Voice of America’s immigration news

It could affect millions downstream in India and Bangladesh

Israel said it struck Islamic Jihad militants 

Dozens feared dead after a plane crash in rural Kazakhstan. Kyiv residents spent Christmas morning in bomb shelters amid Russian airstrikes. A new report says that media freedoms in Zambia are under attack. As he prepares to take office in less than a month, President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to reassert U.S. control over the Panama Canal, and he renewed calls to buy Greenland from Denmark. Plus, a new kind of high-tech agriculture in South Africa.

At least 73 migrants have died trying to cross the Channel to Britain in 2024

Process of restarting plant in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, involved both Israeli and Palestinian stakeholders who could have a hand in the territory's future

Taiwan's opposition parties, which hold a majority in parliament, last week passed legislation to shift spending from the central government to local municipalities

Persistently high inflation, exacerbated by economic policies and currency depreciation, has left families unable to afford basic needs

On Dec. 26, 2004, a massive earthquake off Indonesia generated a series of massive waves that killed 226,408 people

Head of operations of the Finnish electricity grid tells broadcaster that 'possibility of sabotage cannot be ruled out' 

Panel overturns decision by Central Election Commission, which declined to certify Srpska Lista because of its nationalist stance and close ties to neighboring Serbia

New York — Temulun Togchug, 17, born to a Mongolian couple who fled to the United States, recently stood before the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China in Washington to testify about the worsening human rights situation in Southern Mongolia. With conviction, Temulun shared with U.S. lawmakers the efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to erase Mongolian heritage and culture in her family homeland. Click here for the full story in Mandarin.

Graduate school applications in China have declined for the second consecutive year, with 500,000 fewer applicants for the 2025 entrance exams compared with the previous year. Simultaneously, competition for civil service positions has intensified, signaling a societal shift away from the traditional "degree obsession." Click here for the full story in Mandarin.

Ryan Routh's trial will begin Sept. 8 instead of the previously scheduled Feb. 10 start date

Lights, music and Christmas decorations light up the spirits in parts of the world struggling with conflict. While many of the world’s trouble revolves around religion, we talk with someone who says there’s more commonality among the world’s major religions than there is difference. We’re joined by Harvard Divinity School professor of comparative theology Francis X. Clooney.

Among those trying to escape, 33 were killed and 15 were wounded in clashes with prison staff

Supporters applauded Bouterse for his charisma and populist social programs; his opponents knew him as a ruthless dictator who was convicted of extrajudicial killings

The details of how the fighting erupted and who instigated the confrontation were not immediately known