...

Spanish authorities have preemptively evacuated some 500 people to avoid a wildfire that has broken out on the Canary Island of La Palma.  The regional president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said Saturday that, in addition to forcing the removal of the residents, the blaze has destroyed at least 11 homes within the relatively small burned zone of 140 hectares (345 acres). He warned that the number of evacuees could easily increase.  “With the resources that we are deploying, we hope we can control the fire today... Читать дальше...

The U.K.'s oldest medical union Saturday hit out at government plans to increase the amount migrant workers pay to use the state health care service, to cover public-sector wage increases.   Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government this week approved recommendations to boost wages of teachers, doctors and police by between 5.0 to 7.0 percent.   Sunak ruled out tax increases or government borrowing to fund the raise but instead said hikes in the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) and visa fees... Читать дальше...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was undergoing medical checks in an Israeli hospital on Saturday but was in good condition, his office said, with no indications of a potential handover of power.  Netanyahu, at 73 the country's longest-serving leader, had complained of chest pain, was fully conscious en route to Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer town, and walked into the emergency room, Israel's Channel 12 TV said.  He was not undergoing sedation and no procedures were underway to declare him incapacitated, it added. Читать дальше...

Cambodians vote July 23 in an election that has been criticized by Western countries, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and pro-democracy activists, after the top opposition party was barred from running. Authorities insist the poll will be fair. Luke Hunt reports from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

United Nations agencies said Friday that millions of Sudanese cannot obtain treatment for emergency and chronic health conditions because fighting has brought the country’s fragile health system to near total collapse.    The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement violence and “shortages of supplies, damage or occupation of facilities and assaults on medical staff” are having a devastating impact on people’s lives and on their ability to access health care. Читать дальше...

Editor's note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.  Canadian Immigration Initiative Allows US Work-Visa Holders to Go North   Canada has unveiled an immigration initiative to attract highly skilled technology professionals from the United States with H-1B work visas. H-1B visas are for nonimmigrant foreign workers with specialized skills. Beginning July 16, up to 10,000... Читать дальше...

Americans are not happy with the way democracy is working right now.    According to a poll from The Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, nearly half of Americans, 49%, say democracy is not working well in the U.S.      Only 10% say democracy is working very or extremely well, while 40% say it’s working somewhat well.    The two main U.S. political parties also received low ratings on how each is upholding democratic principles.    Forty-seven percent said Democrats are doing a bad job with democratic principles... Читать дальше...

The top diplomats from India and China have spoken to each other on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Jakarta. Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, told his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, that the two countries need to stabilize their ties, according to a readout from the Chinese foreign ministry. "The two sides should support each other and accomplish things together, rather than wear each other down or suspect each other," Wang told Jaishankar. The two countries share... Читать дальше...

Tech and social media giants like Facebook, Amazon and Google bear responsibility for radicalizing the Buffalo supermarket shooter, who was fueled by racist conspiracy theories he encountered online, the victim’s relatives said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday. “They were the conspirators, even if they don’t want to admit it,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump said at a news conference announcing a 171-page lawsuit, which seeks unspecified financial damages as well as changes in how the companies operate. Читать дальше...

Here are some of the Native American-related news stories that made headlines this week: Search resumes for lost cemetery at former Indian boarding school site Archaeologists this week have been searching for the graves of former students on the grounds of the Indian Industrial School in Genoa, Nebraska. “We’re going to take the soil down and first see if what’s showing up in the ground-penetrating radar are in fact gravelike features,” state archaeologist Dave Williams said. “And once we get that figured out... Читать дальше...

A fire erupted Friday night at a Dow Chemical complex in Plaquemine, Louisiana, causing explosions that shook nearby homes.  Residents were advised to shelter in place.  Dow issued a statement that said all people working at the facility at the time of the explosion have been accounted for.  Dow is monitoring the situation and has reported that no chemical leaks have been detected.

Since Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen deleted his Facebook account in late June, where he had 14 million followers. the ruling Cambodian People’s Party has put pressure on students and loyalists alike to improve his follower count on platforms such as Telegram and TikTok, but neither a mass following nor a migration off Cambodian Facebook has materialized. Hun Sen deleted his account June 29, hours after Meta Platforms Inc.’s oversight board — which issues binding content moderation decisions... Читать дальше...

Even on the streets of London, Finn Lau does not feel safe from the reach of the Chinese Communist Party. He is among the exiled pro-democracy activists facing arrest warrants issued by Hong Kong authorities last week, with a reward of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($128,000) offered for information that helps lead to their detention. Since then, Lau said he has seen several menacing online messages from pro-Chinese groups. “I got some screenshots coming from some Telegram groups, saying that... Читать дальше...

South Korea's Foreign Minister Park Jin on Friday called on China to play a "constructive role" in curbing North Korea's threats, after Pyongyang launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) this week. The remarks were made during a meeting with Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Jakarta, where Park "strongly denounced" North Korea's ICBM launch. It is a common interest of Seoul and Beijing for North Korea to stop provocations and return to dialog... Читать дальше...

Embraced by the majestic peaks of the Karakoram mountain range and hugging the bank of the Shyok River, Turtuk unfolds as a captivating hamlet in the far northern Himalayan region of India. But its scenic beauty conceals the heart-wrenching loss of identity and family suffered by many of its inhabitants since 1971. In that year, while the world focused on the war that saw Bangladesh break away from Pakistan, the Indian army captured Turtuk and three other villages in the Gilgit-Baltistan region from Pakistan... Читать дальше...

The chief executives of Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc are planning to visit Washington next week to discuss China policy, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The executives plan to hold meetings with U.S. officials to talk about market conditions, export controls and other matters affecting their businesses, one of the sources said. It was not immediately clear whom the executives would meet. Intel and Qualcomm declined to comment, and officials at the White House did not immediately return a request for comment. Читать дальше...

Sudan's warring factions fought heavy clashes in parts of the city of Bahri on Friday, residents said, a day after both sides welcomed a new mediation effort that seeks to end the three-month conflict. The fighting that broke out on April 15 has driven civilians out of the wider capital region — consisting of the cities of Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman — and triggered ethnically motivated attacks in the Darfur region. Regional and international mediation efforts have so far failed to end the fighting... Читать дальше...

A Kosovo-born New York resident who helped supply "thousands" of recruits to the Islamic State group was sentenced to life in prison Friday for helping the extremist group, the Justice Department announced.   Mirsad Kandic, 40, was a high-ranking member of the jihadist group between 2013 and 2017, when it controlled large swaths of Iraq and Syria, the Justice Department said.  In 2013, he left his home in New York and traveled to Syria, where he joined IS, becoming a fighter in Haritan, outside Aleppo. Читать дальше...

The Biden administration and Republican lawmakers remain at odds about several China-related provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2024 that passed the House of Representatives on Friday in a near-party-line vote. Section 214 of the act, which will likely face major revisions in the Democratic-led Senate, requires researchers to disclose personal information such as nationality when participating in research for U.S. defense programs, a move the White House... Читать дальше...

A federal appeals court Friday temporarily paused a lower court's order limiting executive branch officials' communications with social media companies about controversial online posts. Biden administration lawyers had asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to stay the preliminary injunction issued July 4 by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty. Doughty himself had rejected a request to put his order on hold pending appeal. Friday's brief 5th Circuit order put Doughty's injunction on hold "until further orders of the court.

Thousands of actors, from A-list celebrities to those struggling to break into the entertainment industry, voted to go on strike this week, plunging Hollywood and the broader film and television industry into what seems likely to be a lengthy work stoppage. The board of the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) ordered the strike Thursday, demanding a new contract that takes into account the new technologies — particularly video streaming and artificial intelligence ... Читать дальше...

Chad consistently ranks among the bottom five countries in the U.N.'s Human Development Index, with poor life expectancy, education and living standards. In this report from N'Djamena, Henry Wilkins speaks to residents who struggle to imagine a decent future for their families and to experts about what can be done to kick-start development. Camera: Henry Wilkins.