Syrian war observers say five people were killed in a government raid in Idlib province on Sunday, adding to the toll of more than a 100 killed in the past days. The government of President Bashar al-Assad has resumed its deadly campaign to retake control of the remaining rebel-held areas in Syria, not sparing schools or hospitals. The United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet opined what she called the “international indifference” to the plight of Syrian civilians. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

Democratic Party presidential candidates will try to distance themselves from their rivals as they jockey for position in Democratic debates in Detroit this week.  Mike O’Sullivan reports that progressive standard-bearers Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will share the stage on Tuesday, and frontrunner Joe Biden will fend off attacks Wednesday as 10 of 20 candidates square off on each of the two nights. …

In the world of combat sports, only one emerges with a consensus thumbs-up vote.  This weekend in Britain, judges crowned the strongest digits in this year’s men’s, women’s and children’s World Thumb Wrestling Championships.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi points the way to victory. …

Poverty in the Philippines, a chronic development issue that makes the country an outlier in Asia, is declining because of economic strength followed by job creation. The archipelago’s official poverty rate dropped to 21% in the first half of last year from 27.6% in the first half of 2015, President Rodrigo Duterte said in his July 22 State of the Nation Address. Economic growth of 6% plus since 2012 has helped to create jobs, especially in Philippine cities such as the capital Manila, economists who follow the country say. “Twenty-seven percent is actually pretty high by kind of Asian standards, so I think that progress is attributable to the rapid economic growth that’s happened in the Philippines since 2012,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at the market research firm IHS Markit. Asian outlier Poverty around Asia had declined from 47.3% in 1990 to 16.1% in 2013, according to World Bank data. Factory jobs, often driven by domestic export manufacturing industries, have fueled much of the boom, especially in China. Poverty lingered in the Philippines largely for lack of rural jobs, economists believe. Rudimentary farming and fishing anchor the way of life on many of the country’s 7,100 islands. Foreign …

New British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make his first official visit to Scotland on Monday in an attempt to bolster the union in the face of warnings over a no-deal Brexit.  Johnson will visit a military base to announce new funding for local communities, saying that Britain is a “global brand and together we are safer, stronger and more prosperous”, according to a statement released by his Downing Street Office. It will be the first stop on a tour of the countries that make up the United Kingdom, as he attempts to win support for his Brexit plans and head off talk of a break-up of the union. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said last week that Scotland, which voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum, needed an “alternative option” to Johnson’s Brexit strategy. He has promised that Britain will leave the EU on October 31, with or without a deal. Sturgeon, who leads the separatist Scottish National Party (SNP), told Johnson that the devolved Scottish Parliament would consider legislation in the coming months for another vote on seceding from the United Kingdom. Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar has also said that a no-deal Brexit would …

U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators shift to Shanghai this week for their first in-person talks since a G20 truce last month, a change of scenery for two sides struggling to resolve deep differences on how to end a year-long trade war. Expectations for progress during the two-day Shanghai meeting are low, so officials and businesses are hoping Washington and Beijing can at least detail commitments for “goodwill” gestures and clear the path for future negotiations. These include Chinese purchases of U.S. farm commodities and the United States allowing firms to resume some sales to China’s tech giant Huawei Technologies. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he thinks China may not want to sign a trade deal until after the 2020 election in the hope that they could then negotiate more favorable terms with a different U.S. president. “I think probably China will say “Let’s wait,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Let’s wait and see if one of these people who gives the United States away, let’s see if one of them could get elected.” For more than a year, the world’s two largest economies have slapped billions of dollars of tariffs on each other’s imports, disrupting global …

Story updated on July 29, at 2:45 am. Authorities in the western U.S. state of California say a shooter killed at least three people Sunday afternoon at a garlic festival. The attack happened in the city of Gilroy, where police say the shooter was armed with a rifle.  Another 15 people were injured, but it was not clear whether they were shot. There were officers present at the festival, and Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said they quickly engaged the suspect and shot him dead. Smithee told reporters at a late night briefing that witnesses reported a potential second suspect, but that police did not know yet whether there was in fact a second person involved, and if so, how they were involved with the attack. People attending the festival were required to go through a security screening with metal detectors and bag checks. Smithee said the suspected shooter appears to have entered the festival grounds by cutting through a fence. Investigators were working through the night to figure out exactly what happened.  So far they do not have a motive for the shooting. Smithee said the festival relies on thousands of volunteers each year and raises money for various …

In a series of tweets over the weekend, U.S. President Trump lashed out against one of his most vocal Democratic critics, attacking Congressman Elijah Cummings and calling the Maryland lawmaker’s district “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” The comments sparked backlash from critics calling the language racist and unacceptable. VOA’s Elizabeth Cherneff has more. …

Cuban government and Communist Party officials attended funeral services for Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega on Sunday in  a testament to his success in elevating the Church’s position on the Caribbean island after the fall of the Soviet Union. Cuban First Vice President Salvador Mesa and two other top leaders on the Communist Party Politburo attended the Requiem Mass along with other officials. Religious leaders from other countries including Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, Puerto Rico Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves and Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston also attended the event in the colonial district’s Havana Cathedral. Ortega, who died on Friday aged 82, was buried afterwards in the city’s Colon cemetery. A labor camp inmate in the 1960s when Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government was rounding up religious figures and other perceived enemies, Ortega became archbishop of Havana in 1981 at a time when Cuba was still officially atheist. For the more than three decades that followed, as Castro’s stance on the Church softened, Ortega raised its visibility and power, building a working relationship with the government thanks to his nonconfrontational style and opposition to U.S. sanctions. Ortega earned the wrath of hardline exiles and some dissidents on the Caribbean island …

Boko Haram militants killed at least 65 people at a funeral in northeastern Nigeria, local officials said Sunday, revising the earlier death toll of 23. “It is 65 people dead and 10 injured,” said Muhammed Bulama, the local government chairman. Bulama said he thought the attack was in revenge for the killing of 11 Boko Haram fighters by the villagers two weeks ago. Nigerians last week marked the 10-year anniversary of the rise of the Boko Haram insurgency, which has killed more than 30,000 people, displaced millions and created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. The extremists are known for mass abductions of schoolgirls and putting young women and men into suicide vests for attacks on markets, mosques and other high-traffic areas. The insurgent group, which promotes an extreme form of Islamist fundamentalism and opposes Western-style education, has defied the claims of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration that the insurgency has been crushed. The violence also has spilled into neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.   …

Brazil deployed police to a remote Amazon village on Sunday after reports it had been overrun by armed miners following the murder of an indigenous leader, officials and tribal chiefs said.   The violence in an area of the northern Amapa state controlled by the Waiapi tribe comes as Brazil’s indigenous people face growing pressures from miners, ranchers and loggers under pro-business President Jair Bolsonaro, who on Saturday called for the “first world” to help exploit the “absurd quantity of minerals” in the Amazon rainforest.   Last Monday, a Waiapi indigenous leader was killed and his body found the following day in a river, the Amapa attorney general’s office (AGO) said in a statement.   While none of the Waiapi witnessed the “violent” killing, a council of village chiefs said on Facebook a search of the area found “trails and other signs that the death was caused by non-indigenous people.”   On Friday, a group of “armed non-indigenous” overran the nearby village of Yvytoto, prompting residents to flee, the council said. Local media called them “garimpeiros,” a term for armed miners active in the Amazon, and said they numbered 50.   After reports of the attacks emerged Saturday, members of …

The woman slated to replace Puerto Rico’s governor after he steps down next week said on Sunday she does not want the job. “I reiterate, I have no interest in occupying the position of governor,” Justice Secretary Wanda Vazquez wrote on Twitter. “It is a Constitutional dictum. I hope that the governor identifies and submits a candidate for the position of secretary of state before Aug. 2 and I have told him so.” Governor Ricardo Rossello on Wednesday announced that he would step down on August 2 after nearly two weeks of massive protests triggered by a leaked obscenity-laced chat in which Rossello and close advisers insulted people including women and victims of Hurricane Maria. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello speaks as he announces his resignation in San Juan, Puerto Rico, early July 25, 2019. By law, Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marin would have replace Rossello, but he too was involved in the chat scandal and resigned earlier this month. If a new secretary of state isn’t approved in time, the line of succession after Vazquez falls to Secretary of Treasury Francisco Pares and Secretary of Education Eligio Hernandez. The U.S. territory has been rocked by protests since the …

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra suggested Sunday cutting short his term in office for early elections to end what he called an institutional crisis. He said in a speech to Congress this would also involve cutting short the term of the legislature. As it stands, general elections are scheduled for July of next year. Vizcarra’s proposal comes with Peru’s executive and legislative branches locked in a power struggle. The president said his idea would need to be passed by the opposition-controlled legislature, and then approved in a referendum. “The voice of the people must be heard,” Vizcarra told lawmakers, as some cheered him and others yelled insults. “Peru is screaming for a new beginning,” Vizcarra said.   …

Iran and the remaining world powers in the 2015 agreement to restrain Tehran’s nuclear weapons development signaled new commitment Sunday to staying in the accord, even as Iran said it would diminish its compliance if European countries do not help alleviate the effects of U.S. economic sanctions. Iranian diplomats met with their counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, the European Union, China and Russia in Vienna. Iranian and Chinese envoys voiced their satisfaction as the meeting ended. “The atmosphere was constructive, and the discussions were good,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters. “I cannot say that we resolved everything,” but all the parties are still “determined to save this deal.” The head of the Chinese delegation, Fu Cong, said that there were “some tense moments” during the meeting, but “on the whole the atmosphere was very good. Friendly. And it was very professional.” The parties met after tensions have heightened in the Middle East in recent weeks, with the U.S. and Iran both announcing they have shot down each other’s unmanned drones near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow maritime passage through which international tankers transport at least a fifth of the world’s crude oil supply. Participants are seen …

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who has clashed with U.S. President Donald Trump over assessments involving Russia, Iran and North Korea, is expected to step down in the coming days, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.  Trump is seriously considering tapping U.S. Representative John Ratcliffe, a fellow Republican, to replace Coats in the job, a source told Reuters.  …

The White House on Sunday belittled Democratic lawmakers who are continuing to advance the case for impeaching President Donald Trump after former special counsel Robert Mueller failed to produce any explosive new allegations against the U.S. leader at last week’s congressional hearings. “This is not over in their minds, which is absolutely bizarre,” acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told the Fox News Sunday interview show. “This is over. Most folks know it is over.” Mulvaney offered his comments two days after Congressman Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that “in effect” the panel has undertaken an impeachment inquiry of Trump. FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference after hearings with former special counsel Robert Mueller, on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 24, 2019. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, while agreeing to Nadler’s pursuit of the grand jury testimony, has blocked the formal opening of an impeachment inquiry. Instead, Pelosi, while not ruling out impeachment, has supported multiple House committee investigations of Trump, his links to Russia, his business affairs and his administration policies. She and other cautious Democrats have voiced fears about the political repercussions of impeaching Trump, …

A spokeswoman for Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who is serving a 30-day jail term, says he has been hospitalized after suffering a “severe allergic reaction.” Kira Yarmysh said Navalny was taken from the Moscow detention facility to a hospital on the morning of July 28. The opposition figure and Kremlin foe arrived at the hospital with “severe facial swelling and red rashes on the skin,” Yarmysh tweeted. The source of the allergic reaction has not been determined yet, she wrote, adding that Navalny “never experienced an allergic reaction before.” “He is currently in the ward under the supervision of police officers,” she said in a separate tweet. “He is being provided with the necessary medical assistance.” Officials gave no details of Navalny’s condition. He was sentenced last week to 30 days for calling for an unsanctioned protest in Moscow on July 27, during which more than 1,300 people were detained by police, according to an independent group that monitors crackdowns on demonstrations. Leonid Volkov, a top aide to Navalny, tweeted that he had a similar reaction after he served a sentence in the same cell as Navalny last month. Volkov rejected talk of a “conspiracy” and called instead for …

Libyan health authorities say an airstrike hit a field hospital south of the capital, Tripoli, killing at least four doctors and a paramedic. Malek Merset, a spokesman for the health ministry of the U.N.-supported government, says the attack took place late Saturday in the Zawya district.   Forces based in the country’s east are currently fighting for control of the capital’s southern outskirts against militias allied with the Tripoli-based government.   Health authorities did not say which side was behind the airstrike, which wounded eight health workers.   The Tripoli-based government blamed the airstrike on the self-styled Libyan National Army, led by commander Khalifa Hifter. The LNA could not immediately be reached for comment.   Hifter’s LNA began its offensive on Tripoli in early April. In past weeks, the battle lines have changed little.     …

Afghan authorities say a car-bomb-and-gun attack in Kabul has killed at least two people and injured 25 others. Officials and witnesses said several heavily armed suicide bombers stormed a compound housing the office of Afghanistan Green Trend (AGT), a political movement headed by the country’s former spy chief, Amrullah Saleh.  Saleh is also a vice-presidential candidate of incumbent President Ashraf Ghani’s electoral team for the country’s upcoming election.   The incident occurred just hours after Ghani and Saleh attended an election rally in Kabul as the official campaign to elect news president of Afghanistan kicked off Sunday. The attack began with one of the assailants detonating a car packed with explosives, enabling others to enter the facility. Afghan commando forces quickly surrounded the area in their bid to neutralize the attackers. Afghan Public Health Ministry spokesman said rescue teams have taken 25 injured people to nearby hospitals along with the two bodies. There were no immediate claims of responsibly for the attack. Kabul has been rocked by repeated attacks in recent days, claimed both by the Taliban and loyalists of Islamic State. Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said that Afghan forces rescued 40 people to safety and a clearing operation …

Twenty-two year old Egan Bernal was set to make history Sunday, as the first Colombian to win the Tour de France—and the youngest cyclist to place first in more than a century. The 2019 edition of the Tour de France was marked by high drama, including sharp weather swings and a crushing defeat for the French. Only towards the end did a clear winner emerge in Colombia’s Egan Bernal. Interviewed on French TV ahead Sunday’s final sprint from the town of Rambouillet to Paris, Bernal said he was still trying to digest the events. He said he felt good as he raced, but was counting each kilometer that passed. Only when he crossed the line on the next-to-last stage of the race, did he realize he would win. This year’s edition marked the highest route in the Tour’s history, including five summit finishes. That was a plus for Bernal, who is strong on hills. The race started July 6 in Brussels. It wound its way through champagne and wine country, passed through ancient villages and towns and scaled the Alps and Pyrenees. It has always been a social as well as a sporting event; local residents and diehard fans line …

French President Emmanuel Macron says he will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month, days before hosting a Group of Seven summit with the leaders of rich democracies. Macron’s office said Sunday the meeting with Putin will take place Aug. 19 at the Fort de Bregancon presidential retreat on the Mediterranean Sea. Macron then heads to the G-7 summit in the French city of Biarritz with U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders from Aug. 24-26. The group kicked Russia out after it annexed Crimea in 2014. France has sought to mediate in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine and Macron has stressed the importance of keeping dialogue open with Moscow. French companies have also been pushing to lift EU sanctions resulting from Russia’s actions in Ukraine.   …

A Myanmar government delegation has met with representatives of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh to discuss creating conditions for their safe repatriation, officials said Sunday. Myanmar’s permanent foreign secretary, U Myint Thu, led a 10-member delegation for the weekend talks in refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar region. He said he told the refugees about the preparations being made for their repatriation and agreed to continue talks with them. “We will continue to discuss with the Bangladesh government at the ministerial level as well as the working level at the joint working group,” U Myint Thu told reporters. “I will be meeting (Monday) with the Bangladesh foreign minister in Dhaka and then we will continue to discuss further on the repatriation process and at the ministerial level there will be a meeting in New York on the sidelines of the General Assembly … “ He said the Myanmar delegation will bring along representatives of ASEAN, a grouping of Southeast Asian nations, for the next round of talks with the refugees. Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have …

President Donald Trump is engaged in days of attacks on the eastern U.S. city of Baltimore and one of its top officials, Congressman Elijah Cummings, after the African-American lawmaker assailed the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants at the southern border with Mexico. In a string of Twitter comments, Trump called the 68-year Cummings, now in his 13th term in the House of Representatives, a “brutal bully” and claimed that his congressional district “is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” Trump contended that Cummings’s district is “FAR WORSE and more dangerous” than the border facilities where the government detains migrants who have crossed the U.S. border without documentation. ….As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2019 Government statistics show, however, that Cummings’s district, which includes impoverished parts of Baltimore and well-off suburban enclaves adjoining the city, has higher per capita income and higher median home values than the national average. Trump rebuffed …

It made history as the first country to quit the International Criminal Court. Then it kicked out the United Nations human rights office. Even as Burundi’s vice president asserts in a rare interview that the troubled country is now peaceful, reports of abuses are up ahead of next year’s election as some people worry President Pierre Nkurunziza will run once more. An Associated Press visit this month witnessed a government intent on portraying an image of calm while some citizens said they live in fear that the upcoming vote could be bloody, like the one in 2015 that sparked political turmoil that still simmers today. “It’s hard to live in Burundi, there’s no freedom. You can’t express ideas opposing the government as there’s a constant fear of being arrested, kidnapped or killed,” said Sake Mathieu, founder of the Community Association for Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, one of the few rights groups still operating in this East African country of some 11 million people. More than 1,200 people have been killed since Nkurunziza announced he would run for a third term and the government cracked down on the widespread protests that followed, the U.N. says. Nearly 350,000 people have …