Indonesia’s president said in an interview that he wants to see the speedy construction of a giant sea wall around Jakarta to prevent the low-lying capital from sinking under the sea, lending renewed backing and a sense of urgency to a slow-moving and politically contested mega project.  President Joko Widodo and his government are up against a tight timetable, including a forecast by experts that at the current rate, one-third of Jakarta could be submerged by 2050. The existential crisis facing the city is the culmination of decades of unfettered development, almost nonexistent urban planning and misrule by city politicians who have served private interests over those of the public.  City sinking Lacking a comprehensive piped water network, industry and homeowners have tapped into the city’s aquifers, causing rapid subsidence in northern Jakarta, home to several million people.  In this area, the swampy ground has been sinking at an average of about 10 centimeters (4 inches) a year. Rising sea levels from a heated-up planet will compound the problem in decades to come. Indonesian President Joko Widodo smiles as he talks to The Associated Press during his visit at the newly revitalized 18th century Kali Besar Canal at the Old …

As Europe’s record-breaking heat wave drifts toward the Arctic, it threatens to accelerate the melting of ice in Greenland, which already started earlier than normal this year, climate scientists warned Saturday. After breaking records over Europe, the heat wave has swept over Scandinavia and is predicted to move toward Greenland, according to the World Meteorological Organization. “As it is forecast to move over the Arctic it will potentially bring a large amount of energy that will melt ice, both sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and the ice sheet surface over the next 3 to 5 days,” Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist with the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), told AFP. Early, warm melting season That heat will add to a summer where the melting season started early and “persistent warm conditions have led to a very large loss of ice.” According to DMI’s models an estimated 170 metric gigatons of water have been added to the world’s oceans from melted ice and snow between July 1 to July 26. 100 metric gigatons contribute to about 0.28 millimeters (0.01 inches) of global sea level rise. The expected average would be about 60 to 80 metric gigatons of ice over the same …

France wants to reach a deal with the U.S. on taxing tech giants by a Group of 7 meeting in late August, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said Saturday. He was responding to U.S. President Donald Trump, who on Friday vowed “substantial” retaliation against France for a law passed this month on taxing digital companies even if their headquarters are elsewhere. The law would affect U.S.-based global giants like Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, among others. Trump denounced French President Emmanuel Macron’s “foolishness,” though they discussed the issue by phone Friday, according to the White House. Macron confirmed that he had a long conversation with Trump, stressing the pair would “continue to work together in view of the G-7.” “We will discuss international taxation, trade and collective security,” he said Saturday. FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron speaks with US President Donald Trump at the G-20 Summit in Osaka, June 28, 2019. On Friday, Trump Macron of “foolishness” over a move to tax global tech giants, promising substantial retaliation. US companies not the target His office earlier said Macron had told Trump that the tax on the tech giants was not just in France’s interest but was something they both …

Residents signing up for food stamps in Minnesota are provided a brochure about domestic violence, but it doesn’t matter if they read it. The fact it was made available could allow them to qualify for government food aid if their earnings or savings exceed federal limits.    As odd as that might sound, it’s not unusual.     Thirty-eight other states also have gotten around federal income or asset limits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by using federal welfare grants to produce materials informing food stamp applicants about other available social services. Illinois, for example, produced a flyer briefly listing 21 services, a website and email address, and a telephone number for more information.     Former President Barack Obama’s administration encouraged the tactic as a way for states to route federal food aid to households that might not otherwise qualify under a strict enforcement of federal guidelines. Now President Donald Trump’s administration is proposing to end the practice — potentially eliminating food stamps for more than 3 million of the nation’s 36 million recipients.   Ideological clash   The proposed rule change, outlined this past week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has highlighted the ideological clash between Trump’s attempts to …

KUTUPALONG, BANGLADESH — A top-level Myanmar government delegation began repatriation talks with Rohingya leaders in a Bangladesh refugee camp on Saturday, an official said, with many of the Muslim minority fearing for their safety if they return home.    Some 740,000 Rohingya fled a 2017 crackdown by Myanmar’s military and are living in squalid conditions in camps in Bangladesh’s southeastern border district of Cox’s Bazar.    The two countries signed a repatriation deal in November 2017 but so far virtually no Rohingya have volunteered to go back to Myanmar, where the group has faced decades of repression.    The Myanmar team, led by permanent foreign secretary U Myint Thu, arrived in Cox’s Bazar on Saturday amid tightened security in the camps.  ‘Seemed positive’   The delegation visited Kutupalong — the world’s largest refugee settlement — where they discussed repatriation with Rohingya community leaders over several hours, said Bangladesh refugee commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam.    “Both parties seemed positive about it and the discussion will continue [Sunday],” he told AFP.    One of the Rohingya leaders who joined the talks, Dil Mohammad, said they “went well” as he reiterated demands for Myanmar to recognize Rohingya as an ethnic group.    “We hope this discussion …

MAKINDYE-LUKULI, UGANDA  — The darkening clouds are ominous for many in this urban neighborhood, promising rushing rainwaters stinking of human waste from overflowing septic tanks.    As Africa faces a population boom unmatched anywhere else in the world, millions of people are moving to fast-growing cities while decades-old public facilities crumble under the pressure.      Sewage is a scourge for residents of this community on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital, Kampala. There are no public toilets for 1,200 people. Mud tinged with feces washes into homes during heavy rains.    The sanitation crisis echoes that of cities across the developing world. Some 2.5 billion people, most of them in Africa or Asia, lack access to adequate toilets, U.N. figures show. Governments are increasingly depending on private businesses and philanthropic groups to help manage human waste in cities that were never planned to handle so many people.      One of the fastest-growing cities in the world, Kampala is home to at least 1.5 million people, but authorities say over 3 million pass through daily, usually for work. Yet there are fewer than 800 pay toilets and only 14 free ones, many of them dilapidated with walls often smeared with feces.     Kampala Capital City …

GUATEMALA CITY — A migration pact with the United States drew sharply mixed reactions in Guatemala on Saturday, as business groups welcomed it for helping avoid U.S. punitive measures while rights groups called it “cruel and illegal.”    U.S. President Donald Trump, who has pushed hard to slow the flow of migrants, said Friday that the “safe third country asylum” agreement would require would-be asylum seekers traveling through Guatemala to seek refuge there, not in the United States. Anyone failing to do so would be sent back to Guatemala.    Most of those migrants would be coming from El Salvador or Honduras.     The pact was signed in Washington on Friday by Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security, and Guatemala’s interior secretary, Enrique Degenhart.     Guatemalan human rights ombudsman Jordan Rodas has questioned its legality, saying his country’s constitution does not authorize a minister to sign such an agreement. He urged Congress to study it carefully.    Rights group Amnesty International called the agreement “outrageous,” saying that “there is no doubt that Guatemala should not be considered a safe place of refuge.”     A “safe third” agreement could be legal only if would-be asylum seekers were sent to a truly …

Amid the bombed-out wreckage of a site that once hosted dozens of Mosul’s traditional maqam players, Iraqi musician Saad Rajab Bacha plays his ney flute to remember the city’s glorious days before it came under the control of Islamic State (IS). WATCH: Iraqi Musician Returns to Ruined ‘Maqam House’ in Mosul Mosul_Ruins video player. Embed

It was the morning after Honduran national Marvin Rivera-Martinez was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in front of his wife and U.S.-born 7-month-old child. Nervous and rattled, members of his family gathered in the living room around a wicker patio couch, with a community organizer who was on the phone with Saint Tammany Parish Jail, where Rivera-Martinez was temporarily being held. Rachel Taber, an organizer with the Congress of Day Laborers at the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, relayed yet another round of unwelcome news. Visitation hours, Taber told Rivera-Martinez’s wife and her parents, were only on Tuesdays. It was already Wednesday, and by the following week, Rivera-Martinez would be transferred to Pine Prairie, an ICE processing center about 300 kilometers (186 miles) away from their home in Chalmette, Louisiana. Shielding her face, unsure of when she would be able to see her husband again, the detained immigrant’s wife, Shelsea, began to weep as her mother, Nolvia, clenched the infant’s stroller, staring into an empty corner. “Lord, help us,” Nolvia said. Nolvia attempted to reassure her distraught daughter as best she could. “He’s not alone,” she said. “There are other migrants there.” Marvin Rivera-Martinez …

ABUJA, NIGERIA – A Nigerian court has granted the government permission to label a local Shiite Muslim group a terrorist organization, the solicitor general told Reuters on Saturday.  Members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) have been marching in Abuja, calling for the release of their leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky, who has been in detention since 2015 despite a court order to release him.  The protests have often turned violent. An IMN spokesman said at least 20 of the group’s members were killed this week during demonstrations.  Dayo Apata, Nigeria’s solicitor general, confirmed in a mobile text message that a federal court in Abuja had granted the government permission to proscribe the IMN, a move offering the authorities the chance to clamp down harder on the group.  An IMN spokesman said that the group had not received any formal notice and that marches would continue.  Zakzaky’s office said plans to ban the movement had been considered since 2015 and it was not surprised by the move.  A court in Kaduna state is set to decide on Zakzaky’s bail application Monday. The Shiite group can appeal the order.  …

Life is a constant struggle for hundreds of residents in Mosul, Iraq, who were impaired during the Iraqi war to remove the Islamic State (IS) from the city. Kawa Omar reports for VOA.   …

President Donald Trump listened to Robert Mueller testify to Congress this past week, then misrepresented what the former special counsel said. Some partisans on both sides did much the same, whether to defend or condemn the president. Trump seized on Mueller’s testimony to claim anew that he was exonerated by the Russia investigation, which the president wasn’t. He capped the week by wishing aloud that President Barack Obama had received some of the congressional scrutiny he’s endured, ignoring the boatload of investigations, subpoenas and insults visited on the Democrat and his team. Highlights from a week in review: THE GENTLEMEN TRUMP on Democrats: “All they want to do is impede, they want to investigate. They want to go fishing. … We want to find out what happened with the last Democrat president. Let’s look into Obama the way they’ve looked at me. Let’s subpoena all of the records having to do with Hillary Clinton and all of the nonsense that went on with Clinton and her foundation and everything else. Could do that all day long. Frankly, the Republicans were gentlemen and women when we had the majority in the House. They didn’t do subpoenas all day long. They didn’t …

President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran is at a crossroads. His administration is trying to decide whether to risk stoking international tensions even more by ending one of the last remaining components of the 2015 nuclear deal. The U.S. faces a Thursday deadline to decide whether to extend or cancel sanctions waivers to foreign companies working on Iran’s civilian nuclear program as permitted under the deal. Ending the waivers would be the next logical step in the campaign and it’s a move favored by Trump’s allies in Congress who endorse a tough approach to Iran. But it also would escalate tensions with Iran and with some European allies, and two officials say a divided administration is likely to keep the waivers afloat with temporary extensions. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The mere fact that the administration is divided on the issue — it’s already postponed an announcement twice, according to the officials — is the latest in a series of confusing signals that Trump has sent over Iran, causing confusion among supporters and critics of the president about just what he hopes to achieve in the standoff with the Islamic Republic. Some …

The U.S. Marshals Service, which has custody of the North Korean-owned ship Wise Honest, is reviewing how to sell the seized vessel as ordered by a federal court that has yet to decide officially if the Otto Warmbier family will receive the sale proceeds. “The Marshals are in the process of developing a disposal plan, taking into consideration things such as age, condition, and location of the vessel,” said a spokesperson for the The North Korean cargo ship, Wise Honest, middle, was towed into the Port of Pago Pago, May 11, 2019, in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Warmbiers file claim, lawsuit On July 3, Frederick and Cynthia Warmbier filed a claim in the SDNY against the North Korean flagged vessel. The U.S. seized the ship in May for ship-to-ship transfers of banned North Korean coal, an apparent violation of U.S. and U.N. sanctions.  The claim was their attempt to obtain the North Korean government asset as a way to pay part of the $500 million judgment the federal court in the District of Columbia ordered against North Korea in December. In April 2018, the Wise Honest left the North Korean port of Nampo, carrying 26,500 metric tons of North Korean …

Armed men described as jihadists raided a village in Burkina Faso’s restive north, killing 15 people, plundering and burning shops and motorbikes,  a regional governor said Saturday. The raid took place on the night of Thursday to Friday with “around 20 individuals attacking the village of Diblou,” said a security source who put the death toll at 14. But a statement by the governor of the Centre-Nord region, Casimir Segueda, said that 15 people were killed, and the village’s market torched. A local resident said that “the terrorists burnt shops and motorcycles”. “Almost the entire market was looted,” the resident added. The poor Sahel state has been battling a rising wave of jihadist attacks over the last four years which began in the north but have since spread to the east, near the border with Togo and Benin. Most attacks in the former French colony are attributed to the jihadist group Ansarul Islam, which emerged near the Mali border in December 2016, and to the JNIM (Group to Support Islam and Muslims), which has sworn allegiance to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Those groups are believed to be responsible for around 500 deaths since 2015. The capital Ouagadougou has been …

When much of Venezuela was plunged into darkness after a massive blackout this week, President Nicolás Maduro blamed the power outage on an “electromagnetic attack” carried out by the U.S. The claim was met with skepticism. Blackouts are a regrettably frequent part of life in Venezuela, where the electric grid has fallen into serious disrepair. And Maduro’s administration provided no evidence of an electromagnetic attack. “In Venezuela, it’s a lot easier for him to say we did something to him than he did it to himself,” said Sharon Burke, senior adviser at New America, a nonpartisan think tank, and former assistant secretary of defense for operational energy at the Department of Defense. “Their grid, it’s decrepit. It’s been in very poor shape. They’ve been starving their infrastructure for years.” Nevertheless, Maduro’s claim has raised questions over what exactly is an electromagnetic attack, how likely is it to occur and what impact could it have. WHAT IS AN ELECTROMAGNETIC ATTACK? The phrase “electromagnetic attack” can refer to different things, but in this context most likely refers to a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse generated when a nuclear weapon is detonated in space, about 30 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. Once the weapon is …

The American Indian tribe at the center of tumultuous protests against the Dakota Access pipeline unveiled a solar farm Friday that came about partly due to the tribe’s fierce opposition to the oil pipeline’s environmental impact. Located just 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the pipeline, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s solar project is meant as a first step toward clean energy independence and a way to power all 12 of the reservation communities in North Dakota and South Dakota. It also shows that the protests that began in 2016 and ended in 2017 weren’t for naught, even though the pipeline began carrying oil more than two years ago, said Cody Two Bears, the project leader and executive director of Indigenized Energy, which promotes energy within the Sioux Nation. Two Bears said the solar project “pays tribute to everyone who’s come to Standing Rock and all their hard work and tireless dedication toward protecting our people and land.” The project has 1,000 panels covering about three acres of wide-open prairie near Cannon Ball, with plans to expand to 10 acres. A night of Native American dancing, music indigenous foods and gift giving was kicked off by actress Shailene Woodley, a loyal …

Rescuers in India on Saturday safely evacuated all 700 passengers from a train after it got stuck in monsoon floodwaters between two stations near Mumbai, the country’s home minister said.   A statement by India’s disaster management office in Maharashtra state said the Mahalaxmi Express train got stuck due to flooding of the tracks.   Home Minister Amit Shah said on Twitter that all of the passengers had been rescued safely.   The National Disaster Response Force and the navy earlier launched a rescue operation after authorities warned passengers not to move. The first group of 150 passengers was rescued after the train had been stranded for nine hours in the area, which is about 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Mumbai.   The train had departed from Mumbai around 8:15 p.m. Friday before it got stuck at 3 a.m. Saturday. …

Pakistan’s military says militant attacks in the country’s northwest and southwest have killed 10 soldiers. The military says both attacks took place on Saturday. The first attack targeted a military patrol near a security post in the Gurbaz area of North Waziristan. It says the shooting came from across the Afghan border and left six soldiers dead. The second attack, during a search operation, killed four troops from the paramilitary Frontier Corps near Turbat in southwestern Baluchistan province. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the North Waziristan attack, a region that still sees attacks though the military says it’s cleared tribal areas of militants. There was no claim for the Baluchistan attack. The province has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baluch separatists. Islamic militants also operate there. …

The head of a Sudanese investigative committee said on Saturday that 87 people were killed and 168 wounded on June 3 when a sit-in protest was violently broken up by security forces. Fath al-Rahman Saeed, the head of the committee, said 17 of those killed were in the square occupied by protesters and 48 of the wounded were hit by bullets. Saeed said some security forces fired at protesters and that three officers violated orders by moving forces into the sit-in. He also said an order was issued to whip protesters. …

Georgia allowed its election system to grow “way too old and archaic” and now has a deep hole to dig out of to ensure that the constitutional right to vote is protected, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg said Friday. Now Totenberg is in the difficult position of having to decide whether the state, which plans to implement a new voting system statewide next year, must immediately abandon its outdated voting machines in favor of an interim solution for special and municipal elections to be held this fall. Election integrity advocates and individual voters sued Georgia in 2017 alleging that the touchscreen voting machines the state has used since 2002 are unsecure and vulnerable to hacking. They’ve asked Totenberg to order the state to immediately switch to hand-marked paper ballots. But lawyers for Fulton County, the state’s most populous county that includes most of Atlanta, and for state election officials argued that the state is in the process of implementing a new system, and it would be too costly, burdensome and chaotic to use an interim system for elections this fall and then switch to the new permanent system next year. A law passed this year and signed by Gov. Brian …

Updated 6:14 a.m., July 27, 2019 HONG KONG — Police in riot gear fired tear gas Saturday at Hong Kong protesters marching through a town near the Chinese border to rally against suspected gangs who beat up pro-democracy demonstrators there last weekend. Images broadcast on television stations showed repeated rounds of tear gas being fired at the crowds in Yuen Long after tense standoffs with protesters, some of whom were throwing projectiles at police. Protesters vowed to take to the streets in Yuen Long despite the threat of violence by gangs and a police ban on the demonstration. Police had warned that demonstrators would be breaking the law if they marched. Protesters line up inside an MTR station in the Yuen Long district of Hong Kong, July 27, 2019, before an expected protest march in the afternoon. The gangs were accused of beating and bloodying customers, journalists and a lawmaker at the Yuen Long rail station on Sunday July 21, leaving 45 people with injuries, some severe. The march’s organizer, Yuen Long resident Max Chung, said it was important for Hong Kongers to stand against what he termed a terrorist attack and against a government that has seemed more concerned with …

The upper deck of a nightclub collapsed on top of revelers in South Korea on Saturday, killing two people and injuring several foreign athletes competing at the World Aquatics Championships, rescue officials and witnesses said. The floor gave way in the Coyote Ugly nightclub in the city of Gwangju about 2:30 a.m. (1730 GMT Friday), pinning people underneath and injuring at least 10, rescue officials said.  The two people killed were South Korean. New Zealand men’s water polo team captain Matt Small said he was on the second-floor deck when it collapsed. “We were just dancing and then the next minute we dropped,” he told New Zealand’s Radio Sport. “We … fell on top of the heads of other people that were beneath us. … Some of them were pretty dire cases,” he said of the injured. Kim Young-don, chief of the Gwangju Seobu Fire Station, told a briefing there were about 370 people in the club at the time. “We deem that the second level … seems to have collapsed because there were too many people on it,” he said. “The second level is a small space, it’s not a space where a lot of people can be.” The …

The Swedish indie pop duo, Flora Cash, is new in the pop/rock world but has been gaining popularity with a hit song on the charts and a newly-released record.  It also has been gaining a following, especially among Albanian-American fans because one of its members, Shresa Lleshaj, is of Albanian descent.  The duo recently performed in Baltimore, and VOA’s Ardita Dunellari was there.    …