Thousands of migrant workers in Qatar are not getting paid by their employers and are being forced to live in dire conditions, according to Amnesty International. Despite pledging to overhaul labor laws for migrants in 2018, Amnesty said the Qatari government has failed to implement its policies on unpaid wages, …
Russia’s Interior Ministry says a former Kremlin official, whom media reports have called a CIA informant, has been officially declared missing. The ministry said on Monday that it had added Oleg Smolenkov, born in 1969, to its list of missing people and that it has launched a search to locate …
Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg scolded world leaders Monday at a United Nations summit calling for climate action, saying people are suffering and dying from the effects of global warming and that all the leaders have are empty words. “We are in [the] beginning of a mass extinction and all …
Pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq known as Popular Mobilization Forces are becoming bolder, despite calls by Iraq’s Shiite spiritual leader and prime minister to put their weapons under government control. The PMF is an umbrella organization of Iraqi Shiite militias formed in 2014 to fight the Sunni militant Islamic State …
Hundreds of mourners gathered Sunday to commemorate the loss of yet another European glacier. Dressed in mourning clothes, they hiked for hours in the Glarus Alps in eastern Switzerland to reach the remnants of the Pizol glacier at 2,600 meters above sea level. The glacier has lost more than 80% …
U.S. President Donald Trump admitted talking about corruption with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, but stopped short of saying they talked about investigating 2020 leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. A Wall Street Journal report says Trump urged Zelenskiy eight times to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, and whether a …
Tanzania has declined to provide detailed information on suspected Ebola cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, posing a challenge in efforts to fight the outbreak. Despite several requests “to date, clinical data, results of the investigations, possible contacts and potential laboratory tests performed … have not been communicated to …
Five brothers came to the US from Ukraine almost two decades ago in search of the American Dream — that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed in the United States. During those 20 years, they’ve had all kinds of jobs, from washing floors, to delivering mail to working at …
In 20 months, an anti-smoking group in Lebanon collected 240,000 cigarette butts from around a university campus. It did not take long to put those butts to good use, creating something unique to help clean up Beirut’s beaches. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi gets to the bottom of this story. …
The head of Ukraine’s state-owned oil company says Kyiv will remain able to supply Europe with natural gas from its subterranean storage units even if European Union-mediated talks don’t pan out. “We are fully confident that Ukraine can maintain gas supply … at least during the first quarter of 2020,” …
Protesters burned a Chinese flag and police fired pepper spray during a march Saturday in an outlying district of Hong Kong in renewed clashes over anti-government grievances. Police accused protesters of spraying water at officers during the march by several thousand people in Tuen Mun in Hong Kong’s northwest. …
Dozens of demonstrators were arrested at yellow vest protests in Paris on Saturday as more than 7,000 police were deployed to quell any violence by the movement and its radical, anarchist “black blocs.” There were also fears that the demonstrators could try to infiltrate a march against climate change in …
President Donald Trump irritably defended himself Friday against an intelligence whistleblower’s complaint, including an allegation of wrongdoing in a reported private conversation Trump had with a foreign leader. The complaint, which the administration has refused to let Congress see, is “serious” and “urgent,” the government’s intelligence watchdog said. But …
Two reporters for the U.S.-based Bloomberg news agency have appeared in court accused of trying to undermine Turkey’s economic stability with a story they wrote on last year’s currency crisis. The trial against Kerim Karakaya and Fercan Yalinkilic opened in Istanbul on Friday. Thirty-six others have also been charged for …
Sixty years ago, children accounted for more than one-third — 36% — of the U.S. population. Today, that number is 22% and shrinking faster than anticipated. The U.S. Census Bureau had not expected the kid population to drop that low until 2030, but the reality hit more than a decade …
With world leaders about to gather in New York for a U.N. Climate Action Summit next week, millions of young people from Australia to Iceland will take off from school or work on Friday to demand urgent measures to stop environmental catastrophe. Protests, inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 16, are planned in 150 countries. The …
A large array of international players, including corporate giants in the United States and China, have profited from South Sudan’s long civil war, according to a report by a Washington-based watchdog group. The Sentry, which reports on links between corruption and mass atrocities in Africa, charged in its report …
President Donald Trump’s pick for Labor secretary sought to quell concerns among Democrats that he’s too close to the corporate world, telling lawmakers Thursday that if confirmed he’ll ask ethics officials if he can participate in the crafting of a conflict of interest rule for stockbrokers. As a private sector …
The American Dream is many things to many people. For the Savchuk family who came to the U.S. from Ukraine more than 15 years ago, achieving their dream meant opening a small business and making a decent living. VOA’s Iryna Matviichuk met with the family and saw their dream come …
Israelis went to the polls again this week, but unofficial results show another deadlock. Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party nor challenger Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party can form a governing coalition. Many in Israel say the two large parties must unite despite their …
U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered additional sanctions against Iran after receiving reports that Tehran is most likely responsible for Saturday’s attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities. The president said Wednesday that he had directed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to stiffen existing sanctions. He also named his fourth national security …
It’s a common sight in Los Angeles. Thousands of people living in tents on sidewalks, sometimes with trash piled outside their makeshift shelters, conditions that breed typhus and other diseases. Analysts say the problem is complex, has been decades in the making and that a response requires coordination at many …
A multi-pronged attack is under way on the Afghanistan national electronic ID distribution centrt in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. An explosion at the front gate of the compound cleared the way for multiple attackers to enter the compound Wednesday afternoon, according to Ataullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the …
The British government was back at the country’s Supreme Court on Wednesday, arguing that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament just weeks before the country is set to leave the European Union was neither improper nor illegal. It’s the second day of a historic three-day hearing that pits …
The United States filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who in 2013 leaked secret documents about U.S. telephone and Internet surveillance, saying his new book violates non-disclosure agreements. The Justice Department said Snowden published his memoir, “Permanent Record,” without submitting it to …