Alabama’s state historical agency apparently will retain control of the last U.S. slave ship, the Clotilda, after no one else laid claim to the wreckage. Friday was the deadline under federal court rules for any potential owners to request control of wreckage of the wooden schooner, which was scuttled and burned near Mobile after illegally bringing about 110 captives to Alabama from west Africa in 1860. Because no one else sought the ship’s remains, the state can now move forward in federal court to take permanent possession, Andi Martin, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Historical Commission, said Monday. The agency already has temporary hold on an artifact from the wreck. Researchers identified the wreckage of the ship earlier this year north of Mobile. It’s unclear how much the remains may be worth, but they could be priceless given the ship’s historical importance. A wealthy Mobile businessman, Timothy Meaher, financed the Clotilda’s lone slave-trading trip after betting he could import Africans despite a ban enacted decades earlier, historical accounts show. Officials say they’re unsure how much of the Clotilda remains, but they believe at least some of the hull could be intact in the muddy bottom of the Mobile River near …

The United States filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who in 2013 leaked secret documents about U.S. telephone and Internet surveillance, saying his new book violates non-disclosure agreements. The Justice Department said Snowden published his memoir, “Permanent Record,” without submitting it to intelligence agencies for review, adding that speeches given by Snowden also violated nondisclosure agreements. The United States is seeking all proceeds earned by Snowden for the book, the Justice Department said. The lawsuit also names the “corporate entities” behind the book’s publication as nominal defendants. A spokesman for Snowden could not immediately be reached, and book publisher Macmillan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Snowden has lived in Russia since he revealed details of U.S. intelligence agencies’ secret surveillance programs. Though Snowden is viewed by some as a hero, U.S. authorities want him to stand in a criminal trial over his disclosures of classified information. …

Corey Lewandowski, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager and close confidant, on Tuesday stoutly defended his former boss and lashed out at Democrats during testimony to a U.S. congressional panel considering whether to impeach Trump. “We as a nation would be better served if elected officials like you concentrated your efforts to combat the true crises facing our country as opposed to going down rabbit holes like this hearing,” Lewandowski said in his opening remarks to the Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. The White House on Monday told Lewandowski not to discuss conversations he had with Trump after he became president including an exchange that Democrats view as evidence that Trump committed obstruction of justice by trying to interfere in a federal investigation and may need to be impeached. Lewandowski was the first impeachment witness to appear before the committee since former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified in July about his inquiry that detailed Russian 2016 election interference and Trump’s actions to impede the investigation. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat, began the hearing by slamming the White House’s legal team for instructing Lewandowski to limit the scope of his testimony by invoking a doctrine called executive …

Older Americans aren’t moving as much as they used to.  The migration rate of people over 55 has dropped steadily over the past two decades from a high of 6% in 1996, to 4.3% between 2017 and 2018, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Moving rates for Baby Boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — have rebounded a bit since the Great Recession of 2007-2009, but they remain slightly below pre-recession rates. “The idea is if the economy’s not so good, they may just want to stay working for a little bit more before they retire,” says demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution. “Their decision is when can they retire, when is it affordable to retire? And more importantly, from the migration standpoint, does it make sense to to pick up stakes and move somewhere else? If the housing crunch is there, they’re not going to have too many bidders for their homes, so the idea of selling your house to move somewhere else is not going to be as easy.” CLICK ON GRAPHIC TO ENLARGE When they do retire, Baby Boomers are still heading to traditional sunny retirement haunts like Phoenix, Tampa, Riverside [California], Las Vegas …

Prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong urged U.S. lawmakers Tuesday to support human rights and democracy in the semiautonomous Chinese territory, declaring, “The stakes have never been higher.” Wong’s appeal for U.S. support came during testimony at a hearing in Washington before the Congressional Executive Commission on China to review developments in Hong Kong and China’s role in the political crisis there. Wong was joined by Hong Kong celebrity activist Denise Ho, who warned that an erosion of the city’s unique status would embolden China if the U.S. does not put pressure on Beijing and support U.S. legislation aimed at defending Hong Kongers’ civil rights. “The U.S. and its allies have everything to fear if they wish to maintain a world that is free, open and civil,” Ho said. “I, therefore, urge the U.S. Congress to stand by Hong Kong, and most of all, to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights Democracy Act. This is not a plea for so-called foreign interference. This is a plea for democracy. This is a plea for the freedom to choose.” “If Hong Kong falls, it would easily become the springboard for the totalitarian regime of China to push its rules and priorities overseas, …

A year after failing to meet its enlistment goal for the first time in 13 years, the U.S. Army is now on track to meet a lower 2019 target after revamping its recruitment effort. Army leaders tell The Associated Press that they expect to sign up more than 68,000 active duty soldiers for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, as the largest branch of the U.S. military increasingly turns to social media and other new online methods to find potential recruits.   Last year, the Army brought in about 70,000 new active duty recruits, well below the 76,500 it needed amid low unemployment and tough competition from higher-paying civilian companies. Meeting the lower 2019 figure is considered a victory for a service that has struggled to compete for young people who are less familiar with the military and that was criticized last year for using more bad conduct waivers and other waivers to meet enlistment goals.   “We’re smoothing out the Army’s growth,” Gen. James McConville, chief of staff of the Army, said in an AP interview.  “What we want to do is have modest growth over the next couple of years. And we’re trying to make sure that …

About 140 U.S. flags bearing an extra star are flying along Pennsylvania Avenue as Washington, D.C., prepares for its first House hearing on U.S. statehood in a quarter century.  Mayor Muriel E. Bowser led a caravan toward to the U.S. Capitol on Monday to symbolize the city’s fight for congressional voting rights. The Washington Post reported that mayoral spokeswoman LaToya Foster said the event and flags cost about $31,200, which came out of the $1 million that city lawmakers set aside to fight for statehood. The bill set to be discussed Thursday by the Oversight Committee has more than 200 co-sponsors and the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, both Democrats. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to block a companion bill that has more than 30 sponsors.  Also up for discussion at the hearing may be an ongoing scandal involving D.C. Councilman Jack Evans. Evans resigned from his role as the chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority board this summer after an internal investigation determined that he failed to disclose a profitable conflict of interest. The findings by the Metro ethics committee were initially kept confidential , enabling Evans, …

U.S. President Donald Trump said that “it’s looking like” Iran was behind this weekend’s attacks carried out on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia but said the U.S. is not looking at retaliatory options until there is “definitive proof” that Tehran was responsible.White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest. …

Almost the entire population of Ecuador had their personal data leaked online in a major security breach, officials and security experts said Monday. Data on an estimated 20 million people, including almost seven million minors as well as deceased citizens, was exposed by the breach, the state attorney general’s office said. The data was hosted on an unsecured server run by an Ecuadoran marketing and analytics firm. “The information that I can share with you at this moment is that this is a very delicate issue, it is a major concern for the whole of the government and the state,” said Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo. The South American nation has a population of 17 million, according to the U.N. Population Fund. Ecuadoran authorities said the data was allegedly from a server based in the United States. The security company vpnMentor uncovered the breach on the server run by the firm Novaestrat, which included citizens’ full names, dates and places of birth, education levels, phone numbers and national identity card numbers. ZDNet, the cybersecurity website that first reported the breach, said there was even data on the country’s president and on Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who applied for asylum …

A lawyer urged Britain’s Supreme Court on Tuesday to rule that Prime Minister Boris Johnson illegally suspended Parliament just weeks before the country is due to leave the European Union for the “improper purpose” of dodging scrutiny of his Brexit plans. The country’s highest court is sitting to resolve a case that pits the powers of elected lawmakers against those of the executive in a struggle to control the course of Brexit. Johnson sent lawmakers home on Sept. 9 until Oct. 14, which is barely two weeks before the scheduled Oct. 31 Brexit day. The prime minister says Britain must leave the EU at the end of next month, with or without a divorce deal. But many lawmakers believe a no-deal Brexit would be economically devastating and socially destabilizing, and are determined to thwart him. Lawyer David Pannick, who represents one of the campaigners challenging the government, told 11 Supreme Court judges that Johnson had improperly suspended the legislature “to silence Parliament because he sees Parliament as an obstacle to the furtherance of his political aims.” The court will hear from government lawyers later in the day.   Johnson says the suspension is routine, and will allow his government to …

A no-deal Brexit would cause havoc to the island of Ireland and agri-businesses on both sides of the border are fearful of the impact. So, too, is the Irish government, and is becoming more so after Monday’s chaotic visit by Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Luxembourg, during which he skipped a press appearance to avoid anti-Brexit protesters and was mocked for doing so by European Union leaders. British officials accused their EU counterparts of seeking to ambush Johnson by refusing to move the press appearance away from the protesters. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, left, shakes hands with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson prior to a meeting at a restaurant in Luxembourg, Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was holding his first… After a meeting with the European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the EU’s top Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, Johnson told Britain’s ITN broadcaster that there was movement in the talks in which London is trying to find a way out of the Brexit morass. A key sticking point is the the so-called Irish backstop, which would see Britain remaining in the EU customs union for an indefinite period while a trade deal is negotiated. …

An Afghan health official says 24 people were killed Tuesday in a bombing attack near the site of an election rally held by President Ashraf Ghani. Dr. Qasim Sangin, the head of the provincial hospital in northern Parwan province, says at least 31 others were injured in the bombing, and that women and children were among the victims.  A spokesman for Ghani says the president was unharmed in the blast.   No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. Insurgent violence is expected to increase in coming days as Afghanistan prepares to hold its presidential election on September 28. The Taliban has threatened to disrupt the vote by staging attacks against election organizers and the security forces deployed to guard polling stations around the country. …

China says a government official will travel to the United States this week to lay the groundwork for the resumption of high-level trade talks next month. State-run Xinhua news agency says deputy finance minister Liao Min will arrive in Washington Wednesday for talks with counterparts from the Trump administration to “pave the way” for the senior level negotiations, which will also take place in the U.S. capital.   The decision to hold a new round of talks was made earlier this month during a phone call between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, Beijing’s top trade negotiator,  U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The two sides last held major talks in July but there was no major breakthrough in the trade dispute between the world’s top two economies. Washington and Beijing have been engaged in a series of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs for more than a year, sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s initial demand for changes in China’s trade, subsidy and intellectual property practices.  China says U.S. trade policies are aimed at trying to stifle its ability to compete. The situation has cast uncertainty on financial markets and left companies scrambling to cope with the effects of …

Some tough athletes are competing in traditional Nigerian boxing called “Dambe,” a fierce, no-holds-barred form of fighting. Now thanks to online fundraising these fighters are getting paid. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi takes us behind the scenes. …

There are an estimated 153 million orphaned children in the world.  And in many places life for these unwanted children is harsh, and can be deadly. One foundation in Karachi Pakistan, however, welcomes unwanted babies. VOA’s Muhammad Saqib spent a day inside Edhi Foundation and filed this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.  …

In Colombia, the recent decision by some FARC guerrilla leaders to again take up arms – and the continuing violence directed at former fighters, political candidates, and human rights activists – have raised fears about the future of peace in that South American nation.  As VOA’s Celia Mendoza reports from Bogota, there are questions whether the government of President Iván Duque has the political will to fully implement the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC that ended five decades of conflict. …

Living conditions have improved greatly since 2000 even for the world’s poorest people, but billions remain mired in “layers of inequality.” That is the assessment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s third annual report on progress toward U.N. Sustainable Development Goals – 17 measures that most countries have pledged to try to reach by 2030. Those efforts are falling short, says Bill Gates. “As much progress as we’re making, a child in many countries still over 10% are dying before the age of five. And in richer countries it is less than 1%. So the idea that any place in the world is still 10%, some almost 15%, that’s outrageous, and it should galvanize us to do a better job,” Gates told VOA. The 63-year-old Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist sat down with VOA at the foundation’s offices in advance of the report, which was released to coincide with the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. This year’s report uses geography and gender as lenses for examining progress, particularly in terms of health and education. It finds “an increasing concentration of high mortality and low educational attainment levels” in Africa’s Sahel region as well as in parts of Pakistan, …

Israelis are voting Tuesday in general elections as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a challenge from former military chief Benny Gantz. Polls show Tuesday’s contest too close to call, with Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party tied with Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party, with neither predicted to win a majority of seats in the 120-member Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Ten parties could win seats in the legislature. That could possibly leave Avigdor Lieberman, a former defense minister and one-time Netanyahu ally but now a rival, as the kingmaker to form a coalition government. Lieberman, the head of the Israel Beitenu party, could double his seats in parliament from five to 10. His campaign slogan is to “make Israel normal again,” a motto aimed at combating what he says is the undue influence of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties on political life in the country. Netanyahu made a last-day nationalist campaign pitch Monday saying if he wins re-election, he would annex all the Jewish settlements in the West Bank over the protests of Palestinian leaders. He told Israeli Army Radio, “I intend to extend sovereignty on all the settlements and the (settlement) blocs,” including “sites that have security importance or are important to Israel’s heritage.” …

China and Russia clashed with the U.S. and other Security Council members Monday over China’s insistence on including a reference to Beijing’s $1 trillion “belt and road” global infrastructure program in a resolution on the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan. The mission’s six-month mandate expires Tuesday and council members met behind closed doors for over 2 1/2 hours Monday, unable to agree on a text because of China’s demand. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, the current council president, told reporters afterward that diplomats were working on a new text and “we’re in the process of reaching a compromise.” He said the council would meet again late Tuesday morning in hopes of reaching unanimous agreement. This is the second time in six months that the resolution to keep the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan operating has become embroiled in controversy over “belt and road” language. Resolutions extending the mandate of the Afghan mission for a year in 2016, 2017 and 2018 had language welcoming and urging further efforts to strengthen regional economic cooperation involving Afghanistan, including through the huge “belt and road” initiative to link China to other parts of Asia as well as Europe and Africa. But in March, when the …

A minority group of opposition parties in Venezuela agreed Monday to enter negotiations with President Nicolas Maduro’s government without the participation of U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido, eroding his efforts to hold together a coalition to confront the socialist administration. The agreement was signed by representatives of several opposition parties alongside Maduro’s top aides in a nationally televised event attended by foreign diplomats.  It marks the first significant split in the anti-Maduro camp since Guaido, as head of the opposition-controlled congress, declared himself interim president in January, citing what was seen as Maduro’s fraudulent re-election last year. Guaido quickly drew recognition from the U.S. and more than 50 nations. “Everyone who wants to join and sign this agreement is welcome,” Maduro said later Monday. “The starting point is to accept our difference and seek peace.” Lawmaker Timoteo Zambrano, an opposition lawmaker who signed the agreement, was critical of the efforts led by the larger anti-Maduro parties. He didn’t directly mention Guaido.  Zambrano said he and the others seek to recover time lost due to the “ambition of some and the mistakes of us all.” He urged support from the international community.  “We ask the governments of the region and the …

Four Democratic presidential candidates descended on South Carolina on Monday for what organizers call the oldest traditional campaign speech event in the country, taking an opportunity to continue to make their cases ahead of the first Southern vote of 2020. On Monday, Joe Biden, Bill de Blasio, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar spoke at the Galivants Ferry Stump, a biennial Democratic event that takes place in a rural portion of northeastern South Carolina. One by one, they addressed a crowd of about 2,500 gathered in the unincorporated community of Galivants Ferry along the banks of the Little Pee Dee River. The event dates back to the 1870s, when former Civil War Gen. Wade Hampton arrived in Galivants Ferry as part of his campaign for South Carolina governor. Area businessman Joseph Holliday began to invite Democratic candidates to give campaign speeches from his Galivants Ferry store, standing on a tree stump to be seen above the crowd. A woman waits to hear from several Democratic presidential candidates scheduled to speak at the Galivants Ferry Stump, Sept. 16, 2019, in Galivants Ferry, South Carolina. A tradition was born, and the Holliday family has continued to host the stump every other year preceding …

Brad Pitt traded laughs on Monday in a call to the International Space Station with a NASA astronaut, who somersaulted during the zero-gravity interview ahead of this week’s release of the actor’s new film, the space thriller “Ad Astra.” Pitt peppered astronaut Nick Hague with dozens of questions about what life was like in space. He interviewed Hague from Washington via a transmission line from NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston. “Most important question: Who controls the jam box?” Pitt asked, referring to the space station’s music. In this image taken from NASA video actor Brad Pitt, left, star of the new space movie “Ad Astra,” speaks from NASA headquarters in Washington, to astronaut Nick Hague abroad the International Space Station, Sept. 16, 2019. “We have a rotating playlist, we take turns. And it’s nice because we have the international flair as well,” Hague replied. “Getting to hear some traditional music from Russia over dinner is a nice change, exposure.” Pitt plays astronaut Roy McBride, who travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father, confronting a mystery along the way that threatens humanity’s existence back on Earth. “Ad Astra” – whose Latin title means …

Netflix landed the global streaming rights for classic TV sitcom “Seinfeld,” the company said on Monday, bolstering its digital catalog as it faces the loss of two popular series. “All 180 episodes of the Emmy-Award winning Seinfeld are coming to Netflix – worldwide! – starting in 2021,” Netflix said on Twitter. Netflix is poised to lose popular comedies “Friends” and “The Office” as the battle for streaming viewers intensifies. “Friends” will move to AT&T’s HBO Max in 2020, and “The Office” will go to a streaming service from Comcast’s NBCUniversal in 2021. “Seinfeld,” a show starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld playing a version of himself and often humorously described as a show about nothing, followed four self absorbed friends in New York City. It was a hit on the NBC broadcast network in the 1990s. The series currently streams on Walt Disney’s Hulu in a deal that runs through 2020. Sony’s Sony Pictures Television, which owns the distribution rights to “Seinfeld,” reached the new agreement with Netflix. Terms were not disclosed. …

The White House has instructed two former aides to President Donald Trump not to appear at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, saying Rick Dearborn and Rob Porter are “absolutely immune” from testifying at what the panel is calling its first impeachment hearing. In a letter sent to the panel and obtained by The Associated Press, White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote that the Justice Department has advised, and Trump has directed, Dearborn and Porter to defy subpoenas because of :constitutional immunity.” In a separate letter, Cipollone said that former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who never worked for the White House, should not reveal private conversations with Trump beyond what is in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Lewandowski is expected to attend the hearing as its sole witness on Tuesday. FILE – White House Counsel Don McGahn sits behind U.S. President Donald Trump as the president holds a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, June 21, 2018. Democrats are challenging such claims of “absolute immunity” in a lawsuit against former White House counsel Don McGahn, who defied a subpoena earlier this year on Trump’s orders. They say that such a claim does not exist. House Judiciary Committee …