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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Jonathan Smith reporting.
Residents of the chain of islands at the tip of southern Florida could be prevented from returning to their homes for weeks as a result of the extensive devastation from a recent hurricane. U.S. homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said a recovery in the Florida Keys "is going to take a while because of damage to bridges that link the islands to the U.S. mainland." The damage in mainland Florida was in fact spread across a very large area. The state is the third most populous in the U.S. with more than 20 million residents. Nearly 6 million people had no power Monday and large areas were devastated by fallen trees, roofs ripped from homes and roads closed by windswept rains. Many harbors were filled with the wreckage of storm-tossed yachts. An unprecedented rescue and relief response by the United States is under way not only in Florida, but in the Caribbean following the hurricane. The security adviser, Thomas Bossert, told reporters on Monday it's "the largest-ever mobilization of our military in a naval and marine operation." Nine large ships, including the 335-meter long USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier which arrived at Key West on Sunday night, are being used as platforms for sorties by at least 80 rotary wing aircraft, according to officials. [The USS] The U.S. Navy has also moved in the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship. This is VOA news. This late word. The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a temporary order allowing the Trump administration to maintain its restrictive policy on refugees while the court considers challenges to the travel ban. Justice Anthony Kennedy issued the temporary order Monday. It was expected to remain in effect while the full court takes up the matter, likely within a matter of days. Pope Francis ended his trip to Colombia by appealing to her people to unite to end more than half a century of armed conflict. At a mass in Cartagena, he said if Colombia wants a stable and lasting peace it must "untie the knots of violence" and "unravel the complex threads of disagreements." U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein is warning that governments are increasingly moving toward authoritarianism and oppression, crushing human rights values and protections. Correspondent Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from the opening of the U.N. Human Rights Council's three-week session in Geneva. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein paints a dark picture of the state of human rights around the world. He condemns the actions of violent extremists and terrorists, but warns the greater dangers to society are from governments who "peel away human rights protections." Zeid expressed his concern about extensive gross human rights violations in 39 countries. "We have received multiple reports and satellite imagery of security forces and local militia burning Rohingya villages, and consistent accounts of extrajudicial killings, including shooting fleeing civilians." Zeid calls on the Myanmar government to end its current military operation and to reverse its discrimination against the Rohingya. Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has urged the United States to start finding a way to resolve the problems between the two countries. A Russian Foreign Ministry statement was released after Ryabkov met with U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon in Helsinki, Finland. In the statement, Ryabkov said, "We called for a stop to the destruction of Russia-U.S. relations and start finding solutions to resolve problems that are mounting through no fault of our own." You can find more on these and other late breaking and developing stories, from around the world, around the clock, at voanews.com and on the VOA news mobile app. From the VOA world headquarters in Washington, I'm Jonathan Smith. That's the latest world news from VOA. |