Новости за 24.09.2023

From just outside the burn zone in Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui, Jes Claydon can see the ruins of the rental home where she lived for 13 years and raised three children. Little remains recognizable beyond the jars of sea glass that stood outside the front door.  On Monday, officials will begin lifting restrictions on entry to the area, and Claydon hopes to collect those jars and any other mementos she might find.  "I want the freedom to just be there and absorb what happened," Claydon said. Читать дальше...

Iranian authorities have arrested 28 people linked to the Islamic State group for plotting to target Tehran during the anniversary of last year's protests, the intelligence ministry said on Sunday. The protests erupted after the death in custody on September 16, 2022, of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd arrested for allegedly flouting the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women. "In recent days, during a series of simultaneous operations in Tehran, Alborz and West Azerbaijan provinces... Читать дальше...

Bribery and conspiracy charges threaten the political future of one of the United States’ most influential senators. Aron Ranen has the story from New Jersey.

The North American box office hit a 2023 low this weekend, with top film "The Nun II" estimated to take in a paltry $8.4 million, industry watchers said Sunday.  "The numbers are not good," said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research, describing an entire month of poor results.  He said the months-long strikes by Hollywood screenwriters and actors -- reportedly at a key point Sunday -- "cannot end soon enough."   The strikes have prevented stars from promoting upcoming films. Читать дальше...

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in a U.S. television interview on Sunday that U.S.-sponsored efforts to normalize Israeli relations with Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, "will see no success."  In an interview with CNN, Raisi also said Iran had not said it does not want nuclear inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog in the country.  Raisi has said Iran has no issue with the U.N. nuclear watchdog's inspection of its nuclear sites, days after Tehran barred multiple inspectors assigned to the country. Читать дальше...

The U.S. government is less than one week away from a shutdown if the Republican-controlled House of Representatives can’t coalesce around a dozen spending bills that have so far divided the party. Some Republicans have gone so far as to threaten the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.

With just a week before Washington runs out of money to keep the federal government fully operating, warring factions within the Republican Party in the U.S. Congress on Sunday showed no signs of coming together to pass a stopgap funding bill. Congress so far has failed to finish any of the 12 regular spending bills to fund federal agency programs in the fiscal year starting on Oct. 1. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy will push an ambitious plan this week to win approval of four large bills... Читать дальше...

China has limited room for further monetary policy easing, and it should pursue structural reforms such as encouraging entrepreneurs rather than counting on macroeconomic policies to revive growth, a central bank adviser said on Sunday. Liu Shijin, a member of the People's Bank of China's (PBOC) monetary policy committee, told a financial forum in Shanghai that Beijing's room for monetary policy easing was limited by widening interest rate differentials with the U.S. Fiscally, Chinese governments at various levels are under stress... Читать дальше...

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

A coal mine fire in southern China killed 16 people on Sunday, according to local authorities.  The blaze broke out at the Shanjiaoshu coal mine in Panguan, a town in Guizhou province.  An initial investigation suggested the people who died were trapped after a conveyor belt caught fire, the Panzhou city government said in a statement posted on social media.  China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, continues to depend heavily on coal for electricity despite massive expansion of its wind and solar power capacity. Читать дальше...

NASA’s first asteroid samples fetched from deep space parachuted into the Utah desert Sunday to cap a seven-year journey. In a flyby of Earth, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the sample capsule from 63,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) out. The small capsule landed four hours later on a remote expanse of military land, as the mothership set off after another asteroid. Scientists estimate the capsule holds at least a cup of rubble from the carbon-rich asteroid known as Bennu but won’t know for sure until the container is opened. Читать дальше...

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Djiboutian leaders and the president of Somalia in Djibouti on Sunday, marking his first trip to Africa as Secretary of Defense amid continued violence in the region. Later in the week, he will travel to Kenya and Angola. Djibouti is home to the U.S. military’s major base on the continent, and Austin said Camp Lemonier was “critical” to “countering violent extremism and supporting security throughout the region.” He added that the U.S. is proud to... Читать дальше...

United Nations investigators say that human rights violations and abuse in Syria are sowing the seeds for further violence and radicalization, despite diplomatic efforts to stabilize the situation in the country, including through its re-admission to the League of Arab States. The three-member Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria presented this bleak outlook Friday to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Reacting to the commission assessment, a majority of the 42 countries in the... Читать дальше...

President Joe Biden is set to announce the opening of new U.S. embassies on Cook Islands and Niue on Monday as the Democratic administration aims to demonstrate to Pacific Island leaders that it remains committed to increasing American presence in the region. The announcement about the new diplomatic missions in the South Pacific comes as Biden prepares to welcome leaders to Washington for the two-day U.S.-Pacific Island Forum Summit. Talks are expected to heavily focus on the impact of climate change in the region. Читать дальше...

Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Sunday the likelihood was rising that ethnic Armenians would flee the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh and blamed Russia for failing to ensure Armenian security. If 120,000 people go down the Lachin corridor to Armenia, the small South Caucasian country could face both a humanitarian and political crisis. "If proper conditions are not created for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to live in their homes and there are no effective protection mechanisms against ethnic cleansing... Читать дальше...

A populist far-right politician is the front-runner in a mayoral race Sunday in the German city of Nordhausen, best known as the location of the Nazi concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora. Joerg Prophet of the Alternative for Germany party, won 42.1% of the vote in the first round of the election earlier this month. His opponent, independent incumbent candidate Kai Buchmann, had just 23.7%. The prospect of a far-right mayor holding a revisionist version of Germany’s Holocaust past has not gone unnoticed... Читать дальше...

At least 30 people were injured when a freight train and a passenger train collided in eastern Pakistan early Sunday. Authorities say an investigation has been launched and that one train’s driver, his assistant and two other workers have been suspended following the collision. Railway official Shahid Aziz said the incident happened in Shaikhupura district near Qila Sattar Shah station.  He said most of the injured passengers had been treated at the train station and those with more serious injuries had been transported to hospitals. Читать дальше...

Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti, said Sunday that a police officer was killed and another was wounded in an area of the country near Serbia.   The prime minister said “masked professionals armed with heavy weapons” opened fire on police in the northern village of Banjska in Leposavic.  European Union-facilitated talks in Brussels between Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, designed to normalize ties between the countries, collapsed earlier this month.    Tensions have been running high in Kosovo since May... Читать дальше...

The World Health Organization says there is a global uptick in cholera cases. The number of cases reported last year was more than double those reported in 2021, the United Nations agency said. The number of countries reporting cholera statistics also grew in 2022 by 25%, from 35 countries in 2021 to 44 countries last year. Cholera can be a life-threatening disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that can spread through unsafe food or water.  Cholera bacteria... Читать дальше...

As Republican-led states have rushed to ban gender-affirming for minors, some families with transgender children found a bit of solace: At least they lived in states that would allow those already receiving puberty blockers or hormone therapy to continue. But in some places, including Missouri and North Dakota, the care has abruptly been halted because medical providers are wary of harsh liability provisions in those same laws — one of multiple reasons that advocates say care has become harder to access even where it remains legal. Читать дальше...

A group of migrants from China surrendered to a Border Patrol agent in remote Southern California as gusts of wind drowned the hum of high-voltage power lines. They joined others from Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia and elsewhere in a desert campsite with shelters made from tree branches. Their arrival this week was another sign that agents have become overwhelmed in recent days by asylum-seekers on parts of the U.S. border with Mexico. In tiny Eagle Pass, Texas, the arrival of 6,000 migrants prompted... Читать дальше...

Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians in a pre-dawn raid in the West Bank Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry said, as the army confirmed it carried out "counterterrorism" activity in the occupied territory. "Two Palestinians were killed by live Israeli bullets..." in the town of Tulkarem, the ministry said, while the army confirmed a soldier had been "moderately injured by gunshot fragments" during clashes in the Nur Shams refugee camp near the town. The Palestinian health ministry identified the two killed as Osaid Abu Ali... Читать дальше...

Sofia Oliveira was 12 years old when catastrophic wildfires in central Portugal killed more than 100 people in 2017. She "felt it was now or never to raise our voices" as her country appeared to be in the grip of deadly human-caused climate change. Now a university student, Sofia and five other Portuguese young adults and children between 11 and 24 years of age are due on Wednesday at the European Court of Human Rights, where they are accusing 32 European governments of violating their human rights... Читать дальше...

The surge of migrants crossing the U.S. border from Mexico has pushed the city of El Paso, Texas, to "a breaking point," with more than 2,000 people per day seeking asylum, exceeding shelter capacity and straining resources, its mayor said Saturday. "The city of El Paso only has so many resources and we have come to ... a breaking point right now," Mayor Oscar Leeser said. The crush of largely Venezuelan asylum-seekers is part of a larger swell of immigrants who traveled dangerous routes on buses... Читать дальше...

The climactic end of a seven-year voyage comes Sunday when a NASA capsule is to land in the Utah desert, carrying to Earth the largest asteroid samples ever collected. Scientists have high hopes for the sample, saying it will provide a better understanding of the formation of our solar system and how Earth became habitable. The Osiris-Rex probe's final, fiery descent through Earth's atmosphere will be perilous, but the U.S. space agency is hoping for a soft landing, around 9 a.m. local (15H00 GMT)... Читать дальше...