Many thousands of international students come to study at American universities and colleges each year. VOA's Laurel Bowman met four students who have just landed at campuses in the Washington area. Camera — Adam Greenbaum and Saqib Ul Islam. [Read more]

The U.S. government is facing a partial shutdown on Sunday as the Senate and House of Representatives remain at odds over the size of its budget for the next 12 months, continued aid for Ukraine to fight Russia, immigration controls at the U.S.-Mexican border and social welfare programs to help impoverished Americans. The Democratic-con [Read more]

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on an ousted Sudanese politician and two companies, one of which is based in Russia, accusing them of intensifying instability and opposing democracy in the North African country. These are the latest attempts by Washington to hold Islamist militants accountable for the war that broke out [Read more]

With congressional leaders gridlocked over the nation's budget and the deadline to pass spending bills fast approaching, the federal government could shut down on October 1. And that can affect some immigration services and visa programs. If the federal government closes, only essential personnel will be working. All other federal work [Read more]

In a grand farewell to its beloved giant pandas, Smithsonian's National Zoo is hosting "Panda Palooza," a celebration ending October 1. From their longtime Washington base, the pandas have brought joy to millions of visitors and generations of fans — and now they are being moved to China. Liliya Anisimova [Read more]

In Goma, a city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, residents say plastic and other waste is increasingly polluting Lake Kivu. A new initiative is keeping some of that waste out of the lake. Austere Malivika has this report from Goma, narrated by Aida Issa. [Read more]

India's moon lander and rover, which made a historic landing on the south pole of the moon, have not "woken up" after being put in sleep mode earlier this month to survive the freezing lunar night temperatures. Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organization have not succeeded in reestablishing communication with the Vikram lander [Read more]

Environmental experts are ringing alarm bells, saying decades-long climate and environmental changes in Sudan have exacerbated social and political instability, fueling the monthslong conflict in the country centered around access to land, water and other vital resources. The current conflict in Sudan, rooted in global geopolitics and t [Read more]

The United States is the only Western nation among the world's 50 most conflict-ridden countries, according to new research that measures political violence around the globe. The U.S. ranking is driven by rising levels of political violence and a proliferation of far-right groups in the country in recent years, according to the Armed Co [Read more]

A longshot candidate for governor in the U.S. state of Missouri and his supporters describe his use of a flamethrower at a recent "Freedom Fest" event outside St. Louis as no big deal. They said it was a fun moment for fellow Republicans who attended, and that no one talked about burning books as he torched a pile of cardboard boxes. Bu [Read more]

With just a week before Washington runs out of money to keep the federal government fully operating, warring factions within the Republican Party in the U.S. Congress on Sunday showed no signs of coming together to pass a stopgap funding bill. Congress so far has failed to finish any of the 12 regular spending bills to fund federal agen [Read more]

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges of taking bribes from three New Jersey businessman, as calls for his resignation from his fellow Democrats escalated. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan last week accused Menendez, 69, and his wife of accepting gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in ex [Read more]

Wildfires fueled by climate change have ravaged communities from Maui to the Mediterranean this summer, killing many people, exhausting firefighters and fueling demand for new solutions. Enter artificial intelligence. Firefighters and startups are using AI-enabled cameras to scan the horizon for signs of smoke. A German company is build [Read more]

In Goma, a city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, residents say plastic and other waste is increasingly polluting Lake Kivu. A new initiative is keeping some of that waste out of the lake. Austere Malivika has this report from Goma, narrated by Aida Issa. [Read more]

Iran claimed on Wednesday it successfully launched an imaging satellite into space, a move that could further ratchet up tensions with Western nations that fear its space technology could be used to develop nuclear weapons. Iranian Communication Minister Isa Zarepour said the Noor-3 satellite had been put in an orbit 450 kilometers (280 [Read more]

On the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York last week, Taiwan's Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang delivered a speech at the Concordia Annual Summit on digital democracy and artificial intelligence. VOA spoke with Tang about how AI might help break through China's censorship and the challenges and opportu [Read more]

The Bank of England has paused nearly two years of interest rate increases after a surprising fall in U.K. inflation eased concerns about the pace of price rises. In a development Thursday that few predicted just two days ago, the central bank kept its main interest rate unchanged at a 15-year high of 5.25%. It comes to the relief of mi [Read more]

The earthquake that killed nearly 3,000 people in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains this month also took a toll on the region's flourishing tourist industry — a key source of jobs and income. The raft of tourist cancellations adds to the many challenges facing impoverished mountain communities as they begin the difficult task of rebuilding [Read more]

Some Zimbabweans living in abject poverty are reacting angrily to claims by President Emmerson Mnangagwa that the country's economy is the fastest growing in the southern African region. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare, where some economists and members of the main opposition say the president is being misinformed or does not unders [Read more]

New Delhi's bid to expand its economic and diplomatic clout beyond Asia received a major boost with the announcement at this month's G20 summit of ambitious plans to develop a new trade route running from India through the Middle East to Europe. The so-called India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, or IMEC, is backed by the United S [Read more]