Lebanon’s only English-language daily protested the country’s deteriorating economic and political conditions by publishing a blank edition Thursday, calling it an “alarm bell.”    Each page of The Daily Star’s Thursday edition bore a single phrase referring to one of the country’s problems, including government deadlock, rising public debt, increasing sectarian rhetoric and unemployment. The back page had a photo of a cedar tree, a national symbol, with a caption reading: “Wake up before it’s too late!” “We are sounding the alarm bell over the many challenges the country is facing,” the paper’s editor-in-chief Nadim Ladki told The Associated Press. “It’s a call on everyone — politicians, activists, ordinary people — to pull together in the same direction to resolve the crises and challenges.” Lebanon has been in the grip of an economic crisis for months, and the government has not met since a June 30 shooting in a mountain village that escalated tensions between the Christian and Druze communities. A man looks through a copy of the Lebanese local English-language newspaper, The Daily Star, in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 8, 2019. Rival groups in the Cabinet have been divided on how to proceed with the investigation of the shooting, which …

Most people in Guatemalan farming towns like San Martin Jilotepeque have a relative or two living in the United States, giving them sympathy for the plight of migrants. But they now find themselves fearing an influx of Salvadoran or Honduran migrants after their government signed a “third safe country” agreement with Washington. Such migration fears, poverty and corruption provide the backdrop to Guatemala’s presidential runoff vote Sunday, which is generating little enthusiasm among a population embittered after witnessing a succession of presidents accused of graft and other crimes, and the expulsion of a U.N. commission that was fighting the impunity. “I no longer believe them,” grumbled Efrain Morales, 49, as he listened to final campaign pitches from the two candidates: former first lady Sandra Torres and Alejandro Giammattei, the top vote-getters in the first round election June 16. Recent polls show the conservative Giammattei with a modest lead in a race between two unpopular candidates. Giammattei received only 14 percent support while the center-left Torres received about 26 percent in a first round of voting with 19 candidates. Election authorities had barred some of the more popular candidates from running. “In my town people are migrating. The young people are …

More than 200 U.S. mayors demanded Thursday that the Senate return from its summer recess to approve gun control legislation in the aftermath of two mass shootings last weekend that killed 31 people in Texas and Ohio. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, representing 214 cities with both Republican and Democratic leaders, told Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer that it was urgent for the Senate to approve the measures already passed by the House of Representatives in February. That legislation calls for background checks for all gun purchasers and would extend the waiting period for gun transactions from three to 10 days when instant checks raise questions about would-be buyers. Schumer has also urged Senate approval, but McConnell has blocked a vote because he opposes the measures. “Already in 2019, there have been over 250 mass shootings,” the mayors said in a letter to the lawmakers. They said the “tragic events” in the U.S.-Mexican border city of El Paso, Texas, and Midwest city of Dayton, Ohio, “are just the latest reminders that our nation can no longer wait for our federal government to take the actions necessary to prevent people who should not have access …

The chief facilitator of negotiations between Venezuela’s socialist administration and opposition has downplayed the decision by President Nicolas Maduro to skip a scheduled round of talks. Dag Nylander of Norway’s Foreign Affairs Ministry told The Associated Press on Thursday that he’s in contact with both sides about finding a date for talks to resume. Maduro on Wednesday night said he had decided not to send envoys to the Caribbean island of Barbados, where talks were to resume Thursday. That was to protest the Trump administration’s decision to freeze the Venezuelan government’s assets in the U.S. Maduro’s government also said it would review the mechanism of the talks to ensure it contributes to an efficient solution to the problems Venezuelans face. “I take note that this week’s scheduled meetings in Barbados will not take place,” said Nylander, the head of the peace and reconciliation office at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. “Norway is facilitating the negotiation process at the request of the principal political actors in Venezuela and schedules all meetings based on the availability of the parties. Accordingly we are in touch with them regarding the next meetings.” “The facilitation continues under the principle that the parties would like it to, …

China on Thursday denounced rules unveiled by the U.S. that ban technology giant Huawei and other Chinese firms from government contracts as “abuse of state power” in the latest move in the escalating China-U.S. trade war. The interim rule, which will preclude any U.S. federal agency from purchasing telecom or technology equipment from the firms, is part of a sweeping effort by Washington to restrict Huawei, which officials claim is linked to Chinese intelligence. “The abuse of state power by the United States to unscrupulously and deliberately throw mud at and suppress specific Chinese enterprises seriously undermines the image of the United States and its own interests,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying. “We firmly support the relevant Chinese companies in taking up legal weapons to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests,” she said in an online statement. The ban on Chinese tech firms comes amid a heated dispute between the two economic powers over international trade rules. Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese imports and formally branded Beijing as a currency manipulator on Monday, in response to a drop in value of the yuan. Huawei also faces moves from …

Hundreds of Beatles fans came together outside London’s Abbey Road Studios on Thursday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band making one of the most iconic album covers of all time. Fans mobbed the pedestrian crossing exactly five decades on from the moment when Britain’s legendary Fab Four walked across for the photo that was used on the sleeve of their final studio album, “Abbey Road”. The shot of John Lennon leading band mates Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison over the zebra crossing is instantly recognised all over the world. Beatles tribute band Fab Gear pulled up in a psychedelic Rolls-Royce and recreated the moment, as fans halted the traffic. Mary Anne Laffin, 66, flew in from New York to be at what she called a “holy shrine”. As a youngster, she ran on the pitch when The Beatles played at New York’s Shea Stadium in 1966. “I was 12 years old, saved up $5.50 to get a ticket and it was like being in heaven for 38 minutes,” the midwife said. “I was overcome, climbed over all the seats and ran, trying to get to the stage. I got carted off by the police.” She added: …

Explore VOA’s special report on the 400th anniversary of the start of slavery in America by visiting: https://www.voanews.com/africa-america …

Saudi Arabia will relax its bug-damage specifications for wheat imports from its next tender onwards, it told Reuters on Thursday, opening the door to Black Sea imports and strengthening ties with Russia beyond energy cooperation. Russia has long sought access to Saudi Arabia’s wheat market as Moscow tries to take further market share in Middle Eastern and North African wheat markets from the European Union and United States. Wheat from the Black Sea did not previously meet Saudi specifications for zero-pest damage, but the governor of state grain buyer SAGO, Ahmad al-Fares, told Reuters that the specifications will be relaxed to 0.5% from the next tender. Saudi Arabia had been one of the last Middle East markets not dominated by Black Sea wheat and Euronext wheat futures fell in opening trade after the news, but later steadied as Chicago prices turned higher. The change has wider implications as Riyadh, which regards the United States as its most important ally, moves closer to Moscow, with Russian President Vladimir Putin due to visit Saudi Arabia in October. Cooperation has been boosted by recent OPEC and non-OPEC oil output deals, which have become an additional stimulus for wheat talks, a Russian official, who …

A 92-year old German man will go on trial in October charged with helping to murder 5,230 prisoners, many of them Jewish, at a Nazi death camp in World War II, prosecutors said on Thursday. In what will be one of the last cases against Nazi-era crimes, Bruno D. is accused of being an SS guard in the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk, in what is today Poland, and of being involved in killings between August 1944 and April 1945. The suspect has made a partial confession, said a spokeswoman for the Hamburg prosecutors, but gave no further details. Under German rules for court cases, the suspect’s full name is not published. Die Welt daily reported he had acknowledged his presence at the camp and said he knew that people were pushed into gas chambers and that he had seen bodies being burned in the crematorium. However, he argued this did not amount to guilt. “What use would it have been if I had left, they would have found someone else?” Die Welt newspaper quoted him as saying. About 65,000 people, including many Jews, were murdered or died at Stutthof, according to the museum’s website. Prosecutors argue that many were …

On the ground, climate change is hitting us where it counts: the stomach — not to mention the forests, plants and animals. A new United Nations scientific report examines how global warming and land interact in a vicious cycle. Human-caused climate change is dramatically degrading the land, while the way people use the land is making global warming worse. Thursday’s science-laden report says the combination is making food more expensive, scarcer and even less nutritious. “The cycle is accelerating,” said NASA climate scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig, a report co-author. “The threat of climate change affecting people’s food on their dinner table is increasing.” But if people change the way they eat, grow food and manage forests, it could help save the planet from a far warmer future, scientists said. FILE – The sun sets in Cuggiono near Milan, Italy, July 25, 2019. A new U.N. report on warming and land use says climate change is hitting us where it counts: the stomach. Land warming faster Earth’s land masses, which are only 30% of the globe, are warming twice as fast as the planet as a whole. While heat-trapping gases are causing problems in the atmosphere, the land has been less talked …

The militiamen pointed out across the hills, a landscape of nothing but stone and brush in southern Yemen. Over there, invisible, were the closest positions of the Houthi rebels, they said. Beyond that loomed Nasah Mountain, a peak topped with a fortresslike crag from which the rebels can shell across the area. They do so every night. Once darkness falls, the hills shake as the militiamen and the rebels exchange rounds of mortars and machinegun fire. Sometimes the militiamen let loose with their tank, dug in at the rear of their position. It has been this way for months, with neither side advancing but with a constant drain of bloodshed. “Where you’re standing right there, me and my colleague were talking and in two seconds, his body was torn to pieces,” one militia commander, Col. Taha Saeed, told The Associated Press during a rare visit to the front lines this week. Fighters from a militia known as the Security Belt, funded and armed by the United Arab Emirates, take a break, Aug. 5, 2019, to chew Qat for its stimulating effects, at the Gabhet Hajr frontline with Houthi rebels, in Yemen’s Dhale province. Locked in a stalemate Yemen’s civil war, …

The body of an Israeli soldier was found with stab wounds near a West Bank settlement south of Jerusalem early Thursday, the military said. According to an army statement, Israeli troops and police officers were searching the area near the Etzion settlement bloc where the body was found in the “early morning hours.” Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said that the soldier was a student in a pre-military Jewish seminary program and was neither armed nor in uniform. He said the military was investigating the circumstances of his death. The soldier was later identified as 19-year-old Dvir Sorek, from the West Bank settlement of Ofra. His remains were found near the military seminary where he studied in the West Bank. FILE – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, July 14, 2019. Army pursuing suspects Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying that security forces were “in pursuit now in order to capture the despicable terrorist and bring him to account.” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin offered his condolences and said the security forces were “pursuing the murderers and will not rest until we find them.” “Our prayers this morning are with the …

Japan said Thursday it has granted the first permit for a South Korea-bound shipment of chemicals for use in high-tech materials under Tokyo’s new export requirement that has increased tensions with Seoul. Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko made a rare announcement of such approval, saying that officials determined the transaction raised no security concerns. The move is apparently meant to calm South Korean anger over Tokyo’s export curbs and show there is no trade ban in place. Trade controls Japan imposed stricter controls on three key materials — fluorinated polyimides, photo resists and hydrogen fluoride — that are used mainly for South Korea’s semiconductor industry as of July 4. The rules also downgrade South Korea’s trade status beginning later this month. Japanese chemical manufacturers have expressed concerns that case-by-case inspections may prolong approval process and may hold up production lines for their customers. The first approval came after about a month, much faster than the standard 90 days. “The permit merely demonstrates that export licensing by the Japanese government is not arbitrary, and is granted to any legitimate transactions that pass strict inspections,” Seko told reporters. “The step we took recently is not an export ban.” Moon cautious South Korean President …

The popular image of ambassadors as stuffy dignitaries in striped pants is giving way in Washington to a more upbeat vision, if the city’s Scandinavian envoys have anything to say about it. At a cheery event a little earlier this summer, jazz artists from Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland gathered in the garden of the Danish ambassador’s residence to participate in what is becoming one of the city’s summer rituals, the annual Nordic Jazz Festival, now in its 13th year. “For Denmark, the relationship with American jazz goes all the way back to the early 1960s, when some of the world’s most iconic jazz artists found refuge in Denmark,” said Lone D. Wisborg, ambassador of Denmark to the United States. A Norwegian band performs on stage at the 2019 Nordic Jazz Festival at the Danish Embassy. (VOA/N. Liu) Wisborg said that for decades, American artists including Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and Ben Webster played highly successful roles as cultural ambassadors to Denmark, inspiring local performers and transforming “the sound of Danish Jazz” in the process. “Diplomacy isn’t just about politics and economy,” Wisborg told VOA. “Some relations don’t need words.” Finland, another Nordic country, hosted its own Nordic jazz …

As Americans reflect on two mass shootings that claimed 31 lives last weekend, they’re asking how to stop the carnage. Researchers at a Los Angeles center devoted to tolerance say part of the answer lies in ending hate online. Political leaders and social media companies, they add, must help to tone down the hateful rhetoric. Rick Eaton, senior researcher at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, studies online hate. He points to an internet game that encourages players to shoot people crossing the border. Another site created with the popular gaming site Minecraft shows an animated crematorium for Jews. On a third blogging site called Gab, some users applaud hate crimes. Researchers Call for Action to Stem Online Hate video player. FILE – A person pauses in front of Stars of David with the names of those killed in a deadly shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Oct. 29, 2018. Victims of intolerance The center’s Museum of Tolerance, which tells the story of the Holocaust and other genocides, highlights the faces of victims of atrocities, including survivors of shootings at a Sikh temple and a Jewish school. Mass killers today are often inspired by …

As Americans reflect on two mass shootings last weekend that claimed 31 lives, they’re asking how to stop the carnage. Researchers at a Los Angeles center devoted to tolerance say part of the answer is ending online hate. They say political leaders and social media companies must also help to tone down the rhetoric. Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles.   …

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman has stepped down after two years in his post as the top U.S. envoy to Moscow, calling it a “historically difficult period in bilateral relations.” VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine looks at what his departure might mean for U.S.-Russia relations. …

Russia’s population is expected to decline sharply in the next few decades, something that will greatly affect its economy and Moscow’s ability to project power abroad. Emigration of young, educated professionals is one of main causes. A Gallup poll this year found one-fifth of Russians would leave the country if they could, a three-fold increase from five years ago. VOA’s Igor Tsikhanenka traveled to Perm, known as Russia’s last city in Europe because of its location at the Ural mountains.   …

Medical experts in Kenya are banking on human breast milk to save the lives of newborn babies.  Nairobi’s Pumwani Maternity Hospital has set up East Africa’s first breastmilk bank, the second in Africa, to provide donated milk to babies in need. As Sarah Kimani reports from Nairobi, the milk bank appears to be having an impact.   …

Canadian police said Wednesday they believe two fugitives suspected of killing a North Carolina woman and her Australian boyfriend as well as another man have been found dead in dense brush in northern Manitoba. Authorities located two male bodies and are confident they are 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy. She said an autopsy will confirm their identities and causes of death. Critical evidence found last week when police discovered items directly linked to the suspects on the shoreline of the Nelson River helped locate the bodies, MacLatchy said. Following that discovery, authorities were able to narrow down the search. Police sent in specialized teams and began searching high-probability areas. On Wednesday morning, police located the two bodies within 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from where the items were found and approximately 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) from where they left a burnt-out vehicle on July 22. “We are confident that these are the bodies of the two suspects wanted in connection with the homicides in British Columbia,” MacLatchy said. McLeod and Schmegelsky were charged with second-degree murder in the death of Leonard Dyck, a University of British Columbia lecturer whose body …

The first step in a sweeping crackdown on crime ranging from drugs to sex trafficking in a notorious San Francisco neighborhood yielded 32 arrests of mostly Honduran nationals tied to two international operations that poured heroin and cocaine into the community, U.S. prosecutors announced Wednesday. It’s not uncommon to see people shooting up or snorting powder in the Tenderloin neighborhood, which contains City Hall, several federal buildings, a large population of homeless and is just minutes from tourist-heavy Union Square. The neighborhood has long been a public safety problem in a city famous for its permissiveness, and leaders are divided on how to address the drug epidemic. Public safety initiative But in his first news conference since being appointed by President Donald Trump in January, U.S. Attorney David Anderson said he could no longer stand by as tourists, government workers and residents wade through a daily slog of crime. He said an enforcement initiative by more than 15 federal agencies would not affect “innocent,” homeless people or drug users but would tackle high-level drug dealing, fraud, identity theft and firearms. “My belief is that the Tenderloin, in fairness, deserves the rule of law every bit as much as other fine neighborhoods …

The grieving father of Yingying Zhang, the Chinese scholar murdered near the University of Illinois, says he realizes he may never recover his daughter’s body for burial. “There is nothing we want more than to find our daughter and bring her home,” Ronggao Zhang said through an interpreter in Urbana, Illinois, Wednesday. “We understand that may be impossible.” Zhang’s killer, Brendt Christensen, is serving life in prison with no chance of parole. After months of the Zhang family begging him to reveal where her body is, Christensen told his lawyers what he did with her remains after he raped, stabbed, beat and dismembered her. Christensen claims he put Zhang’s clothes, cellphone, books and body parts in three bags and then threw them into garbage dumpsters around Champaign, Illinois, where the university is located. Authorities say the contents of the dumpsters were emptied into garbage trucks, crushed and buried in a private landfill, where they are thought to be under 9 meters of trash. Zhang family attorneys said it would be complicated and nearly impossible to search the landfill. They also say if anything is left of Zhang, the remains would be very small and have likely decomposed. The lawyers said …

Expanding access to a promising but costly treatment, Medicare said Wednesday that it would cover for some blood cancers a breakthrough gene therapy that revs up a patient’s own immune cells to destroy malignancies.  Officials said Medicare would cover CAR-T cell therapies for certain types of lymphoma and leukemia, uses that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The cost can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient, not counting hospitalization and other expenses. Medicare Administrator Seema Verma said the decision would provide consistent and predictable access nationwide, opening up treatment options for some patients “who had nowhere else to turn.” Turbocharge, reprogram cells  CAR-T uses gene therapy techniques to turbocharge the patient’s own immune system cells, reprogramming them to harbor a “receptor” that zeroes in on cancer, and then to grow hundreds of millions of copies. The revved-up immune cells are returned to the patient’s bloodstream and can continue to fight cancer for months or years. Although side effects can be severe, studies have shown the treatment to be highly effective against certain types of cancers. Researchers are working to add more types to that list. Medicare has been weighing the decision for months. The program often sets the …

Samsung unveiled a new version of the Galaxy Note smartphone on Wednesday with fast 5G network connection and improved camera features, hoping the premium model helps it revive slumping profit and widen the gap with struggling rival Huawei. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has emerged as the biggest beneficiary  of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.’s trouble in the second quarter with a nearly 7% jump in smartphone sales, as the Chinese firm sold fewer phones in the global market after it was put on a U.S. trade blacklist in May. With emphasis on improved video and photography features, which helped Huawei become the world’s No. 2 smartphone vendor, Samsung hopes the Galaxy Note 10 will appeal to YouTubers and fans of social media. Along with its first foldable phone, the big-screen Note 10, unveiled at an event in New York on Wednesday, is the South Korean tech firm’s most important new product planned in the second half of this year to expand its mobile sales. With two screen sizes of 6.3 inches and 6.8 inches, the Note 10 boasts enhanced video effects such as augmented reality and stabilization modes, and a front-facing camera centrally located at the top of the display for …