Nine in ten Palestinians do not believe or trust the US government’s claim that its recently unveiled economic plan aims to improve their economic wellbeing, a poll published Wednesday found. President Donald Trump’s administration presented the economic part of its Israeli-Palestinian peace proposals, dubbed ‘Peace to Prosperity, in the Bahraini capital Manama on June 25-6. But the poll, carried out by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research and the first since the Manama conference, found overwhelming distrust of Washington. The Palestinians refused to attend the conference, accusing the US of systematic pro-Israel bias. Ninety percent of the 1,200 people polled said they did not believe or trust Washington’s claim that the Bahrain meetings aimed to improve Palestinians’ economic conditions. Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner, who is leading the peace plan, has said he is seeking to reach out to ordinary Palestinians, bypassing their leaders. But the survey also found 79 percent of the Palestinian population supported their leaders’ boycott of the conference, while just 15 percent were opposed to that position. More than three quarters believed the US plan would not bring prosperity to the Palestinian economy. The poll also found three quarters of Palestinians wanted …

Tens of thousands of tourists and locals gaped skyward Tuesday as a total eclipse of the sun darkened the heavens over Chile and Argentina. Tourists from around the world gathered to witness the cosmic spectacle, which began in the morning as the moon crossed in front of the sun and cast a shadow that passed over a tiny uninhabited atoll in the South Pacific and headed to South America. Chile and Argentina were the only inhabited places where the total eclipse could be seen. The eclipse made its first landfall in Chile at 3:22 p.m. (1922 GMT) in La Serena, a city of some 200,000 people where the arrival of more than 300,000 visitors forced the local water company to increase output and service gas stations to store extra fuel. Police and health services were also reinforced. “Oh! Oh! Oh!” thousands of spectators shouted as they jumped and danced without taking their eyes off the sky. After a brief moment of silence, the yelling returned as the sun’s rays began reaching Earth again. Others shouted “Long live, Chile!” — a chant used at sporting events. In northern Chile, meteorologists measured a three-degree Centigrade drop in temperature and in the center …

The Kremlin on Wednesday said details of a fire that killed 14 crew on a deep-water submersible will not be made public because they include classified information. “This information cannot be made public completely,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “It belongs to the category of state secrets.” The seamen died on Monday in Russia’s territorial waters in the country’s far-north, but the disaster was only made public Tuesday. Peskov said however that President Vladimir Putin was informed right away. “It is completely normal when this kind of information is not made public,” Peskov said, adding that this was “within the law of the Russian Federation”. Officials have given little information about the vessel or the circumstances of the accident, with local media reporting the ship was a secretive nuclear-powered mini-submarine. The presence of many senior ranking officers on board could suggest the submarine was not on an ordinary assignment. Peskov said that “no decision has been made” about a period of mourning in the northern Russian region. The defence ministry said the 14 crew were killed by inhaling poisonous fumes after a fire broke out on a “scientific research deep-sea submersible” studying the sea floor. However the Novaya Gazeta newspaper …

A little-known U.S. anti-money laundering law is costing international travelers millions of dollars a year, raising concerns of civil liberties’ advocates that many innocent people are unwittingly being swept up by a statute designed to catch criminals.   The law, known as the Bank Secrecy Act, requires travelers leaving and entering the U.S. with more than $10,000 in cash to report it to customs officials at ports of entry.  A traveler’s failure to disclose the precise amount can result in the money being seized – even without any charges against the person.   Customs and Border Patrol officials see the law as an important tool in combating money laundering and potential terrorist activities.   But critics say CBP does little to warn travelers about the currency reporting requirement and that the agency’s seizure practice is sometimes unconstitutional.   “The government just assumes that anyone traveling with a large amount of cash is a criminal, takes the money on the spot, and then lets the person go only to then violate federal laws and regulations that require the agency to return the money or go before a court to justify the seizure,“ said Darpana Sheth, an attorney with the Institute for …

Iran’s president warned European partners in its faltering nuclear deal on Wednesday that Tehran will increase its enrichment of uranium to “any amount that we want” beginning on Sunday, putting pressure on them to offer a way around intense U.S. sanctions targeting the country.  The comments by President Hassan Rouhani come as tensions remain high between Iran and the U.S. over the deal, which President Donald Trump pulled America from over a year ago.  Authorities on Monday acknowledged Iran broke through a limit placed on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium.  An increasing stockpile and higher enrichment closes the estimated one-year window Iran would need to produce enough material for a nuclear bomb, something Iran denies it wants but the nuclear deal sought to prevent.  Meanwhile, the U.S. has rushed an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and F-22 fighters to the region and Iran recently shot down a U.S. military surveillance drone. On Wednesday, Iran marked the shootdown by the U.S. Navy of an Iranian passenger jet in 1988, a mistake that killed 290 people and shows the danger of miscalculation in the current crisis.  Speaking at a Cabinet meeting in Tehran, Rouhani’s comments seemed to signal that Europe has yet to …

The United Nations and African Union have condemned airstrikes on a detention center for migrants outside of Libya’s capital that killed at least 40 people. Libyan health officials said in addition to those killed in the strikes late Tuesday, another 80 people were wounded. U.N. High Commission for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in the aftermath of the attacks that civilians must not be targets, that migrants and refugees should not be detained, and that Libya is not a safe place to return migrants who are rescued trying to make the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Grandi called on those countries with influence on the parties involved in Libya’s conflict to work together to end the fighting. The battle for control of Libya’s internationally-recognized government and the Libyan National Army (LNA) of a rival government led by general Khalifa Haftar has been raging for months in the Tripoli suburbs with little progress made.  The U.N.-backed government blamed the LNA for the strikes. African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat called for all sides to ensure the safety of civilians, especially detained migrants, while demanding an independent investigation into Tuesday’s airstrikes. Blood stains are seen on a police car …

Baik Sung-won of VOA’s Korean Service contributed to this report. President Donald Trump may have jumpstarted a new round of working-level talks with Pyongyang at his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but experts say their handshake is meaningless unless negotiators make a headway in bridging the countries’ divergent approaches toward denuclearization. “It was great being with Chairman Kim Jong Un of North Korea this weekend,” Trump tweeted on Monday, the day after the two leaders met. “We had a great meeting…I look forward to seeing him again soon…In the meantime, our team will be meeting to work on some solutions to very long-term and persistent problems. No rush, but I am sure we will ultimately get there.” It was great being with Chairman Kim Jong Un of North Korea this weekend. We had a great meeting, he looked really well and very healthy – I look forward to seeing him again soon…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un take a walk after their first meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel, in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 28, 2019. “The meeting itself is a massive breakthrough,” …

Kacey Musgraves’ career has been moving and changing fast over the last couple of years, leaving little time for reflection until she saw her life chronicled behind museum glass.   Musgraves is the subject of a new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum that opens Tuesday and runs through June 2020. The exhibit follows the critically acclaimed “Golden Hour” in 2018 that earned Musgraves four Grammys this year including country album of the year and album of the year, beating fellow nominees Drake, Cardi B and Brandi Carlile.   “I think a lot of people that night were like, ‘Who is this girl?’” Musgraves said. “Which is a funny conundrum to be winning album of the year, and to have people saying, `Who are you?’ But in a way, I kind of love that.”   The exhibit called “Kacey Musgraves: All of the Colors” comes as the 30-year-old Texas singer has blossomed into a cross-genre star whose emotional and clever lyrics and inventive style, blending country with electronic, disco and spacey pop sounds has earned her plenty of new fans.   “Too often I can just speed onto the next thing without really soaking in what …

Cuba’s Communist government said on Tuesday it was studying the potential use of cryptocurrency as part of a series of measures to boost its economy amid a deepening crisis exacerbated by U.S. sanctions. Cryptocurrency, which allows financial operations to be carried out anonymously, has been used in the past to get around capital controls. Cuba’s top ally Venezuela introduced a cryptocurrency last year aiming to avoid U.S. sanctions and weather hyperinflation, although it never properly got off the ground. Cuba’s inefficient state-run economy is facing a crisis due to a sharp decline in Venezuelan aid, lower exports and the tightening of the decades-old U.S. trade embargo under President Donald Trump. The new measures, announced on a roundtable on state-run TV by President Miguel Diaz-Canel and his government, will raise income for around a quarter of the population and deepen market reforms of one of the world’s last Soviet-style command economy’s started by the island nation’s previous president, Raul Castro. The aim is to raise national production and demand in order to boost growth as U.S. sanctions target tourism and foreign investment. Diaz-Canel, working to establish his legitimacy after assuming the presidency in April 2018, said the government was working on …

The United States on Tuesday designated a major anti-Pakistan militant organization conducting deadly attacks against local and foreign targets in the South Asian nation as a global terrorist.  Islamabad promptly welcomed the move, which prohibits U.S. citizens from engaging in any transactions with members of the so-called Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), and all of their property in the U.S. are blocked. “BLA is an armed separatist group that targets security forces and civilians, mainly in ethnic Baloch areas of Pakistan,” according to a U.S. State Department announcement. The militant group operates in Baluchistan, a southwestern province rich with natural resource and where China is investing billions of dollars to build major infrastructure projects as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. Baluchistan, Pakistan The outlawed BLA is considered the largest and most effective of several Baluch militant groups fighting the Pakistani rule in the province. It has carried out terrorist attacks against local and Chinese nationals working in Baluchistan.  BLA took credit for last May’s suicide attack on a luxury hotel near the Chinese-run strategic deep-water seaport of Gwadar. That raid killed four hotel employees and a Pakistani soldier before security forces gunned down the assailants. The militant group said …

New polls show California Senator and Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris surging after her performance in last week’s first Democratic candidates’ debate. The surveys also show Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren gaining ground while the current Democratic frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, is slipping. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has also lost ground, according to the new surveys. A new Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday showed Biden still leading the Democratic primary field at 22 percent, followed closely by Harris at 20 percent. Warren is in third place with 14 percent followed by Sanders at 13 percent. Harris also saw dramatic movement in a new CNN/SRSS poll that found her moving into second place among the Democratic contenders with 17 percent support, narrowly trailing Biden who leads with 22 percent. FILE – Democratic presidential hopeful Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren participates in the first Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, June 26, 2019. Warren placed third with 15 percent followed by Sanders at 14 percent.  Trailing behind the top tier in the CNN poll were South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg with 4 percent, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker …

Lee Iacocca, the auto executive and master pitchman who put the Mustang in Ford’s lineup in the 1960s and became a corporate folk hero when he resurrected Chrysler 20 years later, has died in Bel Air, California. He was 94.   Two former Chrysler executives who worked with him, Bud Liebler, the company’s former spokesman, and Bob Lutz, formerly its head of product development, said they were told of the death Tuesday by a close associate of Iacocca’s family.   In his 32-year career at Ford and then Chrysler, Iacocca helped launch some of Detroit’s best-selling and most significant vehicles, including the minivan, the Chrysler K-cars and the Ford Escort. He also spoke out against what he considered unfair trade practices by Japanese automakers.   The son of Italian immigrants, Iacocca reached a level of celebrity matched by few auto moguls. During the peak of his popularity in the ’80s, he was famous for his TV ads and catchy tagline: “If you can find a better car, buy it!” He wrote two best-selling books and was courted as a potential presidential candidate.   But he will be best remembered as the blunt-talking, cigar-chomping Chrysler chief who helped engineer a great …

The nomination of Christine Lagarde as European Central Bank president on Tuesday has thrust the International Monetary Fund into an early, unanticipated search for a new leader amid a raging trade war that has darkened the outlook for global growth. Lagarde in a brief announcement said she was “honored” by the nomination and would temporarily relinquish her duties as IMF managing director during the nomination period. Her appointment is subject to approval by a fractious European Parliament. If approved, she would take over as ECB president from Mario Draghi on Oct. 31. Lagarde’s second five-year term as IMF managing director is not due to end until July 2021. Last September, when asked by the Financial Times whether she was interested in the ECB job, she replied, “No, no, no no, no no.” In a statement, the IMF board said it accepted her decision to temporarily step aside and named IMF First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton as the fund’s acting chief, expressing its “full confidence” in the American economist. The board statement provided no details about the search for a successor to lead the IMF. Speculation Starts But in Washington, speculation about possible candidates was already centering on Europeans that …

Myanmar security forces and insurgents are committing human rights violations against civilians in restive western states that may amount to fresh war crimes, a United Nations investigator said on Tuesday. A 2017 military crackdown drove more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. U.N. investigators have said that Myanmar’s operation included mass killings, gang rapes and widespread arson and was executed with “genocidal intent.” The Yangon government denies committing those atrocities and says its military campaign across northern Rakhine was in response to attacks by Rohingya militants. Government troops are currently fighting ethnic rebels in conflict-torn Rakhine and Chin states. The Arakan Army is an insurgent group that is fighting for greater autonomy for the two states. On June 22, authorities ordered telecoms companies to shut down internet services in the two states. Telenor Group said the ministry of transport and communications had cited “disturbances of peace and use of internet activities to coordinate illegal activities.” FILE – Yanghee Lee, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, says freedoms of expression, assembly and association have been stifled in the country, May 6, 2019.. Yanghee Lee, the U.N. independent expert on human rights in Myanmar, said last week the …

Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen’s improbable career has brought him rapidly to the brink of operatic stardom at age 25. So it’s not surprising that the Brooklyn-born countertenor would fall prey to feeling a “kind of impostor syndrome” when he walked on stage. “Up until this time I’ve always had this feeling of, ‘What, me? Really?’” Cohen said in an interview at the War Memorial Opera House, where he was finishing a June run of performances as Medoro in Handel’s “Orlando.”  But something changed on opening night. “I wasn’t nervous at all,” Cohen said. “For the first time, I’m feeling I really belong here and I can hold my own.” Indeed, he did more than that. His second-act aria, “Verdi allori,” regularly drew some of the evening’s biggest applause, and Joshua Kosman in the San Francisco Chronicle singled him out for his “strong and gleaming” tone and “endlessly eloquent” phrasing. Cohen is one of a young generation of countertenors who are popularizing a once-obscure vocal register that lies above normal tenor range and requires them to sing in falsetto or “head voice.” The repertoire for these singers was once limited mainly to baroque composers like Monteverdi and Handel, who wrote roles for …

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said on Tuesday that there would “never” be a good moment to negotiate with President Nicolas Maduro’s “dictatorship,” ruling out an expected new round of talks to find an exit from the country’s crisis. Guaido and Maduro had both sent representatives to Oslo in May for discussions that Norway’s government had encouraged, but they were unable to reach any agreement. On Saturday, people familiar with the talks told Reuters that talks would restart this week. Guaido on Tuesday said there had been “no official statement that we would attend a new round” of dialogue. “It is never going to be a good moment to mediate… with kidnappers, human rights violators, and a dictatorship,” Guaido told reporters at the opposition-controlled National Assembly legislature, which he heads. Few details have been released about the talks in Oslo between representatives of Maduro and Guaido, who assumed a rival presidency in January and denounces Maduro as an illegitimate usurper who has overseen a five-year recession. Guaido’s comments came as the opposition expressed outrage over the death last week of Venezuelan navy captain Rafael Acosta in military custody. The captain’s wife and rights groups accuse Maduro’s government of torturing Acosta …

A military jury acquitted a decorated Navy SEAL of premeditated murder Tuesday in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive under his care in Iraq in 2017.   Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher was cleared of all charges except for posing for photos with the dead body of the captive in a verdict that is a major blow to military prosecutors.   Gallagher reacted with “tears of joy, emotion, freedom and absolute euphoria,” defense lawyer Marc Mukasey said.   “Suffice it to say this is a huge victory,” Mukasey said outside court. “It’s as huge weight off the Gallaghers.”   Defense lawyers said Gallagher was framed by disgruntled platoon members who fabricated the allegations to oust their chief. They said there was no physical evidence to support the allegations.   The prosecution said Gallagher’s own text messages and photos incriminated him. They included photos of Gallagher holding the dead militant up by the hair and clutching a knife in his other hand.   A text message Gallagher sent while deployed said “got him with my hunting knife.”   The prosecution asserted the proof of Gallagher’s guilt was in his own words, his own photos and the testimony of his …

Dozens of Central American migrants who were forced to wait in Mexico for their asylum claims to be processed in the United Stated opted Tuesday to return to their home countries with the Mexican government’s help, the foreign ministry said. Sixty-six people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador had been sent back to Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez opposite El Paso, Texas, after requesting asylum in the United States, the ministry said in a statement, under a contentious U.S policy known as Migration Protection Protocols (MPP). Mexico organized the return trip with the support of the U.N.-backed International Organization for Migration as part of its launch of a “temporary program of voluntary return” for migrants in northern Mexico, it said. Central American migrants travel to Mexico City after they voluntarily asked to return to their countries, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, July 2, 2019. U.S. asylum cases can take months or years to be decided because of a massive backlog of immigration court cases. Even hearings can take months to be scheduled. “The people want to go back to their places of origin, and want to leave this dream behind and go back to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador,” said Javier Calvillo, director …

Looking to improve his standing with black voters, Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg pitched a plan Tuesday to tackle “systemic racism” he said exists in housing, health care, education, policing and other aspects of American life.  The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told a predominantly black audience at a Chicago meeting of Rainbow PUSH, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s civil rights organization, that his plan includes providing more opportunity for minority businesses, strengthening voting rights and reforming the criminal justice system. He said he would cut incarceration numbers in half by legalizing marijuana and eliminating prison time for simple drug possession. He wants to restore voting rights for some 6 million Americans with felony convictions and supports “bold and meaningful action” on reparations for the descendants of slaves. Rev. Jesse Jackson addresses reporters at the start of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Annual International Convention in Chicago, July 2, 2019. Buttigieg’s speech followed the June 16 fatal shooting of a black man by a white South Bend police officer, which he said re-exposed a “racial chasm” between black and white residents in the racially diverse community of roughly 100,000 people. The shooting prompted Buttigieg to leave the campaign trail, and it …

The U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday it will triple the number of people it is providing food and cash assistance to in northeastern Congo’s Ituri province, which is facing inter-ethnic violence and an Ebola epidemic. WFP said a resurgence of clashes between ethnic groups has claimed at least 160 lives in recent weeks and has forced tens of thousands of additional people — many of whom are malnourished — to flee their homes. Ituri is one of two provinces in the grip of Congo’s worst-ever Ebola outbreak, which has claimed more than 1,400 lives. The U.N. food agency said it intends to expand the number of displaced people it is assisting in Ituri every month from 116,000 to 300,000. “Our hearts go out to the latest victims of this senseless cruelty, most of them rural villagers who have had to run for their lives, with little or nothing, right at harvest time,” WFP’s Congo representative Claude Jibidar said in a statement. “Our ongoing relief operation in Ituri … means we are ready and able to quickly scale up.” According to WFP, Congo is “the world’s second-largest hunger crisis,” with 13 million people not having a secure supply of food. …

In a stinging defeat for President Donald Trump, his administration has ended its effort to add a citizenship  question to the 2020 U.S. census, saying that it will begin printing forms that do not include the contentious query. White House and Justice Department officials confirmed the decision, which came in the aftermath of a Supreme Court ruling on June 27 that faulted the Trump administration for its original attempt to add the question. Although the court left open the possibility of the administration adding the question, there was little time left for the government to come up with a new rationale. The government had said in court filings that it needed to finalize the details of the questionnaire by the end of June. Trump had suggested delaying the census so that the question could be added. …

Hundreds of Israelis are protesting across the country against alleged police brutality against the country’s Ethiopian community following the killing of an Ethiopian Israeli teen by an off-duty police officer.   Demonstrators blocked a main highway in central Tel Aviv and major thoroughfares around the country on Tuesday. They have been voicing frustration over perceived systemic discrimination against the community’s roughly 150,000 members. Police say officers arrested at least three protesters at a demonstration outside Haifa that turned violent.   On Sunday, an off-duty police officer shot and killed Ethiopian Israeli teen Solomon Teka. Police said the officer was arrested and placed by a court in protective custody.   Thousands of people attended Teka’s funeral at a cemetery near Haifa on Tuesday.   …

A Mexican official says about 70 Central American migrants who’d been returned to Ciudad Juarez to await the outcome of their U.S. asylum claims are being bused back to their countries. The official with the Foreign Relations Department says the bus left Juarez on Tuesday morning. All the people are said to have volunteered, and all are from El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras.   The official isn’t sure what impact their decisions might have on their asylum claims in the United States.   The person adds that similar busings are expected “soon” in Tijuana and Mexicali, two other cities that have been taking in returnees from the United States under the program. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made public.   …

Saturn’s moon Titan has all the right ingredients for life. NASA’s newly announced mission, Titan in front of Saturn as seen by Cassini. (Image credit: NASA) Titan’s surface is hidden from view by its hazy atmosphere, which is four times denser than Earth’s. Combined with the low gravity – just one-seventh as strong as what we’re used to – the thick atmosphere makes Titan an ideal target for an airborne explorer. The idea of building an aircraft to fly in Titan’s thick atmosphere isn’t new, but it wasn’t until drone technology became more advanced that the Dragonfly team realized they could make their dream of flying on Titan a reality. Leapfrogging across Titan With its two sets of four propellers stacked on top of one another, Dragonfly looks a little bit like a drone, but it’s much bigger than something you would fly around in your backyard – around 3 meters long and more than a meter tall. The design will allow Dragonfly to take pictures from the air and land on Titan’s frozen surface for a closer view. It will initially target a region near the moon’s equator that is covered in sand dunes, similar to what is found …