This is VOA News. Via remote, I’m Diane Roberts.
The [high] U.S. Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for women seeking abortions in the United States. The high court’s move to overturn Roe v. Wade is laying bare a deep national divide over abortion. AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani has more.
Outside the high court, Lydia Taylor celebrated.
“I’ve been working in pain for the past five years for this day.”
Now she wants a push for all states to ban abortion. As she cried tears of joy, nearby, “It’s terrifying.”
Ansley Cole is scared, “Because what are they gonna come for next.”
Columbia University professor Terry McGovern says a lot of rights are now at risk.
“… contraception, I think certainly gay marriage and protections for same sex relationship ….”
And others based on the right to privacy.
“This decision is a seismic shift in how we understand or how SCOTUS has understood the Constitution.”
Sagar Meghani Washington
Ukrainian forces prepared Friday to retreat from the strategic city of Severodonetsk after weeks of fierce fighting, a setback that could pave the way for Russia to seize a large swath of eastern Ukraine.
Moscow said it had encircled about 2,000 Ukrainian and what it called foreign troops in the area. Reuters could not independently verify any of the battlefield accounts.
The reports came four months to the day since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops over the border, unleashing a conflict that has killed thousands, uprooted millions and reduced whole cities to rubble.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was headed to Tehran Friday for a surprise visit that can breathe new life into stalled talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Borrell is due to arrive in Iranian capital at night to meet the foreign minister.
This is VOA News.
The United Nations’ chief warns the world faces catastrophe because of the growing shortage of food around the globe. AP correspondent Charles De Ledesma reports.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres says the war in Ukraine has added to the disruptions caused by climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and inequality to produce an “unprecedented global hunger crisis” already affecting hundreds of millions of people.
In a video message to officials from dozens of rich and developing countries gathered in Berlin, Guterres says, “There is a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022,” adding, “And 2023 could be even worse.”
I’m Charles De Ledesma.
An aftershock took more lives and threatened to pile even more misery on an area of eastern Afghanistan reeling from a powerful earthquake that state media said killed 1,150 people this week.
Wednesday’s magnitude 6 earthquake killed 121 children when it struck a remote mountainous region already grappling with staggering poverty.
It comes at a time when the country is spiraling deeper into economic crisis after many countries pulled back critical financing and development aid in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover.
Friends, family (families) and other mourners today remember the 98 people who died in a building collapse one year ago Friday in the U.S. city of Surfside, Florida.
The 12-story oceanfront condo building came crashing down in the middle of the night, one of the deadliest structure collapses in U.S. history.
The names of each victim were read aloud during a ceremony Friday to mark the somber anniversary. Second (First) lady Jill Biden was there.
“And as we gather, we express gratitude for this community: the fire fighters and first responders who bound up wounds and spent weeks working to recover your loved ones.”
Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso said Friday that Indigenous people staging sometimes violent protests for the past 12 days are trying to overthrow him.
Shortly after he spoke, thousands of protesters throwing rocks and shooting off fireworks again clashed with police near the Congress building in Quito. Police and soldiers repelled them with tear gas.
The demonstrations have led to clashes that have left six people dead and dozens injured.
And recapping our top story, the U.S. Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for women seeking abortions in the United States and the high court’s move is laying bare a deep national divide over abortion.
Via remote, I’m Diane Roberts, VOA News.