The hot summer months often mean very hot asphalt roads. The dark asphalt absorbs more light and emits more heat.  But now the city of Los Angeles is trying to find a way to cool off these asphalt roads, and is testing so-called cool pavement.  Officials say a special coating helps lower the surface temperature by 10 degrees Fahrenheit or more. Angelina Bagdasaryan has this report narrated by Anna Rice. …

South Korea says it fired warning shots at a Russian military aircraft after the plane breached South Korea’s airspace. South Korea’s Defense Ministry says three Russian aircraft entered its air defense identification zone early Tuesday morning off its east coast before one of them breached the airspace. South Korean air force jets were deployed to intercept the plane and forced the Russian plane to leave the airspace.  But the aircraft violated the airspace 20 minutes later, and stayed briefly before South Korean fighter jets fired another warning shot. The ministry says it was the first time a Russian military aircraft violated South Korean airspace. Two Chinese aircraft also flew into the South’s air defense identification zone off the east coast hours earlier. The ministry says it will summon both Russian and Chinese embassy officials later Tuesday to lodge a formal protest. The violation happened near a disputed group of islands claimed by both South Korea, which calls it Dokdo, and Japan, which calls it Takeshima.   …

Brazil seized 25.3 tons of cocaine bound for Europe and Africa in the first half of 2019, up more than 90 percent on the same period last year, officials said Monday. Nearly half of the drugs were found at Santos port in southern Brazil, not far from where police recently arrested two men suspected of belonging to Italian mafia ‘Ndrangheta. Customs officials attributed the increase in seizures to better intelligence and increased vigilance along Brazil’s borders. “Last year we seized 31.4 tons of cocaine, a record that we will surely beat again,” Arthur Cazella told AFP.  The amount of cannabis confiscated more than doubled to 10.2 tons in the January-June period, up from 3.9 tons year-on-year. Brazil, which has some 17,000 kilometers (10,500 miles)of land borders, is an important hub for international drug trafficking.  Drugs produced in Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela and Paraguay are smuggled into Brazil and then sent to mainly European markets.  Some routes to Africa are also opening up, Cazella said. Cocaine seizures have soared in recent years, from 958 kilograms in 2014 to last year’s record 31.4 tons. …

Once upon a time, not too far from Hollywood, two of the world’s biggest movie stars were talking about what it’s like to screw up on set.   “Messing up the lines in front of the entire cast and crew?” Leonardo DiCaprio said.  “It’s the going to school in your underwear nightmare.” “It’s awful,” Brad Pitt chimed in. “When a scene’s not working. When YOU’RE not working in a scene…It goes beyond not being able to get the lines. You have 100 people there who are all ready to get on with their day and get home.” DiCaprio hasn’t exactly had to resort to dunking his head in ice water after a too-late and too-fun night out, as his actor character does in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.” But Pitt? “Oh I’ve done that,” he laughed. The two actors, who skyrocketed to fame around the same time more than a quarter century ago, have joined forces for the first time in a major motion picture to take on their own industry, their own town and even their own egos in a time of great change — 1969 Hollywood. Out nationwide Friday, it’s also reunited them with Quentin Tarantino. …

Mexico’s economy, the 2nd largest in Latin America, has hit a rough patch, weighed down by dwindling business confidence and an industrial slump. But ahead of GDP data for the second quarter due on July 31, a debate has raged over whether all that gloom adds up to a recession. Several banks say definitely yes – an assessment that could call into question the ability of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s eight-month-old government to deliver on his promises of development and improved fortunes for the country’s poor. “We estimate GDP will also contract in the second quarter, putting Mexico in a technical recession, two consecutive quarters of negative growth,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a client note in late June. The government strongly disagrees. “There has been a slowdown on a global level,” said Finance Minister Arturo Herrera in his first press conference earlier this month, after his predecessor abruptly resigned. “But we are very, very far from thinking that we are close to a recession.” In theory, defining whether there is a recession in Mexico could decide whether policymakers need to take action. “If the government thinks there is a danger of recession, it could implement countercyclical …

High-profile Philippine journalist Maria Ressa’s libel trial opens Tuesday in a case that press freedom advocates see as government retaliation for her news site’s critical reporting on President Rodrigo Duterte. Ressa, who leads online outlet Rappler and was named a Time Magazine “Person of the Year” in 2018 for her journalism, is out on bail and faces years in prison if convicted. This case is among a string of criminal charges that have hit Ressa and Rappler over the past year, prompting allegations that authorities are targeting her and her team for their work, The news portal has reported extensively and often critically on Duterte’s policies, including a deadly crackdown that rights groups say may be a crime against humanity. “The message that the government is sending is very clear,” Ressa told reporters in February as she posted bail after spending the night in jail over the libel case: “Be silent or you’re next.” FILE – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures during the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-LakasBayan (PDP-LABAN) meeting in Manila, May 11, 2019. The case that opens Tuesday centers on a Rappler report from 2012 about a businessman’s alleged ties to a then-judge of the nation’s top court. Government investigators …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is hailing a new chapter in U.S. relations with Latin America following a whirlwind trip to four countries in South and Central America. The top U.S. diplomat, who stopped in El Salvador, Mexico, Ecuador, and Argentina during his trip, said countries that commit themselves to fighting crime and corruption and promoting democracy will reap the benefits. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine traveled with the U.S. secretary of state and filed this report …

Mexico set a new record for homicides in the first half of the year as the number of murders grew by 5.3% compared to the same period of 2018, fueled partly by cartel and gang violence in several states.  Mexico saw 3,080 killings in June, an increase of over 8% from the same month a year ago, according to official figures. The country of almost 125 million now sees as many as 100 killings per day nationwide.  The 17,608 killings in the first half of 2019 is the most since comparable records began being kept in 1997, including the peak year of Mexico’s drug war in 2011. Officials said 16,714 people were killed in the first half of 2018.  In particular, drug cartel turf wars have become increasingly bloody in the northern state of Sonora, where the number of homicides was up by 69% in the first half of the year. But in Sinaloa, where the cartel of convicted drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is based, homicides declined by 23% so far this year compared to last. Given cutbacks and a widespread reorganization of security forces under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, it is not clear who, if anyone, …

Behind America’s late leap into orbit and triumphant small step on the moon was the agile mind and guts-of-steel of Chris Kraft, making split-second decisions that propelled the nation to once unimaginable heights. Kraft, the creator and longtime leader of NASA’s Mission Control, died Monday in Houston, just two days after the 50th anniversary of what was his and NASA’s crowning achievement: Apollo 11’s moon landing. He was 95. Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. never flew in space, but “held the success or failure of American human spaceflight in his hands,” Neil Armstrong, the first man-on-the-moon, told The Associated Press in 2011. Kraft founded Mission Control and created the job of flight director — later comparing it to an orchestra conductor — and established how flights would be run as the space race between the U.S. and Soviets heated up. The legendary engineer served as flight director for all of the one-man Mercury flights and seven of the two-man Gemini flights, helped design the Apollo missions that took 12 Americans to the moon from 1969 to 1972 and later served as director of the Johnson Space Center until 1982, overseeing the beginning of the era of the space shuttle. Armstrong once …

Marvel’s push for more women and people of color in its immensely popular film franchise is extending to behind the camera as it launches its next round of films after the massive success of “Avengers: Endgame.” Of the five films the superhero studio announced at Comic-Con on Saturday, only one is set to be directed by a white man.  “It’s about fresh voices and new voices and great filmmakers who can continue to steer the (Marvel Cinematic Universe) into new places,” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in an interview after the studio’s explosive Hall H panel. “And I am as proud of that lineup of directors as you saw today as any.” In addition to a slew of women and people of color at the helm of the upcoming Marvel films, the weekend’s announcements promised more diversity on screen.  Rachel Weisz, left, and Scarlett Johansson participate during the “Black Widow” portion of the Marvel Studios panel on day three of Comic-Con International on July 20, 2019, in San Diego. First up for release is the long-awaited solo film starring Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, the lethal assassin she has played for nearly a decade. The film is set …

U.S. space agency NASA on Monday asked American aerospace companies to offer detailed ideas for vehicles that could bring two astronauts to the moon by 2024, an American objective that was reconfirmed on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. NASA called the request for input a “major step” forward for its new moon mission, dubbed Artemis — who in Greek mythology was Apollo’s twin sister. The space agency published documents explaining in detail what it is looking for in a lunar lander that will bring the two astronauts, one a woman, to the moon’s south pole, where they will stay for six-and-a-half days. In May, 11 companies including sector mainstays Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman were picked to lead feasibility studies and develop prototypes by November. Also on the list were newcomers such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. That same month, Blue Origin unveiled its lander project, Blue Moon. Now, NASA has provided dozens of pages of specifications that must be met in terms of onboard electronics, communications, and spacesuits. Any company can reply, not just the 11 shortlisted earlier in the year. “On the heels of the 50th Anniversary of #Apollo11, we’ve …

As the world watched another mass protest Sunday in Hong Kong, many — including observers in Beijing — noticed that a billionaire publisher was again at the head of the march. At 70 years old, there is no sign that Jimmy Lai is slowing down. Cameras captured Lai unfolding a banner and holding one end while 30-year-old Sham Tsz Kit, head of Hong Kong’s Civil Human Rights Front, took hold of the other end. Others helped raise the banner as the crowd started down the streets. Hong Kong’s Da Kung Pao, widely known as a media outlet backed by Beijing, reported that Lai was urging others to keep pace during the march. During a visit to Washington earlier this month, Lai traded his protest wear — a T-shirt, baseball cap and backpack — for a business suit to participate in meetings with high-level U.S. officials including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton and key members of Congress. FILE – Hong Kong politician Martin Lee and founder of Next Media Jimmy Lai march during a protest to demand authorities scrap a proposed extradition bill with China, in Hong Kong, March 31, 2019. As …

Director James Cameron on Monday handed over the baton for the biggest box-office movie of all time to the makers of “Avengers: Endgame” after it ended the 10-year record of “Avatar.” The Marvel Studios superhero movie “Avengers: Endgame” at the weekend overtook the $2.789 billion record set by Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi film “Avatar” to bring its global total to $2.790 billion, according to box-office data. “I see you, Marvel,” Cameron tweeted, using a greeting in the Na’vi language featured in “Avatar” over a graphic of Iron Man surrounded by Pandoran woodsprites. “Congratulations to Avengers: Endgame on becoming the new box-office king,” the director added. James Cameron talks with his crew in front of the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER following testing of the submersible in Jervis Bay, south of Sydney, Australia. “Endgame,” released in theaters worldwide in April and featuring more than 20 superheroes, is the culmination of a story told in 22 Marvel films that have drawn crowds to cinemas for a decade. Joe Russo, left, and Anthony Russo participate in a conversation with the Russo Brothers on day two of Comic-Con International, July 19, 2019, in San Diego. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo on Monday returned the compliment to Cameron. “You’re …

A wildfire in the western U.S. state of Arizona grew from 80 hectares to more than 400 hectares overnight, officials said Monday.  Residents of the city of Flagstaff and surrounding communities have been warned to expect heavy smoke to stifle the area. Campers and visitors to the Coconino National Forest have been asked to evacuate. Some 200 firefighters and a dozen aircraft, including four air tankers, have been fighting the blaze, dubbed the Museum Fire.  The cause of the fire, first reported Sunday morning, is under investigation. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said his office was in contact with emergency responders. “My thoughts and prayers are with the firefighters and first responders working to protect Arizonans, their pets and their property,” a statement released by his office said. …

Iceland’s first glacier to be lost to rising temperatures is to be marked with a memorial carrying a grim warning about the impact of climate change if the world fails to act on time. “In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path,” reads a plaque to be installed next month near where Okjokull, also known as Ok Glacier, was until it was lost in 2014. “This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it,” it reads in English and Icelandic, under the words “A letter to the future.” Icelanders call their nation the “Land of Fire and Ice” for its other-worldly landscape of volcanoes and glaciers, immortalized in literature. But the glaciers are melting and scientists say rising global temperatures are to blame. “This will be the first monument to a glacier lost to climate change anywhere in the world,” said Cymene Howe, and anthropologist with Houston-based Rice University who made a 2018 documentary about the glacier’s disappearance. “By marking Ok’s passing, we hope to draw attention to what is being lost as Earth’s glaciers expire.” Grim predictions …

Mexico will not agree to further discussion of safe third country status for asylum seekers, the foreign minister said, adding it was not clear what the Trump administration’s stance was on the issue despite a deadline reached on Monday. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that in weekend talks, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not address an earlier deal that the two countries look at making asylum seekers apply for refuge in Mexico if migration flows were not significantly lower by July 22. Proposal unnecessary However, Ebrard said he told Pompeo in Mexico City on Sunday that Mexico’s view was that the proposal was unnecessary, after it helped reduce apprehensions at the U.S. southern border by a about a third last month. “I can’t anticipate what their stance is but the Mexican position is very clear. We are not going to change our position. We don’t agree, and we have not accepted a negotiation about it,” Ebrard said at a news conference. Mexican soldiers present arms as the country’s Minister of Defense drives by, in Tapachula, Mexico, June 11, 2019. Mexican officials say they are beginning deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops for immigration enforcement. Mexico has long resisted …

U.S. President Donald Trump predicted Monday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony this week about whether the U.S. leader tried to obstruct his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election will end badly for him and that he shouldn’t even be testifying. Moreover, Trump said, “I am not going to be watching Mueller.” “Highly conflicted Robert Mueller should not be given another bite at the apple,” Trump contended on Twitter. “In the end it will be bad for him and the phony Democrats in Congress who have done nothing but waste time on this ridiculous Witch Hunt. Result of the Mueller Report, NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION!” Highly conflicted Robert Mueller should not be given another bite at the apple. In the end it will be bad for him and the phony Democrats in Congress who have done nothing but waste time on this ridiculous Witch Hunt. Result of the Mueller Report, NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION!… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – Robert Mueller, then-special counsel probing Russian interference in the 2016 election, departs Capitol Hill following a meeting with lawmakers, in Washington, June 21, 2017. Mueller reached no conclusion whether Trump obstructed justice by trying …

A British-Iranian mother jailed in Tehran since 2016 has been returned to prison after being held in the mental ward of a public hospital for nearly a week, her husband said Monday. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was kept chained and under heavy guard for six days which she says left her “broken”, according to her husband Richard Ratcliffe. The 40-year-old detainee, who is serving a five-year term for sedition, was returned to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison — used to hold political prisoners — on Saturday, he said. She was then allowed to see her mother and five-year-old daughter Gabriella the following day, Ratcliffe added. “I am all right, broken, but I survived,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe said, in comments relayed by her husband in a lengthy statement detailing her detention in the psychiatric ward. “I wasn’t allowed to leave the room, as I was chained to the bed. It was proper torture. “I am relieved I am back to prison,” she added. Ratcliffe, who has spent the last three years doggedly campaigning for his wife’s release, said he hoped Iranian medical officials might now consider releasing her on health grounds. “The whole experience was deeply traumatising,” he said of her transfer to the mental unit. …

A sweeping internet shutdown in Myanmar’s conflict-hit Rakhine state went into its fifth week Monday as residents called on the government to end an information blackout that rights groups say could provide cover for rights abuses. Mobile phone operators suspended internet data on June 21 in eight townships across northern Rakhine and one in neighboring Chin state — where soldiers are fighting ethnic Rakhine rebels known as the Arakan Army (AA) who want greater autonomy. Authorities say the internet was being used to coordinate operations while rights groups allege the blackout permits troops to act with impunity. But it has also disrupted daily life and sown fear among residents struggling to receive news on everything from flooding updates to ongoing skirmishes. “It’s like an information blackout,” Saw Oo from Mrauk-U township told AFP, adding that people were unable to share details on weather conditions during the rainy season. Maungdaw township resident Hla Hla said it was also considered risky to use sim cards from neighbouring Bangladesh as it could lead to arrest. “We are really afraid of getting caught,” she said. In recent months the military has cut off whole villages as it tries to flush out AA members and sympathizers. …

The size of a person’s waistline may be linked to mobile phones, tablets and laptops, according to a recent study led by Rice University in Houston. Scientists noticed a trend that correlates with the rise of technology in society. As digital devices became more prevalent, people got fatter. Obesity around the world has tripled since 1975, according to the World Health Organization. While changes in people’s food intake and activity levels have been attributed to the trend, Rice University post doctoral fellow Richard Lopez wondered if there is a link between weight gain and the mindless multitasking on various digital devices, which has nothing to do with a sedentary lifestyle. “When we talk about media multitasking here, we’re not talking about effectively multitasking where you’re monitoring one thing and you’re doing another and you’re able to succeed at both. It’s kind of this mindless switching that we believe is relatively involuntary, like I was looking at Instagram or Twitter. Where did the time go?” Lopez, along with researchers from Dartmouth University and Ohio State University, conducted a study where 132 university-age adults from 18 to 23 years old answered questions such as how often are they were distracted by notifications …

Mexican officials say they have uncovered an industrial-scale migrant smuggling ring using tractor-trailer rigs disguised as freight deliveries for major companies. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday authorities found a tractor-trailer disguised with the logo of a major grocery store chain. But instead of groceries, it was carrying about 150 migrants. And Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said that four or five freight trucks found in June carrying hundreds of migrants belonged to an independent trucking company. Some of those trucks bore the logos of well-known firms. The company based in central Mexico operated trucks equipped with air-conditioning units, but didn’t turn on the ventilation when carrying migrants. That led officials to believe it was just a matter of time before migrants would die aboard the overcrowded vehicles. …

Spain’s caretaker prime minister acknowledged in his first appeal to parliament Monday to win its backing to form a government that he still lacks key votes to earn its endorsement. The parliamentary debate arrived after a frantic weekend of talks by Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists with the far-left United We Can party to strike a last-minute deal to create a coalition government. “I propose a government that is progressive, that protects the environment, that furthers women’s rights and that strengthens Europe,” Sanchez told the Madrid-based Congress of Deputies, the lower house of parliament. But after outlining a battery of policies aimed primarily at combating unemployment, the impacts of climate change and the new digital economy, and improving education, Sanchez waited to the very end of his two-hour speech to include a short message aimed at United We Can. “We have seen that it is not easy for us to reach an agreement,” Sanchez told United We Can’s parliament members. “[But] it is up to us to keep working and see this through. And then we will have the opportunity to move forward with that which unites us, which are the promises of the left, a society of men and women living …

Thousands of people in New York City were still without power Monday after being disconnected a day earlier to prevent a larger blackout amid high heat and humidity. Con Edison restored power to around 13,000 people in southeast Brooklyn, according to a statement released overnight. Roughly 53,000 customers were without power late Sunday night, but that number had dropped to around 20,000 by early Monday. The utility said in an emailed statement that it was working to restore power to everyone by the afternoon.   The scattered outages primarily affected Brooklyn and Queens. Mayor Bill De Blasio said that New York City emergency management was adding personnel on the ground in southeast Brooklyn, including at nursing homes and adult care facilities, to respond to emergencies and keep people safe. Around 30,000 customers in Brooklyn were taken off power Sunday so the utility could make repairs and prevent a bigger outage, de Blasio had said.   Like much of the East Coast, New York City experienced temperatures in the high 90s over the weekend _ and felt much hotter with the humidity. Temperatures were starting to fall but the low remained in the high 70s, and city emergency management officials warned …

Sen. Kamala Harris is introducing legislation designed to ensure all Americans, particularly those in at-risk communities, have access to safe, affordable drinking water, the latest response to burgeoning water crises across the country. The California Democrat and presidential candidate’s “Water Justice Act” would invest nearly $220 billion in clean and safe drinking water programs, with priority given to high-risk communities and schools. As part of that, Harris’ plan would declare a drinking water infrastructure emergency, devoting $50 billion toward communities and schools where water is contaminated to test for contaminants and to remediate toxic infrastructure. The legislation, being introduced on Monday, also would establish a $10 billion program to allow states to offset the cost of water bills in low-income communities and environmentally at-risk households. Additionally, Harris would invest $20 billion in a variety of sustainable water supply, recycling and conservation programs. Harris is focusing on the issue as she and other 2020 Democratic presidential candidates turn their sights on Michigan, where the city of Flint has faced a major water crisis. Harris, who launched her campaign in January, is among the party’s candidates speaking at the NAACP’s national convention in Michigan this week. And 20 candidates seeking their party’s …