NATO chief aims to put Ukraine in position of strength for peace talks with Russia

BRUSSELS — NATO’s sec­re­­tary-gen­er­al said he wants to dis­cuss ways to put Ukraine in a posi­tion of strength for any future peace talks with Rus­sia dur­ing a meet­ing Wednes­day with Ukraine’s pres­i­dent and a small num­ber of Euro­pean lead­ers. But Mark Rutte appeared frus­trat­ed at grow­ing spec­u­la­tion in NATO cap­i­tals about when those peace talks might…

Poll: Most Americans want US leadership on global affairs, increased defense spending

PENTAGON  — A major­i­ty of Amer­i­cans want the Unit­ed States to lead on the glob­al stage with a strong mil­i­tary, and a super­ma­jor­i­ty want to increase nation­al defense spend­ing, accord­ing to the lat­est Rea­gan Nation­al Defense Sur­vey. Despite Amer­i­cans elect­ing a pres­i­dent who ran on an “Amer­i­ca First” agen­da that focused on domes­tic issues rang­ing from…

US urges Zimbabwe to double down on reforms

Harare, ZIMBABWE — The Unit­ed States is urg­ing the Zim­bab­we gov­ern­ment to dou­ble down on reforms aimed at return­ing the coun­try to the pros­per­i­ty it once enjoyed. Speak­ing to reporters in Harare on Mon­day, Pamela Tremont, the U.S. ambas­sador to Zim­bab­we, said her coun­try wants to have cor­dial rela­tions with the south­ern African nation. She urged…

From VOA Persian: Iranian civil activist plans sit-in outside Evin Prison after arrest and release 

Hos­sein Ron­aghi, a civ­il rights activist in Iran, has been hold­ing sit-ins across Tehran with his lips sewn shut in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the demands of Kianoush San­jari, anoth­er out­spo­ken gov­ern­ment crit­ic and for­mer jour­nal­ist who jumped to his death from a build­ing ear­li­er this month in protest against Iran’s author­i­tar­i­an rulers. Ron­aghi was once again…

Fear, joy and calls for a strong Europe: France reacts to Trump win

PARIS — A cen­tu­ry of straw polls at the icon­ic Harry’s Bar in Paris have accu­rate­ly called almost every U.S. elec­tion. This Novem­ber was no dif­fer­ent. The tal­lies dis­played on the bar’s win­dow on a chilly Wednes­day morn­ing were anoth­er reminder of Don­ald Trump’s deci­sive vic­to­ry — with uncer­tain con­se­quences for France and Europe. Even as…

A US election watch party in Kenya, excitement at first, followed by disappointment

nairo­bi, kenya — In a vibrant Nairo­bi com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter, Amer­i­can cit­i­zens liv­ing in Kenya gath­ered with pal­pa­ble excite­ment ear­ly Wednes­day to watch the U.S. elec­tion results unfold. The atmos­phere buzzed with antic­i­pa­tion as expa­tri­ates shared snacks and sto­ries, their eyes glued to screens dis­play­ing real-time updates. As the results of the U.S elec­tions trick­led in, a…

Mideast-North Africa region sees surge in global investment despite conflicts 

For the first time in years, the Mid­dle East and North African region is see­ing a surge in inter­est from inter­na­tion­al investors. Major com­pa­nies like Google, Microsoft and Adobe recent­ly took part in one of the largest tech­nol­o­gy events in the region when Dubai host­ed Expand North Star 2024, which attract­ed over 6,500 exhibit­ing companies,…

Though voter fraud rare, US election offices feature safeguards to catch it

NEW YORK — You’ve heard the hor­ror sto­ries: Some­one cast­ing mul­ti­ple bal­lots, peo­ple vot­ing in the name of dead rel­a­tives, mail-in bal­lots being inter­cept­ed.  Vot­er fraud does hap­pen occa­sion­al­ly. When it does, we tend to hear a lot about it. It also gets caught and pros­e­cut­ed.  The nation’s mul­ti­lay­ered elec­tion process­es pro­vide many safe­guards that keep…

Kenyan lawmakers impeach deputy president for abuse of office

Nairo­bi — Kenya’s Nation­al Assem­bly has impeached the coun­try’s deputy pres­i­dent over accu­sa­tions of cor­rup­tion and abuse of office. Law­mak­ers vot­ed over­whelm­ing­ly to remove Rigathi Gach­agua from office in the vote Tues­day night. The fate of the deputy pres­i­dent now rests in the hands of the Sen­ate.  The process to con­sid­er removal of Kenya’s deputy president…