President Donald Trump has named Robert C. O’Brien as his new National Security Adviser, replacing John Bolton who was fired last week. “I am pleased to announce that I will name Robert C. O’Brien, currently serving as the very successful Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department, as our new National Security Advisor. I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!,” Trump said on Twitter Wednesday. I am pleased to announce that I will name Robert C. O’Brien, currently serving as the very successful Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department, as our new National Security Advisor. I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2019 Trump had said Bolton had been a “disaster” on North Korea policy, “out of line” on Venezuela, and did not get along with important administration officials. …

Spain’s acting prime minister asked voters Wednesday for an even bigger victory for his Socialist party after his failure to form a government triggered a new election in November. Pedro Sánchez told opposition parties in parliament that “when we will be forced back to the polls, I hope that the Spanish people give the Socialist Party an even bigger majority so that you … cannot block the formation of a government that Spain needs.” He spoke a day after King Felipe VI announced that there was no viable candidate who could win parliament’s endorsement before a Sept. 23 deadline. The Nov. 10 election will be Spain’s fourth in four years. Sánchez’s Socialists won the April 28 election, but fell short of a majority and he was unable to win the support of any major rival parties. The far-left United We Can party both refused to enter into a coalition government or to endorse his formation of a single-party government. The center-right Citizens party also wouldn’t negotiate until a last-minute effort that flopped. Sánchez’s rivals criticized his unwillingness to win them over. Popular Party leader Pablo Casado, the conservative opposition leader, said that Sánchez “wanted new elections from the start, but …

Iran has been suspended from international judo competitions because it boycotts bouts with Israeli athletes. Less than a month after world champion Saeid Mollaei walked off the Iranian team in protest at the boycott policy, the International Judo Federation said Wednesday that Iran is suspended ahead of a full hearing. Iran’s judo federation is accused of discriminating against Israeli athletes and breaking rules over manipulating competition results. “The IJF Executive Committee considered that such a conduct is intolerable,” the federation said. Mollaei has said he was repeatedly ordered by Iranian officials to lose matches or withdraw from competitions, including last month’s world championships, so as not to face Israelis. He is currently in hiding in Germany. Iran does not recognize Israel as a country, and Iranian sports teams have for several decades had a policy of not competing against Israelis. It’s not yet clear if the IJF will seek to stop Iran competing in the 2020 Olympic judo events. Meanwhile, the IJF is exploring ways to allow Mollaei to compete on the International Olympic Committee’s team of refugees. The IOC has signaled a harder line on boycotts in recent years. In June, IOC president Thomas Bach criticized governments who “clearly …

It’s a common sight in Los Angeles. Thousands of people living in tents on sidewalks, sometimes with trash piled outside their makeshift shelters, conditions that breed typhus and other diseases.  Analysts say the problem is complex, has been decades in the making and that a response requires coordination at many levels of government. President Donald Trump and his White House Council of Economic Advisers have recently weighed in, and Trump, on a flight to California for political fundraisers on Tuesday, said California’s largest cities are destroying themselves through an inadequate response to the problem. On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom and local officials asked Trump for help in providing emergency rent vouchers. Homelessness has risen 12% in Los Angeles since 2018, despite a healthy economy that some critics say has left too many behind. Nearly 60,000 people were living without shelter in the most recent count of the country’s homeless residents in January. “What’s unusual now is that you had a massive surge of jobs and wealth back into the cities after this long trend of suburbanization,” said Kevin Klowden, executive director of the Milken Institute’s Center for Regional Economics and California Center. He says sprawling commuter cities like Los Angeles and San …

South Korea has followed through with a pledge to remove Japan from a preferred list of nations that enjoy fast track trade status, the latest chapter in an escalating diplomatic dispute tied to Japan’s 20th century occupation of the Korean peninsula. Tokyo’s removal from a so-called “white list” of nations enjoying minimal trade restrictions means South Korean companies would have to wait as many as 15 days to win approval to export sensitive materials to Japan, compared to five days under the fast track status.   Wednesday’s action comes just weeks after Tokyo removed South Korea from its “white list” of trusted trade partners.  The decision restricts exports of hi-tech materials to South Korea that are used to produce semiconductors and displays in smartphones and other electronics that serve as the backbone of South Korea’s export-driven economy. Seoul has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over a separate move by Japan to tighten export controls on those materials. Tokyo’s decision to rescind Seoul’s fast track trade status are widely seen as retaliation for recent court rulings in South Korea ordering Japanese companies to compensate Koreans who were forced to work in Japanese plants du. The companies have not …

UN Special Rapporteur Clément Voule is in Zimbabwe for a 10-day visit to assess how the country’s human rights situation, specifically the rights to “freedom of peaceful assembly and association.”  As Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare for VOA, Voule’s visit takes place at a time when rights groups are worried by a spate of abductions of activists, including most recently the head of a doctor’s association.  …

On-going fighting between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has led to economic hardships resulting from land losses, displacement and family separation. Many young Burmese women seek work in neighboring China, making them more vulnerable to human trafficking and forced marriages. Steve Sandford spoke with local activists and former victims in northern Myanmar about the impact of human trafficking and filed this report.  …

After months of preparation, the first round of virtual courts started hearing cases on Monday in the border city of Laredo, Texas. The migrants cross the border from Mexico for a brief video appearance before a judge. The asylum seekers then return to Mexico while their cases make their way through the legal system in the U.S. The virtual courts are part of the Homeland Security Department’s new rules under the so-called Migrant Protection Protocol. VOA’s Celia Mendoza has more from Laredo. …

A new virtual reality experience from Stanford allows patients and families to travel inside a human heart before surgery. Deana Mitchell takes a look. …

Fifty-seven percent of teens say they “fear” climate change, according to a new survey by the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post. The survey comes as Greta Thunberg, a climate-change activist from Sweden, brought her well-publicized climate campaign to Washington last week.  Called Fridays for Future, it has attracted young people around the world to press governments to take action, as Sahar Majid tells us more in this report narrated by Kathleen Struck. …

Nigeria’s frenetic commercial capital, Lagos, is plunged into darkness several times a day. Then its generators roar, and the lights flood back on. Nigeria is one of the world’s largest economies where businesses rely so heavily on diesel-powered generators. More than 70% of its firms own or share the units, while government data shows generators provide at least 14 gigawatts of power annually, dwarfing the 4 gigawatts supplied on average by the country’s electricity grid. The machines guzzle cash and spew pollution, but they are reliable in a nation where nearly 80 million people – some 40% of the population – have no access to grid power. Now diesel costs could spike globally, and many businesses are not prepared. Diesel prices are expected to surge as United Nations rules aimed at cleaning up international shipping come into effect on Jan. 1, with many ships expected to burn distillates instead of dirtier fuel oil. Slowing economic growth and nascent trade wars could blunt a price spike, and as the shipping industry adapts to the rules, vessels will likely consume less diesel. But in the short term their impact could be profound. Estimates vary widely, but observers warn that prices could surge …

A judge cleared the way Tuesday for OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to stay in business while it pursues bankruptcy protection and settlement of more than 2,600 lawsuits filed against it in a reckoning over the opioid crisis. At the first court hearing since the Chapter 11 filing late Sunday, Purdue lawyers secured permission for the multibillion-dollar company based in Stamford, Connecticut, to maintain business as usual — paying employees and vendors, supplying pills to distributors, and keeping current on taxes and insurance. The continued viability of Purdue is a key component of the company’s settlement offer, which could be worth up to $12 billion over time. Under the proposal, backed by about half the states, the Sackler family, which owns Purdue, would turn the company, its assets and more than $1 billion in cash reserves over to a trust controlled by the very entities suing it. The Sacklers have also agreed to pay a minimum of $3 billion of their own money to the settlement over seven years, as well as up to $1.5 billion more in proceeds from the planned sale of their non-U.S. pharmaceutical companies. “This is a highly unusual case in that the debtors have pledged to …

International Criminal Court judges said Tuesday that the court’s prosecutor can appeal against the rejection of her request to open an investigation into crimes linked to the long-running conflict in Afghanistan. In April, a panel of judges rejected the proposed investigation, saying it would not be in the interests of justice because an investigation and prosecution were unlikely to be successful as those targeted — including the United States, Afghan authorities and the Taliban — are not expected to cooperate. Seeking leave to appeal, Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that reasoning ran contrary to the court’s goal of prosecuting grave crimes when national authorities are unwilling or unable to do so. Bensouda must now file a detailed appeal that will be considered by judges, a process likely to take months. FILE – Public Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda attends the trial for Malian Islamist militant Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the Netherlands, July 8, 2019. Her November 2017 request to open an investigation angered Washington because as well as alleging that crimes were committed by the Taliban and Afghan security forces, Bensouda said she had information that members of the U.S. …

She’s done a lot with the place. Like anyone who has ever spruced up their home, Melania Trump will have a few new touches to showcase Friday when guests visit the White House for only the second state dinner of the Trump presidency. There’s refreshed wall fabric in the Red Room, repurposed draperies in the Green Room and restored furniture in the Blue Room. And those are just some of the home improvement projects the first lady has overseen to keep the well-trod public rooms at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. looking their museum-quality best. Some of the projects were long overdue. Sunlight streaming into the Red Room had left some of the wall fabric “so faded it was almost pink,” said Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, which helps finance upkeep of some rooms in the 132-room mansion. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy founded the private, nonprofit organization in 1961. “Those rooms should always look their very best and it was just very faded and really, really needed to be done,” McLaurin said. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife, Jenny, and guests for Friday’s three-course state dinner in their honor should have an opportunity to check out …

Comcast’s NBCUniversal will name its upcoming streaming service “Peacock,” offering a broad slate of original content, including “Dr. Death” starring Emmy and Golden Globe winner Alec Baldwin, the company said on Tuesday. Peacock, which will also offer classic sitcoms like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation”, is scheduled to launch in 2020, NBCUniversal said. The company owns traditional television network NBC, whose logo features a peacock. The service will compete with streaming giant Netflix and Walt Disney Co.’s upcoming Disney+ streaming service as well as other digital subscription options, as traditional media companies seek to attract online viewers. Details on pricing and distribution will be announced closer to launch, the media company said. Reuters had reported in January that an ad-free version of the NBC service will be available for about the same price as other subscription video services. Peacock will also have other shows such as a reboot of “Battlestar Galactica” and original comedy “Rutherford Falls,” the company said.   …

The European Union’s outgoing president, Donald Tusk, on Tuesday urged the bloc’s members to back entry talks with North Macedonia and Albania, saying they had lived up to their tasks and Europe would not be stable without the Balkans in the European Union. Visiting Skopje and Tirana a month before EU members will decide whether to start talks, Tusk praised North Macedonia for resolving its old quarrel with Greece by accepting its new name, as well as for its friendship treaty with Bulgaria and ability to help Europe cope with one of the biggest migration crises. “These achievements are truly impressive, internationally recognized and should not be wasted by the EU,” he told reporters flanking Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. “Skopje is the best possible place where I would like to appeal to the leaders of the European Union: Now you do your share. Because North Macedonia has already done its share,” Tusk added, before traveling west to neighboring Albania’s capital. In Tirana, Tusk told Prime Minister Edi Rama he wanted to see the whole Western Balkans “follow the same path as my country, Poland, towards the EU”, and that goal was now closer. “Your country must be treated with equal …

Venezuela’s opposition-led congress has again thrown its support behind Juan Guaido, saying he’ll serve as the crisis-wracked nation’s interim president until they’ve ended Nicolas Maduro’s grip on power. The vote Tuesday came a day after a minority of opposition parties announced they’re entering negotiations with Maduro’s government independent of Guaido. That’s the first sign of cracks in the anti-Maduro campaign since Guaido rose to confront the socialist leader. Guaido in January was named the National Assembly’s head and days later announced he’d assumed Venezuela’s interim presidency with backing from the United States and 50 other nations. The National Assembly has approved a measure giving Guaido its “unrestricted political support” until Maduro’s rule ends. Maduro maintains control of Venezuelan with backing from the military and nations including Cuba, China and Russia.   …

The world is facing a mounting threat of disease pandemics that could kill millions and wreak havoc on the global economy, a international expert panel has warned, and governments should work to prepare for and mitigate that risk. The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), co-convened by the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), warned that epidemic-prone viral diseases like Ebola, flu and SARS are increasingly tough to manage in a world dominated by lengthy conflicts, fragile states and forced migration. “The threat of a pandemic spreading around the globe is a real one,” the group said in a report released on Wednesday. “A quick-moving pathogen has the potential to kill tens of millions of people, disrupt economies and destabilize national security.” While some governments and international agencies have made efforts to be vigilant and prepare for major disease outbreaks since the devastating 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, those efforts are “grossly insufficient,” the report said. Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former WHO head who co-chaired the board, added that current approaches to disease and health emergencies are “characterized by a cycle of panic and neglect.” The report cited the 1918 “Spanish flu” pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 …

Spain’s high court has rejected a U.S. extradition request for Venezuela’s ex-spy chief. Former major general Hugo Carvajal is wanted in the United States on charges of helping Colombian rebels smuggle drugs into the U.S. He denies the charges. Spain’s top court said the extradition request was politically motivated and failed to name any “concrete and precise” crimes he may have committed to justify sending him to the U.S. Carvajal was Venezuelan intelligence chief under the late president Hugo Chavez and, briefly, under current President Nicolas Maduro. Carvajal backs the Venezuelan opposition efforts to topple Maduro. He fled to Madrid in April and says he will continue to support efforts to drive Maduro from power.   …

Facebook said Tuesday that it expects to name the first members of a new quasi-independent oversight board by year-end. The oversight panel is intended to rule on thorny content issues, such as when Facebook or Instagram posts constitute hate speech. It will be empowered to make binding rulings on whether posts or ads violate the company’s standards. Any other findings it makes will be considered “guidance” by Facebook. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to establish the board last November after Facebook came under intense scrutiny for failures to protect user privacy and for its inability to quickly and effectively remove disinformation, hate speech and malign influence campaigns on its platform. “Facebook should not make so many important decisions about free expression and safety on our own,” he wrote at the time. Critics call the oversight board a bid by Facebook to forestall regulation or even an eventual breakup. The company faces antitrust investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, Congress and a group of state attorneys general. “Facebook is attempting to normalize an approach to containing hate speech internally,” said Dipayan Ghosh, a former Facebook policy adviser and a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School. “If it can illustrate that this approach …

Exit polls in Israel show that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not won enough seats to put together a majority coalition of 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. The same exit polls also show, however, that neither does challenger and former Israeli army head Benny Gantz. Israel’s three main television stations had slightly different results based on their own exit polls. One had Netanyahu’s Likud and Gantz’s Blue and White tied with 32 seats apiece. Another had Blue and White at 34 and Likud at 33. A third had Blue and White at 33, and Likud at 31. Neither Netanyahu nor Gantz commented on the exit polls, preferring to wait until the final results were in. But other Likud officials did comment. “Benjamin Netanyahu will either be prime minister or we will go to third elections,” Likud MK Yoav Kisch told journalists. “I can’t see another option.” It was the first time in Israel’s history that a second election was called so quickly. As elections are a national holiday here, they cost the Israeli economy millions of dollars, although many Israelis spent the unexpected day off at the beach. Members of the rival Blue and White Party said it’s time …

Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb and Katherine Ahn of VOA’s Persian Service contributed to this report. There is growing evidence that a drone and missile attack launched against Saudi Arabian oil fields under the cover of darkness originated in Iran. Houthi rebels in Yemen, backed by Iran, originally claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack, knocking out half of the country’s oil production. But U.S. officials say the available evidence is showing that is not possible. Missiles and drone aircraft are seen on display at an exhibition at an unidentified location in Yemen in this undated handout photo released by the Houthi Media Office on Sept. 17, 2019. “Our working assumption is that this did not come from Yemen or Iraq,” a U.S. defense official told VOA Tuesday, adding that a U.S. forensic team is on the ground working with the Saudis to examine the remnants of the missiles. “We think that evidence will be compelling,” the official added. Separately, other U.S. officials say the evidence that already has been collected is conclusive and points directly to Iran. Unnamed officials told NBC News on Tuesday that more than 20 drones and missiles used in the attack on the Saudi oil facilities were launched …

As some world leaders question whether the world is facing a climate emergency, more than a dozen cities are stepping up to tackle global warming and sustainable development and will next week pledge to report their progress to the United Nations. Sixteen cities will commit to implementing global goals to end poverty, inequality and other challenges by 2030 during the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations. They will sign a voluntary declaration drafted by New York City. The set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, unanimously approved by the 193 U.N. member nations in 2015, is a wide-ranging “to-do” list tackling such issues as conflict, hunger, land degradation, gender equality and climate change. “We are living in a time when national governments are abdicating their responsibility on urgent issues. That is why cities are stepping up,” said New York City’s International Affairs Commissioner Penny Abeywardena. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has described global warming as a hoax, dealt a blow to U.N.-led efforts to fight climate change when he pulled the United States from the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has also expressed doubts as to whether climate change is man-made and is ambivalent …

Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday called a snap election for Nov. 10, Spain’s fourth in as many years, after failing to secure support from rival parties to confirm him as premier and allow him to form a government. Sanchez acted after King Felipe VI said there were no viable candidates to lead a new government. The king, who is the head of state, had earlier consulted all key political leaders to verify whether a deal to put together a government was still possible in a deeply fragmented parliament. “There is no majority in (parliament) that guarantees the formation of a government, which pushes us into a repeat election on Nov. 10,” Sanchez told an evening news conference, pinning the blame squarely on the opposition. Spain, with the fourth largest economy in the European Union’s euro currency zone, has been in political limbo since Sanchez’s Socialists emerged as the biggest party in April’s election but failed to nail down a parliamentary majority. In July, parliament twice rejected his confirmation bid, and this week was his last opportunity to form a government. Opinion polls show a new election might not end the impasse, with the Socialists still unable to win …