Saudi Arabia’s air force intercepted and destroyed three Yemeni rebel drones before they could reach targets in the southern Saudi cities of Jizan and Abha, a military spokesman said Tuesday. Col. Tukri al-Maliki was quoted in the state-run Saudi Press Agency saying the drones were launched by the Iran-backed rebel Houthis from the northern Yemeni governorate of Amran. Bomb-laden drones launched by Houthis killed a civilian and wounded others at a Saudi airport in Abha in recent weeks. A Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s government has been at war with the Houthis since 2015. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people. A Yemeni human rights group released a report Tuesday detailing how civilians have suffered greatly in the war. In the report released in Paris, Mwatana for Human Rights said humanitarian aid had been blocked at a time of impending famine and civilians can no longer move around the country freely or leave. The group documented 74 cases of obstructing aid or access, largely blaming the Houthis. FILE – Yemeni workers clean a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Abs, in the rebel-held northern province of Hajja, after the hospital was allegedly hit by an airstrike …

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra rejected the demand of a regional governor on Tuesday to cancel within 72 hours the construction permit for a copper mining project that has led to protests. Residents from the area bordering Southern Copper Corp.’s $1.4 billion Tia Maria copper mine project in the south of Peru, which is the second largest copper producer in the world, began protesting on Monday with a blockade of a portion of Peru’s main coastal highway. Officials from the southern region of Arequipa said the government had not taken into account the community’s concern that the mining operation would contaminate its water sources and land when it granted a construction permit on July 9. Arequipa Governor Elmer Caceres called on Vizcarra to cancel the construction permit within three days. “You cannot cancel [a construction permit]. We have to talk,” Vizcarra said in a public appearance in Lima, responding to a reporter’s question about Caceres’ request. Demonstrators protest against the Tia Maria mine in Arequipa, Peru, July 15, 2019. Vizcarra said the government approved the project when legal requirements were met and that Southern Copper said it would not begin construction until it gains more support from people who live in …

John Paul Stevens, who served on the Supreme Court for nearly 35 years and became its leading liberal, has died. He was 99. Stevens’ influence was felt on issues including abortion rights, protecting consumers and placing limits on the death penalty. He led the high court’s decision to allow terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay to plead for their freedom in U.S. courts. As a federal appeals court judge in Chicago, Stevens was considered a moderate when Republican President Gerald Ford nominated him. On the Supreme Court he became known as an independent thinker and a voice for ordinary people against powerful interests. He retired in June 2010 at age 90, the second oldest justice in the court’s history. …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit four Latin American countries this week, with a focus on Venezuela’s crisis, the surge of migrants at the U.S.southern border, and more security cooperation, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. Pompeo will travel to Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico and El Salvador from Thursday to Sunday, the State Department said. In Argentina, he will attend the second Western Hemisphere Counterterrorism Ministerial where he will also hold bilateral meetings with regional counterparts, including from Chile and the Bahamas, a senior State Department official told reporters. “We see this week’s ministerial as an important step in bolstering our collective efforts to address these threats and protect our hemisphere from the scourge of terrorism,” the official said. In Ecuador, Pompeo, making the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state in nine years, will discuss increased economic and trade ties, fighting drug trafficking and the surge of migrants from Venezuela fleeing that country’s economic crisis. Ecuador estimates that some 600,000 Venezuelan citizens entered the country in 2018 via the Colombian border, most of whom continue on toward Peru. “They have been taking a heavy pressure of inbound migration from the people expelled by Mr. Maduro’s chaos in Venezuela, …

The Trump administration’s plan to move the government’s largest land management office from Washington to Colorado evoked a mix of praise, criticism and questions Tuesday. The Bureau of Land Management scheduled a formal announcement of its plans Tuesday afternoon. A day earlier, delighted Republican lawmakers said the bureau’s headquarters would move to Grand Junction, Colorado, and about 300 jobs would be relocated to Colorado, Nevada, Utah and other Western states. The bureau, part of the Interior Department, oversees nearly 388,000 square miles (1 billion square kilometers) of public land, and 99% is in 12 Western states. Those lands produce oil, gas and coal, and ranchers graze livestock on them as well. “This is a victory for local communities, advocates for public lands and proponents for a more responsible and accountable federal government,” said Senator Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican. Gardner released a letter from the Interior Department Tuesday confirming the move to Grand Junction, a city of about 63,000 people 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Denver. FILE – Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., arrives at the Senate Chamber at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 31, 2018. Bill Stringer, a Uintah County, Utah, commissioner and retired Bureau of Land Management employee, …

This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service.  Some information is from AP. WASHINGTON — The Austrian justice minister’s Tuesday announcement that he will extradite Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash to face bribery charges in the United States has been upended by an application to reopen the case in Vienna. Last month, Austria’s Supreme Court upheld a decision granting a U.S. request to extradite the gas tycoon — who prosecutors say had business ties to President Donald Trump’s ex-campaign manager, Paul Manafort — paving the way for him to face trial in a Chicago courtroom. Firtash, who denies any wrongdoing, is facing a U.S. indictment that accuses him of a conspiracy to pay bribes in India to mine titanium, which is used in jet engines. A longtime supporter of Ukraine’s ousted pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, Firtash is alleged to have made billions of dollars selling Russian-subsidized gas to the Kyiv government. He later launched profitable ventures in television and chemicals production, and has long-established connections with businessmen from the inner circle of Russian President Vladimir Putin, attracting the interests of U.S. law enforcement agencies. On Tuesday, the Austria Press Agency reported that Justice Minister Clemens Jabloner had approved Firtash’s extradition, but a …

The White House and Congress are engaged in tough, down-to-the-wire negotiations over raising the U.S. government’s borrowing limit and agreeing to new spending levels for as long as the coming two years.   President Donald Trump’s latest tweetstorm against four Democratic progressive lawmakers and the early stages of the 2020 presidential election campaign are grabbing the headlines in Washington. But the outcome of behind-the-scenes discussions between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the country’s debt ceiling — its cap on borrowing to run the government — and the 2020 budget could prove more consequential. Agreement on a new debt ceiling and a deal on a new two-year spending plan beginning in October could take both issues off the table ahead of Trump’s November 2020 re-election bid and Democratic efforts to oust him after a single term in the White House. The century-old debt ceiling is a legal cap on the amount of money the government can borrow to cover revenue shortages. In March, the debt limit expired and the debt now totals $22.5 trillion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., arrives for a closed-door session with her caucus before a vote on a resolution condemning what she called …

The spacesuit astronaut Neil Armstrong wore during his mission to the moon went on public display for the first time in 13 years on Tuesday, at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum exactly 50 years to the day when Apollo 11 launched into space. Armstrong’s son Rick unveiled the suit along with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence who recalled how the country was deeply divided in the late 1960s but came together in pride when Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. Armstrong died on Aug. 12, 2012 in Cincinnati, Ohio. “On top of the contributions to science and human understanding, for that brief moment, the man who wore this suit, brought together our nation and the world,” Pence said. “Apollo 11 is the only event of the 20th century that stands a chance of being widely remembered in the 30th century,” said Pence said. “A thousand years from now, July 20, 1969 will likely be a date that will live on in the minds and imaginations of men and women, here on Earth, across our solar system, and beyond.” Armstrong’s suit was displayed for about 30 years at the Smithsonian before it was taken down in …

German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen was narrowly elected president of the European Commission on Tuesday after winning over skeptical lawmakers. The 60-year-old conservative was nominated to become the first woman in Brussels’ top job last month by the leaders of the bloc’s 28 member states, to the annoyance of many MEPs. The Strasbourg parliament would have preferred a candidate chosen by one of its political groups, but in the end a small majority — 383 members of the 751-member assembly voted — for her. She will now replace Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the EU executive on November 1, one day after Britain is due to leave the union, and serve for a five-year mandate. “The task ahead of us humbles me. It’s a big responsibility and my work starts now,” the polyglot mother-of-seven told lawmakers, thanking all members “who decided to vote for me today.” If von der Leyen had lost, Europe faced a summer of institutional infighting instead of preparing for Brexit, battling Italy over its debt and confronting Hungary and Poland over threats to democratic values. In a hearing before the vote, von der Leyen promised: “A climate-neutral Europe in 2015. A more social and …

Activists are calling on Sudan’s military and opposition leaders to open the country’s political process to women when the sides begin to implement their recent power-sharing deal. For most of Sudan’s 63 years as an independent country, women were not allowed to get involved in politics due to cultural norms and other restrictions. Women say they have been marginalized and denied a chance to participate in public affairs, especially during the 30-year regime of former president Omar al-Bashir. Women’s rights activist Manal Bashir, who helped mobilize women during the protests that led to last week’s power-sharing deal, says now is the time for women to speak up for their rights. “We had been oppressed, discriminated within our homes, at the regulations even so we found ourselves lacking behind and we were aware about this status. So, we didn’t leave this status behind but we worked a lot to achieve the change in our lives,” Bashir told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus. Activist Naimat Abubaker Mohammed says under Bashir’s rule, women were afraid to speak up because the environment was not safe for anyone, male or female, to be active in opposition parties. FILE – Sudanese women protesters are seen at …

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif says his country is willing to negotiate with the U.S., but only if it lifts harsh economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran in 2017 before withdrawing from a 2015 nuclear deal last year that requires Iran to slash its uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief.   “Once those sanctions are lifted … the room for negotiation is wide open,” Zarif said in an NBC News interview that aired Monday.  Zarif, who is in New York for meetings at the United Nations, said the U.S. abandoned a diplomatic approach when it pulled out of the deal. Zarif accused the U.S. of further escalating Middle East tensions by selling billions of dollars of weapons to regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, threatening his country’s ballistic missile program. “These are American weaponry that is going into our region, making our regional ready to explode,” he said. “So if they want to talk about our missiles, they need to first stop selling all these weapons, including missiles, to our region.” In this picture released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali …

The U.N. refugee agency is reiterating its call for countries in the Americas to work together to develop a coordinated regional response to the growing Central American migration and asylum problem. The U.N. refugee agency expresses deep concern about the Trump Administration’s new asylum policy, warning it will put vulnerable families at risk.  It says the measure sharply curtails the right of people to apply for asylum and jeopardizes their right of protection against deportation to a country where their lives and well-being may be in danger. UNHCR spokeswoman Liz Throssell says the new rule violates international refugee law, which states persons fleeing persecution have the right to international protection.    “We refer often to the gang violence that is endemic in some of the countries of the north of Central America,” said Throssell. “So, what we are saying is that many of the people are fleeing violence and persecution and they are in need of international protection.  And our concerns with these restrictions is that it really is causing problems, excessively curtailing the right to seek asylum.”    At the same time, Throssell says the UNHCR understands the growing movement of people heading for the U.S. southern border is …

U.S. President Donald Trump is warning his administration may launch a probe into Google over accusations the U.S. technology giant has been infiltrated by the Chinese government. The warning came after staunch Trump supporter and billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel said earlier this week the CIA and the FBI should investigate Google because it may have committed treason in its business dealings with China. Thiel maintained top Chinese military and intelligence officials are “likely to have infiltrated Google,” a charge he repeated in a Monday night interview on Fox News. Trump echoed Theil’s unsubstantiated remarks in a Tuesday morning tweet. “Billionaire Tech Investor Peter Thiel believes Google should be investigated for treason. He accuses Google of working with the Chinese Government.” @foxandfriends A great and brilliant guy who knows this subject better than anyone! The Trump Administration will take a look! “Billionaire Tech Investor Peter Thiel believes Google should be investigated for treason. He accuses Google of working with the Chinese Government.” @foxandfriends A great and brilliant guy who knows this subject better than anyone! The Trump Administration will take a look! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2019 Google said in a statement the accusations from Trump and …

Amazon’s Prime Day is coming with a wave of deals — and protests. The company’s fifth annual Prime Day now stretches two days, Monday and Tuesday, invented as an effort to try to drum up sales during sluggish summer months and sign up more users for its Prime loyalty program. The Seattle-based e-commerce behemoth said it is offering more than a million deals. Amazon’s own products are usually among the strongest sellers. This year, some used the high-profile event as a way to garner attention for their protests against Amazon. At a warehouse in Shakopee, Minnesota, workers planned a strike to raise awareness for workers’ conditions. A group of tech workers in Seattle, called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, is supporting the strike. On Twitter, Massachusetts Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren voiced her support for the workers as well. Amazon says it already offers what the workers are asking for. “We provide great employment opportunities with excellent pay — ranging from $16.25-$20.80 an hour, and comprehensive benefits including health care, up to 20 weeks parental leave, paid education, promotional opportunities, and more,” spokeswoman Brenda Alfred said in a statement in response to the planned strike. The company has faced …

The No. 2 in the French government has resigned over reports that he has been living a lavish lifestyle at the expense of France’s taxpayers. Ecology Minister Francois de Rugy said on Tuesday via his verified Facebook page that he submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Edouard Philippe “to defend myself.” He has been the object of intense criticism since the investigative news site Mediapart revealed that when he served as president of the lower house of parliament he and his wife hosted lavish dinners with friends.   After recently being appointed ecology minister, he reportedly spent some 60,000 euros ($68,000) to refurbish his government apartment.   …

The crash ended a young woman’s life, and with it, a man’s White House dreams. U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s Oldsmobile sedan veered off a narrow bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, an extension of the resort island of Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast, and plunged into a moonlit pond 50 years ago Thursday. His passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.   Kennedy, 37, survived, but his presidential ambitions did not. The Massachusetts Democrat waited 10 hours to report the accident to police, and the “whys?” dogged him for the rest of his days.   FILE – In this July 22, 1969 file photograph, U.S Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., arrives back home in Hyannis, Mass., after attending the funeral of Mary Jo Kopechne in Pennsylvania. Half a century later, what did and didn’t happen on Chappaquiddick Island on July 18, 1969, continues to fascinate and frustrate.   “Every time there’s an anniversary, it’s like it happened yesterday,” Leslie Leland, who served as foreman of the grand jury that investigated, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home on the Vineyard.   Now 79, Leland was a young pharmacist on the island when he was swept up in the …

Cyberattacks on schools are leading to disruptions in instruction in districts that have thoroughly integrated technology. The FBI says cyberattacks have become common at schools, which are attractive targets because they hold sensitive data and provide critical public services. The agency says perpetrators include criminals motivated by profit, juvenile pranksters and possibly foreign governments. The widespread adoption of education technology, which generates data that officials say can make schools more of a target for hackers, also worsens an attack’s effects when instructional tools are rendered useless by internet outages. A series of attacks over the course of six weeks brought instruction to a halt at a 4,000-student school district in Avon, Connecticut. …

Jennifer Lopez kept her word to fans who were disappointed when a power outage in New York City forced her to postpone her concert over the weekend. Lopez returned to the stage Monday at Madison Square Garden, saying she was going to celebrate “no matter what.” She called it an “amazing night.” Lopez’s show was cut short on Saturday night when problems at a substation left parts of Manhattan without electricity.  The Garden, Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts were all evacuated. The power outage came on the anniversary of the 1977 New York City outage that left most of the city without power. …

Taxpayer-funded family planning clinics must stop referring women for abortions immediately, the Trump administration said Monday, declaring it will begin enforcing a new regulation hailed by religious conservatives and denounced by medical organizations and women’s rights groups. The head of a national umbrella group representing the clinics said the administration is following “an ideological agenda” that could disrupt basic health care for many low-income women. Ahead of a planned conference Tuesday with the clinics, the Health and Human Services Department formally notified them that it will begin enforcing the ban on abortion referrals, along with a requirement that clinics maintain separate finances from facilities that provide abortions. Another requirement that both kinds of facilities cannot be under the same roof would take effect next year. The rule is widely seen as a blow against Planned Parenthood, which provides taxpayer-funded family planning and basic health care to low-income women, as well as abortions that must be paid for separately. The organization is a mainstay of the federally funded family planning program and it has threatened to quit over the issue. Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen said in a statement that “our doors are still open” as her organization and other groups …

The man who led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, former special counsel Robert Mueller, it set to testify next week on July 24th before two congressional committees in what could be a drama-filled appearance on live national television.  VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington. …

A feud is escalating between President Donald Trump and Democrats after the president launched what some consider to be racist attacks against four congresswomen of color, telling them to “go back to where they came from.” White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story.  …

Without a doubt insects are the most successful species on the planet. They make up a clear majority of the world’s 1.5 million total species, and they live almost literally everywhere there is land, including Antarctica. But there is trouble in the insect world. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is considering cutting diplomatic ties with Iceland for leading a push to have the United Nations Human Rights Council investigate his brutal anti-drug crackdown. The measure, approved last Thursday by a vote of 18-14, cites extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and disappearances at the hands of police since Duterte launched his campaign in 2016. Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters in Manila late Monday that the resolution showed “how the western powers are scornful of our sovereign exercise of protecting our people.” Duterte has reacted angrily at any criticism from the international community of his bloody anti-drug crackdown.  He withdrew the Philippines from the International Criminal Court earlier this year after prosecutors at the Hague-based tribunal announced last year that it had opened a preliminary examination of crimes against humanity in connection with the campaign.   Duterte’s administration says about 6,600 people have been killed by police in shootouts with drug dealers. But local activists have claimed some 27,000 people have been killed as police terrorize poor communities, using cursory drug “watch lists” to identify users or dealers.  …

An undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck south of Indonesia’s Bali on Tuesday, the European earthquake monitoring agency EMSC said, causing minor damage and prompting residents and visitors on the tourist island to briefly flee buildings. There were no reports of casualties and no tsunami warning issued by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center or the Indonesian quake monitoring agency. The epicenter was 102 km (62 miles) southwest of the island capital Denpasar and was 100 km (60 miles) deep, the EMSC said. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the quake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7. One resident said people in Denpasar ran out of their boarding house in pajamas after feeling the quake. A Twitter user with the handle Indounik in the city of Ubud on Bali said the quake was “strong enough to make me adopt the drop, cover & hold approach recommended to survive a quake.” Another Twitter user, Marc van Voorst, described the quake as feeling like “a heavy truck or train passing by at close range.” He said there was no panic, even though his hotel in the Uluwatu area shook quite a bit. Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency distributed a photograph of damage …