House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is downplaying any differences with high-profile progressive lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying she had a “nice meeting” Friday with the social media dynamo who’s made some tart observations about the Democratic leadership team. Pelosi told reporters that “I don’t think we have that many differences” despite some sharp words back and forth recently with “AOC,” as she’s referred to by her 4.9 million followers on Twitter. “In our caucus we have our differences. Respect that instead of making a big issue of it,” Pelosi told reporters, displaying a little exasperation with the media’s fixation with their relationship. “We just had a meeting to clear the air.” FILE – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, July 15, 2019. Corbin Trent, a spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez, said, “It was a very positive and productive meeting about progressive priorities.” The pair had quarreled publicly over the clout of the freshmen who handed House control back to the Democrats in last year’s election. Pelosi had noted that the so-called progressive “squad” of four women of color that includes Ocasio-Cortez is only four people strong among dozens of Democrats. Ocasio-Cortez in turn accused her of …

The World Health Organization reports an experimental vaccine is saving lives and slowing the spread of the Ebola virus in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. But as the first anniversary of the Ebola epidemic nears, the WHO warns many challenges remain before the deadly disease is fully contained.  More than 2,600 cases of Ebola, including 1,756 deaths, have been reported in North Kivu and Ituri provinces since Aug. 1, 2018, according to WHO, making this the second worst Ebola outbreak after the 2014 West African epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people. A second wave of the outbreak in the Beni health zone is larger than the first wave one year ago, WHO reports. Beni accounts for more than half of the 242 new cases of Ebola reported in the last three weeks. Other recent hotspots include Mandima, Mabalako and Katwa. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO health emergencies, has credited the work of the international operation for preventing the spread of the virus outside North Kivu and Ituri provinces. In addition, there are no confirmed cases in neighboring countries. More than 175,000 people have been vaccinated against Ebola as a preventive measure, he reported.  “Ebola is a disease that …

VOA Connect Episode 80 – A look at various faiths and how religion plays out in the lives of ordinary Americans, from cowboy Christians, to a “freelance” Muslim, to the effect a Thai monk on a cross-country trek has on people’s attitudes toward peace.   …

The U.S. economy slowed sharply in the second quarter even as consumers stepped up their spending. The Commerce Department says the gross domestic product grew at a 2.1% annual rate in the April-June quarter, down from a 3.1% gain in the first quarter. But consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of economic activity, accelerated to growth at a sizzling 4.3% rate after a lackluster 1.1% annual gain in the first quarter. This spending strength was offset by a widening of the trade deficit and slower business inventory rebuilding, which together pared GDP by 1.5 percentage points. Economists worry that an economic slowdown could last for the rest of the year as the economy reflects weakness from overseas and a confidence-shaking trade battle between the United States and China. …

In advance of World Hepatitis Day on Sunday (July 28), the World Health Organization (WHO) is urging countries to invest in affordable treatments that could reduce the number of infections and save millions of lives. Hepatitis B and C are viral infections transmitted through contact with blood. Those two viruses cause cirrhosis and liver cancer and constitute about 96 percent of all hepatitis-related deaths. The World Health Organization says hepatitis B and C infections affect about 325 million people globally and kill about 1.4 million every year. WHO’s hepatitis team leader, Marc Bulterys said that makes hepatitis the second most lethal infectious disease just behind tuberculosis. “The number of deaths from hepatitis has been increasing over the past two decades,” he added. “What is worse, hepatitis has been a silent killer.  Of the 257 million people that we estimate are living with hepatitis B infection, only about one in 10 has been diagnosed and only approximately 4.5 million people are on treatment.”  Bulterys said of the 71 million people living with chronic hepatitis C, only one in five has been diagnosed and 5 million treated.   The WHO study finds hepatitis could be eliminated as a public health threat in …

Four major automakers have reached a deal with California to toughen standards for gas mileage and greenhouse gas emissions, bypassing the Trump administration’s push to relax mileage standards nationwide instead. Ford, BMW, Honda and Volkswagen signed the deal with the California Air Resources Board, the state’s air pollution regulator, which had been at odds with the Trump administration for months, in a contest that automakers fear could set up years of confusion and litigation in the industry. California has said it would exercise its powers to set more stringent pollution and mileage standards than the federal government has proposed. The Trump administration reacted strongly to the end run, with Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Michael Abboud calling it a “PR stunt.”  “The federal government, not a single state, should set this standard,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said. The Trump administration would keep going on its competing effort to relax mileage standards nationwide, Deere said. The administration has sought to freeze Obama administration standards, keeping fleetwide new-vehicle mileage at 2021 levels of about 30 mpg. The administration says the extra expense to comply with the requirements will raise the price of new cars, making them unaffordable and depriving buyers of new …

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is regarded globally as the most ambitious project ever designed for building connectivity infrastructure like roads, railways and ports. New research shows, however, that China is investing just one-third of the BRI funds in connectivity infrastructure and instead is allocating two-thirds of the money for energy projects. The investigation published by the Mercator Institute of China Studies (MERICS) in Berlin suggests that China is building energy facilities with the goal of relocating its surplus industrial capacity to nearly two dozen different countries, analysts said. “China’s initial focus on energy projects creates the preconditions for the next phase of the BRI: industrial build-up and new China-cantered supply chains,” MERICS said in its report, “Powering the Belt and Road.” A portion of Chinese factories have moved to Vietnam and other places in Southeast Asia because of shrinking demand and new environmental laws that have made it impossible for many of them to continue using old machinery. China did its best to convince beneficiary countries it was keen to develop their infrastructure, such as roads, railways and ports. As a result, a large-scale migration of industrial capacity was not expected. China’s goals FILE – Work is in …

John Fogerty has pulled out of Woodstock 50 just weeks before the troubled anniversary event is supposed to take place. A representative for the singer tells The Associated Press that Fogerty, who performed at the original 1969 festival with Creedence Clearwater Revival, will now only perform at a smaller anniversary event at Woodstock’s original site in Bethel, New York. Fogerty appeared alongside the original festival’s co-founder, Michael Lang, in March to announce that Jay-Z, Dead & Company and the Killers would perform at Woodstock 50, set for Aug. 16-18. The anniversary event has faced a series of setbacks, including the loss of a financial partner and permit denials. Fogerty will instead perform at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, which is holding its event during the same three-day weekend. …

Tech savvy farmers in Nigeria are using a farming technique known as aeroponics, in which plants are grown in humid air. The practice is not well known in Nigeria, but those using it are on a mission to make it more popular.  In the town of Abeokuta, the technique could make a big difference in a country where violence and desertification have made huge amounts of land unfarmable. Biochemist Samson Ogbole is popularly known as Nigeria’s smart farmer. He and his team are growing crops without soil at a tech-based farm they started three years ago in Abeokuta, in southwest Nigeria. Working to end food scarcity They say they’re on a mission to eliminate seasonal food scarcity in Nigeria. “Because we’re the ones controlling everything that the plant requires, we’re not depending on seasons,” Ogbole said. “So it’s no longer seasonal farming, it is just farming anytime of the year, meaning we can plant anytime of the year, we can harvest anytime of the year.” But setting up the smart farm was not easy. It required startup capital of more than $180,000, Ogbole said. “We were called wizards, demons, that we are doing something unnatural. So it took a whole …

Saudi Arabia has stopped issuing visas to people from Congo while citing the Ebola outbreak there, even as the World Health Organization recommends against travel restrictions. Some Muslims in Congo had planned to take part in the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia next month. A letter from the Saudi foreign ministry to Congo’s embassy in Riyadh, obtained by The Associated Press and dated Wednesday, says the kingdom made the decision to protect pilgrims and others.   The letter refers to the WHO decision this month to declare the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo a global health emergency. More than 1,700 people have died in the year-long outbreak. Saudi Arabia also suspended visas during West Africa’s Ebola outbreak a few years ago. The decision affects anyone coming from Congo, including non-citizens. …

A village in central Turkey where Boris Johnson traces his Turkish ancestry to is abuzz with excitement and pride over the news that a man they see as one of their own has become the new prime minister of Britain. Residents of the mainly farming village of Kalfat, in Cankiri province, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the Turkish capital Ankara, gathered at its main assembly place on Tuesday to celebrate after Johnson won a Conservative Party leadership contest triggered by the resignation of Theresa May, according to town administrator, Bayram Tavukcu. Johnson took office as British prime minister on Wednesday. Residents here dismiss as “political rhetoric” past comments by Johnson that were sometimes deemed to be anti-Muslim or anti-Turkish and said they hope that he will visit Kalfat while in office. “We were honored that someone who has Ottoman genes, who comes from these lands, has become the prime minister of a prodigious country,” said Adem Karaagac, the former administrator of the village of 1,300. Britain’s new Prime Minister Boris Johnson waves from the steps outside 10 Downing Street, London, Wednesday, July 24, 2019. Johnson’s paternal great-great-grandfather, Haci Ahmet Riza Efendi, was born there in 1813 and the house …

More than one thousand people staged a sit-in at the Hong Kong airport Friday, alerting visitors  to the recent demonstrations in the metropolis, some of which have resulted in casualties. The demonstrators and airport staff, dressed in black also criticized the police response to attacks on pro-democracy protesters. Cellphone video that appeared on social media shows assailants alleged to be Triad gangsters attacking protesters with pipes and poles at a Hong Kong subway station Sunday. The protests stem from a call to end the now-suspended bill to extradite Hong Kong residents charged with criminal offenses to China for trial as well as demonstrations for democratic reforms and an end to Beijing’s tighter grip on the territory. Hong Kong executive Carrie Lam apologized for the turmoil the extradition bill has caused and declared it “dead.” Another march is planned for Saturday in Yuen Long, the neighborhood where a mob of white-clad men brutally attacked people at a rail station last Sunday following a large pro-democracy rally. Dozens were injured and six arrested, with police alleging some had gang ties.   …

Temperature records are being broken across Europe as a heat wave grips the continent. Hot air moving from the Sahara region has caused temperatures to rise. Paris surpassed its heat record Thursday, with temperatures in the city reaching 42.7 degrees Celsius. Paris’ record had been set in 1947 at 40.4 degrees Celsius. In June, France experienced its hottest day on record, with temperatures reaching 47 degrees Celsius, causing the heat alert system to go to its maximum level of red for the first time. The Netherlands experienced its hottest day on record Thursday, with temperatures reaching 41.7 degrees Celsius. The previous record was set Wednesday, with temperatures reaching over 40 degrees Celsius in the Gilze Rijen municipality near the Belgian border. In Germany, heat records are also being broken, with temperatures reaching 42.6 degrees Celsius. The previous record was set Wednesday, with a high of 40.5 degrees Celsius in Geilenkirchen also near the Belgian border. Belgium also experienced its hottest day Thursday, with highs reaching 40.7 degrees Celsius, also in the western town of Beitem. Many public buildings in Europe lack air conditioning. Additionally, only 5% of homes have cooling units, according to reports. Trains across the continent have stopped, …

Joe Biden no longer plans to turn the other cheek.   His front-running status fragile, the former vice president is embracing an aggressive plan to confront Democratic rivals who have tried to undermine his popularity with black voters.   After ignoring his Democratic competition for much of the year, Biden and his team shrugged off the risks Thursday and leaned into a deliberate campaign to push back against New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and California Sen. Kamala Harris, the only high-profile African-American candidates in the race.   Biden’s team highlighted Booker and Harris’ past praise of Biden while raising questions about their own records related to race. And Biden’s allies made clear that the former vice president was prepared for a fight in next week’s debate. They also point to numerous surveys showing Biden with durable support among black voters that far exceeds that of Booker or Harris.   “He’s going to forcefully defend his record and not let it get distorted,” declared Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana congressman and national co-chairman of Biden’s campaign. The comments echoed Biden’s own from the night before in Detroit when he warned his competitors that he was “not going to be as polite” in …

North Korea has formally announced its latest ballistic missile test, saying the launch was a warning to “military warmongers” in South Korea who are set to soon hold joint military exercises with the United States. North Korean state media showed pictures of Kim Jong Un personally supervising the Thursday test of what it called a “new-type tactical guided weapon.” U.S. and South Korean officials say the projectile was a short-range ballistic missile. The official Korean Central News Agency said the test was meant “to send a solemn warning to the south Korean military warmongers who are running high fever in their moves to introduce the ultramodern offensive weapons into south Korea and hold military exercise in defiance of the repeated warnings.” Complaints about South Korea North Korea has repeatedly complained about South Korea’s recent acquisition of U.S. F-35 fighter jets, as well as upcoming U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises. Pyongyang has warned it may not resume working-level talks with the United States if the drills take place. “South Korean authorities show such strange double-dealing behavior as acting a ‘handshake of peace’ and fingering joint declaration and agreement and the like before the world people and, behind the scene, shipping ultra-modern …

There was more flash than substance Thursday as the White House celebrated the anniversary of an initiative to spur job training by companies. The initiative, led by President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, has garnered commitments from 300 companies to provide 12 million training opportunities in the years ahead. But there are questions about how much the administration is willing to spend to help U.S. workers, whether the agreements by companies will result in higher salaries and whether employers will stick to their nonbinding pledge if the economy sours. A look at the celebratory rhetoric: Ivanka Trump: “This administration believes that every American should have a chance to earn a great living doing work that they love. … The president’s call to action for the pledge has become a full-blown national movement. Over the last year, more than 300 businesses, 300 businesses, have signed the pledge, businesses large and small, and today we celebrate reaching 12 million pledged commitments. … This pledge is more than just a number. Every single pledge is a commitment to the promise of an individual and his or her potential.” Vice President Mike Pence: “That is an astonishing accomplishment.” The Facts: It’s much too early to …

RFE/RL contributed to this report. Despite the arrest of a top Kremlin critic and police raids on the homes of several political activists, opposition leaders in Russia remained determined to go ahead with a planned protest in Moscow on Saturday. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was ordered jailed Wednesday for 30 days for calling “unauthorized protests” for this weekend to protest the disqualification of several opposition-minded candidates from the Sept. 8 Moscow city council elections. Election officials have barred about 30 independent candidates from the ballot, saying some of the 5,500 signatures they needed to get on the ballot were invalid. The rejected candidates say the reason for not validating the signatures is to keep genuine independents off the ballots and ensure the ruling United Russia party and others who do President Vladimir Putin’s bidding maintain dominance. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is charged with participation in an unauthorised protest rally, attends a court hearing in Moscow, July 1, 2019. “If the United Russia swindlers don’t register the independent candidates and spit on the opinions of the citizenry, then all of us … will come to the mayor’s office at Tverskaya 13,” Navalny wrote on a social media post earlier …

The U.S. government plans to resume executions after a 16-year hiatus, picking five killers of children to be the first to die. The five men — four white and one black — range in age from 37 to 67. They are being held in a high-security federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where they will be executed. Here is a look at the five men and their crimes: Daniel Lee, 46, is scheduled for execution Dec. 9. Lee, a white supremacist, was convicted in 1999 for killing an Arkansas gun dealer, along with his wife and 8-year-old daughter. Lezmond Mitchell, 37, is scheduled for execution Dec. 11. Mitchell was convicted in 2003 for killing a 63-year-old grandmother and her 9-year-old granddaughter in Arizona. After stabbing the grandmother to death, Mitchell and his accomplice forced the child to sit next to the body for a more than 50-kilometer drive, before fatally slashing her throat. Wesley Purkey, 67, is scheduled for execution Dec. 13. Purkey was found guilty in 2003 for raping and killing a 16-year-old girl before dismembering and burning her body in Missouri. Months before that murder, Purkey had used a hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who suffered from …

The thigh bone of a giant dinosaur was found this week by French paleontologists at an excavation site in southwestern France where remains of some of the largest animals that ever lived on land have been dug up since 2010. The two-meter long femur at the Angeac-Charente site is thought to have belonged to a sauropod, herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and tails which were widespread in the late Jurassic era, over 140 million years ago. “This is a major discovery,” Ronan Allain, a paleontologist at the National History Museum of Paris told Reuters. “I was especially amazed by the state of preservation of that femur.” “These are animals that probably weighed 40 to 50 tons,” he said. Allain said scientists at the site near the city of Cognac have found more than 7,500 fossils of more than 40 different species since 2010, making it one of the largest such finds in Europe. …

CARACAS — A proposal to modify U.S. oil sanctions on Venezuela to allow crude exports to be bartered for food has divided the country’s opposition between those who say the move would stave off famine and those who predict President Nicolas Maduro would abuse it.    Henri Falcon, the former governor of western Lara state, said Thursday that he wrote to the United Nations and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs requesting such an exemption for food and medicine imports.    Falcon attained international prominence last year when he broke a boycott to challenge Maduro in a vote many opposition parties deemed a sham. He faces an uphill battle to convince the United States and other opposition politicians of the merits of the program.    The U.N. implemented a similar program in Iraq, another oil-dependent economy, from 1996 to 2003 to help citizens cope with U.N. sanctions after former leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.  Through early 2019, the United States was Venezuela’s largest crude importer. State oil company PDVSA got cash from the oil it sent to U.S. refiners, while it used exports to other major customers like China’s CNPC and Russia’s Rosneft to pay off …

Islamic State’s West Africa branch on Thursday claimed responsibility for kidnapping six aid workers in northeast Nigeria. International aid agency Action Against Hunger said that a staff member and five others kidnapped in Nigeria last week had appeared in a video released on Wednesday evening and that they were “apparently in a good condition of health.” Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA), which split from Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram in 2016, claimed responsibility for the kidnap in a tweet published by the SITE monitoring group. The group has carried out a number of attacks in the northeast over the last few months, including on military bases. It killed a kidnapped aid worker nine months ago. Action Against Hunger said in a statement that the people were abducted last week near the town of Damasak in northeast Nigeria, where the insurgents were active. “Action Against Hunger strongly requests that our staff member and her companions are released,” said the agency. The video was published by The Cable, a Nigerian news organisation, and showed a woman sitting on the floor who identifies herself as “Grace”. Five men sit around her, some with their heads bowed. Behind them is a sheet with …

The U.S. House on Thursday approved legislation aimed at protecting thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States from deportation by granting them Temporary Protected Status. The measure was adopted on a 272-158 vote after a debate that required a simple majority for passage. The same bill failed earlier this week when 154 Republicans voted against it under a procedure for quick passage that required approval from two-thirds of the 435 House members. All 158 votes against the bill Thursday were Republicans, while 39 Republicans voted in favor. Similar legislation has not moved forward in the Senate since it was introduced in February. Arguments for, against Temporary Protected Status is usually granted by the Department of Homeland Security to people from countries ravaged by natural disasters or war and lets them remain in the U.S. until the situation improves back home. Rep. Doug Collin of Georgia, the top Republican on the House judiciary panel, said he opposed the bill because recent court rulings have blocked the Trump administration from terminating the TPS designation for some countries. “We should not ensure renewal is automatic,” Collins said. “If we do not do that, we can continue the same broken TPS designation process.” …

Hundreds of Catholic parishioners in Paraguay donned bird-like costumes and paraded down the streets this week to honor a 16th-century saint said to possess miraculous powers.    The celebration in the municipality of Emboscada, some 45 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of the capital of Asuncion, paid tribute to St. Francis Solano, who was born in Spain in 1549 and died in Peru in 1610. He was canonized in 1726. Wearing a suit made from the feathers of six hens, Maria Estela Pereira said she had come to show thanks.  Blacksmith Pablo Ovelar poses for a photo, dressed in his feathered costume during the feast of St. Francis Solano in Emboscada, Paraguay, July 24, 2019. “I suffer from arthritis and after praying four years ago to St. Francis Solano to allow me to move from one place to another without pain, he granted me a miracle,” said the 52-year-old widow, a mother of 11 children.    Modesto Martinez, a parish priest in the nearby city of San Bernardino, said there was no scholarly explanation for the procession, but birds were believed to have sung to St. Francis Solano as he lay on his deathbed. “It is likely that the story, if …

After months of anticipation, Congress finally heard testimony from former special counsel Robert Mueller. So what now?    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Mueller’s appearance was “a crossing of a threshold,” raising public awareness of what Mueller found. And Democrats after the hearing said they had clearly laid out the facts about the Mueller report, which did not find a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia but detailed extensive Russian intervention in the 2016 election. Mueller also said in the report that he couldn’t clear President Donald Trump on obstruction of justice.    But it remains to be seen how the testimony will affect public views of Trump’s presidency and the push for impeachment. Mueller said some of the things that Democrats wanted him to say — including a clear dismissal of Trump’s claims of total exoneration — but he declined to answer many of their questions, and he spoke haltingly at times. Trump claimed victory, saying Mueller did “a horrible job.” FILE – Former special counsel Robert Mueller checks pages in the report as he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on his report on Russian election interference, on Capitol Hill, July 24, 2019. Democrats say they …