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A massive relief effort is underway in Los Angeles to help the tens of thousands of people who have lost their homes or have been evacuated from the raging wildfires. Genia Dulot reports from the Pasadena Convention Center, which is now an emergency shelter for evacuees.

The California fires have affected tens of thousands of residents in the Los Angeles area, including many Thai Americans, including Bui Simon, 1988’s Miss Universe. She posted on Instagram about the damage the fires caused to her residence in Malibu. The fires also have hurt businesses in the diaspora community. Click here for the full story in Thai.

Raging wildfires in Los Angeles, fueled by strong winds, have destroyed homes and businesses, including those owned by Indonesian diaspora in the area. The Indonesian Consulate in Los Angeles has urged vigilance and is offering emergency assistance for those impacted.    Click here for the full story in Indonesian.

LIMA, PERU — A court in Peru on Monday suspended the money laundering trial of three-time presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, citing errors in the indictment. The 49-year-old daughter of ex-President Alberto Fujimori was on trial for allegedly taking money from scandal-tainted Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to fund failed presidential bids in 2011 and 2016. She is charged with money laundering, organized crime, obstruction of justice and making false...

The founders of the world's biggest stablecoin are looking to capitalize on the Central American country's bid to become a hub for crypto trading

Goal is to boost local manufacturing jobs, attract investments in the country

CHISINAU, MOLDOVA — The prime minister of Moldova's separatist Transniestria region said Monday that the abrupt curtailment of Russian gas supplies that plunged the region into an energy crisis has also shattered both its exports and imports. The cutoff, prompted by Ukraine's refusal to renew an agreement allowing Russian gas to transit through Ukraine, has led to daily blackouts in the pro-Russian region of some 350,000 people and disruptions in heating and water supplies. Prime...

The warning comes a week before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration

Russian troops are going around the vital logistics hub of Pokrovsk

Broadcasting to a community in their local language, Dada Radio broadcasts on important issues for women and offers training

Pro-Kremlin Russian media lost millions of readers and viewers in 2024, with some state propaganda outlets having their audiences slashed by up to a third. The main propaganda TV channel, Channel One, has lost a quarter of its viewers since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Experts who spoke to VOA Russian note this has become a steady trend that the Kremlin has so far been unable to reverse, even with larger injections of cash into state-owned media outlets.  Click here...

U.S. experts believe that Western sanctions imposed on Russia turned out to be not painful enough for the oligarchs in Vladimir Putin's inner circle. They say that the West has also overestimated the influence that oligarchs have on Putin and on his intent to continue the war in Ukraine. Despite having some of their assets frozen, the oligarchs managed to prosper, benefiting from their loyalty to Putin and his regime.  Click here for the full story in Russian. 

World War I had a catastrophic impact on Russia, forcing its withdrawal before the conflict ended, resulting in significant territorial losses, including what is now Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. This was followed by a five-year civil war.

Recent incidents, including a Chinese cargo ship allegedly cutting a Taiwanese undersea cable, underscore the vulnerability of global undersea infrastructure. While most damage results from accidents, “gray zone” tactics — which involve deliberate but covert sabotage by states like China and Russia — are becoming a geopolitical threat. VOA China examines the geopolitical battle for undersea cables, which are the backbone of modern communication, handling 98% of international data...

International rights group Safeguard Defenders released a report titled “China’s mass exodus,” which cited U.N. statistics showing the number of Chinese asylum-seekers overseas has almost reached 1.16 million under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s 12-year rule. Laura Harth, the group’s campaign director, told VOA that the number could be even more staggering given exit controls China has placed on a growing number of Chinese citizens.   Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 

The migration issue could be a point of conflict between the administrations of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, according to experts. Nicaragua has been declared as "an unusual threat to the foreign policy of the United States."  Click here for the full story in Spanish. 

Lovely Borgard had her leg amputated after being unable to find adequate medical care for an injury sustained in the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake that killed thousands of Haitians and forced several million to leave their homes. Today, Borgard is a member of Haiti's National Amputee Soccer Team.   Click here for the full story in Creole.   

Protests by retirees of the Telecommunication Company of Iran continued on Monday across several provinces, mirroring similar demonstrations in previous weeks.  The weekly protests of the telecom retirees have been going on continuously on Mondays for months.  Click here for the full story in Persian. 

In a post published on its official Persian-language account on X on Monday, the U.S. State Department emphasized its continued support for the Iranian people in the face of the Islamic Republic "regime’s relentless human rights violations."  Click here for the full story in Persian.   

The Biden administration is proposing a new framework for the exporting of the advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence, an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries. But the framework proposed Monday also raised concerns of chip industry executives who say the rules would limit access to existing chips used for video games and restrict in 120 countries the chips used for data centers...