An English policeman wearing a gorilla costume while crawling the London Marathon has finally finished the race, almost a week after starting. Metropolitan Police officer Tom Harrison, who goes by the name “Mr. Gorilla,” raised a reported 26,000 pounds ($33,650) for the Gorilla Organization, which is dedicated to conserving gorillas in countries including Rwanda and Uganda. The 41-year-old Londoner started the 26.2-mile (42.2-kilometer) …
VOA Observes Jazz Appreciation Month
April 30 is International Jazz Day, with events and concerts being held throughout the world. It also marks the end of Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States. Sponsored by the National Museum of American History, it’s designed to stimulate and encourage people to participate, study and listen to a genre of music that is uniquely American. Jazz has a storied place in Voice of …
Wary of Trump, EU Courts Iran to Boost Moderates Before Polls
Wary of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tough talk on Iran, the European Union is courting Tehran to show Iranians preparing to vote in a May 19 presidential poll that it is committed to a nuclear deal and they stand to benefit, EU diplomats say. Europe’s energy commissioner is leading more than 50 European firms in a business forum in Tehran over the weekend — the latest …
Trump: ‘Would Not Be Happy’ With Another North Korea Nuclear Test
U.S. President Donald Trump says he “would not be happy” if North Korea conducts another nuclear test, which would be its sixth. “I can tell you also, I don’t believe that the president of China, who is a very respected man, will be happy either,” Trump said of Chinese President Xi Jinping in an interview that aired Sunday on the CBS television network’s “Face the …
British PM May Braces for Difficult Brexit Negotiations
British Prime Minister Theresa May expects divorce talks with the European Union to be difficult, she said on Sunday in response to the tough stance taken by EU leaders over the forthcoming Brexit negotiations. EU leaders endorsed stiff divorce terms for Britain at a Brussels summit on Saturday, warning Britons to have “no illusions” about swiftly securing a new relationship to retain access to EU …
Merkel’s Conservatives Widen Lead 5 Months Before German Vote
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats have opened a seven-point lead over the center-left Social Democrats five months ahead of the Sept. 24 election, according to a poll on Sunday in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. The Emnid institute survey found the Christian Democrats and their Christian Social Union allies winning 36 percent of the vote if the election were held on Sunday, unchanged …
FIFA Official Sheikh Ahmad Resigning Amid Bribery Claims
FIFA Council member Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah of Kuwait is resigning from his soccer roles under pressure from allegations in an American federal court that he bribed Asian officials. Sheikh Ahmad said Sunday in a statement he will withdraw from a May 8 election in Bahrain for the FIFA seat representing Asia, which he currently holds. “I do not want these allegations to create divisions …
Refugees Turn Skills From Home into New Business
Once they acclimate to their new environment, overcoming language, social and cultural barriers, refugees in the U.S. often thrive. Some translate their experiences into assets that are valuable to their new community, as did Parvin and Yadollah Jamalreza. VOA’s June Soh visited their popular tailoring shop in Charlottesville, Virginia. …
US Marines Return to Helmand
The U.S. Marine Corps has returned to Helmand, the restive province in southern Afghanistan where it fought years of bloody battles with the Taliban, to help train Afghan forces struggling to contain the insurgency. Many of the 300 Marines coming to Helmand as part of the NATO-led Resolute Support training mission are veterans of previous tours in the province, where almost 1,000 coalition troops, mostly …
Texas Tornado Leaves Deaths, Dozens Injured
Fatalities have been reported and dozens of people were taken to hospitals after a tornado hit a small city in East Texas, authorities said. Canton Fire Department Capt. Brian Horton said during a news conference late Saturday that “a number of fatalities” were reported, but that it wasn’t yet clear how many, after powerful storms swept through the community earlier in the evening. …
Duterte Drops Mention of South China Sea in ASEAN Statement
The Philippines followed up a summit of Southeast Asian leaders by releasing a final communique Sunday that removed mention of international concerns over China’s “militarization” of newly built islands in the disputed South China Sea, a major concession to Beijing. The 25-page statement issued by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte following the daylong meeting of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations he hosted …
Trump: ‘Big Decision’ Coming on Paris Climate Agreement
U.S. President Donald Trump has promised “a big decision” on the Paris climate agreement in the next two weeks. He spoke on his 100th day in office, at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in an arena that holds up to 10,000 people. Early in the president’s speech, a protester was tackled and removed from the audience. “Get him out of here,” the president said, while …
LA Peace Parades Mark 25th Anniversary of Riots
Twenty-five years ago, a jury acquitted four white police officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King, sparking looting and violence that would turn into one of the deadliest race riots in American history. On Saturday, hundreds of people marked the anniversary with marches advocating peace and hope. A “Future Fest” began at Florence and Normandie avenues — the South Los Angeles intersection where …
Real Estate Agent Sues Over Anti-Semitic Online Harassment
“Are y’all ready for an old-fashioned Troll Storm?” Andrew Anglin, white supremacist and follower of what has been branded the alt-right in American political thought, wrote those words on his blog The Daily Stormer on December 16, 2016. With that, the hate messages and death threats to Tanya Gersh and the people around her starting coming in — by email, by phone, on Twitter. Life …
Late-night TV Host Samantha Bee’s Show Briefly Upstages Correspondents’ Dinner
Washington’s once-glitzy “nerd prom” was briefly upstaged Saturday as comedians and Hollywood stars gathered for jokes and jests about President Donald Trump for a tongue-in-cheek event to counter the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Late-night TV star Samantha Bee pulled in celebrities for the first “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner’”: Alysia Reiner of “Orange Is the New Black,” Retta of “Parks and Recreation” and …
For Russia and US, Uneasy Cooperation on Cybercrime Is Now a Mess
Agents from the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service showed up in Moscow in May 2009 with a specific mission: to nab one of the world’s most notorious hackers. But to do that, the Americans needed Russia’s help. They turned to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the country’s main intelligence agency, and shared operational information with officers from its computer-crimes unit, the Center for Information …
Duterte to ASEAN Leaders: Be ‘Resolute in Realizing a Drug-Free ASEAN’
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte opened the last day of a four-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit with a warning that they all are facing a massive “illegal drug trade apparatus.” He quickly added Saturday that the drug trade is not “impregnable” and can be dismantled “with political will and cooperation.” He urged the leaders from the 10 ASEAN countries gathered in Manila to …
Climate Change Science Removed from EPA Website
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is updating its website to reflect the views of the Trump administration. The agency has removed several pages from the Obama administration explaining the science behind climate change. The EPA said in a statement the website is “undergoing changes that reflect the agency’s new direction under President Donald Trump and Administrator Scott Pruitt.” The statement was released late Friday, just …
US Will Not Rule Out Military Response to North Korea
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that Washington would not rule out a military response to future North Korean aggression and that it would seek to increase the rogue nation’s financial and international isolation. VOA’s Margaret Besheer has more from the United Nations, where the secretary chaired a meeting of the Security Council on the North Korean issue. …
Trump Foreign Policy Draws Fire, Praise at 100 Day Mark
With President Donald Trump’s presidency reaching the symbolic 100-day milestone, battle lines are sharply drawn on the effectiveness of his still developing foreign policy. VOA White House correspondent Peter Heinlein reports that, amid fierce criticism of the president’s early performance, the outlines of a “Trump Doctrine” are beginning to emerge. …