WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday backed General John Hyten to be the second-highest ranking U.S. military official, a day after he denied sexual assault allegations against him.  The vote was 20-7 in favor of Hyten’s becoming the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Hyten, the outgoing commander of the U.S. military’s Strategic Command, must still be confirmed by the full Senate. A date for that vote has not been announced.  FILE – Army Col. Kathryn Spletstoser, who has accused Air Force Gen. John Hyten of sexual misconduct, speaks to reporters following Hyten’s confirmation hearing, July 30, 2019. Hyten on Tuesday vehemently denied the sexual assault allegations against him at his confirmation hearing. His accuser, Army Colonel Kathryn Spletstoser, sat quietly in the room during the hearing, occasionally shaking her head in disagreement, and afterward told reporters that Hyten had lied to the senators under oath.  An official Air Force investigation did not substantiate the accusations against Hyten.   Hyten’s nomination has posed a challenge to the Senate, which for years has criticized the military for failing to do enough to combat sexual assault in its ranks.  …

In a rare and dramatic move, the United States has imposed sanctions against the top diplomat of a foreign country. “This is obviously a highly unusual action,” a senior administration official acknowledged when discussing the U.S. move against Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. The executive order accuses Zarif of acting or purporting to act on behalf of his country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was recently added to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. “And today, President [Donald] Trump decided enough is enough,” a senior U.S. official told reporters on a background briefing conference call. “We will continue to build on our maximum pressure campaign until Iran abandons its reckless foreign policy that threatens the United States and our allies.” The United States “is sending a clear message to the Iranian regime that its recent behavior is completely unacceptable,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “At the same time, the Iranian regime denies Iranian citizens’ access to social media, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif spreads the regime’s propaganda and disinformation around the world through these mediums.”   In a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the action is “another step toward denying …

Members of the LightSail 2 team declared their mission a success in a teleconference Wednesday. The citizen-funded spacecraft is the highest-performing solar sail to date and the first to demonstrate the ability to orbit Earth in a controlled way.    “This is a very exciting day for us, and for me personally,” said Bill Nye, chief executive officer  of the Planetary Society, the organization behind the mission. “This idea that you could fly a spacecraft with nothing but photons is surprising, and for me, it’s very romantic that you could be sailing on sunbeams.”    LightSail 2 is the latest demonstration of solar sail technology, which uses the gentle pressure of photons — the particles of light — on a lightweight, reflective surface to propel a craft through space, similar to the way the wind pushes a sailing ship across the ocean. However, instead of canvas, solar sails are made of thin sheets of Mylar, the same crinkly silver material often used for helium-filled balloons.  Faster speeds   Although the pressure of the sun’s rays is no greater than the weight of a paperclip dropping on the sail, sunlight is a constant source of energy. Scientists expect that as long as sunlight reaches them, solar sails will keep accelerating to …

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Thailand for an ASEAN summit that comes just hours after North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test, the second launch by Pyongyang in less than a week. Pompeo will host a U.S.-ASEAN meeting Thursday with his counterparts in Bangkok, saying many of them share a vision for security, peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.  He will also deliver a speech on U.S. economic engagement in the region.  On the way to Thailand, Pompeo was asked when U.S. talks with North Korean officials will resume. “There’s been a little bit of preliminary work to be done. I never want to set a date, [but] I hope before too long, we will have Special Representative [Stephen] Biegun sitting with what I think will be a new counterpart from North Korea.” The State Department has confirmed that Biegun will be part of the U.S. delegation in Bangkok. In the past, the annual ASEAN security meeting was used as an opportunity for talks between U.S. and North Korean officials, but North Korea has signaled that its top diplomat may not attend this year. Pompeo said he will be meeting with his Chinese counterpart, and that they would talk about a …

A woman whose 1-year-old daughter died weeks after they were released from an immigration detention center in Texas filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the private prison company that operates the facility. Lawyers for Yazmin Juarez are demanding $40 million from CoreCivic in the complaint filed in federal court in San Antonio. It’s the third legal claim they have filed related to the death of Yazmin’s daughter, Mariee, in May last year. The deaths of children detained by border agents have drawn national attention as have the conditions in border facilities where in some cases dozens of children have been held together at a time. Yazmin Juarez testified on July 10 before a U.S. House panel as photos of Mariee were displayed on television screens. Some lawmakers wiped away tears as she spoke. CoreCivic operates the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement family detention center at Dilley, Texas, the largest facility of its kind. Juarez’s lawyers say CoreCivic allowed poor conditions to fester at the 2,400-bed facility. ”We don’t believe that it’s ever appropriate to jail small children,” said Stanton Jones, a lawyer for Juarez. “At a minimum, if CoreCivic is making huge amounts of money to run a jail for children, …

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday for the first time since 2008, citing concerns about the global economy and muted U.S. inflation, and signaled a readiness to lower borrowing costs further if needed. Financial markets had widely expected the quarter-percentage-point rate cut, which lowered the U.S. central bank’s benchmark overnight lending rate to a target range of 2% to 2.25%. In a statement at the end of its latest two-day policy meeting, the Fed said it had decided to cut rates “in light of the implications of global developments for the economic outlook as well as muted inflation pressures.” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell walks to the podium during a news conference in Washington, July 31, 2019. The Fed said it will “continue to monitor” how incoming information will affect the economy, adding that it “will act as appropriate to sustain” a record-long U.S. economic expansion. The decision drew dissents from Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren and Kansas City Fed President Esther George who argued for leaving rates unchanged. Both have raised doubts about a rate cut in the face of the current expansion, an unemployment rate that is near a 50-year-low, and robust household spending. On the …

President Donald Trump has welcomed Mongolia’s president, Khaltmaa Battulga, to the White House for talks focused on trade. Wednesday’s visit is the first by a Mongolian president since June 2011, the last time a leader of the landlocked country between Russia and China came to the White House. Trump administration officials say they want to explore ways to help the East Asian nation diversify its trade flows since about 90 percent of Mongolia’s trade must go through China. Trump and Battulga are also expected to discuss defense and security matters, among other issues.   Battulga is a populist business tycoon and ex-judo champion whose meeting with Trump follows a recent visit to Mongolia by Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton. …

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met political leaders Wednesday in Northern Ireland, where he faces a doubly difficult challenge: restoring the collapsed Belfast government and finding a solution for the Irish border after Brexit. Northern Ireland’s 1.8 million people have been without a functioning administration for 2 1/2 years, ever since the Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government collapsed over a botched green-energy project. The rift soon widened to broader cultural and political issues separating Northern Ireland’s British unionists and Irish nationalists. Johnson was meeting with the leaders of the five main political parties in hopes of kick-starting efforts to restore the Belfast government. “My prime focus this morning is to do everything I can to help that get up and running again, because I think that’s profoundly in the interests of people here, of all the citizens here in Northern Ireland,” Johnson said. Yet opponents say Johnson can’t play a constructive role because his Conservative government relies on support from the Democratic Unionist Party, the largest of Northern Ireland’s pro-British parties. Without the votes of the DUP’s 10 lawmakers in London, Johnson’s minority government would collapse. Critics say that gives the pro-Brexit DUP an oversized influence with the British government that has …

Huawei remained the No. 2 global smartphone vendor in the past quarter despite tough U.S. sanctions imposed on the Chinese technology giant, market trackers said Wednesday. The Chinese firm managed to boost its sales even as the overall market declined, remaining on the heels of sector leader Samsung and ahead of U.S.-based Apple. According to Strategy Analytics, overall global smartphone sales fell 2.6 percent to 341 million units in the April-June period, but showed signs of stabilizing after several quarters of declines. Samsung increased its market share to 22 percent, helped by a seven percent rise in handset sales, with growth seen in the mid-range and entry segments. The South Korean giant stayed ahead of Huawei, which was at 17 percent, and Apple at 11 percent of the market. FILE – The Samsung Galaxy Fold phone is shown on a screen at Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s Unpacked event in San Francisco, Feb. 20, 2019. “Huawei surprised everyone and grew its global smartphone shipments by eight percent annually,” said Strategy Analytics executive director Neil Mawston. “Huawei surged at home in China during the quarter, as the firm sought to offset regulatory uncertainty in other major regions such as North America and …

The Soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) are part of the U.S. Army Caisson Platoon. These men and women soldiers have the honor of carrying departed military members from all branches and dignitaries to their final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery. …

Algeria’s interim president fired the justice minister on Wednesday and named the Algiers public prosecutor to replace him, the presidency said, amid a series of corruption investigations involving allies of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Abdelkader Bensalah appointed Belkacem Zeghmati to replace Slimane Brahmi “after consultation with the prime minister,” the presidency said in a statement. The judiciary has been conducting probes and several former senior officials, including ex-prime ministers Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal, have been placed in custody over charges including “dissipation of public funds.” The investigations followed mass protests that erupted in the North African country on Feb. 22, with demonstrators calling for the removal of the ruling elite and the prosecution of people involved in corruption cases. Bouteflika resigned under pressure on April 2, but the demonstrations continued as protesters sought the departure of the remaining symbols of the elite that has governed the country since independence from France in 1962. The army is now the main player in Algeria’s politics, and its chief of staff, Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah has promised to help the judiciary and protect it from pressure. The departing justice minister, Brahmi, had been in the job since March 31, when Bouteflika …

The Israeli Cabinet unanimously approved a proposal to build over 700 housing units for Palestinians in addition to 6,000 Israeli settlement housing units in the West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government advanced the proposal late on Tuesday, according to an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the closed-door meeting. The approval appeared timed to coincide with a visit by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and chief Mideast envoy Jared Kushner, who is expected in the region this week. The permits would be for construction in what is known as Area C — the roughly 60% of the West Bank where Israel exercises full control and where most Jewish settlements are located. Netanyahu’s government has approved the construction of tens of thousands of settler homes there, but permits for Palestinian construction are extremely rare. Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek these areas as parts of a future state. Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law and an impediment to a two-state solution to the conflict. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud …

Democratic presidential contenders struck off notes on the science of global warming and the state of the economy in their Detroit debate Tuesday night.  As much as scientists see the need for action on climate change, they don’t lay out a looming point of no return , as Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke asserted. Bernie Sanders almost certainly overstated how much new income is soaked up by the richest Americans. A look at some of their statements in the opening night of the second round of debates, with 10 more Democrats taking the stage Wednesday: Climate BETO O’ROURKE, former U.S. representative from Texas, on global warming: “I listen to scientists on this and they’re very clear: We don’t have more than 10 years to get this right. And we won’t meet that challenge with half-steps, half-measures or only half the country.” PETE BUTTIGIEG, mayor of South Bend, Indiana: “Science tells us we have 12 years before we reach the horizon of our catastrophe when it comes to our climate.”  THE FACTS: Scientists don’t agree on an approximate time frame, let alone an exact number of years, for how much time we have left to stave off the deadliest extremes of …

With its latest test Wednesday, North Korea has now launched seven ballistic missiles over the past three months, after having refrained from such launches for a year and a half. By firing missiles into the ocean, North Korea is expressing its anger at upcoming U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises and presumably trying to increase its leverage over the two allies amid stalled nuclear talks. But the missile tests have more than symbolic importance. North Korea appears to be perfecting a new short-range missile that represents a unique threat to U.S. interests in the region. Though the latest launch is still being analyzed, South Korean officials say the North appears to have tested some version of the same weapon each time: a modified version of a Russian-developed Iskander missile.  The North’s missile, dubbed KN-23 by U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials, is easy to hide, can be quickly deployed, and is difficult for U.S. and South Korean missile defenses to intercept, according to analysts.  “It is not appropriate to shrug off these tests as short range.” says Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “These missiles represent technological developments that threaten U.S. allies and forces in Asia.” Though …

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles early Wednesday, according to South Korea’s military, Pyongyang’s second launch in less than a week amid stalled nuclear talks.  The missiles, launched from near the eastern port city of Wonsan, flew for about 250 kilometers and reached an altitude of 30 kilometers, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.  The launch comes six days after North Korea’s previous ballistic missile test, which it said was a response to South Korea’s decision to purchase U.S. weapons and hold military drills with the United States. A South Korean defense ministry official said the missiles launched Wednesday appear to be similar to those launched last week, since they both flew at a relatively low altitude, according to the Yonhap news agency. South Korea’s National Security Council, which held an emergency meeting Wednesday, voiced “strong concerns” over the launch, which it said could have a “negative impact on efforts to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula.”  Pyongyang last week tested what appears to be its own version of a Russian-made Iskander short-range ballistic missile. The North also tested that missile in May.  The launches are consistent with North Korea’s recent pattern of escalating pressure on Washington and …

The Democratic presidential contenders opened a second round of debates in Detroit, Michigan, Tuesday, with a flurry of attacks on President Donald Trump. But the 10 Democrats also went after each other at times and showed some growing strains between moderate and progressive candidates. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone reports on the first of two nights of debate. …

Tanzania is planning to build a cable car service on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest peak and a world heritage site. The country wants to boost tourist numbers but a quarter million porters and mountain guides worry the quick ride up the mountain will threaten their livelihoods.  Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, keeps the town of Moshi, Tanzania, alive with trade and tourism.  The mountain is a source of income for many people here, including porters like 37-year-old Sintia Mwita. A mother of three, Mwita says the job helps her a lot.  “I am the one who pays for their school fees and daily expenses in my family.” Mwita says. While authorities say the cable car will cater to the physically disabled, the elderly and children, it will also help tourists get up the mountain faster. Jennifer Francis, a deputy chairman for Kili Meru Mountain Guides Society, says the government has not been as transparent as it could be regarding the project. “They only tell us the advantages but we don’t know its negative effects on the current generation and the next generation.  This confuses us,” Francis said. Around 50,000 tourists climb Kilimanjaro annually, bringing tens of millions of dollars …

The first night of the second round of Democratic presidential candidate debates took place in Detroit Tuesday. The candidates answered questions on a range of issues, including health care, recent mass shootings, immigration and foreign trade. Here are some quotes from each candidate: Steve Bullock, in responding to a discussion on gun violence, discussed a personal story, saying: “I’m a gun owner, I hunt, like far too many people in America, I have been personally impacted by gun violence. I had an 11-year-old nephew, Jeremy, shot and killed on a playground. We need to start looking at this as a public health issue, not a political issue.” Pete Buttigieg, who as South Bend, Indiana, mayor has been criticized for his handling of a recent racially tinged shooting, said about race: “As an urban mayor serving a diverse community, the racial divide lives within me. I’m not saying that I became mayor and racism or crime or poverty ended on my watch. But in our city, we have come together repeatedly to tackle challenges like the fact that far too many people were not getting the help they needed in their housing and so we directed it to a historically underinvested African …

Christy Lee contributed to this report which originated on VOA’s Korean Service. The National Defense University, an institution funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, has published a journal article suggesting Washington should share its nuclear tactical missiles with Japan and South Korea to deter North Korea’s growing nuclear threat to East Asia and the U.S.  “The United States should strongly consider … sharing of nonstrategic nuclear capabilities during times of crisis with select Asia-Pacific partners, specially Japan and the Republic of Korea,” according to “Twenty-First Century Nuclear Deterrence,” published by the university in the current issue of Joint Force Quarterly (JFQ). The Republic of Korea is the official name for South Korea. Publication guidelines on the university’s site say “The views expressed by this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.” Sharing American nuclear capabilities with Japan and South Korea would involve deploying its nuclear weapons in the territories of its two allies in East Asia so that the weapons can be used in such time as a nuclear war, as the U.S. does with five member states of …

Story updated on July 31, at 12:18 am. U.S. health care policies took center stage Tuesday night at the Democratic presidential candidates’ debate, with more moderate challengers attacking Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, the leading progressives looking to oust President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Warren and Sanders have both called for a sweeping end to the country’s current health care system centered on private company insurance plans offered to 150 million workers through their employers. But their views were under attack almost from the start of the debate on a theater stage in Detroit, Michigan, the country’s auto industry hub. “We don’t have to go around and be the party of subtraction and telling half the country who has private health insurance that their health insurance is illegal,” former Maryland Congressman John Delaney said. “It’s also bad policy. It’ll under-fund the industry, many hospitals will close, and it’s bad politics.” Often political allies Warren, a former Harvard law professor, and Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, are friends of long-standing and often political allies. They now are both looking for votes from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Both defended their position calling for a government-run health …

VOA Asia’s Ira Mellman contributed to this report. Myanmar is beginning to yield to international pressure to repatriate the more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, but rights advocates worry its commitment is only surface level. The country stepped up its efforts over the weekend, when Myanmar permanent foreign secretary U Myint Thu led a 10-member delegation to talks with refugee representatives last weekend at Kutupalong — the largest refugee camp in the world. Rohingya representatives put citizenship and guaranteed safety up as requirements for the ethnic group’s return, but government representatives only offered a path to naturalized citizenship, beginning with an application for a national verification card.  “[Myanmar] is essentially playing games with the discussions about citizenship,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, told VOA Asia. Some Rohingya worried that the cards, which the government also proposed in 2018, could be used to further persecute against group members.  Refugees rejected a previous repatriation offer made in October. International pressure Myanmar has been hit with increasing international pressure to repatriate the Rohingya, especially from Bangladesh. Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Kalam Abdul Momen told VOA Bangla earlier in July that the country expected to hold Rohingya …

One of the country’s biggest credit card issuers, Capital One Financial, is the latest big business to be hit by a data breach, disclosing that roughly 100 million people had some personal information stolen by a hacker.  The alleged hacker, Paige A. Thompson, obtained Social Security and bank account numbers in some instances, as well other information such as names, birth dates, credit scores and self-reported income, the bank said Monday. It said no credit card account numbers or log-in credentials were compromised.  Capital One Financial is just the latest business to suffer a data breach. Only last week Equifax, the credit reporting company, announced a $700 million settlement over its own 2017 data breach that impacted half of the U.S. population. Other companies that have had breaches include the hotel chain Marriott, retail giants Home Depot and Target. What happened? Thompson, 33, who uses the online handle “erratic,” allegedly obtained access to Capital One data stored on Amazon’s cloud computing platform Amazon Web Services in March. She downloaded the data and stored it on her own servers, according to the complaint.  Thompson was a systems engineer at Amazon Web Services between 2015 and 2016, about three years before the …

 A Puerto Rico legislator said Tuesday that the U.S. territory’s embattled governor plans to nominate former congressional representative Pedro Pierluisi as secretary of state. Rep. Jose Melendez told The Associated Press that the president of the island’s House of Representatives shared the information with legislators and asked them to be ready to meet in a special session. Pierluisi ran against Gov. Ricardo Rossello in the 2016 primaries of the New Progressive Party and lost. He served as Puerto Rico’s non-voting representative in Congress from 2009 to 2017. If the House and Senate approved the nomination, Pierluisi would become Puerto Rico’s next governor after Rossello resigns Friday as scheduled following nearly two weeks of big street protests. However, Melendez and other members of Rossello’s party have said they will not vote in favor of Pierluisi, in part because he works as for a law firm that represents the federal control board overseeing Puerto Rico’s finances. “That’s a serious conflict of interest,” Melendez said. A special session to vote on Pierluisi is scheduled for Friday, just four hours before Rossello is supposed to resign. Pierluisi, who could not be immediately reached for comment, took a leave of absence starting Tuesday, according to …

One in three Egyptians is living in poverty, the official statistics agency reported Monday, following years of austerity measures aimed at reforming the economy. The report said 32.5% of Egyptians lived below the poverty line in 2018, up from 27.8% in 2015 and 16.7% in 2000. It said 6.2% of Egyptians live in extreme poverty. It set the poverty line at around $1.45 per day and the extreme poverty line at less than a dollar a day. Egypt has been struggling to rebuild its economy following years of unrest since the 2011 uprising. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has repeatedly urged Egyptians to be patient with the economic reforms as authorities have waged a sweeping crackdown on dissent. FILE – A general view of Ezbet al-Nakhl, a shanty town north of the Egyptian capital Cairo, is seen Oct. 13, 2018. The new report from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics was the first official look at poverty and income since the government secured a $12 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund in 2016. As part of the reform program, the government floated the currency, slashed subsidies on fuel, services and utilities, and imposed a value-added tax. The IMF …