The presidents of Turkey, Iran and Russia met in Ankara Monday in the latest trilateral summit to resolve the Syrian civil war.  Launched in 2017 in the capital of Kazakhstan and known as the Astana peace process, summit leaders Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hassan Rouhani and Vladimir Putin focused on cooperation, despite profound differences on the future of Idlib, the last enclave of Syrian rebels. “We are in complete agreement in aiming for a lasting political solution for Syria’s political unity and territorial integrity,” Erdogan said, setting the tone for the one-day gathering. Erdogan reaffirmed his commitment to target Syria’s Kurdish militia, the YPG. “We will drain the terrorist swamp east of the Euphrates (in Syria) and carry our efforts in the fight against terrorism to another level,” he said. Ankara designates the YPG as terrorists linked to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey. The YPG is a crucial ally in Washington’s war against Islamic State.  Last month, Turkish and U.S. generals hammered out an agreement to jointly create a buffer zone in Syria to protect Turkey’s frontier from the YPG. Analysts say many details remain unresolved between the two NATO allies. Erdogan, flanked by Rouhani and Putin, reiterated his threat to …

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Monday delivered a fierce denunciation of the corruption she argues has crippled the country’s political and economic systems, speaking to a crowd whose enthusiasm and size testified to her campaign’s growing strength. “When you see a government that works great for those with money and connections, and doesn’t do much for anyone else, that’s corruption, plain and simple, and we need to call it out for what it is,” Warren said, as thousands of New Yorkers holding up “I’m a Warren Democrat” placards cheered underneath an overcast sky in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park. The rally came on the same day that Warren won the endorsement of the Working Families Party (WFP), a progressive group with rising political influence that previously backed U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders during his 2016 White House bid. Nearly two-thirds of the organization’s thousands of members chose Warren. The endorsement could boost Warren‘s chances of positioning herself, rather than Sanders, as the liberal alternative to Democratic front-runner Joe Biden, the former vice president. Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren cheer as she arrives at a rally, Sept. 16, 2019, in New York. Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, …

Greece has asked its European creditors to approve the early repayment of part of its bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund, the country’s finance minister said Monday. Christos Staikouras said paying off the IMF loans ahead of schedule would reduce debt servicing costs by about 70 million euros ($77 million). He said the average annual interest rate of the IMF loans is 4.9%, while the country can currently borrow raise money much cheaper in the markets — the interest rate on Greece’s 10-year bonds is around 1.6%. Although the loans are owed to the IMF, European creditors — to whom the country owes far more — must sign off first on the request under the terms of Greece’s bailouts. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the early repayment, for which both the IMF and European creditors have voiced support, will “boost the country’s credibility” while improving the viability of its huge debt burden. Between 2010-2018, Greece received (euro) 290 billion ($320 billion) to keep afloat because of the perilous state of its public finances. Greece has repaid a large part of its IMF loans but still owes the fund about 9 billion euros. The average interest that Greece pays its …

Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido is considering attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York this month to step up pressure on socialist President Nicolas Maduro but has not yet reached a decision, the opposition’s envoy to the United States said on Monday. It would only be the second trip abroad by Guaido, head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly since he invoked Venezuela’s constitution in January to assume an interim presidency, arguing Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate. “We haven’t decided. It is an option,” Carlos Vecchio, Guaido’s envoy to the United States, told a small group of reporters at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington. He made his comments a day after the opposition said talks mediated by Norway to try to resolve Venezuela’s political crisis had ended and put the blame on Maduro’s government. Maduro, who has accused Guaido of leading a U.S.-directed coup attempt, said on Thursday he will not travel to New York for the U.N. General Assembly, an annual gathering of world leaders. But he said two of his envoys would attend to denounce U.S. sanctions on the OPEC nation. Vecchio said among the factors weighing on the decision on Guaido’s attendance would be the difficulty …

U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan Thomas Hushek said it will take time for the international community to regain their trust in the South Sudan government because the Kiir administration still lacks transparency in managing the country’s resources, including oil. “We the international community, I can’t speak on behalf of the United States, but we have had a hard time trusting the government for the last several years, and it is a very hard thing to overcome. Trust is one of the ingredients when it comes to fragility in relations or in a country. But it is hard to take those first steps,” Hushek said. FILE – U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan, Thomas Hushek, speaks at the U.S. embassy, in Juba, South Sudan, May 8, 2019. Hushek made the remarks Saturday during a public lecture entitled Institutional Readiness to Implement the Revitalized Agreement. Speaking at the same event, Labor Minister James Hoth Mai said the international community lost trust in the South Sudan government because financial donations made to the country have not been used for their intended purpose. “They are really pouring in a lot of money into helping us here, whether in terms of humanitarian and capacity building before, …

Terry Gou, founder of Apple supplier Foxconn, in a surprise move on Monday said he will not contest in Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election. Gou, Taiwan’s richest person with a net worth of $7.6 billion according to Forbes, said in a statement late on Monday he would not join the already competitive race, after losing the presidential nomination from the opposition, China-friendly Kuomintang party (KMT) in mid-July. “I have decided not to join the petition to run for president in 2020,” Gou said in a statement, apologizing to supporters who had urged him to run for the presidency.  “I’d also like to say ‘thank you’ to everyone for your support and love,” Gou said. “Although I did not contest in the presidential election, it doesn’t mean I have given up politics,” he said, adding he would continue to push for the policies he proposed during the KMT primaries. He did not elaborate. Gou’s decision was a surprise to many amid widespread expectations he could run for the presidency as an independent, a move that could have complicated President Tsai Ing-wen’s re-election bid and spelled trouble for KMT, whose presidential candidate, Han Kuo-yu, is struggling in opinion polls. “We always believe that …

In June, Canada labeled the white supremacist group Blood & Honor and its armed branch, Combat 18, as terrorist organizations. In announcing the move, Canada’s public safety department said Blood & Honor derives its ideology from “the National Socialist doctrine of Nazi Germany” and, through Combat 18,  has carried out murders and bombings. FILE – An internet screenshot taken Sept. 14, 2000, shows Combat 18, the armed branch of the white supremacist group Blood & Honour. The designation of a white supremacist group as a terrorist organization, the latest of several by Western nations, comes as U.S. allies respond to a recent rise in violence committed by right-wing groups. But the U.S. government is powerless to take such action because of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections, even though it would strengthen the hand of law enforcement agencies in cracking down on extremist groups.   “A white supremacist organization is an ideology, it’s a belief,” assistant FBI Director Michael McGarrity testified before the House Homeland Security Committee in May. “But they’re not designated as a terrorist organization.” Charging white nationalists While prosecutors have successfully charged dozens of Islamic State sympathizers with providing “material support” to a foreign terrorist organization included …

The Islamic State terror group has issued a new audio recording , claiming to show the group’s reclusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi encouraging his supporters and fighters to conduct more military operations and engage in more propaganda. The recording, posted to the internet Monday by IS’s al-Furqan media division, also calls on IS supporters not to forget about Muslims being held in prisons and refugee camps. U.S. officials have yet to comment on the purported recording. Earlier this year, the terror group released a video of the man it claimed was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seeking revenge for the fall of the terror group’s self-declared caliphate In Iraq and Syria. Before that, the 48-year-old Baghdadi had not been seen since he gave a sermon at the al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, Iraq, in July 2014. The lack of public appearances and the sporadic messages attributed to him had led to speculation about his whereabouts, while also sparking numerous rumors of his death. But U.S. military and intelligence officials have long believed Baghdadi is alive and hiding in remote areas of Syria or Iraq where IS remains entrenched, possibly with local support. Since 2016, the United States has offered a reward of up …

A U.N. investigator finds that two years after the violent expulsion of more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, the situation in their home country remains too dangerous for them to return from their refuge in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh. U.N. Special Rapporteur, Yanghee Lee, says Myanmar commits ongoing gross violations of international law and uses brutal measures to repress ethnic minorities in Rakhine and southern Chin states. She says many civilians have been killed and tens of thousands displaced by the indiscriminate use of heavy artillery and other methods of warfare used by both the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s armed forces, and the Arakan Army, an insurgent group in Rakhine. She says by no stretch of the imagination is it possible to believe the Rohingya refugees would be safe if they returned to Myanmar. In August, she notes an agreement was hatched to repatriate 3,450 refugees. She says Myanmar claims to have done what is necessary for the repatriation to be successful and blames Bangladesh for delays in the operation going ahead. She says the contrary is true. “Myanmar has done nothing to dismantle the system of violence and persecution, and the Rohingya who remain in Rakhine live in the same dire …

This Saturday, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington will break ground on a $15 million monument to Native American military veterans, after more than two decades of planning. In 1994, Congress passed The decorated hat of an American Indian veteran appears at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, in Bedford, Mass., Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007. Logistical and funding issues, however, stalled the project. Congress did not commit funds for the memorial and ruled that it should be housed inside the NMAI. That changed in 2013 when Congress Headshot photo of Cheyenne/Arapaho artist Harvey Pratt, who submitted the winning design for a new Native American Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, D.C. Photo by and courtesy of Neil Chapman. His design, “Warriors’ Circle of Honor,” features a three-and-a-half meter stainless steel circle, a symbol culturally and spiritually significant to tribes across the United States. “Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle,” Lakota spiritual leader Nicholas Black Elk Photo taken at a reunion of Cherokees who fought for the South in the Civil War, New Orleans, 1093. Native Americans have served in every U.S. war and conflict since the 18th century War of Independence …

Indonesian authorities have arrested 185 people suspected of starting forest fires that are spreading a thick, noxious haze around Southeast Asia, police said Monday. Nearly every year, Indonesian forest fires spread health-damaging haze across the country and into neighboring Malaysia and Singapore. The fires are often started by smallholders and plantation owners to clear land for planting. National police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said police formally handed over investigations of 23 of those who were arrested to prosecutors last week, while 45 others will be tried later this month. Police are still investigating the rest. Prasetyo said the suspects were arrested in six provinces that have declared a state of emergency over forest fires. The provinces have a combined population of more than 23 million. He said the suspects could be prosecuted under an environmental protection law that allows a maximum 10-year prison sentence for setting fires to clear land. Poor visibility caused by smoke has caused delays of flights in several airports in Indonesia and Malaysia and prompted authorities to shut schools in some parts of the two countries. Indonesia’s forestry and environment ministry said recently that authorities had sealed off at least 42 companies in the past week, including …

At least six Cameroonian troops are reported dead following a wave of fighting with Boko Haram terrorists on the central African state’s northern border with Nigeria. The attacks followed a visit in which Cameroon’s chief of defense staff declared that his military had drastically reduced Boko Haram’s ability to attack.  Dimgui Issa, a 56-year-old trader, said he escaped with three of his family members from the Cameroon village of Soueram that shares a boundary with lake Chad  to the Cameroon town of Kousseri after dozens of Boko Haram terrorists attacked their location shooting indiscriminately. He said the terrorists killed so many, torched dozens of houses and food items, stole goats, sheep and money. He said many people are fleeing because the terrorists have shown that they can strike at any moment and escape through the porous borders. Local media has reported that at least six soldiers were killed and nine wounded in the attacks on several Cameroon military border posts that started last Friday and ended in the early hours of Sunday. The attackers also left with huge amounts of ammunition and weapons. The military has confirmed there were attacks but did not say how many troops were killed. It said however the …

Two outsiders — law professor Kais Saied and media tycoon Nabil Karoui — are claiming an edge in Tunisia’s presidential vote, ahead of official results. For VOA, Lisa Bryant in Tunis has more on Sunday’s election– which is being closely watched as a democratic test for the Arab Spring’s only success story to date …

U.S. President Donald Trump is labeling as “incorrect” reports that he is willing to meet with Iranian leaders with “no conditions” to ease tensions, even though he and his aides have made the pledge on several occasions. Late Sunday, Trump said on Twitter, “The Fake News is saying that I am willing to meet with Iran, ‘No Conditions.’ That is an incorrect statement (as usual!).” The Fake News is saying that I am willing to meet with Iran, “No Conditions.” That is an incorrect statement (as usual!). — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani speaks at a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 11, 2019. Trump’s complaint about the media’s accurate reporting of his Iran intentions came minutes after he tweeted his thoughts on Saturday’s drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s key oil production operations, for which Pompeo, without offering evidence, has blamed Iran. “Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply,” Pompeo wrote, dismissing claims by Iranian-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen that they had carried out the drone attack. Iran calls the …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to annex “all the settlements” in the West Bank, including an enclave deep in the heart of the largest Palestinian city, in a last-ditch move that appeared aimed at shoring up nationalist support the day before a do-over election. Locked in a razor tight race and with legal woes hanging over him, Netanyahu is fighting for his political survival. In the final weeks of his campaign he has been doling out hard-line promises meant to draw more voters to his Likud party and re-elect him in Tuesday’s unprecedented repeat vote. “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,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israeli Army Radio, part of an eleventh-hour media blitz. Asked if that included the hundreds of Jews who live under heavy military guard amid tens of thousands of Palestinians in the volatile city of Hebron, Netanyahu responded “of course.” Israelis head to the polls Tuesday in the second election this year, after Netanyahu failed to cobble together a coalition following April’s vote, sparking the dissolution of parliament. Netanyahu has made a series …

Mamadou Wade Diop has been working with drones both in the photography and health sectors for years. But recently, he decided to work with local blacksmiths and construct a drone made entirely in Senegal. Mamadou Wade Diop, who calls himself Dr. Drone on social media, is one of the few people, if not the only person in the Dakar area who can fix broken drones. But recently, he’s taken his knowledge a step further, consulting with drone makers across the world on how to construct one of his own. Diop says that through the internet, he’s been able to communicate with other drone makers in France and China to chat about their experiences.  Though he does a lot of work in the audio-visual sector, renting his services out to news and documentary crews as well as collecting drone footage of various places in Senegal to sell, the purpose of his first Made-In-Senegal drone will be in the health sector – a drone that can spread chemicals to prevent mosquito breeding in stagnant water. Not all materials necessary to make the drone are available in Senegal, but Diop says he wants to prove that it’s possible to make this technology right …

Small children usually flock to photographers as they snap pictures in refugee camps.  They make silly faces, flash victory signs and jostle to be in the front of the shot. But nothing is usual about the children of Islamic State militants in Syria.  At the Ain Issa camp, some children of foreign IS fighters shun the camera while others flash their middle fingers or pretend-shoot the cameraman as if their hands were guns. Hundreds of children of IS militants have died in or on their way to al-Hol camp this year, pictured on Aug. 26, 2019 in al-Hol Camp, Syria. (VOA/Yan Boechat) They are among the more than 50,000 children of militants now stuck in camps after the last IS stronghold in Syria fell in March.  Most are with their mothers, the wives and other female relatives of the fighters of the so-called “Caliphate.” Their fathers are almost all dead or in jail. The international media have called these camps “incubators” for an IS resurgence.  But aid organizations say that despite their exposure to violence and extremism, children in these camps can be rescued, rehabilitated and reintegrated into the outside world.  However, action must be taken soon to be effective, …

Recently, the Trump White House unveiled a new initiative that seeks to increase U.S. economic engagement in Africa to better compete against China’s growing influence. But more than two and a half years into his administration, some foreign policy experts say Africa does not appear to be a priority for President Trump. Jesusemen Oni has this report. …

Carmakers unveiled self-driving vehicles and assurances of an eco-friendly future in transportation. Thousands of climate activists blocking the streets in Frankfurt are not buying it. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi looks at the future through a lens of the present. …

A Senegalese drone enthusiast has been working with drones both in the photography and health sectors for years. But recently, Mamadou Wade Diop decided to work with local blacksmiths to build a drone made entirely in Senegal. Esha Sarai has more from the Senegalese city of Mbour. …

Purdue Pharma, the maker of prescription painkiller OxyContin, has filed for bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court. The company is facing numerous lawsuits from local and state governments and other plaintiffs alleging it aggressively marketed dangerous, addictive painkillers that helped fuel the opioid crisis in the United States. The bankruptcy filing comes days after Purdue Pharma reached a tentative settlement with about 2,000 entities that have filed lawsuits.  The value of the settlement could reach $12 billion. But some of the states involved in the suits oppose the settlement, saying the company and the Sackler family that controls it are not offering enough and that the current terms would not produce the $12 billion in estimated relief. Purdue Pharma Chairman Steve Miller rejected criticism of the settlement and said if instead the lawsuits go forward the only result would be to waste money on the legal fight that could otherwise be part of the agreement. The Sacklers have offered to pay $3 billion under the settlement, and said they want the company to be utilized for public benefit.  That could include providing communities with free doses of drugs the company has created to combat overdoses and addiction to opioids. The …

A new large supply transport ship will help the Beijing government ferry supplies to its holdings in the disputed South China Sea, a resource-rich waterway contested by other countries. China has alarmed the other countries since 2010 by landfilling small islets for military use. Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines contest all or parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea with China. China claims about 90% of it. The Sansha No. 2 transport ship that passed trial in August can “cover the whole South China Sea,” Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency reports. The vessel with a displacement of  over 8,000 metric tons will help civilian and military work, Xinhua says. The ship will help take equipment to the sea’s Paracel Islands – controlled by China but hotly disputed by Vietnam – and possibly further to the more widely contested Spratly Islands, analysts predict. “They’re expanding their capabilities in all areas,” said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines. “Deploying in the disputed areas is even more symbolic. It’s also more important for them, because they’re able to keep ahead of the rest of the region.” Extra-large ship China’s second transport ship in its class, and one …

Members of the United Auto Workers union began a strike Monday against General Motors as the two sides remain apart on the terms of a new contract. Talks are set to resume Monday, but plants that makes cars and parts in nine states will be closed with nearly 50,000 workers off the job. Union Vice President Terry Dittes said the decision to go on strike was a last resort, but necessary. The union wants better wages and health care, as well as job security and profit sharing. General Motors says it has offered pay raises, profit sharing and good health benefits, along with billions of dollars in investments in manufacturing facilities that would bring more jobs. The last UAW strike at General Motors came in 2007. Union contracts with Ford and Fiat Chrysler were also due to expire, but have been extended indefinitely.  Any contract reached with General Motors will serve as a template in negotiations with the other companies. …

Thirty-six people are missing after a boat sank in the Congo river on the outskirts of Kinshasa, DR Congo police said on Sunday. The vessel, which was traveling to the capital, went down overnight in Maluku commune, about 100 kilometers from the center of the city. Seventy-six people survived, police wrote on Twitter. “The cause of the accident is not yet known,” police spokesperson Colonel Pierrot-Rombaut Mwanamputu told AFP. Lake and river transport is widely used in Democratic Republic of Congo as the highway system is poor, but accidents are common, often caused by overloading and the unsafe state of vessels. The boat involved was called a “baleiniere” or “whaler” — a commonly-used flat-bottomed vessel between 15 to 30 meters (50 to 100 feet) long by two to six meters wide. In the vast majority of accidents, passengers are not equipped with life jackets and many cannot swim. …