As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tries to lure Canadian voters with climate and tax-related policy changes ahead of a national election in October, the fallout of the blackface scandal continues to dog him, and some polls showed Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer taking the lead on Tuesday. During a campaign stop on Tuesday in Burnaby, British Columbia, Trudeau pledged to halve the corporate tax paid by companies that develop zero-emissions technologies and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. “Years from now, I want to look my kids in the eyes and say we stepped up on climate change,” Trudeau said. The Liberal leader has recently promised also to ban military-style assault weapons and to introduce a national prescription drug plan, in an attempt to get his campaign back on track as blackface photos of him from the past emerged last week and threatened his re-election bid. While one poll suggests that strategy might be working, others showed the Conservatives taking the lead, with less than four weeks to go before the Oct. 21 vote. The two leaders had been running neck-and-neck until Time magazine published a picture of Trudeau in dark makeup at a 2001 “Arabian Nights” party, when he was …

Everton Simpson squints at the Caribbean from his motorboat, scanning the dazzling bands of color for hints of what lies beneath. Emerald green indicates sandy bottoms. Sapphire blue lies above seagrass meadows. And deep indigo marks coral reefs. That’s where he’s headed. He steers the boat to an unmarked spot that he knows as the “coral nursery.” “It’s like a forest under the sea,” he says, strapping on blue flippers and fastening his tank before tipping backward into the azure waters. He swims down 25 feet (7.6 meters) carrying a pair of metal shears, fishing line and a plastic crate. On the ocean floor, small coral fragments dangle from suspended ropes, like socks hung on a laundry line. Simpson and other divers tend to this underwater nursery as gardeners mind a flower bed — slowly and painstakingly plucking off snails and fireworms that feast on immature coral. Diver Everton Simpson plants staghorn coral harvested from a coral nursery inside the White River Fish Sanctuary in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Feb. 12, 2019. When each stub grows to about the size of a human hand, Simpson collects them in his crate to individually “transplant” onto a reef, a process akin to planting …

Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has announced a formal impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump and allegations he sought a foreign government’s help with his 2020 re-election bid. Pelosi made her announcement after huddling inside the Capitol with House Democratic leaders as the number of Democratic lawmakers who back impeachment proceedings grew throughout the day Tuesday. “The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the constitution,” Pelosi said. “The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law.” For months, Pelosi has resisted opening a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump over earlier allegations of obstruction of justice stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report. But the pressure on Pelosi has grown in recent days over reports Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden over a high-paying job his son Hunter Biden had with a Ukrainian gas company. Biden has been the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination and a potential rival to Trump in the 2020 election. U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to address the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Sept. 24, 2019. Trump said …

Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s rebels on Tuesday killed at least 13 civilians, including children, when they hit a residential building in southern Dhale province, tribal leaders and health officials said. The airstrikes in the district of Qataba also wounded at least 10 others, they said. The casualties were from two families. The officials and tribal leaders said the area hit by the airstrikes is controlled by the rebels, known as Houthis, and is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the frontline of fighting with forces of the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabu Mansour Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition.   The rebels’ health ministry said at least 13 people, including six children and four women, were killed. Earlier on Tuesday the Houthi-run al-Masirah satellite TV put the death toll at 16. A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition did not answer phone calls seeking comment. Elsewhere in Dhale, Houthi forces shot dead three people during a raid in the mountainous Awd area, the tribal leaders said. Another four people were wounded and at least two dozen people were detained in the past three days for their criticism of Houthi rule, they said. The health officials spoke …

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that while the United States does not seek conflict with any other nation, he will not hesitate to defend America’s interests.  “The United States, after having spent $2.5 trillion since my re-election to rebuild our great military, is also by far the world’s most powerful nation,” he told a room full of world leaders. “Hopefully it will never have to use this power.” Trump stressed that the U.S. does not seek conflict with any country. “We desire peace, cooperation and mutual gain with all, but I will never fail to defend America’s interests,” he told the United Nations General Assembly. Trump pointed to the regime in Iran as one of the greatest global threats, saying it oppresses its citizens at home while fueling conflicts and terrorism beyond its borders. He said as long as this continues, U.S. sanctions will not be lifted, they will be tightened. But the U.S. president left open the door to diplomacy, noting that some of America’s past enemies are now its closest friends. FILE – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a speech during a National Army Day parade in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 22, 2019. (WANA via Reuters) “The United …

A public health official says the number of vaping-related illnesses in the U.S. could soon climb much higher. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said Tuesday she believes “hundreds more” cases have been reported to health authorities since last week. The CDC then put the tally at 530 confirmed and probable cases of the serious lung illness. Nine deaths have been reported. The agency has been updating its count on Thursdays. CDC’s Anne Schuchat made the comment during her testimony before a congressional subcommittee. The panel is holding the first hearing on the vaping illness, which resembles an inhalation injury. Health officials have not yet identified a common electronic cigarette or ingredient in the outbreak, although many cases involve vaping THC from marijuana. …

The World Health Organization is expressing concern about Tanzanian authorities’ reluctance to share detailed information about suspected cases of Ebola, and is calling for full transparency. Two weeks ago, the World Health Organization received what it calls unofficial reports regarding the death of a person in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam.  The person was suspected of having contracted the deadly Ebola virus.    Since then, WHO says it was told by unofficial sources that a 27-year old man suspected of carrying the virus was admitted to a hospital.  However, it says it has received no information regarding laboratory tests and results either proving or disproving the presence of the deadly virus. During a press conference on September 14, the Tanzanian authorities announced there was no Ebola outbreak in the country.   WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib says that despite repeated requests, WHO has not received further details of any of the suspected Ebola case from Tanzanian authorities. “We need information to make a proper risk assessment,” she said.  “If it is Ebola or if it is another disease, we need to know it and to share the information with the international community… We stand ready to provide all the technical …

Rights groups and IT industry advocates are calling on Thai lawmakers to amend a new Cybersecurity Act that they say gives the government virtually unchecked power to monitor online data. The law sailed through an appointed Parliament unopposed in February, in the final months of the military junta that seized power from an elected government in 2014. It took effect in May, after a tainted general election in March that returned coup leaders to power. Despite the return of civilian rule, dissidents hiding abroad have continued to disappear or be forced back to Thailand, opposition lawmakers have come under sustained legal pressure, and the government’s most vocal critics have suffered a spate of violent, unsolved attacks by armed gangs. “When we saw the Cybersecurity Act, we (were) like, ‘OK, it’s another tool that the government is going to misuse to silence human rights defenders, to silence human rights activists,’” said Emilie Pradichit, director of Manushya, a local rights group. The new law breaks cyber threats into three categories based on their level of risk or severity: non-critical, critical and crisis. It gives the government the authority to act on crisis threats without a court order and denies anyone targeted by …

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the annual meeting of the General Assembly the world is losing the battle against climate change but that there is still time to reverse the effects of the global phenomenon. “We are seeing unprecedented temperatures, unrelenting storms and undeniable science,” Guterres said. “The world is starting to move — not fast enough but in the right direction  — away from fossil fuels and towards the opportunities of the green economy.” Guterres said solutions to what he now calls a “climate crisis” were discussed at the U.N.’s Climate Action Summit on Monday. He noted the need for world leaders to “scale up” the solutions to “keep temperature rise to 1.5 degrees and reach carbon neutrality by 2050.” Guterres has called for the phasing out of fossil fuels and an end to construction of new coal power plants. He has also said it is time to end subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and shift taxes from salaries to carbon – taxing pollution, not people. Guterres was the first in a series of world leaders involved in some of the most high profile geopolitical issues to speak on the first day of the U.N. General Assembly …

As Afghanistan’s presidential election on September 28th approaches, one of the largest cities in the country, a one-time capital of the Taliban regime, shows little interest in the contest – the fourth since 2004.  As VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports from Kandahar, apathy and a lack of faith in the process are among the reasons for the disinterest. …

The United Nations said Tuesday that it will be permitted to more closely monitor the human rights situation in crisis-torn Venezuela after signing an agreement with Caracas to tighten cooperation. UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza signed a Memorandum of Understanding on September 20 establishing “a framework for future discussion and cooperation”, the UN said in a statement. The deal among other things provides for a team of two UN rights officers to settle in the country, which is caught in an economic crisis and a political standoff between President Nicolas Maduro’s government and National Assembly leader Juan Guaido. “I and my office are committed to working closely with the authorities, as well as with civil society organizations, to promote and protect the human rights and fundamental liberties of everyone in the country,” Bachelet said in the statement. The oil-rich country suffers from hyperinflation and shortages of basic goods from food to medicine, a crisis that has forced some 3.6 million people to flee since 2016. The agreement aims to “better protect and promote human rights in Venezuela through an array of new steps”, the rights office said. The steps include assistance in “the strengthening …

Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday heard the appeal of the local director of Human Rights Watch, who is seeking to block an attempt by the government to expel him for allegedly supporting an international boycott movement against Israel. A lower court in April upheld a decision not to renew Omar Shakir’s work visa and ordered him to leave the country, saying his advocacy against Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank amounts to support for the Palestinian-led boycott movement. Israeli law bars entry to those who publicly support a boycott of Israel or its West Bank settlements. “We want to be able to do the same work we do in nearly 100 countries across the world and here in Israel”, Shakir said, speaking to reporters outside the courtroom. “The kind of work we’ve been doing in Israel for three decades, the kind of work that we’ve done with Palestinian Authority, with Hamas, with every country in the Middle East and North Africa.” Human Rights Watch says neither it nor Shakir has called for an outright boycott of Israel. It says Shakir, who is a U.S. citizen, is being targeted for the rights group’s opposition to the settlements and its calls …

Matiado Vilme and Renan Toussaint in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report WASHINGTON / NEW YORK / PORT-AU-PRINCE – Haiti’s President, Jovenel Moise, will not travel to the United States as planned Tuesday, to speak before the United Nations General Assembly.  The president issued a statement late Monday announcing that Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond would lead Haiti’s delegation to the U.N. and speak before the general assembly on behalf of the nation. The cancellation comes after news of a postponement of his departure for New York, and on the heels of a chaotic, violent day at the Haitian Senate that saw two people wounded when a Senator fired his gun ahead of a vote to confirm the prime minister designate. An AP photojournalist and a parliament security guard were wounded during the incident. People run as Haiti’s Senator Jean Marie Ralph Fethiere holds a gun in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 23, 2019. Corruption allegations President Moise and some members of his government are mired in controversy and corruption allegations. On Sunday, opposition Senator Youri Latortue accused him of “misappropriating” Haitian passport revenue collected by the Embassy in Washington to finance his trip to the U.N. “Minister Bocchit withdrew $298,000 US dollars from …

U.S. President Donald Trump told his staff to withhold about $400 million in aid to Ukraine days before a phone call with the country’s leader that is at the center of a debate between Congress and the White House over a whistleblower complaint. Reports late Wednesday from the Associated Press, Washington Post and New York Times all cited multiple senior administration officials saying Trump froze the funding, and that the order was communicated to the State Department and Pentagon with the explanation that he was looking into whether the money needed to be spent. Earlier Wednesday, the leaders of three House of Representatives committees demanded Secretary of State Mike Pompeo turn over all documents related to the call Trump made to Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.   The Democratic chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Oversight committees — Elliot Engel, Adam Schiff, and Elijah Cummings — set a Thursday deadline, the same day the intelligence committee is set to hear testimony from acting director national intelligence Joseph Maguire about the whistleblower complaint linked to the call. Trump is said to have pushed for an investigation into leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who served for …

Generally the tarmac of a large international airport is strictly off limits to civilians. But every year hundreds storm the runways of Washington Dulles Airport for an annual traditional that involves teamwork and big planes. Sandzhar Khamidov visited the event. Anna Rice narrates his story. …

Plastic pollution continues in Lake Malawi despite a recent ban on the use of plastics. Conservationists say the plastic is putting a strain on aquatic life in the lake. Studies have warned that the fish stock in the lake could be depleted by 2050 unless the pollution stops. Lameck Masina reports from Lakeside district of Mangochi. …

About 75 of the Malawians displaced by recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa have returned home. Malawi’s government repatriated them on Thursday, after they spent weeks at a guarded camp in Johannesburg. Some say they will never go back to South Africa. Others are not so sure. Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre. …

China is the world’s largest exporter of consumer goods but is increasingly branching into other areas. Beijing has recently sent a contingent of policemen to Serbia to help local forces in three Serbian cities. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports this is just one example of expanding cooperation between China and Serbia. …

Honda said on Monday it would phase out all diesel cars by 2021 in favor of models with electric propulsion systems, as the Japanese automaker moves to electrify all of its European cars by 2025. Honda is the latest automaker cutting production of diesel cars to meet stringent global emissions regulations. The plan is part of its long-term goal to make electric cars, including all battery-electric vehicles, to account for two-thirds of its line ups by 2030 from less than 10% now. By next year, according to European Union emission targets, CO2 must be cut to 95 gram per km for 95% of cars from the current 120.5 gram average, a figure that has increased of late as consumers spurn fuel-efficient diesels and embrace SUVs. All new cars in the EU must be compliant in 2021. For Honda, declining demand for diesel vehicles and tougher emissions regulations have clouded its manufacturing prospects in Europe. Honda said in February it would close its only British car plant in 2021 with the loss of up to 3,500 jobs. Japan’s No. 3 automaker has said it would cut the number of car model variations to a third of current offerings by 2025, reducing …

A global working group set up by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Microsoft to remove extremist content will become an independent watchdog working “to respond quicker and work more collaboratively to prevent” attacks like Christchurch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. Ardern has pushed for stronger action since New Zealand’s worst peacetime mass shooting in March, when a gunman attacked Muslims attending Friday prayers in Christchurch. He killed 51 people and broadcast the attack live on Facebook. “In the same way that we respond to natural emergencies like fires and floods, we need to be prepared and ready to respond to a crisis like the one we experienced,” Ardern told reporters on the sidelines of the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders. The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism was created in 2017 under pressure from U.S. and European governments after a spate of deadly attacks. It will now become an independent organization led by an executive director, funded by Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft. Speaking at a joint news conference with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Ardern said the organization would be governed by an operating board made up of company representatives and would …

The United Nations unveiled plans to plant urban forests over an area four times the size of Hong Kong, seeking to make Africa and Asia’s rapidly growing cities greener. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the pace of urbanization on both continents was contributing to climate change and planting trees could improve air quality, cut the risk of floods and heatwaves and halt land degradation. It will discuss plans to create up to half a million hectares of new urban forests – more than four times the size of Hong Kong – by 2030 in New York this week. “If you look at the urbanization data, particularly in some parts of Asia and Africa, it is happening now,” said Simone Borelli, an expert on urban forestry with the FAO. “For example, Chinese cities are growing very fast and in 20 years’ time, they may have 20% or 30% more people living there. “Unless they start planting now, they’ll find themselves in a situation where it’s too late. Trees take a long time to grow,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Monday. If managed well, urban forests could reduce air temperatures by up to 8 degrees Celsius (14.4 …

A senior United States Treasury official was visiting Beirut on Monday, where he’s explaining the motives behind recent U.S. sanctions targeting Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, Lebanon’s central bank governor said. Treasury Department Assistant Secretary Marshall Billingslea met with the prime minister and the speaker of parliament, as well as officials from the Association of Banks in Lebanon and the central bank governor. Hezbollah holds three cabinet seats, and along with its allies has more power than ever in the parliament and government. It is also among the most effective armed groups in the region, extending Iran’s influence to Israel’s doorstep. Domestically, the group’s power exceeds that of the Lebanese armed forces.  Lebanon’s Central Bank chief Riad Salameh played down reports in local media that the U.S. will impose further sanctions on the country’s dollar-strapped banking system. He said Billingslea “is not coming here to squeeze Lebanon.” A U.S. embassy statement said Billingslea “will encourage Lebanon to take the necessary steps to maintain distance from Hezbollah and other malign actors attempting to destabilize Lebanon and its institutions.” Last month, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Jammal Trust Bank and added it to its list of global terrorist organizations. The …

The Republican National Committee is putting a college twist on its grassroots voter registration efforts, seeking to mobilize President Donald Trump’s supporters. The “Make Campus Great Again” initiative is offering dozens of participants training and free pizza, plus swag like campaign buttons and drink insulators to distribute.  It started with trainings at four schools in Ohio last week. Organizers describe it as a national effort, with similar swing state training sessions already held or planned for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Denver and college Republicans in Michigan.   It’s aimed at building on young voters’ enthusiasm and higher-than-usual turnout in last year’s midterm election and pushing back against any stifling of conservative voices in campus environments, said Mandi Merritt, a regional spokeswoman for the Trump-RNC reelection effort.   “It serves as a way to bring conservative supporters out of the shadows of college campuses and show that they have a home in the Republican movement,” Merritt said. In the 2018 midterms, 67% of voters ages 18 to 22 voted for Democratic House candidates, according to AP VoteCast, which surveyed voters in last year’s election. Just 31% voted for Republicans. The outreach and mobilizing also show how the GOP …

Mediterranean resort town Cannes, France’s fourth-biggest cruise ship port, will ban the most polluting cruise ships from next year in a bid to boost air quality in the city. The ban will target ships that do not respect a 0.1% cap on sulphur in their fuel and could stop some passengers from disembarking in the city famous for its film festival. “It’s not about being against cruise ships. It’s about being against pollution,” Cannes Mayor David Lisnard told Reuters Television in an interview. FILE – Pedestrians stroll along the beachfront walkway as a cruise liner and luxury boats are moored in the Bay of Cannes, May 14, 2004. Under the European Union’s clean air policy, the cap is already enforced in Baltic, North Sea and Channel ports and it may be extended to the Mediterranean. Cruise ships run on fuel oil which contains about 2,000 times more sulphur oxide than ordinary diesel, according to German pollution analyst Axel Friedrich. “We will no longer accept cruise ship passengers coming from polluting cruise ships,” Lisnard said. The exponential growth of the cruise ship industry is often criticized by residents of tourist towns but it is also increasingly considered a threat to the …