What does a home mechanic do with time, money, and a vintage car? Make a dragster and take it to the track, of course. Members of the Nostalgia Drag Racer League make their fun one fast quarter-mile (.4km) trip at a time.   Reporter/Camera: Arturo Marinez …

In the middle of New York City, a volunteer cycling program is giving visually impaired people an opportunity to ride on a tandem bicycle with a sighted biker. Happy times on a bicycle built for two.   VOA Russian; Reporter: Anna Nelson; Camera:  Vladimir Badikov, Natalia Lagukhina; Adapted by: Martin Secrest   …

The sweet sound of music being generated by water glass. How does it work? We talk to a Glass Harpist about the meticulous process of getting the notes just right. Reporter/Camera:  Deborah Block; Adapted by: Ailin Li …

Mexico says the number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border has fallen by 56 percent since an agreement with U.S. officials three months ago to reduce the flow.   Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard declared the measures a success Friday. He also said the deployment of the National Guard has generated few complaints about human rights violations. The guardsmen operate highway checkpoints along major migratory routes through the country.   Ebrard is scheduled to meet with U.S. officials in Washington Tuesday to review the results of the effort, which followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose crippling tariffs on all Mexican imports.   Mexico has also been accepting a higher number of migrants who forced to wait in Mexico after requesting asylum in the U.S.   …

New York Attorney General Letitia James says a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general is investigating Facebook for alleged antitrust issues. The Democrat said Friday the probe will look into whether Facebook’s actions endangered consumer data, reduced the quality of consumers’ choices or increased the price of advertising. Facebook had no immediate comment. James said she is leading a coalition that includes the attorneys general of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and the District of Columbia.   The U.S. Justice Department announced in July that it was opening a sweeping antitrust investigation of Big Tech, though it did not name any specific companies. It said it was investigating whether online platforms have hurt competition, suppressed innovation or otherwise harmed consumers.   The House Judiciary Committee is also conducting an antitrust probe into Facebook, Amazon and Apple. …

Hurricane Dorian has weakened to a Category 1 storm, after generating tornadoes and flooding roads in North and South Carolina. Early Friday, Dorian made landfall over Cape Hatteras, North Carolina before moving out into the Atlantic ocean on its trek up the U.S. east coast with maximum sustained winds of 150 kilometers per hour. In its most recent bulletin, the National Hurricane Center said, “The center of Dorian will move near or over the coast of North Carolina during the next few hours.”  NHC added, “The center should move to the southeast of extreme southeastern New England tonight and Saturday morning, and then across Nova Scotia late Saturday or Saturday night.” The NHC expects Dorian to produce a life-threatening storm surge and dangerous winds along parts of the North Carolina and Virginia coasts. Flash flooding across eastern South and North Carolina and southeastern Virginia was expected to become more widespread Friday morning. Bahamas recovery A couple embraces on a road destroyed by Hurricane Dorian, as they walk to the town of High Rock to try to find their relatives in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, in Grand Bahama, Bahamas, Sept. 5, 2019. Elsewhere, thousands of people in the Bahamas have …

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says he’s no longer considering an independent presidential bid. Schultz said Friday in a letter posted on his website, “I have concluded that an independent campaign for the White House is not how I can best serve our country at this time.” Schultz faced intense resistance from Democratic activists who feared an independent run would give President Donald Trump an easier path to reelection. Schultz says not enough people are willing to back an independent because they fear doing so “might lead to reelecting a uniquely dangerous incumbent president.” Schultz announced in June he was taking a “detour” from a possible independent 2020 bid, citing health concerns. The billionaire businessman said at the time he’d revisit his presidential ambitions after Labor Day. …

 A new U.S. Congress opened in Washington on January 3 with a historic class of new legislators, many without political experience. The racially diverse class has set some records, including the most women elected to Congress, the first Native American and Muslim women, the first U.S. Army Green Beret. Voice of America is following the challenges these lawmakers will face in their first year. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti introduces us to two new U.S. representatives who are “Climbing the Hill.” …

WAGGA WAGGA, Australia — After the horrors of fleeing to Sinjar Mountain in northern Iraq to escape Islamic State fighters in 2014, several hundred Yazidi refugees are starting new lives in the Australian outback.  Members of the minority religious group have been resettled in a handful of regional centers, like Wagga Wagga, to relieve pressure on refugee services in Australia’s main cities. Wagga Wagga is proud of its country roots. It is a farming and transport hub halfway between Sydney and Melbourne. FILE – Displaced people from the Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to Islamic State militants in Sinjar, walk toward the Syrian border on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain. Yazidis settling in Several hundred Yazidis are joining others here who fled persecution in Africa, Myanmar and Afghanistan. Layla explains how she fled to Sinjar Mountain. “In Iraq, ISIS kill lots of men and kill the children. Very, very hard story for Yazidi in Iraq. The ISIS came. We go to the mountain. With my whole family we lived in [the] mountain. Not eat, not have any water, not eating. After five days by walk[ing] we go to Kurdistan,” she said. Layla came to Australia with her husband and …

Maurice, a French rooster, now has a legal victory to crow about.    A court in Rochefort in western France on Thursday rejected complaints by Maurice’s neighbors that he was a nuisance and made too much noise.    The rooster’s owner, Corrine Fesseau, who lives in the village of Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron, was sued by neighbors who claimed Maurice’s crowing had made their holidays stressful.    Fesseau made several attempts to silence the rooster, including placing black sheets around his coop to trick him into thinking that morning had not yet broken.   Ultimately, the judge found that Maurice, being a rooster, had a right to crow.    “This rooster was not being unbearable,” Julien Papineau, Fesseau’s attorney, said. “He was just being himself.”    The court also awarded Fesseau $1,100 in damages.  Maurice’s case made headlines worldwide as an example of urbanites moving to rural areas and trying to change them.    The mayor of Maurice’s hometown called the case the “height of intolerance.”    In May, Bruno Dionis, mayor of the southwestern village of Gajac, wrote an open letter to French lawmakers defending the rights of church bells to ring, cows to moo and donkeys to bray throughout rural France. Such noises are part of “the rhythm of the …

Democratic presidential candidates are flocking to Silicon Valley but this time it’s different. Once candidates wooed wealthy tech executives at Facebook, Google and other mega companies. Some now attack companies over issues such as data privacy, antitrust and worker rights. Michelle Quinn looked at how this election season reflects the changing views of tech across the United States.   …

Robert Mugabe, the guerrilla leader who led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980, died Friday at age 95, two years after the army brought an ignominious end to almost four decades of his iron-fisted rule. Following are reactions to his death from Zimbabwe and around the world. Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, on Twitter “Cde (Comrade) Mugabe was an icon of liberation, a pan-Africanist who dedicated his life to the emancipation and empowerment of his people. His contribution to the history of our nation and continent will never be forgotten.” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa “South Africans join the people and government of Zimbabwe in mourning the passing of a liberation fighter and champion of Africa’s cause against colonialism. “Under President Mugabe’s leadership, Zimbabwe’s sustained and valiant struggle against colonialism inspired our own struggle against apartheid and built in us the hope that one day South Africa too would be free. “During the decades of our own struggle, Zimbabwe’s liberation movement supported our own liberation movement to fight oppression on multiple fronts. After Zimbabwe achieved independence, the apartheid state brutalized and violated Zimbabwe as punishment for supporting our own struggle. “Many Zimbabweans paid with their lives so that we could be free. …

Following are key milestones in the life of Zimbabwe’s former leader Robert Mugabe. 1924 — Mugabe is born Feb. 21 in what was then British-ruled Southern Rhodesia. 1940s-1950s — He is educated at Catholic schools and attends South Africa’s University of Fort Hare. He teaches in Zambia and Ghana, where he is influenced by African independence movement leaders. 1960s — Mugabe campaigns for Zimbabwe’s independence and is imprisoned in 1964 for political agitation. While incarcerated, he earns two law degrees from the University of London External Program. 1974 — Released from prison, he escapes to Mozambique, where Zimbabwe African National Union guerrilla fighters elect him to lead their struggle against white minority rule. A number of rivals die in suspicious circumstances, rights groups say. 1980 — Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party wins independent Zimbabwe’s first election. He takes office as prime minister April 18. 1982 — Mugabe deploys North Korean-trained troops to crush an insurgency by former guerrillas loyal to his liberation war rival Joshua Nkomo. Government forces are accused of involvement in the killing of 20,000 civilians, which Mugabe denies. FILE – Robert Mugabe’s inauguration as president in Harare in 1987. 1987 — He becomes president with sweeping executive powers after …

Robert  Mugabe, who ruled the southern African nation of Zimbabwe for 37 years following the end of white minority rule in 1980, has died.  He was 95 years old. Some hailed Mugabe as a liberation hero, but others say he destroyed the economy of what was once Africa’s breadbasket, rigged elections and terrorized his people for decades. VOA’s Anita Powell looks at his life and legacy.   …

Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was feted as an African liberation hero and champion of racial reconciliation when he first came to power in a nation divided by nearly a century of white colonial rule. Nearly four decades later, many at home and abroad denounced him as a power-obsessed autocrat willing to unleash death squads, rig elections and trash the economy in the relentless pursuit of control. Mugabe, was ultimately ousted by his own armed forces in November 2017. He demonstrated his tenacity — some might say stubbornness — to the last, refusing to accept his expulsion from his own ZANU-PF party and clinging on for a week until parliament started to impeach him after the de facto coup. His resignation triggered wild celebrations across the country of 13 million. For Mugabe, it was an “unconstitutional and humiliating” act of betrayal by his party and people, and left him a broken man. Confined for the remaining years of his life between Singapore where he was receiving medical treatment and his sprawling “Blue Roof” mansion in Harare, an ailing Mugabe could only observe from afar the political stage where he once strode tall. He was bitter to the end over the manner of …

Robert Mugabe, the guerrilla leader who led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980 and ruled with an iron fist until his own army ended his almost four decade rule, has died. He was 95. Mugabe died in Singapore, where he has often received medical treatment in recent years, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. His death was confirmed by Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa. It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing on of Zimbabwe’s founding father and former President, Cde Robert Mugabe (1/2) — President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) September 6, 2019 On leading Zimbabwe to independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe was feted as an African liberation hero and champion of racial reconciliation. But later, many at home and abroad denounced him as a power-obsessed autocrat willing to unleash death squads, rig elections and trash the economy in the relentless pursuit of control. Mugabe was forced to resign in November 2017 after an army coup. His resignation triggered wild celebrations across the country of 13 million. Mugabe denounced his removal as an “unconstitutional and humiliating” act of betrayal by his party and people, and it left him a broken man. In November, Mnangagwa said Mugabe …

Hurricane Dorian has hit the Southeastern U.S. states of North and South Carolina, bringing tornadoes and flooded roads. “We know we’re in for a long night and we’ll be eager to see the sunshine in the morning,” North Carolina’s Governor Roy Cooper told the Atlanta-based cable news network, CNN. Dorian weakened to a Category 1 hurricane early Friday, with  maximum sustained winds of 150 kilometers per hour (90 mph). The National Hurricane Center says “slow weakening” is expected of Dorian “during the next few days.” The center says Dorian is expected to remain “a powerful hurricane as its center moves near the coasts of South and North Carolina.” Forecasters do not expect Dorian to make a direct landfall Friday but will instead skirt the North Carolina coast, bringing life-threatening storm surges to North Carolina and southern Virginia before moving away from land. A couple embraces on a road destroyed by Hurricane Dorian, as they walk to the town of High Rock to try to find their relatives in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, in Grand Bahama, Bahamas, Sept. 5, 2019. A potent storm Dorian will remain a potent storm straight into the weekend, however, with tropical storm warnings posted as far north …

A jury Thursday didn’t convict two men charged after flames tore through a party at a San Francisco Bay Area warehouse that had been converted into a mazelike artist space, stunning families of the 36 victims who had opposed a deal that would have put the pair behind bars. Jurors acquitted Max Harris of involuntary manslaughter but said they could not agree on whether to convict or acquit Derick Almena after deliberating over a two-week period. As the judge declared a mistrial, sobs and gasps erupted from family and friends of the victims who packed the courtroom for the emotional three-month trial. The men were accused of filling the building in Oakland with so much clutter that it trapped people at an electronic music party nearly three years ago. The Ghost Ship Warehouse after a fire that swept through the Oakland, Calif., building in this Dec. 3, 2016 photo.. Mazelike building “I’m in shock,” said David Gregory, whose 20-year-old daughter Michela perished in the fast-moving fire. “We were hoping for justice, but we didn’t get justice today.” Michela Gregory and her 22-year-old boyfriend, Alex Vega, died when fire roared through the so-called Ghost Ship warehouse, which had been illegally converted …

The U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Chief Executive John Lansing said he will be leaving his post at the end of the month. Lansing, a veteran government broadcast and cable television executive, was named four years ago by U.S. President Barack Obama to be the first chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees the Voice of America, Radio and Television Martí, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. Lansing made his mark at the agency early on by championing a free press. “Despite some very dark moments, we have not been silenced. We will continue to report the truth. We will continue to find new ways to get independent reporting and programming to global audiences who rely on it,” he said this year on World Press Freedom Day. USAGM board Chairman Kenneth Weinstein said in a statement, “John has put USAGM on solid footing to advance our mission to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. … The Board is very grateful for, and deeply impressed by, the results achieved during his tenure.” Lansing has boosted the networks’ global weekly audience by more than …

The owners of the dive boat where 34 people perished in a fire off Southern California filed a lawsuit Thursday to head off potentially costly litigation, a move condemned by some observers as disrespectful to the families of the dead.    Truth Aquatics Inc., which owned the Conception, filed the action in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that allows it to limit its liability.     Investigators are still searching for what caused the blaze that wrecked the boat, which remains upside down at the bottom of the sea near the Channel Islands.     The time-tested legal maneuver has been successfully employed by owners of the Titanic and countless other crafts — some as small as personal watercraft — and was widely anticipated by maritime law experts. Still, the fact it was filed just three days after the deadly inferno Monday surprised legal observers.  Limited time to act   Families of the deceased, who are not named in the complaint, will be served with notice that they have a limited time to challenge the company’s effort to clear itself of negligence or limit its liability to the value of the remains of the boat, which is a total …

Events were held in Brazil and abroad Thursday to show support to the Amazon rainforest, which has drawn international attention over an increase this year in the number of fires in the region. In Rio de Janeiro, dozens of activists, civil society groups and indigenous people met under the rain in the city center, some wearing T-shirts saying “Fight for the Amazon!” Andre Barbosa, leader of a union representing employees of Brazil’s environment ministry, said the government is effectively weakening environmental legislation. “What we do not accept is the official discourse from Brazil that underestimates the importance of the environment,” Barbosa said. Activists take part in a demonstration against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 5, 2019. Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said that environmental regulations are often an obstacle to the country’s full economic development. He has sent the military to help battle some of the fires and issued a decree banning most fires for land-clearing for a period of 60 days. Norway and Germany recently suspended tens of millions of dollars in funding for sustainability projects in Brazilian forests because of concerns about the …

FLORENCE, Ala. — Jimmy Johnson, a founder of the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and guitarist with the famed studio musicians “The Swampers,” has died. He was 76. His family announced in a Facebook post that he died Thursday. As a studio musician, recording engineer and record producer, Johnson played a role in iconic hits by Percy Sledge, The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd and others. Musician Jason Isbell posted on Twitter, writing “The mighty Jimmy Johnson has passed. A lot of my favorite music wouldn’t exist without him.” ‘Phenomenal music guy’ Bassist and business partner David Hood said Johnson was a “friend who became a brother” and an inspiration to him and countless others in the music business. “Jimmy was just an all-around phenomenal music guy,” Hood said. Johnson began work as a professional guitar player at an early age and became a studio musician with Fame Studio. He later helped found the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, which became a recording destination for well-known artists. According to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Johnson’s “distinctive guitar fills” can be heard on the recordings of Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, The Staple Singers and others. Johnson also was renowned as a recording engineer working …

Hundreds of homes were evacuated and schools closed Thursday as crews battled a stubborn wildfire churning through heavy brush in Southern California. The blaze near the Riverside County city of Murrieta and unincorporated community of La Cresta grew to more than 2 square miles (5.4 square kilometers) and was 7% contained, authorities said. There were no reports of structure losses. “There’s lots of heavy fuel in very steep terrain that we can’t get to on foot,” said Capt. Fernando Herrera with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Aircraft were making continuous drops of water and retardant, he said.   More than 480 homes were in the mandatory evacuation zone and another 2,270 are under voluntary evacuation orders, according to Herrera. The blaze erupted Wednesday afternoon on rural land and erratic winds quickly pushed flames down hills toward homes about 70 miles (115 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. The cause may have been a lightning strike as hot, muggy weather produced thunderstorms. Those conditions will continue into Friday, the National Weather Service said. It’s one of a number of fires burning around the state. There’s very little containment of a 1.5-square-mile (3.9-square-kilometer) blaze in rural forest land along the …

8chan, the online message board linked to several recent mass shootings, plans to restrict parts of the website during a “state of emergency,” site owner Jim Watkins told a U.S. House panel in a written statement.  Watkins completed his closed-door deposition Thursday, said Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, and Ranking Republican Mike Rogers of Alabama. The panel last month subpoenaed the American living in the Philippines to answer its questions about whether the website “amplifies extremist views, leading to the radicalization of its users.”  Watkins “provided vast and helpful information to the committee about the structure, operation and policies of 8Chan and his other companies. We look forward to his continued cooperation with the committee as he indicated his desire to do so during today’s deposition,” they said in a joint statement.  “If 8chan comes back online, it will be done when 8chan develops additional tools to counter illegal content under United States law,” Watkins said in the statement released by his lawyer.  “If 8chan returns, staff would implement a way to restrict certain parts of the website during a state of emergency, in which case any board in question would be put in a read-only mode until it would be deemed safe enough to enable posting again,” it said.  8chan owner Jim Watkins (YouTube). Critics last month …