London’s Heathrow Airport remained open Friday despite plans by climate-change activists to disrupt flights by flying drones close to the travel hub. The activists, a group called Heathrow Pause, had planned to halt flights by flying drones within 5 kilometers of the airport. The point was to push the government to move more aggressively to cut carbon emissions, but Reuters reported Friday that the effort was stymied when the drones did not fly and the airport carried on normally. The airport said on its website that its runways and taxiways “remain open and fully operational despite attempts to disrupt the airport through the illegal use of drones in protest nearby.” Heathrow Pause said the airport was using signal jamming to frustrate early flights; the airport said it would “continue to work with the authorities to carry out dynamic risk assessment programs and keep our passengers flying safely on their journeys today.” Two men were arrested Friday in connection with the protest, following arrests of five others Thursday. Airport officials have called the drone protests “reckless,” saying they “could endanger the lives of the traveling public and our colleagues,” and the airport’s statement Friday said, “We agree with the need for …

Australia insists its support for the U.S.-led mission to protect tankers in the Persian Gulf is not to blame for the detention of two Australian travel bloggers being held in Iran. They have been identified as Jolie King and Mark Firkin, a couple from Perth.  They reportedly were detained 10 weeks ago near Tehran. King also holds a British passport. News of the couple’s arrest, and that of another British-Australian woman, emerged Wednesday. The cases are not thought to be related. The detentions come amid growing tensions between the West and Iran. Travel bloggers King and Firkin have been traveling through Asia and the Middle East. They were documenting their adventures to thousands of followers on Instagram and YouTube, including a recent trip through Pakistan. “You might have heard of it before but the Karakoram (highway) was built on the same path as the old Silk Route, so that is pretty cool,” King said. It is reported the couple was arrested in Iran for flying a drone without permission. Videos filmed in other countries do contain drone footage. Their last social media post was June 30: Firkin: “We are now in Iran and we are camped on a nice hill …

Pope Francis will visit Thailand and Japan in November in a visit expected to highlight his call for complete nuclear disarmament and honor the small Catholic communities in each country. The Vatican confirmed the Nov. 19-26 trip, and its diplomatic representative in Thailand, Archbishop Paul Tschang In-Nam, announced the Thai stop on Friday. Francis will be in Thailand on Nov. 20-23 before heading to Japan, where government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said he would meet with the emperor. It will be Francis’ fourth trip to Asia, where he has already visited South Korea, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Saint Pope John Paul II The last pope to visit Japan was the late Saint Pope John Paul II in 1981. He was also the last pope to visit Thailand, in 1984. During his official visit to Thailand, Francis will preside at religious ceremonies and pay pastoral visits to Catholic communities. Francis’s Japan visit includes Tokyo as well as Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were hit by U.S. atomic bombs at the end of World War II. Francis has frequently spoken out about the risk of nuclear war, most emphatically during a 2017 disarmament conference at the Vatican where he signaled a …

The Iraqi government on Thursday said it has issued life imprisonment for a female Islamic State (IS) member who helped the group develop chemical and biological weapons. The woman, identified by the Iraqi Interior Ministry as Abrar al-Kubaisi, reportedly played a key role in research as a part of IS’s team to develop chemical and biological weapons. Iraq’s Falcon Intelligence Cell did not disclose the time of her arrest, saying only that she had been arrested during an operation at an earlier date. Life in prison “The convicted terrorist Abrar al-Kubaisi, who was recently sentenced to life imprisonment, was one of the most prominent biological researchers involved in the IS program to manufacture and train special elements within the Development and Manufacturing Body of the terrorist organization responsible for preparation, production and use of chemical weapons in the country and abroad,” said Abu Ali al-Basri, the head of Iraqi Interior Ministry’s Directorate of Intelligence and Counterterrorism, in a statement for semi-official al-Sabah newspaper. Al-Basri said Abrar al-Kubaisi had told Iraqi officials that she was lured into the extremist group through the internet and that she helped the IS militants conduct chemical operations in Iraq. “Confessions of the terrorist Abrar al-Kubaisi …

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have met three times since June 2018. Trump says round four could soon happen. But Korea watchers are more focused on long-delayed working-level talks. Donald Trump says he may hold a fourth meeting with Kim Jong Un by the end of the year. “They want to meet. They’d like to meet. I think it’s something that will happen,” he said. FILE – National Security Adviser John Bolton listens during a press briefing at the White House, Jan. 28, 2019, in Washington. North Korea has already offered working-level talks by the end of the month, raising hopes of a more substantive phase of negotiations. The departure of Trump’s hawkish National Security Adviser John Bolton may help, says former U.S. official Dennis Wilder. “I think the North Koreans will be happy to see John Bolton no longer as part of the president’s team. … John Bolton clearly never was on board with the president’s policies on Korea,” Wilder said. Bolton famously referred to the “Libya model” for North Korea’s denuclearization. An unnerving image for Pyongyang, as Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was killed by U.S.-backed rebels after giving up his nuclear program. …

A country boy kneels before the grave of his parents who died of AIDS after becoming infected with the HIV virus because unsafe procedures were used when they sold their blood. Horror colors the eyes of a miner with his face, unprotected by any safety gear, entirely blackened by coal dust. Two men under a yellow sky view a 200-year-old temple surrounded by belching industrial smokestacks. Hours before her death from AIDS, a barely clad woman takes comfort in the arms of her husband, who could not afford to take her to the hospital. For decades, Chinese independent photojournalist Lu Guang documented China’s dark side, covering the discomfiting economic, social and environmental issues long steamrollered by China’s race become a world power. Chinese police FILE – Visitors walk past the old city district in Kashgar, western China’s Xinjiang region, Aug. 31, 2018. Police confirmed that Lu Guang, a prominent Chinese photographer who went missing more than a month ago was arrested, his wife said. Like Lu’s detention, little official is known about his release. VOA contacted the Chinese Embassy in Washington on Wednesday but received no response. According to This undated photos shows retired doctor Gao Yaojie, 74, right, applying …

U.S. Democrats held their third presidential primary debate Thursday in Houston, Texas.  The debate was a spirited encounter that included clashes over health care, immigration and foreign policy involving the top 10 Democratic contenders vying for the right to take on President Donald Trump next year.  VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.   …

For many new students, the biggest life lessons come from living on campus with other young people. “They may be doing their own laundry for the first time. They may be sharing space with another person for the first time. They may be, in some cases, responsible for making their own meals,” said Nick Lander, associate director of residence life at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. New students share sleeping quarters, kitchens, study spaces and bathrooms with many students while they may have come from a family home where they had their own room and spaces. “So those things kind of happening in a collaborative environment, where there’s support and people they can share those experiences with, I think makes a very positive impact for students,” he said. Sometimes a requirment Lander said many schools require new students to live in the dorms, or communal buildings, where they share typically smallish sleeping quarters, toilets and showers. Dining halls are communal and food is usually not specially ordered or prepared for individuals, except for those with dietary restrictions. Some dorms are arranged by gender, college major, social preferences such as eating habits, and even those who want to keep pets. …

Juanita Abernathy, who wrote the business plan for the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and took other influential steps in helping to build the American civil rights movement, died Thursday. She was 88. Family spokesman James Peterson confirmed Abernathy died at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta following complications from a stroke. In a statement, Peterson said Abernathy died surrounded by her three children and four grandchildren. The widow of the Rev. Dr. Ralph Abernathy, Juanita Abernathy worked alongside him and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others for the right to vote. She also taught voter education classes, housed Freedom Riders and marched on Washington in 1963 seeking passage of what became the Civil Rights Act. Abernathy also was a national sales director for Mary Kay Cosmetics. Abernathy, of Uniontown, Alabama, was the youngest of eight children. She was educated at Selma University Prep School, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business education from Tennessee State University. For 16 years, Abernathy served on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. She also served on the board of the Fulton County Development Authority and on the Board of Directors for Introducing Youth to American Infrastructure. Abernathy was …

The third Democratic presidential candidate debate took place in Houston Thursday. The South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg responds to a question, Sept. 12, 2019, during a Democratic presidential primary debate at Texas Southern University in Houston. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, in criticizing President Donald Trump’s lack of “strategy,” pointed to the president’s recent actions at the Group of Seven summit in France. When Trump skipped a climate change discussion, “there was literally an empty chair, where American leadership could have been,” Buttigieg said. Former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, who focused on growing up in a single-parent home in his closing statement, said: “I shouldn’t be here on this stage. You know, Castro is my mother’s name and was my grandmother’s name before her. I grew up in a single-parent household on the west side of San Antonio, going to the public schools.” Senator Kamala Harris, responding to a question about her record as former California attorney general, said: “I’m glad you asked me this question. … Was I able to get enough done? Absolutely not,” before describing her record as having been distorted by activists. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., responds to a question, Sept. 12, 2019, during a …

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said the United States would issue 50-year bonds if there was “proper demand,” a moved aimed at “de-risking” the government’s $22 trillion of debt and locking in low interest rates.    “We are going to start with 50 years, and if the answer is 50 years is successful, we’ll consider 100-year bonds,” Mnuchin said in an interview with The New York Times’ DealBook and streamed online live, adding that he began looking into the possibility of ultra-long U.S. bonds two years ago.    The longest-dated U.S. Treasury currently is 30 years.    U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed a different fix for the rising cost of the record U.S. debt, calling Wednesday on the “boneheads” at the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates to below zero so as to reduce interest rate payments.    The Fed is widely expected to cut interest rates by a modest quarter of a percentage point next week when U.S. rate-setters meet.  Powell’s view Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other policymakers see U.S. economic conditions as still generally favorable despite a global slowdown and a still-unresolved U.S.-China trade war, and they have consistently pushed back against the notion of negative rates or of setting rates to …

A tropical cyclone was forecast to move across the northwestern Bahamas in the coming days, potentially bringing more rain and wind to islands already devastated by Hurricane Dorian, the U.S. National Hurricane Center warned on Thursday.  The Miami-based hurricane center issued a tropical storm warning for islands including hurricane-hit Abacos and Grand Bahama, saying the system could become a tropical depression or storm before making landfall as early as Friday.  Hurricane Dorian slammed into the Bahamas on Sept. 1 as a  Category 5 storm, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record to hit land, packing top sustained winds of 185 miles per hour (298 km per hour).  The tropical cyclone was not expected to bring anywhere near that level of devastation, but was capable of winds of 30 miles per hour and 2 to 4 inches of rain through Sunday, according to the hurricane center.  Aid groups rushed shelter material to residents living in the shells of former homes or whose homes had been stripped of their roofs.  “We’re seeing plastic tarps go out all over the islands, and that’s extremely important because now you’ve got another tropical storm coming,” said Ken Isaacs, vice president of programs for U.S. relief organization Samaritan’s Purse.  The prime minister of the Bahamas, Hubert Minnis, on Wednesday said the official death toll was 50 but was expected to rise.  …

The 10 leading U.S. Democratic presidential candidates squared off in a spirited debate Thursday night, trading political jabs with each other on an array of issues, but also assailing the man they want to oust from the White House in the 2020 election, Republican President Donald Trump. California Senator Kamala Harris accused Trump of engaging in “hate, intimidation and fear” and telling 12,000 lies during his 2½-year presidency. Senator Kamala Harris gives a thumbs down as she speaks during the 2020 Democratic U.S. presidential debate in Houston, Sept. 12, 2019. She said the only reason Trump has not been indicted for obstructing the investigation into his 2016 campaign’s links with Russia was because a Justice Department policy “says a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime.” “The American people are so much better,” she declared. Former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke said a gunman in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, who targeted Mexicans, killing 22 people in early August, was “inspired to kill by our president” because of his campaign against migrants trying to enter the country through the southern border with Mexico. Democratic presidential candidate former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke answers a question, Sept. 12, 2019, during a …

President Donald Trump sought to boost the spirits of Republican lawmakers Thursday, mocking Democrats and promising a new tax cut package, as he returned to the city he recently disparaged as a “rat and rodent infested mess.” Trump spoke to House Republicans attending an annual retreat in a hotel on Baltimore’s waterfront. Protesters gathered nearby. But inside, the president found a friendly audience of legislators whose political futures are closely tied to how well he performs in next year’s election. They greeted him a chant of “four more years.” Trump obliquely addressed his earlier insults against Baltimore, promising Republicans would “fight for the future of cities like Baltimore that have been destroyed by decades of failed and corrupt rule.” FILE – House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., speaks to members of the media on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 18, 2019. He said crushing regulations, crippling taxes and “unrestricted migration” have undermined law enforcement and devastated America’s inner cities. “We’re going to have to step up and doing something about it because we can’t allow that to happen to our great cities,” he said. Trump had lashed out at Baltimore in a series of July …

With a go-ahead from the Supreme Court, the Trump administration Thursday began enforcing a new rule denying asylum to most migrants arriving at the southern border — a move that spread despair among those fleeing poverty and violence in their homelands.     A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security agency that manages asylum cases said the policy would be effective retroactive to July 16, when the rule was announced.     The new policy would deny refuge to anyone at the U.S.-Mexico border who passes through another country on the way to the U.S. without first seeking asylum there.    The Supreme Court cleared the way, for now, to enforce it while legal challenges move forward.  Previous asylum request is key   Migrants who make their way to the U.S. overland from places like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador would be largely ineligible, along with asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and South America who try to get in by way of the U.S.-Mexico border.    Asylum seekers must pass an initial screening called a “credible fear” interview, a hurdle that most clear. Under the new policy, they would fail the test unless they sought asylum in at least one country they traveled through and were denied. They would be placed in fast-track …

The U.S. government’s budget deficit increased by $169 billion to $1.07 trillion in the first 11 months of this budget year as spending grew faster than tax collections. The Treasury Department reported Thursday that the deficit with just one month left in the budget year is up 18.8% over the same period a year ago. Budget experts project a surplus for September, which would push the total 2019 deficit down slightly below the $1 trillion mark. The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting a deficit this year of $960 billion, compared to a 2018 deficit of $779 billion. Going forward, the CBO sees the annual deficit topping $1 trillion in 2020 and never falling below $1 trillion over the next decade. The government has only recorded trillion-dollar-plus deficits in one other period, during the four years 2009 through 2012 when spending went up to deal with a deep recession and the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. Increased spending  The higher deficits currently reflect higher government spending, reflecting two budget agreements in 2018 and this year between the Trump administration and Congress that added billions of dollars in extra spending for the military and domestic programs. In addition, Social Security and …

U.S. social media company Twitter Inc. has blocked the accounts of Cuban Communist Party Leader Raul Castro, his daughter Mariela Castro and Cuba’s top state-run media outlets, a move the Cuban Union of Journalists denounced as “massive censorship.” Dozens of accounts of journalists for Cuban state-run media as well as the official account for the Communications Ministry were also blocked in the crackdown late Wednesday. Asked to comment on the suspensions, a Twitter spokesman said that the company’s platform manipulation policies prohibit users artificially amplifying or disrupting conversations by using multiple accounts. The Cuban Union of Journalists said Twitter had suspended individual accounts in the past that had been recovered. FILE – Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel, second left, and former President Raul Castro, raise their arms in unison during an event celebrating Revolution Day, July 26, 2019. The move came as President Miguel Diaz-Canel was addressing the nation on state-run TV, warning of an energy crisis because of U.S. sanctions. “What is new here is the massive scope of this act of cybernetic warfare, clearly planned, that aims to limit the freedom of expression of Cuban institutions and citizens and to silence the leaders of the revolution,” it said in …

The Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Representative Eliot Engel, has subpoenaed the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, to testify at an open hearing of the committee Sept. 19. The Democratic committee chair released a statement Thursday criticizing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, saying he “flatly refused” to make Khalilzad available to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, ignoring multiple requests for briefings and testimony on the Afghanistan peace plan. “More than 2,000 American troops have died in Afghanistan, and I’m fed up with this administration keeping Congress and the American people in the dark on the peace process and how we’re going to bring this long war to a close,” Engel wrote. FILE – U.S. Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY) speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 27, 2019. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump called off peace negotiations with the Taliban that his special envoy Khalilzad had been involved with for almost a year. Trump tweeted that he had planned to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Taliban leaders at the presidential retreat at Camp David, in Maryland, but called it off after last week’s deadly bombing in Kabul. This was the first subpoena …

The Trump administration has thrown out Obama-era rules that expended federal protection of waterways from pollution, a move environmentalists say they will challenge in court. Getting rid of the 2015 Waters of the United States Act “puts an end to an egregious power grab, eliminates an ongoing patchwork of clean water regulations, and restores a longstanding and familiar regulatory framework,” Environmental Protection Agency Chief Andrew Wheeler said Thursday. He added that it fulfills one of President Donald Trump’s “key promises.” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler speaks at a news conference in Washington, Sept. 12, 2019. Wheeler made his announcement at the Washington headquarters of the National Association of Manufacturers, whose members have been lobbying against the clean water regulations. The WOTUS rule protected wetlands and streams from pollution by pesticides, mine waste and fertilizers. It solidified what waterways fell under the landmark 1972 Clean Water Act. Opponents of the Obama administration rules say the regulations created confusion, and likened them to a federal land grab of private property. Farmers and others complained the act also applied to small ponds that do not flow anywhere, leaving them wondering whether they could work their land without violating federal law. Wheeler says …

The United States is moving ahead with millions of dollars in aid for Ukraine’s military, money that had until now been held up by the White House. White House officials Thursday confirmed the release of $250 million in funding from the Pentagon and another $141 million in financial assistance from the State Department shortly before lawmakers were set to admonish the administration for the delay. “The Departments of State and Defense are proceeding with the obligation of all military and security assistance funding to Ukraine,” according to a senior administration official. “The Administration supports Ukraine’s efforts of reform and self-defense, and these funds will advance Ukrainian efforts toward those ends.” Earlier Thursday, the State Department announced it had been cleared to release the $141 million in aid. FILE – R. Clarke Cooper, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, is seen in an official State Department photo. Speaking to reporters in Washington, Assistant Secretary for Political and Military Affairs R. Clarke Cooper called it part of “a whole host of security assistance that we have outlined and identified for Ukraine.” That was followed by the announcement that $250 million in Pentagon aid, for additional training, and equipment for Ukrainian forces, …

The new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations took up her post on Thursday. Kelly Knight Craft will not have much time to settle in, as she arrives little more than a week before the annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly. VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer has more. …

Burundian refugees living in the Nyarugusu camp in Tanzania are no longer allowed to conduct business in the camp, depriving them of their only source of livelihood. The ban comes as Tanzanian authorities plan to repatriate the refugees back to Burundi.  George, who is not using his real name, fled Burundi at the height of the political crisis in 2015, and now lives in the Nyarugusu refugee camp in southwestern Tanzania. FILE – Refugees from Burundi prepare meals at the Nyarugusu refugee camp in western Tanzania, May 28, 2015. He is one of 200,000 Burundian refugees the government of Tanzania is threatening to send home starting next month. George is afraid of what may happen to him if he leaves. When he lived in Burundi, he says, he was accused of opposing the ruling party, and of being a traitor by providing information to a human rights group regarding abuses taking place in his area.  “If I am taken back to Burundi, my life will be in danger,” he said. Tanzanian authorities reportedly banned refugees from doing business in the camp this week. Refugees see the move as part of a plan to complicate their lives so they return home. …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is denying a report that Israel set up spying devices near the White House, saying it is a “complete fabrication.” The spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington, Elad Strohmayer, also denied the report by the Washington-based news site Politico, telling VOA, “Israel doesn’t conduct espionage operations in the United States, period.” Politico reported Thursday that the U.S. government believes Israel, a close U.S. ally, was probably responsible for planting eavesdropping devices found near the White House and other sensitive locations in the nation’s capital. The small surveillance devices, commonly known as StingRays, “were likely intended to spy on President Donald Trump,” Politico wrote. But the report added, “It’s not clear whether the Israeli efforts were successful.” Several former senior U.S. national security officials told Politico that analysis of the devices by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other U.S. agencies linked them to Israeli agents. The report says the U.S. government, citing the officials, concluded within the last two years that Israel was likely behind the placement of the devices. Politico described the anonymous sources as having “knowledge about the matter” and that the devices were discovered some time ago. Two years ago, an …

House Judiciary Democrats laid out new procedures for an impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Trump Thursday, closing a week of confusion on Capitol Hill. With fewer than 40 legislative days remaining this year, House Democrats are at odds over whether multiple investigations into the president already constitute an impeachment inquiry. Democrats have tried to frame the debate as a matter of word choice but the answer could have serious political consequences for the way the party is perceived by voters headed into the 2020 presidential election year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed back against accusations of confusion Thursday, saying her party has held firm to the same three principles of legislating, investigating and litigating the matter in the courts. “People are impatient about it moving more quickly – we can’t go any faster than the facts,” Pelosi said U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks with reporters following her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 12, 2019. Pelosi has emphasized the need for a methodical investigation, an approach that has sometimes seemed at odds with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, who has previously said the committee is already engaged in an impeachment inquiry. Nadler said Thursday the …