Новости за 08.11.2023

Jason Lee, director for the Palestinian Territories for Save the Children, has called for an immediate cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas. He says that children in Gaza are paying a heavy price in the conflict, and that all parties must be held to account for meeting the obligation to protect all the children, all the time. He spoke with VOA’s Keida Kostreci via Zoom. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity. VOA: Mr. Lee, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described... Читать дальше...

The 2004 International Court of Justice decision has no bearing on the Gaza Strip and Israel's or any occupying country's right to self-defense.

Jailed Iranian rights activist Narges Mohammadi, who went on a hunger strike earlier this week, has been admitted to a hospital, the husband of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate told VOA. Taghi Rahmani revealed that Mohammadi had been moved from Tehran’s Evin Prison to the hospital for medical evaluation. Mohammadi, 51, had gone on a hunger strike after being blocked together with other inmates from getting medical care and to protest the country’s mandatory hijab law. In the wake of her hunger strike... Читать дальше...

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

The husband of Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist jailed in Russia on accusations that she failed to register as a foreign agent, is calling on the U.S. government to declare her “wrongfully detained.” Kurmasheva, an American-Russian dual citizen, was detained on October 18. Authorities ordered her held until at least December 5. The editor works with the Tatar-Bashkir service for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, or RFE/RL. She and her media outlet deny the charges against her.    In his... Читать дальше...

A new version of the popular diabetes treatment Mounjaro can be sold as a weight-loss drug, U.S. regulators announced Wednesday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly's Zepbound, or tirzepatide. The drug helped dieters lose about a quarter of their body weight, or 27 kilograms, in a recent study. Zepbound is the latest diabetes drug approved for weight loss, joining Novo Nordisk's Wegovy, a high-dose version of its diabetes treatment Ozempic. The FDA approved Lilly's drug for people who are considered obese... Читать дальше...

The United States has called on Bangladesh’s garment industry to revisit its minimum wage decision and condemned recent violence against protesting workers and the “criminalization of legitimate worker and trade union activities.” During protests on Wednesday, a 23-year-old woman Wednesday was killed during clashes with police. The widower of Anjuara Khartun, a sewing machine operator and mother of two, tells AFP that his wife was shot in the head by police when they opened fire on protesters in the garment making hub of Gazipur... Читать дальше...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that neither Israel nor Hamas can control Gaza after the war; so who will? Israeli authorities are planning for the recovery of towns destroyed in the Hamas attack. Plus, can damage to the environment be considered an international crime?

The trio of giant pandas in the Smithsonian National Zoo are heading back to China on Wednesday, leaving only a handful of giant pandas in North America amid tense diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China. Now age 25 and 26 respectively, the pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian came to the U.S. in 2000 and have been a mainstay in the Washington zoo ever since. In 2020, they had a cub named Xiao Qi Ji, or “Little Miracle” in English. But now the parents and the cub are embarking on a 19 hour-long flight to Chengdu... Читать дальше...

France has denounced an action taken by an Iranian court that sentenced a French national to five years in prison. Louis Arnaud, a banking consultant who has been held in Iran's Evin prison for over a year, was tried on national security charges. The charges handed down by a Revolutionary Court include propaganda against and seeking to harm the security of the Islamic republic, the family said in a statement. His family called the charges “baseless” and said that Arnaud, who they described... Читать дальше...

Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar demanded Wednesday that the Taliban government extradite fugitive militants who are sheltering in Afghanistan and plotting terrorist attacks against his country. Kakar told a nationally televised news conference that his country had experienced "a 60% increase in terror incidents and a 500% rise in suicide bombings" since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul two years ago, killing nearly 2,300 Pakistanis.  He said his government's crackdown on deporting all undocumented foreigners... Читать дальше...

International students are valued by schools in the U.S., both for the global perspectives they provide, and for the tuition dollars they bring in. Despite this, students often struggle to adjust to the American education system. For Inside Higher Ed, Ashley Mowreader reports on how colleges can culturally integrate students from other countries. (October 2023)

Immigration in the U.S. wasn’t always difficult or a crisis. Just 100 years ago, immigrants arriving in America simply had to give their name, occupation, and port of call when crossing into the  U.S.   Millions arrived through Ellis Island, an immigration and processing center that operated for more than 62 years. It stopped processing migrants 70 years ago this month.  Evgeny Maslov reports on what it was like for immigrants on Ellis Island in this story narrated by Anna Rice.

It was a stark admission from Myanmar’s military regime, now nearly three years into a nationwide civil war triggered by its February 2021 putsch of the country’s democratically elected government. On November 1, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun conceded that rebels had taken full control of Chinshwehaw, a key town on the border with the country’s largest trade partner, China. In a statement, he said it was now empty of all regime officials, police and soldiers. Chinshwehaw’s fall is part of a new... Читать дальше...

As the U.S. and China prepare for the meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC Leaders Summit in San Francisco, some analysts say Beijing and Washington will try to dissolve the mutual distrust they have over Taiwan.  However, given their fundamental differences over the issue, China and the U.S. will likely try to limit the amount of time they spend on the issue. "Both sides will have to say something about Taiwan, but this is not the... Читать дальше...

A new United Nations report says the amount of fossil fuels produced in 2030 will far exceed the levels needed for the world to alleviate global warming.  The study by the U.N. Environment Program says 20 of the world’s major fossil fuel producing nations are on track to produce about 110% more oil, gas and coal in 2030 than the amounts consistent with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius. Holding down global temperatures to a 1.5 degree increase compared with pre-industrial... Читать дальше...

Her father gave caustic testimony. Her brothers each spent more than a day on the witness stand. Now it's Ivanka Trump's turn to face questioning in the civil fraud trial that is publicly probing into the family business. Former President Donald Trump's eldest daughter, who has been in his inner circle in both business and politics, is due on the stand Wednesday, after trying unsuccessfully to block her testimony. Unlike her father and her brothers, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., she is no... Читать дальше...

A year away from the country’s next presidential election, Democrats and abortion rights advocates won a series of victories in elections in several U.S. states Tuesday. Voters in the state of Ohio approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care. The measure follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn the 1972 Roe v. Wade decision that had protected abortion rights. Ohio was one of several states where an abortion... Читать дальше...

The largest internally flawless fancy vivid blue diamond ever put up for auction sold for a staggering $43.8 million at a Christie's sale of rare jewels in Geneva on Tuesday, the auctioneer said. The vivid blue diamond, known as "Bleu Royal" and set in a ring, is among the rarest ever to be unearthed. At 17.6 carats, the diamond had an estimated value of up to $50 million prior to the sale. "The stone made almost $44 million," said Rahul Kadakia, Christie's international head of jewelry. "It's... Читать дальше...

The House voted late Tuesday to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — the only Palestinian American in Congress — an extraordinary rebuke of her rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war. The 234-188 tally came after enough Democrats joined with Republicans to censure Tlaib, a punishment one step below expulsion from the House. The three-term congresswoman has long been a target of criticism for her views on the decades-long conflict in the Middle East. The debate on the censure resolution... Читать дальше...

With Israeli tanks surrounding Gaza City, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will assume overall security responsibility after it ends control of the territory by Hamas militants. After another round of shuttle diplomacy, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has acknowledged that efforts to secure a pause in Israel's bombing of Gaza and to plan for the future of the Palestinians are "a work in progress." VOA's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.

Millions of Australians were left without a phone or internet connection on Wednesday after the country's second-largest telecommunications provider experienced an unexplained nationwide outage. The outage crippled payment systems and online operations and led to morning peak-hour chaos as train networks and ride-share services were down briefly in some cities. Some hospital and emergency services were also impacted. Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin ruled out a cyber attack but in an interview... Читать дальше...

He Lifeng, vice premier of the State Council of China, has officially taken up the post of head of the office of the Central Financial Commission and has become the helmsman of the core financial and economic staff of the Communist Party of China. Although He is described by the outside world as China’s new economic czar, observers say the only economic czar is President Xi Jinping, and He is just the executor of Xi's orders.  He, 68, is a native of Xingning, Guangdong. He first worked on a farm... Читать дальше...

In what was seemingly a small development late last month, China's Defense Ministry confirmed an ongoing push to embed People’s Armed Force units, or militias, in state-owned enterprises, or SOEs. But China experts tell VOA that there may be more to the ministry’s confirmation than meets the eye.  Some experts say the push could highlight China’s efforts to prepare for a potential conflict over Taiwan. Others see a connection between Chinese authorities’ concerns about social unrest as the economy... Читать дальше...

Chatham House’s Sanam Vakil on what is behind Iran’s latest coordination with Hamas and Hezbollah as they battle Israel. Journalist Karmel Melamed and other Iranian American Jews in Los Angeles, California, speak out on Iran’s apparent coercion of its Jewish minority into staging anti-Israel rallies in five cities on Oct. 30. Iran Human Rights group’s Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam on how he tracked Iran’s surge in executions in first 10 months of this year.