|
I'm VOA's Joe Ramsey with your worldwide news update.
The U.S. Justice Department is asking federal judges to dismiss two cases against President-elect Donald Trump. AP correspondent Sagar Meghani reports. The department is abandoning both its election interference and classified documents cases against Trump. Department prosecutors are citing long-standing guidance that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted and write the Constitution requires the cases be dismissed before Trump is inaugurated. Both moves were expected after Trump's election win and his spokesman calls them a major victory for the rule of law. Sagar Meghani, Washington. Israeli airstrikes are hitting Lebanon as negotiations progress toward a cease-fire between the country and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants. Lebanon reported that at least 31 people were killed Monday as explosions lit up the sky and airstrikes hit targets in Beirut and in Tyre, a southern port city. Israeli troops launched a ground invasion of Lebanon in October after about a year of exchanging low-level attacks across the Israel-Lebanon border with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. More than 3,700 people have since been killed and 1.2 million displaced. The fighting has amplified worries about direct conflict between Israel and Iran. International mediators are seeking to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah to end the fighting. The proposal under discussion to end the fighting calls for an initial two-month cease-fire. A top Hamas official in Lebanon said the Palestinian militant group would support a cease-fire between its ally Hezbollah and Israel. This is VOA News. New research finds the number of people killed in Sudan's civil war is far higher than previously thought. Henry Ridgwell reports. Sudan's civil war erupted in April, 2023, a brutal power struggle between the army and the paramilitary, Rapid Support Forces. An estimate widely used by international aid agencies said just over 20,000 civilians had died from the violence in the first 14 months of the war. But a new study from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine looked at multiple sources and suggests the death rate is much higher. Maysoon Dahab is lead author of the report. "In the first 14 months of the war, there has been a 50 percent increase in the death rate in Khartoum state alone. That amounts to about 61,000 deaths due to disease, starvation and directly from the violence itself. Amongst that 61,000, we have about 26,000 who have been killed directly by violence." The United Nations says the conflict has forced 11 million people to flee their homes, with some 25 million people, half of Sudan's population, needing food aid, making it the world's biggest hunger crisis. Henry Ridgwell, VOA News. Scuffles and fistfights broke out between ruling party and opposition lawmakers in Serbia's parliament on Monday over a deadly rail station roof collapse that has ignited tensions in the Balkan state. The opposition wanted to discuss who was responsible for the crash that killed 15 people in the northern city of Novi Sad on November 1. The collapse has fueled widespread anger toward the government and protests, becoming a flashpoint for broader dissatisfaction with Serbia's authoritarian rule. The fifth and final round of negotiations for a global plastics treaty began on Monday. AP correspondent Charles De Ledesma reports. Negotiators are gathering in Busan, South Korea, in what's billed as a final push to address the global crisis of plastic pollution. Opening of talks, Inger Anderson, who leads the U.N. Environment Programme, says the world needs an end to plastic production. "Not a single person on this planet wants to [this] witness plastic litter in green spaces, on their streets or washing up on their shores." The planet is choking on plastic, according to the U.N., polluting lakes, rivers, oceans and people's bodies. I'm Charles De Ledesma. That wraps up this update but the world and news never stop. For additional updates visit our website, voanews.com. I'm Joe Ramsey, VOA News. |