Half a century after astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon, a new space race is underway to exploit the skies for commercial profit. Tech giants and startups pursuing bold plans such as selling space tourism, mining asteroids and beaming giant adverts into the skies are winning millions in investment with pledges to bring the stars into reach. Annual revenues from space-related business, currently worth $350 billion, could nearly triple in size by 2040, estimates U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley. But the rapid growth of a market with seemingly boundless potential has sparked concerns about a lack of laws and potential conflicts over resources, prompting calls for more rules to govern humanity’s use of the cosmos. “By 2040 (we believe) there will be 1,000 people living and working on the moon and 10,000 annual visitors,” said Aaron Sorenson, a spokesman from the Japanese lunar exploration startup ispace. “Our company vision is to extend human presence into outer space. We believe that begins with the expansion of the earth’s economy to the moon,” he said. Drops in launch costs brought about by technological advances such as the development of commercial reusable rockets have caught the interest of startups …

Elton John on Wednesday held a celebrity-packed gala in the south of France to raise funds to fight HIV/AIDS in Kenya.    The British singer-songwriter, on a break from his farewell world tour, welcomed the likes of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, The Who guitarist Pete Townshend, actress Joan Collins and Taron Egerton, who plays John in the musical biopic Rocketman, to a villa in Cap d’Antibes.    “We’re here for the Elton John AIDS foundation, our first south of France fundraiser, hopefully to raise money for people who desperately need it in our fight against HIV and AIDS,” John told reporters.    Martin performed Viva La Vida and John sang at the piano for guests gathered for a dinner and an auction, including the sale of a limited-edition luxury Bentley car.    The Elton John AIDS Foundation last year announced a MenStar Coalition that aims to expand diagnosis and treatment of HIV infections, including a push for HIV self-testing particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.    “The thing is for people to get tested, to know their status, not to be ashamed of it. It’s a very treatable disease,” John said Wednesday.    The Elton John AIDS Foundation has donated $450 million to projects since it was founded in …

WASHINGTON – The U.S. military said Wednesday that it sent a Navy warship through the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from China, a move likely to anger China during a period of tense relations between Washington and Beijing.    Taiwan is among a growing number of flash points in the U.S.-China relationship, which include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom-of-navigation patrols.    China on Wednesday warned that it is ready for war if there was any move toward Taiwan’s independence, accusing the United States of undermining global stability and denouncing its arms sales to the self-ruled island.    The warship sent to the 112-mile-wide (180-km) Taiwan Strait was identified as the Antietam.    “The [ship’s] transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Cmdr. Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet, said in a statement. “The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.”    The voyage risks further raising tensions with China but will likely be viewed by self-ruled Taiwan as a sign of support from U.S. President …

Colorado school officials Wednesday abandoned a $60 million proposal to raze and rebuild Columbine High School in an effort to discourage unwanted attention at the site of one the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools, Jason Glass, last month floated the idea of demolishing and rebuilding Columbine in a letter to staff, students, parents and members of the surrounding Denver suburb of Littleton, Colorado. After receiving community response via an online survey, Glass said Wednesday that the plan would not go forward. “It is clear to me that no consensus direction exits to rebuild the school,” Glass said in a written statement. School police officers watch students leave Columbine High School, April 16, 2019, in Littleton, Colo. Authorities were looking for a woman suspected of making threats. ‘Source of inspiration’ On April 20, 1999, two Columbine students armed with semiautomatic weapons and shotguns stormed the high school, fatally shooting a teacher and 12 classmates before committing suicide in the library. Glass said in the June letter that Columbine remained “a source of inspiration” to other mass shooters, and that hoaxers and curiosity seekers have strained the school district’s resources. He cited numerous instances …

Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden defended his civil rights record on Wednesday, reminding a crowd of black leaders of his close relationship with Barack Obama while backing away from his work on the 1994 crime bill. Biden has been under fire in recent weeks from black rivals Kamala Harris and Cory Booker on racial issues. He said Obama, the first black U.S. president, would not have chosen him to be his vice president if he was bad on civil rights. “They did a significant background check on me for months with 10 people. I doubt whether they would have picked me if these accusations about me being wrong on civil rights were correct,” Biden told the annual convention of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. He rejected the idea he was using Obama as a “crutch,” however, saying his administration would not just be a continuation of Obama’s. Biden’s early lead in the nominating contest has been fueled in part by strong support from black voters, who remember his service for eight years as vice president for Obama. But Biden has slipped in the polls after a confrontation at the first debate last month with Harris, who criticized …

SANTIAGO – Chilean lawmakers passed a measure on Wednesday abolishing a decades-old law under which state-run Codelco, the world’s largest copper miner, helped foot the bill for the country’s military.    The bill establishes a dedicated fund to finance the Chilean armed forces and beefs up congressional oversight of the use of those funds, according to a statement from Chile’s Congress.    Codelco’s payments to Chilean state coffers will be phased out over a period lasting more than a decade.    The legislation replaces a 1958 law, strengthened during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, that required Codelco to turn over 10 percent of its export sales to the military.    Center-right President Sebastian Pinera, who spearheaded the bill and is expected to sign it into law, had said it was “absurd” that the strategic spending of Chile’s armed forces was affected by a fluctuating copper price.    Codelco Chief Executive Nelson Pizarro has said the state miner would be better off without the military funding requirement.    The top copper producer, which turns over all its profits to the state, needs to invest nearly $40 billion over 10 years to keep output of the metal flowing from its aging mines.  …

MOSCOW – A Russian state official warned on Wednesday that an abandoned chemicals factory in Siberia could cause an environmental disaster akin to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident unless urgent action is taken to address the problems it presents.  The Usolyekhimprom plant, which produced chlorine and other chemicals in the Irkutsk region, was abandoned because of bankruptcy in 2017, according to Russian news agencies. But the factory still contains an array of toxic substances, the head of the state environment watchdog Rosprirodnadzor said.    The official, Svetlana Radionova, said she had recently visited the facility and, among other things, discovered wells filled with oil waste that could burst and flow into the Angara, a major Siberian river.    “This is essentially the territory of an environmental catastrophe. We need to act now. Otherwise, we will have an ‘ecological Chernobyl,’” Radionova said in an interview with pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia.    The meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in April 1986 was the world’s worst nuclear accident and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate as it spewed clouds of nuclear material across Europe.    “No one knows what’s there [at the Siberian site],” Radionova said, adding she had seen a huge amount of mercury residue there that needed to be “de-mercurized,” and tanks, some …

Meek Mill, a rap artist from Philadelphia who has become an advocate for reform of the U.S. criminal justice system, is entitled to a new trial on drugs and weapon charges that have kept him on probation for a decade, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled Wednesday. A three-judge Pennsylvania Superior Court panel agreed that Philadelphia Judge Genece Brinkley, who presided over a 2008 trial that resulted in his conviction, was no longer impartial, as Meek Mill’s attorneys have argued. It ordered a replacement for Brinkley in the case. FILE – Rapper Meek Mill performs in East Rutherford, N.J., June 10, 2018. After the sentence, Meek Mill, an African-American whose given name is Robert Rihmeek Williams, became a cause celebre for musicians, celebrities and criminal justice reform campaigners who said his case was typical of a U.S. legal system that treats minorities unjustly. The sole witness against Meek Mill at his 2008 trial was a discredited Philadelphia narcotics squad officer who is no longer with the city’s police force. “Williams’ right to be tried before an impartial judge is necessary in this case because the trial judge heard highly prejudicial testimony at the first trial, which was a bench trial, and …

Until his last breath, Salomon Nduhi Kambale insisted he had been poisoned by someone and that was the reason he was vomiting blood. The 30-year-old man wouldn’t give community health teams his phone number, and when they found it, he hung up on them. Health workers were desperate to persuade him to get vaccinated for Ebola after a friend fell ill with the lethal and highly contagious disease. But within days, Nduhi was dead. His widow and their four young children were given his positive Ebola test result and a chilling warning from a team of health workers: “If you don’t accept vaccination, you can prepare to die.” Deep distrust — along with political instability and deadly violence — has severely undermined efforts by public health authorities in Congo to curb the outbreak by tracing and vaccinating those who may have come into contact with infected people. Health experts agree the experimental Ebola vaccine has saved multitudes in Congo. But after nearly a year and some 171,000 doses given, the epidemic shows few signs of waning. The virus has killed more than 1,700 people and has now arrived in the region’s largest city, Goma. The World Health Organization last week …

Turkey on Wednesday slammed a new U.S. proposal for a so-called “safe zone” in northern Syria, saying it was “not satisfactory” and warning that Ankara may launch a new offensive to secure its border if an agreement isn’t reached soon. According to Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, U.S. envoy James Jeffrey and other U.S. officials held talks with Turkish officials in Ankara about Syria, including the setting up of a safe zone along the Turkey-Syrian border. “The United States must come with proposals that are satisfactory to us or are close to our proposals,” Cavusoglu said, adding that Turkey’s patience “has run out.” Turkey views Kurdish fighters who have battled the Islamic State group alongside U.S. forces as terrorists, allied with a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey. Ankara wants the safe zone established east of the Euphrates River to keep the Kurdish fighters away from the border region. Since 2016, Turkey has launched two cross-border offensives against IS and the Kurdish fighters. It has recently been sending reinforcements to its border area, signaling a possible new offensive. Cavusoglu, speaking to reporters at a joint news conference with visiting Nicaraguan counterpart, Denis Moncada, said the U.S. delegation had offered new proposals on the …

Good news for joke-tellers everywhere: Laughter can make a bad joke seem funnier, a study finds. People found jokes paired with laughter funnier than jokes without, and the more natural sounding the laughter was, the better. This effect was the same for people who have autism as it was for those who don’t, which suggests that autistic people may not interpret all social cues as differently as expected. “There’s quite a lot of research arguing that people with autism process social information differently, and there is a little bit of evidence that they process laughter differently,” said Sophie Scott, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London who was a co-author on the study published in Current Biology. This research suggests that the way people with autism interpret laughter may not be so different after all.  People with autism tend to have trouble with social interactions, which could stem from how they process social cues like laughter. In order to study how individuals with autism and those without process laughter, a research team led by University College London Ph.D. student Qing Ceci Cai leveraged the power of the pun. Ready, set, laugh Cai scoured the internet for simple jokes …

South Sudanese technology firms have launched the country’s first mobile money transfer platform, M-Gurush.  It allows customers to pay for goods and services across South Sudan, similar to platforms in Kenya and other African countries.  While a 2018 peace deal allowed for the service to be rolled-out across the country, there are still infrastructure challenges, as Sheila Ponnie reports from Juba …

Kenya’s presidency appointed Labor Minister Ukur Yatani as acting finance minister on Wednesday, a day after incumbent Henry Rotich was charged with corruption. Rotich, who has been in the finance post since 2013, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to corruption charges in connection with tenders for the construction of two dams. Rotich, who was bailed on a surety of 15 million shillings, is one of 26 people facing charges related to the project. He is due to return to court on Aug. 8. President Uhuru Kenyatta also replaced the finance ministry’s number-two official, Kamau Thugge, who was charged alongside Rotich, also pleading not guilty. Italian construction company CMC di Ravenna, which is also implicated in the corruption investigation, has denied any wrongdoing and said late on Tuesday it was co-operating with authorities. “The company is working with the Kenyan judicial authority to settle the matter as soon as possible,” it said in a statement. Kenyan director of public prosecution Noordin Haji said earlier on Tuesday that Nairobi was set to seek the extradition of one of the company’s directors to face charges. Prosecutors accuse the company and Rotich and other Kenyan officials of inflating the cost of building two dams …

India’s Catholic Church, already rocked by allegations that a bishop raped a nun, is facing an uprising by hundreds of priests against one of the country’s four cardinals following his reinstatement by Pope Francis. Francis last year effectively suspended Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the eastern rite Syro-Malabar church in the southern Indian state of Kerala, amid a controversy over disputed land sales. Francis named a temporary administrator to run Alencherry’s Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, resolve its financial problems and try to heal the divisions the dispute had caused among the priests. Last month, Francis reinstated Alencherry after the administrator turned in his report. The findings were never made public, and two auxiliary bishops who were suspended along with Alencherry remain suspended. About 450 priests, including 70 from outside of India, began a hunger strike and prayer vigil last week at the bishop’s house in city of Kochi to protest Alencherry’s reinstatement, the continued suspension of the two bishops and to demand information about the investigation. More than 360 priests signed a petition that was sent to the Vatican. “We were expecting a positive note from Vatican but unfortunately we got a shock that Vatican terminated the apostolic administrator and brought back …

Zimbabwe’s government workers, including public prosecutors, say they are being squeezed by inflation, which is now running at an annual rate of 175 percent. Some have asked to live in their places of work to cut down on the cost of rent and transportation. Thirty-one-year-old Munyaradzi Masiiwa is a high school teacher in Harare. Masiiwa says he went into the profession because he admired his teachers growing up, and saw them living in nice houses and driving nice cars. But now, he says, he has lost all motivation, because his salary of less than $30 per month isn’t enough to support his five dependents, including his 75-year-old mother and two children. This month, he says, the money lasted only three days. “I am going to work right now and l just got porridge. I cannot afford to buy a loaf of bread… It is very difficult, it is very difficult to get used to the situation. The family is looking up to me; l have nothing to offer. The kids are going to school with nothing to eat,” Masiiwa said. Munyaradzi Masiiwa, having porridge for breakfast at his home in Harare on July 23, 2019, as he cannot afford a …

Agriculturist Lauren Goodwin wants children to develop a passion for ethical agriculture. As Ghana’s capital Accra expands, green spaces diminish, and fast food starts to become a norm, Goodwin is teaching kids where their food comes from – and how to grow it themselves.  Stacey Knott reports for VOA, from Accra. …

As Ghana’s capital Accra expands, green spaces have diminished and fast food is starting to become a norm; however, agriculturist Lauren Goodwin wants to ensure that children understand where their food comes from – and how to grow it themselves.  Tucked away in one of Accra’s few green spaces, children are spending their school holiday learning about ethical agriculture and healthy living.  Ghana, like many nations across the world, is seeing a rise in fast food consumption and the associated health risks. Fried local street food and fast food restaurants are common sights throughout the capital. Goodwin, founder of the Under the Mango Tree Camp, says she sees people, especially in cities, becoming disconnected from their food source.  “I know that children need to be a part of this. This can’t be a conversation that we just keep for adults, it can’t be, you know. We are growing and we have our young people that are coming up; it’s so important they are exposed to this thing. They need to know how food grows,” Goodwin said. This month, the children have been learning about all aspects of ethical agriculture, from composting to creating natural pesticides. The camp is held at …

A political storm has erupted in India over remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to help mediate in the longstanding dispute between New Delhi and Islamabad over the region of Kashmir. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan thanked Trump and expressed surprise at India’s reaction. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.      …

Virtual reality, or VR, is not just a medium for software engineers who can code. Artists and filmmakers are exploring the stories they can tell with VR. A collection of such experiences are now a part of an art show called Robot Remix. The art show challenges visitors to rethink their relationship with technology, robots and the world. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from the show in Pasadena, California. …

French authorities in a meeting Tuesday with an Iranian envoy stressed the need for Tehran to quickly respect the 2015 nuclear accord it has breached and “make the needed gestures” to deescalate mounting tensions in the Persian Gulf region. A statement by the French Foreign Ministry said Seyed Abbas Araghchi gave a message to President Emmanuel Macron from Iranian leader Hassen Rouhani. Macron and Rouhani spoke last Thursday. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who met with Araghchi, is working with European partners on an observation mission to ensure maritime security in the Gulf, where tensions have mounted after Iran’s seizure last Friday of a U.K.-flagged oil tanker. Le Drian made no mention of a Europe-led “maritime protection mission” announced a day earlier by his British counterpart, Jeremy Hunt, offering instead what seems to be a softer version.   France is working “at this moment on a European initiative” with Britain and Germany, he told lawmakers, without elaborating. “This vision is the opposite of the American initiative, which is … maximum pressure” against Iran. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes Von der Muhll said at a briefing that the initiative involves “appropriate means of surveillance” aimed at “increased understanding of the situation at …

Tokyo Electric Power plans to scrap its Fukushima Daini nuclear station, located a few miles south of the bigger Fukushima Daiichi plant where three reactors melted down in 2011 after an earthquake and tsunami, Kyodo News reported on Wednesday. Tomoaki Kobayakawa, president of Tepco, as the company is called, will visit the governor of Fukushima prefecture on Wednesday to convey the plan and its board will formally approve the decision later this month, Kyodo said, without citing sources. Three reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, which had six reactors and is located about 12 kilometers (7 miles) north of Fukushima Daini, suffered meltdowns after the giant March 2011 earthquake and tsunami shut down the plant’s cooling systems. The Daini station also came close to a disaster, but retained enough backup power to keep cooling going. Successive Fukushima governors have called for it to be scrapped. A Tepco spokesman told Reuters by phone that nothing has been decided on the issue. Scrapping the Daini station will leave Tepco with just one potentially operational nuclear station, Kawazaki Kariwa, where it is trying to get two reactors returned to service under new safety regulations against strong local opposition. It will also leave Japan with 33 …

The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it had imposed visa restrictions on Nigerians it said were involved in trying to undermine democracy in presidential and parliamentary elections this year. The department did not name the individuals or say how many were affected by the visa restrictions. President Muhammadu Buhari won a second term in February in an election marred by delays, logistical glitches and violence. “These individuals have operated with impunity at the expense of the Nigerian people and undermined democratic principles and human rights,” spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. “The Department of State emphasizes that the actions announced today are specific to certain individuals and not directed at the Nigerian people or the newly elected government,” Ortagus added. …

A wounded Arnel Joseph was lying on a stretcher, ready to be wheeled into an operating room at the Bonne Fin hospital of Les Cayes, a Caribbean seaport located in Haiti’s southern region, when members of a special unit of the National Police Force’s (PNH) swooped in to arrest him. “We’ve captured Arnel!” the officers shouted angrily, then they fired their weapons into the air, in a video seen by VOA Creole. The alleged gang leader, considered to be one of the country’s most dangerous and wanted fugitives, was awaiting surgery on his wounded leg, when he was found and captured, according to National Police Chief Michel Ange Gedeon. The leg was wounded during a fire fight with rival gang leader Ti Sourit, Arnel told reporters as they snapped photos and recorded video of him after his arrest. Police Chief Gédeon tweeted the news to a stunned nation.  🔴Le chef de gang Arnel Joseph très recherché depuis des mois par la Alleged gang leader Arnel Joseph lies on the ground as police puts boot on his chest. In a conversation with journalists posted on YouTube, he said he considers himself to be a “representative” of the Village de Dieu slum …

Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande each received 10 nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) on Tuesday, leading the race in the youth-orientated awards show, which this year includes two new categories, best K-pop and video for good. Singer-songwriter Billie Eilish scored nine nominations, including video of the year, best pop, best new artist and artist of the year, a category the 17-year-old will compete for against Grande, rapper Cardi B, pop rocker siblings Jonas Brothers as well as singers Halsey and Shawn Mendes. Grande’s breakup anthem “thank u, next” and Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down,” in which she criticises social media trolls and those who attack LGBTQ people, will contend for prizes including song of the year, best pop and the video of the year. That major category also includes Eilish’s “Bad Guy”, Jonas Brothers’ “Sucker,” “Old Town Road (Remix)” by rapper Lil Nas X featuring country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and “a lot” by rapper 21 Savage featuring J. Cole. The 29-year-old Swift, whose acceptance speech at the 2009 awards was famously interrupted by rapper Kanye West, also received nominations for “ME!” her upbeat duet with Brendon Urie, the lead singer of Panic! at the Disco. …