Countries waging wars are more focused on winning battles than mitigating their environmental impact. But researchers — who say the environmental impact of active conflicts is substantial — are trying to measure wars' effects. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. Carla Babb contributed.
A great space success story comes to an end. And SpaceX is at it again with a busy week of launches. VOA's Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.
Gunmen Take Hostages at US Company's Turkish Factory in Apparent Protest of Gaza War
Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan’s legislature elected Han Kuo-yu, a politician from the China-friendly opposition Kuomintang, or KMT, as its new speaker Thursday — a victory analysts say could lead to legislative gridlock and potentially create an opening for Beijing to influence domestic politics. “We are in for a very slow and lackluster set of time in which we are not going to see any sort of policy being able to be passed with this kind of stonewall approach to politics,” Lev Nachman, a political scientist... Читать дальше...
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday he never directed anyone on his staff not to tell the White House he'd been hospitalized and takes full responsibility for keeping President Joe Biden in the dark for weeks that he'd been diagnosed with prostate cancer. “We did not handle this right and I did not handle this right. I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis. I take full responsibility,” Austin said. “The news shook me,” Austin, 70, said when he first got the diagnosis. Читать дальше...
Yangon — Soldiers patrolled the deserted streets of Myanmar's largest city Thursday, three years after a coup ended a short-lived experiment with democracy and as the embattled junta faces growing challenges to its rule. Streets and markets in commercial hub Yangon were largely empty, AFP reporters said, as opponents of the military called for people to stay indoors in a "silent strike" against the coup. In the colonial-era downtown -- which once thronged with huge democracy protests -- there was a heavy military presence... Читать дальше...
Geneva — New cancer cases are projected to rise by 77% to more than 35 million in 2050 from an estimated 20 million new cases and 9.7 million deaths in 2022, according to new data released Thursday by the World Health Organization’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The report, which is being issued ahead of World Cancer Day February 4, projects the greatest relative increases in cancer cases will occur in lower human development index (HDI) settings. That is... Читать дальше...
ISLAMABAD — A new United Nations report warns that al-Qaida has established eight new training camps in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and is increasingly assisting anti-Pakistan militants to launch cross-border attacks. The report said an al-Qaida camp in the Afghan border province of Kunar is "conducting suicide bomber training" to support operations of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, a globally designated terrorist group leading attacks against Pakistani security forces. The U.N. Analytical... Читать дальше...
From counting machines to neural networks, the development of artificial intelligence has paralleled emerging brain science. Writer, Matt Dibble; graphic designer, Kateryna Stepchenko; motion designer, Valeryia Rusak; narrator, Hayde Fitzpatrick.
NEW DELHI — India has deployed at least a dozen warships east of the Red Sea to provide security against pirates and has investigated more than 250 vessels as Western powers focus on attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis, Indian officials said. India has not joined the U.S.-led task force for the Red Sea and does not have any warships there. But it currently has two frontline warships in the Gulf of Aden and at least 10 warships in the northern and western Arabian Sea, along with surveillance aircraft, the officials said. Читать дальше...
Taipei, Taiwan — A new report finds that some global carmakers are applying weaker human rights and responsible-sourcing standards to their joint ventures in China due to pressure from the Chinese government. The lax standards increase the risk of exposing supply chains to forced labor from China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region, where more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have been subject to mass internment and other forms of persecution. According to the report from Human Rights Watch... Читать дальше...
WASHINGTON — The United States struck up to 10 unmanned drones in Yemen that were preparing to launch, a U.S. official said late on Wednesday, amid escalating tensions from the war in Gaza spreading through the region. A U.S. Navy ship also shot down three Iranian drones and a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile in the Gulf of Aden, the U.S. military's Central Command said in a statement. There were no injuries or damage reported, it said. The Iran-aligned Houthi militants, who control the most populous parts of Yemen... Читать дальше...
The Biden administration is reimposing sanctions on a state-owned Venezuelan mining company and threatening more actions after that nation’s top court last week barred an opposition leader from the presidential race. But will this sway authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro or just further impoverish and intimidate the people of that nation. Anita Powell reports from the White House.
Chinese government hackers are targeting critical infrastructure inside the U.S., FBI Director Christopher Wray told House lawmakers on Wednesday. The warning comes as the Biden administration credits its outreach to China as key in reducing tension between the countries. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports; Jeff Seldin and Anita Powell contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — White House senior adviser John Podesta will add international climate policy to his job responsibilities, replacing special climate envoy John Kerry as the top U.S. official on international climate issues, the White House said Wednesday. Kerry announced in mid-January that he would step down from the climate job to work on President Joe Biden's reelection campaign. Podesta will take over Kerry's responsibilities, though not his title, when he departs, likely this spring, the White House said. Читать дальше...
Washington — The Islamic State terror group, whose name once inspired fear across swaths of the Middle East and beyond, may be seeking to regain its reputation, pushing a new campaign it says is focused on killing the group’s enemies wherever they can be found. Starting with its claim of the terror attack on the Iranian city of Kerman on January 3, killing nearly 90 people, Islamic State social media accounts have quickly pumped out claims for some 100 other attacks across Africa, the Middle East, and South and East Asia. Читать дальше...
