President Donald Trump is fuming over mainstream U.S. news coverage of his attendance at the G-7 in France and defending his preference to host the leaders’ summit next year at one of his private resorts in the state of Florida. Much of the news and editorial coverage of the U.S. president at the summit in Biarritz, which ended Monday, has not cast Trump in a good light, spotlighting misstatements, perceived gaffes and lack of cooperation with the other world leaders on critical issues such as the environment. “The pity of the entire Group of 7 show was that it was part of a new normal in which the world’s major liberal democracies basically accept that they are out of sync with the president of the nation that should be leading their efforts to manage the world and its resources wisely and responsibly, but isn’t,” according to the editorial board of The New York Times, one of the newspapers delivered every morning to Trump’s desk. Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote that during the president’s lengthy news conference at the conclusion of the G-7 meeting, Trump “made numerous false, misleading or inaccurate statements on a variety of issues.” Trump, who has …

A Russian aircraft leasing company says it has filed a lawsuit against Boeing over an order of 35 Boeing 737 Max jets, but that it’s open to a settlement.   Avia Capital Services told the state-owned Tass news agency Tuesday that it has brought the lawsuit against Boeing in the United States, accusing it of failing to disclose the information about the jets’ “defects.” Nearly 400 Max jets that were being flown by airlines around the world have been grounded since March, shortly after the second of two crashes that together killed 346 people. Avia told Tass that Boeing had pushed back the delivery date from October to March next year. It said it is willing to sit down for talks with Boeing and settle out of court. …

Independent human rights groups and journalists are blocked by the government from entering the camps or to investigate alleged human rights abuses in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. But VOA managed to speak to women inside the internally displaced camps. Maw Mura* wrings her hands constantly as she describes her difficulties living as a Rohingya woman, in one of Myanmar’s forgotten segregated camps. “Living in the camp is like living in a prison or a chicken coop, it’s not appropriate for teenagers, married parents and elders to live inside a small room,” pointing to the clutter of tin roofed shelters. Her eyes are empty, there’s no anger or fire, just resignation. Thirty-seven-year-old Maw Mura has been forced to live in the barbed wire confined camps since 2012, after violence erupted in the town of Sittwe in western Myanmar. Buddhist mobs took to the streets with machetes, burning down houses where Maw Mura’s shop was also looted. A few months after arriving in the camp, Maw Mura’s husband died, leaving her to raise her children on her own. Some 128,000 Rohingya and other displaced Muslims have been left here in the Sittwe camps. “I want to go home, we want freedom of …

Brazil has turned down aid from G7 countries to battle wildfires in the Amazon rainforest, maintaining the funds could be better used in Europe. The chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro, Onyx Lorenzoni, told the G1 news website on Monday Brazil appreciates the offer but that “maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe.” The rejection came after Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said Brazil welcomed the funding. World leaders at the G7 summit in France committed an immediate $22 million on Monday to fight the raging wildfires in the Amazon countries in South America that are threatening the world’s biggest rainforest. French President Emmanuel Macron, the summit host, and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, a visitor at the summit, said that the rainforest now being ravaged by the fires represents the “lungs” of the planet for its role in absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. Macron said France within hours would provide military support in the region to fight the fires. Lorenzoni took aim at Macron, declaring Brazil is a nation that “never had colonialist and imperialist practices, as perhaps is the objective of the Frenchman Macron.” Lorenzoni also said Macron could not “even avoid a foreseeable fire …

Uganda’s national airline has launched commercial operations with a flight to the Kenyan capital.   Uganda Airlines’ inaugural flight to Nairobi on Tuesday carried mostly government and airline officials following a ceremony to re-launch the carrier that collapsed in 2001.   Uganda Airlines owns two planes. Four more have been ordered, including two Airbus jets.   The carrier will fly to regional destinations such as the Somali capital, Mogadishu.   Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni championed the revamped airline as a symbol of national pride, calling it “a new baby” in June.   Authorities acknowledge the airlines faces challenges but hope it will survive as the East African nation becomes an oil producer.   Uganda Airlines is expected to face competition from carriers such as Kenya Airways, which operates regular flights between Nairobi and Entebbe. …

At the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya there is a secure enclosure where the last two known female Northern White Rhinos are grazing peacefully. But their fate seems to be sealed. They can’t procreate any more since the last male Northern White Rhino, named Sudan, died last year. His tomb is not far away from the enclosure in a windy field. It represents the obituary of a race that at one time, at the turn of the 20th century, numbered 3,000 animals.   Now with only two females left, the Ol Pejeta Conservancy has announced that veterinarians have extracted ova from the females to be inseminated with Northern White Rhino sperm collected earlier.  The embryos would be inserted into the womb of a surrogate mother from a related rhino species. Ol Pejeta is working in partnership with the Dvur Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic where these rhinos were born in captivity. The ten collected ova from the creatures were airlifted to the conservancy where they will be fertilized.   The vets hope to produce a pregnancy soon, but getting a calf will take time, says Jan Stejskal of the Dvur Králové Zoo.   “We have to take into account …

The government of Barbados urged residents of the eastern Caribbean island to remain vigilant Tuesday even as Tropical Storm Dorian appeared to have done little damage as it heads toward the northern Windward islands and Puerto Rico. Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson said the storm “is said to be weakening and that is great news, but we are not out of danger yet.” The U.S. National Hurricane Center on Tuesday had tropical storm warnings in effect for Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Tropical storm watches were in force for Dominica, Grenada, Saba and St. Eustatius and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. The center says the storm has maximum sustained winds near 50 miles per hour (85 kph) and is forecast to strengthen during the next 48 hours as it moves toward Puerto Rico. “Dorian is forecast to be a hurricane when it moves near Puerto Rico and eastern Hispaniola,” the center said. The storm was expected to dump between 3 to 8 inches (8 to 20 centimeters) of rain in the Windward islands, with isolated amounts of 10 inches (25 centimeters). Much of Barbados shut down Monday as Dorian approached and authorities urged residents …

One hundred teenage girls from high schools in Malawi recently attended a “Girls in Science” camp at the Malawi University of Science and Technology, known as MUST. The yearly camp, which has taken place since 2016, aims to develop their interest in fields long considered male-dominated. The nine-day camp is part of the country’s initiative to nurture and encourage future female scientists. Davies Mweta chairs the committee which organized this year’s camp.  “The science camp has been organized in the background that in Malawi we have a lot of girls. Actually when we go to the population, 52 percent of Malawi population is female, but when we go through the landscape of science and technologies and innovation, you find that the number of females is lower,” Mweta said. During this period, female science students and other role models at the university shared their experiences with the campers. Rachael Nyanda is an engineering student at the Malawi University of Science and Technology.  “What I can say to those ladies in that if you believe that you can be an engineer, if you believe that you can be a scientist, just do what you believe, no mind about how the society describes …

In a population count starting Saturday, Kenya will become the first country in Africa to recognize people who identify their gender as intersex. The third category will be listed along with male and female on census forms. During the census, people like 52-year-old Judith Baraza will be allowed to identify as intersex. Baraza says he is happy about the initiative but wants any details about people like him to remain confidential. Baraza said,“ I request from the census people, when they get our information, to keep it secret. They should not make it public. If they can keep our information secret I think census will be something good for us.” Baraza was reared as a girl but growing up, felt more like a boy. He says a decision by his mother has impacted him to this day. Baraza says that when he was 15 years old his mother told him he was born with both genitals. He says she took him to a doctor who carried out surgery to remove the male genitalia. Baraza says he asked his mother why she did that to him. She said she didn’t want to see him with other people like that.  Kwamboka Kibagendi …

Kenya has become the first country in Africa to recognize people who identify their gender as intersex during a population count starting Saturday. As Mohammed Yusuf reports for VOA from Nairobi, the third category will be listed along with male and female on census forms.  …

One hundred teenage girls from secondary schools in Malawi have this month undergone “Girls in Science” camp at the Malawi University of Science and Technology (“MUST”).  The camp aims to develop girl’s interest in science fields long believed to be a male domain. Lameck Masina has the story from Thyolo district of southern Malawi. …

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Tuesday she is open to dialogue with protesters, but that the government will not tolerate violence. “If violence continues, the only thing that we should do is to stamp out that violence through law enforcement actions,” Lam said. She said it would be inappropriate for the government to accept the demands of protesters who resort to violence and harassment. “We want to put an end to the chaotic situation in Hong Kong through law enforcement,” Lam said. “At the same time, we will not give up on building a platform for dialogue.” Lam has made few public comments through several months of demonstrations that began with a call for stopping an extradition bill and expanded to include demands for full democracy. Protesters have plans to continue the demonstrations, which represent the biggest threat to peace in the Asian finance center since Britain handed over control of Hong Kong to China in 1997. The protesters say they are demonstrating against what they see as an erosion of rights under the “one country, two systems” arrangement under which Beijing assumed control of the territory. Students and others gather during a demonstration at Edinburgh Place in …

Taylor Swift picked up two awards, including video of the year, in a girl-powered start to the MTV Video Music Awards show on Monday, while rapper Cardi B won best hip-hop video and newcomer Lizzo celebrated big women. Swift opened the show with a rainbow-themed performance of her pro-LGBTQ single “You Need to Calm Down,” followed by her first live performance of the romantic ballad “Lover,” the lead single from her new, and already best-selling, album of the same name. “You Need to Calm Down” brought the country-turned-pop singer one of the top prizes – video of the year – being handed out during Monday’s ceremony. It also took the “video for good” statuette for songs that have raised awareness. Accepting the video of the year award, Swift said that since the VMAs are chosen by fans: “It means that you want a world where we are all treated equally under the law.” Swift and pop singer Ariana Grande went into the fan-voted ceremony in Newark, New Jersey, with a leading 10 nominations each and also were competing for song of the year, best pop, and video of the year. Grande, currently on tour in Europe and absent from Monday’s …

Native American representation in Congress made great strides with the 2018 election of two American women to Congress.  Now, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma says it will send its own delegate to Congress, a move that will not only test the tribe’s sovereignty and the willingness of the U.S. to meet its treaty promises. Cherokee Nation principal chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., announcing his intention to send a delegate to U.S. Congress, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, Aug. 22, 2019. Newly-elected Cherokee Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., FILE – U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., shown at a town hall meeting in Moore, Oklahoma, in Aug. 2015. “There’s a lot of questions that have to be answered,” Republican representative from Oklahoma Tom Cole said in a town hall meeting that took place August 20 in Norman, Oklahoma. “Number one, I don’t know that the treaty still is valid. They’re basing it on something that is 185 years ago.”   Stacy L. Leeds, a Cherokee citizen, dean emeritus and professor of law at the University of Arkansas, expressed surprise at Cole’s remark. “Many of these treaties have been upheld by the federal courts — two this last Supreme Court term alone, and the treaties that the Cherokees …

A Chinese-born Australian writer held in China since January has been formally arrested on suspicion of espionage, the Australian government said on Tuesday, amid growing tension between Canberra and its largest trading partner. Yang Hengjun, a former Chinese diplomat turned online journalist and blogger, was detained in the southern city of Guangzhou while waiting for a transfer to Shanghai, after flying in from New York. He was later moved to the capital Beijing. “Dr. Yang has been held in Beijing in harsh conditions without charge for more than seven months,” Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement, adding Yang was formally arrested on suspicion of spying last Friday. Espionage is punishable by death in China. The arrest of Yang, 53, whose legal name is Yang Jun, comes as Beijing struggles to contain anti-government protests in Hong Kong, the semi-autonomous Chinese city. There was no immediate response from China’s Foreign Ministry. The Chinese embassy in Canberra was not immediately available for comment. China has not allowed Yang access to his lawyers or family since his detention, Payne said. However, Australian embassy officials have visited Yang seven times since January, the government said. Yang’s Australian lawyer, Robert Stary, was not immediately …

Venezuelan migrants will be provided with a regional vaccination card beginning in October, health officials from 10 countries agreed on Monday, in an effort to ensure they receive needed vaccines and are not given double doses. More than 4 million Venezuelans have fled an economic and political crisis in their home country that has caused widespread shortages of food and medicine. Health officials from the United States, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Canada, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Peru and Paraguay unanimously approved the measure in a meeting in the Colombian border city of Cucuta. The vaccination card will “accompany migrants from the middle of October and have the support of international agencies for its printing, distribution and training for its use,” Colombian Health Minister Juan Pablo Uribe told journalists. “The unified card shows that our countries can work together,” Uribe added. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar visits the Migrant Assistance Center in Cucuta, Colombia, Aug. 26, 2019. The health officials, including U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, also agreed to prioritize efforts to reduce infection rates and treat malaria and HIV/AIDS, care for migrants with chronic conditions like diabetes and cancer, and help …

Amnesty International named five new prisoners of conscience in Cuba on Monday and said their detention underscored how the presidential handover last year from Raul Castro had not changed the Communist-run country’s repressive tactics. Amnesty said there were likely many more Cubans who had been detained for peacefully expressing their views whose cases it was a challenge to document because authorities deny access to international rights groups. All of the prisoners it listed were associated with opposition organizations in the one-party state. Cuban authorities do not comment on police activity such as the detention of dissidents, who have limited support inside the island, and dismisses them as a tiny minority of provocateurs financed by the United States to subvert the government. “For decades, Cuba has stifled freedom of expression and assembly by locking up people for their beliefs and opposition to the government,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International. “Over the years, the names of Cuba’s prisoners of conscience have changed, but the state’s tactics have stayed almost exactly the same,” she added. Many Cuban activists and independent journalists are complaining of growing harassment. They say that is a sign the government is nervous because the launch of …

Two yellow burqas are on display at a television station in Kabul, bright versions of the blue ghostlike garments some women in the capital still wear. For the young women at Zan TV they are relics, a reminder of a Taliban-ruled past that few of them can recall. Their generation is the most vulnerable, and perhaps the most defiant, as the United States and the Taliban near a deal on ending America’s longest war. Worried about losing what they’ve gained over nearly two decades, they are demanding a voice in high-level talks to determine their country’s future. “For me, I will not submit myself to the Taliban,” said Shogofa Sadiqi, Zan TV’s 25-year-old chief director, who believes the insurgent group will have less impact as it faces a new generation. She described the burqas as a symbol of the challenges women have faced over the years and practically shuddered when asked if she’d worn one herself. Never, ever. “I don’t like it,” she said, switching to English to make her feelings clear. About two-thirds of Afghanistan’s population is 25 or younger, with little or no memory of life before 2001. That’s when a U.S.-led invasion pushed out the Taliban, who …

U.S. disappointment with Zimbabwe’s government keeps growing amid the heavy-handed response of authorities to any form of opposition, a senior State Department official said on Monday following a crackdown last week against protesters. “The disappointment just keeps getting worse and worse, unfortunately,” said the official, speaking on background to reporters. “The government seems to be getting even more violent in their response to any form of opposition.” The official said Washington had made clear to the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa what it would take to improve relations between Zimbabwe and the United States.  U.S. officials have previously called on Mnangagwa to change Zimbabwe’s laws restricting media freedom and allowing protests. Mnangagwa’s government last week banned anti-government protests by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which accuses the authorities of political repression and mismanaging the economy. Police fired tear gas to disperse crowds and barred access to the MDC’s Harare offices. Anger among the population has mounted over triple-digit inflation, rolling power cuts and shortages of U.S. dollars, fuel and bread. In March, President Donald Trump extended by one year U.S. sanctions against 100 entities and individuals in Zimbabwe, including Mnangagwa, saying his government had failed to bring about political …

Venezuela’s upcoming baseball season will go on “even if we have to play ourselves,” socialist party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello said Monday, criticizing a move by Major League Baseball (MLB) to restrict players from participating because of U.S. sanctions. MLB said last week it would suspend involvement in the Venezuelan league, which starts play in October, while it awaited word from the U.S. government on whether its players’ participation was consistent with Washington’s sanctions on the OPEC nation, which are meant to force out socialist President Nicolas Maduro. “They want to leave Venezuela without baseball,” Cabello, the socialist party’s vice president and the president of a pro-Maduro legislature called the National Constituent Assembly, told a news conference. “Here there will be baseball even if we have to play ourselves.” While the number of Venezuelan major league stars returning to their baseball-mad homeland to play has declined in recent years because of security issues and an economic crisis, many of the players on the Venezuelan league’s eight professional teams also play for one of MLB’s hundreds of minor-league affiliates. Maduro and Cabello are both enthusiastic baseball fans, as was their mentor, the late former President Hugo Chavez. They have participated in …

Mary Poppins. Wakanda. Rapunzel. A hodge-podge of beloved characters and settings would hardly fit in the same sentence if not for the fact they’re all coming to Disney parks or cruise ships within the next few years. Disney Parks chairman Bob Chapek announced the new attractions over the weekend at the company’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California. The first Mary Poppins attraction at a Disney park is headed to Epcot as part of the transformation of the Florida park. Appropriately, the Cherry Tree Lane neighborhood will be housed in the United Kingdom pavilion in World Showcase. Other changes are afoot in Epcot’s World Showcase, the area around a lagoon that shows off pavilions from almost a dozen nations. Next year, the French pavilion is adding a new attraction based on the animated film “Ratatouille,” as well as a new French restaurant. The French pavilion also will host a sing-along with songs from the film, “Beauty and the Beast” starting next January. Both the Canada and China pavilions are getting new movies showcasing their countries, and Disney officials said a new nighttime extravaganza will offer various interpretations of classic Disney songs from people all over the world. In other parts of …

Sri Lanka’s newly appointed army chief on Monday denied accusations of rights abuses under his command during the country’s civil war. Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva, who became army commander last week, faces allegations of grave rights abuses during the war, which ended in 2009 after government forces defeated ethnic Tamil rebels who fought to create a separate state. “I, of course, totally deny those allegations,” Silva told reporters at his first media briefing since his appointment. “Those are allegations. Anyone can make any allegations.” The U.N. human rights chief, the United States and the European Union expressed concern last week about Silva’s selection, saying it undermines the post-war justice and reconciliation process which the government has promised to undertake. Silva was in charge of the 58th Division, one of the groups that encircled the final stronghold of the Tamil Tiger rebels in the last stages of the war. According to a 2015 investigation by the U.N. office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, near the end of the war Silva was tasked with capturing the Putumattalan area from the Tamil Tigers. It found evidence that both a hospital and a U.N. hub were shelled. The investigation cited witnesses as …

Romania’s ruling Social Democrats (PSD) lost their small parliamentary majority on Monday after a junior ally quit government over policy, leaving them vulnerable to a confidence vote. Liberal party ALDE withdrew from the alliance two days after leader Calin Popescu Tariceanu lost a bid to become the sole pro-government candidate in a presidential election scheduled for November. The PSD instead picked its leader, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, to challenge incumbent Klaus Iohannis. ALDE’s move, a year before a parliamentary election, would normally raise the prospect of an early ballot. But a fragmented opposition may prefer to wait the full term out, analysts say. “I don’t see many (other parties) rushing to take over now,” said political commentator Cristian Patrasconiu. “(Waiting for the election) is the most rational political stance.” Himself a former prime minister, Tariceanu said the PSD had performed poorly in government and failed to take the necessary steps to restructure the cabinet. ALDE’s decision to pull out however not been easy, he added. EU and U.S. authorities have strongly criticised the governing alliance for an overhaul of Romania’s judiciary that they say threatens the rule of law, and for watering down anti-graft legislation. A man kisses the hand …

An Oklahoma state judge has ordered U.S. drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million in damages to the state for fueling its opioid crisis. Addiction and overdoses of the synthetic painkillers have killed more than 10,000 Oklahoma residents since 2000, lawyers argued, asking for a record $17 billion in damages. “The opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma. It must be abated immediately,” Judge Thad Balkman said before announcing his verdict. Johnson & Johnson is the first company to be put on trial for what the state said was a “cynical, deceitful multibillion-dollar brainwashing campaign.” The state said J&J marketed opioids as a “magic drug” to doctors, caregivers and other prescribers. Attorneys cited Oklahoma’s “public nuisance” law, which is intended to protect the public from people and companies looking to harm others. J&J’s lawyers argued the company’s claims about its painkillers are backed by science. They pointed out that J&J’s products make up a tiny fraction of opioids prescribed in Oklahoma and less than 1% of all those used across the country. Appeal planned J&J said it will appeal the ruling. The company said Oklahoma’s state attorneys used a “radical” interpretation of the public nuisance law. Johnson …