U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Saturday that Afghan leadership is consolidating its forces around key population centers ahead of efforts to retake territory lost to the Taliban while the U.S. was withdrawing most of its troops from the country. “The first thing to do is to make sure that …
More than 100 people have died and tens of thousands have been evacuated, Indian officials say, after India’s Maharashtra state was bombarded by monsoon rains, causing flooding and landslides. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he is “anguished by the loss of lives.” Authorities say India’s military has been dispatched to …
On the eve of the funeral for slain Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, host Carol Castiel and assistant producer at the Current Affairs Desk, Sydney Sherry, speak with Haiti expert Georges Fauriol, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and fellow at the Caribbean Policy Consortium, about …
Issues in the News moderator Kim Lewis talks with VOA senior diplomatic correspondent, Cindy Saine, and senior reporter for Marketplace, Nancy Marshall-Genzer, about growing congressional challenges on infrastructure, police reform, COVID-19 and the economy facing the Biden administration, the ramifications of a widespread cyber-attack on Microsoft allegedly conducted by China, …
The Tokyo Olympics Games are set to open Friday amid the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. On Friday, organizers said 19 people, including three athletes, are the latest people with ties to the Games to have tested positive for the coronavirus. So far, at least 110 people linked to the Olympics have …
Confronting the historic drought that has a firm grip on the American West requires a heavy federal infrastructure investment to protect existing water supplies but also will depend on efforts at all levels of government to reduce demand by promoting water efficiency and recycling, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said Thursday. …
Over 600,000 users of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service’s (NHS) COVID-19 test and trace app were “pinged” alerts recommending self-isolation earlier this month. In what has been dubbed the “pingdemic,” the app told users to begin a 10-day quarantine if they tested positive for the coronavirus or had been …
Nine people have been indicted on charges of operating in the United States as illegal agents of China. The group allegedly “conducted surveillance of and engaged in a campaign to harass, stalk and coerce certain residents of the United States to return to the PRC as part of a global, …
Cameroonian police say they have for the first time during the pandemic seized parts of an estimated 2,000 pangolins poached in Cameroon and neighboring Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Police say travel restrictions had slowed trafficking of the endangered anteater to Asia, where its meat is considered a delicacy and the …
Rights groups have called on the international community to defend Belarus’s leading journalists’ association as the regime of authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko seeks to close it down amid an intensifying crackdown on independent media and civil society. Belarus’s Justice Ministry has asked the Supreme Court to close the Belarusian Association …
The Uyghur inmates sat in uniform rows with their legs crossed in lotus position and their backs ramrod straight, numbered and tagged, gazing at a television playing grainy black-and-white images of Chinese Communist Party history. This is one of an estimated 240 cells in just one section of Urumqi No. …
The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee fired the director of the opening ceremony on Thursday because of a Holocaust joke he made during a comedy show in 1998. Organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto said a day ahead of the opening ceremony that director Kentaro Kobayashi has been dismissed. He was accused …
Indian farmers, protesting over three new farm laws they say threaten their livelihoods, will start a sit-in near parliament in the center of the capital New Delhi in a renewed push to pressure the government to repeal the laws. In the longest-running growers’ protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, …
In this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Haydé Adams looks at Africa’s urban development. She is joined by Wandile Mthiyane, architect and CEO of Ubuntu Design Group, Emana Nsikan-George, climate researcher and sustainability practitioner on climate actions, Christian Benimana, managing director of MASS Design Group and Johnny Miller, photographer of …
The Justice Department has accused Thomas Barrack, a longtime friend of former President Donald Trump and his 2017 inaugural committee chairman, of engaging in a wide-ranging scheme to favorably influence U.S. policy toward the United Arab Emirates without registering as a foreign agent as required by U.S. law. A seven-count …
Tanzania’s main opposition party, the Party for Democracy and Progress, also known as Chadema, says police have detained their leader Freeman Mbowe. Mbowe was arrested before he was scheduled to speak at a conference to announce demands for constitutional reforms. The statement from Chadema’s Communication Director John Mrema, shared on …
Haiti’s new prime minister, Ariel Henry, took office Tuesday in the aftermath of the president’s assassination two weeks ago, pledging to improve the country’s dire security and to organize long-delayed elections. Henry was installed as head of a new government in an attempt to stabilize a country on the brink of chaos …
The Japanese women’s softball team posted an 8-1 rout of Australia Wednesday to usher in the Tokyo Olympic Games. The Games, delayed for a year by the pandemic, got off to a quiet start when Japanese pitcher Yukiko Ueno tossed the first pitch to Australian leadoff hitter Michelle Cox at a …
Under pressure but remaining defiant, award-winning journalist Maria Ressa has had a turbulent few years. Since 2018, the co-founder of the Philippines’ media site Rappler has faced a slew of charges for cyber libel, tax evasion and securities fraud. How bad was it? “In a little less than two years, …
A look at the best news photos from around the world. …
Hundreds of women displaced by recent inter-communal fighting in the Al Geneina town of West Darfur are suffering from anxiety and depression as they shoulder the responsibility of caring for their families without husbands, say women’s rights activists in Sudan’s western region. The fighting that erupted in April left more …
From smartphones to billboards, digital displays are everywhere. But some companies say the ideal display is the human eye itself, and they’re developing some eye-opening smart contact lenses. Tina Trinh reports. …
As the tattoo needle moves on her wrist creating an image of angel’s wings and the word “Dad,” Rakshita Gupta, a designer of home furnishings, recalls what her father, who died two months ago of COVID-19, means to her and her sister. “He taught us to be independent, he taught …
Some members of Haiti’s opposition say they will not support Prime Minister-designate Ariel Henry, whom President Jovenel Moise named to the position a day before he was assassinated. Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph has led the country since the president was killed inside his private residence in the early hours of July 7. On Saturday, the …
More than half of the Kenyan capital’s nearly 5 million people live in slums, where many young people are lured by drugs and crime. In one neighborhood, a group is using the game of chess to help transform the lives of young people. Lenny Ruvaga reports from Nairobi. Camera: Amos …