Issues in the News - Voice of America cover image

Issues in the News - Voice of America

Latest episodes

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Jun 1, 2024 • 25min

Conflict and climate creating unprecedented global challenges - May 31, 2024

President Joe Biden reveals details of a three-phase ceasefire plan in Gaza he said was proposed by Israel as its military pushed deeper into central Rafah. Will international pressure and last week’s ruling by the World Court have influence on ending what has become a humanitarian catastrophe? Amanda Ghahremani, criminal law attorney and research fellow at the Human Rights Center at the University of California Berkeley weighs in. Former President Donald Trump remains defiant after being found guilty of 34 felony charges. Criminal defense attorney Jack Rice describes the historic nature of the verdict. Environmental extremes reach new levels as the world struggles to cope with the impacts of climate change. A look at how the ‘Doomsday Seed Vault’ is helping protect the world’s food supply deep in a frozen cave in Norway.
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May 25, 2024 • 25min

International Court ruling adds to intensifying pressure on Israel to end war in Gaza - May 24, 2024

International pressure on Israel escalated significantly this week. The top United Nations court on Friday ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The decision followed an announcement by Ireland, Spain, and Norway acknowledging Palestinian statehood. And on Monday, the International Criminal court’s chief prosecutor said he has asked ICC judges to approve arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three top Hamas leaders. Also, the Israeli army said three more hostages killed on October 7 were recovered from Gaza.
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May 18, 2024 • 25min

Why autocracies are taking hold and democracies under threat - May 17, 2024

Aid groups welcome the start of operations to send aid into Gaza from a floating pier but say it's no substitute for land-based aid shipments. UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram on the war's dire consequences for children in Gaza. As Russian forces advance along the frontlines in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin shores up Moscow's alliance with China in a two-day visit meeting with his counterpart in Beijing Andrea Kendall-Taylor, senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security, Transatlantic Security Program and co-author of the new eBook 'The Origins of Elected Strongmen' on why authoritarianism appears to be on the rise across the globe.
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May 11, 2024 • 25min

Exodus from Rafah as aid groups warn of humanitarian nightmare - May 10, 2024

The UN says at a time when fragile humanitarian operations urgently require expansion, border closures in southern Gaza are further limiting the ability to reach thousands of people living in dire conditions. Ciarán Donnelly with the International Rescue Committee describes how even the limited operation Israel launched earlier this week has thrown humanitarian operations into crisis. Despite deep divisions and a rise in antisemitism incidents, Jewish donors raise unprecedented funds to feed people in Gaza. Amid protests and cheers, an Israeli singer will compete in this weekend's Eurovision Song contest.
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May 4, 2024 • 25min

Free speech – hallmark of democracy under growing threat around the world - May 03, 2024

Marking World Press Freedom Day, a media watchdog report on global press freedom paints a discouraging picture of lack of political will to defend a free press. The number of writers jailed reached a five-year high as governments looked to silence critics. Massive protests on college campuses across the U.S. are giving journalism students on-the-job-training.
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Apr 27, 2024 • 25min

Gaza war protests expand across university campuses in U.S. - April 26, 2024

Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war are digging in at Columbia University and inspiring more and more demonstrations at university campuses across the United States. The protests are causing rising tensions on all sides of emotionally charged issues that have leadership at institutions facing a delicate balance to encourage free speech while protecting students.
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Apr 20, 2024 • 25min

Simmering Middle East braces for what might come next - April 19, 2024

Will Israel and Iran heed the call of world leaders to de-escalate tensions that could potentially lead to a region-wide war. Iran vowed a massive response but has so far had a muted reaction. In another tense part of the world, U.S. and European leaders stress the urgency of air defense for Kyiv as Russin attacks intensify. After months of delay, U.S. lawmakers plan to vote on aid for Ukraine Saturday. And a look at a coordinated international effort to support Ukraine’s government in its investigation and prosecution of Russian war crimes since its invasion in February 2022.
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Apr 13, 2024 • 25min

Iran warns of attack on Israel in already tense Middle East tinderbox - April 12, 2024

The White House says reports of an imminent attack by Iran on Israel is a real and viable threat. The U.S. and other countries warn their citizens against travel to the region. Families of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza rallied outside the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv Friday, pleading for President Joe Biden to help secure the release of their loved ones. Russia’s war on Ukraine could also be reaching a dangerous turning point. A look at what it could mean for U.S. and European national security.
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Apr 6, 2024 • 25min

Gazans are starving as aid groups weigh risks to their own lives - April 05, 2024

Israel opens more aid routes and delivery access to Gaza, a day after U.S. President Joe Biden’s call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatening a shift in U.S. policy towards Israel unless it reduced harm to civilians in Gaza. Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Edward P. Djerejian, Senior Fellow for the Harvard Kennedy Belford Center’s Middle East Initiative gives his take on what he believes needs to happen. The deaths of seven World Central Kitchen staffers have shaken the humanitarian community as groups now weigh the safety risks of their own workers. Janti Soeripto, President and CEO of Save the Children who just returned from Gaza talks about the serious impacts even a short pause in aid would mean for millions of starving civilians. Tensions heat up as Iran accuses Israel of carrying out an airstrike in Syria that killed some of its top military commanders and threatens to retaliate.
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Mar 30, 2024 • 25min

Independent Rights Expert Says Israel’s War on Hamas in Gaza Amounts to Genocide - March 29, 2024

The U.N. special rapporteur working with the UN’s top human rights body laid out the findings of her report this week finding “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel has been carrying out genocide in Gaza, which Israel vehemently denies. Omer Bartov Samuel Pisar Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University provides insights into the careful criteria is made for declaring genocide. And a conversation with Russia analyst Nicole Wolkov with the Institute for the Study of War on the likely motives behind the Kremlin’s continuing efforts to push the false narrative that Ukraine and the West were behind last week’s deadly concert hall attack in Moscow.

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