Francis Rooney is a Republican congressman from a conservative Florida district who opposes federal funding for abortions and supports President Donald Trump’s plans for construction of a wall along the Mexican border. But he also recently co-sponsored a carbon pricing bill and is one of a handful of lawmakers from his side of the aisle who have bucked orthodoxy and acknowledged human beings are responsible for global warming. The modern Republican Party is one of the few political forces in the world whose leadership denies manmade climate change, but there are now small yet perceptible signs of changes within its ranks, driven by an increase in extreme weather events and shifting public opinion. FILE – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., second from left, poses during a ceremonial swearing-in with Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., right, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 3, 2019. “Seventy-one percent of the people in my district say that climate change is real. We’re scared of sea-level rise and we want the government to do something about it,” Rooney, citing recent polling, said at a talk this week organized by the World Resources Institute. In late July, he along with Democrat Dan Lipinksi of Illinois introduced …

The United States said it is deeply disappointed in Kiribati’s decision to abandon its diplomatic ties with Taiwan, in favor of China. Several Republican and Democratic lawmakers voiced grave concerns. A Senate panel plans to move forward with a congressional proposal that could “impose consequences on nations downgrading ties with Taiwan.” In a stern statement on Friday, a State Department spokesperson said “countries that establish closer ties to China primarily out of the hope or expectation that such a step will stimulate economic growth and infrastructure development often find themselves worse off in the long run.” The spokesperson said the U.S. supports the status quo in cross-Strait relations, which includes Taiwan’s diplomatic ties and international space, as important to maintaining peace and stability in the region. “China’s active campaign to alter the cross-Strait status quo, including by enticing countries to discontinue diplomatic ties with Taiwan, are harmful and undermine regional stability. They undermine the framework that has enabled peace, stability, and development for decades,” the spokesperson told VOA. Kiribati The Pacific island nation of Kiribati severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan on Friday, becoming the second country to do so this week and bolstering China’s hand. This comes as another blow …

The United States Special Inspector General, tasked with monitoring U.S. reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, said the reintegration of tens of thousands of fighters into the Afghan society would be necessary for sustainable peace should talks resume. Direct peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban are currently “dead” after President Donald Trump called them off earlier this month after a spike in violence. FILE – John F. Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 10, 2014. John F. Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), said Thursday that whenever peace talks begin with the Taliban, the issue of reintegration would be a central factor in ensuring a “sustainable peace” in the country. “For if there is ever to be a true, sustainable peace in Afghanistan, reintegration of the Taliban and other combatants will be a necessary component of that process, whether that process begins days — or years — from now,” Sopko said at an event at U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). Sopko, however, cautioned against the U.S. supporting a comprehensive reintegration program in Afghanistan prematurely. “As long as the Taliban insurgency continues, the U.S. should not support a comprehensive …

The U.S. Department of Education has notified Duke University and the University of North Carolina that their joint Middle East studies program might see its federal funding curtailed. In a letter dated Aug. 29 and published Tuesday in the Federal Register, Assistant Secretary Robert King wrote that the Education Department is “concerned” that the Center for Middle East Studies, which promotes the learning of critical Mideast languages, might lose its Title VI funds. Issue with Iran curriculum The Education Department, headed by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, takes issue with curriculum around Iran. “Although Iranian art and film may be subjects of deep intellectual interest and may provide insight regarding aspects of the people and culture of the Middle East, the sheer volume of such offerings highlights a fundamental misalignment between your choices and Title VI’s mandates,” the letter stated. “Although a conference focused on ‘Love and Desire in Modern Iran’ and one focused on Middle East film criticism may be relevant in academia, we do not see how these activities support the development of foreign language and international expertise for the benefit of U.S. national security and economic stability,” the letter said. The department laments that elements of the Middle East …

Hundreds protested in central Cairo and several other Egyptian cities late on Friday against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, responding to an online call for a demonstration against government corruption, witnesses said. Protests have become very rare in Egypt following a broad crackdown on dissent under Sisi, who took power after the overthrow of the former Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. Security forces moved to disperse the small and scattered crowds in Cairo using tear gas but many young people stayed on the streets in the center of the capital, shouting “Leave Sisi,” Reuters reporters at the scene said. Police arrested some of the demonstrators, witnesses said. Small protests were also held in Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, Suez on the Red Sea as well as the Nile Delta textile town of Mahalla el-Kubra, about 110 km (68 miles) north of Cairo, according to residents and videos posted online. There was a heavy security presence in downtown Cairo and on Tahrir Square where mass protests started in 2011 which toppled veteran ruler Hosni Mubarak. Authorities could not be immediately reached to comment. State TV did not cover the incidents. A pro-government TV anchor said …

A New York judge has ordered President Donald Trump to give a videotaped deposition in a lawsuit filed by protesters who claim they were roughed up outside Trump Tower. State Supreme Court Judge Doris Gonzalez of the Bronx on Friday denied Trump’s effort to quash a subpoena seeking the president’s testimony. She ordered Trump to videotape a deposition before the trial, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 26. The lawsuit was filed by six activists who say they were assaulted by Trump security staff during a Sept. 3, 2015, protest by people upset over comments Trump made about Mexican immigrants. The judge says Trump’s testimony is “indispensable” as someone in charge of the business and his campaign. A lawyer for Trump did not immediately return a phone message.   …

Thirteen U.S. Marines arrested in July in connection with an alleged human smuggling operation in Southern California are now facing formal charges from the military. The charges range from failure to obey an order to drunkenness and theft, and include the alleged transportation of undocumented immigrants, according to a statement from the 1st Marine Division. Two of the Marines, Lance Corporal Byron Law II and Lance Corporal David Salazar-Quintero, were arrested on July 3 after border patrol agents found them picking up three illegal aliens along a stretch of Interstate 8, about 11 kilometers (7 miles) north of the U.S. border with Mexico. According to court documents, Law and Salazar-Quintero admitted to having been in contact with a recruiter, who offered to pay them for transporting the illegal immigrants from the interstate to other locations. Law told authorities he and Salazar-Quintero were never paid for the interaction, according to the complaint. A third Marine was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol a week later, on July 10. The other 10 were taken into custody during what some officials described as a sting operation July 25 at Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base located about 79 kilometers (49 miles) north of San …

A bus carrying Chinese-speaking tourists crashed near a national park in southern Utah, killing at least four people and critically injuring up to 15 others, authorities said Friday.    The morning wreck near Bryce Canyon National Park left 12 to 15 people with “very critical injuries,” the Utah Highway Patrol said on Twitter.    Highway Patrol Cpl. Chris Bishop told The Associated Press that he expected the number of injured to be higher.    The tour bus with 30 people aboard crashed near a highway rest stop about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from the park entrance. It’s not yet clear what caused the crash.    Highway Patrol photos show the top of a white bus smashed in and one side peeling away as the vehicle rests mostly off the side of a road near a sign for restrooms. Authorities were tending to people on the road, and others stood around covered in shiny blankets, the photos show.    Bishop said injured victims were sent to three hospitals. One of them, Intermountain Garfield Memorial Hospital, said it received 17 patients.    A spokesman for the small hospital in the tiny town of Panguitch tweeted that three people were in critical condition, 11 in …

Walmart Inc. told staff on Friday that it was discontinuing the sale of e-cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery products at its U.S. stores.   In an internal memo seen by Reuters, the retailer said growing federal, state and local regulatory complexity and uncertainty were behind its decision.    “We will complete our exit after selling through current inventory,” the company said.    The growing crackdown on e-cigarettes comes on the heels of bans on sales of flavored vaping products in New York and Michigan and after the Trump administration last week announced plans to remove all flavored e-cigarettes from store shelves, as officials warned that sweet flavors had drawn millions of children into nicotine addiction.    President Donald Trump and other top U.S. officials also expressed concern about surging teenage use of e-cigarettes at a time when health officials are investigating hundreds of reports of vaping-related lung disease and some deaths.  Marijuana products   One possible culprit identified so far is a line of illicit marijuana vape products sold under the brand names “Dank Vapes” and “Chronic Carts.”    The New York State Department of Health identified “Dank Vapes” and “Chronic Carts” as products containing Vitamin E acetate, a thickening agent in THC …

A bomb exploded on a minibus packed with passengers outside the Shiite holy city of Karbala Friday night, killing 12 people and wounding five others, Iraqi security officials and the state news agency said.   This was one of the biggest attacks targeting civilians since the extremist Islamic State group was declared defeated inside Iraq in 2017. The group’s sleeper cells continue to wage an insurgency and carry out sporadic attacks across the country The explosion occurred as the bus was passing through an Iraqi army checkpoint, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Karbala in the direction of the town of al-Hilla. One official told The Associated Press that before the blast, a passenger exited the minibus but left a bag containing explosives under one of the seats. The device was then detonated remotely at the checkpoint.   The officials said all of the dead were civilians killed in the explosion and subsequent fire in the bus. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.   There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. It took place during a holy period marked by Shiites in Iraq between two important religious events, Ashoura and …

Two Federal Reserve officials who dissented from this week’s quarter-point rate cut on Friday highlighted the current deep divisions at the central bank.    Eric Rosengren, head of the Fed’s Boston regional bank and one of two officials who opposed the rate cut, said the additional stimulus was not needed. He said it ran the risk of inflating the price of risky assets and encouraging households and business to take on too much debt.    James Bullard, head of the St. Louis Fed branch, dissented in favor of a bigger half-point cut. He argued that a larger reduction would have provided needed insurance against a sharper slowdown.    Both officials issued explanations of their dissents after the blackout period for public comment surrounding Fed meetings ended.   FILE – Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida checks his phone during the three-day “Challenges for Monetary Policy” conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Aug. 23, 2019. In a CNBC interview Friday, Vice Chairman Richard Clarida, who supported the latest quarter-point rate cut, said healthy debate is a strength of the Fed system.    The Fed approved a second quarter-point rate cut on Wednesday by a vote of 7-3, the first time that there had been …

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday renewed threats to dump captured Islamic State fighters on Europe’s doorstep if countries there continue to refuse to take back all their foreign fighters.    Trump said he was continuing with plans to draw down forces in Syria, saying the U.S. had done the world a big favor by eliminating the terror group’s self-declared caliphate and that it was time for other countries to step up.    “We’re asking them to take back these prisoners of war,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the Oval Office at the White House.    “They’ve refused,” he added. “And at some point I’m going to have to say, ‘I’m sorry, but you’re either taking them back or we’re going to let them go at your border.’ ”    This is not the first time Trump has chastised Washington’s European allies over the issue of IS foreign fighters.    In February, after tweeting that the IS caliphate was “ready to fall,” the president took allies to task over their reluctance to repatriate the captured fighters: The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS …

The United States planned to sign an agreement Friday to help make one of Central America’s most violent countries, El Salvador, a haven for migrants seeking asylum, according to a senior Trump administration official.    The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan would sign a “cooperative asylum agreement.”    Two other officials described the agreement as a first step in the governments’ working together on asylum. Details of the agreement will be settled in the weeks ahead, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.    The agreement could be struck despite the fact that many Salvadorans are fleeing their nation and seeking asylum in the United States. A Salvadoran delegation has been in the U.S. this week discussing the matter.  FILE – Mexican officials and U.S. Border Patrol officers return a group of migrants to the Mexico side of the border as Mexican immigration officials check the list, in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, July 25, 2019. Remain-in-Mexico policy   The asylum agreement would be the latest effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to force asylum-seekers in Central America to seek refuge outside the United States. Immigration officials also are forcing more than 42,000 people to …

President Donald Trump irritably defended himself Friday against an intelligence whistleblower’s complaint, including an allegation of wrongdoing in a reported private conversation Trump had with a foreign leader.    The complaint, which the administration has refused to let Congress see, is “serious” and “urgent,” the government’s intelligence watchdog said. But Trump dismissed the matter, insisting he did nothing wrong.    He declared Friday that the complaint was made by a “partisan whistleblower,” though he later said he did not know the identity of the person. He chided reporters for asking about it and said it was “just another political hack job.”    “I have conversations with many leaders. It’s always appropriate. Always appropriate,” Trump said. “At the highest level always appropriate. And anything I do, I fight for this country.”    Some of the whistleblower’s allegations appear to center on Ukraine, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person was not authorized to discuss the issue by name and was granted anonymity.    Trump, who sat in the Oval Office with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whom he was hosting for a state visit, was asked if he knew if the whistleblower’s complaint centered on a July 25 phone call …

Two reporters for the U.S.-based Bloomberg news agency have appeared in court accused of trying to undermine Turkey’s economic stability with a story they wrote on last year’s currency crisis. The trial against Kerim Karakaya and Fercan Yalinkilic opened in Istanbul on Friday. Thirty-six others have also been charged for their social media comments on the story written in August 2018, increasing concerns over media freedoms in Turkey. The trial is part of a fierce crackdown on journalists and media outlets. The Turkish Journalists Syndicate says at least 126 journalists or media workers are currently in prison. Karakaya and Yalinkilic face up to five-year jail terms if convicted. Bloomberg has condemned the prosecution and defended the pair, saying they reported “fairly and accurately on newsworthy events.”   …

Sixty years ago, children accounted for more than one-third — 36% — of the U.S. population. Today, that CLICK ON GRAPHIC TO ENLARGE — Courtesy Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data Center Meanwhile, the overall adult population has continued to climb since 2009. The decline in births might be attributable to the fact that young American adults in their 20s and 30s, among the hardest hit by the Great Recession of 2007-2009, are still recovering professionally and financially from their rough entry into the workforce, prompting them to postpone starting their families. Meanwhile, the graying of America continues. By 2030, all Baby Boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — will be over the age of age 65, meaning that 1 in every 5 residents will be of retirement age. Experts had expected the U.S. birth rate to stabilize by now. America’s senior citizens will need more young workers, not fewer, to help bolster economic safety net programs like Social Security, which was designed in 1935 primarily to provide retired workers with a continuing income. The program currently also serves disabled workers and their dependents as well as survivors of deceased workers. In 2014, there were 35 workers …

Police in Zimbabwe say the leader of a doctors’ strike, who allegedly was abducted by government agents, is receiving care at a Harare hospital and is not under arrest. Dr. Peter Magombeyi reappeared in the village of Nyabira late Thursday, five days after he went missing. In his absence, doctors and nurses held protests in Harare, demanding the government find him and ensure his safe return. Speaking Friday to VOA’s Zimbabwe service, national police spokesperson Paul Nyathi said Magombeyi is under observation at a hospital.   “He has been examined by his own medical team and a government team,” Nyathi said. “He is safe and has not been arrested at all as claimed in some sections of the media.” He added: “Dr. Magombeyi has accessed his lawyers who are interacting with the police. He has accessed his family and they are also interacting with the police.” Nyathi said police will interview Magombeyi once he is cleared by doctors. Magombeyi is acting president of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, whose members went on strike September 3.   The doctors, who are paid less than $200 per month, are demanding a pay raise to keep pace with Zimbabwe’s soaring inflation. The doctors …

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, along with their infant son, Archie, are making their first official tour as a family, starting Monday in a troubled South Africa whose president says women and children are “under siege” by shocking violence. South Africa is still shaken by the rape and murder of a university student, carried out in a post office that sparked protests by thousands of women tired of abuse and impunity in a country where more than 100 rapes are reported every day. This is “one of the most unsafe places in the world to be a woman,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said Wednesday. Empowering women is one of the issues Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, will address on a 10-day, multi-country visit, along with wildlife protection, entrepreneurship, mental health and mine clearance, a topic given global attention by Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana, when she walked through an active mine field during an Africa visit years ago. Some in South Africa said they are happy to see the arrival of Meghan, who has been vocal about women’s rights and is likely to speak out again. One of her first events is a visit to a workshop that …

Registered nurses staged a one-day strike Friday against Tenet Health hospitals in Florida, California and Arizona, demanding higher wages and better working conditions.   About 6,500 National Nurses United members walked out at 12 Tenet facilities after working without a contract for two years in Arizona and under expired contracts for months in California and Florida, the union said. They plan to resume working Saturday.   Members are also passing out leaflets in Texas, where contracts at two Tenet hospitals in El Paso expire later this year.   Yajaira Roman, a union leader and neurological intensive care nurse at Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah, Florida, said that although the Tenet nurses want higher wages, they also want a lower patient-to-nurse ratio as a way to avoid burnout and improve care. For example, the union says Tenet assigns eight patients per nurse in Palmetto’s surgical unit, double the level the union says research recommends.   “We are nurses — we are really proud of what we do and we’re happy that we’re serving the community, but we want to do it in a way where when patients leave the hospital they are extremely satisfied,” said Roman, a nurse for 18 years. …

As the world waited for the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to decide what to do next in response to last weekend’s drone and missile attack on two major Saudi oil fields, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the most bellicose statement yet on the attacks, unambiguously accusing Iran of launching them and declaring the attacks an “act of war.” Almost as soon as the attacks were reported, Pompeo, a former member of Congress and director of the CIA, asserted himself as the person driving the U.S. response. “Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply,” he wrote on Twitter. “There is no evidence the attacks on Saturday came from Yemen.” Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani and Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy. Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply. There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen. — Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, meets with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Sept 18, 2019. Although Trump had yet to reach a definitive conclusion about the source …

The Zimbabwean doctor whose disappearance sparked off a wave of doctors’ protests across the country, has reappeared, alive. Speaking Thursday on VOA Zimbabwe Service’s Livetalk program, a disoriented-sounding Dr. Peter Magombeyi, the president of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association, confirmed he was the one on the other end of the phone. “I honestly don’t know how to truly identify myself, but I am Dr. Peter Magombeyi, I work at Harare Hospital,” he said. The doctor, who had been spearheading calls for an increase of doctors’ salaries when he disappeared on September 15, said he could not remember exactly what happened to him or how he ended up where he was — an area called Nyabira, about 33 kilometers from Harare. “That part I’m just so vague about, I need time to recall,” he said. A Zimbabwean doctor lays on a banner during a protest in Harare, Sept, 18, 2019. Dr. Magombeyi said his last recollection before being taken by unnamed people was the memory of being electrocuted. “I remember being in a basement of some sort, being electrocuted at some point, that is what I vividly remember. I, I just don’t remember,” Dr. Magombeyi said, struggling to speak. Zimbabwe’s government …

Sound checks echoed from a distant main stage while Daniel Martinez whirled and danced at dusty makeshift festival grounds just after sunset in Rachel, the Nevada town closest to the once-secret Area 51 military base. Martinez’s muse was the thumping beat from a satellite set-up pumping a techno tune into the chilly desert night Thursday. Warm beneath a wolf “spirit hood” and matching faux fur jacket, the 31-year-old Pokemon collectible cards dealer said people, not the military base, drew him drive more than six hours from Pomona, California, alone. “Here’s a big open space for people to be,” he said. “One person starts something and it infects everybody with positivity. Anything can happen if you give people a place to be.” Minutes later, the music group Wily Savage started, and campers began migrating toward main stage light near the Little A’Le’Inn. The music kicked off weekend events — inspired by an internet hoax to “see them aliens” — that Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee said had drawn perhaps 1,500 people to two tiny desert towns. Lee said late Thursday that more than 150 people also made the rugged trip on washboard dirt roads to get within selfie distance of two …

More than 1,000 United Nations employees have called for the global body to reduce its carbon footprint, including through curbs on their own diplomatic perks like business-class flights and travel handouts, a letter obtained by Reuters showed. The United Nations calls climate change the “defining issue of our time” and is hosting a New York summit on it next week. But reformers within say in the letter addressed to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that it needs more radical change to get its own house in order. “Our commitments need to be more ambitious and at least as concrete as those of the UN Member States and non-party stakeholders attending the UN Climate Action Summit,” said the letter, signed by more than 1,000 employees. It was organized by a group called Young UN, an internal network committed to ensuring the organization embodies the principles it stands for. Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg testifies at a Climate Crisis Committee joint hearing on “Voices Leading the Next Generation on the Global Climate Crisis,” on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Sept. 18, 2019. “As Greta Thunberg just sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and young people across the world continue to strike every Friday, let us …

Amnesty International on Friday accused Hong Kong police of using excessive force against pro-democracy protesters, in some cases amounting to torture, criticizing a “disturbing pattern of reckless and unlawful tactics.” In a report based on interviews with nearly two dozen activists, most of whom were hospitalized after their arrests, the global rights watchdog said the city’s police officers routinely went beyond the level of force allowed by local law and international standards. “In an apparent thirst for retaliation, Hong Kong’s security forces have engaged in a disturbing pattern of reckless and unlawful tactics against people during the protests,” Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia director at Amnesty International, said. “This has included arbitrary arrests and retaliatory violence against arrested persons in custody, some of which has amounted to torture.” Policemen clash with demonstrators on a street during a protest in Hong Kong, Aug. 25, 2019. The rights group backed calls for an independent inquiry into police brutality, a key demand of protesters but one that has been rejected by government officials and police top brass. Hong Kong’s police force dismissed Amnesty’s findings and rejected allegations it had used excessive force. In a statement issued Friday, police said their officers “exercise a high …