Headlines
Activists dressed as corpses gathered at a St. Petersburg cemetery in a bizarre protest against Russia’s nationwide vote on changing the constitution. They’re not the only ones arguing that voting could be dangerous in a country with the third-highest COVID-19 caseload in the world. Hundreds of local voting officials have signed an open letter refusing to work at polling stations
This week Florida hit a grim milestone as the number of COVID cases in the state passed 100-thousand and more than three thousand people have died. Despite the spike in cases, Florida entered phase two of re-opening with non-essential businesses working at 50 percent capacity and beaches remaining open
Violence against girls and women is South Africa’s “second pandemic,” President Cyril Ramaphosa says. The nation has one of the world’s highest rates of rape and murder, and several recent, especially brutal killings have enraged the nation. But activists say they need to see real change, not just words, from leaders, to protect victims
Roughly 280,000 refugees from Africa live in Yemen, and they are among the poorest, most vulnerable people in the world. Aid organizations say during this pandemic, international resources to support them have dwindled to almost nothing. And families say they are barely surviving, choosing to potentially expose themselves to the virus rather than to starve
Russia has held its long awaited celebrations to mark the end of World War Two, with the Kremlin dismissing concerns over the ongoing coronavirus pandemic to hold a grand military parade on Red Square
Despite churches in Nigeria emerging from lockdown to once again hold weddings, they’re trying to cut down on the number of guests. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has led many couples to get married online through video conferencing platforms bug Nigeria’s large wedding industry, which is geared towards entertaining large numbers of guests, is struggling to adjust to the new reality
The coronavirus pandemic has some world athletes struggling to stay sharp for next year’s Tokyo Olympics after training facilities were shut down and competitions cancelled. Ugandan runner Halima Nakaayi, the gold medalist in the 800 meters at the 2019 World Athletics Championships, is doing her best to prepare under the restrictions imposed by COVID-19
As in other countries, the economic fallout in Malaysia from the coronavirus pandemic has hit small businesses such as restaurants especially hard. There are estimates that up to ten percent of these businesses have had to shut. Dave Grunebaum reports from Kuala Lumpur-VOA NEWS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he intends to impose Israeli sovereignty on more than 130 Jewish settlements, as laid out in President Trump’s Deal of the Century, the U.S. administration’s peace plan. Palestinians strongly oppose the plan, and while most Jewish settlers support it, some settlers worry it could lead to a Palestinian state in the part of the West Bank that is not annexed
Lebanon in recent months has been hit by a series of crises. First, mass protests, then an economic meltdown, and finally the coronavirus lockdown. All of this has left hundreds of thousands of migrant workers – many of them women – from across the world vulnerable, and in a growing number of cases, out on the streets