Новости за 16.08.2023

The new U.S. ambassador to Niger, Kathleen FitzGibbon, will arrive in Niamey following a coup last month, the State Department said on Wednesday, in a signal of Washington's continued engagement with the situation. A U.S. official said she is expected to arrive in Niger later this week. The Senate confirmed FitzGibbon, a career foreign service officer, as U.S. ambassador late last month just after the coup, nearly a year after she was nominated. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel... Читать дальше...

New restrictions on access to a drug used in the most common form of abortion would be imposed under a federal appeals court ruling issued Wednesday, but the Supreme Court will have the final say. The ruling by three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned part of a lower court ruling that revoked the Food and Drug Administration's approval — more than two decades ago — of mifepristone. But it left intact part of the ruling that would end the availability of the... Читать дальше...

Sitting on the carpet in a small, third-floor apartment of a crowded building on the edge of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, six Afghan men sip traditional green tea as they scroll through messages and videos on their phones. All of them are anxiously awaiting the same thing - an email that will tell them where they stand in their journey to resettlement in the United States. The men were pilots and engineers in Afghanistan’s military when the Taliban seized control of the country in August 2021. Читать дальше...

Trade between Nigeria and Niger has been halted because of sanctions due to Niger's July coup. In Nigeria, officials say they could lose over $200 million in export trade. That’s causing some economic hardship for many communities on the border. Alhassan Bala reports from the border town of Magama Jibia, Nigeria. Camera: Gibson Emeka

A look at the best news photos from around the world.

The death toll rose Wednesday to 45 people killed in clashes earlier in the week between rival militias in Libya's capital Tripoli, medical authorities said, in what appears to be the most intense spate of violence to shake the capital this year. The clashes erupted late on Monday between militiamen from the 444 brigade and the Special Deterrence Force and continued into Tuesday evening. Tensions flared after Mahmoud Hamza, a senior commander of the 444 brigade, was allegedly detained by the rival group at an airport in Tripoli... Читать дальше...

A Kansas state law enforcement agency has taken over an investigation that led to a police raid of a weekly newspaper, following widespread outcry from media advocacy groups and news organizations. Police last Friday raided the offices of the weekly Marion County Record and the publisher’s home, seizing computers, phones and a file server. Following widespread condemnation from press freedom groups and news organizations, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, or KBI, took over the case as of Monday morning. Читать дальше...

Surgeons transplanted a pig's kidney into a brain-dead man and for over a month it's worked normally — a critical step toward an operation the New York team hopes to eventually try in living patients. Scientists around the country are racing to learn how to use animal organs to save human lives, and bodies donated for research offer a remarkable rehearsal. The latest experiment announced Wednesday by NYU Langone Health marks the longest a pig kidney has functioned in a person, albeit a deceased one — and it's not over. Читать дальше...

When Britain granted India independence in 1947, the subcontinent was divided along religious lines, triggering an exodus of an estimated 12 million people amid carnage and violence across the newly carved borders of the two countries, India and Pakistan. Among the cities that received a massive influx of refugees was the Indian capital, Delhi. A partition museum that opened in the city three months ago, documents the traumatic legacy of the times through the stories and memorabilia of the men... Читать дальше...

During the first period of Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, the people of Afghanistan suffered extensive hardships, many of which are repeating today.

When Britain granted India independence in 1947, the subcontinent was divided into two countries along religious lines, triggering an exodus of nearly 12 million people amid carnage and violence across the newly created borders of India and Pakistan. In India, one of the cities that witnessed the influx of tens of thousands of refugees was the capital, Delhi. Anjana Pasricha reports on a new museum in the city that documents the stories and memorabilia of refugees who arrived there. Video: Rakesh... Читать дальше...

Six of the eight Ivy League schools, which include Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia, now have women presidents. Yet, according to the American Council of Education, just 32% of all U.S. colleges do, even though a majority of collegiate-level students are women. But do students care about the president when choosing a school? And which way are these numbers trending? Dan Friedell of VOA Learning English answers these questions, with contributions from Andrew Smith. (July 2023)

A crowd in majority-Muslim Pakistan assaulted a Christian locality in an eastern part of the country and set on fire several buildings, including churches, over allegations of blasphemy. Local police said the vandalism had occurred in Jaranwala, a small town in the industrial district of Faisalabad, after a Christian boy was accused of desecrating Islam's holy book, the Quran. Pakistani authorities did not immediately share details of the losses the enraged mob had inflicted on the minority community... Читать дальше...

A new report by Human Rights Watch finds that racist content denigrating Black people is increasingly common on the Chinese internet, and that major social media platforms and Chinese authorities have failed to address the issue systematically. HRW analyzed hundreds of videos and posts on popular Chinese social media platforms, including Bilibili, Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo and Xiaohongshu, since late 2021. It found that content portraying Black people based on offensive racial stereotypes has become rampant. Читать дальше...

U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are planning to visit Maui next Monday to get a firsthand look at the devastation left in the aftermath of last week’s wildfires that killed at least 106 people on the Hawaiian island, the White House announced Wednesday. The Bidens plan to meet with survivors of the most devastating U.S. wildfires in more than 100 years, the White House said, as well as first responders and federal, state and local officials. “I want to go and make sure we got everything they need,” Biden said Tuesday... Читать дальше...

Germany's Cabinet on Wednesday approved a plan to liberalize rules on cannabis, setting the scene for the European Union's most populous member to decriminalize possession of limited amounts and allow members of "cannabis clubs" to buy the substance for recreational purposes. The legislation is billed as the first step in a two-part plan and still needs approval by parliament. But the government's approval is a stride forward for a prominent reform project of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's socially liberal coalition... Читать дальше...

In Malawi, a southern African nation that criminalizes homosexuality, faith leaders have spoken out against same-sex relations. While parliament recommends a referendum on whether to legalize same-sex marriage, civil society organizations say human rights should not be subject to a popular vote. From the capital, Lilongwe, Chimwemwe Padatha has the story.

Social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, delayed access to links to content on the Reuters and New York Times websites as well as rivals like Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram, according to a Washington Post report on Tuesday. Clicking a link on X to one of the affected websites resulted in a delay of about five seconds before the webpage loaded, The Washington Post reported, citing tests it conducted on Tuesday. Reuters also saw a similar delay in tests it ran. By late Tuesday afternoon, X appeared to have eliminated the delay. Читать дальше...

China and India agreed Wednesday to maintain “peace and tranquility” in border areas after military commanders met to discuss a disputed border. The two sides issued a statement saying two days of talks produced a “positive, constructive and in-depth discussion” about resolving issues regarding the Line of Actual Control and that China and India would continue dialogue through military and diplomatic channels. The Line of Control separates Chinese and Indian-held territories from Ladakh in the... Читать дальше...

Niger’s defense ministry said late Tuesday an attack by suspected jihadists in the western part of the country killed 17 Nigerien soldiers. A defense ministry statement said its forces were ambushed near the town of Koutougou, which is located near Niger’s borders with Mali and Burkina Faso. In addition to those killed, the statement said the attack wounded 20 other soldiers, and that all of the casualties had been evacuated to Niamey. The defense ministry also said Nigerien troops killed more than one hundred militants. Читать дальше...

One of Australia’s biggest universities is urging students and academic staff to report any “foreign government interference” witnessed on campus. Human rights activists have said that pro-China groups have intimidated students critical of the Chinese Communist Party. The University of New South Wales in Sydney has warned that “foreign interference can… take the form of harassing, intimidating or threatening behavior directed at students and staff on behalf of a foreign government.” The university... Читать дальше...

Vice President Kamala Harris marked the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act by touting the Biden administration’s commitment to mitigating the climate crisis. Natasha Mozgovaya reports from Seattle.

A mobile morgue unit arrived Tuesday to help Hawaii officials working painstakingly to identify remains, as Maui County released the first names of people killed in the wildfire that all but incinerated the historic town of Lahaina a week ago and raised the death toll to 106. The county named two victims, Lahaina residents Robert Dyckman, 74, and Buddy Jantoc, 79, adding in a statement that a further three victims have been identified. Those names will be released once the county has identified their next of kin. Читать дальше...

China's youth unemployment hit a record high in April with 20.4% of 16- to 24-year-olds unable to find jobs, the worst rate since the country's National Statistics Bureau started publishing it in 2018. Then came May, 20.8%, followed by June, 21.3%. In July, the government stopped publishing the figure, which is yet another indicator that the world's second-largest economy is struggling to recover from Draconian pandemic lockdowns. Fu Linghui, a spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics... Читать дальше...

Two years ago, when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul closed and the U.S. military evacuated more than 100,000 Afghans in a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. A significant number of evacuees who worked for the U.S. government during the war are still going through immigration proceedings to allow them to permanently live in the United States. For those still waiting in third countries, if they have an immediate family member who has legal U.S. status, that... Читать дальше...