When starlight from billions of years ago zips across the universe and finally comes into focus on Earth, astronomers want their telescopes to be in the best locations possible to see what’s out there. Despite years of legal battles and months of protests by Native Hawaiian opponents, the international coalition that wants to build the world’s largest telescope in Hawaii insists that the islands’ highest peak — Mauna Kea — is the best place for their $1.4 billion instrument. But just barely. Thirty Meter Telescope officials acknowledge that their backup site atop a peak on the Spanish Canary island of La Palma is a comparable observatory location, and that it wouldn’t cost more money or take extra time to build it there. There’s also no significant opposition to putting the telescope on La Palma like there is in Hawaii, where some Native Hawaiians consider the mountain sacred and have blocked trucks from hauling construction equipment to Mauna Kea’s summit for more than a month. But Hawaii has advantages that scientists say make it slightly better: higher altitude, cooler temperatures, and rare star-gazing moments that will allow the cutting-edge telescope to reach its full potential. “Every once in a while at …

Sudan’s new prime minister says in an interview that ending his country’s international pariah status and drastically cutting military spending are prerequisites for rescuing a faltering economy. Abdalla Hamdok, a well-known economist, told The Associated Press on Sunday that he has already talked to U.S. officials about removing Sudan from Washington’s list of countries sponsoring terrorism and portrayed their reaction as positive. He says that “a democratic Sudan is not a threat to anybody in the world.” He also hopes to drastically cut Sudan’s military spending which he says makes up a large chunk of the state budget. Hamdok was sworn in last week as the leader of Sudan’s transitional government. His appointment came four months after the overthrow of autocratic leader Omar al-Bashir, who ruled for nearly three decades. …

 Two members of an Iran-backed Iraqi paramilitary force say that a new drone attack has killed one commander and wounded another near the border with Syria.   Officials from the Hezbollah Brigades, separate from the Lebanese groups of the same name, said the drone attack occurred Sunday near the Qaim border crossing.    The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists about the matter.    Iraq’s Hezbollah Brigades operate under the umbrella of the state-sanctioned militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Many of them are supported by Iran.    If confirmed, it would be the latest in a series of attacks that have targeted PMF bases and weapons depot in Iraq. U.S. officials have said that Israel was behind at least one of them.   …

Last updated at 2:40p.m. Iran’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, showed up Sunday at the French city hosting the G7 summit of top world leaders, but did not meet with U.S. officials during the brief visit. Zarif’s appearance in Biarritz, where U.S. President Donald Trump has been meeting with leaders of six other countries, came as a surprise.   When asked about the development, Trump had no comment. But Zarif’s visit was at the behest of French President Emmanuel Macron, who has had talks with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, about tensions in the Persian Gulf region that stem from Trump’s withdrawal last year from the 2015 international accord aimed at restraining Tehran’s nuclear weapons program. Macron had met with Zarif on Friday in Paris before the summit opened, but invited him back to the Atlantic coastal town where the summit is being held after tense exchanges among the world leaders about Iran at their Saturday night dinner. Demonstrators of the National Council of Resistance of Iran demonstrate on the Trocadero square Friday, Aug. 23, 2019 in Paris as Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is in France. Poster reads: get out. Asked about a possible Trump meeting with Zarif, …

As a young scholar, Elizabeth Warren traveled to federal courthouses, studying families overwhelmed by debt. She brought along a photocopier, gathering reams of statistics as she tried to answer one question: Why were these folks going bankrupt?    Warren, then a law professor, wasn’t satisfied with textbook explanations; she wanted to hear directly from people drowning in debt. So she sat in courtrooms, listening to one hard-luck story after another. She interviewed lawyers and judges, duplicated bankruptcy filings on a sturdy copier _ nicknamed R2-D2 _ that she hauled around to save printing costs. And she was joined in her research by two professor-colleagues who teamed with her to study those documents and build a database.    Warren had suspected bankruptcy court might be a last stop for deadbeats, or maybe the very poor. Instead, she discovered mostly middle-class people, many of them homeowners with college degrees who’d suffered one bad break – an illness, a divorce, a job loss. It was the kind of cruel twist that seemed all too familiar: When Warren was 12 years old, her father, a carpet salesman, had a heart attack. The family’s station wagon was repossessed, and her mother went to work in a …

Placido Domingo returns to the stage at the Salzburg Festival on Sunday in his first appearance since nine women accused him of sexual harassment in a report by The Associated Press.   The case has divided the opera world. Two U.S. opera houses immediately canceled planned appearances. European opera houses have so far confirmed engagements scheduled through November 2020, in what some see as an effort to slow a perceived rush to judgment in the (hash)MeToo movement.    The 78-year-old star, who rose to global fame as a tenor, will sing the baritone role of Miller in performance of “Luisa Miller.”   He has received unwavering support from the festival, as well as his co-stars. Domingo appears smiling in an Instagram posted this week by co-star Nino Machaidze alongside tenor Piotr Beczala and conductor James Conlon.   The AP story published last week detailed extensive allegations of sexual harassment by nine women against Domingo that spanned decades, starting in the 1980s. The women accused Domingo of using his power at the LA Opera, where he has been the longtime general director, and elsewhere to try to pressure them into sexual relationships. Several of the woman said he dangled jobs and …

Israel says it had attacked Iranian targets in Syria to foil an imminent attack by what it called  Iranian “killer drones” on Israel. Despite Iranian denials of the attack, the incident has sparked new tensions between Israel and Iran. Israel ordered deployment of its Iron Dome missile to its border with Syria. It is rare that Israel takes responsibility for air strikes on Iranian targets in Syria, although Israel is believed to have carried out hundreds of these attacks over the past few years. But this time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took credit in a tweet that praised the army’s major operational effort and said that Iran had planned to send killer drones with explosives into Israel. He warned Iran that it had “no immunity anywhere.” The Israeli army said that four Iranian operatives had recently arrived in Syria to pilot so called Kamikaze drones, each armed with explosives. The Damage is seen inside the media office of the Lebanese Hezbollah group in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 25, 2019. Meanwhile, Hezbollah says two Israeli drones have crashed in Lebanon overnight. The second drone fell on a building that houses Hezbollah’s media center in the Dahyeh suburbs of …

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he had “second thoughts” about escalating his reciprocal tariff war with China, but the White House quickly clarified that he meant that was because he did not raise the taxes even more than he did. Last week, before heading to France for the Group of 7 summit of the leaders of some of the world’s leading economies, Trump boosted tariffs on $550 billion worth of Chinese products shipped to the United States after Beijing said it would raise tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. exports to China, which itself was in retaliation to an earlier Trump tariff hike. U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson attend a working breakfast at the Hotel du Palais on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France, Aug. 25, 2019. On Sunday, as he sat down to a breakfast meeting with new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a reporter asked Trump whether he regretted the tit-for-tat tariff war with China. Trump responded, “Yeah, sure. Why not.” “Might as well,” he said. “Might as well. I have second thoughts about everything.” When asked if he would declare a national emergency to block U.S. …

A tropical storm watch has been issued for Barbados as the fourth tropical storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season moves toward the Lesser Antilles.   The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Tropical Storm Dorian is continuing to move west and could become near hurricane strength over the eastern Caribbean Sea by Tuesday.   As of 8 a.m. EDT Sunday, the storm’s center was located around 515 miles (828 kilometers) east-southeast of Barbados and was moving west at 13 mph (20 kph). Maximum sustained winds remained at 40 mph (64 kph). The advisory says watches for parts of the Windward and Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles will likely be issued later Sunday. It also advises Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti to monitor the storm’s progress. …

Pope Francis said Sunday that the Amazon forest is vital for our Earth and is urging prayers that fires there are quickly controlled.    Francis added his voice to the chorus of international concern that the blazes in Brazil will have grave repercussions on the world’s environmental health.    The pontiff, who is from the neighboring South American nation of Argentina, told the public in St. Peter’s Square that “we’re all worried” about the vast Amazon fires. He warned that that green “lung of forest is vital for our planet.”    Francis said”let us pray so that, with the efforts of all, they are controlled as quickly as possible”   The blazes have sparked anti-government protests in Brazil and became a pressing issue for leaders at the Group of Seven summit in France.   Backed by military aircraft, Brazilian troops on Saturday deployed in the Amazon to fight the fires.   Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro also tried to temper global concern, saying that previously deforested areas had burned and that intact rainforest was spared.   Even so, the fires were an issue of top concern at the G-7 summit.   French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that leaders of major democracies …

Australia will send a warship and surveillance aircraft to the Persian Gulf to join an international effort to combat Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important shipping lanes. Australia has for several weeks been considering joining the U.S.-led military effort, which also includes Britain and Bahrain. The Iranian supertanker Grace 1 sits anchored in the British territory of Gibraltar, Aug. 15, 2019, seized last month in a British Royal Navy operation. Tensions in the region increased after United Kingdom forces helped authorities in Gibraltar seize an Iranian tanker, believing it was carrying oil to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions. Iran retaliated by impounding a British ship in the Persian Gulf. Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a visit to Sydney, urged Australia to join efforts to counter “Iran’s unprovoked attacks on international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.” The government in Canberra has decided to send a warship, surveillance aircraft and military personnel to join the U.S.-led mission. The navy frigate is scheduled to arrive in January. Officials believe any disruption to the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz is a “potential threat” to the Australian …

South Korea has begun two days of war games near a set of disputed islands that are also claimed by Japan.  The two countries have long disagreed on who has rightful claim to the islands known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.  The islands are “obviously an inherent part of the territory of Japan,”  Kenji Kanasugi, the director general of Japan’s foreign ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, told the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo in a statement.  The drills began Sunday, just days after Seoul decided to scrap a military intelligence sharing agreement with Tokyo.  Dokdo/Takeshima island The latest flare-up in tensions between the two Asian nations is rooted in Japan’s brutal 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.  A major source of friction is how to compensate those forced into labor and sexual slavery in the colonist era.  Japan says the reparation issue was resolved with a 1965 treaty that normalized Japan – South Korea relations.   Japan has complained that subsequent South Korean governments have not accepted further Japanese apologies and attempts to make amends.  …

An Iranian-flagged oil tanker pursued by the U.S. amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington changed its listed destination to a port in Turkey after Greece said it wouldn’t risk its relations with America by aiding it. Meanwhile, Iran sanctioned a prominent Washington-based think tank that led criticism of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers over its alleged “economic terrorism,” something the organization described as a “badge of honor.” The crew of the oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, formerly known as the Grace 1, on Saturday updated its listed destination in its Automatic Identification System to Mersin, Turkey, a port city in the country’s south and home to an oil terminal. However, mariners can input any destination into the AIS, so Turkey may not be its true destination. Mersin is some 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of a refinery in Baniyas, Syria, where authorities alleged the Adrian Darya had been heading before being seized off Gibraltar in early July. Iranian state media did not acknowledge the new reported destination of the Adrian Darya, which carries 2.1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil worth some $130 million. Nor was there any immediate reaction from Turkey, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan …

Seventy-five years ago, they helped free Europe from the Nazis. This weekend, U.S. veterans are back in Paris to celebrate, and commemorate. Now in their 90s, these men aren’t afraid to cry about what they saw in World War II. And they want everyone to remember what happened back then, so that it doesn’t happen again. “The veterans, all the veterans of World War II, I think we saved the world,” said Harold Angle, who came to France with the U.S. 28th Infantry Division in 1944, and recounted his experiences to The Associated Press in Paris. “To be under the domination of a dictatorship like the Hitler regime and some of the terrible, terrible things that they did. “When you talk about taking little kids out on a firing range and shooting them for target practice….” Emotion choked his voice. “I can’t imagine anybody doing things like that. So I think we really did save the world. The guy had to be stopped.” Now 96, he’s among Allied veterans, French resistance fighters and others taking part in ceremonies Saturday and Sunday marking the 75th anniversary of the military operation that liberated Paris from Nazi occupation. Angle, from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, landed …

U.S. President Donald Trump is in Biarritz, France for the G-7 summit where his first order of business Sunday was a working breakfast with new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whom the American president once referred to as “Britain’s Trump”. “He’s going to be a fantastic prime minister,” said Trump, adding that Johnson “needs no advice” on Brexit and that he’s “the right man for the job”.  “It didn’t make your predecessor very happy, but I’ve been saying it for a long time,” Trump added, referring to Theresa May who resigned over her failure to deliver Brexit, Britain’s exit from the European Union Johnson responded, “You’re on message there. I’m very grateful for that”. But Johnson pushed Trump back on the issue of free trade after the American leader, responding to a reporter’s question, said that allies are not pressuring him to stop the trade war with China. “No, not at all,” said Trump, “I think they respect the trade war, it has to happen”. Johnson then congratulated Trump on the American economy, but added, “Just to register the faint sheep like note of our view on the trade war, we’re in favor of trade peace on the whole.” Trump …

In the age of the internet, instant messaging, and smartphones, a handwritten note still has the power to amaze — with an assist from technology.    That seems to be the lesson after an Alaskan man discovered a message in a bottle from a Soviet sailor written 50 years ago.   Tyler Ivanoff, 36, of the village of Shishmaref, Alaska, was picking berries and gathering driftwood for a fire for his family when he stumbled across a green bottle along the state’s western shore earlier this month.  “I noticed that the bottle had a note in it. It was sealed really well,” Ivanoff told VOA.  “And when I opened the bottle and took out the message, I recognized that it was Russian handwriting.”  Naturally, he turned to social media for help.  “I found a message in a bottle today,” wrote Ivanoff to A message that was placed in a bottle 50 years ago was found on the shoreline in Shishmaref, Alaska, August 5, 2019, by Tyler Ivanoff, a teacher’s aide, who was gathering firewood when he discovered the bottle. Back in the USSR  “Heartfelt greetings!” began the letter, dated June 20, 1969.   The sender, Captain Anatoly Botsanenko, explained he was from …

Backed by military aircraft, Brazilian troops on Saturday were deploying in the Amazon to fight fires that have swept the region and prompted anti-government protests as well as an international outcry. President Jair Bolsonaro also tried to temper global concern, saying that previously deforested areas had burned and that intact rainforest was spared. Even so, the fires were likely to be urgently discussed at a summit of the Group of Seven leaders in France this weekend. Some 44,000 troops will be available for “unprecedented” operations to put out the fires, and forces are heading to six Brazilian states that asked for federal help, Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo said. The states are Roraima, Rondonia, Tocantins, Para, Acre and Mato Grosso. The military’s first mission will be carried out by 700 troops around Porto Velho, capital of Rondonia, Azevedo said. The military will use two C-130 Hercules aircraft capable of dumping up to 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons) of water on fires, he said. An Associated Press journalist flying over the Porto Velho region Saturday morning reported hazy conditions and low visibility. On Friday, the reporter saw many already deforested areas that were burned, apparently by people clearing farmland, as well as a …

President Donald Trump is threatening to use the emergency authority granted by a powerful but obscure federal law to make good on his tweeted “order” to U.S. businesses to cut ties in China amid a spiraling trade war between the two nations. China’s announcement Friday that it was raising tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. imports sent Trump into a rage and White House aides scrambling for a response. Trump fired off on Twitter, declaring American companies “are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China.” He later clarified that he was threatening to make use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in the trade war, raising questions about the wisdom and propriety of making the 1977 act used to target rogue regimes, terrorists and drug traffickers the newest weapon in the clash between the world’s largest economies. It would mark the latest grasp of authority by Trump, who has claimed widespread powers not sought by his predecessors despite his own past criticism of their use of executive powers. “For all of the Fake News Reporters that don’t have a clue as to what the law is relative to Presidential powers, China, etc., try looking at …

Thousands of angry and frustrated Rohingya refugees marked the second anniversary of their exodus from Myanmar into Bangladesh on Sunday by demanding their citizenship and other rights in the country they fled from. The event came days after Bangladesh with the help of the U.N. refugee agency attempted to start the repatriation of 3,450 Rohingya Muslims but none agreed to go back voluntarily. Myanmar had scheduled Aug. 22 for the beginning of the process but it failed for a second time after the first attempt last November. The repatriation deal is based on an understanding that the return has to be “safe, dignified and voluntary.” The refugees also insisted on receiving Myanmar citizenship and other rights, which the Buddhist-majority nation has refused to grant so far. More than 1 million Rohingya live in Bangladesh. On Sunday morning, more than 3,000 gathered at a playground in Kutupalong camp. Some carried placards and banners reading “Never Again! Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day,” and “Restore our citizenship.” A prayer session was scheduled for the victims of the killings, rape and arson attacks by Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist militias. Security was tight in the camps despite the Rohingya groups’ pledge that they would protest peacefully. …

VOA national security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this article. CAMP H. M. SMITH, Hawaii – A senior U.S. Indo-Pacific Command officer August 15 confirmed Cambodia and China are proceeding on a base for China’s navy in the Southeast Asian country’s Preah Sihanouk province.  Army Brigadier General Joel B. Vowell said construction would begin next year at Ream Naval Base, confirming to a group of regional journalists here that Cambodia will grant China access to the deep coastal waters on the Gulf of Thailand.  “We have information that tells us that there will be some development by the People’s Republic of China to facilitate a naval base at Ream,” said Vowell, the command’s deputy director for strategic planning and policy. “So that tells me they want to build something there, facilities to wharf, to house and sustain naval projection of combat power from Ream,” he said. Pentagon officials in Washington would not comment on Vowell’s remarks. Vowell called China’s military extension plans in Cambodia “a big concern” for the U.S. and its allies in the region.  The Ream base offers deep-water access to the Gulf of Thailand, which gives ready access to the South China Sea. China claims most of …

Syria’s air defenses responded late Saturday to “hostile” targets over Damascus, shooting down all incoming missiles before they reached their targets, state media reported, while Israel said its air force struck several targets southeast of the capital.    State TV did not give further details about the Israeli attack, which occurred shortly before midnight.      An Israeli military spokesman, Avichay Adraee, tweeted that warplanes struck several targets in the village of Aqraba, southeast of Damascus. He said the strikes aimed to abort a “terrorist attack” that Iran’s Quds Force, an elite wing of the Revolutionary Guard, and other Shiite militias were planning to carry out against Israeli targets.     Israel frequently conducts airstrikes and missile attacks inside war-torn Syria but rarely confirms them. Israel says it targets mostly bases of Iranian forces and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in Syria.     The last such attack occurred Aug. 1, when Syria said Israel carried out a missile attack in the country’s south, causing material damage.  …

U.S. President Donald Trump is in Biarritz, France, for the G-7 summit, where he will be meeting world leaders who oppose his stances on many issues, including tariffs, Brexit, climate protection, China, Iran and Russia.  But in this meeting of the leaders of the world’s major industrialized countries, there could be areas of cooperation where Trump is willing to offer support, or at least not resist: women’s empowerment and Africa.  French President Emmanuel Macron, as the G-7 2019 president and summit host, has chosen combating inequality as the theme, with gender equality and partnership with Africa as key issues. He will be pushing several initiatives, including the Biarritz Partnership for Gender Equality and Partnership for the African Sahel. Macron also will be calling for renewed support for Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa.  Despite Trump’s skepticism of foreign aid and his rejection of globalism, including his famous statement in front of the 2018 U.N. General Assembly that the U.S. “will not tell you how to live or work or worship,” his administration has indicated it may support at least some of these initiatives, noting that the White House has launched similar efforts.  On Sunday Trump will participate in a G-7 working lunch …

Six people were injured Saturday when lightning struck a 60-foot pine at the Tour Championship where they were taking cover from rain and showered them with debris, Atlanta police said.  A pine tree is stripped of bark after being hit by lightning at East Lake Golf Club during the third round of the Tour Championship golf tournament, Aug. 24, 2019, in Atlanta. The third round of the season-ending PGA Tour event at East Lake Golf Club had been suspended for about 30 minutes because of storms in the area, and fans were instructed to seek shelter. The strike hit the top of the tree just off the 16th tee and shattered the bark all the way to the bottom.  Ambulances streamed into the private club about 6 miles east of downtown Atlanta. The players already had been taken into the clubhouse before the lightning hit.  Brad Uhl of Atlanta was among those crammed under a hospital tent to the right of the 16th hole that was open to the public.  “There was just a big explosion and then an aftershock so strong you could feel the wind from it,” Uhl said after the last of the ambulances pulled out of …

When a “Himalayan tsunami” roars down from the rooftop of the world, water from an overflowing glacial lake obeys gravity. Obliterating everything in its path, a burst is predictable only in its destructiveness.    “There was no meaning in it,” one person who withstood the waters in India’s Himalayas told a Public Radio International reporter. “It didn’t give anyone a chance to survive.”     Christian Huggel, a professor at the University of Zurich in Switzerland who specializes in glaciology and geomorphodynamics (the study of changing forms of geologic surfaces), said thousands of cubic meters of water moving down a mountain “is really quite destructive and it can happen suddenly.”    That water comes from glacial lake outburst floods, or GLOFs, which are increasing in frequency as climate change increases the rate of glacial melting. This catastrophic lake drainage occurs wherever there are glaciers in places such as Peru and Alaska.     The most devastating GLOFs occur in the Himalayan regions of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal and the Tibetan Plateau. When combined, the area has the third-largest accumulation of snow and ice after Antarctica and the Arctic.   Melting glaciers    In the Himalayas, climate change melted glaciers by a vertical foot …