The State Department says it will assess its programming and redirect all funding on foreign aid, after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned plans to cut $4 billion in spending on the grounds that it was wasteful and unnecessary. “As part of this discussion, we agreed to continue to assess our programming and redirect all funding that does not directly support our priorities,” said a State Department spokesperson on Friday. “This effort will ensure every foreign assistance program funded by U.S. taxpayers is both effective and supports our foreign policy priorities,” added the spokesperson.   One of the programs under assessment is U.S. foreign assistance to the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The State Department said those nations are not taking concrete actions to reduce the number of illegal migrants coming to the U.S. border.  Trump had considered cutting the spending on grounds that it was wasteful and unnecessary, but retreated when it became apparent that some key lawmakers were opposed. The Trump Administration officials briefly suspended State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development spending, eyeing a budget process known as “rescission” to cut up to $4.3 billion in spending already authorized and appropriated by the …

Across the country, teachers and school districts alike are grappling with the latest political and economic realities of educator pay.    The dynamics have been complicated by both the recent national teacher protest movement that’s emboldened the workforce to demand higher salaries and better conditions, and the steadily brewing shortage of educators that’s forced many school districts to confront the money issue with more urgency. The National Education Association’s latest salary data estimates that the average public school teacher in the U.S. saw a 2% pay raise over the past two years since the national Red4Ed protest movement spread across the U.S. At the same time, the number of teacher vacancies have exceeded 100,000 jobs in the past four years, said Elaine Weiss of the Economic Policy Institute.  …

David H. Koch, executive vice president of Koch Industries Inc. and a long-time philanthropist, has died at age 79.   His older brother, Charles, announced the death on Friday, saying, “It is with a heavy heart that I now must inform you of David’s death.”   David Koch, a billionaire who lived in New York City, was the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential candidate in 1980. He was a generous donor to conservative political causes as well as educational, medical and cultural groups.   The Koch brothers were best known for a vast political network they built that became popularly known as the “Kochtopus” for its far-reaching tentacles in support of conservative causes. The brothers founded the anti-tax, small government group Americans for Prosperity.   “I was taught from a young age that involvement in the public discourse is a civic duty,” David Koch wrote in a 2012 op-ed in the New York Post. “Each of us has a right- indeed, a responsibility, at times – to make his or her views known to the larger community in order to better form it as a whole. While we may not always get what we want, the exchange of ideas betters the nation in the …

A Russian court has extended by more than two months the detention of a former U.S. Marine accused of espionage. In a closed hearing in Moscow’s Lefortovo Court Friday, the presiding judge prolonged Paul Whelan’s detention until October 29th — the latest phase in an eight-month investigation by the country’s Federal Security Services, or FSB, that appears to be grinding toward presentation of formal charges by year’s end.  “I am innocent of any charges resulting from this political kidnapping, No crime ever occurred,” said Whelan, 49, in a statement hurriedly read as police forced journalists from the courtroom following the judge’s ruling.  Accused spy and former US Marine Paul Whelan in a Moscow court today proclaiming his innocence from espionage charges. The court prolonged his detainment until October 29th pending an ongoing FSB investigation. pic.twitter.com/UmxGz6Z4io — Charles Maynes (@cwmiii3) August 23, 2019 “The latest that we’ve seen from the investigation plays into the hands of the defense,” Whelan’s Russian lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said after the ruling. “Paul’s version that this crime was merely a provocation is justified in our view. Investigators think otherwise.” If convicted, Whelan faces the possibility of 10- to 20 years in prison. Entering the courthouse in handcuffs …

This week on #VOAOurVoices, our team travels to Hampton, Virginia, for a special broadcast from Fort Monroe, the arrival site of the first African slaves in Britain’s American colonies. Africans were abducted, trafficked, and enslaved in America for more than 200 years. Many call it, “America’s original sin.” Today, there is fiery debate across the United States about reparations for the descendants of African slaves. This week, we ask, “Are slave trade reparations also due to the African countries where millions of people were taken from, in order to build America’s economy?” …

Australia and Vietnam on Friday expressed serious concern over tensions in the disputed South China Sea, where Hanoi says China’s gas survey ship has infringed on its territory and has disrupted Vietnam’s exploration activities.   Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison met in Hanoi with his counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc and both leaders called for respect of international law and freedom of navigation.   Earlier the United States said it was deeply concerned that China is continuing to interfere with Vietnam’s longstanding oil and gas activities in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. China claims the South China Sea virtually in its entirety and has deployed a survey vessel with armed escorts into waters off Vietnam, ignoring Hanoi’s calls to leave the area. “We all need to uphold) principles that relate to freedom of navigation, freedom of overfly, ensuring that nations can pursuit and develop the opportunities that exist within their EEZ and within their sea boundaries, and they can go about that business in a way that is uninhabited and supported and upheld by the regional architecture and the rule of law that support that free conduct of activities,” Morrison told reporters.   Phuc said that the countries were united in their …

A Tanzanian journalist has been arrested for “publishing false information” after broadcasting a story about police brutality, his lawyer said Friday, in the latest crackdown on free press in the country. Joseph Gandye, who works for local station Watetezi TV, was arrested Thursday in the financial capital Dar es Salaam and held in police custody overnight. His lawyer, Jones Sendodo, said Gandye was transferred to Iringa in Tanzania’s south on Friday. “He is accused of publishing false information,” Sendodo told AFP. The Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, which found Watetezi TV last year, said Gandye was arrested after airing a story on August 9 about police in Iringa forcing six young detainees to sodomise each other. His arrest comes less than a month after another Tanzanian journalist, Erick Kabendera, was detained in circumstances condemned by rights groups. Kabendera, a respected journalist and government critic, was initially questioned over his citizenship before being threatened with sedition charges. But in court these were dropped, and he was charged with organised crime and financial offences. The US and British embassies in Tanzania have formally expressed their concern over a “steady erosion of due process” in the country, underscoring Kabendera’s plight as a case …

South Korea’s decision to end a military intelligence sharing pact with Japan won’t necessarily have an immediate impact on regional security, but the move could challenge the U.S.-South Korea alliance at a particularly tense moment, analysts warn.  South Korea announced Thursday it does not plan to renew the intelligence sharing agreement, escalating Seoul’s bitter trade dispute that is rooted in historical tensions with its colonial occupier Japan. The move was a blow for the United States, which helped negotiate the deal in hopes it would allow South Korea and Japan to work more closely on challenges including North Korea, China, and Russia.  Japan and South Korea will still technically be able to share military intelligence without the agreement, signed in late 2016. But the process will be more difficult and possibly slower, with much of the intelligence now likely passing first through the United States.  That could hamper cooperation in a crisis. It could also complicate efforts to monitor North Korean provocations at a particularly tense time; North Korea has conducted eight short-range missile launches since May and has threatened to resume nuclear or long-range missile tests. But the biggest immediate impact could be how the decision affects relations between …

The three Baltic countries on Friday marked the 30th anniversary of the 1989 “Baltic Way,” a historic anti-Soviet protest that involved nearly 2 million people forming a human chain more than 600 kilometers (370 miles) long. On Aug. 23, 1989, as the Soviet Union was weakening, the gesture was a powerful expression on the part of Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians that they were not giving up on their independence even after decades of Soviet occupation. “People holding hands can be stronger than people holding guns,” said Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas in a tweet.   The celebrations come as the inhabitants of the three nations _ and many beyond _ worry about Russia’s renewed ambitions to influence the region. “We must remember the courage and dreams of the participants. But let it also be a reminder that freedom and democracy can never be taken for granted,” Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said in a statement. The Baltic News Service recalled Friday that then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Moscow “started realizing very clearly that the three Baltic nations were moving toward political independence.” The main commemorations are taking place in Vilnius, the capital of the southern-most Baltic country, and along the …

As with any war, there are winners and losers. That is also the case with the U.S.-China trade war. As the two countries battle, companies affected by high tariffs are looking to manufacture their products elsewhere, and businesses outside of the U.S. and China are seeing economic booms. Two factories in Vietnam currently make electric bicycles for Pedego, an American company based in Fountain Valley, California. Eighty percent of Pedego’s bike parts used to be from China, but not anymore. “Now, we’re probably 70% in Vietnam, and 30% in Taiwan,” said Don DiCostanzo, Pedego’s co-founder and CEO. US-China Trade War is Good News for Some Countries video player. FILE – China Shipping Company containers are stacked at the Virginia International’s terminal in Portsmouth, Va., May 10, 2019. Return manufacturing to US Manufacturing and outsourcing in a global economy is a fickle business, however. Any weather disruptions, political instability or the emergence of a cheaper competitor can cause businesses to shift to a different manufacturing hub. “Manufacturing has shown itself to be mobile in a way that we never could have imagined years ago,” Klowden said. Some companies in the U.S., such as Pedego, eventually would like to manufacture their products …

Among the more than 20 Democratic presidential hopefuls, the scramble is on to qualify for the next candidates’ debate in September. The debate is now set for Sept. 12-13 in Houston, Texas. Former Obama administration Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro got some good news this week, when he became the 10th Democrat to qualify for the debate, the third such event. Several other Democrats likely will not make the cut for the next debate, however, hampering their chances of building support in the crowded and at times chaotic primary battle. Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and former HUD Secretary Julian Castro and his son Cristian tour the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 9, 2019. Looking to surge For Castro, a whirlwind of campaigning paid off when he qualified. “I believe we can get stronger and stronger. We still have five months to go until the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary. And by that time, if we work hard, I can be a front-runner,” Castro told supporters last week in New Hampshire. He was referring to two of the state-level events that are part of the party’s delegate-selection process before its national convention in …

A team of Cameroonian entrepreneurs has created a mobile application that helps the farmers detect crop disease.  The app also proposes treatments and offers prevention measures. In Binguela, Cameroon, Anne Nzouankeu has this report narrated by Moki Edwin Kindzeka.   …

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Friday used his first statement after being released from jail to predict that opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin and protests against the authorities would only grow. Navalny, who tries to garner popular support by exposing what he says is appalling official corruption, was speaking minutes after being freed from prison where he had served 30 days for encouraging a protest calling for free elections. “Now we see that lies and fraud are not enough for them. It’s not enough for them to ban candidates from an election. They deliberately want to arrest dozens and to beat up hundreds. … This shows that there is no support for this regime. They feel this and they are afraid,” Navalny told reporters. “I have no doubt that despite genuine acts of intimidation and terror that are happening now as random people are being arrested that this wave (of protests) will increase, and this regime will seriously regret what it has done,” he said. Call for demonstrations The 43-year-old lawyer and activist was jailed last month after calling for people to demonstrate in central Moscow over the exclusion of opposition candidates from a local election in the Russian …

The continuing trade war between the U.S. and China may be causing businesses in both countries extreme anxiety, but the trade dispute is good news for businesses in other countries as many companies have or are moving their manufacturing away from China. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details on why Vietnam is attractive to one company in Southern California.   …

Italian President Sergio Mattarella agreed to a new round of consultations with party leaders Tuesday to resolve Italy’s political crisis. Speaking to reporters in Rome Thursday, two days after the collapse of the country’s populist government, the president said if no coalition wins a parliamentary approval, he could form a caretaker government or hold early elections. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Italian political leaders have started negotiations in an effort to avert a snap vote.   …

The first Official Comic Book Convention or Comic Con for short, happened in New York in 1964. Since then, the world of comic books has moved to TV, the movies, and video games, and these conventions have become huge events. We visited one to get a feel for how they work. VOA’s Dhania Iman reports.   …

China “will not sit idly by” if the U.S. proceeds with a sale of advanced F-16V fighter jets to Taiwan, a Chinese general said, while warning of other potential countermeasures in addition to punishing foreign firms involved in the deal. Beijing considered the sale a violation of previous U.S. commitments to China regarding the island it considers its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary, Maj. Gen. Chen Rongdi, chief of the Institute of War Studies at the Academy of Military Sciences, said. He did not elaborate on what additional measures China might take. “China will not sit idly by,” Chen said Thursday at a forum sponsored by China’s official journalists’ association. “Of course, we don’t rule out additional measures.” Sanction companies Beijing has repeatedly said it will levy sanctions against U.S. companies linked to a planned $8 billion sale and demanded Washington cancel it immediately. China has made such threats regarding previous arms sales by the U.S., but they’ve had limited effect because the companies involved are either important to China’s own nascent commercial aviation industry or have little or no business with the country. Most recently, China pledged sanctions against the U.S. in July when the …

Japan’s prime minister said Friday that South Korea’s decision to end a military intelligence sharing deal with Tokyo damages mutual trust. Shinzo Abe, speaking a day after Seoul announced its decision, said Tokyo “will continue to closely coordinate with the U.S. to ensure regional peace and prosperity, as well as Japan’s security.” In an escalation of its bitter dispute with Japan, South Korea decided Thursday to scrap its military intelligence sharing agreement with Tokyo, opening a new divide in trilateral security cooperation among the U.S., Japan, and South Korea. South Korea’s presidential Blue House said Thursday it is not in its national interest to continue the deal. Seoul will inform Tokyo of its decision before the Saturday deadline to renew the agreement, the South Korean statement said. FILE – Plaintiffs’ attorneys Lim Jae-sung, right, speaks as Kim Se-eun listens during a press conference in Tokyo, Dec. 4, 2018. Lawyers for South Koreans forced into wartime labor have taken legal steps to seize the South Korean assets of a Japanese company. Worsening tensions The decision will worsen tensions between South Korea and Japan, which are involved in a dispute rooted in Japan’s use of forced labor during its colonial occupation of …

TASIILAQ, GREENLAND — From a helicopter, Greenland’s brilliant white ice and dark mountains make the desolation seem to go on forever. And the few people who live here — its whole population wouldn’t fill a football stadium — are poor, with a high rate of substance abuse and suicide. One scientist called it the “end of the planet.” When U.S. President Donald Trump floated the idea of buying Greenland, it was met with derision, seen as an awkward and inappropriate approach of an erstwhile ally. Greenland Aladdin’s Cave of resources? But it might also be an Aladdin’s Cave of oil, natural gas and rare earth minerals just waiting to be tapped as the ice recedes. The northern island and the rest of the Arctic aren’t just hotter because of global warming. As melting ice opens shipping lanes and reveals incredible riches, the region is seen as a new geopolitical and economic asset, with the U.S., Russia, China and others wanting in. “An independent Greenland could, for example, offer basing rights to either Russia or China or both,” said Fen Hampson, the former head of the international security program at the Centre for International Governance Innovation think tank in Waterloo, Ontario, …

Two must-have documents for international students in the United States are a Social Security number and a driver’s license with a photograph or other state-issued photo ID.    The Social Security number is required for any student who wants to get a job in the U.S. The Social Security Administration, an independent agency of the federal government, issues a nine-digit number to each U.S. citizen, permanent resident and temporary resident, including each international student.   An international student must wait at least 10 days after arriving in the U.S. before applying for a Social Security number. This is to ensure that the person’s Form I-94, “Arrival/Departure Record,” is updated in government computers.  Necessary documents    A student must appear in person at a Social Security Administration office and bring two valid documents that prove age, identity, and U.S. citizenship or work-authorized immigration status. Those documents — which must be the originals, not photocopies — can include a valid passport as well as any immigration document, such as a Form I-551, I-766 or I-94. A foreign student who wants to drive in the U.S. must obtain a driver’s license issued by the state in which the person resides.  Most U.S. states recognize international driver’s …

President Donald Trump presented 91-year-old basketball legend Bob Cousy with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday, praising the Boston Celtics star as “one of the all-time greats in the history of sports.” Cousy played for the Celtics from 1950 to 1963, winning six league championships and the 1957 MVP title. The Bob Cousy Award, given to the country’s best point guard in men’s college basketball, is named for him. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and played a pivotal role in founding the NBA Player’s Association. After hanging up his No. 14 jersey, the 13-time NBA All-Star went on to coach basketball at Boston College. “This acknowledgment allows me to complete my life circle,” Cousy said during the Oval Office awards ceremony. “I can stop chasing a bouncing ball. The Presidential Medal of Freedom allows me to reach a level of acceptance in our society I never once ever dreamed of.” Trump spoke of Cousy’s childhood during the Great Depression and discovering his talent for basketball at a young age. The president said Cousy never forgot his first mentor’s advice to never be predictable, and jokingly added: “Hey, I’ve heard that lesson, too.” …

Construction crews broke ground Thursday on a small portion of the $664 million border fence project in the Arizona desert that is funded through President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration. Crews plan on installing 30-foot (9-meter) steel fencing to replace older barriers on 2 miles in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, next to the official border crossing known as the Lukeville Port of Entry. The project is funded through the Defense Department. Use of the department’s money was previously frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit proceeded. But the U.S. Supreme Court last month cleared the way for the use of about $2.5 billion. Campaign promise and lawsuits A border wall was a major milestone of the president’s election campaign. Congress this year allocated $1.4 billion, but the president wanted much more. He declared a national emergency in February and faced legal challenges for plans to build dozens of miles of fencing almost immediately. In Arizona, environmentalists have sued over some of the construction contracts, saying the government unlawfully waived dozens of laws to be able to build on protected lands. They say a wall, and construction for it, would be detrimental to wildlife habitat. The case before federal court …

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Thursday it would invite Boeing 737 Max pilots from across the world to participate in simulator tests as part of the process to recertify the aircraft for flight following two fatal crashes. Earlier, Reuters reported that the agency had asked the three U.S. airlines that operate the Max to provide the names of some pilots who had only flown the 737 for around a year, including at least one Max flight. In a statement, the FAA said it had not specified the number of required hours of flight experience, but said the candidates would be a cross-section of line pilots and must have experience at the controls of the Max. Boeing Co’s latest 737 narrow-body model, the Max, was grounded worldwide in March after two crashes within five months in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people. Boeing has been reprogramming software for a stall-prevention system at the center of both crashes, which the FAA must approve before the plane flies again commercially. The FAA said it has not yet specified a firm schedule for the tests.  …

Social media users are fueling a burgeoning appetite for acquiring wild otters and other endangered animals as pets, conservationists say, warning the trend could push species toward extinction. Popular Instagrammers posting selfies with their pet otter may simply be seeking to warm the hearts of their sometimes hundreds of thousands of followers, but animal protection groups say the trend is posing an existential threat to the silky mammal. “The illegal trade in otters has suddenly increased exponentially,” Nicole Duplaix, who co-chairs the Otter Specialist Group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, told AFP. An Asian small-clawed otter, the smallest otter species in the world, feeds on fish in its enclosure at the Singapore Zoo, Jan. 11, 2018, in Singapore. All Asian otter species have long been listed as vulnerable or endangered after facing decades of shrinking habitats and illegal trade in their pelts. But conservationists say the recent surge in social media hype around the creatures has sparked such a frenzied demand for baby otters in Asian countries, Japan in particular, that it could drive entire species toward extinction. Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), currently in Geneva to evaluate and fine-tune the …