U.S. national security adviser John Bolton will attend a summit in Peru to discuss Venezuela on Tuesday, but Venezuela’s allies Russia and Cuba turned down invitations to take part, two foreign ministry sources in Peru said. One of the sources said U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will also attend the meeting, which aims to discuss Venezuela’s political crisis and build support for early elections. Both sources asked not to be named because the list of attendees had not been announced. A spokesman for Bolton declined to comment. The U.S. Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Peru invited some 100 foreign ministers to the summit and had hoped to include Russia, Cuba, China and Bolivia. The idea was to foster dialog between supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his critics, Peru’s foreign minister said when he announced the summit last month. China and Bolivia have not confirmed whether they will attend, both sources said. The head of the Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Moreno, and the European Union’s representative on Venezuela, Enrique Iglesias, have confirmed their attendance, the sources added.   …

Turkish authorities have started filling a controversial dam whose artificial lake will submerge a 12,000-year-old town and which is the source of tension with Iraq, activists said Friday. The small town of Hasankeyf in the southeastern Batman province, home to 3,000 residents, will disappear as the lake is filled for the Ilisu project. While some residents welcome the development as a boost to the local economy, many are concerned over the loss of heritage. “They have closed the dam and the water is rising,” said Ridvan Ayhan, spokesman for the “Keep Hasankeyf Alive” collective, an activist group which opposes the dam. The dam has been built downstream of the Tigris river, causing concern in Iraq, which shares the river, that it will add to the region’s water shortages. But the dam is a central part of Turkey’s long-running Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), which aims to develop one of the country’s poorest regions through energy and irrigation. Ayhan said he had satellite images showing the water covered a 20-kilometre area in a process the group believed began between July 17 and 19. “We are asking the authorities to empty the dam, let the water flow. They haven’t made any statement,” Ayhan …

Indian doctors removed a tumor with a record number of 526 teeth inside a seven-year-old boy’s mouth, the medical team in the southern city of Chennai said on Friday. The 200 gram (7 ounce) growth was lodged in the boy’s lower right jaw, said Senthilnathan P., a doctor at Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, where the operation was performed. “He had come to us complaining about a swelling in his jaw,” Senthilnathan told Reuters, saying the boy had a history of swelling since he was three. “It was a benign tumor, which we removed and found that it was embedded with hundreds of unerupted teeth,” he added of the operation last month, saying Indian doctors believed the number of teeth was a global medical record. A tumor with unerupted teeth is typically a genetic condition that can also be in some cases caused by external factors such as trauma to a tooth, the doctor said. “The boy recovered very well and got discharged in three days,” he added.   …

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Friday that she met her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, to discuss tensions following Canada’s December arrest of a Huawei Technologies Co executive on a U.S. warrant, and the subsequent detention of two Canadians by China. “The fact that we were able to speak and discuss these issues face-to-face, directly with one another, absolutely is a positive step,” Freeland said in a teleconference from Bangkok, where she was attending an annual east Asia summit. Freeland said the two ministers met on the sidelines of the international gathering and “committed to continued discussions,” but she gave few details about their conversation. It was the first encounter between the two since Canada detained Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou — the daughter of the Chinese company’s founder — in December. Beijing is demanding her return. She is facing possible extradition to the United States to face charges that she conspired to defraud global banks about Huawei’s relationship with a company operating in Iran. “Minister Wang expressed concerns regarding the extradition process of Meng Wanzhou,” Freeland said without elaborating. After Meng was picked up in Vancouver, China detained Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig and later charged …

Peering through the darkness under the faint light of a peach-colored moon, wildlife biologist Jason Davis spots a telltale green flash in the bushes. Quick as a flash himself, Davis arcs a long-handled mesh net through the humid coastal air, ensnaring his tiny target. Ignoring the mosquitoes, Davis heads to the open bed of his pickup truck, opens up a notebook-size metal testing kit, and begins examining his find. Two minutes later, he makes his pronouncement. “That is what I am calling bethaniensis,” he declares. “Photuris bethaniensis,” aka the Bethany Beach Firefly, was first identified in the 1950s, and has been found only in a sliver of southern Delaware coastland. Now environmental groups are shining a beacon on the luminescent beetle, whose unique habitat is threatened by coastal development, sea level rise, invasive plants and insecticides. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, both based in Oregon, are pushing for the federal Endangered Species list to include its first firefly. Their petition to the Department of Interior says the Bethany Beach Firefly “is at immediate risk of extinction” from the “imminent destruction” of much of its habitat, noting plans to build expensive beach homes in …

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has come under fire for stacking his new cabinet with ageing party loyalists despite hopes he might opt for more technocrats in his final term. The senate this week approved the list of 43 ministers after the former military ruler finally settled on their names some two months after his inauguration in May. Buhari, 76, is yet to hand out their portfolios but already his choice of stalwarts from his All Progressives Congress (APC) party has caused dismay. “One would have expected that the president would shop for more people with more expertise” to assuage worries about the future, said Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, head of Abuja-based Transition Monitoring Group organisation. She said she doubted the ability of those chosen “to push the agenda for development for Nigeria”. Buhari faces a raft of challenges in his second term at the helm of Africa’s most populous nation — from tackling a grinding Islamist insurgency and spreading insecurity to trying to bolster a fragile economic recovery. During his first four years he earned the nickname “Baba go-slow” after he took six months to name a cabinet and was seen to proceed with decisions at a glacial pace. Far from cutting …

The daughter of U.S. President Ronald Reagan has asked for forgiveness for her father’s racist remarks.  Patti Davis said in an opinion piece published Thursday in The Washington Post she “wasn’t prepared for the tape of my father using the world ‘monkeys’  to describe black African delegates to the United Nations who had voted in a way that angered him.” Members of the Tanzanian delegation had voted in 1971 against recognizing the People’s Republic of China.  “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries – damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes,” then California Governor Reagan said in a telephone call with then-President Richard Nixon, who taped the conversation.  The tape of Reagan remarks accompanied an article about the comments Wednesday on the website of The Atlantic.  “There is no defense, no rationalization, no suitable explanation for what my father said on that taped phone conversation,” Davis wrote.  “If I had read his words as a quotation, and not heard them, I’d have said they were fabricated,” she wrote.  “Because I never heard anything like that from him.”  “. . . but it doesn’t remove the knife cut of the words I heard him say on that tape.  That …

A television documentary has made allegations linking Australia’s gambling giant, Crown Casino, to organized crime, money laundering and human trafficking. The company has taken out newspaper ads denying the allegations.  The investigation into Crown Casino was carried out by Australia’s Channel Nine television network and two newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. The story was based on tens of thousands of documents apparently leaked from the company that owns casinos in the cities of Melbourne and Perth, and is planning another in Sydney. The documentary alleged links between Crown and organized crime and claims the company turned a “blind eye” to money laundering and exploited weaknesses in Australia’s immigration processes to fly wealthy Chinese gamblers into the country without proper checks. There are also claims it had business links with an Australian brothel that has been investigated over human trafficking. MP seeks investigation Independent Member of Parliament Andrew Wilkie told the Australian parliament that Crown has operated above the law in the state of Victoria. “I now know of three police officers — two currently serving — who have openly said to my staff that in Victoria, Crown is regarded as the Vatican, an independent sovereign state all to …

Life can have its obstacles, but facing those obstacles with a disability is even more challenging. Saba Shah Khan introduces us to a lawyer in Parkland, Florida, who is defying the stereotypes associated with autism. …

VOA’s Margaret Besheer at the United Nations contributed to this report. The United States on Friday pulled out of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty to develop its own new warheads after the Russians refused to destroy their new missiles NATO says violate the pact. “Russia failed to return to full and verified compliance through the destruction of its noncompliant missile system, the SSC-8 or 9M729 ground-launched, intermediate-range cruise missile,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “Russia is solely responsible for the treaty’s demise.” Pompeo, in a statement, added the United States “will not remain party to a treaty that is deliberately violated by Russia. Russia’s noncompliance under the treaty jeopardizes U.S. supreme interests as Russia’s development and fielding of a treaty-violating missile system represents a direct threat to the United States and our allies and partners.” President Donald Trump talks to reporters before departing for a campaign rally, on the South Lawn of the White House, Aug. 1, 2019. New agreement? U.S. President Donald Trump he is hopeful a new agreement can be made to replace the historic Cold War pact. “Russia would like to do something on a nuclear treaty and that’s OK with me. They would …

Gaylen Grandstaff is back at his Moscow home after spending two years in a Russian jail. His crime: buying a cleaning solvent from the Chinese company Alibaba, that is illegal in Russia because it can also be used as a drug. Nastassia Jauman has his story.   …

A nascent immigration deal between the United States and Guatemala continued to take shape Thursday, as the U.S. Homeland Security acting secretary visited the impoverished Central American nation. According to reports, Kevin McAleenan and Guatemalan officials outlined details of the safe third country agreement signed between the United States and Guatemala five days ago. Under the new deal, the Trump administration is planning to send asylum-seekers from Honduras and El Salvador back to Guatemala to process their requests for help outside the U.S. Their claims would not initially go through the U.S. immigration courts. Phased in approach McAleenan said the plan is expected to start slowly, with single adults and not children. “We’re working on the details … and ensuring that the Guatemalans understand that we’re talking about a phased and measured approach to implementation that will not overwhelm Guatemalan resources and will be supported by U.S.-funded international organization capacity,” he said in an interview reported in The Washington Post. Those who claim fear of return to their home country would still be eligible for a lesser form of protection, “withholding of removal,” which requires a much higher burden of proof and doesn’t lead to legal permanent residency. Homeland Security …

Updated on Aug. 2, at 2:32 a.m. SEOUL — Japan has removed South Korea from a list of its preferred trading partners, a major escalation in a trade dispute rooted in historical tensions. The Cabinet of Shinzo Abe, Japan’s conservative prime minister, Friday approved plans to remove South Korea from the list of so-called “white countries” with preferred trade status. Beginning Aug. 28, Japanese companies must now seek case-by-case approval from Japan’s trade ministry before shipping certain products, which could be diverted for military use, to South Korea. South Korean President Moon Jae-in called the move “selfish” and a “grave challenge” to Korean-Japan relations, warning it could damage the global economy. Earlier, a South Korean presidential Blue House spokesperson vowed a “resolute” response. Japan last month restricted exports of high-tech materials to South Korea. The materials are used to produce semiconductors and displays in smartphones and other electronics that serve as the backbone of South Korea’s export-driven economy. FILE – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a press conference at Abe’s official residence in Tokyo, June 26, 2019. Retaliation for court rulings Japan’s moves are widely seen as retaliation for recent South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese companies to compensate …

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha on Friday ordered an investigation into several small bombings in Bangkok that took place as Thailand was hosting a high-level meeting attended by U.S.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his counterparts from China and several Asia-Pacific countries. The explosions took place near two stations of the Thai capital’s elevated train system. A police spokesman said that one of the two injured men was being treated at a hospital and the other was sent home. Two other blasts were reported at a government complex on the outskirts of the city, and near the offices of a company associated with supporters of Prayuth’s new government. Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters that police arrested two suspects connected to the explosions at five different locations in Bangkok. Prawit said the perpetrators were trying to create a “situation.” When asked whether it was connected to the junta’s recent relinquishing of power, he said “I don’t know either, let authorities investigate first.” Thailand recently ended five years of military rule following a 2014 coup. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, center, stands between Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, left, and Thailand’s Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai at the East …

Britain’s pro-European Union Liberal Democrats have won a parliamentary seat from the governing Conservatives, a blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his first electoral test since taking office. The loss reduces Johnson’s working majority in parliament to one ahead of an expected showdown with lawmakers over his plan to take Britain out of the European Union on Oct. 31 without an exit agreement if necessary. Johnson’s government already relies on the support of a small Northern Irish party for its wafer-thin majority, with just a handful of rebels in his own Conservatives needed to lose key votes. ‘No mandate’ for no-deal Brexit The Liberal Democrats won the Welsh seat of Brecon and Radnorshire with a majority of 1,425 votes. “Boris Johnson’s shrinking majority makes it clear that he has no mandate to crash us out of the EU,” Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, whose party now have 13 seats in parliament, said in a statement following the result early Friday. “I will do whatever it takes to stop Brexit and offer an alternative, positive vision. … We now have one more MP (Member of Parliament) who will vote against Brexit in parliament,” Swinson added. Wales, and the Brecon area, …

Less than 24 hours before Gov. Ricardo Rossello was expected to leave office, Puerto Ricans had no idea who would replace him as political chaos threatened to paralyze the island with a constitutional crisis. Rossello has promised to step down at 5 p.m. Friday in response to huge street protests by Puerto Ricans outraged at corruption, mismanagement and an obscenity-laced chat that was leaked in which the governor and 11 male allies made fun of women, gay people and victims of Hurricane Maria. “It’s frustrating. We’re in limbo,” said Jose Ramos, a taxi driver. “The island doesn’t have a path forward.” Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello announces his resignation in San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 25, 2019. As one of his last acts, Rossello put forward veteran politician and lawyer Pedro Pierluisi to fill the vacant secretary of state post, next in line for the governorship under the U.S. territory’s constitution. Pierluisi is a former representative to the U.S. Congress seen by most ordinary Puerto Ricans as a conciliatory, relatively uncontroversial figure, unlikely to be met by continued street demonstrations. “I offered to take a step forward for Puerto Rico at this moment given my love for my country,” Pierluisi …

President Donald Trump says he is considering a blockade or quarantine of Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro continues to hold power. Trump gave no details about such plans when answering a reporter’s question Thursday about Chinese and Iranian backing for Maduro. Russia and Cuba have also sent forces to Venezuela in support of Maduro. Trump has always said a military option is on the table for Venezuela, but so far has relied on sanctions and support from other nations to try to drive out Maduro. The United States was the first to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela after he used his constitutional power as National Assembly leader to declare Maduro’s presidency illegitimate. Guaido claimed Maduro’s re-election last year was fraudulent. Guaido led a popular uprising against Maduro earlier this year, which appears to have fizzled. The collapse in world energy prices, corruption and failed socialist policies have wrecked oil-rich Venezuela’s economy and millions have fled the country and its severe shortages of fuel, quality medical care and many food staples.   …

U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, an ex-CIA undercover officer and the lone African-American Republican in the House, says he won’t seek a third House term in next year’s elections. The El Paso Republican’s announcement came in a Thursday statement posted on his House web page. He’s the third Texas Republican to announce that he won’t seek re-election to the House, joining Michael Conaway of Midland and Pete Olson of Sugar Land. Hurd says he wants to work in the private sector toward solutions to “problems at the nexus between technology and national security.” Hurd has served the sprawling 23rd Congressional District, which extends from San Antonio to El Paso. He was one of only four House Republicans to vote to condemn President Donald Trump’s racist tweets taunting four Democratic congresswomen. …

The Vatican’s diplomatic envoy to Nicaragua said Thursday he has received a letter from President Daniel Ortega’s government apparently saying talks with the opposition on resolving the country’s more than year-old political standoff are over. Apostolic Nuncio Waldemar Somertag told The Associated Press that this week’s letter said the government’s position is that the dialogue “concluded with the definitive absence of the other side.”    Somertag declined to share the letter’s full contents, but said it was dated July 30 and addressed to the Vatican. He added that his understanding was a similar letter was sent to the Organization of American States. The nuncio and OAS representative Luis Rosadilla had served as witnesses and observers to the February-May negotiations.    Asked if he interpreted the letter from Foreign Minister Denis Moncada as a definitive end to dialogue, Somertag said: “Regrettably, I have that impression. … I would very much like to be wrong.”    There was no immediate comment from Ortega officials on the letter, which was also reported in Nicaraguan media.    The Central American nation’s crisis erupted in April 2018 with protests that grew to demand Ortega’s exit from office and early elections, with demonstrators accusing him of …

President Donald Trump opened a revved-up rally Thursday in Cincinnati by tearing into the Democrats he has been elevating as his new political foils, with attacks on four liberal congresswomen of color and their party’s leadership of cities. The president, who faced widespread criticism for not doing more to stop the chants of “Send her back” about Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar at a rally two weeks ago, did not mention Omar or her three colleagues by name in the opening moments of his Ohio gathering, but the target of his attacks was unmistakable. “The Democrat party is now being led by four left-wing extremists who reject everything that we hold dear,” Trump said of Omar and her fellow House Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. But the fleeting mention did not lead to further chants. Nor did an extended attack on Democratic leaders of urban areas, which Trump has laced into in recent days as part of his incendiary broadsides against Rep. Elijah Cummings and the majority-black city of Baltimore. “No one has paid a higher price for the far-left destructive agenda than Americans living in our nation’s inner cities,” Trump …

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday called U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a “slumlord” because of the poor conditions of housing he owns in Baltimore. These were Pelosi’s first public remarks since Trump called the part of her hometown — represented in Congress by Elijah Cummings — “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” and a “very dangerous and filthy place. No human being would want to live there.” “The president — this comes as no surprise — really doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Pelosi told reporters. “But maybe you could ask his son-in-law, who’s a slumlord there, if he wants to talk about rodent infestations.” A mail carrier delivers mail at a home at the Dutch Village apartments, July 30, 2019, in Baltimore. The apartment complex is owned by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Donald Trump, who days earlier vilified Congressman Elijah Cummings. Kushner’s real estate company owns thousands of apartments and homes in the Baltimore region and has been cited hundreds of times for such infestations as black mold and mice. Residents in many of these homes have complained about poor responses to their complaints and harassment when the rent is due. FILE – Jared …

The pilot of a U.S. Navy jet fighter that crashed in Death Valley National Park was killed, the military said Thursday. The identity of the pilot will be withheld until 24 hours after notification of next-of-kin in accordance with Defense Department policy, the Navy said in a statement. The F/A-18E Super Hornet was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron VFA-151 based at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California’s Central Valley. The unit goes by the nickname Vigilantes. The jet went down Wednesday during low-level flying in what was described as routine training. The crash injured seven people who were at a scenic overlook where aviation enthusiasts routinely watch military aircraft speeding low through a chasm dubbed Star Wars Canyon. The crash sent dark smoke billowing in the air, said Aaron Cassell, who was working at his family’s Panamint Springs Resort about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away and was the first to report the crash to park dispatch. FILE – Tourists walk along a ridge at Death Valley National Park, Calif., April 11, 2010. A U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed July 31, 2019, in the national park, injuring several people who were at a scenic overlook. “I just saw a black mushroom …

Croatia is known to most Americans for its picturesque walled city of Dubrovnik, the setting for many of the scenes in the immensely popular television series Game of Thrones. That is a source of satisfaction for Croatia’s ambassador in Washington, Pjer Šimunović. But he also wants Americans to recognize his country as a security partner contributing to the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan and elsewhere, as well as an increasingly notable economic and trade partner, including as a major importer of liquified natural gas (LNG), a rising field in American business. Pjer Šimunović, Ambassador of The Republic of Croatia to the U.S., is seen in Washington in July 2019. Photo Credit: Natalie L American tourists have flocked to Croatia in recent years to walk through the settings of fictional warfare and intrigue in the fantasy drama, which has been aired in more than 200 countries. But Šimunović noted in an interview with VOA that Croatian soldiers have participated in very real battles in Afghanistan alongside their counterparts from the United States, which he describes as “by far the most important” ally of his country.  “Everything else pales by comparison,” he says. “Our soldiers have been fighting shoulder to shoulder with our American friends, in all theaters,” including the Middle …

The maker of the assault-style rifle used in the 2012 mass shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut, school asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to overturn a court ruling that allowed families of the victims to sue the company over its marketing practices. Gun maker Remington Outdoor Co made its plea to the nation’s top court after the Connecticut Supreme Court in March reinstated a wrongful death lawsuit against the gun maker by the families of nine people slain and one survivor of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. The families argued that the Remington AR-15 Bushmaster rifle that a 20-year-old gunman used to kill 20 children aged 6 and 7 and six adult staffers was a weapon of war that was wrongly marketed to civilians for use in combat-style missions. FILE – A heart is emblazoned with crosses to commemorate the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims in Sandy Hook village in Newtown, Connecticut, Dec. 13, 2013. The gun maker argued that the lawsuit should never have been allowed to proceed because a 2005 federal law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, shields gun manufacturers in most cases from liability when the firearms they produce are used …