This week on #VOAOurVoices, we examine U.S. foreign policy and priorities toward Africa under President Donald Trump. From trade and aid, to immigration and security, we look at the state of America’s engagement with the continent, amid an ever-changing political landscape. VOA senior White House correspondent, Patsy Widakuswara, and Washington correspondent for Nigeria’s Channels TV, Maria Byrd, join the program for an in-depth discussion. In our #WomentoWatch segment we highlight women who are blazing trails in the world of foreign policy. …

The three Moscow mothers whose children are suffering from cancer were united in two things, their reluctance to allow their names to be published, and their mounting anger at the deterioration in Russia’s public health services, which they say threatens their children’s lives.   They had wanted to attend a midweek press conference to demonstrate their support for a team of pediatric oncologists who have quit their jobs at a Moscow clinic, one of Russia’s best cancer hospitals, to protest overcrowded wards, pay cuts and an “optimization reform” doctors say is affecting their ability to treat patients. However, guards at the Blokhin Cancer Research Center warned the mothers to stay away. The mothers say they fear the consequences of speaking out. A dozen doctors so far have quit their jobs at the clinic — the latest in a wave of resignations by medical staff sweeping Russia’s health sector. The oncologists quit after posting a three-minute video on YouTube deploring overcrowded wards and reduced funding. They complained that the construction of new buildings had dragged on for two decades, and they painted a grim picture of a health care center falling into disrepair amid mismanagement. “For years, children with cancer have …

A U.N. human rights expert has expressed concern over the working conditions of North Korean workers abroad in response to VOA’s report that uncovered North Korea’s illicit labor activities in Senegal. “It’s quite revealing about this situation of the system that exists in North Korea regarding workers abroad,” Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said during an interview with VOA Korean Service Thursday. Quintana said the VOA report reflects that “the system remains as it was conceived since the outset.”  Human rights groups have often accused North Korea of sending its citizens to foreign countries for forced labor to sustain its economy since the inception of the regime.  The country is known to violate international labor practices when sending workers abroad, putting them to work under harsh conditions. The VOA report revealed that approximately 30 North Korean workers were laboring under poor conditions at various construction sites in the Senegalese capital of Dakar in September. The North Koreans were doing construction work for private Senegalese companies such as Patisen in violation of international sanctions. The workers were paid about $120 a month after having to remit a significant portion of their salary to the …

Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi promised to listen to people’s grievances in a televised address after three days of deadly protest in Baghdad and several other cities. Hundreds of protesters rallied in the capital for a third consecutive day Thursday, defying a curfew, to call for jobs, improved services and an end to widespread corruption. About 30 people have been killed so far and hundreds others have been injured in clashes between the police and protesters. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the authorities authorities have extended a curfew in several southern cities as the death toll rises.   …

Iraqi security forces opened fired on anti-government protesters gathering in Baghdad Friday for a fourth day of demonstrations against unemployment, poor public services and corruption. The security forces fired directly at the protesters, not in the air, an AFP correspondent said. No casualties have been reported. Earlier, Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi during a televised address to the nation called on protesters to go home, saying their “legitimate demands” had been heard. Abdul-Mahdi sad that the security measures, including the temporary curfew imposed were “difficult choices” but they were needed like “bitter medicine” that had to be swallowed. At least 33 people have been killed in protests since Tuesday and hundreds of others have been wounded. The demonstrations have spread in Baghdad and in areas south of the capital. Demonstrators run at a protest during a curfew, three days after the nationwide anti-government protests turned violent, in Baghdad, Oct. 4, 2019. Nine people were killed during anti-government protests late Thursday. Police and medical officials said the protesters were shot to death in Nasiriyah, a city south of the capital of Baghdad. Iraqi security forces used tear gas and fired live bullets Thursday to disperse protesters in Baghdad. In addition, authorities have …

A high-tech hotel in Japan is science fiction come to life, with virtual ninjas staffing the front desk, facial recognition software that detects customers’ moods, and dinosaur footprints leading to the elevator. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi takes us back to the future.   …

A University of Georgia researcher reported that about 90 percent of all the plastic ever produced is still around, most of it is in the ocean or the world’s landfills. Its effects on the environment and our health are still being studied. To combat this rising tide of garbage, many cities, states and countries are banning single-use plastic bags. Islamabad recently became the first Pakistan city to take this small step toward reducing this mountain of waste. VOA’s Gaitty Ara Anis has more from Islamabad in this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. …

A full 8 hours of sleep just isn’t in the cards for some people. But what about a quick nap? New research suggests short naps can lower a person’s risk for cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes by as much as 48 percent. Karina Bafradzhian visited a new shop that believes in the value of a good nap.    …

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said Thursday that it would benefit U.S. judges to study how other countries handle cases related to important global subjects such as terrorism, immigration, civil rights, health and the environment. Breyer delivered a speech and answered questions from a moderator before about 500 people at Rhodes College in Memphis as part of the school’s program for Constitution Day, which took place Sept. 17. Breyer is the second sitting Supreme Court justice to speak at the private liberal arts university in recent years. Justice Antonin Scalia spoke at Rhodes in September 2015. Globalization vs localism Breyer touched on theories of globalization, versus localism or tribalism, stressing that the perception that those ideas are “at war” with each other is false. He cited cases related to international issues that have been heard in the U.S. because they were tied to the U.S., and U.S. laws or treaties that applied to them. They include cases related to the internment of Japanese in U.S. camps during World War II, foreign terror suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and a foreign commerce case with ties to Ecuador and The Netherlands. He also discussed ways legal systems have handled …

A U.N. report says the deteriorated security situation across Afghanistan the past four years led to more than 14,000 “grave violations” against children, including nearly 3,500 killed and more than 9,000 injured. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned “the alarming level” of grave violations against children by all parties and said he is “deeply disturbed by the scale, severity and recurrence of grave violations endured by the children in Afghanistan.” The U.N. chief said in the report circulated Thursday that he is “extremely concerned” especially about the significant increase in child casualties resulting from aerial operations conducted by government and pro-government forces. According to the report, child casualties from aerial attacks have increased every year since 2015, reversing a downward trend. They totaled 1,049 for the four-year period through 2018.   …

During four months in a small military jail cell, Venezuela’s Congress vice president scratched the days on a wall with a  toothpick, held a hunger-strike, and made unlikely friends with two generals who have fallen foul of the socialist government. “It was a pretty tough experience,” opposition leader Edgar Zambrano, 64, told Reuters of his time in Cell 12A at the Fuerte Tiuna base in Caracas, where he was held, accused of treason against President Nicolas Maduro’s administration. “We used a lot of mechanisms to survive.” In one of Venezuela’s highest-profile arrests of recent times, intelligence agents intercepted Zambrano while he was driving away from his Democratic Action party headquarters on May 8. A dawn appearance on a bridge beside Congress leader Juan Guaido – who invoked the constitution to assume the interim presidency in January – during a failed military uprising a week before was the catalyst for his detention. After Zambrano refused to leave his vehicle, security agents towed him away with a truck. His driver, and three Congress workers who he said were getting a lift to an underground transport station, remain in jail. “They are no danger to anyone, They were just obeying my order not …

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said on Thursday he had never intervened to protect anybody, after his brother was accused of smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States for years under Hernandez’s protection. “Nobody is above the law,” Hernandez told a news conference in the Honduran capital. “I’ve never intervened, nor will I, to protect anybody – not friends, nor fellow party members, nor family members – absolutely nobody.” The trial of Hernandez’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, began on Wednesday in federal court in New York. The politician, arrested in Miami last year, faces charges of drug conspiracy and possessing illegal weapons. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer has denied the charges. On Thursday, jurors in the trial heard testimony from former drug trafficker Victor Hugo Diaz Morales, who said he gave $40,000 to Juan Orlando Hernandez’s congressional campaign in 2005 at Tony Hernandez’s request. Diaz, who is now in U.S. custody and cooperating with prosecutors, testified that he worked together with Tony Hernandez to traffic about 140,000 kilograms of cocaine to the United States from about 2004 to 2016. Some of that cocaine, Diaz said, came from a Colombian factory partly owned by Tony Hernandez, …

Manhattan’s top prosecutor pushed back against the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday in a legal battle over President Donald Trump’s tax returns, saying local efforts to investigate the president’s finances should be “free from federal interference.” A day after federal prosecutors asked for a delay, District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. filed court papers saying the Justice Department is supporting Trump’s efforts to run out the clock on certain statutes of limitation that could affect a state grand jury investigation. IRS whistleblower The move comes amid a deepening standoff in Washington after a government whistleblower alleged “inappropriate efforts to influence” the mandatory IRS audit program that’s looking into Trump’s tax returns and those of the vice president. The chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., said the panel on July 29 received “an unsolicited communication from a Federal employee setting forth credible allegations of ‘evidence of possible misconduct’ — specifically, potential ‘inappropriate efforts to influence’ the mandatory audit program.” The whistleblower claim comes amid the House’s impeachment inquiry into Trump after another government whistleblower complained about the president’s actions toward Ukraine. In an Aug. 8 letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Neal sought documents and …

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev lambasted the Trump administration on Thursday for trying to create a “toxic atmosphere” around Cuba, during a two-day trip to the island demonstrating Russia’s support for its Communist government. The former Soviet Union was Cuba’s main backer for decades and Moscow has sought to renew its commercial, military and political ties with the island in recent years. The effort is part of Russia’s broader strategy to expand its presence in Latin America as a counterweight to China and the United States. While Russia’s support for Cuba is insignificant compared to the role the Soviet Union once played, it is still welcome as the island’s economy is suffering from a tightening of the decades-old U.S. trade embargo and a steep decline in Venezuelan aid. Medvedev’s visit – the highest profile Russian tour since that of President Vladimir Putin in 2014 – is also symbolically important, showing Cuba has still has powerful allies that will help it resist U.S. pressure. “(The U.S.) desire to create a toxic atmosphere around cooperation with the island, to scare off investors and create an energetic blockade is obvious,” Medvedev told reporters after holding official talks with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and …

Joe Biden raised $15.2 million to support his U.S. presidential bid during the third quarter, his campaign said on Thursday, trailing some of his rivals. The figures, which also lag Biden’s second-quarter take of $21.5 million, come as the former vice president fights a two-front war. He faces one battle against 18 people who want the Democratic Party’s nomination and he faces another conflict with the Republican president he hopes to unseat, Donald Trump. U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) responds to a question during a gun safety forum in Las Vegas, Nevada, Oct. 2, 2019. Other Democrats, including U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have chipped away at his lead in national polls and key early state nominating contests. Trump, meanwhile, said on Thursday that both China and Ukraine should look into Biden and his businessman son Hunter, doubling down on an invitation for foreign interference in the election that had already triggered an impeachment inquiry in Congress. Biden’s third-quarter fundraising haul lagged behind those of fellow Democratic presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, who raised $25.3 million and $19.1 million over the same period, respectively. Warren has not yet released her fundraising totals for the …

Journalists in Indian Kashmir on Thursday staged a small silent protest against what they say has been a “media gag” by Indian authorities that has badly affected their ability to work in the disputed region for the last 60 days. India stripped its portion of Muslim-majority Kashmir of autonomy on Aug. 5, shutting off phone networks and imposing curfew-like restrictions in some areas to dampen discontent. Some of those curbs have been slowly relaxed, but mobile and internet communications in the Kashmir valley are largely still blocked, severely impacting the ability of journalists to report from the region. Carrying placards and wearing black badges, more than 100 Kashmiri journalists gathered inside the Kashmir Press Club premises in Srinagar to stage a protest, as street protests are still restricted. “End information clampdown,” “Stop criminalizing journalists,” “Journalism is not a crime,” read placards held up during the silent protest. Journalists use internet facilities sanctioned by the authorities, amid strict communications restrictions, during a lockdown at a hotel in Srinagar, Oct. 3, 2019. The Indian government has provided an internet connection at a media center set up for journalists, but reporters say this is insufficient and it lacks privacy. “There’s no privacy. Some …

The U.S. and Japan are calling the recent North Korean missile launch “unnecessarily provocative” just days ahead of working-level nuclear talks with the United States. North Korea tested a ballistic missile Wednesday that was designed to be launched from a submarine — an important advancement in Pyongyang’s weapons program. “This morning, the Secretary had a call with Japanese Minister of Defense (Taro) Kono where they discussed North Korea. They both agreed that the North Korea tests are unnecessarily provocative and do not set the stage for diplomacy and that North Korea should cease these tests,” chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters at a briefing Thursday. What appears to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) flies in an undisclosed location in this undated picture released by North Korea’s Central News Agency (KCNA) Oct. 2, 2019. The Korean Central News Agency on Thursday claimed a successful test of the “new-type” submarine-launched ballistic missile, or SLBM, which it dubbed “Pukguksong-3.” KCNA pictures showed the missile emerging from the sea after apparently being launched from an underwater platform. Col. Pat Ryder, the spokesman for the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Thursday briefing that North Korea fired a “short-to-medium-range ballistic …

Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno declared a state of emergency Thursday as protests broke out nationwide over the end of decades-old fuel subsidies as part of a $2 billion government fiscal reform package. “Down with the package!” protesters shouted, referring to measures enacted this week as Moreno sets the Andean oil producer on a centrist path after years of leftist rule. With the fuel measure taking effect Thursday, taxi, bus and truck drivers blocked streets in the highland capital Quito and in Guayaquil on the Pacific coast, while bus stations were closed. Indigenous groups, students and unions joined the action, blocking roads with rocks and burning tires. Demonstrators clash with riot police during a protest after Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno’s government ended four-decade-old fuel subsidies, in Quito, Ecuador, Oct. 3, 2019. In Quito, masked demonstrators threw stones at riot police who responded with tear gas and deployed armored vehicles. “It’s an indefinite action until the government overturns the decree on subsidies. We’re paralyzing the nation,” said bus transport leader Abel Gomez. Officials say the elimination of fuel subsidies was necessary to lift the economy and stop smuggling. Moreno, who won election in 2017 to replace Rafael Correa, told reporters the “perverse” …

It is one of the most recognizable memorials in the United States — an 80-foot-high (24 meters) sculpture of six soldiers raising an American flag atop a mountain on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima during World War II. And it has a secret hiding in plain sight. The Marine Corps War Memorial, which stands next to Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington D.C., has long offered onlookers a dramatic and iconic image. But for Native Americans, the bronze soldiers carry special significance: The figure at the back of the group depicts Ira Hayes, a member of the Pima tribe from Arizona. Some worry that significance is lost on most people. Even as they gaze at the monument, tourists “overlook entirely” its reference to the role of America’s indigenous people in the battle at Iwo Jima, said Elizabeth Rule, assistant director of the AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy. So, she helped create an app to change that. The memorial is the first entry in the new Guide to Indigenous DC app, which takes users on a walking tour of Native American history — and ongoing presence — in the nation’s capital. Nearly 7 million Native …

Nigerian police plan to acquire stun guns and revise their rules of engagement in an effort to curb the use of deadly force, the inspector general of the force said Thursday. The West African country, which plays a pivotal role in regional stability, is riven by security problems ranging from armed bandits who have forced 40,000 people to leave the northwest in recent months to communal violence between nomadic herdsmen and farming communities in central states. Last month, a United Nations special rapporteur described Nigeria as a “pressure cooker of internal conflict” due to security problems and what it said was an excessive use of lethal force by police and military. Mohammed Adamu told a gathering of senior officers in the capital, Abuja, that he had “initiated actions” toward deploying less lethal weapons — commonly known as stun guns — for low-risk police operations. “This is with the intention of addressing public concerns on misuse of firearms by the police with its attendant consequences on lives and effect on the attainment of our community policing vision,” Adamu said, according to a copy of the speech distributed to media. He did not say how much the stun guns would cost.   …

By the late 19th century, slavery was over, but the American South was still rife with discrimination and injustice for rural African American sharecroppers. “They could only shop at one store, the country store, where prices were high,” says Louis Hyman, an economic historian and assistant professor at Cornell University. “It often was the case that the landlord also owned the store, and their lives were ruled by credit. They basically could only shop at that store because their accounts would not be reconciled until the cotton crop came in. Because of that, they didn’t really have cash, and they really didn’t have an alternative way to get credit.” Women’s hats are pictured in a 1907 Sears Roebuck catalog from the shelves of the Chicago Public Library, Aug. 26, 1948. The Jim Crow laws, which were in effect from the 1880s to the 1960s, were state and local mandates that enforced racial segregation in the American South. The most common types of these laws outlawed intermarriage and required businesses and public institutions to separate their black and white patrons. Sears, the department store founder, was not motivated by social justice. As a businessman, he was in it for the money. …