International Edition - Voice of America VOA

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with Israeli leaders in his push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas. Violence and chaos erupt on campuses as protesters and counter-protesters clash over the war in Gaza. South Korea held talks on joining a part of the AUKUS defense deal between the U.S., Britain and Australia. We talk with Naoko Aoki, an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation. The average income of people around the world will be cut by one-fifth because of climate change. And high school students in the U.S. are becoming poll workers for the upcoming election.

New York Police arrest protesters occupying Columbia University building. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel. He is pushing for a cease-fire and increasing aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier on Tuesday vowed to go ahead with a military operation in Rafah despite international concern over the fate of more than 1 million Palestinians sheltering there. Authorities across South and Southeast Asia are warning people of health risks as a life-threatening heat wave bears down across the region. A Polish soccer fan completed a 100-kilometre walk on Sunday to meet the goalkeeper of Radomiak Radom, honoring a pledge he made on social media.

There is a cease-fire deal on the table and it’s up to Hamas to accept or not. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, British Foreign Minister David Cameron and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on behalf of U.S. President Joe Biden all sent that message to the world on Monday. Students at universities across the United States continue to protest the Gaza war. We talk to Scott Gac with Trinity College in the U.S. state of Connecticut. A twice-delayed legislative election got underway in Togo on Monday. And Taylor Swift sold 2.61 million album and streaming units of "The Tortured Poets Department" during its first week of release in the U.S. and set a new global streaming record too.

The White House says U.S. President Joe Biden has again spoken with Netanyahu as Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to the Middle East. Pressure is building on Israel and Hamas to reach a deal that would free some Israeli hostages and bring a cease-fire in the nearly seven-month-long war in Gaza. It’s being widely reported that the International Criminal Court is preparing to issue arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday (April 28) issued a fresh plea to the international community to hurry up and deliver more air defenses, start formal talks for his country to enter the European Union, and invite Ukraine to join NATO. And Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on Sunday on an unannounced visit. He wants to discuss the rollout of Full Self-Driving software and permission to transfer data overseas.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday took up Donald Trump's bid to avoid prosecution over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump’s lawyers argue that former presidents are entitled to absolute immunity for their official acts. We talk to Richard O. Lempert from the University of Michigan School of Law. New York’s highest court on Thursday threw out Harvey Weinstein ’s 2020 rape conviction with a ruling that shocked and disappointed women who celebrated historic gains during the #MeToo era. And paleontologists in Argentina have announced a new herbivorous dinosaur that lived over 90 million years.

Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests. A proposed repeal of Arizona’s near-total ban on abortions has won approval from the state House. It’s unclear exactly where the Supreme Court will land after hearing arguments about Idaho's abortion ban. TikTok pushes back on pending U.S. ban if it doesn’t sell the company. We talk to Seth Schachner, Managing Director of Strat Americas, a Los Angeles-based consultancy that provides strategic guidance and helps clients with media and technology partnerships. And NASA is talking to Voyager 1 again! It’s 24 billion kilometers from Earth. That’s the farthest any object has made it into deep space. We talk with Linda J. Spilker at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.