Beijing vows retaliation against Biden’s hikes of tariffs on Chinese imports
Chinese officials angrily promised retaliation after the announcement by the White House on Tuesday that the Biden administration would be increasing tariffs on certain imports from China, including a quadrupling of the surcharge on electric cars to 100%. “This will…
US commanders in Poland see Russian threat as ‘near-term’
As Russia ramps up its offensive in eastern Ukraine, officials with the U.S. command in Eastern Europe say it’s urgent for NATO to be ready for a possible confrontation. VOA’s Eastern Europe bureau chief Myroslava Gongadze talked to the U.S….
Ahead of China visit, Putin says he is ready to negotiate on Ukraine war
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia is ready to negotiate on the war in Ukraine, in an interview with Chinese media. Russia has “never refused to negotiate,” Putin was quoted saying, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. It seeks…
Many master’s degrees aren’t worth the investment, research shows
Nearly half of master’s degrees have a negative financial return, according to new research by the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, an economic research organization. The study indicates that many graduate degree programs do not increase lifetime earnings enough…
Shrinking Caspian Sea worries environmental activists
Residents of Aqtau, a Kazakhstani port city located on the northeastern shore of the Caspian Sea, are on edge these days. For more than two decades, they have watched the Caspian Sea shrink and the local economy wither. As the…
Plight of Ukrainian civilians grows as Russian forces step up attacks
GENEVA — United Nations humanitarian workers are calling on Russia to immediately end its armed attacks in Ukraine as the intensification of fighting in the eastern part of the country in recent days causes a surge in civilian casualties and…
UN forum in Bahrain endorses declaration on entrepreneurship and innovation for the SDGs
The fifth Manama Declaration, named after the Bahraini capital where the 2024 World Entrepreneurship Investment Forum (WEIF) has been running since Tuesday, echoed the gathering’s theme: innovation can drive development of technologies and products to help address socioeconomic and environmental…
Surge in child migrants crossing the dangerous Darién Gap: UNICEF
In the first four months of 2024, more than 30,000 children traversed the dense jungle region separating Colombia and Panama, marking a significant increase compared to the same period last year. Among them, about 2,000 were unaccompanied or separated from…
‘Time is running out’ to address crisis in Sudan
UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, warned that “time is running out” as famine, disease and fighting close in on the population, with no end in sight. “The international community cannot stand by as this crisis spirals…
UN rights chief, independent experts denounce Georgia’s new ‘foreign agents’ law
The Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence requires media, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other nonprofits to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad. It was…